"If your plan was to escape from us, you needed to try harder. We found you way too easily," said the slim man with silver hair holding the whip. "I think you wanted us to find you."
"Enough of the small talk," said the larger man with a deep voice. "Where's Sasuke Uchiha?"
"If you tell us, we'll make your death quick and painless," said the smaller man.
I gritted my teeth.
"Aw, she doesn't feel like talking. What ever shall we do?" said the smaller man with feigned worry.
"We'll have to beat it out of her."
The larger man knocked his fists together, creating a fleeting ring of chakra around his body. He then entered a martial arts stance before rushing towards me with speed that rivaled Sasuke's. When he reached me, he swung his fist at my face, to which I ducked, but after his fist passed me, I felt a gust of wind above me that caused my long hair to billow wildly.
My eyes widened. What kind of technique could that be? What damage will it cause me?
I realized now that there was no chance of me escaping them with the shi herb. I had no choice but to fight them, so, acting quick, I cut the whip with chakra that I formed into a blade and backed away from the larger man once I freed myself to gain ground on them.
Knowing that these ronin are aggressive, it did not surprise me to discover that the larger man was trailing behind me, and as soon as I stopped moving, the man thrust his heavy-handed fist at me. Even though I guarded against his attack successfully, the aftereffect was enough to make my arms tremble from the brutal force. I ignored the odd feeling the best that I could as I sent open palmed blows towards his mid-section. He fell prey to my chakra consuming blows at first, but when he found an opening, he side stepped my oncoming thrusts, and attempted to punch me. I saw it coming in my peripheral, evaded the blow, and swept at his legs with mine.
The large man fell to the ground, leaving his guard down for a split second. Within that split second, I took the opportunity to stand above him, palm open, and I crashed what would have been a detrimental hit down on his body. Unfortunately, the attack never landed because I was forced to move away.
In the distance, the slimmer ronin released Water Style: Water Bullets in my direction, which is a jutsu that throws water at the speed of a projectile at its target. Too many were coming at me too fast so once I reached a safe distance I created a shield made from a small constant stream of chakra emitted from my palms as sharp as blades that surrounded the entirety of my being. I called this technique Eight Trigrams: Protective Sixty-Four Palms. When the water touched my shield, they lost their velocity and form, returning to a puddle of water.
Upon observation, it is obvious that one cannot touch me while my Protective Trigrams is surrounding me, so once the jutsu ended, the larger man rushed at me. I expected that and I dodged successfully. What I had not expected was his body to be consumed by chakra. After the chakra dissipated, he became faster, his punches coming at me faster than I could keep up with, and then one managed to hit me.
It was enough to take my breath away. It also stunned me, making it impossible to retaliate, and he took that as an opportunity to hit me again. I staggered backwards, but he did not let me receive a chance to recover because he was back on me in seconds, giving me multiple blows to my abdomen and the last one to my face.
I fell to the ground, coughing and clutching my burning torso. I knew that I could not afford to lie there for very long, so I forced myself to stand up despite the pain my body experienced. Though, before I could rise completely from the dirt, the large man punched my face again, returning me to my back. The world became hazy and the only way I could tell that this was reality was because my body felt nothing but pain and I tasted iron in my mouth.
I heard the ronin talking, but their words sounded muffled in my ringing ears and I could not decipher what they were saying. Whatever they were discussing, they made the mistake of thinking that I was unable to fight anymore. After I activated my Byakugan, I sprung up from the earth, and with the larger man within my range, I spread my arms wide open as I lowered to the ground to prepare to perform the devastating Hyuga clan technique Eight Trigrams: Sixty-Four Palms.
A technique that is passed down solely through the main house of the Hyuga clan, Eight Trigrams: Sixty-Four Palms is a dangerous taijutsu that, with the aid of the Byakugan, targets all three-hundred and sixty-one chakra nodes in the human body. The user envisions a circle with the user standing at its center and the target somewhere within said circle. When the target is in range, the user assumes the Gentle Fist stance to deliver a set of sixty-four consecutive attacks that hits all chakra nodes. Once all nodes are hit, their chakra flow stops, thus shutting down the body. With the larger man in my grasp, I unleashed the series of strikes to his nodes, each set of strikes exponentially increasing in speed and pace.
The first and second sets of strikes, I landed two hits for each, making the count four. The third set of strikes, I landed four blows. The fourth set of strikes, I gave him eight. The fifth set of strikes, I landed sixteen, and the sixth set, I gave him thirty-two. For the sixth consecutive myriad of strikes, I took a strong step forward to plant the last blow on his final node, shutting down his chakra network system.
Alive, but paralyzed, the man fell to the ground with gritted teeth and eyes full of hatred for me. I ignored his piercing glare as I moved on from him. Now facing the smaller man, I entered the Gentle Fist stance.
The smaller man weaved some hands signs together, slammed his hands down on the ground once he completed the signs, and out from the ground rose a large stone wall that prevented me from approaching him. With my Byakugan activated, I could see through the solid structure and I looked at my opponent. He pulled out a scroll from his ninja tool pouch, lying it on the dirt. Once I read the contents of the scroll, I felt my heart drop to my stomach.
What he had pulled out was a summoning scroll, which is a contract formed with an animal of a given species from a different dimension. To unleash this form of space-time ninjutsu, the user must offer their blood in advance with a creature of a certain species to place onto the scroll. Once the contract is formed, the user can summon any creature of their choosing from that specific environment so long as they have enough chakra to spare. I have seen the monstrous power that Naruto's toads, Sakura's slugs, and Sasuke's snakes leave in their wake, and I do not wish to see what creature this man will call forth, so I had to act fast before he offered the scroll his blood.
Using Eight Trigrams: Air Palm, a Hyuga technique that pinpoints vital spots on a target with the Byakugan by blasting out air through the hand from a high-speed palm thrust, I broke the stone wall keeping me from my enemy. Astonished that I easily shattered his earth styled technique, he bit his thumb to produce the blood required for the scroll. Before he could smear it on the page, I shot air out of my palm, which blew him off his feet and sent him flying backward.
He quickly jumped to his feet with a smirk on his face and I stood there wondering what he could be so confident about when I realized that he had the scroll in his hands. Dropping the scroll to the ground, the man weaved some hand signs together followed by smashing an open hand on the page upon completion. The area around him shrouded in smoke, but with my visual jutsu I could see what he called forth before the smoke cleared.
He had summoned a gigantic lizard at the size of one-thousand and one-hundred centimeters.
Unable to summon animals myself, I braced myself for any devastating attacks the creature might give me, changing my strategy from offensive to defensive combat. Though large, the lizard was fast, delivering blows by using its tongue with extreme speed and precision. I was forced to dodge its attacks without ever receiving the chance to find an opening to attack either one of my opponents, and because of this the lizard easily found a way to detect an opening. With its tail, the summoning swiped at me, knocking me against the wall that belonged to the outside of the cave I passed through to get here. My head collided with the hard surface of it, and I fought exceptionally hard keep myself from slipping into unconsciousness.
Nearly incapacitated on the ground, the lizard approached me, its mouth glowing red with the embers of fire. I thought that I would undoubtedly meet my end here until the summoning suddenly vanished and the man riding on top of it came crashing down to the earth. Staggering to my feet, I inspected his limp body with my visual jutsu only to discover that he had… died?
Confused, I looked over his corpse to find the cause of death and I was shocked to see that the poison from the shi herb had gotten on his skin. At some point during the fight he must have touched one of the herbs.
Deactivating my Byakugan, I let my body relax now that the battle had ended. With one dead and other paralyzed-
My blood ran cold upon noticing that the larger man I rendered paralyzed no longer laid on the ground. I reactivated my visual jutsu, and after a brief scan of the cliff, I found my enemy. Unfortunately, I located him a bit too late.
Body coated in a layer of chakra, the man hit my ribcage with a closed fist, making me hunch forward from the heavy impact of the blow. Half a second later, he hit me in the face and then roundhouse kicked me so hard that I tumbled two meters along the ground. Once I stopped, I coughed a few times, spitting up some blood on the grass.
The man grabbed me by the hair, pulling me up from the ground from which I laid and drew his chakra covered fist back. I struggled in his hold in an attempt to escape, yet to no avail. I could not die here, not when I am so close to saving Sasuke, so I coated my hands in chakra, shaping its wild form into lion heads. As he thrust his fist at me, I met his closed hand with my palm, and I refused to let go of him. He dropped me once he noticed that I was depleting his chakra, though I never released him even when he began to kick me repeatedly whilst I lie on the ground.
Blood spilled from my mouth once I received a kick so heavy that I had no choice other than to release him, and I gasped for air. Filled with anger and hate, the man hovered over me, fists at the ready to end my life when a sound in the distance stopped him from killing me. The same noise he heard that made him halt on taking my life, made my stomach turn. I knew that sound.
Indescribable, yet unforgettable, the noise in the distance started up again, only this time when it lingered, I knew what was bound to happen next. Quickly, I crawled out of the weapon's line of fire, just barely escaping the mighty impact of it. The force pushed out from the weapon met the large man, sending his body flying into a group of trees with such a rapid and heavy impact that his body split in half against one of the trees. The tree that he hit broke as well and both man and tree collided with the others, creating a chain reaction of destruction.
I expected to hear the weapon charge up again to kill me as well, but it never did. Instead, I felt eyes watching me in the distance, so I used my Byakugan to try to locate whoever was watching me. Alas, I could not find anything. That is when I figured out that my unknown pursuer from yesterday is the same figure today that saved my life. If that is the case, then…
I suddenly felt sick to my stomach.
Lord Toneri provided Lord Arata with a weapon powered by an energy vessel. For what reason? I do not know other than he is testing it for something. I would have received the information to figure that out, but a figure that I could not detect with my visual jutsu among the trees killed Lord Arata before he could announce who provided him with such a destructive tool. The figure in the distance is not human, which tells me that it must be one of Lord Toneri's puppets, and I could only assume that he ordered it to protect me. While I did not know what this means for me or family, it made me uneasy to know that he knew where I am.
Removing the blood from my mouth with the back of my hand, I then stood up from the ground to pick the shi herb in the genjutsu trance. As I staggered towards the cave, I felt the eyes watching me suddenly disappear, and anger filled me as I told myself that the next time I see a puppet, I will destroy it.
XxX
It took longer than I anticipated to return to Sasuke's side since I had been injured, but I finally made it back to him with everything I needed to cure him. His skin still harbored a sickly pale color and he still had a fever, however, he was still alive and that is all that I could have asked for. If he had died while I was gone, I would never be able to forgive myself.
Borrowing the only bowl Sasuke owned from his bag, I placed each herb in it, crushing them until they turned into a chakra colored blended mush. After adding some water to it, I mixed everything together, forming a liquidous serum that smelled strongly of sage. I taste tested it to make sure I did it correctly, and once I felt satisfied with the robust taste, I gently laid Sasuke's upper body against my lap as I propped his head up with my free hand. With his mouth opened partially, I pressed the bowl against his lips, tipping some of the serum in his mouth.
I noticed immediately that he was not drinking it – it slipped out of the curves of his lips – so I opened his mouth wider and tried again. He still would not take it.
"Please, Sasuke," I said despite knowing that he could not hear me.
I did not want to risk losing any more of the serum, which forced me to rethink my plan. I had once witnessed a medical-nin at the Leaf Village hospital convince her patient, who had a throat so swollen that he was unable to swallow, to drink his medicine by transferring it from her own mouth to his. In the end, it worked, and I wondered if I could do the same for Sasuke, though my heart raced exponentially at the thought of my lips on his.
Using the leftover water from my canteen, I rinsed out the blood from within my mouth and then held a small amount of the serum in the spaces between my cheeks. After tilting Sasuke's head back, I placed my lips on his, transferring the medicinal liquid I carried. Upon deliverance, I felt him swallow and my heavy heart lifted. Eagerly, I held more medicine than before, giving him as much as he could take. He drank all the contents within the bowl, and I saw his outer appearance improve almost instantly, but he did not wake up. I gave him some time to awaken, though he never did, so I activated my Byakugan to see what was happening inside of his body.
While his chakra network system returned to normal, the amount of chakra that he lost during the poisoning left a detrimental hit to his flow, which is why he is still unconscious. Sleep can regenerate his supply of missing chakra, but with how little he has, it is possible for him to enter a comatose state, and I could not allow that to happen. Lying Sasuke on the ground in front of me, I conjured chakra to my entire body as I placed my hands on him. Unlike many shinobis, Sasuke can hold a godly amount of chakra, so when I share my chakra with him, I know that I am putting myself at risk for incapacitation.
I did not let the risks hold me back from helping him because I knew that I would not be able to live with myself if Sasuke died; I did not even want to think about that – it made my heart ache. So, after concentrating momentarily, I felt chakra leave my body to enter his. His body glowed blue like the color of it, and along with the energy came a breath of life that escaped from his lips. He did not wake up yet, not that I expected him to, but I did not stop there. I continued to share with him until I felt my body shake and my eyelids grow heavy. When I could not afford to share anymore, I canceled the transfer, and gave into my body's demand for rest.
Using my arm as a pillow, I took my place beside Sasuke, doing my best to get comfortable on the rough surface of the ground. As I stared at him, content took over me now that I had the knowledge of his recovery as I let the sound of the rushing waterfall shrouding us in the aperture to lull me to sleep.