Chapter 5: Sunset
Naruto was hardly impressed with the man before him. While it was almost impossible to say for sure, Naruto could only guess that the ragged person sitting before him was in his twenties. The figure’s face was covered with a wide spread circular white Kasa as opposed the traditionally more pointed conical straw hats. The hat was also appeared to be his only clean possession. A ragged, dirty, and tattered cloak covered whatever the man wore underneath, and was large enough to sprawl around him on the floor. He sat with his head seemingly down, and his legs crossed. From under the cloak it was apparent that his forearms were resting calmly on his knees. Attached to a khaki sash, a rag covered staff rested on the individual’s back. It held a circular top with three rings appearing on either side of the staff’s rod section. This individual could only be described as one dressed as that of a wanderer. Unable to contain his surprise, Naruto blurted out with disappointment, “Huuuh…this bum is our target?” As he finished, the sitting man’s head raised slightly before returning to its original downward position.
“ I did not notice your presence. I must have appeared rude...Sorry.”
“EH!!” Naruto, Sakura, and Kiba cried.
“This guy is supposed to be our dangerous target?” Kiba called out in annoyance, “He didn’t even know we were here. How am I supposed to take this seriously?!”
“That’s yet to be determined,” Kakashi interviened with a serious look on his face. Keeping his Sharingan concentrated on the man, Kakashi continued. “Would you happen to be Tsukasa Shirokishi?” His question was met with silence. Wanting nothing more than to end this mission, Naruto roared.
“HEY RAGS-BASTARD! I’D LIKE TO GET THIS OVER WITH! IF YOU’RE THIS TSUKASA GUY THAN JUST SAY SO! THEN GIVE UP OR LET ME KICK YOUR ASS!” Hearing Naruto’s desire to end the mission and knowing it was because of her, Hinata’s head sunk down.
“Naruto calm down…” Kakashi said as he placed his left hand on Naruto’s shoulder before he could offer more words to calm his student, the man then spoke up.
“My name is Tsukasa yes…” the man said flatly. Upon finishing his response, the group tensed up. It was finally confirmed that this was in fact their target: Tsukasa Shirokishi.
“Well that is fortunate!” smiled Sai. Looking to Naruto and Kiba, he continued. “You two would have looked like *******s had this man not been Tsukasa Shirokishi. Of course, I mean that in a figurative sense as you are more than an *******. Perhaps my earlier thought was wrong about you Naruto… maybe you haven’t grown a pair of balls, but instead have half a ball.” Before Naruto or Kiba could respond to Sai’s latest insult, Kakashi stepped in.
“Sai that’s enough… we need to stay focused. If this guy is our target, than he’s no pushover. When Naruto ran out of the Hokage’s office, I managed to have enough time to look him up in the Bingo Book on the walk to the gate.”
“In the Bingo Book,” Sakura said, “That means he’s in the top tier of the S-Ranked Criminals…” His eyes narrowing , Kakashi continued.
“That’s only the tip of the Iceberg. According to the Bingo Book, he’s been associated with Akatsuki though it would seem he is not an official member. From what I read he assisted in the capture of the Five Tail’s Jinjuriki: Han of Iwagakure. According to rumor, Han had both extreme physical power and speed. The two traits cumulated into one of the best taijutsu styles to exist outside of the Gentle Fist, and the 8 Gates.” As soon as Kakashi had mentioned the heinous organization everyone went wide eyed except Hinata who was still swimming in thoughts of guilt. Naruto’s earlier desire to bring a quick end to his mission was instantly replaced with searing anger. The wind picked up for a few seconds as Tsukasa continued to sit.
“Why do you want to kick my ass?” Tsukasa asked, maintaining a flat, seemingly emotionless voice. “Between yourself and the one that lies inside you there are better options available.”
“DON’T SCREW WITH US!” Naruto shouted.
“Naruto calm down.” Kakashi said with a raised voice. “If you do not keep calm this will only make things worse.”
“Kakashi-Sensei…” Sakura started.
“Yeah… He knows about Naruto,” Kakashi responded. “Which means that we cannot allow him to leave.”
“With time comes knowledge… secrets cannot hide forever,” Tsukasa suddenly said. While his head remained down, his head turned to seemingly be observing the individuals of the group before him. “Hmm?” Tsukasa slightly raised his head once again… his kasa still covering his face. Taking on a more gentle tone as opposed to his earlier apathetic one, Tsukasa continued. “If you always look to the Earth, how can you step towards the Sun?” Hinata’s eyes grew wide and her heart began to race. Deviating his eyes only slightly, Kakashi looked back at the Hyuga Hieress. Seeing her head down, Kakashi then redoubled his focus on Tsukasa.
“If he intends to target her first… things could get complicated,” Kakashi thought to himself.
“Tsch…I said don’t screw with us!” Naruto said in anger, “We don’t need any pointless words of wisdom! Besides you’re the only one who’s looking down! Kakashi let’s just…” Before he could finish Neji cried out.
“HINATA-SAMA!” Hinata flew by using chakra to enhance her speed. Taking a single counter clockwise spin, Hinata threw her right leg forward as her right palm flew at Shirokishi’s head. Before her Jyuuken strike could land, the target pressed his heels against the tiled floor, and in a quick, fluid motion moved into a backflip… landing on his hands only to push in order to propel himself further back. Pressing forward, Hinata quickly covered the gap. Instead of spinning, Hinata began thrusting jabs in an attempt to strike Tsukasa’s Tenketsu. Moving his body left and right while back peddling, Shirokishi evaded her strikes. Pushing with both feet, the Shirokishi once again pressed backwards and started sliding on his heels. Stepping forward at her now off balance opponent, Hinata stepped forward and threw her palm to strike her adversary. Just as she began to step forward, Tsukasa fell on his back allowing the Jyuuken palm to fly overhead. Tucking in his arms back towards his shoulders and pulling his feet towards his chest, Shirokishi used his backwards momentum to go begin spinning on the upper part of his back and kneck. After gaining enough torque, Tsukasa threw his hands onto the tile, and simultaneously thrusted his arms and legs to explode away from his core. Having overexerted her balance, Hinata could not react as Tsukasa’s legs flew up catching the bottom side of her chin, and proceeded to send her flying back towards the rest of the Konoha Platoon that sprang into action.
Landing on his feet from his upward kick, Tsukasa was presently stationed halfway between the edge of the ring and the center of the Temple. Flying towards him, Kakashi moved to keep the S-Rank Criminal from capitalizing on his recent hit on Hinata. With a Raikiri in each hand, Kakashi began to unleash a flurry of jabs to prevent Tsukasa from reaching a wider range of land. Despite his sharingan and considerable skill in Taijutsu, his opponent was evading every strike Kakashi made. “He’s good,” Kakashi thought to himself, “If I can just keep him on defense the others can get in formation.” Just as the thought finished flowing through his head, four Narutos began to move in from both the right and left. Forming a Rasengan each side pushed in with Kakashi’s Raikiri thrust. Just before the impacts could land, Tsukasa rolled back. With the staff on his back catching into the tiling, it slightly bent as Tsukasa rolled back up onto it before he balanced himself on top of it using his hands. With the S-Rank criminal balanced on his staff, Naruto and Kakashi’s attacks struck the staff. Instead of being destroyed, the ragged staff pulsed, and with it Kakashi and Naruto were flung backwards with surprising force. The force of the blowback had managed to knock Kakashi back to the top of the staircase where Sai, in the midst of drawing, was holding to prevent Tsukasa from fleeing down the staircase. His shadow clones dispersing, Naruto, revealed to have approached to Tsukasa’s left, went sliding over the edge of the encirclement: just nearly colliding with the Dragon Statue that sat on the edge of the temple’s circular design. Pulling a last ditch effort, Naruto created a series of Twenty clones to create a make shift ladder as he grabbed onto the last clone’s ankles.
Having been kicked back, Hinata had landed fairly close to the center of the Tenshuno Temple. Sakura had arrived by Hinata’s, who was partially dazed, side along with Kiba and Shino. “Alright let’s go Akamaru! We’ll crush him with Gatsuga!” Before Kiba could move forward, Shino caught his hand. “Kiba, you need to operate as support with Sakura. That’s because the two of you cause too much destruction with your attacks. The one best suited for moving now is GUH!!” Before Shino had even begun to speak Tsukasa had been taking action. Ending his balance on the Staff, he quickly threw his legs forward giving his body a spinning momentum, and thus returning him to an upright position. Catching his right foot in the circle of the staff’s top he bent into a crouch before exploding off of his right foot. The chakra enhanced burst of energy threw him forward while simultaneously unhinging the staff from the tiled floor. Throwing his right leg forward, Tsukasa extended his range using the staff still caught in his right foot. With this the S-Rank Criminal impacted Shino in the chest, and sent the Aburame flying backwards.
Landing with Kiba on his left and Sakura approaching from his right, Tsukasa used the momentum and positioning of the staff to allow it to fall back into the dirt caked sash on his back. Quick to react, Kiba had enhanced himself with his more feral side, and he swiped his claw-like hand towards his opponent only to miss as Tsukasa spun to his right, and lowered himself into a sweep kick to take away the Inuzuka’s balance.
“There’s nowhere for you to move now! SHANAROOO!” Having moved in, Sakura drew her hand back to throw a punch. As Tsukasa began to evade, he stumbled. Looking back to his left leg he saw Kiba had latched onto his leg, and Akamaru had clamped his teeth onto his ragged cloak preventing him from moving. Further holding him down were a pair of black snakes that wrapped around Kiba’s hands as the Ink helped tighten the Inuzuka’s grip. Back at the staircase Sai looked on with a smile.
“The tiling offers an advantage for my Art,” Sai began. “Using the holes I was able to move them unnoticed. All I had to do was wait for the dumb one to mess up and then I could stop you movements.”
“Alright this is it,” thought Sakura as she threw her fist forwards. A small smirk appeared across her face as the S-Rank Criminal put his hand up to block and stepped forward with his free right hand. “Wrong choice!” she thought.
As her hand impacted against the open palm of her adversary, the force of her punch created a surging gust of wind that ended up sending Akamaru flying backwards along with Kiba: his hand now covered in ink from the destroyed Ink Snakes. “Huh…” Sakura could only stare in disbelief as her opponent had caught her fist in his open palm without so much as a scratch or sign of injury. “What’s going on?!” Sakura thought, “Even if he could catch the punch his arm should be shattered and destroyed!” Before she could further contemplate what had happened, Tsukasa slid thehis right hand from Sakura’s fist to her wrist. Pulling her towards him he surged his right hand forward to her waist and allowed his left hand to take the former position of holding her wrist. Crouching down Tsukasa used Sakura’s forward momentum to his advantage as he pulled down with his left hand while pushing up with his right hand resulting in him flipping Sakura over him. “Gah!” Sakura breathed out as she landed on her back some feet in the direction of Kiba and Akamaru: the air forced out of her.
As soon as Sakura had gone airborne, Tsukasa moved a few paces forward; however, he almost immediately stopped as Neji blocked his path having already taken up the standard Jyuuken posture. “I will give you a chance to forfeit now,” addressed Neji. “While your Taijutsu is commendable, it is now futile to attempt to continue this fight any longer. You have taken too long and have allowed my eye to see everything. The way you move, the way you dodge. My attacks will be swifter than Hinata-Sama’s. Additionally, my skill in Taijutsu is superior to Hatake Kakashi’s. His glancing blows will only be closer from me, and with my Jyuuken they will be lethal strikes. I’ll say this once more, but I would recommend you to forfeit before it is too late.” Having overcome her daze, Hinata had gotten back up on her feet, and stood off to the enemy’s right as she similarly entered the Hyuga stance.
While his face was still mostly covered by his white Kasa, Neji’s eyes narrowed as a smile spread across his opponent’s face before returning its seemingly regular blank demeanor. “You have keen eyes,” said Tsukasa suddenly. Finishing his unexpected praise, Tsukasa crouched down into a defensive stance. Without wasting a moment, Neji sprang forward. Unleashing the full potential of the Jyuken style, Neji quickly began to press Tsukasa back. Unlike the first encounter Neji did not allow Tsukasa the comfort of distance, and as such the S-Rank Criminal began to throw up his arms to block the incoming jabs. After remaining still for a few moments, Hinata began to move forward after the duo.
“What is wrong with me…” Neji said to himself. Despite his frustration, the Hyuga kept calm, and simply increased his already bluring jabs and thrusts as he brought his enemy closer to the edge of the Temple’s circular structure. Continuing to fall back, Tsukasa continued to block Neji’s strikes with his hands and forearms. “Impossible,” thought Neji, “I keep missing his Tenketsu. Why is this? To make matters worse, I’m missing by mere millimeters!” Picking up her speed, Hinata began to close in behind Neji. Using her body’s natural flexibility, Hinata began an initial forward handspring. Twisting her hands, she rotated her body to follow up with two more consecutive back handsprings to gain more momentum, and then used the moment to spring herself into a arcing backflip. Shooting over the pair of engaged combatants, Hinata landed a few meters behind Tsukasa Shirokishi. Having landed in a crouched position, Hinata leapt forward into a series of clockwise spins as her hands began to glow in what appeared to be flaming chakra. Just as the chakra had begun to mold in her hands, Tsukasa slightly turned his head back to view the opponent behind him.
“THERE!” cried Neji to himself. With a quick burst of speed at his opponents distraction, Neji plunged his right hand forward and struck Tsukasa’s left shoulder; however, his eyes quickly widened in disbelief as he quickly noticed chakra from his opponent firing out of the very same point. Neji’s Jyuuken strike instantly being countered. “It cannot be…” Neji thought to himself. His eyes then began to notice more and more of Tsukasa’s Tenketsu beam bright blue. Before the S-Rank criminal muttered the words in monotone, the Hyuga Prodigy had a rare emotion settle in his stomach: fear.
Tsukasa Shirokishi quickly flew into a rapid counter clockwise spin. “Hakkeshou Kaiten.” Errupting into a sphere of whirling chakra, Neji and Hinata were blown back. Having come from a lower stance and a direct contact, Neji was thrown to the ground and slid back towards the center of the shrine. However, instead of thinking of the skid marks burning into his back, Neji cried out once more, “HINATA-SAMA!”
Having started a clockwise spin, Hinata’s momentum had been completely halted, and the off balance had staggered her step. As the whirling sphere of chakra made a sudden and rapid increase, a staggered Hinata was lifted up into the air and seen reeling backwards. Flying with surprising force Hinata’s head slammed into the top of the Dragon statue rendering her unconscious as she began to spiral off the edge of the cliff.
Having finally managed to climb up his ladder of clones, Naruto peered over the edge of the Shrine in time to see a huge whirling sphere of blue chakra as it suddenly expanded and retracted in a rapid fashion. Hearing Neji cry out, Naruto had barely any time to look up before seeing Hinata crash into the Dragon statue just to his right. Seeing Hinata begin to spin and fall his eyes widened. Images of her smacking his face flew into his mind and he heard her words, “HOW DARE YOU LAY A HAND ON ME KYUBI!” Almost immediately after, Naruto recalled the day he faced Neji in the Chunin Exams, and after that the smile she had just this morning when Team Kurenai had arrived in Tsunade’s office. “SHIT! HINATA!” Naruto yelled out as he pressed his legs off of the side. Firing down at a diagonal angle, he quickly caught her. Wrapping his right arm around her waist, he formed his trademark hand seal. “KAGEBUNSHIN NO JUTSU!” Once more Twenty clones appeared. Instantly grabbing onto the bottom clone’s ankle, Naruto threw his arm forward as his clones reached for the edge of the cliff.
Back at the top of the cliff, Tsukasa stood facing Neji, and Kakashi. Sakura and Kiba were racing forward. “Not close enough…” Tsukasa said. Sakura could only watch as the lead clone’s hand curled forward in vain as it missed the edge of the Tenshuno Temple’s cliff. As the clones dispersed Naruto cried out as he and Hinata plunged down before vanishing in the waterfall’s mist.
Sakura cried out, “NARUTOOOO!”
End Chapter
cause it came with a dose of 200% courage and 300% aggression.
!