A/N: Hello, everyone! How are you doing? Yeah, I'm still in heaven world. I'm stuck with annoying fans. They were chasing me because they wanted to bombard me with the question. I am really tired of it, but anyways I escaped! I'm in private hotel, and I'm taking the shower right now! I reek of stink, because I've been running around for three days, and I tried to figure out how to escape them! I finally escaped, and because I've been running around for three days, I have to take a shower. After all, I do not wish to be stink around pretty girls, would I? Whew! Now see you later. I'm taking a shower right now.
(I take a shower, and I hop into the bathtub now. I feel hot water streaming through my body.) Ahh, finally! It's so hot, and I feel good! (I stay in shower for a while, because I love hot water. But suddenly, the light goes off, and I am confusing why it goes off. Then I see the mini-Shenron appearing in front of me. He doesn't bother about me being naked.) Huh? Why are you here?
Shenron: I have granted Thedarkpokemaster's wish to revive you, and- (My thought trails off. I am excited that I'm finally revived. I should thank Thedarkpokemaster. I can't contain my excitement! I squeal with excitement.)
Me: YES, YES, YES! (imitating Daniel Bryan from WWE's catchphrase.) THANK YOU, THANK YOU! THANK YOU, THEDARKPOKEMASTER!
Shenron: Farewell. (Before I could say something, my vision changed, and I find myself laying on my bed next to my clone who also is sleeping. I gasp.)
Me: FINALLLLLLLLLY! I AM BAAAAAACK TO LIFE! (I jump on my bed and pump my fist up happily.)
Jerry Clone: Jerry-sama... (For some reason, he narrows his eyes at me and pauses. He probably considered say something to me, but he shook his head, probably against telling me and speak up again.) Good morning, Jerry-chan. (He mocks me with his sly smile. I do not understand, but I don't care because I'm finally revived, and I"m going to payback on Vegeta!)
Vegeta: Jerry-teme, where is- (He comes in my room and pauses when he saw me. He narrows his eyes at me, just like Jerry Clone did that to me. I wonder what it was all about. What's more, I never heard of him calling me Jerry-teme. What made him call him that? Did Jerry Clone do something to him?) Not again. That's the third girl you picked up from the random planet. (Jerry Clone smirks at him and gives a small chuckle.)
Me: W-W-What?! G-G-G-Girl?! What are you talking about? You idiot! I'm Jerry! Last I checked, I'm a BOOOOOOY!
Jerry Clone: Indeed, Vegeta. She's Jerry. You know, the one who you killed thanks to your gravity, and I'm created because of that.
Me: EXACTLY! That's me, Jerry... Team Z author and ya know, Murder- (I widen my eyes once I realize something my clone say something about me.) SHE?! Whoa, whoa! Now are you calling me a she now?! What happens to HE that I'm used to be called?
Jerry Clone: Heh, I can't wait to see your reaction once you find out why. (Shows the mirror to me. Once I saw myself on the mirror, I widen my eyes and my face pale. I'm no longer a man. Now I have become a woman! My dark brown hair is now long, all the way to my shoulder. My eyebrows are now thin, and my breasts is probably C-cup or something. I even touched my breasts, and I realize that it is no prank and that it is actually REAL!)
Me: WAAAAH! NO WAY! I AM A GIRL?! WHAT THE HELL?! Why am I GIRL NOW?!
Vegeta: HAHAHAHAHA! Look at yourself! YOu're now a woman!
Jerry Clone: Hahahaha! That's rich! You should look at your reaction! I don't know who did this, but well, that's reality! You're now woman! Time to marry off to man!
Me: NO! NO! NO! I DON'T WANT TO MARRY A MAN! WHY? THEDARKPOKEMASTER! I THOUGHT WE ARE FRIENDS! WAAAAH! (I wail out and run away to next room.)
Jerry Clone: Heh... Well, because she's woman, and she can't handle being a woman, so looks like you're going to be stuck with me, Vegeta, because I won't leave until she turns back to man!
Vegeta: WHAAAAAAT?! (He mumbles angrily and storm off from my room. Probably figures out how to turn me back to man I used to be.)
(Jerry Clone shakes his head and look at the audience with a smug smirk.) You know the drill.
Disclaimer: I don't own Dragon Ball franchise or Naruto franchise, so... never mind... just read the story!
Chapter 112: Ino-Shika-Cho
Age 763, December 1, Konohagakure, Land of Fire- Older Ino-Cho-Shika Generation vs Riley Harris
There was still a heavy rain pouring all across the Konohagakure.
Boom!
The lightning done struck someone down, brightening the world with a white flash, blinding everyone in the sight for few seconds. Because Takeo was shoved off away from the lightning strike, he fell onto his butt, looking on shock. He wondered who shoved him. He could only look at the massive dust in shock.
Hana still kneel next to Kudomaru's corpse, looking at the massive dust not too far away from her, and gasped. She could not see Takeo in a massive dust. She feared that the one they swore to protect the very guy have failed. There's no way Takeo could have survived it after all.
Anko clenched her teeth, looking distraught. "Damn!"
"Target eliminated." Riley smirked. He slowly laughed, but with each second, his laughter became hysterical. "HAHAHAHAHA! This is wonderful! I can't be sure if you're either brave or stupid, throwing racist remark at me like that! Something like that will get you killed! Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! Stu— What?!"
All of the sudden, Ibiki appeared in front of him, despite having a life-threatening injury on his chest, battled against him and started swinging his katana around, trying to wound him at least.
"Heh, you're desperate to kill me. Pathetic!" Riley chuckled, dodging every single of Ibiki's katana attack. He could not move his sword down, because otherwise, the cloud would just disappear and heavy rain would cease to exist. "You're so bad at swordsmanship! You're swinging the sword wrong, unless you're telling me that the injury on your chest is affecting your swordsmanship skill, huh?"
The Thadiusian scoffed and jumped away before Ibiki could land an attack. "Heh… What a joke! You're fun and all, but I am going to finish you off… in a cruel way." He finished with a sadistic smirk and licked his lips with pleasant. Surely, he already came up the best possible way to do something to his current opponent.
Before he could call up another attack from the storm cloud, he was suddenly met with Ibiki who was so quick to swing his sword, only to narrowly miss by the inch of his chest.
He briefly glared at Ibiki, as he was jumping back. "Ugh, you're delaying your inevitable death!" He still could not bring his sword. He did not want to lose the storm. It sorts of had a cooldown on that ability. It will take him few days to use it again. But he was already frustrated and started to become angry.
Every time Ibiki made a move, his chest clenched tighter and tighter, indicating that he should stop moving around too much, or he would die. But he did not care. If he was going to die saving the village, then that would be fine. He was a shinobi of Konoha, and every soldiers are meant to die protecting the village after all.
Riley ducked, evaded, sidestepped, and titled his head for each katana attack, but each of them were close call. He needed to figure out somehow and how to stop Ibiki for going all out on him. His anger and frustration grew up, but slowly. He itched to bring his sword down and dispose of bothersome Elementian immediately, but he could not, if he was planning to take the whole shinobi in this area right now.
Ibiki grunted, as he was about to swing his sword around, but at this moment, he hissed, feeling another clench in his chest. It only delayed his sword attack, which gave Riley a bit chance to recover before fully swinging his sword around towards his head, only to miss, as the warrior ducked his head down.
He crouched down, whirling his katana around, but Riley titled back, barely dodging that attack, too.
But Riley lost his balance when he stood up, stumbling away. He looked up and widened his eyes, seeing that the katana were swinging towards his face. He knew he did not have time to dodge this one. He had to move back a bit, but his back was against the wall. He looked behind him, only to find that there was a house behind him.
He gritted his teeth, realizing that he was corner right now. But he was able to tilt his head to dodge it, but it was not enough to dodge it entirely, as the katana just skimmed past his cheek, scratching and bleeding his cheek.
The blood was not red, but instead, it was a blue. It would appear that all Thaduisians bleed blue.
Riley was in shocked that someone finally made him bleed. He diverted his pupils down at his own cheek, barely seeing the blue bloods leaking from his cheek. He wiped the blood off his cheek and then took a look at his hand, which he could see the smudge of blood on his fingers.
'Blood?!' With the blood leaking from his cheek, he felt the boil inside his chest. He looked at Ibiki who just started running towards him with the katana that he carried in his hands, still in shock, but soon his shock face slowly turned into a seething rage. "YOU INSOLENT USELESS OF A PATHETIC RACE!"
A free hand clenched into a fist, as his veins flowed through his left hand. This hand was not his dominant arm, but although, it should be enough to stagger him enough hard. That really pissed him off! He never once shredded the blood against his enemy before, except Coola, yet he allowed the weakling like a race of Elementian to bleed him?
He glared at his enemy, as he shot up higher into the sky before Ibiki could land a critical hit on him with the katana.
While ascending into the sky, he looked down at whole Konohagakure with a seething rage. "YOU! Nothing is better than a race of warrior! We, Warriors, shall not lose to a mere weakling race of humans! I AM BETTER THAN YOU! I AM THE BEST!" At first, his face was already furious and disgust at the presence of Elementians below him, who were desperately fighting for their life and defending their own village, but then his face suddenly turned into a sadistic smirk. Shortly after, it turned into a madness laughter. "HAHAHAHA! Now I know what to do! You wounded my pride! As a mighty true warrior myself, I shall see to the destruction of Konohagakure myself! I don't care what Coola-sama said. Screw him! I AM GOING TO DESTROY EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU! HAHAHAHA!"
With a satisfied smirk, that was his final decision. He was going to turn the entire Konoha into the wasteland! He glanced up at the storm which still poured very hard rain fall. He never brought his sword down at all since he started gathering a large amount of storm across nearly whole Land of Fire. He could feel tons of water landed on his face. Even some of them landed into his eyes, but it did not faze him. It did not bother him. He continued to cackle evilly. "THOR! I COMMAND YOU—WHAT?!"
How did he not notice that? Ibiki was already above him, as he descended towards him, raising the katana. 'Impossible!'
Because he was not using Bukujutsu right now, he couldn't have a time to dodge it, nor even activated it! At this rate, Ibiki would split his body in half if he would not do anything.
He could not think any good one that he could defend himself from Ibiki. He could not bring his sword… Well, not that he could not, but he did not want to, because that would bring the storm down as well.
The scar-face man descended closer to him, as he began to bring his katana down. However, at his quick reflex, Riley then put his hand up in attempt to parry the katana, but then he realized if he tried to parry it, his hand would have maimed. In his panic, he casted a barrier in front of him, just right before Ibiki swung and landed it on him.
As soon as he landed his katana on the barrier, it emitted lightning around his barrier, which flinched Ibiki, and at this moment, that send his body, barreling towards a building nearby at such a tremendous speed, thanks to a barrier he used up.
His body smashed against the building, as the roof crashed down, but he managed to land his feet, although struggling a bit. He could feel his legs wobbling a bit. He must have landed his feet harder than usual.
"DAMN!" He screamed, as he looked up, only to see that the remaining of roof crashed down upon him, kicking up more dusts. A second later, many piece of rubbles exploded, scattering all across the place, even one of them flew up towards Ibiki who quickly dodged while descending towards him.
Riley still held up his sword towards the dark cloud, despite being knocked away, roof crashed upon him, and everything that just happened to him, yet he was strong enough to hold his sword up in order to keep the storm alive.
He looked up. "What?!" Ibiki was barely close to him, like 5 inches away from him, as he swung his sword down at him, prompted Riley to step back.
Riley smirked. 'You can't cut through my armor like that.' But for some reason, Ibiki's sword managed to cut through his armor, as it could be seen cracking, along with the blood squirting out of his chest. 'What?! It can't be! How is this possible?! There's no way that regular sword could cut my heavy armor!' As he backed away, he just noticed something glowing on the katana. 'Unless it's enchanted!'
He clutched his chest in the pain, sweating too much on his head and glaring at Ibiki who recently charged towards him in order to finish him off. He felt a seething rage that began to build up inside his chest. If he was not going to do something about it, he would lose his mind and possibly level this whole village. He tried that once, but it failed. Now he would do it again. He did not care about his mission anymore. He could not handle his pride being wounded. He was supposed to be an elite warrior of Thadiusians. He was supposed to deal with his victims easily, yet he allowed his victim to humiliate him so much.
"That's…" He bit his lips in frustration. He noticed Ibiki running towards him with the intention to finish him off.
Ibiki pulled his katana to his side, pointing the sharp blade at Riley. Once again, he felt his chest clenched, as he groaned in the pain, temporarily paused there. But he ignored it and continued towards his enemy. He thrust his katana at Riley, who only managed to sidestep aside. As he slipped past Riley, his eyes widened, glancing at his side.
"ENOUGH!" Riley screamed promptly before delivering a powerful punch right to the guts, even his fist pressed further through his back, where it bugled on his back.
"ARGH!" The blood forcefully spewed out of his mouth. He could feel the intense pain in the guts.
"IBIKI!" cried Anko. He was her good friend. There's no way she would let him to die easily like that.
However, he did not stop there. He continued to press his fist, screaming intensely. "DIE, YOU PATHETIC WEAKLING!"
His fist finally shot through Ibiki's stomach, as his hand just shoved through his back. He received a blood that spewed out onto his face. He widened his eyes and his lips slowly curled up into a sadistic grin, rejoicing of getting rid of a bothersome guy on this planet! He was so happy that he made sure that he killed someone in a worse way possible to die. His fist shoved through someone's chest was the best kill he ever had. No weapon needed. Now he believed that no one could defeat him. 'I am the best! I am truly a monster!'
He would admire the view of Ibiki's shocking face forever. He loved killing people after all. He did not care who. He killed people. That's what he does at best. Killing is his hobby. He killed people for a living. He killed people on a daily basis. Most people, including Saiyans, would call Thaduisians most insane race they've encountered or heard of. Even Coola-sama said it himself. Now Elementians feared them. 'Hmm… This is good.'
He realized he got lost in his thought very deeply. He looked down at the dead Ibiki with the hole in his chest already on the floor and chuckled. "To think you gave me a little trouble of it, but well… No more! This is no more right now! Even when you're dead, your presence is disgusting me… weakling! Shoo!" Despite being dead right now, he still kicked Ibiki's corpse away to get out of his sight, only to be caught by Anko.
She was still shocked by her close friend's death, but she was enraged by his death and shot the most cold-hearted person she had ever meet in the history. "YOU MONSTER!" She thought Orochimaru was most twisted and evil person she had ever met. After all, he was the one who was mentoring her and then tried to experiment on her. Because of him, she was hated by the villagers. They thought she would become a traitor just like her former sensei.
"Heh…" Riley looked at her with an evil chuckle. "Heh, I know that look. I've seen that look everywhere. That look of your face… I get that a lot every time after I mercilessly slaughtered their friends. That face I definetly want to see. Hatred, grudge, terror, anger, and sorrow... and MORE! I'm adoring everything like that! Every minute of them!"
He could sense that Anko's temper was about to explode. He waved his hand, indicating that she should calm down. "Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! You're angry. I get it already. I can tell that, but save that for later. I want you to see what is going to happen next. To see your favorite client reducing to ashes before your eyes!"
He glanced sideways to the massive dust that was about to clear. "Take a look, as the dust clears. It sure took a long time, but you're about to realize how terrifying truly I am!"
The massive dust surrounding where Takeo was at started to become clear, as everyone else gawked nervously at the dust clearing, while Riley smirked, excited to see Takeo finally gone at the hand of his most powerful technique ever he had performed. He was pretty confident that he got him, and also he was pretty sure that no one would miss this coward.
Once the dust finally cleared off, there was someone sitting on the floor, shocked. It was not someone else. It was Takeo. His eyes still widened, as he would soon realize who saved his life. He hesitated to look down to find out who saved him. Moments ago, he saw only the silhouette inside the massive dust. He even saw the silhouette falling to the ground, obviously dead, while Riley was distracted, fighting Ibiki a while ago. He was unable to move at all, because he was too scared and shocked as well.
Hana was relieved to see that Takeo still alive. She smiled gently. "Takeo…" But then she realized it was someone who saved him. After all, there was no way he would save his own life. The lightning was too fast. No one could save him at this speed… unless…
She widened his eyes, as fear etched upon her face. Now she finally realized who saved his life. She slowly glanced aside away from Takeo and down.
Anko shut her eyes, not wanting to see what happened over there, almost as if she knew who came to save his life.
"What?!" shocked Riley. How was this possible? How was Takeo still alive? His lightning was too fast, even for Elementians to save someone. As far as he could remember, everyone was too far away from him. Only the person that was closest to Takeo was Hana. But judged by her reaction, she was shocked, too. Plus, she still kneeled next to Kudomaru. So she would not make a move, due to her shocking state. Now she was shocked even more. Only these with a leg speed could make it in a time to save Takeo.
It was Tsume, who already looked like a coal from head to legs. She was already burned. Her hair was already messed up. It looked like she just woke up from her bed and her hair was already messed. She was just lying on the floor, immobilized. It should be obvious that she was already dead.
She sacrificed her life to save Takeo.
That scared the hell out of that boy. He crawled back in a hurry, getting away from the corpse as soon as possible. He was surprised that he was still alive. He was supposed to be dead, but instead, someone came in last minute to shove him out of the way. Now because of him, Tsume died.
"Mom!" Hana snapped out of her shocking state and immediately rushed over to Tsume's side. By the look of it, she knew that Tsume did not look good. She died in a most horrible death. Being struck by lightning was not funny at all. It was not caused by mother's nature, but it was caused by a person.
Anko remembered what the event just occurred here. Just before the lightning strike, she recalled crying for Tsume when a said person rushed towards the lightning. She clenched her jaws. Only if she could have stopped her, none of this would have happened!
Riley still stood there, gawking at the event in shock. 'Damn! Instead of that coward brat, I got a useless piece of shit killed! Oh, well. None of that matters anymore. Since she died, she will no longer getting in my way. This time, I will kill you, you damn coward brat!' He glared at Takeo on an unnoticed. Takeo was too preoccupied with the fact that he lived instead of that dog lover.
"Mom…" She reached her hand for her Mother's corpse. But her hand was trembling so hard. She was scared to touch her Mother whose was already burned like a coal.
With the sword still held up towards the sky, Riley titled his head, noticing that Hana was about to touch Tsume's corpse. He chuckled. "Oh, no… I'd not touch it if I were you. I reassure you it's going to be—"
However, Hana did not take Riley's advice. She touched her. She laid her hand on Tsume's shoulder, trying to shake her. But as soon she touched her, her Mother crumbled into the ashes. Her entire body. All of them… There was nothing remain of her body to be seen anymore. They just disappeared. Nothing but ashes.
She was taken aback. She was shaking up after seeing her Mother reduced to ashes that way. Now she realized she should not have touched her Mother. She was traumatized… probably for the rest of her life. She would never look at death the same way again. Little did she know; her entire body was shaking right now. Probably a lot of shocking and sorrowing.
"…ugly." Riley's mouth curled up into a sadistic grin. Indeed, he already savored the death of her Mother. He loved it so much. He admired his view right now. "Hehehehehehe…."
Destroyed Hokage's Mansion- Tsunade, Hirzuen, and ANBU vs Coola
Tsunade never experienced feel fear towards her opponent before in her life. Her only fear was that of blood. She would tremble in terror when she saw a blood. She never trembled in terror before any of her opponent. She was a shinobi. She was taught that a shinobi should not feel a fear. Only because fear would get them killed. That's why she was able to shallow the fear, unless she had to face the blood. Never, until now… That was the first time she felt a tremendous of aura from a powerful opponent, whom stood not far away from her. He literally stood in the same room as her. He stood by the door which was long ago destroyed thanks to Guure's screaming ability.
That would require a formidable opponent like Coola to be able to instill fear into her without even doing anything. Besides his tremendous aura leaking out, he did nothing. He just stood there and watched the fight that occurred in the Konohagakure. He watched in pleasant most notably Riley Harris fight.
His smirk was noticed by her. She wondered what was going on over there. She could not see that far away, yet he was able to. She wanted to know why he was smirking. Did one of her top shinobi pass away? She hoped not.
She glanced sideways at Hirzuen. Much to her surprise, he was overcame by the fear. She noticed that his teeth gritted and trembled in fear before Coola. Not to mention his sweat dripped on his forehead. Not only him, all of her ANBU members also experienced this as well.
Not a moment later, but immediately, A boar-masked ANBU member had an enough of being trembled in fear before Frostian. He gripped his katana before leapt towards Coola from the behind.
"DON'T!" cried the purple-haired ANBU woman.
The edge of the sword on its end swung around and slammed onto the behind of Coola's neck, but it did not faze him, nor did it put a deep wound into it. Almost as if Coola's neck was made of a steel. He did not even glance over his shoulder once. He stood impassively.
Boar-masked ANBU member was taken aback by the surprise, under the fact that his sword did not cut his head off. With a frustrated groan, he vanished at high speed where no normal people could see, except any shinobi above Jonin. However, it was normally little blur to them. Coola, on other hand, was able to see clearly, but he chose to ignore a bothersome ANBU. He had no desire to kill them right now, unless he found it annoying.
He appeared above and swung his sword on the top of Coola's head, yet it did not faze him, not even once. With that, he retreated and constantly bounced around the room, trying to figure Coola out. Apparently, only Coola could see him clearly. He realized that, but he had to prove him that his arrogant would be his downfall. That's why he had to find a weakness in him.
But no matter how many times he tried to attack him with his sword, he could not find a way to wound him deeply. It was almost as if he forgot to sharp his sword. At first he thought his sword was a blunt, but he looked at it, only to realize that it was still sharp. It was forged well and sharped well, yet it did not give him a single deep wound.
After slashing the chest, that one did not give him a deep wound either. He jumped back and glared at Coola, who did not stare directly into his eyes. He was greatly upset that he was ignored like that. Much to his frustration, he charged towards him in a frontal assault. He swung his sword on the side of the neck, yet nothing happened.
"What?!" There was not entirely possible. How could a sword not able to open the wound a powerful opponent like Coola even once? It was not possible. But then again, he heard the rumor that only people with Ki user could beat Coola if they're powerful enough. He could not find a single weakness in his opponent.
He just realized that he did not back off yet. His sword was still laying on the side of Coola's neck, while he was wondering every possibility. He noticed the pupils of his enemy diverted to hm. He stepped back with a start, and his sandals suddenly slipped on the wet floor due to ongoing heavy rain.
Coola's eyes already were set on him. "You impeded my sight of a pleasant battle." In one blink, an eye rays pierced through boar-masked ANBU member's chest, ending his life. This boar-masked ANBU member's body began to spill a pound of blood around him.
Hirzuen bared his teeth, looking at the dead ANBU member with a sympathy look. Tsunade already trembled with a fear. That doubled her fear, due to the fact that there was a blood around nearby. She could not get over the fear of a blood. Despite being medic-nin, she still had that fear of a blood.
Due to the enraged after seeing his fellow comrade death in front of his eyes, Eagle-masked ANBU member ran towards Coola, as he raised his katana in the retaliation against the enemy. However, before he could do that, he was pierced by a death beam through the chest, falling to the ground by the Hokage, allowing the blood to crawl all over the place beneath her feet. Suddenly, it triggered the memory of her younger brother and her lover's death that filled the blood which was unable to be healed by her.
Flashback Began- About 30 years ago
Twelve years old boy, Nawaki, was the younger brother of Tsunade. He shared his dream of becoming Hokage with his sister on his twelfth birthday, who gave him their grandfather's necklace in the hopes that it would help him achieve his dream in additional to give him a small peck to the forehead.
However, the next day…
A lightning flickered across the town, as more rain dropped rapidly and increased dramatically. She panted hyperventilation inside the building where Orochimaru and Jiraiya stood by the doorway from their side. After she heard the news of her brother's death, she had to rush to find out if it was true or not. She wanted to see him after all.
Her blonde hair was wrapped into ponytail. She wore a white shirt that showed small part of her cleavage, along with the mesh undershirt.
She slowly walked towards the doorway, but just before she could enter, Jiraiya laid his hand on her shoulder. "It's best if you don't look at the remains."
Orochimaru leaned his back against the wooden wall and smirked, almost as if he certainly enjoyed the sight of Nawaki's remains. "There's nothing wrong with that, is there? Even if she were to look, she wouldn't be able to determine that it's her little brother."
"Enough, Orochimaru!" Jiraiya chided him.
Orochimaru chuckled, reaching inside his blue kimono. "We are at war, now. All Shinobi end up like this. There are no doctors on the battlefield, so…" His hand still crawled inside his kimino to search for something. "However, children really get much too excited, don't they?" He finally found something and grabbed something from his kimono. "Especially on the day after they receive a present." He opened his palm, while still holding the necklace, revealing jade crystal gem.
After the death of his brother, she began advocating for the inclusion of medical-nin on all four-man squads in order to avoid future deaths like Nawaki's. Hirzen, the Sandaime Hokage, agreed with her arguments, but could not dedicate resources to the necessary implementation due to the ongoing war. Kato Dan, however, shared her views and as their relationship developed he confided with her his dreams of becoming Hokage so that he could bring change to Konoha and protect his loved ones from death. She, just like she did to her younger brother, kissed his forehead and gave him her grandfather's necklace in the hopes that it would help him achieve his dream.
Later on, once again, there was heavy rain pouring all over the forest, as Tsunade desperately attempted to heal dying Kato Dan. There was a pound of blood beneath Dan, and there was big hole on the chest. There was another two Konoha shinobi fellow next to dying Dan.
"Hang on, Dan!" pleaded Tsunade, desperately healing him with all the best she could to provide him.
"Tsunade…" Dan choked weakly. "I don't want to die... to die yet. I have many things that I must… do."
"Don't talk, Dan!" Tsunade demanded. She could not afford to be distracted by his dying words. She did not want to hear that. She wanted to save him, so they could continue to live together. But no matter how powerful her healing spell was, there was no chance to restore him.
The other shinobi was aware of what's going on. He could see that she was in denial right now. 'His kidney had been blown out.' He looked at her in disbelief, gritting his teeth. "It's futile even for Tsunade who is known as one of the Sannin…'
Dan breathed heavily, but with each second passed, her breathing started to become wearily. "I… must not… die here." He coughed a little part of blood that came out of his mouth.
Tsunade gave him a relief smile of her own, or perhaps it was a denial smile. "It'll be okay. I stopped the bleeding. So it'll e okay…. You'll be saved, Dan!" She did not want him to die. She did not want the repeat of what happened to her younger brother. Because there was no healer, that was the main reason why he died. Now this time, there was a reliable group of healers who could save every shinobi's life. Tsunade was the healer. With healers, it would not be a problem for her and him, right?
"Really?" Dan's lip curled into a relief smile. "Thank goodness…" His eyes closed, as he was about to fall into his slumber.
"Dan! Hang on!" Tsunade cried with the panic on her look. She did not want him to die! A blue chakra from her hands started to glow more, desperately trying to restore him. Her scream opened his eyes, but he could not hold any longer, as his eyes slowly closed. "Dan!"
His eyes closed.
Tsunade's tears leaked from her eyes, giving more chakra to her healing, trying to speed up the restore of her lover. She bowed her head in distress. "Damn it! Don't come out…" No matter what her healing did, bleeding refused to stop. "Stop… Please stop! Stop… stop…"
Nothing came out of Dan. His eyes remained closed, and his breathing long ago stopped. At that moment, she knew there was nothing she could do to save his life. Despite that, she continued to waste her chakra in attempt to stop his bleeding and healing him.
"Stop!" She repeated that words, but her word would not magically bring him back to life. "Stop, I say!" Even though, she knew he was dead, she wanted to heal him, so they could live to see each other again.
"That's enough. He's dead!" Konohagakure shinobi told her. His words froze her, as her heart clenched and her eyes widened.
At that moment, she realized she failed to save his life. She failed! Kato Dan was no more! He no longer belonged to the world of living! Now he belonged to the world of death. That moment she realized even if she brought the idea of having a healer to the shinobi world, there could be a chance that they could not save their life. She thought it would work if she could prevent more death of the shinobi. But she was wrong.
She raised her hands and looked at her bloody hand which most likely came from her lover's blood, shaking her hand with a fear. That was more than she could handle, and she screamed out of fear. That was the day she began to develop a fear of blood.
Flashback Ended
Since then, she still had that fear of blood. Just like that war, she knew she could not save this man's life. The beam already pierced his heart, so it was physically impossible to be restored. He was dead already. Both of ANBU who tried to kill Coola were already killed, because first's lungs already exploded by eye rays, and other man's heart was no longer beating. If this continued like that… she would lose her mind. She could not stand the sight of bloods before her eyes.
Coola already had his sight set on a certain Hokage. He just figured that she had a fear of blood. He began to wonder how a person became a Kage if possessing any kind of phobia? No matter… When he became tired of them being in his presence, he would kill them. But he certainly hoped that they would start attacking him very soon. After all, a couple of ANBUs already attacked him. He expected a sudden attack very soon.
"Tsunade!" A voice called out to her, as she snapped out of her shock, finding her predecessor who recently called out to him without leaving his eyes off their most formidable opponent. "You're the Hokage! A Kage should not show any fear when it comes to save the village! Show that you have a Will of Fire inside you and protect the village!" He bit his thumb, drawing the blood, and weaving seals before slamming on the ground. "Kuchiyose no Jutsu!"
A puff of smoke erupted surrounding him, and then it became clear, revealing a monkey. His body and tail was covered by white fur which protrude from his sleeves and pants. He had long unkempt white hair that reached into his back and long sideburns and a goatee. He wore a black suit with mesh armor underneath, over which he wore a sleeveless kimono shirt with white fur trimmings, and markings reminiscent of tiger stripes on it which was held closed by a red sash. He also wore a Konoha hitai-ate on his forehead.
The first thing he saw was Coola looking at him with an amusement. He was shocked. He heard the rumor about a criminal organization that terrorized the planet Element. He knew it was Hirzuen who summoned him. He glanced down at a couple of dead corpses along with a pound of blood beneath them, following the path to where Tsunade stood right now. He noticed that she was still trembling with a fear.
"Hirzuen-sama!" He glanced over his shoulder at Hirzuen who was ready to attack.
"Enma! Transform into Kongonyoi!" commanded Hirzuen.
The monkey now called Enma nodded. He immediately transformed into a black staff with the tan on each end and hurled itself towards Hirzuen who caught it and graciously spun around before settling it under his arm, and shifted into the battle stance.
Tsunade's hands were still trembled with a fear at the sight of too much blood. Not even a little blood that she could stand, but too much blood? She might have passed out anytime soon, if she continued to glance at the blood.
Hirzuen gave a brief glance of his own at her for a while before giving into a sigh. "Tsunade… You healed Sakura, didn't you?"
Tsunade froze, widening her eyes. She recalled healing Sakura in order to keep her alive to buy Kiba a time to deliver Senzu Bean to save her life.
"Even with the blood right in front of you, no less! Despite your fear of blood, you healed her to keep her alive. You overcame the fear, Tsunade. That blood beneath you should not be any different! Conquer your fear and fight your enemy with all your courage!"
She bit her lips, gulping in nervous. The Sandaime was right. She was the Hokage, and any Kage should not reveal any fear she had in front of enemy. Otherwise, the enemy might have used that advantage of her fear and used her fear to defeat her. Not only that she realized that she should not expose her fear to her enemies, she also realized that she was able to overcome her fear just for a second, to heal Sakura who was barely dying, which should have been killed with that level of damage through her liver. Even with Sakura's bloods staining on her hands, she did not think about it, as she was healing him until Kiba brought Senzu Bean back. She would have to thank Kiba and Hirzuen for that later.
Overcoming her fear, she clenched her fists, and her expression suddenly changed. Her expression was no longer fear. Her expression now changed into a courage, as her eyes glared towards Coola. She was even ready to battle back anytime soon. There was another two ANBU survivors who really wanted to avenge their fallen comrades.
Hirzuen only diverted his pupils to the corner of his eyes towards her and smiled. 'You did it. You conquered the fear. Now show me your Will of Fire and protect the village no matter what it costs!'
Still crossed his arms over his chest, Coola noticed something in the Hokage's eyes, but his half smile did not fade yet. 'That expression… Her demeanor changed. I see. She must have conquered her fear of blood. Interesting… How fare your battle will be against me?' He was not scared. They were just a mere prey for him to deal with. They were nothing but an inferior weakling to them. He could kill them anymore if he wanted to, but it would not be any fun at all. He wanted to see how they could last a fight against him, especially with the conquest of that woman's fear.
"You recall the mythology gods I told you about? Thor? Loki? Odin?" Coola said, taking his opponents by a surprise. "I already have made my explanation of the existence of the mythology gods. The weapon was given to seven potential wielders by the gods themselves. But that was actually a lie. They simply don't exist. Their characters only were made out of most popular book in the universe and spread them all to claim it as a significant mythology. Whether they were true or false, long battle of debate between true or false can sometimes lead them to believe something even though they never saw one. It created a manipulation and false sense of security. If they told the story they claimed to be true, most people would believe them immediately once they demonstrated their power, and manipulated them to do something greater than power. By giving them a power where it can protect them forever and they simply cannot be dead, it created a false sense of security.
"In reality, they were simply handed a weapon over to believe that they were a power of gods actually draining even a tiny ounce of their energy per seconds depends on how much they used in years. For every energy drained, they were absorbed into the weapon, and transformed into huge amount of stolen energy and transferred to the possession of a true wielder once acquired."
Older Ino-Cho-Shika Generation vs Riley Harris
Tears fell to the ground from the young Inuzuka woman, gripping the remain ashes of her Mother. It was so horrible. What a horrible way to die. What kind of sick man was he? Riley took a death for a granted. He was a sick man, who enjoyed every drop of a blood. He would continuously laugh at whoever shred tears for the death. He continued to mock them for their inferior weakness to them. He continued to throw every insult words he could think of at their precious people's death. Those things started to irritate her.
But she would not be blinded by the rage. She had to think and calm, and analyzed the upcoming fight that could result in an outcome in either side's favor. Hopefully, she could kill him once he was somehow distracted. She was glad that Kiba was not there to witness the horrify death of their Mother. Because if he was there, he would explode with the rage, and he would charge at Riley with a blind rage.
"You weep for that weakling? I feel sorry for people who weep for their death!" Riley mocked, not only direct at her, but everyone in this area. "They come and go. Their death is what they called… a weakling. Weak people die, and strong people live. That woman is… weakling! But those who weep for death are no more than a weakling, and that they shall be annihilated with ease! I grow tire of your constant weeping. Time to clean this place up."
He glanced up at the storm that still rained down upon his face, and lightning emanating from his sword still pointed up at it, but before he could command lightning to strike down, he froze, as his insane grin expression instantly turned into a shock. Why could he not move? Realization dawned on his face. No way! It can't be! He slowly moved his pupil downward, only to find that there was a shadow connected to his feet.
"Kagemane no Jutsu (Shadow Possession Jutsu) succeeded!" Shikaku smirked, standing few feet behind him, already placing his fingertips together to keep binding Riley together.
"A true wielder?" questioned Tsunade. "What do you mean?"
Riley snarled. "You know this won't work on me!" He worked up all of his energy into his weapon in attempt to break free of the shadow that connected to his feet from his opponent.
Shikaku's lips twitched into a victory smirk. "Inoichi!"
"Precisely," Coola continued, "only true wielder has all rights to him to wield a powerful weapon. I stated this earlier: The tale of the mythology gods created a form of manipulation and false sense of security. Another six potential members have died by just running out of their energy by constantly used them every then and now, and a true wielder already took them in. Normally, for every energy they used out of their weapon respectively, they all usually took two—no, three years' top, to run out of their energy completely. However, the weapon—Thor—was only accepted by a certain person as a gift in honor for all his credits of achieving something notable important."
Riley widened his eyes, as what he saw before him was Inoichi who already stood few feet away from him in front of him and weaved through hand seals before settling it with his index and middle fingers connected together forward at the mighty warrior. "Shintenshin no Jutsu! (Mind Transfer Jutsu)" Next moment, Inoichi slumped into unconscious, and Riley frozen in place.
Later, it would reveal that Inoichi already took a control of Riley's mind. 'All right. Now that I take a control of his body, I should throw this sword out, so I can give Choza a chance to finish him off.' With the shadow weakened on purpose, so Inoichi could be allowed to move limbs with ease, but it did not diminish the shadow in case something happened. At least Shikaku already anticipated a move in case something should happen.
Before Riley, controlled by Inoichi, could lower his sword, his expression suddenly curled up into a grunt, as his hand froze in place. His hand, gripping the hilt of the sword, still pointed up at the sky where the storm was gathered and lightning continued to flicker every second.
"In fact, it was something unexpected." Coola said. "No other six potential members have overused of the weapon. No one expected that. But that man… He took his power for a granted. He overused the power of his weapon in less than a year."
"Inoichi?!" Shikaku shocked. Surely, he anticipated something like that to happen, but that was not what he hoped. He was not sure what happened, but he did not have a time to find out what was going on. "Choza!"
"I'm on it!" Choza said out of nowhere, as he landed in front of Riley in his giant form, causing the ground to shook. Despite being a gentle man he was, he actually shot his enemy a glare before propelling his fist towards the warrior.
"Now, get out, Inoichi!" yelled Shikaku.
Apparently, Inoichi seemed like he just did that. It was evidently that Inoichi recently woke up from his temporarily unconscious. However, he coughed up the blood. Something must have happened inside Riley's mind. He panted heavily, looking up to watch Choza as the giant about to smash Riley.
"But what he doesn't know is that his overuse of the weapon will be his undoing and it will be his downfall. He was corrupted. His body was already filled with the corrupted system that filled inside. He should have been dead before, but I supposed that has to do anything with his will of power, and his traits within his Thaudisan blood."
Riley, recently returned to his mind state, shot up a glare at the attacking giant man. He never felt so miserable. How could he allow someone to trap his mind inside? He almost let one to control his body, but he somehow found a way to stop the mind controller. He was really mad, so right now he only wanted to kill every single person in this village. He wanted to wipe them all out.
He slowly raised his two fingertips up, aiming at Choza's fist which was away from a several inches of his face. The lightning emitted from his fingertips for a while before releasing it as a whole energy, launching it at him.
The lightning zapped the arm of Choza before it exploded into millions of pieces, erupting a tons of blood from the inside, and shock etched onto his face, apparently confused and surprised by the loss of blood.
"CHOZA!" cried Inoichi. But because his scream caused him to cough more. He still looked on shock. He did not dream. What he saw was all real Deep down, he knew he could not do anything to prevent that. Now one of his best friend just lost his friend.
"What?!" shocked Shikaku. 'That's not in my strategy. No one, not even me, can anticipate that Riley can move his free arm between Inoichi releasing Shintenshin no Jutsu and Riley taking control of his mind in the span of less than one second. On top of that, he broke my Kagemane no Jutsu with ease!
Not only that Inoichi and Shikaku were shocked, Takeo, Hana, and Anko were terrified by that result. Takeo quickly scrambled backward with a fear that quickly instilled in him and lost a lot of sweat, trembling.
Hana still held the ashes of what her Mother was before. She was so terrified by the enemy, but at the same time, she felt anger towards him for what he had done so cruelty against her comrades and her Mother, and Kudomaru.
Anko still held fallen Ibiki to her chest, still figuring out how she could deal with him. Maybe should she summon the snake? That was only necessary move she had to make if she was put in perilous situation.
His eyes were shaking, as they slowly moved down at his arm—which turned to be armless right now, and it continued pouring the blood, spilling into the pound of blood on the ground. With just fingers, he lost his arm in the process?!
"He overused his power because he desired the power, and he wanted to feel good about having a power. He had countless kills, and he enjoyed all of them. That made him realize that he can do so much that power provided for him and he used every single opportunity he saw. It doesn't matter who or what kind of his opponents were. He used them every single time. He relied on power more often than not."
Riley's lips turned into a cruel grin, looking at damaged Choza like crazy. "Power… Power… Power… With that, I shall make sure that you get to suffer the most painful you will ever have before your death."
He adjusted his hand where he wanted to aim at. He wanted to aim right at the chest exactly. That's where he wanted to see him suffering from there. He spread his fingers widely, emitting the lightning from each finger. He would increase the size of lightning until he was satisfied with the size. All of them were a size of golf balls. His face looked like he was full of bloodthirsty. "Hehehehehehe!"
Finally, the energy of lightning released and travel really fast into the body of Choza whom was received the powerful volt that caused a serious damage to every limb of his body. The head clan of Akimichi gave most loud painful scream that would make his comrades' hair stand out.
Riley laughed insanely. "That's right! Suffer, suffer, suffer! You can't have an easy live, huh? I bet you thought you were going to have a peaceful death, didn't you?! HAHA! No, I will never kill them instantly. They get to face my wrath and they shall be tortured before I get to decide that they die! MORE! MORE!"
The volt seemed to increase and expanded all across the victim's body, as his scream became louder and louder now. His hands clenched, trying to resist the powerful painful, but he could not relieve, as he continued to suffer the pain that generated from the lightning that traveled into his body.
However, his skins started to burn, which scrapped his skins off and soon became very dark skins. He shut his eyes, trying to forget all the pain he had suffered, but still unable to do so. He could only do was to wait for him to end his life. But he started to drift off into the unconscious which was noticed by his comrades and his enemy.
Choza's eyes started to blur and darkness started to catch up to him. 'I'm sorry, Inochi, Shika. Looks like I won't be here anymore. Choji, I will leave up to you to defend the Konohagakure. And… I love you. Please… stay alive, Choji." Before he could have fallen into the unconscious, he saw a glimpse of a blur that knocked Riley away. He could not see who, but he began to wonder who his savoir was, and he would like to thank him. But that did not matter anymore, because he was going to die anyways. After that, he finally drifted off into the unconscious, and automatically shrunk himself to regular size and fell onto the ground.
Riley's body knocked away and slid away from the attacker, as his sword spun around and landed with the sharp end of his blade, skewering into the ground far away behind him. He growled, "Who did this?!" He raised his head up to find out who blindside attacked him, only to find out a teenager boy standing few feet away from him with his right hand already raised, almost as if he beckoned him to come at him, and his left arm behind his back, also glaring at him.
Although constant lightning had stopped flickering around the storm, the rain still rapidly dropped as if it was caused by the mother's nature itself.
The attacker had shiny black hair that styled in bowl-cut, round eyes with prominent lower eyelashes, and very thick eyebrows. He wore a green jumpsuit under his standard Konoha flak jacket, orange leg warmers, and a red hitai-ate worn as a belt. He had bandages around his forearms up to his fingers.
"Lee!" cried the brunette kunoichi with twin Chinese buns hair who landed next to him and already started to scold him. The bowl-cut hair boy now called Lee pleaded for a forgiveness from her, but he knew what he just did was really reckless. Of course, he could not turn down not after what the lightning did to the village. That's why he needed to engage in the fight in order to stop him. He saw that Riley was about to kill Choza, so he had to put to end to the suffering.
Riley glanced around and found Inoichi and Shikaku who were by dying Choza's side. But he noticed that Inoichi seemed to weep for him. He wondered if Elementians have a soft spot for their fellow races. Shikaku stood behind Inoichi, who seemed to be in shock due to his failure strategy.
Lee turned his head and frowned at his enemy. "So you did this? You caused all of this?" He was referring to all the death and fire that burned the building down that he caused all of that. "So it was your doing?" He was disgusting with how Riley was so cruel towards his enemy.
Riley chuckled sadistically, putting his hand behind on the ground to push himself into his feet without doing a usual routine to get up like flopping around to get up. He used his strength of legs to get up front. "Pathetic weakling worms like you are fated to die… No expectation. You serve no purpose in a survival any longer. That's why I take their lives for a pleasant. Your lives are mine to toy around with. Preys… That's what you guys are. Monsters get to toy around with their preys. You people have no valuable to live. No reason for you to struggle when you clearly have no chance of winning against me. I'm the best ever there is! As long as I have a weapon, that is!"
He let his head back and erupted with a maniacal laughter. "That's right!" He could not help but to notice the terror on every single of his opponents. They started to show terror on their face once they realized they could not beat him. "That's the terror on your face I wanted to see! You finally realized that I'm the monster that remained undefeated forever! With the sword in my possession, I'm the strongest than all of you! I am the best, and I am undefeated! With one swing of a sword, it can cut anything in millions of pieces. Cut the body into the millions of pieces like puzzle can be funny thing to do. There's my favorite thing to do! Creating a puzzle of body and reassembled them all into the same place as well, but what's more, it's even more challenged when they're covered by the blood. It can be most difficult thing to do, yet most enjoyable and fun game!"
When he licked his lips, that send a shiver across every person's spine in this area. He had demonstrated how bloodthirsty he was and how insane he was.
"Yikes!" Tenten was overwhelmed by his bloodthirsty. She started to shake her body in fear. She felt bloodthirsty aura surging from the warrior here. He looked like he wanted to eat them, chowing their skins off and gnawing through their muscles until they became bones. She shook that thought off. She did not want to think about it right now. Normally, she was not scared when it came to mission. That's because he put a lot of trust in Gai, Neji, and Lee to work together with her. She trusted them. But now Neji and Gai are dead. Only two of them can help each other, but their chance of survival already lowered to zero already. She started to step backward, but not until Lee called out to her in a soft whisper.
"Tenten, I will protect you. Nothing will come to you as long as I'm around. That's a promise!" Rock Lee whispered in a low tone, only that she could heard. He did not glance at her once, but he did send her a "nice guy" smile.
She widened her eyes. "Lee…" Her smile quirked up into a soft smile, and her body stopped shaking. It indicated that she was no longer afraid of clinically insane guy. Now she felt safe as long as he's still around. Only that Rock Lee could protect her. She could protect herself, but she felt safer when he's around. That would make it easier for her to protect herself, and also protected her teammates too.
"Careful!" Inoichi shout out from faraway where he was kneeled by Choza's corpse, along with Shikaku standing by his side too. "He's not someone that you can fight so casually, Lee! He's too dangerous! A monster, I might add!"
Rock Lee nodded, already made aware of that. Before he arrived, he barely saw what Riley did to Choza. He was torturing him to death, and for that, Choza died with a horrible death. No matter who they were, no person deserved most horrible death. If anything, a quick, clean death would do. Not that he suggested killing people, but he never liked seeing someone suffering a long painful death. He did not like killing people either, but he knew sometimes killing people had to be done. That's why he prepared to kill Riley with a swift death when the time would come.
Riley, once again, licked his lips in pleasant, as he eyed the girl behind Lee. He thought he just saw a girl who was trembling with a fear before, but that boy just soothed her with an ease.
A cruel grin etched onto his lips. "Strong girl, yet dedicated and fragile girl." He noticed the small fear in her, but it seemed that she tried her best to not show her fear. "You look like a girl who thought she has a protective. But no one can be protected forever. Because I'm going to get you, he will live with his regret forever and his guilty will trip him. Eventually, he slashes himself in attempt to commit a suicide, but will failed again and again, because he will dwell about whatever I do to you, and he will recall how I kill you. His memory will involve me eating you alive. For example, I will take your right eyeball out of your socket and I will chow it and I will constantly open my mouth to show how tasty your eyeball will be. After that, I will butcher each of your limbs, removing them from your body, but not while I'm going to make sure that I will keep you alive, and you will watch me cooking them, and you will cry a lot. Lastly, but not least, I will use the sharp end of my blade to cut your guts up, and your guts intestines will come up. You will watch as I will eat your guts intestines… like a zombie. You will cry, and cry for your Momma, while I'm eating your guts intestines. Eventually, you will die a slow, painful death, and I will even let him live to live with the guilty forever. How's that sound?"
Tenten was taken aback by his cruel comment. Despite what Lee told her, she started to become afraid of him, because that was most disgusting comment she had ever heard. She did not wish to die like that.
"All right! I've decided! Let's see if you can save her!" Riley laughed manically before skyrocketing towards feared Tenten. She already froze in place with a fear, unable to move, because she did not know what to do. She wondered if he was seriously going to do that!
She then saw Riley appeared in front of her and already reached his hand for her face. She shut her eyes, expecting him to grab her face and slam her head down on the ground, but it never happened. She opened her eyes, and widened her eyes with a surprise. A boot only met with his face with the force to his cheek, sending him away through several buildings before they all collapsed, kicking up the dark dust as well.
She slowly glanced around at Rock Lee who recently landed and shot a glare at the direction where he knocked Riley away with a sidekick. She sighed with a relief. She never felt so miserable before in her life, but she was so grateful that he saved her life.
Destroyed Hokage's Mansion- Tsunade, Hirzuen and ANBU vs Coola
If the true wielder, as Coola claimed, was indeed here on this planet, then where would they be at? Were they fighting their enemies right now? But Coola's earlier statement about the true wielder and the power of each weapon was too powerful that could possibly threat to the universe had left Tsunade to ponder.
"You allowed that to happen." Tsunade narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "Why risk yourself when you know that by allowing the true wielder to hand out to seven potential members with each weapon and absorb their powers into him? Would that make him surpass you at some point? Surely, you won't allow that to happen."
Coola snickered. "Indeed, I won't allow that to happen. If unthinkable stuff were to happen, I'd be in serious trouble. However, it was not me that allowed to happen. They were recruited after that happened, and I only find out that later. Riley and the true wielder actually have met each other before. Only that the true wielder's identify is still questionable, as I have yet to uncover his identify yet. The identify of his gender still remains mystery."
"The identify of his gender still remains mystery." These were words that made Hirzuen and Tsunade feel uneasy. What does that mean? They both wondered about that.
"You're saying you don't know the identity of his gender? You can't tell whether it is he or she. Is it a hermaphrodites-type alien?" asked Hirzuen.
"No." Coola shook his head, leaving his finger on the bottom of his nose. "It is large mystery to me, indeed. When we first met each other, I had no intention of recruiting him into my squad, because he was nobody, and I had no dossier on him, so I assumed he was one of other weakling with little to no powers. And he had no intention of joining my squad. He came to me. Of course, with him in my presence was nuisance, so I could have annihilated him without any second thought, but he suddenly handed the eighth weapon which is dominant power of all weapons to me, which I respectfully denied. I have no need for the outside help that enables me to become more powerful than my younger brother. Instead, I wanted to develop my own strength and power by just training.
"I let him go rather than killing him. Once I go to the arena which was held to honor me and a potential member would be recruited to my squad. Royal members on that planet actually feared me. They offered me to watch over their Proving Ground so I can recruit whoever fitted to be in my squad, and I genuinely accepted. The planet I visited was a race of gladiators who only used weapons and Ki in fight. Unlike Thadusians, they were actually well-mannered and very sanity race. They were the enemy of Thaduisans, and they knew what was right or wrong, but they're a mere tools who served the king no matter what their orders were. They usually fought with a weapon, but there's one person who doesn't wield the weapon. Instead, he only used hand-to-hand combat. Surprisingly, he just defeated a gladiator who was the strongest in the world effortlessly. I liked what I saw, so I recruited him, which led them to nearly protest my recruitment, but thanks to my reputation, they allowed me to recruit him."
"Once we boarded on my spaceship, he spoke to me as if he had met me before. I could not recognize him, but once he changed his voice, I immediately realized that it was the same guy who attempted to convince me that by just acquiring the weapon, I could become the most powerful guy in the universe." He removed his fingers from the bottom of his nose and let his arms down on his side, giving them a hard stare. "His face was different and his body was different. Last time I met him, he was merely a weak person who looked like he could not fight at all. During his fight in the Proving Ground, his appearance completely changed. He looked like other gladiator with these bulky muscles and much taller. I learned that last time I met him, that was not his original appearance. He constantly changed his appearance after each kill he encountered. He long ago have forgotten his true identify. He no longer had a name, because he changed his appearance too many times, so does his name to protect him for exposing his disguise. He told me that he is actually an assassination, who hailed from the world of ninja, like your planet, but with the possession of Ki. He is what he called himself. 'No One'."
Tsunade and Hirzuen stifled a gasp.
Coola sighed and continued. "He asked me that he was to be instated in the lower rank of my soldiers, so that way no one could know that he was as important as my top elite soldiers. Among my soldiers, he remained 'No One'. No one knew who he was, not even myself. I knew he was still in my squad, but he continued to change his appearance often after every time he killed to remind him how many kills he had made. To prove that he's as important as some soldiers in my squad, I gave him an insignia to prove that he was 'No One', and of course, he must wear his battle armor to avoid the confusion and alert."
"You have no idea who he was or where he was, correct?" Hirzuen questioned him with suspicious eyes.
"Correct." Coola replied, chuckling. He could see where Hirzuen was going with.
"Supposedly, he is in this village right now, and he's fighting somewhere right now with someone else's identify. In the worst case, he could take the appearance of our comrades, pretending to be their comrade and then 'betray' them, only to find that he was 'No One'?"
"Perhaps… Not even that I can figure out where he was or who he was right now. That's why he's in the lower rank in my squad, so I don't have to deal with it, but he's certainly stronger than Riley Harris, for someone who is captain of his group. Perhaps you should be careful, especially after I told you about 'No One.' He could be among you, pretending to be someone else." Tsunade and Hirzuen, even ANBU tensed, and began to look at each other, as if they could not trust each other anymore. He snorted amusedly. "He thought it was funny, but he had to be honest with them. He did not wish them to kill each other. He wanted to test their abilities after all. "Forgive me. I did not mean to cause you the distrust of your comrades. If I were to make an assumption on the whereabouts of 'No One', he could be among the group where they're currently fighting Riley Harris. Or he could be Riley Harris. Who knows?"
Of course, if he ever found out that 'No One' actually killed one of his fellow members, then he would have to deal with him. There was a rule that they were not allowed to kill each other. He smirked, loving the shock on his opponents' face. It never had been a pleasant when you thought you could trust your comrade with your life, only to be 'betrayed' by them.
Rock Lee vs Riley Harris
The rubbles of building that was recently destroyed over there just blew up, revealing the enraged bulky man. "Why, you! You're persistent guy! Looks like I'm going to teach you a lesson." His lips twitched into a cruel grin, having a pretty idea of what he's going to do with him.
Tenten flinched. When she saw his smile like that, she knew he had pretty some disgusting idea like eating her eyeball and her guts intestines for example. Who knows what he had on his mind right now?
"With all due respect, sir, I doubt you're going to be on par with me in a hand-to-hand combat." Lee stated flatly, in a politeness, yet his voice held irritating tone. His right hand bent few times, beckoning Riley, indicating that he wanted him to fight him right now.
Riley snarled, baring his teeth. "WHAT?!" He absolutely hated that boy. Not only that this boy gave a boot to his face, this boy also declared the outcome of the battle without even started to fight once. 'Who does he think he is? Does he think he has a right to make fun of my street fight skills? He's going to regret once he sees how amazing my fighting skills would be! I will show him why he should not mess with me!'
'Idiot! You will only provoke him further to kill you in an instant once the fight started!' thought Inoichi, slightly panicked. Earlier, when he managed to mind control Riley, he was encountered by the same guy who managed to transfer himself into his mindscape. He was nearly strangled to death by him and was threatened if he would not undo the jutsu, then he would be killed at where he was right now. He had to hold onto that until Choza's fist was about to touch him, then he undid the jutsu, but that did not work out.
Shikaku clenched his fists in contemplation, disappoint in himself for his failure strategy. He was filled with regret and sorrow, only because his most precious teammate, other than Inoichi, had fallen to one of Riley's victim, thanks to his failure strategy. 'Disarming his weapon was our top priority in our strategy. That was the essence of his power when he relied on his weapon too much. In other words, it would weaken him once he was disarmed, and we would have been won at that moment. Yet… yet… he had done in an instant. He disarmed him all in just one move! He had done that that we could not. But…' He knew he would have to thank him when this was over. Without Lee's help, they all would have done if he had not intervened.
'Mom…!' Hana tearfully cried for her Mother in silence. Her tears rolled onto her cheek, dropping to the ground. 'Only if I could ignore the fight and take Takeo out, we would not have been in this situation! You would not have been dead! Choza would not have been dead, either! Only if…' She clenched the ashes to her chest, as some of them slipped out of her hands back to the pound of ashes. She realized that the reason her Mother died was because she did not carry out orders immediately. After Kuromaru, all she did was to cry and desperately attempted to heal him, but it eventually failed, he did not give a second thought about escorting Takeo out of here. She stood and gawked like a dog, which sadly had costed her Mother's life.
With the late Ibiki on her laps, Anko clenched her fists on his damaged shirt, glaring at Riley. She never liked insane people, because Orochimaru was the reason why she was hated by the Konohagakure because of her being Orochimaru's pupil. Since that day when Orochimaru became a criminal, she was viewed as a traitor, even though she was never a traitor herself. She knew crazy people when she saw. When she saw crazy people, her rage escalated, and she wanted to kill them so badly. Riley Harris was one of example. Luckily, due to her shock after witnessing Ibiki's death, her rage did not escalate faster, but instead, she was in sorrow, simply glaring at him.
"LEE!" Anko screamed. "What're you waiting for?! Kill him already!" Riley twisted his cruel smile even more when she said that. "If you don't, I will kill him!"
"Hehehehehe…" Riley gave out a small chuckle at first, but later on, his small chuckle quickly became maniac laughter. "HAHAHAHA! KILL ME, YOU SAY?!" He scoffed at Anko, who slowly turned into a very slow, seething rage. He returned his eyes to Rock Lee who was more than ready to fight him soon. "Haha… I can't believe! You had me there! I can't believe you actually told a crude joke. Are Elementians really capable of telling a joke like that? Aren't they supposed to be smartest race in the universe? Did not realize smart people can be stupid too! You… More than on the par with me in hand-to-hand combat? Are you serious? Or was that joke? I will have you known that I won the street fight tournament back on my planet! Aside from my amazing swordsmanship, I am the strongest unarmed fighter on my planet! Do not for a second think that I'm really weak without my sword! It's quite the contrary."
Rock Lee still beckoned him over to fight him now already. "Then come at me with all of your strength. Give me your best!"
Riley's cruel smile never faded, as he raised his fists in front of his face in the form of street fight-like stance, and Rock Lee frowned at that. That was the weakest stance Lee ever had seen, but he could not judge solely based on that stance.
Tenten widened his eyes, gaping at Rock Lee's back. 'You…' She never had seen him going serious for once. Usually, he would shout 'springtime of youth' no matter who he faced, even if his enemy was really dangerous. But not this time… That was the first he had seen that face. Well, he had seen that serious face before. There was a time when Lee fought Gaara back in the Chuunin Exam Finals. It was the last match of the first round of the Chuunin Exam Finals.
Flashback Began- Two years ago- Chuunin Exams Finals- Konohagakure Stadium
Rock Lee already found a way to bypass Gaara's absolute defense, but he needed to defeat him once and for all to advance to the second round. So with the approve of Gai-sensei, he used Omote Renge (Front Lotus) on Gaara, kicking up the massive dust which astonished spectacular in the stadium. It was amazing fight that they never had seen before. For a while silence filled the air, but once they realized the greatness of the fight, they cheered loudly for the amazing match between Rock Lee and Gaara. They would rate this match as the match of the year and even rated this better than the battle of the Hyuuga between Neji and Hinata that recently took a place before this match. No match could ever top this at all!
At that moment, they all thought it was over, even Rock Lee himself. His ankle was sprained a bit, so he had to kneel to soothe his ankle for a while, watching the dust cleared soon.
However, as soon the dust became cleared, the face of Gaara began to crack, surprising everyone, except the Sand sibling, in the stadium.
"What?!" shocked Rock Lee. "T-That's…" Once he got clear view of prone Gaara, he opened his mouth, gaping. 'It's the empty shell of sand!'
Indeed, Gaara looked like he was made of empty shell of sand. His face already fell apart, and sand spilled onto the floor.
Gai was surprised. 'When did that…?! That's not possible!' Gai stood on the upper stair inside the section, alongside Kakashi, who also preferred standing as well and Tenten, Ino, Kiba and even Choji who did not make to the finals, sitting among the seats. Neji was recently delivered to the hospital because of fatal damaged by Hinata since the first match. Shikamaru, despite almost winning the match, surrendered to Temari and made his explanation that it was pointless to advance to next round his chakra was almost running out, due to frequent usage of his shadow jutsu in the second match. Shino automatically won the match because Kankuro decided to forfeit the match before they even had a chance to fight in the third match, because he did not want to fight Gaara next round if he had won the match.
Tenten also opened her mouth, gaping at the form of Gaara. In the first match of the preliminary, Rock Lee and she had only seen Gaara displayed nothing but the use of his sand to kill the Konohagakure ninja in the mask. Therefore, he was declared as the winner. That's why Rock Lee struggled against Gaara, because a lot of technique he never had seen Gaara using them.
"While you had your eyes closed and were praying," said Kakashi, staring at Gai.
Gai looked around at Kakashi, shocked. "What?"
"For a moment, Lee stopped moving because of the pain in his body. At that moment… that's when!" Kakashi explained the situation to Gai the reason why Rock Lee did not win the match immediately.
Tenten looked up at Kakashi for a brief, before looking back at the match, silent praying that Lee would be okay. 'Lee…'
Rock Lee panted heavily, watching Gaara dissolved his shell of sand body. He sensed the danger behind him, and he turned around immediately, shifting into his guard, only to find that Gaara was morphed from the sand into his original form. He widened his eyes in shock, stepping back. He was greeted with the cruel smile on Gaara's face with the sand spilling from his top head.
"That's…!" Temari shocked, standing at the rest area where every participant was gathered there to wait for their next match.
Kankuro was trembling with fear at the sight of his younger brother. "There's no doubt about it—his eyes… He's completely awake… The demon… inside him."
That's when Gaara began to unleash his attack on Rock Lee with every intention of killing him, spreading concern across the stadium. Every people, including his siblings, were afraid of that 'demon' who already unleashed all his attacks on Rock Lee, injuring him in the process. However, Rock Lee eventually defended himself from every attack Gaara unleashed on. That moment when they all thought that Gaara had him.
Tenten was worried about him, thinking that he was dead already, only to find out that Rock Lee guarded himself. Apparently, he could not dodge anymore, due to his ankle broken at that moment. They were relieved that he was alive. However, Gaara licked his lips in pleasant. He wanted to toy around with him, and he wanted to hurt him so badly. Then he planned to kill him once he got bored with him.
Gaara did not give him a chance to take a breath for a second, as he continued to launch every attack with the sand at exhausted Rock Lee. Lee kept dodging most of sand attacks, but sometimes he took the damage to his limbs. He would tremble his legs in struggle of standing up firmly. At least he could stand and still moved. But his chakra was running out.
Tenten could stand watching Rock Lee desperately tried to stay alive, so she screamed and pleaded him to surrender. However, Rock Lee refused to give up. Despite all that, Rock Lee shifted into his usual stance, as he smiled at Gaara who already launched another sand attack. It would seem that he gained his confidence once again. He somehow used his amazing maneuver to dodge every sand attacks.
Everyone in the stadium were shocked that the movement had returned to Lee. Deep down, this guy had a feeling that his sensei was smiling and watching him, which boosted his confidence to resume his fighting against Gaara. He believed that he could come back and become stronger and stronger than ever!
Now he dodged Gaara's sand attacks with ease. He danced around to dodge every sand that Gaara launched at him with the proud confidence he had right now. He planned to return all the favor to Gaara for all the damage had been done to him. He was going to fight back, rather than defending himself whole times. The reason he had that confidence because Gai said something about 'The Leaf's Lotus blossoms twice.' It would mean that Rock Lee would be even stronger man next time.
Tenten was not sure what that meant, but he continued to listen to Kakashi and Gai's banter.
Kakashi turned around at Gai and shocked. "No. Gai! You haven't?!"
Gai chuckled. "It's exactly as you imagine."
Kakashi glared at him, clearly disapproved of Gai's teaching of the technique. "So that Genin… that boy can open the Hachimon (Eight Inner Gates) in his body and use the Ura Renge (Hidden Lotus)…"
Tenten widened his eyes in shock. 'Ura Renge?'
"That's right…" That was all Gai could say, while watching Rock Lee constantly dodging Gaara's sand attacks.
"This is incredible." Kakashi amazed, yet still glaring at him. "Gai… How many of the Hachimon can that boy open now…?"
Gai closed his eyes and sighed. "Five gates."
Tenten did not know that Rock Lee had received some kind of special training given by their sensei. But she could not be kept in the dark any longer more, so she decided to ask them. "What exactly is it? These Hachimon and that Ura Renge?"
"The Hachimon are 'Limiter Releases' used in preparations for reaching the Ura Renge," explained Gai.
"A 'Limiter Releases'?"
Kakashi turned back at the match where Rock Lee still smiled at his opponent and lifted his hitai-ate that covered his left upward, revealing his left Sharingan. "That's right… In the Chakra Network where chakra flows, there are eight places where the chakra points are concentrated in each area of the body from the head area down—Kaimon (Gate of Opening), Kyumon (Gate of Healing), Seimon (Gate of Life), Shomon (Gate of Pain), Tomon (Gate of Limit), Keimon (Gate of View), Kyomon (Gate of Wonder), and Shimon (Gate of Death). These are called the Hachimon. These eight gates continually 'limit' the amount of Chakra flowing through the body… However, the Renge's essence is to force the boundaries of these 'limits' to open… and bring out several tens of times the body's strength.
"The Omote Renge (Primary Lotus) opens only the first gate, the Kaimon, and releases the brains restraints to bring forth a person's muscles' strength to its fullest! That's the kind of technique it is."
"So… what is the Ura Renge?" Tenten asked a question again. From what he had heard, that technique was not something that you should use often. It seemed like that if you used all the gates, you would die. She could not believe that Gai and Lee would learn that technique.
This time, it was Gai who replied. "After forcing the stamina to increase at the second gate, Kyumon. From the third gate, Seimon, one enters the Ura Renge!"
"What?!" shocked Tenten, shifting his gaze back at the match. "Even after using just the Omote Renge, his body was in shambles. So if he uses a technique beyond that..."
Kakashi nodded. "That's right. By opening all the 8 gates, one attains strength exceeding even the Hokage, but in return… one dies!"
Tenten widened her eyes, also including her fellow comrades who had listened to the conversation the entire time.
Kakashi narrowed his eyes and glared at Gai with the voice of disapproval. "I don't intend to pry into what that boy means to you or tell you not to bring your personal feelings into play… But there is a limit! I've misjudged you… Gai!"
Gai returned his glare at his eternal rival. "What do you know… about that boy?!" He looked down at Rock Lee who still stand, watching Gaara to do something soon, and frowned. "There is something important which that boy wants to prove and protect even if it costs him his life. That's why I… wanted to make him a man that could protect that thing. That's all there is…"
He began to reminisce himself to how he first taught Lee the important lesson of the new technique, Hachimon and Ura Renge!
Rock Lee also looked back to the time when Gai first taught him about them. There's something he needed to do something. That's the technique he needed to use to defeat Gaara for once and all.
He raised his arms and crossed his arms in front of his face, as Gaara generated more sands out of his gourd, floating around his body. Suddenly, his invisible aura flared up, which increased the strength of wind over, sending a shiver across every single person in the stadium, including his opponent. However, his opponent was not afraid.
Gaara frowned, raising his hands clasped into index and middle fingers. "I don't know what you're planning to do… But this is the end for you."
"That's true…" Rock Lee agreed, while still powering up. "In any case… it will be the end with the next." He closed his eyes, imaging his comrades and friends. "Neji… Tenten… and… Team 7…" When he made it to the tower, he did not see any sign of Team 7, so he thought they must have died, but it was impossible since there was Naruto and Sasuke in that team. But after the preliminary, he later learned that Team 7 disappeared somewhere in the Forest of Death.
His power up began to creak the concrete, as they were let up and floated around his body. "There is no way that I alone can lose in a place like this!" Somewhere in his feeling, he knew that Gai was smiling proudly at him. 'Gai-sensei… please allow this…! It is now!"
He lowered his head, continuing to power up, as the ground began to shake, levitating a fragments of concrete. However, his skins just turned into more dark skin, and his aura just flared up a blue little more. He waved his arms down, revealing the blank eyes and veins flowed towards his eyes, but it was not Byakugan. That was coming from the Hachimon.
"The time to carry through and protect one's own nindo, the way of the ninja!" Rock Lee screamed, his aura continued to flare up, bellowing the wind across over all people in the stadium. They could feel the tense of the aura. "The third gate, Seimon… open!"
Kakashi widened his eyes slightly. Temari and Kankuro were baffled. Hinata was overwhelmed by the power of his aura, wondering if she could still match to Neji's eternal rival after his display in the match. Shikamaru, despite being lazy, actually got on the edge of his seat. Kiba opened his mouth, gaping at Rock Lee's technique. Choji just held his favorite chip to his mouth, opening his mouth in shock. Ino was speechless. Tenten was shocked also, but she could mutter "Lee…". Gaara, widened his eyes at the display of his opponent's power.
Gai's mouth already bared his teeth, grinning proudly.
"The color of his body changed…" Hinata muttered shockingly at the rest area. She could not lose her confidence, not after Team 7 disappeared during the Forest of Death, and she still needed to prove to Hiashi that she was not the same weak girl that everyone knew. She gulped, already gained her confidence. If she could beat Neji, then she should be able to beat everyone. She did not want her one month of training go to waste. She needed to win the Chuunin Exam, because if she did, she would be able to face her sister for the title of the heiress. She needed to have that title to return to the righteous heiress. Her opponent was tough, too. She set her eyes at Temari who was gaping at the match. She gripped her hands on the fence tightly. She remembered that Temari was the same girl who brutal wounded her good friend, Tenten, during the preliminary. Truth be told, she was really scared when she learned that she was going to face Neji. She did not have that confidence before, not until she was under the training in order to defeat him. 'I can do it… I can beat Temari, Lee, and even Gaara!'
"W-What the hell?! His skin is red…?!" Kiba barked, also shocked, somewhere at the seat alongside Tenten, Ino, and Choji.
"What's up with him…?!" Kankuro leaned towards the fence and confused, standing next to Temari.
"He opened the third gate, Seimon… He's going to make his move!" said Kakashi.
"No, not yet!" Gai said, causing Kakashi to look at him in shock.
"What?!"
Rock Lee continued to power up the green aura that shrouded from his body, and his blue chakra swirled around his body. He bent his body down and clenched his fists tightly, screaming louder and louder. "And also, the fourth gate, Shomon… open!" His sweating dripped on his forehead, and veins from his upper forehead started to flow down across his forehead.
'What an incredible guy…' Kakashi baffled to witness the display of Lee's power. 'It's not as though effort alone can make this happen… That boy… is he in fact a genius…?' He did not realize that he actually thought that out aloud.
Rock Lee crouched down and leaned before kicking up the ground, causing a crater, charging towards, as it increased his velocity. When his velocity, the ground ripped up, causing the massive dust across the arena. No one could see that, but only that Lee could see inside these massive dust.
Gaara was met with the foot up in the square of jaws, knocking upward into the sky, emerged from the massive dust. It bellowed the dust and spread them across the entire stadium, forcing them to guard their eyes to protect their eyes. They even felt the wind bellowing over them!
Kakashi let his guard arms down and widened his eyes in bafflement. 'He's fast!'
Kankuro took a glance beyond his guard arms, widened his eyes in shock. "Gaara!" He scoured around, wondering where his youngest brother had gone to! "Where are they?!"
Shikamaru quickly realized something, as he looked up at the sky. "He's above!" Indeed, Gaara was still knocking up into the air, gritting his teeth with the mix of anger and shock, as his face started to crack, due to the sand armor that protected himself. Sooner or later, he was going to lose all that sand armor.
Ino sat on the edge of her seat, staring up at Gaara in shock. "But we can't find Lee!"
The moment Ino mentioned Lee, Choji quickly looked around the arena. "Where?!"
Gai's smile widened, knowing what Lee would do next.
Normally, the sand was supposed to be so quick to guard Gaara when it noticed something that was going to touch him, but this time, it was left behind, but it crawled towards him on mid-air. But…
'The sand isn't keeping up at all!' thought Tenten. She knew he was so fast but…
Gaara growled a little, as he started to lose all of his sand armor.
"So it's the sand armor again…?" The voice of Lee echoed from somewhere, while he circled Gaara at very high velocity of speed. "Then how's this?!" From one moment, he leapt, and then next moment, he appeared above Gaara, who responded with the surprise. That moment when he realized that his own sand was not keeping up with him.
Next thing Gaara knew, his body was met with another force, jolting downward, emitting the shockwave from his opponent. Before he could hit the ground, Lee appeared behind him at a speed where no one could see with their naked eyes, and kicked him up further into the sky.
Gaara shut his eyes, groaning in the pain. Eventually, his sand armor was going to dissolve from all that rapid attack. He opened his eyes, and gritted his teeth in shock. He diverted his pupil to his right corner of his eyes, but as soon as he did that, Lee appeared by his side, sending him through the air again.
Lee rapidly knocked Gaara around in the air at such a speed. Gaara never reached the floor, as he stayed in the air, which seemed like a forever, because Lee knocked him around the circle.
'What…?!' Gaara shut his right eye, gritting his teeth in the pain. He never experienced such an enormous pain before in his life. That was the first time he had experienced that in his life. In fact, he never experienced being tossed around like a rag doll before. 'This sand armor is…' Before he could finish the sentence in his thought, he was kicked around again, which, indeed, was slower than Lee's speed. Lee's speed surpassed that speed of thought. However, he insisted to finish that sentence in his thought. '…being peeled away…'
"You're a stubborn one!" Lee reappeared behind him and kicked him, emitting another shockwave from him, and knocking his opponent away. His intention was to destroy Gaara's whole sand armor, so he could finish him once and for all, but it seemed that he had no idea.
Rock Lee bounced off from the ground and above Gaara near the wall, startling rest of participant at the rest area. "Since it comes to this…" He spread his left arm, slowly curled his hand into a fist and bent his arm.
'The muscles have torn…" Kakashi realized. Gai frowned, noticing that too, but he was still proud of his student nonetheless.
Tenten widened her eyes and looked up at Rock Lee in antonishment. 'Lee…?' If Neji was here, he would be surprised to see him performing like that.
Rock Lee kicked the wall off, lurching towards Gaara on mid-air, who was in shock and pulled his fist back. "This is the end!" He struggled to move his limbs, because his muscles were already torn. He strained his body and lifted his right foot slowly. "The fifth gate, Shomon… open!"
While they both were descending towards the ground, Gaara's eyes widened even more. That moment when he knew he screwed up already. 'I can't defend myself…' He had no choice but to put his arms to guard himself in an old fashion way. 'Is this the movement of a human being?'
'Neji…' Rock Lee thought. He remembered how Hinata defeated Neji, but he still wished that Neji was still here to watch his match. He slowly glanced around at Hinata who defeated Neji. Her pale eyes widened in shock. 'She has the same eyes as Neji.' He realized that. He slowly turned his head back at his opponent with the resolution eyes on his face. 'This technique is my ace in the hole to take you down… but I will specially show it to you!'
His velocity continued to increase, as his body began to shift into the blur, knowing that Gaara was going to defend himself. He was not going to give him any chance. He disappeared out of blur.
"Huh?!" Gaara was surprised.
But in next instant, Rock Lee already slammed his fist onto Gaara's stomach, doubled him over, and also shattered a part of his sand armor. He gave a barrage of punches right to the guts, and then gave out a quick, yet powerful punch to the guts, emitting another shockwave, as Gaara's body was reeling back towards the ground.
Gaara tried to calm himself and closed his eyes, just as his body was about to hit the floor, but a bandage around his waist that was already loose was suddenly grabbed by Rock Lee in this moment, halting him from fully reaching the floor with a fall. He widened his eyes, staring at Lee in shock. How possibly could Lee do that? Such a speed!
Not even at this speed… At this speed, the sand just finally started to come back down towards Gaara, but that speed of Lee was too fast for the sand to compete.
"The sand shield can't keep up,' realized Temari.
'Most of the armor has also been peeled off… He's done for!' thought Gaara.
Gai witnessed a marvelous speed that displayed by his student. 'The Ura Renge… in other words… it's high-speed continuous Taijutsu that can't even be touched! The answer to take Neji down is that high speed combination… There is no way that the sand can keep up! That technique will be the last!"
Rock Lee opened his palm and keep its to his side, and his other hand that already gripped the bandage of Gaara, pulling him upward at him, screaming. He slowly began to reel his both free palm and his foot, much to the chagrin of the jinichuriki.
His palm and his foot gave a hard force to the guts, doubled him over again. "Ura Renge!" In next instant, Gaara's body knocked away within the shockwave once again, kicking up the massive dust that finally enveloped the entire stadium.
Flashback Ended
Tenten frowned. But that turned out a horrible outcome between them that day. In that match, Rock Lee lost the match. The reason why he lost the match was because Gaara's gourd turned into the sand, which still protected Gaara's body from being damaged too much. Needless to say, Gaara still remained unharmed even after all that happened, which shocked everyone. That was the last of his sand armor to use up. All of his sand armor already dissolved, but unfortunately, that was the last of Rock Lee's technique.
Gaara survived.
In the end, Rock Lee, already exhausted of his chakra and most of his muscles were already torn, tried to escape when the wave of sand was sent towards him, and his arm and leg were caught by the sand… and…
Once the sand grabbed his only arm and leg, he could not escape anymore. He tried to get out of them, but he could not, because the grip of his sands were too strong. Once Gaara clenched his fist, that sand crushed his arm and leg, which eventually rendered him unconscious. The sand jinichuriki would try to end his life, but Gai stepped in to save Lee, giving him a lecture about the precious people.
However, Gaara was declared as winner and would advance to next round to face Shino. And later, everyone would learn that Rock Lee's career as a shinobi was over. Rock Lee was pretty upset about that, and Tenten would come to visit him often, trying to cheer him up. There was plenty of another career for Lee to pick up. But Lee was determined to not give up ever.
Thankfully, she was rejoiced when she learned that Tsunade came back along with Jiraiya and gave Lee a surgery with the 50/50 for him to survive. If failure, Rock Lee would die. But since Rock Lee had a faith in Tsunade, she performed a surgery with the helping of her healing and her fellow medical-nin. Needless to say, Rock Lee's surgery was successfully, and he would have had a rehab of long-term to return to his life as a ninja once again.
She looked at Rock Lee's back with a smile, remembering how happy Lee was once he finally returned to being a ninja again. He never changed, but he was resolved to become stronger and stronger ever, so he would not have to go through the same experience again.
Rock Lee waited patiently for his opponent to start making a move. He was disappointed if Riley used the stance like that. It was the weak stance, but let's hope he was wrong about that. Maybe Riley was still strong enough to challenge him in Taijutsu.
Riley finally made his move, as he ran towards his opponent and lunged his fist towards him, only to miss, as Rock Lee sidestepped very simple. He delivered another punch, yet missed with the effortlessly evaded by his opponent. He started to irritate, so he quickly released his punch faster. He gave all of his best by a barrage of punches right at his head.
Rock Lee dodged every single of fist that launched at him effortlessly. "Your form of stance is weak, and the release of your punch is at level of amateur. The way you fight… Street fight, isn't it? That's the form of fighting level used by the civilians here when they're fighting. However, I admitted that your level of fighting is way better than most civilians. Compared to you, they're slow at fighting, and they have slow reflexes at that. But it's still amateur, nonetheless."
"WHY, YOU!" Riley hissed, launching his fist at his opponent again.
But this time, Rock Lee simply slapped his hand away, and Riley's eyes widened. Then Rock Lee swept his legs, causing him to fall down. But not before Riley noticed that Lee had not completed his motion, as he placed his hand on the ground to spin around.
'What?!' Riley widened his eyes in shock. He had never seen that kind of move before. He only had seen someone who pulled an amazing dance. It was like Rock Lee did a dance and fight at the same time.
Once Rock Lee completed his motion on the spun, he already had his back turned on Riley, before using his back leg to kick him right in the face, sending him across the ground.
Riley's body skipped on the ground across the ground before slamming against the wall and falling onto the ground, having his face onto the pound of water that was created by the rain. The rain was still ongoing, falling down from the storm. It did not dissolve yet… The water quickly got into his system, which caused him to cough up, panting heavily, and glaring at Rock Lee who already stood with one of his arm behind his back.
"You rely too much on your sword. That's one of primary reason why your hand-to-hand combat level is on par with most civilians here… without a speed and Ki." Rock Lee said. "And your movements are too slow. At that level of speed, you're not going to win against me unless you use the weapon. Without the weapon in your possession, you're already useless, sir."
"SHUT UP!" Riley's rage exploded. He crouched down, pressuring the ground into the crater before he already headed towards the calm and collected guy, who seemed to be his uncharacteristic today. He raised his fist before propelling it towards Rock Lee. However, once he straightened his fist, his wrist was merely slapped by Rock Lee which caused him to lose his balance and roll onto the ground.
But Riley did not stop there, as he immediately rolled onto his feet and turned around, only to meet with the foot to the square of his jaws, jolting up into the sky. His jaws clenched, and he slowly diverted his eyes down, only to find that his opponent was not there. "What?!"
He then looked up and widened his eyes. Rock Lee was already above him, began delivering his leg down to his head. 'So f-fast!'
"Ðainamikku Entori! (Dynamic Entry)" Rock Lee shouted, delivering a boot to the face, damaging his nose, as it caused the blood, and his opponent's body quickly reeled back to the ground, kicking up the dust.
Rock Lee spun around and finished landing with one of his knee lifted up, and his other foot stood like a crane, and his arms were up, almost as if he was flapping his wings. After that, he reassembled his favorite stance, as he was watching the dust to clear.
The dust cleared, and it revealed Riley on his knees, coughing and constantly wiping the blood off his face. For a moment, he gathered some of his oxygen, and once settled, he moved his head up to give a taijutsu specialist a hateful glare.
"Damn you! W-Why can't I…?" He scowled, rage started to build up inside him.
He absolutely refused to lose to someone like Rock Lee who could only do hand-to-hand combat? Without the weapon, he was nothing but a weakling, and he loathed the term 'weakling' if directed at him. That boy made him look like a fool, and he did not wish to be the one! He tried to dig his hand on the ground, but he realized it was made of concrete, so he slid his hand down the floor, as it scratched them, trying to contain his rage.
"Why can't I beat you?! Of all people here, how comes you're only one who can stand up to me?! And why are you not afraid of me, a MONSTER?!" Riley screamed. "WHY?!"
"Because…" Rock Lee began, "I am the taijutsu specialist." He then noticed the confusion on his opponent's face. "It is a hand-to-hand combat that only involves the martial arts techniques. They're a lot quicker than ninjutsu or genjutsu. In other words, ninja techniques and illusion techniques. To put it simply, ninja techniques and illusion techniques are a source of chakra that most ninja relied on to win the battle, and hand-to-hand combat are a source of chakra that would require no chakra to use. Instead, they're for those that wanted to converse their chakra and use them for later in case of emergency. I will have you know that I cannot use ninjutsu or genjutsu, because I lacked in them. Therefore, I only used taijutsu."
"Damn…" Riley hissed, still waiting for Rock Lee to finish his explanation.
"You, on other hand, are not specialized in taijutsu, and your taijutsu is weak that is incomplete with a ninja. Any ninja can beat you, even if they're not good at taijutsu. Now come…" Rock Lee finished explaining, still beckoning him to attack him.
Irritating, Riley knew that Rock Lee was provoking him, but he could not absolutely stand any longer more! He was going to lose if he was not going to use the weapon. He needed to use the weapon to defeat Rock Lee. 'He's going to pay for it!' Speak of devil, he spotted his favorite sword right there next to him.
Soon, his lips slowly turned into an evil grin, and his eyes suddenly filled with the confidence again. "Forget about the hand-to-hand combat! You're right! I ain't no good at this, so instead…" He laughed loudly, as he stood up and reached for his sword nearby, which Shikaku and everyone else noticed.
"Oh, no!" Shikaku yelled. "Once he picks it up, it's all over for us! That is the essence of his power. In other words, he is untouchable! That's one of main reason why we were struggling against him. The whole purpose of our strategy is to disarm him, so we can defeat him."
"What?!" shocked Lee. He did not know about that. He simply thought they were struggling against him, because he was the master of sword. But now he understood why no one could beat him if he were to use the weapon. That's because it was too hard to disarm him. Only the reason why he was able to disarm him because he blindsided him. Right now, he did not think it would work on that psycho again.
"Shit!" Inoichi cursed. "Now it's all over for us!"
Riley Harris grabbed the sword and pulled it out of the ground, laughing wildly. "HAHAHAHA!" His evil grin became a sadistic grin, and titled his head down, which made him look like the most insane person in the world. "Forget about killing you! I am going to kill everyone else, except you! So you can live with your regret and guilty forever, because you will be unable to protect them around you! I AM GOING TO MAKE YOU MY SLAVE FOREVER AND I AM GOING TO TORTURE YOU EVERY DAY AND NIGHT! YOU WILL DO BID AS I SAY! YOU WILL KILL FOR ME, YOU WILL MAIM FOR ME, AND YOU WILL DO EVERYTHING FOR ME! YOU ARE GOING TO REGRET IT NOW!"
He hefted his sword up towards the storm, which began to emit the lightning from them, as they rapidly flickered down. One of them struck a random building, which fueled the fire.
"NO! I WON'T LET YOU!" Anko screamed within a rage, spreading her arm up, which launched a bunch of snakes towards him. However, snakes were annihilated before they even touched him. Apparently, there was an aura of lightning that shrouded around Riley. "What?!"
"W-What's that?" Tenten looked up at the sky, widening her eyes, and shaking her eyes. She saw something that cannot be explained.
Rock Lee and other else glanced up at the huge storm and widened their eyes. What they saw was a storm that turned into a red, and lightning that rapidly flickered down were no longer blue, and they all became red. It was almost as if the storm raged right now. They did not know why, but maybe it had to do something with Riley's doing.
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Riley laughed uncontrollably.
Takeo was really scared. Despite his earlier bravery, he was still scared of what Riley would do. He imagined what that monster would do to them. Was his body going to be wiped out if the red lightning struck him down? He crawled backward, afraid of the lightning. He was supposed to be killed, but it was Tsume who saved him. Now he was beginning to think that it was all his fault. Now he realized he did not want to die. All he wanted was to redeem himself. Suddenly, red lightning flickered down towards him, which seemed a random.
He froze in fear. It was going to struck him. He did not know what to do. He knew he could not dodge, so he shut his eyes.
"WATCH OUT!" Hana cried, tackling him away from the lightning that smoked the ground. Somehow, she managed to save him. She was not going to let him die, even if he thought it was his fault. She could feel his body trembling in fear. She briefly glanced over her shoulder, and there was a hole through the ground. It seemed that lightning was now stronger than ever.
"I-I…" His voice wavered, still trembling in fear. His tears fell off from his eyes, sobbing. "I-I'm so… scared! I don't want to die!" He confessed, which Hana flinched.
She felt sorry for him. She had no idea what he had went through. He was probably already filled with the guilty and regret that ate him up. So she decided to pull him in an embrace tightly. "No... We'll be… We're going to be okay." She tried to reassure him, but there was no guarantee that they were going to survive. If they were going to die, then might as well praying in silent.
"Now…" Riley laughed, looking at the storm which filled with the red. He did not know why, but he did not care. Maybe because Thor really wanted to defeat his enemies. That's why he could not control his lightning. But he still did not care, as long as he got to kill them, except Lee.
"THOR!" He bellowed in his command tone. "Thor, son of Odin! I command you to strike down these enemies nearby, but do not kill Lee! I repeat, I beg you not to kill him!" His sadistic grin widened even more. He was going to enjoy seeing them vanquished soon.
Rock Lee and his allies were prepared for the lightning to come down, but nothing came out. Nothing happened.
"What?!" Riley shocked. What was going on? "Why are you not doing anything? What's wrong, Thor?! Why are you not striking them down?! I COMMAND YOU TO STRIKE THEM DOWN! NOW!"
Again, nothing happened.
"DAMMIT!" Riley screamed, rage resurfaced again. "THAT WAS NOT A REQUEST! THAT WAS AN ORDER! KILL THEM! KILL THEM! KILL THEM NOOOOOOW!"
Once again, nothing happened. Nothing came out of storm.
Rock Lee and others started to relax once they realized that it no longer obeyed Riley's order. However, they were as confused as he was right now.
"What happened?" Rock Lee relaxed his arms down, instead of staying in his favorite stance. He watched as Riley constantly demanded the storm to do something.
"I don't know." That was all Tenten could say. She would like to know what was going on, but needless to say, she was relieved that the storm disobeyed Riley's order. At least they survived this.
"It…" Shikaku cleared his throat after relaxing his body, and with a sigh of relief, he spoke again. "It is no longer obeying his order. Somehow, it's a relief. We battled back, and in the end, we survived."
"Moreover, we can avenge all of our fallen comrades." Inoichi smiled with a relief, too. If Riley was at his weakened state right now, then they should be able to beat him with no effort. He looked down at Choza's corpse, and he was saddened that his good friend had died. He still wished that Choza could have survived, but he knew soldiers died. Every shinobi most likely had a short life to serve and protect their villages. Hopefully, they would survive and defeat Coola. But with the chaos they are in, and too many shinobi died, so it was going to be problem.
"We're safe now." Hana sighed. She closed her eyes, thinking about her Mother who had sacrificed her life on this battlefield to protect Takeo. Their whole battle was all about protecting Takeo, because the fact that he was a civilian. They finally succeeded, but there was one thing they needed to do: Defeat Coola.
"Why? Why? Why are you not obeying me?" Riley shocked, shouting at the storm. "What's wrong, Thor? What's going on?" That was the first time that Thor disobeyed him. Never once in his life that his own weapon disobeyed him before! "You are supposed to be my pet!"
"Hehehehehe!" A familiar voice cackled, but it was not Riley's voice. It was someone else's voice. That got everyone's attention to the owner of the voice, and it was Takeo's voice.
Hana immediately removed him from her embrace and stared at him in disbelief. "W-What… Why are you laughing?"
Now Riley was so lost. He could not wrap up in his mind, why Takeo, who was wimpy kid, all of sudden, was cackling like that. All of the sudden, he felt his Ki suddenly sucked into his the sword, screaming in the pain. "WHAT?!"
Why was his Ki absorbed into the sword? He would never know, but not until he heard the change in Takeo's voice.
"You have overused the power of your weapon," said Takeo, in his alternative voice.
Riley Harris widened his eyes. "You…" He recognized that voice! The same voice who spoke to him when he was given 'Thor' weapon. But he could not recognize that boy. He recalled meeting the same voice who was very pretty girl, who claimed to hand out the weapons on the order by the mythology gods. He believed her, and indeed, he became more powerful than before. He just realized that he was somehow betrayed.
Once his entire Ki was absorbed into the weapon, his aura disappeared, and he unconsciously dropped the weapon. He was suddenly exhausted, due to losing his Ki, and he began to fall backward to the ground. But at that moment, he heard the voice that screamed "Hana! WATCH OUT!" He could not distinguish the owner of the voice, but it was gruff voice.
He landed with a soft thud on the ground, but before the darkness faded onto him, he watched something that was unexpected to happen: Takeo shoved his hand through Hana's chest, brutally wounding her, and her mouth spewed the blood, as his eyes was no longer fear and his eyes already became serious. That was the last thing Riley saw before the darkness fully enveloped him.
To be continued…
A/N: Okay, I know I'm now a girl, but there's nothing I can do! Yes, the blame goes to Thedarkpokemaster. I promise I will have a revenge! I will do something to him! I know (Evil laugh). Ya know, I need to figure out to go back to being a boy. That's why I have left Jerry Clone in charge of posting the chapter. I will be writing the story and I will hand out to Jerry Clone. He did an outstanding job of writing the story in my place. After all, we're the one. Except I'm still a girl and he's a boy. (Sigh) Anyways, RIP Tsume... RIP Ibiki... RIP Choza... and finally RIP Hana. I don't want to say RIP Riley Harris, because he's freaking PSYCHO! Would you say RIP to him? I don't think so. All of them died in one chapter. And why did Takeo do that? You figure out what's going on. It's already revealed earlier in this chapter.
Oh, and there's reference from other TV Show. It's popular TV Show. Figure out what reference I recently used. I hope you can find it! If you do, I will give you a cookie and a gift of your choice! :P
Anyways, I want to let you know that I have split the story into five chapters because I figured that Chapter 112 was going to EXTREMELY LONG, and I don't want it to go to 60k words. So I split them, and make this into only Riley Harris vs Older Ino-SHika-Cho Generation and others, and Rock Lee's arrival to finish the fight. Then of course, Takeo's 'betrayal'... I already wrote them. But I"m not done with another four chapters. But next chapter will be called "The Exiled Clan". It's all about Hinata and Sakura. On Chapter 114, it will be about Bulma and Inari. Chapter 115 will be about Kakashi and Tenzo vs Zahoor and Raid. On Chapter 116, that's where we will finally read the resume fighting between Gohan and Kuririn versus Guure. Then on Chapter 117, it will be more balance between them. Tsunade and Hirzuen, and ANBU vs Coola will be involved in each chapter.
Since I'm almost done with Chapter 114, I hope I will post sometime this week. So I hope you really enjoyed the fight, but of course it's really long. I know, but I want to make sure that I'm not rushing the story. :) Oh, and "The Exiled Clan" will feature Konohamaru too! :)
Vegeta: Jerry... Oh wait... You're a girl now. I heard Jerry is a boy name, isn't it?
Me: No, no... Don't call me other name. Call me Jerry! I'm still a boy, but my body is a girl!
Vegeta: But can you produce babies?
Me: WHAT?! NOOOOOO! I mean, in my mind, I'm still a boy! I mean, I act like a boy right?!
Jerry Clone: No, you speak like a girl, and you act like a girl.
Vegeta: Heh...
Me: What? Wait... No! No... Maybe you see me as a girl. Okay, look at my behavior. Don't think me of girl. Look at me as I'm now. Look at me, okay? (I swing my leg around my other leg, and I place my hand on my laps. Somehow, I flirtatiously winked my eyes at Jerry Clone, and I unconsciously fixed my long hair. Trying to make my long hair look beautiful.)
Vegeta: Hahahaha!
Jerry Clone: ... Yep, you do act like a girl.
Me: AHHHHH! YOU ARE IMPOSSIBLE! Forget it! (Runs away to my room angrily.)
(Vegeta and Jerry Clone watches me as I go into my room.)
Jerry Clone: Ya know... We have to figure out what to call her name. Jerry is a boy name, and I don't want to call a girl boy name after all.
Vegeta: Heh... Agreed. (Finally, they agree something for ONCE!)