Fire

Previously while Genos was attending an event.

The ground trembled making everyone latch tightly onto the table they were sitting on. More tremors were felt before a violent force shook the ground and suddenly everything loose on the table were thrown off. Genos immediately headed outside leaving the others. He needed to know what caused this disturbance and as a hero he needed to contain this situation.

He looked up into the sky. There just above the horizon of Konoha’s forest, where the trees lined up in a harmonious row, a very familiar looking monstrosity stood looking at him. He grabbed his phone and dialled Sonic’s number. He gritted his teeth and impatiently waited for his roommate to answer his call.

“Sonic get out of the house, run!” he shouted as soon as he heard Sonic’s lazy before lunch voice.

“Run!”

……………………...

Sonic was stumbling down the stairs, as the apartment building continued to shake violently. She had walked down these stairs many times but with the debris falling and people running chaotically past her shrieking and wailing, everything became confusing. Sonic leaned against the wall knowing that whatever was causing the building to shake wasn’t nearby since the building would have collapsed if the perpetrator was near. She speed dialled Genos’ number but Genos didn’t answer. The building shook more violently causing Sonic to lurch forward and lost her footing. She lost her grip on the phone and it landed at the bottom of the stairs.

Sonic twisted her body in time with her sudden fall and landed on a clear landing. She escaped landing on part of the landing full of broken glasses and some metal. Sonic rolled onto the hard cement and gathered herself into a sitting position. She dusted off the debris from her hoodie and searched for her fallen mobile phone. Unfortunately when she found it the phone was dented, the screen cracked and dead. Sighing, sonic just shoved it into her pocket and searched for a way out. The phone was broken but it contained all her business details, she would have to deal with it later.

It’s been a long time since Sonic had a fight with anyone or anything. The Battle of the Monsters felt like such a long time ago and Sonic did not even care to spar with Genos or anyone else for practice. She practiced alone in the woods when Genos was not around, perfecting her speed and signature wind blade kick to get her body moving. She was not sure whether she was going to fight like before, but she continued to practice fighting for self defense and also for her business. Also living in a city with a Hero Association meant that fighting skill was a need and not just some fancy skill.

Sonic stood up and held onto the walls looking out onto the grounds. People were running chaotically here and there not sure where to escape. Sonic knew if Genos was here, he would surely ask her to take care of the citizens while he faced the enemy. Sonic sighed, the blonde cyborg had been putting a lot of ideas in her head which she never cared about. Get the people out of the way, safety first! Genos would say.

Genos’ mantra made Sonic sigh but she started finding her way down towards the chaotic scared people. She needed to make them move to a shelter in the forest. Her head was still thinking otherwise, face the enemy first and heck with the people but she would still need to get to her stashed weapons in the forest. Therefore might as well herd the people to safety before getting to her weapons

“These people better treat me to a year of free lunches and dinners,” Sonic muttered under her breath.

The raven haired kunoichi grabbed the nearest woman with a child in her arms and told the woman, “Run to the forest, there’s a shelter there. Remember the drill!” The panicked woman nodded and did what Sonic told her to do. Sonic watched her turn around and head to the forest before she turned around and grabbed a man around her height carrying an elderly man in his hands, “Bring him to the shelter now, it’s safer!” she shouted. The man nodded and followed Sonic’s direction. Sonic continued to grab for a few more people who were running pathetically around, telling them to run for the shelter. Genos had told her before that all citizens have been trained to run for the shelter in a situation like this, but Sonic knew that Konoha never had huge monsters attack them before so they  might forget these things in a moment of panic

Sonic was glad these people did remember their evacuation drill somehow her and didn't ask her where the shelter was. She realized that these people must have known where the shelter was but too panicked to realize that they needed to go there directly.

In a distant Sonic heard someone shouting while running and then another violent shake sent everyone grabbing for earth. It was utter chaos this time but then Sonic saw that the few people she had grabbed and pointed towards the shelter, were now shouting to everyone that they needed to head to the shelter too. Sonic watched as everyone ran towards the shelter’s direction instead of running everywhere.

The shelter in the forest was a bomb proof place located underground. It was also fireproof and earthquake proof. She wondered what Konoha’s track records was when it came to monster’s attack. She knew that there might be small scaled attacks, maybe contained before it escalated to something bigger. By the previous scene where everyone was running chaotically around, with some stumbling down and falling behind, it was clear that they had never faced such emergency before. Sonic run after them towards the shelter, amidst shrieks and cryings. Making them run to safety was one thing but consoling the crying scared ones was another.

When they finally reached the shelter, Sonic headed to her right and in a hundred metres spotted the tree with white flowers. She had marked it as her secret weapons stash. Climbing agilely on to it she reached the top and smirked at her weapon stash. Now she could face any unknown enemy. She took off her sneakers and changed into her ninja gear.

FIRE FIRE FIRE FIRE FIRE FIRE

Genos looked as the red and white monster which emerged from the horizon, floating like some goddamned angel wannabe. It was bigger than he had remember. It’s head now four instead of two, and it was being protected by a transparent blue ball.

“Hello Hero from before, we meet here again,” the monster said in its high shrieked voice. It advanced towards Genos slowly and everyone around him immediately took off.

“Are you here to cause trouble again?” Genos asked. He knew he should just blast his way to the monster and end this all. But he had pledged to help Konoha and right now he wasn’t sure what the monsters ability was so he needed to stall it while he waited for KHA (Konoha Hero Association) to arrive.

This was one of the monsters he had faced in the Battle of Monsters. The monster which looked like a hybrid of dinosaur and bird laughed and landed on the clearing crushing the tents and all. Around them people were running towards the city center, Genos wondered why the KHA was not here yet, how would they protect their residents? They can’t run to the shelter which was situated just behind the monster so they need to run to the other one, just near the city. Genos continued to stall the monster when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

“Genos-kun, let us help you. We will attack the monster with our combined attack. Bring the people down to the shelter. Some are outsiders and they don’t know where to run.”

Genos felt the hand left his shoulder and from his side Neji and Hinata walked in unison towards the monster. There was no time to fight and explain to the Hyugas that the monster was his former enemy, and since he wasn’t sure what the monster’s new defence was he just warned the lavender eyed cousins.

“Be aware of his fire jets, they follow you around like missiles. Don't douse with water.”

The cousins nodded without even turning back and Genos turned around to help the chaotic crowd.

“Everyone, head to the shelter in the city. Follow me.” Genos announced over the crowd. Some paused to listen to him but many more were running elsewhere, panicked by the monster’s presence.

Genos then activated his thrusters and flew above the crowd and magnified his voice, “Now calm down and run towards the shelter in the city!”

This time a majority of the public paid attention to his orders and they then ran towards the shelter.

“Nii-san, let's go,” Hinata urged Neji.

“Byakugan,” they shouted after another.vIn an instant their eyes turned to a clear white and the veins around their eyes constricted, making veins pop around the Hyugas eyes. Neji could see major chakra points on the monster but he could also see that there was a bigger layer of chakra around the monster.

“I'll go check whether we can penetrate the ball first.”

Hinata nodded to her cousin and Neji approached the monster. It was almost three storeys high.

The monster was busy laughing confidently at the chaotic scene. It seemed overconfident.

Neji moved into his stance and surged forward kicking himself off the ground and onto the monster. He launched three chakra needles which hit the blue ball of chakra but they all sizzled out at the point of contact with the ball.

“Chakras don't work,” Hinata said. “Fu give me a hand.”

Fu emerged out of the debris and shot a physical arrow at the ball but was deflected.

“So the blue chakra ball was only protecting it physically, we will wait for Kakashi and the others. In the meantime distract it,” Neji shouted.

“No problem,” Fu said as she made a few hand signaled and expelled a swarm of chakra dragonflies towards the monsters.

“Little things won't bother me,” the monster hissed. Suddenly the blue ball changed colour into red and released hails of chakra needles.

Neji ran towards Hinata as Fu defended them by absorbing the chakra needles with her chakra dragonflies.

Suddenly a blaze of fire burnt all the chakra needles down.

Neji and Hinata turned around to see Itachi Uchiha standing in a black robe. He had his two fingers together like a gesture of a gun and blew smoke from his nails.

“The KHA has arrived. Now let's see who deemed itself brave enough to come and disturb our peace.” Itachi smirked and made a few hand signals before shouting “Katon!” A stream of fire blazed from his lips towards the stunned monster who was visibly annoyed at the new participants.