First Mission: Redux

(I'll admit that 4 chapters in 8 days burnt me out a bit but I'm back. Enjoy)


Another day, another class. Jenki was sitting in the same boring classroom with their teacher droning on as usual. Okay it wasn't all that bad but it still sucked to just be there without doing anything fun. 'School should never be so boring! This sucks so much.' He looked around his classroom to see Inokua taking notes and actually listening to the teacher droning on and on about… Something that probably wouldn't matter to him. He pulled a quick double take once he looked out the window and saw Neji waiting outside with crossed arms, he hadn't seen him since he went off for the Chunin Exams a few days ago and he missed his big brother figure.

"So Jenki…" Oh crap. The boy turned his attention back to the front of the class where not only was their instructor tapping a foot impatiently, but the entire class had their eyes on him. "I hope you ignoring my question means you know exactly what I'm talking about."

He was up the creek without a paddle on that one. A barely noticeable glance around the room showed that nobody was helping him out on this one and that only raised the stakes on him. "Of course I do, but I didn't want to take the spotlight from you sensei."

Now Kogori was a lot of things in the grand scheme of it all, a teacher, a simple man, someone who knew that he could drink exactly six beers before he wanted to pick a fight with a lamppost, however, he wasn't stupid. "Don't worry, there's plenty of light in the room. Answer my question." That backfired and not even successfully.

"Uh… well it's- The obvious thing is that you-" He was like a fish out of water since he could only try and give something even partly related. Honestly what good was this stuff gonna do him? As much as he needed refinement on the Gentle Fist it was still a better fighting style than what they taught here, while the basics mattered on some level, in the end his current style was on a different level.

Kogori was tapping his foot impatiently while Jenki did everything possible to drag out the answer that he didn't have. Their instructor opened his mouth to stop the Hyuga before things got too embarrassing for him, but he had to focus on the new addition to his class… the one who just broke through the window and landed in a heap. Kogori pulled out a handle and with a pulse of his chakra it formed a yellow blade as the mystery man stood up. "Who are you?" He was calm as he should be, but the man pulled out his own chakra sword in retaliation.

"Get back! That red eyed freak isn't-" The man looked back at the window where a boy was pulling himself through the broken glass with a smile on his face. The students in the class were taking cover behind their desks but still peered their curious eyes over to see this new person who just casually walked through the shattered window. "Get the hell away!" He reached out and was about to grab a student, probably as a hostage, but his hand didn't make it far enough. Specifically his hand.

At the point where a man stopped to scream over his missing hand is when more leaf ninja came in from the door and the open window, one look and they saw an assailant, a victim, and hostages so it was obvious who they'd go for. The leaf ninja at the window swung a chakra sword with a blue coloration but it passed right through his target without even causing an injury. His wrist was grabbed and he locked eyes with the boy but he let go and walked right towards his target. "Finally got you right where I need you." His grin widened ever so slightly and the students were, appropriately, scared.

'Who's this psycho and why is he here?" Jenki thought as he focused his Byakugan on this mystery teenager and his attention went to the silver chakra flow from the focal point of his face. The handy man took his chance and made a last ditch swing with his weapon but it passed right through and the momentum got it stuck right into the floor of the classroom.

A hand grabbed his jaw and he heard haunting words about what was going to happen, "At least you'll find your hand." It was like a magic trick, one second he was there and the next- Poof! He was gone. Well it wasn't a poof as much as it was, vortex and suction away to who knows where.

All eyes were on him and he didn't bother looking at most of them. He looked up at the students who cowered more at his gaze then at the tensing shinobi who tried to stop his acquisition. "Remember kids, if you go rogue then someone like me has to hunt you down like a cat and mouse… except that you'd be a crippled mouse against me, a tiger." That was to be expected from him of all people but this group of people didn't exactly know about his mannerisms so the taste of fear in the room only spiked after his words. His mangekyou sharingan roamed across the desks and partly hypnotized every child that ended up in his sights, but he stopped when he locked eyes with a pale eyed boy who was eying him just as much.

Jenki had no idea why this guy was looking at him with such a questioning gaze. Byakugan aside, he didn't do anything to get his attention and his passive worries that he did something to gain his enmity were sensible since he didn't know if he did something to wrong by analyzing this guy or- Oh he'd be screwed if this guy could read minds, he called him a psycho!

"Kotetsu!" Someone else squeezed his way past the few leaf ninja at the window and approached the, now rolling his eyes, Kotetsu. "You done terrorizing a class of innocent kids?"

Okay now it was weird to see this, Kotetsu, get reeled in by someone since he just made a man disappear without a trace, even the newly appeared Neji noticed that a presence just vanished from the room moments ago. 'Jenki's safe thank goodness…' He focused on Kotetsu and his Byakugan also saw the color silver emanating from Kotetsu's eyes, but he froze like a squirrel staring down a human once Kotetsu turned to look at him with a glare.

"You see something you like? Cause I don't roll that way Hyuga, I'm a man's man!" The one who was reeling in Kotetsu proceeded to pat him on the back and get his attention.

"Uh… you're wearing the shirt Shiro gave you. The one that says 'Queen' on it."

Kotetsu twisted and turned as best as he could to see that the black shirt he was wearing did in fact have the word Queen on the back of it, and it was in pink with blue gems around it. With unmatched speed he stripped the shirt off and left himself in a grey muscle shirt. "Fucking damn it! I knew she wouldn't just loan me a shirt!" Just like the man from before it was gone in the blink of an eye and again everyone in the classroom was confused.

Kogori put his chakra sword away and took a step back from Kotetsu and his friend. "Alright class, you uh- you're all dismissed for today." He looked at his busted window and the gashes across the floor then back to his students. "I'm not having you guys in class like this, you can all go home."

"Woo!" That came from an excited Kotetsu but Rito just squeezed the bridge of his nose in irritation.

"Kotetsu… We're Chunin."

That didn't stop his excitement. "That just means that these little shits got a free day cause of us, you're welcome you fucks." The familiar feeling of something passing through his abdomen made the Uchiha teen stop and grab the offending forearm that dared to invade his reality. The person who attacked him took personal offense to the showing of how a Chunin would act.

"Setting a bad example as a Chunin." Neji raised his foot and struck Kotetsu's shin, the fact that Neji landed a blow shocked him more than the fact that the hit actually hurt.

Kotetsu swung his injured shin for Neji's face in a surprising display of flexibility but the Hyuga blocked the oncoming hit with his other hand. "I hope you don't think you can beat an Uchiha, even though you actually hurt me. Bring it on."

"Not in my classroom you two won't!" Kogori just about screamed at the two and they actually decided to release one another and separate to the relief of everyone present.

Neji jumped up to his cousin's seat and grabbed the top of his head then formed a half seal and the two vanished in a puff of smoke. Rito grabbed his partner by the collar and dragged him out through the door of the classroom. A bunch of students had absolutely no idea as to what just happened in the last five minutes and they wouldn't have one anytime soon, but they did slowly start leaving the class since they were dismissed for the day.

Elsewhere a pair of Hyuga cousins appeared on the streets near their compound, Neji released his younger cousin and let him fall to the ground. "Try not to lose your lunch Jenki, the teleportation is really-" He stopped talking once he saw that Jenki wasn't even disoriented after their sudden appearance, usually when someone experiences the body flicker for the first time they're nauseous but Jenki just stood up and dusted himself off like nothing happened.

"Try not to do what?"

Neji didn't have a response so he just turned around and started walking but somebody almost knocked him over in the sudden rush of Genin. "Oh sorry about that!" A boy slightly younger than Neji was right in front of him.

"What's going on?" Neji questioned as he helped the boy while keeping a protective hand in front of Jenki.

"You didn't hear? It's all over the lines from Suna all the way to here, a jinchūriki went crazy, transformed and started climbing their wall!"

Neji was taken aback. Yeah he'd met the jinchūriki that the Hidden Sand had but he never expected him to decide on who his enemy was just a few days later. Okay, well it wasn't exactly his problem now but hopefully whatever was going on went well for him.

An older Hyuga woman appeared in front of the two and her face conveyed that whatever she was there for was urgent. "Neji, you're needed by Hitoshi-sama." Yeah that sounds like the universe at play.

"Lead the way!" He grabbed Jenki's arm and comically dragged him along while following the woman onto their estate but rather than going to the estate where Jenki resides, they went to the meeting hall on their land. Neji was confused but figured that whatever happened had to have been important if he was being called on by his clan's head.

"Uh, Neji? Is it okay for me to come with you?" It was a good question since he wasn't actually requested but Neji waved it off.

"It's your dad, if he's not okay with you seeing what the deal is then I don't know what to say." They arrived at the meeting hall and their guide stopped at the door, clearly not being invited herself. Neji walked in with Jenki at his side and no sooner than walking in did he see that something was definitely happening on account of all the faces he saw in the room. A pale, old man with light blonde hair was fixing a device of some sort onto his head while Hitoshi and a number of other Hyuga were near him. 'Wait a second… That's Inojin-sama!" He quickly looked around the room and saw that other clan heads were present in the room aside from the Hyuga and Yamanaka leaders.

There was a hefty man eating a burger, Akimichi Chodai.

There was an older man with tired eyes holding his chin in his hand, Nara Shikadai.

There was a beautiful woman with nearly white skin, crimson hair and amber eyes. Clad in a cream colored dress with a red and white sash around her slim waist. She was a rare one but still the head of what was technically present, the lovely Uzumaki Akari.

Last but not least there was a man with his arms crossed and wearing a navy blue cloak over a black shirt and light blue pants, Uchiha Kodaka. Seated to his right was a boy slightly older than him that any girl would call a catch, even Neji had to admit he looked pretty good, and his name was Uchiha Fukoi. Behind him was Kotetsu from earlier but that wasn't what really drew Neji's attention, the real focus was the fact that there was a woman with black hair and crimson glasses sitting at the head of the long table.

She had a red kimono top with exposed shoulders and beige pants that stopped at her shins, the white robe with the kanji for "9" on the back was something Neji didn't need to see to know who this was. The Ninth Hokage, Uchiha Sarada, was here.

"Ah Neji, you brought Jenki as well. Perfect. Both of you can help with this." He motioned for them to help the other Hyuga with whatever Inojin was doing and they came quickly.

Sarada cleared her throat and brought eyes back onto her. "Our first order of business is to check on whatever just happened in Sunagakure." Inojin was fully hooked up to the gadget and his head down to his upper nose was covered, and one by one the Hyuga activated their Byakugan until all seven of them had enhanced vision.

"I want you all to focus and hold hands." Inojin held the ram seal and the Hyuga joined hands with Hitoshi being the only one with an empty hand that he held out to the blonde man. "This won't hurt but it'll be confusing at first so bear with me." He took Hitoshi's hand and linked all of their minds, and subsequently their sight. The sudden merging of their already enhanced sight made some of them disoriented but Jenki was unaffected by the influx of vision from other sources. He could see so much farther than he ever thought possible since he could only see about fifteen meters in all directions with his Byakugan.

"Now that you've all connected I want you to focus to the West and tell me what you can see in Suna." It took a few moments but they managed to merge their sight into one hyper enhanced cone in one direction and saw through everything from there to the desert. They saw the walls of the Hidden Sand and on top of it was something that disgusted them to a high degree, there were a series of giant scorpion stingers coming from one man and- and there was a girl holding one of his hands back while a boy had a flaming sword embedded into his shoulder. Hitoshi himself could see the ghostly visage of another boy holding back the man's leg while the boy grit his teeth and yelled something.

'Solar Pillar?' Jenki could read lips pretty well and a split second later he felt that the name was fitting. In a display of sheer power, the flames surrounding the sword exploded and formed a massive pillar of flames. They were only looking at the attack but they could practically feel the heat despite being nearly three thousand kilometers away. The column of fire wasn't just a display of power but also of beauty since the fire danced around in a show of red and orange but it wasn't an eternal event.

The flames cleared and showed that the white haired boy was tired while his companion was taken hostage. They watched as some words were exchanged but things turned around alarmingly fast when a hand was inside that man's abdomen, and just as fast it was out. They watched the boy stand and sheathe his weapon while walking to the man with a look of revenge all over his face, Hitoshi sensed that whatever was about to happen didn't need to be seen by his son so he quickly told him to let go of whoever's hand he had. He was right to do so.

Every one of the Hyuga still watching grew pale and Jenki was left in the dark as to why, and he even saw that Lady Sarada had a faraway look showing that she was brought into the link and was seeing the event in question. He was curious but trusted in his dad's judgement on him not seeing whatever was happening, and a few moments later Neji himself disconnected to hold his stomach and he almost looked green from whatever he saw.

One by one the remaining Byakugan users disconnected from Inojin and started recovering from whatever made Neji feel unwell. Sarada rubbed her forehead and sighed. "That imagery aside… We at least know what's going on so I guess it isn't that much of an issue." That's what she said but her inner thoughts said something else. 'What the- Is this what Akira taught that boy?!'

"What'd that annoyance do this time? Is he finally killing everyone?" Of course Kotetsu would be Kotetsu and say something like that but Kodaka just gave the boy a strike to the back of his head.

"What my nephew meant to ask was if Akira's son had a breakdown of some kind?" His very voice was solemn and gave off very little emotion but he couldn't say that he wasn't interested over what was going on with his other nephew.

Hitoshi cleared his throat and spoke clearly about what he witnessed. "It was clear to me that the attack was over the death of Akira and the boy was avenging him by attacking the man responsible. It's an open and shut case so we should move to our next order of business, Lady Hokage?"

She was still in her own frustrated mind over what she saw but reality kicked in and she quickly composed herself to agree. Kotetsu walked around and to the open midsection of the long, curved table they sat at. "Kotetsu is here because he received an assignment to capture someone affiliated with the terrorist group now known as, Ao Akuma." She looked around as Kotetsu stood there cleaning his nails. "Where is he?"

"Oh right." His eyes went from coal black to his mangekyou sharingan. "Forgot to bring him out." Questions we're about to be asked but with a simple will of his mind did a man appear from his eyes with a missing hand. The second he came out he was in a chokehold with Kotetsu staring him dead in the eyes, and he quit whatever complaining he was about to have over his missing hand. "In three days he's meeting up with some people near the land of Waves."

Shikadai opened his eyes long enough to speak up on this one. "So we can send a team to intercept and capture them. We all know that whoever the Blue Demons are, they've been getting more and more frequent with their appearances." He wasn't wrong since they were showing up more and more with each passing day.

"Bastards tried to get me a year after I was a genin." Kotetsu interrupted as he made the man fall back onto the floor silently. "I got lucky that Shiro was there and went all Eight on them."

So they had a plan of action and now they needed people to commit to it… But the question was who would be going on this mission? "Well that's something I'll decide on soon enough." Everyone was looking at Sarada like she'd grown a second head. She raised an eyebrow and scanned the room wondering why they were looking at her strangely when it hit her like a bird into a window. 'I didn't say the first half out loud… damn it!'

"Yeah we'll figure out who's doing it later." Shikadai commented to try and bring some of the strange looks away from the, now vacant eyed, Hokage. "I guess everyone's free to leave." Surprise surprise, Kotetsu didn't even wait for him to finish talking to leave the room.

Kodaka just shook his head and looked back to his internally panicking Hokage. "Mother, I worry about that one sometimes, but how is Akira's spawn doing?"

Fukoi finally decided to say something after all this time too and just how his appearance was easy on the eyes, his voice was smooth and relaxing to the ears. "I'm curious about what my other cousin's doing too, any ideas grandmother?" That actually made Sarada leave her near comatose state but Hitoshi was the one to speak on this one.

"He's… giving an eye for an eye."


He was shirtless, he was barefoot, and he was running. He was running down a long, dark hallway with at least ten disfigured figures right on his tail and the fact that he was blindfolded didn't help him much. "Get back here you albino haired bastard!" One of them was trying to goad him into slowing down or at least trying to fight them head on, but that wasn't how this worked. His white hair was fluttering in the limited air of the dank passageway and he just kept moving even as the footsteps got closer. All he did was run even more until his ears picked up the sound of echoes against walls that were further away meaning he was in a larger area.

'Perfect.' That was his sole thought as they started catching up to him and fell right into his trap.

He flipped and used his legs to both grab one of them around the neck and fling the genetic mess ahead of him, the rest tried their best to even lay a hand on him but they failed tremendously. Each time they got close he moved like a dancer and sent them clear away without even hitting them, grapples and throws were all he did to divert their attacks… and this was all done blindfolded. It was like a dance, except for the fact that he was clearly leading and had more experience while the others were on their first day trying to keep up.

He put the last one onto the floor then raised his foot high into the air and brutally slammed it onto their chest to shut up their cries of pain. Weakness was something he didn't like… and everyone was weak compared to him. He took the blindfold off and saw that the pale skinned freaks were still alive and he just shook his head, they weren't even worth the effort to put down. "He wants to talk to you." Of course she'd just pop in out of nowhere, but she was the only person he'd tolerate speaking to on a regular basis.

"Alright." He followed his instincts and they brought him through winding hallways and long corridors into a large room and right to his superior… for now at least. He bowed and felt a bit of a sting in the side of his neck. "You needed me?"

The older man looked at the white haired youth before him, and he was proud of their crowning achievement. It wasn't everyday you managed to have someone of his level on your side. "You make me proud boy. I was given a bad omen so I'm putting you on a simple mission, it should be nothing to you even if something goes awry but I refuse to see failure with this."

"Consider it done. When is this mission?" He was pissed that he was stuck on whatever detail this was going to be but he didn't exactly have much choice. While everyone might be weaker than him that doesn't mean that absolutely nobody can beat him, and this was one of those exceptions.

"In three days time." He told his ward and a sudden light source exposed a pair of emerald green eyes to his view. "You already know failure isn't an option. Don't make this my first disappointment, Kuzo."

Kuzo stood up and turned to walk down the same hallway he came from with only one final message. "I won't."


It was a good morning for Neji. He just got the news that he'd be going on that mission to intercept someone in the land of Waves. He remembered everything that the Hokage told him before asking him to let the last team member know he'd be tagging along.

Neji was in her office listening closely, Fukoi was also there and he was paying just as much attention. "Ah, Hyuga Neji's here. I'll get right into it; Fukoi you're going to be a sort of leader for the mission to the land of Waves and Neji will be going along with you."

"May I ask why?" It wasn't a bad question since he was outranked by the Chunin Uchiha in the room but was going to be on the team? Didn't make sense to him.

"I'm going to be honest with you and say that you're already a Chunin elect for the finals in the exam next month, and I've got total confidence that you'll be promoted… so I'm putting you on this mission." The praise from his Kage made him blush a bit and of course it would since she was saying that he was on the same level of someone like Fukoi already, even though he was only two years older. "Of course that also leaves you responsible for getting your other teammates to cooperate with you." And that threw them off completely.

Fukoi raised a brow and asked the obvious question. "Uh, who are our other teammates?" The smile that was on Sarada's face scared the both of them.

And that brings us back to now where Neji was knocking on an apartment door which nobody answered. He let himself in and was surprised that he heard something after all. "What's that sound?"

"-drinking with your friends. -dark boy I cannot pretend!" He advanced through the living area and carefully put his ear against the bedroom door.

'Is that… Is he singing?'

"-only here to sin. -in your garden you know that you can…" Okay all his home training was out the window, and he opened the door to see something that would traumatize him.

"Call me when you want!"

"Call me when you need!

"Call me in the morning, I'll be on the way!"

It was Kotetsu and he was shirtless, but the horror was the fact that he was twirling around a metal pole that probably wasn't a part of that room originally. Neji saw that there was a phone propped up on the bed with a girl on screen watching the teenage Uchiha, and she was biting her lip while he moved… gracefully.

"OH CALL ME BY YOUR NAME!"

"TELL ME YOU LOVE ME IN PRIVATE!"

"CALL ME BY YOUR NAME!"

"I DO NOT-"

One of his moves let him see that there was an intruder and he froze in the middle of his action. Kotetsu was calm at the moment compared to Neji being wide eyed, even for a Hyuga. The sound of a call ending finally gave him the idea to speak. "Hey, Neji right? What uh… what are you doing here?"

"I was just trying to tell you that we're on a team for-"

"No no no, I mean what are you doing here? In the private apartment I rented for my stay in this village?" His calm was starting to break.

Neji was doing everything in his power to keep his eyes off the shirtless Uchiha but peripheral vision was screwing him over on that one. "I knocked on the door. You didn't answer."

"That's because I'm busy stretching."

Neji decided to try to break the thick atmosphere with a joke. "And you're always on a pole and video calling a girl when you do your stretching… That's gotta be embarrassing."

"Nah. I learned that you can do things how you want when nobody can see." He slipped his muscle shirt back on before giving another message. "Point is if you don't like seeing me half naked, you look away. Cause I'm only putting on a shirt cause you said something about a team."

"Well I came to tell you that we're on the mission to catch up with the Ao Akuma guy."

Oh yeah that was something that happened the other day. Well he was here for this very reason so it didn't catch him off guard to hear this. "Alright let's go." He grabbed his sword and they left as if what happened didn't happen and for Neji's sanity that was the best choice.

They didn't really speak to each other as they walked to the village gate but it's not like they had much to talk about. When they got there they saw Fukoi and- "Akari?" A head of beautiful red hair and an elegant combat dress that exposed her hips and legs, which had a black pair of thigh high boots covering them. "We're gonna be fine on this mission aren't we?"

The Uzumaki gave him a wide, toothy grin. "We got Fukoi, you with your palms, and mister vanishing people. There's no way anything could mess with us!"

"So, it's Kotetsu by the way, are you idiots all ready?" Fukoi gave him a grin almost like Akari's in terms of only showing pure joy in the situation… and Kotetsu didn't like it.

"I'm the Uchiha in charge Kotetsu-chan~"

The silence was maddening and Kotetsu's stare met Fukoi's happy expression… and neither of them was backing down from their positions. "First, you ever add that to my name again I'll cut your tongue out and make you lick your ass with it. Second, never act like you can tell me what to do." With that he leapt off leaving his team behind but Neji had something to attend to before they could really go along.

"You guys go ahead, I'll catch up." He vanished in a puff of smoke while his optimistic teammates were still surprised at how they got under Kotetsu's skin just by being happy… This was gonna be fun.


"So this is The Land of Waves? It's so cool!" Technically they weren't officially in their mission destination but they definitely weren't in the Land of Fire anymore, and this was Jenki's first time being out of home so he was marveling at the sights as they went towards their goal. He was idly fiddling with the bandages wrapped all over his arms and hands while taking in the scenery.

Fukoi looked concerned about their unprecedented guest for this mission. "Neji, why'd you think this was alright again?" He adjusted his black overshirt to show his mesh undershirt and the Uchiha fan over his right pectoral slid over in exchange.

Kotetsu actually did the unthinkable and slowed down to argue the point on Neji's behalf. "Kid's like ten isn't he? My cousin was on a mission with me when he was eight, and he killed some bow using faggot."

"I don't think Jenki should be here, it's not safe for a boy who doesn't even have much training." Akari was marveling just as much as Jenki but she still was mature enough to see the danger in him being here. "But then again with all of us watching him what could happen?" And Kotetsu took that personally.

"Worst case scenario; We all get captured and gang raped to make as many kids as possible." Everyone was staring at him, wide-eyed, as they should with such a straight faced answer for what could happen to them. Neji unconsciously put a hand on his cousin's shoulder to protect him from even that concept but Kotetsu had more to say. "Actually no, that isn't the worst thing. She's an Uzumaki, they'd probably make us fuck her to give them Uchi-maki and Hyu-Maki kids."

Well now Akari was a little frightened both from that idea of the absolute worst thing happening to them, and the fact that Kotetsu managed to come up with something so dark on the spot. "How- What have- I'm scared." She moved closer to Fukoi while Neji just made double sure that his cousin was protected from any possible threats.

"I'm scared too." They kept their distance from Kotetsu but they couldn't keep it up forever since they had to stop their trek at a shop of some kind. "Is that a bar?" A bar on a fairly lonely road, not suspicious but not on the up and up either.

"You had me at bar!" Kotetsu sped up and walked into the place without caring for what his team wanted so they just decided to follow him inside the bar with only a few patrons.

"Hey that kid can't be in-" A kunai beside his head made him stop talking and Kotetsu's smile sent a chill down his spine.

"I don't miss twice." Well Jenki was allowed inside now. They sat down in a booth and were surprised that the seats were not only clean but made out of a high quality leather. Jenki had never been in a bar but this was setting a good standard in case he ever wanted to give into drinking when he was old enough.

Okay it was fine for them to take a rest here but it was a little strange how the Uchiha that wasn't in charge kept glancing at a man at the bar with his eyes glued to a television. Neji saw the movements without even trying and the more he saw it the more things started coming together in his head. "That's our guy isn't it?"

"Yep. And he isn't even armed… he's leaving now!" He may have yelled that but it was a quiet yell that only their booth heard and Akari stood up but Fukoi put a hand up to stop her.

"We can't follow right behind him… need to get some distance. Neji keep eyes on him." Byakugan flared to life and Neji watched their target look around outside and quickly vanish from sight in a swirl of water. He stood up and left with the others right behind him, and his cousin being held like a barrel in Kotetsu's right arm. They stayed half a kilometer behind their target and watched as he approached a major landmark with a decent amount of foot traffic.

"The Great Naruto Bridge, named after lord Seventh." It was an important piece of history in front of them but the important thing was that they intercepted the man before he was on the bridge and there were innocents in their way. They had to make their move now. Kotetsu charged ahead with his sharingan spinning rapidly, and he released Jenki from his grasp for Akari to catch him.

'This just got real! I wonder… how will they stop the guy from going anywhere?' It was something he mulled over even as Kotetsu left his immediate sight. They broke through some foliage and saw a pond where the man was standing with his arms crossed and a bemused expression.

"About time you all showed up, it's annoying to act like you don't know some greenhorns are following you." And now it was time for some things to be noted. For one he knew that they were following him so they never had the element of surprise, two his eyes lingered on Jenki and Neji, and last but definitely not least.

'Where is Kotetsu?' Fukoi sent a pulse of his chakra out but he couldn't feel his relative around at all, it was almost like he was gone from the world entirely. "We're here to take you back to Konoha for interrogation!"

The man smirked and went through hand seals surprisingly fast. "Kuchiyose no jutsu!" Black lines spread across the water and from that pond came a massive green octopus, at least five stories tall, with deep blue eyes. "You're gonna have to fight for that." Four arms laced with giant suckers shot out for them and only missed by the slightest bit, the cephalopod was huge but damn it was quick.

"Katon: Gōkakyū no jutsu." Fukoi used the traditional technique of his clan and sent a fireball straight for the octopus' bulbous head but a tube to the left of its left eye turned and shot a blast of water that turned his attack into steam. "Where is Kotetsu?!"

The man was confused at that odd question even as he held his right hand onto the slippery skin of his summon, there were only four of them weren't there? "Why's he asking where someone else-" He didn't get to finish that train of thought since a foot hit the back of his head and sent him off his mount and onto the ground as the steam cleared. He saw another boy with raven colored hair falling right towards him and his octopus lashed an arm that- That went right through him!

Kotetsu was right on top of him and extending his left hand with a grin on his face. "Welcome to Hell…" He was about to grab his face when he suddenly became aware of something. Nobody ever managed to hit his eyes when he was using his ability so he didn't know where he sent things when he did it, but now he knew that it was some sort of demented landscape where purple was a predominant color. The reason that he was suddenly seeing inside of some twisted world was because somebody had the nerve to swing a large sword with a serrated edge through his head, and someone else used that moment to appear and grab his target then jump away right as the sword passed all the way through his head.

"What the-" Kotetsu swung his own sword and clashed with the walking dead man in his sights.

A girl with black hair and beautiful brown eyes clad in a black jacket with blue accenting spirals on the sides had the man who nearly got sent away by Kotetsu beside her. "That should've cut his head in half, Tomoya did you miss?"

"I didn't need your help just then." He walked a bit away from her while Kotetsu clashed with the dark skinned swordsman who he planned on castrating with a rusted spoon. "That guy has something weird about him, he told me 'welcome to hell' like he took me somewhere."

"Okay but how isn't he dead?!" The serrated sword owner was frantically trying to defend himself but it was obvious who the better swordsman was at the moment since he was only being pushed back more and more. "Komoya!" The rattling was a major indication and it wasn't even dodged, the chains passed right through Kotetsu but gave enough of an opening for Tomoya to escape and regroup by the cephalopod.

Fukoi saw that things just got a little bit more complicated with the appearance of these two but they still had the numbers advantage and they were going to use it. He took advantage of the distraction and shot a fireball at the two of them grouped together. When the smoke cleared there weren't any injured people standing there but instead they were on top of- "A giant crocodile? Can't lie, that's fucking cool!" At least Kotetsu was impressed but everyone else was intimidated by the fact that this crocodile summon was easily as tall as the octopus but almost triple the length.

Tomoya looked out of breath but he looked up to the man beside him with a smile. "Did I do good sensei?"

"You did very good." He vanished in a swirl of water again but this time Neji decided to stay on his tail and disappeared in a puff of smoke. Everyone else decided to pick their partner and Fukoi chose-

"Shannaro!" Akari drove her fist into the giant crocodile and pushed it back some, the real question was when did she even jump that high? So Fukoi had to change targets and the next best thing was the girl right beside the boy he wouldn't go after since his cousin had a glare set right on him.

She looked down at him and he made a beckoning motion with two fingers… She obliged and jumped down from the croc. "I guess it's you and me? You wanna start this thing?" She put her hands into her pockets and Fukoi grinned.

"Ladies first."


Jenki and Kotetsu were together and it looked like it was a fair fight since Akari just landed next to them. "Uh, Akari?"

"Something wrong Jenki?" Tomoya started weaving hand seals and Kotetsu did the same thing.

"Suiton: Daibakufu no jutsu!" (Water style: Giant vortex jutsu). It was more like a massive waterfall that was rolling down towards them but Kotetsu had just the thing to stop it from drowning them.

"Katon: Goryūka no jutsu." (Fire style: Fierce dragon flame). The fire collided with its natural opposite and it created a cloud of steam that clouded their sight.

Jenki went through his unique seals and landed on the last one, his Byakugan flared to life a second too late since an octopus arm coiled around him and dragged him away. Akari was about to go after him despite her limited sight but she was interrupted by a massive crocodile nearly crushing her flat, and she had to keep jumping backwards until both her and it were out of the mist.

That left Kotetsu and Tomoya alone. Just the way they both liked it. "Eight points." Kotetsu heard through the mist, his sharingan let him know that at some point this guy laced it with his own chakra to throw off his trail. "Spine, liver, lungs, kidneys, subclavian artery-"

Kotetsu swung his sword backwards and clashed with the serrated blade once again with a manic grin coming into place on his face. "Jugular, larynx, and heart!" They engaged in another clash with their swords that actually made Kotetsu have to try since he couldn't read movements as well because of the mist. "Just because you know the eight killing points doesn't mean I'll let you have them." They clashed and were staring eye to eye, there wasn't any fun just casting an illusion to end this now. He wanted to enjoy it.

"You've got pretty eyes…" He backstepped and brought the two swords down long enough to kick the Uchiha in the side and lift his blade back up to slash his thigh. "They're the same color as my favorite thing."

Kotetsu phased right through the next attack and dragged his blade against Tomoya's side in the process, his vest doing nothing to prevent the wound. "I'm not a betting man but I'm assuming that it's-" They both turned and clashed their swords once more, both staring at the other and both smiling brightly.

"Blood!"


Being dragged away by an octopus wasn't the way Jenki planned on his day going and he wasn't going to let it go that way. His right hand was just free enough to focus his chakra into it enough to turn his hand into a chakra knife, and he used that knife to cut the sinewy arm so he would be free. "Man that really sucked… heh." And nobody was around to either laugh at that or judge him for it so it was fine. "Wait a second…" They we're beneath The Great Naruto Bridge and the octopus was partly in the water already. Jenki dropped into his fighting stance and when two more arms shot for him he struck at them with enough precision to render them useless so he could back up for breathing room. "This thing wanted to drown me!"

He swore he could see a smile on the cephalopod's face despite its actual mouth being elsewhere. It raised its body and exposed a black beak to the boy who was confused, he'd never seen what the mouth of something like this looked like so finding out that it had a beak like a bird just threw him off. The octopus brought the two arms that were limp to its maw and ripped them right off, then it swallowed them without a second thought.

"Why would it- That doesn't- Huh?" An octopus was a marvelous creature, smarter than most other sea creatures and only rivaled in that intellect by the mammals of the sea. It's intellect was one of its greater traits but another was its ability to regenerate lost limbs, but how would a chakra beast respond to losing a limb? It would grow back dangerously fast. The octopus went from six arms to eight once again and Jenki witnessed how fast it was able to recover from his Gentle Fist firsthand.

This time four of its arms shot out towards him and he jumped away from them while using palm strikes to divert the sucker-covered limbs from getting a good grip on him again, and considering how fast it managed to move when it had him the first time… He'd be underwater by the time he got free again, deep underwater.

He disabled those four arms but the octopus was ripping them off and regrowing them already. It was only a matter of time before one of them ran out of chakra and as it stood it wouldn't be him, this was a fight of endurance and this thing didn't know who it was messing with. Every single time it lashed at him he would render its limbs useless so why was it doing the same thing? He wondered that each time. This time it just flung one of its arms away and used even more chakra to regrow it. "Don't get mad at me, I'm not the one eating my tentacles. I guess you're sick of the taste."

From the siphon on its head came a blast of water but Jenki was ready, he laced his hands with chakra and used them to shield his body from most of the torrent, all it was doing was pushing him back against the sand beneath his sandals. The water stopped right when he was pushed against some big rock but the cephalopod decided to come out of the water and crawl towards him menacingly but he was more than ready to go toe to toe with it again… At least he would've been if he could move.

"It- It knocked me into that arm?" His back was to the suckers covering the arm that was tossed away like garbage but now he saw that it was a strategic placement done by the beast to make him vulnerable. All the boy could do was watch as he was dragged into the water with only a quick gulp of air to keep him from drowning immediately.

One could almost hear the taunting laughter that the octopus would've had if it could but the silence was even more frightening than laughter could ever be. Now was the time for action and luckily there was one technique he knew for this exact situation. Each of his tenketsu points tended and gathered a small amount of chakra around them. 'Gentle Fist Technique…' He exhaled to give his burning lungs some relief.

The octopus sensed that something was wrong so it plunged even deeper with Jenki in the grasp of not one but two arms. Normally the move he was about to use would only repel things near him but with his unnaturally large chakra stores for a Hyuga?

"Bodyblow!"

He might as well have been a bomb going off in the water with how he blew the octopus away. The repulsion was so great that for a moment there wasn't even any water surrounding him, just a void made from his own chakra and he used that to quickly take in another breath of air. He saw that the summon was dazed and discombobulated so he started swimming for the surface but regardless of his ability to disorient the octopus, he was the one in its element. He felt something muscular coil around his ankle and looked back to see the horrific image of the cephalopod's huge beak and splayed arms awaiting him below. He used his chakra control to send a quick burst of chakra from his ankle so he could try to swim just a bit closer to the surface but he wasn't lucky enough to get that far.

Another arm grabbed his legs and he was forced to look at the monster below him again but he had a guardian angel in the form of something splashing into the water and swimming right into the octopus, getting it to release its grasp on him and giving him the chance to get to the surface again. Jenki broke the surface and got a breath of fresh air, his burning lungs finally getting a constant supply of oxygen. His field of vision saw that there was something biting into the head of the octopus all the way down there but now a cloud of ink was spreading from it and whatever was trying to end the octopus was thrashing around in pain.

Unfortunately that meant that the octopus had its eyes on him yet again and it jettisoned up for him. Jenki only had the option of getting back to shore, his best bet was making sure that the octopus didn't keep him in the water. He pulled himself above the surface and ran on the water as fast as his legs would carry him, the arms that breached and nearly dragged him back into the deep blue missed by precious feet and he struck with his fingers to slow the giant down if even a bit. He made it back to the shore and right behind him was the green octopus with fury in its eyes and a bite mark on its mantle. Jenki got into his fighting stance again and the octopus lunged but it didn't go very far.

This time he could clearly see that a massive purple snake wrapped around the octopus and started dragging it into the water but this time it's head was above the waves. "No ink clouds this time…" A talking purple snake… alright. The octopus lashed and flailed its arms all over but the snake only squeezed harder and harder until the octopus popped like a bubble. A spray of blue blood and sinew went everywhere and Jenki was perplexed as to why the blood of the creature was blue instead of red. The snake lowered its head down to the shore right in front of the Hyuga and from it came its summoner. "Is that all you need of me?"

"Yeah… Thanks Aoda, but maybe warn me before you just dive into water like that." This kid was even smaller than Jenki but he had a Sunagakure band wrapped around his arm.

He looked at Jenki and Jenki returned that look. The atmosphere between these two was thick but no words were spoken, just silence. Unlike the deathly silence of the water this one was like a prelude to something, as if the Sun and Moon were in the same place at the same time. "Thanks."

"No problem." It was as awkward as it could be.

"Why is someone from the Sand here?"

"I was sent to make sure your mission went well. Took me a few days to catch up even though I left before you." He must've meant that when Lady Sarada found out about this meeting he was sent to catch up with them… That was three days ago.

"Thanks for showing up. I would've been fish food." Jenki sat down and shook the saltwater out of his hair while this new guy looked around. 'Isn't this the kid that we saw do that fire pillar thing?' He started seeing the resemblance right when he broke the silence.

"Neji…"


He just deflected two hits without even trying, Neji was not alright with how this looked at the moment. "I'm well versed in your Gentle Fist, there's nothing you can dish that I can't counter." Whoever this guy was, he was a threat. Countering the Gentle Fist wasn't easy but he made it look like child's play.

Right now they were standing in a clearing just East of the pond this all started at. "So basically my fighting style is useless against you?" He nodded and smirked at the Hyuga before closing the distance and throwing his own punch that Neji dodged and backflipped from.

"Dodging will only get you so far. You're gonna have to fight and when you do… You'll die." He rushed again and wound his arm back, intending to hit Neji in the face. If only he saw the smirk on his face. The sound of a fist meeting a face was heard but it wasn't Neji who got hit, the man was in shock from how suddenly he was now looking behind himself. He recovered and saw that Neji was in a different pose altogether, one hand behind his back and the other in front of him with his knuckles facing forward. "Y- You're a Hyuga! The Hyuga don't throw punches!"

Neji blurred and appeared right in front of him. "This one does." It was too fast for him to even follow, Neji was serving him a boxed lunch without the lunch… he was just getting boxed! He finished the combo with an uppercut and by the time his enemy's brain caught up with his condition he was driving his heel into his stomach. "I might not like her eccentricity, but Tile sensei is an amazing woman!"

Okay so this was not expected. He thought that he'd be the one who was serving this kid a three course meal of pain but the tables turned remarkably fast. He jumped up but Neji was gone entirely. "Where the hell is he?"

"Right behind you." He turned and swung but didn't hit anything, there wasn't even a sign of someone being there. This was pissing him off more with every passing second so he decided to calm himself down for a moment.

"I'm not surprised that a tree hugger is hiding, that bluff fighting style worked pretty good but I could tell that you didn't have enough power backing it to kill me!" He ripped his sleeve off and exposed an advanced chakra gadget to the air and shot a blast of fire to his side, where Neji was… Emphasis on was.

Neji was behind him in the air with his left leg reeled back and he kicked him into the trees without a second thought. The man saw that he was beside the bridge and there wasn't anyone around, they must've figured there was shinobi business going on so they cleared the hell out. No hostages it seemed.

A swirl of leaves revealed that Neji appeared with his cousin in hand, he was holding his collar like he was a suitcase. "Wait, I heard that kid say your name!"

"He's an alright guy. But let's focus on this for now."

"What the hell is this? Need backup from a kid?" He was fully prepared to kill the both of them no matter what the cost but Neji smiled and waved that off.

"Oh no, this is Hyuga Jenki-kun, my adorable cousin. I decided to show him how I do things and let him see me kick your ass up and down these woods."

His eye twitched but he didn't say anything, at least not immediately. This kid was awfully cocky despite bringing someone right into danger… unless he actually had a reason to be so confident. Wait a second. If he had a reason to be cocky then- Then that means he was confident he could end this anytime… and that meant. "You were holding back a few minutes ago…" It wasn't a question.

Neji just smiled. "Don't worry about that, you see- You're weak compared to me." The smile on his face was kind but it was a sickening taunt and a reminder that there's always a bigger fish.

"AAH! I'll kill the both of you!" He slammed his hands onto the ground and put up a hand seal that neither Hyuga had ever seen. "This one's my specialty and mine alone! The octopuses are one of the five great water summons and I'll show you what they can do!"

He spat black water into the air but a quick smell told them that it wasn't any normal water at all. It was ink. He transformed from a normal human to a man with a bulbous head and tentacles surrounding his mouth, blue splotches were all over his now orange skin and his eyes were solid blue. "Wow… I think he's gonna kill us with his ugly." Jenki's joke made his cousin chuckle and their enemy even more angry.

"Laugh all you want! In a second you'll only know pain!" He clasped his hands together and the ink moved through the air and trapped them all in a dark box. "Jigoku inku sekai." (Hellish World of Ink).


The crocodile bit down but missed its mark, however its mark threw another ground splitting punch into its hide again. "Shannaro!" They we're at a stalemate since she was too nimble for it to swallow her but it was too tough for her punches to affect it. She landed on the ground and looked at her elbow length black gloves, the writing on them saying 'Strength' and it definitely helped a little bit. She wasn't just physically powerful but she was also a seal user so her abilities were only limited by imagination. "It won't let me see its stomach so I can't hit it there."

The croc slammed its right foreleg into the ground and turned the damp soil into an entire marsh. Akari started sinking into the ground but she quickly used the water walking technique to stay above the ground, and she dodged another bite as she did so. She pulled out a piece of paper and an ink pen and started writing as fast as she could for the plan that was in motion. Good things crocodilians weren't the brightest so it didn't know that she was plotting something to stop it entirely, of course it wasn't going to let up and it started moving even faster to try and end her life. She slammed the paper onto the ground where the water didn't even affect it.

She avoided a bite but she was in the air now and had to watch as the giant, muscular tail came down onto her and slammed her right into the marsh below. The tail lifted off her and the summon growled then backed up. Akari lifted herself up and saw that her entire outfit was filthy but that was the least of her concerns, she saw the forms of much more normal looking crocodiles coming through the water and they were looking at her like a snack. One of them went right for her and earned a punch to its snout that sent it crashing into a tree and it disappeared in a puff of smoke.

The others lunged at her with their snagged teeth ready to rip her apart but each one got a punch that broke their bones like twigs. "I'm not food!" Timing was everything and it showed when one of them latched onto her leg. "Uh oh." There was something called the death roll, and it was done whenever a crocodile got its jaws onto a food item. The reptile would spin and turn as fast as it could to tear off pieces of its prey, disabling it and leaving it open to more attacks… Akari would experience this firsthand.

The entire world spun around as the crocodile span like a washing machine but Akari was smart enough to bring her body as close to it as possible to reduce damage but it only worked so well since she could feel the teeth further tearing into her leg. She grabbed its mouth and pulled her hand back hard enough to break its jaw bones and free her leg. It backed away only to be crushed by the foot of its superior. "I guess it's a croc eat croc world…" She quipped as she examined her leg and saw that it needed medical attention fast. She hurriedly scribbled onto another piece of paper and left it there, but dodging was now a real struggle instead of a quick jump. She got hit in the air and landed on the ground in a heap but managed to leave another sheet of paper in that spot. This was getting too rough for her and while she didn't want to, she had to buckle down and hope that three was enough.

The crocodile was right in the middle of the trio of seals and didn't even know it. Akari stood up and put her hands into the ram seal. "Uzumaki fuinjutsu: Takashio!" (Uzumaki Sealing Jutsu: Storm Surge). It didn't even know what happened. One second it's about to eat a girl with red hair and the next it has enough electricity running through it to power an entire city for a week. Not only did Akari's seals use her own chakra but they also converted some of the chakra from the marsh into them, meaning that the crocodile had a hand- or foot in its own death… Ironic.

"Okay. Where's everyone at? I need stitches for this and-"

A fireball hit the ground and Akari saw that Fukoi was in the air raining hell on that girl from before… who was not that far from Akari. "Can you quit shooting those at me?!" Fukoi landed and the fact that his undershirt was torn to reveal his toned chest distracted not one but two girls on this battlefield.

He noticed that the girl who was just trying to avoid his fireballs now had a nosebleed and that gave him a perfect moment to attack, but seeing that Akari was not in fighting condition made him realize that he needed something more…Cunning. 'Never thought I'd have to do this- But desperate times call for desperate measures.' He pulled his overshirt down and removed his undershirt so that Komoya could see all of his body, glistening with sweat. 'And when she's fully gone I can-"

And he was beat to the literal punch. "Shannaro!" Akari used whatever she had left in the tank just for that one hit it seemed and she drove the girl straight through the dirt. The ground spiderwebbed beneath her fist and the poor girl who didn't deserve what just happened to her. Akari's body was heaving and her heavy panting was the only thing that Fukoi could hear.

"Let's go find the others…" He held her up against him and contemplated on the choices he made in his life that led to this girl striking someone down so quickly and maliciously. Honestly they should check if she was still alive but really it wasn't like she'd be going anywhere either way.


There were tendrils of black ink reaching out for them and trying to hold them tight but both the Hyuga boys repelled the boneless limbs with their fighting style. The transformed man was in this box with them but every time they tried to get close he just summoned more tendrils to trap them. "Neji! What are we gonna do?"

"I have an idea."

Neji's hands were coated with blue chakra and he struck the walls of their prison to no avail. "This jutsu is the amalgam of all my hard work! You aren't just going to break through it!" Neji struck two more times but nothing happened so he jumped back to his cousin's side.

Jenki was starting to have pain in his hands so he decided that whatever Neji had planned could come second, he needed to try and break them out himself. His hands were laced with his own chakra and for a second he felt like he wasn't alone in this attack, his hands crashed right through the dark wall and exposed the light of day to them again. Neji jumped out and grabbed Jenki's collar as the box shattered. "Why is everyone grabbing my neck?!"

"Sorry Jenki-kun~ Just making sure you don't get hurt." They saw that the octo-man was on his knees and his weird mouth parts were fluttering in the cool air. "Looks like he's done for now… I wonder where everybody else is, we need Kotetsu to do his sucky thing. I guess we can knock him out for now." Neji got three steps in before something dropped in front of their enemy.

They had a mask on and a black vest covering their torso with grey pants that had a blue stripe on the sides of both legs. "What's the information you had to give?" His voice was completely level, they couldn't get a read on his mentality.

The octo-man pulled out a USB and handed it off to the teenager to his side. "You got here in the nick of time, with you here Kuzo… They don't stand a chance."

"You're right. They don't with me here." An ivory bone grew from his hand and he pulled it out to reveal that he could create weapons from his own body, and he just made a sword with his bones. The man slammed his hands down and summoned another octopus with the same coloration as him, blue with orange splotches. Neji sensed that something was awry so he covered Jenki's eyes and tapped a point that shut his Byakugan off.

"Looks like you two are sh-" Bisection is a strange thing to experience and he just felt it firsthand. He looked and saw his legs with his bowels across the ground, then he looked to Kuzo and only had one question. "W- Why?"

"Now that I'm here they stand no chance, you've outlived your usefulness." With a kick the dying man was out of sight and out of Kuzo's mind. Neji lunged forward at the same time as Kuzo did with his bone sword and with a mixture of his two fighting styles he both found that the sword was as hard as steel and that his Gentle Fist didn't break it.

Things got real when the octopus charged for Jenki and made him experience deja vu but this one managed to grab him and drag him off even faster than the last one. "Jenki-kun!" His field of vision ensured that nothing would catch him off guard but Kuzo nearly had his head for that one. Neji parried the thrusts of the sharp bone as quick as they came but it was evident that he hadn't started pushing this pale boy just yet. 'He's almost as pale as Akari, what I'd do for her to be here right now!'

Kuzo swung his weapon and Neji threw a punch, they were locked against one another but there was something more at play right then. "Hm?" A spider dropped onto Kuzo's shoulder with a line of webbing behind it, followed by another, and another. He looked up and saw a horse sized mother spider ejecting young from a cocoon and beside that was Kotetsu with blood on his face and rips on his shirt. The spiderlings dropped more and more onto Kuzo while Neji jumped back and tried to take some of the webs off himself but found that normal means of doing so didn't work.

"What are these?" He laced his hand with chakra and sliced right through them but Kuzo wasn't having the same luck, his bones may have been reinforced by chakra but they were still just bone and they didn't make any progress in cutting through the webs.

Kotetsu took his opportunity to weave three signs and fall to the ground with the sound of birds following him, since his target was completely immobile this would be easy. "Chidori!" (One thousand birds). He was right on Kuzo when suddenly bones erupted from his chest and he had to make a choice of landing the attack and getting injured or using his mangekyou and losing more chakra. 'Fuck it! I'll see it through!' He decided to follow through but luckily something else decided that he didn't need to risk it. A wall of sand interrupted both his attack and the bones that would have caused some major damage.

"You know this is the second time I've had to save you from someone, cousin." White hair, purple outfit, an ashen black gourd with the kanji for Love in blue? Zeko was on the scene.

Neji was looking between the two Uchiha and couldn't see how they'd be related but he was ignoring looks and favoring behavior. It almost made him forget something important. "Jenki-kun!" He dashed off but Kuzo managed to get free of the webs right then and Kotetsu saw that they were all burnt away, along with the spiders that were making them. It was a hassle on its own to get this many spiders out of nowhere but to have someone be able to burn their webs away? Defeats the purpose.

He was still going to let them stick around to slow down this freak either way.

"Sen'ei tajashu." (Multiple Striking Shadow Snakes). A dozen snakes came from his right sleeve and started to wrap around Kuzo but a quick swipe from his sword separated them from their heads. Seeing those snakes lose their lives made Zeko lose his cool and the cork on his gourd popped off.

Neji was following where his cousin went and he finally managed to see him fending off the octopus alone and he was about to help when he had to dodge more vicious stabs from a bone sword. "I don't give up a chase that easily." Neji responded by landing a solid blow to Kuzo's mask and giving it a nice crack across one of its eyes. Kuzo tripped him and got ready to spear him with his weapon but his arm stopped midway and he saw that there was sand holding him back.

Zeko's hand was outstretched and shut while Kotetsu was weaving signs again. Neji took his chance to get closer to his cousin but Kuzo jumped and kicked the sand away like it was dust in the wind and followed him. More sand emerged and tried to stop the bone berserker but he evaded with such fluidity without even looking back at the threat. Of course Zeko decided on a plan right as Kotetsu shot a fireball at the menace they were after and it was a direct hit. "Taste that you bitch!" His vest was already mangled from his bones breaking out of his chest before but now it was done for, and he unstrapped it from his body to let it fall to the ground and expose his pale torso.

"I remember now… You killed one of my teammates a couple years ago. I already know you killed Karyama." He pointed his sword right at Zeko while pushing another bone from his left palm. He threw both the bones at them and they either used their sand as defense or let the calcium weapon phase right through them. He turned and kicked off towards Neji so hard that the ground cracked behind him.

"Neji!" The octopus was flailing Jenki around like a child with a new toy and his ability to focus under this much stress wasn't finely tuned yet, meaning that he couldn't pull off another bodyblow at the moment.

"I'm coming!" His Byakugan was fully active and that was the worst part of this, he could see that his cousin was in danger but he could also see the rapidly approaching figure behind him and his choice was to save his family regardless of the harm that comes to him. 'I could pull off a rotation but then I won't have enough chakra to save Jenki!' Time was out and he chose to keep going for his younger brother figure.

Kuzo slammed into his body shoulder first and it felt like he was made of solid metal when he did it, but Kuzo's eyes widened in surprise when he saw that it wasn't the Hyuga that would've been crippled from that attack. 'He substituted with him? Bold move.' For the second time today Zeko was saving a Hyuga and he did it by replacing himself with Neji in the nick of time. The impact sent him to the ground in a heap with his gourd beneath him but he sat up and revealed that his face and the side of his outfit was falling away as sand. 'He covered himself in sand armor to survive that hit but the cost of chakra to substitute with someone else means that he made a gamble… Yet I'm still standing."

He was about to move to finish him off but the sand coiled around his ankles made sure he didn't have that option. "Come to my eyes!" At least Kotetsu caught up. His hand was out and his mangekyou was active meaning even he deemed this guy as too big a threat to try and fight directly, so just trap him somewhere to be dealt with later.

Kuzo turned his torso and raised his left hand where holes appeared in his fingertips. "Teshi sendan." (Digital Shrapnel). They came out too fast and Kotetsu didn't have the chakra to keep himself intangible and able to transport anything.

Five holes appeared across Kotetsu's arm and chest from him blocking any lethal injuries. "Shit!" On the upside they were only bullets the size of fingertips but on the downside he was certain that one was stuck in his lung. Luckily he had a high pain tolerance thanks to his less than stable mind so it could've been worse. Kuzo wasn't focused on the right thing and the sound of birds reminded him of another threat.

"Chidori!" (One thousand birds). A lightning coated hand impacted with Kuzo's back but it only went two inches deep at the most, but it was still damage. Zeko's gourd was on the ground and his teeth were grinding against each other as he pushed as hard as he could to try and finish the fight but more bones sprouted from his back and made him leave before he was gored.

Kuzo was shocked. No really he was speechless. Feeling pain was one thing, he was used to feeling hurt from things that hit him. But… "Is that-" He rubbed his back and when he brought his hand to his mask he saw- "I'm bleeding? I'm bleeding. You made me bleed!" He had reservations over fighting Zeko only because he thought that he was someone who'd only hang back and fire jutsu. A coward who wouldn't even approach you wasn't worthy of fighting him. "Hm, heh heh heh… Ha! Okay I'll acknowledge you then!"

The bones went back into his skin and he lunged only to get punched right in the nose of his mask by Neji. "Not done yet!" He stuck his hand onto Kuzo's with his own chakra and started bashing him in the stomach with his other fist. He could feel that the boy grew a layer of bone armor but that didn't matter since he was hitting hard enough to shake his very organs, however he was also cracking his own knuckles against the harder bone. With the last blow he released Kuzo and sent him reeling but he recovered and was definitely not done fighting, he swung his leg and sent Neji crashing through a tree. His mask cracked and broke to reveal his face, he had red markings around his emerald green eyes and on his forehead. Kotetsu squinted and could've sworn that this guy looked familiar somehow but it was just out of his reach to say how.

"I am Kaguya Kuzo, of the Kaguya clan. The clan that was thought to have gone extinct in an assault against the Hidden Mist many years ago… The clan of born fighters who had the potential to unlock the Dead Bone Pulse." The sounds of a screeching octopus reminded someone that he had to save someone but moving so quickly after someone just declared that they were bred to fight wasn't the best idea. "I'll remind the world of what strength really is!"

Neji turned and was ready to deal with whatever would come his way but even more sand came to his protection and managed to stop Kuzo's assault before it started. There was a cloak of orange chakra around Zeko and the mother spider was beside Kotetsu. They had themselves a stand off.

The spider moved first and sunk her fangs into Kuzo's skin surprisingly fast despite her size but she met bone before even getting close to a vein, and then she met bone through her very face when he made another sword and plunged it through her. Black markings spread across his body like small flames and Zeko had flashbacks of what this meant. "Don't get scared, I only have the first stage… But that's more than enough." The spider disappeared in a puff of smoke and Zeko charged right when Neji tried to leave again but he was kicked in the chest and sent into the ground while Kuzo set his eyes on Neji for the third time.

He focused his chakra into his palm and thrust it into the air, sending a focused blast of chakra straight into the octopus's face. Jenki was let go and Neji was about to catch him but he just wound up with a heel digging into his back. Kuzo started making another bone sword but the tables turned and a foot was against his temple before he could finish anyone off. "Neji! Tag out!" Zeko tapped the Hyuga's hand and ran off after Kuzo with Kotetsu on his tail.

The Hyuga teen stood up and caught his unconscious cousin then focused on the invertebrate thrashing around aimlessly. "Well it doesn't have bones but I can still break its spine." He set his cousin down and brought his right hand behind his back. "Hakke Hasangeki!" He jammed his palm straight into the face of the creature and sent it flying straight through the foliage, dead on impact. "I'm coming!" Maybe it was safer leaving his cousin behind this time.

Kuzo recovered and caught the fist that wanted to keep him rolling along like a ball and returned the kindness with his own. Kotetsu appeared and swung his sword at Kuzo's neck but his eyes widened when it shattered instantly against the object with superior hardness. "Oh shit." He was backhanded hard enough to contest an angry Shiro and sent rolling across the ground.

Kuzo was about to finish him but a surprise hit to the cheek threw him off and it wasn't done since Zeko kept the barrage going with even more punches to the chest and face of the Kaguya. His eyes were bright yellow with stars as his pupils and his hands were constantly leaking and replacing sand to keep from being injured. Kuzo caught his latest hit and gave him a resounding uppercut in return. Bones sprouted from his back right when Neji showed up for a sneak attack. "Don't underestimate me!"

He still swung and actually managed to break through some of the bones on Kuzo's back with that hit but it was returned with interest when the Kaguya dropped and raised his foot straight into Neji's chin, that one probably hit hardest since it was done quickly and without any restraint. He ran forward and started assailing Zeko's body with blows that would break solid stone but his sand kept him safe from being blown through instantly. The boy grabbed onto Kuzo's forearm and spun to drag them both through the earth with their combined force and they separated with acrobatic displays and locked eyes for a moment.

They both ran at each other full speed and jumped, both had an arm cocked back and all their strength into one hit. They hit each other and the shockwave uprooted trees thirty feet around them, and shook the leaves of the rest for a hundred meters. The Kaguya stood up then grabbed the back of his neck and started to pull, a satisfying crack went into the air and he rolled his neck. His right arm started to turn white and he formed a layer of spiraling bone right when Zeko broke out of the trees with sand over his entire body, and now the question was; Which would win, offensive defense or defensive offense?

Kuzo caught his enemy by the neck and pulled his arm back then drove it into the kid's stomach. The sand cracked and his arm cracked, both were under pressure, both were being tested, both were composed of hard minerals, and both would give out. Which would give out first? Not the bone.

"Die."

With one last push he forced the bone through the sand and through Zeko's abdomen, a spray of blood went across the soil and the cloak of chakra dissipated. The boy coughed up blood and widened his eyes once he noticed something. He smiled. "People always forget that no matter how tough you are, the chin is good to hit." He raised his left knee into Kuzo's chin and kicked himself off the bone to reveal that Shukaku's chakra was working overtime to close the wound. Hitting someone in the chin was a good way to rattle their brain and give yourself a moment to pull something else off and that was the plan. "Kotetsu, Fukoi! Let's show him!" The other Uchiha came from the leaves and started weaving signs along with their cousin.

"Dragon flame caterwaul!"

Three dragon shaped heads of fire erupted with the sound of screeching following them in their path and they collided with Kuzo's body, but it wasn't done yet. "You're up now Akari!" Fukoi said before a flash of crimson hair zipped by him.

"Shannaro!" She drove her fist into a sternum and despite it being as durable as metal it still cracked, but it did not break. There was a trough on the ground that showed exactly where he went but he stood up as if nothing happened and dusted himself off with a frown.

"I didn't know there were even more of you, there's no point in enjoying a fight if some ants unite to kill a lion." He slammed a hand down and a garden of bones erupted from the soil to cover his tracks. "I didn't fail here." And just like that he vanished.

Fukoi looked around and saw everyone's condition. Akari slumped to the ground, who knows how many bones she broke against that crocodile? Neji was unconscious with blood coming from his mouth, and so was his cousin. Who shouldn't have even been here… that was the worst part of this aside from them not getting the information they needed. He wasn't the best off himself since that girl knew a lot about how bullets of water messed with human organs. Kotetsu was bleeding from his chest and his sword was broken, honestly he couldn't tell which of those hurt more at the moment. And lastly was his other cousin who he could still nearly see the trees through… "Fuck my life."


"I'm the one who did it."

Sarada wasn't expecting that out of him, maybe to say that he hated the idea of Jenki coming along or that he'd kill the kid if he did, but being the one to decide on bringing the Hyuga with them? "I don't believe it."

"Don't care, I'm taking the blame cause I did it." The sheer amount of fucks he didn't give despite this being not only the Hokage, but also his Grandmother.

It was a genuine surprise because he'd never take the blame for something he didn't do, he was at least honest in that regard. Her hands were actually tied on this if he was admitting he made that choice. "Fine, I'll notify the Tsuchikage and she'll come up with a punishment for you." Kotetsu nodded and left the room where Neji was waiting.

"Thanks for taking the he-"

Kotetsu raised a finger. "Tell nobody about what you saw me doing in the apartment, and I'll take it to the grave." Neji just watched him walk away and scratched the back of his head. It had been almost three days since they came back from that mission and Fukoi was briefing on what happened right now, it was oddly convenient that Kotetsu managed to put the octo-guy under a genjutsu and get what they needed before he died but that was neither here nor there.

What really concerned him was that Kuzo guy and how much damage he did to everyone, yet how little was done to him in the end. The worst part was the parting words that the Sunagakure Uchiha had about it.

Neji was carrying his unconscious cousin on his shoulder as they ran through the forests towards the Hidden Leaf, Zeko admitted that he was only there to help and was going right back to the desert he called home. "Good thing you showed up when you did, it would've been a lot harder to beat that Kuzo guy without you." He looked back and saw that everyone else they fought was being dragged in webs from Kotetsu's spiders, by Kotetsu, then he put his eyes front again.

"Neji… You gave me some advice when I needed it so I have to give you guys some." That was ominous and they didn't like it. "Get stronger." That was a given but it didn't make sense as to why he was saying that now. "He said that if we teamed up he could've lost but that was a lie."

"Come again?" Fukoi would regret saying that.

"OH MY HE SAID COME AGAIN!" At least Kotetsu could keep the mood up despite whatever they were about to hear.

Zeko rubbed the scar on his stomach through his ripped shirt. "I got used to fighting with my dad so I can tell when someone's holding back… a lot." He wasn't insinuating what it looked like he was… was he?

"Are you trying to say that bone-making freak was holding back on us?" Akari voiced from Fukoi's back.

"I'm saying that if he wanted to kill us then I wouldn't have made him bleed, and we wouldn't have hit him with anything." He put a hand over his right eye and felt his collarbone. "But I wasn't fully healed from a fight I had before I came out here, so maybe I could've still hurt him."

"Good thing me and Akari showed up when we did." They resumed the silence of their trip and mulled over the thought that Kuzo was just toying with each of them, even the hits that seemed to hurt him the most were allowed to land.

That gave them all food for thought. And there was only one question on four out of six minds present.

'What kind of threat are the Ao Akuma?"


Author's Notes: What kind of threat are they? How is there a Kaguya alive? How long will Kotetsu be in the doghouse? Find out next time on The Will to Defy Fate!