Will of Fire: Kakashi Hatake

Chapter 30

"Don't let him escape!"

Akira struggled to her feet and willed her chakra back into the quicksand that surrounded them. "You got it." She snapped.

She could sense where the man was. Akira moved forward into a ready position and held her right hand up in front of her chest with two fingers up. The quicksand around the man's feet started to spin, drawing him downward.

"I'll do my best to keep him trapped, you have to deliver the blow," Akira said.

Kakashi didn't answer. He sprang forward, and Akira recognized the singing sound of metal leaving leather, indicating he had drawn his sword. He danced around the man, and the man swung his arms wildly trying to hit Kakashi. Akira couldn't land another quicksand tendril on him to keep his arms still. She didn't want to risk hitting Kakashi by accident. But no matter how many times he hit him, the man just wouldn't go down. Whatever angle Kakashi came from, the man had a defense.

Except below him. It gave her an idea.

Akira grit her teeth, then released her chakra in her feet to sink through her quicksand, disappearing into the ground.

Okay, I got this, I can do this, she though as she funneled through the ground. Being in control of the quicksand made it easy for her to move. It was even easier than the headhunter jutsu. Akira moved until she was right under the man. Layers of quicksand peeled away above her head and from around her, creating an opening in the ground that was big enough for her to draw her sword and swing it in an arc around her body. Then she waited.

She kept her right hand on the ground above her, sensing for the man. When his chakra had reached her hand, she guided chakra strings to latch around his ankles and start pulling. She could still hear the sounds of the battle between the man and Kakashi. The man was laughing, taunting Kakashi. Akira had no doubt he was using his hardening ability to block Kakashi's blows. But he had left his lower legs unguarded.

When his calves were hanging from the ceiling and completely exposed, Akira took a step back. She swung her sword with all of the strength she could muster into her right arm directly at his lower legs.

Schlurch!

An agonizing scream carried down into Akira's hole as she heard two thunks at her feet. She swung again, but this time met resistance.

The man started thrashing in her quicksand, and Akira had to focus all of her efforts into holding him still. She felt Kakashi retreat to a safe distance away from him. Blood sprayed all over Akira from the wounds she had delivered to his legs. The smell of iron filled her nose.

She growled in her throat. This was going on too long. Whatever his chakra was, the man was able to replenish it very quickly. Must faster than she and Kakashi could. The man wasn't a normal human now.

Akira solidified the ground beneath her and knelt down. She put her right palm on it and funneled chakra downward. The quicksand above her weakened, and the man started pulling himself free, fighting to reach Kakashi.

"Mineral spire!" She shouted.

A dense column of rock shot upward in front of her, plunging through the quicksand and hitting the man. He let out a yell as it hit him in the chest. The column crashed into the ceiling of the cave, carrying the man with it. He let out a yell as his back was crushed into the quicksand, which folded around him immediately and immobilized him.

Akira replaced her sword into its sheath and refilled the hole she had created with quicksand. She raised herself up through it until she was back in the cave and standing upright near Kakashi.