The twelve Suna ninjas stared at Fujin. The one standing at the front and who set up the Genjutsu was Susumu, an Elite Jounin. He chuckled and said, "You must have had horrible luck to encounter us. After today, even your bones won't remain!"
The others chuckled as well. Fujin didn't bother arguing against them. After all, he could see the reason why they were so cocky. It was a young boy, standing in the midst of their ranks.
The boy had fair skin, short, spikey and red hair and emerald green eyes with dark rings giving him a distinct look. In addition, there was a gourd on his back, which was too big for his size.
Fujin thought, 'Facing Gaara in a desert full of sand… Indeed, my luck would have been horrible had he been older. However, at this age… Is Rasa out of his mind sending his ten-year-old kid and Suna's only Jinchuriki against me? If I didn't already know the future, I'd be very tempted to kill him right here! And unless he released Shukaku, I doubt he'd have any chance of survival either.'
Unlike Fujin, Gaara didn't waste any time thinking. Sand poured out of his gourd and immediately moved towards Fujin. Fujin was about to flicker when he felt something unusual. He immediately disrupted his chakra and moved out of the way while looking at Susumu.
Susumu grinned and said, "With me here, you should forget about being able to escape. Gaara-sama, attack without restraint. I'll ensure that he can't escape!"
Gaara ignored his words and kept attacking. Fujin dodged while thinking, 'Annoying. He uses Genjutsu right when I am about to use a jutsu. Though I can break it right away, it's dangerous. After all, who knows how I will use the jutsu when under a Genjutsu?
This level of Genjutsu, he must be Sabaku Susumu, one of Rasa's cousins. And probably the strongest Genjutsu user from Suna. But how is he affecting my chakra?'
Susumu was very confident about trapping Fujin. However, his smile disappeared as he noticed that Fujin kept avoiding Gaara's sand every time.
Even though Fujin couldn't use any jutsu, he wasn't very concerned. His normal speed far exceeded the speed of Gaara's sand. Not a single attack came close to hurting him. However, as Fujin was dodging the sand, Manabu finally caught up! Fujin looked back and frowned, 'At this rate, I'll be surrounded by hundreds of ninjas!'
His eyes began glowing as he focused chakra in them. Gaara was becoming impatient. He sent all the sand out of his gourd. It formed into small pebble-sized balls and rained down at Fujin.
Fujin got out of range of the attack with ease once again as he observed, 'I see. This guy is leaking his chakra into the wind. He is using the air I breathe to slowly affect my chakra network and make me fall into a Genjutsu. This shouldn't be enough to make me fall under a Genjutsu, but he probably increases the chakra right when I'm busy refining my chakra to use a jutsu.'
A sparkle appeared in Fujin's eyes as he looked at Susumu. His look towards him had changed. He no longer viewed Susumu as an obstruction and instead viewed him as a delicacy! A shiver passed through Susumu's spine as he wondered, 'Why is he looking at me like this? Don't tell me he swings that way! Still, shouldn't he be concerned about Gaara?'
'Wind Release: Air Bullet jutsu'
Manabu noticed that Fujin was focusing on Gaara and Susumu. He had no intention of getting in Gaara's way. So he maintained distance and fired 15 air bullets at Fujin.
Fujin noticed the attack and dodged once again. However, Gaara was annoyed. Normally, everyone would be terrified of him and his sand. However, not only was Fujin not afraid, he didn't even give Gaara a second glance. It was as if Fujin didn't consider him a threat at all!
Gaara exerted more chakra. Hundreds of sand balls rained at Fujin who nimbly dodged while emitting his own chakra into the air to neutralize Susumu's threat!
Susumu immediately sensed Fujin's chakra and was shocked! However, before he could do anything, Gaara shouted, "Desert Coffin!"
While Fujin was dodging the Sand Shower, Gaara led him towards where his sand was. Fujin was surrounded on all sides. For the second time, Fujin looked into Gaara's eyes.
A frown formed on Gaara's face as he muttered, "Why isn't he afraid of me, Mother?"
In anger, the sand began moving much faster. However, Fujin, who was maintaining eye contact, suddenly disappeared. He reappeared far outside the little trap Gaara had created.
Susumu shouted, "Impossible! How did you use a jutsu?"
He wondered, 'Even if he has seen through my technique, he hasn't broken it yet. So how did he flicker?'
Manabu flickered behind Fujin with a grim expression and attacked Fujin with a kunai. Fujin grabbed his kunai and hit Manabu's kunai and jumped backwards immediately. Manabu did the same as Gaara's sand appeared between the two of them.
Manabu said, "He didn't use a jutsu. That is his raw speed!"
Susumu was shocked. He looked at Fujin again and wondered, 'That's his normal speed? No wonder he has been so successful in his assassinations. We have to kill him here. Otherwise, he will become a huge headache for Suna!'
As they were wondering how to deal with Fujin, Odaka and Eagle arrived and joined Manabu. Yura too arrived but stayed back and began coordinating the ninjas and establishing new perimeters to ensure that Fujin couldn't escape.
However, unlike the level-headed Jounins, one person had no patience. He was incredibly annoyed by how dismissive Fujin was of him. Gaara shouted, "Sand Tsunami!"
Immediately, the sand in the desert began moving. It formed into a wave of Tsunami and headed towards Fujin. However, instead of terror, there was a smile on Fujin's face as he thought, 'Finally, he messed up! I was worried after seeing the puppet master.'
The Suna jounins noticed the Tsunami and had grim expressions. The jutsu covered a wide area. All of them were targeted as well! They immediately moved away! The remaining 10 ninjas from the Ambush squad were standing behind Gaara and hence were safe from the Tsunami. However, they began sweating in fear due to the scale of the attack.
Fujin looked at Susumu and decided, 'I was planning to leave and never return here. But since you decided to keep me here, I might as well have some fun!'
Fujin disrupted his chakra once again and exerted a huge amount of chakra. Susumu noticed the chakra build-up and immediately cursed, "Shit! He will run away!"
Even before he could complete his statement, Fujin disappeared. The Suna ninjas wanted to stop him, but the Sand Tsunami severely restricted their movement. The Suna ninjas who were still rushing towards Fujin stopped and dispersed out of the attack's way.
Odaka expanded his chakra field and tried to sense Fujin. However, he could no longer sense him.
Odaka frowned and said, "He is gone. I can't sense him anymore. It was a mistake to include Gaara in such an important mission. He doesn't have the tactical know-how yet to fight at this level."
The others silently agreed. Eagle said, "Luckily Yura began establishing a new perimeter. We can still catch up with him if he gets stalled."
However, Manabu, Odaka and Susumu didn't share the same opinion. They had all engaged with Fujin. His speed was too fast for anyone under the Elite Jounin level to handle. Excluding them, there were only 2 more Elite Jounins around the city. And neither were stationed in that direction.
Though they were upset that Fujin had gotten away, they had another matter to take care of. The Sand Tsunami was approaching them rapidly. They immediately flickered out of the way.
Gaara, who created this mess, grinned and said, "That's it! Run away from me!"
As soon as he said it, the sand around him moved quickly and formed a sand wall on his left side. Gaara was shocked and turned his head to the left. His eyes widened as he saw 6 holes in the sand wall.
6 Air bullets pierced through the thin layer of sand and grazed Gaara's arms and chest. Gaara's eyes widened in horror as a red line appeared across his chest. His arms also began bleeding. He muttered, "What… is… this? Is this… blood? My…"
Immediately he shouted as loudly as he could, "BLOOD MY BLOOD!!"
The Suna Jounins who were still dodging the sand tsunami were shocked as they felt a thick bloodlust and heard Gaara's screams. Susumu asked in terror, "Gaara is injured? How?"
The others were horrified too. The Sand Tsunami was just a minor inconvenience. If they didn't have to chase after Fujin, this jutsu wouldn't have any effect on them. However, they began sweating in fear at the thought of Gaara losing control.
The ones who had it worst were the 10 Suna ninjas who were behind Gaara. Their legs began shivering in terror. A few fell on the ground. The ones who could stand began running away.
