A/N: *glares at Konoha ninja* All RIGHT! You've all gotten to posture at your enemies, now will you PLEASE get on with the fight?! *coughs* Ah, sorry about that. But apparently I'm really bad at fight scenes - they just won't come for some reason. I'm trying, but it's not cooperating. Anyway, thanks yet again to all my reviewers: InARealPickle, kirallie, jazzy2may, Rangerfan58, KawaiiIruka, Auphora66, WhyMustIWrite, ChibiAliChan (hopefully I've redeemed Sakura in this chapter), jennfire, iNsAnE nO bAkA and singing ferret.
Disclaimer: This is FAN fiction. Meaning written by someone who has no legal rights to it. That said, enjoy.
Pained blue eyes slid closed for a heartbeat. 'There's no help for it' she thought in despair. 'I'm not strong enough to fight them all. But maybe… maybe I can cause enough damage this way, maybe I can keep these kids safe until someone stronger arrives. …Everyone, I'm sorry…'
Ino took a deep breath, feeling a strange sense of calm settle over her. It was certain death, they would destroy her body the moment it was vulnerable, but her mind-body transfer might just allow her to create confusion among the enemy and buy enough time for reinforcements to arrive.
Blue eyes blazing with sudden determination, slender hands rose in familiar patterns. 'Active in three, two, o-' Her motions were cut short as a hand buried itself in her ponytail, yanking her back. "What the hell do you think you're doing?! Are you trying to get yourself killed?"
Ino looked up into furious – and frightened – green eyes. "Sa…kura?"
The young medic gave her long-time rival a vicious grin. "Stupid. It's not that desperate yet. We've just got to beat these guys and get these kids to safety. Now, let's show these morons what Konoha kunoichi are made of!"
A matching expression spread across Ino's face, along with a feeling of relief. "Yeah, let's." A quick smirk was sent Sakura's way. "Bet I can beat up more of them than you."
"Hah, in your dreams."
-
At the Southern wall, a Jounin team came to an abrupt stop. "What the hell? Where are they?" one of the younger Jounin asked in obvious confusion.
The leader quickly scanned the woodlands outside before turning and barking an order. "Split up, check the perimeter."
As the four Jounin paired off and darted down the walls, the Green Beast felt his thoughts race. 'If they're not at the walls, then…' He glanced over at his partner. "If we don't find traces of them by the next block, we head for the residential area." The other simply nodded.
Right now, there were two possibilities. One, there was a hole in the walls that the enemy was focused on pouring through. And two, they had found a way to bypass the walls altogether.
Gai silently prayed that it was possibility one.
-
'Where is everyone?' Tenten thought as she desperately flung kunai at the squad of Rock shinobi closing in around her. Even her whirlwind of weapons were barely holding them back. 'How did the Rock get this far into Konoha without us knowing about it? I mean, I can see how they got in – they probably stood on those wooden disks, and someone summoned the disks. But who had enough chakra to do that? …And where are the Jounin and Chunin? I'm almost out of scrolls; I need backup here!'
Following Shikamaru's contingency orders, she had gone to the nearest civilian sector in order to begin evacuation. The moment she showed up, she had run directly into a group of three Rock shinobi, which she felt that she could have handled – except for the fact that as earth jutsu cracked the streets around her, civilians has started running out of their houses and trying to escape.
Shielding herself, she could do. Shielding herself and the civilians running all over the place – that was proving tricky.
'Wait' she thought. 'Shielding myself…' As yet another wave of kunai flew towards her, Tenten summoned her last weapon. She held her dual scythe by the handles, letting the connecting chain coil lightly in one hand until she flicked it out. One of the two scythes sailed forward, a slight twist of her wrist sending the weapon spiraling into a shield of spinning steel in front of her. "Everyone, behind me!" she shouted, nodding in approval as the now-directed civilians ran to gather at her back.
She shifted her attention back to the enemy, determination shining in her eyes as she addressed them. "All right you jerks, it's class time. Lesson number one: Don't mess with Konoha!"
The next time a wave of weapons came at her, some of the civilians screamed, but her makeshift shield held. Until a snap of her wrist sent it whistling back, and then snaking out again, slamming into a few of the kunai and sending the enemy's own weapons flying back at them. She grinned in satisfaction as one of the blades buried itself in the leg of one of her enemies.
Now this, she could do.
-
Hinata gasped, her hands trembling slightly with pain and exhaustion. But she countered the fast punch meant for her face, burying her own smaller fist into the enemy shinobi's solar plexus. An odd sense of satisfaction flashed in her as the man doubled over slightly, jumping back as he gasped for breath.
Within her range of vision, she noted that a few of the children were starting to come to. She also noticed that Neji was bleeding, the older Genin clearly having trouble with the limitations inherent in fighting defensively. Hinata was also bleeding, from a stab to the leg and a number of smaller cuts all over her.
But she steeled herself, thinking of four different sets of blue eyes. 'Neji-niisan is counting on me' she thought desperately. 'Father and Hanabi would be disappointed if I cannot even defend a few children, and Naruto-kun… Naruto-kun… believes in me. I have to be strong. I will be strong. For them, for the kids… for me!' Hinata hurriedly called up a water jutsu she had learned in the Academy to counter the fire jutsu that one of the Rock shinobi sent towards her. Her jutsu wasn't quite strong enough, resulting in a blast of heat and a mild burn to her arm, but that was alright. After all, if she had dodged it, then it would have hit Neji or the children.
She only hoped that either the children would wake up or help would arrive before she or Neji were overcome.
-
He stopped, quickly taking in the situation he had stumbled across. A squad of other Genin were desperately fighting a pair of Rock shinobi, but… 'Do they not realize that they are interfering with each other?' he wondered as he saw a boy's kunai nearly embed itself into his teammate's arm. The girl turned to look at the boy, and only the quick intervention of Shino's insects kept the enemy from cutting the girl's throat then and there.
The third Genin shouted at the sudden appearance of the bugs, instantly backing away from them – and his squad. Shino moved quickly, one hand grabbing hold of the boy's arm, dragging him back out of the path of an enemy jutsu. Then he addressed the squad, his voice low and hurried. "What are you doing? You have to fight as a team, to be aware of your teammate's positions."
When the other three shot him fast, odd looks, he suppressed a sigh. "Listen, just… if a yellow bug darts in front of you, back up, you're getting too far away. If a red one does, don't use a long-range attack, you're facing a teammate's direction and could hit them. Okay?" As the other three nodded, he ordered them into a roughly circular defensive formation. But he couldn't help but wonder, 'what has their sensei been teaching them? It obviously wasn't teamwork.'
He was suddenly thankful that Kurenai had taught him to keep an eye on his teammates, particularly Kiba and Akamaru, whose attacks tended to be sudden and difficult to predict. It gave him a distinct advantage in keeping the other three Genin from accidentally killing each other.
-
Lee choked back a cry as his left leg suddenly buckled underneath him, instantly forcing himself back on his feet despite the pain flaring hot and sharp throughout his entire body. The civilians he had found under attack were currently gathered in the house behind him, and it was up to Lee to keep the three Rock shinobi from getting to them.
But his body was still recovering, and he had not pushed it nearly as hard in training as he was forced to now in battle. His muscles were begging him to stop, screaming that they weren't ready for this. But this was not a battle that he could afford to lose.
He leapt back as a kunai tried to lodge itself in his shoulder. Right hand snapping out in an almost instinctive center block, he flinched as the punch's impact radiated through his entire side. Six months ago, he would have been able to block that blow effortlessly, and he had to force that knowledge away. Something inside of him cried out softly as he realized that he might not be strong enough. Again.
Ducking under a round kick meant for his head, Lee felt his leg try to give again, but he refused to fail. Digging into the deepest well of determination and strength he possessed, Lee moved quickly, scoring a powerful kick of his own into the enemy's ribs. As the enemy slid back, the slight doubling over of his form telling his young opponent that he had likely broken at least one of those ribs, the two others came at the boy from opposite sides.
As Lee pivoted on the ball of one foot, hoping he could deflect one attack and still have time to avoid the other, he heard a familiar voice scream out "Gatsuuga!", and a horizontal whirlwind slammed into the shinobi coming at Lee's back. Lee quickly deflected a kunai and used his enemy's momentum to throw the man onto his back and across the ground, and looked over just in time to see Akamaru barrel into the back of a Rock shinobi's knees as Kiba threw a punch to the man's face. The already unsteady man took a spectacular fall, hitting the ground and not moving beyond a quiet groan.
The Inuzuka boy threw Lee a feral grin, calling out to the older teen. "Hey, you alright? Can you keep going?"
Lee gave a single, decisive nod.
Kiba grinned again, turning slightly to call out over his shoulder. "We've got this one, Sensei!"
Lee spun around, jaw dropping slightly to see Kurenai perched on top of the civilian's shelter. The woman looked closely at both boys, glanced over at the remaining Rock shinobi, and stood fluidly. "Alright," she called back, "I'll trust you boys to handle this."
And then the Jounin disappeared even as Lee flashed a thumbs-up and Kiba whooped.
Lee called out to the younger teen, his fighting spirit re-energized by the other boy's enthusiasm. "Alright, Kiba-san, let's DO this!"