Images flashed through Ino's mind and it was hard to focus on any one particular set. So far, she'd gone into this thing really only really a handful of times. One of those being when she'd desperately wanted a way to change back to human and found that sort of half return thing where she could temporarily shift back to looking human.
Normally, she'd go into the meditation with no clear goals, get a barrage of disconnected images that lacked anywhere close to enough context to make them anything more than just confusing pictures. Then she'd be lectured at by her father for not taking matters seriously.
At least Kurenai didn't notice her lack of focus going into these meditations. Her "study" time of the amulet. Or maybe she just hadn't said anything yet. She was a genjutsu master, which indicated at least some telepathic training.
She pulled out of her meditations after a brief time and came back to the physical world to see Naruto and Hinata waking up and starting to get the camp taken down.
"Get anything?" Kurenai asked her from behind.
Ino flinched and stood up, the hood on her jacket falling back a moment from her "braids" and at the moment pale face.
"No, like it's as easy as picking up a book and reading it," Ino said, trying to recover herself and pulling the hood back up over her face. "It's a real mess in that thing."
Kurenai gave her a knowing smile and patted her on the shoulder.
"Don't worry too much about it," she said. "Your mind switch jutsu is proving very useful on its own."
"Well, of course it is," Ino said. "The Yamanaka arts are the premiere in infiltration and interrogation. Even if you did use me as a bluff."
"The Yamanaka arts are premiere," the jonin said. "But you're a novice. In any case, Ino, you'll find that even when your jutsu is the strongest around, someone is always going to be ready for it. Deceit is the most basic part to being a ninja, and that includes deliberately not using your best skills sometimes."
The gorgon shook her head and tried to think that through a little bit. It sort of reminded her of playing shogi with Shikamaru and how 'the first move is always a feint'.
"Well, are we going to lay around here all day?" Tazuna asked with a smirking sort of cheer and fake contempt for the ninja kids he was with.
The doubt he'd had had been pretty well handled by just how well Hinata had handled those Demon Brothers, followed by Ino and Naruto's combined efforts in the interrogation. He still acted like he felt they were punk kids however.
Irritating.
"We're just about done, Tazuna-san," Hinata said quietly.
"Yeah, if you're so anxious to get going," Naruto responded. "You could have woken up an hour ago."
"Is Ino-chan ready, Kurenai-sensei?" the Hyuga noted, looking over toward where Ino was. "Oh, I see she is."
"Who are you calling Ino-chan?" the Yamanaka demanded.
"Ahh, sorry about that," Hinata said. "You're just so...young."
Kurenai shook her head with a smile, even accounting for the time-jump Hinata and Naruto had experienced, the age difference was still only two years. As if that was really such a difference.
Tazuna had his own sigh as the twenty-something jonin was clearly considering her days of youth in watching kids no more than ten years younger than her. It was very amusing to see.
Ino simply pulled her hood further over her head, crossed her arms and pouted in an offended huff.
It wasn't much later before they'd come to a village on the edge of the sea and hired a small boat to take them out to the Land of the Waves. Which soon had them coming into an area thick with mist.
Hinata Kurenai whispered quietly. Can you see through this mist?
A momentary flash of hand signs and the girl nodded.
Keep to jutsu and our newly-Yamanaka approved communications for now, their squad leader instructed. If we can get into Tazuna-san's village without raising notice, so much the better.
Right, Naruto said in understanding. Mjolnir stay quiet for now.
[Hn.]
Hinata let her fingers trail to her sword's hilt even as she glanced back toward Ino and Naruto, nodding.
[Bereit, mein Meister.] Kleinhoffen assured her.
"Is that the bridge?" Ino gasped as the structure appeared, looming over them.
Her eyes were wide as they passed alongside it.
"Yeah, and Gato will do anything to keep it from being completed," the boatman said in a hushed tone. "So I'd appreciate if you didn't call attention to us."
"Right," Ino said in annoyance. "Yeah, like someone is going to notice that little bit of noise out here."
You'd be surprised, Kurenai noted almost inaudibly, putting a finger to her mouth to emphasize the request for silence.
The craftsman's village itself was a beautiful organic affair of trees growing into the ocean and houses built along the shore. The mist started to dissipate as they came close to the shore and the boatman put them on the ground some distance away from the village proper before leaving nervously back onto the water to head for his own home.
"We should be good from this point," Tazuna said. "I'm betting if Gato knew we were here that he'd already have...."
At which point he was pushed down by Hinata even as Naruto pulled Ino out of the line of fire and Kurenai leaped up to avoid the first strike of a massive sword that swept through them to strike deep into the trunk of a nearby tree.
"What the hell are you grab..." Ino stopped as she looked up and saw Zabuza looking down at them. "Oh."
"So is this all you could afford?" the attacking ninja asked casually. "A handful of nobody brats? Might as well have just let us kill you and used that money on something worthwhile."
Under his mask, however, he frowned, wondering just where the jonin had disappeared to.
And then the tree he was standing near grabbed him and pulled him back as the woman's image grew out of the bark wielding a kunai that slashed down into his body.
Wrong one Kurenai-sensei, Hinata tried to warn her.
Which dissipated into water much to Kurenai's annoyance.
Ino guard Tazuna, Kurenai commanded quickly as she landed on the ground and glanced around looking for where their enemy was.
She barely caught sight of the sword slashing in behind her just too late to get out of its way.
[Einrichten. Ritter Jacke. Jäger Form]
"Panzershild!" Hinata's said insistently.
And the Executioner's Blade slammed into a rotating triangle of raw power.
"What is this?" Zabuza asked before an orange shaped blast of energy roughly the size and shape of a kunai blasted through the form of Zabuza, dissipating another clone to water.
"Hey, sorry about not asking permission first, Kurenai-sensei," Naruto said, holding Mjolnir in hammer form, though he hadn't activated his barrier jacket yet.
"No, that was a good call," she said. "Everybody keep watch as to where he'll come from next."
He likes using clones, Kurenai noted to Naruto who nodded with a smirk.
"Hmm, not all that useless," Zabuza's voice said as a thick, unnatural mist started to spread through the air around them.
There was a popping sound like that of any of a number of jutsu techniques, plus another surge and flash of chakra like that girl had produced when she'd appeared to protect her sensei.
Listening to motions and movements, Zabuza estimated he was dealing with two young chunin, a jonin and an actual genin. And then it sounded like there were a lot of people moving about in the area around the battlefield.
Reinforcements? Genjutsu?
Worse? Shadow clones?
He frowned as he considered the possibilities and was glad that he had not taken this interception lightly.
First things first, he had to take out the Hyuga. Between her byakugan and that unknown defensive jutsu she'd used to stop his sword cold, even if it had just been a clone, she was the most dangerous aspect of this fight.
He moved out, piecing together two water clones as he did so. They wouldn't fool a byakugan user, he knew from experience, but it might fool her into looking at him as the main attack.
The rogue-ninja swung in past several unseen clones that slowly turned to follow him, as if something had just told them he'd passed them by. He aimed himself for the older woman again, the jonin, and watched as the younger started to move to intercept.
Her byakugan clearly let her see where he was.
But as expected, she was focused on the threat to her squad leader.
The large triangular energy shield didn't appear this time, only a smaller one focused around her odd short sword, which cracked almost immediately, though it brought the headchopper to an almost cold stop.
For just a moment, as he stood leering threateningly into Hinata's face, he felt like something pushed into him and made him dizzy, but immediately pushed it aside.
Then she returned the attack, swinging her smaller sword out to cut into him while pulling her off-hand back to chamber a jyuken strike.
Even as she did that, however, one of his clones appeared behind her and slammed a foot into her back, sending her flying through the air, away from the bulk of the other members of her group.
Taking a breath of relief, Zabuza barely paused as he found himself blocking the kunai attack of the jonin almost casually before shifting his weight and pushing her back, smirking under his mask as he did so.
"You're good lady," he said, dodging under her attack. "Almost as good as me, and these two aren't bad themselves."
As he was speaking, a burst of orange energy barely ripped past him and he saw the other chunin coming in at him as he somehow fired energetic orange kunai out with each swing of his hammer.
Tossing out a kunai of his own, forcing the blond to dive aside, Zabuza smirked briefly before turning back to his focus on the jonin's attempts to put a kunai into him. One of his clones, the same that had attacked the Hyuga, intercepted the other chunin.
He did wonder why she hasn't tried to use another genjutsu.
The Hyuga was back then, but with a forced, desperate sound to her breathing and charge that gave the Silent-Killing master ample time to prepare for her approach. His second clone dropped down atop of her, showing that she was over-focused still.
The blonde tried to break off to get range again, and failed to do so in such a complete manner that he opened an avenue of attack a mild wide, which Zabuza's clone immediately took advantage of.
"Noo!" the Hyuga called out, turning aside from her fight as a sword slashed through Naruto and opening herself up to attack.
"And now it's just you, me, and the useless little genin," Zabuza said to Kurenai with a smirk as she tried to push the attack.
He was about to...
...the world suddenly shifted all around him.
His mist was gone. The bodies of the two chunin weren't just gone, both of them were standing on either side of him and the genin was slowly standing up from where she'd been lying down next to her sensei for some reason.
His sword was across the clearing and his hands and feet were bound up securely.
"What the hell?" he demanded. "How'd you place me in genjutsu?"
Perhaps they used something other than sight? But no, he hadn't heard any strange sounds either, how had they gotten him?
Ino collected her breath and sighed heavily past the glaring headache.
You did a good job, Ino, Kurenai assured her. Realistically, Hinata and Naruto would likely have done better than his scenario ran, but there is no telling. How are you feeling?
Like a herd of ninja-ostrich had just stampeded through my head, Ino returned.
Getting the mind-switch jutsu as Zabuza had locked swords with Hinata the second time had been tricky enough. Using her presence and her telepathy to serve as a sensory feed for Kurenai to place him in an illusion had just turned the whole thing into a uniquely painful experience.
"Now," Kurenai said turning to their prisoner. "We'll just have to see what we can..."
And that's when the Hunter-nin appeared to claim his runaway.
"Okay,"
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(Posted Sun, 19 Jun 2011 22:17)
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