Yo, CaptainPrice here with the next update for 'Shinobi of the Ebon Blade' like I promised. I know it was a week late but like I stated last time I will update weekly or the following week until the story is finished. This chapter might be a little rushed in my mind because I procrastinated and wrote the last 8 pages of it tonight. Anyway, I've babbled enough for now, so let's get to the chapter. Read and Review when done please, thanks!
Bold- Inner Sakura/Kyuubi/Death Knight Abilities/Jutsu
Italics-Thoughts/Letters/Flashbacks
Bold Italics: Inhuman talk/Kyuubi and Naruto talking through the mind
Gaz and Naruto entered the Tazuna's house gathering everyone's attention. They all nodded at Naruto as a greeting. Tsunami set a plate of bacon and eggs in front of Gaz and Naruto as they sat down.
"Thank-you, Tsunami-san," Naruto said with a smile.
"No problem, Naruto-kun," she replied.
Grimes entered the room with a disturbed look on his face. This didn't go unnoticed by the genin of his fellow jounin. Kurenai decided make herself known and decided to ask the question that was on all of their minds.
"Grimes, what did Gato's henchman say?" Kurenai asked.
"All of you come with me. Tsunami, I'm sorry about leaving your breakfast unattended here, but this is important," Grimes said crossing his arms.
"That's alright, I can reheat it for you if you want," Tsunami said with a smile.
Both teams got up and followed Grimes into the study where they saw the corpse of the henchman. Everyone besides Naruto, Mac and Gaz were shocked to see the state he was in after the interrogation. His face was mangled to the point where the blood looked like purple goo. Some of his fingers lay on the ground, part of his arm was cut open so deep his bone was visible; many teeth were at his feet which had compound dislocations. The last most grisly wound was the hole in his chest which made his heart visible. The heart itself looked pale from all the blood that drained out of the small stab wound in it.
"It's a good thing I told you not to question his interrogation," Gaz whispered to Kiba who looked ready to vomit.
"So, what did you get out of him?" Kakashi asked, trying to avoid looking at the horrific scene before him.
"I managed to figure out how much men are under Gato's lead," Grimes said looking at the corpse behind him.
"How many are we talkin' here?" Kiba asked.
"Well, the good news is that Zabuza seems to be the only shinobi he has under command, other than that they're all bandits and thugs," Grimes began, "the bad news is that we're facing up to around 300 of these guys."
"300?!" Sakura shrieked.
"Yeah, about 300 of them,"
"And to top it off, if what you say about Zabuza being ready by Friday, we might be facing those other 300 bandits alongside him," Kurenai included.
"So what should we do?" Hinata asked.
"There's not much we can do," Grimes replied, "the best we can go for is to train and learn some jutsu by Friday."
"What kind of jutsu?" Sasuke asked with a glint in his eye.
"Elemental Jutsu. I'm going to give you all some affinity cards to determine your element," Kakashi said passing out little slips of paper.
"What do we do?" Kiba asked.
"Pump some of your chakra into it and your paper will respond to your element by either, burning, crumpling, getting wet, shredding, and so on,"
Each of the genin sent some chakra into their paper. Naruto's shredded into tiny bits before becoming soaked. Gaz's paper turned to dust. Mac's shredded into bits like Naruto's paper. Sasuke's crumpled before bursting into flames. Sakura's paper soaked wet in her hands.
"Let's see here, Naruto has wind and water affinity. Gaz has earth affinity which can help with some of his necromancy if he combines it properly. Mac has a wind affinity just like Naruto. Sasuke has a lightning and fire combination, which leaves Sakura with a water affinity," Grimes thought eyeing all of his students.
Kurenai observed her students and looked as each of them held their paper. Hinata's paper turned wet signaling water. Kiba's paper burned to ash and Shino's crumpled giving him a lightning affinity which surprised her.
"Okay, now this is what I want you all to do. Any of you who have the same affinity will practice the same technique in the scroll I will give you. However we can give you a hand since some of us have the affinity ourselves. For example I have fire and lightning, so I can give those who have those affinities assistance," Kakashi explained.
"Alright, Naruto, Mac I got a scroll for wind affinity here. Take it and start learning the handsigns and observe what it can do to see if you can combine it with your necromancy,"
"Wilco," Mac said taking the scroll.
"Hinata, here is a scroll for some water ninjutsu, take it and study it with Sakura," Kurenai said tossing her the scroll.
"Hai, sensei!" Hinata replied.
"Kiba, Sasuke, I'll show you two a standard fire ninjutsu and help you master it," Kakashi said looking at them.
"Shino, I can give you a lightning scroll on some basics," Kakashi continued handing him a scroll with a lightning strike on it.
"Gaz, here is an earth scroll with a couple earth techniques for defense and offensive attacks," Grimes said handing Gaz a scroll with a rock emblem.
"Get going, we need to get some of these under our belts to be ready for the fight," Grimes said looking at all of them.
The teams exited the room but Grimes told Mac, Gaz and Naruto to stay for a second. Grimes shut the door and turned towards them and glanced at the dead henchman. Grimes' facial expression adapted a serious look.
"What's wrong?" Naruto asked.
"We've got a problem about Gato," Grimes said looking at him, "that dead bastard there said Gato was acting a lot worse than normal. He said that Gato had some kind of strange aura in him and he doesn't seem to be human."
"So he's become a demon or is he a strong shinobi that's pulling a feigning act?" Gaz asked.
"I'm not sure, but I'm going to find out today. He was supposed to meet with Gato today at noon at a warehouse in the town by the docks," Grimes replied.
"Okay, so you're doing the recon today?" Mac asked.
"Yes, now get going on those scrolls, I'll be back later after the recon mission,"
They exited the house and stood back as Grimes summoned his Death Charger. He climbed on and looked down at them with a nod and rode out of sight. The three Death Knights looked at each other with some concern but shrugged it off and went to join the others with the training.
Two hours into the training left the genin panting with exhaustion. Some of them we're in high spirits with getting the basic steps done with one of their jutsu. However, some of them were cursing in anger at not making any progress. Mac and Naruto were grinning broadly at what their jutsu could do. If used properly they could empower their necromancy and kenjutsu. Mac was planning to use a wind jutsu to combine with his Dancing Rune Weapon to make it more devastating to reach a bigger range. Naruto was thinking about combining his wind jutsu with the Suiryuudan no Jutsu.
The two of them were about to continue their training but heard a loud explosion come from the trees hundreds of yards away.
"Isn't that where Zano is?" Mac asked.
"Yeah, let's go check it out," Naruto confirmed running to Gaz's position.
The two of them came into the clearing where Gaz was training to see a giant crater with a dead ghoul inside it. They saw Gaz covered in dirt and grass. Mac started to laugh at Gaz's state who just glared at him.
"What happened to you?" Naruto asked walking over to Gaz.
"Well the jutsu I did was supposed to make a barrier of earth for protection. However my ghoul thought it was a great idea to perform Corpse Explosion. Since he was powered with chakra it was twice as powerful as the normal explosion, resulting in the crater here," Gaz said wiping the dirt from his face.
"So Walter's dead?" Mac asked looking at the ghoul's remains. (A/N: Walter is the name of Gaz's ghoul).
"Yeah," Gaz sighed.
"Don't worry Zano, he's going to heaven,"
"Yeah, maybe he went to heaven, he was a little fucker he could've gone to hell," Gaz stated matter-of-factly causing Mac and Naruto to sweatdrop at that.
Gaz summoned Walter back from the dead and smacked him at the back of the head.
"That was a no-no, don't do that!" Gaz scolded. Walter gave a little groan and looked down at the ground.
"Dismissed," Gaz said and Walter sunk into the ground with a toothy grin.
The day went by quickly and all of the genin had made great progress with their techniques. All of them except Sakura, who said she practiced the jutsu but Hinata had told Naruto that she just wandered off and watched Sasuke learn his fire jutsu. All of them were sitting at the table eating Tsunami's delicious food again and enjoying it. The door to the house opened and closed quickly. Grimes entered the room with a serious yet disturbed look plastered on his face.
"You three. Conference, study, now!" Grimes said walking to the study.
The Death Knights followed Grimes into the study and sat around the room waiting for him to speak. He pulled out a cigarette with and lit it with his lighter puffing out some smoke. Naruto, Gaz and Mac could tell Grimes was very nervous about something.
"What happened?" Gaz asked.
"It's Gato, he's not to be underestimated," Grimes said taking a drag of his cigarette.
"What do you mean?" Mac asked.
"All you need to know is that Gato is too strong for any of our teammates, he's become something that only we can handle," Grimes replied.
"Why can't they help?" Gaz questioned.
"He's out of their league,"
"How is he so powerful?" Naruto asked.
/Flashback/
Grimes had arrived at the warehouse where the henchman was supposed to meet up with Gato and the other cronies. He quickly made a clone and henged him into the henchman that he interrogated. The clone walked to the entrance of the warehouse and wrapped on the door. The door opened and his clone entered the building.
Grimes then walked over to the freight yard and climbed on to the crates. He kept climbing until he got halfway up the side of the warehouse to where a ladder led up into the building. Grimes glanced around for any patrols but found none, so he continued climbing the ladder. Once he entered the warehouse he looked down from the catwalk he was on into the room below. He noticed his clone talking to another henchman before walking to a room on the opposite side.
Grimes felt a very powerful aura in the room his clone entered. Finding it important, he began to descend down the ladder to the next floor. Grimes noticed a guard who was having a smoke with his back turned. He walked over slowly drawing his blade. Grimes covered the guard's mouth and shoved his sword through the guard's back killing him instantly. He dragged the body over to the crates and noticed a garbage chute. He pushed the dead guard into the chute hearing a splash of water a few seconds later.
Grimes then entered the room and felt the aura beginning to grow thicker. It was hard to breathe from the dark power it was emitting. He wondered where the power was coming from until he saw it. He looked over the railing and saw a sealed cauldron with dark purple aura surrounding it, a phylactery. Grimes' eyes widened in shock, it wasn't possible! The scourge were here.
He shook his head and noticed a squat little man in front of the cauldron filling up a small vial of the liquid. He wore a black business suit, black sunglasses and he had a cane in his hand. Grimes saw his clone come into view and kneel before the man.
"Gato, I have collected the money from the market and stored it away in the vault,"
"Excellent work, now go and patrol the docks," Gato replied.
"Yes sir,"
Grimes's clone left the room and dispersed. He looked down and noticed Gato drink the liquid from the phylactery. Gato fell to his knees and began to twitch violently. He let out an eerie roar as he began to grow while his flesh became pale and slowly melted away. Grimes watched in shock as Gato slowly turned into a lich. After transforming Gato gave a mad cackle and looked to his right.
"Ah, absolute power," Gato said with a wicked grin, "Now which one of you will die first?"
Gato used a Death Grip and pulled over a small child who was crying and cowering in fear. Gato slowly built up power and a blue aura came off his hand. The child turned and began to run towards the door which was locked form the outside.
"No," Grimes whispered as he saw Gato fire the Frost Bolt at the kid.
The child gave a terrified scream but it was silenced as he was frozen in a block of ice. Gato glided over and rested his hand on the block of ice. He slowly lifted it pulling out a blue wisp which Grimes confirmed was the boy's soul.
"You fucking animal," Grimes whispered to himself.
Grimes then saw Gato glide back to his phylactery. He picked it up and shrunk it with a curse spell. He opened his boney mouth and swallowed the phylactery whole and gave another mad cackle. By this point, Grimes had seen enough. He shunshined out of the warehouse and onto the bluff overlooking the freight yard. He needed to get back to the others and inform them of what he had witnessed.
/Flashback End/
"He became a fucking lich?!" Gaz asked with horror.
"Yes, and what makes it worse is that now he has sealed his phylactery inside him which will make it very hard to kill him," Grimes replied.
"But how did he get his hands on the necromancy to make a phylactery in the first place? That should be impossible," Mac inquired.
"I don't know myself, but we cannot afford to let our guards down on Friday," Grimes said puffing out some smoke.
"Should we tell the others about this? Or should we just tell them to leave Gato to us?" Naruto asked standing up.
"We'll have to just tell them to leave Gato to us," Grimes replied opening the door and walking out to the kitchen.
The Death Knights sat around the table and began helping themselves to dinner. Many of them ignored the glares their teammates gave them about not including them in the conversation. Naruto felt Hinata place her hand on his and looked at her with a faded blush.
"Are you okay, Naruto-kun?" Hinata asked with concern.
"Yeah, I'm okay, thanks for asking," Naruto said with a grin.
"I demand you to tell us what you told these dobes now!" Sasuke snapped stabbing his fork into his piece of pork.
Grimes looked at the Uchiha with a blank stare.
"No," Grimes said with a shake of his head.
"Why not? We deserve to know!" Sakura retorted, supporting her crush.
"No, you don't deserve to know for two reasons. One, it's classified information. Two, we don't trust any of you," Grimes replied.
Before the argument could continue, Inari entered the room to be met with the glares from Mac and Gaz. He visibly flinched and turned and ran out of the house.
"Inari!" Tsunami called out, but he was already gone.
"I'll go find him," Grimes said standing up.
Grimes got up and exited the house after Inari. He walked to the dock at the lake near their house. Grimes eventually found Inari sitting on the end of the dark looking into the water. He walked over and sat down by him.
"How are you doing Inari?" Grimes asked.
"I'm okay," Inari murmured.
"So I heard about the little episode you had with my students,"
Inari kept silent and continued looking at the lake. Grimes put a hand on his shoulder to get his attention.
"Inari, you have to understand why Naruto snapped at you when you said that comment," Grimes began, "Naruto never had the fortune of growing up with a mother or a father, you were fortunate to have both and one is still with you. Even though he had a rough life up to date, he still manages to get himself through his ordeals by protecting those close to him to earn respect."
Inari was shocked at that but managed to keep it contained. He nodded at Grimes and gave a small smile. The two of them stood up and began walking back to the house.
Dawn came on Friday morning awakening the shinobi to their inevitable battle to come. Gaz sat at the table holding his rosary moving to the next bead after each prayer. Mac kissed the cross on his necklace before putting it under his shirt. Grimes was twirling an unlit cigarette between his fingers, preparing for the battle against Gato and his newly acquired powers. Kakashi read his Icha Icha book much to the dislike of everyone in the room. Sakura was shaking with nervousness. Sasuke was twirling a kunai from his pouch while glancing at the others. Naruto was looking at his feet waiting for further orders.
Kiba was scratching Akumaru's head while they waited. Shino stayed silent and stood in the corner of the room. Hinata was rubbing her hands together praying she would survive the encounter. Kurenai came into the room and looked at her comrades all doing various activities to calm themselves.
"Are we ready to go?" Kurenai asked looking at the group.
"Let's do this. May the light bless us," Grimes said walking out the door.
"Come on Tazuna-san," Kakashi said pulling Tazuna with him.
"I'm coming get your perverted hands off me!" he retorted.
The rest of them exited the house and began to walk down the road. Gaz and Naruto took point and had their swords at the ready for any surprise attacks. Kurenai and Kakashi stood on opposite sides of Tazuna who was in the center. Kiba and Mac protected Tazuna's front and back. Sasuke, Shino and Sakura followed Grimes in back as rear guard.
Naruto held his hand up signaling them to stop. He wouldn't have caught the scent if the wind hadn't blown. He looked to the east and smelt the stench of blood. He turned and pointed at Grimes beckoning him up to him.
"What's wrong?" Grimes whispered.
"I smell blood coming from the east, I'm going to check it out," Naruto said.
"Alright, meet us at the bridge when you find the problem," Grimes replied.
Naruto nodded and ran off into the woods towards the east.
"Where's the dobe going?" Sasuke asked looking to the woods.
"He smelt blood, so I had him go check it out, he's going to meet us at the bridge," Grimes replied.
"What a coward-," Sasuke began but immediately found himself trying to breathe after a strike to the throat from Hinata.
"Shut-up and keep moving," she hissed.
"Oh, snap!" thought all guys.
Sakura was about to yell at Hinata but was silenced with a deadly glare from said girl. The look in her eyes seemed to say, 'try me,' to Sakura as a taunt. After Sasuke stopped sputtering they continued towards the bridge, not knowing what they were about to see.
Meanwhile, Naruto had finally found the source of the blood. In front of him lay a dead boar which was cut to shreds with a sword. He knelt down and touched a wound from the boar to determine how long ago the cut was made. As soon as he touched it blood shot out and landed on the ground in front of him.
"It was killed just recently, but what would-," he thought to himself, and then it hit him.
An assassin must have gone towards Tazuna's house. He swore angrily and summoned a clone. He ordered the clone to meet his team at the bridge while he ran to Tazuna's house. Naruto panted heavily as he finally saw Tazuna's house come into view. He saw two men enter the house with swords and heard a scream.
Naruto shunshined under the house's deck and peeked through the cracks of the wooden floor. He could see the two men looking at Tsunami with smirks.
"Well, we got her, let's take her to Gato!" said one of them.
"I think we should have some fun with her," said the other.
"Leave my mom alone!" yelled a voice from behind them.
"Inari? Oh shit!" Naruto muttered as he saw the two turn away from Tsunami.
"Well look at the little brat, you gonna cry now?" asked one of them with a quivering voice to taunt him.
Naruto walked a few feet over to the right and saw a small hatch which revealed a floor door. He pulled the hatch and opened it quietly looking at the Tsunami who looked down with shock. Naruto held his fingers to his lips to signal her to remain quiet. He crept out of the door and turned to see the two bandits walking over to a shaking Inari. He took out his boot knife and walked over to them catlike.
One of the bandits raised his arm to slash Inari with his sword. Naruto made his move and threw a kunai into the back of the bandit's neck killing him instantly. He then turned over the other and put a hand over his mouth stabbing him in the kidneys which killed him quickly. Naruto looked over to the petrified Inari and put a hand on his shoulder.
"Hey, you okay?" Naruto asked.
"Yeah, I'm okay," Inari replied.
"Hey, don't be like that. You stood up to those guys to protect your mom, that takes guts. I'm proud of you, Inari," Naruto said with a grin.
"Thanks," Inari said grinning back.
"Hey look, take care of your mom; I need to get back to the bridge to help your grandpa,"
"Yeah,"
And with that Naruto ran out of the house and to the bridge. He needed to get in range distance to use the kawarimi.
Back at the bridge, the others made a disturbing discovery. Many of the workers that agreed to help build the bridge with Tazuna lay on the ground bleeding out and dying. Gaz ran over to one of them and helped him to a sitting position. The man coughed and looked up at Gaz who was slapping him lightly to wake him up.
"Hey, come on man, wake up, what happened?" Gaz asked shaking him.
"They came out of nowhere, they got me man, they got me," he said before his eyes closed.
"He's gone," Gaz announced looking to the others.
A chuckle came from the mist silencing them all. They all sunk down in battle stances and looked around for the sinister laugh.
"Well, well, guess who's here," Zabuza voiced.
"Show yourself!" Sasuke called.
"I'm already here,"
The mist cleared up a little bit revealing 10 Mizu-Bunshin clones of Zabuza. Kakashi eyed his students and gave an eye smile. All of the boys had a weapon drawn, ready to fight a clone in front of them.
"Go ahead, give them hell!" Grimes said with a grin.
Within minutes each of the Mizu-Bunshins were destroyed leaving puddles of water behind. There was some applause coming further ahead of them. Two silhouettes became visible in the mist. Once they became visible they stood at the ready. Zabuza and the hunter-nin that saved him came into view and looked at them ready to fight.
"Hmm, you're short one brat," Zabuza said noticing only four genin from Kakashi's group.
"You mean me?" Naruto asked appearing beside Mac and Gaz, sword drawn.
"So this is your answer, Haku?" Naruto inquired looking at them.
"No, Zabuza just wanted to toy with you all," Haku replied.
"What are you talking about?" Grimes asked.
"I made a proposition for them to come back to Konoha with us,"
"What?!" they all asked.
"Listen, do you really think Gato will pay them if they killed Tazuna?" Naruto asked looking at them all.
"Now that you mention it, you do have a point," Kurenai said folding her arms.
"Trust me I didn't like the idea myself, but after I thought about it, the brat did have a point," Zabuza said walking over to them with Haku close behind.
"So, you killed all these men?" Sakura asked in fear.
"No, Gato sent two men of his out here, this isn't my work," Zabuza said shaking his head.
"Oh? So I suppose your style is more sufficient?" a voice asked from behind them.
"Gato, I think I owe you something," Zabuza said turning around.
"What would that be?"
"Your death, Haku, let's go!"
Zabuza and Haku charged toward Gato who stood there with a smug look on his face. He held up a hand to stop his men from defending him. This confused all of the people around him minus the Death Knights who already knew why he didn't seem worried.
"Zabuza, Haku, wait!" Grimes yelled running after them.
"Time to-," Zabuza began bringing his sword down.
"Die!" Gato finished his sentence holding up both hands encasing both Haku and Zabuza in a block of ice.
"What the hell?!" everyone yelled in shock at the sight before them.
"You stupid fool, with this power I don't need your work anymore," Gato said pulling his hands toward himself.
Two blue wisps were pulled out of the ice blocks and Gato absorbed them with one deep breath.
"Shit," Gaz muttered getting ready for the fight.
"What the hell just happened?" Kakashi and Kurenai asked with shock.
"No time to explain, we got a problem at hand here," Grimes replied.
"What's the plan?" Kurenai asked looking at Grimes.
"I'll take Naruto, Mac and Gaz to confront Gato. You guys stay here and take out any of his bandits that try to pass you,"
"Fine, we'll come help you after we finish with them then," Kakashi said pulling out a kunai.
"No, we can handle it, this guy is out of your league," Grimes said looking back at Kakashi.
"That can't be possible," Sasuke retorted.
"It's possible and it's true Uchiha, so you stay here and help with the bandits,"
Gato took out his cane and delivered two quick taps to each of the blocks of ice. There was a bright flash of light as the ice blocks shattered littering the ground with ice. Naruto felt rage build up within him from seeing Gato kill Haku and Zabuza. Gato looked at his men and pointed at the shinobi in front of him.
"Kill them then loot everything from the village," Gato said, he looked at the kunoichi in front of him, "but leave the women alive, we need some more entertainment."
That comment was a good enough taunt to cause Naruto's and Grimes's blood to boil. There was no way this twisted little bastard was getting his rat claws on any of their comrades. Gato pointed at the shinobi with his cane and grinned revealing his yellow teeth.
"Attack!" Gato ordered.
The bandits began to run towards the group of shinobi giving fierce battle cries. Grimes charged at the crowd followed by Naruto, Mac and Gaz. As the four of them neared they all shunshined behind the bandits at the same time. Some of the bandits turned to the Death Knights and began to run towards them.
"Turn back; I'll take care of these fools!" Gato barked.
The bandits that turned to help nodded and continued to run towards the other shinobi. Gato looked at the four Death Knights in front of him and cackled madly. Grimes pointed his sword at Gato and glared at him sending some killing intent towards him. Gato was somewhat surprised at the killing intent but sent his own towards the Death Knights. Although they didn't show it physically, Naruto, Mac and Gaz felt the hair on their necks stand on end. Grimes wasn't fazed by the killing intent.
"We know what you are Gato. And as Knight's of the Ebon Blade, it is our duty to vanquish the scourge!" Gaz said glaring at Gato.
"Well then, let me test your abilities in my master's place!" Gato said grinning.
Gato held his arms out and began to float into the air. Purple aura began to appear around him until it shrouded his entire body. There was a crack as the aura appeared and a lich stood in Gato's position.
"We have to force him to release his phylactery," Grimes muttered. (A/N: A phylactery holds the powers of the lich. Unless destroyed the lich will not die and its powers will stay in place. 'I think that's right...')
"Plan?" Mac asked.
"Mac, you and Gaz will help attack him unless he summons any minions, then I want you guys to deal with them. Naruto and I will be attack Gato at all times. When he drops the phylactery, hit it with all you got until it shatters,"
"Alright,"
"Watch each other's backs," Naruto said glancing at them.
"Let's go!" Grimes roared charging at Gato with his greatsword.
Naruto, Mac and Gaz followed their captain and attacked Gato. Mac slashed at Gato with a Heart Strike hitting him in the stomach. Gato shot a Frost Bolt down at Mac but he jumped to the right avoiding it. Gaz summoned his ghoul and went through some hand signs he learned from the scroll.
"Doton: Doryuu Armor!" Gaz muttered placing a hand on his ghoul.
His ghoul became encased in a strong rock-like armor. Gato fired a Frost Bolt at the ghoul but it shot back at him.
"What?!" Gato yelled in surprise.
The Frost Bolt hit Gato in the chest causing him to grunt in pain. His power was very strong, and being on its receiving end really hurt him. He swatted the ghoul knocking it back at Gaz. Gaz's ghoul slammed into him taking him to the ground with a thud.
"Get off me you palooka!" Gaz shouted trying to push Walter off of him.
Grimes slashed at Gato with a Rune Strike hearing a loud clang as it went straight into him and hitting the phylactery. Gato growled and fired a shadow bolt at Grimes hitting him in the chest sending him airborne.
"Hyouton Teppoudama!" Grimes called firing ice bullets at Gato.
"Frost Barrier," Gato murmured causing the ice bullets to repel in all directions after hitting his shield.
"Damn-it, he reflected my attack with a Frost Barrier!" Grimes thought.
Gato fired a Shadow Bolt and a Frost Bolt at Mac and Naruto who dodged them. Gaz managed to get behind Gato and slammed his palms into the ground using a Death and Decay attack. Gato's hand grabbed Gaz by the foot and picking him up. Gaz looked at Gato's upside-down face only to see a hand be placed in front of him with a Shadow Bolt coming into place.
Gato's attack suddenly stopped after Naruto used Mind Freeze on him. He quickly fired a Frost Bolt at Gaz hitting him in the stomach sending him to the ground in pain. Mac jumped back and went through some hand signs. He held out both hands sending a tornado of wind at Gato who was focused on Grimes who was hitting him with an Icy Touch. Mac then hurled his sword to the twister and it began to be carried to Gato.
"Fuuton: Kaiten Rune Blade!" Mac yelled.
The tornado began to spin around Gato slashing into him with Mac's airborne blade. Gato growled and conjured another Frost Barrier sending the blade back to Mac. Mac caught his blade the hilt and charged at Gato.
Back on the other side of the bridge, the shinobi were knocking the bandits out one at a time. Hinata finished a hand sign sending a bullet of water into a bandit's chest sending him into two others. Kakashi appeared behind a bandit and punched him directly in the kidneys knocking him out. Kurenai had trapped some bandits in a genjutsu sending them into a deep sleep.
Sakura stood in front of Tazuna her legs shaking as she watched the fight before her. She held a kunai at the ready just in case any bandits got through the others. Shino had his kikai bugs shoot from his sleeves latching on to some bandits which began to suck their blood. Sasuke was knocking out one bandit from the next from various kicks and punches. Kiba and Akamaru went into their Beast Mimicry attack and began slamming into bandits that came from the right flank.
"I require aid, come to me minions!" Gato boomed.
The ground began to tremble as ghouls, zombies and abominations began to appear from the ground. Mac and Gaz quickly rushed to attack the horde of scourge that appeared in front of them. Grimes charged Gato from the left while Naruto came from the right. Grimes held out his palm after using Death Chill to strengthen his attack and sent a blast of ice and wind into Gato's side. Gato roared in anger and focused on Grimes after being hit by his Howling Blast.
"Fuuton: Renkuudan!" Naruto yelled holding out his palm.
The blast of wind smashed into Gato's back making him stagger forward from the hit. He turned to Naruto only to feel another strike from behind him as Grimes hit him with Rune Strike again. Mac, Gaz, Naruto and Grimes surrounded Gato and held their hands out.
"Hungering Cold!" they chorused freezing Gato in a massive block of ice.
"Let's end this now!" Grimes barked.
"Walter, jump on to the block of ice!" Gaz ordered sending his ghoul towards Gato.
"Hyouton Teppoudama!"
"Fuuton: Renkuudan!"
"Fuuton: Kaiten Rune Blade!"
Gato finally broke free from the ice prison but was immobilized as Gaz's ghoul pinned his arms to the side. Gato tried to shake the ghoul off but the earth armor made him heavier than steel. He could only watch in horror as the attacks combined into one. His eyes widened and he felt excruciating pain hit him with full force. Gato was blasted into a steel pole which caused his phylactery to shoot out from his stomach covered in blue blood.
"Destroy the phylactery!" Grimes ordered.
"Walter, Chakra Corpse Explosion, now!" Gaz yelled.
Walter jumped on to the cauldron and began to cackle like a maniac. Gato began to struggle as he held out a palm to cast Frost Bolt. Grimes saw this and quickly used Mind Freeze to stop him. Gato could only watch as the ghoul began to grow twice its size and tremble violently.
"Walter go boom!" Walter cackled as he stopped trembling.
The explosion shook the entire area causing everyone to fall to the ground and look towards the source. The shinobi looked in the direction where Grimes took Gaz, Mac and Naruto to fight Gato. The remaining bandits stopped and looked back to where their boss was to see the outcome.
Naruto lifted his head up from the bridge and shook it to move the hair from his eyes. He heard others coughing from the dust cloud that kicked up from the explosion. The dust slowly dissipated and the Death Knights saw Gato now back to his human form. Naruto slowly pushed himself up and saw Grimes and Gaz walk over to Mac to help him up.
Naruto turned to see Gato who looked deathly pale as he scuttled against some crates. The mist that blocked the view of the shinobi began to fade making it clearer to see. They saw the four Death Knights looking at something sitting up against some crates. Naruto pointed his blade at Gato's throat ready to finish him.
"P-please, don't kill me. I'll give you all my money and leave Nami no Kuni right now and never return!" Gato pleaded desperately.
"You dare try to save your skin by bribing us after all the crimes you've done?" Grimes asked glaring down at him.
"I'll tell you everything, even how I got my powers!"
"Okay fine, we'll spare you if you tell us how you got your powers," Grimes replied gaining shocked looks from his students.
"Well, I, I gained my powers from some kind of creature. It looked exactly like I did earlier,"
"A lich gave you your powers?" Gaz asked not liking where this was going.
"Whatever they're called, but yeah, I got it from one of those things,"
"Do you happen to know the name of the lich?" Mac asked.
"Kel-Thuzad or something like that. He found me in my warehouse after entering from some portal that appeared, gave me the powers went in the portal and vanished,"
"I see," Grimes said with a nod.
"Can I please leave now?"
"Sure, but first,"
Grimes pulled out a blindfold and wrapped it around Gato's eyes. He led him over to the center of the bridge and turned him to face away from the village.
"Walk all the way to the end of the bridge then you can take your blindfold off," Grimes instructed pushing him forward.
Gato held his hands out in front of him and began to walk forward. Grimes looked at Naruto and nodded at Gato. Naruto, getting the message, crept up behind him sword at the ready. Naruto swung his blade across the back of Gato's neck, decapitating him. Gato's body fell to ground with a sickening thud, blood pooling around his corpse. The land of Nami no Kuni, after two years, was finally free.
Alright, that's the chapter guys, read and review as always! I would like to take this time to thank all the readers for sticking with the story so far. I would like to request one thing from my readers, you don't need to do this if you want to but I would like more readers so I would like it if you could suggest my story to other readers and authors, I would appreciate it very much. Now I hope you liked the chapter this week, read and review as always! Now, since the Chuunin Exams are next I am not going to update next Friday since I don't have a plot in my head for how it will go yet, but the following Friday be ready for the next chapter. I hope you all had a great Easter! Have a good weekend, see you next time!-CaptainPrice.
Jutsu:
Doton: Doryuu Armor (Own Creation): The user can make an incredibly strong armor from earth to use for themselves or an ally.
Fuuton: Kaiten Rune Blade (Own Creation): The caster makes mini tornado of wind that lasts for a short amount of time. The user can then throw their Rune Blade into the tornado so the wind spins it around like a vortex to cut and dice up the enemy.
Fuuton: Renkuudan: A strong blast of air shot out of the user's hands, very strong attack.
Chakra Corpse Explosion (Own Creation): An Unholy Death Knight Attack that transfers chakra from the Death Knight to their ghoul companion making the normal Corpse Explosion more powerful than normal.
Death Chill: Empowers frost type attacks after being used, have to wait for a while for it to be useable again.
Howling Blast: Frost Death Knight attack that shoots an Icy Wind with Ice and Snow, very strong attack.
Icy Touch: Frost Death Knight attack mainly, slows enemy and deals damage when used.
Rune Strike: Frost Death Knight attack, causes up to 150% weapon damage, in this case for the chapter it was an armor piercer.
Heart Strike: Blood Death Knight attack, when used it connects with the enemy and transfers health back to the user and comrades within range.
Hyouton Teppoudama (Own Creation): Combination of Icy Touch and a Water bullet, very strong and lethal if it meets its mark.
Mind Freeze: Frost Death Knight attack, stops the enemy from casting a jutsu/spell immediately when used.
Hungering Cold: Frost Death Knight attack, encases the foe inside a block of ice for ten seconds.
Frost Bolt: An attack for a Frost Mage in WoW
Shadow Bolt: An attack for a Warlock in WoW
Frost Barrier: (Own Creation...kinda) I kinda made it a more powerful version of Mana Shield/Frost Armor for the Frost Mage in WoW.
(A/N: Now I'm pretty sure some of you are wondering why Gato had the powers of a Lich, a mage and a warlock. I'm pretty sure the thoughts running through your heads are, "Why the fuck did you do that CaptainPrice?" hehe, well I simply wanted to make it more interesting and plus a hybrid of a lich a mage and a warlock would be pretty cool for a fight in my mind)
Companions/Boss:
Walter: Gaz's personal ghoul companion. Walter is stronger than a normal Death Knights ghoul because of the training Gaz gave him.
Gato(Boss)(Elite)(Level:??): Gato, the tyrant of wave country that gained his powers from Kel'Thuzad. His twisted ambition for money and power led him to his downfall along with the fall of his bandits to the Konoha Shinobi/Death Knights. Gato finally lost his powers after his Phylactery was destroyed. (A/N: A phylactery is a cauldron like thing that holds the liches powers. Unless destroyed the lich will keep returning to life and his powers will stay in place. 'At least I think that's right...')