Hi everyone! I know I've been taking too long, but I think I finally found a solution to pump out all my chapters faster! Let's hope it works!
Also, I'm aware of the Minato one-shot. I'll give it a read when possible: All I can say is I heard nothing but good things about it!
Team Asuma, known locally as Team 10, got more aggressive. Their movements still looked forced as their faces remained blank, but the speed with which they moved became deadlier.
Chouji, in spite of his bulk, proved as fast as a horse. He lunged at Naruto with an expanded fist, which the blonde dodged. However, Chouji followed through with a massive swipe, knocking Naruto across the street. "Ah!" The blonde managed to roll back on his feet and ran forward, landing a jump kick to his opponent's chest. He bounced off, feeling like he tried to kick a brick wall, while Chouji himself remained unfazed. "Shit!"
Chouji swung his now normal arms wide, catching Naruto across the side of the head. Naruto somehow remained conscious as he tumbled away.
At first, it seemed like Sasuke was doing okay against Shikamaru. He shot his shadow jutsu at him, which the Uchiha easily dodged. The jutsu was a dangerous weapon, but it only worked if the target didn't see it coming. On top of that, the Nara boy had to stay in position to make it work. Even with the tendrils shooting out, Sasuke somersaulted into the air to avoid them and managed to kick Shikamaru in the face. The smaller boy rolled away from the impact, Sasuke confident in his victory.
But just as he smirked, he felt something take hold of his neck and squeeze. Looking down, he could make out a dark hand on his throat. Looking forward, he saw Shikamaru maintained his sign for the shadow jutsu! "He's…choking me!" Instinctively, Sasuke reached for his neck to pull the hand away. But there was nothing for him to grasp onto!
Meanwhile, Sakura kept parrying Ino's weapon hand. Despite her wound from earlier, she was doing well all things considered. It was like the initial wound somehow sharpened her senses in order to not get hurt again. After successfully parrying the kunai, Sakura kicked up and caught Ino in the head. "Shannaro!" Sakura thought triumphantly. As Ino stumbled, Sakura believed she figured her out. "Outside of that weird mind jutsu, she's not a good fighter! That's it! That's her weakness!"
However, Sakura was about to learn that assumption was incorrect the hard way; Ino stood up and stared her down. Suddenly, she jumped forward with several hard kicks that caught Sakura off guard. They were much stronger than Sakura would have guessed, stunning her. Ino followed through with a hard kick to her head, knocking her down.
Even though Sakura was seeing double, she managed to put her guard up to block Ino from stabbing her in the eye. Though they were in a stalemate, Sakura was now at a clear disadvantage; Ino had her pinned on the ground, making a counterattack almost impossible. Sure, taijutsu had quite a few grappling techniques, but Sakura was not particularly good at those, and they were the worst against weapons without proper leverage.
Overall, it seemed Team 7's luck was about to run out.
Kakashi and Asuma ran out of the office, arms behind them as they leaped onto adjacent rooftops. "Get your team, Kakashi! I'll meet back up with you here once I get mine!"
"Agreed!"
Kakashi was about to veer away from him, towards the hostel; he wasn't sure if they were still there, but hopefully someone could at least point him in the right direction. Then, out of nowhere lightning struck near him, forcing him to stop. "There isn't a cloud in the sky here today!"
"I do apologize, Hatake-san." One of the swordsmen, Ringo, stood before him, twirling her taiji swords. "I have strict orders to keep you away from your team."
"Your orders come from the Mizukage!" Kakashi shouted. "You would so blatantly betray him? Your fellow swordsmen?!"
Suddenly, an explosion boomed across from Kakashi, as Asuma rolled towards him, his vest smoldering. "Asuma!"
"It's alright; I'm fine!" Asuma held up his hand, though he was slow to get up. "But I'm afraid she's not the only swordsman turncoat." Jinpachi landed before them, his zanbato lined with explosive tags.
Kakashi brandished a kunai, while Asuma pulled out his knuckle blades. "Did you know this would happen?!"
"If I did, I would have either joined them or killed them all a long time ago. Depending on the cause." Kakashi gave him the stink eye with his right. "Hey, it's likely the latter, okay?"
"Either way, you both made a foolish mistake attacking us with the Mizukage's office so close!" Kakashi shouted.
"Oh, that will be taken care of in a moment." Jinpachi answered.
"What's going on?!" Yagura asked upon hearing the explosion outside.
He and Mei ran for the door, but upon pushing it, it wouldn't budge. "Allow me, Karatachi-sama!" Mei made several hand signs. "Yoton! Yogandan no Jutsu!" Her mouth ejected a large, sticky mass of lava, somehow not killing herself in the process. The bullet hit the doors square, setting them ablaze and melting them away. But instead of the clear air, a purple haze was there before them.
Yagura pressed against it; it wouldn't let him get through! "A barrier!" Yagura exclaimed. "But who-?!"
Nakami, Fuguki, and Jinin sat in the lotus position, forming a triangular perimeter around the building. By melding their chakra together in perfect synchronization, they were able to solidify the energy and create a barrier around the structure. It would have been stronger had there been one more, but they were able to make do."It's a shame Kisame and the others get to have fun." Fuguki lamented.
"Well, just the others." Jinin said. Their sound waves were confined to each other and not the outside world. "Kisame is just watching…for now."
"This barrier won't hold for long." Nakami warned. "The Mizukage will eventually find a way to break through!"
"True, but even Konoha's famed professor would have trouble decoding this barrier." Jinin said. "I imagine it will take Karatachi-sama even longer."
Chouji rolled up into a ball and charged at his target. Even though Naruto was beaten quite badly, as usual he refused to give up. On instinct, he put his hands together for the Kage Bushin. A clone appeared before him, and Naruto quickly vaulted over its shoulders. The clone was steam-rolled over, but the real Naruto flipped clear over Chouji. As Chouji crashed into a wall, Naruto didn't waste a second, throwing a kunai attached with an explosive tag near his feet. Chouji should have known damn well what it was, but he pressed forward. As the smoldering paper neared its end, it went off. In spite of the large cloud of black smoke, the explosion was relatively minor. Direct contact would have resulted in minor burns, but not much else. Yet Chouji jumped through to attack again. "He just took it?!" Naruto panicked. "Is he invincible?!" Chouji raised his massive arms as he tried to pound Naruto into the ground. Naruto got a cross-block up in time, but buckled under his weight, the ground cracking beneath him. Naruto was only thankful his elbow joints didn't explode. He then got a good look at Chouji's face: the left side of his face and neck had a minor burn, evidenced by his skin's redness. His ear bled too, and his collar was torn to shreds. But it was his eyes that caught his attention. They were devoid of any real emotion, and it seemed he wasn't actually seeing his opponent. Naruto's own eyes widened. "Something's wrong." Naruto managed to move Chouji's massive limbs out of the way and do a perfect flip kick to his chin, staggering him.
Sakura managed to take control of Ino's wrist and direct the kunai into the ground next to her. Once that was done, she raised her elbow into Ino's chin, and followed through with a kick to her stomach driving blonde off of her.
However, she realized this created another problem: the body take over jutsu, or whatever it's name was. Ino was now a good enough distance away from her to quickly execute her jutsu without interference. "If she takes my body again, it's all over!" Ino began to make some signs. Sakura didn't know the sequence to the technique she worried about, but she had to assume this was it. Seeing no other option, Sakura opted to rush forward. Ino thrust her hands forward, but Sakura slid under her and swept her leg. Ino lost her balance, though her arms remained outstretched, and tumbled onto the ground. "Thank God! I still have my body!" The pinkette thought in relief.
Ino came to, but the place did not look familiar. "Huh? Where am I?" She appeared to be on a marble floor. She knew she was outside due to the draft, yet she felt warm. She looked down at her hands…only to see they were not hands at all! They were paws, a squirrel probably! "Wha-?!" She held them up. She nearly panicked, but there was a reasonable explanation for this: the shintenshin! But when did she activate it? She was not a sleepwalker (at least not that she knew of) but even then, it would have been impossible to activate the jutsu under such a condition. Finally she heard the noise, much louder in this body than her human one. Turning, she then saw Sakura and…herself?! On the ground?!
What was happening?!
"Damn it, Tauya!" The pale one shouted. "One of them fell! Give her more juice!"
Tauyua only rolled her eyes as she played her flute more aggressively.
"Ino" opened her eyes and shot up. Sakura couldn't defend herself in time and went flying back into the barstool with a push kick. She put her guards up in time to block an onslaught of punches from Ino, who had gotten even more feral. "Shit! What is this girl on?!" Sakura glanced over to see Sasuke on his knees, clawing at his throat. Upon seeing him suffer, suddenly her own plight didn't seem to matter. She grabbed hold of Ino's elbows and rolled back into an improvised sacrifice throw, throwing Ino into the kitchen. She wasted no time relishing in her momentary victory, and ran forward, throwing a smoke bomb between Sasuke and Shikamaru, right on the shadow.
The explosion distorted the shadow, and Sakura was able to pull Sasuke away. "Sasuke-kun!"
Sasuke coughed, massaging his throat. "Thanks, Sakura." He said.
Sakura blushed; he had never thanked her for anything since they were put on the same team. "Sasuke…"
"AHHH!" An orange javelin suddenly ran into her, dragging her across the ground.
Sakura looked up to see a bruised Naruto landed on top of her, mere centimeters from her face. "The hell, NARUTO!?" Sakura tried pushing him up.
"Sorry…" As much as he liked this position, even he knew better than to linger in this situation. He rolled over only for Chouji to run towards him. Sasuke, having caught his breath, fired some wires from his wrist band, ensnaring Chouji's ankles. Sasuke leaned back and gave a mighty tug, causing the hefty genin to fall face first.
Naruto and Sakura grouped with Sasuke, backed up to one another. Ino leaped over the counter, while Chouji got up, ignoring his bloody nose. "What's going on here!?" Naruto asked.
"It doesn't matter!" Sasuke shouted. "It's clear they came here with the intent to lill!" He began to make his signals. "So…" He ended with the tiger sign. "…we will respond accordingly!"
As he felt the fire in his belly expand, he got ready to fire, when the hand of his teammate suddenly and firmly grasped his wrist. "NO!" Naruto shouted.
His jutsu interrupted, all Sasuke blew out was smoke. "Naruto, this isn't a game-!"
"Look at them, Teme!" Naruto shouted. "They're not responding to pain! And they haven't said a word to us! They have no reason to attack us!"
"You have one second to explain your point!" The trio began to encircle them, as if waiting to lunge for them.
"Something is making them do this! And I don't think they're aware of it!" Naruto said.
"Everyone, jump!"
Though none of them spoke, the urgency of the voice made them follow the command and together they jumped out of the center, where Shikamaru's shadow had extended. "Shit!" Sasuke thought. "We nearly handed ourselves on a platter to them!" Had Shikamaru been successful, he would have easily gotten three in one!
They landed on the top of the ramen stall, Team 10 chasing after them. "Sasuke-kun, cover the area in smoke!" The voice said again. Sasuke blinked. That was Ino! But she was in his sights, she wasn't even moving her mouth! Still, he heeded her words, restarted his Goukakyu and this time purposefully interrupted it, once again blowing smoke in front of the charging team.
Before they got through the smoke, Team 7 slid off and hid under a bench in the back. "Did anyone else hear Ino!?" Sasuke whispered.
"We did!" Naruto and Sakura said at the same time.
"But she wasn't talking!" Sakura added.
"Hold still! I'm going to hop onto your shoulder!"
"Wait, wha-?" Suddenly, a squirrel ran over and crawled up Sakura, who panicked. Granted, Sakura thought squirrels were cute, but she didn't want one crawling on her! There was only one reason they would do this, and it wasn't pretty!
"Oh relax, billboard brow!" Ino's voice said. "It's me!"
Sakura calmed down, grabbing the squirrel off her shoulder and looked directly at her. "Ino?!" Sakura said, worried the others would think she lost it.
"Yeah, it's me, and-EVERYONE ROLL!" They did so, avoiding Chouji smashing the stone bench to pieces.
"I'm not going to question why you're a squirrel, but could you please tell your teammates to stop!?" Naruto shouted.
"Of course I did, but they're not listening!" Ino shot back.
"Then get back in your body!" Naruto made a clone that launched him at Shikamaru, easily knocking the thin genin down.
"If I do, we'll be back to square one!"
"Those motions!" Sakura exclaimed as she ducked under Chouji's fist. "That's the jutsu that allows you to possess others!"
"Yes!" Ino agreed. "Whatever's controlling us must have accidentally triggered my body into using it, releasing my consciousness! I can't say whether this body was the intended target or not, but now you can help me solve this!"
Sasuke got Ino's body into an armlock, and locked her legs as he brought them down. "Then get back in!" Sasuke shouted.
"Well, if you'd like, I don't mind wrestling with you a little longer…"
"Ino!" Sakura shouted.
"Sorry! But no, I can't! Not yet!"
Naruto clocked Shikamaru across the chin, knocking him into the wall. "Why not?!"
"The last thing I remember before landing in this body was someone with their hand over my mouth! It must have been in the middle of the night, and my body should not be moving without my consciousness! My body is under someone else's control, and if I go back in, I'm never getting back out!"
The distraction allowed Naruto to get ensnared in Shikamaru's shadow again. "Shit!" Naruto began to run under Shikamaru's discretion, pulling a kunai out. "Sasuke! Friendly fire on your right!"
Sasuke kicked Ino's body out of the way as he blocked Naruto's kunai with his own. Thank goodness the jutsu only controlled his body but never truly eliminated his free will!
Sakura rolled around Chouji, contemplating the situation at the same time. Yes, something was controlling Team 10. They had to free them! But could they? They were a formidable team, and Sakura wasn't sure they could. Not without casualties on either side.
"Teme!" Naruto leaned harder into Sasuke, clearly not under his will. "Stab me!"
I'll leave it off here for now. I know, I know, I'm evil.