DISCLAIMER: I do not own Naruto, any characters affiliated, the name 'the Gorgon', and I'm not going to say anything else, in case I give away the end.
A/N: Normally, I would be melodramatic here, but I've already got like five chapters for the Fourth Portal fic, so I won't.
Itachi: That, and the fact that I'm holding her brother hostage in case she goes into hysterics.
A/N: You can be such a jerk...
Deniizu's weakness is her pride. Michiko's weakness is her quick emotions, the Gorgon thought, Deniizu's physical weakness is her heart. Michiko's physical weakness is the fourth vertebra on her spine.
Pooriin moved toward Michiko first, who was closest, and hauled her up by the hair.
"P-pooriin? Pooriin, w-what're you doing?" Michiko stammered, trying to free herself.
If she is thrown to the side at this angle and this hard, she will die, the Gorgon thought, and moved her arm to do so.
"What the hell?" Deniizu exclaimed, jumping behind Michiko so that when she was thrown, they collided and some impact was absorbed, "Pooriin, what the fuck are you doing?"
"The Gorgon will even attack former friends," Sumoggu thought out loud, watching in amazement.
"What's wrong with her?" Kiba asked Tsume briskly, half in fear, "Why does he keep calling her a 'Gorgon'? Why is she acting like this? Can you stop her?"
Tsume closed her eyes and thought hard, trying to find a loophole in the legends of the Gorgon that Kishimu had told her. Kiba looked from Tsume to Pooriin, trying not to get hysterical. Pooriin was moving slowly, but getting closer to Michiko and Deniizu. Both were paralyzed where they were, simply staring at Pooriin as she walked towards them.
"What's going on in her head?" Michiko asked, distressed.
"I don't know! She's blocking me!" Deniizu answered, trying to slow Pooriin down with her telekinesis, but somehow not able to control her limit properly.
Tsume's eyes snapped open, and held her wrist out to the side. Kageno was perched there in a flash, and Tsume whispered something to him. Kageno seemed to nod, and he flew off of her wrist in a hurry.
"What're you doing?" Kiba asked, watching the bird fly towards Pooriin.
"Your friend over there appears to be the Gorgon of legend. A complete killing machine, she acts against everything that she sees," Tsume explained, "Perhaps if she didn't see anything-"
"You're going to blind her?" Kiba exclaimed, running towards his girlfriend.
"Hold on, Speedy," Tsume ordered, grabbing Kiba's shoulder so that he stopped, "Kageno's not going to blind her. I just want him to get her to close her eyes."
"Huh?" Kiba looked at Tsume, confused.
"Haven't you noticed yet? Pooriin's black eyes over there hasn't blinked once," Tsume said, still watching her falcon.
Before Pooriin realized, Kageno swooped down and hit her face with a wing. Both the sudden rush of air and the feeling of something in her eye forced her body's reflex of blinking. As soon as her link to sight was cut off, even though for a second, Pooriin's eyes went back to their usual colour. Finally coming back to herself, Pooriin looked at her friends realized what she had almost done.
"Oh my gosh," she whispered to herself, covering her face with her hands.
Sumoggu, however, did not like the way this was going. If the Gorgon came back to her senses, her rescuers might end up remembering what he had done and try to attack him. He had to get away. Pulling Hinata up and holding her as a shield in front of him, he held a kunai at her throat to discourage her from struggling.
"Tsume, come on," Sumoggu ordered, moving towards the hole in the dome that Michiko had made.
"Put her down, Sumoggu," Tsume glared, just as Kageno landed back on her wrist, "Kishimu's dead; I'm not on your team anymore."
Sumoggu glowered at her, seeing that she was serious, then continued trying to escape.
"Fine! First, I'll collect the ransom for Princess here, then I'll be back!" Sumoggu yelled, "Just wait until I show up at your doorstep with the Gorgon on my side, Tsume! You'll pay for abandoning me."
Tsume was about to retort, when a keening sound pierced the air. To say it was a horrible, extremely high-pitched sound would be a huge understatement.
"What is that?" Michiko thought out loud, "Shoot, why didn't I bring the dogs with me?"
No one could hear her though, not even herself; everyone was trying to cover their ears as best they could. Looking up, Deniizu could see that the ice dome was vibrating. Michiko, with her eyes squeezed shut, could feel the ice shards in her hand also shaking.
"What's going on?" Tsume asked.
"WHAT?" Kiba asked back, leaning towards her.
The sound continued, somehow getting louder and louder. Finally, the ice dome could not take the strain any longer; the whole structure shattered into small shards, as did the pieces in Michiko's fist.
"OH SHIT!" Deniizu yelled, shutting her eyes tight like everyone else, expecting the fragments of ice to fall and obliterate them completely.
However, before the shards could land, the shrill sound ended and a gigantic wind jutsu blew most of them sideways, away from harm. Except for the ones nearest to Sumoggu. One final, agonized scream was all the group heard. Then there was a soft thump, and silence.
One by one, the group opened their eyes and looked around. First Tsume, then Deniizu, followed by Kiba and Michiko. Pooriin fell to her knees when she saw that she was alive, and Kiba hurried to her side. Michiko and Deniizu, knowing that Pooriin was in good hands, rushed to help Hinata out from under Sumoggu's corpse; the former clan leader vaguely resembled Kimimaru, only with ice instead of bones in his back. Hinata began silently crying again, once Michiko and Deniizu shoved Sumoggu away, and Michiko held her in a tight hug, while Deniizu stood by them protectively, wondering who had saved them. Tsume reached down and petted Akamaru comfortingly; the sound had not been kind to the dog's sensitive ears. The fight was really over.
After giving them a sufficient interval of time to recover, the person who had completely destroyed Ezu's ice dome made a polite cough. All six teens looked up, and saw their liberator standing on a branch, his arms crossed, with a faint smile on his face.
"Yosh, Inel-sensei," Deniizu waved weakly.
"Yosh," the former sound-nin nodded in greeting, "I leave you for two days, and this is what I see. My, my. I'm going to have to send you on D-rank missions for a long, long time."
Inel-sensei rocks! W00t w00t! 1227! ...ok, I'll stop.
Michiko exited the Thyme Village's medical clinic, finally feeling that her mission was finished. Two days after arriving at their destination, Kurenai had awakened. True to an unofficial schedule that they had set up over the past few days, Shino, Hinata, the Four Musketeers, and the rest of Team 13 were sitting down on the steps in front of the small building, waiting for Michiko. Michiko smiled to them all and sat down between Deniizu and Shino.
"Ano, is Kurenai-sensei up yet?" Hinata asked, clasping her hands tightly.
"Yeah," Michiko nodded, "All those tranquilizers finally wore off. They were tranquilizers! Sumoggu put poison, paralyzers, and tranquilizers into that injection! I had no idea!"
"But now you know," Inel smiled, "Now you can find and treat tranquilizers too."
"I guess," Michiko shrugged, but immediately brightened up when she remembered something, "Oh! Guess what was the first thing that she said when she woke up!"
Michiko laughed when everyone simply waited for the answer.
"She said 'Asuma'! The first thing she said was Team 10's sensei's name!" Michiko exclaimed.
"...and we care, why?" Korii asked, after a moment, when only Hinata and Michiko were the ones smiling.
"Oh, forget it," Michiko sighed, petting Aramis and D'Artagnan, who had crawled onto her lap, "What did I miss today?"
Right after Inel had returned to them, he had sent Shino and Ruko to get medical ninjas, since the village was only half a day's march away. Kurenai had gone straight to the clinic, while Kiba and Michiko's comparatively minor injuries were healed right away. Deniizu had a minor concussion, and Hinata had some internal bleeding, so they had to be taken to the clinic too, but other than that, the group was fairly unscathed. Michiko had gone to the clinic each day, watching as Kurenai and Hinata were treated, so she ended up missing a lot of what happened during the day. However, her friends were always waiting on the steps for her in the afternoon, ready to fill her in on the village's events.
"Well, today's Kiba's birthday," Deniizu said, speaking for the group, "So he and Pooriin are spending the day together. Don't worry, I gave him your gift before they left. Other than that, everything's cool."
"That's good," Michiko nodded, "I hope he liked the dagger I got him."
"Don't worry; he did."
"Yay! Has Tsume left, yet?"
The day before, Emi, Ezu, Ruko and Monoka had all left the Thyme Village for their seaside home. Monoka would help the cousins on their family farm, and Ruko, who lived in the same village, was naturally travelling with them. Now, Tsume was the last bandit left of the former 'clan'.
"Yeah," Korii nodded, "She left early this morning. Didn't even say 'goodbye'."
Michiko sighed a little; she had come to like the 17-year-old.
"Why don't you come with us to Konoha?" Michiko asked, while the four former bandits disappeared into the distance.
"Yeah, you'd make a great ninja," Kiba added, and Akamaru barked his encouragement.
"Sorry, guys, I can't," Tsume answered wistfully, "I'm perfectly happy with training to be a bodyguard with my baby brother."
"That's what you're family does?" Deniizu exclaimed, "Shit! That's so cool!"
"Yeah, whatever," Tsume shrugged, her cheeks tinged pink.
"Wow..." Michiko had stars in her eyes, "I wanna be a bodyguard when I grow up..."
"Idiot, you're already a ninja!" Korii exclaimed, punching Michiko's arm so that she fell over.
"I hope she's ok," Michiko thought out loud, leaning against Deniizu a little.
"She'll be fine," Korii said, "She's got Kageno, not to mention she's a good fighter and everything."
"...So," Michiko spoke up again after a moment, breaking the silence, "What's the plan, Inel-sensei? What training do we have for the rest of the day."
"Actually," Inel said slowly, "There is no thing for us to do that is planned. We can have a free day. Tomorrow, we do the missions that the village gives us while the reunion is happening."
"Sweet! Free day!" Deniizu cheered, pumping both arms in the air, and accidentally throwing Michiko off of her shoulder, "Oops. Sorry..."
"No problem," Michiko grinned tiredly, leaning on Shino now.
"Well, I will be going now," Inel said, waving and walking away, "I must take this chance to play violin for the village!"
Michiko and Hinata waved as he left, and then there was more silence.
"...None of us have any plans?" Hinata asked after another moment of silence.
"Nope," Deniizu shrugged, playing with a kunai.
"Nada," Michiko said quietly, already half-asleep, and Shino shook his head.
"Actually, there is one thing," Korii spoke up, holding a finger up for attention, "Didn't we have plans, now that our mission is over?"
Deniizu blinked, and Michiko sat bolt upright, no longer tired.
"Oh, yeah..." Deniizu nodded slowly.
"Y-you guys weren't serious," Hinata stammered.
Team 13 merely looked at each other, smiling mischieviously. Deniizu pulled her brass knuckles out of her weapons pouch and put them on, while Michiko rolled her head around to get any cricks out of her neck, and Korii cracked his knuckles and stretched.
"Time to go," Michiko said in a spooky, low voice, rubbing her hands together.
"'Scuse us, guys," Deniizu smiled cheerily, and Michiko getting up and stretching luxuriously, "We have a date with a certain 15-year-old chuunin."
All five genins heard a boy sneeze, somewhere in the village, and Korii led Team 13 towards the sound at a run.
"Oh, Bikto!"
Ehehehehe...
About three weeks later, all eleven of the original travellers were on the road, headed back for Konoha in their old formation. The sun was shining, the birds were singing, and again, Bikto was doing his best to be intolerable.
"Are we there yet?" Bikto asked.
"No," Pooriin, Kiba and Goudon all chorused.
"Are we there yet?"
"No."
"Are we there yet?"
"No."
"I can't believe this guy," Michiko sighed.
"One would think he would give up," Inel nodded.
Korii sighed and continued leading his group down the road.
We had a lot of training done, Korii thought, Iruka-sensei was smart; he realized that Firu, my old teammate, and Michiko have the same bloodline limit. Michiko knows how to use her extra sense of approaching elements now; that's how she knew when giant fireballs or ice jutsus were going to be made. ...Oh, crap. Firu.
Korii turned, while still walking, and looked straight at his teacher, only to see that Inel was looking right back at him.
"Kuso," Korii muttered under his breath, facing forward again and still leading.
"...What is it, sensei?" Michiko asked, seeing the look that passed between the two shinobi.
At first Inel was silent, but then he leaned towards his student and said in a very low voice:
"...There is another portal traveller."
The End...for now.
A/N: AHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Itachi: ...
A/N: I AM QUEEN OF THE CLIFFHANGER!
Itachi: Enough...
A/N: HEAR ME ROAR!
Itachi: I've still got your brother.
A/N: ...I'll be good. Please review! (fake smile)