EDIT: blah, blah, blah
Ibuki: Looks like this time I'll be interviewing. Suprised?
Shang: Not really. Since now you were the only one who didn't do it. So, what kind of excuse did the others pulled out this time?
Ibuki: Dunno, was listening when they made those. At any rate, I'm supposed to asked you about things the reviewes wanted to know, but it seems that this time the only comments you got are congratulations on a chapter well done. What the hell is wrong with you people! No flame?
Shang: You know, you should be rather happy about that...
Ibuki: I know, but it's no fun when everybody likes it...
Shang: I'm kinda happy that there's no flames. It's good that the readers like the story.
Ibuki: Whatever... lets just the get this show on the road.
Chapter #12: Shinobi of the Earth
Title page:Kumiko and Ibuki are holding the kites in the air while Kusari is lying on the ground and also holds his kite in the air, but insted of the rope he uses his chain.
Kai fell to the ground. When he raised his sight, all he saw was the blade of the gigantic sword, coming right at his head.
He covered his face with his hands and closed his eyes, waiting for the hit, but it never came. After a short while, he opened his eyes and saw that assassin's hand, which was holding the sword, was winded by a chain. Kai looked to his right to see Ibuki and Kusari standing on top of a small hill.
"Nice to see you guys, again" announced the blond, getting back to his feet.
"Heh, can't you do anything right, bonehead?" asked Ibuki with a smirk. "Tripping in such a lame way…" she added teasingly.
"More annoying brats" sighed the swordsman, keeping his calm. "Don't you realize the difference in levels?"
"You're pretty confident of yourself" replied Kusari with a serious face. "Especially for someone, who's trapped."
"Oh, this?" asked the assassin, rising the hand that was surrounded by the boy's chain slightly. "Do you really believe that gives you any advantage? I could kill all you brats in few seconds, even using only one hand…"
"Lets check it out then, shall we?" yelled Kai, launching his fist at the swordsman's head.
Before he knew it, his opponent bended to the right and grabbed his arm with free hand. A second later, Kai was already flying towards Kusari. The chain master strafe right, in order to dodge his teammate, but once he got into mid-air, the swordsman pulled his hand, surrounded with the preteen's weapon towards himself, making the young Hagane fly right where his opponent was standing.
The next thing Kusari felt, was a powerful punch, he received in the face. He lost his chakra control because of that and thus the swordsman's hand was free. The Stone shinobi heard a sound of something cutting the air from his back and he jumped to the left just in time to dodge shuriken thrown by Ibuki. As he landed on the ground, he spotted a smile on the young assassin's face.
The next moment, the explosive tag, which Ibuki left on the ground (before she used the shinobi stars) went off, tossing into the air a cloud of dust. As the smoke disappeared, she noticed that the swordsman wasn't there.
"What… ?" the kunoichi thought to herself surprised.
"It was a Kawamiri!" announced Kusari, getting back to his feet. "He was able to perform the correct seals in a fraction of a second… that's Naruto-sensei's level!"
"So what do we do?" asked Kai, joining them.
"Well, in an open battle, we probably don't stand any chances against him" replied the chain master seriously.
"Told you so, but you brats just won't listen" came the swordsman's voice and before any of them knew it, the stone-nin appeared between them, attacking with his blade.
Thanks to their good reflexes, both Kai and Ibuki where able to draw kunai in time to block the sword's blade (the blow was so powerful, that they flew back few meters though), but Kusari wasn't that fast; he received a hit in his left hand. Luckily for him, the wound didn't seemed too deep.
Trying to avoid another hit by the sword, Kusari jumped to the right, but before he knew it, the swordsman was already in front on him, preparing to cut him in half. Surprisingly for the chain master, the stone-nin seemed to freeze for a moment and then his body turned into a pile of rocks.
"Iwa bunshin?" noted the boy, a little surprised.
"Seems that our presence was uncovered after all" stated Takaru, who was standing right next to Kumiko on a nearby hill, both of them held kunai in their hands.
As Kusari looked at the pile of stones, that just few seconds ago were the Iwa jounin, he spotted two throwing knifes lying next to it. Obviously, his teammates made direct hits.
"I was wondering when you two will get out of your hiding place" the swordsman announced, now standing right behind them.
Takaru began performing the chain of seals, while turning around. As he faced his opponent, his right hand was already surrounded by flames: "Mori Kasai no Jutsu!" he screamed as a powerful, fire scourge came out of his fore and middle fingers.
But before the flames reached him, the stone-nin was already gone.
"Dammit!" thought Ibuki, as she pulled out her Fuma Shuriken. "Kusari!"
The chain master looked at her and in an instant he understood what the young assassin was planning to do. He grabbed his own shuriken and threw it in the same direction Ibuki did, just few seconds later.
The stone-nin glared at the shinobi stars coming right at him. In an instant he hid his sword and then used his left hand to catch the shuriken thrown by the girl, so that a moment later he could grab the one thrown by Kusari with his right hand.
"Pathetic" said the swordsman with a bored tone. "What was that for?"
"To keep you hands occupied" replied Ibuki with a smirk and while making the right seal along with the chain master, they both yelled: "Kawamiri no Jutsu!"
The stone-nin's eyes widen as the two shuriken that he was holding in his hands changed into the two, young shinobi. Before he knew it, both rookies attacked him with their legs. The jounin was able to block both attacks using his hands in the last moment, but he didn't predict that the two kicks he just blocked weren't the end of it.
With a wild scream on his lips, Kai flew right at the stone-nin's back, ready to launch a powerful blow. Having no, other alternative, the swordsman moved his hands closer to each other and preformed the right seals in the fraction of a second: "Ishi Arashi no Jutsu!" came from his mouth and suddenly hundreds of small rocks came to the air and started circling around the stone-nin.
Both Ibuki and Kusari received a few hits from the stones in the faces, before they went flying back, but Kai felt the full impact of the technique as he went right into the stone storm. The rocks started to attack him from every direction and even though they weren't too big, the amount of hits he received almost made him paint.
In the meantime, the swordsman turned around to face the blond gennin and gave him a direct punch in the face, that send Kai flying right were Takaru and Kumiko were standing.
"Those brats actually forced me to use a high level jutsu…" the swordsman though to himself, keeping a poker face. "They're not as weak, as I fought…"
"Those kids stand no chances against this guy" thought Deji, as she observed the whole battle from the distance, her body shivering. "What to do?"
"This won't get us anywhere" noticed Takaru, turning towards his female friend. "We need a plan, Kumiko!"
"Sorry father, but it doesn't seem like I have any choice. I have to use that jutsu…" Kumiko thought to herself and then she whispered to Tsunade's son. "Okay, I have one…"
Meanwhile, Kusari launched another attack with his chain. The stone-nin already pulled out his sword and by jumping into the air, he dodged the ball end of the weapon. Then, still in midair, he deflected the sharp end of the chain with his blade.
As soon as his feet touched the ground, he had to block the katana's blade that was heading right towards him. He deflected the attack with his own sword and then the blades clashed few more time before the weapon used by Ibuki broke in two.
As soon as her sword was broken, the young assassin jumped back. It was then that the stone-nin felt strange chakra gathering behind him. When he turned around, he spotted Takaru, ending his seal chain and fire concentrating in his right palm: "Kasai Onban" cried out the son of Tsunade, as the fire left his hand.
Once the connection between the hand and the flame disappeared, the fire took a form of a disc, which spinning around headed right for the swordsman.
As the disc kept getting closer, Takaru threw two kunai, one on the left side of the fire disc and the other on its right. Having no, other way to dodge, the stone-nin jumped into the air, only to find out that it was a trap, as he noticed Kumiko performing a long chain of seals.
"Odori no Sendo!" she yelled as the swordsman's world begin to spin.
When he landed on the ground, his whole body started to hurt. He felt his bones burning from the inside and his veins exploding. He was breathing hard, but the air just didn't seem to go to his lungs. His sight started to be covered with blood as his heart slowly began to stop beating. His chakra was freeing itself from his body and disappearing in the air.
With his last breath, he performed several seals and yelling: "Ishi Tomurai no Jutsu!"
Suddenly stone spikes started to come up from below the ground, aiming at the young gennin. Takaru grabbed Kai, who wasn't able to move, and jumped onto the branch of a high tree, were he figured they'd be safe. Kumiko and Ibuki did the same. Kusari, using his chain, was able place Deji on a branch, but he failed to escape himself. All he could do was closing his eyes as a huge stone spike, headed right towards him.
When he opened his eyes, he saw Naruto standing right next to him on a tree branch.
"You brats are really something" announced the stone-nin, looking around. "Not only have you forced me to use my high level jutsu, but that hag over there…" with these words he pointed Kumiko, who was sitting on the branch of the same tree as Takaru and Kai. "Is able to use a genjutsu technique of a jounin level. That's really impressive. You almost got me back there…"
"Yes, well" replied Kumiko, breathing hard as sweat began running down her face. "It's not something that one can master at such a young age as mine. In order for this jutsu to work, I needed you to be defenseless at least for a few moments. Practically that's why Takaru threw those kunai along with his fire disc."
"I see…" responded the swordsman with a nod. "But I could always jump to the side and deflect the knives with my sword…"
"True" admitted Kumiko simply. "But you didn't. Well, above everything, this technique costs a lot of chakra, since it's one of the few, genjutsu techniques that can actually kill the one imprisoned in it. If they won't get out of the illusion in time, that is…"
"Still it's pretty impressive that you were able to learn it at your age and level" it was only then that the stone-nin turn his eyes onto the blond jounin, his expression changing to anger immediately.
"You did good" announced Naruto, jumping down from the branch (A/N: the stone spikes were already gone). "You managed to keep Deji-sama safe till my arrival. Take five. I'll handle things from here…"
-Naruto steps in!-
And that's that for this chapter. Hope you liked it. Please tell me your opinion.
And now, here's the jutsu encyklopedia for this chappie:
Mori Kasai no Jutsu (Fire Lance Skill ) - technique invented by Takaru, in performing very similar to the Meteor Shower, only in this case you need to cumulate chakra in only your fore and middle fingers insted of the whole hand. After performing the right set of hand seals, the cumulated chakra is released in a form of a fire scourge.
Kasai Onban (Fire Disc) - another technique invented by Takaru. As usual in his techniques, the user needs to cumulate chakra in his hands and then release the flame. If the seals were perform corretly, the flame will take the form of a spinning disc, that could cut through almost anyhing.
Ishi Arashi no Jutsu (Stone Storm Skill) - a jutsu that requires the user to release his chakra into the ground. The very same chakra pushes up small stones into the air, giving them a start rotation. That way, once above the surface, the stones starts circilng around the user, creating a stone barrier, which damages anyone who'd enter it.
Ishi Tomurai no Jutsu (Stone Funeral Skill) - a technique performed by releasing chakra into the ground. It's not that much different from the Stone Storm, the difference os that in this case the stone are pushed up from the surface in a form of spikes.
Odori no Sendo (Dance of Death) - a genjutsu technique used by the Murasakki clan. If perform correctly, it attacks all of the victims senses, giving him the feeling that they're slowly dying. After a longer while, if the victim won't be able to break the jutsu, his heart stops working due to the stress/
I believe that's that.
Take care and till the next update.