I'm really not that happy with this part, splitting the chapter in half for FFn posting means the only really good scene is the first one, the rest is pretty much all rehash to frame the part where Hinata comes back in, in the second part. Her progression is an important part of the plans for the story, but actually showing it takes a lot of words.
txy08a_t8_falls
2007-12-13 - initial file created, notes transferred from DWMB saves
2007-12-14 - watched Jump Festa 2004, took notes of how to sub Shino/Hinata/Kiba and found that it actually seems more in character with them than Sasuke/Sakura/Naruto once I bring in the kunoichi team member at the end instead of just having her watch while the guys double-team Stupid.
2007-12-25 - Hinata flashback/training scenified
2008-05-09 - part of the flashback moved to an earlier chapter when it happens live
2008-05-14 - integrated remaining flashback bit, battle finale
2008-05-23 - minor fixes, found the anime again to watch, again
2008-05-25 - Nagisa and Hiashi scenes
2008-06-09 - Zabuza scene, Ichiraku meeting, canon beginning to Shibuki's duel. I've written 30kb tonight and haven't gotten through the first two sentences of outline...
2008-06-10 - found gimmick to be less dully canon, knocked out the rest. Proofread.
2008-06-21 - corrected Nagisa's age, caught a few more gremlins
2010-03-12 - fixed a gaping continuity hole and a few minor rephrasings
2011-11-10 - chopped in half for FFn
Continuity Note: This too takes place mostly concurrent with the Wave Country mission. It'll be the last chapter before heading into the Chuunin Exam at last; Ino already got her moment and the guys are in better condition to begin with. Kiba and Shino's parts in this are pretty close to Naruto and Sasuke canon as well, but I couldn't cut any more and have the story make sense. Just be glad I dispensed with the poo 'jokes.'
Hinata still tended to walk huddled into her jacket and with her head half-bowed, but lately there was a certain something to her step that had been missing for too long. She'd risen and left early for the training grounds to get in some kata before meeting her team, and there was also another possibility never to be overlooked. Nearing the Ichiraku ramen stand to buy some breakfast, she could hear that her luck seemed good this morning.
"Oi, oi, old man Teuchi! Seconds please!" A cheerful voice rang out in the early morning stillness as she approached the spill of light from the small, booth-style shop. "Mmm, it smells delicious, dattebayo!"
Ducking under the curtain-like banner across the front, she greeted, "Good morning, Ichiraku-san, N-N-Naruto-kun." Upright again, she noticed the second customer siting beside the blond boy and her good mood vanished. "... Rikou-san," she continued, after an awkward pause.
"Hyuuga-san," the older kunoichi ground out. "I see you're not stuttering so much. It's important for a ninja to show confidence, isn't it?"
"Y-yes..." the shy girl acknowledged, restrained from fleeing only by the utmost act of will. "As... as important as d-dressing w-well to im-impress clients..." her voice was barely audible, but Rikou still flinched at the hit, well aware of how some people saw her practical and stylish tight pink body suit. It was just... -uniquely- stylish, rather than bowing to sheeplike trends, she assured herself.
Another awkward silence followed, if unnoticed by the happily slurping fox boy. Gathering her courage once more, the Hyuuga heiress placed her order. "I-I'd like a Morning Nin Special p-please, Ichiraku-san."
"An excellent choice, Hyuuga-sama," the chef replied happily, trying to lighten the atmosphere again. "Packed with everything to start your day right, my Morning Nin Special will get you going for whatever challenge it brings!"
Leaving off her glare at the younger girl, Rikou pointedly went back to eating her own bowl of noodles, chowing down with gusto before commenting, "Hey Naruto, isn't it lucky you have a team mate who loves ramen just as much as you do?"
After calling for another bowl, the boy agreed, "Yeah, yeah! Lee and Gai-sensei don't know what they're missing, dattebayo. Even Hinata loves it too, I see her here a lot in the mornings!"
Splitting her chopsticks perfectly, the lavender-eyed girl nodded agreeably and bowed her head as her meal arrived. "Ittedakimasu," she said quietly before giving the bowl a quick swirl, pulling out a bunch of noodles and toppings. She blew on them delicately, then popped them in her mouth and used the chopsticks to pull the rest of the long noodles out of the broth without a wasted drop or unladylike sound.
"Such a cool response!" Rikou lamented. "That attitude is elegant and dignified, and it kind of pisses me off..."
"Eh? Did you say something, Rikou?" her clueless team mate asked, looking up from his (empty, again) bowl. Not enlightened in the least by the wordless howl of frustration in reply, he turned back to Teuchi. "More please! I think... Beef this time! Dattebayo!"
Legend of Explosive Youth part Eight
Team Eight: Get Up From the Falls
Mostly by ClassicDrogn except the better part at the end, which is by Greiver, with his cameo insert and crossover team who've grown to have more important roles than mere cameos.
That meeting at Ichiraku Ramen had been nearly two weeks before, and Naruto's team had left on a mission later the same day that was still going on. Hinata walked quietly through the woods with her team and their client north of Fire Country, planning her diary entry for the evening since she'd missed a few during the trip.
*Team Eight is nearing the end of our first C-rank mission, bodyguarding the young leader of Hidden Waterfall as he returns after making arrangements to enter a team in the upcoming Chuunin Selection Exam, to be held in Konoha. He is Takino Shibuki-san, a bit younger than Kurenai-sensei, with dark hair and eyes. His father was a great man who was very respected by everyone in Hidden Waterfall...*
A bird took off from the trees overhead, squawking protest at the humans invading its territory, and the teenaged client yelped and hid behind her back. Hinata blushed at the idea that someone would think to ask her personally to protect them, Kiba rolled his eyes and even Shino and their sensei Yuuhi Kurenai sweatdropped at the scene. Trying to live up to the expectation, Hinata pushed chakra into her eyes to activate the Hyuuga dojutsu, and scanned the surrounding area with the Byakugan's penetrating perception. "A-ano, Shibuki-san... it was r-really just a bird..."
Still crouching behind her, the older boy gulped and looked around nervously but insisted, "I-I knew that!" He craned his head, scanning for anything out of place, before he finally climbed back to his feet and Hinata returned to planning her entry as the group moved on.
*... however, it seems that Shibuki-san also has difficulty with fulfilling the expectations of others. I am the heir of an important position as well, so I'll keep doing my best for Shibuki-san, and as always for Naruto-kun. I'm a little extra nervous about this mission myself, since Waterfall Country also borders on Lightning Country, whose Hidden Cloud village has made more than one attempt to obtain the Byakugan in the past...*
It wasn't long before the rumbling rush of a large waterfall made itself heard through the trees, and soon they passed into the clear area around its basin. "Damn, that's some big falls!" Kiba marveled with a whistle. It was easily as tall as the wall around Konoha and at least fifty feet wide without even counting the secondary streams. His small white nin-dog Akamaru yipped agreement from his place riding on the Inuzuka boy's head.
"So, this is Takigakure," Aburame Shino said calmly, as ever. The morning sunlight caught and gleamed on the frames of his little round sunglasses, but between them and the high collar of his coat any expression his voice would not betray was still hidden.
The group walked around toward the foot of the falls, taking in the scenery until a pair of children ran up shouting welcome to the returning leader, who stood with a suddenly confident seeming poise as he turned to return the greeting. "Hey, I'm totally leader of the village," he told them kindly. "I don't have time to play with you now."
"Eh? No, we're like, cleaning up around here," the little girl told him. "Mom told us to," her brother quickly added.
"Oh? For sure," Shibuki replied. He smiled warmly and volunteered, "How about some help then, from these awesome Hidden Leaf ninja?" Ignoring Kiba's indignant protests, he told Kurenai, "Don't worry, I'll pay - Like, consider it another mission."
The beautiful, wild-haired jounin smiled tolerantly as the two kids glomped onto Kiba and showered him with thanks, as the one who'd stood forward from the rest of the team. "You totally saved us!" The little boy told him. "The water moves way fast here, so we were shook!"
"We'll take it, Shibuki-san," she told the teenaged leader, "We'll expect a seperate payment later, of course." Kurenai's namesake deep red eyes sparkled with amusement at the Inuzuka's resigned look - of all the D-rank missions, garbage collection was always the one he hated the most, with his sensitive sense of smell.
"So, we are done protecting you?" the Aburame boy asked.
Still wearing his confident smile, Shibuki replied, "Sure dudes, this is far enough."
"Might as well get started on your new mission, then," Kurenai told the genin. Kiba grumbled, but Shino and Hinata simply headed for the water's edge without protest.
As her students moved off, the woman asked quietly, "What's up with the rumors of ninja movements in this area?"
"Like, rumors?" the Taki-nin asked serenely, trying to play it off.
Not buying it, she pressed, "It's said that shinobi from other countries are after Takigakure village."
Composure slipping a bit, the dark-eyed teen relied, "Oh... there's always bogus rumors like that..."
*That's right,* the Leaf jounin remembered, *his father was killed, defending Hidden Waterfall from outsiders...* Further discussion was preempted as a hawk swooped out of the sky with a screech, again prompting Shibuki to cower and shield his head. "Not to worry," she told the jumpy young man, "This is a messenger bird from the Leaf." She held out an arm for it to land, reinforcing it with chakra to its talons wouldn't break the skin.
The message was short and unencoded, and she wondered why they'd bothered to send it to her in the field at all when her team would be back in the village in just another day or two. Still, she was summoned, and there was no reason to fear for her students following later. "It's that time again already?" she muttered to herself. With Shibuki's visit to the leaf it was obviously near, but... "Hey everyone," she called to the genin. "I need to return to Konoha for an important jounin meeting. Finish up here, then come back, okay?"
Distaste for the mission forgotten with the rush of being trusted on their own, not just outside the village but in a foreign country, Kiba shouted back, "Yeah! Just leave everything to us, the best team in the Leaf!" Dropping her load of cans in a trash bag, Hinata twiddled her wet fingers but didn't gainsay her energetic team mate, and, well, Shino was still stoic.
It didn't take too long before the shores of the waterfall basin were cleared of debris, and Kiba unzipped his fur-trimmed hoodie so it could hang open as he flopped down, unused to the northern heat. "Man, I'm beat," he complained. His stomach growled, answered by his animal partner's, and the dog-user suggested, "Hey, even though it's early, how about we check out Hidden Waterfall's food? I could go for some lunch about now."
Spinning away from the younger kids, who'd cajoled him into playing after all, Shibuki quashed that idea immediately. "No way!" he ordered. "If the job's done, like, scram!"
Kiba sputtered and Hinata flinched, but Shino just nodded respectfully and turned to leave. "Very well, we'll go," he agreed.
"WAIT A MINUTE! What do you mean, saying 'we'll go' just like that!" the Inuzuka blustered. "Like we're gonna put up with this rude bastard-"
"Kiba," the taller boy interrupted, "he doesn't want us to know where the entrance to Hidden Waterfall is. Look behind you, it's obviously nearby."
"Um, but... aren't Konoha and T-Taki allies...?" Hinata asked, looking between Shino and and the Waterfall leader.
"How do I know that won't, like, change?" the older boy demanded harshly. Kiba of course protested that the Leaf would never betray an ally, but the kunoichi could see his side of it, too. *I suppose that's the sort of thing you have to think about, when other people rely on you,* she thought, with a poorly concealed shudder for her own future.
Kiba had given up his rant and was stomping away in a huff, though the effect was ruined by unfolding his arms to wave at the two youngsters' cheery farewells.
The Leaf-nins' leave taking was interrupted by the little boy's frightened call as his mother appeared, staggering and beaten as she stepped out of the trees. "Shibuki-sama..." she gasped. "Most heinous... Enemies..." Losing her fragile balance the woman collapsed, revealing a kunai still stuck in her back and blood soaking the fabric of her dark kimono.
Everyone rushed to her side, the Hyuuga girl putting her interest in medicine to use and checking over the wound. "The injury isn't s-serious," she pronounced after a few seconds, "She's just p-passed out from shock."
"Then, we should totally get her back to the village!" the children urged.
"I don't think that's a good idea," Shino disagreed.
"She did say there was an enemy attack, after all," Kiba added.
"But... but how did they get into that way hidden village?" Shibuki gasped fearfully.
After a moment's planning, Shino turned his bespectaclled gaze back to the shy kunoichi. "Hinata, you should hide with this woman and the children to protect them, and tend to her injury," he suggested, recieving a nod in reply.
"And like, then what!" Shibuki demanded.
Pushing his little sunglasses up on his nose, the Aburame replied, "Show us the entrance to Hidden Waterfall, and we will continue our bodyguard mission while dealing with the invasion."
"Deal with...? Don't be defective!" An edge of panic had crept into the young leader's voice, again something Hinata could identify with all too well. "What do you dudes think you can do?"
Before anyone could answer, Akamaru barked a warning, his human partner springing from his crouch to knock the other two boys away from the anticipated attack. Ignoring the Taki-nin's protest he got back down, poised on his hands and the balls of his feet, after a quick seal and a call of "Ninpo: Shikyaku no jutsu!" His fingernails lengthened into claws and prominent fangs peeked out from the transformed boy's upper lip.
A quartet of adult ninja burst out from the foot of the waterfall then, throwing a barrage of kunai just in time to be met by the Inuzuka's next technique.
With a shout of "TSUUGA!" he leapt into the air, spinning at high speed as he hurled towards the attackers. Their thrown weapons clattered away and were deflected by the movement, and the horizontal tornado he'd become arced to brush three of them, rapidly spinning claws shredding their uniforms and gouging deep cuts in the enemy ninja as he passed.
The fourth escaped with an incredible acrobatic maneuver, landing on a rock near the foot of the falls and cursing before leaping back through the curtain of water. "Che," Kiba complained, landing himself on another rock nearby. "He got away..." The other three swam painfully for the far side of the lake, trails of red swirling behind them. They'd probably make it, but the blood loss before they did would surely put them out of this battle.
"SHIBUKI-SAMA!" the little boy shouted, running over to where his village leader was curled up in a terrified ball. "Shibuki-sama! What's the damage? Are you hurt!"
Realizing his position, the teenager quickly pulled himself into a sitting posture and pasted on a less frightened face. "No, it's, like, it's nothing. I'm totally shaking in excitement," he told the boy.
"Since we've come this far, we'll see it through to the end," Shino told him, still maddeningly calm.
"That's right, it's a mission," the dog-user said, catching Akamaru as the pup leapt from the grassy bank into his arms. "So let's get started!"
"Hidden Waterfall has survived because of awesome natural barriers, and its hidden entrance," Shibuki told the two boys seriously. "Like, total 'invitation only,' got it?" They'd worked their way up perhaps a quarter of the height of the falls along the face of the cliff they ran down, and were proceeding along a ledge that led behind the curtain of water. "You won't be able to tell anyone about this entrance," he continued.
"Obviously!" Kiba butted in. "We know that, so let's get going already."
"That's like, not what I mean," the teenager replied. "By the time you come back, the path will be changed."
The three of them snuck from one rock formation to the next as they entered the tunnel behind the falls until reaching a room with numerous small pools, glowing gently green with bioluminescent algae. They crouched behind a final boulder for a few seconds until Shino reported, "There is no one here." The insects he'd deployed as scouts came crawling quickly back to vanish under his coat, since swimming was the obvious next stage and the hive would need to be sealed against the water.
With the all clear the older boy rose from his crouch and walked out into the larger cavern, picking one of the pools and ordering, "Well come on, dudes," before taking a deep breath and diving in.
Among the roots of a large tree where she'd taken the children and her mother, Hinata packed up her medical supplies. "She sh-should be fine now," she assured the two frightened youngsters, clinging to their unconscious mother's hand. She'd laid the woman out on her side to avoid putting unneccesary pressure on the wound after dressing it and closing her clothes back up, and placed her own rolled blanket under her head as a pillow, since many people were discomfited by Shino's bugs and Kiba's smelled strongly of dog. It was scattered with itchy shed hair, too.
The little girl cried despite all Hinata said or did, however, and the Leaf kunoichi could only hope no enemies were actually nearby to hear since she'd been too busy concentrating on patching up her patient to scan the area with her special vision.
It seemed that hope was in vain; even as the boy fiercely asserted, "Shibuki-sama will, like, do something about it!" another enemy ninja appeared in a rush of displaced air. His face was masked, and spiky brown hair peeked out from under a slashed Hidden Rain hitae-ate worn bandanna style.
"Oh?" he gloated. "And what would that be?" Before the Hyuuga heiress could do more than gasp in shock, he hit a nerve cluster at the base of her neck to immediately knock her out.
Surfacing at last from the submerged tunnel, the two Leaf genin climbed out onto the bank of the hidden lake. A truly enormous tree filled an island at its center while red-roofed, pagoda style houses nestled on the outer shore where they stood. Kiba was full of enthusiastic praise for the place's picturesque beauty.
More concerned about the lack of citizens or invaders appearing, Shino looked over the surroundings warily, waiting for his insect allies to unseal the openings to the hive so they could spread out and gather information for him. A sudden flare of killing intent twinged his senses and he knocked the dog user back into the water where Shibuki had stayed.
"Shino!" the Inuzuka protested. "What the hell?"
"I'll distract them," was the quick explanation, "Protect the client." Then he was leaping away from another squad of enemies, who moved like ninja though their skills were so poor a single spread of shuriken was enough to put the lot of them down.
That small victory was counteracted by a pair of solidified water whips that wrapped around him from either side, the elegantly dressed kunoichi directing the one on his left commenting, "Oh? It seems you're a strong one."
From the other side, the leader of the squad who'd attacked outside the falls taunted, "You won't get me by surprise like your partner did this time... What do you say, shall we tear him apart?" he asked the woman. The two of them pulled their watery bindings tighter, squeezing the bug-user painfully in their confines.
"No," a third voice interrupted from behind. "We'll, like, use him as a hostage." Before the boy had time to consider that further he was hit by a lightning attack, stunning his nearly-free insect colony and knocking him out.
The Aburame awoke to find himself without his jacket, arms tied together behind his back and dangling from the tori in front of a small shrine. Clusters of people in civilian clothes were scattered around nearby, also bound and tied back to back in groups of four or five. He tugged experimentally at his bindings, but the poofy-haired male ninja who'd helped catch him warned, "I wouldn't try that if I were you... that's my specially made wire, if you struggle too much you'll wear through the coating and it'll cut your arms right off."
Not too worried about being immobilized in the first place, Shino relaxed and let himself hang peacefully. He could feel his allies stirring inside, overcoming the shock, and acting himself was unneccesary for the vast majority of his family's insect techniques. Behind his back but for once not hidden within a jacket, the webbing that had sealed the hive entrances on the backs of his wrists was eaten away by the weaver-bugs who'd deposited it, and soon destruction bugs would swarm out ready to do his bidding.
Off to one side, the masked shinobi and his squad appeared from above, Hinata and the civilians who'd been left in her care being reeled down from the tree with them in a large cargo net - undoubtedly the way goods too massive to be swum through the entrance they'd been shown were brought in. The pale-eyed girl held both children against her sides, trying to comfort them despite her own fears and depressing earlier failure to keep them safe.
Looking down on the scene from a knothole above, Shibuki recognised the leader of the invaders, sitting on the steps of the shrine. *So that's how they got in,* he thought fearfully. *Suien, you showed them the entrance?*
On the ground below, one of the bound Takigakure citizens was asking the same question he dearly wanted to know the answer to. "Suien!" the bearded young man demanded, "You were like, the best ninja in Hidden Waterfall. Why are you doing this? Are you trying to take over the village!"
"Hah!" the trenchcoat-clad traitor scoffed. "I have no use for this bogus village. All I want is that crazy Hero Water."
"You numbnuts," the young man declared. "Shibuki-sama would totally not hand it over to you!"
"He's already destroyed it!" insisted another, with a bandanna and dark blue stripes painted around his eyes.
"If he was a real leader, he totally would," Suien acknowledged, "But... I was the one who taught him as a ninja. I, like, know everything about him. OI! SHIBUKI!" he shouted. "I know you're like, hiding out, dude. Bring that Hero Water here and no one else will have to get hurt."
"So, is that the Hero Water he's yapping about?" Kiba asked, pointing at the glass jug Shibuki was clutching.
"KYAAH!" the trembling teenager exclaimed, flipping away from his vantage point to huddle against a wall. "Like, how'd you get in here!"
"How do you think, dumbass? We followed your scent," the dog user scoffed, Akamaru backing him up with an affirmative bark. "More importantly, what's so special about this 'Hero Water' anyway?"
Holding the jug in front of himself in both hands, the Takigakure leader explained, "It's a way holy water extracted from the great tree. To fill this bottle, it takes like, a hundred years. Just one sip and your chakra is gets totally pumped, like tenfold for a short time."
"No way... ten times?" Kiba protested. "Even using a soldier pill for my family techniques just doubles my chakra."
"With, like, no one on the kage level, Takigakure's heroes drink this water to fight in times of war. With its mondo power, the Hidden Waterfall has been protected in the past. But... it's a gnarly blade. It way boosts your chakra, but it puts a heinous strain on the body. Many of our village shinobi, like, died after the battle was won, from that water. That's why it's kept sealed away, and it's totally the leader's job to safeguard it. A few years ago, these skeggy foreign dudes attacked... my father drank it, to protect the village. But he like, wasn't young enough to survive the effects of the water."
Shibuki had pulled out a photograph while he spoke, of his father with his younger self perched happily on one knee. "My father was a total fool," he told the Leaf-nin angrily. "Everyone said he was like, a hero, so he drank the water and died!" Fear overcoming the momentary burst of anger, he continued, "As the leader, it's my duty to protect this sacred water. If those dweebs get it, the village will like, be destroyed immediately!"
"SHIBUKI!" Suien was still calling him out by the shrine. "I know you won't bag that water... If there's a war in the future, you'll totally be too weak to defend the village without it! But if you think you can, like, keep hiding, you're wrong dude. Unless you man up, we'll kill everyone here one at a time until you appear!"
Some of the bound citizens tried to protest, not to plead for their own lives but yelling to their leader not to hand over the Waterfall's treasure, but the three Rain-nin lashed them into wordless screams with their water whips.
"So what the hell are you still doing here?" Kiba demanded. "Those kids, the people of Takigakure, they all believe you're really strong, that you're going to save them!"
"They, like, just think that the village leader is a hero," the older boy replied, on the verge of tears. "I just took over the shadow of my dad!"
Tired of waiting, Suien grabbed the little girl, now free of the cargo net but bound seperately. He held a kunai to her throat and taunted, "I'll give you one more minute dude, then we'll start with this kid!"
".. I don't know all the details, but it seems like your father was a pretty great man to me," Kiba asserted, still looking down from above. "Giving your life to defend his village... not many can do that." As the traitor counted down the time before making good on his threat, the Inuzuka lifted his dog off his head and fished around in his equipment pouch.
"What are you going to to do?" the terror-striken Waterfall leader asked tremulously.
"Only the ones who could do that, are worthy of the name 'Hero,'" the Leaf-nin said in lieu of an answer. "Of course, that's also what it means to be a ninja, isn't it? To risk your life for the good of your village?" He tossed the soldier pill he'd retrieved to his pup, who crunched down on the medicine immediately. The small dog's hair began to bristle and turn red as his partner made some quick seals and called out, "Juujin bunshin! Come on, Akamaru!" Where a boy and his dog had stood two animalistic teens leapt out through the man-sized knothole.
"... Three... two... one! Like, time's up, Shibuki!" Suien hollered. His arm drew back for the stab, but before he could do more than that a rough voice rang out across the scene.
"Hold it, you jackass!" one of the Kiba posed dramatically on the great tree's lowest branch growled. "Don't you touch that kid!"
"What the... another bum appeared?" the traitor complained.
"It's that brat who took out my men," the missing-nin squad leader pointed out angrily.
"Whatever... I just want the Hero Water, not some wannabe hero," Suien grumbled. He resumed his interrupted motion, the little girl clutched in his free hand screaming and clenching her eyes shut in terror as the knife came down. Just before it could hit, a Kiba snatched her away from the traitor, his clone knocking the arm with the kunai away harmlessly. The first bounded away with his precious cargo into the tree again, but the second was too tangled up with the former Taki-nin to escape. Grabbing a second kunai with his other hand Suien jabbed it into the feral Leaf-nin, producing a pained howl and forcing the transformation to drop.
Falling at the traitor's feet with a yelp, Akamaru thrashed weakly and curled around the wound in his haunch.
"Like, this is the best hero you can produce!" Suien scoffed, laughing cruelly. "A puppy?" He drew back his leg to kick the injured animal, but before he could the real Kiba had leapt back down, intercepting the blow and shoving his partner into the temporary safety of the center of a group of bound civilians.
"One dog or another, it's totally the same to me!" the trechcoat-clad man yelled, delivering a second, full power boot to the boy's ribs that threw him over beside the masked Rain-nin.
"What a pathetic hero," that one commented, delivering a few hefty stomps to Kiba's chest. "Spelled h-e-r-o but pronounced 'idiot!'"
"YOU SEE!" Suien thundered. "There are no heroes in Takigakure! There, like, haven't been any since your father died, Shibuki!"
Cowering in his hidden bolthole, Shibuki couldn't believe the Leaf genin would go so far for a bunch of strangers, and could only tremble as the people - his people - insisted he was a great hero, who was still going to come and save the day.
"Shibuki, like, isn't that kind of guy," the traitor chuckled. "He's totally a weak coward, who always runs away."
"No way!" the little boy insisted, wiggling around in the ropes that bound him beside Hinata. "Shibuki-sama is our hero, and he's gonna give you a shellacking!"
Still chuckling, Suien walked over and pulled the child to his feet. "Then die, like, hating that hero," he said cruelly, bringing his kunai to the boy's throat as he had with his sister, "because it looks like your lives mean squat to Shibuki, after all."
Suddenly, a blue-white riptide curl of power touched down a few paces away, even as the three Rain missing-nin and their remaining goon squad simply keeled over unconscious. "Wha... what? Impossible..." the kunoichi muttered, still clinging to awareness. She lasted just long enough to see a few kikai bugs march across her shoulder and away toward the still helpless villagers before succumbing to the chakra depletion caused by having them feed on her energy. Still dangling from the arch over the shrine, Shino smirked fractionally, face visible for once without his high-collared jacket.
The cyclone dissipated to reveal Shibuki, surrounded by a burning aura of blue chakra.
"Long time no see, dude," the traitor sneered. "You haven't changed. Looks like you swigged that Hero Water... Where's the rest? You like, kept some, right?"
Firmly in his role as Brave Leader of Takigakure the teenager replied evenly, "There's no point in asking, since I'm totally going to school you."
"Dude, are you serious?" Suien scoffed. "You know like, better than anyone what happens if someone with your loserosity drinks it. Even with the Hero Water your chakra can't surpass mine, I have way more than your potential."
"Then I'll do my best," Shibuki stated, confident mask slipping slightly but still determined. "Takigakure ryu: Mizuki no Yaiba!" A streamer of water rose out of the lake at his back, then took the form of a curved blade as his right hand closed around it. Suien mirored the ninjutsu in time to parry the teenager's charge, the collisions of their water swords as they crossed blades again and again halfway between the thunk of wood and the musical clink of ice.
Unimpressed, Suien gloated, "Hmph, all that chakra doesn't help your lame form. I totally see through your movements, so like, I win!" An unexpected slash, and the tip of his blade smacked his one-time student's hand, dissipating the ninjutsu with a splash as the water collapsed. The traitor roared victoriously and ran his own blade through the younger man's lower chest, piercing the bottom lobe of his left lung and right out his back before letting his own technique end.
"Damn it, get up..." the fallen teen pleaded with his body. "I got to... everyone... the kids... protect them..."
"Heh, you will always be like that ... Totally, you'll always be a weak coward," the traitor scoffed. He reached into the chakra pocket he'd sensed in the front of Shibuki's shirt, the reason he hadn't gone for a heart strike. "Yeah, just as I thought. I FINALLY GOT THE HERO WATER! NOW I'LL BE TOTALLY KICK-ASS!"
Coughing up blood from his punctured lung, Shibuki gasped weakly, "Dude... give it back..."
Ignoring his pleas, the traitor put a foot on the younger man's chest to keep him from making trouble while he worked the cork out of the jug and drank. A huge flare of chakra sprang up around him like a bonfire, and a sickly crunch came from the boy trapped under his heel. "Dude! I broke your ribs just by stepping on you?" He laughed manaically. "Don't worry, be happy, Shibuki! You like, get to be the first prey of the new and improved, invincible me!" Unfortunately he wasn't too wrapped up in his gloating to dodge a kunai flying in from behind, and the traitor spun to see Kiba forcing his way to his feet despite the battering he'd taken.
"Unforgiveable!" the bruised Leaf-nin declared. He got another soldier pill out of his pouch, this time taking it himself. "There's no way I'll let you do as you like... I'm gonna kick your ass!"
"Dude..." Shibuki wore a smile despite the pain, hearing the young ninja's confidence. At the base of the great tree, Hinata had a similar expression until she closed her eyes to concentrate chakra to her hands and the wires still binding her.
"Shikyaku no jutsu!" the feral boy called, charging at the Taki-nin traitor. "Tsuuga!" Again he burst into motion too fast to properly see, a whirlwind with claws and fangs that hurtled to attack with breakneck speed.
All for nothing, it seemed. Suien brought his arms forward in a chakra-reinforced cross guard, the furious attack doing no more than to drive him a single step backward before the spin ended, leaving an incredulous Kiba straining his hands against the jounin's wrists. "No way!" He gasped. "He blocked the Piercing Fang!"
"Way," Suien replied, with a vicious sneer. "Like, nice try, kid. Are you ready to die now?" He swatted Kiba away effortlessly. The dog-user flew in a straight line up and away for around seventy feet until he smashed into the tree, knocking a huge cloud of dust loose and getting stuck in a divot in the bark. Before he could do more than pry himself loose, the traitor had appeared beside him in a flare of power, smacking him down again with a shout to splash into the lake in a huge fountain of spray.
"K-Kiba-kun!" his kunoichi team mate gasped, echoed by the villagers and a frightened whine from Akamaru.
"Don't give up," Shino advised. "Until you give up, it isn't over!" As if to prove his words, a bolt of hard-edged water cut the thickly coated wire holding him up, letting the bug-user drop to his feet and, with the release of tension, free his arms. He quickly picked up and replaced his jacket from the shrine steps while rethinking the changed situation, uncomfortable without its concealing folds.
Holding himself up with one of the tori side posts, Shibuki spat out another mouthful of blood and told him, "Everyone will be like, killed... take the kids and run, dude..."
"Run?" the Aburame scion asked, light washing across his sunglasses as he looked at the older teen. "That will not be neccesary. I will fight him."
Still hanging at the side of the tree, Suien laughed again. "I so have awesome power..." he gloated. The splash had settled below him, but where he'd expected a floating Leaf, unconscious or dead from the hit, no one was visible. "Is that brat still alive?"
"Over here, Suien!" the normally quiet Aburame shouted, drawing the man's attention. He leapt and threw a handful of shuriken, which the powered up traitor easily dodged. Doing damage had not been Shino's intent, however, merely to distract his attention from the boy's team mate, readying an attack from above.
"TSUUGA!" The battle cry came too late for Suien to react, before a whirling piledriver came down on his head and knocked him in turn to splash down in the lake below.
"Probably, he is still fine," Shino warned as the two boys came to rest on a wide branch.
Sure enough, the traitor blasted right back up out of the water, a roundhouse punch sending Kiba flying all the way across the lake to crash into the roof of one of the village buildings. "I'll totally kill you both!" he raged.
"You may try," the remaining Leaf-nin stated, "but you will fail." A massive swarm of destruction bugs began to billow out of his coat sleeves as he spoke, hurtling toward the enemy when he snapped his hands forward.
Suien dropped down to the surface of the lake and kicked up a wave to shield himself from the creepy attack, but didn't anticipate a spread of kunai hidden inside the mass of bugs. They easily broke through the thin barrier but were scattered harmlessly by the flaring chakra produced by the Hero Water. "That was like, pitiful," the nuke-nin scoffed. "Don't get a big head!"
Dropping smoothly to land a few feet away on the surface of the lake, the Aburame pushed up his sunglasses and argued coldly, "You are the overconfident one... Anyone can gain strength from drinking the Hero Water, but that strength is a lie. How do I know this? Just look at yourself, you're already becoming strained."
Panting but unwilling to admit the point, the traitor growled, "Dude... Shut up!" He aimed a vicious sweep kick at the genin, then fell back in shock as it broke right through the boy's chest with next to no resistance... just before Shino's form exploded in a mass of kikaichu, that swarmed over Suien and began draining his chakra.
Continued in part B