Samsara: Birth

A/N: The next chapter's up, this is more combat focused other than the previous chapter. Anyway, as usual, thanks for your love and support and help in making this story into a better one. I really apologize if this scene bores you out, a warning has been written in the disclaimer.

"So it has come to this…"

"Fucking yeah…"

"…"

A triple standoff featuring three different people with three different occupations is happening currently. A monk, a miko and a priest. One neutral and the other two are hostile. But this is a very unpredictable battle. An enemy could be your ally and an ally could be an enemy. Our monk's masked eyes are scanning the area for any suitable approach. His main objective is not to let this fight escalates, but it looks like he has failed in doing so.

His weapon, Vajra, is held in his hand. Lowering it to express neutrality, the monk's gaze is fixed to the two people that are within his field of view. He needs to play it smart here. While confident in his skill, these people are strong. The last few minutes they've spent are mostly with the miko and priest gouging at each other's throat with him doing a subtle act as support and possible supervision.

In short, he's currently trying to stop the two from killing each other. Seeing that no one acted, he chose this moment to speak. "Please. Stay your weapon; we can talk this one out like civilized people."

"Talk this one out? Ha! Don't make me laugh you mountain hugger! I'm a priest of Jashin, the God of curse and rituals, my pride won't allow any of you to get me." The priest's sinister grin grew even more disturbing. "No matter what you do, you won't kill me.- no, you CAN'T kill me." The statement caused the blonde haired monk to express his confusion.

The shrine maiden took this chance to speak. "A follower of Jashin is gifted by the gift of immortality." Naruto's eyes grew wide. The miko continued, speaking with a tone that is similar t poison. "They gained false immortality through forbidden rituals and rite, an act considered to be taboo in many places." Her head turned towards the monk. "Now you see, monk?"

But Naruto is not one to get fend off so easily with facts. Holing his staff and Vajra respectively, he speaks. "The mind and body are to be kept pure. But one must not condemn a person from his deeds." His gaze followed the miko's hardened glare. "I believe that it is most suitable for each of us to settle this in a matter of words."

The priest snorts mockingly. Eyes blazing with insanity, he laughs at the two. "Hahaha! You two fuckers can do all the talk you want. But I will let my Lord do the choosing, for I am Hidan! The fourth priest to the cult of Jashin, and Jashin's dagger!"

Seeing the ominous aura on the man again, the two other parties ready for the worst thing that could have happened. As expected, the priest charged with his scythe swinging like a mad man on acid, reckless but dangerous. The first one to get charged upon is the monk, something that was unexpected since Naruto has expected that the man will try to attack the miko.

"GYAHAHAHA!" Hidan's maddened laughter roars as he tries to slash the younger boy to pieces. Dodging reckless strikes are simple, but this one is different. Ever strike from that scythe will kill him for sure. So he chose to rely on instinct while keeping a straight mind. Ducking and leaning won't do much anymore, he needs to get the mad priest away. That was done by slamming a kick to the priest's gut, a chakra enhanced kick. Skidding a few meter's the priest shrugs off the damage before launching off again, scythe high in the sky. "DIIIIE!"

The monk acts fast. Vajra aimed, he shouted. "Kaminari!" the golden charged kunai began to vibrate, and then with it, a huge lightning shoots out from the tip followed by a huge thunderous roar. It strikes the priest head on, launching him further away.

The shrine maiden wastes no time in following the blasted priest, gohei in hand, the woman charged off towards where the priest was launched to. Seeing that they battle will change in setting, the monk followed after the miko. He charged a large amount of chakra to Vajra earlier, his chakra is not on full anymore. The man was launched pretty far, about a few miles away. But the uneasiness remains, knowing that the priest is in fact immortal.

The miko leading the chase, noticed that the shorter monk is following her. Making a cold expression, she readies a necessary amount of ofudas in her hand. Jumping, she turns back and throws the ofudas toward the boy, causing him to react instant. The ofudas are holy artifact from her shrine, and they do a good amount of damage towards whoever ends up in the receiving end.

The monk notices this and readies a technique. "Fire style: Flames of tongue!" the monk blows out a fiery stream out of his mouth, it expands forming the shape of a tongue to collide with the incoming projectiles courtesy of the woman in front of him. Of course, the technique is powerful enough to disintegrate the paper charms. The shrine maiden clicked her tongue, knowing that her plan on slowing the boy down to prevent him from stopping her has failed. Not that it matters, she chooses to win in terms of speed. By that, she means to reach the priest before the monk could stop her.

Realizing her plan, Naruto adds chakra to his feet. By adding a necessary amount of chakra will help increase his speed to catch the miko. Though not known to use chakra, the miko is doing a nice job keeping him off her tail. She throws more paper talismans toward the pursuing boy. But to her disappointment, he is dodging them with ease. It looks like she's left with only a final plan. And she's going to use it like right… now.

Fingers crossed in a ram seal, the miko whispered. "Ancient Miko technique: Mask of Hannya!" now stopping, the miko turns to face the monk. Said monk also stopped when he saw the miko stop. Confused, but guard never falling, Naruto wonders what is the woman planning. Then, he regretted asking. A very dark ominous aura that no Miko should've posses is radiating from the girl he's facing. Slowly, she's engulfed in a purple misty mist that covers her legs up to her face. Four pillars rise from the ground as if to box the miko. Then, her appearance transforms.

Long gone the white and red apparel of a miko. It is replaced by a crimson colored battle kimono with ceramic shoulder plates. Her face is now covered with a mask with horns on them, and from the design, it appears to be a Hanya. A Hanya is demon like creature that haunts for people that have done bad deeds to others, seeing the miko transforming or appearing like one somehow make no sense but it's not that insane. The mask is colored in a deep red color, similar to her clothing. The horns are noticeably sharp, and the lips are stretched open showing razor sharp fangs as design.

Her gohei transforms into a naginata with its blade shining with a dangerous glint. Its aura in no different than the priestess herself. The pole handle is painted black matte with red circular pattern circling it. The miko's hands are doing a fine job on handling the taller pole, it appears that she's having no trouble in using it. He paused feeling a sense of dread coming from the weapon, the presence alone is so dreadful that Aki is shaking mentally.

The male narrows his eyes when he noticed this. Aki is just as sensitive as he is when it comes to detecting presence or aura. Detecting chakra however is a different thing, since he is human, he can detect aura and chakra through practice but Aki is different. She's chakra and she can detect chakra and even aura even more accurate than he do. and if Aki is shaking like this, there are chances that this woman is even more dangerous than the priest.

Pointing the naginata at him, she speaks. "Boy, keep out of this. This is between me and that priest, don't interfere or you will suffer the same fate as him." her tone is ice cold, there's no joking behind it.

The monk does the same, he points Vajra while stabbing Aki to the ground. "I shall not do that. This is a pointless fight. And even if he's guilty, it is only right if he confess it first. Are you not a priestess? A maiden of the Gods above?"

But the woman counters. "Are you not a monk? A peaceful man with his dreams of paradise? Is it your job to interfere with other people's affair in life?" there's no aggression, and even if there is, she's hiding it well.

"Yes. I am a monk. But my dreams for paradise can wait, if I can't stop a maiden from wreaking havoc what good am I?"

That ticked the shrine maiden off. She charged for the boy, naginata in tow. Naruto swiftly ducked under her strike, he counters with a kick to the miko's ribs but it was avoided courtesy of the miko's hardened instincts. Jumping a few feet away, she launches some more talismans towards the boy. This time, the paper talismans are glowing red with death. Naruto is surprised to see them soaring so fast in speeds that are incredible enough. So his only option to not get hit is to destroy them. "Water style: Water parade!" creating water without any water source nearby means that he has to gather the water particle in the air. That is harder but it's damn useful. The water condensed in his opened palm into balls before launching for the homing talismans.

As expected, both attacks are enough to cause both the monk and miko to get on the defensive. The monk's water based attack managed to make the miko jump backwards in defense. She's impressed and annoyed at the same time, if he can match her in long distance attack then it'll prove to be troublesome. Forced to dodge homing amulets isn't as easy as he thought it would be. Being had to use most of his chakra to reinforce Aki, he's using her to deflect most of the talismans at the moment; it's getting tiring to keep up with the ridiculous speed the talismans are travelling at.

Seeing his busied state, the priestess chose to advance. Naruto saw this and proceeds to follow. Their game of chase resumes with both shooting and using techniques that are alien to both. Naruto's frequent use of Vajra is slowly decreasing, since it took quite a lot of chakra to use.

Miko's projectiles are slightly dangerous than Naruto's of course, it's not counted when he's using a water based attack. Unbeknown to the boy, she is not by any means ordinary. Her chakras are way different than ninja chakra. It's purer to say the least. And since it is purer, it is harder to control. But it made up in the effectiveness of her attacks.

The monk finished dodging the barrage of amulets, it leaves him panting in fatigue. He used way too much chakra back then, the only thing that keeps him going now is the sheer willpower that he managed to invest upon himself. In the silence, he heard a sizzling noise from behind. His head snaps backward, trying to see what is behind him. but try is the keyword here.

BOOOM

A loud and fiery explosion erupts from his back, blowing him away a good ten meters away from the place. The miko is thankful that her plan works out, she really is. She has to admit that the boy is handling himself well, too well in fact. She has some specialized tags with her, a set that involves in explosion similar to before is one of them. Her breathing is ragged heavily, her stamina is way weaker than the boy's… but it looks like brain wins over bra-

"GYAHAHAHAHA NOT SO FAST BITCH!"

A figure of pure black erupts from the tree lines. Hidan comes into scene again with his scythe swinging about in a maddened state. It looks like that the man is even more dangerous than before, the look in his eyes state that much. The miko's reflex kicks in and she instantly make no haste in jumping towards safety. But it does not stop there. The priest rushed forward again with a horizontal strike to cut her in half. The miko sees this coming and used all of her remaining strength to parry the attack with her gohei. As expected, it worked but she's sent skidding about three meters away from the priest.

The priest let out a bloodthirsty smirk, he makes a chance to look around. "Hey, where's that shitty monk? Don't tell me that he chickened out in this one?" he asks to practically no one, but the miko hears this loud and clear.

With a tone that could match an ice, she says. "He's no business. This is about you and me." Taking a stance by readying her gohei and three talismans on her left hand, the female glares at priest. Her transformation was released earlier, causing her looks to return.

Hidan grins wider, slinging his scythe on his shoulder and then laughs. "Hahahaha! You? Listen here bitch, you can barely stop that weak monk and what do you think you'll be able to beat me, huh?"

His taunting affects her slightly. It's true that she has difficulty in dealing with the monk before, not to mention that she's low in chakra right now, but she can't let that hinder her. As the shrine maiden of the Himetsuki tribe, she can't let this mad priest escape after what he has done to the people here…

This man, Hidan, is a Jashinist. He has done ruthless, forbidden, disgusting and downright cruel rituals that involves in human sacrifice and even ceremonies. She's been after him for the past three months, and has no luck in finding him until yesterday. And she's finally got him now; she's not giving any chance to let this man escape. Silence sweeps through the scene, making her even more anxious. The priest still has that mad grin on his face, something that causes her annoyance to rise even higher.

But she knows better than to let anger took control. She has… experience in what anger could do, and she'll be damned if she fall into it again. She saw him move an arm, preparing his huge triple bladed scythe. Her body tenses when those crimson blades gleam in the midst of the shades of the trees. He's a dangerous man after all. Most Jashinist cultist, much less a priest, can be considered as an S-rank missing nin. Though he job does not normally involve in hunting down dangerous men, she'll have difficulty in defeating no doubt, more or less killing him.

"Ready bitch?" the priest's taunting does not stop, he gives her a full grown smirk that speaks nothing but murder. "I'll enjoy bathing in your blood."

That's all he says when his form comes to a blur and only to reappear in front of the miko. She was so shocked that she didn't see it coming. The tip of the dull edge of the scythe finds itself planted into her stomach, causing the miko to spit out saliva and blood. She's trying to keep balance here, the last thing she wants is to fall and let this man straight out butcher her.

Then another strike from the priest was delivered, this time it was a kick that aims for her head but with all her efforts, she managed duck and counters with a sweep to the man. Hidan expected such move, which he casually avoids by simply jumping. He dodged another strike from the miko, this time she's using her gohei. He began to clash, parry and even counter the woman's attacks, it's such a joy to feel thrill in the heat of battle, especially if you know that you're going to kill your enemy.

She can't last long in a short distanced fight, so she draws a huge space between her and the priest by jumping and landing on a clearing just a few meters back. With murderous glee, the priest began rushing for the woman. But this time, he's hindered by the barrage of soaring amulets coming for him. Of course, the damage given is nothing for him.

Even that monk's lighting attack hurts more than this. But the sheer number of projectiles this woman is delivering is crazy… he didn't know if she's using a storage seal to hide these talismans away or anything but one thing he care is for her to die and suffer in the name of Jashin.

"This isn't working…" she muttered irately to herself. This man is a tank, despite his body size. He's just rushing through her attacks like a desperate chicken that's going to cross a road full of carts. She's confident in her attacks and skills and to be seeing them brushed off as nothing but annoyance is also a form of insult for her.

If small attacks won't work, then it's time to use a bigger one. Gohei raised in the air, she declares. "Forbidden Miko: Blessing of heaven!" with that said, her Gohei glowed in a beautiful gold color, on the tip grows a small ball of light that slowly increases in size.

The incoming priest didn't know what she's up to but he knew better than to just charge in there and taking all the hit. He's closing up fast, and by the time he reached a certain distance, the golden orb of light shoots forward towards him. Hidan quickly unleashed his scythe upon the ball but it's useless. Eyes drastically widening, he watched as the ball of light that is as large as him slowly swallows his form causing immense pain while doing so. How should he describe it without his mouth that is currently busy screaming its heart out? It's like being burned alive but without normal fire, no, this hurts badly. Then he realized. This bitch is using holy flames. Holy flames are like pesticide to Jashinist as it is to bugs, it hurts them, slowly. But since he's a high level priest of Jashin, his pain tolerance and immortality is fully developed, but still it hurts as fuck.

"GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

The mad priest is now fully developed in a giant orb of light, his scream of pain and anguish fills the entire forest. The shrine maiden covers her eyes; the light is so bright that it even hurts her. The flames are not harming her simply because they are meant that way. Holy flames are different than normal flames. It can still harm the user but with practice, it won't hurt that much but still, caution is a must.

The priest's screams continues, it seems to have gone for eternity. But then, the orb disappears, so does the light. Hidan is now a fallen mass of burned flesh, but due to his job of being a cultist, he's still alive. The miko clicked her tongue, she forget that the man's immortal. Her eyes wander off from the priest to her surrounding, but only peace and silence greets her expectation. It's done… she won…

"!" A strong pair of arms tackles her from the sidelines; the impact was so hard that it launched both her and the tackler a few meters away from the branch she was standing before to the ground below. The impact below was pretty hard too, raising a pained head, she sees who her attacker is. The monk. Then, without giving her time to struggle, another figure comes approaching from behind. It's another monk, then she realized that he's using shadow clone.

The standing monk quickly forms a series of handseals, before pressing the tip of his pointer and middle finger to the miko's foreahead. "Sealing arts: Sleep Paralysis technique." Watching her through masked face, he says. "Sleep. We will talk later…" his head turns toward where the priest has fallen. "And about the priest…" two more clones poof in existence, they did not need orders to do what they're supposed to do. She can see the two clones doing the same thing the monk is doing to her, casting her in a forced sleep paralysis technique.

"I will demand answers, whether you guys like it or not."

Then from sleepy eyes, she saw another figure, this time it's a woman… a girl with long white hair. She saw the woman standing beside the monk, is she his friend?

Naruto paused and look towards his partner. "Aki, how far are we to our destination?"

The girl answers by saying. "Three days from here, master."

'Master?' that's what went through the miko's head, so she is his ally…

"Hm… delay that. Heal them when we reached a campsite."

"Understood."

End of chapter 10