(Welcome back! This is the Sixth Chapter of a 10 Part Arc. Kuroda struggles as the poison works its way through his body, is this the end for him? I love feedback and constructive criticism, so please leave a review so I can improve my writing and storytelling skills. Enjoy!)
Back in another area of the cave system a young ninja lies on the ground, his body unable to move due to the poisonous gas that has infected his system. "Is this how it ends? Is this how I die?" Kuroda wonders as his pale and shriveled body lays splayed out on the wet, rocky surface of the cave, "All my dreams, my goals, my mission, my whole purpose for living ends here in this desolate place without ever even truly beginning."
He stares at his hand, watching as the veins push out from the skin, bursting with the violet tint of the poison. He watches and waits for his coming departure to the next world, focusing all his attention on tracking the progress of the poison. Then something else comes to his attention, something that has been in the back of his mind for a while but only coming to the surface when his thoughts became clear.
"I didn't feel anything when I fell to the ground," he realizes, "I should have felt something, a jolt or a shock when my leg gave way and knee hit the ground. I didn't even feel any throbbing afterward. If my body is weaker from the poison then it should hurt even more from a simple bruise." At that very moment he becomes aware of a slight tingling along the back of his neck that has existed since he was first attacked.
"Genjutsu, this is Genjutsu!" he recognizes, feeling like an idiot "I can't believe I didn't notice it sooner. It must be very powerful then, at least as strong as the kind that Kayo-sensei has used on me during training. All right, now gain control by stopping the flow of chakra in my body. Then determine the amount of chakra the enemy used and release!"
Her vision is blurry at first when she opens her eyes, but then everything sharpens and becomes clear. She is no longer in a tense battle in the forest; she is now in a dark cave with two other figures. "What is going on? What happened?" Sakura wonders as she looks around and spots Jando, "Jando is here fighting that mustache guy, but where did he come from? How come I am in a cave instead of a forest and where did Sensei and Kuroda go?" Still confused, she manages to roll to the side as a stray shuriken whizzes over her head.
Nearby, it is a close contest between a Smoke Ninja and Leaf Ninja in mid-battle. Bosch dodges a strike and hops into the air, twirling around, and smashes his leg into Jando's head with a spin kick. Jando is knocked off his feet and slides across the ground until the wall stops him. Stalking over to finish off the boy, Bosch stops short when a kunai narrowly misses his eye.
"What, she's awake already?" he thinks looking over at Sakura who is now standing, "Damn, then I will just have to take her out as well." He runs towards her and aims three shuriken at her chest.
Sakura focuses hard and uses a kunai to deflect all of the projectiles away, but during this she loses sight of the smoke ninja. Bosch appears behind her after an incredible burst of speed and starts to come at her with a blade in his right hand. Sakura turns her head to see the attack at the last second and manages to somersault out of the way so that the full power of the attack doesn't hit her. Bosch does, however, score a long gash on her back, ripping into the fabric of her dress and staining the white with crimson blood. Sakura ignores the pain as her body fills with adrenaline and she goes for an immediate counterattack. She lunges forward intending to catch him off guard, but he easily thwarts the attempt; repeling it away with his weapon.
"You're too slow and weak, girl!" he yells as he lands slashes both of her arms. Bosch spins around and throws a high back-spin kick, but Sakura ducks under it and counters with a high-aimed punch. The smoke ninja catches the punch with his free hand. In a panic Sakura tries to go for his groin with her left foot, but he jams his knee into the side of hers to stop the attack.
He takes advantage of her hesitation after her desperate move and releases her hand to smash his fist into her gut. She bends over, the air blown out of her lungs, and he withdraws his hand to replace it with his knee and drive her upwards. For the final part of the combination he pulls his arm back as far as he can and then rockets it forward and blasts her in the chest. Her small and light body is sent flying across the room until she crashes into the rocky wall and slumps to the ground.
Proud of his work Bosch turns back to go finish off Jando. Sakura gulps down air in large and heavy breaths, trying to restore her lungs with oxygen. "I have to get up," she thinks as her entire body moans in pain, "I can't be defeated this easily. Not after all the hard work I have put in. Not after all the training I have done. Kuroda is counting on me, if I don't get up now then I'll never be strong enough to help him." Her whole body shakes as she puts her weight against the wall to try and stand.
Bosch hears the groans and whimpers and turns to see the Leaf Genin attempt to stand. "Don't bother, girl," he warns, "You don't have anything left. Even if you did you still couldn't defeat me. Just stay down."
"I'm…I'm not going to give up," she says, staggering.
"Look, just stay down," he replies, exasperated, "Or else I'll have to put you down, for good."
"I said I'm not going to give up!" she repeats as she makes her way to her feet but still looking unbalanced.
"Fine then, have it your way," he says as he whips his kunai at her with astounding velocity. Exhausted, in pain, and still catching her breath Sakura has no energy left to dodge the weapon soaring straight for her heart.
"That used up a lot more chakra than I anticipated," Kuroda thinks as he opens his eyes and finds himself lying on the ground, his body perfectly normal, "I'll have to keep a close watch on my chakra level from now on."
He glances around and sees nothing else in the immediate vicinity. As he stands he thinks, "There is no indication of where Kayo-sensei and the enemy went. This cave system is pretty large, if I wander around trying to find her or the others I'll just get lost. Clones won't work either, because making too many would drain my chakra. If only I had Sensei's mechanical bird, then this would be easy." He stands around thinking hard about what step to take next when he feels a tingle down the back of his spine and is whisked away in an instant.
Sakura's pupils dilate as she helplessly watches the kunai streak towards her. Her life flashes before her eyes in that split second before the kunai would puncture her heart. Thoughts of her mom and dad, her best friend Yui, all the wasted time spent chasing after boys instead of practicing her ninja skills. Her knees weaken and her muscles go numb as the final image in her mind rests on a cute boy with black hair holding his hand out to her. A violet light brightens, unseen by anyone and barely noticed by Sakura herself, coming from under her clothes in a special spot right above her navel. Kuroda materializes before her just as the kunai is about to hit. His eyes take a nanosecond to adjust to his new surroundings and then he dives to the left while grabbing onto Sakura's arm and pushing her the opposite way. The kunai slices into the side of his stomach and then the side of her arm, but the cuts are only superficial wounds.
He quickly lands and then jumps back in front of her to provide cover. "What the hell? How did he get here?" Bosch wonders in bewilderment, "This cave is sealed off. There is no way he could have gotten in without me noticing."
"You should pay more attention when you are fighting against multiple opponents," Jando yells as he attacks the smoke ninja from behind with a Gentle Fist strike. Bosch jumps back and puts himself far out of reach of any more Taijutsu attacks.
"Are you all right, Sakura? Do you have any injuries?" Kuroda asks as keeps his eyes trained on the enemy.
"It's not that bad," she replies, trying act tough, "I can still fight." Kuroda spares a second to glance back and evaluate her condition.
"She has bruises all over and those cuts on her arm, plus she is breathing pretty heavily," he concludes, "I probably shouldn't let her fight, but with Jando here I can't use my special Jutsu to finish the enemy off quickly."
"Please, let me help," Sakura pleads, "I can do it."
He is indecisive for a moment, but recognizes the look in her eyes that say she will try to help either way. "Okay, but just stick close to me," Kuroda replies.
"I don't know how that kid got in here, but it works out for me. I'll take care of them just like Kaneo ordered," Bosch thinks as his eyes dart from Jando back to the other two, "Although they do have the advantage of numbers on me, so I guess I'll have to even it up."
Kuroda starts shifting to an attack stance but pauses when he sees the Smoke Ninja using hand signs.
"Be ready," he calls to his comrades, "He could try to use that Genjutsu again."
"You coward!" Jando protests, "Why don't you try fighting fairly instead of using stupid illusions?"
"It is three versus one, why should I fight fair?" Bosch shouts back, "Ninja Art: Fog Clone Jutsu!" A fog spreads out from his body encompassing a large area of the cave. Then slowly, blobs begin to rise up out of the fog and morph into copies of the mustached Smoke Ninja.
"Crap, that is a lot of clones," Jando mutters as he takes an involuntary step backwards.
"There are over thirty clones there! Has this guy been holding back the entire time?" Kuroda wonders as he searches for a plan, "He'd have to have an enormous chakra reserve to be able to split it up into that many copies."
"What is the plan, Kuroda?" Sakura asks, her jaw firms and her lips compress in determination.
"Well, I guess the only way to fight clones is with our own clones," he replies.
"I can only make one though," Sakura frowns, concerned that she won't make much of a difference.
"It's fine," Kuroda assures her, "His should be significantly weaker due to the large number."
"All right then, I trust you," she nods, "Just tell me when to go."
"Jando, Sakura and I are going to attack and distract him," Kuroda calls, "We need you to use your Byakugan to find and then take out the real one. Can you do it?"
The doubting look Sakura casts at Jando clearly states her opinion of his abilities.
"Right, no problem," Jando pledges, even though he isn't sure if he can.
"Okay then, Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Kuroda announces after making the required hand signs.
"Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Sakura shouts following suit. Four small explosions of smoke go off and when the white gas clears away three copies of the young, handsome, charcoal-haired boy and one copy of the light fuchsia-haired girl are standing beside them.
"Clones against clones huh?" one of the smoke ninja clones yells, "Too bad that yours are just a waste of chakra."
"We'll see if you're still boasting when this is over," Kuroda replies as he charges forward.
"Okay, my turn," Jando mutters as he places his hands together and focuses chakra into his eyes, "Byakugan!" The muscles and veins around his eyes bulge out and he accesses his clan's unique ability to see the world around him in the form of chakra.
"Wait, what the heck? What's going on," he thinks as he stares ahead, "Why is everything so misty? It's like a big cloud of chakra, I can't see anything inside it clearly. Is there something wrong with my eyes?" As Kuroda's clones jump into the battles they all disappear from Jando's enhanced vision and are lost inside the cloud of chakra.
Kuroda charges his first target head-on and goes for a slash across the belly with his kunai. However, his strike passes straight through the target, almost as if there is nothing even there. Sakura has the same problem when she tries to use a spinning kick, but doesn't hit anything. After several attempts at hitting the enemy Sakura just becomes more frustrated. "What's going on? Why can't I hit them?" she screams in both frustration and panic.
"This is exactly like the other guy's technique," Kuroda thinks as he jumps back out of the swarm of Fog Clones, "I can't touch any of them. My attacks just go straight through. Maybe it's not a Ninjutsu at all. Is it possible that this is actually a Genjutsu? I have to … Oh crap, not now!" A familiar tingle travels down the back of his spine and he is whisked away in an instant.
(After escaping the deadly Genjutsu, Kuroda is summoned to the aid of Sakura. But just as he begins to form a plan another of his allies calls him away. As always, if you want more information on my characters you can see their bios on my profile page. Be warned, there may be some spoilers. Also I'm in the process of getting pictures drawn for the characters, but I have no idea how long that will take. If you're interested in drawing and have a DA account then send me a Message. Enjoy the next chapter, and please review.)