Pic of Atsui and Tsumetai <3 --->
Ashley’s POV
“We won’t let you touch our Hokage!” Kotetsu shouts.
‘What did he mean by we’ll help them achieve their purpose’ I wonder, ‘even when we’re no longer alive?’
The man who had just been speaking suddenly grins and looks over to his right.
“Fudo?” he inquires, causing another man, a very big man, to step forwards.
“Right” Fudo nods, before leaping high into the air, performing rapid hand signs. “Earth Style: Impermanence!”
Fudo lands on the ground in a crouched position, slamming his palms down onto the dirt and sending out a large amount of chakra.
Everyone throws up their arms as a wave of wind cuts through the air, tugging on our clothes and hair.
“What was that?!” someone shouts over the wind, as I crack my eyes open. They widen further when I feel the earth beginning to shift underneath us.
“Everyone!” Genma suddenly shouts urgently “Get out of the way!”
“Dammit!” I cry, throwing out my arms as everyone begins leaping backwards, and a huge mound of chakra filled earth barrels towards us, aiming to crush us underneath it.
I send chakra to my hands and feet, grimacing as the wall of earth slams into my hands and begins roughly shoving me backwards along the ground.
‘I have to stop it!’ I scream internally, closing my eyes and throwing all my focus into using my Katsuryoku to halt the earth. ‘I have to! Before it reaches the Villager’s houses!’
“Ashley!” I hear someone shout in a panic. “Get back!”
Sweat drips down my face, my arms shaking underneath the weight and strength of Fudo’s Jutsu. My feet send up clouds of dust, as I continue to get pushed backwards.
“Come….on!” I grunt, pushing against the earth as hard as I can. Slowly, the earth begins to lose its momentum, eventually coming to a stop, right in front of the crowd of Leaf Ninja.
I immediately drop to the ground, breathing heavily. Izumo rushes over to me, kneeling down and placing a hand on my shoulder.
“Are you alright?” he inquires softly, making me nod and give him a thumbs up.
“Good job” Genma praises me, nodding his head in recognition. “We need to keep the destruction and loss of life to a minimum.”
My eyes suddenly widen, as Izumo rises to his feet beside me. Something…..is moving inside that huge wall of earth! A few people gasp, as rocks begin crumbling away from the earth and arms, legs and faces begin appearing through the cracks.
I watch in both horror and amazement as people begin dropping down from the earth mound, their skin looking a sickly array of blues, purples and greens. They groan loudly, their mouths hanging open and their eyes white, with no pupils.
“Earth Style Ultimate Revival Jutsu” the first man that spoke to us smirks, standing atop the mound of earth, “Soil Bodies. Rise, my fallen Shinobi! Rise and live again!”
‘I should have known’ I growl internally. ‘Orochimaru tried to teach me this wretched Jutsu….’
“What’s going on here?!” a familiar voice calls, making me glance over my shoulder. “Are we being invaded?!”
Kiba spots me up ahead of him and rushes over, crouching down beside me.
“Ruff!” Akamaru barks, bounding over to us and growling at the revived Ninja around us.
“Angel, are you okay?” Kiba questions worriedly, grabbing onto my shoulders. “What happened to you?!”
“I’m okay, really” I assure Kiba. “I had to use my Katsuryoku to stop that wall of earth from crushing part of the Village, and it tired me out a bit.”
“Well, me and Akamaru will protect you while you rest!” he barks, leaping to his feet and clenching his fists, glaring at our stumbling enemies.
“What exactly are they?” I hear Lee ask, sounding confused.
“Whatever they are” Choji’s voice reaches my ears, “There sure are a lot of them…..”
“There’s something…..not normal about them” Ino gulps, as Genma looks back at the newcomers.
“You guys are late” he sighs, turning back to watch the revived Shinobi.
“Genma” Kiba addressed seriously. “What in the world’s going on here?”
“We’re about to find out” the Jonin drawls. “Ino, go and back up the Medical Ninja Corps, they’re going to need you.”
“Right!” Ino agrees, before pausing. “Wait….Look at the markings on some of them!”
“The Kohaku Clan!” Choji cries, making me frown in confusion. The who?
“What’s the Kohaku Clan?” Izumo asks, obviously as in the dark about them as I am.
“They’re a Clan who live on the border of the Land of Fire” Ino responds sadly. “Their Village was one that was hit in a recent series of attacks along the border.”
“We were sent to investigate” Choji pipes up, glancing around uneasily. “When we arrived, there were no survivors. Whole Villages and everyone in them had been destroyed, and all in the one night too.”
“But….” Ino begins uncertainly, looking disturbed by the grunting sounds the revived Ninja are making. “Could these really be the Ninja who were killed?”
“This is the Earth Style Ultimate Revival Jutsu: Soil Bodies technique” I speak up seriously, rising to my feet. “It’s a Forbidden Jutsu, and I’m surprised that the enemy knows of it. This is also a Reanimation Jutsu, so it’s very likely that these are the Ninja you were talking about.”
“So they’re using the victims of one attack, as the weapons for another attack?” Izumo questions rhetorically.
“What a horrible thing to do….” Kiba says lowly, pulling out a kunai. He begins slashing at the revived Ninja as they converge on us, turning them to dust.
Everyone begins attacking the zombie Ninja, only to realise that we are severely outnumbered by them.
Ino manages to slash a few of the zombie Ninja, before Choji comes rolling past, taking out about ten of them.
“What’s going on here?” Ino asks, looking around frantically.
“Where are our reinforcements?!” Choji exclaims.
“You guys are pathetic!” Genma replies, flipping over a Ninja and stabbing him in the back, before swiftly delivering a kick to the stomach of another Ninja. “We’re gonna have to do this on our own!”
“We’ve gotta find where these guys are coming from!” Kotetsu calls, holding a kunai in each hand and spinning around, slicing a few of the zombie Ninja to ribbons.
“The Village will be buried under these guys if they just keep popping up like this” Izumo adds, also managing to take down a few Ninja, before Lee saves him from getting bitten on the shoulder.
“There seems to be an endless supply of them!” he cries, taking up a fighting stance, as Kiba and Akamaru use their Fang Over Fang technique to get rid of some more zombies.
I pull out a scroll from my weapons pouch and bite my thumb, before swiping my blood across the parchment and placing it on the ground. I perform some swift hand signs, managing to duck as one of the zombies takes a swipe at me.
“Summoning Jutsu!” I cry, sending the zombie Ninja an annoyed look. I am suddenly enveloped in a cloud of smoke, disappearing from view.
Before I talk to any of my Wolves, I leap through the cloud of smoke and dive straight into the zombie who took a swipe at me, slashing his head from his shoulders with a chakra powered kunai.
As his body hits the ground, I flip backwards, standing amongst my patiently waiting Wolves.
“Hiya Milady!” Chi chirps, as merry as ever, despite the grim situation. Kai takes one look at the zombies and grins his sadistic grin, a scary glint in his eyes. Without a word, he takes off, launching himself into a horde of the zombified Ninja and tearing out their throats.
“How barbaric….” Aki sighs, ears drooping. “Yet I just know that we’re going to have to join in…”
“That’s right!” I speak up. “It’s us against the reanimated Ninja okay? Watch each others backs!”
My Wolves leap into action, Jet making sure to stick close to Chi, as his main attacking method is Genjutsu, and I don’t think Genjutsu will really affect zombies.
Tiez races away as fast as she can, eager to get in on the action, as Rei’s fluffy body lights up with white electricity.
“Ew!” she cries, scrunching up her nose at an approaching zombie. “Don’t touch me!”
The zombie however, doesn’t listen, and grabs onto her shoulder, only to be painful electrocuted. He explodes into a cloud of dust, before Rei continues running around, trying her best to avoid the icky zombie men, as she is describing them.
Ace looks down his nose at the zombies, clearly not impressed with them. He never did like it when dead things came back to life, which is understandable I guess.
“Where did they all come from?” he wonders, clamping his jaws down on the neck of a revived Ninja who was about to dive on Genma.
“We believe they’re coming from that huge mound of earth over there” Genma explains, not at all phased about having to talk to a giant Wolf.
“The enemy has probably summoned the earth from the Village’s they destroyed” Ebisu speaks up, “With the Villagers in it!”
“How disturbing” Ace sighs, whirling around and growling at a horde of zombies stumbling after him.
“I knew something weird was going on around here!” somebody cries, making me look up. I see Saffire dashing towards me, with Fang and the others right behind her.
“You guys!” I cry, running over to them. “What’re you doing here?!”
“Well, first the power went out” Kiyumi explains to me, her dark eyes darting around as she takes in all of the zombie Ninja. “And then that weird thing went up around the Village. I could sense a large gathering of people over here, so we just figured we’d see what’s going on.”
“Who knew it would be a Zombie Apocalypse though?” Atsui snorts, smirking at me, his sharp teeth showing. “This Village has it all.”
“I don’t like the zombies” Kurai whimpers, her arms wrapped around Shimei’s waist and her head buried into his side.
“Kurai-chan is scared” the tall red head informs me softly, as if I couldn’t already tell.
“I don’t think I like the idea of fighting a bunch of zombie men Atsui-kun” Tsumetai speaks up, scrambling onto his shoulder. “They don’t die and if they bite you, you turn into a zombie….I don’t think I would make a very good zombie Atsui-kun, I don’t like sleeping under the ground!”
“Oh dear” Fang sighs, spotting Kai ripping into some revived Ninja, looking quite gleeful. “I think Kai’s rather enjoying himself.”
“Go help him Fang” I suggest. “Keep an eye on him. He’s so thick headed he may just miss an attack from behind.”
“Right!” the pretty Wolf agrees, before streaking across the battlefield and rushing to Kai’s aid.
“Tamashi” I address the large, fluffy Wolf. “Take Kurai into one of the nearby houses and keep her company. I don’t think she’ll be much help against the zombie Ninja.”
“Hyvä ajatustodellakin” comes the soft reply, as Tamashi gently eases Kurai away from Shimei and onto his back. “Tulla Yon…” (A good idea indeed. Come Kurai…)
“Please….Be careful you guys” Kurai pleads, gazing at us with tear filled eyes as Tamashi dashes from the battlefield, the pinkette riding on his back. I turn to the rest of my friends with a serious look.
“Are the rest of you willing to help us out?” I ask. Saffire regards me just as seriously, staring into my eyes and nodding determinedly.
“Of course” Kiyumi says instantly, eyes narrowing. Keilor nods a few times, looking more like he’s nodding to the beat of music that only he can hear.
“Zombies ain’t gonna like, touch my Kiyu” he drawls, blue eyes hooded. Atsui smirks at me, tilting his head to the side, as Tsumetai gulps.
“I-If Atsui-kun is helping” the orange haired Chibi says quietly, “Then so is Tai-chan!”
“You can count me in as well” Shimei says with a nod, his fuschia eyes gazing out at the fighting Ninja before him.
“Alright!” I cry, whirling around determinedly. “Show them what the Minami Clan are capable of guys!”
“Heh, no sweat!” Atsui growls, darting forwards so fast, I almost miss him. “Let’s go Tsumetai!”
I watch as the tiny boy jumps down from Atsui’s shoulders and quickly forms into a small, ginger Wolf, green eyes glazing.
Atsui pulls his arm back as he approaches a group of zombies, powerful currents of electricity lighting it up.
He lunges forwards, driving his sparking arm right through three of their heads, as Tsumetai, in his Wolf form, leaps for the remaining zombies. His claws and fangs elongate, as his pupils turn to slits. He sinks his teeth into one of zombie’s necks, his small body lighting up with electricity, which causes the current to run into the zombie Ninja as well.
“Come on Tsumetai!” Atsui calls, grinning sadistically. “Let’s do a Fang Over Fang!”
“Right!” Tsumetai barks, leaping up from the zombie’s body and following after his partner.
“Come at me you zombie bastards!” I hear Saffire shout, skipping in place and punching the air in front of her as seven zombies run towards her. As they come closer, Saffire sweeps her arm up, drawing a large amount of water up from the ground and making it float in front of her.
The strange girl continues punching at the air, only now, each time she punches, sharp shards of ice shoot from the floating pool of water. She peppers them with ice, the shards easily piercing through the zombies’ flesh and causing them to explode into dust.
Kiyumi coats her hands in hardened earth, before rushing forwards, charging three zombie Ninja head on. Throwing one arm forwards, the glove of rock shoots forwards, slamming into one of the Ninja’s faces and causing its head to snap backwards.
Sweeping her arm up, Kiyumi causes a small part of the earth to wave unevenly, tripping the zombies up.
As they fall, she wraps tendrils of rock around their limbs, before controlling the earth and causing the limbs to be torn from their bodies.
Keilor suddenly flashes past Kiyumi at an incredible speed, a large sphere of chakra floating in front of his open mouth. Being the fastest out of all the Minami Wolves, Keilor had decided to come to my Ace’s aid. Ace, on the opposite side of the battlefield to Keilor, is currently surrounded by about thirty zombified Ninja, although he seems to be fending them off well enough.
Keilor snaps his jaws shut, sending the ball of chakra spiralling towards the zombies.
“You should like, totally duck or something Ace man!” the lean Wolf warns, causing Ace to look up. Seeing the Wolf Style Rasengan heading towards him, Ace uses his Katsuryoku to open up the earth below him and dive down into the depths, closing the ground up above him.
I turn away as the Rasengan explodes on impact, sending bits of zombie dust across the battlefield, when Shimei catches my eye. I see him working beside Lee and Izumo, blowing out huge flames of fire and destroying multiple zombies at once.
I blink. I had no idea Shimei could breathe fire……Without the use of chakra, I figured it was impossible, even for a Katsuryoku user who specialises in Fire manipulation.
Quickly glancing around, I see Ino and Lee surrounded by a huge crowd of zombies. They’re managing to take a few down, but there’s no way they’ll last against all of them at once.
I place my hands together and form a small ball of chakra, as the chakra begins spinning around, I pull my hands further apart. As I do, the chakra ball stretches out into a flat disc, before I pour my Wind Nature chakra into it as well. The disc whirs dangerously, the Wind chakra forming short, curved blades and making it look a lot like a saw.
Pulling my arms back, I heave the buzzing disc forwards, sending it straight towards the horde of revived Ninja surrounding my two friends. It slices through a whole line of them easily, before curving around in an arc and slashing a few more of them to pieces, before diminishing into the air.
Ino sends me a quick wave, before dropping her hand and watching as I am tackled to the ground by two of the zombie Ninja. One of them bites my shoulder before I can push it off, making me cry out in pain.
“That hurts like a bitch!” I shout, closing one eye and glaring at the Ninja gnawing on my shoulder. “Get off!”
I jump, as the two zombies on top of me suddenly go flying, tumbling across the ground and disappearing in puffs of dust.
“Serves em right!” a cocky voice sneers, making me look up. I see Kiba grinning at me as he flexes his arms and winks. “I’m the only one that lie on top of you.”
I roll my eyes, flipping to my feet and grabbing at my shoulder.
“You’re an idiot” I sigh, performing quick hand signs and smirking up at Kiba. “But thanks I guess.”
I swiftly heal the gross bite marks on my shoulder, seeing Kiba step closer to me as a group of zombies surround us, groaning and grunting.
“You ready for another Fang Over Fang buddy?” Kiba asks the large Ninken beside him.
“Ruff!” Akamaru replies determinedly, lowering his head. Not wanting to be left out, I place two fingers in my mouth and let out a shrill whistle, making Kiba and Akamaru wince.
“What’re you doing?” Kiba complains, placing his hands together in a hand sign.
“Calling for backup” I say with a wink, pointing ahead of me when Kiba gives me a questioning look.
Ace barrels towards us, leaping up and over the surrounding zombies and landing beside me with a heavy thud.
“You called Milady?” my Guardian asks lowly, glaring at the incoming revived Ninja.
“Yep” I confirm, placing my hands together as well. “We’re doing a tag team Fang Over Fang.”
Kiba grins in realisation, as we perform the same hand signs.
“Man Beast Clone!” we both shout, smirking as our partners transform into perfect copies of ourselves. Kiba bends down, standing on all fours as Akamaru leaps onto his shoulders, growling at the zombies.
“Ready Ace?” I ask the clone of myself.
“Always” Ace replies with my voice, almost making me grin. It’s always weird talking to someone who’s exactly like you.
“Fang Over Fang!” Kiba and I exclaims, before all four of us suddenly launch ourselves forwards, forcing our chakra out in powerful bursts and drilling through the air.
We manage to take out at least a good fifty or so zombies, before we all come to a stop, leaping apart, with me and Kiba ending up back to back.
“Not bad Angel” the brunette compliments, chuckling at my dizzy eyes. “Not bad at all.”
“Th-Thanks” I reply, shaking my head a few times to rid myself of the dizziness. “But it’s been awhile since I’ve done that.”
“Hey!” Kotetsu suddenly shouts, catching everyone’s attention. “The Defence Barrier!”
Everyone looks up, only to see that the colourful Defence Barrier is beginning to recede, breaking down and disappearing from sight.
“Its fading away” Izumo states, watching with curiosity.
“That must mean that one of our units must have taken down the caster of the Jutsu!” Ebisu says excitedly. “Excellent!”
“That’s all well and good” Genma speaks up, eyes hooded. “But it doesn’t do us much good if these guys are going to keep popping up and attacking us.”
“Look, that unit did their job” Choji says decisively. “And now we need to do ours.”
“That’s the spirit Choji” someone says, making us turn around.
“Huh?” Choji asks, before a broad grin spreads across his face. “Shikamaru!”
Shikamaru walks over to us, one hand in his pocket, looking as calm and casual as ever.
“This is just a diversion” the Nara informs us. “The enemy’s real objective is elsewhere, so we really need to wrap things up here and catch up with the other units.”
“Yeah, yeah” Genma drawls, glancing at Shikamaru over his shoulder. “We already know that, so if you’re done yapping, let’s hear a strategy to finish these guys off.”
“Ugh, you can be such a drag sometimes Genma” Shikamaru sighs.
“Hello!” Saffire calls pointedly, being dragged across the battlefield by a zombie. Much like she had done to Kiba years earlier, Saffire had created a leash from water, and wrapped it around the zombie’s neck. It obviously isn’t too impressed, if the way it’s flailing around is anything to go by.
“Saffire?” I ask hesitantly, as Kiba releases a heavy sigh. He doesn’t overly like Saffire, and her antics often tire him out.
“Just like Naruto….” he mutters.
“These zombie dudes aren’t just gonna sit back and sip tea while you guys have a good old chat!” my insane best friend cries. “Hurry it up!”
“Hmmm….Now that looks like a good way to travel” I hear Keilor murmuring to himself. “Orange travel, or like, zombie travel….”
“Who are they anyway?” Genma asks with a sigh.
“Members of my Clan” I say simply. “Now, what are you here for Shika-kun?”
“Alright” Shikamaru begins. “If I’m correct, there’s a main point where all of the reanimated Ninja are appearing from right?”
“Yeah” Izumo confirms, turning and pointing towards the huge mount of earth I’d stopped earlier. “They all seem to come out of there.”
“Well it’s quite simple then” Shikamaru smirks. “We bombard the nest with our strongest Jutsu. We’ll need our heaviest hitters to step forwards.”
Choji and I grin at each other, remembering the Cell we’d been put in when travelling to the Land of Ambience.
“We, the tanks of the group” I speak up “Gladly accept the challenge!”
Choji laughs, before he flexes his muscles, taking up a position beside me.
“Right” Shikamaru says, rolling his eyes. “Lee, Kiba you both step up as well. Anyone else with a powerful Ninjutsu or Taijutsu attack should also step forwards. You’ll all attack as one.”
Kiba and Akamaru take up a position on my other side, as a few more Ninja step us as well.
“I don’t have Jutsu” Shimei speaks up. “But my flamethrowers are quite powerful.”
Shikamaru nods, happy to let Shimei helps us out.
“Alright everyone, get ready” Shikamaru instructs. “Because on the count of three, you’re going to- Huh?!”
We all watch in fascination, as the zombies begin disappearing before us, bursting into clouds of dust.
“What…What’s going on?” Kiyumi asks, jumping backwards when a zombie bursts right next to her.
“Hey- Oof!” I glance over my shoulder, just in time to see Saffire face plant the ground, the zombie dragging her around having disappeared as well.
“So….If they’re disappearing…” Kotetsu begins, looking slightly confused. “That must mean that one of our units has defeated the enemy then.”
“Looks like it” Izumo agrees, making Kotetsu smirk.
“I think we’re gonna be okay” the Chunin sighs with relief. Izumo shakes his head, pointing at something behind Kotetsu.
“I wouldn’t say that just yet” he advises. Mine and Kiyumi’s eyes widen, as the huge mound of earth begins crumbling, swiftly growing unstable.
“Kiyumi-chan!” I cry, darting forwards. “Help me out!”
“Right!” my sister replies, running after me. Ace appears by my side, running to help us as well.
“We can’t let it fall” I say hurriedly. “Or it could damage the surrounding buildings, or some of us.”
“We can drop it outside of the Village” Kiyumi says, throwing her arms up above her head, with me copying her movements. Ace’s eye begins glowing, as he activates his Katsuryoku as well.
Everyone watches with bated breath, as Kiyumi, Ace and I support the full weight of the huge earth mound, slowly lifting it higher and higher up from the ground. I begin breathing heavily, not used to trying to move such a heavy weight with my Kekkei Genkai. Ace looks like he’s struggling already too, but my sister seems fine. She’s obviously trained with her Earth manipulation a lot more than I have.
“Alright guys, let’s just get it over the wall” Kiyumi says gently, slowly moving her arms forwards, pushing the earth backwards over the main gates. “Just a few more seconds….”
I let out a sharp breath, gritting my teeth as my arms begin shaking. Even when I had to hold that rubble up in the Land of Ambience, it was most definitely not his heavy!
“I…can’t…do it” I grunt between breaths.
“Hang on….Milady” Ace growls, as we begin lowering the earth back to the ground away from the Village, so that when it collapses, nothing will be destroyed.
There is a slight tremor, as the earth hits the ground, before Ace and I collapse to the ground, gasping for breath.
“Angel!” Kiba cries, rushing forwards, the other younger Leaf Ninja following behind him.
“Ace dear?” Rei asks, trotting up to Ace and nudging him softly with her nose.
“I will be….fine Rei my dear” he says hoarsely. “I am merely….tired….”
“Same here” I breathe, allowing my sister to pull me up into a sitting position, as my friends skid to a halt in front of me.
A way behind us, the earth wall suddenly collapses to the ground, sending out a massive dust cloud and causing the earth to shake.
Kiba pulls me to my feet and throws an arm in the air, as everyone begins shouting and celebrating our victory.
“Like Atsui said” I laugh breathlessly, winking at the green haired boy, “No sweat!”
Atsui smirks back at me, scooping Tsumetai up into his arms, as the ginger Wolf transforms back into an orange haired Chibi boy.
“Hold off the celebrations for a moment” Genma instructs. “Shikamaru’s right. This was probably just a diversion.”
“This ain’t over” Shikamaru speaks up, my beloved Wolf pack making their way over and sitting around me protectively. “There’s a much bigger Jutsu coming.”
“We so should have gone home the other day” Saffire mutters under her breath, earning a smack over the head from Kiyumi. Shimei jogs off to find Kurai and Tamashi, not wanting to leave them behind.
“Konohamoru told me that the enemy has a way to toast the whole Village” Shikamaru informs us all, making me and Kiba exchange a confused look. Toast the whole Village?
“Hey” Ino says, turning to Shikamaru unsurely. “Whatever happened to Sakura and Yamato? Didn’t they leave to help Asuma Sensei?”
“No word from Sakura?” Shikamaru inquires, making Ino shake her head.
“Well that doesn’t sound good…” he sighs, as I step forwards.
“Is Sakura in trouble Ino?” I ask, worry beginning to rise inside of me. I have no idea where she went, but if we where having trouble here, and Sakura was sent off somewhere, I can only imagine what kind of trouble she got herself into.
“I don’t know Ashley” Ino say sadly, shrugging. “I haven’t heard anything from her…”
“We have to find her the-”
“Now hold it!” Genma orders, making me pause and glare at him. Who does he think he is? Ordering me around like that……
“We have to assume that the Village is still in jeopardy since we don’t know of the whole situation” Genma decides. “So for now, we’re going to treat the ending of this Reanimation Jutsu as a trick, as if they want us to drop our guard.”
“So, we need to either locate Sakura and Yamato, or the enemies themselves” Shikamaru picks up where Genma is going with his decision.
“Right” the Jonin confirms. “Now, Shikamaru I want you to put together a team and investigate the Village.”
“Sure thing” the Nara replies, before glancing at Choji, Ino, Lee, Kiba and myself. “Come on you guys, let’s go.”
“Right!” we all cry, before I pause.
“Minami are good at tracking and sensing” I inform Shikamaru. “So we’d do well to bring them along.”
“Fine, but they better be able to keep up” Shikamaru says, before turning and running towards the centre of the Village.
“Keep up?” Atsui growls, taking off after Shikamaru. “We’ll leave you sorry Leaf Ninja in the dust.”
“In the zombie dust!” Tsumetai giggles, as we all run after Shikamaru.
“Leaf Ninja are all so arrogant” Saffire sighs, earning another smack over the head from Kiyumi.
“Be quiet!” she hisses. “And that goes for all of you guys too!” She directs this at the rest of the Minami, and all of our Wolves.
As much as I don’t like her telling my Pack what to do, she’s right. We need to be quiet.
“We need to split up” I whisper loudly. “We’ll cover more ground that way.”
“You’re right” Shikamaru agrees from up ahead. “All you Minami, take the West. Kiba, Lee and Ashley, you guys take the East. Choji, Ino and I will all keep going straight ahead.”
We all separate, with Lee, Kiba, Akamaru, myself and my Wolves all leaping up onto a nearby roof, heading towards the East of the Village.
We race silently across the roof tops, searching for any sign of Sakura and Yamato, when a familiar feeling suddenly hits me like a ton of bricks.
I skid to halt on top of a roof as everyone runs past me, turning my head slightly to the left, my eyes widening.
“Milady?” Ace asks, stopping and turning around to look back at me.
“It’s that chakra again…” I whisper, my eyes wavering. It’s exactly like before, only this time…..It’s so much stronger. So much more powerful, and full of rage.
A shiver runs down my spine, as the others seem to notice that I’m no longer running with them.
“Angel?” Kiba calls, jogging back over to me, as I cross my arms over my chest, as if I’m cold.
‘That filthy Fox!” Hakuba spits, baring his teeth as he paces back and forth in my psyche. ‘Why does he keep using my power? I will kill him…..I’ll kill him……’
“What is wrong Ashley?” Lee asks me uncertainly, reaching out and placing a hand on my shoulder. I glance over at Lee and Kiba’s concerned faces, narrowing my eyes at them.
“Can’t you feel that?” I ask, making the two boys exchange confused looks.
“Feel what?” Kiba asks, making me sigh irritably.
“That chakra in the air!” I exclaim. “How can you not feel it?! It stings, and it makes me feel all edgy and…….Tiez, Aki. I need you both to split up and find Shikamaru’s team and Kiyumi’s team. Let them know that we’re heading in that direction.”
“May I ask why you’re heading in that direction Darling?” Aki asks, his sapphire eyes flashing in the dark.
“I know where Sora is” I reply seriously, before the two Wolves bound across the rooftops, disappearing into the darkness as they follow their noses.
“Come on!” I instruct, darting in the direction of the massive chakra source. Kiba, Lee, Akamaru and the rest of my Wolves follow behind me, as I try my best not to run at full speed and leave them all behind.
“How do you know where Sora is?” Lee asks, running along on my right.
“Because I can sense his presence” I explain simply. “I can feel his chakra; it’s circulating through the air. I’m really surprised that none of you guys can feel it.”
“You don’t normally sense for chakr- Hey! You’re right Angel!” Kiba interrupts himself. “I can smell him now! And Naruto as well!”
“I knew I was right…” I mutter, pulling a face as we reach the edge of the Leaf Village, and leap down into the forest below.
“Ruff ruff!” Akamaru barks, making Kiba nod.
“Akamaru can smell them all too” he explains. “And it smells like Sakura, Yamato and Asuma Sensei are all there as well. Plus someone that I don’t recognise.”
“An enemy perhaps?” Lee suggests, when someone pulls up along side us.
“Are you guys sure about this?” Shikamaru asks, Ino and Choji running right behind him.
“Have I ever failed you before Shika-kun?” I ask dryly, making the boy sweat drop. Before Shikamaru can reply however, there is a massive explosion ahead of us, a bright red light burning above the treetops.
“What in the world?!” Rei barks, falling back to run beside Ace.
“This should be fun….” Kai chuckles lowly, as Chi skips alongside him and Jet, humming a merry tune to himself. Sometimes I wonder if Chi is really all there……
“Whatever that was, it is definitely not good” Lee says seriously.
“Come on guys” I encourage, just wanting to get to Naruto and Sakura. “We’re almost there, let’s pick up the pace!”
RANT TIME!!! :D :D
Okay, now I rant about this AALLLL the time, but nothing ever seems to change :/
Guys, I literally spend at LEAST four hours on every chapter of STWF, and I put a lot of thought into each one. I'm really starting to get annoyed with the lack of people voting, to the point where I really don't feel like uploading anymore.
So many people are reading, but only about 10% of you are VOTING!! Why????? Do you not like what you're reading?? If not, that's too bad, I'm not changing ANYTHING, because it's MY story -_-
On the last chapter, there was 338 reads, and only 40 votes, yet people were asking me to upload. Why should I if only a few of you are going to vote and let me know that you actually like/appreciate my writing?
I'm sorry for sounding like a complete bitch, and this is in no way aimed at the people who constantly vote and comment, you have no idea how much I appreciate your support :) I am just REALLY fed up, and I know I'm not the only author this happens to.
Not voting for a chapter in a story that you read and enjoy is just LAZY, and I promise that if things don't pick up, I'm going to be even more of a bitch and just not upload :/ Which I would hate to do, but seriously, I've been nice about it so many times, and barely anyone has listened, so now I have to be mean about it.
END OF EPIC RANT
Thank you to everyone who always votes, comments and pretty much just gives me support as a writer :) Thank you, thank you, thank you! I love you guys, in the most NON creepy way possible :P