Disclaimer: No I do not own Naruto.
Wings of the White Angel
Chapter 20: A taste of paradise
Kin's hair shimmered and turned bright gold. The white aura started to turn golden… "I will protect them my own way…I won't sacrifice my heart!" His irises shimmered to gold. "All of them fought for what they believed, and that was the purpose of heart!" The night around them disappeared, replaced by the glow of golden chakra coming from Kin. "And if there is one thing that won't happen, it will be you winning!"
Pride snarled in anger. "You little shit! Who do you think you are talking to?"
"Kagayaki Rakuen!" The aura exploded, and then formed into a sheath of energy around Kin's body. "I'm talking to the first target of the Radiant Paradise…in over ten generations…" Kin's golden hair framed his face, and his eyes burned with a strange power… "I'm talking to Pride, the Sin."
Pride's right eye began to twitch. "I'll tear your lungs out, bastard!"
Kin's glare didn't relent. "No. No you won't. You won't touch another innocent life ever again…I won't allow it." The chakra sheath died down. "I'll give you to the count of three…"
Pride appeared behind him, sword cocked back to strike.
Kin's body blurred for a moment and Pride reversed directions, scraping along the ground forcefully for twenty feet before he stopped moving.
Ayumi stared at ground where Kin had been standing. ("Not even dust being unsettled…there's no way to tell he moved at all…")
"Give up." Kin turned to look at Pride's slowly rising form. "One…"
"Kamon; Kaminari Shot no Jutsu!" Pride's mouth shot open and he sprayed out lightning that hurtled towards Kin...
"Two." Kin said from right behind Pride.
The Sin froze. He didn't even blink or move his eyes from the spot Kin had been standing. ("How did he do that?") There was no way the boy was that fast. ("It's some kind of illusion.")
"Three." Kin's fist cocked back, and Pride realized that fist was solid. He turned and tried to swing his sword, but was sent flying away by another attack from Kin. It seemed like only one punch, but the damage it had inflicted made it feel like it was ten punches.
Kin's head bend back a little, cracking his neck. "Time's up, and so are you." Suddenly he was a golden blur of chakra, which swallowed up Pride. The earth shook a few times and then Pride emerged from the ball clutching his face and stomach. Kin emerged from the chakra ball and it disappeared. "That was two hundred blows in two seconds. I am holding back, just so you know."
Ayumi felt her jaw nearly drop. ("His speed is unreal…how did he do that?")
Pride removed his hand from his face to reveal a huge purple bruise across his left eye. Snarling, he formed two swords and charged full speed towards Kin. "Insolent…"
Kin's hands were suddenly moving full speed, forming too many seals for either Ayumi or Pride to count.
The Sin slid to a stop and got into a defensive position. ("You won't catch me off guard with anything.")
Kin formed the last seal. "Kagayaki Rakuen; Shirakaze Tenshi no Ryu Fuuin Kahou!" His muscles bulged momentarily. And then he was standing on top of a nearby two-story house. "I just won."
"What are…" Pride gasped in pain as his two sword cracked and shattered. A sonic boom slammed into him and he felt every part of his being, like someone had hit him with a sledgehammer on every vital section of his body.
"By reaching into the White Wind Angel while the Radiant Paradise is open, I can unleash the power of the guardian of that gate. The special ability of the White Wind Guardian is the power of pressure and sound. By running at supersonic speeds I can create a sonic boom that can tear apart matter at the molecular level." Kin brushed a few strands of his golden hair back.
Pride stumbled, trying to repair the damage with his chakra. But he was no medical ninja, so all he could do was numb the pain. ("His chakra is strong, but for him to do that would imply he is stronger than me. And that is impossible.")
Kin appeared behind him, and his two index fingers slammed into a pair of points on the Sin's spine.
Pride froze, and then dropped to his knees. "My legs…I…"
"Every point of the chakra circulatory system is interconnected by certain pathways that cannot be seen or detected. By striking the two points I just did, I caused the chakra flow to your legs to be redirected…you're crippled for the next few hours." Kin walked around to in front of Pride, not at all worried about the possibility of being attacked. "I've got you beaten, Taijutsu user….when you fight an opponent of equal strength who knows your weakness, you may as well have been a quarter my strength."
("This little whelp thinks he is stronger than me?") Pride formed a shadow katana and slashed, only to have the blade grabbed and snapped apart. "I will not let you make a fool out of me!"
"It's a little late for that, wouldn't you say?" Kin's left fist slammed full speed into Pride's Adam's apple, leaving him gasping for air with his head up. Without losing a moment, the boy slammed Pride into the air with a vicious uppercut to the jaw. "Now to finish this…" The aura of golden chakra exploded to life. "Here it comes…the final blow I'll be dealing you. Rakuen boufuu!" Suddenly he was a comet, launching up past the high-rising Pride and appearing about a hundred feet in the air. He held up at that point, watching the approach of his target with the eye of an expert. "And now the strike. Rakuen Myoujou!" The aura brightened intensely, and he went from a comet to a meteor. Dropping downwards onto Pride, he hammer-fisted the Sin and then followed through with a full-body tackle which forced Pride onto the head of the meteor. When the meteor finally crashed into the earth, the crater was so large that most of the nearby buildings were nearly shaken to the ground from the ensuing earthquake.
At the center of the crater, a single form stirred. It finally started to move slowly, until it reached the edge of the crater and stumbled into the moonlight.
Ayumi gasped and took a few steps back. "That can't be…"
Pride knew his left arm was completely broken, shattered in three different areas. His left eye was swollen shut and the left side of his head was missing both hair and skin tissue. ("I landed on the left side of my skull…I'm too damaged to fight…")
Kin placed a hand on Ayumi's shoulder, nearly scaring her out of her skin. "My work is done."
She stared at him, the peace coming from his face flowing into her body. "But…but he's not beaten yet. Don't you need to make sure…"
"Nope." Kin smiled slightly. "It's not my job to do so. Someone else will handle it."
"What kind of an irresponsible answer is that?" She nearly slapped him, until she heard the sound of footsteps.
Aiko stepped past both of them and started to move towards Pride, her hands working slowly to form the necessary seals for her technique. "This is the end, Pride."
"Not yet…" He tried to form a weapon, but his chakra wouldn't flow at all. ("My power is gone? How?")
Aiko's right hand started to glow with a crystalline red light. "This blow will end it…the last of my power…" She charged right at him…and right before she reached him she disappeared.
Pride turned, knowing exactly where she would be….and then gasped as she appeared right where she had disappeared. Before he could defend himself, she punched a hole right through his chest where his heart was.
Ayumi sucked in her breath and looked away, hiding behind Kin. He flinched, but didn't look away.
Pride stared at the hand in his chest for a few moments…and then his eyes misted over.
"You were to be the son that Kane and I might never have had…but yet you killed him…so I offer you no hatred, but no condolences. Just die…Auel." Aiko removed her now bloodied hand from the hole in his chest. He dropped to the ground, dead.
Kin turned and walked over to Kai's fallen form. Touching his hands to his teammate's back, he concentrated. "Heal self!"
Kai's eyes snapped open, and he leapt to his feet ready to fight. "Where is he?"
"He's dead…" Kin walked past and went over to Yurei next. Their wounds had been grievous, but the abilities granted to him by the Radiant Paradise allowed for amazing recovery of anything physical. He could heal damaged cells with no problem, because his chakra in this form was made for physical effects only.
Aiko slowly stood up, and looked up at the night sky. "I shed my tears long ago, Kane. Rest in peace, loving soul of my fiancé. I know you were with me all this time…and now I can move on." Turning away, she didn't give the corpse behind her another thought. It was done, and she was ready to move on.
Yurei looked at Kin for a moment, and then broke down into helpless laughter. Kin joined in a moment later, as they both remembered a joke they had shared about a bet to determine who would beat Pride if they ever fought him. "I guess you win, huh?"
"Yeah, you owe me a ramen when we get back to Konoha." Kin's laughter died down as he looked over at Kai, who was slowly approaching him. "Kai…I…"
"Is he dead? Is he truly dead?" Kai's eyes reflected a strange mix of anger and hope.
Kin nodded. "It's…" He was silenced when Kai held his hand up.
"It's fine…" Kai glanced at Yurei. "Nice sword, too bad it did little more than get shattered a lot."
"Who are you to talk, speedy? For all that running, you didn't even touch him?" Yurei stabbed Shadow Goddess into the ground and rubbed its hilt. "This lady is great and you both know it."
"What's great is your stupidity for calling a piece of steel a lady." Kai scoffed and looked away.
"Who are you to insult my Heart Rod?" Yurei grabbed Kai's collar.
Kin sighed. "Do we need to argue about something so silly?"
"YES!" Both of them yelled, before returning to arguing about who had done better.
Aiko and Ayumi both stood a few feet away, each of them face-falling repeatedly as they realized the boys barely seemed affected by the events involving Pride. But then Aiko stood up and smiled, walking over to them and placing a hand on both Kin and Kai's heads. "Firstly, I'm glad the two of you have started to learn a little bit more about each other." She turned to look at Yurei. "You've done well in releasing your Rod's real form." She looked at Kai. "It's good to see you in such great fighting form. For a little while you actually had him on the ropes…and…"
All three of them turned to look at Kin. Then they blinked, as if for the first time noticing his golden hair and eyes. Ayumi had already gawked herself to death on the change, so she just walked over and laughed at the looks on everyone else's face.
Kin blushed, which contrasted against the golden glow of his hair. "Umm….what?"
Aiko was the first of the three to recover. "Kin…when you fought Pride, who was stronger?"
"I'd say energy wise we were equal, but because of my knowledge of the human body he didn't stand a chance against me at close range." Kin turned tomato red as he said this, as if he was embarrassed that this was the case.
It sank into Kai's mind what this meant. ("Are you telling me that this mediocre ninja…has access to enough power to put him at Elite Jounin class?") His fists clenched tightly as he realized what else this meant. ("How am I supposed to match that?")
Yurei rubbed the back of his head as he remembered his previous words. ("And I thought Shadow Goddess was a big secret…Kin wins in the big secret category.")
Aiko just patted the boy's shoulder. "Congratulations on achieving it, Kin."
"Thank you very much." Kin smiled and looked at Ayumi. "On that note, are you okay Ayumi?"
Nodding, Ayumi blinked as she realized that Kin's eyes were still slotted and his ears were still slightly pointed. After a few moments she grabbed Aiko's shoulder and pulled her over, whispering something into her ear. They both looked at Kin, and then collapsed laughing.
Kin looked extremely confused… "Umm….what?"
"It's just that the way you look now…reminds me of a…" Ayumi broke into laughter again. "…d…d…"
Kai figured it out instantly, and started to snicker. "You look like a feral golden retriever."
Yurei blinked and stared at Kin for a few moments, before he had to turn away to hide his own laughter at that.
Kin flushed red again and stomped off. "Maybe I should just lead the group, considering I'm apparently the most mature!"
Yurei glanced over his shoulder at Kin's retreating back. "What do you think his problem was?"
Kai couldn't stop himself from saying it. "Fleas maybe?" They all looked at each other, and then collapsed into helpless laughter again.
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The following morning they were all walking back towards Konoha. Up front was Aiko and Yurei, who were carrying a body bag with Pride's corpse inside. It was a grisly thing to do, but they had to make sure it arrived safely to Konoha for burial. One of Kane's remaining wills was that it happened, and none of them would have complained while Aiko was there.
Farther back was Ayumi, who was day-dreaming about her return to her beloved Kakashi-sama. Next to her was Kai, who was wearing his sunglasses and occasionally scanning the trees. At the back was Kin, who was still slightly pissed at the whole dog comment last night. He was back to his normal form, but it still grated on his nerves to be compared to a pet.
Aiko reached the top of the hill they were walking up, and looked out at the not-so-distant Konoha. "We'll soon be home…and I'll get to use my shower again! Oh I missed being able to wash myself clean."
"Me too, especially since these three stink so badly." Ayumi ignored the glares she received and kept going. "Plus the bag, despite the material, is starting to stink."
"Yes, I…" Aiko froze and started to tremble.
"Aiko-sama? What's…" Ayumi blinked as she just noticed that someone was standing in the middle of the road about thirty feet from them. "Who's that?"
The man wore a dark cloak that covered his whole body, while his uncovered head was framed by a thick mane of black hair. His eyes were covered over by a strange metal visor with etchings across its face. "Greetings…"
"Hello there…" Ayumi started to walk towards the man…but stopped when Aiko dropped her side of the bag and began to backpedal rapidly. "Aiko-sama?"
The man's cloak ruffled and the sound of fingers being snapped could be heard. Yurei yelped in surprise as the whole body bag disappeared in a burst of flame. Within seconds there was nothing left but traces of ash.
Immediately, Kin, Kai, and Yurei all were up front. Kin and Kai both drew kunai, while Yurei tugged on the linens of Shadow Goddess to loosen them. Ayumi drew a kunai too, but knew that the boys would probably fight this guy, whoever he is…
Silently, the man swept his cloak back to reveal a single arm wrapped in black silk. Then he charged at all three of them with incredible speed.
To be continued…