Episode 24: Ikkaku's defeat

"You are strong. I'll give you that. Not so lucky after all..." He mumbled. His shoulder exploded into blood, and he fell to his knees. Then he smiled slightly, before falling on his face.

Ice looked down at him, gripping his sword tightly. He swung his sword up onto his shoulder.

Grime was sprinting down a path. He stopped when he came across a dead end. He looked behind him, and saw that Yumichika wasn't close behind him. He then spun around and ducked as Yumichika ran across a building, and slashed at him.

Grime then rolled off to the side.

"When are you going to stop running away?"

"Just as soon as you surrender to me!"

Yumichika sighed. "This is getting so tiresome. I think I'll just end it. It won't take much." He slashed, cutting a wall. "Just one stroke of my Fuji Kukaku."

"End it huh?" Grime reached back into his ninja pouch, and he pulled out a small bomb looking device. He slammed it into the ground, and filled the air with red gas.

"What is this? Some kind of poison gas?" Yumichika coughed. "Ah my eyes!" His eyes burnt, and watered. "It's burning my eyes! My beautiful eyes!"

Grime laughed. "You like that? It's the all new, original, chile pepper smoke bomb with bloody tears effect!" He stopped a second. "What's going on here? My eyes are starting to hurt, too!"

"It's burning my throat!"

"Some pretty powerful stuff, huh?"

"Powerful, and stupid! I can't believe you blasted yourself with your own toxic smoke bomb!"

"That's okay, I can take it!" Grime coughed.

"I'd kill you if I could see you!" Cried Yumichika.

"You know, somehow, that's not very scary right now." Grime then stumbled backwards into Yumichika, and both of them fell backwards into the pit. But Grime caught the end of it. Yumichika grabbed Grime's ankle.

"Let go of me you big leach!" He growled.

"And fall to my death? No way!"*

Ikkaku opened his eyes. "How come... how come I'm still alive?"

"I see you're finally awake." Called Ice. Ikkaku turned to see him sitting on a wall. He jumped down from the wall, and crouched next to Ikkaku. "Hey."

"Ice! What are you doing? Why are you still here?"

"Well, I learned somethin'." He held up Hozkimaru in his sword form. "I learned that your sword is magical. It turned from a sword to a spear, then a three section staff, and then once you passed out it turned back into a sword."

"Hozkimaru! Give it back to me!"

"Come on, relax. I'm not going to take it from you. I only used it's ointment to stop the bleeding. Unfortunately, I used it all up between both our injuries. I have to admit, that's some pretty amazing ointment you have." Ikkaku looked down at his chest, to see that Ichigo had rubbed the ointment all over his chest.

"You had no right to do that!"

"Are you kidding? Sure it's all gone now, but it saved your life."

"That's exactly the point!"

"Huh?"

"Now you've denied me the glory of death after being so thoroughly defeated! How can I possibly live on now? In such humiliation?" Ikkaku glanced over at the apathetic Ice. "Damn it, Ice! If I could get up now, I'd beat you to a bloody pulp!"

"What an idiot. Obviously I shouldn't have bothered to save your life in the first place. But, weather you appicate it or not- doesn't really matter to me. I need some answers."

"I should have known there was something more to this. I am unlucky... so what do you want? Do you want to know my birthday? Throw me a party?"

"I want to know where your leader is. Where is he?"

"Let go of me!" Grime growled. "I can't hold us both up!" His fingers began to slip. "Let go so that way at least one of can live..."

"No! You need to hold on with all you're might! There's nothing worse than falling to the bottom! We won't be able to catch ourselves on the walls like you did earlier!"

"I'm loosing my grip..." And they both fell.

They quickly hit the bottom, landing in a lot of garbage. Grime held his nose. "What? This is a dump! I thought there was nothing worse that could happen to someone?"

"Well, I lied."

Grime ran up the side of the wall, and Yumichika followed quickly after him.

"Don't tell me we're back to running again!"

"The Kinkage?" Asked Ikkaku.

"Right." Said Ice. "I know about him. What do you want with him?"

"We're here to kill him."

"What the-? Do you mean an assassination? How many are you? For something like that there must be at least twenty of you!"

"No. Just five humans and a ninja cat."

"Five humans and an animal? You seriously think you can assassinate him just so few?"

Ice nodded, grimly.

Ikkaku burst out laughing. "You'll never pull off a suicide mission like that! What are you terrorists stupid or something?" He grimaced as he re-opened his wounds. "Damn! That hurt!" He calmed back down. "Alright listen! If you go directly south from here, jumping over any walls you come across, and you'll find his mansion. But if you jump over the walls you'll be sure to get taken out. I can't say for sure will all these walls, but I think you should be able to find it through all the walls."

"So you're going to give this information to me?"

"Shut up and listen. It's the biggest building. It was white, but now it's coated in silver steel."

"You sure?"

"Now you're doubting me? I have no interest in the failure of your assassination. Kill the man if you want. I don't care as long as I get a Kage that lets me go on missions where I can fight people."

"I'm off." Ice stood up.

"Just a minute. Can I ask you a question? Who's the strongest member of your group?"

"Me, I guess."

"If that's true, I suggest that you keep an eye out for my Sensei, Ice. He has no interest in fighting weak opponents. He'll find you- if you aren't lying."

"Is he good?"

"You'll find out. That is if you survive after he first finds you."

"What's his name?"

"Captain of Squad Eleven. Kenpachi Zaraki."

Grime was still sprinting away. Yumichika followed close behind. Grime then turned a wall to sand with his Seppai, and then he stopped, and went to catch his breath. He turned to see Yumichika right there. The Leaf Genin slashed at Grime's head, but he ducked, and rolled to the side. He groaned, for Yumichika managed to slash Grime's shoulder.

Grime grabbed a roman candle, and he lit it by sliding it across his arm and then pointed it at Yumichika- the blast sending him flying backwards.

Grime then took off.

Yumichika stumbled backwards, the smoke clearing. "Damn you!" He growled. Then he felt that his face was bleeding. "My face! How dare you do this?"

"Maybe now you'll look more like a man!" Grime went to make a hand sign, but Yumichika kicked him in the chest. Grime rolled backwards, and he went to make the hand sign again, but Yumichika slashed down him. Grime dodged it, and then took off again.

Yumichika teleported in front of him, and slashed at him across the back.

"Why does one so ugly persist on living? I always thought for an ugly person it would be best for them to go out beautifully."

"I gotta disagree with you there..." Grime said. "I always thought that in mortal kombat it doesn't matter if a person's ugly, or beautiful. What matters is- who survives!" He made a hand sign, and then turned the ground beneath both of them to sand.

Grime grinned, and he pushed himself up out of the quick sand by grabbing into Yumichika's head and pushing himself out.

"How dare you lay your ugly hand on my head?" Growled Yumichika.

Grime grinned at him.

Yumichika then flew straight up into the air, by sending quite a bit of chakra to the soles of his feet.

"HEY! TAKE THIS!" Yelled Grime.

Yumichika saw a ball flying up towards him, and he realized it was a bomb.

"Crap!" Yumichika groaned.

Outsider- the orange haired woman, and Three- the bowman were running through the maze. "Ey, Three! I can see a building!" Outsider whispered.

"Right." Three nodded. He turned to Outsider, and then suddenly a pair of men appeared. They where Chunin.

Outsider made a hand sign, and then blasted a fire ball at the two. Both of them jumped off to different sides, and then flanked them.

Three drew his bow, and notched an arrow. He fired at the Chunin, who dodged to the side, and kicked Three across the face. Three drew an arrow and stabbed him the leg.

The Chunin cried out, and jumped backwards. His partner teleported over to him. He then froze, when he realized Three had an arrow lightning touching the back of his head. Three let the arrow fly, and then Outsider drew a kunai and stabbed the other Chunin the chest.

Killer and the cat landed on the ground. "Yellow, where are they now?" Asked Killer.

Yellow- the cat- took off.

Killer chased after him.

Tatsuzo suddenly stopped as he and his squad were patrolling.

"What's the matter, Sensei?" Asked Yoichi.

Tatsuzo gripped his knuckles. "I can feel the presence of three ninjas..."

"Three of 'em, huh?" Asked Yoichi. "Not bad. But there are five of us!"**

Daichi cracked his knuckles.

Well, then. We better hurry up and find them." Tatsuzo darted off.

"They're getting closer." Said Yellow.

"Good." Replied Killer.

Notes: *I am aware that Grime ran away, so the hole wouldn't be there. But this is what happened in canon, with Ganju and Yumichika. So I'm going to guess that they have multiple of them.

**He's counting Ryu.