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The Fox's Brush.	By : spookymuffin Category: Naruto > Yaoi - Male/Male Views: 1114 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, nor the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 9
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When the lights went out Sai hesitated for only a second before he continued to pull his pack off his back, swinging it off his shoulder and blindly rummaging through the contents. He could hear the sounds of battle a few feet away; metal clashing against metal, followed almost immediately by the sound of a man’s pained grunt but Sai remained unruffled, even when something (he assumed was a shuriken or kunai) whizzed past his ear and thunked loudly into the wall behind him.
His hand finally closed around the familiar cylindrical shape that he had been looking for and he quickly withdrew the flare from his bag, uncapping it and rolling in across the floor toward the centre of the room.
The light from the flare gave everything an orange tint and cast long spidery shadows; he counted three ANBU in the room with them, two of which were exchanging blows with Kakashi and a third that was sitting cross legged on the floor, seemingly in deep concentration. Sai would have rushed into the fray and to Kakashi’s aid if he hadn’t been so distracted by the logical impossibility that his flare had highlighted.
The orange light cast by the flare was much dimmer than Sai knew it should have been and only managed to illuminate the area directly around it... but that wasn’t what had caught his eye. It was the way that there was no transition between light and dark, only an unnaturally clean line as if some barrier was preventing the light from reaching the walls and (more importantly) the door. He had to assume that the darkness was being caused by some kind of jutsu.
The fact that one of their enemies was holding back from the fight seemed to support the idea that the inky blackness around them was unnatural; they were probably the kind of shinobi that was more suited to providing assistance from a distance. This most likely meant that they had some proficiency in genjutsu and medical ninjutsu; most significantly, it might also mean that they were less than prepared to deal with a direct attack.
Sai slid a scroll from his sleeve and unscrewed the end of it to get at the brush and ink well concealed there. He unfurled the scroll, spreading it out on the floor and dipping his brush in the ink before dragging it across the paper. Drawing in the dim light might have been difficult if the shapes that he was painting were not so familiar that he could probably produce them blindfolded. His hands moved almost of their own accord as his brush danced across the paper and he pushed chakra into the ink. The lions on the scroll took form, springing to life and heading straight for their target.
**
Fighting in the dark would never be a first choice for Kakashi but it wasn’t really a problem for him either, his sharingan made the enemies stand out in the murk like coloured festival lanterns and he quickly did a head count (three unfamiliar chakra signatures and Sai crouching on the floor a few feet to his left) before he struck out at the one closest too him. The other shinobi dodged the blow effortlessly and it rapidly became apparent that rather than putting him at an advantage his sharingan had only managed to level the playing field; his opponents were obviously just as at home in the darkness as he was.
His opponent was quick to retaliate and Kakashi watched closely as the vaguely human-shaped blur of chakra moved to attack, their arm swinging towards him in a low arc that let him know that they had some kind of weapon. He quickly withdrew a kunai from his weapons pouch and blocked the blade that had been meant to disembowel him, his wrist clicked painfully as his arm absorbed most of the momentum of the blow; emphasising exactly why a kunai was a less than ideal way to counter a katana. He took a moment to lament the loss of his father’s tanto all those years ago. The White Light Chakra Sabre that he had inherited would have really come in handy here, where every enemy he went up against seemed to have some kind of sword fetish.
Kakashi felt the air behind him shift slightly and he ducked down and out of the way without thinking, years of shinobi training (and having to deal with Gai as his rival) kicking in as he dropped into a crouching position. Something sailed over his head at an amazing speed, whistling audibly and moving much too quickly for him to identify what it was. There was a meaty smacking sound and a muffled cry that let Kakashi know that his assailant had managed to crash into their own ally.
Kakashi took the opportunity to sink the kunai he was holding into the soft flesh of his attacker’s thigh, putting all of his weight onto the small blade as he pushed himself back to his feet. He felt the metal grate against bone and couldn’t help but feel a tiny bit of admiration when the other shinobi’s only response was to grunt quietly in discomfort.
He was just about to start channelling chakra into his hand to form a raikiri (and hopefully take at least one of the rogue ANBU out with it) when there was a strange hissing noise and suddenly the room was lit up. It took him less than a second to realise that Sai had lit a flare but it was enough time for his two “friends” to regroup and come at him again, leaving his hands too preoccupied with blocking their attacks to form any useful jutsu.
In the meagre light of the flare he finally got a good look at the two ANBU that he had been tussling with in the dark. One of them was massive, almost ridiculously so; well over six feet tall and almost as wide again, their ANBU vest was stretched so taught across their prodigious gut that it looked like it might tear at the seams at any second. Kakashi had to assume that he was looking at an Akimichi, which meant that that was yet another influential clan that was involved in this debacle; Tsunade was not going to be happy.
In comparison to their larger than life companion, the one with the sword wasn’t particularly striking. They were of average height and indeterminate gender (although the ANBU tattoo on their right shoulder implied that they were female), even their mask was so unusually plain that Kakashi wasn’t really sure what it was supposed to be; the only marking he could see on the white porcelain was a straight black line in a poor imitation of a mouth.
Kakashi caught movement from the corner of his eye and turned just enough to see five of Sai’s ink lions charging at the third ANBU who didn’t move a muscle, still sitting perfectly still with their hands folded neatly in their lap even as the lions came barrelling towards them. The Akimichi was gone from Kakashi’s side in the blink of an eye, moving with a fluid grace that someone of that size should not have been capable of, crashing through the lions (which disappeared in a wet splash of ink) and heading right for Sai.
Kakashi knew that he had only a second to act.
**
As his lions crossed the short distance to their target Sai took note of the way his enemy didn’t make any move to escape or retaliate, this fact coupled with how quickly one of their allies moved to protect them heavily implied that his target was essentially defenceless. This was important information, but as the huge ANBU shredded his lions and charged towards him he realised that he may not have the time to implement it.
Sai reached for the tanto on his back and prepared himself as best he could, he wasn’t really confident that he could engage in hand to hand combat with someone of that size and strength without risking serious injury to himself but he had few other options. The room was far too small for him to put any real distance between them... which meant that the ink and scroll in front of him were pretty much useless.
The only saving grace was that he had a reasonable familiarity with most of the Akimichi family jutsu and wasn’t surprised in the slightest when his opponent’s fist quadrupled in size. His lack of hesitation and quick reflexes were the only things that saved him and he jumped to the side just as the gargantuan hand slammed into the floor (and left a sizeable crater) where he had been crouching less than a second before.
Boxed in against a wall and with another giant fist looming above him (poised to crush him like an insect), Sai knew that he wouldn’t be able to dodge again. His thoughts turned to Naruto as he raised his sword in what he knew would be a worthless effort to block the oncoming blow and he couldn’t help but think that this seemed like an incredibly inconvenient time to realise that he didn’t want to die.
**
As he followed closely behind his teammates Naruto could feel his initial worry turning into something closer to panic. It took all of his willpower to maintain a steady jog instead of breaking into a fully fledged sprint; he couldn’t help but notice how much the sound of their footsteps echoing in the winding and deserted corridors reminded him of another panicked search many years ago... the similarities between this situation and searching for Sasuke in Orochimaru’s hideout made him feel even worse.
When they ran into yet another dead end he barely resisted the urge to punch the nearest wall in frustration. Sakura had said that the building was an old clinic but Naruto had never seen any kind of medical facility with a layout like this one and he figured that it had to have been (somehow) modified by the Root members when they turned it into their base.
“Goddamn it!” Naruto swore and ran a hand over his face in exasperation, all too aware of how many precious minutes were ticking by while they fumbled their way through this fucking maze of a building.
Sakura reached out and placed a gentle hand on his shoulder, he saw the concern and understanding in her eyes and he might have begun to feel a little better if he couldn’t also see the disapproving expression on Yamato’s face over her shoulder.
Yamato didn’t have to speak to get his point across; Naruto already knew that he was being stupid, that Sai and Kakashi were more than capable of looking after themselves and that they had faced much stronger enemies than these Root remnants in the past. There was absolutely no reason for him to be so worried but he still couldn’t shake the feeling that something bad was going to go down.
Yamato’s mouth was drawn in an unhappy line and Naruto was convinced that he was going to be treated to a lecture (despite the urgency of the situation) on how shinobi were supposed to control themselves and not let their emotions compromise the mission. Yamato opened his mouth to speak but stopped abruptly, the first syllable dying on his tongue and his eyes going wide; his shocked expression might have been funny under different circumstances but it just made Naruto’s heart leap into the back of his throat.
“What’s wrong?” Sakura asked.
“We have to hurry.” Yamato said grimly.
**
A/N: My authors note for this chapter can be found in the forum thread here: http://www2.adult-fanfiction.org/forum/index.php/topic/20469-the-foxs-brush-narutoxsai/
- 9
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- 11
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The Fox's Brush.