Hello all and welcome to another installment. This one came a lot easier and I must say that I am pleased with the detail I decided to put into this chapter. Just to let everyone know, I have no idea who the Yondaime's wife is so this is just an OC I made up. Hope you enjoy her more now that I have somewhat introduced more of her character. Also, I wanted to let you know that I will have more OCs in this chapter and the next one too so I hope you don't mind. This chapter was a lot of fun for me to write. I ended up writing and could not stop. This is probably the fastest I wrote a chapter of this length. But you know how inspiration is. Once again, I want to thank those that reviewed my last chapter. Hope you all enjoy this chapter as much as I did writing it. Without further ado, I present to you -
Chapter Eight - The Omen, The Rogue, and The Rebel
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Uzumaki Arashi was a man of many different styles, beliefs, and practices. It just so happened that on this one morning, he was in the process of going over one such practice. A coffee mug in his hand, and a stack of documents around him that he had brought home last night, he was in the process of going over those documents. One such document was a status update on Kakashi's team over in Wave Country. So far, they had dealt with a great deal of Gatou's men and had successfully taken down his hideout. Now they had, in custody, Zabuza, his accomplice - Haku (who was in critical condition but has since recovered) - and the crime lord Gatou. They would be returning within a week or so. Arashi was very proud of his apprentice and was glad that he didn't seem to miss a beat. Back as ANBU captain, Kakashi would be able to flourish and might be able to take his mind off of the horrible incident that had occurred with his old team. Arashi still blamed himself, even to this day, just as Kakashi does, for what happened to them.
So many things seemed to haunt the Yondaime: the events of his past, the decisions from that past, and the decisions made as Hokage. He was forever plagued by images that seemed to make him fearful of karma's backlash, whenever it may come. He could only hope that he would be strong enough to stand up to it, whatever it might be. His home, his village, his people, and...his family. He would have to stand up to defend them at some point.
His family was where a great deal of his issues came from. Not because he had issues with his family but because it was seemingly unbecoming of a Hokage to settle down and start a family, even though the third had done so. The truth was that the elders of the village had always been at his throat. They truly felt that he was not the leader they had expected. The head of the Uchiha family or the Hyuuga family had been more appealing candidates, mainly because they were considered to be Konoha's pride and the representative of their dominance in the shinobi world. The Third, however, had seen that as insulting.
He hadn't come from some prominent family of well-known status. What Sarutobi was, was a man of incredible power, with virtues very becoming of a Hokage. The Nidaime, when he chose him, was considered a fool for choosing the soft-spoken, peace loving man. Sarutobi was seen as nothing but a tree-hugger and insulted silently, even though he always seemed to make the right decisions and only did so in the name of his people. Even in the face of great tragedy and incredible opposition, he made the wisest and most tactical of decisions during the war. The Yondaime had participated in that war, and his performance in it was what propelled his status in the village. He was seen for who he was, not as his reputation should automatically say for him. He did not come from a famous clan, he did not have a bloodline - or at least any bloodline that was phenomeninal like the Byakugan or Sharingan - and he did not have political assistance. But his virtues were seen for what they were and Sarutobi felt that he would be a much better Hokage than any of the other highly expected choices like Orochimaru, the head of Uchiha or Hyuuga. Without the attention on him, Arashi had risen among the ranks and had become one of the most revered of all shinobi and was now the Hokage of Konoha, and he couldn't be any happier.
His happiest moment, however, will always be when their family was made whole. He had fallen in love with a simple woman, Kidikime Collette, at second sight, a durastic difference from fanciful tales of romance with love-at-first-sight. When he had first met the woman, he was on a mission and had been injured, as had his comrades, and he had to take refuge. The only place close was a shrine. The shrine was renown for frowning upon those who harbor malevolent thoughts and desire the injury of others. They would rather their inhabitants learn to turn the other cheek and just ignore those who are aggressive. The smell of blood was heavy on them, as was their history, and he feared that he would be sent away, but the lady who answered the door was very kind and understanding of their situation. She offered them shelter and care for their injuries and had Arashi and his comrades escorted to the 'healing ward.'
A few minutes later, a few young individuals - both male and female - walked in wearing the attire of monks and priestesses. There was one person for each man who was injured and the person who cared for Arashi's injuries was the same lady who had allowed them shelter. She had extraordinary ability, her salves and cremes - which he had later found out were her own creations made from various herbs which had been praised and blessed by the shrine's most powerful of monks - quickly healing his wounds. After a few days, they had to leave, but not before he got her name. When he left, he felt a ripping feeling inside of him and couldn't help but feel that he was leaving something special behind. It was a few years later, after he had become Hokage, that he had received word that someone wished to see him. He reluctantly agreed upon hearing that it was a messenger from a holy shrine, not quite able to put two and two together in his head, but once the person entered, he was grateful that he had agreed to see them. Absence had only made him realize how magnificent she was. Her priestess kimono was elegant on her nearly flawless and perfect figure. Her skin looked pale, but he could only believe it was that way from years of being inside of the shrine, and yet it looked gorgeous on her. Her hair was beautiful, flowing down past her shoulder blades all the way to her low back, which was accented by the fact that it was the most beautiful shade of black he had ever seen. In short, she was angelic.
He had come to find out that she was there to spread the word of her faith and it's philosophies, but after spending an evening with her (nothing dirty I might add), she told him that she wished to check back up on the young man she had tended to a few years ago. He had, for some reason, left an impression in her that they could be more acquainted and that they might be friendly. She stayed three more days before she said that she must leave and goodness, did Arashi ever panic. He had been choking on the words he wanted to say to the magnificent creature that was this shrine priestess and he figured that if he could not speak them then he would not have a chance at doing so ever again. It was with incredible difficulty that he had managed to tell her how beautiful he thought she was and that he felt he might be falling for her. She was surprised and flattered, but she did not know what to say to him. So she left him without returning his feelings the evening before she would leave. The morning of that dreaded day, however, when he had wrestled with the thought that he must find a way to make her stay, he got ready to leave and meet her at the gates for one last ditch effort. He didn't even make it past his front door, for at that very moment when he opened his door, he saw her standing there. An emotional scene ensued as she shed tears at her confusion but felt that she could not leave, not when she felt she had a chance to be happy outside of the shrine. She postponed her departure for one more day and that one day had been just enough time for him to convince her to stay - not just in Konoha, but with him...forever. His proposal and her acceptance had been met with mixed opinions from the outside but it had been a glorious day to many.
A few years after that, they had felt it was enough time and so they resolved to have a child. The baby boy born was given the name Naruto and Arashi had never felt more complete in his entire life. They could take away his title of Hokage if they felt like it and he wouldn't have cared. He had his family now and if they had a problem with it then they would just have to deal with it. Now, here he sat, and he silently hoped that he would be able to fend off the vengeful force known as Karma when that time came, for it always seemed to rear it's ugly head when you least expected it. His mind went temporarily to Naruto and he wondered how they might be doing. It was at this precise moment that, as he raised his favorite mug to his mouth, that it chipped. Arashi is not a superstitious man by any means, so he did not take this as anything more than an unfortunate coincidence. After shrugging it off, he continued to raise his mug to his lips when the handle snapped off and the contents of the cup spilled onto his lap, burning it to a great degree. He shouted his irate agitation at the 'useless' mug and tried to stand up to move towards the sink and get a washcloth to dry off his lap. He tried was the key word, as the back leg of the chair broke and he fell backwards with an ungraceful landing. Frantically trying to scamper to his feet, he finally stood huffing and puffing, officially freaked out. 'Could this be a bad omen?' he thought to himself, when his pants fell down. (A/N: Blame 'Tenchi in Tokyo' for me writing this shameless skit in attempts of adding more humor)
------------------------------------------------------------------
(Thirty minutes ago, somewhere in Fire Country)
Teams Seven and Eight were walking along in a position that better suited their purpose of protecting Lord Vule and his cargo. Their set-up resembled a triangle of sorts: Kiba was in front, keen sense of smell would be able to pick up foreign scents and be able to warn them of the possible threat. Then a few feet behind him were Sasuke and Naruto, their speed and reaction speed being necessary, walking across from each other in a straight line. Next row was Sakura on the left, Lord Vule in the middle, and Shino on the right. Slightly in front of Lord Vule was Hinata, her being in the middle of the formation being crucial as she would be able to see around everyone and out into the distance to see if any traps were set. Shino's bugs would also be able to assist them in the finding of any threat. Behind the third line of Sakura, Vule, and Shino, in between the spaces on the final row, were Kurenai and Yamato. They stood close to Vule, making sure he felt comfortable, since he seemed to be highly irritable all morning and very anxious - but not an anxious like how a child feels about leaving on a trip they have been looking forward to, it was more like an anxious like how you are nervous about doing something that you would rather avoid doing.
They had left early, at around 6:30-7:00 am, much to the chagrin of the young genin who wanted more sleep to rest their weary bodies. The hot springs had helped but there was also the issue of fatigue from chakra. Almost everyone was in danger of exhausting their chakra reserves since they not only used chakra to help assist them in moving but also used it to help their stamina. Kurenai knew they could simply use some of the soldier pills Kiba had with him for his techniques, for the pills would give them a seemingly endless amount of endurance for three days and they wouldn't need to worry about sleeping, eating, or resting to regain stamina. But this was a perfect test of their resolve.
Kurenai had been trained on how to pick up on strange behavior and misleading demeanors in the people around her. Vule was no exception. His words yesterday were of a man who had foreseen a grim fate in his near future and she wondered if he was more than just a lord. She wondered if this man might be a 'seer' or those who have the gift of sight towards the future. If he was, and he had foreseen such horrible circumstances that would require such agitated behavior, she hoped he would inform her and Yamato so that they could be expecting it. So if he was not a seer, then why would the man be fearful? Was it just intuition or something more? She had voiced her opinion on the matter with Yamato but he had said that they would just have to be more vigilant.
Hinata had been placed in the middle of everyone for the purpose of activating her byakugan every now and then and scanning the area for as far as her doujutsu would allow her for any traps or intruders. So far, she had not caught sight of anything. She hadn't used her eyes for around five minutes so she felt she should give another look around them. She activated her byakugan silently, looking around her and trying to ignore the glowing chakra signatures of those around her and tried to look through them to a distance away. The path in front of them looked to be clear so she turned her attention to take in the area around them, deeper into the wilderness. Now she was told that they might encounter resistance on this trip but she had never guessed that it would actually happen. But there they were, chakra signatures, hiding in the trees. She suddenly became aware of the growling of a dog and, deactivating her byakugan, saw that Kiba had stopped, effectively halting the entire group.
"Kiba, do you smell something?" Kurenai asked, already knowing the answer to that question. The white dog's fur was standing up on end as it stood up on Kiba's head. Kiba nodded in response, not using any words and knowing he wouldn't need to. "Hinata, did you see anything?"
"Hai. There are a small number of people in the trees to our right. I think I counted five but there might have been more." She quickly reactivated her byakugan to give another look. "There are five, I just made sure." She then deactivated it, wanting to save as much energy as possible in case a confrontation couldn't be avoided. They were speaking in a low tone the whole time so as to try and not alert the individuals in the trees, if they turned out to be hostile.
"Hinata, would you be able to inform us of any more details, like how strong they might be and where exactly they might be?" Yamato asked, his attention not on her but on trying to detect the presences. If he couldn't sense them until now, then they had either been hiding out in this area or they just weren't capable of being detected. That could mean two things in itself. It was either they were too weak to be detected or they were so skilled that they had been able to disguise their presence. If it was the latter then they might have some issues with these people. He had been trained to always be on guard, even if you did not know the true intentions of strangers, when on a mission of high importance. These men were classified as enemies until proven otherwise.
"They're moving in." announced Shino, who had remained the same quiet and stoic boy he was in the academy. Kurenai understood though how he knew if the enemy might be coming closer. It was because Shino had probably sent out his bugs to locate foreign chakra signatures and placed a scent bug on the men and if they moved, Shino would be able to tell.
"Are they coming straight for us?" she asked to Shino, panic evident in her voice. He nodded. "How quickly?"
"They will be on us within a minute if we do not do anything." answered the bug-user, as he seemed to maneuver his body so that he would be better prepared to defend himself.
Naruto, who had been listening to everything and processing the information in his mind, stepped out of his place in their formation and got in between Hinata and Sasuke. Falling into a fighting stance, he readied himself for a fight but waited to see these individuals before he made a move. It was almost a full minute - the minute that Shino had warned them they would have before the enemy would be on them - and Kiba's dog, Akamaru, was growling ferociously while shivering, it seemed. Naruto gulped, not liking the feel of the situation. Something was out of place here. Something was, but he couldn't put his finger on it.
A few seconds later, four men dropped out of the trees and seemed to stand in confident defiance of the shinobi of the leaf. Whether or not these men were shinobi at all was unknown but their confidence did lead one to believe that were probably either strong or they just didn't know who they were up against. A couple moments later, the fifth man dropped down. Unlike the four men previously, this one you could easily tell was a shinobi. The man stood to be at least around 6'3", possibly taller and he was built like a tank. He had no shirt on but he did wear what appeared to be the skin of a dead animal, probably a bear. His broad chest was well-toned and he seemed to have muscles coming out of muscles. His arms were large and looked like they might be able to punch through stone and Naruto felt that if this man was anywhere close to being as fast as he was strong, then they were definitely in for a hard time. His intimidating features were finished with a pair of stone grey pants that stopped at just below his knees, and his shoes were mountain boots with spikes on the toe end. Around the man's neck was a hitai-ite from what appeared to be Iwagakure with a slash going across it.
The men behind him wore black shirts with red lines that looked to be slashes from a clawed creature as they made an X pattern on the front. The pants they wore were the same stone grey as the man who appeared to be the leader. These lackies didn't look as intimidating as there leader but they still eminated that aura of confidence. Yamato stepped towards the leader and stood between him and the shinobi of the leaf.
"What business do you have here?" Yamato's voice was dangerous, as if inviting the bulky man to say the wrong thing. And Naruto honestly feared Yamato more than this brute. "Speak or I will be forced to treat you as hostile targets." Was it a threat? Could be. But it was more of a promise than anything else.
"Me?" the burly man asked sarcastically, pointing to himself in an over-exaggerated manner. "My name is Garrett, but my brothers know me as 'Stone Bear.' I am the leader of my rogues and we are here, simply put, to claim the merchandise in that man's possession." He pointed another strong finger towards Vule.
"Then it appears that we are at ends with each other. I am going to give you one chance to cease and desist before I and my partners take action against you and your men." Yamato's warning was clear cut and Naruto knew that they would more than likely be in a confrontation with these men. The big guy didn't look like he was going to step down anytime soon. In fact, he didn't show even the slightest bit that he was worried about having to face them.
"If that is what you want, fine. But I want you to go ahead and understand this. I was not the one who wanted to fight. I merely wanted the ruby but if I must fight in order to claim it, then so be it." The big brute known as Garrett then reached into a pouch that was secured on his belt around his waist and pulled out four small objects that looked alot like soldier pills. He tossed one to each man behind him and they caught it, devouring their pill greedily. "You guys take on the kids, they shouldn't be much of a problem. I'll take on their jounin."
The four men suddenly crouched into fighting stances and took out small swords. It was very noticeable what those pills were doing to them. Their chakra, which didn't seem all too noticeable, had suddenly spiked up to a dangerous level, rivaling that of a chuunin. Yamato didn't feel that it would be much of a problem though, for the genin, as long as they fought together. "Naruto, Sasuke, Hinata, you three take on the two on the right. Sakura, Shino, Kiba, you three take on the two on the left. Kurenai, if you will, leave this guy to me. I need someone dependable to watch over Vule-sama while we take on these guys, alright?" She didn't like it very much but she saw the wisdom in the decision. All those around him and behind him, nodded their heads. "Good...GO!"
In a blur, all the people there darted about as they engaged, in combat, the ones they were assigned to.
Sakura performed a quick set of hand seals and made five quick bunshins in an attempt to confuse the two men. One of them stepped up and swung at the illusions, cutting through them and making them disappear. Kiba then came flying out of nowhere, spinning at high velocity and coming straight at the one who stepped forward. The one jumped up and avoided his attack, the one behind him barely rolling out of the way. Kiba came to a quick stop, landing gingerly on his feet and pushed off, performing the same attack again, but this time aiming it at the one suspended in the air. Despite being strong, these guys were not very intelligent. The rogue on the ground suddenly thrusted his hand up into the air, aiming it at Kiba's spinning form. Kiba was knocked violently out of his attack and sent crashing towards the ground. Whatever hit him had really hurt. It felt like he was getting punched, at full force, by his sister. He landed on the ground and skidded to a halt on all fours, only to sense the presence of one of the rogues behind him. He didn't have enough time to get out of the way. 'Shit, I was careless' he thought through gritted teeth. But his dog was able to make up for Kiba's carelessness as it jumped at the man and bit him on the arm. The said opponent screamed in pain before Kiba swung violently at the man and struck him hard in the chest, sending the man careening into a tree with a sickening 'thud.'
Meanwhile, the other rogue, who just watched his partner get taken out, felt that he might be outclassed here, all of them. He was busy trying to attack Sakura but in vain. Everytime he thought he would hit her, she would disappear out of existence. He suddenly felt that he was being trapped to the ground. He looked at his feet and saw an abnormal black blob on his feet. This black blob was abnormal in the sense that it seemed to be alive. The trapped man then realized, with horror, that it was actually bugs. He looked around for the third member of his opponents' team and saw him standing a short distance away, with small, black, puddles just popping out of him. In a frantic effort, the trapped rogue thrusted his hand towards his feet and the bugs dispersed, an unhearable cry of agony being emitted by the tiny insects. Shino cringed as he heard his bugs cry out in pain and came to a realization. These men may not be a shinobi like there leader was, but they certainly did know how to use chakra as a quick weapon. Whenever he thrusted out his palm, the rogue was sending out a quick pulse of chakra.
The man approached the one he had seen the bugs coming from and sped up to be right in front of him. He stabbed the boy through the guy and felt satisfaction as the boy doubled over in what appeared to be an expression of pain. But oh horror of horrors, the person who he had stabbed who he thought was the boy exploded into a massive swarm of bugs that clamped onto him. He felt himself becoming weaker and weaker at an incredibly fast pace.
"You are defeated. My kikai insects are feeding off your chakra even as I speak. You will be drained in a matter of moments. Just relax and accept your defeat." The man in the mass of bugs tried to slash around for the voice, hoping to hit anything. But he was becoming weaker and weaker, and he felt himself become incredibly exhausted. He fell to the ground, unconscious, and then the bugs washed off of him and came back to their master. Sakura shuddered as she saw the bugs go back into the boy, still not being able to get used to that. Kiba then bounded up to them, carrying the body of the rogue he had defeated, dropping him unmercifully to the ground next to his partner.
"That was soooo easy." said Kiba with great confidence.
"Indeed, perhaps...too easy." responded the stoic Shino. Sakura knew that when Shino did speak, it was out of importance and if Shino felt that something was wrong, then she took it to heart. If this was too easy, then what did it mean?
On the other side of the battlefield, Hinata, Sasuke, and Naruto had quickly and nearly effortlessly disposed of their opponents. Making quick use of his kage bunshins, Naruto sent them off as distractions. Once they engaged the two opposing rogues, the bunshins were quickly taken care of but the rogues were met by the very sudden numbing feeling as the succumbed to unconsciousness. Hinata had effortlessly walked behind the two men, as did Sasuke, and they used their hands to chop at the men's necks, sending them to slumberland. Naruto shook his head disappointedly as he walked up to his teammates. That was sad. These men were supposed to be good enough to take them out? Sure, they did have the chakra and the strength, but they had no skill; at least, there level of skill was nothing compared to Team Seven's. Naruto then turned to look at Yamato in the middle of a particularly ferocious battle with the muscle bound man. Despite the fact the lackies were weak, this man was something else. As Naruto continued to watch the bulky man fight, Garrett's chakra signature didn't seem to weaken. Instead, it became stronger and stronger and Garrett kept getting faster and faster.
Yamato was struggling, to say the least. We was used to facing strong opponents but this guy was something else. Whenever he did manage to land a punch, Garrett would just shrug it off and continue his assault. Yamato had a definite edge in speed but the man's taijutsu abilities were phenomenal despite his massive size. Yamato just shrugged that bit off though, he knew that in a one-on-one battle, he would win in the end with his ninjutsu. That was why he was captain of the ANBU in face of Itachi. He leaped away from a particularly massive swing from the man that ended with him making a mini-crater in the ground. 'This guy is going to kill me if I let him land even one punch.' He performed a quick set of handseals and thrusted his hand into the ground. "Mokuton: Ensnare." Vines quickly gathered from underneath Garrett's legs and started squeeze tightly. He was trapped and Yamato now ceized his opportunity. Six handseals and another thrusting of open-palm into the ground later, he shouted out a particularly vicious attack but this man was beyond dangerous. "Mokuton: Cascade of Splinters."
The attack sounded puny, as a regular person who would hear this attack and think that the splinters the technique was calling for would be those little, itty-bitty chips of wood that would insert just under your skin. What actually happened was twisted and grotesque in comparison to the former thought. After calling his technique, he rose his palm up that had been on the ground. With it's motion upwards came a pretty large root from a tree that seemed to not exist, even though there were trees everywhere around them. (A/N: Explanation of this description of the root comes later.) The thick and large root was being held by the glowing left hand of Yamato. His right hand suddenly began to glow as well and he thrusted it, open-palmed, into the root. The root seemed to explode in a mass of wooden projectiles ranging from half a foot to a full foot in length and from half an inch to a full inch in width. The 'splinters' were all aimed at the broad and defenseless man and embedded themselves in him. More than a dozen acupuncture-like wounds were inflicted and the cruel sight was almost enough to bring the contents of the young kunoichi's stomachs up to their throats. Even Naruto and Kiba shuddered. The frightening thing though was the fact the man did not go down.
Garrett just looked up at Yamato with a twisted smile on his face. His devilish grin chilled Yamato to the core and he started to think to himself why this man was so powerful. He took in the more unnoticeable things and tried to think back on his knowledge. 'A man known as Garrett, the leader of a group of rogues, a renegade nin from Iwagakure, massive size, with incredible endurance...oh my god. He couldn't be!' But he knew he was right. This man was the infamous 'Juggernaut of Rock Country.' A rebel ninja who's unorthodox methods to fighting led him to be revered but he was deemed not sane after he killed his own teammates in the heat of a battle and didn't even bat an eyelash in guilt. 'Good god, why do I have to have the unfortunate coincidence of having to encounter this man here and now?' The injustice of the matter was enough to almost make him laugh at the irony. He was made into the jounin instructor for Team Seven to teach them how to deal with situations like this and now here he was and he didn't know how to deal with the situation.
Everybody watched with wide-eyed awe (or horror) as the man seemed to chuckle sadistically, even with all the wooden protrusions coming from his epidermis. "You bastard, you actually made me bleed." Garrett then tensed his muscles, showing off their gross size, and began to strain himself. Yamato shuddered as he felt the chakra in his body begin to build and then he was even more shocked when the man suddenly went rigid while standing, tensing every muscle and pushing his chakra forth in such a way that not only were the vines around his feet destroyed but also the projectiles were forced out of his body. Yamato grimaced in pain as he was pierced by one of the splinters, even though he made a move to avoid them. Now with an injured shoulder, his chances of defeating this goliath was drastically reduced.
"What the hell!" shouted the monstrous man. Yamato tried to pay close attention and then caught something out of the corner of his eyes. Aburame Shino, the bug-user on Team Eight, was sending out wave after wave of bugs that were attaching themselves to Garrett. These bugs, which he remembered Kurenai telling him were kikai bugs that could sap chakra, were a welcome blessing. If they could the man distracted while the bugs feasted on him, then victory might be plausible. "You really think these bugs will stop me!" Garrett then seemed to burst chakra from his back, effectively knocking the bugs off of his back.
"Impressive, you can release chakra from certain areas of your body to repel my bugs. That won't work forever though and eventually you will exhaust before my bugs will. They will only become hungrier." Garrett just smiled at him.
"If you think you can defeat all by your puny self, then bring it on little man." He then stomped his foot into the ground, which seemed to be the reason for a layer of earth to rise up and surround him in a shell. The bugs tried to get through but they couldn't, there wasn't a single fault in the structure that would allow them access. Out of nowhere, the brute jumped out from the ground and grabbed the boy by the neck. Kiba shouted in panic and began to perform that technique again. "GAROUGA!" This time he was coming at the man like a bullet, spinning and moving a lot faster than he ever had. Unfortunately, he didn't get much out of the attack, as Garrett just used his other free hand to stop the boy in mid-spin. After the spinning motion stopped, Kiba was seen with his head in the massive hand of Garrett, with a look of terror in his eyes. Sakura suddenly rushed the man, not wanting to see her teammates get hurt and tried to attack him. Before Yamato or anyone else could react, Garrett - who sensed the girl coming, despite not seeing her - thrusted a large leg out and caught her right in the gut.
She went careening through the air towards a tree where she would probably have met a grim fate, had it not been for the boy of her dreams becoming her knight in shining armor. He caught her roughly, applying chakra to his feet so that it would act as a brake. After finally stopping he checked on her.
"You okay, Sakura?" She blushed when she saw that it was Sasuke who saved her and nodded weakly.
"Yeah, I am." But she grimaced in pain and coughed up some blood. "No...I'm not." she said defeatedly. She was still weak and, worse yet, the boy she wanted to impress was here to witness her getting embarrassed.
"Don't worry about it. Just stay here. We'll try to do something to save your teammates." He had spoken with such conviction that she couldn't help but believe him.
"If this is the best Konoha has to offer, then your village has become very weak." The statement made by Garrett was so obnoxious that it struck a cord in Naruto. He wanted nothing more than to beat this guy into a bloody pulp but he realized, after seeing his sensei struggle and witnessing team Eight pretty much get taken down with little effort, that he would not be able to do anything. He couldn't do anything, because this man, Garrett, was built like a tank and could probably easily withstand a great deal of physical pain. But usually, when one strengthens their outer-self, their inner-system is very vulnerable. That's right, Hinata was their only hope. Naruto could only hope that Hinata would take the initiative. While Shino, Kiba, and Sakura were being soundly defeated, he went and came up with a good plan and told Sasuke and Hinata. They agreed and if he was correct, then everything would work out. The biggest problem would be getting Shino and Kiba away so they couldn't be used as shields. A slight moment later, it seemed that Naruto's fears were put to rest.
Shino, who was in the grasp of Garrett, only chuckled in arrogance. "What is so amusing, brat?" spat the man, irate at the audacity of this whelp.
"Just as your men had before you, you have fallen prey to one of my clan's most useful of techniques." Garrett's eyes widened as the boy he was holding exploded into a massive cloud of bugs. They all poured onto the gargantuan man and started to leach as much chakra as they could as quickly as they could. Kiba, using the man's surprise, got the hell away from him. Shino dropped from a tree, straightening his glasses in a confident gesture. "A true master of my arts would not carelessly leave myself open like that. I had thought two moves ahead of you and you never noticed it. You can try and get rid of my bugs that are on you, but you can not get rid of the bugs that had slowly but surely made their way into your chakra coils."
Garrett's eyes widened in shock, he was being defeated by genin. Not only defeated, but outsmarted. He had planned to at least take them down if he could before these damn bugs could sap all his chakra but before he could make his move, one the genin - the blonde haired boy - shouted an order to everyone, it seemed.
"Hey Shino, when I tell you to, move your bugs out of the way of his torso." Naruto waited, building up chakra into his fist. He needed this to be timed perfectly. Yamato watched in awe as the young genin who he had been fearful for were turning the tide of the battle and looked to Kurenai, who looked like she was a proud mother.
Garrett had enough and started to shove his chakra around to try and get the bugs off but his chakra control seemed to not want to behave properly. If he didn't do something then he was going to lose. Him. Garrett, the Stone Bear. But before he could resolve himself to make a counterattack, the blonde brat had issued his command.
"Shino, NOW!" The bugs seemed to compact together on his arms, neck, shoulders, and legs, leaving his entire torso exposed. "Now Hinata!" Garrett became horrified when he felt the young kunoichi's presence approaching him rapidly. He turned to see her stop and drop into a fighting stance, her eyes having odd veins coming from the sides and her pupils being pure white. 'A Hyuuga? Oh shit!' A quick palm thrust to his right side of his ribs made him reel in agony. She was attacking his internal organs with deadly precision. He swung for her but missed as she spun around gracefully, avoiding his blow and landing another blow to his left lung. He coughed in agony, his breathing becoming painful. He had to act...and he needed help.
He jumped back before she could land the final blow to his heart but when he landed from his jump, he saw the blonde boy run at him at full speed, his right hand clenched into a fist and glowing with blue chakra.
--------------------------------------------------------
Over on the sidelines, Kurenai watched with impressed awe as she saw the once, seemingly invincible man, Garrett, succumbing to her and Yamato's teams. Six genin were defeating a Jounin who looked to be possibly stronger than her or Yamato. It might have been overconfidence on Garrett's part or just dumb luck, but they were going to be able to escape here without Vule's life being threatened.
Speaking of the man, upon seeing Hinata land the blows to the midsection of Garrett, Vule started to shake his head in disappointment. He then mumbled something that sounded like "I guess it couldn't be helped." He began to stand up, which caused Kurenai to stand with him, unsure of what the man's intentions were. He looked at her, smiled regrettably, and placed his hand on her chest, just above her breasts. Kurenai became a little red at the contact and looked at him with questioning eyes.
"I'm sorry Yuuhi Kurenai, but you and your teammates have left me with no other choice." Kurenai's eyes widened in shock and before she could react, a pulse of chakra was emitted from the hand on her chest, which propelled her towards a tree where her head smacked against it mercilessly and she fell in blissful unconsciousness.
---------------------------------------------------------
BUAHAHAHA! My first-ever cliff hanger. Even I think I'm evil for doing this. So yeah, this chapter wasn't as long as you are probably used to but I thought this was a good stopping place. Wasn't it? muahahahha...anyways, I hope you enjoyed this chapter since I really enjoyed writing it and I'm pretty sure that if everything works out, I will have the next chapter up before the end of the weekend.
As before, if you have any questions or are confused about something, then ask. I will try to answer or respond but I do not want to tell you anything that might ruin the future of the story. As for a preview, since I know I will have it out soon, you do not get a preview. MUAHAHAHAHA (But that's just cruel isn't it. The next chapter, you will find out about the true intentions of Lord Vule) Until next time, hope you return to read the next installment.