Onizuka rose as he brought up his balled up hand to his mouth, catching only a few students attention. The teacher let loose a loud cough from his throat to get the attention of the fighters who still didn't pay him any mind.
"Alright everyone, was not expecting my day to go this way, but nothing I can do about it now," he exclaimed slightly annoyed before perking up as to keep some enthusiasm, least he gets to see some good fights out of this. "Anyway, let's keep the momentum and move things along to the next match!"
He looked to the bout sheet and his enthusiasm changed to slight worry when he realized who the next fighters were going to be. 'Oh boy, there is going to be some property damages after this fight is over.' He raised his hand as he announced the next match. "The next fighters of the tournament will be Ichigo Kurosaki vs Garra Sabaku."
The moment the announcement ended, the reaper cloaked, orange haired boy rose to his feet. What surprised everyone was that instead of walking down or even jumping down with grace as a warriors often do, he vanished in a simple flash and reappeared on his side of the field.
Garra on the hand surprised Ichigo by appearing on the opposite side of him out of a sudden burst of sand that just merged together to the red haired boys shape, gorde and all.
"That was so cool," Natsu whispered from the stadium, star lighting his eyes as he gazed at Garra. Blackstar and Fox just chuckled and shook their at Natsu and Kazuma merely smirked in amusement.
"My name is Garra Sabaku, the Fifth Kazekage of the Hidden Sand and Jinchuriki of the One Tailed Beast Shukaku!" The now named Kazekage introduced politely, so much that Ichigo felt sort of embarrassed that he wasn't formally introducing himself in return. He was sort of expecting Garra to be an overconfident, arrogant, ass like his friends were during their matches. When he was polite and respectful, made Ichigo feel bad that he did not return it.
"So, I'm guessing we are not keeping any secrets here, eh?" He said seriously as he watched the leftover sand from Garra's entrance move slowly. "Well I am Ichigo Kurosaki, Freelanced Reaper. This here is Zangestu, my Partner and Zanpakuto"
Ichigo reached up to his back and gripped the handle of Zangetsu, allowing the bandages wrapped around the blade to unravel slowly. He gripped the blade's handle with both hand as he brought it forward as an ethereal body of Zangetsu appeared behind Ichigo, though only Ichigo could see him. "Ichigo," Zangetsu called out, pausing for a moment as he gazed from Garra to his wielder. "That man seems to be an honorable fighter. Make sure to win, but do not humiliate him. He doesn't deserve it like the other children here." These type of fighters are the ones Zangetsu respect and admire the most. "Let's show the young man what we can and add another victory to our count."
'Got it Zangetsu,' Ichigo replied with a nod as he slid himself into a stance.
Garra stood there against Ichigo as his sand swirled behind him in a rapid pace. The sand itself had a strange color mixture of both a gray and gold as it moved with the fluid of water. This new sand was recently created as it was a mix of both iron sand and gold dust that took Garra a while to get it to work. This gave the sand the same dense power of the Iron Sand style from the Third Kazekage and the great defense and speed of the Gold Dust style of the Fourth Kazekage, his own father. The spirit of Shukaku appeared behind Garra much like Zangetsu, and like them only Garra can see and hear it.
"Alright kid, here's the game plan," the One Tails said as he gazed at their opponent, his tail lazily swinging behind him. "Give it your all in this fight! This guy, he's very different from any of your more recent opponents. In a good fight, which I have a good feeling this will become for us, both fighters will put their all in a match! So, go out there and give it your best shot!"
In hindsight, this wasn't much of a strategy, but Shukaku wasn't exactly known for his strategic thinking and more of on the spot thinker. That, and it was all Shukaku saw the match was going to be. A straight up brawl between powerhouses.
'Yes, I'll give my all to present this warrior with a prestigious and memorable fight,' Garra replied mentally. He began to raise his arms outwards to ready himself for one of his more powerful sand techniques known as the 'Sand Tsunami' while at the same time gathering more sand from the minerals in the ground and grinding them up for more ammo and easier use.
"Tell me something Shinigami, I overheard from Fox-sensei that you and your friends each traded in a part of yourselves to gain more power. Would you mind telling me what it was that you guys traded?"
Ichigo narrowed his eyes as Zangetsu spoke into Ichigo's ear with an amused smirk. "He is trying to buy himself some time for something that could give him an advantage in this fight. Give him the time if you so wish, as I am certain you could handle it, but tread carefully.
'But Fox told our powers as much as a secret as possible unless we have no other choice! Why the hell would I tell him anything!?' Ichigo yelled back to Zangetsu who crossed his arms at the counter and sighed in annoyance that Ichigo couldn't think for himself in this type of situation.
"There is nothing wrong with tell him what part of you that you gave up Ichigo," Zangetsu replied a moment later. "Don't tell the process of how you gave it up nor what kind of power you gained when it was all over. Just what you gave up." Ichigo glanced back to Zangetsu from the corner of his eye before looking back to Garra and sighing.
'Right, right,' Ichigo replied as he let out a calming sigh, not once loosing his battle stance in case Garra got brave to attack. "If you wish to know what we gave then fine. I gave up my Immortal Soul, Natsu gave up his humanity, Blackstar was half of his emotions, and I am keeping Kazuma's a secret because he would kill me if I revealed it without his consent."
Ichigo informed Garra of the price that they all paid as Kazuma yelled from the stands. "YOUR DAMN RIGHT I WILL!" This made Ichigo chuckle to himself before he raised his sword while he gathered his spiritual energy into, causing the blade to release a faint glow.
Meanwhile, in the stands where the girls sat, roughly every female stared at the battlefield with an intense glare after hearing Ichigo's words. This peaked a few of the their interests while others looked confused.
"Wow, they really gave up a lot," Sakura muttered in awe and very slight fear. She couldn't fathom having to give up her emotions or humanity. "But I wonder what Kazuma gave up?" The others gave up some serious stuff and just thinking it over what Kazuma may have lost made her pale a bit. Her statement made some of the girls like Weiss who sat beside her nod their heads in agreement.
"Yeah true and that's sad and all but I would rather know why these freaks are here in THIS school with us nobles," Naruko spoke up with no sympathy and a snare on her face. "Maybe they were hated and thrown out of their homes for being freaks. I mean we do the same with demons and they are just as much as a freak as they are." Naruko let loose a sadistic chuckle that surprised some the other girls around them.
"I, I don't think they are bad," Ruby replied while raising her hand up slowly.
"Shut up Ruby!" Ino yelled at the red haired girl, which made the young girl flinch back. This pissed Yang off as she stood up to give Ino a piece of her mind. The only reason she stopped was when Blackstar roared in anger from the male side of the bleachers.
"Will you bitch just shut the fuck up! I am trying to watch a match here not listen to you bitch have a damn cat fight!" Blackstar yelled as he gained a tick mark on his head.
This angered Naruko who rose from her seat with a tick mark on her head and glared at Blackstar. "Who the fuck do you think you are calling bitch?!"
"He's obviously talking to you all you damn Barbie!" Natsu replied with an uncaring smirk as the other three demonic males chuckled amongst themselves.
Naruko grit her teeth as she balled her fist in rage at feeling humiliated at the comments. "Why don't you damn cock suckers come over here and say it to my face!" She shouted back, ready to knock their teeth down their throats. The only problem with doing so would mean that Fox would probably find some way to put all the blame on her.
Natsu stood up, ready to put the arrogant girl in her place before Kazuma placed his gloved hand on the pink haired boys shoulder and sat him back down. "Let me handle this one man. After all, I'm always good at stopping a pointless fight from breaking out," he said as Natsu nodded at his friend, just wanting the girls to shut up so he could watch the match in peace.
Kazuma walked over to the raging Naruko who was glaring hatefully at the brown haired boy, seemingly trying to crush him with gaze alone. The young man stood in front of the girl, unflinching and uncaring at the fact that she could swing any moment. He didn't even spare a glance towards the other girls around him who were tensed up and ready to fight him should he attack their friend.
Fox and Onizuka merely watched uncaring at the interaction between everyone. Onizuka merely because he had a feeling this will end in a moment, and Fox because he knows that Kazuma will end this without a fight.
'Not like she could hurt him if she tried,' he thought with bored sigh. 'Just hurry up Kazuma, our fighters are getting impatient.'
Kazuma leaned forward until he was near her ear as his eyes hardened like steel. "Shut the fuck up you useless bitch before I take you into the other room and make you scream your lungs out until you can longer speak again. Just so you have it in your head, no one will help you as Fox-sensei will prevent your rescue."
Naruko's eyes almost fell from their sockets as Kazuma gave her a dark smirk and glare that revealed his intent. Some of the girls glared his way who just shrugged their looks off and made his way back to his friends uncaringly. Naruko looked at his back as he skin paled slightly and plopped into her seat in fear. Kazuma himself sat down with a bored face before giving Naruko another dark smirk, making her go paler and look to the battlefield quickly.
Back on the battlefield, both fighters sighed thankfully that the argument finally ended. It was honestly getting on both their nerves.
"Will you two guys finally fight already!" Onizuka yelled out getting both their attention as they agreed and looked back to each other.
Garra raised his hand and pushed it forward. "Sand Tsunami!" He yelled as a large wave of sand burst out of the wooden floorboard and rushed at Ichigo, who merely stood his ground with a calm look. When the wave got close, he swung the huge sword downwards and a powerful wave of spirit energy shot out as he yelled "GETSUGA TENSHOU!" The large slash of pure energy slammed into the large wave of sand.
Garra was caught by surprised as the slash of energy easily cut through his third strongest jutsu like a hot knife through warm butter. This caused his sand to fall harmlessly to the floor and the slash of energy to barely miss him due to him jumping out of the way. He ignored the explosion behind him as he raised his sand to command it to attack him again, only to find that Ichigo vanished again.
He was caught by surprise when the orange haired boy appeared behind him in an instant and watched as the giant sword was heading his way. The sand around Garra instantly sprang to life as they blocked the cleaver from getting any closer to Garra and began wrapping around Ichigo's Zanpakuto, shocking Ichigo.
"My sand is hailed as the Absolute Defense. It defends me from harm without me having to give it a command and its harder than any steel. Almost nothing can get past it!" Garra informed Ichigo but was shocked when he saw the blade begin to glow within the sand.
"Your sand is indeed strong and definitely caught me by surprise," Ichigo began with a smirk as he gripped the handle of the blade tightly. "But can it withstand this much power? Why don't we find out together! GETSUGA TENSHOU!" He swung his sword downward like before but this time the energy engulfed both Garra and the sand that tried to surround the young Kage, causing an explosion that not only shook the battlefield but kicked up a storm of debris.
Ichigo jumped away from the cloud of debris, not wanting to risk that Garra would be ok. He landed and silently retook his sword stance, ready to strike at a moments notice. The stance was so calm though that others would think that his guard was down and this would be the perfect time to strike.
Some thing that the girls like Naruko and Ino hoped would happen. The demonic kids knew better though as they knew that Ichigo was far from unguarded. The fact that the orange haired boy was gripping the handle so tight that his knuckles turned white told them he was ready for Garra's sand to burst out from any where.
After a few minutes has passed, Ichigo relaxed as he lowed Zangetsu towards the ground when he realized that Garra was unconscious, his body sprawled motionless as his sand laid on the ground around him.
'His shield was no doubt impressive and the sand itself could one day be able to push me to take him seriously,' Ichigo thought to himself before he flash stepped back to his seat next to Natsu and Kazuma.
"So, how was he?" Natsu asked his friend, intrigued about Garra's sand shield and the extent of its potential. He didn't see much else about Garra that interested him, but that sand ability definitely shows it could be dangerous if molded right.
Ichigo merely shrugged as he rewrapped Zangetsu with its white cloth. "Unfortunately, nothing noteworthy other than his unique sand defenses. The sand was really cool, but it was so weak compared to the other defenses that we have dealt with."
Blackstar chuckled as he looked to his friends. "In the end, the only thing that came out of that was giving our dear Fox a new toy to play with. You know, after he makes some modifications to its ability," he added in carelessly as he turned his gaze towards the other humans in the audience. "But I guess its to be expected This is what happens when we follow him."
"Agreed," the other three demon children said as they nodded with their own smirks. They then leaned back as they awaited to hear the last of their little group, Kazuma, be called for his match.
Over to the male human side of the bleachers, where its three best were now down for the count, Shikimaru had taken out a notebook as he scribbled and erased furiously. He was trying to come up with an idea to fight against Kazuma, should his name be called up next to fight but he was having a lot of trouble due to him not knowing anything about Kazuma. His fighting style, his supernatural ability, even what he gave up for any of his strength were all a mystery and this made planning something extremely difficult.
"Hey man, what are you up to?" A man with red paint that resembled fangs asked his friend, who didn't pause in his actions.
"I have been trying to formulate a plan should I have to face that Kazuma guy next, its been such a drag," Shikimaru replied as he sighed. "There is little to no information for me to work with here. All I was able to come up with were a few plans should I get on any of those guys bad sides, and they are mostly just escape tactics. Even those have been difficult when taking into account Ichigo's Rogue Reaper powers, Blackstar's uncanny ability to perform black magic without any issue, and Natsu's seemingly unbreakable skin...ugh this is so damn troublesome! I am so fucked, if I have to go next." Sighing once more, Shikimaru closed the notebook sat it aside as he looked to Kiba with solemn eyes, as if accepting his fate at last.
Kiba placed his hand on the Nara's shoulder in comfort. "Don't sweat it so much man, I managed to get a glimpse of the match-ups from Onizuka-sensei's paper when the whole arguments with the girls happened. From the list, I will be facing Kazuma. If my gut is right, I may actually have a shot at taking down their weakest member as long as I work alongside Akamaru."
Over on the girls side along with the sensei's, some were having a tough debate about what actually happened. On Naruko's side, were in denial about what transpired and were sure that the demon kids only got lucky. On Yang's side were the girls who were trying to get the others to see that they lost because the demon kids were not to be underestimated. Hinata, Ruby, and Blake chose to remain silent as they didn't see a point debating with people who don't want to acknowledge any opinion other than their own. Naruto or Fox just didn't care in the slightest.
Onizuka looked again to see who was the last pairing before raising his hand to get the room to quiet down. When the noise finally settled he made the announcement. "Alright, everyone. The last fight of the day is going to be Kiba Inuzuka vs Kazuma."
Fox growled to himself as Kazuma walked past both sensei's however the demon in disguise had enough of Kiba when he saw the Inuzuka talk about how he was going to win this match no problem. When Kiba and Akamaru passed the teachers, Fox whispered "Give up while you have the chance dog breath."
Kiba snapped his head towards Fox as the girls either gasped or just looked in interest, curious why Fox would tell Kiba to surrender. The Inuzuka himself growled in anger as voiced their thoughts. "And why the hell should I?!"
Fox, undisturbed by his shouting, looked at Kiba with a dead gaze. "Your style of fighting, which by how you and your pup move, are the typical Inuzuka style. A style that when faced with someone like Kazuma, will be absolutely useless. You are walking down with such arrogance, when Kazuma breaks you then you will be left with self loathing and despair. I heard what you told the Nara, Kibbles. You called the Kazuma the weakest. You couldn't have been more wrong with that statement of yours. Unlike the others, Kazuma doesn't know the meaning of the term restraint. He will go in guns blazing, something that I know for a fact that neither you nor your puppy over there can withstand. I have also seen your record Kibbles, and know that you can't defeat someone like Natsu, who regularly spar with likes of Kazuma and is currently in a losing streak to Kazuma."
"Hey! That's only by three!" Natsu yelled out, getting his friends to chuckle, besides Kazuma who looked bored.
"Face it Kibbles," Fox continued as he smirked at Kiba's paling face. "Against Kazuma, all your doing is putting yourself and your partner through some meaningless pain."
"Don't listen to that creep Kiba!" Naruko yelled out, getting the attention of the others. "You can take down that worthless demon kid no problem! So, get down there and kick that jerks ass!"
"I am a teacher," Fox answered calmly. "I have been around the demon kids, that you so elegantly put it many times, and know what they are capable of. I have also seen your friends skill in battle and compared it to theirs. Kazuma is the last person that could Kiba could ever hope to match. He would have a better chance against Blackstar and will still lose. I'm not saying this out of arrogance or some misguided anger, it's just cold hard facts."
"Then why don't you show them instead of telling them, sensei!" Kazuma yelled from the battlefield, getting everyone's attention. "Instead of telling him how badly he will lose against, why don't come down here and face me, that way he will see just how outmatched he will be." He smirked as he noticed a twitch in Kox's right hand.
"Unless of course," Kazuma continued knowing how to instigate the match with the final nail in the coffin. "You turned into a coward and weakling after all this time."
Chapter Made By: ElderDragon666
Edited By: DragonSoul94
(Alright guys, this wonderful and neatly written chapter was possible through the awesome editing of DragonSoul94 so guys do me a good favor and follow her. She's a nice person and would love all the support)