Chapter 19: The domino effect part 2
"I have no clue." Gai said in disappointment. "Though Lee was always a bit systematical in the way he chose these types of things so you know it couldn't be random. Just think about Lee hard enough, it will come to you."
Neji sighed, this was harder then he thought it would be. Why didn't he know his teammate better? "Thanks anyway Gai-sensei." With his hands in his pocket, Neji turned and walked away, Kiba trailing behind.
The usual sounds of construction rang through the air of Konoha as it had been for 6 months strait now. Rebuilding a whole village wasn't a quick job, especially when supplies and materials were now somewhat scare and hard to produce. That made it more expensive, and an even larger burden for SDI. Kiba had never realized how much it took, landscaping, development, services, all of that and more he had to mange and divide profits among evenly, in all budgeting had to go 10 different ways. And he constantly had to decide which was more important since there was scarcely enough money to give to all once. That's why he was happy when Konoha started taking missions again, that decision was made last week, it would lighten the load no matter how much or little it would help.
"So, what do you think, statistics wise, would catch Lee's attention?" Kiba asked.
"We know that Lee came up with this combination the day after he passed the genin exams." Neji commented. "Do you think that helps?"
"It's Lee, everything about him helps." Kiba pushed down his ears against his head, the noise was starting to get to his much more developed sense of hearing. 'I'm getting a headache...'
"Hmm...that was the day we were assigned to our teams isn't it." That gave Neji an idea. "You think the next number could be something about me?"
"That's a possibility." Kiba nodded, still holding his ears. "You should probably check in see if you two have something in common, statistically I mean."
"...That gives me an idea."
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"Come on, we have to hurry!" Naruto ran as fast as he could through the trees growing through out the swamp, trying to reach Shukaku and the immensely large muck demon. He had to get there to help Gaara, he couldn't fight against something like that. The Muck demon was made of liquid, Gaara's earth element abilities were weakened by water, it was the simple common sense that dirt plus water made mud.
'He's so fast, I can't even keep up with him.' Even in spite of the curse seal invoked, Sasuke still managed to run at his normal speed which was usually faster then Naruto. He found that strenuous use of his muscles and expending energy helped to relieve the pressure pushing outward from inside of his body, even though he couldn't do enough to get substantial relief. He was way behind Naruto and struggling to keep up.
Shukaku, still standing on his hind legs, took an apprehensive step back from his enemy. This was really starting to look bad, especially since it had grown to about double his own size. "Die now humans." The Muck expanded upward into a wave, and crashed down onto Shukaku. Shukaku was slammed down hard on to his back, sliding along the ground a substantial distance and leaving behind a trail of flattened trees and mud that lay below the surface of the small body of water.
He came to a stop right in front of Naruto and Sasuke, who jumped on to his shoulder as he rolled off his back and on to his feet. "Hey wait...he doesn't have a medium this time." Naruto noticed as he grabbed on to Shukaku's ear and planted his feet firmly on the large headphones hanging off the back of the badger's head.
"He doesn't need one, he's using the music as a way to keep himself in control." Sasuke managed to force out strenuously as he fell to his knees, his arms wrapping around his torso. 'I...can't take this pain...' "Ahaaaaa!"
"Sasuke! Are you ok?"
"It's too much!" Sasuke shouted, his body couldn't handle the power being produced, it hadn't gotten use to the seal. A lot of it was being given off, there was a deep blue and purple haze of Chakra being visibly discharged 'Now...I know how...Konohamaru feels.' He knew he had to find away to get this energy out of him before he was ripped apart, and from what he'd seen there was only one way. Sasuke forced himself to steady his arms while he preformed a complex set of hand seals "Overclocking."
"Sasuke, you too?" Naruto watched as the golden light rose in a bright pillar from beneath Sasuke and his shadow grew outward into a reflection of a clock, the rotation of the hands grew so fast that it became just a blur right before the light faded and the image shattered and disappeared. By the time he could see Sasuke again he was covered in the tent of dark blue aura. "Are you ok?"
"Fine." Sasuke looked down at his hands, he could no longer feel the pressure as he did before. It worked, his body could handle the seal now.
"I need you to find a way to harden that demon." Shukaku said, knowing he wouldn't be unable to use some of his more powerful abilities with Naruto and Sasuke on top of him, so he would serve as a way to defend them until the two of them hardened the demon. That's when he'd attack. "Naruto, Sasuke."
The Muck demon screeched loudly, lifting it's dripping hand and slamming it down on Shukaku head, Shukaku was knocked to the ground, but immediately he opened his mouth and blew out a large ball of sand toward the muck. The muck shot out an even larger ball from it's body, striking down the ball of sand and sending both projectiles slamming into Shukaku's side as he tried to get up. "Ouuffhh!" After being knocked back down Shukaku jumped backwards off the ground and landed on his feet. "You two need to do something now, I can't fight this thing!"
The muck demon began melting into the ground fast enough to appear to be falling, within 2 seconds it was half it's former size. "Don't resist!" it called out, black mud rising from under Shukaku and wrapping around his legs. Spikes protruded from below, pressing against his stomach...then fired at Shukaku, who easily blocked with a wall of hardened sand. But then the Muck demon lifted it's arm again, this time forming the same large spikes in it's fist and driving it down on the trapped badger.
"We need to attack now!" Sasuke clasped his hands together, the blue aura flaring up. Using Ice would be easier to harden the demon's body and quicker then fire, and since his normal jutsu came out completely wrong before then maybe if... "Reverse Goukakyuu no Jutsu!" He drew in a deep breath and blew out wall of blue flames upward careful not to hit Shukaku. The fire proliferated over the demon's arm and froze it completely solid. Shukaku lifted his paw and smashed through the ligament with one swipe, smirking devilishly, it worked.
Naruto stretched out his hand to his side, forming a swirling ball of usually blue Chakra now a growing red Rasengan. It expanded outward much larger then it's normal bounds, now a black core surrounded by an outer orb of deep red floating above his palm. "Eat this demon!" He drew his clawed hand back and threw the supercharged Rasengan at the mass of black mud, the red energy moved fast, driving itself into the center of the demon...and then the Muck disappeared "What!"
"!" Shukaku's ear's perked, he was able to hear something coming up behind even with the headphones blaring music. He tried to jump upward abruptly but his legs were still bound by the sticky mud, Naruto's Rasengan was launched into his back, knocking him to the ground with a wave of discharging energy. "What kind of Jutsu is that..."
"Abandon all hope humans, your resistance is futile." The muck shouted, it had some how moved at a speed that almost looked instantaneous. It re grew it's severed arm easily, then came after the fallen Shukaku, throwing it's whole body on to him and covering him up to the neck with itself even with half of it underground binding him by the legs.
Shukaku howled in pain, it was crushing him and he felt particularly grateful that it didn't reach his head... "Naruto, Sasuke, do something now or get off."
"Reverse Goukakyuu no Jutsu!" Sasuke blew out another wave of the blue flame, sweeping over Shukaku from the neck down and incasing him in a thick overline of ice.
'H-He just froze over Gaara's entire body with one breath!' Naruto looked down at the muck demon plastered in ice over Shukaku, even the part that had bound him by the legs. "Whoa... Uh Gaara, I can't do anything with out hitting you. And...are you ok?"
"He has fur dobe."
"Oh yeah..."
"Just wait." Shukaku used his strength to break free from the hold and jump upward into the air.
"Alright!" Naruto lifted his hand above his head, swirling his red Chakra into another supercharged Rasengan. He grabbed on to the orange headphones to keep himself from falling "Your not getting away from me this time!" Naruto let out a strained roar as he threw the Rasengan downward to the ground and into the frozen Muck demon, followed by a loud detonation and frozen chunks of the demon washed in with discharging energy.
"It's reforming, Naruto, Sasuke." Shukaku called up, knowing they couldn't see from their current position.
"Right." Sasuke abruptly jumped off of Shukaku, followed by Naruto who was a little confused but got the hint.
'Now that they're out of the way...' Shukaku dove headfirst toward the ground, throwing his body into furious spin. The black glow from the lines in fur grew brighter along with the tan aura from Overdrive. "Shukaku Auger Ninpo!" His body shifted into tons and tons of quickly hardening sand that became a huge rotating spiral drill. Shukaku roared as his body drove down on the now seriously outsized muck demon pulling itself back together bellow.
"Holy Crap..." Naruto watched from a contrarily safe distance away. "Hey, you can still hear the music!"
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This wasn't working out well at all, infact it wasn't working out at all. Kakashi was trying to protect Iruka from an obsessive demon, and his double who was also trying to protect Iruka by killing of both of them. Kakashi wasn't sure if the double grasped the concept that if he killed the demon, he killed Iruka. So that raised the question, how do you fight this thing? You can't...
Kakashi clasped his hands together and immediately he went up into a cloud of smoke, throwing off the approaching demon when he found that Kakashi and Iruka had disappeared, leaving the copy behind. The devil growled and attacked him, slashing him across the chest with his claws. The doppelganger took the blow and jumped back a few feet 'How am I suppose to hurt it with out hurting Iruka?'
"Retsu ha Geki no jutsu." The devil held a hand outward a torrent of razor sharp wind followed.
'That's Iruka's Jutsu, How did it learn that?' "Mirror." The doppelganger held his hands outward and a mirror appeared, the wind struck the newly formed glass and bounced back into the unsuspecting devil.
"!" Devil was swept backwards in his own attack and thrown to the ground, which in turn drew a small cry of pain from Iruka, and revealed Kakashi's position. "There..." Devil looked back.
"Damn." Kakashi sat Iruka down against the wall, but by the time he turned around he was being knocked back by a sharp ram onto his torso by devil's shoulder. 'It's gotten a lot stronger already...' Kakashi was thrown into the wall hard enough to leave an imprint in the rock 'And his Chakra is already visible and he's not even doing anything.' He grunted loudly, feeling a strong punch driving in to his stomach. Kakashi pushed himself out of the way of a second, but the demon came after him persistently.
Devil stopped, thinking of a better way to do this, he out stretched his wings "Retsu ha Geki Ninpo!" The black wings started flapping violently, sending a heavy blast of wind on to Kakashi. Or at least he would have if he hadn't been suddenly bound by a wire cast from the doppelganger to his left.
"Persistent..." The doppelganger had to refrain from using some of his more power abilities, being a mirror he could have come up with some very interesting ones. And he wasn't to happy that he'd just saved Kakashi but Iruka was in range, at the moment this seemed to be all he could do to stop the demon, which wasn't working since with Devil's strength he easily broke free and came after him. '!' He tried to evade but the devil caught him, seizing him by the neck and slamming him face down painfully to the ground.
"Fine, then I'll try it again, Retsu ha Geki Ninpo!" Devil outstretched his wings again.
The doppelganger's eyes widened... 'Sorry Iruka...But...'
"Invulnerable Mirror." His body lost all color, becoming blandly black and white with shades of gray to define certain things... The strong winds tore down over him from the Devil ripping into the ground with a thick cloud of dust and water rising up and covering them both. But all of it again was reflected back on to Devil, sending his body flying upward in the winds, being ripped and torn at by his own attack.
"What-Was that?" Devil landed a few feet away, bleeding from large cuts on his torso where he had taken most of attack.
The double returned to normal, panting heavily and feeling a lot weaker from using the ability. It was more of a test of his limits, even through he could reflect attacks he still took some damage from them. So he'd been practicing a mirror that would reflect anything thrown at him, the good news was that it worked, the bad news was that it took a lot of chakra, more then he was readily able to give. "It still hits Iruka even if it's mirrored?"
"Damnit!" The blue Chakra on the demon flared as Devil roared in frustration, this was taking way too long...
A golden light overpowered the other, illuminating every inch of the underground cave...
"I-Iruka?" Kakashi watched idly as Iruka pulled himself up from the ground, using the wall for support, but what was more defining was that his brown eyes glowed from an invoked Overclocking. "Your awake?"
"How long was I out?" Iruka reached on to his back and withdrew the folded 5 point, it looked like a sword in that state. "What happened to me? I feel like a feel off a cliff."
"That idiot--" The doppelganger called out. "Knocked you out."
"You do realize that your insulting yourself also?" Kakashi snorted.
His copy rolled his eyes. "I'm not even the same species, it doesn't apply."
"Enough!" Iruka shook his pounding head "I don't need this right now...?...hey, is that the same demon!"
Devil looked over him, something was really different, so much so that he could feel it. Iruka was somehow stronger? Much stronger...Devil's brown eyes grew larger, 'What's...happening to me?' He just felt his bloodlust double, whatever Iruka had just done to himself it was driving him crazy...he had to at least have a taste... "Iruka."
"So if you guys hit this demon, then I'll get it?" Iruka sighed, Kakashi just explained the situation to him, and things just couldn't get any worse? He already felt like hell, barely standing as it is, "Dose the same apply to me?"
Kakashi shrugged.
"Look's like there's only one way to find out then." Iruka extended the compacted 5-point from one single blade into 5 with one flick of his wrist, glancing carefully over the familiar demon's new form.
Devil stared at him almost as if he was frozen, he couldn't describe what he was feeling...he was forcibly knocked out of daze by a strong punch to the stomach from Iruka, he fell backwards and slid to a stop a few feet away.
"Feel anything?" The doppelganger asked.
Iruka, still very confused on which Kakashi was who, shook his head "I didn't feel anything at all...great, am I the only one who can fight this thing?"
"Oww, Damnit...Iruka!" Devil stretched out his wings and floated off the ground, then rushed through the air at the man. Iruka jumped up a few feet and drove his foot into the approaching demon's head, hard, Devil fell to the ground with a large splash but quickly rose again 'He is stronger, and quicker...' Devil drew his hand back and forcefully slammed his palm into Iruka's face and lifted him off the ground painfully by the head.
'What are you/ Iruka clinched the horns protruding from Devil's head, pressing his feet against his chest and flipped backwards out of his grasp and in to the air, "I don't know if this will work but here goose nothing." While still in mid-air decent, Iruka drew the 5 point back by his side with one hand, ready to throw "Retsu ha Geki Ninpo!" He thrust the blade outward as if he was going to attack but stopped when he should have released it, and instead of it being thrown outward an almost transparent copy made entirely of wind launched at the demon.
This managed throw everyone off, including Devil, who was stuck in the torso by the wind projectile. Though it didn't hold it's form and disappeared after striking the opponent, it's initial hit left a large gash across his chest making it clear that that it wasn't just a distraction. Iruka, still falling, drew the 5 point back again and launched another projectile, then another and another, each moving fast enough to be unavoidable and hitting the demon. Iruka landed, dropping to one knee from fatigue. 'Is this Overclocking effect on me? Lower stamina?' Iruka, already overwhelmed and knocked out once, couldn't find the energy to launch another attack.
Devil looked down it himself, he had to admit, that hurt like hell. But despite the pain and the haunting amazingly overpowering urge for the man's blood and Chakra that Iruka in Overclocking gave him. He was actually enjoying this, it was confusing to him, but still...The pointed ears twitched lightly causing Devil to look up "Get strong Iruka, because next time..."
Rrreennnngaaaaaaa
The ceiling burst open and Shukaku, still in auger form, came driving down hard. Luckily he pulled himself out of easily enough and landed on his feet above them. With that very large distraction, Devil had disappeared again...
Shukaku's body disbursed into a cloud of smoke and Gaara emerged, still with headphones around his ears that he quickly pushed down. "Kakashi, Iruka...Kakashi?" It didn't take him long to figure out what was wrong with this picture, or to spot what didn't belong. He pointed to the Kakashi on Iruka's left. "Your the demon."
The Kakashi double sighed and rubbed the back of his head, a light smile crossing his lips. "You found me so quickly huh? You must really be getting better, last time you couldn't tell a thing." he joked.
"Last time?"
The doppelganger shook his head, knowing as much as he wanted too he'd better not stick around a group of demon hunters, being a demon and all. "Ask Iruka...well, it was nice you again Iruka-sama, see ya." His body completely disappeared with those last words, that's what it looked like at first glance, but he was just moving at an extremely fast speed.
"Iruka-sama?...Hey wait!" Iruka called out, but it was too late. 'Hmm...'
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"I don't know, what could Lee and I possibly have in common?" Neji asked, looking through a few record books taken on his old class by Iruka. It was mostly numbers, but that's what he was looking for... "Hmm..."
Kiba looked over his shoulder, reading over the pages from there... "Hey wait, I think I saw one number that was the same. Go back a page."
Neji turned to the previous page, one containing grades. "What is it?"
"No, go back another one."
Neji complied, flipping back one more page. This one was a continuation of general information about each of Iruka's students, it'd been going on for 4 more pages before this. Kiba placed his finger down on a column, then trailed it down that same row "Here, the birthdates. A lot of us were born in the same year, most of the class. See, the very last digit is almost always 4."
"That could be it, but do you really think Lee would use something like that?" Neji asked.
"Maybe, he was in a hurry to make up this combination from what I could tell." Kiba said with a light shrug, "What about this one, 4 other people were born in the same month as him. It says 4, isn't that April? That's a lot of 4s. Lee would probably use some part of his birthday in a combination, why not the number that comes up the most?"
"That might just be it." Neji agreed.
So they had three numbers, 4,7, and 4, that meant only one number remained...
"Wow, we're really close." Kiba said "I guess if we broke it open now it would ruin the surprise, after all, it took as 6 months to get this far...!"
"Arfff!" Akamaru barked loudly from a top Kiba's head, then he started growling.
Kiba nodded "Yeah, I smell it too..."
"What is it?" Neji glanced back at the two, by the way they were acting it couldn't have been good. "Is it a demon?"
"I'd know this scent anywhere. It's not just any demon, we got Ju Kama bugs coming from bellow." Kiba told him "Lots of them."
"How far away?"
"5 minutes or so." Kiba's nose had grown so developed that he could detect very strong scents from a very long distance away. "We better move, we can't fight those things here, and there coming right for us."
"We'll go for the river, if they're coming from underground then the water should throw them off at least a little." Neji stood up, heading for the door of his study..."Kiba, have you noticed something about these insects?"
"That they keep coming after us." Kiba moved with quick steps toward the door at the end of the library, they had to move fast if they wanted to get ready.
"No, something more specific." Neji descended the stairwell and passed through the doorway to the familiar main corridor of the first floor. Knowing that the quickest way to the river was to go through the armory and out of the back door. "It seems almost like every time we learn something about Lee or gain a resource, they come after us."
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Kiba jumped into the waist high waters of the river, standing on the flat rocks under the waterfall. "Maybe it's a coincidence." Kiba said.
"Most of these insects have been alive for hundreds to thousands of years, they're too smart for coincidences." Neji climbed on to the rock next to him.
"I thought you said it was a hive-mind, how big an insect's brain?"
"These aren't regular insects, each of their brains are connected telepathically to form one large mind. With who knows how many insects the size of the mind could be immense. One mind that inquire thousands of years of Knowledge...What are we fighting against?"
"So the last times when we fault against them and almost lost, what do you think they left for?" Kiba asked. "They probably could have killed us."
"Hive mind, we probably killed the single one in charge of that group. So they retreated, or where called back, I'm sure some type of hierarchy is in place with these insects...How many do you think are coming this time?"
"I'm not sure but can say more then last time..." Kiba lifted his nose into the air, "Get ready, there here. Akamaru use Gijyu Ninpo." Akamaru jumped off his head, landing on the rock next to Kiba and rising off of his heels. With a small growl and a outburst of smoke, Akamaru had changed into an nearly exact image of Kiba.
With a sound resembling a hard rain, hundreds of bugs rose out of the water all at once, continuing to rise in scores, one after another. "Oh man...Neji, you got anything we can use for these, Because I'm kinda going on instinct."
Akamaru held his hands out in front of him, cuffing them together with a deep breath. He used his Nagedeppo, the attack he'd learned from the demon pups on their first mission. It had been refined and fine tuned in his practices with Kiba, enough to get the current result. There was a loud and spontaneous combustion into the crowd of insects forming before them, it was small and localized, throwing flames out a few feet.
The insects grouped into a large orb before them, Kiba's first comparison was that it was the size of his room. Now that they were all in a group together, Akamaru tried his Nagedeppo again, and missed by a few feet since the attack still was hard to control. A loud buzzing sound radiated from the bugs, loud enough to hurt Kiba's ears and to give a warning to the three of them that an attack was coming. The insects shot upward into the sky, flatting into one large plane above them, it was enough to block out the sun and cast a large shadow over the land.
"They're going to suck us in like last time." Kiba drew back apprehensively, staring up at the insects swirling into a gaping vortex. He could feel the pull growing stronger with each second as they moved faster and faster. "What do we do?"
"Hit the center with everything you've got, if we disrupt that then everything else will follow." Neji felt himself being drawn up along with water dirt from the banks of the river. Akamaru held on the rock he was standing on while Kiba and Neji let themselves be sucked into the vortex . "OniKen!" Neji drew his left arm back, his first glowing with white Chakra. After 2 months of doing nothing but training, Neji had learned a few useful demon techniques, this was one of them. Neji thrust his fist forward, throwing out a barely visible shockwave into the center of the swarm. A ripple was sent outward along the perfectly aliened demons similar to water's surface but the pull only continued. "Just...a little more."
"OniGijyu shinto." Kiba stretched his arms outward, glowing in a black energy, and clinched his hands into tight fist that pushed the energy out of his knuckles in long claws that extended at least a 3 feet outward, much longer then previously possible for him. A roar forced it's way instinctively through his mouth as he slashed furiously into the center of the whirlpool where it was the weakest.
Unfortunately since the insects were larger in number it took more damage to stop the attack, more then they could mange to produce. Kiba and Neji were pulled into the swarm of Ju Kama, which instantly became ravenous and crowded around them, though individually the bugs couldn't do much damage even with it's powerful pincers and teeth, together...
"Urhhhhhaaaaaa!" Kiba slashed away with the long OniGijyu shinto claws, digging his way out of the swarm until felt himself falling.
Neji came from behind and caught him, both of them falling into the river with a large splash..."Ok, this isn't going to work." Kiba stood up in the high waters, and almost immediately blood started seeping from every part of his body from the Insect's last attack. "We don't have techniques that can fight against these bugs, or at least I don't."
Neji surfaced audibly from beneath the waters, pushing a few strands of hair from his eyes. Akamaru, with jutsu worn off, swam over to them and climbed customarily on to Kiba's head and a waited orders. Neji stared upward at the swarm, the insects flying around in a disorganized mass as they always did before or after an attack...'Hmm...' "I have a Jutsu that might work, but there's a problem with using it while fighting these demons. If I try it as I am, it's going to take time to generate chakra. The Ju Kama bugs always attack when you or I start to build Chakra, so you would have to hold them off."
'Generate? How is it possible to Generate chakra, I thought you could only use what was already there?' "Hold them off, I can't fight the damn things as it is...any other options?"
"I could use Overclocking, but that's a risk in itself." Neji said, "What do you think?"
"If you have to use it, I'd probably have to do it to." Kiba wiped the blood from his forehead with his wrist, for such small insects they did draw a lot of blood. The mass of Ju Kama bugs began coming together, becoming organized again meaning that another attack was coming. "If there's no other way then..." Kiba pressed his hand together and utilized a rather long set of hand seals though notably quicker then Neji. "Overclocking!"
A pair of golden lights shined over the two in result, a set of shockwaves was forced outward that sent strong ripples over the water's surface. "!Ahhhhhhh!" Kiba fell to his knees with his arms clinching his torso tightly, the slowly flowing waters rose over his head as he sunk deeper and deeper until just the tip of his ears were visible... a watery scream sent bubbles rising to the surface with a burst of black Chakra, and a werewolf jumped out of the river, still wearing Kiba's clothing though much tighter fitting. He Landed gracefully on it's surface by using that excessive Chakra to keep from sinking.
"Kiba?" Neji looked up at him with glowing white eyes, a clear effect from the clocking of water from the wet fur on to Neji, then let out a loud bark. Akamaru promptly climbed off his head. "I guess that's a yes."
Neji activated his Bakyugan with a small amount of pain, causing the veins around his eyes to rise slightly and the glow of his eyes to intensify...'I...can see everything..!' His bloodline had advanced considerably, no blind spots, it was in higher definition then his normal vision making everything seem surreal, his hearing increased, as well as the range... "Get ready Kiba, they're coming."
The buzzing sound that was always present grew louder as the insect's wings moved faster, from the mass a burst of strong winds pushed towards them in the form of a white blast. Kiba roared and held his hands outward, catching the blast and halting it completely, it seemed impossible to stop air currents, they should have just flowed around him. With his Bakyugan Neji could see that the werewolf was using his Chakra to keep the air currents at bay 'That's...amazing...'
Kiba drew back one arm and slashed across the contained air with his claws, forcing the wind to shoot back at the insects with a fair amount of invisible Chakra use involved. The air tore through the circular mass the swarm had grouped into, scattering most and tearing apart a fair amount as it passed through. It was effective, very effective!
'Now's the perfect time!' Neji clasp his hands together, extending two fingers and closing his eyes in concentration. "OniKi kuji kiri!" Neji held his hands upward toward the sun and then abruptly pulled them back, dragging down 5 large rays of golden light from some place hidden by the sun's glare. The bright, very visible rays drove down from behind into the still disorganized swarm, upon first touch, scores of the swarm fell from the sky. Neji had absorbed the solar power of the sun, then added his Chakra to generate the attack, how it appeared behind the swarm had been apart of the demon influence since it was a demonic Jutsu.
It was working, for the first time they were wining!
Kiba let out another growl as he sprang into the air in spun dizzily in to his Gatsuuga, only to be knocked back by another burst of wind from the insects, only this time the bugs let themselves be carried into the current and sent themselves into the blast. Directly into Kiba, who was slammed down below the water's surface and unable to block the wind now that Chakra absorbing demons had infested themselves into it.
"OniKi kuji Kiri!" Neji drew his glowing white fist back and thrust it toward the insects holding Kiba down, a considerably larger and more visible shockwave burst outward and stuck the bugs. A large portion of the ones crowding Kiba were blown off, allowing to wolf to reach the surface with a strange sounding gasp for air. And it looked as if they had completely ripped off the barely fitting shirt Kiba still had on gotten past the fur since his torso was bleeding.
Kiba pounced on him and started licking him gratefully, "Hey! Hey! Get off me!" Neji pushed against his chest, trying get him off "Stop it! Not now!" Neji could have sworn Kiba was smiling, he probably was. "Focus Kiba Focus."
That's when Neji heard it, a completely indescribable sound he never heard before as if he'd just heard a dog whistle. Only he didn't hear it with his ears, it drifted into his head with seemingly no source...'What, what was that?'
The swarm regrouped into it's usual organized harmony, then ascended from the water abruptly. They were retreating, even though they still had high numbers and could put up a formidable fight. Though the reason for this behavior was never known it didn't matter since they were quickly out of reach of attack "They're leaving...? Kiba, did you hear that sound?"
Kiba only barked in reply.
Neji shook his head, of course he couldn't understand anything Kiba was saying.
"Hey Neji...uh and Kiba?" Sasuke jumped down into the water from the head of the waterfall.
"How'd it go?" Neji asked.
"It was a complete mess..." Sasuke looked up to the east at an odd looking black mass flying in the opposite direction. "What was that?"
"Ju Kama bugs."
Sasuke glanced back at the werewolf standing on top of the water, and effectively too considering this was a river, which had a current. "And what happened to Kiba?"
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"So, Iruka loses stamina..." Neji picked up a damp towel and started scrubbing the dried blood from his gray fur. Kiba sat on the ground with his feet pressed together and his hands pressed against the ground between his legs, his claws were digging into the wood and his tail sweeping across the ground. With his Bakyugan still in full effect, Neji went work cleaning Kiba's wounds, a few of them were still there from before he transformed. They were on the still bare third floor, it was large enough to give his voice an echo. "The curse seal on Sasuke advances, Kiba's mutation advances..." Neji glanced over to Gaara "Nothing apparent happens to Gaara so it could be anything. And my Bakyugan won't deactivate."
"Is there any way to just turn it off?" Naruto asked laying sprawled out across the ground, he tried to lift his head but his back was hurting to much. "Owww."
"Didn't this happen to you before?" Sasuke asked. "During the storm, after you were struck by lighting?"
"Yes." Neji nodded "I'm sure it's connected some how."
"Any chance we'll figure all of this out right now?" Iruka asked.
"Very little."
"Well, we shouldn't dwell on it then, most of us know what's going to happen if we use the Jutsu, so we can weigh the risks on our own." Iruka rubbed the bandages on his shoulder, he felt like going to sleep...more like passing out, but he had to stay awake at lest until this meeting, if that was the right word for it, was over. "Some one said something about a set up?"
"I said we were set up." Gaara replied almost questioningly.
"Oh sorry, I was kinda out of it on the way here." Iruka rubbed the back of his head, which was also hurting mysteriously with no cause, it could only mean that was an injury obtained by Devil. Interesting. "What happened."
"There was a group of those demons, 5 or 6 of them." Gaara explained. "They sent one in to test our strength and skills. Then after the first one was dead and they saw what we could do, the rest of them ambushed us."
"They were huge too!" Naruto shouted, though it seem off that he would be talking this energetically with out the use of gestures, he couldn't move. "Gaara kick ass! And of course I did to, and uh...Sasuke did a lot." He said the last part blandly. "The point is, that our "client" was a fake."
"Wow, there never is a dull moment around here is there." The group looked back at the sound of a unrecognized voice.
Jiraiya was leaning against the doorway, holding a small book in his hand. "I came to find Kiba...but..." Jiraiya blinked a few times just to see if he was really seeing what he was seeing "Do you know your washing a really big wolf...not that I'm surprised by anything that happens here."
"Yeah, I know." Neji snorted.
"Those ears, and that Tail, those clothes, Is that him?"
"Yes, he's a werewolf."
"Should have figured as much." Jiraiya looked over Kiba, who didn't really seem to notice him. Jiraiya poked his head curiously as if to see if it was real, Kiba quickly turned around and growled at him. "Sorry, sorry, down boy, uh, nice dog?"
"Don't mess with him, this is hard enough as it is." Neji said, frustratedly scrubbing Kiba's torso.
"Well since Kiba is..." Iruka tried to think of the right word for it, after a few idle seconds he gave up on it. "I'm going to say incapacitated, so maybe I can help you. What did you need?"
"He was talking to me about how much money you guys needed to bring in since construction in Konoha is costing at lot more then anticipated. And you guys could barely handle the missions you have plus constant demon attacks on SDI. There's no way you could take on more." Jiraiya told them "So the only other way he figured to balance out how much is going to Konoha along the cost of running SDI with the budgeting of each of your departments was to expand business. He wanted me to help him out with ideas."
"Expand business?" Iruka asked.
Naruto shook his head "We can't handle any more missions, how are we going to expand?"
"Don't just stick to one field, you guys have to resources to get into a lot of other markets beside killing demons." Jiraiya explained "Like production for instance, or retail, hell, anything you want you can make a profit with if you do it right. All of you already have a names for yourselves and I see you have extra space."
"It sounds plausible to me, but who's going to handle all of this?" Kakashi asked.
"You guys, of course I'll help but you are going to have to do a fair amount of the work"
"Where would we start?" Iruka inquired.
"Well first, since your not officially Konoha shinobi, you should probably change clothes." Jiraiya paused and thought about it. "Better yet, your SDI, you should have your own uniforms, or at least something with a logo. Everybody knows who guys are anyway."
