Sasuke Uchiha's foot bucked against the tree, flexed--and tore his mass from the tree trunk. He spiraled in the air, spun, and slammed two meters distant on all fours. His head snapped at the bushes, blood-red filling his eyes. His Sharingan had awakened.
Had she lured him here? Why? To replace him? Sasuke didn't know...but none of that mattered, not if he didn't survive. He ringed a kunai and twirled the dagger. His heart pumped with vigor--not because he was scared, only the powerless are afraid. He was excited. Finally, a challenge to beat. Finally, another leap to surpass his brother.
"Tch," he scowled. "Your putrid inconfidence is rather admirable. Turn back on your word and arrange for help?"
"Oh no, don't take it like that," Shouten gestured at the two beings. Their deliberate gait made them look like automatons, and they etched ghostly contours as sunlight streamed through the leaves, waning soft shadows on the clearing.
"This is Christy, my older sister." The guest stepped forth. Her cloak of darkness faded. The woman's angular features were hard, struck up in cold malice. She looked dangerous. "And this is my old sensei." The man at her side was a tottering old geezer. His forehead protector sagged hard against his neck, and mirrored sunlight into his pasty face.
Sasuke scoffed, "and they wouldn't have any qualms about jumping in if you're losing. It's only natural, I guess cowardice goes in hand with what you are: a pseudo-kunoichi. It's not in my agenda to spill the blood of a girl, quit wasting my time."
"Hmph," Shouten brushed her forehead in disbelief. "Is it typical Uchiha doctrine...or were you simply born a mysoginistic chauvinist with a borderline superiority-complex? I'll tell you what, we will fight one-on-one, no weapons, and I will beat you with Taijutsu alone"
Super-cooled blood chilled Sasuke's veins. His calves had already strung up, ready to hurl his mass into the challenge. Shouten was no push-over, even for kunoichi, she was a challenge. His blood-red eyes snapped into the surroundings, registering everything on the battle-field as he dropped the kunai. "Let's see what you can do, girl."
Shouten sneered, "you want to see what I can do?" Fists clenched, crushing the kunai in hand. Pearlescent-blue jets of chakra circled her nimble frame while a dry gust streamed across the clearing, twisted, and curled her trembling frame. Her fist moved--and the chakra detonated into a scarlet-inferno. Her fluttering hand shrugged off specks of the crushed kunai, "YOU WANT TO SEE WHAT I CAN DO!?"
Sasuke's eyes narrowed, his lips pressed to a thin line of concentration. Red chakra? Only Rock Lee could open the Chakra gates, and only the Kyubi in Naruto had chakra so strong. He wouldn't fold, though. He was too proud, too arrogant to forfeit. He was an avenger.
Her foot bucked, Shouten burred--and the air detonated. Concrete rippled, cracked, and fell straight down. Concrete rippled, cracked, and fell straight down, up-chucking trees as it went. Boulders tailed up as the sonic boom grinded through the clearing, leaving a wake of earth, metal, and rock strewn in her supersonic wake.
A light smile tugged the corner of Sasuke's lip. She moved too slow in the lens of his Sharingan, like she was underwater. He channeled the chakra into his right hand, Strings of lightning leapt between the fingers of his right hand, tangled at the median, and spawned a burning sphere of chakra. The air cracked and angrily snapped as the energy turned into a jagged sphere of superheated plasma. Ninja Art: Chidori.
Sasuke braced, hand poised at her rib cage. Either he hits, or she does. One move would finish this. The opalescent blur that was Shouten pinged into the air and descended on the lone avenger. The clearing exploded. Plates of sediment sprouted from the impact and showered the destroyed landscape. Cracks spidered from the crater, mapping across the locale as the storm of dust and debris whipped into astorm...lightning sparked within.
TO BE CONTINUED