Pathway to the Sand Sage

A long pathway covered in sand. Many ninja and animals stand in your way from the beginning to the end. At the end of the pathway stands a tall man with blood red hair (Think gaara but older). If you can defeat him he will unlock the sand element that runs through your blood instantly.

At least 10 total posts with 2 paragraphs per post are needed to complete this. At least 3 of said posts must be you fighting the sage.

{neo walks to the entrance of the path as the path elevates all the way to the mysterious man with red hair,but sees the many random ninja and and wild animals between me and him.Neo sighs then takes out his sword and starts to bounce on his feet getting ready to go trought hell}

Yakate followed the man over the path of sand. According to his info, this spot...
...
This spot was...

Curiosity killed the cat. Not even he could state the fact to himself. He kept following that man, a chuunin from the village hidden in the nightmare, until he reached a platform that elevated over to... somewhere. When he reached the top, Yakate powerfully jumped himself over right behind him, making a crunching sound in the process; he would be found in the next second. And just like he expected... the red-haired man was standing at the end of the pathway. Blocked by a large number of shinobi and animals. This would be hard... especially with another competitor. Or would he be a partner? No one can tell...

Regardless of his alliegance. Yakate dashed forward, into the wall of ninja and animals, and threw a single shuriken behind him, not looking back. Resuming his mad dash torwards the sand sage, he jumped high into the air, right before a rabid wolf tried to tackle him. While in mid-air, he performed several handisgns. As he finished, he mumbled something, still suspended in mid-air, and a huge pillar of burning fire erupted from the ground, torching up all the enemy beings beneath him. "Fire style: Burst Flare..."

He landed gently on his feet, in a wide circle between the stream of enemy ninja. And wild animals. First part of the assault was pretty much successful. He stretched out his arms, and took an offensive stance. But then, an enemy ninja threw 2 kunai at him. Sighing, he... [Neo's turn.]

Name: Fire Style: Burst Flare
Rank: B
Range: Medium range (0-5 m)
Type: Offensive, Ninjutsu, Katon
Description: The user performs several handsigns. Then, focusing onto a certain spot in the ground, the user creates a blazing hot, rough pillar of fire emerge from the ground, going as high as 5 meters, and with a radius of 5 meters.

{neo seeing a new compitieter laughed to himself.Almost saying to himself he really must not who I am.But neo had no intrest in figting or helping the other.If he came here to get there then he can take care himself.Just then neo dashed trought the sand covered area jumping and spining throwing a senbon needles at the necks each.Two ninja and one animal dropped.Neo then split his sword into two,and started to some what jog towards to the sage as an animal came up from neo's blind spot and tried to bite his side,but neo put one sword trought his skull and threw the other one at an approching ninja pinning him to the random tree that happened to be there.Neo then looked back at the other ninja trying to get to the sage.}

"Ninja let me tell you right now I won't help you nor do I want to have to kill you,so I suggest you get out of here.But if you wish to keep following I will put an end to you before I fight the sage"

{neo looks back at the sage just standing there,as neo swings his sword in his left hand which caught an animal that came out a buch trying to get neo.He then takes a very deep breath and starts to dash down the rest of the path.}

"Ninja let me tell you right now I won't help you nor do I want to have to kill you,so I suggest you get out of here.But if you wish to keep following I will put an end to you before I fight the sage"

This took off Yakate's attention long enough for him to neglect his defenses. Luckily, the 2 kunai both went flying beisde him. The ninja facing him weren't that experienced; they had suckish aim. Ignoring the warning from the other ninja, he brought up a hand up to his mouth, contorted into a handisgn. "Fire Style: Firebird Plumes!". The moment he uttered the words, he began blowing into a space between his fingers, letting out a massive, continuous stream of variating fireballs, all going straight torwards the ninja and animals in front of him. This didn't really kill any of his enemies, but weaken them enough for him to easily dispose of them.

... Only a moment after this did he realize that the sheer number of enemies in front of him. Gruesome, cruel, scary-looking beasts. And a number of novice ninja. He concentrated the heat in his body, and into his limbs, and fists. After one fox got close enough to him, he began a massive series of combinated attacks, enhanced by his burning-hot fists. One by one, enemies fell with a single strike, weakened by his previous attack. "Chain Drive...". There was less than half as many enemies as there were originally. Reassuring, it would be, had it not been for the experienced ninja from Nightmare.

He noticed several more animals running torwards him from a distance, and a few more kunai and shuriken flying at him clumsily; he dodged each one with ease. Then... [Neo! =o]

Name: Fire Style: Firebird Plumes
Rank: C
Range: Long range (0-25 m)
Type: Offensive, Ninjutsu, Katon
Description: The user shifts one hand into a handsign, and blows through it. Instantly, fire-balls shaped like water drops shoot out of the user's mouth, as if blowing out bubbles, except with much more force. The fireballs are weak, but numerous, and effective against large numbers of enemies.

Name: Chain Drive
Rank: B
Range: Short range (0-1 m)
Type: Offensive, Ninjutsu, Katon
Description: The user already has a high amount of heat searing throughout his/her body. When the user gets in a cloe enough range, the user engages in a fierce 10-hit combo, ending with a fiery blast to the enemy's forehead.

{neo sighs. and looks at the other ninja fighting his way trought all this.Neo go t both parts of his sword and took all the blood off he then put his swords together and back in it's holder.}

"If you want the fight so bad,and that element so bad take it without regret."

{neo then walks back down the path and leaves}

{neo then walks back down the path and leaves}

...he dodged each one with ease. Then, he noticed that the high chakra presence in the area lessened. There was no longer a trace of light or wind chakra in the area, merely weak, worthless chakra, and that of the Sand Sage. Smiling in relief, Yakate waited, as the other ninja kept throwing mis-aimed kunai. Although one or two -would- meet their mark, he could easily dodge them. Now... he set to thinking what he would do next. A leapard cub came flying torwards him, fangs bared, and he shoved it off with his fist. The speed of a ninja was unparallelled... at least by animals.

His face lit up when he thought of what he could do next. Cartwheeling to the side to dodge yet another shuriken, he performed a number of complex handsigns, and made his body heat level rise at an alamingly fast rate. Abusing the fact that the area was humid with sweat drops from the countless ninja, he fused those drops with the heat emitting from his body, thus creating a large, foggy mist, that covered almost all of the pathway, fuzzing out the view of all the enemies that followed it. "Fire Style: Heat Mist."

Smirking, he took out two kunai, and focused the remaining heat in his body to his feet, with another set of handsigns. "Fire Style: Hot Stepper...". His foot twitched, literally aching to take a mad dash. And that was his purpose; a second later, Yakate dashed through the mist, cutting through anything and everything that he came in contact with. He didn't know what or who was in front of him, all he knew, was that he possibly killed all of the reamining worthless defenders. He was running, cutting, running-but suddenly...!

Name: Fire Style: Heat Mist
Rank: C
Range: Long range (0-20 m)
Type: Defensive, Ninjutsu, Katon
Description: The user performs several handsigns, and heats up his/her body greatly. Then, the user concentrates his palms with that heat, literally boiling the water droplets in the air, making a dense, humid mist cover the field of usage. This mist can be cleared with weak winds and cold temperatures.

Name: Fire Style: Hot Stepper
Rank: C
Range: User preference
Type: Supplementary, Ninjutsu, Katon
Description: The user focuses his/her fire chakra into his/her feet, infusing it with his/her nervous system. This increases blood activity, thus making the user's reflexes and speed 2 times more efficient.

He was running, cutting, running-but suddenly...! A heavy, rough, dusty, and yet siffly earth-like object protruded out from the ground, from right beneath him, sending him toppling into the air, flying in an arc, 5 feet above the battlefield of the pathway. He was spinning like a top, except in mid air. Nausea was getting to him; he couldn't use the precious glimpses of land he had to calculate how many of the enemies he had managed to slaughter. His head was redding up... And then, BOOM, he fell flat onto a wall. Just like how vine-swingers comically slammed into trees. Except this was a solid wall, much more painful.

He fell limply onto the ground, blood trickling down from his lips. He felt like he was going to throw up, right then, but he gulped it away. The mise was slowly clearing, but still, dense as ever. Meters away from him stood a giant fist, made out of... sand? So this was the power of the sand element... complete manipulation of sand. And indeed, the whole floor of the pathway was sand, like a beach. He was on all fours on the ground, when two young dogs starting gnawing on his arm. Whether they intended it playfully or whether it was because of their lack of strength, he couldn't tell. But the biting felt as fragile as anything. Nevertheless, Yakate fended them away by surging heat through his arms, and afterwards decapitating them with 2 shurikens, thrown with his unbit arm, will perfect aim. And he had perfect aim; to the neck. Ironic? Not really...

He heaved himself up on his feet, but stuttered, due to the dizzy feeling he had from his previous experience, a sensation of spinning like a top, in mid-air. He closed in eyes in conentration, and tried to focus his mind to be calm, normal. However, at that moment, an enemy shuriken gashed open a cut over his left shoulder. That was the stimulant; he lost his nausea completely. The would wasn't a kind of cripplingly painful one, but still enough to crack a nerve. He showed off a number of handsigns fast and furious, and jumped forward to where he guessed that particular enemy ninja to be, and slammed his fists down at the ground, "Fire Style: Heavenly Drive!"

A huge spire of scorching fire thrust out of the ground, burning up everything in front of it, everything engulfed by the flames, to be completely incinerated. 3 seconds later, a pile of ashed lay in front of him. Payback for defacing a beautiful shoulder.

Name: Fire Style: Heavenly drive (1)
Rank: B
Range: Short range (0-3 m)
Type: Offensive, Ninjutsu, Katon
Description: The user performs several handsigns. Then, the user thrusts his/her arms at the ground with full force. Instantly, a curved spire of bright red flames burst out of the ground, scorching anything in it's range of 3 meters. It lasts as long as the user's chakra allows him/her to maintain his/her arms on the ground.

Yakate shook his head, and turned forward to see how far he was from the Sand Sage. But then he noticed that the Sage was... exactly 2 meters away from him! He turned back to see the mist had cleared out; only a few scattered animals and ninja were remaining, all scared out of their wits. He looked forward again, expecting to see the Sage standing stock still, as ever. But he was greeted with a jab of hard, sand; it felt like a blunt sword stabbing into his chest. He was pushed back, and saw all the sand lying around the Sage's figure. It was more dense than the sand that he had been fighting on for the past few minutes. Now what...?

Just for something to do while thinking instead of standing hopelessly still, he took out 3 more shuriken and randomly threw them backwards. One pleasing whelp reassured him somewhat. How to approach someone he never fought before, the Sage of Sand? He made the sand around him erect as if it were some carnivorous plant, ready to swallow him whole when he approached. Just to test his fantasized theory, he took out one shuriken from his pouch, and threw it with average force, at the red-haired shinobi.

...and threw it with average force, at the red-haired shinobi.

... The moment the shuriken came close to the man, the sand around him rose to block the shuriken, negating it's speed, and making it drop dead on the ground. Not literally dead... but yeah. How could he cross his defenses? Force? Speed? Elemental prowess? First option goes first.

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, going slightly red in the face. He put his arms vertically apart from eachother, up and down, above his head, below his torso. Then, focusing a flash of fire chakra into them, he began a rapid, spinning motion with his arms, creating the illusion of carrying a moon with him. He danced his way forward to the Sage's sand, hoping that he would break through the sandy defense. His arms met something solid, and then he started the true combo of a hundred vertical smashing motions with his arms...

Name: Fire Style: Red moon Crescendo
Rank: A
Range: Short range (0-1 m)
Type: Offensive, Taijutus, Katon
Description: The user places his/her arms opposite eachother, one above and below. Then, the user snaps his/her fingers, making the user's hand ignite. Then, the user engages in a serenely beautiful yet terrifying dance, contantly moving his/her arms upwards and downwards in a circular motion, making it look as if the user is carrying a red bordered moon. The user keeps moving forward, slowly, until he'she makes contact with the enemy,when the user keeps spinning his/her arms around, dealing scorching fire on the enemy.

...he started the true combo of a hundred vertical smashing motions with his arms... But to his uttermost disappointment and surprise, the blows had absolutely no effect on the man; his sand defense blocked his attack effortlessly. He felt a blow blow to his jaw, as the sand rose upwards to knock him away, and he landed a few meters away from the man. What now? His other alternatives were speed and elemental prowess... and he didn't even know what the second meant.

Then he realized that he had been using far too many jutsus, quicker than he originally planned. His chakra was only half as much as it was during the start of his quest. However, this was more than enough to survive an all-out battle for more than 30 minutes... hopefully. He got another idea; indirect attacks might be able to hit, since the sand defense only blocked things that were moving torwards him. And he had the perfect jutsu to test this new theory.

He began performing several handsigns, focusing the fire chakra within him to it's peak. THen, he focused on the ground directly beneath the Sand Sage, squinting his eyes while doing so. "Fire Style: Burst Flare!" The moment he screamed out those words, a massive pillar of fire rose from under the man's body, completely enrapturing him in blazing flames. He disappeared from view. The fire from the jutsu made particles of sand blast into the air, floating around serenely. Was it over...? He let go of his chakra, making the fire stop as well. The spot was covered with dusty sand, hiding the man (?) in a cloud... then...

Name: Fire Style: Burst Flare
Rank: B
Range: Medium range (0-5 m)
Type: Offensive, Ninjutsu, Katon
Description: The user performs several handsigns. Then, focusing onto a certain spot in the ground, the user creates a balzing hot, rough pillar of fire emerge from the ground, going as high as 5 meters, and with a radius of 5 meters.

...hiding the man (?) in a cloud... then...

... The cloud slowly began to disintegrate, slowly clearing out. Yakate was gasping in deep breaths; the jutsu made him tire out greatly. He was still good enough for a fight. If the man would fight... all he's been doing is using indirect attacks and defending himself. effecticely preserving chakra while tiring out his opponent... Was this his strategy?

WIth thoughts spinning through his mind, he wiped his forehead with a hand, and stared at the clouded spot...?

For the past few seconds, he thought that the rather dense sand was a cloud of dust. Now he realized... that the man had made a shield out of the sand around him. It was stainless; the burn didn't affect it at all. The foggy cloud was craeted just because of the sand that went disarray after the impact of fire. Squinting out, he saw the man glaring at him with one deadly, cold eye. The shield of sand fell shortly after he made eye contact. Hmm...

Force failed, indirect attacks failed, now... speed? Would his speed be great enough to surpass the Sand Sage's reactions? This was his last theory; elemental advantages were useless, as he observed after his fire had no effect on his sand. He began jogging in one spot, one leg raiding up after the other, and focused his fire chakra into his feet, yet again. "Fire Style: Hot Stepper"...

Name: Fire Style: Hot Stepper
Rank: C
Range: User preference
Type: Supplementary, Ninjutsu, Katon
Description: The user focuses his/her fire chakra into his/her feet, infusing it with his/her nervous system. This increases blood activity, thus making the user's reflexes and speed 2 times more efficient.

He felt the adrenaline surge through him, as his fire chakra passed over his feet. This was part one of his plan to breach the man's defenses... Next, the clone technique. If his predictions were right, all his clones would be two times as fast as himself. And if the next stage worked well... well, depending on the man's defenses, he would either get burnt alive, or at least have his shield broken up.

He started making the necessary chakra movements to perform the fire clone jutsu, his custom designed and mastered variation of the standard clone jutsu. "Fire Style: Fire Clones..."
About 25 clones of himself poofed out of nowhere, completely identical, all enhanced with the same speed and reflex boost that he had. All of the were standing around the man in a semi-circle formation, standing still. This would be stage two of his attack; stage three was where he actually did something harmful. His breath came in jerky bursts now, he was losing stamina, fast. He had to end this quickly, before he collapsed out of fatigue...

Name: Fire Style: Fire clones
Rank: C
Range: Long range (User-preferenced)
Type: Supplementary, Ninjutsu, Katon
Description: Just like a normal clone jutsu, a fire clone jutsu contains fire within the clone of the user. Something special about a fire clone, is the fact that they are similar to suicide bombers. They explode into flames at the slightest touch, though the flames aren't that harmful.

Yakate looked around at both sides; his clones were standing there like puppets, waiting for his command, to be controlled lifelessly. At least they looked good...

Now, he had 25 identical looking clones. 24 of them were like miniature suicide bombers. And all of them were amazingly fast. All of them could perform a certain set of jutsus, however, only 1 person's jutsu would actually work, 24 were just fake clones, giving the illusion of an actual jutsu. His enemy was a master of sand, who could manipluate sand in any way imaginable. Also, he had this auto-guard feature, like in annoying last bosses from arcades.

The whole pathway, was covered in sand. Behind him laid the bodies of many, many dead ninja and animals. Only a few random hostile enemies remained, and they were too weak to do any potential harm. Maybe he would use them as test subjects for his new powers... When he would get it. The ground was scattered by drops of blood, which looked intimidating in itself. It was easy to walk around, run, sprint, over the sandy path. Also, a gentle, soothing breeze passed through the area. He only just noticed since he was standing still for a moment, just to analyze his surroundings.

At a more technical approach, the Sage of Sand was a master of defense and indirect combat. Nothing, or at least nothing normal or expectable, could cross through his defenses. And the sand had better reflexes than most ninja, faster reactions than you could think of. Enough meaningless thinking, time for his final attack, the one fell swoop that would (hopefully) end this battle...

"Time to finish this!"

He got ito a position like a marathon runnder, all of his clones doing the same. His feet both behind him, him bending forward, looking something like a rocket. A second later... poof... all smoke.

In reality, all the clones and himself were zooming around the man, keeping just out of the reach of his sand. A blur of blackish gold surrounded him, when they began spinning in a circle. An average person would have puked by now; training was the only thing that kept his head straight and balanced. As he kept spinning, the man seemed to stand still, but his eyeballs were whizzing around. Yakate thought he saw a glimpse of fear in his eyes as he kept running around. Phase three starts and ends here. And then he began fantasizing again; he felt like an army commander, attacking his opponent in phases.

He kept dashing around, and waited for the man to show at least one sign of discomfort. And then came a golden opportunity; the man attempted to jab at one clone with a sand tendril. The clone, and the clones behind it, dodged with a simple hurdling jump. And the rest of the clones, behind the man, simply ran into him. The first two simply exploded into fire after coming into contact with a wall of sand. Then, two more attepted to tackle him fron another side. Once again blocked. They kept doing this in sequence, until one clone actually made it through...

...until one clone actually made it through...

... All of this happened in a matter of seconds. That one clone crashed into the man, exploding into fire, temporarily blinding the man. There were only five clones left, excluding the original Yakate, which made six people. Combo assault.

Immediately, all five clones tackled the man, making a huge cloud of faint fire engluf the man. In the short time it took for the clones to reach the man, Yakate surged fire chakra through his body, and took advantage of that one chance he had to attack the man... "Chain Drive!"...

And with that, the battle was over... or was it? The man was send flying torwards the wall, and he crashed into it lifelessly. Limp, motionless. He finally broke through his defense. Or so he thought. Did he have yet another way to defend himself against even phsyical attacks? All he could do now is wait... Besides, that attack wasn't enough to kill a completely unharmed shinobi, only harm him greatly, and possibly stun him, render him unconscious... and, his hidden sand element would have to be revealed by that man. His task wasn't to kill the man, it was to defeat him in battle. And isn't that what he had just done? Render him incapable of battle?

Name: Chain Drive
Rank: B
Range: Short range (0-1 m)
Type: Offensive, Ninjutsu, Katon
Description: The user already has a high amount of heat searing throughout his/her body. When the user gets in a cloe enough range, the user engages in a fierce 10-hit combo, ending with a fiery blast to the enemy's forehead.

... To confirm his suspicions, he threw a shuriken at the man's body. The shuriken whieled in mid-air, the silence of the spot seemed to increase his hearing abilities. He heard a a pleasing clank, that mean he made contact. But a clank? Why would a human body making contact with a shuriken go... clank? He stepped a little forward to see the body... and then his heart skipped a beat.

The man's body was cracked, and melting into sand... the shuriken that hit got stuck to his cheek, and shortyl afterwards his cheek melted into sand as well. What was this man...

Eventually, his whole body melted into the sand beneath him, ad looked as plain as ever. His shuriken lay on the sand, having no target to stick against to. Sweat formed against on his forehead, he began fidgeting. Fear was settling upon him; and he kept thinking ghastly things. Did the man just... disintegrate into sand? Or was that another part of his infathomable defense?...

He walked up to the spot and picked up the shuriken... it looked as normal as ever. Only maybe a bit dusty. Other than that, a completely casual shuriken. So this wasn't related to what had just happened. Now, either the man was gone for good, or he would show up behind him in a few moments...
...

Just to make the wait worth it, he began throwing the rest of his shurikens at the remianing animals and ninja. What were they waiting for? They had all the timein the world to flee for their lives. One by one, they all fell, until he had one shuriken remaining.

He walked up to the point where the man was originally standing, and sat there. Nothing to do unless the man showed up. Then he heard a voice behind him...

"Are you sure you wish to bear the burden of tainted blood? Break out of the hindrance, the fact that your accursed abilities have been sealed? Do you wish for me to reveal you long-dormant abilities? Because you have proved your worth to me, you are worthy of carrying on the legacy of sand."

... "Yes"