Declaimer: I own nothing in this fanfic, but my created characters they abilities and Jutsu and that is about all I own "Goes to corner and starts crying"
Writing: Italic: thought, Bold: Bijuu or summoning speaking.
"I will not stop, no matter what the cost, I will not stop. Even if the world should end and crumble into darkness. I will not stop walking for I do not fear the darkness because I thrive in darkness." -Unknown.
"War does not determine who is right only who is left..." - Unknown
Even though Naruto was grateful for the reinforcements, he couldn't afford to strike up any conversation. Ducking underneath a barrage of bones being fired out of Kimimaro's fingertips, Naruto charged up some shuriken with his wind chakra. Throwing the deadly projectile, Kimimaro glared as he pulled out two other bones out of his shoulders. Naruto watched as Kimimaro, with precision, Kimimaro slid and underneath the shuriken, but just as they past over; Kimimaro stuck the pointed end of each of his bones into the shuriken holes. Swinging the shuriken back at Naruto, the blonde was forced to jump, but then noticed the bone spikes thrown his way. Grabbing the two make-shift weapons, Naruto was about to go on the offensive when Kimimaro appeared in front of him. Gritting his teeth, Naruto saw the bone spikes protruding from Kimimaro's two palms. As Kimimaro went to impale Naruto, a wall of sand erupted between the two. Using the sand as a platform the two jumped away from the other. Using the bone weapons that were previously thrown at him, Naruto slowed himself down as Gaara landed next to him. "What's wrong with you," Gaara asked with that same emotionless monotone voice.
"I'm trying to gauge his level, but he seems to be doing the exact same thing," Naruto answered. Pulling both bone spikes out of the ground, Naruto got ready to charge in again. "But I'm tired of exchanging blows, it's time to so this guy what I can do."
Sand began to swirl around Gaara as he stepped forward. "Ready, whenever you are," Gaara announced. Charging the bone spikes with his wind chakra, Naruto dashed towards the bone manipulator. Kimimaro simply shrugged off his shirt as a black markings spread around his body. Creating another bone, Kimimaro clashed with Naruto. Naruto was surprised that his wind chakra only cut a few centimeters into Kimimaro's weapon.
"Thanks to Orochimaru's power, my bones get stronger with each stage." Naruto grunted in response as sand appeared behind Kimimaro. Just as the sand began to descend on Kimimaro, the white-haired boy spun around Naruto, almost like they were dancing. Kimimaro kicked Naruto towards the sand, but it simply caught the boy. Seizing a chance, Kimimaro slammed his hands on the ground. Seeing this, Naruto heard the cracking of earth. Looking beneath him, Naruto saw bone spikes erupt out of the ground. Gaara narrowed his eyes as he lifted the sand into the sky, allowing Naruto to avoid the spikes, but turned back to see Kimimaro in the air with him. "Karamatsu no Mai," Kimimaro's body erupted into a series of spiked bone blades. Swinging two weapons he had, Naruto intercepted Kimimaro's own swing, but the boy just used the momentum to spin himself behind Naruto. Naruto ducked under Kimimaro's palm blade, but a separate bone erupted out of his forearm. The bone caught Naruto directly in the shoulder, keeping the boy still as Kimimaro slammed his other palm bone into his back. Gritting his teeth, Naruto felt several other bones penetrate his back. "It's over, I promise to kill you quickly."
Kimimaro was about to put the killing blow on Naruto, when he began to laugh. "You think I would be stupid enough to charge in without having a plan," Naruto grabbed the bone protruding out of his chest. "You are dead wrong; Gaara, now!" The sand slowly began to encase the two as Naruto's grin grew.
"So you plan on killing us both," Kimimaro's question lingered in the air, but Naruto just laughed some more.
"No," Naruto looked down at the disappearing sand. Following his eyes, Kimimaro found himself staring at another Naruto standing below them. "You see, I created a clone to take my place on the sand when Gaara lifted me up. So, Gaara concealed the real me in the sand while my clone fought you."
"That means-."
"I'm not killing myself, I'm just killing you."
The sand enveloped the two has Gaara began to make a fist. Putting his hands together, Naruto got ready to make his clone explode. The coffin of sand gave a violent lurch as it collapsed on the two. Activating his jutsu, Naruto's clone exploded causing the sand to be pushed back. As the sand fell to the ground, the two heard the unmistakable thud of a body hitting the ground. Smiling at Gaara, Naruto eyes widened when he heard a voice. "You dance well," turning wildly around; Naruto came face to face with Kimimaro. The boy was missing patches of skin, but all Naruto could see was bone. Kimimaro swung a bone spike at Naruto, who watched it come closer to him.
XXX
Sai was sweating, not because he was concentrating on his jutsu, but because of the fact everyone was counting on him. Looking up for a second after the reinforcements showed up, Sai saw some things that made worried him. Kankuro was helping Kiba and Akamaru fight against Ukon; while his brother was fighting Temari and Shikamaru. This left Neji and Choji to fight their fights, alone. Choji taking the second strange pill, but he seemed slightly smaller since the first pill. Neji was on the defensive against a bunch of spiders and arrows being shot at him. He was trying to work as fast as he could, but he still needed to be very precise, messing up now would spell the death for somebody. Staring at his nearly finished tiger, Sai heard a strange sound. Looking to his left, he saw Kiba being thrown towards him. Placing himself on his scroll, Sai braced himself, but Kiba never connected. Instead there was a puppet in between him and the Inuzuka. "Keep working," Kankuro's voice rang as he had his puppet set Kiba down. Growling, Kiba got up as Akamaru barked next to him.
"You want to try that," the worry in Kiba's voice was enough for Sai to move a little farther back. Kiba was about to interject when his dog barked once more. A smile spread across Kiba's face at that. "Fine, but you know what to do first." Akamaru gave an excited bark as it jumped into the air. "Kankuro, get your ass out of the way!" Hearing this, Kankuro jumped back, but kept his puppet fighting Ukon. Akamaru began to spin, but at the same began to piss. Kankuro narrowly got his puppet out of the way, but Ukon still received a hit. Jumping up to meet his partner halfway, Kiba stared at Kankuro. "Tell me you have a way to hold him after we're done!"
"Yes!"
"Good, then stay out of our way," Kiba grinned as Akamaru barked on his head. "Jinju Konbi Henge: Sotoro (Human Beast Combination Transformation: Double-Headed Wolf)!" A giant explosion followed by the thunderous thud of giant feet rang throughout the battle field. As the smoke cleared; in Akamaru and Kiba's place stood a giant two-headed wolf. As the beast growled at Ukon, Sai watched as its drool seemed to be burn the ground. Releasing a howl to the skies, the wolf creature charged towards Ukon. Just as the wolf's front feet left the ground; it immediately began to spin in a cyclone. Ukon managed to avoid it at first, but still got caught in the backlash of wind that followed it. Twisting his body around, Ukon landed on his feet. Turning around, he found the Kiba/Akamaru spinning towards him once more.
"How can he see me," Ukon's thoughts immediately turned towards finding out how the two of them were finding him. Then he remembered what Akamaru did before they combined. "That damn dog marked me with his scent." Seeing the giant angle back at him, Ukon just smirked. "But it doesn't matter, because I can't be stopped! Even if you rip this body to pieces, you can't stop me!" Instead of dodging, Ukon allowed the wolf to drill through him. As he was split to pieces and thrown to separate sides of the area, Ukon still had a smile on his face. His lower half began to disintegrate into paper and fly back towards him. "I told you it was pointless." Ukon smirked as he stood up with his newly formed legs, but saw the wolf turn back to an exhausted Kiba and Akamaru. The strange thing was, Kiba was smiling.
"You lost this one," Kiba stated. Before Ukon could respond a shadow fell over him. Turning saw another puppet with a bucket-shaped head with two red horns coming out of it. It had three eyes, six arms, and disheveled hair that fell back. Ukon was about to jump away, when Kankuro's other puppet burst out of the ground; grabbing him by the arms.
"Time for my performance," Kankuro grinned as he made the signs to get his puppets to respond. Kuroari (Black Ant) sat down on the ground and pulled back it's cloak; revealing a barrel shaped torso. As the torso opened up, Karasu (Crow) threw Ukon into the barrel. As Ukon watched the barrel close around him, Kankuro had Karasu separate and position each of its arms and head into their positions. Twitching his left fingers slightly, Kankuro released the hidden blades within each body part. "Kurohigi Kiki Ippatsu (Black Secret Technique Machine One-Shot)!" Each of the body parts descended up Kuroari, before entering each slit located on its body; impaling Ukon inside.
"Are you stupid," Ukon screamed out. "You can't kill me!"
"This wasn't to kill you," Kankuro stated calmly. "Now you are trapped and with your arms pinned, I don't think you are going anywhere." Ukon looked down and realized that he couldn't move his arms any closer together to form seals. "One down, four to go." Kankuro ignored Ukon's sudden screams of rage as he tried to free himself from his prison. Instead he watched the other battles and saw that others were in the need of help. Choji was getting pushed back the giant ogre-looking nin and Neji was barely able to land hits. The fact that these guys could heal anything done to them wasn't helping the situation either. Hearing something cracking behind him, Kankuro turned to his puppets and saw cracks appearing on Kuroari's body.
"This is gone on long enough," Ukon roared. The last thing Kiba and Kankuro saw before the puppet exploded was two glowing yellow eyes gleaming out of the cracks.
XXX
Shikamaru was standing behind, Temari formulating a plan to deal with the threat. Sakon just grinned as each blast of sharpened wind smacked into him, but instead of dodging he just walked on. It didn't matter what Temari did, he refused to stop his approach towards his prey. Hearing a small explosion, Shikamaru turned towards the sound and saw parts of puppets being thrown everywhere. From the smoke, Shikamaru saw the outline of Ukon emerging in his second state. "Poor, Kankuro," Temari said with worry in her voice. "We need to finish this up and go help him."
"Yeah, but problem is; we can't defeat him," Shikamaru stated with his usual bored voice. Someone grunting in pain caught Shikamaru's attention. Looking around, he found Choji being thrown to the ground.
"Well, you better think of something fast, because we are slowly running out of options," Temari raised her fan to blast Jirobo, but stopped when a shadow fell over him. Sai was above Jirobo with his tanto in hand. Swinging the blade down, Sai dug the blade into Jirobo's body, but all it did was make the ogre of a man turn and stare at him.
"I'm not afraid to fight you, fat ass," Sai announced, getting the desired reaction out of Jirobo. As the man roared and started after Sai, Shikamaru saw that Choji had the final pill in his hand.
"Choji you can't eat that!"
"I don't have any chakra left, I have to buy Sia enough time to finish his jutsu," Choji stated nodding his head to the scroll, but instead of an empty space, Sai was still working diligently on his drawing. "I'm sorry, Shikamaru." As Choji went to bite into the pill; a green blur passed right by him. Jirobo punched a hole through the ink clone of Sai, before turning his attention to the real one.
"Now it's your-," Jirobo stopped as someone delivered a knee directly into the side of his head. Jirobo didn't move far, but it did get his attention. Standing in between him and Sai, Rock Lee stood with a smile on his face. "I'm tired of being interrupted by nosy little brats!" Jirobo went to grab Lee, but received multiple kicks to the stomach, before a kick to his face sent him flying back skidding across the ground, kicking up dust..
"Please, Choji take a rest, I will protect Sai till he is done," Lee went back into his fighting stance, waiting for Jirobo to make his move.
"Lee, what are you doing here," Shikamaru yelled out. "You are still recovering from your surgery!" Lee gave little indication that he heard theNara, but stiffened when he saw Jirobo emerge out of the dust.
"I'm going to absorb every last drop of chakra you have; then crush your very skull under my foot," Jirobo yelled as he ran towards taijutsu user. Lee stayed perfectly still as his opponent ran at him. Jirobo threw a chakra infused punch, but got nothing, but air. Seeing a blur to his left, Jirobo barely ducked underneath Lee's leg. Grabbing the boy, Jirobo tried to siphon off of his chakra, but frowned at the quantity of it. "You are barely even a snack." Jirobo statement was cut of when Lee punched him in the face. Releasing his grip, Jirobo stumbled backwards from the impact. "I absorbed your chakra, how can you still punch me that hard!"
"Because I was never good at Ninjutsu or Genjutsu," Lee started as he got ready to attack. "I never could control my chakra, so instead my sensei had me focus on the one thing I could do; Taijutsu." With that, Lee ran at Jirobo with a steady gaze in his eyes. Jirobo tried to grab again, but the boy was faster then the giant. Delivering several bone cracking kicks and punches, Lee jumped back and saw the damage he did just slowly heal back. As the holes slowly healed back, Jirobo chuckled.
"So you use Taijutsu only," Jirobo turned, slamming both hands into the ground. Digging his fingers in, Jirobo slowly lifted up a giant mound of earth. "I'll just show you what real Taijutsu power is!" Lee tightened his form, preparing for the attack that was about to head his way. Jirobo threw the mound at Lee with a grin on his face. Lee jumped and landed on the earth, but when he ran to the other side, Jirobo wasn't there. Instead, Lee felt the ground give a little as someone grabbed him. "Now, it's my turn to show you a few things about Taijutsu!" Jirobo's smiling face emerged out of the dirt. Getting out of his earth cover, Jirobo grabbed Lee fully. Lee tried to kick Jirobo, but that didn't loosen the giant's grip; instead it just got tighter. "You may be faster then me, but I am way stronger then you." Jirobo whispered as he swung Lee towards the ground. Not wanting his opponent to recover, Jirobo went after Lee. Just as Lee managed to correct himself, he found himself staring at Jirobo's open palm.
"I can't dodge it at this range," Realization pounded into Lee, but he still smiled. Twisting his body around, Lee delivered a kick that destroyed Jirobo's arm. "But that doesn't mean I can't defend." Lee's victory was short lived as Jirobo grabbed him his arm.
"You think you can make a fool out of me," Jirobo kept Lee at arm's length. Before Jirobo could continue, he heard a voice behind him.
"Yes, we do."
Turning towards his new opponent, Jirobo found himself staring at Sai. Looking where the boy's hand was pressed against, Jirobo found a drawing of a menacing looking tiger. "Oh, well that is a pretty little picture, what is it suppose to jump out and get me."
"Yes, that's exactly what it is going to do," Sai stated. "Fuinjutsu: Koshi Tandan (Sealing Technique: Tiger Vision Staring Bullet)." Jirobo dropped Lee out of sheer surprise. The Tiger had jumped from the scroll directly at him. Charging up his chakra, Jirobo punched the ink feline, but it simply reformed behind him. Chomping down hard on his neck, Jirobo dug his feet in as he felt the tug on his body.
"Help me," Jirobo screamed out, but none of his teammates seemed to care. Sakon gave him a bored look and sighed at him.
"It'd be more trouble then it would be worth," Sakon responded getting a murderous glare from the man. "Besides, you will be free once we deal with these punks." Jirobo let out one last yell before the tiger pulled him into the scroll. Sakon scratched his ear as he yawned. "Finally, it'll be a little quieter with him gone."
"He was your comrade, don't you care about him," Shikamaru's question only seemed to inspire laughter in the undead shinobi.
"No, none of us really cared for him," Sakon stated while he gestured to the group. "He had his usefulness, but he wasn't all that strong. I'm sure if it wasn't for the Edo Tensei, he would've been pummeled by the kid wearing the spandex." Sakon's gaze wondered over to where, Sasuke was and grinned. "And you are already too late." Pointing, Shikamaru followed his gaze just as the coffin exploded. Sai's vision was partially obscured by the purple smoke, but he did make out the outline of a boy in the smoke.
"Sasuke-," Before Sai could finish, the figure delivered a bone jarring punch to the exhausted artist.
"There, no need for sentimental reunions," Sasuke voiced as Sai dropped to the ground. Sai tried to stand, but couldn't find the strength after the sealing jutsu. Sasuke took this moment and scanned his surroundings. Then he saw the one person that caused a full grin to bloom on his face; Naruto. "Hello, Naruto." Naruto went to attack, but found a wall of bone in his path.
"Sasuke, Orochimaru-sama is awaiting you," Kimimaro stated as he stared Gaara and Naruto down. "Please don't make him wait any longer." Chuckling to himself, Sasuke turned around before dashing into the forest. Rage slowly built within Naruto as yellow chakra slowly consumed him.
"I've had enough of this nonsense," At the apex of his shout, the ground beneath Naruto shattered as Kurama's chakra was drawn out. Turning around, Naruto was stopped from his charge by Shikamaru.
"Naruto, there is no time," Shikamaru stated as he stood up from his crouched position. "Even with your help, it would take to much time to defeat these guys. We can handle them, just go and retrieve Sasuke." Naruto wanted to argue the point, but saw Shikamaru was solid on his word.
"Fine," conceded Naruto. "But if you die I'm kicking your ass the next time we meet." Shikamaru chuckled slightly, but only for a second. "Gaara, are you going to be okay?"
"He will be fine," Lee stated appearing next to Gaara with a grin on his face. Gaara showed a slight form of worry for the spandex wearing ninja. "Now go and bring Sasuke back!" Naruto nodded before vanishing; leaving behind two indented footprints in the ground.
"It will not matter, Sasuke has made his choice," Kimimaro stated coldly. "Naruto will fail and Orochimaru-sama will have the perfect body."
Gaara was about to speak up, but a sudden movement from Lee caught his attention. Pulling out a small bottle, Lee looked toward Kimimaro. "Please before we fight, may I take my medicine," the question was a strange one to say the least. Here they were enemies on the opposite ends of the boards and Lee was asking for a favor.
"In a show of respect for your Taijutsu; I will allow it," Kimimaro announced as he removed the top half of his outfit. Giving a slight bow, Lee drank his medicine; cringing at the taste. Hearing the bottle hit the ground; Neji turned and looked at his teammate. Fear creped into the eyes of Neji as he saw Lee begin to stumble slightly.
"He didn't just drink-."
"Hey, who the hell are you," Lee yelled out in a drunken slur.
XXX
Naruto didn't have a problem following the trail of malice that Sasuke was leaving. What got him was that, Sasuke didn't seem to be in a big hurry. Pushing it to the back of his mind, Naruto soon found Sasuke standing on the other side of a chasm. Stopping himself, Naruto got ready to attack his objective. "It would appear you caught up to me," Sasuke didn't seem too worried or surprised by this. "It still doesn't change anything."
"I made a promise to bring you back and I plan on doing just that," Naruto growled as the ground shook from the power rolling off of Naruto. This only caused a smile to grow on Sasuke's face.
"That's cute," Sasuke mocked as he placed his hand on the statue next to him. "You really think that your power can match mine."
"You haven't seen a damn thing about me," Naruto's eyes turned deadly cold as Kurama's chakra began to stabilize itself. "This time I'm about to show you the power of, Naruto "Doukaku" Uzumaki!"
"Bring it on," Sasuke yelled back as purple and black energy swirled around him. "I need a good punching bag to practice on!"
Hope you guys enjoyed the chapter.