Now time for some action!
This is a chapter that will contain quite a bit of action, and will show off some other things as well. This chapter is so powerful, it will steal your soul, then rip it too pieces. That's how good it is. Just kidding it's probably not that good, but I am trying my best to write a good story here. And after I waited so long to get one chapter out, I don't think it's fair that you people don't deserve to get another chapter of Fire Paved Skies.
Also, just because I put up my fic Our Way, doesn't mean I am discontinuing Fire Paved Skies. By balancing the two fics out, I will be able to handle my writers block better then entirely focusing on one story. Trust me it helps. That does not mean either will discontinued, but if Our Way does shitty, then I will discontinue it and delete it. If it does not, then I'll keep it up.
Naruto, Hinata, and Ino all flying out in the middle of the darkness to deliver "Stalin's pipe organs" to Kurenai (if any of you are still dumbfounded about what the hell Stalin's pipe organ is, it is a Kayusha rocket launcher). Plus, the tower is still under siege, and everything could be getting a whole lot worse. Plus, Tenten is still out of the fight. Is she going to be ok?
Read on and see,
Symbiotic
Far away from the imposing structure that was Hokage Tower, a maiden with crimson eyes flew with a group of four Furies, three Devastators, and a Brigand. A ball of fire was behind them, and the night sky lit up like an American Fourth of July party, as two Class three and one Class four airship along with countless small fighters fell from the sky and into the fields out of the city. Many chutes were there, but the maiden could already tell that there were more pilots shot or burned to a crisp then ones lucky enough to make it out.
That was the way "Madame" Yuhi Kurenai wanted it to be. "That wasn't a dogfight,that was a massacre. Wasn't it Madame," one of the Fury pilots asked. Kurenai did not respond.
"Sensei," Shino spoke, "Are you alright?"
"Yes," Kurenai said, "I am quite alright Shino."
"You shot down quite a few planes," Shino said, "Very impressive."
"Yeah one for Madame again," the lone Brigand tail gunner said, "She always gets through."
"Thanks guys," Kurenai said, "It means a lot, and it's nothing when shooting down those thugs."
But more then a few destroyed aircraft were on her mind right now, and it was certainly not "nothing". It wasn't giving Kurenai a rush anymore, taking out these nameless goons. Even Blood Red aces, who were supposed to be more trained, more deadly, and flying better planes, didn't live up to her standards anymore as worthy quarry in terms of being a challenge.
But like any warrior, Kurenai didn't question this, and just killed. Still she longed for that challenge, and it would come to her.
"Sensei," Shino yelled into her radio. Kurenai then felt the plane began to shake, and bullets tear through the cockpit. All of the sudden things began getting very hot. As soon as this began, Kurenai bailed out of her plane. With her she had her hands, her chakra, her eyes, her ears, and her clothes. No weapons, no maps, not a thing to defend herself with. She was also right over enemy territory.
It would be the challenge she wanted.
"So Ruskies," Ino asked, sitting in the seat below the cockpit of the Black Widow she was inside of, "How long you bears been flying?"
"Agripin is the only old Russian bear among us," one of them said, "Even though his name means wild horse. Oh, and I'm Ivan."
"He's new," Agripin said, "Unlike the others, we've been escorting Dmitri and that ship for over three years now back and forth here."
"Well thanks for helping out with us getting the Kayusha's back to our city," Ino replied, "They are in urgent need."
"What is the city under siege," another pilot asked.
"Address yourself comrade," Agripin ordered.
"Oh yes, I am Demyan," he said, "Nice to meet you."
"Well Demyan I'm Ino," Ino said, "The one flying our plane is Hinata, and our tail gunner is Naruto."
"How you doing," Naruto said.
"Konnichiwa," Hinata said. "Ino, any sight of anything?"
"No nothing yet," Ino said, watching carefully at the sweeping radar that was coming through. "Wait a minute, I think we got something."
"We're getting it to," another Black Widow radar operator said, "We see it as well. Fifteen Blood Red fighters, eight of which are Coyotes and ten are Peacemakers, and a Class four Blood Red Airship at five o clock low."
"Good," Hinata said, "They don't know where we are. Agripin, take your boys up into the air with those Yakolev's you're flying and distract the Coyotes. We'll take care of the airship and Peacemakers."
"I take it your plane is more of a heavy interceptor isn't it," Agripin said, giving a laugh, "Just kidding, come comrades, for glory!"
"For glory," all the Russian pilots yelled. Hinata watched the Russians and their Yakolev YAK 11 Firebar fighters dive down and begin to rake the Coyote's with a hail of 23mm and 40mm cannon fire.
"We're going down as well," Hinata said, "Brace yourself Naruto kun," Hinata said.
"Brace myself for..." Naruto began to say. Hinata then banked the plane down in a sharp right turn, the G forces of the dive knocking Naruto off his feet and onto the floor of the plane. Ino hung onto a bar next to the radar console, trying to keep her footing in the middle of the dive so she wouldn't fly out the clear nosecone of the plane. Finally, much to both Naruto and Ino's relief, Hinata leveled out the plane and began shooting at a Peacemaker. "Finally." He then got back up and got behind the quadruple .50 caliber machine gun turret mount on top of the plane and then hoisted himself up to get a better view.
"On our six Uzumaki," Ino said, noticing a few blips appear behind them on the radar. Naruto the whipped the tail gun around, firing blindly into the night sky, only knowing if he was going to get his mark because of the fifth round in each round of .50 caliber ammo, which was a tracer round. With the help of these lucky flashes of red and green, Naruto was able to tear the propeller clear off one of the Coyote's pursuing them.
"Ino get those Russians back here," Naruto ordered, firing out another burst of machine gun fire. Unlike the previous one, this one missed it's target but caused the group of Coyote's to scatter. As soon as they broke away, one of them exploded in a Fireball as one of the Yakolev's flew above them. "Thank you Ino."
"Na," Ino said, "Those Russians did it on their own, I didn't ask them to do a thing for me."
"Then tell Agripin and his boys I said thank you," Naruto told her, "They deserve it."
"Thank us later kid," Agripin said, "Take out that airship before it can start to bombard the convoy." Hinata then did a quick Immelman and began to fire her concussion rockets and 25mm cannon fire down onto the deck of the airship. A large group of airplanes on the flight deck were torn up, and some a few holes were punched into the armor of the ship, but there was no massive explosion. However two other Black Widows, both of which flew behind her, delivered the finishing blow to the high flying weapons platform.
"Continue onward," Hinata ordered, "All Black Widows, take out those Peacemakers before they get to those organs." Hinata then dove down again, this time Naruto propping himself more firmly against the turret to get better footing, and Ino getting a more advanced warning from the slower drop in the nose. Since it was a shallower dive then before, Naruto was now able to turn the gun forward and fire down on the Peacemakers first, before Hinata.
"That's right," Hinata said, "That's right, keep firing keep firing. Let them have it Naruto kun."
"Those filthy," Naruto said, taking out one plane, "Sons of bitches." Another one fell out of the sky. "They are going to pay, right here, right now." One more of the planes fell out of the sky, leaving only five of the original planes. Hinata then flew right behind one of the Peacemakers, destroying another attacking Peacemaker with forty millimeter cannons. Another one fell when a second Black Widow flew in front of it and blasted the other plane out of the sky with a magnetic rocket. As they flew under the Peacemakers to recover from their dive, Naruto took out two more of the planes with the top turret, and the last one fell to a third Black Widow.
"Thank you," a voice said, "We're on the ground and saw the whole thing when you guys lit up the sky like that. Not a dent in any piece of machinery, and not a man is harmed."
"Good to know," Naruto said, "Are we ok logistics wise?"
"I think so Naruto kun," Hinata said, "Come on, lets keep on paving the road Blood Red."
"How could I let this happen," she thought, falling from the sky at a rate of thirteen feet a second. "How could I be so stupid." All that the woman had fought for, now it seemed like it was pointless now. Thoughts entered her mind, thoughts about just falling the remaining 12,000 feet and not bothering to open up the chute. It was a strong thought.
"No," she thought, "I won't do that." She kept on falling for a couple for seconds, then before she feared she was too low, the woman pulled the ripcord. Much to her satisfaction, there was a slight jolt at first but the shoot opened right up. "Just hope to god there is no flak that'll just pop up." Floating for a few more feet, a group of planes then flew over her head. As soon as they did, the sky lit up with the tracer rounds of anti aircraft guns. "Just had to open your mouth, didn't you Kurenai," she said to herself. Using the strings of the parachute to steer herself, Kurenai luckily managed to dodge all the flak and drift safely into what appeared to be some kind of mass garden.
"Well," she said, brushing herself off, "Anyone who planted those marigolds isn't going to be happy in the morning when they see what happened." Right when she stood up, the same group of planes flew over her, flashing their lights brightly to show who they were. "Good boys," she thought, "Now how the hell am I going to find my way out of here?" Looking around, thinking of a direction to follow, she ultimately chose to walk the way she was facing. Thinking it could be towards a road, she'd be able to hijack a car or truck and drive it back into the city without having any cause for alarm being brought up in the Blood Red territory.
"Beautiful garden," she thought, walking on rocks to avoid stepping on the flowers, "Shame I had to mess up some of it. I'll have to find out who owns this place, then when this whole thing is over I'll come by and plant some flowers with them." After jumping down from the rocks, then hopping a fence, Kurenai now found herself in a meadow, no where near a road. "Now, which way to go?" Contemplating her directional choices, which included going west and north into the woods, or back south through the garden again, or east through the meadows, hopefully whenever a road appeared.
Before she could decide, something completely interrupted her train of thought. A hail of gunfire blasted through her ears, making the woman duck for cover so she would not be hit by any bullet. After the bullets stopped, there was a bright flash and metal began raining down into the field. Some of it hit Kurenai in the back, making her roll over to get the burning shards off her body. Still with her head down, she held it there for a few more minutes until she heard something.
"Help," a male voice said, "Help me, help me."
"What," Kurenai said to herself, picking her head up to see what was going on. Attached to a tree at the edge of the meadow was a man in a parachute. "What do we have here?" After getting her footing from standing up, Kurenai ran over to the screaming man at the edge of the forest.
"Somebody get me down," he called out, "Anybody."
"Hey buddy," Kurenai said, walking up to the tree, "Seem to have yourself in a little bit of a mess."
"Yeah I do," the guy said, "I just shot down a Fury and all the other guys in the flight turned on me and shot me down out of the sky."
"You shot down a Fury eh," Kurenai said, "Do you have any idea who was in that Fury?"
"No I don't pay attention to that kind of stuff," the guy said, "Satoshi and Masao tell me not to."
"Do you want to know then," she asked.
"I guess," the guy said.
"It was me," Kurenai said, jumping up into the tree and taking him out of his parachute, holding him by his shirt collar over a branch on tree, "And do you know who I am?" It was then that the young man was able to get a look into his aggressor's eyes, and now he was scared.
"No," he said, "I got you? I got..."
"The real Black Swan," Kurenai said, "You got her out of the sky, but you didn't get her out of this life. Guess what buddy, you're going to pay for it."
"Look I'm sorry," the guy said, "Let me tell my story please?"
"Why should I let you live," Kurenai said, "Why should I let any of you live? You raped a nine year old Serbian girl, you kill innocent people, you kill my soldiers, you kill my friends, there is no point."
"I never did any of that," the guy said, "My name name is Eiji, Noruno Eiji. I'm from Sunagakure, I'm a chuunin still."
"What are you doing here then," Kurenai demanded.
"About two years ago, I was in a convoy escorting a British ambassador, his family, and a few of his friend's families to Sunagakure from the Fire Country border. During the trek through the desert, I went to start negotiating with some guys for some extra parts at a town. They were Blood Reds, and they followed us out of the town we were in. All the men were murdered, all the women were raped and then killed, many of the girls were raped and sold into prostitution or put into servitude, the boys were either shot for weakness or were taken as well into servitude. All the nin however were impressed into the Blood Red ranks. I haven't flown a plane until two days ago, you were my first kill. I don't want to do this job Black Swan san, I just want to go home."
"You lie," Kurenai said.
"I don't," the guy said, "I have a wife at home, a beautiful wife who I haven't seen in two years. I want to see her again so bad and just apologize for leaving her. Please, I beg of you, don't kill me." Kurenai held him there longer, then began laughing. "Huh?'
"Eiji," she said, putting him on the branch, "That was some of the best begging someone has ever done in front of me."
"What," Eiji said, perplexed at what she was talking about.
"Let me see some proof of that wife of yours," Kurenai said. Eiji took out his wallet and removed a small photo. Kurenai took it from him and looked at it.
"Her name is Aya," Eiji told her, "That photo was taken at our wedding reception. I was never more happy in my life."
"Is it just you two," Kurenai asked.
"Well we had plans but they got kind of interrupted, as you can see," Eiji told her.
"Well can't deny this," Kurenai said, "Listen Eiji, you're a very truthful kind of guy, and I got a lot of respect for you, seeing as you shot me down. I'm willing to make a deal with you."
"I'm all ears," Eiji said.
"I'll get you back to Sunagakure to see your wife again," Kurenai said, "And I'll kill those Blood Red scumbags for you as well, but you have to get me back to Hokage tower."
"I can do that," Eiji said.
"And do everything I tell you to," Kurenai said, "Starting with one thing."
"Yes," Eiji asked.
"That Luger," she said, "In the shoulder holster."
"What about it," he questioned.
"Hand it over," she said, "The gun and all the ammo." Eiji acted quickly, removing the shoulder holster and handing Kurenai the weapon and all it's ammo. Putting it around her own shoulder and seeing if it was loaded, she then jumped down from the tree. "Come on Eiji, lets get out of here. It's going to be a long walk."
After the first incident of an attack by their enemy against the Kayusha's, the group of Russians and Black Swan pilots found themselves quite bored as they waited for some kind of attack. "How close are we," Naruto asked.
"Not far," Ino said, "I think only another half an hour away."
"Good," Naruto said, "This had to have been some of the most boring flight time I've ever been on, save that one dogfight."
"Well hopefully we won't run into anymore..." Ino began to say, but her words were interrupted as machine gun fire began echoing through her ears. "What the?"
"Blood Red fighters," Naruto said, shooting off the four fifty calibers in the turret, trying to get a hit in the night sky. "God damn it, stupid darkness." Naruto then aimed again, this time hitting his mark with help from tracers. Hitting a one in possibly a million shot, two fifty caliber round entering the attacking Coyote's armed 2000 lbs bomb under the bottom of the plane. Not only did this explosion destroy the Coyote it was attached to, four other Coyotes were taken out from shrapnel and intense heat from the resulting bomb explosion.
"What was that," Ino said.
"That Coyote must have been like a suicide bomber or something," Naruto said, "That was a really big bang." Hinata then let loose a burst of cannon fire, in which she led a Coyote flying past her into the line of shells. Just like she wanted, the Coyote was blown to bits. Another Coyote that tried hitting her from head on then mate the same brutal fate at the hands of her machine guns. "Nice shooting Hinata."
"Thanks," Hinata replied, "Same yourself."
"We're home free," Ino said, looking out the front window. "Look." Hinata looked in front of her to see a group of Black Swan Furies and Devastators flying up to meet the Black Widows and Russians. The Blood Reds began scattering, and the three sky pirates finally felt a bit safer.
"Hinata," a voice said, "Hinata you there?"
"Shino," Hinata said, "What's going on?"
"Kurenai sensei is in trouble," Shino said, "I'll explain when we land. Hurry."