Hey, it's been a while since I updated, hasn't it? (well, not as much as my updates on my other fics… the biggest author blocks I ever had invaded my mind in those cases). Well, the last two weeks were totally crazy and my time limited, so… basically I was wishing I had a split personality, so that it could do all the work for me, while I could write or just relax. And in hope I'll manage to form one, this is how my different personalities would answer why it took me so long to update:
Humble Shang: I'm terribly sorry I didn't manage to write this sooner! I really did my best, but everything was against me and I just didn't manage. I'm most terribly sorry! I feel like I failed you and to prove how sorry I am, I'll commit hara-kiri!... dies
Egocentric Shang: yeah, yeah, yeah, so I didn't update for long. So what? I'm updating now, so be grateful! It's not like you have anything better to do then read this anyway, so just shut up, read and give me well-deserved reviews…
Laid Back Shang: …… whatever….
Asshole Shang: okay, so I didn't update. Live with it! It's not like I care about you guys or anything. You (conserved) are just here to (conserved) read and review, so keep your pie-holes shut and read this (conserved) story, otherwise I'll find out and (conserved) your (conserved)!
Pessimistic Shang: I know I haven't updated in a long while and I'm sorry about that, but everything was against me: I had a lot of work, author's blocks, my father gotten worse, my aunt came by, my PC broke etc… Besides, does updating has any meaning? It's not like any of you even like this story… I guess I should just drop it…
Seriously though, the pessimistic "me" wasn't that way off: everything was going wrong for the past two weeks and I just didn't had enough time to write. What pains me even more is the fact that starting Monday (well, Tuesday actually) collage returns, so even more troubles for me. Which brings me to a conclusion that you might wanna prepare yourselves for me returning to "one update per two weeks" paste… sorry, but those last, few weeks shown that updating every week is extremely difficult in the current situation. Naturally, if I'll finish the chapter sooner, I'll post it, but just in case lets say new chapter will come up every two weeks for the time being.
Just like before I wanna thank everyone who reviewed the previous chapter. It really means a lot to find out you still wanna read more. If it wasn't for you, dear reviewers, I'd probably put this on hold due to the situation. So my deepest thanks. Even moreso, since the barrier of 2000 reviews got broken! It really made my day!
Also, I wanna remind everyone who haven't voted yet and wishes to do so that THIS IS YOUR LAST CHANCE TO VOTE IN THE POPULARITY CONTEST! I do not know how long it'll take me to update, but with the upload of chapter 100, the voting will be closed and results given. So if you wanna vote, do it now. Every vote counts.
And with that there's nothing left for me to do then let you read the newest chapter of N:NG. Once more without proof-read I'm afraid, so again there'll be more mistakes then usual (most likely). Sorry in advance:
Chapter #99: Tanken's Ninjutsu
Title Page: Ibuki is standing on the edge of the road, trying to catch a ride, with a sign 'wherever' around her neck and glancing down, where a tiny raccoon is mimicking her
Sakura exited the room and quietly shut the door behind her, allowing her new patient to rest. The instant she turned around, her gaze stopped at Shikamaru, who seemed to await something. The pink-haired kunoichi managed a smile, making the lazy jounin feel at least slight relief, before she announced: "It'd appear the antidote did its job. The strain that was placed upon her organism was enormous and it'll certainly take her a while to return to perfect shape, however with a lot of rest she should be fine. At the moment that is all I'm capable of doing…"
"Thanks" the man spoke up, yet still worry didn't disappear from his face. "I already informed Kenji-san about the situation. Hopefully he'll arrive soon to give you more details about the mixtures effects, should I forgot anything…" at this the young medic merely nodded. Instantly her friend's gaze dropped to the floor, making the kunoichi let out a sigh as a tiny smile appeared on her face again: "You really care about this girl, don't ya?"
"Well, she's my subordinate, thus it's part of my duties…"
"Don't play dumb with me. I knew you too long to get fooled by that. During the past year I saw you changing. You barely act like you don't care anymore" and with that she placed her hand on his shoulder: "I must say I like the new Shikamaru better" and with that she widen her smile, sending it towards the lazy chuunin.
"Troublesome things happened" was the man's reply, yet a smirk crossed his face as well. "But whenever I'm around those brats, it kinda feels like old days, when things were… well, simple. Guess life gets complicated when one grows. I have a feeling that very soon shadows from the past will come and I'll have to face them… and quite frankly, for the first time ever, I'm scared. This is one thing that planning won't do me any good…" and with that his eyes traveled to the door leading to the room with Sakura exited a moment ago: "This girl… she does remind me of a certain, chubby boy I knew back in the day…"
---Back to the eliminations---
"I'll show you Tanken's Ninjutsu!" announced Ibuki, going into her fighting stance. Taki only raised a surprised eyebrow up, as she gazed at Funbo, slightly confused: "Ninjutsu? I didn't even know your clan did ninjutsu!" she stated, but immediately quiet down, seeing that her teammate's grip on the rail tightened, while his eyes narrowed: "She couldn't have!" was his only thought as his eyes stopped at his younger sister.
Sabure merely narrowed her jade eyes, yet said nothing and in a flash sand shoot out from beneath her feet, coming at the young assassin, swirling like an avalanche through a narrow gorge. Instinctually Ibuki jumped up, performing a quick set of hand seals in the process. As the tidal wave came below her, a hand of sand shoot out from it, aiming to grab the weapon mistress again, only to have her suddenly somersault, flying higher and higher.
"She increased the height of her flight when she was already in mid-air?" Toku's eyes widen slightly with surprise, while Ibuki kept spinning unnaturally high for a single jump. "That's physically impossible!" Akira on the other hand seemed to realize what happened instantly: "That noise just now… and the gust… could it be that…?"
As she came above Sabure, Ibuki reached to her hostels and once more unleashed the rain of weapons at the redhead, yet also this time the sand rose from behind her back, shielding the Suna gennin like an umbrella. Upon landing, the young assassin spun on her foot and threw the final kunai at her opponent, but it still was in vial as the sand created a wall again. Or so everyone thought.
In a flash Ibuki performed a quick hand seals and to everyone's surprise, the knife switched its course, flying next to the sand barrier and heading right at Sabure. In the last moment sand swirled around its master again, stopping the attack less then inches before the redhead kunoichi.
"No string!" Sabure realized as the sand wall began falling, making the kunai drop to the floor with a loud 'clank'. "How did she made the knife switch its route after throwing without any strings attached to it? Plus, those seals she was forming just now… it can't be!"
"It's hard to tell through that emotionless face of yours, but I think I know what you're thinking" announced Ibuki with a smirk on her face. "I assure you that it is how you picture it" and with that she performed another set of hand seals, swinging her hand quickly afterwards. An instant later the wall of sand arose again before Sabure in order to block some invisible attack, yet it didn't seem to do any good as in the next moment the redhead bended forward slightly, while being blasted back.
In a flash her sand took action and wrapped around Sabure's back before it hit the wall, amortizing the fall. Seeing this, Hari was totally shocked: "What the hell just happened?" she demanded, looking at her teammates. "Didn't Sabure's Sand Shield Reacted in time?"
"It did" Dekai assured her calmly with an emotionless face before continuing: "However in this situation I'm afraid Sand Shield won't give her much, since that Leaf girl uses this type of ninjutsu" and with that he quiet down, forcing Aoru to ask what he meant. The swordsman just gazed at her as he went on: "It's wind…"
"Wind?" Horamaru repeated, rising his eyebrow slightly, while realization hit Torune: "Of course! With air-based attacks, sand barricade doesn't make any difference!" and at this point Kai turned his attention to the Suna gennin: "What are you guys talking about?"
"It's a simple order to things in this world" surprisingly it was Honemaru who answered his question with his face once more not showing any trace of emotion. "Typical, physical attacks won't get through Sabure's sand barrier, because it's hardened with her chakra. However things with chakra can be broken by putting more chakra within them. Regardless to how it may seem from here, Sabure's Sand Shield is just a mix of tiny grains with extremely narrow spaces between them. Those spaces are too small for anything physical to got between them and water gets drained by earth. However wind doesn't have a physical form, it's just air…"
"Oh… now you totally lost me…"
"You can't really stop wind" Kitsune cut in, patiently explaining. "Whenever it comes across an obstacle, it just flanks it. Like when a tree appears in the winds way, it splits in the moment of impact, the currents circle the tree from both sides and join together again on the other side. This is how Ibuki's attack connected, even though this Sand Shield thing acted in time…"
"You mean this Sabure girl formed a tree?" Kai asked, completely clueless.
"Don't you have anything between your ears?" Kumiko shouted irritated. "Ibuki's attack used the microscopic spaces between those sand grains to get to the other side of the Sand Shield and hit that redhead! Because that wind was also strengthened with chakra, the chakra floating within the sand didn't stop it!"
"Ah… now I don't get it…"
"You don't have to" Takaru let out a sign while his eyes narrowed. "All that you need to know is that this Sand Shield thing won't stop Ibuki's attacks" and with that Karame quickly analyzed the situation: "That'd also explain how this Leaf girl managed to rip Sabure's sand hand into pieces: she just filled the spaces between the grains with wind and then increased the pressure to blast the sand away… against this kind of opponent… what can you do, Sabure?"
"Wind, huh?" Hitomi asked, turning towards Funbo: "I must say that it's slightly surprising that you clan even bothered with learning something like that" but to this the older Tanken merely replied emotionlessly, not even looking at the white-eyed girl: "When throwing a weapon, the user must take wind currents into consideration for the attack to be effective. By mastering wind technique, we have better control over our weapons. Isn't this ninjutsu style perfect for people with weapon throwing skills?" To that the young Hyuuga didn't respond.
Sabure slowly struggled back to her feet, thus revealing parts of her torso falling to the floor as she did so, making Ibuki shiver at the sight. "Her skin's cracking?" yelled Kusari both confused and scared, while Naruto merely narrowed his eyes: "So she covered her body with sand like Gaara…"
"It's sand as well" Ibuki realized after taking another look. "She entire body is wrapped with it! Dammit, it forms a perfect shell. Even my wind probably won't be able to find a crack in it. My attacks can avoid being stopped by that damn sand, but still won't do much damage. I have to get close and land a powerful blow in close combat… but that Sand Shield of hers is faster then me… I guess that leaves me with just one option" and with that thought she went through another set of hand seals.
In a flash she charged forward, appearing behind Sabure in an instant, too fast for the redhead's eyes to follow. "She made the wind blow at her back to increase her running speed!" Galu only managed to realize with his eyes widen while Ibuki's leg was already coming at the sand-nin's face. It never reached its target however as suddenly bullets shoot from the sand shell that was covering the redhead.
Acting on instinct, Ibuki jumped back, maneuvering in the air to avoid as many sand senbon as she could, still plenty struck her hard, making her fall to the floor with a loud 'thud', while Sabure calmly looked over her shoulder to gaze at her opponent: "Just now… you did good increasing the speed of your movement, however the way you did it, it only works on your body as a whole not each part of it separately. When the attack comes at, say your left hand, you still can count on your natural reflex only… and the closer you are to the attack source, the less time to react your body has…"
"So you actually predicted what I was about to do and let me get this close?" asked Ibuki with a smirk as she began pulling the sand senbon out of her body. The redhead's face was indifferent as she turned to face the weapon mistress again: "Pretty much… between you and me, there's a difference that still puts you on a disadvantage: you still need hand seals to initiate any attack, while I have limited control over my sand, allowing me to act without those… like the Sand Shield or Suna Senbon you just experienced…"
"Well, fighting you really is a pain" admitted the leaf-nin, yet she kept on smiling. "Still, that doesn't matter… if your Sand Armor is this much of a problem… I'll just rip that stupid shell off you!" and with that she unleashed several shuriken as she ran to her left, performing a new set of hand seals.
The shinobi stars were easily stopped by a wall of sand that quickly rose before them, yet as the sand shoot up, Sabure settled her eyes on the weapon mistress, who just finished forming hand seals: "Fuuton: Teikiatsu Arashi!" and with that cry, wind began circling around her, just to shot her spinning at the redhead an instant later.
"Fool, with this speed, what can you do?" Sabure asked calmly while she threw her hand to the right, immediately making a wall of sand rose before the spinning Ibuki. The leaf-nin however merely smirked as she flipped in mid-air and the second her feet touched the sandy barrier, she bounced of it, while the tornado surrounding her kept flying forward.
"Who said I was going for you?" the weapon mistress asked with a smirk as the powerful current swiped the redhead off her feet and then went to the sky, taking the kunoichi along for the ride. As Gaara's daughter hung above, Ibuki performed a quick set of hand seals once more and upon completing it, she reminded: "I told you… I'll rip that shell off you!" and instantly she threw her hands to the sides.
A fraction of a second later Sabure let out a cry of pain as both her legs and hands suddenly got pulled to the sides by an invisible force, while her Sand Armor began cracking and carried away in every direction.
"This girl… managed to hurt Sabure!" Kankuro thought in shock, while Tarakudo's eyes widen: "What the hell did she just did? Since when Sabure's armor falls off this easily?" and with that he gazed at his sensei, who simply replied with a slight note of amazement in her voice: "Do you know what happens to an object carried by a single wind current, when suddenly that current splits into many directions? Each works as a sort of vacuum that tries to take that object with it. Basically, once Sabure hung in the air, this Ibuki girl made the current split, thus making Sabure's body be pulled into many directions. With such pressure surrounding her, there's no way her Sand Armor can hold, even though it's attached to her body with chakra… it's like with climbing: chakra allows shinobi to walk on walls, but if the wall is wet and slippery, it's harder to impossible to do. On a similar basis, Sabure can be rid off her armor if pulled hard enough…"
Takai merely narrowed his eyes at this as the wind calmed down and Sabure began falling to the floor. Yet Ibuki still wasn't finished and using her wind to blast herself to the sky faster, she managed to beat the redhead's Sand Shield, landing on her opponent's torso with two kunai, one in each hand.
In a flash she pulled the knives down, piercing her shoulders. In an instant blood sprayed out of them and only then did Sabure's jade eyes caught a glimpse of explosive tags wrapped around the weapons. Ibuki's face was still as a rock, while she spoke up: "Boom…"
And then the tags went off...
---unexpected turn of events… is this the end of Ibuki or Sabure?---
And so this chapter ends. Hope you liked it and that you'll leave me a review once you're done reading it. It'd really mean a lot. Up next is the end of Ibuki vs. Sabure fight! Eliminations are coming to their end! What is Takai power? How strong Kyuu is? The answers are about to be told!
Fuuton: Teikiatsu Arashi (Wind Element: Cyclone Storm)
Konoha #7: Murasakki Kumiko, Tanken Ibuki (in progress), Gekido Takaru, Hagane Kusari, Haisha Kai
Konoha #3: Konpaku Rei, Amagasa Toku, Debano Kitsune, Gusoku Hanamaru
Konoha #4: Benda Kokoro, Kobushi Galu
Konoha:Hamano Taki, Hyuuga Hitomi, Manako Akira, Tanken Funbo, Horohoro
Suna #1: Aoru, Torune, Honemaru, Tarakudo, Takai
Suna #2: Sabaku no Sabure (in progress), Hari, Dekai, Horamaru, Karame
Kusa:Hokku Tobane, Kanraku Nezumi, Kuchibashi Taka, Kyohaku Tokame, Wanabi Hizoku
Ame:Furikuzu Tsuino, Hebereke Nazaa
Bakufu:Abura Tetsu
Tsuki:Junsei Teela, Tenka
Hane:Ono Reiji
Kumori: Kyuu
And this really concludes this chapter. Hope you found it worth waiting for. Best wishes and until next time, hopefully!