The Red Maelstrom

[52] Unfolding

Sasuke blasted through Mud Wall. Dust and debris concealed Kakashi and momentarily blinded his opponent. No one could see through through the aftermath of the destruction save Stiff Ponytail Hyūga, whose brows were furrowed deeply in concentration. Once he gave the signal, Akano began forming a long and complex series of hand seals. Kohana felt an alarming surge of chakra and energy coming from the innermost barrier, rolling like a massive boulder in the ground beneath their feet. She realized with a weak jolt of awe and fear that some of that energy was coming from Akano.

When the dust clouds cleared Sasuke was paralyzed, and with an earth-shaking rumble, four golden chains burst from the ground in an almost terrifying release of chakra. Naruto yelped in surprise and fell back on the grass. Even Kakashi retreated on unsteady legs.

He hesitated for a moment too long; Akano barked out an order as a massive array bloomed from underneath Sasuke's knees. The inner barrier glowed a faint blue, and though it was a weak light, Kohana sensed a great pressure from the other side of that barrier. It was the same wrongness she'd noticed when the great black barrier from the Crush had begun to disintegrate—an abberation like a massive balloon inside a room that was not meant to be a room in the first place. But it was through this sensation that she noticed something else.

If the oppressive chakra coming from Orochimaru's mark had begun to spread like a miasma in his transformed state, it was now contained close to Sasuke's body. Orochimaru's chakra was now much like a cloak of darkness trapped within a great bubble of stillness and light, fighting to maintain its identity and influence. It enveloped Sasuke as if to protect both of them.

When Sasuke did not appear to be in pain, Kohana allowed her attention to shift to the golden chains clinging to her friend's hunched form. They reminded her of Akano's eyes. She wanted to get a closer look; there was something about the power in those chains that—

Kohana's stomach lurched at Sasuke's gravelly scream.

Akano was now standing right in front of Sasuke. Long strips of paper were scattered along the inscriptions that crawled forth from the initial array at the center. Kohana couldn't see the distinctive details of the characters written on the papers on account of the inscriptions on the barrier itself blocking her view. Until all of a sudden, the characters on the barrier began to writhe in tandem with those written in the dirt. Kohana could feel that every stroke had its role to play, such that the entire ritual—from the barrier to the markings and the chains in the ground—revealed itself as a process consisting of thousands of moving pieces. The barrier itself breathed and contained life. The air was buzzing, too. Kohana could almost hear it from within.

"I have never seen such a technique." Stiff Ponytail Hyūga marvelled. Kakashi, who had switched positions with Akano sounded winded as he agreed.

"I don't understand," Sakura began to say. There was an undercurrent of panic in her voice that Kohana herself was beginning to feel but was too afraid to acknowledge. Sasuke was convulsing violently in his chains while Akano launched into another series of hand seals. Naruto grabbed the back of Kohana's jacket. For a second Kohana swore she must have imagined the inner barrier begin to pulsate like a heart. She imagined that the outer barrier twitched and budged in an effort to contain the ritual proper.

"What if Sasuke—" Kohana cut her brother off with a vehement shake of her head. She would not permit anyone to doubt Akano, not after everything he tried to tell her in a wild episode of vulnerability and excitement (and with a tinge of both grief and desperate hope). Not after he'd tried numerous times to show that their trust in him would not be misplaced.

Sasuke screamed again for a horrifying amount of time until it was cut off abruptly, almost as if his throat gave in entirely. Kohana's hand insinctively tightened around Naruto's. Now she was practically crushing someone else's hand.