Chapter XXXV - The Light Style
Gyatsō's infuriated eyes stared into Ketsueki's as he applied pressure to the sword, attempting to break the male's Sword of Sin in order to wound him, but to no avail.
Ketsueki would frown slightly as he bolted forward, quickly ramming an elbow into Gyatsō's stomach. The force of the blow caused Gyatsō to wince as he lost his grip on Akazo's sword before jumping back to create distance between them.
Akazo retrieved his sword before looking over to study Ketsueki, the shinobi Itachi spoke of earlier.
This is Ketsueki, huh? This guy sure does look intimidating. Thankfully, he's on my side.
Ketsueki pointed his sword to Gyatsō, who gritted his teeth as a response.
"I hope you're aware, Ketsueki Kuraiya... that it would do you little good to interfere once again. Your fate has already been decided, you will die here," said Gyatsō as he got back onto his feet.
"Silence yourself, Gyatsō. Without that Mūgetsu of yours, you have no means of protecting yourself from me," the red-haired male replied. Gyatsō stared at him before clenching his fists hard. Some blood was now dripping out the wound that was present in his hand, but he kept applying pressure to it.
This village would have been destroyed by now had I retained my Mūgetsu Shaolin. Damn that Itachi Uchiha. If he could just resist the jutsu, then the fusion wasn't perfected to begin with. That Orochimaru... always doing things his way. The same goes for that traitor Doctorisha. So many useless subordinates at my side now, and my more loyal ones are already dead. To proclaim my victory, I must usemytrumpcard.
He then ran towards Ketsueki.
The red-haired shinobi tore off the bandage wrapped around his head before dashing forward as well, quickly placing a cut on his own hand to prepare his kekkei genkai.
Gyatsō's remaining Shaolin devolved back into its first stage, which caught him off guard for a moment. He barely blocked Ketsueki's initial attack, which was a powerful kick towards his chest.
Catching his leg with a single hand, Gyatsō would immediately swing his body around in an attempt to make Ketsueki lose his balance, but the red haired shinobi jabbed his sword into the ground to stop his body from landing on the ground.
"Up here!" yelled Akazo, who was now in the air. Due to Gyatsō's position, he couldn't move, as Ketsueki also used Reddokarīngu to manipulate his blood into a thin line, which was already wrapped around Gyatsō's torso.
Performing multiple hand seals, Akazo blew a large fireball towards Gyatsō. Once the fireball reached its target, the white-haired male simply used his Dark Style jutsu to absorb the fire, dispelling the jutsu.
"Don't use elemental ninjutsu, he just absorbs it!" Ketsueki warned as he quickly moved away from Gyatsō. He knew that the Osore leader could also repel the jutsu back to Akazo, and if he did, he was sure that he'd be able to stop it with water style ninjutsu.
Akazo gritted his teeth as he landed on the ground, taking out his sword in an attempt to slash Gyatsō in his back. The white-haired male's eyes momentarily gleamed purple before Akazo reached him. Ketsueki's eyes, trained to detect anything that might seem peculiar, noticed this at the same time.
"He's just alternating between the Shaolin and the Rinnegan? He's getting quite inexpedient," Ketsueki said to himself.
He then appeared in front of Akazo, quickly holding his arm out in front of him to stop him.
"He's using the Rinnegan, don't get too close to him now. I hope you know the jutsu he can use with those eyes," said Ketsueki, looking back at Akazo. The ANBU member slowly slid his sword back into its sheath.
"No ninjutsu or taijutsu then," said Akazo. Ketsueki took a moment before shaking his head, performing a single hand seal. Just as before, Ketsueki was about to utilise the power of Red.
"Not necessarily. I've a few tricks up my own sleeve, my friend. There's absolutely no hope left for Gyatsō, I've already decided to kill him," said Ketsueki before closing his eyes.
The blood wrapped around Gyatsō slowly turned into red mists before dissipating. Red mists also began to vent out of Ketsueki's body. When the ominous male finally opened his eyes, his pupils had changed into a more crimson colour. Akazo quickly noted that Ketsueki's hair also grew, but its texture thinned.
"Is this a curse mark, Ketsueki?" Akazo asked him, seeing some pretty similarities between the transforming Ketsueki and past curse mark users, although Ketsueki didn't have the signature black markings standard cure mark users had.
"You can say that," Ketsueki replied gently. Gyatsō stretched a bit, slightly relieved that he didn't have to expend any energy to free himself. He then scoffed at the transforming shinobi, eyeing him with interest.
"That's no curse mark, from what I can tell," he started, the Shaolin in his right eye slowly evolving back into its second stage. It seems that he used Ketsueki's earlier attack to steal some chakra with the Rinnegan's Gakido ability.
"Whatever it is, I will have no problem defeating you, Ketsueki. Now come."
"You're a dead man, Mataba."
Ketsueki was already at Gyatsō's side, which surprised the man himself. He knew that he had gotten faster since the last time he used Red's power, but he never expected his body to be able to move so effortlessly.
Gyatsō, who just realised Ketsueki was beside him, quickly brought up his right arm as an act of defence. Ketsueki swung a heavy fist towards him.
Once his fist came into contact with Gyatsō's arm, a sudden forceful gust of wind blew the white-haired male back quite some distance. He slammed his feet onto the ground to stop moving, eye widened with surprise.
Through the small cloud of smoke that emerged from his redheaded opponent's arm, Gyatsō saw a smirk upon the man's face. He started to perform multiple hand seals as he closed his eye.
His physical prowess has improved drastically, but he's still no problem, he thought.
He would then extend both of his arms as Dark chakra engulfed them, forming a long "blade" on either arm. He was mimicking Sasuke's style of using his respective chakra nature to create weapons. Opening his eye, he then dashed forward, nearing Ketsueki by the second.
Ketsueki jumped into the air to evade Gyatsō, but his opponent went up after him in a furious assault. Smoke had also emerged from Ketsueki's feet after this jump. Gyatsō smirked lightly to himself as a hypothesis came to mind. Keeping this hypothesis, he continued his attack, swinging the blades towards Ketsueki's torso.
With a single movement, Ketsueki evaded this attack as well, before appearing behind Gyatsō midair. Gyatsō, paying close attention to the way Ketsueki moves, caught the redhead off guard by suddenly turning his body around to jab one of the blades deep into his stomach.
Ketsueki slightly opened his mouth as a line of blood escaped his mouth. Both of them crashed onto the ground with Gyatsō kneeling above Ketsueki. The blade was still inside of him.
"Underestimating a man of my ability just because you have that silly transformation will bring forth your death," said Gyatsō. Ketsueki kept his smirk on his face as he reached for Gyatsō's neck, before abruptly stopping. Instead, he opened his palm. Gyatsō, slightly confused, looked at it, before noticing a small cut in the centre of it.
"Reddokarīngu Black is the ultimate variant of my kekkei genkai. That's right... my blood has hardened to the point of where it turns black," said Ketsueki, his crimson red hair creepily dancing underneath him.
A black liquid would then emerge from the cut, striking Gyatsō in the face with such speed that he couldn't move out of the way in time. He was sent back with great force and crashed into a damaged house.
Ketsueki slowly got to his feet as both he and Akazo looked over to the left. Sasuke appeared on top of a pile of rubble, looking over to where Gyatsō just crashed. His Mangekyou Sharingan blared in the light as he redirected his attention to Ketsueki.
"Are you the shinobi Itachi spoke of?" he asked, placing a hand on his hip. Ketsueki smiled lightly before turning his body, looking into the Uchiha member's eyes.
"Yes, I'm Ketsueki," he replied.
His eyes... Mangekyou Sharingan, huh?
"Sasuke, where's Itachi?" asked Akazo, who appeared at his partner's side. He didn't know the conditions in which the Mangekyou is awakened, but Ketsueki did. Long before he started his travels, all the way back to when he was a teenager, he studied the noble clans of Konoha to understand a bit more of the village's diversity clan-wise, mostly the Uchiha.
I see why his eyes evolved now. Itisn'teasywatchingyoursiblingsdie, Sasuke. Iwouldknow.
Sasuke looked down to Akazo, taking a brief moment before replying. He was still angered at the fact that his Sharingan, no, his clan itself was mocked by Zuko's weaker genjutsu. The sudden death of his brother also contributed to his anger. Killing Zuko in the ruthless fashion he did wasn't enough, he wanted Gyatsō to pay as well.
"...Itachi died in the battle, Akazo."
Akazo widened his eyes as he stared up at Sasuke before looking down to the ground, clenching his fist in frustration. He didn't want to question anything else, immediately taking into consideration Sasuke's feelings at the moment. The only thing he said was that he was sorry for Sasuke's loss.
"It's fine... it's not like Zuko Taisega died in too much of a pleasant way himself. The fact is, he tricked us with a genjutsu, and my brother paid for it. Not to worry, though," Sasuke started, gripping the right side of his face. He widened his left eye, forming a slight smile as the elliptic pattern in his Mangekyou spun rapidly.
"These eyes demand to see Zuko and Gyatsō dead at my feet. They have awakened under that order. I plan on seeing that out."
Sasuke would then appear next to Ketsueki, once again looking at the rubble Gyatsō was underneath. Akazo, too, appeared next to his comrades.
"Don't think you're hogging all the fun," said Akazo with a smile. Sasuke looked at Akazo with a nonchalant face, slightly offended by his comment.
"I'm avenging my brother, Akazo. To me, this isn't for fun," he said. Ketsueki crossed his arms, letting out a small sigh.
"Then whoever kills him gets the right to say they did it. Gyatsō Mataba's plans will be brought to an end by my hand, I will not back down because of you, Sasuke."
Suddenly, Gyatsō would emerge from the rubble, dashing towards the trio of shinobi with his eye closed. Sasuke placed a hand on the grip of his sword before dashing towards him as well.
"Rushing in blind, huh? Are you begging to die already?" he yelled.
"Sasuke, get back here!"
Ignoring his partner, Sasuke's eyes flickered before he appeared at Gyatsō's side, flinging his arm vertically. The tip of the sword had just touched Gyatsō's shoulder before the black haired male was sent back with great force, gritting his teeth as he crashed onto the ground behind Akazo and Ketsueki.
"He closed his eye to hide the fact he switched to Rinnegan?" asked Akazo, to which Ketsueki nodded.
The Kuraiya clan member then extended his hand, before a massive amount of black blood poured from his wound. It formed into a ball and shot towards Gyatsō. He knew that it'd reach Gyatsō before the five second time interval for using the Almighty Push again.
Gyatsō quickly opened his eye, revealing the Shaolin once again. Ketsueki gritted his teeth, impressed with how quickly he learned how to alternate between the two dojutsu. Dark chakra manifested in front of Gyatsō, which acted as a shield should any more projectiles be launched at him.
The white male had stopped moving by now, but he kept the shield up. Slowly extending his hand, Gyatsō's eye gleamed purple before Ketsueki's body suddenly lunged towards him.
"That's the Universal Pull," gasped Ketsueki as Gyatsō gripped his neck, slamming him into the ground. Gyatsō stared down at Ketsueki, who gritted his teeth as his patience was running low. Taking advantage of his superior strength, he headbutted Gyatsō before kicking him off.
Gyatsō jumped back, crouching to the ground as Akazo and Sasuke once again appeared next to Ketsueki.
"I've had it with you three nuisances... I plan on creating your graves right where we stand after I unleash my trump card," said Gyatsō as he got back onto his feet.
"Trump card?" asked Sasuke.
Ketsueki took a step forward, not responding to Gyatsō's comment. With each passing second, he was being filled up with Red's bloodlust. He was going to kill Gyatsō. The white-haired male noticed the look in Ketsueki's eye before scoffing.
"You will die for the sake of my shinobi world... Light Style: Eternal Luminance!"
"Did he say Light Style?!"
Gyatsō extended his arms with a wide smirk. A blinding light suddenly engulfed the area they were in before the entire village was consumed by this light. The sounds of battle were hushed by this light, but only for a few seconds. When the light dispersed, Sasuke and Ketsueki were now lying unconscious on the ground.
Akazo was still conscious, but he was also on the ground, unable to move. When he finally regained his vision, he looked over to see Gyatsō shove Sasuke's own sword into his chest, before doing the same thing to Ketsueki.
"What the hell just happened...?!" Akazo asked himself. Gyatsō looked over to the younger male before slowly walking towards him. When he was standing above him, he knelt down and grabbed Akazo by the hair to pull his body off of the ground.
Akazo looked into Gyatsō's crimson red eye before looking down to the blood covered sword. A faint light glimmered against the steel blade.
"The Mataba clan of the Hidden Grass Village. I inherited their secret technique. Call it my true kekkei genkai," said Gyatsō.
"What... are you?!"
"I am Gyatsō Mataba, a man that has evolved into a god of war. Let's continue our earlier skirmish, shall we?"