Enchantress
Chapter 6 – The Mission – Complete
A/N: I should really stop making promises I can hardly keep huh?
——†——
When the team of seven reached the bottom of the stairs, they were immediately greeted with a fork in the road: specifically a three-pronged fork. Sasuke went alone in the middle path, while the girls took the left and the boys took the right.
"Sasuke here…all of you, inform me of your current whereabouts."
"Keiko here…Minako and Ayaka were with me as we have taken the left fork. The three of us have just recently encountered another fork with Ayaka and Minako taking one path and myself taking the other…over."
"Shingo here…the three of us have encountered another fork as well. Neji has headed down a set of stairs, I have taken a path to the right, and Takeru has taken a set of stairs leading up."
Damn…just how complex is this place? "Alright…remember to stay on the alert while scouting for the scrolls."
Sasuke ended his talk with his team-mates and proceeded down the lantern lit hallway. Despite the headquarters underground, its walls and halls were designed to take the appearance of a traditional 18th century Japanese villa. It certainly reminded Sasuke of the Uchiha manor as it too had a similar design gracing its features.
——†——
"Hmm…another fork…you take up and I'll take down?"
Ayaka nodded towards the blonde haired girl and headed down the stairs. She eventually came across a small enclosed hall way with three rooms on each of the walls. She went into the left one and came across what looked like a shuriken training room: very spacious, with only 3 wooden targets and 3 straw target dolls as the only room's decorations. Even though it was empty, she pressed on forwards just to be sure. Ever so slowly she took one step at a time while scanning the ground for any cleverly disguised traps or triggers. She reached the targets with no surprises and began her investigation on all six of them.
"Well that was a waste of time…" She walked out of the training room with an annoyed expression on her face however; she heard the sound of something opening up. She was close to the door until a huge log came swinging down towards her. She back flipped out of the door and got down flat on the ground. She watched as the vines holding up the log tore off, and flung it towards the door of the other room behind her, smashing it to pieces. Her heart was pounding a little bit but she regained her composure and stood up, making her way to the room that had just been revealed to her. It turns out that it was simply another training room, identical to the one she just left. She didn't even bother to check it and moved on to the last room, directly opposite from the stairs.
Inside, she uncovered a fairly large room, crowded with mantles of weapons and shelves of books. She was slightly mesmerized by wide selection of weapons ranging from Bo staves to whips. Finally diverting her attention away from the pretty weapons and decorative wall scrolls, she headed for the nearest book shelf and began to investigate. Many of the books had no titles on their covers nor their spines, but the few that did had very interesting titles: such as the Philosophy of Chakra, Beasts of the World, and the Basic Weapons.
Finding nothing on the right wall, she moved to the left wall. Things got really interesting here: she found books on various fighting techniques, uses of weaponry and even a tiny medical section that heavily based its material on pharmaceutical therapy. Although it was cool to look at the books, she was at a dead end and still nothing could be located. Ayaka then moved on to inspect the front wall for any hidden devices. It was a good twenty minutes of searching and still nothing.
"Sasuke reporting…just to clarify…we are specifically looking for a total of six stolen scrolls as well as three large medical tomes. I didn't mention the books because Tsunade-sama had recently sent a message to me via mail in Iwagakure before we began our mission. It seems as though those three tomes are of even greater importance than the scrolls but all of them still need to be recovered. According to Tsunade-sama, the tomes are a dark brown color with gold embroidered sides…over…"
Ayaka continued to search until she touched a tiny switch in one of the wall tapestries. To her left, a small section of books flipped around to reveal a small box. When she opened it, she was greeted by a nice little surprise as a puff of gas flew right into her face. Luckily for her she was wearing a special air-filtration mask that was invented by her father sometime ago. Thankfully, the gas didn't irritate her skin so she was safe so long as she didn't inhale it. She sighed after she discovered that the box's only contents were an antique looking dagger.
"Ayaka reporting…I came across two training rooms and a small weaponry room in the left wing and up the first set of stairs after taking the left fork. Although there are three rooms in the vicinity of my location, none of them had the books or the scrolls. A couple of booby traps were activated due to my interference. Be careful, it's highly probable that the rest of the place is rigged as well. "
"Roger…" the remaining six team-members confirmed Ayaka's response and mentally tallied what else was left to be found.
——†——
"Byakugan!"
Neji scanned the hallway he was in and peered into four nearby rooms. Two of them were ordinary bedrooms while the remaining two looked like medical bays. He walked into the nearest bay and scanned the room: but more specifically the cabinets. All he could find were medical supplies. Although he did find a small shelving unit of books in the far corner, he couldn't locate anything that looked like a scroll or a large embroidered book. He then peeked into the next room beyond the far wall. Although identical as the room he was in now, he spotted a book with fancy gold bordering in the shelves.
He quickly made his way to the other room but before stepping foot in it, he saw a tiny trigger on the ground with his byakugan. Apparently, it would activate two panels on the side walls of the room. He carefully made his way to the shelves, not wanting to know what would happen should that switch be activated. The bookshelf was sealed tightly with a lock as well as an explosive tag.
Hmph…even willing to destroy the information than have it fall into enemy hands huh?
Neji then made a tiny arrowhead of chakra with his index and middle finger and sliced the lock right off. The exploding tag began to glow as an indication that it was about to explode, but Neji quickly used a light Jyuuken style punch to the tag and immediately disabled its explosive properties. His hand sizzled a bit but he ignored the feeling as he peeled off the tag and opened the cabinet. He found the book that he spotted and sure enough, the borders were embroidered in gold. He flipped open the cover and viewed its contents: it wasn't the real thing. Although it was a medical book, it was basically a large drug dictionary.
"Neji reporting. I have encountered a book that bears a resemblance to the tomes that Uchiha has mentioned. Despite the similarities, it's a fake. My guess is to check the copyright information just to be certain it's Konoha property. I'll continue my search elsewhere."
——†——
Minako was slowly pacing herself along a dimly lit hallway.
Ok ok, take your time…no need to rush…don't mess up…just be alert…and…calm…one step at a time.
Eventually she made her way towards a singular door at the very end of the hallway. It was very strange considering she'd been walking along a single hallway for some time to only encounter one door. As carefully as she could, she turned the knob and pushed it open. What she found was a stair case leading down.
You've got to be kidding me…
Like the hallway, she made her way down carefully. Although she didn't really have any special devices or body enhancements to detect any hidden traps with ease, she trusted her instincts and her 'Sixth Sense' for lack of a better word. It was odd, although the underground lair looked like a traditional edo period home; the stairs were made completely out of stone, with a few lanterns on the walls to give it an eerie glow. Once she reached the bottom, she pushed open the wooden door and surprisingly found herself in an incredibly large room.
Just how far down underground does this place go?
She walked over to the railing a few feet in front of her and noticed the reason behind its immense size – it was a training arena. The structure and design was practically identical to the arena used to host the preliminary Chunin exams, but instead of the large hand seal at the back of the room, a large and beautiful statue was there in its place. Along the walls were countless rows of weapons. A few of them were mounted as well.
Minako made her way to the railing, jumped off and gracefully landed into the heart of the arena. When she glanced at the statue, it gave her a strange pull, as if it was tempting her to approach it. Upon closer inspection, the VERY large statue – it didn't look all that big from her original place – was made entirely out of crystal. The design was a beautiful woman, elegantly – yet morbidly – wrapped in thorny vines, surrounded on all sides by strangely realistic shrubbery and flora.
She touched a nearby Iris flower and to her surprise, it was definitely real. But how could a healthy flower such as this grow in the middle of a concrete area with very little abundance of light? She looked back up at the statue and gazed into its transparent eyes. They were hypnotic, and yet they were sending shivers down her spine.
"Minako-san?"
She was startled at the voice and whipped her head around. From the entrance where she came from were the other two females: Keiko and Ayaka.
"You guys scared me there for a moment. What are you two doing here?"
"I actually decided to meet up with Keiko first because the path that I took only had three rooms and no other conjoining hallways."
"I was a little pissed considering all I happened to run across was a single door that leads into a bath-house. There wasn't even a hint of scented bath salts to even make it smell pleasant."
Minako and Ayaka laughed at Keiko. She could be so self-centered, regardless of what the situation was.
"So what's this?" The other two girls look at the statue that they caught their blonde companion staring at only moments ago.
"FREEZE WHERE YOU ARE!"
The three girls all turned their heads and saw that they were surrounded by around 12 henchmen, all in simple black ninja gi. None of them sported any headband so it was safe to assume that all of them were mercenaries.
"Aww and just when I thought it was going to be a quiet night" said Keiko.
"You ready girls?" said Ayaka
"Let's dance…" sneered Minako.
——†——
The battle was ridiculous. Even though it was a pretty nice ratio of 4 goons to 1 girl, each one of them was able to handle the men – repeat MEN – on their own and within minutes all of them were on the ground.
"You know…good help is just so hard to find these days huh…?"
"What were all of these guys, Academy Students?"
"Wait…something seems wrong…"
When Ayaka said that last remark, sure enough, all of the guys that they defeated disappeared in puffs of smoke. Kage Bunshin?! The last clone to disappear actually took on the form of a strange, volleyball-sized grey orb. T-that's…!
"Put these on!"
Ayaka handed her two team-mates metallic masks with a strange filter at the mouth (1). Much like the one she was wearing at the moment.
"What is -?"
"JUST DO IT!"
Keiko and Minako put on their masks and all of a sudden, the ball blew up into a cloud of purple gas. The shockwave of the initial explosion sent the three girls flying back a bit, landing somewhat ungracefully at the base of the crystal statue. It was quite the backlash as the girls struggled to stand up.
"Keep these masks on, trust me, you do NOT want to know what would happen to you if you inhale it." Ayaka made a few hand seals.
"NINPOU: HARU ICHIBAN!" (2)
From the black-haired girl's mouth came out a fairly powerful gust of wind that blew away the bulk of the gas and pushed it to the sides and up the walls.
"Even though our position has a lower concentration of that gas in the air around us, keep the masks on anyway…"
"Hey, look…"
Keiko pointed to where a large chunk of the grey ball lay. The stone tile that it was sitting on, had slightly sunk into the ground. The three girls dusted themselves off and made their way to the indented tile as they all exchanged glances.
"What do you suppose?"
"I say go for it!"
"Minako-san wait!"
Minako kicked the chunk of steel away and stepped on the tile, completely submersing it into the ground. Ayaka and Keiko both held their breaths in anticipation for some large and deadly trap to kill them all…but nothing happened.
"Over there…"
Minako pointed into the direction of a door-shaped hole in the far wall that had never been there before.
"Let's go"
——†——
What the girls uncovered was something MUCH more interesting than they had hoped. Little did they know that they entered in to a large room – estimating about half of the size of the arena they were just in – filled with gold, jewels, complete shelves of books and countless antiques. Nothing had to be said as the three of them knew that they had to split up if they needed to find anything. Ayaka searched through the money related items on the left, Keiko scavenged the antique center area, and Minako took the bookshelves on the right.
Minako's fingers were ghosting over the spines of the books as her eyes carefully read the titles. Although Sasuke hadn't informed everyone of what the titles should have been, she assumed that the covers were blank, and that it would be found on the inside page instead. Her fingers grazed over a few blank spines but none of them were the preferred dark brown color…as of yet. As if on coincidence, she saw a set of three dark brown books in the shelf just below the one she was currently scavenging. She got down on one knee and pulled out one book. She took Neji's advice and flipped open the front cover. She smirked.
"Ayaka-san, Keiko-san…look…"
The other two girls stopped what they were doing and headed over to their blonde companion. They too had smirks on their faces as they saw what Minako had discovered.
"Well…I guess I can safely say that Part 1 of our mission has been accomplished. Good job Minako-san."
"Keiko reporting. The three tomes have been found. Ayaka and Minako are here as well and we will be heading outside at the designated rendezvous p –"
"Neji reporting. I have urgent news that requires everyone's attention."
"Neji…what's going on?"
"I can't believe that I didn't notice this before, but the base has been rigged with explosives buried deep inside the walls and other compartments. The reasoning as to why there aren't any henchmen inside the base is that all of them have been hiding in a hidden sub-sector about 3 ½ miles north of my curre…."
"Neji?"
"SHIT! The trigger has been activated! Chakra is flowing through a network of thin fibre cables running throughout the entire base! EVACUATE NOW! THIS PLACE IS GOING TO –"
And just like that, a large explosion was heard, no matter where one was located. Although the place wasn't collapsing at the moment, it began to rumble as more explosions kept ringing in their ears.
"Everyone, leave the base towards the rendezvous point! I still have to look for the scrolls."
"Sasuke are you NUTS?! YOU'RE GOING TO GET YOURSELF KILLED!" Minako was slightly edgy.
"THAT'S AN ORDER MINAKO! LEAVE NOW!"
"SASU –" Sasuke shut off his communicator. Even though rubble was falling from the short ceiling, Sasuke continued to search for the scrolls.
——†——
The remaining six team-members made it safely outside, but their leader was still somewhere in the doomed structure. A large explosion was heard as the door leading outside expelled a huge gust of smoke.
"I can't take it anymore!"
"MINAKO!" everyone shouted out the blonde's name but they were ignored as she dove into the smoke and made her way inside. She activated channel 3 on her communicator and spoke through it with a clear – yet breathy – voice.
"Neji please! Help me locate Sasuke with your byakugan! I'm begging you!"
Neji didn't quite understand why this new girl would be so concerned about Sasuke. Accoding to Sasuke, they have been team-mates for only two days and yet she had the attitude of someone who had known the Uchiha for years. She was probably just another one of Sasuke's fan-girls who literally took the phrase 'I would die for him' to the extreme. He sighed realizing that there was no way of stopping the girl now as she was already inside the collapsing base.
"Once you reach the initial fork that the seven of us encountered, take the north path. You will then reach a set of two doors at the very end of the hall. Take the right one and head down the stairs. Once that's done go left, right, and then straight ahead. Break down that door and Uchiha is in there. Hurry! I don't know how much time is left before the both of you are buried alive."
"Got it!"
——†——
Down the stairs…left…right…and…there's the door! Hold on Sasuke!
Minako was only a few feet from the door when all of a sudden; the door exploded and pushed her back with an impressive amount of force. She skidded across the floor when she landed and shielded her eyes for the incoming trail of smoke. When it was clear enough, she should see the outline of Sasuke's slightly hunched form leaning on the door frame.
"Sasuke! Are you alright?"
"I told you to leave!"
Minako glanced down at Sasuke and saw that his left arm was slightly burned and he was slightly dirty however; clutched in his injured arm was a small velvet bag.
"Are those?"
"Yes they are! I'll have to talk to with YOU later, but right now let's get the hell out of here!"
Minako took Sasuke's better arm and draped it over her shoulders in an attempt to keep him standing up right. Sasuke was slightly protesting at the help but he was ignored as the two of them made their way through the shaking base.
Back outside…
"Neji…where are they?"
"They're…almost…"
"KUSARIKIN NO JUTSU!!"
The five teens all heard that muffled shout but they also saw a golden chain shoot out from the smoky door of the base.
"Quick! Everyone grab it and pull!"
Obeying the Hyuuga's command, the four other teens gripped on to the chain and secured their footing. All of them braced themselves, counted down from 5 and made a heavy pull with their combined efforts. From the door, shot out the blonde and the Uchiha as they soared through the air for a bit and then landed roughly on the dirt ground. The others got down next to them and helped them up.
The second Sasuke and Minako were on their feet, the door made one final explosion that sent out a powerful burst of wind. Had it not been for the seven of them hanging on to each other, that shockwave could have sent them flying. When the smoke cleared, the sight that greeted them was not a pretty one. A large amount of the ground that was once before them, had caved down into a mini crater with full grown trees sticking up at odd angles, and jagged pieces of earth littering the floor. In selected places were trails of smoke emitting from the ground, obviously indicating the aftermath of a detonated device.
As Sasuke was catching his breath, a small smirk appeared on his slightly dirty yet still handsome face… "Mission…Accomplished."
——†——
"They are the ones. The failure has been set under house arrest in the local inn."
"Seven of them in total correct?"
"Hai…"
"And if I'm not mistaken, one of them is an Uchiha, am I right?"
"Hai…also…SHE is there with them…"
"I see…hmmm…let's give them a sense of false hope."
"Sir?"
"We'll let them keep what they were set out to look for…they were of no use to us anymore."
"But Sir…the base…"
"Was an obvious expendable unit. Everything in that shack is of no use to us anymore. All of the evidence has been incinerated. There is no hope of the authorities tracing them back to us. Besides, I have my eyes on a more valuable and precious prize worth more than any of that junk….you may leave…"
"Yes sir…"
"Soon…very soon. You will be mine…my beloved…Enchantress…"
In front of the sinister man was a large wall scroll with a painting of a beautiful fair haired woman – wrapped in thorny vines.
TBC
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A/N: DUN DUN DUN! Well there you have it! Chapter six. Actually, I wanted to have this chapter deal with all seven of the guys in their own little room of the base but I thought it would be just too boring to read so I redid it.
Sorry if I gave all of your guys false hopes. School and extra-curricular activities have been raping me like no other. But I have a solution! I will wait until I have 20 reviews before I post chapter 7. HAHA! That will leave me a LOT more time before I can post up the next chapter.
Oh and by the way…if you guys are in the mood for less action/suspense and more romance and comedy, then review, review, review! Yup! Minako's sex appeal among the many eligible bachelors of Konoha will begin in chapter 7! I want to switch to the more light hearted side of my story now.
Oh yeah also…I recently updated two of my other stories that have been sitting to collect dust for more than three months so I think my devout readers to those stories deserve an update. Oh and let's not forget to REVIEW! If I get 20 or more reviews in this week alone then I think I will be screwed. If there is a high demand for the next chapter than the amount of time I can make to write it…then…I will be prepared to face the yelling.
But other than that…20 is the magical number people! Or more…I like more reviews!
(1) Basically picture Sango's mask from Inuyasha.
(2) Ninpou: Haru Ichiban (Ninja Art: First Wind of Spring). My own made up jutsu. Named after a super technique used by the character, Kasugano Sakura in Street Fighter video game series by CAPCOM.