Ninja Gamer

Chapter 25: The Chunin Exams: Proctor Yuriko

The room was dark as several hazy humanoid images appeared, standing atop of a finger of a pair of hands, before a large stone face that seemed to have its eyes covered. "It's rather soon, calling us for a meeting, isn't it, Leader-sama?" a raspy voice questioned as the hunched-over, bulky image spoke, looking up at the image that stood higher than the rest. "I thought we weren't ready to start the operation yet?"

The image he spoke too remained silent for several moments, the ripples eyes the image bore staring at the assembled group as another spoke up. "Hey, where's Kazuku, it's rare for that guy to be missing," a rather tall individual spoke up in a careless voice, a large wrapped item on his back with a handle sticking over his shoulder.

"Kazuku has been killed," the leader spoke finally, answered both questions. "He attempted to capture Kakashi Hatake and his students in order to lure out Yuriko Uchiha, but he was the one who was overpowered by the one he sought to trap."

"He's dead? For real?" the same figure questioned in disbelief. "Well...damn. Looks like she's gotten even tougher since I fought her."

"It is to be expected," the image next to him, a shorter man with sharingan eyes spoke. "After all, she does bear the Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan... plus, it is her nature to continually train and discover new jutsu."

The leader stared at the sharingan wielder. "Will you be able to deal with her, Itachi?" he questioned pointedly, making the Uchiha rogue pause.

The pause spoke a lot on Itachi's thoughts on the matter. "No," he said finally, with blunt honesty. "Even if I were to fight her with Kisame, I do not believe we could defeat her... she is at the level of Jiraiya-sama, perhaps even higher than him."

The image of the Leader flickered momentarily. "So, she is at the level of the active Sannin, is she?" he questioned, looking somewhat disturbed by the information. Even separated, the active Sannin were considered to be in a league of their own when it came to the S-class shinobi.

"When I faced her in Konoha, she completely overwhelmed me." the Rogue confirmed. "She used jutsu that I still have no clue about, and I hear that she pulled off a feat that only Madara Uchiha himself could do during her attack on Yagura...enshrouding a Bijuu in the armour of her [Susano'o]."

The leader studied the rogue Uchiha for several moments. "Very well, from now on, you are all to avoid engaging with Yuriko Uchiha in combat," he announced to the group. "When the time comes to collect the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki and the Yonbi Jinchuuriki, myself and Konan will attend to them directly due to her closeness to those targets."

"By Leader-sama himself, eh," Kisame questioned with a grunt. "I would complain about it, but... honestly, that woman terrifies me after resetting her spine while I was fighting her, heh, it's too bad we can't get her on our side."

"It would never happen," Itachi replied quickly, shaking his head as he closed his eyes. "She is far too close to our targets to allow them to die for our objective."

"A shame, but in time she will learn the futility of standing against a God," the Leader announced in a cold tone. "Continue with your objectives, dismissed."

Without a word every one of the images buzzed out of existence, only leaving the leaders and the image of a woman standing next to him. "Yuriko Uchiha, huh," a new voice spoke up as a man wearing a spiral shaped mask stepped into view from the shadows. "Who would've thought that the young medic I dismissed as being unimportant would become such a threat," rather than sounding annoyed by the prospect, he seemed to be genuinely amused. "Funny, how life turns out like that."