18: Naruto
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Kakashi stabbed his chidori into one of the mirrors where the Hunter had his back turned, busy with Sasuke. "Keep attacking from outside!" Kakashi yelled out, talking to Sasuke outside. "Naruto and I will focus on inside!" He spoke of the plan while the Hunter turned back and his figure disappeared from the mirror he hit with his Chidori.
Cracks spread throughout the mirror's surface. 'It's sturdy... The bloodline's reputation doesn't seem far fetched.' He thought, having heard of the Ice Release bloodline.
While thinking, Kakashi wasn't idle. His eyes moved at incredible speeds as he kept track of where the Hunter was currently. Blood slowly leaked from his sharingan eye as he strained it. 'I can't hold this much longer...'
"Fuck this!" Naruto cursed loudly, summoning more shadow clones and they instantly spread out, each one aiming for a mirror, but before they could even come close, tens of needles pierced through the mirrors, stabbing all the clones.
With wide eyes, Naruto raised his hands in front of his face, needles stabbed into it.
Kakashi flicked a few away, but some still stabbed into his body. His breath grew heavier. "Naruto." He spoke up. "Get behind me." He said, his sharingan already deduced that the Hunter rarely went behind them since that's where Sasuke was standing.
Naruto absentmindedly stepped behind him, his eyes wide at the pain throbbing through his two arms.
*Ting! Ting!*
Kakashi deflected another barrage of needles, but he grew slower and slower, his fatigue had already started building up. 'I miscalculated...' Kakashi thought, glancing down at the needles stuck in his body, blood dripping to the floor.
"Kakashi..." Naruto spoke from behind him, seeing the pool of blood below them. His trembling arms lifted slightly as he formed the shadow clone seal.
---
"Damnit!" Sasuke swung his sword wildly at the ice mirrors. "Just fucking break!" He yelled out, but suddenly stops and looks down. The wind carried the nauseating smell of blood to his nose while his sight bore witness to the red liquid sliding across the floor in front of him.
"Fuck!" He cursed and went back to swinging his word against the mirror. His eyes scanned through the words in his sights.
[Inventory]
Focusing on it, he roamed through it, in hopes of finding anything that could help him. Suddenly, he snapped to an image of a white jellyfish. 'The thing that woman gave me!'
[Spirit Jellyfish Ashes - Use it to summon spirit jellyfish.]
'Yes!' He celebrated and focused on the image as words appeared next to it, giving him options to [drop], [discard] and [use]. He focused on the use option, expecting a jellyfish to appear next to him, but it doesn't seem to work.
The [use] option slowly dimmed and more words appeared.
[Required: Spirit Calling Bell]
"What?" Sasuke let out, his teeth clenched. His mind traveled, showing him images of his bloodied teammates on the floor. Before he exploded in anger, he dismissed all the words in his sight and ran around the dome of mirrors while forming the seals for a fireball.
As he ran, his vision grew brighter... Everything around him slowed down, but Sasuke paid it no mind, believing it to be adrenaline rushing through his body. 'Let's just hit him in other spots as distractions!' He concluded, stopping and spat a fireball at the back of the reflected Hunter.
Within his slowed sight, Sasuke saw the reflection turn slightly and glanced at him, and he could swear, for but a second, he saw the Hunter's cheek raise... Wrinkle... Smiling...
It clicked. But it clicked too late. The reflection vanished and Sasuke's eyes widened, he pivoted. Running back to where he was. 'No...'
Alas. The mirrors cracked and crumbled, falling to the floor. The sun shone on the ice's surface, causing it to glow.
But Sasuke wasn't focused on that. His eyes locked onto something. Something he didn't want to see.
In the middle of the falling ice, Kakashi laid on the ground. Many needles stuck into his back, while Naruto's could barely be seen below Kakashi... Both of their eyes were closed.
But no longer could Sasuke look as the Hunter appeared in front of him, a needle raised up, ready to strike Sasuke down, but Sasuke saw it all.
'He's slower.' Sasuke thought, blocking the needle with his katana and pushed the Hunter back a step. He brought his hands closer to each other, starting to go through seals as he stared at the Hunter, but he couldn't finish.
The Hunter dashed at him, throwing needles at him while his free hand ran through his own seals.
Deflecting the needles away, Sasuke's eyes widened at the Hunter's hand. 'One hand?!' He thought and jumped back as ice shot out from the ground in front of him, growing outwards towards him.
"Ugh!" He grunted and glanced down, seeing one ice spear pierced through his left leg.
Giving him no time to rest, the Hunter appeared in front of him and thrust a needle into his shoulder before taking out another one and stabbing it into Sasuke's neck.
"Nooooo!" Sakura's cry echoed throughout the air. "Sasuke!" She yelled out, her trembling legs buckling as she fell down, not caring anymore to stand in front of the shocked Tazuna.
"Ugh!" Sasuke's eyes widened. The vivid feeling of something piercing his neck traveled to his brain. He felt the blood leak into his throat with each breath he took while he looked at the masked Hunter in front of him. "Uhhg..." He tried speaking, but the blood made him unable to.
Clenching his jaw, he glanced at the katana in his right hand before glancing at Kakashi who was laying on top of Naruto, their fates unknown. He unsummoned the katana and closed his eyes slowly.
---
"Uhhh..." Naruto pushed with all his might, moving Kakashi off of him just enough for him to crawl out from underneath him. "Kakashi..." He groaned, looking at Kakashi's face. He remembered how Kakashi had jumped on top of him when dozens of needles came from behind them... After that...
He turned his head to the left and his grogginess instantly vanished. "Sasuke..." He muttered, his eyes wide at the sight of Sasuke sat on the floor in front of the Hunter, beaten. Blood had already started pooling below him, his left hand carefully holding the needle that had pierced his neck.
"No..." Naruto saw Sasuke's right hand glow in a golden light before his body slowly broke down, leaving nothing behind. His fingers rans through the sand below him. His breath quickened. "No..."
The whiskers on Naruto's cheeks grew thicker. Wilder. His pupils grew bigger, extending up and down, looking like those of a fox as his iris changed from blue to a deep orange, almost red.
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