So, this is the 49th chapter. Now, I know what I'm gonna do in the Aincrad arc won't sit well with a lot of people.

I'm changing a quite a bit of the Aincrad arc. Hell, I already changed a lot when I actually had Kayaba build Aincrad instead of using VR, which is just using the ruins of Sora no Kuni as a base.

Now, if you're expecting something high tech, like in the actual SAO, then this isn't it. I feel like I should have said this in the first chapter, maybe I did... But THERE WILL NOT BE A NERVE GEAR, NO AMUSPHERE AND NO STL.

And to Just4213, please don't compare this story to the actual SAO. This story pales in comparison to the original. And the Kirito here is different from canon Kirito. The character developments are entirely different.

Here, this Kirito grew up as an orphan, with only the four girls with him. Hence everything he does will be to protect and support them.

Canon Kirito grew up as an adopted child, and he closed off himself to games. After the SAO Event, only then did he start to socialise again.

This Kirito is OOC. He's not the same as canon Kirito.

Another thing, a lot might not make sense now, but everything that happens after the Bijuu arc is linked to the Underworld arc, a lot will be explained there. Hell, unlike canon, Aincrad here is also a build up for the Oberon arc and the Underworld arc.

So yeah, and I'll prob not be doing the Progressive, if at all. If I do, it will be in a separate story, as there are simply too much material to work with. So I'll jump floors here.

Anyways, here's the next chapter.

XXX

The next day, all the five Kage had gathered 100 of their best ninja, and they were all standing in front of their respective gates to Aincrad.

Needless to say, none of the leaders were going in. Konoha's forces were led by Jiraiya, Suna's forces led by Kankuro, Kiri's forces led by Zabuza, Kumo's forces led by Killer Bee, and Iwa's forces led by Kitsuchi.

From each of the villages' Anbu, they had managed to find out that the creature they were up againts was a huge Kobold, Illfang the Kobold Lord, though the Anbu didn't engage the boss as they knew nothing about it.

At the Konoha, Jiraiya turned and looked at the 100 troops, or rather, 99, which included Kirito, team Yugao, team Kakashi, team Gai, team Kurenai, team Asuma and several other Jounin with their teams.

The toad sage nodded to Tsunade who was overlooking them from the balcony of the Hokage Tower. The Hokage nodded, silently telling her friend to continue.

Jiraiya looked at the 99 ninja in front of him, "I'll only say this once, so listen up! Once we enter Aincrad, we'll enter unknown territory. As you know, we only have six months to clear all 100 floors. So we must clear at least a floor every two days."

The man let out a breath before he continued, "Today, and most likely every day, we will send 100 ninjas into Aincrad, to scout out the place and clear the floor. Now, we'll be aiming for the boss of this floor, Illfang the Kobold Lord."

He stared at all of them, "I know almost all of you don't know what we're up against, so stay calm, and don't freak out. Most importantly, come back alive."

Jiraiya paused a while before he finished, "We'll be entering now, stay sharp."

He turned to the teleport gate and held out his arm onto the platform, then he channelled his chakra into the object.

In a flash of blue, all 100 men/women vanished, the only evidence that they were ever there were the blue particles that lingered around the area before dispersing.

On the first floor of Aincrad, the 100 Konoha ninja appeared in front of the teleport gate. Kirito opened his eyes to see the village.

The swordsman glanced around and saw that apart from Konoha ninja, there were other ninja from the other four hidden villages.

He then looked up at the sky, or rather, the ceiling. He had no idea how, but the ceiling looked just like the sky. Kirito then turned and looked at the massive pillar, the dungeon which held the summon they were supposed to defeat.

He was broken out of his musings when he heard Suguha's voice, "Kirito-kun, let's go."

Kirito turned, nodding as he quickly followed them towards the pillar.

The group quickly reached the dungeon, and they wasted no time in moving towards the boss room. Just like the Anbu that were sent to scout the area, the army of 500 ninjas were assaulted by many creatures, mainly boars and Kobolds. The army didn't even break a sweat as they marched towards the boss room.

Jiraiya glanced to Kankuro, Zabuza, Kitsuchi and Killer Bee, "So, who wants to do it?"

Zabuza shrugged, "Meh, you're the one with the most experience when it comes to war, you do it."

Kankuro and Kitsuchi nodded. Killer Bee just grinned and gave the sage a thumbs up.

Jiraiya sighed as he muttered, "This isn't really a war though..."

The man turned and said loudly, "Okay, listen up! We'll be entering the boss room now. We'll be up against something similar to a summon, or a Bijuu! And as you all know, our abilities are heavily restricted! So, I don't know how this fight will go, and I want you to stay focused, look for any weaknesses and relay it to everyone. Got that?"

The remaining 495 ninjas all either nodded or voiced their agreement before Jiraiya turned. The sage nodded to the four and he pushed open the door.

As the door opened, the 500 ninjas were met with a rather dark hall. They slowly, warily walked in. Jiraiya said quietly, "Spread out, keep an eye out for any enemies."

No one objected as they quickly filled the hall, looking around for any enemies. Then, as soon as the last person entered the room, the door slammed shut, drawing everyone's attention.

Then the room lit up, the lights on the pillars, along with the ceiling, lit up. Then it appeared.

Seemingly out of nowhere, a massive Kobold landed on the floor, shaking the entire area as it roared, drawing its shield and axe in the process.

Kirito narrowed his eyes, 'So that's Illfang, the Kobold Lord...'

His eyes landed on the massive sword behind its waist. It didn't seem like a decoration, so they had to be careful.

Then he heard Jiraiya yell, "Hikari, now!"

The girl nodded and glanced to her sisters, "Let's go."

Asuna and Sinon nodded and they charged forward with Hikari. Then they jumped.

But to everyone's surprise, the three girls just landed on the ground, with shocked expressions. Hikari thought, 'What's going on, Kurama?'

The Bijuu growled, "Fuinjutsu, I can't send my chakra out."

From the faces of Asuna and Sinon, Hikari knew they were facing a similar case, so were Suguha and Fuu, as they couldn't even access the chakra cloak.

But then the girls' eyes widened as the massive Kobold was right in front of them, and their short pause had given it a chance.

Zabuza yelled, "Move, now!"

The three quickly jumped away just in time as Illfang slammed it's axe on the ground.

Kirito asked as Hikari, Asuna and Sinon landed beside him, "What's wrong?"

Asuna frowned, "There are seals, they're blocking Matatabi and the others' chakra from coming out."

Sinon sighed, "It can't be helped, we'll have to fight as we are now."

Hikari nodded, "Let's go with senjutsu then."

As they focused to gather nature chakra, they heard Jiraiya yell, "Kuchiyose no Jutsu!"

The summoning seal appeared on the ground but nothing happened after that. In fact, the seal just disappeared. The sage stared at the ground in shock, "What the..."

He quickly jumped away just the Kobold swung its axe again.

Kakashi frowned, "It seems summonings and bijuu chakra won't work... I guess we should've expected it, this is Kayaba we're up againts."

Sasuke nodded, "Yeah, I also can't maintain my Mangekyou for more than a minute here."

Hikari and the girls also frowned, Suguha said, "Same with senjutsu..."

Hikari frowned and looked around, "How? Seals?"

Kurama nodded from his seal, "Most probably, but I don't sense any seals."

Sinon sighed, "I suppose we'll just have to fight as we are now..."

Asuna nodded as they turned to face the boss.

As for Kirito, he frowned as he could hear many other shinobi saying that their jutsu wouldn't work, mostly summonings and sure-kill jutsu.

The swordsman thought, 'So he won't make it so easy for us...'

He was then brought out of his thoughts by Kitsuchi's voice, "Everyone! Use ninjutsu!"

Everyone agreed and they flashed through handseals, "Katon/Suiton/Fuuton/Doton/Raiton!"

Kirito followed suit with a fire spell, and 500 attacks of different elements shot towards the Kobold lord.

The boss roared as it saw the attacks coming. Then, it raised its shield, and with a roar, Illfang slammed the shield onto the ground, creating a shockwave that dispelled all the attacks.

Jiraiya tch'd and charged forward, a Rasengan forming in his hand, "Hikari, Kakashi!"

The two immediately knew what he wanted. Hikari yelled, "Guys, cover us!"

No one objected, as everyone started to fire attacks at the boss, which only served to annoy it. Then, Kakashi, Jiraiya and Hikari leaped up, all three with a Rasengan in their hands.

Then they all yelled in unison, "RASENGAN!"

Illfang roared as it raised its shield to block the attack. And for a moment, the shield held strong against the three attacks.

Then the shield broke, the three Rasengans slamming into the beast, sending it flying to the back of the hall.

The three landed, and a random Kumo ninja thought aloud, "Did we get it?"

His answer came in the form of a roar, as Illfang knelt there, glaring at the 500 ninjas.

Then, to everyone's surprise, around the bijuu sized Kobold, three hundred armoured Kobolds appeared, all roaring as they charged the army of 500 ninjas.

Killer Bee yelled, "Get ready, fools! Ya fools!"

As the Kobold roared, the two armies clashed with one or two ninja fighting a Kobold each.

As everyone fought, the Kobold Lord slowly regained its footing. With Kirito, he swiftly dodged the sentry's hammer before he spun, slashing at the Kobold's neck.

But to his surprise, the blade only left a deep gash, but the head stayed on the Kobold's body. Kirito jumped back to avoid the hammer again, 'So they have heightened durability as well... Dammit..'

He glanced around and saw everyone was having difficulty dealing with the Kobolds, and Kirito realized what was wrong.

Ninjas mostly relied on sure kill attacks, with most jutsus, even elemental ninjutsu like fireballs and water dragons, being sure to kill their enemies in one shot. The Rasengan, Chidori and Raikiri were no exception.

Against the Kobolds, who wore heavy armor, and possessed heightened durability, the ninja would be forced to beat the beasts repeatedly until they died, mostly relying on weapons seeing most of their jutsu did not work.

Kiruto cursed as he leaped back to dodge the sentry's hammer again. Then Kirito noticed the Kobold Lord getting to its feet, 'Damn it... I need to finish this now.'

He muttered silently, "Trace, on..."

Immediately, seven copies of the Dark Repulsor appeared around him. Then, on a mental command, the seven swords shot forward, stabbing into the Kobold sentry.

Kirito then charged, jumping up as he did, then he spun, coming down with his two swords, and sliced the Kobold sentry in half as the seven Dark Repulsors dispersed.

He glanced around and saw that mostly everyone had dealt with the Kobold sentries. But before they could regroup, a loud roar interrupted them.

Everyone turned to see Illfang jumping from the ground, boucing from pillar to pillar as it circled the ninjas with astounding speeds.

Neji frowned, "Such speed... For something of that size..."

Tenten nodded as her eyes darted around, trying to follow the beast, readying her weapons.

Back with Kirito, his eyes followed Illfang as an idea came to his mind, 'Ninjutsu didn't work... I wonder if normal weapons work...'

He turned to Hikari, "Hikari-chan, can you get me to it?"

The blonde blinked, "Erm, sure. Why?"

Kirito grinned, "I have a plan."

The last Namikaze nodded and threw a handful of kunai upwards. Then, as Illfang closed in to one of the pillars, Hikari said as she grabbed Kirito's shoulder, "Let's go."

In a flash of yellow, the two reappeared right in front of Illfang. Hikari glanced at Kirito briefly, "I hope you have a good plan."

The swordsman didn't reply her, instead, he simply extended his wings and shot forward. As he flew towards Illfang, he spoke, "Trace, on."

Six fuuma shuriken appeared along with seven copies of the Elucidator, flying towards the beast.

Illfang used its blade to parry away the shuriken, dispelling them in the process, but the blades just flew put of range before they shot towards it.

As the beast focused on trying to get rid of the projectiles, it failed to notice Kirito closing in.

The swordsman roared as he spun with a slash, leaving a deep gash on the Kobold's stomach. Illfang roared in pain as it turned its attention to Kirito, swinging its sword at him.

That was its mistake. As the blade closed in, Kirito spun horizontally and dodged the attack. Then he willed his swords to stab the beast, earning another roar of pain.

The other 499 ninjas just stared in shock as Kirito flew above the beast and sheathed his swords, pulling a large familiar zanbatou out of thin air.

Zabuza gaped as he looked at the sword in Kirito's hands, then to his own, "That's my sword."

Kirito grabbed the copy of the Kubikiribocho and swung it down hard. The slash left a deep gash on the Kobold Lord's back, and at the same time, sent the beast to the ground.

Kakashi's eyes widened as he saw a chance, "Now!"

Everyone got the message and immediately shot the strongest jutsu they could at the beast, consisting of different long ranged jutsu.

Then to add to the mix, Hikari sent a Rasenshuriken at Illfang, causing a huge explosion.

As the cloud covered the Kobold, silence filled the area as everyone stood there for a moment. Then, Sakura asked, "Did we get it?"

Kirito narrowed his eyes looking into the smoke before they widened as Illfang rushed out of the smoke, roaring as it charged the army.

Before anyone could react Kirito moved. He roared, coming down with the Elucidator and Dark Repulsor in reverse grip.

Then the two blades stabbed into the back of Illfangs's neck, earning a roar of pain from the beast as it tried to get Kirito off his back. But before it could reach the young man, Kirito took on a yellow hue, tapping into his mark as he yelled, "RELEASE RECOLLECTION!"

Then a bright white light blinded everyone, a loud roar of agony reaching everyone's ears.

After a while, the light died down, and everyone opened their eyes, looking towards where Illfanh previously was.

The boss was gone, in its place was Kirito, holding both his swords in reverse grip, blue particles floating around him, the only sign that Illfang ever existed.

Then, before anyone could say anything, they heard a tone as the words 'CONGRATULATIONS!' appeared in front and above them. (Final Fantasy Victory tone.)

Then they heard Kayaba's voice, "Congratulations on clearing the first floor. Everytime you clear a floor, you will have access to the next floor. But you have to activate it through the console in front of you. On a side note, if you don't activate the console after you defeat the boss, and if you leave, you'll have to fight the boss again to activate the console. Good luck, and do try to entertain me."

With that said, the 'CONGRATULATIONS' hologram faded, and in front of them, a smaller and simpler version of the teleport gate appeared.

Kirito let out a tired breath as he sheathed his swords. Suguha beamed at him as she approached him, "That was awesome, Kirito-kun! When did you learn to do that?"

The swordsman chuckled, "Well, since the time Hikari-chan beat up Sasuke, I just didn't had a chance to use it."

He then frowned, "Besides, I can't use that as often as I want."

Sinon spoke as she walked to them, "So, a finisher technique?"

Kirito nodded, "I suppose so, but it's more of a last resort to be specific."

Hikari just grinned, "Well, that doesn't change that you do have a strong attack. But you still have ways to go."

Kirito just sighed and shook his head as Sasuke patted his shoulder. The Uchiha chuckled, "Good luck man."

Kirito just sighed again as he said, "Come on. Let's not keep everyone waiting."

They nodded and turned to the others, who all had just finished resting from the fight.

Jiraiya nodded to Zabuza, Kitsuchi, Killer Bee and Kankuro before he turned to everyone, "Good job guys! We've cleared the 1st floor, now 99 more to go! Keep it up!"

Everyone just groaned, some chuckled as they stood up, but they did send Kirito a nod or a look of respect, since he did make the last hit.

Then to their surprise, each of them found a bag of money in their hands that seemingly appeared out of nowhere, along with other items such as daggers, hammers, swords and armor.

As everyone fiddled around with their loot, Zabuza approached Kirito, "Hey, Kirito, what was that?"

The younger swordsman blinked, "Eh? What?"

Zabuza pointed to his Kubikiribocho, "My sword, how did you get it?"

Kirito's eyes widened in realization, "Oh! You mean how I made a copy of your sword!"

Zabuza raised an eyebrow, "A copy?"

Kirito nodded as he projected a copy of the zanbatou again, "Its something I picked up a while ago. I can project whatever I can imagine, mostly swords. And since I had a very good impression of your sword, I can replicate it almost perfectly. Though, I'm pretty sure its inferior to the original."

Zabuza blinked several times before he nodded, "I see... So you can form copies of any sword you can think of, is that right?"

Kirito nodded, "Yeah."

The zanbatou user laughed, "Then we definitely have to spar some time, I wanna see if you're any good with that sword."

Kirito just smiled forcefully as he saw Hikari, Suguha, Asuna, Sinon, Sasuke and Kakashi give him thumbs up and encouraging smiles.

After a while of resting the 500 people went to activate the teleport gate. As Jiraiya activated the gate to the second floor, Kirito thought about the fight with Illfang, more specifically the part where he had Hikari use the Hiraishin to get him to Illfang, 'I suppose I should find a way to do it myself, it'd be a huge advantage if I can warp around.'

Meanwhile, on the hundredth floor, Kayaba smiled as he saw the army defeat Illfang. He had made it so that the seals in the boss rooms were stronger than outside. That made using jutsu and chakra harder than normal in Aincrad. Of course, he had also lessened the restraint on sword skills and spells.

The man thought, 'Not bad for the first floor. I look forward to what you can show me, Kirito.'

Days later, the five villages had cleared around 9 floors, clearing one floor per day, sometimes two floors, if they could find the dungeon for the boss.

Throughout the time they cleared the floors, they found that ninjutsu and especially genjutsu was useless. Sure, some elemental ninjutsu and other jutsu could work, but their intended effect was far lower than what it should be. Of course, that didn't mean that they didn't train in those departments, they just didn't use it in Aincrad.

Instead, they found that physical attacks, such as taijutsu, kenjutsu and bukijutsu in general were more effective. In fact, they found that most of the bosses used weapons.

The leaders of the squads also found that sending in all 100 members from their villages wasn't necessary, so they started sending in teams with smaller numbers, mostly 50 to 70 members.

Another reason for that was that sending in 100 ninjas wasn't practical. They had been lucky in the first floor, but after the second, they started having casualties. Granted, it wasn't heavy, mostly two to three deaths with injuries here and there, five deaths at most.

But that was enough to change plans, they couldn't afford to lose even one man every floor. Every boss seemed to possess at least one AOE attack, thus sending in large amount of troops only gave the bosses a larger target. Hence they reduced the number of people going in.

The leaders also decided while they could send Anbu in to scout the area, sending in normal shinobi was also a good idea, and it wasn't a bad thing either, as it did help finding the bosses.

So now, a small team from Kirigakure and Kumogakure were scouting the area.

Ever since they started clearing Aincrad's floors, the five villages had started to form somewhat of a truce. Okay, Onoki was still the grumpy old bastard that held on to old grudges, but that didn't matter.

The other four villages started having joint missions, mostly going into Aincrad. This was one of them.

From Kiri, the team consisted of Choujuro, two black haired jounin swordsmen named Sougo and Banjou, along with a young kunoichi named Ayano Keiko.

From Kumo, the team had Samui, Omoi, Karui and a brown haired girl named Lizbeth.

Now, Sougo and Banjou were glaring at Choujuro, Keiko and the Kumo ninja. The two men had disliked the fact that they had to work with Kumo of all people, and even worse, they had to have Choujuro of all people with them.

Now, if you're asking why they disliked Choujuro, well, it wasn't a secret that Mei favored Zabuza and Choujuro, so it wasn't that weird that they didn't like him, especially due to his shy nature. As for Keiko, she sided with Choujuro whenever they argued.

As they walked through the dungeons, Karui glared at them, "Hey, you two, you've been glaring at all of us for some time now. What's your problem?"

Bajou glared and looked down at the girl, "Damn right I do, you black bitch! Why do we have to work with Kumo bastards like you?!"

Karui glared harder, "What did you say?"

Keiko immediately got between them, "Please stop. We shouldn't be fighting her-"

She was cut off as Sougo shoved her to the ground, "You shut up! It's bad enough we have to work with these arrogant idiots!"

Liz glared at him as she helped Keiko up, "Hey! She's your teammate!"

Banjou smirked darkly, "Teammate my ass. She's always been pulling us back."

Samui stared at the two coldly, "Oi, shut it."

Banjou glared at her, "What are you gonna do about it? Report to the Raikage?"

Samui stare turned colder, "If need be, yes. And I'm pretty sure the Mizukage won't just stand still about this."

Sougo glared at the blonde, "You wanna fight?!"

Before they could reply, a familiar voice reached their ears, "Hey! What are you guys doing?"

Everyone turned to see Kirito walking to them. The swordsman had been scouting the area on his own, since Hikari and the others had decided to take a break from Aincrad and took a D rank mission in the village.

Sougo and Banjou knew who Kirito was. He had participated in almost all of the previous boss raids after all. In fact, Kirito was one of the more important members in raiding the bosses, aside from the Jinchurikii and stronger Jounin of course.

Regardless of how they felt, and even if they thought they could take on everyone here aside from Kirito, they knew well enough when to back away.

Sougo frowned, "No, nothing."

Banjou nodded as he glared at the others once more, "We'll go look for the room ourselves."

Sougo nodded before they stormed away. Kirito blinked before he yelled, "Hey! You don't need to look for it anymore!"

But his words fell on deaf ears as the two continued walking away, coincidentally moving towards the boss room, where Kirito came from.

Choujuro asked, "What did you mean, no need to look for it anymore?"

Kirito turned, "I just found it. I was going to report this to the five Kages."

Keiko blinked as she stared at him, "Erm, you're that guy who always came to fight the bosses, and the guy who killed Illfang, right?"

Kirito grinned, "Yeah, my name is Kirito."

Keiko nodded and bowed, "My name is Ayano Keiko. Nice to meet you, and thank you for helping us!"

Kirito chuckled and patted Choujuro on the back, "Well, even if I didn't, Choujuro would have handled it easily."

The young man just smiled forcefully, "Erm... I don't think so..."

Kirito laughed, "Well, of course you can. I've heard a lot of good things about you from Zabuza and Mizukage-sama."

Choujuro didn't reply, instead, he just wanted to shrink into his clothes, or hide behind his swords.

But before they could continue, Samui asked, "Excuse me, but shouldn't we go after them? I don't like them, but they still are part of this team. And reporting deaths of a team member is rather... Troublesome."

Kirito hmm'd and glanced at the direction where they were headed, "Well, that's where the summon is, and it looked like a ghost of a samurai or something. There's only one path and that is it. Though I don't think they'll be stupid enough to take that thing on themselves."

Keiko nodded before she said, "But I think we should go check on them."

Liz sighed and nodded in agreement, "Same. I don't like them, but leaving them to die isn't something I'd want."

Omoi nodded before he visibly shivered, "Oh crap, what if they really went and fight the boss? That'd lead to them getting killed, and it might even make the boss go on a rampage and charge out of the room and kill us too?"

Karui grew a tick mark and smack him over the head, making him drop his sucker, "Idiot! Its a known fact that the summons don't leave the room! Besides, they aren't stupid enough to fight it."

Choujuro shook his head as Omoi glared at the girl, "No, as reckless as they are, they might just challenge the summon."

Kirito considered the option. He had nothing to do, Klein could handle the shop just fine, if not he could always rely on Agil to help. Hikari, Suguha, Asuna and Sinon were out on D-ranked missions, along with Kakashi, Sasuke and Sakura. And he didn't feel like looking for anyone else.

He nodded, "Okay then, let's get going."

No one objected, and they started moving towards the boss room.

The journey to the boss room was uneventful. Some monsters, which consisted of skeleton warriors, popped up, and the Kumo and Kiri ninja just easily took them down. Kirito didn't even need to touch his sword.

Soon, they almost reached the boss room, then they heard two screams.

Omoi looked at Karui, "See! I was right! Now get me another sucker!"

Karui was about to smack him again when Kirito said seriously, "Save it for later, we need to go now."

The two immediately straightened up as they started to run towards the boss room.

As they reached the door, it was already open, just as they expected, with the words 'Kagachi the Samurai Lord' beside the door.

Kirito narrowed his eyes as he went forward into the room, and his eyes widened slightly as he saw the two men on the floor, at the mercy of a Bijuu sized samurai.

Choujuro cursed, "IDIOTS!"

Without another word, the usually shy swordsman charged forward, Kirito following behind.

The others followed, a beat slower as they were surprised that Sougo and Banjou actually went and fought the boss summon.

Choujuro yelled as they charged, "Kirito-san, we'll take the boss' attention! The others, get those two out of here!"

Kirito grinned, "Okay!"

The others complied, as they quickly went to pull Banjou and Sougo out of the boss room, though because of their injuries, they couldn't do it so quickly, lest they risk worsening the wounds.

Kagachi roared at the two swordsman as it swung its blade down. Choujuro immediately raised his sword and blocked it, stopping it right on its tracks as Kirito leaped up.

The blacksmith thought, 'Let's try this, I've been working on this for a while now.'

He threw the Elucidator at the samurai lord. The boss just stared at the sword indifferently as the throw wouldn't leave a scratch. But then to everyone's surprise, Kirito vanished midair in a burst of blue particles, leaving a rough after image of himself made of the same blue particles.

Then he appeared right in front of the Elucidator. Kirito smirked and grabbed his sword and spun, striking the samurai and leaving a rather large crack on the mask.

Then he kicked the samurai's mask as he flipped backwards before he landed on the ground.

Kirito smirked as he jumped away to dodge the boss' blade, 'Nice, it worked!'

Choujuro gaped at him as Kirito landed beside him, "You can do the Hiraishin now?!"

The young man chuckled, "Not exactly. It's similar, but an entirely different thing."

That was partly true. With the Hiraishin, the user needed a marker before they ripped a hole in space and time, using the marker to appear right where they wanted to. It utilised space-time jutsu and a marker to direct the user to their destination.

For Kirito's warping technique, it utilitied his chakra and his swords as a beacon. Then, shrouding himself with the same chakra, he'd disperse into small particles and move to his sword at light speeds. His version also used time alteration that his Acceleration provided to move at quicker speeds, but the difference was that he wouldn't experience the change in time.

It wasn't like the Acceleration wasn't enough, but warping was useful in many ways. With the Acceleration, he was merely moving at very high speeds by slowing the time around and in him, but he'd still have to move normally.

With warping, he was basically teleporting, just like the Hiraishin, but with his swords instead of seals.

Kirito then glanced at Choujuro, "Hey, you wanna take this one? I think we can actually beat it on our own."

The younger swordsman blinked, "Are you sure?"

The blacksmith shrugged, "It won't hurt to try..."

The other swordsman shook his head, "Fine.. But if things look bad, we retreat, got it?"

Kirito grinned, "Okay, let's go!"

Choujuro sighed as they both charged. Kirito threw the Dark Repulsor at the boss summon before he glowed red and vanished in a burst blue particles, appearing in front of Kagachi's face.

The samurai froze in shock as the swordsman was suddenly at its face. Then Kirito spun and kicked it in the mask hard, sending it stumbling back.

Choujuro took the chance and charged forward, slicing the samurai at the legs, forcing it to kneel on the ground. He slid to a stop behind Kagachi before he glanced up and nodded to Kirito, who nodded back.

The blacksmith allowed himself to fall, extending his wings to smoothen his fall before he landed on the ground.

Then he glowed red and vanished in a burst of speed, projecting six Elucidators around him as he did. The swords started to slash and stab the samurai, causing it to roar in pain as it flailed wildly in an attempt to stop the blades, shooting beams of energy everywhere. But it was futile.

That gave Kirito and Choujuro the chance they needed. Choujuro gripped his sword, raising it up, and said, "Hiramekarei: Kaiho."

Kirito raised his swords and yelled, his body glowing yellow as he did, "Release Recollection!"

In that instant, the Hiramekarei unleashed a huge pillar of chakra from the hilt, forming a massive blade of pure chakra, while a huge pillar of light rose from the Elucidator and Dark Repulsor.

Then Kirito and Choujuro yelled as they swung their blades diagonally, intent on ending the boss summon.

The six copies of the Elucidator vanished, and only then did Kagachi realised its mistake. The samurai's eyes widened as the two massive blades sliced through its body cleanly, leaving a huge cross on its body.

Then the boss summon of the 10th floor vanished, dispersing into blue particles as the familiar words, 'Congratulations' appeared in front of them.

As the two swordsmen sheathed their blades, the others only looked from the side in awe. Sure, they had seen bosses go down faster than what they had just seen. But that was with more than a hundred men.

This was with only two men, and they cleared the floor with next to no effort.

Kirito and Choujuro walked to them and Keiko beamed at them, "THAT WAS AWESOME!"

Choujuro just smiled and scratched his head shyly while Kirito chuckled, "Thank you."

The rest just nodded in agreement and praised the two for killing a floor boss so easily. Then Kirito turned to Sougo and Banjou, "Why did you two fight it?"

Sougo and Banjou glared at the floor, not willing to look at Kirito. The blacksmith sighed, he could pretty much guess why. He then said, "Pride is a good thing, but don't bite off more than you can chew."

Having said that, Kirito turned to Choujuro without waiting for a reply, "Hey, you guys can activate the gate, right?"

Samui nodded, "Of course."

Kirito gave them a thumbs up, "Cool, I'll leave that to you guys then, I'm gonna go back and take a nap."

Without waiting for a reply, Kirito turned and left, leaving the two teams standing there, surprised by how nonchalant Kirito was about activating the gates.

After a while, Karui asked, "So, what are we waiting for?"

Everyone snapped out of their stupor before they quickly went to activate the gate.

XXX

Done. So, we have done the 1st and 10th floor. Now before anyone asks, I have no idea if Silica/Keiko and Liz will play any major roles in the future. I might just do what I did with Recon/Shinichi and have them be cameo characters.

Though to be honest I have no idea why Reki even included Silica and Liz in the first place, apart from filling Kirito's harem.

So yeah, until the next chapter. Review please.