Meeting their followers becomes unavoidable, so the whole group prepares to meet them properly. Shikamaru realises how important it is for the two closest villages to be notified and send messengers to do the job. They cooked up an ambush and received orders to capture their offenders but not to injure or kill them. And, responsible as they are, they follow the orders. Most of them...
Notes:Hello, all of you nice people that are still around. Hello to anyone who happened to be new and successfully reached this point without losing a bet or something. So this is an attempt at a half-battle scene. It's not a strong side of mine, but it had to happen at some point in the story. It's kind of needed for later. I really hope you enjoy this chapter at least a bit, even though there is nothing romantic in it.
I hope you'll feel like leaving a comment (crossing my fingers for a positive one).
And I promise I will try to update the next chapter sooner :))
Chapter 22: Capture But Don't Harm
Tenten was twirling a small kunai with her fingers, perched on a low tree branch. Her face wore a deep frown, while her eyes carefully followed every little move of the metal object and every little reflection the stray sunlight cast. Her eyes fell on a carving in the handle — a rune — and she froze.
"Does that mean we have a traitor?" Ittetsu asked; his whole body pricked up, much like that of a scared porcupine.
"Not necessarily," Shikamaru said, rubbing his eyes. "Shee? Any change?"
Shikamaru had asked everyone to dismiss their clones and was currently trying to assess some major points of interest in order to cook up a proper plan for action. But he needed Shee's and Ino's cooperation.
Shee dropped his hands and straightened up. "Actually, yes. The other group had turned south and right towards the first one."
Shikamaru's eyebrows rose. "Curiouser and curiouser... I really wanted to prove you wrong, but it might just turn out that you've been right."
Shee huffed. "I'd rather be wrong on this one," he admitted.
Tenten's fingers caressed the cold kunai's blade before she finally lifted her gaze. "I'm thinking," she said quietly, drawing the attention of the shinobi standing closest to her. "Maybe they don't have a sensor-type shinobi."
"Do you too suggest that someone may have said something?" Temari frowned.
"I don't think anyone has." She shook her head and slipped to the ground. The movement made the rest of the people turn their heads towards her because she had been very quiet until the current moment.
Tenten threw her kunai, so Shikamaru could easily catch it.
He gave her an eyebrow-raised look filled with both curiosity and concern.
"Look at the handle." She nodded.
His dark eyes moved in an instant while he carefully observed the rune. "You think there might be seals involved?"
"Once, our team had to separate and let Lee go ahead. I made a binding seal on his clothes, so we can keep track of him." Tenten smiled slightly. "I used the blade of one of my kunai. It was pointing in Lee's direction without fail.
"Of course!" Kankuro chuckled. "Tracking device."
She nodded yet again. "If done properly, a tracking device can be really efficient."
Shikamaru tapped slowly on his chin, not rushing to say anything. He had, of course, heard about tracking devices and seals, but in his team, using those kinds of... tools... wasn't really a thing. Thus, the possibility of using those didn't come to mind. But that didn't mean he wouldn't take someone else's idea seriously. Good leaders tended to listen to what their subordinates had to say.
Kurotsuchi sighed and kneeled beside her backpack, opening it with a single movement.
"Everyone," Shikamaru said, rising from his spot. "Please search through your belongings." He picked up his own bag and put it on a large rock.
Karui narrowed her eyes. "And what are we looking for?"
Tenten squatted down in front of her baggage, grabbing the ties. "Anything that shouldn't be there," she said, sticking her hand inside.
After a thorough search, two small wooden balls were found in Ittan and Ittetsu's bags. Both of them were genuinely surprised, leaving no doubt in either of the other group members that they didn't know about the items. Drawing the conclusion line, these balls had been slipped in the bags at some point. The questions were: from whom and when did that happen?
"So these are the little culprits?" Ino asked, reaching to take one of them.
"Are you sure?" Lee peered over Ino's shoulder. "They look harmless."
"A rabid fox looks nice too, but it's not," Shee noted with a frown and arms crossed over his chest.
Amai pointed at the tiny carvings lining the ball's smooth surface. "Here, look at the rune over this part. It's pairing this ball with a compass so they know which direction the ball is moving in." His fingertip tapped on a small rune to the left of the first one. "And this one over here uses a binding to a distance-bubble-tracking device, or DB-Tracker."
Tenten's face lightened up. "Oh! I've only read about those; I've never seen one," she exclaimed, moving to Amai. "The tracking seal I used on Lee was only for direction," she explained, snatching the ball from Ino's hand. "And it was simpler," she added under her breath.
"What's that device?" Atsui asked.
"It... resembles a glass ball full of colourful liquid, usually blue," Amai said. "And there's a scale carved into the circumference of the sphere. Inside the liquid, there are two small air bubbles." He drew an imaginary ball into the air. "One of the bubbles stays stuck under the glass at zero, which is the location of the ball itself. The other bubble moves over the scale, showing the approximate scaled location of the item it's been bound to."
"So that's how they knew when to stop," Kurotsuchi concluded with a crooked smile.
"Yes," Tenten confirmed.
"How much time does one need to do this sealing?" asked Shikamaru, directing the conversation towards the practical side.
"Depends on how skilled one is," Amai answered with a shrug. "But I'd say a day or two for someone who knows what they're doing and maybe a week for someone fairly familiar with this technique if they have help."
Shikamaru nodded slowly, his dark eyes assessing the little wooden balls, seeing not only the items but their significance as well.
"Aren't we getting rid of them?" Ittan asked. His voice was calm as ever, but a small vein was twitching under his jaw skin.
"It... might be dangerous to do that before we know more about those people," Shee said lowly, his stare fixed on the wooden objects. A quiet anger was smouldering into the darkness of his eyes.
"I agree," Shikamaru whispered. "We will act as if we aren't aware of those trackers' existence. We will keep moving. We will take a rest when it is expected that we do so. But we will notify the Kages," he stated and added after a moment, "There are still questions we should try to get answers to. Like how and when these balls have found their way into Ittan's and Ittetsu's bags. And how they knew whose bag they needed to slip them in."
"Very curious questions indeed," Kankuro uttered with a huff.
"Very worrying," Omoi added. "Especially having in mind that our identities were revealed to a very small group of shinobi, all trusted by the Raikage. Someone knew who we were; thus, they knew where our belongings were kept."
"The perspective of eventual betrayal from the inside is... very worrying, indeed." Shee's whole being had gloomed and resembled a dark cloud since the moment they found the tracking devices. And with a good reason. He had realised that the tracking seals needed preparation to be done, and the plan plus organisation for getting their identities couldn't be done just yesterday. That meant their group might have been followed since day one. If that was the case and he didn't notice... He shook his head in denial. There hadn't been any indications, and Shee was always careful. Ino was also a reliable teammate — Shikamaru trusted her — she hadn't sensed anything wrong either. So the conclusion weighed on him: there must have been an organised activity lurking closer and longer than they thought. It seemed that they aimed to harm his group, and as representatives of the Five Great Nations as they were, it meant the harm was an indirect attempt to harm the villages. It deeply disturbed his sense of loyalty and aggravated him greatly.
"Atsui, Karui, come here, please," Shikamaru called, spreading a map on the ground while the two shinobi approached him. "I want you to go back to Kumo," he said dispassionately. "You must make a curve" — he slid a finger to the east — "here. The group didn't react to our clones, and as we found the tracking device, I can safely conclude that you won't be followed. The curve is just a precaution, so we can reach you in the unlikely case they go after you."
Atsui nodded, while Karui narrowed her eyes. "How would we know if they changed directions and came after us?"
Shikamaru shot a glance at Ino. "She'll be able to reach you while you're still close. And… We'll watch them carefully. We can act immediately."
Temari crossed her arms. "Keep your chakra hidden, follow the path, and you should be alright," she summarised, gaining an amused look from their team leader.
"Pretty much accurate," he supported. "Anyway, do not enter combat if there is a way to avoid it. Your task is to inform the Raikage above anything else. Understood?"
"Yeah." Atsui rubbed his neck. His eyes narrowed in something resembling worry.
Karui bored her amber eyes in his face and nodded. "Understood."
"Great. I suggest you check with your team leader in case he has anything to add and go." Shikamaru was already waving over to Lee and Ruka.
Shee pulled out a piece of paper and scribed a short note, placing his signature below. "Give this to A," he instructed, and entrusted it to Atsui.
Karui prepared her bag, strapping it tightly to her back. High speed and a loose backpack didn't combine well. When she lifted her head to find Atsui, her eyes widened, and her body jerked back on its own. She didn't expect to see Chouji standing a few feet away from her, towering over her while at the same time fiddling with his sleeve. Upon meeting his gaze, his face averted to the side, and his cheeks flushed in the instant. He definitely looked anxious and uneasy, but she really didn't have the desire or patience to deal with such a thing right now. Not delicately, anyway.
She narrowed her eyes. "What?" she asked, her voice sharp.
He sucked in a breath, surprise twisting his features in an odd grimace. "I… I just wanted to..." he started, but his voice faded as if he didn't really know what to say.
"Yes?" Karui felt irritated by his stammering and the fact that he kept her back from focusing solely on the task at hand.
"Just… Try to be safe," he mumbled quickly. Right after, he attempted to turn his back.
She squinted her eyes at him. "You think that I'll die or something?"
"Ah, no!" He waved his hands with an awkward smile. "I just… ask you to be careful."
The awkward smile that graced his full face brought an instant calm to her. Weird enough, Karui felt a warmth spreading in her chest, and a smile fought its way onto her stern lips. "I will," she promised, and she pecked his cheek so quickly that if he had blinked at this particular moment, he could have thought that he imagined it.
Chouji opened his mouth to say something more, but Karui had already turned.
"Come on, halfwit!" she called, impatiently looking at Atsui.
He shrugged with a grin, seemingly not affected by her insult. Instead, he dashed off ahead. He brushed beside Karui so quickly that her skirt and hair followed him. The kunoichi growled before following him and catching up soon after.
Chouji looked after them until they completely hid from his sight.
"I need you to notify Lady Mei," Shikamaru said. "As soon as possible. I know the run and boat would take roughly two days, but I need this done."
"Alright," Ruka replied in whispers, letting out the breath she had been holding.
"To decrease this time as much as possible, Lee will take upon your needs for breaks while you are on land," Shikamaru added.
Ruka shivered, blinking rapidly. "Beg your pardon?" Right after that, she added, "He will... take... what?"
"Lee has, erm, let's call it 'unhuman' endurance. He can keep a steady pace with no breaks for a long time."
She glanced at Lee. "He may be able to run without a break, but that's not up to my own abilities," she uttered as if she were ashamed. Her cheeks flared red.
"That's why I'll come with you. I can carry you while you catch your breath," Lee explained.
"Oh," Ruka exhaled with palpable relief; her face started to regain more normal colour.
"I don't cope well with boats, though," he added.
Ruka smiled, shaking her head. She cast a glance at Chojuro as if asking him something silently, to which he nodded affirmatively. Only then did she turn to Shikamaru, saying, "It won't take two days to pass the message."
"Oh?"
"There is a semaphore tower on the coast. If we use it, we can transmit a message directly to Mizukage-sama."
Shikamaru rubbed his chin; a curious flame twinkled in his eyes. He, of course, knew about those towers, although he had never had the chance to see them. Also, he knew that their usage was very limited, and sometimes the Kiri shinobi avoided them. "That would certainly make things easier," he admitted, allowing himself a small smile. "I've heard about it, and Mei-sama has mentioned it once in passing."
"The tower itself isn't exactly a secret on its own," Chojuro interjected, stopping beside Ruka.
Shikamaru nodded. "So you won't mind telling me if the tower is something new Kiri uses?"
Ruka gave him a wary smile. "No. It has been there, transmitting messages for over two decades."
A genuine surprise flashed in Shikamaru's dark eyes. "That sounds indeed very... curious."
"It's just built in a very special place. Forgive me, but I'm not authorised to let on the location or the ways of reaching it." Ruka's whole demeanour indicated an apology. Her cheeks flamed up again, in a pleasant pink this time, but when she continued speaking, her voice was firm — she wasn't going to betray her village's secrets.
"I'll respect that," Shikamaru promised.
"Here," Chojuro said quietly, handing her a scroll. "Tell this to Mei-sama."
Ruka took the paper with a bow and immediately tucked it in her vest. There was no need for further instruction — she knew the protocol and was going to destroy the scroll the moment it wasn't of use anymore.
An almost palpable wave of anxiety made her turn, just to meet Lee's unblinking stare; his cheeks grew pinker.
Ruka forced herself to ignore his blush the same way she ignored her own and cleared her throat.
"I believe we can narrow the time for reaching the coast," she asserted, whispering yet again.
"How?" Shikamaru's interest was piqued.
Chojuro chuckled. "It's not the season yet," he said. "The riverbed is almost empty. But..." he hummed, looking straight at her face. His eyes contained a peculiar flame.
Ruka lifted her face. For a moment, it looked like the two Kiri shinobi set walls around themselves and had a very private but mute conversation. In a few more moments, Chojuro sighed and stepped back as if she had laid arguments that he couldn't reject.
"Have it your way," he agreed verbally, nodding at her. "Just be careful. Lee-san's chakra usage is very limited."
"I know," she whispered. "We can still use gliding."
"You will have to keep him floating above the surface. This will exhaust your own chakra reserves," Chojuro pointed out.
"I know. But if we use the river, we will get there in half the time we would need otherwise," she countered.
"I don't have any reservations about counting on your judgement, Ruka." Chojuro gave her a small, encouraging smile.
Ruka bowed to him, surprisingly having a normal face colour.
"Should I book places in a boat when we get to the harbour?" Ruka asked, turning to Shikamaru.
He raised an eyebrow ever so slightly, almost imperceptibly. "That's very thoughtful of you," he praised her. "Yes, please do that. I estimate that we will catch the last evening boat."
"The boats aren't leaving during the night," Chojuro interjected. "If we miss the last one, we will have to get on the first one the next morning."
"If we stick to the plan and don't meet too much resistance, we should arrive at the harbour in the early evening tomorrow. We will have time to have a meal and then board the last boat possible for the day." Shikamaru pinched the bridge of his nose. "Yes, Ruka, please make sure we'll have reserved places for that boat."
She nodded. "It will be done." Ruka kneeled beside the map and traced one of the nearby small rivers. "It should be just to the west of this one, right?" She sought Chojuro's confirmation, looking over her shoulder.
He bent down and pointed at something beside the river. "Try here," he said. "If not, try the next one to the east."
"Alright." Ruka got on her feet and smiled sweetly at Lee. "Let's go, Lee-san."
"You're going to use a river for transport?" Kurotsuchi asked, making her halt.
At the mention of the river, Lee's face twisted in a grimace, and even his skin tinted green.
Ino, noticing the odd colour, patted his shoulder. "Will you be alright?" she asked, concern appearing on her own face.
"I shall endure all the hardships thrown my way, you know that," he said firmly, then his voice fell softer as he added hesitantly, "It's just... I really prefer solid soil under my feet."
Ruka smiled; there was something cunning in the way her lips curled. "It's not like when you are on a boat. It resembles more of" — she swung her arms in an attempt to show what she meant — "sliding."
"Oh!" Lee instantly lightened up, his cheerfulness back in place. "That sounds fun!"
Shikamaru's lips pulled in an almost full-sized smile, accompanied by a quiet chuckle.
Ruka's laugh sounded like a lot of little bells singing in the wind. "Don't you worry, Lee-san. I'll take good care of you. Won't let you fall, I promise." She squeezed his forearm, encouraging.
"Don't you think that it might be better if Lee actually stays here?" Kurotsuchi interjected. "Ruka doesn't seem to need his" — a sly smile crept across her face — "endurance?"
A few stifled chuckles could be heard coming from different team members. Kurotsuchi's sense of humour, even when the situation was more serious than not, had the effect of lifting the spirit.
Ino cleared her throat right after she recovered from her own chuckle. "Your implication is inappropriate," she said.
Kurotsuchi looked unfazed. "You loved it; don't even try to deny it. But... His speed may be very handy here."
Shikamaru gave her a long, assessing look before nodding slowly. "You're right. Who would you suggest to accompany Ruka, then?"
"If Kankuro agrees, I could suggest Ittetsu since his skills, no matter how well they are mastered, aren't crucial for the ambush plan."
Ittetsu blushed and averted his face. Kurotsuchi was outspoken and even rude, but she wasn't saying anything that was untrue.
"Same goes for Sagan, if you prefer his sensor abilities." She crossed her arms. "His sensors can't be compared to Ino's or Shee's. But he still has them, and they could be used appropriately in this case."
Sagan's face paled a bit, but he stoically endured his princess' words; even if they were a bit insulting, she still had said the truth. His sensor abilities weren't blunt per se, but he had tried to sense the groups Shikamaru told them about. His tracking range wasn't enough. He got nothing.
"Seems legit," Shikamaru said. He gave Ruka a quick glance, then turned to Sagan. "I can only agree with Kurotsuchi and replace Lee. Out of the three — Lee, Ittetsu, and you — you have the best chakra control and reserve. Since gliding over the underground river's surface requires constant chakra usage, you are the most suitable choice in this particular case."
Sagan nodded and took a step forward.
Lee gently nudged Ruka's hand — she had been squeezing his forearm without realising that her fingers clutched into his flesh.
She gasped. "Oh, I'm so sorry, Lee-san."
"It's alright," he assured her with a grin. "You will be okay. Sagan will watch your back."
She sidestepped, bowing hastily. Her eyes drifted to Chojuro in case he wanted to add something more, but he remained passive. Ruka nodded at Sagan and pointed in the direction they needed to go. He followed her in silence while she took her tempo up. Soon, he fell in step with her, and they disappeared between the trees.
The shinobi wanted to make the ambush work according to the plan. Because there were a lot of unknown facts about their followers, Shikamaru and the other village leaders decided to play possum with them. The clones who were supposed to wait on the meadow had to be dressed in their common uniforms with bare faces, which they had to keep not entirely visible — whether to stay in the half-shadows or just not face directly the foreign shinobi, it didn't matter. The idea for the clone summons was to take an initial hit and serve as a distraction.
Ameno let out a sigh and sat down on the ground, close to her teammates. She, like all the others, was already wearing her ritual clothes; the wig covered her hair, but the mask hung loosely on a thread around her neck.
One look was enough for Amai to know that something was troubling her. They knew each other for a short time, but the amount of time they had invested in knowing one another was a lot.
He leaned closer to her, asking, "Do you want to share?"
"Hm?" She looked at him, her expression distracted.
Amai carefully took a seat beside her. "You look worried," he added in whispers.
She raised an eyebrow, allowing a small smile to creep over her lips. "I do?"
"You do." He nodded.
She huffed, though her face was clearly showing her amusement. "It's Ruka," she admitted.
"What about her?"
"I know that she's a capable shinobi… She wouldn't be here if she wasn't," Ameno said quietly.
"You mean 'here' on this mission or 'here' like..." He paused, wary about his next words. "Like in general?" Amai sought her eyes; mild curiosity flashed in their depths.
"Both... Somehow, I feel responsible for her," she confided. "She just looks like a fragile little thing that needs to be protected." She shifted in her spot, fully turning to him. "Does it make sense?"
He pursed his lips and slowly nodded. "Yeah, I know what you mean. I have a younger cousin, and Ruka very much reminds me of her. It's like an instinct — to protect someone who seems weaker than yourself."
"I've been listening to her... carefully, and… sometimes she says curious things that seem very atypical for her... at first sight." Ameno hummed, falling silent as if trying to remember something in particular.
Ittetsu opened his mouth to say something but realised right away he was not supposed to take part in this conversation. He closed it back.
This didn't escape Amai's gaze. "You can talk," he encouraged.
Ittetsu jolted. "Ah, sorry, I didn't want to eavesdrop."
Ameno chuckled. "If we were anxious to keep whatever we talk about a secret, we would have talked in private, not when the whole group is stacked together." She smiled sweetly. "Go ahead. What did you want to say?"
"I…" He sighed. "I think Ruka is really nice and sweet. And I don't think she's weird — just very shy sometimes. And kinda… pure?" He spelled the last word as if he were not sure it was in place.
"Maybe naive," Amai suggested thoughtfully.
"Maybe." Ittetsu shrugged. "But she seems like a wonderful medic."
"Yes, she's considerate and observant and has the basic qualities for becoming a fine medic," Ameno admitted. "She has a lot to learn, but I don't have any doubt that she will handle it."
Amai nodded. "I agree." Feeling odd little shivers running down his neck, he half-turned to the teammate on his other side. "What do you think?"
"I don't," Shee cut abruptly. "I know she does her job well, but she's too kind-hearted for her own good."
Ameno gave him a side glance. She also thought Ruka had a kind heart, but the way Shee said it left her with the feeling that it was something bad. She didn't perceive kindness as a weakness, which seemed to be the case for Shee.
"The rest of her traits don't interest me at all. They aren't relevant to the mission," he added in a low tone.
"Alright, fair enough," Amai said. An awkward smile weaved its way over his face.
"Also, I don't appreciate commenting on any of our teammates in their absence," Shee continued. His voice was sharp and sour, although Amai failed to guess why. His older teammate was usually cool-headed. Usually. However, he was easily aggravated at times, and then he would jump to bite. And when he bit, he aimed for the throat…
"We didn't say anything bad about her, really," Ameno said slowly.
Shee redirected a stern look at her, an odd warning shifting deeply into his almost black eyes. An involuntary gasp left Ameno's lips; she tightly clutched the bag laying in her feet. Busying herself, she did a last check of her bandages and antiseptic compounds. There was going to be a fight, however short and bloodless, if everything went according to plan. She had to be ready.
Amai frowned, unable to gather what was going on. He didn't have much time to dwell on this, though — the quiet whistle made him perk up and move to his assigned spot for the ambush. But first, like everyone else, he made a clone in the same moment when he suppressed his chakra. A leap later, and he was crouching into the nearby tree crown while his clone took his place on the grass. Then it struck him: Shee wasn't grim because they talked about Ruka, but because he was irritated by their lack of focus about the upcoming fight. Amai cast a glance at him and the speed with which his mouth was moving. Shee was having a tense discussion with Shikamaru, speaking quickly. Something was going on…
Then both Shee and Shikamaru jumped and landed exactly in the spots they needed to be. Their bodies stilled in crouching positions, almost merging with their surroundings. Hadn't Amai known where every group member was, he wouldn't have been able to see them at all.
Amai winced as Ino's voice sounded in his head. "This is how we will communicate," she announced.
"Please everyone, listen very carefully." Shikamaru's voice interjected. "The second group seems to have suppressed their chakras. We are not sure where they are heading or at what speed. Last, we've tracked four chakra signals, but that is also in question. Anyway, we must be ready to meet them. Pay attention to the west. Kankuro, Lee, Tenten, and Temari, move to the west flank and make sure to intercept them."
Four silhouettes swiftly moved in the appointed direction.
"Prepare," sounded the last warning.
Kankuro's eyes drifted towards Tenten, who had been crouching into the branches of the next tree. They all knew where the foreign shinobi should have to show up; her gaze was focused over there. Her face, still bare, was taut, even though the shadows were partly covering it. One hand was squeezing a scroll, ready to snap it open; a kunai was obediently lying in her other hand. Tenten's body was packed and relaxed at the same time, still and quiet… waiting patiently. Kankuro knew that she must have felt his look but had chosen not to react to it. And maybe it was for the better. The moment wasn't good for any distractions, for neither of them.
Kankuro looked over at his sister. She had taken on her usual waiting posture, with her fan down on the branch she had been standing on. One of the things she trusted the most was her fan, and she would lean on it, both literally and not. Temari looked back at her brother and nodded at him just before, with a smooth movement, placing the mask over her face. "I'll watch your back," was what her eyes told him. He knew. They had been taking care of each other for years; no words were needed for them to communicate; a glance was more than enough. His lips curled in a smirk as he hid his own face behind his own mask.
With closed eyes, Ino was carefully tracking the slowly approaching chakra signals of the bigger group of supposingly lower ranks. When they were almost at the meadow, she took a breath and gave a warning to her teammates.
All the clones were sitting or standing around the fireplace, talking in a free manner as if they didn't have any care in the world. That was until a small vial flew and crashed just beside the fireplace. A thick smoke with a dirty yellow colour quickly spread on the meadow, enveloping the clones.
"Hold your breath! And get rid of this. It shouldn't reach any of us!" Kurotsuchi's voice called, using the connection Ino had made between their minds. She had recognised the specific colour and knew well how toxic it was. It was an acid the Iwa shinobi used on occasions, though they avoided using it in battle because of its highly corrosive and uncontrollable abilities. While they still had tested it, it became clear that this acid would bring more negatives than positives; there wasn't any protection available, so that meant they couldn't protect their own people, thus its usage had been postponed until finding a reliable ward.
A mighty wind blow swept along leaves and tiny branches, together with small soil particles, and forced the smoke to move down towards the ground and seep in greasy waves to the side. It shifted and retracted much slower than Temari expected, literally melting away every single little object captured in it. She frowned under her mask.
"What the heck is... that?" she hissed through the mental connection.
"You really don't wanna know now. Just make sure to stay away from it," Kurotsuchi replied immediately.
Temari scoffed, looking down at her clone, who had produced the whirlwind attack. Although it was much appreciated that the clone was down instead of herself, the strength of the technique wasn't the same as if it were hers. Had Temari been the one who executed the blow, the smoke would have already been gone. But she couldn't meddle just yet. She had to crouch down and merge with the branches, fully invisible. So she kept watching in silence as the trees' bark withered and greyed whenever the reek touched them. Temari's clone put down the fan and leaned on it.
"Dammit," Omoi whispered, and the lollipop almost dropped from his mouth. Prone to assuming the worst-case scenarios, his brain had started to supply his imagination with various terrifying pictures of "if"s had the smoke been moved up to them instead.
"That's kinda worrying…" Ittetsu uttered under his breath.
"Got them! About fifty yards to the north, moving quickly. Four chakra signals," Shee said directly into his teammates minds.
The smoke rolled out from the meadow, leaving more than half of the clones lying, fully lifeless, on the ground. They had taken damage and looked like they had been exposed to... well, a strong and concentrated acid. Also, they were about to puff out at any moment.
Seven silhouettes leaped and landed gracefully on the already-brown grass. In the middle was a young man, more of a teenager, with light yellowish eyes and a daring smirk on his face. He was wearing grey-greenish, worn-out clothes that were too big for his frame, and the visual disproportion was at least annoying. He stopped in front of Temari's clone, who had opened her fan, holding it in front of her as a shield. The teal eyes were staring at him just above the fan's edge, under knitted eyebrows.
The boy stooped down, preparing for an attack. While the other shinobi, also children, didn't look as eager to fight as he did, they still quickly followed suit and took on offensive stances.
Shikamaru noticed two of them looking around with suspicions written all over their quite childish faces. So you're the smarter ones, he thought, and couldn't help but smirk.
Temari's clone clutched the fan, ready to deter the upcoming attack.
But instead of pushing ahead, the yellow-eyed kid straightened up. "Was that all?" he asked, frowning. His hands shot in front of him in offence. "Was that all? All that the great representatives of the grand five villages are capable of?" he taunted, venom dripping in his voice. "You're clowns!"
As if in answer, Chouji's massive body dropped to their right with a loud thud, throwing dirt around his feet. Their heads snapped in his direction even before he landed.
"Welcome," he said. The smile was audible in his tone, even if the mask hid it. His role was to draw their attention in order for his teammates to figure out the best way to capture them without getting anyone injured. He had to play a role, and he was determined to do it well.
The kids slowly turned towards him, cautiously even. Some of them frantically looked around. In the next moment, the clones simultaneously disappeared with a puff, making the eyes of the kids widen. Most of their faces paled slightly as they realised that they had fallen into a trap. Even if they were inexperienced, they still possessed shinobi reflexes, which kicked in — they grouped up closer to each other, forming a small defensive circle.
Chouji started to grow, saying with a genuine apology, "I'm sorry I didn't welcome you as my mother taught me. But to receive guests properly, they must have announced themselves first." Before the words had faded away, he spun in a spot, turning into a giant ball.
The yellow-eyed kid jerked back, but got a hold of himself quickly. "Ambush! Defend! He can't be alone!" Then he prepared to jump.
The rest of his team scattered right away because a very simple assessment needed to be made, pointing out that Chouji couldn't chase all of them at the same time. So they leaped to different sides, while two — a girl roughly around thirteen and a boy around ten — remained frozen in their spots. A dark, thin trail connected their shadows with the one of a man half-hidden beside a tree.
"Can't move!" the girl yelled. Her voice seemed to tremble in panic, but still, frustration was obvious in her narrowed eyes.
The other one was staying quiet, just trying to look over his shoulder and see the source of their impairment. Of course, it wasn't possible, since Sikamaru was right behind their backs. He slightly bent forward, making the kids' bodies follow his movement. It was painful to watch — their limb muscles trеmbled in an effort to be subjected to their owners will, but to no avail.
"The resistance is useless," Shikamaru said seriously, slightly muffled by the mask over his mouth. He could have easily caught them all, though that was not the plan. He wanted to see what they were capable of, and the only way to do so was if he gave them a chance to make an involuntary demonstration.
Chouji's furiously spinning body took a sharp turn in pursuit of the smallest frame of all. He was closing in, but whoever knew this technique and himself could tell that he still didn't rush to tackle down the kid. He was giving her an opportunity to escape the clash. The little girl, not older than ten years old, darted to the side and, at the same time, quickly performed a hand sign sequence. She dropped down on her knees and hit the ground with her palm. A small earth wall erupted from the grass in an attempt to block Chouji's spin, but it was way too thin and low to successfully stop his massive body. Realising that this move had only served to slow her down, she doubled her efforts, leaping to the other side. The girl relied on speed and kept dodging with irregular and unpredictable jumps and sprints.
"Free Lei and Rona!" The yellow-eyed kid ordered while he dashed towards the girl chased by Chouji. Anger twisted his young face, making it look ugly and unnatural. A scream sounded so shrill and loud that it made the majority of the shinobi grit their teeth. It certainly would have made them freeze for a moment had he had a job with more ordinary shinobi, or low-ranking ones.
Apart from the two held in shadow grip, the one running from Chouji, and the yellow-eyed kid, there were still three kids who weren't immobilised or attended to by any of the assigned shinobi. And, after hearing the orders, they complied in an instant, turning on a spot and rushing towards Shikamaru — a quick and rightful assessment of the source of impairment.
The yellow-eyed boy swung his katana, leaping right at the still-spinning Chouji with yet another scream. Pure fury was not rolling but bursting off his body in crushing waves.
The hatred was so intense that Ino involuntarily shivered in the branches. She couldn't help but ask herself what had happened to those children. Why would they despise her teammates and herself so deeply? It looked alarming and, frankly, freaking.
"I'll cut you into pieces!" the kid announced before he flew up in the air, performing a swift flip before pushing up again in a giant leap. His katana swung down in a wide arc, which should have finished right into Chouji's body. Except it didn't — a sharp clank sound echoed when his blade met another one. His arm, even if strong, wasn't prepared for such unwavering resistance and shivered in an attempt to recover muscle control. His whole body was forced to lunge back and land in the dirt on one knee.
Chojuro's faceless mask met the yellow eyes, wide in surprise, before squinting against him. The wide blade, still wrapped in bandages, hummed quietly as if in excitement to be used in a fight again. The boy hadn't realised that the mist shinobi just saved not only his katana from breaking but his arm from being torn away as well. If the katana had met Chouji while spinning, the joints wouldn't be able to keep the limb attached to the boy's body.
"Hiramekarei, release," Chojuro whispered. From the openings near the tip of the blade, chakra seeped and quickly spread, covering the whole weapon. Another whisper followed, so quiet that the boy couldn't understand it. But Hiramekarei twisted, transforming into a shiny chain with two small weights attached at both ends.
The ground surface quacked, moving under all the pairs of feet that were standing on the shaking meadow.
Chojuro balanced on the shifting surface with ease. He parried the yellow-eyed kid's next hit and successfully wound the chain around the boy's wrist and elbow, immobilising his arm and forcing him to drop the weapon.
The boy bared his teeth, hissing in pain and anger.
Chouji used the changing terrain in his favour, finding a minor ramp to leap low and crash into the ground, shaking it even further. Dirt and small rocks shot in all directions when his massive body slammed down mere feet from the girl. Her footing wavered; she slid back, losing balance, and fell forward on her hands. It took her just a moment to get up, but it was enough for Ameno to rush down and perform the Suna bandage technique, leaving a tight cocoon behind before disappearing right up into the tree crown.
Chouji, on the other hand, needed more time to get himself together and see straight. No matter how many times he performed this technique, he would always feel a tad dizzy when it ended. Apparently, it wasn't something he could eliminate as a side effect. But his leaf teammates knew about it and always covered his back in these few moments.
Ittan slipped down the moment Chouji started spinning. And even before he stepped on the grass, he was already performing hand signs. His eyes met with Shikamaru's for confirmation, then he slammed a palm down. As a result, a loud rumble rose from the earth's core underneath the meadow, and the shinobi felt the shaking before it progressed further. The ground surface moved as if it were alive — it started shifting, raising, and falling, throwing people up and down like popcorn. But the kids did have shinobi reflexes after all, and they leapt to the sides, attempting to exit the area. So easy would have been if it just worked this way...
Ittetsu acted immediately, turning the boy that Shikamaru was holding in place into a cocoon. But he didn't have the time to do that with the girl as well, so she was free the moment Shikamaru released her from the shadow grip — the earthquake forced him to move too.
The girl jumped swiftly, avoiding Ittetsu's bandage attack. She took out a kunai and made a wide-arc turn, instantly shooting back to her teammate, aiming to free him. Landing right beside the cocooned body, she attempted to tuck the blade under the tight cloth. Then, before she could slice it down, she slumped on the ground, unconscious. Shikamaru looked critically at the blood stain on the handle of his own kunai before putting it back in its holder. Guilt tugged at his chest as they weren't supposed to hurt the kids...
A loud explosion made his head snap in the direction his teammates were fighting with the four-man shinobi group. It was followed by a high, bursting fire, which demanded he leap back up, disappearing between the leaves.
Kurotsuchi clicked with her tongue. A pang of worry rose into her chest when the yellow flames licked the top of the trees. She wasn't one to stay back and watch; she had to do something.
"Should I help Temari and the rest?" she asked quickly.
"Stay at your assignment," was the curt answer Shikamaru gave her.
Very well, she thought, frowning. So if she had to take over her current task, she was going to end this farce. It was going beyond what they had predicted. It was time those annoying kids knew their places; they shouldn't roam under her feet. Kurotsuchi's eyes narrowed when she quickly assessed the situation from above and made a decision about her next move. She licked her lips...
Ittan repeated the hand signs, expanding the area of effect and forcing the terrain to become really hard to handle. The surface shattered and cracked, sputtered with wide gaps; different parts were raising and falling at various speeds and in seemingly random directions of rotation. But although Ittan succeeded in imprisoning one child in an underground chamber, the rest seemed to dodge and avoid pretty well.
Kurotsuchi dropped down in an offensive stance, already performing the signs of a technique that wasn't planned to be used. She was fed up with playing. It was enough.
"Ittan, don't stop the earthquake," she ordered, earning his frown, but he complied anyway. "Earth Release: Earth Flow Spears," she said to herself under her breath when her hand landed on the grass.
"Don't!" Ino yelled, causing the brains of the whole group to ring. "You may kill someone!"
"Collateral damage," Kurotsuchi answered unphased.
There were no indications that she would stop. Instead, she focused on the figures left on their feet. Stark stone spikes erupted from the ground with swish-sharp sounds. The makeout ground-build blades stabbed the soil, and combined with Ittan's technique, they became impossible for the kids to dodge. Kurotsuchi leaned forward. An evil flare appeared in her pink eyes as she licked her lips again, just before a slight smirk tugged at the edges of her mouth. In the next moment, a desperate scream of pain tore the consistent rumble of the ground. Blood splashed from the gap in one of the kid's thighs.
"Enough!" Shikamaru hissed.
As one, all teammates stilled their actions, except for Ittetsu and Ameno, who cocooned the rest of the kids. Kurotsuchi, however, remained focused, holding the blades in their places.
Shikamaru jumped down in front of her. "That was uncalled for," he said firmly.
Kurotsuchi opened her mouth to respond when an earthquake, located in a single spot, spat up a woman. She landed low, on one knee, and remained in this position with her head bowed down.
No one moved or produced a sound. Even the birds had stopped their chirping, and the ever-existing waft had ceased — the leaves were perfectly still.
Thank you, jtoo! Patient as always with me making you read that... thing... too many times.