The Path A Ninja Walks...

Chapter Forty-Nine

Stand Your Ground

A/N: WARNING-The character known as Sage Amesawa uses a lot of profanity and colorful language as part of his "colorful" personality. Be prepared if you are sensitive to that. Please note it is not because I condone such manner of speech, and also the character does not mean to use it as a way to be harmful, it is just his personality.

"Just take it slow and quiet..." said Kabuto, "Let's use all the time we've got left...

Slowly...

Quietly...

The seven creeped their way closer and closer to the Goal...

Passing more than a few sorry souls and corpses along the way.

"A trap, huh..." said Sasuke.

"Undobtedly..." said Saseme.

"Yeah..." said Kabuto, "And it only gets worse from here..."

Slowly the continued to creep closer...

The Moon rising high above them. Sprung by a trigger by Naruto lack of attentiveness Kunai rained down upon them-

Luckily they only hit the dummy Kabuto had made in Replacement.

"A Substitution..." said Naruto with a gulp.

"Like I told you..." said Kabuto, "It only gets worse from here..."

xxxx

"For crying out loud..." Sakura huffed heavily from exhaustion, "How far have we walked...?" she questioned, "That Tower's not getting any closer..."

"Now that you mention it..." said Naruto, "I was thinking that too...it's weird..."

Maybe not...

Sasuke thought to himself as he carefully scanned around him.

"...Is it really weird though?" Hana panted.

"Saseme..." said Sage, "Can you see anything?"

"Hmmm..." The Uchiha hummed and closed her eyes, Openeing them wide with the Sharingan in tact.

"It would seem we've been spotted..." said Kabuto, "Someone has been playing games with us..." he said pointing to the side, "Ring a bell?"

The image he pointed out...was none other than the very same Centipede that Naruto had pinned with his Kunai before...just when they found Saseme and her team.

"We've...bee walking in a giant circle!" Hana huffed.

"You're right..." said Saseme, "It's a Genjutsu..."

"That's what it looks like..." said Kabuto.

"What's their game!?" asked Sasuke.

"They're probably planning to ware us down and wait until we're physically exhausted and frustrated..."

"You mean like we are, right now?"

"Right." said Kabuto, "They're be coming soon..."

"Too late..." said Saseme as she scanned their surroundings with the Sharingan eye, "...They're already here...!"

And right she was...

Quite literally from out of the wood work...many enemies began to emerge from the trees and surround them.

"...Well Naruto~" Sasuke smirked, "You wanted a fight..."

"Hmph...7 against 70~" Naruto grinned, "I like those odds!"

"All right, Squad 15..." Saseme smirked, "Prepare yourselves for a fight!"

"RIGHT!" they grinned.

"We're surrounded by clones..." said Saseme shifting her eyes to Naruto.

"Yeah..."Kabuto agreed, "And A Whole lot of them."

"Heh heh heh...like cornered rats~" the cloned man snickered.

"Oh yeah? Cornered rats are we!?" Naruto huffed and charged in with a punch. But it did little good...the being seemingly liquidated apart like goop...birthing another from the mush.

"What's really going on here?" Sasuke questioned, "...Sharingan!"

Now both of the twins Uchiha had their eyes active and open.

"Naruto- Watch out!" he warned as he threw shuriken to slice the arm that aimed to cut into Naruto... making the being double back and throw a weapon at him.

"Sasuke-!" he called out

"Get down!" said Saseme leaping over her brother, while Kabuto slid in and foced them both to the ground taking the cut himself.

"The fact that Kabuto is wounded and bleeding means that these things are real Shadow Clones." said Naruto, "But Shadow Clones are supposed to Vanish when you give them a good smack...these ones don't..."

"So what the fuck are we dealing with then!?" asked Sage.

"You heard Saseme earlier, right?" said Hana, "She said there was some kind of Genjutsu at play..."

"That's right..." said Sasuke between heavy breaths, "If we go at them physically we will only be fighting illusions...this is definitely Genjutsu!"

"Illusions, how?" asked Sakura, "Kabuto's gash is real.

"That's true..." said Kabuto, "But the Uchiha twins are right- the real enemy is probably in hiding." he stated, "Watching us from the woods near by, launching attacks from a smoke screen of Illusions and coordinating their attacks with them so that we start thinking that these Genjutsu Shinobi are the ones attacking us-"

"But they're actually not." said Sage growling as he clenched his teeth.

"So then what are we gonna do, huh? Just stand here and take it!?" huffed Naruto, "Let's go find these bastards and take them out-"

"They'd like nothing more than for us to go searching blindly in the woods..." Kabuto stating, "So that they can exhaust us one by one and take us out..." he panted, "We'd be making their job easy for them..."

"Assholes that use attacks like this are usually weak in Taijutsu, right?" said Sage, "They're afraid of close hand to hand combat..."

"According to my data...yeah." said Kabuto.

"We don't have any choice..." said Saseme as she stood and took a defensive battle stance while her eyes slowly scanned around her, "All we can do from here is stand our ground and fend off their attacks..."

"But...just how long do you think we can hold out like this!?" asked Hana.

"...The night is long..." Saseme said softly, "...But I'm ready for it!"

To be Continued.