Chapter 4
BOOM! BOOM! The thundering footsteps echoed through the forest, shaking the ground to the point where even the clock tower Ide was perched on began to wobble. Soon a massive blue demon with long black hair, a toothy pig-like snout, two long horns protruding from his forehead and a thick layer of white clouds that formed a pair of pants below his waist. "RAAAWWWGGGGHHH!" The demon roared and lightning danced across the sky.
'Let's see what's going on here.' Ide thought as he focused his Sharingan at the apparent Demon. 'Uh-huh. So Asuma's Hypothesis was correct.' Ide thought as he reopened his radio channel. "You were right Asuma, it's a transformation jutsu, a good one. I can tell from here whoever the caster is has at least a Jonin level skill. This may be more trouble than we thought."
"Stay in position Ide." Asuma whispered back through the radio. "Keep your Sharingan on the lookout. I doubt that "Demon" is working alone."
'Right.' Ide thought as he shut off his radio, returning to the cover of his hiding space. The four ninja remained in hiding as the towering Demon stomped through the poor ninja town.
Ide tried to look past the Demon, scanning the fog for any signs of movement but with every step the giant shook the ground causing a lot of movement but none of it seemed very human. The only other sources of movement Ide could detect were the cowering citizens shaking in fear in their homes as the very foundation was swayed back and forth by the intruders' monstrous steps.
Soon the Demon leapt up into the air and slammed its feet down into the earth like a child throwing a tantrum all the while making a number of grunts and roars. Each leap made the buildings shake like houses of cards to the point where Ide needed to put effort into keeping his balance in the clocktower but that's not all it did, with every landing more and more fog was kicked up into and redispersed randomly.
'He's trying to cover up for his allies.' Ide quickly recognized this tactic readjusted for it. 'You'll have to try a little harder than that to fool me!' Ide tightened focus with his sharingan and that's when he saw it. A shifting in the fog, subtle but noticeably unnatural even with all the leaping this ripple could only be caused by something moving through the fog and once Ide got a glimpse of it his eyes locked onto the moving figures. Two humanoid silhouettes suddenly became clear to Ide he saw where the light awkwardly warped and bent around them as they dashed through the fog. 'Got you!'
"Ino! Shikamaru!" Ide opened his radio channel and contacted his teammates. "Two invisible assailants are moving through the fog. They've split up. They're both headed in each of your directions."
Shikamaru and Ino both remained silent as to not alert their targets but that advanced warning put both ninja on their guard. "Gaah!" A voice yelled out from the clinic.
"Got him!" Shikamaru let the squad know via the ear piece as he bound his
"Good job Shikamaru." Asuma whispered back, still hidden underground. "Now once Ino apprehends her target I'll ambush the demon and Ide I want you to-"
"AAAHH!" Ino's screams interrupted Asuma and they could be heard by the entire team without the use of the radio.
"Ino! INO!" Asuma called out but her radio channel remained quiet and even worse her scream had alerted the Demon to her presence. "Damn it! Shikamaru, you need to stay put and keep your target bound to you. Ide, assist Ino!" With that Asuma erupted from the ground. "Take this! Fire-release! Ash pile burning!" Ide spit a cloud of ash onto the demon's back getting it to look away from Ino's direction but that wasn't the end of it. With a click of his tongue Asuma's ash ignited into a large fiery explosion.
"Right! Wind-Release!" Ide called back before performing a series of hand signs. "Air Walk Technique!" Ide channeled chakra to his feet and was able to use that chakra to propel himself forward like a rocket that flung him 3 buildings away and then in a second jump he launched himself through the window of the general store Ino had stationed herself to find the girl curled up in a ball in one of the corners with the still invisible assailant pointing a katana at her.
Ide without hesitation retrieved one of his Shuriken and flung it at his see through opponent. The Shuriken ripped a hole through the invisible ninja's body as if there were nothing there, embedding itself on the wooden wall on the other side. The invisible body then melted into a puddle of water on the floor. 'A water clone…' Ide thought.
He rushed over to Ino to assess her injuries. "Are you alright?" He asked, helping her up off her side and scanning her body for injuries.
"I'm okay…" Ino answered. It didn't take her long to regain consciousness which was a good sign.
"Asuma, Ino is alright. A laceration on her left leg and across her side, neither are very deep." Ide reported as he offered his comrade a hand up which she was happy to take but doing so made her wince. Ide then knelt down for further examination. "She also has a fractured wrist." Ide corrected. 'For her not to notice until now. The opponent must've struck here hard and fast, likely to disable the use of any jutsu. The invisible thief is also very skilled.'
"Get Ino to the clinic with Shikamaru!" Instructed. Ide didn't need to answer back; he just did as he was told, placing Ino his back and carrying her out the door.
Ide tried to rush but carrying another person and being cautious of their injuries forced him to slow his movement speed. Meanwhile Asuma's battle with demon continued to rage.
"RAAAAHHHGG!" The monster roared as it slammed it's fist down at Asuma who managed to dodge the large but slow swing.
"HAAAHH!" Asuma countered by throwing back projectile blades made of compressed wind that seemed to just bounce off the monster's skin. 'Damnit! This guy's transformation is really getting on my nerves. He's too slow to hit me but my attacks don't do anything to him. Time's not on my side, Ino's target got away. I have to hurry and take this guy down so I can catch up to the escaping thief.' Asuma thought as he watched the monster's eyes shift away from him.
'What is he… Oh no.' Asuma turned to see Ide and Ino now in the monster's line of sight and now the beast began to charge some sort of attack with its mouth. 'They're not moving fast enough…' Asuma who couldn't put a scratch on the beast and didn't have any way of blocking such a large attack was left with one option. "LOOK OUT!"
Asuma's warning came just in time as Ide turned his head to watch as a massive blast of lightning erupted from the monster's mouth. 'Omoikane!' Ide thought as his left eye transformed into his mangekyou sharingan just in time to reflect the lightning back into the monster's chest.
KRAKOOM! The lightning roared as it brought the monster down but before Asuma could move on the fallen demon a pillar of fog erupted between Asuma and his target and by the time it dissipated the creature was gone. "Damnit!" Asuma muttered under his breath.
"GAAAHHH!I" Ide couldn't hold his voice back as a violent pain flooded his left eye causing him to place a hand over it and fall to one knee.
"What happened!" Ino called out as she went down with Ide. "Are you alright?"
'AGHH! It hurts! It feels like my eye took all the damage from that attack itself. I don't remember the pain being so severe when I used it against the Iwa-nin… Must've been a difference in adrenaline.' Ide thought as he managed to pick himself and Ino back up. "I'm fine…" He muttered back breathlessly as he continued for the Clinic.
Asuma, Ide and Ino arrived to find Shikamaru still bound via shadow to his target who remained invisible. Ide with one glance at the foe could tell. "It's another clone." With one hand Ide flung another Shuriken through the clones test causing it to melt into water like the one before.
Ide then placed Ino on one of the clinic beds and began bandaging her wrist. "Oh I mean you don't have to…" Ino started before she realized how gently Ide was holding her hand as he bandaged it. "Nevermind."
"You won't be able to perform jutsu so it's probably better for you to stay here." Ide recommended as he finished binding her wrist.
"Stay here? We can't leave her here alone when she can't defend herself." Shikamaru contested. "We can't say for sure whether or not there's another clone lurking around here. What if she's attacked while we're in pursuit, the safest course of action is to get Ino back to the Leaf and resume our search later."
"There were only two clones." Ide corrected getting Shikamaru's eyes to narrow into a glare aimed at him. "If we don't pursue now we'll lose the trail and our mission will be a failure."
"Chtt!" Shikamaru huffed back. "Well don't you just know everything. Those eyes, they make you Uchiha so much better than the rest of us huh? How dare we untalented pleads ever question you right?"
"Shikamaru!" Ino called out in reprimand to her teammate but it was too late.
Ide had enough of Shikamaru's attitude so he turned to face him. "I don't know everything. What I do know is that there were two assailants, one used water release and invisibility jutsu the other used lightning and transformation that means we don't know what either looks like so if we let them slip away now we lose them and fail this mission."
"He's right…" Asuma interjected. "But if we need to compromise, Shikamaru, you can stay here to guard Ino while Ide and I pursue the targets."
"That's probably for the best." Ide answered as he made his way for the door, only serving to further anger Shikamaru.
Ide and Asuma made their way through the forest after the fleeing thieves, hopping from tree branch to tree branch. It didn't take long for Shikamaru to catch up with the two of them. "What are you doing here?" Ide asked as he glared back at Shikamaru.
"I wasn't going to let you two go alone." Shikamaru answered. "Asuma couldn't put a scratch on that one guy's transformation jutsu and honestly I don't trust someone like you to have his back." Shikamaru met Ide's glare with an angry glare of his own.
'Give me a break…' Asuma thought before calling back to the two chunin. "Alright listen up! We have a trail!" Asuma said as he pointed to the path of fallen trees that had been left in the demon's wake. They must have a camp somewhere. All we can do is hope this points us in the right direction." The two young ninja responded with simultaneous nods as they rushed off after him.
(Later)
The ninja hadn't gotten very far before the trail of fallen trees had come to an abrupt end. "Damnit…" Asuma muttered back. "They must've waited until they got here to activate the transformation so there wouldn't be a trail back to his camp. Ide, can you see anything?"
"No." Ide responded as he once again used his Sharinagn to scan the area. "I thought I could see some movement ahead of us while we were running but that went away awhil-GET DOWN!" Ide roared as he pushed Shikamaru out of the way of an invisible swing of a Katana as the silhouette illustrated by warping light once again became clear to him.
"Thunderball jutsu!" An unfamiliar voice called out from the forest as a beach ball sized blast of blue lightning erupted from a nearby bush. Asuma managed to leap away from the attack as a youngman, likely eighteen or nineteen years old with shoulder length white hair emerged from the bush. "Well, what do you know, Sayaka. You were right. They did come chasing after us."
The invisible ninja dispelled her jutsu revealing a woman who appeared to be in her early 30s, dressed in a black cloth bodysuit with a white armor that covered her torso and a Hidden Mist headband wrapped around her left shoulder. "You leaf ninja should've left well enough alone. Ban!"
The white haired man immediately activated his Transformation jutsu resuming his giant monster form and grabbing Asuma in his giant hands before he could react. "Gah!" The leaf Jonin grunted as Sayaka made her move."
"Boil-Release! Steam Dome!" She chanted as a massive bubble of white hot steam formed around her along with Ide and Shikamaru separating the two younger ninja from Asuma and Ban. "You Genin aren't going anywhere, even I can't pass through these walls with all the flesh staying on my body and I'm not gonna take it down till the two of you are gutted like pigs! The little girl barely took me 10 seconds and I won't be caught off guard by that one's shadow a second time so I don't see this taking long." She unsheathed her sword as she turned invisible once more.
"That won't work!" Ide said dashing forward holding his short sword in a back handed technique. He slashed at the distorted space in the air but was ultimately blocked by Sayaka's longer weapon. "That invisibility jutsu is just a waste of chakra, I can see right through it."
"Good for… But what about him!" She broke the stalemate with a heavy swing of her sword that Knocked Ide away. "Water clone jutsu!" She called out as duplicated herself with one two rushing towards an unaware Shikamaru.
'Crap!' Ide thought as he quickly placed his hand down on the ground. "Earth-Release, Stone Wall!" He chanted as a wall of rock erupted from the ground in front of Shikamaru in the nick of time before one of the Sayaka could impale him.
WHAM! While Ide was preoccupied with this Sayaka took the opportunity to deliver a spinning kick to the back of his head.
Meanwhile outside the steam dome Asuma was left by himself to deal with the demon still trapped in the overbearing strength of the Demon's claws. "Fire-release! Great Fireball Jutsu!" Asuma roared along with a bellow of flames that consumed Ban's monstrous face.
"Hehehe… You think a puny flame like that has any effect at all on me?" The demon taunted as his grip began to tighten. "In the village we were at a stalemate but now that I've gotten my hands on you I can just squeeze the life out of you!" The demon smiled maliciously before his eyes widened in pain. "AAAHHH!" He roared as he flung Asuma away before checking his hand to find a long bloody gash along his palm.
The demon looked over to see Asuma holding a small hand blade glowing blue as chakra pulsed through it. "Chakra blades huh? Well, aren't you crafty?"
Asuma didn't even bother interacting with the Demon; he went immediately to the steam dome to try and find a way to dispel it. He steadily brought his hand up to the edge of the steam wall but even that was too much as his hand was immediately met with an intense burning pain as if he'd just shoved his hand into an active furnace. "Gah!" He winced as he pulled his hand back.
"Yeah that jutsu is some nasty stuff." Ban taunted once more. "You might be able to dispel that jutsu if I gave you enough time!" He called out as he swung down with his massive fist that Asuma was able to dodge simply enough but doing so made him move away from the dome which was Ban's goal. "You see we're back at our stalemate, I can't hit you cause you'll keep dodging but your attacks can barely scratch me!" He showed off his palm which had already healed entirely by then. "But this time it's more like a game of keep away since all I need to do is wait for Sayaka to kill your little friends then it's all over for you."
"Gaah!" Asuma growled back still gripping his burnt hand as he struggled to come up with his next move.
(Inside the dome)
"DUCK!" Ide roared at Shikamaru prompting him to hide behind the wall of rock."Fire-Release! Great fireball jutsu!" Ide called out conducting another array of hand signs before unleashing a rather pathetic mouthful of fire at a group of clones; it barely did enough damage to destroy one of the now multiple water clones that had filled the steam dome.
"Duck? For that?" Shikamaru called back disappointed.
'Damnit. It's all this steam! There's too much moisture in the air for my fire-release to have any effect at all.' Thought as his eyes notified him of the miniature army of near invisible soldiers that was beginning to form. 'That's gonna make this more difficult…'
"AAHH!" Shikamaru called out as an invisible kick made contact with his chin.
"Crap! Shikamaru to your left kick now!" Shikamaru did as instructed burying his foot in the chest of a clone forcing it to melt into water. "Now punch right! Kick right! Now left! Punch right! Left! Now right!" With Ide's instructions Shikamaru managed to dispatch the clone swarm that had formed around him.
Ide dashed towards Shikamaru, cutting to clones down with his short sword before placing his back against Shikamaru's and forming a more effective defense. "The only person I've seen make more clones than this is naruto." The shadow ninja said.
"We're not gonna survive at this rate." Ide assessed. "My sharingan eats a lot of my chakra. I can't risk using any big offensive jutsu cause if my eyes go out we'll be blind. Our only chance is if we work together." This made Shikamaru visibly uncomfortable. "Look, I don't even know who Sasuke is." This got Shikamaru's eyes to widen. "But if you won't trust me and we can't cooperate then we're both gonna die because of Sasuke."
"...So what do we do?" Shikamaru eventually gave in and asked.
"Easy, you bind them with your shadows and I take them down." Ide said as he tossed a pair of shuriken that destroyed two more clones.
"Oh really? Is that all we have to do? Man, I wish I could've thought of that." Shikamaru chirped back sarcastically. "My chakra isn't unlimited either. I can't just bind a hundred water clones so unless your eye can see through clones we're pretty much screwed."
"I can't but I won't have to. Have you ever played Shogi?" Ide asked to formulate a plan.
"Yeah?... What does that have to do with anything?" Shikamaru asked.
"You'll know, trust me, hide behind the wall and I'll signal you." Ide instructed as he lept away towards the dome's center. Having split up, a group of invisible water clones rushed at him but Ide was ready for this. "Wind-release!" Ide performed a complex array of hand signs, finishing just before being tackled by the clone army. "Blast Typhoon!"
An enormous pillar of swirling wind surrounded Ide before expanding out quickly, knocking all the clones into the air and sending them all flying at once into the wall of burning hot steam, destroying all of them, all but one. "AAAAHHH!" The real Sayaka screamed as her own jutsu burned her back before she fell back to the ground but she still remained invisible
"NOW! H9!" Ide called out and suddenly it dawned on Shikamaru.
"Oh…" He muttered as he visualized the steam dome as a shogi board and sent his shadow to the designated location locking Sayaka in place for Ide to finish it off.
"It's over." Ide said as he lifted Sayaka's head up so he could look her directly in the eyes. Suddenly and briefly his sharingan flashed in Sayaka's eyes and immediately after she fell limp as she lost total consciousness.
"Genjutsu huh?" Shikamaru asked as the steam dome began dissipating around them. "So you made her dispel her jutsu before knocking her out."
"Yeah…" Ide answered as he panted, his eyes returning to normal indicating he was out of chakra. "It'll only last an hour but I'm guessing it's not gonna take us that long to take that last guy down."
"You know we worked pretty well together. I suppose a fellow shogi player can't be too bad." Shikamaru said with a shrug. "Look I'm sorry for being a jerk earlier. I-"
"I appreciate the apology." Ide interrupted, raising a hand to stop Shikamaru. "But we're not done." He said as the Dome finally dissipated completely.
"Heh!" Ban smirked as he saw the Dome fading away. "Well Leaf Ninja, looks like you're too late, those kids are already-huh?!" The demon was taken aback as he saw the two Chunin still standing with Sayaka lying motionless on the ground.
"You've underestimated us thief!" Asuma who at this point was also exhausted by the constant dodging he'd been forced to do. "Give up, come quietly."
"Give up?" The demon repeated. "Nah… I just need to change my approach a little bit." With his massive blue fingers, he performed a few hand signs of his own. "Transformation jutsu!" KRAKOOM! Ban's body was quickly struck by blinding blue lightning and by the time it faded his body had changed again.
(End)