Okay, I'm slightly late, but better late then never, as they say. Plus it's late right now and I gotta get up early tomorrow, so sorry if I'm not very creative in this author's note.
As always I wanna thank everyone who decided to review the previous chapter. It really means a lot and I'm happy that you decided to sacrifice your time to leave a comment. However I'm also getting slightly worried, since the number of reviews is dropping. Well, I haven't said this is a while, however with as much collage work as I have now, if this story won't be popular enough, I'll drop it, so IF YOU WANT THIS STORY TO CONTINUE, REVIEW!
Also I thought up something that you guys might like, but for the time being I'll keep that a secret until next time. I do believe that you guys will like it, if I'll manage to pull that off, so if you want that surprise to take place, do review.
And now, lets get down to the 'show':
Chapter #79: Power of Ancestors
Title Page: Shikamaru is doing a crossword, while in the background Kitsune is sitting next to the chessboard and thinks off his next move
"Hijutsu: Hitokage Tougou! Aid me, Shinkou!" Tasuki called out as green chakra began escaping his body while he drew a straight line with his blood, which went down his right arm. In a flash he charged forward, preparing his katana, while Kitsune reached for his kunai. As the moon-nin came closer, Shikamaru's subordinate unleashed his knives at him, yet all were easily deflected by the Tsuki gennin's blade.
As his knives felt harmless to the ground, Kitsune placed his right hand in a strange hostel and as he picked it out, there was a metal glove with long, three blades on top on it. Surprised by this, Tasuki slowed down slightly, giving the leaf-nin time to act. In an instant he jumped forward, flipping in mid-air, and landing safely on his left hand right before the moon-nin, the Leaf gennin aimed a spin-kick into the green-haired boy's face.
This time Tasuki acted immediately and crawled down, making the assault go right above his head as he cut parallel to the floor. His attack however was stopped by the claw blades on Kitsune's right hand as the blade of his katana stuck between them. Ina a flash the leaf-nin spun again, ripping the swords out of his opponent's hands.
Instantly Tasuki jumped back, allowing his adversary to do them same. As they both now stood before one another, the moon-nin narrowed his eyes, while Kitsune picked out more kunai, this time larger then normal with a longer handle and a trident blade on the end. As their eyes meet, the leaf-nin unleashed his knives, once more picking out something from his hostel.
Tasuki dodged all of the kunai as he kept on charging forward. It was then that Kitsune revealed the weapon he reached for: a long, metal whip that circled around his the instant he picked it out. In a flash the leaf-nin threw it at his opponent, forcing the green-haired boy to jump up in order to avoid the attack.
As the whip smashed the ground where he stood just a fraction of a second ago, the floor cracked, making Tasuki's eyes narrow even more. Upon landing right before his adversary, he stomped onto the whip and aimed an attack with an opened palm into Kitsune's face, yet the leaf-nin managed to block the assault by using his left hand and immediately tried to pierced the green-haired boy with his claws.
Acting on instinct, Tasuki spun on his foot and spinning next to Kitsune, he found his back facing his opponent's. In a flash he delivered and elbow into the leaf-nin's back, making a little unusual sound fill the room, and then jumped flat forward, grabbing his katana as he rolled on the floor. While he stood back up and turned towards his opponent, his gaze went for a split second to his elbow, which he used to attack his adversary just a moment ago.
"Just now" the green-haired boy wonder as his glance once more stopped on Kitsune. "How come me elbow hurts? And that sound… what the hell was it?" Meanwhile Funbo, who was closely observing the match, smiled under his nose: "Well, I certainly hoped to see better from someone of the Debano clan… I wanted to face that guy…"
"What's so special about him?" asked Kusari confused as he looked at the older Tanken, yet the one to answer him was the younger one, his teammate: "Debano is actually a pretty well known clan, especially by the members of my family. To put it simply: they're the clan of blacksmiths that produce weapons for us…"
"Blacksmiths?" Taki repeated, slightly surprised. "What would someone like that do here?"
"Same as what we all are here for" Kogane replied simply with a devilish smile. "He wants to become chuunin. And regardless to everything, Kitsune will most certainly become one" and seeing Takaru rising his eyebrow, the kunoichi added quickly as she run her fingers down his chin: "Lets just say Kitsune's clan isn't just about weapons…"
Suddenly Kitsune charged forward, swinging his whip which headed right at the moon-nin. Tasuki instantly leaned to his left, making the attack go right next to him. As he beat the distance between them, the Tsuki gennin aimed to cut his opponent's stomach open by attacking from bellow, yet the leaf-nin managed to block the attack with his claws, nailing the green-haired boy's katana to the floor.
Tasuki acted immediately however and pushing his sword forward, he made the tip of it sink into the floor. Before Kitsune managed to react to that, the moon-nin used his weapon as a jumping post and smashed his foot into the young boy's stomach, sending him flying back. Yet, upon landing, the green-haired gennin narrowed his left eye slightly as sudden pain shoot from the leg he used to kick his opponent away.
Kitsune came to a sliding stop and just gazed out front, realizing that the impact he just received made him let go of his whip and now his only weapon were the claws on his right hand. "This is getting pretty tiresome" he whined to himself as he stood back up and picked out some of his shuriken.
The leaf-nin unleashed his shinobi stars at Tasuki, charging forward, yet once more the Moon gennin simply deflected the incoming weapon by using his katana. It was then that Kitsune jumped into the air and flipping over the green-haired boy, he performed a quick set of hand seals, which made his body emit strange electricity.
Tasuki's eyes widen slightly in surprise and then in horror as all the kunai and shuriken thrown earlier by his opponent suddenly began shaking and then left the floor. Kitsune spun in mid-air, making the weapons circle around him, before they went for the green-haired boy again. "Magnetism!" was Reiji's only thought as the Tsuki gennin jumped back in order to avoid the assault.
Kitsune landed safely on the floor as Tasuki's grip on his katana tightened: "That damn brat is making fun of me! I had just about enough of this crap, with the next move, he's done for!" and as he thought that, Kai yawned widely: "Magnetism? That's it? I hoped for something more original. Even that Rain girl with a chain used that…"
"You just don't get it" announced Toku calmly with his hands still crossed. "Kitsune can merely emit electricity. He only managed to think of better ways of using the advantage his has over others…"
"Yeah well, you keep talking about his 'great skills' and so far he didn't show anything spectacular really" stated Tsume with a bored tone. "Seems to me that he's not all that great as you describe him" but Kumiko ignored the dog kunoichi's comment and settled her eyes on Shikamaru's subordinate: "Whether it's electricity or not, there was no way he could've create a magnetic field strong enough to lift those weapons by using just electric current… he needed some sort of magnet… but where is that?"
"This is starting to really work on my nerves" Tasuki announced coldly as his eyes stopped on Kitsune. In a flash he charged forward and before the leaf-nin managed to react, the green-haired boy was already before him, dropping his katana from above. Acting on instinct, the younger gennin threw his claws up, making the two blades clash.
As a loud clash was heard, the moon-nin moved his hand, making Kitsune's wrist twist to its right, thus making the boy clench his teeth to hold the yell of pain from coming out. Seeing this as an opening, Tasuki stomped on his opponent's hand and delivered a spin kick into the Leaf shinobi's stomach, which send the younger gennin flying back, forcing him to leave his claws behind.
Kitsune came to a sliding stop few meters away and raised his gaze only to see Tasuki charging at him again. As the green-haired boy unleashed the storm of attacks, the leaf-nin found himself forced back as he tried to avoid them all. In a desperate attempt, he picked out a scroll and in a flash wrote something on it with his blood, making two, huge kunai appear in his hands.
The Leaf shinobi used them as swords to block some of the incoming attacks, yet the moon-nin moved too fast for the younger boy to keep up and soon one of his kunai got blown out of his hand, just before he himself got swiped from his feet and landed hard on the floor with his face first.
Kitsune tried to get up, but just then a sudden stomp on his back made his body get pushed against the ground again. Tasuki, with his right leg on the leaf-nin, stood above, still holding his katana firm. The green-haired boy's eyes narrowed as he quickly lifted his right leg up and dropped it on his adversary again with full force.
Tasuki continued to crush Kitsune's back, dropping kicks on him from time to time as a disgust expression crossed his face. Horohoro narrowed his eyes at noticing this, while Hanamaru nearly choked on his chips again: "Hey, this is just cruel! Why the hell won't that Moon guy stop? Basically the match is over anyway!"
"It's actually very simply" Horohoro announced with a worried expression as he crossed his arms. "That greenhead doesn't think much of your teammate… quite frankly, I don't suppose he thinks of him at all… that look in his eyes… that's the look of someone who doesn't care about anything" and at this point he wanted to add something, yet restrained himself from doing so, which made Taki gazed at him with worry showing on her face.
"So you mean this guy will just keep on torturing Kitsune-kun, because he despises him?" asked Mikka, slightly terrified as shivers run down her spine at the thought. "That's just horrible!" and at this point Akira placed his hand on her shoulder, which for some reason calmed her down a bit.
"In actuality, Tasuki mostly despise himself" Teela cut in, gaining everyone's attention. For the first time Kusari managed to catch an emotion on her face and it seemed like pain. "That technique he's using is the same as the one that lazy girl performed" she announced, pointing at Rei with her head. "And the soul Tasuki is using… is the soul of his father's killer…"
"He's using… the strength of a guy who killed his parent?" Kai repeated in his mind, both horrified and disgust, before he gazed back at the arena bellow, where the match was still in progress: "But… why?"
"Either way, this match should be decided already" announced Shino calmly, as usual with a stone face. Shikamaru on the other hand only smirked under his nose: "Well, not yet… it's troublesome, but Kitsune still haven't won…"
Meanwhile Tasuki finally seemed to get bored with stomping onto his opponent and backed away, narrowing his eyes as the leaf-nin regardless began slowly standing back: "With the beating he just received, his ribs should be broken… and yet he seems almost perfectly fine… what the hell is going on? This is getting old, time to finish this" and with that he charged straight at the younger boy, preparing to swing his sword.
"Kitsune!" Galu yelled, for the first time losing his posture. Shikamaru's subordinate only managed to turn around to face his opponent as he already swung his katana at him. Having no time to pick out and weapon, the boy acted on instinct and covered himself with his left hand.
As the sword connected with it, Kai's eyes widen in surprise as he tightened his grip on the rail, while a single sweat dropped appear on Tenka's face, who immediately exchanged glances with Teela. In the moment of impact, Tasuki's katana got crashed into pieces.
"What the…?" was the only thing the green-haired boy managed to spill out as he took few steps back, completely shocked. He now held a handle with the remains of his sword, while Kitsune's left hand was covered in blood, yet still in its place. Not cut off. "How in the world did you do that?" the moon-nin demanded, yet the Leaf gennin did not reply.
"It appears you borrowed the soul of one of the Seven Shinobi Swordsmen, but your katana was made by a very low-grade blacksmith" Kitsune announced calmly with a face that gave the impression he made nothing of what just happened. "You're now unarmed and when it comes to taijutsu… I exceed you" and with that he suddenly charged forward, delivering a powerful blow with a opened palm into his opponent's stomach.
Instantly Tasuki cough out blood and collapsed to the ground, gasping for air. As his vision began getting blur, thousand thoughts raced thru his mind, but one brought a question, to which he couldn't find the answer: "My sword should've cut off his hand… and with a single blow… he broke some of my ribs… this guy… who… what the hell is he?"
---a surprising twist… what's the secret behind it?---
And that's that for the time being. Thanks for tuning in. Also, a special announcement, just to assure you it's worth waiting for the next chappie, coz coming up: Kai's opponent is finally revealed!
And just to finish up, here's the gennin list yet again:
Konoha #7: Murasakki Kumiko, Tanken Ibuki, Gekido Takaru, Hagane Kusari, Haisha Kai
Konoha #3: Konpaku Rei, Rikoteki Kogane, Amagasa Toku, Debano Kitsune (in progress), Gusoku Hanamaru
Konoha #4: Igaku Mikka, Inuzuka Tsume, Benda Kokoro, Hatake Senkou, Kobushi Galu
Konoha: Hamano Taki, Hyuuga Hitomi, Manako Akira, Tanken Funbo, Horohoro
Suna #1: Aoru, Torune, Honemaru, Tarakudo, Takai
Suna #2: Sabaku no Sabure, Hari, Dekai, Horamaru, Karame
Kusa:Hokku Tobane, Kanraku Nezumi, Kuchibashi Taka, Kyohaku Tokame, Wanabi Hizoku
Ame: Furikuzu Tsuino, Hebereke Nazaa
Bakufu: Azarashi Kawa, Abura Tetsu, Makko Shita
Tsuki:Junsei Teela, Tenka, Kihako Tasuki (in progress)
Hane:Ono Reiji, Sentou
Kumori: Kyuu
That's all for his time, but if the number of reviews will be satisfactory, I promise to update before the end of the week (until Sunday that is, coz I'm not sure if I'll manage to update on Friday with loads of work I have right now).
Take care and until next time, hopefully.