Chapter 68: Buried and Done With
Inside the cave, Tarma made a hand-sign (hand-seal) causing the sand beneath Astraeus to sink. In turn, the cave-like structure collapsed around him and sank into the pit that was engulfing Astraeus currently.
"Once I've buried you 200 meters below ground, you won't be able to move an inch," Tarma said as he watched Astraeus pointlessly whip the sand.
Astraeus smirked. "You're unbelievable…"
Then the sand completely buried Astraeus, followed by an echoing silence.
"You've finally defeated him!" Beni cheered. "I don't see how he could've survived that!"
"Larkspur Dance (Dance of the Seedling Fern)!"
Hearing Astraeus' voice, Tarma was surprised as several sharp bones suddenly emerged from underneath the ground. This surprised Beni too, but was saved at the last minute by the sand underneath him floating upwards while the same thing happened to Tarma as the bones grew into an entire forest that stretched across the park.
"Thanks for the save," Beni said. "It's impressive that you're able to do this despite using a great deal of nature energy by now."
"All I did was ride off the sand I'm always controlling," Tarma explained. "That guy, though…he was persistent, but this is the end for him."
All of a sudden, Astraeus' upper-half appeared from one of the bones with his lance in hand.
"I…am not a man to be pitied!" Astraeus snapped, breathing heavily. "Father Typhonragazzo understands me, so I'm never truly…alone."
As Astraeus thrusted his lance forward, Tarma flinched. Beni closed his eyes in turn, expecting the sound of solid bone piercing soft flesh. But when nothing was heard, Beni looked and saw Astraeus with a bloody mouth stuck in a striking position while Tarma leaned back in surprise.
"He's…dead," Beni stated, not believing what he saw. "But what killed him? It couldn't have been exhaustion."
"Doesn't matter," Tarma responded as sweat dripped from his forehead. "I'm almost out of nature energy, so we're leaving this park now."
"Okay."
The two floated over the bone-covered park, neither saying a word to one another, before collapsing near a bus-stop.
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At the top of the bridge which separated the Foglia (Konoha) family territory from the Suono (Sound), Gelato (Naruto) stood on one tower while Tony (Sasuke) stood on the other. There was a large gaping hole in the bridge's middle, caused by a Mafia battle that occurred many years ago, and the towers were carved in the shapes of two men who faced one another. One was a stern-looking man with long hair tied back in a ponytail wearing a suit, while the other had spiky hair wearing a long trench-coat and both of their fists were clenched.
Gelato panted heavily before shouting, "Tony!"
In response, Tony turned to face Gelato. Gelato's eyes widened as he noticed half of Tony's face had the same black flame-shaped marks that covered his body when he fought Tarma and one eye had turned black with a gold-colored pupil.
"Oh, it's you," Tony responded nonchalantly. "Like I told Rosa (Sakura), this is none of your concern. Just go home and forget about me."
"I can't do that," Gelato replied, clenching his fist. "Otherwise, the sacrifices that Palermo (Chouji), Voluta (Neji), Zanna (Kiba), Rosso (Akamaru), Capriolo (Shikamaru), and Beni Niro (Rock Lee) would've been in vain!"
Tony shrugged. "I've got my own path to follow, and no one's going to stop me. So all your comrades died for nothing."
Then as Tony turned and walked away, Gelato leaped over the gap in the bridge and tackled him to the ground.
"Whether our comrades are dead or not, that still doesn't give you the right to ignore what they've done!" Gelato then turned Tony over and punched him in the face.
This made Tony spit blood on Gelato's cheek and grin. "If I had stopped hanging out with 'our comrades' sooner, I wouldn't have gotten as strong. Now I'm going to correct that by going to Typhonragazzo's place."
Gelato gritted his teeth. "You think he's just going to give you more power for free? All he wants is your body to serve as a host for his soul, and nothing else!"
"So what? If it'll get me closer to achieving my goal, then it's ultimately worth it."
"No, it isn't! You'll lose who you are as a person, and not accomplish anything!"
"Shut up," Tony growled and grabbed Gelato by the collar of his hoodie. "You're starting to annoy me."
As Tony got to his feet, he lifted Gelato off the ground who struggled but couldn't move. Then Tony punched Gelato in the gut so hard that he went flying off the tower and into the water below. Amazed, Tony flexed his hand but then flinched as the marks on his face receded and his gold-colored eye returned to normal. Underwater, Gelato gasped for breath and immediately swam up. He used his nature energy to climb up onto the water's surface and glared at Tony.
"Your efforts are futile, Gelato," Tony stated from atop the second tower depicting the spiky-haired man. "My mind is made up, and those fools at the Foglia family who thought they could bring me back were crazy."
"Says you!" Gelato then broke into a run and leaped up towards the tower.
Tony met him midway and kicked Gelato in the face. As Gelato fell backwards, Tony grabbed Gelato's gun and throwing knives from a small pack he carried around his waist. Then Gelato fell into the water again and resurfaced.
"If you thought I could be a better person, then forget it!" Tony declared while Gelato swam to a nearby pier. "My eyes are not looking toward the future, but the past."
On the pier, Gelato took a throwing knife (Kunai) from the bandage on his leg and threw it at Tony. In turn, Tony dodged it and fired Gelato's gun. Gelato immediately ducked behind one of the poles on the pier and lay perfectly still. So Tony switched the gun for Gelato's throwing knives inside the pack which he tied to metal strings and threw downward. They missed Gelato, but their curved projection caused the strings to wrap around Gelato's body thus tying him to the pole. As Gelato looked over his shoulder he noticed one knife had lodged into the back of the pole with the string leading all the way up to Tony's mouth.
Putting his index fingers together, Tony said through gritted teeth, "Hephaestus Torch* (Dragon Fire Technique)!"
A bright orange flame ignited along the string and moved down to the pole Gelato was on, causing him to cry out as the whole pier caught fire.
End of Chapter 68
*Hephaestus was Greek God of fire who also forged weapons for the gods, and there was a torch race done during a festival in honor of him