Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. Ah, the futility of youth. I must seize the day, and find a way to extort the rights from either Kishimoto or Shounen Jump... whoever is currently in possession of them. There's no time like the present, I always say!
Wait... no, I don't.
Chapter 18: Our Little Pandemic
"We're catching up," Hana announced as she led Naruto and Shino through the trees. Ever since finding the body of their guide in the slums floating in the river, they had been in pursuit of the people that had dumped him in the water, "Human scents are getting stronger."
"What exactly are we going to do when we catch 'em?" Naruto asked, "I mean, we'll have to fight. But we can't kill 'em, can we? We need to try and get some information. At least a second way to get into The Deep."
"This may be more difficult than just ambushing a group," Shino said, his brow furrowed in thought behind his sunglasses, "Why you ask? Because I'm afraid interrogation isn't my strong suit."
Naruto let out an irritated grunt, "It's not mine either. If you want me to seal something or punch it in the face, cool. Anything else, too bad."
Finesse work was not his thing. It was one of the reasons that Tenten volunteered to be the one to try and get close to The Deep to figure out what was going on there. However, going in was never part of the plan.
And she accused Naruto of freestyling too often during their more sensitive strategies.
This was all making Hana's head hurt to think about. Naruto was treating Tenten being trapped alone the way she would have about one of her own clan members, "None of you are related, and I can't ever remember freelance shinobi sticking around each other long enough to have the kind of rapport you all have. Especially you and that girl," She had never been subjected to any real camaraderie that extended beyond clan connections, "Who is she to you?"
It was a fair enough question on her part.
"My important person," Naruto said gravely before realizing that Hana and even Shino were both staring at him as though he had grown a second head, "One of them! I've got a bunch of important people, 'ttebayo!" He hurriedly added, but it was too late. Hana didn't believe him.
For a girl who tamed dogs, Hana certainly donned the expression of a sly cat very well, "Uh-huh. Sure."
Naruto quickly blew the entire thing off after the fact though. Hana's line of thinking was so far off point that it wasn't even funny, "Seriously, Tenten's like my soulmate. Like my soul sister. I mean, somebody who totally understands me, but not somebody I wanna like, marry and make babies with, you know?"
Because that would be weird. And awkward. He had to make sure that those distinctions were clearly evident, above anything else.
"No, I don't know," Hana said, allowing Naruto to continue stumbling his way through philosophy. He rambled when he wasn't sure about how to put something, and it was hilarious. This was the big, bad, scary jinchuuriki, Naruto of the Nine-Tails? He seemed more like a regular old fourteen-year old boy to her, "Why don't you keep explaining it to the poor, old Inuzuka girl from the backwoods?" She said with a facetious rural twang to her voice.
"It's like, the chick equivalent of a blood brother. A best friend that's a girl that you treat like family," Naruto struggled to explain before eventually catching on and glaring over at the older girl, his eyes closed in a bitter squint, "You're messing with me, aren't you?"
Hana couldn't even meet his eyes, lest she burst out in laughter, "Nooo… yeah. Sorry. It's just so easy," She admitted with a few chuckles before a sad smile formed on her face, "You kind of remind me of my brother, actually. He was a little bit like you. Loud and a little awkward. He was your age and everything."
Naruto felt all kinds of awful now. This was a girl that had lost her brother and was losing more members of her clan, probably even at that moment. Talking about what he still had that she was in danger of losing wasn't something that he should have felt comfortable with, "So we've still got to get down into The Deep, and soon."
"Right. Let's go then," Hana said, happy to get off of the saddening topic of her brother. She already decided that the grieving could be saved for when she reunited with her clan and her mother, "Maybe she'll let you get all kissy-face with her when you see her again."
Naruto shook his head, continuing to lead the way forward on the search for the operatives of The Deep, "You're seriously missing the mark. Let it go already."
As if. Tenten would break a guy's jaw first before she let anyone do that. He'd seen it. Of course, it had been their own fault for trying to get handsy and whatnot with a trained kunoichi. Still, despite saying aloud that Tenten could handle herself, it did little to convince him of his own words.
God, she would definitely be pissed if she knew that he was thinking that way.
XxX
(With Tenten – The Deep)
Tenten still had blood on her from running a human being through with a spear. She knew that she did, even if she couldn't necessarily see the red, as dark as it was in most of The Deep. How she yearned to be a smartass and ask if she could be taken back for another shower and a new change of clothes again.
They weren't going to just kill her now after their little test. If that were to have been the case, they would have just done it while she was still in the arena. Whatever was happening, she was in now. All this just to get close to someone and not kill them? It was a lot of effort.
"Where are you taking me?" Tenten asked as she took note of her surroundings.
All of the hallways looked the exact same. All were poorly lit, as though it were intentionally done. She tried as hard as she could to memorize the turns that they were taking so that she could get back to the entrance later, but it was difficult. Between listening to Rinji, keeping her senses open for another surprise test, and all of the other compounding worries she had rattling around in her head.
Rinji's damned infuriating smile remained on his face as he effortlessly seemed to lead her around The Deep, "Orochimaru-sama is always interested in meeting the new people that join our ranks."
"Ranks?" Tenten said, channeling her distaste for her situation into outrage for being recruited into a mystery fighting force, "I just came down here for a safe place to live."
Rinji scoffed at the assumption that it would be that easy. He apparently didn't think much of the refugees from the topside, even if they had won the right to live and survive down there, "And no one lives for free. There's a cost to everything. Money. Goods. But none of those things hold any value if staying here is your aim. Strength and ability is the only currency recognized in this place."
And that was the last word between the two of them until they reached an ominous-looking door where Rinji allowed Tenten to walk ahead of him. She stopped as if to ask why he wasn't leading her any farther, but he shook his head and walked away, "This is all you. Good luck."
"You're going to let me in there to speak with him, by myself?" Tenten asked suspiciously.
Rinji turned around just long enough to let her see his very punchable face one last time, "Trust me, there's nothing you could do to him all on your own," Oh, so punchable.
But for as much of a jerk as he was, Tenten believed him without a shadow of a doubt. One did not spend a lot of their life listening to the rumors and urban legends of the ninja world without hearing of at least enough of Orochimaru's feats to leave a healthy sense of wariness in regards to potentially interacting with the man.
Tenten carefully and quietly reached for the door, silently opening it just enough to slip her body inside and close it back. She felt as if she were trespassing in the lair of a top-of-the-food-chain predator, and she wasn't that far off.
Despite her trepidation, she couldn't help but marvel at the advanced technology she saw in what had to be a workshop or a laboratory of some sort. There were tables topped with parts and schematics, several layouts of the human body and the known human chakra network. Designs and formulas of all sorts that made her want to stop and look them over to compare or possibly find something that would get her own creative thoughts flowing.
She walked over to a table that was overflowing with notes and parts, covered in dust as it seemingly hadn't been touched in quite some time. Her fingertips brushed one of the open scrolls, wiping away a film of dust to better help her see.
"Interesting, don't you think?"
Tenten turned around with a start, though there was no one behind her. The smooth, sly voice had come from deeper inside of the workshop. Despite her heart leaping into her throat, she was in no danger. Instead, now she just knew for certain that there was someone else in there, and he did wish to speak with her.
"The potential of human beings is incredible. With enough will and ingenuity, a simple concept, no matter how far-fetched it seems, can become a reality. With enough creativity, anything in this world can be possible."
Tenten followed the voice until she found herself staring at the back of a tall man with long, black hair. As she stood in his presence she had no doubt that this man was indeed the person that she and her friends had come to find in the first place, "O-Orochimaru... sama?" She added as an afterthought.
Even if she had no plans of being a real underling of his, his strength and intellect warranted the show of respect, if nothing else.
He turned and made eye contact with her, and Tenten had to fight against herself to keep from taking a step back.
A wide grin spread across Orochimaru's ghastly, white face as he appraised the girl before him, "There's no need to be afraid or try to keep up any sort of tiresome facade. I know who you are, dear."
That was... highly improbable. No one knew who Tenten was, because no one had ever cared. She didn't exactly have any sort of reputation, or any defining trait as a shinobi that people would keep an eye on. Nor did she come from any sort of clan pedigree.
To say that she was skeptical of the claim of the man before her would not have been a stretch, "You do?"
"Yes," Orochimaru said, moving past his machines and other devices that filled the workshop, "I am considered a man of science by many. A purveyor of death-dealing tools and techniques by others. I would not do much to live up to such a standard if I were unaware of certain up-and-comers in similar fields, such as yourself."
Well hell then.
"It was a fair idea," Orochimaru admitted, walking past Tenten, getting behind her without ever seeing him take a step, "A Henge would have been discovered the moment you made your way inside, so you depended on your own lack of notoriety or any sort of name value to simply make your way inside, and it worked."
This was no good. One of the most dangerous men in the world had her basically at his mercy, "So what happens now?" Tenten asked, watching Orochimaru check something off on a list he had been holding as he moved to another station.
"Hm, nothing," Orochimaru said, dismissive of the lengths that Tenten had gone through to try and get into The Deep to possibly learn of his whereabouts, "Were you expecting me to do something violent? You must have had your reasons for seeking me out, and I doubt that those reasons were devious if you came here alone. On the contrary, I find myself impressed by you, if you can believe that."
Tenten stood straight and held her arm sheepishly, "I... can't honestly."
Orochimaru stopped and turned around, surprising Tenten at the look of disappointment on his face, "There is a difference between humility and low self-esteem, young lady. I am not a fan of either in people I see true potential in. Never say anything like that again," He warned.
She worked her mouth, but no sound came out. Tenten had no idea what to say in regards to just being threatened none too subtly about her own self-image, "...Why would you care?"
Not bothering to turn around to face her again, Orochimaru, made himself busy by plying his attention to more of his pending works, "A fair question," He said as he did so, "My dear, you are not descended from any discernible clan background, the same as myself. And yet you have clawed your way into a significant position in a faction making quite a bit of noise at the moment."
"I don't have any influence, Orochimaru-sama. Not really," It hadn't quite taken a material form yet. It was still mostly an idea. But even if there was land for it, and even if it was taking shape, she was just a soldier. She worked for Minato, took orders from him, Kushina, Kakashi, Jiraiya, and whoever else had seniority. That was all.
"But you will," He whispered to her, a grin on his face, "For several reasons. Not the least of which would be your ability to innovate. Your ingenuity. You have a beautiful mind, with some of the things you've been able to create, and at such a young age."
Orochimaru didn't think the same as her at all. Tenten was looking at the immediate future and her place in things now. She might not have thought that she was important in the present scheme of things, but that would change very quickly once things began to set themselves in motion. Orochimaru could read such things well in advance.
If she stayed alive, she would be someone. He just knew it.
"I do so hate to see unique talent squandered. I take it personally." Orochimaru commented to the astonished girl before changing the subject, "But never mind that now. Do you know what my specialty is? I have a particular interest in ninjutsu design and body modification. What would you say yours is?"
Tenten bit her lip self-consciously, wondering if her focus in creation would seem lame to the powerful scientist before her, "I love ninja tools. Weapons," She said before elaborating on her focus in the ninja arts, "With the right weapon, the talent to use it properly, and a plan, I believe even someone like me can win against anyone and anything."
"And by someone like you, you mean-," Orochimaru said, needling her to get her point out. He would not allow her to let it go unsaid. He wanted to hear it.
"No natural gifts. No unnatural power-up. No kekkei genkai. No prodigy's talent for ninjutsu or genjutsu," Tenten continued to explain seamlessly, "It's just... me, and what's up here. And in here," She punctuated by tapping at her temple and then at the left side of her chest at her heart.
"Are you jealous of your friend? He is quite powerful from what I've heard, and not just for his age."
Tenten frowned at the thought, "You're talking about Naruto, aren't you?" She asked before shaking her head, "No. As strong as having the Nine-Tails inside of him makes Naruto, it brings a lot of problems with it that I don't think anyone else could take without... changing. Turning into something bitter."
"That's because his circumstances have never caused him to lose anything that he truly values," Orochimaru said, telling her his opinion on the matter, "He is young, and he hasn't seen just how cruel this world of ours can make itself. But enough waxing philosophical and getting to know each other, hmm? You came here for a reason, and I am not just a scientist, I am a businessman. What, pray tell, can I do for you today?"
Tenten inhaled deeply before bringing up the real reason that had brought her there, "…I need the antidote to your bioweapon."
"Which one?" Orochimaru deadpanned, "You're going to have to be a little more specific, my dear. I seem to wind up making a new one whenever I have free time on my hands."
The weapon-loving kunoichi's jaw hung open in astonishment. He did that sort of thing all the time? Was this man insane? Who made biological weapons every time they were bored? "The one that killed off the Fuuma Clan!?" She cried out.
"…" Orochimaru simply continued to stare at her as if to ask if he were supposed to know what she was referring to.
It took a concerted effort from Tenten to refrain from palming her forehead, "The Uchiha Clan bought it?" She tried next.
A glow of familiarity came to Orochimaru's yellow eyes as his disturbing grin came back in force, "Oh yes! That one! I'm rather proud of my work in regards to how that one turned out," He told her, "I've come up with nothing more effective for dealing with shinobi without the rigmarole of battle and extended campaigns."
"Does it have an actual name?" Tenten asked, her fear and astonishment giving way to honest curiosity, "I've never heard anyone even say it before since it started popping up."
Orochimaru truly was proud of the project that had garnered him so much money from the Uchiha Clan, "The Five Elements Virus," He revealed, chuckling smugly to himself, "It's really the most interesting project I remember completing in quite some time. It turns the very chakra running through your system against you. The stronger and more abundant a person's chakra, the lower their chance of survival after coming into contact with it."
No wonder it wound up wiping out an entire clan. No one knew that much about it. The most that anyone had been able to discern about it before was that it caused the body to attack itself somehow. It had been frightening enough then, but now Orochimaru's pet virus sounded like an absolute nightmare.
A shinobi's chakra was their... everything, more or less. It was what made most of them shinobi in the first place. The amount that you had and what you could do with it were some of the most lauded traits possible. For your own strongest tool to become the reason for your painful death was horrible, "The stronger you are, the more likely it is to kill you?"
Orochimaru was glad to speak to someone who had at least a rudimentary grasp of what he was trying to explain, "Exactly. Anyone the virus kills would be those that the user would be wary of, and anyone who survives the duration of the sickness and recovers would likely be someone that they would not hesitate to engage in battle anyway. That is its purpose."
"How much do you want for an antidote?" Tenten blurted out, getting sick at officially hearing for the first time exactly how the bioweapon was supposed to work.
"Ah... and now we get to the heart of the matter," Orochimaru mused aloud, "Well, I'm afraid I've never gotten around to creating an antidote," At that, he could just feel Tenten tense up without ever needing to look at her. A sigh came from the white-skinned shinobi's mouth, "I said I never created an antidote. I didn't say that I never made the formula for one. I can sell you that."
That was great. It was better than she could have anticipated. That meant that they could make their own and have as many as they needed after a one-time purchase. From a strategic sense, being the ones with the cure for the Uchiha Clan's death plague would foster a lot of goodwill with their enemies if it continued to come up.
Was that a cold way of looking at it? Perhaps. But it was realistic.
Then he dropped the price on her.
"600 million ryo."
"Uwah…" Tenten squeaked unimpressively. Yes, they had it. But she didn't think she had the authorization to blow that much money on anything, especially since what they had on them was money that Naruto had lifted from the village establishment fund, which was considerably far deeper than a paltry 600 million. Even so, 600 million was 600 million, and it wasn't hers to spend, "W-Why so much? How much did the Uchiha Clan pay for the actual virus?"
"About half of that, more or less."
"Why is the antidote so much more then!?"
Orochimaru shook his head and chuckled amusedly at Tenten's outbursts, "My dear, a common combat knife will oftentimes cost less than what it would take to stitch up someone wounded by the very same blade," He reasoned smoothly, "There's more money in the cure. It's the business of medicine. And besides, do you really think I would sell the counter to one of my own weapons for cheap?"
Ninja economics was such a dirty practice.
XxX
(Meanwhile – With Naruto)
As they were led through the woods by the noses of Hana and her ninken, both Naruto and Shino were mentally prepared for a fight. There was no doubt in either of their minds that this would turn violent very quickly, even if they came to the denizens of The Deep with an even-handed, peaceful approach.
"My murder senses are tingling," Kurama suddenly said inside of Naruto's head, "Something I really want to kill is getting close. I can feel it."
'Please stop calling it that,' Naruto mentally beseeched his biju ally, 'I think I'm going crazy enough as it is without you yipping at me to kill stuff that you don't like.'
"Well maybe if you humored me and did it just once when I told you to, I wouldn't be on about it so much."
'No, you'd just do it more since I caved once before!'
"What? You don't trust me?"
'To act like you have morals? Hell no.'
"Morals are for wimpy humans like you to justify not having the strength to do whatever you want."
'I'm not having this talk with you again. And weren't we talking about something important?'
"…I don't know. I was focused on the murder."
Yes, the murder. Because something that Kurama didn't like was getting close enough to them to set him off, and as far as Naruto knew, only one thing made Kurama go on a tangent promoting hapless, wholesale slaughter; Uchiha.
Right on cue, Hana's nose twitched and she brought them all to a stop, growling at the environment around them, her ninken following suit, "You've got a lot of nerve trying this crap again…" She snarled, managing to keep herself in check despite the sheer numbers of the enemy that she could smell amassing before them.
If nothing else, they knew to come in numbers. Naruto counted over a dozen of them himself. If there were more, Hana and Shino would probably know before he ever did.
"Tch. Nerve? Coming from the people that stole what belongs to my clan."
Naruto knew that voice. The effort to sound as cool and collected as his older brother, when deep down that was not his personality in the slightest? It was a dead giveaway, "Sasuke... go away," He demanded lowly, "I don't have time for this right now."
Sasuke raised an eyebrow in return. Normally Naruto was spoiling just as heavily as he usually was to fight.
"You have my clan's property," Sasuke informed him, arms crossed as he stared the jinchuuriki down, "And I'm not going to say something like, 'Give it up and we'll let you live.' You already know what's going to happen."
Naruto extended his hand to Hana. Wordlessly, the young Inuzuka woman handed the bioweapon canister over to Naruto, an audible smack sounding out from the transaction. Naruto held it up in front of him in one hand, "Oh, you mean this?" He asked, getting a glare out of Sasuke before he held it by both ends and pressed his hands together, the canister apparently disappearing right in front of Sasuke's eyes, "Where did it go? Nothing up my sleeve!"
Sasuke bit back a yell of anger at Naruto's little games. At least he hadn't sealed it away into anything. He hadn't seen any activation of chakra with his Sharingan, or any of the physical signs of Naruto's sealing techniques. He had seen quite a few of them. Whatever he had just done wasn't one of them.
"Fine," One of Sasuke's supporting Uchiha Clan members, "We'll just kill your friends and torture it out of you."
"You were going to kill us anyway," Hana chimed in dryly, "I don't see how Naruto playing peekaboo with the canister would have changed that."
Shino agreed with a curt nod, "Indeed."
A female Uchiha member simply shrugged her shoulders in return, "It would have been quicker... and less painful."
"Fortunately, that is not your decision in this instance," Shino said, holding his arms out in his ready stance, his body set to send out insects from every part of his body at a moment's notice, "Why? Because we will be fighting back. I hope you are prepared."
"I don't," Hana rebutted honestly, a sneer marring her attractive features before she launched herself at the nearest enemy to them, one who thought they could actually sneak up on her while their attention had been elsewhere. That particular powder keg hadn't lasted for long before exploding.
Sticking together in a 12-plus-on-3 situation would have resulted in a chance for serious casualties on the side with the lesser numbers. Even if they were individually the better of their opposition, Hana didn't know enough about working with Naruto and Shino to manage a feasible method of dealing with this kind of battle.
Still, Hana had her ninken, which was three different forms of backup for her, Shino had his insects, and Naruto... had himself.
They split up as the Uchiha darted about, picking their targets and forming up in squads that had been arranged beforehand. They had been prepared to deal with the group because of Sasuke's familiarity with them and fought as such.
"This won't take long!" One of the attacking Uchiha boasted.
"Good, 'cuz I don't have time for this!" Naruto shouted, dodging back and away from three Uchiha who had gone for him, thinking they could overwhelm him before he began to tap into the chakra that gave him his epithet, "Get out of the way!"
He formed a cross-seal with his fingers and created a single clone that kicked him out of the way and intercepted the Uchiha Clan members coming his way. The clone was quickly destroyed, but not before it completed five quick hand-seals and touched its hands to the ground.
In its demise, a puff of smoke concealed a large sealing array on the ground that left the clan members trapped inside of it, unable to escape its confines, "What the hell?"
The real Naruto wasted none of the momentum his clone's shove had given him, pumping all of his force into his legs and sparing no time in leaping right at Sasuke. Subtly pulling a kunai, his attempt to stab Sasuke was stopped by Sasuke's sword, though the impact of the charge knocked the two of them deeper into the forest, away from the rest of the battle.
As the Uchiha Clan remained trapped by Naruto's fuuinjutsu trap, thousands of insects came crawling out of the trees and bushes, down from the dirt, and all around, all coming right for them, locked on with extreme prejudice.
"Hijutsu: Mushidama (Hidden Jutsu: Insect Sphere)," Shino said calmly as the insects breached the sealing perimeter that the Uchiha Clan members couldn't escape.
"For God's sake, where did they all come from!?"
"I had them spread out throughout the forest helping us search for The Deep," Shino explained, for the benefit of himself alone, as by now the trapped Uchiha Clan members were screaming in horror at having the chakra sucked out of them by a mass of insects covering their bodies, "I kept them in reserve instead of letting them come back to me, just in case we were attacked. It's always smart to have an ace in the hole."
Out of the members of the team, Naruto might have been the strongest, but Shino was the most merciless in battle, by far. It wasn't even a contest.
Hana didn't mind dealing with the enemy even though they outnumbered her current party. She had sorely needed a point of stress relief for quite some time. They hadn't done enough fighting for her to get out her aggression and sorrows properly.
She and her ninken had teeth and claws that hadn't gotten enough blood on them to make up for what had happened to Kiba. It was her mistake as the elder sister for not reining him in during his hasty attack against Sasuke, and she would have rather paid for it with her life than his, but that didn't occur. She was alive, he was dead, and those aligned with the clan that orchestrated his death and would see every Inuzuka cast from the lands that were their home were right in front of her.
If she failed, they would have her life and the tool they needed to end the ongoing struggle between the Inuzuka and the Uchiha without a fight. She would not allow that to happen.
XxX
Naruto drove Sasuke back fiercely through the forest over a long distance. The two still more or less attached by the lethal weapons they had pulled on one another. Sasuke wasn't willing to risk relinquishing his guard against Naruto's kunai, and Naruto was certain he would be able to overpower Sasuke and force the tip of the blade through his body.
Maddeningly enough, Sasuke's footsteps were fleet and skilled enough to guide them out of the way of any tree trunk they would have crashed into as they moved, no matter how Naruto tried to guide him into one.
Their clash sent them flying over the side of a bluff where they kicked each other away and landed on the surface of a river with a pair of large splashes before the water settled and they stood at a stalemate, drenched. Naruto had dropped his kunai, but Sasuke still stood armed.
They stared each other down until Naruto stomped angrily, splashing up water, "Sasuke, you asswipe! Come back later if you want to be a psychopath!" He shouted, "We were following some guys who worked in The Deep! Now they probably got away because of you!"
Sasuke ran a hand up his face and into his wet hair, irritated at the current state of affairs. Fighting him was always such trouble, "I don't see how this is supposed to be my problem," What did he care if Naruto was trying to get into whatever place he was talking about? His only concern was getting the bioweapon back.
That was why he had gathered as many forces as he had to attack Naruto's group, because he knew that he would need them. But he hadn't expected Naruto to be down a number from what he had been expecting.
"Where's the girl with the weapons?" Sasuke asked, having wondered from the outset of the battle where Tenten had been. At first he'd feared that she was elsewhere waiting for an opportunity to ambush them in turn, but as things progressed he realized that she just wasn't there, "She was definitely with you before, and I can't imagine you trading her off for the Inuzuka girl."
Tenten had definitely been with him when he had been fleeing the seaside town that they'd run across them in the first time around. His group had never reported any sort of strange movement, such as the team splitting up and separating.
"Don't tell me," Sasuke said, a smirk slowly growing on his face, "...You let her get captured by whoever is in charge of this place you're talking about," As Naruto grit his teeth tightly, Sasuke added one last barb. His usual parting shot whenever he spoke to his blond enemy, "...Loser."
Naruto's body took on a golden glow as though he were a flickering flame and disappeared. Sasuke's eyes went wide, but he knew what was coming as his Sharingan had been on and he'd seen him begin to move.
Sasuke was able to cover up and turn his body just in time to avoid most of the impact from Naruto's high-speed, biju-enhanced haymaker. The first time Naruto had ever punched him like that, it made full contact and nearly killed him.
He'd gotten better at seeing the signs to know when it was coming, and picking up on Naruto's targeting tendencies to know where he would aim. That along with training his Sharingan to adjust to things he couldn't directly keep up with physically.
It also helped that while Naruto could do it on command, he couldn't actually maintain it for long. Sasuke didn't know if that were true or not, but it was a deduction helped along by the fact that he never saw Naruto keep whatever it was on. It was like a Shunshin from hell if it was anything.
Sasuke pulled himself out of the trench his body had dug into the shore after taking the punch, shaking out his right arm that trembled heavily after absorbing part of the impact from the blow, "Tch. You may have half of the world fooled that you're some kind of force of nature, but I know better. Your mom hits harder than you do," Sasuke taunted as Naruto slid to a stop on the surface of the river.
Naruto glared at him, but noticed the involuntary twitching of Sasuke's limb and quickly changed his attitude, "Oh yeah? How would you know that? You ran away from her."
The reminder of Sasuke's retreat was neither needed nor wanted. He created a quick flurry of hand-seals before breathing fire from his mouth, "Katon: Ryuuka no Jutsu (Fire Release: Dragon Fire Jutsu)!"
Naruto didn't dawdle and immediately moved to get out of Sasuke's line of aim, successfully doing so as Sasuke's attack had missed him by far. But instead of flying off safely, it turned and immediately followed Naruto, advancing on him at a pace he had never seen Sasuke's fireballs move at.
This didn't even look like a fireball. It looked like a line of fire burning ever closer to him in the air, no matter how he tried to move to avoid it.
With a look back at Sasuke, Naruto could see something hanging between his teeth, a wire. A quick look down at his hands let Naruto see a nearly invisible string wrapped around on of his wrists. He cut himself free just before he would have been immolated.
'When did he have time to get the wire on me?' Naruto thought to himself, breathing heavily and relieved that he was able to realize what had been happening before he had been set ablaze, 'Either from the very beginning before we jumped away from each other, or when I punched him.'
The former was more likely, but Naruto wouldn't have put the latter past Sasuke with what he knew he was capable of. If anything, it was likely that he placed a genjutsu on Naruto to hide what he was doing. Sasuke of all people knew that genjutsu wasn't exactly the strongest facet of Naruto's game.
In his panic to remove the wire from himself, Naruto momentarily lost sight of Sasuke, missing as Sasuke darted across the surface of the river, getting close enough to wage a silent attack. At the last moment, Naruto heard the shifting of Sasuke's sword in his hand.
Turning his body, Naruto was able to catch Sasuke's sword between his palms as Sasuke stabbed forward. The blade pierced the armor-padded vest on him, but barely broke the skin underneath before stopping. Naruto's blood stained the sword from the cuts on his hands as Sasuke tried in vain to push the weapon farther into his target.
Naruto activated Kurama's chakra just long enough to break Sasuke's sword with a twist of his wrists. Sasuke immediately jumped away and tilted his head out of danger when Naruto threw the broken piece of sword at his face.
The small metal object missed and sliced straight through several trees along the side of the river.
Sasuke dabbed at a warm, sharp stinging on his face and felt a cut that had opened up on his cheek. The piece of sword had never touched him. Instead, it had only been the wind chakra that Naruto had coated it with when he'd thrown it.
Naruto watched the Uchiha discard his now worthless weapon to the side and rushed him directly. Sasuke aimed a kick at his head but found it blocked by a clone that Naruto created as he rushed right past him. After making it past Sasuke, Naruto's clone disengaged away from him just as Naruto turned his body, and the two of them reached out into the air with their hands before pulling toward themselves, "Fuuton: Kazenomuki (Wind Release: Way of the Gale)!"
The water parted, heading in the direction of both Narutos, while Sasuke hung in the air where he had been caught. He suddenly felt as though his body were being pulled apart by the intensity of the two attractive forces of air. The air was sucked right out of his lungs by the two-sided vacuum that Naruto's jutsu had formed. He couldn't even find enough to yell out, despite the pain.
Realizing that Naruto and his clone were sucking everything in, Sasuke opened the weapons pouch he kept at his hip, letting everything inside fly freely at one of the Narutos. It just so happened to be the real one, who dropped his jutsu after being stabbed and cut with several sharp instruments.
The loss of one side of the vacuum caused Sasuke to fly at the source of the other, Naruto's clone. Rage in his bloodshot Sharingan eyes, Sasuke punched through it and dispelled it before getting a small measure of distance from the real Naruto.
"Damn," Naruto said, pulling a few shuriken out of his shoulder and chest, "If he'd have held his breath like everybody else tries to, it would have killed him."
He had turned up the intensity of the jutsu too fast in his haste to finally checkmate Sasuke. He usually started it slowly so that people would feel their breath being taken away and would try to hold it, which was the ultimate mistake that wound up doing them in. Holding one's breath during that jutsu only ruptured the lungs and released air inside into the circulatory system.
Breathing out was the way to prolong the time that one could last in it.
Sasuke took deep gasping breaths, choking down precious oxygen as if it were a nonrenewable resource and he were trying to hoard it all. His swimming vision slowly settled in, but his temper did not, "Damn it, this doesn't have anything to do with you! Why are you fighting so hard for a clan that isn't yours?" The Inuzuka weren't even friends of his.
"Because I don't clap for genocide," Naruto responded, "It doesn't matter if I'm with them or not. I'm not letting anyone kill off a whole clan. If it was yours I would do the same thing."
Kurama let out a sigh from inside of Naruto at his altruistic attitude, "Yes. I would argue with you the entire way, but I know that you still probably would anyway… damn it."
"You're full of so much shit," Sasuke told him with chuckle, showing just how laughable he found such a statement from someone like him, "If the Uchiha Clan and the Inuzuka Clan switched places just for this, you wouldn't be able to hand that canister back over to them fast enough."
Naruto let out a sigh, bags showing under his eyes on his normally exuberant, youthful features, "I don't want to kill you guys, Sasuke. I don't want to kill anyone. But I can, I have, and I will again," He said, his solid blue eyes hardening at the prospect of ending his rival's life.
Sasuke was losing. He knew he was losing. Naruto had fought a much more inventive fight than Sasuke had expected out of him and he had the upper-hand. Sasuke was hurt far worse than Naruto was, Sasuke didn't have anything in his repertoire that could turn the tide in an instant, and if things kept devolving into a battle of attrition Sasuke would never be able to win against Naruto for several different reasons.
At that moment, several small fireballs flew into the air above the trees, catching both Naruto and Sasuke's attention. Naruto didn't know what that meant, but it clearly meant something to Sasuke from the look in his eyes afterwards. The two stared each other down, with Naruto just waiting for Sasuke to make any sort of move so he could pounce.
Neither moved a muscle for the longest time until movement from the nearby trees gave way to Shino and Hana arriving to back Naruto up, "Guys."
"They retreated," Hana reported. She was coated with blood from the battle, and none of it was hers. Her three partners were chasing the retreating enemies away, making it as much of a rout as possible. Even better than that though, Naruto seemed to have put Sasuke through the wringer, "I guess you've got this one in a spot where he can't run though."
"You should surrender," Shino suggested to Sasuke amicably, "Why? Because it is six against one, and your clansmen have already chosen to fall back."
Sasuke scoffed at the thought of running away with his tail between his legs. There was no way he was letting them leave with something his clan spent good money on. Well if they wanted the bioweapon so badly, they could have it. He hated to waste it on just three people, but it was in their possession, he wasn't going to get it back in a timely fashion, if at all, and he felt like being a sore loser today.
Too bad for them.
He made three hand-seals, stopping on the bird seal, staring right at Naruto as he did it, "Release."
Naruto heard a loud hiss and felt the release of air pressure from the canister, hidden somewhere on his person. His eyes went wide as Sasuke smirked. It wasn't the victory he wanted, but the enemy wasn't going to get their weapon without their approval at least, "Well, have fun with that."
With that, he disappeared in a Shunshin, leaving behind three stunned and terrified shinobi.
Naruto quickly fished the canister from where he had kept it stashed away for safety. His breath hitched at the sight of the broken seals all over the object, as well as the opened cap that had been airtight beforehand. This was no good for any of them.
Now that the seals on it were broken, Naruto could better read them, including the remote arrays set to activate to a specific trigger. Of course it was a remote-activated object. Who would be the poor schmuck to stand right by it and open it with their hands? He would have kicked himself if there was any way he could do more damage to himself than what the cursed thing inside of the canister would now do to them.
Naruto, Shino, and Hana all looked at each other with varying expressions of horror on their faces. The only saving grace was that it was just the three of them and Hana's ninken that had been around. Still, Naruto was able to sum up the thought that was clearly being shared between the three of them at that particular moment.
"…Fuck."
XxX
Neji smiled to himself as he saw Hinata positively beaming at his side. He still had something of an enmity with most of the Main Family of the Hyuuga Clan, but as Hinata had grown older and taken on more responsibilities as the to-be future leader he saw a bright spot on the horizon for the Branch Family.
Now older as well, he wore traditional Hyuuga robes. A white shirt with loose sleeves, fastened shut on the right shoulder, along with matching pants, a grey apron tied around his waist, and black shinobi sandals.
As they traveled on a trail in the lowlands, heading to where Minato had sent word that they would be trying to establish the foundation of the allied village plan, Hinata's bright attitude was because of who she expected to see once they made it there.
The girl meant to be the person leading the Hyuuga Clan into the future was growing up to be quite the beautiful lady, with her long, dark blue hair trailing down to her waist. Hinata wore a lavender, sleeveless blouse, tied with a dark purple obi around her waist, as well as a pair of short navy shorts with thigh-high stockings and black high-heeled sandals.
She had a significant soft spot for the leader's son, Naruto. Neji could see it, but as the chief bodyguard to the young woman who was also his first cousin, he made it his business to keep that information from going any further until she was bold enough to do so herself.
…Something that could take a while.
While Hinata was far less timid than she used to be back when they were young children, she was still a bashful girl at heart. The fact that the person she admired was Naruto didn't make it any easier.
It was like being someone who was easily startled, but liked fireworks and artillery.
"Remember Hinata-sama," Neji started to say as they walked, flanked by several other Hyuuga Clan members, "We are coming for actual business, not just for personal reasons."
"I-I'm aware of that, Neji-niisan," Hinata replied, her face turning slightly red at the subtle reference, "That doesn't mean I can't look forward to certain parts of the mission, does it?"
Neji let out a chuckle at her shy reply and shook his head, "No, I guess it doesn't."
His guard was still up, as they were out in the open in the wilderness, but they were surrounded by their clansmen, some of whom were alternating the job as watchmen for the party. Their Byakugan could be exhausted if it was left on for too long, but it was too useful a scouting tool to leave off when they could be attacked at any moment.
They were headed to the location Minato had been scoping out for a possible location of the village as a show of good faith from the Hyuuga Clan that they were willing to work directly to bring his dream into existence, instead of just sitting back and waiting for something concrete to show before throwing their full support behind it.
Namikaze Minato had been a good friend and ally to the Hyuuga Clan in the past, as had those who worked alongside him. If nothing else, the Hyuuga Clan understood loyalty and valued it greatly. They also saw the value in combining forces with other skilled organizations and pooling resources.
It was a good investment in their future, both as far as the chance of garnering earnings through work went, and for their safety from the constant fighting that took place over business. The fact that they liked the people putting the whole thing together was just a pleasant bonus.
Slyly, one of the Hyuuga guards slowed his pace enough to move at Neji's speed, leaning over to whisper to the main bodyguard of the party, "Incoming enemies," He said, the veins around his eyes showing his active Byakugan, "Shall we attack them while you protect the heiress?"
Sneaking up on the Hyuuga Clan was quite the difficult task for even the best shinobi.
Neji took a moment to think about it before turning on his own Byakugan. They were being followed, true, and their stalkers were staying away for the time being to try and find a vulnerable moment to catch them unaware, 'If they know enough about us, they know that engaging up close is likely the worst thing for them. They'll try to attack from a distance.'
And that was a bad thing for most of them. Other than Neji and Hinata, no one knew any of the Hyuuga Clan's more prized techniques that would allow them defense from distance attacks. Those were for Main Branch members only. Neji knew them because of his own talent that allowed him to pick it all up in passing.
He didn't want to put any of his fellow Branch Family members at risk by sending them out to attack an enemy that was prepared for them. Not at a time when things looked to be moving in a positive direction for them. He wanted them to live to see times of change. All of them. But Hinata was going to be the instigator of most of that change, and putting her life on the line was not an option. It was to be avoided whenever humanly possible. It was the reason he was her closest bodyguard after all.
Still, the element of surprise was now on their side, and in some cases it was best to take things into your own hands. After all, it was safer to attack than to defend, was it not?
"No," Neji eventually told his clansman, "I will engage the enemy alone. Simply stay close to the heiress, and do not stop walking until I begin fighting," He ordered before quickly addressing Hinata, "Hinata-sama, I will return soon. I'm afraid there is something I must take care of."
Hinata frowned, but knew by now that if Neji had decided on something of this nature, it would be difficult to stop him, especially if the alternative left the chance of putting her in danger, "Please, be careful."
Neji nodded and simply turned around, standing in the middle of the road with his eyes closed, waiting. After almost a minute of waiting, he turned his Byakugan on and saw both his comrades moving away and the people stalking them from farther back stopped and waiting. It brought a smirk to his face, as though he couldn't see them.
"If you've come to do us harm..." Neji started to say, speaking loudly enough to be clearly heard throughout the deep valley road, "...You should turn around and leave. Or you could try to attack me before I attack you. If I make the first move, this won't last very long."
No one moved. Neji could see them camouflaged in the rock of the valley cliffs that covered the road and counted them out in his head.
Their numbers would have been a problem if they had attacked his contingent, as the time it took to dispatch them as they came along to him would have given them a chance to hurt the others, but since he was alone, he didn't particularly care about ten shinobi, especially as they attacked him all at once.
It was the worst possible thing they could have done, but how could they have known that? Even if they had somehow procured knowledge of the Hyuuga Clan's top-tier secret techniques, who would have figured a lowly Branch Family member to know any of them?
"Thank you, for making this easy," Neji said, his Byakugan blaring to life as they leapt at him from above on all sides, "I wish that I could do the same for you. Unfortunately, you are all in range of my divination."
Neji took his stance, and as they all fell into his area of influence, no one escaped the wrath of his merciless hands.
Two strikes landed, then four, then sixteen, the pace and ferocity of his blows increasing with every interval he counted to in his head.
Thirty two, then sixty-four, and that was where it ended, with everyone that received the attack on the ground, barely moving, if at all.
"Hakke Hyaku Nijuuhachi Shou (Eight Trigrams One Hundred Twenty-Eight Palms)." Neji said, exhaling deeply as he stood up out of his finishing stance, his long sleeves draping back down his arms, "The Hyuuga Clan is extremely accustomed to fighting against greater numbers. Still, you may have had a chance, if your opponent had been almost anyone but me."
"Uhh..."
Neji's attention was drawn to the only kunoichi he could see that was strong enough to actually crawl. Now that he had a moment to check them all, he could find no clan markings or any way to determine just who these people were.
Well, that was what talking was for, wasn't it?
Neji walked over to the kunoichi just as she reached the cliff wall and suddenly turned, throwing a kunai at his head. Neji tilted his head out of the way and swatted the weapon aside safely, moving faster than she could react to and placing his index and middle fingers directly on her forehead as she reached inside of her shirt, likely to go for another weapon, "You shouldn't do that."
Frozen solid by the threat of having her brains turned into pudding inside of her skull, her body went lax. They had been defeated, soundly, by one Hyuuga Clan Branch Member. It was enough to get a laugh out of her. The old man in charge of her clan had never said anything about the Hyuuga Clan's glorified servant class having someone so talented amongst them.
Well, the others would know for the next time. And there would be a next time, even if she and her cohorts wouldn't be there for it.
"This is just the beginning," The mortally injured kunoichi said quietly, smiling despite her grim predicament. She opened her shirt to reveal explosive tags attached to her, burning down at the same rate her life seemed dwindling, "...You have no idea."
Neji's eyes went wide. His Byakugan had been on. How was it that he couldn't see them there?
*BOOM!*
XxX
(Northwestern Mountain Range – Sarutobi Clan Archives)
The Sarutobi Clan was willing to sell anyone the chance to hunt their vast libraries for any bit of knowledge they were wise enough to seek out and diligent enough to find for themselves. Yet there were some that warranted watching when they were allowed on their learning grounds.
This particular one required keen observation from the clan leader Sarutobi Hiruzen himself.
It was not often that the name Shimura Danzo came up, but whenever it did things rarely went well for any events surrounding its utterance. Most people had forgotten the name of the man, and the clan he belonged to. The battlefield had not been kind to them, as their numbers had dwindled after open war with others for years. Danzo himself was evidence of that, with his crippled body and his missing eye that he kept constantly concealed beneath bandages.
Nowadays, they weren't the type to garner a lot of attention through their work and thus were not as well known. But if you were to see one and find a way to identify them, it was wise to be extremely cautious.
Danzo had arrived and paid for a day of study. Nothing more. He seemed to seek out nothing that would have borne watching out for, as far as his future aims went. It was merely some old history. He read as though it were for leisure instead of for any sort of research purposes, but this was perhaps the most unlikely thing feasible. Paying for access to the Sarutobi Clan's archives for even a day was too expensive to be done for relaxation.
It wasn't exactly a vacation spot... even if guests staying for longer than a day were presented with rooms and could request meals.
The old man said nothing the entire time unless it was necessary, and then just as inconspicuously as he arrived, he informed Hiruzen that he was leaving. It wasn't until he was escorting Danzo to the edge of their realm that he even bothered to say anything, "Even living on this mountain, I'm certain that a man in your position is aware of what's happening in the world at large."
"You'll have to be a tad more specific, I'm afraid," Hiruzen said with a small smile as he pulled a pipe from his scholar's robes, "We are aware of many things. It is partially our clan's business to obtain information after all. What were you speaking of in general?"
"There used to be rumblings of a man trying to bring together a diverse set of clans and roving shinobi together to form a settlement of all things," Danzo specified, his single eye looking over at Hiruzen speculatively, "...These are no longer rumblings. This is coming to pass."
"I believe it to be a step forward."
"A step forward to what, exactly?"
"Progress? A better way? Something to shake the Elemental Nations out of the languid cycle of death and suffering that it is now?"
Danzo scoffed at the thought that this was progress. It was insanity, for so many reasons, "Do you really believe that this is for the best, Sarutobi? I did not take you to be a fool," The Sarutobi Clan was known as arguably the most well-educated in the lands, in all facets, and amongst them, Hiruzen was meant to be the wisest, "You know what this could do to clans that rely on the way things are to make a living. Not all of them are large enough to sustain themselves in the aftermath the way the Senju and Uchiha are."
A culture of slaughter and war was not Sarutobi Hiruzen's ideal. It was tiresome. He had lived a long life and had seen nothing but battle. They had texts and tomes full of rich history, art, sciences and yet every ounce of information anyone had ever come to purchase the chance to find and see for themselves had been for nothing but killing. Every note taken, every word copied had been meant to improve one's chances in battle. It was the most valued thing there was, and it had been for centuries.
It was a practice that left him weary, and his clan shared his sentiments entirely, "We're cannibalizing ourselves, Shimura-san. Slowly, but surely," Hiruzen said, "Even if this venture fails, I would rather our way of life perish as a result of us trying something different that could make things better, than see it perish by our complacency."
"Shinobi are meant to endure," Danzo stated coldly, "If the way things stand are not to the benefit of your survival, I would say you have no place in the world of ninja."
"They are also meant to adapt and adjust," Hiruzen counted smoothly with a drag from his pipe, "Personally, I would suggest you take stock of your methods and do such. You will not be able to stop progress, no matter how much you may wish to."
But clinging to the past that had made him and his clan what they were was what Danzo's mission for survival was. He would clutch and cling to it, and would be as bitter about it as he needed to, "I refuse to call something that will lead to the end of us all as 'progress'," He said as he departed, "Mark my words. If this... village comes to pass, more than half of our world will burn."
Hiruzen paid him no mind, and waited until the man was long gone before heaving a heavy sigh, "And I am certain that you will do your best to ensure it is our half that does," Because he would be on the side that would at least try to bring people together. Whether it failed or not wasn't the point.
He spent the night going over what Danzo had been there to read, finding nothing other than lore and recorded clan interaction throughout the years, good and bad. Alliances, conflicts, feuds, all of it. Nothing on their mannerisms or anything that would let an enemy of certain groups gain an advantage over them in battle, but still, it did not give him an easy, peaceful feeling whatsoever.
They were in the days of a dying system. The era of old was coming to an end. This was something that Hiruzen had been staring in the face for a long time. The only thing that was left to determine would be if the era they were in went out with a whimper, a bang, or a slow and destructive burnout that would scorch anything that would come after it.
XxX
(The Deep – Orochimaru's Private Study)
Orochimaru had a smile on his face that he couldn't get rid of, even long after Tenten had left to reconnect with her traveling party that she had left outside. So often, his interactions with shinobi were less than pleasant, to say the least. Not this girl. She had been respectful, and understood that despite his primary focus on the sciences of the ninja world, he could have torn her apart within minutes, if even that.
Despite the fact that she had clearly been afraid of him and distasteful of what she had seen of his personal stronghold, she had been wise enough to show him no hostility. Clearly, she had been a smart girl that knew where she stood amongst the monsters of their world.
"Are you finished sorting away our new guests, Rinji?" Orochimaru asked when he felt the presence of the one of the few people allowed in his domicile without the need to be cleared first, "I hope they find their living conditions to their liking. My organization cannot run without them."
Rinji smirked at his employer before bowing, "Yes, Orochimaru-sama," He responded respectfully, "I feel that I have to ask, was it really wise to let that girl just leave? I was escorting her out when she realized what the people we don't recruit for your forces are used for."
Their conditions were as wonderful as they dreamed they would be on the surface. The only thing they were asked was that they simply come to the labs when they were asked, and only when they were asked. None of them cared about what went on in the labs, as they weren't asked to do anything other than live in peace.
Tenten realized as they walked away from the briefing of the new guests that they weren't allowed to just live there. There was a price, just like there was for her supposed living there, only they didn't have to fight to the death to gain passage.
No, eventually they were likely going to die. Die as some kind of test subject for one of Orochimaru's modifications, or live and then become one of his assistants.
By that time, Tenten had all of her weapons back on her person and seemed to come close to actually mounting an attack before she realized where she was and just what her circumstances were. She thought better of it and bit her tongue until she was let out at the main entrance and escorted out of the shantytown where she was free to go about her own business.
"Do you really think it's better for them up here than it is down there?" Rinji eventually asked her before she left for good, "You saw these people. They have nowhere to go. No chance. Yes, they may die down with us, but they're dead if they stay up here for too long as well. They've given up. At least in The Deep they have a purpose before they move on."
The girl thought that life had more value than it did. Yes, it was valuable, but it was not priceless. Not in the least. The way the shinobi lived made that abundantly clear. They were being given a service of comfort with the chance that they might have to pay with their lives at some point. Some didn't even pay that! They were given power, and for no cost but to work for Orochimaru out in the field!
Orochimaru merely chuckled at what he heard from his trusted underling, "Yes... many things about this place vex her, but she will do nothing to us with the level she's at now. Besides, I told her when we spoke earlier, that I do so hate to see unique talent squandered. If a change is indeed coming, it would do well for me to establish some sort of connection, don't you think so?"
Orochimaru could do whatever he liked, because he was a staple of the society that he lived in, the one that bore him. A product of the cruelty and practicality that categorized the ninja world that adapted and thrived enough to carve out his own place in it as a prominent figure.
But if those days were coming to an end... if a day was coming where his callous practices of furthering the limits of human potential at all costs would no longer be looked at as necessary to gain the weapons to crush one's enemies, it would probably be best to have someone in what would be the trendsetter for the new regime that thought well enough of him to keep him from becoming an enemy.
If only to buy himself some time to find a new way of continuing his practices. Orochimaru wouldn't let a small thing like being perceived as a monster in human flesh keep him from grasping at the dream he so feverishly sought.
Which was why he threw in a few samples of the antidote/vaccine, both as a show of good faith and to show that he had indeed come up with one that would work on his own bioweapon.
"Yes..." Orochimaru drawled, "Call it an investment in the future."
XxX
(With Naruto – Ta no Kuni)
After the signal for the retreat had gone up, none of the Uchiha Clan members had dawdled about, even to set traps to slow them down. They had simply run away. It made sense, as Sasuke had probably informed the rest of his allies that he had released the bioweapon.
Naruto and his cohorts hadn't tried to pursue them, instead the fight had for the most part been sucked out of them by their circumstances.
"Well, I don't know about you guys, but I'm super pissed off right now," He said, sitting on a moss-covered rock a few miles away from the river. Finding Tenten had gone on hold, as they weren't even sure that finding her would have been the safest thing for her with them the way that they were.
Hana let out a nervous laugh with little humor behind it, "I'm more afraid than angry," Shino simply stood in silence, not giving his opinion one way or the other, but his body language spoke of some sort of agitation, if nothing else, "...What do we do now?"
A good question. What were they to do? Go home, get comfortable, and quarantine themselves until they eventually died? They only had a handful of days until they were afflicted to the point where it began to affect them physically. Travel would not be a good option for them then. They probably wouldn't be able.
Hana's bandage-covered broken nose wrinkled as a scent she knew of came to her notice, not very far away, "Huh? Oh, wow."
Naruto barely needed to be told, as he could hear movement coming their way and stood up from his rock, prepared to intercept whatever it was. Fortunately it wasn't a hostile presence. Also fortunately, it was who they had been looking for.
Unfortunately, they were all afflicted.
Tenten landed from where she'd been traveling in the trees, a smile on her face as she stood up from her bent-kneed crouch, dressed again in her normal attire, "Hey guys," She greeted as she started to walk over, "You're never gonna believe the kind of day I had toda-."
"Tenten, stay back!" Naruto snapped at her with his mouth covered, stopping the surprised girl dead in her tracks before she could reach them, "Don't get any closer! You can't get sick too!"
Sick? They were sick?
No, it couldn't be.
"You've got to be kidding," Tenten said, ignoring Naruto frantic hand movements entirely. Her face was stony and serious, "You've all got it?" She asked, getting three nods from her friends and their temporary ally, "How? How in the world did you manage to do that?"
Naruto turned away from Tenten, glaring in the direction that he knew the person responsible had run off in, "Because Sasuke's a dick."
"I agree," Shino added, "Why, you may ask? Because he triggered the seals on the canister to open on all three of us. We of course breathed in."
Hana noticed Tenten continuing to walk over to them, "You really should stay away," She warned, gesturing to her ninken that she had keeping their distance as well. She didn't know if dogs could catch the virus as well, but she didn't want to take the chance, no matter how much she wanted a comforting hug from her partners, "There's no use in you winding up like us."
Shaking her head, Tenten advanced over and laid a hand on Hana's shoulder, "Don't worry about it. I got immunized while I was in The Deep. Orochimaru-sama wouldn't take no for an answer. He gave it to me for free after I bought the formula for the cure."
At least there was that. Tenten wouldn't wind up catching the nasty illness like the rest of them had. Better yet, they had gotten a bit of what they'd set out to find. It wasn't something that they could distribute immediately, but it was a start.
"Wait. You talked to the guy who came up with this crap?" Naruto asked, wondering just what he had missed while he'd been fretting about how Tenten had been doing by herself in a dangerous place, "He's down there?" She nodded, "Whoa. How'd that go? What's it like down there anyway?"
Tenten remembered the fight to the death, the cadre of shinobi loyal to Orochimaru after receiving his experimental techniques and body modifications. The people that she never saw again after they had all headed down there. She didn't even want to think about what had happened, or could be happening to them.
If she told Naruto, he might have done something hasty. Something that they didn't have the time to get into. The Deep and all of its ills would be there for another day. Time was of the essence now.
"Terrifying," She summarized, "I don't want to talk about what it's like down there right now," And the creepiest thing was, she was certain that Orochimaru liked her, "Look you guys, if you're sick, we've got to handle this as fast as we can," With that, she pulled out two syringes that she'd kept in her supplies. She hadn't planned or expected to have to pull them out so soon, but this was what they were for, more or less.
Her solemn reminder brought the rest of them all back to the most pressing matter, the fact that they were all infected with killer bioweapon, and Tenten only had two cures. Two cures for three infected.
Hana was shaken up at facing the fate that she and her clansmen had fought so hard to avoid. Now it was set upon her, "H-How long will it take us to die?" She asked.
It wasn't a topic that Tenten wanted to bring up, but if one of them wasn't going to be fixed, they deserved to know about their chances. A lot of what constituted the virus had just been speculation until she'd heard it right from Orochimaru's mouth, as few wanted to risk their health studying the bodies of those who died from it.
"Most people don't last longer than two weeks," Tenten said, arming her friends with perhaps the only weapon she could for the time being; knowledge, "The more chakra you have, the longer it's supposed to take, but the more certain it is that you will die if nothing's done for you."
Whoever was left infected was going to suffer. It was going to be unpleasant and painful. They all knew it. There was nothing that could be done for them at all without an antidote handy. Pain relief drugs did nothing to subdue the agony that came with the symptoms.
Orochimaru had been very blunt in his description of his beloved plague. The man was exceedingly proud at what he had managed to create.
Naruto looked at his comrades and took in their expressions. Hana looked positively petrified, while a faint buzzing hum seemed to be emanating from Shino. Tenten kept shooting looks between the two antidotes in her hand and the three people before her that were infected.
He knew what she wanted to do. She wanted to just give the cure to Naruto and Shino. They were her friends, the ones she knew. The ones she would want to survive if she were forced to make the choice. But it didn't feel right to let it happen that way. This was Naruto's team, and it was his responsibility to Hana to get her back to her clan with a way to ensure their survival. He had been the one to volunteer them, after all.
"Well that makes this easy then," Naruto said with a sigh of acceptance, "…Use what we've got on Shino and Hana. I'll go without until we can have someone make more."
Tenten immediately wanted to hit him. She never wanted to do that, but she really felt like it right then. This wasn't the time to succumb to the hero's complex she knew he had. It was about survival, "Naruto, this isn't like the flu or something! If it goes for too long, even if we can get the antidote to you in time to save you, you might never be the same again! It's awful! You've seen it! We've all seen it!"
But it wasn't just him trying to be brave. He honestly figured that with what they knew, his going without was the best option for them, "I don't see what other choice we have here. Either I stick it out for as long as possible, or someone else does, and you just said that it takes longer for people with more chakra. Either I'm the one that goes without, and maybe I die, or someone else goes without and they definitely die. Now give Hana and Shino the antidote."
Yes, the virus might have been more lethal to those who had more chakra, but that was based against a normal person as a study. It killed shinobi. It was just that simple. There were only a handful that had ever survived it, and Shino and Hana definitely had more chakra than the average shinobi. They would die and die significantly quicker than Naruto would if they weren't treated.
"…I hate you, you know that?" She told Naruto for prompting her to make such a decision, "…I really, really hate you sometimes."
"You can hate me all you want to," Naruto responded, letting the untrue statement slide right off of him. He knew better. She was just scared. He was too, "Just give them the goddamn antidote while you do it."
Tenten's fist tightened in her free hand. If she had been holding the antidotes in that hand, they would have shattered in her grip. Eventually though, she threw them over to Shino and Hana, as instructed, "Inject them into your necks."
Hana spared Naruto a grateful smile and immediately did as she was told, feeling a sense of relief as the injection went into her body. Shino didn't do so at first, debating on how he could convince Naruto to instead take the shot, but after studying Naruto's face after he realized the insect-user was stalling, Shino realized that there would be no talking him out of it without an actual fight.
Begrudgingly, Shino shot his syringe into his own neck. He wasn't happy about it, but was more reserved with his emotions than others.
Tenten was not, but she wanted to be productive. Complaining and bitching Naruto out the entire time they traveled to meet up with Minato would do them no good, no matter how much she wanted to yell his ear off. She would make sure he'd be getting it later though, whether he wound up listening or not.
As they all wordlessly traveled, Naruto tried to break the awkward silence that had fallen between them due to his mortality staring them all in the face, "Heh, well, on the bright side, at least mom and dad can't kick my ass for this after they hear about it, or else they'll catch it too."
Jutsu List
Fuuton: Kazenomuki (Wind Release: Way of the Gale). B-rank ninjutsu. Mid-to-long range, offensive. The user creates at least one clone and utilizes wind chakra on separate sides of an enemy/enemies. The power, size, and scope of the jutsu is controlled by the practitioners and is capable of tearing objects apart if enough force is used. When used on people, the primary threat comes from the danger of a target's entire oxygen supply being pulled straight from their lungs through their open orifices.
I have been playing an obscene amount of Mortal Kombat X since it came out... and I regret nothing. I main Takeda in that game, in his Shirai Ryu form... and I regret nothing.
I don't know why I'm telling you this, as the number of you that care I could probably count on one hand... yet I still regret nothing.
Yes. Kenchi keeps his eyes forward on the road ahead, never questioning his past and speculating nothing about his future. Instead, he grasps it with both hands and creates it for himself out of blood, sweat, and opportunistic cunning!
...Ahem.
So anyway, yeah, the story. Moving parts and problems galore, take your pick. Also, Sasuke got punched in the face and strangled in a vacuum. Plus, you got your recommended amount of Orochimaru's charismatic creepiness.
Now please, carry on gents and ladies. As you were. Life awaits, I'm afraid.
Kenchi out.