I do not own Naruto but I DO own all of the OCs and this fanfiction.
Chapter 42: Enigma
Reiko had made her escape just in time. If she hadn't used her transportation magic she would've had a bullet in her head. She complained to herself as she flew on her broom, through the halls in the direction of where Jack and Witch Fuji were. How dare that little indigo-haired brat try to shoot a bullet through her head. She was definitely going down.
Well, as Reiko was complaining, she wasn't paying much attention to her flying and ended up smacking right into something. She fell off her broom and hit the floor for the second time that day. She got up angrily, and turned to see a young woman with blue hair and bright pink eyes.
"Oh!" she seemed delighted. "Look, look, it's the witch lady again!"
As Reiko looked around completely, she noticed three other people. A guy with green hair and glasses, a blonde with huge blue eyes and a girl with purplish-blue hair and green eyes.
She cursed. Now she remembered. These four were friends of Kakuzu's. She had wondered where they had went.
"Your monster wasn't hard to beat, you know," the green-haired guy smirked.
Reiko sighed.
Now they were making fun of her.
"Listen boy," she growled. "Just shut up and get ready to die. I got more important matters to deal with."
"I didn't think a person like you would be interested in killing," green-hair said. "The name's Izuno and I think you're way too attractive to be running around killing people."
Reiko stopped short.
The boy had good taste. Finally, someone could see her beauty, unlike a certain walking, talking jack o' lantern and red-head vixen.
"Your neck is nice too," Izuno continued. "Such nice structure."
Reiko grinned.
My goodness, what a flirt he was!
Suddenly, she felt a sharp pain in the side of her neck. The pain spread from her neck throughout her entire body.
She screamed in pain, falling to the ground. "What the heck did you do?"
"Well what do you know," said a familiar voice. "Akako-chan, it looks like the smuggler dude you beat up didn't lie about the poisonous darts."
Reiko could barely make out Tenko face, in her blurred world of agony. It was a face of satisfaction. Reiko knew Tenko had been the one to shoot the dart.
"You could have waited a little bit," Reiko heard Izuno say. "I was just getting started."
She could hear the one she remembered to be named Fuyumi scolding Izuno for his perverted behavior and then saw them leave down the hall where their friends were waiting. A second later, the hall was empty, except for herself, lying in evident pain.
What a pitiful way to die. She thought, as her world faded away.
Within the next minutes of Reiko's death, there was a sudden increase of creatures and monsters and they were not happy. Possibly, Reiko had made it so that if she were to die, these creatures would avenge her.
Erena's shooting abilities came in handy at this point. Nonetheless, they were able to defeat the monsters but it left Erena feeling uneasy. Erena hated the fact that she was incapable of protecting Sasori, Kakuzu and Hidan at the same time. She was confident that they most likely didn't need her help but she still worried. Which was why she had indiscreetly stuck some energy pills and healing meds in Sasori and Kakuzu's ninja bags. Now she tugged on Hidan's coat.
He turned and faced her. "What?"
Erena cursed, torn between two forms of worry.
Hidan was confused. "Uh, what's up?"
Erena reached into her pocket and pulled out a gun. Then she put it in Hidan's pocket. "Here. But use it only if necessary."
Hidan smirked. "Kakuzu will kill you if he finds out you gave me a gun."
"I know," Erena said, shaking her head in slight frustration. "But I dunno what else to do."
Hidan laughed a little at Erena's reaction. "Don't worry, I won't use it unless I have to. I promise."
"You'd better keep that promise," Erena's facial expression became severe to a terrifying extent and then softened. "Now c'mon, we're falling behind!"
"Okay!"
As they got farther into the mansion, the floor began resemble a checkerboard again. Meiko noticed this. She started to play the 'don't step on the crack' game. In her opinion, this outing was kinda fun. She liked doing most things if she was with her friends.
"Don't step on the crack, or you'll fall and break your back!" she sang.
Suddenly, the floor literally opened up under them.
Meiko was totally surprised. She didn't even step on the crack.
Now the group had been separated into those who had been able of get out of the way in time, and those who hadn't. Among those that weren't in the basement were Kakuzu, Sasori and Hidan since they had been walking in front and far enough away from the part of the floor that gave way. Erena had been able to leap to safety. Taemi was lucky enough to have been one inch out of the way of the floor giving in. Kakuzu had been able to grab Genmaru and Katamaru in time to save them as well.
Kakuzu heard Jack cackling. He looked and saw him standing in the doorway ahead. Jack smirked and then walked back into the room from where he came.
Kakuzu and the others followed.
They entered another chamber but the objects weren't floating in this one. It looked like a traditional, simple Japanese-style room. There was very little furniture and it was simplistic. If you looked closely you could see that the room was lined with ninja traps. Witch Fuji was sitting on some cushions, drinking a cup of tea. Jack stood next to her.
"So you all are the only ones who made it past our crumbling floor, hmm?" he said. "Lucky, lucky. You know why? Because, instead of getting brutally beaten by the creature awaiting under the floor you get to fall at our merciless hands."
"Don't get cocky, Jack," Erena growled. "First of all, our friends are capable of way more than you're giving them credit for, and, second of all, don't underestimate us."
"How about you do me the same favor?" he appeared behind her. She looked over her shoulder but he was gone again and by Witch Fuji's side.
"Foolish people," Fuji deadpanned. "Ah well. Guess we should get this over with. Ready, Jack?"
Jack gave his signature smirk. "Indeed. For I am a Jack-of-all-trades."
Meanwhile, the others had quite a predicament on their hands. They were in the midst of a battle with another gelatinous creature that had a gourd, plated with metal for a head and metal arms. This creature's gelatinous slime was a silvery color. The time before, Izuno had used a bomb to destroy the previous creature but this time after blowing the monster up he simply reassembled himself. They were at loss.
"Come on people!" Hareta said. "We've got to get rid of this thing and go find Kakuzu and the others. They might need us."
"I know," Izuno growled. "Don't rush me. I've got to figure out how to defeat this thing."
The creature swung it's huge metal arms at its opponents.
Akako jumped out the way and threw a grenade at the creature's arm. In the explosion part of the creature's arm was blown off. It roared in pain and a shining light glimmered from the destroyed section of it's arm.
Izuno stared at it. What was that light?
The creature came back at them and Sorami used her gun to shoot it in the head. It growled and came after her. Hareta threw a smoke bomb and pulled Sorami out of the way of the blast.
Izuno snapped his fingers. It finally made sense.
"The core is in his arm!" Izuno called.
"The core?" Fuyumi asked, turning to look at Izuno questioningly.
The creature swung it's claw at Fuyumi.
"Fuyumi, look out!" Izuno threw himself in front of Fuyumi and got flung into the wall.
Fuyumi threw another grenade and blew up another half of the creature's arm. The creature stepped back a little as Fuyumi ran to Izuno's side. Little did she noticed that a large, shining, orb-like object in the creature's was exposed now.
"You freakin' idiot!" Fuyumi yelled at Izuno, in frustration.
"Looks like he got hit pretty hard," Akako observed.
Fuyumi cursed repetitively. This is what she got for being useless. She hated herself so much right now.
"The core," Izuno said weakly. "It's his heart. You've got to shoot it."
Fuyumi shook her head to get herself together. This was no time for self-pity.
"What?" she asked Izuno. "His heart?"
"Shoot it."
"His heart…in his arm! Akako-chan! Shoot! Shoot the orb!"
Akako aimed her gun but the monster came at her. She was able to dodge but her gun got whacked out of her hand and her arm was cut. She cursed. Then she turned to Kuromi.
"Kuromi, shoot!"
Kuromi aimed. But then the thoughts of all the events past came back to her. She had missed, all those times.
She hesitated.
"Kuromi," Akako looked her in the eye. "Since when did you ever hesitate! Just effin' shoot!"
"I won't miss," Kuromi said, as she had many times before, but this time she was unsure.
"Guess what? I don't believe you. Prove me wrong. Do it!"
Kuromi gripped the gun in her hand and aimed. "I will not miss!"
Then she shot the bullet and it pierced right through the creature's core.
The creature growled as the light of the core began to fade. Then it faltered and melted into a puddle.
"I told you," Kuromi said, nonchalantly to Akako.
Akako smiled at her friend. "Guess you did."
"At least somebody here is being useful," Fuyumi sighed, glaring at Izuno.
"You did well," Izuno told Fuyumi. "You reacted fast enough."
"You obviously hit your head too hard because you're not being obnoxious. Now shut up and rest."
Izuno winked at her. "Okay."
Suzuki cracked her knuckles. "Alright, Fuyumi-chan, stay here with Izuno-kun. We'll try to find a way out of here."
A/N: First thing I gotta say is, the Jack-of-all-trades joke... Yeah, that came to me when I was watching an episode of Black Butler (aka Kuroshitsuji) the other day. I thought about the fact that alot of the butlers in that manga/anime have some kind of catchphrase. Soooo, then I thought about Jack and wanted to give him a catchphrase as well. LOL. I used "Jack-of-all-trades". This IS a comedy, after all. XD This may lead to the question as to why Erena never had a catchphrase. Actually, I DID consider giving her at least something to call Kakuzu, Sasori and Hidan back when I first created her but then the idea of any of them being called goshujin-sama (master) or, even worse, having commonly used "yes, my lord" seems way to formal for Erena's personality and for her "masters". Second, alot of readers have been asked for pairings so I hope Izuno x Fuyumi pleases you guys! :D Okay, well arigato gozaimasu for reading!