Reverberations (Kakashi x OC, Gaara x OC) -- Book 3

Chapter 4: Battle of Elements

Back in the Village Hidden in the Leaf, Naruto was training with Yamato on mixing elements outside of town in a large clearing.

"That's really good Naruto, but you need to work on focusing your Chakra more," said Yamato.

"Captain Yamato...what is that?" asked Naruto pointing to something growing in the distance.

Yamato looked after where Naruto was pointing and narrowed his eyes as it came closer. "Nothing good. Stay behind me Naruto," he said. Yamato raised a large ridge from the earth and began building a barrier around that section of the town. It certainly wouldn't keep the thing from flying over the town, but if he could ground it, the barrier might slow its progress.

Kakashi felt like he had never run so fast in his life. He knew Keiko could move pretty quick, but he still was always faster than her on the few occasions they had been able to train together. Gaara seemed to notice as well. They barely managed to reach the village ahead of her when they ran into Yamato standing on top of his barrier wall.

"Kakashi-sama, I'm glad you're here. I may need your help to ground this thing," Yamato shouted to him.

"That thing is my wife," Gaara growled.

"K...Keiko-sama?" asked Yamato bewildered.

Kakashi gathered lightning. He hated to use this kind of move on her, but he wasn't sure how much it was going to take in order to take her down. He didn't know if he could capture her in his new Mangekyō Sharingan without her being in humanoid form. Kakashi channeled several bolts of lightning at her which she dodged easily. Damn, when did she get this fast?

Yamato used water style to summon rain and Kakashi used it to channel lighting around Keiko, much as Keiko had done to Itachi a year ago. This time, she could not escape it as Kakashi cast lightning through the torrent. The large dog fell from the sky and Gaara caught her gently in the sand. Before he was able to trap her, she transformed back to her humanoid form. Her eyes and her fangs didn't change. Still bloodthirsty and enraged, she got up and summoned her sword Zenmai and it in turn summoned thousands of razor sharp leaves swirling around her in the air. Once again, the wind spun tightly around her, repelling the sand that crashed towards her.

The earth around them began to crack and shake. It shifted up and down keeping the ground from being still in one spot for more than a few seconds. Keiko reached out a clawed finger and pointed at the water from the rain. It froze over the leaves making them that much more deadly. With a flick of her finger the leaves sped towards the group.

"gods," whispered Kakashi.

"Naruto," Yamato said without turning, "Please go get help."

Naruto had been frozen, not sure what to do. Nee-san. "R...right," he stuttered before scrambling towards the village.

Yamato's hand glowed. He knew it that what he was about to try was an impossibility, but he had to try something.

"I know what you're thinking," Kakasi said as he reached out his hand to still him, "that kind of seal isn't going to work on her. Don't take the risk."

The frozen leaves barreled towards the remaining three as the earth continued to shake. Gaara sent a wave of sand to block them, but Keiko parted it with a wave of her hand. Gaara's eyes widened in fear. She was already channeling lightning at the giant wave of sand when she became visible through its wall. It turned to glass when it struck and shattered into millions of pieces.

Kakashi gathered water from the river nearby. "Water style: water dragon jutsu!" he cried. Kakashi sent his jutsu to gather them as leaves and glass that ricochet every direction. Gaara raised a sand shield in front of them to stop the strays.

"Wood clone jutsu," Yamato said next to him.

"Shadow clone jutsu," echoed Kakashi.

Wordlessly a sand clone appeared next to Gaara. The clones all sped towards Keiko infused with chakra from their makers. None of their attacks landed. She stepped with the sword cutting them down with ease. Keiko swung and grabed the last shadow Kakashi by the throat and squeezed. Poof. It disappeared.

The real Kakashi got as close as he could through the chaos and stopped several yards from her. "I'm the one you want," he called. "I'm the one that abandoned you."

Keiko charged in his direction. So fast. He hoped he had enough time before she made it to him. "Mangekyō Sharingan!"

Her world dissolved. She skidded to a stop, looking around at the change in scenery. She sniffed the air and tried to get a grip on her new battlefield. Kakashi knew he should be afraid, but the only thing he was afraid of was hurting her. An echo Kakashi appeared behind her. "Keiko," he whispered. She cut through the illusion with her sword. Another appeared. "Keiko, I'm so sorry I left you. Please, if you want to hurt someone, hurt me. Don't hurt the others."

Keiko's hands flew over her ears. She screamed at the same time she roared, sounding like two horrific voices calling out as one. In the real world, she fell to her knees. Zenmai disappeared as she still held her hands to hear ears. Slowly her demonic features disappeared and her screams turned into sobs. Kakashi wrapped his arms around her as the rain continued to fall. She went still at last. "You always were into Cliché's," she said before blacking out.

"That was almost like watching the Nine Tails," Yamato said.

"I'm sure it could have been much worse. I think she was in there fighting it. She managed to win in the end. She stopped on her own when she finally heard my voice. I didn't do anything," Kakashi said as he closed his eyes.

Gaara gripped both hands into fists as he watched. "She...holds back a lot of her power. Always. I think if the Keiko we know was to completely disappear and the demon took over, the destruction would be several times any of the tailed beasts."

"You put yourself at great risk Hokage...Kakashi-sama," said Yamato evenly.

Kakashi stood with Keiko still in his arms. "It was the only way to get her to focus on me so I could trap her within the Sharingan," he said. Kakashi walked over to Gaara and placed Keiko in his arms. Gaara looked at him in surprise. "I read the report with Itachi. For some reason Sharingan doesn't seem all that effective against Keiko. I was hoping it would be enough to give me time to get through to her," he said. Kakashi wiped his brow and looked at the destruction around them. "There's a lot of things that I can think of that Orochimaru and Kabuto could get out of this, but that doesn't really help us understand his true goal."

They all looked onto the landscape in silence before making for the hospital wing.