Chapter 33 - ArcIVii: Deep Secrets-Chapter 3

Ryouko roared into the clearing at full speed, three shadow clones following him. They began to move in an impossible to follow pattern, aiming themselves at Itachi. Once they had seen the Amaterasu aim for Pain, they aimed for the other threat. Ryouko let his clones attack while he went to Uzume and the Issekigan boy. Itachi was clearly fatigued; the clones were actually pushing him.

“I’ve got a friend with me; she’ll help!” Ryouko told Uzume.

“The Daimyo is dangerously exposed,” Uzume replied. Eleven of his twelve guardians are dead.”

That hit Ryouko- hard. He felt like someone had just punched him in the stomach as hard as they could.
“The Twelve…how could someone decimate them?! They’re supposed to be the elite of the elite!”

Uzume looked at Pain.
“That one did it.”

Ryouko was a huge fan of the Twelve Guardian Shinobi. Before he gave up on his dreams to care for Naruto and Sakura, he had studied to be one of the Twelve. At the time, he had no shot at it. These days, he would, but he couldn’t. All the same, someone killing them all really ticked him off. He knew nothing about Pain and his abilities. All he knew was that he had Itachi on the ropes, and Pain was on fire. He had to administer a killing blow now! Someone so dangerous and malicious couldn’t be allowed to live.

All at once, the fire was out. Itachi had managed to recall it, but he was still reeling from the effects. Ryouko’s clones kept pushing him.

Pain extended his hand toward Ryouko, who had paused for the slightest of seconds to notice that the Amaterasu was out- something supposedly impossible.

“Universal Pull!”

Ryouko had sent his clone ahead against Pain to gather info. Upon it’s destruction, he inherited it’s knowledge. That little conflict allowed him to prepare for this eventuality. As he sailed in, he slid his tonfa into place in his sleeve. When Pain tried to stab him, Ryouko turned his body and blocked the edge of the odd black weapon with his tonfa. The effects of the pull gone, Ryouko tried to sweep Pain’s legs. Pain jumped back, his hand extending again. This time he did something different.
“Almighty Push!”

Ryouko felt himself go airborne. He rocketed across the sky, straining to keep his eye on Pain. He had to get back there somehow.
--

Azami saw Ryouko go flying. Ignoring Kisame, she shot a jet of wind upward to slow Ryouko. She smirked to herself as she saw him use his fire jutsu to propel himself back toward the right direction.

“Sorry, Kisame. Would’ve loved to catch up with you, but I just sent a good friend of mine rocketing straight toward hell. I should go catch him. Sayonara!”

Azami let herself fall backward into her own shadow. It swallowed her up and she was gone.
--

Ryouko landed right back between Uzume, the boy with the Issekigan, and Pain.

“…” Pain looked at Ryouko. “Why do you insist on getting involved?”

“You’re Akatsuki. That’s all the reason I need. But now, you’re trying to kill two innocent people. And beyond that, you’ve just slain eleven people!” Ryouko’s teeth were grinding in anger, and blood began to show at his gums. “That’s all the motivation I need to stop you.”

Itachi had since regained control, as Ryouko’s shadow clones had disappeared, since they were outside of his control radius when he went flying. This situation was rapidly spiraling from bad to worse, and from worse to impossible.

A shadow formed on the ground behind Itachi. Azami appeared as though laying on her back, but as she ‘reformed’, so to speak, she wound up standing again in an odd display of agility.

“You’re considering running,” Pain pointed out. “Don’t. Even if you DO make it, I’ll cut down the Fire Daimyo.”

Even as he was talking, Pain used his Universal Pull on Uzume. Ryouko wasn’t going to get there in time. He ran toward Pain anyway, if nothing else intending to avenge Uzume.

“Wind Style: Air Defense!”

A wall of air stopped Uzume’s progress forward. Unbeknownst to Ryouko, it took Pain five seconds to recharge after a jutsu. Since he ran in with Azami’s attack, he was well within that time limit.

“Fire Style: Dragon’s Ember Jutsu!”

“Wind Style: Air Acceleration Jutsu!” Azami added.

The two elements blasted into Pain at point-blank range. In that time, Ryouko grabbed Uzume and the Issekigan boy and spun away, using a Body Flicker Jutsu to put distance between himself and Pain.

“The Fire Daimyo has called for assistance from the Leaf!” Uzume told Ryouko. But he didn’t seem to hear her.

“Azami, can you use those clones of yours to buy me a minute?”
He tugged at his stomach, feeling the now-familiar length of black cord.
The boy with the Issekigan managed to meet Pain’s eyes again. And once again, Pain felt a disruption. He held up a hand, signaling to Itachi and the approaching Kisame.
“We’ll withdraw. I underestimated them. One ‘Pain’ isn’t enough.”

With those cryptic words, the Akatsuki trio vanished. The four left standing stood still for a few moments, looking at the spot where the Akatsuki had been standing just a second ago. After that moment passed, Uzume faced the others.

“Ryouko; Azami- good to see you again. This boy is called Shoki ((English: Demon Queller))- it’s time you and he met, Ryouko. You’ve got a lot to talk about.
--
--
Temari opened a door, looking both ways before waving to Shikamaru.

“Hurry up! This room is off-limits to all but Sand Jonin,” Temari informed him, closing the door behind them. She left it open a crack to peer through, acting as a lookout.

Shikamaru delved right in, searching the blueprints of the Sand Village. Scanning the outside layer of rock, he learned a few things, but they weren’t what he was looking for.
“Why would anyone try to get to the rocks? Blow them up? But they haven’t hurt anyone so far. Unless the attacks were distractions…or a lure…”

“Gaara will be disappointed. He’s hoping for something to do that’s not paperwork,” Temari said off-the-cuff.

“Gaara…he isn’t exactly friends with that ‘Water Style’ group, is he?”

Temari gave Shikamaru a look. “Would you be friends with someone who tried to kill you?”

“I’m talking to you, aren’t I? Besides, Gaara has had a pure political agenda so far. He’s gone out of his way to distance himself from his ‘human weapon’ moniker. So why would he ignore this one group? And how does it play in to the walls?”

Temari smacked her fist into her open palm. “Irrigation! We have pipes and reservoirs inside the stone walls! They must be planning to sabotage them!”

Shikamaru looked at the blueprints again. Something was still missing.
“They’re water-users. They could just flood the place…but if they did that, they’d kill everyone. So it can’t be them. Or not just them… Are these water people popular?”

“They have their followers,” Temari said in a tone of voice indicating an eye roll. “But no sane person would do anything they asked.”

“’Sane’ is the key here.”
Shikamaru went on to explain about the smiling people each group had seen. The where turned out to be the important thing.

“In our village, since fires could be common with a simple upturn in temperature, we place any wooden buildings a distance apart., so they wouldn’t ignite one another. Those people with the weird smiles are lurking around those buildings, right? So maybe they’re going to set fires-”

“-As distractions!” Shikamaru finished. “Then another group gets to the stone walls; blows them to plug up any exits from the village. Then they flood the entire village!”
--

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