Chapter 36.1- Gamer of the Desert

The first attacxk rhat came from one of the S-rankers was from Jiraiya. He thought he could take nme by surprise with the earth release jutsu he’d been preparing since I killed the first anbu, but I felt it beneath my feet. When his hands clapped the floor and the ground around me transformed to deep mud that reacdhed to gather whatever it touched into it, I remained stable. My own section of the floor, remaining untouched and unadulterated.

Jiraiya’s chakra was powerful, but nit enough to overwhelm mine when he didn’t even know the fight was happening. With the three or so remaining anbu being put down by Jiraiaya’s jutsu, I bent my knees and shot right at him from his position across from me. Dark Sister appeared in my hands with only a twist of concentration and stabbed right ahead at him. He lifted his arms and the blade slid right off his vambrace, making a harsh gratting sound as the valyrian steel blade failed to so much as scratch the dark steel that made up the gauntletlike guarrds the man wore around his arms.

Our eyes met, and he lashed out with a headbut straight at me. Sand from my collar lifted up into a shallow shield, the best I could do in asuch close quarters and at the speed we were fighting at. His head, clad in the headband that read only a single word passed through the shield like it wasn;t even there and slammed into mine with all the force of a train. What the fuck? My head began to ring as I sgtumbled backwards.

I was lucky that my absolute defence didn’t need any conscious input, or I would have died right then and there. Danzo, from the corner sent several ullets of wind flying at me, that I barely noticed until my sand rose up to block every single of them off. Jiraiya’s follow up swipe, aimed at my head was blacked in a similar way, except with way much more sand. Id leaned forwards, trowards him and took conscious control of the sand and used it to push right against his midsection. The sand scattered before it even touched him and onky another shield oprevented his retaliatory kick from knocking my head off my body. I forced my sand to grab a hold of my body and lift me up and away from the range of the dangerous Sannin’s limbs. My head was still ringing from that first attack he managed to land.

I suddenly forced my sand to scartter abnd entered into freefall as a lance of light passed through where I’d once been. Mu. The fucking Tsuchikage. I fell towards the floor for a few seconds before I coaught myself in my sand and avoided a splattery death. It was taking me a few precious minutes to calibrate my instincts to fighting without just being able to assemble and reassemble either my entire body or parts if it on a whim.
It was almost like fighting with my hands tied behind my back. Or being blindfolded. I knew what I needed to do. My reflexes screamed at me to do it, by my body just wasn’t cooperating, and this was all Danzo’s fault. Made me wonder how he’d like to live without a head. I kicked off my sand platform, heading for the man, but Mu’s pupilless eyes were in my way in less than a second. He reached out for me and I for him in unison.

“Heavy weighted boulder Jutsu” we both incanted in unison, having both our flight paths destabilised for the precious second that deactivating the jutsu cost. Ordinaril, we’d have been equally disadvantaged, but I wasn’t the one with allies here. A massive bullet of flame screamed in the air, turning the air around it sweltering as it rose at me. This sure would be a good time to know water release, wouldn’t it?

Sand rose to my command, the trusted ally that had been by my side since my first day in this world. The shield I formed had three layers, each one a few inches away from the last to allow some air to exist in the middle. I felt the first layer entirely leave my control as the sand was glassed almost instantly. The second fell to the same fate in more time, and the third ended up being barely enough to protect me from the attack. In that time, Mu had come back into the fight and was already aiming for me with that nasty dust release of his.

For the first time in this life, I was forced to face the facts. My sand would run out. My reserves were already slightly depleted after the fight on the day of the Chunin exams and Jiraiya’s and Mu’s combined attentions were not doing them any good. I was already robbed of one of my major trumpcards, the ability to transform into sand and these were three powerful S-rankers.

Adding to that was the fact that Danzo still had roughly nine lives left to go, and Jiraiya had sage mode still up his sleeves. If I stayed, and in the increasingly unlikely chance that I managed to somehow win this, I would never be able to make it out of here alive. The ninja of Konoha were already swarming about on the ground below us and while I doubted they knew much about Danzo or cared that much, killing Jiraiya was one way to get myself on their bad side. Legends like Might Guy and Asuma Sarutobi would be deadly opponents on their own. Facing them while tired out and in the middle of their village, surrounded by thousands of their comrades was a death sentence.

There was no victory here. Not for me. Danzo had put me in the ultimate lose-lose situation, with only one way out. Retreat. Sure, it would be ceding victory to them, but I wasn’t a samurai. No victory would ever be worth my life.

A/N; Well, that’s a short prelude to the new chapter. How does it look? As always, please ignore the typos till the chapter is complete.