Assault on Kirigakure - Part 2
There was no way that they would last for much longer.
He was just too powerful, and he hadn?t seemed to use any special jutsu of his mangekyou sharingan yet besides the occasional white fire, and a powerful technique it was. The fire that was in front of the gate was unable to be doused by even the strongest water jutsu in Reina?s adequate arsenal, and the ground under it was now at least ten meters, and counting, below where it originally was.
And there was another move that he had used a few times?Kamui. They had already known Tenzu to be capable of teleporting, of course, but they hadn?t expected, although perhaps it should have been obvious, that he could use the space-related jutsu that was thought to be specific to only Kakashi Hatake.
The area in front of the village at this point was little more than a wasteland, barren without even grass and many parts of it with small pallid flames.
Sora was the only one with enough energy left to put up any sort of fight, though he had yet to use any special abilities, and indeed there must be special abilities for such an odd-looking weapon, of his blade. He had, though, used some wind jutsu and even one fire-related one. He had enough speed to keep up with some of Tenzu?s attacks, but it seemed as though nothing would be enough in the face of this man.
Tenzu advanced slowly, in a more menacing fashion than a cautious one, from the distance that he was at, only one sword out now that scraped against the ground to make a loud, screeching noise. Suddenly, in a burst of movement, he used his back leg, to push himself forward, altering his slow walk into a deadly quick run, it was more like he had leapt towards Sora and was now flying. He brought his blade in for a quick stab, and as Sora back away out of the range of his attack, Tenzu disappeared and reappeared behind Raiden, who had just been getting up from a previous attack, and stomped hard on his back, leaving his left foot on Raiden?s back as he spoke.
?Really, I honestly did expect a bit more. I?ll let you in on a little secret: if I had to guess how much of my power I was using right now, I?d say somewhere between one and two twentieths,? Tenzu said, blandly and with almost complete indifference in his voice, indifference that made what he said sound like an honest, declarative statement.
Sora breathed in deeply, and held his blade out to the side, and something odd happened. From his hand, fire seemed to gradually rise upward from the hilt of the blade to the very tip, fully engulfing his peculiar sword in flames. When the fire receded, the sword was noticeably different. The color over the blade had turned into silver at some parts and red at others. The hilt was circular, and out of it extended the body of the blade which was the darkest part of the sword, which seemed to make a shape similar to a very thin hourglass, going inward and then back outwards where the blade began to reach its tip. Instead of an actual point, there was a crescent moon shape, like a backwards, red ?C.? In the inner part of the crescent, there was a cross, extending from the top of the crescent to the bottom and then from the side of it and then outwards where there was a spike at the open space.
Sora was still using the same stance, slightly crouched and holding the apparently shape-shifting weapon with both hands. He swung once, and a horizontal, crescent-shaped blast of fire came out of his sword, going towards Tenzu, who waved his hand once, literally slicing through the crescent rendering it harmless.
When the fire subsided, though, Sora was nowhere to be found.
A ring of fire suddenly appeared around Tenzu, first it was just on the ground, a very fine, thin circle, and then it rose up violently, as a sort of magma appeared under his feet. Being a user of fire, Tenzu hardly felt anything, but Raiden could feel the strength being sapped out of him as he lay there.
Before Sora entered the ring of fire that Tenzu was in, he turned to Reina, ?If he gets out, which he probably will, I?m counting on you to at least hold him off for a while,? and when she gave a determined nod, he went in.
Sora busted through the ring, flying, literally, towards Tenzu and going for a stab, just to get him off of Raiden. The attempt was successful, as Tenzu teleported, as expected, and then reappeared near the edge of the ring, both of his hands on it. As soon as he was off of Raiden, the ninja rolled backwards and then stood to stand next to Sora as they watched Tenzu attempt to get through the ring.
?Not gonna work,? Sora remarked plainly, and then charged in toward Tenzu, now holding his blade with only one hand.
He slashed wildly several times, each time a crescent blast of fire coming from his blade, and then stopped abruptly and brought his hand up quickly, as a large column of fire protruded from under Tenzu, who predictably teleported into the air to avoid all attacks, though.
Sora didn?t stop there, however, bringing his arm across quickly. From the side of the ring, a large blast of fire came and went diagonally upwards to hit Tenzu, who took the hit solidly, falling down to the ground though catching himself so that he landed on his feet.
?You actually got me...? Tenzu said, truly astonished, ?Very nice... but I think that that?s quite enough,? he finished, as he snapped his fingers once.
The fire around them completely disappeared, as did the magma under their feet, and Tenzu continued talking, ?You didn?t think that you would best an Uchiha by using fire style jutsu, did you??
Tenzu held his hand out, his palm facing the ground and all of his fingers spread out. Thin lines of white fire came out of three of his fingers, each one wrapping themselves around each of his opponents like a whip. The white fire stopped connecting with his fingers, but they were still wrapped around his opponents, holding them in place completely, though surprisingly not burning them. Though that clearly wasn?t a good thing. It clearly meant that he needed to hold them still for an undoubtedly powerful jutsu.
Tenzu held his hand up so that it pointed to the sky, ?Just sit tight and wait. As soon as I finish this jutsu, all of the pain you guys would have to go through if we prolonged this will be done in a flash.?
~
Riku slashed once across, taking advantage of the Mizukage?s moment of surprise, sending her stumbling backwards and making a small slash on her side, and afterwards he flipped backwards, jumping high enough into the air so that when he landed he was next to Kisame.
?Akatsuki, eh? So they?re letting kids in now?? Kisame asked, staring Riku up and down, ?Sorry, but I don?t do alliances anymore, especially with children.?
Riku shrugged, ?How about a bit of cooperation, then. All we want is the Daimyo and Mizukage, those other two wouldn?t be bad to take along either, if you want the Water Country, you can have it,? Riku replied, almost completely sure that Kisame would never help their enemies and equally as sure that he had no motive to harm Akatsuki itself.
Kisame grinned, ?I guess I could sacrifice the pleasure of killing a few, as long as I don?t have to do something like this ever again,? he said, and then pointed his sword to where Ao and Chojuro were, laying within a two or three meters of each other, ?Those two are only unconscious, not dead, so all that?s left is the pretty one over there; the Daimyo isn?t a threat at all, I was planning to kill her just for the joy of it.?
Riku nodded at the general assessment, and then turned to the Mizukage. He had heard of her two kekkei genkai, of course, and figured that because they were off such broad destructive nature, she was trying to avoid jutsu. Based on what he just saw and interrupted, though, she had apparently forsaken that attempt, and logically so.
The room was at a standstill for a moment, and then Kisame began rushing in first, Riku coming fast behind him. Mei hopped backwards, just barely getting out of reach, as Kisame thrust Samehada forward. Riku, focusing chakra into his feet, already foreseeing the likelihood that even with his sandals that pain would accompany what he was about to do, flipped over Kisame?s head, landing on Samehada and thanking himself for focusing chakra into his feet as he heard slight rips on his sandals, and then jumped once more, tapping one foot on the Mizukage?s head and then using her as a launching pad to jump upwards and spin around while throwing Soul Eater out toward her back.
Mei Terumi, clearly no amateur to battle, rolled backwards, both to put distance between her and Kisame and to allow the blade to swoop harmlessly over her head. When she was standing again, she found herself positioned directly under Riku, and quickly spewed what seemed to be a spear of lava out of her mouth toward him.
Quickly, Riku swiped his arm across, making a platform of ice come out from the side of the wall next to him. Surprisingly to the Mizukage, Kisame, and the ever-frightened Daimyo, her back against the wall in an attempt to hide, the ice easily blocked the spear of lava, not seeming to have begun melting even slightly. The lava spear hit the ice and quickly cooled, evaporating into thick, poisonous gas that was coming down on the Mizukage.
She tried to move, tried to get away from the gas before inhaling it, but suddenly felt ice creep up her legs. It began slowly, Riku wanting to allow her to breath in just enough of the intoxicating gas to render her unconscious, and just as she began to breath it in and her senses began to dull, he made the ice in her feet branch out up, around, and over her from all sides, trapping her in a sphere.
Riku made the same hand seal that he had to perform that jutsu to do it several more times, trapping the unconscious pair of Chojuro and Ao in these spheres as well as the conscious, though much to fearful to move, Water Daimyo.
The veteran, or close enough to it at least, ice user clenched his hands tightly, quickly, and all of the spheres shrunk and condensed within a moment, becoming the size of marbles, all of which came to Riku?s grasp when he held out his hand.
?I thought that you wanted to keep them alive?? Kisame asked as Riku stuffed the minute spheres into the opening of his cloak where there was, apparently, some sort of pocket.
?I did, and they are,? Riku replied bluntly, ?Do whatever you want with the rest of the Water Country,? he said as he started to walk away, but stopped for a moment to add one more thing, ?Oh, and you don?t have to consider us allies, but if you do step out of line against Akatsuki, then rest assured that you will, indeed, die.?
Kisame gave a slight smirk at that, more than slightly amused, ?You?ll be taking down the entire Water Country, then??
Riku shrugged, ?Well, with or without your help, taking down Kirigakure would have been no problem for me to do alone, and if my partner would quit toying with his opponents outside, then it would have taken little more than a few seconds. So yes, we could, and we will,? Riku explained, and with that, he slowly seemed to evaporate out of view into cold, blue wisps of air.
Kisame, the 6th Mizukage and the king of the Water Country, though, was still amused even with that cold and bitter remark. Perhaps if he ever got bored he would test the truth of that statement.
~
When Riku found Tenzu, Riku himself having reappeared in front of the fire-gate, his hand was held high with all three of his former friends shackled with thin lines of ashen fire. Tenzu?s hand, though, had a green, odd energy coating it, and above his hand was more of this green energy, seeming to have a purplish color in the center, that was in the form of a ball. The ball seemed to be growing, slowly expanding. Right now, it was roughly the size of Tenzu himself, him having a height around 170 to 180 centimeters, in diameter.
Tenzu seemed to notice Riku before Riku even saw him, turning slightly and looking back to him, ?Success??
Riku gave a slight, apathetic shrug, ?For the most part, I?ll fill you in later,? he said, and then he looked towards the group in front of Tenzu, the faces that were much too familiar, ?Didn?t think I?d see any of you again so soon.?
Reina was the only one to speak, her voice barely a whisper, ?Riku...?
Riku had been glaring ahead at the third member of the group, though. Who was that? He looked so familiar, yet so... Riku?s thoughts trailed as he looked for the right words. He had no idea who he was, but he was sure that he should know who this spiky haired, goofy-looking boy was. He dismissed the notion and looked back towards Reina, though, staring deeply into her eyes and her into his. It seemed as if she was fighting back tears, or perhaps an urge to say something, knowing that it would likely be vain.
Riku grabbed Tenzu?s extended arm, interrupting the jutsu that he was forming, ?Let them go,? Riku said simply.
Tenzu shook his head and gave a slight, helpless chuckle, ?Big surprise there,? he said, as his eyes slowly began to morph back into their normal state and the green mass of energy began to dissipate.
Riku hardly heard the comment, though, still staring at Reina. He had no idea why he asked Tenzu to stop, though at the same time, it was excruciatingly obvious to five of the ninja, enemies and allies alike, around; he simply did not want to accept that answer. He stared for a while longer, and then looked down, closing his eyes and shaking his head while giving a similar chuckle to the one that Tenzu had just offered.
The two of them slowly disappeared in the same dark voids that Tenzu had been constantly over-using. As they disappeared, Riku looked up one last time, confirming that truth to himself as he disappeared. He could accept part of that truth, but there was much more to it, a larger level of complexity.
Though he could accept one part: he wasn?t nearly as Akatsuki-like as he thought.
And in that truth, there was a slight flicker of hope for the trio as the white flames dissipated, a hope that they kept within their minds on their entire journey back to Konoha.
