Naruto: The Outsider's Resolve-Chapter 10.5 (371)

The corridors flashed between red and white with an accompanying blaring alarm. A group of five decked guards hurried into the corridor and stationed themselves on either side of the door momentarily before the leading man prepared a flash tag and gestured for another one to kick the door down.

As the harsh flash dimmed, they rushed into the room only for the two men in front to fly out, with a powerful wave of water that slammed them against the opposite wall. The other three immediately stepped away from the door and hugged the walls; their plans to blitz and overwhelm their intruder were somewhat countered.

Inside the room, Takuma backed away into the room as he adjusted after the flash tag. His vision returned quickly, but the dark spots impeded what he could see, and blinking only made it worse. He hid behind a shelf for cover with a clear view of the front door to buy some time for his vision and to think about his next action.

The alarms were terrible, but he thought he could get the documents out before the guards could reach him, but they were on him instantly. He looked at the door and saw the two he had hit with Water Release: Wild Water Wave limping out of his field of view while another two entered the room.

Four at minimum, Takuma thought grimly. He didn't know how strong each guard was, which made it uncertain if he could fight through them, and even then, he didn't think he could handle four combatants quickly enough to avoid the other guards who would surely be coming his way. He was trapped with no quick way out.

There was only one logical move.

He weaved the release hand seal and vanished into a puff of smoke, leaving behind the files he had stashed in his clothes.

———

.

Outside the bunker, Takuma felt the clone's experience hit him. He exhaled as the unused physical and spiritual energies returned to him.

"The clone died?" asked Krait, noticing the movement in him.

"He released himself. They're doing human experimentation down there, trying to give traits from chakra-enabled beasts. It might be one of Orochimaru's labs," Takuma recalled the clone's experience while also going through it in his head. The horrible imagery was front and centre in his mind.

"...Okay, we are going in," Krait said as he checked his gear.

"What? There are at least twenty guards in there," said Takuma in surprise, remembering the guard list. "We should contact the headquarters and get an assault team down here ."

"It'd be far too late by then. They'd have abandoned the place and destroyed all evidence. I'm sure they're probably contemplating whether they should start destroying the place or try to contain this by killing the intruders right now—that gives us time to go in there to at least get some information about who these guys are." Krait looked at Takuma, and his entire vibe exuded the severity of the situation. "You and I—ANBU operatives, all of us—signed up for the job knowing we would be in situations like this. Our work doesn't involve playing it safe. We don't get back up. We have to take risks so the rest of the populace can sleep in peace."

Krait stood up after saying that, ready to go in.

Takuma already knew all of that. He wasn't scared of the danger to the point of refusing his responsibilities; he'd be a lousy shinobi if he were, but the underground bunker and what he saw had agitated his imagination in a bad way. What if he never came back out and became a test subject instead, rather than simply dying in combat, which he would prefer any day? He couldn't explain it, but that thought brought out dread from his most profound depths.

It didn't take him much time to realise he had no choice. Even if he wanted to abandon his duties, he couldn't allow Krait to go in alone; stopping him wasn't an option.

"Let's just... not get stuck in there, right?" Takuma stood up.

"Of course. We're no good to the village dead. Staying alive is a priority," Krait said matter-of-factly.

They lacked the element of surprise as they entered the bunker, drowning in red and white. Guards were already near the entrance. Fortunately, they weren't facing the entire guard squad. The knowledge that someone had broken into their facility required them to scour the whole building for other intruders. They were spread around the bunker.

"We need to hurry before they gather from the commotion," said Krait.

The heavy-duty gates at the end of the green corridor swung open, and two guards charged at them while two others remained in the back.

"Hold them back," said Takuma as he stayed back and began to weave hand seals.

Krait calmly walked ahead in the face of two guards running towards him. He threw kunai that were easily deflected at them, but another kunai with an explosive tag struck the ground near their feet, causing them to stop and jump back to avoid getting caught in the blast radius of an explosion that never came. It was an untriggered tag used as a decoy.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

One of the guards clicked his tongue in frustration and weaved hand seals for a ninjutsu, but a bullet from Takuma's Water Release: Spirit Water Wave pierced his shoulder, disrupting his seals. Before he could react, another bullet flew out and hit him square in the temple, instantly killing him.

The jutsu that had once fallen apart due to instability after one or two bullets has now been completely under his control. He could use it with a 100% success rate and shoot all six bullets with impressive range, accuracy, and power, making it one of Takuma's most lethal options.

He aimed a floating water orb with his finger gun and let two more shots fly at the guards in the back. They weren't as surprised. One of them took cover but not before getting grazed in the arm, while the other cut the bullet with a short sword. But that was enough as it ensured they wouldn't make any moves for the next seconds. He turned to the remaining guard in the front to create an opening for Krait to attack, but froze in shock when the guard suddenly slumped to the ground like a stringless puppet.

A moment later, half a dozen fist-sized beetles, soaked in blood and fluid, ate their way out of the dead guard's body and continued to gnaw and feast on the now corpse they had killed.

A chill passed through Takuma at the sight. When had Krait planted those insects? His eyes caught the kunai he had thrown, and suddenly he had his answer. He looked at Krait, who calmly weaved hand seals that caused the enormous beetles to die.

"Can't have them turn into an invasive species," Krait said before sprinting towards the guards at the back with clouds of small insects swarming out of his sleeves and flying towards them, blocking their view.

He took advantage and stabbed one of them in the neck with his short sword. Takuma followed suit and shot his remaining two bullets at the last guard, who couldn't see the water bullets coming his way due to the insects. One of them missed, but the other hit him in the side of the ribs, giving Krait the chance to finish the job.

"We should get a white coat scientist and a guard," said Takuma as he stepped over a body.

Krait remained silent as an insect sat on his knuckle. He recognised one of the scouting insects that had gone inside earlier with his clone.

"We should head in this direction," Krait pointed to their right. "There are fewer guards this way. Easy to grab a scientist. Be careful; the scientists might also be competent combatants."

Takuma nodded. "Did they find an alternate exit?" he asked.

If there was only one way in and out of the bunker, then the way they had come in would soon be guarded to make sure they couldn't leave. It would be easier if there were an alternate entrance, or else they would have to fight their way out.

"No, but the people here might know it."

The alarms still blared as they jogged across the corridors, kicking down doors, looking for scientists to abduct. Every other door seemed to be a new horror. A room with organs preserved in liquid inside glass containers, a room with a strong, sanitised smell with horrible machinery for cutting into bodies, and a cold room that was unmistakably a morgue with the body cabinets on the wall.

Takuma opened a door and was immediately struck by an awful stench that made him gag and water his eyes. He squinted into the dark room and was shocked again when he saw cages lining the walls with all sorts of animals trapped inside. All of them were howling, barking, and crying from the blaring alarm. He didn't need light to guess that they had been trapped in horrendous conditions and had their lives turned into hell by the people who had captured them.

"Move, Ratel," Krait, standing behind him, said with steel in his voice.

Takuma couldn't see his face, but he felt a rage that was being suppressed. He removed his hand from the handle, left the door open, and moved ahead.

However, as they turned around a corner, they heard a shuffling of footsteps coming from one direction.

"Go, I'll catch up," said Takuma as he physically pushed Krait to head deeper, who nodded and headed deeper into the bunker. They would need to face these guards eventually, and it was better if one of them could quickly find a scientist without the pressure of fighting and then return to support.

Takuma looked around at the flashing red light, weaved a set of hand seals, and began to spread his chakra into the surroundings. He needed around ten seconds for his chakra to penetrate for genjutsu to set in. During that time, he couldn't use his chakra for any other jutsu.

Just as three guards appeared from around the corner, his hand went to the sword on his back before he glanced at the width of the corridor and removed his hand from the hilt; he wasn't confident in his ability to manoeuvre his sword in the tight space, so he settled for a kunai instead.

He rushed in to overwhelm them, but they hadn't adjusted their position in response to him. They were standing close to each other as they turned the corner. Instead of any one person, he threw the kunai in the middle of the grip, which caused two of them to shift to the side. He rushed forth and kicked the nearest guard to him, who blocked it, but still stumbled back a few steps.

'2 seconds...'

He swung his fist at the second guard, who evaded by pulling back and then tried to move behind Takuma, who didn't let that happen by jumping back to avoid getting surrounded. He had to keep his back clear to have space.

'5 seconds...'

He pulled out his kunai and deflected one thrown at him by the third guard in the back. He ducked another one, kicked the guard's calf, and wildly swung his kunai at the other. Shinobi fights moved quickly; if he gave them a second of time, they would get one of them out of his reach to prepare a ninjutsu while the other two held him back.

'8 seconds...'

As he expected, the guard in the back tried to step back. Takuma glanced at the second guard and saw his hands were empty. He grabbed the first guard and threw him hard into the third guard to delay both of them from making any move. The second guard saw the opportunity and kicked him hard in the side, which slammed him into the wall.

'11 seconds...'

The lights flashed between red and white at an interval of 1.5 seconds. As he separated from the wall, the lights turned white, and finally, the genjutsu went into effect. They had been experiencing the flashing lights for the past few minutes; they expected the red-and-white pattern and thus had gotten used to it.

The second guard closest to Takuma went in for another attack, but as he stepped close, the lights turned. He expected them to turn red—and they did—but then everything in his vision turned the same shade of red. He froze up on instinctual response before feeling a cold, sharp blade rip through his neck.

The third guard was stabilising his fellow guard, pushed into him when his vision turned into solid red for a second and a half before his vision returned, and he saw the blood pouring out of the second guard as their masked target turned his face towards him.

His vision once again turned into solid red. Even though his vision was impaired, he felt the fellow guard twitch against his palm placed at the back. His vision returned, and he saw a kunai sticking out of his peer's throat. He looked up and saw that the target was now two steps away from him.

His vision didn't return this time.

Red faded into black.