Man, I KNEW this chapter was gonna be a long one. I suddenly realised I didn't want these fights going on several chapters, so I had to shorten them down into one long chapter. Though in doing so... well, I'll let you see for yourself. This is the first time in a long time I've released a 5000 word chapter, so you guys better damn well appreciate it!
Disclaimer: Holy hell, I didn't even realise. As of May 21st, I have officially been a writer for one year. And I was gonna have an anniversary party too.
Stigma of stone
Gaara watched the boy that slowly stepped forward, his expression suggesting nothing to any end as he studied that person with the same gaze he had given all the other Iwa nin. He was surprised by the fact that this boy seemed the same age, if not younger, than he was. So Iwa was the sort of place that gave no thought to age when sending out soldiers? That certainly seemed like it.
Having said that, if Gaara were to acknowledge this boy as a Shinobi even Naruto may have made the mistake of thinking he was joking. Not only did he fail to adorn the uniform that his supposed comrades wore, but he seemed much too malnourished to be a real ninja. His pale skin accentuated the dark rings around his fiery orange eyes, rings that were only a few shades paler than Gaara's. It would seem that like him, sleep was something that came very rarely to this boy.
"You are a Shinobi?" he asked, the doubt in his voice as clear as the kanji on his forehead. His eyes narrowed suspiciously as he looked among the other ninja, could it be this was a ploy to distract him? If that was the case, he would have to doubt Iwa's sanity. A boy on a battlefield had as much place as a feather in a storm.
The boy chuckled lightly, brushing his messy brown hair out of his eyes as he got a clearer look at Gaara. His hand had slid out of the sleeve of a grey shirt many sizes too big for him, the waist of which almost covered the beige shorts he wore beneath them. While it was true that a shirt like that could hide some interesting things, Gaara didn't completely believe that a boy like this could make use of much in this situation.
The boy seemed to have no such concerns though. In fact, under Gaara's icy stare he visibly smiled; a look that made some of his team mates shiver. "Does it matter if I am?" he asked, in a voice that was both childish and confident at the same time. "All you need to know is that from here on out, I am your opponent."
"Kyoei-san." said the female captain, shooting the boy a look that ordered him to stand down. The boy, Kyoei apparently, completely ignored her however and continued to look back at Gaara with shimmering eyes. "We're not here to deal with trivialities. We'll take him on together and continue with the mission as ordered."
"Who's being trivial?" Kyoei asked, as he closely studied Gaara's body. He let his hand drop to his side, but his expression was as creepy looking as ever. Then, just for a moment, he cocked his head so that he was looking at the captain with a sly smile, one that could suggest many things. "I take him on, and if you're lucky we'll both die. You don't have any issues with that right?"
For the first time since the boy's appearance, Gaara actually took an interest in him. The looks the other Shinobi were sharing suggested that this Kyoei guy was right on the money with his accusation, and no one would be quick to deny it. What was more, now that he looked closer he could see that each of them also shared tired looks just like their captain.
Considering what Kyoei said, the captain's brow creased and her teeth gritted. It was clear she didn't like being talked down to like that, perhaps least of all by the person saying those words. However at the same time, her twitching eyes suggested she too was dealing with the throes of exhaustion; something which was deadly to most Shinobi. After a moment of deliberation, she broke eye contact and looked ahead. "Fine, you take him on if you think you can." she said, as she took a step away. "Shirou! Souta! Watch his back!"
"Hai!" called two of the Shinobi who had stepped aside for Kyoei. Aside from them, everyone else moved to leave and continue with their mission. Gaara glanced at them as they passed him by; in truth it didn't really matter if they got through. In fact, according to what Deidara had said, the longer this battle went on the better. Although even in that case, the group was heading straight for a trap anyway.
"It looks like you've made your decision." he said, as he turned his attention back to the three nin that had stayed behind. He wasn't going to pretend that he had no interest in this situation. Kyoei was becoming a very noticeable person in his eyes. However the other two were by all means a nuisance. "For someone with no defining qualities to so brashly take on an opponent, your desire is clearly strong."
"He doesn't notice!" Kyoei exclaimed, his eyes widening and his expression turning even more pleased. Behind him the two Shinobi grew uneasy, one of whom raised his hand to his ear and uncomfortably slapped the side of his head. Kyoei however seemed almost grateful for this, as if he had been given a gift of some sort. "As expected of you, Sabaku no Gaara."
Gaara's eyes narrowed askance of Kyoei, silently wondering what it was that he was failing to detect. Rather than that, why Kyoei seemed to be praising the fact that he wasn't noticing it. As for the boy knowing his name, well that was only a minor curiosity in comparison. "Would I be wrong to assume then that you possess qualities your team mates find undesirable?" he asked, though without waiting for an answer. "Even if that is the case, your reasons for fighting could not surpass my own; you couldn't possibly match up to me."
Kyoei cocked his head again, his smile widening curiously as Gaara spoke. However, where his comrades thought the boy creepy with a look like that, Gaara could clearly see the insincerity behind that expression. "Couldn't match up huh?" he asked, before looking over each shoulder to the nin standing behind him. Though he was in no position of command, neither of the two hesitated to break off from him and make distance. Once they had done as he silently asked, he turned his gaze back to Gaara, his round eyes suddenly much wider than before. "I think you've got that the other way around!"
With that statement, he proved to Gaara that he was in fact a Shinobi. The words had barely escaped his lips before he performed the Shunshin no Jutsu, and disappeared completely from sight. Though Gaara's surprise was an ironic one, it still faded to the next thing he learned; Kyoei was nowhere near as fast as he thought. Gaara didn't even have to move his eyes to track his opponent's movements, he almost felt embarrassed for the overconfident boy. But he had learned not to let his guard down so easily; he had of course once thought of Naruto as nothing more than a weak pest.
Kyoei reappeared beside him, coming to Gaara's notice even as the scruffy looking boy made his attack. He darted his hand out, his fingers outstretched as if to stab Gaara with it. Needless to say, the sand was quick to defend him, blocking the attack before it could even get close to Gaara's body. The owner of that sand turned his eyes ahead again; now his opponent would try and attack from a blind spot in the belief that Gaara wouldn't be able to defend.
"Whoa…" Kyoei said, staring at the wall of sand with an impressed look. With impressive chakra control, he managed to cling to the sand and keep himself in the air. He placed his hand upon the shield and lightly pressed, testing its hardness for himself. After a moment of studying it, he looked up at Gaara with the same look he'd given the sand. "This is your automatic defence right?"
Gaara's eyes twitched suddenly, and he threw his hand out to the side. Kyoei dodged back as the sand tried to envelope him, darting to the valley wall and across it. It had been one thing to know his name, but the fact that he had no control over his defence was something that very few living people knew about. In a moment he had switched from impassive to wary; where was this guy getting his information from?
"Looks like that ticked you off." Kyoei said, smirking as he crouched down on a ledge. Even with his eyes narrowed, they were still quite wide and round; something which gave of a slight ghostly feel about it. "I bet you're wondering "How can he possibly know something like that?", am I right?"
Gaara didn't give him the satisfaction of a reply, but from the look on Kyoei's face he didn't need to. The so far weak looking Shinobi lightly ran his fingers across the ground, picking up some sand that didn't belong to Gaara and rubbing it lightly. He then discarded it, straightening up and fixing his attention back to his enemy. "I guess I'll answer that question then, since you don't really have all that long left." he said, his sardonic voice mixing with his sneering face.
"Do not judge the end of the battle so hastily." Gaara replied, his suggestion clearly out of annoyance. As always he kept his composure, but he had an unusual feeling that this person was seeing through it, to what he was really thinking. It was as he thought that, that Kyoei's smirk became all the more irritating. "In this battle, the only advantage you have is knowledge. Are you really prepared to give that up?"
It was those words that resulted in a look of surprise on Gaara's face. From the looks of things, Kyoei didn't seem to like that question very much at all. His smirk had slid off his face and was replaced with a slight scowl, even his bright eyes seemed to darken a little. "Funny, I never would have figured you to be the patronizing type." he muttered, a look of disappointment on his sickly looking face. "I was hoping for someone more… intense."
As Kyoei's look of annoyance maintained, so did something else interesting happen. His hair began moving of its own accord, rifting as if there was a breeze in this windless place. Not only that, but his skin seemed to pale a little more, his veins faintly visible in their blue colour. Gaara was almost deceived into thinking the boy had anaemia, when something suddenly caught his attention.
It was a sound, a strange sound that Gaara had never heard before. It was high pitched, and quiet, almost like it was being blocked by something. The sound reminded him of the white noise he sometimes heard over a transceiver, but this was much finer in quality. "Looks like you finally hear it." Kyoei said, his sullen expression growing more so as the sound became slightly stronger. "The thing that keeps me and everyone around me awake all the time."
Gaara's eyes were forced to narrow as an idea became clear to him. This boy contained something outside his control, something which made even his team mates wish ill of him. He himself held little regard for others, and instead moved to do what it was that he desired, whatever it was that made him feel alive. "Who are you?" he asked, as his curiosity became no longer possible to contain.
His question seemed to cause Kyoei to cheer up a little, but it did nothing to change the pressure in the air around them. A smile slid back onto his face, but his eyes had become blank and almost lifeless. He watched Gaara, cold but smiling, his hair now drifting like he was underwater. "My name is Kyoei Taiki." he replied, as his hands spread out to either side of him. "From Iwa's Research and Experimental Division, created for the purpose of killing you."
It was surprising really, how such unwieldy weapons could force someone like Naruto onto the defensive. But he didn't have too much choice. His opponent, Kyonshi Kougai, swung his nunchaku almost mechanically, making his movements with a flat, unmoving face. Or rather that would be true, if he actually made an attack. For now all he seemed to be doing was feint after feint, putting Naruto on constant edge as the blades on his weapons glimmered through the air, only to be pulled away right before Naruto could block or counter.
That could perhaps be seen as another thing he needed to hand to Kougai. For the sake of keeping up, he had needed to stop using the Ekokaeten and replace it on his back and had abandoned his haori for now. The blade was much too slow in comparison and his clothing was causing wind resistance. Besides, he needed a defence on his back against these weapons. As it was, he wielded a pair of kunai in each hand, the rings on the ends resting between his thumb and forefingers.
"You ready?" Naruto asked, making sure to keep his expression looking like someone who was backed into a corner. The chakra he was gathering in his back was being absorbed by Eko, and shaped as the blade was told. All the while he really was getting back into a corner, standing on a rooftop with buildings coming up on either side behind him.
"Just waiting for an opening."
However long Eko planned on waiting, Naruto wasn't sure they had that kind of time. He could see by the buildings beside him that he was only a few feet from the corner, when he came to realise something shocking. If he was in a corner, how did Kougai intend to attack him? Nunchaku like those couldn't be swung in such close spaces, so what was he thinking in doing such a thing?
"SHIT!" Naruto suddenly thought, his eyes widening in horror. If that was the case, then it could only mean that Kougai had no intention whatsoever of attacking him like that. With sudden aggression he flipped his kunai around, so that the blades were pointing towards Kougai. He took a quick step forward, yelling into his mind with all his might. "DO IT NOW!"
Without understanding the situation, Eko did exactly as he was told. Releasing all the Fuuton chakra to the open air behind, Naruto was shot forward with considerable speed. The timing was incorrect, and as a result both his arms were cut by the nunchaku. But he still managed to make his attack connect, stabbing his kunai deep into Kougai's stomach.
"Gunh!" Kougai choked, his head jerking forward as pain shot through his abdomen like lightning. He almost fell forward from the shock, but Naruto didn't allow him that. The blond boy quickly whipped the kunai straight up, delivering deep and surely lethal slashes across Kougai's chest. Even his ribs were cut through with Naruto's strength, his lungs possibly cut in the process.
As blood burst from his body, showering Naruto grotesquely, he took several staggering steps back before falling onto the ground. The nunchaku slipped out of his hands and lay beside him as he gripped his chest, groaning in agony as more blood slipped out and died his grey flak vest a darker colour. Naruto watched him as he lay there, slipping his kunai into small single holsters concealed in his slacks.
"As I thought… unsurprising." Kougai said, his voice hoarse from his condition. Naruto looked over his shoulder, gripping one of his bleeding arms. The cuts thankfully weren't deep, and were healing already thanks to the Kyuubi inside of him. But Kougai on the other hand wouldn't be so lucky. "In your quest for destruction, are there any lives you are unwilling to ruin?"
Naruto stared at Kougai with a creased brow, his feelings uncertain but far from positive. He turned his eyes ahead, to where Deidara had already instigated more plumes of smoke from his explosions. "What lives am I ruining?" he asked, looking across the empty buildings with an almost wistful air about him. "These idiots don't even know what it feels like to be alive. If any of them really knew what people like you did for them, what do you think they would say? "You're a brave man"? "Go get 'em?""
Kougai wasn't the only one listening intently to what Naruto said. Eko too was focused on his wielder's every word, trying to figure out just why Naruto was being so unusually serious. He wondered if it perhaps had to do with Gaara, or maybe what the blond had needed to do with the civilians last night. In either case, it was certainly unusual for Naruto to talk to a dying enemy like this.
"Dying… wait a minute."
"So in other words, you would fight for recognition over duty?" Kougai asked, his eyes narrowing and his lip curling in detest for the person who had dealt him such a savage blow. He gripped his nunchaku in spite of his condition, his words as seething as his expression. "Such a selfish person will inevitably end up alone. Is that all that you would use your power for?"
Naruto blinked, but his frown maintained. His eyes distance out a little as he tried to see the logic in Kougai's words. But no matter how he looked at it, he could see nothing wrong with his own perspective. "That's my determination I guess." he thought, as he concluded himself as right in this situation. But now that he thought about it, even he was curious as to just why he was trying to convince the person behind him of that. "Maybe it's because he looks like him-"
"He- he's getting back up!"
With an incredulous look, Naruto whipped his head back over his shoulder. As Eko said, Kougai was already sitting up with his weapons in hand. In moments he was even back on his feet, standing with his back to Naruto. "What the hell?" the blond thought bewilderedly. There was no way, not even he could have recovered from that. At least, not that quickly.
"Well, it's not as if your reasons matter." Kougai said, as he raised his hands to his chest. With a couple of gruff movements he pulled off his torn jacket and shirt, discarding them onto the ground. Beneath that was a torso wrapped almost completely in bandages, and thin black guards across his forearms and down his back.
The guards seemed to be designed to hold something, and Naruto had a sneaking suspicion as to what those somethings were. Sure enough, in a quick movement Kougai had whipped his nunchaku over his back, onto the guards and detached them. Then quickly attaching the staff sections to his arms, he had once more changed his weapon style completely. "This guy is seriously getting on my nerves with these things!" Naruto thought, staring at Kougai with tired eyes.
"I am a Shinobi born for Iwagakure." Kougai said, turning on the spot to face Naruto. He raised his arms out defensively, his stance calm and collected. From there, Naruto could clearly see the blood stained slashes that he had made. Even now he still could believe this guy was alive, let alone standing. "By order of the Tsuchikage, it is my duty to protect the villagers that you have endangered!"
"Well, can't fault the guy for morals. We are technically the bad guys after all."
Ignoring Eko's comment, Naruto gripped the blade's hilt as he prepared to continue the battle with his enemy. Now that he had a chance to study Kougai, he realised something very troublesome. He was no longer injured. In a feat that surpassed even Naruto's regenerative ability, Kougai's wounds had faded away like they were never there in the first place. All that was left was the blood stained bandages and skin. For him to be able to do that, Naruto couldn't begin to understand the reason. And so to that end, he suddenly became very serious. This battle wasn't going to end without a serious blow being dealt. That much was obvious.
"Don't use me. The way this guy changes his weapons, he's moving to a faster style each time."
Naruto nodded, quickly letting go of Eko. Kougai noticed this change in plan and immediately reacted, disappearing for a moment as he Shunshined to the left. Naruto dodged the straight punch that was thrown at him, bending backwards as his opponent's arm flew overhead. Taking advantage of the position, he attacked with his own arm and grabbed Kougai's wrist. Within barely a moment blood was seeping through Naruto's fingers, and Kougai was groaning in pain again.
The two broke apart as Naruto flipped back, forming rapid seals as he prepared to move onto Ninjutsu. As soon as his feet hit the ground he moved his arms so his hands rested against their opposite shoulders. Then once he had fixed his eyes upon Kougai, he threw them out to their correct sides. "Fuuton: Crescent Mirage!" he cried, as arcs of wind flew out of his hands at different levels of power.
Kougai reacted as expected and hopped over the first, more noticeable blade, before… flipping over the second one. Naruto cursed as he dodged back, avoiding the descending slash Kougai made in conjunction to his escape of Naruto's attack. "A feint is it?" Kougai asked, as he made his next attack by charging and slashing his arms upward. "Who would have thought a beast like you was capable of such a thing?"
Naruto's brow twitched in annoyance at Kougai's obvious jab. Was he trying to get Naruto to do something stupid? If that was the case, he wasn't going to allow it. Clapping his hands together, he then threw them both out straight at his opponent's chest. "Fuuton: Reppusho!" he called, using the seal and name to augment the attack's power.
But just as he released the attack he noticed something that made him rather uneasy. Kougai's raised hands had settled on a seal, the tiger seal. Bringing them down quickly, Kougai leant back enough to cast the Jutsu he had hidden behind his attack. "Katon: Wildfire Jutsu!" he called, before exhaling his already full lungs.
THROOM!
Gaara threw both his hands from his sides to his front, directing his sand on his skyward opponent. Kyoei had leapt into the air, and was heading straight for him as danger flew in on both sides. From his position dodging was impossible, both of them knew that. But what Gaara didn't know was that Kyoei had no intention to dodge. Instead, he somehow blocked the sand, raising his hands and touching it. Rather than spreading over his body, the sand game to a stop there and after a moment simply crumbled away. And with that moment of distraction, Kyoei reached Gaara and like the offensive sand, moved straight through the sand shield.
Gaara wasn't so foolish to watch as this happened, but that damned sound he had been hearing was growing in intensity as Kyoei got closer. Now that the apparent source was so close, literally crouching down in front of him, Gaara had to act in order to maintain his composure if nothing else. He reached down and grabbed Kyoei's shirt, before throwing the boy back with relative ease.
"Gah!" he grunted, as a strange sensation ran through his arm. It was like he had shoved his arm into a pit of insects, aggravating the bugs to crawling all over his limb in a frenzy. But what was more than that was the strange numbness that came after it. He looked over to Kyoei, who was lying against the cliff wall and giving a small smile as Gaara's arm hung limply at his side. "That would be an automatic defence of your own, I presume?"
"Hm-hm-hm-hm-hm-hm-hm." Kyoei chuckled, brushing his waving hair aside and finding amusement in Gaara's unease. He slid down onto the ledge below, looking up at his opponent with a rather superior expression. "Yeah, that's about right. Your sand doesn't work to well if my static shield disrupts the chakra inside. Guess I shouldn't be surprised though."
Gaara touched his numb hand, feeling the coldness that unsettled him so that was the reason then? "A static shield… that would be Raiton chakra you're using then." he muttered, as he turned his attention back to Kyoei. "Knowing that… I'll finish this now…"
Before Kyoei could even frown, Gaara had disappeared from sight. And before he could even move, Gaara's hand had gripped onto his throat. Kyoei grabbed at Gaara's wrist as he was lifted into the air, and in doing so he felt a strange sensation of his own. Wind had formed around Gaara's hand, Fuuton chakra cutting through the Raiton and leaving Gaara unaffected by the "static shield".
"This is what it means to fight an opponent whose existence is far greater than your own." Gaara said, as he tightened his grip. Kyoei looked at him in shock, but his eyes were quickly drawn to the two forms that passed in front of him. The two Shinobi tasked with assisting him had already fallen, blood covering their mangled bodies. "When your opponent is able to act in such a way, this is when you use your ace in the sleeve."
Gaara then released the chakra in his hand, forcing Kyoei's windpipe to tighten up. The boy tried to cry out, but it was impossible for air to go either way like this. All he could do was widen his eyes, his mouth hanging open as he tried desperately to breathe. Gaara let go of him, and he collapsed onto the ground in a heap. "You say your aim is to kill me, but this is the first time you and I have met." the redhead said, as he turned his back to Kyoei. The choking boy looked up at Gaara; even though the light was fading he could just barely make out his enemy's silhouette. "It would seem Iwa is doing something very dangerous."
With that, he took off after the Shinobi who had passed him. After he was gone from sight, Kyoei's windpipe finally slid open enough for air to pass through. But it was much too late for that to do him much good now. Slowly, his eyes closed, and his lips moved in a silent whisper. "Sabaku… no Gaara…"
"Looks like he was hardly one to talk." Deidara said, as he removed the telescopic device from his eyes again. He had been watching the fights from his distance, since there were no longer any worries about enemies on the outskirts. The twenty odd Shinobi who had gotten past Gaara, and those remaining of the diversion squad had discovered the civilians, and were moving to free them from their prison. "That damn guy let himself get distracted as well, hm."
Looking over his shoulder, he could see even from this distance. Naruto's dogs were doing what they could, but their orders had been to stay out of the enemy's way. As it was, they were left with picking off a couple of Shinobi who were isolated from the rest, but doing much more would be dangerous. "Still, it's better this way I think." he said, as his bird turned around and began heading down to the square. "I mean, you won't show up unless I'm at risk of being killed by another, right Kirai? Hm."
Deidara watched the masses with a smirk; it looked like he was going to have to risk his life now. He had been hoping to limit his opponents to enough enemies to make it realistic, but this case would be too real for comfort. Gaara and Naruto had both pretty much failed there, but he could hardly blame them. All he could do was-
Fwooo-shh!
Deidara whipped his head back in surprise, hearing a sound that caught him off guard. But more than the noise, what he saw was enough to throw him than anything else. Han had appeared, soaring through the air with a jet of steam bursting from his arms, boots and the machine on his back. "Yo, sensei!" Deidara called, watching with a raised brow as Han landed on the bird's back. "What, you don't trust me to-"
Before he could finish his question, Han lashed out at him with his fist. Taken by shock, Deidara rolled across his bird and fell off it, dropping down through the sky while his sensei followed after him. "Damn it… I wasn't expecting this." he thought, as Han reached out for his old student with threatening hands. "So even in this situation, you've got a job to do eh sensei?"
If not for the feeling of imminent danger, Deidara would have laughed. Once more Han had proven his unusual nature by protecting those he wasn't even loyal to. For that Deidara had to reprimand himself, how foolish was he to try and apply logic to Han's way of thinking? "Guess there's no choice then." he muttered, as he raised his hands into a seal. "KATSU!"
Han's eyes widened in shock as the bird they had been standing on swooped down and exploded. Though it hadn't been close enough to inflict damage, the force sent Han flying down at a greater speed, falling past Deidara who latched on to his sensei's back. With quick movements, he placed a clay centipede on the device that Han used for steam generation, and sent his creation to work.
In seconds the little guy had wrapped itself around the joint connecting the device to Han's armour, and Deidara's work was done. Jumping back off, he just made it out of the way as the centipede exploded, separating the man from his machine. Deidara grabbed onto it as his sensei turned around, glaring at the blond with shocked and livid eyes.
"Yo, sensei!" Deidara called out, as he slipped the machine under his arm. The wind billowed through his hair and cloak, while Han had nothing to slow down his descent. The gap between them was quickly growing, and the two of them knew that without the steam generator Han stood no chance of surviving. "Kirai will show, I swear it! Who is it you want to protect, cos if you kill me, it'll be him who-"
That was it. Deidara's eyes widened and his lips parted as he saw through his sensei's plan. For the first time he came to realise something shocking. He had been wrong to think of Han as random. Rather than that, his sensei was something else altogether, something Deidara would never have thought of him in a million years.
It was true… Han really was a demon.
