Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ The Shinobi and The Miko ❯ Clash! ( Chapter 4 )

“So, which one of you wants to fight me first? Or is it all of you at once?”

“I do.” The words were out before Kaguya had time to consider them. Sasuke was taken aback, and his grip on his sword faltered for a moment.

“You…you're no ninja…” he protested, but was drowned out by the combined yelling of Naruto and Sakura.

Kakashi held up a hand to stem the flow of protests. The expression on his face was bemused, but he sounded calm as ever when he spoke. “Let's see what happens. She has a right to challenge him if she wants to.”

Thinking fast, Sasuke countered. “With what weapon?”

“With this.” Kaguya smiled strangely and held up her borrowed Kunai.

“You can't be serious!” blustered Naruto. “Kaguya-“

Sasuke paid him no heed, and regarded the girl before him. Three years had changed her. He would have to revise his conception of her to include a daring that the shy twelve-year-old would never have dreamt of, as well as a certain angularity of the face, a more refined, melancholy (if still inexplicably peaceful) demeanor, a shine in the moon-white hair… he stopped abruptly, intentionally derailing his train of thought. He tightened his grip on his sword and allowed himself some time to refocus. Whatever argument was going on on the other side had stopped, though Naruto was still seething, while Sakura just looked worried. Kakashi was as impassive as ever.

Orochimaru, however, looked positively giddy. “Heheh. This is a pleasant surprise. I've changed my mind, Sasuke. I think it would be more amusing if you killed her.”

Sasuke ignored him, his eyes never leaving Kaguya. She had made herself into an opponent, purposefully entered the domain of those who fight for their lives; he need not hold back. Yet…

The battlefield lapsed into silence. It seemed that the forest itself waited with stymied breath for what happened next. Sasuke shifted his grip on his sword; Kaguya would probably rely on speed rather than strength, and he had no way of knowing just how fast she was.

Minutes passed, and the both of them remained frozen in place; the gaze of the watchers was steady and unrelenting. One of them had to move soon. Sasuke shifted a little on his feet, getting a feel for the ground underneath him. They were fighting on a largely level plain, so there was no terrain advantage to speak of. The surrounding forest could provide cover, but that was actually likely to advantage Kaguya, since she obviously didn't need to see him to know where he was.

Still, being aware of his location wasn't enough, and they both knew it. In fact, they were both absolutely certain that Sasuke would win this fight. The question lie in how long that was going to take, and in what, exactly, Kaguya had been thinking when she challenged him.

A breeze rustled the leaves overhead; Sasuke launched himself forward, otachi in his right hand, and brought it down squarely toward Kaguya's left shoulder, intending to deal her a glancing blow, make her give up this stupid idea of fighting him. To his surprise, she shifted her kunai to her left hand and blocked the attack rather than trying to dodge it. The effort cost her: her arm jarred violently, but held steady.

Startled, Sasuke leapt back. What was she playing at? He looked over at her, eyes narrowed slightly. She was flexing her arm, and seemed to decide that no real damage had been done, so he tried again, this time intending to strike her in the right side, just below the elbow. The blade bit into her wristguard deeply enough to chip away at the light metal, and still she didn't try to dodge. Annoyed, he made to strike with his free hand. This time, she sidestepped.

This attack/parry pattern occurred several more times, to his mounting frustration. At this rate, he was going to have to actually hurt her. If that was what it took…so be it. He increased his speed, catching her off-guard. She was forced to dodge the first few blows, but then managed to catch his sword on her kunai again. It was almost as if that's what she was trying to do…

And then he felt it. A strange sensation, as though he were floating underwater. It was accompanied by a tranquility that he had only felt once before.

 

He awoke to an unfamiliar face looking straight down into his. Startled, he tried to move, but found that his body resisted. He remembered…a fight…and then a great pain from the curse-mark on his neck, and then… nothing. Morning sunlight was streaming in through a window somewhere to his right, though he hardly dared move his head. He blinked several times, and his vision came into focus. Whoever it was that had been looking at him was no longer in sight. Painfully, he turned to observe his surroundings. He was in a small room with a single window. It was bare of decoration save for a few plants on the windowsill, and a small table with a single chair in one corner. A girl with white hair dressed in the red-and-white habit of a miko was sitting on the floor next to him, humming something and dipping a cloth into a bucket of oddly-scented water. He tried again to get up, a small groan escaping his lips when he fell back onto the mat. The girl looked up.

“Shh…” she said. “You shouldn't try to move yet.” She had placed the cloth on his forehead, and that sense of calm had overtaken his tormented mind.

 

But why now? He broke contact, then tried again. Each time she staved off his blows, and each time he found himself met with that uncanny feeling of peace. He shook himself out of the reverie. No. I have to do this. Think of Itachi. And his fury retuned, pushing aside everything else.

 

***

Kaguya's arms were losing strength. Each successive blow was stronger than the last. She was lucky Sasuke wasn't yet serious. Otherwise, she'd be in major trouble.

Then he came at her again, the sheer force of his hatred slamming her like a brick wall. She gritted her teeth and gripped her besieged arm with her other hand, leaving herself open at the side. She took a hit to her ribs. None of them broke, but she knew they would bruise.

The plan had occurred to her not long after the fight started. It seemed to her that Sasuke, in these three years, had allowed his hatred to blossom into an obsession. She had thought then of a technique she commonly used with her patients, one that allowed her to calm them; making converting their energy and healing that much easier. She needed to be calm herself for it to work, so she had chosen to anchor herself onto the spot, as blocking his blows would take less concentration than dodging them. She was aware that she was forgoing her only possible advantage, but her goal was not victory.

Her plan had initially been less successful than she'd hoped. He'd forced her to dodge on several occasions, and she could tell he was losing patience with her unwillingness to fight back.

She'd finally been able to manage it, to project her calm feelings toward him, hoping it would make him remember all the things he once was, all that he had lost by taking this path. At one point, she'd succeeded, but now this. He was more vengeful than ever, and she couldn't blame him for resenting what she had tried to do. Still, if it meant this could end more peacefully than it began, what choice did she have? If he fought any of the others, somebody would die, of that she was certain.

She allowed him to vent in this way for a while, trying to prevent his rage from affecting her too much. This was going nowhere. She had to convince him! His friends wanted him back. He needed to return to Konoha, and she needed to make him see it. Frustrated, she dodged his next few attacks and bounded to the other side of the arena. He let her, and spun to face her when she stopped.

 

***

It seemed she had decided to fight him at last. Sasuke was unscathed, but Kaguya was sporting a few cuts, and Kakashi was sure that the blow earlier had hurt. Still, she was holding up impressively, his reluctance to press his advantage notwithstanding.

Now that he got to thinking about it, that reluctance may be a sign that she was getting somewhere. He had noticed something odd earlier, just before Sasuke got angry. He couldn't put his finger on it, but it certainly was uncanny.

“Hey. What'd I miss?” Anko walked up behind him, grinning despite her numerous injuries. “Whoa, hold on! Why the Hell is she fighting him?”

“It's…complicated.”

“Seriously? I mean, I guess she's still alive, so I can't call you an idiot yet, but…” She trailed off as she took stock of the situation, and her eyes narrowed, an odd expression passing over her face. “Hmm…”

Kakashi turned to face her. “Something bothering you, Anko?”

“Not really. Who's dealing with him?” She jerked her chin towards Orochimaru, eyes narrowed to slits.

“Let's see what happens here first.”

“If you say so.”

 

***

Kaguya took a deep, steadying breath. The taint in the air around here wasn't making it any easier for her, that was certain. As it was, she likely wouldn't last much longer. She berated herself silently. I'm useless! All I'm doing is making things worse! She knew she couldn't continue things this way. Trying to make Sasuke remember the good things about his life up until this point wasn't working. She couldn't seem to get through to him, no matter what she tried.

She stopped herself. Wait. This isn't right. I know almost nothing about who he was, and what little I do know…There's no way I'd want to go back to that. So what then? And as she considered, a new idea found its way to her. She turned it over in her mind, and felt a surge of excitement. I have to fight his feelings not with ones he's had before, but with mine! I'll make him see!

A small smile played across her lips as she sprinted towards him. The ferocity of her lunge surprised him, and his anger was quickly overwhelmed with something else: a sadness, much like the one he had felt the day Itachi betrayed him. It occurred to him to wonder how she could know such a feeling, unless…I'm the traitor. He prepared to defend himself the same way he had before, by invoking the intense need for vengeance. It had staved off his other feelings for so long, and always it repelled other people. And yet, her emotion did not subside. He felt no anger or hatred rise to meet his own, as his did whenever he thought of it. Instead, there was only a persistence, and… an understanding. No. Acceptance was a better word. They continued to clash and retreat, falling into an almost rhythmic pattern, the outside world as nothing. There was only movement, reaction, and a steady, unbroken stream of raw emotion.

Impossible. Nobody had ever met his hatred with acceptance, of all things. Always, they either sought to dissuade him or use it to their advantage. He was sure he was being deceived. His confusion must have shown, because the next time they separated, she did not immediately attack again.

“Sasuke…” she murmured softly. “Please…”

His thoughts came back into focus, and he was once again aware of his surroundings. Whatever strange thing she had done, it was over. He looked across the field.

Sakura and Naruto's faces were masks of horror. Even Kakashi had a disbelieving look on his face. Anko looked she was about to kill something, and Orochimaru was hissing sadistic laughter.

When he saw Kaguya, he understood why. She was covered in cuts and scratches, some of them frightfully deep. She was clutching her side, blood seeping from between her fingers despite her attempts to staunch the flow. Her breathing was ragged, and she was almost doubled over. Tendrils of hair had snaked their way out of her plait and lay plastered against her neck.

Sasuke registered all of this with shock: he could not remember landing this many hits on her. How then had it happened? He looked down at his sword. Sure enough, thin crimson lines ran the length of the blade and dripped onto the ground.

“She…she stopped blocking…” Sakura managed in a terrified whisper.

Sasuke looked sharply back at Kaguya. The girl swayed on her feet, looking as though she would collapse. But her face, far from registering any of this, still wore that faraway smile. She raised her left hand, in which she still clutched the battered kunai, her arm directly in front of her, the knife held at a right angle so the flat of the blade faced him.

“I… I'm not done yet.” She continued in the same strained whisper. “Not…until…you believe me.”

He lowered his own blade. “Kaguya…” he began, not sure what to say.

The sound of hysterical laughter reached him from behind. He turned to face it, and Orochimaru continued to cackle.

“Oh, my,” he managed, despite being doubled over. “My, my, my! That one either has a death wish, or she's a complete fool! Giving up her defenses just to suppress the curse-mark! And then just letting you tear her to shreds like that! Oh my, what a show this is!”

Sasuke's eyes widened. He looked back over at Kaguya, who had fallen to her knees and was now clearly struggling against Orochimaru. The snake's depraved laughter reached his ears, filled his mind. He felt anger rising once again, but this was different. His anger for Itachi was a smoldering flame deep within himself that flared in and out of focus. This was an anger that froze him over. Cold, focused, precise. There wasn't much time. He tightened his grip on his sword.

 

***

Kakashi saw several things happen at this point.

 

He saw Sasuke grip his blade and activate the Sharingan.

 

He saw his former student charge at the one he now called master.

 

He saw Orochimaru abruptly stop laughing and stare straight at Sasuke.

 

He saw a flare of Chakra from Orochimaru's body.

 

He heard Kaguya cry out and saw her collapse.

 

He saw Anko fall to the ground, clutching her curse mark.

 

He saw Sasuke falter, a black pattern erupting over his skin.

 

He saw a distance close.

 

And he saw a sword sprouting from Orochimaru's back, a current of chakra lightning running along its length.

 

Kakashi saw Orochimaru collapse, and a bitter smile crossed his face.

 

***