"We've heard about your tricks, Elemental Monkey," Kushimaru remarked as he rested his needle sword on his shoulder.
"A five-year reputation as a squad gone after a single battle... what a shame," I chuckled, not truly upset. "Let's leave the Sand to their own matters. Your swords will make a nice bargaining chip for me."
"You've got a big mouth for someone so small. Don't bite off more than you can chew, runt," Fuguki retorted with a toothy grin.
Pakura did not wait for our conversation and charged straight at Rasa. The scorched air she left in her wake shimmered like a mirage, but Rasa did not flinch. His remaining hand lifted with his fingers splayed, and the ground answered him with a sound like a hundred knives being unsheathed at once. Gold dust geysered up around his boots and spread outward in a glittering tide that drank the last red light of evening and threw it back as a dull, lethal glow.
His entire form vanished into the storm of shimmering dust, and then the tide began to rise, shape, and condense. A towering figure took form, a Golem, ten meters tall, glinting in the pale moonlight like a deity of war. Its movements were jerky at first, as if testing the weight of its new body, but within moments it moved fluidly, every step grinding the earth into shallow craters.
My lips curved in a mocking smile. Copying my Lava Golem, are you?Typical Rasa. Always grasping at someone else's strength, never content with his own.
Pakura's expression was the opposite of mine. She looked sharp, focused, and only the faintest flicker of irritation as the Golem's massive took shape. She did not waste time gawking. Her hands blurred as she weaved chakra with the precision of a surgeon. Orbs of Scorch Release, five in total, flared into existence around her hand. They burned like tiny suns as their heat burning away the moisture in the air.
"Rasa!" Pakura's voice carried over the rumble. "Even with that gilded shell, you're still the same coward."
The Golem answered by slamming its enormous fists into the ground. The shockwave blasted outward, breaking branches and shaking the ground. A dozen golden spires erupted around Pakura aiming to impale her.
She darted forward throwing the orbs ahead of her. The intense fireballs struck the spires mid-rise, detonating them into harmless bursts of glittering ash. She did not stop as she wove through openings like a dancer tracing impossible steps.
The Golem's arm swung in a wide arc, trying to swat her from the air as she jumped up high. Pakura flipped, twisted, and hurled another two orbs in rapid succession. They struck the Golem's chest, exploding into heat waves that rippled outward. The gold smoked but did not melt as Rasa replaced weakened grains before her fire could devour them fully.
Chiyo unfurled a scroll and a puppet unsealed next to her with a hiss of smoke. It had a humanoid frame and was armed with wide, lacquered fans. It shot forward on invisible strings, intercepting a follow-up strike from the Golem's hand. The puppet's fans flared wide, catching the massive limb's weight and deflecting it just enough that Pakura slipped through the gap unscathed.
"You can't do meaningful damage like that!" Chiyo barked, fingers dancing. "Break the joints! Then concentrate on the chest where Rasa is!"
Pakura gave a curt nod, then shifted her aim. Her next orb was not hurled at the chest but at the knee joint where the limb was thin. The blast hissed, leaving a blackened seam. The puppet darted in behind her, driving a fan's edge into the weakened joint with a crunch. Gold spilled from the gap like blood as the bottom half of the leg was separated, and the Golem staggered to the ground, catching itself with its hands.
Rasa roared inside his cocoon, muffled but furious. He forced the Golem upright, waves of dust reflowing to create a new foot. Trying to delay Pakura, the golem pounded a fist on the ground and sent a tidal wave of gold racing outward. Chiyo's puppet planted its fans into the dirt, anchoring itself, and threw up a shield of lacquered plates. The wave smashed against it, splintering lacquer and snapping joints, but the puppet held long enough for Pakura to leap clear.
She sprinted up the Golem's shin, orbs flaring brighter with each step. Rasa responded by extending the Golem's arm unnaturally, elongating it into a whip that lashed sideways. The puppet moved as Chiyo yanked it up with threads into the path of the strike. Wood and metal shattered, the puppet's torso cracking under the blow, but it slowed the strike just enough for Pakura to keep climbing.
She reached the Golem's hip and vaulted higher, landing on its broad shoulder. The heat around her shimmered, distorting her outline, and for a heartbeat, she looked like a warrior of living flame.
Inside the shimmering Golem of gold, Rasa's chakra twisted furiously but controlled. He extended streams of gold dust outside the Golem's body, lashing them like whips. Chiyo's threads twitched as her puppet, though battered, flung itself between Pakura and the lashes, fans catching and dispersing them before they could strike true.
Pakura seized her moment. She formed a single orb, larger than the rest, compressed until its edges trembled with unstable heat. Her hands flared, compressing a final orb, larger and hotter than all the others combined. She shoved it into the neck of the Golem, pressing it down towards the center of the torso.
The explosion was blinding.
The Golem's chest burst open, throwing molten golden slag in every direction. Rasa dropped out of the body of the Golem and onto his hand and knees. His body was smoking, and his face was half-burned while his hair scorched away. Even so, his eyes gleamed with murderous intent as he glared at Pakura.
Pakura staggered back, arm burned from the close-range blast, her chest heaving. Chiyo's threads caught her belt and yanked her back, pulling her out of reach as Rasa tried to lash her with a desperate wave of gold.
"Finish it," Chiyo commanded, voice hard.
Pakura steadied herself. She lifted both hands and conjured two final Scorch orbs, her body lightly shaking from the intense fight. She hurled them forward, and each one struck Rasa square in the chest like a pair of blazing comets.
The gold around him melted. His scream was lost in the roar of the blast as his body charred black, collapsing into a smoldering husk on the riverbank. The battlefield fell silent.
Pakura swayed, and her right arm blistered and raw. Chiyo's puppet was little more than scorched fans and broken joints, not even enough for her threads to attach properly. Still, the two women stood tall while Rasa was left to smolder in the dirt.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Duy, hold back those four with the larger swords, and don't use more than the Sixth Gate without informing me. I'll take the Needle sword, Twin blades, and the weird one with two handles then join you on finishing the rest off," I instructed.
"Yes, Akari-sama," Duy agreed without hesitation.
"Who said you had a choice?!?" Fuguki shouted as he swung Samehada which stretched out as it bared its teeth.
"Gate of Joy... Open!" Duy shouted and then an intense burst of vibrant green chakra engulfed his body like a cloak.
Before Fuguki, or anyone for that matter, could react, the ground where Duy had been standing exploded with a spider-webbing of cracks. In the next moment, Duy was between me and Samehada and strangely seemed to be kicking in slow motion, yet nothing else could move while he did. A streak of fire trailed after his foot as it moved through the air and then, the moment that his toes touched Samehada, the living sword and its wielder were launched into the distance, breaking through branches and trunks alike, like a flaming meteor.
I didn't mean for you to go straight to the Sixth Gate, Duy! How many times have we gone over how important it is to keep some of your strength in reserve to take opponents by surprise? I complained silently to myself.
"Phantom, help me draw my three away. Space, keep an eye on Duy, and don't let him get too far away," I directed as I tossed both of them a small pouch with marked shurikens from a large pack on my thigh while the remaining swordsmen were momentarily stunned by Duy's raw strength.
"Understood," Phantom said, voice low and even, already palming a marked shuriken and thumbing its edge readily.
Space-Time did not waste a word. She clipped the pouch onto her belt then flicked out a shuriken and vanished in a clean, soundless step, reappearing on a broken trunk twenty paces off to shadow Duy.
Across the clearing, the Swordsmen snarled and shifted as they realized that Duy and I were far stronger than they expected. They retreated slightly to the river's edge as they could not afford to get drawn into Pakura's, Chiyo's, and Rasa's fight, and we followed, herding them in two different directions.
I did not need to speak as I activated my Yang Chakra Enhanced Strength and dashed out, straight at the Nuibari wielder; I may not have been able to measure up to Duy in the Sixth Gate, but I was still faster than the average jonin and my strength was even more impressive, and it all came without the level of damage that his technique caused. My Phantom Clone threw out three marked shurikens, one of which was charged with chakra, that overlapped with a genjutsu to multiply the visual number of shurikens. As I dug a foot into the ground to deliver a full-body punch, I teleported to the charged shuriken and slammed my fist firmly into the Kiba wielder's shoulder while the shuriken flew off harmlessly behind me.
The other two marked shurikens flew towards the Nuibari and Hiramekarei wielders, and my clone created two 'phantoms' that grabbed the shurikens as they 'attacked'. Currently, they were just genjutsu illusions and only my clone could use them efficiently, but my hope was to eventually create my own version of Shisui' Body Flicker Jutsu. I had been inspired after seeing the nine-year-old boy with a Leaf Forehead Protector, marking him as a genin; another one that I wanted to get close to and help direct in the future. Danzo may be dead, but that does not mean that there were no problems within the Uchiha Clan, though that was a future worry.
The Hiramekarei swung out, splitting the illusion in half, while the Nuibari pierced the heart of the illusion next to it, all as the Kiba wielder flew back several meters before slamming heavily into a tree and breaking the thick trunk with his body. I could not help but chuckle at the brokenness of the Flying Thunder God technique as I prepared my own marked shuriken while my Phantom Clone threw out another round of illusion shurikens to cover mine.
The Hiramekarei wielder split the swords into two as they glowed light blue with strong chakra, forming energy shields around his body. The Nuibari wielder threw out the wire end of his sword behind him, wrapping onto a tree, and angled his blade defensively towards me as I threw out my shuriken. He pulled himself away from where he had been the moment I vanished, much like I expected, so I teleported next to my skuriken as it neared the Hiramekarei wielder.
Continuing the spin of my throw, I swung my leg and my foot collided with the center of the crossed, chakra-infused blades of the Hiramekarei and, while the blades did not crack under the pressure, the wielder could not absorb all the force behind my kick and was also sent crashing into a tree heavily. As I dealt with mine, my Phantom Realm Clone kept the Nuibaru distracted with a mixture of real and illusion shurikens aimed directly at him, one or two even appearing as illusion clone images. He had no choice but to take them as a threat due to the fact that the real me might just appear, and that was exactly what I did after the Hiramekarei wielder hit.
I drew a kunai from my waist pouch and stabbed out as I teleported next to one of the shurikens that my Phantom Clone threw. He was ready for it, though, and managed to deflect my knife with a parry of his needle sword. Spinning as he dispersed the momentum from our strike, he attempted to bind me with the wire end of his sword; the idea was as amusing as it was stupid, so I did not struggle.
My Phantom Clone appeared at our sides and reached out to place a hand on both of our shoulders. Using the last of her chakra, she swapped our places, meaning that the Nuibaki wielder was now bound in his own wire, and I held his sword in my hand. I stabbed out and pierced his heart with his own weapon.
I dismissed my Phantom Realm Clone and summoned my Lightning, Fire, and Earth Clones. My Lightning Clone did not even wait for instruction and dashed towards the Kiba wielder's fallen form. I told Lightning and Fire to ensure that the swordsmen were dead, and Earth to secure their bodies and weapons in a storage scroll as I tossed one to her.
Across the riverbank, Duy drove his half of the Mist Swordsmen back with an unsurprising amount of enthusiasm and plenty of destruction. Fuguki never reappeared, so it was easy to guess that the coward fled after such a strong strike; that is, if he had the strength to do so. The next to be punted away by the overpowered Duy was the Shibuki wielder.
Duy made no attempt to hide the direction of his charge as he pointed directly at the swordsman before he vanished in a blur of motion. The swordsman had angled his blade to defend against Duy and channeled his chakra into it, preparing the special ability of the sword. While the sword released an explosion directly at Duy's fist as he struck, the green chakra cloak of the Gate of Joy deflected it all like it was nothing and he delivered a heavy jab. He, and his sword, stood no chance of resisting Duy's raw strength, and he was sent flying backwards while his sword cracked.
Kabutowari's wielder tried to ambush Duy the moment he stilled to watch the Shibuki zoom away, but Duy had enough time to react. He swung his elbow backwards to meet the large, round hammer in a pierce strike. The hammerhead shattered in a burst of shrapnel which did not spare its wielder as the pieces were pushed towards him by the chakra cloak and pierced his face, chest, and arms. Duy continued his twist after the elbow strike and punched out with his left fist which landed directly on the Kabutowari wielder's chest. The sound of shattering bone echoed as he shot out through two trees and into a massive boulder.
By the time that I finished my three, Duy had maimed three of his own and was chasing down the Kubikiribocho wielder who had turned and fled after Duy destroyed the Shibaki wielder with a single strike. My Space-Time Clone laid out a trap with its marked shuriken and teleported to one as the swordsman passed. The slight scare of my clone suddenly appearing in front of him was all that Duy needed to catch up with him and delivered a devastating punch to the swordsman's spine. Unfortunately, my clone was in line with the human-turned-missile and was dispelled by the impact while the Kubikiribocho continued to sail off in the distance.
"That's enough, Duy," I called out as I dashed over to him. "Close the Gate before you do anymore damage to yourself."
"But, Akari-sama, what if mo...?!?" he started.
"Then I'll handle them. My clones are rested, and you will still need to join the team when we deploy to the Mist front. We've talked about the stress on your body," I replied firmly, stopping by his side.
"Yes, Akari-sama!" he agreed then let out a slow, controlled breath.
The bright green chakra thinned then vanished as he closed the Gates one by one. While he did that, I summoned the rest of my usual clones and told them to secure the area since I noticed that Pakura's and Chiyo's fight was finishing, except for my Yang Clone. My Lightning Clone had taken the Kiba blades and was swinging them around as she tested her compatibility with them excitedly.
"You have to keep them! They are prefect for me!" Lightning exclaimed, releasing a blast of electricity into a tree with a casual swing.
"They're ugly," Water mocked as she walked down the river, spreading out.
"Agreed, and they should be summonable by the Mist if they aren't sealed away, so give them to Earth and help lockdown the area with the others," I told her. "If the Mist won't pay enough to get them back, I can always reach out to the Land of Iron and trade them for enough chakra metal to get a proper weapon or two. Don't worry, Duy, you'll get half of whatever I exchange them for since you killed half the swordsmen."
"I don't need anything, Akari-sama, but perhaps my son and disciple, Asuma, could benefit from something," he replied humbly with a wince of pain.
"Then I'll ensure Kurenai gets something as well if I manage to trade for chakra metal, but you'll need to take the money if we get that; Asuma definitely can't be trusted with a large amount of money," I said with a smile. "Yang, see what you can do to stabilize his condition. Space, Orochimaru's camp is not too far away; head out and ask for reinforcements to escort Pakura and Chiyo back. Phantom, start recovering your chakra; I want to send you and Duy back to the village to alert my father of what happened."
"Understood," Space said before teleporting away while the other two simply nodded.
While Yang healed Duy and Phantom recovered her energy, I walked over to Pakura and Chiyo. They took notice of my casual approach and the fallen Mist Swordsmen as my clones moved about with a hint of annoyance on their faces. They had fought harder and longer against a single opponent, using a technique clearly inspired by one of mine, while Duy and I took down six or seven elite jonin with no visible wounds and only low chakra levels, so I understood their complaint.
"Would you like me to treat your injury, Kazekage? My clones will handle our protection while one is racing ahead to call for reinforcements from our camp," I offered politely and with a hint of flattery.
Pakura straightened at the title then looked down at her blistered arm before glancing at Chiyo.
"I am also Tsunade-sama's personal student," I added with a sigh, shaking my head.
Chiyo nodded her head slightly, so Pakura said, "Thank you, Akari-san."
She held out her blistered arm and I activated the Mystic Palm technique. As I channeled the Yang chakra over the wound carefully, I could not help but wonder about the changing future. Danzo's death prevented a lot of future deaths, but Rasa's meant that there would be missing births, specifically Gaara, Kankuro, and Temari; they would have been important side characters in the future, but now they would likely be missing. The future was certainly going to be interesting as Madara and Black Zetsu adjusted their plans, but I was looking forward to the challenge in the years to come.
"Well, this is certainly one way to seal an alliance," I commented with a chuckle.
"Hopefully, this will be the first of many victories together," Pakura agreed with a light smile.
A/N: I'll be taking a short break to build up my backlog, and I'll be changing my releases to Mondays and Thursdays. Don't worry, I'll be back Oct. 6 at the usual time.