We wasted little time in acting on our plan, travelling almost immediately to the Hill of Illusions that overlooked the forest. From above, we had a perfect view of our enemies camping outside of the Three-Head's Prison, noticing that there were five men guarding the entrance. Even though I knew that my Byakugan would not work in this mist, I attempted to capture a glimpse of anything deemed suspicious. Sure enough, when I activated my visual jutsu and stared at the cave, what was inside raised alarm.
Noticing the expression on my face when my eyes met the cave, Kiba asked me "Is your Byakugan working? What do you see?"
I shook my head. "No, my Byakugan is not working properly; my vision is still distorted, however, there is something within the cave that is unusual."
"What is it?" asked Shino.
"It is hard to tell, but I can see something glowing in the middle of the cave. I think it is chakra. It seems to be spreading throughout the entire cave," I said.
"Why would chakra be taking host in a cave? Where is it going?" asked Shino.
I tried to follow the flow of chakra, but my vision was blocked by the mist. "I cannot see where it is going. All I know is that it leaves the cave," I said.
"I guess that means we'll have to go in for a closer look," said Kiba.
"There are five people outside of the cave and who knows how many are inside. We can't just walk up to them and expect to win the fight," said Shino.
"I know that," said Kiba. "That's why we need a distraction."
"What kind of distraction?" I asked.
"This kind," said Kiba as he pulled a flash bomb out his ninja tool pouch. Often used by the Nara clan to enhance their Shadow Possession jutsu technique, flash bombs emit a powerful light that blinds their target. It is a great distraction tool, however, when the bombs goes off, it also creates a noise. Since there might also be people inside of the cave, they might hear the bomb, and when they do, we could be in trouble.
"Do you know how to use that thing?" Shino asked doubtfully.
"Of course I know how to use it!" snapped Kiba as he tied the flash bomb onto one of his kunai knife's handle. "I asked Shikamaru how to use it before he gave it to me."
Kiba threw the knife at the enemies' feet, causing the guards to stare at it for a moment to soak in what it was and where it came from. Then, just when one of the men discovered what it was, the bomb blew up, creating a blinding white light around them. When the light died out, some of the guards where on the floor covering their eyes while the others were wandering around aimlessly in hopes of having their temporarily lost vision return to them. They all moaned in pain, which raised the hair on the back of my neck. I may be a kunoichi, but I do not enjoy causing pain.
Just before we moved in to take down the blind guards, Kiba shot Shino a smug smirk to which Shino sucked on his teeth.
Quickly and silently, we rendered the guards unconscious, and we surveyed the perimeter in case there were any other guards remaining. Noticing that there weren't anymore, we stood at the entrance to the cave, expecting some more guards to come rushing out of the cave to fight us. When we realized that no one was coming, Shino asked me "Now that we're up close, can you see anything, Hinata?"
I used my Byakugan again to see if I could find anyone within the cave but to no avail. I shook my head in response to Shino.
"Damn," said Kiba. "I know that my nose isn't one-hundred percent, but Akamaru and I will stay out here in case anyone else decides to show up. You two can go in the cave to find Arata. If you need any help, just scream like a little girl and I'll hear you."
Shino ignored Kiba's advice since he knew that his words were particularly directed at him.
"Be careful, Kiba," I said.
He smiled. "You too. If Arata is in there, he had to have heard us. With that mysterious weapon he has, we don't know what kind of tricks he has up his sleeves."
Carefully, Shino entered the Three-Head's Prison with me following close behind him. It was dark with very few torches mounted on the walls to guide our way down into the heart of the cave. The journey to our destination wasn't a long one. All we had to do was round a few corners to reach the center of the Three-Head's Prison. When we got there, Shino and I saw what my Byakugan picked up in the mist.
At the center of the Three-Head's Prison was a large golden floating sphere with an eight-pointed star-like symbol at its core emitting energy into the air. The energy flowed all around the cave and it travelled towards the entrance, though it didn't quite exit. With my Byakugan, I thought that it was chakra. Now that I am looking at it up close, it is clear that whatever energy the sphere is producing is not chakra. I have never seen anything like it throughout my career as a shinobi, making me unsure how to approach this.
"What is this?" I asked myself more so than anyone else.
In an attempt to find out what the object was, Shino reached out to touch the floating sphere. When his fingertips met the sphere, it pulsated, just for a moment, and then it repelled Shino backwards with such an intense force that his body bounced off the ground and tumbled violently until the wall caught him. He then laid there – still.
Panic taking over me, I rushed by his side to try to locate any indication of life. Pressing my fingers to his neck, relief washed away my panic when I discovered his pulse. He might have a few broken bones, but at least he was alive.
"I did not think that anyone would be dumb enough to touch the energy vessel."
My body whipped around in the direction of the new voice heard from within the Three-Head's Prison and I automatically went into my fighting stance – the Gentle Fist. I thought about activating my Byakugan, but I knew that I would be able to see my opponent better if I did not use my visual jutsu.
"Show yourself," I demanded.
From the darkness stepped Lord Arata Sakuraba, and in his hand was a weapon that I had never seen before. I soon deducted that it must be the strange weapon that Chief Enzo mentioned. If the weapon is as powerful as Chief Enzo had said, then I must be cautious. I cannot afford to die here.
"Hinata Hyuga," said Lord Arata as he stepped in front of the energy vessel. "You're the heir to the Hyuga throne, are you not? Coming out here was a grave mistake. You will die before you even know what it tastes like to be the leader of your clan."
I ignored his villainous declaration. I told Lord Arata "You do not have to do this Lord Arata. I can take you back to the Leaf Village and we can tell Lord Hokage that this is all a big misunderstanding."
"Do you think that I am stupid? I am not going back to the Leaf. Not after everything you saw here, not after everything the chief told you. No, I will not go back, not until you and your teammates are dead. With all witnesses gone, I can clear my name. It would be as if none of this ever happened."
Lord Arata aimed the strange weapon at me. Now that I laid eyes on it, I had an idea as to how the weapon worked. It was large and heavy enough that Lord Arata had to hold it with both of his hands. On the handle of the weapon laid a trigger that the rouge feudal lord took care not to squeeze carelessly; his finger hovered slightly over the trigger and his eyes threatened me to squeeze it if I made any sudden movements. I was not precise on what would happen if he squeezed the trigger, but I somehow knew that whatever it was, it would project from the head of the weapon – the barrel.
There was no negotiating or convincing this man that he was making a mistake, so I inched away from Shino's body to ready myself for the power held in the weapon. Lord Arata's focus on me never faltered as I moved across the room, in fact he seemed to focus on me more. I underestimated that he was merely a lord against a trained shinobi when I decided to lunge for him to somehow remove the weapon from his hands. The moment I took a step forward, Lord Arata held down the trigger, causing the strange weapon to create a noise that I had never heard before as the barrel glowed blue. When the energy in the barrel was sufficient, Lord Arata released the trigger and out came this glowing blue light. Easily, I dodge the odd light, allowing it to collide with the wall behind me, but the effects of the light when it touched the wall shook me unlike anything I had ever faced.
At first, it did nothing, but a second later, the wall pushed inward with a force so strong that it nearly made a hole to the outside and stalagmites fell from the roof of the cave. If it could do that to a wall that trapped a giant three headed monster, what could it do to a human body?
I shook the shock off to tear my eyes from the wall to look at Lord Arata. The expression on my face made him smile in delight.
"Do you like it?" he asked, gesturing to the weapon. "It was a gift from a friend of mine. While imperfect, it still gets the job done."
He pointed it at me again and held down the trigger. As soon as I saw the barrel glow, I swiftly moved across the room to dodge the oncoming attack. It may be a powerful weapon, however, it's mass is larger than my opponent can handle; it takes him too long to try aim at me, and I learned that with each shot he fires, it takes longer for the weapon to recharge, so once I found an opening, I disarmed him much easier than I anticipated.
I told Lord Arata "It is over."
In response, he gave me a smile that sent shivers down my spine. He said "No, it is not over."
Confused by what he meant by that, I felt a presence watching me from above. I looked up in time to see a figure dive down from the roof of the cave with a dagger in his hand. Quickly tossing Lord Arata aside, I move away from my new opponent's attack. The figure's feet touched the ground and he wasted no time to recover as he continued to swipe his blade at me with the pure intent to kill. As he pursued me with his dagger, I realized who he was.
Kei Sairenji.
Anbu Black Ops are formidable opponents that are highly skilled in hand-to-hand combat and ninjutsu. I fought one before when I was a Chunin, but I wasn't alone and I was not the one who beat him – I was merely present for backup. Even though I am now a Jounin, it is uncertain whether I can defeat him or not, especially when I haven't a clue on what he is capable of.
After dodging enough of his swipes with his dagger, I found an opening and caught his hand. I disarmed Kei by twisting his arm to the point where he was forced to let go of his weapon if he wished to salvage his limb. Once he dropped his dagger, he used his other arm to throw a punch at me to which I avoided. He punched at me repeatedly until it fell into a pattern. When he noticed that I was getting used to his rhythmic punches, he suddenly roundhouse kicked me. Unlike his punches, I could not dodge this, and his kick sent me backwards.
Kei gave me no time to rest; he was back on me in seconds. Now that I had an inkling of what his fighting style was like, I took the initiative to get him off guard. As he offered me more punches, I blocked his attacks and was often able to damage him with a few palm thrusts. We fought hand-to-hand for quite some time until Kei took it upon himself to break from me the moment he knew that this was not going anywhere.
I watched tentatively as he moved away from me. At first, I had no idea as to what he was about to do, but then I saw him clasp his hands together and I sprinted towards him to stop him.
In order to perform ninjutsu, a ninja must weave hands signs together to unleash its power. This consumes chakra. The stronger the jutsu is that is about to be released, the more chakra is spent. When too much chakra is used, that person then becomes severely exhausted and must rest to replenish their strength. When a person uses all of their chakra, then that person is almost guaranteed to die. Each person wields a specific element and they can only unleash ninjutsu in that element. The most common forms of ninjutsu are fire style, water style, earth style, wind style, and lightning style. There are more styles, but those are rare and often affiliated with kekkei genkai traits. Some people can wield multiple elements, which I can only assume that Kei has. Given that he is a part of the Anbu Black Ops, he must have something special he has yet to show me.
Kei finished weaving his hand signs before I could reach him. I stopped rushing towards him when he activated his jutsu and I gritted my teeth. He performed Shadow Clone Jutsu.
Shadow Clone Jutsu is a technique that clones the host. The more clones produced, the more chakra is consumed. The clone can do anything that the original can do with a few limitations. Unlike the basic level jutsu, the Clone Jutsu, shadow clones are solid figures. The only way to cause them to disperse is if the user deactivates the jutsu, the user runs out of chakra, if the user is killed, or if the clone is faced with an impact so hard that it is forced to disappear. With two Anbu present, I do not think that I can defeat him.
Just as that thought crossed my mind, Kiba and Akamaru burst through the cave.
"Kiba," I said once my teammate ran to my side. "Where were you?"
"Sorry, more guards showed up outside of the cave," he said. When Kiba met my opponent, his eyes widened. "So, Kei Sairenji is a traitor too. I can't say that surprises me."
"Please focus, Kiba," I said.
"Right, right, sorry."
Kei and his clone rushed for me and Kiba, each gunning for either of us. His swift movements caught Kiba by surprise, but he quickly adapted to it as he dodged many of Kei's strikes. Already used to Kei's fighting techniques, I did the same.
During the fight, Kei's battle strategy raised suspicion within me. Even though he is an elite ninja, he made no effort to cause serious harm to either me or Kiba. Instead of trying to kill us, he seemed to be stalling. If that was the case, I could only guess why he would be stalling.
Realization struck me when I remembered Lord Arata. Quickly, I knocked Kei to the ground to scan the cave for the rouge feudal lord. My heart stopped when I found him.
Standing next to the energy vessel, he had the strange weapon in his hands and he was aiming it right at us.