The Kunoichis That Didn't Belong Ch. 22
Disclaimer: I DON'T OWN NARUTO!
Recap: The two groups walked forward into the clear night sky.
Time: 1:00 am
Place: Bear Mountain Pass
Date: One Day from Meeting
On the pass of Bear Mountain were the kunoichi, walking down the road in the middle, taking care to avoid any hidden traps around them.
"Everywhere, Ikiara said?" Sakura asked, eyes roaming, tiredly. It had been one hour since they had arrived on the mountain pass, and started walking towards their destination. However, they had not seen nor been attacked by a single weapon of any sort yet. Sakura began to wonder whether the traps were bluffs created by people wanting tourists.
"Well, the guide to the mountain that we looked at said that too." Ino said, shrugging, but on guard nevertheless. The blonde kunoichi had learned her lesson of running off with ideas on her own. If something happened, only Ino would be blamed for not learning from her mistake.
"Look!" Pointing upwards, the rest of the kunoichi followed Hinata's outstretched arm to a white speck in the sky. "It's Temari!"
Temari flew down from the sky towards the moving figures below, the pink-haired bob the easiest to spot in the moonlight, as well as the platinum blonde one.
As she flew lower and lower, the wind picked up and carried her upwards. Temari was stunned for moment, before fighting the wind to go lower. It was strange, because whenever she was on her fan, the wind was the companion with her, not against, unless it was in enemy combat.
That thought fled her when her ears heard the unmistakable thud of a kunai hitting the ground. Looking from where the kunai came from, Temari noticed the path of the kunai and realized suddenly, that had it not been for the wind carrying her upwards despite her desire to go down, the kunai would have torn through her fan, leaving a nasty and wide gash on it.
With a frown, Temari turned her fan upwards. It looked like she would be riding the winds for a while longer this night.
"Eh? Is she coming down?" Sakura peered anxiously upwards at the figure in the sky.
"No, it doesn't seem like it . . ." Hinata said, also looking. The white speck in the sky that was their teammate started to ascend back into the night sky, and four kunoichi wore confused expressions.
"Down!" TenTen's shout came from nowhere, and the others bent down quickly after a moment.
Ten spears flew over the girls, and would have impaled or wounded them had they not ducked in time.
When a minute passed with no immediate attack after the flying spears, the kunoichi cautiously stood up.
"Where did they come from?" Ino asked, walking over to TenTen who had recovered first and was now crouched over, studying the ground intently.
"Over there, most likely." The brunette pointed to the direction where Ino had come from, and the blonde glanced back once before focusing in front her once more.
"So what are you looking at?"
The brunette shook her head vigorously. "Not looking. Testing." She emphasized the last word, but Ino didn't quite grasp what it meant. TenTen shook her head at Ino's confusion. "I'll tell you later. Check up on Hinata."
"Huh? Hinata?" Ino straightened and turned to look in Hinata's direction. The indigo-haired girl was standing still and upright, not moving. Walking over, Ino came to the side where she could see the younger girl's face, and found herself staring at the bulging vein of the Byakugan's activation.
"Hinata-chan, what is it? Do you see anything?" Ino asked worriedly.
Hinata shook her head. "Nope, nothing yet as far as I can see, which is about 40 meters already."
"Where are you looking at?" Ino asked.
"To the left and in front of us." Hinata responded.
Tenten stood, and turned to them. "Not to break your bubble guys, but where's Sakura?"
The two looked at TenTen before anxiously scanning the area around them.
"Ah, they're so far ahead of us!" Naruto said as he walked with his team on the pass.
"That's good Naruto, so they don't see us." Shino replied.
"But, its strange how there haven't been any traps or weapons attacking us or them." said Gaara. "Isn't this place infamous for that kind of thing?"
Shikamaru nodded. "According to them, it is. So we should still be on our guard. Neji, do you see anything? And, can they see us?" he asked, specifically meaning Hinata.
Neji shook his head. "No, as far as I can tell, there isn't anything, which is strange. Also, it may be best if we also have some cover. Hinata-sama has been gone for three years and we don't know how much training she has gone through. She may be able to cover farther distances with her Byakugan, so we have to be careful."
"Hyuuga, isn't there a technique that blocks other Byakugan users from seeing us?" Sasuke asked.
Neji nodded. "Yes, it was recently developed by the clan so she shouldn't know about it yet. I've already used it, and it will last for four more hours at least."
"Good." Sasuke said, then suddenly asked, "What's that?" He pointed into the sky up ahead.
Everyone looked up to where the Uchiha was pointing, and squinted. A white thing was flying down . . . but then suddenly pulled upwards.
" . . . I believe that would be Temari." said Gaara who knew his sister's flight patterns as well as his own sand's patterns.
"Hey, why'd she fly upwards all of a sudden?" Naruto asked.
"And they all just threw themselves to the ground too." Sasuke stated.
"The traps are activated!" Neji said, and the kunai flew at them at the same moment he spoke.
"Jump!" The six jumped and dodged the rest of the in-coming weapons as well.
"Crap! They just activated all of a sudden!" Sasuke exclaimed.
"Dodge what you can, and keep a eye on the kunoichi!" Shikamaru ordered.
"Got it!" the others replied, and headed forward a little while dodging flying objects.
"Whew!" Naruto exhaled. "I think they finally stopped."
The six of them had been discreetly running towards the kunoichi the best that they could while dodging the flying projectiles. Out of all of the shinobi, Neji avoided the objects the best, evading them like it was second nature, without a thought and completely at ease.
"But why? And now they're searching around?" Sasuke said, confused.
"Sakura is missing." Shino stated, and the ex-teammates of the pinkette turned to him.
"What do you mean?" Naruto asked.
"She's gone." Shino repeated. "But it doesn't seem she went too far off because Ino is now walking somewhere."
"Let's follow them then." Shikamaru said.
Discovering Sakura missing made the others stunned, but only for a little bit. The three immediately cast around looking for the pinkette but to no avail. It was only after walking a mile forward that the blonde of the group spotted the missing kunoichi. Thanks to working with flowers and Sakura's hair being a certain shade, Ino was able to locate the girl quite quickly.
"There she is!" Ino pointed, and the others hurried to her.
Sakura came quickly into view, but when the others had a clear sight of her, they were confused why she was shaking her head at the sight of them.
"Sakura?" Ino asked hesitantly,
Coming nearer, they stopped when they saw the pinkette tied helplessly and dangling on a long white rope-like object from a branch.
"What the--" TenTen was cut off as a huge shadow fell onto the kunoichi, and they looked up, speechless to see a gigantic bee twice the size of the ones they had encountered on the forest.
"Good God." Neji's voice did not speak alone. With his Byakugan activated, he had a clear sight of the giant mutant bee as it towered over the kunoichi. But even from their distance, the bee was so huge that the shinobi beside him were able to witness it as well. And they too, cursed, efficiently covering up his own whisper.
"That thing is HUGE." Naruto declared with his eyes wide and stuck onto the bee.
"Can it see us?" Gaara asked, his eyes also looked onto the insect.
"I'm not sure. Bees generally do not see very far, but seeing as it is a mutant, there is no telling what kind of experimentation was used on it. Not to mention that it is bigger than all the bees we have seen." Shino replied, with his eyes behind his shades.
"Then let's keep moving." Sasuke said. "We'll have to find a way to stop it without it knowing."
Temari's eyes were wide open. "Holy shit that is one huge bee!" she cried. Yes, the bee was that big if Temari, who was currently above them all, could see the bee from where she was in the air. "I should check if they're okay." She said to herself and flew towards the giant creature.
"What is that thing?" Ino shrieked.
TenTen was getting ready to pelt the insect with her weapons, and had her scroll out at the ready, in case the bug decided to attack.
Hinata was busy using a kunai to free Sakura from her bonds. However the bonds itself was sticky and hard to break. Nevertheless, with Ino's help, Sakura managed to come free.
"Get ready to run guys!" TenTen called to them.
"Where?" Sakura asked. "That thing—It came for me out of nowhere! And, well it can fly, so it'll catch up to us."
"We have no choice, fight or run." TenTen replied, her eyes not leaving the bee.
Ino turned to Hinata. "What do you see Hinata?"
Before Hinata could reply, the bee dove at the kunoichi and the four dove for cover. Missing them, the bee hovered in the air.
"I'm looking." Hinata said, standing, and then called sharply, "Sakura!" Sakura turned suddenly toward Hinata at the mention of her name.
"What?" the pinkette asked, still watching the bee.
"We need to know if you saw something while in the capture of the bee. For instance—did you see how long the path stretched while in the air?"
Sakura paused. "Well, maybe . . ." The pinkette concentrated. "The path stretched for miles north . . . but there was a break slightly on the east . . ."
The ducked as the bee dived once more, running from it hurriedly before stopping at the foot of a tree.
"So we should go there?" Ino questioned.
Any reply by the others was cut off by Hinata who suddenly exclaimed, "Aha! I've found it!"
"Found what?" Ino and Sakura asked startled.
The Hyuuga had a grin on her face. "The weak spot of this giant bee. And the way out of this path!"
TenTen smirked. "Just tell me where to hit Hinata!" She tensed, ready to spring.
"Do you see that spot right there, on it's neck? Between the armor on the chest and the head! It's the only open spot, and though it's not much, I'm pretty sure that enough pressure will stun it enough so that you can pry off its armor! There's only fur between the chest and the armor!" Hinata was enthusiastic of her plan, and TenTen only grinned.
"You mean that it can be cut, right? You got it!" With that, TenTen summoned multiple projectiles from her scroll and with excellent accuracy, launched some towards the bee. The insect, seeing the attack, moved so that the kunai bounced harmlessly off of its armor. TenTen began to run towards the bee, throwing kunai as distraction. Ino, too, ran into the fray and helped distract the bee, trusting that TenTen would hit the weak point.
Nothing they threw seemed to be able to get close to the insect, so you know their surprise when an attack from above forced the bee downwards.
"Temari!" TenTen shouted when she glanced upwards. The ex-Suna kunoichi was floating above the bee and wielded two fans in her hands, which she used to blow at the bee with extreme force. The two in her hands were not big like her original iron fan, but it was considerably strong as she attacked the insect over and over again. Her large iron fan took her closer to her teammates below, and she waved at them from where she was.
"Thought you might need some help!" Temari shouted to them, and they grinned back at her.
Together, Temari and Ino launched duo distractions at the bee, effectively gaining its attention. TenTen was subtly hidden their attacks and launched whatever she could at its weak spot as discreetly as possible. Hinata and Sakura watched the battle while quietly discussing the direction that would lead them towards their destination.
After much attempts, they finally succeeded with their attacks, and the bee came crashing down onto the path.
"Yes!" they cried, celebrating.
"And the exit is close!" Sakura exclaimed.
They watched as Temari took off into the air, saying she would see them at the end of the path and disappearing swiftly into the distance.
Hinata opened her mouth, wanting to mention the black things that had been on the giant bee during their fight. However, the others were quite ahead of her now, and she had to catch up to them. She did a check with her Byakugan, but could find nothing. As she ran to her friends, all thoughts of the black, maybe familiar, bug-like things escaped her mind.
"They defeated it!" Naruto's voice expressed his awe.
"Yes, they did. I think we should get a sample." Shikamaru said, bending down next to the bee, and poking it. "That is, if its dead."
Shino looked at it, grimly. "No, it's alive. We should not disturb it. Also," here Shino paused. "Hinata may have noticed my insects. But I don't think she has realized what they were—In case you were wondering, they were on the bee." Shino said, probably for Naruto's benefit.
"Does she suspect we're here?" Gaara asked, and Shino shook his head.
"No, she shouldn't."
"Let's keep going then. Before they leave and we don't." Sasuke said.
"Ah! Finally!" Ino cried as they came off the mountain pass without any more mishaps.
"Yes!" Sakura said.
"Look! Temari!" Hinata pointed.
Temari grinned. "Hey guys. Glad to see you finally made it."
"Likewise." TenTen replied with a smile.
"Good, we're finally out. And they don't know we're here either." Shikamaru said as they finally exited the pass.
"God I'm tired!" Naruto exclaimed. "Can we stop for a bit?"
"Neji?" Shikamaru asked.
"I think so. They've stopped, so we don't have to worry about them leaving."
Shikamaru nodded. "Alright then set up camp discreetly. We'll have shifts to watch them."
And this is chapter 22! Hope you like it! Sorry it took so long to put up, but I'm typing out the rest of the chapters on Word. This was 6 pages long. Thank you my patient readers! Know that I am thinking of you! ^ ^ And to the people who reviewed: angel897, Neguru Sucashi, WolfGirl, fated slayer, MoonKrystal, and yuchi1994! Very special thanks to you!
