บท 330: Ch330. Sasuke vs Kidomaru 2
Sasuke kicked towards Kidomaru's face. His foot was naturally blocked as he expected. He fought the six-armed creep for a few minutes now and gained quite the knack for predicting his movements with his Sharingan. Using the forearm with which Kidomaru blocked his kick, Sasuke propelled his body towards the ground, twisting his body mid-air to land on his feet into a crouch before he used the momentum to spring himself back at Kidomaru.
Sasuke would never use this tactic against somebody who fought back. It would have been too dangerous to get to such close proximity even against a jonin who has only two arms, not to mention one who has six and can expertly control them. Unfortunately for Kidomaru, he wasn't intent on fighting back and Sasuke deemed going up and personal safe enough.
Sasuke's fist razed its path through the air, heading towards Kimmaro's chin while Sasuke's Sharingan lazily spun, analyzing every twitch in Kidomaru's muscles in order to come up with the best strategy.
As expected, Kidomaru again lazily blocked Sasuke's punch... and was promptly surprised when Sasuke used the sudden stop in his momentum to flip his lower body higher than his upper body and sent a strong kick at Kidomaru's chest.
As surprised as Kidomaru was, he was still a jonin and had five more arms at the ready. Sasuke didn't get more than a slight widening of his eyes as a reaction before his kick was blocked... again.
Kidomaru gave Sasuke an amused look, knowing the kid's combo ended there because he simply lacked the necessary momentum to continue. What he didn't expect, however, was Sasuke whipping out kunai and throwing it at Kidomaru point-blank while his body was slowly starting to fall towards the ground.
As he casually leaned his head to the left, letting the kunai harmlessly pass by his cheek by an inch, Kidomaru had to admit the kid deserved a bit of praise. He even used his body's descent to cover his action of taking out the kunai, making his opponent notice at the last possible moment! Unfortunately for him, Kidomaru had the best eyes out of the Sound Four, and noticing things was his specialty.
That's why, when he noticed Sasuke's slight smirk, he got confused. At least, until Sasuke in front of him disappeared in a burst of smoke, from which immediately a kunai quickly emerged with a great velocity. Kidomaru was utterly unable to react due to its incredible suddenness and the kunai hit his throat... before uselessly bouncing from his golden armor. Sweat rolled down Kidomaru's forehead as he realized he would have been a goner if he didn't have a thin layer of his armor on his skin.
He didn't get time to ponder about it as not even a split of a second later, he felt the air currents behind him shift, causing him to hurriedly turn around with his arms defensively in front of his face.
The first thing Kidomaru noticed after turning around were two excited red eyes with three tomoes madly spinning in them. The second was Sasuke's foot getting through his hastily raised defense, pushing through all of his arms. And then Sasuke's foot smashed into Kidomaru's face with his entire weight behind it.
Kidomaru's body lifted from the ground as he was head-first sent flying back from the impact before he hit the ground, which shook him out of his shock. He bounced from it, using it to flip himself back onto his feet, holding his bleeding nose with one of his hands, staring at Sasuke in bewilderment.
"Wha wa dat!" Kidomaru exclaimed through his nosebleed. He was naturally not much injured. His face couldn't have a thick enough layer of his armor covering his skin to prevent all the damage but it did mitigate most of it. He was more surprised that Sasuke devised a way to get through his defenses than hurt.
Before Sasuke could even start contemplating if he should answer, Kidomaru got another shock of a lifetime when a kunai smashed into the right side of his neck with such power, he choked and bent his head to the right. Needless to say, this scared him shitless.
A split second later, Kidomaru was already turning around, brandishing his arms in an attempt to hit whoever sneak attacked him. The attacker, however, just jumped back, evading Kidomaru's reckless flailing of his hands.
'Anko?' Sasuke furrowed his eyebrows at the scene, marveling at the masterful use of distraction he provided to sneak in a killing blow. Just a pity Kidomaru's armor stopped the kunai from doing anything more than going skin-deep and drawing a bit of blood while also giving him neck cramps because of how much brutal strength Anko used in that swing. 'She would sooner break his neck than slice it...' Sasuke sweat-dropped, 'As expected from Lady Tsunade's apprentice.' And his lips twitched.
Kidomaru found himself subconsciously shivering. He knew best how close he came to death. 'That could have either broken my neck or slit my throat!' He fearfully gulped, not daring to let Anko leave his sight while reinforcing the armor all over his body. That was not the main problem, however. Kidomaru might not be a chakra sensor but he was the most observant member of the Sound Four and the woman managed to sneak up on him, only letting him notice because the kunai already impacted his throat.
Sasuke was at this point half-forgotten by the six-armed man. The boy posed almost no threat compared to the woman who almost killed him without him even realizing how.
"Heh, so you are the last member of the Sound Team? Well, the crystal user is already defeated and the redhead decided to side with us after some... gentle... persuasion." Anko smiled like sunshine, "In short, you are already fucked, spider-boy."
Kidomaru would obviously not believe an enemy. He mentally contacted his spider summon on the bridge that allowed him to target Tazuna through the heavy mist with pinpoint accuracy... and found out the woman told him the truth!
"Ah... I knew Tayuya was a bitch but to think she is also stupid enough to betray us... Screw this shit, I'm out." Kidomaru wryly whispered before he quickly threw a smoke bomb under himself and started running away. Fighting a woman that managed to incapacitate Guren in one punch? That was way above his pay grade even if the supposed attack was a sneak attack.
Sasuke wanted to pursue the six-armed man but Anko's hand landed on his shoulder, stopping him in his tracks and making him give her a pondering look. He had no idea why Anko didn't pursue the man. She was definitely faster and stronger than him. She could permanently take him out of the picture with ease. When his Sharingan eyes landed on form now that she was so close, they widened, "You are just a clone!" He exclaimed in surprise. Partially at the fact that he didn't notice from the start despite possessing fully matured Sharingan, and partially at how ridiculous it was, for Kidomaru to run from a clone.
"But the six-armed creep didn't know that." Anko snickered. "Deception is ninja's biggest weapon. Remember that, Sasuke-chan." She condescendingly patted his head, making him click his tongue in annoyance.
"You used the sneak attack to paint an illusion of your superiority. Neat." Sasuke nodded in understanding, a bit awed at how easily she screwed with Kidomaru's head.
A shadow clone would pop upon being hit. Even if Anko was an S-rank ninja, her Shadow Clone would be utterly outmatched against a jonin of Kidomaru's caliber. Not because it didn't have the necessary firepower or experience to deal with him but because each hit was fatal for it.
"Well, it's not like retreating was a bad move on his part. He failed the mission but won the battle. It's not a total loss for him." Anko leisurely shrugged, taking Sasuke's hand into hers while starting to heal his busted knuckles.
"What do you mean?" Sasuke asked, not understanding how Kidomaru supposedly won the battle.
"His master must be immensely interested in you since he was afraid to hurt you. If that sorry excuse for a failed experiment was serious, you would be defeated in under a few minutes. With this fight, he measured your combat capabilities so it is not like he is returning with empty hands." Anko explained.
"Heh, then it's probably good I held back." Sasuke proudly said, a bit of arrogance seeping into his tone which was instantly smacked out of him with a prompt swat to the back of his head.
"I know, you did quite well while using only taijutsu." Anko's clone hummed with mirth dancing in her eyes as the young Uchiha glared at her and rubbed the back of his head.
"You want to say you watched the entire fight without helping me!?" Sasuke exclaimed in bewilderment, quite miffed. The whole battle he was waiting for reinforcements, aware he couldn't possibly win against Kidomaru as he was now... and yet, said reinforcements were just watching and enjoying his struggle? How was that fair!?
"Meh, was a good experience for you even if your opponent didn't fight back. And you can't say I didn't interfere. I attacked the second I saw you were out of taijutsu options." Anko's clone rolled her eyes at her butthurt disciple.
"Good lot that did... you barely injured him." Sasuke petulantly muttered, childishly averting his gaze. He knew this was unfair to the clone but he didn't really care for the small details right now.
"Such a bloodthirsty kid. Must run in the family." Anko sighed, mockingly shaking her head, knowing it made Sasuke even more irritated.
Alas, the Uchiha brat long ago had his temper and outward hatred of all things Itachi beaten out of him by Anko. He didn't dare to do anything but grit his teeth when he understood Anko's reference. That said, Sasuke was well aware Anko did not mention it only to tease him but also to make sure he got his emotions under wraps so others wouldn't be able to use them against him.
"Cheh, no fun. I honestly thought you would flip with so much adrenaline still coursing through your blood." Anko pouted when Sasuke stayed relatively calm, making him nervously sweat-drop. "Anyway, Sasuke... you say I let that creep go but... aren't you forgetting something?"
Sasuke furrowed his eyebrows and looked at the clone in confusion, noticing how she playfully smiled while playing with the kunai she used to attack Kidomaru.
Seeing that he is still confused, Anko scoffed and knuckled Sasuke's head in irritation. "Not even knowing your teacher's specialty! Why the heck did I take you under my wing again?" She grumbled, "I am one of the very few poison specialists in Konoha, ya brat. Just because you don't care for the finer things in life doesn't mean you should completely disregard them."
Sasuke's eyes suddenly snapped back at the kunai in Anko's other hand and widened. She might not have managed to get through Kidomaru's armor enough to seriously injure him but the tip of the kunai was slightly bloody.
"Heh," Anko noticed the widening of Sasuke's eyes and smirked, "Yeah, the failed experiment will be glad if he gets to his master in time for his funeral. He has at best twenty-four hours. Tick-tock, hehehe." Anko gleefully cackled.
She wasn't about to tell Sasuke that Kidomaru would have to keep his second stage of the Cursed Seal activated if he wanted to get even those twenty-four hours. Which was basically an impossible feat.
'The spider-boy is fucked, he just doesn't feel it yet.' Anko inwardly snickered. 'I wonder how long will he last until he succumbs to the excruciating pain. He should be starting feeling the start of a dull ache in a few minutes that will only get worse as the time goes on. Ah~... a pity I will never know.' She thought with a bit of disappointment.
'In hindsight, this poison might be a good way to train the brats' pain tolerance. Just gotta administer the antidote before they actually kick the bucket.' Now that cheered her up...
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