This update took longer than usual. Please forgive me for the grammatical mistakes as English is not my first language. But I really expect reviews that help me improve my writing ability and story feedback. Do let me know if you guys like what you read.
Also, I don't own Naruto or any of the original characters.
Chapter 3: An unknown encounter with… what?
'This place, there is loneliness, hidden in the shadows, its dark. But not dark as the color black. It has an aura of danger, a chilling sensation; it's scary but yet looks very beautiful to me. The tall pines look down with fear and agony, blocking any light as to inhabit the evil that seems to linger in the air around. The ray of hope draws closer and closer. It's my savior from the evil that surrounds me now, escaping into the arms of light, life, hope and freedom. But freedom from… what? Hope for what? The light! Yes I know it is the …'
"Hey! You're day dreaming aren't you Rika?"
Rika was carried away from the thought of her dream by the taunting comment of one of her team mates. That same dream, she saw it again last night while sleeping under the moon-lit sky.
"Why don't you do your own work… huh?" she turned and replied to Menma, staring at him, who had poked her from behind. "Leave… Me… Alone!" she emphasized each word rolling her sleeves up; pure anger could be sensed, engulfing the poor boy that he might get a blow or two by suddenly making Rika angry.
"Rika… I am… uh terribly sorry for disturbing your… uh…"
"I'm going to kill you, Menma!" she yelled while bringing her fist closer to his stomach.
With that her fist drew closer to his stomach, but she punched air. Menma was gone with a smoke. Probably a shadow clone! She thought.
The little fighting activity came to a halt with Akihiro's sudden growling. "What's the matter boy? You sense something?" Kiri questioned his pet dog and nodded, understanding what the dog was communicating.
"Be on your guard everyone!" Konohamaru spoke in a low voice joining his team. "We are surrounded by a group of unknown shinobi."
"But sensei, you were on a watch for a while now, why didn't you signaled us earlier about the situation?" Rika was the one who asked, her anger now changing to a mix feeling of fear of a fight and an opportunity to try out a new jutsu she had been practicing. May be she wasn't ready for a full fledge fight yet. Menma was always better at a close combat style. Kiri and Akihiro both were good at long range attacks with their combination style.
"You should be able to detect an enemy on your own as well. And Akihiro did that. I'm proud of you boy." Konohamaru patted the dog and motioned his team to collect their stuff and hide near the camp site to know the enemy. "Remember!" Konohamaru warned the three genin," you three are not to engage in battle. We don't have any info on these shinobi. They might or might not be a threat to our mission. Just observe them closely. Am I clear?"
"Yes sensei!" All three exclaimed in unison in a low voice and Akihiro made a sound that showed he is more than ready to face this uncertain twist of events. Having said this, they parted and used the trees as their hiding places. Konohamaru used the object transformation technique to turn the scrolls into naturally occurring stones.
Menma and Rika hid together, whereas Konohamaru went alone. Kiri and Akihiro remained on the ground to sniff out the enemy with their extra sensitive noses. Both of them reached a place from where neither they, nor the enemy was capable of detecting their chakra.
Kiri took out his mini binoculars to observe the group of ninja, who looked tired and seemed to be strong. "Okay, so there are three ninjas, around the age of 20, which means any one of us genin is definitely not a match for them. I can't make out the symbol on their headbands." He mentally told himself in a whisper and looked up towards the tree branches a few yards behind him and located Rika. He raised his eyebrows facing her, in a questioning manner asking about the third team member, who was supposed to be with her. Rika pointed her finger, showing that Menma was on the right side. Kiri and Menma located each other and Menma gave thumbs up as a reply to the signal Kiri gave him. 'What an idiot. I was telling him about the enemy and he is smiling at me' Kiri thought with a frown on his face as even Rika understood the signal.
From where Rika was standing, she was unable to see the base camp of the shinobi. She was to stay out of the enemy's range (if they even were the enemies) so she could not be detected. She closed her eyes to slowly meditate and started to visualize her team on the spots they currently occupied.
'One and a half yards ahead are Kiri and Akihiro. Approximately two and a half yard to my right is Menma. And...' She suddenly sensed a weird sensation of heat engulfing her from behind. The warmth resembled that of something that she had sensed before many times and yet it had an element of uniqueness. She concentrated on those warm spots harder and then with an instant, it dawned on her. She opened her eyes and scanned the area ahead of her looking for her sensei.
The instant she opened her eyes to scan the area to look for Konohamaru sensei, Menma pushed her from her spot, making her back hit the hard tree. She gained balance by focusing chakra on her feet and hands to cling onto the tree and gazed angrily in the direction where now Menma stood. Her eyes widened as her gaze softened on her teammate, realizing what he actually did.
"Menma!" she gasped and jumped next to him to check his left shoulder where a kunai was embedded. "God, your shoulder is …" she was silenced with Menma's hand on her mouth, his other arm wrapped around Rika's waist; he jumped to the ground below. The instant they jumped, more kunais hit the branch.
Kiri and Akihiro joined them as they all ran into the thick bushes to hide from their attacker, their trail being covered with the flying kunai and shuriken stars.
"Where is sensei?" Rika's panic was evident after the encounter. 'I could have been me if Menma hadn't arrived on time to save me.' But there was one thing she could not understand. Why she couldn't sense a kunai being thrown at her direction?
"Sensei warned us about engaging in a battle with these shinobi, but he forgot to mention the sneak strategy in case they initiate one." Kiri dragged Rika out of her thoughts. Everyone was worried about what to do next. Rika tried to concentrate again on the spots that she located earlier before the unexpected attack. She stopped to hide behind a tree and looked at two o clock from where she was standing. 'There. This means!'
Her teammates turned and saw her standing behind a tree. Menma was now holding the kunai that once hit his shoulder. He shouted "Rika!" and came back to drag her with him to hide. But to his surprise, the response was quite the opposite of what it should have been.
"Don't." Rika jerked her wrist free from Menma and grabbed his, motioning him and Kiri to stay behind this tree. She smiled inwardly as the gears in her brain had started to wheel. "Why are we hiding here? They are right behind us." Kiri was confused at the reaction his female team member gave.
"None of these attacks are targeted. Look!" Kiri and Menma realized that she made sense as the attacks did not stop even after they have hidden behind a tree. "Plus I also sense people to where we were running before. But as to the place where we were, there was no true chakra signature to be recognized. All this time, we were running right into the trap." This all made sense now. This was the only reason why Menma's wound was also not deep enough. All three team 8 members now knew what to do. They ran in the direction, from where the attacks were coming, avoiding all the shuriken and kunai.
'She was right; we can easily dodge these weapons.' Menma thought as he moved flexibly between the weapons like his other teammates. Rika was the one who chose to reach the origin of attacks via the tree branches. This will help her reach there quickly. She was now able to sense the chakra signatures from behind them on their tail. 'Oh no! They are following us.' She jumped between her comrades to warn them about the danger, when all of the sudden Menma motioned everyone to hide and stay there till he signals.
"Is he mad? They are catching up behind us fast. We are almost at the spot." Rika whispered to Akihiro, who hid with her. She saw Menma make a weird face aiming kunai at practically nothing, and then he threw it. 'What!' She was sure she saw wrinkles near his sky blue eyes and noticed that the deadly spray of kunai just stopped. Now only the shuriken were being thrown in their direction. Menma gave a nod and Akihiro leaped forward into the enemy's premises on Rika's command.
The trio arrived just after Akihiro's entry and landed behind the two figures they first saw. They heard the crackling sound of wood and saw Akihiro had one person's arm in his mouth, trying to snap it from the body.
"Puppets…" the three exclaimed in unison. The chakra threads of one puppet had been being cut by Akihiro's wrath whereas the other puppet lay still on the ground. Probably Menma's kunai disabled its control.
Rika was about to warn her fellow comrades about the closing in of the chakras signature but it was late. A shinobi, identical to the puppets jumped out into the clearing. All of the team members turned to run away from them to save themselves. "Gwaah!" they heard the shinobi cry in pain and turned to find Konohamaru sensei standing with his kunai in his both hands, laced with blood; whereas the intruder lay motionless on the ground.
A sigh of relief was heard from the young genins as their teacher saved their lives. "I saved you guys in time eh?" Konohamaru smiled at his students but realized that they were standing with an angry expression. "Where were you when this all happened?" Kiri was annoyed with the little trips their sensei usually takes. Rika was quick in analyzing, "So the second chakra that I sensed was yours sensei!"
Konohamru could not hold back a smile, "Yes. Actually I figured it out when you guys were analyzing the situation so I left to search for the real one." 'Brilliant Rika, I did not expect that coming from you. This shows you are nothing less than your brother. And that you are a sensory type; amazing indeed.'
"So this means that he knew you were behind him. But he also knew we were near the puppets so he activated the attacks. Due to distress, he kept his attacks random so we might not figure it out; whereas actually he was running from you." Rika explained what she inferred from the situation. Konohamaru nodded in approval and added that he looks like a shinobi on a mission too but considered us as his enemy and attacked. The blow was not fatal so the guy will recover shortly.
"Let's get back on our mission everyone." With those words of their sensei, team 8 was back on their way to the Sand village.
"So you also have Byakugan like Hanna?" Rika asked Menma amusingly as they were crossing the border of the Fire country.
"What? My eyes are not blank like hers." Menma was confused at the random question. He had eyes with a lighter shade of blue but he never suspected it to be a Byakugan. On the other hand, Hanna had eyes similar to her mother, the Byakugan.
"I saw you had wrinkles near your eyes when you aimed the kunai at the chakra string."
"It was not that." The blonde giggled, "I was able to see the string because the sun rays made it look shinny. And as for wrinkles, see this…" he squint his eyes and formed wrinkles around the corners of his eyes.
This made everyone laugh. This blonde sure was fun to be with.
Okay. Here ends another chap of this story. Please be nice in reviews as I'm a newbie (puppy eyes). Till next time;
-fiavixen2196
