A/N: Chapter 11 is here folks. This chapter will unfortunately be the only release for this week, as I have a pretty loaded week, but I will be releasing three chapters next week to make up for this week. Don't forget to review and tell me what you think.
"Final resting place? What makes you so sure you're gonna kill us." Konohamaru said.
"That's easy, cause I'm better than you. None of you can hold a candle to me, the almighty Tarnock." the man said, taking off his hood to reveal himself. He had yellow short hair and a scar on his left cheek. He also had the Jashin symbol stamped on his forehead.
"Tarnock? That's one of the names of the priest we're looking for." Konohamaru thought, he felt a little relieved that they finally found one of the priest.
"So you're one of the five priest of Jashin right?" Ebisu asked.
"Ah, so it seems our reputation proceeds us, yes I am one of the five priests. So tell me, what brings you to our compound?" Tarnock asked.
"Three years ago, you guys attacked a small village outside Konoha, me and my teammates were sent to stop you guys and one of your comrades murdered them. We've come to set the record straight." Konohamaru said body filling with anger.
Tarnock had a look of surprise on his face, as if he couldn't believe what he was hearing. He gave them a blank stare before bursting into laughter.
"HaHaHaHa! That's why you came here, to avenge some weaklings we killed over three years ago. Look, we kill a lot of people, I don't remember or care to remember who you're friends were. They should be honored a Jashinist took their lives, we usually don't waste our time on trash." Tarnock said.
"You take that back you son of a bitch!" Konohamaru snapped at him in anger.
"Or what? You gonna try to kill me, as if you could." Tarnock said in a cocky tone. "I'm feeling gracious today, so I'll give you a chance. You can leave now with your lives, or I can take them from you in a unpleasant manner, your choice."
"I'm not going anywhere, not until I put your face in the wall." Konohamaru said.
"You can't say I didn't warn you. So, who will be the first to offer up their life? How about you." Tarnock said looking directly at Ebisu.
As Ebisu was about step forward, Konohamaru intervened.
"I will." Konohamaru said as he stepped forward, eyes burning with resolve. "I will be your opponent."
"So be it then, I am going to enjoy killing you." Tarnock said pulling out a kunai.
"Likewise." Konohamaru replied, also reaching for his kunai.
It was a moment of silence as the two shinobi glared at each other. The tension in the room was thick as they both stood there, waiting for the other to attack. And in a blink of an eye, they both charged at each other.
Konohamaru and Tarnock both ran towards each other. When their kunai's collided, it was a power struggle. They both stared each in the eyes as they tried to overpower each other.
"Give up, you can't defeat me, I have Jashin on my side." Tarnock said.
"Like hell I will, you guys took everything from me and now I'm here for payback." Konohamaru snapped back.
"Willing to die for the sake of some nobodies. Are all hidden leaf ninja as dumb as you?" Tarnock grunted out.
"Scum like you don't know what it means to be a honorable ninja, all you care about is hurting others." Konohamaru said.
"What else is there to do when you have power, you know the saying, only the strong survive." Tarnock replied.
Seeing that they weren't going to overpower each other, they separated. As soon Tarnock landed, he used his powerful lighting jutsu.
"Lighting Release: Electric Bolt Cannon!"
A huge bolt of lighting formed in Tarnock's hand.
"Die!" he yelled as a huge lighting stream shot out of his hand, closing in on Konohamaru.
"Watch out Konohamaru-kun!" Hanabi yelled from the sidelines.
"Fire Release: Flaming Breath Wave!" Konohamaru said as he took in a deep breath, and blew a stream of flames out of his mouth.
Both attacks collided with each other, causing the whole room to shake. Konohamaru's fire breath wasn't fairing well against Tarnock's lighting stream, as his fire attack was pushed back in his direction, along with the lighting stream.
"Shit, maybe I shouldn't have held back so power on that attack." Konohamaru thought as he tried to avoid being hit by both of their techniques, but he was too late as the attacks hit and a huge explosion ensued.
"Konohamaru!" Ebisu yelled thinking he just lost another student.
"I hope he isn't dead. Please Kami say he isn't dead." Hanabi thought.
As the explosion subsided, there was no sign of Konohamaru, only smoke and falling rubble.
"Hm, guess he couldn't cut it." Tarnock said, smirking at Ebisu and Hanabi.
"Think again!" Konohamaru yelled as he ran out of the smoke, charging at Tarnock.
"But how did he-" was all he managed to say as Konohamaru's punch collided with his face.
The direct hit knocked him off his feet, but he quickly recovered as Konohamaru came at him again. Konohamaru went in for a kick, but Tarnock blocked with his knee and came with a hook that connected with Konohamaru's face. Konohamaru flinched a little, but managed to keep his bearings as they traded blows. Konohamaru then came with a right hook as Tarnock came with a left, both their punches connected simultaneously as they went flying in opposite directions. Konohamaru and Tarnock both managed to land on their feet as they gave each other death stares.
"Not bad, not bad at all. How did you escape that attack earlier?" Tarnock asked wiping blood from his mouth.
"Well, it's simple. I have two nature affinities, fire and rock, so before the attack hit me, I summoned a rock wall to counter it." Konohamaru replied.
"Two affinities huh. That's pretty interesting, you're quite the ninja. Finally, a worthy opponent to test my skills on. So you ready to get serious, I know you were holding back on that fire attack of yours. It's not wise to underestimate me." Tarnock said.
"Don't worry, I won't hold back anymore." Konohamaru said getting into his fighting stance.
"Good, now lets begin. Lighting Style: Lighting Clone Jutsu!" Tarnock said as he made a single clone of himself.
"Just one clone, there has to be something more to his jutsu than just cloning." Ebisu thought. "Be careful Konohamaru, he might be up to something."
Konohamaru nodded in agreement as Tarnock and his clone rushed towards him. As Tarnock closed in, Konohamaru delivered a spinning kick to Tarnock's face, knocking him back. As soon as Konohamaru landed from his spinning kick, he braced himself for the clone who was coming at him. Konohamaru went to throw a punch, but as he connected, he felt extreme pain flow through his body.
"Argh!" Konohamaru yelled as he was electrocuted by the lighting clone. He barely had a chance to recover as Tarnock came with a knee to his face, slamming his head into the wall.
Konohamaru was slow to get up as he held the side of his face that was kneed.
"HaHaHa! Did you like my lightning clone?" Tarnock asked laughing at Konohamaru.
"Of course, using his nature affinity to create a clone that is deadly to the touch. I knew there was something weird about him summoning one clone." Ebisu thought.
"Damn, I can't believe I fell for that. This guy is full of cheap tricks." Konohamaru said frustrated as he got up.
"I told you not to underestimate me, but you continue to want to learn the hard way." Tarnock said in a cocky tone.
"Shut up! You won't catch me off guard like that again!" Konohamaru yelled.
"Less talking, more fighting. Multi Lightning Clone Jutsu!" Tarnock said as at least fifty clones were summoned to the field.
"Damn, I can't touch the shadow clones or I'll be fried. What the hell do I do?" Konohamaru asked himself.
"Lightining clones, attack!" Tarnock screamed as all his shadow clones closed in on Konohamaru.
"Don't just sit there Konohamaru, fight back or you'll be killed!" Ebisu yelled wondering why his student was sitting there. Ebisu's voice instantly gave Konohamaru an idea.
"I got it, if I can't touch them, I'll just use Ebisu-sensei's shadow clone shuriken technique." Konohamaru said pulling out a shuriken. He then jumped into the air and threw the shuriken, he then used the hand seal for shadow clones and yelled:
"Shadow Clone Shuriken Technique!"
The shuriken then multiplied into a hundred as they rained down on the lightning clones. The lightning clones were dispersed one by one, none of them able to escape the shuriken onslaught. Tarnock looked on in amazement, he didn't think Konohamaru was smart enough to have thought of a way out of the lightning clones.
"I'm impressed, maybe you're not as dumb as you look." Tarnock stated.
"Glad you're amused, now it's my turn. Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu!"
Konohamaru wasted no time as he went on offensive.
"Taijutsu alone isn't working against him, so I'll just throw him off by using multiple attacks at once. This way he won't be able to predict my movements, and I can hit him with the Rasengan." he thought. He would have one clone perform fire jutsu, a group of clones perform rock jutsu, another group attack him directly, and he himself secretly prepare a Rasengan to hit him with when he's open to an attack. He spread his shadow clones across the room and executed his plan.
The first group of shadow clones started off by launching boulders at Tarnock.
"Rock Release: Giant Boulder Jutsu!" the shadow clones yelled as they summoned huge boulders from the ground and hurled them towards Tarnock.
"What are you up to?" Tarnock asked as he prepared to counter the attack. "Lightning Release: Lightning Bolt Jutsu."
Lightning formed in his hand as he threw the lightning blasts at the in-coming boulders. Since rock is inferior to lightning, the boulders exploded on impact as they collided with the lightning blast. The lightning blast then destroyed the group of clones who launched the boulders. Just as Tarnock thought it was over, three more shadow clones charged at him for hand-to-hand combat. The first clone threw a right jab, but missed. The second clone came with a high kick that was also blocked by Tarnock's arm. The third clone managed to connect with a jab to Tarnock's stomach as his attention was still on the first and second. Tarnock grunted in pain as he flew back from the punch.
"So that's how you want to play? Come on then." Tarnock said as he rushed the shadow clone trio. As soon as one of the clones was about to hit him, he summoned a clone of his own. "Lightning Clone Jutsu!"
Suddenly, a lightning clone appeared between Konohamaru's clone fist and Tarnock's face. When Konohamaru's clone hit the lightning clone, it electrocuted him, causing the clone to poof away.
"One down! Lightning Release: Lightning Bolt Jutsu!" Tarnock yelled as he summoned lightning to his hand and hurled it directly at Konohamaru's second clones stomach, causing it to disperse.
Now it was just Tarnock and Konohamaru, or so Tarnock thought.
"What now huh? Got any more tricks?" Tarnock asked.
"More than you can begin to know." Konohamaru's clone replied.
"Fire Release: Burning Ash Jutsu!" and suddenly the clone shot out a thick cloud of ash, blinding Tarnock's vision.
"Why you- I can't see anything!" Tarnock yelled in anger.
"That's the point." Konohamaru's clone said as he rushed in to pummel Tarnock, but out of nowhere, Tarnock delivered a huge kick that caused the clone to poof away.
"Another shadow clone?" Tarnock said disbelief.
Suddenly, a huge fire wave closed in on Tarnock. He barely had time to dodge as he jumped into the air.
"I may can't see you but I can still hear you." Tarnock explained but he failed to see the real Konohamaru above him, Rasengan in hand.
"Hear this!" Konohamaru said as he scored a direct hit with Tarnock's torso.
"Ugh!" Tarnock grunted out in pain as his body slammed to the floor.
Konohamaru dismissed the ash and his remaining shadow clones, then he went to check Tarnock's body. His skin was pale and his eyes were rolled to the back of his head. Konohamaru was no medical ninja, but from what he could see, Tarnock was definitely dead.
"Whew, that was a tough one. I thought I was gonna have to use sage mode to defeat him." Konohamaru said as he took a second to catch his breath.
"Konohamaru, that was impressive." Ebisu said. "For once, you followed my advice and didn't waltz into battle without a plan."
"Guess I'm not so block headed after all." Konohamaru said.
"Yeah, guess not." Ebisu said. "Now let's find a way out of here."
"Right sensei." Konohamaru said.
Then at the speed of light, Tarnock suddenly appeared behind Konohamaru, with a large sword in his hand.
"Konohamaru-kun! Behind you!" Hanabi yelled out as Tarnock swung his sword at Konohamaru.
"What?" Konohamaru said as he felt a sharp pain slash across his back. Out of instinct, he jumped away from Tarnock. When he landed, he doubled over in pain as the sword left a huge cut on his back.
"How the hell did he get behind me so quickly, or better yet, how did he survive a direct hit from a Rasengan?" Konohamaru thought.
Tarnock was pissed as he saw that he had a nasty scar from the Rasengan he received earlier.
"Did you think it would be that easy?" Tarnock asked, face full of anger.
"Actually, yeah, I thought it would." Konohamaru replied.
"I'm tired of playing with you, now you will feel the wrath of my lightning sword, you useless piece of shit." Tarnock said as his sword suddenly emitted electricity.
"Guess I will have to use sage mode. Kinda wanted to save energy, but oh well." Konohamaru said.
"Sage what? What the hell is sage mode?" Tarnock asked.
Konohamaru dismissed one of his two remaining shadow clones he had in Konoha, causing him to transform into sage mode.
"Alright, time for round two. Let's go!" Konohamaru said as he got into his fighting stance.
Chapters 12, 13, and 14 will be released next week. Later ;)