Chapter twenty: Shadow

Keiji looked at the mysterious blue ninja for some time, trying to assess the ninja's potential. He was worried that this fight might involve Anko so he formed a barrier around himself and the ninja. This surprised the ninja, but at the same time it meant that there would be no interference. The ninja had seen the purple haired kunoichi fight and he didn't want to have to worry about her while he was fighting Keiji.

"My name is Matsumoto," said the ninja. "I take pleasure fro fighting and I'm always out to find good prey."

"You can save the introduction for your obituary," said Keiji. He took out his kunai and looked at Matsumoto waiting for the ninja to do something. The ninja wouldn't move so he thought to make the first move.

He rushed at the ninja, but as soon as he hit Matsumoto with a punch, Keiji found that the attack didn't even faze him. Keiji tried for a punch, but Matsumoto kicked him in the stomach before Keiji had a chance to reach him. Matsumoto grabbed Keiji and threw into the barrier causing Keiji to be pushed towards Matsumoto who drove his elbow into Keiji's stomach causing Keiji to throw up blood.

"That's my special elbow," said Matsumoto smiling. "It comes in handy when I want to increase the blood shedding. It hurts doesn't it?"

Keiji surprised Matsumoto by quickly recovering and punching Matsumoto in the face at a certain spot. The chakra armor that Matsumoto had masked was cracking. Keiji tried hitting it in three more spots, but he only got a chance to hit one when Matsumoto grabbed his left arm and twisted. Keiji grimaced in pain, but he didn't make a sound. Instead he shifted his foot so that it was right behind Matsumoto's ankle and tripped Matsumoto. Before the blue ninja could regain his feet, Keiji hit him in another point and got up on his feet.

"I see you found my chakra armor," said Matsumoto. "After all I did to mask it, your demon eyes saw through it."

"I'm going to kick your ass," said Keiji with a smirk on his face. "Why don't we heat things up?"

Keiji used a katon jutsu that caused a ring around Matsumoto, causing him to lose track of where Keiji was. Keiji moved in to punch Matsumoto in random places, making his chakra armor shatter. He then moved outside the ring and continued jumping in and out to hit Matsumoto. When he tried this a fourth time Matsumoto used a wind style jutsu and knocked Keiji into a rock that was inside the barrier.

"I'm not that easy to take down," said Matsumoto. He drove his right foot into Keiji's stomach and grinded him into the rock.

Keiji knocked the leg away and drove his fist into Matsumoto's face knocking him to the ground while Keiji regained his breath and vomited blood again. He was pissed and he started showing it by stomping on Matsumoto. He then started pounding on him till Matsumoto's lip split. Just as Keiji was about to continue, he felt metal slip through his ribs coming close to puncturing a lung. Keiji moved away from the blade and was pushed off. Matsumoto quickly regained his feet and was coming at Keiji with a katana in hand. Keiji quickly pulled out his kusanagi and parried the blue ninja's thrust. Matsumoto kicked Keiji in his wound causing him to drop to one knee as pain shot through his body. But Keiji wasn't going to be beaten so easily. He then started slashing at Matsumoto, who was forced to dodge each slash and was secretly being backed into a corner.

Just before Keiji could do anything, his opponent used his forearm guard to block one of Keiji's sword attacks and drove his sword into Keiji's stomach. Keiji slumped to the floor, tired from blood loss. Anko looked in horror at the sight of her husband kneeling in his own blood before a ninja with a sword. She didn't want to lose him, not before he had the chance to hold his child in his arms. She saw the family she had always wanted slipping out of her reach and all she could do was pray for a miracle. As Matsumoto brought his sword down, Anko saw that miracle as the blade was stopped by the sand protecting Keiji.

"You will not kill my best friend's godfather," said Gaara as he rose from the ground.

"I thought you got lost," said Keiji. Gaara had been on the outer part of the orb and was separated from the group. "Thanks for saving me, though coming before I lost half the blood in my body would have been good to."

"Don't be picky," said Gaara with a smile. "You can't choose the time when you'll be saed so don't complain when your rescuer shows up."

"If you two are done bickering I'm getting bored," said Matsumoto. He was a bit annoyed at Gaara's sudden interruption.

"I'm substituting for Keiji," said Gaara. Then he sent his sand out to fight Matsumoto who was holding it at bay with his sword, getting excited by the seemingly endless barrage.

"Now this is fun," said Matsumoto. "I think I'll start using some of my own jutsus."

He started calling on explosive jutsus to blast the sand away to clear a path for Gaara. When the path to Gaara was clear, Matsumoto rushed towards him, sword in hand. His katana pierced Gaara in the chest and he twisted the blade, enjoying Gaara's expression of shock and agony. Then Gaara smiled and began to change color. He turned back into sand and Matsumoto nearly fell over when he lost the object that he was putting all of his weight on. Gaara appeared right behind him and formed his sand into a hand with the index and middle finger pointing out. Matsumoto felt the pressure on his rectum as he was lifted into the air.

"Thousand years of pain sand style," said Gaara with a smirk. He then felt something hit on the outside of his sands protecting range it got in and hit Gaara. It was a rock that Matsumoto had thrown with great force.

Matsumoto regained himself rubbing his anus as he let his anger swell inside of him. He then rushed at Gaara, striking, but never getting past the sand. It was moving fast and he knew that the only way was by using a bushin. His bushin took his place as he waited for an opening hoping that Gaara was preoccupied with his bushin. What he didn't know, was that the sand moved on its own accord to protect Gaara so he could defend himself and attack at the same time. He noticed the real Matsumoto standing outside waiting for an opening so he strengthened his sand armor in a certain spot that he was going to leave open. Matsumoto took the bait and was hit by a sand spike which missed his vital organs. Matumoto used his kunai to cut into Gaara's sand armor, but was still having no luck with it.

He jumped back and said to Gaara, "We'll continue this some other time."

"Anytime," said Gaara. He watched as the blue ninja left. He thenm turned his attention towards Keiji. Anko was stopping the bleeding in some of his wounds, but he needed a medic.

"Do you know any medical jutsus," asked Anko.

"I'm sorry, but I don't know any," said Gaara now wishing he had learned some. "Do you know where Hinata is. I heard she learned some medical jutsus."

"I'm right here," said Hinata who had been with Orochimaru and Zabuza during the fight. "I know a few, but I think Naruto might know some jutsus that can treat wounds of that nature."

"So where is Naruto," asked Gaara.

"Right here," shouted Naruto as he ran down the mountain. "I won my fight how about Keiji."

Naruto stopped when he saw Keiji lying on the floor with Anko desperately trying to stop the bleeding. Naruto couldn't imagine Keiji losing to anyone and now that he saw it he just couldn't believe that any of it was real.

"Do you know any jutsus that can help him," asked Anko. "Please, if you know any that will work, I beg you, please use them."

"Most of my demonic jutsus won't work on him because of the demon eye," said Naruto. "But there is one that can stop the bleeding until we get back to our realm. Just move a side for a sec."

Naruto placed his hands above Keiji and charged his red chakra into his palm as he moved it over Keiji's wounds. They seemed to clot the blood and close his wounds up a bit, but antibiotics still had to be applied. Anko took out a needle and thread and began sewing the wound up and placed a piece of cloth on the outside.

"So where do we go now," asked Zabuza. "I don't want one of my comrades dying."

"That's a rare show of kindness," said Naruto. He then pointed to a clearing that had a black ring on its side. "There's the portal."

"How did you know that," asked Orochimaru.

"I asked for directions," said Naruto.

"I underestimated your intelligence Naruto-san," said Orochimaru. "I thought you might have tried running till you found your way out."

"I have the intelligence of the Kyuubi and the summons at my beck and call," said Naruto with pride. "Now I think everyone expects us back to tell them the war is over."

Tsunade was tapping her foot impatiently and she noticed Kakashi was reading one of Jiraiya's books again. She had the urge to beat him senseless for having her favorite ninja go in first to attack the Mizukage, even if he was the new Kyuubi. Shizune was pacing, but it was for a different reason. She didn't want to look at Kakashi since she had stolen his girlfriend. Shizune turned out to be a lesbian and she had just gotten Ayame to return her love. Even though Shizune enjoyed being with Ayame she couldn't help, but feel like she had stolen something from Kakashi. Kakashi was unfazed by the whole matter and had actually been spending more time with Kurenai and her child.

"Just how long ago was it that they left," asked Tsunade.

"Two days ago," said Kakashi. They were still on the ship waiting for the blond ninja to tell them that the war could be considered over.

"And you let him go in first to attack the Mizukage, Kyuubi or not," asked Tsunade as she cracked her knuckles. She was just about to beat the shit out of Kakashi when a strange orb appeared in the middle of the room. Out of the orb stepped Naruto followed by Hinata, Zabuza, Orochimaru, Gaara, and Anko holding a wounded Keiji. "What happened?"

"Keiji lost a fight," said Anko she was panicking with tears coming down her yes. "Please help him, Tsunade-sama."

"I'll see what I can do," said Tsunade. She applied chakra to fully heal up damaged in the internal organs, but she found something more chilling. Keiji's heart had stopped beating, but he was still breathing. His heart hadn't stopped beating recently; in fact his heart hadn't beaten for twenty years. He was a walking reanimated corpse. She figured that she'd keep the information to herself.

"Will he be alright," asked Anko.

"Yes he'll be fine," said Tsunade. "We'll get him to a hospital for him to recover, but first things first. Did you complete the mission?"

Naruto held up an object wrapped in white cloth with blood stains on it. "Here you go," he said as he handed the object to her.

"Where is Sagat," asked Zabuza.

"The truth is we don't know," said Kakashi.