Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto
Chapter 2: To Each His Own Battle pt. 1
The flutist and the puppeteer leered at each other from the two trees that seemed to oppose each other. Tayuya, with her flute ready, was watching Sasori…daring him to make a move. He thought little of this, however, as he saw her as almost zero threat. His vessel provides an exceptional arsenal of weaponry, giving him good attacks at long range, and good protection at short range. There was nothing that he should be worried about.
The silence began to bore him, so he spoke up to further antagonize her to make the first move.
"You think that you have a chance…?" He looked her over. She continued to hold the flute to her lips. It was clear that she was trying her best to ignore him, so he made a low blow. "By the time the day is done, your teammates…all of your teammates will be dead." He clicked his head as he turned to her. She continued to glare at him, and he could vaguely see that while her fingertips were on the flute, she raised a certain finger to him. "…And the part that gets me the most is that there's nothing you can do for them now. All you can do, for a time, is to do your best to stay alive long enough to hope for the hopeless…" His body creaked loudly as he leaned his head in forward, keeping eye-contact with the increasingly flustered kunoichi. "…that your mission was a success."
"You're delusional, you stupid fucking bastard." She responded, cutting him off. "Me and my comrades are not to be screwed with. Can you even begin to imagine the number of people like you we killed? People that I killed?! People like you, who thought they were something special." She cracked an evil grin at him, whose expression would remain the same. "Not special enough, I guess."
"I could actually prove to you, the small fraction of the people that I had scuffled with. Two hundred and nineteen bodies, if you want an exact number. Two hundred and nineteen of thousands." He explained to her. Even though no one would guess, he had a sealing scroll with him containing the bodies of a hundred people, in the forms of the puppets that killed for him. "You on the other hand, have no proof."
She shook her head slowly, throwing off what he had been saying. "Why don't you show me now then, huh, hard-ass?" She smirked at him. "You either have dozens of corpses under there…or you just need to work out…a lot."
He returned the smirk. "Maybe if I think you're worth the time, I might." Tayuya raised an eyebrow at what he was telling her. "Maybe if I find you an opponent worthy enough, I'll allow this to be the last thing that graces your vision, but that's assuming that you can at least cause me to break a sweat...huh, as if…" He smiled at the irony that he would never be able to sweat, no matter what she did.
"Careful what you wish for, fatass." She said, still smirking. "This little Melody of Death that I'll play for you," she held up her flute in front of her. "…will be the last thing that ever graces your ears!"
"Play it for me."
With that, she began playing a strange assortment of notes on her demon flute. Strange sound waves emanated from the instrument as her fingers gently struck each key along the bar. Something appeared ever slowly out from the background. It was faint at first, but then started to get more and more real. Sasori counted three shapes. As they fully developed, he cocked his head to the side, making a clicking sound at what he saw.
Demons. Three troll-like monsters hunched over Tayuya. Their mouthpieces stitched up, and their eyes not visible under the bandages that each of them had draped around them. One demon had a huge club, and long hair that he had concealing his face. Another had bones strapped to his arms. And the last one did not have any arms visible, as he was completely wrapped in bandages. Over and all, a rather brute force stood in front of the puppet master.
'I see…' Sasori thought to himself. 'She uses her misguiding appearance as an advantage. She would look just like any other defenseless little girl otherwise, but those three monsters that she keeps sure do make up for what brawn this bitch lacks…' Despite this, Sasori grinned all the more.
"That's a cute little tune, kid. But I don't really fancy myself a tenor." She scowled at him, but continued playing notes.
The demons that were once completely still, began twitching. And then, as if on cue with the notes, they jumped at Sasori. He closed his eyes and sighed. "Too direct."
His metal tail lashed out of his backside, and he impaled all three of the Doki at the same time, not moving otherwise. The way his one tail stuck through all three of them, they looked like some sort of necklace; the demons being the beads, and his tail being the lace.
"Uh!" Tayuya grunted at the sudden loss of her three game pieces. "H-How?!"
"Surprised?" He looked up at her. "Yes...yes I suppose you would be..." He let out a cruel, creeping, slow-paced chuckle.
She growled at him with severe frustration. Just who the hell did he think he was? She began to activate her cursed seal. Jagged markings stretched all over her body.
"Hey, what's happening to you? Are you getting sick or something…?" Sasori asked half-heartedly.
"You obviously have a problem with the word 'curtesy'. Allow me to enlighten you...excruciatingly painfully!" She played a few notes from her flute, and as the sound waves passed over her fallen minions, they began to get up again. The wide gashes in their chests from the jabbing attack Sasori had greeted them with had slowly began to dissipate, becoming smaller and smaller, until they had disappeared altogether. Then, each of them got back into their attacking stance.
"More blood for me to spill? How thoughtful." He turned again to the Doki. "I hope you children have learned something from the last time I killed you."
They groaned in response.
"I have, actually... Heh! Lucky shot for your first try…" Tayuya responded. "I carry a little more than just one trick… Try this on for size, tubby!!"
She played her flute again, facing her Doki. They slowly began to tremble, as if responding to the tune. Then, their mouths began to peel open, their stitches unlaced, and three blue entities began to flow out of them. They had what appeared to be mouths with sharp teeth, hungry and drooling at the puppet master. His head cracked to the side.
"I'll enjoy this. You, well…not so much!!" She shouted. She laughed evilly as the three entities spread out towards him.
For finalization, Sasori stuck his tail through one of the spirits, and seeing as that he had was right that it passed right through, he quickly pulled it back. "Cute…" With this, he shot his tail to forward towards the Doki, but this time, right before he reached them, he made a sharp turn with it, and severed the branches that kept each of them up instead. But Tayuya saw right through this, and playing a few sudden changes in her melody, they each jumped back before they fell along too.
"Isn't it a little too obvious that direct attacks won't work on me…?" Sasori seemed to complain.
"These aren't direct attacks…" Tayuya corrected him, snickering.
Sasori looked around, and sure enough, one of the strange blue entities was right there, waiting for him. It was sticking out of the base of a tree near him, and he quickly wondered why this was so. He quickly reminded himself of how his weapon had passed right through them before, giving them an apparent 'ethereal' state of being. It launched toward him, and took a big bite, but to Tayuya's surprise, it seemed to have no effect on the mysterious man. It was intended to take a bite out of his chakra pool…why wasn't it working?
Sasori quickly jumped from the branch he was on, to one further away from the two specters. He turned around to face her and sat there on his branch, patiently, perched like a bird.
"How was that possible?! That hungry soul should have left you dry of chakra! How is it that it didn't ingest any?" Tayuya questioned him.
"Was that what it was supposed to do…? Maybe it's because you're just not as good as you thought…?" He suggested smugly, which caused her to growl at him. "It's getting awfully stuffy down here." He continued. "I can't kill you in a creative way if we just keep exchanging blows in such a closed-in area… This is pointless. Let's take the ecstasy to new heights."
Before Tayuya could react, Sasori was already in the midst of jumping up the tree, branch by branch, and she was amazed at how agile he was in that big, bloated body of his. Jirobo couldn't pull that off, for damn certain. She scoffed up at him, and began jumping up to meet him at the top of the towering trees.
Two familiar figures stood meters away from each other, both of them were panting heavily. Chouji and Jirobo had been brawling with each other for an hour now, and neither was making any headway. However, neither one was willing to back down from the other, which was easy to believe in a life-death situation. Jirobo had his cursed seal activated, but had not yet advanced to Cursed Seal Level 2, and Chouji was on his last food pill, none other than the red one. Jirobo attempted to speak, but found he was unable to, needing to save all of his breath for breathing.
"Well, well…" A voice crept out of the dark woods behind them. "Look at what I found; meals big enough to feed all of my friends at the same time! I struck a buffet!"
They narrowed their eyes hard to see a figure with two beady, white eyes. This was all the time they had, however, as out of nowhere, a giant wave of water ripped through the trees and knocked both of them away with the tide. When it died down, the figure stepped out of the area where there had once been trees, before the small, rather sudden tsunami. The assailant walked towards the two big shinobi that were now kneeling and choking at the sudden intake of cold salt water. With his greatsword at hand, he threw it over his back, and stopped right in front of them. "How sad…" he stared down at the two, obviously exhausted campaigners. "I was hoping for more of a sporting meal. That's how they like to feed, you know, with the prey putting up a fight."
They both stared up at him, wincing in pain, but glaring none the less. "And just who the…hell…are you…?" Jirobo asked, gasping for air as he did.
The opposing figure, Kisame, did his famous grin, revealing all sharp teeth. "I'm not interested in introductions," he started. "Just getting my friends fed." He quickly slaps his palms together in a ninjutsu pose.
"Suiton: Bakusui Shoha! (Water Release: Exploding Water Shockwave!)"
Another tsunami stretched to the sky from the background, destroying another few columns of trees. As it chased after the two shinobi, they dashed away to escape it. While not succeeding to evade the attack altogether, they did manage to avoid taking the brunt of it, where the water hit the land hardest. They focused the remains of their chakra to stand on the water, and try their best to avoid debris coming in with the current. A few of the larger parts of trees met up with them at times, only to be punched into splinters before they could impact. As soon as they got the chance, the two looked around the area in horror at what the water nin had done: he had turned the whole area around them into an aquatic ruin. Water was everywhere.
When the current stopped, yet another wave shot up, much like a geyser, but this time, it did not charge them. Instead, Kisame launched himself to the top, and stood on it, getting a clear view of the area below. Where there was once forest, there was now a vast lake.
"Eh, heh, heh! Come on boys! Chow time!"
He once again slaps his palms together. This time, when he did, he immediately put one of his palms on the surface of the wave he was standing on. "Suiton: Goshokuzame! (Water Release: Five Eating Sharks!)"
The two opposing shinobi immediately looked to see a gigantic blue shark shoot down from Kisame's wave and into the larger body of water to meet them.
"First meal!" Kisame shouted, his voice echoing from high above.
The shark launched at them at terrifying speed, scraping the surface of the water as the huge creature approached them, mouth wide open. It came at Jiroubou, the bigger of the two opponents, which would obviously make a bigger meal. As it shot out of the water to take a bite, Jiroubou threw one furious punch, so fast that it was blurry, and punched the fish right on the nose. The shark flew several meters back, and smashed into a large tree, collapsing with it.
"Second meal!" Another shark came at them. This time it took a different approach; going after Chouji instead.
'I only have enough chakra for one blow. I don't want to resort to using…the last pill…not yet!' Chouji thought to himself, while concentrating on the giant predator coming his way.
"Bubun Baika no Jutsu: Cho Harite! (Partial Multi-Size Technique: Mega Palm Thrust!)"
Chouji's entire arm extended, and with chakra funneling through his hand, he brought his whole arm down, and smashed the shark down all the way through the water, making a gigantic splash as he did so. When his arm returned to normal, Chouji lost his footing on the water surface almost instantly. He had no chakra left to spare, and he made a big splash as he fell through the surface into the water. He used his remaining energy to struggle through the water to a large piece of wooden debris in the water to help him float. Kisame grinned at this. He knew that any backbone that they still had couldn't last forever.
"Third meal!"
Another shark made its way to the struggling leaf nin with killing (and eating) intent. The water splashed noisily as it shot through the water. As it opened its gigantic mouth, revealing multiple daggers of teeth inside, Chouji closed his eyes tight at what would be his last few seconds of living that he had left.
But then something peculiar happened.
The splashing…all that loud splashing had died out, and Chouji slowly opened one eye to see what had happened. His jaw dropped as he saw something quite unexpected.
Jiroubou was in between him and the shark - the shark that had apparently been only a few feet away from getting to him. Jiroubou had the shark by its jaws, and the mouth was hung wide open. Trying his absolute hardest, Jiroubou struggled to turn his head around to face Chouji, while battering with the gigantic fish at the same time. "Don't look at me like that, brat…" he began. "Don't think that I'm…doing this for you…I'm doing this…for me! It'll take both…of us to…take this guy out." He turned back to the animal that he was struggling to keep at bay. "Come on, kid! You can't be out of chakra yet! Get up and help!!" Despite the shock that his arch-enemy, whom he had been fighting for what seemed like a day, had saved his life, Chouji threw himself from the log he had clung to, and grabbed the shark's tail. This caused the angry creature to struggle even more, and it was all the two could do in their weakened states to keep it in one place.
Kisame saw this as excellent opportunity to release another water shark.
"Fourth meal!"
Another shark flew at them, but they saw this one coming, and thinking quick, they both waited for the right timing. They soon got it, as the shark approaching them opened its maw. Then, as if both of the shinobi were thinking the same thing, they slung the shark that they had into its brother, who took a gigantic, accidental bite. Both of them disappeared in a puff of bubbles.
"Fifth and final meal!" The last shark coming at them was as big as a whale.
"Oh shit!" Both of the shinobi exclaimed simultaneously. The shark opened its mouth so wide, that two trucks could fit inside. Both of the nins jumped to opposite sides to avoid the gaping hole that attempted to swallow them. As they both landed in the water, a gigantic crash was heard from behind them, even from underwater. When they reached the waters surface and took a deep breath, they looked behind them. The leviathan was no longer there; instead, there was a huge crater in the ground, where it evidently landed.
"Heh, heh, heh, heh!" Kisame laughed as he descended from his wave, and lowered the water level.
Now, they were right back where they started – in ankle-deep water, except now, the two were panting louder than ever, whiles Kisame wasn't at all.
"That was fun!" Kisame continued. "Looks like I underestimated…" His expression suddenly turned serious. "…but rest assured, you two, that won't happen again."
"You're ready to get serious…good…" Jiroubou commented.
"Because so are we…" Chouji added.
Kisame continued to grin, readying his greatsword. He pointed it at them. The two were unimpressed. It didn't even look sharp. But then their eyes widened at what they saw. The gauze over the seemingly harmless sword began to unravel by itself, revealing a very unusual looking surface – jagged instead of smooth.
"This is my greatsword, Samehada. Say hello, Sam."
Immediately after he said this, he threw one, extremely swift, vertical slice at the gigantic tree next to him right down the middle. Acting as a saw, except much quicker, and in one sweep, the sword bit through base, and seconds later, the great tree split in two. Wooden chips flew everywhere, and Chouji and Jiroubou shielded their faces to prevent damage.
"In case you haven't noticed, my sword doesn't cut…it shaves."
The two glared back at him. 'Damn it!'
"Heh!" Kisame did a quick ninjutsu hand sign. "Mizu Bunshin no Jutsu! (Water Clone Technique!)"
Water gathered together from out of the limitless lake to form a duplicate of Kisame. There was now two of the enemy.
'This is insane! The guy has such a high chakra level…I have no choice. I can't afford to take a chance with that sword, so…time to go to Cursed Seal Level 2!'
His cursed seal markings began to glow a bright orange. Jiroubou's skin became a dark red color, and his hair grew out. His pupils turned a golden color, his sclera becoming a shining black.
"Interesting." Kisame smirked.
'Who…what is he?!' Chouji thought, staring at him with a horrified expression. 'Well, if we're gonna get serious about getting serious, I guess I'll use my trump card too.' He reached into his weapons pouch. 'No better time like the present! I can't let Shikamaru down!'
Chouji takes out the red pill from the canister, and puts it in his mouth, biting down on it. The space around Chouji seemed to twist and turn, like an angry current. His chakra, now a raging blue flame, swirled around him ceaselessly. The other two gazed in amazement at how much weight he appeared to have lost because of it! He was almost a completely different person! His chakra gathered around his back and formed what appeared to be butterfly wings.
'Damn,' Jiroubou thought, bewildered. 'Maybe it really is best that I posed that temporary alliance…' He quickly cast that thought aside, and turned back to face Kisame(s).
"TIME FOR YOU TO GO!!" Chouji and Jiroubou shouted simultaneously at the water nin, who had a very brief look of fear on his face.
Chouji disappeared and reappeared behind Kisame and his water clone, moving not by teleportation techniques, but by blinding speed. Chouji drove his fist into the torso of one of the two, instantly destroying the clone. It burst into thousands of tiny water droplets. He then threw a kick at the other one, who blocked the powerful blow with his weapon. The force of the kick, however, was so great, that Kisame stumbled backwards, leaving himself open to another shot. This time, Chouji kicked twice as hard. This blow knocked Kisame southwards at great distance and great speed. He smashed against the base of another great tree, and continued on through it, going through tree to tree to tree. He eventually stopped, and the two others walked over and looked to make sure that was it. Certain as it would appear, Kisame's corpse lay limp on the ground inside a gigantic crater. The two smiled at the sight, but the smiles did not last for long. The 'corpse' exploded into a million tiny water droplets, just like the last one.
"D-Don't tell me that was a clone too!" Jiroubou shouted in a state of panic. A figure rose out from the puddles directly behind him and grinned.
"That was a clone too."
Hearing the voice from behind him, and not thinking a second thought, Jiroubou threw a punch, spinning all the way around with it. Kisame easily caught his fist using his spare hand.
"No matter what things you two use to extend your strength, or speed up your prowess, you should realize altogether that I am an entirely different league than you."
Chouji charged forward in the hopes of striking him down again, but all hopes were crushed, when Kisame easily dodged the blow, and returned it with his sword. Chouji flew backwards from the force, and when he tried to get up, he winced in pain at the wide open gash marks layering his upper chest.
Kisame raised his sword in Chouji's direction, and when Jiroubou jumped away in caution, he spun around to face Jiroubou, without lowering the sword. "Alright, your turn."
Jiroubou grunted at this, and dug his fists into the earth. When he pulled back up, he had a boulder many times the size of his own body. He hurled it directly at Kisame, full speed. Kisame carelessly leapt over it. But Jiroubou had anticipated this. As Kisame landed, Jiroubou appeared right behind him, from out of nowhere.
"Eat this!" He shouted at the unsuspecting water ninja.
"Eh?" Kisame turned his head, just in time to meet up with Jiroubou's fist. Kisame was sent flying from the force, and smashed into the side of the boulder that Jiroubou threw. Once again: a water clone. It dissipated from the boulder, sliding off, and leaving the cracks in the stone from the force of the blow. Kisame again rose up from the water, this time, right in front of the boulder, where his clone sank in.
"You know…" Jiroubou spoke. "…you're starting to pass yourself off as a cheap-ass using the same technique over and over again…"
Kisame frowned at this. "Aww…come on, big man. Keep throwing those punches. I'm sure it will work eventually."
Chouji quickly intercepted him from behind, and threw a punch, this time, at the hand holding Kisame's sword. Kisame moved his hand in time to avoid any harm done directly to it, but while he saved his hand, his sword went flying out of it from the sudden force. It was sent flying for meters to go, spinning rapidly as it sailed through the air. It landed in a small group of trees, seemingly without harming any of them. However, all of those trees fell shortly after the sword landed, having been apparently struck on the way down.
"Oh wow." Kisame turned to Chouji. "Now see what you made me do!"
Chouji ignored his statement, and threw a punch, this time, not at Kisame, nor his hand, but at the ground that the three had been standing on. As a result, a great quake was felt and heard, and cracks in the ground turned into great chasms, straining and spreading apart, like a festering wound. They eventually got as wide as ravines, and just as deep. The water, which they all had stood ankle deep in, seeped through the chasms, much like miniature waterfalls. Kisame turned back to stare at Chouji with a look on his face that seemed to ask 'what the hell did you do?'
Chouji glared up at Kisame, still holding the position he was in when he punched the ground. "Bet you're not so tough without water around, huh? Bet you can't use half of your techniques without water, huh?!"
Kisame gave him a look of annoyance. "Are you stupid or something, kid? Were you not aware this whole time that I can summon water at will?"
"Are you stupid or something?!" Chouji shot back at him. "Take a good look at the terrain. There's no way you can create a perfect body of water now. The water will simply seep away through all these big cracks that I made in the surface. Guess you hit a failsafe, and I guess your 'friends' won't be feeding on anyone, anytime soon!"
Much to Chouji's dismay (and annoyance), Kisame laughed in spite of this. "…heh, heh, heh…good, kid…good…so you figured it out, huh? Maybe you're not the stupid fatass I mistook you for."
"SHUT UP!" Chouji threw a punch at Kisame, but he leapt back, and Chouji smashed the ground instead.
"…but that doesn't mean I can't scratch you both up a little with this fine specimen." He added, stroking the hilt of his weapon.
"Still two-on-one…" Jiroubou announced to Chouji, who was still glaring at Kisame. "We can still pull this off, kid."
Chouji didn't bother to respond. As much as he would have been grateful before that the guy had saved him from being eaten, he still had matters to settle with his old foe. He did insult his best friend after all, as well as him. And he was still one of the enemies of his mission. Nothing would change that.
In a flash, Kisame disappeared from where he had been standing, and reappeared right in front of both of them.
"DIE!" Kisame shouted.
He threw his greatsword up high, and with astounding force, he slammed it down in front of him. He hit a small space right in between his two foes, and a big shockwave ran through the path that his sword was facing. Although both Chouji and Jiroubou had been lucky enough to side jump at the right time, the force of the impact caused them to fly opposite directions and they wound up falling through the great ravines that Chouji had made.
Kisame walked up to the edge and peered down. It was too dark to see, and judging by the width and size, it would take hours for him just to find one of them. Kisame's best case scenario was that the height and steepness of the ravine would finish them both off for him, though he wasn't too sure.
Kisame shrugged his shoulders and turned to walk away, only pausing to look back down from the corner of his eye and mutter one sentence. "You two don't know how lucky you are."
Chouji somehow managed to climb up the cliffside of the ravine that was quite some distance away from where their skirmishes took place. The wind was quiet and the birds were chirping as He ambled into the deeper woods.
-THROB-
"Gah!" He winced as he clutched his chest in pain. The side effects of the red pill were starting. The pain was almost unbearable. He got down on his knees, and started to crawl to the trunk of a great tree. He examined the markings that he found engraved on the tree. It had arrows carved into it, giving the initial direction that the others had headed, as well as a friendly message, telling him to please catch up. He gave a small smile as he read it, and tears started streaming down his face.
'They believed in me…' He set himself in front of the tree and leaned against it.
"Thanks…Shikamaru…everyone…" He lowered his head, his consciousness slowly leaving him as his enhanced chakra did. After a minute of silence, a butterfly came out of the background, glowing a mystic color. It fluttered with soft graces down to greet him, and landed on his unmoving hand.
Jiroubou climbed out another side of the ravine. It was equally as silent and serene on his side of the ravine as it was on Chouji's. He was out of his cursed seal state, and was looking around to see if it was all clear. Once he realized that it was, he let out a sigh of relief.
"Man…what a workout…" He whispered to himself, lacking the breath and energy to speak in normal tone. He looked back one last time. It was time to regroup with his teammates at Otogakure. "Hope they had better luck than I did…" He mumbled.
Miles away…
Neji and Kidomaru continued to exchange blows, by which meant Kidomaru rapidly spitting webbing at Neji, and Neji repetitively shredding it. Kidomaru had his cursed seal activated; curved markings engulfed most of his body. He had not, however, moved on to level 2.
Neji stood, Byakugan activated, in the center of the forest floor, while Kidomaru kept himself hidden in the trees, waiting for an opening…there!
He shot hardened, arrowhead-like projectiles from his mouth, aimed at vital points in Neji's backside. However, the Byakugan's line of sight was impeccable.
"Rotation!" Neji spins rapidly in the same place, resulting in something like a great blue shield to form around his body, parrying the spear points headed directly at him.
Unfazed by Neji's perception, Kidomaru grins. The attack was merely a feint to throw Neji off, while he attacked elsewhere.
Immediately after Neji stops the Rotation, a small flurry of the same weapons attacked again from behind, but this time, at a different angle. Neji again deflected these, but not as luckily as the last time, as two blades lodged themselves into his backside, causing him to grunt in pain.
Kidomaru grinned once again in triumph, as Neji struggled to his feet. The Byakugan's blind spot…and he had located it. While it is clear that the Byakugan has a clear sight radius of 360 degrees, and somewhere around a 50 meter range, there was still one teeny, tiny opening in the back of Neji's head. This is going to require flawless timing and precision – nothing short of that.
Kidomaru readied another hardened weapon, but this time, it was not kunai. Ohhhh, no. He filled his mouth with more brown liquid material for something big. He used his six hands to mold a longbow, with the substance that continued to spew fourth from his mouth. Next was the easy part – he spat one last handful out and molded an arrow with the size to match the bow he was about to put it with. He lined it with the bowstring, and put the end of the arrow in between his teeth, pulling back on it as he did so. The soft creak of the silky string straining against the pressure could be heard, but only by Kidomaru.
'This is gonna be difficult without Level 2, but if I can pull this off, right here and now, I won't have to go through the unpleasant effects of using it later.'
Going in for the winning shot. This should be over in no time at all; just one precise throw will do it…just one precise stab to the head through the blind spot. But it would be hard to time it, that's the thing, with Neji's head constantly turning to look for his enemy.
'Come on, you bastard…' Kidomaru thought, anxious for the kill. 'Just hold still for a second or two…I can make this painless…ya won't even realize when you're dead…'
He tugged tighter on the arrow. 'Right…about………GOTCHA-'
-THUD!-
Kidomaru was knocked out of his tree before he could finish off the Hyuuga. He caught himself in mid-air using his webbing to form threats to support him. He clung to them using his six arms, turning to get a look at his assailant. Neji, who had seen (and heard) the action of Kidomaru get knocked out of his position, turned to see what was happening.
"I thought I picked up on some strangely shaped chakra signatures, hmm." Deidara jumped down and landed on a branch just below the one that Kidomaru had been aiming from. "But I didn't think that it would be just a forest spider with a cheap parlor imitation of my art, and…who's this?" He turned to the figure on the forest floor, who was painfully pulling the hardened kunai out of his back side, wincing in pain.
Kidomaru frowned at Deidara from an upside-down position, still hanging his threads. In annoyance, he had one pair of his six arms crossing each other. "Who're you? No, wait, strike that, I don't care who you are. Now blow away, before I get mad."
"Ohhhhhhh, scary, scary…" Deidara raised his arms in pretended fear. "But hey…what's that above – or, from your perspective…below you, hm?" He pointed up.
Kidomaru traced his threads all the way to the sources. Though barely visible from where he was hanging, Kidomaru picked up on a few tiny, white spider creatures that he instantly knew where not his own summons. There was something different about them…something…oh shi-
"BANG!" Deidara shouted out, holding two fingers up to his face in the form of a ninjutsu hand sign.
The clay spiders exploded simultaneously, not only cutting off Kidomaru's supported branches, but knocking Kidomaru through the air through the impact of the explosions altogether. Kidomaru hit the base of a giant tree. Hard. He gagged; spit escaped his mouth as it shot wide open in shock. Having the wind knocked out of you…was not fun.
Kidomaru landed rather unbalanced, kneeling forward in an attempt to regain his breath.
Neji stared up at the figure who wore the black cloak with what appeared to be red clouds. "Who on Earth…?" He continued to look, unsure of whether the man was hostile or not.
Several clay-formed dragonflies coming directly at Neji quickly gave him his answer.
BOOM! BOOM! They exploded as they impacted the ground that Neji had been standing on a second before. Despite his injury, Neji just moved quickly enough to avoid sustaining an attack that had a slight, slight chance of obliterating his pieces altogether.
Deidara didn't care. He was having too much fun toying with them.
He danced around as he hurled more explosive animals at the two shinobi. They hid in cover from them, but it was painfully obvious that they were running out of places to hide. The trees were constantly being blown up and away, and at some point, their luck would run out completely, and Deidara would kill them.
"C'mon, Spiderman, can't you defend yourself any better?! Did you think that you were the only one that could mend materials with chakra?" Deidara shouted looking around; his face was twisted into a frenzied expression. "Did you think you were the only one who could create art?!"
Kidomaru had had enough of this.
'Dammit. This guy is pushing it…well if he wants it…LEVEL 2!'
Kidomaru's cursed seal spread across his body like wildfire. His skin turned an even tanner color, and he grew fangs. His eyes assumed the cursed colors, as a third eye opened in his forehead. He was an overall terrifying looking being, appearing more spider-like.
Neji saw this, in a look of horror. He didn't have enough time to process the information thoroughly, though. Explosions continued to ring out of the forest. World War III was happening right now, and nothing he could say was going to stop it.
However, he could say this…
"Hey!" He shouted to Kidomaru. "If you want to live a bit longer, say 'I'!"
"You son of a-...'I'…" He said reluctantly, trying his best to keep his attitude under control.
"Then I propose…"
They both looked at Deidara.
"…a team up!"
"Why should I help you?" Kidomaru questioned, crossing a pair of his arms. "Weren't we just trying to kill each other a minute ago?"
"You just said you wanted to live," Neji reminded him. "…well, I would sort of like to live too! Don't think I'm more eager to have to do this than you are… How do you think we will defeat this…man…?" He looked back at Deidara to make sure that he was a man, like he said. He could hardly tell.
"…defeat…this enemy…" He concluded.
Kidomaru grumbled at the thought of having to fight alongside his previous enemy, but something inside of him told him that he was right. He couldn't handle him alone.
"…fine…I guess…but I'm not finished with you yet, kid." He ended on a threatening note.
"I expected no less."
They both turned to the blonde Akatsuki member, who sat carelessly on his branch above them, swinging his legs back and forth.
"Hmph." He smirked at them.
"If anything, it's easier on me than it is on you guys…" he stated. "If you two fight side-by-side, instead of in different corners, I'll snuff you out in one shot, instead of two!"
He laughed annoyingly at the two, who were leaping up the tree branches towards Deidara's location. He immediately stopped his laughing and smirked.
'Closer…closer…' He reached into his pocket, and the mouth pieces on his palms began to chew and mend the clay inside of them. '…got you!' He got into his ninjutsu stance, and as the two nins were about to reach him, the tree around him exploded, sending a shockwave that ripped through the ones nearby. So much for frontal assault.
As they tumbled back and landed on a safer branch, Neji closed his eyes.
"Byakugan!" His eyes once again lit up, and he scanned the area. Something was wrong. There were small chakra signatures all over the place. Deidara had the whole forest rigged.
'He really thought this through…' Neji thought. 'Even if not everything goes as it was supposed to for him, he would just blast the whole forest to the moon.' He caught sight of a one of the little chakra signatures start to leap towards them. 'This is bad!'
He turned to Kidomaru, who was right next to him. "Keep a wary eye out for anything out of the ordinary. The enemy attacks with chakra-infused clay."
"Oh, really, you think?" Kidomaru responded, as in saying to Neji that he was already aware.
Neji frowned at the sarcastic remark, and continued to look for the larger chakra signature – that being their target. "This whole place is lit with chakra – I'm guessing that the material was automatically strewn around from that last big explosion, when he was on the tree branch."
"So, you're saying he can throw out radial chakra attacks in one measly explosion…"
"That or we're in the middle of an enchanted chakra forest…" Neji returned the snide comment.
"I'm willing to go with the secondary…"
"Shut up, and listen to what I'm saying, if you care for your good will."
"What do you have in mind, boss?" Kidomaru hissed.
"First off, we need to find the source of all this chakra. My blood limit will disable any chakra-based attacks, as you well know. If we find the trap master, we can disable the traps."
They looked around, until they spotted something black, with red blotches in the distance. That had to be him.
"There!"
Neji sprinted through the tree branches, leaving Kidomaru behind. He closed in on his target, and by the time Deidara turned to face him, it was too late, and he was hit by a barrage of quick jabs.
"Hakke Rokujuyon Sho (Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms)!" Neji commenced the beating.
"Two!" He struck Deidara's torso twice.
"Four!" He struck four more, at increased pace.
"Eight!" Eight more times, pace still increasing.
"Sixteen!" Another sixteen.
"Thirty-two!" What am I, a math teacher?
"Sixty-four!" Deidara was knocked back into a tree with a loud grunt.
As he slid down the base, however, a pasty, white substance seemed to trickle onto the tree, leaving a trail on the way down. Soon, Deidara was completely oozing with the stuff, and shortly after that, his body became an unrecognizable pile of white clay.
Neji crinkled his nose in disgust. Kidomaru ran up next to him to examine the remains.
"Well I'll be damned." A voice rang out above both of them, as high up in the trees, in an upside-down position, Deidara hung with his arms crossed. "You're a Hyuuga, aren't you?"
Neji answered him with a deadpanned glare.
"I'm surprised that you hadn't picked up on the fact that my chakra signature is a lot more detailed than that of a clay clones'."
Seeing that Neji wouldn't answer, he continued. "I'm also surprised that you are too busy paying attention to me to notice the hundreds of clay insects seeping out of the remains of the one you just killed!"
Kidomaru took one quick glance back at the mound. His eyes widened in panic.
"Oh-oh shit!" He shouted, waving his arms around in panic. "Run! Run away from it!"
Deidara assumed his ninjutsu hand pose. "Art is…"
"A bitch!" A voice shouted from the far distance.
The terrorist gave a confused look, but quickly turned back and finished.
"A BANG!"
The insects surrounding the disheveled mound exploded like firecrackers…very big, loud firecrackers. The tree that had supported the clone was blown into splinters, each flying for meters to go.
Neji and Kidomaru had taken cover, each behind their own tree. They slowly turned to each other, exchanged surprised glances, their hair stuck up in messes as smoke left them as they turned back.
"It's painfully obvious – this guy is a damn psychopath." Kidomaru concluded, after careful calibrations.
"He seems to have a small affinity for explosions, but I do doubt I would go so far as to call him a…" Neji dragged off as he looked back in time to see Deidara laughing like a lunatic, and doing the Caramelldansen around the rubble where the explosions took place. "…psychopath…" Neji finally finished, as he and Kidomaru sweat-dropped at the strange, strange sight.
"What now? Neither of us can go for help without being blown up, and we can't stay in one position for too long."
Neji closed his eyes in concentration. As soon as he opened them again, he turned to face Kidomaru.
"I noticed a…slight change in your appearance. Is there anything you can do that you couldn't before?"
Kidomaru nodded, his eyes closed in frustration. "As much as I enjoy telling freakin' leaf genin about my fighting strengths and strategies, I guess I don't have a choice…"
He opened his eyes again (all three of them), and stared at Neji, who was chilled slightly at having three hideously colored eyes peering directly at him.
"My custom Sticky Spider Bow that I have right now goes perfectly well with my second form. Because of this third eye, I have improved accuracy, increasing the precision and deadliness of my arrow. On top of that, I have a perfectly flexible chakra thread that I attach to the arrow, and as I shoot, I can tilt it through use of the thread, and guide where it goes."
Neji nodded in response, his arms folded, and his eyes closed.
"I'll be more careful about reading the chakra signatures now, so, having memorized the pattern of the clone I just destroyed, I'll be checking this enemy for similar patterns. If I see that he's a fake, I'll tell you so." Neji explained.
He paused briefly and looked at Kidomaru to see if he was paying attention to what he was saying. He nodded, and motioned for him to start analyzing.
Neji nodded as response, and faced directly at the tree that they were hiding behind. He closed his eyes.
"Byakugan!" Repeating the same facial effects, Neji looked through the tree and out at Deidara…just in time to see him come straight at them…surfing along the backside of a gigantic clay centipede. It charged at them at surprising speed, knocking down fallen trees as it did so.
Neji's eyes widened in shock. "Shit! Run!"
"Run, what the…" Kidomaru looked out from behind the tree, and all three of his eyes grew to the size of dinner plates. "Ah! Shit!! Run!!"
They darted in opposite directions, and not a second later, the tree that they hid behind had been struck down.
Deidara continued surfing through the wilderness, bashing down trees with his big, long ride. He wasn't about to let them escape.
"Come out, come out!" Deidara shouted playfully. He had not had this much fun in a while.
"Right here!" A voice echoed out back in response.
"Wha-?" He turned around just in time to meet Neji's palm driving into his chest.
"Oomph!" He grunted at he was knocked clear off of his centipede.
From the top of the beasts back, Neji thrust his fingertips into the head area, and in an instant, the creature had tipped over with a loud thud. It lay there, a lifeless husk, completely devoid of chakra.
Neji left the fallen bug, and darted towards where he had seen Deidara fall, only to find that he was no longer there. There was, however, a gigantic imprint that he had left where he made contact with the ground.
"You-hoo!" A voice shouted from high up in the trees.
Neji turned up in time to see a small flock of clay birds swoop down upon him. Acting quickly, Neji rapidly jabbed at the oncoming animals, hitting each of them exactly one time. They fell to the ground, limp.
'He's fast.' Neji thought, gripping his side and panting hard.
Deidara stared down at him in sheer amusement, but didn't notice Kidomaru plant himself into position several meters away, bow in hand. He took his aim, released the arrow, and let it fly. It shot towards Deidara with the silk infused thread hanging behind it. Deidara caught sight of it, and timing himself just right, he leaned back and narrowly dodged it. Kidomaru saw right through it, and adjusted the arrow a little. It was intended to pierce the enemy, but instead, it tore a small gash in his outfit.
"Whoa." Deidara reacted, fingering the tear in his clothing. "Not bad." He jumped off of his tree branch, and threw a small clay bird that suddenly became twenty times bigger. He landed gracefully on the owl, and took high to the air. "It was fun and all, sparring with a Hyuuga and with a mutant freak with abilities like mine…" He opened up his palms to them to show them the mouths that were now sticking their tongues out at them.
The two down below crinkled their faces in disgust.
"…Buuuuuuut, time to end this game of wits and dangerous explosions." He dug his hands into his pockets, and allowed his extra mouths to mold the clay inside to shape. When he finished, he pulled out a pod-shaped clay figure. "I don't think the ever-so expensive C-4 clay will be necessary, but I'll bet the Hyuuga has figured out by now that the whole area is rigged with explosives. Anyways, tah!" He released the figure and blew a big jet trail as he hauled out of there.
"For the last time, kids…" He shouted back at them as he flew away. "ART IS A BLAST!!"
Backing away from the falling object, Neji and Kidomaru stumbled upon a great ravine. What dumb luck. They felt like taking no chances today, and both of them jumped off the edge and made their escape, not looking back.
-BOOM!-
Multiple, loud explosions rang out from behind, as they flew through the dark rift. Boulders came crashing down as a result of the action from above, and in no time at all, the entire ravine was filled with rock. Neji crawled out of the debris, huffing loudly as he got up, and brushed the dirt and dust from himself. Many meters away, Kidomaru was doing the exact same thing. They both looked back at where the explosions came from. What a mess – great smoke rose from the land as the trees were stripped of their leaves, and not one tree was standing. The grass was also burnt clean off of the surface. In short, a wasteland. They had both survived…some how… Unaware that the other was alive, the injured and exhausted shinobi clutched their sides, and limped off towards their own villages.
"Everyone..." Neji grunted out in pain as he was on the verge of collapse. "The rest...I leave to you."
Hidan was walking alone along the trail. So far, no good. He had not caught sight of any sport. He knew that he and Kakuzu were supposed to be heading towards the Hidden Leaf Village together to prevent help from coming for the objective target, but what the Leader didn't know wouldn't hurt them. Besides, they would rather be part of the action, anyways, rather than standing in a boring lookout place, waiting for help that they all knew would never come. However, Hidan might as well be there waiting right now, with the luck he was having right now.
Suddenly, he heard something in the background, near the river. Panting? He rushed over behind a tree and carefully looked from behind it. What he saw caused him to crack a small grin, which eventually folded into a full smile. Jackpot. For what he saw, was a wounded leaf genin, all soggy and worn as he was limping towards a tree, holding something furry. A cat? A dog? Too far to tell. All that Hidan knew was that his dark god would get his long-waited sacrifice very soon.