Chapter 56: A Struggle to Behold.
Arc: Against Foreign Powers
Disclaimer: I do NOT own Naruto. Naruto is the work of Masashi Kishimoto, please support the original work.
In a place of ruins and broken hopes, where the ashes of war and death float like a gloomy fog enveloping the lands, a group of people gathered together to face one single man.
They were two forces of different worlds, and they merged as well as fire and water. In this encounter, one has to be extinguished and burned as both cannot coexist.
Naruto's group was tense with apprehension like stretched-out rubber bands, waiting to be released, but also fearing the outcome. Glaring at Chisuke with despise, the group roused their chakra throughout their body in preparation to fight, but the constant headache they felt reminded them that time was of the essence.
And time was running out like sand in an hourglass.
Naruto secretly created a clone earlier that was rigorously studying his current fuinjutsu knowledge to come up with a suitable seal that can forever seal away Chisuke. Now, all he wanted to do was wait, and he almost didn't want to fight to preserve their chakra, but that was impossible. Especially when his allies don't have as much chakra as him.
"We can't continue like this. We'll all die!"
Kankuro yelled, his voice hoarse and quivering from trying to suppress both fear and anger toward the cause of all of their problems. Not only that, but he also wished that he was stronger, even just a little bit, so that he can guarantee his survival in this battle. He wanted to survive because he wanted to spend more time with his siblings, and he'll have a mountain of regrets if he died now.
After Chisuke used his ability, he felt as if his body was becoming sluggish, and there was a whisper in his mind seducing him to stop resisting. That if he stops resisting, he'll experience the most blissful paradise he could ever imagine.
He already knew it was Chisuke's doing, so he didn't dare stop his resistance. Instead, he only wanted to kill Chisuke more than ever. He was also thankful for the alien. If they were facing the real Chisuke, they'd all would have been sealed away by now, probably undergoing inhumane torture or experiments.
"Dance of Puppets!"
Kankuro gritted his teeth, all his hesitation leaving his body as he channeled chakra into his puppets, controlling them through chakra strings. He didn't stop there, coating his puppets with a tough layer of chakra made from weaving countless chakra threads together. The feat was by no means easy, and he himself was surprised that he was able to do it, but he didn't pay it any mind.
Right now, he wanted to survive, and all he has to do is kill Chisuke.
Three puppets flew into the air, charging at Chisuke fearlessly as one of them revealed a hidden blade and slashed at Chisuke. Strangely, Chisuke didn't use his repelling powers and only dodge all three puppets that came to him.
"A puppeteer. How amusing," Chisuke chuckled.
Then, as he was about to raise his hand, a sudden wind blade nearly cut him in half as he dodged again, only for another puppet to come from behind.
"Stay put."
Chisuke scowled, once again trying to raise his hand when another wind blade tried to cut him in two.
Meanwhile, Temari was concentrating beyond her potential. She only sent one wind blade, but she was controlling the wind blade remotely to support her brother's puppets. When she sent that wind blade, she had used two-thirds of her chakra, so even Naruto's adamantine chains will have a tough time resisting it.
"Kankuro, go. Don't worry about your puppets and maim him alive!"
She growled, making Gaara, who was standing behind her, stop idling. Because of the strain put on her, Temari was bleeding internally, and Gaara could smell the stench of blood. He frowned, gathering his ocean of sand and compressing them to the fullest, and turning them into a rain of sand bullets.
Because the sand was compressed, the chakra controlling it was also compressed and enhanced the sand's capabilities, making it faster and deadlier than ordinary sand.
"Sand Bullet Rain."
As the sand bullets rained down on Chisuke, he had finally had enough and took out his scythe, slashing at the wind blade the Temari was controlling, shattering it and making Temari cough up blood.
Kankuro's puppets were also about to be sliced, but a sudden sword that came from above made Chisuke halt and dodge to the side, only to be struck by the sand rain.
"What…?!"
Chisuke was enraged, using his hand to repel all the sand bullets that came near him. He was bleeding, but his wounds, which would kill any human, were healing rapidly.
He frowned. He thought that the sand rain would also affect Gaara's allies so he didn't pay it any mind at first, thinking that Gaara wouldn't attack him as long as he stayed near his allies. He was wrong.
Gaara could freely control his sand, as it seems.
"It's time to stop playing."
The truth was, Chisuke was heavily limited in what he could do. Kage-level? Above Kage-level? No. He was far stronger than that. He was a god, a god that was defeated by a mere human.
That's why, using Chisuke's body, which was heavily poisoned and restricted by the original soul's Fuinjutsu, he couldn't use even a quarter of his strength.
He was left with three abilities. A weakened version of his ability to control air. His dojutsu, which he can only use for three seconds, but thankfully, he can use all its abilities, and finally, his scythe, which is the representation of his power.
His Growth Eyes were weak at first, and he was disappointed after awakening it. It allowed him to make others stronger in a short amount of time, so why can't he make himself grow the same? He was wrong.
After he makes an individual, or any life form, "grow," he can harvest them after their lifespan ends and make himself stronger. As to the problem of long lifespan? That was also solved by Seichōgan, as his dojutsu, once affecting someone, will rapidly consume their lifespan.
Because he didn't know this and used his dojutsu to make a lot of his clansmen stronger, unexpectedly killing them but becoming stronger than them, he became a criminal and had to escape. Then, he found this planet, unexpectedly defeated by one of the natives.
'Let's first kill that sand-controlling guy. I can't let him do whatever he wants.'
Gaara could easily restrict him, so he became his first target.
Unexpectedly, just as he was about to charge toward Gaara, another challenger flickered to his side.
"Eight Trigrams: One Hundred Twenty-Eight Palms!"
Just before Hinata's fingers could touch Chisuke, the latter used his ability to form an invisible shield around his body as he raised his scythe.
"Not on my watch."
Naruto appeared beside Hinata, wrapping Chisuke in chakra chains and draining away the latter's chakra.
"DAMNED HUMAN! DIE!"
Feeling his chakra being drained, Chisuke panicked and hastily activated his dojutsu, giving him a significant boost in power and ability for three seconds, which he used to blow Naruto and Hinata away, as well as making his Growth ability stronger.
Just before Chisuke was able to launch his attack, an ice mirror appeared in between them that gave Naruto and Hinata a few moments to jump away. The ice mirror broke, but Naruto and Hinata were already a few feet away when the attack reached them.
Seeing Naruto and Hinata in one piece instead of a mush of flesh, Chisuke gritted his teeth.
"Heh, fool."
Because of Chisuke's momentarily lapse in focus, Naruto was able to touch him, writing a seal on him that restricted his chakra even more, while Hinata was able to shut down a few of his chakra points.
"Hinata, are you all right?"
Naruto asked as he gently placed down Hinata. He already knew that Chisuke would have some sort of trump card, so the first thing he did was create a protective seal on both of them. The result was they were relatively unharmed except for a few minor internal injuries.
"I'm fine."
Naruto smiled and looked back at Chisuke, who was panting heavily. He had thought that this would be a helpless battle, but now, it seemed that it was possible…
If they could keep resisting the constant and steadily growing headache they had. He looked at his allies, noticing that Kankuro was panting on the ground, and his puppets were lifeless beside him.
'Not good.'
"Kankuro, can you still resist it?"
He asked and flickered next to the boy, placing his hand and was about to put a seal on his body to hopefully help him, when suddenly, he felt Kankuro's chakra spike.
"It's… I'm sorry, I… couldn't resist it anymore."
Kankuro smiled, shaking his head and looking back at Gaara and Temari, both of whom were looking at him with widened eyes.
"Temari, Gaara. I'm sorry. Please make my final moment useful!"
Kankuro grinned, letting out a feral appearance as he stared at Chisuke, who was looking back at him with a frown.
"Useless. That was all the chakra you can give?"
"Heh, was it bad? Well, that's good. It's better if it was worse," Kankuro laughed, his puppets rising high into the air, now coated in a thicker armor of chakra that made them look like mighty warriors.
"Behold, my final jutsu. Dance of the Puppeteer."
Like three swordsmen, the puppets flew toward Chisuke, unsheathing their hidden blades that now resembled swords thanks to the chakra coating them and slicing at Chisuke, who merely dodged and brought up his palm.
"In the end, it's but a futile attempt.'
"No, it's not."
Suddenly, a clone of Naruto sporting slitted red eyes appeared behind him and gave Chisuke a mighty punch that sent the redhead flying off into the air.
"Kankuro!"
Gaara yelled out, grabbing Kankuro with his sand before the latter could inject himself with his most lethal poison.
"What are you doing?!"
"I can't let myself be a burden to you by being controlled! I'd rather die with him."
Kankuro snarled, glaring at Chisuke and sending his three puppets to charge at the man. The puppets put up a valiant effort, and Naruto and Kurama were keeping up with the alien. They were so absorbed in the battle that they didn't notice that no one was helping them aside from Gaara and Zabuza.
Zabuza would pop out from time to time to stop Chisuke from properly using his attacks, while Gaara would rain down compressed sand infused with chakra on Chisuke, earning the ire of the man. Naruto was trying his best to put as many seals as he could on Chisuke, while Kurama was simply the boxer of the bunch, trying to beat up Chisuke to submission.
On the other hand, Kankuro's special puppeteers were acting as if Chisuke was a vegetable, and the three puppets were the chefs. Their goal was simply to dice up the clan head.
"ENOUGH!"
Just as Kankuro and Gaara were hoping that the tides of battle had changed, Chisuke suddenly roared, and his eyes once again flared into the Seichōgan. This time, the Seichōgan stayed and didn't vanish. Chisuke laughed, mocking the humans trying to defy him as he created a rain of compressed air for the group. Naruto created a new seal on the spot. No, it was more correct to say that he modified the earth guardian and made it so that instead of a rock golem armor, a gigantic rock golem emerged from the ground, uprooting the earth below just to protect the ninjas.
"Fuinjutsu: Earth Golem Guardian!"
After the rain stopped, the group saw Chisuke again, still as mighty as ever but Naruto smirked, noting that Chisuke barely had any chakra left. Chisuke agreed, so he stopped holding back and summoned his scythe, directly trying to slice Naruto and Gaara into bits.
Gaara pushed out Chisuke in a fit of rage and in a moment of exhaustion, he fell to his knees. Naruto flickered next to him, also nearly out of charka, and he suggested to Gaara to talk with Shukaku. Gaara hesitates, but when Temari screamed and clutched her head, as well as Hinata and Haku, Gaara stopped hesitating.
Meanwhile, Naruto was worried sick about Hinata, as well as Zabuza over Haku. Naruto and Zabuza encouraged their loved ones to hold on as Chisuke laughs at their efforts. Zabuza nearly lost it, and he uses the last bit of his chakra to create a thick mist that not even Chisuke with his awakened eyes could properly see.
At this time, Gaara was begging Shukaku, and after a little deliberation, Shukaku agrees to partner with Gaara, giving Gaara the option to turn into a tailed beast.
While Gaara suddenly transformed into the One Tails, Naruto's secret clone was dispelled, and Naruto learned of the newest reinforced seal. He integrates it into his Rasengan, and as Zabuza fights Chisuke and Gaara holds Chisuke down using various sand attacks, Naruto suddenly appears through the mist with his new jutsu.
"Big Ball Sealing Rasengan!"
Smashing the ginormous orb of blue with streaks of runic letters across its surface to Chisuke, the latter grimaced as he felt his chakra being heavily restricted.
"Sand Mausoleum!"
Taking advantage of the situation, Gaara in his one-tailed beast form lifted his arms and a titanic pyramid arose from the ground, sealing away Chisuke in the very middle. The man couldn't even form his last words before he was felled.
With Chisuke defeated, Zabuza dropped to his knees, followed by Kankuro and the rest of the team dropping to the ground, face first and exhausted out of their minds.
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