The beast only growled ferociously at Sasuke, patiently waiting for him to make the first move. The air was so tense, Sasuke felt his voice dry because of it. A light, chilly breeze entered the room but neither took notice, both standing completely still except for the four blood-covered tails swishing in the air. Sasuke opened up his wings and took flight in an instant, the beast was motionless still looking in the distance almost in another world.
"WAKE UP!" Sasuke shouted with a powerful voice, he flew down towards the tailed beast with his sword propelled in front of him hoping it will render Naruto paralyzed from his lightning attack.
"What?" he whispered to himself
Sasuke's sword had most definitely made contact, but that was the point. It made contact but it didn't pierce its skin. It was as soft as a sponge but at the same time hard like a solid brick wall. To say the least, it wasn't a pleasant feeling especially since the four-tails had now begun to fight back. Two of its tails attempted to grab Sasuke but he wasn't going to let that happen twice. He quickly jumped back and made some hand signals forming a Chidori in his left hand.
"Hn Just as stubborn as always"
"grrrrrrr"
"No words? How rude."
Back with Shikamaru as his team finally enters the scroll room...
"Have you guys found anything? Ow!" Shikamaru had just opened a scroll which once opened transformed into various kunai that were aimed at the reader. Thankfully, it only cut his palm slightly but soon he came to realise that this task was much more difficult than first intended.
"No good, all of the scrolls are either unreadable or have some type of trap infused with it," Neji said tiredly as he couldn't find anything. He closed a very ancient scroll with had olden Japanese characters he could not understand. Everyone grew frustrated as they could not find anything of use and time was of the essence. Kiba threw a scroll into the wall out of frustration which caused the scroll to release poisonous gas. Hinata, just in time, was able to use her air palms to ventilate the room and disperse the gas, hopefully out of the cave. Hinata collapsed onto her knees and was trembling slightly from exhaustion.
"Be careful!" Neji said infuriated at Kiba's carelessness.
"Hinata! Are you ok?" Kiba asked, ignoring Neji completely only making him more irritated.
"Y-yes I'm fine. T-Tired is all." Hinata answered shakily. The team had been at this for who knows how long and the amount of chakra everyone had used up was enormous. It would have been normal if everyone was to simply call quits except in these circumstances that wasn't an option. Ever.
"We have to keep looking. Knowing Orcochimaru he must have had found some way to separate Menma and Naruto. Maybe he had some knowledge on sealing or ninjutsu or even some kind of kekkei genkai." Shikamaru proclaimed as he was struggling to keep everyone in check even though he was the leader. He most definitely did not imagine his first mission to turn out this way but at least everyone is still alive.
Kiba looked around seeing if anything "seal-likely" came up when Akamaru started barking so he turned his attention to what the little white dog was barking at. He walked over to a box full of scrolls which were all labeled with a swirl-like symbol. He bent down in front of the box trying to see if there was anything that looked used or new but only found very old scrolls. Akamaru barked once again now brushing his tail against the front of the box but the box was so filled with dust it stained his perfect white smooth fur. Kiba was a little annoyed since he liked keeping Akamaru clean but then noticed something on the box so he brushed off some dust that covered some writing on top of the symbol.
"U-ZU-MA-KI.... huh...UZUMAKI?!!!" Kiba's loud voice had startled everyone from their concentration. He picked up a few scrolls, double-checked they all had the same symbol on them, then threw a scroll to everyone. They now each had either a random scroll thrown by Kiba or was struggling to balance 3 scrolls in their arms.
"What is this Kiba?" Shikamaru asked intrigued.
"Those scrolls that have the Uzumaki symbol on it! So it must be connected to Naruto! It's his last name after all."
Everyone was a little wary about opening the scrolls but were all surprised when nothing happened as they opened the scrolls. Which lead to the conclusion it must be in another unreadable language. As Shikamaru opened his scroll he saw the texts were readable.
"Orochimaru must have already opened the scrolls since there are no traps and we can read it. Good work Kiba, now let's see what we can find." Kiba seemed very proud of himself and so went to look for other possible Uzumaki scrolls with Akamaru while everyone else read the passages and passages on different kinds of sealing justus. They were now beginning to make progress and there were high hopes in the air. Shikamaru and Neji had gone through 3 scrolls, Choji had gone through 2 and Hinata had gone through 4 when she found something of interest.
"I-I think I found something!" Hinata placed her scroll on the ground excitedly so everyone was able to see. She quickly pointed to a paragraph on the left-hand side of a drawing explaining the justu and as she began to read Kiba had returned from his little scavenger hunt and knelt down beside her.
"Sealing Justu: Bunri
Hand signs-- as follows
1. Serpent
2. Horse
3. Bird
4. Rat
5. Dog
6. Monkey
7. Ram
This justu has been passed down in our clans for centuries however it is a justu that must be used wisely. In ancient times this justu was used as a form of judgment. Those who possessed certain evils within themselves would undergo this justu in order to separate their good and bad personas. The sinful were punished for eternity in hell while those who were pure of heart would continue to live peacefully in the world. We now use this justu to separate the cursed from their unfair destinies, so that they may live a prosperous life without the influence of evil however this idea soon turned against us. Many, instead wished to use this justu to banish the good and form an army of hateful and merciless beings. We discarded this Justu from our practices therefore only our higher-ups had knowledge of this. When wished for better purposes we use this method, but we must be aware that the state of mind must be calm. If the mind is in constant trauma or stresses the evil side will force itself out exterminating the good side in the process.
Rank: S
Signed: Leader of Uzumaki clan"
Everyone was very glad they had finally found the way of saving Naruto except as always it was never as easy as getting what you need without finding out something else you need or some dangers that come with it.
"S Rank?! None of us could possibly do something this powerful! We're only genins!" Choji exclaimed slightly scared.
"What choice do we have, nothing else has proved useful!" Kiba answered back forcefully.
"We need someone with delicate chakra control. This is obviously something that can't be messed up. Meaning it's either Hinata or Neji since they both specialise in the gentle fist technique." Shikamaru stated. Hinata and Neji looked at each other for a while as if telepathically communicating on who to perform the justu. They then both looked at Shikamaru who awaited their answer.
"I-I'll do it," Hinata said quickly.
Neji looked horrified.
"Hinata-sama I cannot let you do such a dangerous thing! I am more experienced than you are! Let me do it!" Hinata shook her head, her mind already made.
"Neji nii-san, I have to do this. It's because you are more experienced than me I must do it. If anything happens you can better protect everyone than I can and besides... I have to do it. For Naruto. I have to help him!"
"But-"
"It's settled then." Shikamaru interrupted. Neji gave him a look almost begging him to change her mind despite his constant remarks saying he must follow Captain's orders. Shikamaru was fully aware that Hinata wasn't exactly at the high standards that Neji was at but he felt if Hinata was able to get close enough to Naruto it may just jolt his memory and enable things to go much smoother than if Neji did it.
"Time is of the essence and we can't afford to argue over this. I think you should have more faith in Hinata, cause from what I've heard she has grown a lot more than you think." Hinata smiled appreciatively however Neji was not too convinced but could not deny orders. She quickly grabbed the scroll and made her way back to the room they left Naruto and Sasuke. They all followed behind her quickly heading towards their friend. As they ran, Kiba ran next to Hinata with a worried look that immediately told Hinata what he wanted to say.
"Hinata...Are you REALLY sure about this?" Kiba was just as desperate as Neji.
"Yes," Hinata answered as quickly but as politely as she could. She did in fact have some matter of doubt whether she could do it but could not afford to turn back now. She recalled all her past training in her missions and sessions with Neji, now thankful for Neji's strict teachings.
"You could always change your mind Hinata. Neji could do it!"
"But so can I. Please Kiba-Kun. Believe in me and Naruto, I promised I would save him no matter what. I don't plan on breaking any promises, because that's my ninja way." Kiba was able to see her smile and sighed knowing he could not change her mind.
"Just be careful."
"I will" Hinata answered back confidently. They were now seconds away from the room where they could finally be able to save Naruto from the dark which he was now trapped in. The light of the room began to flicker giving the impression Sasuke was using Chiodori therefore they all picked up the pace hoping Sasuke wouldn't accidentally murder their friend in the process.
Hello All,
So I hope you enjoy this chapter, again please let me know how you feel about the story so far! The next chapter will be up next Saturday but if not then as soon as possible. We are now 8 chapters away from the end of the story so make sure to keep checking weekly cause we are nearly there! Here is this week's quote:
"When fear knocks on your door, send faith to answer.
Fear is a feeling that has only the power we give it.
You can feel fear and still do anything you know you need to do,
even if you do 'do it afraid' "