A Fox, a Dog and a Raven - Chapter 47 (Inner Demons)
#48 of A Fox, a Dog and a Raven
The fighting between Sasuke and Kiba with the enemy ninja continues.
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto in any way, this is a non-profit fan-fiction written for fun.
In any case, you came here for the story, so I hope you enjoy it.******************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
"What the fuck is up with that arm!?" Kiba demanded, still confused why he wasn't smelling any blood from the wound that Karabe should have suffered. Even if he wasn't bleeding from his arm Kiba still couldn't under stand why there was no blood from where Akamaru had bitten him.
"Guess there's no point hiding it any more." In a swift motion Karabe threw his coat to the wind revealing his wooden left arm. Kiba couldn't believe his eyes, Karabe's entire left arm, all the way up to his shoulder was made of wood! Through Karabe's black sleeveless vest, Kiba could see that there was a large metal plate covering his upper right chest and covered his left shoulder where the wooden arm locked into place. Karabe's right arm was completely normal, but it was covered in numerous black tattoos, the one's around his wrist Kiba recognised as seals.
"What the fuck?!"
"Heh, I lost my entire left arm and lower right leg in a mission when I was a genin." Karabe explained with a smirk, obviously amused by Kiba's look of disbelief. Karabe's left arm raised flexed by itself like a real arm.
"Puppet Master Jutsu?"
"That's right kid." Karabe praised. "Only Kisame and Zaraki know about... my condition. You're the first in a long time to find out about this." Karabe raised his wooden arm in emphasis. "But it doesn't matter, soon enough you'll be dead!"
"I ain't losing to a cripple!" Kiba snarled. His comment obviously hitting a nerve as Karabe's face screwed up into a scowl.
"Well this, 'cripple' is going to wipe the floor with you!" In the blink of an eye Karabe summoned three more shuriken out of thin air, summoning them from the seals on his wrist, snatching them out of the air between his fingers and hurled them at Kiba. Kiba deflected them with his kunai as Akamaru launched himself at Karabe once again. Karabe leapt into the air, he raised his wooden arm and out shot a blade attached to a rope from the under side of the arm, the blade struck a tree and Karabe used it to swing himself away from Akamaru. Karabe retracted the wire and landed atop a large moss covered boulder and turned to face Kiba and Akamaru.
Kiba had to admit that he was impressed, for a guy who was missing an arm and a leg, Karabe was fast. In a flash he had created distance between them, distance was not a good thing in this fight. Kiba had finally worked out where he was getting all those shuriken from, the seals around his wrist allowed him to store and summon a ridiculous number of weapons within them, just like Ten-ten and her scrolls. Kiba couldn't help but think of Kankuro, Garra's brother, he used wooden puppets as weapons. His puppets contained numerous hidden weapons, Kiba could only wonder what surprises Karabe had in that arm of his. Kiba didn't intend on finding out either.******************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
Inner Demons - Part 5
"Lets do this Akamaru!" Kiba yelled forming a hand-sign, Akamaru barking in agreement. "Man-beast Clone!" Akamaru transformed into a perfect copy of Kiba and without a moments hesitation the pair immediately began their attack. "Fang over Fang!" The two Kiba's leapt off the ground and slapped their hands together and used one another to begin to spin, their spin immediately gaining intense speed, propelling them forwards side by side like two miniature tornado's.
"This again!?" Karabe snarled as he summoned a giant shuriken into his right hand and throwing it at the pair. The two tornado's parted allowing the giant shuriken to pass between them, Karabe seized that moment of separation to fire his wired blade into tree behind Kiba and Akamaru, using the mechanism on his arm to winched himself forwards and swinging between the pair unharmed. Kiba and Akamaru didn't hesitate for a moment and never lost momentum and collided with the large boulder that Karabe had leapt from, using it to change their direction to pursue Karabe. Karabe had been expecting this and as soon as he landed on the ground summoned a grapefruit sized ball of paper bombs rolled together and threw it behind him towards the pair. They stopped spinning and using the others hands and feet, pushed each other sideways just before the giant paper bomb reached them and exploded. The resulting explosion however was so strong, the shock-wave sent them crashing to the ground.
Kiba groaned and cursed as he picked himself up, Akamaru had reverted back into his original form and also slowly rose to his paws, both of them feeling a little shaky on their feet. Kiba kept his eyes locked on Karabe, waiting for the barrage of shuriken he was sure that was to come, but it never came. Karabe had begun to run through a sequence of hand signs, when he completed them he raised his wooden arm in front of him, five wooden panels rose from his arm and looked like flower petals extending from the centre of a flower. On the under side of the panels which were pointing straight at him, Kiba could make out a seal on each of them, Kiba knew that whatever Karabe was about to do it was bad news for him.
"AKAMARU!!!" Kiba yelled as he moved to dive behind the large moss cover boulder, Akamaru immediately followed his master for cover.
"Puppet Fire Jutsu, Inferno Cannon!" The seals on the under sides of the arms petals began to glow as Karabe channelled his chakra into them, moments later they burst to life, a large torrent of flame spewing forth from them like a giant flame thrower. Kiba and Akamaru managed to dive behind the boulder just as the flames reached them, the flames incinerating everything they touched. "I'M NOT DONE YET!!!" Karabe yelled as he poured even more chakra into the attack, the attack intensifying turning from a flame thrower into a howling gale of flames.
Flames washed over the boulder Kiba and Akamaru hid behind, Kiba clutching Akamaru for safety both of them holding their breath as they waited and prayed for the attack to end. After a full minute the attack ended, Kiba opened his eyes and saw that only a narrow patch of ground behind the boulder they were hidden behind had survived, the rest of the area was charred to ash or a ablaze with flames. At least half a mile of forest had been incinerated by the attack. Both he and Akamaru where panting from both the heat and lack of air they had been subjected to during the attack, their noses were overwhelmed with the scent of smoke and ash.
Karabe grimaced, he had suffered some minor burns from the back lash of his own attack, and the metal plating on his shoulder had heated up to an uncomfortable degree. His arm was now nothing but blackened stump, the intensity of the attack turning it into charred wreck. Being useless to him now Karabe reach up with his good arm and disconnected it, the ruined arm falling to the ground and shattered into several pieces. He looked out over the destruction he had wrought. Flames licked at the edges of the charred wasteland, threatening to spread into the rest of the forest, three tops still ablaze as the leaves and blackened tree trucks were consumed by the fire. The boulder that Kiba had dived behind was glowing red hot from the intense heat of the attack. Karabe silently cursed as Kiba and Akamaru emerged from behind the boulder, slightly singed but overall unharmed.
"You're like a fucking cockroach!" Karabe snarled.
"Looks like you're all out of tricks!" Kiba smirked pulling a kunai from the holster on his leg. "Now I'm going to finish you and go save Naruto!"
"Finish me? FINISH ME!? HA-HA-HAAA-AHA-HA-HA!!!"
"What's so fucking funny!?"
"Boy, you've got a lot to learn about being a ninja!" Karabe grinned like a mad man. "Rule 1, always have a back up plan!" Karabe grabbed the black sleeveless shirt he wore and ripped it off, revealing his pale skin and the metal plate covering his shoulder, he bit into his thumb, then wiped a streak of blood across the metal plate. A seal appeared and began to glow as it activated. "TIME TO DIE!"
The seal fully activated and caused what Kiba thought to be an explosion, smoke filled the area and the shockwave nearly knocked him off his feet. He struggled to peer through the smoke, unable to smell anything or see anything. After a few moments the smoke cleared enough that he could see what Karabe had summoned. It was huge! Four massive tree trunk like legs held Karabe nearly fifteen feet in the air, four more large, wooden... arms, extended outwards from Karabe's body, each one extended at least twelve foot in length. Karabe himself was almost completely concealed, only his right arm and head was visible, the rest of his body was encased in a wooden armour from which his eight wooden limbs extended from.
"What... the... fuck...!"
"Out of tricks am I?" Karabe laughed manically. "No one has ever seen this and lived!" The four legs moved and spread out to get a better balance, each foot crashing into the ground below, crushing and knocking over trees, the ground shook with each and every movement. Several wooden panels opened on the legs one they had stopped moving, steam pouring out from each of the open panels. "TIME TO DIE KID!" The far left arm began to move and pointed at Kiba, the end of the arm appeared to be a large barrel. Kiba's eyes went wide and he turned tail and ran.
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"Are you so sure about that?" Kisame spun round to see Sasuke standing unharmed, standing in the spot that he had started the fight in. In disbelief his head snapped back to the Sasuke on his knees before him and watched as he faded from existence. "You're little charade is over Kisame!" Sasuke announced as the slowly the ice warriors faded to nothingness, the large temple began to fade and the darkness surrounding them gave way to the light of day.
"How did you...?"
"It was a powerful genjutsu, if you'd trapped me in it I probably would have died." Sasuke replied flatly.
"How did you beat my jutsu!?" Kisame demanded.
"Genjutsu."
Kisame tried to process how he had beaten his genjutsu with his own, it was impossible for someone to cast genjutsu when trapped within his soul eater jutsu! Even if he had there was no way he could have seen through the jutsu and escaped it! That meant Sasuke had to have caught him in a genjutsu before he had cast his...
"Those eyes... they allowed you to see through my jutsu!" That was when Kisame realised when it happened, the moment Sasuke had activated his sharingan he was already trapped in his genjutsu, just like back on the bridge. That feeling of unease when he locked eyes with him, that was the moment he had been caught and had given Sasuke the chance to defeat his jutsu from the outside. Kisame scowled in anger and disbelief, someone had beaten his most powerful technique and had done it so easily as well.
Sasuke didn't respond, he continued to stare at Kisame, his face stoic and emotionless. He was impressed at how powerful Kisame's jutsu had been, it had threatened to overpower his own genjutsu when it was activated, the only time he had felt a genjutsu more powerful was when his brother Itachi trapped him within his tsukuyomi jutsu. It had also proven difficult to escape, but Sasuke had eventually found it's weakness and would easily be able to escape it again now he knew it's secret.
"Are you going to tell me about your all powerful water god again, or can we just get this over with?" Sasuke asked with a smirk, pointing the tip of his blade at Kisame.
"I'm going to carve you up like a roast pig!" Kisame spat before sprinting towards Sasuke, both his swords raised to strike. Sasuke likewise began to sprint towards Kisame and channelled his lightning chakra into his sword. Just seconds before clashing blades they both leapt towards each other, both of them determined to end this fight in one blow. A loud clash of steel echoed across the lake, both ninja skidding to a stop atop the waters surface facing away from each other. Sasuke clutched at his left shoulder, a large bloody stain spreading and soaking his green flak jacket. Kisame likewise was clutching a similar wound in his side.
"Fucking brat!" Kisame seethed turning to face Sasuke with both is swords raised, ignoring the pain from the wound. "Just die!" Crossing his swords Kisame swung the outwards forcing his chakra outwards and projected a blast of air towards Sasuke, memories of being struck by that same attack back on the bridge flashed across Sasuke's mind. Sasuke rolled out of the way of the attack but was quickly put on the defensive as Kisame continued to send bursts of air towards Sasuke. Sasuke was forced to retreat, the speed of Kisame's attacks meant he couldn't even form a hand sign before the next attack was upon him. The relentless bursts of deadly air rushed past him, the waters surface to become unsteady as large waves emanated from the the spots Kisame's attacks struck it, exploding; sending bursts of water skyward. Sasuke ducked behind a group of the trees growing on one of the small islands that littered the lakes surface, Kisame's attacks shredding into the wooden flesh of the tree.
"I can't get close to him!" Sasuke said aloud. "I can't waste time here, each second I waste means that Naruto..." He felt the anger within blaze hotly, he wasn't going to let anything happen to Naruto! Sheathing his sword, Sasuke began to focus a large amount of chakra as Kisame's attacks continued to strike the trees Sasuke stood behind.
"Giving up are you!?" Kisame yelled sending yet another burst of air at the tree, another few attacks and the tree wouldn't be left standing, the trunk had been nearly destroyed, soon it wouldn't be able to support the weight of the tree. Sensing this Kisame channelled twice as much chakra into his next attack, the moment he unleashed his attack Sasuke stepped out from behind the tree.
"Fire Style! Great Dragon Fire Jutsu!"