Part 3: Of Leafy Fans and Hearty Attacks (continued)
"Tenten!"
Caught unawares, the kunochi gritted her teeth as she spun around, ready to face her next adversary, her tonfas covered with a sickly slimy substance, evidence of the number of Zetsu clones she had taken out in the past few minutes. It took her a moment to register the fact that the person who had called her name would most likely be a fellow shinobi. Still, she kept her body alert, taking a quick side-step to her left and raising the wooden weapons in a defensive stance.
The familiar figure of Izumo Kamizuki landing three metres away brought a genuine smile of delight to the girl's face. However, it vanished almost immediately when she saw the fellow Chunin's stern countenance, his tanned face wearing a grim expression.
"General Darui asked for your aid!"
Those six words, spat out with such urgency, froze Tenten in her tracks. The leader of Division One was asking for her help? Why would he even have taken note of her presence in the first place? The very next thought caused the lump to rise in her throat… could it be that Darui had seen her using the leafy fan, having just been stored safely in one of her scrolls just minutes ago, against the Raiton monster earlier?
"Snap out of it, Tenten," Izumo's words might have seemed harsh, but they did not seem to hold any irritation or resentment. The young man must have thought that the teen girl was out of her element in the midst of such chaos, unsuspecting of the actual thoughts in her mind. "We need your help with Kakuzu… the bastard is back causing so much trouble for us."
Stealing just one more glance at the defeated Zetus clones lying in a heap, Tenten gave a silent nod as she followed her fellow Konoha Chunin, who took the initiative to explain to her that Darui had actually noticed the way she had sent torrents of shurikens and kunais at the Tailed Beast before Ino-Shika-Cho launched their impressive attack Ino managed to take him down.
"And I believe we saw you locked in battle with Kakuzu's Lightning mask," Izumo continued as they raced ahead, spying the white-haired, dark skinned Kumo Jounin wielding his sabre and their fellow Konoha Chunin and Izumo's best friend Kotetsu Higane spinning his gigantic shell-like blade while performing an aerial assault on the resurrected Akatsuki henchman. "Did you… did you take it down? I don't see it around anymore, although the other hearts are still creating havoc."
Tenten kept her gaze ahead as she unfurled her scrolls, her heartbeat accelerating slowly as myriad thoughts fought for her attention. The sight of the fearsome monster that had almost killed her and her comrades was already stressful enough, even without Izumo making queries about the Raiton mask. Before she could mutter a response, Kakuzu's next attack sent both men performing some impressive aerial somersaults and landing neatly a few feet ahead of them.
"We're running low on chakra," Darui stated in his usual nonchalant, unassuming manner, keeping his eyes steadily on the adversary as he performed some quick hand seals to activate his Laser Circus Jutsu to hold Kakuzu back. "Let's retreat for a while."
"No, we can't!" Tenten did not realise she had exclaimed those words so brusquely, squinting her eyes even as she remained fixated on the light beams shooting out effortlessly across the horizon towards Kakuzu, who was evidently using his unique body structure and Earth Grudge techniques to withstand Darui's attack. "We can't allow Kakuzu to obtain another victim or he will resurrect his Lightning elemental heart!"
"So it's really dead? Who took it out?"
Tenten bit her lip as her mind raced to find a reasonable explanation to answer Kotetsu's query, one so similar to his partner's a minute ago. "I … I managed to use my chains... to fling the mask towards Asuma Sensei's jutsu. His wind technique destroyed it I guess?"
She could feel Darui's eyes linger on her for a few seconds before he turned back to face the problem at hand. "Well, that's why I asked Izumo to seek your assistance, Ms Tenten. I saw the way you were summoning those kunai and shurikens at Kinkaku earlier, buying time for your comrades to get their attack in place."
"She won't just be summoning kunai and shurikens," Kotetsu proclaimed proudly. "Tenten is Konoha's mistress of weapons and can wield any ninja tool with ease."
"Any… ninja tool?"
Before she could recover from Kotetsu's praise, Tenten found herself tense up once again from Darui's questioning voice. Pretending not to have heard the man, she revealed that she had encountered Kakuzu earlier on the battlefield and had barely managed to keep him at bay with her techniques. Still, she agreed to do her best to hold him back as much as she could.
"Good. That gives us time to look for the Bashosen," Darui's brows furrowed. "It may be the only way we can defeat Kakuzu and his elemental hearts… a ninja tool that summons the elements itself."
Tenten froze, trying to keep her emotions at bay as her fellow Konoha Chunin asked for more clarification. Darui's description of the 'Banana Leaf Fan' and the incredible prowess it possessed. The more Darui explained how it was revered as one of the treasured tools once wielded by the Sage of the Six Paths, the more violently her heart was pounding. How could she have activated such a treasure earlier? As she tried to appear as disinterested in the men's conversation as possible, her mind was filled with myriad questions.
"So even if we get this Banana Fan, we might not be able to use it? How would we activate its powers?"
Darui finally showed some emotion apart from his usual smouldering look, as he heaved a sigh to Izumo's questions, keeping his eyes peered above the boulder they were all huddled behind. "I'm seriously not sure. I only managed to use the other tools because I observed how those creatures were using them. And even though I was only using them for a while, my chakra was depleting really rapidly. The high chakra consumption alone might make it almost impossible to use the Bashosen even if we do find it. But we have no choice… Unless a miracle happens, we have to take those elemental masks out if we want to take Kakuzu down."
The tension that had built up in Tenten's shivering body was screaming to be released. Taking a deep breath with her eyes closed, she straightened her back and got to her feet. "Well, then I'll just see what I can do to stall him as long as I can!"
Not awaiting any further orders, the kunoichi leapt over the rock, springing forward in a sudden burst of energy that had found a way to flow through every vein in her body, even though she felt as if her blood had frozen twice over in the past few minutes. Her mind was whirling as a million thoughts were scattered all over in a disarray… she could not understand her own lack of honesty at all. Taking two swings with the tool now she knew as the Bashosen had consumed such a large amount of chakra that she might never be able to wield it again without fatal repercussions, and yet she had hesitated in admitting the fan was now sealed within her scrolls. Furthermore, Kakuzu's masks were causing such mayhem across the surrounding beaches and plateaus that something had to be done against this resurrected zombie. So why had she withheld such valuable information from the First Division's General and her comrades, and why was she still resolutely holding on to something she might never be able to use properly?
"No… I mustn't waver. I'll… I must stick according to plan…"
"I see you're back, little girl."
Kakuzu's voice boomed across the distance. This was no time to ponder over such matters, no matter how vital any one of her decisions might mean later, for the dread of facing Kakuzu all over again had caught up with her, even though she had Darui, Kotetsu and Izumo trailing closely behind.
"You brats… insignificant brats… have done nothing but irk me with your petty techniques and non-existent skills. Come… come show me what you've got, little girl!"
Tenten's scrolls twisted and turned as they unfurled themselves furiously outwards , with the kunoichi summoning dozens of projectile weapons at once. Since her aim was to stall Kakuzu from creating another Lightning elemental heart and to allow the others to replenish their chakra levels and come up with a more concrete plan of stopping him, the projectile weapons flying towards the villain now were aimed at him not just with pinpoint accuracy, but also with a seemingly lack of order as compared to Tenten's earlier attacks. Apart from explosive-tagged kunai blowing up the ground surrounding him, gigantic spiked iron balls were slamming themselves against his hardened body structure, attempting to wear him down. Her eyes flashing with annoyance and fierce determination, the brunette sniggered slightly as she watched the Akatsuki member trying to re-orientate himself amidst the minor explosions he was currently trapped in. Knowing that it would not take him long to counter-attack, Tenten darted quickly around the quaking periphery, vigilantly keeping a safe distance of at least a hundred metres away from her opponent. Dozens of sharpened spears thrust themselves violently into the ground, entrapping the monster within a crudely formed wooden prison.
"Foolish girl! You think you can hold me in this…"
Not wondering if Kakuzu had suddenly stopped laughing out loud mid-sentence because of her latest summoning, or if she could have missed hearing the last few words due to the sheer number of projectile weapons now hovering dangerously in mid-air, Tenten's brows furrowed as she saw the ground swallow the wooden staves that had held him for those few seconds. Behind her, her comrades had been stunned into silence with this latest technique, one she had not had much opportunity to use due to the fact that she always had to hold back due to not wanting to catch anyone else in the crossfire. Now that she was out on an open plateau, and knowing that her friends would be smart enough to keep their distance, she now twirled the chakra strings effortlessly, sending the hundreds of gleaming ninja tools spinning quickly, the majestic sight sending a few stray shinobi scattering for cover.
"Tenten! Be careful! He's about to launch his Earth Techniques as well!"
Darui's holler reached her ears just as she did a backflip and sent the spinning blades screeching towards Kakuzu, who had surrounded himself with some boulders in order to minimise the impact of Tenten's attack, but to no avail. The sharpened blades made up of varying lengths, sizes and density, spun towards the quickly constructed rock wall and smashed their way through, each one of them piercing and cutting as they flew through the woven threads of the tentacles that he had formed over his flesh.
"Million Blade Chaos! Rain of Steel!"
Tenten's roar was filled with rage, as every single fibre in her body filled with hatred for this heartless creature responsible for hundreds of lives lost all around the battleground. Her fingers expertly manipulating the almost invisible chakra strings attached to the hilt of each and every single blade, she sent them all hovering around mid-air a distance above Kakuzu to inspect the damage he had suffered thus far. Though he had managed to cover himself with his tentacles just in time before Tenten's blades first reached him, the ferocity of all those knives cutting through them had almost stripped them bare, exposing the brown flesh within. Already, his incredible body structure was rapidly weaving more protective threads and the Chunin knew she had no time to lose. Taking a quick intake of breath, with a mental command, she ignited the explosive tags attached to the blades and the next few seconds were a sight to behold, as the vast amount of blades flew at Kakuzu and detonated themselves as they pierced through his web of tentacles.
The resulting explosion and the smoke that filled the area caused Tenten and the others to retreat slightly. Before they could recover fully however, Izumo gave a sudden cry, "Look! In the sky! He must have summoned his hearts back to help him!"
Tenten shook her head but wore a slightly triumphant smile as she raised her bent torso when she spied the two elemental hearts she had witnessed earlier burning and tearing all their wretched victims apart. She looked at the three men for a moment, but found no words that could explain what she had planned to do next. Turning back to see that the creatures were now within the vicinity, she knew that there would be minimal casualties if she could succeed in what she had planned to do.
Tenten muttered an almost inaudible "Sorry" as she suddenly leapt into the air, turned back and caught the three men off-guards by tying each of them down with a weighted chain. Ignoring the cries and protests of her Konoha comrades – Darui had kept silent after being chained – the girl gave a doleful look as she struggled to find an explanation. Failing miserably, she turned to face Kakuzu and his elemental hearts again, but stopped in her tracks when she heard Darui's words:
"You have the Bashosen, don't you?"
Refusing to look at him, and noticing that the two younger men had stopped their shouting, Tenten gave a silent nod.
"If you use it, you may die. You know that, right?" Darui's voice was kept firm and steady.
"Tenten! No! Don't do it! You don't know how it works anyway!"
"No, she was the one who took out the Lightning Mask."
Darui's suspicions, all confirmed in these few seconds, were no longer any burden for Tenten. Her eyes shimmered as she finally turned to face them and gave a weak smile, noticing that in less than a minute, these three men would have freed themselves with Darui's own prowess.
"I have to... I have to do this. I can't let anyone else … I can't watch them kill anyone else."
Tenten stifled a sob as she now looked at Izumo and Kotetsu, "Please tell my friends… please tell Neji… I … I will … I love … I love them all."
With that, Konoha's young mistress of ninja tools summoned the Banana Leaf Fan, gripped its hilt tightly and leapt into the air.