Regulating my breathing, I looked toward the distant flashes lighting up Amegakure's skyline, and I was sure it wasn't because of the heavy rain. Usually, lightning strikes weren't answered with a column of fire. I even saw a mountain-sized spike of earth shoot up between two towers before something shattered it. Haaah... I couldn't tell who was winning or who was fighting whom, but that wasn't our problem right now.
"Alright." Minato exhaled. "Let's hurry. Can you sense the next mark?"
"I'm on it."
We were moving along the Hiraishin route Minato had built as we entered the city, jumping backward along the exact path we'd taken hours earlier. I don't even know how he managed to leave so many marks behind, but looking at it better... I could sense them on things he tossed out, unseen. Like... a button from his cloak. I even joked that we were lucky it hadn't washed down into one of the pipes, because that would have been a nasty surprise. The weird smile he gave me, though... Ugh... I knew he didn't think about that possibility! Suddenly I had a bit of apprehension about this plan, but had no alternatives to offer, so... I just followed him.
"How far until a proper checkpoint?" I asked as we came out onto an abandoned-looking street.
"A bit..."
He just said it as a shadow passed above us, and I looked up, gold entering my vision. Oh boy... we were found! Above the rooftops, a huge cloud of golden particles flew through the rain, with Gaara's father, Rasa, standing on it.
"Come!" Minato said as he grabbed me, blinking away just as a spear of Gold Dust punched through the spot where we'd been standing.
We just reappeared when an ear-splitting, grinding noise reached us as the entire street under our feet began rising, like somebody was closing a book on us. I know this shit... It has to be Kitsuchi! As if it wasn't enough, water exploded from the canal beside us, telling me that we were now surrounded by three bastards.
"Move!" I said as we escaped the closing trap, and I shoved Minato while a hooked staff tore through between us, and Yagura landed in a crouch, glaring at me.
His face looked horrible, as my earlier kick had done exactly what I thought it did. His jaw was swollen grotesquely, one side already turning purple, blood constantly running from his mouth, and he couldn't close it properly.
"Miss me?" I grinned at him, making him groan something, unable to speak. "Sorry, can't stay; I have been told to go home. We played enough! See ya later!"
With a flash, both Minato and I were gone, and we reappeared under an elevated pipe system before the trio could trap us again. Honestly, if not for Hiraishin, I think we would be in deep shit. Even with it, we could do nothing but run, because the moment we reappeared, a massive stone hand smashed through the pipes, trying to get to us. Wherever we were running next, Kitsuchi punched through the structure from the opposite street, collapsing half the elevated pipe network, giving zero fucks about collateral damage.
Probably because they didn't know where the marks were, they were going about it the brute-force way, destroying everything. Rasa had figured it out too, I guess, because his golden sand was unceremoniously attacking us and the landscape. We just turned into a street, getting cut off once again, when Yagura dropped down on us from above. I intercepted and kicked him sideways, without any effort. As he was groaning, clearly weakened from getting caught in such a simple attack, I gave him another, emotional punch.
"Sorry, can't understand you. Is it your mouth? It looks broken. Who did that to you? Poor kid. You should see a doctor."
His eye twitched, and I could tell it was getting bloodshot... Heh. Worth it. Or... Maybe I said too much, because then water surged around his feet and a compressed jet shot at me, aiming at my chest, but I flashed away before it could crush me against the wall, and I reappeared beside Minato.
"He's angry!"
"You alright?" He asked, running down another street by the time I caught up.
"Yep. I'm just angering the boy enough that he can't focus. Just keep moving; we have enough trouble with the other two!"
"They're cutting us off," Minato muttered, sensing that they indeed tried to split and converge ahead of us, closing off the route leading outside of the city.
"Then we break through." I sneered as we came out of the alley, back to the main road, where we came face-to-face with Rasa.
Minato went forward first, attacking the golden wall he was erecting with a Rasengan, blowing it apart and leaving a hole open for us. However, Rasa was already sliding backward, yelling.
"Kitsuchi!"
The moment he said it, the ground beneath Minato exploded. This time, I was the faster one, reaching him, grabbing onto his cloak and flashing away with him, just before whatever trap they had prepared would explode. As for where we went, I needed a few moments to ascertain, realizing we went backward... ugh. I was too focused on getting out there that I didn't care which mark I used.
"Thanks." He said, but before I could answer, something wet wrapped around my ankle, trying to yank me off balance, and this time, it worked.
I hit the ground hard as a 'tentacle' dragged me backward. Before Minato could reach for me, that fucking golden sand appeared again and cut us off, erecting a wall between us.
"RENJI!"
"I'm fine!" I yelled back as Yagura pulled me through a flooded alley and swung his staff, trying to impale me.
I activated my Ember Mantle, burning off the watery hand holding me, rolled out of the way, and ducked underneath Mirror-Renji's punch... because Yagura was already ready this time around, using his fucking mirror technique. Two against one, huh? So be it, I'll break your jaw a second time! Without any hesitation, I let my Sharingan read the patterns of my fake self and Yagura. Turning off my mantle, I slid forward on the water, twisting my body between them, throwing out a kunai... However, this time I wasn't flashing at it; instead, I was sending the weapon through the jutsu, straight into the water mirror.
Yagura didn't even know what happened, because the next moment that damned mirror shattered, along with my clone. He groaned once again and was in the middle of turning, but it was too late. Turning my mantle back on, my flaming palm struck his ribs, and he flew again, ping-ponging between the walls of the alley I was in, before collapsing onto the ground. I wasn't going to let it be just like that this time around, so I went after him, but before I could form a Minor Supernova and kill the fucker, a mountain landed in front of me... Kitsuchi.
"Tsk..." I sneered, breaking off, watching him. "Your boyfriend?"
His fist came down as an answer, and the alley vanished in an explosion, while I reappeared beside Minato, who had just escaped his fight with Rasa.
"How far are we from the outskirts?" I asked, panting a little.
"Far." He answered, heaving a little. "They won't let us get there! They already realized that I left the marks on the way we took inside, and they are blocking it. They even forced us backward, trying to ascertain our range, hoping they could take away our ability to blink away."
Sadly, Minato was right. As we kept dodging, suddenly on the back foot, fleeing away from them, they managed to corral us into an enormous circular industrial yard. Fuck... If we used up most of our chakra, we could get pretty far, to a mark at a safe distance, but then what? We would be out of energy and become easy pickings. This was not good!
Just then, Kitsuchi landed, and his palms struck the ground, raising walls behind and around us, at least thirty meters in height... and growing. Wonderful! He blocked most directions, while Rasa floated above us... I guess they were confident in capturing us, thinking we were out of range of any other mark we could jump towards. Even Yagura reappeared, but he barely looked put together by now, leaning against the wall with one arm. Just give up, dude... lay down... stay there!
"Enough," Rasa said suddenly, slowly descending, standing on one of his rain-soaked golden clouds. "You two have caused far too much trouble... But it's over."
"An optimist, I see," I chuckled, gazing up at him, but he avoided my eyes... smart. "Hopefully you will make a great dad one day."
"Kill them." He said in response, making me raise a brow. Oh? That's it? Kill us? No big speech. Oh. Okay!
Then they attacked as I saw a shower of gold come down like a tsunami. The moment we separated, the sea parted too, following us both. When I tried to jump, Kitsuchi appeared atop me, super fast for his size. I could only cross my arms and take it, sending me down with a crash, but I refused to groan or show how much my arms were hurting.
As I was getting up, Minato flashed beside me, intercepting Yagura, who ate a full Rasengan, flinging him away. This was getting embarrassing. Honestly, please don't try to stand back up! However, I wasn't looking because, at the same time, I also stretched my arm out, welcoming the descending Kitsuchi with a Minor Supernova, blasting him back into the sky. Too bad Rasa was floating out of range, controlling that damned sand, catching us with it and throwing us down.
"Well... Turns out, we will have to go broke..." I groaned, looking at Minato, because I had no other idea of getting out of this 'prison' than using up most of our chakra and flashing to a mark way outside of the city. As for how we're going to run from there... that was future Renji's issue.
"I think so too." Minato moaned, too, looking around, seeing that Yagura and Kitsuchi were ready to attack again.
Then I saw... Paper? Huh? A rectangular white sheet flew through the rain... Then another... Then hundreds.
"What the—?!" I blinked, and Minato caught it too as they wrapped around the Gold Dust, exploding, freeing us from our prison.
Then, without a second to spare, a torrential wave of water erupted from a rooftop, crushing Yagura, blasting him away, through the raised walls of Kitsuchi, cracking it for good. From nowhere, a massive blast of wind hammered the Iwa bastard, too, right into his own jutsu, flinging him up in the air, before he was bombarded by more paper tags, resulting in a massive explosion.
"What's happening?" Minato whispered, already back on his feet, ready to act while three figures landed between us and our pursuers.
I already knew who these three were, with their black cloaks, which were still plain-looking. The paper gave it away, even if their hoods were pulled low, half-masks covering their faces like some bandits... heh... But you won't fool me.
"..." Rasa stared at them, twitching an eye. "Who are you?"
"That is," the figure at the front said as he raised a blade at him, "not your concern."
"You interfere in the affairs of the Five Great Nations."
"This is the Land of Rain," he continued, his voice surprisingly young. "You're the ones interfering with this land."
Kitsuchi was already attacking, but the second figure lifted her hands as paper spread from beneath her cloak, coming in the thousands, forcing the big man back with enough explosions to make me laugh.
"Renji?" Minato looked at me, but I just grinned back at him.
"Fight first. Let's work with our mysterious helpers and make sure nobody follows us after this!"
As if hearing us, the first masked man charged Kitsuchi as water coated his blade, ducking under his punch and cutting his side, forcing him back. The third figure didn't move much; he simply raised one hand, and I saw an immense amount of chakra gathering in that wind release, blasting Rasa's gold cloud from underneath him, opening him up for us.
"Now!" Minato yelled, and he didn't need to tell me twice.
I caught the suddenly falling Rasa's gaze, sending his mind into a genjutsu, disorienting him just enough for Minato to appear right below him, putting a Rasengan into his abdomen. By the time he landed and I looked around, Kitsuchi had already been dealt with, lying on the ground, covered with paper tags, ready to explode if he tried to move. And finally... Yagura was nowhere to be seen, probably out cold just like everyone else in the first wave of attack.
"That was..." I looked around while Minato landed beside me. "...unexpected."
The black-cloaked trio turned toward us, too, and Minato raised both hands slightly, both in defense and to show we weren't enemies.
"Thank you." We both said at once.
"Don't." The leading figure nodded at us. "We didn't help you because of our own good heart, but because you could be the key for us to finally deal with Hanzo."
"Okay..." I frowned. "I am not following you here. Care to give us the rundown... Um...?" I offered, but I was pretty much sure I was talking to Yahiko right now. Things were way out of order for me to speak to him, right here, right now, but it was also clear that I could not count on what I knew. Things were moving towards a different direction, which wasn't really bad. Because maybe this is my chance to stop the whole Akatsuki... before it is even formed.
"No need for you two to know that." He answered me, which was fair, "And we don't have much time... So listen well. We will help you escape this trap alive, but you will have to help us in turn. Otherwise, you both and your Hokage will die here today."