Enchantress
Chapter 14 – The Impure
Disclaimer: Naruto is the property of mangaka (comic artist) Masashi Kishimoto. This story implies nothing about the characters nor does the plot of the story have any effect on the manga volumes (or the anime) themselves. This story is pure fiction.
A/N: No new chapter until I get at least 10 reviews for this one. No exceptions. See Author's note at the end of the chapter for full details.
——†——
As Minako continued to gaze upon the pale form of her former Jounin instructor and mission supervisor, she found herself at an almost complete loss for words. Through her eyes, the revered "Copy Ninja" Kakashi had always been the powerful and practically untouchable ninja that his reputation had always labelled him to be; despite his subtle but infamous shortcoming as a sort of "literary pervert." But through it all, just simply thinking of the mysterious and reputably untouchable Kakashi in a state of anything less than healthy would always remain surprising to the blonde, and now was no exception. The pained look on the Jounin's face coupled with his pale complexion and mildly profuse sweating made Minako nervous in worry.
"W-what happened to him?"
"Based on the report that we have received from his partners during their most recent mission in the northern most areas of the Wind Country, he had been apparently poisoned by an unidentified assailant while trying to protect his cohorts. I did not want to divulge into further details any more than necessary for patient care is my primary responsibility, not investigation."
Fair enough…Minako thought.
"As we are currently unaware of the actual kind of poison that had been injected into your mission leader's body, all that can be done for now is to sedate him and undergo the delicate task of extracting it from his body as soon as we possibly can."
"R-right…right."
"Judging by his physical condition by observation, the poison appears to be moderately potent, but regardless, we must act quickly. Minako if you would, please continue on with my duty of sedating Hatake-san while we wait for the clinical toxicologists to arrive with the pathogenic buffering solution so that we may begin the poison extraction procedure."
Minako nodded obediently. "I will."
"Good. Now, I need to step out for a few moments to tend to my previous patients in the ward just across the hallway. Should the toxicologists arrive prior to my return, you are to immediately assist them in the appropriate matter according to their instructions."
Minako felt slightly nervous at the possibility of diving into practical subject matter that she was not yet accustomed to: pathogenic treatment. However, being the optimist that she was (generally), the blonde gave one final nod in both approval and understanding towards her supervisor's instructions and proceeded with her designated task. She made her way over to Kakashi's bedside and spent a few moments simply looking at his uncomfortable form. After taking a deep and relieving breath, Minako formed the hand seals necessary to activate the chakra points from within her palms, rested them on either side of her patient's head, and began to anaesthetize him.
The Taberu no Kokochi (1) technique was a very delicate process, as is the case with all other medical related techniques. A loss of concentration, chakra control or even both factors can result in acute unexepected damage to the patient's brain and/or spinal cord due to the technique's nature of primarily affecting the central nervous system. While she was a little anxious at handling the task of sedating her former Jounin instructor, Minako continued to echo the words of caution that Tsunade had continuously badgered her with countless times during each of their one-on-one medic-nin lessons:
"As a medic, human lives are literally directed by your own hands. Even the slightest flaw or slip in concentration can even turn a harmless first-aid procedure into a potentially dangerous life-threatening risk. Do you WANT to live with the image of being the one responsible for involuntary manslaughter after attempting to remedy a simple flesh wound?! I THINK NOT!"
While Minako was certain that Tsunade's overuse of the last few exclamations were nothing short of a mere attempt at scaring her, it was nonetheless effective when it came to fully comprehending the highly precise and exacting job of a medic. It was an annoyingly constant message but one that continued to stick with her even to this date.
After watching Kakashi's face ease down to a more relaxed position, Minako then proceeded with the task of removing his garments so that the medics responsible for extracting the poison from his body would be able to operate with ease. She first removed the standard green ninja vest as carefully as she would without accidentally waking him. Since Kakashi was under only mild sedation – as opposed to a deep sleep – she didn't want to disrupt is currently docile state and unintentionally cause his heart rate to speed up, which would ultimately result in a faster diffusion of the poison throughout his entire body. Being uncertain of his natural sleeping habits didn't work in the blonde's favour either.
Shortly after placing her former sensei's vest on a nearby chair, Minako then performed a few hand seals to instigate the Chakra Scalpel technique at her fingertips. The blonde then made a small incision on Kakashi's navy shirt, starting at the vertex of the collar, and proceeded with a nice clean cut until she had completely severed the fabric right down the center. Within a matter of seconds, three of the expectant clinical toxicologists arrived in the ward with each one carrying two pails of the much awaited buffering solution that Dr. Kimura had been previously talking about.
"We apologize for our tardiness Minako-san."
"Not a problem. In fact, the three of you arrived right on time. I've just finished preparing Kakashi for the operation."
The toxicologist, with whom Minako knew as being named Karu, nodded back in gratitude.
"Thank you Minako-san. We should be able to take it from here. We will let you know by your communicator if we need anything else from you."
"Sure thing. Dr. Kimura requested that I assist you if you needed an extra set of hands but if everything is under your control then I'll be returning back to my previously assigned duties in Ward 2B. Dr. Kimura said that she's just across the hall in the other ward if you need her. I'll let her know that you guys are here."
With one final nod between the four medics and one final chat with her supervisor, Minako made her way up towards her previous work area where she was designated at earlier this morning.
——†——
Upon Minako's arrival into Ward 2B, the sight of two new patients into her assigned medical bay made her stop for bit while she carefully took in their appearances. She nearly jumped at her results.
"Y-YOU TWO!"
The two individuals that she had bluntly addressed looked up at the pointing blonde in a surprisingly professional manner.
"Yes…us two."
Minako suddenly felt very small and inferior to the calm and slightly indifferent looks that were given to her by the Kazekage's older siblings. It was only now when she realized two incredibly surprising and uncommon things: Kankuro's hood and face paint were both removed from his person and Temari's hair was let completely down. Had Minako not known any better, she could have sworn that the two siblings were entirely different individuals. Seeing the pair as they are now compared to how they looked normally was somewhat of a rare, once-in-a-blue-moon type of occurrence.
"I-I…uh…" Just then, Minako had a thought. "Hey, wait a minute. If you're here, does that mean that the two of you were…"
"If you're wondering if whether or not we were the ones assigned to accompany your Jounin leader during his mission in our country, then yes you're correct."
Minako's left eye twitched. Even in her female body, Kankuro still had a habit of addressing people in a very straightforward and almost blunt manner. Not that he was being rude or condescending in any way but Minako would have preferred a simple greeting before going straight to main point.
"You'll have to forgive him Minako-san. He's still quite inexperienced when it comes to talking properly with women."
"Just what is THAT supposed to mean?!"
"If it doesn't make sense to you now, I highly doubt that it ever will."
"Will you stop that?!"
Minako couldn't help but let out a small chuckle. Seeing Temari act as every little bit of the sister that she is in front of her brother, either one for that matter, was a surprisingly refreshing sight to see once in a while. All three of the famous "Sand Siblings" were known across the major countries as highly skilled, trained, professional, and battle-hardened warriors ever since their debut during one of the Chuunin exams which were hosted by Konoha roughly 5 years prior. Even though the youngest sibling, Gaara, had mainly been the one that stood out the most amongst the three of them (for obvious reasons), the two older siblings still held their own when it came to their competencies on the battlefield. But now, seeing them act less like soldiers and more like actual siblings was definitely a sight to behold.
"Um…Minako-san? Would you like to lend me a hand?"
Minako's slightly absent gaze was redirected towards the sound of the voice. She found herself staring at the confused expression of Taruno, the medic currently tending to Kankuro's rib injuries.
"O-oh! R-right! I'll get on it. Sorry about that."
"Not a problem. You can help Temari-sama in the reparation and proper bandaging of her right arm and left leg."
Temari followed up with Taruno's mini diagnosis. "Mild fractures. Nothing too severe."
Minako nodded in understanding as she silently marvelled at just how unlady-like Temari was when it came to her injuries. In comparison to all of the other young kunoichi's of their age group, particularly with the other Konoha girls, out of all of them, Temari was definitely the one with the thickest skin, hands down. It didn't really come as a surprise to Minako as the eldest sand sibling was always carrying around that giant iron fan of hers as if it were a water bottle. Minako concluded that while Sakura possessed the greatest physical strength, with Ino coming at a close second due to their exceptional chakra control as medics, Temari slightly outranked the two of them when it came to having the greatest measure of natural strength. The sandy blonde's pain tolerance was probably way up there as well.
After carefully placing Temari's injured right arm in a comfortable splint, Minako moved on towards the slow but required process of healing the older girl's fractured left tibia. A few moments of silence passed between all of the room inhabitants until the other medic left to tend to other duties, leaving the three teens alone in the ward.
"I take it that you're probably wondering as to how your Jounin supervisor got to his current state?" asked Kankuro.
Minako just finished healing what she could of Temari's leg. All that was left to do now was to let the human body's natural recovery process to take place.
"It has crossed my mind."
The blonde medic sat down in a nearby chair taking a few moments to rest. Chakra-based healing was no easy task.
"However, judging by Kakashi-sensei's whole hush-hush attitude towards his mission ever since our arrival, made me think that it was…well, something pretty important."
"Not at all. It was merely an investigative mission that requested his assistance by our Kazekage to your Hokage. Since he was reported to be your team's traveling body guard for your mission to our village, Tsunade-sama made one final report change to have Kakashi-san partake in our mission with us during his time here." Said Temari.
"Hmm…interesting."
"To put it simply Minako-san, some of our village's scouts have received numerous reports regarding strange and abnormal activity occurring from within the vicinity of Niwa Ridge (2), the destination of our mission objective."
Minako couldn't help but raise an eyebrow in confusion. "Niwa Ridge? But Dr. Kimura told me that you guys were still within the Wind Country. I thought this place was all sand."
"The large majority of it is, yes. But in reality, the areas of the region closer to the borders and the ocean do in fact have a few rock formations scattered about the area. The Niwa Ridge in particular, while quite some distance away, lies fairly close to the Wind-Bear country border. Being the moderately mountainous region that the Bear Country is, it should come to no surprise that the Niwa Ridge would exist inside the Wind Country." Added Kankuro.
"Neat…" Minako added. After finding no questions from the blonde medic, the brunette cleared his throat and continued on.
"According to some of the sightings that have been made by the nearby rural residents, further investigation into the matter eventually led us towards an almost neglected but nonetheless present ridge opening which turned out to be an unmarked and unidentified cave."
"We have been told that within the last month or so, there have been numerous killings caused by an unknown and presently unidentified assailant. Judging by the classified pictures that have accompanied our case, the markings and injuries that were inflicted on the victims belonged to neither man nor weapon. In other words, an animal."
Minako felt a strange chill go down her spine. Not just because of the idea that some wild animal was responsible for intoxicating her former sensei but because of Temari's brief mentioning of the attacks initiating from approximately one month ago.
"Or at least what we thought was an animal…"
——†——
As the three Jounins made their way further into the incredibly dim cave, with only a single lit torch in each of their hands as their only source of light, Kakashi, Temari and Kankuro eventually stumbled upon a truly awe-inspiring sight that made them halt in their tracks. With a small sliver of light beaming down at an angle through a crack in the cavern ceiling, the faint outline of an ancient-looking and dilapidated shrine could be seen just a few meters ahead. The erosion of the stones, the rotting of the wood, and the notable profusions of various mosses and lichens only seemed to add to the structure's archaic image.
"So, this is the place?" asked Kakashi.
"From what our Intel has gathered, yes." Replied Temari.
"Be on the alert. There have been a handful of reports citing some strange and unexplained activities occurring within these ruins."
Kakashi turned his head over to look at the puppet master. "Are there any particular examples that we should be aware of?"
Before Kankuro had a chance to respond back, Temari interrupted the two from conversing any further.
"Shh…do you hear that?"
Kakashi and Kankuro obeyed the wind maker's heed of caution and spent a few moments simply listening to their surroundings without making too much excessive noise. To their surprise, the two men did in fact year a noise that was foreign to them. In fact, it sounded a lot like the deep and feral hiss upon careful inspection.
"Yeah…we're not alone."
The three of them took defensive positions and readied themselves for an oncoming attack in opposing directions with each one leaving only a hair's length of distance away from their respective weapons. The sound grew louder and louder but from which direction none could really tell due to the high reverb and echo potential of the cavern. The hiss seemed deathly close until…
"WATCH OUT!" (3)
Kakashi immediately dropped his torch and spontaneously tackled Temari to the ground just in time to avoid a nasty sting from an unusually large scorpion, consequently resulting in the fan user to drop her own torch and extinguish its flame in the process. The light tremor of the ground that shook shortly after the creature's attempted attack on the wind maker gave the three Jounins a better indication as to just how large it really was. While the light from Kankuro's remaining torche was far too inferior for the trio to even get a complete view of their surroundings, the highly recognizable crawling legs of a scorpion – which was almost as tall as Kakashi– froze the three of them in their places.
"Thank you Kakashi-san…you have my gratitude."
"You're very welcome Temari-san."
The silver-haired Jounin helped his female mission partner up while the two of them followed Kankuro's troubled gaze. The puppet master was staring straight ahead at the eight glowing eyes of the disgusting arachnid, with its stinger ominously positioned at a downward angle from above the trio. The illusive venom of the scorpion which was dripping almost offensively from the tip of its stinger lightly glistened from the glow of Kankuro's torch. The most terrifying thing about their situation was not because of the fact that they were up against a gigantic and possibly mutated scorpion but rather from the eerie stillness that the creature was taunting them with. It almost felt like it was challenging them to make the first move. The trio was able to pick up additional noises emitting from the scorpion but from exactly what they were originating from was unknown at the moment.
"Dear God what is that smell?!"
Kankuro's exclamation caused both Temari and Kakashi to take a whiff of the surrounding air around them, resulting in the pair cringing at the foul and putrid odour. Kakashi winced at the all too familiar scent.
"Corpses…"
"Ugh! What the hell are we going to do?! Unless we can find someway of lighting up this entire area completely we won't even stand a chance against this thing!" exclaimed an irritated Kankuro.
Just then, Temari had a thought, completely ignoring the almost overpowering scent of rotting flesh. "Kakashi-san. From my understanding, you know how to harness the elements of fire and lightning is that correct?"
"Yes."
Temari nodded in return. "I have a plan, although it may be a little difficult to pull off without timing and a bit of luck. Kakashi-san. I know this may seem like I'm asking much but we hardly have any time left to think of any other alternatives. Please, utilize your lighting-based skills to illuminate the area around that shrine over there. Kankuro you will assist him. I will distract the monster and make my over to its other side so that it can't attack all three of us at once. From there you will follow my directions."
The two men nodded. "Right."
Temari nodded back and stared up at the eerily still form of the giant leering scorpion.
"On my signal…GO!" Almost immediately following, the blonde opened up her giant iron fan.
"FUUTON: HAIHEKI KOUJIN!" (4)
As Kakashi and Kankuro made their way over to the nearby shrine, Temari unleashed a powerful gust of ashy smoke up towards the eyes of the giant scorpion causing it to hiss in an incredible volume at both the shock and the irritation from the ash particles. The male pair eventually made their way over to the small shrine ruins as Kakashi raised his hand up high above him and channelled chakra into his fist.
"RAIKIRI!"
The brilliant white and blue shine of the copy ninja's electrically-charged right hand lit up a lot more of the surrounding area than Temari had initially believed. Not only was the entire mini-shrine area lit up, but the wind maker was actually able to get a very decent view of the surrounding cavern on top of that. Much to her astonishment, she was also able to pick out the notable forms of two moderately sized fire pits located on either side of the main body of the shrine. Temari used her agility to make her way over to the posterior of the scorpion but not before shouting out an order at her brother.
"Kankuro! Light those fire pits!"
A quick glance behind him and the puppet master got the picture immediately. "You got it!"
Kankuro performed a high back flip into the air and tossed two perfectly aimed kunai daggers with exploding tags attached to them at the designated fire pits. The twin explosions set the pits along with the aged wood and fauna within them ablaze. Not too long afterwards, Kakashi, immediately extinguished his lightning-charged fist in order to conserve his chakra reserves.
With phase one of her plan complete, Temari used the glow from the shrine flames to make her way up towards a few of the higher ledges that were protruding from the cavern wall from behind the scorpion. However, her inability to predict just how effective her distraction was against the creature ultimately worked against her favour. It happened much too fast for her to comprehend for when she was located just beside the gigantic creature, the scorpion must have sensed its prey trying to escape and swatted one of its pincers towards her direction.
"AHHH!"
"TEMARI!"
"TEMARI-SAN!"
With a painful slam of her back against the rocky walls, Temari's body shook in pain as she slowly slid down to a seated form. Unfortunately for her, the blunt force of the trauma was directed towards her left leg where the giant pincer had struck her. She was quite certain that her leg was broken, if not cracked at the very least, for the shooting pain that travelled up and down her entire leg was almost unbearable.
"YOU BASTARD! Kakashi-san! Tend to my sister at once! I will distract this little son of a bitch while you make your way over, got it?!"
"Understood!"
Within the span of a few seconds, Kankuro unravelled the scroll that was strapped to his back and summoned forth two of his three signature puppets: Karasu and Kuroari. Almost immediately following, the puppet master detached all of the currently existing limbs on both his puppets as they revealed each of their concealed bladed weapons from within. He directed the four bladed arms of Karasu to band together and pierce the eyes of the giant scorpion in an attempt to blind it. Although the creature easily sensed the oncoming attacked and blocked the flying blades with its incredibly tough pincers, as a follow up attack, Kankuro flung the six arms of Kuroari and used the saw-like protrusions along the length of the puppet's arms and swung it up against the creature's back, effectively grating scorpion's body without mercy. A piercing screech emitted from the creature as it echoed throughout the entire cavern. Kakashi in turn, took this moment to rush over to Temari's side.
"I'm here Temari-san. Try not to move too much."
As the notable glow of the healing technique emitted from the copy ninja's hand, Temari immediately gripped onto Kakashi's wrist without notice, effectively stopping the recovery process.
"What are yo-"
"We don't have time for that Kakashi-san! With the limited amount of visibility that we have, we cannot afford to waste time trying to regroup. If this creature is indeed the perpetrator behind these incidents then we must exterminate it while we still can!"
Kakashi immediately understood the strong blonde's resolve and didn't press any further.
"What is it that you want me to do Temari-san?"
Temari made a quick glance over at her younger brother who was unfortunately hit on the side by one of the scorpion's pincers. But despite the pain, the brunette continued to push forwards, eager to uphold his duty of keeping the monster at bay while Kakashi and his sister remained essentially vulnerable to an attack.
Temari's eyes glanced towards the small sliver of light that was peaking up from the top of the cavern ceiling high above the ancient shrine. "See that tiny opening up there?" Kakashi followed the blonde's gaze and nodded in understanding. "Since sunlight is peering directly into this cavern from that opening, we can use that to our advantage to not only immobilize that creature but to also provide us with just the right amount of lighting for us to eliminate it with ease."
Kakashi nodded at the blonde's reasoning.
"If that monster is anything like a regular scorpion, it should be sent into a complete full-body shock if we can expose it to a sudden amount of direct sunlight (5). If we can forge a perforation large enough from that opening, this entire battle can turn in our favour."
The two of them looked up at the sound of a suddenly loud crash, just in time to notice Kankuro barely avoid an oncoming blow from the scorpion's stinger.
"Kankuro can only last for so long so we can't exhaust him any more than we need to. Here's what I need you to do."
After whispering a few of her plan's main points to Kakashi and handing him three small vials of oil, the copy ninja nodded and made his way up the nearby cavern perforations until he stood at an elevation high enough to see both the entire body of the creature as well as the shrine ruins that it was gradually approaching. Temari pushed herself up against the rocky wall with her good leg and clutched onto her iron fan tightly. After watching Kankuro just barely avoid a second attempted stinger attack from the scorpion, Temari gave her command with a strong leader-like tone.
"NOW KAKASHI-SAN!"
Kakashi tossed the three vials of oil into the air and formed a few lightning-quick hand seals in the process.
"KATON: GOUKAKYUU NO JUTSU!"
The impressive fireball that shot from the copy ninja's mouth shattered the vials causing burning oil to rain down towards the giant scorpion. In an almost immediate fashion, Temari sprung up into the air with all of her might using her good leg, positioned herself until she was staring at the falling fire at a downwards angle, which was located just between her and the giant scorpion, and opened her giant fan.
"NINPOU: DAIKAMAITACHI NO JUTSU!"
The blonde sent forth her signature sickling winds towards the bulk of the burning oil causing it to spiral outwards and diffuse across a much larger area than it was initially released at from Kakashi's position. An incredibly large area of the cavern floor was set ablaze, presenting the three Jounins with more light than previously and effectively trapping the giant creature within a ring of fire. The scorpion let out another high pitched screech of anger as some of the burning oil dropped onto its body.
After a slightly painful landing back on a moderately sized patch of semi-burning moss, Temari directed her gaze towards her younger brother.
"Kankuro! Summon forth all three of your puppets, tightly compact them together into a single group, and throw them towards my location!"
Temari had always been known as "the tactician" among the three sand siblings because of her unrivalled intellect, and for good reason too. Many of Sunagakure's militia and investigation squads were all constructed and managed by the eldest daughter of the late Fourth Kazekage and thus, her prowess as both a planner and a visionary had never once been questioned. Kankuro nodded at his sister's command, knowing that whatever plan she had devised would see them successful in this battle.
"You got it!"
Kankuro used his summoning scroll a second time and summoned his third and final puppet to his arsenal: Sanshuo. As he was instructed, the puppet master detached certain pieces of his three puppets and tightly assembled all of them together so that they were single, solid, and compact entity. Kankuro additionally performed one final manipulation so that his unified puppet set was compressed and curved into a tight ball-like formation.
"Here it comes!"
Kankuro swung his supreme masterpiece towards his sister's patiently waiting form with all of his might and detached the puppeteer strings so that it was in free flight. Seconds later, Temari opened up her giant iron fan and threw it with astonishing precision at the flying object. She hit it at just the right angle and location so that it immediately shot forwards in the direction of the small cavern opening that she had been eyeing ever since their arrival at the cavern's shrine ruins. As a final addition to Temari's plan, Kakashi performed a few hand seals and raised a hand to his mouth.
"FUUTON: SHUNJINDAN NO JUTSU" (6)
A powerful jet of whirling air shot out from Kakashi's mouth and towards the flying conglomerate of puppets. The wind jet directly hit the airborne object causing it to soar towards its desired location with an extra boost. Upon immediate contact with the small cavern ceiling crack, the 'flying wrecking ball' blew open an incredibly large hole which seemed to open up even further; Temari concluded that it was possibly due to the slightly weakened structural integrity of the geographic formation after years of external wind erosion. The resulting rays of sunlight that beamed down through the perforation shone directly upon the flame-ensnared scorpion causing it to recoil back in surprise and screech in shock.
It was from this moment where the Jounin trio was finally able to get a complete and thorough look at the monster that they have been fighting – and the sight was nothing short of mortifying. The scorpion was of a grotesque dark purple color, highly reminiscent of the broth from a brewing poison. The large majority of its body was chipped, peeled and lacerated in multiple places, exposing its bleeding flesh for all to see. But the most disturbing sight of them all was the numerous moving forms on its back. Located directly beneath what seemed to be a semi-transparent protective sac were the scuttling forms of seven scorpion babies moving around its mother's back in sporadic and unpredictable movements. Garnishing the bodies of all the arachnid offspring was blood…human blood…and lots of it. The horrific sight was only topped by the half eaten arms, legs, torsos, and heads of what was assumed to be the creature's most recent victims which could be seen scattered around the protective sac in multiple places. The unknown sounds and scent that had been bothering the team of three since their encounter with the creature before them not too long ago had now been revealed.
"My God…"
All three Jounins were left completely petrified until Temari snapped out her own reverie first.
"NOW'S OUR CHANCE!"
Kakashi and Kankuro didn't need to be told twice. The two men leaped high into the air while Temari channelled the both her chakra as well as the element of wind within her fan.
"NINPOU: YOUZANSEN!" (7)
The blonde threw her fully opened fan with an incredible amount of force towards the giant scorpion at a slight angle. The large projectile ripped through the air in an arc-like curve while its impressively fast spinning motion made the iron fan greatly resemble the appearance of a buzz saw. Upon contact with the monstrous creature, the scorpion let out a howl of pain as the spinning fan cleanly sliced off all four legs along the right side of the creature's body.
In a simultaneous fashion, Kakashi channelled his chakra and the element of lightning towards six kunai daggers (three in each hand) where as Kankuro used a complex movement of his fingertips to call forth, disassemble, and reassemble Karasu and Kuroari in such a way so that only the bladed arms belonging to both puppets were arranged in a 10-pointed star-shaped pattern.
"RAITEI KOURYOURAN!" (8)
"HISHOUGU: TONBOGIRI" (9)
Kankuro manipulated his flying star so that it sliced threw the air, ultimately hacking off the remaining four legs on the left side of the scorpion's body. Kakashi on the other hand threw all six of his lightning-charged daggers down towards the monster, imbedding them into the ground in such a way so that they trapped the monster in a perfect circle.
"Temari-san! Kankuro-san! We have to take cover, quickly!"
Within a matter of seconds, the six kunai daggers each shot a single stream of lightning back and forth across the circle towards another dagger, multiple times, battering and scorching the trapped creature within it with every hit. Quickly thinking on his feet, Kankuro came up with an idea after assuming that something big was about to happen thanks to Kakashi's technique.
"Temari! Kakashi-san! Get over here, quickly!"
The addressed pair did as they were told as the puppet master called forth Sanshuo and opened up its frill.
"Quick! Hop onto Sanshuo's back and duck behind its shield!"
The trio crammed their way onto the wooden salamander puppet's back as Kankuro activated its defence mechanism, effectively wrapping all of them up within its protective shell. On the outside of their mini bomb shelter, to where the dying scorpion monster was, the shots of lightning from Kakashi's technique kept increasing in both frequency and speed until all six daggers shone with great intensity and simultaneously exploded, causing the entire cavern to shake from the heavy shockwave that followed shortly afterwards.
After the resounding booming noise had died down and the shaking had more or less halted, Kankuro opened up Sanshuo's protective shelter and released everyone from within its protective confinement. The three Jounins looked towards the still and blackened form of the gargantuan arachnid which was unanimously assumed to be killed as observed from its completely charred body and smoking flesh. Unfortunately for them, now was not a time to rejoice for the semi-transparent protective sac that was located on the monster's backside (which contained both the scorpion's offspring as well as the partially recognizable remnants of their human meals) was still perfectly intact but with one and almost frightening exception: a small tear had somehow been made along the length of the sac with the now motherless scorpion hatchlings attempting to free themselves from their nest.
"Dear God…"
"It can't be…!"
Temari quickly glanced up at the giant gaping hole that exposed the cavern to the outside world, opened up her fan and made a few dance-like movements with it.
"W-what are you doing?"
"We won't be able to kill them properly if all of them are released! The only thing that we can do for now is to get them all at once while they're still together!"
A faint rumble was heard from above the standing trio and sure enough, the clear blue sky that could be seen from their self-made cavern opening had begun to cloud over with grey. Quick flashes of lightning could be seen streaking across the billowing clouds above. However, this newfound sense of relief was shortly lived for the scorpion babies had now torn a hole large enough in their mother's protective nest for them to escape completely.
"Keep them at bay for just a little while longer!"
"You don't have to tell me twice!"
Kakashi and Kankuro attempted to fend off the seven, almost human-sized, baby scorpions while giving Temari the allotted time necessary to follow through with her intended plan.
Come on…! Come on…!
The two Jounin males covered each others backs as best as they could against their arachnid assailants. While the opposing numbers were not as completely against their favour, as Kankuro essentially operated as three individuals instead of one with his puppets, the four-on-seven battle was still a trying task. There were some instances where either Kakashi or Kankuro had just barely evaded a hit from an oncoming stinger or a jab from a swiping pincer. It was only from the brief moment of unawareness when Kakashi had tackled Kankuro away just in time to avoid getting stung by one of the leaping baby scorpions. As a consequence, Kakashi himself got stung right in the elbow.
"AHHH!"
"KAKASHI-SAN!"
Kankuro, in a fit of vengeance used the wide and heavy body of his salamander puppet Sanshuo and swatted away the remaining scorpions which were only seconds away from landing an attack of their own on the fallen copy ninja. The puppet master knelt down next to Kakashi while operating Sanshuo single-handedly against the critters.
"Stay with me Kakashi-san. Just hang in there!"
The silver-haired Jounin let out a groan of pain. A final bright flash of lightning made Temari open her eyes in determination.
"NOW!" The blonde raised her hand up high and shouted at the top of her lungs.
"FUUTON: TATSU NO OSHIGOTO!"
In a matter of seconds, a powerful mini tornado reached down from the skies above and weaved its way downwards, passing through the cavern opening before coming in contact with the ground and whisking up all seven of the meddlesome baby scorpions, along with the charred remains of their mother, within its spiralling vertex. In addition to battering up the scorpions against one another within the gale-force winds of the tornado, Temari's signature move of supplying chakra to any of her wind-based techniques added an additional cutting factor for that extra supply of pain to her enemies. As a final precaution to ensure that this battle would have no more survivors on the opposing side, Temari reached into her utility pouch and tossed up three white pouches into the whirling storm. The slashing properties of the winds sliced up each of the three pouches revealing hundreds and hundreds of miniature exploding tags.
"KANKURO! AIM HIGH!"
The brunette followed his sister's line of vision and immediately eyed the whirling mass of paper and debris which continued to suspend their arachnid foes with no rest.
"Got it!"
Kankuro gently lay Kakashi down for a few moments before reaching into his own utility pouch and pulling out a kunai dagger with an exploding tag attached to the end of the handle.
"SEE YOU IN HELL!"
With precision and timing, Kankuro threw his kunai dagger within the heart of the raging storm. While not really aiming for anything in particular, as the resulting explosion was of a more higher priority than a successful hit, the dagger managed imbed itself a piece of flying debris which was also caught in the updraft. The following explosion resulted in a chain reaction with the countless mini tags, ultimately causing the entire tornado to light up in flames, incinerating every last object trapped within it, including the intended scorpions.
Before long, the winds and the flames died down, leaving nothing more than the blackened remains of its victims to lightly rain down on the battle field below. The mission was now complete. Temari and Kankuro both fell to their knees, physically and emotionally exhausted from the over exertion of their human efforts as well as from the horrific sight that they had been forced to battle for the last little while. After spending a few moments resting, Kankuro made his way back over to the fallen Kakashi. To his shock, the Konoha Jounin's breathing patterns had stopped.
"Kakashi-san!"
——†——
Minako had no words. She was too shocked at the details of the story that had just been told to her.
"Fearing that your Jounin instructor was on the verge of death, I immediately called for backup while my sister attempted to revive Kakashi-san with her own medical knowledge. And that is how we got here."
"We won't really know exactly how effective our medics will be at restoring Kakashi-san back to normal given the fact that he had been assaulted by an unknown arachnid species. We left this minor detail out to Dr. Kimura upon our arrival at the clinic. Kakashi-san's well being was of a higher priority than expanding on the details of our mission with regards to his condition. As long as the medics and toxicologists were aware that he had been inflicted with a poison, we were certain that they could handle the rest from there."
"It was a bit of a gamble and a little unprofessional on our part to not divulge into any further details but given the sheer distance between our village and Niwa Ridge, Kakashi-san's life was already left hanging by a thread due to the extended travelling time required for us to return home."
A few moments of silence passed between the three teens until Temari ended with one final comment.
"You have a brave leader Minako-san. I believe that he can make it out just fine."
The two blonde's looked at each other with initial hesitance but the younger one shyly smiled back.
"T-thank you Temari-san. A-and you're right…I'm sure that Kakashi-sensei will be able to pull through. Thank you, both of you, for watching over him."
Kankuro followed up with a final note of his own.
"We've done all that we could for your leader on our behalf. The rest is up to our medics."
"Yeah…" Minako glanced out the open door and mentally envisioned the fighting form of her sensei. "Yeah…"
——†——
Nighttime. With only a few minutes of her shift left, Minako requested that she spend her last working moments in the company of her bedridden Jounin instructor, to which her supervisor Dr. Kimura, gladly obliged to. As the blonde looked down at Kakashi's still pained expression, the words of the medics who operated on him continued to echo through her mind.
We were successful at extracting a large majority, if not all, of the toxin that had been circulating throughout his system however…upon further investigation it seems as though it had inflicted more damage than we initially thought. Until we can identify the true chemical nature of the infliction, we won't be able to determine exactly what his condition will be like the in the morning. We've administered all that we could to prevent his body from deteriorating any further…but regardless of what we used, his condition just seems to worsen with every attempt. I'm sorry Minako-san, but things aren't looking well for Hatake-san. We will do what we can to keep him stable until sunrise.
Mild paralysis, muscle deterioration, reduced heart rate…the list went on. Minako had begun to fear the worse for her sensei. She continued to stare at Kakashi with a grim expression until a sudden voice caught her attention.
"Mina…! Mina…!"
"K-koki! W-what are you doing here?!"
"You'll have to forgive my intrusion but for a while now I've been sensing a faint demonic energy within the village for some time…and I'm not referring to either you or the Kazekage."
Minako's eyes widened in surprise.
"W-what do you think it is?"
"I-I'm not too sure. However…it seems to me originating from him. There's no doubt about it."
Minako looked back in disbelief and slight shock.
"From Kakashi-sensei? What are you talking about? That doesn't even make sense!"
"It's true Mina, you have to believe me! Emitting from the body of that man is the unmistakable aura and scent of a demonic curse!"
"You're lying!" Minako made her way over to Kakashi and placed a hand on his forehead. "There's no possible way that he's-"
The blonde's statement was left unfinished for a sudden flash of purple light disrupted the atmosphere around them.
"W-what's going on?!"
"Stay back Mina!"
Minako did as she was told and took her place next to Koki, whose upper body was lowered to the ground, prepared for an oncoming attack.
"Something's coming Mina. What it is exactly I'm not too sure but regardless, we're about to find that out very soon."
Minako braced herself for some horrifying creature to jump out from Kakashi's flesh and tear them apart to shreds however something a little less graphic but nonetheless intimidating happened instead. Slowly rising from Kakashi's body was a large shard of glass colored in a sinful shade of black. Minako stared at the glowing object in both awe and confusion as it majestically hovered a few inches above Kakashi's torso, despite the unholy black light that it was giving off.
"C-could it be…?"
Koki's question was left unanswered as Minako began to walk towards the mystical object in an almost trance-like state.
"MINA! WAIT!"
It wasn't long before Minako's hands gently gripped onto the floating piece of black glass. What surprised Koki the most was that rather than have something terrible happen to his new master, as he initially predicted, instead the piece of glass had begun to gradually lighten from its original black hue until it was bestowed with an entrancing and almost heavenly luminescent glow. The fox pup was at a loss for words.
"S-she…she purified it…!" (10) The demonic energies that the pup had initially felt resonating from the enchanted object had completely vanished.
Koki hopped up onto Kakashi's bed to get a closer look at Minako and the shard of glass but suddenly, another strange occurrence had happened before he had a chance to react. The glowing shard of glass that was now released from Minako's grip had begun to slowly float towards the blonde's chest until it somehow managed to mystically phase into her body with a hypnotic rippling effect. Once the shard was assumed to have been completely been absorbed, Minako's eyes clouded over in fatigue as she collapsed to the ground below her. (11)
"MINA! MINA!"
TBC
——†——
A/N: Just under 7500 words, excluding the author's notes, for this chapter. Yay a fight scene! Finally! It's been like what, since chapter 4 that my story had an actual character battle in it? And a violent and pretty graphic one at that. I ain't gonna lie, even I cringed in disgust as I was writing this chapter. I made it extra disturbing in select places just so that I can keep it interesting.
In all honesty, I kind of like this chapter for some reason. Probably because it was a lot more exciting to write due to the battle sequence. Alright, so here's the deal. You all know that I have now returned to this story and it has been updated on a fairly regular basis now that I have been given the time necessary to write it.
That said I will reiterate my previous offer made in my author's note at the very beginning of this chapter: I will post Chapter 15, IF AND ONLY IF I receive at least 10 reviews. Hey, it may seem like I'm being pushy and greedy in an attempt to just get reviews, and maybe I am, but hits, story alerts and story favourites are not encouraging to me in the slightest.
Now I can probably guess what you're all thinking "But you should just be writing for yourself!" Perhaps. But dedicating a large portion of my free time to uphold my commitments to this story without any appreciation via reviews for it, is kind of like kicking a dead horse. Why bother continuing on with it if no one wants to read it? And believe me, I have thought about deleting this story a few times before ever since Chapter 9. I have two other stories that require my attention and I really wouldn't object to dropping my workload down from 3 stories to 2 if I had to make a choice.
So now…I'm taking a stand. No new chapter until I get at least 10 reviews.
(1) Taberu no Kokochi (Sensation Eater) – A medic nin technique, completely made up by me. Not bad huh? Here's a brief little description about it. Contrary to popular belief, this technique does not siphon out chakra from the patient's head in order to weaken brain activity to induce anaesthesia, but rather supplies a patient's brain and spinal cord with additional chakra so that the central nervous system remains relatively inactive, thereby reducing pain…if that makes sense.
(2)Niwa Ridge – A completely made up geographical formation simple used for fictional purposes within this story. I used the name 'Niwa' simply because I was watching a few episodes of Gakuen Heaven while I was writing this and well…just find a picture of the character, Testuya Niwa, from the series and you can probably take a good guess as to why I used his name.
(3) See the very end of Chapter 10: Her Destiny, Her Triumph.
(4) Fuuton: Haiheki Koujin (Wind Element: Ash Splitting Airborne Dust) – Sends forth a powerful gust of ashy wind to diminish enemy visibility. My own made up ninja technique.
(5) Most scorpions are nocturnal for those who didn't know.
(6) Fuuton: Shunjindan no Jutsu (Wind Element: Quick Blinking Bullet Technique) – Sends forth a highly compressed jet of whirling air towards the designated target. If performed appropriately, this wind jet can be strong enough to piece through boulders. My own made up ninja technique.
(7) Ninpou: Youzansen (Ninja Art: Murderous Fan) – Technique name borrowed from Ishiwatari Daisuke and Arc System Works' original character, Baiken, from the Guilty Gear video game series for the Sony Playstation.
(8) Raitei Kouryouran (Thunder Emperor, Light in Bloom) – My own technique.
(9) Hishougu: Tonbogiri (Flying Weapon: Dragonfly Cutter) – My own technique for Kankuro.
(10) Very Kagome v. Shikon no Tama don't you think?
(11) I know that it may seem like I'm copying ideas from the CLAMP work, Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles, with this little passage but in actuality, it was intended. Hope none of you mind.