The Kunoichis That Didn't Belong Ch. 21
Disclaimer: I DON'T OWN NARUTO!
Recap: "Alright. We're now entering the Bee's Lair. Stay close." Shikamaru ordered, and they all nodded.
Time: 9:00 pm
Place: Bee's Lair
Date: Two Days from Meeting
"Ohmygodohmygodohmygodwe'regonnadienonononono!" A blonde ran through the trees, pleading for her life out loud with tears in her eyes.
"Why the hell did we listen to you?!!!!" The pinkette of the group cried, angrily.
"Get a grip—we have to get away before those … things catch up to us!" The brunette shouted.
"Yelling won't help either!" The indigo-haired girl called out.
"Any ideas then?" The pinkette asked.
"We'll have to split up, I think. And then trap them." The indigo-haired girl replied.
"Alright. Ino, yell a lot and keep running. The three of us will go left, one by one discreetly. You buy time for us while we set up a trap. Then we'll wait by the tree, and one of us will fetch you to lead them that way." Sakura instructed.
"Whaaat?!!! Why me?" Ino cried.
Sakura felt a vein on her forehead twitch. "Because you're the one who made us do this, pig!!"
"Also, there's the lucky coincidence that you work around flowers so you smell like flowers, and since your hair is yellow, you can pretend it's pollen." Hinata said with a smile.
Ino turned a disbelieving look her way. "What? Hinata, what are you saying?"
"Go for it Ino! We're rootin' for you!" TenTen took the time to punch a fist into the air as she ran.
"Gah! Not you too, TenTen!" Ino cried.
All she got in reply were three evil smiles, and wailed in her mind. 'They're angry at me, I just know it!'
She watched as the girls stop running and cleverly hid themselves from the gigantic mutant bees that were chasing them. The bees didn't notice as planned and kept chasing Ino whose job was to keep running.
'Although, if you ask me, TenTen should be running since she has more stamina than me. I'm just supposed to enter people's minds, not run like hell from bees!' Ino thought as she ran, never minding that her thought didn't make sense.
'Oh, why did this happen?!!'
~*Flashback*~
"Wow, the forest here is pretty dense." TenTen commented as they pushed their way through the leaves of the surrounding trees.
"Yeah, I know. Oh, look! There's a path." Ino pointed. "Let's check it out."
"I don't know…" Sakura said uncertainly, with Hinata nodding in agreement beside her.
"Come on, what if it's a way out?" The blonde walked onto the path, leaving the others no choice but to follow.
-1 hour later-
"Ugh! My feet ache!" Sakura complained as they walked along the long-winding dirt path. "Ino we're going around in circles!"
"This is just a long trip, that's all!" The blonde said.
"Maybe we should contact Temari." Hinata said, unsure.
"Nonsense!" Ino exclaimed. "Look! There's a cave!" Ino dashed ahead as a fairly large-looking cave came into sight.
"Ino, wait!"
The other three rushed to catch up with the blonde kunoichi who had rushed inside before suddenly returning to a stop at the entrance.
"Ugh, what's wrong?" Sakura asked.
"Hinata, do bees live in caves?" Ino asked, not looking at them.
Hinata's expression became confused. "Huh? Um, no I don't think so… Why?"
"I think we've just found our mutant bees." Ino said, nervously, and the others turned to peer inside the cave.
Their jaws dropped open.
"Oh crap."
~*End Flashback*~
'Oh, me and my big mouth!' Ino cursed herself mentally as she ran. 'Guys, please hurry!'
"You have a very interesting ex-teammate, Shikamaru." Sasuke commented as they ran.
"Shut up Uchiha." The genius replied, also running.
The shinobi had been trailing the kunoichi silent and unnoticed. However, an hour inside the forest, a certain platinum-blonde kunoichi just so happened to stop at a gigantic cave. One that could only have housed gigantic mutant bees.
And now, the shinobi were separated from the kunoichi, running from the bees for their lives.
"Any ideas, Shikamaru?" Naruto called out. He was only able to be so loud because the drone of bee wings and bees in general drowned out any human voice from a distance. Shikamaru had also forbade the use of clones since the clones might run into the kunoichi who were not allowed to know they were there.
"No, not yet." Shikamaru replied. "Shino?"
"I'm working on it." The bug-user stated.
"Can I just burn them?" Sasuke asked as he ran.
"No, the light from the fire could possibly ignite the forest and kill everything here. Also, the kunoichi may become alerted of our presence." Shikamaru replied.
Sasuke frowned, disappointed, and crossed out suggesting Chidori in his mind.
"Neji, what do you see?" Gaara asked.
The Hyuuga's Byakugan was activated and he replied, "Only trees, couple of trees, no kunoichi … RIGHT!"
The others started, but followed the shinobi as he took the lead, swiftly swerving right.
"Neji, what's wrong?" Naruto asked, behind the Hyuuga.
"Bees." Shino replied calmly from behind Naruto, and the spiked-blonde turned his head back to look at the bug-user.
"Wha? Wait, so bugs were there?" the loud-mouth asked.
"Yes. Gigantic bees to be precise. They were directly in front of our path and are now re-joining the swarm in chasing us." Neji replied.
-10 minutes later-
"God, can't we have a break?!!" Naruto cried. They were ahead of the bees by at least 15 meters.
"No, they're still chasing us." Gaara replied, without a backward glance.
A vein on Sasuke's forehead twitched. "When can we fight back?"
"Now." Shino's voice stood out at the shinobi, and they stopped in their tracks.
"Wha—" Naruto was interrupted by Shino who was swiftly giving out orders.
"We're going to fight back, but discreetly. We'll have to split up. Gaara, Neji, and Naruto on one team. Sasuke, me, and Shikamaru on the other. Gaara's group will continue to be chased. However, you will also use objects to slow the bees down. Yes, Gaara you can use sand, but only to attack from below. Remember, this is a forest, not a desert, and Temari is still up in the air above us."
Gaara, Neji, and Naruto nodded.
"My team will set up a trap for the bees. You will lure the bees towards us and we'll detain them long enough for us to get away. Once we clear the forest we'll be alright because the bees have never once exited their territory. Any questions?"
Naruto waved his hand. "Can I use my bunshins?"
". . . I'd prefer if you didn't." Shino replied.
"Where will you be?" Neji asked.
"I'm not sure yet, but we'll contact you when we're done. Most likely in that area." Shino waved a hand vaguely to his right, and the Hyuuga nodded. "When we give you the signal, lure them over there. But until then, keep them away."
"I think they're coming." Gaara said.
Sasuke, Shikamaru, and Shino moved away to the right, getting off the path, while the other three stood there in the middle of the road, waiting.
"Hah! Can't catch us!" Naruto called out to the hordes of bees coming their way.
Gaara was ready with his sand to throw over the mutants.
Neji was counting the minutes toward their arrival—at the distance of twelve yards, they would begin their attack. "Eighteen minutes at the range fifteen yards . . . Twenty-five minutes at the range eleven yards . . . Prepare your attacks—launch in two minutes!" Although Neji knew they were supposed to have attacked at twelve yards, he thought it would be better for the bees to come closer to them, closing the distance between hitting and missing.
At two minutes, the mutant bees were now at the range of ten yards.
"Damn those things are fast!" Naruto muttered, and began to throw some kunai at them, testing if the armor of the bees were pierce-able.
But the kunai just bounced off harmlessly, and Naruto stopped throwing. Gaara's sand was steadily moving on the ground, unnoticed by the bees. Soon, there was sand all over the path, the browns blending together and mixing as they churned. At Gaara's signal, the sand flew upwards, and with a flick of his wrist, the sand wrapped itself like a blanket over the bees. A moment later, no bees could be seen.
"Yeah!" Naruto shouted.
"Wait!" Neji peered through the sand with his eyes. "They're still alive. And doing something."
Gaara was about to say something when a bee broke through the sand.
"What the-!" Naruto exclaimed.
The bee made a very loud, droning noise, and the three shinobi covered their ears, wincing from the ultrasonic noise.
The noise continued for about a minute, before all of a sudden stopping, and the bee that made it dropped motionlessly onto the sand.
"What was that?" Naruto asked.
Neji activated his Byakugan again. "Gaara, Naruto. The other bees aren't moving."
". . ." The red-head began to retract his sand. Doing so revealed the other mutant bodies.
"Whoa, they're dead? Just like that?" Naruto exclaimed. He walked over to the bodies cautiously, examining them.
"Be careful Naruto." Neji called. "We aren't sure if they're all dead."
"What was that?" asked Gaara, and the other two looked at him, confused.
"What do you mean Gaara?" Naruto asked.
Gaara held up a hand, scanning the area around them. "Listen." He said.
At that, Neji began to scan the area as well, and Naruto stared back and forth at the both of them.
Then, Gaara stopped scanning the area, his eyes intently on one direction. Noticing the change, Neji and Naruto also faced that direction. Something black in the distance was moving towards them, getting closer and closer.
"They're coming."
"Do you see them yet?" Sakura asked as she tied the vines together tightly, in the processes of making a large net for capturing the bees.
"No, nothing yet." Hinata replied, eyes scanning the area around them.
TenTen was busy tying some of her stringed weapons onto the trees around the area they had designated for trapping the gigantic mutant bees. The kunoichi bit her lip as she fastened weapon after weapon onto the trees. She wished she had more information about the mutant bees so she could figure out which weapon would be most effective against them. Unfortunately, even with Hinata having a bug-user on her ex-team, she didn't know a lot about gigantic mutant bees.
"Ok, done!" Sakura announced, dusting her hands. "Should we contact Temari now?"
Hinata nodded. "I'll contact her. Keep an eye out for the bees and Ino, okay Sakura?"
"Roger that." Sakura climbed up a tree and started to scan the area around them.
"Hello? Temari? Can you hear me? It's Hinata."
"Ah, Hinata. Not Ino then. What's up?"
Hinata proceeded to fill in the ex-Suna kunoichi of their situation. "And now we're building traps for Ino to lead the bees here."
". . . What? She did what? And you're . . . ugh! That damned blonde!" Temari's curses could be heard loud and clear to the Hyuuga.
Hinata chuckled. "But you're blonde too, Temari. And that's the situation right now."
"Alright, alright then. What do you want me to do about it?" Temari asked.
"Well, for starters, where are you now?" Hinata asked.
"Me? Above, and that's waay above, the Bear Mountain Pass. And by the way, that pass is really, really long."
"Well, we're in the forest right now. From where you are, do you see any bees?"
Temari looked down below. "Well no. I'm too high to see anything but color below me. I'll have to go lower to see if I'm near you guys. Should I?"
"No, not if you think that it'll make you a target to the lasers and such in the Mountain."
"No, I can go down closer. Tell me if you see me in the skies, Hinata." Temari flew down lower.
Hinata glanced upwards. "Nope. You're nowhere near us."
"Do you think you can take care of the situation?"
"Yeah, I think we can."
"If that's the case, then there's no need for me to go below. Contact me if anything happens." Temari said, and turned her fan upwards.
"Will do." Hinata ended the communication.
"Well? What did she say?" Sakura asked, calling from where she was.
"To contact her if we need it. Do you see them yet Sakura?"
"No, not yet." The pinkette resumed her task of watching the area.
"TenTen, have you finished?" Hinata asked.
"Yes, I'm done now." The brunette replied and dropped down from her tree.
"Good. I think we should take our positions. The bees are coming and Ino with them." Sakura announced.
The blonde ran and ran, eyes darting to see where her teammates were. She seriously couldn't handle running anymore—she felt her stamina running out already, as she had run for an hour already. Suddenly though, a glint caught her eye and she ran towards it, knowing it was her team.
Running through, she felt herself getting lifted by two hands upwards into the trees. Ino struggled for a minute but the voice of TenTen came. "Stop struggling Ino, and start going right to Hinata! You have enough stamina for that right? The bees are advancing!"
Ino quickly darted to where the Hyuuga of the team was. "Hinata!"
"Ah, Ino, there you are. Quickly, when the signal from Sakura comes, cut these ropes!" Hinata gestured beside her and Ino nodded in understanding.
"Now!" Sakura cried.
At her signal, Hinata and Ino both simultaneously cut the ropes, and grey weapons were released upon the bees. Although the weapons hit the targets, they did not stay—instead it only bounced off of the bees' armor uselessly like rubber.
Ino gasped. "It didn't take the bees down!"
Hinata gave her a reassuring smile. "Don't worry, Ino. It's TenTen's turn now. We still have a couple things to set on the bees after Sakura."
"Ok, let's see." Ino turned to watch what would happen next.
TenTen bit her lip as she watched the kunai bounce off the bees one after another. "Tch!" TenTen moved her right arm and cut off an entire row of strings beside her. This released her set of weapons down upon the mutant insects. Attached to her projectiles were very strong ropes that fell onto the bees. The ropes had been fashioned into a net-like pattern with her weapons and dug tightly into the earth. However, knowing this would not detain the creatures, TenTen watched as the insects struggled to straggle forward.
At this point, Sakura released her own set of vines down upon the bees. True, vines would be no match against them. However, attached to the vines were special needles that Sakura had acquired in her training at the Hidden Grass Village in the Grass Country. Those needles were placed in the knot of every intersection of the crossing vines made into a net, and had a special dosage of tranquilizer in it.
Sakura watched as the vine net fell onto the bees and successfully pin down the bees onto the ground.
"Yes! The bees are down!" Sakura cheered.
"Great!" Ino watched as Hinata and TenTen jumped down from the trees and approached the bees carefully, with the blonde fearfully waiting for the bees to wake up.
But they did not, and her teammates were able to approach with ease.
"Mmhm. Yep. They're knocked out cold." Hinata de-activated her Byakugan eyes.
TenTen nodded. "Good work Hinata. Now let's get out of here before they wake up!"
Ino and Sakura dropped down from the trees, and helped their teammates clean up the mess, with Sakura, TenTen, and Hinata retrieving their weapons.
"Ok, that way!"
"Gah! There's no end to these bees!" Naruto cried, running. The bees had come after the shinobi, and in force after Gaara had defeated ten with his sand. "When can we get to them?"
"Almost Naruto. We still have to weaken them some more first." Neji replied.
"What's that?" Gaara asked, and their attention diverged onto the glowing thing coming towards them. Going closer, they discovered that it was a firefly . . . or was it? No, it was Shino's Kikaichū bugs glowing in the dark, telling them to follow it.
"Let's go."
"Now, Shikamaru?" Sasuke asked, and the genius shook his head.
"No, not yet. But I see them. Get ready." Shikamaru prepared his weapons and reviewed the plan once more in his head. The bees were in sight, a dark cloud chasing after his three teammates and getting closer with every single step…
"Now!" Shino announced loudly as Neji, Naruto, and Gaara burst through the foliage of the leaves. A cloud of bugs carried the three shinobi and Shino away to the left, leaving the bees to continue to fly straight forward and towards Sasuke and Shikamaru.
Upon hearing Shino's signal, Sasuke let loose his Fuuma Shuriken upon the bees, cutting their bodies in half with ease. Of course, fighting mutant bees weren't as simple as that, and some of them survived the Uchiha's attack. After his Fuuma Shuriken Sasuke let fly a barrage of smaller shuriken onto the bees.
Shikamaru then cast his shadow-jutsu to bind the bees in place. Once that was done, Shino's bugs flew towards the bees, clouding the insects from their sight. Shino, Gaara, Neji, and Naruto landed on the ground. Two minutes later, Shino's bugs briefly lifted from the bees. At this point, Gaara cast sand onto the giant bees, throwing sand into their eyes, and Shino's bugs descended onto the bees once more, covering them.
"Alright. They're paralyzed." Shino stated to his teams as his bugs retreated from the giant bodies.
"What! You mean you didn't kill them?" Naruto exclaimed with surprise.
"No, to kill them would be quite unnecessary." Shino replied.
"But what if we have to come through here again? I'll like to walk through the path the next time around, if you don't mind."
"So would I. But the chance that we come back through this path chasing the enemy is very, very likely, and if so, we can use these insects to our advantage as they can provide distraction to the enemy."
"Oh."
"Enough talk already!" The shinobi turned to Sasuke. "Let's get out of here."
The two parties, kunoichi and shinobi, traversed through the forest path, quite unaware of each other since they had separated during the bee chase.
Bursting through the undergrowth of the forest, they came out of the forest onto clear skies and their feet touched the rocky gravel of a mountain.
The kunoichis were on the North side of the mountain, the peak approximately thirty meters away from them.
The shinobi were behind the kunoichi, back by at least thirty meters. It was quite a difference.
"Yattai! We made it!" Naruto's echo was heard among the mountains but the loud-mouth was quickly shushed by his teammates.
"Idiot! Be quiet!" they warned.
The kunoichi turned slightly, and one of them asked questioningly, "Huh? Did you guys hear something just now?"
"Hmm? Uh-uh."
"Must be a bird then."
The two groups walked forward into the clear night sky.
Okay, that was Chapter 21! Thanks to sachiko haruki, Neguru Sucashi, and WolfGirl for your reviews! Lucky for you readers that this was 8 pages long on Microsoft Word! xP
Well, I hope this chapter was an okay one. Please leave a review if you can! Thank you all for reading!
