AN: Chapter title: An Unwelcomed Distraction Part 2
A third Fang Passing Fang finally succeeded in ripping through the Earth Release: Shadow Clone from the Hidden Stone Kunoichi. The battle between the two pairs had lasted longer than either had expected, the few minutes an eternity to the two Shinobi.
With the stone finally breaking apart in front of him, Sasuke made one last use of his clawed hands to grab hold of the stone that used to be Kurotsuchi's copied head and made a show of raising it in front of him before crushing it to dust.
Kurotsuchi rolled her eyes but didn't say a word, allowed the stone still covering her right arm to crumble to dust. She flexed her fingers, rolled her wrist. She hadn't enjoyed their multiple clashes either but she wasn't going to be dramatic about it.
Regardless, both would take this lull as a chance to catch their breath, think up a new plan.
'Not bad. He hits hard for a brat.' She wasn't going all out but the Uchiha was keeping up with her. She would need to change her strategy.
"I've got to admit, this fight is something else." She planted a hand on her hip as she spoke. "You're a lot stronger than I thought you'd be." The fight was at least more interesting than she thought it would be. Beating Sarutobi would be more satisfying but there was something to beating an Uchiha, even a brat like this one. "I suppose that's the benefit of your Sharingan."
The Beast Human Clone technique was ended with a cloud of smoke covering one of the feral looking Chunin. The Uchiha removed his own Transformation Technique at the same time, ended his use of the Four Legs Technique. He dropped to a knee on the ground only to rub at the head of the ninken.
"Good job but that's all for now." The Chunin patted him on the side and the ninken departed after a lick to his face. His red and black eyes were focused on her.
'She's molding Chakra.' He had noticed the moment she had started. She wasn't aiming to manipulate the ground any more than she already had. He and the transformed ninken had smashed through most of the raised pillars of stone fighting against her and her doppelganger. She likely wouldn't try the same move again. 'What's she planning?'
"You clearly don't know anything about my Dojutsu." The Uchiha chose to mock her as he rose back to his feet. "While it lets me copy any technique I see, they're worthless without the skills to use it."
"Brat." It was a harsh whisper only for him. She raised her voice for her next words. "I guess I can't help but agree with you. What I'm about to show you is something you won't be able to copy."
She earned a raised eyebrow from the Uchiha.
She smiled as her molded Chakra filled her mouth.
"Yoton: Sekkaigyo!" 'Go ahead and dodge.' She knew he had seen her attack coming, was ready for it. She didn't need a Sharingan to see the way he was getting ready to move at a moment's notice. He didn't disappoint, the Uchiha putting on a burst of speed to avoid the gray liquid. He landed on the side of one of the platforms of stone she had risen from the ground and she couldn't help but grin. 'This is too easy.'
She didn't stop her use of Lava Release: Quicklime Congealing, she spewed out a steady stream of it but she was already kneading and molding her Chakra for her next technique.
"You'll never hit me with an attack like that." Sasuke cemented his feet to the pillar with a steady flow of Chakra, worked through his own hand seals. 'She has a Kekkei Genaki?' It was a surprise. 'And Lava Release at that? A dangerous ability.' He would have to avoid it until it cooled. He took in a deep breath of air. "Katon: Hosenka!"
A barrage of fireballs soared through the air towards the Shinobi from the Hidden Stone. Her pink eyes didn't widen in shock or fear, were focused. She rushed through her hand seals as she closed her mouth. The constant stream of molded Chakra came to an end as she took a deep breath of her own and brought a cupped hand up to her mouth.
'This is almost too easy.'
"Suiton: Mizurappa!" She spewed out a massive stream of water to extinguish his fireballs and, more importantly, hit her own technique. 'This fight is over.'
'So she has three Chakra Natures. Earth, Fire, and Water?' Sasuke dashed up the stone pillar as he took in that new piece of information. 'And she has Lava Release on top of that.' He was lucky this wasn't a real fight. She would be a troublesome opponent to face alone.
He took in another deep breath as the gray sludge crashed into the base of the pillar.
'Let's see if she handles this.' His next hand seals would be familiar to anyone who ever met an Uchiha, had the chance to see them in combat.
"Katon: Gokakyu!" He breathed out a stream of flames that formed into a massive sphere. It toppled the pillars still standing between him and Kurotsuchi, was carving a trench into the ground once it struck. He continued to breathe out a stream of flames, continued to guide the sphere of flames forward. His mastery of the Fire Release: Great Fireball had improved since he had last used it.
'He thinks I'm stupid.' Kurotsuchi was tempted to punch through the fireball coming towards her, to smother it in one of her Lava Release techniques but she smothered the temptation. 'He wants me to focus on blocking it.' She almost scoffed at the clear strategy.
She decided to avoid it. It took only a moment to shape her molded Earth Release Chakra around her. She dropped into the ground as it turned into fine sand courtesy of her Chakra. The ground was just as quickly repaired, appeared to have never been changed, and she was fully submerged underground.
'This brat.' His Sharingan wouldn't help him find her. She had sunk her Chakra into the ground to shape it and left it there just incase she had to use Earth Release: Hiding Like A Mole Technique. 'He must think I'm an idiot.' She knew which pillar he was standing on. She dropped lower to the ground as she widened the space around her. The ground caved to her whims, a spherical chamber of stone surrounding her.
"Time to end this." Her hand seals from earlier were easy to replicate. "Doton: Chidokaku."
Her second use of the Earth Release: Moving Earth Core was used to level the entirety of the arena. One moment, it was a confusing mix of raised and lowered plots of stone and in the next it was perfectly flat. So the still liquid quicklime that had filled up the depressions was suddenly everywhere, covering the arena as it rapidly began to harden.
"He never even noticed this was my plan. It was a pain to keep it from hardening but its worth it to show the Daimyo where the strongest Shinobi really are." She began tunneling her way out, burst out of the ground with a smirk on her face.
She put on a show when she emerged from the ground, not simply digging her way out. She opened up her exit and jumped, executed a corkscrew backflip to a round of applause. Sasuke hardly noticed her exit, was stuck in the rapidly hardening quicklime cement up to his waist.
"You look a little stuck." Kurotsuchi couldn't help the smirk on her face, the joys of success putting her in a good mood. "What? Can't get out?" She laughed at the glare he shot her. "You probably thought my Lava Release would melt you but mine's more like cement." She nodded her head towards where Mei stood on the edge of the arena. "Terumi's will melt you though."
She spat out a glob of quicklime on his Flak Jacket. It hissed but it wasn't strong enough to burn through by design.
"Although, I can still do it too." Her threat was clear:
The fight was over. Surrender or else.
"Looks like this match is over." Kakashi couldn't help but eavesdrop on the two Hidden Stone Shinobi as they conversed. The taller one had spoken up first, Kakashi was reasonably sure his name was Monga.
"Kurotsuchi's won. Just like she said she would." Ittan spoke with a fair amount of relief in his voice. He had been worried when the Uchiha had managed to beat her Earth Release: Shadow Clone mixed with Akatsuchi's Earth Release: Golem Technique. "I shouldn't have doubted her."
"I wouldn't be so sure." Kakashi wouldn't have normally spoken up but the situation demanded he did. The Shinobi of the Hidden Leaf had to present a unified front here in the capital, to the Daimyo and to foreign Shinobi. "Sasuke's my student after all. He's far from defeated." He'd laugh at the way the two Hidden Stone Shinobi had jumped later. For now, his focus was on Sasuke.
'I wonder how you're getting out of this.' The masked Jonin had theories but he didn't know which one the Uchiha would use. Really, he didn't know which ones he could use.
In the arena, Sasuke seemed to be considering Kurotsuchi's words.
"Really?" He stopped trying to break the concrete keeping him trapped with his fist. It was useless anyway. "I should surrender?" He shook his head. "I won't be losing to you today."
The ground beneath her feet cracked. It was the only warning Kurotsuchi had before Sasuke threw himself from the ground with an uppercut. The Hidden Stone Shinobi didn't avoid it in time, ended up in the air from the blow.
'What?' Pain radiated out from the blow but it was nothing compared to the shock she was going through. 'When did he switch out with a clone?'
Sasuke landed next to his trapped form. Both stood with their arms crossed, taunting her.
"Why so surprised?" The two wore identical arrogant smirks. "You have your Earth Release clone. I have a Fire Release clone." The copy began to flicker and turn into flames. It lost all its color just to appear as flames in the rough shape of Sasuke Uchiha.
'But this was still a risk I didn't like taking.' It was a split-second decision really. When the pillar he had been standing on had begun to fall, as the entire arena was leveled, he had thrown himself towards what was left of his fireball. It had still cost him around a quarter of his Chakra to make the clone but it had been preferable to losing half of it to the Fire Release: Shadow Clone. He had recognized what was happening too late to try any counter but leaving the clone as bait and sinking into the ground. 'It may not even pay off.'
He didn't expect his clone to breakdown so quickly. He was lucky he had chosen to attack when he did or else his ruse would've been revealed. He had been lucky she didn't run into him on her way back up. Her trick with her Chakra, suffusing the ground with it, had left his Sharingan blind to where she was.
One punch wasn't anywhere close enough to bring Kurotsuchi down but it did enrage her. Her pink eyes were focused on him with absolute fury. She was already in the midst of recovering, landed on her feet instead of on her back with her hand seals already finished.
"Yoton: Sekkaigyo!" She spewed out a fresh stream of acidic quicklime and Sasuke was quick to counter.
"Doton: Doryuheki!" He slammed both hands into the ground to form the ground into a trio of walls. Even taking his opponent's likely Chakra Nature into account, Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall was the best defense he had, his best option. 'Let's see how strong her Lava Release is.' Her Kekkei Genkai was something he knew too little about so he created a test for it.
It hissed, was already dissolving the first wall of earth he had raised in defense. It lacked a coating of Chakra so it was expected. Kurotsuchi was already ending the stream of quicklime from her mouth, taking a moment to mold her Chakra for the second step of her attack. The second was only moderately covered in Chakra, lasted a few seconds longer than the near instant demise of the first wall. The third allowed the quicklime to splash against it before it began to pile up against the wall. It was trying to dissolve it but it would take longer.
His Sharingan had let him see it all take place. Whatever the properties of Kurotsuchi's Lava Release, it seemed able to corrode both physical defenses as well as Chakra.
'Her Kekkei Genkai is more dangerous than I thought.' He finished his own hand seals as he threw himself on top of his last remaining wall. "Katon: Hosenka!"
He didn't just spew out a half dozen fireballs, he added a barrage of shuriken and kunai from the seals on his armor. Kurotsuchi had finished her hand seals and was already in the air to dodge his fireballs and his projectiles.
"Katon: Karyudan!" Kurotsuchi had never intended to use a Water Release technique to turn her quicklime into cement. It was the obvious move so she avoided it. The Fire Release: Fire Dragon Bullet was basic but the amount of Chakra she poured into it turned her into a veritable flamethrower. She was aiming for Sasuke directly, the Uchiha not taking his chances with beating the attack outright.
His hand moved to draw the sword from his side but he stopped.
'I'm not acting as the Legate.' He had to remind himself to instead summon a kunai stored in the seals on his armor, flow Chakra through it, lengthen the blade of Chakra to something he was more familiar with. It only took a moment and he applied the basics of Asuma's Flying Swallow technique.
It wouldn't be as efficient without his Wind Chakra Nature but, in this moment, his Fire Chakra Nature would substitute well enough.
He cut the stream of flames in half as part of the show.
"You're starting to get on my nerves you brat!" She didn't speak loud enough for the crowd but any Shinobi could hear her words. Kurotsuchi dodged the shuriken Sasuke promptly threw at her once her attack ended. Her pink eyes stayed focused on him while the Uchiha remained crouched on top of the still standing Earth-Style Wall. She responded with a pair of shuriken of her own and both were sliced in half by the Uchiha's Chakra enhanced kunai. He spun the knife around his finger by the ring at the end of it before taking hold of it again.
More than a few of the audience applauded at the show.
'This kid.' Kurotsuchi threw another pair of shuriken just to keep the Uchiha moving. He deflected them with the expected ease. 'If I didn't have to hold back I would've killed him by now.' She was here to impress future clients, not horrify them when she killed the Last Uchiha. As tempting as it was, she couldn't.
Judging by the smirk on his face, he knew exactly what she was thinking. He had the nerve to stand up on his still standing wall and bow to the crowd.
'Screw it.' She shouldn't use something like this against a brat but…It was only right to show off the pride of the Hidden Stone.
Besides, she wouldn't kill him.
"You know, I normally don't do this but I think I'll make an exception for a prodigy like you." Kurotsuchi raised her voice loud enough for everyone to hear as she visibly began gathering Chakra around her, drew out bringing her hands together in front of her with a clap. "It's only fair after all! You've shown me so much about the Hidden Leaf I should show you one of the Hidden Stone's grandest techniques!"
"No way." A panicked looking Ittan immediately looked to a grim Monga. "Is she seriously going to use something like that to win?"
"…She could be bluffing?" Monga sounded unsure.
Kakashi listened to the two but he was more focused on the rest of the Daimyo Escort Squad, if any of them planned to make a move to stop this.
Asuma was still but he was sure his hands had cracked the railing with how tightly he was holding on to it. Kurenai was holding herself back, glanced to Asuma before glancing back to the Hidden Stone Kunoichi. Gai was smiling but it was hollow, his dark eyes were focused completely on the young girl who looked set to take this spar too far. Ko's active Byakugan was enough warning, showed just how serious he was taking her claim. Hana had nearly turned feral, her ninken no different as they seemed set to snarl, bare their fangs.
Only Muta seemed to still be calm. He hadn't taken his hands out of the pockets of his jacket, his kikaichu weren't filling the air. The glasses he wore made it hard to read his expression but he didn't seem worried.
In the arena, Sasuke remained in place. His arrogant smirk remained. If her Lava Release wasn't still eating away at the wall and ground beneath him he might have jumped off of the wall.
"Take your best shot." The Chunin rose to his full height on the wall, stuck to the top of it using Chakra. "It's only fair." He echoed her words.
Kakashi glanced to the Shinobi from the Hidden Mist, the leader of the rebels. She showed no signs of interfering. She seemed more interested in seeing what Kurotsuchi was planning than anything else. His Sharingan focused back on the widely smiling Shinobi as she began to slowly open her hands.
'What kind of technique is that?' It looked like she was holding a translucent cube in between her hands, a bright white ball burning in the exact center of it.
"Lord Tsuchikage actually taught her it." Ittan's voice was an even mix of absolute horror and terrible awe. "Has he really already picked his successor?"
Kurotsuchi's smile screamed manic to the masked Jonin as her pink eyes glanced down to the strange technique in her hands. She turned her eyes back to the Uchiha standing across from her.
"You should know something about this technique!" Kurotsuchi's arms were, to the Dojutsu, shaking. Whatever she had done seemed to be incredibly draining. "It's the personal technique passed down from Tsuchikage to Tsuchikage!" The sphere of light in the center began to pulse like a heart, shrinking and growing in time with the falling and rising flow of Chakra Kakashi could see feeding it. "It was even once used against someone you should know very well: Madara Uchiha!"
Sasuke's eyes widened a moment before Kurotsuchi threw her arms forward with a shout.
The box simply appeared around him, had grown to completely consume him in the blink of an eye.
'That speed is unreal.' Kakashi had no idea if the Chunin had even seen it move. He had made the mistake of blinking and completely missed it. 'Moving that fast…Could Minato-sensei even avoid something like it?' He doubted even the legendary Fourth Hokage could manage such a feat. 'I've never even seen a Lighting Release technique that fast.'
"Well, I'm in trouble." Sasuke's voice was perfectly controlled as he made a show of looking around at the translucent shape around him. He shielded his eyes from the pulsing light from the sphere hanging only a little over his head. "If this is the same technique from then…I'm out of options." The Uchiha turned to Mei with a hollow smirk on his face. "I concede the match."
Mei stepped up and called the official end to the match. Kurotsuchi grinned even as a wave of exhaustion threatened to make her drop. Only stubbornness befitting the next Tsuchikage kept her on her feet as she dismissed her incomplete technique.
'Damn.' She forced a smile on her face even when all she wanted to do was collapse. 'Even with all my training I could barely manage that.' Onoki had warned her it would take time to fully master the Kekkei Mora, years if not a solid decade to perfect it, but a part of her had thought he had underestimated her. 'I can hardly feel my arms.' Now she felt he was overestimating her, had real faith in her talent. Gathering that much Chakra, the complex shaping and molding required to combine three separate Chakra Natures into one, left her hardly able to move her arms. 'And that was only a dud.'
The Tsuchikage hadn't taught her the ignition sequence for the technique yet, the ability to annihilate everything within the shape down to the atomic level was something he had forbidden her from knowing. Until she mastered the form of the technique, she couldn't be allowed to unleash its devastating power.
'No wonder he's so strict.' Her pink eyes focused on the Uchiha who was walking up to her, who was smiling. 'This little shit.' He was mocking her.
He made a show of bringing his fist into his palm, bowing to her.
"You were an incredible opponent, Kurotsuchi of the Hidden Stone." The show of respect was just that. A show.
"You shouldn't discount yourself, Sasuke of the Hidden Leaf. I look forward to seeing you improve in the future." Kurotsuchi hated the fact that she had to mirror him. Her arms ached, her hands burned and throbbed and the brat had to know it. His Sharingan let him see how irregular the flow of her Chakra was up and down her arms.
Their show of respect drew the loudest round of applause yet from their onlookers. Even the Daimyo was applauding the two Shinobi.
"You're lucky I couldn't kill you."
"You couldn't even if you wanted to. You don't even have any Chakra left after that stunt."
"Then why'd you surrender?"
"I was here to put on a show. We had our roles in it. Mine just happened to be the 'loser'."
"Tch. Brat."
AN: 3/6 chapters for this update.