None of the Leaf ninja had time to pay the building exploding above them much attention. The Genin were still getting their bearings on how the situation had so rapidly changed. Kakashi's focus remained steadfastly locked on the enemy still hovering in the air as he fell. Guy's focus was on defending the Genin.
As such it was he who reacted as a section of the mansion collapsed above. Taking swift action, he leapt, his leg striking out like a sledgehammer as he tore through the broken chunk of building, deflecting it from its path that would have seen it land on the younger ninja. "Kakashi!" he called out to the cyclopean ninja as he dropped next to him.
"He's after us. We're the real targets," Kakashi bit out. "Hinata, eyes on him! Does he have more of those arrows?!"
"Um, y-yes!" the timid girl answered despite her fear. "It looks like, one more like the last one!"
Kakashi shared a look with his fellow Jonin. They both knew what they needed to do. "Genin! Into the basin, hide in the forest! Make yourself hard targets!"
A chorus of 'yes' answered him, Sasuke adding a question, "What will you do?"
"Deal with the problem, of course," Kakashi answered, vanishing.
Guy joined the young ninja for a few steps just to get his message across. "Don't get involved. This fight is too much for you yet! Keep yourselves safe. We two can handle this assassin!" With a parting thumbs up, he too vanished in a flash of leaves.
"Ah, wait!" Hinata tried to shout after him but he was already gone.
The Leaf's Green Beast quickly rejoined his partner and rival, his eyes quickly regaining sight of the enemy, distant as they might have been. "You have a plan, Kakashi!" Not a question, an expectation.
"One more shot according to the little Hyuga," Kakashi noted. "That means we stop them once more and they've gotta try something else."
"Unless they have more in storage," Guy pointed out the obvious possibility.
"Well, I'm sure after another near death experience I'll have a better plan. The imminent threat of scattered bodyparts is a good motivator for quick thinking."
"Indeed it is!" Guy agreed cheerfully, hopping from tree branch to tree branch.
Two more seconds. That was how much longer Kakashi gave it before he frowned in suspicion. "Something's wrong about this. He should've taken the shot by now."
"We have been quite obvious!" Guy agreed. "Perhaps I should make sure the Genin are–"
"Ahahahaha! Here we go, hm!"
The enemy the two had been tracking suddenly disappeared from view. "Shit, a clone?!" Kakashi asked, cursing himself for falling for something so obvious. He almost wished he hadn't sent the Hyuga away. She would have seen through it. But she wasn't ready for this level of combat. None of the Genin were. For a moment, he raised his headband, scanned the skies for their target with his Sharingan. "There! Guy, move!"
"YOSH!" the taijutsu expert roared as he picked up the pace, not merely leaping from tree to tree but launching himself, the wooden limbs snapping under the weight of his jumps. Not that the trees would have long to mourn their broken branches. Following Guy's path, small creatures dropped from the bird the Hyuga had seen earlier. It's rider cackling as he enjoyed his handiwork. Each little insect-like creature detonated mere instants after landing. Tree trunks were blasted apart with each explosion leaving the rest of them to topple, crashing down into the forest floor, often bringing other trees down with them.
The blond on the bird continued to laugh as he came around for another pass. He wore a cloak, red clouds on black. A slashed Rock headband. A demented, joyous expression. All of this was important information. But for the moment, only one thing was relevant to the current situation.
If this missing nin was their assassin, their archer... Where was his bow?
"This is a problem, Kakashi!" Guy shouted over the explosions. "I cannot reach him! Can you?!"
Quietly, Kakashi performed a jutsu before answering. "Draw him over to that tree." he ordered, indicating the tallest in the nearby area with his eye. "I'll handle the rest."
"Yosh!"
Once again Kakashi shifted his headband up. The timing for this needed to be absolutely perfect. Hiding in the shadow of a tree near to the one he had chosen, he waited for Guy to loudly and boisterously lead the enemy to the target location, a path of destruction being carved in his wake. Worse, if Kakashi missed, it would be hard to get another option to let him reach the enemy without getting lucky.
He just had to not miss then.
"TOHHHHHH!" Guy bellowed as he leapt for the mighty tree. In the same moment, Kakashi darted forward, planting a foot on the trunk and starting his ascent. He passed Guy on the way up, the two sharing a look for a fraction of an instant before Kakashi's focus returned to the enemy's flight path. An explosion tore the base of the tree out from under him but it was too late for that to matter. In his hand, lightning sparked to life. With one mighty leap, the Copy Ninja lanced out at the flying steed of the missing nin, propelled by his signature technique. "Lightning Cutter!" In a flash, the masked ninja lanced out, his technique carving right through the bird and its rider.
Only for the rider to turn into another of the explosive creatures. Both exploded behind Kakashi who far outpaced the blast. Gravity reasserting itself, he struck out at a tree with a leg to arrest his momentum slightly, then again further down against another tree to come down to the forest floor in a roll. His eyes scanned his surroundings. Searching for the enemy. It was a substitution so he couldn't be far.
"Oh, man!" A voice that matched the laughter exclaimed, drawing the Copy Ninja's attention to the enemy standing in their midst bold as brass, dusting off his cloak. "You took down my bird, hm! What am I gonna do now?"
"How about telling me where your friend went," Kakashi suggested in a low tone.
The missing nin feigned ignorance. "Friend? What friend? I'm just a lone assassin here to put an end to one of the Leaf's most renowned ninja." The blond's eyes never stayed focused on one of the Leaf Jonin for too long, managing to keep both in his awareness. "Didn't think I'd end up with a two for one deal. We could probably get the client to pay extra for this. The fabled Copy Ninja and the Green Beast, hm! There are some who say you two will be the next legendary ninja to come out of the Leaf. With reputations like that, you're probably used to this kind of thing by now, hm!"
"We are!" Guy announced, proud to have been the target of assassins and bounty hunters multiple times over. "And I look forward to this next challenge!" Even as eager as he was, Guy's grin faltered slightly at the sound and feel of the earth rumbling below them.
"Then you'll be as excited about this next part as I am, hm!"
The rumbling became a full quake, the Leaf ninja preparing for the worst, whatever that might be. Bursting from under the earth was perhaps something they would never have expected. A giant beast, serpent-like, and seemingly made of the same material as the explosive creatures the missing nin had been using so far.
"Hey, Guy," Kakashi spoke, focused entirely on the man while his partner focused on the beast, "Have you ever wanted to fight a dragon made of explosions?"
"Kakashi, my eternal rival," Guy answered sombrely, "I once had a dream. A dream in which I faced a great beast of claw and fang, so fierce and powerful its every blow struck with the force of an explosion. I battled and tamed the great beast and we soared into the night sky to go on many adventures across the stars."
"That's great. I'll deal with this guy, Guy. Enjoy your dream come true."
"I shall!" Guy roared. "Come, dragon! I, the Leaf's Green Beast Might Guy shall be your opponent!"
-(-)-
Five young ninja ran through a moderately dense forest, acting as their superiors had ordered by continuing to move while staying on alert. A brief argument between Sasuke and Naruto had erupted on whether they should split up or stick together. Sasuke had argued it was easier to evade the enemy if they were each alone, able to hide much easier. Naruto had argued it was better to stick together. Splitting up would just get them picked off. Sticking together would let them stand against the enemy. To win, or to survive until the Jonin were able to assist.
Hinata had told them. The archer wasn't the only threat in this forest. Whoever the other ninja she had seen was, they all needed to be ready for anything. It was only thanks to that caution that Hinata had seen it. Within the incomplete dome of her vision she saw the arrow just barely fall out of her blind spot flying directly toward her. Tenten was too close to her for her to substitute herself to safety. There wasn't enough time to shout a warning for the other girl to do the same. She had only one choice. One chance. "Eight Trigrams!" She spun in place, her hands striking out with chakra, "Revolving Heaven!" A dome of chakra formed around her, a protective shell that the arrow struck and was immediately repelled.
Tenten had the presence of mind to get some distance at Hinata's shout. That was all that saved her as the arrow detonated a split second after being deflected back the way it came. The trees ruptured from the explosive force, violently felled. Hinata's technique stopped, an instant later she was gone, a torn branch taking her place. "There!" she shouted, pointing at the location of the archer. "And he's out of arrows!"
Sasuke took a deep breath in as his hands flickered through seals. "Fire Style! Great Fireball!"
As could be expected for using such an incendiary technique in a heavily wooded area, the trees in the general direction Hinata had pointed were swiftly consumed by a roaring blaze. There was no sign of their attacker but the Genin weren't so inexperienced to assume that would have killed him.
"How is the archer here?!" Naruto asked. "I thought Kakashi and Guy were tracking him!"
"They must've switched out with the other ninja Hinata saw," Tenten concluded.
Sakura grimaced. "Which means they're fighting that one while we're–"
"He's moving!" Hinata shouted urgently. The four other Genin tracked her eyeline to follow him even if they couldn't see him like she could. But for whatever reason, the archer decided not to hide. At least for long enough to scowl down at the Uchiha from his position in the trees. His war bow held in two hands. Two of six. The only two that were in the sleeves of his open black cloak decorated with red clouds. Another pair of hands held their palms together as though in prayer and yet two more were constantly holding a ram seal. "Disgusting. Shameful. Artless. Do you have no pride, Uchiha?" the mysterious archer demanded.
The Sharingan blazed to life in Sasuke's eyes, whirling furiously. His hands came together again–
"The hell are you talking about?! He's got too much pride, ya know!" Naruto shouted back at the archer. Sasuke's anger turned to the blond, only to notice the hand twirling behind his back. Buying time. If the enemy wanted to talk then let them talk. It would just give the Jonin more time to finish up and come help. Not to mention give the Genin time to strategise for themselves.
Or in the case of Naruto who had made shadow clones before drawing attention to himself, let his doppelgangers get into advantageous positions.
"I don't see it," the archer growled back. "Using such a destructive and volatile technique on a target you couldn't even see. Where's the art in that?! Might as well just burn down the whole forest, not that it'd do you any better!"
"Didn't you just try to kill us with a big explosion?" Tenten had to ask. "Twice?"
While the eight-limbed archer grew agitated, glaring at the weapons mistress for her insult, he found it more important to defend himself from it than attack her for it. "No. I attempted to kill the Copy Ninja and then the Hyuga with my arrows. That they were explosive was a compromise on my part. It helped not at all, not that I ever expected it to. The art of killing is best expressed in perfect precision. A single surgical strike that renders all other conflict meaningless. Not," his glare returned to the Uchiha, "With large-scale destruction!"
"Who cares how 'artful' you are about killing?!" Naruto demanded. "You ask me you're the one that's disgusting for taking so much pride in it!"
"Then let me enlighten you in the way I once was," the archer offered as he readied his bow. "The gift of your final moments."
"Naruto!" Hinata cried.
Tenten flung a brace of shuriken at the archer, only for him to disappear. "What?! But he was holding–!"
The Hyuga's pale eyes were unmoving. Had she needed to move them to look around they would have been darting around in fear. "He keeps moving! I can't keep track!"
"His other hands!" Sakura exclaimed, looking about frantically. "He's always holding a ram seal! He can body flicker over and over with perfect precision!"
"Naruto, behind you!"
"Hm," the archer grunted, his bow drawn and ready to loose only for his target to change at the last second. Someone was too smart for her own good.
The blond ninja turned, seeing not only the enemy but also where he was aiming. Not at him but at the pink-haired medic of the squad. His eyes widened. As the archer's fingers released the arrow and bowstring, Naruto leapt into the path of the arrow.
"Naruto!" Sakura screamed, seeing her lover throw himself in front of her at the last second. She watched in horror as the arrow punched through his throat.
And then in a puff of smoke he was gone.
"Nice shot, asshole!" another Naruto barked, ten feet away from the archer as he stood horizontally on a tree, his hands outstretched with a paper seal facing outward. With a quick pulse of chakra the seal activated, firing a brief stream of kunai at the man who had tried to kill Sakura. The archer's eyes widened. He vanished again, taking one of the kunai with him as it lodged in his shoulder.
"Not bad," the archer admitted from his new position, only to move again immediately afterward. "Always so, easy to, underestimate, Leaf Genin."
"Hinata, where is he?!" Tenten asked.
"I... Um...!" the Hyuga tried to answer, only to struggle at the enemy's constant movements.
The bun-haired weapons expert frowned, then leapt down next to the clan heiress. "Point." The Hyuga's arm came up, then suddenly jerked to the right. Tenten didn't miss a beat, the instant the lavender-haired girl's arm moved to the new direction she flung a blade after it. Then another.
"Garhh!" the archer grunted angrily as he was forced to move yet again.
"How long can you keep that up?" Sakura asked the weapons expert.
"Oh," Tenten smirked, left hand in her pouch lined with storage seals as she withdrew another five kunai. "A while."
"Hinata, I thought you said he was out of arrows," said Sasuke.
"He was," Hinata confirmed as her arm kept tracking the whereabouts of the archer. "He, umm, made that one."
"Made it?" Tenten asked, her fingers flicking a kunai to her three o'clock. "Made it with what?" She had been assuming he was using storage seals like she was.
"His... Umm... His saliva."
Naruto paled, his tan skin turning white and then a pale green. "I got shot by that dude's spit arrow? Gods I'm never gonna feel clean again!"
Sasuke's eyes rolled. "It was a clone, dumbass."
"I still felt it though! Eughghgh!" The blond shuddered violently. "Never feel clean again."
"Can we focus please?!" Sakura demanded. She had been forcing herself not to think about what had almost happened to her, what she saw happen to a Naruto even if it wasn't the real one. Her nerves were frayed and the enemy was still around. "What can we do?"
"We can't do anything unless we can pin him down," Sasuke reasoned. They had no options if he could disappear in an instant. "If we can't do that, we have to stall until Kakashi-sensei or Might Guy can help."
"He's retreating," Hinata informed them, still tracking his position for Tenten.
Tenten clicked her teeth. "Probably trying to get out of my range."
That seemed like a reasonable conclusion to Hinata. But as she realised how quickly he was jumping from location to location, always incrementally further and not even bothering to wait for Tenten's reactions, she realised it wasn't that. "He's not trying to get out of your range. He's trying to get out of mine. This defense rebounded on us." If she was pointing out his location, that gave him an indication of when she could no longer see him when she got it wrong. "If his range is greater than my Byakugan he can attack us without worry."
"Not in this forest, it's too dense," Sakura countered.
"That didn't matter before," Hinata reminded her. For the man the archer murdered, Tenten had marvelled at the impossible accuracy of the shot, and when he attacked her either he attacked from her blind spot or outside her range. Or both. Dense foliage apparently wasn't much of a hindrance.
"We need a new plan," Naruto asserted. "We split up."
"What?!" Sasuke demanded. "Don't be a moron! You said yourself he'll just pick us off–!"
"If we stay as we are he can do that anyway! We split up, everyone gets one of my clones with them. If anyone gets attacked, my clone will burst and we can all book it for their location."
"What? How does that–?" Tenten tried to ask.
"No time to explain. Just, if it happens me and my other clones will know, alright?"
Sasuke stepped toward the pinkette's side. "I'm going with Sakura."
"What?" the medic asked, confused.
"She's the most vulnerable out of all of us. Short of Hinata I'm the best chance of seeing an attack coming. I'm the one who can protect her." He glared at Naruto, daring him to challenge his declaration.
The blond struggled, his heart wanting to protest but his head knowing the person he liked least was entirely correct. "You're right," he admitted. Struggled again, forced out the words, "Thank you."
The Uchiha blinked, astonished by receiving any gratitude from Naruto of all people, but he nodded, confirming he would do all he could to protect her.
He wouldn't be doing it for Naruto, but he would do it.
"We're out of time," Hinata informed them.
Suddenly two more Narutos appeared, paired themselves to Tenten and the pair of Sasuke and Sakura, while the one present joined Hinata. "Go!" he shouted, the five Genin and two clones breaking apart to go in three separate directions.
"Not sure I like this plan," Tenten worried as she leapt through the trees alongside the blond Uzumaki duplicate.
"It's what we've got. We need a way to draw him in."
"Yeah, just feel like I got the short straw," the weapons mistress admitted. "Not sure how much I can do against that guy if he comes after me."
"Well," Naruto replied, covering his mouth as they continued to run. He had no way to know if the archer was watching. "We're in the same boat. I'm the real Naruto. Don't think I left you completely out to dry, ya know?"
"Huh," Tenten uttered, surprised he would choose to do that rather than go with Hinata or Sakura, two girls who were more than sweet on him. "Well, thanks, I guess."
Far in the distance, Kidomaru the archer watched. On his forehead, a third eye, more perceptive than all but the famed Leaf dojutsu, watched his various quarries as they split into smaller groups. Little did they know, they had made his job both easier and trickier. The client had made things more complicated by changing the target at the last moment, but he wouldn't complain. Powerful prey or a rarity, either was a worthwhile hunt.
And there were none rarer in the wild than true born Uzumaki. And the child of a Kage no less. Even better that the boy had proven himself slipperier than expected. And the other young ninja were interesting as well. A Hyuga and Uchiha? They would be valuable if sold. Even if just for their eyes.
But first, the target. For any professional, the contract came first. Kidomaru could admit, he hated solid clone techniques. They were his bane. Where the other members of his organisation had wide-ranging assaults that could destroy many targets at once, he preferred precision above all else. So a technique that would create something that would look and act just like his quarry? Frustrating.
He moved to a new position, giving himself a better vantage point to observe the different groups. This had become a shell game. If he chose the right blond, the contract was complete. If he chose wrong, the real one would be alerted, alongside the other Genin. They would push him back again. And with Deidara fighting two Elite Jonin, time was more likely on the Genin's side than his.
He considered.
The one with the Hyuga... Seemed plausible. She would be the safest choice, able to see an attack coming, warn him. A possibility. The one with the Uchiha and the smart girl. Less likely, but not impossible. It appeared the blond had a fondness for her. Would he go so far as to go with her as his real self? Then again a clone had blocked one of his arrows just fine. Then there was the one with the other girl. There was no reason it would be the real him, but there was also no strong reason it wouldn't be.
Gambling was never to Kidomaru's taste. Too random. Too imprecise. He raised his bow. Parted his two extra pairs of hands to draw with even greater strength. He would need to make a choice. Much as he didn't like it, he had to take a gamble on one of the targets. He–
Leaf. They were Leaf ninja, weren't they? That meant something. Less so in recent times but the reputation would be difficult to scrub from their own culture. Leaf ninja prized unity more than any other village. They wouldn't leave someone to the wolves if they could help it.
The pink-haired girl and the Uchiha were protected by the Uchiha.
The Hyuga could protect herself.
But the other girl...
Kidomaru smiled as he drew his great war bow with three hands, taking a deep breath in. Yes. This was how a hunt was supposed to be. Ended swiftly and silently.
With...
One...
Precise...
Strike...
He released his held breath just a little as he tracked the target, then, let his arrow fly.
