Ch. 3: Attack!
I woke to the sound of two people arguing. One was insisting that whatever it was that he was saying was true, and the other voice, that was… yes it was, Kazu's voice telling the man to "friggin' go!"
I opened my eyes and found that Kaida was getting ready to drop down from a tree behind the invading man, and she was armed with her katana and ready to kill if things got out of hand. Yumi was up, Washi was standing in a battle-ready stance with a sneer on his face, and the fourth bedroll was already packed up. Deki was nowhere to be seen, but obviously, no one else was worried, so I didn't worry either.
Kazu shifted his glance over to Washi and nodded his head, looking at the many fragile-looking vials attached to the belt around Washi's waist. "Sleep juice, I'm thinking," he said as he subtly smiled. Then Kazu pulled out a kunai and started waving it about.
While the man was distracted, Washi made a few hand signs that I recognized-he was going to move the sleep-inducing liquid from one of the vials into the man's body to sedate him. I smiled at their teamwork despite the fact that we were on different teams.
As the man slumped to the ground, merely unconscious, Deki emerged from a small clump of trees, completely unperturbed by the unmoving man in front of Kazu. I finished packing up my bedroll, then secured our supplies in a scroll that I handed to Kaida to put in her large scroll carrying-case that was almost always strapped to her back.
"Let's go," Kazu said to her, slinging the tall man over his shoulder.
"You've got about ten minutes until he wakes up," Washi told them.
"Too easy," Kaida replied as she polished her blade. The two of them ran off as we destroyed any evidence of our stay.
"Hey, Tomoko, replace my sleepy water," Washi said over his shoulder as he covered up a heavyset footprint.
"No," I simply replied from my perch in the tree. "And I don't care if you're older than me or are my 'elder.' Oh, and Deki, my answer is yes," I said without opening my eyes.
"Why not?" Washi whined. "Please?" he pleaded when I didn't answer.
"Fine," I gave in. "It's ironic, though, ya know—you make a big deal about being older than me, even if only by a few hours, yet I'm much more mature than you." If you haven't figured it out yet, Washi and I have the same birthdays. Always have, always will. Unfortunately.
I opened up the notebook I always carried in the pouch strapped around my right thigh. I found the flower easily, for I had replenished his supply often on co-team missions and in training. I pointed to the flower, saying, "See this white flower? Get me three blossoms, and pick the whole thing, all the way down to the roots."
He quickly scanned my written description and nodded. "Got it," he said in his high-pitched voice. I leaned back against the trunk attached to the branch I was sitting on. I heard Kazu and Kaida return.
"Find the guy's team?"
"Yeah. The dude was delusional," Kaida said.
"Uh huh! He was seeing things all wavy and weird!" Kazu grinned and did the 'wave' with his arms as I looked at him.
Washi came back with the flowers. One was edible, but was of the wrong species and had no special properties. Another was too shriveled up to use. I mashed up the last one with some water, courtesy of Deki, and refilled Washi's vial. I shook Yumi awake, as she had apparently fallen asleep, and we went back on our way.
We started off at a slow pace, but once we fell into a steady rhythm, we slowly sped up. Soon we were nearing the front of the 'pack'.
"Hey little girl!" an intoxicated-sounding man said.
"Oh shiz," Kazu grumbled. "It's him again."
"Yeah, what was that guy's problem?" I asked inquisitively.
"Kazu, don't say anything," Kaida commanded. "That guy thought his kid came along and that we were just the children of some of the shinobi of the group. We obviously proved him wrong. He was going crazy over the thought that he lost his kid. Freaky weirdo."
"Yeah, you, black-haired girl. Get over here. You're going to listen to me now, or your little friends get it," he said, suddenly sounding threatening and clearheaded.
"Please tell me you didn't turn around," I hopelessly asked Yumi.
"Uhh… no?" Yumi said in a high, unconvinced voice.
"Really, now," Kaida said sarcastically.
"Well… yes?" she tried in an even higher voice than before.
"Shoot…" I sighed. "All right then. Come on, guys. Look's like we're gonna have to fight. Formation 0-92!"
Kazu excitedly jumped into a stance that could be both defensive and offensive as we all dropped to the ground, and I ran over to my position according to the plan. Deki walked slowly to his spot on the left side and said, "Next time let me choose the plan. I am the strategist, you know."
I ignored him and concentrated on finding thick, sturdy tree roots to grow. I concentrated the chakra to my feet and made the hand signs I needed.
"Well what do we have here?" The man chuckled derogatorily. "The little girl is fighting now!"
"Little?" I asked as I pushed chakra through the dirt and into the tree roots, especially into a tree root beneath my opponent. "Again, little? Wrong move."
I pushed the roots upwards by activating the chakra flowing through them, and the root beneath the opponent pushed out of the soil and wrapped tightly around his waist, trapping him.
"Washi, Yumi, Kaida! Help us out! Washi, you get over here, Kaida go up front with Kazu, Yumi, in back, and Deki, info!"
"Well… judging from his tattooed arms and the coarse cloth…"
"Hurry it up!" I said as I threw a milky white flower to the other five, telling them to inhale the flower's scent until I said.
They all breathed deeply, so I lifted myself upward on a tree root platform, then did the necessary hand signs. I drew a deep breath, then blew out over my cupped hands, releasing a cloud of pollen and other sweet plant scents. Anyone who took a slight whiff of my 'perfume' without the counteracting blossom would sink into a tortured genjutsu sleep. I reached out my chakra for some vines, attempting to make them move so they would tie around our collapsed opponents. They didn't budge. I looked up and saw why; they were shriveled up and dead, without a chakra system to take control of, and on top of that, literally on top, was a man, stepping on the green snake-like plant.
"Guys," I said slowly. "There's more of them." My genjutsu harbinger had already dissipated, so I left the newcomers to the others. I jumped off lightly and toppled the platform forwards, hoping to impede the advancing of the enemy. "Deki, you mind finishing?"
"As I was saying," he spurted out, flecks of saliva shooting out at every word, "These guys have weaknesses to ice, sand, are very strong, but not very quick." He nodded in order at Yumi, no one in particular, to Kazu, and then at Kaida's heirloom ice-energy katana.
"Washi, let's take out these sitting ducks," I said to him. He nodded in agreement.
I continued my genjutsu, an lurid, painfully bright and colorful world with gigantic wasps that stung painfully, and caused the whole body to bloat up and then explode with a disgusting, yellowish-green pus. Next came the ants that bored through the skin, into the bone, then the worms that entered through every opening in the body, including those made by the ants. Finally—they watched those close to them—or who were once close to them—undergo the same painful fate.
This continued until each fighter under its influence either collapsed or broke out.
With so many people trapped, it was quite weak, so the two of us ended up physically immobilizing most of the men with a kick to the face (or neck) or a drop of paralyzing liquid on their tongues.
When our job quickly ended, we joined into the brawl. Washi stopped men in waves with a fire jutsu he learned from the Fire Country chunnin who brought news from the Village Hidden in the Leaves to our village.
Kaida chopped down people left and right, literally, swinging her silvery blue, thin, agile blade easily through the air. Kazu went blazing through the people, punching, kicking, landing barrages, and spinning around in a literal taijutsu whirlwind. Yumi finished up his victims with a lightning-fast, nearly invisible ice senbon needle attack. She didn't have the kekkei-genkai of Haku's bloodline for nothing.
Deki swept away the enemy with waves and bursts of poisoned liquid from his water jutsus, while I stayed in back, covering their backs by taking them out myself with weaponry, using the ever-abundant plant-life, or with brute chakra-powered strength.
"Hey Kazu! Kick that purple flower at 3 o'clock!" It went in his opponent's face and the afflicted immediately broke out into an itchy, painful rash. I helped in any way I could, even by just raising up knobby tree roots for the enemy to trip over.
Even after we had fought nonstop for over an hour, there still seemed to be no end to the reinforcements.
"Deki, who are all these people?" Yumi gasped as she rested for a little under five seconds. "I'm positive—SHITtake–that there weren't this many people in the transport!" She quickly dodged an incoming shuriken, but was cut in the shoulder by a kunai as a result.
"God, they're getting smarter!" Deki shouted. "They're—SHIT!"