章 855: 32
Chapter 31: The Undead Connection
Yugito ran through the tunnels of the sewer system of Kumogakure, breathing heavily as she shot a quick look behind her, "This is such a bad idea…" She said to herself but thought otherwise, 'But I can't just fight in the middle of the village like that. I would destroy so much of it just trying to defend myself.'
She stopped in the middle of an open area where several tunnels lead to, making it something of an open air central chamber. As she looked around her new setting, Yugito was forced to dodge a scythe attached to a cable that landed in the center of the water in the room, "Are you going to stop running now, because this chasing shit is getting irksome." One of the cloaked men said as he took off his hat to reveal slicked back silver hair, "You did good to dodge that though, but I am the slowest member of Akatsuki so that isn't saying too much."
"She did us a favor Hidan." The other said as he took off his hat to reveal a mask covered face with only his strange eyes with green irises and red sclera visible, "Down here there is less of a chance of the Kumo ninja interfering."
Hidan let out a laugh, "Yeah too bad about that. I can't kill her so slaughtering the droves of fools that came to stop us would have been the only thing I would have enjoyed about this whole thing." He shrugged carelessly as he picked his scythe back up, "Oh well then. Shall we do this already Kakuzu?"
Kakuzu growled at his partner, "You should take her seriously she is the Nibi jinchuuriki after all. She could kill you."
"Don't be stupid Kakuzu." Hidan said, "You know there's nothing that can kill me. And even if she could, good for her." He pulled a strange amulet on a necklace out, "But let me start this out with a prayer to Jashin-sama."
Kakuzu rolled his eyes, "You really piss me off with all of that praying."
"Hey you asshole!" Hidan snapped at Kakuzu, "It's a part of my religion."
Yugito smirked nervously, still trying to show her bravado, "You both walked right into this? Do you really see me as that little of a threat to you? Fine then." Yugito made a hand-seal that activated an explosive note above the tunnels they had taken to get to the chamber, "I brought you down here for a reason. A fight between us would destroy a lot of the village, but this sewer is far below the peaks of the village. We won't be hurting anyone by fighting down here."
Kakuzu chuckled, "A patriot huh? I remember when I used to be like you. One day you'll see what that gets you, more specifically when we're pulling your biju from your body and no one comes to save you. Then you'll see how much your beloved village cherishes your life."
"Hey." Hidan said reasonably, "I can't kill you so there's not a whole lot of motivation for me to get into a fight. Why don't we just talk this out and you come quietly with us. You don't have a chance to win."
"Maybe, maybe not." Yugito said, "But just talking about it isn't going to get us anywhere, I knew you were coming and I was ready for a fight." Yugito focused her power that actually blew her ponytail apart and began generating the Nibi's chakra, hunching over as it formed a spectral blue flame around her body in the form of a massive cat.
Hidan simply looked at her with not much of any emotion on his face, "So I guess that would be a no?"
Kakuzu palmed his face, "For the love of-… You are so stupid."
Hidan licked his lips in anticipation of a fight, "This is some jinchuuriki though. She's totally become the beast she holds."
Yugito roared and swatted Kakuzu's body into a wall, sending rubble about from the impact of his frame. She then turned to Hidan and opened her mouth, generating a large fireball, "Shit!" The fireball forced Hidan to dodge as it hit the wall behind him, utterly obliterating it and causing a mini cave-in.
Hidan sighed in somewhat relief as he hid behind some of the misplaced rubble, "So this is the Nibi no Bakaneko, and apparently I'm trapped like a rat." He smirked as he saw her charge up another fireball, "How fun."
XxX
The silence of the Kumo night left Naruto alone with his thoughts as he left the hotel to walk around the village to still his mind, "Yugi-chan… How can she be unafraid to fail? She has to know what's going to happen to everyone else if they get her biju. That thing would tear just this country apart by itself." Naruto punched the side of a nearby building before pulling his fist away and watching the torn skin on his knuckles heal before his eyes.
"Such a shame kit." Kyuubi said suddenly, "All of this power seemingly at your disposal and yet you find yourself locked in combat with those that do not flinch when faced down with it. I would somewhat respect them if I didn't want to crush them so much for daring to stand against me."
Naruto continued to walk, "Three tails. I was using three tails when I fought in the desert and they just kept coming forward. It was like the more power I was pumping out the better acclimated to the situation they seemed to be."
Naruto kept walking as the Kyuubi chimed in again, "Well if power doesn't work you're simply not using enough of it."
Naruto rolled his eyes, "And you did? Tell me how that worked out for you over the past hundred years, because without a jinchuuriki you were a raging monster incapable of any rational thought other than to destroy."
A low chuckle sounded out in his head, "You say that like it's a bad thing."
'It is a bad thing you baka fox!' Naruto roared inside of his mind, 'That's what the problem was the entire time! I'm a ninja first and a jinchuuriki second! I was trying to outmuscle them the entire time and while it may have seemed like it was working they had a tactic. For the love of Kami, these guys have been preparing to take down eight others just like me, they had to have been prepared in the event of one of us going all out and releasing our demon on them.'
"So what are you saying boy?" Kyuubi questioned to him.
Naruto clinched his fist, 'I need to fight them the way anyone else would fight them, not like a demonic juggernaut. I know I'm a good enough ninja to beat any of them that come my way, I have to believe that. I already beat one of them after all. How hard could the rest be?'
At that, Naruto felt the ground shake slightly, 'What the hell? An earthquake? Up here?'
"Not an earthquake… That is the sign of a fight below the surface."
Naruto frowned, "It's three in the morning. Who would be fighting right now?"
The Kyuubi would have slapped Naruto if it could, "I don't know… Maybe someone that didn't want to get caught fighting? Use your head you fucking simpleton! Now get your ass to the site of the battle and find out what that was!"
Naruto grit his teeth, 'Kiss my ass Kyuubi. Now help me remember the schematics to this place, how do I get underground from here?'
XxX
The chamber in the sewers that Yugito had lead her enemies to was now open-aired after the battle that had taken place. Hidan lay down in a symbol of Jashin with black skin and white markings making him look like a skeleton. He lay still as if he were dead with a spike sticking out of his chest.
Kakuzu sat on some nearby rubble from the fight against Yugito as he impatiently watched Hidan's unmoving form, "Hidan, it's been thirty minutes. Aren't you done yet?"
Hidan seemingly sprang back to life as he looked over at his nuke-nin partner, "Oh shut the hell up damn it! Don't mess with me while I'm doing the ritual!" He reached up and pulled the spike out of his chest, "Ouch."
Kakuzu sighed as Hidan stood up off of the ground, "You do this Jashin ritual stuff every time. Can't you just skip it every once in a while?"
Hidan dusted himself off and wiped some of his blood off, "It might be annoying to you but it's a part of my religion. It's necessary since we didn't kill the jinchuuriki." He pointed at Yugito who was pinned by both of her hands to a wall with a long pike.
Kakuzu snorted, "We're just lucky that she lead us so far away from the village in the tunnels that you could get away with this. If no one came for her during that fight no one will be coming at all." He stood up and began making his way over to Yugito who was unconscious from her wounds, "That cat set you on fire about three different times… heh, that was actually entertaining to watch."
"Fuck you Kakuzu." Hidan snapped, "That shit actually hurt you know. I had to jump into the fucking sewer water to put myself out. You could have jumped in anytime you wanted you know."
Kakuzu laughed, "Oh I know, and I did if you remember correctly."
Hidan grumbled, "Asshole." He walked up to Yugito and reached out to grab her from off of the wall when a kunai impaled itself deeply through the hand he reached out with, "What the-?"
"Get over here!"
Ninja wire was tied around the ring of the kunai and stiffened out, pulling Hidan back violently up and out of the hole in the top of the open sewer. A blur jumped inside and launched at Kakuzu with a kunai drawn, however this attack was blocked by Kakuzu's hand which turned dark as his odd eyes turned down to his opponent, "Didn't think we'd be seeing you again so soon boy. Come to turn yourself in?"
Naruto grit his teeth and cocked his fist back to punch Kakuzu in the face, getting not even a movement of his head or neck for his trouble as the darkened skin carried over to his face as well, "Didn't you learn what Doton: Domu (Earth Release: Earth Spear) could do from our last meeting?"
'Naruto' smirked, "Yeah, I did. But can you take an explosion up close with your elephant skin? Let's find out." Naruto opened his shirt to reveal three quick burning explosive tags stuck to his torso, "Kaboom."
A massive explosion rocked the ruined battlefield as Kakuzu sighed from the smoke of the explosion, looking no worse for wear, "That's not good enough to get through boy." He said as he walked towards Naruto, who had taken Yugito off of the wall and was holding her unconscious form bridal style, "And now it looks like we're going to get two jinchuuriki for the price of one. My kind of deal."
Naruto glared at him as he held Yugito protectively, "You won't get either one of us. The last fight wasn't on my terms, it won't go the same this time."
Kakuzu laughed loudly, "The last fight wasn't on your terms? And what do you call this? Or is 110 pounds of extra dead-weight going to give you an advantage here? I suppose you could use her as a battering ram or something. The last time the Ichibi had your back and we were fighting him in the desert at less than full power. What makes you think you have a chance?"
"Who knows?" Naruto said, "You might walk right through me, take us both, and that would be the end of that… but you might lose something very important along the way. Then again I might win… That seems like a good enough reason to fight doesn't it? I might have the chance to save my own life and even if I lose you were going to capture me anyway so it doesn't matter."
"Heh heh…" Hidan landed back inside of the hole in the ground next to Kakuzu, "Did you really think a few dozen of those stupid clones of yours would be able to actually stop me?"
Naruto shook his head, "No not really, but they weren't meant to, they were just meant to buy me some time." Naruto lowered Yugito to the ground, getting surprised looks out of Kakuzu and Hidan when she stood up, facing them with a smirk on her face before she turned into another copy of Naruto.
At that moment, hundreds of Naruto clones surrounded the entrance to the hole, looking down at the two Akatsuki members with the swords on their backs drawn. Hidan smirked as he held the scythe in his hand, "And here I thought I wasn't going to get a slaughter out of this mission."
XxX
The real Naruto had Yugito over his shoulder as he escaped through an exit point under the water in the sewer room Yugito had been fighting in. Hey, the water had to go somewhere, and the grate under the surface of the water had been inconspicuous enough for him to slip away through while his Kage Bunshin had been running interference. How long they lasted would be up for debate, but the search for him after they had been taken out would take a little time even if he hadn't covered his tracks and left without a trace.
Being a village situated atop a mountain, Kumo had a need to pump water from lower on the mountain and even from places on flatland, vice-versa for getting waste and other things off of the mountain. The system set up was large, elaborate, and the most important part, well documented… at least by Danzo in the case of war with Kumo. Hey, ninja don't fight fair, if he needed Root to poison their water supply in case of prolonged siege then that was what was going to have to happen.
However in this case it was a swift way to exit the general area swiftly and under the nose of Hidan and Kakuzu. If he had simply attempted to run back to Kumo the way he had come he would have been overtaken while carrying Yugito. This was taking him so far away from the village it was absurd, but right now, putting distance between them and the Akatsuki members was the most important thing.
Naruto ran into another grate, he looked over his shoulder before he started kicking at it, the sound of his foot thudding off of the metal echoing throughout the tunnel. After a series of shots, Naruto finally kicked it off full force, sending it tumbling into the dark. Naruto adjusted Yugito on his shoulder and began running again, "Come on Yugi-chan, you're alright. We're going to get you out of heeeeeeere!" Naruto, in the dark of the tunnel did not see that it dropped off steeply, and he fell down the channel with Yugito in his grasp.
XxX
A series of threads simultaneously impaled the bodies of several of Naruto's clones, dispelling them immediately, "What an annoying diversion. You have to finish them all off or they might get a lucky shot on you. I'm not losing one of my hearts to a damned bunshin."
Hidan scoffed as he placed his scythe on his back after exterminating the last of Naruto's Kage Bunshin, "That was a complete waste of my time! There wasn't any blood or anything, I'm going to cut that brat's legs off when we catch him!"
"Calm down Hidan. Once we have him cornered we'll have him right where we want him." Kakuzu assured him, "He won't be able to get very far with the Nibi jinchuuriki as injured as she is. He's going to need to find somewhere to treat her wounds to keep her alive very soon."
Hidan growled, "He's probably halfway to Kumo by now, we'll never catch him before sunrise."
Kakuzu shook his head, "If he took the direct path I would be able to catch him, but he's not that stupid. Any other way he could possibly take would lead him far away from Kumo once he escaped here."
Hidan let a smile slowly spread across his face, "So you're saying that for all we know the little bastard could be miles away from Kumo instead of a hair's breath away? Well what are we waiting for? Let's hunt down our jinchuuriki."
XxX
Naruto was on his hands and knees panting as he had just pulled himself and Yugito from a water source halfway down the mountain range and was now getting his breath back. Naruto reached over and felt for Yugito's pulse, sighing in relief as he felt a steady one. It was slower than expected, but it was steady. He also felt to make sure she was breathing, luckily he didn't have her underwater for long enough to have it affect her.
Naruto ran a hand through his soaked hair, "Goddamn it Yugi-chan… wake up. I need you awake."
What to do? He could begin the long trek back to Kumo, but any idiot would be able to ambush him on the way and he knew that his enemies were far from stupid. At least Kakuzu was, no one survived to be 91 and a still active ninja by being a damned fool. If he went back to Kumo by himself he was as good as handing Yugito over to them on a silver platter, himself as well.
He could try and make it to Unraikyo (The Valley of Clouds and Lightning), but Kirabi obviously wasn't anywhere near Kumo or else he would have seen/heard him by then. And besides that it was on the other side of the mountain range, he would have to go around the mountain to circumvent a direct path to Kumo, which would have left him as much of a sitting duck as heading straight there would have.
Naruto frowned as he looked over Yugito's wounded frame. Her hands had been impaled when she had been pinned to the wall. Her top had multiple slashes all over it, revealing wounds all about her body from Hidan's scythe he presumed, a few stab wounds as well, she had lost a lot of blood. He could feel torn muscles in her calves and biceps and could even feel a floating rib. They had worked her over to put her down, "What a mess… What the hell am I going to do?" He said as he moved the hair from Yugito's face.
Naruto stood up and carefully picked Yugito up before setting out again. Where was there to take her? He needed to get her somewhere to help her, if he just kept going like this without stopping to treat her she might take a turn for the worse, 'Kyuubi any ideas? I'm drawing a complete blank here. I'm not used to running away.'
"You need a hiding place and a way to contact someone. You have the means for one of those things, but if you do that here you'll be a beacon for the masked one. He'll feel you generate the chakra from wherever he is." Kyuubi said, "As loathe as I am to watch you flee like a coward it is the only option open to you at the moment. It would be two on one and you have the girl to protect."
A fight while Yugito was unconscious and unable to even defend herself would be the worst case scenario. If she would wake up he could have a better chance if a fight were to break out, hell he could pick her brain for somewhere to go that was safe right now if she were awake.
"You have a base you know." Kyuubi said suddenly, surprising Naruto.
'What are you talking about? What base, and how is it my base?' Naruto thought to his inner demon.
The Kyuubi huffed audibly before responding, "What I mean is that there is a Root safehouse not far from here, I would say two hours out. The same one you used years back as a child on your mission in this country. Go there."
Naruto's eyes lit up and he looked at Yugito hopefully, "Hold on Yugi-chan. We'll get you some rest and help in just a moment, we just need to find it first."
Time passed and the luck that Kyuubi's memory was able to guide Naruto across the mountainside to a safe area held out as Naruto ran in the midst of the fading night with his fellow blonde demon container being carried in his arms, 'Why isn't she healing? If she were me at least the wounds on her hands or some of those on her body would have come close to healing up by now if nothing else.'
Kyuubi chuckled in Naruto's mind, "All jinchuuriki do not share the same traits. Your rapid healing, massive chakra reserves, and immense natural strength and stamina are all results of your bond with me. The female has skills of her own from the Nibi, but you do not share the same attributes attributed to the demons you contain."
"Damn!" Naruto said, "I was banking on her being able to heal up without much treatment. I'm no medic, at best all I've got is battlefield medicine skill and all that will do is keep her alive. She won't be in any condition to fight in case we get attacked again."
Naruto kicked a risen rock column, sliding it slightly and revealing a trapdoor hole in the ground that he dropped down in with Yugito before the hole shut, leaving them in the dark area that Naruto navigated by keeping his back against the wall and walking along, keeping his senses aware.
As he came through an entryway, a small whooshing noise came before the room was illuminated by numerous candelabra along the rock walls of the room. Naruto laid Yugito down on the ground and slumped against a wall, sinking to the floor next to her. He pulled a scroll from his pocket and unsealed a bedroll as well as a series of prepared packs, reaching for the one with the medical symbol on it.
"Kit." Kyuubi's voice cut through the silence, "Fix the female in a moment, inform someone of the situation for the time being. I will not be captured due to your negligence."
Naruto frowned but nodded as he bit his thumb and made the necessary hand-seals, "Kuchiyose no Jutsu (Summoning Jutsu)."
XxX
(Kumogakure no Sato – Sunrise)
Daybreak was beginning to show itself in the mountaintop village of Kumogakure no Sato and one could find one of the most legendary ninja of his time, Jiraiya of the Sannin, the fierce toad sennin, asleep with his entire body lain askew on his futon. As he slumbered through the sunrise a faint pull in the back of his mind stirred him from his forty winks.
He sat up out of instinct and bit his thumb before making a small set of hand-seals before mumbling out his technique, "Kuchiyose no Jutsu (Summoning Jutsu)…" –And falling backwards onto his futon once more to remain in the land of the quiescent.
A human sized orange toad with a blue vest appeared in the room, looking around only to see the source of his summoning out cold, "Jiraiya wake up!" He shouted, not even getting a twitch of a toe from the man, "Seriously, get up already! Naruto's in it deep right now and he needs some help!"
Jiraiya heard Naruto's name and sat up, still dazed and confused, "Wha-? Naruto huh? What about the gaki, what's the matter?" He rubbed his eyes and noticed the huge toad in his room, "Gamakichi what's going on? Did I summon you?" His response was a stream of water from Gamakichi's mouth to his face, "What the hell!"
"Are you awake?" The young toad asked impatiently, "Good! Now listen up, Naruto-nii is trapped outside of Kumo with the Nibi jinchuuriki who is injured. Two Akatsuki guys were here to take her and nii-chan got her out of there before they could take her. Get up and I'll be able to lead you back to where he summoned me!"
Jiraiya's face turned serious throughout his explanation of the situation and at the mention of Akatsuki, "Let me get dressed and we'll get out of here."
XxX
(With Naruto and Yugito)
Naruto had done all that he was able to for Yugito. He had bandaged as much of her body as he could while allowing her to maintain her modesty, as well as her hands. She still needed a medic-nin for those because from the damage she had taken he could swear that her hands would have had nerve damage.
For the past hour after fixing Yugito up he had been going through his weapons and ninja tools for when Hidan and Kakuzu found them again. When they attacked he would be ready and he had a plan to even the playing field, but he would have to be fast and accurate for it to work, he would only have one shot to make his move and once they knew what he was going for they would never let him pull it off.
A change in Yugito's breathing pattern alerted him to her regaining consciousness, "Welcome back Yugi-chan." Naruto said with a smile, "We almost lost you there for a moment."
Yugito's eyes opened and slowly widened once she heard Naruto's voice, "Naruto-kun? What about the two Akatsuki guys, did you beat them?"
Naruto laughed humorlessly, "I wish it was going to be that easy. All I could do was get you out of there and run away. They messed you up… it looked bad, there was blood everywhere."
Yugito smirked, "Would you believe me if I said that most of it wasn't mine?" She painfully tried to sit up only for Naruto to gently push her back down, "Naruto-kun!"
Naruto gave her a stern look as he took his hand off of her, "You're staying down. You're not me, you don't get over injuries in a flash. You still need actual medical treatment, all I did was patch you together enough to keep you in one piece."
Yugito pulled herself up and sat next to him against the wall, "I'm a jounin and I'm older than you. You're not in any position to tell me to do anything."
Naruto simply stared at her dryly before poking her in the side, smirking when he got a yelp of pain out of her, "What were you saying? I could hold you down with a Kage Bunshin the way you are. You'd be next to useless in a battle." Yugito glared at him, getting him to roll his eyes, "The entire point of me showing up in the first place was to keep you from being caught. If you get right back up and fight them again then this was for nothing."
Yugito's eyes softened, "One of them can't die. All of the blood that you said you saw, most of it was his. You were right, they are monsters. The one guy couldn't die and the other…" She rubbed her bruised cheek, "I've never been hit so hard in my entire life. They took me on when I was using the Nibi's full power."
"And that was your mistake." Naruto said to her, "I went three tails when I fought Hidan and Kakuzu the first time because it worked on somebody else I had fought. But you aren't going to brute force these guys, you have to stop fighting like the demon that you carry and start fighting like the ninja that you're supposed to be. When a group of people dedicate themselves to capturing demons you have to believe that they're prepared to handle way more demonic power than you can pump through your body."
Yugito raised an eyebrow at her blonde comrade-in-arms, "So your plan is to…?" She questioned.
Naruto grinned at her, "Fight like an elite shinobi; with control, skill, and finesse. I'm not going to bully these guys, and I'm going to get hurt to win." A chuckle came from him, "That's if I win at all. But who cares? You fought, you lost, if I lose then it won't really matter because we'll both be dead, right?"
Yugito sweatdropped, "That's um… That's really dark Naruto-kun."
Naruto shrugged, "Battlefield humor Yugi-chan. All battlefield humor is dark by nature."
She pouted and leaned against Naruto's shoulder, "I'm still fighting though. You won't beat them alone. Two jinchuuriki are better than one, and I said I was going to protect you didn't I?"
Naruto shook his head amusedly, "And where's the chivalry there? Well if you're dead set on fighting get as much rest as you can, because they'll find us sooner rather than later and I want you able to at least throw a kunai straight."
Yugito shut her eyes and wrapped her arms around herself, "Just don't hold me back Naruto-kun. I don't want to have to save your ass during the fight."
"Like I saved yours?" He quipped as he found his own eyes slowly closing.
"Kiss my ass…" Yugito mumbled.
Naruto smirked with his eyes closed, "Maybe after we get out of this Yugi-chan…" Naruto never saw the blush fill Yugito's face from his comment.
XxX
(With Hidan and Kakuzu)
"Where is that fucking brat?" Hidan yelled as he and Kakuzu made their way across the mountainous wilderness of the area around Kumo, "We're in the middle of nowhere, one other guy and a billy goat have passed anywhere near us and that's it!"
Kakuzu thought to himself while his partner continued to gripe, "He isn't running towards or away from Kumo. He's hiding now. Instead of running and eventually getting caught like he knew he was going to he found somewhere to hide to wait us out." Kakuzu chuckled, "Desperate isn't he?"
Hidan looked at him strangely, "Hiding? Where could he possibly be hiding? I'm certain that Kumo wouldn't allow places like that so close to their village. We're not even forty miles away. Are you sure the kid isn't just on the run?"
Kakuzu nodded, "I'm absolutely positive because it's the better option to hide right now. And every village has a few cracks in its security system. We got in after all didn't we?"
Hidan laughed, "Yeah, but all we did was just kill all of the guards. We basically walked right through the front gate." He continued to laugh even harder, "And now there aren't even any pitiful guards to try and stop us."
The two men continued their search across the mountain for Naruto and Yugito. Kakuzu grunted, "We have to find and capture them soon. It won't take long until Kumo finds out that something is amiss and they find the ruins from our fight with their jinchuuriki. Then it would be too risky to stay any longer."
XxX
(Kumogakure no Sato – Raikage's Office)
"What do you mean Yugito is gone!" A roared, slamming his fists into his desk and pulverizing it, "How could someone just get away with Yugito right under our noses and no one was the wiser about the whole situation?"
The Raikage's assistant didn't flinch in the face of her enraged commander, "Darui and C found the signs of a major battle just outside of Kumo, however there was no indication of exactly where she or her attacker had gone after the struggle ended."
A, the Yondaime Raikage felt like punching a few new holes in his office, "Who the hell could do something like this to Yugito? And this is terrible timing, Kirabi isn't in the village right now either. We need to scatter our forces and search for her immediately. How can she just vanish?"
"Because my apprentice is with her." Jiraiya said as he cracked the door to the office, "Naruto is with her."
A turned a glare to Jiraiya, barely holding back his killing intent, "And you would know this how? It's too much of a coincidence that the day after you send me a warning about a group that kidnaps jinchuuriki our own gets taken."
Jiraiya's eyes took on a hardened glance at the towering Kage, "Don't begin to insinuate what you're thinking. Naruto is keeping her away from the people that attempted to take her. He's stuck somewhere outside of Kumo by himself, keeping her hidden until someone can find him. However if he finds himself in a fight he will be at a decided disadvantage. There are two of them, and he's alone with your wounded jounin."
"Then what are we waiting for?" A said, "Lead my forces to your student and Yugito so that we can keep them safe."
Jiraiya sighed and leaned against the doorway, "I wish it were that simple, but my toads aren't much for tracking. And if you couldn't find any trail of them either then that means Naruto did too good of a job of covering his tracks when he escaped… I can't really blame him given the circumstances though."
A looked over at his assistant, "Send out the order to scatter our forces out along the countryside to look for Yugito Nii and Naruto Uzumaki. Stop and question anyone in sight that is travelling in that area."
His assistant nodded and exited the office in a hurry to relay his orders to Kumo's shinobi force. A turned his attention to Jiraiya who still stood in the doorway, utterly serious, "How legitimate a chance do you think the two of them have by themselves out there."
"It depends." Jiraiya simply stated, "It depends on whether or not the gaki is sick of playing the victim and switches over to playing executioner." A groan came from Jiraiya's mouth at that moment, "And for my sake he'd better turn into the executioner quick, or else Tsunade's going to castrate me bare-handed if he gets himself caught."
XxX
(With Naruto and Yugito – Two Hours Later)
Yugito was seated with a heated face as she had her shirt off and her back turned to Naruto, "Are you done yet Naruto-kun? This is embarrassing and the ink is cold."
Naruto was drawing a major array on Yugito's back, one that matched the one that was currently drawn on his bare chest. A circular formation around his heart, a trail of kanji leading from his heart to the other side of his chest and an overlapping straight trail resembling a DNA helix ending in a significantly larger kanji surrounded by another circular array, "Just keep holding still. You're lucky I can do this on your back too or else I'd be getting a primo view right now. Be lucky that I'm not Ero-sennin or I wouldn't have even given you the option."
"Naruto-kun! And I don't even know who that is!" Yugito said indignantly, "Besides, we're in the middle of something serious here!"
Naruto grinned as he continued to make his seal on Yugito's back, "Oh come on Yugi-chan. It's just you and me, we're all alone in this dark, hidden cavern, you're shirtless, I'm shirtless, we're about to die more or less… If there's anything you want from me then now's the time to ask." He hinted, wagging his eyebrows.
"Fine…" Yugito said, seething and blushing hard, "What I want is for you shut the hell up and finish this seal so I'm not worthless when the fight starts! Now hurry up and stop flirting with me!"
Naruto held back his laughter so that he could focus on the task at hand, "Sorry, sorry. But if you knew who my sensei was, and you knew what he was really like first-hand you would know why I'm hitting on you." Naruto placed his brush next to his ink and looked over his handiwork, nodding as he cut his palm and placed a premade seal tag on her back, "Alright, this was done with my ink so it should be super-effective. More so than usual."
"Why?" Yugito questioned as she looked over her shoulder to see Naruto slowly making hand-seals.
Naruto continued to slowly work his way through his memorized hand-seals, "Because my blood is a very potent medium for sealing ink, and that's what I put in all of my ink. Now then; Fuuinjutsu: Chakura Takuwaeru Kuriireru (Sealing Technique: Stored Chakra Transfer)" Naruto finished his seals and clapped his hands together before placing them on the seal he had placed on Yugito's back.
The array faded from Naruto's heart to the circle array he had drawn on the other side as the seal on the tag started glowing. From that point the small circular array on Yugito's back glowed and faded all the way down to the point on her heart where that array began to glow. The light lasted for a few moments before dying out and allowing the seal to fade.
Naruto pulled the blank seal tag from Yugito's back and moved away from her, "And that should be that. You can go ahead and put your shirt back on Yugi-chan… or feel free not to. Either way is good with me."
Yugito growled at him and put her shirt back on before whipping her still loose hair out of her face, "Pervert… But thanks. I feel like I have all of my chakra back."
Naruto chuckled, "You'd better have all of your chakra back, as much as I used to pump into those things for storage. I only brought one though so try not to run out of chakra again."
"Will do." Yugito said, "I'm as ready as I'm going to be for them the next time." Yugito said, gingerly feeling at her ribs with her wounded hands. She made hand-seals and frowned at the speed her fingers were moving at, "Fuck. I've got stupid hands."
Naruto shook his head, "It's probably nerve damage. We really need to get you to a medic." His face switched moods as he looked up, "Nevermind. I guess banking on someone to come and get us before they did was asking too much." Naruto resealed his supplies and placed the scrolls in his pockets before slinging his sword over his back as he started making his way to the exit. Yugito grabbed his arm and turned him around abruptly, pulling him towards her. Before he could even respond Yugito's lips covered his for what seemed like an eternity but was in reality thirty seconds.
Yugito released the kiss and grabbed Naruto by his collar, "That was just because I wanted to, not a last act to release regret understood? We're not going to lose this time."
Naruto nodded and pulled her hands away from his collar, holding them in his and rubbing the backs of them softly with his thumbs, "If it starts looking bad you cut out and run towards Kumo as fast as you can, got it? If I go down you leave immediately. You don't try to get me away from them, you don't even try to fight them. You run." Yugito opened her mouth to dispute when he cut her off, "You run."
Yugito's response died in her mouth and she simply sighed, "Okay Naruto-kun. I'll run."
Naruto nodded once more, "Good, now let's get this over with."
XxX
Hidan kicked aside some loose rock while Kakuzu simply looked around calmly, "Are you sure this is where they are?"
Kakuzu glared at his partner, "I wouldn't have dragged us over here if I wasn't. He thinks his Kage Bunshin were so well hidden, the little bastards never saw it coming. They were his lookouts, his security measures, and that means he's around here somewhere." The area was a relatively flat rock field, lots of up risen formations and no flora about, nothing but hard earth.
Taking Kakuzu's word for it at face value, Hidan pulled his amulet from around his neck and closed his eyes as he began to pray for forgiveness as he was not allowed to kill Naruto or Yugito in the forthcoming battle.
"Doton: Shinjuu Zanshu no Jutsu (Earth Release: Inner Decapitation Skill)!"
A pair of hands locked themselves around Hidan's ankles and pulled him under the solid rock, leaving him stuck up to his neck. Naruto came out of the ground directly in front of him, "What the fuck is the big idea you lowlife heathen? I was praying to Jashin-sama!"
Naruto drew his sword from his back, "Sorry, I don't really fight fair." Before he could attempt anything on Hidan a series of black threads tried to impale him where he stood, forcing him to begin dodging as he saw the threads drive through rock, and knew from his clones' experiences that they were very dangerous.
Kakuzu's threads were chasing after Naruto from under the sleeves of his coat as he tried steering the young chunin away from his partner. Even though there wasn't anything he could do to actually kill Hidan, putting him back together after Naruto did whatever he was going to try and do was still going to be a pain in the ass.
As he attacked Naruto, a hole opened up in the ground behind him, revealing Yugito who jumped out and threw a kick at his head that he dodged. Yugito followed up upon landing back on the ground and threw a set of shuriken at him that made him jump into the air in order to dodge.
"Fuuton: Repuushou (Wind Release: Violent Wind Palm)!"
A wind from Naruto changed the trajectory of the shuriken that Yugito threw to rising above Kakuzu. Kakuzu saw this and sighed, "Not again."
Yugito made a few hand-seals before calling out her jutsu, "Raiton: Kaminari Shuriken (Lightning Release: Lightning Shuriken)!" From the shuriken flying overhead, bursts of electricity snapped down at Kakuzu who was able to avoid every attack. He had already seen this jutsu in the desert against Naruto and his was far deadlier in its usage.
Hidan wriggled and squirmed as hard as he could to free himself, but the ground wasn't loosening up. It wasn't soil, it was solid rock and he cursed Naruto for taking advantage of his rituals to get such a cheap shot on him.
Kakuzu outlasted the lightning jutsu from Yugito and dashed towards her, who in her injured state was unable to stay out of Kakuzu's speedy clutches and wound up grasped by the throat by the tall missing-nin. Yugito clutched at his outstretched arm as she felt him rob her of her oxygen, "You were very aggravating to run down. Do you know that?"
His monologue was cut off from going any further by Naruto attempting to run him through with his sword. Kakuzu shifted out of the way and threw a kick at Naruto who moved his sword to take the kick that still managed to push him back roughly fifteen feet before he was able to ground his feet to a stop, 'Just how strong is this son of a bitch? He's just as strong as me and he's got the size to bully me around if it comes to that.'
Yugito was still in Kakuzu's chokehold and tried fighting him off by trying to dislocate his outstretched elbow with punches, but he used his free hand to hit her in the body, robbing her of even more air and forcing her to cough up blood. After delivering the hit to her she burst into smoke and Kakuzu found himself holding Naruto around the neck instead, and he was none too pleased.
Naruto brought his blade down and cleaved the arm of Kakuzu off, freeing himself, only to find that Kakuzu's arm quickly reattached itself due to a thick bulk of black threads that reconnected the two segments of his arm.
Yugito was gasping for breath over by herself behind the cover of rock, with protection from two of Naruto's Kage Bunshin, "*cough cough* I think he was right about the whole 'boogeymen of the ninja world' thing. Kami what a monster." She held her neck gingerly, feeling the bruise that simply being in Kakuzu's grip left.
"So that's the Jiongu (Earth Grudge Fear)." Naruto said as he set himself back in a ready stance to face off with Kakuzu, "At least now I know what to call those thread things of yours after our first encounter."
Kakuzu shook his head, "Listen kid. We've wasted enough time getting the Nibi. We're already late so how about this; you simply let us take her and we'll let you go for now. We can't seal your biju until last anyway so we can just pretend we never encountered you. You don't even need to fight."
Naruto kept his eyes locked on Kakuzu, "I could do that, some would say that I should do that, but I'm not going to. You either take me and Yugi-chan, or you don't get either one of us. And either way you're in for one hell of a fight. I won't just let you have her."
"Fair enough." Kakuzu said before his skin turned dark and he launched a punch at Naruto extended with his threads.
Naruto dodged the punch and ran in at Kakuzu who blocked his follow-up slash with his bare hands. Naruto growled as his sword was caught in Kakuzu's grasp, "That same damn move again."
"Why mess with what works brat?" Kakuzu said, obviously amused, "That's lesson number one for punks like you that want to survive to be older than thirty."
Naruto tugged in vain to free his sword from Kakuzu's grip, "Surviving older than thirty? That doesn't sound very fun." Naruto channeled lightning chakra to his hand and attempted to place it on Kakuzu's arm to help him free the Sen'nenki no Ken. However when Kakuzu heard the crackling of electricity he let go of Naruto and got away from him, landing next to Hidan who was still trapped. Naruto moved over towards the rock formation where Yugito was with his clones, still recovering, "Surviving until I'm as old as you without anyone knowing who I am with mere name association defeats the purpose of my goal, and as long as I achieve it I could care less how old I am when I die. Besides, it's better to burn out than to fade away like you Kakuzu. When I kill you, only a handful of people will even get the reference."
Kakuzu narrowed his eyes at Naruto and sent his black thread into the ground around Hidan's head, loosening the rock around him, "Ow! You stabbed me damn it! That fucking hurt you bastard! I don't stab you to free you do I?" Hidan bellowed.
Kakuzu pulled him out abruptly, "Shut up Hidan. First of all I never get captured in the first place, second of all if you stabbed me I would tear you apart and sew you back together backwards, and lastly of all, I'm sick of playing around with these brats, we take them down, now."
Hidan licked his lips anxiously, "Now you're talking my language rag-doll. Get over here brat!" The silver-haired nuke-nin rushed at Naruto, drawing his three-bladed scythe from his back and swinging it once he found Naruto within the long weapon's range.
Naruto started parrying the strokes of the scythe with his sword only to realize that the scythe was obscenely dangerous. It didn't take much for that thing to cut him, but it wasn't as deadly as it could be… like killing him wasn't really the point of using the weapon. After a ducked swing of his weapon, Hidan lifted it to block an incoming set of shuriken from Yugito who threw from behind cover.
Naruto took advantage of this and stabbed his sword into Hidan's foot, pinning him in place before pulling out a kunai and driving it down into his other foot to immobilize him. Hidan swatted Naruto back with the pole end of his scythe but was unable to do anything else to follow up as simply that movement caused him to lose his balance.
Naruto growled and grabbed onto the arm holding Hidan's scythe, keeping his other hand free to pound the daylights out of the Akatsuki member. Naruto was stopped from pulverizing Hidan when Kakuzu kicked him in the side, sending him flying off of his partner.
Kakuzu pulled both weapons from Hidan's feet and tossed them aside, "And once again I step in to save you from certain doom. Start thinking before you put your attacks together."
Hidan spit blood from his mouth and worked his jaw with his hand, "Shut the hell up Kakuzu. All that did was piss me off. That punk can't kill me and you know it, he's just wasting his own time."
Naruto bounced off of the side of a rock and landed next to Yugito and his clones. He groaned and shook off the cobwebs as he looked over at Yugito, "Do you feel any better Yugi-chan?"
Yugito pulled him up into a seated position, "My ribs are sore, but I'm okay. What about you?"
Naruto rubbed his side, "Why the fuck does Kakuzu hit so hard? It's like getting nailed by a hammer."
One of Naruto's clones peered over the rock and paled, "Um boss? You might want to move right now." It then dispelled so that he could relay what he saw without saying anything and Naruto got the message instantly.
The blonde male jinchuuriki picked up his older female counterpart and beat a hasty retreat from the formation just in time to see it pulverized by a small fireball that erupted into a torrent right where they were just sitting.
Naruto cringed at the feeling of getting burned alive by the ninjutsu that had engulfed his clones. Naruto set Yugito down and looked over at Kakuzu who had called out one of his thread creatures with the mask on its face, however it looked very different from the one he had fought in the desert, but that was not the point, the point was that it was now effectively three-on-two and one of the two was hurt.
"Can you generate any of the Nibi's chakra safely? We need some more kick to our attacks." Naruto asked.
Yugito nodded, "Yeah, but when using all of the Nibi's chakra I can't use any jutsu."
Naruto rolled his eyes, "Then don't use all of the Nibi's chakra. Just pull out enough to make these guys sweat at your speed and power. You do get faster when you use the Nibi's chakra don't you?"
Yugito hit him on the arm, "Duh Naruto-kun."
"Well then turn up the heat already! We need an edge here!" Naruto yelled as he dug deep and pulled out a tail of Kyuubi's chakra, "I start overloading stuff at two tails and at three tails there's only one normal jutsu I can really use."
A blue aura wrapped around Yugito's body, however instead of looking like a tail the way Naruto's did it took the appearance of a still-burning flame, "I only have two tails to work with in the first place." She looked over at Naruto, "So do you have anything in your repertoire to let them know this is serious?"
Naruto grinned at her, "Do you?"
Both jinchuuriki grinned evilly and began generating massive amounts of their respective chakra while making hand-seals.
"Katon: Karyuudan (Fire Release: Fire Dragon Missile)!"
"Fuuton: Kamikaze Hashira (Wind Release: God Wind Pillars)!"
Jutsu List
Fuuinjutsu: Chakura Takuwaeru Kuriireru (Sealing Technique: Stored Chakra Transfer). No rank. Fuuinjutsu. Requirements: Sealing ink, prepared seal tag. The user draws identical seals on themselves and the recipient of the jutsu. Once drawn, the user will place a seal tag used to store chakra in its sealing array on the person that is to receive the chakra in order to activate the jutsu. Warning; there is a chance of overloading someone with low chakra reserves if an oversaturated seal tag is used. Caution is to be exercised when using this jutsu lest the recipient find their chakra coils crippled by the influx of chakra to their system.
Katon: Karyuudan (Fire Release: Fire Dragon Missile). B-ranked ninjutsu, Mid-to-long range. After completing hand-seals the user breathes deeply before releasing a steady stream of fire from their mouth that expands on contact with the opponent.
Fuuton: Kamikaze Hashira (Wind Release: God Wind Pillars). B-ranked ninjutsu. Mid-to-long range. Upon completion of the necessary hand-seals, The user's spins around for a short time. Mimicking his movements, four pillars of spinning wind will appear around a certain target, moving ever closer to the target upon their formation.
週次パワーステータス
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