( January 3rd, year 15 After the Kyubi attack )
The rain fell unforgivingly under the dark sky of the night, crashing violently against everything it hit, be it the rare outcropping of trees or the far more common landscape characterized by the red-colored stone of the land of Earth. The wind was harsh, and the cold seeped into the very bones of everyone foolish enough to dare defy the mountains.
"At least it isn't snow." the whisper of Ino brought Sasuke out of his reverie, his eyes quickly finding the dark shape of her body at the entrance of the cavern. they were holed up in, "How are they?"
The Uchiha returned his attention to the other two shinobi they had bunkered with after the ambush that broke Konoha's platoon, sneering distractedly at their still unconscious forms before he returned his attention to the blonde Yamanaka: "Still out of it: if they're chunin, I'm Madara Uchiha."
Ino offered him her sharp grin while she cast off the heavy cloak meant to keep off the worse of the rain from her body while she scouted ahead, her teal blue eyes glinting mischievously in the dim light cast by the only lamp that Sasuke felt like using while babysitting the two unconscious chunin: "So... we have some time for ourselves?"
Despite himself, Sasuke felt his pulse quicken while he looked over the blonde moving towards him, his eyes capable of following the smallest movement caused by the deliberate sway of her hips.
"We're alone in hostile territory, with two dead weights and no safe way to return." if his voice was the tiniest bit chocked, he knew Ino wouldn't mention it, even if the widening of her smile was proof that he had caught on on that, "We need to prioritize."
"Oh, I'll prioritize all right..." her grin widened minutely as she reached him, her hands trailing softly around his temples and in his damp hair, "I think you know that too..."
Sasuke forcefully controlled his breathing as he felt like drowning in her eyes, the warmth that he had started to discover with the Yamanaka months before turning from a distant simmer into something hungry. And from the parting of the girl's lips, she felt similarly, as she bent to bring their lips together however, the Last Uchiha stiffened: something had changed.
Immediately, Ino switched from 'relaxed' to 'ready to engage' as she spun on her heel, trusting in her partner's reaction even if her senses hadn't informed her of anything amiss: her teal eyes scoured the darkness beyond their cave, her sight unsuccessfully trying to part the heavy curtain of rain in front of her.
Her chakra, coiled tightly around herself, stirred minutely, not so much as to be perceived by anyone but a skilled sensor in the immediate surroundings, but enough to prime her body for a lethal retaliatory strike were they to be attacked.
Sasuke followed her example with less than a split second delay: Raiton he spent many hours honing since Kakashi first showed him the Chidori thrummed just under his skin, while a familiar red and purple tint covered his sight as the Sharingan spun forth, already seeking patterns in the blinding rain outside the cave.
A fraction of thought was spared for the two dead weights behind him, only for his training to command the rest of his focus on the surroundings.
There!
Sasuke exploded out of their hiding spot with chakra being shaped by blurring hand-seals and his eyes blazing red as he called upon the gifts of his bloodline: one tree didn't burn as much as stopped existing because of the concentrate blaze of fire that the Last Uchiha spewed upon it, his center mass already shifting to accommodate for the retaliatory strike of an Iwa nin that exploded out of the ground in front of him.
The hands trying to grab him closed on the drops of rain at his sides, his chakra already twisting the perceptions of his attacker just long enough for a kunai to land within his left eye.
His victim turned out to be a mud clone as he unraveled, and Sasuke darted left under the powerful slash of a katana, his left hand turning into a spear point as the Chidori screamed its entrance into the world with the blinding white scream of lightning.
"Shit!" one of the shinobi anbushing him jumped back just in time to be gutted by a companion, who winked at Sasuke, letting him know that Ino was in charge of that one.
The priorities shifted, and Sasuke went from blind-offensive to keep-them-away, that'd give time to his girlfriend -he withhold a smile at that thought- to rifle through the mind of their attackers while providing support to the Uchiha.
Under the heavy rain, his chakra blazed, burning away the sloppy attempt at genjutsu that brough his attention to his right, where another Iwa kunoichi was feverishly working through hand-seals.
A single glance, however, forced her to duck to her left, dodging an imaginary kunai just to trip over a companion that was darting towards Sasuke. With his Sharingan blazing in the night, he was a nightmarish vision for his opponents, that likely expected to pick up you average chunin already exhausted from battle.
Sasuke didn't even have to try to kick the throat of the first man attempting to engage him in close quarters, his bloodline more than enough to read him as an open book and to exploit the infinitesimal opening of his attack.
The ninja was blond and had an uncared-for beard that became splattered with blood after his failure against Sasuke, who ignored the names the enemy shinobi shouted to each other in order to prepare something that resembled an organized offensive.
A green light covered the hands of the blond man, and Sasuke immediately went in for the kill: he didn't know why a medic would attempt to fight in the front lines, and he didn't actually care, but he needed to remove him as soon as possible.
A woman wielding a short katana and - Is that an actual shield? What kind of kunoichi is she? - flashed to his left just as a short-haired blond man did the same on his right, his straight jian extended as if to skewer him.
Two steps forward were all that he needed to throw off his attackers, who were ready to pursue him further instead of falling back. They didn't expect that I would slip through their attack to assault their medic-nin.
However, there was suddenly a third shinobi in front of him: an humungous red-haired and bearded man that attempted to smash Sasuke with an haymaker covered in rock in a downward swing.
So they have a semblance of tactics. Sasuke realized that the overextending of the pincher maneuver was a feint to lure him into the midst of three shinobi that clearly knew how to work together, and a part of him wanted to nod appreciatively at their teamwork.: his way back was now blocked, and the man in front of him was just a bit too large to be bypassed at the same speed he had been moving at.
Foolishly, the man seemed to ignore that a stab was much faster than a swing, or worse, he seemed to think that only because Sasuke didn't wield a katana, he wasn't a threat to his life: without hand-seals, relying only on sheer chakra-manipulation, the Chidori struck just under the solar plexus of his attacker, and the Uchiha killed the man immediately.
At the same time, his free hand turned into an half-ram seal while he slipped his chakra in the med-nin in front of him: between the gifts of his bloodline and the enhanced control that his hand-seal provided, the target wouldn't move for a while.
"Hidan!" the male scream coming from behind him was enough to inform Sasuke of his opponent's hesitation: with a serpentine turn on his left heel, Sasuke pushed off at the same insane speeds he had used to fuck around his attackers until then.
Bloodied but free, his hand clamped on the right wrist of the surprised blond while the Uchiha kept moving, leveraging the imperfect balance of his opponent to drag him between himself and the attacking woman.
The black-haired kunoichi openly snarled at seeing her window of opportunity close before she could take advantage of it. She seems aware of her companion's mistake.
The unbalanced shinobi found himself with his main arm twisted behind his back, his jian forced flat between his back and Sasuke's torso while the Uchiha kept him between himself and the woman. While she had lost her opportunity to attack directly, however, she hadn't stopped her charge, and tried to somersault the two men.
Her intention was clear in the narrowing of her eyes, in how her legs coiled to turn all the possible momentum into something capable of delivering her just behind Sasuke's back.
To these eyes, that is simply too obvious. Sasuke wanted to snort while he kicked away the left knee of the shinobi in his control, and he simply pushed forward the wrist of the weapon-wielding hand: the jian darted forward in a stabbing motion, grazing the blond hair of the Iwa shinobi while his shoulder was dislocated with a wet 'pop'.
"Argh!" even in pain, the man that the Uchiha was using as a weapon realized what was going on too late to do anything about it. But the black-haired kunoichi wasn't your average rookie, and she brought forth her shield at an angle, just enough to divert the badly controlled stab by proxy of Sasuke.
Then she slashed with her sword. Chakra was channeled in an unfamiliar manner along the lenght of steel, and even under the rain, for a moment it was like the edge of the katana was reflecting the glare of an unforgiving sun directly in the red eyes of the Uchiha.
The latter almost felt a smile threatening to rise on his features. As if I haven't trained exactly against this scenario.
Being an Uchiha, it was obvious that his enemies would one day force him to fight without his most powerful tool: and he was ready for that. After all, the perfect recall of his immediate surroundings was enough for quick retaliation. But I'm not alone.
"Ino!" he called while his body moved based on what he remembered thanks to his perfect eyesight, "I'm momentarily blind!"
...
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