the day the bridge would be finished came quickly, and Naru was still silent. More reserved than normal, finally, Sakura approached ehr as they were heading to the bridge,
"Naru-chan, is something the matter?" Sakura asked after she had lagged to walk with her,
"Not particularly... but doesn't it seem odd?" Naru began "We killed Zabuza and Haku-"
"You killed Zabuza and Haku." Sakura corrected.
"Yes. whatever. it was a team effort." she replied, "But shouldn't there have been another attack? Someone as dark and powerful as Gato would have assigned another henchman to kill us. but there have been no attacks yet."
"I suppose your right... but maybe Gato has just given up?" Sakura suggested cheerily.
"Yeah, maybe." Naruko said, but she obviously was not convinced. the team walked along the path, nearing the bridge, Naruko felt uneasy though, as if she were being watched.
The shadow in the trees watched the team plus client walk along to the bridge, it cracked a fanged smile watching the cheery weak one say something bright to the dark-souled blonde, the blonde seemed to reply negatively, causing the pink one to allow her to fall behind and then made an attempt to speak to the cocky raven.
Oh yes, the Konoha ninja would be delectable.
Naruko froze, the mist thickened as her team walked along the bridge, it was dead silent, Naruko felt her fear level rising. her pulse raced, her muscles tensed as the harsh tang of blood hit her. a low keening whine rose in her throat and her eyes glowed deep red as she unintentionally drew on Kurama's chakra.
"Naruko," came the low voice of Kakashi, she looked over at him, the dark grey gaze that her terror spiked red met was calming, "Naruko, you need to calm down, remember I will not let my comrades be harmed."
"B-But oji-san, the presence... so-so dark..." Naruko whimpered, Sasuke and Sakura looked on with pure terror spiking their veins, they couldn't sense the exact strength of the chakra around them, they could only sense the malevolent presence of what caused her this terror. they remembered the naruko from the fight with Zabuza, strong and fearless, but their the Naruko they saw looked like she was crumbling, and the fear etched into her face made them wonder what it possibly could be that made her so scared.
"The little kitsune is right to be afraid..." a voice purred in the mist, fear stabbed through the genin, but, as they stood next to them, Naruko at least sensed the calming energy rolling off her sensei and was able to hold it together, SHe looked back at Sakura and Sasuke, her now-blue orbs showed she was terrified but her voice was firm,
"We need to stick together this is beyond what one of us can handle." As Naruko spoke the mist in front of them parted, revealing two female ninja. neither sported a headband, the taller of the two was an adult woman wearing a yellow crop top and a pair of green camo baggy pants ending in wrappings and sandals. her pale skin was tattooed so her entire skeleton was outlined on her flesh. she used a scythe, and her teeth were all sharpened to points. the smaller girl next to her wore a red battle kimono with her silver hair up showing she wore death mask styled makeup, her green eyes made luminescent by black makeup mimicking her eye sockets.
"Akuma and Aki. the Nightmare and Demon of the mist." Kakashi breathed. Naruko went rigid and quickly drew her sword, unease settling in her stance,
"Who's that," Sakura hissed.
"Akuma and Aki, they are classified as missing ninja, though it is unknown whether they ever belonged to a village, no one knows who trained Akuma to be a ninja, but Aki, the smaller, was adopted at a young age as Akuma's apprentice when the child's family, a caravan, was killed off by bandits. Akuma uses fear tactics to unhinge her opponents, and Aki uses storm style attacks. so, Sakura mixing our wind and water won't be powerful enough against her, as she can do the same attacks as us, just faster and stronger than ours." Naruko explained quickly.
'History lesson over." Akuma snarled, her sharp teeth bared. "Aki, Fox Raven." She ordered. the genin stood wondering what she meant, as Akuma and Aki attacked, they made it clear, they were able to seamlessly attack and divide the team, Kakashi curse as Akuma drove her and Kakashi and Tanzua away from naruko and Sasuke,
"SHit, Sakura, no mater what do not leave Tanzua! Naruko Sasuke! do not allow her to separate you two!" Kakashi snarled to his students before pulling up his headband and attacking Akuma.
Naruko ANd Sasuke went back to back as Aki circled them,
"Hmm. The boy has nice breeding quality, and the girl would be... if not for her current passenger." Aki smirked at them as Sasuke glanced over his shoulder her at Naruko,
"You're-!" Sasuke began,
"No I'm not pregnant you dim-wit." She hissed.
'What's she tal-"
"I'll tell you another time." She interrupted, "But never mind if we combine our jutsu we may be stronger than her, cast a Fire jutsu!" She ordered, Sasuke nodded and weaved the handsigns and called out
"Katon! Grand Fire-ball jutsu!"
"Fuuton! Great breakthrough!" Naruko cast right after him, this had the effect of his already large fireball moving faster and getting bigger, more lethal. Aki's emerald eyes widened in surprise, and flipped away from the pair, she smirked,
"Your no fun. fine, we'll do this the quick way. I want to help Akuma kill off that old man and little brat." SHe giggled and flash charged and Naruko and Sasuke. the way she fought was like she was participating in a three man dance between Naruko and sasuke. she flipped and spun, continuously adding another cut or bruise on her opponents.
Finally, naruko and Sasuke fell into her trap and both had their hands blocked from moving, with suske having been stepped on and naruko blocking a lethal jab with her sword, Aki made a one handed sign,
"Arashi: Great Cyclone of Imprisonment." she purred. before she could move to dodge a kick that Sasuke manouvered on her, wind and water formed a circle around them, andAki jumped back into the water. Sasuke and Naruko went back to back again, it was rather eerie, their hair and clothes were violently whipped around them as wind surged in a circle around them, light splashes of water that came from the cyclone stung their faces as they watched Aki float in the wall of water, an ethereal green aura of chakra protecting her from the power of her Jutsu.
Kakashi blocked another swing of the Scythe, he was doing decently well blocking hits from the large red blade. Akuma swung again and Kakashi ducked, there was a loud crashing noise and they both looked to find a huge grey mass of water surge around where Aki, NAruko and Sasuke were battling,
"Oh Aki grew impatient, they're dead now." Akauma crooned, "Your brats don't stand a chance now..."
"Pay attention to me, Akuma." Kakashi snarled and lunged with his KUnai, he lightly nicked her waist before she jumped back.
"Fine, we'll end our game then." Akuma hissed and made a string of handsigns, and the mist thickened again. Kakashi went on guard, but pulled out a scroll.
"How shall you die, Copycat Kakashi?" Akuma's purring voice crooned around Kakashi, he could no longer see Sakura and Tanzua. "I could... slit your throat... and watch you bleed to death," Kakashi opened the scroll, "Sever your spinal cord..." He bit his thumb and spread the blood on the scroll, "I could gut you... watch you write in your own entrails..." Kakashi summoned his dog pack, and showed the biggest the Kunai he held. and Eerie howling found Akuma, and the dogs came out of nowhere, hitting her and biting into her arms and legs and pinning ehr.
"You got me... but how?" Akuma hissed as Kakashi's Sharingan glowed from the mist, preceding him as he approached.
"The scent of your blood on my Kuna from when i nicked you bled a little."
"Good job Copycat. Atleast you got to save your pinkie Wench. Aki has certainly taken care of your other brats." Akuma cackled. Kakashi rose his kunai to finish her off, but a malevolent energy rolled over them, blasted away the mist that surrounded them thickly, and Kakashi dropped his kunai, and looked over, seeing Aki leaving the cyclone and running towards them
In the cyclone Aki was floating around on the walls of water,
"How should I kill you?" her voice warbled lightly and came from all directions. "I could close in on you until you suffocated or drowned?" the walls of water began to close in on the two konoha gennin, Making Naruko cringe back against Sasuke, "Or, I could lash you to death." Aki laughed making a fist, she lashed it out towards naruko and a whip of water splashed against her torso, ripping open the fabric of her shirt, showing a new gash, her sword clattered to the floor as she cried out, covering the bloody line with her fingers, surprise flitting across her face. "Oh I like this one." Aki cackled, and began to whip the two genin, who could only try and keep vital areas blocked.
Naruko went to go at her sword opening herself up for attack, Aki saw her chance and went to hit Naruko, but Sasuke saw ahead, and cried out,
"Naruko!" He shoved her down and shielded from the attack, it hit him across the back of the neck, Naruko looked up in fear and surprise as Sasuke's face went slack, and his eyes slid shut as he fell next to her.
OK. so the battle replacing Haku vs Sasu/Naru and Zabuza vs Kakashi. please no flaming, i stayed uo all night to write this and the next chapter. is this good enough for you ? i hope it was a reasonable replacement and figth scene to replace the characters I already killed off.
-Ari the Fox