Hello, everyone! Here is the fourth chapter of Haikyuu! Ninjas! Basara's strongest fighters known as the Red Dragons, prove to be very challenging opponents to Karasuno!
Chapter 4 - Dragons of Red
Sugawara dodged an attack from the jackal-like man, revealed to have orange-red fur, gold eyes, and dressed in a mixture of a thief and a ninja, before attempting to strike with his staff.
The jackal then brandish its weapons: a pair of tekagi-shuko claws with three long blades; the jackal attempted to strike, but Daichi defended Sugawara in the nick of time with his shield.
Asahi used his metallic fists to block the weapon, revealed to be a large war hammer with a sharp end on one side and a heavy iron head on the other, of the elephant-like man he's fighting, who is has grey skin, and dressed in a camouflage militaristic-themed attire.
The elephant's strength is superior and forced Asahi on his knees. Asahi struggled, but quickly acted by delivering a low kick to the elephant's right foot, which made the elephant stagger a tiny bit. But that tiny bit gave Asahi the chance to get out of the way.
Daichi and Sugawara rejoined their fellow third year.
"These two are strong." Asahi said.
"No kidding." Sugawara said.
The jackal snickered. "As if you three boys are any better than your counterparts." The jackal said.
"I can't imagine why the old monkey would have faith in children that aren't worthy warriors. But you'd still be carless, Moon Jax." The elephant commented.
"Be quiet, Trunkfist! Those three beat your ass better like before!" Moon Jax exclaimed.
"What was that?" Trunkfist asked, irritated.
Daichi, Sugawara and Asahi became deadpanned as the jackal and elephant argued.
XXX
Nishinoya crashed into Tanaka hard, having been tossed by the eagle humanoid, known as Skytalon. He has the appearance of a bald eagle in shaped and color despite being anthropomorphic, along with his clothing shaped like a shaman's. He is also carrying a gray Dansen Uchiwa in his right hand.
"You alright, Ryu?" Nishinoya asked, getting off his best friend.
"Yeah…" Tanaka replied.
Ennoshita quickly threw several kunai at Skytalon, who reflected with both his wings and his war fan; both winds generated from two different instances combined generated a much stronger force of wind that both blew away the kunai and blasted Ennoshita a few feet away.
"Chikara!" Nishinoya hollered.
"You okay, man?" Tanaka asked.
"I'll manage." Ennoshita replied.
"Heh. Just when I thought your counterparts were dumb. You boys are much dumber." Skytalon explained.
"Especially baldy and pipsqueak." Skytalon continued.
"I AM NOT BALD!" Tanaka exclaimed, comically angry.
"DON'T CALL ME PIPSQUEAK!" Nishinoya exclaimed, also comically angry.
Skytalon laughed.
"Even your insults are predictable!" Skytalon hollered.
Skytalon's insults only angered Nishinoya and Tanaka even more, while Ennoshita became deadpanned.
"Great. This feathered freak really knows how to push their buttons fast enough." Ennoshita thought.
XXX
A slithering noise sounded as a frightened Yamaguchi was hiding behind Tsukishima for an odd reason.
That reason turns out to be coming from the same female snake humanoid, known as Venombite, with pearly white scaly skin, red eyes, additional two snake heads on the arms, and dressed in a white kimono with a magenta flower pattern.
Venombite was starting at Tsukishima, or more accurately, Yamaguchi for an odd reason.
"We meet again, my pretty Yamaguchi." Venombite said.
"She's talking to you." Yamaguchi said, referring to Tsukishima.
"No. She's talking to you." Tsukishima said.
"I have no interest in you, four-eyes. My man is the only thing I'm here for." Venombite explained.
Yamaguchi shrieked when Venombite locked eyes on him.
"Great. The only time a girl actually likes Yamaguchi, and it's a creepy snake lady." Tsukishima thought, now annoyed.
"Sorry. But my friend is off-limits." Tsukishima said, readying for battle.
Yamaguchi awed at his best friend defending him, while Venombite became annoyed.
"Then I'll take my beloved over your corpse!" Venombite hollered, her snake arms hissing in response to her own hissing.
Venombite lunged forward as Tsukishima and Yamaguchi dashed to the side to avoid her lunge attack.
Venombite swerved to the right and attacked Tsukishima first, who had little time to think.
Tsukishima swung his blade like a helicopter blade, deflecting every strike from all three heads the best he could.
"She's fast with her strikes!" Tsukishima thought.
"Tsukki!" Yamaguchi hollered.
"You can't keep this up forever!" Venombite hollered, overpowering Tsukishima with faster strikes.
XXX
Kageyama shot two arrows that managed to clash with a pair of bullets that were fired from the anthropomorphic wolf known as Wolfgun, dressed in a mixture of samurai and shogun armor with gray fur, brown eyes, a scar on his right eye, and carrying a Japanese-themed flintlock rifle.
Kiyoko threw one of her fans at Wolfgun, but the wolf-man dodged easily and attempted to shoot her, but Kageyama used quick thinking to shoot the Wolfgun's arm, making him flinch to fire as the fan hit him in the face before returning to Kiyoko's right hand.
Growling in pain, Wolfgun looked at Kageyama as rejoined Kiyoko.
"Still the same as ever, Kageyama." Wolfgun said.
Kageyama and Kiyoko were confused.
"Uh, you have me mistaken for my counterpart." Kageyama said.
"Counterpart or not, your very existence is something I will never forget and forgive." Wolfgun explained.
"And what have I done to you?" Kageyama asked, now more confused.
Kiyoko suddenly felt a strange headache as some kind of flashback her own counterpart had began to flood in her mind. A flashback of her and Kageyama, and Wolfgun apart of that.
"You've done plenty. But not just you. That girl too." Wolfgun explained, pointing his free hand at a now surprised Kiyoko.
Kageyama was now getting annoyed now that Wolfgun mentioned Kiyoko in his self-proclaimed vendetta.
"Listen, fang-face. I don't care if you do have a grudge with me… but leave Shimizu-senpai out of it." Kageyama explained.
"You shouldn't involve other people into your business!" Kageyama hollered.
Kiyoko was touched by Kageyama's words and began to lightly blush.
"Say that when I tear her spine!" Wolfgun hollered.
"Deadly Shot!" Wolfgun shouted, firing several rounds from his rifle.
Now vividly angry Wolfgun threatened Kiyoko, Kageyama fired two arrows to deflect the bullets, but they're much stronger than before as the bullets shot right through the arrows.
Kageyama decided to change things around and took out his sword short, and somehow managed to slice through the bullets with surprising speed. He then quickly ran to strike Wolfgun at close-range, but Wolfgun surprised Kageyama by revealing a silver metallic kusari-fundo wrapped tightly around the left arm that blocked Kageyama's wakizashi.
"You'd think I'm still weak at close-range?" Wolfgun asked.
Wolfgun kneed Kageyama hard and made him cough a bit of blood. Kageyama held his ground and slashed at Wolfgun, who dodged despite losing a bit of fur when the blade was inches from his right cheek. Wolfgun drew his kusari-fundo behind before flicking the wrist forward, shooting straight at Kageyama's face with the impact strong enough to send him flying into a wall.
"Kageyama-kun!" Kiyoko hollered.
"You're next!" Wolfgun hollered, dashing towards the head manager.
Kiyoko quickly opened her fans and decided to charge forward, engaging the wolf in fierce melee combat.
Kiyoko was holding her own by avoiding the close shots from Wolfgun's rifle or his blunt chain weapon, gracefully dodging and hoping to get a few strikes in. But that doesn't seem to be going well for her either as Wolfgun's heightened senses are faster than she thought.
"He's really tough! I need to find an opening!" Kiyoko thought.
"As if I could let you land a blow on me!" Wolfgun hollered.
Without warning, Wolfgun used his chain to grab Kiyoko by the leg and threw her at Kageyama, who managed to get back up only to get back down when she came flying towards him.
"Bomb Bullet!" Wolfgun shouted, firing bullets with detonation rounds that caused several explosions.
XXX
Yachi stood behind Hinata in a frightened state as Hinata drew his swords, his eyes locked on Leoblade as he drew his sword.
"Lord Basara knew you wouldn't stray to save the monkey." Leoblade said.
"Better get out of my way if you don't wanna anger me, kitty cat." Hinata said.
"Come and try me, Shoyo Hinata. Because you and your friends won't succeed again!" Leoblade hollered.
Hinata and Leoblade charged with their blades locked; electricity of orange and red were flown as the room shook intensely.
Hinata and Leoblade continued swinging their swords in a heavy stalemate, almost like the two are equally matched in speed and striking force. Backing off, the two swordsmen began running around in a circle for a while before Hinata made the move with Dragon Fang.
Leoblade managed to stop Hinata's special move by blocking the attack, much to Hinata and Yachi's surprise.
"You and your counterpart are alike. That's what makes you predictable." Leoblade said.
Leoblade disarmed Hinata by knocking both swords to separate sides and prepares to deliver a killing blow. Hinata was able to dodge to his right and kicked Leoblade in the stomach, making him reel back a bit as Hinata quickly managed to regain one of his missing swords in the left direction.
Hinata then charged at Leoblade again, who managed to compose himself and clashed swords with Hinata.
Despite using only one sword, Hinata was still fighting on even ground with Leoblade, but thinks otherwise.
"This guy is really tough! It's taking everything I've got to keep him from killing me!" Hinata thought.
Yachi was trying to find an opening that may give Hinata the chance to turn the tables, but is facing her own fear after seeing Hinata and Leoblade's intense clash made her remember the cruel words Basara said to her a few hours ago in the night.
"As always, you're just deadweight, little girl." Basara said, during a flashback.
Yachi gripped her tanto in frustration.
"Why?! Why can't I help him?!" Yachi thought.
Hinata is losing his ground as Leoblade kicked him back.
"Try and survive this!" Leoblade hollered.
"Lion's Bite!" Leoblade shouted, slashing his sword through the air that shot a powerful golden wave of energy.
Hinata used his only blade to block the attack, but it was too strong and blasted him back, much to Yachi's horror.
"HINATA!" Yachi shouted.
XXX
"The Red Dragons. Disciples trained under me and me alone." Basara explained, watching the five battles between Karasuno and the Red Dragons.
"Your children and my Red Dragons have clashed fiercely when you interfered my plans." Basara continued.
"But now that they're in counterparts of meager children, things will go different." Basara finished.
Master Saru growled in defiance, while secretly trying to pick the lock with a kunai he managed to hid to prevent Basara from noticing.
"When they die, you'll see it's useless to challenge me and my ideals." Basara explained.
"Your ideals? You're mad." Master Saru said, glaring with anger.
"Still dare to question me, little monkey?" Basara asked, raising an eyebrow.
"You bet." Master Saru replied.
"Let's see if you're right. But these children WILL DIE!" Basara shouted.
XXX
"Big Smash!" Trunkfist shouted, smashing the ground with his hammer and generating a powerful shockwave, lifting Daichi, Sugawara and Asahi up.
That gave Moon Jax the chance to attack.
"Wild Dance!" Moon Jax shouted, striking in every direction like a ricochet pinball that damaged the three third-years hard.
XXX
"Wind Blast!" Skytalon shouted, once again combining the force of both his war fan and wings to generate a massive gust of wind.
Nishinoya, Tanaka and Ennoshita were violently blown away into a wall as the wind keep pushing hard on them.
XXX
Yamaguchi quickly jumped to Tsukishima's defense and attempted to pierce Venombite, but one of her heads (the right arm head) bit down on the lance and stopped him.
"Now, now my pretty. I want to save you for later." Venombite explained.
"I don't care about whatever nonsense you spout! I won't let you hurt Tsukki!" Yamaguchi hollered, not letting his sudden fear stop him from protecting his best friend.
Tsukishima, amazed by by the pinch server's bravery, pushed Venombite away.
"If that's how you wanna play 'hard to get'…" Venombite said.
"Then let me make it more fun!" Venombite hollered.
"Venom Attack!" Venombite shouted, firing from both mouths venomous acid.
Tsukishima and Yamaguchi quickly dodged and managed to escape, but to their shock the floor dissolved upon the poison hitting the mark.
"We need to be careful, or that acid's gonna kill us!" Tsukishima thought.
XXX
Kageyama and Kiyoko, despite being injured from the explosions and their clothes slightly tattered and charred, managed to get back up.
"Your counterparts were once friends to me. But when they, you, abandoned me… I resolved to kill you both in the most painful way." Wolfgun explained.
(A/N: Sounds like Adam Taurus!)
"Once I let you both go once. But this time… I won't make that mistake again." Wolfgun explained, aiming his rifle once again.
Kageyama and Kiyoko composed themselves and focus on the task at hand as they get ready for Round 2.
XXX
"It doesn't matter if you're strong, Shoyo Hinata. Our lord's vengeance will be realized." Leoblade explained, now seeing Hinata unconscious after getting hit by the Lion's Bite.
"Now for the g-" Leoblade said, before dodging a shuriken thrown near him, hitting a wall.
Leoblade sees the person responsible: Yachi.
"I was wondering if you were going to join in. Or you're a coward to letting your boyfriend to all the dirty work." Leoblade explained.
"You can call me a coward. But I'm a manager of the Karasuno volleyball club, and Hinata's friend." Yachi explained, not letting her own fear or what Leoblade said to her throw her off.
"I won't let you hurt him!" Yachi hollered.
"Come and try." Leoblade said.
The Red Dragons are more fearsome than anyone could imagine! How will Karasuno defeat them and still have the strength to face Basara again?!
Next time: Chapter 5 - Mortal Combat
Now we're getting to the fun with our volleyball crows facing the toughest of Basara's might: his infamously deadly Red Dragons! Each skilled in their own art along with animalistic traits makes them like the mutant henchmen of the Shredder!