Chapter 9

-Rising Flames, Crashing Lightning

The flames steadily burn away at the forest, bringing everything that was alive and healthy to a fried crisp. The Uchiha and his clones continue to stare into the massive embers, looking around for any sign of the evil man. The flames finally clear out after a breeze blows through, revealing the scorched battlefield. Smoke arises from the singed earth, embers of fire still burning at the ground.

"Tch," Shizake grunts as Kankaku emerges from a rock dome.

"Whew! Now that was a close one! Haha I am enjoying myself, Uchiha!" Kankaku manically screams.

"You're a resilient one. Looks like I'll just have to up the ante," Shizake says aloud.

"I ain't goin down so easy. Now...show me what you got."

*

"What do you want with us?" The Hyuga boy yells, tossing several shuriken at his masked enemy.

The man answers by placing his palms together, huge chunks of rocks leaping out of the earth and straight at him. Nitatchi smirks behind his mask, chakra steadily flowing into his palms all whilst his Byakuan activates.

He thrusts his palms forward, huge gales of air being exerted from his hands with enough force to smash the rocks flying towards him. The last rock soars at Nitatchi who hits it with an open palm, sending it upwards into the air. Nitatchi then leaps into the sky smashing the rock with his palm to send it flying back at his enemy.

The man leaps to the side, rolling on the ground to barely dodge the splash like explosion. Nitatchi sticks his landing, quickly sliding out three shuriken and tossing them with the whip of his arm. He then brings up an open hand, using his air palm to thrust the shuriken forward. The metal tools whiz through the air aimed straight at the hooded enemy who lifts his forearm up, rocks quickly forming up and around it. Just as the rocks cover his entire arm, the shuriken clang off the armor.

"Gotcha," Nitatchi says, as he appears behind his assailant.

The Hyuga unleashes his index and middle finger, pinpointed directly into the enemy's chakra point located on the middle of the back. The hooded man cripples over before the force sends him tumbling across the forest floor, coming to a halt as he slides in the dirt.

Nitatchi quickly flickers back over to the enemy, kicking him over on his back.

"Now tell me. What do you want with us?" He interrogates.

*

"Keep it coming Uchiha! I love the heat of battle! You are definitely proving a worthy challenge!" Kankaku insanely roars at Shizake.

The intensity of the battle seems to have had a toll on Kankaku's mind as he stares with murderous intent at Shizake. The Uchiha huffs heavily, having fought Kankaku for the past hour or so. A large chunk of his chakra pool is gone, leaving him slightly fatigued and scuffed up from the battle. The armor on his left arm sits in the grass, having been hacked off from an earth style jutsu. A crack runs along diagonally on his chest plate, another doing of the earth jutsu user.

"I have no idea what you want Kankaku. Why go to all this trouble to come after me?" The Uchiha asks aloud.

"If there's one thing I've learned from Orochimaru... it's that doing what you're told grants you power in his domain. Face it, the man is a genius and can unlock the true power of this shinobi world," Kankaku replies.

"Power that shouldn't be unlocked. It's called forbidden jutsu for a reason, in that it requires the harm of other human beings," Shizake goes on.

"Don't even start with the humanistic bullshit, Uchiha! This world doesn't deserve mercy... we survive by killing and taking from others. The only thing that matters is that I get my hands on more power... so I can strike down more people like you," Kankaku continues, "Now... enough talking. You're ruining my fun..."

The long black haired pony tailed man lifts up his right hand, making the confrontation seal with it.

"Earth style: rock golem jutsu!" Kankaku yells.

Chunks of the earth begin breaking off and slowly piling up on one another to build up into the shape of a beastly looking rock monster. Dirt and small pebbles shake off the rock golem as the head forms last. Roots branch out around various parts of his body, the grotesque being finally coming to life. Two small pebbles make up the eyes, the golem smashing its fists together while stomping its feet.

"And just to make you work extra hard..." Kankaku trails off.

A pulse in the air creates the illusion of ten rock golems standing around, each looking like an exact replica of the original one. But he knows I have the Sharingan – so why would he even try to use genjutsu? The battle must have gone to his head, I need to use this moment while he's cocky to slip through his defenses, Shizake thinks to himself.

The Uchiha at first decides to play dumb at first, pretending to not know which golem is the real one. Although with his Sharingan he has already picked out the original. For now he ducks and dodges all the golems coming after him, even though they possess no real threat, acting dumb will put Kankaku's guard down. Shizake leaps up into the trees, weaving through multiple branches as the golems continue to chase after him.

The original rock golem makes a hand seal, a spear of rock quickly coming together in its hand. It positions itself with the spear cocked back, its front foot forward. After taking a hop, it launches the spear at Shizake, tearing through the tree branches like butter. Shizake leaps out of the tree and into another, dodging the massive rock spear. Shizake, seeing his opening, quickly begins forming hand signs as he leaps into the crowd of nine fake rock golems and one real one. Using the Sharingan, Shizake flips and dodges, ducks and dives, avoids and weaves his way through the onslaught of attacks brought his way. After completing the hand-signs the Uchiha boy pivots on his foot, facing directly at the real rock golem.

Lightning explodes into the palm of his hand, radiating outward around it. Bolts of electricity buzz and flicker in the air around his palm, the signature sound of one thousand birds screeching into the battle-ridden forest. Shizake, still crouching, lays his thumb flat over the palm, sticking the rest of his fingers straight out.

"Chidori!" He yells, blasting through the rock golem in the blink of an eye.

For a moment, nothing happens - as if time itself froze. Suddenly - the rock golem convulses, lighting erupting out from its chest before exploding with the force of a small bomb. Tiny rocks and pebbles rain down from the sky, the fake genjutsu golems disappearing after the original was destroyed.

"Now it's my turn," Shizake says, using Kankaku's moment of shock as an opening.

Quickly forming more hand-seals Shizake puts the last seal up to his lips before yelling, "Fire style: Phoenix barrage!"

Dozens upon dozens of mini fireballs volley out from his mouth, bombarding Kankaku's side of the forest with a fiery storm. The mini balls of fire smash into trees, producing deep burns in wood, and igniting some bark as well. Small to medium sized branches snap like twigs before falling to the forest floor and burning slowly. What sounds like dozens of explosions plays through the forest. Shizake's teammates even pause during their fights to look in the direction of the sound. Nitatchi, with his enemy done for and on the ground also looks toward Shizake's direction.

The Hyuga boy squints his eyes before looking back down at the man.

"It looks like our time here is over," Nitatchi says, producing a kunai from his pouch.

Swiftly, he stabs the man in the heart, killing him instantly. Nitatchi yanks the blade out of the chest, wiping the blood off on the grass. He then stands up and begins dashing in the direction of Shizake.

"Had enough?" Shizake asks the downed Kankaku.

The man lies on the forest floor, having taken one of the fireballs directly to the chest. At first he is still until a muffled murmuring is heard. Shizake glares at his enemy, knowing that he still hasn't gone down.

"Uchiha... you sure are persistent... but nothing is going to stop me from getting those wretched eyes to Orochimaru." Kankaku answers.

Quickly, the man leaps onto his feet from his lying position, making hand-seals as soon as he recovers.

"That's it Kankaku, I'm done playing games! It's time for you to die!" Shizake yells as he points at the man.

"Bring it," Kankaku demands.

Shizake forms hand-seals of his own, picking up his feet and quickly falling into a dead sprint towards the man. With the last seal made, Shizake grabs his wrist as electricity explodes into his hand once more.

"Earth style: Stalagmite eruption!" Kankaku roars.

Multiple sharp pointed rocks begin shooting out of the ground, to stop and impale Shizake in his tracks. The Uchiha gracefully dodges and flips out of the way of incoming deadly spear like rocks. He gradually closes in the distance between the two, using trees to his advantage to stop the path of the incoming jutsu.

Kankaku adds more chakra to his attack, the stalagmites rising out with more intensity, velocity, and deadly intent. Slowly, more spears are added to the pack, the pointed earth littering the forest floor like a massive trap set for an army.

The Sharingan allows Shizake to perfectly dance around every spear that shoots out at him as electricity still courses in the palm of his hand. Finally, Shizake leaps up on a branch, swinging around it once then launching himself head first at Kankaku.

"This is the end!" Shizake yells as he soars towards the malicious man.

Just before Shizake reaches him, one last stalagmite erupts out of the ground, the razor sharp tip pointed directly at the Uchiha. The black haired boy sticks his fist out, turning the attack to pure dust. Shizake then sticks his feet out, coming to a sliding halt just as he reaches Kankaku. Using the momentum, he contorts his body and lands his lightning coated fist directly into the man's stomach. Kankaku heaves over before being shot right into a tree. His back slams against it, blood and saliva coming from his mouth from the pure force of the impact. Kankaku slowly slides down to the forest floor, his body slumping forward.

"Finally..." Shizake mumbles to himself, walking over to check his enemy.

The Uchiha crouches down and looks at the man, observing him in more detail to maybe learn something more about him. Shizake mentally shrugs it off, deciding it's a waste of time to learn about this man. He tried to kill my squad and me, that's all that needs to be known, Shizake thinks.

"Gotcha!" The man suddenly yells, coming to life as he lands a rock encased fist square in the middle of Shizake's dragon mask.

Shizake is sent skidding several feet, a deep crack producing itself across his mask. The boy thankfully rubs his hands along the mask, glad that it was able to take and survive the blow although barely.

Kankaku tries to stand up but the waste of chakra sends him back down into a crouching position. Shizake too stands up but finds himself too fatigued from using the Sharingan as well as multiple jutsu. Both of them heave for a moment before slowly approaching each other with a slow walk.

"Damn you Kankaku... just stay down," Shizake weakly says.

The evil man chuckles, "Screw you, Uchiha. I'm going to end you here and now."

As the two reach each other they both bring their fists back, delivering an uppercut to one another. Both of them fall flat on their backs, as another crack forms along Shizake's mask. Once again the two get up, approaching each other steadily. This time, Kankaku brings his foot up and lands it in the center of Shizake's cracked torso armor, sending the Uchiha sliding back a couple of feet and bringing him down to his knees.

"This...is the end...Uchiha," Kankaku weakly spurts out, slowly approaching Shizake again.

Shizake notices a glisten in the corner of his eye followed by the sound of air being sliced. The Uchiha grabs the rogue kunai out of the air by the handle, pushing it forward into Kankaku's shins. This causes Kankaku to fall forward while hanging in the air for a short time. Shizake sees enough of an opening to flick his wrist, throwing the kunai into his right hand. He swings it backwards, roaring as the knife cuts through the air.

Shunk!

Blood and brains are ejected from Kankaku's skull, the man hanging lifelessly by the kunai sticking in one side of his head and out the other. Time comes to a slow still, Shizake following through with the motion of his attack. Finally, things seem to return to normal, the Uchiha whipping his arm as well as the body, causing it to come off the kunai and onto the forest floor with a thump.

Shizake falls to his knees, having expended a lot of energy and chakra in his battle with the now dead Kankaku. The Uchiha then hears ruffles in the tree line, a figure emerging from the bushes. Shizake sighs in relief to see a familiar mask, his squad mate, Nitatchi.

"That was a close one eh?" Nitatchi teases.

Shizake lies back on the grass, still breathing deeply.

"You saved me in the knick of time, Shozen."

Nitatchi raises his mask, lifting his thumb up accompanied by a wide grin across his face.

"Where are the other two?" Shizake asks.

"Not sure. I think they're still fighting. I managed to catch my guy off guard at the right moment. Heard you battling so I rushed over and saw you duking it out with that Kankaku guy... speaking of which. Looks like he landed some pretty nasty blows on ya," Nitatchi says.

"Nothing my armor couldn't handle," Shizake replies as he raps on his dragon mask. As soon as he does this, the mask crumbles in half, falling onto the soft grass on both sides of Shizake.

Nitatchi points and laughs at his friend, chuckling at the annoyed look on the Uchiha's face. After coming to terms with his broken mask, Shizake grins instead, laughing at himself along with his Hyuga squad member.

"Now lets get you up and see if we can go find Toshi and Shītto." Nitatchi says, crouching down and slinging his squad captain's arm around his shoulder.

Nitatchi lifts himself up along with Shizake, as they slowly begin walking towards the sounds of another battle.