I do not own Naruto Shippuden or any of the characters.
Slaughter
Ryuu sighed heavily as he flew, Fu at his side and Kakashi hanging between them by his hands. Not only had the Ghost Army escaped Guy, but it had seemed to all but vanish. They were on their way to the shrine in the Land of Swamps to wait for the army, since that was where it was headed.
"We're almost there," Ryuu said. "Everyone ready to break some lawn ornaments?"
"As I'll ever be," Fu nodded.
"I'm about ready to be on the ground again," Kakashi said, looking about ready to collapse, despite not really doing anything since the fight two hours ago.
Finally, they flew over the edge of a cliff and saw the army before them, Naruto and a handful of clones trying to keep the statues out of the shrine. Ryuu and Fu headed for Naruto and hurled Kakashi at the statues near the front.
"All you Kakashi!" Ryuu shouted.
Kakashi pulled his forehead protector up as he fell and formed a Chidori, except, as Ryuu looked at it with his Sharingan, he noticed it was about ten times more condensed than the Chidori.
"Lightning Blade!" Kakashi shouted, shoving his hand outward and sending a lightning bolt tearing along the ground, blasting a dozen statues into rubble before he landed in front of Naruto.
A moment later, Ryuu landed in front of Kakashi and slammed his hands into the ground, stone spikes erupting out of the ground in a wave heading outward from him, smashing the statues rapidly. He grinned. He had finally figured out how much power to pack into his jutsus to break the statues. A statue pulled its sword back to slash at him from off to the side, only for Fu to split it in half with a Vacuum Blade before spinning and kicking the statue, sending it crashing through several more.
"Naruto, go," Ryuu said. "The Priestess is inside, right?"
"Hinata's protecting her," Naruto said. "I can help you guys."
"Go and help them," Ryuu said. "Are you certain none made it into the shrine before you arrived?"
Naruto paled instantly. "Hinata!"
He turned, sprinting into the shrine as all three of the others raised an eyebrow.
"Hinata?" Kakashi asked before smiling. "It's about time."
"I highly doubt it's what we're hoping," Ryuu said, turning back to the front. "So, who wants to start things off?"
"Sand Tsunami!" a familiar voice said just before sand flooded into the statues from off to the side, swallowing a bunch of them and shoving more off of the cliff to the left. "Giant Sand Burial!"
A wave shot across the sand as it compressed, crushing the statues in it. Then, Gaara landed beside Ryuu.
"Hello Gaara," Ryuu grinned. "Right on time."
"It's good to see you again Fu," Gaara said.
"Hey!" Ryuu said, Gaara smiling slightly, Ryuu's eyes widening. "Holy shit. Gaara learned how to joke around."
"Will wonders never cease," Fu smiled. "First Naruto's worried about Hinata, and now this? It must be a genjutsu."
"You're hilarious," Gaara grumbled, crossing his arms. "I think we have work to do."
"But you crushed them all," Ryuu said, just before more statues began to stomp into the area from a path off to the right. "Oh, you're right."
"I think we can probably handle them," Fu said.
"Oh easily," Ryuu smiled. "Compared to Mhao, this is nothing."
Fu nodded in agreement and the four of them charged, Gaara riding on a cloud of sand. Ryuu sped ahead, beginning to flicker and tearing into the statues as they began to spread out. However, after a few seconds, he felt the muscles in his right leg twitch and ended his Body Flicker Technique, slashing one last statue and leaping away from them. Just as he landed, his right leg's muscles spasmed and he stabbed his sword into the ground to keep from falling.
"Are you okay?" Fu asked, stopping beside him as Kakashi and Gaara passed them, both tearing into the statues.
"Yeah," Ryuu said, testing his leg gingerly. "I think I pulled a muscle during my fight with Zetsu."
"In your right leg?" Fu asked. "Is that even possible?"
"That's what it feels like," Ryuu shrugged, extending his wings and hovering just above the ground. "Anyway, let's hurry up and tear these things apart."
Fu nodded and they turned, both streaking into the ranks of the statues again, Ryuu forming a Chidori in his left hand this time. He flipped past a sword, slamming the Chidori into the statue's chest, blasting the torso into rubble, then slashed the next across the torso. An axe swung around at him and he flipped out of the way, slashing that statue's head in half, then shot into the air, huffing indignantly as that statue kept walking.
"What a pain," Ryuu grumbled. "It'd be helpful if they'd break easier."
Just then, a lightning wolf shot out of Kakashi's Lightning Blade, exploding through statue after statue before finally disconnecting from Kakashi's hand and exploding, blasting several more. Then, Kakashi and a clone began to run forward, their Lightning Blades connected by a beam of electricity, which smashed through the statues with ease.
Ryuu grinned, just as Kiba and Akamaru spun into the area in a pair of spiraling grey blurs, smashing through several statues each before landing off to the side, Kiba instantly griping about how hard the statues were just before Choji exploded into the statues as a human boulder, sending them flying but not breaking them.
"Alright, brute force it is," Ryuu grinned and put his tanto away, letting the Chidori fade and shot down at the statues, punching down on one and smashing it, cratering the ground and hurling dozens away from himself.
Fu landed beside him and he placed a Repulsion Seal on each of her hands as well before they both took off, blasting through the statues rapidly and easily. He skidded to a stop after about a dozen, stopping just in time for a swarm of ink mice to flood out of a hole in the ground, swarming onto the statues and transforming into explosive seals, which then went off, demolishing almost fifty statues in one go. Ryuu grinned as Shin landed behind him, slashing a statue with a Vacuum Blade before it could slash Ryuu.
"Thanks," Ryuu grinned. "Welcome to the party."
"Fun party," Shin said. "Tons of targets to wipe out, and not a single living thing to kill."
"My kinda party," Ryuu grinned, streaking forward and drilling a punch over Fu's shoulder into a statue that had moved to slash her, blasting a it, then demolishing a group behind it with its debris.
"Thanks," Fu beamed.
"Any time," Ryuu smiled.
"Get a room!" Kiba said as he landed beside them, then took off again, tearing through the statues, more knocking them back than damaging them now.
Then, Sakura fell from above, her fist hitting the ground and doing almost as much damage as Ryuu's Repulsion Seals. Ryuu's eyes widened and he paled.
"Christ, she's a monster," Ryuu said. "It never occurred to me just hw strong she's gotten."
"Just think, Lady Tsunade's still stronger," Fu said, punching another statue.
"Fuck," Ryuu said, shaking his head. "Konoha women are terrifying."
"I scare you?" Fu asked, grinning.
"Are you kidding me?" Ryuu laughed. "The thought of having to fight you gives me almost as many nightmares as my job."
Fu laughed, punching three statues and demolishing them before looking around. "We're starting to run out of garden gnomes."
Ryuu looked around and realized she was right. The rest of the Konoha 11, along with their teachers and Temari, were around them, all of them tearing through the statues with whatever jutsu they had that could destroy them. As a result, they were down to maybe a hundred statues. And then, about a minute later, they were out.
"Man," Ryuu said, surveying the field of broken statue pieces. "We're freaks."
"Indeed we are," Kiba said, surveying their work proudly. "At least it's safe to say no one can beat Konoha."
"I don't know," Ryuu said. "The Hidden Cloud has two Jinchuriki."
"So do we," Kiba said. "One of which is Fu."
"That's true," Ryuu said. "Still though. It's not smart to say that no one can beat us. I definitely don't feel like challenging the Akatsuki to an all-out war. I'd rather pick them off one at a time. Preferably starting with Zetsu, since he's the most annoying fuck I've met, even more so than Mhao."
"Did something happen?" Sakura asked. "You never want someone dead."
"I've wanted people dead before," Ryuu said. "I just don't want to kill."
"You seem to have been getting used to it, at least," Lee said, walking over. "You seem less haunted than usual."
Ryuu fell silent, staring at the ground.
"That's because you don't see him at night," Fu said quietly. "He's not less haunted. He's just learning to hide it, and to function on very little sleep."
"Is it really that bad?" Tenten asked.
"Worse," Ryuu said. "But it doesn't matter. I'll do what I have to do."
Just then, there was a massive crash from deep under the temple. They all turned to look, seeing an orangish red light glowing from inside.
"We should go," Ryuu said.
"Yeah," Fu agreed.
Ryuu created a clone for about half of them, all of the Ryuus extending their wings and grabbing someone as they flew away, Gaara bringing the rest with his sand. They all fled to a cliff over a mile away and landed on it, Ryuu's clones bursting into clouds of smoke as they watched the mountain they had just left explode, lava erupting into the air before flooding back down the outside.
"Well, it could have played out a lot worse than this, I guess," Kakashi said after a while of watching the eruption.
"They ended up creating a new volcano, huh?" Lee chuckled.
"That knucklehead," Shikamaru sighed.
"That's what you get for leaving it to him," Temari said.
"Anyone want to take bets on Naruto and Hinata finally getting together?" Ryuu asked.
"Nah," Kiba said. "He's too stupid for that."
"I've got to agree with Kiba," Sakura said. "She was too shy to do tell him during the mission, and she couldn't be around him without getting embarrassed."
"I don't know," Ryuu said. "He was pretty worried about her when I hinted that she might be fighting statues inside the temple. Which he just blew up. What the hell was he fighting anyway?"
"Probably Moryo," Fu said. "Chomei sensed something really powerful and dark inside the temple."
"Well, I'm still holding out hope for them to have gotten together," Tenten said.
"Aren't we all," Neji sighed, everyone staring at him. "What? If she gets Naruto to like her back, she'll probably be confident enough to earn the position of heiress back from Hanabi."
"I don't think she wants it," Ryuu said. "She'd just have to give it up to marry Naruto anyway."
"True," Neji nodded.
Just then, Naruto walked out of a cloud off to the side with a blonde in his arms, Hinata just behind him. Ryuu stared at the blonde. He could guess that this was the Priestess, but what shocked him was that she was almost identical to Hinata. The main differences were her blonde hair and violet eyes, as opposed to Hinata's dark blue hair and pale lavender eyes.
"Jesus Christ," Ryuu said.
"They could be twins," Fu said.
"I know right?" Lee said.
"There you are!" Tayuya said. "What's the big idea pawning me off to spend the entire mission with that creep?"
"That's kinda rude," Ryuu said. "What'd Shino do?"
"Not Shino," Tayuya said. "Shino's awesome, if a little unsettling with his bugs. I mean Kiba."
"Yeah, it wasn't all sunshine and rainbows for me either bitch," Kiba growled.
"Kiba," Shino said, Kiba sighing.
"Sorry," Ryuu said. "I didn't think about that. I just needed to give Hinata a chance to tell Naruto the truth. Speaking of, what happened Hinata?"
"I was too nervous," Hinata said. "I couldn't talk to him."
"I heard," Ryuu said. "Oh well. We'll get you there."
Hinata's eyes widened, and she blushed, but nodded. They all looked over at Naruto and the Priestess.
"And of course, there's my power," the priestess was saying. "It has to be passed on to the next priestess too. How about it Naruto, you want to help me with that?"
Everyone's jaws bounced off the ground. There's no way she had just asked that, right? Ryuu saw the Priestess shoot Naruto a teasing smile and shook his head. Well, at least Naruto was smart enough to understand what she'd said. He stopped, remembering who he was referring to.
"You bet," Naruto grinned, giving the Priestess a thumbs up. "You know me, I'm always up for anything."
Everyone stared at Naruto in shock for another moment before Ryuu's right fist, now devoid of Repulsion Seals, bounced off of Naruto's head.
"You dumbass!" Ryuu snapped.
"What?" Naruto asked, rubbing his head.
The Priestess giggled and leaned in, whispering to Naruto, who's face turned scarlet instantly, then began to darken.
"Uh...uh...uh...I...uh...I gotta...uh...Oh look, it's time to go!" Naruto stammered. "Come on Lee, I'll race you back!"
And then he was sprinting away. Everyone stared after him for several moments before bursting out laughing.
"Hinata, I'm so sorry," the Priestess said. "I should have known he'd be stupid enough to not understand."
"It's alright Shion," Hinata smiled. "Naruto's not the brightest in the world."
"And yet you love him anyway," Shion smiled, Hinata blushing almost as darkly as Naruto had. "I'm sure he'll come to his senses soon."
"Thank you," Hinata smiled, then turned to the others. "We should go."
"Right," Kakashi nodded. "Come on everyone. I'm sure Naruto's probably lost by now anyway."
Ryuu chuckled. "Maybe if Hinata rescues him, he'll give her a kiss."
Hinata's face began to rapidly darken.
"Don't tease the poor girl," Tenten said.
"You're right," Ryuu said. "I'm sorry."
They began to shat about anything they could think of as they travelled, making it back to the Hidden Leaf in about a day and a half.
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