Chapter 14
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Neji and Naruto were falling in a light less cavern at a very fast downward motion. Silently, Neji used his Byakugan to attempt to see where the possibly approaching ground resided.
'It seems we will be hitting the ground in a matter of moments. Grr, what are we going to do to stop the maximum impact Naruto and I will have on the ground. Wait, that's it!' mentally discovered Neji, "Eight Trigrams Heavenly Spin!" yelled Neji as he and Naruto hit the ground.
The result of Neji's tactics led to the creation of a crater in the ground where he and Naruto slowly came out of.
"Nice thinking Neji! It could've been pretty nasty back there," proclaimed Naruto.
"It wasn't a problem," responded the heroic Neji with his usual serious look taking over his facial complexion, "Now how are we going to get some light shed in here? We can see each other slightly but as for the rest of the caverns in front of us, they can hardly be made out.
"Then we'll just have to be careful about it," responded Naruto with his trademark grin before feeling around him and attempting to move forward.
Over time, Neji and Naruto were able to progress forward, but while walking the both of them could've sworn they felt something brush against their ankle briefly. Naruto, while brushing his rough hands against ruble around him, soon spotted a crack of light in front of him. He unsheathed Kazemougi and waited for wind to circulate around it before realizing there was no source of wind around him.
"Fuck! I guess I'll just have to use the blade instead," bellowed Naruto, a curious Neji wondering what he was talking about while standing across from Naruto.
Quickly, Naruto bashed through the crack, making it a small hole and with a few more slashes and punches, he created a huge hole, easily able to be crawled through. He and Neji crawled through and entered the source of the light only to find a sanctuary surrounded in pitch black, cobblestone walls with torches lining down them. In the middle of the room, some kind of alter stood with a dusty book lying on it, open. A malignant voice echoed as Neji and Naruto approached the book.
"You dare touch the book of our ancestors? That is a crime punishable by…death," echoed the voice, "Watch yourselves!"
"Huh, what the fuck?" a perplexed Naruto wondered before noticing four figures walk out of the shadows.
"Who do we have here? Two intruders?" questioned one of the figures.
"I don't know K, but I do think they should be dispatched," responded a shorter looking figure in a malign tone.
"Agreed, let's kill them," entered a third voice before the voices ceased entirely.
Neji, Byakugan still active, spotted one of the figures moving at a fast speed towards Naruto stealthily. He ran quickly and with one jab, his fingers landed near the heart area of the moving unit. Then, all hell broke loose. The other two units who had previously spoken started advancing towards their present targets, Naruto and Neji. One of them named Ravir started a close quarter's blade to blade fight, all while the other named Hasin began using long range combat against Neji.
"It doesn't look like you're very good at Kenjutsu, punk," maniacally spat Ravir before ducking a very sloppy slash by Naruto and swinging for Naruto's left ankle.
A very annoyed Naruto cringed when he felt the flesh on his left ankle open, "Hehehe, guess your right. I'll just use my other attacks," retorted Naruto while flashing a grin.
With one movement, Naruto used his right leg to kick Ravir away. He landed awkwardly on his left leg and a jolt of pain crawled up his spine, but he ignored it as best as possible and started forming signs.
"Wind Release: Fuujin Whirlwind!" shouted Naruto before sending a twirling vortex of air towards Ravir, which ended up blowing Ravir off his feet and tumbling into a wall.
Away from Naruto, Neji was faring well against Hasin. Though, he began to feel weary because of his slight overuse of his Byakugan. Hasin took advantage of the moment Neji began to breathe heavily and wrapped a wire around Neji's ankle, sending Neji to the ground.
"You're at my mercy now," laughed Hasin.
"You might want to think that over," coolly responded Neji before shouting, "Eight Trigrams Sixty Four Palms!"
Hasin fell directly backwards after being hit with the barrage of attacks and stopped moving entirely almost immediately. Neji deactivated his Byakugan and started to get the wire off of his leg. A slightly worried Naruto walked over to Neji to assure his health was in no danger and picked him up.
"You know Neji, I could've sworn there was another person over the-," began Naruto until he and Neji were thrown backwards from the explosion of an exploding tag.
"You may have beaten those three town pillagers, but I'm no pushover. They call me Gannou, the trap master," spoke an old man holding a kunai in one hand.
"Please, don't keep up these explosions. The caverns will cave in," pleaded Naruto while looking at the elderly Gannou.
Gannou disregarded the plea and held another kunai out and he slowly began to tie an exploding tag to it. Naruto and, a weak in the knees, Neji looked at the man curiously before advancing towards him. To possibly distract him, Naruto sent multiple shuriken at Gannou, but Gannou dodged them with expertise while still holding his tools.
'Heh, guess I'll use one of my favorite jutsu,' thought Naruto to himself before shouting, "Kage Bunshin no jutsu! (Shadow clone jutsu)
Several shadow replications of Naruto appeared and each, along with the actual Naruto, loaded a flurry of punches. Neji prepared to go into his main taijutsu stance while watching Naruto. Right before Naruto and his doppelgangers could reach Gannou, they were forced to stop when they ran into a nearly invisible wire. Multiple kunai were released as the wires snapped and four of them pierced the real Naruto In the chest. The moment Naruto was hit; Gannou chuckled and threw his exploding kunai at the moving Neji. Even though he did not have his Byakugan active, Neji noticed the kunai coming at him and he grabbed it by the tag and stopped it from exploding.
"That's a very keen eye you have, son. Better than your friend's eye," pointed out Gannou while looking at Neji.
"Don't count me out just yet" shouted Naruto while the kunai still stuck in his chest.
"Then I guess you two can evade my greatest trap," said Gannou before tripping a wire in front of his nose, causing hundreds of kunai with a green poison tip to drop down on separate wires from the ceiling.
'Shit! Aw man, we're dead meat. I guess I could try Kazemougi again,' mentally panicked Naruto before pulling out the weapon he had absolutely no mastery of.
"Now, my trap is set," shouted Gannou before releasing every single kunai.
Naruto gripped his blade hilt and closed his eyes. He listened to the faint whistles of wind around him and picked his blade up and swung his blade as hard as possible at the kunai. The wind seeping through the cracks of the cavern twirled around the blade all the way to the tip and it launched itself at each and every kunai, changing its direction to north. When Naruto opened his eyes, he discovered every kunai lodged in the ceiling and the shocked expression on Gannou's face, but it wasn't Naruto's attack that amazed him, it was the fact that one kunai didn't go north and it wedged into Gannou's stomach.
"Are you okay, old guy?" wondered Naruto while rushing over to him.
A rasping Gannou opened his mouth and spoke a few words, "Potion…alter…book," before closing his eyes and breathing slower and slower.
"Neji! Go to the altar. I think the potion we're supposed to be finding might be over there or maybe it has something to do with it.
Neji immediately complied and lurched his way over to the altar, "Naruto, I don't see anything!"
"Gannou said something about the book. Does that help at all?" asked Naruto while staring at Gannou's body.
Neji cursed under his breath and started flipping book pages until he came to an odd page with an indentation. When he further observed it, he saw a small vial with a silver liquid in it. Then, Neji pulled it out quickly and made his way over to Naruto. He handed it over and Naruto pulled off the lid and poured one drop of the potion in Gannou's mouth and after a few moments, Gannou began breathing again.
"I-it nullified the poison! This thing really does cure anything," excitedly yelled Naruto before screwing the top back on.
"Naruto, as much as I'd like to stay and discuss this, I think it's time we try and get out of here," pointed out Neji.
"Alright, we have to make see if there's anyone else that can brought out of here," said Naruto.
"I already checked, the three ninja we fought a-," began Naruto until he was interrupted by Gannou surprisingly.
"N-no, you can't get anyone else. T-there's a h-huge trap set up in here. A series of e-exploding tags are lined up everywhere and they'll go off very soon," began Gannou before stopping, breathing and speaking again, "In the back, over there, t-there's an exit, but you need to get out fast.
Naruto and Neji picked up Gannou and supported him as they walked towards where Gannou pointed. Right as they reached the exit, a loud explosion went off and another soon followed until the noises began to get louder. Naruto, Gannou, and Neji all exited and through the back and they made their way to another hatch that Gannou opened with his right arm. The three of them each got through the hatch and closed it right as Neji, the last of them, exited. Moments later, the hatch blew off into the distance.
"Just in time, eh boys?" a slightly riveted and excited Gannou said while smiling, though Neji and Naruto both sighed and laid back against ruble.
When they saw the hatch blow off into the sky, Sakura and Genma rushed over to where the hatch came from to find the rest of the team and someone they'd never seen before.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Town Full of Ninja Phobic People
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Just as the townspeople began to settle down after their previous encounter with Genma and company, a burning hatch from far away came into view.
"It's the ninja again! They're gonna kill us all!" screamed the seemingly only frightful townsperson before being nailed by the flaming hatch.
A tall, male villager with black curly hair, black clothes, and a top hat stared at the guy that just got crushed and turned to his wife, "The jackass had it coming," said the man in a deep voice before walking away.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
End of Chapter 14