Rabbit Princess [Gaara] [3]

☾ 12 ☽

Tsukiko looked at Ro and Soku, motioning them to go ahead and help Shikamaru and Ino. They needed to take Gengo down but he could no longer put any of them under his Genjutsu, not with Tsukiko around, now having learned everything about his Genjutsu by Ino.

Soku and Ro nodded. Shikamaru raced toward Gengo as Soku and Ro ran to the edges of the room to take up positions in opposite corners.

"Okay!" Shikamaru yelled. "Here we go!"

"Whatever you try, it's futile!" Gengo responded.

"Look, this is the final battle," Shikamaru replied. "We should at least have fun with it,"

Kunai and longsword clashed in mid-air. But there was an overwhelming difference in mass between their weapons of choice, and Shikamaru bent nearly in half, pushed back by Gengo's slash attack. The longsword swivelled around and came back.

And again, Shikamaru was bifurcated – a shadow, after all.

"How long will this mockery go on?!" Gengo spat, frenzied.

Dropping from the sky above, Shikamaru attacked the top of his enemy's head, only to be cleared away by the longsword. A shadow again.

Shadow, shadow, shadow, shadow, shadow, shadow, shadow, shadow, shadow... over and over, the long sword slashed through Shikamaru. No matter how Gengo slashed and chopped, however, Shikamaru turned into a shadow and vanished into thin air.

"Where have you gone to, Shikamaru?!" Gengo shouted.

Another Shikamaru disappeared from Gengo's eyes. His enemy didn't notice the real Shikamaru sneaking up on him, "Checkmate,"

The look on his face changing at the murmured word, Gengo whirled around. But it was too late. The Shadow stretching out from Shikamaru's feet was already entwined with Gengo's body. Producing countless shadow doppelgangers, he had used Ro's power to colour them all with rich chakra.

Gengo's brain gradually came to remember this as the nature of Shikamaru's doppelganger's Chakra. As he cut them down one after another, Gengo had begun to unconsciously chase after the Chakra emitted by the doppelgangers.

Once he had Gengo chasing this Chakra, the real Shikamaru took the rear and used Ro's power once more to erase all of that Chakra. When he leapt out from a total blind spot, Gengo had no idea what was happening until he was hit by Suffocating Darkness.

"Shikamaru!"

Body bound, Gengo exhausted every ounce of strength he had to turn his head toward his captor and spit out his name with violent malice – his long tongue, shining slippery and red, peeped out. Tsukiko's eyes flashed, undoing the man's Genjutsu.

"Hinoko!" Shikamaru shouted.

"Gaaaah!" Soku shouted in annoyance. "I keep, like, telling you not to use my name!"

With an ear-splitting shriek, Soku released Chakra from the index finger of her right hand. Tsukiko watched as a bolt of orange lightning precisely caught and pierced Gengo's tongue. Thrusting his head up high, Gengo spluttered nothing but dry air.

"The Chakra flowing to your tongue's been cut off," Shikamaru told him. "Your body's no longer able to spit out any words,"

Tears trailed down Gengo's cheeks and his arms were restrained behind his back with Tsukiko's Wood. His sword fell to the ground aimlessly.

"I'm definitely going to build a world without war," Shikamaru told Gengo, with signalling Ro with his eyes. "So, forgive me for stealing your dream,"