Naruto Shippuden -H-: Chapter 022: Jesei vs. Sakura
Jesei had attempted to execute Sakura with a surprise attack, but she was able to duck and avoid Jesei's weapon.
"A sneak attack, are you scared of me from the last time we fought?" asked Sakura with a taunting tone.
"No my dear, I was just making sure to carry out my mission as quickly and quietly as possible." said Jesei.
The townsfolk of Ishigakure ran into the houses and behind the trees nearby, as they were startled by the sudden confrontation.
"My name is Jesei Leikough, one of his Majesty's Sacred Knights of Dawn, and the one who will be your judge." said Jesei as he lifted his sword with both hands in an offensive stance.
"Huh, the clone did clone did not have a weapon, I guess there are some abilities he kept absent in order to have a few tricks hidden up his sleeve." thought Sakura to herself.
"I was right, the old geezer was here after all, hiding amongst the rest of these villagers." said Naruto as he was easily able to find Sakura's location in the wide open streets.
"Naruto found us, I expected as much, but how will Sakura handle this?" thought Jesei to himself.
"Naruto, we heard the commotion of the towns people, it would appear Sakura was the first one to be targeted again." said Sai as he homed in on Sakura's location with his ink bird.
"Shadow Possession Jutsu, success." said Shikamaru with a quiet tone as he was hidden behind one of the buildings along with some of the townsfolk who were hiding from the commotion.
"Good job Shikamaru, now we can take this guy, and question him about the validity of this scroll's contents." said Naruto with a optimistic tone.
"Fuck, this is not what I wanted to happen, eh, shit happens, oh well." said Jesei as he closed his eyes and prepared a few hand signs.
"You are not going to do anything!" yelled Sakura as she ran and jumped in the air, with her right arm, surrounded by the Chakra Enhanced Strength, ready to strike.
"Shannarroooo!" yelled Sakura as her fist directly made contact with Jesei, sending the man into the ground with a large impact.
"What was that, an explosion?" asked one of the elderly townsfolk.
"Nice work Shikamaru, he could not activate his jutsu in time." said Sakura as she stared at Jesei's immobilized body laying in a crater.
"That was some nice work Sakura, but I am sensing something more prevalent around, I will see to it." said Naruto to Sakura.
"My creed is to face Sakura alone in this battle, though if you wish to go against those orders, Naruto, then we can bring more numbers to this village, which would result in civilian casualties, am I right?" asked Jesei as he emerged from the opposite end of the street, seemingly crawling out of the ground.
"Huh, this body is disappearing, as if it was some kind of genjutsu, or a mirage." said Sakura as she stepped out of the crater.
"Really, so you wish to use this kind of threatening bullshit to try and stop us from finishing this quick, well unfortunate for you that I can go from one to one hundred thousand in a handsign." said Naruto as he activated his Sage Mode.
"Well now, it seems things are going to get a little ugly." said Sai.
"They sure are." said Lunesto as he suddenly appeared behind Sai, and lunged his sword towards the leaf shinobi's face.
"Ninja Art: Super Beast Extermination!" yelled Sai as he was able to narrowly dodge Lunesto's attack and create a large pair of ancient warriors drawn from his ink to attack the new intruder.
"Another one, and he is also one of those three men from the time in the village." said Naruto as he walked towards Sai's location.
"Shikamaru, you help Sakura against that old man, I will assist Sai here." said Naruto as he, with Sage Mode active, ran towards Lunesto with high speed.
"Heh, Lunesto must have requested our boss to send him with the Instant Teleportation Transfixation Jutsu." thought Jesei to himself as he focused on Sakura and Shikamaru.
"I was hoping to face you alone in this duel Sakura, but I guess it cannot be helped. although I do presume that the other boy over there will just try to trap me with the Naara clan jutsu again." said Jesei as he released his jutsu and decided to wait for Sakura to make a move.
Naruto had thrown his left hand, clenched into a fist, right at Lunesto, however the young Knight had managed to dodge it at the last second.
"I get to face the wonderful Golden Hero in battle, this is so awesome!" thought Lunesto to himself.
"Heh, you may have dodged my punch, but nature's punch is about to strike." said Naruto referring to the Frog Katas.
"The hell are you talking abou..." said Lunesto as he was hit with nature energy in the face and was sent flying into a nearby building, causing the citizens to run off in fear.
"That was what I was talking about." said Naruto as Sai got his bearings and stood to his feet.
"Ouch, fuck, I forgot all about that." said Lunesto as some sort of second skin made of glass cracked off his face, where he was hit by the nature energy.
"Huh, so he had some sort of contingency plan in place, this one is like Gaara's sand amour." said Naruto.
"It seems that we were separated from Sakura and Shikamaru as well, I guess that is what this guy wanted to do all along." said Sai.
"My name is Lunesto Amire, and I am the beautiful one of eight Knights of Dawn under his Majesty's service." said Lunesto with an elegant pose as he put his hands on his hips.
"Alright Lunesto, instead of posing, you should watch out above you." said Naruto as a clone with a Rasengan was about to strike Lunesto.
"Aww, come on, you got to give me some time to pose!" yelled Lunesto with an upset expression as he dodged the attack and prepared some handsigns.
"Kurama, let's go!" said Naruto as he entered the first stage of the Nine-Tails Chakra Mode.
"Bat Symphony of the Garden Technique!" said Lunesto as several fruit bats were summoned from the ground and all gathered around himself.
"Hey, it's that golden form again, to see it a second time is a dream come true." said Lunesto as he marveled at Naruto's form.
Jesei had taken the initiative against Sakura, running towards her, with his sword in tow.
"Shadow Possession Jutsu!" said Shikamaru as he tried to capture Jesei with his shadow binding, but found that there was too much sunshine in the streets to do so.
"Heh, the Naara clan member is no threat for now, Kommittomentto: Absalon Vineyard!" said Jesei as his sword started to glow with a blueish light and surrounded himself and Sakura with thick vines and red berries, roughly thirty feet in width and length.
"Trying to trap me again, but this time it will be your downfall Jesei." said Sakura as she jumped in the air and raised her leg, and proceeded to perfrom a dropkick on the old man.
"Cherry Blossom Impact!" yelled Sakura as he left leg slammed onto Jesei's sword, which produced vines that pricked Sakura's leg.
"Damn, he got me, but why did my Chakra not destroy the sword?" asked Sakura to herself.
"What the hell did that old man do, Sakura is surrounded by overgrown vines and fruit, and it appeared to be the effects of his sword." thought Shikamaru to himself as he was analyzing the situation with much pace.
"I am sorry to tell you this my dear, but Kommittomentto, the name of my sacred blade of Rah'Zuh, can produce the sacred vines of his majesty's garden to protect me from most forms of physical attacks." said Jesei with a smirk on his face.
"Is that so, well thanks for the heads up!" yelled Sakura as she punched the ground below her, causing it to cave in, and Jesei began to loose his balance.
"Whoah shit, this is not good." thought Jesei to himself as Sakura, holding a kunai, ran towards Jesei and collided her weapon with Jesei's sword.
"An old fashioned dance with weapons, I will be happy to olbige Sakura." said Jesei as he held his sword against Sakura's Kunai, trying to force his blade to strike the kunoichi.
"Fuck!" said Jesei as Sakura used her chakra control to boost her strength again and pierce Jesei in the left leg.
"Now, take this!" yelled Sakura as he punched Jesei in the face, sending him through the large vines he had created earlier.
"Hehe, that Sakura, she is a true powerhouse." thought Shikamaru to himself with a fearful expression.
"Sorry Sakura, this is another Mirage clone." said Jesei as the real one appeared on top of a two story building behind Sakura.
"Mirage clone, what the hell does he mean, a genjutsu, or something else?" said Sakura.
"It is due to my Mind Release, even your husband could not kill me directly when we fought." said Jesei as he prepared a few handsigns to counterattack.
"So he and Sasuke did fight during the invasion, eh." said Sakura as she prepared for Jesei's jutsu to activate.
"Mind Release: Spiritual Guidance Totem Pole!" said Jesei as a large totem pole emerged from the building he was standing on, as Jesei stood a top the large, twenty foot construction.
A Blue barrier surrounded the old Knight, as many blue orbs also surrounded the totem pole, as Jesei sat down on the top of the pole and focused his chakra.
"Mind Release is the pinnacle of human critical thinking, and the common thought, with my enhanced cognitive perceptions, you will come to see why my master sent me to confront you specifically." said Jesei as the totem pole started to slowly rotate.
"With each rotation, these blue orbs will come after you, be careful, should you be hit by one, and the effects could be unpleasant." said Jesei as a blue orb was launched towards Sakura's location.
"The hell is this, must be part of this jutsu, but no time to get surprised now!" yelled Sakura as she was able to dodge the jutsu.
"It never stops pursuing it's target, hehehe." laughed Jesei as another orb was launched at Sakura, as well as the first one coming back to try and hit her again.
"I see what you are trying to do, but let me show you what a fully mastered Medical Ninja can do." said Sakura as he dodged both orbs and ran towards Jesei.
"Time to launch a third orb, and the other two will also continue to home in on their target." said Jesei as another blue orb was shot from the top mouth of the three-faced totem pole that was created from Jesei's jutsu.
"Three of them now, if I cannot find a way to strike this man down, I will be too distracted to fight effectively." said Sakura to herself as she punched to totem pole with all of her might.
"Huh?" asked Sakura to herself as one of the blue orbs behind her had gone directly through her chest, like a fire ball.
"I tried to tell you Sakura, don't rush in so foolishly, that is not what true Medical Ninja is supposed to do." said Jesei as the four orbs that his jutsu had so far spawned all circled around him.
"Target down." said Jesei as he smiled with confidence.
"Sakura, shit, she got hit by that damn jutsu!" said Shikamaru with a worried tone.
"If only you would have been more attentive to the mechanisms of my jutsu, oh well, this answers the question of your validity of being worthy of gracing Naruto Uzumaki's presence.
"There you go with that stupid bullshit about presuming me to be dead, I knew I would take a hit, I merely did this to get up close and personal with you." said Sakura as she activated the Mastery of 100 Seals Jutsu.
"Hehehe, that is more like it, make me have to work for it." said Jesei as he started to sweat.
"You know what to expect now, here it comes!" yelled Sakura as he punches the barrier, breaking it, and then proceeded to run up the totem pole, right at Jesei.
"Well, shit." said Jesei.
Lunesto was surrounded by the bats that he summoned with his jutsu.
"Oh Naruto, this is the first time I ever had a chance to face you head to head, I am so infatuated." said Lunesto with a blush.
"Well if that is the case, then you will not be dissapointed when this fight ends quickly, ya know." said Naruto as he started to walk slowly near the swarm of bats surrounding Lunesto.
"Oh, your hard-ass attitude makes me want to glomp you sooooo bad, hehehehe!" laughed Lunesto with a silent laugh.
"Uhhh, I don't go that way, but you are going to need some serious help after this is over." said Naruto with a confused look on his face.
"I was so inspired by what you were able to do, that it made me push myself to my absolute limits during my time in the crucible, and now I see how beautiful everything really is!" yelled Lunesto as all of the bats surrounding him flew towards Naruto in a swift manner.
"Huh, this is going to be something after all." said Sai as he made sure that none of the civilians of Ishigakure got caught in the crossfire.
-To be continued next time with Chapter 023...-