Naruto's Kit 2 Chapter 11

Chapter 11: Akane Fights An Iwa Nin

Akane kept her eyes on all the approaching clay beetles, not sure how to get rid of them. 'If a kunai makes them explode it's likely any other weapon will as well. Not sure if my claws would be any different but might as well see.' She created a shadow clone with claws that attacked one of the beetles, and it exploded too, killing the clone. 'Ok, that didn't work, and the explosion there didn't trigger the other ones next it to explode too for some reason. What should I do here?'

Without any ideas, Akane resorted to going outside, hoping the beetles would follow her so the damage to the shrine wouldn't be increased. It worked as expected, but outside there were some clay pigeons that flew and hung in the air as if suspended by invisible wires. "Great, more clay animals that explode." She moaned, then her eyes lit up. 'Wait, why does that feel familiar to me? Like I've dealt with this before long ago?'

Some of the pigeons tried to impact her, but luckily Akane was swift enough to dodge them all. They exploded on contact with the ground or by chance contact with another pigeon. The damage was small but could prove bad to the area collectively. And not only that the beetles were trying to approach her, reminding her of an Aburame-style trap.

"Dang. Guess there's only one way out of this." Akane said before making her favorite hand sign. "Shadow Clone Jutsu." Hundreds of Akane's filled the area and detonated all the clay animals, creating a huge cloud in the process that only a byakugan could see thru. Akane didn't wait for the smoke to clear and rushed to the roof of the shrine, coughing the whole way and once she came to a stop.

"My, you're more impressive than I thought." The voice of some man Akane didn't recognize told her from behind, making her turn around and pull out a kunai. She saw a man about as tall as Naruto with blonde hair that was a littler paler, as in more similar to Ino's shade of blonde, and shaped more like Gaara's. His eyes were a dull hazel and he looked to have a small mole underneath the left one. His outfit consisted mostly of a short-sleeeve purple mesh shirt with a black vest over it with the Iwa symbol on it, and navy blue pants with hiking boots. His hitai-ate was worn as a belt and bore the Iwa symbol. At his hips on both sides there was a bag with the smell of clay and gunpowder being quite dominant. But the most notable feature of all was the palms of his hands, which appeared to have mouths on them.

Akane saw that these mouths lacked lips but had flat teeth and tongues. 'How the hell does that work? Where does the tongue go when the mouth closes?' All she actually asked was "Who the hell are you?"

"Your enemy. That's all you need to know." He told her in a mocking manner. "But I suppose I'll be nice and give you my name. Call me Haiyou, if you live long enough to that is."

"Oh I have every intention of that. Believe it."

"In that case, let's make this fun." Haiyou said with a dreadful smirk and grabbed some more clay. Tongues came out of his palms and swallowed the clay before chewing it. The scene was so disturbing and disgusting to Akane that she inadvertently paused to watch it happen. Then the hands both spat out a miniature animal scultpure. The left hand made an eagle and the right hand made a panther. Haiyou then dropped them both and the clay figures grew to the size of their natural counterparts, although the eagle was probably at least three times bigger than a normal one.

The panther was the first to make a move and pounced at Akane. She quickly got out of the way but the eagle tried to catch her in it's claws. She backflipped out of it's reach but it didn't work and she got caught. When the clay talons tried to tighten their hold on her, she transformed into a small fox with one tail and slipped away. The panther tried to crush her but she ran under it so it couldn't make contact. Once she was in the clear she returned to her normal human appearance and pulled out a kunai. She threw it at the panther and it hit, but the clay beast didn't explode like the smaller ones did.

"Impressive feats for a leaf genin. You might be fun after all. But it's still not enough compared to my experience and talent." Haiyou commented.

"Oh, you haven't seen anything yet." Akane said, appearing from behind the Iwa nin.

"What? How did you...?" He asked in a mixture of shock and fear, turning behind himself.

Akane didn't answer. Instead she got out a kunai and jabbed it into the back of Haiyou's right hand. The piercing end of the weapon came out of the palm's mouth with some blood being spat out by it.

Haiyou screamed in pain and clutched his injured hand with his uninjured one. Akane tried to stab that one too but a clay snake got her and exploded. "Take that little bitch!"

"I'm over here." Akane said teasingly from behind the injured man, who turned to see her standing smugly. "Shadow clones are amazing things aren't they?" Haiyou could see another Akane still keeping the clay panther and eagle occupied.

"What the hell? Which one's the real one?"

The Akane closest to him laughed. "You didn't actually expect me to answer that do you?" She then grabbed a few shuriken and threw them at her target, hoping to damage his other hand. She missed, but one knicked the pouch on his side. It was too small for any clay to spill out though.

Using his good hand, Haiyou molded a large clay rhino which charged at the young girl. Both exploded on contact, showing she was a clone too. Maybe an explosive clone as well since the blast made even the Iwa nin lose his balance on the shingled roof of the shrine. Somehow minimal damage was done to the roof itself, but a few shingles and maybe a beam or two would have to be replaced later.

When the smoke cleared, Haiyo got back onto his feet and stared at the other side of the roof, where he saw about three dozen Akane's but no more panther and eagle. All the redclad girls smiled like a fox before charging at him with just there fists. However, once they tried to hit him, he used a large rock for a substitution jutsu, resulting in him escaping and several clones holding hurt hands.

The unhurt ones took positions around the roof's edge to try and locate him. They saw and smelled nothing. The real Akane tried something different, and placed her hitai-ate over her eyes and whispered the name of a jutsu. "Biding Wolf Jutsu." This particular technique was taught to her by her friend Shiba as one of the Inuzuka's extra tracking techniques. It heightened the senses of hearing and smelling to near super-canine even by Inuzuka standards, but required absolutely no use of the sense of sight. Opening the eyes immediately cancelled it out, as it would be considered overloading the brain's sensory processing. Blindfolding oneself was simply the best way to ensure the user didn't accidentally open their eyes.

She detected no trace of scent or sound coming from her designated target, so she sighed and she put her hitai-ate back on her forehead. "Dang, I lost him." All the clones dispelled and she jumped down to the ground. "Something about that guy seems familiar to me."

"What guy?" Hanabi's voice asked from out of nowhere, making Akane almost jump from the initial shock. She turned to see her aunt and father standing behind her.

"Some weird Iwa freak." Akane answered. "He had the weirdest hands I've ever seen, like something out of a cheesy horror movie."

Naruto looked bothered. "Weird hands?" Akane nodded. "By any chance, did they have mouths on the palms?"

Akane nodded again. "Yeah, and they came with tongues too, and chewed up clay and spat it out in the shape of animals which grew bigger and mobile. And explosive I should add."

Naruto palmed his face. "Dammit, not another one of those."

"You know this guy Niisan?" Hanabi asked.

"This particular guy, I sure hope not. But I have encountered someone with that exact same ability in the past. He's supposed to be dead now so most likely we're dealing with a relative of some sorts." Naruto explained. "After all, no one ever said that one guy I faced was the only one of his kind."

Akane then snapped her fingers. "No wonder he felt familiar. Now I remember you telling me about an old enemy of yours who did something like this. What was his name? Claydara? Gaydara?"

"Deidara. One of the Akatsuki. But he and all the others are dead now." Naruto told his daughter. "Did this guy hurt you Akane-chan?"

Akane shook her head. "Nope, but I managed to pierce one of his hands. That's gotta hold him up for some time."

"Good job. With any luck he won't show up until it's healed and that might take awhile considering how complex the internal structure of his hands must be." Hanabi added.

"So by then we'll be prepared for another attack." Naruto said, stating the obvious. "But we shouldn't go overboard so the shrine doesn't get more damaged than it already is."

"Why were you outside anyway Akane-chan?" Hanabi asked.

The young girl sighed and turned away with an upset look on her face. "Well, I already knew the story Otou-san was telling everyone, so I decided I could do something better than hear it again."

Hanabi could tell from her body language and tone of voice that this explanation wasn't a complete one. Before she could ask for more, Naruto shook his head no at her, silently but effectively telling the Hyuuga heiress to not push the issue further. She decided to abide his request, for now at least.

"Come on Akane-chan, let's go back inside. Don't want your mother to worry too much do you?" Naruto told his daughter.

"Then how am I supposed to do my job?" Akane asked as she followed him to the entryway. Before they opened it, something caught her eye. "Wait!" She shouted before dashing off to some shrubs.

"What is it?" Naruto and Hanabi asked as they caught up to her, seeing her pick some flowers.

Akane held them in her left hand, and used her right to brush away a bee that kept trying to hang around. "I just noticed some lavendars here. Thought they'd make Okaa-san feel better."

Naruto smiled. "Well they are her favorite flower, but what if you weren't supposed to pick those?"

Akane thought it over, and swatted the bee again. "It's already too late so what's the worst that can happen?"

Naruto shrugged. "You got me."

The trio proceeded to go back to the others in the bunker, with Akane making sure that annoying bee didn't follow them into the hallway. Once it closed, the flying insect flew off to parts unknown, where it would encounter Haiyou trying to mend his hand.

"Damn brat. This is going to take days to heal properly." He said bitterly to himself, then noticed the bee resting on the tip of his left boot. "Ah, a messenger from my partner. Tell them I won't be able to do anything until further notice. I could fight with my remaining hand I know, but I'd be at a huge disadvantage."

The bee then flew off, and later that night found it's way to a hidden member of the Kamizuru clan. The insect gave it's message to it's master, who was disappointed to hear the news. "Crap." They paused to take a deep breath. "I guess it wouldn't hurt to wait a little longer. But with these lousy leaf-nin around we can't be too careful."