Chapter 29

"Don't lose." Sasuke said.

"Yeah, I'm gonna be the one to beat you!" Naruto yelled.

"Do your best!" Sakura encouraged.

Karma smiled, "You won't beat me." Then, he jumped into the arena where Gaara was already waiting.

"Please, don't get mad at me... mother. I know I fed you some bad blood before, but now...." Gaara said as soon as Karma arrived. Karma simply smiled and activated his Ketsuryugan in response.

When the match started he used shunpo immediately to close the distance with Gaara, faster than his sand could react to his presence. Due to wanting show off though, he didn't immediately attack, and instead adopted the Gentle Fist stance of the Hyuga directly in front of Gaara. The only difference being that Karma had small, sharp chakra claws sprouting from each of his fingers.

"Father, is that our Gentle First Arts?" Hanabi asked Hiashi in the stands.

"No, we do not create claws on our fingers do we?" Hiashi said, activating the Byakugan to get a better look. Hanabi, Hiashi and other members of the Hyuga Clan watching also activated their own Byakugan.

"Savage Claw Arts: 64 Slashes." Karma said as he attacked Gaara, aiming for his chakra points, though his technique would target different ones than the Hyuga Clan. Even if the sand was given time to react, Karma's attacks were just too fast for it to block any. As Karma counted up the slashes, he stopped for a second and pulled Chimamirekiba from behind his back, crashing it down on the last chakra point with the claws pointed at the final chakra point to complete his technique.

Unlike the Hyuga method of stopping the flow of chakra, Karma's own caused the chakra to surge towards the final chakra point. By hitting it with Chimamirekiba, Karma was able to drain the opponent of chakra and take it as his own.

"Father, that's..." Hanabi started.

"I also thought he would destroy his opponents chakra points with that name, instead he's feeding himself his opponents chakra..." Hiashi said.

"What was it those elders said? He couldn't copy our style? It wasn't like the Nekotsume had a dojutsu?" Hizashi complained. "It was just that rare..."

"No, Hizashi, he's also using Sage Mode, he probably needs both to do it accurately. This is still really troublesome though..." Hiashi corrected his brother.

"Naruto, don't let that sword touch you if you fight him." Sasuke said.

"Eh? Even I know getting hit by a sword is bad!" Naruto exclaimed.

"No, Naruto. It's eating Gaara's chakra. With your stupid amounts of chakra, you're a feast!" Sasuke warned.

"Hmmph. Aren't you the next one to fight him? Now you lost your confidence?" Naruto snorted.

"No, but I think even if he's lazy, that's a dangerous weapon for both of us." Sasuke said. "I'll still beat that lazy loser!"

"Skree! Skree!"

Back in the arena, Karma had to back off from Gaara, since there was sand closing in around him. "Sand Armor, huh? What a shame, Chima said it didn't get a satisfactory meal..." Karma sighed, shaking his head in disappointment. Then, Gaara began to cocoon himself in sand.

Karma wasn't going to give him the opportunity to succeed, with shunpo he once again closed the gap, swinging Chimamirekiba as hard and fast as he could diagonally. Hitting Gaara with the one side that flattened its fangs, he launched him across the arena, small lines blood flying at several points where the fangs managed to break through his defense. Gaara continued to cocoon himself even through the attack, launching sand needles randomly to stop Karma from approaching anymore, he didn't even notice that he bled.

Karma countered using his Ketsuryugan, forming blood needles out of Gaara's own blood, and utilizing shunpo to once again close the gap. Unfortunately, the sand closed just fast enough that Karma was unable to land another solid hit. Karma backed off a little and sighed looking at the cocooned Gaara.

"Really, you're not making this easy for me. I guess it's time I feel pain for the first time then." Karma sighed, positioning Chimamirekiba in front of him so that the scales faced his torso.

"Eh? Sasuke, what do you think he means?" Naruto asked.

"He's probably going to make himself bleed." Sasuke replied.

"EH?! WHY?!" Naruto yelled in confusion.

"Naruto, did you not notice how he blocked the sand needles earlier?" Sakura asked. "He controlled the blood that came from Gaara."

"His eyes, they can control blood." Sasuke agreed. "He's going to break that cocoon by injuring himself."

Back in the arena, Karma controlled Chimamirekiba to extend its scales, thrashing his own chest. 'So this is a mortal wound, huh?' Karma thought. 'It's a terribly annoying feeling...' Mass amounts of blood flowed down his body and he controlled it to form a large rapidly spinning drill, which he launched directly at Gaara.

When the drill came into contact with the cocoon it rapidly drilled into it before gradually slowing to a halt and falling apart into a pool of blood, leaving a hole in the cocoon after penetrating through and hitting Gaara. Karma smiled in satisfaction as he rapidly regenerated his wound through Matatabi's help, though only enough that it was no longer a mortal wound. 'Thanks, Matatabi.' He said to her in his mind. 'Ah... I feel so tired right now...'

Inside the cocoon, 'What is this...? So warm and wet...' Gaara thought. 'Mother...'

"AHHHH! BLOOD! IT'S MY BLOOD!!" Gaara screamed.

'I don't have the energy to handle this.' Karma thought. 'Guess I'll have to stop being lazy after this, since I don't want to have to nearly kill myself fighting someone again.'

From the hole, Shukaku's arm stretched, aiming to grab Karma, but it didn't reach too far and instead returned inside the cocoon. The cocoon broke and Gaara was revealed, bleeding from his chest. With that, Kabuto began to perform his genjutsu, and Yoruichi whispered, "All right, you win, Ka-chan. I'll help the Hokage if anything happens, you go to your friends and get ready." Before vanishing from the arena.

"I know..." Karma sighed. At the same time, the Sand and Sound Villages launched their attack on the Hidden Leaf. Karma jumped back to the spectator area, and said, "All right, Sasuke, Sakura, Ailane, Shikamaru, first, one of you wake up that idiot, Naruto. Ailane, you help protect the audience, Sasuke, Sakura, Shikamaru and Naruto will stop that beast, Gaara. I'm sure he's a part of this. Don't worry about the Hokage, Yoruichi will take care of it. As for me, I'll take a small break to refill my chakra and heal, then I'll come after you."

"Roger!" Everyone agreed, waking up Naruto and explaining the plan to him before setting out to chase the quickly departing Gaara.

In the audience stands, "Kushina, go help Himari protect Karma. Rin, go help him heal. It's what you specialize in, right?" Kakashi told the two girls who broke out the genjutsu, and they quickly moved to do as he ordered.

"Ino, you come help move civilians to safety with me." Shisui said, before moving out with Ino close behind him.

At the arena roof, "Storm Release: Blitz!" Yoruichi slammed a storm element charged kick straight into the unsuspecting Orochimaru. "The prey is back to be hunted!" She smiled as Orochimaru dodged. He turned to glare at Yoruichi, preparing to speak before a large blue laser beam crashed into the roof where he had been standing when Yoruichi kicked him. "Hokage, I will take care of this guy. Though, you'll have to let my nephew make a contract with those monkeys. He doesn't like summoning out ours, since he's friends with them. Maybe he'll summon your monkeys." She joked.

"How did you..." Orochimaru started angrily.

"Are you kidding? I could smell you from the start." Yoruichi smiled as she activated her Shunko: Raijin Sekei. "Now, are you ready to be hunted down?"