SOS X
As soon as the men from Konoha moved forward, Reiji's personal guard appeared, blades flashing as they were drawn from their sheaths and holsters. In the blink of an eye, Neji was upon them, hands flashing as they dove into the flesh of his opponents, blocking chakra points. Naruto and the others took the opportunity to rush at Reiji. Naruto looked over his shoulder and yelled, "Neji, take care of them for us!"
"Why do I have to take orders from a Genin?" Yelled Neji indignantly, as he parried a short sword with his open hand. The men that had fallen under his onslaught were recovering extremely quickly. It appeared that Reiji had picked his guard well.
Meanwhile, Fujiyama, Reiji's lieutenant, had cut off Naruto's charge for his leader, but couldn't stop Bao-Dur and Wedge from slipping past. Fujiyama, intent on giving chase, raised one of his massive arms and blocked a kick aimed at his neck. Naruto planted his foot on his opponent's arm and leapt off, throwing his drawn kunai as he did so. Fujiyama easily caught it in his hand, and turned to give the smaller ninja his full attention. Reiji could deal with those other two. In the meantime, he could make himself useful by eliminating this nuisance.
Bao-Dur, setting his blaster on semi-auto, raised his weapon and fired off a few rounds at Reiji. Still remembering the sting of blaster fire from being hit in the arm, he decided to dodge instead of take the hits and strike back. Jumping into the air and over Bao-Dur's attack, he landed in front of Wedge, who tried to bring his lightsaber low to attack Reiji's legs. Before he could do that, however, Reiji had already lightly kicked Wedge's sword arm, stopping his attack and throwing him off balance. Just as he drew a kunai, Bao-Dur was behind him, mechanical arm raised. The punch connected with Reiji's ribcage, forcing him to stagger a few steps to the side and away from Wedge. The Jedi was up once again, thrusting his palm forward and hitting Reiji in the right shoulder with an effective Force push, throwing him to the side and he continued to stagger farther back. Without missing a beat, Bao-Dur tossed a flash grenade at his feet and covered his eyes.
But Reiji wasn't the only one to be affected by the flash. Neji, while battling the five men who made up Reiji's personal guard, watched his comrades' battles through his bloodline technique, the Byakugan. Having watched the Jounin exams closely, he recognized the flash grenade for what it was, and shielded himself while his opponents took the effects full force. Stunned, they had no way of protecting themselves against Neji's renewed attack.
As for Naruto, the moment that the grenade went off, he had dodged a swipe from Fujiyama and was hit by the flash in mid-air. Shocked, he landed in the dirt with a loud thud. Fujiyama, while equally confused as to what just happened, took the opportunity to grab Naruto by the collar and throw him into a tree, snapping the trunk. Finally being shaken out of his confusion by the throw, Naruto launched himself at Fujiyama's face once again, fist at the ready, only to strike at nothing once more. Landing perfectly this time, he turned around and formed a seal.
"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"
Soon, Fujiyama found himself surrounded by orange-clad ninjas, all of which wielded drawn kunai.
The three in front of him immediately started their attack, two throwing their kunai toward Fujiyama's face while the last charged toward his gut. He dodged one of the kunai and grabbed the other, stepping forward to grab the ninja under him and slam his knee into his chest, making him vanish in a puff of smoke. He made an underhanded toss behind him to block an incoming blade with his stolen knife, and rolled out of the way of several punches and kicks that could've caused quite a but of damage. Coming out of his roll, he found himself immediately surrounded once again and grunted in frustration. He formed a seal of his own.
"Doton Doryuuheki!"
The ground shook, and an earthen wall burst from below, causing a few bunshins to be taken by surprise and being struck by it before it curved up and over Fujiyama and slamming back into the earth, affectively sealing him inside a great stone sphere.
Naruto gathered the few clones he still had and waited, surrounding the temporary fortress with kunai drawn, ready for anything.
A muffled voice cried out, "Doton Tsuiga no Jutsu!"
The half-sphere crumbled and something shot out, striking the clone beside Naruto, who yelled before poofing out of existence. The dust settled, revealing Fujiyama, who was now flanked by two extremely tall and fully armored statues. The one to his right held the bow that had shot Naruto' clone, while the other wielded a long spear, whose blade was made with a pitch-black obsidian.
"You've proven yourself worthy enough to face one of my greatest techniques," Fujiyama said with pride. "Behold my earth summons, the Stone Sentinels."
Reiji stumbled away from the two fighters, breathing heavily.
"You aren't ninja, I can see that." He wheezed. His left arm was bleeding heavily from Wedge's saber, and his side ached from Bao-Dur's punch earlier. He was sure that a few ribs had been fractured.
Wedge and Bao-Dur advanced, weapons at the ready. "Give it up." Said Wedge. "Your army's gone, and you're at the end of your rope as well. There's nothing left for you to fight for."
"No, you certainly aren't ninja," Reiji said again, almost sadly. "If you were, you would know that there is always something to fight for!"
He attacked with renewed fervor.
"Jyuken!"
The ninja who was hit by the technique stumbled backwards for a little before stopping. He examined his now useless arm curiously, before rushing back into battle. Neji was about to put him out of the fight for good before two other ninjas threw shiruken from the side. On instinct, Neji ducked while the two projectiles sailed harmlessly overhead, and the advancing ninja's knee caught him painfully under the chin, throwing him off of his feet.
The Hyuuga was up in an instant, and his enemies were around him the moment he was upright. Neji was in trouble, and he knew it. Even with his Byakugan, he had trouble reading the incoming attacks, so much so that he had stopped paying attention to any outside surroundings in order to focus on the fight. And their devotion to their master didn't help Neji's situation any either. Even though a few had limbs hanging uselessly at their sides, made helpless by Neji's Jyuken, they still kept coming, without hesitation or fear. They were prepared to die for their master, and that's what set them apart from Reiji's other men.
That, and Reiji's personal guard, even though comprised of several men, worked as a single entity. It was as if their minds were one, and each member knew what the other was thinking, making them extremely dangerous.
Neji knew that he had wasted enough time underestimating his opponent. He dropped back into his stance, head low, ready to perform one of his ultimate jutsus.
"Hakke…"
The bandit ninjas, eager to put Neji down, rushed forward.
"Shou…"
Blades were drawn and brought downward, intent on silencing Neji before he could finish his incantation.
"Kaiten!"
Neji's entire body turned at an extreme speed, with chakra bursting out of him as he spun. The guards were hit at full-force and were thrown back. Even before the nearest one had hit the ground, Neji ended his technique and was upon him, glaring with his blank, white eyes.
"Hakke Rokujuu Yonshou!" He yelled as he pinpointed the sixty-four major chakra points on the man's body, and jabbed at them with deadly force. The ninja hit the ground and rolled, unable to move any limbs in order to stop himself.
Without their teammate, the rest of Reiji's personal guard was finally at a disadvantage. If Reiji's elite soldiers acted as a single entity, then Neji had cut off that entity's arm by putting one of the members out of commission.
Neji turned to regard the rest of his enemies, who were just shaking themselves out of being thrown about twenty feet without warning. Neji smiled. All he had to do now was mop up.
Naruto found himself alone, facing two living statues and an overconfident Fujiyama. In less than a minute, the other two clones that he had left were taken out by Fujiyama's summons, both of which had barely moved.
"I'll make you regret facing off with me, brat." Fujiyama said with a deep-throated laugh. "Unfortunately for you, your actions have gone past the point of forgiveness. You will bother me no more!"
The statue wielding the spear lunged forward with seemingly impossible speed, his lifeless eyes staring at the target without emotion. The spear was brought up, pointing directly at Naruto's chest, and was shot forward. It met the earth as Naruto disappeared and reappeared above, his hands once again clasped together.
"Kage Bunsh-wah!"
An arrow made from gray stone had grazed his shoulder, causing a long but shallow wound. The stone archer had the bow aimed directly at him. He used his other hand to reach down toward the ground, and the earth below him twisted and formed itself into a perfectly sharp arrow. It shot upwards and into his waiting hand. With this technique, the sculpted archer had a virtually limitless amount of ammunition.
But Naruto had little time to worry about that. The spearman had launched himself off of a tree and was speeding toward him, spear outstretched. Gritting his teeth, he summoned another clone which took the hit, and disappeared. The spear, now in a more relaxed position after striking a target, was easily kicked out of the spearman's grip by Naruto. Not finished yet, Naruto reached out and grabbed the unarmed statue, pulling them towards each other and grabbing the other arm.
Plummeting downward, Naruto heaved his enemy around and below him. They hit the ground with a smash, and Naruto jumped free.
As he landed several feet away, he could hear heavy footfalls behind him. He turned to see the statue, now missing a head and its left arm from the crash, rushing blindly at him. He sidestepped the wild charge, and the statue slowed down, taking a few unsteady, final steps before the legs snapped, and it shattered into a heap of rubble.
Acting within a second, Naruto whipped out a kunai and swung his entire body around, blocking an arrow before it buried itself in his chest. Fujiyama stood behind his stone summon, a stern look upon his face.
"It's not everyday that I find an opponent strong enough to defeat one of my guardians."
Naruto snorted. "Not so cocky now, are you? That pile of rock you sent after me wasn't so tough."
Fujiyama showed no emotion. "I'd like to say that I underestimated you, but it seems your still just some brat."
Naruto was about to respond, but felt a solid and painful grip on his ankle. He looked down to see a large hand sticking out of the ground, grasping his leg. Soon, a head and shoulders became visible. It was Fujiyama.
Naruto quickly looked back to the man he was speaking to, who smiled and vanished in a cloud of pink smoke. Naruto had been duped.
The real Fujiyama smiled as well. "Cocky? That's rich, coming from you.Tekken-fu no Jutsu !"
The man's entire body burst from the ground, sending bits of rock flying everywhere. He raised his fist, which, thanks to his jutsu, now looked as if it were made from solid, shining steel. He struck, and hit Naruto directly in the face.
Or, at least he thought he did. About a second after contact, Naruto's body exploded in a cloud of white smoke, revealing itself to be a dummy made from dead leaves. He had switched himself with a decoy at the last second.
Naruto reappeared several yards behind Fujiyama, and with him came five more clones, who charged at Fujiyama's open back. The archer pinpointed one, and let an arrow fly. That was one down.
Fujiyama grabbed another by the collar of his shirt and slammed him into the ground. He pulled his steel fist back and struck the other with brutal ferocity. Pink smoke was raised everywhere, and from within, three shiruken flew out. Fujiyama leaned backwards to avoid the blades, but directly behind the siruken was another clone, who landed on Fujiyama and held him to the ground. Above him jumped the other two.
In their hands was a glowing blue ball of chakra with a red core. The archer drew back his bow once again and hit one of the Narutos from about five yards away. But Fujiyama wasn't their target, and even without his clone, Naruto could still sustain his Rasengan long enough until impact. With two more steps, he lunged forward and drove it into the archer's chest. The statue all but exploded, raining sculpted bits and pieces everywhere.
Fujiyama threw the clone off of him and ran screaming at Naruto. He threw another punch, which Naruto sidestepped and pushed away from him. He sent a punch of his own toward Fujiyama's chest, which did almost nothing but make him emit a small grunt. Naruto reached behind him to draw another kunai, but found that he was out of ammo. Fuijyama kicked him back, swiping at him. His hand connected, and Naruto was thrown off of his feet.
A figure shot threw the trees and drove an elbow into Fuijyama's back. Using the same force from the attack, the newcomer flipped up and over the larger man to land in between him and Naruto. Rock Lee had arrived with reinforcements.
"Fuzzy-brows!"
"Naruto-kun! Please leave this to me!"
Yelling, Lee charged in, throwing jab after jab at Fujiyama. Through each attack, Fujiyama attempted to find an opening to counter at, but nothing was revealed. He tried to throw some punches to break Lee's rhythm, but he simply jumped over them to deliver some kicks to his head.
On his way down, Fujiyama threw a hell-bent punch toward Lee's middle. Although he brought his hands down to catch the punch, Lee still felt a tremendous impact, and was thrown several feet. He flipped and landed as if nothing had happened and sprinted in once again.
A well-placed kick put a sizeable dent in Fujiyama's steel arm, and another kick from his other leg connected with his head. His glasses were knocked away and skirted across the forest floor. Fujiyama's great bulk leaned back until he fell, unconscious.
Wedge summoned the Force to his hands, feeling the electricity build up within him before releasing it toward Reiji with a loud crack! The lightning bolt was dodged and splintered an old dead log some yards away. Reiji sprinted toward Wedge, who ducked a kick and stabbed at Reiji's shoulder, scoring a shallow wound on his arm.
Wedge jumped back and was replaced with Bao-Dur, who let a punch be blocked by his melee shielding, and then threw one of his own. Reiji took it in the chest, and, wheezing, he had to take a step back and fell on one knee. Wounded, tired, and bleeding, Reiji placed a hand on his aching chest, but refused to meet Wedge and Bao-Dur with his eyes.
"Why…won't you kill me?"
"We don't believe in killing someone if taking them alive is an option." Wedge replied.
"Than you are fools. I come from a world where no prisoners are taken, no life is spared, and if two people go to battle, than only one comes out. Or even none."
Reiji tried to stand, but Bao-Dur placed his boot on his chest and pushed, throwing him on his back. Reiji grunted in pain.
"We aren't in you world anymore, Reiji, so you play by our rules now. We can keep this up as long as you want, but you'll be coming with us sooner or later."
Reiji rolled over in the leaves. His fingers brushed against something hard and cold, something metallic. He grasped it as if it were the only thing keeping him alive at the moment.
"Treating me like some pushover…me, the bandit king…"
For a long moment, while Reiji ached for breath and tried to get on all fours, Wedge put away his lightsaber. He advanced on Reiji, sure that they had won.
"It is something…" Reiji whispered
Wedge reached down, about to grasp Reiji by the shoulder.
"That cannot be forgiven!"
Reiji whipped his hand back, the silver scepter of the dragon gleaming in his grip. The long, green jewel in the dragon's fangs slashed across Wedge's face, spraying blood over the forest floor. Wedge fell back, holding his bleeding face in his hands, completely confused by Reiji's sudden attack while Bao-Dur was forward in an instant, kicking the scepter from Reiji's hands, and then, with the same foot, stomped once on his chest. Reiji screamed, and then whimpered, muttering incoherently in his pathetic state.
"Why…why did this happen…I was the bandit king…invincible…all I wanted…all I wanted…"
Bao-Dur grimaced in disgust, and ended Reiji's miserable chanting with a kick to the forehead. Reiji finally lay still. The Iridonian turned around to help his friend.
"General!"
"Ah…" Wedge hissed in pain. "Ah…not too bad. He missed my eyes. Oh…oh man, this hurts."
"Reiji's out of commission." Bao-Dur placed a hand on Wedge's shoulder and looked down around his hunched form to see his face. "You're bleeding pretty badly, General. We've got to get you some help."
"No, really, I'm okay. Head wounds bleed a lot." Wedge stood straight and tried to wipe some blood away from the narrow wound that ran over the bridge of his nose. He smiled a little. "Looks like we won."
"Yes, looks like it."
A short silence fell on the duo as they looked at Reiji laying in the leaves, but the silence was short lived as blaster fire erupted from the trees. Wedge, acting on reflex, ignited his lightsaber and deflected each shot. Bao-Dur had hit the ground, also acting on a reflex developed in his army days.
A large, orange helmet poked out of the foliage. "Statement: Master! So that was you, terribly sorry, I thought there were some more enemy meatbags to eliminate." He pronounced the word "enemy" with an amused, condescending tone.
"What do you mean by that?" Wedge said, his heart thumping in his chest from the sudden excitement.
"Statement: Oh, I just find the whole concept of enemies in meatbag society so amusing. As if one actually needs a reason to kill another!" HK-47 emerged completely from the leaves and low branches. "But I am so excited to see master and his meatbag companion in one piece!"
Bao-Dur got back up and dusted himself off. "How long were you hiding there?" he asked skeptically.
"Avoidance: Hiding? Please, sir, protocol droids do not hide." HK strode over to Reiji's form and, picking the unconscious man up, hoisted him over his shoulder. "Statement: Still breathing? How disappointing, you two continue to lower my expectations. But in any case, the loud female meatbag with the large bust has asked me to inform you that the enemy force has been defeated. It is safe to make it back to the meatbag settlement."
"Good, we need to get both Wedge and Reiji some medical attention, and fast." Bao-Dur said as he watched Wedge lean to and fro from blood loss. "Are there any medics around here?"
"Statement: All ninja have already cleared this sector of the forest, Iridonian meatbag. You were the only two not to report in, so I was sent to search for your bodies…I mean, to search for you, alive, of course."
"Whatever." Bao-Dur said with an exasperated sigh. He walked over to Wedge and supported him with one shoulder. "Let's get out of here.
"Statement: Of course."
They turned their back on the battlefield and left it in sort of serene silence. Above them, the birds began to sing once again.