Okay guys, you might be disappointed with this one, it's probably the chapter I'm least confident in as it was the whole Killer B confrontation. Be nice please, this was my first real fight scene. Y'all know I'm better at the fluff and angst! This was totally out of my comfort zone, so I'm sorry if it's all over the place, blocky and unclear. Any criticism is welcome, I'd love to improve for the Danzo fight! 3
But I had to do get over this roadblock in the story.
Next is the recovery process with some SasuKarin building!
xoxo
The air had become much chillier after crossing the border into the land of Lightning and ascending into the mountains and rough terrain. It was a chill Karin been used to; the altitude was partly to blame. Taka had departed from the border early that morning after finishing off the leftovers from the previous night's feast. An agreeable feast it was as well. For the first time in a while the team felt like a family and the tension between members had dissipated between teammates, even after Sasuke admitted to Karin that he would leave her if she were unable to fight for his cause. She appreciated his honesty and only took it personally for a short amount of time, because he had ended up holding her the entire night.
Team Taka had ventured deeper into the land of Lightning and headed towards the area marked on the map provided by Madara before they left the Akatsuki Hideout. A large area was circled with a red marker on the map of the country. 'Valley of Cloud and Lightning', it was apparently an area that the Eight Tails trained in frequently. The entire area was various tall, rocky mountains surrounded by different visible clouds. There were no real roads from what could be seen apart from a couple suspension bridges connecting the tall pillars of rock. The mountains sprouted out from deep ravines, the sound of the running water was vaguely audible, even from how high up they were. It was a unique scenery. Taka knew exactly where to go however, after crossing the border, Suigetsu had caught one of Kumogakure's lower ranking ninjas and interrogated him on Killer B's location and pointed out a specific temple the jinchuriki would be at. Low and behold, the shinobi hadn't lied. They arrived at the bottom of a long staircase where they stopped for a moment and exchanged glances between each other.
Taka had discussed battle tactics and came up with a plan despite going into the battle blindly. They knew nothing of Bee's abilities or physical prowess so coming up with an accurate plan wasn't the easiest. They had concluded that Karin would stay far out from the fray and would act as the team's eyes and ears while the three men charged in to overwhelm the jinchuriki. Sasuke turned to Karin specifically and nodded his head to her before speaking.
"Remember, stay far away from him and analyze his techniques. Be careful. Let's end this quick."
He had a fierce look I his eyes as well as a slightly protective look. Her cheeks turned a shade of pink from his words, it was flattering that he warned her only and not the others. Suigetsu had opened his usual loudmouth to shoot out a snarky comment but refrained. This wasn't the time or place to bicker. The redhead nodded her head, and they began making their way up the stairs.
The scenery at the top of the stairs wasn't much different than the way here, apart from the terrain being completely flat with the entrance to the temple at the far end. There was a lake of water on the side and other staircases leading down to different levels. In the middle of the plane was a man sitting cross legged with his back to the team. The man had dark skin and slicked back bleach blonde hair with a white forehead protector. He wore a standard white sleeveless Kumo flak jacket with a multitude of swords attached on his back and black loose pants. Round black sunglasses his his eyes from view and matching blonde facial hair circled his mouth. It wasn't until he stood up from his meditating position that they could see his large and muscular build. He also rivaled Jugo in height, standing only one inch shorter than the gentle giant, which itself was a little intimidating.
Sasuke stepped up and spoke in a more menacing and demanding voice while Karin began to move away from the team and head further away.
"Are you the Eight-tailed beast?" The Uchiha demanded while the blonde stretched his neck and sighed at the question.
"Now who in the hell decided to interrupt my meditation setting, yo?"
Karin and Suigetsu both raised their brows at the way he spoke. He spoke in a sort of melodic way, the rhythm of his words sounding as if he was trying to sing them. It was strange.
"NOW! You will refer to me as Lord Eight Tails sir, awright? Try again."
Sasuke scoffed at the man's words and watched him wave his index finger at him. Suigetsu rolled his eyes and took his sword off of his back and pointed it at the jinchuriki, growling lowly.
"I'll kick his ass even if he isn't, quit bein' stupid, guy!"
"It's him." Sasuke spat out and unsheathed his sword and activated his sharingan, preparing himself for battle. Before the leader could say anything more, the brash water ninja dashed forward towards Killer B offensively and jumped into the air, coming down with a downward slash at what seemed like an unfazed and unprepared jinchuriki. Once the impact hit, the terrain had sunk into a small crater and stone went flying around them but when the dust settled, Suigetsu was in a stand still with Killer B, who shockingly caught the enormous blade by its sides.
"Y'all some dirty players, man. You were s'posta gimme time to spit some rhymes, yo!"
Suigetsu grunted and resisted against the opponent's powerful hands and spat, growling before shouting.
"You're pissing me off!"
"Don't be mad, get glad, lad~"
The taller man twisted his core and spun in place, twisting the sword out of Suigetsu's hands and tossed it up in the air, letting it land behind himself. Suigetsu dashed away from him and Jugo came rushing in on the right side, curse mark activated while Sasuke came at Killer B from the left side. With incredible speed and footwork, Bee spun on his heels and bent over, completely evading Jugo's large extended punch and grabbed Suigetsu's sword, swinging the sword like a bat and hit Jugo in the torso with the blunt side of the sword, sending the large ginger flying across the terrain. Within a split second he threw the sword back up in the air and unsheathed two of the swords on his back and blocked a sideways slash from Sasuke and overpowered the Uchiha by shoving him back a few feet before he threw a swift kick into Sasuke's side, giving him his turn to go flying and tumbling in the dirt. He bent over and extended his arms to the side and caught the water nin's blade with his neck and spun it around like a hula hoop. He lifted his head and looked at Taka who regained their composure.
"Yeah, I'm peekin' at you, but your braincells are few!"
Karin had stood back as ordered and watched the ordeal, gritting her teeth. 'What a clown…' She thought to herself as she focused on his chakra. Even without utilizing his tailed form, his chakra was overwhelming. It was extremely powerful and was an indicator that this battle was going to be more difficult than they had all anticipated. She would need to see more to be able to accurately analyze his movements.
Sasuke composed himself and regulated his breathing before dashing back at Killer B who removed the blade from his neck and held it by the hilt, swinging it horizontally, forcing Sasuke to change the direction of his attack, spinning his own blade and planting it into the ground vertically and successfully blocked, taking his turn to use the hilt of the sword to launch himself up into the air and flipped, taking a dive down, planting the sword into the hole of Kubikiribōchō to stop all movement and spun on the hilt, launching a strong kick into Bee's neck, barely making him flinch or stagger. The blonde smirked and dropped the large blade and threw a powerful jab into Sasuke's stomach, knocking the wind out of him and sent him flying into a pillar. From where lightning began to emerge and Sasuke had gotten into his Chidori position, sending charges into his sword but was soon interrupted by Karin.
"Sasuke, don't! He can stream his chakra; lightning won't work on him!"
The raven-haired swordsman cursed under his breath and supressed the lightning. He dashed forward once again, but B's astonishing speed came to light again when he tossed Kubikiribōchō to the side and unsheathed all of own blades, anticipating the attack, he threw a couple into the air and took a front flip to follow the blades, jumping over Sasuke's head and shot five of his swords into the Uchiha's back, the blades impaling into him, ending with a flawless landing by B. Sasuke's eyes widened as he felt the swords fall into his flesh and fell forward, coughing out some blood and emitted a painful grunt.
"Like a butterfly, I fly. Like a bee, I sting! Nah, that's not good…"
"Shit!" Suigetsu shouted. Karin stood in the distance with her hands over her mouth in shock. Suigetsu ran and grabbed his sword, going straight for B while Jugo came as fast as he could and picked Sasuke up, rushing him to Karin's side. Jugo set the raven-haired male down into Karin's lap after she collapsed onto her knees. She carefully removed the swords that stuck out of his body and tossed them to the side, clenching her teeth as Sasuke groaned and grunted in pain. She tore her sleeve up her shaky arm and held it in front of his mouth. Jugo leapt back into the action further away to assist the water nin.
"Bite, Sasuke!"
He did as he was told and spat some blood to the side before opening his mouth and clamping down onto her arm and a green aura started to emerge, indication that Karin's chakra was transferring into Sasuke, healing his wounds, and filling him with renewed energy, his wounds quickly closing, and the pain began to fade away almost instantly. With how hard he bit her, she couldn't prevent a moan from escaping her lips, thank the gods Suigetsu wasn't around to make fun of her. With her free hand she ran her fingers through his dark hair, damp with sweat and sighed in relief at the visible effects of her abilities. He took his mouth off of her arm and took a deep breath and sat up, pulling away from his healer. Karin moved a hand and touched his shoulder to get his attention before speaking.
"Sasuke, if Suigetsu could get a water jutsu off and drench him, you could use your Chidori effectively. He can channel chakra through one point only, he won't be able to deflect it. His movements are very linear, watch his feet."
"Thanks." Sasuke glanced at the redhead and gave her a nod and softly patted her head, walking past the kneeling redhead to go help his struggling teammates. Jugo had been knocked back while a pissed off Suigetsu was in an all-out swordfight with the powerful enemy. Bee could have probably knocked the water ninja out already, but he was clearly antagonizing him.
"Yer lucky I'm ordered to keep you alive, you bastard!"
Suigetsu shouted as he slashed his giant sword towards his opponent who easily blocked the attack with much more force than before, shoving Suigetsu back multiple feet. Killer B chuckled, jumping back away from them and spun his swords in his hands before he sheathed them on his back, dusting his pants off, turning on his heels and stretched.
"You keepin' me alive, is helpin' me survive, ya fool. Ya fool! I'm outta here, I'm bored and got some sake at home that's callin' my name. See ya!"
The towering man placed his hands behind his head and began to walk away when Sasuke rushed to Suigetsu's side and informed him of Karin's plan. The sharp toothed man smirked widely and nodded as he ran forward, and waved his arm, creating a large water bubble above the jinchuriki and dropped it on him, drenching him from top to bottom, while Sasuke performed the hand signs for Chidori and rushed at him with lightning speed. Bee cursed and managed to spin around to block Sasuke's palm but couldn't evade the electricity, taking the Chidori that rooted him in place. Jugo followed up, dashing to the side and creating an enormous fist, driving it straight into Killer B's cheek, sending him rolling in the dirt. He stayed laying on the ground, face down in the dirt. Unfortunately, before Taka could revel in the short-lived victory, an orange-colored aura began to emerge and radiate around the jinchuriki and Karin gasped at the sight, feeling his chakra skyrocket.
"His chakra changed; his power is through the roof!"
The redhead shouted, but it wasn't new information for Sasuke. He had seen this before in Naruto, recalling their final fight at the Valley of the End and every other time he'd switched into his beast mode. But this guy was much older and far more experienced than Naruto was with his tailed beast, so the threat was much bigger.
"The fuck…"
Suigetsu spoke lowly as Taka watched Killer B slowly get up from the ground, eight tentacles flaring out around him, he looked like he was on fire. Although his eyes were hidden by the black shades, his eyes must have been crimson red. He cracked his neck and his fists, setting his sights on Sasuke. The three men got into defensive positions, assuming B was going to go on the offensive, and on the offensive he went. In a single flash, the jinchuriki appeared before Sasuke and cocked his arm and threw an immensely powerful punch into his side. All the Uchiha could do was gasp and yell out in pain as B's fist rammed into his ribcage, cracking most of the ribs, launching him into the dirt. Before anyone could react, he spun on his heel and roundhouse kicked Jugo into a pillar. Suigetsu took the opportunity to liquify himself and transfer himself into the lake to gain a bigger advantage. The entire time, Karin screamed in horror as B suddenly began to morph into his true form: Gyuki. Real, purple tentacles emerged, and he began to grow larger by the second. After just one minute, he turned into an enormous monster.
Karin ran towards Sasuke's wheezing body and dropped at his side, breathing frantically in panic as she threw her arm in front of his mouth. By the way Sasuke was wheezing, he had punctured a lung, but he was alive, so the heart wasn't affected thankfully. Tears pooled in her eyes when he bit into her arm reluctantly, her chakra reservoir was lower than she would have liked, but she didn't care. She didn't have time to think about it however, as one of the giant tentacles waved and came straight down towards her and Sasuke. She had to act, fast. Sasuke spat her arm out and Karin quickly turned towards the tentacle and suddenly shot out her chakra chains towards it, using them to push the tentacle back. She successfully repelled it, long enough for Suigetsu to turn himself into his own version of a water beast, using the water to throw a punch into the monster and distract it. Karin collapsed on her knees and clutched her stomach, completely spent, she panted heavily, feeling in pain. Even though she hadn't been hit, heaven forbid anything happened to her. Sasuke cursed under his breath and used all the power he had left to sit up to get Gyuki in his field of vision and activated the Mangekyo, wincing and wheezing as Karin supported his weight with her arms, he focused as hard as he could until blood started to trickle down his cheek from his eyes and a black fire erupted on the jinchuriki, making it suddenly cry out in pain and start wailing. Suigetsu got out of the water and got as far as he could from it, grabbing Jugo and helping him reach Sasuke. They watched the scene unfold.
"What the fuck."
Suigetsu muttered, watching as the beast burned alive through the unextinguishable fires. Slowly the beast weakened and reverted to its human form and Killer B collapsed to the ground, knocked out. Sasuke turned the sharingan off and collapsed as well.
"I…I don't have the chakra to heal him… But I have to try." Karin spoke in a quiet and exhausted tone.
He needs me.
She went to place her arm on her love's mouth, but the world began to get lighter and lighter until everything became white.
The last thing she saw was a dying Sasuke.
Did I fail?