Rabbit Princess [Gaara] [3]

☾ 27 ☽

Enemies cloaked in Tailed Beast Chakra charged them. They were far too many of as they raced toward them. Kido and Magire retreated to the rear. The team of Tsukiko, Sakura, Ino, and Sai facing this onslaught might have been hastily thrown together.

But that didn't mean they were out of sync with each other – when faced with a superior number of enemies, the key was to always keep moving and watch the backs of your allies – the body reacting without the head thinking. Their enemies attacked in a variety of ways.

Some tried to push them back with force, others released kunai and shuriken coloured with Chakra. There was even a Wind Style user. Occasionally, a slicing wind – which required real attention – came flying at them. And it seemed that the deadliness of each and every one of these attacks was further increased by the Chakra of the Tailed Beasts.

More than with others, Tsukiko was facing a larger number of the ANBU, and she charged up her own Reibi Chakra Mode to fight through them, using only her Taijutsu.

There were no long-distance-type enemies, so Tsukiko was never at a loss for how to move forward. Sakura had the same ease with her strikes. In this sort of close-range fight, Ino often moved around to the rear, but she wouldn't be able to get away with that now. Instead, Ino backed Sai up with Tajutsu.

A fireball abruptly came flying at them, and then several fireballs, all about the size of a human head, from their right. Sakura leapt out of the way. Their Fire Style attacker was the man who had played the fake Sasuke in the basement. Two tails grew from his Chakra cloak.

"How puny," Tsukiko commented as she used her Water Style to completely wipe out his Fire Style Jutsu. "There's no Fire User on earth that can oppose my Water,"

The man tried to attack her with his own Taijutsu to make up for his weakness against her Water but before he himself realised it, Tsukiko had him struck down and defeated, restrained by her Wood. She pursed her lips as the Chakra cloak disappeared from his body.

It seemed that once the user lost consciousness, the Chakra robe also disappeared. Which was no different from the structure of any other Ninjutsu.

"Looks like the Chakra vanishes if you knock them out!" Sakura said, having noticed the way it went and Tsukiko nodded in agree with that.

"And it only works for so long anyway!" came Ino's voice in return.

Tsukiko and Sakura had also confirmed that with their own eyes. Several light purple Chakra robes had already disappeared, even though the wearers were not unconscious. But those wearers quickly popped another capsule into their mouths to bring back the Tailed Beast Chakra.

"Usa," Tsukiko agreed as she continued to fight through the ANBU who kept crowding her, clearly trying to restrain her. "In the end, this is entirely futile,"

"If we just fight slow and steady like this, they'll keep replenishing their Chakra," Sai noted. He was fighting with Taijutsu, while he sent his ink tigers out on the offensive. "Let's knock them all out,"

At that moment, Ino cried out and tumbled to the ground. An enemy had swept her feet out from under her with his tail. Two others came flying in at her with Kunai.

"Ino!" Sakura shouted as she knocked one of the attackers backward with a fist, while the other took a flying kick from Sai and hit the ground. Ino stood up.

"You okay?" Sai asked. Ino nodded.

"Yeah," Ino replied, then she saw that Sai had hurt his arm, and she covered the area with her hand without saying anything. She was blocking the opening of the wound with Medical Ninjutsu.