A/N: So, I know it's not commonplace to tell your audience exactly how far there is to go, but:
There are now 4 chapters remaining in this story, counting this one, and excluding the epilogue (mild spoiler, I guess). Not gonna say my goodbyes yet, of course, but I did just wanna say that I've really enjoyed the journey to get even this far, and I hope you all have as well.
TRIGGER WARNING: If serious blood and gore isn't your thing, consider lightly skimming the first scene.
Time for Chapter 72
Enjoy!
'This might just be the worst day of my life.'
Shikamaru hastily shifted through his pouch in search of a tool that could be of use. He was dangerously low on supplies, and his chakra pool was nearly empty. The battle had been a grueling one on several levels. HIs foe, whom he had learned to be named Tayuya, had proven to be an unorthodox problem to solve. Her abilities were an unsavory combination of unusual and potent, and while she was far from the best tactician Shikamaru had faced in battle, she was intelligent enough to make her advantages count. The Nara had managed to secure several significant victories, namely the destruction of her flute several minutes prior, a straightforward issue remained.
He was badly outgunned.
Immediately upon losing her weapon and all of the abilities it granted her, Tayuya had undergone a sudden and grotesque transformation. Her skin had tanned to a burnt brown color, her sclera had blackened, and ram-esque horns had sprouted from her head. Every change had stemmed from the black tattoo on her collarbone. One that strongly resembled Satsuki's own marking. The resulting power up Tayuya had experienced was staggering. Though their direct clashes had been limited, they had always been fairly even when they did occur. On the single occasion Shikamaru had dared to match physicality with her after her change, he had been sent flying through several tree branches. The poor decision had earned him a badly bruised rib cage.
Taking a cautious glance around the thick tree trunk he was hidden behind, Shikamaru was met with the sight of Tayuya less than thirty feet from him. By sheer luck, her attention was focused in another direction. Yanking his head back behind the tree, the Chunin took a deep breath. He had learned a number of things about the girl throughout their lengthy encounter. Most importantly, that she was not a sensor. She could not determine his location without a direct view of him, or an obvious tell. Additionally, she had become slowly more hesitant about directly pursuing him. Likely due to his diligence about establishing the threat of waiting traps should she become too bold. He had given himself as much leeway as he could.
'She'll find me eventually. Even if playing keep-away did work, there's a chance she'll just go after the rest of the team. Can't have that.' Shikamaru thought to himself as he took stock of what he had to work with once more. His situation was dire, but there existed a lone glimmer amid the bleak dark.
'I've got enough chakra to strangle her if I can get close and lock her down.' he thought to himself. It was an incredibly hazardous idea, as it would leave him both unable to perform ninjutsu and almost certainly injured if it were to fail, but as things stood, it was his only chance. As seemingly simple as it was at its surface, there were wrinkles that made the tactic more difficult to execute than it would appear at a first glance. Chief among them being the proposition of being able to perform the jutsu at all before being clobbered.
'The second I step out, she'll charge me. She's faster than me, and I'm tired. My hands won't be free at first either.' he thought to himself grimly. The odds of him being badly injured were exceptionally high. Nearly a guarantee. Shadow Possession required him to plant himself in one place. Timing of utmost precision was needed. Seeing no other option, nor any point in dwelling further, Shikamaru marshaled the last of his chakra.
'Here goes nothing.'
At this thought, he produced a kunai, put it between his teeth, stepped around the tree, and charged toward his nearby opponent. Tayuya heard him immediately, turning toward him with a grin. She quickly launched out to meet him.
"About damn time!" she yelled eagerly. As Shikamaru had predicted, she was much faster than he was. They would hardly be meeting in the middle so much as she would be bearing down on him mere steps from where he had started. Far from ideal, but still workable. There was a branch just below them that could be used as a canvas for the Chunin's shadow. For the first few fractions of a second, all went according to the loose plan Shikamaru had thrown together only moments ago. Her approach was linear, and they were already far too close together for her to change her course. It would still be difficult, and far from pleasant, but the Nara's confidence in his scheme grew ever so slightly.
As they closed in on one another, Shikamaru reached out to stop her charge by hand as best he could. Then, at the last possible second, Tayuya diverted her course. Lacking the space to veer left or right, the girl dropped her levels. The change in posture left Shikamaru;s outstretched hands grasping at air, and rendered him utterly defenseless as Tayuya impaled him just under the sternum with one of her horns. Red saliva flew from Shikamaru's mouth as the wind was forcefully knocked out of him. But, despite the pain searing through his chest, he kept his head level.
As they flew down toward the tree at his back, Shikamaru grit his teeth and drove his right leg back behind him. His heel slammed into the trunk of the thick tree and sent them both sliding down several feet before they landed upright on the branch Shikamaru had selected earlier. Reaching down, he took Tayuya by her neck and pushed back with all his might. After a brief struggle, he managed to dislodge her horn from his body and pull her upright. He then let go of her and formed the hand sign he was so very familiar with. Instantly, their shadows merged together. Tayuya immediately attempted to force her way out of his grip, but the Nara held her firm.
"Leaving so soon?" he joked as blood ran out from between his teeth. The girl scowled at him with contempt. They were less than a foot apart.
"You used your own body as bait to get me closer." she growled. Shikamaru smirked as best he could. It was a meager effort. His pain threshold was at its absolute limit.
"Not really. I had something cleaner in mind. You just went and screwed it up for me." he admitted. He then altered the flow of his chakra through their shared shadow. Shape transformation was a difficult concept even under normal circumstances, but while utterly exhausted and gravely wounded, it was requiring every ounce of his focus. Slowly, painstakingly, a black hand began creeping its way up Tayuya's body.
"You're done." he rasped as the hand crawled over her collarbone. Tayuya's eyes cut down to the ethereal limb. Her entire body tensed a moment later, corresponding with a massive wave of resistance crashing into Shikamaru. The hand stopped just short of her windpipe and stagnated. She was putting up a vicious fight.
"So are you, the minute this doesn't work." Tayuya countered between grunts of exertion. Her horns then thickened and grew slightly. She was squeezing out every drop of power she had. Shikamaru attempted to do the same in response, but his reserves were empty. He had nothing left to give. A further push might kill him.
'It's either that or the blood loss.' he decided. He had failed enough. If there was ever a time to find a way, it was now. Scrounging what little he could find, he let out a pained yell of frustration as the shadow inched up Tayuya's throat just a bit more. Then, just as it seemed that he had finally clawed his way to some sort of advantage, their shadows disconnected. He had burned out the last of its duration with his final attempt to end things. With her freedom renewed, Tayuya wasted no time in jumping back away from Shikamaru to a branch at a safe distance.
Once there, she dropped to a knee and began heaving deep breaths. The battle had taken its toll on her as well. Shikamaru stumbled back several steps until his back hit the tree trunk. He was well and truly cornered. Rising to her feet after a moment, Tayuya pulled a stray kunai from the wood at her feet.
"You're good, and I respect that, but you're a dead man." she said darkly. She then sent the kunai whistling toward him with a trajectory trained on his open wound. Shikamaru stared the blade down defiantly. He would face his end with his attitude intact. However, his chance at an honorable death did not come to pass.
Just before the kunai could enter the final five feet of its journey, it was picked clean out of the air and pinned to a nearby tree by a senbon through its butt-end loop.
"What the hell?" Tayuya exclaimed, frantically searching their surroundings for the culprit who had thwarted her attempt on the Chunin's life. Though he was initially just as puzzled as his foe, Shikamaru was provided an answer to the mystery at hand within seconds. Coinciding with a frigidly cold wind blowing through the trees, a third entity joined the battlefield.
In a motion so silent that it nearly seemed ghostly, a figure touched down directly behind the horned girl. It took no time at all for Shikamaru to identify them by the hawk-faced mask they wore. Somehow, someway, Haku had arrived at his aid. What came next would burn itself into Shikamaru's psyche for years to come.
Without a moment's hesitation, the huntress produced a pair of kunai and drove them hilt-deep into both sides of Tayuya's neck just as the henchwoman began to speak again. The girl's voice was instantly cut short, with blood splattering from her mouth mid-sentence. Haku then crossed her grips and ripped the knives across the front of Tayuya's throat, coming within centimeters of total decapitation. As the redhead lurched forward, Haku caught her by one of her horns and slammed her foot in between Tayuya's shoulder blades. A short, grotesque snapping and tearing sound followed as the sinew and bone broke off completely.
Tayuya's body lifelessly tumbled down to the forest floor below, bouncing off of several branches on the way down. Glowering down at her handiwork in silence for a moment, Haku breathed in deep, held the air, and released it. She then tossed Tayuya's severed head aside. The entire execution had taken less than fifteen seconds. Closer to ten. Brutal, efficient, and merciless. As Shikamaru stared at the huntress, whose hands and flak jacket were both stained with a copious amount of blood, a memory flashed through his mind.
"She's good at hiding it, but she isn't normal. You'd do well to remember that."
An icy shudder ran through his spine. He had never entirely forgotten, but his father's words were proving more prescient than was comfortable. He was afforded no more time to ponder, as Haku quickly turned her attention to him and jumped from her branch to his. Touching down on the edge of it, she pulled off her mask. Her face was full of concern and worry. A stark emotional contrast to her callous slaying of Tayuya only moments ago.
"Are you alright?" she asked urgently as she speed-walked toward him. Shikamaru held up a hand and turned his eyes elsewhere. The smell and sight of the blood all over her was testing his stomach. Doubly so paired with what he had just witnessed.
"Give me a minute." he requested through a cough. Stopping in her tracks, Haku did as she was told and quietly stood by as the Chunin gathered his wits and processed all that had happened so very quickly. Eventually feeling ready, he looked back in her direction again and did his best to ignore her hands and uniform.
"I'm fine. Just a little…" he began, trailing off when he couldn't find the words to express exactly what he was feeling. Haku took a glance down at the red on her front and gave an airy chuckle.
"In my defense, I was upset." she said awkwardly. Shaking his head to clear away the images of Tayuya's decapitation from his brain, Shikamaru changed the topic.
"I'm not complaining, but what are you even doing here?" he asked. Haku gestured back toward Konoha.
"My squadron was sent as backup. Hokage-sama is erring on the side of caution, and from the looks of you, he had the right idea." she said, stepping in a bit closer to him. She then reached out and grazed her fingers over the still-bleeding wound in his solar plexus. Shikamaru flinched in response.
"You're losing a lot of blood." she said, her voice growing quieter. The Nara sank down to his rear end against the trunk.
"She skewered me with one of her horns. I don't think she got in too deep, but breathing hurts." he explained. Haku knelt down to remain level with him.
"There's a medic on my team who should be on his way. I'll keep you company until he gets here. After that, you're going back to Konoha." she said. Shikamaru immediately shook his head.
"Hell no. I'm going after them." he insisted. Haku's lips pulled into a tight line. She then took hold of the bottom of his shirt and gently pulled it up to get a better look at the injury. After a few seconds of assessment, she looked him in the eyes.
"If you try to run and jump, you'll bleed to death. It doesn't help that it's freezing out here." she said grimly. Shikamaru swallowed iron-tinged saliva.
"Can you stop the bleeding?" he asked. Haku paused for a moment to consider the possibility. She then reached into her pouch and rummaged around in its contents.
"Yes, but I don't know any medical ninjutsu. It'd have to be done by stitches, and we don't have anesthetic." she said. It was far from the answer Shikamaru had been hoping for, but it was unsurprising.
"Do it." he replied. Haku opened her mouth to protest, but closed it. She appeared to recognize that he wouldn't budge. Soon enough, she had removed a few feet of wire from her supply pack and bit off the end of it to create a thread.
"This is going to hurt more than you're ready for. Trust me." she warned him. Shikamaru ignored her, instead pulling his shirt over his head and gripping it in his lap.
"In advance, I'm doing this with lots of love." Haku muttered. She then touched his wound again, and pinched it closed with her thumb and index fingers. A horrible wave of pain washed through Shikamaru's entire body. The following eight minutes were easily the most painful of the Chunin's life. Despite Haku's efforts to be delicate, the process was horrific to the point of nearly blacking him out.
"Almost done." Haku said as she pulled the penultimate stitch through his skin. With one last small incision, she finished the procedure and tied off the end of the wire. As a last touch, she made a hand sign with her left hand and touched the stitches with two fingers. A sharp cold then rippled through Shikamaru.
"Is it over?" the Nara asked, his eyes finally opening again after having been squeezed shut at the start. By some miracle, not a single tear had escaped him during the operation. Haku nodded and plucked his shirt out of his lap.
"It took more than I thought it would, but the wound is closed. I froze a little bit of blood at the surface to numb the pain and hold the stitches in place while you heal. You still need to see a real medic, but it'll work for now." she reported. She then took his wrists and slotted them through the sleeves of his shirt. Shikamaru leaned forward and allowed her to dress him. He certainly needed the help.
"How'd you learn how to give that kind of first aid?" he asked as he was helped up to his feet. Haku slung his arm over her shoulder.
"Trial and error." she said. Taking the answer for what it was, Shikamaru took a deep breath. The intake hurt far less than it had prior to the stitches, but letting the air go still caused a deep ache.
"Let's get moving. We're way behind." he said. Haku nodded and put her mask back on. She then took off with him in tow. As they bounded through the trees, the huntress appeared to recall something.
"You should know, we aren't working alone." she said vaguely. Shikamaru blinked a strand of her hair out of his eyes.
"Who else is out here?" he asked. While he could not see her face, the Chunin could practically feel Haku's eyes narrow.
"Gaara."
As winter's first speck of snow fell from the heavens, Naruto and Satsuki leapt across the trench between them with blades drawn. They met half-way, with their kunai clashing against one another with a small spray of sparks. Upon their collision, they locked eyes. All that had been said and done between them was irrelevant. What mattered was the outcome, and Naruto knew as much. Pushing back against the edge of her knife with his own, he immediately discovered something unsettling.
She was far physically stronger than she had been only a week prior.
Having easily neutralized his efforts to repel her backwards, Satsuki knocked his kunai aside and slammed her foot into the pit of his stomach. The kick hit him with an impact completely incongruent to the size of its deliverer. Naruto was sent soaring down toward the lower wall of the canyon at treacherous speed. Reorienting himself, Naruto turned sideways and caught himself on the rocky cliff face. Satsuki landed on the water a beat later. Wasting no time, the Jinchuuriki broke into a sprint down the wall, with the Uchiha making a similar advance.
He reached the water several seconds later with eyes firmly fixed on Satsuki. They came together a second time with a solid surface beneath their feet. Naruto led the dance with a spearing punch aimed for her nose. Satsuki made him miss by slipping out to his left side, and made him pay by pulling him into a harsh knee to the gut by the collar of his jacket. Having been braced for such a counter, Naruto retaliated without a hitch. Breaking her grips on his jacket by pulling on her wrists, he released one of her arms to cleave in his elbow toward the side of her head.
But, despite the tight quarters, Satsuki ducked right under his swinging arm and evaded damage for a second time. She then popped back upright and clattered the underside of his jaw with a short uppercut that knocked his teeth together and sent him reeling back a few steps. Not only was she stronger than before, she was significantly faster. Whatever she had been put through since her departure the previous night had been tremendously effective. Putting the lost exchange behind him, Naruto stepped forward into the fire again.
This time, Satsuki awaited his approach with stoic patience. Layering his offense more carefully, the Jinchuuriki stopped his charge just short of her. The feint drew no reaction whatsoever out of the girl. Opting to take a chance regardless, Naruto dug a punch in toward her abdomen. Satsuki raised up her shin and caught the blow on her knee. She then shifted her stance, turned her hips, and whipped her shin over the top of his shoulder right into the side of his head. The kick knocked Naruto off balance and forced him to take an adjustment step. As he regained his bearings, Satsuki exploded into a pair of punches that assaulted his jaw on both sides.
Showing a hint of overaggression, Satsuki attempted to strike him a third time, but it opened a much needed door for Naruto to finally establish his own offense. Planting in front of her, Naruto siphoned chakra through his right hand and slashed it across Satsuki's stomach. The Uchiha was forced to leap backwards reflexively to avoid being split wide open. With space between them again, Naruto rubbed the side of his face. He had managed to cut open her shirt, but it did not appear that he had broken her skin.
The clearest lesson to take from the first dust up was that Satsuki had likely been preparing for such a fight for quite some time. Her counters and defensive maneuvers were instantaneous, without the need for probing. She had been studying him during each and every sparring match they had ever shared. She had a set of pre-loaded responses ready for him, and the impetus would be on him to find ways around them and break his own habits.
'I…guess we were never really on the same page, then.' Naruto thought to himself. He had hoped to never face her, or any comrade, in serious combat. He shelved the sentiment quickly and manifested his wind-infused chakra with both of his hands as a catalyst. The blades had been extremely effective in their lone outing against Neji, and for all her skill, Satsuki was no Hyuga in terms of taijutsu. The pair then rushed at one another. As he had expected, the presence of his serrated chakra provided him with far more success.
Though he did not win the majority of the exchanges, the subsequent two minutes of fighting were much more competitive. Though he only touched her with the edges of his blades one time, the mere threat of them allowed Naruto to land several clean blows, including a backpedaling punch behind Satsuki's ear that buckled her and briefly sent her to her knees. The success had been sharply repaid, with Satsuki knocking the blonde flat with a kick to the chest immediately after recovering. The extended duel came to a momentary halt after one particular trade in which Naruto was able to establish a firm hold on the girl and throw her backwards at an upward angle.
Remaining upright and alert even while airborne, Satsuki threw together a near-automatic set of hand signs and reared her head back.
"Fire Stye: Fireball Jutsu!" she yelled, sending forth a searing blast of flames down toward Naruto. The Jinchuuriki leapt straight upward to avoid being incinerated, but Satsuki was waiting for him. Whipping out a line of steel wire, the Uchiha ensnared Naruto's left arm in a tangle. She then put the wire between her teeth. A line of burning flames traveled down the wire from her lips with alarming speed.
The first blast had merely been a distraction, and a means to force him to move. She had formed the signs for her Dragon Flame during his jump. Naruto frantically tugged at the loose knot binding his forearm, breaking it free with no time to spare. The stream of fire flew right by him and hit the stone wall behind him. Forming his own hand signs, Naruto returned fire with his own ninjutsu.
"Wind Style: Vacuum Bullets!" he called out. A storm of pressurized pockets of air came volleying in toward Satsuki, who was still hanging in the air alongside him. The Uchiha twisted her body to evade the bullets, but only managed to dodge six of eight. The final two struck her in the shoulder and lower leg respectively. Satsuki let out a short cry of pain and tumbled out of the air, splashing into the cold water. Naruto landed much more soundly, with all of him remaining above the surface. He was given little time to celebrate his small victory, as Satsuki climbed her way out of the lake a moment later.
Spitting water out of her mouth and shaking out her leg, Satsuki glared at the blonde. She looked much more irritated than shaken or concerned. Naruto cracked a smile. He was hardly happy, but mental warfare could work in his favor.
"Sorry, I forgot that you don't like water much." he said jabbingly. Satsuki slicked her soaked bangs out of her face and cracked her neck.
"You haven't noticed yet, have you?" she asked. Naruto frowned, not quite following whatever clues she may have been providing him.
"What?" he questioned. Satsuki smirked and closed her eyes. When they snapped open again, her black irises had been replaced by her dual-tomoe sharingan. Naruto's stomach dropped. Indeed, he had not realized until just then that her dojutsu had been inactive. He had barely broken even with her against what essentially amounted to her worst.
"Let's fight for real now." Satsuki said. She then vanished from view. When she reappeared, it was with her first buried in his gut. Naruto winced and flinched, but attempted to strike her in return with a hooking punch. The Uchiha caught and parried it, and sent him sprawling back with a shorter, cleaner punch to his cheek. Though he landed on his feet, Naruto was instantly laced with three more punches when Satsuki caught up with him less than a second later. As he was wont to do, Naruto held his ground and fought back, but he was roundly battered for daring to do so.
Each and every attempt he made to counter her hit nothing but air, and he was ruthlessly punished without fail. Satsuki was moving no faster and hitting no harder than before, but her eyes were granting her a level of precognition and reflexive awareness that rendered her untouchable. Clenching his jaw after having his head snapped back by a sharp punch between his eyes, Naruto took a stab at his wayward partner with his chakra-bladed hand. Satsuki easily side-stepped it and seized his arm, torquing his elbow joint at a painful angle.
"You're predictable." she hissed. A surge of numbing electrical chakra then surged through Naruto's body through their physical contact. The shock froze him up for a moment, leaving him wide open for the heavy overhand punch Satsuki cracked him with a half-beat later. The blow sent Naruto skipping across the water until he crashed back-first into the rocks. When she wanted to, Satsuki could output crushing amounts of power.
Sitting up slowly against the cliffside, Naruto labored up to his feet. Surprisingly, Satsuki hadn't moved from the place she had launched him from. Though he initially assumed this to mean that she was simply awaiting his return to counter his aggression, a closer look at her revealed something else entirely. Her face, which had been largely calm and stoney from the outset, was visibly twisting into discomfort. There was hesitation in her body language. Naruto's expression softened ever so slightly at the sight of her, but his resolve remained unshaken. There was still work to be done.
Producing a smoke bomb from his pouch, Naruto tossed it out toward the girl and charged. Satsuki backed up in response, but was unable to retreat far before Naruto threw a shuriken into the bomb and set it off. With an obstruction to lessen the potency of her vision, the Jinchuuriki threw himself toward her with greater confidence than before. Her eyes were troublesome, but they were eyes all the same. They could be thwarted. With a kunai drawn, he burst through the smoke and shoulder-checked the Uchiha. His bodyweight sent her back a step. She hadn't seen him coming.
Swinging his blade for her chest, Naruto's wrist was caught. Though a negative on the surface, her success in defending his initial attack acted as a boon in the bigger picture. Yanking against her grip, Naruto brought her in close to him and slammed his forehead into hers. The headbutt stunned them both, but Satsuki came out of it worse for wear, with a buckle in her knees. Taking a handful of her, the Jinchuuriki hoisted her off the ground and spun her around twice before throwing her toward the opposite end of the canyon.
Well aware that he needed to apply far more pressure, Naruto threw together a series of signs and launched a swarm of vacuum bullets through the smoke in the direction he had thrown her. When he emerged from the cloud, running at full speed, he saw exactly what he had been hoping to see. Satsuki was evading his bullets, but doing so while retreating. Naruto pressed on aggressively. When he finally caught up with her, she attempted to pivot around him, but was unable to do so due to her back hitting the wall. Their positions had been reversed.
Waiting just a bit longer than usual in front of her, the blonde's nerve won out, and Satsuki swung first. Just barely dipping under her punch, Naruto drove his fist deep into her gut. It was his first clean connection since the Uchiha's sharingan had become a factor. The force of his punch slammed Satsuki into the wall, and forced a wheezing cough out of her. The Jinchuuriki was still some distance from being in control, but it was a start. Unfortunately, even with such a golden opportunity falling into his lap, Naruto was unable to silence the emotions flaring up within him. Rather than striking her further, he grabbed her by the shoulders and pinned her in place.
"Are we done yet? There's no point to this. You're hating it as much as I am." he said. Satsuki strained and struggled against him, but his grip was strong.
"If you're feeling like quitting, then by all means, but don't put words in my mouth." she growled back. Naruto shook his head.
"We don't have to do this. This can be over any time you want it to." he affirmed. In the back of his mind, he knew all too well that he was making an error attempting to reason with her, but even his logical side couldn't have predicted just how grave a mistake it truly was. With a glazed-over look in her eyes, and the tattoo on her neck spreading up a few inches, Satsuki tilted her head off to one side.
"You're right. It can be." she said with ominous calm. Before Naruto could even begin to speak again, the Uchiha laid her palm flat against the left side of his chest. An acute, powerful pulse of electricity then blasted through his body. Naruto's eyes snapped wide, and his hands slipped from Satsuki's shoulders. He was promptly kicked away, and when he landed again, he fell right into the water. As he sank, Naruto's mind raced to find an explanation for what exactly she had done to him, but he was in shock. The true answer eluded him, and it was far worse than any assumption he had flirted with.
She had stopped his heart.
A/N: I promised you all a Friday update, so here ya go. I don't usually update at night, but I figure it's not *super* late, so this should be fine.
So, for this chapter specifically:
I am WELL AWARE that Haku's scene is easily the most graphic of the entire fic. Straight up beheaded her. But, I feel like it fits the tone of the story as of now, and works for Haku specifically. I apologize if it was too much, but I did warn you up above.
Naruto vs Satsuki will get sole focus from here on out (with one exception, either next chapter or the one after it).
I hope the fight choreography is passable? I still don't think I'm great at them, but as long as you guys can follow the action, that's enough for me.
Please tell me your thoughts in a review. This is the climax of the fic, and I wanna know how you guys are feeling about where things stand. Not too much more to go
I love you all
See you on Christmas! ;)
