Child of Prophecy
Chapter 8
Roshi stared down at the two bodies lying at his feet with remorse. Those two kids were tough, and he couldn't pull any punches. The fight had cost him dearly, he didn't think that he would be able to fight for at least a week. 'Sucks being older, and not recovering as fast. Roshi turned around and began walking away. He only was able to take two steps before he heard a crack behind him. He turned around so fast to see…
Flashback
Naruto and Roshi met in the air with fists and legs flailing on both sides, neither one managing to score a hit. Soon enough, both backed off and Itachi jumped in with his tanto slashing. Even though Roshi was not prone to using kenjutsu, he had learned how to deal with a kenjutsu user; thus able to dodge or deflect most, if not all, of Itachi's strikes.
"It seems that you hold up to the S-class rank, Roshi-san." Itachi stated dryly.
"Well, I have been around for quite a while, kids. You don't live this long in the Shinobi career without being strong." Roshi replied, not even slightly winded with the intense fighting Naruto and Itachi put him through.
Instead of replying, Naruto bit his thumbs and flew through a succession of seals, followed closely by his hand slamming on the ground.
"Summoning Jutsu: Gamakiri!" Naruto yelled before a toad twice the size of him appeared in a puff of smoke.
"Gamakiri, listen up. This guy uses lava style techniques, so as soon as you see one, I'll need you to counter it with some water."
"Got it, Boss!"The blue-looking toad called out before jumping slightly behind them.
Itachi, meanwhile, was distracting Roshi with a flurry of swipes with his tanto. Eventually, Itachi was able to distract Roshi's eyesight long enough for Naruto to sneak inside his guard and deliver a powerful kick that sent Roshi back a couple meters.
Roshi jumped up to his feet and, after speeding through handseals of his own, spewed lava at high speeds towards Naruto and Itachi. Before it could make contact, however, it was solidified by an equal powerful jet of water, courtesy of Gamakiri.
Relishing the look of surprise on Roshi's face when he finally noticed the toad, Naruto threw a couple kunai to distract him while Itachi went in for the kill. A busy Roshi was only just able to dodge Itachi's sneak attack by swiviling on his feet. The slash still made contact, though it was no where near as fatal as it would have been.
Roshi roared into the sky in pain. He then turned and swiped at Itachi, but little did he know that he was already under a genjutsu from Itachi, and missed by a long shot. His tenant quickly broke him out of the genjutsu just in time to dodge a kick from Naruto that would have crippled his neck. He safely backed up and planned out his next move.
Suddenly, Roshi jumped towards them and launched a far larger river of lava at Naruto and Itachi. Gamakiri respond just like he know it would, and the area was now filled with steam. 'Let's see if your Sharingan powers work now, Uchiha boy.' And just like that, Roshi disappeared from sight.
"Itachi, let's go with plan C!"
"Right!"
"Gamakiri, return to Mount Myoboku. Shinra Tensei!"
And all the steam was blown away, giving the duo a clear sight of Roshi. Roshi looked at them both before wondering why one of the Uchiha's eyes were shut tight. Before he could ponder it, he was suddenly unable to move, and was lifted in the air.
Naruto was struggling to keep him levitated. Roshi was far more powerful than the other shinobi he tried this on. His hand was outstretched as he used his Deva Path to control the gravity around Roshi.
Roshi was surprised to see the Uchiha's eye open, and blood leaked out. He realized that something big was coming, so he transformed into his Chakra Cloak and thrust all four tails in front of him. He was not a moment too soon because he heard Itachi say "Amaterasu," and black flames just appeared on his tails.
Even inside his Chakra Cloak, Roshi started sweating from the sheer heat that was raidiating off of the flames. He let go of the connection to his Chakra Cloak, and it fell to the ground and disappeared; taking the black flames along with it.
"Unfortunate." Itachi said as he wiped the blood off of his cheek.
"Sorry kids, but it looks like I'm going to have to go full strength against you. I don't have much control in this form, but at least we are far enough away from my comrades that I don't accidentally kill them." Roshi mumbled before he started enlarging, his skin beginning to grow red.
Before too long, Naruto and Itachi were witness to the first Bijuu they had the honor, (read misfortune), of fighting. With a terrifying roar, the Yonbi pounded the ground in a very ape-like fashion before narrowing it's eyes at Naruto and Itachi.
"Good thing we put that sight and sound genjutsu up, or else this area would be flocked with enemy nin right about now." Naruto chuckled.
Itachi didn't bother responding because they had other pressing matters to attend to; such as, the Yonbi's enlarged fist heading straight down at them.
Naruto knew that blocking with Shinra Tensei would be a huge mistake, so they both just jumped on top of the hand and ran up it's arm. When they got too close, another hand came down to stop them; however, Naruto jumped up on that one while Itachi just dodged and continued running up the first one. When Naruto was close enough, he jumped right in front of it's face and yelled "Shinra Tensei," causing the beast to fall onto it's back.
Once the beast hit the floor, Itachi once again prepared to use Amaterasu. The black flames shot at the beast's head just as it spit a glob of lava at him. The resounding explosion was enough to cancel out both high powered attacks. The fight continued like this for awhile, Naruto even attempting to use Planetary Devastation without much effect because the Yonbi would just fire a tailed beast bomb at the orb, which would cause it to erupt prematurely.
Eventually, Naruto and Itachi were both panting and crouching on the ground, Roshi turned back into a human, most of his strength gone as well. Roshi covered them both in cooled lava, causing them to be frozen in their place, with only their heads free. Roshi looked them both in their eyes before throwing kunai at their heads, killing them.
Flashback End
…a sky that was painted red. He looked around and realized that he couldn't move. He wasn't restricted, but for some reason he was unable to control his limbs. Suddenly, the voice of the Uchiha came from behind him. Since he was unable to move, all he could do was stand terrified as the voice neared him. The last thing he heard was "Welcome to Tsukuyomi," and he saw a pair of Sharingan eyes before he felt a large pain in his heart, and his world went black.
Back in the real world, Naruto and Itachi were standing over the former body of Roshi, a kunai in his heart. A poof was heard as the clone that hid before the battle even started was dispersed, his job to free Naruto and Itachi from the cool lava complete. Naruto was extremely thankfully that he had taken the advice from Itachi to leave a clone free in case of emergencies.
"That was too close!" Naruto panted, his adrenaline vanishing now that the battle was over.
"Lucky that he forgot to avoid looking into my eyes, or else we would have been finished for sure." Itachi replied, lying on the floor in exhaustion.
"Let's just rest here a bit. That fight took a couple hours, and I need to gather some strength back before we go hunting for the remaining 3. At our current Chakra levels, we wouldn't last against Han or Jonbi, we could, however, take on Lee. The report here says that Lee will be located on the southeastern line, a day's walk away. Han will be on the Northeastern line, a week away. Jonbi is way back in Iwa territory. He isn't that particularly strong, it's just that he is the tactician of the entire Chuunin forces and will be hidden inside a strong hold." Itachi recited.
"Yea, two hours, then we should head towards Lee. I estimate we will meet up with him by mid-after noon tomorrow if we're lucky." Naruto replied before shutting his eyes as well.
A few hours passed, and Naruto and Itachi gathered up their supplies and set off in the direction of Lee, intent on once again, ending a man's life because of a mission.
That is what upset Naruto the most about this assignment. Sure he was killing these men in the name of Konoha, and saving many lives in the process, but killing these people for the sole reason that they were powerful enough to harm their chances of winning this war made Naruto want to throw up. Once more, Naruto cursed the stupidity of this war, and the stupidity of Onoki.
The trip was passed by in silence, since the enemy could very well have posted listening scouts. They only had a couple close calls with running into enemy forces; although, they were almost always able to hide until the force passed by, almost.
"We know you're there Leaf scum, so come on out and we promise to make your deaths quick." A women in charge of a group of Rock ninja called out into the dark woods. It was just passed sundown, and the trees seemed to ominously loom over them more than usual.
"Sargent, I'm sure that there's no reason for us to stop. I don't sense anyone hiding in the forest." A young man spoke to the Sargent.
"Are you questioning my orders, cadet?" the Sargent whispered, though the intimidation carried the words all the way to where Naruto and Itachi were hiding, deep underground.
The enemy has always used this hiding method in the past; however, their arrogance that no Leaf nin knew the same trick cost them dearly when two cadets were pulled underground and killed. Unfortunately, one of them was able to yell out in time, and alerted the Rock ninja of the attack.
"Rock nin, scatter!" The Sargent yelled before disappearing herself. They would have gotten away from Naruto and Itachi had they ben regular leaf nin, but Naruto and Itachi are special. They both have a dojutsu that allows for them to see Chakra Signatures even through solid objects. With no sound at all, Naruto and Itachi set about removing all witnesses. The forest echoed with the screams of the victims. Naruto and Itachi weren't cruel in their killing, the enemy was just very scared of them.
Once all the witnesses were decimated, Naruto and Itachi once again set off on their journey towards Lee. Luckily for them, no one else managed to sense them, and they were able to make to all the way without anyone noticing.
Lee, who had always prided himself on being cautious, was busy scanning the countryside, wary of any threat. He was only an A-class ninja, but his exceptional caution has kept him alive far longer than any of his childhood friends, who had all passed away by now. His skills centered around the standard Rock nin skill set; although, the thing that made him different was that he was a member of the Yangure Clan. The Yangure were all part of the shinobi system in Iwagakure, but only he really excelled in their clan jutsu. The Yangure Clan was not very well known throughout the elemental nations since they were a smaller clan and less powerful, but their special skill could be used to unmeasurable proportions. All of the Yangure's had the disintegration skill; they could completely break down anything they touched into tiny particles. The main difference between this Clan technique and Onoki's Particle disintegration was that they had to have contact with whatever they were disintegrating, and it took at least 10 seconds of contact to complete kill someone. Only Lee was able to truly master the skill, by controlling the disintegration to target the motor cortex in the brain first; thus rendering the victim incapable of movement.
Lee was cautious, but he was a bit of a sadist. Always choosing to make his target suffer in terror before finally ending it. This would be the only man that Naruto and Itachi had to kill that truly deserved what they were going to do to him. The only problem with the whole plan was that Lee had safely hidden inside a campsite filled with around 200 average rock ninja.
It would take awhile to infiltrate their security in order to get close enough to kill Lee. They had about three days to spare, which they used to successfully infiltrate the camp, and get close to Lee.
It was about time for Lee to end the day and go to bed. He stood up from his desk where he had been working on a new strategy to combat this group of ninja that had killed his top soldiers. Even Roshi, he heard, was killed by this group. He figured that Han would be next, and vowed to send a letter the following morning to alert Han of the threat. As Lee exited his office, he went ridgid as his sense kept telling him that something was off.
"Commander Lee," a disguised Naruto said, "heading to bed already?"
"Why yes, Hanri, I was actually on my way now." Lee replied, feeling better that there was another person in the hallway.
"Very well, I shall see you tomorrow Commander Lee." "Hanri" replied before walking around the corner out of sight.
Lee had some trouble getting to his room, as he chose to take an alternate route in order to throw off this bad vibe he was getting. Finally, he entered his room and locked the door behind him. He turned on a lamp and was suddenly shown the sight of a poorly maintained bedroom. It always irked him how he could never get good staff to fix his room properly while he was busy working. He went into the bathroom to wash his face before bed. When he closed his eyes and bent down to wash his face, a pair of Sharingan eyes stood staring back at the mirror from right behind him.
Lee suddenly shot up and turned around, but no one was there, the bathroom was empty except for him. 'Stupid nerves, always acting up when they shouldn't be.' Lee thought to himself as he crawled into bed. A sound from under his bed caught his attention, so he peered over the edge into the darkness below. FROM UNDERNEATH THE BED CAME… nothing. This time Lee forced himself to ignore every eerie sound that was coming from all over the room.
The phrase "silence is deafening" held true, because when the noises stopped, the bedroom became far more intense and nerve wracking. Lee felt something prick his nose, and opened his eyes to see two glowing blue eyes with a rippling design on them that radiated sheer power. So terror-stricken was Lee, that he didn't even make a sound as a kunai was plunged into his heart, and he was killed.
"Itachi, come down from the ceiling, it's over." Naruto said with a smile.
"I usually don't take pleasure in killing, but this man definitely had it coming with all the torture he put people through." Itachi said with a smirk, scaring this man was too much fun.
"Well, I guess that leaves Han and Jonbi. Which do you think we should hit first?" Naruto asked.
"Well, considering that we actually know where Jonbi is at, not Han, I think we should hit him first."
"Another stealth mission, Itachi?"
"Yes, just because you prefer all out warfare, doesn't mean that we all do. I actually enjoy stealth assassinations." Itachi stated with a smirk.
"Help me get this body off the bed, Itachi. We will actually be able to sleep in a nice bed for once."
The two were able to lay reverse ways, Itachi's feet were near Naruto's head and vice versa, and had the best sleep of their entire campaign so far. Beware Jonbi, two exceptionally skilled ninja are after your head.