Chapter 16
Guys, can you believe it – there’s a new chapter. Though I’ve got to warn you:
I stand by what I said in my bio: Officially, I’m still on hiatus. I still don’t have a job (god, help me) so I’ll have to focus on that. But for right now I’ll just … define hiatus as ‘Don’t hold your breath’.
I’ll also owe you an extra because ff.net reached 400 (!!) comments, but I’m all out of ideas right now:/ In that vein: I’m still taking prompts.
Also, I love you guys, as always, and read all your comments with starry eyes and much gushing. You keep me going; essentially this chapter is all on you.
There’s nothing to break their fall.
Hisana tries to turn them into a more controlled descent, tries to hold onto something, hands pumped full of chakra so that they don’t shred to pieces from the sheer force of the impact. But her fingers slide through the wood like butter, spraying them with splinters and dust. Sasuke is dead weight in her grip. For a tense fifteen seconds they spiral through the air, then they hit the ground hard enough to knock the breath out of her. Sasuke’s weight ramming into her stomach doesn’t help.
Hisana curses, low and vicious. That was stupid – necessary but incredibly stupid. Sasuke coughs above her, flecking her chin with blood. Sounds of battle drift downward and she pushes him off callously. “Anko?” she taps her com a few times until it crackles to life, dinged but functional. “Enemy contact – sector 12B. Three Konoha genin down. Anko, can you hear me?”
“Got you,” comes the terse reply. “Hana is on her way.” There’s a short pause, before she adds, “We lost two. Don’t you dare let him get away.”
This time, Hisana bites back the curses; her back aches something fierce. Next to her Sasuke climbs unsteadily to his feet, shaking off the impact easy as you please. “Stay with me,” she grunts, taking hold of his wrist as he tries to wipe his face. “Don’t leave my sight.”
“Sakura,” he says, Sharingan straining towards where Naruto must still be pinned to the tree.
“I know. We’ll get them. We only need to hold him off until ANBU arrives.” She dusts off her pants, cracks her neck. For a moment they stare at each other, jittery with adrenaline, then they kick off the ground, racing to where the noise is loudest.
Only halfway back up, an explosion sends two figures hurtling towards them. Hisana snatches one of them out of the air, the other is swallowed by a swarm of kikkai and promptly disappears. Sora is heavy as hell as she drags his unconscious form up with her.
“Come on,” she snaps. “Wake up! It’s not usually so easy to shut you up.” The answer is a sudden death grip on her wrist as well as a serious stink eye. “Haru,” he says and Hisana has to grin despite the situation. Boys are all the same.
“I’m getting there – you need to take the genin. There’s … something not right here. He’s attacking them. I don’t know what he wants from a bunch of genin, but ....”
“But’s its not directions to the exit,” he agrees, winding out of her hold and attaching himself to the tree. His grip is awkward but seems firm enough. Sasuke watches them nervously; any minute now he’ll bolt and leave them behind. That arrogant block-head. She shoots him a warning glare.
“Sasuke, grab your teammates and get the hell out of here. Head towards the tower and don’t let anyone stop you. Screw the scrolls.” He hesitates for a precious second before giving a nod. A shiver crawls down Hisana’s spine as she watches her cousin run back towards his teammates – back towards the Sannin that is still after his neck.
Then her attention is drawn back to Sora, whose eyes are uncharacteristically serious. “Be careful,” he grinds out. “I’m coming back as soon as I can.” He speeds after Sasuke without a backwards glance. Good. He can’t be distracted right now – not even by his team. Hisana isn’t particularly proud of it, but right now she’d happily throw Sora and Haru both under the bus for Sasuke. Maybe it’s because of the little voice in her head that insists both of her teammates would take that hit, shake it off and go back to business as usual. Sasuke is still far, far too young for this.
There’s no warning except for a quiet rustle of leaves as Orochimaru’s head breaks through the foliage, maw closed dangerously around Sasuke’s shirt even while Sora’s arm is still wrapped around him.
The Sannin’s body follows not two seconds after, Haru and Hanada hot on his heels. Ninja wire spans between them as they try to circle him. It cuts into the long neck, splitting the skin and then – a burst of smoke and the clone is gone.
Something flickers from below as another head strikes at them like a viper. For a split second Hisana can see the twisted visage of it in great detail, eyes wild with the scent of prey, then it shoots past her. She punches the neck, sending the head careening into the next tree like a pendulum. More people drop down from above, trailing a great net of rope and ninja wire.
But a giant katon jutsu blows into the fragile looking construction, setting the entire thing on fire. In retaliation Shiki starts swinging the burning rope at the Sannin, hitting him square in the face. The whip lash does little to impress the jounin. In fact, none of the gathered ninja seem to be anything but a mild annoyance to him. His eyes are still on Sasuke, shielded behind Sora’s back, and to a lesser extent Naruto, slung over Shizuha’s shoulder like a ragdoll.
Hisana circles them, catching the blond genin as Shizuha throws him at her, and puts herself between the increasingly angry Sannin and her cousin. Another katon jutsu shaves past her; the scent of burnt hair fills Hisana’s nose, but she doesn’t stop. Instead she sidesteps a volley of kunai and ducks behind Sora’s back. “Where’s Sakura?” she hisses, watching as Hanada slices the remains of their net into reusable cords.
“I gave her my com and send her towards reinforcements,” the girl grunts. “That little genin is more sensible than both of her teammates put together.” Naruto starts to stir in her arms, and Hisana can’t help but agree. Once both boys are awake there’s no chance in hell that they’ll leave without making a fuss; neither of them has any self-preservation instinct and instead double the amount of self-confidence strictly necessary.
She foists the blond genin onto Hanada and winds a firm hand into the back of Sora’s shirt.
“When I say ‘go’, you two make a run for it.”
For a moment Hanada looks scandalized but Sora nods easily and so she merely huffs and sulks in silence – a good thing, too, since Hisana wants nothing more than to grab the kids and run herself. But as the team leader she can’t. It’s just not done; even if everyone else flees, she needs to hold out until Anko and Ibiki are here. Captain of a sinking ship, she thinks grimly as Orochimaru’s eyes fix on her.
“Oho,” he says, voice smooth and strangely cultured. “So it is true. And to think I doubted my sources.” He clucks his tongue, face pensive. “Pity – so I killed them over nothing.”
Everyone tenses almost at once, not only at the mention of spies but also at the brash revelation of the Sannin’s goal. Hisana can see Shiki’s eyes flickering back and forth between Sasuke and Orochimaru and then finally towards her with a mildly alarmed expression.
“Good help’s hard to find,” Hisana says, feeling only a little sick. “Maybe you should be a little more careful with your resources.” He smiles at her, perfectly friendly despite the killing intent leaking back into the air.
“Oh, I’m very careful when it’s about the right resources. I’m in the process of acquisition right now, if you can believe it.”
“We’re not up for sale.”
At this the Sannin finally starts to laugh, loud and over the top, as if the entire situation were just a short and amusing stop on his way, as if they’re only delaying the inevitable by minutes.
“My dear, you misunderstand the situation – I’m not looking to buy; I’m seizing.”
His grin seems to split his face in two and Hisana knows the fun is officially over. There’s only just time to throw a ‘Go!’ over her shoulder before a giant head breaks through the forest floor.
The snake is bigger than anything she’s yet encountered on training ground 44 and its eyes are too sharp and intelligent for a regular animal. It strikes out at them, scattering her team across the clearing and uprooting trees. Unfortunately Orochimaru isn’t content to simply watch the chaos unfold.
A choked off scream echoes through the dust and debris that rains down on them. Hisana’s head whips around. “Sora!”
“Go!” Shiki squawks, barely avoiding a rattle tail crashing down on her. “We’ve got this. Kage nui no Jutsu.”
There’s no time to account for everyone. Hisana stumbles through the battlefield, valiantly ignoring the snake summon’s livid stream of ‘Die! Die! Die!’. Her eyes are fixed on her former teammate, desperately trying to engage the enemy while Sasuke dithers behind him.
The next minutes are pure chaos.
The giant snake summon comes crashing down on all of them, head thrashing, before it explodes into smoke. The force of the dispel catapults everyone headlong into the forest, skittering through the undergrowth and smacking into trees. Hisana’s Sharingan flash, her head sparking with shocks of pain. The world fades in and out for what might be only seconds but feels far longer.
“Get up, get up!” a familiar voice hisses into her ear. Teeth sink into her leg and for one panicked moment she thinks only of snake fangs and cursed seals, but the pain is far too feeble for that. “Get it together,” Fudo snaps; he’s wobbling on his feet, banged up, but whole. Around Hisana, the forest is worryingly silent.
“This is completely out of control,” she moans. “Fudo, where is your sister?”
“Around here; I can smell her.”
“Good. We need a genjutsu, and fast.”
The skunk chatters unhappily at her. “If he’s here for Sasuke, he must have come prepared for that.”
“For offensive genjutsu, maybe. Get Ran – we’re flooding this entire sector.”
It’s the first time they’re using this kind of genjutsu on such a large scale. But even considering the situation, Hisana is reasonably confident it’ll buy them some time. It only takes seconds for her to spin the illusion – the chirping of birds, so loud that nothing else registers, the glare of sunlight so harsh that it hurts the eye, and the ripple of shadows so deep nothing can penetrate them. It’s a subtle one, usually only the groundwork for something more invasive. But for this purpose it’ll be enough.
A Sannin is too good to be mislead by it and stumble over his own feet, but the trick is a different one.
“You got this?” she murmurs, half caught up in her own genjutsu.
“Got it.”
“Then go.”
The skunks are fast; in less than two minutes they’ll have attached olfactory triggers all over the sector. To break the jutsu, Orochimaru will have to find and destroy all of them. Nearly impossible without getting the entire forest up in arms, the thinks with a grin, slinking into one of her deep shadows and disappearing.
Shunshin is the most useful jutsu in combination.
The illusion is like a grid, laid out in front of her in eerie lights and faint sounds. Sasuke, even with his rudimentary Sharingan, will figure out how to hide in her artificial darkness. The rest of her team, probably not so much. It feels like cheating. Hisana hates cheating; even as a ninja there should be something like a code of honor. But right now the Sharingan, for the first time ever, feel like a blessing. It also paints a big, fat target on her clan’s back but at least she can also use it to get out of this mess. It’s not a fix-all, but it’ll do. Now, the only thing left to do is find either her cousin or the Sannin – whoever crosses her path first.
Left, her brain screams, before she can process the information. Hisana ducks and a snake shoots over her head, thick as the arm of a grown man. Its fangs sink into a tree hard enough to make it rattle. It catches her right in the middle of a Shunshin and – what the hell, why is it so fast?
“That was a nice idea,” it comes mildly from behind. A pair of arms slinks around her shoulders and a chin hooks over her head. “But you forgot something.” Orochimaru takes a deep, exaggerated breath; it rattles threateningly and, high on panic, Hisana wonders if it’s a coincidence. “You see, snakes have an excellent sense of smell. Your triggers lack some … finesse, I’m afraid.”
Her fist hits him right in the jaw, cracking against his teeth, before the clone goes up in smoke.
“I see the family resemblance now.” Her head whips around and there he is again, eyes lazily shuttered against the jutsu but tongue darting out to taste the air. “You and Sasuke-kun are both very stubborn – how unfortunate.”
Anger and fear, when channeled the right way, make powerful motivators. And Dokushin, for all its simplicity, is made for speed. It clashes against Orochimaru’s blade with a sickly clang and immediately Hisana realizes just how hopelessly outclassed she is. They trade blows so hard and fast, she can barely keep up even with the Sharingan burning painfully. The Sannin’s eyes are still half closed, in awareness of her dangerous kekkei genkai but also definitely in arrogance.
Kusanagi scrapes past her face, and as blood and hair flies she can only pray it’s not poisonous. Hisana twists below the blade and around, and as they turn in circles Orochimaru’s grin grows. She catches him with the flat of the blade but it only startles a huff out of him. Please let Sasuke be gone, she thinks in panic. Please let someone have grabbed him and run.
Because there’s no winning this. This is a game and unless a miracle happens right this moment, she’s going to die or worse. Her teeth grind audibly.
“Now, that’s enough – Hisana-chan, you wouldn’t want to actually get hurt.”
Kusanagi pierces her chest, splitting skin and gnashing past bones. For a moment everything stills; the sound of her genjutsu flickers and dies, the noises of the forest dim. But her heart beats loudly and her pulse rushes. The blade withdraws with a slick spurt of blood, almost innocuous in size. It hurts, but it’s bearable. I can do this – this is still okay. The Sannin reaches for her but she bats him away. This time it’s annoyance that she reads on his face. It only fuels her determination.
“Pigheaded,” he snarls, “just like your cousin. But I’m not making the same mistake twice.”
There’s no time to be confused; his head strikes out to bite her and Hisana instinctively reaches out to stop it. Her hands wrap around Orochimaru’s face, fingers digging into his eyes and nails scraping at his strange, rubbery skin. But the Sannin only laughs as he bites down on her hand.
I've said it before and I'll say it again - fuck fight scenes, honestly. They give me headaches because they always sound kind of flat to me.