Caught in the Middle
Chapter 14
The Clash
Hey everybody! I haven't updated in...nearly a month? OH, SHIT! Jeez, you guys must be pissed, huh? Sorry guys, I've had a lot going on this month so far, so it's been really hard for me to find time to write for any of my stories. I've got a practice ACT coming up, I'm preparing for a robotics competition, I've got a writing workshop in about a week, not to mention Chemistry class has been kicking my ass all up and down school lately. Not to mention my birthday was about a week and a half ago. (I'm 17 now, woo!)
Anywho, I've been writing a little bit over all this time, so I'm not completely out of my game. I'm usually pretty good with fight scenes, so I'm hoping this chapter will live up to your expectation...key word being "hoping". I tried to incorporate some actual strategy into this one, and I'm not a very good strategist, so we'll see how all this plays out.
Sasuke didn't waste any time starting the fight up. He charged straight at Naruto with a speed that the blond didn't expect. He had vague memories of the last time they had fought, but one thing he remembered was that while Sasuke was very fast, he never used to be that fast. Never-the-less, he kept his eyes on Sasuke, and focused on his footwork.
At first it seemed to be a frontal assault, but Naruto caught the way the demon hunter's feet leaned at the last second as he twirled to the side and attempted a horizontal slash. Naruto brought his katana over to his left side and blocked the blade without giving any ground. He was glad he had caught that when he did; if he had taken the bait and attempted to block what he thought was a straight up attack, his side would have been open and he would have been done for already.
With a strong heave, Naruto pushed Sasuke away from him a few feet before slipping back into his defensive stance. He had to absorb the way Sasuke fought before he could make his offensive move, he needed to follow his mother's style and try to either find the weak point in Sasuke's defense –every style had at least one-, or he had to find a way to disarm him.
At the current point in time, it didn't seem likely he'd be able to disarm him, so he stuck to watching and waiting. He stood steady as Sasuke came at him again. He made sure to watch the way he held his sword, the way he moved, even his eye movement; he had to find something to manipulate.
Sasuke once again attempted to deceive Naruto by waiting until the last minute to twirl to the side -this time to the right- and get past his guard. Naruto was, again, ready for the tactic and brought his katana to his right to block. Before the strike came though, Sasuke suddenly jumped into the air, back-flipping over Naruto's had, and landing to the left of the blond.
Naruto had already shifted his weight and his blade to the right, and at the speed Sasuke whipped around, he could never hope to move all the way over in time. Deciding against trying to block the attack, Naruto pushed his weight to the right further and rolled under to horizontal attack and away from his opponent.
As Naruto regained his footing, Sasuke had already caught up with him. His eyes widened as his straight sword thrust forward, and out of reflex, threw his own sword up and barely diverted Sasuke's away enough to escape with a small scratch on his cheek. His minor victory was interrupted though, as the blond felt a blunt thud against his stomach, and he was launched backward.
Naruto rolled to the side and picked himself up as Sasuke lowered his right leg, suggesting that he had kicked him. He shook the slight disorientation away and slipped back into his defensive stance once again. He may have been off to a shaky start, but he what he did have was a possible strategy now.
Two out of the three attacks that Sasuke has made involved him attempting to goad Naruto into defending from the wrong angle, and then twisting to one side or the other and attacking with a swift horizontal slash. The only problem with that was that there was a very brief but none the less advantageous period where Sasuke has his back turned to him, and wouldn't be able to counter.
All Naruto had to do was watch his footwork as usual, and figure out which side he would divert to, then catch him at the right moment. It was a risky move that could end up backfiring on him, but it could also reap the largest benefits.
He smirked slightly when he saw Sasuke running straight towards him like he'd hoped. He kept a sharp eye on how his feet were moving, waiting for even the smallest change in direction. Just as usual, he leaned his feet to the left again, and Naruto's eyes snapped up now to watch his upper body and to wait for the split second he would have his back turned.
The moment he saw it, he abandon his defensive stance and leaned in Sasuke's direction, intending to stab him through the back. He almost exploded in curses when he realized his timing had been off, and the best he'd done was rip through the demon hunters clothes and land a glancing blow.
His stomach lurched when the realization hit him that he was completely open for attack now. In a wild and impulsive move, he twisted around, practically falling backwards in the process, and sliced his katana through the air to try and block the attack he knew was coming. He was lucky enough to impact Sasuke's sword, but because of his poor grip on the hilt, it flew out of his hand.
Naruto hit the ground with has back once more, and rolled back to stand. Sasuke was about seven to ten feet away now, and he to was without his sword- the blade lay strewn on the ground a distance away. Naruto's katana was no where in his field of view, but he wasn't going to chance a glance in any other direction for fear of being caught off guard.
"Not bad so far Naruto. Of course, the only reason we've been relatively equal so far is because, like you, I'm not quite accustomed to handling a blade yet. Three months can only do some much after all."
Naruto kept a look of frustrated determination on his face.
"Well how about we try something else then," responded the blond, "since you're oh so confident, let's go hand-to-hand. A good ol' fashion beat-down."
"Hn, fine then, if you're that eager to be beaten to a pulp."
With that, the two ran straight at each other with speed far greater than they had been using. As the two converged, Sasuke jumped up slightly and sent a roundhouse kick aimed at Naruto's face. The blond ducked, allowing Sasuke to land behind him. Naruto quickly spun around as well though, and was able to catch a punch with his left hand. Sasuke wasted no time in grabbing that same arm with his free hand, and with all his might and a loud roar, shifted his weight around and actually threw Naruto across the dirt ground.
He slid to a stop after a few seconds and was halfway up when he was face was kindly introduced to Sasuke's knee. The blond was forced back even further, blood now slowly dribbling down from his nostrils. Before he could even think about getting up again, Sasuke grabbed him by the collar of his shirt with his left hand, and lifted him up so he could more easily slam his free fist into Naruto's face.
He kept the steady rhythm of blows for a few seconds before lifting him up the rest of the way and tossing him a few feet distance again. Naruto was able to regain enough balance to finally stand back up again and quickly wiped away the blood dripping down from his mouth and nose.
He barely had any time in between before Sasuke threw another punch his way which he was able to block with his arm. This only opened him up for a second attack however, and no sooner did he retract his fist did Sasuke's foot slam into Naruto's right upper jaw. The high blow sent him hurtling across the ground and into a tree, sending a blunt pain up through his back.
He slowly rose up from his knees and re-entered his fighting stance. Sasuke was standing casually some distance away, actually laughing.
"You really don't give up do you. Well I guess I'm okay with that; after all, what fun would it be if you just knelt down and surrendered. Seriously though, it wouldn't matter if there were five of you- when it comes to hand-to-hand, you're just plain outmatched."
Naruto's expression changed to a devious smirk.
"Well, it just so happens...that I've got a trick up my sleeve that'll put that little theory to the test."
Sasuke raised an eyebrow in curiosity as Naruto picked himself up further and raised his two hands together. His index and middle fingers were the only ones not clenched down, and he put them together to form an a sort of 'plus sign', with this fingers.
"I've been waiting to use this: Kage Bunshin!" Naruto cried.
Instantly, four plumes of smoke surrounded him, and faded fast to reveal four more Naruto's standing around the original. They all wore the same confident and oddly disturbing grin.
"So Bastard," they all said at once, "you really think you can take five of me?"
Sasuke merely scoffed.
"Please, all that is is a bunch of smoke and some illusions; congratulations, you're officially an third rate magician. Of all the spells you could have used, you decided to use those crappy illusions? What exactly do you expect to accomplish with a bunch of cheap intangible copies?"
Naruto's smirk still never faltered.
"We'll see, bring it one Sas-gay!" they all shouted.
The raven haired demon hunter growled at the childish name-calling, and rashly charged toward Naruto. In turn, the Naruto's ran forward as well.
Sasuke was eying the original Naruto. He'd seen the smoke plumes, and knew that the one in the center, behind the two in the lead, was the real one. They were only illusions, so as long as he didn't take his eyes off of the real Naruto, there wasn't any way for him to pull out any surprises.
...oh how wrong he was.
As Sasuke attempted to charge through the first two "illusions", they both pulled back their fists, and launched them forward, nailing the Sharingan user on either side of his face. He flew backwards onto his side.
The two rear Naruto's on either side of the original jumped over the two in front and landed right over Sasuke. They grabbed ahold of both his arms as they lifted him up, and held him on place. The two frontal Naruto copies transformed into a pair of combat knives.
As he closed in, Sasuke pushed up with his feet, using the two Naruto's that had grabbed a hold of him for balance, and fired both his feet forward into the original Naruto's chest. While the original was flying back, Sasuke and the two copies that were holding him were now falling backwards thanks to him pushing back so hard.
Once they were on their backs, Sasuke landed a blow on the left one with his elbow, then leaned over and punched the other one with his now free hand, liberating his other arm. The demon hunter quickly reached of his belt and flipped open a storage scroll. Unsealing it, two Glock 18c handguns poofed into life, and his grasped them eagerly.
He twisted around, and pumped each of the clones that hid previously captured him with three rounds each. Once they were out of commission, he returned his attention back to the original, who he now couldn't locate. At that moment however, a low whistle rang out through the air and Sasuke ducked as a combat knife flew right over his head, embedding itself in a nearby tree before poofing out of existence.
He looked up and finally found Naruto, who was now jumping off a tree that had been behind the demon hunter. He still had one knife in his hand and just as Sasuke pulled the trigger on his pistols, the blond had landed on him, and sent both bursts off in different directions.
Naruto thrust the knife downward, and so Sasuke dropped his handguns in order to grab ahold of the blonds arm, keeping the small blade away from his chest area. Once he had forced his arms back a decent distance, he released the grip of one of his arms and shot his first up in an uppercut that slammed into Naruto's chin. The knife left his grip and -just as the other one had- disappeared in a ploom of smoke.
Now with both boys a short distance away, both panting -though Naruto more noticeably that Sasuke- they were back at square one.
Sasuke smirked as he leaned over a little.
"The last three months have...really done you good...Naruto. You're not...completely helpless and...pathetic like you were," he said between breaths.
"Heh, oh yea...and who was the one...that won our last match...I forget?" Naruto responded sarcastically.
Again, Sasuke scoffed.
"Yeah well...I wasn't using my...full strength then. I...won't make the same mistake...again."
"Huh?"
Sasuke's smirk grew as he finally started taking things seriously and activated his curse seal. He steadily began to emit a darker and darker aura around him. The swirling dark magical energy began to surround him completely as the black marks of the curse seal slowly crept their way across his skin. He felt the renewed strength and power that came with its activation, and felt even better than before the fight began.
Naruto simply watching in a mixture of confusion and apprehension as he felt the atmosphere get heavier around him. Suddenly, the energy died down, and Sasuke was visible again, unlike only a moment ago when he was merely a silhouette behind a dark veil. His skin was covered in black markings that resembled tattoos, but Naruto knew enough about what just happened to know that whatever they were, they obviously weren't very good for his health.
"Ah...that's better," said Sasuke, a look of satisfaction on his face.
"Wh-what is..." Naruto attempted to ask, but his sentence was cut short when Sasuke suddenly flickered out of sight, only to reappear a moment later directly in front of him.
"Peekaboo."
Naruto's eyes widened as what felt like a dozen cinder-blocks hit his gut. A steady mix of blood and saliva flew out of his mouth as he flew right threw a tree trucked and tumbled back at least two dozen feet before hitting another tree and coming to a painful stop. The blond cradled his stomach, which felt like it had imploded, and was coughing up spatter of blood as he laid helpless on the ground.
He laid there for what seemed like hours before opening his eyes and saw Sasuke, still with a faint purplish-black glow about him as he casually walked up to him, his straight sword back in his hand.
Naruto tried to get back up, to fight, but he couldn't find the strength. His arms were practically glued to his stomach, and his eyes were fading in and out of focus; he couldn't have stood to save his life. (A/N: Pun totally intended.)
"Well, it was fun while it lasted Naruto, but it's over now. You might think of me as a jerk for killing you, but look at it this way; if you knew what was in store for you if I brought you back to Orochimaru...well let's just say you'd be thanking me. I may not like you, but nobody deserves to be dropped alone in the same room as that guy."
He raised his blade, preparing to slice down at him.
"See ya."
Naruto clenched his teeth, this wasn't how he wanted to go. Just as Sasuke's blade began its downward motion however, he was forcibly turned around, and a solid blow was landed on his cheek which sent tumbling away and out of Naruto's sight. The blond weakly looked up, and saw his best friend and crimson haired fox demon.
"K-karen?"
She knelt down in front of him, running a hand through his hair and the other grasping his arm.
"Hey Naruto, no offense or anything, but you look like shit."
Despite the pain in his stomach, he still found a way to laugh.
"Thanks for noticing," he croaked out.
"I'll get us out of here; I already called Kakashi, so he should be here soon. Until then, we need to get as much distance between us and pigeon-head over there."
His hopes were actually raised a bit, until he saw a familiar flicker behind Karen, and no sooner did he open his mouth did Sasuke re-appear, looking mighty pissed. He raised his blade again as Karen looked over her shoulder, her eyes widening in surprise and fear.
"You demon BITCH!" he roared.
They both thought he was going to attack and that would be the end of them both, but his attack never came. The duo looked up, and behind Sasuke stood a large man with gray hair that fell into a long pony-tail. He wore what looked like old Japanese robes, a mix of dark green and red.
With a simple pull, he whipped Sasuke around, who lost his grip on his sword, and pinned him to a tree with only his left hand, despite his struggling. With his right hand, he formed a small spinning blue orb around the size of two baseballs.
"Rasengan!" shouted the man as he slammed the orb into Sasuke's stomach.
The next thing they saw was a huge ploom of dust, dirt, and debris fill the air. The airborne filth invaded the lungs of the two on the ground and they coughed uncontrollably until it finally settled. After that, Sasuke was no where to be seen; there was no trace left of him at all.
They looked up at the giant man who had just saved him. He had his right hand over his forehead to block out the sun from his view while whistling.
"Well, I think that just might have been a distance record!" he said with a laugh.
Once he was done admiring his handiwork, he looked down at Naruto and Karen, who were staring right back at him. Naruto could feel it getting harder to keep his eyes open, which he knew probably meant he was slipping into unconsciousness.
The man leaned forward and looked closer at him.
"You okay kid?"
Karen looked concerned as well.
"Naruto?"
That was the last thing that echoed through his head before he slipped into the black void of his own mind.
An unkown number of meters away
Sasuke coughed violently as he laid on his back, his entire body aching. He rolled onto his side, and clumsily stumbled over to a tree. He grasped the bark and pulled himself up, though he had to rely on it for balance. His head was spinning after he was sent flying, and the act of standing up didn't sit well with his stomach. He leaned over and vacated his stomach over the ground, cursing the world out as the last bits of upchucked liquid dripped out of his mouth.
He shakily reached for his radio and pressed in the button to talk.
"K-Kin...Dosu...Za-Zaku, do you re-...do you read?"
He waited for a few seconds before their Kins voice crackled through the radio.
"I'm here sir!" she shouted, which only further agitated Sasuke's now pounding head.
"Kin...we're pulling back...regroup back at the cli-...cliff side," he coughed out.
"Fine with us sir, Kakashi's been alerted of you position so we tried taking him on as per orders. That idiot Zaku is already down, and Dosu isn't faring well right now either. I'll inform them we're pulling back."
With that, Sasuke merely threw the radio away. He began stumbling between the trees, trying his best not to fall down. All the while, he cursed out Naruto, the demon bitch, and the old man who had interrupted his fight.
Ah, it's nice to be back. Well, you guys know the drill by now, just leave a review before leave and you shall have appeased me. I hope I did alright and didn't screw the pooch anywhere, because then I'd be pissed at myself.
Now before anyone asks me this question in a review or a PM or whatever, let me get this out of the way. Yes, I intentionally made Sasuke way stronger than Naruto. I know, it pained me to, but it only makes sense. Naruto only has about three months of training; even given the fact that he's pretty much a natural, Sasuke's been doing this sort of thing way WAY longer than he has, so he's obviously going to be stronger.
Of course, that's why we have Jiraiya. RASENGAN FTW!
The review button is right down there, so let the compliments/complaints/whining sessions/flames fly!
