HIDDEN RAIN DISPUTE II
"Gentle Fist: Vacuum Palm"
A large pressure of chakra, boosted by Naruto and Kurama sharing their chakra, is sent at the Ooze summon in an attempt to clear a way to its summoner, Numeri, in the center of it. She's actually able to somehow be surrounded by this gunk and not suffocate. Is it the mouthpiece? Those things sure are handy.
The giant slime is blown back a bit but its wiggly texture endures from being completely separated. It manages to keep its general form.
Hinata clicks her tongue. Even that wasn't powerful enough to splatter it?
Numeri gathers the slime back together. She lifts her hands and the slime changes its shape, becoming leaner and taller. She then lowers her hands to the side and its expands like a tidal wave.
Hinata jumps to avoid it, climbing on the side of the buildings. Numeri leads the slime to follow Hinata wherever she goes.
"Gentle Fist: Body Blow"
As it draws near her, she releases chakra from every part of her body to at least temporarily stall the appendage following her.
What follows is a game of cat and mouse, with Hinata gracefully dodging and Numeri getting increasingly frustrated and increasing how much of the slime's mass is dedicated to attack and how much to defend. Neither of them can get the upper hand, until at the height of Numeri's anger, Hinata Flickers right above her.
She reels back both elbows and prepares for a strike. She crosses her hands, sending down even larger pressures of chakra.
"Gentle Fist: Vacuum Wall Palm"
The little slime around Numeri that remained for protection is blown away, and Hinata lands right next to her, preparing to strike.
Crouching, one hand extended frontward to the ground and another - backward to the air, palms upward.
"Eight Trigrams: Two Palms" Two strikes to the shoulder and stomach. When she pulls her arms back, they're covered in slime. "Four Palms" Another two strikes to the arms. More slime surrounds Numeri. "Four Palms" Three strikes land but the fourth time, her hand becomes enveloped in slime. The summon has regained some of its mass and is protecting its summoner.
She releases chakra from her hand to blow it away, and dodges back. A failed 64 Palms, the ooze is too thick to let her penetrate to her chakra network. She prepares for another Vacuum Palm, so far it seems like her best bet to clear away the mucus, even temporarily. She can try to work on the chakra points in intervals.
Before she can release it, she's forced to jump upward as the Slime is recovering its all around and tries to strike her from behind. Numeri cries out in pain, not having full control of her chakra. Thankfully, her Slime isn't fully dependent on chakra, so she can still control. This time it's all offence, no defence.
The entirety of the Slime's body which was scattered everywhere goes upward, surrounding Hinata from every direction. She uses her Body Blow to send it back, but the slime that was too far to be affected continues its march. It grabs onto her arms, her legs, her chest. She's completely covered in the ooze as it begins crushing and suffocating her.
"Nowhere to run now. Die, and regret ever getting involved."
Numeri turns to leave Hinata to her fate.
Inside the ball of ooze, Hinata tries to blow it away but it's now far too thick to be affected. She has one option left that she can think of. A technique that she's never used in actual combat before.
She stops resisting and closes her eyes. She focuses, despite the pressure, despite the terrible feeling and when she opens her eyes, they're not the pale Byakugan. Instead, they're light blue, with a white flowery pattern around her iris.
"Tenseigan"
Her hand surrounds itself in light blue chakra, not unlike Naruto when he uses Kurama's chakra. The light blue chakra burns the slime and it begins bubbling. Chakra gathers around her entire arm and forms into what looks like a spear made of pure chakra.
She aims her hand at Numeri and releases the chakra spear, which sends it blasting right through the Slime and into Numeri's back. The Rain kunoichi is sent flying into a wall. The Slime's temporary unstable form allows Hinata to free herself. She lands on the ground, panting in exhaustion. The Tenseigan is exhausting her more than she thought, that single attack drained more of her than she intended. As Numeri begins picking herself back up, Hinata gathers more chakra. It surrounds her entire arm, taking on a feline shape.
"Gentle Step: Lion Wave"
She sends the chakra flying, creating a wave much greater than her normal Twin Lion Fist. It washes over her foe and the immense damage knocks her out. The Tenseigan reverts back into the Byakugan.
She can't allow herself to rest as the Slime behind her is not disappearing. It's… actually growing bigger and wilder? It's thrashing around violently, slamming into the surrounding buildings and ground.
Hinata grabs Numeri and jumps up to get some higher ground and gauge her options. Was she not controlling it? Or rather, was she keeping it at bay and preventing it from going berserk. Great, how do you stop an expanding slime. Before she can gather her thoughts and formulate a plan, a giant two-pronged spear whooshes past her.
It embeds into the slime and Gamaken begins spinning it like spaghetti. Gamahiro and Gamabunta hop over, as well, to slice it into pieces but it doesn't stick. It quickly puts itself back together. And snatches away their weapons.
"Damn. Hey, girlie, what is this thing?"
"I'm not entirely sure. It's a form of Summoning but it's not going away, and the summoning formula is gone, too, so I don't know how to get rid of it."
A voice comes from behind her. "Dry it." She turns to see Bairin land on the roof next to her. "I saw this thing expanding, it's sucking in moisture and it has the potential of covering the entire village."
"But how do we dry it if it's raining?"
"I have a way. Toads, could you keep it at bay?"
"We might be a bit clumsy, though." Gamaken brings up his shield and body slams the slimes, while Hiro and Bunta will have to rely on Frog Kata.
Bairin brings his hands together and amasses a great amount of chakra. A whirling wind surrounds him before he sends it forward. It keeps growing and growing in intensity, loose cables on the nearby buildings being ripped and torn.
"Get away from it!"
Bunta and Hiro slam it back with their giant hands and the three of them hop back.
"Typhoon Style: Great Consecutive Bursting Extreme Winds"
A giant tornado appears right over it, extending far into the skies. It completely disperses the rain and even blows away the water under it.
"Girlie, you got any Fire Style jutsu? We can burn it dry."
"I don't, but I do have explosion tags."
"Close enough."
All three toads' cheeks puff out and they release streams of brown liquid.
"Sage Art: Toad Oil Bomb"
As the oil hits the tornado, it quickly spreads through it to the point. At this point, Hinata throws the explosion tags which are swept into the air current and are blown to all heights. They all duck for cover before she releases the seals.
The resulting explosion is loud and many of the nearby buildings are set on fire from it. Some ninja of the opposing faction are caught up in the blast.
Bairin releases his Typhoon Style and the slime is a puddle on the ground, its dry form compressing and pulsating until it eventually stops.
Bairin's people had been told to sit back and wait, and this is their cue to no longer wait. They make use of Bairin's tornado and the distraction it caused to swoop in and take the upper hand. The two factions are now in full battle.
Hinata and Bairin take the time to inspect what Numeri is carrying, and the Rain ninja identifies the scroll needed for the machine keeping Konan alive.
"This is it. Now we just need to get Hiru's."
As Hinata turns around to where Naruto went to meet the other Rain ninja, she sees a giant shining pagoda that she'd been too absorbed in combat to notice. It's translucent and some chakra is gathering in the roof, seemingly being sucked in from something at its base.
At this time, her Nine Tails shroud disappears, which it shouldn't do unless something happened to Naruto.
As the giant toads prepare to go check on it, they stop "Our chakra…" and they disappear back to Mount Myoboku. Once again, this is something that shouldn't happen unless the summoner is in danger.
The realization puts her in a mild state of panic. "I'm going to Naruto."
"I'm coming, as well."
During all the commotion, the three kids had snuck under the city and into the sewers. It stinks.
"It stinks." Yokumaru's pinching his nose trying to keep the smells away.
"Hey, Mutsu, I really don't think you should be going this far. There's fighting up there, isn't there?" Kotori is following closely. She was originally all for coming along with Mutsu, but they've gotten so far away and they didn't even tell anyone. This was a terrible idea.
"There's always fighting here. It doesn't bother me."
"That's… really sad."
Mutsu just shrugs. "Why did you even come?"
"Well, because! You'd be lonely by yourself, right? And you look like you might need help."
"And I'm mostly following her."
"I'm not lonely. I just… like being alone." Another headache. They've been getting more and more severe as they come closer. "Mutsu" the voice just keeps calling his name over and over.
The kids reach an exit latch and find themselves inside a building, rather than on the streets. It's different from the usual architecture of the Hidden Rain that consists of metallic plates and tubing. This place is cleaner than that, made of marble. Multiple pillars line the hallway and the only piece of decoration is a rectangle of some kind against the wall, with stairs leading up to it.
The kids cautiously come up and close the lid.
They make their way to the stairs to see it's in fact a memorial of some kind. The rectangle is lined with white flowers and a man is laid to rest atop them. Orange hair with multiple piercings on his ears and nose, dressed in robes with red clouds.
Kotori tugs at Mutsu's shirt. "Hey, look at that."
They all turn to where Kotori is pointing. A large machine is placed in the corner, very much in contrast to the room. It's bulky and about as wide as a bed. It has tags and seals all over it and a large glass lid. Drawing closer, they see a woman in the same robes as the man in the flowerbed, blue hair and make-up that's faded over time.
Mutsu presses himself against the glass. "This is her. She's the one calling me, I know it."
"Do you know her? Who is she?" Yokumaru and Kotori join him.
"I… I don't know. I've never seen her before."
"Is she… you know, alive?" Yokumaru looks skeptical.
Kotori elbows him in the ribs. "Don't just say stuff like that! If she was, she'd be in the flowers, too, right?"
"I guess?"
"I think everyone was talking about someone being missing. I think… this is maybe her?"
Metal echoes in the distance. Footsteps. They quickly dart behind the large memorial for the orange-haired man, hoping they're not spotted. Some people walk past the entrance to this room.
"And Lord Hiru's out for this jinchuriki?"
"Yeah, apparently. All of this is weird, innit? Lady Konan talked about-" The man receives a smack on the head.
"Don't call her 'Lady'. She lied to us all these years about everything. Now we just gotta rely on Lord Hiru to actually pull us to greatness and rise above the other villages."
The man rubs the back of his head. "Didn't have to hit me." He grumbles. "I still kinda feel bad, y'know?"
"I get what ya mean. I wanted to believe, too, but if she's dead… Nothing we can do about it."
The kids do their best to keep quiet and are praying they leave soon. Mutsu's heavy breathing might give them away soon and his headache is flaring up again. "Mutsu". He lets out a grunt and his hand taps the floor, making an audible sound.
"Ey, someone in here?"
Kotori and Yokumaru look at each in shock. They have nowhere to run, and they can't really escape from two grown men.
One of them steps inside, kunai in hand. "Hello?"
Yokumaru grabs Mutsu by the arm and is ready to bolt. He has experience running away from people, he might be able to. But could Kotori and Mutsu?
Kotori puts a hand over his, signaling him to not do anything rash. She forms a series of hand signs, and several small birds materialize and fly upward.
The Rain ninja is startled and ready to pounce but relaxes when he sees it's no threat.
"Just some birds."
"Little fellas must've gotten in to hide from the rain. Can't blame 'em."
"Come on, let's go."
The kids wait to hear the footsteps fade from earshot before they can finally breathe a sigh of relief.
Over on the top of the tower, Naruto has found himself in a bind.
He's currently being held in place by multiple chains, originating from tags all around him. His neck, his hands, and his legs are all chained. Chakra is being siphoned from him. Sealing formulas under him keep him at bay. The chakra is being sent to the roof of the pagoda that surrounds him.
Hiru is heavily panting, his flak jacket cut and slashed, his mouthpiece all but destroyed. "Damn, you don't go down easy, do you, kid?"
Naruto cries out in pain. "Damn you, what is this?"
"This…" He draws closer and taps the pagoda. "... is a memento from our so-called God and Angel. A way to trap jinchuriki. They had a lot of information on Tailed Beasts and how to capture them."
Naruto tries to struggle free but to no avail. "And you just took it? What were you planning on doing with all of this?"
"Well, use it, obviously. I was going to go after one of the Tailed Beasts you all stupidly let roam free, but imagine my surprise when a jinchuriki just waltzes in!"
"You won't get away with this! We'll stop you!"
Hiru looks out to the village. "You won't. All these seals, all these barriers. They're S-rank. Even a free Tailed Beast would struggle. I'll collect your chakra once you're fully drained." He Flickers away, moments before Hinata and Bairin arrive and see the situation.
"Naruto" Hinata cries out as she comes to the pagoda. "What is this?"
"A barrier of some kind?" Bairin examines it. "I'm sorry to say, I don't know much about barrier or seals."
"Hinata, it's fine. Don't worry."
"How could I not?!" She tries using her Gentle Fist, but she doesn't have a whole lot of chakra left.
"Hinata, it's fine." The Naruto inside disappears in a puff of smoke.
"W-what?"
"That was a Shadow Clone." Naruto's voice comes from behind them.
Hinata runs into his chest and lightly pounds on his chest. "You had me worried."
Naruto embraces her. "Sorry."
The pagoda begins fading from existence now that its trapped target is no longer inside. The Nine Tails chakra is free to return to its original owner.
Bairin looks confused. "But how?"
"That Hiru guys was trying to lure the real me to a specific spot, so I kept my distance. But I figured I couldn't play games for long, y'know? So I made him think that was the real me and had to focus all my chakra to keep it from disappearing."
"And now what?"
"Well, I thought that even if we get those scrolls, we still won't know where Konan is. I thought he might let slip where she is if he thought he won, y'know? Now we can follow him and maybe find where he's keeping her."
"I see. Good thinking."
"So where did he go?" Hinata breaks away from him and looks around.
"Let's find out."
Naruto stays completely still for a few seconds to activate Sage Mode. Hinata activates her Byakugan, but it doesn't last long. She still has little chakra.
Fuyo and Suiren join them on the tower in a panicked state. "Bairin! Mutsu is gone! And so are the Leaf kids!"
"Kotori and Yokumaru?! How?!" Hinata forgets to look for Hiru after hearing this news.
Naruto focuses even more intently to find them. "I sense where they are. Hiru… he's going for the same building…"
"Then we need to hurry."
"Yeah, let's finish this."