Not quite as long as I'd like, but I think I've proven that I can wrap this up fairly quickly regardless of word count. Enjoy.
disclaimer and language warning: I do not own Naruto and there is strong language ahead. To believe otherwise would be foolish.
"Bring it, Uzi!" Trench shouted as he sprung forward to intercept the blonde. Shades darted back into the sanctuary of the numerous pillars and readied her special rifle.
As soon as Naruto's chakra tails struck the ground, he felt a massive drain on his reserves. He flew forward as planned, but it took far more energy than it should have. "Oh damn…" he mused when he instantly realized what his enemies' strategy was.
Hinata shook some sense back into her head and also took cover behind the columns on the same side as Shades. Her Byakugan blazing, she raised her massive pistol and took aim at the treacherous woman. She fired and the slide almost touched her face as it jolted back.
The female intelligence officer responded by raising her short rifle and returning fire. There was a loud 'thud' followed by a bright sliver of light colliding with the White Eye's thumb sized round. The spent munitions burst apart in a dull flash as they made contact.
The blue-haired woman scowled as she ran down the surprisingly lengthy row of pillars, taking potshots whenever Shades revealed herself in a clearing. She tried applying energy into her bullets, but every time the metal left the barrel the chakra was suddenly absorbed by the columns. "Son of a…" she cursed under her breath when she stopped to reload.
The goggled woman took this opportunity to unleash a salvo of glowing shots against the Hyuuga. The easterner easily avoided them by ducking behind the insane number of supports. This basic exchange of gunfire continued on for several minutes.
"What is her secret?" Hinata wondered when she saw that Shade's rounds carried a faint chakra signature that wasn't drained by the environment. She burst from her cover and ran as close to the ground as she could, taking intermittent shots when she saw her enemy exposed in the gaps.
Meanwhile, Uzi was having a more than rough time dealing with Trench. The traitor was an expert at close combat with his reinforced trench shovel and the blonde could no longer rely on his energy reserves. Every time the assassin swung or struck at him he would attempt to block it with an energy appendage, but each instance brought about a drain on his chakra. "He's trying to outlast me…" he mused. "And at this rate, he'll be able to pull it off…" His stressed mind came up with a hasty plan.
"How did you hide your identity?!" he shouted while backing up and dodging wild swings.
"How perceptive!" Trench mocked as he cocked his arm back for another strike. "Can you feel my presence right now?!"
"What's your point?!" He ducked and leapt back.
"Can you sense my red eyes right now?!" He lunged forward on one foot and curved in midair to initiate a slicing movement.
"No! Why?!" Uzi sidestepped behind a pillar.
"It's this city!" The assassin buried his weapon into said pillar and wrenched it free as he continued the pursuit. "The closer you get to the king's tower, the more his influence inhibits your mind!"
"What the hell's that mean?!" The blonde used several supports as leverage to bounce around.
"The king's able to suppress the part of the brain that enables the crimson eyes!" He thrust his free arm forward and a sharp clamp shot out. "General Lorsvall was able to build a smaller version and implant 'em into me and Shades!"
The wedged vice latched onto Naruto's right arm but didn't cut too deeply into his flesh. He glanced down and realized he instinctively extended his energy tattoos just enough to protect his limb. "Chance!" he thought. He resumed trying to keep Trench distracted with the conversation. "A small version of what?!"
"The king's machines!" the royal killer shouted as he activated the mechanical device belted to his arm, reeling in the steel cable that ended with the clamp on the blonde red-eye's arm. The traitor bolted forward as his mechanical weapon withdrew, shovel leveled directly in front of him. "And now you're dead!"
At the last possible second, Uzi shoved his 'captured' arm forward and discharged a highly concentrated wedge of energy from his lengthened tattoos. Two exceedingly sharp bolts of chakra spiraled around his arm and extended forward a foot, grazing the assassin on the cheek as he broke off his attack in the nick of time. The blonde red-eye grinned when he only felt a normal drain on his energy.
Trench sneered when he hit the ground in a crouch. He had locked the gears to his weaponized fastener to slacken the line, curling the cable around his arm as he momentarily retreated. He picked himself up and, with a rush of adrenaline, yanked back on the metal cord…
To no avail. The line tightened as Naruto repeated the gesture and held firmly onto the steel wire. The blonde saw that the taut cable was clear of any surface and focused his sharpened chakra blades onto the wire, prompting them to quickly snake towards his enemy in a swift spiral pattern.
The killer cursed as he pushed his arm to the side, brushing the cord against a pillar. To his mild surprise and disgust, Uzi retracted the lethal energy back to his arm instead of letting it be absorbed by the hidden devices in the column.
"Didn't think I'd figure it out, did'ya?" Uzumaki bragged. "Long as I don't let my energy touch a surface, it won't drain." He glared at the traitor to allow his words sank in. "You're fucked."
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Hinata had quickly figured out that any surface of the massive chamber would absorb chakra yet still had to catch a break with Shades. The goggled woman wisely kept her distance and seemed to know her location at any given time. The Hyuuga was beginning to strain her Byakugan, as she had never used it continuously for so long in her entire life. Even worse was the fact that the ink-coated machinery in the pillars obstructed her superior vision, rendering it all but useless as she could only see the chakra coils of her former friend whenever she was out in the open.
"Where are you my little Hinata?!" the treacherous red-eye cooed, obviously trying to flush the easterner out without putting forth any effort. "Come out, come out wherever you are…"
The White Eyes obliged her former comrade by leaning around her column and clipping the pillar where she saw Shades. "Dammit!" she swore inwardly as she ejected her empty clip and reached for another. She paused for a split second when she heard footsteps running quietly towards her. Her head darted to her right when a rifle muzzle suddenly appeared around the corner. She pushed herself over just as the weapon fired, missing her upturned chin by centimeters. As the heat singed her neck, she realized what was so special about the ammunition used by her enemy counterpart.
The Hyuuga bent her arms back at right angles and caught herself while swinging her right leg up and catching the bottom of Shades's firearm. The barrel swung up and away as the traitor herself rounded the corner and brandished something the blue-haired woman had failed to notice before- a concealed pistol. The goggled woman grinned as she pulled the trigger.
Luckily, the white-eyed easterner was an expert at reading hand movements. She flipped backwards just as her nemesis fired, saving her life and letting the bullet nick her in the shoulder. She winced for a moment then ignored the pain of the minor wound. As soon as she was back on her feet she darted through the maze of pillars in a zigzag pattern, carefully applying chakra to her legs without having it come into contact with the energy-draining floor or supports.
"What's the matter, White Eyes?!" the traitor's voice sounded off from somewhere behind her. "One little scratch and you're done?!"
"Those are some pretty nice guns!" Hinata yelled back in the hopes of antagonizing Shades, if only a little.
"Reformatted from the Raver's stuff! Best of the best!" The voice changed location, proving that she was moving just as quickly as the easterner.
"When did you find the time to do that?! Weren't you too busy planning my death?!"
She let out a laugh. "Nice try, White Eyes! You're trying to distract me, ain't ya?!"
"Worth a shot!" Her voice trailed off at the end as she gained her bearings and realized that the entrance to the chamber was nearby. She continued ducking and dodging, bloodline eyes pried for anything poking around a corner behind her. She ran up against the wall, pushed off of it, and darted for the door.
"Trying to escape are we?!" the faux smuggler berated her. "And here I thought the White Eyes of Death would be something more! Guess I was wrong!"
The blue-haired easterner dove from the cover of the sea of pillars for the only other obvious weapons in the room. She scooped the rifles into her arms as her momentum carried her into a roll. She could hear and see hot rounds exploding into the marble behind her; all of them far too close for comfort. As soon as she was upright in a crouch she swung Lorsvall's rifles behind her and fired globs of sharpened silver in Shades's direction. It was obvious that the bizarre guns were meant for saturating a target with gunfire as their accuracy was horrid, but they did the job. The backstabbing red-eye yelped in surprise and took cover behind her pillar which was slowly yet surely being burned apart by the molten metal.
"Gotchya!" Hinata thought in triumph. "Looks like solid energy can't be absorbed! That's why your bullets were better than mine!" She stood up and began casually walking towards the nearby traitor. "These shoot solid energy, though, so it looks like this is it for you!"
"Fuck," Shades cursed mentally. "She figured it out. And she's got the General's guns! This is bad…"
The Hyuuga kept getting closer. She yelled over the dull 'thunks' of the late General's rifles. "Who's on top now, bitch?!"
Er... I got nothin' this time. If you haven't written a review for this story yet, feel free to do so. If you have, write another one describing your undying love and admiration for me (or lack thereof).
Like I said before, my schedule's a little... lopsided right now. Don't expect another chapter super soon, but it'll probably happen anyway. I make no promises!
