I do not own Naruto Shippuden or any of the characters.
Tricks
Ryuu groaned, rolling over only to grit his teeth, biting back a shout of pain. Having broken ribs and sleeping on the ground didn't go well together. He grunted with effort as he pushed himself up, very gently leaning back against a tree root. Not much better. Possibly worse.
"Yeah, I'm not sleeping for a while," Ryuu groaned, shifting onto his knees and unrolling the scroll with Orochimaru's seal information on it. "Let's see."
He set it down, forming several hand seals before holding out his hand. Tiny purple flames lit on his fingertips, but they were barely bigger around than needles.
"Shit," Ryuu sighed, letting them fade. "Alright, let's try again."
He began to try again and again, getting small flames, a big flame on a random finger and the rest tiny, not getting a flame at all for some. Finally he sighed, lowering his hands.
"This might be a problem," Ryuu sighed.
"Is it really that hard to figure out how to open a seal?" Sakura asked.
"Well, the Five Pronged Seal is different from one person to the next," Ryuu said. "Orochimaru's is more different than most. His is much stronger, though. In order to unseal it, I'd have to be able to create it first."
"Really?" Sakura asked.
"Yes," Ryuu nodded. "I'm no seal master so that's the easiest way. A seal master could probably just unseal it outright, but I'm not that good."
Sakura nodded just as the trees rustled. They both turned only to see a squirrel step out of the bushes. Ryuu hurled a kunai, sticking it into the ground and scaring the squirrel off.
"Why'd you do that?" Sakura asked.
"There's a paper bomb on its back," Ryuu said. "Looks like we've been found. Come on out!"
The Hidden Sound Genin stepped out of the bushes, all three of them grinning. However, just as they did, Shin, Sai, Yoro, and Kegon landed in front of the tree.
"I see," the ninja with the fur pelt on his back growled. "So we're going to have to fight a pair of Jonin and a pair of ANBU to get to Sasuke huh? Very well."
He shot forward but before he had taken more than a few steps, the ground below him gave way. He shouted in surprise as he fell before a kunai with a rope shot out of the pit, hitting a tree branch and he pulled himself back up.
"Impressive," he smirked. "I'd wager this clearing is probably filled with traps by now."
"That it is," Ryuu nodded. "If you think you can get past all of the trap, and our guards, feel free. Until then, you're shit outta luck."
"I see," the ninja nodded. "Zaku, traps."
"On it Dosu," his male teammate nodded.
Zaku stepped forward, holding out his hands. He wore a baggy beige shirt with the Kanji for "Death" printed on it three times, grey cammo pants and scarf, and black cloth bracers, along with a mask-style forehead protector. The thing that caught Ryuu's attention, though, were the small metal tubes extending from his palms. Just as Ryuu noticed this, both tubes unleashed a blast of what seemed to be sound waves and chakra-compressed air combined, blasting all of their traps apart. Ryuu nodded, impressed.
"Compressed air mixed with sound waves," Ryuu nodded. "Crude, but effective."
Then, Dosu shot forward, Shin and Kegon both moving to stop him. He punched at Kegon, Kegon leaning out of the way before Dosu swung a backhand at Shin, who caught it beside his head. The effect was instant in both cases, both shinobi dropping to the ground, vomiting as blood leaked out of their ears. Ryuu's eyes widened as Sai shouted in rage, charging, drawing his tanto. Ryuu shouted for him to stop but he ignored the warning. He began to slash at Dosu rapidly, Dosu grinning and blocking one of the slashes. Almost instantly, Sai was on the ground, screaming in pain and clutching the sides of his head.
"Yoro, stay back," Ryuu said as Yoro took a step forward. "His gauntlet's dangerous. It uses vibrations from impact or the wind to generate Ultra-high-frequency sound waves that he then amplifies with chakra and controls into his opponent's ear. It then damages the inner ear, destroying his opponent's equilibrium and leaving them unable to defend themselves."
Yoro waited as Ryuu forced himself to his feet, gritting his teeth as his broken ribs protested.
"The other one, Zaku, uses those tubes that were implanted in his arms to generate sound waves mixed with chakra-compressed air, that then turns into a decently powerful attack. I'd wager the power depends on the chakra content. As I said before, crude but effective."
"Who are you calling crude!?" Zaku spat. "You Uchiha just copy everyone else's jutsu!"
"That's fair," Ryuu nodded "We do have a tendency to copy. After all, that's one of the main uses of our Sharingan." He turned to the girl. "So, judging by the theme of your teammates, you must also use some technique related to sound. Instrument? Flute right? you look like you could be a flute person."
"Actually, I use senbon," she said, holding up two.
"Oh I see," Ryuu nodded. "Fair enough. Anyway, you're not getting to Sasuke. None of you are."
"We'll see about that!" Zaku shouted, sprinting forward.
Just as he did, Ryuu slid his foot sideways, knocking a kunai with a metal wire attached out of the ground, releasing the trap. A huge log shot toward them out of the trees to the left, but Zaku turned, blasting it into splinters. Then, Sakura tackled him, beginning to beat his face like a drum, only for the girl to grab her by the hair, hauling her off and holding a kunai to her throat.
"Enough," the girl said. "Bring us Sasuke or she dies."
"I wouldn't advise you do that," Ryuu said. "You're making a rookie mistake right now."
"What's that?" the girl smirked.
"Pulling hair," Ryuu said as Sakura's hand flashed up with a kunai, cutting her hair before she dover to the side, Ryuu extending his hands. "Wind Style, Gale Palm!"
A pair of jets of Wind Style chakra blasted into the girl and Dosu, blasting both of them into a tree, knocking the girl out. Then, Zaku turned toward, him, holding out his arms before freezing, teeth clenching.
"Sorry we're late," Shikamaru said as he stepped out of the bushes, Zaku's arms slowly lowering to his sides, adopting the same position as Shikamaru.
Behind Shikamaru, Choji walked in, carrying an unconscious Ino.
"What's wrong with your friend?" Dosu asked just before his own female teammate slammed a kick into his head, launching him sideways into a tree.
"What the hell's wrong with you Kin!?" Zaku shouted.
"So, your friend's controlling her, is she?" Dosu asked, grinning. "Excellent. Zaku, blast her!"
As he gave the command, Dosu also hurled a kunai with a paper bomb at Shikamaru and Choji, both scattering as the kunai exploded, Shikamaru's jutsu ending. Zaku spun, firing a blast at his controlled teammate, blasting her into a tree and once again rendering her unconscious.
"That's kind of cold," Ryuu said, carefully kneeling beside Fu again, forming several hand seals before five purple flames finally grew to life on his fingertips. "Finally."
The flames turned blue and he pressed them to the Five Pronged Seal on Fu's abdomen. The seal flashed and faded and Fu sighed in her sleep, but didn't wake up. Ryuu looked out of the tree again as Zaku made a dash for the tree, only for Sakura to trip him, trying to restrain him again. Instantly, Zaku slammed an elbow into her face, beginning to beat his fists into her face, Sakura crying out in pain each punch. Ryuu tried to stand only for his ribs to throb agonizingly and he fell back to his hands and knees. Then, he looked up as Sasuke appeared behind Zaku, holding one of his arms in place on a back swing.
"I'd appreciate it if you would stop hurting my girlfriend," Sasuke snarled.
Zaku began to turn only for Sasuke to spin, hurling him into Dosu, hard. Ryuu stared at him, and at the black flam-like pattern that his Curse Mark had become, spreading over his body.
"Um, Sasuke, are you alright?" Ryuu asked, Sharingan active and watching as dark purple chakra flooded off of him. "You've got a little bit of Curse Mark...well...everywhere."
"Are you alright Sakura?" Sasuke asked.
"Y...Yes," Sakura said, clearly not but pushing herself up anyway, face bruised, swollen, and bloody.
"Liar," Sasuke growled, reappearing in front of Dosu and Zaku, holding them up by their heads before slamming them together and hurling them away from each other, only to reappear a moment later, catching Zaku by one arm, swinging him around to kneel before him and grabbing his other arm, putting his foot between Zaku's shoulder blades. "You're pretty fond of these arms. And I'm not very fond of what you've done with them. Guess I'll just have to take them from you."
He pushed with his foot, yanking on Zaku's arms. After a moment, Zaku screamed as there was a grinding, tearing sound followed by a loud snap. Zaku screamed again, beginning to sob as well. Sasuke grinned sadistically, bloodlust shining in his eyes.
"Now for the other one!" Sasuke grinned.
"Stop!" Sakura shouted, her arms wrapping around Sasuke, making him drop Zaku, who landed in a sobbing heap. "Don't do it! That's enough!"
Sasuke stood there, motionless, but after a moment his Curse Mark turned the color of fire and receded to it original state.
"We're leaving," Dosu said, setting his Earth Scroll on the ground. "In exchange for our lives, take our scroll."
He appeared in front of Sasuke, carefully picking up Zaku, then reappearing beside Kin, picking her up before vanishing. Sasuke dropped to his knees, groaning.
"It's over," Ryuu sighed, looking around at his and Fu's teammates. "You four okay?"
"Wonderful," Shin said. "I feel pathetic."
"I mean, I would have expected Kegon and Yoro to do a little better," Ryuu said.
"Oh shut up," Yoro grumbled. "This never happened."
The four of them began to push themselves up, swaying slightly, before making their way over to the tree and sitting down heavily. Ryuu lay down, groaning as his ribs shifted. Then, he opened his eyes, staring up into bright orange ones.
"You're awake," Ryuu noted.
"And you're hurt," Fu responded. "What happened?"
"Orochimaru kicked me and broke my ribs," Ryuu said.
Fu nodded, holding her hands over his torso as green light began to shine from them. Ryuu groaned as he felt his ribs shifting. Then, slowly, the aching faded.
"I reset your ribs and was able to heal them partially, but you're going to have to be careful for a while," Fu said. "They'll be weak for about three weeks."
Ryuu nodded, setting his head against the ground, sighing. Fu moved to Sakura next, healing her face from Zaku's assault, then healed their teammates as well. Finally, she finished, lying down beside Ryuu, resting her head on his shoulder gently, one of her arms draping across his abdomen. He smiled, wrapping his arms around her and closing his eyes.
"In the morning, we're going to have to find our scrolls," Ryuu said. "It's already day two, also, so we should start heading toward the tower."
Fu nodded and Ryuu tilted his head to the side, resting it against hers before drifting off to sleep.
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