Chapter 43: Battle of the Beasts
Characters:
Naruto / Gelato
Sasuke / Tony
Sakura / Rosa
Gaara / Tarma
Temari / Pallamano
Kankuro / Oscuro
After all the pummeling he received from Gelato, Tarma finally fell off the pile of rusted automobiles and scrap metal. Yet to Gelato's surprise, he managed to land on his feet, and glared up at him as his monstrous body was starting to wither away. Then, the most unbelievable thing happened: Tarma yelled at the top of his lungs, and was soon engulfed in sand, which rose over the tops of the junkyard piles, revealing an enormous creature shaped like a lion, with bristled tan fur, black wings, no mane, and bright green eyes with no pupils. It roared upon seeing Gelato, and raised its paw. Sand emanated from it, and wrapped itself around Gelato, causing him to nearly suffocate when he closed his eyes, pictured the Nine-Headed Hydra (Nine-Tailed Fox), and performed the Summoning spell again.
This time, it worked, and the giant eagle with the golden wings appeared underneath Gelato, causing the sand to break apart as he flew upwards. Eventually, Aquila-Jovis (Gamabunta) managed to get himself into an even glide above the creature's head. Soon, they were joined by the Potenza-Aquila (Gamakichi), who made a few cries which got Aquila-Jovis' attention.
"Potenza-Aquila, what are you doing here?" Aquila-Jovis asked.
"I got bored, so I took your place when the kid summoned you," replied Potenza-Aquila.
"You did what?" Aquila-Jovis glared at Potenza-Aquila for a few seconds, and then he looked up at Gelato, who was riding on the top of his head. "What do you want, child of man?"
"I need you to defeat that thing down there, in order to protect Rosa and Tony from being killed by it!"
"That 'thing' you're referring to is Sphinx (Shukaku)," Aquila-Jovis said, looking down at the large feline as it watched them circle above. "It is one of the terrible Headed Beasts (Tailed Beasts), which I am certainly no match for."
"But dad, that monster attacked me earlier," Potenza-Aquila pointed out. "If it wasn't for the kid, I would've wound up being cat food."
Aquila-Jovis looked between his son and down at Sphinx. He then dipped his wing slightly causing him to go lower. Gelato felt the shift as Aquila-Jovis shouted, "You might want to hold on tight, child of man! I'm going in for a Dive Kill (Toad Sword Beheading)!"
After he spoke, the great eagle circled lower, and made a sudden dive towards Sphinx with his talons expanded. Sphinx noticed right away, and tried to leap at Aquila-Jovis. This caused Aquila-Jovis to then latch onto one of Sphinx's forepaws, and tore it off as he passed. Sphinx howled in pain, and then something emerged from its forehead that looked human. Gelato immediately knew who it was.
"That's Tarma!" Gelato exclaimed.
"So that's the Host (Jinchuriki) of Sphinx, eh?" Aquila-Jovis nodded, dropping Sphinx's arm below him, which caused a junk-heap to collapse.
"Hey, watch where you're dropping stuff! You could've hit Rosa!" Gelato shouted.
"My apologies."
But soon after Potenza-Aquila spoke, Tarma placed his hands together, and closed his eyes.
"What's he doing?" Gelato asked.
"I believe he's performing the Endymion* Trance spell (Feigning Sleep Technique). Hosts of the Sphinx have been known to be insomniacs due to the fear of being possessed by it in their dreams, so they have to stay awake all the time. But what this spell does is it allows the Host to fall asleep, therefore allowing Sphinx to completely take over."
While Aquila-Jovis was speaking, Tarma slumped over after saying a few incantations under his breath, and then Sphinx's eyes suddenly went from green to gold, and a woman's voice came out from its throat.
"Oh, my, it feels like ages since Tarma has allowed me full control," Sphinx said, stretching. "He should really let me out more often. I'm starting to get stiff with age!"
Aquila-Jovis and Gelato watched in confusion as Sphinx then proceeded to shake its head and clean its body. It was upon cleaning its missing forepaw that Sphinx noticed them.
"Did you do this to me?" she asked calmly. "I guess I should repay you…with Sylph Cast: Sand Arrows (Wind Release: Drilling Air Bullet)!"
Sphinx opened her mouth and out came a volley of sand blasts shaped like arrows that were heading straight towards Aquila-Jovis and Gelato. Luckily, Aquila-Jovis managed to dodge most of them, but some were still pursuing. So after taking in a deep breath, Aquila-Jovis retaliated with, "Sylph Cast: Wind Arrows (Water Release: Gunshot)!"
As he flapped his wings, arrow-shaped gusts came forth, and pierced the Sand Arrows, causing them to blow away. Gelato then directed Aquila-Jovis to fly away from the junkyard, so that neither Rosa nor Tony would get hurt. Angered, Sphinx bounded after Aquila-Jovis and then took to the air with her black wings flapping.
"You're not the only one with wings, you know," Sphinx cried out behind them. Then she sent another wave of Sand Arrows at them.
Aquila-Jovis looked back, and immediately veered off to the right, causing Gelato to nearly fall. Next, he made a sharp turn and sent more Wind Arrows back at her, which blew her back when they hit, but the only wounds they left were a few scratches. Dismayed, Aquila-Jovis soared higher, allowing him and Gelato to plan their next move.
"I can't keep this up much longer," Aquila-Jovis sighed.
"But how are we going to stop Sphinx then?" Gelato asked.
"The only way to stop Sphinx is to wake up its Host. Now since the Endymion Trance spell was recently cast, a really good punch should do the trick."
"Alright," Gelato agreed, banging his fist into his other palm. "Fly close enough to Sphinx to where I can land that punch on Tarma."
Aquila-Jovis nodded, and flew towards Sphinx at such high speeds that she didn't have enough time to dodge as he grabbed the beast's chest, and pulled her up towards the sky. At one point, the two creatures' heads clashed as Sphinx tried to snap Aquila-Jovis' head off, causing him to pull away. Before he did, Gelato managed to leap into the air, and landed near Tarma's sleeping form. As Aquila-Jovis flew backwards to avoid Sphinx's claws, Gelato made a swift uppercut underneath Tarma's chin, causing him to jolt, which made Sphinx shiver in turn.
"No, not now! I was just getting started! Why did that little human have to ruin my fun?" Sphinx cried as its eyes changed back to green.
At that moment, Tarma woke up, and he wore a very deep frown on his face.
"You've got some nerve, Gelato!" Tarma shouted. "Now you're going to die!"
Then, Tarma made a wave with his hand, and mounds of sand appeared on the Sphinx's forehead, which started to move towards Gelato like a growing wave. He tried to fight it off, but like before, Gelato found himself being caved in by sand. Once again, he pictured the Nine-Headed Hydra, which hissed at him this time, but he ignored it. After a few heads nodded, the Nine-Headed Hydra vanished from Gelato's vision, and then suddenly he felt very cold, but the kind of coldness that makes one feel charged up. He saw that he was surrounded by blue flames, and let out a great roaring hiss, which caused the sand to disperse. Seeing this, Tarma gritted his teeth and tried to fling more sand waves at Gelato, but Gelato managed to charge through every single one until he came up to Tarma and head-butted him right on the forehead. The force of this made Tarma fall backwards, and with that, the Sphinx formation collapsed underneath him and Gelato, causing them to fall to the ground.
"Dad, shouldn't we catch them?" Potenza-Aquila asked, flying right up to his father after watching the whole battle from a safe distance.
"Those two boys can handle themselves without my interference," Aquila-Jovis replied. "Plus, I don't have much strength left after that fight with Sphinx, so we're leaving."
Potenza-Aquila protested, but then he nodded in agreement, and the two of them vanished in a cloud of swirling smoke. Meanwhile, Gelato and Tarma, managed to land on two large electric searchlights overlooking the railroad tracks. For a few minutes, they just stared at each other, panting with exhaustion and the urge to get this fight over with as quickly as possible. Then they stood, and immediately drew their guns out.
"We'll limit ourselves to one bullet each!" Gelato said, shouting to Tarma. "Whoever shoots the other in the face wins!"
Tarma was still holding his bleeding forehead with one hand, but he nodded in agreement. So after taking out most of their remaining bullets, leaving the one inside the cartridge as promised, and then they took aim.
"And don't use that Sand Shield thing of yours!" Gelato added. "Or that Coat of Sand your brother unintentionally mentioned to me during the Preliminaries!"
But before Gelato could signal them to start, Tarma immediately fired his gun, causing Gelato to quickly fire his. The two bullets passed each other quite closely, but Gelato's bullet managed to deflect Tarma's, causing it to still fly towards Tarma's face. But before Tarma's Sand Shield could be activated, Gelato's bullet grazed the side of his cheek, causing a sliver of blood to fall.
Confused, Tarma stuttered, "Why…why didn't you just shoot me and be done with it?"
"For two reasons," Gelato replied. "One, your bullet came close to mine, causing it to go off-course. Second, I don't kill people unless they threaten my friends' lives, but you, Tarma, are an exception."
But just before Gelato loaded another bullet, Tony suddenly appeared behind him and put a hand on his shoulder.
"It's okay, Gelato, you don't need to fight anymore. After you knocked Tarma's…monster form away, the sand that was binding Rosa fell apart. I managed to muster enough strength to catch her before she fell, and she's going to be fine. Just passed out, but no broken bones."
"Rosa's safe?" Gelato said to himself, suddenly feeling light-headed. "That's good."
At that moment, Gelato passed out, but Tony managed to prevent him from falling off the searchlight. Meanwhile, Pallamano and Oscuro appeared next to Tarma, and took him away as he collapsed into their arms out of relief. This surprised the two, but they ran along the railroad tracks in the general direction of their home district, and were only specks from Tony's perspective. As he watched, the marks on his body began to fade back into the Exorcist Seal (Curse Seal), but he managed to feign the sudden pains that jolted through his body so he could carry Gelato safely down the searchlight's ladder.
End of Chapter
*Endymion: A shepherd whom Selene, the Greek Goddess of the Moon, fell in love with, but Zeus forbade it because Selene was distracted from her duty of carrying the moon across the sky in her chariot, so he put Endymion into a deep sleep