33 Shinigami versus Nekomata
Taiki's Darker Side is Revealed.
Taiki's hurried departure from the arena had probably not been such a smart move. It did not take the young man long before he encountered a group of Sound grunts, not unlike the ones he'd seen in the preliminaries. If he had been alert he might not have run into them, but it was too late for that. His awareness had fallen by the wayside at the beginning of the finals, something eerie and primal taking its place from the moment he'd first set eyes on the mysteriously veiled figure of the Kazekage. Settling into his taijutsu stance was as natural as breathing, and when his foes sent destructive force his way the Cloud-nin simply slid between the waves of sound. Reaching out with lightning-wreathed hands he ripped the hearts from two of them, the smell of scorched flesh filling the air. He dealt with the rest of them quickly, their death shrieks and the wet thump of their bodies falling to the street barely registering on his ears. Something was calling to him, stirring ancient power within his veins in a banshee wail, his heartbeat thundering a chant of war and destruction through his body that it was ill-prepared to resist.
After leaving the arena Taiki drifted through the village like a plague wind, trying to find the source of this siren call and destroying any opposition that dared block his path. Barely aware of the carnage around him, his headlong rush was stopped when he heard a scream coming from one of the small restaurants in the market sector. His blackened eyes picked out Ayame and her father hiding behind the counter of the Ichiraku as a squad of Sand chuunin advanced menacingly upon them, unaware of their impending doom. "We're going to have some fun with you, little girl," one of them leered, drawing a katana from the sheath across his back.
An animal scream tore from Taiki's throat as he hurled himself upon the attackers, gripping two of them in his own hands as the other four were grappled with; each by a single hand so dark that the eye didn't so much see the hand as the space around the hand. "Death's realm comes down upon you!" he rasped, tightening his grip and grinning terribly at the agony of his captives. As the chuunin from Sand struggled against the grasping hands, Ayame and her father could only watch in horrified awe as their assaulters shriveled up, as if aging so fast that their bones and flesh were dust in mere seconds. Taiki glowed briefly and picked up the katana, molding it into a new shape.
Another presence appeared upon the scene, barely recognizable as a battle-weary and wounded Takeshi. "Ayame-chan, are you alright?" he called out, murder rising in his eyes as he perceived a threat to his loved one and tensing to strike down the white-haired invader.
"Takeshi-kun, wait!" said Ayame, waving him down. Though her words trembled and verged on incoherent as she explained her perception of the situation, there was no denying what was happening - Taiki was changing rapidly. His formerly raven-hued hair had gone brilliantly white, his eyes had taken on the hue of a starlit sky, and his skin was so pale and nearly translucent that he hardly looked like himself.
"Blood," he said, looking down at his stained hands and flexing them with a ghoulish smile. "The blood is calling me." With that cryptic comment he left Takeshi and Ayame shivering, for he had spoken in no mortal tongue.
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He began to carve a path through the village, slaying several invaders and injuring many of his allies with his senseless, uncaring attacks. Suddenly the call grew into a fever pitch, drawing him back to where it all began. A purple barrier now covered the rooftop of the massive arena, and within it Taiki could see a fierce battle being waged between the Third Hokage and a pale-skinned man with the tongue of a snake. Three others that he would later recognize as the First and Second Hokage as well as the Monkey King Enma had also become locked in combat. As he approached, his mind seemed to lose its grip on the conscious world and he felt his essence tear away from his fleshly form, shrouding his vision in an ethereal fog that made it hard for Taiki to figure out exactly what was happening.
The Third was creating a number of seals, ones that seemed to bring Taiki's world into sudden focus as if reminding him of his true purpose. As the Hokage completed his act of summoning, Taiki felt his last strands of conscious will melt away in brutal alchemy, his transmutation into Death personified coming to completion. The next few minutes were intense as he withdrew two souls that had been from his realm untimely ripped. It was sweet to consume them, two mighty men that would forever be tormented within his body. He could feel his summoner growing weak and cackled with glee as the final two humans left grappled, their souls intertwining at the arms. Soon it became plain that the one who had summoned him did not have the strength to complete his task. Removing the katana from his teeth at his summoner's command, he then cut off the arms of the pale-skinned man's soul. The avatar of the Death God drew in a mighty breath, sucking out the soul of the Third Hokage and sealing all of them within the void.
As the power from the summoning left him, Taiki returned to his own body once again. To say that he was self aware may not have been the best term to use, though, seeing as how he then went berserk and started laying waste to the surrounding arena. Hardly conscious of the four Sound ninjas that lifted their leader and carried him off, he continued to rage. However, he was brought up short by several black-clad ANBU black-ops members that attempted to hold him down. Foolish of them, he mused in a corner of his chaos-shrouded mind. Gathering his strength close once more, the young man flung his would-be captors far from him. And then… she came.
Taiki could feel her presence as she tentatively approached, a might that neared his own but simply was no match in its current depleted state. The two-tailed cat demon's host body spoke. "Taiki, what's happened to you?" she asked, breathing heavily and leaning on a blade almost twice her size for support. Her petite frame was bruised and dirty, bright blood slicking her left arm from openly oozing claw wounds on her shoulder and neck. Every shuddering breath wreathed her body in pain, her struggle to keep fiendish power from bursting loose visible even as she drew upon it for strength in combat.
His next words rocked her back on her heels. "Foolish girl, I am death. I am what must come to all creatures, all life, everything. I will rend your soul from you and send you deep into hell where such as you belong." Kotori shivered as the cat-demon translated, for he had spoken in the oldest of tongues - that which came before the first steps of beast and man. It was now only the language of the damned and the divine, and its use frightened the demon inside her.
With a roar of rage at her impertinence in opposing him, Taiki rushed the girl, striking her before she could get her zanbatou up to block him. At close range, he continued to pummel her, fists smacking into her with meaty thuds until she crumpled. Seeing her bloodied and unresisting, he hefted her own weapon in a single hand. He then raised it high to plunge the massive sword into her heart, his voice an insane cackle as he began to speak: "This is what happens when - "
A sudden spasm shook his body as a fragment of sentient will came to life and protested his actions. What was he doing? This is Kotori I'm about to kill. I could never do that… could I? The darkness overwhelming him spoke in contradiction, the weight of its words threatening to suffocate the other self in this fragile mortal shell. "No, I am the lord of the dead and dying." I am not, I'm Taiki. I'm just human… "Death is what you are, what we are." Never! No matter how fierce his denial, the shadow within could not be refuted and Taiki felt himself growing weak as if thrashing against an immovable wall. "Life must fade to death…" Not her life, I will never take her life… I love her…
Kotori and the remaining ANBU could only stare in amazement as he shook and spasmed, his clawed hands and teeth tearing at his own body. A scream that blasted away every other sound within several miles rose from his throat, echoing off of every surface in a ghastly chorus. Every person could feel their ears beginning to bleed as the scream rose higher and higher and… then it stopped. Taiki fell across Kotori, whispering as he fell, "I'm so sorry."
In spite of her drastically weakened state, Kotori managed a smile and wrapped her arms around him. "Silly guy, it's not your fault." Then they blacked out, falling into a blissfully unaware slumber.