Naruto: Of bone and ice

As the caravan approached the ambush area, Ao nudged me and said that one of the guards on the left side of the first wagon was a Hyuga. I knew that meant he had the Byakugan.

I could tell that Ao was on edge, and I could understand why. The Hyuga were a very famous clan in the Hidden Leaf Village, praised for their powerful Kekkei Genkai. From what I could remember, if he decided to activate his eyes, then our ambush would be pointless. However, I also knew that if I acted without Sama's orders, there would be consequences.

Not even a moment had passed before the first blow was heard, and a storm of shuriken and kunai came pouring out from behind the trees from all directions. "Now!" Ao said, rushing towards the Hyuga clan member with his blade drawn, intending to kill him quickly.

The wagon drivers and several less suspicious or less experienced leaf ninjas were killed in the initial attack. Now only six remained. "It's an ambush!" one leaf ninja shouted, but it was too late. Sama quickly dispatched him and led the charge, the others following.

Ao was busy fighting a Hyuga member and he was clearly losing. Ao began to despair and was no match for his superior taijutsu, intercepting the blow with his blade, the Hyuga span slashed at Ao with his fingers. Ao screamed in pain, and the Hyuga struck again and again in rage. I had seen this before and guessed that this was the 64 Palms technique.

I slide under one of the ninjas and cut his Achilles.

He falls to the ground screaming before I silence him with a killing blow. The other two tried to attack me from both sides, but I deployed a full bone defense, piercing them before they could react. I ended up getting a few glares from my teammates, but the battle quickly drew their attention.

The two women from our team rushed to Ao's aid, trying to attack Hyuga from both sides. He was prepared, because with his Byakugan active he could see them from a mile away. He jumped back and suddenly spun around so fast that he smashed both girls in midair, sending them crashing to the ground.

A storm of shuriken flew through the air straight at him, but once again his speed showed, he deflected them all without breaking a sweat. One of the shuriken deflected and struck Ao in the right eye, knocking him down.

The rest of us who weren't involved in the fight surrounded Hyuga, no one wanted to make the first move, it was a dead end and I knew I had to be careful fighting this guy. Sama and another guy from our team rushed him, Sama jumped with his heel into Hyuga's head, who easily blocked the attack, then ducked under a kick aimed at the back of his head. Spinning on his heels, he delivered a massive double palm strike to the swordsman's chest, breaking his ribcage and sending him flying.

Sama engaged in an exchange of blows with Hyuga, but was outmatched and forced into a defensive posture. Ao was tended to by the only woman still conscious, who seemed to know medical ninjutsu and tended to his eye and entire body as his chakra points were sealed.

The other two were busy setting fire to the supplies as Sama had ordered before the ambush, so that left me, Sama, and another guy whose name I didn't know, facing Hyuga.

"Air Palm!" Hyuga shouted as he slammed his palm into the air, creating a massive shockwave to hit me, I was sent flying into a tree and only remained unharmed due to my bone defense softening the impact with the tree.

Sama and the other guy were fighting a losing battle, and Hyuga quickly finished off the other guy with a swift blow to his head, killing him.

The supply wagons were already set ablaze, and two other team members quickly jumped up to help rescue Samu. I, too, was ready for another attack and joined the fight. "Spin!"

Both of our teammates were knocked down by Hyuga's spin attack.

Sama was now breathing heavily, but Hyuga was using a lot of his chakra to fight us off, I jumped, with a kick aimed at his head, which he blocked, when I landed with my back to him, I let the bones shoot out of my back and try to catch him off guard.

It was a success as one of my bone spikes pierced his shoulder. Sama jumped over my head, ready to deliver the finishing blow, but Hyuga ignored the pain and fired one last air palm, landing right on Sama. I quickly moved my bones to return to my body and hit his ankle with a backslash, knocking him to the ground.

I didn't want to waste time and went straight for the killing blow, but to my surprise he hit me with a sudden blow to the shoulder, my arm went limp and he quickly kicked me towards the side of my head, catching me off guard and sending me sliding across the ground. If it weren't for my bones, that blow would have broken my tiny neck. I slowly got up, still unable to move my right arm, he was also standing and breathing heavily.

The veins around his eyes faded and it seemed like he couldn't hold his Byakugan anymore. Suddenly, Ao appeared behind him and slashed him hard with his blade, Hyuga had to slow down without his Byakugan and Ao delivered a fatal blow to his face, slicing his left eye. It was sweet justice, an eye for an eye. Hyuga fell dead to the ground and Ao stood over him, shaking the blood off his blade.

"Are you okay kid?" He asked after a short pause. If anything, my injuries were the least of our worries and I was surprised at how quickly he was able to recover, our entire team was dead except for our medic, me and Ao. The smoke from the burning supplies would surely attract attention soon and we would have to retreat quickly before reinforcements arrived.

I walked up to Ao and looked at Hyuga, "He was strong." I said, acknowledging his strength. Ao agreed, and he pulled off Hyuga's headband. "Well, alright. It seems like this one was from the main family." At first, I looked at him confused, until something clicked in my memory.

He was right, there was no curse mark on this guy's forehead, which meant he was from the main Hyuga family. "That means his Byakugan is ours. An eye for an eye, as they say?" He knelt down, pulled the remaining eyeball out of the dead man's skull, and turned to our medical ninja. "Hey, can you transplant this eye?" The girl seemed shocked at first, but then nodded. "Uh, yeah, I can." She replied, a little shocked.

"Okay then do it," he said sharply, "check who died. If everyone, we must destroy their bodies. Can you handle this child?" He said looking at me. It was standard procedure among ninja, we did this to prevent our enemies from finding out or stealing information from the remains of fallen comrades.

I quickly estimated who was alive and who was dead while our medic tended to Ao's eye. Hyuga was so precise in his strikes that he was able to hit vital organs even when outnumbered. Everyone was dead except Sama, but he didn't have much time left as he was impaled on a tree branch and bleeding out.

I ran over to see if I could help, but he just laughed at me, "Don't worry kid, it's too late for me, make sure you destroy my body and report the mission as a success." I nodded and waited for him to take his last breath before removing his large body and dragging him to the others. Once there, I set the bodies on fire without stopping to watch.

The medic finished implanting Ao with the New Byakugan Eye, and I made a connection with who he was at that moment. I remembered that he was with the 5th Mizukage at the Five Kage Summit and played an important role in the future of this world.

"Okay, then this mission is a success, It's time to return to the camp," Ao said, turning to face us. Half of his face was bandaged by the medic. We both nodded and followed him, heading back to the base.