Naruto Shippuden -H-: Chapter 021: Sending a Message
Dreatoen had pierced Inari's neck with a crystal shard spawned by his sword, which he called Ishi.
"Yet another person, you could have saved." said Dreatoen as he landed beside Andarius, looking at Sasuke and Killer Bee with a serious demeanor.
"I will crush you for what you did to this boy here!" said Sasuke as he stood atop the perfect stabilized Susanoo, which towered over Dreatoen and Andarius.
"And yet you tried to do the same thing, if I recall, you said that you wanted to kill every last person in the Hidden Leaf, even down to the last child, and just because you were defeated by the great and exalted Naruto Uzumaki, you think yourself to now be a hero?" asked Dreatoen as he surrounded himself and Andarius with a protective shield, glowing green and resembling static electricity.
"Running away will get you nowhere." said Sasuke as his Susanoo lunged it's giant foot on top of Dreatoen's barrier, and slammed its foot onto the location, creating a large shockwave.
"Damn this is hard, maybe if I ever piss him off, I can sing the songs of a bard, fool, ya fool." said Bee in amazement.
"No, Inari, we have to get him to a medic as quick as possible." said Chojuro who held the unconscious young ANBU in his hands.
"I will heal him as soon as I kill these two wretches." said Sasuke as he released the Susanoo and landed beside Chojuro and Inari.
"You are a medical ninja?" asked Mei.
"No, but my wife is the finest medic in the world, her name is Sakura Haruno, and she gave these herbs, the same ones I healed you with earlier, although I may need to give him a larger dosage to fix the wound." said Sasuke.
"Yo, Sasuke, those fools are untouched, it seeks they really do have a lot of luck." said Bee as he noticed Dreatoen and Andarius on the other side of the lake, and a large crater being where they formerly stood.
"I am not sure how you got out of that attack, but if you stick around for a bit, I will make you pay for this child's injury." said Sasuke to Dreatoen and Andarius as he gave Inari some pills and forced them down his throat.
"Hey, what are you doing, won't this hurt him?" asked Mei with concern.
"No, it is the only way, trust me." said Sasuke as Inari swallowed the pills and remained silent.
"He will be fine soon, but for now, you two get him to a hospital, me and Bee will deal with these two Knights of Dawn, and afterwards I will speak to you about the manner of the threat that these guys possess." said Sasuke to the Mizukage as he directed his attention towards Dreatoen and Andarius.
"Hey man, although Mei is still alive, I was able to send a message anyway, not to trifle with the likes of us, but now, these mothafuckas are here, what is the best thing to do now?" asked Andarius.
"Nothing, we do not need to do anything, your problems with this village are entirely trivial, and those two men over there are not Naruto, who if I remember correctly, is the only thing that we are to care about, according to our majesty." said Dreatoen with a dry sense of humor as he put his hand on Andarius' shoulder.
"So, we leavin', what about those two, if we do kill them now, it will be less trouble for us in the future." said Andarius who was still livid over being interrupted in his chance to kill Mei.
"Those two are no trouble, nothing is any trouble, the only trouble is when someone like you is given too much free time, and decides to invade a village all alone, without thinking that backup forces could show up." said Dreatoen sternly to Andarius as the two prepared to teleport back to Lazarus, via Dreatoen's mysterious jutsu.
"Leaving now, I guess you Knights of Dawn are real cowards after all." said Sasuke in a taunting manner.
"I don't know Sasuke, why not ask Orochimaru, once I kill him and Taka when they arrive at Lazarus." said Dreatoen with a smirk as he and Andarius teleported out of sight.
"How does he know about that?" thought Sasuke to himself with surprise.
"Hey Sasuke, should we follow those fools?" asked Bee.
"Not yet, we will go talk to Mei once she returns to her office, and then report back to the Leaf, and after that, find Naruto." said Sasuke as he and Bee walked towards Kirigakure as ten in the night ticked around.
Dreatoen and Andarius arrived in the southern side of Lazarus, after teleporting away from a confrontation with Sasuke and Killer Bee.
"It was foolish of you to do that, I expect it will not happen again!" said Dreatoen to Andarius as the two walked in the streets of Lazarus in the night, approaching the Castle of Leviticus.
"Damn dude, I already told ya' fucka, boss said I could undertake the fuckin' mission, if I died, I died in the name of Rah'Zuh." said Andarius with a stern tone.
"I just don't want to loose you." said Dreatoen as the two arrived at the castle doors.
"Yeah, I know dammit, but let me do my thing, and you do yours, I am going to bed." said Andarius as he entered the castle and headed towards the elevator.
"Once Naruto does arrive, I will be sure to have any others with him to be executed!" said Dreatoen to himself silently as he closed the large doors of the castle.
Jesei had arrived in Ishigakure, aware that Naruto, Sakura, Sai, and Shikamaru would also be there within the next fifteen hours, based on the information he knew of in the scroll.
"Not much life in this village, but the buildings and scenery is not too bad." said Jesei as a few townsfolk walked by Jesei minding their own business.
"I will wait by this small forest over here, I am sure to notice when Naruto approaches this area, and that Sakura too, I will kill her this time." said Jesei with much anticipation.
"Guess I will take a nap for now, nothing else to do." said Jesei as the wind blew in the night sky in the calm village of Ishigakure, which resembled a garden with marble buildings and roses planted all around the area.
Morning came about, as Naruto and his team had awoken around seven in the morning.
"I did not sense anyone spying on us during the night, I guess that old geezer is waiting elsewhere." said Naruto as he stood up and looked at the path of trees ahead of him.
"Nothing to report here, I am easily woken up if I here anything, it was as quiet as can be." said Sai.
"Well, that is good, today, we will arrive in Ishigakure, or the Hidden Village of Stones, not to be confused with Iwagakure though." said Shikamaru as he got all of his supplies ready,
"But, I do not see any stones around here, it should just be called the village hidden in the roses." said Naruto as he saw an entire heirloom of roses around him.
"It does not matter what it is called, let's just go, if that old freak is waiting for us at the village, then it will prove that this scroll you have is a trap." said Sakura to Naruto.
"No, I don't know about that, but I would like to understand this situation a little better, so come one everyone." said Naruto as he was getting more curious by the day to see who this man that wanted to meet him so badly was.
A few hours passed by as Naruto and his team walked on a cliff side surrounded by a lot of flora, and them made their way down through a valley that was surrounded by a few houses, but nothing stood out on their journey, until they were on the mountain that overlooked Ishigakure.
"Finally, we are here, I thought my legs were going to give out!" said Sai who was used to flying on his ink bird.
"Well, we did not want to be detected by that old man that attacked us." said Shikamaru to Sai.
"The only thing to do now is to head down there and see what awaits us, it could just be another checkpoint for all we know." said Naruto.
"After we leave here, we will be near the border of the Land of Earth, today is the fourth day of our mission as well, so that puts the time of our arrival at our final checkpoint at around seven days." said Sakura.
"That sounds about right." said Shikamaru as the four shinobi walked down the path that went down the mountain and closed in on Ishigakure.
"Huh, are they almost here?" asked Jesei to himself as he was sitting in a restaurant in Ishigakure, trying to blend in with the population.
"I am not the best sensor in the world, but Naruto's chakra is not hard to mistake, well, at their current rate of speed, it should take them another half an hour before they get here." said Jesei as he was going through his plan of attack in his mind.
Sasuke had finished giving his report to Mei, when Inari rushed in the room, and gave the Uchiha a big hug.
"I cannot believe you are already healed." said Mei as she was happy to see Inari healthy again.
"It is all thanks to Sasuke right here, he saved me, and he saved the village too, just like when he and Naruto saved our own town." said Inari.
"No, don't thank me, thank Naruto, he is the one who opened my eyes, besides, your friend Kazuma, I could not save him." said Sasuke with a saddened tone.
"Don't worry, as a shinobi we will find a way to deal with this loss." said Inari with a slightly saddened tone as well.
"I must go now, you five kages speak to each other on when this Kage Summit will commence, and once a date is established let the Hokage know, for that is where me and Bee are now headed, at least if nothing else occurs." said Sasuke as he and Bee left the Mizukage's office.
"So, when we get to the leaf, the Hokage will give us the brief?" asked Bee.
"Yes, Kakashi will by then have received a report from the other Kages on when a meeting about these Knights of Dawn will be held, but until then, we have to observe and make sure there are no more of those soldiers in the Land of Fire." said Sasuke to Bee as the two headed towards a boat that would take them to Konohagakure.
"Why don't you just use that eye of yours to teleport us across the sea again?" asked Bee.
"I want to save as much chakra as possible, plus it will take a while before the Kages can come up with a meeting date, so let's just wait this out for a bit." said Sasuke as he and Bee got on a small boat and sailed out towards the Land of Fire's port town.
Orochimaru and Taka had arrived in a location several miles outside of Ishigakure, as Orochimaru wanted to take his own route to Lazarus.
"All of these roses are making me sick, when the hell are we going to arrive in this Lazarus city anyway?" asked Suigetsu with an annoyed tone.
"Quit being a damn drama queen Suigetsu, we have already came far right now, let Orochimaru handle this, he seems to know more than we do about this Lazarus place anyhow." said Karin to Suigetsu as she was tired of hearing him complain the entire journey.
"Maybe I should have just left them at home, except Jugo, he is being curtious, but oh well, too late now." said Orochimaru as he sat alone in a tree and looked over a scroll that he brought with him.
"This scroll has some chakra from Ryuchi Cave stored in it, Kabuto must have forgotten to take it with him back when he was allied with Obito during the war." said Orochimaru thinking of when he first discovered the scroll.
"It will definatley come in handy for when we approach Lazarus." said Orochimaru as Karin approached him.
"Umm, Lord Orochimaru, if you don't mind me asking, who is this man we are going to see?" asked Karin with curiosity.
"Hehe, so you are getting curious now, all you need to know is that he is after Naruto Uzumaki, and he is also a threat to us as well, let that satisfy you for now, once we reach Lazarus, you can see him for yourself." said Orochimaru to Karin.
"Cryptic as usual." said Karin to herself.
"Sir, I sense Naruto's chakra in the village about fifty miles east of here." said Jugo to Orochimaru.
"Okay, he is doing fine as well, good." said Orochimaru to himself as he prepared to continue on his own path to Lazarus.
Naruto and his team were outside of the village of Ishigakure as they approached the signpost on the city limits.
"We made it, not a bad looking town to say the least." said Shikamaru.
"I guess so, but I will be glad once this whole ordeal is over." said Sai as he had a strange feeling in his mind.
"Cheer up dammit, and you all called me a lovebird, hahahaha." laughed Naruto as he knew that Sai missed Ino.
"Alright Naruto, we will explore this village, and if we do not find anything, we will continue on the path in that scroll you have." said Shikamaru to Naruto and the others.
"Sounds like a plan to me, let's go." said Sakura with excitement as she was eager to explore the village to see what she could find.
Jesei could see the four man team from outside the window of the restaurant he was in.
"Whoah, here they are, at long last, I will try to corner Sakura while she is alone, that should be all I need to make my move." thought Jesei to himself as he quietly got up out of his chair and walked towards the back room of the restaurant.
"I am keeping my chakra as low as possible, no one should find me." thought Jesei as he pulled out a tobacco pipe and relaxed in the back room for a while, waiting for the right moment to enact his plan to test Sakura's capabilities.
"The boss sure seemed interested in all three members of Team Seven, and for good reason, they were the ones who sealed the dreaded Kaguya away, I must be careful when dealing with here, oh boy." said Jesei to himself as he began to get a little nervous.
"Who would have thought, I am not worried about facing Sakura, but something else is making me feel at worry, what the fuck could it be?" asked Jesei to himself as he held his left hand to his forehead as he was breathing heavily.
"It has been so long since I was in a battle with someone else, but is that the reason, or is it... no that cannot be it!" said Jesei as he put down the pipe and seemed to be in a frantic rush.
"I must kill this girl now, I cannot bear the thought of my beautiful sweet majesty being alone anymore!" said Jesei thinking of something very troublesome as he ran out of the back of the restaurant with his chakra suppressed, with the intent of killing Sakura using stealth tactics.
"Huh, did I hear something?" asked Sakura to herself as he was slowly walking through Ishigakure on her own looking at the sights and scenery of the town.
"I hope there is nothing waiting in the shadows, for if there is, I will vanquish it." thought Sakura to herself as her gut feeling was making her feel uneasy.
"I was right!" said Sakura as she ducked, avoiding be cut by Jesei's sword, as the old man appeared right behind her with great speed.
"Come on, trying a sneak attack like that?" asked Sakura as she was happy to be face to face with the real Jesei.
"I did not tell you my name before, my name is Jesei Leikough, servant and member of his Majesties Sacred Knights of Dawn, prepare to be sent to Hell you heathen!" said Jesei as he stared at Sakura with a dangerous intent.
-To be continued next time with Chapter 022...-