Chapter 44: Sand and Cinder
Seeing Akatsurugi flying toward him, the Second Kazekage, Shamon, felt a chill. The intelligence was fresh: this Konoha ninja had faced the Third Raikage, killed three of his guards, and escaped unscathed. And now, he was here.
Akatsurugi halted in the air a short distance away, his Sharingan calmly assessing the Kage before him. He recalled the briefing from Utatane Koharu: Shamon was a master of puppetry and sand manipulation, and a notorious user of poisons. Caution is key, he reminded himself.
"Akatsurugi of Konoha," Shamon began, his voice a dry rasp that carried over the desert wind. "I did not expect to face you on the battlefield so soon."
"And I did not expect the esteemed Second Kazekage, the lord who seeks to revive Sunagakure, to invade the Land of Fire and leave such an ignominious record," Akatsurugi retorted.
Shamon's lips curled into a faint, cynical smile. What was the essence of war, if not a means to seize resources? The Land of Fire was rich. Suna was not. The logic was brutally simple.
"Sand Hand!" Shamon thrust his palm forward. A massive hand of condensed sand erupted from the dune below, clawing upward to crush Akatsurugi from the sky.
A massive, swirling sphere of blue chakra—the Great Ball Rasengan—materialized in Akatsurugi's hand. He met the sand hand head-on, driving the Rasengan into its palm. The spiraling energy shredded the construct instantly, causing it to dissolve back into a harmless shower of grit.
Seeing the Kazekage make the first move, Akatsurugi saw no further need for words. His hands flew through seals. He drew a deep breath and exhaled a cataclysm.
"Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!"
A sphere of black-red fire, hotter and denser than any natural flame, roared toward Shamon.
The Kazekage reacted swiftly, raising a thick wall of hardened sand to block the inferno. But Akatsurugi's fire was not so easily denied. It clung and burned, the intense heat beginning to fuse the surface of the sand into glass. Shamon was forced to abandon his position, leaping back as his defense vitrified and cracked.
He now understood the reports firsthand. This fire was a class of its own.
"Sand Waterfall Burial!" Shamon gestured, and the ground beneath Akatsurugi churned. A vortex of sand formed, rising like a colossal, grasping tornado intent on swallowing him whole.
Akatsurugi ascended higher, the sand cyclone straining to follow before collapsing under its own weight. Seizing the opening, he dove, a fiery comet aimed directly at the Kazekage.
Shamon didn't flinch. Four puppets sprang from the pouches on his back, forming a defensive perimeter. One opened its mouth, spewing a cloud of fine, glistening needles. Another unfolded, revealing dozens of jointed arms, each ending in a blade gleaming with a tell-tale blue sheen—undoubtedly poisoned. The forest of blades whirled, creating a deadly screen around the Kazekage.
"Hmph. Blaze Cannon." Akatsurugi's left arm dissolved into pure flame. A concentrated beam of fire lanced from his palm, engulfing the cloud of needles and the whirling blades. The intense heat didn't just deflect the attack; it consumed it. The two puppets were caught in the conflagration, their wooden bodies turning to ash in seconds.
The Fire Release was a perfect counter to Suna's wooden puppetry.
The Second Kazekage had already used the moment to retreat a significant distance. The loss of two puppets didn't surprise him. If Akatsurugi could be defeated so easily, he would never have survived the Raikage.
"Go!" he commanded. The two remaining puppets lunged forward. Simultaneously, Shamon formed a series of hand seals. The desert itself seemed to rise up as a tidal wave of sand surged toward Akatsurugi, intent on burying him alive.
"Sand Waterfall Funeral!"
Facing the overwhelming deluge, Akatsurugi reached over his shoulder. His hand closed around the hilt of his sealed zanpakutō.
"All things of this world turn to ashes. Ryūjin Jakka."
Flames sheathed the blade instantly. He didn't swing it in a complex pattern; he simply brought it down in a clean, vertical arc.
"Cut."
A wave of concentrated fire shot forth, not spreading, but cutting. It cleaved through the tidal wave of sand, vaporizing a massive trench through its center and creating a temporary vacuum. The two puppets hidden within the sand were bisected before they could even react.
But it was a trap. As the puppets were destroyed, they released their final payload: a thick, purple mist of concentrated poison that enveloped the area where Akatsurugi stood.
A faint smile touched Shamon's lips. Success. This was his own specially formulated toxin. Even an elite jonin would succumb within moments.
He didn't know that the moment the poison bloomed, Akatsurugi's body had dissolved into flickering flame, leaving the toxic cloud to harmlessly dissipate around his elemental form. He rematerialized a dozen yards away, untouched.
"Jōkakō Enjō (Scorching Flaming Prison)."
A roaring tornado of fire instantly encircled the Second Kazekage, the intense flames roaring to life.
But the figure of Shamon within the inferno dissolved into a cascade of sand—a Sand Clone.
Akatsurugi frowned, his Sharingan spinning. When did he make the substitution?
He pulled his forehead protector down fully, the three tomoe in his eyes whirling rapidly. Across the battlefield, the real Shamon emerged from the sand itself, unharmed.
The Kazekage bit his thumb, quickly forming hand seals before slamming his palm onto the ground.
"Summoning Technique!"
Three new puppets appeared in puffs of smoke. These were different. They weren't the blocky, wooden constructs from before. Their forms were more refined, more... human. They even wore the faded forehead protectors of Kirigakure.
Human Puppets, Akatsurugi realized. He shouldn't have been surprised. The Second Kazekage was the pioneer of this art; Chiyo and Ebisū, fighting elsewhere on the front, were his students. These three unlucky souls, former Mist ninja, had been killed and repurposed. And now, they were being deployed against him, their Water Release abilities a direct counter to his flames.
The preparation was thorough. A true Kage-level threat.
The three puppets moved with uncanny speed. One of them formed hand seals with its artificial hands and spewed a thick, concealing mist from its mouth, blanketing the area. Even the Sharingan struggled to pierce the dense, chakra-infused vapor.
A sharp, acrid scent hit the air. "The mist is poisoned!" Akatsurugi's expression tightened. His body burst into flames, the intense heat around him vaporizing the moisture and neutralizing the toxins before they could touch him.
From within his misty shroud, Shamon watched the fiery figure, his mind racing. What is this state? A complete transformation? Is this the true nature of his Kekkei Genkai? The battle of attrition and analysis had truly begun.