A/N: This is just a small filler to se the mood for the following chapters and also show what's happening back in Konoha
Irene scowled. Damn! Twenty yoma traveling in a pack?! She should have sensed it! Damn that yoki shroud blocking her senses! When would it dissipate?!
The yoma all snarled and roared at her as they ringed her like grooms working to capture a runaway horse as Irene scoffed in annoyance at the beasts.
She didn't have time for this.
Her breathing was calm, her heartbeat even and slow. Irene was aware of her body's reactions to the danger- aware and in control. The Number Two raised her the double-edged sword she carried with her.
No sooner had she done so than a third of the yoma lunged at her from all directions. In an instant, each of the yoma became nothing more than chunks of flesh and blood, while Irene stood still as if nothing happened as squirts of blood flew past her, something repelling the bodies' liquids so not a single drop of blood landed on her from killing the yoma at point-blank range. The reason for her nickname was ideal for situations where she was surrounded by multiple opponents like this.
God, she loved her Quicksword technique.
The remaining yoma who had held back suddenly felt going on the offensive was best.
Time seemed to slow, to stretch. Irene spun toward the point, twisted around the outside, and snapped her hands horizontally at chest level. The blade of her claymore sheared through flesh and bone as easily as water, sending the limb to the ground. Irene then dropped to her left knee as, from directly behind her, the spear-like tips of another of her enemies' fingers whistled over her head, barely missing the tips of her long hair.
Without looking, guided by her combat instincts and training, she thrust backwards with her blade, then forward as she spun it from a reverse grip into a forward one-one, two!-skewering one yoma in its chest and splitting one in front of her open from groin to chin. Using the momentum, Irene dived over the collapsing yoma before her, flowing smoothly into a shoulder roll. She came up twirling her claymore overhead, whirling over her head like a propeller, cutting apart even more of the beasts she was embattled with as they tried lunging at her from above. Even as she did the movement, part of her was monitoring her body's state. Her breathing was slow and even, her pulse elevated by no more than two or three beats per minute from its resting rate.
Irene spun on her right foot and shot her left leg out in a powerful side kick, slamming her steel boot into another yoma's chest, stopping it cold and crushing its sternum and shards of the bone flew of of the creature's back from the force of the blow. She dropped into a squat, spun her sword like a scythe, and sickled yet another yoma cleanly at the knees and swinging upwards diagonally, splitting it in two from hip to shoulder. Irene again twisted herself and her weapon. She brought the blade up between another yoma's thighs, hard, using her leg muscles to augment the strike as she pushed up from the squat to a standing position. The force of her strike bisected the yoma from its crotch right through the top of its head. There was a wet thump as the creature came apart in two halves. The acrid smell of blood washed over Irene. The final yoma moved to Irene's left.
She hadn't even noticed as she had killed the rest, it had been so fast.
Irene allowed herself a twitch of her lips. She bent her knees, keeping her eyes on the yoma as she sheathed her weapon on the and settled herself into a low defensive stance, angled toward the yoma at forty-five degrees, left foot forward. She watched as the weary yoma edged toward her. She held one open hand high, by her ear, the other by her hip, then reversed the positions, watching. Waiting. The yoma stole forward a half step. Irene moved her left arm wide, away from her body, exposing her side to a thrust from the piercing, extended fingers of the yoma as it saw the opening and moved in, fast, very fast. Irene hooked her left foot around the back of the yoma's ankle, and pulled as she kicked hard at the beast's thigh with the other, the yoma fell backwards, unable to maintain its balance, and hit the ground and Irene sprang up, did a front flip, and came down with both metal booted heels driving into the yoma's head. The skull crunched and collapsed inward.
Her foes dead, Irene stood and exhaled, relaxed her stance, and nodded as she walked off the yoma's remains and tapped her sabatons' toes against the ground to dislodge the gore from the once-gleaming metal. Her heart rate had accelerated perhaps five beats above normal at most. There was the faintest sheen of perspiration on her forehead; otherwise her skin was dry. Perhaps sixty seconds had elapsed from start to finish. Irene frowned slightly. Not her personal best, by any means.
Twenty-on-one and they hadn't even touched her. There was a good reason she was second only to Teresa, after all.
Spotting something coming near her, she saw it was a wagon with a man and a young girl in it, Irene assumed she was his daughter. Clearly, the yoma she had just killed had been waiting to ambush them. Still...two people and twenty yoma? No way that would work out. The yoma must have been skittish enough to start hunting in packs if they were acting like this.
Whatever Irene was tracking, she HAD to find it first. The consequences of what would happen otherwise were nothing short of apocalyptic in her mind.
Walking up to the wagon as the horses shied away from the scent of blood, Irene called to the man.
"Rather risky to travel these parts." she said.
Turning to who had spoken, the man took less than a second to realize that the person was a woman...then he noticed the pale, almost colorless hair, and the silver eyes.
The man paled instantly. A Claymore!
Seeing his expression, Irene fought the urge to roll her eyes, "Calm down...I'm forbidden to kill humans. I was passing through and went after the yoma. That's all."
The man swallowed, "W-we're off to Rabona. My daughter Alana insists on it. To thank God for sending the Seraph to rescue us from a group of yoma a few days ago when we were in Mucha." the man said, unnerved by the Claymore.
"Seraph? As in a Seraphim, the six-winged angles?" the silver-haired woman said. Oh joy...religious superstition.
The girl nodded, she was trying to see why her father was so afraid of this pretty lady, she'd heard of Claymores, but this was the first time she'd actually met one. "Yes. Burning with power, dropped right out of heaven and saved us back in the southern region. He was so strong too."
"Really?" Irene said, quirking an eyebrow, now this was suddenly much more interesting. The yoki she was sent after had appeared a few days ago in the southern region. Looked like she found a possible lead.
The man swallowed and nodded. Even if she had told him she was merely doing her duty to slay yoma and had no intentions of harming humans, Claymores were still half monster.
"Where were you, exactly?" Irene asked, "I was sent to keep the deadliest of the yoma from finding this Seraph, there's no way the more evolved ones will permit a power greater than their's to exist unless they control it, I'm out to prevent that." she said. While she wasn't a believer, playing along to reach her goals was something she had no qualms with.
The girl spoke up, "Last we heard, the one matching the Seraph's description was in Lautrec, somewhere southeast of Doga."
Irene nodded and walked away, causing the man, to the confusion of his daughter, let out a sigh. Relieved that the unnerving Claymore was gone.
Southeast of Doga...fair distance away, even if she was in the southern region right now already. Still, nothing she couldn't manage. Would be faster with a horse, but the animals couldn't keep passe with the demands of a warrior's duties, and constantly needing to stop to let the animals sleep, eat and drink was an inconvenience that the Organization's warriors could ill afford.
But to call the being she was after a Seraph...she shook her head. Yoki like the kind this alleged being of heaven had was was demonic energy, yet the one who had such potent demon energy was seen as the second-highest being in the celestial ranking, surpassed only by God? It was almost laughable.
Still, she'd need to see this supposed seraph for herself, and now she had direction, even if it was a wide area.
Turning towards the west, Irene ran.
There was no telling who or what she was going to have to deal with and she needed to find this Seraph first. She hadn't encountered the former Number Ones yet, and she didn't know if that was good or bad.
What were they up to?
"So we're all agreed? This is temporary, and is only to ensure that power doesn't fall into the hands of the Organization." a male voice said to who was in the chamber with him.
The other two nodded.
"I abhor the idea of working with you two...how was it you talked me into this?!" one of them snapped.
"You can't even tolerate normal Yoma, you anti-social Failed Experiment of the south." a childish voice chirped teasingly.
"DON'T CALL ME THAT! I'M NOT A FAILURE!" The other figure shouted, their yoki flaring.
The male figure sighed, "Enough, you two. We have enough to worry about without being at one another's throats. The Organization's going to be in an even greater uproar when they learn the three of us joined forces...no need to make their already-difficult situation any easier by killing off each other."
The other two turned to him and nodded, one still scowling, the other with an impish expression on their face.
"Very well...but make no mistake: this alliance is only temporary..." the glaring one snapped.
The childish one giggled "We know...you've got to confess though: This is a first and it'll REALLY go down in history as something that the Organization's going to absolutely HATE! All three of us as as a unified front?! Hah! I swear I can already smell it from when Remito and those warrior lapdogs of the Organization are going to be wetting themselves once they hear about this!"
"Very true...something like this has never happened before and I doubt will again." the male said "Now, let us be off. We have a power to either clam or snuff out!"
The other two nodded.
Exiting the forsaken, ruined, former research facility of the Organization that had served as the makeshift meeting hall, the trio of human-appearing beings stepped out into the light and exposed their identities as they set out in search of the power that had roused them into take such an action as to ally with each other, something even they found shocking.
Luciela of the south, Riful of the West and Isley of the North.
The three Abyssal Ones were joined and on the hunt.
OMAKE-Back in Konoha
"WHAT?!" The shout of the Sandaime rang out from the Hokage tower.
Inside the office, highly sealed to allow no eavesdroppers, stood Sarutobi Hiruzen, Uchiha Itachi, along with Shimura Danzō, Mitokado Homura, and Utatane Koharu.
Itachi sighed, "I said I warped him somewhere else with a jikūkan ninjutsu. What else was there to do? My clan dead and Naruto using the chakra of the Kyūbi...the result would have been him being blamed. I had to do it to keep the village from martyring him on the alter of their own hatred for the fox."
The NE leader snorted "The fate of a mere insignificant child is of no importance whatsoever. At least this way, the Uchiha's attempt a coup d'etat can never happen. You cannot deny the immediate results of this course of action."
"Yes...and thanks to your heavy-handed warmongering methods, Konoha has lost the Kyūbi jinchūriki while our enemies still have their own. Those are the "immediate results" your methods and tactics cause you to be so boastful of!" Itachi hissed as a bad taste entered his mouth and left him feeling the need to take a gallon of bleach and a belt sander to his tongue for referring to Naruto like that.
By any and all kami and akuma to ever exist, Itachi truly loathed this abomination in human form! If only he had enough chakra for that "Amaterasu" jutsu he'd heard about from that masked man he'd encountered who claimed to be his ancestor Madara after he obtained the Mangekyo Sharingan and reduce the bastard despot to ashes! To fucking hell with the damage that came from pushing so much chakra through his optic nerve at once!
At that, Danzō's visible eye widened and he suddenly looked panicked "What are you waiting for, Itachi?! Recast the jutsu and bring him back! This village cannot be found lacking in having such a vital necessity to our military capabilities!"
The Hokage and the Uchiha shared a glance, 'Figures he'd only care about Naruto from a military perspective rather than as a person...' they both thought, disgusted.
"Clearly you're as foolish as you are bloodthirsty. I just explained why: as a result of your methods in terms of "solutions", he was so furious that he tried using the power of the Kyūbi while at my family's...former...compound to attempt to kill me My clan was dead and his using the chakra of the Kyūbi while he was there would have caused assumption and he would have been blamed for the Uchiha being massacred. So to keep the village from martyring him on the alter of their own hatred for the fox and allowing the Kyūbi to rip free of his corpse and finish what it started seven years ago when it nearly destroyed Konoha, I had to use a Jikūkan Ninjutsu to warp him to another reality for the sake of preventing that! I JUST finished saying that!"
"You were the one who pushed for genocide as opposed to subtlety, as such, since this was your methodology, the responsibility for whatever misfortune befalls Konoha all falls on your shoulders, Danzō. You failed to consider any and all possibilities, this included, and now its too late." Sarutobi said grimly, "You've given our enemies this opportunity and doomed this village you claim all your actions are directed towards preserving as a result."
While he could understand to a certain extent some of Danzō's reasons, Hiruzen abhorred his actions and that of Danzō's followers along with the fact the man who was once his friend would willingly allow massive losses for the population of Konoha and his views were a twisted parody of the ideal of Konoha, and despite his apparent willingness to die to defend Konoha, Danzō himself feared death, believing he must live in order to help the world accustom itself to his ideas, which made him a hypocrite on his own belief and that a vast majority of his actions contributed to the formulation of many enemies that Konoha neither wanted nor needed.
Danzō scowled and turned around, leaving the office.
He needed to rectify this somehow. Damn Minato and Kushina's spawn!
Come to think of it...that lesser village, Takigakure, DID have the Nanabi no kabutomushi, yet their jinchūriki didn't necessarily live inside the village, and had her more like a watchdog in the forest area around them.
That could be worked with. It was what Ne was for, after all. Even if it was an officially disbanded branch of Konohagakure's Anbu training subdivision.
Hiruzen was a fool.
He simply couldn't be trusted to naive, too overly-passive. It made him weak.
He knew that from the time he had sent several Root members to assassinate Hiruzen in the belief that the Third Hokage had lost the capacity to effectively lead the village. However, Danzō was soon approached by Hiruzen, who revealed that Kakashi informed him of the assassination attempt. As Danzō feared for his life knowing he would be executed for this treason, Hiruzen calmly chose to spare Danzō.
The fool. The coward.