章 845: 22
Chapter 21: Two Sides of the Same Coin
Tayuya let out a huff as she, Kakashi, and Shikamaru sat in restaurant after finishing another day of 'information gathering' which was pretty much them being tourists. Looking around at the lazy jounin and the lazier chunin she felt her temper slipping, "Alright Kakashi. Seriously, can you tell us when Shithead is getting back? At least if he were here this would be mildly entertaining somehow."
Kakashi let out a sigh, she had been asking him about this for the last three days, "Tayuya, for the ten thousandth time; he'll come back when he comes back. I'll know when he's on his way and I'll let you all know."
Tayuya grumbled and crossed her arms, "Shithead... he'd better have a damn solid excuse for ditching us here like this."
Shikamaru yawned, "Whatever, you troublesome woman. All I know is that this is my kind of mission. No fighting, no running around, just relaxing and doing nothing. Maybe I should try and go on more missions with Naruto and Kakashi-sensei more often."
Kakashi eye smiled at Shikamaru, "See Tayuya? Shikamaru has the right idea here."
Tayuya let out an undignified groan and dropped her head on the table with a thud.
XxX
Two fast moving blurs shot through the brush, one following the other. They were moving swiftly through the wilderness of Nami no Kuni in a specific general direction.
Naruto kept close on Sai's heels as they ran further into the country, "Hey Sai-kouhai, I kind of figured that a village named for whirlpools would be by the ocean or something."
Sai kept a dull look on his face as he lead the blonde chunin along, "It would seem like the most logical place Naruto-senpai, that's why it isn't anywhere on the coast. Uzushiogakure was actually one of the villages that were hard to find."
Naruto nodded in understanding as he kept up with the Root shinobi, "So you've got the terrain memorized completely? That's actually very impressive. I haven't seen you pull out a map once."
"A map would have been too dangerous to bring Naruto-senpai." Sai admitted as they continued on, "Remember, there can be little to no evidence of your relationship with Danzo-sama other than to those that already know. And even then, it would be far better if they didn't know that you are still in contact with us."
Naruto could only imagine the shitstorm that would commence if Tsunade or Jiraiya found out that he was still in contact with Danzo. There was no way that Naruto could convince them that Danzo was simply doing the duty he swore himself to doing when he said he would protect Konoha. If he came to them with that argument they would just say that Danzo had brainwashed him like the rest of Root when he was a child and that would be that, he would be locked in a cell, or even worse, sealed again. Naruto liked being able to think clearly and logically thank you.
Naruto's thoughts wandered towards the capabilities of Sai. He didn't know how good he really was. Chances were he was probably better in practice than the majority of the other ninja his age, as Danzo would never have made him his contact if he wasn't. He still had no idea what Sai could do. He figured that Sai was able to draw animals and bring them to life as evident by the attack he launched when Naruto was unaware of his presence, but what else could he do?
Now wasn't the time for that. He was searching for something, Sai was helping. He had more important issues to think on. What would be waiting in Uzushiogakure? Would anything even still be standing? Does Sai really even know where he's going?
Keeping his thoughts to himself he followed his paler Root companion, "We are close Naruto-senpai."
Naruto frowned, "How do you know Sai-kouhai?"
They jumped through one last patch of overgrowth before coming to a massive valley. Sai gave Naruto a fake smile, "I just do."
Naruto sweatdropped, "I can see that…"
Within the valley there lied Uzushiogakure. Not far from where Naruto and Sai stood there was a waterfall leading to a massive river that split cleanly through the village. On the other side of the valley there was another waterfall doing the same. In the center of the village there was a whirlpool where the two directly conflicting waterways met. Around the whirlpool were four massive cylindrical buildings at least one hundred feet off of the ground while what used to be houses and other assorted buildings dotted the landscape around them.
Naruto sighed, "Well, shall we?" Sai nodded and the two jumped into the valley to begin their search.
XxX
As they walked along the remains of the ruined village, Naruto routinely created Kage Bunshin while Sai drew an ink rat to go with them to investigate places of interest. Sai and Naruto kept moving towards the center of the village to the massive cylindrical buildings in the middle of the village.
Naruto whistled as they continued on, "This place is huge. When did this village fall? It's just as big as Konoha."
Sai kept his eyes peeled as well for anything to pay attention to, "It fell during the Second Great Shinobi War. This village had many enemies, the war opened with Sunagakure, Amegakure, and Iwagakure temporarily combining forces to sack the village all at once. This brought Konoha into the war to defend its ally, however it was too late. Your clan had been scattered to the winds and the village was destroyed."
Naruto frowned, "That's a very morbid breakdown of what happened Sai-kouhai. We need to work on you sugar-coating stuff like that. If it wasn't me, and I wasn't used to you Root guys talking like that, that might have creeped me out."
Sai didn't spare Naruto a glance, "Naruto-senpai those were the facts. Uzushiogakure was destroyed by a combined effort of two of the Five Great Shinobi Nations and one minor one, however that village is lead by Salamander Hanzo, perhaps the strongest man alive today."
"Bullshit."
Naruto almost jumped at the Kyuubi's timely interjection into the conversation, 'What do you mean Kyuubi? I know Hanzo, he beat Ero-Kyofu, Tsunade-baachan, and Orochi-teme at the same time back in the day. That seems pretty damn strong to me. Why would he not be?'
The Kyuubi huffed, "Because the strongest man alive definitely isn't Salamander Hanzo. Hanzo is a gnat compared to the man that is truly the most powerful, you've got to go further back into your history for that." It laid down on its haunches and yawned, "You're not even close to who the strongest is ningen."
Naruto rolled his eyes, 'Whatever fuzzy, he's old as hell. He was old when he fought the sannin, and he's still considered the best. Why won't you just tell me who it really is already so we can end this conversation?'
Kyuubi growled lowly from inside Naruto's mind, "Because I intend to kill the strongest man alive myself. I truly hope you challenge me before you run across him so that after I kill and devour you I can take out my anger on him."
Naruto thought once again of his fated battle with the Kyuubi, 'Why do you have to be so angry all of the time? Why can't you just help me? I've done everything I can reasonably do for you without letting you go since it would kill me and I couldn't do it anyway… not to mention the fact that if I did you would utterly annihilate Konoha.'
Kyuubi shut its eyes, "No I wouldn't."
Naruto raised an eyebrow, getting the attention of Sai, but he was busy at the moment, 'Wait, what? Run that by me again, I don't think I heard you correctly."
Kyuubi bared its teeth at Naruto's disbelief, "You heard me ningen. If I were released and weren't already directly in your puny village I wouldn't touch it. I have more important things to worry about than the weak mortals that populate your town."
Naruto thought about that. He figured the Kyuubi would raze Konoha to the ground regardless just for shits and giggles. There was something out there more important to him than destroying the place that had been his prison for years. Not only that, but whoever this person was that the Kyuubi was talking about had him convinced that he was going to be in Naruto's future somehow.
"-uto-senpai are you alright?" Naruto snapped back into the real world from his thoughts by the emotionless voice of Sai, "Naruto-senpai do you need to rest? You were just walking ahead blankly when I tried getting you to stop. I thought I would have to do something physical to get you to stop."
Naruto grinned sheepishly, "Sorry kouhai. It was a conversation between me and the fox, nothing but jinchuuriki stuff, you know?"
Sai nodded, "Come on, we've arrived at the main buildings." Sai entered through doors that were blown off of the opening, leaving Naruto outside.
"Seeing a brat like that makes me glad that I got sealed inside of you. I can just imagine that kid's head being a wall of white…" The Kyuubi cringed, "Then I really would be pissed."
Naruto mentally agreed with his tenant and followed Sai inside to keep up the search.
XxX
The inside was worse than the outside. Despite looking relatively sturdy and intact it was a wreck on the inside. Naruto's whistle echoed throughout as he looked around the main, massive room, "Man, Father Time sure took a sledgehammer to this place didn't he?"
"It can't be helped Naruto-senpai." Sai appeared behind Naruto, "This general area was clearly where the defenders made their last stand. With these buildings still intact it must have been an amazing battle."
Naruto raised an eyebrow at his sudden appearance, "Were you just waiting behind the front door to try and scare the shit out of me when I came in or something?" Sai looked at him blankly, "Nevermind, and if this is where the last stand was made then where are the bodies? Blood? Weapons? Anything. I mean, yeah this place is beat the hell up, but other than that I don't see any sign of past warfare."
The room was basically a large chamber, it had an ornate spiral symbol in the center of the room with a spiral staircase on the walls. The stairs were collapsed however. No big deal, nothing a little wall-walking couldn't fix. Naruto turned toward Sai and pointed up where there was a ledge with a large ornate door on it, "Shall we then?"
Sai and Naruto channeled chakra to their feet and began running up the wall… until they were forcefully shoved backwards with a burst of energy. A sealing array appeared on the wall as the building began to shake and a wall sealed off the entrance. The boys looked around rapidly, "Shit Sai. Please tell me the building isn't coming down. My luck cannot be that bad, there's just no way."
Sai had a bead of sweat going down his face, "It should have been expected. A mistake on both of our parts… we should have figured that a village feared for its forays in fuuinjutsu would have set some traps for intruders. Any use of our chakra must have triggered it."
The floor opened up, forcing the two to jump back as a statue emerged from the opening by way of an elevator, the elevator was covered in blood as were parts of the statue, signifying what had happened to any of the attackers. Naruto and Sai were prepared for combat, however the statue did not move. It was an elaborate statue forty feet high of a bearded man with long hair and an Uzushiogakure hitae-ate as well as old armor reminiscent of the days of the Shodaime Hokage. It simply stood in a still pose.
Naruto looked at Sai and shrugged, "So… what? Are we just supposed to sit here and admire the pretty statue until we die of old age in here? Maybe that's how they killed the invaders, locked them in here with their big stone guy here and bored them to death."
Sai shook his head, "Do not let your guard down Naruto-senpai. We are still in grave danger here."
Naruto scoffed, "I know Sai-kouhai. It's just that when I say stupid things like that it's like I piss off some deity with direct control over the random shit that happens to me. I just said that so that something cool would happen and then we could move along."
Sai sweatdropped, "So you're intentionally provoking a negative situation because you're impatient?"
Naruto glared at him, "I do have a previous engagement that I need to attend to. If I'm gone for too long and my team gets back to Konoha without me I could be declared a missing-nin. We need to get the fuck out of here. How we're going to do that is another question entirely, the wall apparently repels chakra."
Sai nodded, "Using chakra again in here might trigger another trap, perhaps one with fatal ramifications this time."
Naruto looked at Sai with a dry expression, "Maybe it's me."
Sai looked around the room for anything of relevance, "What is you Naruto-senpai?"
Naruto groaned in disappointment, "It is me. Bad stuff always happens to me and the people around me on missions. If I get a C-rank I might as well pack as if it would be bumped up to A-ranked because chances are it will be."
Naruto looked at his hands and sighed, "We have to do it Sai… There's no way we're getting out of here any other way, especially if this wall repels chakra."
Sai frowned and pulled out his drawing scroll, "Are you sure? This could be putting us in unnecessary danger."
Naruto and Sai both looked at the still statue, "What are the odds that I'm just being paranoid?"
Sai placed his brush in his fingers, "There is no such thing as being paranoid to a shinobi Naruto-senpai."
"Right…" He placed his hands in a ram seal, "You ready?" Sai looked unsure of Naruto's actions but nodded. Naruto took a deep breath, "Okay, let the sparks fly!" He channeled his chakra into a hard outward pulse. At first nothing happened, but the sound of stone sliding against stone started ringing out.
Sai's eyes widened as the statue began to move slowly from its position, "I knew that was going to happen. What exactly was your plan?"
Naruto shrugged and drew his sword, "I don't know, I was winging it, I cannot be held responsible for the things that I do in the heat of battle. Did you have any better ideas?"
Sai sighed, "We weren't even fighting when you came up with that asinine idea."
Naruto rolled his eyes, "Oh I'm sorry, you probably had a much better idea huh. Yeah your idea probably would have made my idea look stupid right? Shut up and fight or get squashed kouhai!" The two were forced to dodge as the statue lowered a massive foot on their previous position.
The guardian statue turned its head towards them with an audible sliding noise as the stone slabs comprising its body parts rubbed against themselves. Sai and Naruto looked at each other before Naruto nodded and rushed in with his sword, charging it with wind chakra to cleave the golem's head off. Sai stayed back and began drawing on his scroll, "Choujuu Giga (Super Beasts Imitation Picture)."
Lions of ink emerged from Sai's scroll and began stalking the statue down. The statue simply looked at them and destroyed them with a swing of its hand. Naruto sweatdropped at the display, "Sai! Ink won't hurt the damn thing! You've got to have another jutsu you can do right?"
Sai shrugged and pointed at the statue that had targeted Naruto, it was now gearing up to swing on him. Naruto cursed and dodged as the massive fist hit the ground and shook the building. Naruto jumped at the statue's head with wind chakra circulating around his sword, however when he made contact with the statue's neck a seal array appeared on the area that he made contact with and repelled him violently.
Naruto bounced across the ground and stood up with his head swimming, "Damn it! The statue has the same seal on it that the walls do! It will just absorb any of the jutsu that we launch at it! Please tell me you have something that can break stone!"
Sai shook his head and Naruto once again cursed… and dodged another fisticuff from the statue, "Damn it Sai! Some back-up would be nice at the very least!" Sai shrugged again and pointed again as Naruto heard stone sliding once more. Naruto turned, "Fuck!" The statue actually had a fully functional stone sword on its back that it had just unsheathed. Naruto reached into his pack and pulled out a roll of explosive notes that he chucked over to Sai.
The pale ninja snatched them up out of mid-air and took one that he wrapped in a kunai and threw at the statue. It simply bounced off with the explosion being set off in its face.
"What is this damn thing made of?" Naruto wondered as he dodged the first strike of the behemoth's sword and ran at it again. He formed a swirling blue ball of chakra in his hand and launched at it, "Rasengan (Spiraling Sphere)!"
Once again he bounced off of the stone figure as a seal array appeared on its body. Naruto fell next to Sai and picked himself up again, "What are we going to do Sai? We can't escape, we can't use ninjutsu, and if it can take an explosive tag to the face and walk right through it I'm not strong enough to crack that stone without doing something that will hurt you, that is if it even works… all that would probably happen is I'll get my demonic chakra absorbed."
Sai shut his eyes in thought as the statue lumbered back over to them. Sai's eyes snapped open as he turned to Naruto, "Naruto-senpai, how good are you at fuuinjutsu?"
Naruto's eyes flickered back and forth from the statue to Sai, "I don't know. Only Ero-sennin is able to properly gauge my skill and I haven't seen him in a while. Why?"
Sai started drawing again on his scroll, "What if you were able to get a good look at that array, could you think of something to break it?"
Naruto tapped his chin in thought, "I don't know, it's worth a shot though. What do you have in mind?"
Said didn't answer and finished his drawing, "Choujuu Giga (Super Beasts Imitation Picture)." A mass of bats came out of his scroll and began flying around the statue's head, not making contact however. The statue stopped and tried swatting at the bats, far too slowly to actually take them out.
Naruto took advantage of the distraction and made a dozen Kage Bunshin, sending them all on a one way trip to the towering stone figure. The second the first Kage Bunshin made contact with the statue it dispelled as the seal array formed. Naruto whipped out a scroll and a brush as the array vanished, "The array appears for four seconds at a time! Run into him at four second intervals!"
The clones all nodded and did as was commanded while the statue was stuck being distracted by Sai's ink bats. As the array appeared on the golem's body, Naruto quickly copied it down just as his last Kege Bunshin dispelled, "Sai, can you give me some time to work this out? I need to figure out what went into this thing's seal."
Sai nodded and made a hand sign, all of the bats that were flying around the statue melted into ink all over its face, blinding it. The golem started swinging its sword wildly as it searched for the two Root trained ninja. Naruto kept out of the golem's range as did Sai. Eventually, Naruto's eyes lit up as he quickly wrote on a seal tag. Naruto placed his stuff away and looked at the statue with a determined expression. Naruto channeled chakra to his feet to activate the seal in the room and alert the statue to his location. As it turned, Naruto placed his fists together, "Fuuton: Fuujin Seiken (Wind Release: Divine Fist of the Wind God)!"
Naruto shot off the ranged wind jutsu and hit the golem flush, just as the seal array appeared once again, Naruto rushed in at full speed and slapped a tag right on the array right before placing another on himself, "Fuuinjutsu: Jinkaku no Yuuisei (Sealing Technique: Dominance of Personality)! Fuuin!"
Naruto and the statue were covered in a dull yellow glow that barely covered both of their bodies. Naruto smirked as his glow began to shine brighter while the statue's own faded out of existence. He moved his arm and surely the arm of the statue moved in exactly the same manner. Naruto let out a victorious whoop of joy, "Sai-kouhai get over here, quick! I don't know how long this will last for."
Sai did as he was requested and stood by Naruto's side. Naruto began to walk towards the statue as it began walking towards him. Sai felt apprehensive about approaching the murderous stone effigy, but since Naruto was doing it he followed. Naruto made a bending a scooping motion, directing the statue to pick them up, "Going up?" Naruto cocked his hand back, as did the statue before he launched it forward, sending him and Sai flying up towards the top of the tower to the area where the ornate door was located. Naruto and Sai ended up smacking the door hard and breaking the decrepit metal door down.
Naruto and Sai picked themselves up as Naruto made a one handed ram seal, "Kai." Once again he glowed yellow before it faded.
Sai dusted himself off, "What was that Naruto-senpai?"
Naruto cracked his back, "It's a new seal of mine. I read that real fuuinjutsu masters come up with their own stuff so I made my own. I was going to test it in front of Shikamaru to piss him off, but here was just as good a time as any to use it right? It forces the wills of the recipients into a struggle. The winner ends up with temporary control over the other's body."
Sai nodded, "Are you sure you should have released it?"
Naruto waved off his concern, "What the fuck is it going to do all the way down there?"
The sounds of stone hitting the ground re-attracted their attention to the statue below as they saw it pick itself off of the ground and try climbing the wall. It only made it slightly off of the ground before dropping back down onto its back, it then repeated the process.
Naruto sweatdropped at the sight, "Let's get the hell out of here." He pointed at a bridge linking one tower to the next. The two dashed from their first location to their next destination as the sounds of the statue attempting to pursue them sounded out.
XxX
(Kirigakure)
Tayuya sat on the edge of a cliff on one of Kiri's surrounding mountains, looking out at the village while simply playing her flute in boredom. She looked over at Shikamaru who was sprawled out on the ground staring up expressionlessly.
Kakashi had told them to scope out surrounding areas and vantage points of the village that they could get away with seeing. Tayuya could feel the Anbu watching them but paid them no real mind. They weren't really doing anything wrong. While they had been off doing that, Kakashi had some… 'Kakashi stuff', as he dubbed it, to attend to elsewhere.
Tayuya finished up a song and looked up with Shikamaru, "How fucking long are we going to be here? I want to go home already, this is boring."
Shikamaru remained silent, staring at the clouds, apparently ignoring Tayuya. The red-head got a tick mark on her head, "Are you listening to me you lazy bastard? I'm trying to speak to you here."
Shikamaru sighed, "I know that. But I don't have the answer to your question or anything that I could say to make you feel better. It would be too troublesome to try and rack my brain to come up with something."
Tayuya placed her cheeks in her hands, "Shithead would have tried."
Shikamaru groaned in apathy, "It's always, 'Shithead this' or 'Shithead that'. You haven't stopped asking or talking about Naruto since he left us outside of Kiri. Even when Kakashi said he wouldn't tell you anymore. If you're that worried about the guy then chain him up when he gets back, or even better, marry the guy." He laughed to himself, "Yeah, then you would have a legally binding reason to be so troublesome about him." Shikamaru then had a heel firmly planted in his stomach.
Tayuya looked down at Shikamaru with her foot on his belly, "Do not say that about me and Shithead. We could never work out, he's a Shithead!"
Shikamaru spoke in a pained tone, "Calling him names just shows me that you care. You might as well be calling him Naruto-kun… Who am I kidding? You probably will be calling him Naruto-kun."
A grunt escaped his throat as Tayuya began stomping on him, "Shut up! There's absolutely nothing between me and Shithead!"
Shikamaru coughed with each stomp, "Your mouth says no but your heel says yes."
Tayuya eventually tired of stomping on him and sat back down, "Hey, you're friends with him right? Why is he so damn good and you're so not? You're the same age aren't you?"
Shikamaru readjusted himself on the ground, "I don't know. 8 months ago we were forced to fight him all at once, everyone from our graduating class. We didn't know he was that good, he beat us all."
Tayuya scoffed and chuckled, "Well I could have told you that was going to happen. You were all what, genin? That guy was a right destroyer of men, even years before this. He made me think that all Konoha had were superheroes coming out of the woodwork if a kid was as strong as he was. It just didn't seem natural."
Shikamaru's attention was now firmly on Tayuya, "What? Naruto was never much in the academy. It was scary, seeing where all of his power came out just suddenly like that. No one can tell where it came from."
Tayuya rubbed her cheek, "Well he's been like that for a while. When I first fought the bastard he couldn't have been any older than an academy student, that was what scared me about Konoha. You know the Cursed Seal that the little butt-pet Uchiha has? Well we were all fighting with it on, and we knew what we were doing. We were still going to lose until our fifth man showed up and took the advantage."
Shikamaru was confused, "How many years ago was this?"
Tayuya thought for a moment, "I would say about six years or slightly less."
Shikamaru sat up abruptly, "Wait you're saying that Naruto fought you and the rest of your Oto kidnapping team when he was 8 years old? That's impossible, he first enrolled in the academy at the age of 8."
Tayuya shrugged, "I'm only telling you what happened. He had a weird plain white mask, but it got all carved up during the fight. The blonde hair and whisker marks were a dead giveaway when I saw him again though. I thought I saw my life flash before my eyes when I did. I was more worried about fighting him than you and your little fat friend at the time."
Shikamaru simply looked away in thought, 'Seriously Naruto. Why do things have to be so troublesome when you're involved? Who are you?'
XxX
(Uzushiogakure – with Sai and Naruto)
Naruto and Sai emerged from the top of the third tower singed and with shallow cuts on their bodies. Naruto sighed, "What the hell? That wasn't anything at all, it was like the entire top floor of the building was one big trap!"
Sai winced slightly as he touched a cut on his side, "Maybe that was a training facility for Uzu shinobi. It certainly worked like one."
Naruto growled, "Shouldn't there be some way around this stuff? We still have one more of these things to check and with our track record the next one might just spontaneously combust when we get within five feet of the entrance."
After leaving the building housing the statue of death, Naruto and Sai entered what looked to be the administrative building. The skeletons of fallen enemy and Uzu shinobi alike told them both that a fierce battle had gone on inside of this building. Of course the corridors to the main office were booby trapped, once again with a seal array that locked them inside of a long hallway and began to cook the boys alive. Naruto was luckily able to locate the seal array on one of the walls and mentally shut out the heat roasting him alive until he could break down the seal and deactivate the trap. Naruto took notes on that seal before they left, hoping that it could be applicable elsewhere, it was a pretty nasty trap.
Upon reaching the main office they found that it had been ransacked. There was nothing, the vault was empty, even the desk had been stripped bare. They boys then left and entered the next tower, which was basically a chakra-less run through a building filled top to bottom with a ridiculous amount of traps ranging from sealing arrays that shot fire, collapsing floors leading to spike pits, ranged kunai and shuriken triggers, and the pool filled with water that had a live current running through it.
Naruto looked up at the sky and yelled, "All I've learned in this place is that I know nothing about booby traps! How did these people get beaten again?"
Sai took a moment to bandage his wound, "Should we rest before entering the final tower Naruto-senpai? Who knows what will be in there."
Naruto nodded and sat down on the walkway looking out at the raging whirlpool they were standing over, "That is one imposing landmark." Naruto saw Sai wrapping bandages around his exposed midsection, "Are you okay? You aren't hurt too bad are you? You should tell me if you are, because you don't have a six story fuzzy red physician in you like I do."
"Go fuck yourself ningen. Physician that."
Sai grunted in affirmation, "They are just flesh wounds sempai. I will be fine after a short rest."
Naruto accepted his answer before deciding to chew the fat a bit with the boy, "So Sai-kouhai, did Danzo-jiji finally let any girls join Root or is it still just full of dudes, because I told him about that."
Sai paid close attention to his wounds as he spoke, "Root has females Naruto-senpai. Reva-san is a girl, as is Maki-san. They came up around the same time you did and are within a few years of your age. How did you not notice them?"
Naruto's eyes widened, "What? Maki and Reva are girls? Damn it I was never able to tell; Maki always kept her hair so short and wore baggy stuff, Reva didn't sound like a girl nor did she have the figure at the time, and not to mention that both of them always wore those damn masks like they would lose them if they weren't attached to their faces."
Sai gave Naruto a fake smile, "That just means that you were more concerned with your work Naruto-senpai."
Naruto snorted in an amused fashion, "I wonder if they were good looking… Oh who am I kidding, of course they were. They were kunoichi, it's like a prerequisite as a ninja that all kunoichi must be at the very least, cute. They're still alive right?"
Sai nodded, "Ever since you were captured, Danzo-sama has scaled back on our mission intake. Losing you when he did gave him a significant hit. A lot of the operations he had planned centered themselves around you. He had to revamp everything, right down to the training, to pick up the slack."
Naruto frowned and looked over at the tower, "I think I should sweep for traps before we go inside, since we had so much fun during the last two towers." Naruto made six Kage Bunshin, "Go in two at a time and scout out the building for me." The clones saluted him and ran off towards the tower in groups of two.
Naruto turned back to Sai, "Are you ready to go? It's almost nightfall, are we planning on staying outdoors or in one of these stupid towers?"
Before Sai could answer a massive explosion rocked the tower, there were Kage Bunshin eradicated in the blast and some sent flying off of the walkway. Naruto looked at the tower in shock, "I was just joking when I said it would just spontaneously combust!"
"Well then Kyuubi jinchuuriki you weren't caught in the first blast! It looks like you get to see a little more of my art, un."
Naruto and Sai looked up at the setting sun to see a man flying above them on a massive bird. He had blonde hair up in a half ponytail, one bang covering one eye. His eyes were somewhat slitted and blue in color and he had a scratched out Iwagakure hitae-ate on his head. The most noticeable thing about him however was the black cloak with red clouds on it. He had only seen that on two people before, and they…. Oh.
Naruto kept his eyes on The flying man, "Sai… What are the chances that we can get out of here?"
Sai pulled out his scroll, "Not very good as long as he's in the air. Do you know this person Naruto-senpai?"
Naruto shook his head, "No. But he's wearing the same stuff that Itachi Uchiha was wearing when he attacked me. Last time they came to capture me, I'm assuming that it's much the same this time since he hasn't tried taking out the bridge and dropping us into the whirlpool yet."
Sai figured his line of reasoning, "So he's after the Kyuubi."
"Got it in one kouhai." Naruto drew the blade from his back, "What are we going to do? He's long range and I can't really reach him from here, I have some distance stuff, but I doubt anything I have can hit him from here." Naruto looked around, "We need room and the tops of the towers looks like a good bet, but we can't wall-walk them to get up there, or use chakra when in contact with them…"
"Choujuu Giga (Super Beasts Imitation Picture)." Sai drew a pair of birds onto his scroll and made two large ink replicas that he hopped onto one of, "Get on Naruto-senpai."
Naruto gleefully jumped onto one of Sai's ink birds as they took off to the skies, "Sai-kouhai you can fly? Wait, why the hell did we walk all the way here then? We could have been here hours ago."
Sai directed traffic with his birds, "It requires chakra to do so. I do not like wasting my chakra when moving on my feet would be a much better way to save my chakra."
Naruto nodded and turned his head, "I've never done this before. Is this thing going to keep me safe kouhai?"
Sai gave him a fake smile, "It can take one or two hits senpai."
Naruto sighed, "Great… fine, how are we getting away?" Just as he said that a voice rang out.
"So you're going to run, un? I hope your art is as effective as mine! I know it isn't nearly as much of an explosion, un!" The man sent out multiple small clay birds at the boys. Sai was able to maneuver out of the way and cut them down from afar. Naruto however had no experience moving a bird and as such ended up surrounded by the little clay creations. The man smirked and made a single hand-seal, "Katsu."
Naruto's eyes widened as Sai flew near him. Naruto took the chance and jumped from his own bird over to Sai's just as an explosion from the clay birds destroyed his ink bird. Naruto looked back at the man as he and Sai did their best to attempt to lose him, "Who the hell are you?"
"Does it really matter? I'm still going to catch you whether we're on a first name basis or not un." The man grinned amusedly.
Naruto pulled out a bunch of explosive notes and began preparing his kunai with them, "Well I try to make a habit of learning the names of the people that want to suck out my biju and leave me a soulless husk on the side of the road."
The man's grin widened, "I am Deidara, the master of art of a single moment. Your friend's art cannot compare to my own, however with the assistance of my own art, his can be something to behold, because true art is an explosion!" Deidara made more clay birds to send at the boys.
Sai maneuvered the ink bird to avoid the clay bird, "What can we do senpai? I'm not as good at fighting in mid-air and fighting like this will wear on me eventually."
Naruto frowned while racking his brain, "We're not long-range fighters… If he was out to kill us he might have been able to right now instead of just trying to shoot us down. Once again, it's that S-ranked superiority complex, so let's take advantage of that." Naruto picked up one of his prepared kunai, before lobbing it at Deidara who simply dodged it. The kunai exploded in the distance, "I knew he was going to do that."
Naruto had his sword in hand, "Sai, get me close. Close range is our best bet right now and he's chasing us so that will make it easy."
Sai looked apprehensive, "Are you sure senpai?" Naruto nodded and Sai drew his tanto in response, "Very well, in we go." Sai ordered the bird around, sending it directly at Deidara.
He had been reaching into his pouch of clay when he saw the boys turn their ride around and head straight towards him with their blades gleaming in the light of the moon. Deidara's eye widened, "Damn brats… un." Naruto and Sai closed in. Both boys slashed at Deidara as they passed, but his bird was more maneuverable than theirs with only one person on it, "Nice try, noticing and acknowledging that I'm a long range fighter, un. But if you can't hit me then it's useless!"
Naruto thought frantically, at this rate they were never going to win, they weren't even going to escape, "Any good ideas to get us out of this would be lovely right now Sai-kouhai."
Sai squinted and looked behind them at the man they just missed, "Can you fly for a moment senpai?"
Naruto nodded determinedly, "As long as I don't have to fly it towards him I can."
Sai nodded and handed the front over to Naruto before taking out his scroll. Sai created a bunch of bats using his jutsu and had them carry Naruto's prepared explosive kunai over to Deidara in an effort to attack. Deidara matched the explosives with some of his own, negating Sai's attack.
Sai retook the front of the bird while Naruto returned to his position of man on point. He pulled out a handful of shuriken, "Come on! Give me something here! Raiton: Kaminari Shuriken (Lightning Release: Lightning Shuriken)!" Naruto threw his handful of shuriken over Deidara's head. Before Deidara could mock him for his shoddy aim he was forced to dodge as he found himself caught in a mini lightning storm as electricity dropped from the thrown shuriken, trying to take him out.
Deidara's experience flying with his clay sculptures kept him out of harm's way as he outlasted the jutsu, "Ha! Nice try, un."
Naruto saw Sai beginning to sweat. Keeping up the flying of the bird coupled with the day's events were getting to him. Naruto saw Deidara catching up and cursed, "Sai, turn this thing around. We're not going out like this."
Sai was now panting in exhaustion but did as requested. Naruto reached into his pack and carefully pulled out an abnormal black tag before tapping into Kyuubi's chakra to trigger it. The kanji for 'explode' glowed red upon being pumped with the demonic power source.
Sai channeled his chakra into the bird to give it enough of a boost to get near Deidara. Deidara threw clay insects at them, but Naruto knocked off their trajectory with a handful of shuriken, sparing them another explosion. The bird almost dropped from the sky as Sai's consciousness wavered momentarily.
Naruto almost dropped the tag, "Sai, can you keep this thing up for a little bit longer? Just a little more time is all I need. Keep us close kouhai."
Sai looked haggard and exhausted, "I will do my best Naruto-senpai."
Naruto nodded and held the tag behind him as it began to sizzle down. Sai got the two birds near one another again. Naruto jumped from their bird to make an attempt at Deidara. The explosives specialist threw more clay spiders at Naruto, who ran through hand signs, "Fuuton: Senpuu Kakusui (Wind Release: Whirlwind Pyramid)!" A fierce wind burst around Naruto's body, knocking the clay spiders away as he landed on Deidara's bird.
Deidara turned and lashed out with a backhand strike that Naruto ducked. Naruto shot a kick at his head after getting under the punch, but was blocked and thrown off of the bird. Deidara cursed as he watched Naruto's body freefall down towards the whirlpool, "Fuck. I was supposed to catch him, not kill him. Sasori no Danna is going to bitch me out when I get back, un."
Naruto fell towards the ground but was rescued by Sai's bird. Naruto sat up on the back of the bird and patted the pale ninja on the shoulder, "Good save, I thought I was gone there for a second Sai-kouhai." No response, "Sai-kouhai?"
Sai's eyes were glazed over, signifying unconsciousness, "Fuck!" The bird they had been riding on dissolved into ink due to the creator being indisposed, dropping them both from the sky. Naruto grabbed onto Sai and pushed wind chakra out through his feet to direct their motion towards the tall cylindrical building instead of the water, which would have ended with them drowning. Naruto positioned Sai onto his back and fired off a Fuuton: Fuujin Seiken to cushion the impact.
As the two hit with Sai on Naruto's back, the aforementioned blonde coughed up blood. Naruto allowed the feeling to re-enter his body before rolling Sai off of his back and looking up at Deidara.
Deidara chuckled at the display, "That was a good little bit of survival technique, un. You're one pesky kid, I have to say." Suddenly he heard the sound of a rumbling sizzle. Under the wing of the bird there was Naruto's black explosive note.
From his place on top of the building Naruto smirked, "Boom."
Deidara leapt off of the clay bird just as his clay bird was engulfed in a mid-air firestorm. That looked like a miniature sun from where Naruto was, "I can see why Ero-sennin was so reluctant to teach me how to make explosive tags, because I ended up making that piece of demonic hell."
"Now that showed some artistic prowess, un!" Naruto saw Deidara alive and well below the explosion that took out his bird. Now however, he was on a massive clay dragon, "You are very tricky to pin down, un! Witness the next level of my art! C2 Dragon!"
"Oh come on!" Naruto palmed his forehead, "You've got to draw the line somewhere with stuff like this, S-ranked or not."
Deidara chuckled, "I can see why Kisame no Danna and that ass Itachi found it somewhat difficult to take you, but you've got nowhere to go as long as your little friend is unconscious, un?"
Naruto looked at the downed Sai, he had to be suffering from chakra exhaustion there was no other explanation. He was getting beaten even with Sai's help, he was a sitting duck on this roof, he couldn't fly, he could barely even generate chakra as his guess was right. The building absorbed or repelled chakra from both inside and outside contact with the wall… how did this place get conquered again?
"Now then..." Deidara's clay dragon opened its mouth, "You lot lose! Witness the beauty of my art, un!" Deidara's dragon spit up many smaller dragons that flew at Naruto.
Naruto cursed and grabbed Sai, running towards the edge of the building as explosions rocked it from the mini dragons. He had no clue what he was doing. It was either stay there and die on the roof that they couldn't escape when Deidara finally found a way to incapacitate him, or jump off and die by way of catastrophic fall into the water, and on the off chance that they did survive the initial fall from at least one hundred feet in the air.
Naruto bit his lip as he neared the edge, 'Whether we end up in heaven, hell, or somehow survive this, Sai is going to be pissed off when he wakes up.' Jumping off the rooftop with the Root agent in his grasp both fell into the raging waters of the joining rivers, being quickly swept up by the whirlpool.
Deidara watched the happening with a massive sweatdrop on his head, "…Sasori no Danna is really going to kill me, un…"
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