Chapter 32.1- Gamer of the Desert

“Hmmmmm. Good try. I have to commend you for it. Anyone who’s never fought a tailed beast before might even be fooled. Your bloodlust is great, but nothing compared to those chakra monsters. If you had truly transformed into the Ichibi no shukaku, then I’d be having a much more difficult time talking or even breathing. My best guess? That technique of yours similar to the Hozuki’s clan hydrification technique is letting you bring forth this facsimile” His smug voice was finally cut off as a massive arm of sand descended right at him. He dodged the attack, but that left him wide open for that same arm to shift into a cannon-like appendage that fired dozens of sand bullets.

Onoki dodging them all was expected. Even anticipated if I was being honest. And it placed him in a position where his body floated right above the stadium Konoha used for the chunin exams. When sand rose from that stadium and rushed at him, his dodge let the sand merge with my new body as I whipped my tail at him. He was fast. One thing about his gravity manipulation technique I’d noticed was that it was bullshit. It let the man just flow around attacks with such speed and flexibility that I found it doubtful that I was facing a man who’d been alive in the warring clans era, before hidden villages were even a thing. So willy and mobile he was.

His movements accelerated as more and more sand flew at him in a bevy of attacks. He dove straight down, and as he touched the ground, I could feel an earthquake erupt on the ground beneath me as the rest of the world began to rise. What the fuck? No. Not the rest of the world. The ground beneath me was sinking in relation to the rest of the floor. “Earth Release: Moving Earth Core” Onoki intoned when the ground stopped moving, and as I prepared to make my escape from the poor trap, Onoki and Kurotsuchi suddenly appeared in the air above me.

“Now, Granddaughter” He said as they weaved seals together. It didn’t take a genius to predict that whatever was coming for me would be pretty unfortunate if I let it hit.

So, I began to climb. The hole I was in was wide enough to contain my massive form and claws made of sand ripped into the stone by my sides as I began my ascent. Of course, not as used to this body as I should have been, it took me a few seconds to get a good rhythm for the climb. I made good time, but in the end it was all for naught as they finished their seals in unison and began to spit out a whole ass tsunami of lava. The first time it touched me, I felt nothing beyond the strange sensation of losing control of a few grains of my sand. With the amount of the stuff they were flooding with, it wasn’t much of a surprise that those few grains began adding up in no time at all. One hand was gone, and then my legs as the lava began pooling at the bottom of the hole and rising.

I tried. I tried my hardest to escape the cavern with only one hand to climb with.

The lava hit my knee first. The left one. I lost control of it, and had an even harder time making my way up. Sure, there was less bulk to lift, but the effect it was having on my balance was enough to force me to slow down even more, letting more and more of the lava get more and more of me.

In the end, it was a matter of pragmatism. I reformed my original body at the head of Shukaku’s falling apart form and detached a large platform of sand to float me all the way to the top. When a cube of light captured the first sandy form to escape the hole, Onoki was successful in disintegrating the clone of me I sent to check the waters.

Instead, I tore right through the ground and appeared beneath Kurotsuchi’s floating form. The golem her grandfather made to slow me down was barely a delay as dark sister cleaved it in twain and I was face to face with the older girl. Her lava balls were dodged in a split second as my body shifted around itself and I encased her in sand from my inventory. Two hand seals was all I needed to turn the sand prison to an actual sealing barrier as fuinjutsu script spread across it and bound her in the cocoon, with not even enough space for her to breath. She was just sealed shut.

When I turned to Onoki, his eyes had narrowed into slits as his body flushed. Good. I was getting tired of this fight, as well. It was exhilarating, but Onoki was a troublesome opponent, and in a similar vein to him, I could not actually afford to waste so much chakra. The fight between Hiruzen and his sensei was beginning to hit a crescendo, and I needed to make sure I interfered before the old man offed himself with the reaper death seal. The good part was that I doubted he’d be so bold as to use a suicide jutsu with two other kage in the village.

“She can’t breathe in there” I told him, watching his eyes narrow even further.

“You will release her.”

“Hmm. Will I?” I asked, tilting my head and purposefully adopting an uninterested tone.

“You will” He said as he weaved seals and stone began to pour out of his mouth. It shaped itself in mid air, and when it landed, it was with an explosion of dust as the giant golem took the field. “You will, if you don’t want to die screaming” He said, as the golem let loose a heavily telegraphed punch.

I placed my feet on Kurotsuchi’s cocoon as I dodged out of the way, riding it like a surfboard. Onoki’s eyes narrowed even further at that, making my smile widen in turn. The golem moved even faster as its arms lashed out in massive swinging attacks that were a doozy to keep ahead of.

My sand rose to my aid again as a swarm of it crashed into the golem before worming into its seams and eating into the stones that made it up. I stretched out a hand and clenched it as I concentrated on the sand. In canon, Gaara could make a desert with only a grain of sand. With all due respect to him, I was quite a bit stronger than he was. So, was it any surprise that my sand wore the golem down to nothing but sand in seconds.

Onoki’s attempts to get me with blasts of dust release fell short as my makeshift surfboard carried me well out of harm’s way. The longer the fight went on, the more desperate Onoki became to get me. I could see it in the way he chased me for longer before giving up. In the way he crashed through sand tendrils without hesitation as he threw caution to the wayside. Wide dust release attacks were no longer possible as they’d catch Kurotsuchi in their range if they got me, and that was enough to stay his hand.

But even with that off the table, me pissing him off like this had brought something else on the table. Explosion release. His hands sparked as he tossed rocks at me at extreme speed. The first time I’d decided to just dance between them, the explosion had robbed me of my hearing for a few seconds until the sand could heal it.

Still, I could see it as he increased his haste. The moment of opportunity was coming. I turned right around and flew right at him, riding Kurotsuchi’s form. Just short of clashing with each other, when I knew his attention was fully on me, I flipped around and kicked Kurotsuchi’s form right at him. For some reason, against what I’m sure his instincts were telling him, he caught her. And from there, it was over. The sand rose from her and encase him instead, the seal easily accomplishing its second function. Kurotsuchi’s body fell to the ground while I watched the Tsuchikage fight off the seal with the weight of his chakra alone. The sand began to fall off of him, but it was too late.

Dark Sister appeared in my hand again and I floated forwards before plunging the blade right where I knew his heart was. His struggles ceased almost instantly, as the Third Tsuchikage of Iwa, Onoki the Fencesitter, breathed his last.

A/N; Fuck. Fuck. That one was a hell of a lot to write. Did I do the fight justice? Did I flop at the end? Let me knowwwww.