Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto nor any of the characters, beside the main OC. All credit for creating this amazing series goes to Mr. Kishimoto
Author's note: Thanks to everyone for reading! Answer to the reviews are at the bottom.
And I want to thank you all again for your support. It does make writing much more pleasurable, in fact this chapter was much more easier to write. I am uncertain about certain things, so I am actually anxious to have your feedback.
Here it is, your Shino-centric (sort of) chapter. I hope you enjoy.
MAY THE BEST AMBUSHER WIN
or don't let the butterflies amuse you. They are evil.
Kankurō was starting to feel a little uneasy. He worried about Temari and didn't particularly like to be alone with Gaara. Especially a very unstable and crazed Gaara. He didn't know whether to hope his little brother got better so they could move faster, or that he didn't so he wouldn't risk to become the target of the red-haired kid's fury.
The puppeteer couldn't even up his speed, because he needed to save some strength should he need to fight the blonde kid. He was quite sceptical that Temari could actually stop or delay him for long. Thankfully, the Uzumaki brat seemed to quite good-hearted and was possibly going to spare his sister's life. No matter how though and uncaring he acted, he did actually give a damn about her. Suddenly, his instincts told him to duck. And he did, thankfully. A kunai was impaled right where his head was two seconds before.
"Déjà vu, much?" a mocking voice said. "Well met again, makeup-chan."
Kankurō raised his gaze to see a smirking Naruto in front of him, arm crossed.
"You..." he said through his teeth, furious. "... then Temari is..."
"Oh, I am pretty sure she is fine." Naruto replied, cheerfully. "She didn't manage to destroy my clone yet, though, so I can't say for sure."
"A clone?" Kankurō cursed. "Damn it, how did we fall for something like that. No matter..." he let Gaara go and the red haired kid fell on the branch, still quite zoned out. "... now I will fight you."
"I don't think so." Naruto crossed his arms. "My opponent is your brother, I am afraid."
"And I am afraid I cannot..."
"It's not up to you." A voice said from behind Kankurō, making the Sand genin jump a little from the startle. "I shall be the one to fight you, Kankurō-san."
The puppeteer turned to meet Shino's blank expression. The mysterious member of team 7 was a very dangerous opponent as well and Kankurō wasn't sure what to expect even after having seen his match with the Uchiha. 'I ought to check my body for bugs as soon as possible.' But at least Shino didn't know a lot about his fighting style.
Naruto smiled. "It's settled then. Seems like your brother agrees too."
"Uzumaki Naruto..." Gaara opened his eyes in that moment. "... you will not erase my existence. I will kill you!"
Kankurō paled, trembling in fear. 'If Gaara decides to use that technique, then...'
"You have to catch me first, Sabaku no Gaara!" Naruto cheerfully said, watching as Gaara slowly started to stand on his own. "See you later, Shino, and be careful!"
"Don't worry, give me ten minutes and I'll back you up." the Aburame replied, smirking.
"If I haven't finished by then." Naruto retorted, although he was clearly joking.
The two genin knew very well not to underestimate their opponent, especially one that contained a Bijū in his belly. They exchanged a last glance and then Naruto jumped just in time to avoid a jab of sand that would have impaled him.
"Catch me!" Naruto shouted again, before disappearing into the woods at top speed.
Gaara roared in anger and followed suit. Kankurō looked somehow relieved that his little brother had gone away.
"And so it is just us." Shino said, fixing his sunglasses. With a blur of speed reached a branch nearby, exactly in the direction Naruto had went in. It was a clear message: don't even think to go after them. "Shall we begin?"
Kankurō laughed maliciously. "You two know nothing." he said. "You have no idea of the terrors of this world."
Shino raised any eyebrow – his mind flying back to Nami and the Forest of Death – and smiled bitterly behind the collar of his coat, thinking how wrong Kankurō was. Still, he decided to play the game. "And do you plan to show me something about them, Kankurō-san?"
Kankurō placed his puppet down beside him, unfastening the bandages that covered it. He also used that moment to send chakra all along his body, killing at least a dozen of bugs crawling on his body. "No, but if you beat me and go after them, you'll find out." he said, with a smirk. "That is if you can really beat me."
Shino narrowed his eyes and opened his arms wide, calling forth his beloved Kikai. 'Game on, Kankurō-san. It is you that knows nothing.'
"Now!" the ANBU Commander shouted, watching as the Sandaime sent Orochimaru crashing on the ground, shouting about Konoha and the will of fire. 'Hokage-sama knows we are about to enter. What a great shinobi!'
Akimi formed the ram seals. 'Please, let it work.' "Activate!" she bellowed.
Besides her the Commander crouched, ready to leap and stun the fat sound ninja – which according to the girl would make the barrier crack. On the other three corners, the captains of the other three squad did the same. The whooshing sound from before echoed in the area and the ANBU moved like a sole man. Four cries of pain followed, indicating the targets had been neutralized.
The Commander knew they were merely unconscious, as he wanted them alive to interrogate them. The four ninja were Orochimaru's bodyguards, after all, and where bound to have a lot of intel about the man and his bases. What happened next, took by surprise him, his men, Orochimaru, the three Kage and the seal user genin.
The barrier did come down, just like they expected, but in a very explosive way. Purple and golden light exploded from it, together with a massive wave of chakra residuals. Enough to make their hair float and stay electrified. When visibility returned, few seconds later, hell broke loose.
"FUCKING BRAT!" Orochimaru shouted, leaping towards them.
"Attack!" shouted the Commander, signalling his men to keep occupied the two revived Kage, who were fortunately ought to be weakened by Hiruzen's explosive notes. He prepared to defend genin Katora in the meantime.
He didn't need to, though.
"ENMA!" Sarutobi shouted, a fierce urgency in his voice.
The old money moved with astonishing speed, still in staff form, appearing in front of Akimi just in time to stop Orochimaru's charge. The money had somehow transformed in a small, protective cage around the girl.
Sarutobi landed on top of it one second later. "Didn't you want to kill me, Orochimaru?"
"I will!" the Snake Sannin exclaimed with a shrill voice. "First I will destroy you, then her and afterward your pathetic little village too!"
"We shall see." Hiruzen turned to Akimi. "Quickly, go!"
The cage disappeared and the girl ran as she was told to, leaping away as quickly as she could.
"Do something!" bellowed Orochimaru and Sarutobi realised with horror that both Hashirama and Tobirama looked unscratched by his previous offensive. "Kill them!"
'It must be something to do with their bound souls. But then I must... but can I?' Sarutobi paled. "Akimi, we are gonna need your new sensei here!" he shouted.
"Hai, sir." she screamed back, just as she got off the roof altogether.
Hiruzen frowned as he turned in time to see Hashirama slam his hands together in the snake seal, just before the trees around them grew into a colossal forest that made visibility extremely poor. However, his moment of intense focus was enough for one of the ANBU to reach him and place a piece of paper on his back. 'A seal. Akimi has been quite busy I see... but I can't believe Hashirama-sama got fooled like that...' Hiruzen smiled. 'He must be fighting Edo Tensei off, thus he is much weaker than he is supposed to be.'
The ANBU activated what looked like a paralysing seal just before Tobirama attacked him, sending him flying. The Second was immediately surrounded by a full squad of masked special forces. His face stayed impassable, as he formed the ram seal and stated: "Kokuangyo no Jutsu [Bringer-of-Darkness Technique]"
Blackness oozed from the Nidaime's body, spreading around like a bottle of ink poured on a blank paper. The world became a endless night and Hiruzen, nor the ANBU, could see pass their noses. At least Hashirama was still immobilised and would be for a little while more, or so he hoped.
"Keep them busy, commander." the Hokage ordered. "Help is coming. And now is just you and me, Orochimaru." Enma flied back into his hands and he readied himself for the most vicious offensive he could muster.
The Snake Sannin looked around in the darkness, cursing because his plan had miserably failed. Fighting the old man inside a sealed space with the help of two Kage was one thing, but facing him alone while back-up was coming – and he had a pretty good idea of who that person was – was another altogether. Orochimaru was a snake and as such he didn't bother with honour and other foolish ideals like that. He knew when it was time to escape and regroup.
"We shall see each other again, sensei. I think you have your hands full enough as it is." and he flew away.
Hiruzen shouted and jumped after him, Emna lengthening to reach him, but to no avail. He pondered whether to go after his former student or not, but he clearly heard a scream of pain form one of his ANBU and realised the First was free once again. He needed to dispel that blasted illusion and hold the field until Jiraiya arrived. Orochimaru would get what was coming to him, sooner or later.
Considering he had resigned himself to die, things were actually going for the best, Sarutobi though, crouching before jumping back into battle.
"Kugutsu no Jutsu! [Puppet Technique]" Kankurō bellowed, after uncovering his puppet with a rolling and fluid movement.
Shino watched with his usual, impassable expression the marionette, which looked quite scary and, if non other, creepy. It was humanoid with dark maroon hair that resembled Kankurō's... and that is where the similarities finished. Karasu[Crow] had three eyes and six limbs. It was halfway sprawled on Kankurō from behind, making the overall impression even more creepy.
The Suna genin was of course controlling the puppet via chakra strings and fortunately Shino was quite familiar with the technique because it was similar to the metal strings Akimi used, to a certain degree. However, as she told him, though, he should be wary of the mastery and control a puppeteer would have on such strings. Shino kept his insects in front of him for show, quickly thinking about the best tactic to follow to win the fight.
'He thinks he has the advantage because he has seen me fight, while I basically didn't. Moreover, I used a lot energies to keep up with Sasuke-san during the exam.' Shino mused. 'Let's patronise him, then.' Knowing his opponent couldn't see his gaze behind his sunglasses, Shino focused his eyes on Kankurō's fingertips.
The Suna nin flexed his right hand, then thrust it forward: the puppet shot forward as well, charging at Shino. He stayed immobile, waiting for the last good second to duck with an agile jump on his right.
One of Karasu's wrist had opened to reveal a secret knife, which impaled itself in the branch where Shino was, leaving behind a small pool of liquid. 'Poison. I must be wary.'
Kankurō moved his arms again and the puppet danced under his command, engaging Shino in a quick paced taijutsu match. It wasn't easy, after all, to keep up with six limbs. Moreover, there were several hidden blades that surprised him and almost got him on more than one occasion. Shino thanked the kami he was used to Naruto's and Kakashi's speed. After a few moments, the bug user got tired and disengaged himself, hiding into the trees.
"You are not getting away." Kankurō bellowed, sending Crow after him.
From his hiding spots in the shade that put him so at ease, Shino smirked. "I wasn't planning on that, but I dislike the sunlight." he replied, using a genjutsu to not give his location.
"I'll smoke you out!" Kankurō directed Karasu around, throwing several projectiles into the trees. Eventually Shino was forced to come out, jumping on a higher tree branch. He wondered if the Suna nin had some kind of connection with his puppet that allowed him to see through it.
Karasu rotated in the air, floating in a unnatural way, and spread its arms. Shino took a couple of kunai out, ready for both offense and defence. He was briefly startled when the puppet's chest opened to reveal several curved blades, but used the vulnerable position of the marionette to hit it square in the chest. Karasu's arms became idle, as its head fell down... just before it disappeared with a puff of smoke to reveal a broken log.
"Kawarimi!" Shino cursed, as the true Karasu attacked him from below.
The Aburame managed to dodge all its limbs, but didn't expect Karasu to open his mouth and shot out half a dozen of knives. He was impaled in the neck and chest, letting out a hoarse cry of pain.
Kankurō smirked. "Gotcha."
"I was thinking the same thing." Shino mockingly said, punching Kankurō right in the stomach. The Suna nin was sent crashing against the trees, as the other Shino was revealed to be a clone made of insects. The Kikai immediately attacked the puppet, as the Aburame kept the puppeteer busy.
Kankurō cursed, as the bugs ate off all the chakra strings and crawled all over the puppet and its joint, making it basically unusable. Then they flew over the area, stopping Kankurō to disengage himself and forcing him to a taijutsu skirmish.
"Quite weak on close combat, are we?" Shino said, launching a barrage of punches and kicks at Kankurō. "I guess that is the problem with your Puppet Technique."
"So you got me." Kankurō replied, panting, as he ducked and jumped on another tree. "But this is why I am prepared to fight you off."
Karasu's arm floated into the air behind him – detached from the rest of its body – and the wrist opened to reveal a strange tube hidden in it. Shino looked alerted. Then a huge cloud of purple smoke shot out from it, covering the whole area in a range of at least thirty meters.
Shino cursed and used Sunshin to get the hell out of it. 'Poisoned smoke. Damn it, I inhaled some. What a careless mistake.' he looked towards the dense cloud, which was hiding Kankurō from sight. 'Now he has time to regroup, reassemble his puppet and find a hidden spot to attack me. And I need time and all of my bugs to recover from that poison... it's time to bring in a new card.'
Shino nodded to himself, biting his thumb. It was time to surprise his opponent. No matter how useful that smoke cloud was, it had a weakness: Kankurō was hidden from Shino's sight, yes, but so was Shino. He slammed his hand on the nearby tree and murmured: "Kuchiyose no jutsu."
"Kuchiyose no jutsu!"
Akimi had stopped only when she reached the lower roofs. She had bitten her thumb in the air, slamming her hand while landing to call forth one of her summons. She was panting, adrenaline still running high in her body after seeing Orochimaru charge at her – again.
"Thanks for coming, Jinsoro-kun."
"What do you want of me, Akimi-dono?" a small sized tiger, his fur of a dark purple with black stripes. His speciality was speed.
"Take a message to Jiraiya-sensei, you remember him...?"
"The pervert." the animal replied with clear distaste.
"The one and only." Akimi nodded. "Look for him near the walls. I think he is supposed to stop Orochimaru's summons. The snakes."
"What do I need to say?"
"Tell him that Orochimaru has summoned the Shodai and Nidaime Hokage, using Edo Tensei. Sarutobi-sama needs support. Go!"
"Hai!" the tiger disappear with a blur of speed, sparks igniting its paws.
Akimi allowed herself a moment of respite and turned towards the epic fight she left behind. She saw with widened eyes forest the Shodai had summoned suddenly increase exponentially in size, hiding the battle from view. Then, a utter complete darkness filled the area.
"Is that a Genjutsu?" Akimi murmured, awed. She frowned seeing Orochimaru flying out of the pitch black zone two seconds later, obviously fleeing for his life. She hoped he didn't decide to stop and deal with her, but luckily he was too busy getting the hell out of Konoha. "I can't believe..."
Feeling someone approach from her right, she hurriedly took out a kunai pointing it towards...
"Pakkun-kun." Akimi said, relieved, lowering her arm.
"Akimi-chan." the small dog greeted. "I saw one of your furballs running towards the outer part of the village."
"He is carrying a message. What are you doing here?"
"I'm bringing back up for you. From Kakashi."
Akimi nodded. "Right, but I need to reach 'to-kun as soon as possible. Lead the way, quickly!"
Naruto was leaping from tree to tree, determined to put as much distance as possible between Gaara and the village, at the same time trying not to waste to much energies. There was a tough fight ahead.
The hairs on his back stood up, as he felt a sudden spike of chakra... Gaara's chakra. It seemed the red-haired kid had gotten tired of that game of chasing. Naruto stopped and dived to the right, just in time to avoid an extremely powerful spike of sand. Something had happened... Gaara had become more powerful.
Naruto landed on a nearby branch and looked as Gaara screamed, holding his head in his hands. His face cracked, pouring sand all over.
Gaara screamed again. "I'm going to kill you."
Naruto smiled a little, trying to be reasonable. "I was hoping we could rather talk."
"You are fool, Uzumaki Naruto." Gaara cried out, still keeping an hand over his eyes. The sand was still cracking. "But you are strong, you have friends... I am going to kill them too. You should have ran away when you had the chance?"
"And let you unleash a Bijū and its rage on Konoha?" Naruto replied. "No, thank you."
"And let you unleash a Bijū and its rage on Konoha?" Naruto replied. "No, thank you."
Gaara seemed to get a grip on himself, lowering his hand. He looked confused. "You know? Why aren't you afraid of me?"
"Because it is Shukaku I am afraid of, not Sabaku no Gaara. I am afraid of what is contained, not of the container."
"You should be afraid of me!" Gaara shouted, his voice becoming shrill. He started to hold his face again. "You will be, by killing you I will prove my existence. I'll kill you."
"You don't have to." Naruto said, with a calm voice. He put his opened hands in front of him, in a peace gesture. "There are other ways to prove your existence. We are more similar than you think..."
"Shut up!" Gaara roared. "You... you are my prey."
The sand armour over Gaara's body started to crack more and more and he let out a new scream, full of pain and sheer, pure craziness. He dropped on his knees, then started convulsing around, still screaming, sand swirling around him.
Naruto frowned. 'Maybe I shouldn't have tried to talk with him and attacked but...' he shook his head. 'At least I tried. I would always wondered if I could change him, if I didn't.'
"You are..." Slowly, half of Gaara's upper-body became covered in sand, gaining a monstrous appearance. His left arm became a huge paw, with clawed sand fingers. The left side of his face resembled that of a strange animal, maybe a racoon, with a pointed hear and very sharp teeth. Blue markings run all over the sand, making his overall appearance even more menacing. But the most terrible thing was the eye. "... my prey!"
Naruto knew why: he was looking right into Shukaku's eye and while the tailed beast might have been less intimidating than Kyūbi, it was still pretty scary. The blonde knew he would not easily forget that yellow, bright eye with a rhomboid pupil surrounded by four dots.
"By killing you, I will feel alive!" Gaara shouted. "Let me feel!"
Naruto braced himself for the fight ahead. 'At least he still has some kind of marginal control. I need to finish him off soon. Let's hope Akimi's idea works.' If not, there was always a last resolve: fight fire with fire and call the fox's help.
The thought had barely the time to cross his mind, that Gaara leaped towards him at astonishing speed, propelling himself with his new claw. 'This is bad.'
Naruto swiftly jumped out of the way and Gaara clashed against the tree. The impact caused such a terrible destruction that he gulped in fear. 'Such strength... get a grip, man, you don't want that thing reaching Konoha...'
Naruto took a deep breath, watching the smoke fade as Gaara started to look for him. "Time to fight seriously, Gaara." he said. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu."
Shino was crouched on the branch, breathing heavily. He could actually feel the poison spread into his body, due to his Kikai fighting it off. They would be successful, he knew, but it would be a while. He also knew Kankurō was waiting in the shade for the right moment to finish him off.
'Let him come.'
Just as if his thoughts has summoned it, Shino felt the presence of Karasu behind his shoulder. Kankurō smirked as his puppet's arms moved forward, unleashing several small knife on Shino's back. The fight was over, now, and he could reach the crazy blonde kid and Gaara.
His smirk died when he saw "Shino" disappear once again. 'Another bug clone, damn it, he shouldn't be able to do that.' His confusion deepened when he realised... "What the hell!"
Shino's figure dissolved in several smaller shapes, yes, but they were not black, menacing chakra sucking insects, no. They were butterflies. Thousands of small, cute and colourful butterflies softly floating around.
Kankurō was frozen on the spot for a second, then he placed a hand on his mouth to restrain laughter. "Butterflies!" he murmured, astonished. "Ridiculous."
"That was a mistake." Shino's voice said from somewhere behind the small swarm of butterflies. "They hate when someone laughs at them."
Suddenly the cute butterflies became somehow... fearsome, their colour becoming darker. Kankurō shivered, realising it probably was because of some sort of genjutsu, as a annoying shrill sound filled his ears. Kankuro saw them coming towards him and his terror increased.
'They are butterflies. How comes I am so scared of them?' Kankurō could only cover his eyes with his arms as the butterflies flew around him, their small wings flapping and that shrill sound becoming so intense it almost hurt. The ever changing colours, blending together in an undefined blur, made his head spin. He was barely able to hear Shino shout out a technique:
"Nechinechi Mi no jutsu! [Sticky egg no jutsu]"
Kankuro was able to glimpse another pack of butterflies fly like a sole man towards his puppet, completely surrounding the puppet in a swirling, rotating formation similar to a spindle. The piercing sound became even higher. When it was over the butterflies popped out of existence.
Kankurō could only stare in horror, still shaken by the strange butterfly attack, at his once beautiful puppet, that was now covered in a strange, sticky grey substance.
"Those are butterflies eggs." Shino explained, jumping on the branch next to him. "Usually they are glued to leaves from which they take nourishment. Since the importance of this process, the glue is one of the strongest in this world, especially if reinforced by chakra. My little friends lied eggs all over your puppet and in its every single joint. No matter what you do now, you won't be able to move it, nor to activate any of its weapons."
"The poison was deadly!" Kankurō exclaimed after regaining his senses. "You are going to die."
"Maybe so." Shino fixed his glasses without appearing bothered in the slightest. "But I have enough strength to finish you off as well. How do you think you can keep up with me without your puppet?"
Kankurō paled and swallowed again.
"So, let me introduce you to another ability of my small coloured friends." Shino smirked. "Kuchiyose: Kinu Shibari no Jutsu! [Summoning: Art of Silk Restraints]"
JUTSU NOTES:
Kokuangyo no Jutsu [Bringer-of-Darkness Technique] A rank genjutsu, supplementary – this powerful illusion effectively blinds the opponent, creating a word of darkness that affects people in an extremely long range. Unlike many genjutsu, this techniques requires a notable amount of chakra to work, making it a very difficult technique to master.
Kugutsu no Jutsu! [Puppet Technique] C-rank ninjutsu, offensive-defensive, supplementary; medium-long range – this is a unique fighting technique that uses chakra threads to control war puppets at will. Any number of chakra threads can be used to control a puppet, the more skilled the puppeteer, the less are required.
Nechinechi Mi no jutsu! [Sticky egg no jutsu] C/B rank ninjutsu, supplementary-offensive, short-medium range. The summoned butterflies use up their chakra to lay a great number of sticky eggs on any surfaces, effectively trapping an adversary or ruining tools. They then disappear due to the intense strain of laying eggs.
Kuchiyose: Kinu Shibari no Jutsu! [Summoning: Art of Silk Restraints]: I am not saying what this techniques exactly does, because it's a surprise for next chapter, but hey the name kind of gives it away.
N.B: the two butterflies techniques come entirely out of my imagination, as such I simply looked for Japanese words to match the English name quite literally, but I am very unsure about what the result looks. Maybe it doesn't mean anything in Japanese, or it means something else altogether. If some of you know the language well, any suggestion is more than welcome.
REVIEW ANSWERS
Skeleus: thank you so much for your review. I am glad you liked the chapter and thank you for your comprehension. I hope you liked this chapter as well. .
DeliciousCarrot: thank you so much for your review. I hope re-reading the story wasn't too much of a bother. It is quite long as it of now. So, some of your questions should already been answered by the chapter. I don't about it, I've been writing since I was eight years old (although I did it in Italian at the time XD) and so it comes very natural to me. Although I need inspiration, as my huge writing block showed. I hope you liked this chapter as well.
azfaerydust: thank you so much for reviewing. I thought it would be full of errors, as I still have to go though editing and I updated it as I finished writing it. You are most welcome to point some out if there were any in this chapter, I would not take any offence.
I am always happy when I manage to make a character in character, so thank you for pointing it out. Don't worry, Orochimaru will get what he is asking for, but I still need him to drag Sasuke to the dark side. =) Sorry.
pe26: thank you for your review. I hope you liked this chapter as well.
NeitherSaneNorInsane: thank you for your review. I didn't realize the cliffhanger was so cliffy (if this word makes sense), but I write them without realizing nowadays. I apologize for the tons of cliffs in this chapter though. I deliberately made these. XD
Yes, I would like to make Akimi do a twist on the Rasegan, although I have zero idea at the moment, but maybe they'll come. =) Hope you liked the chapter as well.
NATSUxERZA 123456: thank you so much for your review. You are right of course, although he would have created it if he had lived enough to do so. The Flying Thunder technique, yes, Naruto will think about recreating it... and start talking about it very soon. But it is a very powerful and complex technique, so I don't see it happen until at least halfway through Shippūden I hope you like this chapter as well.
Anarchy in Dark Places: many thanks for your review. I hope you liked this chapter as well. =)
DarkNamikaze: thank you for your review, Namikaze-san. Romance will arrive once the invasion arc is finished, but I feel very uneasy writing it, so I need feedback on that. I promise you several moments between those two! I hope you liked the chapter.
gendrogen: thank you so much for your review. It brings me a lot of joy as well to read the feedback of such a long time fan! =) I am very happy you like my writing style and the story and I hope you liked this chapter as well. (besides, I am quite happy with the good review and reviewers I've got)
mg4of6 thank you a lot for your review. I gather you were happy about Akimi's dealing with the barrier, which is a good relief. I hope you liked this chapter – and wait for more Akimi's action in the next one =)
Strife666: thank you for your review. It make my work much easier to perform – and makes me smile while I do it. I hope this chapter is on par with the others.
shootingcuz: thank you for your review. I hope you didn't have to wait too long and that this chapter didn't disappoint. =)
CHAPTER NOTES:
The butterflies have arrived. I would like to say that my knowledge about this lovely little animals come primarily from Wikipedia, I read through the entry and looked for idea that could used in a shinobi battle. That's where the sticky eggs idea comes from. Is it believable?
Also, for some reason butterflies scream GENJUTSU at me. Hence that attack that traumatizes Kankurō so much. Let me know if you want me to expand about my butterflies attacks. XD it's fun to say it: butterfly attacks.
By the way, I had no idea about how to write Kankurō, both his personality and fighting style, so I don't know how the result is. Let me know if it's decent.
Second thing, Naruto and Gaara. So it may seem a little... strange and/or foolish what Naruto did: simply take Gaara and keep going into the forest. But honestly, that just something that this caring, protective and reckless knuckled head we so love would do. Or so I think. What do you think? XD
Same thing about Naruto trying to reasoning with Gaara.
Third thing: Sarutobi and Orochimaru (and Akimi). So the snake escaped. That seems in character to me, because if Oro hadn't feared ANBU, he would have not employed a defensive barrier at all. Oro is afraid of ANBU (and of Jiraiya, of course). Furthermore, I need him alive and well to pull a Darth Sidious manipulation on Sasuke and drag him on the dark side.
Last thing, I planned to leave the epic battle of Sarutobi, ANBU ( and Jiraiya) vs. the revived Hokage untold. Sure we shall know what happened, but it will be in dialogues between characters. That is, unless you really want me to write it. Because in case I will try to write it.
That should be all. Until next time.
Next time up: Jinchūriki's clash – part 2