(A/N: Chapter 10 will be divided into two or three sections, chronicling the fights between the remaining members of Akatsuki and the eventual confrontation with the leader.)
Without further ado, I present,
Return and Attack: Chapter 10: Of Paper Work and Saviors
Part 1: "A Fight Thirteen Years in the Making.
As the nine leaf shinobi, plus three, entered the cave, they quickly became entrapped in a maze of twisting, turning hallways. It had been just over three hours, and still, the group hadn't encountered any resistance or any signs of life, just stalactites that provided a conduit for slowly dripping water. Time seemed to creep by as the twelve person rescue team marched onward towards an inevitable confrontation. After another four hours or so, although it seemed much longer, since there was no light to give an indication of time, the group stopped for an uneasy dinner. It was during this time that Shikamaru adopted his now infamous thinking position.
"Kazekage-sama," asked the lazy genius "What can you tell me about one of your nukenin, more specifically, Sasori of the Red Sand?"
"WHAT?" screamed Kankuro in surprise. "Akasuna no Sasori is one of our opponents?"
"From the information we have, yes, he is one of the remaining members." Replied Shikamaru. "Why are you surprised is he infamous or something?"
"You could say that." Huffed Kankuro. "Sasori of the Red Sand is famous for being the greatest puppet master of all time. He even created the puppets I use. I also heard that he may have had a hand in the death of the Sandaime Kazekage."
"Can you tell me anything about him, or his abilities?" Asked Shikamaru, becoming slightly annoyed that another one of his battle strategies was useless, if he created the puppets that Kankuro used, than no doubt, he would know about the weapons hidden in them. Kankuro couldn't fight Sasori.
"From what I know, he's a master of poisons as well as puppets. I have heard that his grandmother, who is also a famous puppeteer, had a technique that could topple a castle, and that Sasori improved it to, so that he could topple entire villages. Other than that, I don't know too much." Stated Kankuro, raking his brains for the information.
With that, Shikamaru resumed his previous pondering, as the others in the group continued eating, and preparing themselves. After a few minutes, Shikamaru's eyes popped open.
"Alright, in order for us to have the best chances of survival, we're going to split up once we meet up with anybody. Hokage-sama will go after Sasori, since he is well versed in poisons, and we might need her healing abilities. Like wise, Kazekage-sama, you should go after him as well; he is one of your missing Nins. Since he is probably the stronger of the two opponents, Kakashi and Gai, you go with Hokage-sama. Shino, your bugs are the best to attack a puppeteer with and Uchiha, you can help I guess. That leaves Kankuro, Temari, Hinata, Lee, Jiraiya-sama and I to take care of the cloud Nin. When either group is finished, we should regroup. If for any reason, the leader decides to come out themselves, Jiraiya, Hokage-sama, and Kazekage-sama should focus on him/her. After that, we move on towards Naruto."
Everyone resumed the trek farther into the cave with a new determination.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
Once again the group was forced to stop for rest. They had been running through cavernous hallways for at least twelve hours now, and if Sasuke, Hinata, and Kakashi hadn't checked at least six times, everyone would have sworn they were stuck in a genjutsu. They decided that it made no sense to continue on and fact two deadly missing Nins without sleep, so they camped down in the cave for a few hours. Not to mention the eerie fact that the torches that were spread throughout the passage way, had suddenly gone out, leaving them in the dark, literally and figuratively.
"Shikamaru, may I have a word with you?" Asked Tsunade, while the group was resting. "Alone." The tone of her voice made it obvious that she was unhappy with some decision he had made.
"I wanted to know, why you made Hinata face the cloud Nin, you know her history with that village."
"Hai, Hokage-sama, but in all honesty, the byakugan and jyuken can't help fight against wooden puppets. I didn't want her to fight a Kumo Nin, given that they attempted to kidnap her and she might react negatively to that, but since wood doesn't have tenketsu to close…" Shikamaru stopped speaking, having made his point.
"All right, I can see that, but why don't you help us with Sasori, I'm sure Sasuke or Gai would handle the other guy easily, right?" She asked.
At this Shikamaru adopted a serious attitude and chose his words carefully.
"First off, since your group has two jounin and two kage's there shouldn't be any trouble, and secondly, if he really does have a technique that can destroy a town, than it probably involves multiple puppets and kagemane can only hold so much." The lazy teenager replied.
Having finished her questioning, Tsunade returned to her position in the group, leaving Shikamaru to his thoughts.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
When the group woke up, the quickly packed up their small 'camp', and checked their supplies before once again, running through the dark passage, and after an hour, arrived at a large cavernous opening. It was very dark, and there were only one or two torches in the entire cavern, which was very large. They both seemed to frame a small wooden door.
"To get to that door, you'll have to get past me first." A voice rang out in the cavern, the echoes distorting its origin.
The twelve intruding ninja's froze at the sound of the voice. Well, to be truthful, nine out the of the twelve froze, Tsunade, Jiraiya, and Gaara continued on, and if anything got in their way, than what ever it was would die, slowly and painfully.
When the trio didn't head the voices warnings, a large bolt of electricity struck the ground in front of the advancing ninja.
"Well, I guess that answers one question." Shikamaru replied lazily, although internally, he was crunching many different attack strategies and patterns.
Recognizing the attack as one commonly used by kumo ninja's, the group assigned to hunt Sasori quickly broke away from the other six ninja. After failing to sense any other chakra signatures, Tsunade's group ran towards the door.
"Fools." The invisible foe muttered under his breath.
As he prepared another raiton jutsu to attack the 'fleeing' ninja, his attack was deflected by a bunch of kunai and shuriken, thrown by the toad sannin, Lee, and Shikamaru. Once the six members of the other squad were through the tunnel, Tsunade created a small cave-in with her strength, sealing off the rest of the Konoha Nin.
'Damn, with just those two torches, I don't have that much shadow to work with.' Thought Shikamaru.
Suddenly the figure of their opponent appeared over by the pile of fallen rock, inspecting it. No sooner than the figure, touched the ground, than Shikamaru formed a familiar seal, stretching his shadow towards the Akatsuki member. Just as his shadow was about to bind the ninja, the figure disappeared and the pair of torches extinguished themselves.
'Shit!' thought Shikamaru, 'now I don't have any light to work with, I guess I'll have to make some, but I don't know any katon jutsu.'
Since there was no light, this left Lee and the two sand siblings at a disadvantage as well. Temari could simply pepper the area with gusts from her fan, but it would consume a lot of chakra. Kankuro wasn't much help, since his puppets were directed by him and he could see, or sense chakra signatures, other than general directions.
Hinata and Jiraiya, however, could either see or feel the presence of the ninja. They both took up defensive positions in the group, ready to counter whatever the ninja might do.
"Hmm, the Sannin Jiraiya, a Nara, the siblings of Shukaku's vessel, and, what's this? A Hyuuga? Interesting. I wonder…" A voice rang out through the darkness, seemingly from all directions. With four-sixths of the group unable to pinpoint the location of their adversary, the group could only jump out of the way, as a kunai, tagged with an exploding note was hurled into the center of the circle. The explosion lit up the cavernous area that the sextet was engaging the Akatsuki member, for just enough time that they were able to check out the terrain. And for the missing Nin to make a haunting remark.
"Short, dark hair, and a pair of byakugan eyes. It seems that I may yet be able to strike at the Hyuuga clan, even after these twelve years."
Hinata's eyes widened, and she began to shake. Hinata, who had been in a state of shock since Naruto's abduction, finally asserted herself, wrestling control of her body away from the Nibi.
"Y-you!" She exclaimed, before sinking to her knees upon realizing who their foe was.
Before anything could happen, Shikamaru, Temari, Kankuro, and Lee rushed to the fallen girls' side, protecting her from any attack that may come. Temari placed her hand on Hinata's shoulders and tried to talk with the shaking girl.
"Hinata-san, what's wrong?" She asked
"T-th-that m-ma-man was the one who tried to k-kid-kidnap me, wh-when I was t-three." The shy girl replied. Then in a loud voice, she screamed at the top of her lungs, "I WILL KILL YOU FOR WHAT YOU HAVE CAUSED MY FAMILY TO GO THROUGH!"
In a rush of white chakra, the once shy and quiet girl, activated her bloodline limit and charged her past and present tormentor. The man was very quick, and he dodged her early jyuken strikes. However, after only a few seconds, Jiraiya joined the battle, and made the man's task of dodging an enraged Hinata's attacks, that much harder. Just as she was about to land a severe strike to his heart, he disappeared from her line of sight.
"I don't know how you're alive, but I can guarantee that it won't be for much longer!" she cried, as she moved to attack the man who had once been the head shinobi of Kumogakure.
But as she was about to re-engage the ninja, she heard Jiraiya yell out: "Katon: Katon: Ryuuka no Jutsu" (Fire skill: Dragon Fire technique.) The attack caught the missing nin, completely off-guard. The dragon incinerated him, only for it to turn into a smoldering rock, the moss on the rock, igniting due to the intense flame it was exposed to. In the faint light that was provided, Jiraiya watched as the ninja ran at incredible speeds, even surpassing Lee, towards Hinata. Just as he was about to strike her, he suddenly stopped in his tracks.
"Kagemane no jutsu, success." Came the voice of Shikamaru. "No hurry up and finish this before the stupid rock goes out!" Hinata quickly stuck the man with a jyuken strike to the head, while Jiraiya powered a rasengan into his chest from behind.
Hinata was panting from using so much of the Nibi's chakra, but the group was, for the most part, unharmed. The group was about to begin working to clear the debris of Tsunade's cave-in, when suddenly, an explosion in the ceiling of the cave, showered Shikamaru, Temari, Lee, and Kankuro with rock. If Kankuro hadn't used his puppets to create a shield for the group, than they certainly would have been crushed. When Hinata and Jiraiya turned around, they noticed that the cloud ninja was standing up, a black substance was healing his injuries.
"That was quit impressive, had I actually been alive, than that would have definitely killed me." The man quipped.
"Not alive, what do you mean?" Hinata asked, glaring at the regenerating ninja.
"He means he's been resurrected by a jutsu, most likely Kuchiyose no Jutsu: Edo Tensei (Summoning technique: Underworld Resurrection.)" Jiraiya responded. "That means that his soul is attached to the body, probably by a special kunai or physical object.
"Very good, of course you are the Toad Sannin, so I really shouldn't underestimate you." The ninja chuckled back.
Hinata activated her byakugan to search for the kunai that held the ninja's soul in the body. But she couldn't find anything. She began to pump more charka into her eyes, searching for anything that wasn't regular. However, the Kumo ninja had no plans to allow her to scan his body. So he moved to attack her, only to be intercepted by Jiraiya. He launched a large ball of fire at the missing nin, forcing the undead soldier to dodge the attack. Meanwhile, Hinata kept scanning her opponent for any irregularities of his charka system. Suddenly she found the answer to her problems.
"Jiraiya-sama, if you can stop his movements, I think I can destroy the body!" She cried, keeping her pale eyes on her target.
Jiraiya simply nodded, and performing a number of hand seals, cried out: "Doton: Yomi Numa!" (Earth skill: Swamp of the Underworld.)
The hard rock of the cave quickly became a very large, very deep swamp. The offending cloud ninja was caught by surprise, and quickly became ensnared in the thick muck. Running on top of the summoned swamp, Hinata ran towards the waist deep man, and planted a sharp jyuken strike on his chest. But instead of simply forcing charka through a tenketsu, she forced a large amount of charka into a strange seal that was placed on her opponents' chest.
"Hah! Do you really think you can kill me with that stupid taijutsu style of yours?" The cloud ninja laughed at Hinata's attempt to kill him a second time.
"Yes." Was the only reply he received as a sharp pain shot through his chest.
Suddenly Hinata was gone, telling Jiraiya to move and help the remainder of the group, who were still trapped under the pile of debris. As she did this, the former cloud nin gave a shout of pain and simply exploded.
"What did you do?" Asked the perverted hermit.
"I forced a very large amount of charka through the seal that was keeping his soul rooted to the body." Hinata explained. Once again, she activated her byakugan and searched the rock pile for signs of her comrades. Finding them trapped, but alive, she began to surgically destroy the piles of rock with well aimed jyuken strikes, and Jiraiya summoned some toads to help clear out the pile as well. After an hour, the collapsed area was small enough for the four trapped ninja to escape. Now focusing all of their attention to the caved in tunnel, courtesy of Tsunade, the group began to clear out larger piles of rock and earth. Eventually they were able to move ahead, towards the advance group, and Sasori of the Red Sand.
(A/N: Wow, I'd like to thank all the people who have reviewed, and I'd like to say that Chapter 9 is one of the most popular chapter's I've had since I published the story. Please continue to review, and give me any kinds of suggestions you may have, for the fight with Sasori, I'm not too great at choreographing fight scenes. I am splitting up chapter 10 into more manageable pieces. I wanted to have three very good fights, and it would make the chapter very long if I wanted to put all three into one update. I have still yet to reveal my largest plot twist to date, although the one I put in this chapter I like very much. But anyway, This will actually prolong the end of the story, since many of you seem to like it. Thanks, and keep reviewing!
-Nightblade888)