บท 20: 2/2
Shikamaru nodded "Yeah that's right, you're not the only ones who can spring a trap. Thanks for making me look good in front of the squad, appreciate it."
"Very impressive." Sakon praised "I'd be even more impressed if I hadn't mastered that technique as well."
Shikamaru was hit by some shuriken from behind "What was that?"
"Earth Style Barrier: Earth Dome Prison!" Jirobo slammed both hands into the ground and trapped them all in a rock barrier.
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"Terrific." Shikamaru grumbled "A barrier of some kind and we're stuck in it."
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Jirobo stepped up to the barrier "Since I'm the one who caught them I get them, anyone else have a problem with that?"
Kidomaru scoffed "Go ahead but we're not waiting, when you're done with them catch up with us." and they left "Don't take all day."
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"Hey you out there, let us out right now!" Naruto yelled.
"It seems to be nothing more than a dirt wall." Neji noted.
"It's an Earth style jutsu." Tatsu noted "Watch your step guys, anything you do could trigger another trap. Stay back, I'm best suited for this kind of thing." he charged some chakra into his fist "Lightning Style: Purple Thunder Fist!" he punched the wall with lightning chakra, creating a hole, only for it to quickly heal itself.
"LET US OUT!" Naruto screamed.
"More than any ordinary Earth-Style jutsu or dirt wall." Neji quickly activated his Byakugan and noticed something "The wall is-"
"What?"
"Our chakra, it's absorbing it as if we were a sponge."
"Well you've gotta give them points for being thorough."
"No way, NO WAY THEY CAN DO THIS TO US!" Naruto screamed "WHOEVER YOU ARE LET US OUT RIGHT NOW!"
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Jirobi smirked as he absorbed their chakra 'Thanks for the meal, I've almost had my fill.'
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The group was feeling the effects fast.
Neji checked with his Byakugan "Something must be done, and quickly."
Shikamaru scowled 'Man I was an idiot for moving in without knowing the extent of the enemy's powers, now we're trapped like rats.'
"Guys, I'm gonna try something. Wind Style: Skybound Wind Barrage!" Tatsu launched several sharp and powerful blasts of wind throughout the dome, landing several deep slashes throughout the rock, only for them to heal "Damn, as soon as the cracks appear they heal themselves. Naruto and I are alright, but you guys have about 10 more minutes before you guys are tapped out."
"Stand back." then Shikamaru stepped forward "Hey out there, let me talk to your leader. I've got a deal to propose. What I'm thinking is that you let us out of this thing and in return we let you keep Sasuke."
'My favorite part, when they start pleading for their life. No deal, I've never let a captive go before." Jirobo told him "I'm not about to start now."
"Oh come on. Listen, just let me go and keep the others. All this fighting, I'm tired of it. It's really not my thing."
"So much for teamwork, so you're really the leader huh? What a fine example you're setting for the rest of the team. You see a man's true character when he's pushed to the edge of death. But you're hardly a man at all, certainly not one who's worthy of leading a team of ninja into battle. Sacrificing Sasuke and the rest of your squad, so that's how a leaf chunin acts? Did you really believe I might let you out? You deserve to die."
"That's enough, everybody just shut up!" Choji snarled, tired of hearing Naruto and Kiba fighting.
Tatsu watched as Shikamaru got into his thinking position 'He's planning, so then leader what's your next move?' then he saw Choji eating a bag of chips 'So that's it.'
Shikamaru exited his position "Neji, I'm gonna need you to focus those eyes of yours on the wall directly behind you and directly behind Choji. Do you think you have enough chakra for that?"
Neji nodded "I think so."
Tatsu put a hand over Naruto's mouth "Shut up and think, don't you remember what he said at the gate?"
"Tatsu, keep your voice down." Shikamaru told him "Kiba, you up for trying to put another dent in the wall behind Choji?
"Sure." so Kiba launched a Tunneling Fang at the wall.
Neji observed it with his Byakugan and looked around 'I see it, that's the spot.'
"Okay now Neji, mark the spot with your kunai." Shikamaru told him "Choji, are you ready buddy?"
Choji smirked "Shikamaru, I was born ready."
"Good, now let's get this started."
Tatsu turned to Naruto "Short version, the farther away from the user the weaker the chakra holding the wall together."
"It's up to you Choji."
"Right. Expansion Jutsu!" Choji expanded his body "Alright then, here we go! Human Boulder!" he drove into the wall with all his raw power, breaking through the back wall of the barrier, causing it to crumble.
"Well Choji there's no other way of saying it, that was awesome."
Jirobo was sweating when he saw his barrier crumble "He managed to escape my barrier ninjutsu."
"He's by himself, I guess the others took Sasuke and went on ahead."
Neji checked with his Byakugan "You're correct, they're nowhere to be seen."
"Swell, and just when I thought we'd finally caught up to them."
Jirobo clapped mockingly "Not a bad bit of handiwork you guys, for a bunch of losers."
"Who're you calling losers?!" Naruto and Kiba lost it and charged "Now that we're out you're toast pal!"
"Stop!" Tatsu barked "We can't take him head on, it's too dangerous."
"We just tore through this clown's barrier, how tough can he be?"
"About this tough." Jirobo knocked back Kiba's Tunneling Fang and Naruto's Shadow Clones with ease "I'm gonna eat you guys for lunch!"
"Try it!"
Jirobo easily body-slammed Kiba and kneed Naruto in the gut "You wouldn't even do as an appetizer." he formed a hand seal "Earth Style Barrier: Earth Dome Prison!" he prepared the same jutsu.
"Expansion Jutsu! Human Boulder!" Choji was quick to get the others out of there.
Jirobo didn't know this though "Hardly worth the effort."
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The group sat and hid amongst the trees.
"We're running out of time." Shikamaru noted "There's no choice, we've gotta split up."
"He's right guys." Tatsu told them "With our chakra taken, even with the 7 of us against him he's not gonna be easy to take out, and with every second passing they take Sasuke closer to the border. Once he crosses it, there's nothing we can do. One has to stop this guy, the rest of us go after Sasuke."
"Tastu, you'll head the second team."
Then Jirobo suddenly unleashed an earth jutsu that knocked down several surrounding trees, revealing their hiding space "So there you are."
"Tatsu, you take Neji, Choji and Kiba and go after Sasuke. Naruto, you and I will handle this guy."
"What're you gonna do, play with my shadow again? Don't waste my time kid, you've already shown me your little parlor trick and once was enough."
"That's funny, I seem to remember someone around here getting taken in by that parlor trick."
Jirobo realized the shadow was creeping up behind him and slammed his hand in the ground.
Neji checked with his Byakugan, but found nothing "He's disappeared."
"He's behind us!" Tatsu barked.
Jirobo suddenly lifted a massive boulder out of the ground "Earth Style: Sphere of Graves!" he was quick to throw it.
Tatsu and the others quickly dodged it, and Tatsu sensed him out "Below us!"
Jirobo caught Shikamaru by the ankles and held him upside down "You're in charge of this ragtag bunch, am I right? If you've got an idiot for a leader then the whole team suffers, know what I mean? You don't wanna follow a guy like this, let me get rid of him for you!" he quickly flung Shikamaru towards a tree.
"Expansion Jutsu! Human Boulder!" Choji rolled over and let Shikamaru rebound off of his stomach "Gotcha!"
"I try to help you guys out and look what you do. I don't know which is more pathetic, the fool or those who follow him. Tell you what, you don't wanna keep working under this glum-faced little shadow lover. I'll just kill you now and put you out of your misery."
"It's time for you to shut your trap!" Naruto snarled "Or I'll come shut it for you!"
"Naruto!" Choji barked suddenly "I'll handle him, this guy is mine."
Shikamaru's head snapped towards him, along with everyone else "But Choji…"
"What the heck are you talking about?!" Naruto barked "This isn't the kind of guy you can take on your own!"
"He's mine, I said!" Choji repeated firmly.
"Yeah but Choji…"
"Enough." Choji held out a bag "Shikamaru, take these food pills for everyone."
"Choji…" Shikamaru murmured "You're not gonna…"
"Yep. Don't worry, I've got my secret weapon with me."
"Yeah but Choji, this is…"
Choji stepped forward.
"Oh this is priceless, you think I'm gonna wait forever?!" Jirobo charged "Enough of this, I'm taking you all out right here!"
Choji appeared in between Jirobo and the others "Get going, hurry!" he pulled out a set of pills.
'Pills? Those aren't food pills, so what are they?'
'First, the Green Spinach Pill.' Choji ate the green one.
"Get out of my way you jo-"
Choji cut him off with a fist to the gut.
'Impossible… He stopped me?!'
"Shikamaru, take everybody and get out of here!"
Shikamaru stared at him "Choji…"
"What're the 5 of us draw together for?! If we lose Sasuke then we'll be just what this guy says we are, a stupid idiot of a leader and his band of rejects!"
"...You better catch up with us Choji, you hear me?"
"Yeah! Now get out of here, go already!"
"Alright, let's move you guys!" and they all took off into the trees 'Choji…'
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As the group went on their way, Shikamaru handed Naruto a food pill "A parting gift from Choji, eat up."
"Got it." Naruto popped one in 'We owe you one Choji. Kiba." he threw it.
"Shikamaru." said Tatsu "That pill we saw Choji take before we left, it's some kind of trump card isn't it? Do you really think we can win?"
"Don't worry, Choji's got a plan up his sleeve." Shikamaru told him.
"You really have faith in him don't you?"
"As much faith as you have in Naruto. Anyway, Choji brought along with him the Akimichi Clan Secret Triple Threat, pills that grant a person explosive power. There are three of them, green, yellow and red. The amount of energy that each of those pills contains is absolutely massive, but any pill that works that way always comes with side effects."
"Like Lee using the Eight Gates?" asked Ne.
"Probably."
Kiba heard Akamaru whimpering "Yeah I know, I was just thinking the same thing myself."
"What is it?" asked Tatsu "What's going on?"
"You know how Akamaru can tell an enemy's strength by his scent right? He's pretty worried that Choji might not be able to take on that gargantuan alone with just those pills to help him."
"Well to be fair we don't know enough about those pills. Besides, that's usually a case in battle."
"Tatsu's right." Shikamaru agreed "That's just how a battle is. We knew from the beginning this mission wouldn't be child's play, it's life or death."
"Yeah, but Shikamaru…" Naruto murmured.
"I've already anticipated the worst case scenario where each of us ends up fighting alone, and at this point if we're not ready to lay down our lives for this then we might not be able to reach Sasuke in time." he paused, then smile "Choji is good enough to hold his own, but he doesn't have a lot of confidence. He thinks that out of all of us he's the weakest link, but everyone's always thought that way about Choji. But me? Well I've always known the real truth. More than me or Neji or any of us here, Choji's got strength. I believe in him, I always have."
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Having eaten the green pill, Choji's increased strength seemed to overpower Jirobo, forcing him to use the first level of his Curse Mark.
With Jirobo now having the upper hand, Choji took the second pill of the Secret Triple Threat, the yellow pill.
Thanks to that, Choji used his Expansion Jutsu to dramatically increase his size and fall upon Jirobo.
To escape the crushing effects of Choji's increased bulk, Jirobo activated the second level of his Curse Mark, allowing him to lift Choji and toss him aside.
Outmatched now, Choji considered taking the last pill, which had a very high chance of death. With thoughts of Shikamaru driving him on, allowing him to easily overpower Jirobo, then kill him.
With the battle won, Choji began to follow after the others, though he didn't make it very far before he lost consciousness.
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Shikamaru marked a tree with a kunai "It's for Choji, he promised us he'd catch up."
"You think so?" asked Kiba.
"Trust me he will beat that guy, and after he does he'll come and find us."
Tatsu nodded "No doubt about it, but let's make sure he doesn't have to worry by catching up to them and bringing Sasuke back before Choji even catches up." and they continued on their way.
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Sakon felt something wasn't right "Jirobo's late, he should've gotten here by now."
"Well you know how enormous his appetite can be." Tayuya pointed out "He's probably squeezing out every last bit of chakra."
Kidomaru rolled his eyes and looked at the unconscious Sasuke slung over his shoulder "Man, I wish I could be in his shoes right now. Then again, at least Aoi didn't wanna have to hang around us."
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Shikamaru suddenly tensed and saw a butterfly pass by 'Choji…'
"What is it?" asked Tatsu.
"It's nothing…"
"If you say so…"
Kiba heard Akamaru bark "We're getting close."
"He's right, I can sense them."
Neji used his Byakugan to check their location "That's strange, it's been quite a long time and we still haven't encountered a single trap. What's your assessment Shikamaru, Tatsu?"
"Looks to me like they got cocky and underestimated us. They probably think we're all dead and the fatass back there is the only one following them. After all, why would they need to set a trap for their own teammate."
"It seems you're right, and it's insulting to be underestimated like this. But still, this could be our chance."
Shikamaru nodded "I hear you, now we can take them by surprise."
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"Jirobo's pretty late isn't he?" Sakon noticed.
"He was, but he just arrived." Kidomaru looked back to see Jirobo appearing behind him.
"Well it's about time, you were gone awhile. What took so long?"
"Sorry, it took longer than I thought to eat that loser's chakra." Jirobo told them.
"Listen fatass, don't slow us down so you can eat more." Tayuya barked "You see that Uchiha kid? You're the one who's supposed to be carrying it, so do your job you slob."
"Alright."
"Well well Jirobo, aren't you awfully easy-going today." Kidomaru noted.
"Yeah, so what?"
"Well it's just that I'm not going to be handing over this kid to you, because you're not the real Jirobo!" Kidomaru threw Sasuke over to Tayuya.
Jirobo drew a kunai and charged.
"Let me take down this one fellas. Sakon, Tayuya, go on and I'll catch up."
They had no arguments and left.
Kidomaru quickly stopped the kunai "The real Jirobo was always scolding Tayuya about her rather coarse language."
Jirobo disappeared in a puff of smoke, revealing Shikamaru in his place "Ya got me."
"Ninja Art: Spider Web Net!" Kidomaru hit Shikamaru with a web from his mouth and stuck him to a tree.
Then a barrage of Naruto and Tatsu's Shadow Clones appeared "Surprised to see us you son of a bitch?!"
"Ninja Art: Spiral Spider Web!" Kidomaru leapt down and created a massive spider web that trapped all of the clones.
'Kiba, Akamaru, now's your chance. When he's in mid-air like that, there's no way he can fight back.'
"Fang Over Fang!" Kiba and Akamaru charged in.
Kidomaru managed to dodge the attack "Is that it?"
"I won't let you get away!"
"You stole my line punk, you should look down at your feet."
Kiba looked down to see his feet webbed "You coward! Do you really think you can stop us that easily?"
"Why don't you shut up?"
'My turn!' that was when Neji charged in.
Kidomaru was quick to dodge it and unleashed another Spiral Spider Web, trapping him "How would you like to see the inside of an air-tight cocoon?" Kidomaru was quick to completely trap him.
"No!" Naruto tried to break the web with a kunai, to no avail "Come on, what the hell's this thread made out of? I can't cut it!"
"It's useless, my spider silk is so powerful nothing can break it. 2 elephants couldn't pull it apart. Those two are able to use Shadow Clones.' he started chewing and making a web, then pulled out a golden-colored material "Ninja Art: Sticky Spider Thread!"
'That's a different color from the thread he used before.' Tatsu noted 'What's he planning?'
Kidomaru formed it into various weapons.
'So it solidifies and takes on the form of a weapon.'
"Since you'll be my first victim, let's make this entertaining. I'm going to play a little game to find out which ones are the real ones. Contestants 1 and 2, let's try you at the end!" he threw a weapon, only for them to disappear "Oh well, looks like he was a clone. No problem, let's try another." the same result "Whichever you are, you're both pretty lucky. Next let's try 4 at a time, the odds will be doubled in my favor!" he took out 4 at once and formed more weapons "You're both very lucky guys, but this time I've got a 50-50 shot for both of you. Here they come!" he threw 2 more, causing 2 more clones to disappear "Well somehow you both made it all the way to the bitter end. Well weaklings it was fun playing with you two, but unfortunately the game's over for the both of you now. Now die!" he threw the last ones "2 down and 4 to go."
But they disappeared in puffs of smoke.
"Wait, where did they-" he suddenly blocked a blow from behind from Naruto, then another one from Tatsu 'Of course, they let their Shadow Clones get caught while the real ones hid and waited for a chance to catch me off guard. For wimps like that to come up with such deception in the heat of battle, they're not so dumb after all. However…'
Naruto's wrist was bound by the threads.
"Looks like you're at the end of your rope!" Kidomaru pulled Naruto in, fully prepared to finish it.
However, Neji appeared and cut the web "Naruto!" he carried Naruto to safety, then quickly cut Tatsu free.
"How did he-?!"
"Thanks for stalling him for me you two."
"I trapped you, how did you get free?"
"Your spider web had a chakra base, and chakra-built substances don't stand a chance against my Gentle Fist attack. This guy's jutsu, I think I'm the only one who can handle it. Go on you guys, I'll take care of him."
Kiba took note of Akamaru hiding in his jacket "Well it looks like this guy's stronger than the big guy we fought before, much stronger."
"We're going to have to go one-on-one to have any chance of success, isn't that what you said?"
Shikamaru nodded "Yeah, that's what we agreed."
"And besides, if we all stay here then we won't be able to catch up with Sasuke."
"And what about Choji? He hasn't caught up yet." Narutp pointed out.
"We all embarked on this mission to find Sasuke and rescue him and bring him back home to the village, but that's not the only reason that we've come. We are on this mission to protect a fellow shinobi, to defend the bond of the Hidden Leaf Village. At the Third Hokage's funeral when Iruka spoke, do you remember his words?"
Naruto thought back to what Iruka told him during the funeral "Yeah…"
"Listen, Sasuke's out there right now being taken toward Orochimaru. We can't allow such evil to take someone from our village, that is not our way. What's more Naruto, sometimes your eyes are even better than mine. Wherever he is, Sasuke has been taken against his will by the darkness. Now get going, I'll be right behind you."
"Well alright, now let's do this thing." Shikamaru told them.
"And Neji, when you catch up with us be sure to bring Choji with you." Tatsu told him.
Neji nodded "Of course I will."
"Come on guys, let's go." and they took off.
Naruto stared back 'Neji, I'd better see you again…'
"Naruto." Tatsu snapped him out of his thoughts "Don't worry. He'll win, I'm sure of it."
A/N:
For the record, I originally had Lee go on the mission this time since he didn't get crippled by Gaara, but I couldn't find anything for him to do, so when I revised this chapter I had to cut him out, otherwise he would just be "there", and that would be some serious injustice to his character.
Yes, Aoi is a filler villain but I have a plan to make it work. I do plan to have the Kiba and Akamaru vs Sakon and Ukon fight be same as canon, the same with the Shikamaru vs Tayuya fight. I plan to have one of them fight Kimimaro, and the other one chase Aoi and Sasuke to the Valley of End. That will work out in the next few chapters or so.
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