"Darn… How could all of us lose to this behemoth?" a pink haired young woman clutched her injured sides as she had already accepted her own demise, similar to that that has approached her squad mates unexpectedly. For all it was worth, at least she faced hers head-on and had the time to properly greet it. Quit it with her head up high…
"Wind Style: Dragon's Tail!" a masculine voice broke the expected chain of events. A moderately-sized tornado slammed against the front of Honda, sending the monster crashing through a pair of empty and banged up buildings behind him. While the injured special jounin was glad to have survived for a while longer, she knew that the monster would just reemerge and kill everyone. It always did.
"On your feet, Kanami." A spiky, dark haired young man with an athletic build and oriental styled clothes descended nearby the kneeling and broken woman and helped her up. "You should retreat. You've done your part. Did he kill Kinin and Daitari?"
"No. I was sent as a part of another team because they needed a mid-range, speed-based offensive ninja." Kanami shook her head. "This looked like such an easy mission. This monster looked so weak in the beginning, a moderate challenge for one special jounin maybe but in the end…"
"I see…" the young man with a clear previous history with Kanami stood up, closed his eyes and breathed a pair of times to calm himself and prepare himself for the upcoming battle while his squad mates joined him by his side.
"How are Kinin and Daitari?" the ponytail, dark-haired ninja who had used the Wind Release ninjutsu that blew Honda off his feet temporarily before asked.
"They were not here. Kanami was a part of a spontaneously formed squad. Those two are still alive." The spiky haired ninja replied before giving the reemerging and angered Honda a death-inducing glare. Encouraged by the boldness of their colleague, the ponytail ninja as well as another pair of ninja that joined by their sides prepared for a difficult battle ahead.
"Hmph. This beast looks like a chump. Shouldn't take us too long to do what other incompetent fools couldn't." a man with jets of black and white hair swirling around one another making a very twisted looking hairdo noted with a disdainful scowl, it was unclear if it was meant to demean the monster in front of them or those that gave up their lives fighting it.
"Come on, Santei, that's disrespectful to all the genin and chuunin who lost their lives fending the monster off while the administration put the plan together. Nobody expected this freakazoid today…" the ponytail ninja tried objecting to his squad mate but, having his high and mighty personality in mind, even the valiant ponytail ninja knew that it was a vain task to attempt to persuade his friend to think differently.
"Do not underestimate this monster. It has killed genin, chuunin and special jounin alike. It should not have been something that called for the involvement of special jounin at all and yet…" the dark-haired ninja with white, oriental clothes growled his teeth at the monster.
"Why do you people keep attacking me when all I want is some dango!?" Honda yelled out before launching himself at the gathered squad of special jounin, his hands were extended to the sides out wide, it was a foolish charge – the monster was wide open and thusly he greatly confused the four reinforcement ninja who have come to their village's aid.
"Earth Style: Core Chainmail!" the special jounin with curly blond hair and an orange bodysuit underneath his flak jacket drove his arms together at impressive speed. A storm of mineral dust burst from underground and gathered in a rotating ring that then grew into an entire sphere covering his entire squad. The defensive ninjutsu was rotating at such an awesome speed that it blew Honda aside upon first contact.
"Just how did this weakling kill any chuunin at all? He was incapable of breaking even the Core Chainmail technique." Santei, the smug special jounin, sneered with disdain before launching his body at an impressive and technically sound rush at the monster. The movements of all four special jounin were attuned perfectly and each one of them appeared to have been properly trained in technical taijutsu and were excellent martial artists.
Santei threw a couple of power strikes aimed at the monster's liver, center of his chest, aiming to stop the monster's heart, before flipping gracefully and transitioning into a spinning kick at the exposed weak spot on Honda's neck. The first one was a debilitating shot that would have only killed in the long run, the rest of Santei's attacks were immediate murderers and yet… Honda's arms locked around Santei's feet and smacked the assailant around, shaking the ground so hard that it raised large waves all the way in the Archipelago in the Water Country.
The body of the special jounin flared up with intense flames, he had taken some battle damage that would have rendered a further physical confrontation pointless. In a quick and brutal blitz of more lethal kicks to the behemoth's exposed neck, Santei attempted to free himself from the monster's grasp.
Kanami flashed right in on the exposed and scarred chest of Little Honda. Her forearms blurred as constructs of Wind Release chakra created compressed whirlwinds around her fingernails that carried all of the intensity of a massive hurricane compressed into the size of a needle.
"Wind Style: Pink Tiger Tsuppari!" Kanami grunted out through physical strain as she delivered an assemblage of mean-looking strikes with her hurricane claws leaving wide gashes that burst with unidentifiable, thick goop and looked like they were tearing Honda's body apart from the inside with each contact made. In this moment of the monster getting surprised and mangled, the pink-haired kunoichi pulled Santei out of the monster's grasp and spared him the unfortunate fate she had seen happen that day all too often.
The rest of the Santei's squad looked pleasantly surprised by Kanami's display. The young woman just gave her best-faked courageous grin with a thumb up while she put Santei down and helped him back up. "I will fight too," she declared.
"That was foolish…" Santei grunted through pain and tear. "You should have transitioned into Pink Tiger Howl, the monster was stunned, he would not have avoided it."
"There is no use for that. I've already used all of my techniques on this monster and none of them matter. That is why he is so lethal. Yes, it is true that he should be no match for any single one of us but he has been fighting genin and chuunin and now even special jounin this whole day and… Nothing. He enters each battle fresh and new and just wears you out." Kanami looked at the monster with bitterness in her eyes, observing the monster's shape reforming as new tissue was molding with the exposed flesh and bone and even twitching and pulsing organs in a grotesque manner.
"We should retreat. This is valuable intel and it could serve those that succeed us in fighting this monster." The curly-haired blonde suggested.
"That's your excuse for everything, Idaru. This bastard is nothing! We need to combine our attacks, hit him with our best shots and destroy him!" Santei grunted out, looking about as pissed as Honda was before after being humbled and blown aback by the monster's unflinching and incapable of feeling pain nature.
Kunshei, the dark-haired shinobi in white, oriental clothes turned at the ponytail ninja with a calm glare. "What is your opinion on this, Hibaru? I need to know everyone's thoughts before making a decision."
The ponytail ninja rubbed his nose, looking embarrassed by his call but he decided to voice it nevertheless. "I say we give kicking this guy's ass a shot. Ain't like we haven't faced and beaten stronger guys before, even if those guys actually went down when we hit them…"
"Wait, you can't…" Kanami appealed to her old friend's better senses but Kunshei was unfaltering. After composing his emotions and preparing for the combination attack he looked at the young woman with a softer face than the one he gave the monster this whole time.
"I think it would be better if you fled. You're injured, you've given this beast everything you have already and you are slower because of your injuries." He gently said.
"B-But…" Kanami tried objecting.
"Don't you get what he is saying? If we actually do need to retreat, if nothing else works, you're going to slow us down unless you start fleeing first." Santei explained in a much less standoffish and much calmer manner than it could have been expected of him.
"I understand." Kanami looked down and to the side with watering eyes. She did not wish to be a burden or cause anyone to die saving her or holding Honda off while he was adamant about not letting the ninja flee with their lives. Without offering any more words, Kanami fled.
"While he is recovering." The leader of the squad of special jounin ordered, as if his close friend was not slowly fleeing to have her injuries looked at. The eyes of the oriental-looking ninja penetrated all they pointed to. They had a particular emerald luster that, despite its exotic color, could only be identified as those of a killer.
"Wind Style: Typhoon Claw!" the ponytail special jounin chanted out after a rather sluggish combination of hand seals. Had the opponent of the squad not been busy recovering, while its flesh shifted and formed about in a hectic manner forming not quite the way it was supposed to or how it previously was, the start of the combination attack could have been qualified as rather sloppy for the high rank of the ninja performing it.
A wall of wind blasted diagonally from above, like a hammer intending to crush all in the targeted area to the dirt. The strength of the ninjutsu technique was deceitful, the initial blast was not the actually relevant part of the jounin's technique. The atmospheric pressure around the area started shifting about, compressing to bloating Honda's body in a grotesque manner, threatening to make it burst if things continued.
Dark clouds covered the sky in an instant, boisterous winds signaled the descent of three twisters from the heavens that did not behave in a manner in which actual tornadoes moved or acted, they slammed at the area of varying air pressure like crumbling towers or whips intending to lash out at the recovering enemy.
"How's tha…" before the enthusiastic ninja could finish his gloating, an extended hand appeared right in front of his face with its pissed owner right behind it, as was usually the case. This may have been one of these rarer instances where matters relating to Honda were how they were rationally supposed to be.
Before Honda's crushing fist could enclose around Hibaru and scrunch the poor man's head, a rocky platform erupted from underground, smacking right at the softer part of the monster's wrist and displacing his arm. Despite colliding with the limb's softest tissues with enough force to make a moon crumble into nothingness, Honda appeared completely unaffected by any pain. Only anger blazed in the eyes of the innocent monster.
"Earth Style: Core Flak Jacket!" the blond special jounin yelled out post-factum, his voice brimming with excitement.
Like a black blur, even to the eyes of initiated fighters, Kunshei, the leader of the squad, blitzed in. His arms crackled with lightning so perfectly attuned and manifested that it lacked the usual blue shade of the Lightning Release most ninja used and was pure energy incarnated, as bright as the flash of light got.
"Lightning Style: White Tiger Tsuparri!" Kunshei grunted out before delivering a blinding combination of palm strikes that ended with his constructs of chakra lightning clawing at the exposed ribs, chest, face and belly of the monster. In this mighty blow the possibly flawed start to the combination was revealed, the displacing effect of Core Flak Jacket redirected the opponent while they exploited a possible weak chain in the armor and that was when the combo of Core Flak Jacket and White Tiger Tsuparri hit them.
Despite the seemingly genius composition of the combination, Kunshei did not cease attacking Honda with just a few precise and lethal shots. He kept on driving his palms into the monster before yanking his hooked lightning claws out of his body with violence matching that of a majestic apex predator.
"Fire Style: Fenghuang Landing!" Santei grunted in pain as he spearheaded a mighty pillar of flames with his skydiving combination of ninjutsu and taijutsu. His was a technique not too different from the ninjutsu-enhanced-taijutsu that Usubane used except much more refined and graceful. His flames expanded much wider and burned notably hotter. With a cross-arm diving chop Santai smashed right into the overwhelmed Honda.
The flames that formed the ferocious fire pillar which defined Santai's technique kept on moving long after the ninja had stopped by driving his crossed arms into the opponent's neck. Something of this intensity, combined with the previous chains of the combination that comprised the awesome merger of techniques should by all means have beheaded the monster outright and yet…
Honda looked baffled and whited out by the powerful impact and the overall assortment of injuries over his body but otherwise upright. Even the godly flames erupting from Santei's nin-taijutsu combination technique did little in bringing the ungodly abomination of nature down.
Peanut-colored goop burst from the still twitching lacerations over Honda's body. The monster temporarily stumbled backward before the second wave of secretion showered on, forcing the assault of the special ninja to cease abruptly as with Honda one could have never known just what sort of bizarre happenings would ruin one's day.
A featureless face burst from one of the open wounds, forcing a slim, greasy with peanut-goop hand out as it struggled to emerge through Honda's enclosing wound. The monster's eyes were whited out completely and it spread odd gurgling noises the nature of which remained an enigma given its general indifference to pain.
"What on Earth?" Santai leaned down, reaching behind his back for the tanto blade resting in a maroon, wooden case on his back. It was unlikely that a measly short blade would have helped, however, the basic human instinct when backed to a wall was rarely rational or perceptive.
"How curious!" Idaru, the curly haired blonde, exclaimed. While Honda's predicament and "evolution" did not bring a smile to the young man's face, it did appear to interest him somewhat.
"You have any idea what is going on?" Kunshei wondered, turning at his usually quite on-point and intelligent squad mate.
"No idea, sorry…" Idaru shrugged with a foolish grin before placing his index finger by his chin while his eyes moved up as if to aim to stimulate his brain that way. "Although, if I had to take a shot in the dark… It looks like this monster is comprised of multiple body parts and fleshy bits, like a human jigsaw puzzle. The regeneration factor must be what helps him survive and thrive in such a curious state. Perhaps we overloaded that factor somehow or we just happened to be here when it happened because of ceaseless fighting and rampaging it's been doing."
Honda roared out again, this time his voice was not filled with rage but with pitiful declaration of melancholy. It was not pain. It lacked the intensity or the fiery reaction that pain caused within the human body. Whatever Honda was going through was much more pitiful and unique only to a being such as himself.
The monster's body blurted with more peanut-goop, this time, instead of spreading in jets and showers it merely spilled on the ground like guts from an eviscerated animal. Weightless, featureless shapes resembling the upper halves of a human but lacking anything resembling anything to identify a human by: mouth, nose, eyes. It was nothing but inner paste filling a humanoid-shaped skin bag.
As if revitalized with a snap of fingers, the featureless halflings began clawing, waving and trying to scream at the heavens that had nothing to do with sparking their existence, begging for merciful and quick end instead. These brothers of Honda's born from his wounds had no openings or any sort of holes to breathe or scream through leaving them as a ghastly impression of what a screaming husk looked like.
Despite all of that, neither one of the special jounin doubted for a second that these pitiful newborns were screaming with their movements.
"You think they're in pain?" Hibaru wondered. The young man looked outraged by the emergence of these forms from Honda's body. Maybe even more than Honda himself who appeared more sluggish and off-balance now that he had a bunch of stragglers littering his lumbering, fleshy meat shop.
"I don't think it is pain they are feeling. They just know this is wrong, it goes a bit beyond pain and joy, even newborns like these know they do not belong in this world." Kunshei grunted. His right foot turned to the side and ground through the dirt. For a moment, it became unclear if the ninja wanted to flee or to attack as the movement of his foot could have been identified as both the tremble of a petrified coward or a manipulation of one's balance in preparation for a leap onward.
"Even our combination attack failed. Continuing this fight further is pointless. We need to back out and relay to the administration of what we've learned. It may be the only bit of valuable intel we got on the creature." Idaru objected as he appeared to have absolutely no doubts as to what his leader had chosen.
"This goes beyond my duty to the village as Konoha special jounin. This is my duty as a human to end the misery of these misshapen tumors the monster had created." Kunshei replied. "I will do so the only way I know how as a shinobi."
"Why did I knew you'd say that?" Hibaru punched his own palm before entering his offensive fighting stance from that motion. His forehead looked sweaty, his hair scattered across the young man's face.
Honda had finally settled from the changes it had gone through and began slowly moving his blinded with blood and fury eyes up, looking for things to expel all of its pent up rage and misery on. The slightly misbehaving and unruly child was gone, in his current state, Honda may have truly become just a monster.
"I can't believe I'm saying this but… I agree with Idaru." Santei grumbled through his injuries and weariness.
"Thank you!" Idaru dragged his hands over his face in frustration.
"I didn't say I'm okay with just turning our tails and running." The special jounin shook his head. "I'm just stating the fact, we're not the favorites to win here any longer."
The monster's body stiffened, his muscles tensed up, every single one of them, no matter how unnatural their location given any consideration to the normal human anatomy or minding the fact that most of them were implanted and grown in tubes. Just when it appeared that the monster was about to pounce and tear through the ranks of the Konoha ninja with his newly acquired freak-strength, it lifted its eyes up and met a familiar sight that made the Honda surface for just a single drop in the rain before rippling away. Fascinated by what had demanded the monster's attention thusly, the men turned behind them as well.
"Konoha's Sorceress?" Kunshei uttered in about as much confusion and frustration as much he was shocked by the surprise appearance of the young magician girl.
"Who?" Santei looked at his old friend in bafflement as he was not entirely aware of the girl's public image around the village. It was no surprise given his lack of interest in news, public affairs and yellow-colored news.
"You mean this… Is Konoha's Sorceress? Should you even be awake right now?" Hibaru objected noting the girl's battered condition.
"I'm not too late… Just this once…" Mana's one-eyed face let out a faint smile before the girl slid off of the laying piece of rubble still clutching at her ribs.