Hey guys! The inspiration this week is real! So get ready for what I'm about to bring to the table! As always, I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I've enjoyed writing it.
After having gathered more information on Lord Hideyoshi thanks to Homura's help, the two young shinobi retreat towards the meeting point to report to Konohamaru.
"So the person who's in charge of the village is called Hideyoshi and he's currently trying to gain more military power?" Konohamaru asks as he tries to put two and two together.
Kenzō nods in response.
"I guess our mission here is complete then, we must personally report this to Lord Seventh and allow him to take the best course of action." Konohamaru says.
"Still, it doesn't make sense that their allying themselves with The Hidden Stone Village... not to sound cruel but this village doesn't have anything that could possibly catch the Tsuchikage's attention." Hanae adds.
"Whatever it is, it must be something that the Tsuchikage must want desperately if she's willing to ally herself with Hideyoshi... furthermore reason for us to report back to Lord Seventh as quickly as possible." Konohamaru responds. He takes a deep breath before clapping his hands together, "alright! It's time to head back to the village, no inns this time around." Konohamaru says as they set off towards The Hidden Leaf Village.
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Five hours have passed since their departure from The Hidden Rain Village, and the members of Team 7 were almost by the Hot Spring they had stayed the day before.
"This is lame! I wanted to stay the night at the Inn." Hanae says before a large explosion near them causes them to stop from running and turning to look towards the explosion.
"Isn't that..." Before Kenzō could even finish what he was about to say, Konohamaru speaks over.
"That's the direction towards the Inn, we should probably go and make sure that everything is alright." He says.
Without questioning further, the members of Team 7 head towards the direction of the explosion.
"Somebody help me!" A young girl yelled as she was grabbed by a tall figured dressed in clownish attire.
"Stop right there!" Konohamaru rushes towards them, ready to engage into battle.
"Oh no you won't!" A woman who was dressed in black attire said as she slammed the floor with a war hammer causing the ground the floor to rise.
Konohamaru does backflip to distance himself from the attacker.
Itachi, Kenzō and Hanae manage to catch up to him and quickly get into their battle stances.
Hanae looks over towards the tall man with clown attire to notice that he was holding somebody who was familiar to her. "Soyomi!"
Soyomi who was trying to escape from the male's grasp continue to yell, "please help me, please!"
"You know her, Hanae?" Konohamaru asks.
"Yes, she's a girl I met during our stay at the inn..." she replies.
"I thought I wasn't going to have fun... but I guess I was wrong, Uta." The woman says as she lustfully looks at the four of them.
"Make sure to finish them off Yuzo, I'll go and take the girl to Lord Hideyoshi." With that said, the man begins to sprint away from the scene.
"He's getting away!" Hanae says as she begins to run towards him but she's suddenly stopped by a hard kick to the stomach from Yuzo, causing her to hit her back against a tree.
"Now now, don't be rude and play with me for a little while longer." She says before licking her lips.
Hanae stands up and gets back on her battle stance.
"Konohamaru sensei, go take care of the other one, we'll take care of this one." Kenzō says.
Konohamaru wanted to argue but the situation at hand was far greater than an argument. "Please be careful." He says before sprinting towards the direction the man had headed to.
"I won't let you!" Yuzo dashes towards Konohamaru.
Kenzō steps in between the two of them and flawlessly stops Yuzo's attack with his katana.
"I'm sorry lady, but you're gonna have to deal with the three of us before you chase after him." He says before creating some distance.
Yuzo looks at him, anger written on her face, "Then I'll make sure to end this quickly!" Yuzo drops the war hammer and begins to wave signs before aiming towards Kenzō.
Fire Style: Senbon Assault
Multiple senbon needles made out of blue fire begin to come out of Yuzo's hand at full speed towards Kenzō.
Kenzō began to panic as he noticed that he didn't have time to block the attack.
Itachi jumps in waving signs before inhaling as deep as he could.
Water Style: Water Pillar
A large body of water appears between them, blocking the attacks from Yuzo.
Hanae made her way towards her. "Take this!"
The two engaged each other in hand to hand combat. Hanae attempted to hit Yuzo on her chakra points but it was no use. Yuzo's defense movements were executed flawlessly and there was nothing that Hanae could do about it.
"You're not bad kid!" Yuzo says excitedly as she jumps and grabs Hanae by the hair before throwing her against a tree. "But you need a little more edge!"
Kenzō and Itachi engage into battle with Yuzo, both attacking simultaneously.
Yuzo evades their attacks as she moved from side to side, it was as if she was dancing with the wind. "My turn!" She said as she began to wave signs.
Fire Style: Blazing Lotus
Blue fire began to come out of her hands as she stationary spins around like a ballerina.
Kenzō and Itachi jump away to create distance between them.
"I'm not done yet!" Yuzo says as she waves signs once again.
Wind Style: Gale of Fujin
A strong wind pushes Itachi and Kenzō against the trees causing them to fall alongside Hanae.
Yuzo stares at them, "What a pair of weaklings, they don't even deserve to even be killed by my hand." She said as she grabs her war hammer and swinging it from side to side. "I guess I should go stop the hot one from rescuing that girl."
"Don't you dare look down at the power of the Uchiha clan!" Itachi said as he stood up with a bit of difficulty. His Sharingan was now activated and his resolve to take Yuzo down was stronger than before.
Yuzo stares at the Itachi, a rush of adrenaline coursing through her veins as she notices the red eyes. "An Uchiha? Well ain't I blessed today? I get to kill an Uchiha with my very own hands..." she laughed maniacally, "your eyes will sell for a fortune in the black market."
That only managed to get Itachi angrier. He quickly waves signs as he dashed towards Yuzo, inhaling as deep as he could with every step he took.
Fire Style: Phoenix Flower Jutsu
Small balls of fire aimed towards Yuzo appear as Itachi jumps above her, with multiple shuriken on his hand. "Take this!" He said as he threw the shurikens towards Yuzo who managed to evade the attack by using a shadow-clone.
Hanae who was helping Kenzō to stand looks towards Itachi. "He's getting serious now, it's probably best if we allow him to take charge and wait for our time to support him." She said to Kenzō.
Yuzo begins to throw a series of kick combos at Itachi who was focused on dodging her attacks while at the same time looking for an opening to strike.
"He looks different... he looks..." Kenzō attempted to find the right word to describe what his eyes were seeing. "Alive."
Itachi switches from his defense stance to offense as he begins to throw multiple punches at Yuzo who was having a hard time to fully block.
-What's this? This kid is becoming faster by the second... but how?-
Itachi kicks Yuzo on the face causing her to fall a few meters away from him.
"How come you're becoming faster by the second!?" She asks in a loud tone.
Itachi smirks "It's simple really... you see my speed has changed since the beginning of our combat if anything, it's you who has become slower. You have poison running through your body as we speak."
Yuzo opens her eyes wide in shock -Poison!? But how could this be?- she asked herself.
"My gloves are coated with tetrodoxin, a neurotoxin that interferes with the transmission of signals from nerves to the muscles and causes an increasing paralysis of the muscles of the body. It can easily be treated by even the most inexperienced medical ninja but the more it spreads through your body the more fatal does the poison become."
"You scum! I swear you'll pay for this!" Yuzo says before starting to retreat.
"We can't let her escape!" Hanae says before Kenzō grip stopped her from chasing after Yuzo.
"She's not our priority right now, Hanae we must focus on finding Konohamaru sensei and help him get back the girl." Kenzō says.
"And let's not forget our main objective, returning back to the Hidden Leaf and report what we know to Lord Seventh." Itachi adds.
Hanae wanted to argue further but chose not to do so. "Alright, I'll take the lead in searching for Konohamaru sensei then." She said while activating her byakugan.
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Konohamaru had managed to catch up to Uta and was engaged on a fierce battle. The two were equally as strong there was no telling on who was coming out victorious.
Konohamaru spat blood as he attempted to catch his breath, "I didn't knew there were still ninja's like you out there in this peaceful world."
"You people that live in big villages have such a narrow sight, the world is not as peaceful as you guys have thought it's been. If anything, the world has been getting colder and rotten as time has gone by and it's showing no signs of ever stopping." Uta said as he as well catches his breath before fully straightening his posture. "And I will be the clown with the last laugh once The Hidden Rain Village takes care of you fools!" He says while laughing hysterically.
"Uta!" Konohamaru heard a woman call out from the distance and soon enough, her footsteps. He quickly got into his defense stance.
Uta looks towards the familiar voice to see Yuzo, injured and with her arms hanging motionless. "We should retreat for now and forget about the girl... my body has been inflicted with poison." She says.
Uta looks at the woman before looking at Konohamaru and then at Soyomi who lays on the floor unconscious. "We can't get back to Lord Hideyoshi empty-handed, he will kill us!"
"We will both die either way if we don't retreat now!" Yuzo says while looking at him, with doe-like eyes. "I can't afford that." She says to him.
Uta gritted his teeth, and with much difficulty decided to retreat without Soyomi. "Mark my words, shinobi of the leaf, this doesn't end here!" He says before leaving alongside Yuzo.
Konohamaru walks towards the girl and checks her pulse, "Everything seems normal" he sighs in relief. -I wonder if my students are fine.- he thought to himself as he picks Soyomi with both of his arms.
"Konohamaru sensei!" Hanae yelled from the distance as the three of them find their way towards Konohamaru and Soyomi. "I'm glad you're safe!" She says before noticing Soyomi on his arms, her head resting on his bare chest. "You pervert! What would my aunt Hanabi think if she saw you like this!"
Konohamaru's cheeks become hot and redder quickly as he hears those words coming out of Hanae's mouth, panicking just as fast. "Hey! hey! It's not what it looks like I promise! I was fighting the clown -..." he continued to ramble on, explaining himself. "But enough of that! We must return to the village at once."
"What about the girl?" Kenzō asks him.
"To be honest, it will be best if we take her under our custody for interrogation." He responds to Kenzō before looking at Itachi. "Mind if you grab the blue scroll from my pouch?"
Itachi raised an eyebrow at him before doing as he asked. "Now what?" He asks.
Konohamaru chuckles, "I've been waiting to use this baby for some time now I've never traveled far until now, there was no use testing out before."
All three looked at Konohamaru with confused look on their faces as he safely puts the girl on the ground before grabbing the scroll.
He was clearly too excited about opening that scroll.
"You see kids, through the years I managed to pick up a jutsu or two..." he explains as he began waving signs. "But I must say, teleportation jutsu is by far my favorite." He said.
Teleportation Jutsu
Before they could realize, the members of team 7 alongside Soyomi were at the gates of The Hidden Leaf Village where two Jonin ninja from the village walked closer to them.
"Welcome back Konohamaru." One of them said but before Konohamaru could even respond, his body falls to the ground, unconscious.
Hey guys! I hope you guys enjoy this chapter... Not gonna lie... I feel like it's not my greatest work but I can't leave this Arc with plot holes. But yes, here I managed to tease some of the main villains of The Hidden Rain Village Arc as well as tease some of their abilities. And yes I purposely didn't write Konohamaru's fight to keep his abilities a secret for a little bit longer :P so I hope you guys stick around to find out!