Adult-FanFiction.org : Naruto

Grounded	By : djserani Category: Naruto > Het - Male/Female Views: 2818 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, and I do not make any money from these writings.

Chapter List
- 15
- 16
- 17
The members of the rogue-nin camp had no reason to expect the sudden gust of wind that blew through. They were surprised at the dust that was raised and, despite all of them being ninja of no minor skill, didn’t expect to see what greeted them when said dust settled.
Lined up along one side, from cliff to cliff were Konoha shinobi. Six of them, in fact, along with one from the Sand. And standing dead center was none other than Copy Ninja Kakashi himself. Two of the rogue ninja near the back of the camp sat up quickly at the sight. Then they started looking for an exit. Meizu and Gozu had already gone up against him once and had no wish to repeat the experience.
Unfortunately, their clever choice of location was going to be more of a hindrance than a help. Because as the brothers turned to the narrow passage that was their escape route, there were three more ninja from Konoha waiting.
Things were not looking good for the group of rogue-nin.
But these ninja were no longer young genin. They’d been around quite a while. And they’d survived, as rogue ninja, for a long time. They knew how to evade capture, and they knew how to fight.
“Hahahahahahaha!” The booming laugh echoed off the cliff walls. Tall, dark-haired and pale, the ninja formerly of the Mist stepped forward. He unsheathed his sword, the very one that Ino had described earlier, and pointed it, one after the other, at the Konoha ninja. “Who do you think you are?”
Temari was squatted in front of her open fan, all three circles showing. Hinata dropped into her Gentle Fist stance. Sakura stood straighter, adjusting her gloves. Kakashi reached up and lifted his headband. Chouji finished his last chip, crushed the bag and stuffed it into his pack, grinning. Ino knelt next to him, focused, kunai at the ready and Shikamaru squatted at the end looking…as bored as ever.
Another laugh, slightly quieter, followed. This sound caused a thrill of fear; it was laced with the tones of the unhinged. Another of the ninja stood and stepped forward. He wore a mask similar to Kakashi’s covering the lower half of his face. His brown hair stuck out in several directions under the bandana tied over his head. The symbol of the Rain village decorated the plate on the front. “Copy Ninja Kakashi!” Kirisame called softly in a singsong.
Kirisame, formerly of the Rain Village, was certifiably insane. He’d been bad when his leader, Suien was around to remind him not to kill everyone. Now that Suien was dead, his eyes held just a little more insanity and a lot more bloodlust than they did the last time Kakashi had seen him.
Kakashi simply stood and waited. He’d counted on this, as had Shikamaru. His appearance would focus their attention on him, thereby ignoring the others, for the most part.
As they evaluated each other, the other eight rogue-nin stood and readied for the battle ahead. Kakashi recognized Misumi Tsurugi, former Sound ninja and Mirasame, another of Suien’s Rain ninja, both of whom were presumed dead. They should know better by now than to leave people for dead. These ninja have a nasty habit of surviving. The other four ninja were relative unknowns. Two Grass, one from Cloud and one more from the Sand village rounded out the group.
Those with swords drew them. Sakura and Kakashi pulled out kunai and braced themselves. “You’ll never win.” The one with the sword said. “I am Kinomi Myou and this is Orosuha.” He grinned and the telltale sharpened teeth could be seen. “That’s right, I see you recognize it.” He laughed again.
Sakura stared at Kakashi for a moment. “You’re kidding me?”
Kakashi shook his head chuckling. “Nope. Remember how you said the other morning that I could put you in front of one of them? Well…”
Sakura rolled her eyes. “Great. Wonderful. One of the Seven Swordsman. Does it get any better?”
Kakashi shrugged a shoulder. “I don’t know yet. But do me a favor? Remember that you’re our best medic. Stay out of the way unless you don’t have a choice, okay?”
“I know my job. Do you know yours?” she asked with a raised eyebrow.
Kakashi blinked. “My job?”
Sakura nodded. “Yes, your job. Do you know what it is?”
He stared at her another moment. “You mean besides beating these guys?”
She grinned. “Yes, besides that.”
“Okay, I’ll bite, what is it?” he asked, bemused.
“Leave me enough to put back together, okay?” The joking tone was gone. And behind the smile was real fear.
“I will, Sakura.”
Sakura glanced at Kakashi, then turned back to Myou, waiting.
“This is so troublesome,” Shikamaru said from the end. And then all hell broke loose.
The brothers—Meizu and Gozu chose that moment to try to run. Tenten pulled her arm back and loosed several kunai at them, which they easily deflected. Then Meizu and Gozu at once separated, and it was only at the last minute that Lee jumped, avoiding the string of shuriken stretched between them. Neither brother paid attention to him, however, and focused instead on the shinobi left in front of them.
Neji smiled and if the brothers had known him, they would have been very, very afraid. He took a half step back and dropped into his first stance, then activated his Byakugan.
Neither brother saw his palms move. Neither brother would have guessed what they were looking at, but when they hit the rotation shield at full speed, they knew they’d never forget what it felt like to hit an Eight Trigrams Palms Heavenly Spin. As they were knocked back to the ground senseless, Tenten released several kunai and a few seconds later, Meizu and Gozu were no longer a consideration.
One of the Grass ninja snorted. “They were useless.” He was short, with a wide face and nose and a long scar tracing the left side of his face from his temple to his chin. He had light, straight shaggy hair and a thick body. He held a katana in one hand with the obvious ease of someone who knew how to use it. His scratched headband lay around his neck.
“Don’t underestimate the Leaf.” Kirisame’s eerie voice floated through the silence. “Though, Meizu and Gozu were somewhat…lacking in talent.” He followed that with another quiet laugh. “That’s okay, though, that just leaves more for me.”
Sakura felt a chill run up her spine and she tightened the grip on her kunai. Then she caught the movement of shadow out of the corner of her eye.
He was fast, he’d give him that. Kirasame cackled again. “I’ve heard of you. Shadow Possession Jutsu. Fascinating concept, but not good enough.” He dropped down, put his hands together and started to form the signs. “Water style—” he started, but stopped when his hands were frozen.
Shikamaru stretched his shadow further, wrapping it around Kirisame’s legs and up around his arms. Kirisame’s eyes widened, then narrowed as he glared Shikamaru. They held there, struggling for a moment, then Kirisame broke the shadow hold and leapt backwards out of range.
“Aaaahh.” Shikamaru growled. “What a pain in the ass.”
Chouji focused his chakra then, curled himself into his ball, hair growing rapidly. A few seconds later, he spun toward Kirisame, who jumped out of the way just in time. Chouji tried to turn, but didn’t quite make it and found himself against the back wall, instead.
Kirisame’s cackle echoed over the camp and Shikamaru switched tactics, pulling a chakra blade out and launching it toward him. This time, when Kirisame was pinned, Shikamaru didn’t mess around. As his shadow spread, he switched to the neck bind, furthering his hold on the rogue-nin. Chouji came up behind Kirisame, his right arm expanded, bringing it down on him.
But Kirisame disappeared in a splash of water. “Damn.” Chouji spun, sliding back to a stop next to Shikamaru.
The lightning-laced water whip seemed like it came out of nowhere. So when Shikamaru was thrown forward several meters, no one knew where to turn to fight back. “Shika!” Ino started forward, but Chouji grabbed her. Chouji pointed back toward Shikamaru and Ino saw he was laying still, but breathing. Chouji leaned down to her ear. “He’s faking.”
The Grass-nin from earlier chose then to move. He ran around the other side toward Temari. She stood and swung her fan at him, but he held his fingers up to his lips and started his own whirlwind, disbursing her wind blades. Temari grunted in frustration and swung again, calling her Sickle Weasel forth this time. The Grass-nin was thrown back by the wind-cutters, his sword knocked from his hand.
Myou laughed again. “Is this all you’ve got?” he asked, then turned and pointed his sword at Kakashi. “Come on! Are you really going to let these brats fight for you? The Famous Copy Ninja? Or are you getting too old to fight?”
Kakashi lifted his kunai a little higher and took a half-step forward. “Come on, then.” And he sprinted forward and threw the kunai toward Myou. But when Myou raised the sword, instead of deflecting it, the sword simply sliced through the knife. He continued swinging it in a wide arc and Kakashi didn’t quite dodge it fast enough. As the sword connected with his shoulder, he poofed and it cut cleanly through the log that was left in his place.
Kakashi landed behind him, another kunai in his hand, but Myou was faster than he expected and spun with the sword. Kakashi dodged this time, but only barely, sliding backwards several meters before coming to a stop, waiting.
As a teammate and medic, it had always been hard for Sakura to watch fights instead of being in the middle of them, but now it was completely terrifying. Every part of the woman in her wanted to forget all of her shinobi training and run to him, especially after seeing what that sword could do. But she pulled the strength from somewhere and held her ground.
It was this training that came to her aid right in that moment. She felt more than heard the movement behind her and spun around in time to bring her kunai up to block the sword swinging at her head. She knocked the sword back and stared.
In the chaos, the Cloud ninja had gone around to attack from behind. Sakura glanced to her left to see Temari still engaged with the Grass-nin from earlier. She was bleeding in a few places and panting heavily, but not down. Sakura twisted on her heel and sent a chakra-infused fist into the Cloud-nin, knocking him high.
He rolled with the hit and landed a few meters away on his feet, his sword still in hand. Sakura pulled her fist back, aiming at the ground. But as the crack opened, he leapt to the side avoiding the hole, a grin on his face. Sakura growled in frustration and prepared to chase after him.
“Sakura wait.” Hinata’s quiet voice drew her attention. She stepped in front of Sakura and lifted her hands. “Back up,” she said over her shoulder and Sakura wasted no time complying. Then Hinata twisted her wrist and curled her fingers in a come here gesture.
The Cloud-nin laughed and ran towards her. Hinata bent under the swing of the sword, bringing her palm up to connect with the chakra point in his shoulder. The sword dropped from his useless arm and he yelled in rage. He spun around with a kunai in hand, but Hinata started in with her palms and before she made it to sixty-four, he was on the ground.
“Hinata!” Sakura shouted and ran over to her. Hinata turned her puzzled gaze to her bloody left hand.
“What happened?” she asked and proceeded to pass out.
- 15
- 16
- 17
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