Chapter 9: Predator and Prey
"You're looking worn out…" Haruka jumped to another tree, dodging Naruto's thrown weapons. His clones could barely get in range before she took them down. "Have you realized how pointless this is?" she asked. Her bowstring drew back again, trained on the two battered Genin below her. She'd chased them around the property for quite a while now, whittling their strength down with the rest of her archers. Most of her squad retreated from their wounds by now. but the Leaf ninja had yet to even touch her. They were nothing but targets for her arrows, unable to close the distance.
"Shut up…" Naruto said, He bled from where the arrows slashed at him. He looked back at Sasuke, somehow able to gather the energy to grin at him. "We just need a big enough distraction, that's all. I think I can make… another big set of clones." Sasuke nodded and retrieved a thin wire attached to a kunai from his pouch.
"Get this close enough to her and I'll show her a real fire technique," he said.
"On it." Naruto didn't waste any more time, creating a mass of clones in an instant. They rushed at the tree Haruka crouched in and scaled it with their chakra.
"You don't learn, do you?" she asked, firing into the crowd. The clones were sundered with paper bombs, burning arrows, and razor sharp bolts laced with wind chakra, but the sheer amount of them was enough to ensure that a few made it to the top. Within the small group of orange and blue ninja, the real Naruto lashed out with his kunai. It sank into the tree trunk just beneath her. "You missed." Haruka kicked at his exposed head, and he fell all the way back down with a grunt of pain. "And this time I'll make sure you stay down…" She took aim at the prone boy.
"Fire Style: Dragon Flame Jutsu!" Her eyes snapped up as Sasuke exhaled a powerful stream of burning chakra from his mouth. It twisted around the wire in his hand and flowed upward, aimed directly at Haruka's position. The flames intensified until it morphed into a living beast. The blazing dragon flew through the air with a roar as it violently consumed the oxygen around it. Haruka jumped away before it crashed into the tree, causing the entire thing to superheat and explode into wooden shards. She skidded to a stop nearby, coughing and shielding herself from the debris.
"Who even taught him that?" she rasped. Two figures ran past her, and she pushed herself to chase after them.
"Woah, nice one Sasuke!" Naruto said.
"Just keep running!" he answered back. He seemed to be adjusting to the speed of her arrows, but protecting both of them was still more difficult than anything he'd done before.
Minutes later, Kakashi and a small brown pug with a Leaf headband arrived at the ruined, smoldering battlefield. The tree had been reduced to a burning stump.
"Is the scent around, Pakkun?" Kakashi asked the dog. He looked up from sniffing at the scorched earth.
"A little hard to tell with all the fire damage, but I can still track them," the dog gave his master a short nod. "Both of them were here, along with a third ninja, a kunoichi. This must've clashed here, but they're on the move again." He ran off, following the invisible trail. "We might be able to catch up!" Kakashi followed after the pug, his red eye exposed while he analyzed all the collateral damage. How badly harmed were his students?
"Difficult to wrap your head around, isn't it?" Kenzou asked Hinata. "Well, that's the truth." He dropped her on the ground, ignoring her pained cry, and then pulled out a rope to bind her arms to her torso. "Sorry, I can't have you trying to puncture my lung with those hands of yours." He threw her over his shoulder, still carrying his heavy club with ease. "Konoha is a cowardly village," he continued as he walked. "As loyal as you are, its leaders don't have the guts to stand up for anyone. They're weak. They avoid war at any cost." Hinata opted not to respond. Where was he going with this? She assumed that a rogue would hate his original home, so why bother telling her about it? Why did he care about her opinion? "They'd rather sacrifice their own men than fight for what's theirs, and that's something I couldn't stand." He shook his head. "You're too young to have seen the Third Shinobi World War, but surely you knew about the tension between the Leaf and Cloud villages?"
Her head still pounded, but she tried to tune him out. She closed her eyes as she gained a grasp on her remaining chakra. These ropes could be sliced if she did this technique just right. Her fingertips flickered with blue energy while she concentrated, trying to shape it into a rudimentary blade.
"Instead of fighting back against the Cloud's gross misdeeds against their own treaty, what did the Hokage do? He complied with their demands and handed over a Hyuga's body." He snorted, probably in disgust. "I'm curious, how did that make them feel? Betrayed? Infuriated? Used?" He smiled in a way that failed to reach his eyes. "It's always been like that. That's why I left."
They were too close to the waterfall, and she needed to free herself from these bindings. She hadn't exactly been subtle about covering her path. They'd been too busy running for their lives to make any attempt at hiding much. All she could was hope that Katsuo didn't wander out. Maybe she missed an exit to the cave from the back, and he'd discovered it. No, her Byakugan would have revealed that. Herentire body went more rigid, and her chakra sharpened all around her palm with a faint hum. Too low to hear over the crashing water, lucky enough.
"You hid him behind there, right?" Kenzou asked. "Very obvious. Maybe I'll only snap one of his fingers off for wasting my time." He adjusted his grip on her, and that's when Hinata tore the ropes apart. She thrashed to escape from his grasp while his guard was down, and then slammed a glowing palm into the side of his torso. Kenzou nearly fell to one knee as the foreign chakra injected into his system. Hinata slid into a fighting stance, placing herself between Kenzou and the waterfall. Pushing through her headache, her Byakugan flared to life. "So you still have some fight left?" he snarled.
"I won't let you touch him," she said, her voice wavering. The edge of his mouth twitched, and for a few seconds he looked pleased. No, she had to be seeing things.
"You're the type that doesn't stop until the bitter end, aren't you? I'll be happy to oblige!" She kept on her guard when he touched the large tiger tattoo on his shoulder, and his club disappeared. He wiped blood on another skin marking and summoned a windmill shuriken. He flipped it open in a single hand motion, then hurled it at her. A few more bursts of smoke, and he propelled a variety of knives and shuriken in her direction. "We'll see who's got the will to win!"
Naruto stumbled over a thin wire suspended just a few inches off the ground, and a wave of kunai shot at him and Sasuke, forcing them to hide in the treetops. Another rope snapped, causing a huge log sharpened with spikes on the ends to swing at them from another direction.
"What the hell? Who set this stuff up?" Naruto yelled, yanking a needle out of his side. They had to keep running.
"The enemy did this in advance," Sasuke guessed, his eyes darting everywhere. Everything around them was a potential threat, and he couldn't afford to be caught off guard. He might've been high strung, but that might keep them alive. He couldn't let it end here. He wouldn't let any of them die.
A glint of steel caught his attention, and suddenly the world itself slowed for him. Sasuke blinked, and he could see the shadows of the shuriken about to arc into Naruto, perfectly predicting their path. It only lasted for a moment, but that was enough for him to react. He grabbed the back of Naruto's jacket to hold him in place.
"Hey what's the big deal"- the shuriken buried themselves into a tree trunk not too far ahead, and Naruto went silent. "Oh…"
"I was right," Sasuke mumbled. His eyes continued adjusting to every bit of information he saw. "Let's keep going, I think someone's close by…" An arrow fired from behind them, and Sasuke turned to face it. He tossed a shuriken and knocked it off course. This was… odd. "Go, now!" he said to Naruto. Naruto gave him a weird look, but he complied and jumped ahead. Sasuke followed afterward, everything moving in real time once more. He could somehow counter the arrows easier as long as he spotted them in time, but he knew Haruka wasn't pulling punches either...
Hinata tried to parry Kenzou's attacks as best she could with her knife, but a few shuriken cut into her arm and shoulder, slowing her down. They weren't lethal areas, but it definitely hurt. Rustling in the trees brought her attention to two more- No, three more people converging on her position. She wanted to collapse in relief when Naruto and Sasuke landed in front of the waterfall, though Sasuke's eyes burned red, and that pattern was certainly familiar.
"Hinata!" Naruto ran to meet up with her, but he stopped short of Kenzou. "Who's this one?" Kenzou turned to greet the two Genin, his gaze falling on Sasuke.
"A Sharingan…" he said, smiling. "Excellent, I wanted a bit more of a challenge. Now you're worth twice as much." He crossed his arms. "And now that I have you all in the same place…" An arrow shot out of the treetops. It slammed into the ground and the smoke bomb attached to it erupted. "Time to clean you up. Whatever advantage you thought you had is gone. When Haruka and I are together, we're three times as strong…" Kenzou said as the smokescreen obscured their vision. Her BYlakugan had an easier time, and she spotted Sasuke as he cursed and tried to find them. A crossbow fired, and Naruto cried out in pain. By the time Sasuke got to him, he was pinned to the ground, the thick metal bolt running straight through his shoulder. Hinata couldn't do anything to stop it. How was he even conscious, or at least not still screaming?
"Gah! Ugh…" Naruto hissed and tried to free himself, but he couldn't twist his torso around enough to touch the bolt in him.
"One down, Kenzou," Haruka called.
"Hold on, I'll get it for you…" Sasuke said, though he hesitated.
"Watch out!" Hinata called before a club swung at Sasuke from the smoke. Sasuke slid in between Kenzou's legs, moving fast enough to avoid the overhead smash, and then jumped on the rogue ninja's back to stab him between the shoulder blades. Kenzou went stock still, and then fell apart like the log he now was. A Substitution.
Hinata removed and dropped the last of the shuriken on the ground, hurrying to catch up with them. It was only minor bleeding, easy to ignore. She lowered her voice as soon as they were all together.
"I can see the archer, she's circled around behind us. We need to stay close, or they'll pick us off."
"Naruto can't help us right now, he's... stuck. I think they're less interested in him, so they'll focus us down first." Hinata nodded slightly at his observation, keeping part of her attention on the hidden sniper's movement.
"That's the impression I had of them too. They want us alive, so maybe we could use that to our advantage." Two more smoke bombs went off, further hindering them. Unfortunately for Sasuke, it'd prevent his Sharingan from noticing much unless he moved closer. "We'll use the guard formation."
"What?" Naruto had to strain to be heard. "I can still fight, you just gotta pull this thing out, that's all…"
"It's too dangerous, you'll lose too much blood if we don't wrap it immediately," Hinata insisted. That bolt might be the only thing keeping him alive right now. She drew a knife and stood on the other side of Sasuke, keeping Naruto in the middle. She could taste acid in the back of her mouth as the weight of everything settled on her, but she swallowed hard and shoved the panic away. "The man with the tattoos summons a variety of weapons. He's capable of throwing them accurately too, but he's even more effective up close. His hand to hand taijutsu is formidable as well," Hinata explained to them.
It was too quiet. The enemy must be on the move, or planning something else.
"Tell me where they are," Sasuke said.
"She's still directly behind us, shifting clockwise now." Hinata checked on Kenzou. "He's coming towards us from the right!" And then he just...stopped in place.
"I admit, you're braver than the average children fresh out of school," Kenzou said. His voice somehow echoed in the thick smoke. "I like that. Maybe you'd last through a war too. Too bad you're still too naive to know when you're outmatched."
"She's firing!" Hinata and Sasuke hit the ground as a volley of three arrows passed overhead. Sasuke tossed a kunai in the general direction where they came from, and the tree branches creaked in the distance.
"We just have to last until Kakashi gets here. He's on his way," he whispered. "We need to stall for time. Drag this out." Hinata frowned.
"You say that like we're in a position to decide how fast they pick us off." Her eyes stayed on Haruka while the woman strafed. The smoke was breaking up, at least. "She's right in front of us, drawing her bow again." They couldn't keep this up for much longer.
"That fancy blood of yours…" Kenzou took his time approaching. "You think it makes you powerful, right? But all it does is chain you to the village. You're nothing but their well bred dogs." He had that club of his again. "I wonder how it feels to see that I'm free and you never knew the meaning of the word?"
"Incoming!" Sasuke rolled forward to dodge another arrow, even though the wind sliced as it passed. "He's closing in!" she stuttered. Hinata ignored how much it hurt to move after being thrown around and got to her feet.
"I'm sorry about this, you know. It'd be kinder if we killed you." The fog parted as the chakra loaded club swung downward. Sasuke and Hinata broke off in separate directions as the ground cracked and rumbled from the impact. As soon as Hinata realized that she was alone, the arrows were trained on her. Her chest burned from the bruising and the strain of running, but she had to keep out of Haruka's way. Kenzou followed Sasuke, his club raining strike after strike on top of him. Sasuke backed out of range, but he was very quickly running out of space to work with.
"Guys? Hey!" Naruto called out. The bolt had been dislodged from the shattered ground, but he was still too injured to move. Determined to do anything, he tried anyway. At least the smoke was gone. "What's going on? Dammit!" An explosion shook the air to his left, and Hinata let out a scream of pain. He saw her collapse.
"Two down," Haruka said, landing next to Hinata from her higher position. Naruto watched as Hinata tried to stand up again, but her limbs gave out. A harsh scraping of metal on metal came from closer to the woods. Sasuke pushed back against Kenzou's club with his own windmill shuriken. They seemed evenly matched, but Sasuke's arms shook as he tried to keep up the pressure. Kenzou snarled and let up, only to throw his full bodyweight behind the weapon The shuriken snapped, and the club caught Sasuke hard enough to pitch him a good distance away with nothing but a choking sound.
"And that's all three…" Kenzou grabbed Sasuke by the shirt and carried the knocked out Genin back over, dumping him beside Hinata. Sasuke looked like a ragdoll. "Good work. Let's secure them and pick up the rich kid next."
"You…" Naruto rasped. He had to crawl over to the rest of his team. Haruka looked down.
"You're going to open your wound if you keep moving," she said. "Can't be Hokage if you're dead." He found pity in her eyes, and Naruto glared.
"Stop mocking me! I don't care why you left Konoha, you guys are monsters!" he spat. What could he even do? Kakashi-sensei needed to be here by now. "Why do you even need them? Who wants to buy people?" Kenzou stopped binding Sasuke's arms and legs to chuckle under his breath.
"Oh, you'd be surprised by how many would murder to get a Sharingan or Byakugan," he said. "And if you think this makes us monsters, then you haven't seen a real one yet. You're seeing reality outside of the walls of your peaceful home."
This was normal?
"Being a ninja means that every day might be your last because you ran into someone stronger, smarter, or just plain better than you. Maybe you'll live long enough to learn to cherish the time you have left, boy. I guarantee that you're fodder for those great shinobi you look up to." He went back to dealing with Sasuke. "Go crawl into a bush and wait for help." Haruka returned to re-securing Hinata.
Naruto watched them in stunned silence. They were gonna take his teammates away, and all he could do was bleed and feel like garbage. He felt invincible when he beat Mizuki, but now it was meaningless. He was nothing. If he couldn't keep them safe, then what kind of terrible Hokage would he be? No, this couldn't be it-
Something in the back of his head snapped, and all he saw was a flood of red. His body burned from the inside out, yet he didn't feel any pain. He felt disconnected from everything, and was vaguely aware of standing up to tear the shaft of the cross bolt out of his shoulder. He didn't feel the wound anymore.
"Hm?" Kenzou set Sasuke on the ground so he could see Naruto. All of the Genin's injuries were healing at a rapid rate as the air filled with what some sort of concentrated hatred in the form of red chakra. It came off him in rippling waves, like standing too close to a raging bonfire.
"That… What is he?" Haruka asked. She jumped back and drew her bow, but froze up as Naruto watched them with the eyes of a beast. The whiskers on his cheeks thickened, his nails grew into crude claws, and his teeth sharpened. He let out a roar mixed with an inhuman screech, and then threw himself at Kenzou faster than either rogue could hope to react.