The stranger and her last stand.

Chapter 7: Her Last Stand

There are two ways for a ninja to make their presence known.

The more traditional approach, of course, would be to not reveal yourself before striking. The target would see nothing, and their lives cut short without warning.

You could make a grandiose approach as well, and not bother with hiding at all. There were many powerful, egoistical ninjas who favored this approach.

Or you could do both of these at the same time.

Truth be told, this was more akin to a cat playing with food.

Looking at the red-haired man, Kurenai readied herself.

Asai and Mikami were the most experienced of the genin here, and they were the first to react.

A smokescreen was thrown on the floor, and Mikami leaped to the trees with a shell-shocked Sakura.

Several kunai flew, courtesy of Mikami. He reached for the tantō he was carrying, swiftly.

Sasuke and Toru flew through identical hand seals, letting loose two roaring fireballs.

Naruto summoned three clones from within the smokescreen and had them transform in himself, Sakura and Mikami, and they pretended to flee the battle as well, in the opposite direction. He summoned as much Lightning between his palms as he could safely, ready to try to shoot the enemy down.

Kurenai cycled her chakra within her. She tensed, compartmentalizing several processes, and weaved four different illusions at the same time. This was her limit.

The first technique would disturb the man's vision lightly, by making him perceive the genin's position as two meters closer to him than they actually were, giving them a chance to avoid his first counter attack.

The second layer was meant to be noticed and dispelled. It was an obvious trigger, which would chain into the third one when he did.

The third Genjutsu technique was a bind that activated with any chakra surge in the recipient. It was meant to be used in conjunction with another jutsu, and would lead the victim to believe they had broken out of number two. In truth, they'd be paralysed until they halted their flow completely.

And if he did so, the fourth jutsu she had layered would make sure to take hold of his five senses.

There was a moment of anticipation.

Kurenai was no sensor, but even she had enough chakra sense to feel the man's spike.

When the three ninjutsu techniques hit him, he slammed the earth with his foot and earthen walls rose to shield him.

He then proceeded to kick his way out of it, hands up in mock surrender.

"He hasn't even bothered to remove my jutsu." She thought.

This was bad. He definitely would have noticed at least the third layer. If he was this confident in his ability to take on all of them even with it…

She needed to cover for the kids.

She moved through hand seals faster than she ever had in her life.

He frowned and before she could react, she felt something heavy slam into the back of her head.

Kurenai hit the floor with a thud. A foot pressed on her back, with a terrible strength.

"That's pretty naive of you." He said, evenly. "I expected better from Konoha, really. I can't believe the old fuck was afraid of you guys, if that's what you're like."

She tried to weave hand signs with her left hand.

A blade of wind chopped three of her fingers off.

She screamed and thrashed. The man above her sighed.

He waited ten seconds.

From the ground, she could see her precious genin, as well as the backup team rush into the ruined clearing.

"Why haven't you run…? Fools!" She thought, but knew they wouldn't have managed to escape anyway. Her poor, sweet kids.

"This is all my fault."

Sasuke and Toru were both shaking, in anger as well as fear. Sakura put on her brave face, but her hand was white around her kunai.

"The second any of you move, I kill her." The man said, lazily.

Naruto deflated and let go of his chakra.

"Was this it?" He wondered. Were they really going to die at twelve on a needless mission?

"What do you want?" He asked with a voice more steady than he felt.

"Nothing much, really. I got a few questions for you, though."

There was a moment of silence.

"What do you mean?" Mikami asked.

"Not for you. I have no interest in you both… the girl or the Uchiha." He muttered.

"So he is talking about Naruto." Kurenai thought, teeth clenched.

He nodded towards Naruto. "Kid, where are you from?"

"Me? From Konoha. Sarutobi clan." He managed.

"There's something weird about your chakra."

"…What do you mean?"

"Nothing. Could have been me." He shrugged.

Kurenai understood.

"A sensor. He's a sensor." Of course her Genjutsu hadn't taken, he had noticed right away, and didn't need his five senses to feel exactly where they were.

"Sarutobi, huh…?" He seemed to consider something. "Well, the face and the hair don't really match anyway." He muttered, and only Kurenai caught it.

"Well, I'm pretty disappointed. " He considered. "Who wants to live? Kill the rest, and I'll let you go."

"Is this a game to you…?" Kurenai growled under his boot.

He kicked her face instead.

"Sensei!" She wasn't sure who had screamed.

Asai chose that moment to attack. He had hidden his chakra as much as he could and aimed for the man's neck, staying low to the ground.

"You fool!"

The red-head moved, and Asai dropped like a fly, his throat ripped open.

Mikami heaved, but didn't try anything. The others froze.

Then the man looked to his left, sighed and used a Body Flicker.

He reappeared on top of a branch, holding Kurenai by her hair. One second later, the ground where he had been standing exploded.

Three dark green blurs flashed inside the clearing, their swords glinting in the moonlight.

"Iwa."

The red haired man released Kurenai, and she fell to the ground. He grinned, and moved under the blade that now flew over his head.

The second Iwa hunter, for this was what they were, leaped with a vertical slash.

His sword broke on a stone that seemed to appear in its path.

The last Iwa-nin caught him in a clay prison.

"Dodai Ryūjin!" He proclaimed. "For the crime of defection, murder as well as violating Article 33 of Iwa's Criminal Law, you are sentenced to death. To be carried immediately."

The man laughed. "It's Uzumaki, now. Has Ōnoki not heard the news yet?"

The next few moments were confusing.

The iwa-nin formed a tiger seal and detonated the clay.

The red-head, who apparently went by Ryūjin, hardened his skin.

Kurenai ensnared all three Iwa-nin in an illusion that would make them more liable to let them go without trouble.

The two other ninjas slammed two rock dragons into Ryūjin.

Naruto managed to catch Kurenai. Sakura anchored a Genjutsu to the clearing, making it look as if she had set up several explosives traps.

Sasuke managed to slow down Naruto and Kurenai's descent and all six of the genin turned to flee.

There was a grotesque sound as a fist made of hardened stone went right through one of the Iwa-nin's ribcage.

One of them narrowly avoided getting sheared by the following wind blade.

Ryūjin smiled thinly and stepped down from the tree. He made a single hand-seal.

As he rocketed down, his chakra cycled. One layer of wind covered his body.

Kurenai screamed.

One layer of water covered the layer of wind.

He touched down and he let his chakra fly. The entire clearing seemed to explode.

Kurenai shielded her genin with her body.

She felt blades of wind and water combined lacerate through her light armor.

It hurt.

Their vision returned.

"How touching." Ryūjin said. "But what are you hoping to do here?"

"We have no hope." Kurenai knew. It didn't mean she wasn't going to try still.

The man walked towards her slowly. She breathed heavily, blood dripping down her face.

He shrugged. "Well, I guess the effort is more important."

"Kurenai-sensei, go!" Sasuke jumped, followed by Toru, whose Sharingan allowed him to be perfectly synchronized with him. A wire bound Ryūjin's right arm and neck, and the flame Toru set along it flowed down its length.

Naruto summoned three clones and they let Lightning fly.

Sakura weaved through hand seals, but never finished her technique.

The man waved his hand almost lazily and a blade of air cut right through her left arm and eye.

Naruto saw it in what felt like slow-motion.

One moment she was trying to shield herself, the next she was down on her knees, her left hand laying down in front of her, uselessly.

"SAKURA!" He screamed.

Her right eye was wide with panic, and she looked as if she couldn't believe the stump that now was where her arm used to be was actually hers.

Toru managed to avoid dying thanks to his Sharingan. He rushed to move Sakura away.

Naruto came to her.

His hands were shaking.

"What do I know about medical ninjutsu? What did I read? Useless. Useless. It was for nothing."

Sakura was breathing fast, and Naruto knew she was likely to reach shock.

"Toru. Sasuke… Sakura."

Kurenai's voice came out raspy. Her eyes were almost dull.

"Prevent excessive blood flow. Cauterize the wound." Naruto remembered. They'd need too much time.

"I'm sorry." She spared a look to a wide-eyed Sakura, especially.

"Could I have done more?" She wondered.

"Kurenai-sensei!"

"Asuma…"

Yūhi Kurenai stood proud, like these Konoha heroes you'd read about in history books. She weaved an illusion for the last time.

In a fraction of a second, Sasuke understood what she was about to do.

"Oh no!" Time seemed to slow, and he could see the chakra building up in her head. Wait, he could see it?

Kurenai's forbidden technique, the Hell-Binding, linked Ryūjin's chakra network to hers, for a short instant.

At the cost of her mind. She felt a blinding pain inside her head.

For the first time since he had appeared, the man seemed taken aback.

They were both left chakraless for a second, and that's when the explosive tags she had set up on herself detonated.

They stood in silence as Naruto tried to bind Sakura's stump as much as he could to prevent her from losing too much blood.

Mikami's hand was glowing pale green, his Mystical Palm too unreliable to be of use.

Sakura's voice was small. "Sensei…? I-is she?"

Naruto closed his eyes painfully. What would he tell Asuma, if he couldn't even tell her student?

Toru and Sasuke huddled together, their faces pale and lost.

He would need one of them to cauterize the stump.

Naruto's hands tightened as he looked over to where Kurenai had been.

There was only a hole in the ground, still smoking. He looked away, his eyes burning.

"That's a devious little trap you had here, little Leaf. I'm impressed."

Ryūjin, covered in heavy burns, crawled from the ground, meters away from where Kurenai had detonated herself.

His voice carried easily over the distance. He had a vicious smile on his face. His left arm was in bad shape, dangling motionless from his shoulder.

He twisted it experimentally, winced and decided to leave it alone.

Toru's eyes noticed a strange-looking seal on his shoulder, gleaming with chakra.

"It's this. This is how he survived and Sense-" He cut off this train of thought. He was horrified, angry, terrified at the same time.

He held Sasuke back, there was no way they'd be able to do anything.

"Your eyes…" He blinked.

Sasuke's eyes were red with the Sharingan, and staring at the seal on the Uzumaki's shoulder. He didn't seem to notice him. His eyes were wide, and he didn't seem to know whether to listen to his fight.. or flight instinct.

"This sure came in handy, huh?" Ryūjin muttered when he noticed what the Uchiha were looking at. "I call it Ground-Eater seal. Helps navigate underground even when I'm low on chakra. Surprised a few Leafs with it in the past."

Step.

"Time we finish it, now, boys."

After fighting off almost nearly ten Jōnin, and getting a nasty little surprise by the last one, he just wanted to move on with this.

He sighed and felt his chakra come back to him slowly. Better not be wasteful now. He formed Tiger, Dog, Snake.

"Wind Style: Drilling Air Bullet."

Both Uchiha saw the attack coming but couldn't do anything but watch in perfect clarity as a compact bullet of air went through Mikami's head.

He fell next to Sakura and Naruto, stiff.

"Stop it." Naruto heard himself say, his right hand still laying on a half-conscious Sakura.

Step.

"Stop." He unconsciously grasped for his chakra.

Step.

"Stop it." Sakura's chakra was reacting to his own.

Step.

"I said, stop it!" He felt the weight of something in his hand, and he pulled.

In a flash of lightning, a spectral gauntlet appeared around Sakura's hand, settling around her forearm.

A chain appeared in between Naruto and Sakura, linking them.

Both faded out, flowing back into her.

I need a weapon.

He was carried by instinct only, now. Chakra built up in his hands, flashed like thunder, and where there was nothing stood a dagger.

The man stopped in his tracks.

"I knew it!" Ryūjin exclaimed, a terrifying grin stretched too wide on his face.

Somehow, this was the scariest thing Naruto had seen until now.

If he was about to die, he would at least die fighting, like Kurenai did.

He nodded at Sasuke and Toru, and felt their identical resolve.

Kinship here, out of all places.

The red-haired man threw his head back and laughed.

He wiped a tear from his eye.

"You boys can stop right here, I got more than bargained. The boss is going to be real happy about this."

"Now then. Make sure to stay alive until next time, all right?" He asked.

He started walking away.

"Where do you think you're going?!" Sasuke screamed, adrenaline rushing through his body. Toru pulled a short blade out as well.

Naruto focused Lightning in his legs, ready to try to blindside him.

He turned back to look at them.

"I said. You boys can stop."

They read murder in his eyes, his power pinning them down.

What had they been thinking?

The wave of killing intent abated.

The murderer of Kurenai-sensei whistled a jaunty tune as he left by walking.

The tension stayed. They still had to close Sakura's wound.

Sasuke and Toru did just that, searing the wound with fire, without a word. Theirs was the kind of single-minded focus that came when you were desperately avoiding thinking about a specific thing.

She screamed herself hoarse, in a half-conscious daze, before passing out.

The boys all huddled around her, not saying a word, their eyes wild.

They broke down in nervous tears while the sun rose.