Chapter 11: The Star Hanabi's Fate: The Tables Begin to Turn

Kiba growled at Sakuro. "You're not so tough! Without the Star Hanabi you wouldn't even be a threat!"

Sakuro smirked. "That's a nice try, but you won't fool me that easily. And as for my power, you haven't even scratched the surface."

Kiba charged at him again. He pulled some shuriken and threw them at the Nine Horned Dragon. Sakuro dodged the first few and then melted the others with a fire blast from the Star Hanabi.

"Darn it!" Kiba snarled. He grew his nails out more and began to slash at Sakuro. Sakuro either dodged them or blocked them with the Star Hanabi, and used it to try to keep Kiba at bay. Kiba still kept at it in an attempt to find an eventual opening. He suddenly felt a pain in his hand and jumped back.

"Aaahh.." he silently whispered to himself as he felt the burn. "Man, this is useless…I can't penetrate his defense."

Meanwhile things were not looking any better for the others. With Onigumo stepping on Shikamaru's shadow, it put him out of the fight, while Onigumo could still toss weapons and such. Even if he couldn't, the other Dragons were out of the chunin's league. Tenten couldn't even use her weapons for fear that Takeshi would use the weapons to attract his lightning. So she was forced to rely on her unpolished taijutsu. That of course was not nearly enough. Hinata had to fare mostly on her own then, and she was already feeling numb from Takeshi's constant shock attacks he sent into her nervous system. Naruto and his clones couldn't even get close to Kinmaru. Things seemed pretty hopless.

Kiba gathered himself into another attack. "Ninja Art of Beast Mimicry: Fang over Fang!"

The blur that is Kiba shot forward at Sakuro, and then suddenly veered to the right before bouncing back and into Sakuro's side. This threw him off balance…momentarily. Kiba wasn't wasting time though, and followed up with another Fang over Fang and finally two slashes with his claws. Sakuro stumbled back and composed himself.

"Lucky move."

"Luck had nothing to do with it! (Maybe I actually have a chance!)"

Naruto created another batch of shadow cones. Kinmaru was getting bored of this. This time though, Naruto was actually using his head (scary thought, yes…). Kinmaru shot a fireball jutsu at the clones, but didn't realize that the real Naruto had slipped behind him. Naruto quickly summoned chakra (therefore it wasn't as powerful) and slammed Kinmaru with a Rasengan. Onigumo turned and realized what was happening. He broke his jutsu on Shikamaru and stepped on Naruto's shadow. The baffled Naruto found himself unable to move. This did, however, give Shikamaru a chance to help. He quickly pulled out some kunai with exploding tags and laid some traps. Then he threw some at Kinmaru and Onigumo. In the confusion, Shikamaru cast his shadow and took control of Kinmaru. Shikamaru used Kinmaru to blast the unexpecting Onigumo with a fire blast. However, all this activity alerted Takeshi, whose swift thunder jutsu put and end to Shikamaru's troublesomeness.

Shikamaru called everyone back. "We need a strategy," he said.

Naruto, Tenten, and Hinata shrugged. "You're the strategist," Naruto said bluntly. "You think of something."

Shikamaru (a bit annoyed with Naruto) nodded and said, "All right. I need you guys to buy me some time."

The other three nodded and charged at the Dragons once more. Shikamaru put his hands together and crouched down. "I hope this works…..what a drag."

Kiba picked himself up after being kicked down- and pretty darn hard- by Sakuro. He closed his eyes and thought for a moment.

"This could be the perfect time to use that new move I've been practicing."

He charged his nails up with chakra and charged at Sakuro. Sakuro lifted up the Star Hanabi and said, "Star Hanabi: Dragon Flame Jutsu!"

The Star Hanabi released a giant flame like a dragon, which shot forward at Kiba.

"Wind Style: Wind Barrier Jutsu!" Ariel said. A blast of wind like a wall shot in front of Kiba. The dragon crashed into the wind barrier, shielding Kiba.

"Go, Kiba!" Ariel screamed.

Kiba nodded and ran at Sakuro. "Here we go…Ninja Art of Beast Mimicry: Iron Reaver!"

Kiba released the chakra in his nails, which sliced like red blurs through Sakuro. He was thrown back, and the Star Hanabi was thrown from his hand.

"Kiba, the Star Hanabi!" Ariel yelled.

The Star Hanabi flew over the rail and over the water.

"Oh no!" Kiba yelled. Suddenly, he saw a white blur flash by him. His eyes opened wide with surprise.

"Hey, go on, Akamaru!" he yelled with a grin.

Akamaru jumped onto the rail and leaped into the air. He snatched the Star Hanabi in his teeth before plunging into the water.

Ariel joined Kiba by his side. The two ran over to a wet Akamaru. He dropped the Star Hanabi into Ariel's hand.

"All right! We did it!" Kiba yelled. All of the sudden he noticed Akamaru whimpering.

"What's the matter, boy?" he asked. He looked over to where Sakuro stood. The air around him seemed strange, like it was boiling (like when Lee opened the Inner Gates).

"You fools think you've won?" he said. "Now you'll see my true strength!"

The black of his hair and clothes flashed and turned white, and the yellow of his eyes and the outline of his clothes turned purple.

"See the true form of Sakuro, the Nine Horned Dragon of Light!"

Nightshroud: Okay, okay..kinda short chapter. Next one will be longer trust me. Hope you enjoyed. And as always, R&R please.

Next chapter: The Final Conflict: Light or Dark?