Fighting With One's Self

Chapter 24 - A Two-Tailed Battle

With my heart beating at a pace I cannot even keep up with, the travel process to wherever it is we're going seems to take ages. Finally, the smoke disappears and my blindfold is removed. The same is done to Yume-chan. I am surprised that she does not bitch about the surprise travel, but given the circumstances, it is somewhat understandable...

We are standing in a dark tunnel. To be honest, it looks more like a sewer than a tunnel, and the only light seems to be coming from my left. I can hear running water.

"We're going to trap her," Hidan tells me. For once, he's completely serious. "We'll be chasing her until she's trapped in there." he points in the direction of the light source. "She'll think she's won, but that's where you come in. These walls were made hundreds of years ago, so they can sustain quite an amount of power. The two of us will strengthen them more with chakra. They can sustain Deidara's explosions, so they should hold for your battle with this cat."

"What if they don't?" I ask.

"Then we chase her to another enclosure," he says simply, "You have to kill her before she can escape. She can already go into her Tailed Mode, so you have to be prepared."

That's just it, you see, I think to myself, we're not prepared.

"Go as near to that entrance as you can without being seen," Kakuzu tells us, "Hidan and I will prevent her from escaping as much as we can, but it is essential that you finish her off as soon as possible."

"Good luck," Hidan tells us, and both of them disappear. 

Yume-chan and I are both dead quiet as we walk to the edge of the tunnel, and stop where the shadows stop. The only sound it the gentle pit pat of our shoes in the shallow water as we walk, and the gently running water in the massive room in front of us.

"We should link the moment she's trapped," I tell Yume-chan. She only nods.

It doesn't take long before we hear footsteps underneath us, approaching fast. Seconds more and Yugito appears. She stops, turns and faces Hidan and Kakuzu.

While they chatter on, Yume-chan and I form our chakra, push it out from our bodies, form threads and connect. The tattoos on our wrists start glowing slightly, and my mind starts whirling with battle strategies.

We should have set traps, I scold myself.

Images flash before my eyes, but none of them seem appropriate right this minute. I start panicking again. But then I see a few scenes that we can use.

We can each make ten Clones of ourselves, and divide the chakra between each Clone to mask our location, and attack like that.

No. I feel Yume-chan's mind pressing against mine. Her chakra is too strong. She'll identify us in seconds.

Well, her natural element is fire, so if I can just - no, I realise, I have to reserve that power for when she strikes with her fireballs. Come on! I yell at myself, secretly cursing Itachi-san for not allowing us to practice this beforehand.

Hidan talks for several seconds longer than I thought he would, most likely giving us more time to prepare, but none of the images flashing about behind my eyelids are of any help. No one in our family has ever fought a Bijuu, so none of the images passed down through the generations will be of much help to us. We'll have to figure this one out on our own.

When Hidan signals for us to start attacking, I will make a Water Prison. It's supposed to be absolutely inescapable for humans, so it might hold her for a minute or two. I feel Yume-chan agree with this plan.

"You're up!"

With a rush of panic, I form more chakra inside me as fast as I can, form the necessary hand seals and say, "Suiton, Suirou no jutsu!"