I do not own Naruto
Kankuro glanced at his wrist watch. They had still one hour before the start of the invasion, meaning he and Temari needed to buy as much time as they could. He really wished he could have just surrendered and not reveal anything, but he didn't have much of a choice in the matter. He sighed. At least he would keep Kuroari hidden, Karasu alone would be more than enough for the Kusa boy.
"I heard you're a puppeteer. I hope you don't mind if I accidentally break a doll or two." said Fuzaku, staring at Kankuro.
"As if someone like you could even scratch off the paint off one of my puppets" declared Kankuro, dropping the bundle on his back to the ground as kicking it to the side. He rolled up a sealing scroll, unsealing a standard Suna combat puppet, a model named Karasu, and placed it a meter in front of him, right in between himself and Fuzaku.
"Now, the second fight begins!" shouted Genma.
Fuzaku darted towards the puppet, in a powerful attack that impacted the thing's torso, launching it far away from the puppeteer. Kankuro tried to pull his puppet toward him, but the Kusa boy had launched the puppet too far for him to make it in time. He jumped away, dodging an ax kick that cracked the floor. As he jumped away, he finally managed to pull Karasu in between himself and Fuzaku, one of the puppet's wrists springing open, revealing a blade. Fuzaku dodged backwards, delivering a spin kick that disconnected the puppet's head from the rest of the body with a loud crack.
Kankuro flicked his wrist, trying to activate a kunai launcher on Karasu's head, but immediately realized that Fuzaku had already moved past the puppet, gunning towards him.
Once again, he was forced to jump away, activating one of his puppet's secret compartments mid-air. Fuzaku heard something behind him and turned around to notice a ball being shot towards him. He raised his hands to block, the mysterious ball hitting him and exploding in a cloud of purple smoke. Kankuro smirked. Now that the boy was poisoned, he could just wait for…
Raiton: Raikyu no jutsu
Kankuro screamed as a ball of lightning chakra shot out of the smoke, hitting him straight in the chest and forcing him to the ground, trembling as electricity coursed through his body. He noticed his fingers trembling and twitching in muscle spasms.
"Fuck."
Could he stall for long enough now that his control over Karasu was compromised? Shit, he should have used both Karasu and Kuroari from the start instead of saving his second puppet for the invasion. He pulled Karasu in between himself and the smoke just in time for the Kusa ninja to emerge from the poison, finishing the last hand signs.
Katon: Kitsunebi no jutsu
A series of five fire balls started to orbit around his opponent. He launched Karasu forward, activating a set of six recurve blades emerging from the headless puppet's chest.
Fuzaku dodged to the side, receiving three cuts on his arm, but before Kankuro could celebrate, the balls of fire around the boy spun around his torso, expanding outwards setting ablaze the cloth that covered and hid most of Karasu's traps. Immediately after expanding, the fireballs shot straight at him, forcing him to dodge and leaving Fuzaku enough time to flash through hand signs.
Katon: Enshin Bakuha no jutsu
In a surprising move, the Kusa genin didn't go for Kankuro, but instead punched his beloved puppet, slamming it against the ground. A pillar of flames erupted around the two figures and Kankuro saw in horror wooden splinters and metal blades fly in the air, the delicate mechanism that controlled their deployment completely unusable. This was a disaster.
His state of shock lasted only for a moment, but that moment was enough for Fuzaku to move right next to him, his foot raised charging up a powerful kick.
Kankuro moved his arm to block, but the Kusa boy had put his everything into this blow. Kakuro felt his arm break under the impact, the energy transferring to his ribs, cracking a few of them and launching his body skittering in a ragdoll until he impacted against one of the trees.
He coughed blood, staring at the juggernaut that was his opponent.
Fuzaku took a step forward, wobbling from the poison finally taking hold of his body. He tried to take a second step, but his knees gave way under his own body weight and his face slammed against the floor.
Kankuro tentatively got back on his feet. This was it for him. He couldn't participate in the invasion in his conditions. A broken arm, cracked ribs and his main puppet now damaged to the point of combat ineffectiveness. For him, this war was over before it even started. If Temari took her time, perhaps he would have recovered enough to retreat on his own without dragging anyone down, but there were no chances of him joining in the battle. And worse, that Kusa fucker would probably survive the poison. Lucky bastard.
He took another few steps, wobbling toward the center of the arena, where the proctor was looking at him.
"The winner is Sabaku no Kankuro!"
Meanwhile, Sunagakure
Katon: Gokakyu no jutsu
Kakashi looked down at the greenhouse. The plan was simple: send a few Kage Bunshin to the greenhouses to set everything on fire. Cause as much damage as possible, draw out the security of their targets into protecting one of the few places where Suna could grow medicinal plants necessary to the creation of medicines, poisons and the antidotes to counteract said poisons. And with the amount of fires he and his clones were currently starting, he could guess Suna won't be spraying poison on the battlefield like they did in the past.
He used a Shunshin to leave the greenhouse through the open window, stopping for a second to close it and let the fire cook inside. Whoever decided to open that door was in for a nasty surprise.
He rejoined his team, put on his disguise and followed their lead toward their first target: a councilman by the name of Tojuro. The man had apparently recently taken over the position from elder Ebizo and was pushing for some rather… ambitious plans for the future. There wasn't any solid evidence whether he actually had supported the attack on Konoha or not, but Kakashi was willing to bet his entire Icha Icha collection that the man was in favor. And for that reason, the man had to die.
They staked out the house for two days before realizing that the man only had one guard, or rather, a friendly chunin with political ambitions who just happened to spend most of his time pretending to guard the man's home, if Kakashi had to describe this so-called 'guard'.
He gestured at Towa to advance. The ANBU silently moved behind the councilman's guard, sword drawn, and stabbed the man through the heart before he even realized there was someone behind him. Kakashi shook his head in disappointment. For once, he had almost hoped the man was a decoy, like the ones he'd heard expert puppet masters liked to use.
Towa slid a window open, allowing Komachi, Tiger and Kakashi to enter the house undetected.
Strange how Kakashi knew the identity of every single ANBU in Konoha except for Tiger. Perhaps he should ask Risu to investigate the matter, just to satisfy his own curiosity?
The group snuck around the house, soon spotting Tojuro discussing something with a Sunagakure ANBU, recognizable by their rather distinct turban that covered everything but the eyes. With a few hand gestures, he directed Towa and Komachi towards the ANBU and Tiger toward Tojuro.
At the count of three, Komachi tossed a barrage of senbons at the two.
Senbon Kage Bunshin no jutsu
In front of the wall of needles, the ANBU flipped the table to cover the councilman, while he himself jumped away from the barrage, right into Towa's awaiting blade. The ANBU raised both hands to block the attack, only for Komachi to appear behind him and slice at the back of his neck, severing the man's spine and killing him on the spot.
Tiger lept at the councilman, who dodged the downward sword strike and positioned himself right in front of a hidden Kakashi with his back exposed.
"Konoha scum. I should have known…"
Raiton: Raikiri no jutsu
Tojuro's words died on his lips as Kakashi's hand emerged from the man's chest. With a squelching sound, his corpse was dropped on the ground, Kakashi casually cleaning off the blood on the man's couch.
He looked at his team "Next target is councilwoman Ikanago. If we do this quickly, we might be back to Konoha for the victory celebration."
In the meantime, Konoha's Mokuton arena
"The winner is Sabaku no Temari!"
"Man, I'm tired" muttered Shikamaru
Naruto jumped down in the arena and rushed to Shikamaru's side "Idiot!" he shouted, pointing his finger at the Nara heir.
"Shut up, you super idiot." shot back Shikamaru.
"Why did you give up!?"
"Forget about it. Let's just enjoy the next fight."
In a swirl of leaves, Sasuke appeared in the middle of the arena, his confident smirk aimed at the Suna jinchuriki.
"Gaara, get down here." ordered Genma.
With slow and calculated steps, Gaara started to walk down the wall towards the arena, eyes bloodshot and lips dry. His breathing was ragged and the unnatural hue of his skin, no doubt caused by his Suna no Yoroi, his sand armor, gave Sasuke a chill.
"And now, finally… Begin!" shouted Genma, disappearing in a Shunshin.
Gaara's sand shot forward and Sasuke jumped backwards, dodging the attack. Gaara twitched, grabbing his head. "Don't…get so angry…mother…I haven't fed you in a while…I'm sorry…but this time…his blood…it will be delicious."
Sasuke frowned. This guy was insane. Just what he needed: an insane jinchuriki talking to himself about how he was going to feed his blood to his sand.
Gaara seemed to calm down after a second, regaining his stoic facade. "Come"
Sasuke jumped toward the pond, flashing through hand seals.
Suiton: Mizu Bunshin no jutsu
Ten water clones emerged from the surface, circling Gaara. Sasuke threw a couple of kunais, which got blocked by a sand shield, the Kibaku Fuda smoking. The two explosions shifted some of the sand away, but weren't enough to blast through. He didn't expect the explosion to do much, but it seemed like they were even less effective than what he had anticipated. He would need to use more of them.
Gaara moved his hands.
Suna Bunshin no jutsu
The sand shield shifted, taking the appearance of Gaara, throwing the two kunai back at the closest Mizu Bunshin. The clone threw a pair of shuriken, deflecting the attack and jumped toward the sand clone, landing a powerful kick that dispelled the clone's arm into a shower of sand. He punched the sand clone's neck, only for it to partially melt and try to hold onto the attacker's arm, but the Mizu Bunshin struck the sand clone's face, finally dispersing it. It rushed forward, throwing himself through the clone's remnants and struck at Gaara, only to be blocked by a wall of sand.
Sabaku Kyu no jutsu
Sand emerged from the wall, grabbing at the water clone and enveloping it. Before Gaara could finish, another clone appeared behind him. His sand shifted, trying to defend him, but too much of it was busy with the other, only offering a thin layer of sand that the Mizu Bunshin's sword easily pierced through, striking Gaara in the face and forming spiderweb cracks on his sand armor.
Sabaku Kyu no jutsu
The second clone was also enveloped by sand, but that move left Gaara even more exposed. Three more clones dashed toward him, easily bypassing what little sand remained to the Suna jinchuriki as they slashed at the sand armor.
Sabaku Soso no jutsu
The water clones enveloped in the sand were crushed in a shower of water, the sand now free to defend Gaara again.
More clones joined in the fight, their strikes blocked by Gaara's sand with little difficulty
Sabaku Kyu no jutsu
Sabaku Soso no jutsu
One by one, the clones popped, their water drenching the sand making it sluggish, but not sluggish enough. Sasuke frowned, stepping up to the challenge.
Suiton: Teppouo no jutsu
A jet of water shot out of Sasuke's mouth, barely enough force to be noticeable, but drenching the sand shield with enough water for it to have issues maintaining its shape.
Sabaku Kyu no jutsu
Sand shot towards Sasuke, slow but noticeably nowhere near as slow as the sand shield, forcing him to stop the jutsu and jump backwards.
The now drenched, almost waterlogged shield was no longer able to keep up with the clones' onslaught, and more and more of their attacks were landing on the boy, who started to form hand signs.
Suna Arare no jutsu
Sand started floating upwards, dry as when the fight started, only to drop down all around Gaara in hail-like lumps, the impact strong enough to dispel all the remaining Mizu Bunshin.
Sasuke unrolled his sealing scroll. It looked like water could hamper his defense, but did nothing to his offensive jutsus. Time to test out something else. He ran his finger on his sword, drawing blood before running through hand signs.
Kuchiyose no jutsu
With a familiar puff of smoke, a giant raven appeared to his side. Sasuke immediately unsealed a large barrel and jumped on the raven's back.
Sabaku Kyu no jutsu
The raven grabbed onto the barrel and flew upwards, dodging the sand trying to reach for them.
Sabaku Fuyu no jutsu
Sand gathered under Gaara's feet, lifting him upwards in the direction of the flying creature. Sasuke smirked. An aerial battle? With his sand drenched in water? The raven turned upside down, diving at full speed toward the Suna jinchuriki's awaiting sand. Halfway down, the raven spread his wings and veered to almost a halt, flinging the barrel at full force towards Gaara. His sand moved fast, absorbing the impact and breaking the barrel, covering Gaara in a sticky black substance. Was that…oil?
Katon: Gokakyu no jutsu
Futon: Toppa no jutsu
A massive, scorching hot fireball impacted Gaara's shield, igniting the tar in a blaze so hot that Gaara could feel burning through his sand armor. He lost control of his Sabaku Fuyu, falling to the ground into the water-soaked sand. As the flaming oily substance came in contact with the water, it exploded into a pillar of flames.
Gaara screamed, feeling the flames burning through his defensive layer of sand. He rolled on the ground, sand enveloping him to quench the flames. Sasuke flew closer to the ground, observing how despite the devastating attack, Gaara got back on his feet while glaring at the Uchiha with rage.
Sabaku Ro no jutsu
With a flash of hand signs, Gaara was enveloped in a dome of sand.
Katon: Gokakyu no jutsu
Futon: Toppa no jutsu
The giant fireball impacted the dome, but washed over it without a scratch. Sasuke snorted. If this combination jutsu couldn't dent the dome, he would need to use all his Kibaku Fuda to leave a noticeable scratch on the thing. He should have used them sooner. But no matter, he had one last trick to use in this fight. He held it together well against Gaara, but if the boy was about to unleash the Ichibi like Risu-sensei had warned him about, this was his last shot to finish the jinchuriki.
He flew above the dome, unsealing all the water he had stored inside his sealing scroll in a massive waterfall, drenching the sand ball that seemed to melt a little.
He jumped down from his raven, sending the bird flying upwards and ready to intervene should it become necessary.
Sasuke gathered chakra, slowly walking through hand signs. Lightning began to crackle in his hand. He reached for his sword, electricity flowing into the blade. He started running, blade pointed at the sand dome in a devastating piercing attack
Raiton: Raikoto no jutsu
The sword sank into the dome until the hilt and Sasuke could feel it connecting with something on the inside. He twisted his blade, trying to wrench it out for a second strike, but the sand held firm, not giving up.
"Blood! It's my blood!"
A voice came from within the dome. Sasuke pulled harder, trying to free his weapon from the sand's clutches. As the sword popped, a wave of thick, malicious chakra was felt all over the arena, and Sasuke immediately knew what that was.
"Ichibi…" he muttered
The sand started to fall, revealing a wounded Gaara clutching a bleeding arm, the wound from Sasuke's blade going straight through the boy's forearm and into his shoulder. If only Sasuke had aimed a little more to the left…
Was that a feather he just saw?
Notes
Kankuro forfeiting never really sat well with me, especially since Kishimoto had him and Shino fighting later and ended it with a double KO. So... this time he fights and the double KO is in the arena. Hope you liked the battle.
Oh, look! ANBU being competent! Isn't that usual? Jokes aside, Kakashi's strike on Suna was sort of intended to be in the background, but I decided to give you a little taste of what he was doing during the finals. Also, it was a veru convenient jump cut to avoid describing the Temari vs Shikamaru fight, which would ge exactly like in canon.
Gaara has A LOT of sand jutsu, some of them pretty interesting, but most of them aren't even named in the manga. Took me quote a bit of wiki-diving to find the names for all of them, but writing this battle was very interesting.
I expanded Sasuke's strategy to be a bit more versatile than just "Chidori, go!", I hope you liked the boiling oil+water combo (checked a few video where they showed the effects, it's kinda fascinating to watch, I suggest you Google it). Of course, I had to keep the ligthing stab, that scene is iconic, but with Sasuke now using a sword, I opted to give him a different jutsu. Now I know that when it comes to covering your sword in lightning chakra there's the Chidorigatana, but honestly I don't like the fact that half of the lightning jutsu in the series are just 'Chidori X', so I picked a different jutsu that does the exam same thing as the Chidorigatana but has a different name. Functionality-wise it serves the same purpose of the chidori. It's a little bit weaker, costs less chakra and requires a blade to be used, but apart from that it's basically a Chidori.
New Jutsu:
Raiton: Raikyu no jutsu: Lightning ball, name says everything you need to know
Katon: Kitsunebi no jutsu: Fox fire. Despite my dislike of Boruto, this one is a pretty cool one. It does remind me quite a lot of Dark Soul's Homing Soul mass spell, maybe that's where the inspiration comes from
Katon: Enshin Bakuha no jutsu: Another neat Boruto jutsu. It kinda skirts the line between Katon and Bakuton (Why is Bakuton lightning and earth again?), but it's cool. It's also going to be Fuzaku's signature jutsu because i just think it fits him very well
Raiton: Raikiri no jutsu: Is there anyone here who doesn't know this one?
Suna Bunshin no jutsu: sand clone. As you can see from the battle, this one can take quite a bit of damage before dispersing
Sabaku Kyu no jutsu: sand engulfs the enemy
Sabaku Soso no jutsu: sand squeezes the enemy
Suiton: Teppouo no jutsu: water jutsu mainly used to extinguish flames. Very basic, yet very versatile
Suna Arare no jutsu: sand lumps rain from the sky and hurt people in an area
Sabaku Fuyu no jutsu: Gaara uses his sand to float
Sabaku Ro no jutsu: Sand dome, can be used for protection or to trap an enemy
Raiton: Raikoto no jutsu: coat the sword in lightning. A type of Chakra Nagashi