CHAPTER 13: SAKURA VS. KENSHI; TRICKS OF THE TRADE!
Naruto's jaw dropped. He hadn't expected Sakura to fight this early on, and didn't know how to take it. "YOU'RE fighting Sakura!?"
"It would seem that way." Kenshi chuckled, giving a smile as he walked onto the battlefield. Waving to Sakura as she walked onto the field he yelled brightly, "Good luck Sakura-san. May we each do our best!"
Sakura smiled and gave a wink. "Yeah, good luck to you too."
The two opponents stood 15 meters apart, waiting for the referee to start the match. The old examiner Hisashi soon slowly walked onto the field and stood between the two would-be Chuunin. He looked at each and raised his arm.
"This is gonna be good." Lee said, watching intently.
"You're kidding right!?" Ill said in disbelief. "Kenshi'll tear her apart!"
"YEAH RIGHT!" Naruto screamed, pointing a finger at Ill. "Sakura'll win! SHE'S AMAZING!"
"CHUUNIN FINAL! ROUND ONE! HAJIME!" Hisashi screamed, dropping his arm and jumping up and out of the battlefield.
Kenshi stood in normal battle stance, as Sakura jumped up into the air to get a better grip of her surroundings. Taking in the size and diameter of the arena she put her plan into action. Still in mid-jump, she grabbed a few shuriken and threw them at her opponent. Kenshi, seeing the oncoming projectiles, quickly performed a few backflips getting himself out of harm's way. Looking back to Sakura, he saw she was performing a few katas.
"What're you up to Sakura?" He asked. "You'll have to do better than this!" Sakura simply smiled as the ground began to quake. "What the-" Kenshi said, stumbling backwards.
Sakura stared intently at her opponent and screamed "DOTON! TERRAGOUKYOH! ART OF THE CRUMBLING EARTH!" The ground began to shake and fall apart, crumbling into bottomless pits. The stands began to yell out of fear, but the quaking soon settled. All that was left of the arena were tall, slender pillars. All fighting it seemed would have to be done in the air.
"Well, that's a good trick," Kenshi smiled. "But I can handle far more than this!" As he rushed to Sakura, he realized she wasn't there. "Where'd she g-" Sakura appeared Kenshi and gave him a hard kick to the back, sending him flying toward another pillar. Grabbing a pillar during his fall, he swung himself back up, and blocked several more shuriken attacks.
"How could she get to me that fast with only pillars to jump from!?" He thought to himself. As he was planning his next attack, Kenshi overheard his friends.
"What the hell is Kenshi doing?" Ryu wondered out loud. "He looks like an idiot."
Taking this in, Kenshi began to laugh. Sakura just gave a stare. "I can't believe I didn't figure this out till now." He took one big step and fell into the pit- or he would have if there had been a pit. "This is no Ninjutsu. It's simply an illusion caused by your Genjutsu!"
Immediately, the ground returned to normal, leaving Kenshi with a small feeling of pride. "Well you're smarter than you look, Kenshi-kun." Sakura chuckled.
"I would like to think so." Kenshi grinned back. Rushing Sakura, he gave a few punches to the stomach and a round house kick to the head, sending her crashing to the ground. "You may be good with Genjutsu. But your Taijutsu could use some real wor-" Again, Kenshi found himself the end of an attack from Sakura. Hitting the wall of the arena with tremendous force, Kenshi slowly pulled himself back up. "What the hell is this!?" Kenshi said, wiping a trail of blood from his chin. Slowly, putting 2 and 2 together, he discovered the secret. "LAYERS!" He screamed with a smirk. "You're layering Genjutsu!"
"She's what?" Naruto asked out loud, not following much of anything.
"Well, well, Kakashi." Tsunade smiled, looking over at her Jounin friend. "Seems you've been busy.
"Well, she is an excellent ninja for Genjutsu so I taught her everything I knew. She seems to use it well." Kakashi smiled back.
"That she does, that she does."
"Well, you are a bright genin." Sakura said. "When I created the environmental Genjutsu, I added a few more things to the technique, also known as 'Layers.' The first layer was the pillar environment. Then, I created a few more layers that would give the effect of 'me' being where I really wasn't. Sort of like a Genjutsu version of Bunshin."
"Well, now that I know this, you won't stand a chance." Kenshi smirked.
"We'll see."
Kenshi crossed his arms and shut his eyes. The wind rustled through his hair as the crowd remained silent. Sakura rushed at him, yet he wasn't moving a muscle.
"YOU IDIOT, OPEN YOUR EYES OR YOU'RE GONNA GET BEAT BY A GIRL!" members of the crowd yelled. Ill and Ryu just chuckled, knowing what Kenshi was going to do.
As Sakura was about to give a right hook to Kenshi, Kenshi quickly made an "about face" and made a powerful uppercut, sending the real Sakura up into the air! Jumping up after her, he put his hands together and slammed her to the ground. "I told you Sakura. Now that I know you're just using Genjutsu over and over, I wait to 'feel' you out."
Sakura got up, slowly but surely, and brushed off the dust and the blood from her forehead. "Feel me out?"
"Yep. It's my Kekkei Genkai, my bloodline limit. The Kuro have the ability to increase every sense, sight, hearing and so forth, upwards of 10 fold. We can use this to sense out all of our enemies. In other words, you can't sneak up on me."
"Well, it seems I'll just have to think of something else then, won't I?"
"Well whatever you do, you better make it quick." Making some seals, Kenshi thrust his hand to the ground, chakra crackling from his fingertips. "KUCHIYOSE KAGE VOULGE NO JUTSU!" A large black circle appeared on the ground and it began to sharply vibrate. As Kenshi began to raise his hand, a large weapon appeared, slowly rising as if the ground itself wished to expel it. Soon, Kenshi was standing with his weapon of choice in his hands. The Shadow Voulge AUTHOR'S NOTE: The Voulge is essentially a large staff with to curved blades on each end. For an example, Look at Wei Yan's weapon from the PS2 Games, Dynasty Warriors 3 and 4..
"What in the world was that!?" Lee wondered.
"That would be a summoning no justu. But instead of a creature, Kenshi simply summoned a weapon." Ryu replied. "But this thing's durability, strength, and speed are amplified by those who emanate and use chakra for shadow. Sakura has no chance of victory now."
Seeing the new threat, Sakura pulled out two kunai to defend herself with. "This could be a bit more difficult." The ring seemed to shake and everything was quiet again.
"What was that?" Kenshi asked, getting into an offensive position.
"Well, you can tell now where I am, so keeping up Genjutsu is a waste of Chakra. Now, come at me!" Sakura screamed, taking a small object out of her pocket and throwing it to the ground. Smoke arose everywhere, concealing Sakura.
"A smoke bomb. Fine by me." Kenshi whirled the Voulge behind and rushed at Sakura, taking his first swing, Sakura appeared and kicked the Voulge out of his hands and into the smoke. Blocking a few more shots from Sakura, the smoke soon cleared enough for him to find his weapon. Picking it up, He looked for Sakura. Closing his eyes, to sense where she was, his eyes suddenly opened wide to match his grin. "FOUND YOU!" He feinted forward, yet turned around and made a quick sweep with the blunt end of his Voulge knocking Sakura over. Immediately twirling the Voulge and pointing it at Sakura's throat he smiled. "I win."
Sakura laughed even as the blade was touching her throat, and jumped into the blade, impaling herself, and she disappeared in a cloud of smoke. "Bunshi-" Kenshi managed to say as his Voulge transformed into Sakura and kicked him over with an additional slash to the face with a kunai.
"HA!" Sakura laughed at her opponent.
"No…" Kenshi said, wiping the blood from his cut and staring at it.
"Yes." Sakura replied. "I moved the Voulge to behind you, I used henge to make it look like the ground. You didn't even see it coming."
"I was bested with Henge…BESTED WITH HENGE!!! THIS CANNOT STAND!" The ground began cracking as Chakra began to pour from Kenshi's body. His muscles began to bulge and his veins began popping.
"Oh shit." Ill said, backing away to his seat.
"What's happening to him?" Neji asked Ill, watching the spectacle.
"It's…oh damn it." Ryu chimed in.
"WHAT IS IT!?' Naruto screamed, running over and grabbing Ill's collar, lifting him off the ground, and knocking him back into a wall. "WHAT IS HE GOING TO DO TO SAKURA!?"
"He's well, there's no other way to put it than he's possessed." Ryu replied.
"Huh?" Naruto said, putting Ill back on the ground.
Catching his breath, Ill answered his friend's question. "It's a side effect of the Kuro Kekkei Genkai. They can get VERY angry, and become obsessed with victory. Its why Kenshi is normally so mild-mannered, he hates turning into…into…this monster."
"So what will happen to Sakura?" Sasuke asked, joining the conversation.
"If she doesn't watch herself…she'll die."
Just as the ground was cracking it stopped, leaving Kenshi with a malicious look in his eyes. "No one bests me with simple, basic jutsus. NO ONE! RAAAAH!" Grabbing his Voulge, he charged Sakura and began taking wild swings with no intention of going easy.
"C'mon Kenshi!" Sakura screamed, tears welling up in her eyes. "Snap out of it!"
"RAGHHHHHHHHH!" Kenshi began swinging, and realized he wasn't going to hit her, thus acknowledging the strength of his opponent. "THIS IS GETTING FUN!"
Sakura, in an effort to regain the offensive, took a giant leap towards Kenshi. Jumping back, far away from Sakura, Kenshi made his move, for the sun began to reach its highest point. "Time for some fun. SHADOW FIRE NO JUTSU!" His shadow connected with Sakura's and a large flame erupted from the entire length of the shadow, burning Sakura and sending her crashing to the ground. "Well that worked well!" Kenshi cackled. Walking over to the dazed Sakura, he asked her a simple question. "Do you surrender?"
"N-No." Sakura coughed.
Enraged, with this answer, Kenshi brought up his Voulge and stabbed Sakura in the shoulder, sending her into great deal of pain. "How about now?"
Sakura slipped out of consciousness and Hisashi called the match, naming Kenshi the victor. Naruto and Lee ran over to Sakura and Naruto picked up Sakura and carried her in his arms. "KENSHI!" Naruto screamed, snapping Kenshi out of his "demonic state."
"What happened?" Kenshi asked.
"WHAT HAPPENED!?" Naruto bellowed. "YOU NEARLY KILLED HER!"
"I WHAT!?" Staring over at Sakura, he realized that once again, against all his hopes, he had lost again to the demon within. Running over, tears began to fall from his eyes as he whispered, "I'm so sorry," over and over again.
"Best give her to me." Kakashi said appearing next to Naruto. He then took her to the infirmary.
"Naruto." Kenshi said, wiping tears from his eyes as he placed his hand on Naruto's shoulder. "I'm so terribly sorry for what happened. "I swear I'll make it up to you. I swear it."
As Kenshi was apologizing, the next match appeared on the screen. A match that was to be quite entertaining. Rock Lee vs. Tsunada Ryusuke.