Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Frightening Truth ❯ 4 ( Chapter 4 )

Everything was silent for several moments before it started moving in fast forward. Or at least that's what it felt like to Naruto. One minute he was having a not-so-rational conversation with Kakashi and the next he was watching an angry Sasuke awkwardly trying to comfort a bawling Sakura, a dumbfounded Kakashi, and that truth jutsu woman rolling on the floor laughing.

`Her guard is down.'

Kyuubi remarked soberly. Naruto nodded mentally and smirked when a plan popped into his head. He didn't call himself the King of Impulse Fighting for nothing. He was excellent at thinking on the fly, and his plans usually worked out. Still smirking he silently formed hand seals and whispered “Bakuretsu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu” (exploding shadow clone technique). He mentally ordered his clone find a suitable hiding place close to the woman then prepared himself to jump onto a high branch. Crouching and filling his lungs with air while forming seals, using chakra to enhance his jump he leapt into the air.

All eyes flew to him as he landed on the branch and screamed his attack at the top of his lungs.
“Biransei no Jutsu!” (poison cloud technique)

Holding the seal close to his mouth he aimed directly for the woman, and coincidentally his team, and blew out a thick cloud of roiling greenish black smoke. Luckily Kakashi pulled the two genin away from the greenish cloud just in time. He quickly caught Kakashi's eye and tried to make it clear that the area would soon be a level-five danger zone. Thankfully Kakashi understood and, grabbing a hold of his two students, disappeared in a puff of smoke.

His timing was, for once, perfect as the clone had done its job, finding the woman and releasing the pent-up chakra in a massive explosion. Naruto panicked slightly. The explosion had been a bit too big something had gone wrong. Naruto winced as a heat wave crashed over him. Yes, it was defiantly too big. Deciding it was time for a tactical retreat, Naruto jumped off of his branch and was smashed into the unforgiving ground several hundred yards later as a shockwave from the second explosion hit him. `I guess that means the fire reached the gas.' He thought wryly as he hauled himself to his feet and started bouncing off trees and branches like a pinball to escape the ensuing flames.

After a few seconds of fevered escape Naruto dived into one of the many standing water ponds and held his breath, watching the orange lights flickering above the water's murky surface.

` Well that was smart.'

Naruto scowled into the water.

`What the hell are you talking about?'

` If you can't lie, and not using full power is deceptive…'

`Oh shit.'

Naruto could almost see Kyuubi's condescending sneer.

`Exactly. It will be a miracle if she survives, we are now stuck telling the truth.'

`Well… maybe the clone missed?'

` I never knew you to be one to lie to yourself.'

`Fuck.'

`Indeed.'

Naruto sighed mentally and crossed his arms. This didn't look too good. If the woman (he had never bothered to learn her name) did indeed die then he could be stuck being honest since he seemed to recall her saying something about her bloodline and removing the jutsu. Then again, without her alive to supply the chakra for the kinjutsu it would be logical that it would dissipate. Then again, if the jutsu used their own chakra to induce pain it would be difficult to get rid of it. Of course he hadn't noticed any out of place markings or tattoos on his body when he bathed before the others had woken up, but that didn't really mean much.

Naruto sighed again. He would just have to wait and check to make sure she was dead before he tried lying again. If there was anything left, that is. Uncrossing his arms and nodding his head, Naruto looked up towards the surface and wasn't all that surprised to see orange, red, and yellow flicking at random intervals.

After two more minutes Naruto began to feel his lungs burning. Checking the surface again, he began to panic. He knew his limit and it would be rearing its ugly head in about 30 seconds. Sufficed enough to say he wasn't eager to test his lung capacity underwater.

He had tried that once before and wasn't to keen on trying it again, if only to keep the memories at bay. Naruto scowled, momentarily forgetting his predicament. One of his teachers before Iruka had told him a good way to increase and test his lung capacity was to hold his breath under water. He had almost drowned. It had brought him a step closer to Kyuubi, however.

`Fucking bastard, I should have done something worse than setting his hair on fire. Heh, that was pretty funny to watch though.'

`Your lungs are burning.'

Naruto yelped in surprise, releasing what little oxygen had been in his lungs. Quickly swimming to the surface, Naruto gasped as soon as he felt the air on his face and didn't stop heaving for several minutes.

`Don't fucking scare me like that, Fox! Kami, we should have had way more time! I wasn't even using chakra yet!'

`You were day dreaming.'

`So?'

He felt Kyuubi snarl.

`There are things that need to be done! Stop stalling and get to it!'

Naruto scowled again and started back the way he came, dodging falling debris and muttering about stupid foxes.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sasuke stared in open-mouthed wonder at the huge mushroom cloud that erupted shortly after they had alighted on a branch several miles from their previous position. Had the dobe done that? It was hard to believe but it was undeniable. The woman had let her guard down and had been unprepared. Sasuke had seen that she was when Kakashi took them away. Then again, Sasuke would have been hard pressed to match that particular explosion.

This, of course, brought up the question of why dobe had gone so overboard. Sasuke was sure that Naruto knew that the woman could be needed to remove the jutsu. He wasn't sure it this was the case now but some jutsu did need their caster to remove them.

Sasuke sighed in, what he had managed to convince himself was, irritation. Not jealousy, defiantly not jealousy. Uchiha Sasuke didn't do jealousy. He did, however, do irritation. So he sighed in irritation (not jealousy) and wondered how dobe managed to outshine him once again.

The cloud hovered for about five minutes then began to settle into a steadily shrinking forest fire. Apparently the forest had some sort of anti-fire jutsu set up to help control events such as these. Oh well, he wasn't one to look a gift horse in the mouth (as long as that gift horse didn't have pink or blonde ((any color really)) hair and squealed like a stuck pig when ever he spoke).

Sasuke sighed one last time before looking at Kakashi for directions. He motioned for them to proceed with caution. Sasuke sighed one final time as he leapt from tree to tree. Damn dobe, he was just to unpredictable.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sakura was panting by the time they reached their prior position.

`This is pathetic my Sasuke-kun could have done ten times better!' Inner Sakura screamed. Sakura didn't really agree with her. It had always been Naruto who ended up being the powerhouse of the group. It seemed like no matter how hard Sasuke-kun tried he never had the stamina or the chakra of her blonde friend.

She noticed Kakashi-sensei and Sasuke-kun had stopped so she took the opportunity to catch her breath and take in her surroundings. She was in awe. The freakishly large (but still majestic) trees that had cluttered the space before were gone. In their place were giant charred toothpicks. It was increasingly disturbing to see the destruction Naruto had wrought.

It was that absent thought that forced her to notice that Naruto wasn't standing next to her or Sasuke-kun or Kakashi-sensei.
“Naruto?”

Her voice was soft but Kakashi had heard her. He placed a gloved hand on her shoulder in comfort. Looking around at the destruction, this time with desperation not awe, and began to feel panic rising up in her. Naruto was missing. There was no way he could have survived that!

“Oh kami, Naruto!”

Sakura's knees gave out and she crumpled into a sobbing mass of kounoichi (sp?).

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kakashi's one visible eye began to moisten as he took in more and more of the scene before him. There was perfect circle about a mile in diameter or burnt forest. No one could survive that!

`I'm sorry Obito, I've failed to protect another one.'

Kakashi's depressed musings were cut off suddenly by a shout that echoed across the wasteland that had once been the middle of a forest.

“FFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCKKK!!!!!!!!!!!!”

~~~~~~~~

well I finally came out with a new chapter after god knows how long. Yay! Well please review!