a/n: First up, I missed you all immensely on my NaNoWriMo workcation. Guess what? With a 74,888 word count... I WIN! And though I wrote about 300 pages of my new novel...it is probably only a little over half-way done. Ack. I'm going to need to take a break from that beast for a while...enter my fanfic:) I MISSED THIS STORY! AND I MISSED YOU, TOO!
As for the results of my "Guess this fic's insane page count," I'm pleased to announce the winners. Yes, winners in the plural, because there were two very close contestants, one who guessed in page numbers, and one who guessed in word count. I figured they both deserved a prize. So here they are:
Tukiko Kinikia- guess: 200,000 words
xFlawed Imperfectionx- guess: 300 pages
Actual page length and word count: 192,555 words/371 pages (that's unedited...Kami help me, it will become more concise as I edit:)
Lol, Tukiko was the only one who overshot the length of this fic, but darn, she was close enough. Well, you two have just won your very own one-shots! LOL! As for the rest of ya...hope you like your fics long *eeeeep!*
Special thanks to my beta, Uchiha.S, for her references to erections and zombie kitties peppered throughout her edits. I almost pissed my pants from laughing so hard; who knew editing could be so fun?
Thank you all for your patience and well wishing this past month! And now, without further ado...
Chapter 15
Yajirushi of the Arrows
"She came striding through the carnage
Like an angel draped in black;
When she saw my labored breathing
She carried me on her back."
The First Book of Akash, Verse II
Yuki quickly shook herself out of her stupor. "Cho! Ryuu! Get Sensei and the old man out of here— Cho needs to heal them!"
Cho, the team medic, was shaking. "Fuck! The old man— he stabbed our sensei!" She was still in shock and couldn't move; she looked between Konohamaru and their client, both coughing up blood in their efforts to breathe.
Yuki glared at the rotund ninja, as if she could will Cho into action with the force of her eyes. "Cho! For fuck's sake, get a hold of yourself! Take them and GO!"
Ryuu smacked himself in the face—Yuki assumed it was to sober himself out of his shock— and then he shouted, "Ok!" He ran over to Konohamaru and carried him bridal style, so as not to jostle his injury. But despite his gentle handling, their sensei groaned and began coughing even more violently; Ryuu winced at the new blood that trickled down Konohamaru's chin.
Yuki's calculating brain surmised that it was likely Konohamaru had punctured a lung. After all, Yuki had been trained by her mother in the basics of medical diagnostics—and Yuki was rarely wrong about anything. Nevertheless, she forced herself to remain apathetic; emotions had no place on the battlefield and would only make her weak.
Meanwhile, Cho had finally regained her senses after watching Ryuu jump into action. She took the shaking old man in her large arms and nodded to her teammate.
"Let's go, Ryuu-kun!" she whispered, her voice uncharacteristically faint.
Yuki placed herself in front of her teammates, giving them cover as they retreated into the forest; she bit her thumb before slamming it to the ground in her summoning jutsu.
Tama appeared in a poof of smoke and eyed her curiously. "Mistress?" the cat murmured, sensing the disturbing chakra signatures in the glade.
"Tama—" Yuki began, but she had no time to explain their situation, because suddenly, they were under attack. Another arrow zoomed towards Tama, who was not yet prepared to defend herself. With a growl, Yuki leapt forward and deflected the incoming projectile with a kunai. The metal arrow head made a loud, clanging sound upon impact, and Yuki was violently thrown back to the ground from the force of the arrow. That's some powerful bow he has, Yuki thought darkly, her mind calculating how best to shield themselves from future attacks. That last move had made her wrist sore from the power of the impact, and was not a defense that she could repeat often without undo strain. Her eyes scanned the forest, waiting for the next attack, while she tightened her wrist guards.
She needn't have been so wary. Instead of another attack, a figure emerged from the dark shadows of the jungle-like foliage with slow, deliberate movements. As he strode into the sunlight, he started clapping; the sound reverberated through the woods and startled birds in the distance, their fearful squawks echoing along with the man's applause. Is he mocking me? Yuki thought, her cheeks flushing with rage. Yuki did not tolerate ridicule.
"Listen asshole..." she ground out, her voice low and rumbling like thunder, "I don't know what the fuck you're doing here, but if you don't leave now, I'm going to fucking kill you." If anger could be a tangible, visible entity, Yuki's skin would have literally been seething fire.
The man, whose form was still obscured by the shadows, bowed in mock-politeness. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Yuki-chan. My name is Yajirushi. I've been sent here today to kill you, and to take your eyes, incidentally."
Yuki clenched her teeth, then hissed, "I'm flattered. But if it's me you came for, you should have left the others out of it!"
Yajirushi merely shrugged. "Orders are orders. Take a look at the sky now dearest, because it's bound to be your last view of it."
Tama growled low in her throat. Yuki sprang onto the cat's back and readied her collection of poisoned kunai: she had a feeling that it would be a mistake to hold back against this guy. She was right— suddenly, he let loose a volley of arrows, which Tama neatly dodged as Yuki played her counter attack. And while none of Yajirushi's arrows found purchase, neither did the kunoichi's kunai. This guy is going easy on me— he's feeling me out, Yuki mused, her body tense.
"Very good Yuki-chan, but that was only twenty arrows at once. Let's see how well you do against fifty." Yuki snarled— she had been hoping to gain some ground on this guy, but it seemed like he was a long range fighter. Fine, two can play at this game... "Tama! Quick! Hide behind that oak tree!" Yuki was thankful for Tama's speed, as the were nearly hit by a few of the projectiles, until they came to rest behind the shield of one large, gnarled tree. "Tama! Listen! I'm going to go at that guy with some clones to figure out his abilities— shrink yourself as small as you possibly can, and then let's sneak up behind this bastard."
"Got it!" Tama grinned and decreased her volume to the size of a small mouse. Yuki made a few clones and rapidly sent out all the versions of herself while she herself veered right to hang back behind a bush.
She was glad she did so, for in a moment the tree was shattered from an assault. Great, this whack-job can shred a huge tree with a few of his freak arrows... Yuki thought dryly as she signaled to her clones: one, two, three—
Yajirushi called out, his voice free of any inflection,"Now Yuki-chan, unfortunately for you, I can shoot arrows in multiple directions at once, but to be sporting, I'll only shoot a volley of fifty. Here goes!" This time, the arrows zoomed even faster than they had before— all of Yuki's clones were promptly taken out, and the real Yuki was left facing twenty arrows. Shit! I can't dodge them all in time!
Just then, Ryuu and half a dozen shadow clones burst out of the underbrush and deflected the incoming arrows with kunai: the force of the impacts dispelled all of Ryuu's clones, while Ryuu himself was pushed back several feet, but was otherwise unharmed. Yuki, feeling slightly woozy, rose and nodded to her companion. "Thanks." The ninja forced chakra into their legs and bounded out of the way and behind a large boulder. Why am I feeling sick? I didn't even get hit! Shaking her head, Yuki whispered, "How are they?"
Ryuu grimaced. "Cho is doing the best she can, but it looks like the old man is beyond help— that guy uses barbed arrows laced with poison, and she doesn't have the antidote."
Yuki nodded. Good thing we didn't get hit by those arrows then. "What about sensei?"
Ryuu shook his head. "That kunai was poisoned, too."
"Just our luck," Yuki spat. "You'd better use that hiraishin tattoo of yours and call your dad. This was obviously a trap."
Ryuu made a face, but Yuki cut in, "Don't give me any of your But I've got my ninja pride! crap. If we don't get back up, we're all going to die."
He gulped at her bleak reply and nodded, bringing his hand up to the tattoo on his shoulder and activating it with chakra.
Suddenly, his face went white.
"Yuki-chan..."
"What!" she barked with annoyance. She had asked for one simple thing...
"It's...it's not working!" Ryuu whispered, his voice barely audible.
Yuki's fingers started tingling— she grabbed the pale ninja and yanked him out of the way. Just in time, for the boulder that had been shielding them was shattered into a million fragments, courtesy of a cascade of weapons.
"Well then," Yuki replied, feigning composure, "we're going to have to take this guy out ourselves."
Ryuu nodded and, with shaking limbs, formed a series of handsigns— "Shadow clone no jutsu!"
Yuki whispered, "I'm forming a counter attack with Tama. You cover for me, and I'll try and get this fucking douche bag from behind."
Ryuu smiled at that. "I love it when you curse."
Yuki's eye twitched; she refrained from braining the idiot and spat, "Just go!"
"Ok!"
With a roar, about a hundred of Ryuu's clones turned to face the opponent, while Yuki flitted like a shadow, closer and closer towards the enemy.
"What do you mean your hiraishin isn't working!" Sasuke snarled.
Naruto grimaced but replied, as he ran alongside Sasuke, "Someone must be jamming the signal."
"The fuck!" he roared. "You can jam the fucking signal? What the—"
"Sasuke, calm down." Naruto jumped out of the way of an errant branch as he rushed through the jungle-like growth of the damp forest. "I've got about two-hundred shadow clones combing the border for them, in addition to the fleet of hawks you summoned. The best we can do is locate them as quickly as possible—they couldn't have gone far from the route I gave them for their mission."
The Uchiha took a deep breath. "Should we send for back-up?"
Naruto shook his head. "I already sent one of my clones back to the village to put it on high alert. If we need back-up, I can easily send another clone, but this could all be a distraction, a ruse. I don't want to weaken the village's defenses if it might be under attack in a matter of hours from our unknown enemy."
"How very Hokage-like of you," he snapped waspishly.
Naruto snorted and replied, "Besides, if the Hokage and Uchiha Sasuke can't take out a few criminals, people will start talking smack behind our backs."
Sasuke bit off a hang nail in a fit of anxiety and funneled more chakra into his feet. "Well, better get going then," he called, swallowing back the bile rising in his throat.
Yuki— where the fuck are you?
"Okaasan?"
"Yes dear..."
"Is otousan ok?"
Sakura smiled weakly at her youngest daughter. "It was nice of you to come visit me in the hospital," she replied in a demulcent tone.
Saki placed her hands on her hips. "You're avoiding the question. Hoshiko and I talked to some cats, and they said the village was under high alert. What's going on?"
Sakura squeezed her eyes shut. Her brat had become quite the espionage expert. "I'm not sure. But otousan and Hokage-sama are checking it out...I'm sure it will be fine!" Sakura said, smiling with false brightness. "Why don't you go back to Hinata's and help her with Sora and Takeo? It looks like my shift is going to go into overtime tonight..." Sakura was preparing for the worst, and was readying the hospital to handle a large number of casualties, just in case. It felt strange, to prepare for a possible war after enjoying peacetime for so long. Sakura supposed that she had gone soft.
Saki sniffled as Sakura ignored her in favor of a set of scalpels. "Ugh. You sure I can't help you here in the hospital?"
Sakura sighed, "It would be more helpful if you could help Hinata-chan."
"Fine." Saki sulked away.
Sakura sighed again as she finished sterilizing her surgical instruments; some help was help, and some help was the kind of help you could do without, and Saki tended to wind up in the latter category.
Hoshiko was waiting for Saki by the hospital entrance. "So, did you learn anything?"
"Nah, my mom is as tight-lipped as ever." Saki sighed theatrically, but then ventured, "So. Onto Plan B."
Hoshiko nodded. "Let's go ask the stray kitties by the Hokage's tower!" Hoshiko was still wearing her feline communication unit; in fact, she rarely removed them except to sleep and shower.
Saki grinned and donned her own set of cat ears. "Okay! I've got a couple cans of tuna fish in my bag. I'm sure Zeke and Clementine will know something!"
The two ninja raced through the dark streets until they arrived in a narrow alley way.
"Well, if it isn't my two favorite humans!" a tiny voice mewed. "Did you bring me any treats? The dumpsters had nothing good today..."
"Zeke-kun, that's not true, we found someone's old pet hamster. That was pretty good."
Zeke made a face. "Ugh, it had already hit rigor mortis. It didn't taste very good! But," the cat continued as he looked up at the humans with wide eyes, "I was so hungry, I ate it anyway."
Clementine looked up adoringly at the two girls. "I particularly enjoyed eating the head. Brains are the best!"
Saki turned paler by a few shades. "That's...er...great." Wow, I'm soooo glad I can understand cat. That was like...nasty, she thought sardonically.
Hoshiko giggled and asked, "Did you manage to learn anything more from the Hokage's office today? If you do, we just might happen to have some tuna fish..."
Zeke and Clementine's eyes got as round as saucers full of cream. "Yummy!"
"But first, have you overheard anything?" Saki asked sweetly.
Zeke plopped himself down on the alley floor and scratched his chin with his paw. "Hmmm...Clementine-chan, what was that bit we heard? Something about a girl named Snow?"
"Was it Snow White and the Seven Dwarves?" Clementine offered hopefully.
"Noooooo...another girl named Snow...not Snow White...was it Snow Falling? First Snow? Hmmmm..."
Saki ventured, with some trepidation, "Was it Yuki?"
"Ah yes, Happy Snow! Yes!" Zeke did a little cat dance of joy.
Hoshiko inquired in a hushed whisper, "Zeke-kun, what did you hear about Yuki?"
Zeke turned his large eyes up to the dark haired girl. "Yuki's in trouble. The bad people are after her."
Clementine nodded. "The Fox ninja went to chase them away from Happy Snow."
Saki pulled back the tops on the tuna fish cans with trembling hands. As the cats gorged themselves on their reward, Saki looked up at Hoshiko.
"What...the fuck?" the pink-haired girl mumbled.
"Do you think your mom knows?" Hoshiko asked.
"No. Definitely not. If my mom knew Yuki was in trouble, she would have gone with Naruto-sama—er, I mean, your dad."
"Should we tell her?"
Saki shook her head no. Incurring Sakura's ire was never a wise decision. Sighing, Saki held out her hands. "I don't know what we should do."
Hoshiko scrunched up her face in thought. "Let's go ask my mom. She'll know..."
Saki nodded enthusiastically— Hinata-sama was always nice and never scary (unlike some moms she knew), and she always knew how to make things better. Like that time Saki had lost her favorite doll, or when Hoshiko flunked her algebra test. Hinata always made Saki feel okay about life, even when it seemed like comfort would be impossible.
The two ninja were off again, leaving their furry friends to enjoy their tuna fish feast.
Ryuu was doing a great job distracting the enemy. A flurry of spastic clones ran circles around the enemy, flinging sharp pointy objects, and in general, running amuck. She overlooked the fact that one of his clones was actually mooning their opponent, and didn't pity the clone one bit when an arrow hit him, and he and his bare ass disappeared with a yelp of pain. It was unprofessional and disgusting—as per usual— but at least Ryuu was getting the job done.
Just hold on a little while longer, Ryuu...Yuki thought, when suddenly, she heard Tama stir next to her.
"What took you so long, mistress?" the cat asked in an undertone.
"Sorry. Let's use that attack, ok?"
Tama nodded. "Hop on."
The instant Yuki climbed onto Tama's back, they became a black whirl of motion. Yuki funneled chakra into her feet to help her stay upright, and began weaving a series of handsigns. Just a little closer...almost there...now!
"Fire style! Fire ball jutsu!" Yuki leapt off of Tama's back and hurled a giant fireball the size of a small mountain in Yajirushi's direction. Meanwhile, Tama rose to flank their opponent at a ninety-degree angle, and shot her own pale fireball at the marksman. Yosh! We totally got him! After a moment, the twin fires died out and all that was left in Yajirushi's place was ash. But before Yuki got too excited, her body tensed— that was too easy!— and, listening to her ninja instincts, leapt onto Tama's back, just in time to avoid a shower of arrows.
"Go!" She shouted to Tama.
"I must congratulate you, Yuki-chan," Yajirushi dawdled, "but unfortunately, that was just a clone. I think it's about time to end this little game, don't you?" While Tama and Yuki ducked for cover, the bowsman languidly drew back his weapon— "Ninja arts: Unshakeable Barrage."
Shit! Yuki held onto Tama's soft coat as she ran as fast as the wind, but the hellish arrows were catching up to them.
"Faster, Tama!" Tama didn't answer, but instead strained her muscles as much as she could. "Make a sharp turn here!" Yuki ordered. Tama grunted and pivoted abruptly to the right, then continued to run like hell.
"What the fuck! The arrows are following us!" Who ever heard of arrows that can turn in mid air? Unshakable fucking barrage indeed! Yuki was way out of her league, but she did her best to calm her mind. Think. Think!
"You keep running Tama, I'm going to try and burn the arrows."
"Y-Yes!"
Holding onto the lunging cat as best she could with her legs, Yuki wove a complicated set of signs. She wasn't really as comfortable with this jutsu, but it would have to do. "Fire style- phoenix flower jutsu!" A stream of smaller fireballs began oscillating out of Yuki's mouth— utilizing all of her concentration to control the fire with her chakra, she sent the flames out to devour the oncoming arrows. There, this should stop them—
However, as the flames cleared, she could see that the arrows were not only still there, but were gaining on them.
Shit muffins.
Yuki's mind began reeling. It seems like the arrows can track us...very well then. In a last ditch effort, Yuki cast a genjutsu, making it seem like she and Tama had turned abruptly to the left.
"Thank Kami," Yuki whispered in her summon's ear, "it looks like he fell for it."
Indeed, all the arrows turned to fly after an imaginary opponent.
Tama smiled and paused for a moment to catch her breath—
And just then, Yuki felt something sharp and cold pierce her back. Her mouth parted in a silent scream as her body fell forwards onto Tama's back.
"You should never let your guard down, Yuki dearest." Yajirushi crooned from his vantage point in a high tree.
"Tama—RUN!"
They were off as fast as they could, but Tama was growing weary from the chase, and the more Yuki's body was jostled, the more she could feel the poison spreading, numbing her nerves and fogging her vision. Shit...!
Where the blazes was Ryuu?
a/n will do my best to update by next weekend!
Please feed your beloved starving fanfic writer with a review; they are tasty, delicious, and most appreciated:)