Chapter 42.1- Gamer of the Desert

I felt the wind rush through my hair as we free fell down the sky, I resisted the urge to scream in exhilaration as we covered the distance so quickly, there was some sort of joy that came with falling. That breathless feeling from being unable to inhale any meaningful breaths of air. It was something else. When I judged the distance to be close enough, I released a pulse of chakra that activated the seals on the backpacks I’d had them all put on. They beeped twice and then activated. Ropes and cloth shooting out from the either before being caught by the wind and slowing down all their descents. 

“Don’t forget your goals” I told them as I used my wind release to release even more wind behind me, accelerating towards the ground. The pulse of chakra could not have gone entirely undetected, so virtually every sensor in the village was going to know something was up, that was why I was making double time to achieving my own goal in this attack. _Distraction._The best way for me to get the Tsuchikage off the board was to get him to come to me. My fuinjutsu skills were excellent but only an idiot would face a Kage right at the seat of their power. Instead, I’d move the battle here. Right in the centre of Iwagakure’s population centre. 

As I got closer to the ground, I could see more and more things become visible and distinct. The first was that my aim was a bit off and I was going to end up landing a bit farther from the Kage tower than I’d intended, but in the end of the day, it was going to prove to be advantageous since I was going to be landing right on top what our maps indicated was the Ninja residency area. Good, I wouldn’t ’t be killing innocents today. 

I flipped in mid air as I got closer to the ground to bleed off a bit of my momentum before I braced for landing, and slammed into the ground immediately after I turned my lower limbs into sand. The landing was perfectly cushioned and my sand began to burrow into the ground, eating through it and creating more sand for my use. This was going to be a marathon, not a sprint so I had to make sure I was prepared for that. Now, where were they. 

It took 42 seconds, much longer than it should have, for me to get confronted by anyone even though I’d been basically blasting my chakra into the air to attract attention. They were a team of three, their vests marked them as chunin. None on the bingo book so as they jumped forwards while yelling at me to surrender, I just breathed in, filling my lungs with air before emptying my lungs of said air and multiplying it as it passed the tenketsu on my throat. When I breathe out, it was a storm of cutting winds that sliced through the three ninja with ease. If this was what Iwa had to offer, then this was going to be a very disappointing attack. 

I allowed the man who snuck up on me to stab the blade into my chest before holding tightly on to it with the sand that said chest had been transformed into right before he made contact. He was quick enough to let go of his weapon and jump backwards but not quick enough to avoid being tapped by one of my fingers as he retreated. His retreat ended instantly as he collapsed to the ground after having his right spontaneously multiplied a hundredfold. I’d still not been forced to move from my position. 

In the time it had taken me to take care of my first four assailants, I’d been surrounded. Now, by Jounin. A cursory glance told me there were at least a dozen of them here. Wasteful, I thought to myself with a tisk. I was supposed to be a distraction for the Kage and their strongest ninja, allowing the rest of the team to move with impetus, but I didn’t actually want to slaughter my way through the entire village. If I left them too weak, Danzo would taken Iwa as a whole with no resistance and would be in a position to fight a war on two fronts with us. 

A bold ninja tried to take control of the ground before me to impale me with spikes but I crushed the pitiful attempt with my chakra before I slammed my foot into the ground. If they wanted earth release, I’d show them earth release. Spikes taller than me, at least as tall as a few of the bungalows around us rose from the ground with no warning. Dozens of spikes, but only three of them ended up catching any of their targets. The rest of them had dodged out of the way the second I’d made contact. 

I felt it then, a strong chakra signature. Strong enough that even my shit chakra senses were able to identify it with ease. The man walked forwards, stepping around my spikes to meet me face to face. Or face to chest rather. I was tall for my age, but the man dwarfed me with ease. Kitsuchi, Godaime Tsuchikage of Iwagakure. 

“Finally. I’d thought I’d go through puberty standing here and waiting for you” I said with a sharp smile on my face. This was going to be fun. 

“Kuro was right. Your arrogance does indeed know no bounds. I would have sought you out in time, removed your skin from your bones to avenge my father’s death but you’ve done me the favour of presenting yourself before me. Prepare to die, boy” He said, tone calm and bellying the words he spoke. 

Just like his father, Kitsuchi embodied the will of stone. He’d break before he bent, and even more likely, he’d break you before you managed to make him do either. I could feel it standing in front of him. There was no fear on his face. This was a man who had been a ninja for even longer than I’d roamed this word. He’s been killing and almost getting killed for decades. Of course, he wasn’t scared. Wary, maybe. But not scared. I was sure Kurotsuchi had told him exactly how I killed Onoki and he was underestimating me for it. He thought he was my better. 

I’d see how long he managed to hold on to that delusion before despair sunk in. I smiled at him before slamming both my hands together, clapping and holding the position as if I was offering a prayer to some god. The apartment buildings around us, massive things with hundreds of shinobi within them scrambling to equip themselves to reinforce their village under attack suddenly began to sink. 

Their foundations turned to sand as my newest jutsu came into effect. “Hidden Jutsu: Primitive return to nothingness” I said the grandiose name as my chakra enhance the ability of my sand to weather down stone. Now, my sand ate stone to become sand, and that same sand did the same over and over, _ad infinitum_ as it spread through the sinking buildings, capturing and burying hundreds alive. 

I leaned backwards from a punch that threatened to pulverise my skull and spread my brains over the floor beneath us. “I’m going to make you regret that” I heard him say as I backpedaled from the punch’s natural follow-up. I led him in a dance as he struggled to hit me while I acted like the wind of the desert, impossible to catch or even pin down. Eventually, he left and opening that I took advantage of ruthlessly. He punched at me, and as I leaned backwards, I lifted one of my feet and slammed it into his midsection in a brutal spartan kick. A spartan kick that my opponent took with only a grunt to show his discomfort. He didn’t even move backwards. 

This was one strong motherfucker, I thought to myself. And then my senses screamed at me to move before I died. I jumped backwards, hurling myself through the air at speed to avoid the flaming missile that landed right where I’d been standing only a second earlier. It was difficult to make out the person through the aura of flames, but there was only one person who that could be. Roku, Jinchuriki of Son-Goku, S-rank ninja of Iwa. Where he had landed, all the sand had been instantly glassed. What the fuck was that? It was an almost instant reminder of who I’d be facing now, a true Jinchuriki. Not one like me with only a granted ability and no other benefits. This one could use his tailed beast’s chakra with abandon. Said chakra choked the air around us with miasma. I could see why the tailed beasts and the jinchuriki that housed them were looked upon as demons now. When I looked at Roku, all I saw was death. 

“You thought Iwa would be easy pickings?” Kitsuchi said with a scoff. “The second I was named as Tsuchikage, I reached out to my old friends Roku and Han from the war. Thank you for coming. I trust Han is still on his way” His last sentence was not addressed at me, but I got the very strong feeling that it still was. The threat was unmistakable. I have one jinchuriki here, and another is on its way. You have one tail, we have a combined nine on our side, I was sure he said mentally. If all I was was a jinchuriki, I’d even be frightened. 

“Hmmm. Maybe the three of you working together will manage to give me the fight your father failed to” I said with a savage smile. i was going to be delayed here, so there was no chance of me accomplishing any secondary goals. I just hoped the others made the best use of this distraction. First things first, I dispelled the clone I had back in Suna, returning my chakra back to me. It was necessary for the safety of the village for the most part, but my life was more important. 

While I did that, I passed along instructions to my clone posing as the Daimyo to retire for an early rest and find a way to dispel himself. I’d need every drop of chakra I could get if I wanted to stand a chance here. Roku and I moved at once. He blurred at me while I gestured towards him, palm outstretched. Physical gestures made my sand move even faster, responding even more readily to my will, and that was why it was just barely fast enough to slam into the Jinchuriki of the four tails with all the force of a train before he could reach me. Even more sand piled on, pushing him backwards and attempting to bury him in its weight. I lifted both hands, commanding all the sand that surrounded us to rush towards him before I was suddenly tossed off my feet from the force of a shockwave. 

Transforming and reforming in seconds, I found my feet. Now, Roku stood atop a mountain of sand, most of it being actively melted into liquid glass with his chakra choking up the air around us even more. Behind him, I could make out two tails that looked to me made of pure lava. Fuck. I guess it was too much to hope for a quick conclusion here. He widened his stance while snarling at me. In the span of a few seconds, he spat out several balls made out of pure lava. Lava release was really fucking annoying, I thought to myself before instantly cooling every single ball into dry earth in one breath with wind release, allowing them to fall to the ground after failing to reach their target. I allowed my head turn into sand as a fist wreathed in stone punched right through it. I couldn’t see, but I could feel my surroundings with the sand that made up my essence. I took advantage of the position of Kitsuchi’s fist to surround his arm with sand before crushing down on it with a quick application of will. Blood dripped down on my sand as I felt him rush backwards. I couldn’t hear anything, but I knew he didn’t scream. I was intimately aware of what the posture of a screaming person was. 

Trying to force my sand to flow up his body was useless as he pushed it away by flaring his chakra. I reformed my head to see a flying comet heading for me, Roku. I breathed in before breathing out a massive gale of hurricane force winds. I expected the wind to toss him backwards but the man planted his feet on the ground, and braced himself. He did not move, even as I fed the jutsu a shit ton of chakra. Even as the winds continued behind him to level buildings and kill ninja that weren’t even targets of the jutsu. I ran out of air before he ran out of endurance. He tanked the entire attack with nothing to show that he’d even been hit. 

This time when he ran at me, I had the good sense to retreat again. Once again the space I’d occupied was now filled with glass. I wasn’t in much danger of running out of sand but the fact that he kept glassing up so much of the essential resource was nothing short of annoying. I had three elemental affinities, wind, earth and fire. Considering he was literally made out of Lava, fire was a bust. If I somehow managed to burn him in that state, I’d shave myself bald and join the wind temple as an acolyte. That left wind and earth. I had nothing in my earth release arsenal that would stand a chance of hurting him unless I massively weakened him first. Wind could either blow or cut, and blowing had done a good deal of nothing, so let’s see how this aura of his would do at preventing him from being turned into mincemeat.

Rotation, power, containment, wind, I recited to myself as I formed the wind release: rasengan in less time than it took him to cover the distance between us, and this time instead of leaping backwards, I ran right at him. 

A/N; Part 1 of new chapter, ey?