Naruto growled, "Shouldn't there be some way around this stuff? We still have one more of these things to check and with our track record the next one might just spontaneously combust when we get within five feet of the entrance."
After leaving the building housing the statue of death, Naruto and Sai entered what looked to be the administrative building. The skeletons of fallen enemy and Uzu shinobi alike told them both that a fierce battle had gone on inside of this building. Of course the corridors to the main office were booby trapped, once again with a seal array that locked them inside of a long hallway and began to cook the boys alive. Naruto was luckily able to locate the seal array on one of the walls and mentally shut out the heat roasting him alive until he could break down the seal and deactivate the trap. Naruto took notes on that seal before they left, hoping that it could be applicable elsewhere, it was a pretty nasty trap.
Upon reaching the main office they found that it had been ransacked. There was nothing, the vault was empty, even the desk had been stripped bare. They boys then left and entered the next tower, which was basically a chakra-less run through a building filled top to bottom with a ridiculous amount of traps ranging from sealing arrays that shot fire, collapsing floors leading to spike pits, ranged kunai and shuriken triggers, and the pool filled with water that had a live current running through it.
Naruto looked up at the sky and yelled, "All I've learned in this place is that I know nothing about booby traps! How did these people get beaten again?"
Sai took a moment to bandage his wound, "Should we rest before entering the final tower Naruto-senpai? Who knows what will be in there." Naruto nodded and sat down on the walkway looking out at the raging whirlpool they were standing over, "That is one imposing landmark." Naruto saw Sai wrapping bandages around his exposed midsection, "Are you okay? You aren't hurt too bad are you? You should tell me if you are, because you don't have a six story fuzzy red physician in you like I do."
"Go fuck yourself ningen. Physician that."
Sai grunted in affirmation, "They are just flesh wounds sempai. I will be fine after a short rest."
Naruto accepted his answer before deciding to chew the fat a bit with the boy, "So Sai-kouhai, did Danzo-jiji finally let any girls join Root or is it still just full of dudes, because I told him about that."
Sai paid close attention to his wounds as he spoke, "Root has females Naruto-senpai. Reva-san is a girl, as is Maki-san. They came up around the same time you did and are within a few years of your age. How did you not notice them?"
Naruto's eyes widened, "What? Maki and Reva are girls? Damn it I was never able to tell; Maki always kept her hair so short and wore baggy stuff, Reva didn't sound like a girl nor did she have the figure at the time, and not to mention that both of them always wore those damn masks like they would lose them if they weren't attached to their faces."
Sai gave Naruto a fake smile, "That just means that you were more concerned with your work Naruto-senpai."
Naruto snorted in an amused fashion, "I wonder if they were good looking… Oh who am I kidding, of course they were. They were kunoichi, it's like a prerequisite as a ninja that all kunoichi must be at the very least, cute. They're still alive right?"
Sai nodded, "Ever since you were captured, Danzo-sama has scaled back on our mission intake. Losing you when he did gave him a significant hit. A lot of the operations he had planned centered themselves around you. He had to revamp everything, right down to the training, to pick up the slack."
Naruto frowned and looked over at the tower, "I think I should sweep for traps before we go inside, since we had so much fun during the last two towers." Naruto made six Kage Bunshin, "Go in two at a time and scout out the building for me." The clones saluted him and ran off towards the tower in groups of two.
Naruto turned back to Sai, "Are you ready to go? It's almost nightfall, are we planning on staying outdoors or in one of these stupid towers?"
Before Sai could answer a massive explosion rocked the tower, there were Kage Bunshin eradicated in the blast and some sent flying off of the walkway. Naruto looked at the tower in shock, "I was just joking when I said it would just spontaneously combust!" "Well then Kyuubi jinchuuriki you weren't caught in the first blast! It looks like you get to see a little more of my art, un."
Naruto and Sai looked up at the setting sun to see a man flying above them on a massive bird. He had blonde hair up in a half ponytail, one bang covering one eye. His eyes were somewhat slitted and blue in color and he had a scratched out Iwagakure hitae-ate on his head. The most noticeable thing about him however was the black cloak with red clouds on it. He had only seen that on two people before, and they…. Oh.
Naruto kept his eyes on The flying man, "Sai… What are the chances that we can get out of here?"
Sai pulled out his scroll, "Not very good as long as he's in the air. Do you know this person Naruto-senpai?"
Naruto shook his head, "No. But he's wearing the same stuff that Itachi Uchiha was wearing when he attacked me. Last time they came to capture me, I'm assuming that it's much the same this time since he hasn't tried taking out the bridge and dropping us into the whirlpool yet."
Sai figured his line of reasoning, "So he's after the Kyuubi."
"Got it in one kouhai." Naruto drew the blade from his back, "What are we going to do? He's long range and I can't really reach him from here, I have some distance stuff, but I doubt anything I have can hit him from here." Naruto looked around, "We need room and the tops of the towers looks like a good bet, but we can't wall-walk them to get up there, or use chakra when in contact with them…"
"Choujuu Giga (Super Beasts Imitation Picture)." Sai drew a pair of birds onto his scroll and made two large ink replicas that he hopped onto one of, "Get on Naruto-senpai." Naruto gleefully jumped onto one of Sai's ink birds as they took off to the skies, "Sai-kouhai you can fly? Wait, why the hell did we walk all the way here then? We could have been here hours ago."
Sai directed traffic with his birds, "It requires chakra to do so. I do not like wasting my chakra when moving on my feet would be a much better way to save my chakra."
Naruto nodded and turned his head, "I've never done this before. Is this thing going to keep me safe kouhai?"
Sai gave him a fake smile, "It can take one or two hits senpai."
Naruto sighed, "Great… fine, how are we getting away?" Just as he said that a voice rang out.
"So you're going to run, un? I hope your art is as effective as mine! I know it isn't nearly as much of an explosion, un!" The man sent out multiple small clay birds at the boys. Sai was able to maneuver out of the way and cut them down from afar. Naruto however had no experience moving a bird and as such ended up surrounded by the little clay creations. The man smirked and made a single hand-seal, "Katsu."
Naruto's eyes widened as Sai flew near him. Naruto took the chance and jumped from his own bird over to Sai's just as an explosion from the clay birds destroyed his ink bird. Naruto looked back at the man as he and Sai did their best to attempt to lose him, "Who the hell are you?"
"Does it really matter? I'm still going to catch you whether we're on a first name basis or not un." The man grinned amusedly.
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