Opening - Rolling Star by Yui
X
Even though she knew what was coming, Kushina couldn't move to do anything about it. She couldn't even blink or breathe, let alone pull herself up from the mud to defend herself.
The air started to shimmer to her left, near the edge of her vision, and at first the phenomenon appeared no more sinister than heat waves above an open flame. But then it began to twist and warp her vision more, and the whirlpool shape of the mirage became more eminent. The air was torn open to make a window into another dimension, one with much less light, and thus the spiralling portal appeared to be black.
Tobi stepped out of the portal, and she was surprised to see that his orange mask was gone, revealing his scarred face. He was shortly followed by Kabuto who held his hands up in a Ram seal. "Rewrite her directives from scratch," Tobi commanded. "We can't have her doing this again."
Kabuto inclined his head in agreement, and Kushina distantly felt a few new sentences being written into her consciousness, commands that she wasn't capable of disobeying. Tobi bent down and plucked the Sealing Tag from her forehead, and she breathed in. "...You," she murmured. "I know you from somewhere. You were a friend of Minato's, weren't you?"
"I'm no one," Tobi began his reply.
"He's Obito Uchiha," Kabuto corrected smugly, relishing the look of open annoyance that Obito threw at him. "If I remember correctly, he and Kakashi Hatake were on Hokage-dono's Genin team. Along with a kunoichi from a civilian family..." he paused thoughtfully. "A girl named Rin, isn't that right?"
"Nohara." Obito turned his cold expression back toward Kushina, as the latter climbed to her feet. "Her name was Rin Nohara." Orochimaru then appeared in Kushina place as Obito summoned him from within Kamui. "Get to work, Orochimaru."
The snake summoner nodded with a calm smirk, and let several dozen thin black snakes slither out of his sleeves and along the surface of the mud, arranging themselves into fuinjutsu runes over a surprisingly broad area. The snakes had thin bodies, but also unusually long ones.
They began to glow softly red, and Orochimaru stepped back from the dead center of the seal to lay a small scroll there. He unfurled it and watched the tails of the black snakes align to several branches of fuinjutsu script extending from the large storage seal on the scroll, touching the edges of the paper. The seal began glowing red as well, and the snakes' bodies began to give off faint red steam.
"My, it looks like quite a bit of demonic chakra got thrown around here, isn't that right?" Orochimaru turned a sly grin on Kushina, and licked his lips. "Not surprising at all, considering you, Naruto, and the Nine-Tails itself were here, not holding anything back."
"What are you...?" her eyes narrowed, and she trailed off. "You bastards. This was all a plan to get the Nine-Tails' chakra!?"
"Not just the Nine-Tails'." Obito glanced impatiently toward the scroll. "By tonight, Akatsuki will have at least this much salvaged chakra from seven of the nine Tailed Beasts, and ideally we may even have all of those seven captured. Failing that, however, we're willing to resurrect the Ten-Tails without capturing the nine in their entirety."
"Seven?" Kushina pondered that for a moment. "But there aren't that many Jinchuuriki here..."
"That's correct. There are two in Iwa, and one each in Konoha, Kiri, and Kumo." Kabuto chuckled and pushed up his glasses. "We've been paying careful attention to the Hokage's plans, and the movement of the nine."
"How long will this take?" Obito turned to Orochimaru.
"There's more Nine-Tails chakra floating around here than we anticipated," Orochimaru replied. "It'll take roughly four minutes at this rate, and the scroll will be able to hold it for no more than three after that."
"Hn." he glanced down at the swamp under his feet. "Can we do anything about this mess?"
"Unfortunately not," Orochimaru replied. "The chakra keeping the ground in this liquid state is a surprisngly potent mix of human, sage, and demon chakra. We're collecting Naruto's demonic chakra already, and that may make the swamp a bit thicker, but it'll still be a swamp."
Obito considered this for a moment. "...Then set up the Edo Tensei ritual over there," he pointed to the shore of the lake. "Kabuto, where are the Jinchuuriki?"
"Excluding Naruto," Kabuto replied as his Byakugan and glasses gleamed together, "They're all fighting at the lake. Gaara and Tenten are outnumbered by Yagura, Fuu, the Three-Tails and Fugaku, and he hasn't yet released the One-Tail, but... oh, he just summoned it now. It's four against three now."
Kushina's eyes slowly widened further and further as she listened, but Obito was unfazed. "And where's Naruto?" the formerly masked man queried.
"Ah, he and Hinata are engaging Kisame and Kakuzu respectively." The Otokage glanced across the swamp to where Orochimaru was preparing the complex fuinjutsu required to create an Edo Tensei, while an unlucky Zetsu clone looked on, immobilized by a seal of his own. "I can't imagine the two battles will last more than ten minutes."
"That's enough time." Obito watched as Orochimaru placed the Zetsu clone at the center of the seal carved into the ground. "When the scroll is finished collecting the Nine-Tails' chakra, let me know and I'll go feed it to the Gedo Statue. It won't take me more than forty seconds to go there and return, but for that time all of you will be stuck inside Kamui."
"And then what?" Kushina pried. "What's your plan for the Jinchuuriki, huh?"
"He'll take care of them," Obito nodded toward the screaming White Zetsu clone, whose features were crumbling into white ash and reassembling into another, more familiar face. "He won't have any problems collecting their chakra, and he'll even be able to help seal away the Tailed Beasts themselves."
Kushina caught a glimpse of blond hair and azure eyes through the ash, and she saw a white haori forming from the ash and waving lightly in the breeze.
X
"We're almost there," Hinata announced, and Naruto unsheathed his sword silently. "They should come into view any second now."
True to her word, Naruto spotted Kisame Hoshigaki approaching merely three seconds later, and he picked up his speed. Using the Empty Wind, he blurred in and out of Kisame's sight to appear directly in front of him with his saber already descending toward Kisame's chest. The inexplicably blue ninja drew Samehada and placed it between himself and Naruto's dark grey blade as quickly as he could, barely fending off the younger swordsman's attack.
"...Naruto-kun seems unusually aggressive right now," Hinata remarked to no one in particular.
She was surprised when Zabuza answered, "It's not that." The ex-Kiri-nin seemed genuinely impossible to notice at times; his skill with stealth and Silent Killing was downright uncanny. "He's not angry at Kisame for anything in particular, it's just that I asked him to brutally kick his ass with only kenjutsu, as a personal favor to me."
"A favor?"
"Yep." Zabuza folded his arms, using that as a pretext to keep his hands elevated closer to Kubikiri Bouchou's hilt over his right shoulder. "See, Kisame is widely considered the best swordsman in the world, but I'm significantly more skilled than he is. The catch is, Kisame knows that too. He'd use ninjutsu and Samehada's special abilities if I were to fight him, so all in all, he'd easily beat me."
"...Oh, I think I understand."
Zabuza nodded. "So Naruto is going to try to kill Kisame with just his sword, even though he knows that Kisame won't restrict himself to just Samehada. If he can do that, he gets to have it put on his Bingo Book entry that he's the best swordsman in the world. And I get the credit for having trained the best swordsman in the world."
"...But there won't be any reliable witnesses," Hinata countered. "Just you and me. Both of us are biased because Naruto-kun is your student and my husband, so we can't expect anyone to take our word for it when we claim that he beat Kisame with just kenjutsu."
"True. But we're not important in all of this, since we fully intend to collect Kisame's body along with those of the other dead Akatsuki once our mission is complete. The official autopsy, carried out by unbiased medic-nin back in the village, will show that Kisame died of wounds consistent with Naruto's sword, not his Banshou Karu or Rasenshuriken."
"But there'll be no evidence of Naruto using his chakra cloak or Empty Wind," she realized.
"True again, fortunately for Naruto, considering he's already wearing his cloak. Unless he uses his enhanced strength to, say, cut Samehada and-or Kisame in two, or if he uses the Empty Wind to sneak-attack Kisame from behind. Both of those would be clear proof of Naruto using more than just kenjutsu, and they'd be visible on the body. As long as Naruto doesn't go overboard with his enhanced strength, or spam his movement jutsu until Kisame dies, the evidence will show that he beat Kisame with just kenjutsu."
"And," Zabuza went on, "he wouldn't even bother using the Empty Wind to dodge Kisame's kenjutsu attacks, so even if he uses it, it'll only be to evade Kisame's ninjutsu and keep attacking with kenjutsu. He'd still be fighting fairly. As long as he kills Kisame solely by attacking him head-on with a sword, he'll have defeated Kisame with kenjutsu, fair and square."
"...Huh." Hinata spotted Kakuzu approaching her through the forest with his tentacles discreetly hidden away. "Excuse me for a few minutes while I deal with that."
"By all means." Zabuza watched Hinata leave to engage Kakuzu, and he leaned his back against a tree to contently watch both shows.
Kisame blocked several of Naruto's quick slashes, then countered with a forceful downward sweep of his huge weapon. To his shock, Naruto easily parried it aside and twisted his saber to stab toward Kisame's throat. The blue ninja dodged to the side and retreated several paces. "...You're stronger than I expected," he admitted, but his sharp grin didn't fade. "But you're not as fast as I've heard."
"I'm not?" Naruto stepped forward with his saber raised in a refined stance. "That's probably because I'm not using my Empty Wind Jutsu yet. How about now?" he disappeared, and materialized in midair directly in front of Kisame with his sword raised. Kisame held back Naruto's downward slash with Samehada, then pushed the smaller ninja back through the air with his considerable strength.
"That's more like it," Kisame answered. He held out Samehada at his side with one hand, and the massive weapon growled audibly. The bandages entwined around it began to rip open as the blade grew, and its countless teeth rustled outward to devour chakra and flesh alike. Within seconds, Samehada had grown to its full size, and there were no scraps of bandages left clinging to its steel teeth.
Undeterred, Naruto closed in with his own much smaller weapon yet again. Kisame watched each of his varying attack trajectories, and placed Samehada's blade into each cut's path easily. It helped that Samehada was now significantly broader than any shield Kimimaro had ever put to use. Naruto, however, kept searching for openings and attacking wherever he saw one.
Kisame's grin began to fade slowly, as he realized that he hadn't been able to counterattack in over a solid minute. Naruto just kept attacking, and ever so slowly, Kisame was stepping backward to maintain his distance and his defense. A forceful downward chop, a shove from one blade to the other, a slash from his left to Kisame's, a quick stab at the shark's left thigh, an upward slash, another downward chop. The Hokage didn't stop, didn't let Kisame catch a breath.
Of course, eventually Naruto would get a hit in. Despite Kisame's best efforts, the boy swordsman's attacks weren't slowing down but actually getting faster. Instead of tiring, Naruto only fought ever more ferociously, and Kisame was completely certain that he was doing it on purpose, that he was intentionally slowing himself down from the start.
One of Naruto's slashes from his right actually cut into Kisame's left hip, and might have disemboweled him if the shark hadn't managed to stop the attack with Samehada just as the dark grey saber began to slice through his robe and skin. It was then that Kisame realized that Naruto was still picking up speed, and it frightened him to think that maybe the rumors about the Grinning Fox's prodigious speed weren't exaggerations after all.
Dammit Zabuza, when I'm done with this kid I'm coming for you. Kisame retreated, and ignored Samehada's annoyed growl at the beating it had just taken. He's too fast. I just can't take him with kenjutsu, so I'll have to do it with ninjutsu...! His eyes widened in realization and no small amount of horror.
"I knew it'd get to you eventually." Naruto held his saber loosely at his side, and the sharp-toothed grin on his skull helm seemed to be openly mocking Kisame. "That's right. Every single advantage you rely on in battle... kenjutsu skill, physical strength, chakra reserves, the scale of your ninjutsu... I have the upper hand over you in all of those areas."
Kisame calmed himself, and a trace of his vicious smile returned. "...That's actually true," he admitted. "But against you specifically, I still do have one advantage." The cut on his hip healed over in an instant, and Samehada grumbled quietly. "Experience. And I'm going to make full use of it."
"Oh, so you have high-speed regeneration too?" Naruto smugly met Kisame's grin with one of his own, despite the bone helm concealing it. "Let's see how fast yours is."
"...Wh-" Kisame cut himself off to block several rapid slashes from Naruto when the young Hokage appeared before him in a blur, already swinging his sword. Kisame retreated while batting away Naruto's slashes, leaping back until he was at a range suited for ninjutsu rather than kenjutsu. Forming hand seals around Samehada's hilt was a difficult trick that had required years of practice for Kisame to master, but he had. "Water Release: Water Shark Bullet!"
"Rasengan!" Naruto called back evenly, forming a smooth ball of whirling white-blue chakra on the side of his sword. He sent the Rasengan flying with a swing of the blade, straight into the face of the oncoming shark which was torn apart into random splashes and mist. The Rasengan kept going, but Kisame dodged it and paid no attention to the explosion it generated far behind him.
Naruto closed in and attacked Kisame with his sword yet again, chasing the older swordsman back several paces but failing to slip his cutlass past the formidable defense provided by Samehada, as Kisame retreated before Naruto could get a hit in. "You seem really determined to make this a straight-up kenjutsu match," he observed, hoisting the massive weapon onto his shoulder.
"Zabuza-sensei asked me to kick your ass this way, as a favor."
"Heh." Kisame grinned, baring his razor-sharp teeth. "But why should I let you decide how we fight? Even if I didn't want to piss Zabuza off, which I do, I know how fast you are with that sword. So you can forget about fighting me with just kenjutsu; I have something else in mind."
Samehada's hilt stretched out and entwined itself around Kisame's right arm, while its edged scales flattened down and made the sword appear much smaller than before. Kisame laid his left palm on the now smooth surface near the hilt, and when he swept his hand outward toward the blade's tip, a gust of white mist and foaming waves swirled around him for several seconds.
Naruto peered into the churning water with his active Rinnegan, but the chakra in it kept him from getting a clear view of whatever Kisame was doing. When the wall of water broke apart enough for Naruto to see through it properly, Kisame had already vanished.
His eyes went wide, and he spun around to catch a close-range attack aimed at the back of his head. It turned out to be a shark fin on Kisame's right forearm, as solid and sharp as a steel blade.
"...So that's what that feels like." Kisame lashed out several more times, and Naruto paced backward as he blocked each blow. I think it was Hayate-sensei who taught me about wrist-mounted blades like these... these ones are really weird. When he makes a move to punch me, it becomes a slashing attack with his fin's edge. But a forearm chop instead becomes a stabbing move with the tip of the fin... he must've practiced in this form for years to get used to it.
"Not so sure of yourself now, are you?" Kisame's voice sounded like an angry growl, but his face was set in a huge grin. "Now that I can move at this speed as well, you aren't so cocky."
Naruto deflected a few more of Kisame's rapid slashes, then whipped his blade upward across the shark's chest, cutting it shallowly. Kisame sprang back, and took a moment to heal before reengaging Naruto. "I know Zabuza-sensei will be happy at least, since you're still fighting me up close... I never expected to actually fight someone with an ability like this in real life, ya know? This is more the kind of thing you'd see in one of my favorite manga." He slammed his saber against Kisame's right fin, and shoved him back several yards with his inhuman strength. "What else can you do?"
"I can kill you!" Kisame roared viciously, and grinned even more gleefully as he slapped his hands together in a Snake seal. "One Hundred Water Shark Bullets!"
Naruto leveled his sword calmly at the oncoming flock of Water Release monstrosities that shot toward him from Kisame's open mouth, swarming around him to move in from all sides. Kisame laughed as his sharks frenzied around the Hokage, obscuring him from view. Let's see you stop that with kenjutsu, little brat. One cut from a sword won't be nearly enough to take down one of th-!
Kisame's thoughts ground to a halt, and his grin faltered. All he could see of his sharks were their writhing tail fins, completely blocking his view of Naruto, and the sharks weren't moving at all the way they should have been. Kisame knew the movements of his sharks well, and he knew he wasn't seeing them tearing into Naruto and chomping him to pieces. The way these creatures were moving instead suggested that they were each recoiling from a blow, over and over again, all at once.
The sharks exploded into a fine, white-blue spray of water, and Kisame stepped back while readying another, far more powerful jutsu. His view of Naruto became more clear as the mist fell to earth, and he saw that the Hokage's sword was dripping crystal-clear water. Naruto flicked the blade out and down toward the ground at his right, splashing away a bit more water, then raised the weapon in preparation to attack Kisame again.
Kisame, however, finished his next seal sequence before Naruto made his move, and he called fiercely, "Greater Exploding Water Shockwave!"
Naruto's eyes went wide to take in the sight of a massive wall of water spewing forth from Kisame's mouth, and he was already leaning forward into an Empty Wind aimed straight at the attack. Under other circumstances, he might have had time to turn and move away from the attack even as his jutsu activated, but he and it were already too close. He was unable to prevent himself from colliding with the huge wave at a speed too great to follow with the naked eye, which by his own estimate was somewhere near the speed of sound.
The world went black, and he had no way of knowing how long he was unconscious for, but he eventually came to on the ground, face-down under the weight of an ocean of chakra-laced water. He grunted in pain, and his eyes widened with alarm as he heard a few bubbles bursting past his skull helm and floating upward.
Right... I'm underwater... He planted his hands on the softened, soaked earth beneath them, and momentarily began to push himself upward before an even greater weight slammed him back down. Kisame crouched atop the small of Naruto's back and punched into the chakra bone armor covering his spine several times. "Hah! I've got you now, punk. In case you haven't noticed, I can breathe underwater and you can't!" he punched Naruto again. "All I have to do to kill you is sit here on top of you until you run out of air!"
He laid his right palm on the back of Naruto's helm, lifted his head several inches, and then slammed him facefirst into the ground, repeating this a few times before using Samehada's chakra absorption ability to drain Naruto's chakra cloak. The rest of his body remained covered in bone armor, but the skull was vaporized to reveal his face. Kisame smashed his head into the earth yet again, grinning.
"Smug! Little! Brat!" With each word, he lifted and slammed down Naruto's head, now holding it by a fistful of his blond hair. "Come on! Just take one little breath!" A few bubbles leaked out of Naruto's mouth as he opened it, and Kisame's grin went ear-to-ear now. "That's it..."
"...Shinra, Tensei."
Kisame roared his throat hoarse with fury as he was launced skyward, along with most of the water that had been pinning Naruto down. Naruto threw himself to his feet, then spun dizzily from the blows to his head. In spite of the half-demonic chakra running through his body and constantly healing it, that had been a serious attack once his helmet was no longer there to protect him from it.
He took a deep breath, watching as the water splashed back together into a perfect dome around him, weighing and slowing him down. He balled his bone-clad hands into fists, and only then did he realize his sword was gone, torn from his grasp when the tsunami had blasted into him head-on. "Oh, shit."
He spat out the water that flowed into his mouth as he spoke, and clapped his hands together in a Ram seal. "Wind Release: Erasing Wind." Clean, fresh air burst away from him in all directions, and he was pleasantly surprised when the air stayed trapped around him as a bubble rather than floating up and away. "Huh." Maybe this is because this water jutsu holds itself together with shape transformation, so it's stopping my air bubble from breaking through that shape...
Kisame shot into the air bubble behind Naruto, who just barely managed to sidestep the shark's lunging attack. He kept going out of the bubble in front of Naruto, disappearing into the darkness produced by the colossal water dome. Less than half a second later, he burst through the top of Naruto's air dome and tackled him from above, as this time the Hokage failed to dodge the unexpected attack.
"You're going to die here," Kisame announced, and pulled back his right fist with it aimed at Naruto's unprotected head. "Each of us planned to fight you in advance; we all know your weaknesses." He brought his fist down, and Naruto saw stars from the impact. "Even with your enhanced strength, you don't have any real skill in taijutsu. Your Deva Path has a cooldown, which means you can't throw me off again, not yet." He struck again, and a third time. "And anything with chakra in it glows to your Rinnegan, meaning you can't see me through this water with your eyes active. Even if you turn them off, you're blinded by the dark instead! I'm gonna kill you!"
"Heheh...hmuhuhahaha..." Kisame stopped, confused and wondering why Naruto would laugh in this situation. "Maybe so. Maybe you've figured out all of Naruto's weaknesses, maybe you have him cornered, but you've forgotten something important."
The Nine-Tails, the shark realized with a hint of concern. "...And what's that?"
"Even when Hinata and his friends aren't around, he never really fights alone."
Naruto opened his mouth wide, or rather Kurama did so for him. Blue and red chakra spheres, each no more than two inches across, sprayed from his open jaws in copious amounts. Kisame bared his teeth and resumed his attack, ruthlessly pummeling the pinned Hokage, but he was unable to stop the Nine-Tails. Naruto's bone helm grew back over his head, and Kisame retreated skyward into the uppermost extent of the water dome.
Wearing Naruto's body, Kurama stood and swallowed the Tailed Beast Ball, glaring straight upward. Like the fanged skull covering his face, Kurama grinned viciously before letting fly a beam of furious red chakra. He swept his aim down to horizontally cleave through the water, then spun fully around to vaporize much of it in all directions.
Naruto slumped forward slightly, and his slit pupils returned to normal as Kurama's influence receded. "...Thanks, Kurama," he rubbed his throat as he spoke.
Don't mention it. Just kill him before he can make another water dome.
Naruto nodded as he glanced around the soaked but not submerged forest, much of which had also been ripped apart by Kurama's Tailed Beast Ball. He formed a Rasengan in his right hand, and looked around to spot Kisame far away to his right. He was still fused with Samehada, and what light injuries he had remaining from Kurama's attack were healing before Naruto's eyes, but he was panting heavily.
The Rasengan began to turn a brighter white, and four small spinning blades emerged hesitantly from its surface, slowly growing further outward.
"You bastard, you are not gonna hit me with that!" Kisame lunged forward, his form blurring as he closed in on Naruto, who vanished shortly before Kisame reached him. He reappeared to Kisame's right, and the shark pounced toward him again, this time letting a water shark fly from his mouth even as he ran closer to the Hokage, who took the hit and exploded into smoke instantly.
"...No. There's no way, you can't have shadow clones on top of everything else-"
"That wasn't a shadow clone." Naruto's voice rang out far behind Kisame, who turned to see that he was wielding a fully formed Rasenshuriken now. "Just a genjutsu clone. A distraction to buy me an extra second or two for this! Wind Release: Rasenshuriken!" with his most powerful jutsu in hand, Naruto charged.
Kisame roared wordlessly, and lunged to meet him willingly. He reached toward the Rasenshuriken and caught it with both hands, channeling his chakra absorbtion ability to its absolute limit. At the same time, Naruto was pouring more chakra into his jutsu to maintain it, and was pushing it forward with all of his incredible strength.
The Rasenshuriken gave off a tremendous flash of light, but then it dimmed slowly as the jutsu shrank. Kisame caught Naruto's wrist with both hands and whipped him into a massive tree nearby, panting but grinning triumphantly. "Is that all? Is that the best the Sage of Six Paths can do?"
He stalked forward as Naruto pried himself out of the tree, and raised Samehada for the final blow. It was only then that he realized he was holding the greatsword again, and thus he was no longer fused with it. Samehada!?
The weapon hesitated to respond, and one of its steel scales broke away and thumped into the dirt. I can't take any more chakra, it admitted grudgingly. That last jutsu was too much, and too sudden.
Naruto straightened, and formed a bone saber before stepping toward Kisame, who had stopped his own approach. "Actually, yeah. That's the best I can do." He positioned himself in a firm, careful kenjutsu stance. "Looks like it was enough."
Kisame snarled, and lunged forward with his massive, cracked weapon in hand. Naruto met his overhand strike and knocked it upward with a carefully timed parry, then lunged to stab the larger man with his smaller sword. Kisame sidestepped, and whipped his sword horizontally at Naruto's left flank. Naruto again blocked the strike, shoving Kisame back.
The shark kept attacking, but slowly it became evident that he was worn down from their battle so far. His movements became ever so slightly slower, and they had less force behind them. When he made his next swing, a backhanded blow aimed at Naruto's right shoulder, the Hokage swooped downward under it and lunged forward as he rose up again, burying his sword in Kisame's chest up to the hilt.
Kisame's eyes bulged, and he opened his mouth wide but no sound came out. He raised Samehada over his head one last time, glaring furiously at Naruto, but when he brought the sword down it sailed harmlessly down behind the Hokage's back. A thin line of blood dripped from the left corner of Kisame's mouth, and he let go of the sword's hilt. Samehada growled angrily at Naruto, and Kisame slumped forward.
Zabuza appeared behind Naruto, and crouched next to the fallen sword as the Hokage lowered Kisame's body to the ground. "Samehada." The weapon growled again, shaking its scales as it seethed with fury. "I know you understand what I'm saying, so listen carefully." the blade fell silent. "Your only choice right now is to let me take you to your next wielder, or starve and die right here."
When Samehada didn't snarl at him a second time, Zabuza carefully picked up the weapon and slung it over his right shoulder. "Very good... Come on, Naruto. The others are still counting on us."
Naruto rubbed the back of his head gingerly, and nodded. "Right behind you, Zabuza-sensei."
X
With one swift, simple motion, Kakuzu snapped open the front of his Akatsuki cloak. With another, he slid it from his shoulders before taking up a firm taijutsu stance. "I came prepared this time," he announced with a cold glare aimed at Hinata, "to kill you specifically. With your death, the tables will turn in our favor. Naruto will fall into despair, leaving him open to an attack from the rest of Akatsuki. Without both of you, the strongest shinobi opposing us will be the Kazekage, who is already fighting a losing battle. None of you will leave the Land of Waterfalls alive."
Hinata glared back at him, poised in a Gentle Fist taijutsu stance. "Your plan all hinges on defeating me, then. You have to go through me to attack Naruto-kun and the others like that." She dashed forward, her hands alight with fiery blue chakra. "Gentle Step: Twin Lion Fists!"
Kakuzu advanced to meet her without flinching, engaging with her in a brief but fierce taijutsu exchange. After a few seconds of battle, both of them leapt backward, and Hinata scanned over his body with her Byakugan.
Something's not right. The strength of his punches haven't increased, and neither has his speed, but I can see him flowing chakra through his whole body as if he were using that kind of jutsu... Her eyes narrowed, and she dashed in again. Kakuzu again caught most of her blows with forearm blocks rather than dodging them, but this time she caught him off-guard by launching one of her Lion Fists directly at his gut while her hand appeared to be moving upward to aim a punch at his face.
The wind was knocked from his lungs in an unintentional but clearly angry shout, and he flew backward to smash through three trees before his momentum slowed. "Ah... I see it now. That jutsu you're using only augments your defense. You're expecting to take hits from some of my most powerful jutsu and survive... but what I don't understand is why you haven't returned fire with your own ninjutsu. You're not exactly doing any damage with taijutsu that slow."
As she spoke, Kakuzu stood and grinned under his mask. "Your attacks haven't hurt me either; didn't you notice? You've hit me with at least twenty Gentle Fist strikes, by my count, and all of my tenketsu are still active." Her eyes widened slightly, just enough for Kakuzu to see that she understood. "I didn't get to show you this jutsu the last time we fought; or rather, you never even saw it through the explosion of your Rasenyari. This is the Earth Release: Earth Spear."
An elemental jutsu?If it's Earth Release, that means it's weak to lightning... she frowned imperceptibly, and strong against water. He's counting on it being strong enough to hold off my Rasenyari... but the last time we fought, I was able to do serious damage with it. She held out her right hand at her side, forming a Rasengan and then carefully applying nature transformation to it. In seconds, her most powerful jutsu sat ready in the palm of her hand, and she pulled it back to throw it as a spear. Let's see if anything has really changed. "Water Release: Rasenyari!"
Kakuzu's tentacles unraveled out of his back, and curled forward around his sides, then suddenly turned a much darker shade of brown, almost black. "Do your worst." Hinata obliged, flinging the Rasenyari directly at him without hesitation. He watched the shining blue spear approach, wrapping his tentacles up into a round cocoon around himself. "It won't be enough..."
On contact with his defense, the Rasenyari exploded and launched him along its own trajectory, smashing him through dozens if not hundreds of trees. Hinata followed, leaping through the branches of whatever foliage was left standing, and when the Rasenyari came to a stop she was there to see it.
It was only moments after that, however, that she heard the rumbling approach of a tidal wave to her left. Focusing her Byakugan, she peered across the thick forest to see the huge wall of water Kisame was releasing elsewhere, glowing brightly sea-green with chakra. It's coming from where Naruto-kun is fighting... She raised a thin aura of water around herself, shaping it into the Aspect of the Water Deity to provide herself with a bubble of air, before glancing back to where Kakuzu had been left by her Rasenyari.
Her glowing eyes went wide when she saw him climbing out from under a pile of sharp rubble, mostly fragments of the trees her attack had smashed him through. That's...! How can he be unharmed? I used the Rasenyari against his Earth Spear before, and I blew him to pieces! Her attention was once again drawn by the tsunami Kisame had raised, and she considered her options. I have a supply of air in here, and the Water Deity will protect me from the impact of the wave itself... I should go save Naruto-kun. After all, Kakuzu is already going to drown in this water...!
Just as the Water Deity began to lean forward in the direction of the wave, Kakuzu flew forward and smashed into it. His tentacles wrapped around her head, shoulders and upper torso, entwining and knotting together firmly over her back. "I don't think so!" he called, glaring at her through the wall of water representing the Water Deity's collarbone. "I'm not done with you yet, so don't think I'm going to let you run off and fight Kisame instead!"
"Get off of me!" she roared back, already forming an Oodama Rasengan in her right hand. "Oodama-"
"Earth Release-"
"-Rasengan!"
"-Great Earth Wall!"
Kakuzu's hands slammed together on the sides of the oversized Rasengan as she pushed it toward him with all of her senjutsu-enhanced might. He was unable to hold it back with his own strength, and it slammed directly into his sternum. Meanwhile, a wall of rock broad enough to stand between the Water Deity and the tsunami, and half as thick as it was tall, rose behind Kakuzu.
He was flattened up against that wall by her Rasengan, even as he continued to grasp the sides of the jutsu with his bare palms. Smaller, thin tentacles branched off from his main ones to stab her, since she had emerged from the Water Deity to strike him with her Rasengan, but they were suddenly plastered against the earth wall by the impact of the tsunami and the momentum carried with it.
Hinata planted her feet on his belly and kicked off of him with as much strength as she could muster, flying backward into the safe embrace of the Water Deity just before Kisame's water washed over her, Kakuzu, and the earth wall.
She was tumbled around inside her bubble of air, trying desperately to make sense of the world's spinning around her. She was helped by her Byakugan's massive field of vision, but even then all she saw was a jumbled mess of water and bubbles flying through it in all directions.
It felt like an eternity before she finally came to a stop, with her Water Deity laying facedown on the ground, which had been ripped apart and dissolved into a muddy mess. She scanned the surrounding area with her Byakugan, and saw that she was near the edge of a huge dome made of shaped water. The Water Deity crawled to her feet quickly, and strode through the outer boundary of the jutsu.
Moments later, Kakuzu emerged from the same spot directly behind her, again catching her with his tentacles. This time, however, he delivered a punch to the spot between the Water Deity's shoulder blades, and Hinata turned in time to see her water barrier stretch out of shape and nearly rip open from the force of the blow.
He wasn't this strong before! I don't understand; when we fought with taijutsu he could only punch as hard as a normal shinobi! Was he holding back!? She gritted her teeth, and scanned around with her Byakugan, quickly formulating a new plan. Enhanced strength, and a defense strong enough to take a direct hit from a Rasenyari... but there has to be a weakness somewhere; I just haven't found it yet!
Hinata fell straight downward without warning, plummeting from the heart of the Water Deity. Kakuzu's furious gaze followed her, and as she landed in a crouch on the ground she waved her right hand loosely upward. The Water Deity evaporated, and Kakuzu found himself falling toward Hinata without its support. She leapt upward to meet him, with a ball of brilliant blue-white energy in her right palm. With a defiant cry, she slammed it into his jaw.
"RASENGAN!"
The jutsu exploded in her hand a moment later, sending Kakuzu further skyward and shoving her back down to earth, although she again landed on her feet. While Kakuzu was still airborne, she formed a Rasenyari and threw it, intent on firing him even higher into the sky.
However, Kakuzu twisted his body and tentacles deftly in midair, allowing the Rasenyari to scrape past him by mere inches. He landed on both hands and one knee, and his tentacles slammed into the dirt with their leftover momentum before they rose up and aimed their sharpened tips at Hinata.
"How are you still alive?" she demanded. "Unharmed, even. It's only been a day; you can't possibly have had enough time to improve your defensive jutsu this much. And when I last saw you, you were missing chunks of your body. What happened to you!?"
Kakuzu chuckled darkly. "You're exactly right. The last time we met, you destroyed all but one of my hearts and shredded my Earth Grudge Fear. Revenge is one of the two reasons I volunteered to kill you today. The second is that I have the ideal weapon to do so." He turned his back to her, but maintained his cold gaze over his shoulder.
Hinata tensed slightly, staring back at the four identical masks emerging from Kakuzu's back, each with clearly birdlike features and a blue mark to each side of their beaks. "Shortly after I left Taki, I prepared a hidden base under the Land of Waterfalls stocked with several spare hearts in case I had to quickly replace a few lost hearts. Since then, I've established similar bases in four other countries."
"So you've replaced the hearts I destroyed," she summarized.
"With hearts from four Taki shinobi who had Earth Release affinities, yes. I now have all of their earth affinities to supplement my own, making my Earth Release at least five times as strong as it was with only my own heart. It could be more; each additional heart may boost my affinity exponentially. I'll figure that out once I'm done with you."
"Yeah... good luck with that," Hinata replied slowly, and although it was subtle, the vulpine smirk that spread across her features was quickly noticed by Kakuzu.
Now that I know what I'm up against, I can come up with a plan. I could try to overpower his Earth Spear with an overwhelmingly powerful water jutsu, or several at once. I could try to break his defense with non-elemental jutsu, like the Rasengan. Or, I could try to bypass his physical defense entirely with the Gentle Fist. It doesn't matter how tough his body is if he can't move.
Hinata glanced past Kakuzu with alarm, as the water dome behind him bulged out of shape in multiple directions, mostly upward. Her eyes widened slightly as she recognized Naruto's chakra flaring mightily before dying down significantly. That felt like a powerful Shinra Tensei...!
She jumped backward when Kakuzu took advantage of her distraction, crossing the distance between them with lightning speed and aiming dozens of thin tentacles to stab through her. She regained her focus and dashed forward, seemingly dancing between the sharp-tipped tentacles to reach Kakuzu's main body. Her Twin Lion Fists flared to life around her open palms as she sprinted ever closer.
Kakuzu countered this by whipping together the extended tentacles that Hinata had already dodged the tips of, tangling them together around her in such a way that only he could possibly sort out such a mess. With Hinata thoroughly caught, he hauled her up into the air and stretched her arms out to her sides, aiming several much thicker tentacles at her while she couldn't resist.
"...Heh."
Her Lion Fists exploded, ripping apart the smaller, thinner threads that held her in place. She landed again in a crouch, and whipped a hastily formed Rasengan at Kakuzu from that position. He moved his larger tentacles to catch the attack, but it slammed into his chest regardless. While he was thrown by yet another of her attacks, Hinata straightened and prepared another Rasenyari.
Before she threw it, however, her attention was caught by a massive vertical beam of scarlet energy piercing through the top of the water dome. That's Naruto-kun's... no, Kurama-san's Tailed Beast Ball. Naruto-kun never uses it... So what's going on over there? The beam turned downward and began slicing through the water dome parallel to the ground, and Hinata's eyes went slightly wider. This.. this is my chance!
She dashed to Kakuzu's right, since the crimson beam was approaching his left. As the monstrous missing-nin climbed to his feet and glared at her, she saw a flicker of realization in his eyes just before she pulled back her right arm.
"Water Release: Rasenyari!"
She launched her most powerful jutsu, and this time Kakuzu tried to dodge. However, he could already feel the approaching heat of the red chakra beam, and he panicked, uncertain of whether to dodge to the side of Hinata's Rasenyari, or forward away from the Tailed Beast Ball. That moment of hesitation was all it took to deny him both opputunities, and the blue and red attacks promptly struck him from both sides at once.
Hinata quickly prepared another Rasenyari, just before ducking under the Tailed Beast Ball with it in hand. Not long after passing by her, the red beam winked out and what remained of the water dome collapsed to the ground.
She took a step toward Kakuzu, who was facing downward in the mud with all four of the masks on his back broken, but he was still alive and slowly crawling away from her. He likely didn't even know where he was going, away from her or closer to her. Much of his body was covered in black scorch marks, and Hinata couldn't be sure of how much damage he had actually taken from the hit. He was clearly disoriented, however, and that was all she needed.
She dissolved her Rasenyari and replaced it with her double-ended spear, extending its blades as she strode toward him. Kakuzu slumped into the mud helplessly, and she raised the blade over his back where his real heart would be. "Goodbye, Kakuzu of the Akatsuki..."
She brought the spear down, and Kakuzu entirely failed to react. She closed her eyes and pulled the spear from his back before retracting the blades and sheathing the short staff over her shoulder. When she opened her eyes again a moment later, she turned toward where the water dome had been with her new resolve. Hold on, Naruto-kun, I'm on my way!
She leaned forward and gathered her chakra, then flickered out of sight instantaneously. Unlike Naruto, it took her a few moments to activate the Empty Wind, which made its use in combat less practical. Still, she could use it to cross great distances easily. I can feel that Naruto-kun is still fighting, but that Tailed Beast Ball isn't a good sign. I can't be sure, but I think it was actually Kurama who-
Her eyes went wide, and she came to a stop in front of a bewildered Zabuza and Naruto. "Hina-chan!" he called, and his bone mask crumbled to reveal his grin. "We were just about to come find you!"
"Actually, I was gonna steer us toward Suigetsu and Juugo, but whatever," Zabuza replied.
"I thought you were still fighting Kisame; I came to help," she admitted. "But you won your fight too, that's great!"
"Yeah... Hina-chan, can you use your Byakugan to see how the others are doing?" Naruto asked, his voice suddenly solemn. "I have a really bad feeling."
"...Okay, sure." She concentrated, and scanned the surrounding areas. "Sasuke and Sakura killed Deidara. They're on their way to Isobu's lake. Kimimaro and Karin are both alive, headed in the same direction. Suigetsu and Juugo are still fighting that Hyuuga girl evenly... and the others are..."
"What's wrong, Hina-chan?"
She took a deep breath. "Gaara and Tenten are fighting a losing battle against Isobu, Choumei, Yagura, and an Uchiha I don't recognize." Naruto's and Zabuza's eyes went wide with alarm. "He's an Edo Tensei, and he's wearing a Konoha uniform."
"Does he have the Mangekyou?" Zabuza asked quietly.
"...It doesn't look that way; he's fighting with a normal three-tomoe Sharingan."
"Alright," Naruto decided. "Hina-chan, you and I need to go there and help them. Zabuza-sensei, go help Suigetsu and Juugo. We'll need all the help we can get, and they're the only team still fighting."
"Got it," the swordsman answered, and vanished with an Empty Wind. Shortly after he left, Naruto and Hinata shot off in the direction of the lake.
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