The strange monster finished taking shape as Sora just stared up in anticipation.
Sand surged upward, pouring across the battlefield before the creature finally rose from the storm.
It was an enormous shape of packed earth and sand, its body was quite grotesque and its face twisted into something like a demon with a grin.
Sora stood alone below, Baki's corpse a few meters away.
The creature stared down at him.
For a moment, they just stared at each other.
Then the beast laughed. "WHAT A STRANGE LITTLE HUMAN."
It's voice vibrated through the sand, sending tremors through the ground.
Sora rolled his shoulders, pursing his lips slightly as his eyes flickered faintly as he studied the creature's chakra.
But all he could see was chakra, the beast was living chakra.
He smiled. "So this is what you look like, it's my first time seeing a tailed beast."
The beast tilted its gargantuan head.
Then its arm moved.
A colossal claw of sand descended toward him with enough force to flatten a block of buildings.
Sora vanished, the claw smashing into the ground with a deafening explosion.
By the time the dust had cleared, Sora was already running up the beast's arm, chakra flowing through his legs as he sprinted upward toward its shoulder.
The beast snorted.
A violent surge of sand erupted along its arm, attempting to swallow him whole.
Sora leapt out of the way, falling off the arm…
Until multiple small golden constructs faded into existence, slabs of hardened nature energy formed beneath his feet as he used them like stepping stones, vaulting from one to the next as he dodged the sand.
Then, he flickered forward.
And struck.
A large spectral fist appeared behind Sora as he swung his fist, the golden fist following his movements and slamming into the creature's cheek.
The impact didn't injure it, but the sheer strength behind the blow sent a shock through the beast's head, forcing it to jerk sideways.
It blinked, stunned for a moment, then burst out laughing again before swinging its other arm toward Sora.
This time instead of it being just brute force, the entire desert seemed to move with its arm.
Sand erupted from the ground in massive pillars, twisting through the air like colossal serpents as they closed in on Sora from all directions.
Sora's grin widened as he outstretched a hand.
The world slowed.
He saw the flow of chakra through the sand, he saw how the creature controlled it far more fluently than Gaara had, he saw the patterns and impulses that guided each grain.
And copied it instantly.
Sora's outstretched hand clenched and the desert obeyed him.
A surge of sand erupted upward beneath him, forming a spinning platform that launched him into the air while at the same time disrupting the incoming pillars. Several of them crashed together midair, exploding into clouds of sand.
The beast's eyes widened slightly.
Sora landed on a floating space of hardened natural energy high above the battlefield.
He raised his hand again, the sand below moving with his will.
Unlike before, it wasn't as chaotic as Gaara's.
Now that he was copying the direct source instead of a puppet with a half baked version of the ability, he had a lot more control.
Hundreds of spears of compacted sand erupted upward and shot toward the beast's face like a barrage of arrows.
The creature raised an arm to block, the spears striking and shattering against the dense arm.
But a handful managed to pierce deep enough to stagger the massive beast.
Its grin widened. "YOU LEARN FAST!"
Then its entire body shifted, the sand composing its form exploded outward into a storm, swallowing the entire battlefield.
Sora was immediately surrounded.
The wind screamed in his ears, sand scraped across his skin like thousands of tiny blades.
His eyes flickered violently as he tried to track the creature through the storm, but the chakra flooding the world around him was overwhelming.
Then Sora grinned and his eyes glowed even brighter.
A small sphere of golden energy formed around him, not to block the sand, but to disrupt the chakra inside, making it fall uselessly to the floor before it could touch him.
Then the beast itself attacked, a colossal claw tore through the sandstorm, appearing directly in front of him.
Sora twisted sideways, just barely moving out of the way in time for the claw to pass mere inches away from his face.
He then retaliated immediately.
His leg snapped upward, reinforced with plenty of chakra and reinforced with a shell of golden energy, smashing into the creature's wrist with enough force to fracture the sand.
Before the beast could recover, Sora quickly launched himself forward by catapulting himself off the platform of natural energy.
He ran straight up the creature's arm again, dodging the sand that tried to swallow him.
He then countered by forcing the surrounding grains away with his own control, creating a narrow path through the storm as he climbed.
Then he reached the shoulder again, not punching this time.
Instead, he pushed both of his palms down onto the beast's body.
His eyes flared as he disrupted the chakra flow holding that section of the sand together.
For a moment, the massive structure destabilised.
The beast's shoulder collapsed, thousands of tons of sand crashed downward as the limb partially disintegrated.
Sora jumped out of the way before he was caught in the collapse.
He landed far beneath, breathing harder now.
The beast reformed quickly, the missing section of its arm rebuilt itself as the sand below flowed up its body.
Its eyes narrowed as it checked Sora out. "YOU ARE DEFINITELY A FUN ONE."
The creature suddenly inhaled, the air itself seemingly vanishing.
Sora's instincts screamed at him.
He obeyed, moving immediately out of the way as fast as his body would allow him.
From behind, the beast roared.
A massive sphere of condensed wind erupted from its mouth, blasting across the battlefield like a natural disaster. The attack carves a trench through the desert, obliterating everything in its path.
Sora barely escaped the edge of it.
The shockwave caught him regardless.
He was thrown violently into the ground, rolling through the sand before skidding to a stop against a broken rock.
He forced himself upright, one of his eyes getting blurry.
Blood dripped from his forehead as his eyes pulsed painfully.
His link had been forcefully severed, his chakra reserves had now plummeted and returned to normal.
But he was still smiling.
"Alright," he muttered, cracking his neck. "Now we're talking."
The beast charged, each step shaking the ground.
Sora didn't retreat, he copied the beast and sprinted right toward it.
The distance between them vanished in seconds as the beast swung its massive arm down again, Sora jumping right onto it.
He used the falling arm as a ramp, sprinting along the descending limb and launching himself directly at the monster's face.
Sand surged upward to intercept him, but Sora pointed a finger gun at it.
"Bang!"
A golden bullet shot forward and exploded the sand, Sora quickly readjusting himself before he punched the creature directly between the eyes.
The impact echoed out, the creature staggered, Sora impressed by his own strength.
The beast stopped laughing, instead… it stared at him.
It really stared.
"You…"
It's voice was quieter now.
"…are very interesting."
Sora landed several hundred meters away, breathing heavily.
His chakra reserves were still enormous compared to before, but he had lost the monster's reserves.
His eyes flickered again, making his head throb painfully.
The beast noticed Sora's discomfort and grinned. "YOU MUST BE GETTING TIRED."
Sora wiped the blood from his nose. "Yeah…" He rolled his shoulders. "Then again, you aren't the average foe."
The beast raised its arms, the desert following.
An ocean of sand rose into the air behind it, towering higher and higher until it blotted out the sky itself.
Sora looked up.
Even he had to admit…
…this was ridiculous.
The wave crashed downward.
Sora moved.
He ran across the desert as the wall of sand descended, creating stepping platforms out of hardened natural energy beneath his feet as he sprinted upward into the air.
The impact swallowed him completely.
For several seconds, nothing could be seen.
Then the sand exploded outward.
Sora burst free from the collapsing wave, launching himself directly toward the beast one more time.
He slammed his fist into its jaw with everything he had left, the creature's head snapping sideways.
Then Sora landed again, staying down this time.
His eyes dimmed, chakra running low.
The beast slowly turned its head back toward him.
For a long moment, it simply watched.
Then it laughed again, this time it wasn't mocking.
"BAHAHAHAHA! YOU ARE A CRAZY LITTLE HUMAN!"
It leaned down slightly, enormous face lowering closer to the ground.
"IF YOU HAD MORE TIME… YOU MIGHT HAVE BEEN WORTH KILLING!"
Sora chuckled weakly. "Yeah?" He pushed himself back to his feet. "Let me live then, I'll get a bit stronger then come back to fight you again in a few years… sound good?"
The beast grinned wider.
"You know what…"
Sora's expression turned incredulous as the beast looked like it was in genuine thought.
"RUN."
Sora didn't argue.
Didn't have to tell him twice, in the span of two seconds he turned and vanished into the desert, erasing his chakra signature and turning invisible, sprinting away as fast as his legs could allow him.
Behind him, the massive creature nodded its head in contemplation. "VERY INTERESTING INDEED. IF HE HAD EVEN HESITATED, I WOULD HAVE ENDED IT RIGHT THERE."
…
…
Two months later, Inside of a bar, near the border between the land of wind and the land of rivers, two cloaked figures sat at the table.
One was large, the other looked small.
Every now and then, multiple masked and unmasked men would glance over at the two and whisper various stories they'd heard.
One scarred man whispered to his companion. "Isn't that the Princess they talk about?" He asked.
His companion, a woman wearing a mask, replied. "I heard that she isn't an actual Princess, but they do call her the Princess of Catastrophe." She said in a hushed tone.
The scarred man turned to glance at the tall cloaked woman before looking back at his companion. "Isn't that because the moment she takes a bounty, she leaves the area of confrontation in a state of catastrophe?" He asked again.
His companion whispered in an even more hushed tone. "Yes. Most of the time it is left singed with the area reduced to ash, but sometimes everything is shredded, flattened or even left the exact same." She answered, not wanting to continue the topic.
Across the bar, a man eyed the shorter figure, whispering to his table of friends. "That kid is a shinobi that deserted the sand, right? I usually see her alone, but every now and again she's sat with… that woman." He said, the table not replying out of fear that their words would cause tension between them and the duo.
As for the two, they were currently having a nice chat.
"Say, Aki… What exactly about me reminds you of your brother? From what I've heard I'm not particularly similar. You on the other hand… you are the spitting image of my brother back home! You're both so hot headed when it comes to fighting it's scary…" The larger figure said with a chuckle and a friendly tone.
Aki, a young girl around the same age as Sora, scoffed. "Well… I don't know, just an older person that acts like family I guess. You're both reliable, that might be it. Also, stop saying that I'm like your brother, I've heard it over and over." She rolled her eyes.
Fuko Hino grinned and ruffled Aki's short pitch black hair that was tied into two spiky pigtails on either side of the back of her head, the young, crimson eyed girl pouted and whacked Fuko's hand out of the way with a sigh.
At this moment, the bartender walked over and placed down a book. "Here it is, the updated bingo book for ya."
Fuko was interested, but she knew that Aki was more vigilant so she allowed the young girl to sift through all of the pages quickly, looking at all of the brand new high bounties with scanning eyes.
"Fuko, look at this one, he kinda looks like you." She pointed a finger at a page, not looking too interested but still surprised. "He doesn't look much older than me, yet his bounty is awfully high."
Fuko perched up and looked over, already getting excited at the prospect of fighting someone so promising.
And then she froze.
- WANTED DEAD OR ALIVE : SORA HINO : 1,500,000 RYŌ -
…
Authors note : sorry yall, I'm gonna have to take a decently long break as I am staying over my girlfriends house for the next two weeks because of my birthday and won't be able to write anything… I'll come back with lots of chapters hopefully!