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Chapter 198 - Naruto : Venom : Chapter 198

With the Demolition Teams

"Tag every structurally important thing you can." The group's leader says as they make their way into the castle through an unlocked window. "We've been provided with a few crates of tags. You all know our usual operating procedure, right?"

"Hell yeah we do." One of the members eagerly responds as she picks up an entire crate. "Don't come back with any leftovers!"

"Dibs on that room!" One of his members whisper shouts and grabs a case of his own.

"Oi! You two have got to share!" A third member whisper shouts. "I want to blow shit up too!"

"In the dark of the night evil is lurking."

An all encompassing voice thunders down the otherwise quiet hallway.

"The hell is that?" One of the members asks.

A quiet thud is the only answer to his question. It's followed by a slight scraping noise, as if someone is dragging metal across stone.

Every shinobi present knows what that sound was. It was the sound of a body hitting the ground and being dragged away. Someone has already discovered them, no it's worse than that. Someone has already defeated one of them.

In unison all of the shinobi turn towards the scraping sound in hopes of catching a glimpse of the assailant. The only thing they see is a pair of their teammate's feet disappearing around the corner.

"In the dark of the night evil will come."

The all encompassing voice thunders once more, this time it's accompanied by a brilliant flash of lightning. Each shinobi is temporarily blinded by the unexpected light, but by no means are they hindered by it.

Shinobi and darkness go hand in hand, especially for this group. Something as meaningless as impaired vision won't even slow them down.

"URK!" Another teammate makes an inhuman sound.

Yet again every shinobi here knows what the sound means. This is a sound that they all have caused themselves at one point, whether in training or in the field. It's a tried and true tactic, one of the oldest in the book. It's very simple, wrap a noose around someone's neck and pull.

"What the fuck is going on?" The leader of the group shouts out, all stealth has been abandoned. They've already lost two members, the leader will not stand to lose a third.

"I don't know! Is it a genjutsu?" A frantic voice yells.

"KAI!" The female shouts out. "No it's not a fucking genjutsu!"

"Where the hell is this fucker?!"

"In the dark of the night evil will find you."

The thunderous voice is starting to get excited. It's not just booming now, it's energetic. Whoever is speaking is enjoying this immensely.

"Brace for contact!" The leader shouts to his rapidly dwindling team.

What happens next no one was prepared for. They're all on high alert now, they're waiting for the mysterious voice to show themselves. The moment they do, they're dead.

But the voice didn't show themselves. Instead of what was supposed to happen, the female falls over like a puppet with cut strings.

"The fuck are you doing? Get your sorry ass up!" One of the remaining few shout.

"Idiot, check her! See if she's alright!" The leader orders.

At this rate he's soon to be the only one who has any sense of rationality. His team has never run into an opponent like this, he doesn't think anyone has. What kind of a monster announces its presence then is skilled enough to remain hidden?

"Paralyzed! She's going to be fine in a few hours tops."

"In the dark of the night evil searches for blood."

The thunderous – no the monstrous – voice echos down the hallway once more.

"Hehe." One of the shinobi left chuckles to himself. "Haha!"

"Get it together man!" The leader shouts. "We've been through worse than this and you're laughing?!"

"HAHAHA!" The laughing shinobi doubles over. "It's just so FUNNY! It tickles so much!"

"What the hell are you on about?" The one next to the laughing man asks.

"Look!" The laughing shinobi holds out his arm. There's deep gashes along it. Then the laughing shinobi holds up his bloody kunai and adds one more gash to his arm. It's at that moment everyone remaining realize that they're self inflicted wounds. "You've got to try it! It tickles!"

"Stop him! Someone stop his bleeding!" The leader orders, but he's running out of shinobi to order around. He only has four left, that's including himself. He's already lost half of his forces.

"I can taste the color yellow!" The laughing man cackles in insanity. "Gee it's rather sour. I wonder what purple taste like? Oh what does it smell like!"

"Knock him out!" One of the four left shouts. Another quickly heeds the demand and with a quick and precise hit the laughing man falls quiet.

"In the dark of the night evil will feast."

The monstrous voice is beyond excited now, ecstasy is the only word left to describe it.

"I'm getting real tired of this shit! We have explosive tags, I say we use them!" The kunoichi bends down to grab a handful. "Oh come the fuck on!"

"What now?!" A teammate shouts.

"They're fucking gone! Every single crate is gone! Now what the hell do we do?"

"It hurts!" The teammate that just shouted says. "My leg. It's on fire."

"Poison?" The leader barks out. "We're fighting a poison user?"

"Cut it off! Please! Someone cut it off! It's too much! The pain! Just cut it off before it gets worse! I don't want any more pain! Please!" The once proud shinobi is now begging on his knees.

The leader swiftly punches him in the temple, rendering him unconscious. He doesn't have time to deal with it yet, he has to focus on the immediate threat. The one that has taken down five out of the eight of them without once being seen.

If he wasn't currently in danger, he'd admire the skill of whoever this is.

"In the dark of the night evil reigns supreme."

The monstrous voice takes on a new tone, it's not excited or ecstatic any longer. Now it's thrilled. Thrilled by the promise of the hunt, thrilled that its prey is falling to it so easily.

"Will you just shut up!" The kunoichi roars as she flies through hand signs. "Fire Release: Fireball!"

Her jutsu rages down the hallway, burning everything in it's path and throwing light everywhere. Chairs, tapestries and even suits of armor melt under the intensity of this jutsu.

But not the attacker. They're nowhere to be found.

"Oh come on! Where the hell is he?" The kunoichi roars again. "Did either of you two see him?"

"No." The leader replies.

Just the leader replies.

"Where the hell is our teammate?" The kunoichi spins around

"Gone. Like the others. It's just us now." The leader has drawn a grim conclusion. They underestimated the defenses in place. They didn't think their target could acquire someone this skilled, this strong. It's likely that they will fall here. "Back to back."

The last two shinobi stand at the ready with their backs nearly touching. They're covering as many angles as possible with as little room for error that they can manage.

"In the dark of the night you're alone."

The voice doesn't boom this time. It doesn't thunder down the hall like all the other times.

This time it's a whisper right into the leaders ear.

"Fuck me." The leader harshly whispers out. "This is the end, isn't it?"

"In the dark of the night evil has won!"

"Gah!" A scratchy voice says the moment she's the only one left conscious. "That is killer on the throat. Stupid people. Stupid socializing. Stupid Summoner. I don't know why I bothered answering."

...

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