(Welcome back! This is the Seventh Chapter of a 10 Part Arc. The Genin of Team 3 are struggling with their enemy, but how is Kayo Yuhi faring? I love feedback and constructive criticism, so please leave a review so I can improve my writing and storytelling skills. Enjoy!)
"I'm done for, I hope the kids can get away and retreat back to the village," Kayo thinks as she watches the batch of shuriken zoom towards her. Her heart races, pounding hard enough to break out of her chest. Her adrenaline spikes, seemingly slowing down time so that each passing nanosecond lasts an hour. She closes her eyes and accepts her fate, but the pain from the impact of the weapons she expected never occurs. Instead she hears the sound of metal clashing with metal. She opens her eyes and sees Kuroda standing with his back to her and the shuriken lying harmlessly on the ground.
"What? How did you…?" she asks, her eyes widening in disbelief.
"You have some seriously bad timing, Sensei," Kuroda complains with the irritation evident in his voice.
"He said that he killed you, how did you survive?" she gasps, her mind not fully accepting that she is alive.
"He almost did," Kuroda admits, "But once I realized it was a Genjutsu I was able to break free. What happened to you? I would have thought you would have easily been able to overtake him with your own Genjutsu."
He looks over her body, which is in seriously bad shape. There are cuts and bruises all over with some nasty looking lacerations across her waist. As she clutches her wounds Kayo explains, "My Genjutsu was not effective against him; he was able to counter everything I threw at him. Plus, he has some powerful Ninjutsu as well. I won't be able to do much in my condition, so you'll have to be careful if you are going to take him on."
"Well, you've put me in a precarious position," Kuroda grumbles, "I was just with Sakura and Jando taking on the other guy, and I don't think they will last long without me."
"If you were with them then why did you come here?" Kayo questions, her eyes darting towards Kaneo, wondering why he isn't attacking.
"I really didn't have much of a choice," Kuroda replies, forgetting that she hadn't experienced the sacrifice curse yet.
"Hey, boy!" Kaneo yells angrily, a vein popping out on his forehead, "I don't know how you escaped my Jutsu, but if you were smart you would have run away."
"This is bad," Kuroda thinks tries to figure what to do, "I'll probably be summoned back to Sakura in a few moments, and then back here, and then back there. It will just be an unending cycle until I end up dead. There is one option, and it would be the perfect opportunity for me to test it."
"If you're not going to respond to me, then I'll just go ahead and cut you down," Kaneo shouts as he prepares to charge.
Kuroda makes a few quick hand signs and then scrapes some blood off the wound in his side and slams his palm onto the ground. "Summoning Jutsu!" he yells as a cloud of smoke bursts up from the earth. As the white cloud dissipates a pale grey, four-legged figure is revealed. It is a miniature elephant with a thick hide, sturdy legs, and a long trunk. It has some sort of dark blue material hanging over its back which houses weapons, tools, and other materials.
The elephant trumpets loudly as the air rushes out of its trunk. "Man, that was a rush!" it announces, "Being summoned is always such a thrilling experience!"
Kaneo stops in his tracks, deciding to reassess his tactics.
"Welcome, Dantoloxo," Kuroda says.
"I was wondering how soon it would be before you called on me," the animal states.
"I'm in need of your assistance and I don't have a lot of time to explain," Kuroda says in a rush.
"A summoning Jutsu? When did he learn that?" Kayo wonders as she slides back against a wall.
Kuroda tells Dantoloxo, "I don't know how long I'm going to be here, due to certain circumstances that are out of my control I might disappear. So you might have to fight by yourself for a while."
Dantoloxo seems eager, "That's fine with me; I haven't been in a fight in a long time, so I need to see if my abilities are still as good as they used to be."
"Good, I'm glad to hear it," Kuroda says, "Now that guy over there is the enemy and the woman behind us is our ally. Don't worry about protecting her, just focus on defeating him."
"Gee, thanks a lot for the consideration," Kayo thinks sourly.
"That works for me," Dantoloxo says, "I'm not too good at defense anyways."
"Okay, I'll go in first then and you follow behind," Kuroda orders as he picks up his dropped kunai and charges. The elephant uses his trunk to extract a kunai of his own from one of the pouches hanging at his side and then charges after the boy.
"So you can use a summoning Jutsu? Well, good for you," mocks Kaneo as he shifts into a defensive stance, "But it isn't going to make any difference."
Kuroda draws close and then, when he is in range, he lunges forward with the sharp point of his weapon. The Smoke Ninja slides to the right just enough to evade the attack, but as he does he catches hold of Kuroda's arm. Before the Leaf Ninja can react he is already being whipped around and then hurled straight back at his support. He quickly tucks himself into a ball and then rolls in the air, passing straight over the charging elephant. As his feet touch the ground and he slides back Dantoloxo is already engaging the enemy.
Kuroda quickly spurts forward and aims to catch Kaneo off guard. Yet the Smoke Ninja is a combat veteran and easily senses the attack. He ducks down low to avoid getting his throat slashed and then bounds backwards to put some distance between them so he can make hand signs.
"Don't let him complete that Jutsu!" Kuroda yells, recognizing the combination of hand signs from before, as he sprints ahead with startling speed. Dantoloxo immediately flicks his knife at the enemy with surprisingly little effort.
"Too slow," whispers Kaneo with an evil grin, "Ninja Art: Smog Choking Technique!" He tilts his head to the side and the kunai flies harmlessly past, and then his right arm becomes engulfed in a grey gas-like substance. He motions his arm forward and the gas shoots off changing into the shape of a large hand while it moves. Kuroda tries to back off, but he is already too close and the smoky hand slams into him, sending him crashing into a wall.
The impact loosens several rocks and they slip and slide to the ground, clinking and crackling as they knock into each other. As he shifts some of the rubble off Kuroda notices light coming from a hole in the wall. He glances through and catches a glimpse of white and blue cloth running by. "How convenient," he thinks as he stands and brushes dirt off his clothes, "I bet they lured our team to these specific caves. There is probably a hidden door somewhere around connecting them. I'll just have to find it once I am done with this guy. But first I need to figure out how to get around his Jutsu."
Kuroda sees Dantoloxo charging in again, flinging shuriken from his side pouches, but the smoky hand bats them all to the ground. Sensing another opening Kuroda slips a kunai into his hand and starts to charge when a familiar tingle travels down the back of his spine and he vanishes on the spot.
Kuroda materializes back in the other cave and deflects an incoming shuriken with his weapon sending up a shower of sparks. Sakura is on the ground, her skin covered in more bruises and cuts. Jando is nearby not looking much better, but he still seems ready to go as he jumps to his feet.
"Hey, you're back! Where did you go?" Jando questions, angrily punching the air.
"I have no idea, everything was dark," Kuroda lies, "It must have been some sort of Jutsu he used."
"We're lucky you escaped it," Sakura pants, trying to stand up, "I don't know how much longer we could have lasted on our own."
"What? That third brat is back again?" Bosch wonders in frustration from within his battalion of clones, "He appears out of nowhere, disappears, and then reappears again. And I was just about to finish off the others, damn, this is crazy."
"Sakura, you need to stay back and rest," Kuroda orders, "You're in no condition to fight. Let me and Jando handle it from here on out."
"Okay," she replies, acknowledging her situation. She limps over to rest by the cavern wall.
"Have you been able to figure out how his technique works yet, Jando?" Kuroda inquires.
"Yeah, I can see it all with my Byakugan," he confirms, "The real one is hiding underground. He only pops up when we are distracted by the clones."
"Underground, huh?" Kuroda ponders, "If that is the case then I think I have a plan. Can you detect his exact location?"
"Yeah," says Jando focusing his eyes and searching for the enemy, "He is about 15 meters ahead and 4 to the right."
"All right then, you stay back here and feed me his location if it changes," Kuroda says as he starts making hand signals.
"Okay, I got it," Jando replies.
"Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Kuroda announces as a cloud of smoke blankets the air around him. When it is gone there are three copies surrounding him.
"You're going to try clones again?" Bosch laughs from his hiding place, "It's still not going to work. You are just wasting your chakra yet again."
"We'll see about that," Kuroda shouts back, "All right guys, let's do this!" The Leaf Ninja charges ahead with his copies into the army of Smoke Ninja. Before they reach the line of enemies the three copies break off from the formation and each head in a separate direction. Then they all crash into the enemy, cutting and slashing anything that they can reach while the main one heads to Bosch's location.
The first copy is quickly surrounded by fog clones and they grab hold of his body, preventing him from moving before they snap his neck. The loud crack eerily echoes throughout the cave, followed by a poofing sound when the shadow disappears. clone Soon the other copies are overwhelmed by the fog clones and they burst back into white smoke, leaving Kuroda stranded behind enemy lines.
"Okay, that is three down," thinks Bosch, "So that means the last one is the original."
Kuroda fights valiantly against the horde, but soon they surround him and latch on to his arms and legs, restraining him completely. Bosch emerges from the ground with a big smile on his face, sensing imminent victory.
"Damn it, let me go, you coward!" Kuroda shouts.
"Stupid little brat, this is the ninja world," Bosch responds as he walks closer and draws his kunai, "It is win or die, that's all there is."
"You won't get away with this!" Kuroda warns.
"Oh, but I have already won," Bosch replies before stabbing him in the gut.
As the life force fades from the boy Bosch thinks, "Too easy, but whatever, at least he is dead. Now I just have to finish the other two off before I can see how the boss is doing." He moves to turn and go after the remaining members of Team 3, but something prevents him from moving. He looks down to see two hands coming out from the ground and latching on to his ankles. Kuroda's corpse poofs into a cloud of smoke and vanishes.
"What's going on?" Bosch screams in fear and confusion.
"I told you that you wouldn't get away," Kuroda says as his head pops up from the ground. At the same time there are two more poofs of smoke and two of the Smoke Ninja transform into copies of the Leaf Ninja.
"What the Hell?" Bosch screams as he struggles to free his legs. But Kuroda's grip is iron tight and before the smoke ninja can do anything one of the shadow clones is already in front of him. It thrusts a fist into his gut and knocks all the air out of him. The original Kuroda releases his hold on Bosch's ankles allowing the clone to smash his right knee into the man, as he is bent over, and this launches him into the air.
The other clone times his jump perfectly so that he is in the air next to Bosch as he reaches the peak of his flight. The clone twists around and lands a powerful spin kick, sending the Smoke Ninja hurling towards the cave wall. Bosch's body connects with the wall, but his momentum is so strong that he completely smashes through it and disappears on the other side.
The clone lands back on the ground just as the Bosch's fog clones begin to fade back into nothingness. Jando rushes towards him supporting Sakura at his side as the original Kuroda climbs out of his hole in the ground.
"Wow, that was amazing!" Sakura compliments, her eyes filling up with admiration, "How did you do that?"
"I created four clones and hid underground to avoid detection," Kuroda explains, "Then I purposely let him destroy the first one while the other two used the Transformation Jutsu to infiltrate his forces. I used my Headhunter Jutsu to grab hold of him once he came out of hiding to destroy the last one. My two hidden clones revealed themselves and finished him off."
"Kuroda is so awesome!" Sakura thinks, in awe of her comrade, "He came up with that strategy so fast and was able to execute it perfectly."
"What should we do now?" Jando asks, trying to hide his annoyance at being outdone by his teammate, "This cave is like a maze and we don't know where Kayo and that other guy are."
"First we need to make sure this one is truly incapacitated before we go searching for Sensei," Kuroda says as he walks towards the large hole in the wall. As they pass into the next area there is a huge explosion that spreads a cloud of dust and dirt everywhere. Once it begins to settle they can see Kaneo locked in combat with a grey elephant.
"What's going on?" Jando questions, confused by the new twist, "What the heck is that animal?"
"Look there is Kayo-sensei over there on the ground," Sakura points out, worry starting to creep into her voice.
"Maybe she did a summoning Jutsu," Kuroda suggests, in order to keep Jando out of the loop.
"I didn't know she was capable of…" Jando starts to say, but the rest of the sentence slurs as he falls asleep, his chakra expended and his body exhausted.
"Jando, are you okay?" Sakura says in a panic, trying to hold him up.
"He'll be fine, he just needs to rest," Kuroda says calmly, "He has good timing though, now I don't have to keep up this charade anymore."
"What should we do?" Sakura asks.
"Take them over by Kayo," Kuroda instructs his clones, "Sakura, I need you to stay over there in a safe area so I can fight with my full abilities. And make sure Jando stays asleep."
"Okay, I will," she promises as one of the clones picks her up in his arms. The other clone throws Jando over his shoulder and they head off.
"It looks like Bosch is out of commission," Kuroda thinks as he looks at the Smoke Ninja buried in a pile of rubble on the other side of the room, "His durability is really poor, that must have been why he needed that Jutsu. Anyways now I can focus on the leader. It looks like Dantoloxo is holding his own without me, but now it is time to tip the scale in our favor."
"What? How did Bosch lose?" Kaneo wonders in rage, "I trained him myself, there is no way he should have lost to those weaklings! I'm not going to let some worthless Genin tarnish the reputation of the Hidden Smoke."
"You're back sooner than I expected," Dantoloxo says, coming over to strategize.
"A lucky break that I didn't have to travel that far," Kuroda says mildly, shrugging, "So how did you fare?"
"I haven't been able to get close to him and land a hit," the elephant admits, "But he hasn't been able to hurt me either."
"You're going to regret coming back here again, boy," Kaneo yells as he finishes weaving hand signs, "Ninja Art: Fog Clone Jutsu!" A dense fog rolls out from his body like a mushroom, encompassing a large area of the cave. Then slowly, blobs begin to rise up out of the fog and morph into copies of the Smoke Ninja, all with the same scowl on their face.
"So he is going to use the same Jutsu as his subordinate," Kuroda ponders as he tries to come up with a plan, "And I bet his version is much stronger. If I use the same tactics they probably will fail, I'll just have to modify them a bit then."
"That looks pretty dangerous," Dantoloxo comments, "What do you want to do?"
"Do you have any powerful Ninjutsu that can take him out with one hit?" Kuroda inquires.
"As a matter of fact I do," the elephant confirms, "I just need some time to prepare it."
"Good, then I'll head in and keep him occupied," Kuroda states, his jaw firming in determination, "Once you see the opening don't hesitate to act."
"Roger that," the elephant replies with a nod.
Kuroda's two clones then return and form up on both sides of him. Then they all rush forward, with tremendous speed, straight into the still forming army of clones.
(There is only one enemy left and Kuroda no longer has to deal with suddenly disappearing in mid-battle. However, will he be able to defeat a man who bested Kayo in Genjutsu? 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.)