A stunned behemoth stood in front of a bustling gambling house, strangely enough, on a completely different village district to the one he rampaged on not five minutes earlier. The child in a freak's body wore a dark and torn up improvised rag over his head and shoulders, made from somebody's coat. Slobber with a hint of blood red occasionally dripped from the chilling smile of the monster as he stared on at the glittering tower of his dreams.
"Lights…" he wheezed out deep from the bottom of his immense chest. A cavity massive enough to store multiple people that could have spoken for him and yet the partially disguised monstrous appearance of Little Honda was not quite out of the ordinary enough for the ninja village.
A slightly slurring and moving very unstably on his feet customer left the gambling house. Honda's hungry for life eyes caught just a glimmer of the wonders contained inside the gambling house but he liked what he saw. Slowly, moving a muscle of each of his tremendous limbs one inch at a time, the towering abomination inched his way toward the inside of the luxurious gambling house.
"Hey, I'm afraid you will have to stay back." One of the black bodysuit wearing men in shades that watched all that attempted to enter the highly spoken of Hanada Katsuo's gambling house but appeared to care very little for who had left it, whether drunk through the front door or mangled through the back door, stepped up.
A frightening churning sound followed by a dull splatter came not too shortly after the image of Honda's massive fist landing atop of the guard's head. The man may have been an established mercenary making enough dough from the infamous Hanada Katsuo to drown his warrior's pride, but he did not expect the type of brute force and unchained ferocity that this particular visitor brought to the table.
The colleague of the recently deceased mercenary only took a few dashes back to put some distance between himself and the giant. He tried not to look at the grotesque sight of a man snapped in two where his spine failed to support the massive force of the landing hammer-punch above his head nor at the completely ground to bloody dust parts of his recent colleague's body.
"I'm coming in to see more lights!" Honda roared out. The mercenary may have tried to prepare himself both mentally and physically for an upcoming charge or an attempt for this lumbering freak to attempt to utilize the dominant physique of his in an attempt to crush him just like his recently departed friend. What he could not have thought to prepare himself for was a wall of sound that tore the very flesh off his bones before leaving him as just a lifeless, bloody skeleton with what used to be his flesh scattering across the floor in the shape of a bloody stain.
"What is that?" a fancy-looking man in long, golden hair pointed at a monitor far inside and above the vast Hanada Gambling House.
"Don't know, Sir, some sort of freakazoid, I think." The mercenary working on the monitoring duty informed his superior.
"A large one at that. Blocks out almost the entire sector… Why would the face-control let in a raggedy, troublesome thing like this in? Have we learned nothing from the time that orca Hoshigaki-type tried to rob us?" Hanada Katsuo spread his hands out wide before stroking his temples in frustration. "Now I'll have to disturb this perfectly fine evening, just when I thought the trouble in the other districts would flood my gambling house with people trying to run away from the fact they live on borrowed time."
A muscle-headed mercenary-type in a black tank top pressed a button that turned all the lights off, before switching them to red and started spraying water from the sprinklers above. Hanada Katsuo was an efficient man who has found out in life that half-measures rarely drove his customers out when he actually wanted them out. Going all-in with the emergency telegraphing was the way to make all the fancy Konoha ladies step out of their heels for once and really make an effort in booking it…
"Shall we take care of this man?" the mercenary asked Hanada Katsuo for confirmation.
"Of course, make it slow and as uncomfortable as possible. Try to force him to repay the earnings of tonight, blood or ryo, either will do." Hanada sighed. After declaring an apparent death sentence for the curious case that walked into his gambling house, the tycoon turned back at the monitors and walked up closer. "What a blurry image… Is this really the best we can do?"
"The technology is experimental, Sir. We have prototypes that are not even made public. You are aware that this is no movie and we're recording this as it is happening right now, right?" the confused mercenary turned back at his employer while standing up and beginning to gear up. Everyone and everything with any possible potential to kill was preparing to murder and beat every little coin of ryo out of this pathetic-looking freeloader.
"I personally found those Hoshigaki remarks a little hurtful…" a tall and slender mercenary in an armored vest and a squid-like face blurbed out to his colleague while the mercenaries rushed to meet the curious raggedy invader.
"Hanada-san didn't mean you, he meant big guys that obstruct the cameras or have very torn up pants that can't possibly hold any money…" a fellow female mercenary by his side tapped the squid-face's shoulder gently.
A group of six genin blasted through every side-window of the gambling house's first floor. Zephra Tsufuki of Team Hickory was the one to launch the first attack as she was preparing her jutsu for a short time before breaking in. The whole village was on-edge tonight, it felt like it was being invaded but nobody could find any invaders. It was like accidents, fires and calamities just popped in randomly and, after a handful of seconds, all that was left there was unconscious of horrifically mangled bodies of ninja that confronted the man, or rather the thing, behind it.
"Wind Style: Performance of the Cloth!" the genin used her improved since the Chuunin Exams technique to launch a built-up sphere of Wind Release chakra, all compressed into a round sphere, now packed with more chakra and larger size than before with improved control at the same time.
The sphere hit Little Honda right in the ribs, expanding massively in size and letting out a roaring thud upon impact followed by a crunchy sound that would have suggested a decent amount of stopping power behind the properly set up and executed technique. The collision also derailed Honda's vicious charge that left him wide open for such an attack, one that was supposed to leave nothing but a collection of bloody stains dripping from every wall and ceiling of the gambling house and comprised entirely of the remains of its paid protectors.
While the rest of the genin appeared taken aback by the lack of complete stop from the enemy's side, another young lady pointed a massive tube-shaped weapon that she carried on her. This one looked much less gracious compared to Zephra, donning a t-shirt and a cap into battle with the plate of the headband protector having been sewn onto the headwear.
A handful of small orbs that looked not much different from marbles wrapped around in little pieces of paper as large as a chewing gum wrapper spread widely across the gambling house after being launched from the girl's impressively put together weapon. The scattered orbs exploded in a resonating chain not too long after landing on the ground, a desperate attempt to make the monstrous assailant fall or at least kneel.
Nothing of that nature happened. From the rising cloud of smoke and debris, a pair of gambling machines flew right at the direction of the appearing genin. The resulting scuffle between the gathered and hastily put together team of genin and Little Honda got in between the upcoming clash between Hanada Katsuo's mercenaries and the invading monster, given the tremendous difference in the scale of power between the two sides, perhaps this was for the better.
All of the genin evaded the storm of oncoming debris that, from the looks of it, appeared to be about as troublesome to lob at them for the freak, as it would have been for a child to throw a ball of rags to a friend when playing outside. All of the ninja noted how quickly the monster got distracted from the fight that he was about to engage in previously.
With a slick, metallic sound a handful of syringes slipped their way into the monster's muscles, a pair even hit him in the cheek and his forehead. A genin sticking to the ceiling of the gambling house floor that the brawl was taking place in just smirked with certain smugness to his reaction.
"You guys can evacuate, you're a waste of space anyway." He licked his lips while looking at the confused mercenaries who were not sure as to which side they should engage. Usually, so many ninja all at once would not be too welcome in the Hanada gambling house either. After being given the suggestion to leave, however, the mercenaries quickly scurried to the nearest door. Some attempted to leave through the same entrance Honda entered through, some fled to other parts of the building seeking to use other escape paths.
"That was very mean of you to say, Pagu. Here I thought losing in the Chuunin Exams would have taught you humility…" Jomiya Tohi, the girl with the large weapon and a taste for excessively casual clothing remarked after letting the point of her cannon weigh down to rest her hands a little.
"Oh, I'm plenty modest. It's just that words won't matter. I filled him with the strongest sedative in my arsenal, thirty-two thousand times stronger than the strongest opioid in the world." Pagu Aphonei of Team Hickory looked at Honda with a confident smile. His eyes appeared overcome by extreme ecstasy as he awaited the serenity to overcome his opponent. It would have been enough to stop the heart of any weaker ninja outright, someone big and mighty like this, however, was unlikely to be killed by the tranquilizers immediately.
Honda stumbled about. Almost fell down right on his face, pushing out his oversized fist in front to support his lumbering mass just in time to stop his fall. The dark, torn up rag over Honda's face slipped forward to cover up the misshapen face of its wearer and provide some more competent cover for its gigantic shoulders.
"That's your cue." Pagu bowed in overplayed elegance to his dark-haired female teammate.
"I know." Kuren Hyuga let out in return before taking a strong leap off of the wall she was sticking with her feet onto. Her baggy, pantone kimono flapped around in the air, together with her baggy, birch-colored and checkered pants. Without wasting any time, the kunoichi unleashed a combo of fierce, two-finger thrusts aimed at various locations on Little Honda's body.
After just a few sharp and precise jabs, the kunoichi's eyes gaped in shock and she slid back in a fearful dash. Her opponent did not move but none of the genin observing the battle from farther away questioned the judgment of a Hyuga in close-distance. The girl must have seen something quite impressive to be frightened in such a manner.
"What's wrong?" a husky voice of Tanko Shigin, the invincible genin with his own history with the cult that created Little Honda, asked. He was the only one of the handful to lack the foresight to realize the superiority of awareness of a close-range battle of a Byakugan user – a ninja with the ability to see the chakra pathways and the nodes of the network. The Hyuga saw what nobody else could have.
"I attempted to shut down his liver, damage his heart and strike every vital I could find but… I counted on his ribs being busted by Zephra's technique from before, that was not the case – he is completely fresh and unharmed on the inside."
"I see… In that case, that makes your presence here quite pointless, doesn't it Kuren?" Pagu mocked the effort and the resulting shock and frustration of his teammate without mercy or any affection toward the young woman he worked alongside with for years.
"Huh? Don't get discouraged just yet. Give it another mean go!" Shigin threw his fist up in the air with encouragement to Pagu's teammate instead. After taking a pair of more dashes backward, intending to put even more space between Kuren and Little Honda, the female genin glanced back at the numb-skulled, invincible genin with disdain.
"Pagu is right. My specialty is shutting down the enemy's chakra network using my own improvised version of the Hyuga Gentle Fist style – the Merciless Fist. With this monster, I can neither make a solid dent in his chakra network nor shut down his vitals, because he simply regenerates too fast." Kuren admitted with bitterness in her expression.
Aburame Juhi of Team Pine, the teammate of Shigin and Tohi, became covered with black streaks, darkened patches that ran all over the body. Small, wingless insects scurried across the girl's body, a similar grotesque display must have been transpiring under her long jacket that was far too thick for the late spring. Not too long after the girl's body appeared to inflate like a balloon from the vast masses of insects moving under her jacket, the kunoichi split into two copies of herself.
"Parasitic Insect Jutsu: Grip," the left one declared. The insects that filled the entire room, using the debris and signs of destruction from the resulting break-in and attempts to take Little Honda down as cover for their vast spread, formed the shape of two hands that snapped shut around the lumbering giant monstrosity and formed an effective hold, doubling the restraints placed on Honda together with Pagu's tranquilizers.
"Parasitic Insect Jutsu: Smash," the second one muttered while another formation of parasitic insects formed a pair of hands straight above Honda's head that collided together in a double-hand slam formation. Without hesitating, the massive formation drove downward like a sledgehammer in an attempt to either knock the monster out or smash his head outright.
Tanko Shigin bounced off of the wall he was stuck to, moving in sync with his teammate's movements and forcing both of his feet to extend from mid-air and drive at the exposed back-neck area of the monster with a foot-stomp. The moves of the genin looked so plastic and elastic that it may have looked to an untrained eye that he was made of jelly or fluid of sorts but Shigin's limbs were quite solid and packed a powerful wallop.
"I don't remember Shigin being this stretchy. What a freak…" Pagu winced with a smile similar to that which someone who found a picture they were looking at to be extremely gross but admired it regardless just for the thrills of it and amusement that its freaky nature provided them.
"Shigin does not stretch his limbs. He creates new tissue and cells to make his limbs longer." Tohi Jomiya explained the fighting style of her own teammate a bit better.
"I'd imagine that poses problems afterward?" Pagu chuckled staring at Shigin's pathetic attempt to handle his elongated legs after he had landed on his feet. Given how he did not exactly stretch his limbs, he initially appeared to be stuck with the modified size of his limbs.
"Just give me a minute, guys… I'll burn the calories off of the new clusters and they'll all die out in no time!" Shigin gave the five standing clear of the subdued monster an enthusiastic thumb up.
Because of his carelessness, Shigin did not notice Honda's infuriated and completely unfazed body rising back up on his feet. The genetic horror show was shaking in rage. His bloodshot eyes were somewhere in between erupting into tears and being properly angry while the teeth of Little Honda were long past being ground to chips that scattered from the monster's mouth shortly before new ones took their place, resulting in untidy rows of teeth where teeth were not properly removed before new ones took their place.
"Move, you fool!" Kuren tried to warn the silly genin who just managed to turn back with frightened eyes at the monster that smashed Shigin in between his hulking palms with a clap as if he was disposing of a slow and pesky fruit fly. After Honda's hands parted again, Shigin's state looked extremely pathetic with the young man being misshapen and molded by the two counteracting forces smashing against one another with him in between. Then, with a battle cry that synced up with a straight push kick, Honda sent Shigin flying through the wall on which most genin were stuck on.
Shigin's flight was so blinding in its swiftness that the human arrow took Kuren Hyuga with him and sent both genin crashing through and outside the gambling house. The foundation of the entire structure of the building shook from the sheer, unmeasurable force that Shigin burst outside through the wall with, sending ripples and cracks all over the building reaching up all the way to the top floor. Even though a ninja would have been careful to absorb as much of the upcoming force as possible so that the village around them was not devastated by the immense strength of the blows being exchanged.
"He brushed off my tranquilizers… Even though they appeared to work on him initially." Pagu grit with his teeth in irritation. This no longer provided him with entertainment. Seeing the genin that the entire village had considered invincible before being manhandled like this drove fear into even the most fringe minds like that of the sadistic Pagu.
"Can't be hurt!" Shigin declared triumphantly after bursting from the rubble of another restaurant outside and leaping outside of the devastation and back into the fray. In his ignorance and itch to join in on the battle he was removed from, the boy did not even notice the unconscious body of the Hyuga girl he bumped into and accidentally took out.
Just like his reputation implied, Shigin did not have any more marks of injury on him after the shape of his body formed back into what it was like before. It appeared that even if Shigin was merely a precursor to what Honda was supposed to become, just another testing tube with a number, he lived up to the purpose of the experimentation on him quite nicely.
