The clash shook the whole village like earthquakes, every strike a thunderclap that left dust raining from the rooftops.
Isan could barely track what was happening, each motion was too vast and sudden.
Sand burst upward in a tower of claws, tearing a line through the street. Entire houses collapsed beneath the sweep of Shukaku's arm, timber snapping like brittle reeds. The One-Tail roared, its voice a canyon splitting open, and the storm of its body surged outward in all directions.
Rasa rose above the devastation in a shimmer of gold. The Kazekage's hands moved with sharp precision, and the ground answered. Gold dust, glittering in the dark, surged in walls and waves, colliding with Shukaku's sand. Where the two met, brown was drowned in shimmering weight, crushed and dragged downward.
The clash rattled the village, causing the ground to shake.
Every impact sent clouds of dust rolling through the alleys, each crash of gold against sand a boom that made stone walls tremble. Isan, watching from the courtyard, could barely follow.
To his eyes it looked less and less like two fighters, two human beings and more like elements, two forces of nature, colliding.
Shukaku did not relent. Its bulk twisted with a horrifying agility for something so colossal, claws carving trenches through gold ramparts. The beast gathered chakra in its gullet, air coiling with shrieking pressure.
"Wind Release: Drilling Air Bullet!"
The compressed gale tore loose with a scream.
"Gold Sand Shield!"
Gold dust surged to meet the wind, forming a dense dome that blazed as the force smashed against it.
The golden wall buckled and shuddered, the roar of tearing air screaming across the battlefield.
For a breath it seemed the shield would hold, but then the dust crumbled, as the remaining blast split roofs, peeled stone from walls, and hurled entire watchtowers aside as though they were straw huts.
Rasa's eyes narrowed in frustration, raising both hands, golden sand surged fiercely at Shukaku, with some separating and forming spears of crompressed gold that shot toward the colossal beast' chest.
"Gold Sand Spears!"
The beast bellowed, raising a wall of sand to catch them. Spears sank deep, shattering the defense and punching into its 'flesh'.
The impact drove the colossus back a half-step, grit raining down from its shoulders. The sound was not of pain but fury, a laugh so jagged and cruel it scraped the bones of everyone who heard it.
The storm returned with redoubled force. Shukaku swung both arms, and waves of sand the size of streets surged across the battlefield. Entire buildings vanished under the tide.
"Gold Sand Tsunami!"
Gold swept outward, heavier, denser, collapsing Shukaku's flood where they met.
The two tides smashed again and again, the weight of one grinding against the volume of the other, neither yielding.
Everyone in the village was transfixed in the fight between their leader and bijuu, so much that only a few noticed the occasional explosions and jutsus flying towards the bijuu.
Although those attacks by the suna shinobi didn't even manage to reach the bijuu in the first place, as the sand oved like it had a will and blocked those attacks, muffling kunais, shurikens, fūma shuriken and every other kind of throwing weapon, coupled with jutsus of every kind and elements.
Realizing the dire situation it was rapidly turning to, Rasa's chakra surged, his control tightening until every grain of gold moved with ruthless precision.
He pulled, and suddenly Shukaku's arm sank, gold dust had clamped around its wrist, coiling like chains.
Another wave surged over its leg, anchoring the beast in place with crushing weight.
The One-Tail howled, thrashing, pulling half the street into ruin with its struggles.
Rasa's jaw clenched, as he pushed his chakra further.
"Gold Sand Burial!!"
Gold rose in a vast and tall wall behind him, before crashing down like a tidal wave over the bijuu.
The weight slammed the beast into the earth, burying its chest beneath a mountain of shimmering grains.
Silence drowned the village for a brief moment, before that vicious and terrifying roar split the night once more.
The trapped sand exploded outward, shards of stone and wood ripping through the air. The beast clawed away free, chakra blazing across its markings in jagged light.
A second blast of air spun into being, larger this time, monstrous. The breath it drew in made the entire street shudder.
Isan stumbled back, chest seizing under the crushing pressure.
He knew if it hit, nothing within sight would remain standing.
He wasn't the only experiencing this feeling, as many others had their backs completely soaked in sweat.
Rasa's eyes hardened, a cold glint flashing in them.
"Gold Sand Imperial Shield"
His gold swirled faster, the grains drawn together in a cyclone of dense brilliance. The shield he formed was thicker, layered upon itself until it looked less like sand and more like a solid wall of metal.
The blast met the shield in a detonation that cracked the night apart. Light and sound ripped through the village, a thunderclap so immense it flattened roofs and hurled bodies to the ground. The golden wall shuddered, bent, and then held, redirecting the force skyward in a column that split the clouds above.
Rasa immediately followed by slamming his hands down, causing all of the sand to surge at once flooding the colossal beast.
"Gold Sand Grand Burial!!!"
The sheer density collapsed around Shukaku, dragging its body down in a crushing grip.
The beast screamed, sand thrashing, but the gold's weight was relentless.
With a final shudder, the form unraveled.
Golden sand collapsed inward, folding and spiraling until what remained was no monster but a boy, red-haired, half-buried in sand.
The village fell into silence broken only by the harsh breathing of those who had survived. ANBU darted forward, masks impassive, lifting Gaara's small frame with brisk efficiency.
Above the ruined streets, Rasa stood with arms still raised, sweat running down his face, gold sand hanging in the air like the glow of a dying sun.
Isan felt his knees shaking brutally and strength slipping away from his body, the pain of his injuries washed away.
For he knew that this kind of fight would be the normal later in his life, in fact, it would grow even worse.
Just thinking of what would come in the future was enough to make him lose appetite, nevertheless, he would aspire to at least survive.