Devil From The Heavens
Chapter 8: Failure To Crash
A shapeless mass of red and green ripped through the forest. There was no purpose to the movement, no pattern to follow, just chaos given form. Fires erupted from the heat of the conflict of colors and any life in the way was swiftly ended.
Its momentum was interrupted as Broly suddenly planted himself into the ground. When the Kyubi hit him, he grabbed onto its chest and, with a great heave, flipped the beast over his head. The Saiyan landed on its abdomen.
He lifted a fist and his whole limb was awashed with ki. His eyes were glowing with the toxic power and the seals on his body were the color of the fox below him. They seemed to be struggling to hold his power back. Naruto roared as his fist crashed down into the shinobi's chest. He brought it back up and brought it down again. The roar shifted to a cry of pain as the Saiyan repeated the action over and over. Each time, his knuckles rent the blood cloak further until he saw the blond's enraged face. Broly wrapped his fingers around the brat's visage.
Some deep rooted part of him wanted to keep going. It wouldn't be satisfied until this thing underneath him was just a puddle of red. The parted chakra clamped down around his arm and a new agony raced up Broly's arm. Why, why did this hurt so much? He was slapped away by the Kyubi. A half mile of trees were flattened by his rag dolling body.
The Son of Paragus struggled to hold back his need to just yell to the heavens. What was going through his head back there? He was just wailing on the kid with no regard to his life! It was like something was stopping him from thinking, forcing instinct and blood lust to override his wants. He looked at his arm and the sight nauseated him. There were patches of skin, small but numerous, where the top layer of skin was gone. This stuff, it could actually kill him if he wasn't careful.
Broly turned, floating into the air as he did so. The monster was making its way towards him. He charged at it with a wild abandon and his arm poised to rip through the beast.
Ripped through he did as his fist collided with its speeding face. The head of the Kyubi was cleaved in two only for one of the halves to rapidly develop into a second upper half of the body. His shock prevented him from avoiding the hold it took on his arms. Another pair of arms grabbed at his legs and they began to pull.
He could feel the vertebra in his spine slowly being stretched apart. It was far from a pleasant feeling. He powered through the pull on his limbs and tore through the vices that held him. Broly twisted in the air and unleashed a torrent of force with kiai that sent the monster flying away.
The Saiyan picked up a nearby boulder and launched the projectile at the prone form of the fox. It let out a groan as it was crushed underneath the stone mass.
The Son of Paragus began floating upwards. Why didn't he think of an air to ground battle earlier? It wasn't like this thing could fly. Though It felt cowardly to just retreat to the air after utterly failing in a head to head confrontation.
It seemed to sense his intentions as it instantly sought cover into the forest when it tossed off the rock. He started lobbing dozens of energy blast at the red that darted in between trees. Without fail, it moved out of the way at the last instant. Trees were turned to ash by the tens and unharmed ground was quickly becoming a rarity.
The beast below returned the air strike with its own Tailed Beast Balls. An eerie, high pitched whine followed each of the red spheres as they converged on the Saiyan.
It was clear to see that at this level of power, the Kyubi below had the advantage when it came to just dodging as Broly had to start slapping them away seconds into the onslaught. There was just too many and he was struggling to move as it was. He raised his barrier for the sake of having a moment to breath but it was cracked right open by just three of these pseudo ki blasts.
The Son of Paragus growled as he raised his hands above his head. He roared as he forced the majority of the ki in his body into his hands. There was no way it could dodge an attack of this magnitude.
Down below, Kakashi was struggling to survive the onslaught. He wasn't even the target and it was near impossible to consistently dodge the explosions. When Naruto retaliated, he gave himself a moment to breath. If this continued, his team could get hurt and that was simply unacceptable.
The Copy Nin pulled out a kunai and slapped a flash bang seal onto the handle. If the Akatsuki could be blinded, maybe Naruto could knock him out of the sky. He felt a pang of guilt as he aimed the projectile. It looked like the brainwashed man was going for scorched earth if the orb above his head indicated anything. While he empathized with the man, his life wasn't worth the shinobi under his command.
His aim was true and Broly was blinded by a sudden flash of light in front of his eyes. With no means of seeing the attack coming, the Saiyan was shot out of the sky when a barrage of Tailed Beast Balls slammed into him.
The Saiyan fell from the sky, the smoke from his body leaving a trail behind him. The raven haired man fell back first through the tree tops and hit the ground with an earth shattering crash. The pain in his arm was no longer an issue as that agony had spread through the rest of his being.
It was clear to him that Madara hadn't given him enough power to beat whatever that brat had become. He was lucky that his extraordinary durability was a thing. It was a struggle to lift himself out of the imprint he had left in the ground but he managed. Broly stumbled around for a way out of the forest. Damn the consequences, he needed to live so he could destroy this hell of a world!
The Saiyan stopped mid journey in astonishment. He was completely disregarding the masked man's orders to fight. An evil grin broke out on his face. If he exhausted what was left of his power, there should be more than enough to turn this whole forest to a smooth meadow of stone. A crazed laugh escaped him.
'I've beaten you, Madara!'
Meanwhile, Kakashi had returned his full attention to the Kyubi. It was just standing there, waiting for the Akatsuki to show himself again. After a good minute had passed, it seemed satisfied as it did a full one-eighty and ran off to where it came from.
'What the hell is he doing now?' The Copy-nin followed his former student with haste. The rest of his team was in that direction. He could only hope he could reach them in time.
Saura narrowly dodged another set of claws that threatened to take her head off. She kicked at the ground, the force launching her away while forcing a wall of rock between herself and Tobi. It was all a game of survival at this point.
Nothing they did seemed to even touch the guy! At first, they thought him an illusion bought Hinata confirmed that there was no trace of any genjutsu. This man was real...
"Oh man! You're good at tag!"
'Real annoying!' She thought in frustration as Yamato landed next to her. His breathing was heavy. He was getting tired. They all were. "Got any ideas on how to stop him?" She shook her head.
"Nothing, you?"
"I wouldn't be asking if I did."
She tsked at that. "You got me there."
On the other side of the masked weirdo, Sai prepared more of his ink constructs while Hinata brought up her Twin Lion Fists. A fresh trio of blazing red cuts adorned the right side of her face.
"I take it you do not feel any negative effects from your injuries?"
The Hyuga shook her head. If those weapons were coated in anything, she would've felt it by now. "I don't think his claws are poisoned." As she spoke, the masked man seemingly fell into the ground with a quick exclamation of 'wee'. He popped up between her and Sai. "Surprise!" He slashed at the artist who fell back to avoid the blow. While he avoided any injury, his shirt was shredded by the sharp blades.
Hinata moved the instant the ground beneath her shook. Her chakra infused fist roared like the predators they imitated. She was actually hopeful that she would make contact with the Akatsuki so as to extract what little revenge she could for her team mate's death. Her hopes disappeared as her hand merely passed through the strange shinobi like every single one before it.
The Hyuga fell forward as her balance was thrown off. A vice grip on her throat stopped her descent and her breath left her. As she struggled to get the hand choking her off, Tobi gasped. "Whoa! You almost fell there!" With her Byakugan active, the malice beneath his playful Sharingan was clear.
To say that was a surprising discovery was an understatement. Was this Akatsuki a living Uchiha or thief with stolen eyes?
Her thoughts were interrupted as he leapt into the air with her in tow. There was a sharp pain in her neck from suddenly having all of her weight focused on the fragile organ. Tobi dangled her above her worried friends below. Hinata had never felt so pathetic before. Even after all the effort she put into training, it was like the attempted kidnapping by Kumo all over again. Helpless against someone far superior to her. Tears welled up in her vision as all the grief and shame caught up to her oxygen deprived brain.
Sakura impotently shook her fist at the man. "Don't you dare hurt her or I swear I'll rip you limb from limb!"
"Oh don't be sad! Maybe you'll win the next game of tag!"
Thunder erupted from the forest and Tobi struggled to stay balanced on the tree limb he was on. "Whoa ho ho! Looks like the Beast is looking for his Beauty!"
The Six Tailed Kyubi ripped through one of the gargantuan trees as it halted in front of the ongoing stalemate. He looked at each of them before focusing its gaze on Tobi. The beast stepped forward and its paw shook the very earth.
The masked man pulled Hinata back and wagged his finger at the animal. "Uh, uh, uh! Leader tells me you don't get anywhere fast angry!"
Up above, Broly looked below. He saw them all and, most importantly, he saw Madara.
He let his burning hatred for the man overwhelm him. He would want every little ounce of his strength. Not because he truly needed it but because he wanted to make sure that every little bit of the son of a bitch was gone is the most absolute sense of the word.
The Saiyan lifted his hands and, like matter in a vaccuum, the energy within him rushed out to fill the space in between his palms. A great burning ball of ki formed above him, its light eclipsing that of the sun above. He could feel just how weak this blast would leave him. The fall from this height could possibly even kill him with how little of his power would be left.
But the possibility of his death was worth the guarantee of Madara's.
Madara's gripped tightened in anger and the girl let out a gasp. 'What is he doing?!' The Kyubi didn't like that as it roared at him. His cloak waved along in the winds generated by the outburst.
Kakashi burst through the foliage to join the remaining Leaf nin. The still bodies of Kiba, Akamaru, and Shino stopped him cold. Guilt gripped him where he stood. Yet more shinobi he had failed to protect. "Kakashi!" He was pulled from his spiral into shame by Sakura who's fear was as plain as day on her face. "What's going on?!"
The Copy nin looked at the emerald sun that had formed above them. Whatever that energy was, there was so much of it. The scale of it was hard to comprehend but he had a feeling that if Broly let go of it...
"We need to retreat." Interrupted Sai with his usual monotone. "I have little doubt that that attack will be one of immense scale." Kakashi's fists clenched. "There's no time." The Jonin replied.
The Nine-Tails was the first to react as half a dozen arms, each one with a hand capable of a crushing a man, erupted from its torso towards the Saiyan. Broly threw his attack downwards and it tore through several of the appendages.
A dome of wood formed around the Leaf shinobi in an instant to their surprise. Yamato nearly collapsed from the exertion. "I don't know if this'll be enough..."
The Saiyan above them all laughed maniacally as the dark rushed in on the edges of his vision. The Nine-Tails caught his limp body in a crushing grip and ripped him from the sky. The air around the blast warped halfway down before the green ki suddenly disappeared. A distance away, a dome of utter annihilation leveled a dozen miles of forest in an instant.
Madara was utterly livid. How?! How did the Saiyan get off the leash?! He spent days of his time perfecting his genjutsu to prevent such a thing! The girl in his hand went limp. The Kyubi slammed the alien into the ground between them. His slave had seen better days.
He had time to be angry later. A wrong move now would lose him an asset.
"Hold on there, little foxy!" 'Tobi' grabbed her by the wrist with his free hand and let go of her neck. He held her unconscious body out like one would a fresh kill on a hunt. "If you kill him, you can't get her back!"
It stilled for a moment before it tilted its head.
"Wanna trade? I kinda prefer my partner." He poked Hinata with a shrug. "She's not the liveliest person around."
'Tobi' tossed the Hyuga before he Kamuied towards Broly and grabbed the injured Akatsuki. "See ya!" He disappeared as the fox reached out to catch the girl.
The Six-Tailed form of the fox quickly lowered her to the ground, unable to prevent the contact burns of its hands on her body. The Kyubi looked down at the unconscious form of the Hyuga and its red cloak began to fall away.
He tossed the unmoving body into the closest tree with little care. He was too fucking angry to think about the Saiyan getting further injuries.
Broly broke through his control. An angry, walking extinction event slipped from his grasp. It was merely good fortune that he was too exhausted to do anything after his attempt at murdering him.
Madara paced back and forth in thought. Was Broly really worth all of this headache? Not once, not once, had the alien ever been a benefit. On paper, he was the ultimate boon but in practice? A free victory for the enemy in essence. That had to change. There just had to be something he was missing. The Sage of Six Paths wrote of his powers in fear and he'll be damned to let slip such a weapon.
"What is it?" He asked out loud to himself. "What is the key to making you work?"
He needed to reread the Sage's tablet again. There must be a clue hidden in the stone's words somewhere.
Madara felt Zetsu pop up behind him. "Impeccable timing, Zetsu."
"Sasuke has killed his brother."
Huh, he almost forgot about that. He looked back at Broly once more. "Gather Sasuke and Itachi's eyes. I have matters to attend to first." The plantlike man seemed to sense his great irritation and complied without the black half's usual snark.
"I will figure you out, Saiyan."
Author's Notes
Man, was this chapter hard to write but I managed to do it though it is a tad shorter than normal. I don't really love how it turned out but it is what it is.
So Broly failed to kill Madara, Madara keeps losing, and the Leaf has suffered devastating losses. Just a shit situation for everyone involved really.
Let me know what you think in a review below!
Ent out.
Review Responses!
fightingchampion: Yeah, that was a super annoying aspect of Naruto Shipuden. Sasuke did so much evil and everybody involved just shrugs it off because Naruto thinkgs he has good inside of him or some crap. Should've been tossed in a deep, dark cell and had the key thrown away.
XForce: I was pretty surprised by that reveal myself. I thought he skipped that nonsense by training with Whis but whatevs. Looks pretty dope.
astral trinity: If there's ever a scene involving the moon, probably. Wouldn't hold my breath for it though.
DB O: Was Raditz ever said to have blown up a planet? I know he's part of the PTO but they purge planets for resale not blow them up. Anyways, that's irrelevant since Broly has not been compared to Raditz in terms of power in the story even once.
The awesome gues: All I can say is that Naruto will be pretty different from canon as a direct result of Broly.
Pain Nagato Uzumaki: Because I enjoy seeing you suffer. :D
