Sora was losing, badly.
His Tenrigan kept flickering in and out of clarity, the world kept spinning and stuttering between hyper detailed chakra pathways and darkness. One second he could see each grain of sand, the next his vision was blurry.
Not to mention his chakra reserves were quickly draining even though he wasn't using any chakra.
It was like someone else was using his chakra reserves and overusing their Tenrigan to the point that it affected Sora's.
Every time he disrupted a sand projectile, every time he reinforced his limbs with earth chakra to block one of Baki's wind blades, something siphoned off a fraction of his chakra like a leak he couldn't seal.
Across from him, Gaara continued standing still, the sand floating around him like it was sentient. It changed from being fully defensive into now being hyper aggressive.
He would send multiple spears of sand forward like arrows, shifting angles mid-flight, forcing Sora to twist and duck instead of blocking or disrupting them.
From the flank, Baki pressed the advantage with precise, deliberate strikes. Wind blades skimmed low across the ground, forcing Sora to jump right into a descending wave of sand that hit him mid air and slammed him into the desert floor.
The impact knocked the breath from his lungs.
He rolled just in time to avoid a crushing column of sand that bore into the earth where his head had been.
His Tenrigan flickered sporadically once again, messing with his perception for the moment.
He saw Gaara's chakra surge unnaturally, far darker, he could see the strange second source of chakra deep inside.
Then his vision fractured again.
Another wind blade cut across his shoulder, causing blood to spray out.
Sora staggered back, understanding that something was wrong.
His chakra network felt restricted. Like he had been fighting his entire life with invisible weights on his limbs and never realised it.
Why now? Why only now had he noticed it?
Gaara lifted his hand, the sand behind Sora rising up like a tidal wave.
"Sand Coffin." Gaara whispered hoarsely.
The sand engulfed Sora—
And then—
The entire world was coated gold.
Far beyond the horizon, on the other side of the desert, the night sky erupted into a sea of golden light.
A golden arrow the size of a falling star collided with a dense purplish black sphere with white and gold flames orbiting it. Even at this distance, the clash bent the air. A shockwave rolled outward mere seconds later, flattening dunes and ripping wind across the desert hard enough to stagger all three of them.
The sky flashed white, then gold, then back to black.
The wind hit Sora full force.
And then something inside of him snapped.
He didn't feel any pain, it wasn't violent.
But something was missing.
Like a chain that had been holding him down his entire life had finally broken.
For the first time in his life, his chakra flowed without resistance.
There wasn't a subtle drag, no sly siphoning, no chains holding him down, no ancestor in his mind.
He could feel his chakra overflowing, as if his reserves had just expanded fivefold.
His eyes stopped flickering, they stopped malfunctioning.
Actually, they felt even better than before.
Right now, for the first time ever, Sora could see every single grain of sand individually, each small thread of chakra weaving through every living thing. He could see Baki's wind nature chakra forming before his hands finished shaping it. He could see the monstrous evil chakra coiled inside of Gaara.
And then he understood it.
Whatever had been binding him, whoever had been holding him back…
Had just been killed.
Gaara quickly regained his composure from being distracted and took the opportunity to lunge at Sora, spears of sand erupting forward.
Sora stepped forward, drunk off the newly gained power.
He could feel the chakra in everything, but it was especially strong in the earth. The earth beneath his feet spoke to him. His eyes traced the pattern controlling the sand and overlaid it with his own.
Then he punched forward.
Through the automatic defence.
The sand hesitated for a mere fraction of a second.
That was enough, Sora's right fist connected with Gaara's forehead.
Not hard enough to cave it in, nor hard enough to kill him.
But… At the moment of contact, Sora forced his chakra in through that point, he forced it through Gaara's own network and synchronised their chakras.
Four small black dots appeared on Gaara's forehead in a perfect square.
Four small black dots appeared on the back of Sora's right hand.
Sora's eyes opened wide, he did this on a whim, but it actually worked.
Right now, he and Gaara are connected.
Information flooded him, all of Gaara's chakra pathways, its density and volume.
And something deeper, a second presence.
Right now, Sora was symbolically linked to Gaara and the second presence's chakra reserves.
Sora staggered a half step back as the immense amount of chakra flooded inside of him.
It wasn't quite infinite, but it was the most that he had ever seen from anyone.
And right now, for the next few minutes, it was his.
Understanding of what had just happened formed in his mind instinctively.
This is what his ancestor, or… the person that had been holding him back had told him about.
This was an ability that had seemingly been withheld from him.
Linkstride.
The ability to temporarily symbiotically connect to someone else's chakra reserves and use their chakra for your own purposes.
Gaara screamed, the sand around him spasmed violently as the connection destabilised his internal balance. The beast within's chakra surged, confused by the new synchronisation point.
Baki reacted instantly.
He didn't know what had just happened, but he would worry about that later.
Right now, a wind blade formed at his wrist at maximum output, aimed directly for Sora's throat.
Sora didn't even look at it, his eyes were wide and manic, he wasn't mentally stable, drunk off the nigh infinite amount of chakra that was at his disposal.
And Sora didn't need to look at it.
Right before the blade sliced his head clean off, the sand reached up and intercepted it cleanly.
Sora's dilated eyes blinked slowly, adjusting to the sensation.
He had gotten used to feeling the earth, but this was much more.
It wasn't just the earth anymore, right now, he could also feel the sand.
It wasn't quite the same as what Gaara was doing, that was perfectly autonomous and aggressive.
Sora was copying what Gaara was doing, linking to his chakra network allowed him to completely understand how he could manipulate the sand and it even seemed to give him permission now.
He stepped forward once more, not focused at all.
The sand behind him started to rise.
Baki attacked from three angles.
Sora turned his head to look at him, the sand caught Baki's wrist mid strike.
Twisted and pinned his other arm.
Baki tried to form seals—
But the sand crushed his hands together, breaking the motion.
Sora appeared in front of him in a blur.
"Of all times for me to gain such immense power, it just had to happen right before I was gonna lose! I truly am god's chosen!" Sora practically yelled, his eyes wide and manic, grinning wide.
The sand snapped both of Baki's arms to the side and Sora ducked before delivering a punch overloaded with chakra directly into Baki's sternum.
The sand compressed simultaneously from all sides, the impact was final.
Silence fell as Baki collapsed onto the sandy floor in a bloody mess.
Sora turned to face Gaara.
The red haired boy was literally shaking now.
The black dots on his forehead pulsed faintly as the connection strained against the beast's chaotic chakra.
Sand whipped around him erratically, no longer defensive or aggressive, just unstable, lashing out at nothing and carving trenches in the desert.
"You…" Gaara hissed, clutching his head. "Get out…get out of me…"
Sora watched him with a grin.
He could feel the second presence, one of the tailed beasts raging through the link.
He could feel Gaara's fractured psyche trying to hold it together.
He could feel his state worsening.
He didn't push forward yet.
Gaara's sand formed a partial shell around him, cracks running through it.
The desert trembled under the pressure of leaking tailed beast chakra.
Sora flexed his right hand, staring at the four black dots.
"Hmm… I was told about the nine tailed beasts and how they could be sealed inside of people to grant them immense power." He muttered, looking at Gaara, whose form was shifting erratically. "I was not expecting to meet one so soon… and to think you'd be so young! It's a perfect opportunity to measure just how incredible I truly am!"
…
…
Takeo's world view shifted.
He could see everything.
Every current of chakra in the air was visible, threads of pressure, he could see the shifts in everything, especially the wind.
He could see Bunta's breath change direction whenever the man would move. He could see Rui's weight distribution in the drag of air around his shoulders.
And of course, he could see the thin, scattered, ambient golden energy.
He laughed.
It slipped out before he could hope to stop it.
Across from him, Bunta pulled out the saber at his hip and angled the blade low. Rui rolled his shoulders once.
They had been winning before now.
Takeo had been exhausted, his chakra nearly fully depleted.
Now…
It looked as if he was at the top of his game.
The two elite Jōnin's eyes sharpened as they noticed the golden wind gathering around him in thin crescents, just barely visible constructs of natural energy.
Bunta's eyes narrowed. "What happened to your eyes?" He asked quietly.
Takeo tilted his head, grinning. "Worry about that later, let's keep fighting. I haven't had this much fun in a long time."
The golden nature energy shimmered and condensed into thin, crescent like shaped constructs.
They seemed similar to wind, though they didn't howl like the wind.
They just cut.
Bunta lowered into his stance further.
Takeo laughed once more. "Page One… Flower Reflection."
He stepped off center, body angled deceptively as three barely visible wind constricts formed around Bunta.
Bunta advanced with a clean diagonal slash.
"Page Two, Still Water Mirror."
Takeo matched the rhythm, then the crescent constructs were released.
Three sharp golden lines appeared on the battlefield.
One tore across Bunta's ribs. Another grazed Rui's shoulder. The third split the sand beneath them, sending grit into the air.
Rui grinned through the blood.
Takeo's smile widened.
"Page Three, Mist Draw."
His blade flashed free mid turn. The golden wind energy overlapped his blade, doubling the cut. Rui slipped inside the next release to counter and…
"Page Four, Butterfly's Edge."
Takeo passed him in a closing step, his blade barely sliced across Rui's side while a delayed golden crescent carved deeper a second later.
He hissed as steel rang out.
For the first exchange, Takeo was focused on using the Kagamihana and the nature constructs as one.
But then he stopped calling pages.
The constructs multiplied.
Crescents filled the air in overlapping angles, carving multiple cuts in the floor. Bunta pushed through them, his saber flashing out, deflecting what he could. Rui forced his way inside of Takeo's range, his fists flying forward.
Takeo continued laughing.
It felt like he was sparring with his younger brother again. He felt young again. He felt invincible.
It was at this moment that the remaining masked invaders arrived, only to immediately be shredded by invisible slashes. Limbs separated. Steel shattered and the sand stained red. Takeo barely looked at them before turning back to the main two.
Now it was just the three of them.