Hello everyone – this is the last update before the holidays. Hope you enjoy it and wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year =)
37. Face-off
After Madara's words everything changed. When they had first been rather wary, had merely talked and seized each other up, every bit of reluctance had vanished now.
Kiba and Akamaru had at once run towards the small group of their enemies and performed their collaboration jutsu on them, for which they jumped at their opponents, while rotating in fast circles, almost like a drill. Since they had seen them coming, they've had no problems with dodging though, but they at once went for their next attack, keeping them busy with Shino's aid. Neji had wanted to join them as well, but once he had seen what was going on with Naruto, he had decided against it.
The Uzumaki was enveloped by an almost translucent red coat and he was trembling all over. He looked even more brutish than Kiba did. He had grown fangs and they were sticking out over his bottom lip and his pupils were slitted, like those of a wildcat. And then his voice. He was emitting a guttural growl, sounding like nothing the larynx of a human being could ever produce and yet it was clearly coming from him.
Although this was Naruto, his team-mate and friend, Neji couldn't help but to be seized by something close to fear at the sight of him. Or not so much the sight, but the feeling of the aura surrounding him. His chakra was so powerful, but more importantly evil, and he could easily see with his Byakugan how the Kyuubi was pushing away every bit of Naruto's own chakra. He could practically see how he stopped being himself and turned into the monster that has been sealed inside him.
"Stop it Naruto!" The Hyuga called out, appealing to what little of Naruto was still left there in that beast-like creature. He stepped closer to him, noticing the heat he exuded; there was even a faint steam rising up from his skin, as the raindrops vaporised on it. He growled louder as he approached him and his blood-red eyes darted into the direction of his team-mate, who was searching for a trace of recognition in them. Was he even aware of the people around him or was he only seeing movement – because in that case he was in quite a plight right now.
He had witnessed before what happened when Naruto was overcome by the Nine-Tailed. He had only grown one tail yet, which was good, since, if he remembered correctly, he lost his self control with the third one or was it the fourth? Anyway, from that point on, he didn't differentiate between friend and foe any longer, and then he was about as dangerous to them as their actual enemies were. Maybe even more so, because he had the violent unpredictability of a wild beast, combined with the cunning malice of the Kyuubi.
"Calm down. He's just bluffing." Neji tried to soothe him, although he didn't believe that himself, but he at least tried not to think about it. He couldn't afford to let all of this get to him, if he did, he could just as well lie down at once and wave a white flag over his head. It wouldn't make a difference to his efficiency then.
"Stay away." Naruto snarled and in spite of the harsh tone in his voice, Neji was glad that he was still able to speak. If he could keep the Kyuubi in rein, then his chakra would give him a great advantage and they could need every advantage they could get hold of… But then only as long as the Nine-Tailed wouldn't take over.
"Just get a grip, okay?" He sighed, completely sure that he could have saved his breath on that one, but then a scream drew their attention towards the battlefield.
It had been Shino. He was lying on the ground, not far away from Sasuke and that one was walking towards him now, his katana hanging limply at his side. Inactive for the time being, but as it seemed he was just about to change that. With a shocked expression Neji watched how the Uchiha slowly, almost solemnly, raised his sword over Shino's head, planning to finish him off and it didn't look like the Aburame would be able to move away in time.
Hastily, Neji pulled out a handful of shuriken and threw them at the dark-haired man and to his relief he used his katana then to fend off the rapidly approaching missiles, instead of using it to chop off Shino's head. Now he had drawn Sasuke's attention to himself and he glared at him through these red, hate-filled eyes. He held his gaze, absolutely sure that his eyes looked the same way, since he harboured nothing but hatred for the ungrateful bastard.
He had it all. He had friends that would go through fire for him; that would always close both their eyes and look the other way, regardless of what he did. He had a girlfriend, who was one of the sweetest and most caring persons he knew – the exact opposite of him, and for some unknown reason, fate brought this unlikely pair together and how did he show his gratitude? By killing the one person who would have done everything for him and now he would carry on with the others, with the rest of the friends, he didn't deserve to have in the first place. And the worst part about all this was, that he would probably get away with it.
He always got away with whatever he did. It's a shame what happened to his family, no doubt about that, but nevertheless that gave him no right to act like he was the only orphan on this planet, the only one who ever lost someone he loved. He behaved like he owned a corner on suffering and no one ever told him that that wasn't the case. That other people had it just as hard as him, even harder, and that nothing of what happened some ten years ago could justify the way he was acting now.
His fists started trembling again, eager to be put to use in the most brutish way. He wanted to lash out, over and over again and crush his blank face. How could he possibly stay calm and composed with all these pictures running through his mind? How could he push back the scalding anger that was twisting his guts? He wondered how Naruto did it. He not only had to suppress his own, but also the Kyuubi's anger and that just had to be massive…
A swarm of insects surrounded the Aburame now and Neji briefly lost sight of the Uchiha and at once used that chance to take a deep breath. He couldn't stand here any longer and let Kiba and Shino take them on by themselves. It didn't seem like the two of them were much of a match for the two nuke-nin, (the two, because the Akatsuki was staying out of everything and just watched them). At least Shino looked pretty bad already, whereas Kiba seemed like he was in control of the situation still, but in case the Akatsuki, should decide to interfere, he'd be in quite some trouble.
Just as he meant to rush ahead, as composed as he could possibly be in the current situation, Neji was beaten to it by Naruto, who suddenly leaped into the air, and it didn't even take him a second to cover the distance to the masked-man, who was sitting there on a bigger stone and didn't even get up or flinch as Naruto's chakra-engulfed fist approached him.
His attack hit the mark. There was so much power in his punch that even the rock burst into countless tiny fragments and then Naruto was behind him and the Akatsuki still stood there at the very same spot as before, safe and sound, like nothing had happened. Just like before.
The blonde didn't waste any time to ponder about what this was all about, but spun around on his heels and threw himself right into the next attack, over and over again, rampaging like a tasmanian devil and still there was just one tail, so this was mostly Naruto's own doing. Neji was so engrossed in watching and analysing the Akatsuki, trying to figure out how he could seriously stay unscathed, when he was under permanent attack by the Uzumaki, that he almost missed the kunai that was flying at him, right in the blind spot of his Byakugan. Just in time, he threw himself to the ground and rolled over, only just managing to dodge the dagger. He ended up in a crouch and at once erected himself again, feeling the mud run down his legs and his formerly white clothes were now brown.
Sasuke was standing behind him, or well, now that he had turned around, in front of him, barely five metres away, the apparent thrower of the kunai. He must have known about his weak spot, or was he able to see it with his Sharingan? There wasn't much known about how exactly the Sharingan worked, the Uchiha had been mindful to keep the majority of their secrets to themselves. The main things he knew about it came from Kakashi, but he had also said that it was different from person to person, which is why he had no idea just how much Sasuke could see. How much he could do with it.
The first individual trait Sasuke's eyes possessed was definitely the way he could fill them with so much hate that it was impossible to feel any different about him. He wondered how Naruto could still call him a friend after fighting against him; after looking into these abominable eyes.
Yet again he could feel an overwhelming rush of anger well up in him, like there was an evil spirit sealed inside him as well. Before he could again remind himself to be calm and concentrated, he already rushed ahead, while he simultaneously drew a handful of shuriken out of his side pouch and hurled them at his opposite, who fended them off with shuriken of his own.
The metallic throwing stars clashed and clinked, before they landed in the mud, which was again followed by a metallic sound as Sasuke's katana collided with Neji's kunai.
He'd try to disarm him, before he would use his clan-typical taijutsu on him. The most dangerous thing about the Uchiha was definitely his Sharingan, so when he'd manage to completely inhibit Sasuke's chakra flow, he could neither use that one, nor could he use any other of his techniques, and beating him in taijutsu shouldn't be too hard.
Enhanced by his Chidori, Sasuke's blade at once cut through Neji's kunai, like it was made of ricepaper, but the Hyuga pulled his arm back in time and lifted his leg to kick into Sasuke's stomach. That one used the hilt of his katana to parry Neji's foot, but since that kick had merely been a diversion, he didn't care too much. His flat hand was already raised in the air, surrounded by a bluish gleam from the chakra he had concentrated into it, and now it snapped to the front like an aggressive cobra, going right for Sasuke's arm. He merely brushed it, without actually hurting him. Right now it wasn't about causing him pain, although he really, really wanted that, but about blocking as many of his chakra pores as was possible and he'd start with his right hand, to make sure he could no longer let his Raiton chakra stream through his katana.
He worked quickly and got more done than he would have expected, before Sasuke wielded his sword and he could only just crouch down in time, to keep his head from going its own way, somewhere down there in the mud. However he did not manage to dodge Sasuke's foot, which now crashed against his sternum and he perceived a slight creak, before he was hurled back. To his great relief the terrain was mostly flat and empty, except for some scattered rocks and bushes and the ground was really soft so it dampened his fall. Nevertheless the force of the kick left him quite breathless and he had some trouble with jumping into the air in time to avoid getting into the sea of electricity, which was sprawling under his feet.
He had almost forgotten that just like him, the Uchiha was able to channel his chakra out of his every chakra pore. Damn. That would be a hard piece of work for him, especially now, that Sasuke had to know what he planned and sure wouldn't let him get this close to him again, which was really unfavourable, since he was a short-range fighter.
Still in the air, Neji drew a kunai, rigged with exploding tags and threw them not only at his opponent, but also the ground in front of him and to his sides, to cut off his possible escape routes. They exploded with a short delay, merely a second before Neji's feet reached the ground again. He must have either hit the Uchiha, or he had merely dodged, but either way, he had been forced to interrupt his attack and now Neji was standing on more or less solid ground again, without getting roasted like a chicken.
Before him was a dense cloud of smoke and if it wasn't for his Byakugan, he wouldn't be able to see a thing, but since that wasn't the case, he could easily make out the crouched figure of the Uchiha, standing a good distance away from him. What he couldn't tell though was, if he was crouching because he was hurt, or just because he had landed that way, as he had leaped back to avoid being seized by the explosions.
Thanks to the pouring rain, the smoke screen soon faded and Neji could see now that his opponent was definitely not unharmed. One of his shoes was missing and his foot and shin were bloody, but he couldn't tell if it were deep or shallow wounds. Nevertheless his mood lifted at once, whereas it seemed to be the opposite with Sasuke's.
The dark-haired man narrowed his eyes angrily, before he performed a quick sequence of seals and inhaled deeply.
"Katon: Hôsenka no Jutsu."
Sasuke spat out a volley of small fireballs, which approached the Hyuga at a tremendous speed, but that one didn't even flinch or shrink back, but released a great amount of chakra out of his chakra pores, while spinning in fast circles, creating a practically impenetrable shield this way. It weren't only flames but also Shuriken, he could clearly make that out with his Doujutsu, but it didn't help anything and as soon as Sasuke realized that and gave up on his attack, he came to a stop again.
He expected to find Sasuke look even angrier than before and definitely frustrated, since he was obviously inferior at the moment, but instead a gleeful smirk appeared on his lips. Neji could only still see how his fingers flipped up, but the second he noticed the wires on them, there was already pain. His whole back seemed to gape open, as the still searing hot shuriken, Sasuke had only just thrown at him, returned and now stuck in his back.
The force knocked him to his knees and he could only just catch himself with his arms, but the pain was still too acute for him to get back to his feet. However then a different kind of pain distracted him from it, as Sasuke kicked against his arm and judging from the way his ulna stuck out through the skin, left no doubt that it was broken. And now he was kneeling there at Sasuke's feet, like a monk in a temple, but he just wasn't able to get up yet.
The Uchiha could have easily killed him now. It had been five seconds already, in which he hadn't been able to move, hadn't been able to defend himself and five seconds were more than enough for a ninja to murder another, so why was he still alive?
"I actually meant to end this quickly, but I'll make an exception for you." Sasuke said in a blank voice, no trace of anger or hatred audible in it, which made it hard to doubt his words. If he would have sounded furious and impulsive, you could have assumed he was only talking on a whim, but this way there was only cold calculation, which made obvious that he was utterly serious.
Neji struggled back up from the ground, since he couldn't stand to kneel there with his face in the mud, right in front of the loathed Uchiha. It was hard with only one functioning arm and the other one hurting so bad that he'd like to rip it out, but he managed, although really slowly and he mainly relied on his spine to erect himself.
His pale eyes wandered up Sasuke's bloody leg, over his torso and once he was sitting, they finally met his blood red Sharingan and in that very moment, Sasuke kicked against his chin, throwing him on his back, which caused the few Shuriken that were still sticking in it, to pierce even deeper into his skin. Then there was an explosion as the small explosive clips, he had attached to Sasuke's remaining trouser leg in the very last moment, detonated.
The other fights were no less fierce. No one really had the time or possibility to take in much of what was going on around them. Losing sight of the enemy for even so little as a second seemed fatal. Although it was a two (with Akamaru even three) on one situation, Shino and Kiba had their hands full with the Houzuki. He was practically immune to all physical attacks and none of them was proficient in Elemental- or Genjutsu, so it was practically impossible for them to cause him any harm. With him that was different however. His sword, same as his Suiton Jutsu were all too effective on them, so they could hardly do anything but dodging, hoping he'd exhaust his chakra resources soon and at least they kept him from interfering with any of the other battles.
Madara was probably the only one, who didn't even seem to breathe any heavier. The whole terrain around him was one huge scene of devastation; a result of Naruto's attacks, of his punches, his Rasengan and not to forget the chakra cloak surrounding him, which was probably his most dangerous weapon. Nevertheless it didn't seem to have even the slightest effect on the Akatsuki. There wasn't even dirt or a loose thread on his coat! It was so damn frustrating and yet he couldn't even give in to these feelings, out of risk that he might lose control of the Kyuubi, which had up to now almost always ended with him hurting his friends, so he couldn't let that happen.
He had created a bunch of shadow clones, which were now gathered all around the Akatsuki – Tobi, if he remembered correctly. He had fought him before, but back then he had only run away, whereas now he didn't even bother to do so, which made him appear really powerful, although he hadn't attacked him a single time yet. He only waited for him to attack himself, which happened far more often than he would like to admit.
A violet light bathed the circle of Narutos, as the reddish glowing light surrounding them merged with that of their bright blue Rasengan. He had set up a theory about how the Akatsuki managed to dodge his every attack and it was actually pretty simple: he was just superhumanly fast! He moved back and forth so quickly that he didn't even notice it and therefore thought he didn't move at all – that easy. That is why he would now attack him from all sides and even from above, to make sure that all the speed in the world wouldn't help him to avoid his attack – the combination of almost a hundred Rasengan and his fox cloak.
They all darted ahead simultaneously, narrowing in on the masked man, like concentric waves in an ocean of light. The first row hit him, before they dissolved, as the second row followed. Then came the third and the fourth, until merely fifteen bunshin and the original of course were left. Once he was through with his attack, the remaining clones dissolved as well and the only one left was the real Naruto, but no trace of the Akatsuki. For a second Naruto believed he had done it. That his Rasengan and the Kyuubi's chakra had managed to turn him to dust. A second later he decided he had better check on it. There was no such thing as being overcautious when it came to dealing with Akatsuki.
He moved his head to the right, seeing Sasuke and Neji fight a slight distance away from him. They were either covered with blood or mud, or maybe both and they looked like they had only narrowly escaped a meat grinder. At the moment he couldn't even tell who held the upper hand, but Neji clearly looked like he needed help. It should have been him who fought Sasuke and then on equal conditions, but Madara had come first. After hearing about Konoha, he hadn't been able to hold back any longer. They would have to hurry. Maybe they could warn them still or even intercept them, but in any case they would need him to defend the village.
He tore his eyes away from Sasuke's fight and turned his head farther around, but there wasn't a single person, until he came upon the fight of Kiba and Shino. They were on the other side, a bit farther away than the others and with them it was pretty easy to tell who was dominating the confrontation. Suigetsu was completely in his element. He was diving from puddle to puddle, always with a wide grin on his face, whereas his opponents looked pretty exhausted, but most of all frustrated. They were wounded as well, but it still didn't seem like they needed help, so he roamed his eyes farther around, until he had made a complete round and still no sign of the Akatsuki.
He closed his eyes and inhaled deeply, trying to use the sense of relief that was flooding him at the moment, and of course the feeling of accomplishment, to fight back the Kyuubi, before he would take care of Sasuke. At the moment the feelings of friendship were entirely overshadowed by the knowledge that he had killed Sayuri. Still he wouldn't just kill him too; he would not lower himself to his level. He would bring him back to Konoha, but as a captive and not as a friend.
"Did you really think it would be this easy?"
His still red eyes snapped open and his blood ran cold in an instant, as he perceived that callous voice from right behind him. He spun around, his fist at the ready, but there was no one there, so he ended up punching the air and nearly threw himself off balance.
"Over here." A mocking chuckle swung in the voice, which now came from the other side. This time Naruto didn't rush it again and turned around very slowly, until his eyes came across the cloaked man, who still didn't show any visible signs of damage.
"You." He growled, the beast in him gaining ground again.
"I'm quite disappointed with your abilities. I would have expected more from the Jinchuuriki of the Nine-Tailed Fox." The Akatsuki said calmly, but nevertheless there was this derisive tone in his voice, which made Naruto want to smash his stupid mask and then go for his face. If only he could…
"I am sure however, that that comes down to your abilities as a Jinchuuriki. A host with so little control… It's almost a shame that you of all people were chosen as the Kyuubi's vessel."
"Chosen?" Naruto narrowed his eyes angrily and his whole body was trembling with fury. "What do you know?"
"Oh, just about everything." The masked man chuckled and folded his arms in front of his chest, while nodding to himself. "I dare say I was the reason for it."
"What?" His voice had lost practically every bit of human quality now, but then the human part in him was pushed farther and farther back in general. His remaining resolution was just no match for the Kyuubi's concentrated wrath. He could no longer stand to listen to him any longer. Regardless of how important it might seem.
He lapsed into a murderous frenzy. He wanted to sink his teeth into his skin, feel his warm blood on his tongue, taste its coppery tang, see him go down on his knees, and wallow in his pleas for mercy. His every thought came cloaked in crimson, but there wasn't enough left of himself any more to feel disgusted by his own atrocious imagination.
The second tail emerged as he ran towards the cloaked man, with his claw-like fist held close to his mid-section. This time the Akatsuki leaped up, right before Naruto's fist would have hit him and used his head as a springboard before his feet reached the ground. He weighed what felt like a ton and Naruto ended up face-down in the mud.
"Your amount of control over your Bijû is more than just insufficient – nothing like its previous host…"
Naruto shot up to his feet and at once stormed towards his opponent again, sending his chakra cloak ahead, but it didn't seem to have any effect on him, and his real fist only ended up in the Akatsuki's open palm. He took the force of the blow like it was nothing. He didn't even so much as swerve back, like he had punched against a steel cube. That would then negate his theory of him not being solid. Especially as the Akatsuki closed his fingers around Naruto's fist and broke his hand with no apparent effort.
The blonde cried out in pain, but again he rather sounded like a wounded animal than a human being and this was also the moment, when his last bit of self-restraint stepped back to let the Kyuubi take over.
An ear-splitting roar ripped through the scene, even louder than the thunder and was accompanied by a slight tremor of the earth. Everyone's attention was at once drawn to the source of the uproar: a black orb of energy. They interrupted their fights for a moment and watched the scene in front of the Akatsuki with shocked faces.
It has only been a matter of time before this happened and now they were facing a problem. Up to now it has always taken someone else to stop him, Naruto had never managed to do so on his own – it has either been Jiraiya, Yamato or Sasuke. The last one was there though, but they doubted he would lend them a hand. Right now it might actually be an advantage to them. That Akatsuki was closest to him, so he would probably attack that one and hopefully beat him. But what would happen after that?
Another roar sounded, not as loud as the first one, but angrier. Then the black sphere around him burst into numerous small energy balls, which shot into all directions at such a speed that it was almost impossible for the people surrounding the Uzumaki to dodge.
"No!" Kiba yelled and threw himself to the ground, while he simultaneously kicked against Akamaru's front paws, to make sure he would be out of reach of any of the approaching chakra orbs as well. Shino had been lying on the ground to begin with, and only had to roll away, as one of them crashed into the ground right beside him. Suigetsu didn't manage in time. Instead of dodging he had tried to turn to water, but he had been too slow, so one of the energy balls hit him in a semi-liquid form, which is why he didn't take the full force of the attack, but still enough to put him out of action for the time being. Thanks to their Doujutsu and their speed, Neji and Sasuke could evade them unharmed. They were both severely injured though and had only just taken some time to breathe through, which is why they had picked up on some of the things the Akatsuki had told Naruto and had therefore been at least to some extent prepared for what had just happened. Or maybe it had been his words that had induced them to take that break.
What did he mean with he was the reason for it?
As it seemed both Neji and Sasuke were pondering over that, so they could both fully concentrate on thinking and breathing, without having to fear an attack. It was hard though; both the occupations they were focusing on right now. They were both injured and exhausted, especially Neji was in a really bad condition. The wounds on his back were deep, but not deep enough to be life threatening, but they hurt like hell and impaired his movements to a great extent, not to mention his left arm. It was definitely broken, it didn't take a doctor to see that. Now that he's had a little time he had tucked it into the inside of his upper garment, so it wouldn't just hang there at his side and get worse and worse because of all the movement, the further hits and so on.
Actually he wanted to watch Naruto, or not so much wanted to, but rather felt like he had to, since he was unpredictable in his current state. Still the urge to keep an eye on Sasuke, his immediate opponent, was far greater. He wouldn't put it past the Uchiha to stab him in the back – again – but thanks to his Byakugan he could monitor them both. He'd use all the time he could get to catch a breath, secretly hoping that Naruto hadn't lost his entire self-control and would first finish off the Akatsuki and then help him with Sasuke. However he doubted so.
He was not only surrounded by the Kyuubi's chakra now, but had actually turned into a miniature version of it, but he didn't look like he usually did. The Kyuubi's red chakra was like a second skin now, it was no longer translucent and didn't hover there around him like a shroud in the form of a fox. He had seen this part with him turning into a fox before, but now the ridges of his spine stood out, or it seemed like they were fixed on his back, but it didn't look anything like the human spine. It was much bigger and the single vertebrae stuck out and were really sharp, looking like kite-shaped plates, reminiscent of those of a Stegosaurus – like they were a weapon. Five tails now – he had never seen him in the five-tails form, but he knew that three was all he could control…
"Let's see what you got…" The masked-man said, but there was no trace of intimidation in his voice, on the contrary, it rather sounded challenging. The Naruto-Kyuubi-mixture at once focused his attention on him, after hearing his voice and leaped up with so much force that he left a path of destruction in his wake.
He covered the distance to the cloaked-man in less than a second and struck him so hard that his fist went right into the earth, splashing the mud around, so for a moment it was impossible to see anything. The Uzumaki was now constantly surrounded by a fine steam, as the heavy rain evaporated once it only got close to the heated atmosphere surrounding him, but there was again no trace of the Akatsuki.
The blonde didn't seem to mind though. At least he didn't start searching for him. He just sat down on the ground and roared; a roar that again brought the earth to quiver slightly and caused the people around him to cringe reflexively. Then he started lashing his tails around, from time to time getting really close to them and then he even started firing around with chakra balls at random, only out for destruction, with no apparent aim, which didn't mean he didn't hit anything. Luckily the land was mostly empty; although the owners of the various fields surrounding them would be quite fretted, once they saw what happened to their grounds, which at the moment reminded of the impact site of a meteor shower, with craters ranging from burrow sized ones, to some that looked like dried up seas.
"Shut up!" Suigetsu groused as the Mini-Kyuubi emitted another ear-tormenting roar. The Houzuki had managed to go back to his solid form again, although he didn't look quite right, still a bit like jelly and it weren't only the corners of his mouth, but more or less all his features that seemed to be drawn down a little, so he looked kind of battered. Still that apparently hadn't kept him from opening his mouth to complain, which was probably the worst thing he could have done, because the second his words faded, the Uzumaki had already jerked his head around to him and a second later he had jumped up, right into his direction.
"Shit!" The nuke-nin gasped and at once tried to merge into one of the puddles, but as only about the top of his head was left above the surface, Naruto reached him and at once slammed one of his chakra claws into the huge puddle he had chosen as his hiding place.
Shino, Kiba and Akamaru, who were now very close to him, immediately used his apparent distraction to try their escape. However that was about as bad as screaming at him or making any other kind of noise. From the corner of the glowing white holes that were supposed to be his eyes, the Mini-Kyuubi saw their movements, and at once turned his attention to them, again firing a volley of chakra balls at them. One of those exploded right at Kiba's feet, and the force of the explosion threw him backwards, against one of the few rocks that studded the flat terrain – what a lucky guy he was.
Shino had retreated into one of the trees and pressed himself to the trunk, as still as if he was a part of it. As it seemed he was as proficient in mimesis as some of his insects were. And now, with no one left to stir any of his senses, Naruto went back to just randomly attacking the terrain around him or some of the birds that hadn't gone into hiding like all the other animals seemed to have done.
"He's quite a troublesome guy." Suigetsu sighed, as he emerged out of one of the puddles right beside Sasuke's feet. However emerged is not quite accurate. His facial features appeared on the surface of the murky water, he wasn't able to do more at the moment.
"Hn." The Uchiha nodded, still seemingly distracted, but then his eyes switched to the Hyuga, as he hurled a kunai at him. With a resentful look on his face the Uchiha jumped back, while throwing a handful of shuriken at his opponent, who again used his Hakkeshô Kaiten to fend off the approaching missiles, although with only one hand left, it wasn't as effective as usual and he ended up with a little scratch on his cheek, but nothing serious. Once he came to a stop though, he could only just duck down in time to avoid getting hit by one of Naruto's chakra paws he had swung through the air, like he meant to swat a fly. Maybe that's how they looked to him…
Sasuke managed to dodge as well, but now they had drawn the Uzumaki's attention to themselves and he didn't waste a second to cover the distance to his new victims of choice. He started right towards the dark-haired man and to what little was left there of Suigetsu, and Sasuke tried to stop him with his Sharingan, but he didn't seem to look into his eyes, so he couldn't trap him in a Genjutsu and he wasn't able to repress the Kyuubi's chakra like he had done before or maybe that had something to do with the fifth tail…
He had never yet seen him like this; the Kyuubi had far more control over him than ever before, so maybe his Sharingan just didn't have any effect on him. The last time with only four tails it had been hard enough, so maybe that was the problem.
A hint of terror invaded Sasuke's otherwise blank features and he crouched down slightly with his hand on the handle of his katana, although it would probably be impossible for him to stand up against the Kyuubi with nothing but a sword. And so, with that in mind, he activated his Mangekyou Sharingan, planning to use Amaterasu to stop him, but he was already so close that he probably wouldn't make it in time.
He was practically frozen and although Naruto seemed to move in slow motion, he just couldn't stir, couldn't do anything to defend himself. All he did was look into these white, glowing holes like they were the lights at the end of a tunnel – like there'd ever be light for him… That train had long left the station, because of all the decisions he had made in the past and now his future held nothing but darkness for him. So maybe it was comforting after all that he didn't really believe in the afterlife…
"That'll do."
He perceived Madara's voice behind him and twitched briefly, realizing that Naruto's razor sharp claws were right at his cheek. They had pierced through his epidermis, barely a millimetre, not even enough to draw blood. It wouldn't even have taken the thousandth of a second and he would have ripped his face off, but now he was as frozen as he had been just a second ago.
Sasuke didn't dare to move away yet, fearing he'd rouse him again. The Uzumaki was by no means insensate; he made a low, rasping growl and he was trembling, with rage and ever so slowly his claws pierced deeper into Sasuke's skin. In and out with every tremor that ran through him. That was probably what he wanted, he wanted to shed blood, but Madara kept him from it, whereas he hadn't even been able to get into his head…
"What a poor performance…" The Akatsuki murmured, but Sasuke could not be so sure if he meant him or Naruto, but now Madara walked around him, towards the still shivering Mini-Kyuubi. He looked so mad, if he could, he would probably tear him to pieces – all of them – but that obviously wasn't an option for him.
"You lost a good part of your strength…" He came to a stop right beside the Uzumaki, without the slightest hint of fear or even hesitance, like a lion tamer in an arena. "…but for our plans it will do."
A sudden jerk went through Naruto's body and he leaped back, leaving long, bloody tracks on Sasuke's face. He landed a few metres away from them, not in a crouch, but perfectly straight and then his hands snapped down towards his body, He became as stiff as a board, with all his limbs tightly glued to him, like they were made of iron and he had just swallowed a magnet. And then a howl escaped him, exploded out of his mouth. It was such a terrible, bone-shattering sound. The most awful sound they had ever heard. Even the Akatsuki couldn't help but to raise his hands to cover his ears, just like everyone else.
Then his voice suddenly died out, so abruptly, that the subsequent silence seemed too perfect to seem right. His red glowing skin dissolved from his body, became an almost translucent mist again that shrouded him, but not in the shape of a fox anymore. It was walloping and bubbling like boiling water, seething all around him. It was impossible to see him within this lava-like substance, which seemed like it was about to jump over on every one of them and burn them alive. The air was already filled with the smell of something burning. Cotton. Meat. Hair. A repulsive smell. But then everything became really still. The red chakra just faded and Naruto fell to the front, as stiff as before and the way he lay there, face-down in the mud made his posture appear even less natural.
He no longer moved and neither did anyone else, still shocked by what had just happened, until the masked-man slowly stepped to the front, heading towards the lifeless man.
"If I'm not mistaken you wanted to end this quickly." He murmured and glanced over his shoulder at the younger Uchiha, who had now raised a hand to his cheek, which was burning and throbbing with a dull yet searing pain that radiated through his bones. He lowered his bloody hand again and glared at the Akatsuki, who had turned back to Naruto though. The blonde was now lying right at his feet and was most likely in the process of drowning in the puddle, his face was lying in. The Akatsuki then pulled something out of his cloak, some sort of sheet or tag and placed it on Naruto's back.
"What did you do?" Sasuke asked in a low voice and scrutinized the two men with narrowed eyes, completely forgetting about the Hyuga, who was still practically standing beside him and was probably wondering about the very same thing.
"Oh, just made sure he'd stay tame and docile." He chuckled and lifted the unconscious man by his collar with a single arm, before he tossed him away like a piece of trash.
"Naruto!"
He flew at least ten metres wide, like he was as heavy as a football and he would have probably flown even wider, if it hadn't been for a black swarm of insects that appeared in his trajectory and caught him. They then carried him to a slightly higher area a bit further off and slowly lowered him to the ground, so they could no longer see him and he was definitely out of their way.
Madara turned back around and stared into the direction, the voice had come from and saw Shino and Kiba. The Inuzuka was running right into their direction, whereas the Aburame had turned the other way to where Naruto had landed. They both looked kind of battered, especially Shino, but still they definitely could and would still fight. Then he looked from Sasuke to Neji and finally to Suigetsu and shook his head in disappointment.
"It looks like I've overestimated your abilities. To think that you'd have so much trouble to beat a handful of ninja… Or is it your conscience after all?" Madara snickered derisively; the thought of being affected by emotions always filled him with a sort of malicious glee. "You should about finish this, before he thinks the Byakugan would actually stand a chance against the Sharingan. I'll make sure our Jinchuuriki won't get abducted."
He slowly walked off, like he had all the time in the world, while Sasuke kept glaring at his back, until Neji's flat hand collided with his side and he could only just raise his elbow and thrust it against Neji's neck to keep him from harming him any further. The Hyuga stumbled backwards, but caught himself again, and was just about to rush forwards again, when Sasuke exhaled deeply and spat a huge fireball at the Hyuga, who again started spinning in fast circles, creating a shield through the rotation and his chakra, and in the end Sasuke was hit by some deflected sparks that burnt black patterns of worm-eaten leaves into his clothes, but he barely realized so.
Seeing that as his chance, Kiba pulled out a kunai and hurled it at the obviously distracted Uchiha, but on halfway, his dagger was intercepted by the Houzuki, who rose out of a puddle, still looking kind of weird but definitely better than just a minute ago. The weather was perfect for him. With all the water he could recover really quickly and his attacks were far more effective of course.
"I still have a score to settle with you. I won't let anyone drag my name through the mud because of someone like you." Suigetsu sneered and narrowed his violet eyes. He knew that the Akatsuki had not only referred to Sasuke, but also him, since he hadn't yet killed his opponents either. If it hadn't been for that blonde guy it would have been fine, but he had kind of taken him by surprise, so he now had to defend his reputation and show that old geezer what he was made of.
He attacked the Inuzuka right away, while Sasuke finally stopped his attack and could only just pull his head back in time to avoid getting hit by a kunai, Neji must have prepared beforehand. Nevertheless it grazed his earlobe and that about did it.
"I've had it with you." Sasuke hissed angrily. "I'll end this now."
He raised his left arm over his head, his palm directed at the black clouds above them. Blue and white sparks began sizzling up his arm, concentrating in his hand. The thunderbolts came more frequently now. Lightning flashes illuminated the sky, seeming to centre right above Sasuke's head. Jagged jolts of electricity flashed around one single cloud, but didn't strike into the ground and there was no more thunder than just a few minutes ago, which didn't mean there was none – it just didn't correspond to the number of lightning.
Neji's eyes widened in shock as he saw what was happening. He had never seen anything quite like this: this gave a whole new meaning to the term nature manipulation. Sasuke channelled his own chakra into the thunderclouds above them and he didn't have the slightest idea what would happen next, only that it would be a really powerful attack.
"This jutsu is called Kirin. Don't even try to dodge, it's pointless." Sasuke said in a cold tone and then a sudden jerk went through his hand and in that moment the various bolts of lightning fused and assumed shape, appearing like a colossal unicorn. Not only Neji, but everyone else was now frozen and gaped at the terrifying phenomenon in the sky, too shocked to concentrate on their own fights.
Then Sasuke moved his hand down and in the next second everything was blindingly bright and Neji didn't even manage to close his eyes in time to avoid seeing his own death step out of the sky in the form of a mythological creature.
Then came the impact.
From one second to the next everything was white. There was only a short bang, like a drumbeat without echo and then all sounds died out and up became down and left right and chaos descended, putting the world in a cocktail shaker and giving it a good rattle. Neji couldn't even tell how long it took. If it was only a second or eternity. And then at some point he was no longer standing any more. Wasn't sitting or lying either. Wasn't anything. Like his mind and body were no longer a unit, but then a sudden pain shot through him – through his body!
The glaring white light faded, leaving only darkness, but not for long. Suddenly the light returned. The light and the colours, but everything was a bit too dark and yellowish.
But it was there.
Everything was still there. He was still there (and unfortunately also the pain) and the others and the surroundings, but they looked so different now. There was a huge, really huge crater and he was more or less lying in it as well. He must have been hurled through the air at the impact, but the centre wasn't where he had stood, so he must have missed him!
It wouldn't be surprising – just the thought that the Uchiha was able to fully control such a powerful natural force as lightning was plainly absurd. The fact that he had been able to control and also shape it at all was impressive enough (although he didn't like to admit that), but he couldn't imagine he'd be able to guide it with precision. And now he was most likely exhausted, whereas they were unharmed, or were they?
The Hyuga struggled into a sitting position and looked around, but there was so much smoke, he could barely see anything. He gathered his last bit of chakra and activated his Byakugan to scan the area, search his friends and enemies. He found Kiba and Suigetsu at the edge of the crater, not far away from Sasuke, who was kneeling on the ground, looking like he was in danger of falling into the depth. A bit farther to the right he saw Akamaru, lying on the ground, close to some bushes and then there was Shino, lying on the ground as well. He was weak, he could see that, but he was alive. He must have gotten a good share of the explosion; it had definitely hauled him away from where he had stood before. And then there was Naruto. He was moving, although at snail's pace. He was lying on his stomach and tried to pull himself forward with his arms, closer to them, but he could barely raise his upper body off the ground and there was something on his back, the tag the Akatsuki had attached to it, and it was absorbing all his energy and the more he struggled the worse it seemed to get. But what's most important was that there was no trace of the Akatsuki!
Where was he hiding? His Byakugan had a range of 800 metres and he was definitely not within this scope, so where could he be? It took him some time to put one and one together and realize the obvious: The centre of the crater was about where the masked-man had been. Sasuke's attack must have hit him!
The smoke slowly cleared and now Neji focused his full attention on the Uchiha, trying to read in his face what he thought about what had just happened. He mainly looked exhausted. He was breathing with his mouth open and his head hung like a weight from his shoulders, too heavy for him to hold up.
Suigetsu rose out of the ground beside him and said something to him, but he was too far away to hear what and he had trouble with reading his lip movements, since he was turned at the wrong angle. However whatever he had said, must have driven Sasuke to overcome physical exhaustion and now he struggled to his feet, his deep black eyes directed at the centre of the gaping wound his jutsu had inflicted on the terrain.
Now he had to realize what he had done. That he hadn't attacked his enemy, but his ally, but why didn't he look surprised? Where was the shock, the despair at seeing that he had only just killed one of his men and had therefore reduced his own chance of getting out of here alive? Couldn't he even spot a hint of satisfaction in his worn out features?
It was most likely just his imagination, but nevertheless Neji couldn't help but wonder if he had really just missed him, or if he hadn't been the intended target to begin with…
…
…