Crow's feathers - Naruto fanfiction

Chapter 20 Priorities

Kankuro hardly had any time to use his puppet. He kept dodging the snake sword of his opponent. He gritted his teeth in irritation. This was getting him nowhere. And even though he was hardly wounded, his wounds were all superficial, he didn’t manage to get away from his enemy either.
‘He’s stalling,’  Kankuro thought, ‘they’re trying to separate us on purpose so they can get to Gaara. I have to get away from here.’
“Is that everything you can do?” his opponent taunted, “shall I just make you dance again then?” He swung his sword backwards, but when he was about to throw it, he noticed it was stuck. He looked over his shoulder. His snake sword was pinned to the ground by a large shuriken.
“How about I make  you  dance?” Yamaru said while stepping into view.
“Who are you?” the ninja asked.
“I am the one that will take you down,” Yamaru said.
His opponent laughed. “You think you can defeat Ryou of the snake sword with mere shuriken?”
“Shuriken is not all I have,” Yamaru growled.
“Let’s see what else you’ve got then,” Ryou smirked and freed his sword.

Temari panted as she tried to catch her breath. She had been fighting this Delia for some time now, but it didn’t get her anywhere. Their windattacks blocked eachother out the entire time.
‘If I don’t finish this soon, I have no way of catching up with the others,’ she thought annoyed.  
Delia laughed. “You’ll have to do better than that if you want a chance at defeating me.”
     Temari gritted her teeth. Suddenly Delia was slammed aside by a rock.
“Something like this you mean?” Dante asked.
Delia landed on her feet and sliced the rock with a windattack. She glared at Dante. “It is not polite to attack someone from behind,” she stated.
“Yeah… well, I’m not a polite person,” Dante shrugged. He nodded at Temari and both attacked at the same time.
Delia first broke the rock that came at her an then blocked Temari’s attack in the process. “Not good enough,” she laughed. She sent another attack at Dante, who gained a large cut on his arm. He hissed and grabbed his wound.
“Need some help?” a new voice asked.
Temari looked aside. Shikamaru was leaning against a tree with a girl standing next to him.
“If it isn’t the crybaby,” Temari smirked, “aren’t you a little far from home?”
“Be glad that we are,” Shikamaru said, “because it doesn’t seem like you’re getting anywhere.” 
       “Are you done talking?” Delia asked.
“Oh man,” Shikamaru sighed, “why am I always the one that has to fight the girl?”
“Are you still going on about that?” Temari rolled her eyes.
Delia however was not that amused. “Say what?! You think you’re better than me just because you’re a guy? You’re just a brat.”
Shikamaru sighed. “This is exactly why I don’t want to fight girls,” he muttered.
Delia narrowed her eyes and sent her windattack at him. Shikamaru dodged and landed in a tree not far away. He looked at the damage his attack had caused.
“She won’t be easy,” Temari warned him, “her windattack is not like any other. She can gather the wind around her, forming a tornado around herself, blocking every attack you send in her direction.”
“Then we’ll just have to find a way around it,” Shikamaru said thoughtfully.

“Watch out Akamaru!” Kiba shouted right before the snake sword struck the ground beside him. Akamaru jumped out of the way and almost landed on Kankuro.
“Hey watch out!” Kankuro yelled.
“You watch out!” Kiba retorted.
“Don’t argue you two,” Yamaru said, “work together.” He watched as Choji rolled himself in an enormous ball and headed toward Ryou. “Now!” Yamaru said, “Kankuro use your puppet.” He himself threw a handful of shuriken, but the snake sword hit all of them out of the sky.
       A disturbing noise in his ear distracted him. It couldn’t be Dante, he was out of range. “Taryn-sama?” he asked, “what’s happening?”
Something was interfering with the frequency. All he heard was buzzing. The contact had been broken somehow. It concerned him. “Taryn?” he asked again, “where are you? Taryn?”
“Taryn is here?” Kankuro asked while landing next to him.
“She’s up ahead,” Yamaru answered, “I lost contact with her.”
“Taryn can take care of herself,” Kankuro said, “she’s a good fighter. Don’t worry about her.”
“I know,” Yamaru said.
“In any case,” Kankuro continued, “we need to concentrate on our own fight first.”
“We need a solid plan of attack,” Yamaru said.