Hey there folks, hope you all are doing good! Here's the next chapter. Not much to say this time other than I that you all enjoy it. Happy Reading!
It had been a month now since Yuji started his Shinobi training. According to Kiriya, he was making a startling amount of progress and he was likely to be considered a prodigy like Yagyu. Of course, his days had been filled with training, be it rock climbing, learning how to run along walls, stealth training, combat training, He'd even gotten a class on recognizing some basic poisons that shinobi would normally use in battle.
Needless to say, all the training had been exhausting. But it was paying off, he could feel himself getting stronger, almost as if he were a monster or something. Before all this, despite his height, he didn't really have too much noticeable muscle on him. Now after just a month of training he was sporting some noticeable muscle. His uniform shirt now strained against his arms somewhat and Daisuke and Taro had mentioned how he seemed far more imposing than he had before. Yuji didn't really get it, but whatever, he wasn't about to go shaking people down or anything, so he just shrugged it off.
Another thing was Kuya. His spirit animal was still incredibly shy, opting not to appear whenever he called for her, however, every night she would at least talk to him in his dreams. He still couldn't see her body in the darkness, but even so, he could tell that Kuya was being pretty friendly. He'd share how his day went, the training, any other missions he got sent on and Kuya was always polite, listening to his words with rapt attention. She found it all so intriguing, curious to how humans operate, or at least shinobi. He would also tell her of his fellow shinobi and at this Kuya would seem a bit more...bitter. He'd talk about how nice they all were...if a bit strange. He'd mention how Katsuragi would grope him, Ikaurga would berate her, Hibari would talk about sweets with him and how Yagyu had (now at least) developed a small semblance of respect for him. And also about how great Asuka was in general, helping him in training, walking home with him and even stopping by his place to train every now and then. All he'd get in response was the a 'tsk' or 'how nice.'
It was odd to think about but Yuji could think of only one reason she'd have such reactions: She was jealous of them. It was kind of cute really, and when he brought it up, she'd try to deflect, changing the course of the conversation. Yuji wouldn't claim to be an expert in regards to women, but he decided to let it slide, not wanting to make her angry.
After another night of talking to Kuya in his dreams, Yuji awoke bright and early. It wasn't as much of a pain for him now. In fact, thanks to all the training, he was usually bursting with more energy than he knew what to do with. Taking a quick shower and getting dressed, he met his mother in the kitchen who gave him three small lunchboxes.
"Uh mom, why did you give me three?" Yuji asked confused "I mean, I'm not against it, I don't mind a big lunch."
Minako sighed at her son, "No, one is for you, one is for your teacher Kiriya, and the other is for that Asuka girl."
"F-for Asuka? But why?!"
"It'll make her happy, and besides, you talk about her a lot~!" Minako said with a cheeky grin "I figure I'd...help you along a bit."
"Mom, please. It's not like that, we're just friends!"
"That's how it started with me and my ex-husband. Friends first, then he asked me out, we nearly get assassinated and then we're making out in the infirmary after he got the poison taken care of."
"Ugh, Gah! Mom! Stop, I don't wanna hear that!"
Minako just laughed as she shooed her son away. "Go on and get to school. Tell Kiriya I said hi alright?"
"Yeah yeah, I will…" Yuji said heading for the door, trying his best to get the idea of his mother making out with someone out of his mind. The sheer thought of it was causing his skin to crawl, and he shuddered as he began his commute to school. Upon arriving at the usual meeting room for the Hanzo elite, Yuji greeted his fellow shinobi in training.
"Morning everybody." Yuji said with a small yawn "Is Kiriya-sensei around?"
"He should be here soon, you know how he just appears." Katsuragi shrugged
"Good point, well, anyway uh...Here Asuka, this is for you." Yuji said awkwardly as he took out the lunchbox from a bag and held it in front of her. The room was silent as the other four girls all stared at the two. Asuka's face her turned completely red at the sudden gift, and she wasn't sure how to react herself.
"O-oh uhm...y-you made me lunch?"
"Well not exactly, my mom made it for you specifically and said I should hand one over to you."
"Suuuure she did." Katsuragi said with a sly grin "She totally did that, and then sent you to give one to Asuka. Just Asuka and no one else?"
"Yeah, pretty much." Yuji sighed "C'mon Kat, don't make this anymore weird than it already is. Besides, she made one for Kiriya-sensei too."
At this Ikaruga and Hibari covered their mouths in surprise.
"Yuji-san, your mom is bold…" Hibari muttered
"I don't...whatever. Look, do you want it or not Asuka?"
"S-sure, I'd love it. Tell your mom I said thanks!" she said hurriedly taking the food and setting it aside for later. The blush was still on her face, and the entire thing had Yuji sporting one as well.
"That's enough of that." Came the voice of Kiriya as he appeared in a cloud of smoke "We have another day of training ahead of us."
"Oh, before that sensei, a gift from my mother." Yuji said handing him one of the lunch boxes.
"Oh, Minako-san's cooking? Please relay my thanks to her, now then, enough dawdling, let's get to it."
"YES SENSEI!" The six students replied in unison
Training today consisted of the usual fair. Long runs, some sparring, but the standout part was that Yuji was learning how to incorporate his element into his attacks. As Kiriya had explained it, not every Shinobi did such a thing, but the Hanzo Elite in particular did, giving their attacks just that extra bit of kick to them. Literally, in Katsuragi's case. Asuka had earth as element, Hibari had electricity, Katsuragi was wind, Yagyu Water, and Ikaruga fire. Each showed mastery over their particular element by showcasing an attack that used it. Asuka made spikes of solid rock shoot from the ground, Yagyu shot inky black bullets from her umbrella, Hibari literally rode her guardian Ninto across the field as electricity sparked around them and Ikaruga imbued her sword with flames. Yuji thankfully had picked up on this type of attack quickly enough. Aside from his Broken Hand of the Black Dragon technique, Yuji learned how to channel some of the darkness into his gun and proceeded to open fire on some targets. The best part is that this didn't use up any of his regular bullets. This was great as it meant if he did run out of bullets he had something to fall back on and the dark bullets (as he'd named them) left a pretty big impact on the targets he'd shot. A hole about the size of a baseball could be made out...mostly because his bullet went through the target and into a tree. However with each shot he took, he could feel his stamina diminishing. At the current moment he could fire about 9 shots before he was too tired to use anymore.
"Not bad Yuji. We'll need to work on your stamina though, it's clear that those shots take a lot of you, not to mention using your sword attack as well. For now though, you've all earned a rest, go on and get lunch. We'll reconvene afterwards."
With several nods, the shinobi in training all returned to the meeting room. Yuji didn't have to head out today thanks to his mom, so he was just going to hang there and eat. Asuka taking up a seat next to him and opening up the lunch he'd given her. It was the same as his: Some rice, three pieces of chicken and some greens on the side.
"Wow...this looks pretty good." Asuka said in delight "Your mom really made this?"
"Yeah, she's a pretty good cook. Well she is now, according to her, when I was younger she was pretty bad."
"Oh...how bad?"
"Asuka, she burned cereal. I don't even know how she managed to do that." Yuji said with a deadpan stare
Asuka could only stare in shock at that revelation "But...how?"
"I don't know. She just poured the cereal...added some milk and then...boom, fire."
"We're headin' out you two!" Katsuragi called "Unlike Asuka, we don't have a man to deliver us lunch. Don't go makin' out while we're gone okay?"
"K-Kat, what are you-!"
"Later~!"
Before Asuka could say any more the other four girls quickly filed out. Katsuragi shooting Yuji a thumbs up before departing.
"I don't get why she's like that sometimes." Asuka groaned while blushing "I'm really sorry Yuji."
"It's...fine." Yuji said with a mild blush of his own, he totally wasn't imagining the idea of Asuka being all over him...nope, not at all…
"Anyway, how is your guardian animal...er Kuya was it? Is she gonna come out yet?"
"Not yet, she's been a pleasure to talk to when I sleep though."
"You talk to her in your sleep?"
"Well, more like she kinda just pulls me into her domain. Don't worry, I still feel well rested afterwards. We just talk about things like missions and you all as well."
"You talk about us?" Asuka asked
"Nothing bad I promise, just what we all did for the day or something Katsuragi did, you know, the usual stuff."
Asuka sighed in relief at that. For a moment, she'd thought he'd been telling embarrassing stories or spilling some dark secrets or something.
"That said…" Yuji said between bites of his food "Kuya always gets a little...jealous when I do talk about you all."
"Jealous?"
"Yeah, like, it's always dark, so I can't see her body, but I always see her eyes. She rolls them, squints, blinks a bit too much, the whole nine yards. I've tried talking to her about it, but she always gets angry, so I just decided to drop it."
"If she's so jealous, why not come out?"
"I asked the same thing, she just keeps saying she'll come when the time is right."
"That's really weird."
"Tell me about it, but there's really not much I can do. I don't want to force her into a fight, and she has given me some power to work with, along with awakening my element. In my opinion, Kuya's done more than enough for me already."
Asuka merely nodded, as she took a bite of her food. "I think that's fair. I wanna meet her one day, she sounds nice."
"What about your summon Asuka? It's a toad right? Does it talk to you too?"
"Not really? Well, I never thought to try honestly. Maybe I should?"
"Go for it, you might make a new friend!"
Lunch continued on with the two enjoying the company of one another, telling jokes, swapping stories(though Asuka's were far more interesting, detailing various missions she'd been on) and also complaining about usual teenager things such as the annoyances of parents or their peers.
Before they knew it, lunch had passed with Katsuragi and the others returning, Kat having a smug look on her face.
"Hope we aren't interrupting the lovebirds!" Katsuragi said with a wide grin
Asuka rolled her eyes and sighed "No Kat, you aren't. We've just been talking this entire time."
"Oh~? About what? Wedding Dresses? What the baby will wear?"
"That's enough Katsuragi." Ikaruga said slapping her friend on the back of the head "Sorry about her you two."
"Thank you Ikaruga-san." Yuji said with a nod "With that out of the way, let's get back to it yeah?"
Everyone nodded in unison and it was back to another grueling amount of training. In Yuji's case he was trying to work on building up his stamina. So this meant more running and more shooting. Not much progress was made, but that was to be expected, one didn't build up their stamina over night.
After some more exercises, it was finally time for school to let out and so the elites of Hanzo went their separate ways save for Yuji and Asuka, who were going the same way this particular day. Katsuragi of course, could not resist teasing them, though Ikaruga quickly put an end to that. With everyone saying their goodbyes, the two ninja began heading home together, making idle chitchat about nothing in particular and just relatively enjoying each other's company. It wasn't until they reached a fork in the road that Asuka and Yuji immediately felt something...off.
"Yuji-kun...you feel that too right?" Asuka said taking out her weapons
"Yeah...someone is watching us." He replied taking out his broadsword "There's some definite bloodlust out there."
"You really are learning. Stick together, we don't who this is."
As if on cue, the world around the pair began to shift and change until they were now in the middle of a snowy mountain.
"A shinobi barrier? Who could this be?"
"That would be me." came a soft voice, her body was initially covered by the snow that whipped around throughout the area. However, as she came closer, Yuji could see a girl in a pure white Kimono with dark gray hair and eyes as blue as ice. Her skin was a bit paler than most people and in her hand was a fan that she had been using to cover her face. Though what really caught Yuji's attention were her breasts that bounced slightly as she strode forward. They were practically spilling out of her top.
"Holy crap, how does she keep those things covered properly!?" Yuji exclaimed without thinking
"Excuse me…?" The girl replied in shock "W-what are you saying?"
"Yuji...where are you looking exactly?" Asuka asked with a faux smile on her face.
"I...um...I mean well…" Yuji said pathetically trying to find an excuse
"We'll talk about this later." Asuka said with a glare
"C-come on! How am I not supposed to notice those?!"
Asuka merely shot him a look that told him simply to 'shut up' which Yuji quickly complied with, not wanting to dig himself any deeper into the hole he'd already made.
"Now then..." Asuka said with a cough, wanting to clear the air "Who are you? What do you want?"
Regaining her composure, the kimono-clad girl spoke again "My name is Yumi. As for what I want...that would be you. Or rather, I want to defeat you."
"Defeat me? I'm sorry to rain on your parade, but I've no problem with you and I'm not really in the mood for a fight. Leave me and my friend alone and we'll forget this ever happened."
At those words, Yumi's eye turned to Yuji, the girl giving him a once over, dissecting everything she could about him with just a single glance.
"Interesting, I initially thought that he was just a boyfriend…"
"B-boyfri-NO, he is NOT that!" Asuka growled
"You don't have to sound so insulted." Yuji grumbled
"Anyway, I can see that he is a ninja." Yumi continued "It seems my intel was wrong. We were not aware of a sixth Hanzo elite."
"Technically, he's the seventh."
At this, Yuji and Yumi both looked at the brown haired girl with raised eyebrows.
"There's another student I don't know about?"
"Well...she's kind of away a lot of the time. It's really complicated with her. You'll probably meet her one of these days."
"I am going to need to have a serious talk with Wang Pai after this is over." Yumi said with a sigh "Regardless, my fight is not with you...um...who are you?"
"Yuji Egawa, at your service!" Yuji replied with a grin
"Er...right, I'm not here for you, I only wish to fight with Asuka."
"But why? I don't even know who you are!"
"A few reasons, but I see no reason to discuss it with you as of now. I'm here merely to claim victory against you."
"If that's how it's gotta be, then so be it." Yuji said stepping forward "Come on Asuka, we'll teach this girl not to mess with Hanzo Academy."
"You are foolish man, tossing aside your one chance to escape."
Saying nothing, Asuka, realized that she and Yuji were in for a fight, looking at the boy with a nod, the two of them transformed into their shinobi outfits, readying their weapons for battle.
"Asuka…" Yuji whispered to her "I'll be frank, I'm not at 100% here. I've got maybe...3 shots I can fire with my gun before I'm spent."
"Got it, follow up on my attacks when you can."
With their strategy in mind, the two stared Yumi down. The calm before the storm, each side sizing the other up. Asuka hunched down before bolting forward with Yuji following behind her. Easily predicting this move, Yumi gave swing of her fan, which released several shards of ice towards the duo, Asuka dodging out the way, while Yuji managed to cut through them with his broadsword, not having much of a choice since he was actually having some trouble maneuvering with all the snow on the ground.
Not losing her momentum for even a second Asuka continued closing the distance, dodging a few more shards before getting in close to Yumi. She brought one of her blades down towards Yumi, only for Yumi to catch the blade with her fan, closing it quickly leaving Asuka stuck. Asuka tried to yank it free, only for Yumi to open her fan as Asuka yanked again causing her to fumble backwards. Yumi was prepared to follow up, however, she stopped just short as she narrowly dodged an attack from Yuji's sword, jumping a ways back to put some distance between them.
"Tch, this'll be harder than I thought." Yumi muttered
The two Hanzo elite were in sync with one another it would appear, if Yumi engaged with Asuka, then Yuji would exploit any openings, Asuka would of course do the same thing if she focused on Yuji, granted, she could tell that out of the two Asuka was more dangerous. Yuji seemed a bit more winded and she'd definitely take advantage of that. It was good thing they didn't seem to have any range-
BANG BANG BANG
Yumi quickly dodged out of the way, small parts of her outfit becoming shredded from the bullets she'd just avoided. She couldn't help but think that she probably deserved that for tempting fate. They had ranged options like her, so Yuji could provide support while Asuka engaged.
"How irritating." Yumi thought to herself.
"Yuji, you hanging in there?" Asuka called to him
"Yeah, just regular bullets here. I'm still able to keep fighting!"
The two began to circle around Yumi in an attempt to pincer her, however she quickly created small whirlwind of snow and ice, denying that tactic before following up with her next move.
"Ninja Art! Black Ice!"
A large blast of ice shot towards the duo who barely dodged out of the way, their clothing both becoming a bit tattered from the attack.
"Fine, if that's how you're gonna be…! Ninja Art, Hanzo-Style Full Bloom!"
Asuka's swords became engulfed in green light as she dashed towards Yumi. The white-clad girl did her best to get out of the way, but once Asuka was close, she let out a flurry of slashes. While Yumi blocked some with her fan, she couldn't block them all, her guard was broken as Asuka continued slashing before slamming the ground and causing rocks to jut out knocking Yumi up into the air as she let out a scream of pain.
"Yuji! Open Fire!"
"Got it!" Yuji said whipping out his pistol and firing a dark bullet towards Yumi, he could feel his stamina leave him a bit, but still with this they'd hopefully end it.
Unfortunately for him, Yumi managed to reorient herself enough that she was able to slap the bullet away towards Asuka who jumped out of the way, a wall of snow appearing from the impact.
Taking advantage of the distraction, Yumi, her outfit now even more tattered than before made to attack Yuji. She got close enough to him enough that she was able to score a hit on him with more ice shards...mostly because she could see him eyeing up her thighs, which were now horribly exposed.
"You shouldn't stare at a woman so lustfully." Yumi snarled
"I WAS NOT STARING IN LUST, IT WAS IN RESPECT!" Yuji yelled a bit too loudly as she shook off her attack, his coat and shirt now badly ripped.
"Yuji, stop ogling her!" Asuka snarled
"I am not! C-can we focus on the fight already?!" he said in a flustered tone as he took his broadsword and slashed at Yumi who got nicked on the side by it.
Asuka huffed and hunched down again, going in for another attack on Yumi who managed to thwart her by quickly freezing the ground under sending Asuka careening straight into Yuji who managed to catch his friend without too much trouble.
"This girl is good…" Yuji muttered
"Yeah...a lot better than I gave her credit for. She's no slouch...probably an elite like us."
"We should be fine, we just need to keep up the offensive."
"Not a problem, I just hope you aren't too distracted checking her out."
"Oh can we just drop that already?!"
"Not until you stop doing it!"
"Why are you so mad, you were never mad when I did it to you!"
"You...check me out?" Asuka asked with a raised eyebrow in surprise.
Before he could answer another blast of ice came towards the two of them. Yumi scowling at the two of them.
"Could you two stop flirting in front of me!"
"We aren't flirting!" They both yelled in unison
The fighting continued on, with Asuka and Yuji doing their best to overpower Yumi, while she kept them at bay with various ice and snow powered attacks. Yuji ended up using another dark bullet and this time scoring a direct hit, the attack ripping Yumi's clothing to just some scraps that just barely covered her important areas. Of course, this didn't stop her, as she gave just as good as she got, wearing Yuji and Asuka down till they had scraps for clothing too. More than her, but you could tell that she'd dealt some damage.
The two opposing sides looked at one another, each one sweating from all the fighting that had taken place. All it took now was one solid hit from either side to put an end to things. Yuji and Asuka looked at one another, both nodding at each other. They knew they could win this. All it would take is just some good teamwork on their part. They sized Yumi up for a moment before dashing towards her. Yuji leaping up and ready to hit her with an overhead slash while Asuka was coming straight for her.
Yumi tried to move, but as luck would have it, the wounds she'd sustained from the fight were catching up with her and she couldn't move her body how she wanted.
"D-dammit...it can't end like this!" Yumi exclaimed as she prepared to take the combined blow of Yuji and Asuka. However, just as the two were about to land their attacks, several kunai came flying towards them, causing them to dodge out of the way. All three of the young shinobi looked towards who had thrown the kunai, only to see at least a dozen or so people in red appear, all of them forming a circle around the three.
"Um...I'm gonna assume that these aren't friends of yours are they Yumi?" Yuji said backing up a bit
"No...I'm afraid not, I don't know of anyone that could forcefully enter a shinobi barrier like they clearly have." Yumi said managing to get to her feet backing up so that she was back to back with Yuji.
"Guess that means whoever these people are, they're not here for a talk." Asuka said backing up as well. The three were now back to back, keeping their eyes trained on the newcomers.
"Yuji, can you keep going?" Asuka asked
"Only for a little more. I've got my last big attack I can use, but for sure once I do...I'm out."
"Tch, same for me...what about you Yumi?"
"I'll live. Worry about yourselves."
"Okay then, let's go!"
What followed next was a brutal fight. The red cloaked warriors were no slouches. They easily dodged several attacks from the three or moved in such a way that they were able to cause the others to nearly hit each other. Not helping things was just how tired the trio were. Their battle beforehand had really worn them down, and so they were barely hanging on against the enemies.
"Dammit, this is getting to be too much!" Yuji growled as he deflected an attack from a sword that came his way
"Just keep fighting, we can't fall here!" Yumi yelled as she froze another part of the ground
"She's right, we'll just have to look for an opening!" Asuka said kicking an enemy away
"There aren't any!" Yuji called out, it was then that an idea struck him, there were no openings that they could see, but what if he went and made one instead?
"Asuka...get ready to carry me!"
"Ready to...wait Yuji, don't!"
Too late, Yuji channeled dark energy into his blade. The red cloaked warriors began backing up, unsure of what was coming, until Yuji's power was fully charged.
"Now get ready, Ninja Art! Broken Hand of the Black Dragon!"
The red cloaked enemies were...baffled by that name. One couldn't see it on their faces because they were obscured, but they all looked at one another with a look of 'seriously'...before being blown away by the several slashes he made, before the biggest one sent the group flying. Yuji couldn't say anything before his consciousness left him and began to fall to the ground. Only to be caught by Asuka before he touched it, his shinobi transformation undoing itself.
"There's our opening, let's go!" Yumi called out
Hefting Yuji onto her back, Asuka began running as fast as she could, which unfortunately wasn't all that fast considering she had another person on her back. The barrier broke and Asuka and the others were now free from the barrier. However, the red cloaked attackers weren't giving up the chase. Several of them had recovered from the attack, and though they were definitely hurt, it wasn't enough to stop them.
"Split up!" Asuka called to Yumi, who gave a quick nod and veered off to the left. Heading further into the city that way. Asuka decided to go right heading up to the rooftops, hopefully losing them at some point. It was completely dark now, so hopefully she could get far enough away to lose them and then circle back to Yuji's home. His mother was a fellow shinobi, so she could definitely help in keeping them safe. Taking chance and looking behind her, Asuka could see that all of the red cloaks were on her tail and unfortunately they were gaining on her and Yuji and Asuka was running low on energy herself. There had to be something she could do to throw them off!
She kept looking around as she leapt from roof to roof, desperately looking for somewhere to hide, unfortunately, her inattentiveness cost her as one of the red cloaks, managed to throw a kunai directly at her ankle, causing Asuka to hit the roof she'd been aiming to land on with a thud. They all landed before her, the red cloaks inching closer to her. Holding onto Yuji with one arm and holding one of her swords in her hand, Asuka was prepared to go out fighting. She'd be damned if she let them take her friend from her without wrenching him from her dead body.
"I'm sorry Yuji…" Asuka thought, her breathing ragged as she readied herself to at least get one more hit in on her assailants.
They began circling around her again, cutting off any hope of escape as one of them edged ever closer to her. Asuka in turn took a step back. Each time she took a step, she took another, until she felt her shoulders grabbed by one of the others.
A stupid mistake on her part and now she was going to pay for it...her and Yuji…
"That is enough." said a sultry sounding voice that echoed throughout the area. The red cloaks all looked around in confusion at who had spoken, as did Asuka.
"You have done well Asuka." The voice said her name with a bitter tone "You gave your all to protect my little master. It is about time I kept my promise and did my part as his humble servant."
In that moment a dark red portal appeared, a set of bright red eyes staring through before a white hand grabbed one of the edges, and then another on the other side. What followed next was a woman who had to be at least 8 feet tall stepping through. Her body was pure white, save for her jet black hair. Her arms and legs had exposed joint areas, not unlike that of a doll, the only thing that was different was that they would occasionally pulse, showing that they were more than likely exposed muscle or something akin to that. To top things off, this woman was stark naked, her body bared to the world, though she seemed uncaring about it, only looking down for a moment before rolling her eyes.
"Flee little shinobi. I will deal with those who would harm my master. My power is diminished greatly, but...it should be enough for trash such as this."
Asuka however, could only stare at the woman, there was something familiar about her, but she couldn't place it, instead opting for the one question that was on her mind currently. "Who are you?" she asked
"You do not know me? Well, in my current state, I suppose that is understandable. My master has gifted me with the name Kuya...but you knew me before that."
"I...knew you? No...I could never have known you."
"Really? Then allow me to enlighten you:You once knew me as the one called Orochi."
Asuka's eyes naturally dilated with fear as she was now staring a cold hard truth directly in front of her.
Orochi had returned...
So here's the chapter and I hope you all enjoyed. One of the things I always disliked about this series was that when looking back, you realize that the girls from Hanzo Academy were made to job a lot. And I mean A LOT. Like, it was to the point that the devs made jokes about it (and still went through with it I think). It got to the point where in the Shinovi Masters anime(God I wish I could stop going back to mentioning that) that 4 of the Hanzo girls were taken out by Senkou and Gekkou and those two weren't even Gessen Elites! I recall arguing with someone back in the day that the Hanzo girls should have put up more of a fight against the Gessen girls in their first encounter, only to be told I 'sounded like someone saying Goku should have beat Cell easily'. And after thinking about it...base form Cell? Yeah, Goku would have mopped the floor with him. Hell, Piccolo pretty much did that! I suppose my ultimate point here is that I wanted to even out the playing a field a bit. Make it so that Hanzo aren't always walking punching bags for every other adversary that comes their way. Basically make it so both sides go "This person is a lot tougher than I thought." I hope I managed to do that at least somewhat. Anyway, sorry for droning on. I hope you enjoyed the chapter and see you next time!