Light Of A Crystal

21. Hiragane

Hiragane looked at Shukaku for a long time before charging toward it at great speed. 

Jumping towards the right, he avoided Shukaku's sharp claw while slashing his own claw into the Shukaku, which roared in pain before pulling away to avoid Hiragane from hitting one more time.

"COME ON!" Hiragane yelled as he rushed towards Shukaku and raised his claws to strike once more before holding him from behind and swinging it into the air.

Shukaku quickly got up and managed to block an incoming attack from Hiragane with its sand wall which rose from the ground.

Hiragane smirked before quickly jumping away and launching water cannon balls which made the sand become heavy and fell on the ground, causing Shukaku to pull back to higher ground. 

"NARUTO! FORM A LARGE CRYSTAL JAVELIN!" Hiragane shouted as Naruto complied and created a huge javelin despite the heavy loss of chakra.

Hiragane snatched the javelin from the mid-air and rushed towards Shukaku with the sharp tip of the javelin directed towards the Tanuki.

Shukaku quickly moved towards the right to avoid the javelin and quickly grabbed the blunt end and started pulling it to get it out from Hiragane's hands.

Hiragane tried to stab the tanuki with the javelin's blunt end in hopes that it might push him away.

Huh? Why cannot  I push it into him? Hiragane thought before hearing Kurama's yell.

"You fool! Did you forget that he is a tailed beast?" Kurama shouted, furious at Hiragane for his foolishness. 

Hiragane's eyes widened as Shukaku managed to swing him into the air while holding the crystal javelin.

Goddamnit! We were winning before that fool's foolish mistake. Kurama angrily said as Hiragane quickly got up and started launching water towards the Racoon, which smirked and escaped the water attacks easily.

"Naruto! You know how to transform water into the crystal. Right?" Hiragane enquired as Naruto gave a thoughtful look to the boss fox.

"I can but it drains too much chakra," Naruto said as Hiragane sighed.

"Alright. Then you don't need to do it now. But if I let you know that the situation is too dire th-" Hiragane could never get to complete his sentence as he quickly crossed his arms to protect himself against a barrage of sand being thrown at him.

Quickly grabbing his sword, Hiragane swung it against the Tanuki, cutting his arms from his body. But Shukaku didn't yell as the arm regrew once again.

Hiragane was so caught up by surprise that he didn't notice Shukaku clutching its tail and throwing him into the air, causing Naruto and Akane to be thrown off from Hiragane's back yet they landed safely on a sandy area.

Sand? Naruto thought as his eyes widened in shock as he saw the sand rising in the air and surrounding them.

Naruto quickly took Akane and jumped off just in time before the sand could fall on them and suffocate them.

Akane quickly got up and sprayed a large amount of water from her mouth, causing the sand to harden and become useless.

"Now we have to find Hiragane." Naruto muttered when both of them heard a loud yell from somewhere.

"And there he is. Still fighting against that racoon." Akane said as Naruto grew a crystal blade from his hands.

"Come on. We have to go." Naruto said as he led the way while Akane followed him.

In the meantime, Hiragane angrily grabbed Shukaku in his arms and threw him in the air before bringing it down by snatching its tails.

"YES!  FINALLY A WORTHY OPPONENT AFTER ALL THESE YEARS!" Hiragane yelled in excitement before Shukaku got up and launched itself towards Hiragane who caught him by his neck and punched him in his stomach, causing Shukaku to wince in pain.

Hiragane, still holding Shukaku's neck, lifted him in the air and sprayed water from his mouth before spraying large amounts of Fire.

Shukaku screamed in pain as the Fox Boss violently dropped him to the ground before smirking.

"You forgot that I am a freaking Tailed Beast." Shukaku said as he opened his mouth and Hiragane's eyes widened before he suddenly smirked and snapped the racoon's mouth close using his left fist.

"Mmmm?" Shukaku mumbled.

"What do you take me for? A fool who doesn't know anything about the tailed beast? Well, I have knowledge of everything spanning from History to Science, Geography to Politics, Biology to Chemistry. Name it and I know everything." Hiragane said. 

Shukaku gritted his teeth. 

"And one more thing, I also know that if I hit that brat who is on your body, you will lose all your power. Am I correct?" Shukaku gasped. "Now, you may ask why I didn't go towards Gaara in the first place. Well, it's because I wanted to see how strong is the self-proclaimed rival of Kurama. It turns out you are quite weak." 

Shukaku's eyes widened as he tried to escape only for Hiragane to slam him to the ground and was just about to pull Gaara out of the tanuki's body when the latter tried to cover the redhead with sand which then rushed towards Hiragane who quickly jumped away.

Shukaku raised itself from the ground with a smirk. 

The sands started levitating and they all turned into sharp spears before rushing towards Hiragane who was quick enough to use his tails for protection. 

That's when Naruto along with Akane were seen approaching Hiragane.

"Akane. You know what to do?" Naruto asked with a smirk.

Akane turned toward Naruto and started spraying huge quantities of water from her mouth. Naruto just raised his hands and stopped the water from crashing into him before it turned into crystal.

The crystal soon took the shape of a dragon.

"NARUTO! TAKE SOME OF MY WATER AS WELL." Hiragane yelled as he started to spray water from his mouth while Shukaku just rolled his eyes and rushed towards Hiragane, his main target.

As he rushed towards the huge red fox, he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his stomach before being thrown off into the air. Looking down, he saw an orange crystalised dragon. On top of it stood Naruto with a proud look on his face.

"YES! I DID IT!" Naruto shouted in joy as the dragon stopped in its tracks resulting in the giant racoon falling backwards, breaking a lot of trees.

It was not long before he saw the dragon again with Naruto jumping from the dragon with clenched fists. 

That's when he punched Gaara in his face causing him to fall back while the Shukaku screamed in pain before vanishing in a cloud of smoke. Hiragane and Akane also vanished in red and blue clouds of smoke respectively.

Naruto should deal with Gaara himself. Hiragane thought as he disappeared.