Book 2: Chapter 3: Team 9 vs. The Celestials!!! Part III

Book 2: Land of Sand

Chapter 3: Team 9 vs. The Celestials!!! Part III

1

“Summoning Jutsu!” Three child-sized Doki appeared, taking the hits for each of us, and grabbed hold of the dragon heads, keeping them in place.

“Wait, she can still summon those with her cursed mark sealed!” Ryūgan screamed.

“Cocky piece of shit.” Tayuya looked down on Ryūgan with a cocky grin where watching his face contort from overconfident anger to arrogant disbelief down to paralyzing fear sent shivers down my spine. She was still one of the Sound Four, and it showed. “Don’t ever think you’re better than me.”

“Ryūgan, you idiot!” Hōki screamed. “Rescind the blade!”

Ryūgan shook his head. “R-right.”

“Suiko, Kujaku, assist the child.”

“Got it.” They both said, running at us from opposite angles while Hōki stood in place watching the battle unfold. He was clearly the brains of the team, almost like a game of Shogi. He moved his pieces, thinking steps ahead, but little did he know I was a master at that game. I nodded towards Sui, who shook her head with a sigh, but under that cool façade, I could’ve sworn I saw her blush.

“You know I remember when you used to protect me.”

“If you ever let me, I would.”

“Hey, someone’s got to make sure that cute face of yours doesn’t get hurt.” Sui turned to Tayuya. “I’m counting on you Tayuya-neesan.”

“Don’t call me that in the middle of battle!” Tayuya yelled as she began to play a melody with sweat beading down her face.

“Garian Sword return!” Ryūgan pulled his blade back, yet the dragon heads didn’t move. “What’s the deal? The heads should’ve disappeared. Come on, move!”

Tayuya laughed, lowering her flute as a devilish smile grew on her face. Her curse mark wasn’t on, yet I still felt the chills of her presence. “Hell welcomes all, even pathetic trash like you. But don’t think you can ever escape its grasp! Finale, Ninth Movement: Revolt of the Demon World!”

I wasn’t sure if everyone saw what I had seen, but out of the Doki’s mouths came what looked like worms with teeth colored in a purple glow as if they were made of chakra. Each were the size of the child Doki and continued to grow longer the more it ate through the water dragon heads. Bit by bit and piece by piece, slowly but surely, the worms devoured all the way to the hilt of the blade.

“Let go of the blade!” Hōki yelled.

“I-I can’t!” Ryūgan cried out, continuing to tug on his blade to no avail, almost like being constricted by pythons the worms wouldn’t let the Gaian Sword free. “It took years to finish… My prized possession—”

“Naïve. Pathetic. Weak and arrogant. Gazing upon a God when you deserve nothing less than to be the chorus for my performance!” Tayuya clenched her fist, and the worms, having converged at the center of the Garian Sword, split out and two of them bit Ryugan’s legs while the last one bit his neck forcing the boy to scream out in pain.

I placed my hand on Tayuya’s shoulder, snapping her back to reality. “Whatever you do. Don’t kill him.”

“You’re such a fucking softie.”

“No, we need him alive for information—”

“Stop lying to yourself.” Tayuya brushed my hand off her. “You just don’t want to see someone die again.”

“I just don’t want to see you kill someone again.”

Tayuya clicked her tongue. “If I had my Curse Mark, he’d have been dead by now, but without it, I can only take his chakra slowly. He’ll live for about five minutes or so. End this before then if you want him to live.”

“I guess that means the Doki are stuck there?”

“Yeah,” Tayuya said, kicking at the random rocks on the ground like a pouting child.

“Big Sis.”

“What?” Tayuya snapped, only to relax as my forehead tapped against hers.

“Thank you.”

“Ahahaha!” The sound of Hōki’s laughter howled through the crater as he ruined our familial moment. “You’re really going to trade away the chance of evening the playing field?”

That time I stared at Hōki like he had lost his mind. “Evening it? You never had the advantage. Sui alone could take on you four.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that.” Hōki chuckled as he pointed to the far right of me. I turned my head to see that, in the distance, Sui struggling for a change. For some reason, Suiko was unharmed even though I saw Sui use her gentle fist and lightning cloak, none of it seemed to dent his armor. Meanwhile, Kujaku was…. Flying? And disrupted the fight by raining down blasts of wind, forcing Sui to always be wary of something outside of her Byakugan’s range.

“You see now Yuki. You were off on your calculation. Relying on one piece to win you the fight.”

I clicked my tongue, looking to find a way to help Sui, only for Hōki to shake his head.

“Don’t you even dare think about moving because if you do—” Hōki drew his blade with one hand and sent a blast of fire towards Tayuya, who stood in place clicking her tongue. If she moved the Doki would get hit, and Ryūgan would be freed. Damn it! I did a couple of hand signs.

“Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!” And there, the two flames collided, ending in a stalemate.

“Now Yuki, let’s see who's going to lose first. You against my fire, and trust me, this doesn’t even cost me chakra to use. Or Sui against her opponents, then you’ll lose against the three of us. Or maybe you’ll go with the third option of giving up your foolish ideals and evening the board. That’s your only viable option, but knowing you, that’ll never happen, so I win—”

I laughed. I laughed so hard that the fighting stopped between Sui and the other two. I laughed until I heard Sui scream out.

“Yuki don’t lose control—”

“It’s fine Sui. It’s not that.” I wiped the tear from my eye, showing off my Two Tomoe Sharingan. “It’s just I finally know what this is. Danzō sold us out. And Hiruzen is testing us. Testing me. Putting me in the same situation he was in. And you know what! I’m so sick and tired of people thinking they know who the hell I am!”

I threw my two water kunai into the sky. Lightning style: Shocking Grasp Jutsu! There, lighting ran along the wires until—

“Oh no you don’t, boy.” Kujaku swung her blade, and a gust of wind sliced through the wires before they could ignite my storm-style Jutsu. “We know all about your Kekkei Kanri.”

“Is that right,” I smirked, releasing the wires on Tayuya and Sui. Then grabbed three water kunai with two smoke-tagged kunai and three wind kunai from my pocket. There I threw the first set of five at Kujaku.

“That’s not going to work!” Kujaku swung her blade again, aiming for the wires, except she missed as I spread my fingers apart carefully, ensuring that not one of them got hit by the wind. “What the—Hōki!”

“Don’t worry.” Hōki swung his blade, sending another wave of fire towards Tayuya, where she was prepared to jump out of the way, yet I appeared in front of her.

“Yuki? But what about the—”

“Earth Style: Terra Shield Jutsu!” I stomped the ground, and a wall of earth flipped up, tanking the blast of fire before turning into rubble. Yet, out of the corner of my eye, I kept my fingers moving to dodge Kujaku’s wind attacks. I couldn’t answer Tayuya, hell, I barely even heard her as I yelled: “Sui, I got these two. Focus on armor guy!”

“That’s my Yuki.”

A smile spread across my face as I split focus. It didn’t matter if I had to micro 40 actions or 60 actions hell, even a 100 in a second, I’d do it. As long as my eyes could see it, all I needed was to just do it. I had the ability, the practice. This was nothing compared to what Itachi could do. Nothing compared to what Yukino could do. But I’ll surpass them. For I am an Uchiha!

2

Lightning erupted from my fingertips running along the wires where Kujaku tried something different and used her blades to fly out of the range of the wires. I chased after her, only for Hōki to throw another blast of fire at Tayuya. Releasing the wires from my fingertips, I did the hand signs again, shooting out another fireball to defend her.

Hearing the sound of a thunderstorm, I figured the water kunai ignited, creating a storm style with a black cloud of smoke layered around it. An Improvised Style: Storm Styled Storm Cloud!

A thundercloud that shot off beams of lightning aimed at random. Some shot off towards Hōki and Kujaku, while others shot off towards Sui and me. It had become a game of dodging disco lights, and luckily Tayuya didn’t have to play because I didn’t give her a chance to as I did another set of hand signs.

I felt the wind flow around my body, the weight of the world on my shoulders got a little bit lighter, and a smile grew on my face as I ran towards the cloud, tapping my hand against the ground as I went. Pillars of earth rose, lining up like a stairway to what I hoped wasn’t heaven telling me I couldn’t enter as the black cloud looked pissed. Those who saw might have thought I was crazy sprinting my way closer to the eye of the storm, but unlike them, I could see the lightning strikes where I dodged each with ease. There I jumped behind the cloud to where I was facing Kujaku and rocked my head back as I wanted to try out Tayuya’s own Jutsu copying her hand signs.

“Wind Style: Great Breakthrough Jutsu!”

It wasn’t as strong as Tayuya’s, and I didn’t want it to be. I just needed it to be strong enough to push the cloud towards Suiko and Kujaku. There I saw one of the strikes hit Suiko where he didn’t even flinch. When another struck, I watched the chakra flow straight into his armor. They made chakra-absorbing armor!

On one hand, cool! On the other, bullshit! And as much as I wanted to help Sui with that guy, Hōki was starting to regain focus as the lightning was no longer hitting anywhere near him. Even though he should have been helping his own teammate, I knew how that bastard worked, and I wasn’t going to let him target Tayuya!

Still midair, I threw out two earth kunai behind me, allowing lightning to flow from my fingertips, and using the scroll on my back to cushion the blast, I launched right back to the ground. And with a kunai in hand, I clashed with Hōki’s Fire Sword.

Our eyes met, and that was the first time I had ever seen fear from a real ninja. I didn’t know if it was because I was much younger than him, yet he was so outclassed. Or that, for a moment, he saw how much fun I had showing off. Either way, I didn’t give him the chance as my kunai broke, and I ducked underneath his flaming slash. I got into the gentle fist stance and said:

“Checkmate.”

Two palm strikes to his chest, then four into eight. His burning blade blurred past my face as I dodged back then sprang forward, slamming into his arm for sixteen. Watching Hōki’s grip loosen around the Fire Sword, I snatched the blade the moment it fell. It was surprisingly heavy and warm to the touch, even at the hilt. Though that didn’t stop me from slashing past his ninja gear, and though I missed his vitals, the smell of copper left me worried.

“Those… eyes…” Hōki coughed as he held onto his bleeding chest. “No wonder he wanted you dead. No child should possess that much power. Kujaku!”

I turned my head and saw Kujaku fly past the storm cloud, using both of her blades to maneuver around the lightning strikes. With the swiftness and grace of the vermillion bird, she appeared in front of me faster than my eyes could react with her swords held high. Damnit, she wasn’t aiming for Tayuya or Sui!

Letting go of the Fire Sword I rolled to the side and avoided her slash, only to get sent flying back by a gust of wind that followed. I flipped around, landing on my feet with new cuts to my clothes and arms. With a click of my tongue, I began to understand more of how her twin blades worked. She didn’t just have long-range wind jutsu or the ability to fly. Every time she swung her swords they emitted a slash of wind with them, effectively making them much longer than it appeared. How could I forget about that!

“Well, well, well, boy, did you run out of juice already?” Kujaku said, spinning her blades around as she winked.

My heart was ringing in my ears, and I had to concentrate on keeping my breaths under control, so she wasn’t wrong, but I’d never let her know she had me flustered. “Why don’t you come and find out—”

“Already did.” Kujaku appeared in front of me again, leading with a downward slash. I turned to my side, feeling the wind blast past me as the ground trembled. With a quick hop, I avoided her horizontal slash, and for a split second, I saw Tayuya nod. There I jumped away from Kujaku, weaving three hand signs that she picked up on immediately.

“Don’t even bother. A breeze can’t even compare to a hurricane!” Kujaku crossed her blades, and I saw the wind chakra build up. She was right. My wind style was nothing compared to hers, but I didn’t need it to be.

“Wind Style: Blowing Swirl Jutsu!”

Kujaku slashed, creating an x-shaped force of wind that cut through my wind technique with ease, yet it did its job softening the blow as I tanked the blast and heard Tayuya: "Wind Style: Great Breakthrough Jutsu!”

Tearing through the ground and straight at Kujaku was a circular whirlwind where she only had the time to look the hurricane in the eye before the force slammed her into the ground. There Kujaku laid cut up, her weapons freed from her grasp and unconscious while I was also on my back with an x carved on my body. It wasn’t deep, but my Sharingan shut off as I could barely lift my head to see I had screwed up.

All of the Doki were gone, and Ryūgan was free, not to mention pissed.

“You had the chance to kill two of us, yet you let us live,” Hōki said with his injuries seared shut and holding the Fire Sword in his hand. It looked like his other arm was at the most broken, but I didn’t need a Byakugan to tell his chakra points weren’t off. And though Ryūgan was covered in bites and looked even skinnier than he did before, that didn’t seem to bother him at all.

“You fucking bitch! I’ll show you God!” Ryūgan raised his trident blade up high, a crazed smile plastered across his face. “Dragon Eye Fang Release: Gluttony!”

The three dragon heads flew up high, becoming entangled as they merged into one giant Dragon head. Big enough to swallow a person whole. Even Hōki took a step back as his ally began to laugh before he swung his blade at Tayuya.

“Let’s see how you like being chewed on. Devour her, Garian!”

Tayuya stared up at the Dragon that sped down towards her. Even without my Sharingan, I knew she didn’t have any chakra left to even dodge an attack like that. Not without her Curse Mark, which began to grow out across her body only to be forced back. What the hell is she doing?

I opened my mouth to scream at her to use the Curse Mark. To use that power to save herself. Yet I stopped as I felt the world slow down. The words caught in my throat while her voice grew louder.

“Kill them!”

“I won’t.” Sui appeared in front of me, a blue static around her body with Tayuya in her arms. “Because that’s not what you want right, Yuki?”