Author's Note: Well, here it is, the last chapter of 2020. Consider it an earlier Christmas present. Enjoy:
Chapter 118:
Children of the Sand
or
Sibling Quarrel
Land of Lighting
"Hey Kinkaku, are you dealing with these worthless worm?" Ginkaku said, as he landed besides his brother.
"I am. He's more resilent than I thought," Kinkaku replied, as his black eyes looked on the angry Rasa mockingly. "Say, did you kill your guy or...?"
"Sealed him," Ginkaku said, as he patted the gourd tied to his belt. He let out a loud chuckle. "Hehehe, you're not going to believe what happened, brother! But I assure you, you're going to laugh so hard...!"
Rasa's eyes looked at the gourd. "So, Darui is inside that thing. Is he still alive? Anyway, I better try to snatch it out of him. Even if I can't save Darui, at least I'll stop that guy from sealing me in as well."
"Hey, Kazekage! Think fast!" Kinkaku shouted, as he waved his Banana Fan. "Coil of Fire!"
The Banana Fan produced a huge wave of flames. Rasa leaped backwards as he motioned both his arms in an arc. A tide of golden sand burst from underground, quickly flowing forward in order to meet the advancing wall of fire. While the golden barrier managed to hold the fire for a few seconds, the gold quickly metled into a large mount of liquidified metal, allowing the fire to continue unimpeded.
And if that wasn't bad enough, Ginkaku was running parallel to the fire at a breaknecking speed, ready to sink the Seven Star Sword into Rasa's soft flesh.
"Sage Art: Magnificent Sickle Weasel Jutsu!"
Rasa felt something latch onto several parts of his body –they felt like chakra threads– before he was pulled backwards by a colossal force. As this happened, somebody blew an extremely powerful gale. The gale clashed against the wall of fire, the two elemental forces struggling. However, the wall of fire was unable to overcome the blast of wind, and soon Kinkaku saw the fires he had summoned pushed back against him.
"What!?" the golden haired brother asked in shock. "Coil of Water!"
Whike Kinkaku summoned a torrent of water to nullify his own attack, Ginkaku suddenly found himself about to be buried by a tsunami of sand –normal sand, not the golden kind that Rasa was using– forcing the silver haired sibling to fall back and regroup with his older brother.
"Father, are you okay?"
Rasa looked back, and found himself staring into his oldest son's eyes, which were golden for some reason. Gaara and Temari soon joined him, their eyes also golden as well.
"I'll live," he replied. "The color of your eyes and the scale of your attacks... is that Sage Mode?"
Temari smirked. It was rare the occasion where their father praised them, so she was going to savor the moment. "Yeah, this is it. That trip to Konoha was quite productive for us, huh?"
"Did you find any intel on the enemy, father?" Gaara asked, his face stoic as ever. "We only saw a part of your battle, but I can tell the opponents are formidable ones."
"Their chakra is really potent," Kankuro added. "And it feels oddly familiar."
"You're right, these enemies are like nothing you ever faced before," Rasa began. "The guy with the golden hair, Kinkaku, has a fan that allows him to cast barrages of any of the five elements. And don't touch the glowing rope wrapped on his other arm. If you do, Ginkaku, the other brother, will use that sword to take a piece of your soul and store it inside that gourd.
"You will be cursed, and if you say your most used word, he'll absorb you into that gourd," Rasa continued explaining. "Darui got himself caught. I don't know if he's still alive, but you should try to get that gourd back to see if we can release him."
"Understood, father," Gaara said with a nod. "Leave them to us."
Kinkaku and Ginkaku watched how Rasa fell back while his children took a step forward. Ginkaku snarled in anger.
"What the hell!? You think you can escape from us and let a trio of snot nosed brats do your job!?" the silver haired ninja roared. "Come back here and fight us like a man!"
"Pipe down, Ginkaku," the older brother said. "There's something off about that trio of brats. Don't drop your guard."
"Whatever. Let's make mincemeat out of them. Kinkaku, make an opening with the Banana Fan!" Ginkaku asked.
Temari quickly prepared her war fan, while sand burst around Gaara. Kankuro readied Tamotsu and Sasori, while unsealing from a scroll a third puppet, one that was covered entirely by a long dark brown cloak with a hood.
"If these guys are as strong as father say, I'll use Sairen as well," Kankuro said, shooting multiple threads from a single finger to bind and control the newest puppet.
Kinkaku prepared to attack. "Let's see your little fan stop mine this time! Coil of Earth!"
The golden haired brother waved the Banana fan once again, unleashing a row of huge rising rocks towards the Sand Siblings. Kankuro and Temari leaped into opposite directions, but Gaara remained immobile. He then thrust his hand forward, and torrents of sand started to merge into an orb in front of him.
"Sage Art: Magnet Release, Sand Bullet Storm!"
The orb fired hundreds of sand bullets at huge speed, each bullet carrying destructive power inversely proportional to their size. The minuscule sand projectiles shattered the row of rising rocks as if they were soft sandstone, forcing Kinkaku to jump back.
"Well done Gaara!" Kankuro said, as he moved Sasori towards the leaping brother. "Sasori will take care of him!"
Sasori's gut compartment opened, revealing a thick metal cable ended in an harpoon-like head wrapped around a pole. The cable fired, its harpoon stabbing itself into Kinkaku's chest. Before Kinkaku had any time to react, Sasori rocketed after him, displaying two poles at the back of its hips, with blades that started to rotate as chainsaw blades. Each of the blades cleanly cut each of Kinkaku's arms. Lastly, Kankuro fired two chakra threads from his index finger, pulling the arms back, letting them fall behind him. The arms quickly dissolved into a pile of dust and paper bits, which returned to Kinkaku in order to regenerate, but the weapons remained there.
"Kinkaku!" Ginkaku cried, upon seeing his older brother deprived of his weapons. He turned at his closests opponent, who happened to be Temari, and snarled at her. "You will pay for that, Suna trash!"
Temari merely smirked, basking herself in her enemy's anger. "Somehow, I find that unlikely. Wind Scythe Jutsu!"
Temari swung her fang, releasing a single, yet massive crescent-shaped blade of wind towards the silver haired brother. Ginkaku parried the wind blade, which exploded into a burst of wind that expanded in every direction, pushing him backwards with such force, his fingers lost its grip around the Seven Star Sword.
"Great! Now, I'll use Sairen to get the last tool!" Kankuro said, moving his third puppet.
Sairen pulled out a large bow from under its cloak. Seals around it started to glow with a blue light, as a string of chakra formed between the ends of the bow. Sairen then pulled the string in quick sucession, firing large arrows made of chakra at Ginkaku. The silver haired zombie tried to dodge them, but some of them found their mark. And one of them in particular managed to break the rope that tied the Crimson Gourd to Ginkaku's belt.
More chakra threads shot towards Ginkaku, some snatching the flying sword, and the other pulling the Crimson Gourd from him.
"And that's all!" Kankuro said, as he caught the Crimson Gourd, while letting the Seven Star Sword fall behind him with a clang. "Let's see what they do without their weapons!"
Kankuro then opened the Crimson Gourd, which quickly spat Darui out. The Kumo Jonin stumbled for a bit, before he fell on one knee.
"Whoa, there!" Kankuro quickly went to help Darui, helping him back on his feet. "You okay, man?"
"Y-Yeah," Darui said, as his sense of balance slowly came back. "Thanks for rescuing me. And sorry for allowing myself to get caught."
"Eh, don't sweat it," Kankuro said with a shrug. "Listen, we just disarmed those assholes. Take their fancy weapons away while we seal them."
"Uh, you might have disarmed them, but they're far from harmless," Darui warned Kankuro. "In fact, they now will-"
Darui was interrupted when the Sand Siblings suddenly sensed a very familiar chakra. A kind of chakra they knew belonged to Naruto. But the source of said chakra wasn't Naruto, but the Gold and Silver brothers. And much to their shock, they saw how an aura of red burning chakra started to spread around their bodies.
"Hey Ginkaku," Kinkaku growled. "I don't know about you, but I'm really pissed at these brats."
"I'm with you, Kinkaku,· Ginaku replied, sounding just as furious. "Let's paint the sand with their blood and guts!"
…
"Wood Release: Wood Clone Jutsu!"
Wood growths started to form around Danzo's body. Said growths took a humanoid shape as they grew in size, turning into perfect replicas of Danzo, jumping around him and forming a circle. Yakumo's Demonic Illusion: Hellscape was still active, still, the wooden clones moved without difficulty through the burning battlefield. Yakumo and Haku both took a step back, as they adopted defensive stances.
"Such cruel irony, that when I have all the chakra to bring the potential of my body modifications to the surface, I have to do it to destroy the village I helped to build and defend," Danzo lamented.
"Consider it your personal hell!" Yakumo shouted, not offering any sympathy to the former Root leader, as she started to make several hand seals. "Demonic Illusion: Army of One!"
Multiple Yakumos suddenly appeared around the original and Haku. Outnumbering the Danzo clones two to one, they quickly engaged the wooden dopplegangers. Haku took the opportunity to launch an attack, as his hands blurred through hand seals. "Ice Release: Crushing Glacier!"
Haku slammed his foot down, creating a row of rising large chunks of ice with very sharp edges in Danzo's direction. Danzo replied with a jutsu of his own.
"Wind Release: Greater Vacuum Wave!"
Danzo took a deep breath, exhaling a blast of super compressed air that crashed into the coming ice, shattering it into hundreds of shards, though without the power to completely plow through the jutsu and reach Haku. However, much to Danzo's initial surprise, the ice shards stayed still mid air, before they flew towards Danzo as if they had life of their own.
"It shouldn't be surprising, given who your Jonin-sensei is," Danzo calmly said, as the tomoe of his Sharingan started to spin. "But such weak tricks will be useless against me."
The shards all vanished into nothingness, the illusion unable to continue under the mighty watch of Danzo's stolen Sharingan.
"The illusion did its job," Haku's voice replied. "Ice Release: Demonic Crystal Ice Mirrors!"
Suddenly, multiple floating mirrors made of ice formed around the original Danzo. The mirrors were placed in a way that it looked like a dome, leaving the undead ninja no room to escape. Every dome reflected Haku's image.
"An impressive jutsu," Danzo praised. "Not only you have a rare Bloodline Limit, but the talent to use it. It's a pity Jiraiya watched you so closely, or else I would have made you into a Root agent. With my guidance, I could have brought all your potential to the surface."
"I already have two teachers. And I doubt that either you or one of your associates could have done half the job they did with me," Haku replied. "Normally I try to purge myself of negative emotions such as anger and hatred in order to fight properly. But in your case, given how much damage you caused to Konoha, the village you were supposed to protect... I think I'm going to indulge into some anger."
"Then that will be your doom," Danzo replied.
Haku didn't say anything, and started to jump from one mirror to another, moving at such a speed the naked eye is unable to follow, throwing senbons at Danzo the extremely brief instants he was outside of the mirrors.
Danzo managed to parry many of the senbons with a kunai, but despite his Sharingan, he was unable to stop all of them and many others found their mark. Not that it mattered, as the moment the regeneration kicked in, they were pushed out of his body.
"An impressive jutsu. But your little needles won't damage this body in the slightest," Danzo replied.
"I know. I was just testing you," Haku said from within the mirrors, as a pair of ice swords appeared on his hands. "Let's see how well you do against this."
Haku attacked again, delivering slashes with speed and precision. Once again, despite his Sharingan, Danzo was able to parry only half of his strikes. Every time Haku slashed Danzo, even if it was a superficial scratch, ice would start to grow over the wound. After several strikes, half of Danzo's body was covered in frost.
"With all that frost, it should be nearly impossible for him to move," Haku thought, as he prepared for the final strike. "Now all that's left is to encase him into a block of ice and add some chakra suppresing seals."
However, as Haku prepared to attack, he noticed something odd: Danzo had lost all his color, his skin, hair and clothes taking a very dull shade of brown, almost as if he was made of...
"A Wood Clone?" Haku asked aloud, as he stepped out of the mirror. "It's Naruto-kun's tactic. How can I have been fooled by a move that I've seen hundreds of times?"
However, Haku's self directed anger was forced to take a backseat when the Land of Water native realized that, if Danzo left a decoy, Haku wasn't the target, but Yakumo. Worried, he stopped channeling chakra into the mirrors, allowing them to dissolve into nothingness, as he rushed towards where he last remembered seeing Yakumo.
"Yakumo-san, watch out! Danzo escaped my mirror prison! One of those clones is acuatlly him!" Haku warned her.
"Got it!" Yakumo replied with a nod. "Don't worry, he won't catch me off guard! I'm almost done with his clones! One of them has to be the real one!"
"Fools," Danzo's voice said, albeit it didn't come from any of the clones. "Wood Release: Wood Binding Jutsu!"
Multiple wooden vines burst around Haku, wrapping themselves around the Konoha ninja's body before he had time to react, pinning his arms to his body, and leaving him immobilized.
"You thought I was going after the girl," Danzo said. "Yet you never thought that I could be using her as a bait to make you drop your guard. You and the other ninjas in your generation have power and skill unlike any other, but lack discipline and a cool mind."
"Haku-san!" Yakumo shouted, as he formed a hand seal.
Danzo's head turned around, his Sharingan glinting red. "Don't even try to put me under a genjutsu. It won't work."
Yakumo took a step back, and adopted a defensive stance. Danzo made a hand seal, summoning more vines around Haku that would stop other ninjas from help him from the outside. Ignoring the now secured Haku, the former leader of Root took a step forward.
"Given that you're the last members of two clans with powerful Bloodline Limits, Orochimaru prefers if I catch you alive," Danzo told her. "Consider yourselves lucky."
Then, Danzo dashed towards Yakumo before she could cast another genjutsu or ninjutsu attack, and engaged her in close combat. Even in his old age, Danzo never neglected training and was a force to be reckoned with. And now that Orochimaru had returned him his youth, his physical capabilites were at his peak. Very few ninja could match Danzo in sheer hand to hand combat.
And Yakumo wasn't a ninja made for direct combat. Thanks to Tsunade's treatments, her body became strong enough to endure the physical hardships of being a ninja, but taijutsu was still by far her biggest weak point. While she was fast and nimble, Danzo would only need one good hit in order to crack her bones and leave her completely hopeless.
"Ice Release: Crushing Glacier!"
Danzo turned around too late to see a row of huge sharp edged chunks of ice rising in his direction, before one of them slammed into his gut, and sent him flying backwards, landing on his back.
"Ice Release: Crytsal Bird!"
Haku breathed out a massive gust of cold, frigid air. The air condensed into solid matter, taking the shape of a large bird. The ice bird then flew towards the still downed Danzo, crashing into his body. The resulting exposion of frost and cold air encased Danzo's body inside a block of solid ice, leaving only his head and shoulders exposed.
"What...? How...?" Danzo asked, unable to repress his shock. "I had pinned you down! And I made sure nobody could release you from the outside!"
"'From the outside' being the key words," Haku replied, unable to repress a smug smirk. "I managed to break out from the inside."
"How? Even if you can make seals with one hand, I immobilized both your arms!" Danzo replied.
"Easy. Yakumo-san helped me," Haku said. "See, she used a genjutsu on me to make me think that my arms were free, allowing me to make hand seals. In reality I was unable to, but my brain believed I did and my chakra network reacted accordingly, allowing me to use my ninjutsu without hand seals."
"That genjutsu from before... I wasn't the target. No wonder I didn't feel anything," Danzo said in realization.
"Good job, Yakumo-san. Now, let's seal him for good," Haku replied. Yakumo nodded, as the two of them walked towards the frozen man.
Unfortunately for them, Danzo still had one ace under the hole. His lone Sharingan changed shape into a more complex pattern
"Okuninushi!"
Suddenly, two negative colored translucent Danzo copies jumped from his body, lunging at Haku and Yakumo, startling them and forcing them to jump back as they attempted to parry the sudden attacks. Other two replicas appeared besides Danzo, and shattered the ice keeping him prisoner, releasing him once again.
"It just doesn't end with this man, does it?" Yakumo irritably grumbled, as she parried a blow from a Danzo afterimage with a kunai.
"So it seems. Come on, we have to keep fighting. We've been close to beating him before, I know we can do it," Haku reassured her.
Yakumo nodded, and the two of them resumed the battle against the former leader of Root.
…
Meanwhile, in the air, Kurenai and Hotaru continued their fight against Deidara. The blond Akatsuki looked at the genjutsu mistress floating in front of him, and the Kiri kunoichi standing on a floating bubble near her. He fed the mouths inside his palms explosive clay, which they began to chew.
"Once again, you show that you're unable to beat me on your own, you genjutsu bitch!" Deidara said, before his mouth hands spat more clay figurines shaped like birds. "Your shitty illusions have nothing on my wonderful art!"
Deidara threw the bird clay figure forward, which started to flap its wings as it flew towards Kurenai. The Akatsuki member made a hand seal, and a dozen more clay birds appeared around the first one. Hotaru, however, was ready to act.
"Don't worry, Kurenai-san, I got this!" Hotaru said, as she made several hand seals. "Water Release: Bubble Prison!"
Placing her lips around the mouth of Utakata's pipe, Hotaru blew a flurry of small bubbles, which slowly flew to intercept the clay birds. However, as if they had a brain of their own, the birds easily flew around the bubbles, dodging them.
"What?" the Kiri kunoichi asked in shock.
"Those things can move autonomously! Don't try to intercept them with slow moving projectiles!" Kurenai warned her, as she flew away from the incoming clay birds, while making several hand seals. "Wind Release: Wind Wall!"
Kurenai exhaled a wide cone of wind that pushed the incoming bird backwards, some of them detonating. However, many others managed to avoid exploting prematurely, and continued their flight towards the genjutsu mistress. The raven haired woman, senseing how her chakra levels dropped to half her full reserves, decided that she couldn't continue relying on Riding the Hurricane, and cancelled it while landing on one of Hotaru's bubble platforms.
"Hotaru-san, see if you can create more of those bubbles to move around!" Kurenai said, as she pulled several kunai from her ninja tool pouch. "I'm afraid I won't be able to fly on my own anymore."
"Got it!" Hotaru replied, as she started blowing more of said bubbles.
As more bubbles formed around them, Kurenai jumped from one to another, infusing the kunai with her chakra for added power, and tossing the chakra-charged weapons at any of the birds that flew towards her, making them to explode prematurely, engulfing the area into a huge cloud of smoke. Kurenai jumped out of the cloud of smoke, landing on a bubble platform.
"Hotaru-san, this Akatsuki is a ranged specialist! We need to get close to him in order to have any hopes of victory!" Kurenai told her.
"Understood! I'll make sure all the bubble platforms stay close to him!" Hotaru replied.
"Good luck with that! My clay dragon is not only a devastating weapon, but also serves as an excellent aerial mount!" Deidara boasted, and to prove his point, he made his dragon dive, before flying up again, while doing several spins. Hotaru's bubbles tried to keep up with the clay creature's speed, but had a hard time doing so. "What do you think about that, hn?"
"Your pretty aerial tricks won't help you defeat us," Kurenai defiantly replied.
"Oh really? In that case, how about THIS trick, hn? I remember it gave you quite the trouble the last time!" Deidara said, as he started making hand seals. "Explosion Release: Explosive Clay Hive Queen!"
The clay dragon spat a blob of clay, qhich burst into a cloud of smoke. And from said cloud of smoke, the familiar view of a large giant insect with a disproportionately large abdomen emerged.
"Hotaru-san, watch out! That thing can create explosive insects of its own!" Kurenai warned.
And to prove Kurenai right, the Clay Hive Queen spat several balls of clay that quickly took the shape of small insects, which quickly buzzed off towards the two kunoichi. Hotaru prepared her pipe.
"Don't worry, Kurenai-san, I've got this!" Hotaru confidently said, as she started to make hand seals. "Water Release: Water Bubble Prison!"
Hotaru blew another flurry of bubbles towards the incoming insects, but once again, the insects easily dodged the slow moving bubbles, and continued their flight towards Kurenai and Hotaru. When they reached them, they latched onto their bodies, and detonated before they could remove them from their skin. High pitched screams filled the air as the two women were engulfed by a chain of explosions.
"Ha! Yes, take that, you bitches! Heh, that was so easy..." Deidara said, basking in his victory. That's it, until a thought dawned upon him. "...too easy, now that I think about it."
The Akatsuki then made a hand seal, and send a burst of chakra through the rest of his body. And much to his frustration but none to his surprise, he saw the cloud of smoke slowly vanishing into nothingness, replaced by his Hive Queen and explosive insects being trapped inside of bubbles. And while Hotaru was there, Kurenai was nowhere to be seen.
That's it, until he noticed a shadow being cast over him. Deidara looked up, and saw Kurenai leaping at him from a bubble platform, kunai in hand.
"Shit!" he yelled, as he tried to make his dragon fly away.
But too late. Kurenai landed just behind him, and as Deidara turned around to face her, she tried to plung her kunai into the Akatsuki's chest. Deidara managed to catch Kurenai's wrist with one hand, and when the Genjutsu mistress tried to punch him with the other, he also grabbed her other wrist with his free hand. The two of them struggled against the other for a bit, until, there was a crunching noise.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!" Kurenai screamed, as blood started to pour from her wrists.
"HA! Did you forget how I create my art?" Deidara mocked, grinning savagely. "Having mouths in the palms of my hands can be quite useful, don't you think?"
Kurenai changed strategy, and started to kick Deidara instead, aiming for the groin. But much to her surprise, she didn't get the reaction she was expecting. Hell, it almost appeared as if he wasn't even feeling any pain at all.
"Don't tell me you're actually a woman," Kurenai grimaced, as an inopportune flashback of her mistakenly believing that Haku was a girl when she first met him played in his mind.
Deidara's grin widened. "Oh, it's even better than that!"
Then, Deidara lost all color, both his hair, skin and clothes turning grayish white, the same kind of shade as the clay dragon they were standing on. Kurenai's lost all color on her face when she realized that she was immobilized by an explosive clone. Said clone started to glow as it began to gather and accumulate chakra. The Genjutsu Mistress tried even harder to break its grip, but to no avail.
"Kurenai-san!" Hotaru's voice called from besides her. "Water Release: Water Severing Wave!"
Hotaru expelled a thread of super compressed water, severing the arms of the clone, and releasing the raven haired woman. Kurenai jumped with a few seconds to spare before the clone exploded. Hotaru then blew into her pipe as if it was a blowgun, firing a single water blob at Kurenai. When the water bullet was just below her, it suddenly turned into another platform bubble, breaking her fall.
"Ow..." she whined, as she rubbed her pained, blood covered wrists. "Thanks for the save, Hotaru-san."
"Thank me later, we still have to beat that guy!" Hotaru replied.
That moment, Deidara –presumably the real one– emerged from the cloud of smoke produced by the explosive clone, riding on his dragon, who apparently, was undamaged from the blast.
"I'd like to see you try!" Deidara hollered. "I saw you fight and now that you need to weave seals in order to cast your thrice damned genjutsu! Try to make hand seals with your wrist like that!"
Rather than being intimidated, Kurenai merely smirked confidently.
"Perhaps I don't need to make hand seals to make my illusions, Akatsuki," Kurenai replied. "Take a look behind you."
Despite knowing it was a trick, Deidara turned around, and much to his shock and anger, he saw a small army of Allied ninja, all riding flying animals, mostly insects such as bees and beetles, but there were some birds and even a bat as well. He wasn't that surprised –he had heard the Allied Shinobi Force had an air force– but didn't believe that they managed to arrive to the battle in such a convenient timing.
His first instinct, naturally, was to try to dispel the genjutsu Kurenai put him under, even if he couldn't recall when that happened.
"Release!"
A burst of chakra waved through his body, disrupting his chakra network. But the aerial army remained there, in place.
The next confirmation that it wasn't a genjutsu came in the form of the Flying Zetsu. A second ago, they were busy harrasing the Allied ground forces –they already learned through the hard way not to get close to Deidara, as the mad bomber wasn't one to care about collateral damage– and immediately took off and went to meet the new enemy in battle.
"What the...?" Deidara said, as he narrowed his eyes at something that caught his eye.
Because among the ninjas riding giant flying animals, there was one who appeared to be flying on their own. A blue haired individual carried by large wings that appeared to be made of hundreds of sheets of paper.
"No way... no fucking way!" Deidara yelled.
"What's wrong? What did you see that caused you so much distress?" Kurenai asked in a mocking tone. Hotaru was with her, helping wrap her wrists with some bandage she carried.
However, Deidara was no longer paying attention to the Genjutsu Mistress nor Utakata's former apprentice. Because the winged ninja, ignoring the Flying White Zetsu fighting the rest of the Allied Air Forces, split from the group and flew towards him. And as the winged ninja flew closer, Deidara could identify her.
"Konan...!" Deidara screamed. "The fuck are you doing fighting with the enemy!?"
"Greetings, Deidara," Konan said in her usual stoic tone, seemingly ignoring his rage and indignation. "After so much time, we see each other again."
"Don't try to win me with pointless politeness!" Deidara roared. "You fucking traitor!"
"I'm no traitor. I was always loyal to Nagato and his vision of a better future," Konan replied, now sounding indignant herself. "And such vision can't hope to happen with Akatsuki under Obito's rule. Only Naruto Uzumaki and his friends and allies can take us to a better tomorrow."
"Spare me your bullshit! Do you think that you can just quit Akatsuki like that!?" Deidara roared, his nostrils flaring with anger.
"Yes," was her answer, delivered in a tone that made her intentions and convictions clear. "And given that my former enemies show me mercy and the chance to redeem myself for my sins, I shall show you the same courtesy. Leave this corrupted version of Akatsuki, Deidara. There's still time to do the right thing."
"HA! You think that, after you and your boyfriend strongarmed me into joining your little club, I'm going to let you betray us and walk away unscathed? Well, THINK AGAIN!"
"A regrettable answer. But not an unexpected one," Konan said, as her wings expanded. She then looked at Kurenai and Hotaru, both standing on a paltform bubble a few meters below Deidara. "You no longer have to deal with this man. Leave him to me."
Wordlessly, Hotaru nodded and commanded the bubble platform to float down back to the ground.
"You think you and your little origami figures can take on my art, hn? HA!" Deidara yelled, as his clay dragon shot a clay projectile at Konan.
The former Akatsuki member quickly evaded the explosive missile, which detonated a few meters behind her Deidara's dragon continued firing explosive projectiles at Konan, but the bluenette dodged them expertly. Soon the air was filled with the loud thunderclaps of explosions and the black clouds of smoke they left behind, but Konan was never harmed. That's it, until one of the explosions caught her too close, and burned a little of her left wing, making her to tumble down.
"Haha, yes!" Deidara said, as she threw more clay figurines at her. "Now disappear already!"
Several birds made of explosive clay left Deidara's hand and dived at the falling Konan. Upon seeing them, Konan wrapped her wings around herself, forming a barrier of paper. The moment the birds hit her improvised shield, it was engulfed by a chain of explosions.
"And BOOM! Traitor gone!" the blond Akatsuki cheered, as he looked down at the clouds of smoke below him. "Though being part of my art was too good of an end to-"
Deidara was then alerted of a weird noise coming from below. Tiny wings, like those of a bird, flapping. But not just one or two, but actually hundreds. Then, much to his shock, a swarm of hundreds upon hundreds of origami butterflies emerged from the cloud of smoke, gathering in front of him. The paper swarm split in two, revealing Konan, completely unharmed.
"I already experienced your art before, and it's just as disappointing as it is now," Konan said, narrowing her eyes at the blond. "Now, let me show you a taste of what my little origami figures can do."
Konan motioned her arm forward, and the swarm of origami butterflies launches itself at Deidara. After letting out a curse, the former Iwa nin quickly turned his dragon around and mad eit fly as fast as it could, with the paper swarm trailing after him. Deidara send more explosive clay figurines towards the paper menace.
"Burn already!"
Multiple explosions burned many of Konan's paper butterflies, but many more emerged from the resulting cloud of smoke, almost if Deidara's attack didn't have any effect on it. He continued flying around, but the butterflies were restless.
"Paper Chakram!"
Deidara saw how a large ring made of razor-sharp papers flew towards his dragon at a breaknecking speed. He tried to maneuver it in order to dodge it. However, he was too slow, and the paper weapon sliced a piece of the clay dragon's wing. With its wing damaged, the dragon could no longer fly in a stable manner, and it spiraled down, until it crashed against the ground. The impact threw Deidara from the dragon's back, and landed painfully on his back.
"S-Shit..." he cursed, as he pushed the pain away and tried to get back to his feet.
However, as he did, the butterflies finally reached him, and started to latch onto his body. Soon, he was completely encased inside a cocoon made of paper, completely immobile. Looking up, he saw Konan looming over him, staering at him with eyes full of contempt.
"I wanted to offer you the same opportunity it was offered to me, but I should have known that you would reject it," Konan began. "You're nothing but a sadist with a twisted and sick fascination with destruction. The world will be a better place without you."
"Fuck you... you b-bitch!" Deidara said, as he tried to spat a glob of blood at her. "I'm an artist!"
Konan merely frowned. "And now, you're going to die. So tragic, the end of an artist," Konan made a single hand seal as she narrowed her amber eyes at Deidara. "But rest assured, Deidara, at the very least, I'll make your demise into a work of art."
Konan's statement was followed by yet another chain of explosions, resulting in loud bangs and bright flashes of fire, followed by a cloud of smoke. And when the smoke dispelled, there was nothing left of Deidara.
Akatsuki had lost another of its members.
…
The Sand Siblings watched in awe the sight before them. A few moments ago, the Gold and Silver brothers looked like any other human, but with the cracked skin and black eyes of the reanimations. Now, they were larger, covered in a deep dark red thick chakra cloak, with five tails of chakra forming behind them, the tail in the middle being much larger than the other two.
"That's... that's the Nine Tails' chakra..." Temari said, trying to make sense of what she was feeling. "How do these two guys have the Nine Tails' power?"
"That's an irrelevant question," Gaara interjected. "What we should ask ourselves is what are we going to do to beat them now that they revealed such a power."
"Okay... maybe these two guys aren't going to be as easy as we thought," Kankuro nervously mentioned.
Temari shot her brother an annoyed look. "You think so!?"
It wasn't just the physical appearance that had changed. While the Sand Siblings could feel the hidden power behind the chakra of the Kumo Missing-nin thanks to their Sage Mode, now that power wasn't hidden anymore. It was the difference between seeing a lake of still magma inside a crater, and watch it erupt from a volcano.
"Enough. I don't want a discussion at such an inopportune time," Gaara told his older siblings in a firm tone. "The enemy is a formidable one, but we can beat them. A pale copy of the Nine Tails' powers won't be enough to bring us down."
"Is that a challenge, little ginger?" Kinkaku –or Ginkaku, it was hard to tell them apart in their transformed state– asked, his claws digging into the ground.
"It's a statement," Gaara replied, unfazed.
Suddenly, the ground around Kinkaku exploded as he dashed towards Gaara, leaving a trail of dust behind, ready to smash Gaara's head between his elarged, clawed arms. However, Gaara's sand proved to be just as fast, getting in the way between the two, forming a thick barrier. Said barrier also grew multiple spikes of compressed sand, but they were unable to pierce the chakra cloak.
Temari choose that moment to attack, and leaped in front of Gaara.
"Sage Art: Wind Release, Hands of the Wind God!"
Temari swung her war fan, producing a powerful tornado that, even if it blew the sand away, it also elevated Kinkaku into the air. The pseudo-jinchuriki trashed wildly trying to remain on the ground, but without nothing to anchor himself to, his efforts were useless. Fortunately for him, an anchor was going to be available.
"Kinkaku!" Ginkaku shouted, as he shot his largest tail towards his airborne brother. It seemed that Ginkaku could enlogate that tail at will. "Grab onto me!"
Kinkaku was snapped of his fury, and mimicking his brother's moment, also enlogated his largest chakra tail towards the ground. Both tails wrapped around each other. Ginkaku then dug his hands into the ground in order to anchor himself to it, successfully stopping his brother from being carried away from the wind.
"Great job, Ginkaku!" his older brother praised.
"And that's not all, runts! Now watch this!" Gikaku said, as he heaved the tail holding his brother down.
"Everybody, move!" Gaara warned, as he and his siblings jumped back in opposite directions, while watching in horror how the airborne Kinkaku was brought down like a giant hammer.
"CRIMSON METEOR!"
Ginkaku slammed Kinkaku into the ground, making the earth shake with a booming thunderclap. The ground exploded when the elder brother it it, the resulting shockwave opening a large crater into the ground, with many cracks appearing around it and slowly spreading around, and sending waves of dirt, dust and mud into every direction.
"Shit, the force behind that hit..." Kankuro said, trying to keep his balance from the still shaking earth. "If we were hit by that..."
"Not even Sage Mode would have allowed us to survive," Gaara coldly stated.
"So we better keep our guard at all times! We might have the power to beat them, but the reverse is also true!" Temari warned her little brothers. "Plus they have much more battle experience than us!"
When the clouds of smoke and dirt vanished, Kinkaku was standing in the middle of the newfound hole in the ground, looking unschathed despite the powerful impact.
"Heh, that was fun, Ginkaku. We never went all out since that chump Tobirama," Kinkaku laughed.
"Hey, Kinkaku, don't you think it's my time to have some fun?" Ginkaku said, echoing his brother's laugh.
"I do think that, Ginkaku," Kinkaku said, his emonic grin widening, as his white glowing eyes fixed on the sand siblings. "You brats are going to enjoy this."
Then, while the two brothers were still bound together by their tails, Ginkaku curled himself into a ball, with his tails wrapped around his body, while Kinkaku started to spin on the spot, dragging Ginkaku in a circle. He continued spinning at an incresingly high velocity, to the point that Ginkaku was no longer dragged through the ground but carried through the air. The spinning speed continued to increase, and a tornado started to form around them, with powerful gusts of wind reaching the Sand Siblings.
"SPINNING CRIMSON MORNING STAR!"
Then, much to their shock, Kinkaku started to move towards them as he continued spinning.
"Temari, Kankuro, attack at once!" Gaara ordered, as he moved his arms forward, commanding it to attack. "Wind Release: Multiple Sand Bullets!"
"Red Secret Move: Puppet triad!"
"Wind Release: Great Sickle Weasel Jutsu!"
Gaara's sand gathered above him into a single, massive blob, before it fired a barrage of sand missiles. Kankuro made the Sasori puppet to fire a barrage of kunai, while Sairen fired a multitude of chakra arrows from its chakra bows. Temari swung her fan, releasing a powerful wind current. The three attacks merged together into a single, destructive force, aimed for the incoming brothers...
… and were unceremoniously deflected away by the powerful spinning force Kinkaku was generating.
"What the hell!? They shrugged off some of our best moves like they were nothing!" an angry Kankuro protested.
"That's like that Hyuga defensive jutsu they have. The Heavenly Spin I believe it was called," Temari noticed.
"Does that jutsu has a weak spot, or a way to break it? Something that we can use?" Kankuro asked.
"The uppermost part of the spinning dome is the most vulnerable spot. However, with the protective winds they're generating, an attack from above would be impossible," Gaara said, as his eyes studied the incoming brothers. Then, he droped to one knee, and slammed his hand onto the ground. "They're also vulnerable from an attack coming from below."
As the Kumo brothers moved towards them, they didn't notice that the ground started to shake. Then, a stream of sand shot from underground as if it were a geyser, sending Kinkaku, and by extension, Ginkaku, into the air, hollering and screaming profanities. Gaara waved his arms, and the sand surrounded the flying brothers, ready to encase them in a gigantic sand prison. He then clenched his hands into fists.
"Sand Coff-"
However, both Kinkaku and Ginkaku roared in unison, letting out a powerful chakra pulse that repelled the sand away as if it was the shockwave of an explosion.
"Quickly, while they're still mid air, aim for their tails!" Gaara told his siblings. "We have to stop them from using those combo attacks against us!"
Kankuro and Temari nodded.
"Wind Release: Wind Scythe!"
"Mechanical Light Arrow Shot!"
Temari swung her fan again, this time generating several crescent shaped blades of pressurized wind, while Kankuro's hooded puppet fired a large, thick chakra arrow. Both attacks hit on the pseudo-jinchuriki's tails in the part where they were wrapped around each other, breaking their physical connection, a few seconds before they landed on the ground.
"Now, to separate them," Gaara said, as he slammed both hands into the ground. "Great Sand Barrier!"
From the middle point between Gaara's hands, the former jinchuriki of the One Tail unleashed a row of rising sand pillars, bifurcating the field, and forcing the two brothers
"Kinkaku!" Ginkaku shouted.
"Forget about me! Let's tear these brats apart! We don't need the other to do such a thing!" Kinkaku replied, as he started to run on his fours towards the Sand Siblings, leaving a trail of dust behind. Sensing what his brother was doing, Ginkaku also rushed forward.
"Here they come!" Temari said.
"I know. Temari, prepare to block Kinkaku. Kankuro, you take on the other one," Gaara commanded.
"Understood," Kankuro replied, as he put himself to Gaara's right, while Temari took the left flank. "What are you going to do? Do you have a plan?"
"Yes, I do have a plan," Gaara replied. "Albeit it hinges on them not being allowed to work in tandem against us again, so try your best to keep them separated."
"Leave it to us!" Kankuro said, mmaking several hand motions to move his puppets. "They won't see what hit them!"
Kankuro's three puppets moved towards the incoming Ginkaku, with Tamotsu in the middle, its shield already prepared to block, and Sasori and Sairen a little behind it to its sides. Ginkaku, however, wasn't going to take the obvious bait.
"You think you're the first puppeteer I fight?" Ginkaku roared, as he continued running on all fours. "If you think I'm going waste any time with your little toys, you must not have a brain inside that ugly head of yours!"
"So cute. He thinks he has a chance," Kankuro chuckled, as he made a hand seal. "Sage Art: Maelstrom Shield!"
Tamotsu's shield opened up in four sections, revealing a multitude of sealing patterns under its primary shell. The seals started to glow with a blue light, and the air in front of it started to twist and swirl, as if reality itself was being teared apart.
Despite Ginkaku was trying to steer away from Tamotsu, but no matter what he did, it felt like he was being railroaded into running straight towards the shield bearing puppet. He stopped on his tracks, snarling angrily.
"I don't know what trickery is this, but it won't work!" Ginkaku said, as he raised his face while opening his jaws. Energy particles started to gather above it, forming a dark red sphere of Tailed Beast chakra. "Tailed Beast Ball Barrage!"
Ginkaku caught the energy ball inside his mouth, before spitting it in the form of multiple chakra blasts, sailing in arcs above the puppets towards Kankuro. However, much to Ginkaku's surprise and anger, the chakra bolts all altered their course so they would fly into Tamotsu's shield instead. The attack landed, resulting in a chain of explosions. However, when the smoke from the blasts dispelled, Tamotsu was there, its shield unscratched.
"Oh yeah, ranged attacks aren't going to work either," Kankuro replied. "That's why the jutsu is called 'Maelstrom Shield'. It will draw everything to it. Avoiding it is impossible."
"If I can't avoid it, then I shall smash through it!" Ginkaku roared, the berseker pseudo-jinchurikin no longer caring that he might be playing into the pupeteer's hands, as his growing rage clouded his mind. He quickly reached Tamotsu and raised a clawed hand to tear it to shreds.
Kankuro smirked.
"Mechanical Light Shield Counter Blast!"
All the energy from Ginkaku's claw swipe was absorbed and gathered into an orb of energy at the middle of the shield. The energy of that orb was released in the form of a conical chakra blast, hurling the pseudo jinchuriki backwards, skidding against the ground.
"And that's not all!" Kankuro said, as he started to make move hand and finger movements. Sasori opened several compartments around its body, revealing various weapons; Sairen removed its cloak, revealing its full appearance: a puppet with streamlined humanoid appearance. It then pulled a second chakra bow, and combined it with the first, forming an X shaped bow with two chakra strings that crossed in the middle. It pulled the two strings, generating four chakra arrows. "Sage Art: Black Secret Technique, Performance of the Warring Puppets!"
Sasori fired a multitude of kunai, senbon and shuriken from its body mounted weapons, some of them on fire, others coated in poison, others with explosive tags attached to them. Sairen let loose, firing its four chakra arrows at once, flying in an arc towards Ginkaku. When they reached their highest point, they split into dozen of smaller chakra arrows, and they arced down towards the undead ninja. The barrage of steel and chakra projectiles, engulfing him inside a chain of explosions.
…
While Kankuro dealt with Ginkaku, Kinkaku, at the other side of the sand barrier, fought Temari. Like his brother, he let the animalistic feelings overwhelm his body and mind, and start running on all fours towards the Suna kunoichi. So far, the only thing inside the older brother's mind was pure, unadultered anger and hatred.
"Wind Release: Great Wind Protective Wall!"
Temari swung her war fan, creating an extremely powerful gust of wind in order to push the incoming Kinkaku back. The pseudo-jinchuriki, however, avoided it by quickly digging underground.
"He can use Earth jutsu as well?" Gaara asked.
"So it seems," Temari said, as her eyes darted to the ground. "Normally I'd be worried, but thanks to Sage Mode, I can sense exatcly where he is."
Temari then folded her war fan, and raised it above her head while running forward. A blue aura started to form around the fan as Temari channeled chakra through it.
"There!"
Temari slammed her folded fan into the ground as if it was a club. Between Temari's Senjutsu-enhanced strength and all the chakra she had been channeling into the weapon, the impact managed to crack the earth, opening a hole, blowing chunks of ground and dirt away, and more importantly, forcing Kinkaku out into the open.
"SHIT!"
"Gaara, try to catch him while he's airborne!" Temari yelled.
"Understood," Gaara said, as he waved a hand.
Part of the sand forming the barrier shot towards Kinkaku in the form of a powerful stream. However, the eldest of the Gold and Silver Brothers wasn't going to go down so easily. Kinkaku opened his jaws, and energy particles started to gather in front of them, taking the form of a dark red sphere of chakra. After a couple seconds, Kinkaku's jaws closed around the sphere.
"Tailed Beast Lightning Cluster!"
When Kinkaku opened his jaws again, a torrent of red lightning bolts came from it, blasting the wave of sand, which allowed him to hit the ground safely and continued forward. The attack didn't run out of fuel just yet, as he continued to breathe more bolts of destructive chakra from his mouth.
"Wind Release: Wind Wall!"
Temari blew her fan, this time donwards in a vertical motion, creating another wave of wind in order to stop the incoming the incoming beast shaped man. However, despite the powerful wind, Kinkaku was able to remain anchored to the ground thanks to the claws at the end of his fingers, and continued his advance even if it was at a slower pace.
Then, they all heard a series of explosions from the other side of the sand barrier. The three of them could feel how Ginkaku's chakra weakened considerably. Kinkaku stopped on his tracks, looked between shocked and outraged.
"Ginkaku! No!" the golden haired brother shouted.
Kinkaku lowered his body, and after a couple seconds, leaped into the air, easily going over the sand barrier. Spikes of sand grew over the barrier in an effort to catch him, but he was too high.
"Okay, I wasn't expecting he could do that," Temari said, admitting how amazed she was. "But I guess that we should have seen it coming."
"It is of no consequence," Gaara calmly said. "Kankuro has been able to incapacitate the other brother, and this one has already fallen into my trap."
"He has?" Temari asked, confused.
"Yes. Now let's hurry, we need to help our brother."
…
Back to Kankuro and Ginkaku, the younger brother had now reverted to his human form, the Senjutsu-enhanced bombardment being too much for him to handle. Aside from his chakra cloak, he had lost both legs and an arm. He could feel them slowly regenerating, as well as his chakra, but not fast enough before stoping Kankuro from sealing him.
"GINKAKU!"
With a loud boom, Kinkaku, still in his chakra cloak, landed near the fallen Ginkaku. Perhaps his older brother could buy the silver haired man enough time to regenerate.
"Ginkaku! Who did this to you!?" his brother roared. Looking around, he saw Kankuro, as well as his three puppets he was controlling through many chakra threads. "You! It was you!"
Kankuro smirked. "I always love when somebody recognizes a work well done."
Kinkaku didn't take just jest kindly. As his rage reached new heights, his chakra cloak burned brighter, his body grew in size, and moving his head back, he let out an extremely loud roar. He then started to rush towards Kankuro on all fours, his footsteps leaving smoking holes in the ground, and a trail of fire behind him. The Sage Pupeteer gulped, and hoped that Tamotsu would be able to withstand this onslaught as it did with the younger brother.
"Temari, now!" Gaara's voice said.
"Sage Art: All Encompassing Vortex!"
Temari landed in front of Kankuro, and blew her fan a single time, producing an extremely powerful hurricane. In his feral state, Kinkaku didn't even think in attaching himself to the ground like he did before, and was elevated into the air. As the hurricane kept growing, it also managed to suck the fallen Ginkaku in.
"Time to end this," Gaara said, as he held out an open hand towards the hurricane. The sand barrier broke apart into a shapeless mass of sand, and Gaara directed it towards the hurricane, wind and sand merging into an intense sandstorm. "Kankuro, Temari, prepare the sealing tags!"
"You got it!" Kankuro said, as he and his sister got ready.
Gaara then closed his open hand into a fist. "Imperial Sand Burial!"
Suddenly, the raging sandstorm stopped, and all the sand condensed into a solid structure shaped like a pyramid, falling to the ground with a loud thud. As soon as it did, Temari and Kankuro rushed towards it, and slapped many chakra suppressing sealing tags around it. Chains of sealing symbols spread from the paper tags, covering the pyramid entirely.
The three Sages could sense how the chakra of the two brothers receded, until they could no longer sense it.
This fight belonged to the Sand Siblings. And soon, the rest of the battle going around them would follow.
Author's Note: You know, one thing I didn't like about Kinkaku and Ginkaku is that they relied too much on the Sacred Tools to fight, and had no jutsu or ability they could call their own, that's why I had them lose them so relatively quickly. I also thought I could expand a little more their abilities as pseudo-jinchuriki, given that Kinkaku only goes on a short rampage before he's sealed away. Anyway, I hope you liked my version of their fight.
Say, did you like the bullshit I came out with Yakumo helping Haku to use ninjutsu without hand seals? Yeah, stuff like that is why I'm so glad I didn't end up making her part of the regular cast. That ability of her is way too OP.
And boom goes Deidara! Man, it's amazing that the guy managed to survive so damn long into the story. While I wanted to keep him alive for longer than canon did, I wasn't planning it to be so long. But I just couldn't find the right moment to off him, so he ended up outlasting more important members like Kisame or Toneri. Oh, and some people, as well as the TVTropes page, wondered how he was recruited into Akatsuki since Itachi never joined them to begin with. It was Pain and Konan themselves who brought him into the fold. And unlike Itachi, who used genjutsu to defeat him, you can bet Pain was a lot more... forceful.
Thanks to Ookami88 for betareading this chapter.
Guess we'll see each other again next year. I wish you guys a Merry Christmas and happy holidays, and above all else, to make out of this cursed year alive. See you in 2021!
And of course, don't forget to leave a review with your thouhgts on this chapter. Reviews make me really, really, really happy!