The Kunoichis That Didn't Belong Ch. 27
Disclaimer: I DON'T OWN NARUTO!
Recap: "We find out what's going on."
Place: Forest
Date: Day of Meeting
TenTen, Temari, and Sakura stared across the clearing at Orochimaru and Kabuto, taking in the sight of the kidnapped shinobi lying at the feet of the evil shinobi.
"Kukuku . . . Look at them, Kabuto." Orochimaru said.
"Yes, very interesting Orochimaru-sama." Kabuto pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose.
"Release them Orochimaru!" Temari yelled.
"Well, they're not even tied up. Obviously they don't want to go with you." Orochimaru replied.
"You probably used a paralyzing jutsu on them!" Sakura declared.
"So what if we did?" Kabuto asked with a smile. "If you take a single step we will have them killed, and I'm sure you wouldn't want that to happen."
"Well, what do you want from us then?" TenTen asked.
"For you to leave of course."
"We're not going, so you better just prepare to fight us!" Temari responded.
"We," Kabuto said, "are so much more superior to you lowly kunoichi that we would easily defeat you. Some as worthless and unchallenging as you are a piece of cake."
The three narrowed their eyes at him, taking notice of his use of words. Suspiciously, they were on similar lines of what they were told years ago . . . strange that their weakness was the first thing to be said instead of something else.
"What do you know?" Sakura shot back. "Tsunade of Konohagakure is a kunoichi, Orochimaru and Jiraiya's teammate, and she is certainly far from weak!"
"Ah, Tsunade." Orochimaru said. "Well, I agree that she certainly is extraordinarily gifted in many ways, but she does have her weaknesses as do we all. But really, as one of the Sannin, her level is far higher than yours or any other person, so you really can't compare your lowly selves to someone as high as she is, which is still lower than me." His conceited voice rang throughout the clearing and the girls glared at him, unwilling to do something that would cause the unconscious shinobis' downfall.
They were stalling, and both of the missing-nin clearly knew it.
"Even if you want backup to come they won't arrive in time." Kabuto told them. "We'll definitely be gone before then."
"Well we won't let you!" Sakura cried, and the three suddenly rushed forward.
Kabuto only bent to summon three snakes that immediately came forward to meet the kunoichi and the clang of metal rang through the air.
Instead of moving away, the two missing-nin just watched the battle with amusement and casually dodged any stray weapons that glanced off of the unusually rough hides of the snakes.
'Come on, Hinata, Ino! We're counting on you!' Sakura thought.
Eight figures burst from the eastern side of greenery into the clearing, and one figure came from the northern side at the same time.
"Hinata! Ino!" cried Sakura.
"Temari! Gaara!" Kankuro yelled, from the northern side.
"Kankuro?" Temari's voice was confused as she said her brother's name.
"TenTen!" Lee's voice yelled loudly.
"Lee?" TenTen's response was much like Temari's.
"Orochimaru! Kabuto!" Chouji, Sai, Shino, and Kiba cried. "Release our teammates!"
"And so the cavalry arrives . . . and with good timing as well." Kabuto pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose once more. "Orochimaru-sama do I use it now?"
"No, Kabuto." The Sannin replied. "I want to see them fight the snakes off first. Let them have a good sense of togetherness. Kukukuku." His laugh was ominous as it echoed around them.
The ninja only responded with glares and promptly worked together to defeat the snakes. Before the enemy could blink, the ninja had surrounded them on all sides, blocking any chance of escape.
"Surrender—You're surrounded!" Kiba declared and Akamaru barked accordingly.
The air of the situation seemed so tense and serious that they were all completely baffled by the sudden laughter that exploded from Orochimaru.
"Ahahahahahaha!"
Confused glances were quickly exchanged.
"Kabuto, use it now!" Orochimaru commanded and Kabuto immediately bent down with quick hands making hand seals for a jutsu.
"Stop it!" Sai responded immediately and Lee charged at them with a flying kick aided with TenTen's arsenal.
But as in all stories, it was too late. Lee and the arsenal was swept aside by a snake conjured and Kabuto finished his jutsu with an evil smile. "Activate!"
They were still, confused and wary since nothing had seemed to happen. However, that rapidly changed. The kunoichi were hit hard by their teammates and the unconscious ones by the enemies' feet were also standing.
"What the heck was that for?" Temari shouted angrily, standing.
Kankuro, and Gaara only smirked. "You're too pushy." Kankuro responded. Temari felt a strange feeling inside of her.
"Kiba, Shino, what are you doing?" Hinata cried.
"Pushing you down." Kiba retorted.
"I thought were on the same side." TenTen said, glaring at Neji and Lee.
"On the same side as a weakling? I don't think so." Neji's comment was sharp and cold.
"Chouji, Shikamaru, Sai-what the heck!" Ino yelled.
"Really, we've always said you needed to shut up." Sai said and Ino's eyes widened.
"What's gotten into you now?" Sakura asked.
"Bugs shouldn't talk." Sasuke replied as he and Naruto looked down on her.
The kunoichis were now furious.
"I knew it! This was all a trick!" Ino yelled at them.
"Wait! Maybe it's not them!" Sakura cried, and they gave a quick glance in her direction. "I mean," Sakura rushed to explain, "Kabuto just did a jutsu and we thought nothing happened but what if it's mind control?"
"Sakura may be right." Hinata said. "It seems logical enough."
"And she is!" Kabuto's voice boomed from where he stood. "That's absolutely correct. They are under mind control of my command and if you want any more information about it, you'll have to defeat your comrades. But it won't be easy because I guarantee they'll be intent on killing you. Good luck." He gave the kunoichi a little wave, and the mind-controlled-shinobi attacked.
There were two shinobi fighting one kunoichi with the exception of Ino who was fighting three, which was odd because Sai hadn't exactly been a part of her team, but Sakura figured that Orochimaru wanted to pit Sasuke, his ex-apprentice, Naruto, Jiraiya's apprentice, and her, Tsunade's apprentice, dubbed the New Sannin, against each other. She wasn't far in her assumption.
Each fight spread farther and farther away from the others and soon all five battles were going on in separated and isolated parts of the forest, but not far from the original clearing where Orochimaru and Kabuto sat, enjoying the sight of each fight. Kabuto had with him a device that showed all the battles going on, allowing them to view everything.
"Why are you two under his control, huh?" Temari said, taunting her brothers. "I thought you were stronger than that." She rolled to one side, avoiding the sand.
"No, Orochimaru's side is power and we're fighting freely for him." Kankuro said with Gaara nodding beside him. His puppets moved toward her.
"Oh really?" Temari smirk was wide. "Then how come you were so intent on attacking him earlier, and why were you," she looked at Gaara, "trying to escape?"
"That was just a ruse." Gaara responded without emotion, and Temari grit her teeth.
"So you two aren't just pretending to be controlled are you?" TenTen asked as she dodged a kick from Lee.
"We went with him willingly." Lee responded. "It's unfortunate that you fell for it so easily!"
"Me? Fall for it?" TenTen scoffed. "I was careful about you to begin with!" She threw kunai at her opponents.
"Hmph! You, careful? You're just weak and undeserving." Neji responded while easily dodging the aerial projectiles.
TenTen glared at him. "Weak? Sorry, but I don't see myself under the control of Orochimaru!"
"Again it proves my point." Neji calmly responded. "You don't know the meaning of power."
Lee soon engaged her with hand-to-hand combat.
"Don't try to fight back." Lee said as he fought. "You're efforts are really just futile and we've seen all your attacks and weapons though two years have passed."
TenTen leaped backwards from Lee, freeing herself from combat against him and pulled out the sword of her inheritance from her scroll. "Really? I doubt that you've seen this weapon before."
Sakura dodged all of Sasuke and Naruto's attacks. Years of training under Tsunade and the Hidden Grass Village in the Grass country had increased her speed, and she easily kept away from their attacks. Her problem was with the fact that they were both under mind control and she didn't know how to break the jutsu. She tried to talk sense into them.
"Why are you doing this?" she asked. "You hate Orochimaru!"
"That was then. Now we've embraced his power and love it!" Naruto replied darkly, running at her.
"But you've resisted going to the dark side before!"
"Feh. It's all about power, Sakura. Something that you couldn't possibly understand." Sasuke said.
"You turned your back on that power." Sakura spat. "How can you think you are willingly returning to it?"
Sasuke drew out his sword. "Mistakes are mistakes, but Orochimaru was willing to give me another chance."
"And he can give you one too, if you join us." Naruto said, him and Sasuke cornering Sakura. "As someone trained by one of the Sannin, I'm sure Orochimaru would love to add you to our team."
"Yes, and if you're willing to choose power with us then you're proving yourself not weak and capable." Sasuke said.
"You're just under his mind control!" Sakura retorted. "Naruto, Sasuke, fight it! You're stronger than him!"
Ino flipped over the heads of her ex-comrades, careful to stay away from the shade of the trees. "Is this a trick you're planning Shikamaru?"
"No, everything is completely genuine." Shikamaru responded in his usual voice, and Ino found it hard to believe that it wasn't just a ruse.
Sai unleashed an army of ink mice at Ino and Chouji rolled at her. Ino rolled to the right and tsked in her head. Her techniques were mind control and healing—not very offense against them.
"Fight it fatso!" she yelled at Chouji, trying to bring out the personality that hated to be called fat.
"Chubby not fat, and I'm not prone to anger!" Chouji yelled and sprang at her.
She gave him one of her obnoxious smiles. "Oh really? Then what was that?" she taunted.
"Ugh!" Ino was attacked by Sai from behind, and caught off guard could not block his kick.
She laid on the ground, fumbling to stand as the two stood before her. Suddenly, she found herself standing, but not of her own accord. She realized that in the moment she wasn't moving, Shikamaru had taken control of her body with his shadow jutsu. She glared at them as they stood there, watching her.
"You're all smart, why can't you tell you are being controlled?" she asked, hoping her mouth could stall for her.
"Control? Are you still caught up in that idea?" Sai scoffed. "We're here of our own will."
"He's right and we're attacking you because you're against us." Chouji agreed.
Ino gave a hollow laugh. "Are you kidding me? You heard him admit that he put you guys under his control!"
She gained no response.
Hinata, as much as she disliked it, was running from her old ex-teammates. Although she knew she had grown faster due to her training, she knew that Kiba and Akamaru had more than likely gotten much faster as well. She had to put some distance between herself and them so she could plan out her next steps. She went faster, but kept at an able pace to reserve her stamina.
Using her Byakugan, she was able to judge the distance between them, and knew exactly how far away they were. When she was far enough, she quickly stopped and set several traps, and then waited for their arrival.
She did not have long to wait as her ex-teammates crashed through moments later. Kiba and Akamaru were unlucky enough to fall straight into her trap, but Shino was not, and he came from behind Hinata. However, Hinata had not forgotten about Shino like others would, and was ready when he struck.
She parried his attacks and then matched his blows fist-to-fist. Instead of asking questions to dislodge him, Hinata continued to strike the bug-user, pushing him back until he fell to the ground having tripped over a large rock. Immediately as he was down, Hinata used her Jyuuken on him, paralyzing his limbs, and sealed off his chakra points for the time being. She kept an eye out for his Kikaichū bugs but there were nowhere to be seen.
She strode over to Kiba and Akamaru who had broken free of her traps and where about to attack her. With no hesitation, Hinata threw kunai at them before they could attack and while they were dodging she sealed up their chakra points and blocked their movement.
After that, she dragged the three so they lay together next to each other.
"Never thought that weak, timid, Hinata could do this to you, huh?" Hinata said looming above the three. "So why do you refuse to believe you are under the control of Orochimaru and Kabuto?"
"Peh! We are not!" Kiba shouted. "We joined willingly!"
Akamaru barked in agreement, and Hinata wondered how Orochimaru managed to brainwash Akamaru as well. She guessed it was through Akamaru and Kiba's strong bonds together.
"You could join us." Shino stated, and the three looked at him.
"Why would I do that?"
"To join the winning side of power."
"Well it's not that simple."
"We'll guarantee your membership."
"What's the benefit of this membership?"
"Power to rule the world."
"Hmm . . ."
As Kabuto and Orochimaru watched the battles, amusement was reflected on their faces. But next to it was certain confusion as well.
"Why do they keep asking those kunoichi to join? They are merely to eliminate them." Orochimaru remarked.
"It is probably the only thing they could think of, Orochimaru-sama." Kabuto replied.
"Yes, but the other word they could say is 'kill'."
"Yes, but this will help lower the kunoichi's guard, if they think they are getting through to the shinobi, but which they are not."
Look at the battles, they saw Temari stalling, TenTen fighting, a cornered Sakura, and Ino who was at a standstill. Kabuto's eyes narrowed when he saw Hinata's battle and found that she had subdued both of the shinobi, instead of the other way around.
"Orochimaru-sama, I am sorry for their incompetence." Kabuto said apologetically.
"Kukukuku . . . no worries Kabuto." Orochimaru replied. "Let's visit her first then, shall we?"
The two shinobi stood and vanished.
"It sounds very tempting." Hinata said in a convincing tone. "But I don't know if they'll let me join."
"Well," Kiba said, but was interrupted by the appearance of Orochimaru and Kabuto.
"We definitely won't let her join." Kabuto stated. "It is simple for the fact that she is hesitant on the matter of joining. If she was strong then she wouldn't need to think about such matters."
"Ah, that is right." Kiba said. Akamaru remained silent.
"So you won't let me join?" Hinata asked with a slight pout. "And I was just thinking of taking up your offer." Inside, her mind raced to stall the shinobi and she was on her guard in case of any sudden attack.
Temari had turned the tables, and was now advancing toward Kankuro and Gaara, determined to be the winner of the battle. A shriek led her to stop her attack and she left the scene after a split decision. The brothers followed her immediately.
TenTen rushed at Neji and Lee with her sword, swinging it this way and that. It glittered in the light and flashed with different colors. Both Neji and Lee seemed to be pushed back, but TenTen wasn't buying it, and watched for the time when they would split up to attack.
It came very soon with Neji as a rushing distraction and Lee as a sneaky back attack. Quickly, she fought off Neji and turned to block Lee just in time.
"Give up." TenTen told him.
"Never!" Lee shouted, and kicked her, but she sidestepped that and threw him to the ground. Just as she was about to attack she heard a shriek, and leapt back.
'That was Hinata!'
Casting a glance back at her opponents, TenTen rushed away and was followed.
It seemed that talking wasn't convincing them, but Sakura had to stall for time. As soon as they got closer, she punched them hard in the stomach, and was rewarded with pushing them back as well as cracking a few ribs.
"You'll pay for that!" Sasuke shouted angrily, struggling to get up.
As Naruto limped toward her, Sakura heard the shriek of Hinata, and was immediately concerned.
"Yeah, I think that will happen later. . . Bye!" Sakura dashed off and the two limply followed her.
As soon as Ino heard the shriek of Hinata, she used a new surge of strength to suddenly attack and throw the three shinobi off guard. Kicking them hard and then barraging them with a set of hidden kunais—one of her three reserves—she successfully was able to stand free for a moment.
But she did not wait to relish her victory—she left to go to Hinata without delay for Shikamaru could still have gotten her with his shadow technique.
After they recovered, the shinobi dashed after her.
It came suddenly, and Hinata was sent flying from the force of the attack, despite her guard against it.
She tried not to say anything, but could not help but emit a rather loud shriek when her back hit a large rock after going through the trunk of a tree.
"Ugh . . . "
Hinata's back was largely bruised, and as she struggled to stand, snakes attacked her, commanded by Kabuto. She braced herself for an attack, but it never reached her since a sudden swarm of black formed a wall and blocked the snakes. Then, the wall changed to cover the now-writhing snake and restrain it from attacking once more.
Hinata was close enough to recognize the Kikaichū bugs of Shino, and her eyes widened since she knew that Shino was still under Orochimaru's control. Why then, would he send his bugs to help her?
Shino, however, was just as surprised at everyone in the clearing and he just looked at them when they turned to him. He tried to command his bugs not a single one retreated.
It didn't take Hinata more than two seconds to figure out that the Kikaichū bugs were acting of their own free will and she quickly made her next move. Concentrating, she made a calculating leap away from the bug swarm and landed near the immobile Shino, Kiba, and Akamaru. As Kabuto de-summoned the restrained snake and summoned a new one, Hinata took that opportunity to remove Akamaru's immobility by using Jyuuken on him once more.
She hoped she had made the right choice when Kabuto's new snake attacked her and she wasn't disappointed when the dog-nin tackled the advancing snake, preventing it from reaching her.
The four shinobi were surprised by this display, and Kabuto gave the immobile shinobi a cool glance.
"Can't you do something about this?"
In response, Kiba said, "Call off your snake first!"
Kabuto twitched, but complied with the task and the two fighting animals backed off.
Kiba then proceeded to ask Akamaru. "What are you doing?"
Akamaru answered in a series of sharp barks but never once took his eyes off of the snake whom he considered an enemy.
While Kiba was communicating with Akamaru, Shino turned to Orochimaru and Kabuto, and asked aloud, "Could you possibly make us mobile?"
Kabuto moved forward to check Shino after a glance at Orochimaru, and hit a couple of his pressure points. "Try that."
Shino managed to wiggle his arm slightly, so Kabuto hit the rest of his pressure points and then moved on to Kiba.
"Don't forget that brat, Kabuto." Orochimaru said. "She's trying to edge away."
While the shinobi were distracted, Hinata had managed to move away from them and was only stopped by Orochimaru's voice that stated her status.
Of course, all eyes had to turn to her and Kabuto turned to Shino and said, "Well? Capture her!"
Kiba was still occupied with Akamaru, but when Shino leapt at Hinata, Akamaru ran behind Hinata while Shino's Kikaichū bugs came to the front. Seeing his bugs before him made him hesitate in his attack, but Kiba's loud voice yelled at him to not hit Akamaru. Shino frowned, seeing as Akamaru wasn't really near him and his bugs were much closer, but he didn't respond.
That's when the thirteen other shinobi crashed through one after the other onto the scene.
There is only one chapter left to this story and anyone who submits a review shall be mentioned in the last chapter! Please stick with me until the very end, and I hope you all enjoy reading this story!
Thanks to Neguru Sucashi, Rei Sagara, xxjimmyxx1, Rixclassa, and Dancing-Souls for reviewing!
