I'm losing this fight. The grim realization made Genji most unhappy. In spite of his captain's courageous rhetoric, the released tailed beast was simply too strong to be taken down by conventional shinobi tactics. It looked as if fire was going to be needed to fight fire.
Worse yet, Genji noticed movement on the horizon. It looked as if the enemy reinforcements were finally on the scene. While he knew he had a good chance of beating the Shukaku if he went all out with the Kyuubi's chakra, he was less certain about his chances against the approaching enemy force. There was no telling what could happen if he really lost control.
The child warrior paused for an infinitesimal second to look back at his village and home. No, he would rely on another asset, something that had yet to fail him. He would defeat the enemy with his ingenuity.
Never thought I would use this, Genji mused. The technique had been a joke, a product of sleepless nights combined with his energetic persona. Always eager to turn weakness into strength, he had decided to channel his Kyuubi related nightmares into an illusion of sorts. In essence, it resembled Orochimaru's death viewing illusion, which he had read about, but with two key differences. Instead of showing the victim's gruesome death, Genji's technique filled their mind with haunting images of the strongest of the tailed beasts. And instead of being applicable at all times, Genji's technique targeted the REM sleep phase of victims, making it only useful on the sleeping or unconscious. But as luck would have it, his target was, in effect, sleepwalking since she wasn't in conscious control of the one-tailed demon.
"Magen: Maboroshi Kitsune no Jutsu!"
Genji could only imagine how it must have looked to the few defenders manning Konoha's walls. One moment, the seemingly unstoppable, gigantic sandy terror was bearing down on the village, and the next, it skidded to an abrupt halt before a midget of a boy and howled into the air as if grievously stricken by some invisible foe.
He grinned like a maniac. His hunch had been right. The Kyuubi was apparently as terrifying to the other tailed beasts as it was to humans. Allies and foes alike watched stupefied as the Shukaku literally went insane, sending waves of coiled blasts of wind flying everywhere. Konoha and its defenders were, thankfully, distant enough to avoid great damage. Genji had to literally Shunshin like the wind to avoid being sliced into pieces. The invaders' reinforcements, however, were completely and utterly decimated.
Destroyed by their weapon. The irony was oh-so-delicious.
The Shukaku all but exhausted its chakra in its assault on the phantom Kyuubi. Genji had only to deliver a ceremonial gesture to bring about its collapse. But what a magnificent gesture it was. The young ANBU swore he heard cheering as the demon's physical form disintegrated.
The David and Goliath comparison could not have been stronger in the eyes of those who witnessed Shukaku's defeat. It must have immediately evoked memories of the Yondaime's heroic battle and sacrifice against the Kyuubi. Except this time, the hero had no assistance from giant summoned beasts or cohorts of fellow Konoha ninja. This time, one lone figure had stood against another mighty tailed beast and prevailed.
In that glorious moment, Genji's name was forever enshrined in Konoha's collective memory. But by that same token, Haruto's own hopes were irrevocably shattered.
"Fucker! You dumb fucker!" The dirtied, bloodied and infuriated Tayuya marched over to the body of the unconscious blonde, the person responsible for the annihilation of her entire strike force. The idiotic Suna princess had destroyed their best chance at victory. But she, the so-called genius of Iwa, should have realized the mistake of relying on an untested jinchuuriki in the first place. It was her fault for not dealing with the issue earlier.
"You damn worthless trash! Die!" Tayuya cried, fully intending to correct her mistake. But a barrier of sand stopped her from carrying through.
"I'll not allow you to harm my sister," Gaara managed to get out. His clothes were blackened and his body and face were covered with third-degree burns. The Iwa nin was impressed with the Suna nin's resilience, but not enough to be swayed from butchering his sibling.
"Get the fuck away from your fool of a sister! I swear I'll gut you alive if you don't. I wanted to request someone else for the job!" Tayuya spat. Yugito definitely wouldn't have screwed up like the worthless Suna kunoichi. "But that snake prick said that your Kazekage was adamant about using you guys!"
Gaara narrowed his eyes. "That is most curious. Orochimaru-sama said the same about you."
Tayuya blinked, pausing briefly to allow her anger to subside. This gave her rational mind the time to dissect the information. "And what else did snake face say?"
Minutes later, it became abundantly clear that the sly leader of Hidden Sound had not been upfront about a great number of things. To Tayuya, all the previous little details, the signs of neglect and the symptoms of operational imprudence added up to one logical conclusion.
"He never intended for this operation to succeed," the redhead whispered, feeling her blood boil with rage. The concept was so ludicrous, so insane that she had not even considered it as a possibility. But the more she thought about it, the more sense it made. Sure, the snake ninja had an axe to grind with his former home, but that didn't make him Iwa and Suna's greatest friend. Everyone knew the alliance was temporary, so why shouldn't he have betrayed them first? "He fucked with us!" Tayuya concluded.
"That is entirely possible. If so, we must escape and contact our leaders," Gaara suggested while gazing at his sister's body.
Tayuya clenched her teeth. Fleeing from battle went against everything she believed in, but she recognized its necessity even if it meant almost certain death for her. Iwagakure appreciated neither cowardice nor failure, and she was rightfully guilty of both. The Iwa kunoichi, however, dismissed the fatalistic thought. Her personal fate was secondary to the information that Orochimaru had played his allies for fools. She didn't know what he was planning, but she knew it couldn't be good for her village or her leader.
A small group of figures suddenly appeared on the horizon. They were Konoha nin and they were approaching rapidly.
Tayuya looked at the two Suna siblings. She really should kill them both. Iwa and Suna were historic enemies, so it wasn't to the former's advantage to have the latter possess the same intelligence. Out of the corner of her eyes, she noticed Gaara eyeing the corpse of his sensei. She didn't need to read minds to know how the other shinobi felt. Ultimately, for reasons that escaped her, the Iwa redhead stayed her hand. Ostensibly, she gave herself the excuse of running out of time.
"Take your sister and go. We'll split up to throw off our pursuers," Tayuya suggested, wiping her bloodied face. It was a good thing that she was a natural redhead; otherwise, her hair would be a mess. The Iwa kunoichi scoffed at the semi-grateful look the Suna nin shot her. "Just keep moving and stop for nothing."