Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, the characters and pretty much everything else is aaaaall Masashi Kishimoto! Cant believe I forgot these disclaimers...
A/N: Story Key:
Lines: Separate different times or locations.
Italics: Flashbacks. (Usually within lines)
I keep running edits on chapters to suit critisicsm, shouldn't be many changes, I'll post in A/N when serious changes occur!
ROOT will no longer be referred to a 'shadows' as it makes things unclear. Previous chapters have been reedited to suit this. -Thanks for the criticism, YamiChaos27!-
Chapter four finally grew a tail and got longer! ^^ Enjoy!
As of Tuesday 19th November, the chapters have been completed. I kept missing out little details and kept going back to tweak them. Chaps 1-4 are now completely finished.
Chapter 4
Moon-stung silver and rose burst from the underground shrine's hidden entrance. Resting Hinata upon an ancient mattress among splintered planks, Kakashi looked up to the sky, latched on to Sakura's shoulder and launched a tagged kunai into the star spattered sky above. Gone to the sound of thunder, the pair eclipsed the moon, at high altitude. A cyclone of inky shinobi tore at a lone strand of silver below.
Tenten's eyes darted back and forth. Kunai and senbon licked past her as she darted between spiralling shinobi. She caught a fist, dragged a body towards her and slammed a Kama into his skull. Her wrist tensed. The blade was lodged. Twisting underneath him, senbon speared the body. She flew outwards, kicking at another mask, landing on the smashed pieces, crushing his head. Palming away a solid kick and spinning, her hands flashed.
'Ninja art: Needle jizō!'
Pirouetting, her hair spun loose. Masses of needle-like strands jerked outwards, ROOT-nin screamed, agonised and rolled along the ground around her.
Tenten slowed, her ankle flared with angry pain. Raising her arms, she blocked a kick, once, twice, before narrowly dodging a katana from behind. Dropping, she caught the wrist above her shoulder, snatched the hilt and pulled. Whirling around, she kicked the swordswoman, spun the blade and slashed her throat. Hazy droplets smattered her face, before she drove the hilt into the kicker's mask behind her.
Kakashi snatched Sakura's hand, flipped, released his grasp and forced her downwards. Focussing chakra, his free hand chirped, forming a disc of spiralling, azure lightning.
Sakura bombed downwards. Fist filled with chakra, she smashed the earth. Ravines gaped outwards, vesuviating with energy. Shockwaves swallowed shinobi, engorging hungrily on the bodies.
Tenten's ankle twisted in a crack. Her eyes snapped open, falling backwards. From a ravine, a shinobi shot forwards, an outstretched arm smashed a kunai towards her chest.
Kakashi shot towards Tenten. Free falling, he punched outwards with the disk of lightning. A black haze spurted out of the limb. Crashing on top of the disarmed shinobi, he dropped into a feral crouch. The man writhed beneath him. Kakashi's one eye twisted in to a demonic glare. Azure light danced over his mask and flak jacket. He snarled at the hissing ninja circling them.
He flew. Flipping through torsos, darting through a black, blood mist, he wrenched the volatile vortex through a rain of limbs and screams. Piles of ROOT-nin lay dissected by the lightning disk, an untold amount lay digested within ravines.
Kakashi twisted, 'Sakura! Recov-' she was gone.
Sakura sat on the mattress, sliding Hinata's loose arms over her shoulders. Standing, her back hissed in agony as Hinata's searing stomach stung the skin beneath her flak jacket. A twisting panic lurched within her own stomach and beating chest, she hoped that Hinata and the baby would be okay..
Tenten let her head fall backwards, a gentle vapour exhumed from her mouth and rolled down her neck as her shoulders dropped in relief. Drawing a senbon, she took her dark, silky hair and began twisting half of it into a bun.
'Thanks for the save, Kakashi-sensei!' She smiled, her eyes closed as her features stretched into a childish grin. Directing attention towards her lean chest, she pointed out a nick in her clothing dangerously close to a vital organ.
'I'm glad that you got the Fourth's Hiraishin no jutsu down, I'd have been heart broken if that'd connected!'
Years of ANBU training, losing a teammate, killing the other, losing his sensei, his own student turning on him and finally killing a twisted version of his old close friend still hadn't hardened the man enough to prevent him from shuddering at the pun.
Tenten turned away from him and limped forwards. The pile of bodies lay contorted and twisted over one another, running in a broken circle around the pair. Silver moonlight highlighted the soaked cloaks that they had donned as they swam in pearlescent pools of each other's black blood. The warm, sickly stench steamed above the pools, fighting the crisp night air with an odious vapor.
Finding a glittering handle, Tenten weakly placed her injured foot on a shinobi's skull, grabbed the handle and with a slight grunt, the blade squelched as is was dug out of the man's head. A dark soup spat out of the mask, eagerly bubbling downwards to feed the hungry grass below.
As the pair stood within the grisly circle of bodies, Kakashi couldn't help but wonder how Danzō's elite ROOT units had fallen so easily to three ninja of varying experience. True, he was ANBU and still a solid Jōnin at worst. Tenten could make a tokubetsu jōnin in kenjutsu and Sakura had been personally trained by a sannin at Kage level. All of them had seen heavy action and it showed. Yet the so called elite ROOT-nin should all at least be better than ANBU level. Something was amiss and Kakashi knew it. Tenten kicked at a limb as she dodged the pools of blood.
Sakura glided towards the pair, dropping carefully to her knees, ensuring Hinata lay still on her back, to attend to Tenten's ankle.
'Hmm.. Deep lacerations around the Achillie's tendon. The level of blood loss and lack of clotting suggests an anticoagulant has been applied. They'd have been able track you within minutes of leaving a trail like you would've, Tenten-san. ' A slight glare of distrust cut through Tenten from the medic's emerald stare. Sakura shook her head straight, Tenten would have had left a trail, but she wouldn't be out to betray them.
Her miraculous escape from near the Hokage's tower when Shikamaru and Ino had both been captured still managed to cast a fog of doubt upon the medic's mind, however.
'Shouldn't be too much trouble to fix.'
Sakura slipped off a torn glove as her palm glowed green. Tenten winced as an audible hiss burned her raging skin shut. Sakura raised herself steadily, wincing as the intense heat emanating from Hinata's stomach stung, feeling as if the skin on her back had been burnt into charred leather.
They could wait on Sasuke no longer. This had been expected, executing Naruto would be a painfully slow process for the him to perform. They all knew of the bond they shared, it wouldn't be right for anyone else to do it though.
Kakashi eyed his rag-tag squad, 'Maa.. I don't like this.' He thought before speaking quietly, his voice steel, 'we move south-west. We'll rendezvous with the allied ninja past the western plane. Tenten-san, stick close to Sakura-kun, it's up to us deliver Hinata-san safely.'
A huge explosion from the south shook the fleeing squad.
Danzō was fuming. In front of him lay a forty foot tower of screaming, charred wood caught in an inferno. Dark smoke clogged the fresh night sky as the heavy moon began to choke behind swirling ash and hot smog. He dug heated splinters out of his leathery skin, cursing at himself for not checking for explosive seals upon the traitor's little hideout. The Hollow, it had been called, he remembered, his spy had told him so. Blood emerged from many of the pinpricks left from the splinters. Yellowy fluid stained the bandages of his right arm. Close. A couple of ROOT tools lay splayed out in front of him.
The captured ninja from Iwa hadn't proven themselves as all that useful, so shielding their esteemed master against the blast had given them a hint of honor in death.
'An honour they didn't deserve, of course.' Danzō coughed, wheezing amongst the smoke, 'Enemy spies like these... Captured none the less.' He roughly kicked one of the useless bodies. Danzō sorely missed the days when ROOT was comprised of only elite Konoha-nin. However, the civil war hadn't done his numbers well, so lower ranking and even foreign ninja had to play their part under his service, even if they were Iwa-nin. He spat on both corpses.
He was experienced at making people see his way, regardless of who they were or how they could resist, he rubbed his right arm softly. Few could resist his methods and hence, ROOT's numbers had swelled. All in the best interests of Konoha.
A fresh ROOT team swept to his sides. One of them sat to his lord's right, opened a scroll and with a puff of smoke, he began painting the scene before him in a summoned notepad, recording the heroic progress of his master's campaign.
Danzō craned his neck to the left, 'Pig, report.'
'Possible enemy forces moving from this position, approximately thirty-two degrees south-west. Estimated numbers range from one-twenty-six to two-eighteen. I suspect that there are a few genjutsu in place to mask their numbers.' The masked kunoichi drawled.
Danzō nodded in acceptance. He had thought as much. He allowed himself a rare smirk as he admired his handiwork upon the tool stood before him.
The heat that had once burned throughout the bossy kunoichi's voice had dissipated, broken into a deadened drawl. Despite the fact that her face was eclipsed by a porcelain mask, he knew her features beneath would be uncaring as she continued to betray her old allies. She stood straight to attention, yet composed herself loosely enough to protect him should anything happen. He had truly refined the young Yamanaka, she was indeed a freshly sharpened tool within his arsenal.
To his right stood two shinobi. The artist was his most complete and successful tool. He donned a tiger mask. The other shinobi's appearance seperated him from Danzō's usual tools. Instead of a swirling black cloak, the shinobi stood only in a thin layer of matte black spandex. Slight thickness' around the chest, abdomen and groin suggested underlying armour plates. The ridiculous bowl cut that the man once took pride in had been cut short to maintain an unrecognisance appearance. A porcelin mask shaped as a dragon hid his ridiculous eyebrows.
Danzō knew the shinobi was revered for his skills in taijutsu. He had fought off twenty ROOT operatives on the day he cleared out the traitors. His will had been difficult to break. Danzō had had to unseal his right arm to refine him. He severely hoped his time hadn't been wasted, he would've been easy to kill on that day. The shinobi required a test to see if he had rid himself of his pointless emotions. First came the issue of his two most important tools going off the grid.
'Pig. Fox and Cobra didn't report in earlier. A guard patrol went quiet from the village before a contigent went dark close to the Namikaze shrine to the north. Find the pair, neutralise if necessary. They are to be brought back alive. Any others are to be eliminated with great prejudice. This is an S-rank mission, failure will not be tolerated. Understood?'
'Hai, Hokage-sama!' The kunoichi disappeared in a whirl of blossom.
He watched her go before turning to face the others.
'Dragon, Tiger, the army has been readied. You are to mobilise our forces. I want the traitors eradicated. Leave none of them. They're just past the western plane, they seem to not be moving. I'm calling a council meeting, report when the mission's done.'
'Hai, Hokage-sama!' The pair choroused.
Danzō turned away from them. His mind whirring. 'Yes, a fine test indeed.'
'Dragon! Before you leave. I have a condition for you both. You are to exterminate Maito Gai.'
'It shall be done.' Dragon finished.
'Good. Ignore my orders to finish the battle, you both report to me upon his death.'
'Hai!'
'Hokage-sama,' the artist whispered, ignoring how his master could have such accurate information on the traitors so fast, 'what are those lights?'
As bright flames hungrily engorged upon the grass at the base of the charred tree, round beads of fire squealed upwards, buzzed in agony and turned to ash.
Danzō couldn't suppress a twisted grin.
'He was here.'
They disappeared without a trace.
The blonde shadowed around the edge of the ravaged clearing near the Namikaze shrine. With calculating eyes, she assessed the damage. Something large must've been summoned, large ravines cut through the earth, yet no tracks indicated this. Bodies lay dissected and ruined. They lay close together, whatever had attacked had been quick. They hadn't had time to separate and counter it.
'Hmmm... New recruits I guess.'
The only conclusion could be drawn that whatever did this was gone. As were her targets. She saw four tracks leading south west. The grass had begun to reclaim three sets, the other track looked fresh enough, they must be attempting to rejoin their group, with their fourth member travelling behind them.
'Why did he wait? They all emerged from the shrine.'
She traced the tracks, readied to follow them.
'What the?'
A chakra signature emerged from behind her. A kunai thunked into the ground in front. She dropped and spun. Senbon flicked into her fingers, yet they only caught air. She felt a kunai touch her throat lightly. An arm reached around her chest and dragged her backwards. Her breath was forced out of her lungs.
'Fast, yes. Fast enough? No.' A voice drawled from behind her.
'No one can be that quick!' She coughed. The ninja released her.
She spun, ready, before loosening up, 'Fox, of course.' She whispered.
She eyed the tagged kunai in his hand.
'Reporting for duty, Pig.' The blonde murmured. He clutched at his mask. He was damp with water and what seemed like a bloody solution underneath his cloak. The sharp night air tore through the thin cloak and bit at his cooling flesh.
Fox's head spun, he couldn't think straight. His mind clouded over as he tried to remember what had gone on and how he had got here, barely clothed and soaked. Nothing but childhood memories of beatings, failures and his Hokage's training regime had came to mind.
'I may have been compromised, Pig. I can't recall how I got here and Cobra's missing. Search my mind for clues.'
Fox sat down and coaxed Pig onto his lap. She removed his mask.
'F-fox! Your face!' She snapped.
'What's happened, Pig? This needs to be quick, we don't have time.'
'Your markings on your cheeks, they've gone.' she stammered, before shaking her head, closing her eyes and placing her palm over his exposed forehead. Fox slipped out of consciousness as Pig entered his mind.
Hinata's eyes slowly blurred open. A dark smudge in the distance framed the endless plane in front of them. Sparkling dew jumped and cheered in their wake as rolling black grass bowed before them. The blurred moon hung heavy, casting silver circles through the hazy clouds. Hinata felt horribly weak, her skin, muscles and eyes burned. Pain wasn't a new concept, yet she felt like fire stung her upon every slight movement as Sakura carried her. She couldn't help worrying if Naruto had felt like this his entire life. Naruto.
She looked back, her neck stung as she moved,
'By-Byakugan!'
Weak spots of blue emerged between blades of grass, before she caught a glimpse of Konoha's wall. The entirety of it bristled with chakra. Panic spat at her chest, her heartbeat fluttered as she felt sick. She hadn't seen chakra flows en masse since the war.
'S-Sakura-san!' Her voice whispered despite her rising panic.
'The walls! It's ROOT!'
Sakura swallowed her breath as she chanced a look around. The silver lit walls of Konoha swam in ink. The liquid drooled down from the walls, and surged forwards towards them.
Kakashi sensed the chakra signatures. They needed to move. He had noticed ROOT's lack of advanced ninja recently. Yet three squads towards the front had covered half the ground they had made in seconds. Danzō wasn't playing anymore.
Inochi snapped his head around as he sensed a huge amount of chakra signatures. He looked on from between the treeline. Their priority was to protect Hinata, he could sense that these nina weren't to be taken lightly. He pressed his finger to his ear and focused his chakra towards his mind.
'We need a squad to cover the VIP's escape, stat!'
Tiger spotted the small group of traitors. A papery white hawk tore through the air towards the group, carrying Dragon and he.
Kakashi saw it coming, his hands blurred as he turned.
'Lightning Release! Chidori Sharp Spear Jutsu!'
Five beams of blue light shot outwards into the sky. The hawk weaved in and out of the offending beams, becoming a white blur. Kakashi's brow dropped as he focussed. He opened up the beams, around the central hawk, before closing them.
'Hang on, Dragon!' Tiger erupted. The bird closed it's wings around them, barrel rolling towards the ground.
Hidden beneath the wings, they saw nothing, Tiger let out a pained scream.
Kakashi let out a triumphant sigh as a beam tore through the bird, severing a wing.
He turned and ran, he had lost ground, the four man ROOT squads were nearly upon him, senbon swooshed past his face as he readied a tagged kunai and threw it close to Sakura, 100 metres ahead. Two kunai landed by his feet, hissing.
'Shit! Hiraishin no jutsu!'
Sakura saw her sensei disappear in a fireball. She felt sick but had to run.
'Im sorry I couldn't save you sensei...'
'Save who, Saku-chan?' Came a politely joking voice.
He was running beside her,
'Baka.' She spat.
Tenten swooped behind the pair, spinning two tantō rapidly, sending senbon and kunai spinning away.
'Go! Now!' She screamed, urging the team forwards, the three ROOT teams had caught them.
'LEE!' Erupted a huge voice.
Flying over the team, Gai, Kiba and Shino joined the fight.
'Get outta here now!' Kiba barked, 'we've got a score to settle here!'
The three took a squad each.
Kiba twisted between two of his designated team, clawing at a shinobi behind them. The two turned, only to be bowled over by a lion of a nin-dog.
Shino stood still, surrounded by ROOT.
'Parasitic Destruction Technique: Typhoon.'
From each of the ROOT-nin's necks and the grass below, kikaichū swarmed, a huge spiral of ink twirled around him. He raised slowly on top of the typhoon, as dew and insects flecked the area, tearing at the ninja with voracious buzzing.
'This colony has been bred specifically to be carnivorous, I've refined their traits since the war. Unluckily for you, I had them develop an affinity for human blood, an affinity your organisation seemed to extrude as you destroyed my clan. Ironic, indeed'
A ROOT-nin screamed and thrashed inside the vortex, his flesh was stripped clean from the bone by the hungry bugs that crawled under his skin. Three jumped back, forming hand seals together in formation.
'Fire release! Fireball Jutsu!'
A huge fireball smashed Shino's typhoon. His eyebrows rised into his hitai-ite as the men performed an Uchiha art. The blaze erupted upwards, burning countless bugs as the flames licked at the shinobi's feet. A huge pillar of light erupted from the maelstrom as he was set alight at the top of the pyre, yet he remained silent.
'LEE!' Gai screamed, smashing into the anonymous squad. He kicked at a mask, smashing it, the ROOT lashed back. Blocking the punch, Gai caught the wrist. Dodging another kick, not releasing his grasp, he jumped into a spin, dragging the shinobi along. He smashed the others with the limp body before dropping the corpse. He screamed forward into more ROOT, driving fists into masks whilst twirling through seas of senbon.
'LEE!' He screamed desperately, his soul aching to find the closest thing to a son he had ever had.
He saw movement underneath what looked like a giant ball of paper. Stabbing a shinobi in the neck with his fingers, he flew forwards. He had seen two ROOT onboard the hawk. He could sense only one chakra signature. There was only one ninja he knew that didn't have chakra to create a signature.
The crumpled paper dispersed to reveal a two shinobi. One stood tall while the other crouched in a pool of shining blood.
'Gai-sensei, was it?' Murmured the uncloaked figure as he snorted, 'how are those Flames of Youth burning?'
'Lee-kun! Remember what you fought for? Your training! Your friendships! Your Springtime of Eternal youth!'
'Pitiful.' The shinobi became a blur.
Gai crossed both arms, blocking the kick. He narrowly jerked to avoid the second smashing his ribs. Off balance, he slipped backwards into a backflip. The guess payed off, Lee had gone to sweep his legs, only to face Gai's foot in his mask. The tiger face shattered, as did Gai's heart at seeing his son- student's face.
Blank emotion formed another mask underneath the shattered one. Small shards of porcelain snaked blood out of Lee's cheeks as they bit in, yet the shinobi's face flashed only with brutal indifference.
Gai couldn't face this defilement. His heart throbbed with pain as his nerves strummed with desperation. His energy rose as internal seals swelled and burst. Droplets of blood and water spiralled around him from the dark grass as he shone in a invigorating swirl of green light. His muscles clenched and breathed energy as his skin burnt over with angry, bubbling redness. Flames and seething anguish boiled his mind and invigorated his beating heart, his blood pumped, a thick, hot soup, through his readied arteries, feeding his will to fight!
'Yosh, Lee! I will show you what you have forgotten! Let your Flames of Youth be rekindled! Sixth Gate of View, release!'
He blasted forwards as a beam of light, his palms touched the ground as he twisted his hips in a handstand. Lee blocked a vortex of spinning kicks before one lashed upwards, catching his stomach beneath his crossed arms. Wind screamed at his eyes as he rocketed skyward.
'Morning Peacock!'
Gai appeared, smashing him with countless punches. The black spandex charred as hit after hit burned with rough friction. Flames spat out, as the ROOT-nin became ablaze with countless punches, lighting the arial clash against the black night. Gai finished, the acrid stench of burnt spandex filled his nostrils, before he slammed his palm forwards into Lee's chest. Lee whistled downwards before he smashed into the earth below with a crunching crack. Dirt churned upwards as the ground vomited from the impact. Guy swung downwards, his foot above his head,
'Strong Fist! Dynamic Drop!'
He bombed downwards into Lee's crater, smashing his ankle downwards into the shinobi's torso, the earth wretched again as the crater doubled in size.
Gai dropped to one knee over his student. His head bowed as the moonlight vaguely shone on the dead man's face. He could find no energy in the boys features as he stared skywards with an all too familiar blank expression. Gai's energy faded as he collapsed over him, holding himself above Lee with a single, shaking arm. He shuddered with woe as wet tears smattered all over the shinobi's blank, bruised and bloody face.
'Lee..' He moaned weakly, 'Oh, Lee-kun how I've failed you. In your Springtime of Youth, no less, only to be cut short by me, your sensei. What a fool I am.'
Gai touched his son-student's face, lightly closing his eyes. He reached for a kunai and placed the tip on his stomach, casting his gaze skywards.
'Kami-sama, be kind to my student. I will never fail anyone again.' Gai whispered.
'But you've already failed.' Whispered a voice behind him.
Gai spasmed as his chest wretched. Cold steel sliced through his spine and twisted within his lungs. With horror, he watched as Lee raised himself up with ease.
'You held back, didn't you?' He laughed in Gai's face, 'Baka, your weak techniques and flimsy ideals cannot finish me! End this pitiful traitor, Tiger!'
'With pleasure, Dragon.' the artist replied cooly, 'Inkwell jutsu!'
Gai's chest heaved as he felt the blade twist inside before his lungs filled with fluid. He opened his mouth one last time, breaking into a wide grin.
'Someday Lee, my most prized student. You will recover. Your Springtime of Eternal Youth will shine once more.' Gai smiled as his eyes closed, a memory drifted back Of their world renowned chorus.
'Gai-sensei!'
'Lee!'
'Gai-sensei!'
'Lee!'
He snorted as his chest heaved.
'Lee-kun, let me tell you that I will always be prou-!'
Lee's foot drove into Gai's stomach.
'Die in silence, traitor!' He spat venomously.
Gai coughed, as literal black ink bubbled in his throat and flowed out. His tear ducts popped as the thick fluid ruptured them, dribbling down his cheeks before it too ran free from his nose. His blood mixed with the warm ink sharpening the bitter ink's taste with a coppery salinity.
With a nod and a slight gurgle, Gai fell forwards towards Lee. Lee sidestepped to dodge the falling man, allowing him to crash face first into the soil at their feet.
'Hmm.. Stabbed in the back, a fitting end for a traitor who turned on Hogake-sama. Kami-sama has been kind. I hope he burns in his Flames of Youth in hell.' Lee spat. wiping his face clean of the dead man's tears. 'Disgusting.'
Above the pair, who stood deep down in the crater, a huge flare of chakra blazed.
'Come, Tiger. We will report to Danzō-sama of our success. Your arm will need to be repaired also.' Lee drawled, sparing a look at his teammate's withered arm.
'We will get revenge on Hatake Kakashi for this insult, should he survive tonight.'
A/N: Well, this was a nightmare to write... My office trial curled up and died, so updates will be slowed even more now :/ I'll be doing them on my phone and after what happened with this chapter, I won't be surprised if I end up deleting a finished chapter...
Just gonna clear up the mess I've made with the justus. I know how to construct Japanese justus and they sound 10000000x cooler. However, I'm making my own up all the time, so I'm gonna keep them English. However, for the recognisable ones, I'll keep them Japanese as they're so much easier to write out! Ie. Shiki Fūjin =Reaper Death Seal and the Hiraishin? Sack the English for that!
I'm also embarrassed to admit the mistake that I made with yin/yang chakra in chap 3, I'll fix that whenever I can be bothered. Also, it appears that I've forgotten what speech marks are... Oh dear! Again, I'll fix that whenever.
Massive thanks to Waffles43, after a chat with him the other day, these fight scenes should improve drastically soon! Check out his stories, 'A Troublesome Chance' and 'Juubi Naruto' he's improving and it's showing!
Thanks ever so much to YamiChaos27, your criticism has helped the rehaul and should clear up a lot of the confusion with the story...Hopefully! Check out his stories, such as 'Maiden of the Light' they're full of original ideas and make a really good read!
Taku94 out, for now!