Author's Note: I am so sorry you've all had to wait so long for this chapter! You wonderful wonderful people! As usual it's the darn real world taking up all my time, I've been writing loads of this story on my iPod on train journeys but I never have the time to edit as it's such a big job! This entire fight scene has been a real challenge for me (I had writers block for ages) so I hope you all enjoy it, I'm afraid it's another Kakashi-less chapter but he'll definitely be in 9! Special thanks to RedZinnia who gave me some great advice after the previous chapter – it was so helpful, hopefully I've taken it all in!
Thanks To: SnowyLife12, IloveTeamSeth, Erinokuraku, Dear U. x .U, RedZinnia, kiralol101, IKhandoZatman, PsychoticSky, Lovableamanda, MonMonMuffin2714, dinosaursgorawrr, Dinoluvr, Snowball A.K.A WinterWolf, StillDreamingOn, Wolf-Cry-Night, briecorr, YNoThinkBrain, Evilshallprevail, Dean'sDirty Little Secert, MaderThanTheHatter, MYMYTHEGREAT, Capn-Nelson, Kellaayyee, , EllieGirl123, LittleWolfEmpress
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any characters, story, ideas that are associated with it. What I do own is my OC Toshiko Akatora and any other OC's that may turn up.
Notes on pronunciation & translation: Maname – Ma-na-may so when her name is shortened it's 'Name – Na-may
Kyōdaina is supposed to mean "Mighty" and Gōman'na should mean "Arrogant" (I used online translators but I'm not 100% they're accurate so if not, sorry in advance! Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong)
=^.^=
8
Somewhere behind the tall demon of a man a slight flicker of movement caught her eye, but she made no outward sign of acknowledgement. "You're right; I would be incredibly foolish... if that had been my plan." She replied with one well defined eyebrow raised.
The smile that had been playing on his thinly shaped lips lessened ever so slightly. "Still talking tough even when you're screwed." He spat out each word, venom lacing his voice "Typical Leaf bitc-"
He was cut off mid-sentence as clear, liquid tendrils sprang forth from the ground beneath his feet, akin to transparent vines of ivy, and coiled around the men's bodies until each was held tightly where he stood.
The sound of chirruping birds rang sharp in their ears as bolts of electricity ran through those tendrils. The rogue nins cried out in pain, not able to see their attacker.
Toshiko recognised Ryo's water tendril Jutsu combined with Hiro's lightning circuit Jutsu instantly, having seen the combo attack numerous times during training sessions. They released the Jutsu, causing the captives to fall unconscious to the floor.
"Nice plan Tosh, I especially enjoyed the bit where you fell out of the tree." Ryo chuckled.
Finally directing her eyes towards them, she saw the four figures standing a short distance away, Yasahiro, Ryousuke, Maname and… herself, or rather one of her clones. She sighed at Ryo's comment, "I err, didn't plan that bit, but my clone needed a distraction so it worked out perfectly. Any chance we could, maybe, 'forget' that when we write our mission reports?"
A voice came from the trees, "That's if you make it back alive, which I doubt. Impressive move by the way, but not quite good enough."
They turned to see the rogue's leader leaning against a tree at the edge of the clearing, arms crossed with his head cocked to one side as three of his men jumped down next to him. It appeared at least some of them had been quick witted enough to use the substitution Jutsu at the last minute.
"Who are you?" Toshiko demanded of their currently nameless foe.
"Kenta Himura." Hiro replied from behind her.
"Wait, you know this guy Hiro?" She turned to give her teammate a quizzical look.
Hiro sighed impatiently, "Yes, and so should you. He's ranked at number 67 in the bingo book."
She let out a slight snigger, "Oh, well, I stopped reading past 50; I figured anyone after that wouldn't be worth a Jounins time."
Ryo smirked, "Isn't he the one who refers to himself as the Kyōdaina* Kage …? More like the Gōman'na* Kag-"
"Enough of this!" The man newly identified as Kenta Himura looked furious at the obvious lack of respect he was receiving, and he darted towards Ryo with surprising speed and accuracy for a man of his heavy built stature.
Hiro's fingers threw out hand signs and the earth started to rumble and shake, large cracks appeared causing the soil and stone to break up beneath the three other men forcing them to jump up to avoid the Jutsu. Kunai and shuriken rained down upon Tosh and her team but all were countered by their own, the clash of metal against metal rang out like a deadly symphony in the otherwise silent forest.
Kenta had squared off against Ryo, he was tough, clearly an elite fighter despite his rank in the bingo book, Ryo seemingly struggled to find an opening; every Jutsu he used against his older opponent would be dodged or countered. Having kneaded his chakra into water he'd just used the Water Gunshot Jutsu to send a series of water bullets hurtling towards Kenta, forcing the rogue to jump to one side, when their fight crossed paths with Hiro's and seamlessly, with no outward signal the two Jounins switched opponents, Hiro slamming the palm of his hand into Kenta's chest, the sheer power of focused chakra throwing him backwards against a tree where his lifeless body collapsed on the ground before disappearing in a cloud of smoke, leaving a hoary gnarled log behind in its place.
Meanwhile Toshiko was locked in a battle of Taijutsu with one of Kenta's men. It should have been an easy fight, as his skill level was lower than her own, but due to her earlier exertion, they were evenly matched. Each blocking kicks and parrying punches, Tosh ran up a nearby tree and, with a rare graceful somersault, dealt him a drop kick to the head. He stumbled, shakily trying to steady himself, and raised his obsidian-bladed long-sword in preparation to attack but her hands were too quick, she finished making the required hand signals in the nick of time, for just as her opponent started towards her, a slender flame poured from Toshiko's right hand taking on the shape of a deadly, fiery, snake-like whip which she brought forward with a sideward swing. A sharp crack filled the air as the golden flames wrapped around the blade and yanked it from his grasp, rendering it useless. With a final wave of her hand the flaming lasso coiled itself around the now terrified man, restraining him, it allowed her enough time to bury a kunai in his chest before finally releasing the Jutsu. Having finished off her opponent, Tosh ran to aid Maname who had been struggling to hold off a man, of below average height, wielding twin short swords.
He leered at Maname through small beady blue eyes as he brandished his blades at her, forcing the kunoichi back. Being a medical-nin she was aware of how imperative her skills were to the team, and normally she would take a backseat during a fight but she had no choice this time. Tosh sent half a dozen Spiralling Wind Balls at him in quick succession, the man dodged every last one and ran towards Tosh and Maname. He ran at such a speed that the two kunoichi were just barely able to use the substitution Jutsu to escape in time. By this point Tosh's chakra levels were running low but she pushed on, *I've got to wrap this up quickly, maybe if Ryo uses... hmm, yeah, that could work!* she turned to look at Ryo hoping he would pick up on what she was planning by using one of Hiro's predetermined signals. Ryo, having just dealt his current opponent a fatal blow, caught Toshiko's eye and nodded slightly in response to her slight hand signal.
She turned back to her target, hitting him with a Wind Hurricane Jutsu that sent his short blonde hair wildly whipping across his angered face. Dust and debris spiralled around the man, until it completely and utterly shielding him from view. When the air finally dissipated, the shadowy figure came slowly into view. The man was standing in exactly the same spot he had been moments earlier, only not of his own accord. Wrapped around his ankles and completely enveloping his hands were the ivy-like tendrils of water, reaching up from out of the trampled grass by his boots, locking him firm in place and forcing him to take the full force of the attack. As the tendrils slithered back deep into the earth his body went limp and fell.
Ryo had barely finished the hand signs for his water tendril prison Jutsu when a blade pierced his side, he turned his head to find none other than Kenta Himura, grinning madly at him with malice in his eyes, fingers grasping the katana's hilt. "You should know better than to drop your guard, boy." Came the sly voice, dripping with glee. "Too bad you won't have the chance to learn your lesson." And with that he slid the now dark red blade out.
Ryo clutched at the wound, falling to his knees in pain. It was deep and he was losing blood, if Maname could get to him soon enough it might not be fatal, but at this moment in time that was a big 'if'.
Ryo was injured, Hiro was running low on chakra and Maname needed to see to Ryo's wounds. Kenta was the only rogue ninja left standing, unwavering and seemingly fatigue free, and out of her teammates Tosh had the best shot at defeating him. It was down to her, and it was imperative she didn't screw this up, the mission depended on it, as did their lives.
Drawing her chakra blade and holding it in both hands she lunged towards Kenta, the blade clashing against his katana. Her left hand let go of the hilt, grabbing his wrist in an attempt to prize the knife from the iron-like grip. She barely noticed that the glove she wore was in tatters, and the strange tingling sensation in her hand had developed into a dull throb at the skin on skin contact but she pushed it from her thoughts. She had to defeat him whatever the cost, she was the only one of her team who was still in a condition to fight. Everything depended on her.
Physically Kenta was the stronger, and it wouldn't take long for him to overpower her, Tosh gritted her teeth, a growl escaping her lips as a thought reverberated through her skull, infused with steadfast determination *I. Will. Not. Fail!*
Love for the village and pure unbridled fortitude welled up inside of her, as the throbbing tingle became far more intense. Something was wrong, she couldn't pin point what exactly, nor could she distinguish whether it was good or bad. It just was.
She looked at the intimidating man in front of her, was this some kind of Jutsu of his? Was he about to defeat her? To her surprise the face that looked back was drained of colour, the expression across Kenta's harsh features was one of confusion mixed with a hint of fear. He yelled out "What... what is this?!" His usual confidently cool composure had been abandoned as he squirmed in her grasp, but he had lost a sizable chunk of that unwavering strength, it was as if he was terribly fatigued all of a sudden, becoming weaker and weaker every passing second.
A wave of vertigo enveloped Toshiko, and almost in perfect synchronicity the two passed into unconsciousness to the sounds of her teammates shouting somewhere behind her.
=^.^=
"She's breathing! And starting to come around, Toshi? It's Maname, can you hear me?"
She could hear her friends' voice somewhere above her, *I must have passed out, but then why do I feel so...* Toshiko opened her eyes; harsh light, a multitude of colour and blurry shapes threatened to overpower her senses. She blinked and shook her head, making her surroundings swim back into focus, Maname was kneeling beside her and Ryo was sat a little ways off propped up by Hiro's leg.
"How are you feeling, fatigued? Dizzy? Or in pain?" Maname inquired.
Tosh mentally focused on every part of her body, double checking what she had originally surmised upon coming to. "I... Feel good, 'Name. Like, really good. Although my muscles feel stiff and achy... That's weird, right? How long was I out of it for?" She studied the medic-nins' face as she spoke, searching for signs of worry or unease, and instead found the concerned expression she had worn seconds earlier had been replaced with slight confusion.
"Luckily only for a minute or two, but I don't understand how this is possible though, you should have used up your chakra by now." As she spoke Maname started checking all of Tosh's vitals for the second time, focusing on her chakra flow. Only to turn back to her with wide eyes, "You... But how...? It doesn't make sense!"
Slowly Toshiko attempted to lift herself up, but her body felt far too heavy for such a notion so she gave up, leaning back on her elbows instead. Maname was making very little sense, which in itself was far from her usual reassuring character. "Maname what's going on? Take a breath and explain because right now you are starting to make me panic."
The medic-nin calmed herself before explaining what was so unexplainable, "I'm sorry Toshi, it's just that I've never seen anything like this before, you should have very little chakra left after today, but unless I'm mistaken you currently have more than you would at full strength. Your body physically shows signs of the battle but internally your chakra reserves say otherwise."
Frowning, she considered Maname's words, "So, what does this mean? Is it good or bad?"
"It means we need to get back to the village and get you to the hospital, because to be perfectly honest I'm stumped."
Toshiko nodded her agreement and then switched her attention to Ryo and Hiro. "How are the others? I remember seeing Ryo get hurt pretty badly."
"They'll be fine, while you were fighting against Kenta I was able to heal Ryo's wounds, they were serious but I've healed worse, other than that he's just over exerted himself. And Hiro just needs rest. Here, I'll help you up." Offering a hand she hoisted Tosh to her feet, helping her to walk over towards the others.
Ryo, worried about his friend, threw question after question at Toshiko as she and Maname joined them "Tosh, you ok? What happened with that guy? What was his name, Kento? No, Kinta? Ah whatever, you didn't do something stupid again did you?"
With a smirk she answered the incessant nagging, "Sort of, he's been..." pausing briefly to glance at the motionless body on the ground, "Disposed of, and as for his name; so close but wrong, and wrong again, it was Kenta – I thought you knew that? And finally it's highly likely."
Ryo scowled as he playfully stuck his tongue out at his teammate. "Ok, Ok, enough cheek, I'm seriously injured here give a guy a break, yeah? I may not make it through the night."
"Ryousuke, Asano just healed your wounds, you are merely lacking in chakra and energy." Hiro cut in, ever the voice of reason. "So please tone down your inner drama queen."
Three incredulous faces turned to stare at Yasahiro. Had he just cracked a joke? There was a momentary silence as they shared a questioning glance with each other, then a beautiful cacophony of laughter filled the air breaking the stillness that had fallen around the small group. With spirits lifted and the mission a success they began to make camp for the night.