Training Battle: Fury vs. Dense
The Akatsuki watched carefully as Center and Spread expertly increasing the density of the forest. Center was 'communicating' (as he called it) with the earth while Spread tended to the trees, making them grow faster.
'This is beyond imaginable.' Kakuzu said as the trees started shooting up. 'Isn't this against the law of nature or something?' He looked around him with a questioning look.
'They're element ninjas. They are nature.' Itachi answered, squinting with his Sharingan in concentration. Kakuzu pondered over this. Spread gave Center the signal and he stopped pushing the earth. They grinned at the silent but watchful Akatsuki.
'We're lucky today.' Center mused. 'It's Dense versus Fury. They always have the best battles.' Deidara felt surprised.
'You fight each other?'
Spread shrugged. 'That's how we train. It's always a good time to improvise with what we can do. The others are looking forward to this.' She jerked her head at the other element ninjas who were discussing something eagerly.
'I'm going down this time.' Fury's voice suddenly said. They swiveled around to see her surveying the grounds. 'Dense has a new strategy for getting past my fire.'
'I'm still putting my money on you.' Whirl said from behind Spread. Suddenly, a crowd was gathering around and people were jotting down hefty prices. Whirl looked at the Akatsuki. 'You guys in?'
'Hell yeah!' Hidan said enthusiastically. 'I'm betting on Fury winning.'
'Me too.' Kakuzu said. The others agreed too and coined in their money.
Kisame suddenly remembered something. 'Speaking about bets, I forgot we never got to settle ours.' He said, grinning around the Akatsuki. It took a while for the others who had participated in the Deidara vs. Sasori bet.
'What bet?' Deidara, Sasori and Tobi said simultaneously.
'But there was no clear winner!' Zetsu protested, ignoring them.
Kakuzu shook his head. 'No, the bet was about who she would pick not be with.' He said, determined to scrap in money.
'What bet?' Deidara asked again angrily.
The others seemed to notice him for the first time. Pain spoke first, 'We had a private bet about you and Sasori and who Fury will choose. I guess my bet was lost.' He shrugged at Konan. The both of them had sided Sasori.
'You had a stupid bet on me!' Fury burst out, orange flames licking her vivid hair.
'Oops!' Pool breathed out.
Whirl stepped in quickly. 'Let's forget about this at the moment. You've got a training battle to go through, Fury.' She added to her friend who was fuming at the Akatsuki. Fury wanted nothing more than to burn the criminals alive but she decided otherwise. The training was more important.
She and Dense stood firmly in the middle of the ground. Their eyes were fixed on each other.
'Make sure you win!' Hidan shouted cluelessly to Fury. The others turned their eyes and glared at him. Kakuzu sighed and tugged at his partner by the collar.
There was a tense silence then suddenly, Dense leaped at Fury. Deidara felt his arm twitched instinctively. Fury, on the other hand, had expected the move. She brought up her hands and caught Dense's clenched fist. She leaned forward and pushed.
The Akatsuki watched in awe as Dense was flung into the air and down to the ground, disappearing behind a cloud of dusty air. They waited as it cleared. Fury stood alone; Dense was nowhere to be seen. She glanced around for a moment.
The crowd started as she jumped into the air just in time as a block of solid grey rock pushed out from the ground. The pointy tip curled but Fury pulled her leg away quickly. She was almost to the ground when another rock smashed out and tried to attack her. She dodged away but wherever she reached, a rock would try to snatch at her. The final rock gave way at the tip and Dense burst out with a smirk on his face. Fury concentrated her strength to her right hand and aimed.
A slab of rock rose from the ground to block her punch. Nevertheless, her fist went right through the thickness of it and was suddenly centimetres from Dense. He dodged out of the way but his clothes caught fire. Deidara and Sasori looked at each other and grinned.
Dense skidded across the ground and hurried to put out the fire. Fury allowed him a few seconds to put it out then attacked him again. This time, her fist connected with his chest. There was a 'poof!' then Fury felt her hands feeling contact with air. She cursed and turned back to the grounds. Her dark eyes were scanning the rocks intensely. Deidara felt a surge of pride which he couldn't explain.
Just then, Fury smiled then punched the ground. There was an earth-shattering crash and the ground shook dangerously but it didn't crack or explode. From somewhere beneath them, Dense winced and groaned.
'Ow!'
'Come out or risk getting hit in the head again!' Fury yelled at the brown and innocent earth.
'Ok, ok…' Dense grumbled then shoved himself out of the earth, holding his head painfully.
'Impressive.' Itachi said quietly to Pain who gave a slight nod.
Dense recovered quickly enough. He raised his hand and waved it. One of the pointy rocks bent forward and stretched towards Fury, its point spinning. Fury didn't have time to dodge it. She had just enough time to protect herself behind a wall made from her fire. She took a step back as the point connected with the wall and grinded to a halt. Dense scowled. The wall disappeared and Fury caught hold of the rock and jerked at it.
Hidan and Kakuzu's jaws dropped as the rock broke with a sickening crunch and Fury flung it away into the forest. There was a loud boom and the birds went flying and shrieking, circling the sky in panic. The dumbfounded crowd didn't have time to gaze as Fury plunged at Dense with a head-on attack. Besides than manipulating fire, her taijutsu was well accomplished. The both of them aimed and dodged each other's attacks. Dense managed to force Fury back with Rock Fist technique. She smashed into a tree and dropped to the ground.
Deidara tensed up, worrying for her. He was not the only one, Sasori and the rest of the Akatsuki watched in concern as she stood up unsteadily.
'Don't worry, she'll make it. She always does.' A comfortable voice assured them. The Akatsuki turned their heads to see Kakashi beside them, watching the battle. Naruto and Sakura were also with him, their eyes fixated on Fury. He looked at Fury and smiled to himself.
Fury recovered and her hands shot out. Fireballs aimed tirelessly at Dense. He blocked them easily with his rocks but Fury sent out a last gigantic ball of fire at him, forcing him to abandon his shield and duck for cover behind the trees. The crowd lowered their heads and brought up their arms to block the shards of rock from them.
Fury panted wearily. The last attack had used up almost all her strength. Dense shot out from the tree he was hiding behind and placed his palms on the ground. Fury's eyes widened in shock at his unfazed smirk – she knew what was coming.
Boulders of rock shot up from different directions of her and started closing in. She tried smashing through the ground to escape but her plan was demolished as a larger boulder of rock rose from beneath her feet and started wrapping her legs with its thin-cut rock. She tugged helplessly but the rock held on tightly. She looked up to see the other boulders forming a roof on top of her. She growled…there was only way to it.
She gathered her breath and brought her hands up to a tiger hand sign.
This chapter is mostly about fighting so if you don't like it you can skip it. Pls R&R if you like my prev. chapters! ^^ :)
