The plan we made, as simple as it was, revolved around stopping the genjutsu shinobi before she could target any of us. It was the reason why I hit hard and for a moment, thought I had killed her. Last I saw her, her head was caved in.
Which shouldn’t have been a surprise, given that the thugs wouldn’t stay down, no matter how hard I hit them.
The world lurched, up became down, then sides. My balance was shot, and I hit something. The ground? I wasn’t sure. My ears rang, and nausea assaulted me.
“I’m sure we killed you.”
Now I was in a pinch.
My chakra rose, trying to chew through the invading energy. It was faster than when my clone got trapped, but not fast enough to free me before things turned sour. My options here were limited.
“Ugh, you hit me hard. Were you trying to kill me?”
I could teleport away from her, possibly out of her range, to break the illusion. But I didn’t know if that would work. Worse yet, it would leave Karin alone with the enemy. Throwing explosions around also wasn’t a good idea, mainly for the same reason.
“Hehehe, I’m immortal.”
Time was running out, and I had to do something. I tried to pay attention to my chakra sensing, but somehow, the genjutsu interfered with that too. That strange energy I felt from the woman and the ferret now permeated everything, making it impossible to distinguish one thing from another.
“Well, it doesn’t matter, I’ll just kill you again.”
Instead of using my Kuro Raikou Jutsu, I did something else. Out of me exploded as many threads as I could create. Like an insect’s feelers, I spread them all around me, trying to find the woman. At the same time, I wrote a message to Karin.
The threads helped. The dissonance between feeling like the world was tilted sideways and realizing I was flopping on the ground like a fish out of water made my stomach churn harder, but it worked, somewhat.
The woman was approaching, but not on foot. She was coming through the air, in a dive toward my position on the ground.
I scrambled up, stomach flipping, my senses screamed I was upside down, even if my threads said otherwise. I flickered to the side with Shunshin no Jutsu just in time; the flying woman slammed into the ground where I’d been.
My hand went inside the supply pouches, and I grabbed some explosive kunai. I flickered away again and threw the weapons.
I couldn’t say precisely what happened next. Explosions thundered. Something howled. Then, more blasts lit up the air.
Not long after, the world returned to normal. Karin was nearby, face serious, holding more exploding tags. The woman flew high above us. Now that I could see her, she was a bat-like monster. There were burnt marks all over her, the fur burnt and skin scarred, but regenerating.
Was she tied to Orochimaru somehow? The only way I remembered people could assume monstrous forms was with a cursed seal or Jugo. There were no defining black lines that most of the cursed seals had, and the chakra felt different somehow.
“This isn’t over,” she cried, but instead of attacking again, she flew away.
I looked around the battle area. The armored guys were still trapped inside the weight trap, trying to escape. The woman was abandoning her allies. Why?
“Hinata-chan, are you okay?”
I turned toward Karin, about to give her a thumbs up, when more information finally filtered in. Tenten and Ino were having trouble putting down their enemies. Ino was in a spot of trouble. Pretty blonde mind ninja was never a combat specialist. My plan put her in danger. I couldn’t let it be.
With one hand, I created a Rasengan; with the other, I made a confrontation seal. My target was the kunai Ino had strapped to her belt. With one last push of chakra, I was away.
The world blurred, making my nausea worse, but I was between Ino and the armored thug holding the heavy spiked mace. The Rasengan hit the metal with a screech. I pumped chakra, the ball enlarged, then I released the jutsu.
The enemy flew off, Rasengan carving a path in the dirt where the jutsu overlapped with the soil. Before the destruction path had finished, I made another confrontation seal and teleported again, this time between Tenten and her enemy.
I don’t think Tenten needed my help, but I wanted to end this immediately. There was something fishy going on here, and if overwhelming force was the answer, well, I could deal with a few more deaths on my conscience.
Another Rasengan was out of the picture; not enough chakra. But I didn’t need to. I kicked the enemy away, not unlike what I had done to Neji, flickered toward it, and stabbed with my best explosive. With the explosion loaded and slotted, I punted it away from me and Tenten.
The thug hit the ground. The kunai exploded.
Gooey pinkish stuff flew everywhere. Not blood, not flesh, not anything I could make sense of.
Tenten looked at me, at the exploded enemy, at the mess that was the one I hit with the Rasengan. She cleared goop from her cheeks. “What the hell was that?”
I gave her a thumbs up, turned around, ran toward Ino, who was just getting her bearings.
“Are you alright, Ino-chan?” I asked, looking her over. Her hands, back, arms, and face. She looked ruffled, her hair a mess, but she was not injured. A few scratches here and there that I immediately treated with Mystic Palm.
Ino battered my hand away. “Stop fussing, I’m fine.”
I gave her one more once-over.
Tenten power walked closer. “What are these things?” She pointed at what had been an enemy just a few minutes ago, but now was a collection of scattered puddles. “How did you get here so quickly? Where is Karin?”
Damn, Karin. I forgot about her.
I made another confrontation seal, targeting Karin’s beacon.
Karin sat by a broken wall, cradling Nerugui and watching the still-trapped enemies, now melting into gooey puddles of something I couldn’t identify. Thankfully, the redhead was fine.
“The woman is gone,” Karin said, looking in the direction the bat-like woman had flown. “What was that, Hinata-chan?”
I looked around. In the end, we hadn’t learned anything about the town and why it was attacked. “Not sure,” I admitted. “Let’s meet Ino and Tenten,” I said, offering Karin my hand.
The redhead took it, and I helped her get up, then we moved toward where Ino and Tenten were. This text is hosted at novel·fire·net