Part 5 - Transgressions

It was very early in the morning and still quite dark when Abbot Lin walked past the sawhorse barricades and entered the Courtyard of the Great Bell. He took in a deep, relaxing breath of the cool air, let it fill his lungs and then blew it out. It seemed strange that this place, often so crowded and busy with activity during the daylight hours, should be so quiet now. In some places the gloom was lifted where paper lanterns hung from brackets cantilevered from the surrounding scaffolding, glowing in the darkness like pale stars.

All traces of the earlier violence had been tidied up and cleared away, yet the Abbot's expression put forth the idea that the memories of it lingered with him still. Whatever he thought, construction would begin again soon with the morning light and with it the possibilities of a new world free of such calamity could arise.

Lin wandered in the haunted silence between shadowy stacks of barrels and palettes of stone, letting his fingers brush occasionally against their firm, rough surfaces then walked up before the Great Bell. A breeze blew and stirred through the boy's cascades of white hair, conjuring gentle whirls of dust and debris in the moments of its passage. For a long time the crane-spirit stood - a lone figure whose soft, flowing, white robes and hair contrasted the bell's unyielding black.

He turned around then lifted his head toward the sky whose darkness was beginning to fade before brighter encroachments of inky purples and indigos. "Ey-ya!" the Abbot called out suddenly, breaking the silence, "guards of the north tower!"

A bearded, dark-eyed man appeared at one of the pagoda's balconies and saluted, with right fist pressed into left palm. "Revered Abbot!" he piped alertly.

Abbot Lin turned and eyed him skeptically. "Everything is well, I trust?"

"All's clear and has been the whole night through," he reported in a deep, flat voice.

"I see," Lin seemed to agree then turned and shouted: "And how is it with you in the southern tower?"

Another man appeared in the pagoda across from the first, a young man with a thin moustache and fair features. He cupped his hands to his mouth and cried back: "All's well here too, Abbot Lin!"

The Abbot nodded obligingly then raised a hand to his narrow chin as he sighed and turned. "And you, eastern tower?" he continued and again a guard replied that there was nothing afoot to disturb the monastery's peace, but the lanky Abbot pressed on. "And I suppose that the same is true for you in the western tower?" The guard there also affirmed that indeed it was.

"I see," said Lin quietly to himself then shook his head, apparently conflicted. He opened his mouth to speak then closed it with a concerned look that melted away after a few moments, replaced with a charitable grin. "You know," he began loudly. "I really am quite relieved that you survived that fall, Tomoki. My brother and sister get…carried away sometimes, but they…," the young abbot paused for a moment then again abandoned what he'd thought to say. "I hope you understand that there is no power on this earth that can move this bell," he announced and his words echoed back.

"And I hope you understand," said a voice softly in reply, so close by that Lin startled, "that I still have to try."

The white-haired boy looked up and his mouth fell open at the sight of Tomoki who sat there contemplatively just above him on the Great Bell's flattened top. The ninja pushed off and slid down its iron curve to land right in front of the surprised Abbot who startled again.

"I suppose I should thank you, young master," Lin greeted after he'd collected himself, then his eyes fell to his visitor's swords. "Doubtless, if you meant to kill me, you could have done it very easily."

The genin's face drooped tiredly and he shook his head. "It's not really my style," he muttered with a smile.

The Abbot smiled back and noted for a moment the boy's odd clothing - baggy, brown trousers, the pocketed vest he'd worn earlier, and a truly hideous, striped shirt worn underneath; all three stained with smears and streaks of black grease and brown rust, as were his hands and face. Lin clasped his hands behind his back and canted his attention toward the pagodas. "With that in mind, I trust that you have not done my disciples any irreparable harm?" he inquired in a concerned voice.

Tomoki shrugged and stifled a yawn. "Nothing that a couple of days in bed won't fix," he reassured. The boy's brow furrowed suddenly. "I thought I'd done my Transformation Justu perfectly, studied your guards' faces, voices, mannerisms…" He looked at the Abbot in consternation and asked: "How did you know?"

"I have a sense for such things from my former life where one is constantly on the watch," Lin offered. "That and 'Revered Abbot' – such a curious expression! You're the only one who's ever called me that."

"Ah," Tomoki conceded with a pained wince.

"But also -," Lin continued hesitantly then stopped himself.

"'But also'…what?" the genin pressed.

"That," began the Abbot reluctantly as he turned and pointed, "that is the north tower."

Tomoki blinked, looked at the dawn's pale glow growing in the east and then in the direction the Abbot pointed. "Aggh!" spat the boy in utter mortification as he realized his mistake then turned away, stomped his feet and vented: "I'm just so stupid!"

"Don't take it so hard, Tomoki," the Abbot comforted him. "Your techniques are truly a wonder. You looked and sounded exactly like the men manning the watch. Then there's how you made yourself appear in all four towers when I called out, and don't forget how you were able to sneak up on me."

Tomoki hung his head. "Thank you, Abbot Lin," he offered with tense sincerity, "but there's really no excuse for that kind of sloppiness. It just kills me to think about how hard I've worked just to be mediocre; really it's a disgrace! I don't know how Iruka-sensei ever graduated me." The genin shook his head and waved his arm dismissively. "There're so many others who would have had Naruto freed long before now."

"I doubt that's true," replied the Abbot. The animal-spirit watched patiently as Tomoki sulked then brought his hands to his chin. "I greatly admire you," he confessed. "Your devotion to your friend, who's like a brother to you, shows great virtue. It is this sort of piety that is the source of all morality - the foundation of society itself."

"I'm honored that you think so," the ninja replied and turned toward him. "As much as I've tried to hate you, I don't. I think you really are trying to walk a spiritual path; create a better world. Though you're not human, you have a lot of what's good in us…but a lot of what's bad too." He made a face then added acutely, "That obviously doesn't apply to your brother and sister…they're killers, you know."

The Abbot shut his eyes. "Being human and trying to walk the spiritual path isn't easy for us. Our natures…pull at us to stray from it; to sacrifice everything in order to satisfy senseless inclinations."

"That's a pretty way to put it," Tomoki chuckled softly, sympathetically.

"True enough," Lin replied and his eyes filled suddenly with tears. "I like you so very much, Tomoki," he blurted in a child's cracking voice. "Why do we have to fight?"

The genin answered kindly but firmly, "You know why."

"The nine-tailed fox."

Tomoki furrowed his brow. "To you he's a demon but to me he's a friend," he began. "I wanted to explain that to you and I should have last time but things just…got out of control. I'd have told you all about how hard he works, the pains he's gone through and how brave and kind he is. I'd tell you about his dream to become Hokage one day, to finally be respected and be strong enough to protect those he cares about."

Abbot Lin nodded. "You're right to tell me that but it remains –."

"I know," Tomoki interrupted. "I know. Did you think I could forget?"

"The Kyuubi's spirit will eventually overwhelm him," Lin argued then looked puzzled as Tomoki tried to hide his smile, "you must know that."

"If you knew Naruto," the genin snickered, "then there'd be no doubt in your mind…that HIS spirit will win out in the end. That poor demon doesn't stand a chance."

The Abbot's expression furrowed with thought. "I believe you with all my heart," he offered. "But in all good conscious, I cannot possibly take that risk."

Tomoki tensed with growing frustration. "Isn't there anything I can do to convince you; to change your mind? Please, Abbot, I'll even take his place beneath the bell if that would satisfy you."

"Tomoki, you know very well that it's not possible," the Abbot retorted defensively. "I didn't imprison him because I wanted to but because I had no choice. Please understand…if all choices in life were clearly good or clearly evil then there would be no difficulty distinguishing them."

"Do you want to beg, Abbot?" seethed Tomoki with sudden intensity; his weary, red-tinged eyes blazed like fire. "I'll beg if that's what it takes because I know this is our last chance." He grabbed Lin by the shoulders and muscled him around to face the east. "Look!" he shouted, pointing. "Look at that! Do you see that light? It's the sun rising on what's going to be a beautiful day; but it's not. If I can't convince you then it's not going to be a beautiful day; it'll be anything but that!"

The Abbot shrugged loose of the boy's half-hearted grasp and paced a few steps towards the dawn. "I'm afraid…that our differences may be irreconcilable," he muttered gravely as if a thousand deaths hung upon his words. "I have not been human for very long. But as one, I know the weight of decisions and will bear the consequences, come what may."

Tomoki stared at him; his face hollowed by disappointment. At last, he reigned his expression and rubbed his eyes one at a time with the heels of his hands, leaving grimy smudges.

"So…how does this begin?" asked the Abbot; uneasy yet resolved.

The boy shrugged and his slack expression flickered, then he reached into one of his vest's many pockets and produced a single shuriken. The shining, metal star's points and sharp edges caught the first rays of the sun which had just started to rise over the parapets. "Like this," Tomoki muttered as he snapped his arm taut and sent the missile on its course. There was a brief musical note as the shuriken cut through a tight string he'd tied hours earlier. Somewhere just over the courtyard's wall, an engine roared to life.

"W-what are you doing?" the Abbot asked and narrowed his eyes which looked up over the Great Bell and saw the steel cables hooked to it which had been all but invisible in the darkness. He followed them as they arced upward precipitously toward the tower cranes. "Ah, yes," he noted. "An obvious notion, Tomoki, but as mighty as those cranes are they'll never lift this bell. Using them is useless."

"That's what I figured," explained Tomoki. "That's why I'm not going to use them; I'm going to sacrifice them."

"What?" Lin sputtered and looked back and forth in alarm.

"Those cranes are at least fifteen stories tall," Tomoki explained, "built of steel, and with massive counterweights at the top. That's a lot of potential energy – that's the way they put it in school. It's not pretty, but I figure that when those cranes fall over they'll just tug that big bell right off!"

Abbot Lin shook his head. "It's – it's impossible."

"No, not really," the boy offered. "They're pieced together in bolted sections. Now granted, it was a lot of work but all it took was a good, strong grip and a really long wrench…that and a chain and a motor to pull a column out of plumb."

Suddenly there was a resonant 'ping' and the cranes began to tilt. Just slightly and slowly at first, the massive structures listed to one side and their massive arms began to swing as they started to fall. Steel buckled and bolts popped, filling the air with a deafening, unworldly groan. The Abbot cowered as the cranes' arms swooped overhead, crossed and rushed by. Across three courtyards of the Shining Summit Monastery, the cranes fell, smashing walls and tearing through the timber-framed pagodas and solid stone walls like matchsticks and children's blocks in their wake until their impetus tugged them clear and together they tumbled over the mountainside.

Great clouds of dust exploded from the wreckage, raced over the Courtyard of the Great Bell and covered all in whirling shades of white and grey. Tomoki closed his eyes and put his hands over his ears against the din, regretting even now the destruction he'd caused.

By degrees, the noise subsided as the two cranes settled wherever they ended up resting, undoubtedly in the gorge far below. Tomoki chanced a peek and slowly opened his eyes, clearing cloaks of thick dust from his face, but the sight that awaited him made him pale – the Great Bell still stood.

"No…oh, no…," he croaked but the vision could not be denied. The hooks were still fastened and the cables ran stiff, straight, and quivering with tension over the edge of the ruined outer wall. Distraught, the genin hung his head, slouched over and braced his hands on his knees.

From the swirling clouds of dust, the Abbot stormed toward him, apoplectic with rage. "Wretch!" he shouted. "Imbecile! The Great Bell is rooted by daoist magic to the center of the earth! Just look what you've done, and for what? For what, so you can have your precious, little friend back?" The crane-spirit grabbed Tomoki by the collar of his vest and yanked him close. "Loss is part of life!" the boy railed; his face red and his spit spraying into the young ninja's dirty face. "All your religions, all your philosophies understand this, why can't you? Naruto is gone! He is under that bell and there he will stay for all eternity! Eons will pass and ages will roll, and neither he nor the demon within him will ever see blue sky or green grass again!" He shook Tomoki ferociously with both hands. "Do you understand yet? Has it penetrated that thick, human head of yours?"

Tomoki's eyes rolled in their sockets for a moment before they met the Abbot's with cold resolve and a grin crept over his face, a ghastly grimace followed by rolls of hollow laughter that made the animal-spirit release him and stagger back. "Don't get mad yet, 'Revered Abbot,'" quoth the ninja. "I haven't even started yet!"

Lin's white hair blew fitfully in the morning wind. "I think I understand now," he said and his face went even whiter as he raised a trembling finger. "You're insane. I should have realized it before but you hid it so well that I didn't see."

"Insane?" the boy questioned. "Don't you really mean 'evil'? Didn't you say just a little while ago that I was 'admirable'; that I was 'virtuous'?

"I was wrong!" squawked the Abbot, "so horribly wrong about you!"

A tumult arose at the courtyard's gate as a crowd of workmen and disciples arrived to survey the destruction. "Abbot Lin!" one of them cried. "Are you alright? What's happened?"

Hsien's massive form towered up over the crowd then, as the giant spotted Tomoki, glared and bulled his way through – knocking people aside like so many bowling pins. Slowly, inexorably, he made his way though veils of dusty haze toward where the boy and the Abbot stood. His gruesome grin was not at all displeased. The boar-spirit flexed his long, thick arms and took from across his back his weapon: the flying guillotine. "I knew it was you," Hsien announced and pointed straight at Tomoki. "When I heard the noise and saw the dust clouds rise, I knew, even though I was all but certain I'd killed you."

Harsh music rang through the air as the steel cables began to fray then, at once, snapped, followed by the racket of the tower cranes' final, tumultuous descent down the mountainside. All paused to listen to the overwhelming cacophony with blank, stricken faces then turned back towards Tomoki.

Inakaya arrived next, springing effortlessly over the rubble. The leopard-spirit stopped at Hsein's side for a moment before she began instinctively to circle around, twirling her spear while her big brother advanced.

"It's nice to see you again too, pig," Tomoki greeted, unable to help himself from smiling. "And you too Inakaya. Yeah, I thought I'd come back to see if you all were game for…best two out of three?"

Lin twitched nervously as the genin's eyes flickered toward him then vanished in a burst of speed, reappearing instantly behind the surprised Abbot. The arch of his foot slammed into the back of the crane-spirit's leg and brought him to his knees; one hand seized his shoulder while the other whipped a sword around to the front of his neck. The blade's razor edge pressed against the Abbot's fair skin as Tomoki wheeled him around toward his siblings. "Stop!" he warned the approaching pair.

Hsein paused but only for a moment then he roared with laughter, took three great, leaping strides and hurled forth his guillotine which whistled through the air toward both Tomoki and his brother.

Boards splintered and paper sacks shredded before Hsien's weapon. The beast's eyes widened for a moment then settled into a sneer. "Oh yes," he observed, "the Substitution Jutsu. Our little rodent is very tricky."

"And you're very predictable!" shouted Tomoki from high up upon the scaffolds with the Abbot his prisoner still. "I know your black heart too well to try and use your brother as a hostage." The ninja then made hand signs and disappeared with the Abbot into the shadows only to reappear at the courtyard gate before the stunned audience of tradesmen and the Abbot's disciples.

Tomoki whirled Lin into their arms and pointed at him. "Stay out of this, Abbot," he warned with cold menace, "or I'll have to pluck much more than just your feathers."

Lin looked at him blankly, helplessly, as he straightened himself while his followers bridled. "Dog!" one cursed him, "monster!" decried another. "How dare you speak to the Abbot like that?"

Tomoki bared his teeth and silenced them with the fury in his eyes. "Your Abbot is a fraud, an animal masquerading as a man!" he frothed. "Hasn't he told you? Haven't you figured it out YET? It's his brother and sister who've been preying on your children all this time!" The genin turned quickly and sprang away before Hsien and Inakaya could reach him but still heard the strange choral mixture of horrified gasps and contemptuous jeers from the crowd at his accusation.

The leopard-spirit, being much faster than her brother boar, was fast upon Tomoki's retreating heels. Inakaya lashed and stabbed with her spear as she chased him across the courtyard. She sprang when he sprang, over the Great Bell, up into the scaffolds and out onto the outer wall's balconies where new detachments of guards wisely fled for their lives.

"You can't run forever!" hissed Inakaya as Tomoki dashed inside a remaining pagoda. The animal-spirit leaped after him but was brought up short as she went inside and found that she was the only one there.

In the courtyard below, still littered and hazy from the tower cranes' destruction, Hsien searched. "Damn her," he muttered, "always hogging the best catches." His face twitched as he sensed something then looked down at his shadow which had turned just then from pale grey to jet black. A blur erupted from it and the boar-spirit felt a sudden, searing pain at his forehead.

"You didn't just say what I thought you said?" Tomoki asked him as he landed in a crouch, waved a sword then backed away. "About 'hogging'?"

Hsien looked down at him and felt the thin trickle of blood flow around his brow, down his cheek, and drip off his chin. "You," he snarled. "Your death will be more excruciating than any creature that's ever died before!"

"Big talk," Tomoki answered. "I've had pigs like you for breakfast! Oh!" He made a surprised face then chuckled. "I guess that's actually true!"

As if to answer, Hsien charged. He swung his weapon up towards the genin, but Tomoki sidestepped, jumped, then stomped on Hsien's arm when he brought it back low and across, then smashed the beast squarely in the face with the instep of his foot.

Shrugging off the impact of the ninja's kick, Hsien spun around and hurled his guillotine at his retreating foe who ducked away and blocked. The sheer force made the genin stumble as his swords pinged loudly against the guillotine's spinning blades; then Hsien whipped his arm sharply, telegraphing through the chain, lashing Tomoki across the cheek.

The boy wobbled, stung from the blow, gathered himself and ran, dodging the weapon's equally-deadly return to its master's hand. Hsien rushed after him. As the boy leaped to the scaffolding's second level, the boar-spirit slashed and smashed through the slender, wooden posts, then stepped back ready to strike as the floorboards above him fell in.

Tomoki looked down at Hsien from where he hung on by one hand from the rickety boards of the level just above. The monster's gaze snapped towards the ninja and Hsien started to laugh. He coiled his weapon back and let it fly but Tomoki swung himself aside, grabbed at the planks that extended from the bay beside him and hopped back down onto the scaffold's second level. Hsien bounded up after him and gave chase; the floorboards bowing alarmingly under his weight.

Tomoki ran, threw himself against the outer wall as the guillotine sped by, rolled under the weapon's trailing chain then shimmied up to the level above.

Hsien licked his lips with anticipation, smashed the floorboards above him aside with one stroke of his powerful arm and jumped up, cutting off Tomoki as he tried to rush past him.

The genin skidded to a stop then fled the other way and Hsien quickly followed. The beast slashed once more with this weapon but missed and lost ground then pushed himself to go faster.

The animal-spirit's wrathful eyes locked on the boy's back and the flashing soles of his sandals then widened as his prey drew his swords which curled up over his head and lashed out high then low against the posts and tethers on either side of him. The floor in front of Hsien fell away, cutting him off, just as the boards above came down along with an avalanche of stone blocks which plowed into the boar-monster's face and chest, knocking him down. The scaffold's thin, planked floor beneath him gave way immediately and he plunged down to the next level which also gave way in an explosion of splinters and cracking wood. The boar-monster grit his teeth and braced for the ground's impact but was shocked instead by the sharp tips of solidly-braced steel bars that scraped his armored flanks, gashed his arms and pierced clean through his leg and chest.

Tomoki alighted beside him with swords drawn, spared a look at the beast's grizzly, gurgling wounds, then turned away.

"Don't you dare pity me, rodent!" rasped Hsien amidst a riot of broken boards and chipped, stone blocks as blood poured down and bubbled up over the bars that impaled him.

Tomoki stopped. "I don't pity you," he clarified. "I'll save that for all your victims…and their families. They're the ones who really deserve it."

As he walked on, leaving Hsien to his demise, Inakaya bounded up. She gazed at Hsien's struggling form and her expression went blank.

"Hello, Inakaya," said Tomoki with ice in his eyes. "Sorry about your brother." The leopard-spirit started at his impudence as he tapped the flat of his sword against his head and continued, "It's a good lesson, though, safety-first - always cap your re-bars."

The leopard-spirit drew a hand across her cheek and took a long breath. "It's just that…I didn't think you could kill him so quickly," she said then cast a long, unsettled look at her brother's now-still form and Tomoki used the moment to plant his swords and make hand signs.

"Ninja art: Iron-Vest Jutsu," he muttered.

Angered that she'd given him the advantage, Inakaya lunged forward, but this time her speed came as no surprise. The ninja canted his head to the side and let the point pass by. The leopard-spirit pulled back and stabbed again for his vitals but the point slid off his armored skin and he grabbed the shaft, seized one of his swords and whirled it up, cutting her spear short. Dismayed, the woman plunged her now-blunted weapon at him but Tomoki knocked the end down to the ground then cracked it in the middle with a stomp. Inakaya looked up in shock and was just barely able to slap aside the flat of the genin's blade as he thrust the point at her throat.

"Are you really going to keep on fighting," Tomoki asked, "when you don't believe you can beat me anymore?"

She looked up and her eyes flickered uncertainly. "You killed me once before, and now you killed Hsien again," the leopard-monster pointed out. "I don't feel bad about that. It's not like we really are brother and sister. We just said so 'cause Lin wanted it that way." Inakaya paused for a moment. "I do see what you mean. I have little to fight for and a part of me feels like I should run."

Tomoki read her expression and the odd accents of her voice. "And now you're going to tell me why you're not going to," he prophesized sadly. "Am I right?"

The animal-spirit nodded seriously. "Though we weren't related, I can't let Hsien lie there un-avenged." She thought for a moment then met his eyes. "Is this what it is to be human?"

"Maybe," said Tomoki who nodded, not unkindly. "There's a lot more to it, but that's probably as close as you'll ever get."

Inakaya leaped away across the courtyard to where a stockpile of steel bars rested. Tomoki watched in resignation as she selected one of appropriate length then returned. The leopard-spirit, filled with renewed fury and confidence, sprang into the air, whirled her weapon in both hands and brought it down towards the genin who rolled away languidly and let the bar crash against the paving stones.

She leaped for him again, and the ninja evaded then jumped away. Inakaya glared at him and roared – a horrific sound that raised the hairs on the back of his neck.

Fighting down the natural urge to overeact, Tomoki waited for her, gathered his chakra and sank into a stance. Inakaya snarled then sprang at him but when she landed her foot skidded out from under her. She cried out in surprise and fought to regain her balance. The ninja, waiting for this moment, raced forward; swirls of dust rising in his wake. His blade slashed – a single, powerful stroke that parted the woman's steel staff like a spider's web and continued quite unimpeded through flesh and bone.

Tomoki continued a step forward and flicked his sword sharply to clear the blood from the blade then looked back to where Inakaya lay, sprawled in a field of black, with one arm severed and a deep, fatal cut through her midsection. The boy quivered at the sight. Like Hsien before her, she hadn't seen the trap. Hsien hadn't seen the bars the genin had cut and cemented into the ground beneath the scaffolding where he might fall…Inakaya hadn't seen the pool of oil, and really, how could she when Tomoki had made sure to cover it with a thin coat of dust?

As he stood there, a chill came over him. It has to be about more than just this, he vowed. This is not my way. He thought back to his training and imagined what Esmeralda-sensei would say. Certainly she'd clap his back and congratulate him for a job well-done.

"But it isn't done…," he clarified aloud, "not yet."

His thoughts were stilled suddenly by a sound that, though expected, sent a pang of dread pulsing though him – the Abbot's voice, lifted in song, that singular note that Tomoki had heard once before.

The leaf-ninja whirled, having known all along that it would come to this. There, still by the courtyard's gate with his followers congregated behind him, Abbot Lin knelt and sang with one hand pressed to the earth and the other raised toward heaven.

Tomoki gasped then glared. "Don't do it, Lin!" he shouted though that wasn't part of the plan. After all, he'd already given the creature more than fair warning. The genin's breath raced as he started to run towards the Abbot, pulled forth shuriken from the pockets of his vest and coiled them back. "Last warning!" he roared with all his might but the white-haired boy persisted. "Don't make me make kill you too!" He rushed as fast as he could for as long as he dared then leaped into the air and spun; his throwing stars flashed.

Lin stared straight forward, singing as the missiles arced toward him, seeming slow as they flew across the courtyard's distance. His concentration didn't ebb even for a moment as one shuriken hissed by his left temple, scratching skin and cutting strands of hair, or when the other passed on his right and took with it a piece of his ear.

Tomoki's racing footsteps slowed gradually then stopped and he hovered there, wobbling on his feet. I...I couldn't do it, he thought and the ninja's mind raced with the implications. The whole plan, all he'd worked for, depended on this one thing – that he would KILL Abbot Lin if forced to. He sat there, stunned for a moment by his own incompetence before a powerful force struck him hard, tearing through the muscles and bones of his back. The world vanished into a blur as Tomoki rolled limply, again and again, across the courtyard.

The boy lay there face down, gasping and gurgling for breath, for what seemed like an eternity before a foot dug itself under his ribs then kicked him over. His back felt hot and when his arm flopped over, it smacked and squished in a viscous pool of red. In the distance, he could make out a chorus of groans and shocked screams from the audience of tradesman and Shining Summit disciples.

Like something out of a nightmare, Hsien's horrible face emerged into the ninja's blurry vision as the man-beast looked down at him. "Look at this," he gloated then his eyes darted up. "Our little rodent can run no more."

"Yes, brother," Inakaya agreed.

"I get the first bite," Hsien insisted.

"No me!" argued the leopard-spirit.

A thoughtful look came over the boar-spirit's face. "Let's settle this the civilized way, the human way," he suggested.

Tomoki's eyes swam between the two as they each pumped a fist three times. On the last pump, Hsien extended one finger while his 'sister' put out two. "Lucky me," said Hsien as he crouched next to the fallen genin to feed.