Another chapter, with fewer notes than normal following.
Chapter Eighteen: An Eye for an Eye
Matthew's feet made no sound as they moved across the solid steel floor. Only the constant buzz of air conditioning could be heard in the corridor. The silence became tighter and tighter as he neared the end, where two guards stood stone-faced on either side of a large door. They did not look at him as he approached, nor did he so much as glance at them.
They were almost to each other when both sides struck, mercilessly and brutally. Sweeping forward, Matthew evaded the first man's fist. His arm almost lazily held a glittering scalpel that sliced through the back of the man's neck with clinical precision. Still without looking anywhere but forward, Matthew stepped right, evading the other man's punch.
His left arm swept up as if to backhand the guard's face, but the man jerked his head away. Flipping his hand up, Matthew grabbed the front of the man's face. All light in the corridor dimmed for a moment, then Matthew released his grip and allowed the man to fall to the floor lifelessly. Gaze not shifting even in the slightest, he stepped up to the door.
"So the prodigal returns, does he?" The voice came from behind Matthew, who froze in place, eyes shadowed by his hair.
"Hello, Uncle," Matthew answered, voice soft. Behind him, a large man began to walk forward toward him.
"I'm surprised you found us here," the man went on, voice rumbling in the corridor over the buzz of the air conditioning. "You always were a quick one, Matthew. It seems you've found some friends much stronger than you... if you truly think they'll help you then you are in the wrong.
"But I must congratulate you on coming this far. You did manage to find your mother before she could escape to another safe location. If you were not going to die so terribly soon, you might have actually been a slight hindrance to the plan."
"Where is Father?"
"That is none of your concern," Matthew's uncle laughed, cracking the knuckles of one giant hand. "I suggest that you prepare yourself for the next world."
"I would have thought that by now, Ceriman, you would have learned that I always do prepare."
The man raised one bushy eyebrow, then abruptly realized there was something strange about the steel floor beneath him. It was as if there was a pattern etched in it, but upon closer inspection he realized that it was a set of characters he did not recognize. Immediately he began to run, but a massive portion of the corridor was etched with them. All of them burst into flame the next moment, consuming him and leaving nothing to even fall to the floor.
Silhouetted against the raging inferno, Matthew opened the door before him.
"Well, well, well... I did not expect to see my son again so soon." As before, Matthew did not look at who was speaking to him. He did not need to look. The lights within the room slowly began to increase in intensity, until the dozens of men in it were visible. On the opposite side, sitting in a large swiveling chair, was a woman. She was quite ordinary except for her long blond hair and the poisonous smile on her face. "Alive, no less. And what have you done with your hair?"
"I did not expect to see you so soon either, Mother," Matthew responded, voice even softer. Around the room, the numerous armed men shifted nervously.
"To what do I owe this visit?" the woman asked, leaning her head on one arm. "Surely you have not truly come back to us. You know what that would entail. Or perhaps you understand that it is futile to try to fight us?"
"Fight you?" Matthew asked. "I have no intention of trying to fight you."
"Such a pleasant surprise... I had expected you to be far more unreason-"
"I intend to kill you!" With those words Matthew finally looked up, his eyes deadened yet somehow terrifying. It was as if something in him cracked, releasing a terrible force. Immediately the men in the room attacked, swords sliding from sheaths and kunai rasping from pouches. The ones to his right or left were dead before they touched their weapons.
"Now is the time, Mother," Matthew called, slicing forward with dangerous speed. A kunai nicked his shoulder and blood trailed away from it. "I told you that I would return and end this one day, and today is that day. Now you must reap what you have sown!"
A massive warrior swung a huge axe, aiming to taking his head off entirely. With a flickering motion Matthew stabbed a finger into his opponent's shoulder, and the warrior's arm instantly dangled uselessly. Matthew darted past him, being slashed from multiple sides but ignoring the blows, still speaking, gaze never flickering from his target. The woman's eyes were wide; she was pressed against the back of her seat.
"You taught a pupil to kill, and his lessons are over." Matthew's voice was completely unmodulated. Something in his eyes seemed calm, something horribly cold blooded and beyond rage. "This is what happens when you tell them to take an eye for an eye. You've made yourself just as evil as everything you hate. This is the end!"
Suddenly he was looming before her, not moving, as if not quite believing he was truly there. His clothing was ripped and torn, his body bleeding from a multitude of wounds, his hair tinged with blood. Behind him lay a mass of dying bodies and weapons, before him sat a terrified woman.
"I... I raised you!" she shouted into his face. "Without me, you would never have had any life! You have no right-"
"Right?" Matthew demanded, voice cutting her off. "You have no right to say that! I was not your child, Mother, I was your tool. You taught me that problems must be solved by destruction, and I am only acting as you have taught."
"Do you have any idea what you risk by killing me? Do you tr-"
"No more," Matthew stated, hand flying in a lethal strike. When it was finished his body shuddered as if something had left it and he sagged in place. For the first time emotion touched the dead calm of his eyes, a glistening sadness. When he spoke again, it was no more than a whisper. "No more."
With those words, he fell backward and lay still.
Shuriken flew from Sasuke's fingers in quick succession, three of them slicing at varied places in an attempt to compensate for his opponent's dodging. The blond haired man moved swifter than he had imagined, backflipping away from all of them. Before his feet hit the ground he sent chakra bursting along his wings and charged.
Instantly he was careening through the air with unreal speed, far closer to Sasuke than he had been on his previous attempts. If all went well, the winged warrior speculated, he could probably sever his opponent in half in one swoop. He perceived that something changed about his opponent's eyes with a red glow, but disregarded it. Any jutsu he wanted to pull off now was far too late. It couldn't possible matter.
Just as his opponent swept up upon him, Sasuke moved with lightning speed, grabbing the edges of his opponent's wings and twisting them around in the opposite direction. The blond haired man crashed directly into him the next moment, sending him careening backward even as he impaled himself on his own wings.
As soon as he got his footing Sasuke leapt into the air, away from his dying opponent. To his surprise, even bleeding heavily the man leapt up after him, wings moving him faster than even Sasuke could jump. This one was lethal when nearly dead.
The man's arms clamped on Sasuke, locking in place. At that moment his wings folded, and both crashed into the ground. Pinning his opponent in place, the man began to laugh, his lips grinning bloodily, his eyes dancing with nothing but white.
"You think you've won just because you'll kill me," he rasped, "but you're wrong. I might die, but you're dying with me. And once you're dead, I don't have a good reason to live anyway." Behind him, the man's wings began working, shifting strangely and slowly building chakra... a jutsu using only his wings?
"Mommy? Mommy, what's that?"
Briefly the man's gaze flickered to the side, taking in the terror-struck mother and her young child. Neither of them moved, eyes locked on the two men who lay in the park, blood and weapons scattered around them, dangerous energy visible in the air. An immensely dangerous force seemed to constrict about their throats...
"You think they'll stop me?" the man hissed at Sasuke. His teeth were gritted; the words came out forcefully. "Nothing is going to stop the Seraph Sphere from destroying everything in this park!" At that moment his chakra contracted, and his wings flashed a golden color.
"A suicidal jutsu, eh?" Sasuke asked, voice ringing hollow. The side of his head began to fade away. "You aren't going to like this."
For a moment the man gaped in horror as Sasuke vanished from him, then his wings exploded in a sphere of shards that ripped through everything nearby. His vision was briefly annihilated by the pain, and then he could dimly see the destroyed park around him. The trees have been shredded, most of the ground ripped apart, a few benches shattered... but no mother and little girl. Where had they gone?
There was a soft tap, and the man exerted all his willpower to turn his head and look toward it. Sasuke had just landed quite some distance down a nearby street, the mother and her little girl in his arms. Gently he set them down, then he vanished in a blur of chakra. He appeared a hair from the man's face the next second, a kunai in his hand.
"Why kill me?" the man choked, ignoring part of a feather lodged in his throat. "I'll be dead in a few minutes, anyway."
"You are almost entirely out of chakra," Sasuke observed. Probably can't do any more harm...
"Why?" the man asked. Something in his voice seemed so confused, so desperate, that it made Sasuke turn back to him. The Uchiha merely raised an eyebrow. "Why did you save them? Do they matter to you?"
"They have nothing to do with this," Sasuke answered. "They don't deserve to be killed by our battle. I'm not going to let people like you kill anyone else."
Chuckling, the man closed his eyes and breathed painfully for a moment. Sasuke didn't leave, feeling somehow as if it was not over. Some distance down the street, the mother had already scooped up her child and fled. It didn't matter.
"I really wanted to kill you, Sasuke-san," the man eventually said. "I've spent my entire life training to be able to destroy you. I went through operations more painful than I could have ever imagined. Now it seems that you will continue to live... perhaps, that is what is meant to be."
"Why did you want to kill me?" Sasuke asked, folding his arms within his cloak.
"There was another Uchiha I met once," the man rasped. "I don't know how he was related to you. I didn't really care. He had a mission in my village, to kill a leader that was popular but leading a rebel faction against the government. The people tried to defend him... and that shinobi slaughtered them all."
Blood welled up in the man's throat, but he coughed violently, now speaking as if he desperately needed to. "My parents died, and I watched them. The more I learned about shinobi, the more I thought they were all cold-blooded killers. That was why I vowed to destroy all of them. Especially your family."
"And how did that bring you to Ragnarok Incorporated?" Sasuke bent down beside the man.
"Do you really think you'll get information out of me?" the man scoffed, with a disturbing grin. As silence stretched on, however, his face became strangely contorted by an emotion Sasuke couldn't completely understand. "But maybe... maybe we were wrong. Alright, Uchiha, I'll tell you everything I know. You, at the very least, aren't like the shinobi I knew. My life was wasted, but perhaps my death does not have to be.
"You said Ragnarok Incorporated before. The name doesn't matter, the corporation has many faces. Most people are kept completely in the dark about their operations, if they know anything at all. They're all motivated by different things, and they don't care about any common goal. I was pretty far in, and even I don't know a lot.
"What I do know is that all of it is controlled by one family. They're very big, but very tightly knit. While they're not really shinobi, they're very powerful in the politics of all five major countries. One way or another, they've managed to marry or lie their way into the leadership of all five.
"I don't know much about that." When he drew breath, the man very nearly fell unconscious. He fought away the darkness and continued. "I'm running out of time. This is what's important: I don't know why, but they want to kill every shinobi on the face of the planet. They've been gathering every warrior they can get for years, anyone that can fight and hates shinobi. With the resources of all five countries, and the crime syndicates of each, they've gathered an army. They have a lot of Missing-nin, but also a core of samurai trained by-" the man coughed up blood and gave out a pained cry.
"Not... enough time. Please, you have to stop them." He was almost begging now, tears running down his cheeks and mixing with his blood. "Their own son... you can't imagine what they did to him... there are more monsters like me out there... please, you can't let them, can't-"
Sasuke touched a finger to the man's mouth, quieting him. "Thank you," Sasuke said softly. "You were a noble warrior indeed." For a moment the man seemed stunned, then he just barely nodded. After a few moments his breath stopped. They are not entirely evil, Sasuke realized. They merely manipulate that which is good. While that is their strength, it will also be their downfall.
For a moment Sasuke paused, eyes fastened on something in the distance; there was the beginning of something in them, a flame that burned within his soul. At the beginning of the conversation his cloak had been severely ripped and torn, but now it was whole once more, though his skin was still bruised and cut beneath it. After pondering for a long while, Sasuke closed the man's eyes and rose.
The instant he did so multiple shuriken flitted toward him. He was immediately in combat mode, catching them and identifying the attacker. His new opponent was a strange warrior whose body seemed lumpy and not completely natural. Already he was rushing forward, attacking with a long blade.
Almost lazily Sasuke grabbed the blade as it swept at him and hurled its owner into a nearby tree. The shinobi, if he could be called that, landed on his feet and hissed at Sasuke. He slowly raised a hand, Sasuke watching him closely the entire time, then flicked something to the side, not even in Sasuke's direction.
A spark touched the blond haired man's body, and he exploded in golden flames. In an instant he was consumed, leaving only scorched earth. The new warrior snickered.
"There goes any proof you had against us," he jeered. When Sasuke glanced at him he abruptly gulped and bolted away, running from the park in an instant. Sasuke gave chase the next moment, tearing after him.
He's not strong, but he's fast, Sasuke observed. Not really a warrior, just an agent. But with the lead he got on me, I might not be able to catch him. It wasn't worth spending too much effort on the idiot, but killing him would be fairly satisfying.
Abruptly Sasuke narrowed his eyes, sensing another chakra entering the chase. It was coming from an angle, as if also pursuing this man. Focusing for a moment, Sasuke realized that it was Hinata. She seemed to be fine, though having just gone through a battle. In that case she had probably looked for someone nearby to help.
Excellent. Putting on a burst of speed, Sasuke shifted his path slightly. The agent would sense Hinata fairly soon, and then alter his own course. If all went well, that would negate the advantage he had began with, and restrict his movement. Considering that he wasn't even as fast as Sasuke, that would be enough.
Around him, the battles were coming to an end. Sakura and Ino were blocked from him, but it was only a matter of time. Very soon, this phase would be over. Very soon.
A number of questions were asked regarding Hinata's most recent battle, and as it will not be mentioned further I will explain it here: her opponent's strategy was such that it completely shut down hers, and she recognized this. But this caused him to become over arrogant and reckless. She adapted her strategy so that he used all his chakra in a short period of time, culminating in his final attack. By this point, however, he had exhausted his supply, and fell to his death.
Kankuro didn't have much of an opportunity to show his new abilities, and he doesn't do so further in this story. This is partially because I have never really liked Kankuro, partially because you can only take puppetry so far (and Akatsuki has taken it more than far enough). Sorry for those of you who enjoy his character.
As for Sasuke and Hinata… you'll be finding out about that very soon.