Caught in the Middle
Chapter 8
Strike Three
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto and all that junk
Okay, before this chapter gets started, I have something I'd like to address. I've gotten a number of reviews concerning the use of weapons in this story so far, namely the firearms. Now, I'd like to start of by saying I appreciate the fact that you guys like this story enough to point this stuff out, but seriously, it's not that big a deal. I'm not a gun expert and I never claimed to be!
Instead of focusing on the weapons and the guns, how about commenting on the actual story. It's a little more important than the gun a character is using for whatever scene they're in. I try to make the armaments fit the situation, but I'm not perfect okay, I've got enough going on as it is, I can't spend an entire day getting every minute detail of firearm application correct.
So from now on, unless I really truly fuck up, quit pointing out which gun I should have should have used, or which rifle would have been better. Just enjoy the story; the review button isn't there so you can teach me "Guns 101", it's there so you can tell me what you think of the story.
Now that that's out of the way, go on and read.
The light was right in his eyes; right after he woke up, the first thing he saw was the light on his ceiling shining in his eyes. He groaned at the discomfort, all he honestly wanted to do was go back to sleep, but he couldn't thanks to that damn light. He turned his head at looked over at the clock on the wall; it was about eight o'clock in the morning. He sighed; he really didn't want to get up.
He tried to push himself off his bed, but found that he couldn't, like there was some weight on top of him. He relaxed his body and looked down, and instantly wished he hadn't.
Karen had her head lying peacefully on his chest, her left hand extremely close to his neck, and her right arm was wrapped around his left arm, immobilizing it. She had a small smile on her face, her tail was swishing from side to side like it usually did when she slept, signaling she was probably dreaming, and her kitsune ears gave the occasional fluttering twitch.
He smiled to; he had to admit, when she slept like this, she was really cute. She almost seemed like a little kid cuddled up under a warm blanket. His grin grew; he took a few stray strands of hair hanging in her face and tucked them behind her ear, then moved his hand up a little further to one of her fox ears.
He almost laughed as he saw her reaction to him softly scratching it. Her smile grew, she blushed a little, and her tail began swishing with a bit more vigor than before.
"That tickles a little you know," she mumbled, startling the blond to such an extent that he nearly rolled off the bed. As Karen sat up and scratched her head, Naruto rolled completely off the bed and started stuttering an apology.
"I'm sorry, I don't know what I was thinking!" he shouted.
She simply yawned and stretched before replying.
"Don't worry about it, I was too lazy to get up, and to be honest, that felt good."
"…You're a bit of a pervert aren't ya," he said blandly.
She smiled playfully. "Just a little."
He sighed and stood up -brushing off his clothes- then looked seriously at Karen.
"So…" he started, "do you feel any better today?"
Her smile faded, but she did give a faint nod. She stood up and walked up to him, her head slightly lowered. She slowly wrapped her arms around him and pulled him into a hug, something Naruto had seen coming, but did nothing to stop. They stood there like that for a minute or two.
"Naruto?" asked Karen suddenly.
"Hm."
"I just wanted to tell you that…getting stuck to you has been the best thing to happen to me in a long time. I'm glad I met you."
Naruto was speechless; he hadn't known Karen too long in the scheme of things, but he'd spent almost every hour of every day with her since they'd been bonded, and in that time, this had to be the nicest thing that she'd ever said to him.
"Tha…thank you, I'm really glad I met you to."
With that, they parted from each other, both of them more than a little red in the face. Karen turned around and headed to Naruto's door. As she closed it behind her though, she looked back, and Naruto saw a much larger smile on her face than the day before.
He smiled to himself after she left; it looks like he had made a difference after all.
Way too easy, that was what Sasuke was thinking right now. The hub of the American military command, the Pentagon, had just been infiltrated by a sixteen year old. It was simple; he just assassinated one of the officers on their way to the building, used a basic transformation spell and copied his appearance. With the officer's face and the proper ID badge, it was child's play getting inside.
He was now out of said transformation and in the very basement of the Pentagon. He was using his magic to help him stick to the ceiling, and was easily slipping past all the security measures. They obviously wouldn't have any arcane defenses set up until he made it to the actual entrance to the FBPS. He'd broken in before, so he was sure he could do it again.
Speaking of which, he just hit the jackpot. There it was; the twin titanium, blast absorbing gel reinforced doors that revealed the elevator that would lead him downward into the underbelly of the nation's supernatural law enforcement network. Just his luck to, they were in the middle of guard rotations, which meant he had a three minute window to disarm all the seals and alarms.
'Heh, two more minutes than I need,' he thought to himself.
He took one last look down the hall; no one was coming. With that he dropped down and activated his Sharingan system. Another nifty ability these nanite implants had was the ability to see hidden seals, hexed doorways, and all other magical defense systems. He looked up to see the titanium door covered in black painted on seals that would act as alarms to all the magically adept personnel in the base, and of course there was also a pass-code you needed for the computer alarms.
He started with the seals first. Orochimaru was good with seals, and had taught Sasuke a good deal about them. Compared to the ones he usually made him disarm or arm, these ones were like childs play to overload and deactivate.
He filled his index and middle fingers on each hand with charge, and went to work by trusting his extended fingers into the center of each of the seals one by one. As he did, he overloaded them and they faded from existence. This probably wouldn't be noticed by anyone except for the most magically in-synched of agents.
With them gone, he moved over to the keyboard with the numerical code input on it. He took out a Numerical-Synchronizer from one of his side packs. He plugged it into one of the USB ports and uploaded the program, overriding the pass-code in seconds. With that, the silver doors slid open, revealing a second room with a small elevator on the other end.
He walked up to the elevator and overloaded a few secondary alarm seals on the door before entering. He pressed the lowest button on dash board; if Uzumaki and the kitsune girl really were here, then he highly doubted the director would keep such honored guests anywhere but on the lower, more secure levels.
Sasuke knew from experience that even the weakest agent could tell if someone were under a transformation spell to disguise themselves, so to counter this, he would be doing this the old fashioned way. He would be using a physical disguise. The elevator ride was a good two and a half minutes, plenty of time to change.
He pulled out a scroll from behind his back and unsealed it, spitting out a white shirt, suit and tie, dress pants, a bandanna to cover his uniquely styled hair, and sunglasses to hide his Sharingan. It was well known that agents of the FBPS were allowed to customize their uniforms in ways such as head-wear or glasses, so it wouldn't look the least bit suspicious. Again, only the strongest agents in the base would be able to sense anything unusual from him.
He finished just in time, as the door opened just as he slipped on his sunglasses. He whistled a tune as he walked into the base, passing two ANBU Black Ops. soldiers standing guard; his disguise would easily fool them. He learned a while ago that the ANBU weren't all they were cracked up to be.
He walked down the hallway, looking for any trace of the blond boy or the red headed kitsune. He went through hallway after hallway but still nothing. He did notice one thing though; he was being followed. He wasn't sure how, but it seemed someone had become suspicious of him and decided to tail him.
To test this theory out, he entered an empty supply closet with nothing of particular interest in it. Not a moment later did he feel someone's presence in the room with him; they were getting closer and closer and closer, like they were sneaking up on him. He let them get to the point where they probably thought they were going to get him, then out of nowhere he slipped a knife out from his sleeve and whirled around, slicing through his pursuers throat.
The body of an ANBU soldier toppled over and hit the floor with a thud. He put on a victorious smirk as she leaned over the body. He was about to go on his way when suddenly the body popped and became nothing but smoke, and in its place was a crate of old bread.
'Substitution spell; but that means the real…oh shit.'
"Focus Naruto, you're muscles have nothing to do with this exercise, this has more to do with the mind," instructed Kakashi.
Karen watched with endless amusement as Kakashi attempted to teach the blond the art of magic. It was hilarious to watch him try in vain to perform a simple doppelganger spell. She had to hand it to him, he did pull it off on his first try, but it came out a bit sickly and pathetic. She laughed so hard when she saw it that she fell out of her seat.
"Aww, come on Kakashi, can't we just spar or something, I'm better at the physical stuff anyway."
He shook his head. "No Naruto, you need to know how to do this. Every FBPS agent must have a basic understanding of simple stealth and offensive spells. Martial arts and swordsmanship won't get you everywhere."
He groaned, but his whining was interrupted as an alarm suddenly came blaring into the room. Karen covered her more sensitive fox ears as she recoiled in pain, and Naruto just scowled as he did the same to his ears.
"Attention, attention, there is an intruder in the facility, repeat, there is an intruder in the facility!"
"Naruto!" shouted Kakashi over the alarms, "I'm going to see what's going on, don't leave this gym for any reason, got it?"
"Sure, sure, go do your government agent thing!"
He eyed the younger boy suspiciously for a second before he ran off out of the room and down the hallway. Naruto lay on his back and sighed, all this excitement and there was still nothing to do. Thought he did wonder; who was it that had gotten into the FBPS base, and more importantly, how and why?
Sasuke whirled around another corner as the bullets from three P22's collided with the wall behind him. He ran down the hallway full speed and gripped his signature Glock 18c tightly. He rounded yet another corner and was met with another agent, which he quickly shot with a quick burst from his handgun, dropping him before he could even raise his firearm.
With him out of the way, he kept on running and running until he reached the middle of the hallway. At this point the three agents he'd been pursued by had caught up with him and four more came around on the opposite end; he was boxed in. He thought he was screwed until he noticed a set of double doors just a little further down the hall. He made a mad dash for the door, diving and rolling to avoid the hail of bullets being propelled at him.
With one slick movement, he rolled back onto his feet, pulled on the handle, rolled inside, and kicked the door closed. He grabbed a nearby object –it looked like a rubber polymer training sword- and used it to jam the door. They agents on the other side tried to open the doors, but they were strong and the training sword was sturdy and able to hold back their combined force.
He sighed in relief as he ripped off the annoying disguise, revealing his more casual looking demon hunter clothing beneath, which as of the moment consisted of a black T-shirt, a pair of blue jeans, and a brown leather gun-belt with his Glock in its holster and the rest of it filled with spare clips of ammunition and assorted grenades.
He was thankful to have some time to think and plan a new strategy, at least until he felt someone tap his shoulder. He was so lost in his thoughts and so surprised that there was someone in the room with him that he didn't even stop to think they were a threat. That turned out to be a mistake, as he saw a blur of blond hair before he felt a fist slam into his cheek.
He backed up a bit and shook off the blow, then looked up at his attacker. He was shocked to find that it was exactly who he was looking for. The blond haired Naruto Uzumaki and the kitsune girl which he was assigned to kill stood right in front of him. Naruto had an angry but surprised face when they locked eyes.
"Hey, you're that Sasuke guy!" he shouted.
Sasuke spit out the little blood that had dripped into his mouth after that punch, then replied, "Naruto Uzumaki, I'm flattered that you remember me."
"Ah, shut up!"
With that, Naruto came at him with his fist raised again, throwing a punch at his face again. This time Sasuke saw it coming a mile away and easily caught the fist. He then raised his right leg, impacting Naruto's stomach with his foot, propelling him halfway across the room.
He shifted a little to his left as he heard someone else coming at him. He ducked under a roundhouse kick from Karen, and backed away as she came at him again. She had a much more defined form and was much faster than Naruto, but still nothing he couldn't handle.
She sent extremely fast punches his way, which he was able to deflect away without much trouble. He didn't want to just block them; the blunt impact would put way too much strain on his limbs. She might not be as skilled as he was, but that kitsune was definitely strong.
This was just proven as Sasuke ducked and rolled out of the way of a right hook, which impacted the wall and shattered away a thin layer of the concrete. As she turned to attack him, Sasuke gave her a left hook to the face, then slammed his right fist into her stomach. He finished the combo by grabbing her face and slamming the back of her head in the wall, chipping away even more of the concrete.
She slumped over against the wall, either dazed or unconscious he wasn't sure, nor did he care. He pulled out his Glock, sliding in a new clip to replace the near depleted old one. As he lowered the handgun to Karen's head, he heard Naruto roar as he charged him from behind.
"Touch her and you die!" he shouted.
Sasuke whirled around, gun in hand, and prepared to shoot him, when he felt something impact the back of his leg, just below the knee joints.
He grunted as his leg buckled under him. As he fell his finger slip and a burst of three bullets flew out into the air. Naruto's head just happened to be in the path of one of those bullets, and the round pierced through part of his forehead. The blond stumbled over and fell onto his stomach with a thud.
Sasuke was back on his feet in seconds and didn't even spare Naruto a second glace, that was a killing shot no matter how you put it. He turned his attention back to Karen, who was still on the ground, but was glaring up at him furiously. He smirked as he pressed the gun to her head, but became confused when she suddenly started smirking back.
Then he felt a familiar tap on his shoulder.
He turned around quickly, only to have a repeat of before as Naruto's fist slammed into his cheek. This time was different though, the punch blew him straight through the concrete wall and into the opposite wall in the hallway. The FBPS agents who were trying to break into the gym stared at him in shock.
Sasuke was on the ground in a fit of coughs, trying to figure out how Naruto had survived a bullet to the head and on top of that, how he had just punched him through a wall.
'He was dead! There was no way could he have survived that but he did; how did he do it!?'
He looked up at the gaping hole in the wall, and saw the blond hop out. The first thing he noticed was the fact that he looked like he was on fire with a reddish-orange glow. He also noticed that his hair was wilder, his eyes had changed from blue to a dark blood red, and his canines had enlarged.
He stopped in front of the raven haired demon hunter. Sasuke watched as Naruto held something out in his hand and looked closer; it was a scrunched up bullet. He then watched as Naruto balled his fist and crushed the metal round into dust.
Without moments more hesitation, Naruto picked up Sasuke by his shirt with both hands, and with all his might, threw him down the hallway. He skidded and bounced down the hall like a pinball, ricocheting against the walls, ceiling, and floor as if he was a rubber ball. He stopped at the other end of the hallway by slamming into the wall parting into two other hallways.
As Sasuke attempted to regain his balance, Naruto caught up to him in an instant and punched his chin in an uppercut, slamming his head into the ceiling. The next thing he knew, there was a hand around his face that burned like fresh embers on his skin, and it whipped him around and slammed him against the wall opposite the one he crashed into.
He landed on his stomach as he hit the floor. He quickly rolled to the side, dodging a punch that would have easily crushed his skull as easily as it had crushed the concrete it impacted. The raven haired demon hunter stumbled up and activated his Sharingan; he'd need the reaction time and strength boost that it have him. Whatever this new power of Naruto's was, it was not something to screw around with.
As the feral and "flaming" blond came at him again, Sasuke found it much easier to follow his movements. Unlike just a few minutes ago, Naruto was now an actual challenge; his movements were faster and his attacks were leagues stronger. Even with his Sharingan he was straining himself to block or dodge all of his unpredictable attacks.
They traveled down the hallway, Naruto attacking Sasuke madly as the other moved backward as he flipped and stretched to dodge and deflect his rapid attacks. They came up on a dead end hallway, and Sasuke thought up a plan. He lead Naruto deeper and deeper inward, and about halway down he threw a smoke grenade to the end, and rushed into the growing plume of smoke. Naruto followed with blind rage, jumping into the smoke with one goal, and that was to kill Sasuke.
He used his enhanced sight and hearing to track him, and stalked him with predatorial determination. He focused on the sound of footsteps and ragged breaths, and soon saw the pale outline of his target. He leaped forward and thrust his hands forward, making contact and pinning him to a wall. He became confused however, when Sasuke suddenly grasped onto his arms as well, and not in an attempt for freedom, it was as if he was trying to got him to stay in one spot.
Suddenly, Sasuke exploded and dozens of tiny metal shrapnel shards sliced into his body, knocking him on his back as his body fought to evict the metallic invaders.
"Like it?" came Sasuke's voice, "I transformed a fragmentation grenade to look like me after I pulled the pin. It was literally a walking time-bomb. Pretty clever eh?"
The blond snarled. He couldn't wait to rip that smug bastard limb from limb. He got up onto his feet as most of the metal fragments were out of his body and the wounds closed.
"Well, I've got to go finish off your demon friend, so I'll be seeing you later...maybe."
Naruto jumped out of the smoke -now with a fully formed demonic cloak and a single tail- with both his claws extended as he saw Sasuke running down the hallway. He extended his demonic cloak, reaching out his claws, which were now the length of half the hallway, and wrapped his "fingers" around Sasuke's body. He pulled him in at high speeds with his left claw, ready to nail him in the face with his now free right one.
Sasuke only smirked as he was dragged in closer.
"Heh, strike two."
With Naruto's enhanced hearing, he was able to hear the comment and by the time he knew what he'd meant, it was too late. Another transformed frag grenade exploded, Naruto taking another explosion and rain of shrapnel full force. He was blown onto his back but the more dense demonic cloak absorbed most of the damage, leaving him unharmed.
He hopped back up onto his feet and growled, letting his aura flair in intensity. He dropped down on all fours and dashed down the hallway back to the gym, determined to finally kill that damn Uchiha.
Karen meanwhile, was rushing down the hallway for two reasons. One would be that she was obviously worried and curious about the battle, and two was because she and Naruto were still bonded and she coudln't be very far from him without inflicting great pain on the both of them. The side affects could even be deadly if they strayed too far, but the pain in her head was fading, letting her know that she was getting closer.
She heard footsteps around the corner and thought she had finally caught up to Naruto, but her hopes were dashed when the raven haired nightmare rounded the corner. Before she could react, he was already coming at her and landed a punch on her cheek. She slid back but remained standing; she charged him back, throwing a punch, only to have it deflected and felt a strong punch to her gut.
This time she fell on her back. Sasuke pulled out a combat knife, (he lost his Glock while fighting Naruto), and pounced at Karen. At the last moment, she shot her right foot up and slammed it into his face, knocking him to the side as he landed on his back.
The kitsune scrambled up to run after Naruto; the closer they were the easier this would be. Her progress was impeeded though, as Sasuke came from behind and tackled her to the floor. She struggled and crawled but he wouldn't budge, and the worst part was he had recovered his knife.
He raised it up and prepared to stab downward when he saw an orange and red blur out of the corner of his vision. Then suddenly he was the one on his back with four deep slashes on his left cheek, resembling an attack from an animals claw.
Standing over him in a feral stance was a very very pissed off Naruto. Sasuke rolled backwards, then pushed off with his feet and lunged at the blond with his knife. Naruto caught the blade bare handed and squeezed down, shattering the knife into tiny fragments. He then brought his right hand back and punched Sasuke square in the jaw, sending him ricocheting down the hallway again.
Naruto charged him again on all fours as the raven slowly stumbled upward again. He saw him forming the same hand-signs that Karen used when she used magic. He made six in rapid succession, then brought his right hand to his mouth.
"Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!"
The hallway was engulfed in a raging torrent of flames in an instant; there was no space left un-ignited by the flames. Naruto didn't care though, he charged right into the flames with complete abandon. His demonic cloak protected him from the actual flames, but it could do nothing about the heat, and Naruto felt like he was being cooked in an oven. Still he rushed onward, it was only a matter of time before he reached the other side.
When he finally did reach the other side and leap out of the raging flames, he would never forget Sasuke Uchiha's face...priceless. It had an expression that just told him what he was thinking at that moment.
'How did you survive, why won't you die?'
It was an even greater feeling when his leg slammed into the side of Sasuke's head, smacking the other side of his head into the concrete wall. Then on the return trip down, Naruto was able to land a punch on the front of his face, hearing a pleasant crack as he broke the Uchiha's nose. The back of his head hit the floor hard, and after he landed, he remained still.
Naruto could feel his power fading away as his aggression and anger did, and soon he was back to his normal self. He immediately fell to his knees and was gasping for breath, being in that form took its toll on him physically. Sweat glazed his forehead and dripped down his face, and his body ached from having two grenades go off right in front of him, but he could have been worse.
He sighed in relief. That was, until he heard some jolly laughter coming from the downed demon hunter in front of him. He watched in frustration and fear as the raven haired warrior rose, albeit a bit clumsily, and had a smile on his face.
"That was impressive Naruto Uzumaki, I've never had an opponent like you before..."
He gripped his shirt collar and yanked it to the side, revealing a black, three pronged seal on his neck.
"...That's why I won't be holding back anything at all. What do you say Naruto, my curse seal against that strange power of yours. I want to see just how powerful you are."
"I don't think so Sasuke," said a new and calmer voice.
They both looked up (or in Sasuke's case, back and up), to see Kakashi holding his gun to Sasuke's head. He was accompanied by five ANBU soldiers, and at the same time, Tsunade rounded the other corner with another ten.
"You did a good job keeping him in one place Naruto, but this fight is over," said Kakashi, "As for you Sasuke Uchiha, you'll be spending some quality time with our Interrogation Unit."
At that, two of the ANBU took him by the arms and dragged him down the hallway. As they did this, Sasuke only smirked and chuckled a little. Naruto saw the gleam in his eyes and just somehow knew right away what was going to happen next.
"Hey Naruto..." said Sasuke, "...strike three"
Immediately after those words were uttered, "Sasuke" exploded in a bright fireball, incinerating the two ANBU who were escorting him. Everyone looked in shock as the two men and the clone who had been standing there one moment were now gone. Kakashi walked over to the scorched crater and examined the explosion sight.
"Looks like he used several paper bombs for this one. He used an exploding clone to confuse as and he made his escape; he's probably already long gone," he looked back over at Tsunade, "You were right to promote him to S Class ma'am, he's much more clever than I thought."
Meanwhile, Naruto had staggered his way to Karen and knelt down again, trying not to expend too much more energy.
"You okay?" he groaned.
She nodded slightly. "You look exhausted, will you be alright?"
He nodded as well. "Yeah, I'm just a little tired, all I need is some sle..."
He never finished the sentence, as he fell asleep mid-word, slumping over onto the floor and snoring loudly. Karen smiled and gently lifted him up, standing the both of them up and throwing his arm over her shoulder so she could drag him along more easily.
"Directer Senju," said Karen, "I think Naruto and I should probably go to the infirmary."
The blond woman nodded. "Kakashi, you and the rest of your ANBU take Karen and Naruto to the infirmary, tell Shizune to give them both a full rundown. After that, the both of you are to come to my office, we have things to discuss."
"Understood," he looked over at Karen, who was lugging Naruto, "let's get moving."
"Right."
With that, Karen carried Naruto down the hallway surrounded by Kakashi and the remaining masked ANBU. Naruto grumbled a little in his sleep, but was otherwise fine. She smiled at that fact, but couldn't help but worry about the next time they ran into Sasuke Uchiha. If he could get into the FBPS...was anywhere safe?
And boom, just like that, it's over. I hope this appeased the appetites of all of you who were asking for some fight scenes. Trust me, if like this one, you'll love the next battle these two have. They probably won't interact again for a few chapters, but trust me, there is a rivalry growing here.
As for Naruto and Karen...well I think it's moving at a good enough pace so far, but that's a part of the story I won't be revealing any secrets about, you'll just have to keep reading to find out what happens between the two of them.
Review please.
(I swear to God though, if any of you even mention firearms, I'm coming to your house and bashing your skulls in with a lead pipe. Just ask my friend Jason...oh wait, you can't. Dead men tell no tales after all. MWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!)
