Chapter 7: Arusatsu's Untouchable Moves
Near Shikamaru's home, another battle was taking place. The blonde loudmouth and the lazy shinobi relentlessly took out opponent after opponent.
A soldier came at the ponytailed-jounin, while he was busy struggling against another "lifeless" soldier. When the strike of the enemy's fist came at him, Shikamaru immediately pushed the other enemy back, and kicked the oncoming soldier. He tried to capitalize with an immediate leg sweep, but the opponent hopped to avoid it. Shikamaru hinted a soft grin, signaling some sense of success, before he rolled under the opponent during mid-air and stabbed him in his unguarded back area. The soldier dropped immediately, but that only brought forth more mindless enemies.
Meanwhile, Naruto was using more of brute strength and chakra abuse rather than intellect, unlike his partner. When somebody came at him, Naruto met that person with a quick fist to the face and knee to the jaw. Sometimes, he would complement his finisher with an extended leg to the side to either make contact with another soldier or make them back off all of a sudden, easily making them unprepared for a nearby pair of clones to take advantage with a Rasengan.
It goes without saying Naruto and his twenty-something shadow clones took care of a good 80 of the soldiers, with Shikamaru at 20. However, with the invincible enemies keep getting up, it was nothing short of troublesome.
"Even with fatal wounds and major blood loss, these guys just keep getting up like it was nothing. Naruto, we have to think of another tactic to deal with the situation," Shikamaru decided, right before ten shurikens came flying right at him. He used Kawarimi no Jutsu just in time to replace his body with a piece of log nearby. He then came from behind of the enemy launching projectiles and stuck a kunai at the base of his neck. "Man, even as an ANBU for 2-3 years now, I haven't seen so much blood spilled… How troublesome…"
"Well, if you have any suggestions I'm up for it. But seriously, these guys aren't worth the trouble thinking so hard about. They haven't been able to attack any citizens so far and are way too easy to beat," Naruto stated, while he was struggling with an enemy. Another soldier rushed toward him from the side and Naruto quickly threw the solder into the other soldier that was coming at him. He took them out with a kunai launched at the chest, piercing them both. "I can do this all day!"
As the shinobi fended off against the invaders, all of a sudden, every soldier dropped dead, truly dead this time.
"What the hell…," commented a surprised Naruto .
"I was hoping that they would fall soon," Shikamaru said with a heavy sigh. He sat down near a tree to rest.
"What do you mean?"
"I saw something in their eyes and that showed my that we were merely fighting dead corpses. Some person probably gave them some kind of drug that allows the user to continue fighting, even after they are killed. I'm guessing that the time just ran out."
"Now that you mentioned it, when we first fought them, they were at least asking us something about the 7 "special" soldiers and their location, and they grunted/moan when we were hurting them. After that, it was just like fighting with animated dolls or something," Naruto realized.
Suddenly, both shinobi remained very still and silent, while observing the environment very carefully. Shortly afterwards, the ground started rumbling and burst out a huge looking man (more wide than tall if you get the drift). He wore dark brown pants and a black sweater. He hid his face with a mask, only revealing his dark eyes.
"I see the soldiers have officially all expired. What a waste, it looks like the ones over here didn't get anything done before they dropped…," he said softly to himself.
"Hey, fatass, are you with them? What the hell do you want with us?" Naruto called out loud enough for him to hear.
"Quite bratty for a shinobi, I see. I do not wish to fight, but if I must, I'll make it quick. I do have a mission to complete…," he replied in a cool manner.
"I can feel that this guy's no joke by any means. His chakra level is pretty powerful (although by no means comparable to a Kyuubified Naruto), and it's completely tamed, which can be very deadly if used correctly," Shikamaru analyzed. "Naruto, watch out! He's more than there's to the eye!"
"You don't have to tell me. I know he's going to be tougher than he looks," replied Naruto, while concentrating on the enemy. "I've been looking for a challenge anyways, so let's get on with it!"
In a matter of seconds, he resummoned a fresh batch of shadow clones to add onto the ones remaining from the earlier battle, making 20 clones total.
Five rushed at him, ready to take him down through hand-to-hand combat. Before they were within arms' reach, the man punched the floor, sending parts of the ground flying at them. It destroyed them almost immediately.
"It's not very nice to start a fight without knowing the person's name," he coldly complemented, while staring at the ground with his completely covered eyes.
"If we must go that way, why don't you start? After that, we can ask you about your motive in invading our village," Shikamaru joined in, while walking toward the guy.
"Arusatsu…"
"Uzumaki Naruto. The guy who's gonna to pound the truth out of ya! Shikamaru, let's waste this guy and show him the true power of Konoha."
"Try not to be too reckless," the strategic jounin advised.
"I'm not making any promises on this one."
Suddenly, Arusatsu grabbed a piece of rock and slowly transferred his chakra into it, while the other two shinobi gazed at his actions. The rock slowly changed shaped as it absorbed more chakra, becoming smoother and round as time passed.
"What the hell is he doing?" Naruto asked himself. He immediately snapped out of it and ordered all of his clones to attack. Before the clones were able to react, Arusatsu tossed the rock into the air, over where all of them stood. It started glowing, and then all of a sudden, it splited into thousand mini daggers, spreading out to stab everybody in sight. All of the clones were destroyed in a poof of gas, and Naruto and Shikamaru endured several fatal and minor wounds.
"I know you're not done yet brat, so come over here so you can meet your impending doom," he commented as he strolled over to Naruto.
The blonde loudmouth ninja immediately responded to his statement with a reckless burst forth. He threw a flying kick, but it was knocked away with the back of the enemy's hand. As soon as he hit the ground again, Naruto rebounded back up and delivered a spin punch to the face. It caught the man unexpected at the targeted area, but Arusatsu didn't allow it to slow him down. After connecting to his face, he grabbed the fist and dragged it to the ground, making Naruto stumble over. He then delivered a powerful stomp to Naruto's back and kicked him across the ground, right into the wall of Shikamaru's house. As soon as he hit it, a burst of blood left his mouth as he sat back against the small dent left by the impact of the attack.
Shikamaru was about to step in, but Naruto grabbed his arm on his way getting back up. "I'm not done yet!"
Immediately, he summoned 14 shadow clones, and he, along with the clones, surrounded the enemy in a circle shape. They quickly closed in. The clones and Naruto split into three in a pack. Two used their arms as a boost for the other one to jump up and come down with a kunai in hand and pointing downwards.
While still in mid-air, Arusatsu shot out a wave of chakra from all sides of his body. When it came into contact with the enemy, for a second or two, they were completely paralyzed. Within that alloted time, he jumped up, grabbed a kunai from the real Naruto's hand along with his pouch, filled with weapons, punched Naruto back, threw four shurikens to quickly eliminate the other airborne clones, and kicked Naruto again to the dirt, breaking his nose upon landing. When Arusatsu landed, he took care of the other clones with the kunai he stolen earlier.
"Is that all?"
"Naruto, I'll take over from here…," Shikamaru softly told him as he stared down the enemy. "With his obvious disadvantage in speed, he has technique, power, and experience on his side. All I'm left with is strategy to gain the upper hand… Three shurikens, one kunai, a smoke bomb, and a little bit of thin wire left… Not much, but I can make use of all of them."
Shikamaru then put his hand into the pouch and grabbed four shurikens from it. He ran toward the enemy, while throwing all of his shurikens consecutively, leaving uneven intervals between (something like ½-second, 2-second, 2-second).
The enemy just grinned at the futile attempts, and brought out his hand to catch the oncoming projectiles. The first one left him offguard and surprised when he realized it was only an illusion, leaving his hand opened for the second one to dig into it. Ignoring the pain, he swatted the other shurikens away, but soon found himself in a cloud of fog produced by the smoke bomb.
Sensing movement to his right, he blocked an oncoming stab from Shikamaru, forcing the Konoha shinboi to hide himself in the smoke again. Then Arusatsu suddenly felt the shuriken earlier buried in his right hand yanked away from him (through means of some wire tied to it and and held by the pony-tailed jounin in the other end), leaving him temporarily vulnerable for a few seconds. Immediately, Shikamaru capitalized with a stab to the shoulder. He tried to further use the situation to his advantage with a driving fist to the stomach, but it was caught with the bloody hand. The enemy countered with another fist, but Shikamaru caught that one with his other free hand. As a gap of clear air passed by their faces, they stared down each other for a brief moment, telling the other one that they won't back down with their eyes.
"I have to use this situation to my advantage and capitalize!" Following that train of thought, he softly murmured some words, "Kage Kubi Shi…"
Arusatsu sensed something was wrong when there was an awkward pause from the action, and immediately kicked away Shikamaru. He dashed forth and threw a powerful fist to the guts, crushing elbow to the jaw, and a deadly headbutt to the face.
Naruto watched as he saw his partner fly out of the cloud of smoke, all bloody and beatened up. Naruto slowly got up and ran over there, but before he could get near Shikamaru, he felt a soft impact on the ground and then a piece of the ground came flying at him. Fortunately, Naruto managed to duck in time, but immediately felt the force of a 400 pound man on top of his back, driving his body into the ground.
He continued to stomp repeatedly on Naruto's now frail body with no remorse. Although his face was covered, his eyes indicated that he loved every moment he bruised his opponent's body.
Before he could continue any longer, Naruto immediately turned over and caught his leg before it could make contact with him again. "Don't think I'm gone and out yet, asshole!"
At that moment, Shikamaru immediately stretched out his shadow to trap Arusatsu in his Kage Mane no Jutsu. The enemy immediately noticed a faint release of chakra and pulled out his leg from Naruto's grasp, jumped to the side, and dug into the ground with repeated powerful punches.
"As long as there's darkness, he won't be out of my reach!"
The shadow followed into the hole that was just recently made and chased the opponent underground.
"Naruto, he'll probably pop out soon. Get ready," he advised as he concentrated onto his Kage mane no Jutsu. He could feel he was getting close and closer to the man.
Naruto immediately bounced back up and laid his back against a house as he breathed hard. Every breath he took, Kyuubi's chakra slowly charged him, leaving a red aura that was slowly gaining momentum.
The moment the man popped out of the ground and high into the air, Naruto punched the house (completely demolishing it down) and used it as a boost toward the enemy while a couple of inches above ground. He flew forth like a launching missle in mid-air and stuck his fist out to complement the Kyuubi-charged attack. Arusatsu noticed the launching Naruto, while he was still high in the air, and got himself into a blocking posture with his hands.
"Once I block this brat's hit, I'll fly back far enough to avoid that shadow jutsu's reach and by then, I can finish this thing with "that" attack. I'm ashamed I had to resort to it against them, but oh well," he softly told himself.
Right when Naruto's punch was about to contact him full on and Arusatsu was ready to take it, Naruto's motion completely stopped in mid-air! Quickly using this moment of surprise and vulnerability (Arusatsu's hands were still guarding his stomach where it would block the oncoming attack if it were to connect) to his advantage, he charged a red and black Rasengan.
"Kage…"
"RASENGAN!"
Infused with both shadow and Kyuubi's chakra, Naruto punched it upwards, connecting to the unguarded jaw of the enemy. A blast of wind and shadow came forth from the orb, completely blowing away the enemy in a fierceful force of power.
Arusatsu was pushed diagonally up into the air, ripping and pounding him along the way. When the attack finally lost its momentum, he dropped lifelessly onto the concrete floor. A powerful finish!
Shikamaru dropped to the ground with a heavy breath and then turned over to stare at the cloudy skies. "Victory comes at such a heavy price, eh (is commenting at how much physical work he had to put into it to finally win against the opponent)?" he told himself before he called his ANBU partner, "Naruto, tie him up and we'll interrogate him when this matter is done with."
In a blur of confusion, Naruto complied, but stopped to ask a question. "What the hell just happened?!?!? I was floating!!!"
"I stopped you in mid-air with my Kage Mane no Jutsu, who was already nearby that area. Then, with that troublesome jutsu that depleted all of my energy, we finished him off… How you can be left standing is such a wonder…"
Naruto smiled, while summoning a rope from a scroll hidden under his pants ("You can't just tie down your enemies with standard rope… You need the Super Rope!") and tying up the unconscious foe. "Heh, this is nothing…"
After properly restraining the enemy, he suddenly dropped unconscious from fatigue beside him.
"Troublesome baka…"
Author's Notes
Thanks for all the reviews and submission of attack ideas. Unfortunately, I will have to use those attacks at another time, since the ones I saw weren't in the character pairings I decisgned for this epic battle. However, ConanKid, Cybertoy00, and Emma Iveli, I thank you for submitting ideas. To AnimegirlKiki and baby's breath and the above mentioned, I personally thank you for reviewing everytime (or almost everytime if that's the case). A guy like me needs his motivation to continue writing (especially troublesome fight scenes), and you guys make it worth it everytime.
Please criticism/comments please!