Hey people! it's been awhile, but I'm back, with another chapter. so, here it is, NEXT CHAPTER!
The Fox, The Raven, and The Cat raise hell
ch. 10 - Zansatsu
1 mile away from the bridge, the next day
"well, glad I can walk again, sorry if that little episode of mine in tsukiyomi after Itachi started insulting you was too, er, gruesome probably doesn't do the scene justice does it?" Rikou asked, making Itachi wince.
"not really, no." Rika said with a small smile. She had told the others about the incident but they couldn't really understand it without seeing it. "by the way Rikou, what were those inscriptions that you carved into your sword last night when you woke up?"
"enchantment engravings. I carved in 3 of the ones I know, a shadow engraving, a raven engraving, and a soul engraving." Rikou explained, the others noting the dark glow of the blade, indicating the shadow engraving.
"uh, what exactly is the purpose of that soul engraving you were talking about?" Naruto asked, confused about what something with that kind of name would even do.
"why not ask Kisame, he's got one on his sword." Rikou said, making Kisame grin.
"sharp eye kid, how'd you know? once it manifested in it's released form the engraving became unseeable." Kisame asked with a toothy grin.
"you just stated how I know, it's in it's released form, no normal sword has abilities and an appearence so similar to it's owner's personality, without a soul engraving." Rikou explained, confusing naruto even further.
"okay, so, what is a soul engraving? you never answered!" Naruto complained, making Kisame lose his grin.
"geez, you've got a one-track mind, a soul engraving takes a peice of a soul in the afterlife, merges it with the blade, and then takes the form of the blade and manipulates it upon the name of the sword being called. it was derived from a symbol believed to be used by death gods, or shinigamis, sometimes even called soul reapers. anyway, a shinigami uses a weapon called a zanpaku-to, or soul slayer, that bears the symbol of the soul engraving on the butt of the handle, which they are said to use to send souls to the afterlife. in the use of the shiki fuujin, a shinigami called rei is summoned and uses his zanpaku-to to sever the ties of the soul being sealed from the host body, in order for the seal to be successful. anyway, when the soul engraving is finished with being applied, the soul within the blade gains a name, and only the soul of the blade can tell the owner it's name, and only the owner can release the blade's true form, which changes once the engraving is in place. mine is called samehada, shark skin, and it becomes a blade covered in shark scales as strong as steel, which tear away the flesh of the enemy, while absorbing their chakra." Kisame explained, causing Naruto to get a headache from all of the information. "in short, it gives the sword a soul and abilities."
"I'm trying to figure out what my sword's name is, but I just can't think of it. I'll probably have to meditate when we get home and see if I can't get my blade to talk to me." Rikou said as they came upon the bridge. "we finally get to go back home, but the prejudice, sigh, oh well, at least I get to see mom."
"hey, come on, it's not that bad, who knows, maybe teaching sasuke will put us on the village's good side." Rika said as comfortingly as possible.
"yeah, I'll put a good word in for you, the council couldn't touch you if my father says not to." Sasuke said, realizing that Rikou being in a bad mood was very, very bad.
"thanks guys, but all I can really do is unload my stress on a few training dummies." Rikou said as the black streaks in his hair became silver. his pupils shrank, becoming more focused. Naruto and Hinata started feeling their cheeks tingling while akamaru started to growl. Shino's bugs started buzzing while Kisame and Zabuza started to grin. At the end of the bridge, Gato could be seen standing before a large number of thugs and samurai wielding various weapons. "hello, training dummies."
"heh, you've got some nerve," Gato said, oblivious to what had happened within the tsukiyomi, "calling me a dummy. from where I stand, even that hanyou that beat Itachi isn't enough to win." Gato chuckled a little, but stopped dead in his tracks when he heard Rikou and Rika laughing. "hey! are you insane?! I just announced your imminent death! why are you laughing?!"
"oh, don't worry about us, we're not insane..." Rikou began, his laughter faultering only enough to speak that sentence.
"we're just happily amused that you believe you can kill us. seeing as how you are obviously an idiotic billionaire, we'll fill you in on some little-known info." Rika finished, chuckling some more.
"Rika here is a phoenix hanyou, and the heir to the power of the six-winged phoenix, her father, while I am the heir to the power of the eight-winged raven, my mother, myself being a raven hanyou. Rika and I have both earned 4 wings of power thus far, our friends over here, Naruto and Hinata, have unlocked 4 tails of power each. we are already stronger than the combined strength of ten kage-level ninja, and all you have are a thousand or so random thugs, without the skills necessary to bring down the vessel of the shukaku." Rikou explained, confusing Gato and his thugs. "in other words, for every 500 thugs here," Rikou began raising his right arm as if he were firing a shadow raven gun. "I need only attack once! KARASU GIHOU! SHADOW RAVEN SHOTGUN!" once he finished speaking 10 shadow ravens blasted out of his hand, each flying through 50 thugs, the thugs disappearing 5 seconds later.
"w-w-what did you do to them?!" Gato asked in sheer terror.
"once a human is touched by a shadow raven, their shadow is destroyed. without shadow, there is no light, without light, there is no life, in other words, I remove them from existence entirely by removing an essential part of life, this part being what all are born with a fear of, darkness. no one ever truly realizes just how important darkness is." Rikou said, the other thugs too frightened to even move. "I did them a favor. you took this job out of arrogance, thinking of what people might do for you if you could boast killing a hanyou, they took it in the hopes of ending their lives, so that they wouldn't have to live with their shame. so, as an act of kindness, I gave them a completely painless death, and sent them directly to heaven, to redeem themselves in the afterlife. you will die painfully. and this pain," Rikou began, taking his sword and holding it in front of him, "shall be dealt by my blade!" Rikou was about to lunge forward and start hacking away at them when he noticed everything but him had turned a dark red. the sun had turned black, and there was no longer any sound. at all. not even the sound of the wind, just total silence. suddenly, he began to hear footsteps. he turned behind him, where he heard the footsteps coming from. he saw a guy, maybe 15 years old, standing at about 5'11" walking towards him. his hair was white and spiky, his skin white as well. he wore what looked to be a typical samurai kimono, a white one. his teeth and the whites of his eyes were black, and his retinas were yellow. the only thing that was normal were his black pupils. he had what appeared to be a sword wrapped in black cloth hanging on his back. he wore a toothy, insane-looking grin.
"so, you want to fight, don't you? fight and protect your friends? perfect, prove you're tough enough on your own, and I will aid you in battle!" the guy said, his voice sounding insane and mocking. (hollow ichigo from bleach: blade of fate, or for those who just watch the show, the white ichigo from when he was training with the vizard.) before Rikou could react, he found himself standing on the side of a blue building, gravity seeming to not be working correctly. the white guy stood on the other side of the building holding his sword which was now unwrapped. it was a large sword, about 5'10" from end to end. the handle was just a part of the sword without a blade wrapped in black cloth. no hilt whatsoever. the blade itself was as white as the guy holding it, the sharpened part of the blade pitch black. "well? aren't you gonna fight? if you just stand there you'll die!" he said charging Rikou.
"who are you?!" Rikou asked dodging a slash.
"I'll tell you," he began, slashing at Rikou only to meet air once again, "once you beat me!"
"you asked for it!" Rikou said trying to release his wings. when he couldn't release them, he was stunned enough to get cut deeply on his left arm.
"in here, you have to win on skills alone! no fancy tricks to help you! now let's see if you truly are worthy of that sword of yours!" the guy said, reminding Rikou of the sword he was holding. when he lunged again, Rikou met him with a slash of his own, catching the white guy off-guard, landing a nasty blow on his shoulder. he attacked again, only to be cut all along his right arm. he lunged once more, but was impaled upon Rikou's sword. his body fell limp, and Rikou sighed in relief. suddenl, the white guy's head shot up, and he stared right into Rikou's eyes with his toothy/insane grin showing once again. "very good! you have proven yourself worthy of being my partner!" he said, putting his hand on the sword impaling him. that sword instantly became the one that the white guy had been fighting with. "a deal's a deal! my name is Zansatsu, (massacre), use me well, and remember to enjoy the fight! until next time, this is good bye, now go cause a massacre!" Rikou found himself exactly as he was before he had fought with zansatsu, only that time was moving again.
"kill them with me! Zansatsu!" Rikou called, his sword becoming zansatsu in a flash of black light. this got many surprised looks from everywhere. he would've questioned everyone, but he decided to deal with the task at hand first. he lunged forward and slashed at the first row of thugs, cutting through them like a hot knife through butter. the blood seemed to seep into the blade as if it were a sponge. Rikou cut at the next row and found that they were easier to cut than the previous thugs. their blood soaked into the blade as well. this continued on for awhile, each row of thugs getting easier and easier to cut through, until he finally reached gato, who had shit his pants many times over. "are you ready to face the error of your ways gato?" said midget shook his head rapidly. "tough." with that said, Rikou cut gato in two very slowly. when he got 3 inches into gato's flesh he began adding salt to the wound. where the salt came from, no one knows, only that gato would fall to hell in a massive amount of pain. Rikou lifted zansatsu and stared at it for a second. he went to wrap it back up, only to find that the cloth was too short. he decided not to bother and went to put it on his back. as he did, the cloth grew and rewrapped itself. he decided to ask zansatsu about it later and put it on his back, walking back to the others. "well, that was interesting. so, are we ready to go?" everyone but Zabuza and Kisame nodded dumbly, while they walked slower than everyone else so as to have a word with Rikou.
"okay kid, one minute your saying you need to go home to talk to your sword about what it's name is, the next your causing a massacre with it in its shikai, what's up?" Kisame asked, getting a confused look from Rikou.
"uh, what the hell's a shikai?" Rikou asked, making Zabuza smack himself in the face.
"I can't believe we forgot to explain it. oh well, alright, you may or may not have noticed that yours mine and Kisame's swords are still in their released forms. well, there are two stages of release, shikai and bankai, our swords are currently in their shikai forms, and in order to release their bankai forms, you must find the blade's true form within yourself. when you find your blade's true form, you will also learn its full name. for example, your true name is Rikou Karasu, but you are called Rikou, it is the same with your sword, you don't know its true name, just that it is called Zansatsu. before you can find the true form of your blade, you must master its shikai form. in its true form, your sword will be more powerful, its abilities at their full potential. it is said to take a full ten years to completely master bankai, but there have been exceptions." Zabuza explained.
"okay, so, what, I have to become a master with a sword to release its next form?" Rikou asked.
"not a sword, zansatsu, its abilities are specific to that sword only, and in order to release its next form you must, for one, discover these abilities, and for two, master them." Kisame said, making Rikou understand quite well.
"okay, well, let's just move on, I think I see konoha in the distance."