A strange new life. [Naruto]

[okashihime]

Life and death? By her posture, tone of voice and full body shaking, she wasn't talking about her grandpa's life. Her eyes were haunted and despairing, like the fate of the entire world hanged on the line. It immediately set me on edge. Was this going to be like one of those batshit Naruto movies, like the one where the Byakugan evolved and some lunatic on the moon tried to blow up the planet? There was no Naruto here right now to talk-no-jutsu out of disaster.

"How?" Tsunade's voice cut off my inner spiral. My head snapped back. Tsunade had a don't fuck with me face.

"G-grandpa Kahiko he—" The girl stopped, wringing her hands again. "He knows where the mine is, and these people kept asking him where it was."

Kahiko? That name was familiar. The same as the one who requested the mission, but also, mine? What was she talking about? I glanced at Tsunade, who didn't seem like she was going to ask questions.

"What mine are you talking about?"

More hand-wringing followed my question. She looked already halfway to vanishing into the grassy floor. I decided it was time to change tactics.

"What is your name?"

"I'm Emina."

I rummaged through my pouch and took out another of my lesser good impression kits. These contained far fewer pastries than usual, but I was poor. Out popped a few cupcakes. I offered them to Emina.

She hesitated, then took one.

"I'm Hinata," I said. "That's Ino, Karin, and Tenten. The mean, pretty one is Tsunade."

Tsunade rolled her eyes. "Don't be a brat."

"I-I know her," Emina said, then took a tentative nibble. She shuddered, eyes closed, and a gasp escaped her mouth.

Girls and sweets! Success!

"Nerugui means anything to you?"

Emina was stuffing more of the cupcake in her mouth and seemed to forget we were there. She stopped and turned her wide eyes toward me.

"Finish eating," I coaxed gently.

She nodded, gobbled down the cupcake, but didn't manage to hide a stray tear from her eyes. Damn, that wasn't what I wanted.

"Yes," she said after a while. She seemed calmer. "He's our caravan pet, a ferret. He disappeared a while back."

I looked at my team, got confirmation nods from them. I handed her the bag of coins back. "You don't have to pay us," I said, noting the approving nods from Karin and Tenten, and Tsunade's impassive gaze. "Kahiko hired us to find Nerugui, and last time I saw him, Nerugui was running toward where Kahiko was taken to."

"R-really?" Emina asked, a bag of coins in one hand, a half-eaten cupcake in another, crumbles of sweets on her face.

"But tell me about this mine? Any information you can provide helps."

"I don't know much," Emina said. "I thought the stories were just that, stories."

While Emina was distracted, I rummaged through my seals, passing around the stored chairs. With practiced movements, chairs appeared, then a small table. Emina was so out of it that she didn't even notice when I sat her down and placed a cup with water in her now-empty hand, the cupcake already devoured.

Tsunade's gaze had a hint of incredulity. Yes! I managed to surprise the slug princess! I wanted to cheer, but knew it wasn't the time.

"He told us about our ancestors and the wars they fought and their destruction." She sipped the water, then blinked, looking at the cup like she couldn't understand how it had gotten in her hand.

She shook her head.

"He always speaks about a magic stone hidden inside a mine." She sipped more water. "I thought it was just that, a story, until these people came and demanded to know where the mine was. Grandpa didn't tell them, so they took him."

"And what does this stone do?" I asked, acutely aware of the one stone I had ripped out of the werewolf woman's throat, now stuffed inside my pouch.

Emina shrugged. "I dunno. But all the stories end in tragedy. The stone is cursed. If these people find the mine, something bad will happen."

Aside from Tsunade, the rest of the squad seemed to take the story seriously. Somehow, the sannin had a not-so-well-hidden exasperated look on her face.

I placed a few more sweets in front of Emina. "Can you wait a little while? I need to talk with my team."

Emina looked lost, then nodded.

I placed more sweets in front of her. "We'll be right back."

Then I moved away from the table and waved to my team to follow me. Tsunade also followed, even if I hadn't included her. That was fine; if the woman wanted to help, I wasn't about to refuse the help of one of the sannins.

It came to mind then that Tsunade wasn't as rough as I thought she would be. Aside from the grit from battle, she looked healthy: no dark bags under her eyes, no sunken cheeks, or sloped posture.

She was also the first one to speak once we were far enough. "You actually buy that story? I thought they stopped training shinobi to believe in fairy tales."

I didn't answer. Instead, I dug into my pouch and showed them the stone.

"What is that?" Tsunade asked, extending her hand toward the stone, then she recoiled like something had stung her.

"I took this one from the wolf woman," I said, still holding the thing. "I think this is why they can heal from almost any wound, and where their ninja-like attacks come from." My gaze dropped to the stone in my hands. "She died after I removed it."

---

It took longer to explain the details about these attackers to Tsunade. Some of that stuff she already knew. These people weren't ninjas. They didn't behave like shinobis and had a different attack methodology, relying primarily on their supernatural durability to overwhelm enemies.

I knew they didn't matter much in the grand scheme of things. These attackers were strong against regular people, maybe genin or weaker chunin. Once you learned about their regeneration, brute force was all that was needed to take them out.

As Tsunade proved, any jonin, or god forbid, S-rank shinobi could wipe the field with them. She was the one who killed most of the golems, splattering them into goo with those scary punches.

But what if this mine fell into the hands of a hidden village? I didn't even want to think about the consequences. We were fortunate, in some ways, that these people weren't warriors. Just opportunists that chanced into power and now wanted to find the source of that power.

"Do you have any way to track these people?" Tsunade asked.

I considered her question. If we had time, we could track their trails, or maybe even backtrack to where the fortress had been and follow its path. I don't think time was on our side.

"Your slugs can't do it?" I asked.

Tsunade looked at me like I was crazy. "They're slugs, not dogs."

Right, silly of me to think ninja slugs could do anything other than heal people and fight giant snakes.

I turned to the team. "Do you guys have any idea?"

Tenten shrugged. "Neji was our team's tracker."

Karin just shook her head. "I can't sense them anymore."

Ino also wasn't of any help. "My team always got support from the village when we needed help tracking."

That didn't leave me much choice, even if it gave me ideas.

I bit my thumb until blood seeped out, then placed my hand on the ground. Unlike Naruto, I didn't call out the jutsu name. I didn't know why he always did it. The summoning circle burned cold under my palm, lines of black chakra crawling out like cracks in glass. In a puff of smoke, Kumoko glared at me.

"Snake girl," she growled. Her tail lashed, but it was more of an excited lash than frustrated. Then she sniffed the air, growled louder, and tail lashed, agitated. "You reek even more of a snake," she accused.

Was it because of the sword? I had forgotten about the thing, not wanting to remember I had a snake lodged somewhere inside my body. A shudder ran through me.

"Don't you mind that," I said. I rummaged through the seals and took one of the honey-themed cupcakes. "Here, a gift." I offered.

She gobbled the pastries in two swift bites. Kumoko glared at Ino and Tenten, gave a reluctant nod to Karin, and pretended Tsunade wasn't there. Once she had finished eating, she looked around again, observing everything around.

"Where are we, and what do you want?"

"You always go about how I smell," I said, and Kumoko nodded, the little devil. "Can you track by scent?"

Her tail lashed, offended. "Of course I can."

I turned to Karin. "Can you lend me your bag, just a little?"

Karin walked closer and pushed the bag into my hands. I placed it in front of Kumoko.

The she-devil walked closer. She was small enough to enter the bag, which she did. Not long after, she walked out. "Stinks like a skunk."

"Not a skunk," I chided, "A ferret."

"You want me to track it," Kumoko said. It wasn't a question.

"Can you do it?" I asked nonetheless.

Kumoko raised her nose, sniffed the air. "This way," she said, bounding toward where I'd last seen the ferret.

"Kumoko, wait!" I shouted out after the she-devil. She didn't listen.

For all my bluster, I wasn't keen on dealing with this. I was no Naruto, able to overcome insurmountable odds through the power of bullshit. A glance told me that at least Tsunade was following us.

Well. At least there was that.

 

[okashihime]

Stopping Kumoko from rushing ahead took some effort. Even if we were in a time crunch, we couldn't just pack up and go. We updated Emina on our plans. I collected my table and chairs. Back at the caravan, I left a few more sweets for the kids. We checked for injuries, and only then did we set out to hunt.

With Kumoko sniffing for a trail, we couldn't rush ahead. That might cause her to lose the ferret's scent. The trail she found was a meandering thing. It went generally toward Wind, away from River: messy, erratic, like you'd expect from a ferret. Then there was Kumoko's speed.

I knew from the previous time I summoned her that Kumoko had training as a ninja, but she wasn't fast. Her max speed was barely more than a normal person running, and she couldn't keep that speed for long.

Yes, I knew why now that was the case, but it didn't help much when we were in a hurry.

Offering to carry her almost ended in disaster. The only reason she didn't leave, I think, was because she was under orders to obey me. She was offended, however. So much that I was sure if I pushed the issue, all the progress I had made in the past months would go down the drain.

In the end, saner minds prevailed, or more experienced minds.

"Rushing ahead will only cause problems," Tsunade said after a few moments of intense staring between me and Kumoko. "If the destination is that fortress you mentioned, better we pace ourselves and avoid getting tired."

I understood her very well. I don't even know why I was so anxious about this. Was it because I know how bombastic Naruto's movies could be?

The meandering path continued to lead ever closer to Wind. We pushed forward until the sky darkened, then finally stopped to rest. We slept in shifts. No nightly shenanigans with Ino. Not even a peck. Tragic, really.

Night turned to day, and we started running again.

Bit by bit, the grassy areas and trees gave way to dried earth and cracked soil. It wasn't the desert proper, just the beginning of a barren, broken land. The situation only got worse the more we advanced.

There was something very wrong here, even if I couldn't place my finger on what.

"The chakra," Karin said after we had stopped to rest. "There's no chakra anywhere."

"What do you mean?" Tenten asked.

Karin waved her hands around. "It's like this whole place is dead, no chakra. It's suffocating."

I finished cooking and served the meal.

Tsunade and the others were already seated at the table, waiting. "Take out the map," she ordered, then took a mouthful of food.

I did as requested. Immediately, I saw what she probably already knew. We shouldn't be that far from Wind's border based on our direction, but the area we were in was considered a death zone. Nothing lived here. No animals, not even vegetation. The notes on the map, with small tidbits of information added, provided a few contextual details. Some locals considered the place cursed and avoided it as much as possible.

"A death zone?"

Tenten froze, food halfway into her mouth. "What? Is it dangerous?"

I shook my head. "Not that kind of death zone, just barren land. Nothing lives there, no animals, plants, or anything."

Karin turned to Kumoko. "And that's where the trail leads."

Kumoko kept slurping her meal. Her tail's lashes were halfway between excited and annoyed. Only after the silence grew too uncomfortable even for her, that the she-devil answered. "The skunk went this way."

"Ferret," I corrected, but an annoyed tail lash was my only response.

"You think it has anything to do with this mine?" Ino asked. She had opted out of the broth, gobbling down from her private supplies of cupcakes.

"It would make sense," Tsunade said before I could. "It would also explain why no one else ever found it, if everyone avoids this place."

I couldn't deny the logic made a twisted sort of sense. We weren't even fully into the death zone, and I wanted to leave it already. It was hard to explain, but it was like having sand rubbing against my skin, or that my lips were splitting because I hadn't drunk water in a while. Nothing I could point a finger at exactly, just a general uncomfortable feeling.

It was near the end of the day when something changed.

"Chakra," Karin said, stopping abruptly.

We grouped around her, waiting for the information.

"Why have we stopped?" Kumoko asked, looking from me to the direction we were following.

"Did you find anything?" Tsunade pressed.

Karin didn't seem to be paying attention to us. Her eyes were wide, scanning the same direction we were going. I walked to her, placed my hands on her cheeks, and turned her face until she looked at me.

"What did you sense?"

Karin opened her mouth, shut it, then opened it again. "Chakra, a lot of it."

"Explain, please?" I asked, but I still didn't release Karin's face. She kept trying to look back toward whatever she was sensing.

In the background, I heard Tsunade asking questions, maybe to Tenten. "What is happening?"

Then Tenten's answer, explaining Karin's ability. I paid no mind to that. My attention was on Karin.

"Like Nerugui and your stone, only…" she shuddered. "It's so much more."

The mine, then. "Anything else?" I pressed.

"Lots of shinobi as well."

"Those people with the stone?" I coaxed, turning Karin's face until she was facing me again.

"No, I can only feel four like those, but about a dozen other shinobi, and there's another one," Karin looked behind me, at Tsunade. "He's like Naruto."

I nodded. Most likely she was sensing Gaara of the Desert. What was he doing here? I asked a few more questions, trying to understand everything I could. Then, before I could explain to the team, I had to hold Karin, because she kept moving toward the chakra, almost like she was in a trance.

"We found the enemy," I said, arms wrapped around Karin.

"What's wrong with her?" Tsunade asked, walking closer and placing a hand on Karin's forehead. The redhead didn't even seem to notice it.

"The mine, she found it."

"Then let's move." Tsunade turned without hesitation.

The others followed, but Karin lagged behind, drifting forward like a sleepwalker.

"Wait!" I called, rushing back to her side. "Karin, are you alright?"

She didn't answer. Just kept walking.

I grabbed her arm and pulled her to a stop. Moments later, the team circled back.

"What's happening?" Tsunade demanded.

"This chakra always hits her harder than us. I think it's overwhelming her."

"What do we do?" Ino asked, walking closer and checking on Karin.

"Maybe she should stay behind?" I offered.

Tsunade arched an eyebrow. "Alone?"

Yeesh, Grandma. You don't have to test me like that.

"No," I turned to Ino, but she cut me off.

"I'm not staying behind." There was no room for negotiation in her voice.

Tenten stepped forward and took Karin from me. "I'll stay with her."

It felt wrong to leave Karin, but she was in no shape to fight, and we were in a time crunch. We said our goodbyes, then moved.

Now that we had a clear direction to follow, I scooped Kumoko up and settled her on my shoulders. She grumbled, but didn't resist. Progress.

As before, we heard it before we saw it: the grinding of machinery, the roar of chakra-based techniques.

A jagged valley opened before us, scarred and hollow. Embedded in the far rock wall was something that once looked like a palace entrance, now fractured, blasted open. The mobile fortress had crashed against the stone. From the top, what looked like a giant drill broke the stone, giving access to the interior.

Outside, a legion of golems clashed with Suna shinobi. Explosions, sand lances, lightning strikes, and cyclones tore through the battlefield, yet the golems didn't fall, and more and more golem poured out of the fortress.

Off to the side, a wave of sand rose and crashed into a massive, armored figure crackling with lightning. She retaliated with thunderbolts from both hands. Above, the screech of the batwoman.

 

[okashihime]

There were a lot of things I wanted to know about this situation, but like always, life didn't wait for me. In the brief moments I stood there looking at the chaotic battlefield, the sand wave swept part of the golem army, then hit the fortress, denting metal and creating even more destruction.

"Dammit," Tsunade said, then bolted toward the battle.

"There are people inside, keep them from destroying the thing!" I called out. I wasn't sure if she heard me, but I'd leave the sannin to her business.

And before I could regain my bearings, Kumoko moved. "This way, snake girl."

"Kumoko, wait!"

She didn't.

It was still a mystery to me how Suna had gotten here before we did, but maybe it shouldn't have been. Shisui told me about the attacks on Wind territory before I accepted the mission. It made sense that there'd be a response from Hidden Sand.

As aggressive as she was, thankfully, Kumoko didn't wade through the battle. Her path skirted around and toward the palace in the rock. I created a beacon and handed it to Ino. Then, the reality of things hit me like a wet towel wielded by a cruel hand.

I left Karin and Tenten without a beacon and now had no way to spy—keep them safe.

One mistake after another.

Our passage wasn't uncontested. Golems spilling out of the fortress were caught between a wave of attacks and tossed out, landing in our path. Instead of returning to the battlefield like good, mindless robots, they tried to impede our advance. Tried being the critical part.

We didn't need to kill. We had to do enough damage so the golems would be out of commission for a while. With me keeping Kumoko safe, it fell to the nascent mind ninja to clear a path. She flickered all around, stabbing metal-clad enemies and leaving them to explode in pieces.

So damn cool.

If I weren't in love already, that would have done it.

There were a few other close calls, mostly when a shinobi from Suna crossed our path. I couldn't tell if it was a man or a woman; most of the face was covered in bandages, and I could see no discernible body features. There was this tense moment where I wasn't sure if they would attack. More golems arriving and Ino exploding them was enough to dissuade the sand shinobi from any idea.

They gave us a nod, then flickered away to join the battle.

Closer to the rock face, I scooped Kumoko up, coated my feet with chakra, and climbed or tried to. It had occurred to me that none of the Suna shinobi were trying to enter the palace, and a few steps on my climb, I understood why that was.

I heard a screech, and chakra invaded my mind; a genjutsu, or close enough. The rock wall I was stuck to faded, the world flipped, up became down, and the sunlight disappeared, leaving me in total darkness. Worse yet, it was like I was stepping on knives, and that my insides were being gouged out.

This didn't feel like an attack targeted at me directly; it was more like a trap surrounding the entire area. But this was the third time I suffered under the illusions. Even if the genjutsu release didn't work, I had thought of other ways of bypassing it.

I pushed out as many threads as possible, feeling for the surrounding area and discarding my compromised senses. Part of my threads wrapped around Ino and Kumoko. With the badger, I only made sure she wasn't struggling against my grip, while with Ino, I piloted her body to follow me. This wasn't something I did often with Ino. Unlike Karin, she didn't like being controlled by threads, but needs must.

All the while, my chakra happily slurped down the genjutsu. It still wasn't enough to dispel the technique, but it made resisting the effects easier. Now, instead of feeling trapped inside a nightmare, it was like watching a horror movie at night, with lights out, and alone in the house.

Still not something I'd recommend, but bearable.

Given the speed at which my chakra had adapted, one or more exposures would be enough to be just like a normal chakra. Easily eaten and incapable of affecting me.

With one last push, we crossed a threshold into the palace, and the technique ended. It was an area-based trap, then.

The room we entered looked like a vaulted hall or gallery, with cobwebs, dust, and detritus covering most of the area. There were stairs and doors leading deeper into the place, but the broken wall leading to a throne room showed where enemies had gone with no need to search.

"Lemme go," Kumoko growled.

"Ouch, that was unpleasant," Ino whimpered.

I put Kumoko down, then gave Ino a quick hug. Ino had a thin line of blood falling from her lips but otherwise seemed unhurt.

"Are you alright?" I asked anyway.

Kumoko didn't wait. She dashed across the broken wall and toward the abandoned throne room.

"Almost broke the technique before we escaped it," she said with a bloody grin.

"That—"

Another screech interrupted me. Whereas the others had been far away, this sounded close.

I looked around, and the bat-woman was flying toward us like a bullet. Well, it was time to end this. I was tired of being put in a genjutsu. My hands went to my pouch, ready to pick up a kunai, but Ino stopped me.

"Follow Kumoko, I'll deal with the enemy."

I looked from the approaching woman to Ino. Her eyes were firm and confident. I didn't want to.

The idea of splitting the party didn't sit well with me. Hypocritical thinking that now, when it was Ino being left behind instead of Karin.

"Don't wanna," I muttered the words without meaning to.

Ino rolled her eyes, grinned. She pushed me toward where Kumoko had gone. "I know how to counter her, now."

Ino's grin was almost feral. With blood smeared across her lip, her grin looked downright villainous.

I nodded. I didn't want to leave, but I wasn't really leaving. Ino had my beacon. There was no chance I would ignore this battle and not intervene if things went south. But Ino didn't know that. I didn't want to rob her of chances to grow and prove herself.

Ino wanted to become stronger, maybe even more than I did. Coddling her would just offend and stunt her growth.

"Give her hell," I said, then turned around and dashed toward Kumoko.

"Like you won't believe."

More screeches heralded the woman's arrival, but that wasn't my battle. I kept part of my attention on the beacon in case I needed to jump back to help, but otherwise, I left Ino to do as she pleased.

The deeper areas of the palace weren't different from my expectations: dilapidated walls and decorations, eroded pillars, and dust everywhere. The throne dominated most of the room. It was massive, looking like it was sculpted from a granite slab. Someone had done a number on the throne. It lay broken, many of the pieces scattered about.

Aside from the recent vandalism, this place wasn't new by any means, and no one had been here for a long time.

I found Kumoko waiting in the area before the giant stone throne. A broken tear on the floor led into darkness.

"That's where the skunk went," Kumoko said, tail lashing. It wasn't any of the normal tail tells. It was like a mix of anticipation and fear.

I approached, then looked inside the pathway into the abyss, just plain darkness. I could see parts of ancient machinery on the abyss walls near the broken floor, but the person who broke their way through clearly didn't care.

"What are we waiting for, snake girl?" Kumoko asked, tail wagging like an excited dog.

I cast one more look into the darkness. "You don't have to come with me," I said.

"I'm not going home," she growled. "Pops would never let me have this much fun."

That was a good enough reason to send Kumoko back, all things considered. Bratty and snooty she was, she was still the daughter of the clan's patriarch. Her year of service was nothing more than Tsuchigaru's attempt to give the she-devil more life experience. There was an unspoken agreement that I would keep her safe or at least that was how I saw the whole thing. I wasn't keen on letting her die, then having to face an already grieving gigantic badger and tell him his only daughter died under my watch.

I extended my hand to her. "Stay close, and if things turn dangerous, cancel the summon," I ordered.

Kumoko growled but didn't say anything back. She climbed onto my hand until she was perched on my shoulder. With one last look toward the ongoing battle between Ino and the batwoman, I summoned a ball of light, then jumped into the abyss.

The fall, all things considered, wasn't bad. We picked up speed, but coating hands and feet in chakra, I used the walls to cut momentum, allowing for a partially controlled descent. The tunnel downward was long and desolate until the light from below indicated the end of the path.

I gestured for Kumoko to stay quiet, canceled my light, and hopped down the last few meters until we were at the lip of the tunnel.

Down was a vast circular chamber illuminated by bluish light. It reminded me somehow of the light from the stone in my pouch. The walls were decorated with faded reliefs, rotten banners, and dust. From my vantage point, I could see the layers of sigils and inscribed seals covering the whole floor, converging on the center. Some of the sigils were familiar: time and space; others were alien to me.

The same old man I saw Temujin carry away was crumpled near one of the many pillars around the room. I couldn't tell if he was alive or dead. There was a small pool of blood near his body.

In the room's center stood a grotesquely muscular man. Heads taller than even Jiraiya. I couldn't see his face from where I was, but he was barefooted, shirtless, and wearing dark trousers. He held that Temujin guy by the neck, the same Temujin who had kidnapped Kahiko. There was a gleaming sword by the giant's feet. The ornate pommel was beautiful, even though the blade was broken.

I don't think they were friends anymore or that Temujin was alive.

The tall guy had punched through the metal armor and Temujin's torso, his bloody hand on the other side held a familiar blue-green stone.

 

[okashihime]

The flying woman burst into the abandoned palace, her furred face twisted in a snarl. A screech followed, shrill enough to make Ino's ears ring.

Maybe she'd exaggerated when she sent Hinata off. She had an idea, barely, not even a complete plan. Still, the decision to fight alone hadn't been hard.

Hinata was strong. Stronger than she realized. The things she could do, Ino had seen them, were the stuff of bedtime stories her father used to tell about legendary shinobi.

In comparison, Ino was pathetically weak.

Daily training helped. The new jutsu, the strategy meetings, and the relentless drills, in theory, made Ino a better shinobi, but Hinata was overprotective enough to make Ino's mom look laid-back. That same protectiveness ensured that in the four months they were teamed together, Ino didn't face dangerous combat besides the town's skirmish.

That was also when Ino realized that by being overprotective, Hinata was causing more trouble than helping. Hinata had swept in with her teleport and explosions and simply… dismantled the enemy without breaking a sweat, while Ino could barely hold together.

It wasn't only she who felt that way. Tenten had been the first to complain about the coddling, not to Hinata's face. They would need to talk with Hinata about acceptable levels of protectiveness, but that would have to wait until after Ino had dealt with the rat. Bats were just flying rats, right?

The flying rat hovered a few meters away, leathery wings keeping the furred body aloft. "How did you avoid my trap?"

Ino wasn't sure how Hinata had done it; she had ideas but no confirmation. "You call that a trap?" she leered, lips still bloodied. "I thought it was a child's prank."

The furred bat's face split into a grin full of teeth. "Sweetie, you'll have to do better than that."

Ino shrugged, looking about, affecting an unconcerned demeanor. "Why would I? Flying rats are just that, rats."

That struck a nerve because the conversation ended, and another screech followed. Ino flickered away, already braced to dodge the moment things went south. She couldn't yet feel chakra like Hinata and Karin could, but her still-developing jutsu had been enough to sense the incoming attack.

She threw shuriken, lamenting her lack of offensive jutsu. Maybe by design or neglect, Asuma's team had always used her for support. Crowd control. Assists. Letting Shikamaru and Choji handle the heavy hits. Her time with Hinata solved some of that. Ino learned shadow clones, body flicker, and other techniques, but most were geared toward defense and utility instead of being direct attack jutsu.

But she didn't need to attack to win this battle. Instead of trying to be something she wasn't, Ino had to play to her strengths.

"That's all you have?" She forced out a yawn. "What else can you do when your parlor tricks don't—"

Ino flickered away, the building chakra enough of a warning of another illusion attack.

"Haven't anyone told you it's rude to interrupt while people talk?" Ino mocked.

More screeches followed, then growling promises of violence.

"I'll gut you like a fish, sweetie, then feed you to the fortress machine to keep you alive."

That was interesting information, which Ino had no time to digest. She flickered away, noting how low her chakra reserves were. Thankfully, she might not need to wait too long if everything worked as she wanted.

"Will you? How?" Ino called out. "Like a rat, you always scurry away."

Another screech was the response. With the screech came smoke, filling the room and blocking everything. It wasn't something Ino had been expecting. From what she knew, the woman could or would only use the genjutsu. With her sight blocked, Ino paid attention to all other senses.

A sound of cutting wind was enough to make Ino move, not a moment too soon. A thin line of pain blossomed on her sides, along with the screeching laughter from the woman. "Who's afraid now, darling?"

Ino wasn't sure how the woman found her through the mist.

"Afraid? I'm just glad I can't see your—"

Ino stopped again, the whooshing wind telling of another attack. She scampered, then flickered away. Unable to see, she fumbled, feet hitting debris and almost sending her sprawling.

The attack came again, followed soon by more mocking. "Stop running, darling."

She flickered away, and then once she heard the wind sound, she threw a kunai carrying an explosive tag. The payload hit something nearby, shaking the whole upper floor.

The woman didn't attack, even in the moments after the explosion had cleared the smoke.

Ino stood stock still. Unmoving and thinking fast.

The woman had attacked immediately after Ino did something. The first time, she moved away from the previous position, and then, when she spoke back.

If the transformation was more than cosmetic and gave her real bat senses, it made sense. Bats could see through sounds. They had learned that in the academy. Some ninja clans used the flying animals for one reason or another.

To confirm her hypothesis, Ino stood stock still, not even breathing. The woman kept taunting and provoking from inside the mist, but no other attacks came Ino's way.

A sharp grin grew on Ino's face. Perfect. It was time to end this. She pulled twine from her pouch, followed by a kunai. No hesitation now.

"That's all you can do? Whine and hide?"

This time, Ino didn't move away; she threw the twine, then the kunai. Pain laced her stomach. Ino's hands grabbed the enemy and held in with all her might before the chakra disrupted, and she dispersed.

The kunai exploded, billowing wind pushing the smoke away.

Ino was still standing, barely, with bloodied lips and hands holding the enemy, while the woman's arm had punched through Ino's stomach and out of her back. A grin split her lips, feral and wild. "Got you."

Then, the shadow clone vanished in a puff of smoke. At the same time, the real Ino, who had been hidden from the start, activated her clan technique, flooding the specially prepared twine to immobilize the woman.

"Wha—" the woman had started to say before stopping, frozen.

Ino didn't waste time; the technique wouldn't last forever. Her hands flew through the handseals sequence, and she used her family technique, Mind Body Switch Jutsu. Unlike when she'd done this with Hinata, who had been willing and waiting to accept the jutsu, the woman fought back. Not that she had any chance. If it were before Ino had met Hinata and when training was more of a chore than something she wanted, Kamira, Ino gleaned from the woman's mind, might have had a chance.

But not now, not after all the control training Hinata forced them through.

Ino tested the new body, pushing the screeching and scared voice to the back of her mind. Moving other people's bodies was strange, but muscle memory helped. She flapped her wings, pushing off the ground a few centimeters before losing control and falling face down.

"Annoying."

Ignoring the attempts at flying, she walked to her slumped body and hid it away, far from view. Satisfied she was safe, Ino tried flying again, letting the body's memories take over instead of trying to control the process.

After a few messy takeoffs, she caught the rhythm. Flying was… exhilarating. A wild grin split her furred face. She didn't just hear the battle; she saw and sketched it in sound. The woman could have found Ino's real body without being distracted or arrogant.

Last, she felt the source of the transformation, not where her chakra usually was created, but near her shoulder. It was more than enough.

Ino took to the skies and flew outside, above the still ongoing battlefield.

She made a few rounds until she found her target. Still flying above, she pushed her chakra and made the ram seal with clawed hands. This wasn't how she wanted to introduce this jutsu. She wanted to surprise Hinata-chan, but oh well.

'Tsunade-sama,' she projected, smug even in her thoughts. 'Ino here. One flying freak, freshly captured.'

 

[okashihime]

Kumoko and I observed the scene below. I watched in horrified fascination. Kumoko… I didn't know what she was thinking. Her tail was stiff, not moving an inch, and her claws dug into my shoulder, gripping tighter.

The big baddie laughed.

His hands closed, crushing the stone to dust. He tossed Temujin's body aside and turned toward what looked like a pedestal. Something I hadn't noticed during my first inspection. The pedestal, unlike the rest of the room, protruded from the ground in gray, steel-like material and had a slanted top. I couldn't see what was at the top, if anything.

Kahiko moved, feeble hand extending toward the pedestal.

The potentially evil boss stopped. Turned around. Spoke. The words were low, but I could still hear them.

"Still alive?"

The voice wasn't pleasant. It dredged up memories from the before, of my once friend and then bully, Veronica. It was on the way he spoke, the disdain, the arrogance.

Evil boss raised a bloody hand toward the old grandpa. I don't think he was trying to help Kahiko. I was out of time.

Before I had time to consider, I flickered forward. One moment, I was hiding by the access shaft lip; the next, I appeared by the man's side and punched as hard as I could. It was a clean hit. My fist sank into his skin. It felt like I was hitting a wooden dummy instead of a person.

My attack flung the enemy away until he hit the wall. A cloud of dust obscured the attack's result.

Without performing seals, a clone popped and immediately moved toward Kahiko. I kept my eyes on where the enemy was. If he were anything like the others, I doubt this would be enough to stop him.

And sure enough, he wasn't down.

"Hahaha."

First was his creepy laughter. Unhinged.

From the corner of my eye, I saw my clone using Mystic Palm on the old man. He kept pointing to the center of the room, trying to crawl there.

"What is this? A local?"

The dust had settled enough to reveal the man walking off where he had hit the wall like nothing had happened. From up close, I could see more details. His face was strange, not entirely human, but not a monster either. His eyes were red with vertical pupils. The exposed muscles on his chest, arms, and stomach looked more like hardened leather than skin.

He was smiling, amused.

"You can't stop me. I'm all-powerful."

The hell was he talking about?

"Who are you?" I asked.

"Me?" The man's smile had never faded. "I'm Haido, conqueror of the world."

What… the heck was he on about?

"Now that I found the Gelel mine, the world is mine for the taking." He laughed again.

A hoarse voice came from behind me, the old man. "Excellent Shinobi from Hidden Leaf", a wet cough interrupted the man before he started again. "We must stop him or the world is doomed."

That clinched it: Madmen surrounded me. Each worse than the other. One was a crazy megalomaniac with delusions of godhood. Another believed in doomsday. I took Kumoko from my shoulder, placed her on the ground. Never took my eyes from Haido.

"You should go back, Kumoko."

A single annoyed tail lash was my response. Instead of returning to the badger's land, Kumoko turned and ran toward Nerugui. She grabbed the ferret with her teeth, dragged it to my clone. Well, at least she was being helpful.

I wasn't sure exactly what was going on here. Who was this Haido? What was Kahiko's involvement in all this? Why had Haido killed Temujin? Didn't Temujin work for Haido?

It could be just a classic case of villain betrayal.

A fight was probably inevitable, even if the area wasn't ideal. I'd need to be careful with my explosives to avoid collapsing the ceiling on us. It would be embarrassing to die by my own explosions.

Best Girl Ino would never forgive me for such a blunder.

I cast my perception to the beacon. In the time it took me to get down here, Ino had used her clan's jutsu. I wasn't sure what she was going to do with the batwoman, but she had won.

And then there was the stone. It felt heavy in my perception, almost palpable ever since I'd gotten down here. Like it was ten times the size it should actually be.

Since Haido seemed more than happy to… not do anything for now, I asked a question.

"Kahiko," I said without looking back. "What do you mean by doomed?"

Another cough, then wheezing breaths before the old man spoke again.

"Ah, the excellent shinobi from Leaf knows my name." Another gurgle. I wanted to look back and check the old man's condition, but resisted the impulse. I kept my eyes fixed on Haido.

"There once was an empire," Kahiko wheezed. "But the stone always brings disaster."

"Not anymore," Haido interrupted. "Now that I've found it, I'll create my utopia."

"Does your utopia include sacrificing people to your machines?"

The red orbs behind his back moved.

"Those were necessary sacrifices."

Yep, megalomaniacal crazy.

"Any chance you'd give up and go back to wherever you came from?"

Haido chuckled, then laughed.

Yep. There was no harm in trying. I wasn't sure how strong this guy was, but he killed Temujin, who, in what I saw in the caravan fight, wasn't weak. But I knew Haido's weakness. If his power derived from the stone, I just needed to find out where he was, then destroy it.

Mid laugh, Haido raised his hand. He didn't point it at me, but at my clone and the old man she was still trying to keep alive. I flickered, pushing my hands with the seals. A transparent barrier sprang to life in front of me.

From Haido's pointed hand, a blast of energy, a giant bluish-green laser, hit the barrier with explosive force.

Momentum didn't transfer if there was momentum to the laser. Dust billowed out from the impact. The barrier cracked and shattered, but the laser petered out too.

Then suddenly, Haido was in front of me. For a moment, it looked like he had used shushin no jutsu. Was he a shinobi too?

He swung a punch toward my face, air billowing around his fist.

Instincts took over. I didn't block; that was a fool's errand. Instead, I pumped my body full of chakra, barely hitting his wrist to give me enough momentum to dislodge away from the attack.

In theory, it should have been a sound strategy. I had done this countless times in the academy, redirecting attacks instead of competing force against force. It still worked, but not like I wanted.

The arm I used to hit Haido's wrist felt like I had just punched a stone with.

I plucked a kunai from my pouch tool, but Haido moved again. He was damn fast, and I was too close. He backhanded me away. I raised my hands in time to prevent a full blow to the face. It felt like being slapped by the hand of god.

The impact flung me away, and in a reverse of what I had done to him at the start, it was my time to hit the walls. I hit stone, and stone gave way. For a moment, there was only white noise and pain. I tried to breathe, and couldn't.

It didn't take long to regain my bearings. I took one much-needed breath, then coughed up, stirring dust.

Near the center of the room, Clone-chan had stopped healing Kahiko to attack Haido. Now that we knew he was fast and strong, she was doing a way better job than I was at keeping up with him.

Haido kept trying to blast my clone, but he telegraphed the attacks. He used his right hand to perform both blasts and laser attacks. It made it easier to predict, but still challenging to deal with, mainly because my clone had to keep flickering around and summoning barriers to protect me and Kahiko.

Damn, why wasn't I doing anything?

I pushed from the wall I had hit; the rubble dislodged with my movements.

"Took you long enough," Clone-chan said between flickers.

I grunted. It hurt, but I could still fight. And I was pissed.

While my clone distracted Haido, I took one of the small scrolls strapped to my thighs. Unfurled it, popped out sets of kunai I had prepared.

"Are you doing anything? I can't hold on much longer." Clone-chan said between flickering and barriers.

"Yeah, I got this," I said.

Haido wasn't looking in my direction, and I took the opportunity. I threw several exploding kunai. I didn't think that would be enough, but it was just a distraction. And sure enough, Haido didn't move, but the red balls at his back morphed and expanded, creating what looked like shields.

The kunai hit, things exploded, and I flickered toward the ceiling. At the same time, Clone-chan dashed in instead of dodging or blocking. She kicked and punched and stabbed. Haido blocked most, ignored some.

But again, what I needed was just the distraction.

I threw the kunai in a perimeter around him. Distracted by my clone, he didn't notice until the perimeter was complete. Then I threw another set, then another.

The first barrier sprang to life, and the tags exploded. Then the second, and the third. Three explosion barriers might be overkill, but I wasn't about to leave anything to chance.

Staggered explosions were something I had been thinking about for a while to make my explosions more effective and less prone to collateral damage. It was a shame I couldn't really feel the explosion when it was inside a barrier; needed sacrifices.

Inside the tri-barrier perimeter was the charred corpse of Haido.

I canceled the last barrier, approached. Checked for a pulse. There was none.

Well, good. I was afraid the explosions wouldn't be enough. Still, Haido's body was full of that strange chakra. I placed another perimeter barrier around him, this one to contain instead of explode.

If the guy was still alive, it would give me time to react before he broke it.

Satisfied, I turned and ran toward the old man. Maybe I could still save him.