Scroll 6: Fight On!

Yukari had taken Wydra and gone into the earthen staircase as Otou-sensei covered up behind them, moving the statue back into place as if nothing at happened.

"If I'm right this will take us to a long tunnel and then ladders, bringing us…well, I'm not sure if I should tell you or not…" Yukari spoke up in the semi-darkness of the now covered staircase. "Let's just say it's a safe place to be at the moment. You ok back there?" She blindly reached into her kunai pack, thanking the gods that she had grabbed it, and pulled out a stick of tan-white substance wrapped in clear skin.

"Here you go, chew-gum, it's one of my last of three pieces, I won it in a bet with our Hokage. I got five, but I used two of them already." Yukari handed it to the rather quiet girl and finished climbing the seventy-two; yes she counted them, steps that ended in a long tunnel with sparse lighting. Shifting the weight properly onto her back, the red-eyed girl took off running until it had been five minutes. Then she stopped and rested.

Suddenly, Yukari's shadow grew bigger; and the meager lighting around her was extinguished as the shadows reached them. Wydra noticed, shouted, and started running off in the direction they had been going previously before stopping and turning to the Uzaruki-heiress. Wydra slammed her feet onto her unicycle.

"Get on! Hurry!"

"Nani? What the bugger going on!" Yukari wasn't a slight doofus like Naruto, nor did she have his ungodly amount of stamina: but she knew when to run and when to fight. This was a 'when to run' deal. She ran after Wydra and matched the girl's speed, step for step.

They took speeding off immediately. A cackling voice could be heard as the speed of the shadows lengthened. Yukari knew that fight in darkness was going to be a challenge.

"Oh come now, you've no chance of escaping me. Kentarou is nowhere in sight, all of your protectors are outside dealing with the family, and all you have to protect you is some lowly chuunin. So why don't…you…just…STOP RUNNING!" A large hand popped out of the ground, a kunai held within, positioned to stab Wydra in the head.

"KAGE BUNSHIN NO JUTSU!"

Like Naruto, she too, had learned the Shadow Clone Jutsu. Her only drawback was; she could only do two clones. But those two were enough as one tackled the hand, Kage-Yukari's hair wrapping swiftly around both Kunai and hand.

"That's Uzaruki-chuunin to you, you lame-ass hand-monster!" Real-Yukari screamed as they flew passed the hair-wrapped hand.

"The freak! This is too weird…hands popping out of the tunnel…if we can, Wydra, let's get back to the entrance…we can use the light there!"

Wydra started circling around and ran up along the walls, zooming back towards the entrance. She did a few quick hand signs and her wheel started to illuminate the tunnel, lessening the darkness. The disembodied hand re-appeared at the beginning of the tunnel though, this time with another hand, as they together did a series of hand signs. Several large strings of webbing appeared in the way, blocking the entrance.

"Can you beat me to the other side?" the voice cackled. A shadow could be seen entering the light from Wydra's wheel, going towards the exit. "Isn't this a fun game Wydra-chan?"

Wydra might not know it, but depending on her training, Yukari might have found it fun to fight by the wheel's light and on stairs. The voice was just trying to psyche Wydra out and her only help to be had was Yukari and her two kage bunshins.

"Beh, you think those weak-ass strings are going to stop us!" the real Yukari made a series of bird-dominate hand signs and literally threw her hair outward, into the opposing string web, piercing it and creating a shaft of black hair; that tore open the dragon statue off its base and launched it clear into the air. There was only five more feet to go as the light was shining down into the gaping new hole Yukari had made with her chakra-covered hair strands.

"Beh, let's show these stupid hands that we're the better kunoichi, eh, Wydra-chan?"

The webbing itself was pierced and became limp, until they passed between it. Then it came alive again and reached out, grabbing at the Yukaris and Wydra to try and throw them back into the tunnel. Whatever the source of these attacks was, it knew it'd have no chance of victory if they got outside where they could get help; if help hadn't already noticed the gaping hole in the dragon statue.

Yukari shouted in anger as she and Wydra were thrown backwards ten feet. The two clones of the red-eyed kunoichi easily caught the girl and unicycle and swiftly brought out a pair of kunai.

"Just was the crap are you! You better talk before I bring out the big artillery!" Clone-Yukari was checking all over for enemy signs, as the real and third Yukari joined her. The three stood in a Delta (triangle) formation – back-to-back-to-back – with Wydra in the middle them.

"You aren't a Spider Nin, are you, you lame joke!"

"You mean that pathetic fool that joined up with Orochimaru! HE WAS NOTHING COMPARED TO WHAT MY FATHER'S TAUGHT ME!" This seemed to piss off the voice a little. It rose up out of the ground at the entrance, doing a few hand signs as it came. Before a series of web popped up and killed the light, he could be seen. It was like Ibiki Morino, but all over. The boy was pretty much naked, except for a pair of shoes and pants. All over his body, various scratches, gashes, holes and other healed over scars showed. It was little wonder he was evil and angry.

Wydra's wheel began shoving out more and more light, but it seemed as though the darkness was literally attacking the light and trying to snuff it out. She was scared, very scared. She didn't get until now what exactly Skiminachi had meant. She didn't think he was such a meanie anymore.

XXX

Meanwhile, outside the village, one of the ninja stirred. It was the ninja wrapped all in black cloth, with no apparent seems or holes for air. A rather creepy person, but he'd been with the good ninja before. He had previously been lying knocked out, but seemed to come alive with a banshee-like gasp of air. With his legs severely mauled, he crawled with his hands as fast as he could in Yukari's direction, pulled there by a certain force.

The creepy, black-clad ninja continued to crawl into the village, ignoring everybody else. He didn't think to ask – partly because he couldn't talk – for some medical help but it would've been good for him and his wrong-way twisted legs. Sensing a growing urgency, his hands sort of misted out, grew, and became claws of darkness that gouged into the ground and pulled him farther and faster towards the Dragon statue. The ninja was almost there; it made its way over a house and clawed the roof wide open in the process. It would've just gone through the house, but this wasn't his village and he'd been told certain rules should be followed no matter what.

XXX

"Ew, gross…put some freaking clothes on, you freak." Yukari-clone nearly gagged at the sight of the man. Per say it to be one thing to peep at the men's saunas once on a dare, but this man was nothing. He shouldn't even be allowed to be walking about WITH cloths on.

"Just who are you and what the crap are you wanting here! You better scram before I get mad." Kage-Yukari was studying the light produced by the unicycle intensely, as if trying to formulate a plan.

"I've seen some ugly shit in my days, but you have got to take the cake, ew…" Real-Yukari was indeed, truly disgusted, and not bluffing like her usual attitude was wont to do.

"You ok, Wydra-san?" Clone-Yukari glanced back to the girl on the cycle.

Wydra was still on her Unicycle. It was almost habit to not try and let her feet touch the ground.

"Yeah…I don't wanna die." She wanted to hug real-Yukari and just feel safe, but knew that was; right now, the opposite from being safe. Under her breath, she muttered:

"Kentarou, please help give me strength."

Right next to them, right outside the light, the voice was heard:

"Why should your father help you when all mine has done is ignore the cries for him to come back!" Not quite sure which was the real one; a normal hand reached into the light to give an open-palmed strike at Yukari-clone's head.

"Nobody is gonna die in this tunnel, Wydra-chan, because I'm on the job!" Yukari-clone grabbed the hand and grappled it, using her own momentum to hoist the owner of the hand over her shoulder and behind them, hoping to make the hand marry the dirt and ground.

"Peh, is that all you can do? Lee-chan is the best in taijutsu, so I've learned a thing or too when opponents start throwing their appendages around!" Clone-Yukari spat.

The real-Yukari nodded and turned upward to the ceiling, throwing pieces of paper with writing on them, about five in all, in a semi circle between the just thrown man and them.

"Ok, who wants the party?"

As the hand grabbed the arm, he spoke, his voice dripping anger and hatred, and speaking a line that made no sense.

"I am not a traitor, and you've no idea my capabilities." The arm came off within Clone-Yukari's hand, and there was a poof as it turned into a couple of very large spiders that leapt up to bite at the three Yukaris. The ugly ninja was now completely ignoring Wydra, having deemed Yukari a much bigger threat. Which although not the world's biggest mistake; Wydra would teach the man to watch all enemies. She started doing a series of hand signs, a long one.

"Beh!" Kage-Yukari winced as she herself barely dodged the spider and bit her thumb in the same motion. The Clone-Yukari wasn't as lucky as the spider landed on her. Kage-Yukari leapt up to touch one of the five seal on the ceiling and cried out.

"Tori Kuchiyose no jutsu!" A flock of five owls were summoned and went after the spiders. Yukari was glad that she had opted to sign an Owl's contract.

"Wydra, now might be a great time to pop that chew-gum into your mouth…it's really beneficial!" The spider-carrying Yukari-clone smirked as the spider bit her and ended her shadow-clone induced life. Clone-Yukari died with a woomph of cloud.

Wydra nodded and complied, quickly chewing the gum. She had no idea what it was for, or how she'd managed to do that when she was still doing hand-signs. Wydra hoped Kage-Yukari could occupy him long enough, the only reason this took her so long was because of her inexperience.

"So you're a bird are you? I'LL CLIP YOUR WINGS AND EAT YOU SLOWLY!" he shouted. "Summoning jut-…oh no…"

All of the darkness, all of his jutsu, disappeared and he was seen not three feet from the two remaining Yukari. He was looking at the entrance, where the currently-crippled ninja had just ripped off the statue's covering and dropped down into. On the enemy ninja's scarred face came a look of fear; the kind a child might get when confronted by a large and scary dog. He took off running down the tunnel; going straight where all the safe zones were.

A swell of chakra flowed through Wydra's body, the source coming from the chew-gum. It was a reservoir of built up chakra, much like a food-pill, only without the bummer-ing side effects. Kage-Yukari grinned then frowned as her limited chakra-life span ended and she vanished with a pop. It seems that a spider had crawled up her leg and landed a bite on her knee; and it proved to be poisonous indeed. Poor Yukari-kage.

Yukari's eyes widened and the normal black pupils split in half, most like an amoeba birthing. Her Akashingan was active and zeroed in on the lead owl that was chasing the scarred, ugly nude mad man. Good thing too, because it probably was a hideous sight from ground level.

"Now to turn the tables on the spider itself…"

Yukari, now tapping into the dredges of her chakra reserves, made a short sign of three: dragon, rabbit & bird, and the strands of hair the each owl was carrying grew in size and volume, until the birds had to let go. A large as a man-sized snake, her hair strands fell upon the retreating man and became like tar and lava, gooing the ground under his feet.

"Gross huh? A little payback for ya…"

Her owls only had an instant before both black mist and red-hot fire rushed under them. They vanished with a poof. Her colon-like black pupils slowly were drawn together, back into a normal black pupil that sat in the middle of her red eyes. Breathing heavily labored from chakra exhaustion, Yukari looked over her shoulder to Wydra and nodded seriously.

"Hey, great job…just hold on a little longer…" Yukari hoped Wydra had a good hold onto her back, because the red-eyed kunoichi stepped backwards until they were out of the tunnel and standing beside the crippled ninja. The whole battle had taken three minutes from start to finish; and within those three minutes, Yukari had managed to drain her modestly large reserve of chakra. The Med-Nins showed up now, as they had a habit of doing and began to inspect the trio.

"What was that ugly man? An enemy nin?" Yukari asked in a tired voice.

The creepy nin continued to crawl towards the man's passed out and bleeding body. He waved off the medical ninja, throwing rocks at any that tried to get close. He reached him, and put his hands on him. Black ooze seeped out of his hands and into the person's wounds, at the same time putting various seals all over his body. The Med-Nin turned towards Yukari and shrugged.

He didn't have anybody nearby that could explain he had no tongue to talk, and the other methods of conversation he had needed explaining as well. He looked around expectantly at the medical nin, hoping they'd heal his obviously busted up legs. He was out of juice, and he couldn't heal himself too well anyway.

Outside, all the Wheel-village ninja were, hopefully, getting help. Only a few were awake.

"Thank you, Yukari…" Wydra took a few deep breaths.

The Medic-nin knew a ninja's job wasn't finished until she/he said so, and they waited on the broken-legged man until he waved them closer again. Yukari got off fairly unchecked, only a bloodied knee where she had skidded on and her drained chakra.

"Hey, you're welcome, Wydra-san, he was too ugly to allow to breath Konoha air. So I guess this is all of today's adventure?" the red-eyed ninja wondered just what the heck had happened and looked towards the Hokage's Mountain, taking solace in seeing the four and half faces of the Hokages. "I'm guessing you wanna see your sensei again, right? Well I'm betting we'll find him really soon, because the Hokage is going to want to know what happened."

"I…can't explain as well as Shozaku and Trydna can…" She nodded towards the now walking ninja in black. She got off of Yukari's back and walked, slowly, towards Trydna as he walked towards the pair of them. She grabbed his hand and gave it a pat.

"Thank you for helping. We might not have survived without you." She walked back to Yukari and grabbed her hand, like a little girl grabbing her big sister's hand, as the unicycle wheeled up and under her feet.

"Are we going back outside now?" Yukari was right; she did want to know what happened to Shozaku and the rest of the Wheel Nin.

XXX

In one of the open areas reserved for the village's large festivals, in where the Wheel Nin made camp; Skiminachi was making some quick & easy food to help those injured, and for the medical Nin and ninja on duty. It was amazing how much food he could cook in so little time. A few of the ninja and regular civilians were curiously watching the large cook as he plied his trade.

"Yup…since the Med-Nin are here, I'm guessing the clear sign has been given. Man, Naruto-chan sure missed a great fight…" Yukari smiled wearily as she guided Wydra to the Wheel-Nin camp to find out what was what. Meko, not surprisingly, had found Yukari and was now yowling his distain for being ignored.

"Yea, yea, I hear you Meko-chan…I've had a busy day, and no I don't know where the 'teddy-bear-boy' is. So…Wydra, how'd the chew-gum work for you?" Yukari turned away from the cat and towards her, smiling. "A surprise, wasn't it?"

"Yeah, it was pretty good. Where can I get more?" She smiled back up to Yukari.

Trydna, another Wheel Nin, walked along behind them closely. He walked with a more relaxed attitude, but slightly stiffly; like a person with a few permanent injuries. He was looking around at the village, and a wide open-mouthed smile was forming under his suit as he noticed all the colors and the manner that ninja did things in. His manner wasn't evil or threatening, but there was still, something off about him. Skiminachi walked up and offered them some ice-cream.

"I made this myself. Tastes good, it keeps you awake and helps heal minor wounds; like your scraped knee, Uzaruki-san…" He ended the sentence with a Santa-like laugh. Skiminachi nodded to his comrades as he followed a group of ninja back towards the Hokage's office in the middle of the village.

"Hay, Meko! I know, go bug the big tall cook! That'll get you to shut up!" Yukari laughed jovially as the cat swatted at the mute-ninja. "Ice cream that heals, oh wow, the Med-Nins might wanna get their hands on that, I'd be careful." Yukari was used to the tall, huge hulk of a ninja-cook by now as she nodded towards a group of ninja heading towards the Hokage's office; each probably with a report and bag full of questions.

"You three sure you wanna stick around? I'm sure once Tsunade-sama gets her hands on you, you'll all be in the interrogation building for days…as for the gum; I won it in a bet against the Hokage…so it was a pretty risky and high bet, since chakra-positive gum is so rare. I had to store my own chakra in it to begin with…" Yukari shrugged and led them into a waiting room a floor below the Hokage's office. He reached into a bag and tossed a fish to Meko, and laughed at Yukari's words.

"I would be more than happy to offer up my secret recipe. There's no need for interrogation, I'd be more than happy to answer any questions I can. But it's a bad idea to 'interrogate' Trydna. He has no tongue to speak, and can only speak in his mind with certain jutsus. He was never taught to write. His mind is…can be, an evil place."

Trydna was busy eating ice cream, which was weird because he was just holding it in his hands as it slowly disappeared.

"And the gum? I know how to make it, but it is an arduous task…" He took a seat between Trydna and Wydra and sighed. Wydra continued licked away at the ice cream.

"Mmmm…Tsunade's not a mean person is she?" Wydra asked curiously.

"Not at all, she's scary, but that's because she's just old and powerful…she's like a…like a…hmmm…tough on the outside, but friendly on the inside." Yukari finally licked at her ice cream and Meko horded the fish as a ninja bearing the Konoha Leaf band entered the room.

"We'd like you to come with us to answer our questions…" the red-haired chuunin said boredly. "The Hokage is so ready to hear just what the heck trouble you weird ninja have brought…"

"Haiko-baka…that's just MEAN! They are Homeless Nin, treat them with respect!" Yukari leapt to her feet and scowled at the lack-a-daisy red-hair dyed male ninja.

"Yea, no shit, Uzaruki-san. I know that, I was doing IMPORTANT things before that old hag called me too…" Haiko was interrupted with a screech from above. Obviously Tsunade didn't take well to being called old, or a hag.

"I told you, Haiko-san…just do your job…" Another shinobi smirked as he entered the room to escort them to the Hokage's office. Trydna and Skiminachi got up to follow along behind the assistant ninja.

"We knew about the age and we had assumed that she was powerful indeed. Hopefully the conversation will go well. And besides Haiko, this may soon become the most important thing you could be doing." The large ninja-chef winked at him mischievously. It was a kind of mischievous like a kid aiming for laughs, not like a criminal aiming to blow shit up.

Wydra got up to go, but Skiminachi gave her another look and she sat back down with a pout on her face.

"Child, believe me when I say there are things soon said I would die to keep you from hearing. Go find your friends, see what they are doing…" He then turned and continued on, looking as if he dared anybody to have the child come with them. Trydna just followed along, looking creepy but harmless.

Yukari was just fine to let the higher-ups take over for now. She'd probably have to report to the Hokage or Haiko-sensei later. Damn, too bad Izumo wasn't around. He and Kotetsu were on her number one list of possibly permanent new teammates. They were the ones normally to be stuck with sentry duty; as the two were best friends.

"Yea, I wanna know what happened to that Chain-san and the Cute-kun; Wydra-chan, let's go look for them!"

Meko yowled in agreement as he finished his fishy the tall Cook-Nin gave him. The now-black cat jumped onto Wydra's leg and looked up. Meko had the chakra ability to change his fur color. This marked him as a ninken, or ninja animal tool; the only thing was; Meko wasn't properly classified as a ninja, and he certainly wasn't given to Yukari; her specialty being birds and hair. Meko had shown up after Itachi had hit her and Kakashi with the Mangekyou Sharingan years back and had stuck with Yukari, more or less, ever since then.

"Kitty!" and then Meko was hugged close to Wydra and nuzzled the cat. As they walked off, Wydra's feet were once more upon the Unicycle. "They were probably out fighting. They're a lot better at it than I am. But that doesn't bother me…I'd rather train the normal way. Oh! I know!" She pulled a little whistle out of her pocket and blew into it. It wasn't one that only animals could hear, but Gilligan, still dubbed Cute-kun, had its twin and it rattled when blown. A few seconds later hers rattled and turned, pointing out of the village.

"That way!" she tugged on Yukari's hand, acting more like a kid, than a ninja.

"Eh? What's that? A whistle? A dog whistle? Hehehehhe, I bet I could drive Kiba-san crazy…" Yukari muttered to herself as Wydra led her to where ever.

Yukari and Wydra made their way back out of the village, where a couple of the Unicycle-d ninja were rolling about. Gilligan jogged up, waving.

"Hiya! I'm glad you're okay Wydra." He hugged her. "Sheena's over there, talking to her brother. Hi, miss-forgot-your-name…" he said to Yukari, looking up at her.

"Cha, hello…this is…most unusual." Yukari looked about at all the unicycles and whistled in awe. "Those are odd tools you got there. I've never seen it before in my life, until yesterday. You guys must be strong to be able to use it!" Yukari smiled and nodded to the guy, Gilligan, before continuing. "Your names are most foreign. I take it you're not from around here or the surrounding countries? What village are you from?"

Yukari had finally un-stoppered the thing that held her questions back as she and Wydra took a seat on the grass.

"My daddy says he's from a different place entirely. Every time I ask he says something about 'that god-damned bunny' and tells me to 'shut the hell up or else.' He says most of the names here sound funny so he 'names us whatever way he damn well pleases.'" Gilligan responded. When he imitated his father, his voice got a deep pitch and a creepy feeling.

"Oh, Kentarou trains us to use them, and he taught us all sorts of Jutsu that you can only do if you have a wheel. He says it's kind of like a test of strength, and so that people can't imitate it because they don't have one. We're all still getting into the habit, but Kentarou never let his feet touch the ground. Not since he was little. Shozaku once managed to knock him off it, but he just sort of floated!" Wydra stopped talking as Sheena walked towards them with a pout on her face. The four chatted awhile to pass the time.