"Oh, this is so very very NOT good," said Jiraiya, who had enough experience as a ninja to have encountered situations like this before.
Dust and little bits of ceiling pattered down.
"I don't see what you're so worried about," said Anko.
CRASH!
Jiraiya checked Anko's head and determined that the chunk of ceiling that had just come down on it had not been sufficient to kill her. Leave her woozy and her legs trying to go in different directions, yes. Concussion, almost certainly. "Izumo. Can you be certain your friend is going in the right direction?"
"Uhm, no, not really, no," indicated Izumo.
"Right then," said Jiraiya, handing off the fishnet-wearing kunoichi to the genin. Jiraiya walked up the wall and proceeded to Rasengan a hole in the ceiling.
"Isn't that going to speed up the collapse?" asked Izumo as he clumsily dodged falling bits of ceiling while carrying a limp Anko.
"Yes, but this is the fastest way out with a wounded comrade," pointed out Jiraiya. "Keep close and behind me."
A high pitched screech elsewhere in the complex indicated to Izumo that being near one of the legendary Sannin No Konohagakure was probably prudent.
"CRAP! CRAP! CRAP! WHY DOES THIS ALWAYS HAPPEN?!"
He'd lived a fair amount of time, despite being in his younger body now. To be fair, it hadn't always happened that his mission had been successful but collateral damage had made it only a 'qualified success' - it had just been a frequent event. Sometimes the events surrounding the mission had been such that even when he'd succeeded in the main mission objective, it had been more of a 'qualified failure' instead. Such as saving one merchant's stall from a missing-nin's protection scam only to lose most of the market in the resulting fight.
This was beginning to resemble one of THOSE missions he'd taken in the ANBU days in the future. There'd been a few of those with the whole 'escape the building as it collapses' endings too.
Naruto dodged a large chunk of ceiling as it crashed in the corridor, leapt over a pile of already-fallen ceiling, and ducked under a section of ceiling that was sagging.
Something screamed in a high pitched wail that shifted high-lower-high.
"And what the HELL is that?!" demanded Naruto of the walls. Whatever it was managed to sound pissed and completely nasty. The last time he'd heard anything like THAT was...
Naruto stumbled. "Oh man. It couldn't be one of THOSE could it?"
Naruto shook his head as he dodged a bladed pendulum swinging down, then over a stream of needles launched from the wall. "No. Couldn't be. Those things make that kinda noise but not so high-pitched."
One of the walls behind him exploded as something smashed through it. Naruto caught a glimpse through the dust of gleaming black chiton.
"Aw hell, it IS," yelped Naruto as he dodged around a corner and accelerated. "I may have to use THAT jutsu. Can I pull it off with my current chakra reserves?"
Jiraiya stood on the more stable sands a little distance from the underground complex. Beside him was Izumo, the semi-conscious Anko, and a heavily exhausted Kotetsu.
"So what did you get?" asked Izumo as a geyser of flame and lightning erupted skyward from the entry they'd used.
"A bag of gemstones and a scroll that seems to be fire-jutsu," said Kotetsu.
"Let me see it," said Jiraiya, holding out a hand. When he read it, he frowned for a few moments. "Yes, this is a version of the Fire Release: Fire Dragon Flame Missile. An early version I'd say, as it looks less efficient than the version I'm familiar with."
"Oh, so it's useless?" asked Kotetsu.
"No, not really," said Jiraiya. "A jutsu expert could compare the two and might be able to further develop the modern version based on that. We'll just have to see. If nothing else, it's still a B-Rank offensive short to medium range jutsu."
"Oh," said Kotetsu, still regretting it wasn't a Lost Jutsu or something really rare.
"I... what the?" asked Jiraiya, spinning back to look in the direction of the complex.
This geyser was wind surrounding a core of lightning that started spreading out.
"That's..." said Jiraiya, eyes narrowed now.
"Impressive?" asked Kotetsu.
"No, it's an S-Rank technique," said Jiraiya. "Requires a lot of chakra. Heaven's Clash. Requires the use of two chakra types, wind and lightning, then combining them. It's classified as a Squad-Killer, with a wide area of effect. It has its problems though."
"Such as blowing up everything around the user?" asked Izumo.
"Good guess," said Jiraiya as the complex continued to heave up, drop down, get electrified and whipped around by high winds.
"Was that... a leg?" asked Izumo as something spun around in the central vortex.
"Couldn't be," said Jiraiya, though he sounded like he was trying to convince himself.
With a final boom the complex disappeared and the jutsu dissipated, leaving a smouldering human figure where it had raged.
Jiraiya examined the kid, put out the fires started in his clothing, frowned thoughtfully at the acid burns and peeled off the affected items of clothing, and declared Naruto would survive.
However:
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(Posted Mon, 31 May 2010 23:39)
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