The Merchant lifted one of its arms up. The entire dimension thundered in a frightening rumble while pebbles the size of a human fist showered from above while the structure moved. Mana braced herself for an upcoming attack. She was not entirely sure how exactly she was supposed to fight something like that. It was not the size or the content of the summon that frightened the magician but rather the fact that Guru Ayushi resorted to it. Not only that, he tattooed his entire body with the contents of the scroll used to summon this totem.

Just what sort of long-forgotten, awe, and dread like inspiring techniques was this statue capable of? Mana was not about to wait and find out. Her Magical Punishment Jutsu was the best at causing structural and focused damage. Even if a divine entity descended from the heavens, one the likes of which Mana could have never hoped to challenge, she'd likely still ruffle some of its feathers by focusing on a single limb or a single finger using that jutsu.

With a wild kick down, Mana made one of the dead and rotting arms sticking out from the fleshy underpits sever from whatever's been holding it erect. While the limb was still in mid-air, Mana turned around, using the same force she focused into the kick to rotate her entire body and caught it. Jolts of lightning chakra passed through Mana's body and lit up the removed limb as if it was some sort of wand the likes of which Mana used on stage or the Audra wand that the Yamata no Orochi, unfortunately, destroyed.

The stream of the Magical Punishment jutsu beamed out. The magician did her best to make the jutsu work overtime as the location of the Merchant and his limbs was well beyond the normal range of the technique, however, just like most other jutsu, Magical Punishment could have hit with more power, more speed or a longer range if more chakra was weaved into the mix.

Not that Mana's impressive effort amounted to anything as the jutsu attempted to implode the Merchant's limbs without much effect. Something was odd. The jutsu did extend somewhat but… It was like the power suffered to a pathetic degree. Far more than it would have normally suffered if one extended a jutsu's range on the fly. This Merchant…

"It is useless to try and attack the totem, Mana." Guru Ayushi huffed and panted, his voice sounded still raspy and irritated by the aftereffects of pain he was just under lingering inside his mind. "The Merchant plays by its own rules. Have you never seen a totem before?"

"I may have read a thing or two. That's why I tried destroying it before it did its thing." Mana submitted to the grim realization that whatever the Merchant was about to "sell", she was forced to at least listen to its offer. "I am, though, confused. Why would you even use a totem against me? Totems serve no master. They just change the battle by placing their own arbitrary set of rules."

"Against you? No. As you will soon realize, I did not summon the Merchant of Souls to fight you. I summoned it to ensure the birth of world peace." Ayushi spread his arms out and basked in the rumbling glory of Merchant's rising arms. Moving in an elastic, overjoyed manner, the Guru removed a scroll from under his cloak and let it roll on the floor.

"If I were you, I would not burn this scroll, Mana-san. It contains the unconscious bodies of four hundred forty-four civilians, villagers and settlers alike from all over the world." Guru Ayushi intercepted just in time as Mana was about to attempt her unpolished skills in Fire Release to spark a blazing end to Ayushi's plans. Unless the scroll was made by Guru Ayushi himself, after the incineration of such a scroll, there would have been no way of returning the missing people back for they would have remained stuck in the scroll's sealing dimension.

All of this setup, all of this mystery. It reminded Mana of some twisted ritual and suffice to say, none of this made her feel any lighter on her feet. In fact, for a man talking of world peace, the magician was disgusted to realize that Ayushi had a number of captured people ranging up to the triple digits sealing inside his scroll.

After a popping sound and a quick spread of dusty, thick clouds, Mana found out that her opponent was telling her the truth – a mountain of bodies stacked in an orderly yet also a bit disturbing in its diligence manner. None of the bodies that the young kunoichi could make out were injured. Most likely they were put to sleep with a genjutsu of some sort and then drugged consistently to keep them in their current way.

"What are you doing? My patience for listening to your mania reached a tipping point at over four hundred unconscious people you've been pocketing." Mana yelled out. It was not her lack of patience but, in fact, her fear of how far Ayushi must have planned this ahead that made her anxious.

"I am just about done, Mana-san. Now all of the pieces of my plan are in play. The body pile, the Merchant, a dimension where nobody will interrupt us… You… All that's left is this." Ayushi declared as he removed once more Honda's head from under his cloak and finally let the cloth slip away into oblivion beyond the dark, stealth shrouds around them.

"Me? What role am I supposed to play in this?" Mana wondered. "Our deal was just that I hear you out. Then you will have to pay for what happened to my father, regardless of if I like what you have to say or not."

"The main one. I think you will love the poetry of it, Mana-san. Your role will be assigned not because of something special that you were born to be but rather because of the person you've been and the remarkable ninja you've become. Mana-san, your chakra, your very soul will connect all of these links together. Not because you're the only one that can but because I chose you for this purpose. Now you can stop using excuses and build world peace through your sacrifice, no tricks, just your call." Ayushi was advocating this supposed role that Mana was meant to play before he even explained what it was.

"I am confused. You said before that Honda's fate is unfortunate yet you appear to be heading in the direction where you will repair his previous state. I won't just let you do that. Even if I would, why would you even want that? All Honda did was rampage, that's hardly something you can use to bring world peace." Mana tried to delve into Ayushi's thought process. Mostly because she wanted to understand what it was exactly that the Guru was setting up here and what he intended to do. So far she's only been able to assume that he meant to resurrect Honda's abominable previous body somehow.

"If I wanted to resurrect Honda, I would just let him regenerate and remove the prevention seals." Ayushi shook his head. "No. I don't want to chase an old failed experiment, I mean to complete it."

Mana looked at Honda's miserable head that was equal part howling, sniffling and unintelligible babble. Despite not having a chest or that much of his neck remaining, the monster was capable of some limited vocal feats which only added to the confusing nature of its anatomy. It made a bit more sense why Konoha had been studying the monster for whole years without destroying him after they've extracted every bit of knowledge from Honda.

"Truth is, as legendary as I am, I can be stopped. Any man can. Not a single ninja in this world is unstoppable and none can become that way, no matter how much power they garner. If I was to attempt to unify all of the Countries, all of the ninja villages into something greater, the ninja would resist." Ayushi looked at Honda's miserable belfry with a sense of regret in his eyes.

"Yes, because that would be insane. Everything the ninja villages have known throughout their entire history is constantly shifting power balances, decades of peace, followed by years of war. The other countries, the other villages symbolize a potential threat, every foreigner embodies that scary danger and mending that fear will require peace and cooperation between villages that lasts at least for several generations." Mana replied.

"They're this way because they have hope. If I step up, trying to unify them, they'll resist and go to war because they can defeat me. It will not come easily but even the mightiest can be defeated. What they need is a figure that shows them how hopeless and empty of an effort war truly is – they need Honda." Ayushi was gesturing with his hands, caressing his own cheeks in distress and regret over the stupidity of the people he meant to protect in his own twisted way, pointing and waving at Honda's detached head as a sign of pride and the witnessed potential of what he might one day become.

"Honda is the ultimate proof that fighting is pointless – after I do what I must with him, modify the very nature of his anatomy, use all of my abilities as a medical ninja to shape him into the perfect being he was meant to be, the more they struggle against Honda, the more he will grow. Not only will he regenerate after each attack, as he does now, but also adapt. Because he was no longer human when I began experimenting on him, Honda will never truly die." Ayushi looked up at the unimaginable heights where the Merchant of Souls held his raised palms.

"That's why you made him of multiple people." Mana muttered to herself.

"Correct. If he was just a boy given these enhancements, he would have been flawed like me – just a mere extraordinary man. If he is many in one, even if you destroy his brain in a focused attempt to kill him, the other cells and tissues inside of him will kick in, his body will adapt to the damage, shaping vitals in a different location in his body. There will be no end to Honda, even if they try to destroy every last bit of him, he will evolve before the damage spreads that far and overcome anything, anyone. Honda will prove all violence worthless. In the face of Honda, all will surrender and work together." Ayushi explained the hazier parts of his intentions.

"Because you force them." Mana said.

"At first." Ayushi nodded. "Then, just like you said, they will no longer know any different way of life. Maybe a case can be made that I will oppress a few generations of humanity, I will make that sacrifice and be the villain, in that case. To make absolute world peace possible, I am willing to make that sacrifice!"

Mana clenched her fists. She could not raise her eyes to meet those of Guru Ayushi. The mad spiritual leader that both she and the entire world once admired. She was to blame for his change. Before he became the way he is, he chose a life of complete detachment from the horrors around him. It was after meeting Mana that Guru Ayushi began using his immense power and skill for what he deemed good.

"Will you call me mad? Will you resist this role I've offered you?" Ayushi wondered.

"Of course I will fight you. Not because I think you are mad, because I think you are wrong. When I suggested for you to make a difference using your skills, this was not what I meant. Peace is not something that is forced onto people, it is something they take up willingly, else there is no point to it. That's what I believe and always have believed. That is why I will resist!" Mana declared after looking up and meeting Ayushi's blank, white gaze.

"In that case, the name of your resistance shall be the Game of Souls." Ayushi smirked while a powerful, transparent shockwave of an electric hue passed through what appeared the entire dimension it was summoned in.

"What have you done?" Mana looked back. While she very much wanted to proceed with the whole meeting her destiny bit of the day, it was just her nature to always have to know what she was dealing with before going in fists swinging. Even when the ruined life of her entire family required some avenging.

"The creation of Ultimate Honda will require more than just lots of chakra. That's what all those ninja are here for. It will need something more, a soul that sticks all of those chakras together. That will be your role." Ayushi said.

"Soul?" Mana raised an eyebrow. Maybe Ayushi was nowhere near the threat she had always taken him to be if he was talking about souls?

"Correct. What we understand as a soul exists within each of us. It is a lot like the entirety of our chakra but also quite different. I've done some tests and people without souls can still possess and display chakra, people without chakra, however… Well… They're dead." The Guru sighed. "Certain jutsu can manipulate, extract and evaluate the nature of souls. Similarly to chakra, the content of our souls defines who we are. I don't possess the Eyes of God, the Rinnegan, however, I have managed to locate the Merchant of Souls deep in south-west in the Land of Earth."

Attacking the Merchant of Souls seemed useless. The Merchant was somehow affecting Mana's techniques, given how the totems were not a tool functioning solely for the benefit of their user, the same was likely the case with Ayushi's techniques, then why? If he was so much stronger than Mana, why equalize their grounds?

"While the Game of Souls is transpiring, none of us can attack each other in a meaningful way. I wish that this rule could encompass the entire world but… It likely does not even cover the shroud around us. While playing the Game of Souls, both of us are denied death and the only way to end the game is to declare that you have lost it. Any damage our bodies take is sold to the Merchant, it will be used to enhance the Merchant's return to the winner." Ayushi ran through the most important bits of the rules of this game he's crafted, or rather, tapped into.

"And why would I choose to play it?" Mana wondered. "Frankly, beating your weakened self into a pulp sounds much more appealing right now, even if you will never die."

"To play it, you must declare so to the Merchant. By all means, think this through but think about what you can have the Merchant do if you win. You can have him put Honda out of his misery, if you want that, you can have it bring all these people back from their sleep. Four hundred forty-four saved souls sound like a lot given your limited, heroic perspective, doesn't it?" Ayushi taunted the magician.

He appealed to reason, to her sense of right and wrong but what he failed to account for was that Mana was no longer the childish and naïve person she was even a couple of days ago. Now she was more like the other ninja, she was ready to do whatever needed to be done for the sake of the mission. She finally became the ninja that everyone wanted her to be from the Academy, no longer was she the…

"Well, what will you say?" Ayushi persisted on plaguing Mana.

"Rabbit!" Mana yelled out, much to her opponent's confusion. She did not waste any time casting her old and dragged through the dirt Polymorphy Jutsu that confused the target affected by the illusion that they have become the animal they were thinking of at the moment. Ayushi quivered, while the magician knew that she had hit the man head-on, from her battle with Honda, she could recall that people with Ayushi's signature technique had increased resistance to genjutsu.

Whereas normally she may have had a couple of minutes of "rabbit-time" with her enemy, now she may have had mere seconds. However, that was just about enough. With her enemy crouched over on all fours and forcing his front teeth out through his lip, the magician was free to lock him up under the second layer of illusion. This time she would execute her plan to perfection, the plan she prepared for three years. The timing, the aim, the execution of the highly complex jutsu all had to be perfect, or else she'd fail to kill Ayushi here and now.

"Fire Style: Flamethrower Jutsu!" the magician chanted out, covering the enemy in flames while the limited few seconds she had served in giving Mana ample time to perform the hand seals, breathe in and then breathe fire from her lungs all over the enemy. The flames left Mana's mouth in a compressed, flamethrower-like stream which was what gave the jutsu its name.

The fire would slow down Ayushi's regeneration. It was not a necessary step but Mana shoved it in just in case Ayushi's degree of regeneration surpassed Honda's and gave her even less time to perform her illusions. The next two steps were the show-stopping moment, she had no trouble spending more chakra on a B-Rank ninjutsu technique if that guaranteed the success of the final steps.

"Black Magical Box!" Mana grunted as the strain of using so many techniques of varying levels of strength and her own mastery over them troubled her. She had time and practice of using all of these techniques at once. It never stopped feeling like the most desperate and neck-breaking workout of her life.

After finishing the hand seals that her final for the setup phase genjutsu required, a gleam of bright light blinded the Guru, by witnessing this sign, the Guru fell for the illusion without much of his input on the matter. The man's body stiffened as he, in his own mind, saw himself being restrained by rusted chains that burst from underground while a black coffin enclosed him from down under and all that the opening in the coffin where his face was allowed him to see was the massive knives floating from all directions, ready to skewer the coffin.

Ayushi struggled and jerked, he must have felt every tiniest bit of the pain of what the illusion made him believe he was going through, he must have already seen the knives plunging into the box. That gave Mana even less time than she initially predicted. Had she not tasked Ayushi's regeneration for a couple of moments with that Fire Style jutsu, he'd have gone through her barrage of jutsu and evaded the final touch like nothing.

Hand seals again. Mana's wrists were beginning to feel numb from the sudden overtime they were doing but the sleight of her hand was never in question. The speed of her hands was not something that the magician ever had to work additionally on, it was always her pride and joy and it only improved naturally as she challenged weightier tasks. After completing the final set of hand seals came the tough, channeling part.

Mana lowered her wrist down and let the most intense surge of Lightning Release chakra pass down through her body, rinsing up and down before erupting outwards from her back and her hips, still connected to the immense, crackling aura of solid lightning that was bursting forth from the magician's body. The constructs appearing like swords made of solid Lightning Release chakra formed around Mana from all four sides, positioned diagonally. The jolt that connected the swords to Mana's mighty lightning aura still fed them more and more chakra.

"Lightning Style: Supreme Magic Pierce!" Mana gruffed out while the swords lunged at Ayushi. This was it, the swords headed straight for the man's vitals. Every single one that Mana knew about being capable of instantly ending the man's life and she only needed to hit one. Time appeared to freeze right before she crossed the line of no return. This was it. Nothing beyond this point but the condemnation of life knowing that she had broken every principle she ever held dear for mere revenge.

Guru did not grunt or did much of anything at all when the blades pierced him. His eyes did not white out or roll back because they were already that way, to begin with. Ayushi collapsed on the ground the moment the lightning swords stopped stimulating his muscles that have surrendered already by that point. Mana stared with a blank look at her own trembling hands. Even a wild fit of laughter coming from further ahead of her did not distract her from the fit of self-pity that engaged her for the moment.

"Executed to perfection, except for the final part." Ayushi stood back like a haunting ghoul, hands hanging without weight in front of his hunched body and smirking, bald face. "You yelled out the name of an animal to make me think of it, so that when you use the illusion I feel myself like I've transformed into that animal, you gave my regeneration something to work with while you locked me down under a secondary, much more powerful layer of illusion, then you delivered the finishing blow but… For all the talk of bloody murder and being daddy's little monster… You couldn't do it. You turned the swords away by just an inch at the last second."

"I will play the Game of Souls…" Mana uttered, finally mustering enough strength to raise her eyes and aim them at Ayushi. Damn it… She almost fooled herself. A thick thread of solid chakra extended from the Merchant. It felt its own way, it was neither warm and comforting nor revolting or twisted. Therefore, it was neither good nor evil, it was just there. The Merchant did not care who would win the game in the end. It was just there to do what it was meant to do.

"I knew you would, Mana-san. I also shall play the Game of Souls!" Ayushi declared with open arms. The same thread separated from the Merchant and entered the Guru's body through the chest. It likely did not hurt for him, as it didn't for Mana. Then again, given how the man took the Merchant's emergence from within his body, his second to none pain tolerance, maybe he merely felt a very human level of pain that failed to entertain him as much as his inhuman levels did.

The Game of Souls was finally on.