Shadow (Naruto)

Chapter Twelve

~Mira's POV~

Age- 19

I sat with Tenten during the chunin finals and had spent a good portion worrying why Naruto, Sasuke and Kakashi were absent, before Naruto made a flashy absurd entrance that sent most of the crowd into hysterics. He'd grown so much in such a short time under the training of Kakashi and Jiraiya and I was overjoyed to hear people in the crowd complimenting him.

Sasuke and Kakashi arrived late, just as Genma, the proctor for the final, and fellow elite jonin, was about to disqualify him. Tenten left me to check on Neji once Sasuke's match had begun and I got an uneasy feeling as I noticed people appearing around the stadium in anbu gear, but I didn't recognize all the masks. Each anbu operative had a specialized mask with distinctive markings so the anbu could tell one another apart, it had been a few years since I'd been in anbu, but I didn't think they'd had so many new recruits. Something wasn't right.

There was movement behind me and I swore under my breath as the people around me began falling into unconsciousness, it was a genjutsu, luckily it wasn't a very strong one as I was awful against genjutsu. I was able to release it and jumped into action as I spotted a dozen sound ninja preparing to attack the unconscious people around me.

"Oh no you don't!" I snapped and flung the blades of my two kusarigama at the enemy shinobi simultaneously, the chains wound around my wrists, like deadly ribbons that shifted and moved with me. I cut four of them down at once before tightening my hold on the chains on my wrist and sending a flow of electricity through the chains.

I could hear people fighting all around the stadium, I had to find Naruto! After taking care of the sound shinobi, I flitted in the direction of Naruto, only to get cut off by five sand shinobi. I hurled my blades forward and stared in awe as one of the men caught my blades by the hilt and wrenched me forward.

"Get out of my way!" I raged as a ball of electricity appeared in my right hand and a ball of fire in my left, I slapped my hands together fusing the fire and electricity. The sand shinobi wailed in terror as they realized what was about to happen before I vanished from their line of sight. I abandoned my weapons as the two chakra types fused together in a massive explosion that caused the back wall of my side of the stadium to blow to bits taking the five sand shinobi with it.

More enemy shinobi tried to block my path seeing that I had abandoned my weapons. They were fools if they thought I could only rely on my speed and weapons. Forming a saber of lightning in my hand, I dove into the onslaught of enemies, careful to keep any of the unconscious civilians from harm as I tore through my opponents with ease. Naruto and Kakashi were in the next section over, I was almost there.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Kakashi appear before Naruto and his friends, he told them something and the kids leapt from a hole in the wall and took off. "Naruto!" I called his name, dropping my guard for a second, but it was enough for one of the sand shinobi left standing to slash me across the back with his blade.

I let out a hiss of pain and turned on him, my hands moving on autopilot, signing so fast he had no idea what hit him before releasing a massive blast of wind and fire that sliced him to ribbons of ash in an instant. Wincing, I flit to Kakashi and Guy's side.

"What's going on?!" I yelled over the commotion as I caught a kunai that had been aimed for Kakashi's head startling the pair of them as I appeared between them.

"Mira-chan!" Guy smiled, "Now we're unstoppable." His smile fell as he noticed blood pooling around my feet, the slash on my back was deeper than I had first thought. "Ah, you're hit."

Kakashi turned at this, his left eye was uncovered revealing his sharingan, a dojutsu kekkei genkai with a vibrant blood red iris with three black tomoe marks around the pupil, "Mira?" he sounded worried.

"Don't count me out yet." I reassured them before darting forward with the kunai I had caught, slashing through two enemy shinobi. It was chaos in the stadium, civilians and shinobi alike were unconscious, those who weren't were locked in battle and the Third Hokage appeared to be locked in a desperate battle trapped within a barrier atop the roof of the stadium where the five kage usually sat during events.

Another enemy posing as an unconscious civilian, lunged for me as I paused to catch my breath thinking we'd cleared the enemies in our section. My movements were too slow and sluggish to effectively block and I mentally kicked myself and braced myself for the blow.

A strong arm wound around my waist, and I squeaked as I felt myself being pulled against a taut chest before the loud reverberating clash of steel shook me out of my moment of weakness. I looked up to see Kakashi holding me close with one arm and blocking my assailant with a kunai with his other. My breathing was unsteady, I was losing too much blood.

Guy finished off the last enemy as I struggled to catch my breath and stay conscious. Kakashi swept me off my feet as my knees began to weaken. Just how deep was the wound on my back? He looked worried.

"Okay, maybe count me out." I winced as I was overcome with a wave of agony and the edges of my vision began to blur, I'd lost too much blood.

Kakashi set me on the bench next to an unconscious Lee. "Rest here."

There were more enemy starting to appear, too many of them. I caught Kakashi by the wrist as he was about to face them, "Kakashi!" slowing my hand signs so his sharingan could detect it I formed a ball of electricity and a ball of fire in each of my hands and fused them together, sending the fusing balls directly at the enemy. There was a moment of a delay while the two types of chakra molded before they violently reacted against one another in an explosion. Sending half the enemies flying in a blast that shook the whole stadium.

Kakashi nodded, "Thanks Mira."

He copied it perfectly and took care of the second wave of enemies. I was drained, it took a lot of chakra to make the explosion, and I'd done it twice now. Kakashi had more chakra at his disposal than I did, and barely looked winded. The edges of my vision began to darken and I felt myself slowly begin to slip from my seat.

"MIRA!" Kakashi's voice caused my heart to skip a beat as I felt my body begin to fall.

Strong arms encircled me as I began to fade from consciousness. I could sense his presence, and a swirl of emotion within him as he cradled me in his arms. His heart was racing in his chest as my head fell limply against his chest. Why was it beating so fast? Was he scared? That didn't make sense, Kakashi was pretty fearless.

"I'm sorry, Kakashi." I breathed as I gave in and allowed myself to slip from consciousness. I had wanted to tell him I was sorry for making him mad, for whatever I had said to upset him in my fevered state that made him pull away from me.

Video-  "War of Change" By Thousand Foot Krutch