43 - The Fall Of Konoha: Team 7
Blood dripped down the length of his neck, the wire restricting him so tightly that he couldn't move his hands. Things were becoming darker in the already room alright lit by the small amount of sunlight that slipped through the doorway and half-open curtains. He could feel his face turning colors as he choked on his own blood and destroyed his breathing.
His view of the roof started to fade as his eyes rolled back into his head, but instead of falling over and dying; his lungs were immediately filled with air again. Sasuke took long and deep breaths, clutching at his neck as he searched for dripping blood from a bladed wire. There were no injuries, which made him let out a breath of disbelief.
With his mind in a frenzy he nearly forgot his objective, finding himself on the floor when he was once standing up. He slowly crawled to a stand and looked around, taking in his surroundings once more.
Sasuke was currently inside an abandoned room on the grounds of the Uchiha clan compound. Despite being told to go find any form of help by his sensei so they could re-establish a chain of command, he went straight to his compound. With the village looking like it was going to be on its last legs soon Sasuke went to find the last thing his family left for him before they were killed.
He felt around the wooden floor and tried to find the loose floor board he was told about, and as he spotted it and moved in closer to lift it up; blood dripped down the length of his neck, the wire restricting him so tightly that he couldn't move his hands. Things were becoming darker in the already room alright lit by the small amount of sunlight that slipped through the doorway and half-open curtains. He could feel his face turning colors as he choked on his own blood and destroyed his breathing.
His view of the roof started to fade as his eyes rolled back into his head, but instead of falling over and dying; his lungs were immediately filled with air again. Sasuke took long and deep breaths, clutching at his neck as he searched for dripping blood from a bladed wire. There were no injuries, which made him let out a breath of disbelief.
With his mind in a frenzy he nearly forgot his objective, finding himself on the floor when he was once standing up. This time he laid on the floor while staring at the ceiling with his sharingan eyes activated. The sensation that washed over his body when air filled his lungs again was familiar, and he realized this wasn't the first time it happened. In fact, it happened so many times he lost count, and for some reason he was just now able to break the cycle.
Every time he tried to open the floorboard he was stuck in a genjutsu that he couldn't seem to break fast enough to actually obtain what he came for. The boy sprung up off of the floor and left the room, trying to figure out if there was another angle he could approach from that wouldn't trigger the spell.
As he walked through the dark Uchiha hallway, it felt like the hall itself was becoming narrow. His feet immediately stopped, the walls closing on themselves ruined his chance of getting back to that room; instead finding himself in a contorted position staring at the roof. The walls continued to close in, the bones within his body cracking slowly and painfully.
Before he could pass out from the immense pain, the walls suddenly opened up again and he fell to the floor in a messy heap; breathing heavily and grasping at every bone he thought was just broken.
"You should leave, Sasuke-kun," a voice suddenly sounded out, booming through the entire compound.
Sasuke looked up and around and saw nothing. He sprung up off of the floor quickly and immediately charged down the hallway full of anger, "SHOW YOURSELF!"
"No, you'll be disappointed with what you see," the voice said with a chuckle.
Sasuke couldn't pinpoint it's location or even describe how the voice sounded. He continued to dash down the hall and out into the courtyard of his family's compound. He looked around rapidly trying to find the intruder that was playing tricks on his mind, instantly freezing in his tracks when he locked eyes on a figure calmly picking flowers with his back turned to him.
On the back of his garments, the Uchiha clan crest was stitched exactly like his. As Sasuke narrowed his eyes he realized whoever it was, was actually wearing the exact same thing down to the sandals, and as the figure rose up and turned to face him he realized he was looking at a carbon copy of himself. He furrowed his brow in anger and balled up his fist, "Who are you!?"
The Sasuke-copy shrugged his shoulders, and instantly moved to the side when the real Sasuke couldn't control himself any longer and threw the first punch of their bout. The copy backpedaled and suddenly withdrew four shuriken from his pouch and launched them at the real Sasuke faster than the boy anticipated, lodging one in the forearm he tried to block the impact with.
The real Sasuke watched as blood dripped down the length of his arm, but when he looked up he saw something faint flicker in the light, and soon found himself forcefully ripping the embedded shuriken out from his arm when everything in his line of sight was lit up by flames. He rolled across the courtyard and crashed into the wall, part of his leg being caught up in the surprise fire.
"You're an Uchiha, shouldn't have you expected the wire?" The copy of Sasuke asked jokingly as he folded his arms over each other. "You're pathetic. Can't break a simple genjutsu. No wonder your clan was destroyed by one man, I could have done it myself too."
Sasuke gnashed his teeth together trying to contain his anger but ended up screaming at the mystery man, "YOU DON'T KNOW A DAMN THING ABOUT MY CLAN!" He lunged himself at Sasuke-copy and threw another punch, but the copy guided his fist out the of way calmly and quickly punched him in the nose, shattering it upon impact. The Sasuke clone followed it up with a knee to Sasuke's gut and made him keel over, but grabbed the back of his shirt and prevented him from falling to the ground.
The copy stood Sasuke back up and even lifted the real boy's fist back up playfully, "Don't lose your fighting spirit so easily! I want to at least enjoy killing you."
After taking two direct hits from the Sasuke-clone, the real boy found himself with wobbly knees. He was rocking back and forth, but managed to brace himself and tried to continue to fight. Before he could even attempt to make a move, the Sasuke-copy invaded his defenses and landed an open palm strike directly to his chest and sent him flying across the yard, crashing through multiple walls and landing in a pile of broken doors and excess debris.
The boy felt an aching pain all over and couldn't move at all. He took a few aggravated breaths as he saw the shadow of the Sasuke-copy creeping in through the newly created hole he created. The dark chuckles from his clone filled his ears and if he had the energy to groan, he would have done so. He was stuck looking up at an identical copy of himself, but the energy between them was very different.
The clone had a dark, malevolent aura that took lifetimes to develop, and he disguised it all in the body of a child. The real Sasuke had some dark things that he kept bottled but it would never be able to match the pure evil presence that was now standing before him. The clone looked down on Sasuke, his eyes now shining a pristine red color that he knew all too well, and the three tomoe spinning within his eyes verified what he was seeing. Somehow he had acquired an authentic Sharingan.
"Surprised?"
"H-how long have you been here?" Sasuke ignored the mysterious being trying get a reaction out of him and decided to pry information, while also stalling time to come up with a plan.
"Since you decided to leave with the Toad Sage, but the bigger plan has been years in the making. I'll let you in on a secret, Uchiha, since you're not long for this planet," The Sasuke-copy turned his back on the real Sasuke and began making his way toward the courtyard once again. "Konoha has been trying to ruin me and my business for years, so I decided to do the same to them. Make no mistake, this is now my village." He lowered his head as he walked back into the courtyard and smirked to himself. Watching all of his plans come into fruition was more than enjoyable.
"Take this Rasengan!" A blonde blur came flying out of the sky with a fully charged orb of blue energy, but when then Sasuke-copy looked up and locked eyes with Naruto; the genin became completely disgruntled and tumbled onto the ground in a heap. He rolled right up to the copy's feet and had his head tilted up by the clone's foot. "Sasuke!?"
"Wrong," His voice was identical to the real Sasuke's but his presence was completely different. It shook Naruto to his very core when he felt the brand of evil radiating off of the Sasuke-clone's skin. "Both of Konoha's prized children are here, not following orders I assume." The clone swung his foot to the side and then planted it in the side of Naruto's head, expecting to hear a scream of pain, but instead heard a 'pop.' He quirked his eyebrows as he discovered what he just defeated was a clone. The Sasuke-copy turned around and used his stolen sharingan eyes to search for another chakra signature on the compound, but saw nothing.
Naruto nor Sasuke could be seen on the compound at all. There's no way two genin escaped his vision that quickly, but before he could engage; far off in the distance he could see a humongous chakra signature approaching Konoha that might have worried even the mightiest of Shinobi, but for him it made him smile.
The Sasuke-clone grinned from cheek to cheek, "My body is here."
. . .
(With Kakashi)
Gravity defying white hair danced wildly in the wind as multiple explosions and shockwaves shook the entire village as it was ensued in battle. What they were fighting exactly, he wasn't sure. Ever since his trip to Kumogakure, the details of his personal missions were far from normal. No longer was is it the usual shinobi business, but investigating extraterrestrial presence throughout Hi no Kuni, and the appearance of the mysterious drug that could heal almost any wound.
He thought Kumogakure was finally coming to get their revenge, which was the most sensible option, but when he saw Goku and his sensei simply trying to fight their way out of the situation alongside the Konoha shinobi; it got rid of that notion. He sat perched on the rooftop of a now empty Konoha P.D. building that wasn't too far from the main gate with a furrowed brow.
Kakashi sent his team to help with the evacuation efforts since he wasn't sure how strong the enemy they were up against was, but he was also confident they could hold their own against any enemy that may stand in their way.
As he took a moment to plan out his next few actions, another person appeared on the Konoha PD's rooftop and approached Kakashi slowly, "Hatake-san, I come bearing bad news." The white haired shinobi turned his head to see the ANBU stopping to continue his briefing. "Hokage-sama was found dead in the Exam Arena not too long ago by Sarutobi Asuma and the Honorable Grandson. The main gate has been breached, two Konoha PD locations have been infiltrated already by men wearing desert garbs, and we're working as hard as we can to suppress the tree-monster that's terrorizing the arena. The strange enemies also seem to be conspiring with Iwagakure. There was something lodged in Lord Hokage's head we believe can be traced back to Iwagakure as well. Among the other invaders, we've gotten reports saying that the Akatsuki has also infiltrated our village, Uchiha Itachi included, but they seem to be on our side since they've been subduing the enemies dressed as desert dwellers. Where do you want to begin, Hatake-san?"
It was a lot of information to take in at once, but Kakashi digested it quickly, and also had no problem being appointed leader of stopping this invasion until they could regroup. The white haired shinobi ran a hand through his hair, as he lifted his headband to reveal his lone sharingan eye, "Split the remaining ANBU into four divisions to address each threat. Division One, round up as many of the Desert Intruders and Iwagakure shinobi as you can, dead or alive. Division Two, push back whatever forces that breached the main gate and secure it. Division three will assist the Konoha Barrier team in locking down the arena and destroying the tree. The fourth division are strictly dedicated to evacuation and healing fallen warriors. This is a fight we cannot lose."
From the inside of his sleeve slipped out a ear receiver that he handed over to Kakashi, "This is connected to the entire ANBU, should there be any updates let us know." The masked shinobi disappeared to relay the new orders, and also do his part in stopping the invasion.
"Shit."
. . .
(Streets Of Konoha)
Naruto had Sasuke hoisted over his shoulder as he dashed as fast as he could away from the Uchiha compound. Sending a clone in to distract the enemy was the best plan he could come up, and was extremely surprised said enemy didn't give chase. Sasuke had been critically injured and now Naruto had to find somewhere for him to recover, "Teme, why'd you get beat up so bad!?" He asked as he ran through the empty streets of the Uchiha compound, quickly making his way out of it.
Sasuke groaned and said nothing in regards to being beaten by a copy of himself, "Put me down, I can hold my own." He twitched and twisted until Naruto finally gave up and put him on the ground. The first few steps were wobbly and when Naruto tried to help him, he smacked his hand away. "I said I'm fine!"
The injured boy dashed past Naruto and took to the roof tops to make their trip back into the village faster, and Naruto had no choice but to follow suit the hard-headed Uchiha, "Sasuke, why are you here anyway?" He asked as followed the boy who was obviously struggling to stay up but powered through it. "We were supposed go straight to the Hokage Monument, why are back at your compound!?"
Sasuke furrowed his brow, choosing not to explain his reasoning and instead turned the question on Naruto, "Why did you follow me, dobe? This was my business to handle not yours." He snapped back, glaring over his shoulder with his sharingan eyes still activated.
Naruto scratched his head sheepishly, "I was wondering what you were doing." He also felt a strange presence in that area in the village, more so than everything else going on during the supposed invasion of his home that drew him in. "You can't just run off on your teammates without warning! Of course I was going to follow after you!" Naruto yelled back, still scratching his head, but this time not out of bashfulness. He managed to pick something out and opened his palm to reveal a small white bug. His eyebrow raised in curiosity, "Wh-"
The raven haired boy tackled his Uzumaki teammate off of the rooftop, both of them tumbling across the ground as they avoided being swept up by a giant white bird. Sasuke watched as said bird circled back around, and perched on top was another blonde he wasn't happy to see. The Uchiha reached in his equipment pouch and instantly threw out shuriken to try and change the giant bird's path, instead the black cloak wearing shinobi jumped off of the bird and was diving right toward the two genin.
By this time Naruto had already sprung up and formed two shadow clones that were charging at the man falling from the sky. The enemy blonde's one visible eye shifted between the two Naruto's and lifted both of his hands, two white blurs flying out of his sleeve and attaching to the clone's faces before they could even think to react. With a simple hand sign and him yelling, "Katsu!" The white blobs exploded and took the clones with them in the explosion. He emerged from the smoke with a grin as he charged head on for Naruto and Sasuke.
Naruto jumped in front of Sasuke and blocked a direct punch from the man, invading his defenses and slamming his forehead into his opposers. Instead of watching the man stumble backward, Naruto was met with a power struggle as Deidara had a menacing grin on his face now. Naruto was suddenly being pushed back by the obviously stronger teenager and was wondering where Sasuke was to back him up.
The Uchiha almost got blindsided by the same bird Deidara jumped off of, rolling out of the way of the creature that somehow shrunk in size. His sharingan slowing it down immensely in his eyes, giving him enough time to react properly. He tried to generate his chakra but he had just taken a beating at the hands of an imposter pretending to be him. The boy simply used his heightened reaction time to avoid being pecked to death by a clay bird, but little did he know that was the least of his worries.
The clay construct divided in size and split off into a completely different form, turning into a snake that was now slithering up Sasuke's leg and threatening to bite down, causing Sasuke to freeze. He looked down at his leg with wide eyes, and then looked up and watched as Naruto slid through the dirt, crashing at his feet. Similar to him, there was a clay animal latched around his arm.
Deidara's clay bird had shrunken down in size enough for it to perch on his shoulder as he approached the two downed genin, "Give up, un. Just come with me if you don't want to die, because I will kill you if you don't cooperate." He would get in worlds of trouble if he let the Kyuubi jinchuuriki and Itachi's little brother die, but he needed to intimidate the kids nonetheless. He pressed his fingers into a tiger seal, flaring up his chakra to show the kids he wasn't bluffing.
Both Naruto and Sasuke could feel the clay animal attached to them heating up immensely and watched them come to the brink of exploding, but died back down as Deidara released the seal and grinned.
"We're not going anywhere," Sasuke spat out with confidence, despite the bind they were in.
. . .
(Unknown Area)
Deidara's fascination with warehouses was something Pepper was having a hard time understanding. He didn't know if it gave his superior the ultimate super villain vibe or something, but whenever it was time to execute a mission on the Akatsuki's behalf, he and Bali were stuck inside of a dimly lit building while their 'leader' ran wild on the outside. Most of the work for this mission was complete, and now they were only missing one key piece before they could return home.
All lined up next to each other on the floor of the warehouse were multiple 'civilians' and a few shinobi from Konoha tied up by the ankles and arms. A majority of them were passed out except for one lone teenage girl who's emerald eyes were locked on Pepper and the boy was growing to be uncomfortable. He looked away and watched his teammate Bali holding a scanner gun, pressing random buttons and squinting his barely visible eyes in frustration trying to figure out how it worked. The boy heard Bali growl lowly and saw the scanner light up a bright color and explode, bits and pieces of the device flying everywhere.
The freckle faced boy furrowed his brow, as he got up from his seat and walked over to a set of backpacks and unfurled a scroll quickly. He unsealed another identical scanner gun and powered it on, the screen lighting up and displaying his options, "I'll do it, I guess." He sighed as he pressed the 'trigger' and walked to the start of the line of bodies on the floor. A green ray of light scanned over the first body and beeped twice.
With his hands in his pocket Bali approached the first body and flipped it over so he could see the man's face, "Heh, fucker. Undo his seal and then move on to the next one." Pepper nodded and did as instructed, kicking the body over again so his back was facing up, and revealed a seal that kept up humanoid disguise. With a simple hand seal the workings of the fuinjutsu were quickly undone and the body of the disguised alien began to morph. He was originally a stubby orange being with no hair and pointed ears, retaining the clothes he wore in Konohagakure. "Identity?"
Pepper looked at the screen of his scanner gun, "His name is Sage, he's a Makyan. He didn't reproduce. Apparently he's been on Earth for thirty years."
"Well today's his last day," Bali snickered as they continued the process of unsealing the disguised aliens and identifying them. With upwards of about forty bodies, it was going to be a while, but it was a process Bali enjoyed. Seeing how these runaway aliens completely changed their life to avoid death, imprisonment, or the simple wish of escaping their home planet was beyond entertaining.
On the other side of the room, the Kumogakure native who had been spirited away and forced into the Akatsuki ranks watched with his temporary teammate Karin. This was the second set of aliens they rounded up since the beginning of the day, and he lost count of how many transfers he witnessed since they were stationed in Konoha. While he was in the forest of death collecting data on potential aliens that came from other villages, Deidara, Bali, and Konan were rounding up the aliens that had long since found refuge in Konoha; sending them to the prison he heard so much about.
First Pepper did an x-ray and identified them, then they undid the 'Ginga-Henge,' which was a much more complex version of the simple academy technique he learned. Whoever the first rogue extra-terrestrial was created this seal, passed it down, and it was now being sold on the black market according to Bali. Once each body was identified and unsealed, someone needed to create a new space-time seal to send all of the rogue aliens to the Akatsuki base. That skill was taught specifically to Karin due to her Uzumaki lineage, and seeing that they were close to being done she jumped off of the crate she was sitting on and started prepping.
His role in all of this was simply supplying strong enough chakra along with Bali to power the seal. The boy lazily pulled on his drawstrings as he watched Pepper coming to the last few people with his x-ray scanner gun. The green beam scanned over the body and he lifted the screen close to his face to read the info it generated, "Haruno Kizashi, a civilian, or at least that was what he was pretending to be." Pepper said to Bali as he handled the unconscious man. "Let's undo the last of these seals, I'm getting tired."
"You're too young to be tired, kid," Bali spat in response as he kicked Kizashi around so his back was facing up. "Get his wife and kid next," He said as he turned to look at the older woman and daughter who were lying next to each other. Bali noticed that the pink-haired girl was awake and staring a hole into his head. "You're a resilient one," he joked as he remembered capturing Sakura the day before, but apparently not knocking her out good enough. "Scan her next, Pepper."
"Shouldn't I unseal her dad first?"
Bali shrugged, "I'm more interested to see what she's hiding."
Before Pepper could walk over and flip her over to undo her seal, the door of their warehouse burst open and now they were on high alert. The freckle faced bomber's shoulders dropped once he realized it was Deidara with two teenage boys hoisted around his shoulders. He saw an orange jumpsuit and an Uchiha crest, "Seriously?"
"You know it, un," He grinned as he tossed the boys on the ground at the end of the line. "Found the fox and Itachi's little brother on my way back here. They didn't put up much of a figh-"
"HEY I HAD YOU ON THE ROPES!" Naruto screamed out at the older blonde as he tried to squirm free.
"It took me less than five minutes to catch both of you," Deidara cleared up Naruto's false accusations and placed his hands on his hips, turning to face Bali and Pepper. "You're not done transferring, un!?"
"Don't rush me," Bali growled in response. His eyes turned back to Kizashi but he was distracted once again.
"SAKURA-CHAN!?" Naruto blurted out and tried to worm his way toward the girl across the floor, but found his head being lifted up and bashed against the ground repeatedly by Bali. He didn't stop until Naruto's face was bloodied. Sasuke almost moved his lips in protest but the icy glare from the strange being known as Bali made his lips stay sealed. Naruto groaned in pain and couldn't bring himself to say anything else.
"Apply the same silencer seal to the kids as everyone else, red-head," Bali ordered of Karin and she nodded simply.
Having been long since silenced, Sakura could only look on in horror as her teammates were close to receiving the same fate as her. She had been abducted from her home the morning before the exams started, and all of this talk of aliens and refugees still confused her. Her entire life she was convinced her parents had forgone the Shinobi life because they weren't strong enough, but really they were hiding from inter-galactic authorities.
"Let's just skip to the end, un, we don't have to unseal everybody," Deidara waved off nonchalantly, having waited too long to send the second set of extraterrestrials for the day. "We've got a quota to meet." The blonde turned to face N, motioning for him to come help generate chakra for the seal to activate. He, Bali, Pepper, and Karin all stood on a side of the large seal. The four of them activated a tiger seal and watched as the seal formation Karin prepared started to light up an electric blue.
The first body in the line lit up the same color as the seal, the body appearing to disengrate into thin air. The process continued for each body, the warehouse emptying out due to the four Akatsuki members. As the transfer process continued, person by person disappearing, Bali's eyebrow quirked for a moment as they sent them to the base, "Feel that?"
Pepper's eyebrow raised as well, "Wait."
. . .
(On Top Of The Warehouse)
"So this is what you do for the entire day?"
"Yes."
"Nothing else?"
"Yes."
"Well this is kind of boring."
"I KNO- I know, Slug, please," The man wearing the black helmet head snapped toward his new teammate, hoping he would calm down. He was beginning to lose his patience with the newcomer, having long since come to grips with how monotonous his job was. Throughout all the madness going on in Konoha at the moment, the two found themselves listening closely to a device emitting a slow metronome and waiting for an oddity.
The new agent reared his head back sighed and nodded in understanding. He wore an identical black helmet, the difference between them is that he wore a long black cloak, and the standard shinobi sandals, while his teammate wore body armor and combat boots relative to soldiers from outer space, "Nōka-san, we've been here for days. I don't think we'll find what we're looking fo-"
"This is your first outing," Nōka reminded Slug, tapping his temple with his index finger. He continued to listen despite his subordinate losing faith in the operation. "Sometimes it takes weeks, even months for the tracker to pick up on the radiation of a seed. Just have patience," Nōka tried to reiterate for Slug to understand, but he heard the man groan and come to a stand. The superior simply shook his head and continued to do his job.
Slug turned his back on Nōka and took in the view of Konoha, they weren't far from the main gate. Off in the distance he saw a giant toad trying to pretend the gate, blocking his view of anything else beyond that. When the beeping from the device began to speed up and get louder, Slug turned around to face Nōka, "What's happening?"
"A lot of chakra being generated underneath us, we may have to move," Nōka said calmly, sighing as he did so and moved to get up, no longer facing Slug as he packed his things up. "Maybe you should go check it ou-" When he turned around once more all he saw were faint traces of yellow where Slug once stood. He furrowed his brow, not expecting the man to disappear that fast. "It's going to take a while to get used to that."
In an instant he was at the floor of the building, managing to find a way in the building he and Nōka previously scouted when they were setting up for their mission. For the most part it was dark as he navigated his way through it, hearing low rumblings coming from a room not to far away. He crouched low and crawled to stay hidden, pressing his back against the wall so he could start to hear what was going on in the room. A bright blue light shone from the under the door, making his brow quirk out of curiosity.
"Wait," Pepper's hands fell to his side as he turned toward the doorway. "Deidara go outside and check what's going on."
"HOLD ON, YOU'RE NOT GOING TO TELL ME WHAT TO DO, UN," Deidara snapped back but then angrily stormed out of the room to investigate what was going on outside. He walked right past the hiding Slug and went all the way outside of the building. He placed his hands on his hips when the pale sunlight hit his face, but nothing out of the ordinary was going on. The man sighed and turned around to re-enter the building a split second too late.
"Slug, get out the warehouse is about blow," over a radio signal, Slug heard the voice of Nōka and tapped into his communicator.
"But there are civilians in here," Slug responded with a hint of concern in his voice.
"Not our business, ge-" Slug threw his communicator off and created two clones, busting into the warehouse's main room moving like a blur. There were roughly about ten civilians left and he only had a split second to get them all out before the warehouse was blown to smithereens, but as he dashed he saw red-sharingan eyes notice him as clear as day even though no one else took notice of his presence yet, and he was lying down next to a mop of blonde hair that nearly made him freeze. The slight lapse in time threw him off enough for a outstretched alien fist to slam into his chest and knock him off course.
One of his clones covered his error and erupted in yellow energy, multiple arms sprouting out from his back and grabbing the first few civilians before disappearing in a yellow flash, while the other one was destroyed by N who's hand was still smoking from firing off the explosive energy. Pepper was holding N's forearm forcing him to do it, while Karin did nothing but panic. Deidara immediately came rushing back into the building.
"WHAT THE H-"
The entire building shook violently before being swallowed in bright light.
. . .
(Outside The Warehouse)
Nōka face twisted in horror as he witnessed the sector of the village they were scouting be completely wiped off of the map by a wayward missile that came from the main gate, the warehouse being the penetration point. He avoided certain death by ascending into the air and watching from a bird's eye view. He warned Slug to leave and he didn't listen. He covered his face with his hand, "We might have lost him on his first outi-" a hand suddenly gripping on his ankle made him looking down to see Slug with his cloak completely destroyed. The only thing that remained in tact was his helmet concealing his identity.
He was badly burned, while multiple bodies were freefalling toward the crater that was created by the explosion. Nōka looked on in general disinterest, shaking his ankle strong enough to make Slug lose his grip and fall to the ground with the remainder of the people he had saved from death inside the warehouse against his orders. The masked man folded his arms and shook his head, "Yeah, he's alive."
Slug, along with the other survivors hit the ground with a hard thud; his chest heaving as he tried to calm the adrenaline rushing through his body down. His head turned limply to the side to see who he managed to save, counting heads. He saw that all of the Akatsuki managed to survive the blast with him, the Haruno family, and the lone Uchiha. They were all in critical condition, but they were at least alive and that was all that mattered.
He saw Nōka descending from the air slowly, but the man was suddenly blocked out of his view when a large object flew overhead casting a shadow over the entire village and distracted him, "Is that a bird?"
. . .
Guess who's computer crashed and lost everything he was working on? Some unlucky bastard, but he switched to the cloud, so he's working exclusively on Google Docs from now on. Updates semi-regular from now on hopefully now that I tried to reconstruct what I remember from what I originally wrote. If you follow my second story Death Is Irrelevant (Bleach X Naruto story) I'll be updating soon, and even adding a new story in a matter of weeks. Let's hope life is wavy from here.