Chapter 30: Retaliation

After the attack on Konoha, the combined group all shared the base in Radio Town.

A large-scale mourn was in effect for all of the fallen fighters. Immediately after that, an election for the Hokage began.

The discussion took one hour and when that was done, the Sixth Hokage was decided to be Kakashi.

'We have gone through many plans on what we'll do in the near future. The one thing everyone seems to agree on is that we fight back.' Kakashi rallied up everyone and spoke.

'We decided to create a small elite group that will perform the attack. In order to ensure that the group is indeed elite, a small test will be performed. We will have all fighters fight in a tournament.'

Murmurs began as everyone wondered how efficient it would be to waste the fighters' strength in a tournament.

'Don't worry. The fights will end whenever a party gets injured. This way, injuries will be minimised. Anyway, the top three will join me in the attack.'

After Kakashi explained everything, the central area was cordoned and fighters willing to join the elite group registered their names.

Subaru registered his name as well because he thought that since he has recovered, he would be useful. Especially if he could see the future. And by luck, he managed to get Kazuma on board as well.

The fights soon began and each fight ended rather quickly. It was then when Subaru realised just how intense fights between ninjas were.

He then wondered just how did he survive all those times when he fought Sasuke. After a few seconds of pondering, he came to the conclusion that it was because he had allies.

If he was alone, he definitely would have died.

In the midst of his thoughts, his name was called. He got out of his daze and stepped into the arena.

On the other side was Neptune. Neptune gave him a dumb smirk.

'Hai!' She announced her presence. Subaru felt slightly happy that Neptune was his opponent. From what he observed, Neptune was by no means, weak. But she doesn't use her full strength in 98% of the time.

He assumed a battle stance. He knew he couldn't use any of his Unseen Hands as he definitely needed them in the actual battles.

Neptune drew her katana and ran towards him. He noted that she had a lot of openings. Gripping his shortsword tight, he thrusted, hoping to end it in one strike.

However, Neptune somehow blocked it and kicked him. He staggered.

He had zero idea how Neptune just achieved that. However, it didn't demotivate him. Instead, he attacked faster.

Yet, no matter how fast he went, Neptune was able to block all his strikes.

Realising that he couldn't beat her in pure swordsmanship, he decided to use brute strength.

He quickly danced behind her before hugging her. Using all his strength, he managed to lock Neptune. Neptune tried to struggle but to no avail.

Subaru didn't let his guard down though. He knew that like Nepgear, Neptune had a transformation that greatly increases her battle power.

Contrary to everyone's expectations, Neptune muttered two words.

'I surrender.' The crowd went into an uproar at how easily Neptune gave up.

Neptune gave them her trollish grin before jumping out of Subaru's weakened grip.

Why did Neptune give up so easily, you ask? Well, she suddenly remembered something important mid-battle.

She had forgotten to go to the bathroom. She wanted to go before her battle but she got distracted by Noire(read: She distracted Noire).

Subaru was rather dumbfounded but took that as an absolute win.

The next fight began shortly after Subaru got off the stage. The fighters were Kazuma and Rem.

Kazuma tried hugging a pillar. He knew how scary Rem was and he definitely didn't want to die. Well, he knew he wouldn't die, but it would definitely hurt. Like hell.

However, his plans were thwarted when Darkness threw him into the arena. He fell on his face and when he looked up, Rem was ready with her flail in her hands.

'NO!!!' Kazuma flailed his hands around like a fish out of water and tried running away.

The 'Start' call sealed his escape routes however when Rem's flail destroyed the ground in front of him.

'Hmph.' Rem pouted when she realised that she missed.

'You could've killed me!' Kazuma shouted.

'I mean, as long as you are alive, Aqua can heal you, can't she?' Rem said with a nonchalant expression.

'(I'm fucked!)'

Minutes later

Rem was getting increasingly frustrated as all Kazuma did was run around.

Even the crowd began shouting at him to give up.

Kazuma looked like he was about to cry. He wanted to give up, but he couldn't betray Megumin's expectations. Megumin had said that she wanted Kazuma to try his best in the fight. That meant no surrendering.

Normally, Kazuma would have found an alternative. And that alternative was to give up before the match as Megumin said to try his best during the match.

But now that was impossible. He looked over at Megumin, and for some reason unknown to Kazuma's tiny brain, she looked oddly excitedly. It seemed that she believed that Kazuma had the ability to beat Rem.

'(Damn it!)' Kazuma finally stopped running, deciding to finally fight.

Well, he actually decided to act like he did his best and then lose. In the least painful way possible.

He drew Chunchunmaru and ran towards Rem. Surprised by his sudden change, Rem got caught off-guard and barely dodged his attack.

Rem tried to counter but Kazuma suddenly disappeared. She tried to locate him but was shocked when all traces of Kazuma had disappeared.

The crowd was equally shocked. Megumin, on the other hand, smiled as she praised Kazuma in her mind.

'Bind!!!' A rope binded itself around Rem. Kazuma reappeared. He knew Rem could easily broke out of the ropes, so he wanted to act as if he was surprised and then fake his defeat.

However, that moment never came. It seemed that Rem got startled by the rope and tripped, knocking her head against the floor and falling unconscious.

'...' Kazuma was speechless.

'Kazuma wins!' Kakashi announced.

Megumin cheered loudly for Kazuma.

'You are indeed on the path of EXPLOSIONS!' Sweat rolled down Kazuma's temples.

'(Shit…)'

Meanwhile, Naruto sat in a corner, not knowing why everyone was still so cheerful despite the deaths of so many of their comrades.

He didn't know that Kakashi had addressed this in the meeting. Kakashi had explained that if they were all gloomy and upset, the morale of Konoha will suffer and that could lead to more deaths.

They could mourn and be sad, but that was only after they found a way back home.

Sky City

The boy Jotaro saved woke up an hour earlier and after some discussion, he agreed to work with them as well. His name is Gaara.

They went to the Investigation Centre to post more requests for Jotaro and Gaara's friends. Currently they were eating in a restaurant nearby.

'Man, you guys must miss your friends eh?' Rain asked.

'I guess I do.' Gaara replied.

Rain felt rather tense. He felt like he could barely hold a conversation with Jotaro and Gaara as they were more of the silent type. At least, that was the impression they were giving.

He then turned to Blake whom was currently squeezing tuna into her mouth.

'Hey. Blake.' Blake looked at him. Rain smirked as he opened up his bag to reveal the head of Emperus the Ultimatum.

'EEK!' Blake jumped out of her seat and fell on her back.

'HAHAHAHAHA!' Rain burst out laughing and soon, the customers in the restaurant stared at him.

'Oh...hahaha…' Rain began going red at being the centre of attention.

'Yare yare daze.' Jotaro groaned.

Rain then looked at Emperus. However, Emperus suddenly tucked his head back into the bag. Hearing footsteps, he turned right, and saw Blake's face.

Or was it her face. Rain couldn't tell. He just knew...he was majorly fucked.

Time-skip sponsored by Blake beating the shit out of Rain

'Mpf…' Rain grunted as his face was currently swollen and red. They were resting in a park.

'It's been some time already and yet I haven't heard anything about Ruby, Weiss, and Yang!' Blake complained.

Jotaro and Gaara looked gloom as well. If her friends couldn't be found, then is it the same for their friends as well?

'Well...if they can't be found here...I have an idea where they may be.' Blake widened her eyes.

'What?! Where? Why didn't you tell me?' Blake rattled on.

'Well…' Rain said sheepishly.

'You see...it is kinda off-limits. There are always a lot of security there.'

'Where is there?' Jotaro questioned.

'Well, it's a place below this island.' Blake looked shocked.

'What? Did you think that Sky City was on the ground?' Rain asked a rather logical question.

Blake began blushing.

'I mean...I guess I didn't think too much about the name…'

'Anyway, the reason why we are forbidden to go there is because of the monsters prowling.'

'But it's not an issue for us.' Gaara commented.

'Yep. We have a sand-user, a telekinetic, an acrobat whom can clone herself, and me, the living Railgun!' Rain explained excitedly.

'Well then, what're we waiting for? Let's go!' Blake cheered. Rain stared at her.

'W-what?' Blake blushed and stuttered.

'When are you so cheerful?' He asked straightforwardly.

'You are always gloomy as fuck.' He continued.

'Gloomy…' She asked while staring daggers at Rain. Rain shuddered from her gaze.

Well, another day, another beating. Like always.