Yo yo! Welcome back! This is chapter 8 chapter of Konoha's Orange Comet! I don't have much to say besides I look forward to your reviews. That's about it…lol.
P.S: Please forgive me for the long ass wait for this chapter life has really been a mental, emotional and physical roller-coaster this past year for me, and I promise to try and up the ante. :)
Ranjira1988: Wow…just wow. That is an amazing theory and I actually wish I thought of that. But I promise the way it actually works is just as amazing.
Anyway, Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
Konoha's Orange Comet!
Arc: The Land of Frost.
Chapter 8: Inhumanity!
Namiko and Shikamaru walked in silence. After getting some much-needed rest, as well as a photo of the man they were looking for, the Konoha duo had restocked on anything they might need before getting some new winter cloaks and heading out towards the mountains, in order to solve the mystery that the village had been plagued with.
Off to the right, and a little way behind her, Shikamaru eyed his partner with a keen eye. Namiko had rarely ever been quiet for this amount of time. Ever since they had left the village and began making their way to the mountains, she had said little, only speaking when spoken too. And, while he was one who often enjoyed quiet, it just didn't seem right when Namiko was the person in question.
Shikamaru, knowing that he was probably going to regret what was about to transpire, sighed. "Are you okay, Namiko?" One of his eyebrowed rose with the question. The other eyebrow rose when he didn't get a response. "Oi, Namiko?" He called but it was the same result. "Has she gone deaf in the time we left the village?" He inwardly asked himself.
With another sigh, the Nara made his way next to the Uzumaki before tapping on her shoulder, seemingly startling her.
"Huh?" She turned to look at him. "What's up Shika?" She asked.
"I've been calling you forever. Are you okay?" He asked with honest interest.
Namiko offered him one of her signature cheeky grins while she scratched the back of her head sheepishly. "Uh yea, I'm fine," she said before she turned to face forward. "I was just thinking about the village…and little Akina-chan." Namiko was silent for a few before she continued. "I was thinking about how much it must suck to lose a parent. You know, being an orphan is one thing, I never met my parents, so I don't know the pain of losing them…and even now, I only know my mother's name, and what she looked like, but I never endured the pain of losing a parent." She explained to her Nara teammate who listened intently. Shikamaru watched at Namiko clenched her fist before a determined look shone through her eyes. "We have to get them back, or at least get answers, no matter what."
Shikamaru allowed a small smile to form on his face. A saying like that was typical of someone like Namiko, someone who would always put others first before herself. Since they had begun the academy, she had always yelled at the top of her lungs that she'd be Hokage, and now, Shikamaru could honestly see that as a possibility. She was still a bit of a ditz, which meant that someone like him would probably have to be by her side while she led the village, which meant more work for him.
"Troublesome…" He muttered under his breath.
"Huh? What was that?" She asked, having not heard him.
Shikamaru offered her a smile before shaking his head. "Nothing…it was nothing."
Namiko eyed him carefully before she shrugged.
This was when Shikamaru remembered he had some questions still unanswered.
"Hey Namiko," she turned to look at him over her shoulder. "I still have a few more questions about your ability, if you're okay with that." He explained and she shrugged, then beckoned for him to continue. "Well, first and foremost, you said that it allows you to enhance your speed with chakra, just like almost every shinobi can do, but you can simply send tenfold the amount compared to the rest, but is that all there is to it?" He asked.
"Well…the Jinton is a combination of my two affinities, Futon and Raiton and so far, that's pretty much all I've been able to do with it." She admitted sheepishly. "At the surface level it's really just a speed boost but incorporating it into my Taijutsu as well as Shurikenjutsu has given me some pretty good results."
Shikamaru nodded, then proceeded to process what Namiko had explained to him and while doing that, his mind drifted back to their battle with the man named Karyu. "During our fight against the Lightning Group guy, were you using the Jinton even before you saved me?"
She nodded. "Basically, there are three ways for me to utilize the Jinton," she began, holding up the necessary number of fingers. "From what I have learned, it's best to think of my limbs, my head included, as containers with an even amount of capacity and my chakra as a liquid. When all five containers have an equal amount of my chakra, the Jinton is most effective, as it is less chakra consumptive and my hair doesn't float, also, the more 'liquid', the faster I can move…you know what; I think I'm going to call that Stage One." She grinned. "The next way to utilize it is sending the maximum amount of chakra my limbs can handle, like so," Namiko sent the maximum of chakra she could to her arms, legs and head and Shikamaru watched as her hair began to float, just like it did when she had saved him. "This, I'm going to call Jinton: Ni no Dan." She said with a smile. She cut the floor of chakra and let her hair fall back to its original place. "And finally, would be the Jinton: San no Dan, which would be what I used to save you, that allows me to speed up my entire body, all of my organs, and what I noticed about it is that it sped up my metabolism, which is why I slept so long." She had gotten that bit of information from the Nine Tails, but she'd keep that part to herself.
Shikamaru nodded as he took in what she explained to him, but he couldn't help but deadpan. "Ichi no Dan, Ni no Dan, and San no Dan?" He asked, to which she nodded with a triumphant grin. "I swear…you are absolutely terrible at coming up with Jutsu names, I don't think I've ever seen somebody come up with names that bad." He chuckled, to which she looked at him with feign annoyance. "But I do have to admit, that is a pretty cool ability, does it have any drawbacks?"
She nodded solemnly. "If I overload one limb with too much chakra, and the other limbs aren't able to keep up I can break bones, tear ligaments and pull muscles, I also have to be very careful with my head and neck area, otherwise I'd suffer from whiplash and probably snap my neck." She shuddered slightly at the thought.
He chuckled lightly at her antics. "Okay, one more question. Once it's activated, do you always move fast?"
She shook her head in negation. "I can have it activated and move at a normal pace, but that would just basically be an extreme waste of chakra. I suppose I'd only do something like that if I was on standby for a fight or situation or something." She said with a shrug.
"I see…" Was Shikamaru's response as he put his mind to work for a few seconds. "Honestly, like I said, that is quite the ability, I'm sure that once you master it, and learn to have some patience as well as get some diplomatic sense, you'll definitely become Hokage." He said with a snicker and a grin at the few jokes he slipped into the statement.
She turned around and fake glared at him with a pout, an action that caused the young Nara's heart to seemingly skip a beat…or two. Before Namiko could make a comeback, she saw Shikamaru's face suddenly grow serious. She turned and followed his line of sight and her eyes narrowed at what Shikamaru had been looking at.
They had finally reached in the 'forestry' part of the mountains and what they saw was various articles of clothing as well as buckets and other various tools littered on the forest floor. What immediately caught Shikamaru's attention, however, was a kettle hanging over a makeshift firepit. He quickly made his way over and felt the kettle to see that it was still warm. He relayed this information to Namiko who hurriedly put her hands up in a cross seal.
"Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu! (Multi Shadow Clone Technique!)" In an instant, they were surrounded by at least five dozen copies of Konoha's blonde, orange wearing Jinchuriki, and already having they instructions, the clones dispersed in various directions trying to find any form of life of who had been there only moments ago.
Chances were, it was either who they were looking for, the people responsible for the missing persons they were looking for or someone who could give them any sort of clues to get to the bottom of their little side quest.
While Shikamaru continued to investigate the area, Namiko had her mind focused on waiting for memories from her clones to return. Incase two or more clones found something and dispersed at the same time, she didn't want to miss something that might be vital to their investigation.
After five or so minutes Shikamaru returned to her side with an annoyed expression on his face, his efforts returning negative results. It was at this moment that Namiko's face suddenly twisted into one of confusion. Seeing this, Shikamaru eyed her curiously.
"Everything okay?" Was his simple question.
She turned to him with a frown. "Well, you know how that when my shadow clones disperse, I get feedback of their memories, right?" She asked to which he responded with a nod. "Well, one of them got dispersed, but I couldn't see by what." She explained.
Shikamaru thought for a while. "Maybe it fell and dispersed itself, or something." He theorized.
"My shadow clones aren't that stupid," she said with a frown. "Maybe it might lead to something, wanna check it out?" Namiko asked. Shikamaru closed his eyes in thought for a while before he nodded, on one hand it could be nothing, but on the other it could be something that'd help them figure things out. So, with a nod, him and Namiko dashed towards where that shadow clone had gone.
They had been running for a few minutes when suddenly, Namiko found herself unable to move. She struggled to turn her head around and saw Shikamaru holding a signature hand seal with a relieved expression on his face. Before she could question him however, he spoke. "Quick question Namiko, when your clone dispersed was it tree hopping or running along the floor like we just were?"
She looked perplexed at the question, thinking it was redundant before she answered. "Running, why?"
Shikamaru sighed and used the Shadow Possession to make her look forward and down, and she paled at what she saw. It was a pit about ten feet deep with what seemed like wooden spikes protruding from the bottom as well as the sides.
Shikamaru released his jutsu and made his way next to her. "I didn't know there were spikes down there but I did notice the hole and when I realized that like your Shadow Clone, you hadn't seen it, I used my Shadow Possession to stop your movements."
Namiko blushed in embarrassment and looked away. It seemed like she was more like her clones than she'd like to admit, or the other way around she really didn't know which way it worked. Recovering from her embarrassed state, she returned to the problem at hand.
"Do you think this has something to do with the missing villagers?" She asked Konoha's resident lazy genius.
"Most likely, it could also be some sort of animal trap to catch bears or something." He admitted with a click of his teeth.
Namiko nodded in agreement before she channeled some chakra to the soles of her feet and walked down the side of the pit to inspect the wooden spikes. She examined them carefully before reaching a conclusion.
"These were made with chakra Shikamaru, so chances are if these do have something to do with the villagers, we're dealing with ninja." She relayed to him as she made her way back to the top of the pit where Shikamaru was examining the forest floor for any indication of where the creators of the trap could have gone.
"Which means that we can really be biting off more than we can chew here, Namiko." He said, his usually lazy annoyed grin donning his features. "I'd love to help the village as much as you, but maybe we should leave this for some more capable shinobi." He spoke.
She rolled her eyes at him. "For all we know they could be useless ninja, I'm sure we'll be fine." She waved off his concerns with a smile. "Plus, we –"
"Kit, someone's coming."
Hearing the warning from her Biju, Namiko acted quickly and grabbed Shikamaru before dashing off into the trees for hiding and whispering to the Nara to mask his chakra. Seeing her seriousness, Shikamaru obeyed without a rebuttal or question.
Things were quiet for fifteen or so seconds before the genin heard a voice.
"Dammit, what the hell was she talking about?" The genin saw a man of average height walk into the clearing where the pit had been dug. The man wore a pale purple tunic with brown bandages being used as an obi. Around his neck was a scarf that resembles the skin of a cow and around his brown shaggy hair was a hitai-ate with a musical symbol. "I'm sure that bitch made me come all the way out here in the cold for nothing." The man grumbled as he walked up to the pit to see it empty. This seemed to upset him even further. "I knew it! There's nothing here! I swear when I get back, she is going to get an earful from me."
The man spun on his heals angrily and began his trek back to wherever he had come from.
As he was walking away, he said something that caught the interest of the Konoha duo.
"Whose dumb idea was it to come get test subjects from this freezing ass place anyway?!"
As the man disappeared in the tree line, Namiko and Shikamaru dropped down from their hiding spots and turned to each other. "We might be on to something Shika." Namiko said and the Nara nodded his head in agreeance.
"Let's trail him," Shikamaru offered. "If he leads us back to his base, we might be able to get a clearer picture of what's going on and get to the bottom of this."
With firm nods at each other, Namiko and Shikamaru set about masking their chakra and following the man, hopefully back to his base of operations.
Kakashi cursed as another one of his shadow clones dispelled itself voluntarily, reporting back that neither Namiko nor Shikamaru had been located, nor had any clues as to their whereabouts were discovered. He let out a sigh as he leaned back in his seat, taking a sip from his tea as he did so.
It had only been a day or two since their battle as well as him, Sasuke's and Sakura's separation from Konoha's Hyperactive Knucklehead, and Lazy Genius. On the bright side, both Sasuke and Sakura had recovered well, and both had even offered to help the Copy Ninja search for their teammates, but Kakashi assured them that he had it covered and instead decided to have them focus on some training while they were free, once they had recovered of course.
"Kakashi." The jonin was brought out of his musing by the brooder of the group. He tilted his head to the side to see Sasuke staring at him. "I'm done with my training for the morning. I'm going to take a shower, then I'm going to go look for the Nara and the Dobe." Before Kakashi could oppose the Uchiha, Sasuke turned on his heals and exited the room.
Another sigh left the Hatake's lips. While Sasuke did show much more concern for his teammates than when Team 7 was first formed, it didn't help that he was outright ignoring his sensei to go look for them himself.
Kakashi decided not to say anything and instead formed another shadow clone that would shadow Sasuke as soon as he set out looking for his teammates. On one side, this way the clone could intervene if Sasuke was to get himself in trouble and if the Uchiha did manage to locate Shikamaru and Namiko, the shadow clone could dispel itself and inform the original as to their location.
Kakashi grunted in indignation as he stood up and stretched. Using this many clones in quick succession for consecutive days was starting to take a toll on the jonin. He would even argue that the amount of shadow clones he used was comparable to a battle with his Sharingan activated, chakra wise of course.
He made his way over to the futon that was his temporary bedding and laid down, wanting to catch some shut eye and restore as much chakra as he could quickly. As he laid, the first thing that crossed his mind was how was he going to face his sensei, as well as his sensei's wife, in the afterlife, if he had outright lost their daughter? And he knew how scary Konoha's jonin commander, Shikakau Nara could be when he was upset. It seemed, to Kakashi at least, that he was just extremely unlucky when it came to comrades.
At this point, he strongly believed that any and every 'Dainanahan' was cursed or something. It was the Third Hokage's Team Seven that started the bad luck, with Orochimaru seemingly getting sinister and conducting human experiments in his search for immortality, then Tsunade was an alcoholic with a gambling problem and lastly Jiraiya was a pervert…scratch that…super pervert. At least the latter of the three was still very much loyal to the village and its people.
Following the Legendary Sannin, it was his own team that had been cursed. Firstly, Obito had been crushed by a boulder to save Kakashi, then he had no choice but to kill Rin, a decision she made whole heartedly on her own, to save Konoha from an impending doom. Shortly after that, the Kyubi had attacked Konohagakure, and his sensei had no other choice but to sacrifice himself for the better of the village.
And now? Now it was as if every time the current Dainanahan left Konoha for a high-level mission, they somehow ended up neck deep in shit. First, they had to battle off one of Kiri's strongest, one of the Seven Swordsman of the Hidden Mist, as well as his accomplice, a formidable ninja with an Elemental kekkai genkai, not to mention a mob boss and now they had recently battle two people with kekkai genkai. He had battled the man with the 'Typhoon Release' while the genin had fought the man with the Lava Release.
Kakashi closed his eyes and decided that it was best not to dwell and get some rest while he could. Only Kami could remember the last time he had a decent rest. While he knew that a decent rest isn't something he would be able to get while Namiko and Shikamaru were missing in action, any kind of rest was better than no rest.
And so, the Konoha jonin shut his eyes and slowly began to drift off to sleep, the well-being of Shikamaru and the legacy of the Yondaime the only thing on his mind.
Namiko and Shikamaru held their breaths as they watched the man, they had been following hold up a hand seal and walk through a wall, his body phasing through as he did so. Once they were sure they were alone, and once Namiko had created a few clones to watch their backs, the genin jumped to the forest floor and made their way to the wall the man had walked through to enter his base.
"Well, this is a bust." Shikamaru sighed as he ran a hand through his spikey black hair. Namiko turned to him and shrugged before holding up the hand sign the man had used to enter. "Come on Namiko, there's no way it's that ea –" Shikamaru stood corrected as Namiko walked through the wall, leaving him on his own. He grunted, muttered 'troublesome blonde' and followed Namiko's lead, entering the base just as she had done.
Once on the other side, he saw Namiko inspecting the halls of the base. The walls were done with a weird design of sorts. There many lines lining the walls and various miniature statues of snakes.
The genin looked at each other and nodded, before they began making their way down the hall, and once they had reached the end, they noticed that the hall broke off into two more halls.
"Which one do we take?" Namiko asked in a hushed whisper. Shikamaru didn't speak for a few seconds as he was analyzing the situation. Just when he was about to answer, Namiko took it upon herself to go down the hall on the right, creating a shadow clone as she did so. "We should probably split up, if anything happens dispel the clone and I'll make my way to you, and if anything happens on my end, I'll create a clone and dispel it, so that this clone can relay my memories to you, cool?"
Shikamaru started at her, slightly dumbfounded by the well thought out plan she had proposed. He chuckled, which then turned into a smirk. It seemed all that time he spent beating her in shogi wasn't for waste, as she was learning to play out situations both tactically and patiently. She was nowhere near anything like she had been back at the academy. The past months learning from Kakashi, as well as himself, had proven good to her as she was finally turning into a splendid ninja.
Shikamaru gave her a two-finger salute and spun on his heals, speaking to her over his shoulder. "Will do, Namiko."
Namiko watched as he walked down the other path, a slight expression of confusion written across her face. She shrugged it off and began making her way down the hall, hoping to find out something, anything, about what was taking place in this secret hideout, and what exactly the man had meant by 'test subjects' all the while hoping she found the people who had gone missing from the village.
As she made her way down the hall that was dimly lit by a few badly places candles, the blonde couldn't resist the urge to let out an involuntary shudder. She was yet to figure out what it was about the place, but the hideout just gave us a very bad vibe. On her way down the hall, she passed and investigated a few rooms that turned out to be nothing major. Some were bedrooms, which were all weirdly designed the same. The same weird pattern as the walls in the hall with a medium sized futon pushed up against a corner of the room. She had to wonder if this place was actually a prison or mental institute. The other rooms she encountered were either a lab of sorts, or regular storage rooms with cleaning supplies and lab equipment.
And as time went on, the Uzumaki was starting to get both frustrated and annoyed. Frustrated at the fact that she couldn't find anything that would help her get to the bottom of her mystery and annoyed at how reputative the base had been. It felt like she had been walking down the hallway endlessly for hours on end, when it had in fact only been ten or so minutes.
"Whaddya mean?!"
Namiko froze as she heard an extremely loud voice coming towards her, as well as two pairs of footsteps. The Jinchuriki could tell one was feminine and one was masculine by both their stride, as well as how their foot echoed throughout the hall. She instantly recognized the voice as the man she and Shikamaru had followed from the forest and her mind automatically went into panic mode. The part of the hallway she was in now was baron of any rooms, so she practically had no options for a hiding spot. So, on instinct she put her hands in a seal and henged into a random person, that donned the same uniform as the person they had followed to the hideout.
The footsteps grew closer and suddenly she was standing face to face with the man she had followed there, as well as a woman with pale skin and long brown hair as well as eyes to match her hair. The pair stopped and stared at Namiko for a while before the female spoke.
"Are you a new transfer around here or something? I've never seen you at this post before." Namiko would tell that they were on edge by her presence, after all, she would be too if she suddenly found a random person in her hideout where she conducted her shady activities. The undercover blonde took only a few seconds to reflect on what she had heard the woman say. She had said 'this post' which meant that this was a much bigger operation that she or Shikamaru could have imagined.
In those few seconds she took to analyze the information, she was also able to formulate her response. "Ah, yes. I was recently assigned to his post a few days ago." While she was under the henge, she chose to use her normal voice to try and keep her chakra as concealed as possible.
The woman and man turned to each other then began shrugging and shaking their heads before they continued their trek and walked past Namiko. "It seems that Lord Orochimaru doesn't trust the manpower we have here, I can't blame him when in fact we have idiots like you assigned here." She said matter-of-factly to her accomplice.
As they walked away, Namiko was pretty sure she heard the male of the two whispers 'such a bitch' under his breath, which led her to believe that this was the woman the man had been referencing when he had gone to inspect the trap in the forest.
She shook that thought from her head for the moment, however, and began making her way down the hall looking for any sign of people, or anything that would help her get to the bottom of the disappearing villagers. As she continued her search, she pondered as to why the name 'Orochimaru' seemed so important to her.
xxxxx
Shikamaru's face twisted into one of disgust as he peered into the room. This was the third room he had walked into which consisted of the bodies of men, women and children either laying on a surgical table, or floating in a liquid within a glass tube. There was no doubt about it at this point, the people here were conducting inhuman experiments, and were kidnapping villagers to use as test subjects. He was glad that Namiko had chosen the other route and had only sent a shadow clone with him. After the first room, the shadow clone had immediately gotten sick at the sight and had thrown up, and as messed up as it sounded, he was relieved that the original Namiko didn't have to go through what the clone was going through.
He quickly checked the bodies for any survivors before exiting the room to see the Namiko shadow clone looked at him uneasily. He only nodded as a response and the clone immediately turned green.
"Let's continue, the quicker we find any survivors the quicker we can get out of here and alert someone of what the hell is going in here." The clone nodded and began following Shikamaru as he continued down the hall before they finally came upon giant double doors, unlike any doors they had seen since they entered the hideout. "This might be something." The Nara clan heir said as he pressed his ear up against the door.
On the other side, the only thing he could hear was faint whimpering which alerted him to the idea of survivors on the other side of the door, or potentially someone in the midst of becoming a test subject. He looked at the clone and nodded before slowly turning the doorknob and slipping in, the clone right behind him. Once on the other side, Shikamaru's eyes narrowed at the sight.
In one corner of the room were ten people, whom he could only assume were villagers. Of the ten, there were six men, two women as well as two children, whom he had assumed were the source of the whimpers. Off to his right were a five or so men, all of whom were dressed similarly to the one they had followed here. Thankfully, they hadn't heard Shikamaru or Namiko entered the room…or at least, they didn't. However, they were soon made aware of the Konoha genin's presence as the stomach of the Namiko shadow clone grumbled, turning all heads to their location. Shikamaru could only facepalm in not only embarrassment, but in exasperation. Shadow clones got hungry?!
He could have easily used his Shadow Possession Jutsu and restrained all five men using the element of surprise, then have the shadow clone of Namiko disarm and disable them quickly, but now, the five shinobi – who seemed to be in the process of transporting the villagers, if the shackles were anything to go by – dropped what they were doing and spun to face Shikamaru and the shadow clone.
"Hey there, anyone know where we can find the bathroom?" Shikamaru asked, causing the Namiko clone to look at him with both a sweat drop and raised eyebrow. Since when did Shikamaru become comic relief?
The five men looked at each other before narrowing their eyes and withdrawing kunai.
Shikamaru grunted and placed his hand in the rat seal. "I guess that's a no…" Namiko watched as Shikamaru's shadow extended and latched onto the shadows of their five assailants. Shikamaru and the clone then made eye contact and with a slight nod of his head, the clone set of into work. In a blur, which Shikamaru couldn't tell if it was the Jinton or not, the clone appeared in front of the five men, and with five quick chops, all five men were suddenly unconscious, leaving Namiko to turn to Shikamaru with a grin spread across her face.
Shikamaru smiled as he released his hands from the hand seal and turned towards the men, children and women who were being held captive. "You guys are safe now; we'll work on getting you guys out of here."
"Th…thank you, so much." Was the response of one of the men. Both Shikamaru and Namiko could tell by the sound of his voice that he was parched, indicating that he had been held hostage for quite a while.
Shikamaru then took a quick glance at Namiko before returning his gaze to the captees. "Do you know how many hostages they have in here?"
One of the two women chose to speak up. "I heard a few of those men talking," she said, gesturing to the heap of men that Namiko had incapacitated. "They were saying that they had eleven people at the base to be 'tested' on. I also overheard one saying that they were over the number, because they usually only hold eight people at a time."
Shikamaru quickly verified the headcount in front of him, then turned to the Namiko clone. "You need to disperse and inform the original Namiko of this new development, let her know that I'll get these ten out of here, and that she needs to find the eleventh and get out of here too." The clone's only response was a nod as it disappeared into a cloud of smoke.
Once the clone was gone, Shikamaru rushed over to the incapacitated men and began searching their bodies. The ten people who were hostages watched him for a few before he let out a relieved grunt. He then made his way over to them and began undoing the shackles that kept them bound together.
"We're going to make our way out of here, I need you guys to keep low, and keep close to me. I can't guarantee your safety if you stray too far if we were to run into more of these fools." He said, with a head nod in the direction of the unconscious men. As Shika finished his little speech, he saw the conflicting looks on their faces. "Don't worry, I'll get you out of here in one piece, all you have to do stay close and trust me, got it?"
His response was a few nods and with a nod of his own, he slowly opened the entrance to the room and peaked out, once he was sure the coast was clear he headed out and gestured for them to follow him.
Once he had all of them, he began the trek back the way he had come with the Namiko clone.
"The rest is up to you, Namiko."
Namiko froze in her tracks as the memories of her shadow clone came flooding back to her. Once she was able to process the information, she allowed a small smirk to dawn her features. With a new objective in mind, Namiko first dropped her henge then placed her hands in the cross seal required for the shadow clone jutsu. In a couple puffs of smoke, three identical copies of her appeared.
"Clone 1," A resounding 'yes boss' and a salute came from one of the clones. "I need you to double back and make sure Shikamaru as well as the hostages he has makes it out of here safely and get them a safe distance away from here, dispel once that's done." The clone gave a firm nod and began running back the way Namiko had come from.
She then turned to another clone.
"Clone 2," This clone's response was more indifferent than its counterpart as it looked more bored than anything, not even offering Namiko a verbal response. If the slight disrespect bothered the original Namiko, she didn't show it, instead she reached into her ninja pouch and withdrew a handful of explosive tags. "I need you to plant these tags from here go back to where we came from, as well as down the route Shikamaru went, but don't put them in plain sight, once we have all the hostages and are a safe distance away, I'm going to blow this place off the map." The clone simply took the tags from Namiko and began its task, running back up the hall.
She then looked at the last shadow clone as she reached into her pouch and pulled out some more explosive tags.
"And finally, I need to plant these tags from here go forward with me, this entire place needs to come down…and remember, not in plain sight."
"You got it boss!"
As the last shadow clone began planting tags around their current location, Namiko nodded before she began making her way down the hall in search of the eleventh and final hostage the Sound Ninja were keeping here.
And thus began Namiko's search, as she busted into every room she came across, not finding the last hostage nor any adversaries. And to be frank, it was starting to ger on her nerves, she desperately wanted to punch something and let out her frustrations. It was when she was at this point, that luck finally came on her side.
She had kicked open a door and her eyes narrowed. Inside the room were two men in lab coats, both holding some type of surgical tool. And in the center of the room on a surgical table was a big burly man, who had black hair and brown eyes. She immediately recognized him as the little girl, Akina-chan's, father. He was exactly as they had described, not to mention it was if he had copy and pasted little Akina.
When the door burst open, the lab coat wearing men turned to face her with shock written all over their face. Before they could collect their thoughts or defend themselves, however, Namiko's hair was already glowing that brilliant gold. In a moment's notice, both men, whom she assumed lacked any shinobi training were unconscious on the floor. She turned to the man and immediately began undoing the shackles that kept him bound to the bed.
"Who are you?" He asked, his voice sounded strained, as if he was dehydrated.
So, Namiko reached into her pouch and withdrew her canteen and offered it to him, which he took gratefully. "My name's Namiko Uzumaki, and I'm here to rescue you and get you back to your family, they've been waiting on you." After he was done drinking, and returned the canteen to Namiko, the man smiled and whispered a 'thank you'. "Can you walk?" Was Namiko's next question, to which he nodded and got onto his feet.
With a nod of her own, Namiko exited the room with Akina's father behind her. With her head on a swivel, she checked her left, then her right, then her left again and cursed. By the time she had turned to the left again, seven shinobi had turned the corner. All of them in that matching cow skin with the sound symbol on their hitai-ate.
Unaware of their abilities, Namiko was unsure if she could take on all seven shinobi while protecting the man they had come to rescue, even with her shadow clones. As she was about to place her hands in the Kage Bunshin seal, the memories of her second and third shadow clones came back to her. The clones had finished putting the explosive tags throughout the base and they were all ready to be detonated. Not only that, however, it seems as though the third clone had found an alternative exit.
With a smirk, she finished her hand seals and at least two dozen Namiko's appeared. "Give 'em hell girls!" The clones then proceeded to make war cries as they charged the seven Oto nin. With that all settled, Namiko grabbed the hand of Akina's father and began making her way to the alternative exit.
After running for about three or so minutes they came upon the alternative exit. Which was practically a giant hole in the side of a mountain under a waterfall. She turned to Akina's father and was about to speak when suddenly clapping was heard behind them. They turned to face the perpetrator, and it turned out to be the man her and Shikamaru had followed from the forest, as well as the woman she had seen him with earlier on.
"I must say, I am impressed," The woman said, only a hint of venom in her voice. "Orochimaru-sama would be glad to have someone like you within his ranks. You were able to slip beneath the nose of a jonin like myself, as well as create dozens of shadow clones, meaning your chakra pool is quite something," She then stretched her hand out to Namiko. "All you have to do, is hand over our test subjects, and I'm sure we can work something out with our Master." She took a few steps forward.
With every step she took forward, Namiko and Akina's dad took a step back, until they literally couldn't go back any further. Suddenly, a shadow clone's memory rushed back to her. It was the one she had sent to meet up with Shikamaru, and the memories indicated that Shikamaru as well as the hostages he had saved were a fair distance away from the base.
"Mister, I never got to ask your name." Namiko said in a hushed whisper towards Akina's father.
"Uhh…it's Kenji…but do you seriously think now is a good time for that?"
Namiko ignored Kenji's question, and askes one of her own.
"Do you trust me, Kenji?"
Surprisingly, Kenji was quick to answer.
"You came all the way up here to rescue me…I trust you with my life."
"Good, on the count of three, we jump."
"WHAT?" He yelled, then his voice returned to the whisper. "That water is probably freezing!"
The female Oto nin suddenly cursed out. "What are you whispering about you little bitch?" She asked angrily and began making her way towards them.
Namiko glared angrily at the woman for the name calling then looked Kenji did in his eyes. "Trust me, even though I've never experienced either, I'm one hundred percent sure that hypothermia is better than death…now, THREE!"
Orochimaru's henchmen watched with wide eyes as Namiko, and Kenji jumped backwards off the cliff and towards the body of water at the bottom of the cliff which was probably below freezing. As they watched them fall, Namiko smirked and held her hands in the snake seal. "Release!" She yelled, which was followed by a series of deafening explosions as the explosive tags Namiko had the clones plant, began making a whole in the mountainside.
So…yea, that's chapter 8…a little underwhelming? Maybe, but I'm just getting back into my groove. Promise there's more to come. :)
-AlphaZulu99