I do not own Naruto but I DO own all of the OCs and this fanfiction.
Chapter 41: Enigmatic
"So where in this huge place would witches hide themselves?" Yumi asked, as they walked into the living room. The floor was made of an expensive wood with an elaborate Oriental rug in the middle of the room. The furniture was made in a Japanese-style fashion but the living room had a mostly black theme, unlike the brighter-themed foyer. The black curtains gave the room a creepy aura.
"This is ridiculously stupid!" Tenko yelled in frustration. "How do they expect us to do this?"
"They don't," Fuyumi stated. "Because I can easily sense their auras. They're just waiting around, so to speak."
"So, they want us to find them?" Hidan asked.
"Precisely," Sasori replied. "Apparently they want us to find them and attempt to beat them. Incredibly confident little twits."
"Or incredibly smart," Kakuzu added.
Sasori gave him a glance of interest.
Kakuzu turned to Fuyumi. "So in which direction are they?"
Fuyumi pointed to a hallway leading out of the living room.
"Okay then," Tenko said. "Let's go!"
Halfway down the hall, a realization hit Kakuzu.
"Tenko-chan, I wouldn't walk so fast," he said.
"Don't call me Tenko-cha-!" was all Tenko could manage before large spikes began to rain from the ceiling. Kakuzu grabbed Tenko and pulled her back, roughly, just out of the way of her impending doom.
"My guess is you understand why you shouldn't be walking so fast now," Kakuzu smirked.
"Shut it," Tenko snapped.
"So I was right. I figured it wouldn't be a cakewalk to get to them. They're testing us to see if we'll either die or reveal our skills."
"Dang," Hareta said. "They actually did a good job here."
"The main enemies are never as stupid as they seem," Sorami chirped. "Even if it's only by an itsy bit."
Suzuki rolled her eyes. "Whatever, how do we get past?"
"Step aside," Izuno said, stepping forward. He adjusted his glasses and studied the hallway looking at numerous points. "There are two more traps lined along this hallway. More spikes and another of a completely different fashion. It's really quite easy to figure out if you-"
"Eep!" Meiko cried as she jumped back from some spikes that were ejected from the wall. "Wow, Izuno-kun! You were right about the spikes!"
Izuno shook his head. "Anyways, the other one should be motion-activated."
Akako shot a bullet in a straight line down the hallway.
Nothing happened.
"It looks like your science failed you, Izuno-kun," Fuyumi teased.
"That's impossible," Izuno frowned. "I was sure there was-"
Suddenly a growling sound was heard from behind them. They turned to see a huge creature who's head almost reached the ceiling. It's body was mostly made of a gelatinous, green material but it's arms were solid steal and it had steal claws. It had a pumpkin for a head, like Jack, only its head was made of a much larger pumpkin.
The creature swung it's clawed hand at Genmaru who jumped back in surprise.
"Anybody else wanna bet this thing's not friendly?" Genmaru joked.
"Seems like some type of biogenetically engineered creature," Izuno said, dodging a swing of the creature's arm. "That has the intent to kill. Us."
"Or magically engineered," Fuyumi grinned. "Keep going, I'll take care of this thing."
"Are you sure?" Genmaru asked.
"Of course."
"I suppose you'll need my help again," Izuno said, giving Fuyumi a smirk. "Meiko-chan, Sorami-chan, come be of some help. The rest of you go on ahead."
Everyone obeyed their orders and as Fuyumi, Izuno, Meiko and Sorami got ready to battle the creature in front of them, everyone else went farther into the witches' lair.
At the end of the hallway was a door and through it was a rather enigmatic room. It was like a checkerboard from the floor, to the wall to the ceiling. All the furniture in this room did not match. Plus, all the furniture was floating. Reiko was waiting for them, sitting on a floating chair.
"Wow," she said. "It took you long enough. I only sent one monster in hopes that you'd get here faster. I was getting bored, y'know?"
Tenko fired a bullet at her which Reiko dodged by just an inch.
"What gives?" Reiko yelled angrily.
"I didn't like your attitude from the beginning, Reiko," Tenko replied simply.
"It's Reiko-hime!"
"Reiko-baka."
Reiko clenched her fist and released a blast of light energy.
Tenko dodged. "Yup, she's a real baka. She just revealed her power."
Reiko smirked as if she knew something they didn't.
At this exact moment Kakuzu's cell phone rang. He glanced at the caller ID and saw that Mari was calling him. He pressed ignore and put his cell back in his pocket. He was not going to use a valuable moment of his time to entertain a little girl who believed in aliens. As he looked up he noticed there was a blast coming straight for him and dodged just in time.
Great. She already used up some of his time and he hadn't even answered it. He swung his fist at Reiko.
His phone rang again.
Honestly?
He jumped out of the way of another incoming blast, pulled out his phone in one swift motion and pressed ignore.
Reiko was smiling now, amused by Kakuzu annoyance. Hareta used this opening to throw a smoke grenade at Reiko.
Now, when the grenade blew up, once again, Kakuzu's phone rang.
Seriously?
Kakuzu pulled out his phone. "What do you want?" He growled into the phone.
"Dude!" Mari countered. "Just pick up your phone when I call! I got some flippin' crucial information about those witches!"
"Just tell me what you got. And make it quick."
"Okay, okay. We found some books at the library and they said that witches' powers aren't limited to one thing. Witches of lower levels can usually only wield one power but experienced witches can wield numerous kinds of powers. And, nine times outta ten that Mistress lady and her two friends are not low-level witches."
At this point Hidan and Sasori were listening in.
The smoke from the smoke grenade cleared and Reiko could see well enough to launch another attack. This time she shot a huge icicle at Sasori. Sasori moved out of the way.
"Oh great," Sasori sighed.
"I was right, wasn't I?" Mari asked, on the phone. "I can hear Sasori-san complaining."
"Well congratulations to you," Kakuzu jeered, hanging up. He then grabbed the icicle that had hit the floor and threw it, not at Reiko, but at her chair. The chair was shot from under Reiko and she fell to the ground on her butt. Tenko pointed her gun at Reiko's head.
Reiko let out a little squeak of fear and then disappeared into thin air.
"What?" Tenko growled in frustration. "What? Ugh! I can't stand these witches! Especially that Reiko!"
Taemi sharpened one of her knives a little. "We should keep going so they don't get the advantage, especially when, at the moment, we seem to have an advantage."
This was seemingly so. Surely they had an advantage now but was this advantage limited to Reiko?
A/N: Hu-hah! X) Trying to figure out what the inside of the witches' lair should look like made this take a while to write. ^.^; I decided, in the end, to make it a haphazard kinda place. I wanted it to reflect the witches' different personalities in a way. I hope I lived up to expectations. Thanks for reading everyone! In the next chapter you'll get to see Jack and Miss Fuji. Yay. XD