Boom—
A soft impact—Natsuhi felt the pressure against the shoulder that chakra was protecting.
She was stunned.
She hadn't crashed into the young man's arms; instead, he shoved her against the wall.
She scrutinized the black-haired youth before her, alarmed.
The force generated by the speed of her Peacock Technique sprint had been so easily neutralized by this man? Under that kind of impact an ordinary person would likely have been killed outright!
Outside the cave, over the roar of the downpour, an angry voice shouted: "Go in—execute that woman's family and take back that thing!!"
"Yes—!"
Boots splashed and stomped in tight, numerous patterns.
Rumble—
A thick bolt of lightning split the sky.
At the foot of the ranges between valley and valley.
The reanimated Uchiha squad arrived far later than expected at the mountain chain straddling the Bear and Bird countries.
But by tracking where Garaga had disappeared earlier, the Uchiha could be sure Yinyue — sorry, Uchiha Yu. — and Tsunade should be sheltering somewhere nearby.
With lightning flashing, the Uchiha hid themselves and watched the Star-nin moving in blinks along the peaks.
"Has Lord Yu's position been exposed? Have other villages learned of him?" one reanimated Uchiha asked, then looked ahead, curious: "Do we need to engage?"
The reanimated Uchiha captain leading them replied in a cold voice, "Wait for orders."
"But if we don't act, will Lord Yu blame us?" another asked.
"Wait for orders!" the captain repeated.
The reanimated Uchiha fell silent. They had been entrusted with this mission by Yu and bore their orders heavily. Without Yu's command they would not act rashly.
Besides, before they came the captain had already learned from surviving Uchiha how fierce their lord was — a man who once led nine Uchiha to assassinate Danzo and succeeded. Would they fear the scum of the ninja world? Moreover, they were within the range of Yinyue's ocular control; if Yinyue met danger he could manipulate them with his dōjutsu to respond. That was their link.
"I haven't seen such a violent storm in a long time," the captain murmured, raising his head to the black peaks as rain lashed his face. Lightning illuminated the scene; the Star-nin had gathered at the cave entrance.
…
The fire inside the cave still burned.
The pot and ingredients lay spread on the ground.
Natsuhi now clearly saw the black-haired youth and the blonde woman sitting by the fire.
From the two people's matching attire and looks, they were not the Star-nin hunting her — they looked like a couple or husband and wife sheltering in the cave for the night.
Wet clothes still hung on a branch over the fire…
"S-sorry… I'll explain later. Please, follow me—leave this place now!" Natsuhi froze for half a second, then bowed an apology and planned to sheath her husband and child in chakra and lead the two strangers deeper into the cave.
If she left them here she feared for their safety.
Tsunade raised an eyebrow, appraising the suddenly appearing family of three. Her gaze landed on the woman and she warned them, "This way is a dead end."
She had changed clothes earlier in the darkness and knew the cave's layout well.
The cavern's interior barely extended five or six meters; the farther in you went the narrower it became, and the end was sealed by a huge boulder.
To Tsunade's eye, the woman before her was attractive — tall, shapely legs, an uncommonly good presence.
"A dead end?"
Natsuhi's pretty face immediately registered panic. She glanced toward the cave mouth, then inward.
Outside the cave shadows swarmed; dozens of Star-nin blinked into place and all but sealed the entrance.
Natsuhi was startled to find that the black-haired youth she'd nearly collided with paid the arriving Star-nin no mind at all…
Uchiha Yu. looked calm as ever. He walked to the fire, bent slowly, and stacked the iron rack, the pot, and the leftover ingredients to put into his storage space.
Seeing the scattered empty lunch boxes and dishes, Uchiha Yu. glanced at Tsunade.
Tsunade immediately took the hint and squatted by him, helping to clear away the post-meal mess.
Whoosh—
When the Star-nin entered the cave, the firelight threw their faces into relief; because of the temperature difference between outside and inside, white mist rose from their bodies.
Seeing that, besides Natsuhi's family, there was this unfamiliar young couple in the cave, all of the Star-nin grew wary and formed a defensive ring.
Clack—clack—
Heavy footsteps sounded from outside the cave. The Star-nin parted solemnly to make way.
A short-haired, middle-aged Star-ninja stepped slowly down the passage. He scanned the cave interior, eyes narrowing, sneering, "Natsuhi — didn't expect someone would be waiting to pick you up here!"
The short-haired veteran smiled coldly and issued orders: "Carry out Lord Akaboshi's orders. Kill them all — no prisoners!"
Yet he felt something familiar about the black-haired youth and the blonde woman crouched cleaning pots and bowls; he thought he'd seen them somewhere before. The fire was dim, though, and he couldn't clearly make out their faces.
What puzzled the veteran was that despite the number of ninjas here, the young couple still calmly tidied old pots and bowls. "They've got no sense," he muttered.
Snap—
The Star-nin immediately drew their kunai, ready to attack the young couple and Natsuhi's family.
Natsuhi's expression was sorrowful.
Cornered with no escape, she swallowed her pain, set her husband and son on the ground with the chakra of her Peacock technique, and forced herself forward.
"Mom…"
The little boy lay beside his dying father and cried toward his mother's back.
Natsuhi stepped forward to the black-haired youth and the blonde woman, pulled a palm-sized strange stone from her bosom, and confronted the Star-nin in a clear voice: "I don't know these two. The meteorite is indeed with me. You can take me and the meteorite back, but you must spare my husband and child and these two innocent people."
Her words rang out with steel.
She loosened the meteorite's preliminary seal; the odd stone suddenly emitted a pink energy pulse that lit Natsuhi's face and cast an eerie glow across the dim cave.
The Star-nin's pupils shrank. They sensed a powerful energy surge.
Wave after wave of gentle, continuous energy washed over them.
The energy radiating from the meteorite harmonized perfectly with the Star-nin's unique chakra, and—like water filling a vessel—it steadily filled and enhanced their internal chakra.
"You traitorous Star-nin!" the short-haired captain cursed, waving his hand.
Yet his eyes were fixed greedily on the meteorite in Natsuhi's hand, full of envy.
More Star-nin pressed in; in moments the cave mouth was tightly surrounded and Natsuhi and the others seemed to have nowhere to flee.
"A meteorite?"
Uchiha Yu. tucked the stacked bowls into Tsunade's arms, studied Natsuhi and the meteorite closely, and memories in his mind began to surface.
"You planning to do what?" Tsunade leaned toward Uchiha Yu., teasing in a low laugh. "I think that woman's quite pretty — her husband's probably beyond saving… isn't that your type…?"
Their conversation was overheard by Natsuhi, who looked back at them with a strange expression.
Uchiha Yu. shot Tsunade a sidelong glance.
Tsunade's mouth was instantly silenced by the imprint on her mind; all she could do was glare at Uchiha Yu.
"Mmm—"
Tsunade's brows rose, and with her lips clenched she could only make a muffled sound.
Uchiha Yu. paid her no mind. He recalled that within the Land of Bears there was a small village called Star Ninja Village.
Since its founding the village had fancied itself the Sixth Great Village and aspired to push another great village out and become one of the Five Greats.
The ideal sounded grand.
But the reality…
The village was sparsely populated, had no kekkei genkai, and no ability to control a tailed beast. Even so, its leader insisted on styling themselves as the "Star Kage," which was an oddity in the shinobi world.
Because the village was weak in so many ways, it habitually provoked Konoha — but no major village, including Konoha, paid them any heed.
In the original story this village faced extinction-level danger and, humiliated, begged help from the very Konoha they'd once taunted.
Uchiha Yu. realized immediately: they'd stumbled into a preexisting plotline tied to Star Ninja Village.
°°°
Hungry for more chaps? Then check out our pătreon!
Link: Påtreon.com/BaphometFiction
I post 20 advanced chapters of this fanfic there.
If you do subscribe, please do so in the web patreon, not the ios app.