"What are they?" Sakura asked. "Clones, from the look of it. And a whole lot of them." Kabuto said backing up a bit. "Like cornered rats." One of the clones said laughing. "Oh, yeah? Cornered rats, are we?" Naruto asked while jumping towards a clone. He punched one straight in the stomach. "That's showing them! Way to go!" Sakura yelled. Narutos hand was still on his stomach but randomly Naruto went through the clone. The clone just had a big piece turn into goop.
What the hell is that thing? Naruto hit the floor with a thud. All of a sudden another guy came out of the guy. Somethings not normal is going on here. Sasukes Sharingan would be extremely useful right now. The guy that was conjoined with the other clone started going towards Naruto with a kunai. "Naruto, watch out!" Sasuke yelled throwing shurikens towards the clone. Naruto turned around and gasped, the shurikens cut off the clones hand.
The two clones slowly turned their heads to Sasuke. The both got out a kunai and threw it at him. "Sasuke!" Naruro yelled. I noticed that Sasuke wasn't moving for some reason. "Get down!" I yelled jumping on top of him. As we both fell to the floor the kunai cut my arm a bit. I looked up and growled at the clones. "Are you alright?" Kabuto asked. I nodded head and Kabuto took out his hand so I could take it and get up. I grabbed his hand and yanked myself up. I ran up to Naruto grabbed my kunai.
Sakura went up to Sasuke and slowly sat him up. "Are you alright?" She asked. Kabuto went up to the kunai that cut me and it surely was real. All the clones starting saying "Surrender your scroll!" I gripped the kunai harder ready to fight. "The fact that (Y/n) is wounded and bleeding means that these thing are real shadow clones! But man, shadow clones are supposed to vanish when you give them a good shot. These things don't! So what the heck are we dealing with? Some kind of genjutsu?" Naruto asked. The clones kept repeating the same thing over and over again.
Naruto got ready to throw a kunais and yelled "Come and get it!" but Sasuke yelled "It's no use! Save it!" Naruto grunted, calming down a bit and turned his head towards Sasuke. "You'll only be fighting illusions. It's Genjutsu, alright." Sasuke said. "Illusions? But how? That gash on (Y/n)'s arm in real enough." Sakura asked. Kabuto said "That's true. But still, Sasuke is right. Could be the real enemy is in hiding somewhere in the woods nearby, launching real attacks from behind a smoke screen of illusions and coordinating their movements with them so that we're fooled into thinking these Genjutsu Shinobi are the ones attacking us."
"Well, wherever they are, what are we going to do, just stand here? Let's go find these clowns and take care of them!" Naruto yelled. "Hold on, Naruto. They'd like nothing better than for us to go searching blindly through the forest while they sit back and take us out one by one. We'd be making their job easy for them. I know this kind of attack. The kind who use it do so because they're weak in Taijutsuand afraid of close, hand-to-hand combat, according to my data." Kabuto said. Naruto was breathing heavily as he watched the clones.
After some silence Kabuto said "We have no choice. All we can do is hold our ground and fend off their attacks." "Okay, fine. Whatever. Let's just do it." Naruto yelled. Soon a kunai went flying at each of us and we all dodged them. "Man, how long is this going to go on?" Sakura asked breathing heavily. Naruto put his hands up crossing his fingers. "Okay. This isn't going to work." "No. It's pointless. You'll only waste your chakra. By trying to fight these, you'll be doing just what they want." Kabuto said.
"If we were to eliminate all of the illusions, whoever is casting them wouldn't be able to hurl kunai at us without us being able to see where they hiding. (Y/n) join me. We'll show them three can play at this game. Shadow clone jutsu!" Naruto yelled as a lot of Narutos appeared. "Heh, alright. Shadow clone jutsu!" I put my hands up and the same amount of clones apreared as Naruto. Naruto and I ran towards the clones and started attacking them. As we attacked them they put return again. Anything we would do wouldn't change anything. "Back for more, huh? Okay!" Naruto yelled as more clones came back.
No matter how much Naruto and I attacked the clones, they would reappear. I noticed that Sasuke, Sakura, and Kabuto joined in. I smirked a bit but continued fighting. We would cut, punch, kick but no matter what we did, the numbers stayed the same.
~
Kabuto hit a tree, Sakura fell on the floor, Sasukes legs went out, and Naruto and I fell on the floors on our backs. Naruto shakily tried to sit up saying "I'm just warming up." We were all put of breath and were breathing heavily. 'We've' been fighting them for hours.
Soon the clones slowly disappeared and three guys appeared. I noticed that one of the guys looked familiar. The guy looked at Sasuke and yelled "You! I know you. You're the one who cut me on the shoulder! That really messed me up, you know. Oh, well. Now I can finally pay you back- with interest." He pulled out his kunai.
He laughed as he looked down at Sasuke. Naruto was clenching his teeth until he smirked. "Well, well. Now who's the cornered rat?" Sasuke asked from behind the tree. "Works like a charm, Naruto" Sakura said giggling. The three ninjas looked around confused and he looked back to see the real us perfectly fine. "What? It cant be. If they're over there, then who are they?" They asked looking at the beaten up us. "Confused? Sorry, but it was the only way to get you guy to come out of hiding." Naruto said. The five of us turned into 3 Naruto clones and 2 me clones.
"How? Don't tell me that, little brat. It's not possible." The ninja said frantically. "The shadow clones were only the first part of it." I said standing up. "My real trick was coming up with clones for the rest of my squad." Naruto said and our clones poofed away just leaving Naruto and I standing there. "While our doubles did all the fighting and took the beating, we were safe and sound waiting for you to show yourself. What do you think, guys? I think our little plan worked." Sasuke said.
Naruto went to take a step forward but fell on his knee. We were breathing heavily as Sasuke said "Naruto, take a break. You too (Y/n). You two used up too much of your chakra. Don't worry. I've got them." Sasuke said. Of course Naruto wouldn't let that be so he got up and punched them in the face. They all fell down and slid across the floor. Naruto was breathing and sweating heavily "After all the worm I've done, there's no way I'm going to stand back and let you guys have all the fun."
I noticed that Sasuke looked shocked at Naruto. One of the guys sat up and said scaredly "This kid shouldn't even be able to move, let alone this." "Naruto?" Sakura asked. The three guys got up and stood next to each other. They all put there hands up one by one and the one in the middle said "Not bad. But that doesn't mean it's over. We're still feeling lucky. And besides, time is running out for all of us. So we'll just have to take the gloves off and show you our ninjutsu. Ninja heart! Falcon jutsu!" A whole bunch of them appeared behind them.
"Shadow clones?" Naruto asked. "Those are real clones. Don't waste your strength, bone head. Let them make the first move." Sasuke said. "If these are clones, then the real ones are in there with them. A I've got to do is smash my way through until I find the ones that squeal!" Naruto said breathing heavily still and I'm just as tired as him. "No! Don't be an idiot! Listen to me." Sasuke yelled. "Get off my back, will you? Just stay out of it. I can handle this." Naruto yelled. He ran towards the crowd and Sakura yelled "No, Naruto! Come back!"
"Welp!" I yelled as I ran into the crowd too. I was hitting them but my hits would go through them. I heard Sasuke yell in pain so I flashed beside him. Going that fast with little chakra and already tired just drained me. I was breathing heavily as I asked "Sasuke! Are you alright?" I gasped a bit when I noticed the mark on his neck was acting up again.
"Sasuke, it acts up when you use your Sharingan. Please rest a bit." I said putting my hand on his shoulder. Naruto turned his head and the enemy appeared in front of him with a kunai yelling "You should never give your enemy an opening!" "Naruto!" I yelled trying to go over there, but running over here drained my energy. Kabuto ran at Naruto and tackled him of the way. It ended up cutting Kabutos leg as they both fell to the floor. "Hey, are you okay?" Naruto asked. Kabuto didnt say anything except heavy breathing and holding his leg. Naruto stood up and growled "Now you're going to get it."
Sasuke yelled right after "Forget it, Naruto!" "Huh?" "You can swing at those guy all day. You're just wasting your time on them. The real ones aren't there." Sasuke said struggling from pain. "What are you talking about? That last attack didn't come from any clone. Of course the real ones are here. They've gotta be here. If they're not, then where the heck are they?" Naruto yelled.
"Use your head. If I knew the answers to that, we wouldn't be in this fix." Sasuke said. Soon one of the clones jumped up ready to attack Naruto. Then the real three of them came out of the ground but since Naruto was focused on the one in the air, he didn't notice the real ones. Everything happened so fast.
Kabuto got cut by the guys and he fell on the floor. The three guys came fully out of the ground and were ready to kill Kabuto. Kabuto death glared at the three guys causing them to back up a step. All of a sudden Naruto came up and kicked one in the side if their face and it ended up knocking all three of them to the ground. All the clones poofed away and Naruto said smirking "Like you said, never give your enemy an opening. Good advice."
Kabuto sat up and rubbed his neck saying "Thank you, Naruto. You saved my neck." I sighed in relief and walked towards him. "Way to go, Naruto." Sakura yelled as Naruto sat down. "It was nothing." He chuckled out. When I got to Naruto I just fell to my knees in front of him and hugged him. I said "You worry me sometimes" and he grinned.
Naruto was checking the guys belongings for their scrolls. "That mark on your neck, what is it? A bruise?" Kabuto asked. I turned my head a bit to see Sasuke hide it with his hand "ah, it's nothing." Naruto giggled a bit so I turned my head again and he stood up saying "Hey guys! Here it is! Just what we needed, a heaven scroll." Naruto said happily. "Good for you." Kabuto said. I really appreciate Kabuto for helping us bit there's still something off with him.
~
As we walked up to the tower door I helped Sasuke walk. I heard the bushes rustle so I turned my head to see two guys. "There you are, Kabuto. You're late." Oh so they're his teammates. "Sorry about that. I got a little sidetracked." Kabuto said walking up to them. "Yeah, and are we glad you did. After all, it was only thanks to you that we got both the scrolls." Naruto said. "Not really. You did most of it on your own. Especially you, Naruto. Very impressive." Kabuto said and Naruto giggled. "Well, this is the door that we go through. So long, and good luck to us both." Kabuto said. "Right." Kabuto smiled and gave us a thumbs up. "Oh and thank you for helping us, Kabuto" I said smiling at him. He nodded his head and turned towards his door.
Naruto turned the door handle and the paper on the two doors ripped. We all walked in and it was just a big empty room. "What's the deal? There's nobody here." Naruto said. Sasuke got off my shoulder and stood up fully saying "it's okay, (Y/n). I can manage." "Oh okay" I said. Aw man..
I walked up to Naruto and looked around "huh? I don't get it. What happens now?" Naruto asked. Something caught my eye so I turned to Sakura and tapped her arm. "Hm?" I pointed to the wall and she said "Hold on a second. You're right (Y/n). Just look at that." "Great... What is it?" Naruto asked. "If qualities of heaven are your desire, acquire wisdom to take your mind higher. If earthly qualities ate what you lack, train your body and prepare to attack. When heaven and earth are open together, the perilous path will become righteous forever. This something is the secret way that guides us from place today." I read.
"This what? Or is that a secret, too?" Naruto asked. "It's like theres a word missing here. Anyway, it's about the scrolls. I think we're supposed to open and read the heaven and earth scrolls now." Sakura said
Naruto was holding both the scrolls and Sakura took the heaven one. Sasuke and I watched as the other two were getting ready to open them. Sakura slowly teared back the paper. "Okay. Here goes nothing." Naruto then tears back the earth scroll paper a bit.
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