Chapter 73 - The Dragon Trio

“MULTI SHURIKEN SHADOW CLONES!”

Hidan’s body was riddled with them, as his hurt leg prevented him from jumping out of the way. The most he could do to defend himself was to hold his scythe in front of him and close his eyes. Azami had leapt up and under the catwalk that circled the arena, using her chakra to hang from the ceiling like a bat. Kakuzu’s threads blocked the shuriken.

Tak.

Ekyt landed next to Hidan. With a few fast, well-placed cuts, he stripped the scythe away and cut Hidan’s arms up. Then, crossing the blades, he sliced Hidan’s neck with an ‘X’ motion.

-

“Is that the same guy?!”

“When did he get to be so strong?!”

“But he was a genin for so long!”

There were many comments, but the two that meant the most would stick in Ekyt’s ears for a long time.

“That’s the boy who earned the bounty on his head in the Mist Village. No wonder…”

and

“This is a man I want to protect my children.”

Sakura and Naruto stood side by side, not saying much of anything. It pained them both not to be involved, but a dawning realization hit them both. In a battle like this, they would have been one more person for Ekyt to protect. No matter how much stronger they were than him (or so Ekyt believed), Ekyt would have protected them. Even if it meant the fight was forfeit to him. Even if it meant his life was forfeit. Ojousama and Naruto-dono came first. That was why they couldn’t be involved.

“Azami…” Sakura muttered. “Naruto…do you think Azami is really evil?” Sakura pushed away from the railing on the catwalk, tugging on her skirt nervously. “I just…can’t picture it. She doesn’t seem evil. She seems like…well, confused. There’s more going on here than Azami’s letting on.”

Naruto agreed. “Yeah, but that doesn’t do Ekyt any good. Unless he’s already figured it out. I bet he has! That’s why he hasn’t gone after her! Yeah! He wants to hear what she’ll say when her teammates are gone! That MUST be it!”

“I guess…” Sakura said slowly, as if tasting her words. “But there’s always the other option- Ekyt loves her. Maybe he can’t bring himself to hurt his first girlfriend. Maybe it’s a weakness for him. I’ve never seen him so angry. If I can see his emotions, he’s not fighting his style. He’s let rage take over. And that might be exactly the opening the enemy needs…”

-

Hidan’s head stayed connected by the thinnest of threads, but he fell to the ground all the same. Ekyt kicked the scythe out of his reach and stepped over him.

“That’s two…” he murmured, speaking around his cigarette.

Azami had sensed it- a genjutsu- but couldn’t reach Kakuzu to break it. Whatever it was must have been pretty terrible. Kakuzu was silently screaming and tearing at his own cloak, as if he felt the cold hand of death gripping his throat.

Seeing that, Azami dropped down from the catwalk.

“I guess it’s come down to us…” she said, sounding surprised.

Ekyt blew out smoke. His eyes softened slightly. “I guess so…Azami, please reconsider. I don’t want to hurt you, and you don’t want to hurt me. Why do this the hard way? Just give me some answers. Whatever bastard is blackmailing you, or whatever- I WILL do anything it takes to free you. Even if it means…Even if it means that you hate me. I can live with you hating me. What I can’t live with is you suffering.”

Azami looked at her fallen comrades. Both were alive, but out of commission. That left her to deal with Ekyt for the time being. Not that she didn’t have her doubts- they just weren’t the doubts anyone else would have thought of.

I don’t want him to feel bad… We aren’t in the same league skill-wise. I’ll have to try hard NOT to overpower him. I’ve never told him of all my abilities. He’s never told me of his either, but there’s no hope for him. I’m not worried about killing him. I’m worried about crushing his psyche. But if that’ll stop the fight…

In a split-second, Azami had cut Ekyt’s arm with a long, gold sword of Egyptian origin Ekyt’s eyes widened as he felt the cut just as Azami returned to her starting position. The cut was the kind that spurted a lot of blood, but didn’t hurt as bad as you guessed it would. Not to say it didn’t hurt.

Azami looked at the blood on her sword. She had an idea of how to incapacitate him quickly, or kill him quickly- whichever came first. She had two sets of orders to follow. Pein seemed to be stronger than Itachi, so if Ekyt died against Itachi’s wishes, Pein’s wishes would be fulfilled. But her true client was Itachi. Well, it didn’t matter. She was going to try this.

“Chiburi!” she called out, flicking the blood off her sword. “Hey, moron! Open your mouth!” she yelled over to Hidan. Ekyt’s face paled as Hidan obeyed. The blood was going to land in Hidan’s mouth.

THUNK.

In desperation, Ekyt threw a kunai. By luck or by skill, the blood landed on the blade of the kunai, which flew harmlessly out of Hidan’s reach. It was a close shave, and it forced Ekyt to sit back and think.

She’s more powerful than me…She’s faster than me…
She’s better than me. In. Every. Way. If I’m going to win, I have to do something special. Something that’s risky. Something I’ve never used before. But I can’t kill her. No matter what, my mind won’t accept it. It won’t let me kill her. Not that that seems to be in my realm of ability. I’ve got to stop her. If I can outlast her, at least…

WHAP!

Ekyt skidded across the floor, but was punted back where he came from. When he opened his eyes, Azami was standing over him.

“You don’t have the luxury to sit still and think. This isn’t you against any adversary- it’s you against me- someone who knows you better than anyone else you’ve faced. Now, please, just hold still and let me end this…”

Azami raised her sword high over her head. She positioned the tip at Ekyt’s chest. After a deep breath, she plunged the sword down as hard as she could.

At least he won’t feel it for long…

CLANG!

Ekyt’s hands had halted Azami’s blade. She had forgotten his weapon! The trench knives from Asuma had brass knuckles on them, and Ekyt used that to punch the Egyptian blade from both sides. The tip never touched him. In fact, the tip clattered away, far across the room.

WHOOK!

Ekyt’s fist slashed up and nearly cracked Azami in the chin. She had to skip backwards to get away from the strike. But Ekyt chased her, throwing strikes at top speed.

“Don’t think I just sat there! I GAVE you that opening! And that opening gave me the chance to use one of my own jutsus. Since I didn’t want to interrupt your triumph, I didn’t say it out loud. But now- DRAGON’S FIRE EXTENSION!”

Flame erupted from Ekyt’s hands and feet. Ekyt and Azami’s high-speed martial arts battle cascaded from there, and became even more dangerous. Azami parried Ekyt’s strikes, and he her strikes. But now the fire adding range to his kicks and strikes began to heat Azami’s body. She resorted to using her speed advantage. She managed to get behind Ekyt, but she couldn’t grab him. When he spun, fire gave him a brief shield. Azami was no slouch, though- Ekyt’s new advantage could be used against him, with a little ingenuity.

The fire must obscure his vision, at least a little. And he wouldn’t think anything of noticing his own chakra…

Azami backpedaled, leading Ekyt in the direction she needed him to go. He didn’t notice it, but Ekyt was going to break his own genjutsu.

-

Kakuzu was hit with a horrid version of the Death Foreseeing Technique. He was SURE he had released the genjutsu, so when he began to see himself die in the most gruesome ways possible, he couldn’t quite snap himself out of it. No matter how many times you saw yourself die, you always wondered if it was really happening. Could you really be dying? This time, was it real?

Then he felt it- warmth. Precious warmth. But the warmth was too…warm. Too hot. BURNING!

“GAHHH!”

Unknowingly, the fire jetting from Ekyt’s feet lit Kakuzu on fire. The pain ended the vicious cycle of the genjutsu. It took him a few moments to get moving again. When he got up, he saw Hidan barely standing across the room, in no shape to fight. Using his special jutsu, Kakuzu used his threads to stitch Hidan together again.

-

Ekyt’s fire jutsu ended after a minute or so, but it had given him the upper-hand as he dueled with Azami. They both landed unimportant strikes. Azami swung with her broken sword. Ekyt deflected the blow upward, knocking her off-balance. He cut at her with his other hand, the knife nearly catching her exposed triceps. Azami brought her elbow down on Ekyt’s arm – normally a good way to strip a weapon – but Ekyt held on to the trench knives, this time aiming the knuckles toward her face. Azami turned to the side to dodge the blow, then brought the sword toward Ekyt in a thrust. Ekyt repeated his trick by punching the sword. This time, the hilt clattered out of Azami’s hand. She tripped and fell back, her eyes wide with shock.

Hidan…

Ekyt leaned forward to incapacitate her, but spun around quickly. The scythe was coming toward him. He turned to block it, but Azami tugged on his leg. Instinctively, Ekyt swiped at her, thereby making his guard less perfect. The scythe bounced off his trench knife and hit him high on the leg.

“It’s all over, man! Say your f****** prayers, and pray Jashin has mercy on your soul!”

Hidan was up and as good as new. He yanked his scythe back to him and raised it to his lips.
“Itadakimasu!”

“KORYUU: RAIN DRAGON’S WRATH!”

Ekyt had wanted to avoid using jutsus like this, but in case there could be no mistakes. He had to use the first of his ‘Dragon Trio’. This jutsu was one he had developed recently, and it was largely untested. But if it worked, it would save his life. The jutsu was risky, but so was combat.

Water gathered from nowhere. Every bit of moisture in the room and the air was collected and wrung out into this attack. Hidan froze for a split second to look, and that was his mistake. Though he could hardly be faulted- it wasn’t every day you had a water dragon as tall as the cavernous room they were in glaring at you.

“HAJIME!” Ekyt barked, pointing at Hidan. The dragon crashed into Hidan at full speed, blasting the sadistic Akatsuki member into the wall. The wall began to crack under the rapidly increasing water pressure, and finally forced Hidan through the solid stone wall and out of the room. That hole had the fortune side-effect of creating a drain in the room so that nobody drowned.

-

Azami couldn’t believe her eyes.

I had no idea… He’s this strong? He never seemed that way! I mean, this much strength really is surprising. I wouldn’t have fallen for him if he didn’t possess some degree of strength.

Heh. And here I thought I would be the one to shock him. Turns out it’s the other way around…

-

“Kakashi, what the hell was THAT?!” Asuma’s cigarette fell to the ground, his mouth open in shock. “I’ve never seen that before!”

Kakashi, who had his Sharingan eye activated, had seen Ekyt use the jutsu before. “Koryuu, Rain Dragon’s Wrath. A water-style jutsu that uses every last bit of moisture within a certain area to form an attack. Ekyt has two more attacks similar to that. If he uses all three in his ‘Dragon Trio’, it’s over- one way or another. If it was anyone but the Akatsuki, I’d like his chances.”

-

Now that I’ve started it, I can’t stop. I need to stop them. All of them. Even you, Azami. When I looked into your eyes earlier, I read the meaning within the meaning…

“Hiryuujin! Flying Dragon King!”

A dragon made of wind and ice formed at Ekyt’s command. His chakra was down to thirty percent. His cigarettes could boost him up to forty-five percent tops, and that still wouldn’t be enough to finish this fight. Ekyt knew this, but he kept fighting. His reasoning was easy: He would tire the Akatsuki out, and they would be easy prey for whoever came after him. That was it. It was never in Ekyt’s realm of thought to win, though he had some hope after incapacitating two of the Akatsuki attackers temporarily thus far. But his plan was to do damage for the greater cause.

…Her eyes didn’t tell the same story her mouth did. Her mouth shouted insults and told lies- her eyes begged for help. But they didn’t tell me WHY she needs help. Until I know that, I can’t help her. All I can do…

“Hiryuujin’s Rage!”

Ekyt was no master of the elements. This jutsu took a lot out of him, and he couldn’t yet control the jutsu to it’s full potential. This was twenty percent of the Jutsu’s destructive capabilities. But that’s the most Ekyt could give. The dragon flew down and allowed him to ride on it’s back. That, too, cost chakra.

…All I can do is force her hand. She wants to tell me, but she can’t. But why? Why can’t you tell me, Azami? Is it trust? Is it my weakness? Why? Why can’t you just say? You know I would do anything for you. If I’m a liability to you, I’ll get stronger! But please…please…

Don’t let this be our last meeting. One month was all we had. One miserable month. What good is strength if you’ve no one to protect? What good is love if you’ve no one to share it with? What good is life if all that’s good dies?

The dragon plowed straight toward Kakuzu. He couldn’t hope to dodge it- the thing covered almost the entire stadium. All he could do was peck at it with his strings, and try to make the threat smaller, or take out the controller. But Ekyt wasn’t going to go down so easily. He dodged the strings, and even maneuvered the dragon out of the way for the worst of the attacks.

I never needed anyone…I never WANTED anyone… but then people showed me that there IS good in the world. Linda, Sakura, and then Azami. But Linda and Azami showed me just how evil the world can be. And yet…I still feel a kinship with Azami. I know the world is evil, Azami. Let your problems become mine as well! Even if we can’t be together, let me take away this burden!

The dragon hit Kakuzu head-on. It blasted a hole in the stadium wall, but did surprisingly little damage.

“That hurt a little…”

Ekyt turned, but quickly turned that into a roll as Hidan’s scythe nearly took his head off.

Got no choice…I’ve never done it before, but I’ve got no other option now…Gotta kill those two, or incapacitate all three…The last of the Dragon Trio…

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