Chapter 19 - The Predator or the Prey: Tiraran vs. Kisame

A/N # 1: This story has reached both the 100 review mark and 200 faves/follows mark; I thank you readers for your continued support. I still ask that you keep sending more of these things, however.

A/N # 2: There are a couple of Spanish terms that I have translated for you readers; for the sake of the story, however, these translations are at the bottom of this chapter.

Disclaimer: Still applies.

[Unspecified Location, 20 or so Miles Outside of Konoha]

Recap:

Tiraran, to Kisame's shock, then stuck her blade to the ground before she then got on her right knee and closed her left hand into a fist, save for her middle and index fingers which she placed on the ground. Kisame didn't realize that he should have stopped Tiraran at that moment as the Arrancar was about to release her zanpakuto; by the time that Kisame realized that Tiraran was planning something it was too late.

"Hit your mark, Cazadora (A/N: Spanish for "Huntress")," Tiraran said before a large column of emerald green reiatsu with a black outline emanted around her.

Current Time…

As the column of spiritual pressure continued to envelop Tiraran her opponent stood back shocked at this display of power.

"Such power and yet it feels so different from chakra; I can see why Samehada couldn't eat any of it," Kisame thought to himself; unlike all of his other opponents the missing-nin had noticed that this girl's energy was far too light and potent to be chakra, a theory that was given further credence when he noted that Samehada was unable to ingest any of that power.

Kisame snapped out of his thoughts when he saw that the column of energy suddenly dissipated; the swordsmen was then taken further aback when, from out of nowhere, a massive tree suddenly sprouted from the ground where the female Numero was kneeling on. The tree then enveloped Tiraran before it finished growing; the whole spectacle had gone on for three minutes by this time and, unbeknownst to Kisame, was about to end.

After a few seconds the a hole emerged from the side of the tree facing Kisame from which Tiraran came out, her appearance having completely changed from what it was prior.

Tiraran now wore a lightweight, green leather, sleeveless vest while a short-sleeved skirt that was made out of some sort of short black fur was seen underneath; said skirt extended to just above her knees and was covered in the hip area by a small apron that was the same color as her vest. The headband-like fragment of her mask was now an actual headband that was black in color while her green hair, which was already waist-length, was even longer than before; it now reached to her knees while two strands of it framed the side of her face and reached to her collarbones.

Tiraran also had a necklace made out of what appears to be the various claws and fangs that were seen on her bracelets, both of which were now gone, while her leggings had been replaced by short-length fur boots that were black in color. Her right boot has a sheath strapped to it that held an all-black and very large hunting knife while a similar knife, though green in color, was sheathed and placed on a belt strapped to her waist; in addition to the knives a green recurved bow with black horse hair attached to both ends was slung on her back.

Kisame just stood there for a few moments, in complete shock at what he was seeing, until he saw that his opponent had drawn out her bow which forced Kisame snapped out of his shock.

"I don't know what she's planning to do but I have a feeling that even I don't want to find out," Kisame thought to himself as he moved towards a very large lake that was nearby.

Tiraran didn't make it easy for him, however, as she formed a green energy arrow with a fiery tip.

"Colmillo del Jaguar," Tiraran said as she released the the bowstring and sent the arrow flying at speeds greater than what a normal arrow should be capable of.

Kisame only had 30 seonds to respond, which he did by forming a few hand seals before he held both of his hands up; when Kisame finished the short sequence of hand signs some of the water from the lake, which was now about 50 or so yards away from where Kisame was located, surged towards Kisame; after the water enveloped Kisame the missing-nin then created a giant shark out of that water.

"Water Style: Super Shark Bomb Jutsu," he said as he thrusted both of his hands forward, which sent the water shark barreling towards the arrow.

Despite the impressive display of power Kisame was well aware of the fact that his attack was a gamble. This jutsu, for all the chakra used for it, normally drew most of its power from the chakra of the enemy's tachniques; this characteristic, which normally made the jutsu unstoppable, was a non-factor in this scenario, however, as Tiraran's arrow was made of Reiryoku, not chakra, and as such it couldn't be absorbed by Kisame's jutsu. Kisame could only hope that the jutsu can at least redirect the arrow.

The attacks collided 10 seconds after they had been launched; as Tiraran's Colmillo, which had puntured the shark-like entity that was Kisame's jutsu, penetrated deep into the technique Kisame had the shark change the direction of its surge, moving it to his right, just seconds before it was forcefully dispersed by the arrow. The change in direction was small, no more than a few feet, due to how quickly the shark had been destroyed after it had its course altered; luckily for Kisame the change was more than enough to cause the arrow to miss him by a few inches.

That arrow had somehow kept flying through the air for at least five miles before it finally detonated; the explosion that occured as a result was, if Kisame could've seen it, a mile high and was a magnificent shade of green that slightly masked its awesome power. The power behind the explosion was so great that the shockwave it generated could actually be felt 20 miles away as it flattened the three miles of forest that was in the vicinty of the explosion. What what Kisame didn't realize was that Tiraran, in her usual haste when using the Colmillo, had used only a tenth of the attack's true power; if the arrow had been launched at full power it would've actually been twice as powerful as Ulquiorra's Lanza del Relámpago. In other words Kisame had unknowingly dodged multiple bullets, in a methaphorical sense.

The power generated by the Colmillo was, ironically, also strong enough to send Kisame flying for several yards... before he plunged into the very lake that Tiraran had tried to prevent the Swordsman from reaching.

As Kisame swam the surface he wondered why his opponent, who was now standing on the shore of the body of water, used an attack that would have also struck her if it had actually hit him; if he hadn't been forced underwater he might've seen his answer dangling from Tiraran's neck as it glowed the same color as her arrow. The necklace of fangs, teeth, and claws that she wore contained many of Tiraran's different abilities, the most relevant of these in this situation being a sort protective talisman that would protect her from most attacks including all of her attacks. Whilw there were drawbacks to the necklace's protective capabilties the none of the foes Tiraran had faced so far were able to force her to point that such weakness could be exploited. Kisame was no exception to this pattern.

Once he got back on his feet Kisame performed another sequence of hand signs whilst standing on the water.

"Water Style: A Thousand Hungry Sharks," Kisame said as a massive wall of water formed which used to create one thousand sharks; this wall of water sharks soon surged towards Tiraran... who simply pointed her bow at the center of this jutsu before pulling back the bowstring.

"Dosel del Bosque," Tiraran said as she formed another green arrow, though one that was weaker than the Colmillo; when this arrow was at full power it is equal to one of Ulquiorra's Luz de la Luna javelins. This difference in power is seen in the form of the arrow itself as the fiery point that the other arrow had was noticably absent. Firepower was not the greatest asset of this attack, however, as Kisame was about to find out the hard way.

The Arrancar quickly released the bowstring which sent the arrow flying; that arrow then, to Kisame's horror, began to split apart into more arrows of equal size. The number of arrows kept growing and growing until, after a few seconds, there were at 5000 arrows barreling straight towards the sharks. It didn't take long before both attacks collided with; as the arrows began colliding with the water sharks it became clear that there were simply too many arrows, each of which was capable of destroying 15 sharks each, for Kisame's jutsu to withstand.

The wave of sharks was easily broken, leaving around 4300 arrows to coninue on their path; these arrows blocked out the skies above Kisame before they barrage of projectiles fell upon the former member of the Seven Swordsmen of the Hidden Mist. The arrows began exploding as they impacted the surface of the lake; the thousands of explosions that rocked the area lasted for several minutes as the water in the lake was literally being pushed out by the explosions... until all the water was gone.

As the explosions winded down Tiraran looked at the scene of devastation with a bit of surprise in her face; her surprise was not from her attack, however.

"You're actually very strong, fish man, if you managed to survive that attack," Tiraran said as a single figure appeared in the middle of the column of smoke and steam that had arisen as a result of her attack.

Kisame, sure enough, was the one standing on the edge of what used to be a lake; though alive the Akatsuki member was severely wouneded after having been caught in the blast of 3 of Tiraran's arrows.

"She's really good; if I hadn't merged with Samehada and dove underwater when I did... I would be dead right now," Kisame thought to himself as he considered his options.

Kisame knew that those options were limited. The missing-nin couldn't stand and fight against the Arrancar; his opponent would kill him very quickly if he did given the gap in their powers. Retreating was out of the question as well; Itachi was still fighting his opponent and, since Itachi was the one who knew where the jinchuriki of the Kyubi was located, Kisame knew that he had to go and aid him in his battle. With Tiraran keeping him pinned here, however, Kisame was in no position to aid his partner and, even if he was, he would still have to deal with Itachi's opponent... assuming he could live long enough to reach his partner.

As Kisame thought of what he should do Tiraran decided to give him an idea.

"You know you could just surrender, right? I'm sure the people in Naruto's village wouldn't mind having a new friend around," Tiraran said in a playful tone.

"Note to self: remember to ask for the name of that village when I see Naruto-sama," Tiraran thought to herself as she aimed her bow for Kisame's heart; these were the type of thoughts Tiraran had during most battles due to her personality and, most importantly, due to gaps in power between her and most of her opponents.

Kisame scoffed at the Numero's suggestion.

"Do you really think that I would actually agree to do something like that? You must be even more naive than I orginally thought, gaki," Kisame said.

Tiraran got steamed by Kisame's na#e-calling; the Arrancar was just as annoyed by her opponent's nickname for her as he was by the nickname that she had given him even if it hadn't shown up until that time.

"My name is not gaki; it's Tiraran so at least remember it, fish man!" she yelled in a childish manner.

Kisame guessed that her personality was either like this in every battle, or was due to the fact that she wasn't fighting him with even remote seriousness, or was a result of a combination of the two. The former Kiri-nin shook off these thought before giving an introduction of his own.

"And my name isn't fish man, Tiraran; my name is Kisame Hoshigaki. (sighs) Now that we've given proper introductions why don't we continue our battle already?" Kisame asked the Arrancar.

Tiraran nodded in reply before she smiled at Kisame as if she were still mocking him.

"If you want to keep fighting then I guess it would be really rude if I said no; don't complain, however, if I kill you," she said; Kisame had decided not to guess whether Tiraran was being serious or not with that "warning" as he already knew that the Numero could easily back it up.

As Kisame prepared himself for a continutation of this fight Itachi suddenly appeared before the battered shinobi.

"We have to go now, Kisame," Itachi said; it was obvious, however, that the Uchiha was already going to forcibly remove himself and his partner from the battle.

Tiraran was rather surprised by this and Itachi, using that small opportunity the Numero gave him, threw a couple of smoke bombs, which Itachi had placed timers on, at her; the timers had been activated a few minutes prior and, as a result, exploded the moment that the bombs rolled next to a confused Tiraran. Tiraran was soon enveloped by a large cloud of smoke which she was stuck in for a few minutes. By the time that the Arrancar managed to get out of the cloud Itachi and Kisame had both fled.

Before Tiraran could chase after the two missing-nins Jango appeared behind Tiraran.

"Damn; looks like I just missed it," he said, referring to Tiraran's battle.

"I guess these two are very quick on their feet," Tiraran said as she resealed her zanpakuto.

Though she tried to hide it Jango knew that something was on Tiraran's mind.

"You don't have to worry about Naruto-sama, Tiraran; you know that their chances of actually beating him are even less than those of them defeating either of us so he'll okay," Jango said as he saw that Tiraran was worried about their master's safety.

After seeing that Tiraran's expression lightned up a little Jango, honoring Naruto's orders, returned to Konoha along with his partner, just in case there were other members of the Akatsuki heading there...

Next Time – A Truth Confirmed: Reunion of the Uchiha Brothers

Translations:

Colmillo del Jaguar - Fang of the Jaguar

Dosel del Bosque - Forest Canopy