Part 9
Naruko crouched perfectly still in a tree, hidden among the snow covered leaves as she watched him approach. He stopped just under her, surveying the area. As he bent down to eat something she dropped from the tree onto his back, her kunai slitting his throat.
The large stag fell to the ground with a dull thud sending snowflakes up into the air. As his blood spilt out onto the snow she made a clone, both Narukos grabbed an antler and began dragging him back to the cave. She made another clone to stay and cover their tracks.
It took them about half an hour to get back to the cave, but they'd been lucky as the hole in the rock face came into view just as sun started to set and snow started to fall. She dragged the stag to the edge of the cave and whistled. Omoi, the male Kumo-nin walked out and nodded to her as they set about skinning the stag. Once they were done, the sun had disappeared and the moon was appearing in occasional gaps in the clouds overhead.
They'd been hiding in the cave for a day having arrived the night before, Sakura was still recovering from chakra exhaustion and Hana and the Kumo-nin were also recovering from physical exhaustion, as Samui had crashed really hard after the soldier pill had worn off. Omoi had been the only one recovered enough to leave the cave other than Naruko. Even her legendary stamina had been tested on the run from Kaminari to Tetsu. Shikamaru was still resting after his wounds had been mostly healed. Yugito was still out cold, the knockout injection Sakura had given her was supposed to last three days for a normal person but with a Jinchuuriki one could never be sure.
Naruko, since she was the least exhausted, had spent the majority of her time on watch or setting up traps in the surrounding forest.
Omoi took what meat they'd gotten from the stag back into the cave and she created two clones to take what remained back into the forest. The last thing they needed was a pack of wolves outside of the cave, if only because they would draw attention.
Walking back into the cave she saw most of the team sitting around the fire. Shikamaru was leaning on a wall, the Kumo-nin also sat near the fire, Karui and Omoi seemed to be arguing over something and Hana was preparing the meat. Naruko took her normal spot at the entrance to the cave and created a small ball of Shakuton chakra in her hand. Not only did it keep her warm but experimenting with the chakra movement and intensity of the heat was not only good for her chakra control but it was a great exercise in understanding the Shakuton. She somewhat unfortunately was not usually able to use the Shakuton simply because it was very dangerous to use around teammates. One wrong move from either her or them and suddenly she had mummified teammates.
As she concentrated on the blazing sphere in her hand, unnoticed to her the leader of the Kumo-nin was subtly watching her from the other side of the cave.
Samui was somewhat perplexed by the Konoha-kunoichi. She was upbeat and joked around, and was often a teasing flirt. Naruko was the complete opposite to her and yet she was a very powerful kunoichi, taking on an Akatsuki-nin by herself after her teammate had been seriously injured. Samui had grown up being told by her parents that being a shinobi was a dangerous lifestyle, and that being utterly professional and serious in her pursuit of climbing the ranks and becoming a stronger kunoichi meant that she had no time for screwing around. Training and study was what she remembered of her childhood. The only friends she'd had time for were those who wanted to train and study like her. Not many of those around at that time, most of the children would prefer to be playing or just hanging around with their friends, even her brother had preferred to do that. Occasionally Yugito had joined her, the Nibi Jinchuuriki was only a year or so older than her and she took being a kunoichi just as seriously as Samui did. However, Yugito's Jinchuuriki status meant that she was often taken away for specialised training. Although, Samui had been taken to be taught by her grandfather sometimes as well.
As the ball glowed in front of Naruko's face, illuminating her strong jaw line and bright blue eyes, Samui wondered, perhaps for the first time, if her parents had been wrong.
Naruko added enough chakra to make the ball sustain itself for a while, lowering her hand the feel the hilt of Masamune. She'd pondered on how to go about using the nodachi along with her ninjutsu for some time, and may have finally found a solution. She'd once again tattooed a storage seal onto herself, this time into her right palm, meaning she could store the sword inside of her hand at a moment's notice. While it would make sense for her to keep the sword in there at all times, the sheath of the sword was just as important as the sword itself. The inside of the sheath was covered in various seals, all of which repaired the sword to perfect, if a tiny bit blunt, condition when it was inside for a few hours. She wondered how much damage could be done to the blade before the seals would stop working but she wasn't keen to experiment on it.
The simple idea of storage the sword would help her to swiftly switch between fighting styles, something that had become somewhat of a handicap due to how fast Shinobi fights were fought. The general speed at which shinobi fought meant that attempting to sheath the sword to use a jutsu was a very dangerous undertaking. Every millisecond mattered in a shinobi fight.
She looked up from her sword as Samui sat across from her, her own sword, a tanto, resting in her lap. Naruko expected her to say something, but the stoic Kumo-nin was silent as she fiddled with her own blade.
"So" Naruko started making Samui look up at her "a tanto eh?" mentally, Naruko was face palming. She was social person by nature but sometimes she got tongue-tied, especially when talking to an attractive and woman, and particularly when she didn't know much about said woman.
Samui didn't seem fazed by it though. "Yes. All Kumo-nin are required to learn kenjutsu to a satisfactory degree before Academy graduation. The tanto works best with my fighting style, fast and precise."
"I'd expect that requirement of Kiri more than Kumo, though I guess I don't know a whole lot about Kumo anyway."
Samui nodded. "Kumogakure was co-founded by a travelling group of Rōnin, who made the Shodai Raikage their Master. They instilled many of their ideals in the first shinobi of Kumo, many of which are still present today."
"Cool." Naruko said, appreciatively, missing Samui's blank expression after she'd said it. "Kenjutsu is kinda rare in Konoha, its mostly only ANBU that use it. Though there are others like myself that still use it."
"Who taught you? To use kenjutsu."
Naruko nodded to the far side of the cave where she could see Jiraiya writing in a notebook. "A kunoichi named Yugao has been teaching me a bit lately, but Jiraiya originally."
Samui looked over to him as well before turning back. "I've never heard of him using kenjutsu."
Naruko chuckled. "He doesn't. Not really. But you know, he's been around since the Second Great Ninja War. Back then, the Konoha Academy was more interesting in teaching shinobi how to fight with all styles of jutsu."
Samui looked at her confused. "Do they not now?"
Naruko slowly shook her head. "Not really. At least not for my class, it was full of clan heirs and that, so it was a lot of history and politics since most of them were already being taught at home."
"It's not cool, but I suppose that makes sense."
"So who taught you?"
Samui's eyebrow raised a tiny bit. "Kenjutsu?"
"Yeah."
Samui looked back down at her tanto. "My grandfather, when I was a child. His name was Genji. He was the last of the Kumogakure Samurai. He was renowned for his skills with wakazashi and nodachi."
"Woah, that's awesome!" Naruko replied in wonder, looking down at her own family nodachi.
"Yeah." Samui smiled slightly. "It was pretty cool."
"Ugh..." all sound in the cave ceased as they looked over to Yugito, who was lying a couple of metres away from the fire. She slowly sat up, placing a hand on her forehead.
"Lay back for a moment please. I need to make sure-" Sakura was forced to stop speaking as Yugito's hand clutched at her throat.
"Let go." Jiraiya ordered, standing over her with a Rasengan in hand.
The moment she saw Sannin no Jiraiya standing over her, she let go and laid back. Sakura coughed for a moment, rubbing her neck before she began examining Yugito as if nothing had happened.
Karui and Omoi began to move over to Yugito but Samui, who was doing the same, waved them away. She knew that medics hated people crowding around them.
"Samui?" Yugito said, surprised.
"Yes. These Konoha-nin assisted in saving you from the Akatsuki." Samui answered.
Yugito looked down in shame and anger. She was a Kumogakure Elite Jonin and the Nibi Jinchuuriki and she lost to an idiot with a scythe and a Taki-nin.
"Don't beat yourself up kid." Jiraiya said, sitting down on a rock beside Sakura who was still examining Yugito's internals. " Even I had a tough time against just one of them, and no offence but I think I'm a bit better at this than you. Besides, you're alive, that's all that matters."
"I swore I'd kill them. I failed." Yugito stated.
Jiraiya just shrugged. "So? I doubt they're dead, you might get a chance again. Though, I'd recommend back-up next time."
Yugito looked up at him. "Why did you help me? You could easily start a war by doing this."
"Yeah, I know kid. But keeping the Biju away from the Akatsuki is more important." Jiraiya responded solemnly.
All four Kumo-nin looked at him in shock. "They want the Biju? Is that why they attacked Sunagakure?"
"Yeah. They've captured the Ichibi. They're trying to go in order, from one to nine and since they've got a number of teams, it's likely they've already deployed others to capture the other Biju. Although, the duo that captured the Ichibi is now dead, so that should slow them down a bit. Hopefully."
"How do we proceed from here?" Samui asked. Now that Yugito was awake, they'd need to plan their next move. It was likely that Akatsuki was still trying to find them and it would only be a matter of time.
"I've thought about that. We'll head to the south-western border between Tetsu no Kuni and Taki no Kuni. From there a toad will take Sakura, Hana and Shikamaru to Takigakure who are allied with Konoha." He looked at Sakura and Hana. "There you will either get assistance for Shikamaru and an escort back to Konoha, or just the escort back to Konoha if Shikamaru will be okay for that long. After you three head off, Naruko and I will head to Kumogakure with you four." he finished nodding to Samui.
The Kumo-nin looked at him as if he were a madman. "You want... want us to take you to Kumo?" Karui asked from behind him.
"Oh that's gonna go bad." Omoi started. "What if we get there and they attack us? What if-" he was cut off from his rant when Karui smacked him over the head.
"He is not wrong. This could go any number of ways, Kumo-nin attacking us would be a likely scenario." Samui stated, some worry sneaking into her voice.
Jiraiya smirked. "Don't worry about it. They won't attack. Not with one of their Jinchuuriki and the students of their other Jinchuuriki. Not to mention they'd know full well attacking me would mean a lot of dead shinobi, one way or another."
"Hey! What am I, chopped liver?" Naruko asked, annoyed she wasn't even thought of.
Jiraiya rolled his eyes. "No one know who you are, gaki."
"Oh right."
"Ok, that's the plan. We'll move out tomorrow. Get some rest everyone. You'll need it."
It had taken only a few hours the reach the border, Tetsu no Kuni was small if travelling east-to-west. When they reached the border, they decided to rest for an hour before parting ways. During that hour, they were surrounded suddenly by Taki-nin.
"What are you doing in Taki no Kuni?"
Jiraiya sighed as he stood up from the ground. "Right to the point eh?" he muttered. "I am Sannin no Jiraiya!" he called out to them. "We have a wounded Konoha-nin and are escorting a number of Kumogakure-shinobi."
Some of the Taki-nin looked at each other, surprised. The leader decided to jump down from the tree he was perched on and walked over to Jiraiya. "Taki is currently on high alert, Jiraiya-sama. Our Jinchuuriki went missing yesterday." he said so only Jiraiya could hear him.
"Shit. Fuck, okay, are you sure?" Jiraiya asked quietly.
The Taki-jonin nodded. "She is supposed to check in once every day. She missed the deadline yesterday and today."
"Why are you sure she was abducted?"
"The private area she lives in outside of the village was destroyed. We also found her blood on the ground, though not enough to kill her. We've assumed it was those Akatsuki guys Konoha told us about."
"Alright, shit. Tell me all of the details. I also need an escort for three of my shinobi back to Konoha. Can that be arranged?"
"Of course, Jiraiya-sama."
"Well, shit." Jiraiya said, surveying what looked like had once been a peaceful clearing. Now it was covered in scorch marks and destroyed earth. He turned to his companions, now just Naruko and the Kumo-nin. "Alright, here's the deal. We saved Yugito because we cannot allow the Akatsuki to capture more Biju."
"You want us to help you recover the Nanabi Jinchuuriki." Yugito stated.
"Yes."
The Kumo-nin all looked at each other, almost having a silent conversation. Omoi and Samui both seemed to have reservations while Yugito and Karui wanted to go. Eventually, Yugito won them over. "Yes. We will help." She swore she'd kill those Akatsuki-nin. Even if they were different ninja, they were Akatsuki and that'd be close enough.
Samui, revealing that she was actually a Sensory-nin was able to track them by following the faint trail of Biju-chakra left behind by the Nanabi Jinchuuriki, a teenager named Fu. They headed out, heading south/south-west.
Kisame and Itachi had stopped to rest for a moment when Itachi stated. "We are being followed, Kisame."
The shark-like man looked over to his partner and smirked. "Are we now? I didn't think that those Taki-nin would have the balls for it."
Itachi shook his head. "It is not Taki-nin."
"Who then?"
"I see the Kyuubi and Nibi."
"Konoha and Kumo? The fuck? Weren't the Zombies supposed to be capturing the Nibi right now?"
"Yes."
"Well, why don't we do their job for them then?"
"Sannin no Jiraiya is also with them."
"Ah. That does make things more difficult."
"There are others I do not recognise, also. This could be a problem."
"How far are they?"
"Close enough that we will not make it back to Ame."
"We wait, then?"
Itachi nodded.
"They have stopped." Samui stated.
"Alright, they know we're here. No fucking around people. Yugito, you and I will take one of them, Naruko and you three will take the other. Clear?"
A chorus of 'yeses' met him and he nodded.
They stopped in a forest clearing to see Itachi and Kisame standing in front of and battered green-haired girl, who was lying on the ground behind them.
"You the real ones this time?" Naruko asked.
"Yes. I was impressed by your defeat of the fake. However, you will not win here." Itachi answered.
Naruko, however, was not in the mood for conversation. She created a large number of Kage Bunshin, sending them charging at the two Akatsuki-nin. Deciding on her target, the real Naruko made her way towards Kisame. While she wanted to fight Itachi she knew her lack of genjutsu talent would be a weakness against him, while her Shakuton and the Kumo-nin's raiton skills would do well against Kisame's suiton abilities.
Kisame swung at her but she quickly slid underneath the wrapped sword, placing and exploding tag under her as she did so. The ground shook and smoke and dust obscured Kisame from their view. Once it cleared, they saw him standing as though nothing had happened, a smirk on his lips showing off his sharp teeth.