Hot 'N' Dangerous

Chapter 64: One Person Is Good Enough

As we neared the land, I spread out my chakra to sense any movements or enemy chakra. Nothing. I relaxed a little bit. Maybe I was worried over nothing.

"Elvira, are you okay?" Naruto asked as we swam towards shore.

I nodded, "It's no big deal, I'll heal it when we get to shore," I frowned, "That's not what's important though."

"I'm worrying about the Rain Nin as well. I don't know where they've gone," Liz said, her eyes flicking around as if they might appear right then.

"Ha! They're nothing! It's the fourth time in a row we've beat them!" Naruto bragged.

I shook my head, "No, we've only beaten them twice and both during the second test of the Chuunin Exam. These two times... we simply escaped," I corrected.

"They've gotten stronger," Liz narrowed her eyes.

"And, they've most likely taken after Idate... I have a feeling they aren't the only ninja that are hunting down Idate. They would know not to leave Fukusuke unprotected," I pondered aloud.

"Ah! Idate is in danger!" Naruto realized.

"You just realized? That was the only thing that we've been talking about for the past five minutes!" Sakura said, disbelieving that anyone could be so ignorant.

I felt something whisk by my leg, but I dismissed it, thinking it to be a fish.

"Ah!" Naruto cried and began to struggle, often plunging his head beneath the surface, as if he were drowning.

Finally, he went under the surface. I closed my eyes and concentrated, it was hard to sense things through the water, I had to release chakra into the water at a steady pace since I wasn't used to sensing things in the water.

"Hey, Naruto! Stop fooling around!" Sakura growled.

"That's not it!" Sasuke realized.

Only then did I finally find Naruto's chakra and three more around him.

"They're here!" Liz cried and her head went under.

Sasuke, Sakura and I followed close behind. We saw the the Rain Nin were pulling Naruto down into the dark depths of the sea.

Naruto!, I couldn't speak aloud.

My movements in the water were half the speed of my movements above it but I pulled out my sword anyways. I kicked furiously, propelling myself down. One of the Rain Nin stopped and formed a seal as he looked up at us.

"Oh no! It's a trap!" was what I wanted to say but the only thing that came out was a lot of bubbles.

Waters clones appeared everywhere, swarming us. Liz brandished her blade and her sword being skinny, it moved easier through the water than my broadsword did. They converged on us but Sasuke and Sakura weren't as perpared as Liz and I were. The clones started to drag them down.

"No!" I screamed but, of course, bubbles couldn't speak.

I slashed my sword through the nearest clone and it disappeared in a poof of bubbles. I stabbed another and the cloud of bubbles wrapped around me, blinding me. The clones took their chance to cling onto me. Too close to stab and my arms locked to my sides, I couldn't do anything as they began to drag me down as well. Liz had been able to struggle a little longer but the same happened to her as she stabbed too many at once. I coughed as my ribcage felt as if it were about to burst from the lack of oxygen. I swallowed a mouthful of water but miraculously stayed conscious, just less oxygen. The shadows from the bottom of the sea came up to meet us, inky blackness swallowed us for a few seconds but suddenly, we were surrounded by Naruto's Shadow Clones.