Chapter 13 - Into the Sound

Chapter 13: Into The Sound
Okay guys. I want you to exercise as little use of chakra as possible, okay?
Sakura and Hinata nodded.
That way, obviously, they can't sense you. Okay, let's go. Our route is just to the right Kakashi-sensei's and to the left of Rain-san's. Let's go.
And with that they set off. Jumping on the branches of the trees, everything seemed like a blur. They would stop at night, but only with the protection of Naruto's jutsus. The only time they would eat is on the move. The last one hour before sunset the three would gather enough food to eat for the day continuously as they ran. Three days passed, and they rested as Naruto set up his usual jutsus.
Naruto sat in front of the two.
Okay guys. What are our plans?
You're the leader!
Naruto chuckled.. Leader, eh... Yeah, I just like making you say it. Anyways, dobes, I suggest we --
Naruto?
Yeah?
You never say dobes...
Naruto shrugged.
Something's wrong with Naruto-kun... He doesn't feel... Byakungan! and immediately, Hinata threw a kunai at the figure of Naruto.
Sakura immediately joined in and punched the ground making a huge crater which consumed the man. Let me guess. That's not Naruto, is it?
Hinata shook her head.
Thought so.
Hinata suddenly gasped.
What?
There's no chakra signature down there anymore!
Say what?
They both jumped down there to not only find no chakra signature there, but there was no body, too.
shoot!
Now, now! It's not nice to curse! Missing me already, eh? Naruto said smiling.
Naruto-kun! Hinata jumped but she couldn't get out of the whole.
Naruto made a human chain with he and his shadow clones. Sakura got up. As Hinata was getting up, she kissed each shadow clone on the cheek, and she kissed Naruto on the mouth.
Don't you ever scare us like that again! Where the hell were you?
Sorry, got lost! Jeez... Anyways, just wanted to say we're going directly east and go past Orochimaru to the meeting point. Then we'll double back around him to fool him. Kay?
They both nodded.
But how do we really know it's you?
I swear upon all ramen that is delicious that I am Uzumaki Naruto.
A fake Naruto wouldn't care about ramen!
Naruto gasped. Sakura! Everyone cares about ramen! No one is immune to its deliciousness. I can't believe you would say such a thing!
Sakura-chan, it is Naruto-kun's chakra signature. Hinata said with her byakungan. Hugging him tightly, she said, Thank God it is...
But who was the other one?
Sakura-chan, you and I only know one person who says 'dobe.' But if it was him, he wouldn't have come out in the open like that... It didn't seem like him. No, I'm sure it was a trick to make us think that it was Sasuke...
She nodded. Doing that wasn't his style...
The next day they met at the meeting point.
So, what's the plan?
We're going to go and invade Orochimaru's fort. We have evidence that he resides underground below a cave. Kakashi said. The thing is, we aren't aiming to kill him... I doubt all of us can kill him. So, we're going to do as much damage as we can. We're going to kill all the people close to him, and especially Kabuto  that will be a major damage. We are going to be faced with war soon, and there's a very high possibility that Orochimaru will team up with Akatsuki again. And so, we're going to go in. Kakashi finished.
Naruto didn't like it; not only was the mission starting to sound like people simply running out and sacrficing themselves, but it began to seem that there were more and more holes in the explanation. Why not aim to kill him? Why did we bring thirteen people here then? Just to waste time? Something was missing, and, yet, Kakashi was the one who said it  meaning no one could tell what emotion he had.
Let's go.
Naruto didn't like the sound of this. Naturally, he put on his mental barriers again and moved with them. Silently, they reached the cave where Orochimaru was supposed to be hiding. Four sound jounin  ones with curse seals  were guarding the cave entrance. They all fell dead after a few blows; the usual run out in the open while someone makes the real attack plan. Hinata used her Byakungan to see what was going to happen, but it seemed that there was a chakra shield. Naruto made a shadow clone and the clone went inside; opening the trap door, the real Naruto stood above it to minimize light entry. Falling down, the clone saw it was pitch black. Apparently, the clone had landed on something solid. The substance was icy cold, and it had an aura of evil to it.
Naruto signaled the others, and the clone poofed away. Entering, they, too felt the substance. Suddenly, two torches, on on each side was lit. Then another came, and they kept increasing until they went off to about fifty torches. It was a straight path with no turns or deviations. At the very end, some thirty large torches on the bottom all in one row lit up to reveal a large statue of a snake. Silently, they walked up.
Hinata used her byakungan. Apparently, there were seven levels to this thing. They were on the first. The farther down they went, the closer to Orochimaru they got. Naruto didn't like the sound of it; if he knew Orochimaru, the further they got, the harder it would get... Not for him, but for his friends. After all, Orochimaru couldn't steal a dead Naruto's body, could he. His friends would be in danger  not good. He took Hinata's hand and squeezed it.
I'm not nervous. she said.
Naruto quietly chuckled. I am...
She kissed him on the cheek. Don't be.
He sighed. You're right... There was no need to worry. His friends wouldn't die because he would protect them. There was no way he would experience the same pain again  he wasn't going to let it happen. It didn't matter if Orochimaru was level 20! He would kick his @$$ if he got near any of his friends  that, was a promise.
There was a seal blocking the entrance. Amazingly, the seal was deactivated.
They've been expecting us to come... Kakashi said.
Meaning there can only be a trap ahead. Mithos added.
Indeed, but we cannot simply wait here. We must go onward. Horace said.
Hinata used her byakungan again. There are about five people in there.
They nodded and went in. Kakashi adjusted his forehead protector to reveal his sharingan before entering.
Instantly, three kunais were thrown at them. Kakashi, able to see them with his sharingan, blocked them with his own kunai. Hinata located them  the five sound ninjas had them surrounded. The entrance actually went down and came up into the middle of a large stadium-like structure. The sound ninjas obviously tracked them by sound and chakra.
No sight, eh? I'll fix that. Solaric Light. Naruto whispered and a huge amount of light radiated the area. The group soon set off to get them after their sight was restored.
Shadow clone jutsu. Kakashi barely whispered and set off after them. Using an earth jutsu he got one off guard.
Sonic Pulse Wave no jutsu! But it was too late.
Kakashi got him with a kunai from behind.
Rain made explosive clones to get one, but he ran out of the way very quickly. Unfortunately, he ran right into Horace.
Ragnarok no jutsu! A large sword shaped mountain of rock was hurled at the sound ninja, but the sound nin dodged it.
Sound Lense! Now, the acoustics in the location had drastically increased, allowing the sound nin's jutsus to be more powerful.
Puppet Assassination! Kankuro said and 'ended the performance.'
The next sound ninja was a girl. Sonic Wave! she screamed, and instantly all of them were effected by a supersonic wave which knocked them unconscious. Instantly, Naruto used the 'Sound Nullification jutsu to cancel it, and they were back on their feet soon. While they were getting up, Naruto used his Shadow Transportation jutsu and killed her.
Once they were up, they broke off to hunt the remaining two. Naruto used rasengan, but the nin dodged. Rain charged up her attack, but the nin simply used a seal and vanished.
WTF? Naruto thought.
With that they opened the door and moved on to the next level. The next four levels were very similar to this one, only the ninjas got more and more difficult, and the groups was starting to get tired by now. When they reached the sixth level, what they found rather startled them. They found living quarters! It seemed Orochimaru had people living there with him, and by the looks of it, there was room for about fifty. Of the fifty, they guessed about half were in the levels that they had passed  about twenty five or so. Going to the next door, Hinata didn't sense anyone in the vicinity, and far beyond on three sides there were chakra shields preventing he view. She told them about what she found, and they decided they had to go in anyways. Coming in, they saw in the middle a large chair surrounded by an ominous black aura  no doubt the chair where Orochimaru sat. Beyond that, straight ahead there was blackness; a smilar blackness was found in both the right and left sides. This room was the largest room yet. They came together at the center wondering where on earth Orochimaru could be. Suddenly, a great rumbling occurred. Then, as the huddled together, three snakes appeared. Two were large, but the one in the center was huge  the Manda.
Instantly, the snakes lunged at them, stretching their long bodies. They had barely been able to dodge; the snakes made huge holes in the wall. A point of blood appeared on Naruto's thumb as he took out his scroll.
Summoning no jutsu!
Gama-Bunta immediately appeared. He and Naruto tackled the Manda. The snake lunged at the frog leader, but the leader jumped and whacked it down with its pipe; while it was on the ground, still recuperating from the toad's blow, Naruto rammed it with an Odamma Rasengan. However, the blow seemed to do little damage. He decided something else  charging most of his chakra, he looked the snake directly in the eye.
Mengekyuou Sharingan! he shouted, and the snake soon after came back to this world panting heavily. But it still had energy.
It lunged at Naruto, catching him off guard; luckily, his partner kicked the snake, but it was a little too late. The snake's fang barely touched Naruto causing a five inch long scar to appear on his thigh.
But it was not time to worry about it now. Gama-Bunta took his pipe and made the finishing blow and the snake disappeared.
Meanwhile, the group was rearing at its fullest. Temari summoned her tiger which made a cyclone, but the snakes simply shifted to a defensive state, remaining unmoved. While they remained crouched together, Sakura came and made her blow, aided with Kakashi's chakra. A ten wide hole appeared in both snakes as they soon collapsed as well.
The groups came together as Naruto limped and sat down.
Boy, have the girl heal it immediately.
Sakura set to work on Naruto. She pushed his pants up so that she could have direct access to the skin. Then, using chakra, she connected to Naruto's insides. Naruto shivered  it felt like someone's soul going inside you. She examined his muscles and reported that they were fine. However, his blood had been infected with an unknown poison that she could not cure. She whipped up a temporary medication with what she had.
It's isolate and stop the poison for about three days. Within that time, I'll be able to get more medication, and that should last until we get to Konoha. Sakura said.
Naruto nodded. It was no big deal  they had to get to Sasuke, now.
Let's check to make sure everyone's here. Then, we'll set out through this exit in the back and try to find Sasuke. My guess is Orochimaru just left. Kakashi said.
Naruto. Here. Rain. Here. Rin. Here. Sakura. Here. Hinata. Here. Heather. Here. Mithos. Here. Kankuro. Here. Temari. Here. Horace. Here. Yashi. Silence followed.
shoot Yashi's missing! Rain shouted in panic and anger.
Let's set out for Orochimaru.
NO! I AM NOT LEAVING WITHOUT MY STUDENT!
Fine, your team stays to find him. If you do, come after us. We're going after Orochimaru.
She nodded.
With that, they left the Lightning team and set off through a trap door which led to light. Once their eyes adjusted, they set off. They all followed a strage chakra trail. There, at the very end, they saw four people; Naruto analyzed them:
Yashi
Threat level  6
Jutsus: Lightning Assalut no jutsu; Summon; Shockwave no jutsu
Kabuto
Threat level  12
Jutsus: Medical Nin; Sonic Shockwave no jutsu; Purgatory Seal
Sasuke
Threat level  12
Jutsus: Sharingan; Raikiri; Summon
Orochimaru
Threat level  15
Jutsus: Immortality no jutsu; Godly Thunder Seal; Summon
So, you've caught up. I thought for sure I had prepared enough in advance.
Naruto turned to Yashi. So you were his source of information, eh?
May be I was. Does it matter?
Yeah, it does! You betrayed your friends! You betrayed your country! You betrayed the girl who loved you! All for shootty power...
I told you I would become strong.
You don't know what true power is... Naruto said gripping his hands. You, too, eh, Sasuke? Doing all this for some damn power...
Yes, Naruto. I am. Deal with it. Sasuke said.
This isn't good... We're all tired by now... shoot... Kakashi thought.
Kabuto chuckled. Naruto-kun. Long time no see... Let's see how much you've grown. But you must be tired, after all that fighting.
Naruto closed his eyes. No more... No more betrayals... I've had enough... Orochimaru dies... TODAY! Naruto's voice turned a deadly calm. You want to know what power is? I'll show you, then. Get ready.

You are not authorized to comment here. Your must be registered and logged in to comment