Beyond The Stars (Naruto Fanfiction)

Chapter 76~ Recovered

"Listen here little girl, I'm giving you one chance to surrender now." Ataka smiled, uncrossing his sickles and taking up an offensive position. I rolled my eyes and rolled my wrist, whilst assessing the damage my body has undergone. chakra wasn't the issue, I had plenty to spare, it was my condition. It was quite clear that I had ruptured something in my stomach, my thumb was broken. Then to add to it my shoulder probably had tissue damage, but I don't know if the nerves are damaged. "Slim chance, I was going to ask you to come peacefully." 

"Seems we're at a disagreement." He mused, growing as he cocked his head. This guy rubs me the wrong way, even more than Sasuke does. "Seems to be that way." 

I concentrated chakra in my feet and got ready to block an attack. Like I thought he made the first move, lunging towards me the blades crossed and aiming for my neck. I waited for him to be close enough before ducking down and flashing to a kunai. I stood up and felt more blood drip down my arm. He was able to recover his balance quickly, spinning on his heel and readying himself. 

"Lightning Style: Electric Overdose." I muttered and gathered a large amount of chakra into my right fist. I lunged towards him, maneuvering around his block so i was facing his back. I slammed my fist into the center of his back hearing the cracking of bones as my fist impacted. I made the release sign with my other hand and let all of the electrical surges from myself onto Ataka. He screamed out as his body connected with the floor. I jumped back, hoping that would have been enough to paralyze him. I watched patiently, he was thrashing on the floor, bits of energy sparking off of him. 

"You bitch!" He seethed, pushing himself to his knees, trickles of blood ran from the corners of his mouth. I scoffed and took a few steps forward. "This is pitiful, consumed by rage, working for people who don't see you as an actual person. You're not that hard to read, especially for a person like me." 

"What are you going on about!?" His hissing seemed to be more in pain by this point, how he was still conscious was beyond me. "Your life, what you think is right and wrong. How you were taught, no forced, to act. You see you're just like me Ataka, brought into a world of hurt against your will, and eventually, you stopped trying to escape it. You see I did manage to break free." 

I slammed the hilt of Midnight into his temple, watching as he slumped to the ground. I picked up the rope from my hands and bound his. He seemed to be late teens, early twenties and seemed to have his whole life ahead of him. 

"Kritanta!" I felt my vision blur for a moment before I snapped my head in the direction of the voice. I saw Shikamaru once again, he was out of breath and seemed to have been sprinting. "We found him." 

The deep pit in my stomach seemed to dissipate as I heard those words fall from his mouth. I regained some energy and pulled Ataka over my shoulder, and ushered for Shikamaru to take me to him. 

"What's his condition?" I asked as we ran through an array of hallways that felt like a maze. Shikamaru ignored my gaze and kept running as he answered. "He's alive, he'll make it." 

He came to a halt near a door and stood in front of me. I slid the target off my shoulder and placed him against the wall. Shikamaru shrugged off his small half jacket and placed it against my shoulder, blood immediately soaked into the fabric. 

"You might want to brace yourself." He spoke softly, how bad could it be? It couldn't be that bad, could it? I mean I saw Arrow's condition, could it have been worse? I broke myself out of my dazed thoughts and took the fabric from Shikamaru's hands and started applying pressure to the wound myself. "I think I can handle myself." 

"How troublesome," He muttered and opened the door, allowing me to walk in first. I took in a deep breath and looked over the holding cell, the door wasn't the normal bars and the room was dark. I looked around the room and saw Rin slumped up against the back wall with Kyler around him. I dropped to my knees next to them, my hands finding their way to his neck. 

I felt the unsteady rhythm of a pulse, unconsciously I let out a sigh of relief I didn't know I was holding. I made some quick hand signs and placed my left hand over his forehead. Quickly examining his condition, it seems that it was mostly external damage; lacerations, punctures, things that were treatable. I looked down at Kyler his dark brown fur matted in a layer of grime and blood. His body was curled in on itself, about as close to Rin as he could get. 

"They'll make it." I stood up releasing the medical jutsu. "What about the people who escaped?" 

"They evacuated and are with Kiba, outside." I nodded slowly, rubbing my aching head with my free hand. "I don't have enough chakra or strength to flash us all to the leaf village. Not to mention we have to get them back plus that Ataka rogue."

"We're bringing him back, wasn't the order for him to be killed on site?" Shikamaru asked as he followed me out of the small cell. My gaze drifted to the unconscious male, I let out a sigh and winced as I applied more pressure to my shoulder. "Tsunade will more than likely be enthused with the information he'll uncover." 

"Whatever you say, it's just troublesome." 

"We'll stay here overnight, I'll be able to recover plenty of chakra by then. During the night I'll send off the ex-inmates in groups as to not raise any suspicions. I'll be able to flash us in the morning, so we're not wasting too much time by dwindling around here." I explained to the Nara kid. He seemed to nod and pulled out a kunai I had given to him. "Alright, I'll inform Kiba and the others. I still have this kunai, I suspect that this is how you flash around, but I have it on me." 

"Good to know."