Naruto ran into another grate, he looked over his shoulder before he started kicking at it, the sound of his foot thudding off of the metal echoing throughout the tunnel. After a series of shots, Naruto finally kicked it off full force, sending it tumbling into the dark. Naruto adjusted Yugito on his shoulder and began running again, "Come on Yugi-chan, you're alright. We're going to get you out of heeeeeeere!" Naruto, in the dark of the tunnel did not see that it dropped off steeply, and he fell down the channel with Yugito in his grasp.
XxX
A series of threads simultaneously impaled the bodies of several of Naruto's clones, dispelling them immediately, "What an annoying diversion. You have to finish them all off or they might get a lucky shot on you. I'm not losing one of my hearts to a damned bunshin."
Hidan scoffed as he placed his scythe on his back after exterminating the last of Naruto's Kage Bunshin, "That was a complete waste of my time! There wasn't any blood or anything, I'm going to cut that brat's legs off when we catch him!"
"Calm down Hidan. Once we have him cornered we'll have him right where we want him." Kakuzu assured him, "He won't be able to get very far with the Nibi jinchuuriki as injured as she is. He's going to need to find somewhere to treat her wounds to keep her alive very soon."
Hidan growled, "He's probably halfway to Kumo by now, we'll never catch him before sunrise."
Kakuzu shook his head, "If he took the direct path I would be able to catch him, but he's not that stupid. Any other way he could possibly take would lead him far away from Kumo once he escaped here."
Hidan let a smile slowly spread across his face, "So you're saying that for all we know the little bastard could be miles away from Kumo instead of a hair's breath away? Well what are we waiting for? Let's hunt down our jinchuuriki."
XxX
Naruto was on his hands and knees panting as he had just pulled himself and Yugito from a water source halfway down the mountain range and was now getting his breath back. Naruto reached over and felt for Yugito's pulse, sighing in relief as he felt a steady one. It was slower than expected, but it was steady. He also felt to make sure she was breathing, luckily he didn't have her underwater for long enough to have it affect her.
Naruto ran a hand through his soaked hair, "Goddamn it Yugi-chan… wake up. I need you awake."
What to do? He could begin the long trek back to Kumo, but any idiot would be able to ambush him on the way and he knew that his enemies were far from stupid. At least Kakuzu was, no one survived to be 91 and a still active ninja by being a damned fool. If he went back to Kumo by himself he was as good as handing Yugito over to them on a silver platter, himself as well.
He could try and make it to Unraikyo (The Valley of Clouds and Lightning), but Kirabi obviously wasn't anywhere near Kumo or else he would have seen/heard him by then. And besides that it was on the other side of the mountain range, he would have to go around the mountain to circumvent a direct path to Kumo, which would have left him as much of a sitting duck as heading straight there would have.
Naruto frowned as he looked over Yugito's wounded frame. Her hands had been impaled when she had been pinned to the wall. Her top had multiple slashes all over it, revealing wounds all about her body from Hidan's scythe he presumed, a few stab wounds as well, she had lost a lot of blood. He could feel torn muscles in her calves and biceps and could even feel a floating rib. They had worked her over to put her down, " What a mess… What the hell am I going to do?" He said as he moved the hair from Yugito's face. Naruto stood up and carefully picked Yugito up before setting out again. Where was there to take her? He needed to get her somewhere to help her, if he just kept going like this without stopping to treat her she might take a turn for the worse, 'Kyuubi any ideas? I'm drawing a complete blank here. I'm not used to running away.'
"You need a hiding place and a way to contact someone. You have the means for one of those things, but if you do that here you'll be a beacon for the masked one. He'll feel you generate the chakra from wherever he is." Kyuubi said, "As loathe as I am to watch you flee like a coward it is the only option open to you at the moment. It would be two on one and you have the girl to protect."
A fight while Yugito was unconscious and unable to even defend herself would be the worst case scenario. If she would wake up he could have a better chance if a fight were to break out, hell he could pick her brain for somewhere to go that was safe right now if she were awake.
"You have a base you know." Kyuubi said suddenly, surprising Naruto.
'What are you talking about? What base, and how is it my base?' Naruto thought to his inner demon.
The Kyuubi huffed audibly before responding, "What I mean is that there is a Root safehouse not far from here, I would say two hours out. The same one you used years back as a child on your mission in this country. Go there."
Naruto's eyes lit up and he looked at Yugito hopefully, "Hold on Yugi-chan. We'll get you some rest and help in just a moment, we just need to find it first."
Time passed and the luck that Kyuubi's memory was able to guide Naruto across the mountainside to a safe area held out as Naruto ran in the midst of the fading night with his fellow blonde demon container being carried in his arms, 'Why isn't she healing? If she were me at least the wounds on her hands or some of those on her body would have come close to healing up by now if nothing else.'
Kyuubi chuckled in Naruto's mind, "All jinchuuriki do not share the same traits. Your rapid healing, massive chakra reserves, and immense natural strength and stamina are all results of your bond with me. The female has skills of her own from the Nibi, but you do not share the same attributes attributed to the demons you contain."
"Damn!" Naruto said, "I was banking on her being able to heal up without much treatment. I'm no medic, at best all I've got is battlefield medicine skill and all that will do is keep her alive. She won't be in any condition to fight in case we get attacked again."
Naruto kicked a risen rock column, sliding it slightly and revealing a trapdoor hole in the ground that he dropped down in with Yugito before the hole shut, leaving them in the dark area that Naruto navigated by keeping his back against the wall and walking along, keeping his senses aware.
As he came through an entryway, a small whooshing noise came before the room was illuminated by numerous candelabra along the rock walls of the room. Naruto laid Yugito down on the ground and slumped against a wall, sinking to the floor next to her. He pulled a scroll from his pocket and unsealed a bedroll as well as a series of prepared packs, reaching for the one with the medical symbol on it.
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