Chapter 73 - Arrhythmia
"There goes my break," I muttered as I bounced off of a branch. The leaves fluttered ever so slightly under the light touch, making their surfaces glisten under the sunlight.
"This is my break," Kakashi said with a tone that matched well with his dead-fish eyes. Couldn't argue with him there. While I was suddenly given the mission during my Anbu downtime, where Team Kō could take a break from spying on Bounty Exchange Points and doing housekeeping missions, Kakashi literally got assigned to this mission because we were running out of Anbu teams. Truly a change of scenery from the Jonin Commander duties that swamped him daily.
To think that Konoha would run out of Anbu when dealing with matters relating to Orochimaru, how far had our mindset changed.
"Too bad, it's unfortunate that you have to spend it with me," I tilted my head to the side and gave him a smile. To that, he just rolled his eyes and sped up, passing me with two branches ahead.
"Well, it's not that bad." I paused in surprise for a moment when I heard his words. We hadn't performed an official mission together ever since he stopped being my captain in Anbu. Even before that, I was sure that teaching me how to be an Anbu agent and not kill myself was not his favourite past-time. "Worse options definitely exist, so don't put yourself down too hard."
And just like that, I wished I could stuff his head into a lake to muffle that sarcastic tone. He could have left it at the first sentence and we would all be happy, but no, he had to keep talking.
"You sense those Suna-nin around the area?" I asked as I caught up to him again. Kakashi gave me a nod as he re-angled his Hound mask. It had been some time since I had seen him in that attire, but he looked the same as the image that was painted in my memory, not a day older.
"Yeah. They're dispersed and spread out, most likely just sentinels, to see how Konoha handled this," Kakashi answered with a nod. "I thought they'd be mad enough to want to raid Orochimaru's lair by themselves, but I guess not."
"Why bother when there's someone else who would do that for you?" I commented with some mockery laced in my voice.
See, how Kakashi and I got here, travelling along the forest deep within the Land of Stone, was an interesting story.
Two days ago, a message from Sunagakure arrived on Tsunade-sama's desk, informing her that a team of Sunagkure Anbu had observed a shinobi of unknown origin being captured and taken back to the depth of the forest located in the Land of Stones. The part that caught Konoha's attention was that report that the person being captured sported wild black marks on his skin and had deformations in his limbs and face when he tried to struggle against his captor.
The shinobi was overpowered quickly by his captors, who also had black marks on their skins. But it seemed that the Sunagakure team was well-versed in espionage that they were able to locate the general area which the cpators returned to without being discovered.
It was one of Orochimaru's bases, unknown to all of our existing records. By the looks of it, it was active as well.
Sunagakure didn't make moves of their own, but instead turned this information to Konoha, even making a note that they wouldn't disrupt Konoha's plan. 'It was Konoha's missing-nin', they said; 'deep respect for boundaries', they said. That basically elevated Tsunade-sama's blood pressure while forcing her to keep a polite smile on her face.
It was hard to say what Sunagakure was thinking exactly, but they definitely didn't want to waste their forces dealing with the sneaky missing-nin, despite - or maybe it was because of - the fact that Orochimaru cost them so much in the Chunin Exam invasion.
Either way, I got pulled to investigate and sweep Orochimaru's base amidst the busy Anbu assignments, and Kakashi got a 'break' from his in-village duties to help replace the rest of the team so that we'd save some manpower for other uses.
Suddenly, I landed on a branch with a touch that was softer than usual and paused. A moment later, Kakashi did the same as he landed on a branch nearby.
"There are quite a few of them. The snakes, I mean. In an inactive base, I barely see one or two that serve to keep Orochimaru updated of its fate." I said with a voice that was barely audible to my teammate as I scanned the area in front of us with the sharingan. The changes were subtle, but I was sure that as we moved forward, the density of trees decreased and the terrain below was curving uphill at a small angle.
Kakashi stayed silent for a moment as he concentrated his senses too. "The scents left in this area are fresh and messy … and there are quite a lot of them, or were, I can't tell if the scents are faint because they left the base recently or because they are underground."
"And Orochimaru?" I asked, waiting for Kakashi's answer with patience.
"His scent is amongst here, but like the others, I can't tell if he's still here," Kakashi said, no doubt with a small frown behind the mask. Many times Orochimaru tested Konoha's patience, leaking us abandoned bases filled with traps and explosives, watching us run around looking for his trail with arrogance. But would this information stumbled upon by Suna produce anything different?
"All of the signs indicate that the base is active. Whether or not Orochimaru is here at the moment is unknown, but at least this base means something for him to make visits and set up sentinels …" I paused a little as I screened through the plans in my head. Eventually, I turned to Kakashi and asked, "So, how about we blitz in and see what it's all about?"
Under any other circumstances, Kakashi would have whacked my head for suggesting something so rash when the first line of approach should be silent infiltration. But here, with so many snakes and traps, alerting Orochimaru of the presence of anyone that dared to enter the premises, should he be here, treating this as a normal infiltration would only be tying our own hands and giving the missing-nin time to pack up.
"Sounds like a plan." With Kakashi's agreement, both of us made a small nick on my thumbs and placed our hands on the tree trunk. The summoning arrays expanded at the same time and a moment later, Kakashi's pack of ninken and four wolflings appeared behind the smoke.
"Surround the premise and locate those that try to run away," I ordered the small wolflings, agile and quick to conceal. Orochimaru wasn't the only one who had sentinel animals.
On the other side, Kakashi nodded to his ninken and said, "you heard her." With a few nods, the animals disappeared into the forest. Then, Kakashi raised his finger and pointed towards an empty patch of ground a hundred metres in front of us. "That's where the scent trails start to become stronger; an entry that connects the underground to the surface."
No other words needed to be said, I gathered the yin-chakra fire in my palm, pulling back my hand to shape it into an arrow of flame. At the same time, lightning crackled in Kakashi's hand, ready to burst at any moment.
The snakes were already slithering their bodies, trying to find the slight disturbance in the air, the sign of chakra that agitated the calm atmosphere. But before they could pin-point anything, I released the arrow from my hand, letting it sail straight into the entry point, leaving only a trail of heated air on its path.
The fire arrow shot through the fake ground, burning through the metallic cover just before the concentrated fire collapsed in a blazing wave. Kakashi's lightning serpent followed without a pause, mingling itself with the raging flames until the dance ended in a deafening explosion.
Just as Sasuke had discovered, the combination of fire and lightning chakra definitely had a better effect than explosive tags.
Just as the entrance was blown wide open, Kakashi and I flickered forward and entered the underground passage.
"Straight ahead." Kakashi reminded me as we raced down the hallway, using his sense of smell as a guide. On the way, I saw the rows of rooms locked behind metal doors, with only a small window that connected it to the outside world.
There was a loud crash as something stirred in one of the rooms, awakened by the explosion. Then, rattling noises started to sound everywhere around us, joined by the groans and yells, growing louder by the seconds.
As I passed one of the rooms, the small window was broken as one of the prisoners pressed his face to the opening, a black mark running across his face, turning his skin the dreadful colour of gray.
Those were cursed marks, no doubt about it. And this was likely where Orochimaru experimented and selected those that could survive his curse marks.
"Orochimaru-sama! I'm still alive! I've endured! Please! Save me!" The prisoner screamed in desperation as the mark on his skin seemed to gain power from his emotion. The cursed mark burned with hunger, causing the prisoner to scream in pain as he writhed behind the door.
"Turn right. His scent is too fresh. He's here." Kakashi's words were like a bucket of cold water, keeping us focused when sounds of agony and torture filled our eardrums.
Just as we turned the corner, a shinobi with an Otogakure headband stabbed forward with a blade. Without batting an eye, I twirled my tantō and pushed his blade to the side. I slid forward with my feet, invading his personal space as I reached for his neck. A lightning senbon stretched out from my fingertip. The Oto-nin only had the thought of taking a step back, before I pressed the needle into his neck, charring a hole through his throat with a burst of lightning.
A few metres in front of me, a shuriken struck itself into an Oto-nin's arm as she brought it up to block the attack. Blood splashed onto the ground as she stared at Kakashi with a venomous gaze, the curse mark already expanding across her body. But before the scaly wings fully sprouted from her lower back, Kakashi flickered in front of her in the blink of an eye. He pushed his palm forward, electricity dancing between his fingers, and snapped her head back with force. The Oro-nin only had the time to let out a muffled scream before Kakashi stabbed her behind the neck.
In the span of a breath, more shinobi with Otogakure insignia started to gather in the hallway. Learning from their fallen comrades, cursed marks painted their skin, modifying their bodies with various inhuman features.
"Forward and then left, around 300, maybe 400 metres away." Kakashi whispered in a low voice that barely reached my ears. No more words needed to be said, we knew what we had to do.
"See you there." My voice echoed in the air as I disappeared in a flash of electricity. In the scale of milliseconds, I zoomed past the Otogakure guards one by one, leaving slashes of red on their bodies before they could react.
Immediately, some of them took their last breath as blood sprayed out of their neck, but a few escaped death because they had hardened scales covering their critical spots. Regardless, I left without looking back. Kakashi could deal with the rest of them.
Electricity stimulated my muscles and senses as the images of dark hallways flashed in front of my eyes like stop motion pictures. Despite traveling at the speed of lightning, the world seemed so still as I passed by cells after cells that all looked and sounded the same. But eventually, there came a point where the screams of agony seemed to disappear.
That was when my blade slammed into a shield made of bones. The metal grazed the surface of ivory bones as sparks flew from the forces of the impact, but it barely made a dent. Without a pause, I flickered backwards, escaping the protrusions of bones that threatened to impale me.
I narrowed my eyes at the nest of bones in front of me and the white-haired boy controlling it. Right next to him, the door to the cell was in the middle of being swung open, making creaking noises that disrupted the silent tension that filled the air.
However, the focus of my attention was on the person standing at the far end of the hallway. Hiding behind the nest of bones, Orochimaru looked at me with a mixture of anger and excitement in his eyes, making it hard to tell if he wanted to kill me or invite me for a chat.
"What a surprise, Uchiha-hime," Orochimaru said after a moment of silence. "I would love to know how you got hold of this location, but I imagined that it had to do with the incompetence of my surbordinates."
"In need of more soldiers after sending them on a suicide invasion back at the Chunin Exam? They don't seem to have the best quality," I replied. That must have hit a sore spot because Orochimaru's eyes turned piercing with poison.
But still, if this place was merely for the manufacturing of cursed mark users, then it didn't make sense for Orochimaru to loiter around the cells. These experimental subjects should have been easy to replace for him, after all, most of them were failures that wouldn't survive the cursed marks. Even those that did survive shouldn't be important enough for Orochimaru to risk an unplanned confrontation.
So, unless this was a trap - which Kakashi and I were prepared to deal with - or there was something here that Orochimaru couldn't leave behind. In the latter case, what was inside of that opened cell was more and more intriguing by the second.
"What are you staying here for, Orochimaru? I thought you'd be slithering away by now, like you always do," I said, walking the fine line of provocation.
Orochimaru let out a laugh after hearing that, but the killing intent grew dense around him. "And I thought you should have known by now, Maiko, that no matter how many times you've tried, you can't kill me."
"Still, it doesn't hurt to try one more time." On cue with my voice, Kakashi appeared around the corner, a tiny ball of white electricity sparkled at his fingertips. The white-haired boy already took a defensive stance as a maze of bones thickened in front of him.
But Hakuryuu travelled at a speed that could barely be deciphered by sharingan. The white flash zoomed across the jagged bones before they could close the gap, leaving a trail of icy blue in my gaze as it pierced Orochimaru in the chest.
Of course, that attack wouldn't kill him given his regeneration. But the attack still took him by surprise and interrupted his movement.
At the same time, I slapped my hand onto the ground, letting blossoms of ruby-red lotus rise from the ground, trying to swallow up the enemies from below. Orochimaru let out a 'tsk' of irritation as he stepped out of the way just before the petals snapped together and exploded in rage.
His loyal subordinate, on the other hand, tried to block the flames with a cage of bones, but the bony structures only lasted a few seconds under the concentrated yin-chakra fire, before it melted through.
"Kimimaro!" Suddenly, I heard a foreign voice as a figure rushed through the open cell and pushed the white-haired boy to the side. Soon, the smell of burnt human flesh filled the air as the orange-haired prisoner shielded the white-haired boy named Kimimaro from the raging flame.
Through the smoke and the flame, both Kakashi and I saw it, the inhuman scales that covered the prisoner's arm and body, protecting him from the brunt of the flame. The layer of scales soon got burnt to dust, but not before Kimimaro dragged him back into the cell with a chain made of bones.
Of course, it wouldn't be Orochimaru if he didn't turn into snakes and tried to slip away at least once in battle. The snakes rushed into the cell before the door was closed. Kakashi and I moved as well, trying to catch up to the snake-sannin.
Just then, a chorus of 'bang!' rang in our ears, as if hard objects were being slammed against the wall. It took me a second to realize that the boy must have produced enough bony protrusions to fill the cell.
For a moment, I wondered why they were barricading themselves inside a closed room when it was clear that the defence wouldn't hold against our attacks. The answer came a moment later, when the ceiling started to rumble and shake.
Holy crap– I barely had time to curse in my head as I expanded the silver Susanoo to cover both Kakashi and myself, just in time for the ceiling to collapse and explode into pieces.
My eardrums felt like they were going to burst as the world turned upside down around us. Amidst the chaos, I grabbed Kakashi in the arm to make sure he stayed close while I supported Susanoo against the pressure of falling rocks from above.
Layers of muscle thickened around the ribcage. The arms extended upwards, breaking through the rocks and dirt that tried to bury us. Plated armours glowed silver as they grew on top of muscle layers. With a burst of power, the giant broke through the grave made of fallen rumbles.
When sunlight filled our vision again, we were standing in a crater in the middle of the forest. Just a little distance away, a cage of bones also survived the destruction of the base, just barely, seeing that the ivory rods shattered one by one, revealing the interesting combination of people inside.
Kimimaro looked battered and exhausted as he coughed endlessly. Orochimaru had already reformed his body from the snakes as he looked at my Susanoo with a critical gaze. The orange-haired boy, however, looked like he was having a mental breakdown as scales hardened and expanded over his entire body.
"Jūgo, look at me, control yourself." I was surprised to hear the gentle voice of the white-haired boy. What surprised me, even more, was the fact that he was growing his own bones to restrain the orange-haired prisoner, chaining his limbs and stabbing into his body without any mercy.
Well, their relationship was their problem. I didn't waste a single second as I willed the Susanoo to slam its arm forward. Orochimaru quickly brought his hand together for hand seals, making the Rashōmon rise just in time to block the Susanoo.
Kakashi had already flickered away. In the blink of an eye, he arrived behind Orochimaru with a blade that crackled with lightning. Orochimaru opened his mouth, sending out a giant snake that curved around and blocked Kakashi's blade. With a crisp shake of his wrist, Kakashi cut the snake into pieces.
With a harder push, Rashōmom cracked open under the Susanoo, just as Kakashi managed to behead Orochimaru. It was hardly the end, though, seeing that the head merely reattached itself in midair. Moreover, just before the Susanoo could crash down on our enemies, a small snake slithered up Kimimaro's shoulder and whispered in his ear.
Kakashi retreated as Susanoo slammed down, but the silver hand never touched Orochimaru, or Kimimaro, for that matter, because someone else had stopped it with monstrous force. It was the orange-haired boy - Jūgo, I supposed - still in his prisoner attire, but his appearance had already turned unrecognizable as he let out screams of mania. At the last moment, Kimimaro released the restraints he had over the other teenage boy.
"Hah! I'm going to kill you all!" Things just kept on getting more and more confusing when Jūgo - or whoever he was at this point - yelled with bloodthirst. "Die! All of you just—" Sadly, his voice got cut off when I slammed the other arm down with enough force to embed him into the ground.
Still, that little distraction allowed Kimimaro and Orochimaru to make an escape towards the forest. Kakashi's red sharingan swirled as he caught Orochimaru's fleeing signature. Without a delay, he slapped his palm on the ground and let the wild lightning spread across the terrain, driving the snake-sannin out of the ground.
The violent creature stirred in the crater as he struggled against the hold of Susanno. With no choice, I had to apply even more pressure to knock him out.
As soon as the endless string of curses stopped, I moved my attention to Orochimaru. As Kakashi sealed Orochimaru's escape into the ground with a constant supply of voltage through the forest floor, the silver armour faded around me as I pressed my hand onto the ground and focused my chakra into the distance.
Orochimaru sent a serpent made of wildfire towards Kakashi, trying to force him to pause the lightning jutsu and defend himself. However, Kakashi didn't even bat an eye, allowing the fire serpent to bare its fangs of molten flame at him. At the last moment, his ninken broke through the ground and together, they guarded around him. A thick earth wall decorated with the statues of ninken rose from the earth and repelled the fire.
Everything seemed to click together as the Kaenjin rose around Orochimaru, incinerating the snakes that tried to slither away from his body, cutting off his favourite method of escaping.
A clap of thunder; a flash of lightning. Narukami fell down from the sky, striking the Snake-sannin head-on and charring his body to the point that even he had to take a moment to recover from the damage.
The veil of flame dropped under my command, but what replaced it was a ball of black flame that started to devour his flesh. It took a few moments for Amaterasu to fully consume Orochimaru's body, but when it did, I released a breath that I didn't even know I was holding.
Kakashi and I exchanged a glance before he ordered his ninken to spread out again. Kimimaro had long disappeared from the battlefield while we were focusing on Orochimaru. It couldn't be helped. If we weren't, there was no way that we could have trapped the snake-sannin.
But … Did Orochimaru really die? It wasn't a shadow clone and our sharingan ruled out a 99% chance of a genjutsu, nor did it pick up any signature of Orochimaru's white snakes slithering away. But the fact that his subordinate, who seemed so loyal, ran away without him spoke of another scheme.
"Do you believe that he's dead?" I asked Kakashi.
"My eyes tell me 'yes', but my instinct screams 'no'," Kakashi answered, perfectly summing up what I felt. Logically speaking, we did everything we could to kill Orochimaru, but could the man really be described with logic?
"I'm going to rip you to shreds–" Susanoo expanded around my body and slammed the bloodthirsty creature back into the ground. Right, we have another pressing matter on our hands.
Both Kakashi and I rested our gaze on the prisoner that continued to struggle under the hold of my Susanoo. At this point, it was clear that Orochimaru stayed because of this boy, whose destruction in this inhuman state was a world above that of Orochimaru's experimentations.
If I had to guess, he was probably Case number 0 in Orochimaru's research of curse marks.
We needed to get him back to the village, but the moment I released the hold on him, he would attack without an ounce of sanity. I couldn't very well summon Susanoo every few minutes to knock him unconscious. Well, if knockout by physical means is inefficient, then maybe there are other ways … With some thought, I locked my eyes with his - with black sclera and an orange glow - and forcibly pulled him into the domain of the Mangekyou.
The boy's mind lasted only a few seconds under the terrifying gaze of the Mangekyou as he fell unconscious under the genjutsu. Miraculously, the inhuman features faded around his body, revealing the teenage boy that slept soundly.
Carefully, I willed Susanoo to let go of its fingers. When the boy made no indication of waking up, I disintegrated the layers of silver chakra around me.
"My lady." Just then, Kosetsu appeared from under the ground, shaking his body to get rid of the dirt on his fur. With an apologetic tone, he told me, "The one with white hair escaped in the mouth of a snake summon. We lost track of him."
"It's alright, you did well. Return and rest with your kins." I comforted the little wolfling with a pat on the head before releasing the summon and sending all of the little wolves home.
"Well, that definitely confirms that Orochimaru is still alive in some way," I said to Kakashi, who let out a sigh of annoyance. Not that we had much optimism before, but the fact that Orochimaru saved the usage of his summoning creature for his subordinate was all the confirmation we needed that he still had something up his sleeve.
Yes, under our combined firepower, even a reverse summoning might not get Orochimaru out of the bind. But Orochimaru didn't do stuff like sacrificing his trump card to save his subordinate unless it was to save himself.
No time for the lament. With Orochimaru, one really couldn't get hung up on failures, otherwise, we would drive ourselves crazy first. Kakashi returned his attention to the unconscious prisoner and after a moment of thought he pressed his thumb on the ground.
With a puff of smoke, Bull, the largest ninken of the pact, appeared in front of us. Under Kakashi's instruction, the ninken slugged the unconscious boy onto his body, his eyes telling Kakashi that he wasn't quite keen on the job.
"Don't worry, we'll switch after a while," I reassured Bull while Kakashi rolled his eyes at the apparent lack of enthusiasm from his ninken. The chakra cost wouldn't allow him to keep Bull around for a long period of time anyway, so we had to alternate between my wolf summons and his ninken.
Soon, we made our way out of the clearing and into the forest. Kakashi jumped up on a branch and I was about to do the same. But all of the sudden, my heart seemed to beat violently in a chaotic rhythm, sending shivers of unease and panic down my spine.
"What's wrong?" Kakashi asked when he noticed the way I froze in place. Instantly, I looked around us as the Mangekyou pattern swirled. But the uneasy feeling only lasted a moment, before my heartbeat returned to normal. Along with it, I couldn't sense anything other than the lingering smell of ashes and death in the air.
"No … I just had a bad feeling about something," I muttered as I shook my head, trying to shake off the unsettling chill that crawled all over my skin. We were standing on a graveyard of bodies, after all, buried below the heavy rumbles, crushed to death in a state of fear, hatred and betrayal.
"Let's go. I don't want to get questioned by those Suna-nin that did nothing but watch from a distance." I flickered onto the branch, passing by Kakashi without a pause. I could feel his gaze of examination from behind, but he said nothing, merely following me as we sped across the forestry.
(づ｡◕‿‿◕｡)づ fuwa~fuwa~desu~~~
Shikamaru wished he was on his way back to Konoha.
After all, their mission was merely an investigation - recreating the scene of a disaster, delineating the number, methods, and identity of the shinobi that took the life of the business magnate who commanded the mines in this region.
They weren't expected to track or capture the assassin - singular, that much they had determined - that ran away, otherwise, it wouldn't be a mere B-rank mission.
In all aspects, there was very little they could do at the scene of the crime. It was only one shinobi - strong, agile, and experienced. They opted to make a display of the victim's body rather than covering up the death, indicating that the assassination might be a warning, likely a message to the victim's family who would take over the business.
Lastly, while the leftover track seemed to suggest westward towards the Earth Country, a quick history check solicited from the area suggested that Lightning Country had the most convincing motives for ordering an assassination, for conflicts involving a strip of mining caves that stretched into the bordering regions.
In all sense, their mission was supposed to be finished - even the client seemed to think so, as demonstrated by how quickly they directed their anger at the Lightning Country and Kumogakure even if everything was just a speculation.
"As we said, Lady Hoshina, we can't be certain that it's an assassin from Kumogakure, even if Lightning Country does benefit the most from Lord Hoshina's death." Shikamaru watched as Asuma-sensei emphasized to the wife of the victim for the third time in the last five minutes. Her son was ready to ride to the Capital and ask the Fire Daimyo for support in obtaining justice.
"Sorry, I shouldn't have yelled that out," Chōji whispered to Shikamaru in an apologetic tone, trying to make himself invisible behind his teammates, not that it worked.
"They would have pressed for an answer even if you didn't tell them our speculation," Shikamaru replied with a sigh. Anyone with an eye could see that the victim's household cared less about who the murderer was than if they could demand payback from someone - anyone. Even if Chōji didn't accidentally let their deduction slip, they would have demanded an answer from them soon.
It was then that Shikamaru noticed Ino's sudden silence. She closed her eyes as her brows furrowed in concentration, a sign that she was using the Mind-Body Technique, but to whom?
When she opened her eyes again, the air around her seemed to change as seriousness filled her expression. "Sensei," she called out to Asuma, interrupting the conversation despite Lady Hoshina's disapproval.
Quickly, she made two hand signs. Anbu Emergency, she said. Now that set their priorities straight.
Apologizing to the Hoshina widow, Asuma-sensei flickered next to them without any delay before all of them were invited into Ino's mind.
It was in there that Shikamaru understood that they were near the presence of 'Akatsuki', an entity that he couldn't quite gauge and comprehend because he had never experienced it for himself.
Power existed on a scale, but the upper limit was determined by what the person who made the scale could comprehend. Interestingly, fear was not that different.
It didn't take Asuma long to confirm the new objective of their mission. As their sensei explained their departure to the Hoshina household - and attempted to drill it into their heads one last time that all they had on the identity of the assassin was an educated guess - Shikamaru and his fellow teammates went through the information on Hidan and Kakuzu, the two most likely perpetrator, in his head.
Why did they show up so suddenly? Shikamaru wondered as they sped across the forest. It had been close to a year since Shikamaru last heard of Akatsuki on a mission, where they supposedly framed Konoha for the kidnapping of Iwa's Jinchuuriki. After that, the once active organization seemed to fall into slumber, which was also why it was hard to make Iwa and Kumo truly see the danger that lurked in the shadow.
So, what was special now? The time, the location .. the people in the area?
"Ah, if this Kakuzu is an assassin that kills for bounty, then is it possible …" Chōji swiped his hand across his neck as he nodded towards the direction of Hoshina Residence.
"But you need the head to collect the bounty. Unless Lady Hoshina was lying, that was definitely the head of her husband hanging by the shoji door," Sakura recalled from the side. Chōji shivered at the memory of Lord Hoshina's severed body, and probably the memory of Sakura picking up the head for a closer examination like it was a study material.
"No, Lord Hoshina would have never been their target. Kakuzu preyed on missing-nin or those with a distinguished reputation in battle because only their bounties pay in the range of millions. The last time I checked, Lord Hoshina didn't have a bounty on his head nor was it likely that a bounty was placed on him in the recent days," Shikamaru added to the explanation. The killer of their victim was not Kakuzu, that was certain, but …
"Asuma-sensei, do you think it's possible that the target that made Kakuzu reappear is the assassin in our case?" It was a bold deduction that Shikamaru made, the kind that seemed to come out of nowhere because the dots were too fragmented.
But Asuma never shot him down, nor was his teammate ever impatient as he tried to collect his speeding thoughts and explain his deduction.
"The power level of our assassin was at least a high-A rank, if not an S-rank, to be able to pull off the assassination without any injuries, that would fit the bill for those with a high bounty on their head. Furthermore, we were told to search in the Northwest direction surrounding Bounty Exchange Point 23, a station that was closest to the border region between Earth and Lightning Country." Shikamaru's train of thought seemed to go faster with each and every word he spoke, to the point that he had to pause himself to make sure that it still made sense.
"If our speculation on the identity of the assassin being a Kumo-nin is correct, then it would be about time for them to return to Lightning Country after leaving a trail that led to Earth Country." Shikamaru took a deep breath before he arrived at the last bit of his conclusion, "In fact, I would even say that the chance of our assassin being the Jinchuuriki of Kumo was not that unlikely."
"That's … a lot of jumps between each sentence," Ino couldn't help but comment as she tried to follow along despite the growing headache.
"It's just a speculation." Shikamaru made sure to add at the end. The last thing he wanted was to cloud their judgment because Shikamaru couldn't ignore coincidences. But before he could tell them to treat it as no more than a passing story, Asuma placed his fingers into his mouth and whistled loudly.
A few seconds later, a hawk dived down from the sky and landed on Asuma's shoulder.
"What are you doing?" Shikamaru asked as their Jonin sensei bit his index finger and started scribbling on a slip of paper.
"Writing a note for Kumogakure border patrol, to be delivered if Kakuzu and Hidan were indeed targeting their Jinchuuriki," Asuma answered in between his writings. "Konoha had been spying on Bounty Exchange Points for weeks now. For them to suddenly come across Akatsuki, certainly time and effort played a role, but there was likely something else that made them relax their inhibition and take on more risks."
"Do you know when a highly-disciplined shinobi would indulge themselves with alcohol and the subsequent hangover?" Asuma-sensei asked as he rolled the slip of paper into the wooden scroll tied to the hawk's leg.
Ugh, what a horrible analogy, Shikamaru thought in his mind, but he answered anyway, "When you just returned from a mission." The usage of 'you' was intentional. The lack of subtlety made everyone look at Asuma funny, who let out a series of coughs to hide his embarrassment.
"So that's where you disappear to whenever we finished a mission," Ino said, judging their sensei's horrible habits with her pale blue eyes. "You know, if you don't fix those habits that make you look irresponsible, Kurenai-san will never see you as a reliable man. And yes, I'm also talking about smoking."
"You do smoke heavily enough to destroy your lungs in a decade, Asuma-san," Sakura added from the side, always so helpful.
"Hey, Kurenai enjoys the downtime at the Jonin Bar as much as I do—wait, why am I even telling you guys this?" Asuma let out a sigh of exasperation, desperately trying to direct the topic back on track. "My point is, Shikamaru's deduction is more found than I'd like to hope. So if Kumo's Jinchuuriki was indeed captured or on their way to being ambushed, we'd better inform their shinobi before Konoha somehow takes the blame again."
With a slight nudge on the hawk's back, Asuma released his messenger hawk back into the sky. The bird soared above them before disappearing behind the thick forestry, hiding in the natural canopy until it was called again.
Shikamaru narrowed his eyes at the hawk, unsure what to think of how quickly Asuma-sensei followed along with his speculation and prepared for the worst possible outcome that most could not even fathom.
In his thirteen - almost fourteen years of life, people called him 'smart' and 'intelligent', when he really had no intention of letting people see him that way. He was quick in his thoughts, sure, but he didn't just lack motivation and experience. More importantly, he lacked responsibility.
Asuma turned back all of a sudden, catching the uncertainty in Shikamaru's gaze before he could hide it. He gave him a light-hearted smile as he said, "I don't deny that coincidences exist at every moment. An attempt to find a rational explanation behind every series of events is stubbornness, if not a little stupid. But to close your eyes to the clues, no matter how unlikely and counterintuitive they are, that's just laziness."
Very quickly, his Jonin-sensei gave him a slap on the back as he passed him by, much to his annoyance. "Shikamaru, your mind is quick and you connect things faster than others. Look at how easy it was for you to string together the story behind Hoshina's murder as soon as fragments of clues emerged. It makes it easier for you to realize what others don't, but it also means that you have to think a little more than others, to doubt yourself a little more than others."
"How troublesome." Shikamaru couldn't find anything to say, so he fell back to the default response.
"Sadly, that's what being a shinobi is. Troublesome business at every moment," Asuma said as he let out a loud burst of laughter. But soon, the easy-going attitude died down as his expression turned serious.
"While the Anbu mission stated that we're to help with tracking, as a Konoha shinobi, it's our duty to eliminate danger to Konoha before it festers. So on the chance that we caught Akatsuki before Anbu does, we'll do our best to stall them. If the Anbu arrives first, we'll join the battle to help as necessary, including listening to orders given by me, your Jonin leader, and the Anbu Captain directing the mission."
There was a pause in his voice, just enough time for Shikamaru to guess what he was going to say. "So when we tell you to run and save yourself, you do it, without any question."
"But Asuma-sensei, we can help!" "We can't leave you behind!" Ino and Chōji rebutted at the same time. Asuma said nothing at those hot-headed responses, merely turning to Shikamaru and Sakura, giving them their chance to voice their opinion.
Honestly, when you look at us with such overwhelming trust, what else can I say?
"I'll fulfill my duty to the best of my ability," Sakura answered with a steady breath. Perhaps, out of the four of them, she was the best at knowing what she needed to do.
Shikamaru didn't answer Asuma outright, instead, he directed his word to his teammates. "Asuma doesn't believe in mindless sacrifices. So we just have to do our best to make sure that such things don't happen." Whomever the sacrifice is.
Shikamaru never thought he was the naive kind. But sometimes, he couldn't help but weave those naive thoughts underneath his words.
(づ｡◕‿‿◕｡)づ fuwa~fuwa~desu~~~
"Aish, if only you can keep your hands to yourself. Like I do," Hidan complained as he ducked his head, evading a sleek cord that threatened to impale his neck. "Really, the moment that the pain erupts on your body, dancing on your nerves as it sets them aflame, it's quite addicting."
"If only you have a bounty worth as much as my disgust for you, then maybe beheading you would be worth it," Kakuzu said, but his eyes were not on Hidan, nor were they on the unconscious woman slugged on his shoulder, suffering in a tug of war between life and death. No, his gaze was settled on his wallet, where he counted his increase in assets.
"But seriously, does it have to be right after we dealt with the Jinchuuriki?" Hidan continued without any regard for Kakuzu's threats. If it wasn't for Kakuzu's little stop at the bounty station, they wouldn't have found the little spy hiding in the corner.
If Kakuzu didn't go for the kill at the first instance before Hidan could say a word, they wouldn't have left behind the dead body of a shinobi - a Konoha Anbu, by the looks of his tattoo - for his teammates to find, however many there were.
Not that Hidan was going to stop Kakuzu from acts of murder - he was a little disappointed that he didn't get to join in on the action - but at least on the surface, this was definitely not Hidan's fault.
"I don't have a habit of keeping the heads of my bounties until they smell rotten," Kakuzu said, voice still as cold as ice. Hidan made a face of disgust when he remembered the strange smell that lingered in the air when Hidan pulled out his trophy to be cashed in - Yes, they stayed to finish the exchange. Might as well, since they were already there
Eww. Unconsciously, Hidan moved a little further away from Kakuzu.
"Pein would be pissed," Hidan muttered, not that he particularly cared. The warnings were that they should lay off on showing their faces until the extraction for Two-Tail was complete. It wasn't every day that a Jinchuuriki was sent for a solo mission by their village.
But anyway, it wasn't Hidan's fault. It was Kakuzu who couldn't keep his hands to himself and hunted a shinobi with a bounty on his head a few days prior. It was Kakuzu who decided to collect the rewards right after they subdued the Jinchuuriki. It was Kakuzu who killed the Anbu spy rather than walking away.
Right, it wasn't like Hidan was dying to taste more blood. The taste of the Two-Tail Jinchuuriki was already fading from his tongue - what was her name, Nii Mugito? Kii Yugito? Whatever - and once again, his body felt empty from the lack of adrenaline and ecstasy that came from the mingled pain that connected him and his victim.
Crap, he was already looking forward to seeing what kind of pursuers Konoha would send after finding the corpse of one of their own.
"Pein won't complain as long as the end result is the same." Just like Hidan, Kakuzu was unconcerned with any reprimand from Akatsuki. "Even if Konoha has the time and resources to spy on the numerous Bounty Exchange Points across the countries, their forces will be thinned and spread out without any immediate reinforcement."
Hidan hummed in agreement. They just have to kill those that were lucky enough to have caught their trails, before any reinforcement started sticking to them like wet clothes. Oh, and before their prized Jinchuuriki woke up, which, given how Hidan ripped one of her lungs and shattered a few ribs, wouldn't be any time soon, even with their natural regenerative healing.
"We can even leave a few of them mutilated and on the verge of death. Konoha shinobi never have the guts to leave their burdens behind," Kakuzu suggested and Hidan was abhorred by his words.
"How could you? Jashin only accepts deaths and destruction! What a sin it is to rob them of the euphoria of death when they were chosen by Jashin to be saved!" Hidan was horrified at the prospect of not being able to end the lives that were begging for Jashin's enlightenment.
"I turn my ears off when you start mentioning your imaginary cult," Kakuzu replied without an ounce of apology. That was it, Hidan's last bits of comradeship with Kakuzu disappeared in a poof - wait, was there any to begin with? - when the man had the guts to disrespect his religion like that.
But before Hidan would throw his scythe at Kakuzu's head, the man let out a cold laugh as he dumped the Jinchuuriki's body onto the ground.
Ah, they had company.
"Huh, you don't dress like the Anbu we killed," Kakuzu commented as he examined the group of shinobi that barred their way forward. The red swirl symbol on their shoulders stuck out against the monotone of forest green vest.
"Don't worry, they're coming too," The leading shinobi - the only adult of the group, it seemed - said as his hands tightened on the pair of trench knives raised in front of his chest.
It only took a moment for Kakuzu to put the face to the bounty as a glint of motivation filled his eyes. "Sarutobi Asuma, you have a bounty of 35 million ryō on your head. This is finally starting to be worth my time."
Ughh, with that ideology, Hidan would die before having any respect for Kakuzu - which was effectively never.
"May Jashin grants you the ultimate favour of death," Hidan prayed as he caressed the tip of his tri-bladed scythe. The Great Jashin wasn't concerned with such mundane things as money. The salvation of death was to be given to all that were lucky - lucky enough to have met him.
(づ｡◕‿‿◕｡)づ fuwa~fuwa~desu~~~
Five minutes. Ino's voice reminded them through the Mind-Body connection, sending Shikamaru down a spiral of thoughts.
The average time for a match in the Chunin Exam Tournament was nine minutes. In fact, 95% percent of the matches concluded within twelve minutes.
If they move up the bar a little, the time limit for a match on the Jonin Promotion Day was reduced to a mere eight minutes. Almost all matches - save for a few - would end within that time limit and produce a winner. There, the average time to declare a victor was only four and a half minutes.
As skill level increased, battles became compact. More strikes were being exchanged in the same amount of time and at this point, every hit that landed was a critical hit.
Five minutes sounded like it would pass in the blink of an eye - it took longer to finish a cup of tea - but if Shikamaru and his Chunin teammates were not careful, they could be killed ten times over.
Yet, Shikamaru's mind was never clearer. Five minutes, they needed to last at least that long to stall the enemies here until the Anbu team would arrive. But that was just the beginning, the first step towards their ultimate mission goal.
Shikamaru eyed the battered Kumogakure kunoichi at the masked Akatsuki member's feet. She wasn't moving, nor was there any sign of life. But Akatsuki needed the Jinchuuriki to be alive before they extracted the tailed-beast, so her life should be guaranteed at the very least.
Rescue the Jinchuuriki of Kumogakure. From this moment onward, every one of their actions needed to contribute to that goal.
"Consider yourself lucky that there are no bounties on your heads. Maybe I will spare some of your lives after all," Kakuzu said as he blocked the swing of Chōji's enlarged fist from the back. Despite the enormous impact that cracked the earth beneath Kakuzu's feet, it didn't even make a dent on the missing-nin's body.
Shikamaru wasn't naive enough to think that Kakuzu would spare their life out of kindness or even the lack of monetary compensation. No, the only reason he would leave them on the last breath - incapacitated with heavy injuries, no doubt - was to stall and split the Anbu force that would catch up.
Konoha had a reputation for valuing the lives of their comrades and it was a reputation that held true.
"Your Jonin Leader, on the other hand, won't be so lucky." The certainty and confidence in Kakuzu's voice irritated Shikamaru to no end. But the reality held that a little bit further away, Asuma-sensei was fighting the other Akatsuki member, who promised to feed their blood to the god of his religion - it was a little hard for Shikamaru to comprehend his nonsense.
It was strange, Hidan's skills with his scythe were certainly excellent, able to wield the unconventional weapon with ease. However, he hadn't shown any exceptional abilities beyond that. In fact, Asuma-sensei was gaining upper hands, making sharp cuts on the gray-haired man when their weapons clashed.
Yet, Kakuzu, who was very invested in the bounty on Asuma-sensei's head, made no move to help him. Sure, intels spoke of the coldbloodedness between the Akatsuki members who cared very little for the life of their partners. But they weren't stupid enough to go against their own interest.
A feeling of mystery nagged at Shikamaru's mind, screaming at the abnormality that went against logic. But life didn't always give him the luxury of figuring everything out, especially not now.
Ino, use the bird, Shikamaru said in his mind. Without a delay, Ino ended the Mind-Body Transmission and made a different hand seal. Meanwhile, Shikamaru rushed through the hand seals and sent his shadow out.
Tendrils of shadow raced forward, splitting into thin needle-like projections as they rose from the ground and stabbed towards Kakuzu right when he parried away another one of Chōji's swings.
Kakuzu let out a snort full of contempt as he easily flicked Chōji to the side with a kick. With ease, he dodged the piercing shadows, slipping between the dark restraints with finesse and agility. It didn't take a genius to realize that his body was honed to the perfect condition, with power, speed, and flexibility all mixed in balance.
Still, Shikamaru kept up with his jutsu, harassing the missing-nin with something he considered as only child's play. Besides him, Sakura threw a handful of shuriken attached with explosion tags towards Kakuzu. The projectiles flew towards the masked man with precision, exploding upon impact.
"Your attacks are such disappointments," Kakuzu's words sounded from behind the smoke, feeling the firepower of their explosions as nothing but a scratch on the skin, especially now that Shikamaru seemed to reach the limit of his control on the shadow tendrils.
"Children will be children—" Just then, his voice got cut off as his body locked in place. Shikamaru tightened his fingers while locking his hands into a seal. A bird circled from above, flying away as consciousness returned to Ino. Beside Kakuzu's feet, a shuriken was stuck in his shadow, vibrating the same chakra energy as Shikamaru.
While Kakuzu was busy mocking their attacks, Ino managed to use the Mind-Body Switch Technique on the bird to mix in a shuriken amidst Sakura's projectiles - a shuriken that Shikamaru had previously doused in his own chakra, allowing it to act as a beacon for his Shadow Imitation Technique.
Immediately, Chōji sprung into action, reaching for the unconscious kunoichi at Kakuzu's feet with his enlarged hand. Without minding the missing-nin, Chōji rushed back with the kunoichi in his fist.
It looked like they had Kakuzu restrained for the perfect moment to attack, but nobody knew it better than Shikamaru that his technique was imperfect and still required much more practice. Given the toughness of Kakuzu's body, that short window could be better spent on rescuing the Jinchuuriki.
Sure enough, Shikamaru felt his control wavering the moment that Chōji made it back with the blonde kunoichi on his shoulder. In the blink of an eye, the connection between Shikamaru and his target snapped and the paralysis was released.
"This one uses the brain, it seems. A few more years and you might have a bounty of your own to be proud of," Kakuzu said, but Shikamaru didn't feel complimented. All he sensed was the feeling of being hunted like prey.
Despite all of them in defensive stances, it came as a shock when one of his arms just came off and flew towards them, connected to his body with only a thick coil of cords.
"What the hell?" Chōji yelled in disbelief - like any sane person would when your opponent just detached his limb like a mannequin - as he enlarged his arm to swipe the flying fist away. Still, the force from the impact flipped him backwards and Ino had to catch the unconscious kunoichi that fell from his shoulder.
"Underneath!" Suddenly, Shikamaru heard their sensei shouting at them, like an alarm that woke him up from his fuzzy dreams in the morning when his thoughts were never fast enough to process everything around him.
A hand pierced through the ground, reaching up for Ino and the Jinchuuriki in her arms as the attaching cords pulsed violently. Given the force behind the strike, it would definitely break Ino's ribs, if not kill her on the spot. Shikamaru raced to form the hand seals with desperation, but someone else had already reacted before him.
"Hah!" The yell was mixed in with the sound of ground shaking as Sakura punched the flying fist back down, crashing it back into the ground as a small crater formed at the point of impact.
Shikamaru drew in a breath when he felt the floor trembling. The contrast never ceased to amaze him.
The hand escaped back under the earth, eventually returning to Kakuzu's arm as the cords contracted. Despite the success in the counterattack, Sakura's expression remained grim as she realized how difficult it would be to react without a warning from Asuma.
They're close, two minutes! Ino transmitted to everyone using her Mind-Body technique, sharing the locations of the chakra she had sensed. Shikamaru felt his hands sweating as he counted down the seconds to when the Anbu would arrive.
What they did to take the kunoichi from Kakuzu was a trick that played on their opponent's lapse in judgment. Furthermore, the little exchange earlier made it clear that it was near impossible for the four of them to protect the Jinchuuriki all by themselves, let alone giving Sakura enough time and space to heal her.
The man could detach his limbs, who knows what other hidden tricks he had up his sleeves … wait, hidden tricks.
Shikamaru sucked in a breath when he finally took a glance in Asuma's direction. He didn't have the energy before when he was concentrating on Kakuzu. He could only trust their sensei to take care of himself against the other missing-nin.
But it was clear now that the cuts that Asuma made on Hidan earlier using his chakra blade were gone. There was not a scratch that remained on his skin, yet, the rips in the Akatsuki robe told Shikamaru that those injuries definitely existed at one point.
Self-healing? Self-regeneration? To what extent? For how long? Shikamaru went through the endless possibilities in his mind, each one more disconcerting than the previous.
"Oi, get serious. Are you losing your strength, old man? I hope you're not actually going to spare their lives," Hidan yelled from across the field as he twirled his scythe in a windmill motion, blocking the flurry of wind blades from Asuma-sensei.
"Speak for yourself and stop playing around," Kakuzu replied back with an aura of dread. "And no, I'll kill them all."
Scatter! Shikamaru warned in his mind just as a black mass bursted out of Kakuzu's body. Bundles of black cords twisted and turned, flying towards them from all directions. Feeling the impending danger, Shikamaru scattered from Sakura and Ino as they all jumped up onto the tree branches.
Without a word, Chōji expanded his body and turned it into a spinning yoyo-ball, forming a shield in front of the rest of them, trying to repel the attack using the rotational force, buying them time to run away with the Jinchuuriki.
"Chōji!" Shikamaru shouted with worry when the black cords slapped his teammate to the side and crashed him into a tree. Clenching his teeth, he extended his shadow and attached it with Chōji, forcing him to move out of the way, right before the sleek cords could pierce him in the torso.
In the corner of his vision, he saw the strands of black cords splitting off and drilled towards Ino and Sakura, slowed down by the fallen kunoichi they had to carry. Pushing Ino off of the branch, Sakura gathered the chakra in her hand and punched the tree trunk with enough force to split it midway.
Turning her body with her left feet as the pivot, she kicked the fallen parts that broke off right towards the hordes of black cords that threatened to swamp her and Ino. "Run!" She shouted while catching up to Ino, knowing full well that the wood wouldn't be able to do anything more than slowing it down for a second. Ino heeded her words. using all her strength to retreat and carry the Kumo-nin to safety.
Still, the cords shredded the fallen tree like it was made of paper, before snaking forward at a lightning speed. Shikamaru tried to extend his shadow again, breaking off another few strands while still keeping Chōji out of harm's way. The threads of shadow rushed forward, trying to restrain the enemy beyond the mass of black that was swarming wildly.
I won't make it in time, Shikamaru realized the stark reality, especially when Kakuzu spared a glance at him and sent the cords flying his way. He didn't have any more shadows to spare.
A rush of wind carried the gray ashes forward, forming a screen in front of the cords that were chasing Ino and Sakura, incinerating the black threads in an explosion the moment they had rushed in.
Asuma appeared in front of Shikamaru, protecting him with his tall figure as he slashed both of his blades. Stains of fresh blood splashed out from the motions, along with slashes of wind blades that repelled the black cords with strong forces.
"Hey, I'm not done with you yet!" Hidan yelled from across the field despite a throbbing wound on his left chest. There was no care on his face as he rushed towards them and swung his giant scythe forward.
"Regroup and run," Asuma-sensei barely had the time to whisper to Shikamaru before he blocked the blades of the scythe with his own weapons. Shikamaru didn't have time to hesitate as he retracted his shadow now that Chōji had recovered enough to run on his own.
However, just as Shikamaru turned, the scythe seemed to break apart and one of the blades snaked beyond Asuma and headed straight for Shikamaru.
There was a sound of something tearing, just barely audible, hidden underneath the loud clash of metals when Asuma-sensei turned his body and caught the runaway blade with a switch of his own weapon.
But in exchange, the smallest of the three blades on the scythe grazed his arm, tearing his sleeve, dying the fabric red.
"Haha, hahaha! You're dead!" Hidan started laughing like a maniac as he flicked the scythe to pull it back to himself. But neither Shikamaru nor Asuma had the time to entertain his homicidal urges, not when Kakuzu was speeding towards them with his body half-filled with pulsing cords.
"Jashin-sama, please observe this offering!" Shikamaru felt a rush of fear washing over his body when he saw the weird symbol that Hidan drew on the ground, using the blood that flew out of a slash on his stomach.
Blood, blood … blood. The small cut on Asuma-sensei's arm glared at him like an inkblot on a pristine white paper. Blood was a medium that contained both the physical body and the formless chakra. In a simplified way, it was a compact way of identifying a person.
"Shikamaru, focus!" Asuma-sensei grabbed him and pulled him out of the way just as a bundle of black cord broke out of the earth. "I know something feels wrong, but first, you need to survive to be able to think!"
Suddenly, a wave of water crashed down from the side, slamming into Kakuzu and pushing him backwards like a ragdoll in the flow. A wave of lightning-coated shuriken rained down from above them as a giant hawk flew over their head. At the same time, the earth rose in front of Shikamaru and his teammates, caging Kakuzu inside the pool of water as electricity filled the water basin.
Everything happened so fast when a figure dropped from the hawk, right towards Hidan, whose body had turned into a painting of black and white. Despite the glistening ninjatō that threatened to cut his head with precision, he didn't bother to move at all.
Everything about him was open - his neck, his chest, his limbs … He was welcoming any form of attacks, Shikamaru realized in horror.
"No! Don't attack him!" Shikamaru screamed on instinct when the blade of the Anbu was mere inches away from Hidan's neck. He fully realized how insane he sounded to his teammates and the Heron-masked Anbu that was doing all he could to save them and eliminate the danger.
He couldn't explain his thought processes, both because he was uncertain about so many things and because there was no time at all. He was in no position to ask others to trust his instinct that seemed to go against every form of logic.
Blood spilled in front of Shikamaru's eyes, from a source that was so close that it sprayed on his face.
Asuma-sensei hunched over in shock when a slash appeared on his shoulder. In the distance, Heron managed to move the angle of his blade at the last moment, missing a strike to the neck. But he couldn't move his blade fast enough, still leaving an injury across Hidan's shoulder.
Heron looked up in their direction, shock filled his red eyes - Sharingan, you've got to be kidding me - when he realized that the same injury was appearing on Asuma. Quickly, Heron retreated from Hidan and converged with his Anbu teammates that guarded in front of Shikamaru.
"What a shame that you missed," Hidan lamented in disappointment. The cut across his shoulder was already starting to heal, but the same couldn't be said for the one on Asuma.
"I thought it'd be a nice gift if I left one of you to do the job. But oh well, I guess I'll just have to do it myself." Without giving them any more time to process, Hidan flipped his scythe in his hand until the blade was pointing at himself.
With a grin full of madness, Hidan stabbed the scythe towards his heart.
A/N: Well, everyone has their demon to fight - both literally and figuratively - which is a theme of this story, I supposed. I never wanted Maiko to do everything, to battle all the enemies, so the storyline was split into two fronts, both important to the progression of the events as I try to run the story to the finish line. I'm sorry if it's a little confusing, so please excuse me as I experiment with my writings.
Hidan was ... interesting to write. Orochimaru is certainly not dead, duh, he just needs someone to pull him out of a curse mark lying around somewhere. He was starting to sound a little tragic, you know, he was just minding his own business, not at all scheming against Konoha - in the immediate future, anyway - and this happens. I know Kimimaro is dead at Chunin exam in canon, but he wasn't there in this universe, so he's still alive somehow.