Chapter 56: Ready to Attack
"Any idea on when the others are gunna get here?" Naruto asked.
"No, all we know is to keep a watch until they do, then hear Strag's plan based on the information we give him," Kakashi said.
Naruto scoffed at this, recon was boring. What none of them realized was that there was currently a person positioned just outside their own camp gathering information.
"Hmph, others, probably the twelve. I wonder if I got time for a little fun," the man said before a scream was heard throughout the forest.
"Damn, I better get back," the man said before jumping down and running off.
"What was that?" Lee asked as he shot to his feet.
"No idea, but it scared away a spy," Kakashi said as he looked in the direction the man ran off in.
"What? Did he follow us?" Naruto asked following Kakashi's gaze.
"If it was the Alliance he would've attacked," Sakura said.
"Unless the scream scared him off before he could," Kakashi said.
x-X-x
Tek and Tusk came running back to the camp form opposite ends.
"What the hell was that?" Tek asked once he reached the others.
"Anyone hurt?" Tusk asked as he arrived from the other direction.
"It wasn't us. Vox and Kraik just left to check it out," Black said lazily.
"You find our followers?" White asked as Tek and Tusk sat down.
"Naw, they're not that way," Tek said waving his hand in the direction he came from.
"Didn't find 'em, but I didn't get that far either," Tusk said poking the fire.
A few minutes later Vox and Kraik returned, each had a body over their shoulder.
"She screamed," Kraik said as he dropped the woman on his shoulder, "as he killed her," he continued when Vox dropped the man. "we killed him for the disturbance," Kraik said kicking the man's body before sitting down.
x-X-x
A few days later and they seemed to be getting very close. From what they could hear from the Alliance it was another two days. This was somewhat bad news because Naruto was on the verge of blowing the cover the four jounin thought they still had. Boredom was everywhere on this mission. He wanted something, anything to end this perpetual boredom.
Almost as if someone could hear his plea something happened. They were moving in a triangle pattern, Kakashi in the center and front. Sakura directly behind him with Lee a bit behind her and over to the left with Naruto his mirror image on the right. One instant they were moving through the trees without a sound and the next something drastically changed.
Out of the corner of her eye Sakura saw the open forest where Lee had been the instant before. Just as she was about to tell Kakashi he was gone too. No trace, no trail, not evidence of any others, just gone.
Instantly both Naruto and Sakura stopped. Naruto opened his mouth to say something when Sakura vanished like the others. As soon as he registered she was gone Naruto drew two kunai, 'just try and take me,' he thought as he looked around.
The next thing Naruto knew there was a hand over his mouth and one arm holding both of his to his body. Naruto just felt this when the hand and arm were suddenly gone and Naruto was lying on his stomach on the forest floor, several yards behind where he once was.
"Did I do it right?" a familiar voice asked.
Naruto looked up to see two men standing in front of him.
"Yeah Edge, that was perfect," the taller one said.
"Lax, what the hell is going on?" Naruto asked as he got to his feet.
"We had to get you back here silently so the Alliance wouldn't notice," Strag said from behind Lax and Edge.
Naruto looked over at Strag to see all the other terrors as well as Lee, Kakashi and Sakura standing looking at him.
"How'd you move so fast?" Naruto asked putting his kunai away.
"Edge can manipulate objects in space. That paired with my agility and I can warp relatively short distances," Lax said with a slight grin.
"Really? You know Kakashi's been doing that warp trick since I met him," Naruto said stretching his arms.
"Yes well, we're from before ninja was a word, let alone a person," Wiseman said walking up to Naruto.
"Not only that, but it's much different from what I do. When I 'warp' as Lax said, I leave smoke, and make a sound," Kakashi said.
"That's right, and when he took us there was no sound at all and the only thing we saw was someone disappearing," Sakura said.
It was Lax's turn to grin as Naruto pouted. "That's nice, now let's get to work, what have you learned?" Sage asked looking at Kakashi.
x-X-x
"They're gone," White said as they continued forward.
"Good, I've been getting tired of all this," Tek said.
"At this time of day it only means one thing," Lerah said.
"The Twelve are here," Kraik said.
"Wanna wait for them?" Tusk asked.
"No, let them find us. We may get to our army first," Kraik said.
x-X-x
"Will that even work?" Naruto asked.
Kakashi had told the terrors all the information they gathered, and Strag had just told them his plan. Naruto wasn't the only skeptic.
"We knew to come here, didn't we?" Sage asked.
"This is just where Granny sent us," Naruto said.
"Sage told Tsunade to send us here," Kakashi said in an attempt to silence Naruto.
"The most important thing is that they don't know we're here, we still have the element of surprise," Lee said with fire in his eyes.
"No, that was lost the first day you were here," Nomad said.
"What? When? How do you know?" Naruto demanded.
"Nothing of your fault, but you said White is still alive," Wiseman said.
"So," Naruto said still yelling.
"She's my descendant. She could sense you before you even found their camp. Any information you got from them can't really be trusted because they knew you were there the whole time," Sage said.
"But then…" Naruto started.
"We know the army is true, we've got another source for that. And the numbers of who's here we can trust because you saw it. Everything else can't be trusted," Wiseman said.
"When do you want to do this?" Kakashi asked.
"We'll start now, we've already started, you might say," Strag said with a grin.
x-X-x
The seven remaining members of the Alliance stopped in front of a rock face. They had left the heavy forest half a day ago, though there were still thinly laid trees all the way up to the rock. And since their disappearance the previous day, there was no sign of the Leaf ninja.
"Well, we've finally made it, haven't we?" Tusk asked.
"Yeah, this is it," Lerah said as she raised her hands to her ears.
No sooner had she done this when Kraik bellowed at the top of his lungs, "SOEL!"
The others around him, Tusk mainly, rub their ears and muttered threats for the unwarned shout. Lerah was the only one not angered by it. Moments later a man appeared out of the rock near the top of the cliff side. He jumped down and stood before the seven.
He had red sandals, black cloth pants and a blue denim vest. His chest, arms and hands were bare, showing off his dark shin. He had a green cloth over his mouth with its two tails down to his knees. He had yellow eyes and a shaved head. His forehead protector was on his forehead. He was a Snow ninja.
"What took you guys so long to get here?" the man asked.
"We had some problems, like all the others dieing," Black said.
"Damn, you're all that's left?" he asked looking at all of them.
"Soel, shut up and open the door," Kraik said.
"Who are they?" Soel asked ignoring Kraik and gesturing to Tek and Tusk.
"Two of the new members, there need's to be five at each level remember," White said.
"Whoa, who else gets the upgrade?" Soel asked.
"If you don't open the door, I can guarantee you won't," Kraik said through gritted teeth.
"Ah, yes, right on it, sorry," Soel said turning around.
He started going through handseals when White's head snapped up and she turned to look behind her.
"Stop, someone's coming," White said.
Soel stopped the handseals as everyone else turned to look in the direction White was facing. Moments later they could all see and hear the approaching figure. White gasped once the figure was within sight of the others. She could see who it was, but the others still couldn't.
"White who the hell is it?" Kraik asked.
"I thought she was dead, I honestly thought she was dead," White said.
"Who? Blue? She is dead I saw her body," Lerah said.
"No, Link," White said.
The others instantly went silent as they continued watching the figure. Sure enough it was Link. She reached the eight standing there slightly out of breath. Everyone watched her wide eyed as she hunched over catching her breath. She was back in her normal outfit, chain and all.
Once she could breath again Link stood straight up and looked at the others, "man, I am really out of shape," she said with a half laugh.
"What happened?" Black asked.
"The others were killed, I was captured. I gave them information, but nothing they didn't know already. It was hard getting out; I got a guy to fall for me so while I was there I started persuading him to get my things. Once I got my chain I got out of there as fast as I could," Link said.
"Where were you held?" Kraik asked.
"The hospital, I was still wounded. But because I was giving information they thought I turned traitor so I didn't have a guard. I'm still no good in a fight, one of the wounds is still healing," Link said.
"Well, that's one less replacement to find," Kraik said as he turned to Soel, "Open the door now."
"No, don't! Konoha has sent ninja after us," Link said.
"We know, they've been trailing us the past few days," Tek said.
"No, those were the scouts. The terrors already met up with them and an army is behind them, they could wipe out the Errands and destroy the base if they get in," Link said.
"Aw damn. I thought we could send the Errands after the terrors," White said.
"It'll be a war if you do," Link said.
"How do you know this?" Kraik asked with a raised brow.
"I passed the army on my way here. I told them I had a message for the scouts. I didn't find the scouts so I don't know how many there are but…" Link said and the others looked at her.
"Can their army take ours?" Black asked.
"I've never seen our army, but they have a big one," Link said.
"How long 'til they're here?" Kraik asked.
"They're back where the trees start to get thicker," Link said pointing behind her.
"The door takes to long to open and close, we won't get in in time," Soel said.
"Well at least your back Link," Lerah said.