Chapter 9: Mission Imponderable
Forest of End
(With Kakashi)
"Well, now that you were kind enough to reveal yourself to me, I'm better prepared. Wouldn't you say so, Darui of the Black Lightning?" Kakashi asked hoping to get a rise from the now known Darui to gain a slight advantage.
Raising an eyebrow at his moniker being known by Kakashi, but not really letting it get to him "So, is that a way of initiating a battle from where you from, hmm? No matter, as dull as it is that I am supposed to be bringing you in, I'd rather fight you than have the raikage angry."
Sighing to himself, Kakashi reached for a kunai in his pouch while studying Darui closely, who had his hand at the handle of his sword which was strapped to his back. Sighing one more time Kakashi acted first by throwing the kunai towards Darui and dashing in hopes of slipping within his guard.
Darui saw the kunai and tilted his head to the side letting the deadly small knife pass him harmlessly to focus on the real danger charging towards him. Quickly drawing his medium sized, thick sword, Darui made a horizontal slash to cut Kakashi's guts out, only for Kakashi to leap over the sword twisting his body to the side aiming for a kick at the right hand side, where Darui was swinging from. Leaning back and watching the kick fly by his eyes, Darui used the momentum he generated from the swing and dodge to lash out with a round house kick.
Kakashi quickly blocking the kick with his left arm pushing him away, grunting from the force of the kick, he dug his feet into the ground to halt his movement. Running through hand signs at blazing speeds he called out "Fire Release: Fireball Jutsu!"
Seeing the fireball that was large in diameter threatening to devour him, Darui hastily substituted with a nearby log. Appearing at Kakashi's left hand side, Darui hurled his now lightning charged sword vertically to dissect his opponent.
Kakashi, back paddling away, was forced to defend himself from a left hand jab by slapping the punch away. Before he could do anything else he saw Darui gaining a lightning aura before dashing forward with speeds that surprised him. The momentary shock cost Kakashi as a hard lightning enhanced punch ripped right through his stomach, causing blood to erupt erratically from the exiting of the fist.
"I was expecting a little more from someone who was a jonin at thirteen. Maybe your strength was exaggerated for the war that you would hav…" Darui began only to be interrupted by Kakashi's voice coming not from the bleeding out corpse to be in front of him, which puffed away in smoke, but from behind.
"Have lost. Please spare me the delusions of grandeur. There are a few things that make me go all out against an enemy. And you my friend chose the wrong trigger. This is no longer about me leaving lightning country, but about me killing you for talking about things you do not know." Kakashi's voice finished causing Darui to look behind himself, only to see Kakashi lift up his head band from covering his right eye.
Instantly he saw something he could not explain. He saw Kakashi's sharingan morph from the normal well known three tomoe sharingan into a different form. The new sharingan had what looked like three scythe head looking towards the right hand side, originating from the pupil. The eye pulsed brightly before dimming down, leaving the scythes to spin clockwise hypnotically with a bit of menacing intent projected by the dark chakra emitting from the eye.
"The bingo book is correct in one thing, accurately, and that is I did copy a hell lot of jutsu from my enemies, most are not even among the living any more to rip their revenge from me. And do you know what they have in common with you right now? Well it is very simple, the severely underestimated me and they paid the price with their life. All of them killed by one jutsu I never copied, but was taught by someone who your words, and still breathing corpse, insult. My sensei, the 4th hokage, Minato Namikaze. It is called the Rasengan." Kakashi exclaimed to Darui who was shocked, further enhanced by the fact that a jutsu he had never seen before, but heard about appeared right before his eyes. Well more like swirled before his eyes, but neither man cared about that at the moment. Darui worried more about the blue sphere of pure chakra shining brightly and the man wanting to kill him. Kakashi on the other hand was not worried about anything, evident when he tensed and prepared himself to add another man to his long list of dead bodies.
Market District
Abandoned Warehouse
(With Sakura)
"Exotic hair does not mean bimbo, I know you are following me. So, tell me, what is so special about me that causes you two to team up against me? Easy target? You were leftovers? Weakest links, hmm?" Sakura asked turning calmly to face her followers, who were leaning against walls of the empty barn "Or is it all of the above? A is optional to choose, but suggested for your egos."
"That is it. Not even five minutes and you already on my hit list, way worse than Bee-sensei's rapping. Omoi knock her out and be quick." the redhead young lady ordered, folding her arms expecting compliance.
"By myself! Karui she could be confident for a reason! What if..." the white haired adolescent exclaimed at his companion, now known as Karui, only to be interrupted by said companion.
"Omoi! No, no, no, not now of all times. We are on a mission, in a middle of a confrontation with little miss pink exotic hair, X-Rank bingo book entry and THE best X-Rank mission taker, and you want to play Dr. I Always Got Theories right now. Boy if I do not kill you myself..." it was Karui's turn to be interrupted, as she was forced to dodge a kunai thrown by an irritated Sakura. The kunai missing Karui by inches and going through the door to land outside harmlessly on the field.
"I did not think it was possible, but X-Rank in the Hidden Cloud is real. So quick question, is there like a bimbo school for it?" Sakura taunted twirling a lone kunai on her finger.
"That's it, you are dead! I will cut you to pieces!" Karui growled out before drawing her sword and dashing at Sakura.
"Wait Karui! What if..." Omoi began only to be interrupted again by Karui.
"Not now Omoi. No conspiracies now. We have this bimbo, rouge ninja snooping around like a rat." Karui said, stopping Omoi from rambling on, breaking her side glance at him before looking straight at Sakura, "And unfortunately for you rat there are no crumbs, just a trap. You're coming with us dead or alive."
As soon as Karui finished Sakura drew five shuriken and a smoke bomb. Dropping the smoke bomb Karui and Omoi lost sight of Sakura as thick purple smoke appeared covering her. Few seconds later the hidden cloud ninja saw five glinting blurs headed straight for then, thinking quickly they leaped for the ceiling and clinged to it trying to dodge the shuriken and any other potential attack.
When the smoke bomb cleared the cloud ninja found no one waiting beyond the cloud of purple smoke.
"She escaped! Fan out and scan the perimeter for anything that might lead towards her." Karui demanded already in motion to do the same.
"Wow! Her village is kind of flashy and stealthy at the same time. Plus a bonus in pissing Karui of." Omoi muttered to himself.
"Omoi! You are day dreaming again and now burning sunlight. We have a rouge X-Rank kunoichi on the loose, so make it snappy." Karui shouted from outside the warehouse.
"Fine! Why was I paired with you of all people? Why not captain Darui, even Samui would do." Omoi muttered questioning Cee decision to pair him with Karui.
Exiting the warehouse and passing the lone kunai that the unknown kunoichi threw, Omoi heard a sizzling sound coming from the kunai and before he could jump away from the exploding paper tag that was attached to the kunai, the tag exploded.
"OMOI!" Karui shouted sprinting towards the area.
"I do not think that would be wise." Karui heard the voice from behind, surprising and causing her to still herself into preventing her neck from being sliced into by the cold sharp metal placed against her neck.
"You bitch!" Karui growled at Sakura.
"You know, I'm not so sure my hand is as steady as it should be over your vein if I wanted to keep you alive." Sakura stated, tired of the insults coming from the hidden cloud kunoichi.
Karui just grit her teeth in anger, helpless to the 'inferior kunoichi' in her eyes behind her holding her hostage and playing god with her life. Accepting her fate, Karui waited for the kunai to end her life on the first mission as a chunin.
Closing her eyes, Karui braced herself for a kunai, but only got a smack to the face and a short distortion of reality. Gasping loudly and seeing a perfectly fine Omoi being responsible for the smack to the face.
"How... I thought... What the... I don't understand..." Karui whispered, not knowing if to be shocked to be alive or relived both her and Omoi are alive and well.
Grimacing at the uttered questions Omoi answered "Genjutsu. We were both caught within a genjutsu. Yours was a chakra manipulating type, while mine was some type of area of effect genjutsu controlled by a seal. We severely underestimated this girl and almost died. If she was certain we were going to be in the genjutsu for this long we would have been corpses with slit necks waiting for both the death god and scavengers to finish the job."
"We almost died Omoi..." Karui uttered those words so softly and defeated that Omoi was surprised by the way the normally aggressive and loud girl's tone and stature felt.
"Karui snap out of it. We still have a mission to complete. We could still catch her if we track her using the tag containing some of her chakra." Omoi said beginning to track the kunoichi who had gotten the better of both of them.
Karui just nodded and started to feel out the chakra signature from the seal. Using the signature of the chakra within the seal and projecting her chakra in pulses to feel out the chakra signature of the pink haired kunoichi in the air, Karui found a residual trail of the chakra signature from the seal in the air headed to the valley of bones near the farming village they were in.
"She is headed to the valley of bones, probably to lay low or shake us of in the valleys. Lucky for us, Bee-sensei used us to travel a lot and gave us unique knowledge of the valley. Let's move." Karui proclaimed jumping to the roof tops in the direction of the valley of bones.
Valley of Bones
(With Sakura)
'I wonder how long it will take them to escape the genjutsus and find me, if they can even find me. I'm sooooo asking Kakashi-sensei for a week of after this mission. Wonder what I'm going to do during the week. Maybe reading genjutsu scrolls or find a genjutsu specialist to help me progress... oh who am I kidding, I tried that already. Hmm, maybe visit the new dango shop I heard about, hope they have vegetarian dango otherwise I'll pass. Though I should go see Ino, we have not spoken to each other since the graduation ceremony. Heard she had a boyfri...' Sakura had her thought process interrupted by the footsteps she heard from behind herself. Turning around she said "Took you long enough to arrive."
"We have you now and you not pulling a fast one over us again. We are going to..." Karui began only to be interrupted by Sakura.
"But I thought I had you. I've been waiting for the both of you to arrive for a long time now." Sakura stated crouching down.
"What!?" Omoi was shocked by Sakura stating that she was waiting for the both of them to arrive, instead of escaping from them.
"Yeah, but I hope the both of you do not take this the hard way and curse me if you die; but I'm going to complete my mission." Sakura proclaimed picking up a ninja wire and tugging at it.
"Brace yourself Omoi!" Karui shouted out taking out a pair of kunai and holding them in a reverse grip.
As soon as Karui was finished with her warning, kunai and shuriken rained from seemingly random directions. Omoi, knowing his over thinking with life and death situations, decided to substitute with a nearby boulder to avoid the onslaught of ninja stars and knives. However, this proved to be futile as the weapons tracked his movements as soon as he appeared.
"She controlling the kunai and shuriken remotely to change direction to wherever we move." Omoi shared the information he discovered with his teammate to help her as Karui was standing her ground and unsuccessfully, for the most part, fending away the kunai and shuriken.
"Right! Then we should blend defense with a little bit of offense and turn the tables against her!" Karui shouted from the middle of the valley of bones.
Getting a nod in return, Karui twirled her kunai and threw them at Sakura then proceeding to trail after her deadly projectiles. This caused Sakura's onslaught of ninja stars and knives to also trail after her.
"Karui, watch out! There could be more traps!" Omoi proclaimed abandoning his approach to back up Karui.
Omoi noticed that the onslaught of ninja stars and knives decrease, and that some of the attacks are genjutsu. However, it was not really possible to tell the deference between real and fake.
BOOM!
"Ahhhhh!" Karui screamed in pain as the surrounding area around Sakura was laid with concealed paper tags.
"KARUI!" Omoi exclaimed in worry for his teammate.
Once the dust and smoke settled, Karui was seen laying face down struggling to get back to her feet. As soon as Karui was on one knee, she searched for her teammate and found him still trying to dodge and deflect the kunai and shuriken, but when she noticed there were no attacks coming her way she sighed in relief.
As she was about to call for Omoi to come to her she felt a certain presence appear behind her. She didn't need to guess who it was when she had a kunai pressed against her neck.
"Don't you dare say anything. It's almost over anyway and you my dear enemy are my bargaining chip. Though you are not needed conscious for this. I appreciate your participation in my escaping from my predicament though." Sakura stated looking at Omoi engaged in a deadly dance with kunai and shuriken.
"You won't leave here alive, you bit..." Karui began before being cut off by Sakura knocking her unconscious.
"And here I thought we were getting along. Oh well, better wait for that guy to finish or die." Sakura muttered to herself catching Karui before she tasted dirt.
Bridge of Rain and Lightning
(With Naruto)
"I will not ask you again. How do you know that?" Naruto stated releasing his grip a bit.
"From a man so fast I doubt even your sharingan can track him. He appeared just moments before I found you here. He gave me the information about your brother." Samui answered.
"So a type of teleporter or a member of the legendary swift release huh?" Naruto stated with a tilt of his head not quite sure what to make of what he was hearing from the beautiful blond that he captured.
Shaking her head in disagreement Samui replied "No none of those, he was vibrating just by standing. He appeared to have lightning, in the colour of red, flickering of him. I deduce it's a lightning based jutsu."
"So someone copied the raikage's lightning jutsu?" Naruto asked.
"I don't think so. This is something different, something new." Samui answered.
"Visual?"
"Glowing red eyes and a blurry yellow and black jumpsuit." Samui answered again.
"We already feel like allies now, don't you think so?" Naruto stated with another mischievous smile masking his worry 'This man in yellow will be a problem if he interferes with my plans. I already have the tailed beasts giving me the chakra and I won't let this new unknown man in yellow or the akatsuki stop me.'
"What are you grinning about?" Samui asked snapping Naruto out of his thoughts.
"Just how you'll be my insurance policy later on. How about an upgrade huh?" Naruto asked not giving Samui a chance to reply.
Naruto tightened his grip and sent chakra to his eyes activating his sharingan. Before Samui could close her eyes, everything went black. Tossing Samui over his shoulder, Naruto prepared to enter his pocket dimension when he heard an explosion.
'That came from Sakura's direction. Wonder if that's the end of her battle? Oh well I'll save her if need be as the chunin exams are two months away.' Naruto thought to himself swirling away.
Housing District
(With Sasuke)
'What is this feeling? It's like I'm being pierced and electrocuted at the same time, but I'm not feeling any blood dripping... Wait he said lightning illusion... Damn it! Genjutsu!' Sasuke assessed pushing chakra into his eyes and activating his sharingan to disable the genjutsu cast on him.
"Too late! Cloud-Style Crescent Moon Beheading!" the cloud ninja stated swinging his tanto hard and fast to add to the momentum of his leap from the roof he was standing on towards Sasuke on the ground.
Sasuke quickly substituted with a nearby log that was supposed to be used for a fire. Appearing behind the cloud ninja, Sasuke drew six shuriken while holding a ram seal "Fire Release: Phoenix Flower Jutsu!"
Sasuke blew six soccer ball sized fire balls and threw the shuriken he was holding in his hand. The cloud ninja quickly pivoted on his axis and started dodging; left, left, up, duck, right and left.
"Pathetic attempt kid. No wonder the Uchiha were slaughtered by one man if that's the best you can come up with. I'm a jonin for a reason, by the way. Go by the name Cee, known for being the raikage's personal body guard." the now known as Cee stated standing up straight.
"Actually I have you right where I want you, idiot." Sasuke replied pulling on six ninja wires that were attached to the shuriken he threw and held them with his teeth while going through hand signs ending on a ram seal.
Cee, on the other hand found himself trapped by the ninja wire against the building behind him. Sensing the civilians inside the house he was trapped against, he spoke "There are civilians inside the house, you brat!"
'Good thing this jutsu will only singe the wall if he really cares about the civilians inside. But he doesn't need to know that.' Sasuke thought as he continued building up chakra in his chest.
"Fire Release: Dragon Fire Jutsu!" Sasuke proclaimed releasing a large stream of fire along the ninja wire towards Cee.
Cee screamed in pain as the fire wrapped around him, though he did try to lessen the damage done to the wall and himself, using his lightning charged chakra.
After a few minutes the screaming ceased and the fire died down, Sasuke spoke "And I'm a genin called Sasuke Uchiha."
Sasuke blocked a kick from his right hand side with his forearm before quickly gripping the leg. Pulling the leg and the person across his body to slam them into the dust road they were in, however, the person maneuvered his body to push off the dust road to right themselves to a standing position. Sasuke fixed him a glare while equipping himself with two kunai held in a reverse grip.
Cee was in great shape for someone who just escaped being burnt alive, only having lost his hidden cloud flak jacket and having singed clothes.
"Cee, there's very little you can conceal in front of the sharingan. I knew you escaped the ninja wire, however, how long are you going to keep this up, hmm?" Sasuke questioned.
"Might have caught me off guard, but that's the only time it's happening." Cee replied before an explosion occurred in back of Sasuke.
'What was that?' Sasuke asked himself.
'I just felt Karui's chakra drop tremendously after the explosion. Either she set those paper tags off or she used a lot of chakra to shield herself from the explosion. I better finish this fast and go check it out.' Cee thought bracing himself for Sasuke's, who was charging at Cee, onslaught of taijutsu.
However, before Sasuke could begin a taijutsu bout, Naruto appeared via shushin between them. Quickly grabbing the still moving Sasuke and leaving the same he arrived, Naruto let Sasuke go once they were a distance away.
"Missions over and complete. Retrieve Sakura and meet at the border, hurry before that jonin arrives. She is by that valley where the explosion occurred a few minutes ago. I need to back Kakashi up and/or deal with more hostiles. If we do not arrive by ten minutes of your arrival, leave us behind as we would have taken an alternate route back to Fire/Rain border. Now go!" Naruto ordered leaping in Kakashi's direction.
Valley of Bones
(With Sakura)
"Are you done dancing like a puppet?" asked Sakura to an approaching Omoi, who looked worse for warehouse covered in cuts and blood.
"What have you done to Karui!?" Omoi growled out in barely suppressed anger at seeing his unconscious teammate held hostage with a kunai.
"Oh you know this and that, some of the booms did most of the work. Can't really take all the credit for her brashness, you know." Sakura cheekily replied back while shrugging Omoi's anger of.
"I swear if anything happens to her I'll..." Omoi began only to be interrupted by Sakura.
"You'll nothing. Because I'm sensing my teammate arriving soon, meaning mission accomplished. We won, you lost." Sakura stated looking smug while saying it.
Omoi was about to retort when he suddenly gasped as he felt a presence behind him before he was forced to take a nap by a chop to his neck.
"Well will you look at that. Sakura defeating two opponents by herself." Sasuke pointed out the feat Sakura accomplished, causing Sakura to blush lightly.
"Well I've been training a lot." Sakura retorted trying to curb her blush at the comment.
Sasuke smirked at the retort before straightening his face and posture "We need to leave, the jonin I was fighting will be here any minute. We will talk and move. Let's move."
Forest of End
(With Kakashi)
'Let's see if I can finally control this visual jutsu. Of course it won't be Uchiha perfection, but Naruto helped me figure out the ins and outs of the jutsu. Though I'm worried about the chakra it will devour from me.' Kakashi thought approaching Darui with a strong and fast right punch, which Darui blocked by crossing his arms over his face.
The punch was strong enough to push Darui back, leaving skid marks as he dug his foot in the ground to stop his momentum. As he was about to attack Kakashi, another unknown appeared with Samui on his shoulder.
"Stand down hidden cloud jonin, we're leaving." Naruto stated tossing the unconscious blond at Darui after stopping next to Kakashi.
'Damn it. Samui was defeated and I have no idea how the others are doing.' Darui thought to himself before replying to Naruto "Fine, but know this, you'll be wanted within the hidden cloud from now on. Better leave before the BOLTS arrive, as I'm sure they noticed our skirmishes."
Naruto nodded before muttering something to Kakashi silently. Soon both jonin and genin of the hidden leaf leap for the trees, leaving the area and village.
'Better they leave so I can find the others and report back to the raikage. This is so dull... Samui I'm sorry you in this state, hope the others are doing better than us.' Darui thought carrying Samui bridal style and going towards the village.
Flashback
Few minutes prior
Naruto's Kamui Dimension
A clone of Naruto could be seen injecting blood into an unconscious Samui.
'Once you awaken my gift for you, you'll find me. And when you do, and you will awaken my gift for you, I'll be there waiting for the both of us to finish my plans. Get strong soon my resourceful minion. The world depends on it.' the Naruto clone thought finishing his task of injecting blood into Samui before dispelling to alert the real Naruto.