Adult-FanFiction.org : Naruto

Story of the Ten Tailed Wolf	By : Pokemaster12 Category: Naruto > Het - Male/Female Views: 8578 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 11
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of the characters in it. All rights go to Masashi Kishimoto, nor do I make a profit off of this story.

Chapter List
- 8
- 9
- 10
Chapter 9: Bloodline War

~Story of the Ten Tailed Wolf~

"Ah, there are Arashi-san," Arashi turned from the bar he was sitting on to see Mei smiling at him, "I've been looking for you. We're having a meeting in five minutes and I would like for you to attend."
"And you came to personally get me?" asked Arashi with a smile, "I feel pretty special."
"As you should," Mei said with just a hint of a smile, "now come on."
"Alright then," Arashi drained the liquor that was left in his shot glass, being unable to get drunk thanks to Akane had some benefits, set it back on the table as he stood up and stretched. He followed Mei as she led him down one of the corridors inside the Bloodline factions main base. "Has something happened?" he asked at last, wondering if he might finally take part in an operation.
It had been two months since he had been here and not once had he actually been called on to do anything. Part of the reason he knew was that the war was currently at a sort of stale mate; the Mizukage's forces were too big, their bases too well defended for the Bloodline faction to attack, at the same time the rebels were too well hidden and usually worked in small cells, making it harder for the Mizukage's forces to pinpoint their locations and attack them. Another reason he had not been on any missions was because he was sure that many of the rebels didn't quite trust him yet. There wasn't much in the way of open hostility, but he could see that several people did not truly trust him.
"Maybe," Mei replied as they entered the war room, where all of the plans were made. The room was fairly small, unlike the audience chamber where Mei would address her troops, this room was only large enough to hold about twenty people before it became over crowded. There was a large, square table with a map of Mizu No Kuni on it, and Arashi saw several of what looked like shougi pieces representing the Kiri (Red) and bloodline forces (Blue).
"What is he doing here?" asked one of the people already in the room with a sneer. Shūhei Hisagi was a tall and lean-built man with dark gray eyes, short black hair and three scars straight over his eye that lead down to his right cheek. He also had the number "69" tattooed on his left cheek as well as a blue-striped tattoo running across his left cheek and over the bridge of his nose. He wore a choker around his throat and matching armbands on both upper arms. His clothing consisted of the standard garb of a kiri shinobi, camouflage pants, blue shinobi sandals, and a gray flak jacket. The only difference between his clothes and most jonin was that his shirt was sleeveless.
"He is here because I believe he will be useful for this operation," Mei said in a voice that could cut through steel. Hisagi shut his mouth, knowing better than to question his leaders decision. There was a reason she was in charge of the bloodline faction after all.
She and Arashi made their way over to the table, the red haired swordsman choosing to stand next to Ao. "Now if there are no more people who feel the need to speak out of turn, perhaps we can get started," when no one else around the table spoke she continued. "We've received an important message from our spies in the Capitol. It seems the Daimyo has finally managed to discover Yagura's involvement in the bandit attacks on several of the less populated settlements and decided to let slip to us some vital information."
Bandits were always a problem during a war, especially a ninja war. Many ninja missions centered around clearing out the threat of bandits when they became too much of a problem, but with the two Kiri factions busy fighting each other the bandits who had come to Kiri essentially had free run to rape, pillage and plunder to their hearts desire.
What made this particular problem worse was that Yagura, the Yondaime Mizukage, was actually sanctioning these bandit raids. It was a reprehensible act but the fact of the matter was, war cost money. You had to buy food, weapons and supplies, and you had to pay your soldiers. The problem with all of that was that none of that was cheap, and with the shinobi busy fighting a war, there were less forces available for missions. Because of that, praying on innocent civilians was much more lucrative, then taking out bandits. The simple fact was bandits had more money than most civilians, and could pay the shinobi to turn a blind eye to their activities, or to even help them. It was often said that crime paid better than justice.
"This is good as it means that he is now on our side, not only will this give us an advantage in the war, but "when" we win, we will have the backing and support of the Daimyo for when we begin rebuilding the village." When, Not if, she said that as if it was a foregone conclusion. Arashi actually found her confidence not only reassuring, but refreshing as well. Mei paused here to let that information sink in.
"The information we've been given are the departure date of the Quarterly Caravan as well as a list of scheduled checkpoints. For those of you who don't know, the Quarterly Caravan is one of the four annual caravans sent by the Daimyo to fund the village. Needless to say that means a lot of money and a lot of security measures. There should be roughly two hundred ninja guards total, and we suspect they will be split up into at a minimum of three groups. They will most likely use the standard escort formation, one group with the caravan, one group to take up the rear, and another the fore. There is a also a possiblity that they will have several smaller scouting parties as well, which means we will need to be on our guard."
"Our plan of action will be to ambush the caravan at one of the checkpoints; we will be comprised of three teams: a distraction team, an ambush team, and the last team will be an emergency extraction team." The basics of the plan was simple, the distraction team, which would comprise of the main attack force, would draw most of the enemy out with a frontal assault. When most of the enemy had been drawn away from the caravan the ambush team would kill who ever was left behind to guard the caravan and begin unloading the money. The last team was set in case things went south, going off the knowledge that no plan ever survived contact with the enemy and things could very easily get sticky.
Arashi paid attention as Mei and several others began discussing the plan in greater detail, each person adding their own input. He didn't add any of his own advice, not that he had much to add as he had never been in a war before and therefore only had basic knowledge on tactics and battles.
Instead, he spoke with who he had dubbed his inner-vixen, "what do you think of the chances for success?"
"As good as any other plan," Akane said, shrugging as she combed her tails. Not that her container could see, "the problem is there is no such thing as a sure-fire plan in war. Often times as soon as the attack begins you can be assured that things will go to hell."
"Sounds like you've experienced war," he commented idly while listening to Mei argue with one of her senior officers on which checkpoint they should stage their ambush at.
"Of course I have. Remember, I am over two thousand years old, in that time I have seen and been involved in more wars than any human can possibly imagine."
Arashi's ears perked up at this, "how many wars have you been involved in?"
"Several," Akane said, "I was involved in several wars in the past."
Arashi made to ask a question but Mei's words interrupted him, "Arashi-san, you will be working with Ao's squad, and will take part on the ambush team."
"You can't be serious!" Hisagi shouted, "you want to send him on such an important assignment? How do we know he won't betray us the first chance he gets!"
"You mean aside from the fact that I have a bloodline and would not be welcome in Yagura's forces?" said Arashi, who was honestly getting pissed off at the man constantly questioning his integrity.
"That doesn't matter," Hisagi sneered, "your an outsider, you can't be trusted."
"And your an asshole," Arashi shot back, "but you don't see me complaining."
Hisagi growled, "What was that you little punk!"
"Hisagi!" Mei shouted, her voice radiating authority and displeasure, "I have asked you several times to keep your opinions to yourself and not insult someone who has offered there services." The tall man looked like he was about to say something but Mei spoke again, "if you can't get over your petty problems, than you will not take part in this mission. Understood?"
"Yes, ma'am," Hisagi said, looking like he swallowed something foul.
"Good, now I want all of you to prepare, the mission will commence tomorrow at dusk."

~Story of the Ten Tailed Wolf~

"Hey there," a gruff voice said from behind Arashi. Turning his head he saw Ao standing behind him.
"What's up Ao-san?" asked Arashi, wondering why the man wasn't getting ready. He himself didn't have any need to get ready, all of his weapons were sealed up into containment seals he had painted on his body, so he had decided to get some fresh air and enjoy the relative peace before the big attack.
"I just figured I'd let you know that you shouldn't let what Hisagi said bother you," Ao looked down at Arashi with his only covered eye. "Hisagi's something of an isolationist, he doesn't believe we need the help of outsiders and had been against the idea of getting aid from Konoha."
Arashi snorted at the mans way of understating the other ninja's issue. When Mei had come back nearly empty handed Hiagi had actually had the gall to ask her if she had 'enjoyed her vacation' as if what she had done was a waist of time and essentially saying I told you so to her face. It had caused quite a few arguments between the two and Arashi had sometimes wondered why Mei didn't just melt the man like she had her enemies.
"Don't worry, I don't take what he said personally," the red head said after some time. "The man's just an idiot, he'll eventually learn to trust me, or I'm liable to shove my foot off in his ass."
Ao seemed to blink at that statement, unsure whether to accept those words at face value. "So long as you don't start anything with him. You know, back in my day..."

~Story of the Ten Tailed Wolf~

"Get back here you brat!"
"Wait til I get my hands on you!"
Naruto looked behind him as he ran to see several jonin chasing after him, he stuck out his tongue and pulled down as eyelids, laughing, "you'll never take me alive!"
it was a typical day for Naruto Uzumaki, who had just finished one of his many pranks. The one he had just done was tame compared to the time he got a wild hair up his ass for three weeks and managed to prank several clans as well as the Anbu. They had never caught him for those ones and no one ever realized he was the one who did them.
This particular prank Naruto had made sure they knew he had done it. The young blond had woken up early in the morning and managed to paint the entire Hokage Monument, he had just finished his masterpiece when everyone had taken notice. That was when the chase began.
Looking back in front of him Naruto caught sight of the Hokage Monument and couldn't help but smile at his work. It was the work of a true artist. He had painted the Shodaime Hokage's face into that of a wooden Tiki man, with trees sprouting out of his nose; the Nidaime was crying rivers of tears and had a large bruise on his cheek and a pair of pink, lace panties on his hair; the Sandaime had a large blush staining his cheeks, a perverted smile on his face and blood dripping from his nose, off to the side was a billboard sized picture of the front cover of Icha Icha Paradise; and finally his absolute master piece and very likely the reason the ninja chasing him were so pissed. Minato Namikaze, the Yondaime Hokage and his father, had three symmetrical whisker marks running horizontally on each cheek, and on top of his head were two bright gold fox ears. It was a message that was subtle enough that no one would realize what it meant, those that did would likely assume it to be a coincidence, but it would definitely get people to look.
"Just you wait Demon!" one of the shinobi shouted as he chased after the blond, "when I get my hands on you your dead!"
"Then you won't be getting your hands on me!" Naruto shouted with a laugh, "none of you can catch me!" He continued running, using side-streets and back alleys as he outran and outsmarted the jonin after him. No one would even realize that they were being used by him for training. It was a method he had set up to test himself, the pranks he had played on the clans and the ANBU had tested his stealth, while the pranks that were much more showy, like painting the Hokage Monument tested his ability to outrun and outsmart his opposition, like losing a tail when being chased by superior number of enemies on a mission. That, and it was just really funny to watch these fools flounder about in anger.
During the chase Naruto cut through several streets where he had placed numerous traps for the jonin squads to run into. They were all so busy chasing him and their judgment had been clouded by anger that none of them even saw the traps until they had tripped some ninja wire that had been tied taught against the fence and an adjourning tree. By the time they had realized what happened five of the jonin involved in the chase were strung up by the innumerable amount of ninja wire that they suddenly found themselves caught in.
"What the hell!"
"I can't get lose!"
"Someone, cut me down from here!"
Naruto grinned as he heard the cries and continued running.
"Got'cha!" Naruto turned his head back to the front to see one of the jonin lunging for him. The man was about to grab him, however he soon found himself eating a large chunk of wood. "What the hell! Where'd this log come from!"
Naruto snickered from his hiding spot as the ninja threw the log on the ground and ran off. "Never underestimate the power of one under the protection of the log," he muttered as he pulled down his camouflage. He looked around and saw none of the ninja who had been chasing him near, "hehe, what a bunch of losers, thinking they could catch me. Naruto Uzumaki can not be caught by any mere mortal."
"Is that so, Naruto!"
"GAH!" Naruto jumped ten feet in the air as he twisted around and landed on his butt. "Ow," he rubbed his now sore backside and looked up to see the familiar face of his scarred sensei. "Oh, hey Iruka-sensei, what are you doing here?"
"Oh, you know, the usual, just catching one of my students getting into trouble when he should be in class," Iruka said. "He has blond hair, blue eyes, and is wearing a hidious orange jump suit. You wouldn't happen to have seen him would you, maybe in the mirror, ne Naruto?"
"Nope, haven't seen him, hehehe," Naruto rubbed the back of his head, "well I hope your student manages to find his way to class. If I see him, I'll let him know your looking for him."
Naruto tried to leave but Iruka quickly grabbed him by the collar of his jacket, "oh no you don't, your not getting away that easily Naruto." The scarred chunin began dragging the blond towards the Hokage monument.
"Ack! Iruka-sensei, let go, I have to get to class!" Naruto tried.
"Nice try, since you already missed half the lesson than it won't matter if you miss the rest to clean the monument," Iruka said, not budging an inch. "And you'll have to do it all by hand."
"WHAT! That's not fair sensei!"
"Yeah, well, life's not fair. Now come on."

~Story of the Ten Tailed Wolf~

"Terumi-Sama, this Ao, we have a situation B," Ao said into his field communicator as Arashi pulled his blade out of the enemy shinobi he had just pierced through the neck. "I repeat, situation B, there are twelve scouting parties around the caravan, my squad just ran afoul of one."
Arashi didn't question how the man knew about the scouts, he had already seen Ao's Byakugan and knew the man was constantly using it to look ahead for any signs of hostiles.
"Shhhht... roger that, they'll need to be dealt with before we can move onto the plan. Can you have your men take care of them? Over."
"I'll have them get right on it, over," Ao replied. He moved his hand from his com. Piece and looked at his squad, "we need to take care of the rest of the advanced scouts. We'll be splitting up into groups of two, I want you to take out the squads quietly, we can't afford to alert the enemy to our presence." The man looked over at the red head, "Arashi, your with me."
"That's fine," Arashi said. Ao's squad, along with two others, split up. Arashi moved to follow the blue haired hunter ninja, moving deftly through the trees until the man stopped and held up a hand.
"One of the scouting squads is thirteen meters south of us," he said as his eye scanned the surroundings. Looking to where he had indicated, Arashi saw several figures moving through the trees. Four Kirigakure ninja, one jonin and two chunin by the looks of them.
"I'll take care of this," he whispered, receiving a nod from Ao before he sunk into the shadows. One of the many abilities he had gotten from his blade was the ability to move between the shadows, it was called Kagetoho (Shadow Walking) and was an ability that made the Nara's shadow manipulation abilities seem like a pale imitation of true shadow jutsu.
As the squad stopped to scout the area, Arashi used the opportunity to slip into the foremost ninja's shadow. "Uzumaki Hijutsu: Yamiton: Ken'in Yomi (Uzuamaki Secrete Technique: Dark Release: Pull of the Underworld)," the whispered technique went unheard by the kiri ninja, as it was impossible to hear someone who was inside of a shadow. However, the man did notice when the shadow grabbed him and sucked him down, the man would have shouted in surprise but a shadow had covered his mouth and he could do nothing as he was dragged into the shadow.
The other three turned around and blinked when they didn't see there comrade. Just as they were about to reach for their walkies, Arashi came up from behind one of the enemy shinobi. Before he had a chance to react the man was pierced in the throat, gurgling up blood as he died. "Uzumaki Hijutsu: Yamiton: Kage Shoyaiba (Uzumaki Hijutsu: Dark Release: Many Shadow Blades)," the other two didn't even have time to shout as two shadow like tendrils flew out from the tip of Arashi's blade, piercing them through the head and heart respectively. Arashi pulled out his blade and swiped the blood off with a flick of his wrist.
Ao whistled appreciatively as he saw how quickly and efficiently the young swordsman had dealt with the threat, "you Uzumaki sure are something."
"Of course, why do you think we were so feared during the Third Great Shinobi War?" asked Arashi, the question was rhetorical and Ao didn't deign to give a response.
"Let's take out another squad, we need to get rid of them before the caravan moves to the next checkpoint."
"Right."

~Story of the Ten Tailed Wolf~

Arashi was crouched down on the balls of his feet, using his hands to keep his balance as he stood on the tree. Next to him was Ao and a little behind them was the man's squad, they were just one of the squads that had been assigned to the ambush team, which was comprised of a total of five teams of four. The teams were a mile out from the caravan checkpoint, and were awaiting the signal to begin their mission.
The last squad to get back from taking out the scouting parties had just gotten back not ten minutes ago.
"You know what to do when the fireworks start?" asked Ao, he had already asked the question several times, likely it was an attempt to hide his nerves at working with a person he didn't know. Most shinobi squads tended to grow fairly close and having a new member usually messed with team dynamics.
"I'll go in and hit them hard with my kenjutsu and take out as many of the enemy as possible and get them to focus on me before the main force gets there," Arashi grunted. The Uzumaki Style Kenjutsu was specifically designed to fight off multiple enemies at once by using fast, overpowering attacks to wipe out the enemy, that was why it was the Issei No Ryuuken was considered one of the most powerful sword styles in the world.
Ao grunted his agreement with Arashi's assessment, "once the signal starts, move in fast and hit hard. Your our point man."
"Understood."
the worst part about war, Arashi reflected as he crouched there with Ao and his ninja squad, was the waiting. Combat between Shinobi had a lot of waiting involved, it wasn't like Samurai battles, where two large forces met and clashed on an open plain. Shinobi warfare was about gathering information, espionage and taking the enemy by surprise, all of which required a lot of patients and waiting. The only time shinobi battled in the open was during an invasion.
"We are beginning our attack, wait ten minutes for the enemy numbers to thin before commencing you own run. Over" Arashi looked over at Ao, due to his sensitive hearing he was able to pick out everything Mei had said.
"Roger that, we'll commence our run in ten, over," Ao turned his head set off and looked at the squads of ninja. "Terumi-Sama is beginning her attack, we'll start in ten minutes when the shinobi guards have thinned."
Arashi stood up and closed his eyes, doing his best to calm down his rapidly beating heart. This would be his first true taste of war, and he could not help but admit, even if only to himself, that he was feeling nervous. So many things could go wrong with this plan, for all they knew it already was going wrong and they were walking into a trap. There was no telling what the outcome of this battle would be, the whole planned hinged on whether of not the intel they received was accurate.
"Relax," Akane's soothing voice came over his mind, "do not let your mind wander too much, especially to that kind of thinking. Focus only on the mission, try to block out all other thoughts and questions, lest they unravel you before the battle even starts."
"Right, sorry," Arashi apologized in a sheepish voice.
"Silly man," Akane giggled a little at her container, "there is no need to apologize. I am happy to help you."
Arashi relaxed as he felt some of the tension in between his shoulder blades slip, "Thank you."
"It's time," Ao stood up and everyone else followed suit, "let's begin."
The five teams took off, traveling at the fastest pace they could go while still remaining silent. It wasn't long before they reached the caravan. The caravan consisted of a dozen carriages with horses pulling them, and the shinobi forces had been reduced from what was likely around one hundred strong, to just thirty.
Arashi was the first one to enter the fight, it was his job to keep the Mizukage's forces focused on him so the rest could come in from behind. His sword, Hikage Ookami was already out and singing as he cut through the first enemy in his way. He didn't even feel any give on his blade as he severed cloth, flesh and bone as he sliced through the enemy shinobi. The man screamed out in pain and Arashi kicked him away, sending him flying into two other enemy ninja.
The enemy forces soon noticed him but before they could do anything Arashi had already gone through several hand seals and spat out a dozen decent sized fireballs, most of them were dodged and exploded against the ground, leaving five foot long craters. However, the few that managed to actually hit an enemy ninja set them ablaze, lighting them up as if they had been doused in lighter fluid.
"Suiton: Baku Suishouha (Water Release: Bursting Water Collision Waves)!" Arashi turned just in time to see one of the enemy jonin expelling a large amount of water. Before it could expand and sweep him away, Arashi had Akane channel her youki to his throat where he expelled searing white blaze of fire that was so hot the entire earth was glassed as it burned a path to the man using the jutsu.
Normally, when a jutsu made from an opposing element his used against the element it is weak against, that jutsu would usually be destroyed, or if the jutsu was particularly strong they would both cancel each other out. However the fire that the red head had just used was the Kitsune-bi (Fox Fire) and was the true form of the Amaterasu, the black flames of the Uchiha Clan that could only be accessed by gaining the Mangekyo Sharingan. The Kitsune-bi smashed into the water from the jonin's jutsu and completely overtook it, evaporating the water before it could actually form into an attack. It continued on and struck the jonin, who barely even had time to scream as it burned his entire body, turning it to ash. The jutsu continued on it's way, burning everything in it's path until Arashi stopped channeling Akane's youki.
"Your very lucky that that ningen wasn't near one of the carriages," Akane commented, not that she actually cared but seeing as how it was his mission to get what was inside of them, she didn't want him destroying them accidentally and failing his mission.
"Which was why I did it," Arashi replied, even as he began attacking the other shinobi who were still recovering from the shock of seeing such an intense fire jutsu. He was actually impressed that they were still responding so well, attacking even when he could see the shock clearly written on their faces. Then again, most of these ninja were experienced jonin. "Had that attack struck, it would have hit the caravan behind me. I'm surprised that ninja would so carelessly use a jutsu like that, especially in a battle where he was fighting with a team that could have been hurt just as easily as me."
"I think you just wanted to be flashy," Akane quipped with a smirk as she saw Arashi smash the pommel of his hilt into a kunoichi's head. Shaking her own head she smiled at her containers sense of moral's, they were a little odd but she wouldn't have him any other way.
"Well I do like showing how awesome I am," Arashi smirked, "that's why all my pranks are so bad bass."
conversation continued along this vein as Arashi continued attacking the enemy shinobi, sometime during their chat, Ao and the rest of the squad had joined the battle and were attacking the surprised enemy from behind since all their attention had been on Arashi. It was less then fifteen minutes later that the battle had ended, Ao and Arashi moved up to one of the Carriages to begin unloading. They opened the door only to find it empty.
"What the hell!" said Ao as he looked inside the carriage, "how did I miss this! My Byakugan should have noticed that there was nothing inside!"
Arashi didn't comment, he was much more interested in the seals that were surrounding the inside of the carriage along the floor, walls and ceiling. As he studied them he saw several begin to glow and his eyes widened, "Move it Ao!" he grabbed the man by his robe and jumped away just as the carriage exploded. It wasn't just the one they were at either, all around them the other eleven blew up, many of the ninja who were checking them did not make it and were consumed by the blast.
"What the hell..." Ao muttered in shock as his mind slowly realized what was going on, "we've been betrayed! This whole thing was a trap!"
"Seems like it," while his voice was calm, on the inside Arashi was swearing up a storm. It bothered him that he hadn't even suspected a trap, at least not of this caliber. However, he also knew that getting angry wouldn't help him or the bloodline rebels. "If they knew about our plans in enough detail to plan this, then that means the trap is unlikely for us."
Ao frowned, "what do you... Terumi-Sama!"
"This trap was most likely a concerted effort to take her out," Arashi agreed, "come on, have your men get moving, we need to get to Mei."
"What about the extraction team?" asked Ao as he stood up.
"If this was a trap designed to take out Mei then the extraction team is as good as dead, if their not already," Arashi replied. Had this been his plan he would have taken the extraction team out as quickly and quietly as possible, that way the main force would expect back-up to come only to slowly realize they were on their own. "Now let's move it before the main force is destroyed."

~Story of the Ten Tailed Wolf~

As Mei watched a large number of enemy ninja stream in from all sides all she could do was swear, loudly, and vocally. The battle had started off well enough, her group had surprised the enemy forces and began battling them, drawing attention away from the caravan as they decimated the front wave of kiri troops. However, after two hours into the battle nearly three hundred enemy shinobi began to stream into the field, catching her own group completely unawares. Now she and the fifty survivors of her team were fighting for their lives against the three hundred strong force.
She knew what was happening of course, Mei could tell when she had been played a fool. Yagura had somehow gotten wind about her plan and laid a trap for them, and she walked right into it.
"Suiton: Suigadan (Water Release: Water Fang Projectile)!"
Mei watched as a dozen sharp, fang-like projectiles of water came towards her and her comrades. She went through a myriad of hand seals and then slammed her hands into the ground, "Doton: Doryuheki (Earth Release: Mud Wall)!" a giant earth wall rose up from the ground to intercept the coming attack. The wall shook and rumbled as the water fangs tried to drill through it but were unsuccessful. By that time Mei had already put the jutsu out of her mind and was moving in to help her troops take care of the enemy shinobi.
She entered battle with the first enemy she saw, a kunoichi that was charging at her. She dodged the first strike before lashing out with an attack of her own, kicking the other woman hard enough to send her flying into one of the kunoichi's own comrade's. Mei shook her head at the stupidity of some ninja, you never attack a target that is superior to yourself head on.
Mei ran up to another enemy ninja and was quick to lash out with a reverse heel that caught the man in the throat, not only was he thrown back by the kick, but Mei could hear the snap of a neck. She soon found herself double teamed as two jonin tried to gut her with a kunai. She swept one of the lunged hands aside and retaliated with a knife edge that caught the man in the throat. He would have staggered back but Mei still had a grip on his hand and she spun around and used him as a shield, letting the other shinobi stab his own partner. She then pushed the now dying shinobi into the other man who had attacked her, using him as a distraction as she pulled out a kunai and sent it into the mans head with a flick of her wrist. The man fell back without even letting out a cry.
There was no time to celebrate however as the battle raged on. Mei ended up losing track of how long she had been fighting, weaving in and out of the range of her attackers, launching powerful strikes, most of which would kill her opponents in one hit. It was unfortunate for her that she was in an environment of mixed forces, with many of her own battling she couldn't afford to use any of her Kekkei Genkei jutsu, lest she hit one of her own ninja.
"Terumi-Sama!" Mei didn't even bother turning attention away from her fight as several chakra hammers smashed into some of the enemy shinobi near her and Choujuro ran to her side with Hiramekarei swinging. Thanks to the power of the great blade and the skill the young man was able to wield it with, he managed to take out multiple enemies in a single swing. Soon enough the blue haired young man was right next to her and they were fighting side-by-side, "This isn't looking good, Terumi-Sama!"
"I know!" Mei yelled out over the din of battle, "it seems we've been played!"
As the young rebel leader was about to loose hope, help arrived in the form of Ao and Arashi, along with the other survivors of the ambush gone wrong. Ao came in hard, kunai in hand as he used his Byakugan to keep any of the enemy ninja around him from sneak attacking. Meanwhile, Arashi was a blur of motion, his sword was out and could be seen as nothing more than a flash of light. He zipped through the line of enemy shinobi, running them through like a hot knife through butter as he made his way towards Mei.
"Mei-san!" he called whilst ducking under a kunai swipe and then lashing out with his sword, slicing the shinobi that had attacked him in half. "This plan has gone down the drain! We need to retreat!"
"I know!" Mei said, jumping back as two ninja tried to double team them, right before she lashed out with twin kicks that snapped both of their necks. "All forces retreat! This battle is lost! Retreat!"
"I'll cover our retreat!" Arashi said as he threw himself into the battle with fervor, determined to make sure that he saved as many of his allies as possible. At any other time Mei would have ordered him not to do something so foolish, but as it was there weren't that many options and so she simply continued fighting her way out of the battle with her forces.
Arashi found himself weaving through a hailstorm of fists, feet, kunai and swords as he attacked the enemy forces head on. Spinning around in a one hundred and eighty degree pivot, his blade began to grow a bright white as he used its ability to use light chakra. The blade sung as it sliced through steel and flesh and bones with equal impunity.
Several more ninja attacked him and as he continued to block their attacks, Arashi ended up getting stabbed through the back. However, rather then bleed and die as was the normal for one who just got stabbed, Arashi exploded, sending all the enemy ninja who were near him sailing. Many of the Kiri forces ended up crashing into their own comrades, their bodies severely damaged with third degree burns.
The real Arashi then revealed himself by rising from the shadow of one kunoichi, chopping her in the back of the neck and sending her to the ground. Before the enemy could detect his presence he slipped back into the shadows, thus became the game of cat in mouse as the red haired shinobi would rise from one of his enemies shadows and attack, only to slip back away before anyone could attack in return. It wasn't long before he stopped, realizing that if he used his ability to much someone was likely to find out about it's weakness. Coming back behind another opponent he cut their head clean off, just as nearly one hundred more Arashi phased into existence.
The sight of so many of the same ninja appearing at once seemed to unnerve some of the enemy, since creating that many clones at once was unheard of. However, that did not stop them from attacking, hoping to take out this new threat so they could catch up to the rebel forces that by now were long gone. It wasn't until the first clone was killed that the Mizukage's forces soon discovered that these were no ordinary clones. A kunoichi had manged to pierce one clone through the neck with her sword, only to discover how bad of a mistake doing that was when the clone exploded in her face, sending her, as well as several of her comrades flying. This of course, set of a chain reaction due to several other clones being in the blast radius, and soon enough the entire battlefield had descended into chaos as Yagura's forces were tossed about by the explosions with impunity.

~Story of the Ten Tailed Wolf~

"Do you think the kid is alright back there?" asked Ao as all the forces who had managed to escape were running through the forest.
"I don't know," Mei worried her bottom lip in concern, "I hope he makes it." The only reason they had been able to get out of that jam was because Arashi had decided to hold them off, somehow, he had managed to do so and only a few enemy ninja had escaped his near suicidal attack run, and they had been easily dealt with.
"Y-you don't think Arashi-san is... dead, do you?" asked Choujuro, he didn't really know the young man that well, but the fact that he had helped them escape from that mess put him up a notch in his book.
"Kami I hope I'm not dead, that would totally suck." Several people literally jumped, even as they pulled out weapons in case the person who had just spoke was an enemy. They were all relieved and slightly annoyed when they saw the person was the man who they were talking about.
"Don't do that Arashi-san!" Mei said as she held a hand to her chest, feeling her heart pumping a bit both from the recent battle and the light scare Arashi had given her.
"Sorry," he apologized with a grin that made it hard to tell if he was serious or not.
"Your not sorry," Mei mumbled so low only Arashi was able to hear, causing his grin to widen.

~Story of the Ten Tailed Wolf~

Naruto grinned as he made his way into class, the new school year was starting and though he was loath to actually attend, he knew appearances had to be kept. That was why he was made after all.
Slamming the door open with his usual loud bang, he walked into the room and chose a seat next to Sasuke. The Uchiha only gave him a passing glance before he went back to brooding his only thoughts being, Kill...I will kill Itachi, he will die by my hands...mmm, tomatoes.
I know, weird.
As Naruto was sitting their with the large, dopy grin he was so well known for by now the sound of stampeding feet soon reached the classroom. The door burst open and Ino and Sakura tried to shove each other out of the others way.
"GET BACK INO-PIG!" Screeched Sakura, her voice so loud that the windows rattled and Kiba and Akamaru had to hold their ears as they began to bleed. "I NEED TO GET THROUGH SO I CAN SIT NEXT TO SASUKE-KUN!"
"HAH! AS IF, I'M GOING TO BE THE ONE SITTING NEXT TO SASUKE-KUN, NOT YOU FOREHEAD!" Shouted Ino as the two continued to fight over who would get to sit next to their "Sasuke-kun". The battle took nearly ten minutes before the two just shoved each other through the door and rushed over to where Sasuke was sitting.
Naruto quickly stood up and intercepted Sakura before she could sit down, "Hey Sakura-chan, how would you like to go on a date with -"
"SHUT UP NARUTO NO BAKA! I WANT TO SIT NEXT TO SASUKE-KUN!" Sakura shrieked in his ears as she smashed a fist into his head, sending the poor blond to the ground. The pink haired howler monkey then noticed that Ino had already claimed the spot next to Sasuke and instantly became irate. She smashed another fist on top of the recovering Naruto, "THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT! NOW I CAN'T SIT NEXT TO SASUKE-KUN!" with that she stalked off, finding a spot next to the ever shy and turtle-like Hinata.
Kami! I'm really beginning to hate the boss for choosing her as his 'crush', that damned howler monkey is a menace, Naruto thought as he rubbed the large lump on his head. He stood up and sat back down in his seat as Iruka and Mizuki came in to begin their lesson.

~Story of the Ten Tailed Wolf~

Naruto had a soft smile on his face as his head was resting in the lap of Akane, who had taken to gently running one of her hands through his hair. This had become a common thing for the two of them to do, during the past several years they had gotten much closer. When ever she wasn't training him Akane would either, tease him using her body to try and get a reaction out of him, often times resulting in the young blond gaining a major blush, due to his age he had only recently started getting nosebleeds, though even then it was only in his mind as his body still had not hit puberty. Or moments like now, where she would let Naruto rest against her.
Akane had long since stopped denying to herself that she was actually in love with this boy, despite only being almost ten years old he was much more mature than most his age, usually. That maturity was actually reflected by the mental image he projected in his mindscape, which was actually fifteen, and was the only reason his mindscape image could pass out from a nosebleed. However, she knew that it was still not the right time for her to express her feelings for the boy, while he may be older in his mind than he was physically, he was still a nine, going on ten year old boy. Even though Akane herself didn't care about age, since if she went by age appropriateness than she would be too old for even the oldest human, Naruto still wasn't ready to enter any kind of relationship with her. Not that that didn't mean she couldn't enjoy what they did have.
"You seem tired," she noted softly, getting Naruto to crack one of his gorgeous blue eyes open.
He smiled at her before yawning, "what gave it away?"
"Perhaps the fact that your not your usual bundle of energy," Akane said, "normally, I would be beating the shit out of you during sparring right now."
Naruto stuck his tongue out at her before yawning again, he soon snuggled himself a little deeper into her lap. Akane let out a soft squeak and slight moan when her container accidentally rubbed up against her sacred spot, getting Naruto to open his eyes once again. He was slightly amused to see a blush staining the beautiful demoness' cheeks, normally it he who was blushing. Although, he couldn't for the life of him figure out what she was blushing about.
"You ok, Akane-chan?" asked Naruto, "your face is getting red."
"I-I'm fine," she stuttered, trying to get her mind back on track. She knew Naruto hadn't done that on purpose, but it was hard for her to just sit there and pretend nothing had happened. A part of her was telling her not to let the accident go unpunished and prank the poor boy by teaching him some more about the female anatomy. Another part was screaming at her to strip the boy down and have her way with him, too young be damned. It took a concerted amount of effort, but she eventually managed to get herself under control.
Of course, it was right as she managed to calm herself that Naruto said something else, "ne, Akane-chan, do you smell that?" the blond took several deep sniffs of the air, "it smells like... honey."
Akane made several choking noises as her face took on a new hue of red. She was not embarrassed about Naruto smelling her arousal, but it was now taking a very intense effort for her to bring her pheromone levels and hormones under control. The boy was pushing all of her buttons and didn't even realize it.
"I'm not sure what your talking about," Akane said, keeping her cool as she went back to playing with his hair. "I don't smell anything."
"Must be my imagination then," Naruto frowned, he could still smell that delicious honey scent. Still, maybe he was just smelling something that was coming from outside the seal. It didn't matter anyways, so he put it into the back of his mind and decided to change topics, "so how do you think I did for my first true battle?"
"You know the one you were in when you first came here could be considered your first true taste of war," Akane said.
"No," Naruto frowned in thought and then shook his head, "we spent most of the time running, and while I definitely fought it was more or less alone. I meant being part of a unit."
"Ah," the red haired vixen nodded her head in understanding, "I have to say you did very well for yourself. You showed talent and kept your cool even when you found out that you had all been led into a trap. And you showed great physical prowess when you covered your comrades retreat." Akane smiled down at him and Naruto blushed at seeing the pride in her eyes, "you performed well above and beyond my expectations."
"Hehe, thank Akane-chan," Naruto gave the vixen a grin so wide his eyes became squinted, making him look like a fox.
Kawaii! Akane thought as her mind let out a very fan-girl like squeal. Just then the two of them felt a presence outside of the seal. "Seems someone is trying to wake you," Akane frowned at the thought of someone taking her Naruto-time.
"Yeah," Naruto sighed, before giving Akane another smile, "I'll come back later though."
Akane watched as he disappeared from her lap and sighed, she decided that since Naruto was no longer here, she might as well get some sleep.

~Story of the Ten Tailed Wolf~

"Arashi-san... Arashi-san," Arashi woke up to the sight of Choujuro standing over him.
"I'm up, I'm up," Arashi said as he sat up in the bed and let out a large yawn, stretching his hands over his head as high as they would go. He twisted his body so that his feet were now over the side of the bed, resting on the cold tiled floor as he looked up at his fellow swordsman. "So what's up?"
"Terumi-Sama has called a meeting and wants you to attend," Choujuro told him, getting a nod from the young man who stood up.
"Thanks for telling me, just let me get dressed and I'll be right out," the blue haired man nodded and left, leaving Arashi alone. He closed his eyes for a moment and focused, causing the air to ripple around him before his standard set of clothes while in this guise appeared. He really would have to find some way to thank Akane for this ability, shape shifting was far more useful than the henge. Not only that, but unlike the henge it would only deactivate when he let it, otherwise he stayed in what ever form he changed into indefinitely. It was damn useful for times like this.
Walking outside he saw that Choujuro had waited for him, together the two of them walked down the hall and made their way to the war room. The sound of shouting reached Arashi's enhanced hearing long before they got there, and the scene they came upon was not very awe-inspiring. Currently, Hisagi looked like he had gotten into another argument with Mei, he had a good idea what they were arguing about and his thoughts were soon confirmed by the man's words.
"It's obvious that he's a spy! First you get attacked on the way back from Konoha, and now we just lost one third of our troops in a trap. This is Arashi is obviously a spy working for Yagura!"
"And pray tell, why would you think that?" asked Arashi as he walked up to join Mei.
Hisagi sneered at him, "it's obvious that your the one who betrayed information to Yagura, you come here and all of a sudden everything go's to shit!"
"Wow," Arashi said in a voice that sounded mockingly impressed, "your pretty good at the whole baseless accusation thing aren't you?" When a scowl crossed the other man's face the red head continued, "also, you do realize that I have a bloodline, right? Aside from the fact that Yagura would not accept help from me, what could I possibly have to gain by joining him?"
"I don't know," Hisagi said with a glare, "what do you have to gain from joining him?"
Arashi rolled his eyes, "if your trying to use some form of reverse psychology I think I should tell you that its not working." He raised an eyebrow and looked at the man with a smirk, "you know, your pretty quick to jump the gun and point fingers. You aren't hiding anything are you?"
"Your accusing me of being a traitor!" Hisagi scoffed, "That's rich."
Arashi shrugged, "you said it not me. But why don't we look at the facts, you didn't agree with Mei's decision to request aid from Konoha, you have done everything possible short of outright mutiny to undermine Mei-san's authority, you seem to dislike me for the simple fact that I'm an outsider. Oh! And let's not forget that your the only non-bloodline holder who was privy to the information we gained from the Daimyo." the red head swordsman smirked at him, "seems to me that your more likely to betray the Bloodline faction than anyone."
"What!" Hisagi shouted angrily, he looked around to see many of the people there looking at him with something akin to suspicion. "You can't all believe him can you! He's just trying to divide us so that we'll be easier to defeat!"
"Those are some serious accusations, Arashi-san," Mei said, eying him with a calculating expression. "I hope you have proof of his treachery."
"No more proof than he did when accusing me," Arashi said, "and I wasn't actually accusing anyone, merely stating facts based on my observations."
"Still... your... observations hold some merit," Mei mumbled, more to herself than anyone else but everyone still heard it.
"You can't be serious Mei-Sama!" cried Hisagi, "he's obviously trying to turn you against me! Then he'll ensnare you in his web and kill you when its most convenient!"
"Ok, first off," Arashi started angrily, he was seriously getting pissed of at this guy. "If I had wanted her dead than don't you think I would have just left her during our last mission? If I was truly working with the Mizukage than that would have been the perfect time to literally destroy the bloodline faction."
"W-what do you mean?" asked Choujuro.
Arashi turned to look at the shy and under-confident swordsman, "Think about it, without Mei this entire operation would fall apart." The red head held up a hand and began ticking off his reasons, "first, Mei is far more powerful than anyone else here, out of all of the ninja on this side she is the only one strong enough to possibly face a Kage. Second, no one else has her leadership abilities, Ao might have the experience, but he simply doesn't have her charismatic presence, no one does." Mei actually gained a light blush at the fierce way Arashi defended her position and listed her abilities. It was almost funny because she knew he was just speaking his thoughts in as blunt a manner as possible, which in a way was what made the mans words so flattering.
"And lastly, Mei is the only one who is capable of bringing Kiri to even greater heights than it had been in the past," finished with his assessment of the woman in charge of the rebellion Arashi shrugged. "Without her, this whole rebellion would fall apart, maybe not right away, but in the end it would. It's a simple scenario of 'cut the head and the body will fall'."
Hisagi's face had been getting increasingly red with anger as Arashi spoke, he opened his mouth to speak when someone beat him to it. "That's enough," Mei said in a firm voice that made everyone stop and turn to her. "While I appreciate your assessment of me, Arashi, I believe you need to stop taunting Hisagi." Arashi looked like he wanted to say something, but in the end he simply nodded. "And Hisagi," Mei turned to him and for once, she wasn't smiling, "while I do not wish to believe you would betray your comrades we have to look at the facts at the moment. They all point towards you so far."
"You would believe that, that outsider over me!" Hisagi asked in rage.
"It's not a matter of believing one person over another," Mei stated firmly, "it's about looking at the evidence and making decisions based on that."
"What evidence!" Hisagi asked, "there is no evidence that I've betrayed you!"
"There's no evidence that he has either," Mei pointed out, "yet you still accused him. For now, I want you to stay in confinement, I will have guards posted at your door, you are only allowed to leave your room with an escort."
By the time Mei had finished Hisagi had his fists clenched so hard they were bleeding. "Fine!" he ground out before stalking away, slamming the door on his way out.
"Ao, please make sure he stays in his room," Mei ordered softly.
"Of course Mei-sama," Ao hurried out the door to follow the angry ninja.
Mei turned back to the others in the room, "until all of this has been sorted out we'll be suspending our operations. We can't make any plans until we know for sure who is leaking out information to Yagura."
There were nods of agreement from everyone in the room, it was upsetting that they would not be able to do anything, but until the traitor was found they could not afford to act. Just than a young chunin burst through the door, "Terumi-Sama! The town of Gokiwa is under attack by Yagura's forces!"
"What!" Mei demanded in surprise as she stood up, Gokiwa was one of the towns where the families of the bloodline faction lived. Because of the offensive they had taken the town was only lightly guarded. "Damn it!" she turned to Choujuro, "we need to send aid immediately! Take four squads with you!"
"I'll go as well," Arashi said in a determined voice.
Mei looked at him in surprise, "Arashi..."
"They'll need all the help they can get, and you know how good I am," he said.
Mei worried her lips as she deliberated, he had not yet given her a reason to doubt him, yet she could not let the possibility that Hisagi was right go. In the end, she knew he was quite possibly one of the strongest people she had on hand and they needed that strength. "Very well," she decided at last. "You are to go with Choujuro and lend aid to the town."
"Ma'am!" Arashi said, before he looked at Choujuro. The two of them shared a quick message of understanding and nodded. They ran out the door to get a squad together while Mei stood there looking worried.
- 8
- 9
- 10
You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.
Report Story

Story of the Ten Tailed Wolf