Disclaimer: I don't own the Naruto franchise or any of its characters.
Chapter Twenty-Nine: The Storm Arrives Part (VI)
"AHHHHHHHHH!" Gaara, or what was remaining of him, screamed maniacally as he swung his hand towards his blond enemy.
A tower of sand erupted from the ground underneath them, gaining a life of its own as it tumbled towards Naruto, eager to squash the bug to their master's liking. Naruto stood his ground, his eyes steady even if his mind's instincts were screaming at him to move.
He slashed the gigantic sword in his hand through the middle of the sand, electricity following the swing of the blade as he did so. The column of sand was split into two, seemingly losing their connection to their previous master. Sand bellowed out from either side of him, but he was unharmed.
Naruto passed Kubikiribōchō back to its rightful owner, who looked rightfully confused.
"What the hell are we facing?" Zabuza asked a second later.
Naruto grimaced, "A boy that has a crazy demon of sand inside of him and is somewhat insane at this moment. We want to capture him."
"Capture eh…what are his abilities?"
"Absolute control over sand. Nothing else, really. Unless you count the transformation he's in."
"Sounds easy enough."
Hmph. Of course, you say that.
Naruto swung to the side as another explosion of sand erupted towards him. Whatever transformation the boy was going through, it seemed as if his control over sand was weakening, no longer as precise or calculating in nature. That came with greater power, however, which was just as concerning. One hit and Naruto wasn't sure whether he would be able to get back up or not.
Then Gaara moved.
One second he was ten meters away, and the next, he was right beside Naruto. A large sand arm swung at Naruto's head, threatening to chop it off entirely with its clawed fingers if Naruto hadn't brought his arms to guard immediately. The blunt force concentrated on his left hand, which caved into the force of the attack without much struggle. Naruto felt the wind leave his stomach as he was thrown backward.
His mind was a fuzzy mess along with his thoughts that were a garbled mess with no meaning whatsoever. In the middle of his flight path, Naruto was able to bring himself back to the waking world. He twisted his body midair, his feet landing on the side of a tree as he pushed chakra through the soles of his sandals and thrust himself back into the fight.
A massive black sword continuously swung with grace and effortless speed, carving its way through the sand that never seemed to stop. Zabuza did not seem happy with his current position, forced to play defense with all of his might when he most certainly wasn't a defensive type of fighter.
Zabuza seemed to finally catch a break as he managed to evade another attack before retreating backward.
"What do you think?" Naruto asked as they eyed the Jinchuuriki who walked menacingly towards them.
Zabuza sneered. "He's a fucking nutjob, that's for sure. His defense is nearly impenetrable, and getting near him is like a death wish. Where do you find these people?"
"Same way I found you," Naruto answered cheekily. "Whatever, just look for any openings—"
An enormous, sandy hand extended from Gaara, looking to envelop both the enemy shinobi into its welcoming embrace. Naruto wasn't too pleased with that, obviously. Neither was Zabuza. The swordsman released a torrent of water from his lungs, wetting the incoming sand and slowing its movement to a much more manageable speed.
Interesting.
Along with the pouring rain that didn't want to stop for some reason (not that Naruto was complaining, of course), the water released by Zabuza was acting as a sort of mush agent that turned the particles of sand into a mixture that wasn't nearly as dangerous.
"Water! Throw as much water as you can at him!" Naruto yelled as he ran aggressively at his fellow Jinchuuriki.
Fighting against a half-demon shinobi wasn't on Naruto's bucket list of things to do in his life, but when has life ever been forthcoming with things like this?
Gaara swung his hand towards Naruto, who ducked with his hands in position for his favorite jutsu. An opening! Clones appeared on either side of them, kicking Gaara with all of their might into the air. Naruto leaped into the sky following the trajectory of the airborne boy, eager to continue his combo.
"I'M GONNA KILL YOU!" Gaara screamed ear-piercingly as he was falling, his voice cracking as he spoke. It was like two voices were speaking at once, the implications worrying Naruto more than he would like to admit.
Gaara reached his hands downwards, willing the sand from several meters below him to rise. Dozens of strands of sand twisting upon themselves formed tendrils that flew toward Naruto who had no way to defend himself in midair.
Naruto wasn't too afraid—he had support, after all.
A cackle of water crashed into the deadly sand from the side, crucially slowing their approach and velocity. Zabuza appeared in the air with his sword by his side, slicing through the wet sand with ease. Naruto continued his descent towards Gaara, sliding his fist across the uncovered portion of his enemy's face with as much force as he could muster.
Gaara slammed into the ground with a loud thud, making a small, but noticeable crater into the soft, wet ground underneath them.
Is it over? Naruto asked, already knowing the answer himself, but still willing to hope.
The air suddenly changed.
Naruto felt his hair rising as his body began noticing the immediate change in the atmosphere. Bile formed in his throat. His mouth went dry. His eyes widened. W-what?
[Ding!]
[Intense Bloodlust detected!]
Immense pressure leveled itself onto Naruto, who didn't fall to his knees despite his legs wanting him to do so. And a second later, almost as if the presence was never there, to begin with, the bloodlust was gone. What…what was that?
Gaara arose from the crater, his back to Naruto.
He slowly turned.
And what Naruto was looking at right now, was definitely no longer Gaara.
His face was now completely covered with sand. His eyes were a dark black with yellow, glowing pupils, and he now had a tail of sand from his back. Worst of all was the crazy smile lined by canine-sharp teeth that spread across its face. This was no longer the apathetic, battle-hungry boy he had faced off against.
No—this was the Tailed Beast taking near-complete control.
The beast roared.
A shockwave of energy erupted from the monster, pushing Naruto several feet back, but he managed to pulse his chakra through his legs fast enough to keep his ground. Shards of sand exploded from the abomination in all directions, their speed near impossible to track.
Naruto was able to dodge a few but was unable to escape completely unharmed. His shoulder, the side of his stomach, and the upper cheekbone of his face, scarily close to his right eye—all were bleeding from the attack. There was no pain, however. That would come after the adrenaline rushing through his body finally left.
Gaara ran towards Naruto, and every step of his imprinting cracks into the ground. The blond braced himself. Yet, any attack never came. Where is he headed? Naruto thought confusedly.
Oh.
Zabuza found himself confined in a hand of sand, not at all expecting the sudden rush of speed towards him of all people. If he had been in his prime, he surely would have been able to dodge the attack, but alas, that wasn't the situation at hand. He was confused—what would happen if he died while in shadow form?
He never got to know.
Retreat Shadow Zabuza! Naruto intoned in his head.
The swordsman lost his physical form, transforming into a sludge of shadows that disappeared into thin air. Naruto couldn't help but grin. Summon him back.
A mass of shadows formed from beside Naruto. "This beast is annoying."
Naruto smirked. "Not even a thank you?"
"You did your job. I ain't thankful for shit," Zabuza replied with a scoff.
Fair enough.
Naruto summoned clones as fast as he could, as well as activating Iron Clones at the same time. The MP consumption rate he was running right now was relatively high, but he wasn't too concerned considering the fact that not much time had been spent as of now. His clones ran forward without any fear of death, as they knew that they were mere clones—a fragment of chakra that would serve a greater purpose. They surrounded the sand beast in a tight circle, not giving any room for an escape.
Naruto made his way forward along with Zabuza, who held his sword hanging on his shoulder, both of them leisurely walking together as if they were teammates of years.
Zabuza nodded, as if affirming something in his head. "I must admit, your clones are useful…"
"Yeah, they are," Naruto said.
He watched without any expression as the iron clones slowly died one by one due to the sand flowing through them.
The blond grinned. "Let's go, Zabuza!"
"Hn."
They dashed forward as the enemy Jinchuuriki took notice of them and finished off the last clone by piercing him with a hooked tail. Gaara began running as well, extending his hands as sand propelled forward with immense momentum.
The sand reached for Naruto without mercy.
Naruto ducked his head.
A spinning, abyss-black blade rotated into the fray, missing Naruto's head by an inch, cutting off a few strands of bright yellow hair in the process. The sword tore through the approaching sand with ease, clearing the way for Naruto in the process. Gaara knocked away the sword with a swipe of his hand.
Gaara swung his fist with a snarl, the strike aiming straight for his neck. Images of himself with a torn-out head filled Naruto's mind. Urgency and determination to survive filled his body with energy, making Naruto twist his waists in ways he didn't know was possible.
In the middle of his maneuver, Naruto activated a certain technique.
Activate Hyūga Clan Taijutsu!
[Activating… ]
[Skill: Hyūga Clan Taijutsu- Lvl 1 Activated!]
[Usage drains 15 MP Points each minute.]
Naruto struck a palm at the closest part of Gaara's body, feeling his chakra distribute at Gaara's sand armor. The particles of sand vibrated as foreign chakra interrupted their function, seeping further around and causing the sand to lose all ability.
The sand broke near Gaara's shoulder, revealing regular human skin once again.
Naruto felt a grin. That's it!
Shadow Zabuza, ever the assassin, silently appeared behind the slightly weakened Gaara. He pushed his sword straight through the opening, continuing even as blood burst from the puncture. Naruto could have sworn he saw Zabuza grin through the bandages that surrounded his face. He continued to hack and slash through the gap of armor, ignoring the sand that tried to seep back into the empty spot.
Gaara shouted in agony, his voice reflecting pure pain. It made sense—for someone like Gaara who had such a perfect defense and killed most of his enemies with a glance, he most likely hadn't been hit that many times. Therefore, he couldn't have had that much of a pain tolerance system.
Naruto continued his palm attacks, disrupting Gaara's chakra as much as he could. It wasn't too hard—the fellow Jinchuuriki's chakra was bright as a beacon. It was like throwing a rock into the sea in some ways. It was harder to miss than make the throw. In tandem with his palm strikes, Zabuza sliced away at Gaara's body with inhuman hand-eye coordination. The attacks continued for a solid ten seconds before something strange happened.
Gaara brought his hands nearer to his face.
And cried.
A tsunami of sand erupted outwards from the boy's body, throwing both Naruto and Zabuza backward. Naruto got back his bearings and looked to where Gaara once was.
Then he looked up.
What the fuck.
Gaara was getting bigger. With every second that passed, the sand poured into his body, building onto his armor as he got stronger and stronger. Naruto was an insect in comparison—meaningless, and in some ways, inconsequential. However, it didn't matter. He was a shinobi…and was given a mission. Lives were on the line. It didn't matter whether someone else was more appropriate for the current fight. He was the only one here.
Along with Zabuza, of course.
Zabuza grinned, pointing his sword at the monster's eyes. "The bigger you are, the harder you fall."
It seemed as if Gaara was slightly confused with his state, looking at himself continuously. Was his transformation supposed to be different? Maybe even bigger?
The sand monster opened its mouth and spat forward a giant ball of condensed sand. There were no hand signs or mention of jutsu—just pure mounding of chakra from within. Somewhat similar to how Gaara would use his sand. Naruto had always wondered what gave the boy such control over nature in such a manner without any use of jutsu. But right now wasn't the time to question the nature of chakra.
Zabuza responded with a ball of water of his own, both calamities of nature meeting in the middle. The ball of sand was slower but was still a large, speeding bull of earth that threatened to ground him into the grass below.
With Kubikiribōchō passed onto him, Naruto bled his lightning chakra into the blade, enjoying the satisfying sound of cracking electricity running through the infamous sword. His control over his chakra had never been greater, owing to the Stormbringer title he currently held. He thanked Kami for allowing the rain to fall on this particular day, and even more so for the rather dark, angry clouds that refused to leave any time soon.
He struck his blade through the sand when he noticed something strange. The lighting seemed to have some sort of reaction with the wet sand, as the once soft, bright sand transformed into an almost tubular, brown rock of some kind that followed the trajectory of the lightning that followed through the sand. Half of the ball was now a strange ore that cracked easily under the pressure of his sword.
Observe.
[Observing…]
[Observation successful!]
[Item name: Fulgurite]
[Item details: When lightning strikes wet sand, it may create a natural phenomenon commonly known as a fulgurite. Fulgurites are hollow, glassy tubes formed due to the intense heat from the lightning, and are found in varying shapes and sizes.]
Naruto didn't care too much about the science portion of the explanation. What was more important right now was that he had found a weakness. Fulgurite or whatever it was, was a crucial factor in him winning.
"Zabuza, I'm keeping the sword for a little while longer," Naruto said calmly. "Do me a favor and continue using water jutsus on Gaara."
Zabuza didn't respond, but Naruto knew he got the gist of the situation. The old swordsman was intuitive in that way—he was able to quickly understand Naruto's knack for strategy in the middle of battle and helped to execute them as efficiently as possible.
Gaara was slowly getting larger and larger. His body would have normally formed a huge shadow across the ground if it weren't for the absence of the sun.
The fight is going to end soon. Naruto thought with a grimace. He wasn't sure whether it would end in his victory or not, but that thought didn't matter in the slightest. He brought his fingers into position and intoned, "Shadow Clone Jutsu!"
He took a deep breath and ran forward, surrounded by tens of clones around himself. They evaded the incoming bullets of sand as best as they could, every attack from the beast in front of them taking a clone in the process.
Eventually, Naruto was the last one left.
As always.
Activate iron skin.
The final bullet of sand struck him directly in the chest, and Naruto tumbled into a roll to prevent himself from losing any more momentum. Taking a ball of sand to the dome was more painful than one would have expected. Naruto ignored the pain and was only helped by Iron Skin.
He was close now.
"Wind Style: Drilling Air Bullet!" Gaara bellowed out.
There was no way to avoid the incoming attack. Not only could no one have expected the giant monstrosity in front of them to suddenly use a jutsu, but no one would expect a wind jutsu either.
"Water Style: Surging Sea!" Naruto shouted as he launched as much water as he could along Gaara's body. A wave of water threw itself at the sand abomination, but it didn't care one bit, because the thorn in its side would finally be dead after a grueling sequence of battle.
Naruto erupted into smoke a second later.
Anotherclone.
Or more specifically, an iron clone.
Naruto had summoned an extra clone in advance and used his skill Iron Clones so that only that clone would receive the boon, making the rest that he summoned regular clones.
By now, Naruto was ready.
Zabuza chuckled. "I've never seen someone use my sword in this way, kid. You're making the mockery of the Seven Swordsmen."
Naruto rolled his eyes. "Sure I am."
"I never said it was a bad thing."
Zabuza grunted as he threw his sword with as much force as he could, gathering chakra into the tense muscles of his arms. He was helped by a few clones of Naruto who looked equally drained. The blade sailed through the humid air with striking speed, appearing like a spear that pierced through the sky. The dark, gloomy clouds above the fighters were an opposite background for the glowing, electricity-conducting sword that appeared to be piercing through the heavens themselves.
And on top of the sword, was a grinning Naruto Uzumaki who stuck his feet to the sword using ample amounts of chakra.
His hands were connected to the hilt of the blade, pouring out copious quantities of lighting through Kubikiribōchō. Like a bolt from the God of Storms himself, the sword struck true right at the chest of Gaara's current form. Electricity traveled through the body of sand, with fulgurites taking the place of the armor and preventing any further movement of sand as the weight and shape of rocks slowed down the giant beast entirely.
"ARHHH!"
Naruto leaped from where the blade was, ignoring the piece of fulgurite that was embedded in his right knee.
His eyes stared into bright yellow ones that were covered with dark highlights.
He cocked his left hand backward…and focused. His entire plan depended on the moment before him.
Only two words took over his soul.
"BLACK FLASH!"
He felt as if the world itself had become anew. His chakra was reborn, now something new entirely. It was a travesty that whatever parlor tricks he had performed before with the primal energy flowing through him was called chakra. This was…this was chakra in its purest form.
An indomitable force.
[Black Flash Lvl 1 Activated!]
[A phenomenon where space warps when chakra is applied within one-millionth of a second of a physical blow. When the user manages this feat, their chakra appears black, and the force of their attack is raised to the power of 2.5.]
The entire world sparked black.
Black sparkles of energy with red highlights manifested into the world as Naruto struck Gaara in the face, signifying the difference from a regular attack. The sand blew away from the monster's face, as if it wasn't there in the first place, revealing the startled face of a familiar red-haired Jinchuuriki. A second later, the entire armor of sand broke away as Gaara made to escape the horrible situation he was in.
Gaara, for the first time in his life, felt true fear.
In some ways, Gaara was still a newborn baby. He had yet to encounter many human emotions, relying on his 'mother' and his anger to fuel his reason for existence for the longest time.
"No…no…no…"
And not knowing what to do in response to the brand-new emotion…he ran. He scrambled away from Naruto, never having felt his control over the sand tremble. Gaara frantically collected sand from the ground, throwing it towards the approaching blond.
Naruto was feeling new emotions as well.
It was almost like he was high. Not on drugs, of course. He was high on chakra. Having touched the essence of chakra to its core, he was now operating at a different capacity from ever before.
A maniacal grin spread along his face. Oh how the roles switch, eh?
He dashed forward, evading the attack easily before grabbing Gaara's hair and pushing his face into the wet ground. Gaara's eyes were vacant, the look of defeat evident.
Naruto had won.
[Ding!]
[You leveled up!]
[Ding!]
[Skill Tree Unlock used.]
Huh.
[Choose between the two skills shown.]
[Reinforcement Lvl 1]
[Water Breathing Style Lvl 1]
"What's so cool about breathing underwater?" Naruto asked cluelessly.
_end—-
Yo!
I don't blame Naruto for asking that question, xD. Reinforcement is from Fate, yes.
Hope you liked the chapter, shorter than usual, I know. But with so many fights and only fights, I didn't want to just fill the chapter with words and words of the same attacks.
I hoped I did Black Flash justice.
Question of the day:
What ability should Naruto pick? Reinforcement along with Iron Skin would turn him into the ultimate defensive threat, and Water Breathing continues his kenjutsu and attacking pattern so far.
Make sure to follow, review, and favorite to keep up with next week's chapter!
Cya' next week. Review down here, it really makes my day!
Next chapter is releasing on Tuesday, 20th of August. Around 2 PM Washington DC time. Follow so you don't miss it!