"Bijuken Sentai Retsuranger"
"Tailed Beast-Fist Squadron Strike Rangers"
Chapter 5: "May He Send Death"
Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto, Viz, and Shonen Jump. Power Rangers belongs to Disney/BVS, formerly Saban Entertainment. Super Sentai belongs to Toei. I am not any of the entities or persons listed above, nor do I hold any controlling interest in the above products. My only profit is the enjoyment I get from writing these stories.
Author's note: Sorry I've been away for a while. Don't you worry about a thing, though; I've been sharpening up, and things are going to get good now. After all, the preliminary matches are just about to start. What dangerous new powers will be revealed? What fateful grudges will come to light? Who will be the triumphant winners of this contest . . . or will there be anyone around to actually win?
Sarutobi looked at Anko. "So you're telling me that Orochimaru has darkened our doorstep once again, and he's threatening to destroy our village if we stop the Chunin Exams."
"Basically," Anko answered. "Sorry I couldn't get him."
Sarutobi shook his head. "You did the best you could. Orochimaru has simply gotten more dangerous in the time he's been absent from this village. But I am curious as to his warning about one of our genin not being what he seemed."
"Yeah, that's what he said," Anko confirmed. "Something about that kid's chakra being more toxic than anything he'd ever encountered."
"I think I know what he was talking about," Sarutobi said.
Anko looked up at Sarutobi with interest. "What, exactly?"
"If I tell you, you cannot tell anyone else," Sarutobi instructed. "This is an S-class secret."
"I won't tell anyone," Anko vowed.
"The Hidden Beast jonin-sensei – R.J. and Kirabi – warned me when they entered this village about the Ten-Headed Infernal Dragon Dai Shi," Sarutobi explained. "Apparently, their village was tasked with guarding his prison and he somehow found a way to escape. As his physical body was destroyed, the only way he could act on Earth was to take a human vessel, and that vessel, according to R.J. and Kirabi, happened to be one of our genin. Which one it is, I do not know . . ."
"Damn," Anko muttered. "Those Hidden Beast kids . . . what do you think they have to do with this?"
"They're here to find Dai Shi and stop him, before he starts another Beast War," Sarutobi answered.
Anko looked past Sarutobi, at the wall holding up framed pictures of the previous Hokages. The picture her eyes locked on was that of a young blond man who bore a great resemblance to a certain Hidden Beast genin. "You think it's him?"
"Him who?" Sarutobi asked, before turning to look at the picture. "I see." Guilt increased the weight of his head on his shoulders.
"The kid looked a lot like him," Anko remarked. "Nothing crazy like reincarnation, but I was thinking . . ."
Sarutobi didn't hear much of what Anko was saying. I'm sorry, Minato. I failed you, and I failed your boy. I only hope that, wherever you are, you can forgive me.
Five days had passed since the second round of the Chunin Exams began, and in those five days, eight teams had made it to the tower at the end of the Forest of Death. In that tower, in the balcony above, the Konoha jonin-sensei, the Daiju jonin-sensei, the Suna jonin-sensei Baki, and the Oto jonin-sensei stood. The Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, stood on the raised platform on the floor of the tower, garbed in his formal wear.
"Greetings," Sarutobi said. "I am proud of you for the progress you've made so far in these Chunin Exams."
"What's the point of the Chunin Exams, anyway?" Kiba Inuzuka, of Team 8, asked.
"I'm glad you asked that," Sarutobi replied. "You see, the Chunin Exams are our replacement for war. Instead of senselessly wasting human lives to prove our own strength, we prove our strength through these competitions. In this instance, everybody wins, in the sense that each village that participates gets the opportunity to demonstrate the might and skill of their shinobi without having to wage war on other villages."
"Sounds like a good idea," Naruto Uzumaki, of Team Arashi, remarked.
"There are 24 genin who have made it this far," Sarutobi stated. "That is a little too many, so we will have to trim the numbers a bit. The best way is a preliminary contest. Two genin will be called at random to compete. One will walk away victorious. Short of outright killing your opponent, you are allowed to do whatever it takes to facilitate that opponent's defeat or surrender. The rest of you will clear the arena so that the two who are fighting can do so without interference."
Just then, a young Konoha jonin with a sickly pallor emerged. "My name is Hayate Gekko, and I will be the proctor for this part of the Chunin Exams."
Above them all, a screen flickered to life and flashed two names: Sasuke Uchiha and Haku Hyoren. Hayate coughed once and instructed the other genin to clear the arena, which they did. While this was going on, Naruto passed by Haku and whispered, "Good luck."
"Thank you, Naruto," Haku murmured.
By the time they'd all gotten on the balcony, Naruto, Gaara, Yugito, Renge, Karasu, R.J., and Kirabi stared down at the arena with worry and fear written all over their faces. "I'm getting a bad feeling about this," Renge whispered.
"So am I," R.J. agreed.
"Yeah, this is going to be f$#%& rough," Kirabi said. "But our snow bunny's pretty tough."
Sasuke and Haku stared each other down, waiting for Hayate to give the signal to begin. Once he did, both demonically empowered genin jumped back from each other, throwing kunai and senbon at each other. The kunai and senbon deflected each other, while Sasuke flashed behind Haku and swung his arm in a chop. Fortunately, Haku had fast reflexes and whirled to block his strike, slamming her knee into his stomach. Sasuke skidded backward, only to spin on one foot and use his outstretched leg to throw an arc of flame at Haku, who leaped into the air to dodge.
Haku threw more senbon at Sasuke while in midair, but he swept his arm out and generated another arc of flame that deflected the senbon. Haku descended in a drop-kick that caught Sasuke in the chest, knocking him into a wall. Sasuke rebounded off the wall and landed on his hands and knees. Slowly straightening up, he cracked the bones in his neck. Quickly performing the required hand seals, Sasuke unleashed the Grand Fireball on Haku, who dodged it and opened one of her water bottles, spilling water all over the arena.
"Does she really think a little water's going to stop Sasuke?" Ino asked.
Renge chuckled. "A little water, in this case, can do a lot. Your boyfriend isn't as invincible as you think."
Quickly performing one-handed seals, Haku unleashed her secret weapon, none other than . . . "Secret Technique: Demonic Crystal Ice Mirrors." Immediately, the water Haku had spilled coalesced into a dome of twenty-one ice mirrors enclosing herself and Sasuke.
"Mirrors?" Sasuke asked. "You intend to fight me with mirrors?"
"Yes," Haku answered simply, walking "into" one of the mirrors. She seemed to meld with the mirror, becoming her own reflection . . . and then other reflections of her appeared in the other mirrors, until Sasuke was surrounded by Haku.
"A clone technique," Sasuke scoffed.
"Something else," Haku replied, as all of her reflections raised three senbon each in their fists. All of her reflections threw their senbon . . . and a storm of senbon emerged from the mirrors, cutting Sasuke before he could react in time to evade them.
"What kind of technique is this?" Sasuke asked.
"That is my secret," Haku answered. "And you will not figure it out before I defeat you."
"We'll see about that," Sasuke retorted. With vicious arm motions, Sasuke unleashed hellfire on the mirrors . . . which did not break, but instead cracked. "Looks like you've overestimated your powers."
"And so have you," Haku answered. "Even if you can damage my mirrors, you will not be able to break them in time to stop me."
"You think highly of yourself, don't you?" Sasuke remarked.
"No more highly than you think of yourself, Sasuke Uchiha," Haku retorted.
Another rain of senbon came down on Sasuke, who deflected as many of them as he could with his kunai. Unfortunately, the senbon came so heavily and so quickly that there was no way he could deflect them all . . . not unless . . . Closing his eyes for a moment, he snapped them open to reveal the Sharingan, allowing him to perceive and exploit the momentary gaps in the coming of the senbon. Blocking more quickly and dodging more precisely, Sasuke began to smirk evilly.
"I see now," Sasuke snarled. "This isn't a clone technique. You're just using the mirrors to speed yourself up, like some kind of diffraction ability."
"Just because you can see . . ." Haku answered, and before Sasuke knew it, he was surrounded by multiple Hakus striking him from multiple angles and positions. Before he could properly retaliate, the Hakus had dispersed back into the Ice Mirrors, leaving Sasuke to fall to the ground from the assault they had dealt him.
"I think it's time I stopped holding back with you . . ." Sasuke hissed. Summoning the Underworld Release, Sasuke launched a dragon-shaped wave of unholy flame at Haku's Ice Mirrors, which again withstood the assault but showed more cracks. "I'm weakening you, aren't I? The closer those mirrors get to breaking, the less chance you have of beating me. Better finish me quick . . . before I get my second wind."
"I can't see what's going on in there," Sakura said. "Where's that fire coming from?"
Kakashi shuddered. "It's . . . it's coming from Sasuke."
"His clan specializes in fire techniques," Sai offered.
"Yes, but this isn't that kind of fire . . . it feels . . . eviler," Kakashi answered.
"Damn it," R.J. mumbled. "Looks like he's getting the hang of Dai Shi's power."
"I just hope Haku's gonna come out all right," Kirabi muttered. "Otherwise, it ain't gonna be a pretty sight."
"Come on, Haku," Naruto whispered. "You can do it. Take him down."
Haku used the Ice Mirrors for another blitz attack on Sasuke, her images cutting away at Sasuke with senbon over and over. Sasuke swung his fist in an arc, grinding it against the air molecules it parted to ignite them in unholy fire that assaulted Haku. Haku managed to only be grazed by the flames, but even that sent an unnatural chill through her body. She was just about to retreat into the Ice Mirrors, but Sasuke grabbed her arm and threw her to the ground. Haku rolled onto her feet and held up three senbon needles in her fist.
"I'm going to give you a chance to keep your life," Sasuke taunted. "Just forfeit."
"No," Haku answered. "I will not surrender to the likes of you."
"Then you'll suffer," Sasuke declared. "Confrontation Art: Ten-Head Beast-Fist Riot Missile!"
Sasuke's chakra aura formed into ten draconic heads, all of which stared at Haku as though she were simply meat to be fed to them. Haku glared at Sasuke and his terrifying aura, refusing to back down from the monstrosity before her. The ten draconic heads lunged at Haku simultaneously and from multiple angles, with Haku dodging each one with incredible speed and agility. However, she knew she couldn't hold out like this forever . . . and she would have to unleash her trump card.
"Fierce Art: Three-Tails Beast-Fist Riot Bullet!" Haku shouted, unleashing the spirit of the Three-Tailed Demon Turtle upon the ten heads that were the avatars of Dai Shi's power. With incredible speed, the Three-Tailed spirit attacked the ten draconic heads, managing to strike down four of them. The other six redoubled their efforts and one grabbed the Three-Tailed spirit in its jaws, biting down viciously to force it to dissipate.
With a pained cry, Haku collapsed onto one knee, clutching her shoulder. The remaining draconic heads lunged at her, intending to eat her alive, but Haku retreated into an Ice Mirror, her image soon reflected in all the Ice Mirrors. The images in the mirrors all threw senbon at Sasuke, whose aura deflected the senbon and the draconic heads that aura had formed into lunged at the mirrors, smashing several of them. Haku lunged out of one of the breaking mirrors and dropped into a kick to Sasuke, which turned out to be a glancing hit. Skidding to the ground, Haku whirled on her foot to kick Sasuke again, although Sasuke managed to block it.
"Not bad," Sasuke remarked. "You're a lot more fun than I thought you'd be."
"I'm not here to entertain you," Haku sneered. "I'm here to stop you."
"Stop me?" Sasuke repeated derisively. "You can't even touch me."
Haku flipped back from Sasuke and gathered the fragments of her shattered Ice Mirrors to her primary arm, fusing together into a sword blade with her arm as the hilt. "We'll see about that."
"I suppose we'll decide this in one strike," Sasuke announced. "Here's how it works. We charge each other and strike as we pass. Then, ten seconds later, one of us will fall to the ground completely incapacitated. Take a wild guess who that one will be." He gathered the unholy flames of the Underworld Release into his hand and then extended those flames into a sword blade.
Haku and Sasuke sped toward each other, their respective chakra-forged swords ready to cut each other down. In a blur of motion, the two combatants passed each other and landed on opposite sides of the combat area. Sasuke turned out to be the first to collapse, falling on one knee. But it was Haku who had lost . . . as her ice sword broke down completely and she collapsed entirely, slowly bleeding out on the floor.
"HAKU!" Naruto screamed, leaping off the balcony and rushing to her. He turned her over and saw her face, strained with the effort it took to stay awake.
"Naruto . . ." she murmured. "I'm sorry . . . I couldn't . . ."
"It's ok, Haku," Naruto whispered. "It's gonna be all right."
"Winner: Sasuke Uchiha," Hayate declared.
"I'm sorry I wounded your girlfriend," Sasuke sneered. "But this is what you can expect when you try to fight someone stronger than you."
Naruto gritted his teeth in rage, his blue eyes flashing a slit-pupil crimson. "We are going to stop you."
"You and what army?" Sasuke taunted.
Just then, medical ninja came to attend to Haku. "Don't worry," one of them said to Naruto while the others placed Haku on the stretcher. "She'll get the best of care."
"Thank you . . ." Naruto whispered while the medical ninja took Haku away.
"Will all noncombatants vacate the arena?" Hayate asked.
Sasuke and Naruto went back up to the balcony, but not before Naruto dipped his fingers in Haku's blood and painted his whisker marks with them, a silent reminder of just why Sasuke needed to be taken down. He glared at Sasuke with slit-pupil crimson eyes, communicating a silent promise. You're not going to get away with what you did to Haku. You hear me, bastard? You're going down for what you did to her.
Sasuke's silent communication was a cold smirk. Anytime, anyplace, loser, the smirk seemed to say.
The screen flashed two more names . . . Temari Sabakumo vs. Tenten.
The tall blonde with her hair in four spiky tails and dressed in an off-the-shoulder white combat dress over fishnets with an iron fan on her back leaped off the balcony and into the combat area. A smaller brunette with her hair in twin buns and dressed in a pink mandarin shirt and green shinobi pants leaped into the combat area as well. The two girls faced each other from opposite sides, the blonde with a Sand headband hanging from her neck and the brunette with a Leaf headband wrapped around her forehead.
"Ready? Begin," Hayate called, announcing the start of the match.
Temari, the blonde, drew her iron fan. "Let's make this quick."
"Yeah," Tenten answered with a smirk. She drew a pair of scrolls and began to perform a dance while the scrolls unraveled in a twisting pattern. As she danced, she rose into the air while the scrolls twisted around her body.
"What is that?" Naruto asked.
"You will see," Rock Lee, a boy in tight green spandex with the Leaf headband employed as a belt, answered.
"It is Tenten's most youthful Twin Rising Dragons," Guy, Lee's jonin-sensei and dressed nearly identical to his protégé, supplied.
"Dance?" Gaara asked.
"You'll see," Guy answered.
At the peak of Tenten's dance, multiple throwing weapons of varying styles and shapes emerged from the scrolls, flying at Temari at high speed. Just as they were about to hit her, Temari opened her fan and waved it, generating gale force winds so powerful that the throwing weapons were all repelled. Unfortunately, the winds were also so powerful that they forced everyone on the balcony to hold onto something to avoid being knocked down . . . and Tenten was brutally knocked to the ground.
"What was that?" she asked.
"My Whirlwind Technique," Temari replied coolly. "Would you like to see my Wind Scythe?" She swung her fan again, generating knives of wind that cut at Tenten's exposed skin and her clothes. When the barrage of wind knives ended, Tenten was bleeding from multiple surface cuts.
Tenten smirked. "What's this? Death of a thousand cuts? You'll have to do better than that."
The throwing weapons unleashed by the Twin Rising Dragons began to rise, lifted by thin wires held by Tenten. With sweeping hand motions akin to an orchestra conductor, Tenten used the wires to throw her weapons at Temari, who retaliated with another Whirlwind Technique that blew Tenten's weapons away from her. Tenten gritted her teeth and lashed out with her wires, seemingly missing Temari by a wide margin.
"Looks like I'm not the only one who needs to step up their game," Temari taunted.
Of course, that was when Temari got herself a surprise, namely the wires looping around and wrapping around her arms, legs, waist, and neck. "Got you," Tenten whispered.
"Not bad . . ." Temari remarked, seemingly completely unfazed by being bound in ultrathin wires that could potentially sever her body parts from each other. "But you forgot one thing."
"And that would be?" Tenten asked.
With a flick of her wrist, Temari generated another Wind Scythe with her fan, this one even stronger than the last had been. The whirlwind caught Tenten and Temari and the invisible knives within the wind sliced them both, much to the consternation of everyone except Kankuro, Matsuri, and Baki.
"A murder-suicide technique?" Shino murmured. "She must be desperate, to pull out something like that."
"Not quite," Matsuri corrected. "Yes, the technique injures Temari as well, but a weaker opponent like Tenten will be crushed by it. Watch."
The observing genin did watch, and noticed that Tenten seemed to be on the verge of collapse, while Temari herself was only wincing at most. Finally, the whirlwind of knives ended . . . and both kunoichi fell to the ground. Temari landed in a crouch, while Tenten seemed to be keeping herself on her hands and knees through sheer force of will. As she struggled to get up again, Temari generated another Wind Scythe, this one directed solely at Tenten . . . and its force threw her toward the wall at a high enough speed that if she hit, she would break nearly every bone in her body.
Lee jumped off the balcony to catch Tenten, and while her body hit him with enough force to knock the wind out of him, it wasn't nearly enough to prevent him from halting her unwilling flight in time to avoid breaking her bones. He looked down at Tenten briefly, and then glared up at Temari. "Why did you do that?!"
Temari smirked coldly at Lee. "She looked like she couldn't even stand. Figured I'd be nice and put her out of her misery."
Hayate briefly coughed. "Winner, Temari Sabakumo."
After the medical ninja took Tenten away, Lee silently clenched his fists as he returned to Guy's side. "That was a needlessly cruel act," he murmured. "I will not stand for it."
Gaara glared at Temari as she returned to her team's side. He'd never known his sister to be this ruthless and brutal, but that had been when they were children . . . and it had been such a long time since they were children. In fact, it had been such a long time since he'd last seen her. Ten years . . . ten long years . . . that they had been apart; there was no way of being sure just how much that had made her change, and how much of the Temari that he had known still remained.
Renge placed a hand on Gaara's shoulder. "You wanna talk about it?" she asked.
"Not really," Gaara answered grimly.
The screen flickered to life again, and this time it flashed the names Shikamaru Nara vs. Kin Tsuchi. "Will the combatants step into the arena?" Hayate called.
"Kick her ass, Shika," Choji encouraged.
"Try not to lose," Ino added.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Shikamaru answered as he walked over to the combat area. "God, what a drag."
"Lazy bastard," the dark-haired Sound kunoichi known as Kin Tsuchi grumbled.
"Yeah, yeah," Shikamaru answered. "Let's just get this over with. I hate fighting girls." Just then, Shikamaru heard a strange sound, like a bell ringing. "What the . . . ?" A senbon cut his cheek. "Damn it."
"You might want to pay closer attention, lazy boy," Kin taunted.
Shikamaru dodged another senbon, but the strange sound came again and once again a senbon cut his cheek. "Some kind of . . . genjutsu . . . damn it."
"What do you see, Yugito?" Haku asked.
"It's what I hear, Haku," Yugito replied. "Bells."
"So Shikamaru wasn't just being mind-screwed?" Naruto asked.
"He is," Yugito answered. "But the bells produce some kind of genjutsu."
"Why aren't we being affected?" Karasu asked.
"Because the genjutsu isn't meant for us," Yugito replied.
"But where are the bells?" Karasu inquired.
"I don't know," Yugito admitted.
How the hell is she making this genjutsu? Shikamaru wondered, as he continued to dodge senbon and yet get struck by senbon. Then he looked at the senbon that had been thrown, and he saw something round attached to their back ends. "Bells. So that's how she's doing it."
"What are you looking so happy about?" Kin taunted.
"I know how you're doing it," Shikamaru answered. "Your genjutsu comes from the bells attached to your senbon. When you throw them, the bells make a sound with a hidden frequency that confuses your opponent's senses . . . allowing either the senbon to get through, or for you to use that attack as a diversion from another."
"So you figured it out," Kin retorted. "So what? You're still gonna lose here."
"I don't think so," Shikamaru answered.
"And what makes you say that?" Kin asked.
"Look down," Shikamaru replied.
Kin looked down and noticed that her shadow and Shikamaru's were connected through a black line. "How . . . ?"
"Witty banter's good for keeping your opponents off-track," Shikamaru answered. "This is my Shadow Bind Technique, and it's also good for another technique . . . Shadow Imitation." As he talked, he pulled out a kunai, and Kin's body unwillingly echoed that motion, pulling out a kunai of her own. Shikamaru positioned himself in a throwing pose, and so did Kin's body.
"What are you . . . Do you want to die or something?" Kin asked.
"No," Shikamaru replied as he and Kin's body threw their kunai at the same time. Shikamaru doubled over backward to dodge and so did Kin's body . . . only for her head to hit the wall behind her. With Kin successfully knocked out, Shikamaru released Kin from her Shadow Bind.
"Winner, Shikamaru Nara," Hayate announced.
Shikamaru returned to the balcony while medical ninja took Kin away to attend to her condition. "Great work, Shikamaru," his jonin-sensei Asuma complimented.
"Too much of a drag," Shikamaru answered.
Gaara looked at Shikamaru appraisingly. "As much as you complain about everything being a drag, I get the feeling about half of that's just a put-on to keep the more easily led from thinking you too much of a threat."
"Not really," Shikamaru amended. "Asuma-sensei put his faith in me. It's that simple."
The screen flickered again and revealed two more names: Kankuro Sabakumo vs. Renge Nitokawa. Hayate coughed briefly before calling out, "Will Kankuro Sabakumo and Renge Nitokawa step into the arena?"
Kankuro walked into the arena, while Renge did a swan dive off the balcony rim and flipped to land on her feet. "Not bad," Kankuro remarked. "You got pretty underwear, too."
Renge narrowed her eyes at him. "Pervert. Did I say you were allowed to look at my underwear?"
"You mean if the circumstances were right, you would have let me look?" Kankuro teased.
Renge drew her sword hilts. "Let's do this."
"What are you going to do with a pair of sword hilts?" Kankuro asked. "Don't you need actual blades?"
"I make my own blades," Renge answered.
"Ready? Begin," Hayate called.
"Beast-Fist Fierce Art: Seven-Tails Twin Sword Style," Renge called, channeling the chakra of the Seven-Tailed Isonade into her sword hilts, which both sprouted water-chakra longsword blades.
"Wow!" Sakura exclaimed. "That's pretty cool."
"Just some flashy ninjutsu," Sasuke grumbled. "That's all these Beast ninja can do."
"Speaking of flashy ninjutsu, what were those techniques you used to defeat Haku?" Kakashi asked. "I don't recall teaching you how to manipulate fire-element chakra like that."
"It's something I discovered in the old Uchiha clan scrolls," Sasuke replied. "I've been reading those to learn new ways to use my fire affinity."
Lying through his damned teeth, Naruto snarled internally. Almost nobody saw it, but his eyes once again flashed a bloody slit-pupil red. Sasuke saw, though, and flashed his own Sharingan at Naruto, causing something inside of the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki to recoil. That something turned out to be the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox himself.
Those eyes . . . that chakra . . . the Fox snarled. Even with Dai Shi's power mixed in, I still recognize it . . . a chakra even more accursed than that bastard Madara Uchiha's . . .
I'm sorry. Am I supposed to know that name? Naruto asked.
Before your time, brat, the Fox answered. Long before your time. All you need to know is that he is the founder of the Uchiha clan, one of the founding clans of that damnable village that dared treat you with such disrespect.
Something tells me you didn't just recognize Sasuke's chakra because it belonged to an Uchiha. What are you not telling me?
Would it make any bit of difference if you knew . . . the nature of my hatred for the Uchiha?
If it has anything to do with why Dai Shi picked Sasuke as his host and why Sasuke flashing Sharingan can make you quiver like a frightened kitten . . .
Brat, don't start! The Nine-Tailed Demon Fox quivers before no one, not even a "mighty" Uchiha!
Ok, ok. Christ, you've got an easily bruised ego.
I don't have an ego. I have a healthy self-respect.
Whatever. You're a drag sometimes.
You're starting to sound like that shadow user.
Just then, Naruto was brought back to reality by the sound of Renge seemingly slicing Kankuro into multiple pieces with her Isonade Swords. Of course, it turned out that the "Kankuro" Renge had cut up was actually his puppet Raven transformed to resemble Kankuro. Then it turned out that puppet was just a replica created through a Clone Technique . . . and the real Raven was attacking Renge with its blades, only for Renge to block with her own blades.
"You got a real vicious streak there," Kankuro remarked while controlling Raven with chakra strings. "But that's fine. I like vicious girls."
"I've seen your sister in action, so I believe you," Renge retorted.
"Come on, Kankuro, take her out!" Matsuri shouted.
"That's my plan, but let me have some fun first," Kankuro answered.
"Fun, huh?" Renge remarked as she blocked Raven's blades with her Isonade Swords. "Let's see how you like this." She began to move as though she were dancing to a beat that no one else could hear, and her maneuvers allowed her to dodge Raven's attacks with almost mocking ease.
"What is she doing?" Temari asked.
"That's her Nitakito no Mai," Gaara replied, "the Dance of the Twin Waterfall Swords. When she moves like that, she's nearly untouchable . . . and extremely precise in her strikes. If Kankuro does not change his strategy quickly, he's doomed."
"Kankuro will beat her," Matsuri insisted. "You'll see."
Despite Matsuri's confidence in Kankuro, it seemed to be the other way around, actually, with Renge alternately dodging and cutting off Raven's blades. "How are you doing this?" Kankuro asked.
"Let's just say I'm not the only kenjutsu practitioner who incorporates water-element chakra into their moves," Renge answered as she cut apart Raven piece by piece. "You think I'm good? I was taught by someone even better." She accented that with a final barrage of hyper-speed slashes that utterly decimated Kankuro's puppet.
"What the hell?!" Kankuro exclaimed. "How did you do that?"
"Nito no Gekisou no Mai," Renge replied, "Dance of the Twin Swords' Violent Dash."
"Well . . . you probably think you've won . . . but you really haven't," Kankuro retorted.
"What makes you say that?" Renge asked.
"When you destroyed Raven, its remains emitted an invisible, odorless nerve gas," Kankuro explained. "Since you were so close when you were cutting it up, you inhaled a lot of that gas. Right now, it's attacking your nervous system, slowly shutting down your voluntary responses. Within minutes, you'll experience stiffness in your right side, particularly your arm and leg and jaw. It'll spread to your left side, and then you won't even be able to stand on your own. With it going to your head, you won't be able to nod or shake or turn it on your own. You won't be able to speak or eat, either, thanks to what it'll do to your jaw. Eventually, you won't be able to open or close your eyes voluntarily. You'll be a prisoner in your own body, unable to speak, move, or even twitch."
"What kind of sick bastard are you?!" Karasu asked, utterly outraged and horrified by the trap Kankuro had set for Renge.
"The kind who doesn't let his enemies walk away unscathed," Kankuro retorted unrepentantly. "Hey, kid, this is the kind of unpleasantness you have to look forward to as a shinobi. If you don't like it, quit."
"You son of a –" Karasu cut himself off, his raven spirit engulfing him and forming into one birdlike wing made of black chakra. He was about to attack Kankuro, when Kirabi grabbed him by the arm and held him back, also neutralizing his raven spirit with the power of his Eight-Tailed Ushi-Oni. "Let go! He's gonna kill her!"
Hayate briefly coughed. "Winner, Renge Nitokawa."
"How come she's the winner?!" Matsuri asked.
Hayate calmly looked at her and answered, "Because Kankuro cannot fight any longer, even with the trap he sprung for her. Hence, Renge wins by default." He looked at Renge. "I would recommend, though, that you see a medic immediately, before the nerve gas starts to take effect on you."
"Sure," Renge answered, allowing herself into the custody of Konoha's medical ninja.
Kankuro returned to the balcony, where Karasu had to be restrained from going over and punching him out. "Sorry about your girlfriend, kid. But if she hurries, she might just get off with only having to stay in bed for a week."
"Bastard!" Karasu snarled, his rage so great that he nearly broke free of Naruto and Gaara just to attack Kankuro.
Baki, the Sand jonin-sensei with claw-like red tattoos on the side of his face that wasn't covered by a sheet hanging from his headband, stared at R.J. and Kirabi. "I would suggest you teach your student how to rein in his temper. Or else things could get ugly here."
"Tactics like that are most unworthy of an honorable shinobi," Guy remarked.
"I'm with him," R.J. agreed. "Can't win in a fair fight, so you resort to covertly poisoning your enemies? Clever, but low."
"Clever but low happens to be how we survive in this business," Baki answered. "You're old enough to know better, but then again I've heard that Daijugakure is full of bleeding hearts who believe in pie-in-the-sky concepts like fighting for justice."
"If Daijugakure is a bunch of bleeding hearts, then that's something they share with Konoha," Kakashi cut in. "We too believe in something like justice. We call it the Will of Fire."
Sasuke bit his tongue to repress a scoff. They were fools, Leaf and Beast alike; being a ninja wasn't about silly concepts like honor and justice. It was about power, the power to take what one wanted and the power to destroy all that stood in one's way. Those without power were nothing, nothing but prey . . . and Sasuke Uchiha would never be prey. Never.
Just then, the screen flashed again, and this time it showed two more names: Naruto Uzumaki vs. Kiba Inuzuka. Hayate coughed shortly before calling out, "Will Naruto Uzumaki and Kiba Inuzuka step into the arena?"
Hinata Hyuga twiddled her fingers, a huge red blush on her face. On the one hand, Kiba was her teammate and friend. On the other, Naruto was the boy she had loved and yearned for all these years, even those years when she'd thought him gone for good. She was utterly torn as to whose victory to cheer for; audible support of Naruto, not even a Leaf ninja now, would be a betrayal of Kiba's friendship. On the other hand, audible support of Kiba would feel like a betrayal of her heart.
Just then, a comforting hand landed on her shoulder. "It'll be all right, Hinata," Yugito whispered. "No one's going to hold it against you, whoever you cheer for."
"Thank you . . . Yugito-san," Hinata whispered.
Just then, Naruto and Kiba stepped into the arena, facing each other from opposite ends. "Hope you're ready to get your ass kicked, kid," Kiba taunted, "because you're going to see how a real beast fights."
Naruto just smiled. "So will you."
End Notes: There you have it, the end of the fifth chapter of Strike Rangers. Karasu is thirsting for vengeance against Kankuro for Renge, and Naruto wants Sasuke's blood for Haku. By the time the Chunin Exams are over, will either or both Beast ninja find other viable targets of their vengeance? And just what is the deal between Kyubi and the Uchiha, and what might it have to do with Dai Shi? For the answers to those questions and others, read on and thank you for getting this far.