160 -=Battle of Uzushio - Part 2 Temari vs Blizzard=-

Temari observed Blizzard intently

'She doesn't look experienced... but that could very easily be a trick...

though she doesn't look like someone who would use a trick like that, I shouldn't judge her based on her appearance alone...

people are way more than what they seem...

... if only I knew that before...'

Temari's thoughts turned to the past, when she herself was scared of her younger brother, thinking of him as a monster...

(A/N: This is Au, fits the fic better)

'I'm not making the same mistake again...

not again...'

Temari was quickly brought out of her thoughts by an ice shard being fired in her direction, which she easily dodged

*Deep breath*

'Now is not the time...' She quickly brought her focus back to Blizzard, who was looking at her curiously

'She looks distracted... did I do something wrong?' Like Temari thought, Blizzard was not really experienced in combat, and different from Touka, her attacks were never meant to kill, which was an advantage to her enemy

not that her attacks were not lethal, she had once frozen Tenten and Sasuke entirely, which was enough to kill them, easily at that, but that was never her intention

But that meant nothing to Temari, who didn't know any of that

Blizzard sent a wave of ice shards at Temari, who quickly made hand seals and sent them away using the great breakthrough jutsu

Blizzard looked back, seeing that those shards were heading to the forest, where many animals stood

'I can feel it... their freezing fear...'

One of the most adaptive abilities of [Hel, lord of ice] is sensing

though not quite a heat sense, it could feel anything cold, even killing intent, fear, cold anger, or indifference, all of which could be called cold emotions

(Pardon the bs)

She could feel the fear of the animals in the forest, and albeit that was because of the loud fight and not the shards, she still attributed it to the shards

fear was never a foreign concept to Blizzard, she still remembers well how she froze in fear when faced with death years ago

'But I had Rimuru-sama to help me... they have no one...'

Thinking that she turned her back to Temari and made an ice wall to stop the shards from hurting anything

'That's my chance!' Temari didn't quite understand why Blizzard did that, but she couldn't really mind it, not with so much at stake

she crossed her hands in front of her face, with her palms facing Blizzard

Chakra strings

while Temari didn't delve much into puppetry, she still had Kankuro teach her how to use chakra strings efficiently

something she found needed since no one would have supported her as a kage if she wasn't strong, and strong and versatile pretty much mean the same for the masses

not that they are wrong though, versatility is a pretty big part of strength, but not all of it

anyway, if she didn't learn a trick or two, she was better off letting Baki become the Kazekage like it would have been having she not taken the position herself

But Baki didn't quite have the same ideas as her, he wouldn't have cared if the next jinchurikki of the Ichibi suffered because of it or not... and she found that unacceptable, so she took matters into her own hands

she swiped her hands out, making the strings shoot toward Blizzard

'And it all starts with this... I cannot fail now...

not again...'

Chakra coating

The chakra strings suddenly got coated in wind chakra, making them extremely sharp, and way faster

'I'm sorry little girl...' Temari thought

though she wanted to say that out loud, she wouldn't risk having Blizzard hear her and dodge, she knew better than that

steeling herself, she waited for the girl to be cut into pieces

'for the greater good' like any kage of respect would say

"What a chilly intent..." Blizzard muttered, the last ice shard having just hit the wall

she could have controlled the ice shards themselves... she could... easily at that

maybe even easier than raising that wall...

but she didn't want to leave it to chance that some attack from Temari could go into the forest

the chakra strings approached closer and closer, but when they got just centimeters away from Blizzard...

they froze

(Surprising, I know)

Temari's eyes widened again, this time she wasn't just shocked, she was frozen solid

if those were some normal strings, ninja wires that were commonly used to change shuriken trajectories or set traps, then she could accept this

but they are made of chakra...

how could chakra be frozen?

it makes no sense... was there really no way...

*Sigh*

preparing yourself for an easy fight really makes you susceptible to shock

'At the very least... I hope she is not versed in taijutsu' Temari sincerely hoped

wind jutsus have proven to be useless, now even chakra strings seem to be useless

she could try shurikenjutsu but she honestly didn't see much chance of that working

but she did notice, that her enemy was not really fighting her seriously, probably she was just trying to hold her back, or tire her out

but that didn't change her predicament...

her only option now was taijutsu

while Sunagakure didn't have a Maito Gai, they did have a taijutsu specialist

named Shira, more precisely

He created a technique called 7 heavens breathing style, and albeit Temari didn't learn that, she got quite a bit of taijutsu practice with Shira

She quickly made hand seals and activated another jutsu, hopefully, the last one she would need

Wind cloak

Temari was quickly surrounded by sharp wind currents

quite inspired by the Raikage's famous lightning cloak, Temari created a wind variant, but not quite as good

it surely made her faster and all of her attacks got sharp to incredible degrees, but it didn't give her any form of defense like the lightning variant

but that was not a problem, speed was what she lacked to deal with Blizzard, so this was perfect

"OHHHHH! So cool!" Blizzard exclaimed with stars in her eyes

the chakra covering Temari was slightly green, not bright green like iryoninjutsu and not as wild as Lee's chakra aura thingy when he uses the gates... but it was beautiful to her

Temari ignored what she took as an attempt to either rile her up or make her lower her guard and charged at Blizzard

this time she was significantly faster

Temari started with a punch to Blizzard's face, which she easily dodged by moving her head to the side

"You're almost as fast as Fuu... this is fun!" Blizzard said while smiling, she quickly threw a punch covered in ice against Temari

Temari was not done though, she kicked the punch away, using the remaining momentum of her kick to spin and use her arm as a sword to try to chop Blizzard's legs

it seemed like her wind coat rendered air resistance null for her

Blizzard saw the attack coming and jumped to avoid it, the simplest dodge

Temari's arm that just attacked Blizzard moved in a strange way to reach the ground, giving Temari something solid to grasp

She quickly used that to kick at Blizzard, using her wind coat to make her spin while doing it, for maximum speed and possible damage

'That must have hurt...' Blizzard noted while looking at Temari's arm, which was in quite an awkward position

Blizzard raised her right hand, creating an ice shield on it, which was quickly struck by Temari's improvised spinning kicks

it didn't take long for Temari to break through the shield, but it was enough time for Blizzard to step back, enough to avoid any subsequent kicks

Blizzard jumped above Temari and swung her hands down

A massive amount of blue light appeared on her hands, which Temari immediately knew meant that whatever THAT hit, would freeze

'Looks like a big attack... it seems she really is inexperienced with combat

using this attack will probably leave her tired, or at least momentarily stunned... if I can use that...'

Temari quickly deducted

seeing the opportunity to attack, she quickly gathered all of the remaining wind cloak and condensed in it her hand

the spinning green sphere of winds looked a lot like a Rasengan, just lacking that shine that only pure chakra could give

'I have never tested this before...' Temari noted

seems like this will be the final clash of Temari vs Blizzard

both of them took a few seconds to charge their attacks

Blizzard was the first to attack though

[Hel, lord of ice]

"Absolute Zero!" Blizzard shot her improvised attack

she remembered Rimuru once saying that being able to improvise during a fight was priceless, so she hoped to make him proud

Temari though, was barely able to contain the winds any longer, when she heard Blizzard's voice, she just kind of shoved the attack up and hoped it worked

surely that's not the most efficient way to use her attack, but she was barely able to contain it, and with such a compressed down attack, she hoped the punch it packed was worth it

and she was quickly proven right, her compressed wind ball exploded into a massive tornado, that quickly enveloped Blizzard

though Blizzard's absolute zero did freeze most of it, whatever escaped being frozen threw Blizzard flying

Temari couldn't really know how far up, but she concluded it was easily over 50 meters

She quickly took a mini scroll from her pocket and unsealed some paper bombs, which she stuck to some shurikens

in the air, doesn't matter if Blizzard was fast or not, she simply couldn't move

though Temari did consider that she may be able to create an ice platform, so she acted quickly

She threw the shurikens with paper bombs attached to them in a way they would encircle the airborne Blizzard, the remaining winds helping carry the bombs up, and making them spin, making it hard to see them for anything but shurikens

"WOOOOOOOO!" Blizzard screamed as she was sent upwards

not even a bit worried, since she could easily make ice or snow wings and fly, she just took it in as something fun

but then, she saw many shurikens fly around her

no... not just shurikens... paper bombs as well

while Temari was right that it would be basically impossible to notice the paper bombs... she didn't know about Blizzard's [Eagle eyesight] skill

But even if she knew, she wouldn't mind it

Temari made a seal, igniting all the paper bombs at once, but the still strong winds made their sounds imperceptible, even to Blizzard's bunny ears

*BOOOOOOOM*

All the paper bombs exploded at once, dissipating what was left of the tornado

Temari looked up, exhausted

it had taken quite a lot from her to make that tornado, and to keep it under control for seconds tired her more than fighting for hours would

but even then, she smiled

she couldn't see Blizzard in the air, and she knew that even if somehow Blizzard noticed the bombs, she couldn't know when they would explode because of the noise

it seems like she won...

'One step closer...

I didn't do anything to you when you were alive Gaara... but I'll do it... at least in your death, I'll make things right...'

Temari thought, barely keeping herself standing

"Uwaaaa, that was dangerous... but it was SO FUN!" Temari's eyes widened for the third time in a short time

she mechanically turned her head back, just to see Blizzard standing there, with a big smile on her face, but most importantly

not a single scratch on her...

'And she doesn't seem tired either...' Temari noticed

Blizzard really didn't know when the bombs would explode, but she had a trump card

[Instinct]

The skill made her aware of the imminent danger, so she quickly used

[Teleport]

And teleported away, though, she went a bit too far and it took her a second to catch back up with Temari, thus the delay between the explosion and Blizzard talking to Temari

*Sigh*

Sighing and dropping down, Temari accepted that she lost

"You're fun, let's play again someday" Blizzard said to Temari with a big smile

Temari couldn't help but smile helplessly

She truly tried to do the impossible, eh?

if she was not even able to beat a subordinate, what about Rimuru?

Alas, it seems like she aimed a bit too high this time...

unfortunate, but that is not the end of the world

since this plan failed, she can ask Konoha for help with the seal

as much as it hurts her to even think of asking the village that took her brother's life for help...

but that is a problem for future Temari to deal with, that is, if she survives this

maybe Rimuru will let her go if she pays enough for it?

though, he seems very uninterested in this whole invasion, so he may even let her go without asking anything...

it is a possibility

or he could let them go to spread the word of how fearsome Uzushio is... it would be very effective if a kage could attest that 4 kages got thrashed around like nothing by Uzushio, but if they all died no one would believe it...

I mean, you can't even begin to imagine how many bandits say that they are responsible for the 3rd kazekage's death every day... it's maddening

after all, people like to make weird theories about deaths, she herseld heard some very weird ones about the 3rd kazekage and even about her father

'Why am I even thinking of this?' She suddenly asked herself

"*Sigh* now what?" She asked Blizzard

there is no mistake, she lost, so now she expects to either be held hostage or be taken prisoner

but Blizzard once again surprised her

"Uhm... I guess you can go?

Rimuru-sama told me to not leave the bad guys go, but you're so fun, and if you're fun it means you're my friend, and if you're my friend you cannot be a bad guy, right?" Blizzard reasoned

Temari stood there, stunned, not knowing what to do

it's been a long time since she last saw someone so... pure? no, that's not the word...

she could say naive, but for some reason, she was sure that this was also not the right word...

'Bright...' The word came to her mind

yes, that is it, someone so... bright...

Rimuru looked over, he had forgotten that Blizzard is still a child in her heart

truly

she was too kind, and even though she may seem unapproachable to an enemy, she was quite easy to befriend

you just needed to not have any bad intentions that could be classified as 'cold' towards her, or that her instinct could take as dangerous, and that was pretty much it

the way she talked to Temari did make her seem much more naive than she actually is, but Rimuru knows she is just having fun, so he let it go

<Warning, look up>

'Oh?'

Rimuru looked up, to where Ceres 'pointed' mentally to him

one of the shurikens Temari used was throw straight up and was now falling

with a quick trajectory check, he could easily tell it was going to hit Temari, who was still stunned on the ground

now, he can't have Blizzard's new friend die right in front of her, can he?

Well, he could... but he preferred to let Blizzard see the word with happy eyes for a little longer... at least a little longer

so he raised his hand to stop the shuriken right where it stood

<It seems like this is unnecessary>

'Huh? what do you mean?'

<Just watch and see>

Rimuru ended up just agreeing to Ceres

if anything goes wrong, he still has [Time], and could easily undo some seconds of damage with no consequences

it would only be troublesome if he had to do something to a distant past, anything short like a few seconds was no problem at all

the shuriken fell, picking up speed as it went, but right when it was about to hit Temari, just in time for Blizzard's [Eagke eyesight] to notice the shuriken...

sand rose above Temari and stopped the shuriken

Blizzard looked at it confused, and Temari was at first startled by the shuriken but then

She broke down crying

"Wha-Wha... what do I do? What do I do?" Blizzard didn't know what to do, her new friend was crying and she didn't know why

"N-No... It's fine... I'm fine... I'm not sad...

I'm just happy... so happy..." Temari said while hugging the little gourd with sand she carried to remind her of he brother

'Even in death... he is protecting me...

I can't do less, even if I have to beg those Konoha fools I will make up for what Gaara has suffered!' Temari looked up, steeling her resolve

...

'That was quite... interesting...

was that really Gaara? I thought we had absorbed his soul?' Rimuru asked

<No, as far as I can tell, that was Karura's soul...>

Rimuru immediately understood

Karura was Gaara, Temari, and Kankuro's mother, when she died her soul kept protecting Gaara with the sand that many mistook for Shukaku

And now that Gaara died, it seems that she was protecting another family member...

'So her soul was stuck to the sand...'

<It seems so>

'To defend her family even after death... that's commendable'

<Indeed>

And so, Rimuru stood there, contemplating some things while the other fights happened