[center][img]http://i.imgur.com/UW5xfz4.png[/img]
[h1][b]S[/b]arutobi [b]I[/b]ra[/h1][/center]


How the Hokage had shut him, and the rest of his team down no longer mattered. Nor did how both of his teammates had pissed him off before they had even left the village. It didn't matter that none of them had heeded his suggestion regarding the travel arrangement. It had not mattered how they got to the lake, or the orders the Third had given once they got there. Not even the nick on his throat from Dio's kunai mattered to him. All Ira could hear was the ringing in his ear, how a shiver ran up his spine and he got goosebumps all over his skin. His naturally pale skin got even paler as he felt the shock waves from the water beginning to rise under the ledge where the four of them stood. Then, there right before him, the eight tailed beast - The Octopus Bull stood before of them, and even the Hokage seemed to have given up immediately. 

The chakra coming from this being was unlike anything he had ever felt before. He had been excited when he had seen his father gone all out, felt intrigued while seeing great warriors go toe to toe with one another. He had felt his heart rise and his mind clear when he fought shinobi from other nations a couple of months ago during a mission, where there was certain risk he wouldn't make it out.

Yet, this [i]Pressence[/i] in front of him made him weak in the knees, his hands shook, his breath got heavy and he felt as if he had an iron ball in his stomach. He wanted to cry. He thought about running away, he could body flicker out of there, leaving all of this behind him, forgetting this entire mission had ever happened and continue with his life.

No. He would never become strong if he did that. Instead, he swallowed the terror he felt gnawing in his throat, clutched his fist that was now coated with the black metal made out of his chakra, and took a step forward, widening his posture as much as he could to put himself between his teammates and the Eight Tails. With a blank look on his face - completely void of emotion, he looked at the eight tails. 

It wasn't how he ever imagined he'd die, and if he was gonna die in battle, he would've rather done it with people he actually liked. Not with the idiot heir and the slave Hyuuga. But at least for once, he wasn't all talk.

That was, till the Hokage told them to step back, and he quietly took a step back, moving as slowly as he could. Still keeping his fist covered in the black metal, in a desperate, yet if it came to it futile effort to counter an attack from the eight tails. Instead, he'd entrust his life in the hands of the woman who brought them here.