A/N: Hello there everyone, we are back with another chapter of Guardian of the Tailed Beasts. This time with some action which this author hopes that you will all find entertaining. Its been a while but I am glad to have been able to keep up with a schedule of one chapter a month. I won't be holding you for long here, lets get on with the chapter.
CHAPTER 25: BET WON (AGAIN) AND THEN….TROUBLE….
*The day after Naruto and Hinata had completed their training*
Sogeki had kept an eye around Tanzaku ever since the team had arrived.
It seemed that the retrieval team would be returning with Tsunade in tow.
The children had fulfilled the conditions of the wager.
Now it was just a matter of getting the Slug Sannin back to Konoha.
If the encounter with Itachi and Kisame were of any indication, then Sogeki placed the odds of another incident occurring as very high.
'Usually whenever a Sannin is involved, then the incident is from another one.' The ROOT thought to herself as she removed the bandages around her new eye.
She inspected the seals carved into the coils entering the eye, analyzing the work: "Either ROOT has a Hyuga with in-depth knowledge of how a transplanted Dojutsu interacts with a non-dojutsu holding network, or a medic/seal-nin who has extensively studied such interactions."
Barebones knowledge of seal work recognized the skill, knowledge, and dedication at play.
A transplanted dojutsu typically was permanently activated. The only way to keep it under control was to cover it up(provided its sight didn't include the ability to bypass sightline obstruction) or install valves to moderate how much chakra was allowed to feed in(which requires knowledge of biology, chakra network mapping, and sealing at a minimum to be even somewhat effective).
Sogeki tested her new tool a few times before her curiosity was satisfied and she disposed of the bandages and re-donned her mask.
Messing around with the spyglass lenses to the mask had Sogeki spot familiar faces, moving towards the town with a group following them.
Sogeki got her gear and went to work.
She created a few clones before she went to confront the incoming ninja.
She recognized the two ninjas leading the group. Ichi and San.
Now to see if they recognized her.
Sogeki appeared in front of the group: "You Sky Ninja are a longways from home and deep in Fire Territory. State your purpose."
One of the underlings sneered: "We don't need to explain ourselves to you. You should be honoured we aren't out to kill every single one of you great nation mongrels."
Sogeki wasn't amused: "Really now? If I remember correctly, Konoha defeated and destroyed Soragakure during the Second Great Ninja War. If I misremembered, then why is it that only now Sky Ninja are starting to operate again."
The ninja snarled in anger.
Sogeki pressed: "Ahh, yes, now I remember: Soragakure tried to destroy Konoha and claim its place as one of the Five Great Villages, something our leaders took exception with at the time. Your arrogance managed to incense Hiruzen Sarutobi, a man who always worked towards peace and forgiveness when able. Aside from a few interesting gimmicks, Soragakure was a small name whose arrogance reached too high."
The Sky Ninja were reaching for their weapons, they were angry.
'Good, focus on me. Not the clones moving in for the kills.'
San raised his hands trying to assume control of the group: "I recognize you…you're the leader of the group that murdered Hiruko-sama!"
Sogeki kept the smirk out of her voice: "I was curious if you would recognize me, I remembered you and Ichi. Ni is missing. So, either she died from her injuries, or survived and joined Sky with you two or went her separate way. For the record: Hiruko was a Konoha Missing-Nin. He was a criminal who was guilty of experimentation on par with Orochimaru of the Sannin."
Ichi snarled: "I doubt that is the truth. You stole his bloodline integration research."
Sogeki nodded: "I did. The Chimera technique is invaluable. A few adjustments and it goes from irreprehensible to morally and ethically gray but dismissible. The Chimera device we made using Hiruko's notes is quite useful. But enough talk, I said if I ever saw you two again, I would kill one of you to make a point."
Sogeki discreetly began prepping a technique.
She had already decided on which of the two identical men would live and which would die.
Sky needed to be taught that Konoha would not take its insolence sitting down.
The group laughed at her claim, but the ROOT smirked under her mask.
"You didn't take me seriously, and now you're already dead."
The sky ninja who had sneered at her mocked: "As if, You're way outnumbered, you stupid bitch. Surrender and we migh-"
And then chaos broke loose.
Shuriken made of both steel and water descended upon the intruding Sky Ninja.
The ninjas were slaughtered.
The two ninjas with number names began running.
Sogeki raised a hand and aligned the index finger of it with the back of San's head.
Water droplets from her water shuriken gathered at her finger tip and began undergoing a massive amount of compression.
Sogeki held it until the tension in the droplet was ready to burst.
Sogeki uttered coldly: "Water Release: Snipe Shot."
The water drop violently burst and the violently jettisoned fluid shot at San.
The water shot contacted San's head and the man jerked as his head burst open like a ripe fruit being crushed.
Ichi screamed: "SAN!"
But the man continued fleeing, not willing to risk death.
He knew this kunoichi was above anything he could manage.
Sogeki began the process of scavenging the skirmish.
Going through gear, collecting useful bits, collecting corpses for study and possible bounties, and searching for intel.
She found the idiot Sora-Nin who had taunted her and found a bounty poster for Tsunade, with Snow listed as the issuer.
She searched the man's belongings and found a letter. Grab the Slug Sannin, bring her to Sky so we can rip her secrets out of her, and then we can turn her in for the bounty. Don't fail. -Sorakage
'Seems Sky has begun to re-establish. Danzo-sama will wish to know of the existence of a claimant to the title of Sorakage. I need to return to Tanzaku, more than likely, more bounty hunters will arrive. Perhaps I can get a bigger catch…' Sogeki thought as she returned to town.
-with the retrieval team-
For the time being, the couple had decided to not show Tsunade the results of their training. They had three more days till the bet period was over and they intended to use up those three days to do some more training. I.e., mastering the '8-trigrams: Air Palm' for Hinata and learning some fire jutsus for Naruto. And right now the couple was doing exactly that.
"So, Naruto you want to learn some fire style jutsus, is that right?" Kakashi asked putting the orange book in his pocket.
"Yes sensei, back during the invasion, Matatabi gave me some of her chakra and said that my fire affinity is now as good as my wind one. So, I was thinking of starting to work on my fire element." Naruto stated, excited at the prospect of working on a second element.
"Hmm, I think I have the idea of where to start from. We should start with the 'Flame Bullets Jutsu'. It's one of Jiraiya-sama and Sandaime-sama's favourites and you can use it in conjunction with your toad summons, who can release oil to increase the intensity of your fire." Kakashi suggested with a finger under his chin.
Naruto's face developed a big grin.
"Yeah, sensei! Teach me! Teach me!" He said impatiently. His girlfriend on his left only giggled a bit at his antics.
"And what do you want to work upon, Hinata?" Kakashi asked now looking at the Hyuuga girl.
"Ano…I have decided to master the air palm. I started working on it after the chunin exams were over but never got the time to start practicing after going over the theories." The lavender eyed girl replied looking down and pressing her index fingers.
"Good choice. 'Air Palm' is a really good mid-range attack technique. Sadly, I don't really know it so I can't do much to help you with that. But the two of you can have a spar with me to take stock of how much you've improved once your training is over." The copy ninja stated.
"I understand, sensei." Hinata responded.
"All right, Hinata…. you can go practice where you were practicing the Rasengan yesterday. You can use 3 shadow clones for help as well. And Naruto, you're with me."
"Yes sensei." The couple replied simultaneously. And then Kakashi took Naruto with him to a clearing while Hinata went to the place where she had worked on the 'Rasengan' the day before.
*With Naruto and Kakashi*
"Although, I would have wanted you to practice with the leaf-burning exercise first, the 'Flame Bullets' is not that high-ranked of a Jutsu so I guess we can get straight to it for the time being and you can do the leaf burning exercise once we get back to Konoha, since you are sure to get a week off." Kakashi stated. "Now watch closely." He added before going through the required hand-signs for the 'Flame Bullets Jutsu' and launching a number of small high velocity balls of fire which struck and ignited a small tree.
"Looks pretty good sensei!" Naruto said in excitement.
"It is a very useful Jutsu, Naruto. And as I said, it will be even more useful when you use it together with your toad summons." Kakashi explained. "Now, it's about time you try it. Have you remembered the hand-signs?"
"Yes sensei, I did. Watch me." Naruto said with a smirk before going through the required hand-signs and breathing a large amount of air into his lungs, he launched his attacks…. well let's just say that the first attempt, as usual, didn't go too well for the blonde.
Sure, he was able to launch 5 or 6 small fire balls but they were slower than Kakashi's were and Naruto also chocked as smoke got into his throat and nose, he also burnt his throat and mouth. And he was a coughing and shouting mess, even before his attack had hit the tree before him. Thanks to Kurama, the blonde didn't have to go through this pain for more than two minutes. 'Be careful not to choke on your high aspirations, Naruto.' One of his mental tenants cracked, Naruto couldn't tell which from how bad he was coughing, but the tone sounded like they were pretty proud of the pun.
"All right then I guess we might have to do the leaf burning exercise after all. Fine, you can have a hundred clones practice the flame bullet jutsu while you and a hundred others practice the leaf burning exercise, I guess that would work." Kakashi said with a sigh.
"*COUGH*…. all right sensei…*Cough*…Dattebayo!" Naruto acknowledged in between coughs. "Multi-Shadow Clone Jutsu!" And 200 more Narutos (Naruto? Narutoes? Naruti? Narutoves?) appeared. And just as Kakashi had asked, they split into two groups got to work. A hundred clones together with the original picked up leaves and began trying to burn them while a hundred more clones kept working on the 'Flame Bullet Jutsu.'
"Take it easy son, you are doing good, there is nothing to worry about." Minato reassured from the blonde's mindscape. (Famous Last Words before you jinx yourself or have already been proven wrong)
'Thanks Dad.'
3 hours passed just like that while Naruto and Hinata continued with their endeavours, although they were far from completing the tasks that they had set for themselves.
"They seem to be doing something different from the Jutsu that were part of the bet. Are they that confident or already giving up and trying to be productive?" Shizune asked as she walked over to Kakashi who was observing Naruto's training. He had also left clones to watch over Hinata, Kiba and Shino who was doing their respective training.
Upon hearing her voice, Kakashi suddenly threw the orange book that he was so intensely reading and struggled to catch it a few times in quite a comical fashion, making the dark-haired medic sweat-drop and Tonton let out an annoyed grunt.
"Umm…. well… you see… they have already mastered the jutsu that were needed for the bet." Kakashi replied casually.
"Really!? I think I must have been quite lax in my observations then. But wait, if that's so then why are they not showing it to Tsunade-shisho?" Shizune asked.
"They just decided to use the remaining time they had until the bet is over to master some more jutsu and I thought that it was a good idea." Kakashi replied.
"Oh…I understand…. I guess."
*With Shino and Kiba*
"Yatta!" Kiba suddenly shouted as he had finally mastered the leaf-crumbling exercise.
"Hmm… it seems your sincere struggle and hard work has finally paid off. Impressive Kiba." Shino admitted.
"Hell yeah…Anyways how are things at your end?" The Inuzuka asked. 'Is…Is Shino sassing me? I don't know if I should be proud or upset.'
"I completed the task three hours ago. It seemed you were on the verge of a breakthrough, so I decided to wait for some time."
"Wait! Really!? I thought I was the first to complete the exercise." Kiba said as his expression became a bit downcast. 'Shoulda known I never stood a chance…' The Inuzuka pouted
"Ma. Ma." The clone, Kakashi had left with the two said with a placating posture. "It doesn't really matter who got it first, I am happy that you two got it and did so rather quickly at that. So as promised, you two are going to learn two basic earth jutsus, one is the 'Mud Wall' which is for defense and the second one is the 'Head Hunter jutsu' which will let you sink into the earth and sneak up on your enemies."
"Bring it on, Kakashi-sensei."
"I am grateful for the belief you have placed upon us and will try my best to improve my versatility."
"Arf!"
*Meanwhile, some 50 kms away from Tanzaku town*
The 'Tsunade capture squad' was now going over the final touches for their plan to capture the Slug summoning member of the Sannin. They had no idea about the presence of Kakashi and his squad in Tanzaku, they had done research on Tsunade and Shizune only. They knew the Senju was pretty strong and skilled, however her downside was her addiction to alcohol.
"If we just keep watch and attack her when she is drunk, we will be able to capture her without much struggle." Utakata commented, with his face making it clear that he would rather be anywhere than be on this 'mission'.
"Haah! What's the fun in that!? There would be no funerals if we go like that!" Raiga said with a snarl, making Utakata roll his eyes.
"I agree, without a good fight there won't be any sacrifices at the feet of Jashin-sama!" Hidan exclaimed.
Kakuzu said nothing. He had to admit, he could work well with the Rokubi jinchuuriki and would prefer him over Hidan as a partner any day, but alas, their true mission was to capture him once Tsunade had been subdued. "Let's move to the town and keep watch on the target. We will strike at the opportune moment and take her out without attracting much attention, the wrong play here or the right one at the wrong moment will certainly have half of Konoha's shinobi forces on our trail. If any of you tries doing something stupid, I'll kill you." The former Taki-nin finally said.
"As if that would scare me!" Raiga said tauntingly. "Anyways, your robes are pretty unique I must say, you guys' part of some gang or something?"
"Mind your own business Kurosuki." Kakuzu warned.
"Listen you fool, I don't give a damn if you are toddler or a fossil of the warring states era, you are getting on my nerves, so once this mission is over, the first thing I am doing is arranging a funeral for you. Remember that." Raiga said, taking the twin blades in his hands and channeling some lightning chakra into them.
"I won't mind killing you. Your bounty will definitely be an added bonus on top of the amount I have been promised in exchange for Tsunade. Not that I really need any you to help me in capturing Tsunade, but all of you definitely want a piece of the reward, so let's capture her first. Then we can fight it out to see who gets it all."
"Now you're talking." Raiga said with a smirk. Hidan had to admit, he was coming to like the swordsman, it was a pity that he had to be slaughtered for Jashin-sama.
The team set off.
An hour later, they were scouting the town of casinos and bars. It didn't take them too long to find out the hotel where Tsunade was staying. They kept watch from close by and soon enough, spotted the team from Konoha and their leader, Hatake Kakashi.
"Hatake Kakashi. Now that changes things." Kakuzu said in a whisper. 'Perhaps his heart will be a good one for my collection. He is lightning natured, much like this fool Raiga. So, after today I will have two good lightning heart as back ups. And then there are these foolish kids, perhaps they will also be a good addition to my hearts' collection, even if they are useless as Shinobi.'
'So many fuckers, so many sacrifices for Jashin-sama.'
'Hatake Kakashi, it seems a fight is inevitable now. And who's that kid in orange? Wait…he looks like… the one… does that mean… does that mean there is some truth… to the…'
"Yes, he is the one. The child of the prophecy and the savior of the shinobi-world, the one you must assist in achieving peace and the one with whom you must share our power." The six-tailed slug said from Utakata's mindscape in an ever-prophetic manner. Before once again slamming that door shut.
'HOW DO YOU HAVE A DOOR IN THERE?! ARGH! Whatever…I don't believe in some 'Child of the Prophecy' bullshit. But if he proves to be worthy, I will share my power with him. But right now, he is in my way of completing my mission and saving Hotaru, so I will fight him and kill him if needed. As unfortunate as that would be, I don't have any other way. This is the consequence I and unfortunately others as well must suffer for me keeping Hotaru at an arm's length all the time. Just another sidenote of the twisted history of this world…' The Rokubi jinchuuriki thought to himself.
*Meanwhile with Naruto*
The blonde suddenly felt strong negative emotions and stopped. He then dispelled his clones. The exhaustion hit him, but it wasn't as bad as it was when he began using the shadow clones for training. He fell on his knees and panted as Kurama used his chakra to get the exhaustion and fatigue out of the way, which was done rather quickly.
'Did you feel that, Kurama?'
"I did kit. Its certain, there are hostiles not so far away from us and are currently watching us." The legendary nine-tailed fox agreed. 'Why do I feel Saiken's chakra here of all places, what the hell is that damned slug doing here?'
'Kurama I can sense, what feels something like your chakra? Is there another Biju nearby?' Naruto mentally asked with nervousness and seriousness. The Kyuubi sighed.
"So, you feel it too huh? I must admit you are growing really fast. Yes, the Biju chakra you sense right now is that of Saiken, the six-tailed slug. It seems his jinchuuriki is among the hostiles who are intent on attacking us sooner or later."
'Holy shit!'
"I agree, that's bad news. Brace yourself, I am sure this will be one hell of a fight."
Minato and Kushina also got concerned. Last time, it was Orochimaru that had attacked at this point, but this time, the Snake Sannin had been killed during the invasion. But to make things worse, now there were opponents, that were much more dangerous than merely the weakest member of the Sannin (Jack of all trades, Master of None), including the Rokubi jinchuuriki, Utakata if they remembered the name right. Kushina tightly gripped Minato's hand, who clenched his fists, cursing himself inwardly for being of no better use than give some advice to his son. Hopefully, Kakashi and Tsunade would be able to bear the brunt of the attack and no harm would come in their son's and (future) daughter-in-law's way. But in the shinobi world, this was just wishful thinking.
"Naruto, alert everyone." Minato suggested.
'Yes dad, right away.' His son acknowledged and made three more clones. Before walking over to Kakashi as the clones walked off, casually, trying not to give their potential attacker any hints of him being aware of their presence.
"Kakashi-sensei, I can sense some hostile shinobi nearby. Don't know why but they are leaking a subtle amount of killing intent towards us." Naruto whispered to his jonin instructor who raised an eye-brow and then took a deep breath to steel himself.
"All right Naruto. Have you alerted the others?" The copy ninja whispered back.
"Sent clones to them." Naruto responded, to which the masked jonin nodded in acknowledgement.
*With Hinata*
"Hinata-chan, the original me said that he sensed some hostile shinobi nearby." The clone that went to the Hyuuga stated in a whisper. Hinata's eyes widened for a second.
"All right, I will scan around and then rejoin the others." Whispering that, the Hyuuga girl activated her dojutsu, as subtly as she could. And in no time, she got Kakuzu, Hidan, Raiga, Utakata and even Ranmaru in her range. Luckily for her, Raiga hadn't instructed the boy on his back to cast his deadly genjutsu which had the ability to fool any dojutsu and known sensory techniques.
Sighing, Hinata whispered to the Naruto clone with her;
"We have 4 hostile shinobi who are keeping watch just beyond the clearing some 2 hundred meters away. They have lowered their chakra signature so as not to alert any sensory ninja, but I would put them all at jonin level at least. I can also see a boy with genin level chakra reserves on the back of one of those shinobi. And this one, wait! One of them has Biju chakra! A jinchuuriki. Oh no!" Then suddenly Hinata's eyes widened in surprise.
"Wait! The boy and the man carrying him have vanished…. completely vanished. How's that even possible!?" She said out loud in surprise and horror. "Dispel yourself, clone-san. I am going to the others." Hinata ordered and rushed towards her boyfriend, trying to figure out why and how the boy and the man carrying him had vanished from her sight without a trace. The clone dispelled in a puff of smoke obeying her orders.
Other clones also alerted Kiba, Shino and Shizune. Though their luck with Tsunade was bad since she was fast asleep, having gotten drunk last night. 'What a mess of a granny.' The clone thought as he was dispelling himself in a puff of smoke.
*With the rogue shinobi assigned to capture Tsunade*
"It seems they have detected our presence. A fight is inevitable now, no need to hide anymore." Kakuzu stated before going through a series of hand signs.
"Hidden Mist jutsu" And soon chakra enhanced mist began covering the area. By then Naruto, Hinata, Kiba, Shino and Kakashi had regrouped. Shizune was trying to wake Tsunade up in the hotel."
'Hidden Mist jutsu?' Kakashi thought to himself. He knew from his fight with Zabuza back in the Wave country that his Sharingan couldn't see through this mist. But a Byakugan was another story.
"Sensei. Even my sight is strained. I can see the chakra in this mist but I can't see through it." Hinata reported.
"But I can sense their negative emotions and can pin-point their location. They are coming, be prepared."
"Lightning Style: Electromagnetic Murder!" Just then the ground got coated with lightning that travelled quickly towards them.
"Shit!" Naruto cursed. "Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!" He shouted, going through hand-signs as quickly as possible as his team jumped up. The wind attack dispelled some of the mist and subdued the lightning.
'So, a lightning release user and perhaps a water release.' Kakashi thought to himself.
'That's it. I can dispel this mist using wind release!' "Multi shadow clone jutsu!" Naruto made fifty clones and all of them began going through hand-signs.
"Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!" And a huge blast of wind was released from their mouths, which drove the mist away, revealing three shinobi before them. Two in Akatsuki robes and one in a light blue kimono who, Naruto was certain was the jinchuuriki. 'WHAT THE FUCK IS A JINCHUURIKI DOING WITH AKATSUKI ASSHOLES!?' Naruto mentally yelled, the rest of his comrades were also having the same thoughts in their minds.
"Looks like you have a good wind affinity boy." Kakuzu commented while Hidan just eyed the shinobi before him, while taking out his scythe.
"So many sacrifices for Jashin-sama."
"And the copy-ninja Kakashi. A head that will fetch us a really hefty bounty. Your death alone would have many paying out to your killer even if they never got your body." Kakuzu commented again.
"Who are you and what do you want?" Kakashi asked in a serious tone.
"Senju Tsunade." Utakata replied, making the group raise their eyebrows. They were certain that Naruto was the target, but instead it turned out to be Tsunade. Naruto was itching to scream at the Rokubi jinchuuriki as to why he was together with the very people who were after the Biju and would be the death of him if he continued being in their vicinity. But Minato convinced him not to.
"It seems that they are unaware that you are a jinchuuriki, don't give that away son." The yellow flash cautioned from the mindscape.
'All right Dad. I got it. But we have to know why is he working with the Akatsuki and why are they after granny Tsunade?'
"It seems the Akatsuki also acts as a mercenary group and goes after shinobi with high bounties on their heads. This Kakuzu commented on Kakashi having a big bounty on his head. So perhaps that's what they are after. The Rokubi jinchuuriki also seems to be a missing nin, going after bounties and money. Certainly, they have joined forces to get Tsunade and get a huge amount of money for her head. However, I can also say for certain that these Akatsuki members would turn on the jinchuuriki once they have got Tsunade, since capturing Biju is their most important goal." Minato described.
"This Kakuzu is a shinobi from the warring states era. I know of him because he once tried to sneak up on Hashirama Senju when he was with Mito. Needless to say, Hashirama gave him such a beating that he ran away for his life. This guy has gotten a forbidden jutsu from Taki called the 'Earth Grudge Fear' which allows some sort of immortality. Though not in the literal sense, but using that jutsu, threads develop in the body and can reattach limbs and even the neck, if they are severed. Might even be able to assimilate body parts and organs from others if the user's own are damaged beyond repair. The only way to kill someone using the Earth Grudge Fear is to pierce their heart in one single decapacitating blow. But the problem with that is the fact that…." Kurama explained.
"This person has five hearts." Hinata warned looking towards Kakuzu.
"What!?"
"Yes, just as your vixen said. Kakuzu has five hearts corresponding to one element each, of people whom he has killed and then used the threads in his body to take their hearts away. Don't know if he can make the hearts of Advanced Element bloodline limits his own, separate from the hearts for the five main elements." The Kyuubi explained.
"What a bastard!? And do you have any idea about the other one?"
"Unfortunately, no. But thanks to Matatabi sharing chakra with us, I can perform long distance telepathy with her, provided she's not too far out. We would be lucky if she has some idea about this crazy looking idiot. I will talk to her; you focus on the fight."
'You got it Kurama, but you better be quick!'
"It seems you won't just move out of our way." Utakata commented and then took out his pipe. "Acid Permeation" He released several bubbles that floated towards the Tsunade retrieval squad at a rather fast pace for some bubbles. Knowing that they could be dangerous, Naruto, Hinata and Shino dodged the ones approaching them but Kiba wasn't so lucky two bubbles hit him and burnt his skin.
"Aaaaahhh! These bubbles… shit, they are made up of acid!" The Inuzuka said howling in pain.
Shino facepalmed: "Kiba, did you not hear the name of the technique? He literally said acid."
"Hidan, go after Tsunade, she is a strong opponent, these kids are just small fries." Kakuzu stated, making Naruto twitch. Hidan groaned in response but complied nevertheless. Kakashi tried to intercept him but was surrounded by several bubbles which popped and upon popping created powerful explosions, throwing the copy ninja back, and due to the bright yellow flashes, they let out, they also blinded his vision for a second.
"Your fight is with us, Hatake-san." Utakata commented monotonously.
"Fine then, Fire Style: Fire Dragon Flame bullets!" Kakashi rapidly went through hand-signs before releasing several small fire balls and directed them at his opponents.
"Water Style: Great Gunshot." Utakata fired a huge ball of water from his mouth, which collided with the fireballs and both jutsus got dispelled, leaving smoke.
"Wind Style: Pressure Damage!" Kakuzu compressed a large tornado like mass before releasing it in a blast, the gusts hit and threw the Konoha ninja back by several feet. The three genin and the newly minted chunin all got injured.
"That was some powerful wind jutsu!" Naruto stated begrudgingly as he got to his feet with some difficulty. His comrades followed him.
Thinking that Kakuzu wasn't really that fast at reacting, Kiba decided to charge at him. He tossed a red pill towards Akamaru who swallowed it and became feral and reddish.
"Come on Akamaru, Inuzuka style: Fang over fang!" The Inuzuka heir and his hound joined forces in a violently rotating vortex and attacked Kakuzu.
"Earth Style: Earth Spear." Kakuzu reacted just in time to harden his body with earth chakra as Kiba and Akamaru's attack hit him, pushing him back but then with his earth chakra enhanced fist, he delivered a vicious punch, throwing both Kiba and Akamaru back and knocking them out.
"Hah, you kids should really know your own place. You are a thousand years too early to land any damage on me." The rogue ninja from Taki taunted. However, he was engulfed in a swarm of bugs a second later.
Hinata observed how the chakra of the rogue ninja was being drained. It wasn't as fast as she would like it to be.
"His five hearts are making it difficult for Shino-kun's bugs to drain him quickly." Hinata told her boyfriend.
"Force him to separate his hearts and then drain them all individually, that will make the process quicker." Kurama advised from the mindscape.
'You got that Kurama.' Naruto acknowledged from the mindscape, before bringing his arms into a cross sign. He had already taken his weights off at the first sign of trouble so they were not a problem anymore. "First Gate, Second Gate, Third Gate, Fourth Gate Open!" And with that his skin became a bit reddish and he was enveloped in an almost transparent, whitish aura. Then he rushed towards Kakuzu.
Jumping up, he did a violent spin and with great speed and force, slammed his foot on the former Taki-nin's head. "Tree leaf drop!"
The attack worked and made Kakuzu howl in pain, despite his body being hardened by the Earth Spear jutsu. Naruto didn't let up and continued landing a barrage of rapid punches, kicks and anything that worked and then he went onto deliver kicks that threw Kakuzu upward, completely in accordance with the opening of 'Front Lotus'.
The blonde followed Kakuzu up and kept kicking him upwards. Upon reaching a certain height, he used his supply of ninja wire and wrapped the missing-nin up together with himself and began spinning violently as he brought himself and Kakuzu down at binding speeds.
Unlike Kisame, Kakuzu didn't have the physical strength to simply kick Naruto away and stop the 'Front Lotus' from being executed. So, in desperation, he let his earth mask out so as to carry out an 'Earth Spear' enhanced attack to stop Naruto's attack.
What he didn't take into account was his opponent's girlfriend observing the fight with full concentration and attention, looking for an opening to strike and help her beloved out. The opportunity presented itself to her on a silver platter as Kakuzu's earth mask began separating from his body, Hinata's Byakugan saw it immediately.
Now so far, she hadn't been able to carry out the 'Air Palm' perfectly at that point but just before her boyfriend's clone alerted her of the hostile shinobi, she was very close to completing the training.
But there was really no time to test the jutsu out.
It is said that desperation can make you achieve things way faster than you can ever hope to achieve under normal circumstances. Or fuck up even worse than thought possible.
And when that desperation happens to be the desperation to keep the one you love the most in the world safe, well that can definitely make you do things you can't even dream of, what's an 'Air Palm' to that motivation and if it can help then why not use it? And that's what happened. The Hyuuga girl executed the 'Air Palm' perfectly and made it hit the wind mask, square on its face, just as it was finished separating. Just then a loud "THUDDD" was heard as Naruto slammed Kakuzu into the ground. Hinata didn't have the time to observe and review the work of her boyfriend, her own work had been cut short.
The intensity of the 'Air Palm' wasn't enough to totally destroy the mask in one blow, but it was enough to make it crack and have it pushed back. The mask was pushed back and got stunned. This was the opening Hinata needed, without wasting even the smallest fraction of a second, she rushed towards it, having already formed a Rasengan on her palm. And before the mask could launch an attack on her, she was upon it and didn't waste any time before slamming the spiraling orb of chakra upon the mask. "Rasengan!" She yelled as the mask was shattered the black mass surrounding it all collapsed into dust.
Panting, Hinata looked back and saw Naruto unharmed and grinning Kakuzu buried into the ground, head first.
"Naruto-kun!" She shouted in relief before rushing to her. But before they could even celebrate their success, a huge mass of black threads rushed towards them. They jumped back but the threads scratched them at several places, Kakuzu pulled himself back onto his feet.
"You imbeciles, you dare destroy two of my hearts! Do you have any idea how much effort it takes to get one of those? Fine, I will just have to compensate for those two with your hearts." Kakuzu said in an intimidating voice, before taking off his robe and having a huge mass of dark colored threads attack the young couple from his joints. Due to still having his inner gates opened, Naruto was able to dodge the deadly attacks was also able to keep his Hime out of harm's way by grabbing her with all his might and pulling her along with him. But he knew, the effect of the gates would soon wear out and then, he and Hinata would be truly vulnerable.
*With Kakashi*
The copy-ninja was getting increasingly frustrated that he couldn't come to the aid of his students, who were facing off against an S-class missing-nin on their own, as he was being held at bay by Utakata.
"Even if I don't really care about it, I would like to know why are you supporting Akatsuki members? They are after the Biju and would go to any lengths to capture a jinchuuriki." The copy-ninja warned as he dodged a few exploding bubbles.
"Hmm….so those two with the robes are members of a group called the Akatsuki. Very well, but Hatake-san, I can't help it. Those who put me on this mission are holding someone precious to me hostage. So, I have no other way than giving them Tsunade-sama." Utakata replied before dodging a fire ball with a water wall. And then he went through hand-signs.
"Water Style: Torrent Bullet" And a huge vortex of water began rapidly moving towards Kakashi.
'Some water release he has.' The white-haired ninja thought to himself before going through hand-signs.
"Earth Style: Earth Dragon Bullet" He made a dragon of mud rise from the ground and launch medium sized rocks at the attacking vortex of water at high velocities. And since, earth was naturally strong against water, his attack worked. And the 'Torrent Bullet' was stopped. But Utakata didn't relent. He released an even larger number of bubbles that surrounded Kakashi. This time, the copy ninja wasn't so lucky, some bubbles made contact with him and Utakata didn't waste any time in making them burst in several small but powerful explosions. Kakashi couldn't even get a second to cast a protective earth style jutsu or use substitution. Once the series of explosions were over, Kakashi was left panting and wounded.
"I would have stopped here, but I know for certain that you would pursue us after we take Tsunade and thus you are too dangerous to be left alive, copy-ninja Kakashi." Utakata commented as he released another set of bubbles at him.
"Ink Bubble Explosion"
One of the bubbles captured Kakashi began getting filled up with some sort of black liquid and then another set of bubbles surrounded him. And then all the bubbles exploded simultaneously.
"Ink bubble explosion is one of my strongest techniques. It's almost impossible to escape the explosion and the explosion is powerful enough to destroy your body and not even a shred of it would be left behind. Rest in peace, Copy-ninja Kakashi." Utakata uttered monotonously. "Now I think I should do away with those genin. That blonde kid, Uzumaki Naruto, Child of the Prophecy, let's see how much he lives up to that title. The way he is now, I don't think Kakuzu would take long to kill him. I might as well save him the trouble and give the boy a painless death." The Rokubi jinchuuriki spoke on as he began walking towards Naruto, Hinata and Shino who were busy dodging the relentless attacks of Kakuzu's threads.
"Arrogance and overconfidence will be the death of you, Utakata." A voice said as the sound of a thousand chirping birds was heard. Utakata's eyes widened, he couldn't even understand how Kakashi was able to escape the ink bubble explosion.
Actually, the solution was pretty simple and was something Kakashi had learnt from seeing Naruto fight, at a moment the blonde was cornered, he would substitute himself with a shadow clone which would have to take the death blow. Yeah, it didn't leave a good taste in your mouth and mind, getting the memory of being slaughtered but the most important thing was that it worked.
As the smoke the 'Ink Bubble Explosion' cleared, Kakashi rushed at Utakata with his hand engulfed in lightning. The Rokubi jinchuuriki knew well, what this attack was and how deadly it was. He encased himself in a bubble and floated away as he began drawing upon his Biju's chakra.
Kakashi was faster and his 'Raikiri' was enough to penetrate Utakata's bubble and force him out but by then the jinchuuriki was already in a version-2 four tailed cloak. In that state, he was fast enough to dodge the Chidori's strike and deliver a vicious kick on Kakashi's chest, throwing him back by several feet. In another time and place, drawing four tails worth of chakra in the version-2 form would have made Utakata go insane and lose control to Saiken, but in this timeline, the time-traveled Biju had had enough of being monsters and therefore didn't fight for control with their jinchuuriki. So, the former Kiri Jonin stayed in control of his power for the time being.
'Shit, now he is using his Biju's chakra. What should I do?'
Just then a loud bang was heard and Hidan was slammed into a tree. A moment later, Tsunade landed in the field.
"You bloody bitch, do you have any idea how pissed Jashin-sama would be at you!? You are fucking dead, you whore!" Hidan swore as he pulled himself out of the tree. (Jashin's a god of slaughter, so he'd be fine with you getting your ass handed to you on a silver platter with a nice sake to wash it down with)
Tsunade raised an eyebrow. "Why the hell are you still alive? That blow should have shattered your ribs and burst your heart."
"Hahahahahaha! I am a faithful servant of the Holy Jashin. I can't be killed, this is Jashin-sama's blessing. Prepare to be sacrificed at his feet." Hidan exclaimed as he rushed towards Tsunade and kept on swinging his scythe. Tsunade dodged it all without getting a single scratch.
*With Naruto, Hinata and Shino*
The lovers and the Aburame were not having a good time, Kakuzu was relentless. His threads had already caused a large number of wounds on their bodies. It was thanks to Shino's bugs slowing Kakuzu down every now and then that they hadn't been killed yet. But at some point, Shino's bug colony would die out and then, they would all be sitting ducks.
'Kurama! Any idea yet?' Naruto mentally yelled in desperation.
"The only way to kill Kakuzu is to destroy all of his five hearts. You and your beloved have destroyed two but he still has three. And those three seem to be the lightning, wind and fire ones."
'Can't you give me some good news once in a while!? All right, I don't think I can hold out any longer without using your chakra. I have to replenish my stamina and prolong my usage of gates; do you think I can draw more than four tails now?'
"You can try, I guess you can go up to 6 tails worth of chakra in the version-1 cloak and that would be enough for you to keep your inner gates opened for another hour, but after that you would be fully exhausted and not be able to lift a finger." Kurama cautioned.
'Fine! I don't think there is any other way to deal with it. Kakashi-sensei is dealing with that Rokubi Jinchuuriki. Thankfully our ever-drunk granny is woken up and is dealing with that crazy guy with the scythe. We have our work cut out for us. It's 'do or die' now.'
"All right. By the way, those numbers are estimates and generous ones. Work fast."
'Shit.'
Soon, Naruto's body began getting engulfed in a semi-transparent crimson chakra cloak as he and Hinata kept dodging Kakuzu's threads, holding hands. In a matter of seconds, six tails emerged from the back of Naruto's chakra cloak.
Kakuzu began chuckling.
"So, you are a jinchuuriki, boy? What a lucky coincidence. Along with Tsunade and Kakashi, we have got two jinchuuriki. Today is definitely a field day for me." The former Taki-nin said in an intimidating tone. And then he let out two of his masks and had them merge. The masks then released a combo attack of the 'Searing Migraine' and 'Pressure Damage'. The attack let out a massive fire storm. Naruto pushed both Hinata and Shino to the ground and shielded them by putting himself over them, hoping that his chakra cloak would reduce the damage. It did. But that didn't stop the 2 genin and the chunin from getting some serious burns.
With some effort, Naruto got up panting heavily, followed soon by his lavender eyed girlfriend. By now, the blonde's cerulean eyes had been replaced by red ones with black vertical slits.
"You bastard!" The kyuubi jinchuuriki growled, before vanishing from where he was standing and in less than a second, he was upon Kakuzu's combined fire and wind masks and then the supposedly immortal missing nin from Taki found it very difficult to keep his two masks out of harm's way due to the relentless kicks and punches from the feral jinchuuriki.
"Shino! Drain him!" Naruto ordered and his comrade didn't hesitate to oblige immediately. Soon Kakuzu was surrounded by whatever remained of Shino's bugs and they began draining Kakuzu's chakra with all their might, that also slowed the dodging speed of the combined masks, Naruto was attacking and his blows started to connect.
"Eat this! Rasengan!" Naruto yelled as created a Rasengan and strengthened it with Kurama's chakra, which enlarged it to a great extent and then he slammed it on the masks without wasting a second. The attack connected just as a 'Pressure Damage' attack was released by the wind mask, which violently threw Naruto back but at the same time, his Rasengan connected and destroyed the fire mask.
"Aaahhh!" Naruto hissed in pain as he was slammed into a tree. By then, Shino's bugs had drained Kakuzu to a large extent.
"Time to distract him. Multi-shadow clone jutsu!" Naruto yelled making the cross hand-seal and about a thousand Narutos (I'm still not convinced that's the proper plural) puffed into existence. "Charge!" The blonde yelled and his clones all charged upon the enemy.
For a minute, they kept attacking Kakuzu and then suddenly most of them were dispelled with a blast of black threads. Then Naruto decided to use his new jutsu on the Taki-nin, he went through hand-seals.
"Wind Style: Wind Prison" And Kakuzu was enveloped in a rotating dome of wind, inside which it was pretty difficult to breathe. Unfortunately for him, the teens had destroyed his 'fire mask' which would have made it easier for him to escape from it. Kakuzu tried to cut through the wind dome with the 'Earth Grudge Fear' threads but didn't have any luck as all the threads got cut off as Naruto continued putting as much chakra as he could into the dome.
Then Kakuzu decided to cut wind with wind. He detached his lightning heart from himself and replaced it with the wind heart.
"Wind Style: Pressure Damage!" The Akatsuki member yelled releasing a violent blast of compressed wind. Naruto struggled to keep up with the wind dome, soon enough, both the jutsu cancelled each other out. But Kakuzu was winded and was panting. Hinata decided to exploit the opening. She charged in.
"Eight Trigrams: 2 palms! 4 palms! 8 palms! 16 palms! 32 palms!" This time, all her strikes connected and Kakuzu's tenketsus were all painfully closed, but the Hyuuga girl was far from done, she created a Rasengan and immediately slammed it on Kakuzu's chest. The former Taki-nin was thrown away and coughed up blood.
Had it been any other shinobi, he would have been surely killed with this attack, but not Kakuzu. His detached lightning mask rushed over to him and got attached, while the wind mask came out and got shattered.
Now the Hyuuga girl was in a vulnerable position.
"You insolent little girl!" Kakuzu yelled in frustration. "I will take your heart as compensation for the ones I lost today!" He then made threads rush at her at binding speeds. Hinata backflipped.
'Shit, I'm not fast enough!' Just then, Kakuzu was slammed with two violent blurs.
'Fang over Fang!" Kiba yelled. Just minutes ago, he and his canine partner had come back to their senses and saw just how much effort their comrades were putting into dealing with the S-class missing nin. Cursing himself to have been so useless up until that point, Kiba tossed another pill to Akamaru and charged in without thinking about anything.
"Dynamic Entry!" This was no entry, but Naruto knew, this move of Gai-sensei was a knockout one. He also knew that using 6 tails worth of Kurama's chakra alongside keeping 4 inner gates open was taking its toll on him and that he wouldn't be lasting any longer so he had to put it all into one last attack and this was the best of such moves in his arsenal.
The double attack worked and violently threw Kakuzu back and slammed him into a huge boulder, making him cough blood again. Kiba and Akamaru fell flat on the ground, panting heavily. Naruto managed to land on his feet but his chakra cloak disappeared, followed soon by the inner gates getting closed. With some effort, he walked over to Hinata's side.
"Hime… are you… alright?" He asked in between the heavy breaths. The Hyuuga girl took hold of his shoulders and gave him a smile.
"I am fine Naruto-kun. Don't worry." She said in as much of a reassuring tone as she could.
"That's… great to… hear." The blonde responded before his body went limp and he began collapsing. Hinata let him fall onto her chest and then taking him into a tight embrace, sat down. She was also at the last legs of her consciousness, but still her Byakugan saw chakra flowing in their adversary's chakra network. She had to decide upon some final attack, but her body refused to move.
She then saw Kakuzu begin to pull himself out of the rock he was slammed into. With her enhanced vision, Hinata saw the missing nin molding chakra to attack. She tightened her embrace of her beloved boyfriend.
'I am sorry Naruto-kun. My body isn't moving at all. I am so sorry.' She thought to herself.
"Lightning Style: False Darkness" Kakuzu launched his attack, a huge blast of lightning to be precise.
"Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!" A female voice yelled launching a violent gust of wind, that intercepted the lightning attack as Shizune jumped before the kids. The jutsu dispelled each other.
Now Kakuzu knew he had been cornered. He was almost out of chakra and now there was this kunoichi standing, who didn't look exhausted at all. He knew that if he continued to fight, he would run out of chakra sooner or later and then he didn't even have any more hearts as back up to save himself. He was in a complete pinch.
"Tsk! I can't believe these stupid kids cornered me. Remember, I'll come back for them. Their deaths will be very, excruciatingly painful.' The Akatsuki member hissed before vanishing in a shunshin.
"T-Thank…you…S-Shizune-san." Hinata said with a lot of effort as her consciousness began fading out.
"No, Hinata-chan. I didn't do anything. The way you kids took upon that S-class missing nin, I don't even have words to praise you…..you kids are beyond remarkable." Shizune replied sincerely. But then she saw that Hinata had also collapsed on the ground, though she was still tightly holding her unconscious boyfriend.
With some effort, Shino made his way to her. He was also very much chakra drained due to the never before scale of continuous attacks he had to carry out with his bugs, of whom most were now dead.
"Will they be okay, Shizune-san?" The Aburame boy stoically asked.
"Of course, Shino-kun. They are just exhausted." Shizune replied as she performed the mystic palm jutsu on the young couple.
"You two have definitely earned some rest, Naruto-kun, Hinata-chan. You two are really amazing." The dark-haired medic-nin said in a low voice.
The 4 teens had indeed overcome a very gruesome and dangerous challenge, while surpassing their limits. Unfortunately, the fight was still far from over.
Raiga chuckled to himself as he continued observing the fights.
"Go on…keep fighting till you all take each other down and then I will just grab all the prizes. Not only Tsunade, but also that apprentice of hers and the copy ninja. I will give all of you a befitting funeral. Keep it up Ranmaru. Just a bit more and then we will make our move." The former mist swordsman said with an evil smirk as lightning flickered over the twin Kiba swords. Unfortunately for the Konoha shinobi, none of them were able to see him. Seems the fighting made everyone forget about him momentarily.
A/N: And done. How was the fight? I hope you found it interesting enough. And of course we have entered the action part of the 'Tsunade retrieval arc' so the subsequent chapters will be full of action as well so stay tuned. Thank you all once more for your love, support and kind feedbacks. See ya all in the next chapter, RaNK001 out.