Chapter 9 "Black Out"

I stood at attention while Integra sat in thought only to discover Kurama was bothered enough by the imbecile to speak, "Kill that one. He is too noisy for having such a tasteless sense of humor, probably stupid too." The fox said causing my countenance to grow into a slight smile before I noticed he was giving me some chakra he managed to mold while he was resting. "I agree. I really hate people who'd disrespect a lady." I said mentally before snickering at the Kyuubi's hearty laugh. "How chivalrous of you not shut up and let me rest. This place stinks with human stupidity and it's giving me a headache." And after a split second of mental silence I noticed how I looked to everyone else. After quite possibly the most disgusting statement ever I made a snarky comment then snickered, my features got more demonic then I started smiling. "I suggest Pip's men stay with an Iscariot member. Alexander, Seras and I will go say hello." I said in a quieter voice that was a bit darker, causing Seras to adopt a quizzical look to my amusement. Wolfe began to cry out in protest only to be cut off by her leader. "Take both of my men. I doubt Integra would be able to escape alive if I died." He said causing Integra to let out a laugh before she turned to Walter. "It seems my investment payed off immediately. If Uzumaki was absent we'd definitely would have lost more men. Permission granted, Mr. Uzumaki. You go along with Walter and do your duty. " I walked over to the door during Integra's spiel and quickly unlocked the doors only to see Alexander standing in my way. "Orders, Maxwell." He asked the leader of his organization, now identified as Maxwell, who replied, "Listen to the Boy, he shows promise. That goes for you two as well, Heinkel, Yumiko." He said looking at the respective women as he spoke. Alexander looked down to me which I responded only by drawing my sword and nodding, he reflected said expression and steeped out of my way. I dashed forward, activating my Sharingan to ensure my counterparts were following me, I examined the unique colors of the group member's chakra signatures momentarily. As we rounded a corridor I made a hand motion ordering Miso and Katsuye to line up beside me before I motioned for Katsuye to help me do a Jutsu. She held out a hand and I began to infuse some chakra into her neutral chakra, as well as spin and concentrate it until it became an orb that grew over time dramatically. Finally when the orb was big as my torso we both placed on hand on it and as we rounded the last corner between us and the enemy we shot our hands forward to a plate of steel yelling in unison, "Ōdama Rasengan!" The orb exploded a brilliant blue, consuming the hallway in a bright blue energy cloud. I then noticed that we hit a crowd ghouls holding a metal shield, though the shield did little good as the Jutsu killed the ghoul holding the shield along with an extra dozen or so. I started to breathe in a somewhat distressed matter at using such a heavy amount of chakra in such a sorry state, only to hear the faint sound of snapping. I turned to the source just in time to dodge a bullet heading to my shoulder, I looked at the Valentine brother snapping his fingers with narrowed eyes. "Holy fucking shit, I guess I should believe in fairies after all. I'm assuming your name is Mr. Potter?" He said in annoyingly high voice. "Nope. Shoot this bitch." I replied with a shrug before stepping out of the way of Seras and Heinkel who proceeded to unload rounds into the lines of ghouls only to make little to null progress given the thickness of the shields. So I molded some wind chakra and sent it forward in a wave along with a particularly large volley of gunfire, increasing the velocity of the bullets and helping them penetrate the shields. While the shooter duo reloaded Alexander, Yumiko and Katsuye charged with blades at the ready and hacked several ghouls apart. I leapt past Yumiko and impaled a ghoul when I saw it was thrown off balance only to get my sword caught on a bone or something in his chest since I couldn't remove it easily. I dropped the blade, drawing a kunai knife from my belt and stabbed a ghoul coming at me in the eye. I turned to see a second wave of ghouls carrying firearms. Knowing I couldn't do anything else I activated my Mangekyō, granting me a even greater level of clarity, making it seem like time slowed down for me. I grabbed Katsuye and Yumiko by the shoulder and shoved them to the ground just as I heard the ignition from the first line of ghoul's rifles and searched for Seras only to see she had her back turned with Heinkel and was too far away to push down so I bolted to her side.

I fought my burning my throat felt as it thrust for the tainted blood flowing from the crumpled head of the ghoul I killed, not wanting to egg on the Iscariot woman standing beside me. The thought of drinking the blood was lost when I flinched from a loud sustained noise of cracks coming behind me causing me to hit the floor in fear with Heinkel doing the same. As the gunshots died down I turned around to return fire only to see a bleeding, standing Kirisuto. He had shielded our bodies with his own causing me to just stare bewildered as he fell to his knees. I rushed to his side and blind fired at the vampire, recalling my Master's words explaining that ghouls are ordered by their creator, hoping that he'd be distracted trying to dodge the rounds. His girlfriend or whatever pulled him behind the cover of a flipped table then left him there before returning to the fight. I noticed that for the first time she actually changed her expression from her usual emotionless countenance to an angry scowl. She snapped her fingers and the fox leapt to her side as she readjusted her grip on Kirisuto's sword before she muttered something to the comatose boy in another language.

"Get up you little shit...*sigh*...I guess I'll have to deal with this alone then. Why'd my summoner have to be so nice?" I muttered mentally before turning to the weird creatures hiding behind shields and trying to decide the best course of action. I let my transformation slip a bit and my pale skin peeled away revealing even paler scales, accentuated by black scales. My tongue turned black and twitched uncontrollably growing in length and became forked and my nails fell out only to be replaced by claws. I decided we were out matched and pulled out an emergency summoning scroll from my robes before ripping it open and in a puff of smoke a group of snakes, each about the height of a dog, appeared and gathered all the energy available in their venom glands. Satisfied, I begrudgingly accepted that my adoptive parents were right in forcing me to train my less intelligent cousins to be able to do this ability before I mentally stated the name of the pattack, "Mamba Genus: Lethal Injection." When my venom glands reached maximum production I cracked my neck and my jaw snapped open, within seconds my cousins and I were upon the closest ghouls on the front line, we each sank out fangs into several ghouls dispersing the venom to the best of my ability without ingesting any of my victim's bodily fluids. The last of the corpses I injected recovered quickly and rushed me with his jaw stretched beyond reason, I tried to jump back but I tripped on my own leg and began to hit the floor. The word "shit" was the only thing crossing my mind as the ghoul grabbed me by the shoulders and went for my throat. I was going to attempt and rip away from him, even if I'd lose some scales and skin in the process before one of my smaller cousins wrapped his body around the ghoul's entire head and crushed it. With a grunt I shoved the corpse away and snatched my cousin from mid-air gingerly before screeching out an order to fall back. When I returned behind the safety of friendly firearms I looked at my cousin and frowned as I saw the majority of his side had been ruptured by loose teeth and skull fragments when he crushed the ghoul's head. I looked up in anger at my cousin's mortal wound and stared in satisfaction when the injured ghouls began to slow down and become rigid before collapsing in a heap. The undead behind them then tried to shove the the dead aside but discovered the bodies were extremely rigid and suddenly began to convulse violently, their jaws snapping at those who tried to move them. The humans in the black clothing turned to me with a suspiciously look before I ran to Kirisuto's side and scooped him up and let him rest on my shoulders. I yelled for us to fall back to the barricade while the enemy was immobilized. The blonde female dressed in black sighed in exasperation before removing a small oval shaped object and pulled something on it before tossing it behind the rabid ghouls, close to the vampire ringleader. He yelled indignantly before an explosion erupted, tossing limbs and gore everywhere as well as fucking up parts of my ghoul barrier. "Why can't all humans be smart like you Kiri." I muttered before performing turning to the nearby wall and slammed my hand against it when suddenly the room of the hallway collapsed and several stories of floor and ceiling creating a wall of debris. Satisfied that the enemies were occupied for the moment, I turned on my heel and started making my way back to the conference room with my companions. Taking a second of focus away from the multiple corridors that branched off from the main hall I examined Kirisuto and my cousin's wounds with more attention only to be surprised at the how quickly the pair had healed in a few seconds. It seems that while my summoner's body was unconsciously healing himself so quickly that he was leaking excess energy, healing my little cousin as well. I smiled, it seems things were taking a turn for the better. Unfortunately, my smile disappeared when I received a kick to the face from a quite adorable little foot. The owner of the dark brown boots that collided with my face then landed softly on the marble flooring a couple of steps ahead of us and then cocked a hip out and rested easy with a grin. He trying saying something to me causing me to sigh even harder than earlier before I tentatively placed Kirisuto and my cousin on the ground then looked up to him and said flatly, "I have no clue what you're saying, I don't speak that shit." Causing the black haired woman nearby in the clothing that was equally black to sputter before collecting herself and saying in my language, "He's just taunting us, he's an ally of the Valentines." I nodded and decided we didn't have time to waste here with an army of combatants behind us only being separated by several feet of rubble so I ripped the clothing off of Kirisuto's upper half. Causing literally everyone, even the boy that kicked me, to cry out in their foreign language I just replied with a quick, "Shut up!" Ignoring the fact this would cost me a large amount of energy as well as the reactions of those around me I stuck my claws in Kirisuto's bare back, transferring as much energy as I could at once to help him out. He had passed out from taking to much damage while he was using to much energy to move faster. After a couple of seconds I removed my claws and was going to check his breathing when he interrupted me by grabbing my wrist in a firm grip. I looked into my summoner's now milky blue eyes which widened in surprise before he stated coldly with purpose, "get down." he said with a guttural voice. I complied immediately, turning as I bowed, seeing the knife the flew right over me. The knife maintained its course to Kirisuto but before I could do anything he plucked it from the air and threw if back twice as quickly at the thrower. As the boy let out a mocking squeal of surprise Kirisuto followed up the move by throwing a trio of Kunai into the ceiling, with paper bombs wrapped around their handles. As the ceiling exploded, separating us from the enemy once more Kirisuto gave me another order. "Let me touch you...now!" He panted out in Japanese, I stared at him confused before I hesitantly muttered "yes." He rubbed his hands across my arms and neck, doing his best to search my scales for wounds, his eyesight was clearly diminished from exhaustion. "Shinobi are strange, we can move similarly but i doubt i could catch a knife and return it so quickly after gaining conciousness on a good day Satisfied that I wasn't hurt he sighed before asking where the enemy was I explained what happened while he was unconscious in as few sentences as possible. He stood to his feet and stated plainly while unconsciously checking along his chin to see if his mask was still strapped to his face before speaking in the foreign language once more, "I'll explain this later, now we must return to Integra and the others. Gunmen take the rear, blades in front, move."

I didn't hear the sound of shoes clacking on the tile floor and in my panicked state of exhaustion I slightly overreacted. "What are you waiting for!? A ride? Walk." I exclaimed before taking a hold of Katsuye's shirt sleeve and letting her guide me through the hallway, ignoring the heavy silence that permeated throughout the room while we sprinted to the conference room. I kept walking lost in thoughts and slight exhaustion until a huskier female voice met my ears with a somewhat spiteful tone. "So what now Kirisuto? We are almost there." Katsuye asked me with a hushed whisper, knowing now that at least one person in their party could understand them. I need to get somewhere and gather enough nature chakra to go into sage mode, I would still be blind but I could form rattlesnake pits and be able to see their body heat, or rather their lack of body heat. An idea came to me and I answered Kat's question with my own, "Is their an air duct nearby, like in the hallway?" After a short pause she replied by saying their was one in front of the conference room doors before adjusting the way I held her to give me more support. I couldn't see the tones but assumed they were close enough to hear me. "When we get to the room you all stay in the waiting room and only fire when the doors are broken down, I will wait out here for them and do my best to get the vampire alone. If I succeed I will give you a signal and you open the doors to provide support with the ghouls." No one seemed to care that I was the one to wait except for Heinkel and Seras. "What are you going to do out here, you can't fight like that." Heinkel said before Seras cut in as well, " Yeah you can't see very well after you passed out. You can't even stand on your own." I let out a bitter laugh. "I'm fine. I was planning on jumping in that vent and waiting until I had an opening to get the drop on the vampire. So you can't help...unless one of you two wouldn't mine snuggling with little old me in a vent for a while..." I said with the most haughty of tones. I heard Heinkel mutter something in another language but I got the gist of it, "fuck you." Seras however didn't respond how I thought she would. "Ok I'll only be able to fit some pistols in there though. You should be in front too so you can see." I was slightly dumbstruck and if the awkward silence permeating through was any sign the others were too. I turned to Katsuye and asked how close we were she moved me from her right shoulder to my left and pressed me against the wall gently. "We're here, orders?" She said in Japanese as she did her best to help a blind man find a hole in the wall. "Fire when the others do. Summon Miso but ensure he doesn't get bit and if it seems you can't hold them back retreat into the conference room and protect the blonde. If they get in there...abandon her." I heard her shift from resting wait on one leg to the other, a nervous tic. I let out a soft growl of frustration before continuing. "I need you to beat Shimura when we go back home, we will get back home and we will win no matter what. What we're doing here is just a little warm up and I won't lose you during a little warm up." I heard her make a sound resembling a scoff before grabbing me by the collar and the pants before tossing me down duct. Ouch. As I moved to a more comfortable position in the duct I reluctantly started to think once more of the astronomically small chances of returning home, I was somewhat well versed in sealing Jutsu but to even attempt a seal that made a portal, let alone to another specific world, would be nigh impossible since I didn't even know any symbols to use to give that order. But it didn't matter, I'd find a way back, I had to.

Chapter End