Bab 1463: 54
54
Chapter 54
Road to Perdition
Akuma sat on the bed afforded to him by his employer, feet planted firmly on the ground.
A rustling behind him let him know the bed warmers were shifting in their sleep. There was a low mumble. The shifting soon stopped. If he looked back, he knew what he would see, a pair of naked bodies, nubile flesh covered with a blanket.
The two on the bed with him were naught but slaves. His employer had given him these two to do with as he pleased. They were nothing special, a cute pair of girls who'd had the misfortune of being sold off by their families. He didn't know anything about them beyond that. He didn't care to know.
He was completely naked, like the two still sleeping, but unlike their perfectly unblemished skin, his rippling body was covered in scars. Akuma had lost track of how many scars he had. Several criss crossed over his chest and stomach, many lined his shoulders and back, and quite a few stood out against the dark skin of his legs.
Among the many scars were several large, ugly bruises. Unlike the scars, which were old, these bruises were recent. He'd gotten them during his fight with that kunoichi leader and her attendant. They didn't hurt. In fact, he couldn't even feel them, but still, the fact that he had been injured left a profound impact on him. It caused a grin to curl at his lips.
"It's good to see there are still people who can put up a fight," he murmured.
"Ngg…"
A soft moan made him look back. One of the girls shifted again, her pink lips opening as she stirred, though she didn't wake up.
He stood up and put on some underwear and pants, but he left his chest exposed and didn't bother putting on sandals. The black pants were all he needed.
His room was quite lavish, though it didn't contain much. Aside from the comfortable bed and dresser with his pants, there was nothing else—no art, no decorations, nothing. A warrior such as himself didn't need anything else.
Leaving the room, Akuma wandered a well-lit hallway that was far too opulent for his taste. He ignored the gaudy art as the floor beneath his feet swayed slightly. Turning a corner, he traveled down a flight of stairs, then entered a door that opened into a large chamber.
It looked almost like a medical facility combined with a prison. Instead of medical equipment, however, what this room contained were numerous tables with powerful straps that not even a high level ninja could break. There were also a set of cages on the far side.
As he walked further into the room, the cages' contents came into view. People. Women. Most of these women were young, clearly in their late teens to their mid-twenties, though a few were younger than that. None of them had a stitch of clothing on. Bare as the day they were born, the women huddled against the cages to fight against the shame they felt at being so exposed. This was a standard tactic used to break slaves.
Deeper in the room were several people, a man and a woman. They stood before a table that another woman was strapped to. Like the others, she was naked. Every so often she would squirm and groan as the woman injected something into her. Judging from how compact and defined her muscles were, the woman being subjected to numerous mind-breaking drugs was a kunoichi. Despite being injected with quite a few unknown substances, the female ninja glared defiantly at the two. Akuma suspected she would have shouted expletives at them, but a ball gag kept her from talking.
"Hmm… she's resisting the drugs quite well," the woman said. "That's a kunoichi for you, I guess."
"I've heard the kunoichi from Nadeshiko no Sato are a cut above the rest." The man stroked his jaw. "How long will it take to break her?"
"Longer than it has anyone else." An immediate answer. The woman set the syringe on a tool tray. "I suspect it will take pumping her body full of drugs for at least a month before she's ready to be processed and sold."
The man frowned. "I had been hoping it would take less time."
"We could do it in less time, but that would require physically breaking them, which you want to avoid, right?" The woman shrugged. "Damaging such valuable merchandise will hurt your business, won't it?"
The two before Akuma were rather disgusting individuals. The man was short and had frizzy hair. At a glance, he looked to be about 140 centimeters at most, but then anyone looking long enough would realize that his hair gave him an extra six or seven centimeters. He wore a crisp and clean business suit. It gave him a business tycoon flare, but Akuma couldn't take the man seriously.
His partner was even creepier, with a tall and thin body that reminded him of a twig, bulging gray eyes, and stringy hair that looked like worms crawling out of her skull. Her black pants and black shirt were hidden by a large white coat that went all the way down to her shins. With such a dubious appearance, Akuma could only think of her as a mad scientist.
"Shāto," Akuma said.
The man and woman turned.
"Akuma." Shāto's eyes flashed as he greeted the much larger man with an insincere smile. "I see you are back on your feet. I'm surprised it took so long for your injuries to heal."
"They are not healed, but they have never bothered me. I can keep fighting."
"That's good," Shāto said, nodding as the woman went back to injecting drugs into the kunoichi. "I have some news that you might like."
"What news is that?" asked a now frowning Akuma.
Shāto's eyes flashed. "According to one of my men who made it back from their last assault on the Nadeshiko village, a group of Konoha ninja have arrived to help them."
"Konoha ninja?" Akuma felt his blood begin boiling at the knowledge. A surge of joy filled his chest as his warrior spirit surged with primal longing. "Who?"
"A powerful ninja known as Naruto Uzumaki," Shāto said, causing Akuma's lips to peel back into a feral grin.
XoX
The early morning sun illuminated Nadeshiko no Sato and the area around it, highlighting the damage done yesterday during the attack perpetrated by the large group of bandits. Several towers had collapsed. A number of walls had crumbled, their remains scattered along the ground. At least the dead bodies had been removed and buried. Sadly, there was no time for the people of this village to mourn their dead.
Over one week had passed since Naruto and his team arrived in the village. They had used that time wisely by helping everyone else where ever they could.
Many of the village's kunoichi were already up. They couldn't leave the village in this state, so they were doing their best to repair what they could. Powerfully built women moved to and fro, carrying thick beams that were used to prop up damaged structures, or using earth jutsu to mold the earth around them into bricks, which were then set atop the walls slowly being repaired.
Among all the women doing their best to repair the damage to their home, another group raced about, doing what they could. All of them looked the same. They wore clothing that was predominantly black but had orange interspersed, blonde hair arrayed in many spikes on their heads, bright blue eyes, and whisker marks on their cheeks that reminded all who looked at them of a fox.
The Naruto clones were a great help. Sure, they couldn't create bricks using earth jutsu, but they were excellent pack mules. Many of the kunoichi had the clones aiding them by gathering supplies. It helped that there were so many. Just standing in one spot of the village, a person could easily spot at least one hundred Naruto clones.
"How many clones did you make?" asked Ino as she, Chouji, Tenten, and Shizuka observed the repair efforts being undertaken. Naruto was also there, of course. He stood beside Shizuka, close enough to denote familiarity but far enough that no one would realize they had been having sex almost every night since he arrived.
"Hmmm… maybe about a thousand?" Naruto tilted his head. "I thought about making more, but I think any more than a thousand would just hamper the repair process."
"A thousand Shadow Clones? Seriously?" Ino's eyes were popping from their sockets. "I know you have a lot of chakra, but damn…"
"Should we also help with the repairs?" asked Chouji.
Shizuka shook her head. "No. Thank you for the offer, but I have something else I'd like you to do."
"And what's that?" asked Tenten, who was acting even stranger than usual for some reason. She'd been giving Naruto the cold shoulder all morning, a shoulder that was even colder than before, but then he'd catch her staring at him. Every time he caught her, she'd turn her head and look away.
"I'd like you to help my people locate Akuma's base of operations," Shizuka stated. "I currently have Tokiwa trying to track where the bandits from last night disappeared to. With luck, she'll have some knowledge of their whereabouts when she gets back."
Most of the morning was spent directing people as repairs continued. Naruto asked Ino to join up with the Nadeshiko kunoichi's medical squad. The kunoichi of this village weren't as talented in medical ninjutsu as she was. They used standard medic practices most regular doctors performed, but only one or two were actually capable of using true medical ninjutsu. Her help would be invaluable.
They also ate some breakfast. Sadly, it wasn't much. With the continuous attacks on the village, they hadn't been able to resupply for awhile, so their food supplies were limited.
Nadeshiko no Sato was not a self-sustaining village like Konoha, which had numerous fields, gardens, and farms specifically catering to the creation of foods and raising livestock. When they needed food, they went hunting for wild boars and other animals, picked fruits and berries from the forest, and bought sacks of rice and flour from the nearby village.
"Sorry I don't have much food," Shizuka apologized as Naruto, Chouji, Ino, and Tenten ate breakfast with her in the meeting room.
"It's… munch… it's fine…" Chouji spoke between mouthfuls of food. "I stocked… munch munch… plenty of food… munch… that I can share with everyone…"
Shizuka smiled. "I appreciate that."
The food that had been prepared for them was nothing fancy, a simple fair of bread and bagels with some spreads and berries. When Shizuka had said they didn't have much, she had really meant it. This was some of the last remaining bits of food. Naruto felt bad they were wasting it on him and his team, but Shizuka had insisted.
I'll create some clones and have them forage later.
"Is this really all you have?" asked Ino as she slowly nibbled on a bagel. Tenten sat next to her, listening in on the conversation but not offering to say anything in turn.
"It is." Shizuka took a shuddering breath as if recalling something unpleasant. "Because our village can't sustain itself, I send a squadron to a nearby village to buy supplies. However, the ones I sent out never came back. I sent out another squadron, thinking something must have happened to them along the way, but that squadron also disappeared. I eventually went out myself, bringing almost a dozen of my most trusted kunoichi, and we discovered what appeared to be the scene of a great battle."
Biting her lip, Shizuka smeared some jam on her toast and took a slow bite. Her eyes glazed over as she chewed.
"There were a few corpses, but they were all bandits and thugs. None of our kunoichi were among them. One of my kunoichi specializes in forensic and tracking. She was able to figure out from the scene that our kunoichi had been kidnapped. Once I realized someone was targeting us, I stopped sending out kunoichi, but that's when Akuma attacked."
Shizuka's grave expression was slightly ruined by the jam on her face. Naruto sighed as he leaned over and used his finger wipe off the jam. Returning back to his original position, he inserted the finger into his mouth and licked it clean. The act was so natural that he hadn't even realized he'd done it until Ino whistled at him.
"Ho ho…" The blonde girl's blue eyes sparkled as they darted back and forth between the two. "You two seem pretty close. Is there something you aren't telling us?"
Naruto froze as he realized his mistake several seconds too late. Should he say something? It wasn't like he cared if people found out about his relationships. Shizuka, Temari, Koyuki, all of them already knew about each other, and they were the ones whose opinions and thoughts mattered the most. It didn't matter to him if someone else found out.
Yugito also knew. However, their relationship had yet to move beyond simple flirting.
Before he could say anything, Shizuka spoke up, her expression quite serious. "Naruto and I are very close. We are lovers, after all."
While Ino's eyes went wide with delight—the delight of a gossiper who'd discovered a juicy piece of information—Chouji began choking on his food. He coughed several times and pounded his chest to dislodge it. Meanwhile, Tenten froze. Of all the people present, her reaction was the most surprising, mainly because she didn't look surprised.
"When did this happen? How did this happen? Naruto, you dog. Why didn't you say anything?" asked Ino, who looked so joyful she could hardly contain herself. The girl was practically drooling as she leaned over and looked between him and Shizuka.
"It happened during the time I spent training here, obviously." Naruto maintained a calm mask. "And I didn't say anything because it's not important to the mission. Let's focus on how we can help the village instead of my love life, yeah?"
"Aww… that's no fun. Come on." Ino wore what might have been the most lecherous grin he'd ever seen on a girl. "You can tell me about it. I promise I won't tell anyone else."
Naruto gave his fellow blonde a deadpan stare. "I wouldn't trust the promise of a gossip if my life depended on it. In either event, there's really nothing to tell. We met up, trained together for several months, and became intimate. That's all there is to it."
With a heavy sigh, Ino leaned back. "What a boring story."
Naruto rolled his eyes. "Sorry for being boring."
Breakfast continued, but this time, Ino and Chouji kept stealing glances at him. Naruto would have sighed if that wouldn't have broken his mask. It wasn't like he couldn't understand their curiosity. From their perspective, he probably wasn't that great of a catch to begin with, and they likely wondered why someone like Shizuka was so interested in him. Well, Ino was probably wondering that. Chouji was likely just curious. The big lug had been one of Naruto's friends since their academy days, and he was too kind to think poorly of someone else.
Naruto looked at Tenten. The brown-haired girl was still nibbling on a bagel, ignoring the rest of the world. For whatever reason, the air around her felt even colder than before, but then, he reasoned that she probably didn't like hearing about how he had was intimate with yet another woman. First Temari and now Shizuka? Yeah, he could see how she'd be pissed.
I get the feeling I'm never going to make things right with her.
Maybe he should give up? The thought had occurred to him more than once that giving up on Tenten might be the better idea, but Naruto was stubborn, and he had no desire to give up. If, after the air between them was cleared, she decided she wanted nothing to do with them, then Naruto would back off. However, he would keep fighting until he resolved the tension between them. If nothing else, he didn't want to lose Tenten's friendship.
As they finished off the remainder of their breakfast, Tokiwa entered the room and knelt before Shizuka.
"Have you found anything?" The young village leader gazed at the woman.
Tokiwa bowed her head. "We have not found the bandits or their hideout. However, we did manage to locate something that I believe may lead to it. Several klicks from the nearest village is a mine. It goes underneath the mountains and, we suspect, the ocean. According to several maps we managed to acquire, it leads to another exit near Nami no Kuni. We've investigated the mind, and there are signs that people have been using it."
"And you believe the ones using it are the kidnappers?" asked Shizuka.
"Yes."
Shizuka cupped her chin and furrowed her brow. Naruto gazed at her before looking back at Tokiwa.
Thinking about the situation, there was a good chance that this mine led to their hideout, or was close to it. At the same time, there was a chance they weren't using it at all. It could have been something they did to obscure their whereabouts, making the kunoichi of this village think the bandits were using this mine when they were actually stationed even closer.
Nami no Kuni…
The land where Naruto had been given his first taste of what being a shinobi meant. If he was correct, Nami no Kuni lay to the north of here, beyond the mountains. The cavern would have also needed to travel under water since this village was located on a peninsula. It would have taken at least a week for normal people to travel. How long would it take a group carrying several unconscious kunoichi?
"Shizuka?" Naruto suddenly grabbed the girl's attention.
"Yes?"
"How many times have Akuma and the bandits attacked, and how long are the spaces between each attack?"
Shizuka tilted her head. "They've attacked us three times. The first time it was just Akuma. He attacked, was pushed back, and then attacked again about one week later with a group. After that, we didn't receive an attack until just yesterday."
Which meant they hadn't been attacked after that second time for over three weeks, according to the date on the mission request, which had been received by Konoha via carrier hawk. Three weeks was about the time it took for a carrier hawk to travel from here to Konoha.
Of course, it would take about a week and a half to go from here to Nami no Kuni if someone traveled in a straight line. That meant there was a high possibility these people were, in fact, using the mine to travel from Nami no Kuni to here.
"Would you allow Chouji and I to investigate this mine?" asked Naruto.
"You two will do it?" Tokiwa questioned.
Nodding, Naruto turned to Shizuka. "We'll travel through the mind and dig around Nami no Kuni to see if we can uncover the location of these slave traders. I'll have Ino and Tenten stay behind to help protect you, and I'll set up a perimeter of Shadow Clones to patrol the forests."
In the event that he was wrong, his Shadow Clones could dispel and alert him to trouble if Nadeshiko no Sato came under attack.
After pondering his suggestion for a moment, Shizuka nodded. "That sounds acceptable. I can't send any of my kunoichi out for obvious reasons. I would go myself, but…"
"I understand." Grinning, Naruto thumped his chest. "Just leave it to us!"
Smiling and nodding at his unbridled enthusiasm, Shizuka agreed with his proposal.
About one hour after breakfast, Naruto and Chouji set off for the aforementioned mine with Tokiwa as their guide.
XoX
While there was a lot of work to be done, Shizuka delegated most of the repairs to Tokiwa, who was excellent at handling administrative work. Fortunately, there was no need to patrol the perimeter either. Naruto had created almost two thousand clones for that task. While Shadow Clones were weak, they were good enough to alert everyone to the presence of a potential enemy.
With one Naruto walking alongside her, Shizuka made her way toward the edge of her village. She wandered past buildings until she reached the outerwall, climbed up a set of stone stairs, and found the person she was looking for gazing out at the vast forest.
The defensive wall surrounding Nadeshiko no Sato was a fortification used to protect the village from potential aggressors. Like most of the village, it was a masonry structure made of numerous thick bricks bound together with mortar. Another, smaller wall, lined the the outer edge of the fortification, though it was only about chest high. Several gaps marked where archers and long-range weapon users could rain arrows and kunai down on opponents trying to attack from the outside.
Not that it had done much good against the slavers and Akuma.
"Stay here please," Shizuka said to the Naruto clone, who gave her a silly salute and remained where he was.
Shizuka walked up beside Tenten. While the girl didn't turn around, she had to have noticed Shizuka's presence by this point. The fact that the weapon expert hadn't addressed her meant she was being ignored.
"You know, Naruto spoke an awful lot about you when he and Jiraiya came to this village," Shizuka said.
"That so?" was all Tenten said in response.
"He would always talk about this girl he knew from Konoha. How she was an amazing weapons expert, how she was really strong, and how he admired her tenacity."
Tenten didn't say anything, but her cheeks did grow a dark red as Shizuka continued to talk. Despite this, her face remained blatantly cold, perhaps even angry.
"Do you hate me?" Shizuka asked.
"No. I just don't really like you."
Shizuka smiled in spite of herself. "At least you are honest."
Naruto had once said that Tenten was one of the most stubborn people he had ever met, that she rarely changed her feelings on certain matters, and that once she made up her mind, neither heaven or earth could change it. Shizuka was starting to see what he meant.
She clasped her hands behind her back and looked, not at Tenten, but at the sky above.
"When I first met Naruto, I was in a very dark place. The man I loved had been killed, leaving me heartbroken. I felt like I would never be able to love again. I stopped loving because I didn't want to feel that terrible ache that comes from losing someone you cherish, and I pushed myself to become stronger so I would never have to feel that way." Shizuka paused to find Tenten staring at her out of the corner of her eye. The girl hurriedly looked away when she was caught, causing Shizuka to smile. "Tokiwa thinks I was punishing myself, and maybe I was."
Silence blanketed them. Tenten refused to speak. Shizuka let the silence stretch on and gazed at the line that connected the earth and sky before continuing.
"Long ago, Jiraiya fought my master, who had recognized his strength and wanted him to marry her and help produce strong offspring. They fought, but neither of them won. Then they made a promise that their fight would continue some other time, and if they couldn't fight, then their students would fight in their place." Shizuka paused again, reached up, and began playing with her hair. "My people have a law that we can only marry men who are stronger than us. When a man defeats us, we take them back to the village and have children with them. This is done in order to make sure our clan only sires strong offspring."
Shizuka could tell by the way Tenten was leaning over that she was interested in this story, but still the girl refused to say anything.
"The man I loved, Sagiri, was a merchant. He was neither strong nor skilled in combat. It was against our laws for me to marry him, but I loved him anyway and was determined to change our laws. However, Sagiri was soon ambushed and killed. There was even a rumor going around that a group of kunoichi from my village had done it, though it was never proven."
Shizuka sighed as the familiar ache appeared in her chest. She still loved Sagiri very much. However, the pain itself had dulled since meeting Naruto. No longer was it an overbearing burden. Now it was just a scar that had healed.
"Naruto was the one who rescued me from that hell. His determination and resolve to make his loved ones happy reminded me of my own dreams and desires. He helped me overcome the pain in my heart, and during our time together, I fell in love with him."
Traveling back in time, Shizuka replayed the moments she and Naruto had spent together in her mind. Their first meeting had actually been coincidental. Naruto had been coming out of a ramen shop, and Shizuka had been fighting against a man who used puppets. The man had actually created 100 puppets and had her defeat all of them so he could use a jutsu that bound her. Naruto had rescued her from him with ease.
That was when Jiraiya showed up. As he had promised all those years ago, Shizuka and Naruto fought. Naruto had won. However, he refused to marry Shizuka and said they should train together instead, so she could become strong enough to change her village's laws.
His words had moved her. For about two months, she and Naruto trained together, and she'd grown stronger during that time than she ever had before.
When was it… I wonder. At what point during our time together did I come to realize these feelings for him?
Shizuka placed a hand against her chest as warmth engulfed her. This warmth was something that she'd only begun feeling again after meeting Naruto, and it was something she cherished greatly.
"Why are you telling me this?" Tenten asked after a long silence.
"Because you also love Naruto," Shizuka said. Tenten somehow managed to both blush and break into a cold sweat. "Don't try to deny it. Naruto might have been too preoccupied to notice you spying on us, but I saw you hiding behind the door."
"I… I…"
Tenten opened and closed her mouth several times, trying and failing to speak. Giving up, she looked away from Shizuka, who could only smile.
"I understand what you are feeling. Naruto has many lovers." Tenten twitched. Noticing this, Shizuka smiled and placed her hands behind her back. "When I first confessed my feelings to him, Naruto informed me that he could never give me what I wanted. He said he couldn't produce children, couldn't get married, couldn't grow old with me…" She sighed. "There were a lot of things he said he couldn't do for me. He also told me there were other women in his life."
By this point, Tenten had finally turned around and was facing her. Shizuka's story had her full attention now. Curiosity was swimming within the weapon user's brown eyes.
"If he can't give you any of those things, why are you with him?"
"Because even if he can't give me children, marriage, and a life where we grow old together, he has given me something that no one else has." Shizuka smiled at Tenten. "His undying and unwavering support and love. It's true he can't grow old with me or have children. Marriage is also out of the question because I'll eventually die while he won't. Even though he knows this, knows it will hurt him, he has promised to love and cherish me until the day my time on this earth is over."
A soft breeze blew across the defensive wall, causing her hair to rustle. Shizuka could feel Tenten's eyes on her as she patted imaginary dust off her knees, but she pretended not to notice the intensity in the other woman's eyes.
"Anyway, that's what I wanted to tell you," Shizuka said. "I'm pretty sure I know what your problem is, and if you decide that what Naruto has to offer isn't what you want, then that's fine. But I don't think you should be angry at Naruto because he can't be what you want him to be. If you dislike the idea of not being in a loving marriage, just find someone else."
With her words spoken, Shizuka began walking away, seeing no more point in remaining on that wall. She had more work to do. Leaving all of it to her aids would be irresponsible of her.
She looked at Tenten one last time as the girl turned back to look at the mountains way off in the distance, and then she left.
XoX
"This is it," Tokiwa said as they finally reached the mine that would supposedly lead them to Nami no Kuni. It had taken less than an hour to leap through the trees to reach this place. Naruto was grateful the trees in this forest were so sturdy. They'd blasted from branch to branch at a hellacious pace.
The mine didn't look like much, but then, he guessed most mines didn't. Embedded into the mountain range, it appeared like nothing more than a doorway without a door. Worn out wooden pillars were being used to support the entrance. It didn't look very sturdy. Naruto couldn't stop a small pit of worry from entering his stomach, the thought of traveling through here only to have the supports break and the ceiling collapse entering his mind.
"And you're sure it leads all the way to Nami no Kuni?" asked Chouji, the expression on his face dubious. The big guy obviously felt the same way Naruto did. He was staring at the mine like it was a monster's mouth.
"We're positive," Tokiwa affirmed with a nod. "Technically, it leads to Hi no Kuni, but it is close to the bridge that connects Hi no Kuni with Nami no Kuni."
"I guess there's nothing to it, then."
Naruto wanted to cry at the idea of going through this freaky-looking mine, but he sucked in his tears and tried to think about the positives. He would be able to see Inari and old man Tazuna again. That would be fun. What else was good? Oh! He'd be able to see what had happened to Nami no Kuni after he and Team Seven beat those slimes working for Gato. That was a good thing.
"All right! Come on, Chouji."
"Are you sure it's safe?"
"Nope! But let's go!"
Chouji was even more reluctant to go through the mines than he was, but he followed Naruto anyway. They said goodbye to Tokiwa, who informed them that she would tell Shizuka they had gone off before hopping back into the trees. He wished her a safe journey.
The mine was dark. From the moment they entered and began walking down the sloped path, Naruto's eyesight was hampered by a complete lack of light. Fortunately, he had night vision, which allowed him to see despite this, but it took some getting used to.
"Ouch!"
Chouji was not so lucky.
"Careful. It looks like there's a railroad track here."
"I wish you would have told me that before I tripped."
"Sorry."
Reaching into his pouch, Naruto took out two glow sticks, snapping them both to activate the glowing gel inside, and then handing one to Chouji.
Thanks to the glow sticks, their surroundings were illuminated. Dark shadows danced along the cracked walls. Jagged points and sharp tips created bumpy outcroppings. Naruto could see where people had taken pickaxes to the walls long ago. Like the entrance, this tunnel was held up by wooden pillars that were worn and weathered with age. He was surprised they hadn't broken. Many of these pillars were rotted with age.
"This place is kinda creepy, isn't it?" asked Chouji.
Naruto nodded. "Yeah, though I'm mostly worried about the mine's structural integrity. I don't mind if it's a little creepy."
The tunnel eventually opened into a large, cavernous space. Naruto narrowed his eyes as he used his enhanced vision to peer beyond the paltry five meters of light offered by their glow sticks. Outside of there being numerous passages they could travel through, not all of them were located on the ground. He looked up. Several natural land formations extended from one side of the room to the other, acting as bridge that people could cross.
"It looks like there are several different routes we can take," Naruto murmured.
"Really?" Chouji asked.
"Yeah… hang on."
Sighing, Naruto lifted his hands and created several Shadow Clones. He had them pair up and travel down a passage. The groups all saluted with a loud "Ossu!" and darted off, disappearing through one of the darkened tunnels. He watched them go.
"They'll dispel once they reach the end, letting me know which of these routes we should take."
"Huh… those Shadow Clones sure are useful," Chouji mumbled.
"Shadow Clones are used primarily for reconnaissance." Naruto shrugged.
"I had no idea…"
A short silence descended upon them, but Naruto paid it no heed as he thought about what their next move should be. Obviously, they would be heading to Nami no Kuni. However, that was only the first stage of what they needed to do. He would need to speak with Tazuna, find out who was in charge, and inform them that several kunoichi had been kidnapped and were likely being held captive there.
This is going to cause an international incident.
Naruto almost groaned at the thought. However, just before he could really let the political ramifications of all this sink in, two of his clones dispelled—no, they were destroyed. Images filtered into his head. A horde of people charging down a tunnel. One of them was far larger than the rest, a massive man who towered over everyone else had slammed into his clones before they knew what hit them. That must have been Akuma.
"Chouji. It looks like we've got company coming."
"What? Really?"
"Yeah, so let's get off the floor and find a place to hide. Follow me."
Naruto rushed toward the nearest wall, channeling chakra to his feet as he ran up it, and then curved around toward one of the naturally formed bridges. Chouji followed him. They both lowered themselves into a crouch and peered over the edge. They had smothered their glow sticks, so his friend couldn't see anything, not at first, but then a light emerged from the end of a tunnel.
Several dozen figures soon burst from the tunnel. Their clothing was not what he had expected. Black chestplates, shoulder pauldrons, greaves, and a black bodysuit covered each of them. An orb was embedded into the center of their chests. Chakra armor. These son of a bitches had chakra armor. Strapped to their sides were weapons. Swords. Knives. They were mostly standard weapons used by lowlifes, but Naruto noticed what Tenten had spotted last time. All their weapons were new.
Their employer has some deep pockets.
There were so many people down below that Naruto couldn't even count them all. He stopped after reaching 500, but more kept pouring in as the seconds ticked by. They filled a good portion of the room with light from their lamps. It looked like they were getting ready to attack Nadeshiko no Sato en masse.
Among the group, one of them stood out the most.
He was huge. Massive didn't even begin to describe him. At a guess, Naruto would have said he was about twenty or thirty centimeters taller than Kisame. However, while Kisame had a thinner build, this man was a mountain of meat. His muscles were bulging and rippling, stretching his dark skin taught. Flaming red hair tied into a strange topknot that spiked out like crystallized fire. He didn't wear ninja clothes. His dark gi was tied with a brown belt, and he wore straw sandals instead of ninja sandals.
More shocking than his hair was his eyes. Situated beneath a pair of thick brow ridges with no eyebrows were a pair of glaring red eyes. Naruto almost froze at the sight of them. Those eyes didn't look human.
His comrades (a term Naruto used loosely) seemed to think so as well, for they kept a certain distance between them and the man, who could only be Akuma.
"W-wasn't there supposed to be someone around here?" one of the thugs asked in a shaky voice. "I thought you said the one who created those clones was here."
"Nevermind that," Akuma's cold voice sent chills down the spines of those around him. "Keep moving."
"R-right!"
The bandits didn't hesitate to follow his orders, traveling through the tunnel that Naruto and Chouji had just come from, obviously on their way to attack Nadeshiko no Sato.
"Should we attack them?" asked Chouji in a hushed whisper.
Naruto thought about it but shook his head. "There's too many, and I don't want to risk the mine caving in on us. We'll wait."
While the bandits wouldn't be a problem, the real threat was Akuma. Naruto didn't know everything about his fighting style, but Shizuka had stated that the man's attacks were powerful and destructive, capable of demolishing buildings in a single blow. He didn't want to risk getting caught in a cave-in should they fight.
As the last bandit left, Akuma walked almost casually over to the tunnel. He didn't walk through, though. Grinning, he looked around the cavern as though searching for him and Chouji.
"I might not know where you are, but do not think I can't sense your presence… Kyuubi Jinchurikki." Naruto stiffened. Akuma chuckled. "I can feel the presence of that malignant chakra inside of you, even if you're masking it well. Once I finish my mission in Nadeshiko no Sato, you and I will have a bout—but until then, just stay here."
What?
Naruto had only a second to ponder Akuma's words before the man slammed his fist into the cavern wall. A massive crack split the wall, starting from his fist and growing wider by the second. Akuma sent one last grin into the room before disappearing down the tunnel. Naruto's eyes widened as he realized what was happening.
"Quick, Chouji! Let's move!"
"What? Right!"
Naruto dropped from the bridge and rushed toward the tunnel. The cracks had spread by now. They were all along the walls and ceiling. Several massive chunks of stone fell around them, but Naruto nimbly lept left and right, zigzagging as he made his way toward the tunnel exit.
Unfortunately, the tunnel collapsed completely. Rocks poured in from the tunnel as it caved. To make matters worse, the cavern around them was collapsing as well. Everything was shaking as the mountain itself seemed to crumble like a mud jutsu that ran out of chakra. If it wasn't for the chakra he was using to stick to the floor, he would have been knocked off his feet!
"Look out!" Chouji shouted as he stretched out his hand.
Naruto looked at him, and then looked up—just in time to see what must have been an entire mountain's worth of rubble descend upon him.
XoX
Tenten was still thinking about Shizuka's story several hours after its telling. She understood why that girl had told it to her. It was so she would understand where Naruto was coming from, but that was the problem. She did understand. For all her anger, she at least could say she understood Naruto's side of the issue.
"It's not like I don't want to forgive him," Tenten sighed. "I'm just not sure what I want from him anymore."
She wouldn't deny that her own desires had run along the lines of becoming Naruto's girlfriend, going on dates, and eventually getting married. Even though she knew it wouldn't happen after Naruto's transformation, that dream had still remained. That was why having it dashed so suddenly caused her to become angry at him.
Because she didn't have anything to do at that moment, Tenten had been left to her thoughts as she patrolled the perimeter. The defensive wall went all the way around the hill. It encircled this section of the village to create an enclosure meant to protect them from attacks outside. She walked along, sandals thumping against the brick floor, not really paying attention to anything in particular.
"Tenten!"
A voice shouted from down below. Tenten stopped walking and turned as Ino raced up a flight of stairs, reached the top of the defensive wall, and grinned as she wandered up to her.
"Ino," Tenten greeted. "Finished helping the medical ninjas?"
"Yup!" Ino kept smiling as she nodded. "It was tough work. Turns out there were more injured than I thought. I ended up doing most of the work too because I can use medical ninjutsu, so it took a lot longer than I expected."
"I imagine it would."
Ino had been helping heal the kunoichi and civilians of this village for the past week. Considering how much time had gone by, there must have been a lot more injured than either of them suspected.
Tenten began walking again, and Ino followed her. A mild breeze caused the blue-eyed girl's blonde ponytail to get caught in the wind. Ino smiled as she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, as though enjoying the sunlight warming her face. She had been doing more work than anyone else on their team so far. She probably wanted to rest.
"Anyway, it's pretty crazy, huh?" Ino began.
"What is?" asked Tenten.
"That Naruto and Shizuka are lovers! What else?" Ino's eyes sparkled like a gossip's as she clasped her hands in front of her. "I never would have thought that Naruto would get a girl like that, or a girl at all. I know how much stronger he's become, but I still can only think of him as that bratty kid from our days in the academy who kept obsessing over Sakura. Well, I guess even idiots can grow up."
The topic this conversation was taking wasn't something Tenten wished to discuss, but at the same time, a thought occurred to her. She glanced at Ino. Biting her lip, she debated whether or not to ask the question that had suddenly appeared within her mind.
"Something up?" Ino seemed to notice before she could decide and tilted her head.
Tenten sighed. "Mind if I ask something?"
"Not at all. What's on your mind?"
"Hypothetically speaking, let's say you were in love with Naruto, but then you found out that he already had several lovers and was intimate with them. What would you do?"
"I'd beat the crap out of him, of course!" Ino's shout came complete with her raising an angry fist into the air and shaking it. "There's no way in hell I'd let the guy I like get away with something like that. Sleeping with other girl is off limits!"
"And after you beat him up? What would you do once you cooled down?"
"Well…" Ino scratched her head and thought about her answer. "I'd probably talk to him and see if I could convince him to leave the other girls."
"And if he didn't?"
"Then I'd drop him." Ino shrugged. "If a guy can't be satisfied with me, then I have no obligation to stay with him."
"Yeah… I guess that makes sense."
Ino had a different philosophy from Shizuka, who didn't mind that Naruto was intimate with other girls. Tenten believed she was more in line with Ino on this matter. At the same time, she didn't want to give up Naruto even if he was with other girls. She didn't know if that meant she loved him that much, or if maybe she just couldn't bring herself to remove him from her life. Her thoughts and feelings were a confounded mixture trapped in this swirling maelstrom inside of her. She didn't know what to do.
The problem was ultimately that Naruto, for everything he had done, was still the same as she remembered. Thinking on it, he'd always been the kind of guy who'd freely give his affection to anyone who asked for it.
She knew why. Of course she did. Naruto was lonely. Having lived his entire life without anyone to look after him, care for him, and love him, he craved the love and affection of others. However, because he was immortal, he could not have a normal relationship. If he got married and started a family, his wife and kids would die and leave him alone again. Of course, he said he couldn't have kids, so at least one of those points was moot anyway. In either event, Naruto didn't want that to happen, but he still wanted to form intimate bonds. That was why he formed relationships with Shizuka and Temari.
What kind of relationship do I want with him?
Tenten didn't know, and the more she thought about it, the more it bugged her.
"So…" Ino began, interrupting her thoughts. "I'm guessing you love Naruto? That's why you're asking me about this, right?"
Tenten could feel her cheeks heating up like a furnace, pretty much letting Ino know that she'd hit the kunai on the hilt. The blonde girl grinned at getting it right. Meanwhile, Tenten tried to figure out what she should say.
"Well, I… yes."
Her shoulders slumped, though the blush remained.
"I thought so." Nodding to herself, Ino wandered over to the wall and looked at the expansive forest spread out before them. "It was pretty obvious you liked him… you and Yugito. I always wondered which one of you would end up with him. I'm surprised Shizuka ended getting to him before you two."
Tenten grimaced. This girl didn't even know the half of it. She thought about telling Ino that Naruto was also sleeping with Temari as well, but something held her back, perhaps the knowledge that it wasn't her place to tell the other kunoichi about who else Naruto was sleeping with.
"Anyway," Ino continued as she stretched her arms above her head. "Shouldn't you be thinking more about what you want to do instead of wondering about what other people want?"
"Do you think so?" asked Tenten.
"Of course I think so." Ino looked at her like Tenten's question was stupid. "I'm just one girl with my own opinions. I know plenty of people who don't mind being in a polyamorous relationship, but if you want something like that, you should definitely talk it out with Naruto and Shizuka. I've heard communication among partners is really important in a relationship like that."
Tenten would have wondered how Ino knew so much about polyamory when she herself was monogamous, but then she remembered that Ino was a gossip, and the juicier the gossip was, the more likely she was to know about it. Ninja engaging in polyamory was definitely the juiciest of gossip someone like her could find.
As she was thinking about everything she'd been told, a loud quaking made the wall shake. Ino screamed as she almost lost her balance. Tenten applied chakra to her feet, sticking in place. As the shaking subsided, she studied the area around her to see if she could find the source of that quaking.
It wasn't hard.
"Bandit raid!"
"We're under attack!"
"Everyone! Defensive positions!"
Several small spheres sailed through the air and struck a building, detonating with explosive force. Plumes of fire and smoke rose into the air. Rubble rained onto the streets below. A threnody of screams rent the air, but fortunately, none of them were from the civilians, who had remained behind in the largest and safest of the three fortress sections. From where she stood, Tenten could see numerous kunoichi pouring from the village's center hill.
More explosions echoed all around them. Smoke and flames appeared high over their heads as several sections of the village began burning. The Nadeshiko kunoichi darted across the roofs and between buildings as they rushed to defend their village.
"It looks like the bandits have returned," Ino said with a grimace. "They worked faster than I thought they would. I didn't expect them for another few days."
"Whatever the case may be, let's help out!"
"I'm with you!"
Ino leapt down from the wall and headed toward the nearest village entrance. There were only four entrances into the village, two on each of the smaller hills. These underground stairways were how the kunoichi of Nadeshiko no Sato left the village. Each stairway was reinforced with a door made of thick steel.
However, it seemed the bandits had some manner of breaking through, for dozens of them were being disgorged from the entrance they went to.
A chaotic battle was already taking place at the village entrance. Kunoichi clashed with bandits. In most cases, the bandits would have been easily pushed back, for there was no way simple thugs and criminals could contest with the jutsu and strength of ninja.
Something was different. The kunoichi were being pushed back.
A kunoichi on Tenten's left launched a fireball from her mouth, which struck the ground in front of several bandits and exploded. While the air pressure created from the explosion certainly knocked them down, none of them appeared injured, and they got back up and charged forward again. To the right, a young man engaged a kunoichi in a taijutsu battle. The kunoichi had lightning coating her hands as she launched a series of powerful punches, but when her hand connected with the man, the lightning dissipated. Before the shocked kunoichi could even figure out what was happening, the bandit knocked her unconscious with a strike to the head.
"What is going on?!" asked Ino with a surprised shriek.
"I don't know, but something is definitely different than the last attack." Tenten looked at the bandits once more and noticed something. "I think their armor somehow absorbs chakra."
"What?! Really?"
"Take a look."
Whenever a jutsu hit one of the armored bandits, the jutsu would dissipate. What's more, streamers of chakra swirled inward like a vortex, getting sucked into a bright jewel that glowed as the chakra entered it. Tenten had never seen anything like it before, but it wasn't hard to figure out.
"Everyone!" she shouted. "Don't attack using jutsu! They won't work! Stick with taijutsu!"
There was no telling how many kunoichi heard her words, but a few of them definitely did, for they stopped attacking with ninjutsu and began using purely taijutsu. The difference was unbelievable. Once the kunoichi attacked with simple hand to hand combat, the tide of battle began turning in their favor
Of course, several kunoichi were ninjutsu specialists and had no taijutsu skills. The bandits quickly dispatched them, knocking them unconscious and attempting to drag them off, but Tenten leapt through the air, unrolled two ninja scrolls, and went through a series of hand seals.
"Sōshōryū!"
After completing the necessary hand seals, the scrolls rose up from the ground and spun around each other. Smoke emitted from between them. It took the shape of a dragon. Tenten used the smoke as cover and leapt into the air, summoning several hundred kunai, which she unleashed in blindingly quick succession.
No one could even see the kunai as she threw them. They were mere glimmers of light that traveled faster than even a skilled ninja could spot. The bandits might have been wearing special armor that gave them an edge, but they were still lowlifes. Her aim was impeccable, too. Blood spurted from numerous wounds as she tossed kunai at the joints in their armor. The neck, the shoulder, the thigh, armpits. She aimed at the bandits trying to carry away the unconscious kunoichi, striking them down before they could.
A great cheer went up at Tenten's display of skill. However, even with her technique dispatching numerous foes, more were still coming. In fact, Tenten soon realized that there were more bandits now than there had been before. It was like ten more cropped up for every one bandit killed. If this kept up, they would be quickly overrun.
This is not good.
Tenten summoned another weapon to her hand, a length of chain with a weight attached to one end. The chain was exactly half a meter long. Known as a kusari-fundo, it was a weapon that gave her an extended reach while also allowing her to defeat opponents up close.
Spinning the weight around to create an intense propeller effect, Tenten launched herself into the battle with a warcry.
XoX
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone