As the upper echelon clan heads trio... Shikaku, Inoichi and Choza... and Minato moved through the winding streets of the Konoha toward the Hokage Tower.
On the other side, Killer Bee's massive frame crouched atop a rocky outcrop just beyond the outer walls of a village near Land of Hot Water. Gyūki's chakra pulsed through him, extending his sensory range in widening ripples like a radar that brushed across rooftops, alleys, and the busy market searching for Darui's or Mabui's chakra.
Gyuki's voice echoed inside Bee's mindspace, calm yet insistent: *Focus, ya fool. Darui's chakra signature is getting fainter. And there's another ninja who chakra signature is just as weak.*
Bee's eyes snapped open. "Yo, that's bad news, bro. Darui on one side, Mabui clear across the other side of the village. But Darui's chakra is barely there, and someone's right next to him also has the same feeble chakra." He vaulted from the cliff, brown GCM cloak, vanishing into a blur of speed that left afterimages. Seconds later, he landed in a crouch beside two bodies sprawled in a widening pool of blood.
Darui lay half-propped against a shattered wooden fence, his broad chest rising in shallow, ragged breaths and there were blood path leading from the road. Someone likely moved Darui to side. Beside him, Yushiro had collapsed face-down, dark-blond hair matted with blood, violet eyes half-lidded and glassy. Darui's torso was full of horror: thirty long sword slashes, most of them already healed and turned into pink scars, only two still weeping fresh blood. Bee's stomach twisted. "Tortured and healed by force and repeated again?"
Darui's eyelids fluttered. "Bee… sama…" A wet cough rattled out of him, flecks of blood spraying his lips. "They took Kaien. I couldn't… protect him." A single tear slid sideways down his cheek.
Bee dropped to one knee, Gyūki's chakra flaring protectively around them both. "Who did this, Darui? Talk to me, man." His gaze flicked to the stranger beside Darui. "Did this guy help you? Or was he part of it?"
Darui swallowed hard. "It was… the Ye... Yellow Flash of the L...Leaf." Bee took in the words Darui saying syllable to syllable. "Minato… Namikaze."
Bee's blood ran cold. The man who ran with his head between his legs now came not only kidnapped Kaien but also tortured Darui. Bee's fists clenched so tightly his knuckles cracked. Inside his head, Gyūki growled low. "We'll rip him limb from limb next time we see him."
Bee rummaged in his cloak and pulled out the small pouch Sabu had pressed into his hand before he left Genbu Island... medicinal herbs from sacred kelp and mountain lichen, potent enough to knit flesh and restore chakra in dire need. He crushed a handful between his fingers and pressed the paste to Darui's lips. "Eat, ya fool. Don't choke."
Darui managed three weak swallows, color creeping back into his ashen face. His gaze shifted to the unconscious Yushiro. "Give… some to him too. He's an ally who saved my life."
Yushiro's pulse was thread-thin. "Damn it," Bee growled. Gyūki's voice sharpened. *Use the cocoon on both. It'll hold them until help arrives.*
Bee's jaw tightened. He fed a smaller dose to the stranger, watching the man's breathing even out slightly. Then he stood, took three long steps back, and slammed his fist into the ground. From his back erupted a massive octopus tentacle—thick as tree trunks, lined with suckers that gleamed wetly. It shot skyward forty meters, waving like a living banner against the overcast sky.
Gyūki rumbled. *Samui and Mabui will see the tentacle from anywhere in the village and will know that you are here.*
"Exactly," Bee muttered. "And Sayami could be with them. We don't know if the one here is Sayami or not. Now that he is down I dont' know who is who, wee."
Gyuki rolled his eyes and said, *Why don't you just ask Darui about the stranger's name to?* Killer Bee caressed his goatee, "Hmm... That sure is possible." He turned to Darui. "What is his name?" Darui's condition has become little better after eating the herbs, "I don't know. Him and one lady came to our help at the battlefield from Chinoike clan... we didn't get their names."
Two more tentacles slid out smaller than previous one, enveloping Darui and Yushiro completely. The mucus rose like warm milk, glowing faintly with eight-tails chakra, sealing the worst of the bleeding and buying precious time... though it would not heal them but would at least stabilize their vitals without worsening the damage. It was the same technique he had used on the Raikage after the Black Lightning overload when he brought him back to Kumo.
~~
Less than two minutes later, rapid footsteps pounded up the street. A slender figure in a dark blood cloak burst into view... Sayami, violet eyes wide with panic, long hair whipping behind her. She skidded to a halt, chest heaving, staring at the towering tentacle and the dark-skinned man standing beside it.
"Are you… Mr. Killer Bee?"
Bee grinned, teeth flashing white. "The one and only, baby. What's your name, shorty?"
"Sayami," she breathed. "Did you see two kids? And Yushiro—he has dark-blond hair, violet eyes just like mine—"
Bee's expression softened. Without a word he dissolved the cocoon. The mucus gushed out in a warm flood, and Yushiro's limp body rolled free, soaked and pale as death.
Sayami's screamed. "YUSHIROOO!" Her eyes turned to Ketsuryūgan involuntarily as blood tears flew down her cheeks. She lunged forward, catching him before his head could strike the ground. "Wake up! What happened to you? Who did this?!"
Her hands shook as she slashed her own wrist with a sharp nail. Blood welled instantly, rich and dark, shimmering with the power of her clan's dojutsu. She controlled her blood and let it flow to the chest slash wound, forcing the life into him. When that wasn't enough, she swept her free hand across the pooled blood on the ground, lifting it in glistening ribbons that coiled around his wounded torso like scarlet serpents, sinking into every torn vessel.
Color flooded back into Yushiro's cheeks. His eyelids twitched. Slowly, they opened.
Sayami crushed him into a desperate hug. "Don't you ever scare me like that again—"
"Ack—air…" he wheezed, voice hoarse but unmistakably teasing. "If all I needed was to get hurt for you to hug me… I could've done it a long time ago."
Sayami's face flushed scarlet beneath the blood tears. She clamped a hand over his mouth, gentle despite the glare. "Don't talk, idiot. I'm still treating you."
Bee watched the exchange, a rare soft smile tugging at his lips. Gyūki chuckled deep in his mind.
~~
A/N: Just started Kimimaro fanfic, if you are interested
https://forum.questionablequesting.com/threads/naruto-the-bone-guy-kimimaro-fic.38238/
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