CHAPTER 10: BLIND MARCH

The Master Chief continued to traverse the plains, with the dew on the grass enriched by the cold of midnight, Sonic looked up at the moon as he followed, and Axl had his eyes focused on Shadow's unconscious and heavily wounded body slung over the Master Chief's shoulder.

"It's a little dark out tonight. Maybe we should stop here and rest a bit?" Sonic asked nervously.

"We can't." the Master Chief said firmly. "The Earth will be destroyed in twelve weeks. We don't have much time and every second counts."

"What exactly are we going to be destroyed by?" Axl asked. A chill surged down the Master Chief's spine once again as Axl's question caused him to recall the grave image of the massive warship.

"I'm not sure myself, but it's the size of a planet, and what it's capable of is beyond anything the universe has ever known."

Naturally, Axl and Sonic were still confused, but judging from the disconcerted posture of the mighty Spartan, they decided not to press the conversation any further. They continued to walk north towards the White House, but suddenly and seemingly out of nowhere a large purple snake thrust out of the ground. The hiss that it released was so loud that it shattered the sound barrier. The Master Chief and Axl resisted its effects, but Sonic was temporarily deafened as he bent over in pain, his screams of agony lost in the sonic boom of the hiss as his ears seeped with blood.

The Master Chief left Shadow with Sonic and charged at the snake with his battle rifle drawn. He got two bursts in at a relatively close range, and the dark lavender scales began to peel off of the snake's body like dilapidated plaster. The snake was only minimally fazed, and he charged downwards to bite the Master Chief. He clamped onto the Master Chief's upper body and tilted his head upwards.

The Master Chief was swallowed, but Axl shot four pistol rounds at his stomach. The snake continued to hiss, and his midsection suddenly exploded, possibly from a grenade blast from the inside, and deep red liquids went flying across the ground. The snake was now cut in half and the Master Chief jumped out of the snake's stomach, covered in blood, saliva and bile, but otherwise unharmed. The upper half of the snake wriggled around.

It seemed like the battle was won, but a tan-skinned, black haired young man dressed in nomadic clothes jumped out of the hole that the snake came out of. Axl quickly took note of him and fired a round off aimed at his head, but when the shot connected, the young man inexplicably turned into a log of wood.

"Huh!?" Axl exclaimed, but was silenced by a sudden flurry of fireballs from behind. Axl was blown forward, but he eventually tucked himself in, turned around, touched down to the ground and stood ready.

"It looks like the Phoenix Flower Jutsu did not kill you. You are strong." the young man said.

"Just who or what are you!?" Axl demanded.

"I am Sasuke, but you won't be around much longer for it to matter." Sasuke drew a katana that began to emit purple flames. Black markings began to wrap around his body, and his eyes turned a shade of crimson that resembled a bloodstained mirror. Axl felt an instant of shock as though he had just seen a Satanic evil, and he knew that this couldn't mean well. The man then became a blur, and within a second Sasuke was next to Axl, his katana in mid-swing. Axl ducked and missed the katana by a few centimeters, then took advantage of the opening and kicked Sasuke hard in the gut, followed by a pistol shot. Sasuke flinched and took the hits, but he didn't seem to have taken damage from the attacks. Sasuke leapt at Axl once again in an attempt to kill him, but Axl faded into the environment.

Sasuke was puzzled by Axl's implementation of chameleon technology, but it was no good to go searching for him. He heard metal clanking near his feet, and when he looked down he saw a grenade. The Master Chief's grenade exploded under Sasuke. When the smoke cleared, Sasuke had burns and shards of metal and plastic all over his body. Sasuke quickly spotted the Master Chief, then performed a sequence of hand signs.

"Dragon Flame Jutsu!" Sasuke funneled his mouth and out came a roaring dragon of pure yellow flame. The dragon soared towards the Master Chief. The pressure from the fire dragon forced the Master Chief to stand still. Pure flame and heat clouded the Master Chief's vision and peeled away at his MJOLNIR armor, and he eventually became worn down.

When the dragon's infernal rampage stopped and the flames dissipated at last, Sasuke charged at the Master Chief once more. The Master Chief thrust his purple energy sword forward. Sasuke ran straight into it, but endured the pain of the energy sword as though it were a small poke with a needle and countered with a slash from his katana enwreathed in purple flames. Amazingly, it sliced through the Master Chief's armor, something the Chaos Blast or Dragon Flame had failed to do.

They both withdrew their swords and the Master Chief fell to his knees as bio-foam went to the damaged areas. Sasuke staggered backwards, well-wounded but still standing and ready to fight.

A black aura began to surround Sonic's body. Sonic got up from the ground and stood to see Shadow and the Master Chief lying on the ground, wounded and spent, and Axl was nowhere to be found. The aura became blacker than outer space, and the iris within his eyes was lost in a pool of white. The earth rose around him and dark energy surged from his body.

Sasuke was greatly alarmed.