What horrors do his crimson eyes behold? These are the unfathomable depths of Uchiha Itachi.
I don't own Naruto nor do I profit from these writings in any way.
"Speaking"
"Thinking"
"Demon"
Shinsui
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Interlude #2 Go Team Hentai!
"Ohhh! Akane have your breasts filled out?"
"Hahaha, muuu, stop squeezing them, desu! They're kinda sore desu! Don't touch me there it tickles desu!"
"Misato-hentai! Stop groping Akane-sempai!"
"Jealous much monkey girl? Miho-chan is still flat as a board! I'm not interested in boys!"
"Hands off her you creepy dyke!"
"Noo, don't fight! Ah! Stop pinching my nipples! Fuuu!"
"See, Akane doesn't mind!"
"Arrrrghh! She definitely minds!!""
The semi-playful argument between the two sixteen-year old chuunin in the bathhouse and their teammate was viewed through the lens of a powerful field scope a city block away.
"Ah, Akane-chan those breasts will be immortalized if it's the last thing that I do!"
The conversation came not from the ladies in question but from the mouth of the talented young boy who was avidly reading their lips.
"Hahahaha! Noooo! Don't touch there!"
It was a conversation that he was repeating loudly for the benefit and chagrin of his two teammates.
Akimichi Chokichi, twelve year old genin hopeful with his sandy brown hair done up in a sloppy top-knot and his generous girth covered by a blue t-shirt and brown happi coat ensemble, completed by baggy, knee-length pants and other ninja gear. The Akimichi clan crest was displayed proudly on his back.
He was the dutiful and respectful elder son of the famous Akimichi Chouza and was currently munching on a pack of super-crunchy wasabi flavored pork rinds while not! He was definitely not intently listening to the conversation that his friend Kirito Shindou was relating shamelessly.
Kirito Shindou was a studious looking boy with glasses and well-kept black hair. He wore a well tailored black jacket with the crest of a crescent moon and clouds on his back. His shirt and pants were also black and there was a collection of scrolls holstered in his jacket. He wasn't the type of guy that one would expect to be a hentai-lover, an otaku maybe but it could not be denied that he was currently grossly misusing his well-honed information gathering skills.
The third member of this prospective four person cell was the beautiful, young Miss Yamanaka Hitomi, blessed with startling hazel eyes filled with flecks of green and chips of ice-blue color mixed in with shades of brown and grey. Her ash-blonde hair was currently done in a short ponytail that reached the collar of her halfway unbuttoned blue jacket, the only concession to her parents who thought a wire-mesh bodysuit covered only by a purple tank-top and tights with a few artfully placed bandages and ninja gear was a bit 'much'.
She was at the moment trying to ignore her teammate and try to keep her temper. Unfortunately her efforts seemed to be in vain because any second now she felt that she was going to-
"Will you quit it with that disgusting habit you perverted Nimrod!!!!"
-explode...
Team twelve's sensei one Nura Rikudo found his genin in a tangled mess of punching fists and kicking legs.
He smiled witheringly.
A few minutes later a bashful group of prospective genins were following their sensei through the crowded streets of Konoha. Nura Rikudo seemed to be one of those no-nonsense, well put together adults that the graduates had learnt could be dependable.
Sadly that impression didn't last.
It all started out well with the three obediently following their sensei. First Rikudo-sensei wandered into the Yamanaka Flower shop. Hitomi cooed at little Ino while Kirito watched their team's sensei. He bought six yellow chrysanthemums, a dozen rock roses and a score of fragrant cinnamon tree buds all of which were arranged around three peonies in full bloom.
Kirito frowned slightly as he adjusted his glasses.
"Unless I'm mistaken sensei seems to be apologizing to someone. All of those flowers, in the language of flowers yellow chrysanthemums mean slighted love, cinnamon buds mean forgiveness of injury; rock roses mean surety, Peonies mean romantic love." Shindou mused upon just what his sensei was doing as he followed the man out of the shop.
The genin then followed their sensei into a bookstore where they watched their teacher pick up a book from a shady looking store clerk. Then he led them to an apartment complex and asked the three to wait outside. At this point Hitomi and Shindou began trading ideas about what their sensei could be doing.
"A jilted lover!"
"Too mundane."
"He was the jilted lover!"
"Too lame."
"A sick friend?"
"I doubt it."
"Perhaps a new love interest?"
"If they're on the outs and he's trying to curry favor!"
"Maybe they're for his mother."
The two blinked at Chokichi's suggestion and looked at him as if to say "Are you nuts?"
The stocky boy merely shrugged.
Suddenly there was a muffled crash and Rikudo-sensei came barreling out of the door and sagged boneless atop Hitomi, there was a bruise on his right cheek. Strangely, the passers-by all acted as if what had happened was an everyday occurrence but that fact went over the genin's heads at the moment, all of their attention was on their sensei.
"I cannot go on without you. Darling, without your love, without your lingering kiss I'm hopeless." Rikudo muttered into Hitomi's ear.
"Ehhhh! K-k-k-kiss!" The girl thought as she blushed heavily. Chokichi stared in amazement while Shindou grabbed for a pen and paper.
"The Way of the Lolita-L-o-v-e-r, by Rikudo-Sensei, step one" Shindou murmured as he scribbled.
Unfortunately the boy got no further as his sensei suddenly jumped to his feet with renewed invigoration and dragged the children off to a tea house.
"Come on! Come on! Youngsters should eat heartily while they play hard! Heh, heh!" Their sensei laughed raucously in the somewhat upscale teahouse causing the other guests, mostly young women, to giggle.
"Is this a bribe?" Hitomi wondered aloud as she gazed longingly at Chokichi's banana split with extra, extra whipped cream. Kirito ordered mitarashi dango while Hitomi had some green tea.
Their sensei drank some sake from a ceramic sakazuki while eating some yakitori with salted daikon slices. He seemed to be pensive for a while before swallowing and beginning to speak.
"Well it seems like we all got off on the wrong foot so allow me to begin again. Hello, my name is Nura Rikudo, you chickadees can call me Rikudo-sensei, but if you really want to get on my good side just call me Rikudo-nii-san or Rikudo-O-chama. I don't mind as long as it's cute!"
At this point Shindou cut in before things became too confusing. "Sensei, what happened back there? Did you cheat on a girl or something? Is that why you got clobbered, for cheating with someone's friend?"
Rikudo-sensei paused in consideration. "Not just the friend." He said slowly. "If you must know my girlfriend walked in on me having sex with her best friend, her best friend's sister, her own sister and her mother." He mused to himself while Hitomi's face paled and white cream dribbled out of Chokichi's open mouth, they were twelve-year olds after all.
Kirito was cheering.
"Well, after she walked in on me I tried to offer her a place in the daisy-chain but for some reason she didn't seem interested, in fact, she even seemed upset." Rikudo continued.
"Of course she was!" Hitomi exclaimed.
"Now, now that's just a childish way of looking at things. If all those people close to her were indulging themselves, doesn't that mean that she was missing out on something? Birds of a feather or something like that ya know? It reminds me of the time when I once went to see the Sakura trees in bloom, it was a beautiful sight but all too soon it was over, the trees were bare and the ground was covered in rotting blossoms. I always cried back then but now I understand that bad things and good things are just a part of life, why bother with the injustice of it all when you can just live your life with the people you love, and speaking of love…"
"Why'd we get the weird one?" Hitomi whispered to Shindou.
"-market prices are so high these days it makes getting a job so difficult, let alone keeping one…"
"I hear all jounin get a little eccentric over time, maybe he's actually the normal one." Shindou replied.
"-rosebuds running, ripping, reaping, really, wheelies, widely, wisely, say it six times quickly and…"
"Can we apply for another team?" Hitomi wondered.
"-until you pass, you're not really, genin…"
"Huh? What was that last part?" Shindou exclaimed having only been listening with half an ear.
"Hmmm? Where did I lose you?" Rikudo asked.
"At hello," Hitomi muttered spitefully.
But Chokichi answered smartly having actually been listening to his sensei's rambling stream of consciousness. "Rikudo-sensei was explaining the meaning of life as it applies to the adult world and informing us that we wouldn't be considered official genin and thus adults until passing a final evaluation exam from our assigned jounin."
"Huh! Test!" Hitomi screamed in outrage.
"I'm sure I mentioned this before, if you pass you're in if you don't then you're ninja career ends, simple." Nura-sensei chirped happily.
Hitomi looked like she wanted to scream and had to be dragged away after team twelve was dismissed.
Their exam the next day was an infiltration and retrieval mission and at first things went smoothly until a chunin entered the apartment and very nearly caught them. If they hadn't worked together they would never have retrieved the locked security box from its recess in the bedroom wall. They'd run a wild chase through Konoha before finally losing the older woman in the crowds around the market place.
They'd been in high spirits when Nura-sensei passed them. So much so that when Nura-sensei offered to show them what they'd recovered Hitomi, Chokichi and Shindou had all eagerly agreed.
"T-t-this is!!!" Shindou exclaimed as a gentle glow fell upon the three genin's faces.
"Yup! The Limited Gold edition Icha Icha Paradise Volume One! It'll go well with my silver edition Icha Icha Battles!" Rikudo-sensei crowed happily as he pulled the silver colored book from beneath his jounin vest and placed it in the box.
"Sa-chan wouldn't let me near the bedroom where I hid it, not even when I gave her flowers." Rikudo-sensei muttered sadly.
Shidou continued staring while Chokichi slowly inched behind him and away from-
"Ero-hentai!!! All this was to collect the porn you were hiding from your ex!!!"
Go Team Hentai!!!
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While Genhei has an Epiphany
"Hm, hmmm, hm. hm, hm!" The girl hummed mentally.
"Hmm, hm, hm, hmmm!" She was humming an old lullaby
"Well, my name is Inuzuka Suzume, I'm currently a twelve and a half year old genin teamed up with a scary seven year old and an uptight Hyuuga, though I've yet to meet any other type of Hyuuga." The girl in question ducked under a wild swing from a sword, dropping to her hands and knees. She then coiled her body into a leaping handstand and kicked her aggressor in the chin.
Spinning away from the man she paid no attention as a red furred Akita Inu leapt upon the staggering man's exposed neck and ripped his throat out. With animalistic moves the girl spun away from another attack clawing at her opponents eyes. Swiftly moving behind her enemy in a low crouch, she drew a kunai from her leg holster and stabbed the man the back aiming for a kidney before ripping the weapon out leaving a ragged wound, spurting blood.
Then in a wild leaping somersault, she kicked and broke the nose of another approaching bandit before landing hard on the shoulders of the man desperately trying to staunch the blood flowing freely from his back. The impact of her landing and her added weight brought the man to his knees, where a certain Akita Inu was waiting…
"To be perfectly honest I'm the type that likes girlish, no, I like feminine things. Unfortunately such things don't suit me, but Moriko-sensei says that a kunoichi can be both strong and beautiful. Gai-sensei was very kind and told me that I was in the bloom of the spring time of youth or whatever! He said that most guys prefer strong women!"
The stab wound was in an awkward place for the man to properly staunch the bleeding and the dog savaging his groin didn't help matters. When the girl kicked off his shoulders, with the dog following close behind, he fell onto his face with a keening wail and did not rise.
"To be a strong and beautiful Kunoichi is my goal!"
The girl spun violently with her dog clinging to the back of her hoody. She used her momentum to break through the guard of an unfortunate bandit and plunge her now claw-like thumbs into the man's eye-sockets. She then drove her knee into the bleeding face of the howling man. The studded metal knee pads hidden under her pants, impacted with crushing force on the blinded man's face, as she leapt away, spinning her body in a tight spiral, she smiled.
"I'm like, sooo happy!"
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Earlier that Day
Mi-chan was very, very happy with her boss. She loved getting the guys coffee and her co-workers were always willing to point out that she should always lift from her knees and not from her waist. They watched out for her to let her know when she was bending instead of stooping. She really should have learned her lesson but she kept making the same mistakes, fortunately there was no end of volunteers to give her a back-rub when she was sore.
The wire coordinator was very impressed with Mi-chan, he said that she could do things that he had never seen before. He put her on the first team and promised to keep her there as long as she did her work properly even if she was something of a ditz.
Mi-chan was really, like, really popular. Guys from the crew seemed to flock to her like bees to a flower. They all tried to find reasons to keep her in their section even though she was assigned to the stunt group. They babbled about everything, anything to keep her there a moment longer. Mi-chan heard lots of interesting gossip. She 'oohed' and 'ahhed' appropriately when told about the many famous actors on the set. She 'oohed' and 'ahhed' most sensually when they talked about Xiaou Wu Long…
Mi-chan was so very interested to talk about him so they talked about him often…
Very interested…
Mi-chan listened as Assistant Director Mizuno took the time to answer some questions from the ninja-brats about the cave entrances dotting the mountainside. Some of the crew who were off-duty listened as well so Mi-chan had no need to hide her interest.
Michiru was bored.
"It's been theorized that these cave systems pass all through the mountain range, but no-one has ever been able to create a comprehensive map." Mizuno lectured the genin.
Michiru already knew that and more, Mi-chan smiled in interest.
"There are some places where the system intersects the underground water-table, unexplored sections that are completely flooded." Mizuno continued.
Michiru knew better, those sections were unexplored because if the misdirection genjutsu and the barrier seals failed to work then her clan would assassinate anyone who got too far. There were hidden bunkers that had been in use since before Iwa had invaded Tatami during the last war. Large, fresh water cisterns, formed from deliberately flooded caves were used to provide the Kouga clan with several years' worth of drinking water. If need be sections could be drained into nearby rivers or blocked to refill empty cisterns.
At this time of year if Shigure, the late autumn showers, came as predicted then the barriers used to control the water level within the mountain would be lowered to prevent flooding.
"It's a rather mysterious place." Mizuno finished.
Mi-chan 'oohed' and Michiru smirked inside as her hair was tousled in the wind. She brushed her hair out of her eyes and idly wondered about a way to get closer the main actor without arousing suspicion.
Minutes later an assistant production manager ran up to her with an urgent request. Mi-chan jumped for joy and Michiru smirked again. .
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Two and a half hours later
The smirk was long gone from Michiru by the time that she was allowed on the set. Being assaulted by two effeminate men who criticized everything about her from her 'coarse' hair to her toe-nails, "What the fuck was wrong with a slightly chipped pinky nail?!"
They complained loudly over their 'subject matter' like she was a lump of low quality stone waiting to be carved and they weren't sure that she wouldn't just crumble at the first tap. She tried to keep her cool as she was pushed and pulled, poked and prodded this way and that way, made to wear the most ridiculous of costumes, had her face, painted, spray-painted and her hair styled and woven with fake hair of all things. In the end she was just moments away from stabbing someone when the costume and makeup managers declared themselves saints for performing a miracle.
If they called her an ugly duckling, one more time…
As it was Michiru was somewhat overwhelmed with the staring and played off her nervousness at being watched by that creepy child ninja as stage fright. She was certain that the Director was going to call an end to the scene when she heard whistling.
The whistling of arrows…
Michiru didn't hesitate to tackle her squawking co-star and cover his body with her own, keeping him alive was a part of her mission from Inuki-sama after all.
The first explosion drove the wind from her lungs and knocked her out.
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Gai's mission was to secure the safety of the leading man, thus while Xiaou Wu Long was being swept away by the flood waters he should have been hurrying after the man intent on dragging him to safety. Unfortunately, the red cloaked ninja that he was fighting had other ideas.
The man that he was fighting seemed well versed in a style of Goken that he hadn't ever seen before. The were elements of snake and horse style kung fu mixed in and the fighter used his cloak to throw off Gai's ability to sense his opponents centre of gravity and direction of movement.
The fight was further complicated by the random bandit who would try to attack from his dead angle. To be truthful he wasn't so concerned by a bandit's clumsy attempts at a sneak attack as he was by the group that were making their way over to the film crew sheltering from the arrows and the waves on a rock outcropping while Director Mikuno furiously ordered them to keep filming.
Gai's divided attention cost him as the bladed end of his opponent's kusarigama nicked his chest. There was a slow burning sensation and the skin around the wound became numb.
"Poison!" Gai thought.
Fortunately the toxin seemed to be a type that paralyzed muscles and was none too potent. Few warriors carried poisoned blades unless they were assassins or hunting big or fast moving game. Otherwise the risk of poisoning themselves accidentally was too great.
Still Gai grimaced as he stab kicked a bandit approaching from behind on the left. At the same time he reached into his backpack.
It was time to use that.
The masked man was almost upon him again when the nunchaku cleared its case. The thick metal bar whirred as Gai spun the free section and sparked when he used it to bat away a spiked mace. Gai spun and ducked, allowing a curved sickle to pass throughthe space previously occupied by his neck. His legs coiled and added power to his rotation as he swung about into a leaping charge from below.
The nunchaku blurred into a dark arc that smashed one of the kusarigama blades into useless scrap, the links changed hands and Gai batted away a mace with such force, that the spiked metal ball burst off of its chain and rocketed toward its wielder.
His opponent leapt backward desperately, flipping backwards into the water as the fist-sized spiked ball blasted into the rocky ground at his feet. For a second Gai sighed, grateful that the arrows had stopped flying. Suddenly a dark shadow fell over him and Gai turned about in time to see a giant paw slap a spear wielding bandit on the head causing the man to slam resoundingly onto the rocky earth.
Gai blinked.
"Well…"
There was a giant panda wearing a mawashi and kesho-mawashi standing upright with the sun behind it and the breeze ruffling its fur and the ornate green silk belt about its waist.
For a moment Gai was at a loss for words.
Then the panda grunted.
Now to be clear, Maito Gai was a manly man. Manly men the world over, regardless of language, ideological or cultural differences were all able to naturally understood the language of grunts, it was just something that came with having a penis.
Pandaspeak "Meh-hmm grunt!"
Gaispeak "Your…kenpo…is…very good!"
Pandaspeak "Grunt cheh-hmmm-grunt! Grrrrrr!"
Gaispeak "I have come…to do battle…with the one that you fight…Do not get in my way! Grrrrrr!"
Any further conversation was curtailed as Gai batted away a spiked ball and then dodged three fish-shaped water missiles. The Giant panda simple smashed its paw down upon the water element jutsu in what looked like a tsukitaoshi maneuver.
Pandaspeak "Mehmmmm!"
Gaispeak "Panda Rakanken!"
The rocky ground was crushed by the blow but the panda wasn't finished. Twisting to one side and dropping to all fours the creature lifted both fore and rear limbs on its right side.
Pandaspeak "Grunt grunt grunt!"
Gaispeak "Panda Dairankanken!"
Gai was forced to abort his fight with the masked man when a wave of rock blasted toward his opponent, shaking the mountainside. The ground seemed to literally unzip and reseal itself. The hillock that they were fighting on began to collapse into the flood water. Suddenly there was a piercing whistle and the ninja wearing a laughing mask leapt into the muddy water and did not resurface.
Pandaspeak "Cheh!"
Gaispeak "Cheh!"
Before Gai's amazed eyes the giant panda grunted dismissively, slapped its front paws together and vanished in a swirl of leaves.
"Too cool! Too cool! You're too cool Mysterious Panda X!!" Squealed Gai, giving the exit two thumbs up.
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While Maito Gai meets Mysterious Panda X
Moriko dodged again. This time the blade had shaved away a few wayward strands of hair. Her tanto was an inadequate weapon to go against her opponent's katana. Hannya mask took every advantage of that fact and seemed to be keeping the pressure on her, not giving her a chance to run, just waiting for her to make a fatal mistake.
She'd tried kawarimi only to nearly be skewered, and she hadn't tried closing to lock blades after what had happened the first time…
--
The tanto was quickly drawn from its hidden sheath inside of the scroll on her lower back and swung around in an arc meant to disembowel the ninja sneaking up behind her. It was met by the flat of a katana blade. Moriko's other hand was almost invisible as it darted toward her enemy's neck in a blurred motion. For although she wouldn't be able to trap her attacker in a more complex genjutsu with one hand occupied she could still use one of her minor tricks if she could touch the back of his neck.
She was aware of the hand that jabbed into her chest below her right collar bone and immediately suspected that the enemy ninja might be trying something similar to what she was attempting. As a result she immediately attempted a jutsu cancel. The maneuver saved her life…
There was a sharp tearing main that was swiftly stopped as Moriko expelled the foreign chakra from her body and stilled her own chakra flow for a second. She coughed up blood and spat the red fluid that had collected in her mouth into the eyeholes of the Hannya mask. A quick shunshin later and she hid underwater trying to heal the damage wrought by the unknown jutsu…
---
Things were getting desperate, this man was the wrong opponent for her, she swiftly ran through her options while vainly fending off her opponent. There was a flash of pain followed by a hot flush of warmth as Hannya mask's katana slid home between the lower ribs on her left side. The tanto fell from her nerveless fingers and in the distance her opponent could hear Suzume scream in horror.
He swiftly turned in the girl's direction, drawing a second blade in preparation of an attack when Take began sprouting from the ground at his feet. The swift growing stems swiftly became giant bamboo clumps, pinning his body in place. From the stems above Moriko emerged.
"Magen: Jubaku Satsu, Demonic Illusion: Tree Bind Death"
As her tanto arced toward his neck Hannya mask broke the illusion and leapt away from her. Moriko's blade, instead of sinking into her opponent's neck, scored a line across Hannya mask's shoulder.
"Ninpo: Hyakka Ryouran, Ninja Art Profusion of Blooming Flowers"
Hannya masks vision was filled with flowers, the illusion covered his sense of smell with a mix of fragrances and the rustling of plant life distorted his hearing. It was only instinct and experience that allowed Hannya to dodge the blade that stabbed from his blind spot.
"Kai!"
The flower filled field twisted and faded away revealing the soaking wet form of Murasaki Moriko.
For someone who had dodged death just seconds ago, Hannya mask seemed quite satisfied.
"Those eyes…and the genjutsu…" He murmured. "You are a Kurama clan member…"
Moriko said nothing.
Hannya charged forward at high speed in a zigzag pattern that confused the senses. Suddenly he stopped and threw his head backward.
"Don't underestimate me girl!" He roared.
A kunai had nearly taken him in the eye, thrown from Moriko's actual position thirty degrees to the left of the image in Hannya mask's mind.
"Magen: Nijū Kokoni Arazu no Jutsu, Demonic Illusion: Double Sly mind effect"
A brace of kunai and shuriken flew from Hannya masks blind spot, the whistling noise of their passage through the air was his only warning over the roaring water. Hidden in an illusion under an illusion Moriko was actually positioned thirty degrees to the right of the image in Hannya mask's mind.
She arrowed in toward him behind the cloud of flying weapons, Hannya mask used a chakra string originating from the darkness of the mouth piece of his mask to draw the third katana from his belt and poise the weapon overhead like a scorpion's stinger. The three weapons blurred into motion, deflecting the kunai and shuriken. Some of the weapons were harmless bunshin, but a few were actually hidden by genjutsu. After having one stab into his chest, deflected by the armor under his kimono, Hannya Mask caused the floating weapon the spin like a propeller before flashing viciously at Moriko who dodged.
Their battle was further complicated when a masked woman darted out from behind a rock and attempted to behead Hannya with a wide curving blade. The force of the blow was such that it had taken all tree of his swords to fend off the attack.
Normally this may have been the end for Hannya but the newcomer seemed to work at cross purposes with his first opponent and at times seemed to be willing to kill the violet haired kunoichi if it meant striking a blow against him.
The fight continued on in this manner for a few moments until Hannya mask noticed a faint orange glow followed by a pained scream and a plume of black smoke. Then, the mountain rumbled. Not seeing his target, Hannya mask whistled sharply and then dived into the water, vanishing.
A moment later the masked kunoichi dressed in a green and brown keikogi fled in a swirl of leaves while Moriko struggled to slow her breathing. Unable to stop the fleeing ninja, she shifted her attention to the stranded film crew.
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While the Bandit troupe lets fly with arrows
Manju Mareo was having a field day because for once he'd been assigned a duty that didn't involve charging blindly a group of armed guards. He chuckled at the thought that his fellow bandits would be doing exactly that against ninja on the slope opposite. He felt no guilt that some of his explosive tagged arrows would be killing his comrades.
"After all, the fewer to share the more money for m-"
--
Whatever Manju Mareo was thinking ended when an iron staff smashed into his temple, cracking his skull open like an egg.
"Bojutsu: Ou Ranken!! Bo Technique: Phoenix Orchid Circle"
Twirling the metal staff while spinning in a circle, the heavy weapon cracked skulls, broke kneecaps, smashed bows, the hands that held them and generally caused outright mayhem as its wielder, a masked woman dressed in a form fitting suit under a short yukata progressed down the line of archers.
A few of the men at the end of the line dropped their bows and charged forward with swords and clubs. The woman used her bo to vault into the above the two men spinning in a brief somersault before swinging the metal staff upon them twice, first while in the air and again as she landed, using the momentum of her body's spin to add power to the dreadful blows.
"Bojutsu Ougi: Nijū Raimei!! Bo Secret Technique: Double Thunderclap"
All that remained to the two men was a pool of crushed meat and the blood dripping from the staff which became a length of bamboo as woman stopped reinforcing it with earth element chakra.
A small monkey scurried onto the woman's shoulders as her eyes hidden behind a blood-splattered Noh mask surveyed the twisted corpses surrounding her.
No more arrows rained from the sky that day.
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After the Sky stopped raining arrows
Hideo systematically wiped out all the bandits attacking the film crew. After he had helped Itachi and Suzume move the civilians under cover they had been dodging the raining arrows while dealing with the raiders. Itachi had quickly noticed that some of the arrows were explosive and he worked at catching thos before thay got near to the mountain and added to the havoc.
Director Mikuno was screaming out orders like a general and generally waving a figurative 'See me! Kill me!' sign over his head, Hideo had already saved the man from being hit in the neck by arrows no less than seventeen times. The middle aged man simply carried on much to the genin's chagrin.
"Get a -)(!$^&:ing clue and stay under cover!" He thought with uncharacteristic heat after saving the man for the eighteenth time.
He dodged around a blow and tapped his fingers against a bandit's shoulder. The man swung with his left fist and Hideo tapped that too. The man kicked and Hideo tapped a few places on the offending limb. The man hopped forward on one foot, arms swinging limply and tried to head-butt the genin.
Hideo tapped him on the crown, the hapless bandit keeled over and did not rise.
Somewhere along the way Hideo lost track of Itachi.
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While Hideo taught someone about a brick wall called fate
Itachi raced after the lead actor and actress as they were being swept away by the flood waters. He had almost reached them when a dark object blasted into the ground before him. a quick kawarimi allowed him to get out of the open and hide in the meager shadow of a boulder.
Carefully using his headband as a mirror he looked around his cover. The object that had slammed into the ground a metal gauntlet attached to a chain. The other end led to what looked like a giant bat but on closer inspection was really a man with some kind of strange, wings attached to his back via a harness. Itachi also noticed that Xiaou Wu Long and the stage hand were wedged between some rocks and debris. It was a precarious position too close to the edge of the cliff.
Then something else happened. There was a whirring sound and a small girl appeared over the crest of a nearby ridge. The masked girl wore a lime green yukata and a necklace of blue beads. She was holding onto what looked like a stripped down umbrella, only in place of the ribs were six spinning blades.
To Itachi's sharp eyes it seemed that three blades spun in a clockwise direction while three spun in a counter clockwise direction. With an eerie glow the beads around the girl's neck separated and took flight attacking both the winged man and barreling into the earth around the actors that Itachi was trying to save.
Even as the aerial battle began Itachi had already dipped his hand into his equipment pouch. His eyes never leaving the battle, never letting his charges out of view and at the same time he was desperately trying to keep track of all the small objects; following trajectories, analyzing attack patterns, mapping the battlefield and struggling to come up with a plan.
Slowly, his irises turned blood red and two tomoe began circling each of his pupils.
"Sharingan!"
From the perspective of a weapons master the plan that Itachi came up with was a thing of beauty.
After all he was the only graduate to ever score 200% on a test graded out of 100% for shurikenjutsu.
He had achieved that score with a performance that paled in comparison to this.
"Stage One!"
Itachi first hurled eight kunai in a standard fan dispersal pattern, then eight more in a closing orchid pattern where the kunai curved outward and then inward toward a single point. Then, using chakra he swiftly threw shuriken at seemingly random intervals.
The bat winged man barrel-rolled to avoid the thrown weapons and again to dodge the even faster moving shuriken. But Itachi wasn't aiming at him.
Initially…
The girl who was attacking the main actor tried increasing her altitude and counter-attacking but as Itachi had noted there was a range limitation to how far away she could send her flying beads. Lying flat on his back one of the metal balls stopped mere inches from his face before rocketing away.
When the girl tried lowering herself and dodging the thrown weapons instead, Itachi's shuriken caught up to the kunai.
It was a beautiful chain reaction of ricochets and secondary ricochets, the ordered patterns of the weapons changed into a mystifying maze of death. Even when the kunoichi tried to fly higher again there was no escape as some of the thrown shuriken impacted flush on the base of the kunai, shooting them even higher than they had initially been thrown.
Some of the weapons ricocheted downward falling far faster than they would have naturally and doing so in patterns that forced the bat-winged shinobi to pay attention to what was going on above as he was surprised by a few of the blades falling toward him.
"Stage Two!"
One of the kunai neither fell to earth not rocketed skyward, instead it spun in mid-air, midway between the two flying ninja, before the smoke bomb attached to its ring exploded, engulfing the two flyers.
Red eyes narrowed, picking up outlines through the haze.
Itachi scrambled to his feet and reached into his backpack in preparation.
A second later an angry bat-winged flyer shot out the bottom of the cloud.
"You fucking brat!"
He was exactly where Itachi expected him to be.
"A shuriken?!" The masked ninja thought.
Flying head first towards a giant shuriken Crying Mask was barely able to evade by using the aerial acrobatics of his artificial wings.
"Stage Three!"
"Kage Shuriken no Jutsu!" Itachi smirked.
"A second shuriken hidden in the shadow of the first! Kuu!" The masked ninja mused.
"But!"
Twisting his arm around the flying ninja blocked the flying blade with a gauntleted fist and shot the armored claw off of his hand and down toward the boy below.
"Stage Four!"
A soft flutter of cloth wads the man's only warning of the figure that landed on his back. Reacting out of instinct alone he reached overhead at the first touch and fired the second gauntlet. The metal fist grabbed onto the boy's head and launched him into the air.
"The smoke cloud wasn't just a distraction to hide his set up, he had intended from the beginning to use the shadow of the cloud to hide his own shadow. The trap in the shuriken hidden in the shadow of the fake shuriken was a diversion from a diversion! This child! Just what is he?!" Crying mask thought furiously.
Looking down, his hidden eyes narrowed as they took in the apathetic face of the genin evading his gauntleted fist that was digging a trench through the ground as the boy hopped from rock to rock in evasion.
Dark black hair in a short ponytail, a calm face, milky white skin, dark red eyes with the-
"Shit!"
"Stage Five!"
Itachi ran ahead of the metal gauntlet and then leapt off of the edge of the cliff. His fists covered in the pilfered gloves of a wirejutsu user clutched with all their might to a cat's cradle of wires that were wrapped around a moss covered boulder. Midway though Itachi's leap he was jerked into an arc as the wires came taut and pulled him out of the path of the gauntlet.
At the same time there was a shriek and a strangled shout.
As Itachi swung toward the apex of his arc the smoke cloud began to clear and reveal the final part of his plan.
The girl in the hovering contraption was desperately trying to disentangle herself from the wires trapping her and being reeled in by the spinning propellers, a kunai attached to a wire was stuck in her leg. The wires used the same moss covered boulder as a pulley. The other end of the wires was looped around the neck of the bat-winged ninja, strangling him.
"Shurikenjutsu: Shoufuushou no Tachi, Shuriken Art: Windmill Blade Manipulation"
Shadow clone Itachi vanished with a –Poof- within the second gauntleted fist.
Itachi's body and the centripetal force generated by his movement served as a counterweight that dragged the asphyxiating male ninja down toward the boulder. At the apex of his curve Itachi had the weakly struggling man pinned to the rock.
"Katon: Ryuuka no Jutsu, Fire Release: Dragon Fire Technique!"
Beginning as a white hot line of fire spat out from his mouth, the flames quickly expanded into a dragon shaped burst of fire that shot along the guide wire and impacted on the trapped ninja who screamed in agony. A much smaller burst of flame followed along another wire toward the girl in the hovering tool but she had by then managed to free herself and leapt clear.
A dark shadow dived toward her and a large eagle with a broad fifteen foot wingspan grabbed her out of the air and the two glided out of view as the hovering device was consumed in flames.
At the same time the mountain rumbled and there was a piercing whistle. The flood water splashed against the cherry red rock and it steamed. With a loud crack it split and the loop of wire unraveled. The red hot rock and the corpse baked into it missed Itachi but the deluge of water and debris didn't. He struggled to hold on but something jerked against his waist, pulling him off the wire.
He struggled to hold on to the rock face with chakra but the water made the rocks slippery and he slid about halfway down the cliff before stopping. He was tugged a second time off of his perch and a camera tripod struck him on the head.
There was darkness…
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AN: How'd you like that? And just to note all of my stories are currently active. Updates will come. Read and review. TTFN.