Chapter 11: Zaku V.S. Raijin!
The Wrath of Hidden Powers!
Zaku tore towards Raijin at unbelievable speed and left a trail of dust behind him.
"Shit, weights you bastard!" Raijin said and he made a hand seal. Whips of sand came tearing out of the ground like sand blasters and coming at Zaku. He slashed them away without a second thought and came at Raijin like a beast. "Take this you son of a bitch!" Zaku plunged the blade into Raijin's stomach and tore it sideways, cutting him in half. Raijin exploded into sand and fell away. "Byakugan!" Zaku screamed as hundreds of Raijins came out of the ground. They all had a stone spike in their hands and attacked Zaku. He dashed back and forth in a flurry of attacks, ripping all of them apart. "They all have chakra flows! This must be because of Shukaku…" Zaku said to himself as he slashed two more of them apart. More spikes of rock came tearing out of the ground, but Zaku dodged them easily and took off towards a spot in the arena. "You can't hide from these eyes Raijin!" He plunged the blade straight down into the ground and Raijin came flying up, inches away from it.
"You're indeed better than I thought!" Raijin said as he formed a complex hand seal. "Desert Coffin Jutsu!" He screamed and sand tore out of the ground and surrounded Zaku. He slashed it away, but it just reformed behind the blade.
"I'll crush you with my power!" Raijin screamed as the sand solidified around Zaku. "Desert Graveyard Jutsu!" Raijin screamed and the sand came crushing in to destroy Zaku. It formed the shape of a person, but not a crushed one. The sand went exploding off and Zaku was standing there, surrounded in a layer of green energy. "You overestimated yourself Raijin, let me show you how we deal with that!" Zaku screamed and grabbed Raijin around the neck. Raijin choked and grabbed Zaku's hand and tried to pry it away. Zaku raised his sword and slashed at Raijin. The blade stopped inches from his head and was held off by an orange light emitting from Raijin's body. Raijin closed his eyes and started to shake. "No… no not like this… No Shukaku…." His eyes opened back up and they were no longer human. They were solid black with tan cross shaped pupils.
"What the hell?" Zaku said as Raijin easily wrenched his hand away from around his neck. He powered up and Zaku was sent flying backwards. Raijin reached up and ripped the mask from his face. He was drooling a lot and his teeth had all turned into long dagger like fangs. "RRRRRRAAAAAGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!" He screamed and his fingers grew longer and became spiked and catlike ears tore through his headdress. His skin slowly turned into a sandy texture and a thick tail came out from underneath his trench coat. Two spikes burst out of each of his shoulder blades and his neck cracked and strained as it grew longer. His arms stretched out and almost touched the ground as his legs snapped into double joints. A long black tongue lulled out of his mouth and licked his face. His head cocked to the side and he grinned. He spoke in a deep and echoed voice.
"Who are you? You are human no? Goooooood, it has been a long time since I tasted flesh!" Shukaku had taken over Raijin's body now, there was no telling what kind of power he had.
Mako shook his head as he looked on. "Raijin you fool, have you no control over your Bijuu? This is bad, if Shukaku is able to release his full power with so many people around…"
Kakashi looked down from his prestige box and grunted. "Get ANBU, tell them to spread out and contain the area, we can't have any casualties." His assistant disappeared and Kakashi shook his head. "To think, this kind of power and they are only Genin…"
ANBU members appeared out of nowhere all around the top of the arena wall. They were wearing their public attire, the long black cloaks and white animal masks with red markings. They all started to make had seals and mumbled. A purple dome of chakra formed over the arena and separated the crowd from the fighters.
Zaku could feel the power radiating off of Raijin in waves. He powered his Vorpal Blade back up and got ready. "You would stand against me!" Raijin said laughing.
"Come get some, ugly." Zaku said. Raijin dropped to all fours and charged him with his long black tongue hanging out and screaming maniacally. Zaku let his chakra loose in a surge and powered up to his limit. "Burning Limit Jutsu!" His body buffed and he charged Raijin. They clashed fiercely, chakra exploding off of them as they smashed into each other time and time again. They were nearly equal in speed, Zaku was just slightly faster. But Raijin dominated him in pure power. The Vorpal Blade couldn't cut through Raijin's powerful energy field, no doubt because the ridiculous power of Shukaku. Raijin smashed through Zaku's defenses with ease, knocking him around like a rag doll. Zaku managed to stay one step ahead of the possessed Raijin most of the time, but when he fell behind a split second, he paid for it. Raijin grabbed Zaku's foot and flung him head over heels towards the wall. Zaku rebounded off of the wall instead of hitting it, but Raijin was already on him, and smashed him into it with a powerful kick. Zaku came falling out, but caught his balance just in time to duck a swipe from Raijin's clawed hand. His tail came tearing around and smashed into Zaku's face, sending him bouncing off the ground and rolling away. Raijin jumped high and came down with both hands smashing into Zaku with heavy force. Zaku coughed up blood as Raijin picked him up by the face and threw him into the air. "Shit… he's way to strong…" He said to himself. Raijin jumped up after him and grabbed a hold of his legs and swung him back down to the ground. Zaku hit hard and thought he felt something break as he fell out of his limit jutsu. Raijin came crashing down, but Zaku rolled away at the last moment. He leapt up and threw a handful of shurikens that stuck in Raijin's chest. Raijin looked down at them and laughed. They fell out and his skin reformed within seconds.
"You are pathetic." He said and laughed again. His arm stretched out and slashed Zaku across the chest and sent him to the ground. He started walking towards Zaku and his other arm stretched out and punched him in the side hard.
"AAAAGGGHHHH" Zaku spit up more blood and rolled to his side. "It's too much… I… I'm so much stronger than before but… but it's not nearly enough…" Raijin reached him and stomped down hard. Zaku cried out in pain as he was stomped brutally over and over and slowly lost consciousness.
Zaku opened his eyes slowly. He sat up and realized that he wasn't in the arena anymore. "Fuck… Did I lose the match?" He looked around but he wasn't in the hospital. He stood up and saw that he was in a steel hallway with fog coming up to his knees. He wandered down the hall trying to figure out were he was. He came across many other halls and corridors that all seemed to lead to more halls. After what seemed like forever he came into a room with a huge barred gate on one wall. Beyond the gate was nothing but darkness, but he could tell something was there. "CCCLLLLOOOOOOSSSSSEEEERRRRRR" a heavy echoing voice rang out from beyond the gate. Zaku took another step, but didn't get to close. The smoke around the gate slowly began to glow green as tiny bolts of electricity ran through it.
"CCCLLLLOOOOSSSSEEEERRR" The voice boomed out again. It rattled every bone in his body when it spoke and sent shockwaves through the air. Zaku took another step closer to the gate and two massive glowing green eyes opened within the darkness. Zaku's blood ran cold as pure fear struck him. Enormous fanged teeth slowly came into view as whatever was behind the gate smiled. Zaku felt its overwhelming hot breath flow over him as it blew some of the fog away. He couldn't help but get closer to the gate despite the immense fear. Zaku got within a foot of the gate and whatever it was on the other side snapped at the gate viciously. Zaku fell down and scrambled away. It laughed and smiled again.
"Worthless little worm, Have you any idea who I am?" It said. Zaku shook his head and couldn't find the words to go along with it.
"As I thought, you are pathetic." Zaku was confused, and whatever this thing was scared the hell out of him, but he was tired of being called that.
"Fuck off monster!" Zaku said as he stood up. It laughed and spoke again.
"That is more like it little worm. For the time being I am imprisoned here in this wretched place. That is already enough, but you have to be so pathetic that you put me in danger as well?" Zaku wasn't sure what to think at first, than it hit him.
"Oh god… You're a Bijuu? This is my mind isn't it?" The thing laughed again and nodded. "Good, I'm glad to see that at least you can think, if nothing else."
"Then… I am a Jinchuuriki after all?" Zaku said amazed.
"You are nothing but my prison little worm, you will do well to remember that. But if you die, you may very well take me with you! And I will not have that."
"But… If I die, wouldn't you be freed?" Zaku said.
It snarled out as if it was angry. "FOOOOOL! If you were to die when we have no symbiotic relationship, I may simply fail to exist. Wait…. I sense another… after so long in darkness… who is it… which of my brethren do I sense?"
Zaku thought about it. "Shukaku! Raijin of the sands possesses the demon Shukaku!"
"Idiot! No mortal my possess one of our power. But… Shukaku… yes, it has been a long time since I have felt your presence. This is the one who threatens your life?" It laughed and shook its head. "Shukaku is nothing compared to my power, He is one of the weakest of my brethren." Zaku gritted his teeth and tensed up, if Shukaku was weak, than what else lay in store for him? "Than lend me your power demon! If you're in my body, then I'm gonna' start chargin' you rent you big son of a bitch!" It snarled and the charged fog swirled around Zaku. He felt like he was burning alive as the chakra engulfed him.
"If you think that you can handle a fraction of my power little worm, than be my guest Heh Heh Heh Heh Heh Heh Heh." Zaku convulsed and screamed in pain as the chakra flowed into him and filled his body like molten steel.
Zaku's eyes shot open and he reached one hand up and caught Raijin's foot. His eyes slowly turned black and the center of his eyes stayed white. Fangs slid from his teeth and his fingernails turned black and became like claws. Raijin's eyes grew wide as Zaku's body bulged and twisted until it became lanky with extreme muscle definition.
"You…" Raijin said as he looked down at Zaku. Zaku smiled and began to crush Reijin's foot in his hand. Raijin winced and tried to pull his foot away, but couldn't.
"Ry… Ryumaru?" Raijin stammered out. Zaku grinned and threw Raijin to the side. He leapt to his feet and stretched. The Vorpal Blade exploded onto his arm powerfully and he pointed it at Raijin.
"Shukaku, it's been a long time." He said in a voice that sounded like his and the demons overtop of each other. Raijin let his tongue flicker out and craned his neck to the side.
"Ryumaru, so it is you. Why do you hold back so much of your power? You have hardly altered the body of that host." Zaku looked down at his hands and than up to Raijin.
"This is all the power that I need to kill you Shukaku." He laughed as chakra came off of him in waves.
Ino couldn't believe what she was seeing. "What the hell is going on?" She said. Mako smiled. "It looks as if your friend was finally uncovered his Bijuu." He shook his head and laughed. "And to think that Raijin was foolish enough to let his Bijuu take over that much of his body."
Naruto frowned from up in the stands. "It's finally happened…what were you thinking Sasuke?" Sasuke shook his head and sighed. "I tried to avoid it when we were training, he had no idea it was there until now… It must have awakened on its own." Sakura looked back and forth at them. "You two knew about this!"
"Of course they did Sakura, I had to tell Sasuke when he became Zaku's sensei, and Naruto could tell because of Kyuubi." Hinata said. Sakura looked over at Hinata and scratched her head. "You knew too?" Hinata blushed and sighed.
"I… I was there when it happened." She said. "My… my sister invited me out on a picnic one day shortly after Zaku was born. Her and her husband were secretly thinking about leaving the head family as I did years before. A man approached us, begging for help. He had been badly injured and said that there was a monster inside of him. If he died, it would escape and destroy everything in its path. My sister's husband agreed to help, to perform an exorcism. Unfortunately the man died during the procedure and something went wrong. My brother in law tried to seal the demon into his own body, but his life was ripped from him. Somehow the demon was sealed within Zaku unintentionally. My sister grabbed her child, but the demon blasted chakra out of Zaku's little body. My sister was gravely injured on that day, but the demon subsided, and we never spoke of it again. We said that Zaku's father and the other man killed each other in a battle, but my sister was injured during the fight. Years later my sister poisoned her son and leapt from a cliff to her death. The pain of her child being a monster had eaten at her insides for so long… We thought that Zaku had died, but the next day he awoke. He was more or less a vegetable for weeks, and the head family wanted nothing to do with him. Naruto and I took him in, and a couple of days later, he woke up just fine, a little bit of memory loss, but healthy."
Sakura couldn't believe her ears, all of this had happened in secrecy right under everyone's noses.
Zaku slashed his blade and lopped Raijin's arm off with ease. "This is quite the jutsu little worm, you just needed to give it a power boost." Ryumaru said. Zaku could feel the demon using his body and he could see out of his eyes, but Ryumaru was controlling him. He strained and tried to pry back his body, and Ryumaru lost control.
"Eh? What are you doing you little worm?" The demon demanded. Zaku breathed heavily as he got used to the massive chakra boost.
"You're in my body demon, not the other way around." Ryumaru growled deep in anger. Zaku looked at Raijin, no at Shukaku, Raijin wasn't conscious like he was.
Shukaku held his stump shoulder and growled. No blood came out of the wound; he was solid all the way through. His other arm shot out and grabbed the severed one and pulled it back to him. "You're going to pay for that!" The arm reattached with sand bonding it and Shukaku powered up his chakra. Zaku waved for him to come and get some.
"Come on, if you think you can stand against me." Chakra swirled around him and the ground cracked beneath his feet. Zaku grinned as he felt the power flow through him. This was the strength he needed, this was true power. Shukaku screamed and tentacles of sand came ripping out of his body and whipping at Zaku. He dodged them easily and dashed in towards Shukaku. He was way to fast to be stopped, running circles around Shukaku and dashing back and forth, slashing the demon with each pass. Shukaku screamed as his arm was lopped off again and huge gashes were cut out of his body. Zaku continued to dash back and forth, getting faster and faster, not always cutting Shukaku now, he was taunting him. Shukaku roared with furry and a swirling sandstorm came up around him. Zaku dashed back and got into a defensive position. The sandstorm raged like a tornado around Shukaku as his body reformed. "You think you can play with me you worthless little pest!" Shukaku screamed at the top of his lungs. Zaku grinned and pointed his sword at Shukaku.
"We've been fighting for a while now demon and I think I've had enough of your ugly face, what do you say I lop it off?" Zaku shot from were he was to the other side of Shukaku's sand storm in the blink of an eye. The tornado of sand split down the middle and quickly dispersed. Shukaku stood silently, as a line of energy ran down the middle of his body. He slowly fell into two halves, but tiny tentacles of sand latched the two halves together and slowly bonded them back to each other as he fell to the ground. His body cracked and slowly disintegrated into sand, revealing Raijin's beaten body underneath. Everything was quiet for nearly a minute, than the crowd exploded into cheers like Zaku had never heard before. ANBU dropped the shield they had surrounding the arena and the judge poked his head in from where he had been hiding behind the shield.
"Well it looks like the winner is Hyuuga Zaku!" The judge said nervously. The crowd continued to explode as Zaku took a deep breath and let himself power down. The second the chakra left him he got lightheaded and nearly passed out. He dropped down to one knee and winced at the pain in every muscle of his body. He coughed hard and felt like he was going to pass out again. "What… what the hell…" He said to himself. Ryumaru's voice came from somewhere deep within him. "Little worm, this is the price your mortal body pays for sharing my power." The demon laughed. Zaku coughed again and shakily stood up.
"Dammit… To think that it strains my body this much…" He made his way past the unconscious Raijin.
"That's was the craziest thing I have ever seen." Ino said when Zaku made it back up to the waiting room. He gave her a weary smile and sat down against the wall.
"Yeah tell me about it… I… just need to rest for a moment…" He said and closed his eyes. Kiba stood on the other side of the room looking at him with a deep burning rage in his eyes. He gritted his teeth and his feral claws slid from his fingers. Kiba growled deep in his throat and took a step towards Zaku. Dosu put a hand on Kiba's shoulder from behind him and spoke quietly. "Now is not the time for your fulfillment feral one." Dosu said calmly. Kiba looked back at him, than slowly calmed down.
Aburame Shuno who had been standing silently in the corner stepped up next to Mako.
"I trust that you are back to your full strength after your last fight?" He said to Mako. Mako looked over at him and smiled. "Of course, I have had more than enough rest since my last match to give you my full attention." Shuno nodded and got ready.
