Scroll 18: Akadou Clan
Yukari flinched minutely as the Yamanaka withdrew from her head and left her area of view. She took it as a good sign that the blonde shinobi had decided not to approach her on the subject of Naruto or Ino. Finishing her bowl of ramen, Yukari looked around for Gilligan.
Wydra, turning her eyes away from Sheena, noticed Yukari looking around; then did the same. After realizing what was missing and what Yukari was probably looking for. "Looking for Gilligan? He does that a lot. Never tells us where he goes but he's usually not gone too long."
Sheena had finished her ramen and put the empty bowl up on the counter. She wasn't looking completely down anymore, but still seemed nervous. "Where should we go now?"
Yukari sat back after she had paid for the bowls of ramen, looking thoughtful.
"Do you girls like puppies?" She'd grinned happily.
Wydra nodded and smiled widely but Sheena looked confused. It's almost like she might never have seen a puppy before.
XXX
Across from the ramen shack, somebody was knocking on the door of Kensuke. The sounds of the person approaching were never heard.
"A puppy is soo cute, Sheena-san, you'll see." Yukari got up and exited the shack; only to stare at the person at the door opposite of the ramen joint.
Sheena blinked, but got to her feet and started to follow along. She too, paused to stare at the boy at Kensuke's door. The kid was dressed all in black, and looked to be about nine-years old. They even wore black fabric over the entirety of their head, but strangely still wore a pair of small round sunglasses over where their eyes would be. The moment Sheena stepped out of the ramen shop the person tensed and disappeared in a swirl of black smoke and tiny spiders. Wydra wheeled out a moment later, and Sheena had a snarl across her face and was growling rather loudly.
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"What're you doing out here all by yourself Meiko?" Konohamaru would ask loudly as he walked into view; uncharacteristically alone.
"Beh, what you doing here, Konohamaru?" Meiko opened her red eyes and scowled at the boy that had interrupted her peaceful mind. "I thought you already showed me up in class today, brat." The old Meiko was back, and a bit sour.
"Hey, it wouldn't happen if you trained more; or maybe I'm just better than you." He stuck his tongue out. "And I…" Konohamaru dragged the word out just for emphasis. "Have a reason to be here, I'm meeting my friends. Were you just talking to yourself a minute ago?"
"No, I wasn't talking to myself. I just so happen to have found a boy that isn't a dipshit of sunshine and optimism like you, Konohamaru-chan." Meiko snarled out the 'chan' suffix in insult. "And THIS is Kiba-sama's team tree, you can't take it." She whipped her head the other way and turned up her nose.
Konohamaru laughed. "It's anybody's tree, I don't see his name on it and I don't smell Akamaru on it either. Who're you to tell me what I can and can't do? Last I heard, you were in big trouble for sneaking out in the middle of the night but got caught. I know I would've gotten away with it." He grumbled and turned to start walking back the way he'd came, having completely forgotten why he'd come here in the first place. Meiko was starting to piss him off and he was trying to avoid picking too big a fight with her.
Meiko looked back over her shoulder as an apology was on the tip of her tongue. But Konohamaru was two steps too far for her pride. She jammed her hands into her blue-pant pockets and mumbled as she turned to head home; dreading the punishment that awaited her once she faced her father: Hibachi.
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Yukari blinked, and within that time frame, had a series of three nin stars between her fingers. However, before she could do anything more; obnoxious laughter rang through the street as a group of six or eight male chuunin walked down the large, dirt path. Those once astonished scarlet eyes turned from the spot that spider-boy and towards the swaggering group of testosterone before narrowing dangerously.
"Oh shit. Sheena, Wydra…either you go to my place or high-tail yourselves to the Wheel-nin camp or go back into Ichiraku right now."
She shifted herself between the two girls and the approaching group of men; putting her nin stars back into her pack. Her hair, using the minimum amount of chakra; grew fluffed outward; almost as to hide the two girls behind her and block the view of the chuunin group. The group was just a brewing kettle time-bomb. They all were the Akadou Clan. Both that clan and hers were two of the twenty-five major clans that ruled the Konoha council. However, the Akadou's number was much more significant than hers; nearly two hundred and ninety to her ten clan members - not a good thing for Yukari Uzaruki at all. Now, if Yukari could get them to piss off without angering their clan, she would be happy the rest of the week.
Wydra reached into her pack and pulled out a glowing golden wheel. She did a few quick hand signs and dropped it to the ground, letting it roll around the building before finishing the jutsu that would send it off like a fire-work back to the Wheel-nin camp. With a now free hand she'd cover Sheena's mouth and shake her head, as if to say: 'We don't want to cause problems for Yukari.'
The two girls didn't, however, make any motion to do any of the orders Yukari had given. Sheena pulled her chains a little tighter about herself and Wydra seemed a little more focused and balanced on her unicycle.
Yukari stood up straighter as the Akadou group spotted her near Kensuke's apartment door. The leader chuckled and nudged his buddies as they veered towards her.
"Look who we have here, Jeruo; the little Uzaruki-brat."
The group followed, with their eyes, to the person of which Hisao-sensei pointed to. They grinned and switched towards her direction as they offered catcalls and lewd whistles.
"Look, Hisao-sama, I was just getting something out of this apartment here and was going to be on my way." Yukari spoke evenly through clenched teeth. She knew the Akadou clan was slimy and low on morals. Sure it was rumored that they had supported the scum known as Orochimaru, but that wasn't why she detested them. It was because they were just plain worthless in the normal daily life. These Akadou chuunin acted high and mighty and that just pissed her off.
"Look, Yukari-chan…" Hisao leaned against the wall and smiled down at her. "We don't want any trouble now, either, but you are in our way, so you're going to have to move. You see?" the haughty tone of Hisao sent his friends into a chuckling fit. "And if you don't see it to be wise enough to move yourself from our path, we're going to have to defend our honor."
Yukari dared not look over her shoulder to see if the two girls were there or not, but she also realize that if she chose the easy path and simply give in to their demands; she'd be revealing the two behind her. That choice of revealing the girls simply wasn't going to happen.
"Uhh, I seem to be unable to move at the moment, Hisao-sama; but there is plenty road enough for you if you'd forget about me and move on." And use the pissin' bloody road, you morons. Yukari's mental voice finished for her.
The villagers that were on the street began to take notice of the ninja-like interaction that was currently taking place across from the Ichiraku Ramen Shack. They all veered in their paths to give the group of Akadou nin a wide berth. Yukari took this in with her sharp eyes, and groaned inwardly as she felt the nervous tension roll off the hapless villagers. This was – unfortunately – going to either turn out to be a drunken tavern brawl or a public humiliation for her. She just prayed that it would be the humiliation.
"You little brat!" Hisao frowned and pushed off the wall and cocked his fist back; letting it fly forward into Yukari's nose. She yelped in utter surprise - not expecting such a quick, violent reaction. Yukari stumbled backwards, her hands flying up to her face to hold her nose.
The action that Hisao took was the worst possible avenue of choices. Sheena had already been made very uncomfortable by their presence; the way they smelled, acted and their numbers. At about the point his fist connected with Yukari's face, Sheena blacked out for a split-second while a grim memory of a particularly important head flying through the air replayed itself in her mind. As Yukari stumbled backwards, Wydra would grab her and pull her to the side while Hisao would suddenly find a large number of jagged chains around his arm.
"MOMMAAAAAAAAA!" Was the only comprehensible thing coming out of Sheena's mouth amidst a storm of demonic screeching.
Hisao's eyes went wide as he found his arm in the tight, deadly grip of chains. Sheena would yank and he would either lose the arm or be pulled towards a now pissed off and deadly little girl. Even as she yanked, a chainsaw like noise was heard as all the chains on her unwrapped and went out to attack Hisao and anybody behind him, Akadou or not.
While pulling Yukari to the side, Wydra kicked her unicycle up off the ground and launched it towards the Akadou ninjas. The wheel transformed, becoming ten times its previous size, and spun. Its only aim was to shove the ninja group and any innocent by-standers out of harm's way.
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Shozaku got the golden wheel around the same time Barokendo heard the scream. They were on opposite sides of the village though. Shozaku hauled ass, boosting his speed in every way possible. Barokendo sunk into the ground, and along the streets of Konoha a large traveling bump could be seen, the tips of spikes coming out of it to cut at any that stayed in its way, and shoved aside all people and obstacles.
Yukari, who had rebounded from being hit and shoved out of the way by Wydra, took her bloody hands from her face to performed a long, but quick, series of hand signs – before slamming her hands down to summon a trio of horse-sized eagles. Dipping into her chakra again, her hair – going from dandelion fluff to spider web-thin – surrounded the immediate area with large, centimeter-thin strands that created a spider web. Her hopes were to use the web to stop any advancing chains that Sheena would send until Yukari could calm her down.
The three air raptors that she summoned; one for her, one for Sheena and one for Wydra – all female eagles – lifted the girls onto their backs and took to the sky; hoping to minimize casualties on ground. The hair-made spider web assisted Wydra's Unicycle wheel in holding back the rest of the fight-lusting Akadou nin and civilians. However, since she was still resting her chakra reserves, Yukari fought to keep from blacking from both a pained nose and chakra-exhaustion.
With her destruction broken in a way she wasn't familiar with; Sheena's violence was momentarily disrupted enough so that the leading Akadou nin retained his arm. However, as she was lifted away; several fingers were severed. Hisao's arm was shattered as several deep lacerations would become covered in dirt. This was because the chains had shoved him over to the ground as they unwrapped from around their prey. Her original target no longer in sight, the chains changed target and had begun to wrap around the eagle she was on.
Fortunately, for her and not the Akadou, Sheena saw signs of her brothers approach and immediately calmed down - at least until her anger subsided into heavy breathing and angry looks. Wydra's unicycle, having completed its mission, zoomed back through the air until it was attached once more to her back. Wydra turned towards Yukari and, if they weren't far enough apart shouted:
"Are you okay? What the hell just happened? Who the FUCK were they?" Normally, she didn't use strong language. Kentarou-sama had disapproved of that, believing it to be a sign of lacking intelligence.
By this time, Shozaku had gotten close enough to gather what might've happened, and changed directions. He came by Skiminachi, who had recently finished his conversation with the 5th. All he did was point towards the eagles the trio was on, as the cook had noticed him, and shouted: "LAUNCH ME!"
He jumped into the big man's hands, which had grown in size, and was launched into the air with enough force that he could maneuver onto Yukari's eagle on his own. Suddenly, Yukari's eagle would have an extra companion as Shozaku – purposefully or not, one would never know – moved his hands around her waist to steady her and gave himself balance.
"What the hell is going on here?" His words echoed Wydra's.
Making an effort in turning around, Yukari, once again, brought her hands to her bleeding nose.
"I not…a clan war…bastard Akadou…" She managed to grunt a few words before swaying on her eagle. The eagle, intelligent enough to be sentient, took the lead of the flock of three and angled towards an open space further away from the fighting hotspot and apartment complexes.
Once it found an open enough space, the eagles landed and vanished with a puff of clouds. Yukari allowed herself to black out after seeing the two girls were unharmed – and with no threats in the area.
Shozaku caught Yukari as she blacked out, momentarily resisting the urge to give her a squeeze. He wasn't a gambler for nothing. He calmly laid her down and straddled her, putting his hands one-over-the-other on her chest and heart. Remembering what Joma had taught him, he did a chakra version of CPR. He pumped chakra back into her like he was trying to get her heart to work again and get chakra flowing through her system. If that didn't work, he would give her mouth-to-mouth to get the chakra in quicker to the rest of her drained network.
Next to them, Wydra would be holding a crying Sheena who was in turn holding – as it looked like Gilligan had returned – a large teddy bear.
XXX
Again, the same kid was knocking on Kensuke's door as though oblivious to the other kind of action or danger around him.
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Yukari's system would accept the inflow of chakra slowly - like water on bone-parched ground - before soaking it up like a soft sponge. She coughed twice and allowed her crimson eyes to pop open, turning her head sideways so she wouldn't choke on the blood that was circulating around the back of her throat.
"WHAT THE F-" her voice would say as yet another cough, splattering blood on the dirt next to her. She hadn't known Shozaku's lips were on hers, but it was just as well that the contact was broken as she was coming around into consciousness.
In location that Yukari had just abandoned – as a ninja vs. ninja scuffle would inevitably bring other ninja down upon the fight – the closest shinobi and a single ANBU would rush in to access the situation. As more ninja rushed in to surround the Akadou group; others would respond to Yukari's situation, eight blocks away: tending to the damage.
With the approaching situation – most wouldn't know it was Baro – the responding nin would see was a traveling large bump in the ground that spikes rotated in and out of. As this reached the Akadou, a few of them would simply just drop into the ground, only to be spat back out a few seconds later, mangled and beaten, but still very much alive. Sensing other ninja coming in, Baro sped up knowing others might step in to stop him, and the other Akadou between him and Hisao would be thrown to the side with cuts and gashes along their lower halves.
If the responding Konoha ninja realized that Hisao was the target, they could have saved him from the world of pain that beneath-earth Barokendo would inflect upon the aggressor.
If they were quick enough to pull Hisao away from Barokendo before he finished his work; the Akadou group leader would just loose a foot. If not, the unlucky man would sink complete beneath the ground into Barokendo's lair.
None of the ninja did this, so it was in stunned awe that Konoha ninja watched as Hisao vanished into the ground; swallowed up by the very earth. The Akadou looked around in fear, hoping they wouldn't be the next. However the only reason they survived was because Baro had picked a single target against his time constraints.
Hisao, still howling in pain and outrage was completely taken unawares as Barokendo had effectively performed the equivalent of earth-style Inner decapitation - which would literally allow the victim to drop into a sinkhole up to their neck. As more ANBU arrived, the panicked civilians had evacuated the area in fear.
There'll be repercussions from this event. The responding Konoha ninjas thought. And they wouldn't be good at all.
Barokendo wanted to keep going. A deep, inner hatred of just about everything and a general need for murder and gore almost compelled him to completely mutilate Hisao's body before the Konoha ninjas managed to pull Hisao out of the ground. But the same thing that brought Barokendo to that violent state of mind was the same thing that pulled him out – the image of his little sister; safe and sound. Kentarou's voice echoed in his mind. "Please, try to keep whatever problems you cause, because there will be problems, to a minimum."
So, as the more ANBU responded to chaotic chain of events the Akadou started; Barokendo opted not to jump out and attack them in blood-lust. He just sank completely into the ground and disappeared. He hoped none of them pursued him; that would not end well at all.
The groups of newly arrived ninja were quickly taking charge of the situation and restored order to the scene. Leading the Akadou group away, the unlucky med-ninjas stepped forward to deal with the wrecked mess that was Hisao.
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"Oh thank the Circle you're alright!" Shozaku hugged Yukari for a moment before getting off of her and holding out a hand to help her off the ground. "I don't know what exactly happened but since I've been with them a long time, I can only assume that that one…" He pointed to Sheena. "…had a very bad flashback and shit hit the fan. I don't know why you blacked out but I brought you back. So, what exactly happen –" Shozaku didn't quite finish the question, as he'd stepped back to avoid getting bowled over as Sheena flew through the air to tackle-hug Yukari, still crying.
XXX
Eight blocks away, the ninjas that were currently placing the Akadou offenders under political arrest really had no intention of going after Barokendo - none of them had that strong an earth-style. So they contented themselves with clearing and cleaning up the area and ask questions of just how the 'shit hit the fan' as Shozaku put it.
XXX
"AAAKK!" Yukari braced herself against the dirt with her hands as, the second after she managed to sit up; she was knocked onto her back again by a frantic Sheena. "Yo, chill out, chibi-san. I'm ok, OOWWW! MY NOSE, DAMN IT!" The slowing nosebleed splattered some drops on the both of them as Sheena glomped with a hug.
"Uuuugh, Oh Shozaku, great - just great. Those Akadou bastards -ow...uh...- hit me the nose because I mouthed off to them or it could have been because I was using Naruto's favorite watering hole. The village adults have a hatred of him and the Akadou, more so for some reason – reason enough to drag shit against his friends; namely me." Yukari's speaking sounded nasal-clogged as a blonde, female med-nin knelt down to start working on the injury.
Sheena wasn't phased by Yukari's dripping blood, as any normal child her age should be. She didn't let go of Yukari however, because she felt horrible – as she saw it – for making a bad situation worse for her. She had stopped crying, though her face was still tear-streaked, and stared at the med-nin as if to say 'one wrong move and I'll eat you.'
At the moment, however, just about anybody but her Wheel-comrades and Yukari would get that deadly look. A slight rumbling was heard, as Barokendo no longer had a reason to make his approach stealthy.
"Oh? Let me guess, he did it out of nowhere, and had probably been leaning up against the wall just talking before then?" Shozaku asked, one hand slowly performing a face-palm. He shook his head. His ocular use of seeing the truth added confusion to the comment. "Never mind. Do you think the Akadou are gonna go after you when a few of their ninja pop up dead?"
Yukari put an arm around Sheena as the med-nin continued the healing work on her nose. "I honestly couldn't care less if they all died, but I'm in no position to retaliate. The Akadou clan, no doubt, is going to pull this shit onto the Village Council and, I think on a hunch here, have you Wheel-nin expelled from the village." Her voice trembled with pain – pain that grew less as the minutes ticked by during the healing.
"Piss it, all. This isn't what I wanted..." That arm would tighten slightly as Yukari's red eyes blazed in dread, anger and sadness. "I'm sorry Sheena-san, I didn't mean to upset you."
"It wasn't you, it was that guy. He just reminded me of when my mom died…" She hugged Yukari a little tighter at the words. Wydra sat, leaned up against Yukari's back while Gilligan was still being clenched tightly by Sheena's other arm.
"Is that the name of the person that hit you?" Barokendo's voice could be heard, moving under them, as moments later he emerged halfway out of the ground right behind Yukari. He looked down, and for a moment all the rage, anger and hatred disappeared from his face as he saw Yukari put an arm around Sheena.
"You and I need to talk later, red-kunoichi." This time, his voice didn't carry the commanding, violent tone. His voice was curious and informative, but the moment passed, and he was back to normal large-n-scary Barokendo.
"If Hisao's the one that hit you, he's either dead or he won't be talking any time soon. And we were planning on leaving soon anyway, weren't we Shozaku?" Barokendo nodded solemnly.
"Yea, that's his name, Hisao Akadou, not even from the main branch family." She lifted her eyes to view Barokendo and then dropped them again as the med-nin finished and stepped back. Yukari smirked as she wiggled her face in an effort to get the kids to laugh - but she was testing the newly healed nose.
"Tch, thanks, Hani-san. I don't doubt that I'll be asked to report later, Hani-sensei, but just not right now. Ok?"
"Aye, Uzaruki-san, I understand. I shall tell Ichibika-sama that you'll not skip out on the responsibility of this skirmish." the Med-Nin bowed to both Yukari and Shozaku before turning to Barokendo – her pale eyes shining with an inner light.
"Are you one of the Wheel-nin that came to the village days ago?" the extrovert-woman would ask. She wore a regular blue and green chuunin outfit, but had a kimono-styled sleeve and half-chest jacket that made her stand out from the rest of the chuunin. The swirled print was pink as the rest of it was white. What was that look on her face? Was it a look of piqued curiosity or a blush?
"I would not consider myself among their number but rather that I owe my obedience to their previous leader and am acting on his last wishes, so I travel with them. Why do you ask?" He answered a little less violently than normal, he seemed…almost caught up in watching the small children laugh at Yukari's antics. Calm moments like this were rare for him, and he took what he could get. He answered without turning to look at this Hani woman that had asked him a question. The large giant barely noticed that she was the one asking at the moment. Shozaku, having his attention focused elsewhere nearby, quietly slipped away.
