Well, it's been over three months since the last update. As you may have figured out, last time I've decided to put this fic on hold, due to the lack of popularity. I've managed to dig up a bit more free time lately, so I've decided I can give this fic one, last chance. And thus: here I am updating.
However, be aware that if the number of reviews won't be satisfying, this time this fic will be discontinued. With that in mind, I'm inviting you to read the newest chapter of "Naruto: Beyond":
Chapter #37: Which Scroll?
Title Page: Urusai and Jun are standing on two tree tops that rise high above other tree in the surrounding forest
"I suppose I don't have any choice then… here and now… I'll end your life!" and with that Kaiyou jumped straight towards Urusai, who had his back turned towards him, as he prepared his katana.
The blonde felt what was coming, but still couldn't do a thing to prevent it. "Dammit, where's he coming from? Where the hell is he?" Urusai thought to himself as he closed his eyes in hope that'll allow him to concentrate on his hearing sense. But in stead of hearing Kaiyou's movement, he heard a soft voice. A voice he has never heard before: "Behind you, Urusai…"
And having no time to be surprised, the blonde spun on his foot and launched a kick blindly only to have his eyes widen the next moment as he realized he managed to deliver a kick straight into Kaiyou's stomach and thus send the mist-nin flying back, disappearing in the mist again.
"I got him?" Urusai asked himself, completely confused. "And that voice just now… what was it… my imagination? I'm positive I've never heard it before… and yet, it somehow seemed… familiar… what the hell is going on here?"
"Do not worry…" the soft voice echoed in his head once again and for some reason, Urusai found this sound… calming. And only now did the blonde realized that the voice he was hearing, belonged to a female: "I wish to help you… you may not be able to locate your enemy, but I know exactly where he is… I'll guide you… all you have to do, is trust me…"
"Trust you?" repeated Urusai, completely confused. "I don't even know from where your voice is coming from, left alone who it belongs too… I just, all of a sudden, began hearing things in my head! What the hell's going on?"
"I'm sorry, Urusai, but now's not the time for answers…" announced the voice, still as soft as it was. "I can feel the seal is still keeping me in prison… in just few moments I'll be silenced down once again and you'll be left on your own… if you want to defeat your opponent, you must do what I ask you to…"
"Dammit…" Urusai cursed, this time out loud, as the voice gave him another warning. The blonde acted immediately and strafe to his right, thus avoiding the blade of the katana that suddenly shoot out from the mist in the attempt to chop his hand off.
In a flash Urusai picked out a kunai and jumped towards the place his opponent stood, aiming to pierce through his shoulder with the knife he held in his hand. Acting on instinct Kaiyou used his katana to block the attack. As the tip of the kunai clashed against the flat side of the sword, the mist-nin spun on his foot, thus blasting the blonde's hand, that held the knife, back.
As his arm flew behind his back, Urusai saw that his opponent kept spinning and realized what was coming. The second Kaiyou made a full spin, he launched an attack, aimed to cut the leaf-nin in half. Having no, other option, the blonde jumped back, just barely avoiding the attack, cut still got his torso cut shallowly.
As his opponent disappeared in the mist, Kaiyou reached to his hostel and picked out several shuriken, which he held between his finger in his free hand, while his grip on the katana tightened on the other. The Kiri shinobi narrowed his eyes and the moment he saw movement in the fog, he unleashed some of his shinobi stars at the moving target, missing to hit it. A second later he heard a noise coming from his back and while turning around, he threw few more of the shuriken, yet failed to get rid of his opponent once again.
"Interesting…" came Urusai's voice that echoed in the mist. "It seems this whole white stuff effects your sense of sight as well… do you know, I always sucked at paper tests… I never got the memory for the rules or solving complicated problems… but there was one thing that I've always remember… one of the basic rules of shinobi… use your opponent's strength against him…"
"You little shit…" was the only thing Kaiyou said. "I was able to locate you perfectly all this time, what ever gave you the idea I won't manage that now? Mist-nins are trained to move in the mist… we can locate our enemies without seeing them… you can't escape me…"
"Maybe I can't…" came Urusai's voice. "Or maybe I can!" and with those words he came charging at Kaiyou, but at the same time another blonde appeared on the other side, also ready to attack.
The mist-nin merely narrowed his eyes as he spun on his foot and throwing the last of his shuriken at one Urusai and cut the other with his katana. But to his surprise, both of the blondes disappeared in the cloud of white smoke. In the next moment he saw another leaf-nin who as well looked the same as his opponent coming down on him with a kunai in his hand.
Acting on instinct, Kaiyou deflected the attack with his sword, throwing the blonde's hand away and piercing right through his chest. This Urusai however, turned out to be a clone as well. "You can't use kage bushin all the time… sooner or later you'll run out of chakra…" the mist-nin concluded in his mind with a tiny smirk appearing behind his mask. "And I won't allow you to get me before that happens…"
Another two Urusai came from the mist, charging straight at him, both with kunai in their hands. And both soon got cut by Kaiyou before disappearing in the cloud of white smoke: "How long do you plan on dragging this?" asked the mist-nin. "There's no way those lousy bushins of yours will be able to even lay a finger on me!"
"Says you!' yelled another Urusai, who came charging at him from the mist, only to get cut by Kaiyou's katana as well. But the moment when the mist-nin took the position after performing the cut, hands shoot from bellow him and grabbed him by the ankles. "Time for you to hit the dirt! Doton: Shinjuu Zanshuu no Jutsu!" and instantly Kaiyou found his body dug into the ground with only his head above the surface.
"To fall for a lame trick like that… I got careless…" complained the mist-nin as he glanced at Urusai, who now stood right above him. "But don't think this is over…"
"Actually…" replied the blonde with an evil smile. "It is…" and at the very same moment he jumped back. Kaiyou's eyes didn't even managed to widen in surprise as something exploded underground and threw him out. The swordsman crash hard against a nearby tree and lost consciousness instantly. "Explosive tags…" announced Urusai calmly. "Cheap trick, but sometimes those work as well…"
"Good job, Urusai-kun…" the blonde heard the woman's soft voice again, echoing in his head. "I knew you could do it…"
"Well, not without your help…" Urusai replied in his head with a wide smile as the mist slowly began to fade away. "Thanks for that, but I still don't know who you are nor do I even know your name…"
"It's Aiko, if you must know…" announced the voice softly, only this time with a slight tone of sadness. "And when it comes to who I am… I'm afraid that answer will have to wait… the seal reacted again… I cannot stay in contact with you any longer…"
"But…" was all the blonde could say as he felt the voice fading away, just like the mist around him was.
"Don't worry, Urusai-kun…" said Aiko a little happier then just a moment ago. "I must go now, but I have faith in you… become stronger and someday we should be able to talk once more… and remember: no matter what'll happen, I'll always watch over you…" and with that the voice disappeared, just like it was never there.
"Urusai, are you okay?" asked Ayame as he ran towards the blonde with Jun slowly walking behind her. Now that the mist was gone, they all could clearly see each other. The young Kodawari only smiled widely as he held out his hands:
"Ayame-chan, were you worried about me?" he asked hopefully, jumping forward in the attempt to hug the girl, yet the kunoichi stopped him halfway by delivering a punch into the blonde's face: "There I was worried about you, numbskull, and in an instant you make me wish that Mist guy could finish you off…"
"S… so cold…" Urusai summed up as he felt to the ground with his left cheek completely red due to Ayame's punch. Then silence felt between the trio, broken by the blonde after a moment: "You guys, I wanna ask you something… just now, did any of you heard… I mean…" but at this point he hesitated and lowered his head.
"Just spit it out…" said Jun in an ordering tone as he searched Kaiyou for the scroll. The blonde kept his head lowered, avoiding eye-contact with his teammates: "If I'll tell them I heard a voice, they'll just send me to nuttville… but that voice just then… who was it? And why do I have the feeling that I should know it?"
"Well, what was it?" Jun encouraged his companion, making Urusai glance at him and with a fake smile, the blonde only replied: "It's nothing really… just a crazy thought… pretend I did say anything…"
"I always do that…" the young genius shoot back, making a vein pulse on Urusai's forehead, but before the blonde could react to his teammate's comment, Jun already stood up and turning around shown his companions what he have found: "Earth scroll… looks like we're home free…"
"Great, so lets just take it and get out of this freakin forest!" announced Ayame annoyed. "I have enough of this place for the rest of my life!" and without waiting for her teammate's reaction, she just disappeared in the tree tops. The two boys only exchanged glanced and then, without a word, they just followed the kunoichi towards the tower.
---That time, elsewhere---
"This sensation just now…" the hooded figure thought to himself as a tiny smirk crept onto his face. "Could this have been the work of Uragiri-sama's seal? But I thought it could only be broken by performing a special ritual… that's why Uragiri-sama did it in the first place… things are certainly starting to develop in an interesting way…" and just then he realized someone standing on top of a nearby building.
As he glanced up, he realized it was a man wearing a grey outfit with wide sleeves and dark blue pants. The hooded man didn't saw any hitae-ate, yet the red and white, tiger mask that the man wore on his face made it clear that he was an ANBU from the Hidden Leaf.
"So suspicious…" the hooded man smiled to himself, acting like he didn't made anything of the masked figure. "He's not even trying to hid his presence from me… should I feel offended or honored? Oh well, I suppose it doesn't matter… the second exam will soon finish and after that very little can be done… I just hope Kigahen knows what to do…" and with that thought he walked on with the ANBU member eyes still settled on him.
A second later another ANBU appeared next to the first one. This one was wearing a black jumpsuit and a green vest on that. He had a tiger mask covering his face as well and after throwing a quick glance in the direction the hooded man disappeared to, he looked at his companion: "So, what do you think, Neji-san? Were our fears correct?"
"Hard to say…" replied the other ANBU, Neji. "We've been observing all the jounin that came to Konoha along with gennin teams, but none did anything suspicious yet… perhaps we're all just overreacting… what do you think, Gai-sensei?"
"That may be so…" responded the older ANBU, Gai. "However our patrols that came back from missions outside the Fire Country's boulders report of mysterious figures walking around the villages near Konoha… at this time the last thing we need is to get careless…"
"So I heard…"
"Stay on your guard, Neji…" Gai advised his companion. "And lets hope nothing will happen… but if it will… Konoha may be in grave danger… maybe even greater then time you took the exam for the first time… or maybe even greater then the treat from thirteen years ago…" and with that he was gone, leaving the younger ANBU alone.
---plots and secrets all over… the exams continue---
And that's it for this chapter. Hope you enjoyed it and that you'll review, otherwise this fic is gone. Also, for old times sake, I've decided to put up another, character profile. If I recall correctly, it's Lee's team turn, so I choose Kei:
Name: Sakudo Kei
Name origins: his first name, Kei, has many meanings, but when I was choosing his name, I found it as 'strong'. Considering he's a taijutsu expert, I figured it'd fit perfectly. As for his clan's name, 'sakudo' itself means 'surface soil'
Age: currently 14 years old
Birth Date: 15th of July
Blood Type: B
Height: 151,8 cm
Weight: 53,1 kg
Favored style of fighting: taijutsu
Current rank: gennin
Village: Konoha (Hidden Leaf)
Team: cell led by Rock Lee; his teammates are Naifu Ibuki and Mekko Gaki
Family: he's the first member of his family that became a ninja
Bloodline limit: none
Techniques: none
First appearance: 25th chapter
And that's it! Cya.