Opening - Alones by Aqua Timez
Jiroubou of the South Gate was a skilled, perhaps even gifted young ninja. His physical strength and prowess with the Earth Release meant that he was a serious threat even without his Cursed Seal. However, he was not a particularly clever fighter. True, he wasn't stupid either, but his train of thought in battle was very simple because he never had to change his tactics. Eventually, his combination of taijutsu and Earth Release had always allowed him to crush an opponent. However, neither of those options were of much use against Gaara in his current state, which presented Jiroubou with a very serious problem. For the first time in ages, he was being forced to come up with a new strategy.
He triggered the second stage of his Cursed Seal, and clapped his hands together as his skin turned a deep reddish brown. His orange hair grew into a mane down his back, and his eyes turned black with golden irises. I can still target the other two with taijutsu and Earth Release, but this guy with the sand... His hands pulled apart for an instant, and then blurred through a sequence of seals.
"Blood Pyramid Barrier," he called, and pointed his open hands at the shinigami-esque figure of black sand. Temari and Kankurou both expressed shock when Jiroubou's hands were ravaged by dozens of small cuts, which leaked blood profusely. This blood then shot forward through the air, and shaped itself into a four-sided pyramid around Gaara, which meant the barrier of blood was incredibly thin. Gaara's sand construct hefted its scythe and swung it forward, but the barrier held even though the sand scythe struck it hard enough to splash apart.
Jiroubou continued making hand seals, and silently added more barrier ninjutsu around Gaara. A square platform of stone rose out of the ground beneath the barrier, lifting the crimson pyramid a few feet into the air. Then, four smooth stone walls ascended past the edges of the platform, obscuring the pyramid entirely. A thin barrier of golden flames then formed a flat roof connecting the four stone walls, completely surrrounding the pyramid.
That should hold him long enough for me to kill these two, Jiroubou decided, and turned his attention to Temari and Kankurou.
Kankurou was the first to move, sending his snake puppet forward as it hissed and breathed out a broad stream of flame. Jiroubou dodged left to the side of the flamethrower, but Temari then fanned the flames with a swing of her gunbai. The torrent of fire expanded and grew hotter, catching Jiroubou's right side and burning him badly.
He snarled and moved free of the flames, then charged toward Kankurou furiously. Temari swung her gunbai again, creating a blast of wind strong enough to knock Jiroubou over thereby saving Kankurou's life. Kankurou in turn sent his snake to attack Jiroubou, aiming to sink its poisoned fangs into his right wrist.
Instead, its fangs bent and snapped off without piercing Jiroubou's skin when he violently pulled his wrist away. Kankurou bared his teeth in a grimace, then triggered the senbon launchers hidden between the armored segments of Anaconda's body. Again however, his attacks never drew blood, and the senbon fell uselessly to the ground.
Jiroubou again moved to attack Kankurou, and Temari responded the same way she had before, by sending him flying with a blast of wind. This time, Kankurou aimed and fired Anaconda's flamethrower at the torrent of wind pushing Jiroubou away. Temari's Wind Release chakra carried the flames toward Jiroubou and fed them into an inferno.
The Oto-nin roared in pain, then used an Earth Release jutsu to disappear into the ground, putting out the flames covering his body. Okay, enough of this crap. That kid with the sand is already sealed inside three of my strongest barriers, so I should be able to lock the other two up in my Earth Dome Prison. I'll just drain their chakra until they die, and then I'll use it to kill the third one.
Jiroubou emerged from underground, and the burns covering his body itched and stung as he moved into a battle stance, readying his hands in the Dragon seal.
The scarlet pyramid surrounding Gaara exploded, and a ghostly hand of red chakra breached the roof of flames above him. That hand made a fist, and the chakra arm stretched around to punch inward against one of the stone walls, shattering it. This revealed Gaara's Fourth Incarnation standing within, glaring at Jiroubou with its glowing red eyes. The chakra arm retracted slowly into the lantern held in Death's left hand, and it stalked toward Jiroubou.
"...Fu-"
Jiroubou was cut off by a sudden explosion of black sand from the ground beneath his feet, which wrapped itself around him.
"Sand Coffin."
The black sand imploded in an instant, then collapsed limply away from Jiroubou, who slumped forward. Temari and Kankurou immediately noted with surprise that Jiroubou was still in one piece, and they were even more surprised when their enemy actually stood up and made another hand seal.
"My Sand Coffin didn't work..." Gaara's voice was only slightly muffled by the sand encasing his body. "I wonder if..."
Jiroubou's battered and burnt form blurred and faded away, then he reappeared in front of Gaara with his fist pulled back to punch into the sand construct's chest and strike the human body within. Gaara caught the punch by extending a chakra arm from within the lantern and wrapping it around Jiroubou's fist.
"Yes, this should work."
The hand of chakra holding Jiroubou whipped him away through the air without letting him go. The arm extended as he flew backward, smashing through dozens of trees. Then the arm carried Jiroubou up into the air, several times higher up than the top of the tallest tree in the forest. Jiroubou screamed, just before the chakra arm whipped him into the ground hard enough to make a small crater with his body.
Then the arm dragged him back toward Gaara, who raised his scythe threateningly as Jiroubou was pulled closer. Although he was barely conscious, Jiroubou took this as a sign that he was about to die.
The hand of red chakra let go of his wrist, letting him collapse to the ground in front of Gaara. Jiroubou grunted as he hit the dirt, and lay there helplessly panting at Gaara's feet.
"We were told to make an effort to capture our enemies alive for interrogation," Gaara intoned calmly. "I can't promise whether you'll be allowed to live after Konoha gets the information they want from you, but I'll spare your life if that's what you want."
Jiroubou's Cursed Seal receded, leaving him even more drained and helpless. "I can't," he muttered. "Even if I wanted to, and I don't."
The demonic sand body surrounding Gaara crumbled away, leaving a bubbling red aura that quickly disintegrated as well. Gaara sheathed his sword on his right hip, and looked down at Jiroubou with confusion and interest. "Explain," he demanded.
"You probably just broke half of the bones in my body, for one thing. If I could recover from that, there's still the problem of my Cursed Seal. If Orochimaru-sama found out I'd been captured, he'd set it off and kill me with it. And third thing is... if I'm going to die anyway, I'd like to do it with some honor left." with what little strength he had left, Jiroubou spat at Gaara's feet. "For Oto... and for Orochimaru-sama!"
"...I see." Gaara drew his sword again, and flipped it from a reverse grip to a proper one. "Then I have only one choice. I hope you enjoy the Pure World."
X
Tayuya gingerly touched the stinging burn on her collarbone, then leapt upward into the canopy of the forest. What the hell kind of jutsu was that? Fire chakra flow? She brought her flute to her lips, and began to play while leading her three opponents away through the treetops. They think they have me outnumbered, huh? "Summoning: Doki."
White smoke exploded from three points behind her, arranged in a triangle, and an enormous humanoid monster emerged from each cloud. Tayuya continued playing her flute, directing the three Doki to charge straight at the oncoming team of Konoha-nin.
"Lee, take the one with no arms! Haku, fight the one with the club! The guy with the arm spikes is mine!"
...What? They're gonna fight my Doki head-on? I kinda want to see this... Tayuya turned back to watch the start of the battle. The one who had spoken was apparently the girl in black spandex, who was now brandishing her jian at the pale-skinned Doki. That sword... I know it can burn what it cuts, but the Doki don't feel pain. Your toy won't do any good here, bitch.
"Soujihonou!" Tenten called the weapon's name, and the same blade of red energy extended from the hilt, covering the metal blade and extending far past it. Tenten's first swing severed the tips of the Doki's left arm spikes, and then she swept the chakra blade to render the two on its right arm useless as well. For a third strike, she brought the sword up and swung it at the Doki's neck. Tayuya's eyes briefly widened, but to her relief the blade didn't decapitate the monster. True, it cut a quarter of the way through the thick neck of the demon, and burned the flesh it passed through, but the Doki kept its head.
Tayuya chuckled quietly and nervously. Kami... that sword, it's almost like Orochimaru's Kusanagi. That extending blade, and its incredible cutting power...
Meanwhile, Lee was having an easy fight with the armless Doki. He was far faster than the monster he was fighting, and without arms it couldn't use taijutsu against him. Instead it threw itself around furiously, while the taijutsu master easily dodged and countered with lightning-fast punches and kicks. True, the Doki showed no indication of feeling pain from the blows, but they were leaving dents in the demon's body. Once Lee decided to open the Eight Gates, his attacks would start ripping the Doki apart, not that Tayuya knew that.
"Ice Release," Haku called, drawing Tayuya's attention to where he was holding open a scroll and aiming the seal within at his foe. A massive flow of water burst from the center of the seal, striking the Doki. "Fractal Ice Lotus." Half of the water was pulled back toward Haku, and froze in the shape of a giant flower around him. "Scatter," he commanded, and each razor-sharp petal of ice floated away from the core of the flower. With his feet encased in ice up to his ankles, he swept his open hands toward the Doki, directing the giant ice petals.
Tayuya scowled as the swarm of ice blades sliced through the third Doki. Its arms, left leg, and head were severed, and its torso was cut through from its right hip to its spine. The ice petals then floated back to Haku and the core of the lotus, where they clicked back into place.
They're actually beating my Doki, Tayuya observed disappointedly. I guess that means I'll have to switch tactics, then. She played a long, sweet melody on her flute, smirking. The sewn-shut mouths of the three demons were violently torn open, inlcuding the one that Haku had dismembered.
Tayuya appeared in the middle of the battlefield with a Pulse Step, surprising the three Konoha-nin. Meanwhile, a stream of purple energy wormed upward out of each Doki's mouth, each armed with countless fanged mouths of their own. "Take a good look," she gloated. "This is the finale of my favorite song. The Ninth Movement: Revolt of the Demon World."
Lee stopped beating his Doki to a pulp, and stepped away from the spirit rising out of its mouth. "Tenten, Haku, I do not think I can defeat this creature with taijutsu..."
"Yeah, we might have a problem here," Tenten agreed. "But let's try this..." she reached into her pouch and whipped a kunai at the nearest ghost, scowling as it passed through with no resistance. Then it moved toward her, and the other two spirits targeted Lee and Haku. "Damn! What the hell are we fighting, anyway!?" she exclaimed angrily.
"The Doki are demons that we encountered while Oto was still being built," Tayuya grinned, watching contently as her minions chased the Konoha-nin around. "At the time, they weren't particularly dangerous. The only thing they had was tremendous strength, but when I obliterated their minds and took control of their bodies, I found another use for them. The Revolt of the Demon World lets me force an energy out of their bodies that isn't quite chakra. What you're running away from is pure spiritual energy, one of the two components of true chakra. Because it isn't balanced into chakra, I can use it to absorb the physical energy of my victims, and combine it into chakra. In other words, once these spirits catch you, they'll drain your physical energy until you die."
Spiritual energy... Tenten dodged another attack from the spirit chasing her, then glanced down at the sword in her right hand. These things are just unbalanced and unstable chakra! There's gotta be a way I can use that information! She dodged again, and checked to make sure Haku and Lee were keeping up. As she watched, Lee was caught and bitten on his right arm by the wraith tracking him, and he screamed but managed to pull away, clutching his arm in pain. "Lee, are you okay!?"
"I am fine, Tenten-san!" he dodged the spirit again, successfully this time. "My injury is assuredly not fatal!"
Tenten returned to her thoughts, relieved. I wonder... If I could target these things with a jutsu made entirely of physical energy, it would probably balance this chakra out. The problem with that is, I'd need to have more physical energy than all this spiritual energy. But maybe if I created a construct of spiritual energy instead, it could physically interact with these ghosts, and I could blast them apart. I need to test my theory first...
"Haku, Lee, lead those things over here! I have an idea!"
"Got it!"
"I am on my way!"
Within seconds, Lee and Haku had made their way to Tenten with the many-mouthed spirits in tow. This left all three of the ghosts chasing all three of the humans, and Tenten was provided with exactly the oppurtunity she needed. For a split second, two of the Doki spirits were far enough apart for her to jump between them, and she did this while flaring her chakra for her barrier armor.
Immediately, the two spirits moved together again, and several of their mouths tore at her as she passed them by. For a moment, her barrier held, and she was able to see the third spirit through the one to her right, trying and failing to attack her. I was right! These spiritual energy constructs can't pass through each other, so if I can make one of my own to attack-
She screamed as the spirits finished eating the chakra comprising her barrier, tearing directly into the chakra reserves in her body. The next moment, she escaped their grasp by flying past them, and landed on a tree limb weakly. Damn it, it hurts... she gritted her teeth in pain, but forced herself to leap away before the spirits could close in on her and bite her again. It was worth it though. "Guys, I need you to hold them off! Distract them or something; buy me some time!"
Haku was the one who immediately replied, "We've got it!" he formed a pair of one-handed seals, melting the Ice Lotus he'd left behind and bringing the water to himself. He shaped it again into a lotus, and called, "Lee, get over here!"
"Right!" he leapt into the center of the flower, now standing next to Haku who promptly laid his hand on top of Lee's head, surprising the green-clad boy.
"Now get in," Haku commanded, and pushed downward on Lee's head. The taijutsu prodigy cried out in surprise as he vanished into the core of the flower, and his likeness appeared on each of the petals. Haku then pulled forth another sealed scroll containing a vast quantity of water, and he unsealed it to create an Ice Lotus for himself as well. With both himself and Lee now hidden within the ice flowers, he called, "Scatter."
The petals of the two flowers exploded away from the cores, filling the air. The Doki spirits sensed the high concentration of chakra in the flowers, and relayed the sensation to Tayuya who pondered it calmly. Hm... If I send my spirits to attack the petals and draw out that chakra, I'll be taking away much of that Haku chick's reserves. Tenten wanted them to buy her some time, so she must have a plan, but Haku's much more of a threat to me with that ice jutsu. If she were to send some of those petals to attack me, she'd probably kill me. Even if I blocked them with my Doki, she'd just cut right through. So of course I've gotta target her...
Meanwhile, Tenten had pulled a blank scroll from her pouch and was frantically writing on it with a thin brush covered in black chakra-infused ink. Come on... this seal shouldn't even be too complex. One sealing point will filter my chakra, then divide it into spiritual and physical energy. It sends the physical energy to a one-pointed storage seal, and flows the spiritual energy right into the seal on Soujihonou. And it's almost finished...
"...Got it!" she exclaimed with a grin, and stabbed Soujihonou into the branch she stood on. She tore off the strips of blank paper, leaving her with just the scrap holding the seal. She then took a moment to carefully line up a point on the scroll with the end of the seal on Soujihonou's blade next to the guard, and wrapped the scrap of paper around the handle before grasping it tightly and turning her attention to the spirits. Please, let this work...
She swung her sword at one of the Doki spirits, and a blade of orange energy extended from it, cutting the Doki spirit in two. It gave off an otherworldly shriek, opening all of its mouths wide, then exploded into a purple mist. Tayuya's mouth fell open in disbelief, and Tenten promptly turned her blade on the other two Doki spirits attacking the ice petals. These two tried to dodge, but they couldn't keep away from Tenten's extended blade for long.
The inventress cut the Doki spirits in half, then turned her blade on Tayuya herself. The Oto kunoichi snarled, and activated the second stage of her Cursed Seal while beginning a new melody on her flute. Just before Tenten's sword struck, her vision was distorted wildly and replaced with an image of empty space, containing only Tenten and a red glow that seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere.
Her arms were suddenly and violently pulled out to her sides, and in her shock she let go of Soujihonou. She glanced at her right wrist, and found it held in place by a series of thin chains. Genjutsu? It has to be genjutsu... she heard a loud, slow bubbling sound above her, which drew her attention. Turning her gaze upward, she flinched at the sight of lava flowing slowly downward toward her head. She could feel the heat intensifying as the liquid rock came ever closer, and she struggled against the chains holding each of her limbs.
Just before the lava touched her, she started to scream.
Haku's hand clamped down on her shoulder, and his chakra surged through her tenketsu to disrupt the genjutsu. Tenten stopped screaming, and pulled her arms close to her chest with a gasp. "Oh, thank Kami," she breathed. "Another second, and I would've been..." she trailed off suddenly, and looked around. "...where's the Oto kunoichi?"
"You cut her in half," Haku replied shortly. "She must've hit you with that genjutsu just before you struck."
"With her flute," Tenten realized. "But if it was a sound-based genjutsu, why weren't you and Lee affected?"
"We were both inside my ice structures, and the chakra making up the genjutsu never entered our bodies," he replied.
Lee suddenly spoke up, standing on the same branch Tayuya had been on. "I have spotted her! She is definitely dead," he added with a hint of remorse in his tone.
"She probably died from hitting the ground," Tenten added numbly. "When I cut her, the wound was probably burned shut so she didn't bleed..."
"Tenten, are you okay?" Haku asked suddenly. "Can you keep fighting?"
"I... I'm fine," she replied hesitantly. "Just a little bit shaken up, that's all. That genjutsu felt so real..." she shook her head and stood, looking around for Soujihonou. "...but I'll be fine. The lava never even touched me."
Haku blinked. Lava? He watched her leap down to the ground to retrieve her dropped sword, and she sheathed it quickly before rejoining Haku and Lee in the treetops. "Let's go," she decided.
X
Shikamaru analyzed his chosen opponent for a few more seconds, then released a seal on the hem of his sleeve. A straight-edged black longsword appeared in a puff of smoke, and he caught the hilt before gravity could pull his weapon down. Sakon idly noted the clinking of a thin, yet sturdy black chain that snaked up into Shikamaru's sleeve, connected to the pommel of the sword.
"Alright, Shikamaru. What's the plan this time?" Kiba asked.
"Stick to using Baskerville Mode," Shikamaru replied. "You're faster and more skilled with a two-legged body, and you can use your weapons in that mode too."
"What about me?" Chouji cut in.
Shikamaru yawned. "I'd say... make yourself about fifteen to twenty feet tall. You can use taijutsu kicks and stuff if you don't make yourself too big."
"Yeah, I remember," Chouji replied, and blurred his hands through a brief seal sequence. "Expansion Jutsu." a cloud of smoke exploded upward around him, and when he emerged, he was twenty feet tall.
"Hellhound Mode, Level One: Baskerville." The small bulge just beneath the collar of Kiba's hoodie sank inward, woofing cheerfully just before it did so. As he began glowing with an aura of red flames, Kiba's entire body grew a coat of white fur, and his fingers curled inward as his nails grew into claws. As his face took on more canine features, he bared his newly grown fangs and snarled.
He then unsealed a shining silver Fuuma shuriken from the bronze ring on his right hand, and charged at Sakon.
"Now hold on a second," Sakon spoke up, airily dodging Kiba's sweeping attack with the shuriken. "I admit, I'm far stronger than you three, but three on one still seems unfair." A second Oto-nin warped out of Sakon's chest and punched Kiba in the jaw.
"So that's how it works," Shikamaru grinned, drawing the attention of both Oto twins and Kiba. "I was looking at it all wrong. You don't have the ability to create extra limbs; you can house another person's body inside your own. Judging from your nearly identical appearance, I'd say you're twins, and it's a kekkei genkai you both share."
"And it's a bit like my Hellhound Mode," Kiba added, catching on. "Your abilities are enhanced when you're bound together. That's how you can heal your wounds like that." He nodded to the burn on Ukon's knuckles from his flame aura. "That burn isn't healing as fast as Sasuke described it would."
"...Sasuke... described our abilities?" Sakon asked, surprised. "But that means he..."
"...Never intended to defect to Oto," Shikamaru finished with a smirk. "He decided to make this a game of wits, and he won. Look at where we are. Sasuke has three times as many pieces on the board as Orochimaru does. But you know, there's a unique rule in shougi that I've always liked."
"What the hell are you going on about?" Ukon snarled.
"It's a simple rule. When a player captures his enemy's pieces, they switch sides. And now... we've captured you. In real life, it's more like an option than a rule, but it means you can choose to surrender here, and we don't have to kill you."
"Heh," Sakon and Ukon sneered. "We should've known, shouldn't we, Ukon?"
"You mean we should've known to expect such weak thinking from a Konoha-nin?"
"Exactly. We should've expected it just from looking at them."
"Too scared to fight us to the death?"
"Or maybe they don't have it in them to get their hands dirty."
"Oh... don't have the stomach for it, then?"
"Or the guts..."
"Well, what would you expect? Not all ninja villages meet the same standards as Oto does," Ukon smirked. "And they're so young, too. Probably Genin, or newly promoted Chuunin from the exams. They've probably never killed before..."
Shikamaru waited patiently, but neither twin seemed to have anything more to say. He stretched his arms, pulling them behind his back as he yawned. "Chouji, get the annoying one. Kiba, get the girly one."
"Aren't they both annoying and girly?" Kiba immediately answered. "I want the one who punched me in the face. Chouji can have the other one."
"Fine by me," Shikamaru replied. "I'll back you both up."
Kiba was the first to move, throwing his shuriken and sprinting in its wake on all fours. Ukon easily leaned out of the shuriken's path, then started blocking Kiba's Inuzuka Clan taijutsu attacks.
The original Inuzuka-style taijutsu which predates the ninja village system is very aggressive, consisting mainly of open-handed strikes with the fingers curled toward the palm like claws, along with powerful shin kicks and quick throws. Blocks are almost never used; instead an Inuzuka fighter will prefer to dodge the enemy's strikes and counter, not by looking for an opening after the attack, but by vicously striking the extended striking limb itself.
In recent years, the Inuzuka Clan has mostly replaced this style with a more typical taijutsu style combined with the Four Legs Jutsu. This style is focused on moving around the opponent at speeds too great for them to track, then striking once they've begun to panic. This is frequently combined with targeting an opponent's blind spot.
Prior to the Chuunin Exams, Kiba had been making use of the latter taijutsu style, using Baskerville Mode instead of the Four Legs Jutsu, but after his prelimary match with Kin and the announcement of Sasuke as his opponent in the finals, he'd been practicing with the older, more vicious Inuzuka taijutsu, and he found it suited him quite well.
This is partly because a shinobi's instinct when faced with such an aggressive attack is usually to interrupt the Inuzuka with a blocking move of some kind, then counterattack because of the Inuzuka's perceived lack of skill with defensive moves. As such, Ukon only briefly dodged the first of Kiba's attacks before switching to blocking tactics without thinking.
Kiba had fully intended to make use of that basic instinct, because the moment his strike touched Ukon's forearm, the older boy screamed in pain as his arm was burned. He pulled away and clutched his stinging left arm with his right hand. Kiba continued his attack without hesitation and Ukon began retreating away, taking care to fully avoid Kiba's claws and flames.
The ground shook violently for a moment, and Kiba and Ukon glanced at the source of the tremor instinctively. Chouji had expanded his entire body to the proportions Shikamaru had recommended, and was now crouching down and touching the ground with his left fingertips, glaring at Sakon. Mere moments later, he lunged forward and began sprinting toward Sakon at full speed. The earth shook with each of his footfalls, and this by itself was enough to wipe the smug smirk from Sakon's face.
Sakon tried to leap away into the treetops, but suddenly found himself unable to move. "The hell!?" he glanced around without turning his head, since he couldn't move even that much of his body. He caught sight of a black chain that was extended from Shikamaru's right sleeve, having shot silently past Sakon's hip and continued until the sword on the end slammed into a tree. "...How...?"
That was all he managed to say before Chouji reached him, kicked him in the chest, and kept running for a short distance to slow his momentum gradually. Sakon was fired backward through the forest until the other four shinobi present lost sight of him.
Shikamaru wrapped his hand around the end of the chain in his sleeve, then yanked it back. In addition to the effort he'd put into pulling it, a mechanism hidden under his sleeve pulled the sword from the tree trunk and back to Shikamaru's hand.
"How?" Shikamaru repeated. "Simple. This chain casts a shadow, of course. I don't even know any kenjutsu; I just chose to attack a sword to the end so my enemies would mistake me for a swordsman. The fact I'm called the Black Knight helps with that. And furthermore, this sword is specially designed for throwing. The end of the blade is thicker and heavier than a normal sword would be, and the guard and hilt are hollow, so they're lighter. Watch this."
He threw the blade again, this time at Ukon who dodged it. Almost immediately, the shadow of the chain distorted and grew into a tendril of darkness that aimed itself at Ukon's own shadow. "Damn it!" he dodged further away, frantically retreating until the shadow stopped following him and withered away. Shikamaru then tugged the sword back to his grasp, and Ukon caught a dull whirring sound coming from his arm this time.
Some kind of mechanism hidden under his clothes, Ukon guessed. It must pull the chain back for him to catch the sword hilt and throw it again. That means the chain's actually wound around it. I'd guess it's on his forearm or something. He might be using chakra to power it, or maybe some kind of fuel, but either way it doesn't matter how he pulls it back. What matters is, I'm screwed if I don't fight with all I've got. And Sakon...
Ukon triggered the second stage of his Cursed Seal with a growl, and his eyes darted back and forth between Kiba, Chouji and Shikamaru. "You bastards... I'll send you all to Hell!" he roared, and charged first at Shikamaru. The genius let him approach, and extended his shadow to connect with Ukon's own. Much to his shock, Ukon never even slowed down, and continued to charge furiously at Shikamaru.
At least, until Chouji jumped headfirst through the air without changing from his current size, directly at Ukon. The Oto-nin of course was still running, so by the time Chouji hit the ground, Ukon was no longer underneath him. Still, Chouji hit the ground with enough force to replicate a genuine earthquake, and Ukon stumbled as the ground moved underneath him suddenly.
With Ukon standing less than twenty feet away, Shikamaru steadied himself in the wake of Chouji's move and took aim with his throwing sword. He threw it directly at Ukon, who didn't bother to attempt a dodge since the weapon was already set to miss him. The sword shot past Ukon and hit the dirt in front of Chouji. "...What a drag. I'm still working on my aim with this thing, so-"
Ukon snarled, and grasped the chain where it lay on the ground, yanking Shikamaru through the air toward him. "Fucking die!" he roared, and pulled back his free hand in a fist, hoping to take Shikamaru's head off with a single punch.
Kiba, however, arrived in time to take off Ukon's head instead, slicing through the demonic Oto-nin's neck with a second Fuuma shuriken in his right hand. Both he and Shikamaru then hit the ground and rolled to their feet. Chouji's titan-sized body exploded into smoke, and a normally sized Chouji emerged from within.
Shikamaru retracted his chain into his sleeve, then sealed the sword, mechanism and coil of chains around said mechanism all into a seal on the inside of an armband on his upper arm.
He brushed himself off, and took a deep breath in an attempt to slow his pounding heart. "...Thanks, Kiba. He would've killed me there, without a doubt." he brushed some dirt from his palms where he'd touched the ground during his roll, still with his heart in his throat. I got overconfident there... I almost died. I could've made each move with perfect precision, I could've played these two into a corner, maybe even have taken them alive, but I didn't because... I was...
I was lazy, Shikamaru realized, and the thought disturbed him. ...Fine. From now on, I'll slack off as much as I want in the village, but when I'm on a mission... that mission will go perfectly.
X
"...Huh. You guys all have doujutsu," Kidoumaru observed, panting. "Now that you've stopped running, I can get a good look at ya. Those are obviously doujutsu, and you..." he pointed at Naruto with one of his six arms, "I know who you are. You're that Naruto kid, with the Nine-Tails sealed inside you. So that means, those eyes of yours are the legendary Rinnegan. But you two, I don't recognize," he pointed to Hinata and Neji. "What do your eyes do?"
"Why should we tell you that?" Neji asked flatly.
"Sportsmanship, I guess. You guys are playing on Easy, I'm on Hard. Ya gotta make things a little more fair."
"Not really," Naruto answered. "Think about it this way: we're playing on the same difficulty; it's just that the game started earlier than you think. That's why we've got the advantage."
Kidoumaru laughed. "Ah, you get it! You've got my interest now... besides, I usually win so easily, maybe it's time I started playing with a handicap. Three on one seems like a nice start, but how good are you guys, anyway?"
"Let's just say..." Naruto smirked. "You're definitely playing on Hard."
"...I guess that's good anyway," Kidoumaru decided, and released the first stage of his seal. "The four of us are kinda on a tight schedule here. Orochimaru-sama needs Sasuke pronto, 'cause his old body is rotting. I can't hold back, so it's good that you're strong."
"His... old body?" Hinata questioned. "So that means..."
"Yep," the spider replied cheerfully. "He's not just gonna take the Sharingan. He's gonna transplant his soul into Sasuke's body. But the thing is, he doesn't have much time. If I don't get Sasuke to him real soon, he'll have to switch into a new body that isn't Sasuke. Then he's stuck in that body for three years. So ya see, I can't talk anymore."
Kidoumaru vanished with a Pulse Step, and Naruto scowled as he recognized Mizuki's jutsu. Hinata and Neji simultaneously cried, "Byakugan!"
"Rinnegan," Naruto added, and searched around for Kidoumaru's chakra silhouette. All three Konoha-nin spotted him at roughly the same time, and saw him making hand seals for a jutsu. "Scatter, or stick together?" Naruto asked.
"Stay close," Hinata replied, just before a massive spiderweb shot toward them out of the trees. Hinata took the time to form her stronger Guardian Sixty-Four Palms instead of her faster Revolving Heaven, and cut the spiderweb to bits as it flew toward them. A few small pieces of the sticky yet tough material struck each of the three Konoha-nin, and Hinata plucked one from her right hip. "This material... it's adhesive, but also incredibly durable... it would be almost impossible to pull free, but since it's made of chakra..."
"...You and I could dissolve or cut it with the Gentle Fist," Neji continued, pulling a scrap of the web from his shirt. "Naruto, you should-"
Neji was cut off by the sight of a streak of gold flying through the air toward him at a frightening speed. He spun into a Revolving Heaven within Hinata's Guardian Sixty-Four Palms, which left both defenses encasing all three Konoha-nin. "He's above us!" Neji declared, and cast his gaze upward.
True enough, Kidoumaru was now clinging to the bottom of a tree limb far above them, already making a sequence of hand seals that Naruto was the first to recognize. "Summoning Jutsu!" he called, and a massive cloud of smoke bloomed into existence around him.
Whatever it is, it's big, Naruto scowled, and swiped his hands through the same seals. "Summoning Jutsu." The one-tailed form of Kurama appeared in front of him, with a full purple Rinnegan pattern in his eyes. "Kurama, stay close to us."
The smoke hiding Kidoumaru's summon then faded away, revealing an enormous spider comparable in size to some of the larger toad summons, sitting in a giant web that spanned across the treetops around them. "Alright, Kyodaigumo-dono, I know we haven't used this jutsu in a while, but I think it's our best option."
The spider's mandibles clacked together as it replied, "The Flood of Silk?"
Kidoumaru nodded with a grin. "Are you up for it?
"Of course, Kidoumaru-dono." The spider glanced downward at the three young ninjas and the fox on the ground, and observed, "It seems like far too much trouble, for such a weak enemy, but if you're certain..." Kyodaigumo fell silent, and opened its mouth to spit out a torrent of white liquid that splashed onto the ground without taking the shape of a web. It adjusted its aim, pointing the Flood of Silk at the Konoha-nin.
Hinata reinforced her Guardian Sixty-Four Palms with her Water Release, then froze the resulting dome of water. Less than a second after she was finished, the liquid silk struck her defense and poured down the sides, completely covering it and preventing any light from passing through the ice. The four inside the dome could hear the sounds of the silk flooding the forest even further.
Hinata waited patiently until the forest outside fell silent, then she formed a Hollow Water Dragon that emerged upward from the top of the silk-covered ice dome, leaving a hole where the ice had melted away and the silk had been pushed away. This allowed a bit of light to enter the dome, but it was then dimmed by a fresh layer of water that Hinata covered the opening with. The Hollow Water Dragon then collapsed with a roar, and the loose water that had made it splashed downward into the still-liquid silk on the ground outside the dome.
"This isn't good," Hinata murmured thoughtfully. "The Byakugan can't see through this stuff, since it's glowing with chakra. I don't know what's out there, but I can guess." She fell silent for a few moments, then an idea occured to her and she sat down. "Okay, Naruto-kun. If I start turning to stone, I need you to tranfer your chakra into me. Don't stop until I go back to normal."
"You're... You're gonna try Sage Mode!?" he asked incredulously.
"Sage Mode?" Neji repeated, confused.
"No, I don't have enough chakra to absorb natural energy yet, but if I sit still, I can feel it around me. Normally it flows around slowly and gracefully or not at all. But where the Oto-nin is moving out there, I'll feel the natural energy being blown around. It's the same with the chakra in this spider silk. It should be making the natural energy rise up like steam away from it." she went quiet, and closed her eyes.
Several seconds later, Kurama spoke up. "Her right arm is turning to stone, Naruto."
"Shit!" Naruto swore, and laid both of his hands on her right shoulder, pouring his chakra into her body. "Is it working?"
"No."
"Damn it!" he doubled his chakra flow. "Come on, Hinata!" He kept feeding her more chakra. "Come on!"
"It's at her shoulder now."
"Hinata, move!" he shouted, and pushed her head forward suddenly. She gasped and opened her eyes in the darkness. "Push the natural energy out!"
"I... I can't!" she began panicking now. "It's... I thought if you added more chakra..."
"Screw this!" he snarled, and instead of pushing chakra into her, he pulled it out. "Preta Path!"
Hinata gasped, and Naruto was abruptly thrown backward until he hit the wall of ice. He groaned and sat up weakly, noting with relief that he'd pulled out enough natural energy to save Hinata without turning himself to stone. Then he spotted Hinata herself, and froze.
"...N-Naruto-kun... am I...?"
"Hinata-sama, your eyes," Neji breathed. "They're glowing."
True enough, Hinata's eyes were now uniformly white, devoid of even the faint Byakugan pattern, and glowing with energy. Her entire body felt energized unlike ever before, and she hesitantly stood up. "This is... my Sage Mode?" already she could feel that the senjutsu chakra they'd just barely stabilized was already fading away, rapidly. At this rate, I only have about five seconds before it's gone...
"Water Release: Aspect of the Water Deity."
Kidoumaru's eyebrows slid up incredulously, as the silk-covered dome of ice exploded outward, struck from within by a growing humanoid figure of water. He spotted Hinata within, and she saw him at the same time. Adrenaline spiked through his veins as he expected some sort of finishing move from her, but instead the Water Deity exploded into a fine mist.
Two seconds.
"Sage Art: Water Dragon Bullet Horde!" Hinata called, and two dozen solid water dragons materialized in a circle around her, before flying outward and smashing into the silk-covered ground, washing away huge sections of the white substance with tremendous force.
Less than a second now...
"Rasensuigan!" she finished, and formed a weaker replica of a true Water Release: Rasengan in her right palm before throwing it at Kidoumaru, just as her Sage Mode came to an end. Her eyes returned to normal, and she let out a deep breath. Meanwhile, Kidoumaru easily dodged the chakra sphere and watched it explode as it struck a tree behind him.
"That was amazing, Hinata-chan!" Naruto grinned and hugged her. Neji simply stared in bewilderment.
"It was terrifying," Hinata admitted. "We could've both died... I'm not going to try that again until I have at least Jounin-level chakra reserves. But still, that power..." she remembered it all in vivid detail. "What a rush," she breathed.
Everyone in the area, excluding Kurama, suddenly froze under a wave of horrible killing intent. Kidoumaru turned slowly, shivering, and caught sight of a white-haired boy standing behind him. "You're late, Kidoumaru. On Kabuto-sama's orders, I had to come here myself."
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