Adult-FanFiction.org : Naruto

Catharsis	By : WaisetsuNingyou Category: Naruto > Het - Male/Female Views: 968 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 2
- 3
- 4
Chapter 3.Charm
The hooded figure managed to outrun the several guards that had been following, and dashed up into a gingko tree, hiding among the thickly leaved branches. Once settled safely out of sight, the kidnapper yanked down the black mask that obscured the bottom half of her face. Her chest heaved from running; she wanted take a loud, hearty gulp of air, but stifled herself for fear that someone would hear her breathing. The last thing she wanted was to get caught--and return the toddler strapped to her back.
Underneath her tree branch, the guards that had been chasing her stopped, talking amongst themselves, all very confused. She watched the scene with some amusement, though, had anyone been close enough to her, her violet eyes betrayed the omnipresent fear of capture. If she could make it beyond the walls of the enclosed mansion and its ground, she was free.
Her lungs filled with air, she prepared to take off again, when a set of new voices arrived at the scene underneath her. "You lost the kidnapper?"
"What do you think it looks like?" snapped one of the guards. "If we knew where that bitch was, we wouldn't be standing around here doing nothing."
Another guard added condescendingly, "Aren't you shinobi supposed to be able to do almost anything? Why don't you use one of your fancy jutsu to find her?"
Shinobi? The violet-eyed woman bit her lip and pulled up the mask. Shit. If she so much as moved, they'd be on her like maggots to rotting meat. For all she knew, the four shinobi--three men and a young woman--fifty feet below, already knew where she was. Talking to the guards was merely an act to lure her into a false sense of security.
Squatting down slowly on the tree branch, she squinted into the darkness, trying to get a view of their headbands to see which village they came from. The symbols were too small to be seen; the dark night only obscured any shadow that would have rested in the engraved village symbol. Depending on the symbol, the shinobi could either be friend or foe--but, when she couldn't make heads or tails of the situation, she could only assume the worst.
She had more than overstayed her visit to the property. Disguising her presence best as she could, she uncurled her legs, a hand reaching behind her to steady the thickly-bundled child to her back. She silently thanked whoever created the seal that kept the child in a coma-like sleep--and, thus, silent.
The young woman took a cautious step forward. Despite her heavy boots, she could step lightly enough so that it barely disturbed the branch and barely made any noise. She took another step forward.
With a dull scrape and a crack, her foot slipped--some the tree bark had been cracking and ready to fall off, she hadn't noticed it!
She fell, barely managing to catch herself from plummeting to the ground by hooking her other knee around the branch. Suspended upside down fifty feet above the ground, she swore at herself. That misstep was the bullhorn that screamed, "I'M HERE! CATCH ME RIGHT NOW!"
The shinobi on the ground were already looking directly up at her, hanging upside down with a two-year-old on her back. There was no time to think of a good reaction; instinctively, she swung her other leg over the branch, jerked herself forward with her hands extended, and grabbed onto the tree branch. In one smooth movement, she hoisted her feet onto the branch and pushed off to land a good sixty feet in front of the guards and the shinobi, before taking off at top speed without daring to look back.
By the time the guards had finished ordering the four Konoha-nin to follow the young woman, they had already taken off and were a good distance away from them. Kakashi, Yamato, Naruto, and Sakura chased her through the lush garden, over terraces covered in creeping jasmine vines, through small fields of fragrant lemon grass, across the creek that wound throughout the garden.
It didn't take them long to realize the woman would a difficult catch. They could barely keep up with her, even worse when she kept on changing direction and toying with them. Right as they reached the wall that separated the forest behind the property from the garden, she darted to the right barely half a foot away from the wall. Several seconds later, Naruto gave out a loud cry of pain as the young woman used him as a human ladder so she could propel herself to the top of the high wall.
Kakashi and Yamato swore simultaneously, pushing chakra to their feet and racing up the wall as the young woman dropped down on the other side. Once inside the woods, she chose a new path through the trees, skipping from branch to branch. The two jounin and Naruto and Sakura, following them closely from behind, tracked her from the sound of rustling leaves.
"Everyone, scatter!" Kakashi ordered. He was still listening for the rustling leaves, as he couldn't rely on sight in the dark forest. But, listening for noise wasn't much help either, as her path was so erratic that it was nearly impossible to pinpoint exactly where she was. "We're not going to get anywhere near her, given the way she's running around."
"Roger!"
As he floated to the right, Yamato added, "Do your best to avoid any combat. She has the child with her; he's strapped to her back."
Behind Kakashi, Naruto had created several dozen Kage bunshin, all dispersing in small groups in different directions, using each other as springboards to cover more distance and compensate for Naruto's slower speed. Kakashi looked over in the direction Sakura had gone off, then in Yamato's direction. It would have been much easier if they could get her or Yamato in front of their target and have her knock down a couple trees or the latter could create a wooden wall to stop her.
From the loud cry of joy, followed by a yell and a pop, that sounded moments later, Naruto's Kage bunshin had reached her first. Loud pops as the Kage bunshin were knocked out reverberated through the forest. In their separate locations, Yamato, Kakashi, and Sakura regrouped to follow the source of the noise. If Naruto's Kage bunshin were getting knocked out at a never-ending rate, that meant the blond had her surrounded--and an opportunity to catch up to her.
Sure enough, they found a small crowd of Narutos surrounding a single hooded and masked figure, who was attacking futilely against the never-ending supply of blond shinobi. She noticed the three approaching shinobi, and took off into the trees yet again. Kage bunshin were one thing, the actual person was another issue.
All crying out loudly, the mass of Narutos followed her, as well as Kakashi and Sakura.
Meanwhile, Yamato formed the hand seals for the Body Flicker technique rapidly, transporting himself to a large oak several hundred feet before the sea of blond and orange. He was sure that her path wouldn't be so wild that she would avoid the trees in about a hundred feet to his left. Plus, with Naruto and his Kage bunshin, Kakashi, and Sakura enclosing on her, she would probably be too distracted to notice what he was about to create.
Without further hesitation, he formed several more hand seals and hit the tree branch with the palms of his hands. The trees exploded into life, branches lengthening and widening as they snaked around each other to form a solid wall between the line of trees a hundred yards to the left of the tree Yamato stood in.
Barely a meter away from wall, the young woman heard the snapping and crackling of wood, panicking as she couldn't stop herself without crashing into wall. But it was for only a split second, and Yamato could barely believe what happened after.
An enormous blaze burst forth in front of the young woman, easily shattering and burning a large hole into the wall of oak branches. Naruto's Kage bunshin did not expect the fire as much as Yamato, and could not stop themselves from running through the flame, creating a chorus of loud poofs as the disappeared among the smoke.
"What the fuck was that?!" Naruto bellowed, having barely avoided roasting himself in the fire by pushing one of his Kage bunshin into it in his place.
Yamato frowned. "You're asking the wrong person."
Behind them, they heard Kakashi command, "Naruto, you and Sakura go after her! Yamato and I will take her from the flanks."
The two teenagers nodded obediently, and Sakura took off after her blond friend. A second later, Kakashi stopped next to Yamato, surveying the burning barricade.
"What...?" Yamato asked half to himself, disbelievingly. "What the hell was that?"
"One hell of a Great Fireball jutsu," Kakashi murmured, blinking from the smoke and amazement.
Yamato raised his eyebrow at Kakashi. "You don't think--"
The sound of snapping wood cut off Yamato. Behind them, where Naruto and Sakura had headed off, a tree crashed to the ground; the two jounin could safely assume that it was Naruto and Sakura who were knocking down trees with Rasengan and monstrous strength, respectively. And if Sakura and Naruto were busy knocking down trees, then the two teens had successfully intercepted the target. Though for how long they'd be able to keep that woman in that spot, they didn't know.
Neither needed to discuss what to do further--the answer was more than obvious. They rushed to the patch of fallen trees. As they neared the area, Kakashi noticed that the trees had been hit so that they would fall into a circle of dense leafy foliage, supposedly to cage the woman in, making it easier to retrieve the child she had stolen and capture her.
But, with carelessness uncharacteristic of what they had seen that night, the woman sprinted towards the only opening left... just as Sakura felled the tree that would close that opening.
Their eyes widened simultaneously. No one was close enough to the woman to knock her and the child out of the way. The tree was falling too quickly, far too heavy for any of them to hope to stop.
Hidden underneath a tangled mass of branches and leaves at the base of the smoldering barrier and one of the trees that acted as a pillar, the same young woman winced at the loud crash that reverberated through the forest. She tried not to imagine how it would have felt like if it had actually been her who had gotten crushed underneath that massive tree, rather than her Kage bunshin.
Daring a look out of her hiding spot, she cautiously checked the area. The coast was clear.
She stepped out from her refuge, and tiptoed out the first few feet. There was no one else besides her--she could take off safely.
"Yo."
Or not.
Kakashi ducked as she twisted her body around, right leg whizzing over his head. He could have sworn the ends of his messy hair brushed against the leather instep of her boots. Damn it, I can't move quickly enough to dodge her safely.
The woman threw several more kicks and punches at Kakashi, all of which he barely blocked or dodged. Once again, he literally missed a wallop to his head by a hair. He let out a grunt of pain when she hopped onto his head like she had with Naruto earlier on, and used him as a springboard to the tree branch above them. Despite the sharp pain that shot through his neck, Kakashi smirked. Now, Tenzou!
Her yelp echoed through the forest as the branch unexpectedly caught her around her foot, suspending her from upside down. A twig extended from the limb to undo the bands that held the bundled toddler to her back. The woman tried to grab the bundler, but more twigs extended to wrap themselves tightly around her wrists, restricting her from movement.
The bundle dropped to the forest floor, and the woman strained desperately against the branches, but, strengthened by Yamato's chakra, would not relent. For a moment, the woman seemed to be relieved when Sakura appeared out of the darkness caught the child before he hit the ground and took off in the opposite direction, Naruto following her protectively. But it was only very brief sigh of relief before she began struggling against the branches again.
Yamato smiled, and revealed himself from his hiding place on the other side of the tree trunk. Yamato had created a Mokuton bunshin, earlier to help follow the woman. His copy had gone off to create the enormous barricade and follow the woman towards the trees that Naruto and Sakura had felled, while he hid in the woods. In the middle of the chase, Kakashi created a shadow clone to follow his clone, and the two real jounin caught up with each other and quickly devised a plan. Meanwhile, the clones transferred the information onto Naruto and Sakura further ahead. The plan had worked: they had the child, they kept her from moving anymore, and she couldn't use whatever jutsu she had to burn away her bonds again.
Out of the blue, Yamato could have sworn that the smell of burning oak grew stronger. He blinked; the fire had waned for some time, with only a few embers still glowing.
"Shit!" Yamato swore aloud as a line of flame shot through the tree. He jumped off and skidded backwards by Kakashi, staring up thunderstruck. What the hell? he wondered, watching her wooden bonds turn into ash. That's the second time.
Ahead of the two jounin, the woman barely landed before she dashed away again--and Kakashi and Yamato had barely shaken themselves out of their surprise before they took off in hot pursuit of her.
Her cloak apparently slowed her down, and, in an effort to speed up towards the pink-haired kunoichi and the blond boy ahead of her, and to throw off the two men behind her, she undid the fastening and threw it behind. It did nothing to slow down Kakashi or Yamato, both of whom easily ran around it.
"Sakura!" Naruto had turned around to find that the woman was rapidly catching up to them. "Sakura, you keep on going! Keep the kid safe!"
"Chotto, Naru--"
"I said to keep going!" he ordered protectively. "Make sure nothing happens to the kid!"
Naruto turned to face her, a determined look on his face as he created several shadow replications. However, the woman, just as determined--though for completely different reasons--continued to run straight ahead, her eyes looking beyond the many Narutos to Sakura.
"Get out of my way, boy!" she hissed in the one moment she took her eyes off of Sakura.
Unsurprisingly, Naruto, ever the unwavering shinobi, refused to budge, though she was charging straight towards him. He and his replications braced themselves for what he thought would be a collision, judging from the way she was running straight towards him. He cocked his arm back, hoping to hit her stomach and knock her out. Closer... closer...
Instead of hitting her, he only punched the air.
She had jumped up at the very last minute�and was using the heads of his Kage bunshin as stepping stones towards Sakura, each replication she stepped on popping in a puff of smoke. "Shimatta!" Naruto groaned to himself, promptly turning around to resume his pursuit. "She keeps on walking all over me!"
Behind her, Sakura could here the woman's footsteps quickly approaching. She was well-prepared to defend herself, if she was caught. But until then, there was no need to turn around. She simply had to hold onto the frighteningly silent child--and outlast her pursuer.
The medic nin's acute hearing could tell that the woman wouldn't last much longer, going at her speed. Her breaths grew shorter and shallower; every so often, she would slow down to take a gulping breath of air. The woman's muscles' strained to obey her unyielding will, and Sakura had a feeling that if her pursuer didn't give up soon, both of her knees would give out and she'd tear a muscle or two.
Sakura's eyes widened as she felt the slight breeze from the woman's fingertips, and the pink-haired kunoichi prepared to whip around to defend herself and the child.
Kakashi suddenly appeared out of nowhere in front of Sakura, and landed a well-placed kick to her pursuer's stomach. Sakura winced at the sickening slap of the woman's body when it hit a nearby tree, rendering her unconscious. Yamato and Naruto arrived on the scene a few seconds later, breathily heavily. "Sakura-san," Naruto panted, "daijoubu?"
Yamato asked, "Is the kid alright?"
Sakura nodded dumbly, half-relieved, half-paranoid--with shinobi and missions, one could never be too sure it a chase was really over. She looked over at the limp form laying facedown on the forest floor: the woman wasn't dead--thankfully, they needed her for questioning--but she was very much unconscious. Or was she?
Kakashi walked over to the woman, looking rather annoyed. Indeed, she had given their team a lot of trouble for the night. He nudged her side gently with his foot, checking to make sure the body was an actual body.
She was flesh and blood alright. Kakashi leaned over and examined the sword that had been strapped to the back of the waistband of her form-fitting pants. "Ojousan, you gave us a lot of trouble," he muttered softly, examining the sword's decorated sheath. "Running around the fucking woods all n--"
Kakashi froze.
While Naruto fussed over Sakura ("Sakura-chan, are you sure you're alright?!" "Naruto, for the hundredth time, I'm fine."), Yamato noticed Kakashi's change in behavior. "Kakashi-san."
Kakashi didn't answer.
"Kakashi-san," Yamato repeated, walking over to his senpai. "Hey, Kakashi-san. Is everything okay?"
At that moment, Yamato caught sight of the thing that had Kakashi's attention: the lanyards laced into the end of the sword handle--or rather, one of the charms strung onto the red lanyard. There were two strands of satiny red string, both ending with tassels made of some kind of long hair. On one strand were wooden three beads, each meticulously painted with what looked to be a brilliant red camellia. On the other were two of the same beads, one each on the top and bottom of a small rectangular block, which had two characters written in fancy calligraphy on wide flat side.
"Tenzou," Kakashi asked, very calmly, but not calmly enough to disguise any incredulity, "what does this kanji say?"
Yamato squinted at the block charm; whoever had done the calligraphy had made it so loose that it was barely decipherable. The first character he could make out relatively easily: fire. The second was a bit more of a challenge, and after several seconds of internal debate regarding certain strokes, he decided it looked like the kanji for pillar. Put the two together: "Hi--"
The jounin hesitated with a sudden epiphany.
"--bashira."
No sooner had he finished the rest of the word, Kakashi had turned the woman over onto her back and was frantically unwrapping the mask that had covered her face. He found a woman who looked to be in her mid-twenties, with pouty, full lips, and creamy skin that was only recently flawed by several shallow cuts on her face. Her long brown hair was tied up into a ponytail, loosened by the chase.
As if there were still a missing clue to the woman, Kakashi proceeded to pull down the collar of the black top she wore, much to Sakura's chagrin. ("Kakashi-sensei, you pervert! You're not supposed to be stripping down a prisoner!")
On her back was a large, intricate tattoo in black ink: It was made up of almost unreadable kanji inscribed along the borders of its complicated lines
He had been holding up her body with one hand, but nearly dropped her once it sunk in: they had been chasing after the wrong person for the wrong reason all along.
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Author's Notes: I'll admit, I'm horrid at writing action sequences and I hardly have the kind of brain a shinobi presumably has. In any case, here are a few translation notes:
// shimatta : Damn, shit--something in that context.
// daijoubu : Are you okay?
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Catharsis