Sakura tried desperately to scrape bug guts off herself. "Ugh. What the hell was that?"
"One of the purple ones," Naruto called back, picking up one of the bigger chunks and showing Sakura the exoskeleton. "We got real lucky running into one."
Sakura looked around their makeshift campsite. "We've been in this forest for a day and a half without running into any other ninja, we haven't had a normal meal since lunch yesterday, our camp was just wrecked by a purple goo-spitting centipede that wrecked half the rations we did have, and you just ripped it into pieces with your bare hands to destroy the other half. How is this lucky?"
"No poison at all in the purple ones," Naruto answered simply. "You and Sasuke can eat it without getting sick."
Sakura gave the disgusting blob of flesh in Naruto's hand a flat look. "You're joking," she said.
"Not at all," Naruto said. "Trust me, once it's cooked you won't be able to tell it's not fish."
"Fish is good," Sakura said, half in hope and half just giving up. They did need food, afterall.
"What about the goo?" Sasuke asked. Naruto's knowledge of the terrain and local creatures was proving surprisingly useful.
"Nasty, like a mix of peanutbutter, tree sap, and glue. Also it hardens if you heat it too much."
"How hard?" Sasuke asked.
Naruto thought that over. "Probably enough to tie up someone," Naruto realized.
"Hnn," Sasuke thought. "Don't suppose that fabricate jutsu can come up with some sealing scrolls? Sounds like it could be useful to make traps out of."
Sakura blinked and thought that over. "Hey, yeah. Like if we mixed it up with an exploding tag on a delay fuse. Even if they escape the tag, the heat could lock them up."
"It's worth a try," Sasuke agreed.
Naruto shook his head. "Sorry. I'm not good with seals."
"Good. That sounded like it could be troublesome."
The three ninja paused at the sound of the new voice. "Oh finally!" Naruto yelled. "What took you so long!?"
A Grass kunoichi rose from the earth smoothly, a bemused expression on her face. "You knew I was watching you?" she asked.
"Of course not," Naruto yelled before his teammates could stop him. "But look at where we are! Open camp, no cover, by the cleanest river in the forest, not an hour from the damn tower everyone's heading for. Why aren't ninja swarming us trying to take our scrolls!?"
"It's an obvious trap," the kunoichi said calmly. "Anyone could tell you were waiting to be attacked."
"This was a dumb plan," Sakura agreed.
"It was your plan," Naruto pointed out.
"As much as your tsundere comedy amuses me, perhaps we can return to the topic of me killing you?" the Grass nin asked mildly. But there was nothing mild about the killing intent she put out.
"I'm tsundere?" Sakura asked.
"Yes," Sasuke answered.
"Aww, Sasuke," Sakura whined.
The Grass nin blinked repeatedly. This was…this was not what was supposed to happen. She ramped up the killing intent a bit.
Naruto cocked an eyebrow at her and let loose the dragonfear.
Behind the flesh mask, Orochimaru's eyes widened slightly. If the blonde kid put out intent like that so casually, it was no surprise that his teammates were unfazed by his own aura. It was not hard to imagine their presences battling against eachother in some kind of unseen duel. His would be a snake, of course. Why did he have the impression that the kid's was also of the scaly disposition? Orochimaru had not survived by ignoring his instincts, so he flagged the kid as having some kind of signature jutsu that was based on reptiles.
Naruto watched the Grass kunoichi hesitate, his face hard. Zabuza hadn't been as threatening as this supposed genin was being. That was bad. Something was wrong. "Sasuke."
Sasuke's eyes were already in Sharingan. "She's a guy," he said quickly. "He holds his weight wrong to be female. The flesh is limp. He hollowed out the Grass ninja to wear her as a suit."
"That's really creepy," Sakura observed, pulling a kunai. "I don't suppose you happen to have the scroll we need?"
Orochimaru smiled and revealed the scroll they needed. "You mean this?" he said innocently. He threw it into the air. Then he moved.
Naruto wasn't ready to be kicked in the head, but then Orochimaru wasn't ready to kick "the wielder of Adamant Style" in the head. Naruto stumbled to one knee and gouged a trough a few yards long as the force of the kick knocked him backwards.
Orochimaru broke his foot off. It dissolved into mud quickly. "Oh bother."
Sasuke attacked the mud clone head on, lodging a kunai deep in its chest. Orochimaru didn't bother to react; a footless clone was a waste of chakra.
The second Orochimaru, still wearing the Grass nin's skin, entered the camp on the back of a giant snake. Team seven scattered into the trees.
The snake sannin scanned the trees and frowned. Good reaction time, for genin anyway. He was mildly surprised that blondie didn't smash the tree branch he landed on.
He only had a moment more to contemplate that before that same kid breathed some kind of fuuton at him. The jutsu created a spiral or twister of wind, and looked rather like something he would want to avoid being hit with. He jumped off the snake and gestured to it, telling it to take out blondie.
Fascinating as that jutsu was, it was just the fuuton. Blondie had some kind of kekkei genkai relating to his sheer weight and durability, that much was clear, but that was suitable only to grunts and lackeys. He wanted those eyes, so he lunged after Sasuke himself.
Naruto steadied himself on the branch, unintentionally holding his position with chakra, and calmly cocked one fist as the snake jumped at him. He judged the distance and speed, trusting more to intuition than any calculation, and threw his punch to smash the snake's jaw and rocket the giant reptile over the trees and into orbit.
That was the plan.
Naruto's fist snapped the snake's jaw like a twig, but the sheer inertia of the beast was too much to be so easily overcome. The snake's shattered mouth closed around Naruto, and he felt himself be swallowed by the beast as they crashed back to earth, where the giant snake lie motionless. Not dead, but in a great amount of pain.
Naruto scowled. Yeah, screw that. He blinked once and let the human form slip away.
Sasuke saw Naruto ready to deal with the snake and stopped paying him any attention, as the ninja was the immediate threat. Whoever was under the Grass ninja's corpse was good, but with his Sharingan going Sasuke knew he was not going full out. He wasn't even trying hard.
But why? There was no Kakashi around to save them, no valuable property to preserve. He wasn't treating Naruto as a threat. And none of them knew any village secrets that could be worth the amount of effort he was going to. So what was going on?
Answers later. Fighting now. Dodge, counter, evade, block. Watch him. See how he moves. Reacting isn't enough. Predict. The voices of his family, even That Man, and his instructors all ran through Sasuke's mind as he put everything he learned to use. With his Sharingan, even the enemy's smallest movements telegraphed his future movements.
And it wasn't enough. A masterful faint took him out of position. As soon as he felt his center of balance slide over his hip, Sasuke realized that the past ten, maybe fifteen seconds of taijutsu had all been calculated to bring him to this exact place. The subtle tells had been a trap, the predicted movements eclipsed by a wholly new set that put the ninja behind him. Sasuke ignored his poor balance and spun to diminish the coming blow. Maybe it wouldn't kill him.
Then Sakura of all people was there. Orochimaru casually caught her by the throat in one hand. She poofed – a simple bunshin.
Orochimaru's other hand grabbed Sasuke and he spun, holding the struggling genin before him. He locked eyes on the patch of pink hair. "Your teammate is clever, Sasuke-kun," he said softly, but loudly enough to carry. "Do you think she is clever enough to throw a kunai without hitting you?"
"DO IT!" Sasuke yelled. He wasn't going to die here, before killing That Man, but he would rather risk Sakura's kunai skills to this freak's tender mercies.
Sakura wavered, uncertain. She didn't know what to do. Naruto was eaten. Sasuke was beat up and a hostage. And she…she…was a useless fangirl.
Her eyes hardened. "I am a kunoichi of the Village Hidden in Leaves," she said. "It is time I acted like it."
Sasuke smiled as not one but four kunai hurtled through the air. Two missed. One was deflected. The last took…the damn mud clone right in the throat. Sasuke cursed silently as he fell to the forest floor, watching the supposed jonin-class enemy dissolve like a damned clone. A clone that beat him.
Sasuke landed more softly than he would have expected, in someone's arms. He went pale.
It was that damned not-a-Grass-nin! AGAIN!
Then the snake exploded.
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(Posted Mon, 30 Apr 2012 18:06)
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