Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Ghostly Eyes ❯ Rematch ( Chapter 19 )

      Kashghyu N’ga was slow in regaining her senses. The army of doppelgangers before her was a total shock. She calmed herself when she thought of what his plan had to be. He intended to throw her off balance, to confuse her. That would not work. She would not let it.

     “Let these doubles come!” she exclaimed, “I will topple them all!”

     Come they did. Naruto charged his army at his enemy. He no longer had any intention of holding back against Hinata. It was all or nothing, now. He had to use everything he had at his disposal to succeed. And succeed he would. He had to!

     Kashghyu N’ga met the troop of mirror images head-on. They may have looked like her, but they fought in the style of Uzumaki Naruto. A style she knew from their previous encounter. A style she knew she could defeat. However, the numbers being pushed on her were potentially overwhelming. She had to figure out which of her enemies was truly the blond or all was lost.

     Naruto was smarter than that, though. Just as he did against Hyuga Neji, he spread his chakra evenly among his dozen or so doubles. He knew Hinata would have a hard time finding the real Naruto among them all. Also, because she remembered Naruto’s trick of keeping a double out of the fight as a decoy, she would be forced to treat each and every likeness of herself as the real enemy. That would cause Hinata to waste energy should could otherwise conserve by going only after her real foe.

     Through all this, the Ki’ge watched, unable to end his chanting and signing to help the girl. She was on her own for this fight.

     Kashghyu N’ga jumped and planted her hand on the head of one of the Hyuga Hinatas she fought. Using the transformed double as a vaulting horse, she leapt through the air, twisting and contorting though the mob. When she landed on her feet, she shot out two of her hands, index and middle fingers extended. One attack missed, but the other landed in the upper chest of one of her foes, causing it to disappear in a cloud of smoke. She dove forward and rolled just in time to avoid a sweeping kick from a Hinata behind her.

     However, Kashghyu N’ga also inadvertently placed herself right into the path of another double. She couldn’t move in time to avoid the punch coming at her. It hit her square on the jaw, knocking her onto her back. She just barely recovered in time to roll away from an attempt to hit her while she was down. Kashghyu separated herself as best she could from the mob of doubles. Had she remained in the thick of battle like that, she would have been eventually overwhelmed.

     When the combatants split, Naruto took a moment to think about his options. The Kage Bunshin seemed to be doing their job, beating her through numbers. Naruto hated the fact that he had had to strike Hinata the way he did. He hated the idea of hitting girls in general. Girls he liked, such as Sakura or Hinata, were big no-no’s in his book. For now, though, he choked down his own self-loathing for the greater good. He’d beg Hinata’s forgiveness later, when they survived this.

     Naruto charged his doubles after Hinata once more. Again, Naruto held the upper hand. His army of Hyuga Hinata slowly overwhelming the real one. Hinata was able to hit the chakra points necessary to dispel several of the clones, but Naruto was more than able to create more in their place.

     Kashghyu N’ga wasn’t sure what to do about this situation. The boy was organizing his duplicates well enough that her close-combat techniques were doing little to aid her. She had to find some way to take the fight back into her own hands. Something, anything.

     “Hinata! Again!”

     Kashghyu’s balance was momentarily thrown by the sudden voice in her head. A voice she recognized as the white-eyed man from her dreams. The one who left her crying as she woke.

     “Again, Hinata.” he said. Kashghyu saw a girl, saw herself, stand again and assume a battle stance.

     “Concentrate your Chakra to all of the Tenketsu in your body. Maintain your equilibrium, and then twirl your body.”

     The girl in Kashghyu’s mind attempted to do so. Unfortunately, she overdid the amount of chakra in part of her body and was thrown off balance, falling on her rear in the process.

     “Again!” the man commanded.

     Kashghyu N’ga instinctively tried shaking off the memory. That was, until she realized just what the memory had shown her. Her edge. Her advantage. A technique her old self, the self of Before, could not perform. One Kashghyu N’ga knew she could manage. She managed once again to extricate herself from the mob of doubles challenging her. Uzumaki sent them after her once more, but she blocked their presence from her mind. She focused solely on her current goal. Her Life’s Flame spread throughout her body at her command, gathering at the correct points. When she felt the proper amounts had built up, she unleashed her move.

     “Kaiten!!” she screamed as the name came to her. Kashghyu N’ga twirled her body in place as she expelled the Flame in her body. A small tornado surrounded her for an instant just as her enemies were reaching her. They were caught up in the winds and sent flying. Many were blown clear off the edges of the plaza, puffs of smoke arising as their distance grew too far from that of their creator. Those few who remained, among whom Kashghyu knew was the boy she fought, were sprawled around the flat trunk in varying states of injury.

     The battle was hers once more.

     Far below, at the base of the plaza, two other warriors fought another battle. Kurenai and Da Iri’ga had proven to be nearly equal opponents. Kurenai had superior power and skill on her side. The older man she fought had plenty of past experience and a thorough knowledge of the battlefield terrain working in his favor. He was making frequent use of the technique Kurenai now understood, thanks to Hyuga Riisen, to be the Konoha-no-Shuriken-no-Jutsu. That did not surprise Kurenai. As she understood it, the technique was quite useful if you had good enough chakra control to perform it.

     Da Iri’ga performed the signs Kurenai knew would create more of the leaf projectiles. As expected, they came at her with near blinding speed. Kurenai dodged them with ease, but just barely dodged an attack inexplicably coming from behind her. As she leaped away from a high kick meant to incapacitate her she saw another Da Iri’ga standing behind where she had been. Kurenai understood instantly that the man had used the leaf shuriken that missed and transformed them into a Habunshin leaf double.

     Looking around, Kurenai saw more of the leaves scattered by the technique forming into the doubles. Kurenai quickly counted about four of them along with the real Da Iri’ga. Kurenai became concerned, thinking of the obvious combination of the bunshin and shuriken. She made a note to herself not to let her foes get too close.

     On the other hand… she thought, an idea forming. This was a good chance to go on the offensive and surprise her enemy.

     Rather than keep her distance, Kurenai charged one of her foe’s doubles. She drew a kunai and stabbed it into the enemy’s chest. It made no move to block her. It wasn’t supposed to. The (normally) fatal wound dispelled the illusion, turning the man in front of her into a human shaped mass of tree leaves. She guessed, more than saw, that Da Iri’ga was making the hand motions to begin the shuriken move. However, Kurenai moved first.

     Remembering her first encounter with the Nimmori warrior, she brought her own hands up and performed the very same signs her opponent was in the midst of performing. However, Kurenai’s formal training gave her an edge. She was much faster on her sign weaving than even Da Iri’ga, who specialized in this particular maneuver.

     Kurenai had spent her entire watch the previous evening practicing the signs as best she remembered them. That practice had been rewarded when about half of the leaves began to glow and fly at her enemy. However, due to Kurenai’s inexperience with the jutsu, Da Iri’ga was able to claim the rest. Kurenai was prepared. Inspired by seeing the Kazetama no Jutsu at the start of their first battle, Kurenai performed a variation of the move she’d once learned.

     “Fuuton - Kaze no Tate no Jutsu!” She thrust forward her right hand, focusing much of her Chakra into it. The result was a rush of wind forcing out before her much like a barrier. The leaf shuriken proved very vulnerable to sudden rush of wind and stopped in mid-air and fell to the ground. As she performed the Kaze no Tate, her left hand reached into her shuriken pouch and pulled very real shuriken from it, hurling them towards the leaves she’d sent at her enemy.

     When Da Iri’ga made moves to dodge the leaves, he’d found himself the target of metal stars. Kurenai had timed her throw well, catching her enemy in the midst of dodging one attack, and unable to evade the second. He wound up with a star in his upper left arm and in the right side of his stomach.

     The man staggered. Kurenai knew she had just gotten her best chance to finish this. She charged, kunai in hand. Da Iri’ga wasn’t finished, however. He had one final technique to use. A move he knew could finish the fight in his favor. He had no idea it would be an almost fatal mistake…