Chapter 8: The Tiger's Trap
The siege began as the sun dipped below the treeline, elongated shadows and dimming light disguising the incoming rogues on the approach. A loud series of booms echoed off the hills, followed by a chain of ringing bells. The sound carried all the way to the Hanamoto family's main property. A large, three story wood and stone structure served as their house and business office, and Daichi, Naruto, Sasuke, and Ichirou all looked up from the rather boring paperwork being done.
"Hey, why'd it get so noisy?" Naruto asked, moving to look out the nearby window. Smoke rose in the distance, darkening the already fading blue sky. "Is that a fire?"
"No, it's not fire. More like explosions," Sasuke said. He pried the window open. The ringing was much clearer now, and they could all hear yelling from the direction of the main gates.
"That's not good," Ichirou stood up from his chair and collected the papers they'd been working on. The hired samurai next to him moved from his position in the corner of the room, grabbing his sword. "The bell system is meant to sound for intruders, which means someone is attacking our gates." Another explosion rocked the main gate area. "And with more firepower than we anticipated…"
"We need to head to the basement, Sir," the samurai said. "There's only one way in and out, it'll be much easier to guard. The rest of my squadron should be falling in towards our position now." Daichi grit his teeth and stood as well.
"This doesn't feel right," he told them. "An attack when your sensei leaves? A little too convenient." He looked to Naruto and Sasuke. "Your teammate is still out in the fields, right? Can she take care of herself?" Ichirou went even paler, looking out the window nervously.
"Katsuo is with her too, but I have no idea if the gates have been breached yet. It's too dangerous to walk out there and check."
"We'll go look for them!" Naruto said. "We beat up those bandits before, so why can't we just do that now?"
"Our mission is to guard Mr. Kato's caravan though. We can't leave him here." Sasuke didn't seem very happy with his own point. "Hinata will have to make it back here on her own unless we want to abandon the job." A few more blasts went off outside, and Naruto cursed. He got what he meant, but he sure as hell didn't plan to abandon his friend either.
"That's not-!" His hands balled into fists. "That's not fair…"
"I'll… I can pay you," Ichirou said after an uncomfortable pause. "I request that you protect my son and this property as well. I'll add that on to Daichi's mission, if that's alright with him." He glanced at Daichi, who smiled and tipped his hat.
"Of course. Gives me an excuse to hide in that bunker of yours, right? You two ninja can head out and do what you want. We'll be fine here. Probably…" The samurai looked like he wanted to object, but sighed and dug around in a hidden pocket to produce a small radio device attached to a strap.
"Take that with you, update us on what's going on," he said, throwing it. Sasuke caught and strapped it on for safekeeping.
"...Thanks," he said, and then jumped out to the ground below. "Come on Naruto, we should check the perimeter first and back them up."
"Don't worry, we're gonna track them both down!" Naruto claimed, giving Daichi and Mr. Kato a thumbs up. He dropped down and ran towards the now eerily silent main gate. He hoped they weren't too late.
"If your clan's so important, then I don't see why you bother with any of this ninja business. Sounds like a good way to get killed to me," Katsuo said. "What's the point of risking everything when you can live like the other nobles? You don't see the Daimyo's children fighting, it'd be silly."
"The Hyuga are considered noble because of our strength and skill in combat. We were always ninja, and I'd be a sad excuse for a clan leader if I couldn't hold my own in battle," Hinata said in a flat tone. She doubted it'd get through to him this time either. He didn't understand what it was like to live in a place like the Leaf Village, or to be raised for the purpose of maintaining the honor of a name that went back generations in prestige. He wasn't born with eyes that men, willingly and forcibly, died over for their raw potential.
And to her, that was good. It wasn't the sort of pressure she wished on anyone, especially a boy like him who would rather dedicate his life to growing plants. They might be around the same age, but the more she talked to him, the more she realized the vast differences in their mindsets. Was this what it was like between every ninja and civilian? She never thought about it before, having been surrounded by shinobi culture.
"But if you're the leader, don't you have people to do that for you? To fight, I mean."
"It's not that simple, I have to prove myself if I want to stay as"- Hinata stopped when the ringing of bells reached them. "What was that?" she asked.
"The guards ring the bells when there's a threat, but usually not all of them," Katsuo said. "Maybe one or two at the place they're being attacked, but this many? I'm not sure what's going on…" He seemed to shrink in on himself, taking a few steps back. "We should check the main building, try to find my father." Hinata ignored him for the moment, calling on her Byakugan so she could scan the area around them. At the very edge of her vision, she saw a battle unfolding.
"...I think the intruders are past the gate." Multiple groups of people poured onto the grounds from holes torn in the Greenhouses defenses. The main building was too far away to see accurately, so all she could do was hope that Naruto and Sasuke were with Daichi. They had a safer position than her, so maybe she should worry more about her own chances. She and Katsuo needed to get into cover. Standing out in a field like this made them targets. "We should keep moving," Hinata pulled him along by the hand, which felt a little ironic after he'd been doing the same thing to her for two days straight. "They're searching for something, and they might decide they want to take us with them." Kakashi-sensei had told them where he'd be if they needed help, so she had to reach the nearby town in one piece.
"You mean like… like for ransom?" Katsuo asked, stumbling to keep up with her pace.
"Something like that," she said. The details would scare him more than necessary. One of the groups turned to face them, and her blood went cold. Did they have a way to detect people from a distance? She squeezed Katsuo's hand harder and jerked him forward. "Hurry up!"
"Boss, I found a couple of kids," one of Kenzou's men said, lowering a set of specialized binoculars. "One's got a headband too. You want us to run them down?" Kenzou shook his head, dropping a bloodied mace on the ground. Those gate guards were nothing to him, just average soldiers. Not even proper samurai, to his disappointment. His chakra enhanced strikes ripped through armor like paper. The ones closer to the central building had to be more of a challenge.
"I want to catch the Genin myself. I have a few surprises waiting for them. You guys head over to the central manor. See if you can break in. " His own radio beeped, and he tapped it with a finger to listen. "Status report?"
"The front gate is destroyed, and we've badly damaged other sections of the property's wall," Haruka's voice crackled over the signal. " We'll push in slowly, but I think we're about to run into the second line of defense. I see two Genin approaching, both boys. No third one yet."
"I know where she is, I'll catch her before she escapes. Try to keep the dark haired boy alive."
"Copy that. We'll keep moving." The radio went silent, and Kenzou wiped a spot of blood from a cut to smear it over one of his tattoos. In a burst of smoke, a large shuriken appeared. He grabbed and unfolded it before sprinting after the retreating figures. They would tire soon, since he knew at least one of them wasn't even a ninja. They'd have to resort to hiding in his trap infested wood, and then he'd corner them.
Naruto and Sasuke were greeted with an explosion strong enough to hurt their ears even from a distance. With a crash, the front gates fell apart entirely. People yelled from beneath the rubble as at least 20 armed men rushed over the remains of the wall. These weapons, the ones the bandits had a couple of days ago, looked far better maintained. The attackers moved as an organized group too, fanning out strategically to cover each other.
"The size of this raid is insane," Sasuke said. He drew a handful of shuriken from his holster, and then he noticed some scarred headbands with varied symbols among the group. "Those are ninja! Naruto, we need to"-
"What, ya scared or something?" Naruto ran right past him. He summoned a set of ten clones and charged headfirst into the oncoming enemy line. A swordsman tried to cut into one, only to get sidestepped and tackled to the ground. Two more clones jumped on the downed man, burying him in punches. Another two clones bullied a club weilding mercenary with waves of shuriken and kunai. He blocked a few, but the rest dug into him painfully. "You think a bunch of quitters can beat us? Where'd your spine go?"
"You're as crazy as them, you know that?" Sasuke yelled, punctuating it with his shuriken. A rogue ninja deflected them, but that was enough to buy the time he needed. He ran through his hand seals and took a deep breath, then expelled a good sized fireball at the rest of the mercenaries, scattering their group. "I'm saying they probably have some jutsu!" Probably more than two genin knew between them.
"Who cares, we'll just win before they can use them!" Naruto called back. "We gotta thin these guys out so we can look for Hinata and Katsuo!"
"Not much of a plan, but…" A crossbow fired at him, and he was forced to duck. Sasuke threw a kunai in retaliation, stabbing the archer in the leg. The archer collapsed in pain, scrambling to stem the bleeding. "It might just work." He dug into his pouch and tossed some caltrops onto the ground, keeping the rest of the group at bay while he built up his chakra. He inhaled and launched bursts of flames at them. "Fire Style: Phoenix Flower Jutsu!" A few were caught in the blaze, but most of them escaped the area and ran through the smoke to attack, only to get blindsided by more shadow clones. The rogue ninja recovered well enough to fight back, destroying the rest of the clones once they realized they only needed a single hit on each one. Undeterred, Naruto created another ten and met them head on, slowly wearing the enemy down.
"See? This is easy!" Naruto perched on top of a pair of knocked out bandits. A flicker of light came from the top of the wall, and then an arrow shot past Naruto, making him fall onto his back with a yell. The arrow drilled deep into the dirt. "Owww, what the hell?" Sasuke could see the gash across Naruto's cheek from where the arrowhead skimmed him, and he looked up from where he saw that tiny glimmer. Naruto sat up and also saw the newcomer. A short haired, blonde ninja rested on top of the wall, a special set of goggles over their eyes. In the ninja's hands was a longbow. The headband marked them as from the Leaf Village.
"That was a warning shot," she called out. The sun set completely, plunging them into near darkness. "Put your weapons down or I'll aim true next time."
"She missed on purpose…" Sasuke mumbled. "This one's much more dangerous, I didn't even hear her coming."
"Being stubborn will only prolong the pain. Will you fight anyway?" she asked. Naruto wiped the blood off his cheek and stood up, and Sasuke felt a strange pressure in the air. The way this woman was staring at them, it was like she didn't even see them as threats. Like they were animals here for her to hunt.
"You think I'm afraid of you just because you messed up your headband, lady? Well think again!" He tossed some shuriken at her, only for her to disappear in a swirl of leaves. "Uh, she's gone…?" Something moved in the corner of Sasuke's vision, and he tackled Naruto away from a flurry of three arrows.
"She's behind us!" he called out, helping Naruto up. She stood in a tree on the opposite side of the wall, setting another arrow on her bowstring. More rogues approached, but this time they came armed with their own crossbows.
"One last chance…" she said. "I'll even let the blonde one run away." She glanced at Sasuke. "Unfortunately, you'll have to come with me. Your pedigree is worth too much to ignore."
"I'll show you…" Naruto said, forming the familiar cross shaped seal. "You're gonna regret writing me off!" With a burst of smoke that covered both himself and Sasuke, he produced five times as many clones as before. "I'm Naruto Uzumaki, and I'm gonna be the next Hokage!"
"Then you won't give in." The woman sighed, and then drew back her bowstring. "I am Haruka, the last of Konoha's Archer Division. Goodbye, Naruto." She released an arrow, striking somewhere in between the clones, and then a quiet hissing noise filled the air. The shadow clones closest to it spotted the burning tag attached to the shaft.
"It's gonna blow!"
"Put it out, then!"
"No, you do it!" The clones struggled to escape the paper bomb's radius, only for the delayed explosion to catch them. Naruto was tossed backwards like a ragdoll, and Sasuke stumbled in a different direction before regaining his balance, his head still ringing. He breathed out another large fireball in her direction, but her response was to grab a metal arrow and concentrate as his jutsu converged on her. She fired the now slightly glowing projectile at the fireball, and it seemed to cut a path straight through, dissipating it with a spiraling gust of wind. Sasuke hopped back to avoid the projectile as it drilled deep into the ground.
"Her arrows are chakra charged!" he told Naruto, but was forced to back up as Haruka pelted him with more wind-boosted strikes. Even when they missed, they sliced into his clothes and skin. After a few minutes of dodging and trying to tag her with weapons and fire, he felt like he'd been cut a hundred different times by glancing blows. Her backup archers continued firing their crossbows at inconvenient angles, not giving them more than a moment of rest. He didn't have the time to think of a more effective plan with this level of pressure. Naruto wasn't having much luck either, creating clones only to be blinded by arrows with smoke bombs attached. It seemed impossible for them to get close to the main threat without a hail of cross-bolts blocking them off. How long could he keep this fight up?
He was right behind them. Hinata could feel his presence even if her Byakugan hadn't been active. The man with the tiger mask, covered in tattoos and scars. That unrelenting focus was a weight on her back, slowing her down by the sheer force of his will. Could it be a genjutsu? No, her chakra seemed stable. No matter what method he was using to scare her, they had to keep running.
The few mercenaries and rogues that stumbled upon their position from other directions were removed with a cold efficiency she didn't like. Hinata no longer had the time to think about how badly her strikes harmed them. She couldn't let these shinobi get close to Katsuo. And the backwoods were somehow strewn with traps. When did they find the time to set them up like this? She had to carefully pick her way through invisible wires, disguised pits, and buried explosives.
"Hinata, I can't…" Katsuo stuttered, panting to catch his breath. "We should stop!"
"I know." She surprised herself with her own calmness. It was the adrenaline in her system, perhaps. "I'll try to find a place to rest, but we can't afford to do it here." A few meters away, she saw a cave behind a small waterfall. Good enough. "Come on…" She pushed him through the water, drawing a shudder from him as the coldness of it sank in. "Stay quiet and move as far back into the cavern as possible. I'm going to try to lose him."
"Wait, you're leaving me here? But what if something happens to you?"
"Katsuo…" she said, her back still to him. "If I can't run from or defeat the man pursuing us, your life is over too. This gives us the best chance of survival. Please understand…" She left before he protested again. At least now she could move at top speed. She climbed up a tree with some slight difficulty, and hopped from branch to branch, back towards the rogue. Her eyes began to sting from constant use of her Byakugan, but she had to keep it up. She wasn't going to lose sight of the enemy for a second. Up ahead, he stood in a forest clearing. He was waiting. She went motionless under the cover of foliage, observing him. The scrolls he possessed were most likely used for storage, and the tattoos were similar to container seals. He looked like a weapons specialist. Perhaps he'd suffer in close combat, but he didn't seem to be slacking off in that area either.
"I know you're there…" the man said. "Don't waste my time, Hyuga. I can come and get you myself if you want." After a long bout of silence to lower his guard, she dropped to the ground and rushed him. If she could just block his chakra system, he'd be mostly helpless. He didn't engage her directly, but instead backed away and wiped some blood onto the tattoo on the back of his hand. An iron shield appeared that he held up defensively. Her palm strike dented the metal, but her entire hand stung from the impact, and she rolled to the side to avoid being slammed by the slab of iron. He drew a straight sword from a holster on his back and got into a more textbook fighting stance.
"Come on," he said. This wasn't going to work. She knew it wasn't going to work. But what other decision could she make? Hinata was relentless as she lashed out at the man, her fingertips glowing a faint blue. She seemed to hit either thin air or metal, as he kept the shield between her and his body at all times. "You really are just a kid, and with no mark to safeguard those eyes either." He sighed, and then stabbed his sword into the ground to form a one handed seal. "Earth Style: Tunneling Jutsu." The ground bent, and then collapsed beneath him, and he retreated into a perfectly circular hole. His shield and blade went with him. Hinata backed up while she tracked his whereabouts underground. What did he plan to do under there? He knew that she could see him, so this wasn't just an attempt at a sneak attack. The ground suddenly collapsed into holes all around the clearing, slowly closing in on her. The ground shifted beneath her feet, and she jumped away as Kenzou tore his way out of the Earth. In his hands was a stick-like metal club, and he swung it hard before she could escape his range. She blocked it, but even when it just hit her crossed arms, the sheer weight was far more intense than something its size should be. "Too slow," he said with a grin, batting her across the field and into a tree trunk. She blacked out for a moment when her head slammed into the wood, and her Byakugan faded as her eyes shut in pain. She slid to the ground with all the breath knocked out of her. She could see him walking towards her, club still in hand.
"But how…?" she mumbled, trying to move. Her entire body stung, and it was hard to build up the concentration to push herself into a standing position. She managed to sit up against the tree by the time he reached her.
"Earth chakra in my weapons. They increase in hardness and density until they feel many times stronger than they actually are." He grabbed her by the shirt collar and slammed her against the tree trunk again. She coughed. "I am Kenzou, leader of this assault. I only wanted the landowner's son. but unfortunately…" He tightened his grip. Hinata tried to grab at his hand and free herself. She just had to gather her chakra again. "You're pretty valuable to certain clients too," he finished. "Don't worry, I won't be killing you. But if you don't tell me where you put him, I can't ensure I won't take off a few of his fingers when I track him down myself." She glared, and he shook his head. "Still stubborn, huh? You really think that village of yours is gonna come help you? Your teacher isn't coming back in time, and they won't send anyone to chase me either." That was an odd thing to say.
"Why not…?" she asked.
"Because they didn't care enough to save Hyuga last time either," he stated. "You're the clan heir, aren't you? I remember hearing about the incident." She finally realized what he was referring to.
The Cloud Village treaty and parade after her third birthday. The ninja that broke into the compound to steal her out of her bedroom. The man her father killed in the dead of night to save her. The political outrage and compensation that had to be made. Her uncle had to die for the good of the village. She hadn't been aware of all those things at the time, but she could still recall the terror of being nearly kidnapped, the tenseness in the air as her family argued, and the hate in the eyes of the boy that she once considered a brother. She could never forget that.
"No, that's not true..." Her struggles against Kenzou's grip weakened.
The moon began to rise when Kakashi caught sight of Hanamoto Greenhouse down the road. The thick smoke and sounds of battle spurred him on, and he made his way over the back wall without much trouble by sprinting directly up the side. He ran to the main building, sprinting across the fields unnoticed. It was difficult for any of the invading rogues to see him coming, and by the time the first one saw anything suspicious, he already had a kunai buried in his throat. Kakashi moved from target to target in a way that only an experienced assassin could, cutting a path to his destination with nothing but his speed and a series of well placed stabs.
Inside the building, Ichirou, Daichi, and a handful of other indoor workers waited in the cellar. The lead samurai stood outside it, the rest of his armor donned. He kept his blade drawn. They heard when the intruders broke in above them, and now sounded like they were ransacking the place. The only connection they had to the outside world was the radio on the table synced to the rest of the guards. It stayed silent.
Somewhere above their heads, the noise shifted from methodic to frantic movement. The panic was punctuated by loud crackling and the occasional scream of fear, and then a set of footsteps came down the stairs to the cellar. The samurai guarding the door lowered his stance. He was met with a familiar silver haired ninja instead.
"Hey. Noticed you had some guests up there, so I cleared them out," Kakashi said. "Feels like I came back to a warzone. Care to explain what happened?"
"Someone planned a raid against us," the samurai said, unlocking the door for him. "We think it's a rogue ninja in charge based on field reports, and the amount of coordination they have is unprecedented." Kakashi's visible eye narrowed.
"Where are the Genin I left here?" he asked, stepping into the bunker. It was solid concrete with a few barrels of sealed materials and a simple wooden table with chairs.
"You're back," Daichi said as he set his guitar down. "Ah, Naruto and Sasuke, they're out in the middle of it somewhere, looking for the Hyuga girl and Katsuo. They were separated when the attack started."
"I... offered to pay extra for them to find my son, my apologies." Ichirou seemed guilty enough without Kakashi's comments, so he refrained. Daichi rested a hand on his shoulder in a comforting manner.
"They were determined to leave, but I did give them a radio headset for communication purposes. Maybe you can get a hold of them," the samurai suggested. Kakashi took the headset attached to the larger radio on the table.
"Hey, does anyone hear me? Sasuke? Naruto?"
"Sensei…?" Kakashi could barely recognize Sasuke on the other end as an explosion went off near the microphone. "Can't really talk. We're by the front gates, but this kunoichi with a bow has us pinned down with a team of archers. We can't run away from her." Another explosion cut him off. "-has a plan, we'll try to leave a trail behind for you." The transmission ended, and Kakashi slipped the headphones off with an unreadable expression.
"I'll be back with them." Kakashi didn't bother walking out. He simply teleported out. He reappeared accompanied by rustling of leaves, crouched on top of the building's roof. Off in the distance, he saw remnants of the guardsmen battling the rogue forces scattered across the grounds, but further away were telltale signs of fire techniques competing with explosive energy. Kakashi touched his tilted forehead protector and adjusted it, revealing a blood red eye with three black tomoe marks surrounding his pupil.