I can never work on what I meant to?
Eh. As long as I'm working, I'll call it good.
------Ch.3-Scene-2-------------------------------------------------
Block right, jump over toe kick, block right, block left, grab-twist-yank and drop an elbow across the back of the skull, step back to keep from being splashed as the bunshin dissolves...
"Sasuke-kun!" Sakura snapped from behind him. He turned slightly and glanced out of the corner of his eye as she slipped a blinding thrust past an enemy bunshin's guard and buried a kunai through its temple, then pulled the blade free and spun to slash another's throat open in almost the same motion. "I'll handle the bunshin. Just find the real ones!"
He nodded, then hesitated a moment, running through his options. Yes, that one would do.
"Sabikeibi no Jutsu," he said, and folded his cupped palms open. About a dozen tiny dancing motes of light fluttered up in front of him for a moment, then swirled and darted off into the underbrush.
He followed, and a flicker of orange to his right told him that Naruto had seen the Fireflies also. Leaves and branches tore at his face and then he was out in the open, and there was a gleam of metal heading straight towards him. He flipped over it and crouched on the vertical trunk of a tree, looking 'up' and across at one of the two brothers as the bladed chain he had thrown hissed and slithered along the ground as it was wound back up into its concealing guantlet.
"SUITON: GYOSHIBUKI NO JUTSU!" Naruto roared as he emerged from cover, spitting a spreading cluster of short, high-density jets of water as he came.
The Kiri-nin dodged, of course, flipping up and back to land on a large branch next to his partner, who at the same time had sent a barrage of shuriken flying at their orange-clad attacker.
They passed harmlessly through him, as though through nothing more than air, and the image smirked and dived back into the bushes. "Bunshin?" asked one of the partners.
"No," said the other. "Some sort of Genjutsu."
"No matter." And they ran through identical sets of five seals in perfect unison. Faint arcs and whisps of chakra began to pass between them, the light pulsing like a heartbeat.
Naruto made another attack, this time dropping from the branches overhead, crying, "SUITON: GYOSH-"
One of the pulses built rapidly into a blinding flare, a flare that swept outward and washed over Naruto and everything in his vicinity. Six feet to his right, a puff of smoke appeared with a sharp popping sound as the Kagebunshin was disrupted.
There was silence, for a moment, as the Kiri-nin stood there watching Sasuke as he watched them, and then another bright flare shattered the tree where he had been sitting. Not that it mattered - apprearances aside, he was long gone.
"well?" he asked Naruto as they crouched side by side in the bushes, using the low, quiet tones that carried so much less than the higher frequencies of an actual whisper.
"not sure," the whiskered boy answered. "some kind of area-effect, and related to that pulsing light."
"heterodyne effect," Sakura put in from behind both of them, then subsided to watch as another of Naruto's clones made a third attempt - with no more benefit than the second had gotten. Then she resumed, "like two out of tune musical instruments, how their tones pulse?"
"and the flares are the high points in the wave," the blond boy said slowly, tasting the idea as he spoke. "what's the point?"
"efficient use of power," Sasuke answered. "neither of them is putting in much chakra, but they're getting a very powerful effect."
The kunoichi crawled forward to lie between her teammates and get a good look for herself. "mizubunshin are toast, by the way. what about weaknesses?"
"of course they are," Sasuke said dryly, as though he had never doubted it - and, in truth, he hadn't. "and it'd need to be very finely tuned to work - they probably can't afford to alter the distance between them without breaking the jutsu."
"then we need to move them." She nudged Naruto. "ne, try shuriken this time. they'll have less reaction time."
"way ahead of you," he answered, at the same moment a clone popped out of cover and did exactly that. It was wiped out immediately, but the second attacker some distance away lasted much longer.
Sasuke grinned, fiercely. "they need at least one intermediate pulse before they can fire again."
"and after?" Naruto asked.
Because they were hiding, Sakura refrained from cracking her knuckles. "leave that to me," she grinned, and vanished downward into a careful tunnelling jutsu.
Naruto glanced down and where she had been, then looked up to meet his teammate's eyes. 'Scary!' he mouthed with a grin.
"moron," Sasuke said, and then they split up.
As it ended up, splitting their opponents up was harder than it had sounded - the two nuke-nin proved to be able to maintain a constant awareness of their partner's location and react in unison to any threat to -either- - but Sasuke was able to use a carefully-anchored set of wires to swing around the trunk of the tree they were standing in and hit one at the same time that Naruto bounced off of one of his own clones to clobber the other going in the opposite direction.
Sasuke was too occupied giftwrapping the man he had hit to spare attention for the other, but then, the startled yelp, sudden scuffle, and horrible, particularly -final- crunching noise that followed the other's landing on the forest floor assured him that there was no need to worry.
There was a quiet, muffled *snap!* as he tugged the last loop of wire closed, and it took him a moment to realise what the Kiri-nin had done. Then he swore and flipped the larger man over onto his back. "Naruto, help!" he yelled, tearing the gas-mask away from the other's face and grabbing firmly to his jaw and then there was another pair of hands helping hold him still and they had yanked his mouth open and Sasuke didn't hesitate at all to jam his fingers down his throat to trigger the gag reflex...
Too late, he realised as the other - whose name, he suddenly recalled, he still did not know - began to thrash and foam at the mouth as the poison hidden in his hollow tooth took effect. The measure was a standard one for the Village of the Hidden Mist, he remembered now that it no longer mattered, and the toxin a violent one that killed in seconds rather than minutes.
A hand rested gently on his shoulder as he and Naruto watched their enemy's last moments. "Suicide?" Neshan asked.
"Hai, Sensei."
"...Don't worry about it."
"Hai, Sensei."
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Ja, -n
===========
===============================================
"V, did you do something foolish?"
"Yes, and it was glorious."
Eh. As long as I'm working, I'll call it good.
------Ch.3-Scene-2-------------------------------------------------
Block right, jump over toe kick, block right, block left, grab-twist-yank and drop an elbow across the back of the skull, step back to keep from being splashed as the bunshin dissolves...
"Sasuke-kun!" Sakura snapped from behind him. He turned slightly and glanced out of the corner of his eye as she slipped a blinding thrust past an enemy bunshin's guard and buried a kunai through its temple, then pulled the blade free and spun to slash another's throat open in almost the same motion. "I'll handle the bunshin. Just find the real ones!"
He nodded, then hesitated a moment, running through his options. Yes, that one would do.
"Sabikeibi no Jutsu," he said, and folded his cupped palms open. About a dozen tiny dancing motes of light fluttered up in front of him for a moment, then swirled and darted off into the underbrush.
He followed, and a flicker of orange to his right told him that Naruto had seen the Fireflies also. Leaves and branches tore at his face and then he was out in the open, and there was a gleam of metal heading straight towards him. He flipped over it and crouched on the vertical trunk of a tree, looking 'up' and across at one of the two brothers as the bladed chain he had thrown hissed and slithered along the ground as it was wound back up into its concealing guantlet.
"SUITON: GYOSHIBUKI NO JUTSU!" Naruto roared as he emerged from cover, spitting a spreading cluster of short, high-density jets of water as he came.
The Kiri-nin dodged, of course, flipping up and back to land on a large branch next to his partner, who at the same time had sent a barrage of shuriken flying at their orange-clad attacker.
They passed harmlessly through him, as though through nothing more than air, and the image smirked and dived back into the bushes. "Bunshin?" asked one of the partners.
"No," said the other. "Some sort of Genjutsu."
"No matter." And they ran through identical sets of five seals in perfect unison. Faint arcs and whisps of chakra began to pass between them, the light pulsing like a heartbeat.
Naruto made another attack, this time dropping from the branches overhead, crying, "SUITON: GYOSH-"
One of the pulses built rapidly into a blinding flare, a flare that swept outward and washed over Naruto and everything in his vicinity. Six feet to his right, a puff of smoke appeared with a sharp popping sound as the Kagebunshin was disrupted.
There was silence, for a moment, as the Kiri-nin stood there watching Sasuke as he watched them, and then another bright flare shattered the tree where he had been sitting. Not that it mattered - apprearances aside, he was long gone.
"well?" he asked Naruto as they crouched side by side in the bushes, using the low, quiet tones that carried so much less than the higher frequencies of an actual whisper.
"not sure," the whiskered boy answered. "some kind of area-effect, and related to that pulsing light."
"heterodyne effect," Sakura put in from behind both of them, then subsided to watch as another of Naruto's clones made a third attempt - with no more benefit than the second had gotten. Then she resumed, "like two out of tune musical instruments, how their tones pulse?"
"and the flares are the high points in the wave," the blond boy said slowly, tasting the idea as he spoke. "what's the point?"
"efficient use of power," Sasuke answered. "neither of them is putting in much chakra, but they're getting a very powerful effect."
The kunoichi crawled forward to lie between her teammates and get a good look for herself. "mizubunshin are toast, by the way. what about weaknesses?"
"of course they are," Sasuke said dryly, as though he had never doubted it - and, in truth, he hadn't. "and it'd need to be very finely tuned to work - they probably can't afford to alter the distance between them without breaking the jutsu."
"then we need to move them." She nudged Naruto. "ne, try shuriken this time. they'll have less reaction time."
"way ahead of you," he answered, at the same moment a clone popped out of cover and did exactly that. It was wiped out immediately, but the second attacker some distance away lasted much longer.
Sasuke grinned, fiercely. "they need at least one intermediate pulse before they can fire again."
"and after?" Naruto asked.
Because they were hiding, Sakura refrained from cracking her knuckles. "leave that to me," she grinned, and vanished downward into a careful tunnelling jutsu.
Naruto glanced down and where she had been, then looked up to meet his teammate's eyes. 'Scary!' he mouthed with a grin.
"moron," Sasuke said, and then they split up.
As it ended up, splitting their opponents up was harder than it had sounded - the two nuke-nin proved to be able to maintain a constant awareness of their partner's location and react in unison to any threat to -either- - but Sasuke was able to use a carefully-anchored set of wires to swing around the trunk of the tree they were standing in and hit one at the same time that Naruto bounced off of one of his own clones to clobber the other going in the opposite direction.
Sasuke was too occupied giftwrapping the man he had hit to spare attention for the other, but then, the startled yelp, sudden scuffle, and horrible, particularly -final- crunching noise that followed the other's landing on the forest floor assured him that there was no need to worry.
There was a quiet, muffled *snap!* as he tugged the last loop of wire closed, and it took him a moment to realise what the Kiri-nin had done. Then he swore and flipped the larger man over onto his back. "Naruto, help!" he yelled, tearing the gas-mask away from the other's face and grabbing firmly to his jaw and then there was another pair of hands helping hold him still and they had yanked his mouth open and Sasuke didn't hesitate at all to jam his fingers down his throat to trigger the gag reflex...
Too late, he realised as the other - whose name, he suddenly recalled, he still did not know - began to thrash and foam at the mouth as the poison hidden in his hollow tooth took effect. The measure was a standard one for the Village of the Hidden Mist, he remembered now that it no longer mattered, and the toxin a violent one that killed in seconds rather than minutes.
A hand rested gently on his shoulder as he and Naruto watched their enemy's last moments. "Suicide?" Neshan asked.
"Hai, Sensei."
"...Don't worry about it."
"Hai, Sensei."
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Ja, -n
===========
===============================================
"V, did you do something foolish?"
"Yes, and it was glorious."