Disclaimer: I bought them off the black market and owned them until people in blue coats arrested me. So now Kishimotto-sama and Togashi-sama have custody again.
A/N: Sorry it took so long to update (blame it on writer's block)
Now, on with the story!
Chapter Three: Different Plans
"What is happening?" Kurama asked.
As if to answer Kurama's question, thirty clones appeared from the forest landscape. All had a sound hitai-ate, and seemed to be controlled by different ninja, a copy of ten from each suspected attacker. As they all encircled the six, Neji responded,
"Ambush."
Without waiting for their prey, the copies lunged towards the group. With a shout Naruto leapt forward, the other ninja following suit. Transforming his rose into a whip Kurama lashed it at the nearest copy. Hiei appeared next to the fox demon, katana drawn.
The air filled with haphazardous bursts of sound waves from the foreign nins' attacks. Most took advantage of their special weapons through the holes on their hands and arms. As more enemies were struck more appeared as the old ones vanished in clouds of smoke. Surprisingly a few clones abandoned their traditional training in their sound attacks and started pulling out their metal weapons.
Sasuke turned at the scream of his comrade. He was met with the sight of tangible copies of Naruto. In between blocking a few shuriken with his kunai he tried to get the blonde's attention.
"What are you doing dobe? That didn't work the first time we fought a high number of copies. Quit wasting your chakra!"
"Shut up teme! I know what I'm doing" he then ignored Sasuke's yells as he ran head first deeper into the crowd of enemies, Kurama following.
"Neji!" Sasuke shouted across the mass of nins. Said jounin hurriedly glanced over through white eyes. "I can't find the originals! Help me look."
He nodded and scanned the surrounding trees, focusing on one spot.
"I see one," he mumbled to himself. "Gai-sensei! One of the originals! A few yards southwest to you!"
Upon hearing his former student, the jounin turned around and came face to face with one of the originals. Before being able to attack, the sound ninja smirked and fired a huge sonic blast into the man's face. He fell on his back onto the forest floor, his ears and nose beginning to bleed. Almost instantly he was pounded by four clones, being roughly shoved off by Neji, who had made his way over to his fallen sensei.
On the other side of the clearing, Naruto was slowly being forced down to one, his copies depleting by the second. Running low on chakra he switched entirely to defense, barely able to keep up with the fast movements of his enemies. The sound nin smiled as he ripped through Naruto's stomach, only to realize it was a replacement as it transformed back into a log. The real Naruto appeared behind a group of copies, quickly reducing them to a cloud of smoke. As he continued to take down the enemies' numbers, one came up from is right side, going unnoticed by the blonde until told.
"Naruto! Beside you!" Sasuke shouted, the nin he took his eyes off for a minute knocking him into a tree. Quickly looking around, Naruto's eyes widened as the ninja aimed his attack at the blonde.
Kurama pushed Naruto down as the nin hurled the kunai, slamming it into Kurama's stomach. The fox demon glanced down at the handle and stared at the burning paper tied to the weapon. Without any time to think the parchment exploded, his eyes widening at the memory of bombs from the last demon tournament. Hiei rushed to Kurama's aid, harshly yanking the throwing knife out.
The blonde looked up from the ground when he heard the explosion, but had his attention diverted when he heard a familiar voice scream. He turned to see Sasuke pinned to a tree with a kunai through his shoulder and a shuriken lodged in his breastbone. The young Uchiha managed to block some attacks but was pelted by numerous hits of sound waves, making him dizzy.
"Sasuke!" he shouted as he watched his friend get hit again by another shuriken. He looked around the clearing through the clones and watched Neji and Gai, the older man unconscious and the younger barely being able to defend them both, fighting a losing battle. He looked back up at Kurama who had yelled when the kunai was roughly torn out of his torso.
Feeling his blood boil at the sight of his injured friends, Naruto's eyes narrowed and turned to red as his pupils thinned to slits. The whisker marks on his face darkened as he began to show his sharpening teeth and he started to glow a faint red. He abruptly jumped up, sanguine flames of chakra quickly spreading through out the clearing; destroying every copy it came in contact with. He easily wiped out every clone and focused his attention on the now revealed originals. One of them threw many shuriken at the feral blonde. He soon dodged his own weapons as they were easily deflected and bounced back at him. The other two sound nins grabbed their comrade as they had been told of Kyuubi beforehand and knew their miniscule chances at surviving his fury. Fleeing, the three sound ninja quickly disappeared into the forest landscape once more, leaving a venting Naruto behind.
Seeming to calm down, Naruto's eyes returned back to their natural blue as the red chakra dissipated. Coming to his senses again, the blonde ran over to Sasuke.
"Sasuke, are you alright?" he asked looking at his bleeding friend. He was answered with an angry glare.
"Of course… I'm dandy," he replied sarcastically through gasps of breath as he held the shuriken in his chest.
"Need help?"
"No."
"Alright," Naruto said, ignoring the negative answer and grabbed the shuriken Sasuke had been holding.
"No, you idiot, wait-"
YANK
Sasuke yelped at the action.
"Got it" Naruto said, holding the shuriken up as proof.
"Baka!" Sasuke reached forward to hit his slow friend but stopped when he remembered the kunai in his shoulder.
"Sorry but you needed to take it out, and besides, the way you yelped when I did it I'd doubt you could take it out yourself"
"That's because you yanked it out moron, I could've done it by myself"
"Both of you shut up for once," Neji interrupted the two, kneeling over his sensei. Gai had gotten worse through out the end of the fight. He seemed to be in something similar to a coma, bleeding profusely from every opening on his head. Both rivals fell silent as they watched Neji attempting to heal the fallen man.
Kurama knelt down across from Neji, holding his hands over Gai. They glowed gold as he placed his fingertips on the ninja's forehead. Kurama closed his eyes in concentration, forcing the goldaura to envelope Gai's head, the light sinking in to stop the bleeding. The light dimmed and Kurama sat back, looking up at Neji.
"That should hold him stable for a couple hours."
"Thanks," Neji replied, not looking away from Gai. Finally, he carefully set him upright.
"Kurama, would you mind helping me put him on my back?" he asked as he crouched down, "I need to take him back to the village."
"Sure." Kurama said taking hold of the man's shoulders, he lifted Gai and set him on Neji's back. Pulling slightly he adjusted Gai's position.
"Got him?" Kurama asked.
"Yeah, thanks" Neji said as he took off through the forest.
The remaining four sat in silence for a moment before Naruto turned back to Sasuke with a grin on his face.
"What?" the brunette questioned, not at all comfortable with Naruto's expression.
He said nothing, but instead grinned wider and abruptly grabbed the remaining kunai in Sasuke's shoulder and the shuriken in his thigh.
"Uh, Naruto…?"
Said blonde just smiled as he continued to remain silent. Sasuke felt a slight tug on the weapons before a shout echoed through the forest.
A pale man with long black hair stood with his back to three trembling ninja. He remained silent for a long time before beginning to speak.
"Remind me again why I sent you three out on this mission," he stated calmly.
The ninja in the middle was volunteered to speak as the other two shoved him forward.
"Uh…um, Orochimaru-sama we're sorry again, but the Kyuubi-"
"Pardon me, I though I asked you a question, I don't want an excuse."
The ninja paused for a moment, trying to think of an adequate answer.
"… because we were the best team to retrieve the demons…"
"Exactly, you were the best team to retrieve them."
"I mean, we are, we are the best team," the nervous ninja hurriedly corrected.
The serpentine man slowly turned around to face the brave ninja. "Wonderful, so then where are Kyuubi and the other demons I asked you to get?"
"…on their way here?"
The ninja on his left spoke up. "We reduced their numbers, sir."
"Oh really? By how many?"
"Two"
"Out of…?"
"Um, six"
"Oh, I see then, you are the best team," the wan man replied, sarcasm dripping from his words.
Before the three ninja could defend themselves, a young man walked into the room. "Pardon me, Orochimaru-sama, but we just got a report from one of our spies."
Diverting his attention to the boy, the man temporarily forgot about the three ninja.
"And?"
"It seems like the summoning you performed was successful and actually brought over two powerful fox and fire demons."
"And what of the three teams I sent out beforehand?"
The boy adjusted his glasses, "They were able to disable the Leaf's ANBU, and as you suspected, Tsunade sent out the two chuunin you wanted."
"Excellent," he replied, drawing out the beginning of the word with a hiss, "thank you Kabuto-kun, it's good to know that some of my subordinates can do their job," he emphasized the ending of the sentenced, once again his attention on the three ninja now in mid-attempt to flee.
Upon hearing their superior, the three quickly ran out of the room. Orochimaru sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.
"Kabuto-kun, remind me later to have them demoted and sent back to their training," he said, allowing them to escape.
"Yes sir," he paused in the doorway before leaving, "what shall we do with the remaining four heading here?"
The man thought for a moment, "Let them come, we'll wait for them to enter the compound, then we'll strike again."
"Yes sir," with that, Kabuto left the room, leaving the pale man to his thoughts.
He smiled to himself as he looked out the window in the direction of his old village.
"Soon, Leaf will crumble."
The remaining four ninja looked around their campsite, half of it destroyed in the ambush, including one of the three tents. The sky above them flashed white and thunder soon joined it, the sky darkening.
"So… who's gonna sleep where?" Naruto asked, looking at the two remaining tents, each only built to hold one person.
"Naruto you sleep with Sasuke. Good night," Kurama said with a smile, entering one of the tents as it began to sprinkle. Hiei paused then joined him.
The two chuunin blankly looked at each other before staring at the tent.
"Go ahead," Naruto said, motioning towards the opening.
"Ladies first"
"That means you," Naruto said with a grin before he was roughly shoved in. Sasuke choose to ignore his last statement and entered behind him.
"Small tent." The blonde said glancing around.
"Hn."
Naruto glanced over at his teammate, "You know, you really should treat that wound. It did hit a major vein after all."
Sasuke looked down at the spreading blood staining his shorts. He shrugged, "It'll be fine."
"I know you already dressed it, but I could help, and if you don't do something for the bleeding, you will bleed to death."
"Its fine," he repeated, ignoring the advancing Naruto.
Kurama sat up, glancing over in Naruto's direction. He frowned, trying to think around Youko's comments concerning the fairly loud activities of the two chuunin nextdoor.
"Hiei I'll be right back." He said, quickly exiting the tiny tent.
As Kurama stood uncertainly outside the tent a shout could be heard through the commotion.
"Dammit Naruto I said get off!"
Fearing the worst Kurama flipped open the tent flap and crouched down, staring in.
Naruto had effectively pinned Sasuke down and was forcefully healing his struggling companion, his hand glowing red with the demon's chakra as he applied it to the wound.
"Kit, when I said sleep with Sasuke I didn't really mean it." Kurama spoke up. The two paused in their struggles, noticing Kurama for the first time.
"…"
"Do as you please but next time be quieter as you're giving Youko ideas he doesn't need." He said with a small grin as he stood and left the momentarily speechless boys.
Sasuke regained his senses before his teammate and helpfully punched the sense into him, creating another dispute between the two.
Kurama ignored the noise coming from the tent as he made his way back to his own.
"Boys will be boys."
SMK: Hahaha Oro-chan makes an appearance.
Scooperchan: Uh, yes he does (…Oro-chan?)
SMK: (pouts) too bad Neji-chan had to go.
Scooperchan: Okay then, please ignore my poor friend. Because of our pitifully low number of reviews (does no one love us?) we do remind all the readers (we know your out there!) that reveiws are helpful, and encouraged. That and they make wonderful plot bunny food.