A slight breeze passes through the trees in this forest, and brushes the back of my neck, it feels a little cooler than expected. Cold sweat. I take small steps towards the body, a kunai in my hand, trying to keep it steady. Am I, afraid? Guess so. With the tip of my foot I poke the body, it's very light. So light in fact, there's no way this is natural, in fact, the human body even becomes a little heavier when immediately after it dies. I take the kunai and cut a small hole in the stomach to check.
Some faintly purple coloured gas escapes, I barely have time to cover my face. Most probably it's poisonous. Though I'm pretty sure I didn't inhale, it's not like I can stick around to check. But I've seen enough, I don't need to check any more. The snake that Sasuke summoned, took his appearance, and then died, shedding his temporary Sasuke shaped skin and shrivelling up inside it.
As I slowly walk backwards, more alert than ever, I notice his eye is covered by a sharingan. Sasuke must have put a genjutsu on the snake, making it substitute itself with Sasuke, so he could escape without using hand-signs, because he was trapped in my jutsu. I hate to admit it, but it's clever, escaping like that, it was the one flaw in my plan I had hoped would go my way.
"Bllllrrrrrrghhh...."
Oh I forgot about the head. I walk over to it, and pull it by the hair, making the eyes roll backwards. It's semi conscious even with a kunai stuck in the brain. I better get rid of it as quickly as possible, he still holds a grudge and might even tell Sasuke where I am. I let it go, and do a quick release hand sign, to summon it back.
The silhouette of Sasuke appears from behind a tree. He must assume I'm out of tricks now. Looks like it's time for round two, and it will be troublesome.
"What sort of jutsu did you try to use on me? The snake died instantly." Sasuke asks me on a tone that hints of frustration. I guess he also understands how close he came to being killed just now.
"You know it's nothing ordinary. To truly grow as a shinobi, we need an ability that's unimaginable, if we want to surprise our opponents. I'm sure you can appreciate that way of thinking, at least."
"In a way. Even if you won't tell me, I won't underestimate you this time, so you won't catch me by surprise anymore." He goes into a fighting stance. His feet are far apart, one hand in front, one hand to his side. I mirror his actions with my own stance.
We just stare down at each other for a while. It's like a stand-off, looking at the other, finding a weakness or an opening. Most probably the both of us are more worn out than we care to admit, though we haven't fought much yet, we both used some big jutsu already. I know using advanced genjutsu with the sharingan is pretty intense, especially if he has to make his subject substitute itself. He probably won't use it again soon.
I notice he's not holding his hand right, if he wants to grab a weapon. Could it be a feint, or could the sharingan have affected his vision? Does he maybe even aim to distract me like that? His face doesn't betray anything. Although I should feel like I'm staring down a superior opponent, right now, in this moment where we anticipate each other, he feels like a different person. Someone I can anticipate.
I leave a deliberate opening of my own. If his opening had been deliberate too, he'll know I'm on to him. If his opening wasn't, then something is wrong with his depth perception, and he'll take the bait. Relaxing my fingers, I slowly let my arm drift away from the optimal spot. The cold sweat is back, it's unnerving. This will be a crucial moment.
Sasuke disappears from sight. Looks like I won this small battle of bluffs. He took the bait, with no time to rejoice at the fact that he has a handicap, I take all the chakra I can summon, into my feet and launch myself into the air. A beam of electricity buzzes right underneath me, I dodged just in time, and his aim seems off, a little too much to the left. I use my momentum to land on a tree branch. His speed and ability is far beyond mine, but he seems very inaccurate.
He's resorting to using variants of chidori without using the sharingan to aim it properly. Looking down from this tree I can see his blur coming to a halt, not too far from where I was standing just now. Looks like he can only use that incredible speed of his in short bursts.
"Tsh.." Sasuke seems ticked off that he has trouble landing a hit. I waste no time and throw a tagged kunai at him, exploding on impact with the ground. It's a loud but mostly harmless explosion, I'm going to alternate fake and real kunai, making it hard for him to prioritise threats.
I figure, I only stand a chance if I finish this quickly. Though it's a drag to do that much effort, I'll go through my whole arsenal in a matter of moments if I have to. This time I take a fake and a real one.
The tree I'm standing on starts shaking, and acting on reflex I jump to the next one, throwing the two kunai to the base of the tree, where Sasuke must be, no doubt, then I keep jumping through the branches as quickly as I can.
It's a good thing I took off when I did, the tree that was shaking now looks to be shredded and charred by the blue streams and bolts from Sasuke's attack. It's frustrating that I can't get a good fix on where he is, the explosions and his speed make it hard to see. The only thing keeping me from a certain death is moving in an unpredictable pattern, Sasuke has good enough judgement to anticipate my movements if I don't.
Four tagged kunai, one explosive, followed by two fake, and finished off with a real one, I throw them on branches around me, being fairly certain he will have taken to the trees, since his last two attacks from the ground have missed.
In the corner of my eye I finally spot him. He's stopped on a heavy branch covered in moss, maybe it was a tree that fell down sideways. Sasuke undoes the wraps on his arms, revealing summoning circles. It's ingenious, if I remember correctly from the bingo book, Orochimaru used something similar. In a fluid motion he summons shuriken and throws them at me.
Easy to dodge. Obviously he's testing his aim. Had I fought him head-on before he had to resort to the mangekyo sharingan to escape my traps, I would have been dead in a few moves. I know it, he knows it. But time is on his side, he's starting to adjust. Though Sasuke doesn't outwardly show it, I can sort of tell by his tactics and risks he takes, that he's starting to become more confident he'll win.
This time eight kunai. My weapons pouch is starting to feel disturbingly light. Three are explosive. Two are armed with smoke bombs. The other three are regular kunai. I hold them individually between my fingers like I usually do, throw them to him, he counters by throwing shuriken of his own to deflect. They explode somewhere halfway. One explosion seemed close to him, but I can't see it exactly due to the smoke. He must have missed it, his aim still not fully recovered.
A few shuriken zip out of the smoke, one of them lands in my flak jacket. The impact his heavy but it didn't get through. He must have thrown them hard, possibly out of frustration. The ominous sound of charging electricity now warns me that he's going to use a move from behind the smoke. It's no doubt something big, so he won't have to aim. It's now or never. If I don't stop him, I could be done for.
Recklessly I charge into the smokescreen. It's a pain in the ass, I may as well be blind with this smoke. As soon as I get out, I can see Sasuke's surprise on his face.
Enjoying it more than I should, in a life or death battle, I land a punch in his face, causing him to stumble backwards. Unfortunately I didn't have the foresight to start a shadow jutsu before charging in, acting purely on instinct, or I would have caught him. I had good feedback with that punch, but nonetheless he counters me with a kick in the stomach.
Being fully aware of the situation I'm in, I take the trench knifes. I had hoped my punch would have done more damage but it looks like I still need to work on my taijutsu. If I get out of this alive, that is.
Ignoring the strain on my abdomen for taking that kick, I charge at Sasuke, with the knifes, swinging it at his upper torso. With a detached look on his face, he dodges, and elbows me in the ribs as he passes behind me. Due to the difference in speed, I couldn't even see him very well. In this exchange of attacks I realize, there's no way I can win now. This is his world, close range. It's of little to no comfort to know that he must have exhausted most of chakra, and resorted to fighting hand to hand instead of jutsu.
The pain from his hits is affecting me, and I fall down on one knee, breathing is harder from the hit in my ribs. Looks like a draw is the best I can drag out of this. My only surprise left is the string with explosive kunai. Do I have the guts to make myself a hero?
Sasuke has stopped, and looks at me. He's trying not to show any weakness, but he's obviously breathing hard, and scratched all over. That one explosive kunai that landed close to him, and the depletion of his chakra have worn him out. So it wasn't easy on him either. Tactically, it was a good fight, I have no regrets though I made some mistakes, but honestly I don't think I could have done any better than this.
It's very odd, the feeling of coming to terms with the fact that I have to force a draw in this situation. I know it literally means I'll blow the both of us up, but the certainty of it all makes me feel serene right now. The real question remains, will I be able to do it, in a few moments?
Slowly, I look up. I notice the trunk we're on had been damaged somewhat by the explosion from when we exchanged our arsenal of weapons. I could have used that to my advantage but it's too late now. I see tons of things I could have used to form a strategy, but it's simply too late. Maybe if I had.. no, none of that matters now.
In a fight you start to understand your opponents through the way they make their decisions. You understand the urgency for them to resort to fighting, whether it's duty or something else. You understand how they anticipate and deal with problems. He knows what this situation means, he knows I have one final weapon. He must have stared down this sort of scenario before.
I get up, swinging the knife on my right hand at his upper torso like before. As I thought, he doesn't counter-attack it with the same move he did before, but instead tries to kick. Again he lands a hit, but this time I wanted him to hit me, and I lock his leg in with my left arm.
Flexible as he is, he contorts and punches me, causing my head to spin away from the impact. I feel blood on the inside of my mouth, but I don't let go. I take out the string of explosive kunai that I usually use for trapping people, and throw it around my arm and his leg. No way out now. The realisation hits him and he looks at me questioningly, as if to say, "Are you really that crazy?". All that's left now is to strike it, and we both go out with a bang.
I know now why I was scared at the start of this fight. It wasn't the fight that scared me, nor was it necessarily Sasuke that scared me. Deep down, I knew it would come to this, now I understand that's what scared me at the time, because I'm feeling the same right now. My fingers tremble and I'm feeling sick to my very core, I'm not as tough as I thought I was.
I can't do it.
Sasuke wastes no time, and I notice his eyes start bleeding. He's going to use something troublesome, no doubt. Acting on survival instinct alone, panic takes over and I smash my head into his nose as hard as I can, losing balance. Since I was holding his leg, we fall down on the branch.
The impact from the fall causes the already damaged trunk to break and we fall several meters to the ground in a big mess of blood, wires with explosive tags, broken branches and leafs.
Sounds become muffled, and I'm getting extremely dizzy. Completely disoriented from the fall, the pain and fatigue, I black out.
Ohhh another cliffhanger! I should probably stop doing that, but it's almost impossible not to end with one, since it's still an effective method of making people wonder. And of course as a result, keep reading.
I decided I'd make Shikamaru weaker, not so much in his fighting but in his character. His opponents always seem to note that he's good at getting away and dodging (Tayuya, Temari and even Hidan), so I figure he's probably more nimble than given credit for. So as a fighter he could do reasonably well if he goes all-out, even if the end-result is inevitable, but I feel he should be the kind of person who can't just take his own life so easily like others seem to. Chiyo, and Anko (though it didnt work) and many others all had some kind of personal motivation to go that far, but Shikamaru doesn't really have that here, not on such a personal level as Naruto, for example.