a/n well, it's going to be a busy weekend for me; thought I'd publish this early, as opposed to waaaay late! :X
Special super duper thanks to my beta, Uchiha.S, for being her most awesome and beauteous self:) I'm totally renaming this story 'Macaroni the Mystical Green Leather-Cap Feather' in her honor, ROFL! BTW, Please don't use shock therapy on me Uchiha-chan, I swear I won't use the word 'volley' ANY MORE! Xoxoxo!
Enjoy!
Chapter 16
Virus
Saying "All my kin lay fallen,
My village is ash, smoldering in rain;
But your life I can save with my hands,
And the herb called 'Angel of the Mountain.'"
~The First Book of Akash, Verse III
Ryuu lay panting on the ground. He didn't understand it. He hadn't taken a direct hit, so why was he feeling so sick? "Fuck this! I don't have time to screw around— Yuki's in trouble!" With a pained grunt, he dusted himself off and listened intently to the forest around him. Though he lacked an ocular dojutsu, he had inherited his father's keen sense of hearing. There! She's over to the west, I can hear her and Tama running. Ryuu fought against his dizziness and pushed himself off of the ground, though his stomach threatened to vomit. He forced chakra into his feet and took a few, wobbly steps before running as fast as he could towards Yuki.
Shit! From his vantage point behind a tree, he could see Yuki had just been hit, and was barely holding on to Tama. Yajirushi let loose another volley of arrows, and this time he struck Tama's leg: the cat shrieked piteously, then disappeared in a puff of smoke.
Ryuu began to shake with rage. I can't just stand here! Not while this asshole shoots my friends full of holes! He tried to gather his chakra, but he felt so weak. The boy squared his shoulders and clenched his fists, forcing his chakra into his hands. "Shadow clone no jutsu!" he whispered, making about ten clones. They weren't much, but they would have to do. He was just in time: another assault of arrows was heading right towards Yuki's prone, shaking body.
Ryuu roared as he and his clones leapt out of hiding and placed themselves in a ring around Yuki, brandishing their kunai. But strangely, the arrow tips glowed a bright blue as they hurdled through space, and the chakra-enhanced metal bored straight through Ryuu's defense. Ten clones disappeared and one Ryuu sank down to his knees, his shattered kunai flung to the ground.
"Ryuu! RYUU!" Yuki shrieked in horror.
"I'm...sorry!" the boy gasped as he clutched his shoulder, a brightly glowing arrowhead sinking down into his flesh.
Yajirushi leapt down from his high vantage point to stand about ten feet away from the children. "What a pity. It seems that your sharingan didn't awaken after all. Such a waste of my time." He sighed in annoyance before continuing, "Oh well. I suppose I'll kill you and leave your body to rot." He lazily strung an arrow and pointed it at Yuki.
Ryuu ground his teeth and stood in front of his teammate, despite the overwhelming feeling of nausea accompanying the sudden movement.
Yajirushi raised an eyebrow. "Would you like to die first? Fine by me, little man." The bowsman changed the trajectory of his arrow and aimed it straight for Ryuu's heart.
"RYUU! RUN!" Yuki screamed, her voice ragged, her eyes wide in fear.
Ryuu grinned and shook his head. "Listen, I'm not very good at this technique, but it looks like you leave me no choice..."
Yajirushi smirked and let loose the arrow.
Ryuu gathered as much chakra as he could into his palm. The arrow met his outstretched hand with a violent burst of speed, and pushed the ninja back several feet. But Ryuu's face contorted with concentration as he forced even more chakra into his hand: at last, the arrow fell harmlessly to the ground. Panting heavily, he sent a silent prayer of thanks to his uncle Neji for teaching him the basics of the gentle fist style, despite the fact that he lacked the byakugan.
Yajirushi sighed. "I'm really not in the mood to play ninja anymore, children." Time seemed to slow, and a idle part of Ryuu's brain noticed, as the enemy loaded what must have been at least fifty arrows onto his bow, that Yajirushi was quite tall. That he wore a bright green feather in his leather cap. That he wore a Mist headband with a score through the center. The time it took for the marksman to draw back his bow seemed like an eternity filled with pointless details, all fumbling around in his brain like the unintelligible fragments of a dream—
Suddenly, the bow was released, and dozens of arrows were flying towards his body; the immediacy of danger brought Ryuu back to his senses, and at the last moment, instinct took over.
Here goes nothing!
"Eight trigrams, palms revolving heaven!" Ryuu funneled the last bit of his chakra into his palms and rotated it, just like his uncle Neji had taught him. A blue sphere appeared and most of the arrows bounced off harmlessly; however, Ryuu had never been very good at this technique, and despite his best efforts, a few arrows pieced his body: one on his leg, one in his side, and another on his foot. Panting with effort and dangerously low on chakra, Ryuu grimaced fiercely as Yajirushi loaded another round of arrows.
"Yuki! You've got to summon Amaya! Do something!"
Yuki clenched her teeth and forced herself to stand, despite the ensuing vertigo. I would summon Amaya if I had the chakra for it... But she did not want to reveal her sorry chakra-deprived state to the enemy. Instead, she grunted, "Don't. Boss. Me. Around." Her feral grin, the one that she reserved for moments of true, boiling anger, twisted her features.
"Hey jerk," Ryuu ground out in an undertone, "remember that combo attack your dad taught us, when we first became a team?"
Yuki eyed Ryuu and nodded. "Yeah, asshole."
"Let's do it."
"Okay."
Yajirushi grinned. "I'm afraid not, children Say hello to hell for me—"
But Yajirushi had already taken too much time— Yuki cast a simple genjutsu, while Ryuu called up three shadow clones. "GO!" Yuki roared, finding newfound strength with her rising hope.
While Yajirushi released his arrows towards where he thought Yuki and Ryuu were, the Leaf ninja ducked for cover and then promptly executed their counter attack. Ryuu's clones worked on binding the enemy in wire and tying him to a tree while Yuki chucked several kunai with explosive tags at him. They both leapt out of the way as the explosions hit, incinerating their foe.
"Did we...?" Ryuu asked softly, hoping against hope that this nightmare of a mission was over.
They heard laughter resounding through the forest like ominous thunder. "I'm afraid simple genjutsu won't work on me, my dears. And now, you die."
The exhausted ninja looked up, and found themselves staring straight into an oncoming wall of arrows.
"Sensei, please, don't move! You're going to open your wound!"
Konohamaru shook his head and managed, in a pained whisper, "I've got to go help Yuki and Ryuu." He tried to move, but winched terribly as the pain hit him.
"Sensei! You've punctured your lung, please don't move! If you do— you'll...you'll die for sure," she concluded in a choked voice.
Konohamaru grimaced. "Fine. You go. You should fight."
Cho wiped her sweaty brow. She managed, in her best facsimile of her mother's no-nonsense tone, "Sensei, if I leave you now without stabilizing your wounds, then you'll die for sure. Yuki and Ryuu can hold their own." I hope, the medic added silently. "If I leave, your death is certain. If I stay, you'll likely live, but Ryuu and Yuki will be on their own." She took a deep breath before adding more softly, "What do you want me to do?"
Konohamaru nodded, his face creased with worry. "Please hurry and patch me up then, Cho-chan," he ground out between clenched teeth.
"Yes sir!"
Beside them, the old man, who had formerly been their client lay panting for breath, tears clouding his fading vision.
"Naruto, we've been searching for hours..."
"Damn it Sasuke! My kid's out there too you know—you can quit riding my ass!"
Sasuke shook his head. "Sorry. I wasn't blaming you. I think we just need to try a different approach," he clarified, willing himself to be calm despite the fact that he was a complete emotional wreck.
Naruto nodded. "Sorry. Yeah, you're right, because this isn't working. At all."
The two ninja stopped their frantic searching and sat down on rotting log. Sasuke took a long sip of water from his canteen, then handed it to Naruto. As the blond drank, Sasuke mused, "I'm beginning to wonder if the area is put under a genjutsu... or if there is some kind of hidden barrier around them..."
Naruto nodded. "Do you sense anything?"
Sasuke shook his head, "I'm not a powerful enough sensor; I can't do large areas. I think you should try going into Sage Mode..."
"Okay. Watch my back, then."
Naruto took a deep breath and formed three clones; in a moment, all the Narutos settled into a cross-legged position and began meditating. Sasuke sighed. I wish I could be as relaxed as Naruto seems right now...He shook his head to rid himself of his useless thoughts, then stood, straining his senses and standing at the ready in case they were attacked.
High up in the trees, a petite, female figure detected the two Konoha nin below her and bit back a curse. She skirted around their area with extreme stealth, and was able to slip by before they had a chance to notice her. Thank Kami; if the Nature Sensor had been further into his meditation, my position might have been compromised, even despite all my training... She drew a small amount of chakra into her hands and formed a silver, mirror-like substance in the space around her body; then, she faded back into the forest. As she traveled on ahead, she mused with worry, I just hope I'm not too late... At least now she was impervious to detection.
Just then, her walkie-talkie came alive.
"Kchhh. Taicho. They're fifty degrees northwest, about one mile from here. They're surrounded by a ring of soulless drones. Permission to take out the guard circle? They're generating a genjutsu around the perimeter...over."
So much for my supposed stealth skills... The woman bit her lower lip— if the communications had come through just a moment earlier, it would have meant death at the hands of her enemies. I need to be more careful about muting this darn thing... Instead, she schooled her voice to be calm and replied, "Permission granted. But remember, our primary objective is the Uchiha girl. Make sure you have your own barrier in place before you engage the enemy; the Konoha nin are here as well."
"I understand. Yes sir!"
The captain rushed on ahead, not noticing that her lower lip was bleeding where she had bitten it.
This is it, Yuki mused calmly, I'm going to die. There was no time to dodge the hundreds of arrows hurtling towards them, especially since her wounds impeded her ability to move quickly. Yuki decided to meet her death with dignity, like a true shinobi; and so she took a deep breath and closed her eyes, waiting for the inevitable.
"Oooof!" Something heavy hit her and she fell on her side— Yuki braced herself against the pain.
Except that, curiously, there was no pain.
Gingerly, she opened one eye to find Ryuu collapsed on top of her.
"Ryuu! You idiot!" she roared.
Ryuu simply smiled down at her, until he began coughing up blood all over her uniform.
No. No no no! Yuki couldn't move, pinned down as she was under her teammate, but somehow she managed to gasp, "Why...why..."
Ryuu just smiled at her again, and then proceeded to pass out. With trembling hands, she lifted the boy off of her chest and knelt beside him. She noticed the rows of arrows that stuck out of his back, as if he were a kind of prehistoric beast with spines, some ancient ancestor of the porcupine.
"Ryuu, don't you dare die on me!" she whispered, sotto voce. Then she began to shout, "Do you hear me? DON'T DIE!" But the prone boy did not respond, and Yuki could tell that while her heart was beating faster, his breathing was slowing. She realized that she still had a death grip on her companion, but she couldn't bring herself to let go of his shoulders.
"Ryuu! Do you hear me? Ryuu!"
The blond boy coughed up more blood and opened a bleary eye. Thank goodness! Yuki thought triumphantly, he's alive! "I knew you wouldn't give up on me!" Just then Yajirushi's booming voice broke into her consciousness, and her head whipped around to regard the momentarily forgotten foe.
"I'm afraid it's no use, Yuki-chan. I've shot him down with enough poison to take down an elephant; but even if all of those arrows had missed, he would still be dead. He had over a hundred shadow clones who took direct hits."
Yuki looked up at the marksman in horror. "What the fuck do you mean!"
Yajirushi replied in a cool, pedantic tone, "Oh my dear, I use a poison that attacks the chakra network, almost like a virus. So even though shadow clones don't sustain physical damage, any damage done to their chakra systems will transfer to the user."
"No! I don't believe you, you fucking ass!" But even as the words left her mouth, Yuki knew it was true. Damn it all! That's why I felt sick before I had even sustained a direct hit— my shadow clones had poisoned my chakra system!
Yajirushi repeated, "Your friend is going to die, probably within the hour. And then, he will turn into another undead soldier, like myself—"
"FUCK NO!" Yuki rose to her feet as she shouted up at the marksman; she was trembling with pure rage. It's not fair! He kept on protecting me, again and again, even when he was more injured than I was. I'm such a fucking coward!
"Afraid so. But no worries, you can meet up with your friend quite soon in the afterlife." And here Yajirushi cocked a single arrow at her. "Give my warm regards."
Something inside Yuki snapped. As the enemy let loose an arrow, Yuki saw it almost as if it was traveling in slow motion. Moving purely on instinct, she leapt forward with a vicious snarl, neatly plucking the arrow out of midair with her bare hands.
Completely ignoring the searing pain in her back, Yuki landed on the ground and snapped the deadly arrow in half before tossing it aside with an animal-like growl.
"Congratulations Yuki-chan. You've just awakened your sharingan."
"Good," the Uchiha spat. "Because now, I'm going to rip you a new asshole." It was just a ruse. It was all just a fucking ruse. He deliberately targeted Ryuu to awaken my sharingan. What. The. Fuck.
Yuki had read in her textbooks about enemy ninja that tried to steal the eyes of byakugan and sharingan wielders. Back at the academy, she had thought with cool logic that this was just the way of the world: it was your own fault if you lost a battle, and ergo your ocular powers, to your foe. In a world where only the strong survived, the strong also got to enjoy the spoils of war. However, it was another matter entirely to be facing a ninja who was trying to steal the very eyeballs out of your head over the dead body of your comrade.
I will kill this asshole, for Ryuu! And with that thought, she leapt forward—
Yajirushi drew back his bow and unleashed hundreds of arrows in a singular motion—
And suddenly, just as the fleet of arrows was about to meet Yuki's outstretched kunai, Yajirushi's face flashed in surprise: sharp metal ran right through his back and out through the front of his heart. As blood gushed out of his opened chest cavity, the arrows that had been speeding towards Yuki dropped quite suddenly, falling uselessly to the ground. Yuki's crimson eyes whirled in confusion. She looked up to see another pair of sharingan looking straight at her from behind one, dying marksman.
And then, Yuki landed on the ground and simply passed out.
a/n oh my god, did I really just leave you on another cliff hanger? :X
Will do my best to update again next weekend *crosses fingers* Feel free to prod me to update though, it's going to be a busy one and I might need a lil' prodding...
Thanks so much for reading; reviews are always welcome and appreciated my dearest readers:)