Chapter 10: The Tiger and the Lion (Part 2)

Lee didn't see what happened next. But soon, the cat Shun was unconscious, and the first of the new enemies came rushing into the room. Men and women dressed in every color, with weapons of every kind. Guy ushered her away, up the slope, and she did not protest, though leaving Grandma Hatsu burned her soul. She sat numbly up the top of the ridge, past the door, for without Grandma Hatsu to ask, they could not know for sure if it was safe to leave that way.

They entered the room in droves. Dozens of people, many born fighters. Yet in spite of their previous scuffle, Kakashi and Guy, back to back, repelled bandit after ninja after mercenary with such speed and elegance, they might have been enjoying it. They were clever and quick. Guy punched and kicked with power and purpose, while Kakashi parried and threw, relying more on the weight of his enemies than the strength of his blows. Guy relished the thrill of combat, laughing and exchanging counts with Kakashi. Kakashi did not make a point of falling behind, but seemed remarkably indifferent to the battle. His every move exhibited a casual grace that was not lost on Lee.

She watched in a daze, forgetting herself and the danger, entranced by the prowess of the two jonin.

One of those men...is the one teaching my brother everything he knows. My brother is going to be...someone like that?! It was more than she could imagine. Might Guy was like a hurricane compressed into the body of a man. And he believed her brother, who had lost to his little sister at playing ninja so many times, would surpass him. Her brother, who had so often tripped over his own feet. Her brother, who could not perform ninjutsu or genjutsu.

And Kakashi Hatake.

He's terrifying, that man. Lee trembled. She didn't know that a man could possess so much power. She had only seen a handful of ninjutsu in her life. Something like that...it can't be real.

Kakashi threw a glance her way, as if he heard her thoughts, as he twisted around with the help of Guy to avoid a spear thrust. As their eyes connected, or her two to his one, a jolt of electricity—something like fright—coursed through her, snapping her out of her daze. He looked tired. Guy too. They were growing slower, if only a little, and still more enemies were funneling into what had become a battlefield.

There's so many of them! How did so many get through the mountains and woods unnoticed?

A feeling of urgency rushed through her brain, spurring her to action.

She turned to the shelves, crouching and scanning the scrolls for something of use. She couldn't just sit.

There has to be something. Some jutsu I can use to help Hatake-san and Guy-sama. Or—her heart clenched—to heal Grandma Hatsu. (If it's possible to summon lightning, then maybe healing a woman near death or who just died isn't impossible.) She didn't believe it, but the thought kept her steady.

They were all labeled, of course. The scrolls. But with a single character followed by a series of numbers. In her frustration, the girl snatched up a scroll at random. What else could she do? A white scroll with red borders. The parchment was a bit old, yellowing with age. At any other time, she would have handled it gingerly, but now she thrust it open, laying it on the dusty stone, and unfurled with it with a sweep of the hand. It was written in strange characters, perhaps some kind of code or a foreign language. Or an older variant of her own. There were some illustrations, but without the instructions, it was too vague for her to derive much meaning. I can't read this. What if I can't read any of them? What do I do?

She unrolled the paper further, struggling to keep the stubborn thing flat, until she reached its end and saw something that struck her.

Is that...an explosive tag?

She'd heard about them before. "A paper bomb." In a rush of excitement, she seized another scroll, from the next shelf up. A shorter one. She unrolled it in one fluid movement. Another one! Are these all bombs? She grabbed another and checked. And one from two bookcases over. They are! She surveyed the small library, the fortune of knowledge before her. The cogs of her mind spun wildly, contemplating how she might blow it all up and for what benefit. She tried to think back to her brother's notes.

A stray kunai embedded itself in the shelf behind her, and she barely held back a cry of fright. She shook her head, suppressing the rush of adrenaline driving her toward motion. Right now, she needed to think. That was the tool the Hokage had said would serve her best.

Paper bombs. A versatile tool and weapon used by all levels of ninja. Triggered through proximity, time, physical contact, hand signals, high chakra concentrations, or when in range of trigger tag. All varieties are activated by exposure to fire. The trigger depends on which characters are written on the tag. And this one says...nothing at all. So that's useful. Invisible ink?

Lee sighed and leaned over the edge of the cliff. Ninja and bandits swarmed through the rock wall like wasps from a hive disturbed. Kakashi and Guy were powerful. They were holding their own. But they were also sweaty and covered in cuts, some little and others more alarming. Lee was all too aware that it only took one sharp kunai to pierce the heart or slit the throat. If she, a child, could inflict harm on a group of bandits, then trained fighters, however outmatched, could hope to break through a jonin's defense through luck and sheer number. She couldn't just wait.

Guy snatched up the metal staff previously used by Shishi, and twirled, jabbed, and swept away the throng. One man Guy hit so hard he flew twenty feet into the vast heap of coal Guy had dug through earlier. The mass responded with a violent plume of black dust, mushrooming up and slowly dissipating in toxic swirls, only to settle slowly in a thin film.

Lee frowned and returned her attention to the riddle that was the scrolls.

If I were the Hokage or whoever made this place, why would I want to blow up a bunch of scrolls?

To keep the information hidden, she answered herself.

And when would I want them to blow up?

When they are taken en masse out of the shelter, right? Here, they can only be studied where they can be protected. Why else store them here?

But what about the door? Lee looked to her right at the troublesome block of wood marking the tunnel from which they'd come. It's warning must relate somehow. She grimaced, remembering its cryptic inscription.

If you're looking for shelter, the Village will provide. We've found blankets, rice, and clean water. So that all makes sense. But it also says if you 'seek entrance', you'll be stuck here forever. Which means you either die or the way out is blocked somehow.

Well there is one thing I can test. Lee crept over toward the door, staying low to avoid detection. Kakashi had explicitly ordered her not to go through the doorway again, but what option did she have? If she couldn't understand the message on the door, she wouldn't know how to use the scroll-bombs to their advantage. Even if the two jonin subdued every enemy, Grandma Hatsu would bleed out (she has to be alive) before this onslaught could end. It was the only way.

A few paces away from the door, Lee drew the Hokage's knife from the lower right pocket of Kakashi's vest. With a somewhat guilty flick of the wrist, she sent it skating through the doorway. Nothing happened. She crept further to the door and slid one foot through, and then joined it. She took a few steps forward. Nothing.

Alright, well there's that solved. She closed the door halfway to look again at the words emblazoned upon it in the dim red light.

Wanting information or to steal jutsu isn't the same thing as seeking entrance. Maybe it means if you want to come to this place, as opposed to needing to, then you can't leave it? But it's not like this place is sentient. How would it know? Lee ran a hand through her wild hair, surprised to find it wet with nervous sweat.

Ugh. We don't have time for this! The scrolls are the only thing I saw here that could trap someone. They could blow you up, or blow up the exits. If I took the trouble of carting this many scrolls into a hidden shelter, I wouldn't want just anyone walking off with them. If a traitor or enemy got their hands on one, the only way to be sure would be to blow them up or trap them here. I opened those scrolls and they didn't explode, so there must be some trigger tags in the doorways. That's the only thing that makes sense. At least...it's all I can think of.

Lee nodded with resolve, retrieved the knife, and rushed back to where the scrolls lay on the ground. She was tempted to throw the scroll out the door to check, but then, blowing up our exit seems like a very poor idea, indeed. And if it worked, it would draw attention to her. Anything she did, really, was going to give her cover away, and then Guy and Kakashi would rush to protect her. She needed a backup plan too.

It just so happened that the girl had a well-stocked jonin vest at her disposal. It felt rude to go rifling through it, but her need outweighed propriety. Lee pooled the contents of every pocket in front of her lap and took stock. An abundance of coupons. She raised a delicate brow. Food pills. Needle and thread. Grocery list. A spool of wire. A roll of explosive tags she almost dismissed as more coupons. A handkerchief. A house key. And the knife the Hokage had given her.

The girl tied her hair back tightly, peeling it away from her neck and face, and took a deep breath. She gazed down at the two ninja below, still surrounded on all sides. Only ten minutes had passed, but that was a rather long time to be fighting.

She thought and thought, and then she had a plan. She began working, crafting, using every tool available.

She needed the biggest scroll, first, a 6-foot monstrosity. So she went to it and tipped it onto the ground carefully, making sure the beginning faced her. It had a seal taping it shut. She ripped at with her hands, clawed at the corners, but it wouldn't come off. She huffed indignantly. It needed a hand sign to release. But maybe...The knife! Lee took it up, gripping it tightly in one hand, and pulled out the blade. She carefully cut through the seal as smoothly as if it were air. A character on the side of the knife glowed faintly. Lee wondered if any other knife would have done the job.

She unrolled the scroll by about ten feet, an awkward two-handed and two-legged effort. That small amount did not lessen the bulk of the rest of it even slightly. The whole thing must have been several hundred feet. It was flexible and more like fabric than paper. She hoped it too had an explosive tag at its end, but there was no way to be sure. That wasn't a necessity though.

She twisted the beginning of the scroll around herself, pinning it with her body weight, praying it didn't drag her with it. Then she gave the remainder a sharp kick. It landed on the ground below with a thump! and rolled farther and farther away.

"Hatake-san, Guy-sama! Up here, quickly! Bring Grandma Hatsu!" She yelled as loudly as she could. Her voice sounded so high and childish to her ears. Not at all persuasive or impressive. But they heard her, even over the roar of battle. And through some miracle, they even listened.

They leapt across ninja's backs and over strange machines and were by her side in less than a minute. Grandma Hatsu was draped across Guy's back, her blood dying his jumpsuit as dark as the soot. The staff was still in his right hand, and he quickly tossed it aside, as if it might bite Lee.

"What are you doing?" shouted Kakashi at her, a few feet away but barely audible over the clamor below. Lee watched the scroll slow to a stop right in front of the far exit. She was rather impressed by her aim, or maybe her luck. It was just short, but it would have to do.

"I need you to tip these bookshelves over! They're full of paper bombs. We need to get them into that exit! We can send them down this scroll like a ramp. And plant some explosive tags on a few of them to start a fire just in case the exit isn't the trigger."

"You want to blow up the exit? This whole place will go with it. There's coal dust everywhere!"

"Grandma Hatsu needs help!" Kakashi gave her a pained look and opened his mouth to—"And if we run, they'll get away or steal these jutsu or infiltrate the village. We have to do something! You two are strong, but there's too many of them. It's not worth the risk!"

Kakashi looked at Guy, and Guy looked at him, and the two considered the girl's plan. Their enemies were already making their way up the ramp on the right, and the ninja among them were running directly up the cliffside to the overhang. Guy knocked the fastest off.

"We'll try it," Kakashi nodded, at last. "But the blast might kill us. So you need to get out of here first."

"I won't abandon you. This is my idea, and if it's the death of me, then so be it!" Lee glared defiantly up at him and Guy.

"You're a child!"

"I'm a villager as much as you! I have a right to protect our people!"

"What makes you so sure it's the exit over there that makes these blow?"

"I think it's both."

"You think?"

"It's a hunch!"

Kakashi groaned, helping Guy kick off a few ninja on the edge of the cliff.

Seeing the enemies surging up the ramp, Guy ran over toward the door and tipped over a cart of coal, sending the rocks tumbling down to slow their ascent.

"I'll be over here covering our escape! Kakashi, you get those scrolls a'rolling!"

Kakashi swore under his breath, but untangled Lee from the end of the scroll and pinned it to the stone with a kunai. He tipped over shelf after shelf, letting Lee shepherd the scrolls onto the makeshift slide. She plastered several of Kakashi's tags on the scrolls as assurance, and occasionally tossed a few scrolls into the piles of coal around the room. If she was going to destroy this place without the Hokage's consent, she was at least going to do it properly.

BAM!

At the first explosion, Lee threw herself to the ground on instinct. Kakashi grabbed her by the nape of the vest and sprinted down the arch toward Guy. As Kakashi pulled her from the ground, Lee snatched up the priest's staff without thinking. It felt cool in her grip. Grounding. And it felt wrong to leave this place without it.

The bowl-haired jonin was fighting off a horde of bandits and multiple mercenaries, who were ruthless in their panic to escape the cavern, even if it meant running directly into the arms of their enemies. Below stalactites were crashing down on the mob, the small impaling men and women, and the large crushing several at a time. The air was full of smoke and the sound of coughing. Coal was on was on fire. People were on fire.

The whole room turned blindingly light when the barrel of flash powder exploded. For a second all seemed still. And then the rock above them, above the two Leaf shinobi, and the girl and old woman, started to crumble and fall. Cracks, widening with every second, spidered out beneath their feet. As men and women thundered toward them like a tsunami, Kakashi hollered at Lee to tuck her head and threw the girl unceremoniously straight through the half-open door to the tunnel.

She wailed in pain and shock as her right shoulder, elbow, hip, and knee all hit the ground and skidded. The staff left her hand and rolled away. Her head swam and she blinked away stars. She rolled onto her back, moaning, tears pricking at her eyes, then struggled to her feet. "Kakashi Hatake!" she yelled at no one in particular.

Lee checked her wrist, which was wrapped twice around with wire, and breathed a sigh of relief. I'll show you an Ace, Guy-sama. As if he heard her, Guy dove into the tunnel, Kakashi hot on his heels, wrestling off a woman in purple ninja garb and throwing her away like she was nothing.

"Run!" Guy yelled.

He zoomed past Lee in a blur of green, Grandma Hatsu still ashen and slung across his back. In the hall behind, screaming hordes were stumbling over coals and scrolls to follow them.

Kakashi grabbed Lee's elbow and pulled her after him.

"Wait!" she yelled, unwinding the wire starting to constrict her wrist.

"Keep moving!" he ordered.

She half-ran, half-tripped ahead of him, tugging the wire in her fingertips. Kakashi looked behind just in time to see a scroll drag across the floor into the threshold of the tunnel. Right as the purple woman (returned) was stepping over it, the scroll exploded. The heat was so intense the doorframe lit like a torch and crumpled away in char and dust. The rock around it held for a second, then fell all at once, leaving them alone in the glowing red of the tunnel.

Kakashi shook his head in disbelief, then scooped up the girl, whose arms were wrapped protectively around the steel staff. She couldn't move very quickly with her injuries. The ones he had caused. Then he ran and ran, listening as the earth heaved behind them.

"You were right!" he yelled into his arms, where he thought her ear might have been. She shouted something back, but Kakashi couldn't hear.

After several minutes, which felt like hours, the roars of the earth faded to be replaced by sounds of distant shifting. Rivers of rock settling into a new shape, where they might rest for thousands of years to come.

Louder in his ears were the sounds of Kakashi's own steps, of his heavy breathing and the blood pounding in his ears. Guy was panting ahead of him, but showed no sign of stopping. And in his arms—depleted entirely in mind, body, heart, and soul—Lee sank into the kind void of sleep.

Well, please let me know what you thought if you get a chance. That was a wild ride for me! XD