Disclaimer: I don't own anything
Recap: The battle of the Saint Beasts took quite the turn when the tiger beast, Byakko, surprisingly survived the first assault from Yusuke and the gang. The spirit detective squad had an even bigger surprise of their own when Naruto lived up to his old reputation as the number knucklehead surprise ninja, making a mockery of the proud beast and enabling Yusuke to finish him with a spirit gun blast. Now their journey into Maze Castle continues...
All Saints Day III: Arctic Thunder
"Hahahaha! Bya-chan! Oh Kami! Hahahaha!" Kushina couldn't stop laughing as she banged her fist down on Koenma's desk, it was all just too damn funny. "That was better than a comedy show! Hahahaha..."
Koenma's eye began to twitch as the red headed woman wouldn't shut up, "Yes, yes, it was quite hilarious, but more importantly they've taken down two Saint Beasts. Very good progress, if I do say so myself."
"Who does that!" exclaimed Minato. "Who has time? How can you possibly think of doing all that in the middle of a fight?"
Hiruzen chuckled, "You forget the footage you saw of his first battle with Yusuke as a Spirit Detective."
"Yeah, but I thought that was just him being resourceful since he wasn't all full power." said Minato.
"Ha! That was just Naruto being Naruto." interrupted Jiraiya as he walked into Koenma's office.
"Why are all you people in my office? Don't you have work to do!" yelled an annoyed Koenma.
"You asked everyone to go find information on the four saint beasts." reminded Minato.
Koenma let out a grunt of annoyance, "Okay, then what did you find?"
"There were no books or documents on them at all in the hall of records." reported Minato.
"Nothing in the archives." added Kushina.
"Your father's files on them only contained information we already know." informed Sarutobi.
"If there was nothing, why are you wasting your time loitering in my office!" snapped their toddler boss.
Jiraiya grinned as he pulled out a DVD and waved it in the air, "I did happen to come across a video in you brother's old library."
"A video, huh?" muttered Koenma as he walked over and took the disk from Jiraiya. "Maybe he had some footage on a previous battle with the Saint Beasts. Let's see what we've got here."
He placed the DVD into the player at his desk and the screen abruptly switched from Naruto's battle to the scene of a pair of young nuns comforting a woman in her home.
"I didn't know who else to turn to." exclaimed the crying woman. "His illness just keeps getting worse and worse, but the doctors say there's nothing wrong with him."
"You turned to right place Mrs. Garcia. The healing of the Lord comes in many ways and we're here to do his work." stated one of the nuns.
"Now you wait right here, Sister Emma and I will head back to see him." said the other.
"Oh, thank you so much!" thanked Mrs. Garcia.
Once they arrived to the boy's bedroom, they locked the door behind them, turned off the TV that was playing and dimmed the lights. The slightly exhausted young man in the bed looked up in surprise at the sight of them.
"We hear you haven't been feeling so well..." began Sister Emma.
Suddenly the nuns started disrobing leaving themselves wearing nothing but their head coverings, "We're here to make you all better..."
The title, 'The Four Saint Breasts!', then suddenly flashed across the screen before Koenma quickly managed to shut it off.
"Hey turn that back on-whoops!" exclaimed Jiraiya. He looked around only to find his student and sensei had already vanished.
"Kushina, if you would please." stated Koenma with a thinly veiled calm.
"My pleasure. Ogres!" Suddenly four of them appeared at her command. "Hold him down!"
"It was an honest mistake!" pleaded Jiraiya. "No! Not the face!...AHHH! AHHH!..Yes the face! Please the face!"
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Back in the living world, Botan was attempting to get some of her paperwork done while overseeing the situation from Urahara's laboratory. An alert beacon from the screen shifted her attention back to the situation at hand.
"What in the world is going on there?" whispered Botan as she watched some accumulating flashing blue dots clustered together on the screen.
"The makai signatures have entered into a migration pattern." reported Sara. "I've detected a low frequency pattern emitting throughout the city. The Makai whistle is currently in use."
Botan narrowed her eyes at the screen, "Well that's both good news and bad news. Good news being the boys just defeated another Saint Beast and bad news being that the leader is initiating his plans to take over the city. Please open a line back up to Naruto."
"Of course." replied Sara as she opened up a window on the monitor.
"Hey, Botan." greeted Naruto as he face appeared on the screen.
"Did you just take down another Saint Beast?" asked Botan.
Naruto gave her a puzzled look, "Yeah, we did. How did you know?"
"The makai infected and other insects are on the move. The Saint Beasts have launched their counter-assault." she replied.
Naruto frowned, "Well, we better get a move on then."
Botan nodded, "It's good thing you've taken down three beasts already."
"Botan, we've only killed two." corrected Naruto.
"What! What in the world have you been doing! This isn't some field trip for you and Yusuke to laze about!" yelled Botan.
Naruto just shrugged and scratched the back of his head in response, "These guys are a pain in the ass to kill. We essentially had to kill the last guy twice and I doubt they're going to get any easier."
Yusuke cut in, "What are you getting on our case for anyway! Kurama and Kuwabara should be handling things back in the city! Go yell at them to get their asses in gear!"
"But they have Lord Kisuke with them, I'm sure-" Botan paused as she realized what she was about to say. "That I need to make sure they haven't gotten sidetracked on one of his crazy tangents. I'll keep you posted."
"Kisuke is not picking up," informed Sara. "He's most likely busy with something."
Botan sighed, "Hopefully they're actually making some progress instead of goofing around."
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Hiei, Naruto, and Yusuke hustled up a spiraling set of stairs, exiting the stairs into a circular room with about fifteen solid steel doors leading in every direction.
"Talk about your forks in the road." joked Yusuke.
"About time maze castle lived up to its name." added Naruto.
Hiei smirked, "I'm glad you two find this death trap so amusing."
Yusuke raised an eyebrow at this, "What do you mean by death trap?"
"Legend has it that before the walls were built round the city, the beasts never left the upper tower. Bounty hunters came in mass trying to take them down, all easily reaching this point before forfeiting their lives to this maze. Of the fifteen doors only one leads to the correct path, the rest are all dead ends and there are no second chances. Unavoidable death traps lay in wait, so as you can see a bad choice seals our fate." explained Hiei.
Yusuke let out an amused chuckle, "What do you know, Kuwabara might have actually come in handy with that freaking sensing ability of his."
Naruto snorted, "Not really."
The blond quickly made a shadow clone for each door and sent them through. The trio waited quietly for several minutes until Naruto finally pointed at the correct door.
"The traps in this place suck ass. All my clones made it to the dead end except the one who picked the right door. The hunters coming into this place before must have really sucked." grumbled Naruto as Yusuke just shook his head and let out a chuckle before opening the door and allowing them to move ahead.
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In his tower atop Maze castle, Suzaku was quite surprised by their progress.
"Somehow, they managed to pick the right door thanks to that blond one. Who is he?" pondered the leader of the Saint Beasts. "Well, if one manages to survive to Seiryu, I hope it's him. A battle with him would be quite entertaining before I kill him."
He turned his head up to ceiling suddenly, "It looks like Mirugu is back. I do hope she brings interesting news." He suddenly brought the Makai whistle to his lips, "Regardless, I think it is time I cause a little more trouble over in the human world, a little Mayhem in A-minor."
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Under threat of decapitation experimentation, Jeebs led Kisuke, Tessai, Kurama, and Kuwabara through a hidden tunnel beneath his shop. The secret passageway ended out behind an old abandoned factory in the vacated industrial district on the outskirts of town. The factory grounds was filled with both Makai insects and Makai infected loitering around not doing much of anything. The masses were undisturbed by the intruders, going on about their business as if there was no one there.
"Why are they all just hanging around doing nothing?" asked Kuwabara. "The ones we ran into were just itching destroy stuff."
"They like the smell of the aconite plant. It's fragrance is a potent hallucinogen for them." informed Kurama.
Seeing Kuwabara's blank expression, Kisuke dumbed it down for him, "They're all getting high."
"Zombie potheads, go figure?" muttered Kuwabara.
"I've stashed the plants up there." explained Jeebs as he pointed up to the roof.
They looked up and spotted bunches of the flowers all tied to the front of massive fans blowing out over the edge of the roof. Just as Kurama was about to leap up to gather the plants, the infected began to stir, causing Jeebs to make a beeline back towards the tunnel.
"The Saint Beasts are on the move! You're in for it now! So long suckers!" taunted Jeebs as he fled the scene.
Kisuke sighed in annoyance, "Well, that's just great. The whistle is being played, the plants are now useless to us."
"So, what now?" questioned Kurama.
By now the quartet was standing back-to-back-to-back-to-back, with the infected zombies circling around them.
"We do this the old fashioned way!" roared Kuwabara.
Kuwabara charged head-on into the zombie army and the infected started dropping like flies. The redhead was able to down every single zombie with a single punch or kick. Tessai was right behind him, tearing through their ranks with ease. Kurama and Kisuke took to attacking from a distance, the redhead slicing and dicing away with his rose whip while the bucket hat wearing scientist lifted his cane into his arms like and M-16 and started firing off blasts of spirit energy from its now opened tip. In the middle of the massive free-for-all started by Tessai and Kuwabara, the red head was starting to feel it.
"You punks don't stand a chance! I'm Kuwabara! And I've got the SPIRIT SWORD!" he bellowed as he summoned the red spirit weapon into his hand and started slicing and dicing his way through their ranks.
"Above you!" called out Kurama as a pair of attackers leaped from the second floor of the factory at Kuwabara.
"Sword get longer!" shouted Kuwabara as he turned and the red spirit energy weapon lengthened and pierced right through the pair of zombies. The sword quickly retracted dropping the two to the ground onto the every growing pile of defeated enemies.
"There's plenty more where that came from!" bellowed the redhead as he attacked with even more ferocity.
While not as loud and as flashy as Kuwabara, both Tessai, Kisuke and Kurama all meticulously and effectively began to thin the numbers of the zombie army.
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The proper pathway from the maze trap lead Hiei, Naruto, and Yusuke to a massive set of blue double doors outlined with ornate golden trim. To the side of the doors were a pair of blue dragon statues in snarling poses. Hiei was not impressed by the display.
"Is this a joke?" he sneered. "This is supposed to intimidate us? These Saint Beasts just keep getting more and more pathetic."
"What's the big deal?" questioned Yusuke.
"That is the mark of the blue dragon, a supposedly dangerous beast." replied Hiei.
"He's definitely in there, it's obvious none these guys have taken a shower in the last hundred years." quipped Naruto.
To their surprise, the door slowly creaked open on its own and a thick fog spewing forth from within. Yusuke narrowed his eyes as he shoved his hands in his pockets and walked inside with Hiei and Naruto following close behind. Once inside the doors shut behind them, leaving them faced with a thick fog covering the room that made visibility severely limited.
"The good news for me at least is that the air here is thick with water. The bad news is that this is no normal fog." muttered Naruto.
"It must be tainted by the spirit energy coming from the beast's body." asserted Hiei.
A low pitched voice suddenly echoed through the fog, "You have done very well to make it this far, but I will no longer allow you to disgrace my master."
Naruto flipped up his shades to use the jagan to the full extent and frowned, "Fuck, I still can't tell the difference between him and the fog."
Yusuke quickly became annoyed with the theatrics, "What are you five? Come out now Dragon! This hide and seek bullshit is pretty lame!"
"As you request." replied the voice.
Suddenly sparks of lighting flashed through the fog and a large blue ball of spirit energy appeared in the center of the room. The lighting coiled around the the energy ball for a few seconds before a powerful surge caused the energy to flash brightly, forcing the trio to shield their eyes from the bright light. The light show soon died down and most of the fog dissipated to reveal a giant figure standing before them, shrouded by a swirling blue mist. The pale blue skinned dark haired demon with a goatee towered over them, dressed in dark blue martial arts clothes with a light blue embroidered dragon running across the front and back his torso. The temperature dropped precipitously with the demon making his full presence known. The full scope of the dungeon also came into view. The dull grey square tiles of the floor were offset by the massive arctic blue rectangular panels that went from wall to wall and even covered the ceiling. In the back of the room another massive golden trimmed doorway marked the exit.
The third Saint Beast looked down upon the three spirit world operatives as if they were nothing but flies to be swatted, "You may call me Seiryu. I am here to end your lives, intruders."
"He's no dragon, but he is ugly." taunted Yusuke.
"He's a wielder of ice techniques, do tread carefully." warned Hiei.
"Now that's it down to two, all of us fighting one guy wastes too much time." advised Naruto. "Someone needs to move on ahead and destroy that damn makai whistle."
"I doubt he will let us leave that easily." surmised Hiei. "I also know nothing of their leader. There's no telling who has the best chance at eliminating him."
"We don't have to beat him, just destroy that damn whistle. I'll take the job." declared Yusuke.
"Chanting a few prayers before your demise? It makes no difference, come at me all at once if you must." mocked Seiryu.
Hiei responded in surprising manner by discarding his black cloak, leaving his upper body completely bare in spite of the cold conditions. The black haired demon crouched into an attack stance while partially extracting his sword from his sheath. Yusuke took this as his cue to get ready to move, taking his hands out of his pockets and shifting onto the balls of his feet. Naruto simply shifted into a old stance from his first true battle as a shinobi, that he brought into practice when after he learned of his Suiton Affinity during his training trip with Jiraiya. Raising his left arm straight up with his palm facing to the side, he brought his closed right hand to his face as he extended his index and middle fingers upward, "Kirikagure no Jutsu! (Hidden Mist Jutsu)"
The fog generated by Seiryu previously, had nothing on the thickness of the mist Naruto generated. After the technique blanketed the room, Seiryu could barely see his own hand in front of his face.
Naruto's own voice now echoed throughout the mist as he started flaring killing intent seemingly from all directions,"Eight points: Larynx, spine, lungs, liver, jugular, subclavian artery, kidneys, and heart. Now, which way would you like to die?"
Seiryu ignored him as he closed his eyes and waited patiently in the until he heard the expected sounds of footsteps headed towards the exit of the room. He swiftly moved ahead of the escapee and attacked.
"Ice Dragon!" roared Seiryu as quickly brought his arm back and thrust his fist forward and unleashed a burst of energy.
His efforts were reworded with sound of the runner freezing under subzero temperatures of his attack. He stepped forward in the mist and smirked when he came face to face with a frozen Naruto and Hiei.
"How pitiful. To be defeated in only one attack." mocked Seiryu. "Seems I was wrong about you Hiei."
The smirk on his face was quickly replaced with one of shock as the bodies of Naruto and Hiei suddenly collapsed into puddles of ice water.
Seiryu was completely caught off guard, "What is this?"
"You're nothing, but a baby dragon! You can't handle the demons of the mist!" taunted Naruto.
The one of the puddles of water suddenly reformed into a Naruto clone, it was soon joined by half a dozen more water clones that crept in from the mist, circling around Seiryu. Each clones held two kunai's in hand and one in their mouth, looking very intimidating as they spiked killing intent with their jagan eyes blazing. At some unseen signal they all charged the blue dragon.
Despite attacking with such ferocity, Seiryu quickly found the clones to be easy to dispatch due them only be one-tenth the strength of the original Naruto. The clones however, did have the desired in effect in creating an opening for Hiei to exploit. The fire demon raced in at top speed to make cold cuts out of Seiryu. Somehow the saint beast sensed the attack coming because at the last second he turned towards Hiei and defended himself.
"Ice Barrier!" A thick sheet of ice formed in midair in front of Seiryu. At the last second Hiei opted away from his sword and shattered the defense technique with a powerful spinning kick before vanishing back into the mist. The force of the blow sent Seiryu flying back and he landed in the puddle of water from the old Naruto clone. As he moved to stand up he realized that the water was heavier than normal water, but by then it was far too late.
"Suirō no Jutsu! (Water Prison Jutsu)" The water prison formed around the blue dragon's body, the original Naruto maintaining its control.
"Gotcha Bitch!" taunted Naruto as he smirked at his prisoner.
"Fool! You've only ensured your demise!" bellowed Seiryu.
Within the water prison, his body turned to ice, and Naruto was forced to retract his hand as the entire prison froze over. Seiryu emerged from the mist trying to turn the original Naruto into ice, but the blond substituted himself with a water clone at the last second.
"A fucking ice clone, didn't see that coming." muttered Naruto as he stood hidden in a pocket of the mist close to Hiei. "At least Yusuke was able to move on."
"His skills are far more advanced than I initially suspected." informed Hiei. "He is no master of ice, but we'd do best to tread carefully."
Naruto nodded, "You can get closest to him with your speed, stay hidden until I can give you another opening. This time he won't be able to defend himself."
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High atop Maze Castle in his darkened layer, Suzaku switched the scene of his viewing orb from the battle raging withing the mist to Yusuke's solo trek to the top of tower. His pet and loyal spy, the bird demon Mirugu, sat perched atop his shoulder, letting out mirthful trills of laughter.
"Oh! I can't believe they actually split up their forces and sent only one after you!" laughed the yellow, white, and green feathered bird as she took flight and swooped around the room.
"And of all of them it just had to be the human. Do they have no sense of respect?" questioned Suzaku.
"Obviously not, perhaps you should use the information I found on the human?" suggested Mirugu.
A pleased look formed on his face, "Prepare a little welcoming present for Yusuke Urameshi? I wouldn't be such a gracious host if I didn't. I'm sure he'll be grateful to witness the final moments of his precious Keiko. That will be entertainment worth watching!"
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"You guys better hurry up back there, I've got a really bad feeling about this..." muttered Yusuke to himself as he sprinted up another flight of stairs.
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Back at Urahara Shoten, Botan quickly observed the effects of Suzaku's actions, "This is odd, a bunch of Makai signatures just popped up near Yusuke's school."
"It's a swarm of insects, the are infecting anyone they can get their hands on within the area." informed Sara.
"But why would they..." Botan froze up as it dawned on her. "Oh no, Keiko! We've got to alert the others!"
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Back at the abandoned factory, Urahara sat on the growing pile of unconscious bodies while reading a text message from Sara. A makai zombie tried to sneak up on him from behind, but Urahara pointed his cane at him and blasted him into unconsciousness without even looking up from his phone.
"Just got a message from Sara, a swarm off Makai insects just popped up near Yusuke's school. Botan thinks they're going after Keiko." informed Urahara.
"Oh, that is fucking low! They can't handle those three kicking their asses, so they take Keiko hostage! They're nothing but cowards!" bellowed Kuwabara.
Kurama had a different take on the matter, "They're not cowards, they're ruthless. I suspect this is no hostage situation. Notice this is a direct attack on Yusuke, the only human of the three fighters we have in maze castle. More then likely they plan to torment him by forcing him to watch her die."
Kurama surveyed the remaining infected people in front of them, "Kuwabara, we've got things covered here. You head to the school and help Keiko."
Kuwabara shook his head, "There's no way I'm going to be able to get across town in time on foot."
Kisuke bashed another zombie with his cane, still looking down at his phone, "Tessai, head back to Jeeb's shop with him and take the van. We'll finish the cleanup here."
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Upon his realization that Yusuke was gone, Seiryu let out a low chuckle, "I see you've freed yourselves of your human burden. Perhaps there is hope for you two, yet. My master will be amused by you allowing him to torture that human filth, prostrate yourselves before him and he will grant you power and fame beyond anything you ever tasted."
"Is that all you have to say? They are last words, you know?" echoed Hiei's voice in response.
"Fine! You shall meet your deaths like all the other weaklings!" roared Seiryu as he flared his spirit energy.
Seiryu started leaking out his own spirit energy into the mist, enabling him to sense where his opponents where coming from. The only problem was that he still couldn't hit them. The water clones he nailed with his freezing technique would collapse into water and later reform when he moved onto a new target. The original Naruto and Hiei were too elusive to be captured, anytime he got remotely close, they'd vanish into another part of the midst. So far the only thing the blue dragon had really accomplished was covering the walls and ceiling with ice.
The mist in front in front of him suddenly thinned, coalescing into solid water and revealing Naruto a short distance in front of him as he completed a long chain of hand signs, "Suiton: Suiryūdan no Jutsu! (Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet Jutsu)"
The massive water dragon formed from the mist and sped forward, leaving Seiryu with little time to react. He thrust his hands forward as the dragon approached him and transformed to the beast into ice and took control of it. The dragon turned around and was sent right back at it's original creator. Seiryu let out a curse of frustration as Naruto escaped once again via substitution technique with a water clone.
"If hide and seek, is how you want to play it, then I will oblige you." snarled Seiryu as he flared his energy and seemingly vanished from within the mist.
Jagan eyes blazing, Naruto and Hiei searched for the presence of the blue dragon within the mist, but they could not find him. Naruto even began to thin out the mist, only to find no trace of Seiryu in sight.
"He's gone. I can't believe it, he turned tail and ran away!" exclaimed Naruto.
"I haven't gone anywhere. Just take a look around." responded Seiryu.
Naruto thinned out the mist completely, revealing himself and Hiei to be in the center of the room. On first glance they were stunned to find reflections of Seiryu staring back at them from the ceiling in walls. His missed freezing attempts had covering the rectangular tiles in a reflective ice coating, turning them into Ice Mirrors powered by his spirit energy.
"Well isn't this a bad case of deja vu." grumbled Naruto. "Trapped in another damn death igloo."
"Now there is no where for you to hide! Even that little mist technique of yours is no match for my Ice Dragon Scale Mirrors!" proclaimed Seiryu as he roared with laughter. Each reflection suddenly shifted back into an attack position as they created dozens of small fang-like blades of ice and launched them through the mirrors, "Ice Dragon Fangs!"
Hiei poured on the speed and darted around the round in no particular pattern to void getting shredded by the blades of ice. Naruto took to a different method, building a meat shield of water clones around himself as the attacks came in. He recreating a layer of mist, not nearly as thick as the previous one, to help mask Hiei's movements. Feeling he could easily overwhelm Naruto's protection method, Seiryu focused his attacks on the blond, trying to wear him down as the clones attempted to deflect the attacks with kunai.
'They're not replicas in the mirrors, he's just hoping really fast from one mirror to another to make it seem so. If I could just get him knocked of course for even a moment...' thought Hiei.
"That shield won't last you forever! Let's take things up a notch!" declared Seiryu as he created even more fang blades. "Thousand Dragon Fangs!"
With the amount of blades, Naruto realized that his protection wouldn't hold and broke containment just before they were overwhelmed by the assault, unfortunately Seiryu anticipated this.
"Ice Dragon!" bellowed Seiryuu as he made a direct assault with his freezing technique, icing over Naruto's left leg and sending the blond tumbling across the floor before returning to the safety of his ice mirrors.
"Do you see now? No one ever escapes, you can only grovel...and beg for mercy!" taunted Seiryu as he formed a blade of ice over his right arm. "With your leg frozen like that, you can't possibly move. It's time to start groveling."
Naruto grimaced as he shakily stood up before smirking at one of the reflections, "Grovel, huh? You can take that shitty excuse for an ice pick and shove it up your ass!"
"Then this is the end for you!" roared Seiryuu as appeared in front of the blond before he could react and drove his sword right through Naruto's gut.
However, instead of collapsing to the ground with a spray of blood, Naruto exploded into a shower of electricity. Massive amounts of electric current coursed through Seiryu's body, momentarily paralyzing him. The paralysis wore off after a few seconds and he escaped back into one of his mirrors. A stray kunai dropped by one of the water clones went up in a puff of smoke to reveal the real Naruto.
It quickly dawned on Seiryu, "You've been setting me up for that technique all along."
"Of course. Showing off the shadow clones in my previous fight and the water clones now, was all I needed to get you comfortable enough to slice and dice with reckless abandon. Now you've paid the price." responded Naruto smugly.
Seiryu sneered at him, "For so little payout? You've wasted your opportunity, now I know better than to strike from so close."
It was then that he finally heard the sound of Hiei re-sheathing his sword and noticed him putting back on his cloak.
"It wasn't wasted. You've been dead for thirty-two seconds already." informed Hiei.
"What!" exclaimed Seiryu as within all his reflection in the mirrors blood unexpectedly trickled down his forehead. Various cuts and slashes started appeared all over his body as his reflection cried out before suddenly exploded into shower of blood and spirit energy while all the ice mirrors melted away.
As the two nonchalantly made their way out the exit, Naruto asked, "So, what are the odds Yusuke's already beaten the boss and destroyed the whistle by the time we get there?"
Hiei scoffed at the notion, "Slim to none, we'll be lucky if he manages to destroy the damn whistle and not get himself killed in the process."
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Keiko hummed to herself as she walked approached the teacher's lounge with a stack of flyers in her hands.
"Mr. Takenaka, I've got those flyers..." Keiko's train of thought immediately derailed as she opened the door to the teacher's lounge and found Mr. Takenaka unconscious at a desk with a massive bloody wound on the back of his head. She dropped the flyers in her hands in shock as she let out a scream of panic.
"Mr. Iwamoto, please call for help! Someone attacked Mr. Takenaka!" exclaimed Keiko.
"Yukimura...Yukimura! You've been a bad girl! You need to pay for your insolence!" yelled the possessed Iwamoto as he attempted to strike the girl with a pair of scissors. Keiko shrieked as she stumbled back out of the way, before turning and running back to Mr. Takenaka's office and barricading herself inside by sliding a desk in front of the door.
"Come on out Yukimura! You can't hide forever!" bellowed Iwamoto as he and the other zombies tried to break down the door.
"What in the world is going on out there? It's like I'm trapped in some horror movie nightmare." muttered Keiko.
Suddenly she heard a ringing sound coming from near Mr. Takenaka. She walked over to him and saw his cell phone ringing on the top of his desk.
She let out a sigh of relief at finding an opportunity to call for help, "Excuse me! There's been an emergency at the school! Mr. Takenaka was attacked!"
The voice on the line ignored her, "Keiko! You need to get away from the school right now!"
"Who is this? What's going on?" demanded Keiko. "Are you behind this?"
"Keiko this is Botan! You need to get out of that school right now! There's no time to explain! Just follow my instructions, those people are all after you!" exclaimed Botan.
"Does this have something to do with Yusuke?" asked Botan
"Yes, now there's not much time! You need to open the window and head up the fire escape..."
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Across town, Tessai was like hell on wheels as he raced through the streets of the city towards the school. As the Urahara Shoten van rounded a corner at high speed and barely missed clipping and old lady crossing the street, Tessai was the picture of calm, handling the steering wheel with one hand while whistling as his other arm hung out the window.
"Hey! Be careful!" screamed Kuwabara as held on for dear life in the passenger seat.
Tessai turned his eyes away from the road and gave Kuwabara a beaming smile, "Have no fear my young friend! I know these streets like the back of my hand!"
"Don't look at me, look at the road! Keep your eyes own the damn road!" screamed Kuwabara.
Tessai ignored him, "Yes, I've been over every nook and crannie of this city many many times. Why back in eighty-three..."
Kuwabara glanced up ahead, and saw they were headed straight for a big rig that had gotten caught in the middle of an intersection. The redhead braced himself for impact, "We're going crash! I'm too young and pretty to die!"
Add the last second, Tessai lightly tapped on the brakes, and sent the van into a drift enabling it to ghost around the back of the truck until they hit daylight and he floored it again. He did this while still looking at Kuwabara the entire time, "I dusted that lazy bus driver, won the bet, and went home with the girl! That's when they started calling me..."
Kuwabara ignored him as he let out a sigh of relief at the minor miracle, only the be in full blown panic once again once he realized they were headed for what appeared to be a brick walled dead end at a hundred twenty miles per hour.
X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X
Yusuke finally made it up the last set of stairs, and walked out the top of the passage to the sight of Suzaku playing a tune on the Makai whistle while seated in front of massive oval shaped viewing mirror with ornate golden trim. Playing on the mirror like a movie was Keiko's struggle at Yusuke's school, the makai infected faculty members chasing after her. The top room of the tower was shaped like a circular dome, the viewing mirror positioned in the rear like a theater screen with curtains drawn back to the side of it. The same bluish gray stone made up the walls and floor. A few stools and chairs along with a fake grey throne with red cushioning filled out the part of the room in front of the viewing mirror. The long orange haired demon had two reds strands of hair hanging down in front of his purple eyes.
Suzaku brought the whistle away from his lips and smirked at his new visitor as he rose from his pseudo-throne, "It's a lovely melody isn't it? I was supposed to a funeral tune as I made you watch your girlfriend die, but you arrived before she's been captured. I guess I can always come up with something later."
"You are one sick asshole." growled Yusuke.
"I am Suzaku, leader of the four saint beasts!" announced Suzaku.
His loyal pet floated down next to him, "And I'm the lovely Mirugu!"
"Now, watch closely Yusuke Urameshi! This is a rare opportunity to witness the pathetic fragility of the human race, your precious gilfriend's end is near!" proclaimed Suzaku.
"Give me the makai whistle, and just maybe I'll let you live." threatened Yusuke.
"And if I refuse?" replied Suzaku.
Yusuke's tone turned cold as ice, "I'll kill you and pry it from, your cold dead hands."
Suzaku merely smirked and turned his attention back to the viewing mirror were Keiko was caught in a tough spot as she hid from her pursuers. He let out an amused laugh at the sight of her.
"You must be proud to have girlfriend be playing such a convincing lead in this horror story. Look at her expression! On top of that this about a realistic a setting as you can get. She's really putting in the performance of a lifetime!" proclaimed Suzaku.
"That's it! You're going to die!" roared the dark haired spirit detective as he rushed the leader of the Saint Beasts. Yusuke quickly closed the gap between them, unleashing a furious barrage of punches that Suzaku managed to deflect aside with only a single hand.
'He is much stronger and faster, than I anticipated. Not bad for a human.' thought Suzaku.
'Only one hand? What the fuck is this guy?' thought Yusuke as he upped the intensity of his attack. A particularly powerful punch forced the orange haired demon to leap high up into the air in order to avoid being hit. When Suzaku looked back down at his opponent, he was surprised to find a smirk on his face.
"Funny thing about being in the air..." began Yusuke as he brought his right arm back and stuck out his index finger to charge up a spirit gun attack. "Makes it really hard to dodge! Spirit Gun!"
Yusuke fired his attack right on target, and had Suzaku dead to rights.
The demon was momentarily surprised by the attack, 'He can fire off that much of his spirit energy!'
'Direct hit!' thought Yusuke.
Suzaku quickly overcame his surprise and defended himself in a most surprising faction.
"KAAHHH!" roared the orange haired demon as he channeling spirit energy into his hand and deflected the attack away from himself. It shot up nearly roasted Mirugu before exploding as it hit the roof of the tower. Yusuke stared up in disbelief as chunks of stone crumbled to the ground in front of him.
Suzaku gave him an appraising look as he landed on the ground and blew on his smoking fist, "I must commend you, your blast is very powerful. You actually managed to numb my hand with that attack."
Yusuke still couldn't believe it, 'You've got to be kidding me. He swatted it away like it was nothing.'
"If you actual could manage to hit me with that, you might be able to kill me. This is going to be very interesting."
"Six months of training with that cranky old hag Genkai and my spirit gun is still no better than a sling shot." grumbled Yusuke.
"Perhaps, I should hold the Makai whistle for the moment while you crush him?" suggested Mirugu.
Suzaku shook his head, "That won't be necessary. I can kill him with one hand."
Yusuke scoffed at the notion, "Let's see you try."
Suddenly thunder began to boom outside and lighting crackling across the sky as dark clouds shifted over the opening in the roof.
"I must say, you've done a terrific remodeling job." quipped Suzaku as he raised his free hand into the air.
"I'll send you the bill." retorted Yusuke.
Mirugu suddenly let out a giggle of amusement as she swooped around overhead, "Using that technique on a human? You're going to die! You're going to die! Hahaha!"
Suddenly a massive golden bolt of lightning shot down through the opening in the ceiling, enveloping Suzaku before gathering into a ball in his outstretched hand.
"You've got to be fucking kidding me!" yelled Yusuke. "I get the shitty draw with the lightning guy? Just fucking great, that's what I get for volunteering."
"You're finished!" yelled Suzaku as he brought his charged up fist back and charged Yusuke. The spirit detective waited until he got close before leaping up into the air, and Suzaku followed suit leaping at him and swing his the attack in his arm forward. "Storm of Torment!"
At the last second, Yusuke dodged out of the way only to seemingly be contacted by a stray spark of lightning the enveloped him in a sphere of storming electricity. Yusuke screamed out in pain as he was held under the torture of the attack for several seconds until the lightning dissipated and his smoking and writhing body fell to the ground.
"What the fuck? I could have sworn he missed me..." grunted Yusuke from the ground as his body laid splayed out in a haphazard faction.
Suzaku walked over to his fallen form, "You'll find that the energy seeks you out like lightning to a rod, but you should take pride in the fact that you are the first human to ever survive the attack."
Yusuke slowly staggered to his knees and tremors ran through his body, 'Can't dodge it, I got to come up with something fast. I might not live through another one of those...'
"You are much more powerful than the usual pawns King Yemma sends my way. You're still not strong enough to ruin my great plan, once you get up I'm going to finish this. Why don't you stay down for a while and watch the thrilling end to Keiko's movie?" taunted Suzaku.
"Keiko's a lot tougher than you give her credit for. She'll survive just fine, so you can take your shitty script and shove it up your ass!" declared Yusuke. 'Help is on the way, Keiko. I need to get rid of that damn whistle to make sure it gets there in time.'
"You humans are so predictable. Give you a female companion and the you're happy, take her away and you become mad. Stop deluding yourself!" barked the orange haired demon.
'I'm only going to get one shot at this...' thought Yusuke.
The dark haired spirit detective slowly rose to his feet and started gathering energy into his right index finger.
"You decided to get up? Very well, I will not allow you to hinder my plans any further Yusuke Urameshi." state Suzaku with a tone of finality.
"I don't give a shit about you or your damned plans! You can just go straight to hell!" yelled Yusuke as he powered up the last of his energy into one final shot.
"Perhaps the pain from my attack has driven you mad? You have no chance against me! Prepare yourself!" declared Suzaku as lightning shot down from the sky again into his free hand and he formed another of his own trademark attack. "Storm of Torment!"
"Spirit Gun!" Yusuke fired the minute Suzaku finished completing his own attack. The aim of the spirit gun was not true. The blast sailed past Suzaku's right shoulder. The demon did not miss the chance to capitalize on the miscue, charging and delivering the full brunt of his attack a point blank range.
As Yusuke writhed and screamed in pain under the torment of the attack, Suzaku took the time to gloat, " Hahaha! You fool! The fatigue from my attack had already distorted your aim! Even if you were-"
His proclamation was cut off as the spirit gun blast rebounded off the viewing screen behind him, destroying it in the process, before heading right for the Makai whistle in his hand and destroying it.
"Even at full strength you might have been able to dodge, but you were never the target in the first place. Who's laughing now bitch!" finished Yusuke with a weak chuckle as he collapsed to the ground.
"You will pay the utmost price for ruining my plans Urameshi!" bellowed Suzaku as he crouched into a stance with his left leg angled backwards. He held his hands clasped with his index fingers outstretched and touching together in front of his face. Red energy flickered into existence at the tip of his fingers before engulfing his whole body.
"You're using that technique? Hahaha! You're going to obliterate him in a matter of moments!" cackled Mirugu with glee.
"A swift death is far too merciful for this human trash! I'm going to break him!" snarled Suzaku.
Yusuke had just barely staggered back to his feet, breathing heavily, "Something tells me he's not talking about a Kit-Kat bar."
X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X
Keiko simply couldn't understand what was going on. One minute all the door burst down in the classroom she was hiding in, but instead of the people trying the kill her charging in, they all fell to the floor unconscious. On top of that Kuwabara suddenly came pole-vaulting through a closed window on the third floor using his elongated spirit sword.
"Have no fear! Kuwabara is here!" announced the red head as he burst through the window. "Aw, man! The fights already over? Damn you Urameshi! You stole my thunder!"
Keiko narrowed her eyes at him, "What exactly does Yusuke have to do with all this?"
Botan had already hung up on the other end of the line, leaving Kuwabara to face Keiko's wrath alone.
Kuwabara let out a nervous chuckle as he absentmindedly scratched the back of his head, "Well, uh... um...eh...hehehe..."
X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X
Back at Maze Castle, Yusuke was wondering if he needed to get his eyes checked.
"You've got to be shitting me." muttered the dark haired teen as Suzaku split himself into seven beings.
"Can you guess.." started the one on the far right.
"..which one of us seven..." continued the one in the center.
"..is the real Suzaku?" finished the one to the left of center.
"Bet you can't..." taunted the one on the far left.
"Bet you can't..." taunted the one next to him.
"We all are!" chorused the seven Suzakus simultaneously. "Black Secret Technique: The Prism of Seven!"
'I've had enough trouble with one these bastards, how am I supposed to deal with seven?" thought Yusuke.
"This is quite the technique. These aren't mere shadows or copies. Each of us have our own free will, it makes for a most destructive combination of techniques!" declared Suzaku.
"I've seen better." grumbled Yusuke.
The seven demons all leaped into the air, forming a bow of spirit energy in one hand while shaping a storm of torment attack into the form of an arrow in the other. Yusuke prepared himself for the incoming wave of attacks by channeling his remains spirit energy into his fists.
"The only chance you'd have of beating me is to kill all seven of us at once, but you're too weak to do that now!" proclaimed the Suzakus. "I've packed these attacks with enough power to send King Enma to his grave! Farewell Yusuke Urameshi! Prism Storm of Torment!"
The seven demons all fired their attacks simultaneously. Yusuke faced them head on, managing to deflect two of the arrows with one hand before sliding to his right to avoid an attack that made a divot in the stone floor. He blocked another attack with the remaining spirit energy in his other hand and leaped to the right to avoid a fifth attack. However, his luck ran out there as the final two storm of torment arrows pierced right through his shoulders. He collapsed to his knees and arched back as he howled out in pain under the duress of double the attack. Once the attacks died down he collapsed back to the ground.
"You managed to avoid five of my seven attacks, I'm impressed. It's a good thing you managed to survive them as well, now the real fun can begin! Hahaha!" Mirugu joined him in his laughter as she circled around overhead. Two of the Suzaku's moved over and picked up Yusuke and dragged him back over tow the original who had taken a seat in his throne-like chair. They forced him onto his knees a short distance in front of their creator, each holding him up by an arm. The one on the left reached down and propped his head up, so he was facing the original Suzaku.
"Your pathetic human emotions have ruined my carefully thought out plans. If you beg for mercy, I will grant you a swift death. Your precious Keiko will not be so lucky, however. I plan to have my agents in the human world capture her, so that I may feast on her heart personally!" ranted Suzaku.
Yusuke grinned cockily at him, "So, what if you've got a problem with me! You'll never lay a finger on Keiko, my friends will make sure of that. You can kiss my ass, you son of a bitch."
The spirit detective then proceeded to launch a wad of spit that landed directly on the original's shoe.
"It seems we need do something about this boys rebellious attitudes, my fellow Suzakus." sneered the creator as the two holding him channeled storm of torment energy into his body. The dark haired teen's screams were music to Suzaku's ears, "They're giving you just enough so that you won't pass out, leaving you in a constant state of pain! The torment is only beginning! Hahaha!"
This was the sight that Naruto and Hiei arrived to as they came out of the stairway. Before either could take a half step towards aiding Yusuke, a Suzaku appeared in front of them, blocking their path.
'He's fast.' thought Hiei.
"It looks like your friends have arrived just in time to witness your demise!" taunted the original Suzaku. "I'll be with you two in just a moment. None of you should have ever come here. Ever since you've entered Maze Castle, you've been living on nothing but borrowed time."
"So, fucking what?" retorted Yusuke as he looked upon his torturer with a deviant gleam in his eye. "I've been living my whole life on borrowed time!"
Both Hiei and Naruto gave each other a nod and launched forward to aid their comrade. The Suzaku in front of them was going to allow it happen. He took sent Hiei flying back with a kick to the ribs and staggered Naruto to his knees with a single punch to the jaw.
"You really think I'm going to let you save him?" questioned the original Suzaku in a mocking tone. "Sorry, it's too late! I'll put him out of his misery momentarily."
Naruto clenched his fists as he glared at him, the screams of Yusuke sending him into a boiling rage as he slowly stood back up.
"Perhaps you should start worrying about yourself." suggested Suzaku as Naruto lowered his eyes to the floor. "Now who's going to be next? Hiei or you, the choices, the choices..."
"It really makes no difference, you're all going die!" chirped Mirugu.
Hiei turned to his comrade in shock as he felt a sudden massive spike in Naruto's energy. As if on command a lightning bolt shot from the sky through the hole in the roof and an aura of blue and white electricity enveloped the infuriated blond.
"Get..." growled Naruto as he clenched his fists again while trembling with rage. He lifted his lowered head, his eyes displaying nothing but pure rage, "GET OUT OF MY FUCKING WAY!"
In the blink of eye, Naruto leveled the Suzaku in front of him with a thunderous kick to the side of the head. Before the other copies even realized what was going on he had rocked the pair of clones holding Yusuke with a roundhouse kick and right handed hay-maker that send them crashing into into the rest of the copies. He streaked past the pile of tangled bodies and nailed the original with a left handed uppercut that sent blood and saliva flying out of his mouth. The blond followed with a rapid fire assault punches straight to the orange haired demon's exposed chest. Suzaku's eyes bulged out of their sockets as Naruto hammered away with reckless abandon.
Hiei couldn't believe what he was seeing, 'What's going on? He seems to be getting even stronger!'
Naruto back-flipped into a powerful double kick that sent Suzaku into the air. The blonde gathered electricity into his fist as he ran up the side of the wall before leaping at Suzaku and slamming it into his face, sending him crashing into the floor. Naruto followed with a vicious elbow drop right into his gut.
Hiei still couldn't believe it, 'This is impossible! He was worn down from all our previous battles, but then out of nowhere he explodes with power like I've never seen before!'
The blonde picked his orange haired counterpart up off the ground and proceeded to spin around rapidly on his heels. After picking up enough momentum, he threw the demon up at an angle before dashing ahead of him and kicking him straight up in the air. Naruto sped up the side of the closest wall, going as high as he possibly could before launching himself down towards the incoming form of Suzaku. Channeling a ton of electricty into his legs, the blond began to somersault, spinning rapidly before executing a vicious heel drop on the last Saint Beast.
"Thunder Drop!" Suzaku was sent rocketing back down towards the stone floor, and he smashed right through it into the next story of the tower.
'Incredible! This is unreal!' thought Hiei.
Naruto moved to check on Yusuke, and was relieved to find his fellow spirit detective still among the living. No sooner had he done this, did the beaten and battered form of Suzaku leap out of the hole in the floor and land a short distance away from his copies.
"Don't get to carried away. You simply caught me off guard, there's no way some trash like you is on the same level as me." growled Suzaku. "While your attack was very powerful, it failed to kill me. That will be your undoing."
Suddenly the copies of Suzaku dissolved into spirit energy and returned to his body before proceeded to heal him all his injuries and wounds, "Prism of Seven Restoration!"
"Yusuke is still alive, but he needs serious medical attention. Get back him to Urahara's place." ordered Naruto as he turned to Hiei. "You should have enough energy left to make the trip at full speed."
"But what-" began Hiei, only to be cut off by Naruto.
"Just follow my damn orders! Get the fuck out of here now!" yelled Naruto.
Hiei leveled him with a glare, "Fine, but you better not screw this up."
"Do you actually think I'm going to let any of you leave?" sneered Suzaku as he moved to fire a storm of torment.
Before he could even blink, Naruto had embedded his fist in his gut, and stared him down with a defiant gleam in his eye, "You don't have a choice!"
The final battle of Maze Castle has come to ahead. A revitalized Naruto seems up for the challenge as he launches another mighty blow. Is this finally the end of the of Suzaku's assault on the Human World? Find out next time on Naruto Uzumaki: The Youkai Files!
It has been far too long since I updated this. My apologies, but I got caught up in my other stories. You other author's out there know what I'm talking about. Read, review, and have a good weekend too. PEACE!