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Inner Demons - Part 3

Lunging at Zaraki, his blade aimed at his heart, Naruto felt he could win with one decisive blow. But as he entered striking range the Kyuubi's chakra all but vanished, the Demon Fox Cloak evaporated until all that remained was a small trace of the orange chakra remaining along the length of the black blade of Naruto's sword.

'Sorry kid... time's up.' Kisuke's voice rang in his head, all the speed and strength that had surged through his body was gone now, he hadn't made it.

With his speed now gone Zaraki managed to narrowly evade the tip of Naruto's blade, Naruto stumbled as his attack missed. He attempted to regain his balance but could do nothing but watch as Zaraki pulled his arm back to strike, watch as the lightning chakra crackled between his finger tips and across the palm of his hand. He tried to pull away but he was already too late, he had no way to avoid it, he raised his arms in front of him in order to try and soften the blow.

"THUNDEROUS PALM!"

************

After Kisame and Karabe left them, Sasuke and Kiba took Tazuna into town, they needed to make sure he was safe before going after Naruto, Tsunami and Inari. They left Tazuna and took off at speed towards the bandit fort, the only place they could think that they would head.

"We should have gone after Kisame and Karabe!" Kiba argued as he rode on Akamaru's back as they leapt through the tree tops.

"We had to make sure Tazuna was safe! Besides, if Karabe and Kisame got held up fighting us then Zaraki may have ended up killing Tsunami and Inari!" Sasuke argued.

"But Naruto can't take all three of them by himself!"

"If he's smart, he will have followed them will have waited for us to regroup with him!" Sasuke replied.

"Are we talking about the same Naruto?"

"Shut up!" Sasuke snapped, but he knew it as well as Kiba did, Naruto was not one to play it smart. He could only hope that the blond knuckle-head hadn't gone and gotten himself killed! But one thing was for certain, they were not abandoning him, Tsunami or Inari, they swore to Tazuna that they would get his family back safe, even if it cost them their lives. Out of the corner of his eyes Sasuke saw it, attached to a tree branch he had just passed, a smouldering paper bomb. In that instant his sharingan activated and he could see dozens of bombs all around them. "KIBA! GET DOWN!"

They leapt to the ground as the paper bombs exploded above them, the tree tops suddenly ablaze in flames. They looked up at their near death experience, they allowed themselves a moment of silent reprieve.

"Their expecting us." Kiba sighed.

"You're predictable!" A voice echoed through the forest. Sasuke and Kiba desperately searched for the source, Kiba's sensitive nose picked up their scent.

"Over there!" He pointed, standing on a tree branch was Kisame and Karabe.

"You should have left town while you had the chance!" Kisame leered. "Now we are going to have to deal with you, personally!"

"What happened to Naruto!?" Kiba demanded.

"Your blond friend? Zaraki dealt with him."

"What!? You mean..."

"Zaraki defeated him, but he lives." Karabe spat. "Your little friend gave Zaraki a tough of time of it. Zaraki was even a little out of breath when he found him."

"Out of breath?" Sasuke muttered in disbelief.

"Oh yes, don't take it wrong, Zaraki is a monster! Zaraki the Colossus they used to call him."

"Nice story but we don't have time for this!" Sasuke snapped.

"In such a hurry to die?" Kisame mused drawing one of his swords from his back and pointed it at Sasuke. "I've got some unfinished business to finish with you!" He glared, his bandaged right hand tingling as he clenched his fist in anger as he remembered suffering the burns from Sasuke's attack back on the bridge.

"Well then, lets settle this!" Sasuke replied stepping forward before turning his head to look at Kiba. "Divide and conquer, we need to get to Naruto and the others! Make your way through to the fort!"

"Wouldn't we be better working together?"

"We can't take the risk, if we both get trapped here then neither of us will make it to the fort. This way one of us might get through in time!" Sasuke could tell that Kisame and Karabe had worked together for a long time, there was no guarantee that by teaming up with Kiba they could overwhelm them, the needed to rely on individual strength to win this fight.

"Okay... but I'll meet you at the fort!"

"Don't worry, I'll have saved Naruto by the time you get there!" Sasuke smirked.

"Not if I get there first, Sas-gay!" Kiba smiled back. Even in these dire circumstances they were still rivals, but rivals in arms, both with the full intention of saving the one they held most dear. "Come on then! You and me Cowhide!" Kiba jeered at Karabe, mocking the smell of his leather trench-coat.

"I'm going to kill you this time runt!" Karabe spat, taking chase after Kiba and Akamaru as the ran off.

"Well then, I guess that leaves you and me!" Sasuke scowled as he stared at Kisame.

Sasuke and Kisame took off, sprinted through the forest, each of them keeping an eye on the other as they travelled from Kiba and Karabe, they were going to settle things once and for all. Soon the dense forest gave way to a large lake, surrounded on all sides by trees, they ran across the surface of the water coming to a stop at the centre of the lake. Sasuke observed his surroundings, noted that there was several trees that grew on small solitary islands on the lake, he had been lead here by Kisame which meant this was his preferred arena for their fight.

"You should have left when you had the chance!" Kisame declared as he casually reached over his shoulder and drew his other sword.

"I'm not leaving without Naruto!" Sasuke glared reaching behind and gripped the hilt of his own sword but didn't draw it.

"Heh!" Kisame chuckled, a crude grin contorting his face. "Not willing to leave without your little boyfriend?" He joked not realising how close to the truth his statement actually was.

"Besides, I would hate myself if I just walked away letting you losers think you'd beaten us!" Sasuke smirked as Kisame's amused demeanour crumbled and a scowl furrowed his brow.

"The time for talk is past kid, you've had your chance to escape. Now it's time for you to die!" Sasuke didn't respond, his sharingan bursting to life, the blood red eyes almost glowing in the dimly lit area. Kisame paused as he saw Sasuke's sharingan appear. "Those eyes again..." Kisame growled to himself, Sasuke's eyes unsettling something within him as they seemed to peer into his very soul. Pushing the unsettling feeling to the back of his mind Kisame made his first move. He positioned his swords so the one pointed upwards toward the sky, and the other across it so that it formed a cross. The blades began to glow faintly as Kisame poured his chakra into them. "Temple of the Water God, Soul Eater Jutsu!

A heavy mist washed over the lake, the mist became so heavy that even with his sharingan, Sasuke couldn't see more than a few yards in front of him. After a few moments the mist began to dissipate, the tree line that surrounded the lake was gone, replaced by a dark void. The darkness continued to encroach, a faint light radiating upwards from beneath the waters surface in the area which Sasuke stood was the only source of light.

"Genjutsu!" Sasuke seethed, forming a hand-sign to focused his chakra. "Release!" Sasuke was confused when the genjutsu didn't disappear.

"That's not going to help you here!" Kisame's voice echoed through the dark void as he stepped forward out of the darkness across from Sasuke. "This is the realm of the Water God that my clan used to worship in ages past, these swords were gifts bestowed upon my clan by the Water God himself, granting my clan a portion of his power."

"I've never heard of your water god!" Sasuke growled.

"No, sadly his power has waned over the centuries. But I'm going to help restore his power by offering him your soul, like I have with many others!"

"You're crazy!"

"No, you're just ignorant!" Kisame spat. "Now look upon the majesty of the Water God himself!"

As he spoke a large structure faded into existence from the mist behind him. Sasuke couldn't believe what he was seeing. The structure was massive and seemed to stretch endlessly into the dark sky. Pillars and other various parts of the structure had begun to crumble due to the passage of time, but even so it was still an imposing sight to behold. At the top of a tall flight of stone steps there was what looked like a throne, the throne made of the same stone that the rest of the structure was made from and had an ominous shadow of a large being sitting in it. Sasuke could only make out the legs of the being sitting in it, cloaked in a majestic purple robe, the rest of them hidden within the shadows, a slight motion of movement confirmed that it wasn't a statue.

"I can see you're impressed." Kisame grinned. "But once you've seen the full power of my god, you will willingly throw yourself at his feet and beg for a quick death!"

"Enough of this!" Sasuke growled drawing his sword and pointing it at Kisame. "Once I kill you the jutsu will end!"

"Right you are... but killing me won't be that easy!" The water surrounding them began to ripple, large statue's of ice rose from beneath the surface, all with the appearance of warriors clad in decorative armour with serpent heads.

Sasuke eyed them suspiciously as they began to move, their icy limbs audibly cracking, chunks of ice falling from their bodies as they began to move freely. Sasuke was surrounded on all sides, the army of ice warriors seemed to go on forever, their ranks disappearing into the dark void which engulfed the area. Each statue of ice looked identical, the icy armour and covering their entire body and the serpent heads all looked identical; the only thing different between them was the variety of weapons they held, swords, axes, spears... every weapon that Sasuke could think of.

"These are the loyal warriors of my Lord and God, each of them having willingly surrendered their souls in exchange for an eternity of servitude in his great shadow!" Sasuke was beginning to get nervous, if this wasn't a genjutsu then it must be some form of space/time jutsu. If that was the case then their might just be some truth to the drivel flowing from Kisame's mouth. "Surrender now and my lord will grant you a quick death!"

"Fuck you!" Sasuke snarled. "I still just need to kill you!" Sasuke charged towards Kisame, the silver haired ninja looked calm and composed. A dozen of the ice statues stepped between Sasuke and Kisame, the closest one swung a large battle axe of ice at Sasuke, Sasuke easily side stepped the attack. Focusing his lightning chakra into his sword Sasuke struck the attacking statue of ice, his blade easily slicing off the right arm forcing the statue to drop the large battle axe into the water. Sasuke paused to see what it would do next only to be surprised as the severed limb regrew as water flowed from wound and quickly hardened back into an icy limb; worse of all the battle axe also reappeared in a similar fashion. Once again the ice warrior swung for Sasuke forcing him to leap away out of range of the attack. Sasuke slid to a stop on the waters surface and glared at the ice statue and the other eleven that stood between him and Kisame. Also aware that a countless horde of them still stood motionless around him. This was going to prove more difficult than he initially thought.