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CHAPTER 2; Unspoken Teamwork and Spiraling Dragons
The blazing afternoon sun shone down upon the four ninjas through the tree leaves. No one had spoken for over an hour. Shizu, who hated it quiet, was actually beginning to miss Naruto and Sasuke’s bickering. She was about to break the silence, But jumped when there was a loud rustle in the trees. Suddenly, someone screamed.
“Sasuke! B-behind you!” It was Kotori.
“Huh?!” Startled, he looked up as a sound ninja, several feet above him, lunged at his throat. Instantly, he swerved, drawing his sword and gashed the enemy in half. Its limp body, now in two even portions, fell onto the ground and disappeared in a cloud of white smoke. “Damn, a clone!” Sasuke instantly turned around, “Everyone! Get in formation and watch your backs!” At once everybody clustered together and it was still again. Kotori proceeded to take something out of her back pouch, but hesitated, as if abruptly realizing something important. She instead reached into the knapsack, pulling out one of Sasuke’s Demon-Wind shuriken. Sasuke turned around. Wondering what all the rustling was about. When he noticed her with the shuriken, he smiled.
Without warning, a low rumbling came from below them. An arm shot up from the earth, grabbed Naruto’s leg, and instantly pulled him under. “W-WAAHHH!”
“Naruto!” Taken aback, Shizu desperately looked around for aid. Staggering when she found she was alone. "Shit..." Sasuke and Kotori had bound into nearby trees, as not to get trapped in the earth-style Jutsu. They wanted to call for her, but at the same time couldn't give away their locations.
On her own, Shizu tried to flee, but only in vain as the same adversary came up from behind her, and knocked her out by striking the back of her neck. Pleased with himself, the sound-nin tied Naruto and the unconscious Shizu to a tree. Each on one side of the trunk. Naruto cautiously watched, as the man placed explosive seals around them.
“Heh, now you two Dani be good.” He said. Naruto looked at him blankly. “Don’t worry, I’ll be back to kill you later.” He smiled sinisterly, “… Oh, and if you disobey, I’ll set those tags off without another thought.” Naruto’s eyes widened.
“W-what’s with this guy?” The blonde watched him advance towards Sasuke and Kotori. Naruto strained as he struggled to get out of the binds, and Shizu soon regained consciousness.
“Naruto! Stop it!” Confused and startled, Naruto looked at her. “This string will cut you if you try to get out of it, especially when it’s this tight.”
“Great…just great…” She sighed.
Meanwhile the enemy searched for the remaining two shinobi. As he neared the center of the trail, a voice called out of nowhere.
“Kotori!” Instantly, a giant shuriken came flying from the tree, making a beeline straight for the sound-ninja, who easily dodged it. The weapon, circled back around him, and boomeranged back from which it came. Again, the weapon flew at the man, which dodged it and laughed.
“Ha! Did you really think you could hit me with such a thing!?” The adversary stood there disdainfully. “…And now I know where you’re hiding!” He took off and flew towards the concealed Kotori, but was soon wrathfully yanked backwards into a tree trunk. The man feverishly looked around him.
“W-what is the meaning of this!?” He said, disorientated. The mysterious voice spoke again,
“You really want to know?” Trying to keep calm. The Sound-nin glanced around for the source of the influence in response. “Take a good look around you…”
"W-what?!" There were several glistening blue strings wrapped about him. He took out a kunai and agitatedly tried to slice the cord. "That damn girl-"
The voice laughed, “Heh, that’s not going to do anything…these lines are made of chakra.” The enemy’s face was suddenly struck with terror.
“T-then that means…” His eyes followed the string all upward as he finished his sentence, “……The only thing that can break through is……” his glare reached the top and at the end of the line was Sasuke. At the top of a giant sycamore tree, he had the string clenched in his teeth and began making rapid hand signs.
Sasuke spoke once more, “That’s right……” He grinned, “…Fire……rasen doragon kaen no Jutsu!” The adversary’s eye’s widened as an enormous buildup of fire burst from the Uchiha’s mouth. It chased the chakra twine, picking up momentum as it took the form of three dragons. They braided through each other and combined into a massive tornado of swirling chakra and flames. It wasn’t long before Sasuke’s attack hit its condemned target. The sound-nin, as well as the Sycamore, exploded into an inferno. Sasuke was well out of the way by then and leapt to the ground, soon joined by Kotori. With the Sound-nin over and done with, the pair turned their attention towards their companions.
“Hey, are you guys ok?” The Kunoichi asked. Naruto looked up at Sasuke and Kotori standing before him. He contorted to being “saved” by Sasuke again, but at the same time was relieved. Shizu’s eyes started glowing, and the familiar amber color paled as it was substituted with a whitish-blue.
“Kai, Release!” At once the blood-written spells on the exploding tags faded away and she proceeded to untie herself, along with Naruto. “Don’t worry, Naruto-Kun, we’ll get our chance soon enough…” She smiled at him and dusted herself off.
“ Hmph…” Naruto stood up as well. “Hey, wait a minute… why didn’t you dispel the seals earlier so we could get in some action?” Indifferent, Shizu yawned and stretched, she looked frustrated as she had told Naruto all about these kinds of spells during sparring practice.
She sighed, “Oi, Naruto-Kun, you know I hate repeating myself……Spells like these can only be released when the enemy is defeated; since he is using his chakra to hold the tags at the verge of explosion. Meaning that with my current strength, it would be close to impossible to dispel them while he was still alive. Besides, I know Kotori-onee-Chan and Sasuke-sama already had something planned by the way they looked at each other earlier.” Kotori and Sasuke smiled at each other and pounded fists.
“Sorry guys, we would’ve helped you sooner, but then our plan wouldn’t have worked out right.”
Naruto looked intrigued. “N-nani?! …What ‘plan’?” he sat on the ground and strared.
“Eh…I-I’m not even gonna bother explaining it…...too, “complicated” for some of us to comprehend.” Kotori huffed and glanced at Naruto. The blonde looked confused and Shizu giggled. Sasuke of course, was stationed behind the two, looking incredibly proud of “His amazing genius" plan.
“Hampa-ja nai! Kotori-Chan! You guys must know each other really well. I mean, you didn’t even say anything to each other and yet what you two did back there was perfectly thought out, as if you had done it 10 times before! And Sasuke-sama, was that the new Jutsu you have been working on? It’s amazing!” Kotori was delighted to receive so much praise from Shizu. Even Sasuke was contented with the compliments.
-----
“YOU FAILED!? Baka!” Tsunade was furious with them, especially Sasuke, who was appointed team leader. “Did you at least find any information on his intentions...or samples of potions!?”
“...Hai…” Sasuke pulled out the mission report. “This should be good enough for you…” She grabbed it from him and skimmed over it and let out a large huff.
“Fine…you and your team-mates are dismissed…”
“…Stupid baa-Chan...Hmpf...teme……” Naruto was muttering aimlessly to himself. Sasuke and Naruto simultaneously scowled at the 5th Hokage as they trudged out of the room. Kotori and Shizu closely following behind.
“…I don’t know what that old lady’s problem is…” Naruto continued to complain, “I mean, at least we got the minimum of information we needed to get, and she still yelled at us!”
“I guess it was really important…” Shizu replied. “Tsunade really isn’t that bad as long as you don’t piss her off…d-didn’t she give you that necklace?” She turned towards him as he played with the blue crystal around his neck.
“Hmph…I won it in a bet; she had to give it to me…” Naruto glared at it.
The four soon arrived at the Uchiha manor, Sasuke and Kotori waved good bye to their comrades and went inside. The two were pretty much worn out for the day, but decided to go out and train before going to sleep.
