A barrage of sand needles. Deflected.
A flurry of shadow clones. Intercepted.
The forest lit up in bursts of chakra, dislodging birds from nests and shaking branches.
Gaara had the upper hand, his sand was faster, more aggressive, and he had more control, acting almost like he anticipated Shisui's movements.
Until he didn't.
Suddenly, Shisui changed rhythms.
His attacks became fragmented, out of sync, wild enough to bypass the predictive sand.
Every dodge became a probe.
Every feint is a recording.
The clone noticed too late.
"He isn't fighting seriously " Gaara thought aloud as sweat piled on his back
And then, one blink.
Shisui was gone again.
Then behind him.
A chakra string snapped in Gaara's perception, a clean palm strike to the back sent sand spiraling as the clone staggered.
And then he waved a hand sign and breathed out heavily.
"Fire style: Great Fireball Jutsu"
Gaara saw t,his or rat,her felt the accumulation of heat and chakra as he hurried pressed both hands on the groun,d and the earth beneath him crumpled into sand.
By thi,s time the fireball was already upon him and his their target.
,However it was a san,d clone and the chakra clone of garra popped up from underground.
Shisui struck again faster than the eye, precise, pressured.
Crack!
The chakra clone tried blocking but was too slow as the blade augmented by flames hit him and that caused a critical strike as he begrudgingly exploded into vapor, a puff of sand falling to the forest floor again
Shisui landed gently, knees bent, fingers twitching with residual chakra.
He didn't flinch.
"A clone," he murmured.
"I expected that."
He turned slowly toward the remaining figure, the one who hadn't moved.
The senjutsu clone.
Its eyes opened slowly.
Golden, ringed with black around his eyes that seemed to move periodically
"You didn't lift a finger," Shisui said softly.
"Even when I came close."
"I had no need."
"Interesting," Shisui replied, walking closer but cautiously.
"You remind me of a talented shinobi I know"
The senjutsu clone said nothing.
Just stared.
"your presence is an act of war." shisui said
Gaara sighed.
"...Then let's stop pretending."
The clone raised his hand, and a swirl of sand peeled away from his form revealing the unmistakable true features of Gaara.
Crimson hair.
Cold turquoise eyes.
Twas he gourd visible at ,his waist and fell the coat off him as it fell to the earth.
Still a clone, but one that carried more weight tha,n the last.
However shisui had no means to know that
Shisui's jaw set.
"Gaara of the desert, said to be exiled from sunagakure and the kazekage bloodline some years ago, rogue ninja and host of the One tailed beast, So… it's really you."
And for the first time, Shisui grew cautious.
The chakra radiating from the clone was dense, not wild like a jinchūriki's, but balanced.
Trained.
Dangerous.
Shisui's Sharingan spun, three tomoe now, swirling calmly to a Patterned Mangekyo
Gaara didn't fright for two reasons, if he's aim wasn't achieved and he died here, it would not be in vain and at worse he'd have wasted a week, and secondly this was a clone, solely a test run, he had scaled his advantages to his disadvantages and benefits and this was not a bad outcome in general.