And there were crowds of onlookers beginning to gather, so their intent to advertise their new band (having just reinvented themselves and having changed their name from Heartstabbers to NinRock) was being successful.
The song, of course, was Yakety Sax. It was, also of course, chase scene music.
So Naruto ducked into a clothing store, came out (having used an Oiroke No Jutsu in the meantime) of the Kenstuckey Fried Herring on the other side of the street as a girl wearing a tasteful blue haori with dark blue bicycle pants. The henge lasted all of three seconds before one of the pursuing nin threw out an anti-henge jutsu, causing Naruto to flee madly into a china shop owned by someone who still insisted that he was a demon fox.
The crowd pursued, with explosions of ice, fire, lightning, and high frequency sound going off.
Naruto popped out a window in the back, threw a grapple line to another window, and ran up it as fast as his little legs could go.
The owner of the china shop ran out the front of the building with a very expensive vase held in his arms. Naturally, one of the missing nin tagged him in the face with a blueberry pie before realizing that this was NOT another henge and therefore not the target child.
The china shop owner held that position for a few moments before trying to run forward anyway, promptly tripping and shattering the 10,000ryo vase. He jumped up and swore bloody vengeance, naturally placing the blame squarely on the pie-thrower.
There was a brief pause as the dozens of chunin, jonin, and special jonin all decided to throw attacks at each other while watching for signs of the boy.
Kakashi, on a roof nearby, watched as special manuevers were thrown around without regard. He simply thanked the kami they didn't know he was there or they probably wouldn't be doing this.
At which point a VERY misthrown pie smooshed into his face.
Guy blinked at the sight, then sniffed. "Huckleberry? I didn't even know anyone made huckleberry pies in this country."
"Live and learn," said Kakashi, wiping pie off his face. At which point he collapsed from the drugs in the pie.
Guy sighed. "I told you that you'd exhaust yourself trying to learn all their secret manuevers."
"Got one," said the ANBU.
"This one alive or dead?" asked the ANBU captain.
"Another one hit with one of the drugged pies."
"Make sure the chakra-cuffs are in place, then throw her in the pile with the rest of the drugged ninja."
"Okay," said the ANBU, tossing the woman on the appropriate pile. "Ibiki is going to be busy."
"I saw him grinning earlier," said the captain with a slight shrug. "Apparently he's going to put in some serious overtime and then take a vacation."
"All he'll do is stay at home and read those detective novels."
"No, actually, I think he's planning on going to Fortune Beach this year."
"Really?"
"Mind you, he'll probably just sit on the beach and read detective novels. Back to work now."
Naruto leapt from one roof to another, zigging and zagging and otherwise reliving a scene from his youth.
Past the okonomiyaki seller's yattai, he took a sharp right and dashed a little further to gain momentum to get over the fence.
He heard the smashing sound of a food cart being destroyed or at least damaged, the bellow of the yattai owner, and knew that someone ELSE would be joining the chase at this point.
Someone with an oxcart of big vegetables started crossing the intersection ahead of him, Naruto slid underneath the cart and then flipped back to his feet on the other side.
Again there was a crash, some yelling, and he was able to get to a height where he could risk a glance behind him.
Wow, even the OX was part of the chase now. This was going to be the largest group he'd ever had. Better get tricky. Or trickier at least.
The loose boards on the bottom of the hot springs were exactly where he remembered them, and it was a small enough space that anyone older than him couldn't take that route. Ignoring the 'Girls Only Day 1/2 off' sign, Naruto dove through and went to all fours and scurrying.
He came out through the maintenance trap door in the boiler room, snuck past the curtain to the girl's changing room, and then let himself into the broom closet. Which had a tight fit on the single window at the top of a stack of boxes, but he was able to wiggle through.
There was the sound of an explosion, running, feminine screams (some sounding thoroughly ticked off) and yelling. Naruto was halfway down the alley when he heard the wall behind him explode and he made haste as best as he was able.
"Let's see, there's the china shop owner, the ninja supplier, the camping store manager, three clerks from the camping store, four maids, an exotic dancer, a farmer waving a pitchfork, a cow..." said the ANBU.
"That's actually an ox, and they don't usually run that fast or climb fences," noted the ANBU captain.
"Seven mostly-naked women," continued the ANBU.
Snerk? "Wha?" asked Kakashi, suddenly becoming more conscious.
"One of them's Anko Mitarashi, and another is Kurenai Yuhi," noted the ANBU captain.
"Oh?" asked Kakashi, hand twitching as if he wanted to raise the forehead protector he used as an eyepatch to cover his Sharingan.
His path took him to the Hyuga compound, and instead of avoiding it like he used to do - this time he went straight for it.
"There he is!"
Naruto went from roof to compound wall, from wall to garden, and charged through the dojo, causing startled Hyuga to look up from their sparring and wonder what was going on.
"Foreign enemy nin!" explained Naruto as he ran as fast as he could out the other side.
The various branch-member Hyuga looked towards the sound of many feet hitting the ground and rushing forward.
Kigamaru Hyuga did something un-Hyuga. He smiled. Not a happy smile either. He'd been disgraced years ago when the Kumo nin had managed to get Hinata away from the compound. His entire squad had been ready to commit seppuku, but instead they'd just been given crappy assignments for the past several years.
"All right, you worthless lot," Kigamaru said, cracking his knuckles. He was aware of Naruto catching his breath behind him, and due to the Byakugan could see the groups of foreign nin now reaching them. "It's time for us to redeem our honor."
The various guards all took their ready stances.
And then the Enemy was amongst them.
Kigamaru was aware of Naruto turning and slapping his butt in the direction of his pursuers, then taking off at high speed. He didn't blame the brat. No, later on he was planning on thanking him in fact.
Most of his concentration though - that was held by the opponents he was using Jyuken on.
Naruto ran down the pathway until someone suddenly grabbed him and pulled him into... a small hidden closet?!
"Don't scream," said Hinata's voice in the dark compartment.
"Wha?" asked Naruto, his heart still racing. "Where are we?"
"After the last infiltration, my father had these bolt-holes prepared," whispered Hinata in the dark.
"Really cramped in here," noted Naruto.
"That's because someone's been using this for storage," noted Hinata. "They really shouldn't..."
At which point Hinata really took notice of the fact that she was in a dark hidden place pressed tightly up against Naruto. At which point Naruto shifted around, and to keep from crushing Hinata - put his arms around her.
"Eep," managed Hinata before things actually managed to get darker.
"Hmph," said the Hokage, making a hand-sign and then poofing into smoke. When the smoke cleared, Naruto was standing there.
"Hokage-sama? But your chakra signature is..."
The 'Naruto' grinned at the ANBU. "Naruto is still an Academy student with a simple chakra signature. Disguising my chakra signature to resemble his is not all that difficult. As long as they don't get a good look at me, only the most discerning sensor will be able to tell. Now, I think the chase needs to continue."
"One of you, keep an eye on where the real Uzumaki is," said the ANBU to his fellows. "The rest of you, with me. If anyone looks like they've figured out what happened - they'll be the sensors and we take them out first."
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(Posted Sat, 17 Sep 2011 20:22)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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