I'm a bit annoyed at how I ended the chapter, but besides that, this is one of the few chapters I'm actually happy with. O_O
Taking Riku?s moment of hesitation and confusion, Tenzu quickly dashed in front of Riku, his kunai still tightly in hand as he slashed past him. Riku quickly put his blade up, making the two weapons slide off of each other as Tenzu kept moving past him. The Uchiha, however, took off into another difficultly kept up with dash, take off as soon as his feet touched the ground. He suddenly appeared in front of Reina, who hastily put the sword up to block another slash with the kunai.
Unlike Riku, however, Reina didn?t hesitate to counter, quickly spinning around to her left side to send her dagger swiping at Tenzu?s exposed back. The dagger whipped across nothing more than air, however, as Tenzu ducked down low and spun around, bringing his leg in a sweep under Reina, who quickly snapped her sword arm downwards, making a silent threat to chop off the leg should he continue with his attack.
Tenzu, taking the threat for what it was, retracted his foot while rising up fully and disappearing yet again, this time in between Reina and Riku, pushing both of his arms out wide.
?Fire Style,? Tenzu said, his ominous voice making the jutsu seem all the more deadly, ?Dragon?s Claws.?
Suddenly, both of Tenzu?s sleeves erupted with fire. The fire seemed to burst out from his shoulder, encase his hand, and rush towards each of them, both in the forms of giant claws made of pure fire, four sharp, burning fingers extending out of them, seeming almost like a deadly extension of Tenzu?s own arms. Both of them responded similarly to the jutsu, simply jumping diagonally out of the way of the deadly claws.
The jutsu, however, instead of continuing on and dissipating, seemed to twist upwards so that the palms of the fire were facing them. Tenzu brought both of his arms upwards and outwards, quickly lunging towards the two. Having no way to move out of the way in mid air, Riku quickly made a single hand seal.
?Water Style: Water Drill!? Riku yelled.
Suddenly, from his wrist, water began to spin around Soul Eater until it was a giant drill of spinning water that rapidly moved around his blade. Pushing his blade forward, the blade collided with the hand, washing it away.
Meanwhile, Reina stabbed her sword forward as a thin blast of wind shot out of it. Instead of, like most wind would, empowering the fire, it literally drilled a hole through it, eroding through the fire and when it was inside of it, the wind pushed outwards in all directions, making the fire explode from the wind that was inside of it.. Even more oddly, Tenzu hadn?t noticed any seals or saw her say any words, the only explanation could be that it was an ability of her sword?s, and not her own.
Both the humongous size of the drill and the explosion of fire, however, had allowed Tenzu a degree of visual cover, obscuring both of their vision long enough for him to almost melt into the ground in a dark, swirling void.
When the attacks receded, Riku and Reina, landing back onto the ground, exchanged glances, silently questioning each other about Tenzu?s location. Their questions were answered, though, when they heard a sudden explosion from behind them. Turning just enough to see, both of their eyes lit up as the giant fireball rushed towards them. The two both dodged to separate sides of the giant fireball.
As it went by them, though, the fire still alive and roaring, two figures extended from each side of the jutsu. The figures were at first fire shaped like men, but suddenly took the form of Tenzu, while the real version of him suddenly moved to the other end of the fire, disappearing and reappearing in front of the roaring flame that was still moving towards him. He put his hand out calmly, his palm wide open.
The fire was literally pushed away from him, as if he controlled gravity itself, and suddenly branched out into two smaller, but still very large, blasts of fire. The fire blasts jumped from the original fire balls into the other direction, diagonally racing towards his opponents, who were too distracted by the flame clones to even notice the blasts of fire racing towards them.
~
Choza and Choji walked down Konoha?s paved street. It was getting dark, but Choji?s eyes kept lighting up. Curiously, he looked towards the village gate, able to see a red light
coming from in front of it.
?Dad...? Choji started, but Choza was already making hand seals.
?I see it,? Choza said, sinking into the ground when he finished with his seal.
Choji hastily made the same seal, sinking into the ground as well as both of them rushed towards the village gate from under the ground.
~
Riku and Reina both swiped at their respective clones, but neither of them died. The blade swept through the clone, and for a moment, the portion that had been attacked turned into fire, separating the clones? upper and lower halves, but suddenly the upper half retracted back onto the lower half of the clone, the two fires that came from both portions connecting to form back into a full clone. Catching on quickly, Reina went for another strike, but this time augmented her blade with water chakra, swiping across at the clone again, this time destroying it, and as she turned with the blade, her eyes lit up to the fire. Riku, meanwhile, continued relentlessly with strikes as the clone advanced, and was just barely saved from the raging fire because of it.
~
Tenzu looked in front of him, his peripheral vision allowing him to see his two fire blasts. And suddenly, two extremely large figures popped up from the ground in front of them. One was larger than the other, and both were covered in pretty heavy armor. But more amazingly, they both caught the blasts of fire, which were only slightly weaker than an attack that would be classified as A ranked, maybe even S ranked.
Right in the... stomach.
Both seemed unphazed though. Tenzu, immediately recognizing the jutsu that they were both using due to their large size, identified both as members of the Akimichi clan, revered (though not exactly feared) for their ability to expand portions of their body, or the entire thing at once, at their will. A rather minor inconvenience for at least adequate ninja, though. And adequate was an inadequate word when Tenzu was involved.
Riku finally caught on, spewing water out of his mouth to the fire clone, dispersing it into steam, and then turned, looking at his saving grace, Reina let out a long breath, doing the same. They were just about to say a word of thanks, when Choza and Choji, both still in their massive sizes, went into a rapid roll towards Tenzu, almost like two giant bowling balls. They both went diagonally inwards, right to Tenzu.
Their voices could be heard throughout the entity of Konoha as they yelled the jutsu's name: ?Human Boulder!?
Tenzu, being careful to conserve his chakra, didn?t teleport this time, but rather jumped directly up as the two smacked into each other, and made a few rapid hand seals.
?Fire Style: Fireball jutsu!? he said, he quickly cupped his hand near his mouth in an almost funnel shape as he spewed out a stream of fire that expanded as it went out right towards the ground.
Choza and Choji, however, were able to dodge the jutsu before even noticing it. They both redirected the angle of their spin so that they could go outwards, and then slam into each other, using each other as springs to go in opposite directions. Both of them then went out wide, and then came right towards Reina and Riku, who decided to catch their breath seeing that Choza and Choji were already attacking.
As they neared the two, the father-son combination exited their ball form as well as releasing the expansion technique, going back to their original sizes.
?Thanks,? Riku and Reina both said in unison.
Choza nodded while Choji gave a thumbs up sign and a cheesy smile, ?Mind explaining...? Choza started, then he stopped himself, ?Never mind, save that for later.?
Tenzu quickly brought their minds back to the battle as he kneeled down, placing both hands on the ground, ?Earth Style: Implosion.?
As he spoke, the earth under the four of them began to rumble, and slowly began to crumble. It seemed as if the earth was crumbling within itself, large portions of it broke, taking three of them down into it on a slope, Choza being the only one to think quickly enough to use his expansion jutsu so that only his legs were brought underground. However, the gap began to widen as the earth crumbled more, taking in Choza as well. All of them frantically struggled to free themselves of the earth, their arms stuck under as well, preventing them from using jutsu.
Tenzu seemed to press on the ground even harder, the jutsu apparently having two parts, with one arm, while he brought his other arm up. He slowly brought them together in a one hand seal.
Just a bit too slowly.
Tenzu suddenly stopped, his fingers just barely with a gap between them. Had the jutsu gone as planned, the earth would literally implode on itself, making an explosion large enough to win the battle, though not enough to kill them. He was frozen in place, struggling to move. His fingers shook as he tried desperately to bring them together, and his entire body shivered as he tried even more desperately to move. But he couldn?t.
Turning his head as much as he could, having to summon all of his will to do so and then bringing his eyes as far to the side as possible to look behind him, he could clearly see a young man kneeling on one knee with his hands in a seal that seemed like he was making a circle. His face seemed determined... no... not determined, just the opposite in fact.
The word was apathetic.
Tenzu continued to struggle to move, as he saw Choza beginning to free his arms, making a seal that returned him to his normal size, and then pulling the others out of the earth encasement.
Choji, when he got out of the earth, yelled frantically, ?Shikamaru!!!?
Shikamaru Nara seemed to be straining to keep his hold, ?Hurry up and attack! He has too much chakra for me to hold for much longer!?
Choza, instead of a physical attack, deciding that their distance was too great to be able to go for another frontal attack and hope for Shikamaru to maintain his jutsu, quickly brought both of his palms together, ?Earth Style: Rising Earth Spears!?
One large spike protruded out of the ground from under Tenzu, stabbing him, and ending him.
Riku made a large grin, as Shikamaru quickly ran towards the others, ?Can anyone tell me why I find myself in the middle of the night??
Choza and Choji looked towards Riku, wondering the same thing, ?Akatsuki, they?re back.?
The three Konoha ninja?s eyes widened greatly, them being in the village that held the most scorn for Akatsuki of all. They saw his cloak, but couldn?t think much of it during the battle. Suddenly, Shikamaru looked back towards Tenzu, who was hanging on the spike limply, the object securely in his stomach.
And they suddenly heard a loud clapping to their side that dragged everyone?s attention. And to Riku?s horror, dismay, and confusion, Tenzu was walking up to them, clapping as he came.
?Very, very nice. Truly, I applaud you all; the five of you have managed to finish off my clone,? he said, gesturing to the ?Tenzu? on the spike, who disappeared in a puff of white smoke, ?And Round two begins... now.?
~
Raiden could clearly hear the battle going on now; he could have sworn that he even felt a slight shake of the earth at some point. He immediately knew that it had to have something to do with Riku, as the fight sounded much too intense to be a sparring match. He rushed quickly towards the gate, and, as he went, he pulled down a large string that triggered the giant bell in a watchtower of Konoha, the guard ninja apparently so accustomed to the peace that he had fallen into a tendency to sleeping at this hour.
He continued towards the front gate, peering around as several other ninja bursted out of their homes, eager to join. Whoever this was, they couldn?t be so much that the entire village couldn?t handle it.
Though, of course, this was the first time Raiden met Tenzu.
~
Tenzu stopped his advancement, looking towards Konoha and saying a small curse as he heard the large bell ringing and, using his sharingan, he could see several small dots of chakra that were slowly getting larger, obviously ninja who were advancing towards him. He grimaced at how things were so different then he had planned. What he planned was to find Riku alone, without allies and going towards Konoha unaccompanied. But yet, it was five against one right now, and counting.
Tenzu didn?t bother to wait, figuring that he hadn?t much time left. Quickly, a blade extended from his sleeve, the parts of the blade that could be seen were about as long as his forearm. As he neared them, he sidestepped from left to right, in a zigzag pattern. As he sidestepped from one side of them to the other, he, using his other hand, unleashed a flurry kunai, which seemed to simply overflow and burst out from his left sleeve. Riku and Choji jumped to the left, while Reina and Choza went to the right, having been in a straight line since Tenzu appeared at their side. Shikamaru, who hadn?t been in danger by the kunai, knelt down again.
?Shadow Sewing Technique,? he said, his voice still seeming to lack interest.
His shadow extended out in a dark black line, and then it spread out into at least ten thin tendrils, all with sharp ends. The tendrils lurched out towards Tenzu all aiming to stab him. Having a decent knowledge of the Nara clan, he jumped back several times, eventually going out of reach. He noted, however, that this particular Nara was able to sustain it much longer than most, and with excellent reach. Tenzu estimated that he had to be more than 10 meters away at this point.
Meanwhile, Choji was almost the complete opposite of Shikamaru, the enthusiasm showing in his eyes, almost to the point of enjoying this, after the dull quietness in Konoha. Riku grabbed his hand, throwing him through the air down towards Tenzu. Choji expanded only his arms this time, coming down like a torpedo with his massive right arm out in front of him. He was able to stay in the air long enough to reach Tenzu despite Shikamaru pushing him back, actually having measured the angle of his declination having expected it after fighting with Shikamaru for so long.
His arm slammed down onto Tenzu, pushing him onto, and into the ground as well, making a large crater. With an smirk that none could see, Tenzu brought his hand up and placed it onto Choji?s arm. Choji could feel it beginning to burn, and, as Tenzu expected, the fire chakra that he was running into Choji conflicted with his own chakra, due to it being unlikely to find an Akimichi with fire style jutsu. Choji?s arm quickly shrunk to its original size, and Tenzu quickly gripped the arm, pushing his own arm upwards and outwards, launching Choji into the air. Still laying with his back on the ground, he rapidly made a series of hand seals.
?Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!? He said, as he exhaled yet another stream of fire.
Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Choza making seals of his own. He quickly rolled back, seeing it to be an earth jutsu and expecting to see the earth spike jutsu again. Of course, he was correct, and he just scarcely dodged the dangerous spike. At the completion of his roll, he was on one knee with his hand on the ground, catching his breath, and then getting back up, watching for a moment as Choji used the expansion jutsu to increase his weight, bringing him down to the ground quickly (which he quietly applauded as a very clever move). Using the teleportation technique three times through one clone, as well as some other A and S ranked jutsu, took a toll on his chakra. Although, not nearly enough to seriously damage him. As he stood up, he looked over to the side, seeing that several ninja were now here. And suddenly, he heard a high pitched chirping, almost like birds, but he immediately recognized the jutsu.
Spinning to the side, Tenzu forced Raiden to harmlessly pass by him with the Chidori, and then brought his sword up as Raiden turned, trying to go again, pushing his blade up to Raiden?s neck.
?You sure you want to do that?? Tenzu said.
Raiden quickly spun around the blade, running along the side of Tenzu?s arm and bringing his own arm, chidori still active, around at Tenzu?s side. Tenzu turned to face Raiden and jumped back at the same time, and then allowed his jump to turn into a back flip, landing on his hand and then jumping backwards again, as he saw a light blue dash of chakra pass by him quickly.
Looking over, he saw a man who was apparently of the Yamanaka clan, famous for the Mind Transfer technique, apparently what had been attempted here. Quickly, he rushed towards the man, seeing the downtime caused by missing with the jutsu as a perfect chance to finish at least one less off. If he was to become too distracted later on in the battle, this man could be a bit troublesome. He rushed towards him, cocking his sword arm back to go for a finishing stab, when suddenly he saw yet another shadow rushing towards him at his side. He jumped forward, dodging the shadow and furthering his advance towards the Yamanaka. But yet again someone got in his way, this time it was the other Akimichi, Choza as he heard him called as before. The Akimichi rushed in between the two, withdrawing a large spear that Tenzu hadn?t noticed before.
Tenzu simply stopped himself and took a moment to look around. He was surrounded; there were so many ninja around him, that it took him a moment to identify his actual target. There were dozens of ninja, many of which who he identified, and many who were likely simple chuunin, or older genin who were never able to quite make the advancement, that he could take down with a swipe of his blade.
Tenzu quickly ran through the crowd, directly towards Riku, no longer caring who was around him. A ninja came at his side, who was quickly cut down after he stepped to the side and lurched his arm out, not slowing his sprint at all. Another came out, this one in between him and his target. Rapidly, he jumped over the ninja?s head, and as he reached behind the ninja, he stabbed him with his sword arm in the back, and then pushed him forward so that he would ram into another person who was running towards him. He continued with various attacks as low ranked ninja came at him, and he was actually thankful for this. Because all the low ranked ninja were foolishly being bold, the ones who were actual threats had no way of reaching him without tripping over bodies or bumping into comrades.
Finally, he neared Riku, jumping up so that he could come directly on him, and, just before he could complete the jump, something dashed by him so quickly that the eye could see nothing more than a blue streak of light. He was able to slow his jump enough to avoid fatal damage, but he couldn?t avoid having his arm damaged by the attack.
Suddenly, he looked up and, with the same quickness, he saw something literally land down on top of him, the same blue streak of light coming across, but he could identify that they were two different jutsu, and his sharingan allowed him to see quickly enough to know that they were two different people as well. He slammed down onto the ground as the jutsu drilled into his back, but he quickly sunk into the ground to avoid being crushed between the jutsu and the ground. He reappeared in front of the large throng of people.
He looked off to the side, in the direction that the first streak of light was moving, and at the end could see a man with grayish hair that slightly stood up on his head. The hair?s color, however, wasn?t from age, but rather may have been a trademark of generations past from his family. As the man turned to face him, Tenzu saw that his headband was slightly tilted to cover only one eye?Kakashi Hatake
He then looked to the second attacker. Spiked yellow hair was on his head with the same Konoha headband that the other had. As he looked up, still crouching with his hand on the ground, Tenzu identified him as a Sage of some sort, a deep redness around his eyes, as if it was painted there. He seemed to have whiskers on either side of his face, and wore a red cloak over his normal Konoha gear, further marking him as a Sage?Naruto Uzumaki.
Suddenly, Kakashi disappeared and reappeared with a kunai pointing on Tenzu?s neck, ?That?s quite enough don?t you think? As hokage, I?m afraid that I must ask you to leave.?
Tenzu grimaced, he was too weak, as far as his use of chakra and being hit by the two powerful jutsu, to fight and was forced to go all the way back to the hideout with nothing, and then regained his composure, tilting his head to the side and looked at Riku, ?Buh-bye now!?
In a dark void, he seemed to implode within himself and disappear.
Naruto stood up, looking towards Kakashi, ?Shouldn?t we have finished him??
Kakashi shrugged, ?Maybe, maybe not, or maybe we wouldn't be able to,? then he looked towards the large crowd, smiling and his voice seeming almost cheerful, ?Now, who wants tea while one of you explain what the heck just happened??
Tenzu vs. Society
Taking Riku?s moment of hesitation and confusion, Tenzu quickly dashed in front of Riku, his kunai still tightly in hand as he slashed past him. Riku quickly put his blade up, making the two weapons slide off of each other as Tenzu kept moving past him. The Uchiha, however, took off into another difficultly kept up with dash, take off as soon as his feet touched the ground. He suddenly appeared in front of Reina, who hastily put the sword up to block another slash with the kunai.
Unlike Riku, however, Reina didn?t hesitate to counter, quickly spinning around to her left side to send her dagger swiping at Tenzu?s exposed back. The dagger whipped across nothing more than air, however, as Tenzu ducked down low and spun around, bringing his leg in a sweep under Reina, who quickly snapped her sword arm downwards, making a silent threat to chop off the leg should he continue with his attack.
Tenzu, taking the threat for what it was, retracted his foot while rising up fully and disappearing yet again, this time in between Reina and Riku, pushing both of his arms out wide.
?Fire Style,? Tenzu said, his ominous voice making the jutsu seem all the more deadly, ?Dragon?s Claws.?
Suddenly, both of Tenzu?s sleeves erupted with fire. The fire seemed to burst out from his shoulder, encase his hand, and rush towards each of them, both in the forms of giant claws made of pure fire, four sharp, burning fingers extending out of them, seeming almost like a deadly extension of Tenzu?s own arms. Both of them responded similarly to the jutsu, simply jumping diagonally out of the way of the deadly claws.
The jutsu, however, instead of continuing on and dissipating, seemed to twist upwards so that the palms of the fire were facing them. Tenzu brought both of his arms upwards and outwards, quickly lunging towards the two. Having no way to move out of the way in mid air, Riku quickly made a single hand seal.
?Water Style: Water Drill!? Riku yelled.
Suddenly, from his wrist, water began to spin around Soul Eater until it was a giant drill of spinning water that rapidly moved around his blade. Pushing his blade forward, the blade collided with the hand, washing it away.
Meanwhile, Reina stabbed her sword forward as a thin blast of wind shot out of it. Instead of, like most wind would, empowering the fire, it literally drilled a hole through it, eroding through the fire and when it was inside of it, the wind pushed outwards in all directions, making the fire explode from the wind that was inside of it.. Even more oddly, Tenzu hadn?t noticed any seals or saw her say any words, the only explanation could be that it was an ability of her sword?s, and not her own.
Both the humongous size of the drill and the explosion of fire, however, had allowed Tenzu a degree of visual cover, obscuring both of their vision long enough for him to almost melt into the ground in a dark, swirling void.
When the attacks receded, Riku and Reina, landing back onto the ground, exchanged glances, silently questioning each other about Tenzu?s location. Their questions were answered, though, when they heard a sudden explosion from behind them. Turning just enough to see, both of their eyes lit up as the giant fireball rushed towards them. The two both dodged to separate sides of the giant fireball.
As it went by them, though, the fire still alive and roaring, two figures extended from each side of the jutsu. The figures were at first fire shaped like men, but suddenly took the form of Tenzu, while the real version of him suddenly moved to the other end of the fire, disappearing and reappearing in front of the roaring flame that was still moving towards him. He put his hand out calmly, his palm wide open.
The fire was literally pushed away from him, as if he controlled gravity itself, and suddenly branched out into two smaller, but still very large, blasts of fire. The fire blasts jumped from the original fire balls into the other direction, diagonally racing towards his opponents, who were too distracted by the flame clones to even notice the blasts of fire racing towards them.
~
Choza and Choji walked down Konoha?s paved street. It was getting dark, but Choji?s eyes kept lighting up. Curiously, he looked towards the village gate, able to see a red light
coming from in front of it.
?Dad...? Choji started, but Choza was already making hand seals.
?I see it,? Choza said, sinking into the ground when he finished with his seal.
Choji hastily made the same seal, sinking into the ground as well as both of them rushed towards the village gate from under the ground.
~
Riku and Reina both swiped at their respective clones, but neither of them died. The blade swept through the clone, and for a moment, the portion that had been attacked turned into fire, separating the clones? upper and lower halves, but suddenly the upper half retracted back onto the lower half of the clone, the two fires that came from both portions connecting to form back into a full clone. Catching on quickly, Reina went for another strike, but this time augmented her blade with water chakra, swiping across at the clone again, this time destroying it, and as she turned with the blade, her eyes lit up to the fire. Riku, meanwhile, continued relentlessly with strikes as the clone advanced, and was just barely saved from the raging fire because of it.
~
Tenzu looked in front of him, his peripheral vision allowing him to see his two fire blasts. And suddenly, two extremely large figures popped up from the ground in front of them. One was larger than the other, and both were covered in pretty heavy armor. But more amazingly, they both caught the blasts of fire, which were only slightly weaker than an attack that would be classified as A ranked, maybe even S ranked.
Right in the... stomach.
Both seemed unphazed though. Tenzu, immediately recognizing the jutsu that they were both using due to their large size, identified both as members of the Akimichi clan, revered (though not exactly feared) for their ability to expand portions of their body, or the entire thing at once, at their will. A rather minor inconvenience for at least adequate ninja, though. And adequate was an inadequate word when Tenzu was involved.
Riku finally caught on, spewing water out of his mouth to the fire clone, dispersing it into steam, and then turned, looking at his saving grace, Reina let out a long breath, doing the same. They were just about to say a word of thanks, when Choza and Choji, both still in their massive sizes, went into a rapid roll towards Tenzu, almost like two giant bowling balls. They both went diagonally inwards, right to Tenzu.
Their voices could be heard throughout the entity of Konoha as they yelled the jutsu's name: ?Human Boulder!?
Tenzu, being careful to conserve his chakra, didn?t teleport this time, but rather jumped directly up as the two smacked into each other, and made a few rapid hand seals.
?Fire Style: Fireball jutsu!? he said, he quickly cupped his hand near his mouth in an almost funnel shape as he spewed out a stream of fire that expanded as it went out right towards the ground.
Choza and Choji, however, were able to dodge the jutsu before even noticing it. They both redirected the angle of their spin so that they could go outwards, and then slam into each other, using each other as springs to go in opposite directions. Both of them then went out wide, and then came right towards Reina and Riku, who decided to catch their breath seeing that Choza and Choji were already attacking.
As they neared the two, the father-son combination exited their ball form as well as releasing the expansion technique, going back to their original sizes.
?Thanks,? Riku and Reina both said in unison.
Choza nodded while Choji gave a thumbs up sign and a cheesy smile, ?Mind explaining...? Choza started, then he stopped himself, ?Never mind, save that for later.?
Tenzu quickly brought their minds back to the battle as he kneeled down, placing both hands on the ground, ?Earth Style: Implosion.?
As he spoke, the earth under the four of them began to rumble, and slowly began to crumble. It seemed as if the earth was crumbling within itself, large portions of it broke, taking three of them down into it on a slope, Choza being the only one to think quickly enough to use his expansion jutsu so that only his legs were brought underground. However, the gap began to widen as the earth crumbled more, taking in Choza as well. All of them frantically struggled to free themselves of the earth, their arms stuck under as well, preventing them from using jutsu.
Tenzu seemed to press on the ground even harder, the jutsu apparently having two parts, with one arm, while he brought his other arm up. He slowly brought them together in a one hand seal.
Just a bit too slowly.
Tenzu suddenly stopped, his fingers just barely with a gap between them. Had the jutsu gone as planned, the earth would literally implode on itself, making an explosion large enough to win the battle, though not enough to kill them. He was frozen in place, struggling to move. His fingers shook as he tried desperately to bring them together, and his entire body shivered as he tried even more desperately to move. But he couldn?t.
Turning his head as much as he could, having to summon all of his will to do so and then bringing his eyes as far to the side as possible to look behind him, he could clearly see a young man kneeling on one knee with his hands in a seal that seemed like he was making a circle. His face seemed determined... no... not determined, just the opposite in fact.
The word was apathetic.
Tenzu continued to struggle to move, as he saw Choza beginning to free his arms, making a seal that returned him to his normal size, and then pulling the others out of the earth encasement.
Choji, when he got out of the earth, yelled frantically, ?Shikamaru!!!?
Shikamaru Nara seemed to be straining to keep his hold, ?Hurry up and attack! He has too much chakra for me to hold for much longer!?
Choza, instead of a physical attack, deciding that their distance was too great to be able to go for another frontal attack and hope for Shikamaru to maintain his jutsu, quickly brought both of his palms together, ?Earth Style: Rising Earth Spears!?
One large spike protruded out of the ground from under Tenzu, stabbing him, and ending him.
Riku made a large grin, as Shikamaru quickly ran towards the others, ?Can anyone tell me why I find myself in the middle of the night??
Choza and Choji looked towards Riku, wondering the same thing, ?Akatsuki, they?re back.?
The three Konoha ninja?s eyes widened greatly, them being in the village that held the most scorn for Akatsuki of all. They saw his cloak, but couldn?t think much of it during the battle. Suddenly, Shikamaru looked back towards Tenzu, who was hanging on the spike limply, the object securely in his stomach.
And they suddenly heard a loud clapping to their side that dragged everyone?s attention. And to Riku?s horror, dismay, and confusion, Tenzu was walking up to them, clapping as he came.
?Very, very nice. Truly, I applaud you all; the five of you have managed to finish off my clone,? he said, gesturing to the ?Tenzu? on the spike, who disappeared in a puff of white smoke, ?And Round two begins... now.?
~
Raiden could clearly hear the battle going on now; he could have sworn that he even felt a slight shake of the earth at some point. He immediately knew that it had to have something to do with Riku, as the fight sounded much too intense to be a sparring match. He rushed quickly towards the gate, and, as he went, he pulled down a large string that triggered the giant bell in a watchtower of Konoha, the guard ninja apparently so accustomed to the peace that he had fallen into a tendency to sleeping at this hour.
He continued towards the front gate, peering around as several other ninja bursted out of their homes, eager to join. Whoever this was, they couldn?t be so much that the entire village couldn?t handle it.
Though, of course, this was the first time Raiden met Tenzu.
~
Tenzu stopped his advancement, looking towards Konoha and saying a small curse as he heard the large bell ringing and, using his sharingan, he could see several small dots of chakra that were slowly getting larger, obviously ninja who were advancing towards him. He grimaced at how things were so different then he had planned. What he planned was to find Riku alone, without allies and going towards Konoha unaccompanied. But yet, it was five against one right now, and counting.
Tenzu didn?t bother to wait, figuring that he hadn?t much time left. Quickly, a blade extended from his sleeve, the parts of the blade that could be seen were about as long as his forearm. As he neared them, he sidestepped from left to right, in a zigzag pattern. As he sidestepped from one side of them to the other, he, using his other hand, unleashed a flurry kunai, which seemed to simply overflow and burst out from his left sleeve. Riku and Choji jumped to the left, while Reina and Choza went to the right, having been in a straight line since Tenzu appeared at their side. Shikamaru, who hadn?t been in danger by the kunai, knelt down again.
?Shadow Sewing Technique,? he said, his voice still seeming to lack interest.
His shadow extended out in a dark black line, and then it spread out into at least ten thin tendrils, all with sharp ends. The tendrils lurched out towards Tenzu all aiming to stab him. Having a decent knowledge of the Nara clan, he jumped back several times, eventually going out of reach. He noted, however, that this particular Nara was able to sustain it much longer than most, and with excellent reach. Tenzu estimated that he had to be more than 10 meters away at this point.
Meanwhile, Choji was almost the complete opposite of Shikamaru, the enthusiasm showing in his eyes, almost to the point of enjoying this, after the dull quietness in Konoha. Riku grabbed his hand, throwing him through the air down towards Tenzu. Choji expanded only his arms this time, coming down like a torpedo with his massive right arm out in front of him. He was able to stay in the air long enough to reach Tenzu despite Shikamaru pushing him back, actually having measured the angle of his declination having expected it after fighting with Shikamaru for so long.
His arm slammed down onto Tenzu, pushing him onto, and into the ground as well, making a large crater. With an smirk that none could see, Tenzu brought his hand up and placed it onto Choji?s arm. Choji could feel it beginning to burn, and, as Tenzu expected, the fire chakra that he was running into Choji conflicted with his own chakra, due to it being unlikely to find an Akimichi with fire style jutsu. Choji?s arm quickly shrunk to its original size, and Tenzu quickly gripped the arm, pushing his own arm upwards and outwards, launching Choji into the air. Still laying with his back on the ground, he rapidly made a series of hand seals.
?Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!? He said, as he exhaled yet another stream of fire.
Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Choza making seals of his own. He quickly rolled back, seeing it to be an earth jutsu and expecting to see the earth spike jutsu again. Of course, he was correct, and he just scarcely dodged the dangerous spike. At the completion of his roll, he was on one knee with his hand on the ground, catching his breath, and then getting back up, watching for a moment as Choji used the expansion jutsu to increase his weight, bringing him down to the ground quickly (which he quietly applauded as a very clever move). Using the teleportation technique three times through one clone, as well as some other A and S ranked jutsu, took a toll on his chakra. Although, not nearly enough to seriously damage him. As he stood up, he looked over to the side, seeing that several ninja were now here. And suddenly, he heard a high pitched chirping, almost like birds, but he immediately recognized the jutsu.
Spinning to the side, Tenzu forced Raiden to harmlessly pass by him with the Chidori, and then brought his sword up as Raiden turned, trying to go again, pushing his blade up to Raiden?s neck.
?You sure you want to do that?? Tenzu said.
Raiden quickly spun around the blade, running along the side of Tenzu?s arm and bringing his own arm, chidori still active, around at Tenzu?s side. Tenzu turned to face Raiden and jumped back at the same time, and then allowed his jump to turn into a back flip, landing on his hand and then jumping backwards again, as he saw a light blue dash of chakra pass by him quickly.
Looking over, he saw a man who was apparently of the Yamanaka clan, famous for the Mind Transfer technique, apparently what had been attempted here. Quickly, he rushed towards the man, seeing the downtime caused by missing with the jutsu as a perfect chance to finish at least one less off. If he was to become too distracted later on in the battle, this man could be a bit troublesome. He rushed towards him, cocking his sword arm back to go for a finishing stab, when suddenly he saw yet another shadow rushing towards him at his side. He jumped forward, dodging the shadow and furthering his advance towards the Yamanaka. But yet again someone got in his way, this time it was the other Akimichi, Choza as he heard him called as before. The Akimichi rushed in between the two, withdrawing a large spear that Tenzu hadn?t noticed before.
Tenzu simply stopped himself and took a moment to look around. He was surrounded; there were so many ninja around him, that it took him a moment to identify his actual target. There were dozens of ninja, many of which who he identified, and many who were likely simple chuunin, or older genin who were never able to quite make the advancement, that he could take down with a swipe of his blade.
Tenzu quickly ran through the crowd, directly towards Riku, no longer caring who was around him. A ninja came at his side, who was quickly cut down after he stepped to the side and lurched his arm out, not slowing his sprint at all. Another came out, this one in between him and his target. Rapidly, he jumped over the ninja?s head, and as he reached behind the ninja, he stabbed him with his sword arm in the back, and then pushed him forward so that he would ram into another person who was running towards him. He continued with various attacks as low ranked ninja came at him, and he was actually thankful for this. Because all the low ranked ninja were foolishly being bold, the ones who were actual threats had no way of reaching him without tripping over bodies or bumping into comrades.
Finally, he neared Riku, jumping up so that he could come directly on him, and, just before he could complete the jump, something dashed by him so quickly that the eye could see nothing more than a blue streak of light. He was able to slow his jump enough to avoid fatal damage, but he couldn?t avoid having his arm damaged by the attack.
Suddenly, he looked up and, with the same quickness, he saw something literally land down on top of him, the same blue streak of light coming across, but he could identify that they were two different jutsu, and his sharingan allowed him to see quickly enough to know that they were two different people as well. He slammed down onto the ground as the jutsu drilled into his back, but he quickly sunk into the ground to avoid being crushed between the jutsu and the ground. He reappeared in front of the large throng of people.
He looked off to the side, in the direction that the first streak of light was moving, and at the end could see a man with grayish hair that slightly stood up on his head. The hair?s color, however, wasn?t from age, but rather may have been a trademark of generations past from his family. As the man turned to face him, Tenzu saw that his headband was slightly tilted to cover only one eye?Kakashi Hatake
He then looked to the second attacker. Spiked yellow hair was on his head with the same Konoha headband that the other had. As he looked up, still crouching with his hand on the ground, Tenzu identified him as a Sage of some sort, a deep redness around his eyes, as if it was painted there. He seemed to have whiskers on either side of his face, and wore a red cloak over his normal Konoha gear, further marking him as a Sage?Naruto Uzumaki.
Suddenly, Kakashi disappeared and reappeared with a kunai pointing on Tenzu?s neck, ?That?s quite enough don?t you think? As hokage, I?m afraid that I must ask you to leave.?
Tenzu grimaced, he was too weak, as far as his use of chakra and being hit by the two powerful jutsu, to fight and was forced to go all the way back to the hideout with nothing, and then regained his composure, tilting his head to the side and looked at Riku, ?Buh-bye now!?
In a dark void, he seemed to implode within himself and disappear.
Naruto stood up, looking towards Kakashi, ?Shouldn?t we have finished him??
Kakashi shrugged, ?Maybe, maybe not, or maybe we wouldn't be able to,? then he looked towards the large crowd, smiling and his voice seeming almost cheerful, ?Now, who wants tea while one of you explain what the heck just happened??
KAKASHI-HOKAGE!!!!!
