Chapter 3: Defense-Rescue Clash
"Don't think I'm going to go easy on you, because you're a woman," Zoro warned as he pulled out his other two swords, Wadou Ichimounji and Sandai Kitetsu. He placed one of the katana in his mouth, getting into the Santouryuu style of fighting.
"You plan on fighting with three swords? That's a first," Tenten said.
"Trust me, if this goes well, it'll be the last for you also!" Zoro yelled out. He rushed in like a predator, ready to take out the prey.
Tenten started flipping back as she pulled out weapons to use. First, she tossed two kunais. Zoro did a cross slash to cut it into two. A third kunai was hidden in the shadow, and Zoro barely dodged it by jumping into the side.
He was about to continue his dash again, but a yell out from the front gate direction abruptly stopped him.
"Melllooooriiinne! Zoro, if you hurt her one bit, I swear I'll kill you! Ughhh!" Sanji said, right before he received a quick blow from the enemy.
"Pay attention to your own damn fight, moron!" Zoro yelled back.
At that one moment of distraction, Tenten closed in on him with her Sansetsukon (three-sectional staff). She jumped up and smacked him hard at the side of the neck. Zoro's focus immediately returned as he side-stepped unbalancedly from the blow. Regardless, he still retaliated with a swing of sword. He connected with the side of her shoulder, but the wound wasn't too deep to create any considerable damage. They immediately retreated to create distance between themselves again.
Zoro rubbed his neck and started to commentate on her attack. "I admit that that hit did hurt, but do you really think you can take me down with a stick?"
"I have other toys to play with as well, just be patient," the kunoichi replied with a smirk as she rubbed her small wound that she had just received from the green-haired swordsman.
"You're lucky I didn't attack you with my Sandai Kitetsu. That katana wouldn't have been as forgiving."
"I'm sorry, but baseless threats mean nothing to a shinobi."
Out of nowhere, she launched 10 shurikens, accurately at the swordsman. Zoro hid behind his katana to shield himself from the flying ninja stars. When he got back up, he saw Tenten once again ready for a close-ranged fright. But during the time of distraction from the flying projectiles, she had already switched her main weapon of choice for two batons.
"She's pretty fast…"
She flipped around the baton and then went in for a hit, but Zoro blocked with the weapon that was in his mouth. They struggled for the upper hand as they struck up a conversation.
"Where are you hiding the rest of us?"
"I'm sorry, but I'm not the one that should be interrogated right now. What's your affiliation?"
"My affiliation is with that idiot captain. Answer my question!"
"Hmph, I guess we have to do it the tough way to get an answer out of you."
"Be my guest!"
She then spun in 360 degrees to land a hard hit to the katana, pushing Zoro back. Zoro immediately recovered and jumped up. He point out his two katanas in his hands and dropped back down to where Tenten stood. She blocked the hit with two baton-equipped hands. But as she fended off against those two weapons, another weapon was left free and opened to attack. He attacked her with the dull side of the blade in his mouth, while making her fall back. Zoro came in for a full Santouryuu assault while she was left open from the last attack.
"Hyou Kin Dama!"
Tenten dropped to the ground with many cuts and bruises on her body. With the wounds she just received, her condition soon became fatal.
"I have no further business with you," Zoro said as he sheathed his three katanas.
To much surprise, Tenten still stood back up, prepared to fight some more. She barely had the strength to stand back up, but her determination gave her the power to continue. "Don't think I'm done yet. I won't give in to you till I drop unconscious or die!"
"Fine, I guess that's what I have to do then!" He then pulled out his Wadou Ichimounji to finish the job.
"I guess it wasn't a bad idea to borrow Shikamaru's thing after all," she thought as she closed her eyes. Right at that moment, a blinding light filled the area where they stood.
Zoro immediately covered his eyes with his arm out of basic instinct. "Damn, she must've slipped one of those ninja bombs after I hit her with Oni Giri. Now she has the chance to attack me again!"
The light soon faded away, and Zoro immediately looked in front of him at where the kunoichi once stood. "Where did she go?" he thought while looked around.
"Up here!" Tenten shouted out. The pirate swordsman immediately looked up and saw the female up in the air, immersed with two long scrolls.
She yelled out, "Soushouryu!" right before she started gently spinning around while pulling weapons out of them and throwing it at him very precisely. In the early go, Zoro had an easy time defending against the weapon parade, but it started going faster and more kept coming at him. "Where the hell is she stacking these stuff?" he thought as he knock flying weapon after flying weapon. "Damn, I don't have time to pull out my other two swords or I would have a better chance against this weird technique."
However, the defense didn't last long. Once he got distracted by a movement of weapons dropped near his feet (due to Tenten's chakra strings), a full blown assault invaded him from every corner. After the deadly Rising Twin Dragon technique, Zoro dropped to his knees, covered all over with deep cuts and bruises. He tried to get back up, but fell flat on his face upon attempt. He was knocked out cold.
Tenten wasn't the clear victor either though. Her momentum ended once she finished the execution of her jutsu, and she dropped to the ground roughly, slowly turning unconscious.
DOUBLE KNOCKOUT!
-SCENE-
The fight has been on for a while now. Like a true old-fashioned ninja, Lee started the battle with another one of his, "Here I come!" to show his sportsmanship and confidence in his abilities. Sanji has been on the losing battle since he left his guard open. Lee's agility really has been too much for this pirate to stand.
"Shit, he's too goddam quick…" Sanji thought as he looked around him. Right then and there, Rock Lee re-appeared in front of the cook and planted his feet across his chest. Sanji stepped back from the impact and immediately counter, but Lee disappeared once again.
He held his chest as he stood defensively and waited for the shinobi to strike once again. "There's no way I can compete with him blow for blow at this pace, so I'll bring him down to my level!"
"Konoha Reppuu!" yelled Lee. Sanji quickly turned and saw a leg sweep targeting his legs. The attack connected to him as he dropped to the floor. Before the Green Beast of Konoha can capitalize though, he used his legs to clamp tightly onto his opponent.
"Not what you were expecting, huh?" he asked with a smirk. Next, he kicked his right knee and left ankle in succession to cause Lee to bend in a "proposal" type of stance. He then land two kicks on the jaw of the enemy to knock him back. Sanji quickly rebounded back up and allowed no opening for Lee to work with.
"Poitrine Shoot!" "Joue Shoot!" "Flanchet!"
After the combo of accurately placed kicks from the pirate cook, Lee was up in the air, brutally attacked, and dropped down again. Sanji watched on to see if his opponent was able to take any more of a beating. Apparently, he was…
"You indeed have very strong kicks. I commend you for that. But if that's the only "dish" you're offering, you're making a big mistake…"
"'Dish' Who the hell use those stupid puns anymore?" Sanji thought in disgust. He immediately shook off the irrelevant matter and entered into a fighting stance, which made Lee to also follow.
"Osss! Konoha Senpuu!"
"Troisième Haché!"
"Konoha Shoufuu!"
"Reception!"
"Dynamic Entry!"
"Shishinabe Shot!"
"Konoha Daisenpuu!"
"Veau Shot!"
"Konoha Gouriki Senpuu!"
After dodging many powerful kicks, their final attack finally connected simultaneously, knocking both warriors back and badly bruised. They seem down for the count, but their resolve gave them more reason to stand back up again.
"Not bad…"
"Same to you…"
They were about to start up again, regardless of how tired they already were, but a voice heard near them put a halt on what they were doing.
-SCENE-
"I have to act quickly and not allow him room to breathe. I won't give him any openings, but I can't act reckless also… Just another day," Neji planned out as he stared at the straw hat man.
"Before we start, state your name and business with Konoha!" the Byakugan master demanded.
"I'm Monkey D. Luffy…, and I'm here to kick your ass!" the enemy yelled. Then he stretched his arm back for a couple of yards, winding up for the next attack. "Gomu Gomu no Pistol!"
A fist launched back forward toward Neji. It barely missed him as he jumped to the side to avoid the weird attack. "Byakugan!" he shouted out. Veins popped to the sides of his eyes, as he began to scan the enemy. If he were to confront such an enemy, he would do it with extreme expertise.
"Are you trying to scare me with those eyes? Don't bet on it!" Luffy shouted back as he ran up close to Neji. He dashed to the pole aside him and started pulling back with his arms stretching more and more as he stepped back, preparing for a catapult-like assault. "Gomu Gomu no Rocket!" He launched forward at an extremely quick speed toward Neji, but this time he was prepared against the attack.
"Kaiten!" He spun around with his arms out, creating a vortex-like defense against the oncoming enemy.
"Gomu Gomu no Fuusen!" He breathed in a lot of air to turn into a large round figure, to slow down the speed he was heading toward Neji. He eventually stopped before running into Neji.
"Oh yeah, Gomu Gomu no…, Ono!" He stretched a leg long into the air and crashed it down like an axe to Neji's head. He immediately stopped his Kaiten, and prepared to intercept the dropping leg. As he caught it, it pushed him hard into the ground, causing the road beneath him to crumble. His knees bent as the force crushed him more and more.
"It seems I underestimated the strength of the enemy, but that isn't enough to take me out!" Neji thought with increasing determination, a trait he had learned from Naruto. He slowly grab tight of the leg and tried to stand back straight. He struggled for a bit, but managed to do it. Then he used all his strength and gave a powerful tug on it, causing the straw hat invader to come back toward him.
Then Neji got into a familiar stance at the careless oncoming enemy. "Hakke Hyaku Nijuuha Shou!" As he was ready to launch the first Eight Trigram palm, Luffy prepared himself just in time.
"Gomu Gomu no Fuusen!"
Unknowingly, Neji still continued his onslaught, but he wasn't sure if he was damaging the enemy or not. "What kind of shield is this? It's like I'm attacking a rubber ball…" Before he finished his 128 palms, he jumped back and got back onto the defense.
"He's not like most guys I faced. His experience in battle is nothing to be thought little of. Plus his offense and defense are tricky to handle against. It's hard to aim for tenketsu points to slow him down if they are shielded with that Fuusen maneuver."
"Hey, stop poking me and let's fight seriously! Gomu Gomu no…," he shouted out.
"I'll have to come at him unexpected then," Neji decided. Neji then dashed straight at him with several shurikens out.
"Pistol!"
He tossed the projectiles, watching a pair cut up Luffy's launching fist and another curving toward Luffy's head.
The shurikens did slash up his fist, but it didn't retract and still had a destination point on the Hyuuga's face. Neji grinned as he jumped up and landed on the stretched arm as it was coming at him. He ran quickly on it, going toward Luffy's end.
Luffy was about to prepared another "stretched-out" attack with his other arm, but the shurikens distracted him for a slight second as he dodged it by stretching his neck to the side. When he brought his head back to its original position, it was already too late. He was already within striking range.
He thrusts his palm in front of Luffy's face and then said, "Hakke Kusho!"
"Gomu Gomu no Kane!"
Both attacks collided instantaneously. As the chakra waves pushed and slashed the face of Luffy's, he struggled forward and gave a powerful headbutt to Neji's forehead (covered by his hitai-ate, of course). Both fell back and rolled vigorously across the ground. But not before long, they got back up to their feet. Although they were hurt from each other's powerful blows, they weren't nowhere near their limit.
"Even with this forehead protector, he did a considerable damage to my head," Neji analyzed as he stared down the enemy.
"Gah! That hurts! Did you eat the Ban Ban fruit or something (bankin metal)? And all those scratches you made on my face too!" Luffy cried out comically as he started rubbing his head. Obviously, he didn't notice the hitai-ate Neji was wearing.
Before they would start again, a call came out to stop them.
"STOP!"
Author's Notes: Well for the attack names, just search for it on Wikipedia. For One Piece attacks, you can search for "one piece abilities" and for Naruto attacks, you can just search for "naruto" plus type of attack (ex: ninjutsu, taijutsu). Oh, and before you guys complain about how incomplete the fight was, my excuse is that good guys shouldn't get too serious when fighting each other.
Also, to my one reviewer, no I didn't group them together due to the eyebrows. I just found that they were a perfect pair to put up against each other out of all of the Gai team.
Anyways, read, review, and enjoy.