Chapter 22: Avenger
"Finally, you arrived."- Sasuke commented, looking down at him from Madara's head. Hono quickly flew up and stood on Hashirama's head. Keegan quickly flew away. Sasuke turned around, showing the left part of his body covered in flame symbols and his left eye was yellow.- "She sent you, huh?"
"I've made a promise to take you back and let her have a last talk with you. I keep my promises."- Hono replied, remembering the crying Sakura. It was almost unbelievable how someone could like a miserable thing like Sasuke. Girls liked that kind of thing apparently.
"Like I already told Sakura, it's over. Just leave me alone."- he replied before chuckling.- "What's with the angry face?"
"I've been deprived of killing five times. My promise makes me deprive myself of killing you. So make it six. I'm kind of pissed off."- Hono smirked. Two bone spikes came out of his palms.- "I am surprised though. You seemed like a smart one, yet you do this."
"What I do is none of your concern. I've found my path now, and neither your or anyone else can take me from it."- Sasuke was serious now, but he was looking at Hono like he was inferior to him.- "I'll tell you this much though. I am done playing ninja with you kids from the Leaf."
"...playing ninja? Is that what you think? What a fucking idiot."- Hono looked behind to see four flares hit the sky.- "You get a little cursed seal to level two and now you think you are so powerful?"
"Definitely more powerful than you cunts."- Sasuke answered. Hono smirked.
"Do you see those flares? As our teammates stayed behind to handle your buddies, Shikamaru decided to give everyone a flare. As soon as they defeated the enemy, they should shoot the flare."- at this, Sasuke got a confused expression on his face.- "Your level two buddies are all dead now. Choji just killed the fat idiot, Shino destroyed the spider freak, Kiba has finished the two headed piece of crap and Shikamaru has killed the girl who loves to curse. As we speak, Rock Lee is kicking the living fuck out of their leader. Remember what Zabuza said? When you were too scared to even move? True ninja have faced death and had their hands dirty. The Leaf make-believe ninja have just gotten their hands dirty after staring Death in the face and telling it to fuck off. All because a certain sad Uchiha pup ran away."
"Well wasn't that nice of them?"- he replied, casually. Hono smiled.
"Not really. Just before we started, Shikamaru clearly said that he doesn't give a flying fuck about you. None of us do. We don't like you and probably never will, but it's our duty as ninja to do this. It's our duty as real ninja. Make-believe ninja is someone like you who simply gains power because some old pedophile is interested in you. You didn't work for the power you are carrying except for the Chidori. You're playing ninja as we speak, idiot."- Hono's face changed to a serious expression before disappearing and appearing on front of Sasuke, tackling him to the ground and punching his face.- "I rarely get any emotions, but I believe it is disgusting to see you act like this after your comrades put their life on the line to save you."
"Comrades, huh?"- Sasuke spat blood at Hono who grabbed him by his collar.- "If I stayed with those comrades I would never have gotten this strong. And I'll get even stronger by going to Orochimaru."
"Are you really that stupid? You don't even seem like Itachi's brother! Do you think Orochimaru is really just going to give you power? Just out of his heart? He attempted to kill the Third Hokage and destroy the Leaf village not long ago, and you trust him? I've heard a talk between his soldiers. He's simply going to wear you like a new set of clothes."- the white haired ninja was surprised at his cousin's stupidity. How could he have gotten so dumb?
"I don't care. As long as I achieve my goal, that doesn't matter. But since you insist on getting in my way, I guess I'll have to do something about it!"- Sasuke grabbed Hono's collar and pulled him in closer. Hono smirked.
"Fine. I guess I'll have to use force!"- Hono decided. Sasuke started to use his strength and managed to stand up while raising Hono in the air with his right arm. Suddenly, he let the jinchuuriki fall before punching him in the gut, making him fly back and hit the waterfall. He raised his right hand, admiring the power he had received. Hono rose from the water, not even phased by the punch. His body was covered in moon symbols. Sasuke jumped down, shocked at Hono.
"Where did you get that?"- he demanded to know. Hono wore a determined expression on his face.
"You decided to be an avenger. You're going to obsess about killing Itachi again. Well, I'll be your test. If you can't kill me, YOU'LL NEVER KILL HIM!"- Hono ran at sasuke, almost as fast as light and punched him in the face, turned around and kneed his groin before the Uchiha spun and kicked Hono on the chest, sending him back to the water. Hono didn't let this go unpunished though, as he held on to Sasuke and threw him to the ground as well. Hono stood up and performed handseals.- "Mizu Bunshin."
"I see, I'll just kill them all."- Sasuke's eyes turned to the Sharingan as he faced the dozens of water bunshins. It took him less than two minutes to finish them all before appearing in front of the real Hono and punching him away.- "The Sharingan lets me see who is the real one. I just played along!"
"Hehe."- Hono chuckled as Sasuke went through a bunch of handseals and spat a huge fireball at him. The fireball engulfed Hono, making him disappear in the middle of the flames. After a moment, the flames became a vortex and concentrated on Hono's palm. The white jinchuuriki smiled as he backflipped and spun, throwing the fireball back at Sasuke who just barely dodged it.
"What the?"- he asked as the fireball went by him. Hono chuckled again.
"Some people call me the devil. As the devil, I control fire itself!"- he explained though it was just because of his bandana and the mastery of the Katon jutsu. Sasuke let his seal cover his skin again before performing more handsigns.
"KATON: HOUSENKA NO JUTSU!"- Sasuke quickly spat ten little fire blasts at Hono who spun in the air and kicked them all back. Sasuke wasn't there to receive them as he disappeared and appeared kicking Hono to the sky, performing handseals and readying Chidori. As Hono fell, he felt his chest being pierced by the lightning as he was being held up. His head fell forward. Sasuke smirked.- "Hehe, I missed the vital spot, but it doesn't matter! You can't perform handsigns or conjure up that jutsu, there's nothing you can do!"
"..."- he didn't get an answer when he tried to reach for Hono's neck. He was blocked though, Hono's nails had turn to claws as he almost crushed Sasuke's wrist before kicking him away. Hono stumbled forward as the red chakra enveloped his body. This wasn't just it though. Through Sasuke's eyes, you could see a gigantic red fox made of chakra hovering over Hono. The water was splashing everywhere as the chakra healed Hono's injuries in seconds. Hono rose his head to reveal his slitted red eyes and fanged teeth. The chakra became oppressing as Sasuke almost had a difficulty to breathe.- "They don't call me the Nine Tailed Demon Fox for nothing!"
"What the?"- Sasuke gasped as Hono punched the air and Sasuke was blown back. Hono disappeared before appearing in front of the flying Sasuke, punching him in the gut before juggling him in the air with strikes before spinning and punching him, making him stumble on the water. Sasuke managed to stand before looking up to see a falling red demon hammering him with his two fists and sending him into the water. A beatdown followed as Sasuke was slammed into the water multiple times, juggled in the air and thrown against a rock. Hono quickly approached him and grabbed him by his collar.
"Enough is enough. I don't want to kill you right now, or better, I can't. So snap out of this shit and go back!"- he ordered. It took Sasuke a couple of moments before he was able to talk. He immediately got furious.
"Shut the fuck up for once! What do you know about what I've been through? You never had a family in the first place and were alone since the beginning! What do you know about losing someone important?"- the Uchiha yelled back. This made Hono punch him further into the mountain.
"I HAD A FAMILY! THEY WERE KILLED RIGHT BEFORE MY EYES JUST LIKE YOURS. AND WHEN I WENT TO YOURS, THE UCHIHA, THEY WERE KILLED AS WELL! I'VE LOST MULTIPLE IMPORTANT PEOPLE AND LOOK AT ME, I'M STILL HERE. SNAP OUT OF THIS SHIT!"- Hono quickly threw him behind him, making him crash against the water.
An epic fight went on just as Sasuke managed to awaken his level three Sharingan. Everything stopped when Sasuke made Hono crash head first into a rock before he slipped into the water. Minutes later the water started to boil. Red chakra enveloping Hono even more densely. Sasuke approached his comrade, disbelief stuck on his face. Hono rose in a peculiarly disturbing way as if he was a zombie before punching Sasuke so hard in the face that he flew backwards like a ragdoll, hit the water and clutched his mouth, screaming. Hono yelled in pain as the chakra made his features even more feral and he got on all fours.
From then on, nothing Sasuke could do did a thing against Hono. Sasuke was thrown, punched, kicked, crushed, grappled, burned and many other things before he finallly went crashing into a mountain again.
"Ugh... I didn't want to go this far, but you're not leaving me a lot of choice here, Hono."- Sasuke's skin got darker, a black cross formed on his face, his hair grew and became gray and two wings appeared on his back as he laughed.- "You're special. That red chakra really is something, but you're not as special as I am!"
"Hehe."- Hono chucked before he laughed insanely.- "Again, you think that you are strong just because you're some sort of fucking freak? That isn't power, THIS IS POWER!"
"..."- Sasuke couldn't say shit as Hono turned back into the horned, black winged demon that he was before. His dark and red chakra were spiraling around him. Sasuke was shocked before he became furious. He jumped to Madara's statue as Hono jumped to Hashirama's and ran through some handseals.
"FUCK YOU! CHIDORI!"- Sasuke's right hand let black electricity flow through it and he jumped, his wings flapping.
"I can't use the Rasengan, it would kill you. But take this!"- Hono performed handseals as well. Rat, Dog, Tiger.- "KATON: ZUKOKKU!"