Kisame didn't wait for them to attack. He did not remain on the defensive, waiting for an opportunity to beat them as most stratagems dictated in a heavily outnumbered fight like this one was.
The beast of a man charged them with a wild, elated laugh.
He was also faster than he looked...a lot faster than he looked.
He was on Shikamaru, Ino and Kiba before any of them could do more than stiffen in surprise.
The hilt of his sword slammed into Ino's stomach, knocking the wind from her lungs and the rest of her to the floor. The edge of his sword simultaneously blocked Kiba's sharp thrust with his faux claw arm. The chakra strings controlling his limb were swallowed instantly, leaving the prosthetic little more useful than a stump before Kisame pitched forward, smiling as he headbutted Kiba across the nose with a sick crack. A gush of blood cemented the notion that the Inuzuka's nose was broken.
He went to grab at Shikamaru but the shadow users body melted into black, dispersing like wisps of smoke before re-converging behind the Nuke-ninja. Two kunai blades were drawn and thrust onto Kisame's broad shoulder-blades.
He was faster than he looked.
With a swift pivot the broad side of Kisame's sword took the hits, and then the blue skinned shark man grabbed Shikamaru by the scruff of his shirt.
Shikamaru felt his stomach lurch as Kisame lifted him clear over his head with one hand. Then he threw him onto the still dazed Kiba, knocking them both to the ground.
With twin shrieks Ino's puppets took to flight again, hurdling towards him with fire and thunder.
Serpents of water coiled up from the ground, swirling and hissing before they rushed at the two puppets.
They banked and twirled in flight, evading the moving bodies of water as Kisame diverted his attention to the other three that were joining the fray.
He swung out with his sword, the edge meeting the swinging head of Yoshihiro's hammer with bone rattling force. The Tsuchikage grit his teeth as his blow was repelled.
Kisame was then swallowed by insects, a horde of them flying onto him like bees on a honeypot. They ate at his chakra with fervor that made Kisame laugh all the more.
It almost tickled.
A swirling vortex of water swallowed him up in their place, washing away the insects and drowning them all too easily before he dispersed it.
Then, he once again turned, catching the Hyuuga's wrist mid strike, her fingers poised to land on the small of his back, to kill the nerves along his spine.
All too easy.
When he saw her fingers crackle with lightning he was not surprised.
She however was, when he kept moving, pulling her forward and around him, too late she saw his intent, she wouldn't be able to stop her attack.
She'd fully expected Kisame to block her Juuken strike, so she'd charged up a lightning attack to strike at him when he stopped her.
But he'd predicted her. And he was too fast...unbelievably fast...
Now she found herself aiming instead, at Yoshihiro.
The lightning shot out, and she watched it crack through the air, hurdling towards the Tsuchikage's chest.
It was only his quick reflexes that saved him. He dropped straight to the floor and instead of ripping through his sternum, the electric discharge instead tore apart his shoulder pauldron with a shriek of rending steel.
He cursed and Kisame laughed before kicking her away.
With his six enemies recovering their feet Kisame spared them all a gleeful grin.
"Ready for round two?"
It was a wave of shattered earth and splintered rock coming at him.
Kakashi jumped, twisting through the air up and over the attack, landing behind the slug princess. He swung a kunai, its edge seeking the back of her neck, only for the blond to roll forward at the last second, retaliating with two Shuriken thrown out behind her.
Kakashi blocked both, reaching into his pouch with his free hand before tossing a gas bomb, hoping the sannin would strike it and shatter the delicate shell.
No such luck, with a casual catch and a toss the older woman was rid of his trap with contemptuous ease.
With a quick array of hand seals Kakashi saw her hands come alive with the glow of chakra scalpels. The Copy cats' sharingan eye spun, carefully observing her movements.
He was still rather surprised when those chakra scalpels were thrown however.
His first instinct was to block, but realized the non corporeal blades would merely keep going. So he ducked, dodging the impressive attacks by mere inches before he rushed the legendary medic, dodging and weaving through more of her projectile scalpels as he went, swerving through the streets. Tsunade's attack did nothing to the surrounding objects but would be devastating for any human caught in its path.
He reached her, she almost seemed surprised. He was faster than her, that was the advantage he had.
He swung, lightning coating his fingertips. It was an attack meant to stun, the killing blow would come later.
He hoped she'd block in reflex, she dodged instead, sidestepping almost too quick for his Sharingan to see.
But he did see it, and because of that he was able to follow her movements, watching as she dug in the ball of her foot within two steps, her fist cocking back and hurdling towards his hip.
Kakashi jumped over her again, cartwheeling through the air, he threw more Shuriken at the woman, watching in satisfaction as she awkwardly dodged two, the third cutting into her arm. It was a shallow cut, but it meant that she was sloppy. Tsunade was off focus.
She was vulnerable.
He landed and rolled forward immediately to avoid her attack. Even so, Tsunade still mannaged to hit him, coming so close that when she released her focused chakra where her foot would have made contact with his skull he still felt the miniature explosion at his back. It pushed him forward like some drunk had slammed into him. His roll became awkward and clumsy, and he actually fell to the floor instead of reaching his feet smoothly.
She was off focus, but those punches were still incredibly dangerous.
He scrambled to reach his feet throwing kunai and shuriken for all he was worth at the advancing Sannin. She was almost on top of him anyway by the time he found himself standing again.
He drew two kunai, slashing and jabbing at her quickly, putting her on the defensive as he met her head on, forcing her to dodge his superior speed.
He left an opening, she took it.
Kakashi ducked underneath her swing, trying to swipe at her stomach but she was too good for that, smoothly redirecting the momentum of her punch to skirt away from the slash.
He expected her to back off a bit more, to get some distance before she attacked again.
She didn't. She whirled right back around, leaving herself so open and exposed Kakashi didn't even have the mind to take it. She shouldn't have made this move...no one should have made that move!
Professionals were predictable, amateurs were surprising.
He raised up his arms, coating every inch of his limbs in pure chakra.
He'd never dodge.
He needed to block.
Her fist smashed straight through his hasty defense, nearly crushing his arms. She would have if she'd used her focused chakra on his limbs. She hadn't...
Her fist smashed into him, she'd been aiming for the solar plexus. It would have been an instantaneous kill with her strength. He'd jumped, just a bit, and her fist instead found the one part of his torso that was best capable of taking a beating.
His stomach.
He coughed up blood and felt the red liquid trapped between his lips and his mask as he went flying through the air. He slammed into the wall of a building with a crack of splintering wood. The copy cat collapsed, gulping down air and conversely choking on it as his stomach heaved.
Tsunade was on him in a second and adrenalin surged through Hatake's body, purging away the pain in a momentary burst of energy.
His body coiled like a snake, ducking under her attack before standing up behind her.
He grabbed onto the back of her head, pushing her forward until the diamond seal on her forehead smashed against the wall.
He went to draw a knife.
His stomach spasmed.
The pain was so intense Kakashi doubled over, stumbling back with stars dancing across his eyes. More blood oozed from his lips, now falling out of the mask and onto the floor.
He saw her reaching for him, ready to finish the job.
He threw down a smoke bomb, its black fumes spreading out immediately to cover his retreat.
The first attack came out of nowhere. The city was empty, silent as he walked through it.
A wisp of an oily shadow at the corner of his eye before something struck him across the face. He reeled and took his axes in a ready stance as the next attack came.
He dodged, ducking beneath the swing before he countered with a high kick that sent this shadow thing into the air. He jumped after it, his axes swinging, hoping to find its flesh.
They struck, and like ink the black thing spread out like liquid, coiling around to reform directly behind him, striking at his back to send him back down to the ground.
His arms absorbed the fall, and he sprang to his feet as quickly as he could before side stepping, avoiding the things follow up attack as he spun around, a full 180 spin, both axes glowing with chakra as they cut into the thing's black flesh.
It screeched, a garbled sound as though it was trapped under water before it faded away.
His relief didn't last long, sensing it more than anything else, he brought his axes up, blocking the blade strike that would have cut off his head as he turned around.
Only to come face to face with Ginchiko.
He gaped, mouth falling open before he composed himself, snarling. "Get out of my head!"
The world faded out, flickering for an instant before reasserting itself.
He saw her then, in the distance, the woman in white, glaring at him with those cold cold eyes before Ginchiyo attacked.
She was fast, faster than she'd ever been in life and Toushiro's blocks and parries were rushed and clumsy as he struggled to keep up with this insane speed.
Their weapons struck eachother, and the next thing he knew the woman hit him full in the chest with a front kick that sent him flying back a dozen feet down the road.
Her sword crackled with lightning, forks of energy spearing through the air around the blade before they were launched at him.
He punched the ground, a wall of earth and mud coming to his defense before the lightning tore right through it with an explosion of pulped rock and dust.
The thing wearing Ginchiko's face stared, its eyes narrowed before Toushiro's axes found its flesh with jarring suddenness.
The axe heads bit into its side, as the young man appeared behind her, oily black blood spilling out before the thing vanished as though it had never been.
Toushiro allowed himself to breathe for a moment, but only for a moment, in the next second he found himself rolling away from yet another sword swing.
When he got to his feet, falling into a stance, he froze.
"Father?"
There before him stood the Green Dragon of Kiri's seven swordsmen, Takachio Guan.
Gaara had never been a powerhouse ninja. One of those warriors who could shrug off the heaviest of blows through sheer physical conditioning, and all but kill any idiot too slow to dodge their attacks.
Not like the person in front of him.
Even so, he matched Naruto's every blow with one of his own. Taijutsu forms trading with force that should have shattered the bones in the limbs of any normal man.
As the Kazekage summoned and compacted more and more sand into the cracking sand armor to reinforce it, and compensate for its weakening integrity the Devil King was just that absurdly powerful.
Finally, he pulled away. The last blow had hurt more than it should have, his sand armor needed a respite.
Beneath his feet, the earth came alive, shifting unnaturally, it carried Gaara without him ever having to move his feet.
Naruto shot towards him, drawing his sword again. Whips of sand lashed at his body, dozens of them.
He dodged them all, his feet didn't even seem to really step on the floor before he was moving again. He was too fast.
Gaara brought his hands up, raising them high before slamming them back down onto the ground.
A shockwave of wind blades rippled out around him, forcing the Hokage to stop, hastily erecting a shield of Chakra, blunting the strike.
The Kazekage sucked in a breath, his chest puffing out before howling out a Great breakthrough technique. The gust of wind would have been enough to level entire houses.
Naruto's chakra shield dropped, drawing his second blade he held both infront of him, one high one low.
The wave of air hurled into him and his blades moved with the wind, twirling in his grip, he spun in place once before thrusting both blades back towards the Kazekage, redirecting the attack in a long narrow drill-like shiv that emerged from between the two swords, rushing straight to his heart.
Gaara cursed, and the sand beneath his feet came alive again, carrying him out of the way while he formed more hand seals.
Gaara concentrated, and burst after burst of tightly packed, concentrated wind was hurled at the Hokage as he circled him. It wouldn't have the same bone crushing effects of a water dragon technique, but every gust would hit like a bludgeon, pummeling the body with punishing blows.
At least it would if any of the techniques were striking.
Every fist sized gust of wind was met by a blade of the same make, chakra clashing against chakra, with each canceling the other.
Finally, the Hokage seemed to have enough, spinning with a flourish of his blades a tornado of wind blades spread around him, scything through all of Gaara's attacks until the Kazekage made the sands swallow him beneath the surface, rising again a dozen yards away from his previous location.
His eyes focused quickly, finding the Hokage where he'd been standing.
Forming a single seal Gaara gathered his power.
The ground beneath their feet rumbled, and Naruto had only a moments warning before the entire earth rose up to swallow him whole.
The desert came alive, taking the form of Shukaku's gaping maw as the projected beast's jaws began to seal themselves shut around him.
With a mighty leap Gaara sees him rise from the shifting sands, shooting up to the sky at an angle, the sands chase after him, like a fish after a retreating fishing line.
Gaara's eyes sting as fire literally swallows the rising sand, its heat billowing towards him, uncomfortably hot even from this distance as the massive body of sand begins to glimmer, every individual grain turning to shimmering crude glass as it freezes in place.
Something was thrown, Gaara's eyes followed the shuriken until it was just a few feet infront of him.
Then with a puff of smoke the Hokage had taken the Shuriken's place, already rushing towards the Kazekage with his twin swords glowing with wind chakra.
Garaa fell onto his back, avoiding a swipe to his throat and pushed himself off the ground with his hands. Rolling forward, he avoided the follow up swing before he brought up his sand shield between them, a thick bulwark.
The sand carried him away again, pulling back as four sand clones materialized at his flanks and the previous wall of sand dissipated.
The Devil King stood still, both swords held ready. His stance was wide, both blades held so their tips pointed skyward in a wide ready stance.
His four clones rushed forward, and Gaara watched their movements with a careful eye as he kept his chakra churning through his coils, waiting for some kind of opening.
But it never came, before the first of his clones could even deliver its first attack Gaara felt the most excruciating agony erupt at his back. Blood fountained up from his mouth, choking off his sudden scream.
His insides were twisted and scrambled, he could almost literally feel the damage spreading as he shot forward crashing face first onto the floor and tumbling limply like a rag doll.
Will I fall over the edge? Was one of his last clear thoughts, watching the cliff's drop off coming closer as he practically flew towards it.
He didn't get a very clear answer before he passed out, with only the distant pain of some part of his body striking the floor to see him off to the land of unconsciousness.
Jiraiya breathed harshly through his gritted teeth, a vein was nearly throbbing at the side of his temple with the level of concentration.
His body was bathed in sweat, his significant reserves draining away as he pushed more and more through the seal. The matrix and workings converting and altering its pure, raw chakra into something more than mere energy, but rather into somethinng destructive.
All structures, require a foundation, Suna was no different. Its foundation was a massive bedrock of limestone buried beneath the sands.
Jiraiya was slowly destroying it.
Even if Suna somehow managed to push them back, or hold them off, in a matter of days every building in Suna would begin to collapse and crumble beneath the sands as sinkholes emerged and swallowed up entire city blocks.
He had no way to know just how much of the bedrock he'd destroyed. The seal matrix was the one truly channeling the chakra to that depth, so he had no choice but to slowly drain most of his reserves into the intricate kanji beneath him.
This was to force Suna into a surrender. The moment this Jutsu was done, Suna would not be able to sustain itself as a city for more than a month, or two at the most. The walls would crumble, as would the houses, the markets, the entire infrastructure would litterally collapse beneath their feet.
At that point, they would have to surrender. If only due to economics if not because of the flat out military superiority of Konoha.
It was a good plan, Jiraiya had to admit.
His fingers tingled as the Rasengan was delivered and both his and Gaara's clones dissipated. He was sure the Kazekage was still alive. Perhaps half dead, and getting closer to it at this point but he was still alive.
He marched over, walking with patience as he closed the distance between himself and his downed opponent.
He pushed his foot into his side, rolling him over. His lips were coated in blood, his eyes closed. Only the minute rise and fall of his chest due to his labored breathing gave way to the notion that he was still alive.
He had his sand armor to thank for that.
Naruto's leg muscled twitched violently, pain shot up through his body. Increasing his speed to such a degree as to fully bypass that sand shield, and not alert the Kazekage to his approach had been dangerous, even for him. Gaara's mastery over the sand allowed him to sense almost any movement made near him. He would have dodged that Rassengan and probably any other attack Naruto had in his arsenal. He would normally have simply fought until he wore down his enemy and capitalized on his greater endurance.
But he couldn't do that here...not now.
He had too little time. And he could not be so wasteful now...
So he'd ended it, nearly tearing his leg muscles in the process but the Kazekage was finished.
He moved to draw his sword again, ready to end him when he was forced to back away.
The lightning bolt dropped from the sky like the wrath of the gods themselves, striking where he'd been standing.
Naruto pulled back, his eyes glaring in mild annoyance as the pupils refocused after the bright flash, revealing none other than his sister standing between him and his victim.
Jiraiya fell back, panting heavily as all the chakra he could spare was swallowed up by the seal, trailing it down into the earth to fulfill its purpose.
"We're done!" He shouted to the sound four protecting him, their barrier standing right in the center of the village.
"Then launch the flare and lets get the fuck outa here!" Tayuya shouted back!
He nodded, forming two handseals.
Kakashi panted on the roof of a building, both hands coated with healing chakra that seemed to do little more than dull the pain.
At least one of his organs was damaged, possibly hemorrhaged, the pain would have been excruciating if not for the ability to block out some pain receptors with chakra he was sure of it.
He felt another of his clones vanish.
She was getting closer, he didn't have any more time to recover.
He stood, his mind working through strategies and tactics he could employ depending on her approach.
He sensed her before he saw her, pivoting on his heel he threw two shuriken, one towards her, one up and behind him, in a lazy arc. As expected she blocked the shuriken, that had been tossed her way, her foot extended to deliver what would undoubtedly be an unbelievably powerful dropkick as she fell.
He replaced himself with the second shuriken he'd thrown, reappearing above her, falling, he readied a drop kick of his own.
The woman landed, her legs stretched awkwardly but her arms took the brunt of the blow as she absorbed his kick with a crossguard.
Kakashi replaced himself again before she could push him off and throw off his balance.
This time with the first, falling Shuriken she'd blocked.
He appeared at her side, already spinning with another kick that she had no defense against. She took the blow to the ribs, tumbling to the side of the angled, tiled roof.
Stretching out his chakra, a shadow clone came into existence above her. Such a distant projection took nearly twice as much as needed normally, but...
The clone already had a weapon out, driving it forward, its gleaming tip sought the slug sannin's throat as the clone was pulled down by gravity.
Tsunade threw herself onto the roof, avoiding the weapon easily before she rolled onto her back, the clone landing on its feet a second later, letting her kick it into non existence.
She went to stand and Kakashi moved forward. The pain was making him slower, he wouldn't be faster than her anymore, he'd need to be careful.
Still..she was sloppy for some reason...he'd have to bank on that more than anything else.
He moved to strike, and she vanished from his eyes, a burst of speed, almost too fast for his lack of focus to catch, even with the sharingan.
Kakashi jumped away, spinning in the air, he mannaged to see Tsunade's fist as it swiped the area he'd previously occupied. He landed on an opposite roof, looking back at her.
Tsunade seemed to snarl, gritting her teeth before she stomped at the roof beneath her feet.
Like some large table who's edge had just bore the brunt of some massive weight almost half the roof snapped up. Shooting up vertically as it broke away from the house and the rest of the roof around it., tiles and roofing materials fell off with the cacophonous sound of shattering ceramic. Kakashi felt his eyes go wide, knowing what was coming next.
With a punch that snapped the chunk of roof in half Tsunade sent two massive slabs of wood hurdling towards him.
And Kakashi jumped right on one, using chakra to stick to its surface Kakashi leapfrogged back over to Tsunade, landing behind her he dodged her hasty blow before retaliating with his own sweep kick.
The woman jumped over it, feet gliding over his outstretched leg before they found the roof again.
She cocked her fist back, ready to strike at him again.
He was completely open.
Then he formed another clone behind her.
The clone hooked his arm into hers. His elbow at her shoulder and vice versa. Surprise and leverage allowed the clone to pivot his arm forward, putting his whole body in the motion, it grabbed the sannin by the hair with its left arm and used that to awkwardly throw her
Then it followed after her...
She landed on the street level, her knees scraping themselves on the grit floor and looked up.
Only to see Kakashi's clone a brief second before it exploded in a burst of electricity.
Her entire body jerked and twitched, her pain receptors and nerves confused with an influx of electrical energy.
She bit her tongue, and only her medical training allowed her to counter the effects quickly enough to remain standing.
Then she heard the screech.
The roar of a thousand birds tore through her ears like so much white noise, Tsunade's wide eyes looked up, finding Kakashi already running down the side of the building, his mismatched eyes fixed on her, the lightning swallowing his hand as it ripped apart whatever surface was too close.
She couldn't move...
He was coming closer, sharingan spinning wildly as his attack sought her heart.
She couldn't move...
He was a blur of black and silver, picking up speed with every second. The techniques greatest strength and its greatest weakness.
She couldn't move...
His hand shot out, and his voice rose over the cacophony of the surrounding battle with a shout!
She couldn't move...
She didn't move.
Rather, she smiled with cold malice.
In the distance, Katsuyu vanished in a cloud of smoke as a bright flare was launched into the sky.
"Naruto." She said, and he wasn't sure if it was a greeting, or a curse. Perhaps it was both.
There was a flash of light and both of them turned their eyes to the village where a brilliant flare lit up the sky like a second sun.
Only one of them knew what that meant.
"Manda." He commanded, as though speaking to the air. "Now!" He ignored his sister's confused features.
At the far end of the village, Manda roared to the heavens, screeching in triumph before it dived into the earth like it was little more dense than water, pushing itself through the grains of sand.
Then, as though the world was crumbling beneath them Suna's buildings were swallowed up by the sands, collapsing into an ever encroaching sink hole that surrounded the village, slowly coiling inwards like a serpent suffocating its prey.
The moment Manda went underground Jiraiya knew there was something wrong.
There was no call for retreat, there was no organized effort to pull back the troops.
"Drop the barrier!" He demanded and in a second the black, ethereal wall fell away, allowing the toad sage to leap up into one of the nearby rooftops.
He saw it move with lightning speed, the entire outer wall vanishing in a second before it turned and made a second run, making the gap impassable due to the sheer distance.
'He's using Manda to destroy the weakened limestone! He'll kill everyone!'
He was ready to turn, to warn all the ninja as to what was happening, he was not going to just let thousands die here in whatever lunacy, Naruto had devised.
Then the chasm turned, making a bee line straight for them.
Jiraiya's eyes went wide in horror. 'No...no no no.'
It was as though some invisible hand of the gods was cutting the earth in two, homes and buildings were collapsing into a pit, miles deep and nearly twice as wide as Manda himself.
He looked to the front, where Suna and Konoha forces were fully engaged, too focused on ripping eachother to pieces to see the danger that was approaching.
"Run!" He shouted, only for his voice to be lost in the cacophony. "Run!"
But his voice went unheard, and only the Sound Four saw what was coming in time to move out of the way.
The earth opened beneath their feet, cleft in two, Suna and Konoha ninja alike fell to their deaths, swallowed up by the sands beneath Suna's desert while Jiraiya looked on in horror
As the sink hole opened beneath the village Naruto watched.
Thousands of men and women were down there, tearing themselves apart in the frenzy. In the fear. A bottomless pit now stood between the Konoha ninja and their lines of retreat. None would stop now.
Both sides believed the other to be the culprit of this insane plan.
One side would push forward in desperation to end this, the other would hold on relentlessly to defend their crumbling homes.
And the sink hole would just keep spreading, swallowing up the village and the people above with impunity regardless of their allegiance.
More fires seemed to come alive down there. Dust clouds billowed up the mountain side. The stench of blood beginning to permeate the air, reaching his sensitive nose as the cries of the people, either fighting or dying filtered through his ears.
He could almost feel his sisters horror at this sight. He glanced over, watching her shake her head in shocked disbelief as she slowly realized the full implications of what was happening.
He allowed her this moment. Perhaps he allowed it to them both. She was witnessing just how far he was willing to go; while he witnessed the end of an age. And a fruition years in the making.
Despite himself his thoughts began to wander; he didn't know why. He'd never been one to reminisce over his life or his choices, but here, on this ending field he couldn't help but contemplate the direction it had taken, and all the consequences that came with it.
His earliest memory was training. His quarters had been a dark, spartan cellar within Anbu headquarters. His trainers were all masked, sworn to secrecy. They bred him for his future works, none offering more than a word necessary for him to complete his given tasks.
He, was Konoha's secret. Its weapon. Its shame.
Things had been simple then. He only needed to follow the creed of the ninja:
Protect your village unto death.
Never display emotion.
Guard yourself at all times.
And most importantly:
Follow the orders of your Kage.
And he had done so. He had followed that code, lived by it faithfully. Until of course, he was sent on a mission to Ame and Taki.
He supposed that's where it began really, the first place where he contemplated the possibility that perhaps the code of the ninja was...incomplete.
Yoshino and Kenpachi. They were the first people he had formed any real...attachment to. At the time he didn't understand. He couldn't make the connection between the emotions he'd developed and the ones he was forbidden to have.
He had cared for them. He had felt cared for by them and for once in his relatively short existence he had felt...content.
But that feeling was soon replaced by shame when he'd finally realized he'd become attached to his fellow ninja.
He had broken the code, and so when he returned to his duties, away from them, his interactions were kept hidden from all. Even Sarutobi. No one had ever ever known.
They had been his secret.
They had been his shame.
And so, for years he carried on, fulfilling his duties to Sarutobi and his village in silence.
He took on only the most dangerous of missions, those that were considered suicide for even a squad of the most elite of Jounin. And so had gained a reputation, as the most dangerous man of Konoha.
The man who could not be killed.
Then, years later, Sarutobi had assigned him to guard the last Uchiha and the Hyuuga heiress. A mission he now supposed Sarutobi used as an excuse to get him away from the Anbu.
Perhaps...he had always known this.
He couldn't be sure.
Years have passed, and whatever Sarutobi's motive had been at the time, it was irrelevant now. His interactions with the Uchiha and Hinata were not the same as those he'd experienced with Yoshino and Kenpachi.
Hinata was cold and distant where Yoshino was warm and inviting. She was aloof, Yoshino held her emotions on her sleeve as much as the world would allow her.
Sasuke craved power, Kenpachi would have given his freely. Sasuke was arrogant, Kenpachi was humble.
He liked to think, as unlikely as it was, that had been the Sandaime's intent. For him to bear witness to the diversities of humanity. The different paths one could take.
Things were still simple then too.
Then Sarutobi had died, and everything had changed.
Sarutobi...when he died...for a brief moment Naruto had felt so lost. Everything had just frozen in him. Perhaps looking back at it, he had been his first true attachment. Not Yoshino and Kenpachi. He wasn't sure how, or when it had happened. Maybe it had always been there. Maybe not. Who could say.
Then he had heard it.
Sarutobi's final orders. His final wish. And suddenly the world wasn't so simple.
There was no Kage to obey. Attachments with others had been made, emotional or otherwise, and in order to obey the final order of his Kage he would need to bring the village he had sworn to protect to its knees.
He had done so eventually.
Efficiently and ruthlessly.
Finding unexpected allies after assassinating the council in Jiraiya and Hinata. With their help, he took Konoha; It'd been the first step in carrying out Sarutobi's last wishes.
The first step in fulfilling what would over the years, become his own ambition as much as his obligation.
Kiri was next, it fell in line quickly and everything proceeded as predicted.
And then of course, he found her.
The woman standing at his side right now.
Akina.
His sibling.
His twin.
His sister.
A foolish girl.
A nuisance.
Someone he had quickly grown to hate.
His nemesis.
Many names for a single person.
He hated everything about her; Who she was, what she was...but...most importantly...he hated, what she represented.
But she left his sight quickly after that first encounter. She hid, vanished and he had been forced to remove her from his mind when he had received word...that Kusa was moving against him, and at their side...were Taki and Ame.
Yoshino and Kenpachi, they were two people he had believed that he could have counted on. People he could have turned to if things had gone wrong and the remaining three villages had turned against him.
Instead...he needed to kill them...
He had killed them.
And with their deaths came the subjugation of the central marshlands.
Nine years passed after that.
Nine years of planning,
Nine years of defending,
Nine years of suppressing rebellions,
Nine years of massing fortunes,
Nine years of raising armies.
Nine years of preparing for the next step.
When he marshaled the armies again, he moved to Iwa, and it soon fell like all others before it. For a brief moment, he remembered feeling satisfaction. Everything was falling into place and soon the final two villages would be under his rule and Sarutobi's last wish would be fulfilled.
But then of course...she returned.
She came back, stronger, faster. But still so weak, so very foolish. Predictable, dull.
Her life was static nine years before and nine years later it had still been static, untested, unfocused, unchallenged, manipulated, molded by Zhuge Liang's machinations as easily as the man conjured his illusions.
And through his machinations Suna came to battle against him and Temari came to be with him.
Temari...the princess of Suna.
He took a slow, deep breath through his nostrils.
She brought out something in him. Emotions he couldn't describe, emotions...he really didn't want to describe.
If he did, they would become tangible things, things he could dissect, pull apart, find a way to destroy, as he would have to do, as he would be compelled to do.
For that was the demand of the oath he'd taken, of the creed that bound him.
And he did not want that.
It was better this way...better that it remain undefined. Better that he be...ignorant.
He did not need to understand it.
He did not want to understand it...
Just as he did not want to understand her.
She stood her ground where others would cower. She was a strong Kunoichi in her own right, yet she did not hide her emotions like Hinata, she did not succumb to them like Yoshino. She showed them. But she controlled them.
And the biggest anomaly of all.
She cared for him.
She had asked him, before he'd left to stop this, to end this war now. That no others needed to die.
He supposed she was right, just as he supposed the decision to deny Suna a chance to make a plea for surrender was a betrayal. To her. To Jiraiya. To his men. To the nation itself. To Sarutobi's final order even.
This did not need to happen this way...not really.
Not every ninja needed to die as he was aiming for. It was more convenient certainly, but it did not need to truly happen this way. Letting them live and forcing them to throw down their arms was an alternative.
If he wanted to rationalize he could say that the threat of rebellion with that alternative was far too great to be allowed.
But the truth was that, the threat of rebellion was great either way. No...this battle...was purely to satisfy...his own weakness.
His own selfish need for just one last great battle. One final stage...to put to use the purpose he was made for...
Perfecting the killing of other beings.
By killing more than anyone else had ever dreamed of.
And now he could feel her stepping closer. Her anger was a palpable thing. She wanted to fight him, to kill him even.
Perhaps, she was right to try and perhaps, he was wrong to stop her. But he would stop her. He would stop her because he owed it- to Sarutobi, to Guan, to Kakashi, to Jiraiya, to Ginchiko, to Hidetada, to Yoshino, to Temari...to Akina herself.
He owed everyone a victory today.
Because it was what this world needed, what it deserved.
An end.
"I see you finally understand"
Silence greeted his statement. As if unwilling to acknowledge it before the reply finally came.
"Yes."
He turned to face her, fires were billowing black clouds of putrid smoke into the air blacking out the high noon sun and the sky above.
He finally got a good look at her
Grime and soot smeared her face, her mottled gray cloak was moth eaten and dingy, torn in certain places.
She looked ready to fight.
Still, weather from the sting of the smoke or her own emotions, tears made her eyes glimmer in the twilight of the shadowed noon.
"Why!" She yelled "Why all this!" The pitch in her voice was anger, sadness, guilt even perhaps...disappointment.
And as he heard this, even now...here at the end...he felt a quiver in his stomach, churning with disquiet as he realized that he was still doing it, cataloging her emotions, organizing them before he allowed his mind to then analyze it dissecting what he found there for possible means of attack and defense against her.
"What did you have to gain? To prove?" Her voice rose when he didn't answer, and sadness overtook the anger there, though the fire in her eyes only grew. When she fought him, her grief would not be a deterrent. "You could have ended it all! No more sorrow! No more fighting! No more pointless death!"
He said nothing, and the cacophonous sounds of battle and roaring fires below beat against the mountainside like the crashes of the tide upon rock, echoing up to them like the wails of ghosts.
"Why?" She asked again and this time he felt compelled to give her a worthy answer.
"A tired man will rest. Once he has rested. He will continue to walk, as he has always done."
He allowed a pause, a moment for her. To see if she would grasp his meaning, the reason he would say to her and to himself, before he voiced it.
"Beneath us, the last of this world's warriors battle each other in a fight that neither side can possibly win. Yours will fight to the death to save their families. Mine will simply fight for a chance for this to be over and to save their own lives. This is the battle that will bleed our countries white and will shatter the very engines of war that rose our cultures from the stone of our ancestors."
He paused and turned to look over the battlefield below them again before he returned his sight to her.
"Here...is where I will drown the world in its sorrow."
She said nothing for a moment, but he saw her expression close, hard lines sealing away the last faint traces of hope she held in her heart for him. "You're insane."
"From what I have seen. You are probably right." He answered, no hint of humor, mocking, or pride in his voice. All she could find within the metal tone was...shame. "But I am set upon my path sister and I will not stop. May this city, these armies, the world itself burn; if that is the price that must be paid so that the world will be so consumed by sorrow war never arises in the minds of the people again."
"You will be making a world of graves!"
"If that is what must be done...if that is what defines a world of peace." He shrugged. "So be it..."
He drew one of his blades, holding out a hand, beckoning her forward. "Come! No more words. The die has been cast, sister. If you truly wish to stop me; then this will be your last chance."
The six of them stared him down, and Kisame smiled as five water clones formed up beside him. Six for six.
His eyes practically leered as they swept across the group before fixing themselves on Yoshihiro. "Well old man...whadaya think? Will the brats beat my clones before I beat you?"
It was the only warning they got before the Kiri ninja attacked, rushing at all of them, his clones closed the distance with identical smiles as everyone scattered and Yoshihiro was left alone to fight the real Monster of the Mist.
The Tsuchikage's massive hammer met with Samaheda's broad body, the screech of metal met the strange, stone like scraping of Samaheda's weapon.
The sheer force behind Kisame's blow threw Yoshihiro's swing off entirely, and the Tsuchikage had to backpedal to avoid loosing his footing as Kisame advanced with massive, lazy swings of his sword.
Distantly, the old warrior realized that the ninja was actually holding back. He wasn't swinging nearly as fast as he could. But the sheer force behind every blow was more than enough to keep Yoshihiro at bay.
Kisame had taken his full measure back in the northern wastes. The monster of Kiri knew who he was facing and he knew just how much he had to cut loose to keep this fight interesting for himself.
The Tsuchikage cursed as the sword once more passed just inches from his face.
Splinters of rock gathered on his arm, encasing it in solid stone before he punched forward, the crushing blow meeting the broad side of Kisame's sword before the blue man shoved it aside, countering with a quick elbow to Yoshihiro's face that just grazed the crown of his head.
The Tsuchikage ducked in reflex, cursing before driving the counterweight of his hammer into Kisame's ribs.
The Kiri ninja chuckled, as he backed away coughing a bit in order to easily get the air back in his lungs. "Sure that arthritis isn't catching up to you old man. Left myself wide open there and you couldn't even make me feel it."
The Tsuchikage growled somewhere low in his throat, taking a stance and charging forward, bringing his massive hammer to bear on the Monster of Kiri.
Every blow was turned aside or avoided, every swing just wasted energy as the Nuke ninja seemed to laugh at his failed attempts.
Finally, with a blindingly fast parry, Yoshihiro was left wide open, and the shriek of protesting metal rang loud through the village as Samaheda slashed him across the chest, tearing open the chest plate of his armor.
He was unscathed, but when he fell to the floor at the side of a building he could say that he felt it.
When he opened his eyes it was to see Kisame standing over him, his leering, smiling eyes peering down from where he stood on the building's wall.
A bubble of water churned between his outstretched hands before he pushed it forward. The bubble became a rushing pillar, as though water had just become as hard as stone that was falling down to crush the Tsuchikage beneath its massive weight.
When the water struck the ground it was a roar of noise, as though a dam had suddenly been broken and the village was being flooded all over again, not unlike his first attack that had leveled almost a full city block.
Kisame had the sun, and the shadow cast by his opponent to thank for warning him. He drew his sword from his back quick as lightning, using it to block the strike.
Just because he could take the brutal punishment didn't mean the wood beneath his feet could say the same. With a crack he fell through, pushed through the wall and into the unfortunate kitchen of whatever idiot had lived here.
Yoshihiro landed outside, breathing hard, more from adrenaline than exertion.
Then he rushed forward, bursting through the same wall with a roar.
But, to his surprise, and irritation, Kisame was nowhere to be found.
He looked around, confused, checking every corner, and fluctuating his chakra to make certain he was not under the thrall of some illusion.
But only the sound of fighting outside drew his attention. So he stepped out, just in time to see the Suna pupet girl back-flip off a building to avoid Kisame's sword from decapitating her.
Landing on her feet, she skirted back and Yoshihiro noticed a kunai blade sticking out of Kisame's shoulder.
The real one then, not a clone.
There was a glow beneath the building, and though Yoshihiro could see it clearly from the window, Kisame couldn't from the roof, and an instant later a burst of electricity practically ripped its way through tiles, ceramic, plaster and wood in what Yoshihiro could only describe as a beam that swallowed up the Kiri ninja.
When the light vanished, Kisame was gone, and Yoshihiro allowed himself a momentary fools hope that perhaps he was dead.
Then of course he had to walk out of the building with the shattered splinters of Ino's puppet gripped in his hands.
"Not bad girlie." He taunted, crushing the wood even more with a flex of his fingers. "But not good enough."
Yoshihiro heard her curse, and felt his own unease rise when he noticed that Kisame's clothing wasn't even singed. Nothing could have moved fast enough to get away completely unscathed.
So apparently the attack did absolutely nothing.
The Tsuchikage saw the boy with the prosthetic arm attempting to sneak up behind the monster of the mist. He would have told him not to bother. But before he could decide to open his mouth, the boy pounced.
And was then backhanded into a wall.
"Come on!" Kisame mocked. "Are you people even trying?"
"Not really..." Kiba chuckled through what might have been a swelling jaw. "I'm just the distraction."
He didn't get much more warning than that when he was suddenly under attack from above and below.
His legs were grasped at the ankles by hands emerging from the dirt and a Hyuuga came rushing down from above.
Yoshihiro noticed the surprise on his face. They really had caught him off guard!
"Kaiten!" A ball of spinning, coruscating chakra smashed down into the Kiri ninja. He didn't even have the opportunity to grab at his sword before the powerful technique took him. Yoshihiro had never taken a blow from the Hyuuga's heavenly spin technique. But he knew that when used offensively, rare as it was, it had enough force to grind stone into powder, he could only hope the same could be said about Kisame's bones.
Hanabi flipped off, pushing herself back and landing slightly infront of Yoshihiro and behind Ino just moments before Shino emerged from the ground at her side.
When the dust finally settled, it was to the sight of Kisame, on the ground, unmoving.
Yoshihiro allowed himself a moment to breathe easier before looking to the back of Hanabi's head. "Which one of you came up with that plan?" He asked.
"It was the Nara." Hanabi grudgingly admitted.
Ino inched away from them, eying them carefully. Kiba glared at Hanabi as he picked himself off the floor.
Yoshihiro, Hanabi and Shino also took notice that Shikamaru had not yet revealed himself.
The pseudo allies stared eachother down, ready to reach the conclusion of their own conflict now that the third party was gone.
Then they heard laughter.
When all their eyes snapped back to Kisame it was in time to see him picking himself off the floor, his left arm bleeding and hanging limp at his side.
"Excelent!" He roared! "I haven't had this much fun in ages!" His laughter reached a pitch as his left arm crunched audibly. "One arm left! Six elites! Sounds like a free game to me! Hahahaha!"
His chakra soared, becoming a visible aura around him before exploding in a brilliant aurora that nearly blinded them.
"This is it then! No holds barred finisher. Lets see what you people really got!"
They each took a stance, ready to fight off this beast again.
It was a seconds distraction, just the briefest moment where they each held a lack of focus when the distant village wall crumbled like too much rubble.
He rushed forward so fast not even Hanabi's Byakuugan could catch him.
His fist slammed into Ino's stomach with enough force to have her spitting out more blood than air. Her puppets fell limp. She nearly blacked out from the pain. She would have crumpled over instantly if Kisame hadn't grabbed her by her hair, lifting her up just enough before letting her go and deliver another punishing blow to her temple with his still functional arm.
Ino fell to the floor, her mind was in a daze, floating through a sea of fog.
She didn't even feel it when she hit the ground, when her wrist sprained itself in the reflex movement to try and stop her fall. The edge of her vision was dark, her eyes were swimming in a world that wouldn't do her the courtesy to stop spinning.
She did feel it when someone grabbed her hair a second time, pulling at it. Her body moved without her consent. She was held up, placed against something...but what? What was happening.
The tug at her hair vanished and somewhere she could hear Shikamaru's voice calling out to her. What was happening? What had she been doing? There was something important...something she needed to do. Did she have to tell Shikamaru something?
Her clouded eyes and sluggish thoughts recognized Kisame's sword. It recognized its danger, it was going to cut her.
'No...' She thought. 'Don't cut my hair...Shikamaru likes my hair long.'
A fountain of red stained the streets.
His hands formed the seals before his lips had even uttered the words, two fireballs were left speeding towards her.
She dodged the first, drawing her spear as she backpedaled from the second before finally swinging, the gleaming tip, covered in lightning slammed against the second fireball, making it explode harmlessly four feet infront of her, hot air and sand brushing over her face.
She threw a kunai through the smoke and dissipating tongues of flame.
The clang of steel striking steel warned her that he'd blocked it easily.
She jumped, the blade passing mere inches under her feet as she did, the smoke stung her eyes as she rose over it, with Naruto still obscured by what little of the smog was left.
She landed and rolled forward, feeling the brush of wind at the back of her neck as his sword swing once again missed by scant inches.
She got to her feet, righting herself as she turned and thrust her weapon forward, forcing Naruto to stop to avoid impaling himself, buying her the few seconds she needed.
She spat out a fat glob of water "Suiton: Ja no Kuchi!"
The water twisted and spun, coiling in the air as it grew reptilian-esque features before it lunged at its target.
With a wave of his sword, her fellow blond sliced the thing in half, a crescent of wind splitting it right down the middle from head to tail.
She moved to make another attack when his hand stretched out to her. "Futon: Daitopa!"
It felt like a house had crashed into her, head on. The wind was knocked from her lungs and she was thrown back, until she smashed onto a packet of hardened sand rock, her body pushing straight through it and out through the other side.
She landed on her feet and rushed back, attacking with the spear blade charged with sparks of dancing electricity. Naruto took a ready stance, ready for the strike when she dragged the tip of the weapon over the wet sand as she came at him.
It was only too late that he realized one foot was standing on the ground her suiton technique had left wet.
The shocks lanced up his leg, muscle spasms and pain throwing him off as his knee buckled against his will.
The spear's razor tipped end was lunging straight for his skull.
At the last moment he rolled, the spear catching in his hood and cutting off a good chunk off the cloth. He reached his feet in time to see three more water snakes coiling through the air as they moved to attack from three different angles.
He sidestepped the first, avoided the second as a Rasengan formed in his hand, plunging it into the mouth of the third when it was in range, destroying the thing as more water was splashed around the area.
"Raiku!"
He didn't bother to wait, he leaped into the air, towards her, avoiding the now electrified ground and the ball of electricity that had been launched at him.
His free hand balled into a fist, fire chakra gathering there as he brought it down on her.
She jumped back, his fist striking sand with a small explosion.
"Raiku!" He heard again.
"Doton!"
A wall of earth sprang up between him and his sister's blast, taking the brunt of the force, pelting him with small stones and grit as it exploded between them. He rushed through the dust, Another rasengan in his hand.
Only to find that she wasn't there. He snapped his eyes up, and saw her instantly, standing on a platform of floating water, her spear once again dancing with electric discharge.
"Raiton: Eiso!"
Javelins of thin electricity shot out from the tip, dozens at a time raining down around him like a rainstorm of energy. Naruto cursed, dodging and weaving between the blasts of electricity as he formed his own handseals. "Katon: Goryuka!"
He breathed out a column of orange flame, twice as wide as any house in either Suna or Konoha, it soared into the sky, the head of a dragon forming at it's lead! The bolts of electricity striking harmlessly against it.
Before the water evaporated beneath her Akina leaped away, distancing herself enough to avoid the attack entirely.
She landed in time to see another fireball rushing towards her.
Lightning lanced from her spear, stretching out impossibly long it pierced the fireball and kept going until it met her brother's defensive Rasengan technique.
She rushed, spinning the spear infront of her with her two hands like some baton, lightning running along its entire length, growing denser and denser until all Naruto could see was a blur of white, crackling electricity.
Then more lances came at him, all but swallowing the distance in the blink of an eye, hundreds of tiny, pinprick dots seeking to skewer him.
He crossed his arms infront of him, hunching as his body tensed, Chakra flowing through all Tenketsu before he released it with a roar, his arms shooting out to his sides and finding himself standing as straight as he could.
A shock-wave expanded, with him at its center, millions of hair thin wind blades scattering through the air that surrounded him.
Lightning met with wind, every attack canceling out the other.
One slipped past, and Naruto grunted as the lightning shot straight through his right shoulder. Akina gasped as one stray wind blade sliced open her left hip, the spinning of her weapon coming to an immediate stop.
He walked through the square, hundreds of men running this way and that way in a wild conglomeration of bodies. They shouted orders and called for help, almost as though there was a competition of who could shout the loudest.
The servo motors whined like dying animals as the faux muscles moved him forward. Sand billowed over the village like a dust-bowl had descended on them. Smoke, ash and fire choked the air with the smell, creeping closer and closer as the village burned meeter by bloody meeter and fell to their invaders.
The village was literally crumbling beneath their feet.
Konoha bastards!
The frontlines had fallen in a second after that hole opened up. He wasn't sure how many Konoha ninja had died in that suicide attack but he sure as hell hoped that it'd been more of them than Suna.
Either way, they made the call to fall back shortly after.
He could feel the heat of the outside world seeping in through the cracks in his armor, acrid and uncomfortable, it burned his skin where it touched turning the inside of his damaged armor into an infernal sauna.
He felt someone pounding away at his side. Pushing over and over again, insistent. He turned, T shaped visor revealing one of his captains. He was shouting something. What the hell was he shouting?
Kankuro blinked, trying to focus, to push the thoughts out of his mind. He needed to put it out, ignore everything...focus...focus...
-ir! Sir what are your orders?"
Like waking from a dream Kankuro jerked back to the world, the chuunin's words plunging straight through the fog of his mind.
He grabbed the man by the shoulder, more roughly than he should have judging by his wince but the puppet master didn't have the time nor energy to really care.
"We hold. Do you hear me? I want every man and woman, wounded or otherwise right here. We cannot loose this courtyard do you understand? If they can hold a knife they better be standing right here within the next ten minutes! Our lines may not hold for much longer than that"
The captain looked bewildered, almost dumbstruck and Kankuro's already frayed patience finally snapped. "What the hell is wrong with you! Get to it!" He roared.
"Si-sir! Our lines fell already! Tiger squadrons are falling back here now, they ran straight through Snake squadrons to the south. Lion squadron was the only one to pull back mostly intact from the north!"
Kankuro stopped moving, eyes wide in disbelief beneath his helm. His legs would have stumbled if they worked.
Already? When did they go down? They should have been able to hold for...why didn't they hold? Why didn't the traps slow them down more?
There was a scream and Kankuro turned towards it.
They poured in through the square's entrances. Blades and black cloths, their forehead protectors glinted in the sunlight as their weapons carved through the disorganized, retreating Suna nin that stumbled to get away from the rushing tide.
It was a black rage that took hold of him then. A fury unlike any other that seized his heart in its grip, shriveling it in fire until only the heat is what he felt flooding his veins.
He rushed forward with some wild yell, his voice turning to a booming roar through his helmet. The ground trembled with the thunder of his footsteps and he glared at the enemies of his village through the dark visor.
His fist found the first one. Punching the man and breaking his body beneath the weight of his knuckles, swords, knives and Jutsu struck the chakra resistant outer shell of his suit, breaking off of the reinforced wood like water over rock.
A blade slid from the forearm of his right suit arm, wide and thick like a butchers cleaver. It was not sharp, but it didn't have to be, through the sheer power behind his blow and the raw strength of the suit the edged metal cut through a half dozen men with bare minimum effort.
Chakra surged through his left fist, passing through the seal into a crackle of electric discharge around his fingers.
They surged forward like a tide, weapons and screams, their bodies broke beneath the power of his weapons as he roared out in defiance, hatred and sheer rage becoming a palpable force behind his attacks as he struck again and again.
How many did he kill that day? None could say. Whether it was from the blade, the lightning covered fist that threw back the bodies of those it struck with impossible force or simply crushing their limbs beneath the treads of his armors' thickened boots, none would ever know. But oh did he kill. He killed and killed and killed again.
He reared his fist ready to punch the crackling mass of wood and metal into its next victim when his wrist was tugged back, forcefully stretching his arm out behind him.
He turned, hissing snakes coiled around his wrist, their long bodies stretched taut from the sleeves they emerged from. The woman was scowling, speckled with blood across her face.
He pulled screaming out from within his armor as the woman was forcefully yanked from her feet, damn near two hundred pounds of dead weight flying towards him at speed.
His bladed arm thrust out towards her, the thick cleaver seeking out her flesh. The woman twisted in the air, stepping and spinning over his outstretched wrist on one foot before using the momentum of her spin to kick at the top of his armors head with enough force to have shattered a skull.
He heard her curse, saw her foot vanish before feeling the tug at his wrist again, struggling now to pull his arm behind his back.
With a slash the snakes were cut apart, their heads and bodies flopping uselessly on the ground before he stomped on them.
The visor narrowed his sight, and he searched for her swiveling to and fro, searching.
With a ping and a teeth grinding screech a kunai blade scraped against the vizors reinforced glass, a white gouge carving straight across the left side in a curved, grey line against the tinted glass.
Kankuro cursed, the arms of his suit lifting up in reflex, the narrow visor barely allowed him sight of the blur beneath his feet.
He felt the impact that drove the kunai into the suits waist, jostling him before he punched down.
The woman moved to roll to the side as his fist came down over her head. It missed her, it did however pin her cloak to the dirt with the massive weight of his faux limb.
He saw her reel and curse as the cloak pulled taut around her neck. The puppeteer grabbed the article of clothing, pulling her back towards him.
She unclasped the thing from her throat, pulling away quickly.
Then the explosive notes went off.
Kankuro coughed and gasped, hunching over in his suit. It felt as though someone had hit him in the gut; hard. The explosion's shockwave rattled up his ribcage and shook his heart and lungs so bad he felt they'd rupture in his chest as his teeth rattled. They'd been wrapped around the kunai she drove into the armor's midsection.
The suit staggered, the woman rolled and twisted, screaming as the did, clutching at her arm.
Kankuro saw it riddled with shrapnel of metal shards from the blades. Spittle was breathed out through her teeth as she sucked in rapid breaths to try and alleviate the pain of her mutilated arm.
The suit absorbed most of the damage, though the servo motor that would let him turn his waist groaned and revved awkwardly, Kankuro seized the moment offered, stalking forward.
The woman reached her feet shakily, keeping her eyes on him as he approached.
"Dynamic entry!"