They wrapped around his target's neck and she went down.
Sinku checked anyway. His target could be faking it - but there was no indication of that. He moved quickly, using ties with sealing tags looped around them.
Pink hair. Had to be one of those kekkei genkai types.
Danzo Shimura was conflicted. This did not happen all that often.
On the one hand, these 'Sekirei' could make the village stronger. Much stronger over following generations if his initial studies were correct.
That EMOTION made these creatures more powerful ran a bit contrary to his normal modus operandi, true. Still, stronger was stronger. Karasuba - as an example, for all that she was thirteen years old, showed every sign of being a powerful and ruthless shinobi who could end up in ROOT or ANBU where she could distinguish herself.
"Sir. Foreign ninja are moving to interrupt the test."
"I know," said Danzo. He'd leaked those details himself after all. If one of the foreign villages killed a few of the least useful of these Sekirei - that would motivate the remainder. If one or two ended up missing, well - at least some foreign nin would be dead and therefore perfect scapegoats.
That his own experts could then test their genetics in more detail and perhaps do some bloodline transfer experiments was something nobody needed to know about.
However, there was a conflict. He found himself curious. What could they do for the village without his involvement? How would this emotion-powered attacks mesh with any sort of disciplined fighting force?
And why did he keep having to fight an impulse to get a billowing longcoat with a high collar?
Naruto went back, blood flying from his wound.
"You threw a kunai into his knee?" asked Homura. "So you're trying to capture him?"
"Idiot," said Basin. "Give up now or die."
"Here's my answer," said Homura, thrusting his hands forward. "Burn!"
Spiraling columns of flame shot into the foreign nin, who burst into steam a moment later.
"What?!" asked Homura, patting out the sleeves of his shirt that were on fire.
"It's called a water clone," said the foreign nin, stepping out from behind a tree. "I'm a water specialist, bad news for you as a half-trained fire specialist. Water gun no jutsu!"
The water bullets went about half-way across before suddenly stopping in midair.
"You! You arrogant monkey!" proclaimed Tsukiumi from where she had been checking Naruto. "Not only do you attack us, you claim to master water! Such impudence shall be PUNISHED!"
The water bullets began slamming into Basin furiously, but he blocked most of them with a shield he formed of water. "Not bad. Give you another few years and you might be a problem. Maybe they'll give you to me when they decide to breed you."
Tsukiumi's temper went from Furious to Overwhelming. The ground rent as underground streams became geysers.
The foreign-nin substituted with a log and then drew kunai. "Okay, this is-"
"Enough," said an abruptly-there ANBU, fingers dug into the head of the foreigner, who was dangling at arm's length. "You three. You are currently one-half block from the Tower. Go. As for you, you are going to tell me everything."
Mutsu brought his sword around, blocking and grounding out the electrical attack.
Uzume sent a ribbon out to snap at one of the other nin.
"Three circling, three here," stated Hinata, her Byakugan going. "I-"
"This is bad," stated Choji.
"No crap," stated Tobio. "They're probably not sure what some of these Sekirei can do."
"Watch out," said Oshino, moving in front of Hinata.
The chain-spear went directly through Oshino and into Hinata.
"Okay, that didn't work too well," commented Oshino before her eyes fluttered closed.
"Three flares," said Shikamaru. "That's the signal. Good thing we already made it."
"No thanks to you. Anyone ever tell you that you're slow and lazy?"
"Gee, you sound like my mom," complained Shikamaru to the more vocal of his two Sekirei team-mates.
"Who were they?" said the Hokage.
Inoichi sighed. "They were primarily water users. Trail leads South. Some of their equipment was manufactured in Kiri."
"So... Iwa?" asked the Hokage.
"Yeah, that's what I was able to pull out of the survivors' minds," agreed Inoichi.
"Which Iwa will immediately deny, claim that these are criminal missing-nin, and demand return of the bodies," noted Hiruzen Sarutobi.
There was an ancient tradition, one that had existed before there was ever a Konohagakure. Soldiers who died in combat before making a name for themselves were dressed in red. Red for their blood spilled fighting either a superior opponent or dying with their potential unrealized. Eventually this became a red ribbon, but it was remembered as a shirt of that color.
Many ANBU were only chunin level, and sometimes they were referred to as "red shirts" by the more experienced ones in accordance with that ancient tradition. Don't bother getting to know them, they'd be dead soon. Only those who survived their third brush with violence had earned the right to be seen as seasoned within the ANBU ranks.
Having a couple of weeks to plan this exercise, most of the ANBU present for the testing phase had passed the "red shirt" phase and were of the "seasoned" variety. Fully sixteen of the ANBU were of the category that went beyond "seasoned" and were considered of the "badass" category. These were jonin or special jonin who were mostly operating outside of the village on missions, arranged to be present because of the planning involved.
When foreign nin were going after Academy students, the only hesitation had involved finding out whether this was something the Hokage had planned. Once the Hokage's eyes had narrowed and the tiniest bit of frown had shown up - that was all they needed. The ANBU went to work.
Six of the ANBU present for the test were "red shirts" and four of those died. All four of those bought time for the students for the other ANBU to gather.
The team of foreign-nin contained six that were at least jonin level.
Read the comments on this episode
(Posted Tue, 09 Sep 2014 18:19)
Questions? Problems? Suggestions?
Send a mail to addventure@bast-enterprises.de
or use the contact form.
らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
All other series and their characters are © by their respective creators or owners. No claims of ownership of these characters are implied by the authors of this Addventure, or should be inferred.
The Anime Addventure is a non-profit site.