CHAPTER 15: A MATCH TO REMEMBER
As the crowd discussed the sudden and unexpected forfeit of Tsunake Ryusuke, the two genin walked back to their friends and comrades back on the sidelines. As they reached their destination, Ryu was bombarded with questions, yet he pushed them all aside with a wave of his hand. Sitting down, he thought about the day's events, and waited to see the next fight.
"I don't care if he doesn't want to talk about it," Naruto scowled, "I still can't believe he would give up and forfeit…"
"Its not your decision is it, Naruto?" Lee chimed in. "If he wanted to forfeit it was his decision, not yours, and certainly not mine." Looking over at his former opponent, Lee gave a smile and a thumbs up. Ryu smiled back and returned to his thoughtless gazing. "Anyway, I'm just curious who will fight next."
"Yeah, that fact that they still haven't announced the next fight is a bit odd…" Kenshi added, finally getting the nerve to talk to the others after his last battle.
Looking up at the high rise, Shino saw that Kamaasu and Tsunade were arguing. "I believe I may have found our problem…" The others soon looked up as well.
"I don't care how many times you say it, Kay, we are NOT going to have a silly rematch." Tsunade asserted, slamming her fist down on the armrest of her chair.
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN!?" Kamaasu roared in disbelief. "Its obvious that your genin, Lee, has somehow cheated and brainwashed my student! Why else would he give up?"
Tsunade shook her head in disbelief. "Look, we need to get on with the matches. You're holding us up. Besides, even if Lee did, which he didn't, brainwash Ryu," She said mockingly, "It could be considered a jutsu or tool so you still have no argument.
Kamaasu stood speechless. "…Fine. Just get on with the other matches…" He sighed, slumping into his chair.
"Thank you…" Tsunade turned her head back to the scorekeeper and nodded, signaling the start of the 3rd match. The names on the scoreboard flashed and rotated, swiveled and turned, and at last, the ninja were decided. Meogar Domen and Uchiha Sasuke.
"Heh, 'bout time." Sasuke muttered to himself as he shuffled into the arena. Taking a look at Domen who was walking onto the field he began to make battle calculations in his head. "He's WAY older than me," He thought. "Which means that he has way more experience. He also has height advantage. He also uses to REALLY big Kunai." Giving Domen another look over, he went for faults. "Well, the fact I know what his weapons are is a fault. I bet due to his size, I'm faster than he is. And besides, how strong can a guy be if he's still a genin in his twenties?"
Back on the sidelines, Naruto and co. looked on, making their predictions. "Feh. Sasuke has this fight in the bag." Naruto said, sitting back down. "How boring.
"I dunno…" Ill added. "He looks pretty tough actually. And from what I've heard about this 'Gaara' guy, they'd have to find a pretty strong guy to replace him wouldn't they?"
"That's a good point…" Neji nodded to Ill. "We don't know anything about this guy, so predictions are far to hard to make. We'll just have to play this one by ear."
"All too true!" Lee said, taking a few steps forward to get closer to the action.
The two ninja in the arena took their places, and Sasuke entered a traditional battle stance. Domen stood watching his opponent. "This is gonna be fuckin' easy…" Domen thought to himself. Looking up at he top of the arena, he saw his 3 comrades in arms, and looked at his master. Staring back, Memnoch shook his head and waved his pointer finger giving the message, "Don't kill him." Domen slowly nodded his head in understanding as not to alert anyone to his "buddies'" location, looked back to Sasuke, and awaited the start of the match.
Hisashi jumped down for the third time and took a look at the two competitors. Sizing up Domen, he got a funny feeling but shook it off. He looked each combatant in the eye and slowly raised his right arm. The two warriors waited anxiously for the match to start. Beads of sweat dripped form their faces and their heartbeats increased with every passing second. "HAJIME!" Hisashi shouted dropping his arm and backflipping to the sidelines.
Domen stood waiting as Sasuke rushed him giving several punches to the stomach and a kick to the side. Domen stood mildly chuckling as Sasuke began to realize his Taijutsu was having no effect on the laughing warrior. "What's wrong little boy?" Domen laughed, putting his hand on his hips in mockery." A bit worried are we? Scared of the fuckin' big bad wolf? Well you should be!" Lowering himself, Domen dropped to the ground and took Sasuke off his feet with a leg sweep, sending the smaller genin crashing to the ground. As Domen went in for a second blow, Sasuke kicked upwards, using the same technique Lee had used against him in their first battle, sending Domen careening into the air. As Sasuke flipped back up and prepared a second strike, he found his opponent was already on his feet.
"Well, well, well, what HAVE we here?" Domen cackled, wiping the blood and dirt from his face. Raising one eyebrow, Domen gave Sasuke a serious look. "Think you're tough? Stronger than everyone else? The best there is?" Standing upright and cracking his neck in several places, he gave a relaxed sigh. Looking back at the Uchiha again, he laughed, but soon broke it with a menacing grin. "Well you're wrong." Taking a few shuriken from their holster, Domen gave a few easy throws toward Sasuke to test him. Sasuke dodged them with ease as he grunted and stood upright with a strange glint in his eye. "The fuck is that?"
"That," Sasuke smirked, finally speaking, "is the Sharingan Eye, the Kekkei Genkai of the Uchiha clan."
Domen gave Sasuke a cock-eyed look and chuckled. "Oh yes. That. Well then, at least I have nothing at all to worry about from you."
"Why is that?"
"Because although you may possess the ability, that doesn't mean you've come close to mastering the damn thing. You're not even close to Hatake Kakashi, let alone your brother."
"My-my brother?" Sasuke said abashed and took a step back.
"Ohhhhh. So have soft spot for ole' Itachi, eh?" Domen grinned.
"NO!" Sasuke said, springing into action. Kicking Domen back a few feet he landed back on the ground, made a few seals and exclaimed, "Goukakyuu no Jutsu!" Opening his mouth wide open, he unleashed a giant fireball, bigger than any that had ever been created before.
"Oh shit…" Domen said, jumping out of the way just in time. Sasuke cursed under his breath as he saw his opponent had emerged unharmed. "Well that was a good try but I think you mis-" Domen noticed the smell of something, something smoky, and looked down at his pant leg. It seemed that a spark had caught onto his pants and created a small hole. Smacking the sparks out with his hands, Domen clenched his teeth and tightened his hands. "You…you fucking little bastard…" Raising his eyes, Sasuke found that they were bloodshot with rage. "NO ONE, AND I MEAN NO ONE, MESSES WITH THIS GI AND GETS AWAY WITH IT!" Running to Sasuke, he kneed him in the stomach, and finished it off by slamming the young boy's face into his knee as well. As Sasuke landed on the ground, a small sputtering cough could be heard as Domen walked over cackling. "I warned you boy. NO ONE touches this get up and remains happy afterwards. Kicking Sasuke repeatedly in the stomach, Domen laughed and laughed. "You see? YOU SEE!? This is what I do to people when I get ANGRY!"
The on watching crowd stared in disbelief, thinking the situation was far too surreal. "What's going on?" Kakashi asked Naruto, walking in with a bandaged up Sakura.
"To put it simply, Sasuke's getting the living crap beat out of him." Naruto said, not taking his eyes away. "THAT'S DIRTY FIGHTING!" Naruto screamed, throwing his fists about in the air. "HOW CAN YOU DO SOMETHNG LIKE THAT!"
"GET UP SASUKE! YOU CAN BEAT THIS GUY!" Sakura screamed, immediately grabbing her shoulder to try and bear the pain.
"Who is this guy?' Kakashi wondered out loud. "He looks familiar…"
"He's SUPPOSED to be a sand genin, but I don't think so. He's the one I mentioned back at Tsunade's office last week. His Name is Meogar Domen."
A light went off in Kakashi's head. "No…No way!" Kakashi said, watching Domen continually kick Sasuke. "If that name is true, then this is the same guy who nearly overthrew the hidden village of the Cloud! That he is in fact the missing-nin, Domen the Storm!" Kakashi soon took off to inform Tsunade and Kamaasu of the impending danger.
Back in the action, Domen seemed to be calming down. Giving one last kick, Domen walked back towards Hisashi and giving a smile, "I think he's done fo-" Sasuke had come up with nearly all his strength and slashed Domen's back with his kunai, ripping the older man's gi. Standing up and grabbing what he could of his back, Domen's eyes again became bloodshot with an unparalleled rage. "HOW DARE YOU RIP MY G-" Domen stood speechless as he saw that Sasuke had been using Domen's "rage time" in preparation for the Raikiri, the lightning edge! "You think you can take me down with a technique that complex? Please, don't even bothe-" Again Domen was surprised as Sasuke began screaming and running towards him with a fully formed and fully lethal Raikiri! "Oh my fucking god…" Domen muttered as he saw the hurrying Sasuke. Doing all he could do, Domen placed his arms in front of him and placed as much chakra as he could in them. Sasuke ran up with all his might, screaming, and he thrust his right hand at his opponent. Taking the full brunt of the attack, Domen flew backwards right into the wall, making a giant crack and forcing a piece of the stone to collapse and fall into the stadium. Domen rose back up, much to Sasuke's displeasure and simply laughed.
"Not bad, kid. NOT FUCKING BAD." He roared crossing his burned arms. "You got my arms pretty good, but the rest of me is pretty much untouched. And I guess you forgot, BUT I'M STILL DAMN ANGRY!" Finally taking off the two giant kunai strewn across his back to took them out and stuck them in the ground. Opening another pouch on his gi, he pulled out a long metallic barbed wire. Stretching and attaching it between the two kunai he stood back up and look to Memnoch, who stood aghast on top of the arena. Memnoch, eyes wide open, shook his head and gave a menacing look to his associate, who abruptly flicked him off and went back to Sasuke.
"That fool…" Memnoch muttered looking down at the oncoming finale.
"He's asking for a deathwish." Sonari sighed, crossing his arms in disgust. "He DOES realize what you'll do to him when you're finished with him right?"
"Probably…" Memnoch replied. "But I don't think it would make much difference. Pointing to the highrise across the way, Sonari and Jas saw Kakashi explaining something to the two Kages. "I believe our friend Domen has already been found out…But I will have to pull his rear from the fire as always." Memnoch sighed, taking a deep breath. Jamshu looked down at the two warriors and then back to Memnoch.
"What's Domen going to do?"
"His favorite attack…the one that no one has ever survived. That's why we may have to step in…" He answered, looking back to the 3rd match.
"Time for you to understand the true meaning of thunder style attacks, my friend…" Domen chuckled. Forming a long list of seals, he picked up his two attached kunai and jumped into the air and floated there, using his excess chakra as a "stand." Looking down to his opponent. He laughed as he pulled his two kunai forward. Making a seal and shouting Kage Bunshin, he created a large arsenal of the attached kunai. Throwing them to the ground, he created a "star" patch of the kunai, with Sasuke as the center. Making a few more seals, a large cloud arose over the star patch and a small barrier surrounded Sasuke.
"Oh no…" Tsunade said, getting up out of her seat and moving to the edge of the balcony. "I'm afraid we may be too late to save Sasuke!"
Domen laughed as he shouted, "RAIKIRINAI NO JUTSU! ART OF THE THOUSAND LIGHTNING STRIKES!" As he finished his scream, the inside of the barrier Domen had created gave off thousands of bright lights and flashed, as the lightning zipped between the interconnected kunai. Shouts of pain could be heard from the inside as the lightning sought out its only target: the Avenger. Several minutes later, Domen floated back down to the ground and finished the jutsu, removing the clouds and barrier, and canceling the Kage Bunshin, and picked up the original two kunai. Waiting for the large amount of dust to clear, Domen fell back in shock as the attack results were displayed.
"Hello Domen." Memnoch smiled holding a slightly injured Sasuke in his arms. "You should know better than to disobey my direct orders…"
Everyone watched on and wondered what was going on. Up in the highrise, Kamaasu slank to the back of the room, breathing heavily. "What is it Kamaasu?" Tsunade said. "What's wrong? What's happening?" The only thing that exited Kay's lips were, "They're here…and there's nothing I can do…"
Naruto and co. looked on at the spectacle as Memnoch, Jamshu and Sonari moved closer to their comrade. "Who are these guys? What'd they do to Sasuke?" Naruto pondered.
" I dunno…" Kenshi replied. "But two of them look really familiar to me.
"Same here…" replied both Ill and Ryu.
Back in the arena, Memnoch chuckled, as he placed Sasuke on the ground. "I hope you've realized that you have truly endangered our mission, Domen."
"O-of course master…" Domen answered respectfully. "But he ripped my-"
"No excuses." Memnoch said with a smile. "You know what I do to those who disobey me…" Sonari gave a wicked, twisted, and crooked smile as he knew what would happen next.
"Ooh, Domen. You should have listened to him…" Sonari teased.
"No, please, I'm sorry!" Domen screamed, falling down to the ground and slowly crawling backwards.
"Too late." Memnoch rushed and moved behind Domen in a flash. Just as Domen was about to turn around, Memnoch lurched over, biting Domen on the neck, staying there for a good minute. On rising, a GIANT curse seal was left on Domen's neck. It grew and slithered, until it was like a misshapen collar around his neck. "Well," Memnoch said clapping his hands together. "That takes care of that, doesn't it, Domen?"
With barely any life in his eyes, Domen gave a salute and responded with a monotone, "Yes sir."
"Good!" Turning back to the crowd, genin, ninja, and especially the highrise, Memnoch laughed as he made a polite bow and exclaimed to the entire crowd, "Sorry for the interruption, but I felt I had to save this boy from certain death. " As he said, this Sasuke slowly got up and limped over to his comrades who warmly accepted him and waited for the mysterious stranger to finish. "I'd like for you to continue with your exam, but I don't think now is the right time." Looking around he saw the many frightened faces and grinned. "Well, I see your all bursting with ideas right now. But to sum things up, I will just say one thing. I am here for two reasons. One is to see my old friend Kamaasu," he said, waving to the highrise, " And the other," he gave a slight chuckle. "Is great power. I came for the Kyuubi. And you WILL give it to me. Or I will destroy this village and all of your puny, pitiful, worthless lives."