Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Jyuuken ❯ Invasion ( Chapter 2 )

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any characters therein. They are all owned by Kishimoto Masashi.

 

`Are my troops in position yet?'

`Yes.'

`And the Suna shinobi?'

`They should move according to plan.'

`Haha. This is almost too easy.'

`However, there may be a small problem.

`Problem?'

`Kimimaro has fallen ill.'

`What did you say?!' Orochimaru lifted Kabuto off the ground by his collar. Surprisingly, Kabuto stayed almost alarmingly calm.

`I said: Kimimaro has fallen ill, Orochimaru-sama.'

Orochimaru's glare bore into Kabuto for a second before he realized that Kabuto still had a carefully crafted expression of amiability on his face. It wasn't like he could threaten to kill Kabuto- well, not so that he would stay dead, anyway. He released his grip, and Kabuto immediately straightened his clothes, completely unfazed.

`You really do have a sick personality, Kabuto. Can you cure him?'

`He seems to have contracted -or possibly, developed- a condition I am not familiar with.'

`And?'

`And…I've done all I can, but his condition is deteriorating.'

Orochimaru took this in calmly. This was certainly, as they say, a pain in the ass. Kimimaro had the most wonderful bloodline abilities he had ever seen, apart from maybe the Sharingan and Byakugan. He had intended to use Kimimaro as his next body, but it would be useless to take over a corpse. And the plans for the destruction of Konoha were so far along as it was… Hmm, maybe -even if he was useless as a container now- he could still be a useful pawn for bringing down Konoha.

`Alright, bring him here, and tell him I have a special assignment for him.'

`Are you sure that's such a good idea?' Kabuto said, out of line, with no respect, and in a voice dripping with patronization. He could be a petulant child sometimes.

`Kabuto.'

`Yes?'

`Don't speak to me like that.'

`Yes, Orochimaru-sama.'

 

-----

 

It wasn't until the semi-finals that anything really interesting happened to Hinata. Before then, she had been sparring with Neji, who seemed to have something major on his mind recently, getting checked up on by medics, and training by herself. But, all the while, she had failed to think up a way of bringing herself to fight Naruto.

The judge (different from the one that had been judging the preliminaries, Hinata noticed) announced the start of the fight in a lazy tone of voice, which sounded up-beat compared to how Hinata was feeling. She hadn't been able to come up with any way to justify raising a hand to Naruto. How could she? He was the one who gave her the strength to face Neji in the first place. Let alone the…other stuff.

She had no resolve, no conviction, and no way to even stop herself from blushing every time she looked at him. Whenever she did manage a fleeting glance at him, he seemed equally ill-at-ease. Naruto was kind, she knew that. He probably didn't want to fight her either.

Genma rolled the needle from one side of his mouth to the other thoughtfully as the crowd got increasingly rowdy. `Oi, you two. I did say “start,” you know.'

Naruto cleared his throat. `Um…hey, Hinata…' Hinata fought to stop herself from turning away or trying to hide. `Uh… Should we, umm… Well…' he trailed off. He didn't have the heart or inclination to rush over and beat the quiet girl up, nor could he think of a way to tactfully suggest that they should try and beat each-other up. But Hinata understood.

`Umm…d-don't worry, Naruto-kun…'

`Huh?'

`I…can't beat you.'

`…'

`M-Mr. Referee? `

`Hm? What?'

`I-I g-give up.'

The audience didn't so much explode into angry yells as it did gracefully segue way from loud grumbling to jeers and impatient gas-bagging. It seemed to be the consensus view that if this boring fight was over, the next one should start immediately.

Naruto, on the other hand, seemed taken aback. He opened his mouth to protest, but remembered that he didn't really want to fight Hinata either. He shut his mouth, feeling slightly relieved despite himself.

Up in the private observation area where the most important spectators sat, the Third Hokage sighed- partly out of relief, but mostly out of disappointment. That fight could have been Naruto's chance to gain some recognition from the villagers, it was just unfortunate that he had an opponent that was difficult to fight.

The Fourth Kazekage gave the two exiting combatants a cursory glance, and promptly lost interest, finding the crowd more entertaining. He laughed quietly.

`The crowd is noisy.'

`It was an unsatisfying match.'

`Yes. That, too, but… the next match is something the head shinobi and feudal lords are highly anticipating.'

`…'

`By the way, I did not see him at the opening ceremony, but he is already here, correct?'

The Hokage hesitated for a moment. `Y-yes…'

 

Back in the safety of the participant's observation box, Hinata watched the next few matches (two of which were delayed or settled by surrender immediately). She didn't even need to worry about what to say to Naruto, since he was enthusiastically cheering Shikamaru on from the beginning of his match. After that, things started moving fairly quickly. Sasuke appeared, his match with Gaara started, after a while there was a commotion where the Hokage had been, and everyone in the stadium was put to sleep with a high-level genjutsu.

 

-----

 

Kimimaro stopped running, fell to one knee, and started coughing violently. The Oto shinobi accompanying him ran back to where he had stopped and waited politely. Had they been accompanying someone who didn't have the ability to kill all of them in a few seconds, they might have given him some incentive to keep going by way of a sharp kick to the ribs, but they weren't suicidal. They also decided against trying to help him to his feet. It hadn't gone so well last time. In fact, they were one man short now.

With a final-sounding retch, a spray of blood spattered on the ground, and Kimimaro tried to catch his breath- now on hands and knees.

One of the braver shinobi cleared his throat. `Kimimaro-sama, the invasion has sta-a-ah-!' The man's eyes widened in pain and surprise, and his hands twitched. Kimimaro looked up. The man's apparent discomfort was being caused by another shinobi, wearing a Konoha headband and flack jacket -so he must have been Chuunin-level or above- and he seemed to have stabbed the speaker in the back.

To Kimimaro's immediate left and right, the shinobi who had been escorting him folded up silently, quite detached from life. The enemy certainly had the advantage, from a tactical point-of-view, but the first one to attack Kimimaro was briefly -and fatally- sorry to have done so.

`…Yanagi no Mai…'

 

-----

 

Hinata picked her way through the forest aimlessly. The Invasion was over, and Konoha was still standing. Kurenai hadn't woken her up until the fighting had ended, and Team 7, and Suna shinobi, and a few others were still missing. Training seemed like a pointless activity at this point, and she didn't much want to face her father for a while, so she was taking a walk.

Even this far out from Konoha there were signs of battle. Navigational marks on the trees, or scorch marks from explosive tags, kunai and shuriken every so often, but -more than anything- footprints. On branches and the ground, they went towards and away from Konoha, north-east and south-east, west, north. Even though it seemed like various chases had taken place, it didn't seem like there had been too many lethal battles. She had come across a rather large pool of blood at one point, but it seemed like someone from Konoha had already mostly cleaned up.

It was slightly pathetic to be worried about other shinobi dying; that was a fact of life for them. But it brought back the words Neji had said to her before their preliminary match.

`Hinata-sama…you are not suited to be a shinobi…your heart is too kind…'

Snippets of the conversation flitted in and out of her mind before she could stop them. She tried not to think about that too much -it made her depressed- but it was hard not to recently. She had gained a little self-esteem after beating Neji, but what he said seemed to have been confirmed after her match with Naruto.

Suddenly, a dark shape appeared on a branch above her. Its vague edges coalesced into a slightly scruffy outline of a human wearing a mask. The mask turned to her, seemed to consider her for a moment, and then it was gone again. She saw another shape headed in the same direction, but further away, for a moment.

It was at about that time that she took a good look at the forest. It was much darker and older than the forest she was used to seeing. She must have wandered quite a distance from the village without realising it. She wasn't quite sure which way the village was, but it was a fair bet that those two people she had seen were moving directly away from it.

She took a step in the opposite direction of where the masked person had been going, and stopped. She had caught a glimpse of someone slumped against a tree not too far away. Well, “against” was the easiest way to say it. It looked like he had found a place where the huge tree naturally formed a small hollow with its roots. And it was virtually impossible to see from anywhere besides where she was standing, so the people in the trees couldn't have seen him. That being said, he had also made some effort to erase his footprints outside and leading up to the hollow. To Hinata, it looked as though he had just appeared there.

She did notice that he was bleeding, however. He had a few small cuts on his arms and legs, but there was also a spot on his chest where a lot of blood was coming out. There was also a little blood coming from his mouth.

All things considered, he probably wasn't from Konoha. This made deciding what to do a little…tricky.

`You are not suited to being a shinobi…'

Hinata's feet shifted hesitantly. Going back to the village and telling Kurenai about this seemed like a good option- but there was an awful lot of blood. But he might be an enemy- or he might be from Konoha and was hiding from the enemies. She didn't recognise him- but she had never met everyone in the village. Maybe he wasn't from Suna, Oto, or Konoha- maybe another allied village? He didn't have a forehead protector with a village's symbol on it- but there were plenty of reasons why he might have lost it.

As the thoughts buzzed, the only thing that remained certain was that this man was injured, of unknown origin, and he wasn't waking up. Her face tensed in low-level determination, and she fished around in her waist pouch for a small container of ointment.

The boy was definitely still alive, but he wasn't very healthy. He must have been in a deep sleep, since he didn't wake up at any point while she tried to apply ointment and bandages to the wound on his chest, which looked pretty painful.