Chapter 88: Changing Plans
He was encapsulated in a way that reminded him of those pods that could be found hanging from branches in the Land of Fire during the summertime, cocoons constructed to transform a caterpillar into a butterfly. When he first saw a cocoon, Gaara thought it was some kind of fungus that was leeching off of the bark of the tree it hung from, but Temari had explained to him what it was and he instantly was fascinated by it. It fascinated him that something as simple and of such little importance could go through a process that entirely changed its being. As a boy that was seen as nothing but some monster, for a litany of fair reasons, Gaara was intrigued by the concept of such dramatic change. Here and now, the cocoon that he found himself wrapped up within wasn't one that would bring great change, however. He wasn't buried deep into the Sand out of the pursuit of something greater for himself. In fact, he wasn't even wrapped up within the confines of his own sand by his own choice.
While most people that faced the large explosion that had sent the Jinchuuriki sprawling into the ocean of sand in the desert around his village would have been sent into the peaceful blanket of darkness in their slumber, Gaara experienced quite the opposite. His false sleep that was used to drag Shukaku into the physical world while still being tethered to Gaara, a sleep that he had the luxury of having only a few times in his life, was what he was dragged from in the face of the mighty explosion. When he woke, with a whole new collection of aches and pains, Shukaku was shoved back in his seal and Gaara was back to keeping an ever-waking vigil over the beast's presence inside of him. As his head pounded violently, as his muscles and bones throbbed in blinding agony, and as his senses struggled to find themselves again, Gaara had no other choice than to allow the sands that danced along numbed skin to pull him under its surface. Had he not been in such dramatic discomfort, he might have worried about the Akatsuki that still lived despite his efforts, but those worries would have been needless in his undisturbed rest.
The warmth of the Sun radiating its energy onto the surface of the sand brought a comfortable warmth within Gaara's cocoon. It also brought a sense of time that he wouldn't have had otherwise as the burning light trekked across the sky and eventually set on the horizon, stealing Gaara's warmth. As he laid though, Gaara had the benefit of feeling the potent chakra of Shukaku course through his body to mend what ailed him. As he felt the Sun's presence wane from the surface above him, Gaara also felt the plugged echo that overtook his hearing after Deidara's first mighty explosion be returned to normal. He felt the numbing tingles and deep, gut wrenching aches that riddled his body soothe into afterthoughts, and eventually, even the pounding of his head was suffocated by the dense energy that was sealed inside of him. While this all happened, there wasn't so much as a murmur that echoed in his own head. No mocking or crazed ramblings filled the peaceful silence of Gaara's waking rest, and he was grateful for it. By the time the warmth began to rise once again, Gaara was able to finally free himself from his pod; it was sturdy legs that he was able to balance upon.
The light of the early morning, as limited as it was, still pained Gaara's eyes at its brightness. The exposure of his body to fresh air still stung here and there but that was no deterrent for the Jinchuuriki to step forward toward the shadowed visage of the plateaued mountain of rock that his village sat within. The blast had carried him a far distance away from the village, a pair of blasts truthfully, and that far distance was easily remedied by the sand that slowly accumulated under his feet as a saucer of his particles rose from the desert to carry the Jinchuuriki forward. The rush of air that blew into Gaara's face, the wind that dusted the sand grains that buried deep within his clothes and hair out into the air behind him, was a necessity to allow his lungs to fill themselves deeply with fresh air. The closer he got to the village before him, the more Gaara felt like he was returning to the land of the living after the long pseudo-slumber he enjoyed.
It didn't take long to reach the crevice within the rock face that served as the entrypoint to the village. He had to follow the edge of the circular rock face for some time, finding that his displacement had sent him far on the opposite side of the proper entrance, but it was hardly half an hour before he was met with faces of Sand shinobi that stood as guards. The looks of utter shock on these guards' faces were wholly ignored by the Jinchuuriki, as were the matching looks he was greeted with from the villagers. Whisperings still followed his every step when Gaara entered the village, but he knew that this was different. Every villager he passed had stopped to watch him go by, most had a comment fall from their lips, and yet none of them followed the pattern he was used to hearing from them. Beast, monster, demon, and any other word that would find itself synonymous enough to be was uttered behind Gaara's back and directly in his face as long as his memory served him, but none of them were heard here. The whys or hows of it were lost on him and he had no intention of finding out right now. Only when he entered the Kazekage's Dome did Gaara face one of these flabbergasted faces, only because it was what met him behind the desk of the receptionist. Only a few short words left his mouth as he continued through into the audience room, intent on reporting his survival.
"I will be seeing the Kazekage." He said simply, his voice creaking more than he was used to hearing as he walked through to the large round chamber, not hearing what the shinobi on the other side of the desk said before he did so. When Gaara entered the chamber, however, there was only silence to be found. There was no intense discussion of supply lines, war plans, or defensive strategy, only the empty air of a large room that only held one other person aside from himself. The other person in the room lacked the emotionless glare that they should have had, the crossed arms that showed the distaste at his entrance, and, most of all, they lacked the white and green robes of the Kazekage and the hat that they were adorned with. Instead, who he found was an aged woman that looked upon him with a face heavy with the time spent in this life. Where he expected auburn hair, Gaara was met with fully grayed hair that kept the face framing bangs that fell loosely from a tight bun in place with a brown headband. Dark and tan robes sat in place of the Kazekage's wear, just as Lady Chiyo, an elder of their village, sat in place of the Kazekage.
"You live, do you? We were sure you had passed as well. Those explosions were strong enough to collapse houses and yet here you stand." There was a titter of disbelief that followed the aged voice that held no audible emotion to it aside from disbelief. Chiyo's old but sharp eyes trailed over Gaara's form several times over before rising from the center chair of the arced table in a groan. She began walking the length of the table, seemingly intent on reaching Gaara on the other side of it, and the Jinchuuriki simply waited for her approach. He heard the words. They weren't lost on him. Rasa of the Sand was dead. A hairless brow rose at the mere thought, but not out of sorrow or despair. Confusion was the prevailing feeling in his mind. It was hard to imagine Rasa, a man that was able to subdue the likes of Shukaku, to be bested in a fight.
When Chiyo made it around the table, she stopped a few steps shy of Gaara, looking up at him with her keen eyes still looking for something in or on him. For a few delicate moments, neither said anything. Gaara was fine being left to wrap his mind around the Kazekage's death, but it seemed that there was only more confusion to be found. What did he do now? What was there left? If the village still stood and Rasa was dead, where did the Akatsuki go? None of these questions had answers with what Gaara knew alone.
"I suppose I should apologize. From the puppets that we found around Rasa's body, it was easy to figure out that it was my grandson that killed him but I don't know how much you'd care for my apology. Your relationship, or lack thereof, with Rasa wasn't exactly a secret." Chiyo huffed as her fingers danced around torn portions of his left sleeve. "But now the Sand is left in the middle of our ally's war with a Kage dead and a Jinchuuriki seemingly revived. If my grandson and that other pest come marching this way again we won't be able to stop them."
Chiyo's teeth clenched together tightly, making her frustration in not only the circumstances of the Akatsuki's attack known but also her anger toward the relationship that was established with the Leaf. Many of the older generations of shinobi within the village had a thought or two about joining sides with the once fervent enemies, but none so were more vocal than Chiyo. Still, that frustration aside, Chiyo's words caught Gaara's attention. She was right, Gaara alone wouldn't be able to defend the village and himself if the Akatsuki came after him again. He narrowly escaped Deidara's explosions and Rasa didn't escape Sasori. They would come again. They wanted the Jinchuuriki.
"I must leave, Lady Chiyo." He broke whatever thoughts the old lady seemed to have devolved into as he turned away from her to exit out the door he just entered. Despite Rasa no longer being around to remind him of his duty to the village, Gaara still knew what it was. He held no love for the Kage, he holds little love for the village itself, but he held love for his siblings. Temari and Kankuro were enough of a reason to ensure the village's safety and they were enough of a reason for him to join a war that had already erupted.
"Where do you think you're going, boy? You need to stay here, rest, and help us prepare for the next attack." The old woman's voice cracked and broke from the emphasis she put into it, her vocal chords no longer able to produce such vigor any longer. Gaara stopped all the same, turning to look at the even deeper lines that etched into the wrinkled face of the frowning woman.
"The Akatsuki will not attack if I am not here. I will join my siblings on the battlefield and keep them safe. If I am still hunted, the village won't be at risk." With those final words, Gaara walked the same path he walked only minutes ago, earning the same reaction he had all the same. He didn't stop to address the villagers this time either, he didn't speak to the guards that still stood at the village's entrance, and he didn't stop when he saw the scars of battle from Sasori and Rasa the day before as puppet parts and gold dust still settled on the surface of the sand outside his village.
"You're the Yellow Flash's son, aren't you?"
Kurotsuchi had seen only one image of the Yellow Flash before. It was a picture that her grandfather kept within his office, a picture of the Hokage's bingo book entry when he still lived. She understood the hatred her grandfather held for the man that killed so many of their people, but she didn't grasp why he kept that image. She knew it tormented him, she knew that he would forever loathe the outcome of the Third Great Shinobi War, but there was no need to hold on to such a thing. Whatever her thoughts may be, Kurotsuchi knew that her seeing that picture gave her no doubts that the boy that stood across from her and her comrades was related to the man. She couldn't make out the boy's eyes, not at this distance at night, but she didn't need it. The boy looked only a few years younger than herself, wearing the green flak jacket of the Leaf atop dark sweats that barely differentiated himself from the rest of the Leaf dogs, but none of that mattered either. All she needed to see was the hair that swayed gently with the breeze atop his head. Long blonde hair that stood spiked on end extended from the boy's head, giving him the appearance that a mane surrounded his face. Many had blonde hair, many had spiked hair, but only one person's visage that she's seen with her own eyes had hair such as that, and there was one revelation that her grandfather shared with her and her father before they went to war.
"The Yellow Flash fathered a spawn. I will see to it that said spawn won't be given the chance to hurt this village as its father had."
"Change of plans, boys, the village behind the treehugger doesn't matter anymore. We're going to deliver the Yellow Flash's son to my grandfather and get some of our revenge a little early." She was sure her voice carried across the distance between her and the boy that stood in the way of her initial path. Had she not been purposefully loud enough, the tightening of the boy's posture would have given away just how easily the wind carried her voice over to him. To his credit, however, even in the face of a half-dozen Stone shinobi, the kid didn't make any desperate movements to compensate for the disparity. He had confidence in himself at the very least, but confidence alone wasn't enough to save anybody.
"Earth Style: Earth Flow Spike Jutsu!" Her hands formed the necessary seals and planted themselves on the grassy surface of the ground before the words properly fell from her lips, well-trained and well-practiced. The explosive array of pointed spikes erupting from the ground flowed in a straight and wide path toward the Leaf shinobi at a swift pace. From her right and left, Kurotsuchi heard the telltale sounds of weapons pouches snapping open and the throws of well-aimed bladed weapons that followed the flanks of the stream of earthen spikes. She should have expected the dexterity and speed that came from the movements of the boy before her, however.
It was a simple leap that carried the blonde out of the way of the first spike that sprouted from the boy's feet, a turn of the hips and shoulders that spun his side out of the way of the next, and a pair of skipping jolts that were used to twist out of the way of a few shuriken and a pair of kunai that followed her technique. Not a single blade was drawn, no ninjutsu was seen, and the only hand seals that came to be were the ones that their target formed when he settled a several feet to the right of his initial position. Fingers danced together just as nimbly as her own did and Kurotsuchi was fortunate that those at her side were competent enough to scatter themselves further apart as the boy took a deep inhale of breath before his own technique was launched across the field.
"Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!" The pulse of air that was swiftly ejected out of his mouth was small at first but almost instantly expanded into a grand tunnel of wind that rippled through the air with a percussive hum. The gentle breeze of their convenient clearing sped up into a series of swirling gusts before the jutsu had a chance to cover the distance between each side, but Kurotsuchi never had the intention of allowing the Wind Release to reach her or her men. Instantly leaping in the air to center herself in the oncoming wind tunnel, Kurotsuchi was already readying her counter to the technique as walls of stone rose from the ground in front of the men behind her.
"Fire Style: Flame Bomb!" The tunnel of wind didn't have the opportunity to broach much further beyond the halfway point between the two sides of shinobi. Instead, the mass of swirling flames met the Leaf shinobi's jutsu and ignited only brighter with the fanning of the Wind Release chakra. Already crackling embers roared into a deep growl as it overtook the oppressive tunnel of wind that turned into an explosive backdraft. When Kurotsuchi landed, she could only gaze with pride as she enjoyed the view of the bright orange flames that only showed brighter under the comparatively dim shine of the Moon above. The roaring flames were short-lived after such an aggressive birth, quickly burning through the Wind Release ignition source to leave nothing but a patch of blackened grass and ash that mixed with the dry soil underneath. Seeing the emptiness, Kurotsuchi's smirk of pride fell into a heavy frown.
As hot as her flames were, as expansive as the blaze burned, if it had truly done what she had hoped then a body would still be lying amongst the charred grass and ashened soil. It would be a burnt body, one that would need effort in identifying, but it would still be there. No matter how keenly she focused on the clearing before her that led to the village she was going to torch or to the rounded treelines at her sides there was no evidence of the Leaf shinobi. Even when she sent a glance to the clear sky above, there was nothing to be seen. Stone could be heard returning to the ground below behind her, murmurings of confusion that matched her own thought process tickled her ears quietly but she never stopped searching for a clue. Then, almost unheard through the natural sounds of the night around Kurotsuchi, the sound of the intensely dried ground below caught her ear. Looking down, however, she only saw a few dry cracks that hid under loose dirt and ash, dry cracks that grew closer to her feet in a burst of branching cracks that was joined by another sound of crumbling earth. Without hesitation, Kurotsuchi leapt backwards.
Just as her foot left the ground, a shower of dirt burst from the ground almost exactly where her foot once laid. Coming from the mess of raining earth, a large shuriken spun furiously and with a deadly edge toward the sky, bathing the dark metal in the ominous light of the Moon above. Following closely behind the large shuriken, a mess of blonde hair fluttered wildly in front of bright blue eyes that only cared to look over her right shoulder. As the boy exploded from the ground, he seemed to corkscrew as a hand went into the pouch on his right thigh and quickly extended itself in a straight line that followed the blue eyes that trained on the target over her shoulder as his body maneuvered in the air. From that hand, a single blade burst forward with an expanse of air propelling it forward and a dangerous hum following it as it flew straight past Kurotsuchi in a blur of speed. Seeing as it wasn't a danger to her and her opponent trapped himself in the air, Kurotsuchi launched herself forward with her right arm tightening at her side and flooding with dense chakra.
"Earth Release: Heavy-as-a-Boulder Jutsu!" The chakra that had filled the Stone jounin's arm rose to the surface, forming into protruding rocks from her skin that hardened into a type of shell that only accumulated from her right shoulder and down. She swiftly closed the distance between herself and the airborne shinobi and before he could react to it, her rock-covered fist slammed into his body with a heavy, audible impact. The body was spiked back into the ground with the force to send it bouncing several times over across the ground. Kurotsuchi knew that she wouldn't have to follow up immediately after the attack landed, then she was made aware of that fact once again several moments later. At first, she was under the impression that taking such a direct hit, be it to the chest, shoulder, head, or elsewhere, would be enough to keep any decent shinobi grounded and ailing. However, when she saw the body she sent clattering on the ground disperse into nothing but harmless smoke, she was quickly made aware of how useless the strike was.
Again, Kurotsuchi was left to search for her opponent as the field fell into a stagnant silence. Caring a glance behind her, remembering the blade that was thrown wide to her right, Kurotsuchi found that same knife poking out of the neck of one of the men that was standing behind her. She wanted to curse, she wanted the chance to regret not deflecting the blade as it flew past her, but she had neither the time nor the ability to do so with genuine meaning behind it. She took the opening her opponent gave her to counterstrike. Had she not taken it then there may be another body lying dead in the grass.
As that thought passed through her mind, Kurotsuchi was pulled from her silent mulling by a cacophony of sound that quickly broke the silence that reigned for a few long moments. When she turned her head, she didn't know whether or not to bring it to the loud pop that exploded in front of her or the violent whipping of energy that fell quickly from the sky above. Deciding to follow the fast approaching noise from above, Kurotsuchi was reminded of the large shuriken that was launched to the sky from the ground, but what she saw wasn't that shuriken. The only thing that was falling to the ground was another image of the blonde holding a glowing orb in his hand that was kept extended out from his body as he fell head first to the ground at a blinding speed above a man to her left. Kurotsuchi didn't have to call out to warn the man about the aerial strike, but even if she had to, the boy fell too fast for her words to get out in time. Her eyes barely locked onto the blonde before that extended arm swiped in an arcing swing to viciously smash the orb into the back of her comrade. There was a brief pause that the world seemed to halt to just before the spiraling sphere in the Leaf shinobi's hand made contact, and then, all at once, the strength of the jutsu impacted the man's back all at once. The Stone-nin slammed into the ground as the flak jacket, the fabric of his clothes underneath, and the soft flesh that it covered was all thrown out of the way of the spiraling sphere as it impacted the ground with a crater inducing force.
"Rasengan!" It was a dreaded word. A dreaded name. She had never seen it before, but she's heard of it all the same. Only one person was known to use the jutsu as its creator and yet here she was to see it all the same. Again, the legacy of the Yellow Flash was danced before her eyes alongside blonde hair and blue eyes. The fury that overtook Kurotsuchi was heavily contrasted by the brief bout of paralysis. She wanted to move but she couldn't. Too much flowed in her mind and not enough was converted into action. Only when the bloodied hand that carried the Rasengan lifted from the ground and grasped a kunai were the Stone shinobi that still lived able to move. The closest man to the blonde surged forward with a knife in his own hand that clanged in quick succession against the steel of the Leaf shinobi.
"Lady Kurotsuchi, watch out! Earth Style: Mudslide!" Kurotsuchi's sole living comrade on her right called out hastily before the ground in front of her melted into a river of mud that flowed away from her. At the end of the river there was a toad, a large toad that stood the height of two fully grown men and was several more wide. Vibrant green skin glittered with rivers of patterned gold that matched the armored plates that sat atop unnaturally bulky and strong hands for a toad. The armored plated grew in width until they formed a makeshift shield on each forearm of the massive toad that was standing strong before the rushing mud. In a single leap, one that was shallow to the ground and angled to clear the mud to land directly on top of Kurotsuchi, the mudslide was bypassed.
On her back foot again, the Stone jounin leapt to give up ground once again as her hands met again. In her periphery that broadened in her jump, Kurotsuchi saw another puff of smoke explode from a blonde-haired body as a knife entered its stomach and back from a pair of Stone shinobi, but the chunin that stabbed the boy in the stomach sported a blade that may have disappeared from his side along with the clone itself but left a gaping wound in its place. There were only three of them that were healthy now and they had yet to make contact with the real body of their enemy.
"Lava Style: Melting Monster Jutsu!" From her mouth flowed the pale substance that was the product of her conjoined Fire and Earth Release affinities. It poured out in a wide mass toward the fast-flying toad. The viscous liquid fluttered and congealed into an odd shape that vaguely resembled a beastly body before it slapped against the hard metal of the toad's plate armor, followed closely by a harsh hissing noise as that same plate began to shrink with the Lava Release that was settling deeply upon it. That hissing metal didn't stop the toad from landing in a terrible thud that shook the balance of Kurotsuchi and her comrades when she met with the ground again. It didn't stop it from slapping that same hissing plate-covered arm at the man closest to him, at the man that just tried to save her, or detaching and throwing that plate at toward the pair of Stone shinobi that stood on its opposite side. Only the healthy man escaped the brutal slap of metal on flesh as he stood next to Kurotsuchi several yards away from the large toad.
"What should we do, Lady?" Kurotsuchi's eyes never left the toad that stoically looked on at the pair of Stone shinobi as its green and gold streamed left arm became deformed and wrinkled from the Lava Release she plastered it with. Her countryman's words were heard but unnecessary. She was already planning out their next step, looking at the space that the large toad had to roam and the utter lack of blonde hair within the clearing that they fought within. Wherever he was, the toad was the bigger obstacle at the moment as they couldn't attack the kid if the summon was mulling around to protect him. With the semblance of a plan decided upon, Kurotsuchi leaned to her left to relay what she needed him to do.
"Give me something big to move the damn amphibian." Her words were pushed out harshly, the emotion of the fight that already lost her four good men was digging into her. Thankfully, there was no outward reaction to her words before a long string of hand seals were cycled through by the jounin at her side. When the final seal was held for an extra moment and a deep breath was taken, Kurotsuchi took her opportunity to make herself airborne once again. She allowed herself to drift to her right as the jutsu was performed and her own hands danced at a rhythmic pace.
"Earth Style: Earth Dragon Jutsu!" Her comrade below roared the mighty technique that once again brought the ground alive in a whirl of movement. Green grass was overtaken by a sea of mud that quickly accumulated into a serpentine beast that lashed gave a silent roar before it surged with its snarling face and long fangs focused on the toad that was now dwarfed by a much larger creature. By the nature of her comrade's orientation to the toad, the Earth Dragon favored one side of the toad that it charged at, making it an easy decision for the amphibian to leap to its other side, the same direction that Kurotsuchi was already drifting. The Rat Seal that she held up to her mouth hid the small smirk of success as her own jutsu joined the mess of movement before her.
"Lava Style: Ash Sealing Jutsu!" The stream of thick ash that was directed at the elevating toad was quick to reach its target and bath it in the dark gray cloud. At first, there wasn't much that could be said about the cloud that the toad easily drifted through, aside from the tainted visibility that was added to the dim light of the drifting light above. Soon, though, that cloud of ash narrowed and tightened in its wide swathe of aerial coverage until it swarmed just around the landing toad. There wasn't the opportunity to regain the birth within the air for the amphibian when the tightened cloud of ash hardened almost instantaneously, ensnaring the toad in a winding blanket of ash that gave no room for the bucking and struggling animal. The smirk that had briefly found a place on Kurotsuchi's face only grew more when the toad was replaced by an explosive puff of smoke and the wrappings of ash were rendered empty. From that cloud of smoke, however, the blurred image of her opponent flew high into the air in perfect sight of the two Stone jounin.
Kurotsuchi met the eyes of her comrade, a mutual understanding drifting through the gap of space that extended between them. The pair launch into the air simultaneously at the air trapped blonde above them. A kunai found purchase in her right hand and that hand was soon snapping forward as she overcame the space between herself and her opponent. In her periphery, her teammate was in a similar position on the boy's opposite side, trapping him by his flanks, but there was no concern on the blonde's face as a cross was made from the first two fingers of each hand. Just as her blade was about to bite into the boy's body, an exact copy of her opponent popped into existence behind him to grip him by his flak jacket and lift him higher into the air. As the clone drifted downwards, and the original upwards, there was nothing but air for the Stone shinobi to cut through aside from each other. Her eyes continued to stay above her, eying her target as she drifted back to the ground. She expected a counter attack, she expected to be punished from either above or below, but both Stone shinobi found the ground only moments after the blonde's clone had. They stood side-to-side again several yards away from the clone that had its hands stuck together in a seal.
"You should go, my lady. The Tsuchikage would not want you risking yourself out here. Let me give you some time." The words were rushed and desperate, the concern for her well-being clear in his voice. Kurotsuchi, on the other hand, only grit her teeth with almost painful force. She hated the idea that she would sacrifice anyone else for her own life simply because of who her family was. She hated the thoughtt that she would flee a battlefield when she was only labored with some fatigue from some demanding ninjutsu. She hated the mere inkling that she would let the Yellow Flash's son slip through her fingers.
"Shut up and get ready for the charge. Slip out of the way and we can collapse on him together. I'm not leaving here without him." The whipping air that was exploding out of the clone's palms as it remained directly under the falling body of the original made it clear what was to happen. He would use the wind chakra from the clone to launch himself at them at high speeds. Those high speeds didn't mean shit if they could prepare for them.
Kurotsuchi's eyes never left the blonde as he landed vertically on his clone's hands, a palm for each heel. A kunai spun on the middle finger of each hand as he crouched into a deep squat, his body being shifted parallel to the ground as the clone's arms extended themselves in front of it. The spinning of the knives stopped, as everything else seemed to, as they were caught tightly in his palms. The swirling of wind deadened and the pair of blondes stilled across from the Stone shinobi. Kurotsuchi's weight was already leaning to her left, already preparing to move but she had to make sure that the boy was locked into the charge in their direction. When the stillness was abandoned for a percussive discharge of wind, joined by the loud popping of the clones as it burst from the force of the take off, it came faster than Kurotsuchi could have expected. Two massive tunnels of wind were produced by the clone's palms in addition to the burst of wind that began whipping around the original. When her target was finally launched she barely had the ability to see past the blur of motion, much less actually respond with any movements of her own.
The desperate push off of her feet slipped from the balls of her feet, to provide lift off, to the heels of her feet. Instead of leaping shallowly away to remain in distance to retaliate, Kurotsuchi was finding herself struggling to stay upright with a series of stumbling steps that pulled her attention from in front of her to below. Her eyes left the spiraling blonde, and the blades that rotated with him, as she made sure her feet found stability on the dewy grass underneath her. She didn't see when her brown flak jacket was slashed by the impossibly sharp wind chakra extending from the knives that were held by the outstretched arms of her target. Kurotruchi was saved from the sight of the blade opposite to the one that cut through the tough jacket cutting an equally sharp trench into the throat of her last living comrade in her team.
What she did see, however, was the blonde continue to fly past her as his momentum carried him toward the line of trees that the Stone shinobi came from. The passing of the Leaf shinobi's body gave her a chance to roll backwards to find her feet again. It gave her a chance to see what she hadn't initially by spotting the bleeding out body that joined the rest on the ground in the clearing. There was no opportunity to linger on the death, or any of the previous, as eyes narrowed at the back of the one that caused all that death. She didn't approach him, even with his back to her. He's proven that he wasn't someone to carelessly attack five times over, and so Kurotsuchi waited until she was met with piercing blue eyes once again.
"Naruto Uzumaki." The boy said with a stern voice that was just loud enough to reach her ears. He hadn't said anything outside of the ninjutsu he's used and the first thing he said was a name. It was probably his name but what did she care? She only cared what it would mean to her village and grandfather if she brought the fucker's body back. She was expecting him to say something else, maybe making a grand statement about how he wasn't his thrice-damned father even as her countrymen lay dead around them, but he didn't. Instead, footsteps burst into a run as the Uzumaki charged toward her with both kunai gripped at his sides.
He moved fast even without the burst of wind chakra at his back, forcing Kurotsuchi to try and make up lost ground and speed as best as she could as her own kunai was prepared to receive her attacker as they meant to clash head-on. It was clear she wasn't going to catch up with the pace the blonde set, even with her body being filled, then overfilled, with the chakra she hadn't yet spent. When the blade in his left hand flew between them with a swift swipe of the arm, it was only by the slimmest margins that Kurotsuchi deflected the wind-wrapped kunai from lodging in her left shoulder. The next slash of her blade was echoed by the loud clashing of metal and a fissure that ran up her arm from the force that she was met with. Any forward motion between the two shinobi was halted immediately as they met with their blades, but Kurotsuchi felt her heels cede some ground with a small slide atop the grass below. Blue eyes stared over their meeting blades without revealing too much and without meeting her own eyes, instead flickering between each shoulder as he watched for her next movement.
With a short yell of exertion, Kurotsuchi pushed back against her opponent's blade to put space between them, dropping a foot backward as she followed up with a fading downward slash as she took that long backward step. The tip of her blade glided inches above the blonde's vest, the boy being just out of range, but the moment her blade cleared him that space was lost. His blade dropped into a reverse grip as he stepped forward into a crossing punch that pointed the blade's tip at her face. She leaned back to extend her upper body out of the way, but the howl of wind betrayed the blade lengthening with wind chakra and easily explained the cut that sliced across her right cheek. At the sharp twinge of pain, feet rotated around in a dance to spin Kurotsuchi out of harm's way toward her left. Had she kept the spin tight enough, she would have been able to try and attack on the blonde's blindside, but she wasn't as tactical in her retreat as she could have been in favor of her own self-preservation. When the rotation of her spin was completed, Kurotsuchi's eyes searched for the green of her opponent's flak jack or the blonde of his hair, but neither could be found before her. Only empty grass.
For whatever reason, be it a sixth sense or an elevation of awareness due to the danger she was in, her eyes instinctively looked up instead of her left or right to find the disappearing blonde. When dark eyes met bright blue, there was a split second that Kurotsuchi expected to see another bright spiraling sphere within the boy's hand. Fortunately for her, there was none, but that didn't stop the strong hand from gripping her shoulder or the toe of a sandal from driving viciously into her back to send the Stone jounin into the ground face first. The dirt that found its way into her mouth upon face planting was secondary to the pain that exploded from her back at the heavy kick. Arm had only begun to rise at her side to push themselves up when the Leaf shinobi's voice came from above her.
"Three Point Chakra Seal," was all that was said before three jabs punched into her skin, one at each shoulder blade and another at the center of her back. The jabs burnt deeply into her skin, doubly so on the third point that was too close to the recently kicked tissue, and almost instantly Kurotsuchi felt her eyes fall closed.
She barely had time to acknowledge the darkness that overtook her mind.
I think this is the first time that we see Naruto show up a little but in a fight against a respectable fighter in Kurotsuchi, hopefully I'm setting the bar right early. Either way, it's always a trip to reread these chapters before posting because I usually forgot a good portion of them by the time I come back again. Ngl, I totally forgot how that fight even ended while I was reading it. I wanted to play more with Naruto using his clones as he did when he fought Kakashi at the start of shippuden, a but less direct and with some planning going into it. It also helps that I had dude with liek four different dudes teaching him rather than one, but that's besides the point.
I saw that review by WesRew yesterday and I thought it was dope. The thought of somebody reading this on a commute is bizarre to think about. Either way, I appreciate it man. If the story catches your interest, read it. If you enjoy it, keep reading. If you want to say something, go for it. But don't feel obligated to do any of that, if there's limited network access, the last thing on your mind should be reviewing this story. Just enjoy it during your downtime and all is good big dog.
Be back on the 9th