And the fight begins!
Also, forgive any spelling errors. I'm posting this up without reading it through because it's almost 6am.
I'll do it later.
Enjoy!
Promises Not Made are Promises Never Kept
Chapter Thirty-One: Vengeance on the Wind
The screams were deafening as Sasuke entered the arena - built with some tree cover, but mostly open space. Those who hadn't seen his episode at the preliminaries hungered for blood and excitement and screamed their demands. Those that had... stayed silent. Haku and Inaré hadn't been there to witness it, and Sasuke could only wonder if Zabuza had told them anything as his gaze drifted up to look at them from where they stood in the stands.
The earth was dry beneath his feet, and the wind dried his lips.
There's not a lot of moisture in this air at all. He thought as his gaze dropped to the fiery red hair that floated on the other side of the arena. His eyes narrowed angrily. Already, nature favors him.
"Sasuke, have you already decided that this isn't a overreaction?" Ragnarok's voice - deep and rumbling - echoed through his head, almost as if the creature were whispering in his ear. "If not, I suggest you consider the idea. It may clear your mind."
"I have to react enough for the both of us, right?" Sasuke quipped beneath his breath as he realized his breathing was already beginning to pick up just by being in the same space as the other. "He hurt Haku. His teammate almost killed Inaré. I need to kill him."
"Haku is alive," Ragnarok quietly reminded him. "As is Inaré. Is that not enough?"
It should've been. It should've been and Sasuke knew it, as he knew Ragnarok knew. However, that didn't make him any less angry.
"You should've just let me kill Sai," he muttered bitterly.
"Yes, and you would be completely calm right now," Ragnarok replied dryly - with a tone that Sasuke recognized would be his closest attempt to sarcasm.
"It's him or me," Sasuke stated simply. "He's going to try to kill me. So I have to kill him first. That's just in the nature of his kind of beast."
"And trying to kill him in response to him trying to kill you is the correct response?" Ragnarok asked plainly. Sasuke shrugged a little.
"A thousand years ago that was your logic too," he breathed softly. He thought there would be a reply, but there wasn't. The sense of someone hovering over his shoulder became less and less pressing as he felt the great deity retreat a little further away from his conscience - back into his own side of the cave.
Maybe that had been a little harsh. But at the same time, not really. It wasn't like the creature had any feelings. Ragnarok had probably just seen that trying to convince him was useless and gave up.
"Just let me do this, Ragnarok," Sasuke told his companion without moving his lips. "I need to do this. For Haku. For Inaré."
"Do whatever you want, little lion. I will protect my host no matter the decision," Ragnarok stated. "But do not fool yourself for a moment that you're doing this for them. This is for you and only you. This is pure, selfish vengeance."
Sasuke knew how right he was. But he couldn't bring himself to admit it. It was Gaara's fault - not his. Gaara should've just quit when he had the chance.
"I'll do more than just kill you," he swore beneath his breath, fingers curling into fists as his gaze locked with Gaara's, his shoulders tensing. "I'll annihilate you."
"BEGIN!"
Sand poured out of Gaara's gourd instantaneously, fueled by the rage Sasuke had seen in the redhead's eyes only moment before as it swept towards the Terranova like a living tidal wave.
Sasuke broke out into a dash towards the opposite wall, ducking and dodging attacks from the sand and leaping up, grabbing a tree branch and swinging fowards to hit the massive wall of the arena.
His feet gripping the vertical surface like he had been trained, sprinting along the wall as the sand smashed and crashed against it behind him, the people in the stands cheering as he passed by.
Eyes firmly on Gaara, he continued to run until he was almost even with him before leaping off the wall and sailing for his opponent.
Expectedly, the sand reared up to defend its master, and Sasuke moved like wind in midair, ducking and dodging and sliding past the defenses with cruel, determined grace.
I'm going to get to you. He thought - almost wickedly as he burst through the sand to find Gaara right below him. There's no way you can escape me-!
Chakra flaring up and down his arm, Sasuke vanished from the space above the redhead and reappeared right behind him, crouched and posed to kill.
"GAARA!" Temari cried.
Immediately, the sand swept back to the teen and surrounded him in a sphere, instantaneously hardening as the Terranova sliced his fist upwards-
Sasuke's attack smashed against the newly-formed barrier uselessly, and the sheer amount of Chakra he had put into the attack diffused on impact, exploding over the top of the sphere in a blue cloud of electric smoke.
When the smoke cleared, spikes litered the surface of the shield, narrowly missing Sasuke.
The same defense as before! He thought, having repositioned himself just in time to dodge a very inconvenient impalement. Dammit!
Immediately, he waged war against the defense, delivering blow after blow to the surface as he circled around it, dodging attacks that kept sinking back down and reemerging in hopes of hitting him as he spun and kicked and punched. All of that anger and frustration and hopelessness he had felt during the preliminaries came pouring out, and his assault was relentless and infuriated. His bloody knuckles smoothed over as broken bones mended themselves wordlessly, and the spectators could only watch in silence as they realized that what he was doing was completely useless.
"Sasuke..." Ragnarok breathed to him as he felt something pull at his limbs after several minutes- as if weights had become attached to them as the other spirit inside of him tried to make it harder and harder for him to pointlessly flail. "Sasuke, you should find another method."
Gasping, Sasuke jerked away from the sphere as if he had been yanked by a much more powerful person than he, and he stumbled backwards, coughing with sweat pouring down his face. Breathing hard, he looked up to see the dome completely unfazed.
"You fucking coward..." he bit out bitterly. "Face me." Then he roared, "FACE ME YOU FUCKING BITCH!"
Almost immediately, the sand withdrew and Gaara's face revealed itself in all its fury as sand sent itself towards Sasuke's voice.
Except Sasuke wasn't there.
Gaara turned his face the opposite way just in time to greet the fist being slammed into it, and Inaré let out a cheer along with Dagina as the redhead sailed sideways to hit the ground and skid along the floor of the arena, a dust cloud rising at his passage.
"Oh my God he hit him!" Kankuro gasped, still wrapped up in bandages.
Landing, Sasuke took a breath, held it, then slowly released it. A smug smirk on his face, he rose and took his wrist in hand, rolling it in his palm as he felt the joint pop.
"Satisfied?" Ragnarok asked him.
"No..." he breathed as Gaara twitched, his fingers spasming as he struggled to pick himself up off the floor. The Terranova leaped forward. "Not even close-!"
He charged towards the redhead, sprinting across the arena as Gaara fought to pick himself up with a hollow groan.
"GAARA GET UP!" Temari exclaimed.
"Are you sure charging is such a good idea?"
"Shut up," Sasuke snapped as he ran. "After all, it's not like you can just let me die-!"
Lunging at Gaara - who was still partially on the ground, shaking - he thrust his other fist forward directly at the sand nin's head.
His enemy managed to throw himself sideways and Sasuke's fist crashed into the dirt, burying itself up to his elbow with the momentum. A wild look in his eyes, Sasuke turned to face Gaara's direct and pushed with the buried arm, and with an explosion of dirt and sand his fist burst out of the earth and allowed his fingers to snake through the sand ninja's red strands.
He wasn't allowed to go any further with that idea. The sand finally managed to wrap around his limbs, yanking him away from Gaara and pulling out a good chunk of the other male's hair.
Trapped, Sasuke was thrown to the ground as the sand coiled around the guilty arm-
The Terranova let out a choked scream as one of the bones in his forearm snapped as the sand twisted his arm mercilessly behind him, and pain flared through his left-hand side as the sand began to increase the pressure, crushing down and seeking to turn the remaining bones into powder.
"Sasuke!" Inaré cried as the Terranova reached up and gribbed the shoulder of the broken arm.
Fuck. He thought, gasping through the pain. His arm wouldn't heal until the bones were allowed to fall back into place, and they couldn't exactly do that if they were atomized. We're not just out to kill each other. We mean to torture each other.
Suddenly the sand yanked him up into the air, and he dangled fifty feet off the floor with the material consuming him to the shoulder. Gaara got to his feet with some assistance from his element, and he glared up at Sasuke, blood dripping from his lip.
"I won't forgive you..." he bit out. "For making me BLEED-!"
The sand reached up, taking Sasuke by all four limbs and stretching him out eagle-style, only his torso showing.
"DO SOMETHING RAGNAROK!" He mentally cried as Ragnarok nonchalantly watched.
"This is your fault," he stated simply, making no move to assist. "You must face the consequences."
"Ugh. Fucking bitch," Sasuke muttered as he fought against his restraints but was unable to break them. He couldn't even make one-handed signs as the pressure started increasing upon all of his limbs. "Does he need to break every bone in my body for you to finally do something about it?"
On ground level, Gaara placed his hands together as the remaining sand gathered amongst itself above him, readying for the assault.
"You'll suffer. Do you hear me?" His eyes widening, he thrust his hands forwards towards Sasuke. "YOU'LL SUFFER JUST LIKE THAT OTHER BASTARD DID!"
A face flashed through Sasuke's mind.
HAKU-!
Suddenly the people in the stands simultaneously gasped as the sand drilled forward on Gaara's command, the weapon punching a hole at least a foot wide and two feet tall through Sasuke's torso.
"NO!" Both Haku and Inaré both cried.
Sasuke's eyes widened as his threshold for pain was severely overcome, and he coughed raggedly as blood spewed from his lips upon the sand ramming him through, his entire body sagging.
"Hm," Ragnarok mused. "This might be a problem."
"Jerk," Sasuke weakly breathed as his head rolled in its socket. Slowly, he closed his eyes.
The sand released him, taking itself away from his chest, and Sasuke - gaping hole and all - fell to crash to the ground, lifeless and bloody.
There was complete silence as tears came to Inaré's eyes.
"No, not like that..." she bit out. "NO!" She exclaimed furiously. "NOT JUST LIKE THAT! SASUKE! YOU JERK! GET THE HELL UP!"
"Is he..." Naruto gasped. "Is he seriously dead?"
"You're lucky my instinct to live overrides my instinct to be right," Ragnarok stated simply as a certain pressure applied itself to the base of Sasuke's neck.
The wind began to pick up, and Kakashi lifted his head, sniffing.
"It smells like..." he breathed curiously. "...rain."
Before the stadium's eyes, water droplets began to form out of thin air, the hydrogen and oxygen atoms bonding out of some sheer will of their own to form dew drops that fell to the floor once formed. The trees and shrubs began to dry before their eyes, crinkling up and turning into nothing but ash as the water was sucked from them, top to roots.
The blood that Sasuke had lost - his blood and entrails and organs - dissolved into water too.
"This isn't over," Shikamaru realized in horror as he watched. "No. Not even close."
Suddenly the arena was flooded with water, and Gaara looked around in fear as water lapped around his ankles, shins, knees - it kept gathering until there was a thick layer of it and Sasuke was completely submerged. The sand retreated back into Gaara's gourd.
Then the water took on a life of its own, moving in a similiar way to Gaara's weapon as Sasuke's body was lifted up - almost like he was suspended in plasma. Silently, he hung there for a moment.
The water around him flinched, contracting within itself towards him as he seemed to be pressed from all sides.
Sasuke's eyes snapped open and he seemed to gasp, mouth going wide open as his torso seemed to be pressed into him, the water around him turning into his heart, lungs, blood and everything else Gaara had ordered hole-punched.
"NO WAY!" Kakashi cried.
Solidly, Sasuke dropped out of the water as it lingered behind him, gasping as the droplets on his skin took form.
Bright blue tribal tattoos appeared on his torso and back, almost shining as they seemed to carve themselves into the skin on his arms, neck and cheeks. A streak of crystal blue colored his jet black hair as the water seemed to suck the color out and replace it with its own. His ears lengthened at the crest ever so slightly, becoming sticky and webbed as his nails sharpened into talons. The vertebrae in his spine became more pronounced, poking sharply against the skin of his back as if seeking to pop out. Patches of scales, rough patches - a slight shade of blue but still mostly the same color as his skin - appeared on his shoulders, cheeks, back and hands as the muscles in his chest seemed to swell.
"This is the price you pay, little lion," Ragnarok breathed as the entire crowd gasped at the transformation. "The more of me you borrow, the more of me you become."
His eyes snapped open as his mouth opened, revealing rows and rows of razors for teeth.
His eyes were crystal blue. Like the color of water.
"That is the price you pay for vengeance."
End Chapter Thirty-One: Vengeance on the Wind
Doop-doop!
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Much love!
DDB
