Chapter 6: New Power – Endurance, Part 2

Date Posted: 1-June-21 (Edited 3-Jun-21)

Author's Note: The conclusion to the set of fights concludes here! New form debuts, key change in plot happens, and all the fill-ins! I suck at doing author notes, bear with me if you can. Over time, I hope to be better at this type of stuff, but enjoy the Reader Review Corner, something I thought of to add into the stories here on out.

Author's Note #2: Had to read over this chapter to get the basis of the next one, noticed a few errors while bringing the story to , so I fixed it.

Reader Review Corner

Guest: Generic Frost ninja ROFL GOLDEN keep up the good work

Me: Sorry it took me long to react to your message, I had already done the other chapters when I saw this, but this made me crack up reading it. I appreciate it, and I'll definitely keep up the good work!

FoamPip: Yorukō reminds me of itachi, he was assigned a mission to kill his comrades and become a nuke-nin. Wonder if he joins akatsuki? (Probably not) I enjoyed this and think it has potential!

Me: I see some of the similarities between the two, he's probably my favorite character from the series (once I found out why he did what he did). I don't think he'll join the Akatsuki outright, but most likely will have some reference to it in the story! Regardless, I appreciate your review!

And that concludes the reader review corner, enjoy this chapter, after this one the new arc'll begin, where we'll get closer and closer to meeting his brother!

Kori and Shū looked at the boy in horror, both taking steps back and creating some distance between them. Yorukō began walking forward, the air getting colder and colder around them, something Yorukō himself is immune to, walking normally while the two hunter ninjas began lagging. Yorukō stopped walking, looking down at his hands, his white aura covering them.

"Kori," Shū said, getting the girl's attention: "I recall you saying he was weak to genjutsu. How long will it take for you to hit him with the same genjutsu you did on him before?"

"Well," Kori replied, taking her right index finger below her chin: "It'll take me less than eight seconds to use the jutsu, but it'll take me a minute to mold my chakra and form the hand seals for it."

"One minute, huh?" Shū said, grabbing his two tantō blades: "I'll distract him so you can mold your chakra and you can hit him with it, giving us time to kill him."

Yorukō watched as the two formed their plan but did nothing to stop them from conversing. Looking down at his hands once more, he watched as the white aura continued to cover his arms, the atmosphere getting colder. Shū dashed at the boy with tantō blades in each hand, swinging it at him. In an immediate fluid movement, Yorukō grabbed his sword and managed to stop the blades from making contact. The two men engaged in a battle of swords, both men locking each other in a stalemate of sorts. Using his two blades for an advantage, Shū stopped clashing with both, using only his red blade to clash with Yorukō's sword while attempting to slash his lower abdomen with his other sword. Before Shū's other sword could make contact with Yorukō, the boy immediately stopped clashing and jumped back from the hunter.

"Why run, Yorukō-san?" Shū asked, taunting the boy: "Is it because you know you can't win against my two blades?" Yorukō did not reply to the man, driving the blade of his sword into the ground before making different hand signs, much to Shū's confusion. While the two men engaged in combat, Kori began to build up chakra and form hand seals.

"I'm still against this, Shū…" Kori muttered behind her mask, taking the time to form the hand seals necessary.

"If you're just going to stand there," Shū said to the boy before running towards him: "then I'll just come to you!"

In a quick motion, Yorukō placed his left hand on the hilt of the sword and formed hand signs with his right hand. As he made the final hand seal, Yorukō closed his right hand. Without incanting a word, the closed right hand now seemed to hold something like the sword's hilt. Before Shū could attack the boy, the construct had finished forming, revealing an identical sword akin to the one he drove into the ground, the only difference would be the new sword completely made from ice.

"That's it? A sword made from ice?! This boy is dumber than I thought; fire melts ice!" Shū angrily thought to himself as he continued dashing to the boy. Yorukō pulled the sword from the ground out and ran to the hunter, both men colliding into each other, swords blocking the other. Shū tried to use his fire tantō to melt the ice sword, which did nothing to destroy the sword, much to his horror.

"What?! How is that possible?!" Shū frantically thought to himself: "Kori better hurry up, there's a reason he was ranked the second-best swordsman in the village, there's no way I can keep up if he's using two blades!"

"Almost done," Kori muttered, continuing to flash through hand seals: "Keep him right there, Shū! I just need a little more time!"

While the two men continued to parry each other's attack, Shū noticed that he was getting slower and slower with each swing, his strength and stamina slowly leaving his body. He tried slashing towards Yorukō's neck, only for the boy to parry him instantly and kicking him in the ribs for his effort. This caused Shū to stagger back before falling on his rear. Walking to the fallen hunter, Yorukō gripped his swords tightly, ready to land the finishing blow. Directly facing him, Yorukō was about to land the final blow when…

"You gave me just enough time, Shū!" Kori exclaimed, catching the boy's attention. "Now, it's my turn! Genjutsu: Vineyard Torment!" the girl yelled; her final hand seal complete. The attack would nearly hit the boy, but subconsciously grabbed Shū into Kori's field of view, completely hitting Shū instead of Yorukō. Cursing to herself, Kori was just about to release the genjutsu when she saw the ice sword go straight through Shū's chest, much to the girl's horror.

After Yorukō put the sword through Shū's chest, one of his pupilless eyes began to return to normal, revealing his blue eyes. With Shū, he tried to break the constructed sword's blade, much to no avail. "D-Damn…it, Y-Yorukō-s..an," the older man cursed: "g…guess y-you got t-t…he best o-of me, huh?"

"S-Shū…" Yorukō managed to say, surprising the two hunters: "You…should've…killed me…when you…had the chance." The ice sword began to change shape, the ice beginning to freeze Shū's body below the wound the sword made, completely immobilizing the man. Facing the man, Yorukō took his other sword and drove the blade down the man's head, stopping at his neck, causing a massive amount of blood to rain, killing the man immediately.

Removing his sword from Shū's lifeless body, Yorukō slowly walked towards Kori with his sword gripped in his hand, Shū's blood dripping from the blade. Paralyzed by fear, Kori made no attempt to flee or attack the boy as he got closer, resigning to her eventual fate. Standing in front of her, Kori noticed that Yorukō's other eye is now visible, his aura fading from his body. She also took note that the atmosphere began to get warmer, her breathing becoming constant again.

"Take that mask off, Kori." Yorukō demanded more than asked, the girl complying and quickly taking off her mask and revealing her scared face. Looking at her head-on, he continued: "I don't have much strength left, but I have enough to give you two choices; either flee the sight with your life, or…" he took the sword and placed the blade directly in front of her face, "…fight me here and die. Your choice."

"You know I can't run, Yorukō-kun!" Kori exclaimed: "A mission in the Frost Village means to complete it, no matter what! You know this!"

Yorukō sighed to himself, not wanting to harm the girl but may have to depending on if she attacks or not. A tear ran down his cheek, cursing at the practices of the village he was raised in, wondering when it all went so wrong. Shaking his head, he took the blade from Kori's face, much to her relief.

"Y-You aren't going to kill me, Yorukō-kun?" the girl shakily asked.

"That really depends on if you attack me or not. Even though you are supposed to finish your mission, you and I both know you can defy that order and run away. If I recall correctly, you have family in the Land of Lightning, right?" the girl nodded at his question, confirming it.

"But I'll be hunted, just like you!" cried Kori, the thought of being hunted filling her up with fear.

"Kori," Yorukō calmingly said, causing the girl to calm down, "I'm not going to lie and say I wasn't attracted to you before. But the way you went about it really hurt me, you know?"

Confused at Yorukō's confession, Kori remained silent as he continued: "But one way you can make it up to me is to flee the scene. Run away, go to your family in the Land of Lightning. I'll let you in on something: our 'Taiyōkage' was the one to give me the order to kill my teammates, then claimed I did it out of free will to get you guys to hunt me. Am I wrong?" the girl shook her head, Yorukō continuing: "I see us being good friends, Kori. If you do this, it'll be a good first step in our friendship."

Shocked at finding out the Taiyōkage is behind this, Kori looked at Yorukō in a new light. "All right, I'll go. Don't die out here, okay?"

"I won't. However, I need a favor from you." Yorukō replied, much to her confusion. "When you get there, I recall my original mission was to look into a fanatic who is part of this growing cult. Can you get some information on that for me?"

Kori nodded at the boy, before curiosity hit her. "How are you going to get the information though?"

"Once I rest up, I'll be there in three days or so."

Satisfied at his answer, Kori turned to leave when she felt Yorukō embrace her in a hug, causing the girl to massively blush.

"Stay safe out there, okay?" the girl numbly nodded before breaking out of the hug and taking off for the trees.

Once Kori was out of sight, Yorukō suddenly began coughing up massive amounts of blood, falling on his knees while clutching his stomach. He started to scream in pain, the burn marks from Shū's fire jutsu reappearing on his skin. After a few moments, he passed out from the pain he felt, blood beginning to pour from the burned areas. This prompted the woman watching earlier to jump off the trees to Yorukō's body, placing him on her shoulders and taking off in a different direction, leaving Shū's lifeless corpse in its wake.

"Orochimaru-sama will love to meet you, child…" the woman said while jumping from tree branch to tree branch."

And cut! That wraps up this chapter for now, I hope you enjoyed reading it! Sorry it took me longer than normal to post this, too many things were thrown towards me. I'm working on the next chapter which will be hopefully out before Wednesday!

The next chapter will start a new arc in the story, one where we're closer and closer to meeting his half-brother!

With that, stay happy, stay blessed, and stay chill! Peace!

Next Chapter: Enter Orochimaru