A Growing Affection

Chapter 75: Sharingan Vs. Sharingan: For Eternal Life

Red eyes, touched by triplicate black tomoe, watched with sadistic  delight. The three Leaf and two Sand ninjas hopped and dodged  frantically around the valley below, while the One-Tail Tanuki lashed  out at them with sadistic joy. Still cloaked in the form of Sasuke  Uchiha, Orochimaru watched their desperate struggle from the cliff far  above, unhindered by the lingering jutsu that prevented most shinobi  from adhering to the rock with their chakra. Of course, he was the one  who had created the technique, during his tenure with the Akatsuki, so  he knew how to bypass it.

The body thief took a few steps closer,  making sure to stay outside the glow of the floodlights. The Sharingan  did not have the same distance as the Byakugan, and he wanted to get a  first-rate view of the battle.

"Not good," Shikamaru barely kept his bland tone of voice as he jumped backwards.

"No,  no, it's very good, little monkey," the sand demon rumbled happily, "I  thought I'd never get to see my beloved older siblings again, and now  here they are."

He lifted his right forepaw and pointed it at  Temari. A tendril of dust shot towards the young woman, who quickly  pulled her fan over her shoulder and blocked the attack. But the sand  kept flowing, pressing against her weapon, and starting to wrap around  it to grab her. Shikamaru jumped forward, slicing through the sand with a  pair of kunai. No longer connected to main body, the One-Tails'  silicate dropped to the stone below, and the young couple separated and  moved back.

Kankuro had used the initial exchange to free his four  puppets from their scroll. He held Black Ant and Salamander close,  while sending Crow and Moon out to slash at the demon's other front leg.  Though they were able to dislodge a few small lumps of sand, Shukaku  just look down at them with joyful disbelief, and then kicked them back  at their controller.

"You two are the smart ones," the puppeteer  shouted at his sister and her boyfriend, as he forced his marionettes  back to their feet, "What's the plan?"

"Don't look at me,"  Shikamaru groused in response, "You two know more about this monster  than we do. What even works on it? I'm guessing earth and lightning  jutsus are out of the question."

Temari nodded, while Ino barely  avoided the tanuki's tail. Choji punched with his enlarged fists, but  the sand absorbed the impact almost gently, and Shukaku snorted. He sent  out a blade of sand, which the big Chunin rolled away from, however in  the process he took a deep cut in his left shoulder.

"Lightning  does nothing," the elder blond agreed, "Neither does fire. Earth jutsus  can knock off parts of Shukaku if the technique is powerful enough, but  it's much easier to do with wind. And a large enough water jutsu can  slow him down, but doesn't hurt him."

"Then what do you suggest?" Shikamaru grunted in annoyance.

"Wind and water attacks until we can escape," she shot back, "Unless you know a sealing expert?"

"Yeah, two of them," the genius smiled ironically, "But neither one is here."

"Wait,  why doesn't fire work?" Ino asked. She had finished tending to Choji,  and the both of them narrowly dodged another giant kick.

"He's a  desert spirit made of sand," Kankuro couldn't keep the touch of mockery  from his voice, "a little heat doesn't bother him."

"But what  about a lot of heat?" the Leaf Kunoichi countered, "Both Sakura and  Hinata told me that during the Sound liberation, Kankuro fought Gaara by  fusing his sand into glass, which Gaara couldn't control. Can Shukaku  control glass?"

"That could work," Temari admitted, with a hopeful glance at Shikamaru. But her boyfriend didn't share her optimism.

"Yeah, but where are we going to get enough fire power to fuse this guy solid?" he asked.