CHAPTER 9: Sand and Mist
Sorry for the late update! It was my exams. You know, I'm a busy person, running a busy life, just like you are, well, yeah, at least I assume that. It's been two weeks, yeah! And I tried to make this as long as possible to make up for it. I did a lot of research to get this one right. Phew, fight scenes are tough to write, you know!
Since I didn't emphasize the Akatsuki battle, majority of it is here (I just hope you'll get to imagine the fight scene easily though). You'll see Gaara and Kisame in all-out justu battle, and let's see who'll win. You want a clue? One of them's going to get back-up. And whoever you think it's going to be, it sounds epic, doesn't it? We'll see Team Guy here too, since we didn't see them in the last chapter. The story'll go escalate from here, and it'll be great!
Although, I'll let you be the judge.
So, short AN, but I know the story'll get more enjoyable from here on out. No reviews in the last chapter? It's fine, I understand you're busy, because, I'll admit, I'm busy too. But I want long reviews, so I give long reviews. Not pressuring you to give me one or anything! I don't really want to pressure my readers. It isn't my kind of personality. I am but a kind person.
Not really.
Disclaimer: Do you see anyone I own here? Nope, me neither.
CHAPTER 9: Sand and Mist
It was noon. Team Guy was sitting under one of the trees in the forest of the Land of Fire, planning their next move. They were standing in a circle, and Tenten was reading a map of the Five Great Nations that Tsunade gave them, trying to pinpoint the location of the jinchuuriki, or better yet, trying to guess where they were. Or even dowing the main purpose of the mission, finding the location of the jinchuuriki named Killer B.
"Hmmm, let's see," Tenten said thoughtfully, glancing at the map. "What about here, near the Land of Lightning? He's a Kumo jinchuuriki after all."
"That may be true," Guy said skeptically, "or maybe he moves fast enough to get within the Land of Fire."
"Yes," Lee exclaimed. "I agree with Guy-sensei."
"Let's come up with the most logical location," Neji pointed out. "Since none of us can agree whether it would be the Lands of Fire or Lightning, let's look around that borderline: the area where they seem to cross one another."
"Perfect!" Tenten exclaimed. With that issue resolved, she started rolling the map. "But that brings us a new problem."
"Yes," Lee continued. "How are we going to find the jinchuuriki?"
"Well, I have my Byakugan," Neji said. "So that shouldn't be a problem."
"Alright, that's perfect," Guy concluded. "We'll assume team formation. Neji stays in front, because he has the Byakugan. Lee and Tenten stay behind him, and I'll stay at the back, just in case there might be an enemy behind us."
"It does sound like a plan," Tenten agreed.
"It's perfect!" Lee exclaimed. "Now come on, we cannot waste a single moment."
"Lee's right," Neji said, closing his eyes and opening them again, only to have his purple pupil-less eyes' vision enhanced by the protruding blood vessels at their sides. "Let's get this done with."
The entire team nodded and dashed off.
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Kisame latched his sword to his back and made a bunch of hand signs too quick for Gaara to follow. The Kazekage thought fast: he couldn't afford to waste another batch of wet sand, so he had to dodge whatever was going to come to him. He readied his stance as Kisame leaned forward and faced him directly.
"Water Style: Multiple Water Shark Bullet Technique!"
From Kisame's mouth sprouted water, shaped into a swimming life-sized shark. It darted out and swam quickly through the air towards Gaara. The young Kazekage immediately jumped and sidestepped through, only to land on a broken tree while the shark hit it and dispersed into splashes. Gaara thought it was over, but then when he looked at Kisame, there was another shark that swam again. Gaara quickly jumped forward, landed briefly on the shark, and then jumped from it, landing on the ground again. The second shark took a sharp turn, leading it to a fallen tree and it dispersed just like the first. Kisame made two more, and Gaara dodged them both. He didn't know how long and how many sharks he evaded before the attack was over.
Kisame chuckled. "I must admit, you aren't like what I expected you to be, just cowering behind that useless sand shield of yours."
Gaara looked defiantly at him, not saying a word. Kisame took this as a chance to continue speaking. "This battle started out pretty slow, didn't it? Aren't you bored?" Here he did a couple more hand signs, and he ended in Ram. When he did, water started spiraling out of the ground and all around him. "Let's make this a little bit faster!"
The water took shape of another shark in front of him, and Kisame drew Samehada and rode on the water animal. Gaara got ready again to dodge this one, but he knew this was faster than the one before. The shark sped towards Gaara at an astounding speed, and he knew at all costs that this one was going to hit.
"Water Style: Water Shark Bullet Technique!"
Gaara tried to jump back, and his sand took it as a time to defend. Gaara tried to will it to stop, but then it just shielded him, much to his dismay. The water shark splashed once it came onto contact with the sand, and Kisame landed on the shield then he dug Samehada into it, but the sand was too hard to penetrate. Gaara knew the sand had a limited time before it got runny of water and before he lost control of the, so he had to make this small moment count. He pushed the sand away from him, bringing Kisame with it, and sending it crashing to the ground.
Gaara landed on a fallen tree, waiting for Kisame to resurface from the debris. Sure enough, the Akatsuki member rose from the smoke and dusted his shoulder with his free hand while his other one clutched Samehada. Gaara clenched his teeth. It didn't even look like he felt pain, mainly because he was at a severe advantage. Gaara tried to raise the little he could of his Absolute Defense sand, and his eyes widened once he felt it. It felt slightly weaker and slower, and it felt as if that chakra was drained from it. Kisame smirked once Gaara did so, and the young Kazekage took it as a clue: he did steal chakra from his sand. That was one of the powers of Samehada, after all. He knew the sand would replenish chakra again, but he had to wait another long while for it to be usable. He had to buy time until then. So Gaara knew he had to make his blows fast. It was practically the only way to defeat someone of the likes of Kisame. He was limited in sand, but then he remembered: he was surrounded by earth: earth could be made into sand.
Using the small supply of sand he had, he pushed it into the ground, and Kisame was totally puzzled on what he was doing. The pressure on the sand to the earth was great, and thus, the earth was crushed, making more sand. Soon, Gaara was able to make seven Monstrous Sand Arms behind him, each bearing resemblance to that of Shukaku's own arms.
Gaara held his hand out at Kisame and his eyes narrowed. "It's my turn now."
In the blink of an eye, the sand arms moved and dove their way towards Kisame. The first hit landed on the ground and it tried to pin the Akatsuki member down, but Kisame was nimble enough to jump then land on it then he used it as a bridge. As the arms were thrown at him, he was running towards Gaara, using the first arm as a ramp to get to him. The second arm went and glazed over the first, and Kisame ducked and slid under it, inches away from being pushed over. The third arm went under him, and Kisame had to jump high and somersault to avoid a hit. The third was thrown at his head and the fourth was thrown at his feet, and Kisame vaulted up on the third arm, using Samehada as a boost. He used the third arm to continue running towards the Kazekage. Gaara knew he had to knock him off, because he was getting closer and closer. He shot the fifth arm from downwards, letting it penetrate the third one to act as a wall. As expected, Kisame burst through it, and Gaara used the sixth arm to push him back. To his surprise, Kisame used Samehada as a ram to cut through the entire sixth arm, until he was already face-to-face with the Akatsuki member.
With every step forward, Kisame swung his sword, while Gaara stepped back, using some sand to block the heavy blows. As Gaara stepped back, sand made a platform under his feet, and Kisame continued to step forward as Gaara stepped back until where the Kazekage stood on was high above the ground. He couldn't summon sand anymore to use as a platform, and he knew it would end up useless anyway. He stood on the edge, while Kisame pointed his Samehada to his neck.
"Well, this is where you fall, Kazekage," Kisame mused with a cruel smirk. "Literally too, to boost."
Gaara carefully watched his footing, and he heard a voice echo in his subconscious. Gaara, use me. You know you need my power now, am I right?
Gaara clenched his teeth, as if he was telling the voice to shut up. "No, Shukaku. You know that's just what he wants. Now stop it, I have to focus."
Gaara looked down on the towering distance between him and the ground. He simply looked at Kisame then jumped backward, much to his astonishment. Once Kisame looked down to where he fell, Gaara was nowhere to be found. Kisame didn't understand, but he knew he had let his guard down for that small short moment.
And that was a huge mistake.
Gaara flew on a sand platform behind Kisame and finally used the seventh arm to push Kisame to the floor. The sand plummeted with assistance of gravity, driving Kisame along with it. It created an explosion of earth, and dust blew upwards upon impact. Surely no one could survive an attack as heavy as that.
Gaara commanded his sand platform to fly down. Once the dust settled in, and the smoke was gone, Gaara put his feet on the ground and walked over to inspect the scene. What he saw was a large crater in the broken forest, with a tall tower of sand at its center. Underneath the sand was the body of what was supposed to be Kisame. Blood was dripping out of his ajar mouth, and his hand could be seen peeking out of the clawed fingers of the sand arm, gripping Samehada loosely. Gaara nodded his head subtly and considered the job done. He was about to turn and leave when he noticed the corpse of Kisame disperse into water. His eyes widened.
A Water Clone?! Gaara thought as dread filled him.
Gaara heard a swooshing sound behind him, and he knew that his sand wouldn't catch it this time. It was too fast, and it was still out of chakra. Kisame ran towards Gaara and swung his sword hard, hitting Gaara in the head and in the arm. He flew backwards, tumbled a few times over the ground before finally coming to a halt. He struggled to get up; he felt his Sand Armor that covered his body crack on his face and he felt it slowly fall bit by bit, and he tried to slowly move his right arm, where a large gash appeared, breaking his Sand Armor into two. It even injured his real skin enough to bleed. Kisame slowly walked towards the injured Kazekage, holding Samehada out. An evil grin was plastered across his face while Gaara simply gnashed his teeth.
"Well well now," Kisame mused. "Looks like this battle ended quicker than I thought. You aren't really much trouble than I thought you would be. I thought Kage would be stronger than this." Here he clicked his tongue. "Shame, now. Looks like this is your end."
Kisame brought up his sword and Gaara closed his eyes, waiting for nothing but the blow to hit him. It was hopeless already. Kisame swung down, but to both of them were surprised to see a forceful blast of water shoo the sword away from Kisame's grip. The sword spun before striking a fallen tree yards away to the right frOm where Kisame was standing. Both Kisame and Gaara looked to the right, from where the water came from. Both of them were astonished to see a young boy standing there, not even at the age of fifteen. He held a hooked staff on one hand, and his other was cupped around his mouth. To Gaara, he looked familiar, although he was never acquainted with someone who looked like him. To Kisame, he knew exactly who the boy was.
The boy turned to Kisame as he walked towards him. "Ah…Kisame. This is where you wound up. It was such a pity. An excellent shinobi like you ended up joining an organization like the Akatsuki." Here the boy was in front of them both, and he shook his head while clicking his tongue. "It's a shame. You had talent. And here I was thinking that you could have been my successor."
"You know I was never meant for that power, Lord Yondaime," Kisame said, narrowing his eyes and continuing to hold his sword at Gaara's neck, although lowering it as he gave his attention to the young boy.
Gaara was dumbfounded. Kisame was from Kiri, and here he was addressing this young boy as "Yondaime". And for all Gaara knew, the Yondaime Mizukage was long dead. "Y…Yondaime?" he stuttered.
Yagura gave a quick glance at Gaara, and he returned his gaze to Kisame. He slowly walked beside him, holding his staff up as he said, "That doesn't matter, Kisame. That was all in the past. Let's focus on the present, shall we?"
"Yes, yes, we must," Kisame said, keeping his eyes locked on the boy as he moved in front of Gaara, holding his staff up as if he was protecting the Kazekage. "You are both jinchuuriki, and I'm a member of the Akatsuki. So now, the most predictable thing that must be done is for me to capture you. Isn't that right?"
Gaara gasped and looked at the boy standing in front of him. Lord Yondaime? Gaara thought. Jinchuuriki? Why does he look so familiar yet doesn't trigger my memory? And who is he to aid me in battle?
The young boy narrowed his pink pupil-less eyes. "That is correct. But I have no guarantee of winning this battle, and so do you."
Kisame chuckled. "That's right. Intellectual as always, Lord Yondaime."
The young boy looked back at Gaara. "You, you're the Shukaku jinchuuriki, aren't you? The Godaime Kazekage?"
Gaara paused before nodding. "Y-Yes,"
"Well, what are you waiting for?" the boy said. "Assume your stance, unless you want to die." Gaara quickly assumed his fighting position, and the Absolute Defense sand regained it chakra and came to him as swirled madly at his feet.
Kisame smirked. "Well, this is rather interesting. Two jinchuuriki versus a member of the Akatsuki. A rather nice match, don't you think?" Here he drew the Samehada and jumped backwards many yards away from them, holding the sword in front of him. "I can't wait to see how this turns out."
Gaara looked at the boy standing by his side and asked, "May I ask of the identity of my apparent ally?"
The young boy did not meet his eyes, but leaned forward and held the staff to defend both of them. He said to Gaara, "My name is Yagura, the Yondaime Mizukage, and the jinchuuriki of Isobu the Sanbi. Never forget this name as long as you live."