Chapter 4: D.S.I Part 2
Another warm, sunny day in the ruins of Konoha, blue skies, few clouds, not that anyone noticed. Even though there was little more work to be done, which wasn't a good thing for most people. The smaller children were happy about it but the adults weren't, no more work to do for Konoha meant that this was finally defeat. It meant they could do nothing else to help themselves, they could only wait to die.
And that's all they thought they could do, that was all most of them could do. Maybe it was a lack of inspiration or a lost of will, but some weren't going to let that fighting spirit die so easily. It may just possibly have been hopeless but that didn't matter to them, they couldn't live knowing they didn't try to help. " What are we going here for?" Kiba asked, his hands in his coat pocket and Akamaru in his usual spot.
"Lee told me he burred something here before the storm." Neji said, standing in what used to be Lee's backyard in front of the remnants of a tree. With a shovel in hand he dug through the dirt, all of it completely saturated making it easier to scoop more up with one motion. And he found what he was looking for exactly where Lee specified, in a shallow hole in this very spot.
It was a large, gray, square safe with a rail on each side to lift it. "Though he never told me it was a safe." Neji knelt down and grabbed on to one rail while Kiba grabbed on to the other and began to pull it out of the hole.
"This this thing is big, and really heavy." Kiba said in a slightly strained voice as they lifted it higher and higher. "How did he get this thing out here in the first place." An apparent relief came into his voice when they dropped it on the ground next to the hole. It came up to their knees and wasn't as big as they originally thought, but it seemed strong enough to survive the storm to easily survive above ground.
"He didn't tell me what was inside either…how am I suppose to open this?" Neji looked down at the gray box thoughtfully.
"Let's break it." Kiba said with a smirk, he found that this would be the perfect opportunity to test his strength.
"No, we don't know what's inside, it might break." Neji said. "I'm going to have to figure out the combination…but how am I suppose to do that? I can't just try any random numbers, it would take to long.."
"Come on, it's Lee. He probably picked some combination important to him like his birthday." Kiba said, "Try that."
Neji looked back at him "I don't know his birthday."
"Neji, you have your work cut out for you."
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"It's our first client, why wouldn't I tag along." Iruka said, treading through the destroyed forest with Kakashi. The ground was littered in fallen trees and wood debris, very little of anything was left rooted except for a few strands of grass here and there, this landscape was already doomed to become a desert. Maybe with luck and help it could become a field, but there was almost no chance that it would become a forest again.
"You were right not to assign yourself to this job." Kakashi said with his normal lazy tone of voice. "Your too compassionate."
"Huh?" Iruka looked over at him slightly confused. "What do you mean? We got into this to help people, why wouldn't I be compassionate?"
"We got into this to help Konoha, that means we need to negotiate the maximum amount of money possible for our contracts. Your compassion would interfere with that." Kakashi stated simply.
"And I suppose yours wouldn't." Iruka said with an almost sarcastic tone, though it didn't appear so Kakashi did have a compassionate side…but that was what it was, a side of him. Iruka's compassion and everything else about his personality was interloped with everything else. Iruka didn't really have sides of himself, every face he showed weither it was anger or love was only the same face in a different light. He really didn't see what Kakashi meant, he just didn't understand how his desire to help would stop him from helping Konoha.
"No it wouldn't and that's why I'm a Jounin." Kakashi knew that Iruka's inability to detach would end up being his demise on a Jounin leveled mission, besides his own will that's of the reasons he was still a Chuunin. Iruka glanced over at him once and decide to keep looking ahead, it wasn't completely sure of what Kakashi was implying but he'd go along and see.
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"Hey wait, who's team is going to do the mission?" Konohamaru asked, when he heard Iruka left with Kakashi, he decided that it was time to start doing his assistant management duties. Back in the same spot they met in last night, Sasuke, Gaara and Naruto waited for the two older men to return.
Before they could think about it, a loud thump sounded from behind them as Kiba and Neji dropped the safe about a foot away from them. With a tired sigh, Kiba sat down on it and Neji did the same. "What did we miss?" Kiba asked.
"We need to decide who's team is going to take the first mission." Konohamaru said, not taking any notice to the safe. "Who's going to do it?"
"We might as well." Naruto volunteered, "Kakashi and Iruka are already there."
"Shouldn't you go after them then?" Konohamaru said, pointing in the direction they went in Kakashi and Iruka's direction.
Gaara and Naruto stood up, "Yeah, we should get going." Naruto said, springing off after the other two members of his team, Gaara doing the same.
Konohamaru pulled out a clip board from some unknown place behind him and a pencil out from under his goggle strap. Writing something down, the boy walked over to Sasuke and handed the board to him. "What's this?" He asked.
"It's yours, your keeping the records?" Konohamaru said, Sasuke looked down at the clipboard, seeing that in Konohamaru's bad handwriting he had written down the names of those going on the first mission. Sasuke immediately erased it and rewrote it neatly.
"Wow, your really taking this seriously." Kiba said visibly impressed with Konohamaru.
Konohamaru nodded proudly.
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It was amazing that there client's house was still standing, and it was the only cover the man had against the demons outside. The house was intact completely except for all of the windows being broken, the ones on the first floor had been boarded up with as much as the man could gather from outside.
"These demons…they're horrible!" The man said, sitting in the living room with Iruka and Kakashi. "I can't get outside, I've been completely trapped here with no food or water."
"That's pretty bad Mr. Takoyama." Iruka said, "We should get started as quickly as possible."
"Yes, I'm prepared to offer you 100,000 to exterminate them." Takoyama said.
Iruka stood up to shake the man's hand to make it official when Kakashi pulled him back down. "Mr. Takoyama, you the head of a chain of vendor companies aren't you?"
"Yes." The man nodded.
"It's a very successful chain, that's why we can't except this offer." Kakashi said plainly, getting a questioning look from Iruka.
"100,000 is a very generous offer" He replied, cut off by the loud crashing sound of something coming through one of his second floor windows. He froze in fear, hearing the next sound, that of his possessions being broken.
"Is 100,000s worth your life." Kakashi said, still as cool as ever. Iruka looked somewhat surprised by Kakashi, this was bordering extortion.
"Ok, name your price." The man said fearfully.
"One million."
"What? A million!"
"Or you can take your chances on your own." Kakashi said, his statement emphasized by the sound of what ever had just come in head for the stairway to the first floor.
"Alright."
As soon as the deal was made, Kakashi jumped to his feet with a Kunai in hand, heading for the stairway behind them in a speed that even surprised Iruka. He got up and went after him, easily able to see the attacker from the bottom of the stairs.
A Demon of course, of the insect verity, it was what resembled an ant only much larger. It was tall enough to come up to his knees if he stood next to it. It was quick and also it could walk on walls and ceilings, it's manacles in front of it's mouth was the real threat. But it did have one apparent weakness, back and air attacks.
Kakashi jumped over it, diving gracefully through the small space between the demon and the ceiling. The ant let out a low pitched screech, unable to follow Kakashi's movements. So it looked towards it's next target, Iruka. Wasting no time it moved down the stairs toward him with a speed that barely gave him time to draw a knife.
Iruka jumped back before it's large manacles could close around his leg, throwing the Kunai with all his strength into his head between the two large eyes. Yet it only managed to slow it down for a few seconds and it kept coming at him "Resilient." Iruka grunted, not letting that detail catch him off guard and taking another leap backwards.
"How is that possible…" Takoyama said fearfully, almost running into Iruka in a rush to get out of it's path.
"Stay calm it can still be beaten." Iruka drew another Kunai from his holder, throwing them was a waste, it would take a few to the head to kill it and it wasn't worth the effort unless it was weakened. So the only way to do it was in close. Takoyama nearly screamed in fear when he saw Iruka jump over the ant demon and leaving him in it's vision. Of course it went for him next.
Iruka landed behind it, turning back and jumping on to the ant's back. It fell from the sudden weight, giving Iruka the chance to give a quick slash across the head. The knife cut deep, going half way into it's skull, but it still wasn't enough. Iruka drove the Kunai into the weakened skull, pushing it halfway through it's brain. That seemed to be sufficient to kill it once and for all.
Before he could get any words from Takoyama, Iruka dashed up the stairs to the second floor hallway. Three more demons lay dead across the expanse of the corridor up to the window where Kakashi was glancing out of. "What is it?" Iruka asked.
"Looks like the rest of our team decided to make an appearance." Kakashi said, jumping out of the broken window to the ground in front of the home. Just as he said, Naruto and Gaara had showed up, only to be intercepted by the ants with there not so inconspicuous arrival.
"Where the hell are all of these things coming from!" Naruto said when he saw Kakashi land next to him, with his Kage Bunshin no Jutsu he had created 5 other clones to hold of the ants. And he also had given up on long range attacks and now focused on a hit and move type strategy, but he already lost 2 clones attacking from the front.
Gaara on the other hand wasn't having much problem exterminating the ants, now with the ability to shape his sand from all of the time traveling. He chanced it into a large drill that easily went through the ant's head completely to kill them in one blow. Now he was just standing there with his arms folded using the sand from his gourd to do most of the strikeing.
"There must be a hive somewhere nearby, we have to take out the queen." Iruka said, jumping up just above a charging ant and landing carefully on it's head, driving his Kunai into it quickly before stumbling off. Of course it didn't kill the creature and with it's quickness it turned towards him and came rushing. Iruka jumped back out of range, only to have an ant jump on his back from behind and knock him to the ground.
He felt the manacles grazing his neck about to sever, when he was just narrowly saved by two Kunai's thrown by Kakashi with enough force to knock it off in a splatter of blood. Iruka rolled over on to his back and sent his left fist upward, punching the first ant in the chin while grabbing his same Kunai with his right. Iruka drove it into the ant's head, between the eyes and dropping it dead.
Two piercing blows to the head was the key to killing the ants.
"How do we get there?" Naruto asked, jumping into the air as high as he could managed. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" With a quick set of hand seals, 6 more Narutos appeared next to him, all of then throwing a wave of Kunais and Shrunkens at the wave of approaching ants coming from ahead of him. The rain of blades easily cut down the numbers too a few that Gaara could handle with a wave of sand.
Gaara handlessly thrust the sand drill into an ant's head, taking care of the other demons with that same technique. "I see it!" Naruto said as he landed, "That way! About a hundred feet ahead, it's a big hole in the ground."
"That's not too hard." Kakashi said. "Iruka, Naruto, you two take the lead and cover us. Me and Gaara will clear out the hive." Kakashi directed.
"How are you going to do that?" Iruka asked.
"I can use fire to clear out as many as I can." Kakashi said "Then Gaara can collapse the hive."
With a small nod, Iruka and Naruto lead the charge toward the demon nest, not encountering any resistance until the entrance was in view. 10 or so of the ants were swarming around, all of them alert to their presence. Iruka was the first one attacked, coming so close to an ant that he barely had time to take a step back to avoid being hit. The two manacles over it's mouth ripped his shirt and left a large gash across his stomach.
Iruka winced, driving the knife into it's head then pulling it back swiftly and delivering a second blow before it could attack again. "Naruto, don't attack from the front, hit it from behind. Two hits to the head should do it."
Naruto gave him a small nod before jumping to the side of one ant and driving his Kunai into the ant's head, then punching it with the second blade in his other hand. Before fighting any more, Iruka and Naruto moved in front of the hole to prevent the other ants from following Kakashi and Gaara. "Alright Demons." Naruto said with a smirk, pulling out an explosive tag. "Come and get me."
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From in side the hole was a 10 foot drop to the ground, only a small platform in the center of a maze of other platform and pillars. All of them filled with the over sized ants who quickly swarmed towards Kakashi and Gaara. "Kakashi." Gaara said promptingly, though his voice was still calm.
"Relax." Kakashi started doing a few hand seals, taking a deep breath while drawing Charka in to his mouth "Goukakyuu no Jutsu." He exhaled, blowing out a blast of fire like a flame thrower, sweeping it over the ants in front of him and then turning around abruptly. Gaara had to crouch to avoid being hit. Despite that, the fire seemed to be effective, a second or two under the heat and the ants either fled or died.
"Your on." Kakashi said, keeping the waves of ants back while Gaara started to draw and control the minerals of the hive from the bottom up. It took a lot of concentration, he wasn't able to defend himself while doing an attack of this magnitude, especially against this many. Kakashi didn't have it easy though, the quick ants only turned back to avoid the flames and came right back. He could only keep them at bay for so long.
"Sand coffin!"
Sand rushed up from the floor, surrounding the platform completely. Kakashi immediately jump to the surface, followed by Gaara.
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By the time the ground began to rumble, Naruto and Gaara had already taken down all 10 of the ants, They were free to vacate the area. Kakashi landed next Iruka, and Gaara landed in front of them, just the ground ahead of them began to shift and blow apart with the uprising rush of sand. One attack buried every remaining ant along with the queen.
Mission complete.
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