Alvarcus VS Kankuro
"That's got to be a tough act to follow. Contestants ready?" Genma asks.
"Yes." Is all I say. It is not the time for words. Now it's the time for action.
"Bring it on imitator!" Kankuro taunts.
"Begin!"
Kankuro pulls out Kasaru. "Now you can see what a real chakra string wielder can do!"
Showtime.
"Kankuro." I conversationally say. "What do you know of monsters?"
I see sweat form on his forehead, no doubt he is thinking of his brother, Gaara. He's scared of him. Good, I plan on capitalizing on that fear.
"In the forest I was infected with something."
I extend a single chakra string from my back straight into the air and let it sway gently as if it was in a breeze.
"It made me into a monster."
I use my only genjutsu, Eyes of the Damned. My vision splits as I create eyes on the chakra string. It looks like a tentacle of eyeballs just shot out of my back. Perfect.
Kankuro's eyes go wide and the chatter that filled the air from the stands stops. It's eerily quiet now, my display silenced everyone.
"A monster so fierce, so terrifying, my family abandoned me."
Another tentacle joins the first. He steps backwards, he's trying to get away from me.
I'm not going to let that happen. I casually stroll towards him, acting as if everything is perfectly normal.
"My friends left me. You saw how Ino reacted when she was in my head."
More, I continuously create them now. I don't limit myself to just my back. They spawn on my shoulders, my arms, my neck.
"And your plan is to insult me?"
The tentacles reach in all directions, and writhe in an inhuman pattern.
Kankuro's back dully thuds into the wall of the stands. He can't retreat anymore.
"To make me mad? To mock me? You mock this monster?"
I have fifty tentacles at this point. I don't think I can make more, so I make the eyes appear on my body. On my limbs, my chest, my face. Anywhere and everywhere I can. To top everything off, I create one that spans the width of my chest with my original piercing yellow eye color.
"Gaara's not the only monster, I'm one too."
I stop a mere ten paces away from him and let the tentacles squirm in crazy untraceable patterns.
"YOU DARE TO INSULT ME?!"
Kankuro looks ready to piss himself in fear. His hands are shaking so badly that Karasu is twitching in response.
I move the tentacles towards him. Slowly, without a care in the world. They close in on him from all sides, he's trapped with nowhere to go.
"Run, puny human. You're in the land of monsters now."
"I surrender! Proctor! Stop him!" Kankuro shrieks out.
"Winner by forfeit! Alvarcus Mar!"
I drop the genjutsu. The eyes fade into nothingness. I announce to the silent crowd, "Genjutsu. It was all genjutsu. None of that was real."
I turn to the terrified Kankuro. "I haven't shown you the real monster yet."
I leave him in the arena and go back to the booth. I'm greeted by silence.
"Alvarcus." Kiba says. "That shit was terrifying."
...
Kurenai turns to Asuma. "I told you his idea had merit. Ha! That kid is brilliant! Re-purposing an utility genjutsu like that! I'm half tempted to ask Kakashi for him. Imagine what else he could come up with!"
Asuma looks pale. "That shit was terrifying."
...
Something good just happened. I can feel it. I wonder what it was?
"The next match is between Shikamaru Nara and Temari of the Desert!" Both of them go down to the arena.
"Bets?" Kiba asks.
"I bet Shikamaru will have Temari caught, and then he surrenders." My foreknowledge makes betting way too easy.
"NO! I am done betting against you!" Kiba rounds on me. "You have the weirdest most unlikely bets, but they always happen! You're two for two! You can't bet anymore!"
Shino speaks up. "I will bet the same thing as Alvarcus."
"You know what?" Kiba huffs in annoyance. "Betting is done. It's not fun anymore."
"Begin!"
Long story incredibly short, I was right. The fight goes exactly like cannon. It takes forever, and Shikamaru surrenders when he has a kunai to Temari's throat. I have to give the guy props though, he really uses his mind well.
"The final fight of the first round! Gaara of the Desert vs Sasuke Uchiha." Gaara appears in the arena in a swirl of sand. Sasuke doesn't show. "If Sasuke Uchiha isn't here in five minutes, he forfeits the match."
Four minutes and fifty five seconds later.
"Five. Four. Three. Two."
"Yo. Sorry, are we late?" Kami dammit Kakashi, what's your excuse this time?
"Yes. You are." The proctor says. "Another second and he would have been disqualified."
"It's okay, he's here now. Go on! Shoo! Go to the big scary proctor." Kakashi shoos Sasuke away.
"Alright. Now that you're both here we can begin. Contestants ready?"
"Yes." Gaara drones.
"Yes." Sasuke states with confidence.
"Begin!"
Instantly Sasuke takes off at crazy speeds towards Gaara. He got super fast over the last month. I'm impressed, I'll have to ask Kakashi to put me through that training, speed is one of my lower attributes.
"I'm faster than your sand." Sasuke taunts, and it's true. Just like the fight with Lee, Gaara's sand can barely keep up.
"Sand Shield." Sand forms a sphere around Gaara, completely encasing him. An imposing chakra starts pouring off the ball of sand. Shukaku. He's transforming into Shukaku.
Sasuke, undeterred by the new barrier between him and his opponent, puts as much distance as possible between themselves. The sound of birds fills the air.
"Chidori!"
Sasuke takes off towards Gaara at his new Chidori enhanced speed. That kid can move. Sasuke shoves his fistful of lightning through the sand shield, piercing it with ease.
"Blood?" Gaara's voice rasps out.
"This is not good." Temari says from my left.
"My blood?"
"Really not good." Kankuro adds.
"My blood! Sasuke Uchiha! You will prove my existence!" Gaara bursts out of his protective sphere, already half transformed into Shukaku. With a mad gleam in his eye, he lunges at Sasuke.
Whoa, where did all these feathers come from? Wow they're really pretty, and they're so soothing. I think I might... just... nap...
~The host will not be ensnared!~
Pain. Why do I feel pain? My arm hurts, like when I use the Jiongu. The feathers from a moment ago are gone. I was caught in the genjutsu? I didn't even notice it until it was too late.
Oh shit, the invasion is starting.
As I clear my head, many lives were lost. The Suna and Sound nin took advantage of the few moments to slit as many throats as possible.
I need to wake everyone up. "KAI!" I send out a pulse of chakra to wake everyone in the contestant booth.
"What the hell is going on!?" Kiba shouts over the sounds of battle.
"Invasion. From Suna and Sound. The Sand Siblings are gone, all three of them. They must have gone to the arena to get Gaara and taken him somewhere." I explain quickly.
"Die, Konoha scum!" A masked Suna shinobi leaps into the booth wielding a bloody katana.
"No."
I send out my fire whips, all ten, to catch him. They wrap around him and burn into his flesh, making the air smell foul.
"You die."
I up the heat and pull on the strings. They burn straight through his body. I turned him into a paste. It's gruesome.
"Al... Alvarcus did you just melt that guy?" Kiba asks with a tinge of fear in his voice.
I turn around to face my friends. They're all staring at me in varying levels of shock and disbelief. I can't blame them for it, it wasn't a clean kill by any means.
"We can't stay here." I start speaking, I don't have the time to waste being bothered by their reactions. Our lives are at stake. "We're being targeted as the most promising Konoha nin of the next generation. We need to move and help out where we can. Remember, we are only gennin. There will be opponents we can't beat. The only shot we have is to work together."
"Well spoken." Kakashi says. Oh thank Kami he's here. He brought Asuma and Kurenai with him. Thank you, I don't have to lead the kids through this mess.
"Kakashi-sensei. Sasuke and Sakura are both not here. I haven't seen Sakura all day. Orders? What do I do?"
"Sasuke went after Gaara. He's following their retreat. I haven't seen Sakura."
"I haven't seen her at all either." Ino adds. "It's weird, she was really happy her teammates made it to the finals. She wouldn't shut up about how much better her team was then mine over this past month. She should be here. Something must have happened to her. You don't think she's d-" Ino's voice cracks. She can't finish her sentence.
"I doubt it." Asuma calms Ino. "The invasion just started, they wouldn't have the time to do it yet. Besides, how important would one fresh, clanless gennin that didn't make it to the finals be?"
"You're right." Ino tires to convince herself. "She's probably sick?" It comes out as a question, as if she's not sure.
"AAAHHHH!" A scream tears through the air. No. It can't be. I know that scream, I haven't heard that voice for so long. It is my kaa-san. My kaa-san is screaming.
"KAA-SAN!"
I bolt out of the booth, straight over the balcony. I vaguely make a note of a Sound team leaping into the contestant booth.
"KAA-SAN! WHERE ARE YOU?"
Where is she? Where is my kaa-san? Who made her scream? Who hurt her!
"NO! Don't kill him! Don't kill Fujita! Not him! Please!" She's begging a Suna shinobi to not cut off my tou-san's head.
On the other side of the stadium.
~Protect what's ours!~
I won't get there in time! I push myself as fast as I can go. I'm not going to make it!
The sun glints off the raised blade of the Suna shinobi. He swings it down. My tou-san's head rolls off his body and falls to the ground.
~No! He has taken from us! Kill him!~
I'm only halfway across the arena. Kaa-san is kneeling over tou-san's corpse, bawling her eyes out. I couldn't save him. I couldn't save my tou-san.
The Suna shinobi raises his blade again.
"NO!" I roar. "KAA-SAN!"
I'm only seconds away. She looks up at the sound of my voice.
With tears in her eyes, I hear her say "We always loved you."
The blade falls.
Her head thuds to the ground.
The world stops. All I can see is my dead parents. My murdered parents. Why are they here? They shouldn't be here. Why?
They came to watch me. They are here because of me. It is my fault.
~No. It is not the host's fault. The one who did this is before you. What will you do?~
I let the Jiongu out. It rips from my chest, reopening my scar.
~Yes. Use me.~
I let it snare the murdering Suna shinobi.
~Yes! Kill him! Let me kill him!~
I see the fear in his eyes, the terror he now feels. The helplessness. Good.
"Get me his heart. Make it painful. Make him suffer. Make him scream!"
~As the host commands!~
The Jiongu digs into his skin, burrowing into his body. He screams. He screams loud enough to wake the dead. He screams so loud all the fights near me stop, they are watching the horror show I'm putting on. Good. Let them watch. Let them know what I will do when you kill my family!
It's not enough. I want all the nin here to know what happens when you take from me. I want them to know what they will face if they cross me. I want them to know that if you steal what's mine, you face the wrath of a monster.
"I said make it painful. I want it messy."
~YES!~
The Jiongu shears off the skin on his chest, displaying his organs. It reaches in, grabs one at random, and crushes it. Blood and bodily fluids fly everywhere. It grabs another. It shreds this one. The shinobi dies. I don't tell the Jiongu to stop. I let it continue desecrating his corpse, I don't care that he is already dead. It rips the next organ to pieces. It destroys every major organ he has in a unique way.
"His heart." I demand. "Give it to me."
~Of course, it is yours now.~
The Jiongu carefully pulls his heart out of his ruined chest and gently, tenderly places it in my hand.
~Wind.~
I remove the rest of my torn shirt, baring my scars and masks to the world.
"Add it to the collection."
The black threads pick the heart up, remove the wind mask from my back and put it inside me. The pain doesn't bother me. Not this time, not when my family is dead. I tear my eyes away from the bodies of my parents and my unborn sibling. I'll never know if I'll have a brother or a sister. I've been robbed of something precious. Something irreplaceable.
Its quiet. Too quiet for a battlefield. I want to know why. Everyone is looking at me in fear. The Suna nin, the Sound nin. Even the Rookie Gennin that are present. The senseis. A select few don't have fear on their face. Kakashi. Gai. Two Suna shinobi. Four Sound shinobi. And one other, a person dressed up in Suna's ANBU gear.
He reaches into his hip pouch, and withdraws a scroll with a black band around it. A body scroll. Why? What's he doing? There is no body to seal near him. He throws it to me.
"Open it." I know that voice. I've heard it before, but I can't place who exactly it is. The mystery Suna ANBU vanishes in a swirl of sand.
"Alvarcus no!" Kakashi commands. He must be done dealing with the Sound team that attacked the booth. I ignore him. I open the body scroll and pump chakra into it to release its contents. A body pops out and falls to the ground with a dull thud.
Sakura. It's Sakura. I'd know that hair anywhere. Her throat is slit. There's a Suna symbol carved into her forehead.
I fall to my knees. "Sakura?" I whisper. "Wake up. Please. Not you too." I know its too late already. "I'm so sorry Sakura. We were supposed to be great. We were supposed to do so many things together. I'm so sorry. We never even got Sasuke to go to team dinners."
"Alvarcus." Kakashi says softly. "Look at me."
I can't. I can't even move. I don't want to move. I don't want to be here. This isn't how the story should go. My parents. Sakura. They're gone forever. I'll never see them again.
"Alvarcus!" Kakashi says strongly.
"What?" I rasp out.
"You need to go to the shelter." Kakashi says gently. I have no idea how he is remaining so composed. He just lost a student.
"No. Sasuke. Where's Sasuke! I need to protect him! I won't lose him! Not him too!" I fly to my feet. I need to find him.
"Alvarcus, no. You've been through enough." Kakashi says softly. "Your parents. Sakura. Just go to the-"
"NO! TELL ME WHERE HE IS OR I WILL FIND HIM MYSELF!" I roar. "I will find him. I will protect him. I will violently deal with anyone who tries to stop me. Even you. I will not abandon him! I won't lose him too!"
Kakashi flies through some hand seals. Pakkun appears in a puff of smoke. "Hey. What do you need?"
"Take him to Sasuke." Kakashi asks. "Look out for him. He's..." Kakashi gingerly touches his Sharingan eye, "fragile." Kakashi turns to me. "Asuma and Kurenai sent some of their gennin to assist Sasuke too. You'll probably catch up to them, Pakkun has more experience tracking than all of you rookie gennin combined."
"Gotcha. Alright kid, let's go." Pakkun takes off out of the arena into the forest. I follow right behind him. "We gotta conserve your stamina if you want to be useful when we get there."
"We don't. My muscles don't tire. I don't even have muscles anymore. The Jiongu replaced them. It doesn't get tired. I can run for days. Literally."
"Useful. You set the pace. I'll stay ahead of you."
I push my speed to its maximum. I'm glad I have the Jiongu right now. If I didn't have it, there is no way I would be able to cover this much distance this quickly.
"I smell a Nara ahead." Pakkun informs me.
"His name is Shikamaru. We're going through. If he needs help, I'll leave a minion."
"Sixty seconds out at current speed."Pakkun warns.
Pakkun and I burst into a small clearing to see Shikamaru taking on three teams of Sound shinobi. He has them all trapped in his shadows.
"Pakkun. New plan: thirty second slaughter. Stay hidden."
He scurries off into the treeline as I charge through the clearing through the sound nin and grab Shikamaru. We need to move.
Halfway through the clearing I will out my lightning, earth and water hearts. As awesome as they are, my chakra strings aren't meant to overwhelm groups of opponents. I need to destroy the enemies as soon as possible.
The earth monster stomps its foot and raises walls of stone around the Sound nin in a pentagon. The water monster leaps over the new container and uses Water Release: Exploding Water Colliding Wave to slam the nin into the ground and fill the oddly shaped bowl with a half meter of water. Then the lightning mask leaps over the walls and fires Lightning Release: False Darkness into the water.
I was wrong on my time. It wasn't a thirty second slaughter. It was a ten second slaughter.
"Thanks for the save. How did you make those- What the hell happened to you!?" Shikamaru exclaims.
Oh, my shirt is gone. Shredded by my use of the Jiongu and discarded in the arena. He can see everything.
"I don't have time to explain. Sasuke needs me." I pull the heart monsters back into me with a squelch.
Shikamaru pales. "Your masks. That's what you needed the masks for."
"Yes." I answer. "Pakkun! Let's go." He comes scampering out of the brush.
"This way." He growls out. Good, he's serious now. Before he seemed too relaxed. We start to move again.
"I'll come too." Shikamaru calls out.
I call out to him over my shoulder. "If you can't keep up, don't step up. You'll just die."
Pakkun and I kick it in high gear. Shikamaru follows us for a few minutes.
"How" wheeze "are you" wheeze "still going?" Shikamaru asks between breaths.
"It has to do with those monsters you saw me use. I don't get tired."
"You've" wheeze "gotta be" wheeze "kidding me." wheeze "I call" wheeze "bullshit."
I ignore him. "Pakkun, how much longer?"
"Five minutes to Sasuke. Two minutes to an Aburame." He tells me.
"Shikamaru. Who is Shino fighting?"
"Kankuro." wheeze "I'll help" wheeze "Shino. You go" wheeze "to Sasuke."
"Agreed. I'll do a hit and run attack on Kankuro when I run past. The rest is up to you and Shino."