Oh boy. Long weekend. I was a fool to think I could get colossal amounts of writing done. Oh well. XD
Copyright stuff: I don't own Naruto.
In the Eye of a God, Chapter 14
"Assault, Part Three"
This is bad. This is really bad. Sasuke's mind was racing at FTL speeds. Kisame's chakra was roughly equal to that of at least two Tailed Beasts. He'd just destroyed an asset of the Kiri without a second thought, surely catching comrades in the blast. Sasuke remembered something that Kakashi had once told him on a mission. The most dangerous people are those who do not care. Kisame was sitting in the middle of the colossal crater, smiling up at Sasuke, as though he'd just said something terrifically funny. I have to get in touch with the other group. Shino's mildly disgusting bug cloud landed behind Sasuke. "Are you guys alright?" Kiba and Akamaru stepped off of the bugs. "We're a bit banged up, but we can keep going." "Speak for yourself." Sasuke turned around and saw that Sakura was about to fall over. Quickly dashing towards them, he caught Sakura on his back before she hit the ground. Sakura mumbled something about chakra exhaustion before nodding off. Sasuke took a quick look at her chakra systems. Finding nothing life threatening, he relaxed slightly and lowered her to the ground. "She healed Akamaru on the way down, he took a lot of damage during that explosion." "Sasuke, what is Naruto doing?" Shino's deep voice surprised Sasuke, as it always did. The guy never talks. Hesitating as he looked upon Naruto's fox mask, Sasuke wondered if he should tell them. Deciding against it, he shook his head. "I don't have the authority to tell either of you that. If Naruto feels like sharing what he's capable of when he finishes, he will. But I can't." Shino nodded. "Fair enough." Kiba wasn't so willing, he opened his mouth to object to Sasuke's avoidance of the question when Kisame's harsh voice rang from the bottom of the crater. "Are you all done bickering up there?" Lowering his voice, Sasuke quickly beckoned to the ANBU nearby. "Okay guys, here's what I got."
Naruto was rather concerned. He'd anticipated that the stress of battle would increase the seal release time. Instead, the opposite seemed to be happening. Instead of the normal ten minutes it took Naruto to release his eye, he was nearly done with the seal after only five minutes of channeling chakra. I'll have to re-examine the seal when we get back to Konoha, this might have something to do with unlocking a new Path. Pushing aside his doubts, Naruto coasted through the last glyphs on the seal as he finished the jutsu.
Sasuke's plan wasn't going as well as he'd thought it might. Kisame wasn't just a massive chakra whore, he was a battle thirsty one too. This made him unpredictable, and as such, Sasuke's plan wasn't equipped to deal with it. The plan had been for Kiba and Akamaru to use their Drilling Fang technique on Kisame to stagger him, then having the Wood user restrain the shinobi while Sasuke hit him in the face with Chidori. Kisame had taken a bold risk, and charged Kiba as the Drilling Fang was implemented. Kiba, not expecting such a stupid maneuver, was caught off guard, and Sasuke had needed to cover their retreat with a brief sword fight with the massive shark man. As Sasuke parried one of Kisame's aggressive strikes, he felt a chill go down his spine. Several flocks of birds at the edges of the clearing flew away, clearly agitated. The presence that Sasuke had felt watching him during the training session and in Naruto's living room emerged. How? It hasn't even been seven minutes! Whatever, all the better for us.
Naruto opened his eye. Taking off his fox mask, he stood up and looked behind him. Sakura was on the ground, clearly asleep, and Shino was staring at Naruto in utter shock. "Wha-" "No questions. Not now. Where is everybody?" Shino pointed into the crater. Sasuke was having a sword fight with Kisame, and Kiba was retreating as the Mokuton user tried to pin the colossal man down. Gathering chakra in his feet, Naruto sped down the craterside faster than Shino could blink. Ignoring his wakizashi, Naruto instead elected to summon a chakra rod from within his skin, though this time, Naruto noticed he was able to make it considerably longer, at least as long as his arm. Another side effect of a new Path? Whatever the cause, Naruto put on a colossal burst of speed, time slowing down around him. Kisame had overwhelmed Sasuke with sheer force, and was going for a killing blow. Not today, sharkboy.
Is this the end? Sasuke could see the gigantic sword moving towards his neck. He knew that at that speed, he would die. He also knew his arm wouldn't be able to block the sword in time, and that Susanoo would be pointless at that range. Able to see his death slowly arriving, Sasuke closed his eyes. Did he have regrets? Of course. Killing his brother without knowing the whole story. Not staying alive for Sakura. Leaving Konoha. To name a few. Sasuke was, he decided, rather disappointed in himself. Sure, he'd acquired great power, but in the end, what did it amount to? He'd been distracted since the beginning of the mission, thinking about big life choices, and as such, Susanoo wasn't cooperating with him. He took life for granted and in return, life had bitten him in the ass. In his head, Sasuke sighed. Oh well.
CLANG. It took a moment for Sasuke to realize he wasn't dead. Opening his eyes again, he was greeted with the sight of Naruto using some kind of black staff to block Kisame's strike. Quickly taking the opportunity to retreat, Sasuke jumped backward a few dozen feet towards Kiba and the other ANBU operative, who'd been asked to be called Yamato. "Took you long enough, dobe." "What the-? You're-!" "Yes, you blue faced half-breed, I am Uzumaki Naruto." Sasuke could see Kiba wincing in surprise at Naruto's supernatural voice. The two struggled to break each others defense, straining on their weapons. Kiba looked over at Sasuke. "And I thought your chakra was sinister!" "What?" Speaking rapidly, Kiba looked back over at the battle. "Whenever you use that weird skeleton thing, the scent of your chakra just gives off this feeling of utter malevolence, but this!" "You really think it's malevolent?" "I know it's malevolent. There's his chakra scent, and then..." Kiba's voice trailed off. Sasuke filled in the blank. "Feels like someone invisible is watching you?" "Yeah. Like that. And it's so cold all of a sudden!" Kisame's harsh tone overpowered their conversation. "Why?! Why can't I absorb your chakra!" Sasuke could practically hear Naruto's smile as he said "Because I'm not letting you. Shinra Tensei!" Kisame was flung away from Naruto over a hundred feet. Sasuke grabbed Kiba's arm and motioned for Yamato to follow him. "Come on. There's nothing we can do for him now."
Kisame got to his feet and stared over at Naruto. "I guess this means that you took Nagato's eyes." "Just the one that was left." Naruto shifted his stance so his right side faced Kisame, lazily spinning the chakra receiver in his right hand. "I don't suppose you're willing to give answers." "By all means, ask away. It's not like you're getting away or anything." Kisame ground his teeth and quickly wove a jutsu. "Water Style, Infinite Sea!" A colossal amount of water bursted forth from Kisame's extended palms, quickly filling up the crater. Sasuke, Kiba, Akamaru and the ANBU retreated to the rim of the crater. On the other side, they could see the other group watching the battle. Naruto cocked his head to the side as he smiled. "Adorable." Naruto began to rotate in place, spinning faster and faster and faster, his hands spinning around in such a way that it quickly appeared as though Naruto had created a dome. When he achieved the desired speed, Naruto responded with a jutsu of his own. "WIND STYLE, GREAT BREAKTHROUGH!"
WHOOSH. The water exploded outward away from Naruto, creating a visibly similar effect to Kisame's Shark Bomb as it was launched upward away from the middle of the crater, soaking the spectators. Taking advantage of the situation, Naruto ran at Kisame. I only have a few seconds before he gains the advantage of topography again. I need to end this now. Twisting as he braked, Naruto ended up with his left to Kisame, as he went in for an overhead strike that he knew would be blocked. Kisame swung his bandaged sword upward and knocked away the chakra rod. What he didn't realize was that Naruto had formed a Rasengan with his other hand, bringing it in towards Kisame's stomach. Kisame, gloating as he deflected Naruto's considerably small sword, suddenly coughed up blood. Naruto had mixed in his fire element with the Rasengan. He hadn't come up with a suitable change in chakra form for the jutsu, but it did its job. Working it's way through Kisame's chakra system at great speed, the Kiri shinobi suddenly felt as though he was on fire. He was really, albeit in a roundabout way.
As Kisame dropped to his knees, screaming in pain, Naruto unsheathed a smaller chakra receiver, and plunged the black monolith into Kisame's shoulder, paralyzing him. The screams abruptly changed to silence. Naruto quickly took the seal scroll from his belt and sealed the eye away. As he was biting his thumb, he realized that he felt rather weak. I used too much chakra in the Breakthrough. I need to be more careful. After he sealed the eye, Naruto ripped a large piece of the bandage off of Kisame's blade, and used that to cover the seal. I want to answer as few questions as possible.