Disclaimer: Naruto and every character of the Naruto universe belongs to Kishimoto Masashi and companies I don't know.
I want to thank the hard work of ScarsOfTime ( u/947576/), without him, I am lost.
Original Upload date: 05/12/2012
Last update: none
Chance for a Prophecy
Chapter 6. – Results of Hard Work
They arrived in Konoha in record time, to Minato's full pleasure, and the travel was eventless. Even Toroku had been cutting down on his taunting of Kakashi after their small talk. Well, not actually completely, but he was obviously restraining himself. Minato was very pleased with their performance. They dismissed the team at the gates of Konoha and he headed toward the Hokage tower to make his report to Sarutobi.
Toroku tensed as he instantly felt the familiar chakra signal of his shadow when turning toward his apartment, hopping from rooftop to rooftop to shorten his way, in which a satisfying shower and the comfort of his bed awaited him. However, the temptation was just too great. He grinned and jumped toward a nook, landing gracefully in front of a surprised and attack-ready female ANBU.
"Yo! You miss me, ANBU-san?" He gained an irritated "Tch" from the young woman with a bird mask and she instantly hopped out of his sight, leaving the still grinning Toroku "alone," who afterward continued his way after a quick shrug for his deserved shower and sleep.
The next day passed without event after their arrival, and Toroku spent most of the day with Minato and Kushina, who forced the visit on him. He knew what game Kushina played. She wanted to help build their relationship and he was thankful for that, because he was clueless on how exactly to start it. Her cheery presence always helped them out if the familiar, awkward silence enveloped them during their conversations. Minato talked about his family, about his mother, and about their seemly shared father, and he found out that Minato's parents died during his Academy years when he was still very young. He even managed to see some photos of his parents.
Another awkward silence fell onto them and Minato left the situation by excusing himself to the kitchen to get some drinks. The conversation-savior was again the redhead as she arrived in the living room like a hurricane, with dozens of scrolls in her hands and some tucked under her arms.
"Hey Minato, I've got everything that we need from the library to continue with our pet project."
"Great!"
He moved next to her to help with the scrolls and moved them into their bedroom to place them tidily in one of the empty x-shaped shelves on the wall. Minato hopped down onto the chair to get quite a large scroll and laid it open on the desk while he selected another from the new pile. He began to read, frowning heavily.
"Sorry I stole your company. He'll likely be lost in his work for hours," Kushina said as she came toward Toroku with an apologetic look.
"It's okay, Kushina-san."
"Don't call me that. It's just Kushina. That makes me feel old."
"Then the same goes for you, also."
Toroku gave her a foxy grin after he nodded, and he was surprised when she mimicked him, though in a more tempered way. It wasn't as much animalistic as his, but still held a hint of it. He really enjoyed Kushina's company. His heart always felt much lighter when he was near the redhead. He found out that they shared a common interest. Namely pranking and irritating the ANBU.
For the remaining time in the dining room, Toroku helped her with the refining of a very sneaky prank that included pink hair dye and the Inuzuka clan's monthly grooming routine. When they finished most of the planning, the blond's interest turned toward his relative in the next room.
"What's he doing?" The redhead paused for a moment with a wondering look, thinking of what she should say, when an excited yelp reached them.
"That was pretty fast," Kushina grinned to the confused Toroku while they moved toward the bedroom to stand behind Minato, who was now writing on the big scroll, frowning in concentration. Toroku waited, wondering when he would stick out his tongue, but instead he looked up from his work when he finished the last symbol to turn to Kushina.
"Finally, I know where we moved in the wrong direction. " The yellow flash of Konoha now looked like a ten year old boy on his birthday. Kushina moved closer as they looked at the wide scroll and Minato started explaining, pointing to several parts of the complex drawing.
"Look. Here. I just had to reverse these two symbols, and with this little alteration it will become more stable, but still flexible enough to work as we wanted. However, this could also react with its resistance, but it will still be powerful enough to deflect an upper B-ranked jutsu." The redhead frowned above the blond, examining every part of the scroll.
"Hmm, we're close, but still not close enough to our goal."
Toroku moved closer to them as he also started to examine the image in front of him. The complex pattern formed an averted square, surrounded by several symbols, kanji, and marks in various directions pointing to the inside of the whole pattern, where a small spiral was centered in the surrounding symbols. Toroku frowned while he examined the seal. His eyes traveled around every inch, noticing every curve and every line, every single brush stroke on the fine paper. He tilted his head to the side, waited for a moment, then reached for Minato's hand, which was still holding the brush. The couple froze at that movement, eying him curiously as he took the brush from the blond's hand, leaned forward between them, and started to paint extra symbols on the fine scroll, frowning, without pause.
Minato watched with wide eyes as his newly found relative moved toward the seal, not daring to even breath as he observed the fine hands working fast and precociously, without any mistake on the pattern, or even an unnecessary movement of his hand. Not a misplaced stroke, not a shaky line, nothing. Every brush stroke was perfect. He looked over to Kushina, who also mimicked his face, her eyes wide and her mouth had fallen open as she stared at the working teen. After ten minutes of work Toroku leaned back to examine his work from a distance as he tilted his head and tapped his chin, only to lean back again and continue for another fifteen minutes in total silence.
When he was finally ready, he put down the brush in its place, and only then was he brought back to reality. The blond frowned and scratched his cheeks, while he thought.
"As you reversed the two symbols, you messed up the barrier's whole chakra circulating system by pairing two contrasting elements. However, you tried to encompass it with these symbols, but it would still remain unstable, and as you already said, it would affect the efficiency. With the water and the earth symbol here, and here, it will be more balanced, and with the additional kanji I used on the meridian it will become more powerful. A small power upgrade is always good. I also added a wind symbol here, so the barrier will be more manageable, and with this little guy here I modified the barrier's restraining level. It'll still be stable from the outside, but it'll also allow you to attack from the inside, kinda like a one-way road. "
Toroku tilted his head and tapped his chin while frowning as he thought, not bothering himself with the two frozen shinobi at his side.
"You used the compass rose as the base, which is good if you want to create a strong, generic barrier, but not too creative. If you use the guardians of the beams you could create a more flexible one and, of course, a more effective one with much less chakra usage."
He looked from Minato to Kushina with a confused face as he saw their expressions.
"What?" The older blond finally made his mouth move, but only one word left it.
"Shit…" For a long and disturbingly silent minute, they stayed in the same coma-like state.
"I know from Inoichi that you knew fuuinjutsu, but that's…" Kushina chuckled when the amused Minato lifted his two hands and pointed toward the seal. The blond teen looked at him with a confused face.
"You know Toroku, this Blondie here was working on that barrier seal for more than a month, then you come finish it in less than half an hour." Minato finally gathered himself and pushed Toroku into the seat quite hastily while he started to choose random scrolls from the shelf.
"Okay. I'm fucking curious now." Toroku was shocked. He never, ever heard Minato bitching, it was mostly him. He watched as he put down one scroll and rolled it open, pointing at the symbols, but he only looked back with confusion. 'What the hell do you want from me with this?'
"What do you see?" The teen looked again at the seal for a minute, frowning.
"That's another barrier seal. However, it shocks the would-be intruder as well, not just keeps him out. Hm, but it could be also modified to increase its stability, because if you attack with a lightning attack it will become weak. " Minato nodded and exchanged it with another, waiting for Toroku's answer, which arrived almost immediately.
"Ew, that's a pretty nasty modified explosion tag."
Minato continued changing the seal scrolls in his hands until all were used, and he received answers for all of them, sometimes immediately as he saw a familiar seal, and other times he had to examine it to figure out its purpose, but none lasted longer than ten minutes.
Minato flopped down onto the bed in front of the desk and eyed his blond relative with a contemplative face. 'Damn, he's good. With barriers he's even better than me. Konoha gained one more seal master.' Minato looked at the wildly grinning redhead leaning on the desk behind Toroku, who shrugged at his amused faced, while she refused to let the wide smile leave her face.
"Hey, Minato, give him the scroll. Let's see what he can do with it."
"What scroll?" Toroku was now staring at Minato, frowning suspiciously at him, waiting for his answer. The blond narrowed his eyes and looked back at Kushina for a while, then nodded.
"When you appeared, besides your torn clothes and some modified explosive tags, we found a scroll." Minato wasn't looking at Toroku and almost flinched when the disappointed and angry voice reached him.
"Why didn't you tell me about this!?"
After a silent minute, Minato moved to the desk and handed over a small scroll to the blond from a drawer without a word, nor a look to his eyes. He don't want to see the anger and the betrayal that would greet him in those brilliant blue orbs. Toroku angrily grabbed the scroll out from Minato's hand and quickly turned away from him to examine the only touchable inheritance of his past. He gracefully raced his fingers along the side of the fine paper and closed his eyes. It wasn't ordinary paper, it was the finest he ever felt. No. It wasn't even paper… It was vellum.
He opened his eyes and narrowed them as he examined the scroll, feeling the containment seal. He frowned. A five layered seal. The first layer was blood. The second layer was chakra. The third layer was… another kind of chakra, but not with the standard attributes. The fourth layer was the existence of a specified summoning contract, but the fifth one… He wasn't quite sure what to make of it. It just seemed like a jumbled mess.
"What's the fifth layer and how did you open it? Where are my belongings?" Minato gave a confused look at the angry teen.
"I couldn't. I also don't know what's necessary for the fifth layer. I didn't even figure out the third and the fourth until after some sleepless night. It's very tricky…"
"You can't open it, either?" Toroku shook his head and his heart also calmed down when he heard Kushina's soft voice.
"This isn't something from my general knowledge… I don't know, this seems like a big mess of bull and nothing else. No base and no definition, only symbols thrown in randomly. A big mess of chaos." Minato nodded in his agreement, grateful to his redheaded girl for her interjection. Toroku's stomach give a loud lurch and earned a chuckle from the redhead.
"Come on. Let's grab something to eat." The teen gave a wide smile to Kushina as they moved to the kitchen, while Minato was aware not to move too close to his still-tense brother. Fortunately, Toroku wasn't a vindictive person, and finally after another half an hour, the previous incident almost seemed like it had never happened. Almost.
"Sarutobi-sama."
"We have to act quickly."
Minato nodded when he received the mission scroll from the old man. He started to frown as he read the given information. It seemed to be hit and run mission, the problem was that it would be near the borders of Kaminari no Kuni, where the aftermath fights still held some risk and some Kumo nins still hovered around the border. The mission was simple. Find a missing nin and bring him back. He was heading to Kumo with a very rare and valuable jutsu scroll stolen from the closed section of the library. No one too serious, only a jonin-level ninja, however the scroll contained very sensitive information.
"Gather a four person team and depart immediately." Minato nodded.
"Hokage-sama. I would like to bring Kakashi, Kushina and…Toroku." Sarutobi closed his eyes for several moments considering Minato's request, then finally nodded in approval.
"Be careful…" The blond smiled back from the window and nodded.
Thirty minutes later his small team was standing at the village gates, waiting impatiently for Minato's arrival, shifting from foot to foot, while the two gate guards checked their exit form. Toroku was glad that Minato chose him for his extra private mission, and he was glad that he would see Kushina in action. He was very curious. Any time he asked Minato about her skills, he just chuckled, or changed the subject. Without any antecedent, the missing blond appeared next to redhead.
"Hey Sissy! You're late!"
Toroku's voice was followed by five pairs of raised eyebrows and a chuckle when he received a gentle and amused tapping on his back from Kushina. Minato just rolled his eyes, but it seemed the two chuunin guards next to the gate froze at the moniker. The yellow flash of Konoha was a Sissy?
"Everybody in line, we're departing. Toroku and I will take the lead. Kakashi, Kushina, watch our backs! Cramped run until the borders!"
The four shinobi disappeared into the distance with a simple jump, leaving the still confused chuunin guards behind their desk with their mouths agape.
Minato forced the team to sprint, jumping on the trees, forking in the clearings, and running straight forward in the green meadows with insane speed. Toroku and Minato found the trail of their rebel ninja not far from the village in the first few hours of their search. Unfortunately, the guy wasn't a fool and he covered up his tracks near perfectly. However, he couldn't keep up with the two blond's senses. Where Minato lost the chakra trail, Toroku would pick up the scent again. It was thought the shinobi had gotten at least half a day's advantage because the damn guards didn't react immediately. 'I'm sure this error will cost them their vests.'
They kept up the pace, and Toroku couldn't help wondering about Kushina's skills and stamina. He never saw her fighting style, nor even a single training move, but she seemed to be in shape. On her off days it seemed that Minato kept his distance from her, watching her every movement so she couldn't take it out on him, so that seemed to say something about her power.
Minato suddenly stopped next to a huge pine. Toroku glanced up toward the sun. They had been traveling for six hours….
"We take a fifteen minute break, no longer, or his lead will grow." Everybody sat down, their senses still sharpened, watching their surroundings, looking for anything suspicious. Minato crouched next to Toroku and Kushina, while Kakashi moved next to a tree trunk to take a soldier pill in order to shape up his muscles.
"I want to place a destination seal on you Toroku, for the Hiraishin." He blinked and suspiciously eyed Minato. It wasn't a request. It was a simple statement, but not quite an order.
"So, you can always sneak behind me wherever I am?" Minato just rolled his eyes and pointed toward the others.
"Everybody on the team has one, save you, and I would be less troubled outside the village if you had one."
The teen just nodded, murmuring under his breath, "Just don't use it while I'm in the bathroom, Sissy…." Said "Sissy" signed for him to turn around. He felt a hand on his neck, and he almost yelped in his surprise when he felt like someone was slowly pouring a bucket of ice cold water down his back. He held back the yelp, but he couldn't control the continuous shivering until Minato finished.
"What the hell was that?"
"That was a permanent marking."
"How permanent?" Minato just smiled and tossed a ration bar to the irritated Toroku.
"Rest now. We will soon depart again."
Toroku let out a sullen snort, but he opened the package of the ugly brown ration bar Minato tossed him and ate it without any noise or complaints. It was disgusting, but his body needed the nutrition from it, and, well, it didn't seem like he would get any ramen any time soon, so there wasn't anything for it. Toroku peeked toward Kakashi, hoping that maybe now he could see what was behind his mask.
"You know, Toroku, curiosity killed the cat…" Kushina said with a small smile on her face, glancing toward the still staring blond companion, who in the end just shrugged.
"It's time to go now. We can't let him slip through the borders or it'll be a lost cause. There would be too much trouble with the ninjas from Kumo if he escapes."
Everybody nodded in agreement and they continued their trip trailing the renegade. They had to hurry. The guy still had at least two hours of leeway and the borders would only be closer and closer as time passed.
Minato held up his hand and the small group immediately stopped at the side of a bigger clearing, close to the borderline and to their prey. Minato tensed, as did the others. Everything was silent, too silent.
Toroku lightly sniffed at the air, trying to catch anything, but beside their prey's scent on the other side of the opening, he could sense nothing between it. His mind screamed, 'Trouble!', without pause. Something was wrong here.
As he tilted his head a little, he saw it in the sunlight. A very faint sparkle, but it was there. A sparkle of a wire in the middle of the clearing, in the height of the green grass, almost invisible. Toroku narrowed his eyes and tapped Minato's arm, pointing toward the thin wire, who nodded in acknowledgment. An obvious trap. But the lack of the trails in the clearing was disturbing. If he could cover his tracks this well, it points to the fact that the rebel deliberately left the trail, and not because he was in hurry. They were lured here…
"Minato…" Kushina whispered behind his back, earning him a shiver as he felt every single hair on the back of his neck was now pointing toward the sky.
"I know…"
Minato gave hand signals to the team to disperse around the clearing, but before anyone could even move, a pale bright light manifested under their feet, revealing the pattern of a perfectly hidden seal. Toroku's eyes widened in shock, and in his surprise, his muscles tensed and his heart felt like it was going to explode as the adrenaline flooded through his system, to move. Yes, to move… But he couldn't even twitch a finger. Just like three weeks ago with the paralysis seals.
A small team appeared at the other side of the clearing where the traitor's trail faintly appeared again. The trees revealed a small group of satisfied Kumo nins, inside another glowing seal. 'A barrier seal. So that's why we couldn't sense them…' Toroku moved his eyes to the side toward Minato, unable to move his head, and realized that the other blond stood next to him with closed eyes as his mind raced through the possible plans. The barrier disintegrated around the small group and Toroku heard the accelerating heartbeats and respiration behind from Kakashi and Kushina as their bodies prepared to fight. He fixed his eyes on the small approaching group, forcing his nerves to calm down, as did his brother at his side.
"That wasn't that tough. I expected much more from Konoha's yellow flash… I'm very disappointed… It seems that the tales were just that," one of the approaching ninja barked out with a loud laugh.
"Instead of talking, take them down and move! Hurry!" a commanding voice echoed toward the small group behind the trees, and the Kumo forces immediately tensed and obeyed, moving faster toward them. Minato opened his eyes, and moved them towards Toroku, who gave a nod with his own blue orbs in understanding. It was time to move.
A moment later a yelp echoed from the woods together with a distant thump as something hit the ground behind the bushes. Within a blink of an eye, Minato simply disappeared from the seal and at least twenty exact copies of Toroku exploded from the ground, charging toward the Kumo shinobi.
Their plan was quite good, despite one small flaw. The enemy secured themselves by blocking their opponents' hand seals, but they didn't count on anyone who could use jutsu without them. And Toroku could, as well as Minato. At the moment the barrier seal disappeared around the Kumo nins, he channeled his Kage Bunshins underground, all around the clearing and one more toward the small group of people, waiting unmoving in the shadows. The clones hid patiently, ready to swing to action when he got the sign from Minato. He made another clone under his feet, only to disappear immediately to send the memory for the others to start the operation.
Plans rushed through Minato's mind. He couldn't move, and he couldn't prepare his special kunai to use Hiraishin. He gave a wide smirk in his mind when he felt Toroku's clones spread underground. 'Good move.'
Hell broke loose in the small clearing as the battle began, leaving the trio still under the seal with amused thoughts. Well, except Toroku, who was very well aware of what was happening behind the trees. Three clones appeared in front of them, but they didn't move from their spots. One of them crouched to the ground, examining the still glowing seal, in attempt to remove the paralysis from them, but the constant muttering from the clone revealed that that wouldn't be so easy. He looked over his shoulder to shout to the real Toroku,
"I need more time, Boss!" If he could speak, he would have shouted in his annoyance, but he still managed to press a snarl toward his copy.
A Kumo nin flew toward the barrier and the concentrating clone, as a well aimed blast of wind shot toward his chest. One of the bunshins jumped in the way to disrupt the trajectory of the shinobi, who then crashed to a tree next to the trio. The shinobi dropped to the ground limply.
"Hey! I'm trying to work here!" the clone working on the seal shouted out toward a smaller group of himself, not masking the annoyance in his tone.
The clearing was now filled with fighting Torokus and Kumo nins. A duo at the side of the woods fought with their kunai in a life or death battle. The clone slashed his kunai toward his enemy, who ducked gracefully under his arm, aiming a stab toward the clone's abdomen. Before the weapon could dismiss the clone, he twisted to the side to evade the slash and grabbed his opponent's arm, throwing the surprised ninja onto his back.
A flash of yellow locks appeared next to captured trio and Minato slammed his hand to the ground, dismissing the irritating seal as easily as if it were only a snap of his finger. The pale light faded away and they could relax from their forced pose, only to take a battle-ready position a second later. In the back of the group, Kakashi reached up and raised his Hitai-ate to free his glowing sharingan.
"I thought you forgot about us… I can't handle this stuff this quickly, that's your specialty," Toroku groaned toward the blond with an irritated tone.
"I was busy."
Kakashi opened his mouth in warning as he felt the sparkling of the electricity, however, he hadn't the time to voice it as Toroku slammed his hands onto the ground just like his relative seconds ago, pinning a small piece of paper into the soil. Ink black patterns surged out from the small paper tag, covering them with a faintly glowing purple barrier, locking them away. At that very moment, the ground filled with lightning as the remainder of the blond army disappeared from the battlefield outside of the purple glow with a loud pop, filling the air with smoke and leaving the panting Kumo shinobi behind, untouched by the jutsu. Toroku straightened himself and watched as the barrier faded away slowly.
"Nice move. You should teach that to me," Kushina's cheerful voice reached Toroku's ears, and he scratched his cheek with a smile.
"That was only the prototype. I wasn't even sure it would work because of the size of the tag."
"You can chit-chat at home once we finish this," the until-now silent Kakashi grunted.
The woman turned her ruby head toward the young jonin, but before she could react to the insult, two people walked out of the woods toward the clearing. As they stepped out from the shadows and stopped in the middle of the clearing next to their comrades, Toroku's whole body convulsed and he dropped to one knee when a sudden pain reached his brain. 'No good, no good. Brace yourself! This is a situation!' He shook his head and glanced up to see Minato's glare at him from the corner of his narrowed eyes.
The newcomers stared at the scene without word, until the tall, muscular, dark-skinned man with sunglasses moved his head toward Minato.
"That Blondie isn't looking too good…"
"Tch, just another sissy," a blond teen girl next to the man snorted, watching as Toroku straightened himself and looked back at her in irritation, followed by the narrow eyes of Minato.
"I'm not a sissy, kitty cat!" The two Kumo shinobi evidently tensed after the sentence, and shared a surprised look, which wasn't missed by Minato's intense blue eyes.
"Who are you?" the dark skinned man asked the young blond with narrowed eyes. At least, Minato thought they were narrowed behind the black sunglasses. It seems Toroku touched something very sensitive with his comment on the girl, but they obviously didn't know him. His muscles tensed, ready to attack any minute.
"Why do you want to know, Bee-san?" It was the yellow flash of Konoha who answered the question, holding a hand in front of Toroku's chest, silencing him, but he received no answer from the small group.
"It doesn't matter… What does matter is that you are about to cross our borders."
"We are trailing a criminal and this isn't the borderline."
"That is a pity. Unfortunately, I can't allow you to pass the line of this clearing."
"I understand. However, we have to catch him."
"So what will happen? Do you want to fight with us?"
Minato narrowed his eyes, as his mind made a quick survey about their chances and tactics while the two teams eyed each other without movement. Disturbing silence had descended in the sunny clearing as each party weighed the options.
'Kakashi and Toroku could deal with the rest of the Kumo shinobi, and it could be that Bee is a jinchuuriki, but Kushina can handle him. However, I don't know anything about the blond girl next to Bee, but it looks like she is confident and the fact that she stands with a jinchuuriki is disturbing.' Bee, as it stands, was the brother of the Raikage, and he didn't want to add more fuel to the flames of the war with another incident. The original plan was to get the deserter inside their borderlines and not to deal with this level of conflict. 'Shit.'
The question was answered without word when two clones of Toroku jumped down next to Kushina, dragging an evidently unconscious body of a shinobi. His hands and feet were tied tightly with wires and inky black lines of a seal trailed across his forehead. A giant scroll hung from one of the clones' back.
"What the hell took you two so long!?" Toroku barked toward his remaining clones, sheer annoyance blazing in his azure eyes.
"What the…? How did you…?" the teen girl next to Bee hissed, looking at them with wide eyes, mimicking almost everybody's expression except the two blue eyed shinobi.
"Sorry, Boss. That seal was pretty tricky, and Minato-sensei left without a word."
"I almost sent another group to kick your lazy asses."
"Our lazy ass is your lazy ass!" one of the clones barked back and Toroku scratched the back of his head.
"Hehe. Yeah, you're right… Anyway, we got what we came for."
Bee's muscles tensed as he eyed the blond chuunin, measuring him from head to toe. When they bumped into the newest missing ninja of Konoha and he offered the scroll in exchange for his life, they simply put him behind a barrier seal to deal with him later. A seal made by one of their very rare seal masters. A seal which couldn't be detected and couldn't be dismissed without the key. This guy is a tough one. 'Blonds… always the trouble with blonds…'
"I think our business is done here, Bee-san." Minato straighten himself, but his muscles were still ready to jump any minute if need be.
"I'm sorry Minato-san, but I still can't let you go. We want that scroll. However, you can take back your traitor."
"Like hell we'll let you have it!" Kushina barked out from the background, her always kind and soft voice was now harsh, filled with anger.
"That's really a pity. Then, we have our answer I think. I'm sorry. As I told you before, I was really starting to like you." Minato moved to battle stance and he whispered his orders to their team.
"Kakashi, clones, you guard the scroll. Toroku, back them up when able and handle the remaining Kumo nins. Kushina and I will take care of the other two."
Everybody stayed silent in the clearing, waiting for the other party to make the first move. Wind blew across the field, catching up someone's lost shawl, wriggling it in the air and dropping it in the middle of the opening. Several explosions shook the field as the shawl landed slowly on the almost invisible wire. Using that as a signal, everybody moved, unleashing the tension of the silent wait.
Around one hundred Torokus appeared in the clearing charging toward the remaining Kumo nins, leaving no time to rest. They had to act fast and get rid of them, to help Minato and Kushina. After this thought left Toroku's mind, the two Konoha shinobi disappeared from the clearing with Bee and the blond girl in the blink of an eye.
Kakashi's muscles tensed as the clone with the huge scroll on his back jumped backward to be as near the jonin as he could manage without blocking his movement. Toroku left five more clones as a backup for the silver haired boy, the remaining clones as well as the blond occupied the Kumo forces quite efficiently thanks to the numbers.
The ground trilled in the clearing as one of the Kumo nins released a powerful lightning attack. A sparkling yellow dragon ran through the opening straight ahead of Kakashi. The dragon knocked out several of his own comrades, and the idiot nin didn't seem to be bothered by this fact, nor that he also could have easily destroyed the precious scroll. However, Kakashi wasn't a jonin for nothing. He jumped out of the way of the attack, leaving the crackling sound of the electronic discharge all over his body as the technique was too close and too fast to be so easily deflected, and sent back a Katon jutsu to distract his enemy.
The real Toroku jumped in front of the idiot and aimed a hit toward his neck, but he swept the attack away from himself and with that movement he kicked his knee toward the blond's stomach. Toroku turned to his side, letting the kick pass by his torso. He grabbed the leg of his opponent and swung himself around on his feet, to gather momentum. After three rotations, he let the ankle of the Kumo ninja go and sent him flying toward another fighting group on the other side of the clearing. It wasn't too graceful a movement, but it was efficient. The shinobi landed on his comrade's back, pushing him to the ground, allowing the clones to knock them out with a blow to the back of their necks. 'Two down.' Toroku turned around to jump into another fight, replacing a disappearing clone on his right.
The clones around Kakashi ebbed away as a kunoichi jumped in the middle of the small group. At the moment she landed, she sent kunai toward the clones successfully, dispelling all of them except the one with the scroll, who was now looking at her with burning eyes. The young jonin stepped in front of the clone and jumped into the battle with the brown haired kunoichi. They slowly rounded each other, preparing for their dance. Kakashi moved his right hand behind his head and drew out a small katana. Not his father's lost heirloom, but it was very similar. His opponent also grabbed the long, traditional katana attached to her left to draw it. The fight started, filling the air with the clinging of the weapons. The fight was elegant, almost like a soft waltz between two lovers. They stepped toward each other, only to a second later turn around, aim a slash, and step aside in complete reverse of each other's movement.
The clone watched the slow dance with keen senses and tensed muscles, ready to jump. He was now alone, and he couldn't let himself dispel. His head moved toward the others to register that the battles from quantity moved toward quality, as most of the enemy nins faced only with one or two clones. A duo kicked out their opponent, and the clone frowned at the scene. The two clones strafed around the middle aged shinobi and slammed their palms toward him. For a moment nothing happened, but in the blink of an eye, the ninja fell to the ground limply like a marionette with its strings cut, as the two Futon: Kuuki hanmaa (Wind Release, Air Hammer) reached him from both sides.
Kakashi jumped over the kunoichi and spun in midair to aim a slash at her head. The kunoichi ducked and lifted her katana to deflect the attack, elegantly letting his weapon slip down from her own, creating sparks as the two razor sharp blades met. She gracefully slipped away from Kakashi and spun around on her heels, aiming an elegant kick toward the jonin's head, who had just landed on the ground. He rolled away from his opponent and threw a shuriken toward the brown haired girl, who deflected it with one well aimed swing of her sword. The two fighters jumped backwards to catch their accelerating breaths.
The kunoichi dropped her katana, which embedded itself into the soil to her right. She slapped her hands together and ran through a chain of seals, but she stopped midway, looking back to her opponent with wide eyes. He was imitating her movements perfectly, as if she was staring into a mirror. The shinobi shook her head and jumped to his right, charging around the silver haired boy, running through another set of seals, only to realize that the boy was copying her hand's every movement. She narrowed her eyes and stopped her hands again and positioned herself between the clone and Kakashi.
'That's not good…'
The clone's muscles tensed as he eyed the back of the kunoichi. 'Who would be so stupid as to show their back to the enemy willingly?' The clone narrowed his eyes, when a hand exploded from the ground in front of him, covered with the sparkling of electricity, aiming for his ankle. He rolled away just in time and jumped next to Kakashi, hitting the young jonin on the top of his head.
"Need help with the lady, shrimp?" The clone earned an ice cold glare from Kakashi, who answered with a smirk and moved backward, out of their way. His eyes moved around one more time to find the Boss at the other side of the clearing.
Toroku felt the burning eyes of himself on his back, but he hadn't the time to turn around as he deflected a chakra powered hit aimed for the left of his neck. He ducked onto the ground, and dug his fingers into the soft grass. He moved into a handstand on one of his palms and he spun around on his axis, landing behind the Kumo nin with an elegant jump. He was quite satisfied with his taijutsu. After the assessment, he trained nonstop to improve his sloppy moves. He had a lot of styles and moves in his head, and with the results of three sleepless nights he managed to recreate the flow of his movements again.
He aimed the butt of his kunai toward the shinobi's neck to knock him out, but before he could reach him, he felt a hand move toward his stomach. He moved backward, to avoid the touch. Electricity ran through him, despite the lack of contact, as the lightning chakra jumped from body to body, causing his limbs and muscles to spasm. His muscles screamed because of the unnatural movement and strain as another wave of spasms ran through them.
He clenched his teeth together to restrain his pained yelps, but he forced his eyes open. He had to keep them open. When the man finally released the attack, Toroku backed away from the shinobi as fast as he could manage with his sore limbs and his still twitching muscles. He rotated his head around his shoulders, a spark of remaining electricity ran through his form, chirping like a bird, his eyes darkening as he locked his azure orbs on the panting ninja in front of him with narrowed eyes.
"You shouldn't have done that…" Toroku hissed through his teeth and a satisfied half smile appeared on his face as his enemy gulped and took one step backward.
Ten second later the shinobi laid on the grass after he was hit down by one of Toroku's wind releases. The blond gave a final annoyed look at the limp body of his previous opponent, leaving his ragged form behind, and ran toward Kakashi with the only Kumo ninja left on her feet. He passed a small group of his clones, who were dragging the knocked out enemy nins toward a tree to tie them around it.
Toroku jumped next to his clone with the scroll, who let out a relieved sigh and handed the scroll to him, disappearing with a puff. The duel continued in front of him as he eyed the young jonin and the kunoichi. They were around the same strength, the only big difference was within their experiences. The woman was evidently a veteran with honed reflexes, while on the other hand even though Kakashi was a prodigy with great potential and skills, the lack of real battle experience was conspicuous.
Toroku let his chakra spread out to found Kushina and Minato. Before it could reach the edge of the clearing, an explosion echoed in the air. When the enormous wave of pressure reached the clearing, it sent the surprised kunoichi flying toward Toroku, who utilized the opportunity and knocked her out with a swift kick, causing her to fall down limply to the soil a meter from his foot.
Kakashi and Toroku shared a worried look and jumped into the woods, sprinting toward the root of the attack.
Minato jumped toward Bee and the blond kunoichi with insane speed, together with Kushina. They landed in front of the duo and Minato grabbed them, disappearing from the center of the clearing.
The quartet reappeared a safe distance from the others, under a giant redwood which was previously marked by the destination seal. Kushina and Minato jumped backward to gain some distance from their opponents, who surprisingly looked quite good after their first experience of Hiraishin.
"Man! You know, I already lived through a lot of disturbing things, but that is in the top three… However, I appreciate your move. It wouldn't be quite a good thing if we fought there."
"I'm glad you approve, Bee-san." Minato nodded toward Kushina, who turned toward the blond teen.
Kushina charged toward her opponent. The kunoichi jumped backward, luring her away from the two shinobi. The redhead narrowed her eyes in annoyance.
"Hey flaky, how long are you planning to play this game of tag?"
Kushina received no answer from the teen, only an annoyed look. She couldn't help it, a wide sneer ran across her delicious features. 'It's been a while since I've had some fun.' She pumped chakra into her foot, and sprung herself toward the teen, whose eyes were now wide with surprise.
Her hand dived into her kunai holder and grabbed as many weapons as she could hold with one hand, and jumped into the air toward the teen. Her ruby hair flowed behind her back in the rhythm of her movement as she threw the kunai one by one at her opponent. The teen gracefully avoided every single kunai, her movement was elegant and fluid, just like a cat's. The redhead launched another wave of shuriken toward the blond, who was now standing below the branch where she landed after her first attack. The kunoichi fluidly jumped up the tree, almost like she was floating, to face against Kushina. They jumped toward each other, each of them holding a kunai in their hands. The soft clinging broke the silence of the woods while they jumped toward each other, only to land on another tree to repeat their moves.
In the next jump, Kushina rolled around in midair, and beside pushing her kunai toward the blond, she caught her wrist and slammed her toward the tree where she jumped from. However, the imminent impact never came as the teen veered around in the air and landed in a crouch, parallel to the ground on the tree trunk.
Kushina frowned as the teen's eyes started to fade away, leaving nothing more than the plain white eyeballs, her canines grew and an almost animalistic grunt left her mouth. The teen launched toward the redhead with increased speed and kicked her down from the tree to impact into the ground with a small yelp. Kushina narrowed her eyes and spit out a small amount of blood in a not very feminine manner, and let an animalistic grin spread across her face.
"So, you want to play rough, kitty?"
"How about we continue from where we left off last time, Bee-san?"
"This time I won't let it end in a tie."
"We shall see," Minato smiled back to his opponent.
Bee jumped toward Minato with a katana in his hand, ready to slash a long cut where Minato's left eye was. Before the contact, Minato jumped over his head. While in the air, he threw a strange kunai with three prongs towards the sky.
"Shuriken Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shuriken Shadow Clone Technique)."
When Minato released the technique, his three ponged shuriken multiplied into hundreds, flying across the trees and sticking everywhere within a hundred meters. A tentacle reached toward him with insane speed, but before it could even touch him, he disappeared in the blink of an eye, appearing a meter behind Bee. He spun on his heels, and jumped backwards to gain more distance, carefully avoiding the kunai in his proximity.
The Kumo nin sent another tentacle toward Minato, who disappeared centimeters before he could reach him. Another tentacle shot out from his body, toward the blond, where he reappeared, not letting him to stay in one spot more than a second. The fight started to resemble a silly game of whack-a-mole. After minutes of chasing, Bee had more tentacles on his body than his own limbs.
Minato appeared at the closest kunai on one of the trees, tired of the game of tag, and threw a shuriken toward the Kumo nin, forcing him to jump back toward one of his special kunai. He appeared behind Bee and tossed his weapon directly into his spine. He heard a gurgle come from his opponent, but he jumped back when the form melted away.
'An Ink Clone.'
At the moment his left foot touched the soil, a hand emerged from the ground and locked onto his ankle like a vice. He used his only option to release himself before the technique reached him. Despite the quick Hiraishin onto a tree, he still felt as pure electricity surged through his limbs for a brief moment. Small electrostatic sparks ran through his body, and despite avoiding most of it, it still wasn't a decent feeling.
"Raiton: Jibashi (Lightning Style: Earth Flash)."
"I'm amused. You're the first person to actually touch me in years. You've been practicing since our last fight."
"Thanks. I'll take that as a compliment."
Bee breathed in a large amount of air and exhaled black ink from his mouth, spreading it over everything around him, including Minato's kunai and his seals. The blond stood up from his crouching position, eying the result with amusement.
"Now, that is very interesting. However…" He disappeared only to reappear behind Bee, pointing a kunai at the back of his head, whispering into his ears,
"…It won't help you."
"Shit… How many markers did I get?"
"Two…"
"Doesn't this feel like déjà vu?"
"Not really."
"It should."
At that moment Minato felt something pointing toward his abdomen. He moved his eyes down and saw a small katana in Bee's hand.
"Indeed."
Suddenly, an enormous explosion could be heard not far away from them, and Bee muttered only one word with a frustrated tone that made Minato smile, despite being only centimeters from killing each other.
"Women…"
"Indeed…"
An overwhelming sonic boom reached the previous battlefield, forcing Minato and Bee to jump toward a tree before the impact and glue themselves to the surface with chakra. They needed every bit of chakra control to stay on the tree. When the wind of the explosion died down, two struggling forms impacted into the ground exactly where they were a second ago, cutting a deep scar across it.
One person jumped backward from the impact, her body covered with blue chakra flames, eyes burning with pure white light. Kushina straightened herself, and three golden chakra chains shoot out of her body toward the teenage girl, who gracefully jumped to the side to avoid them with cat-like swiftness.
A tentacle shot toward Minato, catching him off guard and pulling him further away from the newcomers. Four figures burst out from the trees between Kushina and the blond girl. A tensed Kakashi, a staring Toroku with an open mouth and a big scroll attached to his back, and a clone holding the unconscious renegade on his shoulder appeared from the thick bushes.
"Where are the others?!" Bee shouted at the newcomers with narrowed eyes.
"Alive, tied to a tree…" Kakashi narrowed his eyes while he answered, eying the wriggling tentacles as they moved back to their body, and the flaming girl in front of him.
"Everybody back off!"
"I won't leave you two here alone!" Toroku yelled out as anger flushed his face.
"That was an order, not a request!"
"Sensei… I-" Kakashi's voice was cracked and sore, and Toroku tried again to reason with Minato.
"But.."
"Toro-"
"I won't leave my comrades behind!" Minato narrowed his eyes after the blond's interruption, but he didn't let his eyes move away from Bee. He felt as Kakashi moved closer to Toroku, signaling that he also wouldn't leave regardless of being told.
"Aw, this is a really sweet scene. I'm almost crying…" the young blond girl purred out the words then let out a barking laugh.
"Shut up, bitch dattebane!" Kushina burst out, spitting the words out from her mouth like it was poison.
"What did you just call me!?"
The blue chakra ominously started intensely twisting and shooting out of the girl's body, moving like a surreal animal on her skin as her anger grew. The flame-like chakra grew bigger and bigger around the girl, until a howl left her mouth and she launched herself toward Kushina with insane speed, who prepared to deflect the attack. Her muscles tensed, ready to jump, when she felt electricity lock her muscles, preventing her from moving. From the corner of her eyes she saw the last hand sign of Bee.
Minato moved immediately, but a tentacle shot out toward him at the same time, forcing him to use his Hiraishin, and appeared behind Kushina instead of attacking the charging girl. 'I was too late…' The only thing he could see from his spot behind the ruby red locks was another slowly trembling blond head with spiky locks in front of a pair wide, pure white eyes. The disgusting metallic smell of blood was already starting to fill the air around them, suppressing the flora's natural aroma. He could hear Kakashi's increasing heartbeat only steps away.
Minato wanted to scream, but not even a squeak came out from his mouth. He already knew what happened. He couldn't even see when the teen moved between Kushina and the attack. The movement was insanely fast. His own azure eyes filled with pure anger, blazing as bright as the girl's now fading chakra flames seconds ago during her fury. These eyes met with the girl's white ones, forcing her to instantly jump backward, causing Toroku to flinch, and a bloody cough escaped the blond. His hands fell down limply to his sides after releasing the girl's arms, which he held as far away from himself as he could to stop the attack. The teen girl looked down to her own blood soaked hand in disbelief, trying desperately to shake the crimson liquid off herself.
Minato moved his eyes toward Bee, his body trembling from the growing fury starting to burn his insides like acid. Kushina's eyes were wide with shock and anger, her iris' turned to slits and her blue orbs transformed to a reddish color. She could feel the growing rage inside her core, filling her mind with a dense red fog. She felt the urge. The urge to tear flesh, the urge to kill.
"Leave …" Another bloody cough left the blonde's mouth after this one word left his mouth, his words holding nothing but power and determination, without any hint of pain. Standing still, his eyes locked on Bee and the shocked teen. A small stream of blood appeared on each side of his mouth, drawing a thin, red line as it slowly trickled down his chin.
"Yugito! We're leaving! Now!" The blond girl flinched and jumped next to Bee, disappearing from the woods after gathering their teammates from the clearing.
Kushina grabbed the still standing teen and slowly laid him down on the ground, forcing the last conscious part of her mind to banish her blood lust away as she examined the teens chest. Her hands now glowed with green chakra above Toroku's chest, letting the healing energy into his body. 'Yugito's hand almost went through the right side his of chest, fortunately not completely, but damaged the upper part of his lung badly. I have to stop the bleeding first, or he could drown.'
"Kushina…" Minato's voice was now powerless as he knelt down next to the blond, and he could only wanly sense as Kakashi slowly approached them without a sound.
"He'll be okay… It's not as bad as I first thought." The blond teen turned his head toward the kunoichi, enjoying the warm sensation filling his chest and slowly washing away the pain, leaving only a dull memory of it in his mind.
"You're an idiot. You know that, Toroku?" The teen smiled back at Kushina.
"Yeah… s-somebody already t-told me… something like that."
"There's no doubt that you two are related. One minute the two of you act like intelligent human beings, the next you're like stupid, ignorant children… acting reckless, like you're some kind of supermen."
Toroku let his mouth form into a small smile and closed his eyes. They felt heavy. 'I'm tired… A small nap would be nice…' He felt cold. Very cold. After a minute, his limbs started trembling, at first only a little, but now his whole body was shivering continuously, but that was only a dull feeling at the back of his mind. Everything around him became blurry, his senses dulled, even the voices around him became nothing more than muffles.
"Kushina…"
"I don't know what's happening, it seemed like he was getting better, dattebane!"
"Do something, Kushina-san!"
"I'm doing it! Oh shit… that bitch got his arteries... I got it!"
A sudden yelp echoed inside Toroku's head and he flinched back to reality by the overwhelming sensation of a new pain. A pain which started eating away his chest, tearing into his flesh, into his lungs, burning him from the inside like acid, flowing toward his stomach, his intestines, and slowly reaching every part of his body. His vision became crimson red and it slowly took over his brain, and his thoughts, taking him farther and farther away from the woods near the Kumo border, into the darkness.
"Kushina! What the hell are you doing!?"
"It wasn't me dattebane! I didn't pull out it's chakra! It's doing it!"
The pain suddenly disappeared, but he couldn't persuade himself to open his eyes. He was floating… slowly drifting with the rhythm of the water. It was nice, calm, silent, and safe. Only the water's dripping reached his ears. However, he knew that he had to open his eyes soon. 'But not now. I want to relax with this sensation a little bit more.' He felt something encompass his body. Something warm and smooth, stroking his whole body like the finest silk as it touched his skin. 'I should go…' With this innocent thought, the sensation left, leaving emptiness and regret in his mind and soul. Like he got back something important, only to have someone violently uproot it from his flesh.
Toroku opened his eyes, as slowly as he could managed. He was really floating. He was swaying on the surface of water. A pond maybe. No. It wasn't a pond. It wasn't as natural… it was more industrial. He could even smell the metal and rust in the distance. He let his vision clear and he sat up on top of the water, defying every law of nature, defying the force attempting to pull him down into the dark abyss. He knew that the water was deep beneath him. He just knew it.
He slowly turned his head around, forcing his eyes to examine every little detail in the gloaming light. Toroku lazily turned his head to the other side and established that it was the same. He slowly straightened, but his legs immediately sank down into the water when he stood on them, sending raw panic toward his brain, but it stopped when the water reached his ankle. His heart calmed down as he felt the hard and cold concrete floor under his bare feet. He shook his head and looked around once more. He was in a corridor. The concrete wall was spotted with gas-lights, sending an unnatural yellowish glow along the passage.
He turned around to choose a path, but the right direction looked just as good as the left one. After a shrug, he simply turned right. Nothing changed as he moved forward, the corridor was the same. Sometimes he passed by a burnt out lamp, but that was the only change in the monotony. Wandering in the water, which felt like hours, he at last saw something in the distance. The end of the sewer. Yes, it was a sewer. He realized it in the first hour of his walk. Perhaps later, or perhaps earlier. He lost track of time a while ago. His mind was now filled with hope, as something was definitely in front of him as he approached it. He made his last wobbly steps, to find a door. A rusty metal door, with monstrous hinges and without a handle. A surreal pattern was carved into its rusty surface, but he couldn't recognize what could it be.
He had been standing there watching the door for what felt like hours before he finally made the last two steps and touched it with his shaking hands. It felt warm. Not hot, just warm, like a nice breeze in springtime. The temptation was overwhelming as he leaned closer to the door, and placed his palms on its surface, feeling every inch of the fine carving. He slowly leaned closer, his cheeks were now touching the surface, enjoying its warmth with closed eyes, forgetting about everything, about time, about space…
A distant voice reached his ears from the other side of the door. Almost unnoticeable, he thought he could more feel the vibration on the surface than actually hear it. It was the sound of something moving, rubbing against something continuously. Toroku let a small smile on his face as the warm sensation increased from the door, warming up his whole body from head to toe. He slowly raised his hand, and after a hesitant moment, he gently knocked on the door, leaving unnaturally loud taps echoing in the passage for a few seconds. No answer. He closed his eyes again, pushing himself further into the door, when he felt it.
The impact as something ran against the door once… then twice… causing the hinges to tremble. Toroku moved slowly backwards, one step after another, as the thing rushed against the door and as his fear increased more and more with each step. The hinges now moved menacingly out of their places, millimeter by millimeter, the metal now starting to bulge by the continuous impacts, and Toroku felt as the panic took over his brain. He stepped backwards once more, but suddenly the concrete floor disappeared under his feet, and nothing could help him as he fell backwards, slowly, but unstoppably. He splashed into the dark water, which now felt different. It was now thick almost like oil, not gently tepid, but cold as ice as it engulfed him like a disgusting animal. Toroku was struggling in vain to reach the surface, but it grabbed him, pulling him down into the deep, inky black abyss. He let out his last breath, watching the bubbles as they moved farther and farther, as the yellow glow of the gas-light faded away in the distance, leaving him alone, sinking unstoppably into the complete darkness of the endless abyss…
Author's Note:
Okay, I know, that Bee doesn't talk like this, but I just can't stand when he speaks in rhymes. So please tolerate it, Bee fans.
Guess who is behind door number two?