We walked in front of the new Team Kakashi along the way to the bridge. Naruto was fighting with Sai the whole time. It was entertaining to see Sakura deck him in the face, but I can't help but feel sympathy for him. It wasn't long ago that I was nearly as emotionless and uncaring as he is, so I want to see him open up a bit. Not that I'm all that much better now, but at least am better off than him currently.
"Neji, Lee." I call out quietly to my teammates as we arrive at the Onsen that Yamato suggested for team bonding. It is the same Onsen Team Guy went to at our one year anniversary that we also happen to be banned from. "Be nice to that Sai guy, something tells me he isn't too comfortable with emotions. He reminds me of us when we were kids, Neji." I add on with a sad smile. We really weren't social at all, the only reason I even snapped out of that is because of Death's words reminding me to make friends.
"Fine." Neji says reluctantly. He still isn't all that social.
"What an inspiring idea, Ami! Truly you have a beautiful heart!" Lee goes off for a while longer as I sigh and head into the girls bath side with Sakura.
"This feels amazing." I say in relief to her as I sink into the water.
"Agreed. We never take the time to just relax like this." Sakura says sitting next to me. "You've been gone nearly nonstop on missions the last couple of years, I never really see you for more than a few days at a time."
"True, I've been busy a lot. Think I should try and take it easier for a while. How's your training with Lady Tsunade going?" I ask her. We continue talking for a while until we start to hear Naruto shouting from the other side.
"Why are you 'Balls' this and 'Penis' that?! You're so weird!" We hear Naruto yelling. I laugh loudly at the conversation while Sakura looks like she either wants to die or want to murder him.
We chat around for a little while longer until we hear my brother yelling. "My sister is over there!! I'll murder you!" We then hear a scream and a splash.
"Hmm..." I hum out to Sakura, "You might be needing a new teammate by the sounds of it." I smirk at her as she looks confused.
"Was that Neji just now? I've never heard him raise his voice before like that." She observes.
"Clearly you've never seen a guy try and hit on me while he's around." I say cheekily as I grin. We get out of the water at that point, and head over to where all the teams will be eating together in the dining room. There is a huge spread of food laid out for us.
In the middle of us all eating, I pardon myself for the restroom. Instead pf the restroom though, I head over to the boys room that Sai is sharing with Naruto. I look through his backpack carefully, trying to see what I can find. I see a packet that has ANBU Black Ops members information on the pages, one for every single one of our villages ANBU. I even find Yamato's file in here.
I thank Kakashi silently for teaching me a certain water jutsu that allows me to change and alter text slightly. I leave out Yamato's to not get changed, but use the jutsu to alter each pictures appearance slightly to no longer match the original, but could still be believable as a person. I altered the basic information as well, spitting off random facts that aren't real, but again believable. I placed Yamato's back in the packet where it was and place it back in the bag, noticing the picture book Sai has before closing everything up and putting it back exactly where it was.
I made it back to the dining room area in under three minutes from when I left, flawlessly blending back in as if nothing suspicious happened. "Sai?" I turn to Sai, who is sitting on my left side at the table. "Are you enjoying the meal?" I ask him politely.
"Yes, it is quite enjoyable." He says with a fake smile.
"What is your favorite food?" I ask, trying to get him to think for himself a little bit.
"I do not have a preference, they all taste good to me." He says, still smiling as he eats.
I frown at him, "Everyone has a favorite, Sai. Pick one now, that can be your favorite." I suggest to him firmly.
He pauses in his eating, and looks at what is in front of him. I can see him wondering why I am pushing this on him. He uses his chopsticks to pick up some tofu from his plate. "This is my favorite. Tofu."
I smile at him in response. "That's a fine choice." I encourage him. He looks confused for a moment at me for my random encounter and I go back to my meal as if that didn't just happen. Bonding over food is a good place to start being friends.
We head to our bedrooms, I again am bunking with Sakura. When I wake up, I get up before her and head to the hot springs again for a private bath before we head out. It's calming so early in the morning out here, and I snuck in some tea to drink in the bath.
We head out from the onsen, this time Team Guy took the back guard point as we moved onward. Just walking down the road our positions didn't matter, Neji and I trading off on using our Byakugan's occasionally to scout ahead and watch our backs.
Yamato makes a giant house out of wood when we come to rest on our second night, and we split by our teams instead of by gender. I put my bag next to Neji's and bunker down to sleep next to my twin for the night. The next day, Team Kakashi does drills on how to catch the spy while we of Team Guy do... Typical Team Guy insane training. We haven't traveled leisurely as a team since we were genin, so Guy Sensei felt 'nostalgic'. Needless to say, we all crashed hard as we fell asleep that night, too tired to even speak to the other team or each other.
We moved out from the wooden house and continued to the Tenchi Bridge at first light the next day. Team Kakashi's tempers were flaring quite a bit on the walk, and Neji and I had to hold Lee back from interfering with them multiple times. We have our own mission at this point, and it's not to make Naruto calm down.
As we get close to the bridge, Team Guy splits up and parts ways and takes up a flanking position from a good distance away. I'm with Lee while Neji is with Sensei, and we are keeping a close eye on the happenings at the bridge but from a far enough distance that a regular sensor type couldn't spot us, but our Byakugan could still see.
Neji and I both have some of the most advanced vision skills even in our own clan. I have better telescopic range, meaning I see farther in any single direction, and Neji has the most complete vision, meaning he has no blind spot and can see through objects the best, all while still at an amazing range.
"Lee, I've spotted Orochimaru." I inform him, seeing the snake hiding a few hundred meters from the bridge behind Kabuto. "Also, the spy is Kabuto. This will be our chance to find their current hideout. We need to let one of them leave so we can follow them. Let's attack Orochimaru and let Kabuto flee." I suggest to him.
"You have fought Kabuto twice now, are you going to be able to let him leave? You seem to have quite the grudge against him." Lee asks as we sit ready in waiting while I signal the plan so Neji can see and relay. Neji relays Sensei's plan, which was similar that we fight Orochimaru first.
"Yeah, but I've been wanting to kill the bastard that took Sasuke from us a lot longer." I say darkly. "If it wasn't for him..." I trail off with a frown. I know part of it is Sasuke himself, but if he had never been cursed he never would have left. He would have stayed, and got stronger in the village, with me. I don't regret helping him leave, but I do regret not trying harder to stop him from getting cursed.
"That's the signal!" I alert Lee that Team Kakashi has moved in on the target, then grab him and transport us both to my old seal I have on Kabuto's back.
We planned this out, Lee would strike Orochimaru while I get Kabuto to head towards Team Kakashi first. Neji and Sensei are in position for when Lee guides Orochimaru to them, and then I will transport to my team and it will be four on one.
"There's more?!" Kabuto yells out, not expecting us to appear literally out of thin air on his blind spot.
"Long time no see." I say with a smirk to him, eyeing his still missing arm wickedly. "Miss me?" I taunt, then kick him towards Yamato at the same time Lee kicks Orochimaru at full strength and launches him back into the forest.
"Oh, I have a daily reminder of you, beautiful." Kabuto sneers with a smirk as he rights himself, looking to his own missing arm. I look over and see that Naruto's fuse is lost, and he already has two tails forming.
"Yamato!" I call his attention, indicating for him to seal Naruto's chakra immediately as a third tail is forming. Yamato nods, then runs to intercept Naruto before he takes off after Orochimaru. He gets there in time and places the seal on Naruto's forehead, who promptly blacks out as the chakra dissipates.
"Naruto!!" Sakura calls out in concern, running to him.
"Love to stay and chat, but you are too far beneath me now to warrant my time." I say arrogantly to Kabuto, who is preparing to attack me. I transport myself over to Neji, joining in the formation as Orochimaru gets up from where Lee kicked him.
"Ami Hyuga." Orochimaru taunts to me as he leers, "Not even giving your usual greeting, I'm ashamed."
"I'll shoot you later, I promise." I say with a glare at him. I really hate this guy, but more than that, I'm scared of this guy. His chakra is immense and evil, and he's so twisted and scary that even I can't shake the fear he causes.
"Orochimaru, prepare to face the full force of Team Guy!!" Sensei calls out, and we all move in.
I may fight often with long range attacks, but I never stopped being a close range taijutsu specialist. Neji and I work like a mirror image, flawlessly going in for deadly strikes together as Sensei and Lee deliver devastating blows. Orochimaru uses his snakes constantly to either block or evade our strikes, all the while hitting us back and using huge ninjutsu's against us which we have to evade. Just when we think we are finally landing an attack on his actual body, he keeps turning into yet another snake.
Orochimaru gains a sudden distance, and an impossibly long sword comes out of his mouth and is launching straight towards us all, swinging in an arc. We manage to evade the first swing, but he does the second swing into the ground, creating a screen of dust. Neji and I can see through it, but the other two can't. I see the sword coming around for a third time and take out my scythe, channeling the wind finely along the chakra blade. I jump directly at the sword as it swings, using my blade to shatter and cut through his sword.
"Impossible!" Orochimaru says in disbelief, looking at his shattered blade.
"The sharper blade will always win. And wind cuts the deepest." I say proudly to Orochimaru. I then store my scythe on my back strap and take out my fans, combining them while I fall back to the ground, and the second my feet touch the ground, I launch my Slicing Tornado attack at him. That's what I named the explosive wind attack when the fans are combined. I fall back to my team, and we retake our battle positions, waiting for my attack to die down.
"Below!" Neji calls out, and we all jump and scatter immediately. Orochimaru launched an earth style attack to trap us, and it was slightly too big for us all to escape in time. It doesn't trap us, but it does send us scattered painfully across the field. This guy has some seriously powerful ninjutsu techniques.
"Lee, let's move in!" Guy calls out to Lee, and they both unlock the first three gates. They take off at blinding speeds and relentlessly attack Orochimaru while Neji and I move in again to flank him. When those two are moving at these speeds, Neji and I would just be in the way if we joined in, so we keep our Byakugan eyes peeled to make sure he isn't slipping away.
'Ami, let's use that jutsu.' Neji signals to me from across the clearing as we observe the fight. I lock eyes with him in confirmation for a moment, then nod in agreement. He's right, we need something big. We continue to watch the fight as we get into position, waiting for the opportune moment.
"Lee, Sensei! Up!" Neji calls out, signaling them to launch Orochimaru upwards for us.
Once they comply and send the snake into the air as high as they can, Neji and I move in to right below him and use our now finely tuned Twin Missile Inferno. While Neji is focusing on sending out precision distance Gentle Fist chakra destroying strikes and wrapping them in flames, I focus on the speed of how fast it travels and use my wind so that once the strike hits, it will fan Neji's flames and contain Orochimaru in a swirling dome vortex explosion. The sound it makes as it travels is that of a missile, whistling at a high pitched sound from how fast it is moving. This is an incredibly dangerous jutsu that we invented together, an improvement off the Hyuga Vacuum Wall Palm jutsu.
"That was amazing!" Lee calls out as we watch the explosion clearing. I frown, not seeing a body fall from the sky like I expecting.
"It's not over." I say grimly, using my eyes to look around.
"Such a powerful attack." We spin behind us, seeing Orochimaru rise from one of the snakes bodies lying on the ground behind us. "That would have been quite devastating to be on the receiving end of." He chuckles creepily at us.
"He just keeps slipping away." Neji says bitterly.
"He is a Sannin, and a slippery one at that." Sensei says, breathing heavily. We are all breathing heavily now, especially after Neji and I's missile attack. It takes a lot of chakra to do that move, but it's almost as powerful as a tailed beast bomb, so that's expected.
"Sensei." Lee says seriously to him, and they have a silent conversation with their eyes. They both then nod, and unlock their 4th and 5th gates. Neji and I step back to give them room to attack, and I start to plan ahead. At this rate, Orochimaru will likely just keep slipping away, this guy has crazy strange plans in his head at all times.
"He's to your left!" I call out, seeing the body they are fighting is a clone at one point. They immediately move out to their left, finding the Sannin's real body while Neji and I move out, recovered enough to be able to fight again. We only needed a moment to refocus our chakra, but we are now back. I take the left while Neji goes to the right, and then all four of us on Team Guy are fighting in synchronicity against Orochimaru. He's starting to get overwhelmed by our sheer speed and power, and is taking heavy damage as our blows are landing on him.
Orochimaru makes four clones, one for each of us to fight and uses them to separate us so we aren't fighting as a team anymore. "Always to troublesome, Ami Hyuga. Such a waste I couldn't have you." The clone I'm fighting says to me with a sickening smirk.
"I live to disappoint." I quip back humorlessly, not wanting to talk to the creep. I use the Gentle Fist 64 palm strike and break through my clone, right around the same time as the others do. I look around, not seeing the original around anymore.
"Ami? Neji?" Sensei asks us where our enemy is. I look in every direction, and see he sent clones in over a dozen different directions, and unfortunately I can't spot which is the original.
"He sent out clones in 15 different directions. What do you want to do, Sensei?" Neji asks him urgently as we contemplate a plan.
"Pick a direction and scatter, if you find the real one, send out a flare." Sensei orders and we scatter. I run towards the southeast direction, finding my first target easily enough. I attack him, and beat him quickly as the clone taunts me.
"Had to find a way around those annoying Hyuga eyes." He chuckles as I strike him again and he disappears into a swarm of snakes, clearly a clone. I move on the next nearest clone I can find, and the same thing happens again. I find and finish a third clone, starting to lose hope by the fourth one. I look around, not seeing more of him around anymore. I head back to the clearing we had made in our fight earlier and regroup, everyone else not having any success.
"Damn snake!" I growl out, pissed he got away. "Let's regroup with the other team, see if they got anything useful." I suggest bitterly, then we head back to Yamato and notice that Sai is gone, along with Kabuto.
"Where is Sai?" Lee asks, looking around as well.
Naruto, who is also just waking up from his chakra seal, asks the same question. "Wait, what happened to you guys?" Naruto asks us, looking at our warn out and injured bodies as we pant lightly from exhausting and pain. It was not an easy fight at all, going all out against a Sannin.
"Orochimaru. He is a slippery one, he got away from us. He's even smart enough to get past the Byakugan. What happened here?" Sensei informs them and then moves the topic on.
"Sai... betrayed us and left with Kabuto. Sai helped him escape if he could be brought to their headquarters. I sent a clone out to track them, but we should leave soon to catch up to him." Yamato tells us, and we all move out.