Sea of Sand, Difficulty and Quick Exit

_________ POV Narration _________ 

"Get rid of the lake, huh?..." The Jinchuriki of the One-Tailed Beast sighed before seemingly choking on sand.

The sand cloud underneath him immediately started growing bigger and bigger while the Tsuchikage-Onoki and the Third Kazekage flew to the side, not wanting to get caught in what was to come.

A beastly roar came from the skies as the Jinchuriki's figure expanded rapidly, quickly turning into a behemoth of a beast.

Ken tilted his head slightly as he felt the One-Tailed Beast manifest into the world, much less controlled than the Jinchuriki he had previously met. 

The roar sounded completely inhuman, and the Blind Monster couldn't help but find the appearance of the One-Tailed Beast amusing. 

A gigantic racoon with a gigantic spiky tail that felt like it was made completely out of sand. 

Its tail seemed to swing around wildly, even trying to attack its allies, the Two Kage.

Both of them seemed to be expecting something like that to happen, it became rather clear to anyone paying attention that the Jinchuriki of the One-Tailed Beast didn't have much control over it.

Ken assumed that the lack of control didn't have much to do with power and more with the temperament of the Tailed Beast.

After all, it couldn't have been less controllable due to its power. 

"This one seems a bit weaker than the others I've felt..." Ken couldn't help but comment while the shark-like water around him continued shredding up the shinobi that had been caught in his whirlpool. 

Despite it being hardly controlled, it still seemed to single out Ken in the middle of that lake, it's eyes widening slightly before narrowing in anger.

Ken felt confused for a moment, before shaking his head. 'I guess it's not a fan of my existence...'

"An abomination spawned from father's nightmares! My esteemed self shall be the one to get rid of you!" The beast spoke fluently, its speech only slurred by its beastly growls.

Ken just shook his head.

"You aren't the first one to try... But fine, give it your best shot." Ken cracked his neck and slowly crouched down, preparing to lounge at the sand monster.

"Be buried in a sea of sand!" 

In an instant, all of the Tailed Beast's chakra moved, and out of its tail spawned a torrent of sand so large that it seemed to completely stomp out the lake that Ken was crouching on. 

Most of the shinobi on the sidelines seemed to have already started fleeing from the vicinity of the lake, already expecting such a thing to happen. 

Ken wasted no time in growing his wings, they batted once, sending him flying backwards, he crossed the distance from the middle of the lake to its shore in a split second, not even being clipped slightly by the torrent of sand.

The Lake was immediately submerged in sand, but the torrent continued, inundating the surroundings and forcing Ken to fly upwards.

'Despite feeling weaker in chakra, its abilities seem more annoying to deal with than those of the 7-Tailed Beast... I didn't want to waste too much chakra here, but getting rid of these '

Ken lamented as his body transformed, scales growing all over his body as his muscles twitched and grew thicker, his entire build turning sturdy. 

Steam came out of the corners of his mask as he huffed some hot air into the wind, ignoring the sand that was constantly surging towards him.

It enveloped him fully at that moment, forming a gigantic cocoon of sand around him.

Cheers erupted from the surrounding shinobi as they witnessed the monster that had shredded their comrades apart finally losing some ground.

But their cheers turned to silence swiftly, as all of the sand around the Blind Monster was blown away, all seemingly done in a single whip of the tail.

"Tsk, sit still and die!" The giant racoon groaned in frustration as its sand seemed to compress underneath Ken, forming two gigantic compressed hands that grabbed at him from both sides.

But the Blind Assassin was not about to just sit there and allow himself to get caught so easily. Sand was annoying to get out of clothing at the end of the day.

His wings flapped once more, sending him flying upwards with a shockwave large enough to slow the hands down enough for him to slip through the fingers just as they clamped shut. 

Ken's claws retracted a bit as he reached for his back, drawing out his two long blades.

By manipulating his tenketsu, he allowed a strong flow of chakra to bleed into both of them through his palms, activating the reserve of chakra within the blades and imbuing them into a thick aura of lightning.

But it seemed that the tailed beast had expected that. A ball of chakra was already at its mouth, the sand from all around them seemed to be attracted to it like a vortex.

"Die you little worm! Sandy Tailed Beast Bomb!" 

Ken's upward momentum was already far too much to be stopped quickly, but it wasn't as if he hadn't been expecting such a thing to happen.

Without any fear or hesitation, he placed his blades above him in a cross shape, his muscles bulged once more as he swung them with all of his might, twirling in the air as he sent two aura slashes at the ball.

Sparks flew, the clouds parted and thunder bellowed as the cris cross slashes clashed with the Tailed Beast Bomb. 

The mass of chakra was heavier than a mountain and more volatile than any explosive known to man, but this wasn't the first time he had clashed with one. 

Even if the one he had destroyed previously with his sword slash was incomplete, he still had experience and knew how to deal with them. 

Nature energy was the answer of course. 

The wild racoon's eyes widened as it realized just how much Nature Energy those blades were laced with, its body immediately seemed to part ways around the slashes, allowing them to pass through its body.

Ken couldn't help but tilt his head at that.

'It's body... Is it not a fixed form?' The Assassin cut through the air a few more times and sensed the giant racoon part of its body several times, allowing them to pass through.

"Hahaha! Stupid human! You won't be doing-" Just as it started to gloat, it was forced to shut up as Ken immediately turned his body into a bullet and slammed into its back with overwhelming force.

The tailed beast was sent barreling towards the ground, crashing in a gigantic cloud of dust and sending any shinobi that was still nearby flying. 

'So it can only do that for attacks it's aware of... Thankfully it's far from the fastest enemy I've faced, the 7 Tails had it clearly beat in that department.' 

Ken cracked his neck and spread his wings as he lamented the Tailed Beast's strange abilities. 

The Blind Monster then brought both of his blades together, they immediately started morphing into a much thicker blade.

Ken grasped the handle with both of his hands and just as he was about to give it his all and finish off the tailed beast, he was forced to dodge to the side. 

A white cube immediately swallowed up his previous location.

"Tsk! How much longer, Kazekage?!?" Onoki scowled as he flew around Ken hastily, his eyes not leaving Ken at all.

"I'm almost done!" The Kazekage shouted as his hands moved in a blur, looking as if he was about to finish a few hand signs.

Ken certainly noticed that he immediately turned his head towards the Tsuchikage, who flinched.

At that moment, the Blind Monster dashed backwards, twirling in the air as he reached the Kasekage within a second.

The Tsuchikage had seemingly noticed his move already and was preparing an attack to intercept Ken, but he was not going to make it in time.

The Kazekage also tried to muster his own defence. 

A wall of iron sand tried to stop him, but it was no match against the assassin's chakra-covered blade. 

The spiky-haired Kazekage was immediately bisected, his torso flying off while his legs remained on the cloud of sand.

Ken then flapped his wings off to the side, but as the Tsuchikage had already been preparing the attack for a while, the Blind Monster didn't manage to fully dodge it. 

He sacrificed his right wing and arm in order to get away.

"Hah! Finall-"

The Tsuchikage didn't even get to be happy for more than one second. 

He watched on as his opponent's flesh twisted in an inhumane way, and how an arm and a wing seemed to regrow almost instantly.

The absurdity of Ken's regenerative ability stunned him for a moment, which was certainly enough for the Blind Assassin.

He dashed towards Onoki, but he was forced to stop in mid-air with a scowl, swinging his blade down at a gigantic sand nail which was stabbing at him.

Sparks rose as the Assassin's blade clashed with the nail. But they didn't last long, he cut through the blackened sand without much issue. 

"Forgot about me punk?!" The One-Tailed Beast was still alive and kicking, although Ken had used plenty of Nature Energy in his earlier kick, it didn't seem to have taken much damage.

In the first place, tailed beasts were usually annoyingly durable.

He had managed to kill the 7-Tailed Beast when using all of his energy and without being interrupted, and he didn't have the luxury of that in his current fight. 

"You lot are proving more trouble than you're worth..." Ken muttered as he turned his large blade back into his two thin longer ones.

'This tailed beasts... Its attacks are either fast and pointed or slow and abundant, what an annoying racoon.' 

He pointed one down at the One-Tailed Beast, and the other at Onoki, who narrowed his eyes.

"It seems that I won't be able to avoid getting injured while fighting you two..." Ken gripped both of his blades as he realised that he was now likely in the most difficult fight he had ever been in since coming to that world.

And yet, he didn't feel any panic, nor did he feel stressed. He was more than accustomed to the odds being against him. But, just like in his old life, he was going to pull through. 

The Blind Assassin's lips turned upwards underneath his mask, he turned his head towards Onoki.

But then his grip on his blades loosened, his ear trembled slightly and his nostrils scrunched up.

'Really? Right now when I'm getting into it?' 

"It seems that I must cut our time short gentlemen... and beast." Ken then returned the blades in his hands to their usual look, before placing it on the seal on his wrist.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Onoki scowled. His mind was still stuck strategizing ways to completely envelop Ken in an attack.

After all, regeneration just meant Onoki needed to not leave him anything to regenerate. 

"Not much, see ya!" Ken just waved at him, and just as a few more nails of sand flew towards him, a cloud of smoke engulfed him.

Onoki's eyes widened, as he watched the gigantic nails of sand pass through the smoke and blow it away... Revealing nothing.

"Shit! He's escaped..." 

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Hope you liked the chapter!

Yeah, I made the One-Tailed Beast strong too, and gave it a trait essentially, taking after the fact that even in the original Shukaku just seems to be made out of sand entirely.

And since he controls sand, well you can kinda guess that his powers would be quite annoying to deal with. 

And yes, in this fic the number of Tails doesn't actually dictate the power of the Tailed Beast. Tho Kurama is still the strongest

I managed to write while at the office. I've started going there more recently as I seem to be able to focus more on work and on writing while there. Anyhow, Imma go sleep

Discord, again:

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