Naruto Shippuden: Wrapped Up In Your Work 8

Hinata stood against the wall, standing very still and holding her breath.  Nervously, she peered out down the hallway to see if the boy was following her.  ‘Oh Naruto’, Hinata said with a quivering voice.  ‘What should I do…I need to warn Tsunade about this, but I can’t just leave him to…ah!’.  Hinata pulled back behind the wall as she caught a glimpse of the boy at the end of the hall. She began to tremble, breathing hard and shaking.

‘You can’t hide from me’, the boy said with a cocky chuckle.  ‘I can sense your chakra, not to mention you’re whimpering like an infant’.  The boy turned the corner to the next part of the hall, but Hinata was gone.  ‘What?’, the boy said in disbelief, failing to notice Hinata was now standing on a wood beam under the ceiling above him.  ‘I can still sense her chakra here, where did she…ugh!’.  Hinata dropped from above, grabbing the boy’s head with both hands and slamming him headfirst into the floor.  Hinata took off back down the stairs, determined to free Naruto and escape.  The boy pulled himself to his feet, showing nearly no ill effects from Hinata’s attack.  ‘That little brat, I’m gonna enjoy wrapping her up’…

‘Naruto!  Naruto where are you?!’, Hinata yelled in a panic.  As she reached the main floor, she found Naruto sitting bound against a wall, just as the boy had left him earlier.  Naruto mumbled into his gag as Hinata ran over to him.  ‘Oh Naruto, are you okay?!’.  Hinata ripped the bandages from Naruto’s mouth.  ‘Hold still, I’ll cut you loose from…’

‘Look out!’, Naruto screamed as Hinata turned.  Hinata barely managed to dodge several bandages flung in her direction, doing a backflip and landing near the bandage-covered front door.  Hinata stood in shock as she saw the boy standing before her.  ‘No…you shouldn’t be conscious, my attack should have…’

‘You lack strength Hinata’, the boy said in a matter-of-fact tone.  ‘How can you expect to defeat someone when you don’t even have enough strength to injure them?’.  The boy threw several more bandages as Hinata managed to dodge them.  ‘Hmm…not much for strength, but you’re certainly graceful to watch, slinking around like that’.  The boy chuckled and took a step forward.

‘What do you want with us?’, Hinata asked, her voice trembling.  ‘Naruto and I haven’t hurt anyone, whatever you’re here for, we didn’t do it!’.  

‘you can call it guilt by association’, the boy said with a dull tone.  ‘Tsunade has committed a transgression against my master, and you will suffer for your association with her’.  The boy threw out a large number of bandages, wrapping Hinata’s legs together at the ankles and wrapping both of her wrists, stretching her arms out and pinning her against the wall.  ‘Now you’ll spend the rest of your life locked away in…ugh!’.  Naruto managed to roll across the floor and twist his legs, sweeping the boy off his feet and causing him to fall to the ground.  As the boy hit the ground, the bandages around Hinata fell limp as she dropped to her feet.

‘Get out of here, NOW!!’, Naruto screamed at the top of his lungs.  ‘Go get grandma Tsunade, get out of here!’.  Hinata trembled, realizing now that there was absolutely nothing she could do to stop the intruder.  The boy slowly staggered to his feet as Hinata drew a kunai knife and cut through the bandages on the front door.  Hinata fled through a small hole in the door as the boy threw another set of bandages at her, just managing to escape as the bandages hit the sides of the door.  Enraged, the boy approached Naruto, who was now lying bound on the floor.

‘Too bad’, Naruto said with a grin, ‘looks like you’re not getting your creepy hands on Hinata now’.  The boy kicked Naruto in the stomach, forcing him to roll over on his back.  ‘Whatever you’re up too, you’re finished.  As soon as Hinata finds grandma Tsunade, you’ll be…’

‘Tsunade can’t help you now’, the boy said in anger.  ‘No one can help you, and Hinata will never reach Tsunade’.  The boy began to unleash a swath of bandages across Naruto, covering him across his entire body.  The bandages looped around and over, covering him in layer after layer of bandages, mummifying him completely.  Naruto let out a muffled yelp as the boy brought the bandages to a halt.  Focusing his chakra, the boy channeled his chakra through the bandages, taking on Naruto’s appearance, just as Anbu had done to Ino.  ‘Heh…now that I have your memories I can see why you worry about that useless purple-haired kunoichi so much.  Too bad the next time you get a private moment with her…well you’ll find out’.  Naruto’s double picked the mummified shinobi up over his shoulder and exited the home.  ‘Now I need to find a place to dump this kid until I’m ready to…huh?’.

Naruto turned and focused his attention as Ino approached, still carrying the mummified Sakura on her shoulder.  ‘I see you’ve chosen to take the boy’s place’, Ino said with a dull tone.

‘I wouldn’t say ‘chose’, the boy said, annoyed somewhat by the insinuation.  ‘It’s not like I was given much of a choice.  I see you captured that snoopy kunoichi’.

‘Yes’, Ino replied.  ‘Sakura Haruno has been obtained, am I right to assume that you have captured both Naruto and Hinata?’.  Naruto sighed and looked the away.

‘No, Hinata managed to escape from me because of this brat’, Naruto said angrily.  ‘I’ll catch her, I won’t let her interfere with our plan.  Just let me leave this brat with you and I’ll…’.

‘No’, Ino said bluntly, ‘it won’t be necessary.  The only person she could go to now would be Tsunade, and I’ve already taken precautions to ensure that no one will reach her.  Come with me, it’s time we reunite Hinata with her two precious friends here’.  Ino and Naruto proceeded to Tsunade’s office building, still carrying the captured ninjas with them.

Anbu approached Temari and Shikimaru deep inside the cave.  ‘There’s nowhere for you to run’, Anbu said as he approached the pair.  ‘I will not let you leave this place, nor will I allow anyone to interfere with my plans’.  Shikimaru stood before Temari and put his arm out, motioning for her to stand behind him.

‘Listen to me very carefully,’ Shikimaru whispered to Temari as he told her of his plan.  ‘Once I use my jutsu get out of here as fast as possible and go tell the old hag what’s happening here’.

‘Are you crazy?’, Temari asked with a tone of disbelief.  ‘I don’t need a guy protecting me, and if anyone should hold this guy off it SHOULD be the stronger one of us’.  Shikimaru grit his teeth, annoyed that Temari would take a cheap-shot at such a critical moment.

‘Well you aren’t in charge here, so I make the call’, Shikimaru said boastfully.  ‘Now get ready, we’re only gonna get one shot to pull this off’.  Temari reached back for her fan as Shikimaru put his hands together.  Anbu stopped and stared at the pair, confused by their actions.

‘Do you truly believe you can fight me like this?’, Anbu said mockingly.  ‘Neither of you are even close to being strong enough to fend me off’.  Suddenly a shadow appeared on the floor between Shikimaru and Anbu, as Anbu realized he could no longer move.  ‘What?!  What kind of trickery is this?!’.

‘That’s called fighting with your brain instead of your fists’, Shikimaru said triumphantly.  ‘Hurry up and get out of here, go let the hag know about this’.  Temari took off past Anbu and headed for the entrance of the cave.  ‘Now that I’ve got your attention for a minute’, Shikimaru said with a slightly annoyed tone, ‘I think I’m gonna get a few answers out of you’.

‘A shadow-hold jutsu’, Anbu said with surprise.  ‘I haven’t seen a jutsu like this in a very long time, you should be quite proud of it.  Unfortunately for you, a jutsu of your level isn’t going to be enough to save you from me’.  Shikimaru scoffed at Anbu’s threat, realizing the prince was in no position to back it up.

‘Maybe you haven’t noticed’, Shikimaru said with defiance, ‘but you’re the one who can’t move a muscle right now.  I can take you apart any way I want in this situation, so I suggest you start talking’.  Unfortunately for Shikimaru, he failed to notice the bandages seeping into the room from several slits in the walls and roof.  Anbu simply grinned at Shikimaru’s threat, knowing the shinobi was unaware of the situation.  ‘You gonna stand there smiling all day or are you gonna start talking?’, Shikimaru asked with an agitated tone.  ‘You’ve got ten seconds before I start digging for some answers’.

‘You’d give me ten seconds?’, Anbu said mockingly.  ‘How generous, because I’m only giving you five seconds’.  Out of nowhere multiple bandages shot down from the ceiling of the room.  The bandages grabbed Shikimaru by both arms, pulling his arms tightly behind his back.  Shikimaru struggled to break free, but the bandages wrapped around his body and legs, hoisting him off the floor and hanging him like a wind chime in the room.  As his feet left the floor, his jutsu wore off, and Anbu approached the young shinobi.

‘Sadly, your jutsu could only contain me, not the chakra infused bandages that answer to my thoughts’, Anbu said to the now captive Shikimaru.  Shikimaru’s mouth was quickly wrapped over as he struggled, his struggling finally ending as his entire body was wrapped in several layers of bandages.  The bandages snapped from the ceiling, dropping the mummified Shikimaru to the floor.  Anbu placed one foot on Shikimaru’s chest and smirked, satisified with his capture of the young Shinobi.  ‘Such an arrogant youth’, Anbu said with disdain, ‘but perhaps I can find a use for you.  But first, I have unfinished business with that woman of yours…’.

Temari raced through the cave trying to get back to the entrance door.  ‘I have to hurry’, Temari thought to herself.  ‘There’s no way Shikimaru can hold Anbu off.  That idiot…why does he always have to try and impress me…huh?!’.  Temari leaped forward as a wall of bandages slammed down in the hallway, barely making it through before the path behind her was cut-off.  ‘That was close…I can’t believe he can make entire walls out of these things…ah!’.  Temari leaped forward as a second wall rose from beneath her, almost crushing her against the ceiling.  Temari ran through the corridor, turning the corner and seeing the entrance to the cave at the far end of the tunnel.  ‘Finally…’, Temari said, nearly out of breath.  ‘I can’t believe I made it…no!’.  Another wall began to come down far ahead of Temari.

Realizing she would be trapped, Temari ran full speed toward the wall, attempting to slip beneath it.  ‘This isn’t gonna stop me!’, Temari yelled as she slid on her back under the final wall.  Temari let out a sigh of relief as the cave entrance was now less than fifty feet from her.  ‘Finally, I can…ugh?!’.  Suddenly bandages emerged from inside and below the wall.  The bandages grabbed Temari by her left arm, pinning her arm to her hip.  Her right arm was immediately bound the same way.  ‘No!’, Temari screamed as she struggled.  ‘You’re not going to get…mmph!’, Temari was cut short as several bandages cleaved between her teeth.  More bandages wrapped around her neck, pulling her head to the ground as bandages slinked along the floor and wrapped around her legs.  ‘No!  No!  NO!’, Temari thought to herself as the bandages wrapped tighter around her legs.  ‘How could this happen…the exit’s right there…NO!’.  Temari let out one final, muffled scream as the bandages swarmed her, covering her entire body in layers of wrapping.  The bandages receded back into the wall, leaving the young kunoichi mummified on the floor.

The wall dispersed as Anbu stood over the fallen Temari.  ‘You were never a challenge to begin with’, Anbu said with a smugness.  Temari growled defiantly through her wrapping as Anbu dragged her back through the cave…