21 - Rescue

"Hey."

Fuyuka poked her head into Shigetsu's hospital room, where Miyabi and Tsunade were frowning and discussing something quietly.

Blondie's exterior injuries looked alright, but clearly he wasn't healed.

"Fuyuka," Miyabi's eyes brightened at her daughter. "We still can't figure out what's wrong but... do you need something?"

"Hokage-sama, I want a mission to find Nemuri," the girl replied bluntly, facing Tsunade. The Hokage frowned slightly. "The thing is... I don't think it's a good idea to freely spread knowledge of the Tsuyoku's, but I can't send you on a mission without a chunin or jonin. I'm going to have to bend some rules to even let you take the kid with you."

"Yeah, well figure it out," Fuyuka retorted. Thank the gods Tsunade was feeling merciful, because being this rude to the Hokage usually came with consequences.

"I believe," Miyabi interjected. "That Shadow Star still retains their original ranks, correct? Would it be possible for one of them to lead the mission?"

Tsunade blinked, as if it hadn't occurred to her before. "Miyabi-san, you are a genius. Who would you say is best suited for this?"

So yeah, Fuyuka ended up having to haul Katsume along. Oh, and Naruto ended up tagging along because Tsunade insisted that as Yozora wasn't a ninja, they didn't have a three man squad. Why the Hokage picked Naruto, she had no idea.

"So, uh, what are we going to do again?"

Honestly, it might get confusing with the number of blondes Fuyuka knew. Naruto was Naruto, Shigetsu was blondie 1, Nemuri was blondie 2, Tsunade was Tsunade or Hokage, Temari could be fan girl, maybe.

She hoped she wouldn't meet any more blondes in the future.

Fuyuka explained, again, the whole Hoshino thing, then the Tsuyoku fiasco, and Shadow Star and the attack and everything in between. Seriously, it would be better to bring someone like Shikamaru who could figure things out for himself or someone like Ino who's less likely to overthink everything.

Seriously, it was kind of awkward to be walking with her emo anti-card game older brother, her annoying blond teammate, and a purple haired kid who happens to be overpowered to rescue purple kid's older cousin basically-sister who got kidnapped by a blind creep with a leadership complex and a crew of weirdos.

"Any clue where we're going?" Katsume asked, looking around the ruins of the village.

"I sent a constellation to scout, try to look for any animals around here because they might be Shigetsu nii-san's pets," Yozora replied, looking around the place that used to be his home. His eyes landed on a familiar figure. "Jiyu, Chisai!"

"Did you find someone?" Naruto whipped around, finding the purple haired boy beaming at a chimpanzee. A lizard crawled out from its golden fur and hissed.

Jiyu made some chimpanzee noises, then beckoned to the group and dived into the bushes. Yozora nodded to his companions before following the chimpanzee.

Jiyu led them to a cave. Why did Kyomu like caves so much? Was it because it was nice and dark and emo?

"Wait," Katsume halted them. A moment later, more black fog poofed from around him, before thinning so it's invisible.

''Shadow Shroud,' keeps quiet,' he mouthed. The four walked into the cave, staying close to the wall so they don't get lost and can hide easier. They almost got caught when a large statue was hurled out of the cave by shadow threads, followed by shouts of argument between Rina and Kessho, before the silver haired sculptor rushed out to find his statue.

'What the fuck?' Fuyuka tried to say. Though no sound came out thanks to Katsume's Shadow Shroud, Yozora shrugged in response.

Crouching behind the rock, Fuyuka testingly poked her head over it to observe what's happening. Kyomu was poking something- was that a corpse? Meanwhile, she could catch a glimpse of Nemuri-style blonde in the corner, while Kitanai tiredly threw rocks at her.

What the hell was up with these people?

She ducked back down and reported her findings to her companions. Since reading lips was way too hard, they settled for scratching messages into the dirt instead.

'Was she awake?' Yozora asked. Fuyuka risked another glimpse, before writing her response. 'Yep.'

'Does whether she's awake matter?' Naruto questioned. Yozora hesitated before replying. 'If she's awake, they might be trying to get her to use Dreamscape Drift- her power, basically.'

'No point in waiting around, they don't look too strong. If we attack now, we can take some of them out before the sculptor returns,' Katsume declared.

He dispelled the Shadow Shroud, and, in a moment of united idiocy, they charged. Fuyuka hurled multiple kunai, managing to graze all three in the cavern. Yozora summoned Ursa Major, who lunged forwards to bite Kyomu's head off, only to be captured by two shadow threads from Rina. Katsume hurled a shuriken towards Kitanai, who deflected it with some sand, while Naruto summoned a few shadow clones and dashed in, fists ready.

Kyomu stood up, visibly annoyed. "Kitanai, keep working. Rina, tell Kessho to forget his statue and get back here."

"Sure," the sand manipulator replied dryly, chucking another pebble at the half-conscious Nemuri. Rina moved her shadow threads to choke the Ursa Major, dispelling it before running out of the cave to find Kessho.

Katsume utilized his Shadow Shroud to move to behind Kyomu, where he held a kunai to the dark red-haired man's throat. "Tell me what you are doing to the girl right now."

Kyomu simply frowned slightly, before a rift opened on the floor and he vanished, appearing behind the real Naruto and throwing him across the cave. "I am not obliged to answer you, Hoshino."

"What the hell? Does this guy have some weird teleportation jutsu?" Fuyuka demanded.

"Space-time manipulator," Kyomu corrected, teleporting away again as Yozora summoned a Canis Major, which lunged forward to bite him. "Please, you should know you can't hit me. There's a reason I let my subordinates do the fighting, it wouldn't be 'fair' otherwise."

At this moment, Rina returned, hauling Kessho and a few chunks of a broken statue in her shadow threads.

"Eat dumb statue!" the pink haired girl shouted, hurling the chunks of statue in their faces.

"My statue was not dumb! It took a long time to carve!" Kessho argued, summoning a few shards of crystal which he launched at Naruto, who was still recovering from being thrown into a wall.The blond recovered just in time to cast a substitution jutsu, getting out of the way of the dangerous sharp pink objects.

Yozora managed to sneak over to Kitanai, his Canis Major bowling the brown haired male to the ground. The purple haired boy rushed over to his cousin. "Nemuri nee-san, are you okay?"

The blonde's breathing returned to a normal pace, she coughed out some blood, then promptly passed out.

Meanwhile, Rina and Kessho had already gotten into an argument so they probably won't be fighting anytime soon. Kitanai and Kyomu were being swarmed with the full Naruto shadow clone treatment, so Fuyuka and Katsume approached Nemuri as well.

"What's going on?" the blue haired girl questioned.

"I-I'm not sure... I think they're forcing her to use her power, but I'm not sure what's hurting her apart from the rocks," Yozora replied helplessly. When Katsume appeared confused, the boy quickly explained how Nemuri's powers worked.

"Does she need to remain conscious to 'pilot' the, uh, floating bits of consciousness?" Katsume asked. He might not be a super-brainiac, but the blue haired male was smart enough.

"Yeah."

"Then I suspect that her consciousness was too split that she cannot remain awake, yet was forced to by getting hit in the face by pebbles, so her subconscious surfaced to pilot her scattered consciousness. Due to this, her subconscious is less focused on keeping her internal organs functioning, hence the situation," Katsume theorized.

"That makes sense..." Yozora admitted, before getting up. "We have to get nee-san out of here quickly. If she's asleep, that means her consciousness should return on its own... with time."

Yozora dispelled his Canis Major and summoned a large Aquila eagle, giving it some commands about taking Nemuri to the Konoha hospital, and about the message to deliver. The eagle grabbed Nemuri by the scruff before flying off. "We should get out too."

However, Rina and Kessho had gotten over their argument for the moment, and the girl managed to swat away a large group of Naruto clones with her shadow clones. The blond whipped around, only to be knocked backwards by a chunk of crystal.

Fuyuka launched a series of shuriken at their foes, but Rina proceeded to knock them all out of the air. Kitanai extended his arms, and the dust-sand-whatever on the ground rose, knocking Katsume to the ground.

"T-the Aquila hasn't arrived yet, I can't summon another constellation," Yozora explained. Fuyuka grabbed a kunai, handing it to the child. "You'll have to hold on while I get the others out of here."

The purple haired boy backed towards the cave wall, ducking away from a blast of sand and knocking a barrage of crystal away. However, Rina's shadow threads lunged forward and lifted the child into the air.

Fuyuka summoned a Stellar Snare, catching Kitanai by surprise before kicking him towards Kyomu. The red haired man sidestepped, dodging, and the poor brown haired sand manipulator ended up crashing into the wall.

Kessho summoned a crystal barrier around Rina, Kyomu and himself. Fuyuka used a Stellar Snare as a trampoline to lunge over it, throwing a barrage of shuriken through the gap.

Rina whipped them away with her shadow threads, which meant she freed Yozora, but also meant the boy fell to the ground. He crept unnoticed, dragging Naruto and Katsume to a corner of the cavern. He shook their shoulders until Naruto blinked foggily.

"Woah, what-"

"Quiet!" the purple haired child shushed.

In the end, Naruto dragged the unconscious Katsume out while Yozora waved his hands urgently to inform Fuyuka. The blue haired girl caught his urgent waving, throwing one last Pentagonal Web to seal the crystal wall.

"Let's get out of here!" she gestured to Yozora, who followed her as they ran.

"Aquila just dropped Nemuri off at the hospital," the purple haired boy informed her. Naruto waved urgently as the two, Katsume slung across their shoulders, as Kyomu teleported himself and his subordinates out of the cave.

"He wouldn't be able to attack Konoha with how many people there are, we need to get back fast," Fuyuka announced. Yozora gestured to them, pointing to the nearest cave where a familiar blue eagle soared up from.

"Jump, quick!"