David Johnston wrote:
Aaron Nowack wrote:
And here we go again.
I should warn you that this chapter is long and heavy on the fight
scenes, for reasons that should be obvious to those who have been
following the story.
No! A Naruto fic that is heavy on fight scenes? Couldn't you at least
try to be more faithful to the original?
Well, there's heavy on the fight scenes and then there's heavy on the
fight scenes. :)
I'm now tempted to write... I don't know, an Azumanga fanfic with a
"heavy on the fight scenes" disclaimer.
That was not what truly was making Naruto nervous. After all,
as Jiraiya had reminded him several times, they were in the heart of an
enemy village. Even if the Leaf were presently at peace with the Cloud
Doesn't that make them "unfriendly" more than enemy? Or even just
"foreign?
Well, there was a war roughly nine or so years ago, and the Cloud's main
motivation in signing a peace treaty in the first place seemed to be to
slip an agent into the Leaf Village to try and kidnap Hinata. They're
enemy in the sense that, say, the Soviet Union was an enemy of the US
during the Cold War.
What had he looked like, Naruto wondered, when the Kyuubi had
taken over? He liked to think that he would have found out if he had
turned into a terrible, nine-tailed beast of destruction larger than
most buildings, so it could not have been that.
There would be subtle signs that only a ninja of his skill could detect,
like knocked over trees.
Heh.
"Fortunately, there's a secret library not too far from the
village that should have what I need that's under Kaida-chan's control,"
Jiraiya answered. "It's not close enough that I can head back and
forth, though."
commute?
Seems too modern a word to use to me.
"Oh," Naruto said. "What should I do?"
"Pay attention to Kaida-chan." Jiraiya smiled weakly. "She'll
hit you with lightning if you don't." His face turned serious. "If
anyone can help you right now, it's her. So long as you're careful, you
can trust Kaida-chan at least as far as that goes." His eyes
subconsciously glanced around the garden once more. "Don't trust anyone
else, though. Remember that we are in an enemy village and that the
Leaf are not very popular here right now."
Yeah. Definitely "foreign" here. To call them enemy and then say the
Leaf aren't very popular is just redundant.
Yeah, this bit could use some rewording.
"I guess," Naruto observed, searching for another name. "Ah!
Sakura-chan made it!" She was fighting an 'Uzuki Ami.' If that was the
Ami Naruto thought it was, he really wished he could have been there to
see the fight and cheer Sakura on, even more than before.
Has Sakura been sharing her childhood traumas with Naruto?
No, but the bullying and such occurred while she was at the ninja
academy. It's not implausible that Naruto would have noticed.
"Fine," Junhime stated. "I'll give you one. I captured Hatake
Kakashi and brought him here. He's now in the hands of the medical
division here and they'll study him until their certain they can safely
transplant the Sharingan. Then if I'm lucky I'll get the eye, and if
you're lucky we'll trade him back to the Leaf." She smiled. "Please do
try to change his fate, little boy. I'd love to have you take yourself
out from under Kaida-sama's protection that way."
Goodness. Junhime doesn't have very good judgement.
She wouldn't have to take him alone. She's got the whole Cloud Village
for backup, and while Naruto can access crazy levels of power, he hasn't
reached the "take on an entire village" stage yet.
"Who said I was hiding?" Fuki returned, reaching up to pull down
a handful of green leaves from the tree.
I see this one takes being from the Leaf seriously.
I figured someone had to. :)
The flames swept at the empty air, but Ino landed unsteadily.
Ren didn't press the attack, staring quizzically at her. "You can't
possibly be that bad," she stated as she released her technique.
Tsk. Ren really should try to take advantage of Ino's simulated
incompetence.
She's afraid that the simulated incompetence is hiding a trap of some
kind. Which it is, but not the sort Ren was expecting.
"Good luck," Ino told Chouji. She performed some quick
calculations in her head. "If you win this one, we'll be the only team
to have all three people make it into the second round."
And therefore I predict that he will lose.
Well, Team Gai manages to pull it off. Though Neji doesn't really
count, since he gets a bye.
"It's a sign," Ino said, "that we're taking this seriously."
She grinned. "It'd take too long to explain."
Everything gets wavy...
Ino: No flashbacks! Geez, do you want this fight to take three episodes?
Hee.
Thank you for the comments!