Disclaimer: No I do not own Naruto.
Wings of the White Angel
Chapter 2: Blowing away the smoke
Gasping in pain, Kin reached down to remove the weapon and found nothing there. The wound was real, but the shuriken had disappeared. ("There has to be some kind of trick to this! Where do these shurikens go when he uses them?") Drawing another kunai, his mind ran through a couple of possibilities, but neither of them seemed plausible. ("It must be a…of course! That's why he used the smoke bomb…he must use his chakra to create shurikens out of the smoke…but how do I fight against something like that? They're silent killers…") Gritting his teeth, he stumbled as he felt numerous sharp pains in his chest. ("I feel like I'm dying…")
"This is over, kid." Terubisu stood right outside of the smoke cloud, weaving the smoke into another handful of shurikens that he threw into it. "You can't hope to last through another volley, can you?"
Kin growled in anger and dropped to his stomach. ("I need to figure out a way to stop this guy's attacks! I have to…")
Terubisu snapped his hands out and sent another storm of smoke shurikens into the cloud. This time he heard the wood of the tree on the other side of the cloud tear, which meant that the boy had ducked. ("He's trying to dodge the impossible.") Creating another handful of the chakra-formed weapons, he hurled them all at the ground.
Kin's eyes shot open as he felt pain burn all along his body. Each and every one of the shurikens had hit their mark on one part of his body or another. Coughing up blood, he pressed his face against the dirt and tried to bring his body out of the shock the pain had placed him in. ("I can't take another of those attacks…") Warmth spread up his spine as the wounds began to close slowly. Though he didn't know it, the necklace he wore was still constantly healing him. If it wasn't for that bonus, he'd have been dead by now.
Terubisu watched the cloud start to dissipate. ("He should be dead by now. But just to be sure…") Taking one of his kunai, he snapped the weapon down at the ground where he knew the boy was. "One last hit…"
Kin's ears perked. ("Now!") There was an explosion of white smoke right before the kunai hit him. As the smoke cleared, there was a log in his place. The kunai quivered into the trunk.
Terubisu clenched his fist and extended his senses. ("That little punk isn't half bad…he managed to use a replacement while face-first on the ground.") Drawing another kunai, he smirked underneath his mask. ("However, in a short moment you'll be dead, so it doesn't matter.")
The bushes nearby rustled slightly.
"There!" Terubisu threw the weapon right into the bush, putting his full body weight behind it.
The log exploded into a cloud of white smoke.
Terubisu turned around just in time to catch a fist in the face. ("He…tricked me?")
Kin ground his teeth, still in mid-leap. "You're not…" As his foot touched the ground he pushed off, slamming right into Terubisu's stomach with the full weight of his body. "…taking me seriously!"
Grimacing, the ninja was forced to slide backwards a few feet along the boy's body. ("He used the transformation technique to make me think that he had replaced himself with a log. When in truth he turned himself into the log. Clever…")
Kin pushed up with all of his strength, driving an uppercut into Terubisu's chin and launching the ninja ten feet into the air. ("I'm too tired…I can't continue the combo…") Kicking out with his right foot, he drove his toes into his opponent's stomach at full strength to push away. As they moved apart from each other, he performed a few back-flips to get some distance between himself and Terubisu.
Terubisu let his body hit the ground, preferring to simply go with the force of the landing. Arching his back, he did a full body roll and came up facing Kin.
Kin, on the other hand, was stumbling now. After the fifth back-flip, he had slipped when his feet had touched the ground. ("This guy is tough…tougher than me…")
("This kid is tough…but not tough enough. If he was smart he would have kept attacking, but instead he gave up a perfect chance to attack me while I was defenseless. However, I'm running out of time. So I'll have to take him seriously.") Snapping up his hands in front of his chest, Terubisu began to create the necessary seals for one of his more advanced Ninjitsu techniques.
Kin shook his head out to try and clear the blur. ("I can't surrender now…I have to get dad's necklace back. But other than the replacement technique and transformation technique…I know only one combo of Ninjitsu that would help in this situation. So here's my chance to win!") He started to form the seals for the technique…
"Kemuri Bunshin no Jitsu!" Terubisu grabbed a smoke bomb out of another of his pouches and threw it to the ground. Instead of a smoke cloud forming though the smoke from the bomb arched up in two directions on both sides of his, each one forming into a vaguely humanoid shape.
Kin concentrated and tried to form the seals, but he couldn't concentrate. He was too tired…
The two humanoid shapes finished forming, both of them taking on the appearance of Terubisu. And then all three Terubisu drew a kunai.
Cursing under his breath, Kin broke off of the seal chain. He didn't have the time to try and perform the technique now.
"How's this, kid?" The middle Terubisu's eyes widened in excitement. "Don't you like my smoke replication technique?"
"Smoke replication technique?" Kin took a step back, pulling two more kunai out of his side-pouch. Doing a quick mental review, he knew that he had only one or two more kunai left. Sliding into a fighting stance, he frowned. "They're just illusions…"
"Let's see if you can prove that theory." The middle Terubisu snapped his fingers and the replication to his left charged in, slashing its kunai down towards Kin's neck.
Bringing one kunai up, Kin caught the blade with his own and felt solid resistance. "It isn't a…" Hopping back, he yelped as replication kept charging and swinging. Ducking under a sloppy swing, he stabbed one of his kunai into the right armpit of the clone. Other than meeting resistance, nothing happened. ("This isn't right…shadow replications are supposed to disappear when you hit them once.")
Terubisu snickered as the replication kept attacking, its movements rather choppy. It was almost like a puppet. "Any replication created through my smoke replication technique can only be dispelled with ten solid hits. That means that you're outclassed. However, because of the amount of chakra I am expelling right now, my replication's power is only about one-fifth of my own ability. So who knows, maybe you'll beat it?"
Kin slashed across the chest of the replication, but no mark was left. ("Five…") Back-flipping away, he heard the replication charge in to cover the distance. And so he continued to back-flip.
Watching the continuous back-flip, Terubisu chuckled. "Not bad kid, but still no match for my replication." Snapping his fingers, he smirked underneath his mask as the other replication charged into the fight.
Kin felt the other one coming and growled in anger. ("There's no way for me too…") A pained yelp escaped his lips as the current replication stabbed its kunai into his back.
"Got…" Terubisu growled in disappoint as Kin's body exploded in a burst of white smoke. Seconds later a log dropped to the ground at his replication's feet. "Another Kawarimi? Is that the only trick you have?"
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Kin pressed his back against the nearby tree, going completely silent. ("I'm safe…for the moment. But with those replications backing him up there is no way that I can hope to overcome him in a fight…") Smiling weakly, he resisted the urge to sigh. ("This is why I wouldn't make a good ninja. Sorry dad, it looks like I'm finished.")
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Terubisu's two replications returned to his side.
"He must be nearby, find him." As soon as he said this, his two clones disappeared. ("Now…I just have to wait for my replications to flush you out. And it shouldn't take too long…") Running a thumb along the edge of his kunai, he closed his eyes and listened with his ears. ("Come out little rabbit…you can't win…")
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Kin clenched his right fist tightly. There was no purpose to this fight…he couldn't win. His opponent was a Jounin level ninja, and that meant he was out-classed to the fifth degree. ("No matter what I do…I can't win. I only have one method left to fight with…and with the amount of strength I have left I could only hold it for thirty seconds at most. That's not enough time to beat three of him…")
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Kin dropped to his knees and felt the sweat glide off of his face to the grass below him. "Dad…can we please take a break?"
Tuiso Watanabe flicked his blond ponytail over one shoulder and frowned down at his son. "You haven't completed the exercise yet, and therefore you can't rest. You know this, Kin."
"But dad…" Kin began to whine, but was cut off as his father grabbed him by the front of the vest and brought him eye to eye.
"Listen to me…" Tuiso looked up at the blue sky. "Don't you understand that your opponent's aren't going to give you a break in a fight? If you aren't prepared to fight with all of your heart and soul, then there's no point in you becoming a ninja."
"I don't want to be a ninja though…" Kin's eyes closed. "I don't have a reason to put my heart and soul into being one…"
"You'll find a reason one day…until then I suppose these words mean nothing to you. But I'll tell you them anyway." Tuiso dropped his son and shoved his hands into his pockets. "Your drive to be anything in life stems from necessity. If you have no purpose in life then you don't deserve to live. We all have purpose, and you know where your true potential lies."
"Just because my potential lies in being a ninja doesn't mean I have to be one though…"
"Oh really?" Tuiso shook his head sadly. "You don't understand at all, do you? Konoha is our home…but it is the peaceful place it has always been because ninjas like myself keep it safe. The world is full of powerful ninjas, and talents like yours will help keep Konoha safe…so don't be so greedy as to consider what you want over what you can do for your country…and for your village."
Kin looked away, at the water of the garden pond. "You don't understand me at all…"
"No…I understand you more than you understand yourself…" Tuiso smiled. "My thick-headed son…my lazy son…you'll understand what it means to fight for something…for a cause. I don't know when, but you'll understand."
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Kin's eyes opened slowly. ("I understand dad…fighting for a cause. I fight for your memory…") His hands lifted up and began to make the necessary seals. ("This will be a one shot deal…if I blow it then it's over…") Standing up, he turned and walked out into the open.
Terubisu heard him and immediately threw the kunai. "Die."
Kin finished the last seal, not stumbling in the slightest through the hand motions. "Fuuton; Shirakaze Tenshi no Jitsu!" Wisps of white silk appeared around his body, floating on invisible winds. ("Here we go father…") His eyes snapped open, and to his eyes the kunai was moving towards him at the speed of a snail. ("Thirty seconds…")
Terubisu's gasped in surprise as Kin disappeared, the boy's body blurring for a moment and then vanishing. ("Where did he go?") Then all breath was blasted out of his body as a fist slammed deep into his stomach.
Kin's blue and green eyes met Terubisu's grey ones. "Take this…the Watanabes' ultimate technique…" His other arm snapped up and crashed into Terubisu's ribs at the speed of a bullet.
Gasping for air, the smoke ninja called for his replications while he dropped to his knees.
Kin counted the seconds by in his head. ("Twenty-five…") His fists removed themselves from the indents in Terubisu's body that he had caused and slammed away at the ninja's body without mercy.
Through the burning pain in his body, Terubisu tried to understand what was going on. ("He's faster…impossibly faster…") The blows kept hitting him at machine gun speed, and he heard a couple of ribs crack.
("Twenty.") Kin dropped to the ground and snapped his foot up, catching Terubisu on the chin and sending him launching up into the air a few feet. Returning to a standing position instantly, the boy's right fist slammed an upper-cut onto the man's chin that turned that few feet of air-time into twenty feet.
Terubisu was actually getting motion sickness from the speeds he was being forced to move at.
Kin ran full speed away from his still air-born target. ("Have to finish this before the replications get back…fifteen…") Running full speed at a tree, he bounced off of it and used the wood like a spring-board, launching himself at Terubisu and slamming his forehead right into the ninja's chin.
Pain flashed across the smoke ninja's senses as his jaw was shattered.
Kin flew through the air along with the now missile-like Terubisu, who was hurtling towards a tree. ("Ten…") Driving his elbow into the man's throat, Kin ignored the loud crack he heard and repositioned himself so his legs were out in front of him. ("Nine…")
Terubisu struggled to draw in breath now, and was unable to break into a roll as his forward motion was suddenly redirected down into the ground. Weakly, he tried to stand up. ("I have to create another replication…the other two aren't going to arrive in time…") His hands began to move towards each other.
("Six…") Kin bounced off of the tree and shot towards the back of Terubisu's head like a missile, fist cocked and ready to strike as soon as possible. His White Wind Angel technique would cost him all of his chakra, and that meant that in six seconds he'd be completely defenseless.
("Nearly done…") Terubisu had done it sloppily, but he would get a smoke replication in a moment. Though because of how quickly he had done the seals, he knew that it might cost him most of his remaining chakra. But his body was too damaged at the moment, and he needed a fresh one to fight for him.
("Four…") Kin's fist snapped out and slammed into the center of the back of Terubisu's head, forcing the ninja to kiss the dirt immediately. Hitting the ground in a roll, Kin came up and charged towards the still downed ninja. ("Two…") Driving his right foot full strength into Terubisu's left shoulder; the boy punted the smoke ninja through the air and right into a tree.
Sliding down the wood slowly, Terubisu could barely make out the blur of his attacker. All he could see was a humanoid form surrounded by wisps of white silk. ("What kind of Ninjitsu is this?") His eyes were already swelling from the pain…and he was losing vision quickly…everything was getting blurry and at least a dozen major bones in his body were broken.
("Zero…") Kin dropped to his knees, everything returning to normal speed for him. ("That's it…I'm done. I have no energy…") The bushes behind him rustled and he turned around just in time to see the first smoke replication drive its kunai right into the center of his chest. There was no pain though…he just smiled weakly. ("I guess I wasn't able to win…that's a shame…huh dad?")
Terubisu felt the sensation of force from his replication. ("I…I got…") Crashing face-first to the ground, he passed out from the pain of his injuries.
Kin watched weakly as the replication disappeared in a puff of smoke. And then he collapsed, unconscious as well. ("Dad…I think I did it…")
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The Konoha Jounin looked at the damage to the landscape of the park area. And then he looked at the still unconscious Terubisu again. ("Amazing…that kid managed to beat him…")
A Chuunin walked up to the ninja and bowed his head slightly. "Sir, we found the chain of the stolen relic, but no sign of the jewel."
"Where was the chain?" The Jounin looked at some of strange indents in the body of Terubisu and rubbed his chin.
"Around the neck of the boy, sir."
"Who's the boy?"
The Chuunin looked over his superior's shoulder and at the smoke ninja's damaged form. "Kin Watanabe…"
"Watanabe?" Smiling, the Jounin knew where the wounds had come from. ("This Watanabe family possesses one of the strongest bloodline limits I've ever seen. The White Wind Angel…") For a few moments he actually felt sorry for Terubisu. "Take the boy home for now, and sent in an ANBU team to check the area for the jewel."
"Yes sir."
To be continued…