Naruto : Venom

”Regardless of that it takes time to create a cure, time that I’m sure they don’t have. Not only that I highly doubt I have the needed resources on me to make the cure even if I knew how.”

...

”Are you lying to me Oto shinobi?” Gaara let’s a hint of his fury manifest as killing intent. Next to me Noboru breaks out in a cold sweat.

I’m not even bothered. ”No. I don’t normally work with poisons, I focus on bodily harm. Broken bones, cuts, tears, torn muscles, and in extreme circumstances limb reattachment. Poisons are my weakest area.”

”Then why do you use poisons yourself?” He accuses me.

Shit! My daggers are coated in poisons how did I forget that? Okay okay just keep spewing bullshit and hopefully he’ll buy it. The key to lying is to include some truth in it. Hell I’ve been lying to Orochimaru for months! Lying right now to Gaara should be a piece of cake compared to that.

”These poisons are made by my summons. They posses the cures to them, but can’t really make more for unique poisons. Rather than saying that my poisons are made by my summons, it’s more accurate to say that they’re secreted by my summons. It’s venom not poison. To cure mine you have to be bitten by one of my summons and they inject the antidote in place of their venom.”

”So you cannot.” Gaara grimly asks for confirmation.

”Correct. I am sorry.” The sorrow in my voice isn’t faked.

”Well now that was interesting!” Leiko happily chants from her suspended spot. ”Sooo... what’s your-”

POP

”AAAHHHHHH!” Leiko’s scream tears through the air. ”What the fuck you asshole! I hold the lives of your family in my hands and you rip out my shoulder?”

Gaara dislocated her shoulder. Honestly I’m surprised she got off so lightly.

”This is a mere taste of what will happen to you if they die.” Gaara let’s the sand holding her wrists and ankles crumble away and lowers her to the ground. The one on her neck -her collar- remains. ”Should you not heal them, then I will do the same thing to your neck.”

Leiko’s eyes go wide with fear. She didn’t expect him to be this violent about it. She expected him to roll over and dance to her tune, instead she’s dealing with a barely restrained jinchuriki.

”Are. We. Clear.” Gaara’s voice is scathing.

”Y-yes.” Leiko whispers out.

”Eito-san I surrender.” Gaara says the words that I never thought I would hear.

”Winner by forfeit: Leiko of Kusa!” Eito roars to the crowd. There’s applause, but it isn’t the thunderous roar that she got previously. Even some of the crowd disapproves of Leiko’s tactics.

”Now release my gennin.” Eito demands.

Gaara doesn’t listen. He starts walking over to the gazebo, then pauses. ”Come.”

Leiko hasn’t moved. She’s standing frozen in place with Eito next to her. She’s terrified.

”Come.” Gaara’s voice carries the authority of the gods themselves, yet still Leiko doesn’t move. ”So be it.”

”URK!” Leiko is lifted up into the air by her neck. She’s clawing desperately at her throat trying and failing to get the sand collar off of her. She’s pulled through the air to be next to Gaara’s side.

”Release her!” Eito shouts. ”NOW!”

Gaara ignores him and resumes walking over to the gazebo, no he’s swiftly walking to his silent family.

”I said RELEASE HER!” Eito roars and in a burst of speed lunges at Gaara with his fist drawn back.

SLAM

Eito hits a wall of sand. It sprouted up between the two of them like it has a will of it’s own. Then a clawed fist surges out of the wall and smacks with a dull thud into Eito’s chest, hurling him across the field.

But Eito is a jonin, an attack like that is nothing to him. He lands on his feet like he’s hopped off of a half meter drop instead of landing from being thrown ten meters. Then he brings his hands together, he’s going to use a jutsu. ”I said RELEASE MY GENNIN!”

I look over towards Orochimaru. He’s grinning, no doubt he’s enjoying the power struggle that’s taking place before him. Then his eyes dart to me and I swiftly yet subtly nod towards Gaara. Orochimaru’s eyes shine with madness and he mouths four words to me: ”You have my permission.”

Eito finishes his hand signs for the jutsu. ”Lightning Release: Spear of Thunder!” He rears back like an Olympian throwing a javelin and a spear of pure lightning forms in his hand. Then he hurls it.

”Alright fuck this.” I vanish from my chair, moving at speeds that leave even Lee shocked. I blur past Gaara and stop in the way of Eito’s attack. ”Wind Release: Assent to the Heavens!”

Behind me I can hear several exclamations from the other contestants, they’re all shocked that I can use a second element.

The air itself surges upwards, as if a massive beast is above me and is greedily gulping down giant lungfulls of air. Grass near me is being ripped from the ground, loose dirt and even some small rocks are rising up. Eito’s attack is no different. Once the lightning spear enters the vicious and wild updraft it is dragged skyward and is soon no longer visible.

This is one of two of my own unique wind jutsu. Assent to the Heavens is made to do exactly what it just did, take any airborne projectile and launch it skyward. It works well with kunai and shuriken, senbon it’s less effective on, but against lightning it’s perfect. If Eito threw a kunai this jutsu would only lift it up, causing it to soar over our heads in a parabolic arc before coming back down. But since he attacked with lighting it’s super effective, wind trumps lightning after all, and instead of just giving it an upwards push it hurled it up into the sky never to be seen again.

My other technique is known as The Burden of Atlas, and it does the opposite. Instead of pushing up, it pulls down and forces the projectiles to the ground. Neither of these jutsu are hard to learn, it’s simple wind manipulation. It’s the scale that I used it on that’s impressive, even jonin would be hard pressed to use one of these techniques over such a wide area.

”I do not need assistance.” Gaara bites out to me.

I look over my shoulder at him. ”I agree, but you asked for my help earlier and I couldn’t. But I can do this.” I turn back to the enraged Eito. ”Gaara, go save your family. Then maybe we could all get ice cream after the tournament.”

Gaara’s head whips towards me and for the first time ever there’s surprise on his face. ”Ice cream? You remind me a great deal of someone I’ve met before.”

Shit shit shit! ”Oh? Previous crush perhaps? How about we not do this now? Don’t you have something else you need to do?”

Gaara doesn’t reply, instead he briskly turns and resumes going towards his family.

”Midori! Green! Whoever you are!” Eito rages at me as I stand between him and Leiko. ”Either move out of the way or you’re kicked out of this Tournament!”

”Okay.” I calmly say back to him.

”Glad you can see reason!” Eito sprints forward, intent on passing right next to me.

I stomp the ground and a tall wall of stone forms behind me cutting off his path. ”Oh, did you think I meant okay you can go past?” I taunt him. ”No, I’m going to stop you from stopping Gaara who is only trying to save his family that your gennin poisoned!”

”Then I’ll go through you too!” Eito comes to an abrupt stop right before me and both of his hands are sparking with lightning. ”Lightning Release: Clap of Thunder!”

I raise my arms in a defensive X, I know I can take this blow. I’ve taken much worse before.

BOOM

Blood bursts from both of my ears. What the hell?

~That’s because of his jutsu. It wasn’t an attack, rather it was meant to disorientate or in extreme cases render his opponent unconscious. He brought his two hands together and caused a ’Clap of Thunder’ to happen only a meter away. The sheer volume of the sound was so intense it should have caused those effects. If you didn’t have me here you’d be lying on the floor. Even some of the people in the stands look shaken up.~

But why am I bleeding from my ears? It’s very uncomfortable.

~Because that attack would have ruptured your eardrums if you still had them. You ordered me to use blood as if you actually had it. If you get cut, you bleed. If you get your eardrums popped, you bleed.~

Oh. Well that’s annoying.

Eito sprints forward again, this time he made it past me since I was chatting with the Jiongu. We can’t have that.

A fist of stone bursts out of the wall Eito is sprinting up and attempts to sock him underneath his jaw. Eito contorts out of the way, but by dodging he had to jump off the wall and land back on the ground.

He points at me and viciously shouts something at me, but I can’t hear it. Actually I can’t hear anything.

~You also asked for accurate representation of damage dealt to you. You shouldn’t be able to hear right now.~

”Hold on a moment.” I say. Or shout. I probably shouted it. I hold a hand up to each of my ears and let it rest there for a moment. The Jiongu turns my hearing back on. ”Okay, I can hear again.”

”How are you standing!?”

”I’m just that good?”

”Midori-san, they’re safe now, Leiko has administered the antidotes. There is no need to stall for more time.” Gaara says from a hovering cloud of sand.

”Oh good. No adverse effects?” I immediately disregard Eito and give Gaara my full attention.

”None.” Gaara assures me. ”If there are then I know who to kill. Though it was unneeded, I thank you for your assistance.”

”Of course.” I let my wall crumble to dust and start walking back to the contestant gazebo. ”Simply doing what was right. Oto shinobi may seem like monsters, but we’re not. Usually. Some of the time? Depends on who you ask really. Hell ask the right person and they’ll say I’m a monster!”

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