Dynamic Updatto! Surprise! Never thought I'll be able to pull something like that off again, but here I am! Just like the previous time, I'm able to update ALL my "Naruto" fic at the same time! Also this time around it's more of a celebration! Tomorrow I'm turning 21 (boy, am I old or what) and to make it special not only for me but for you guys also, I've decided to sit down to it and wrote new chapters of all my fics. Hope you'll enjoy them!
Thanks for the reviews for last time. I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter, especially considering how hard Hidan's and Kakuzu's abilities are for me to use for fights. I hope you'll enjoy this one as well. As usual at this point, I'll try to answer your reviews without spoiling too much, but since most of you were interested of how this fight will end and what's the deal between Kyouki and Yugito, then I can just say that if you'll read this chapter, you'll find some answers. Also, a special note to one of the reviewers (who I wasn't able to answer until now): I'm following the manga closely and I'm aware what's going on in it. I'm aware of the event that took place in chapter 328, but whether it'll take place in my fic or not… well, I'd prefer not to reveal it, coz I hate being a spoiler. I can only say that even though at some points I'll follow the original, many events will look different and some will be made completely by me (like the current adventure in the Lighting Country).
With that said, I believe the only thing left for me to do is to get on with the 'show':
Chapter #15: All Out War
"Now you'll suffer the full power of my curse!" announced Hidan as he held out a small, silver cross that was tied around his neck while he walked back into the middle of the circle he made with his own blood, which now was black and mostly dry. He tighten his grip on the scythe and in an instant threw it to the sky, dropping the three blades onto the young shinobi the next second. At the same time, Kakuzu charged forward with his fists ready.
As the scythe blades were getting closer, Kiba crawled down and used both his hands and legs to bounce off the ground and went into a spinning flight, parallel to the ground, straight at the former waterfall-nin. Kakuzu only managed to came to a stop and place his hands in defense in order to minimize the damage before the two collide.
At the same time Naruto, along with other leaf-nins jumped to the side in order to avoid getting hit by the scythe, whereas Kyouki didn't move and inch and used the blunt side of his katana to block the incoming blade. As the huge scythe stopped, Yugito jumped onto it and charged on it towards Hidan.
Surprised at first, the missing-nin reached for his shuriken and threw three shinobi stars straight at the charging kunoichi, but the blonde girl only performed a quick set of hand seals, thus making electricity surrounded her and as the weapons came closer, she jumped up, spinning.
Hidan's eyes widen as he saw his shuriken, which flew bellow Yugito, suddenly changed course and began to fly as if they were making a circle around the Cloud kunoichi. As the girl landed back on the scythe, the three shinobi stars shoot straight at the former rain-nin, without the blonde even touching them. "That little hag… she charged herself with electricity to form a magnetic field around herself… when my shuriken flew bellow her they got attracted and she could control their flight!" and with that thought his own weapons cut his body.
In the same moment Yugito reached him and picking out her kunai, she yelled: "Eat this, asshole!" and with all her strength she threw all the knives at Hidan even though he was less then a meter away. As all the blades sunk deep into his chest, the missing-nin was send flying back and let go of his huge scythe.
But as the former rain-nin began falling back, the Cloud kunoichi noticed that his hand was still connected with the handle of his weapon. "Chakra string!" she realized instantly, a second too late however. With one, quick pull, Hidan brought his scythe back to his hand, making Yugito lose her balance as the thing she stood on just a second ago suddenly disappeared from bellow her feet.
Trying to save herself, the cloud-nin flipped in mid air and somehow managed to land safely on her feet, yet Hidan was already attacking: he swung his scythe from the girl's right. Considering that the huge weapon was only inches away, the kunoichi didn't manage to block it. Luckily for her the former rain-nin didn't had enough time to shorten his own weapon and so the three blades went right behind Yugito whereas the girl herself go his in the right arm by the long handle.
The impact itself made her lose her balance again and forced to take few steps to her left in order to regain it. It was then that Hidan made his move again. It a flash the blades of his scythe began retreating and thus headed straight at the kunoichi. Before the girl could react, her right arm was cut deeply by all, three blades.
"Yugito!" Kyouki only managed to call out as the kunoichi yelled in pain while collapsing to the ground. In an instant the former rain-nin licked the blood that was on his blades again and stepped into the circle. "Game over, demon…" he stated calmly as he aimed a spike at his chest. Before anyone could react, he used it to pierce his own body and instantly cough out blood. But to his surprise, the Cloud kunoichi was perfectly fine.
"Wha…?" his eyes widen as he looked at the blonde girl. It was then that a part of his circle began moving, thus revealing that it was made of Shino's bugs. The former rain-nin immediately glared at the sunglasses chuunin, who only held out his hand, welcoming his little helpers.
"When Hinata blew you out of that circle, I figured it'd be better to make sure you won't use it again…" Shino answered the unasked question calmly. "I ordered by bugs to wipe a part of it and lay in way that they'd pretend that the circle was not broken. Since the blood you used to paint it already dried and became black like my bugs, you didn't even realized that your curse had no chance of working…"
"You little…" Hidan began as he swung his scythe at the bug user, but right before his weapon reached the leaf-nin, Hinata suddenly appeared in its way and began emitting chakra from her entire body. As the three blades stopped on her chakra field, she began spinning, blowing the blades away with a call: "Hakke Shou Kaiten!"
Hidan tried to keep his weapon in his hand, which turned out to be the worst mistake he could've done: as his grip on the weapon tightened, the blades still got blown away and the huge scythe broke in half, making the weapon useless. But the former rain-nin didn't had time to be surprised as Naruto was already charging at him with an orb of blue chakra in his right hand.
"Lets see how resistant you really are!" yelled the blonde as he slammed the orb into the missing-nin's chest with a wild call: "Rasengan!" Hidan only cough out more blood before he was send flying back and crushed hard against a tree, breaking it in half and disappearing between the bushes, still spinning.
Meanwhile Kakuzu jumped back as another, small tornado smashed into the ground where he stood just a second ago, lifting up tons of dust. Before the air cleared, the second tornado came at him, hid behind the cloud of dust. Unable to dodge in time, the missing-nin made a desperate move and held out his hands with an intent to grabbed the Kiba performing the technique.
As the cyclone smashed into his hands, Kakuzu left the skin on his palms getting cut, yet he managed to withstand the pain and clenched his hands, thus grabbing the dog ninja by his shirt. Before the young Inuzuka could act, the former waterfall-nin maneuvered his hands so that one would grab the leaf-nin by the collar and the other readied to punch the young shinobi hard.
But as Kiba felt a powerful punch hitting his face and was send flying, Kyouki jumped in, aiming to chop Kakuzu's head off with his katana. The missing-nin acted immediately extending his right hand, he made some of the strings holding it to shoot at the demon hunter and wrap around his legs and hands, immobilizing him.
But as the swordsman got trapped, his body suddenly faded away, becoming black mist and in a flash he wasn't there anymore. "Genjutsu!" Kakuzu realized instantly and turned towards Kurenai, who appeared right behind him with her kunai ready. Acting on instinct, the former waterfall-nin bended over and propping his hands against the ground, he launched his legs back in an attempt to kick the female jounin in the face.
Kurenai however bended over as well and once her opponent's legs went over her head, she spun on her feet and attacked Kakuzu's hands, hoping to swipe them off the ground with her leg. Having no, other way to dodge the assault, the missing-nin used his hands to bounce off the ground and somersaulting over the illusionist, he landed safely on his feet behind her.
As he did so however a metal chain suddenly wrapped around him and as the former waterfall-nin looked over his shoulder, he realized that the one who trapped him with his weapon was the real Kyouki. "Get out of this…" the demon hunter only said as he tossed Kakuzu over his shoulder with all his strength, straight at Kiba and Akamaru who surprisingly was back to his normal form.
As the white-furred dog began, it sprayed the missing-nin with its piss (A/N: much to his dismal) and landed on the back of his owner, who was just finishing a set of hand seals: "The game is up! Soutourou!" and in a flash a huge cloud of white smoke covered the two. But immediately another figure left the cloud. But this one was nowhere near human: it was a huge, white-furred wolf with two heads.
As Kakuzu's head was getting near the ground, the huge wolf suddenly jumped forward and making the missing-nin's eyes widen, it began spinning as it came closer to him. "Garouga!" Having his arms still trapped by the chain, the former waterfall-nin extended his palms using the strings again and grabbed Kyouki, pulling himself towards the demon hunter.
"I'm taking you down with me…" stated Kakuzu calmly as he located himself right next to the swordsman. "Kiba-kun, stop!" Hinata yelled from the bottom of her lungs at realizing what was going on. The huge wolf immediately stopped spinning and came to a sliding stop merely inches before his target and the weapon master.
"That's why you're weak…" stated Kakuzu calmly. "Too afraid to make sacrifices…" but Kyouki only smiled behind his mask as his eyes narrowed: "Don't be so sure…" and with that something exploded between the two, breaking them apart and sending them flying in two, different directions.
"He used the explosive tag to get free from my grip, even though he knew he'll receive some damage as well?" Kakuzu concluded in his mind as he flew. "That is to be respected…" and as he thought that the huge wolf began spinning again, once more aiming for him and this time there was no way for the former waterfall-nin to avoid the assault.
But just before he was supposed to get hit, Hidan appeared, with a huge wound on his chest, in the huge tornado's way and took the entire impact on his left shoulder, which made the large wolf go off course slightly and miss Kakuzu. As the scythe user's left hand flew far away, the former rain-nin landed safely on the ground, making nothing off it.
"You saved me…" noticed Kakuzu calmly. "Didn't expect something like that from you…"
"Yeah, well…" began Hidan with a little happy voice. "Don't get used to that… now, would you mind fetching my arm? Those brats have become really annoying and I wish to finish this now… what do you say if we get serious?"
"Fine by me…" replied the former waterfall-nin, but just then a familiar voice rang in their head: "Your fun will have to wait… you are to return immediately, we'll be sealing the Hachibi away…"
"What, right now?" Hidan whined as his face shown disapproval. "Don't be like that… this will only take few, more minutes…" but the voice only respond as calm as before: "You will return now… get the hell going…" the two Akatsuki just exchange glances and with a sigh, the scythe user announced: "Consider yourselves lucky, coz you won't die today… but I assure you…" with that he turned towards Yugito and Naruto. "We will return… see you later, shit-heads!" and with that they both disappeared in the cloud of white smoke.
"That's the second time already…" concluded Kengo, who seemed to be watching the whole battle from a far away mountain. "First Shukaku and now the six-tails… Kyuubi surely pissed them off by now…" and with that thought a smirk crossed his face as he disappeared.
---Some time later in a nearby village---
"So, why did you came to help us?" asked Naruto suspiciously, looking up from his bowl of ramen, as all of them reached the town to take a rest after the battle. "Last I remember you hated Jinchuuriki… helping us out doesn't really seem like a demon hunter's behavior…" and with that his eyes set on Kyouki, who didn't seem to be moved by this at all.
"Lets just say that you reminded me of a certain event that took place long ago…" the weapon master replied simply as he threw a quick glance at Yugito, who sat a little further away. "Or more of a certain someone I knew a long time ago…"
"Cut the crap, dammit!" Kiba cut in, giving the swordsman an evil glare as he set his face only inches away from Kyouki's. "Tell us what the hell you're talking about and how in the world do you know Yugito-chan?!" he demanded but just then Kurenai grabbed him by the left shoulder and pulled him away from the demon hunter.
"My apologizes for my subordinates behavior…" she bowed slightly towards the silver-haired boy. "However I can't say that I'm not curious of your reasons myself… from what Shino told me, your first meeting with my students and Naruto wasn't exactly a friendly one…"
"No, it wasn't…" admitted Kyouki with a nod. He hesitated for a moment, during which he once more glanced at Yugito, before he continued: "You must understand that I'm not a fan of Jinchuuriki… when I was still very little, my parents got killed during a mission… my older sister and I grew up by ourselves… I must admit that when I learned about our parents death, I never thought we'll be able to pull through, but my sister proved me wrong… everything began to work out fine… however things happened… and she was killed by the likes of you…" at this point he turned towards Naruto. "No offense…" he added quickly.
"I'm sorry, but I still don't understand, Kyouki-san…" Hinata cut in quietly, holding her hands in front of her face. "Are you trying to say Yugito-san was the one that killed your sister?" as she asked that, the demon hunter once again glanced at the Cloud kunoichi, yet he didn't reply.
This whole time Yugito kept on looking at the wall in front of her. She said absolutely nothing. The moment Hinata asked her question, the blonde girl stared in her direction, then threw a quick look at Kyouki and soon after returned to observing the wall.
"That's what I thought…" the demon hunter finally replied, breaking the silence. And then took a quick glance at Naruto: "But you made me wonder along with that sunglasses guy…" at this he pointed at Shino. "Either way, I've decided to learn a little more about the Jinchuuriki before I'll start the hunt again… besides, I had a score to settle with the Akatsuki anyway…"
"Wait a minute, I got a bit lost…" the Kyuubi vessel cut in, slightly confused. "What do you mean that you thought Yugito killed your sister?" and at this point Kyuoki stared at the ceiling for a moment, thinking something through. After a longer moment he let out a sigh and turned towards the blonde leaf-nin again: "This is a bit more complicated then you may think… Yugito and I… well, you might say we go way back… we knew each other long before either of us became gennin… and it was all thanks to my older sister…"
"Would you mind presenting us that story?" asked Kurenai as she settled down. Kyouki only looked out the window with his eyes slightly narrowed as he replied: "It's a bit of a long story…" but then Naruto settled down before him as well: "We've got all day…"
The demon hunter only looked at him a bit surprised and then, with a tiny smile appearing behind his mask, he began: "Alright then… but it's not a really great story…" he then glanced over at Yugito again and after a short pause, he continued: "When it comes down to things… it all started around seven years ago…"
---Seven years ago in Hidden Cloud Village---
"This is so cool!" announced a nine-year-old boy with spiky, silver hair and golden eyes. He was wearing a black t-shirt with a white lotus drawn on its back and short, white pants. He also carried a katana with a golden hilt on his back.
At this time he was staring at a certain girl, who was three years older then him. The girl was a slender, young woman with long, black hair, clipped in a ponytail and had golden eyes just like the boy. He was wearing a yellow jumpsuit with wide, black stripes going down it sleeves and the same, white lotus drawn on each arm. But the thing that drew the boy's attention in her was a hitae-ate with clouds on it, that was located on her forehead.
"Hana-niisan, you really became a gennin!" the boy cheered as he began jumping up and down around the girl. The kunoichi only giggle at her brother's behavior. "Your headband looks so cool! Can I touch it? Can I? Can I?" Kyouki made big, puppy eyes to his sister.
The girl only laughed warmly as she took of her forehead protector and handed it to the boy, who immediately tied it on his forehead. "Someday I'll become a shinobi like you, niisan! And I'll become the strongest Kumo ninja ever! Maybe a Raikage even!"
"You sure have big ambitions for someone as short as you…" the girl teased him and then rubbed his hair. "Just don't scratch it, I'll have to wear it on tomorrow's mission…" and the moment she said the 'm' word, Kyouki got excited:
"You're going on a mission already?! I so envy you!" and as he said that, Hana laughed again: "Come on, we gotta do some shopping…" she announced and headed down the street with her younger brother following her.
After they bought everything Hana said she needed to prepare lunch, the two headed back to their house. However as they were passing a wide square, they saw a group of kids around Kyouki's age surrounding something and yelling from the bottom of their lungs. As they came closer slightly curious, they realized what the kids were yelling:
"Get away, demon!" yelled a boy with spiky, grey hair and green eyes.
"Yeah, crawl back to you hole!" yelled another kid, this time a girl with long, blonde hair, clipped in a ponytail. "Nobody wants you here! Get out!"
"Scram!" yelled someone else and in a flash he threw a small rock in the direction of a wall that was in front on them. As Hana followed the rock with her eyes, she noticed to who they were all yelling that: a girl with long, blonde hair, clipped in two ponytails and green eyes. She was no older then Kyouki and wore a violet jumpsuit that seemed slightly too big for her. She was embracing herself with her left hand while she protected her head with her right one. She had her right profile turned towards the crowd.
The moment Hana saw tears run down the girl's face, she placed her shopping bags down and walked forward, grabbing the boy that was about to throw another rock at the girl by his hand that held the stone. As the boy looked at her, she send him a cold glare, one that Kyouki never saw: "Stop it…" she said in an ordering tone as she looked around the kids.
As her voice sounded around the square, the blonde girl lowered her right hand slightly and stared through her eyes filled with water at the older girl. The boy Hana grabbed by the hand freed himself and looking with anger on his face at the older girl, he shoot back: "Why do you interfere? Have you no idea what that is?" and with that he pointed at the blonde girl.
Hana once more glanced at the girl who had a cut forehead, making blood run down her face. She stopped several smaller cuts and bruises on the parts of her body that were uncovered and figured she had more beneath her jumpsuit.
The boy she grabbed by the hand didn't wait for her to reply and threw the rock he held in his hand at the blonde again, but this time Hana acted immediately and grabbed the rock when it was already flying. "Beat it!" she yelled to the kids, for the first time proving that her voice can be scary as well. Kyouki has never seen his sister loose her cheerful attitude. Even when their parents died she was still smiling to him.
The young kunoichi walked over to the girl, who was still shivering and didn't even bother to wipe the blood that was all over the right side of her face. Kyouki's sister smiled warmly to the terrified blonde and holding out her hand towards the girl, she said: "I'm Haraise Hana… pleased to meet you…"
The girl only looked at the young gennin with her eyes widen. She hesitated for a long moment, but finally she grabbed the older girl's hand. Hana helped her get back on her feet and at that point the other girl spoke up: "Yugito…"
---shadows that covered the past clear! Kyouki continues the story!---
And that's that for my birthday chapter. Hope you enjoyed reading it at least as much as I writing it. The flashback continues in the next chapter, when you'll learn what happened between Kyouki and Yugito.
Before that I need to say one thing: you see, originally the Jinchuuriki from Hidden Cloud in my fic was supposed to be a guy. After Kishimoto-sama introduced Yugito in the manga I've decided to change that, which also led to some changes in the flashback. I figure it'd be better to warn you about that.
Now, before I finish this, I should place a jutsu encyclopedia, but since all the techniques used in this chapter are taken from the manga itself, I'll just give you a translation if you don't mind:
Soutourou (Double-headed Wolf)
Garouga (Double Wolf Fang)
And that's really it for this time. Hope you had fun reading this.
Take care and until next time, hopefully.