"Did he say, Yuki?" Haku thought as he watched the older man charge in towards him, attacking with a quick slash towards his neck.
Haku was quick to lean back and avoid the attack, trying his best to avoid the next attack that came quicker than he had expected. Being forced to flip back into a handspring to clear some distance, throwing a set of senbon needles to try and give himself some cover.
However, Shimo deflected the throwing needles with ease, using the ice blade along his forearm to block them.
Haku quickly made a few hand signs, using the snow around them to turn into ice needles.
"I don't want to hurt you, but I will not allow you to kill me here." He said, trying to reason with the elder man.
Shimo kept a serious expression on his face and didn't look worried in the slightest by Haku's ice needles.
"Impudent child." He said, swiping his arm through the air as he took control of the ice needles around Haku, turning them against him.
Haku was shocked that he was able to control his ice jutsu, quickly raising an ice wall around him to block the frozen needles of death from skewering him.
"So you can use the ice style of our clan... Who are you boy?" Shimo asked, having his suspicion confirmed once Haku had used ice needles and an ice wall.
Haku watched him from behind his ice pillar, keeping a close eye on the elder man, knowing he was dangerous, and also having many questions of his own.
"My name is Haku Yuki..." Haku said, causing Shimo to raise an eyebrow.
"Haku Yuki?"
"Never heard of you," Shimo said before he placed his hands together and made a quick hand sign, causing Haku's ice pillar to suddenly grow spikes from the inside, ripping through Haku's body from all angles.
Haku's body, however, turned into snow, causing Shimo to smile at the fact he was able to dodge his attack.
"Not bad kid... But if you are really a member of the Yuki clan, allow me to see how strong your kekkei genkai is." Shimo said, raising his hand and creating three ice swords around his body before sending them after Haku.
Haku knew he couldn't hide and was quickly forced onto the defensive against the ice swords as they started attacking him on their own.
"What is this jutsu?" Haku thought, having never seen it before.
Haku ducked under one of the swords while using a senbon needle to stop another, however, the blades were attacking all at the same time, forcing him to move his body around as fast as he could to prevent being cut in half.
Haku couldn't keep the effort up and knew there was only one way to stop the jutsu, seeing that he couldn't take control of the swords.
"I need to stop the user in order for the jutsu to stop," Haku said to himself, managing to see Shimo standing with his arms crossed through the attacks of the ice swords.
Quickly Haku created an ice mirror behind him and slipped into it, stopping the ice swords in their tracks as the ice collided against the mirror.
"A crystal mirror, hmm..." Shimo said with his arms crossed over his chest, watching from the centre of the courtyard.
Suddenly another mirror appeared behind Shimo, allowing Haku to slip out of it and attack him.
But Shimo was no fool, having mastered that jutsu a long time ago.
"Did you really think you could use such a jutsu on me?" He said, quickly countering Haku's ice mirror with another with his reflection in it, causing Haku to fall into his trap through one mirror into another before Shimo gripped him by the throat.
Haku struggled but could not break his grip, feeling as the elder man lifted him from the ground.
"Allow me to enlighten you boy. My name is Shimo Yuki, the leader of the Yuki clan." He said watching Haku's expression.
"Clan elder... But I thought the Yuki clan had all been killed apart from father and myself..." Haku said to himself, still trying to think of a way out of this situation.
"Your blood is weak... I can sense its dilution." Shimo said as he spat on the ground.
Haku knew what he was talking about, knowing that his real father had not been a member of the Yuki clan like his mother had been, proceeding to kill her and almost him when he found out about it.
"You don't deserve our sacred bloodline which holds the power over the element of ice," Shimo said, increasing the pressure of his grip around his throat.
Haku struggled, still trying to get free as he tried to ignore his words.
"That's right... Struggle. Struggle like you did when your father killed your mother." Shimo said, causing Haku's eyes to open wide.
"You don't deserve to live..."
Haku stared into Shimo's eyes, seeing the same hate that he had in his fathers before he tried to kill him, bringing back all of the memories of that day.
"No..." Haku said, trying to push those memories to the back of his mind, as he had done ever since that day.
However, the memory of his father killing his mother continued to play in his mind no matter how hard he tried to suppress it.
"No! Stop it!" Haku cried, being forced to watch it over and over again in his mind until finally, he opened his eyes, seeing the same look on Shimo's face, once again forcing the memory to play in his mind.
"NOO!!!" Haku screamed.
His chakra also flared to life and the snow around them responded to his emotions, bursting from the ground as huge spikes of ice grew and threatened to rip anyone in their way to shreds.
Haku could feel that Shimo's grip had been broken as he was able to catch his breath, slowly opening his eyes to see what he had done.
"Where am I?" Haku asked, looking around at his surroundings, feeling that they were somewhat familiar.
"Haku... How could you... You need to die... I need to kill you!" A voice shouted, causing Haku to turn his head in its direction.
To his shock, Shimo's body was nowhere to be seen, with the only person left before him being his birth father who was trapped in the ice he had created, forcing Haku to realise he was back in his childhood home where his mother had been murdered by his father.
"You... You wicked child." The man said as he spat blood onto the floor.
"I should have killed you the moment you were born..." He said, looking into Haku's eyes with a burning desire to kill him, just as he had done on that day.
"Father..." Haku said as he dropped to his knees with tears flowing down his face.
"How could you... Why? Why did it have to be like this?" He asked, looking up at his father's face.
"You will never achieve anything other than killing and harming others... You are nothing but a monster! A tool for war and destruction!"
"No..." Haku tried to say, trying to ignore his father's words.
"You should just die! You are nothing but a curse upon this world!"
Haku couldn't cope with what he was seeing right now, having pushed these memories to the furthest depths of his subconscious over the years.
"This can't be happening... You are dead!" Haku yelled back at his father.
"I am! You killed me! It's your fault!" The man said, suddenly breaking free from the ice he was trapped in.
Haku fell back onto the ground from the sudden shock and fear, feeling like he did on that day all over again.
"I'll finish what I started on that day and rid this world of you forever!" Haku's father shouted, snapping a piece of the sharp ice from one of the spikes to use as a weapon.
Haku could feel the fear in his heart spreading throughout his entire body, frozen and powerless to do anything at that moment.
"No... I can't move..." Haku thought, feeling the very ice he could control start to encase around him.
Haku looked down to see the ice spreading up his legs, holding him in place as his father got closer and closer to him, still holding the hatred for him in his eyes.
"I can't do this... I can't! Please, please somebody help me!" Haku shouted, feeling as if his mind was about to break from the twisted despair he was feeling.
"Haku..." A voice said deep within the darkness, causing his mind that was on the edge of breaking to hold together for just a moment longer.
"Haku." The voice said again, slowly snapping him out of his fear as he opened his eyes to see who it belonged.
"Father..." Haku said as Fuyōna slowly came into view.
"Haku, I promise I will protect you no matter what. From this day, you are my son, and I am your father. Don't ever forget that." Fuyōna said with a bright smile on his face, as he reached his hand towards Haku to help him up, melting the fear that he felt in his heart away.
"Father..." Haku said again, feeling his spirit lift him to his feet.
Haku's birth father roared as he tried to drive the ice spike into his chest while Haku stood still with his eyes closed.
"No," Haku said, quickly grabbing the man's wrist and breaking the illusion, revealing that it was Shimo and not his father.
Shimo stood over Haku with a surprised look on his face, seeing that the boy had been able to break free from his genjutsu.
"I see now... Our blood truly flows through your veins." He said, seeming to accept Haku.
"I can see now. I can see that this whole thing is nothing but an illusion, a genjutsu created to test me." Haku said, letting his chakra flare to life as he broke the chain and flow within himself.
"Do your clan proud, child of the Yuki," Shimo said as his body began to fade along with the genjutsu.
"I will..." Haku said as he clutched his chest, feeling the anger and hate inside of his heart melt away like the genjutsu around him.
"I will become stronger."
Meanwhile...
"Is that really all you have!" The man whom Kimimaro was currently facing yelled.
Kimimaro was pressed hard on the defensive, struggling to counter and attack as his opponent knew and predicted all of his moves as if he had seen them all before.
Kimimaro tried to use his bones to attack and stop a downwards thrust from the man, however, he simply used his own bones to stop Kimimaro's, using more of his bones to counter and push him back before he flipped over his head, moving with grace and speed.
"You're mine!" He yelled, quickly throwing a barrage of bone blades from his arms, placing them perfectly between Kimimaro's bones that were sticking out of his bone, trapping him in place as he was unable to break free.
"You still fight like a child." The man said as he slowly walked over to Kimimaro, wearing a sinister smirk on his face, filled with killing intent.
"My name is Tachi Kaguya, and I am the head of the mighty Kaguya clan! Undefeated in battle!" He said, allowing another bone to grow from his arm like a sword.
"And you are nothing but a child, with no hope of defeating me!" Tachi roared, swinging his bone sword down towards Kimimaro's head with all of his strength.
Kimimaro was forced to act swiftly, allowing his bones to retract into his body so he was free from the prison that Tachi had made around him. With a quick leap to the right, Kimimaro was able to avoid the attack by a hair's length.
"Where do you think you're going!" Tachi said, quickly attacking him again and again, forcing Kimimaro to defend himself any way he could.
Kimimaro used two of his own bone blades, holding one in each hand to defend against the large bone sword Tachi was swinging around. However, the weight of his attacks were strong and knocked him back through the air, sending shivers through his arms each time he blocked an attack.
"I grow tired of these games boy!" Tachi said as he reached around to the back of his neck, pulling what looked like his spine out of his back, pulling it further and further until he pulled it out with a snap, flicking it against the ground with a whipping motion, causing it to hit the ground with a thunderous cracking sound.
Kimimaro had no idea that he could even do such a thing, nor had he ever tried it before.
"This will finish you!" Tachi shouted, flicking his wrist as he used his bone whip to attack Kimimaro from a distance.
"He has so easily created a long-range weapon..." Kimimaro thought as he tried to dodge the attacks, knowing he was unable to close the distance between them.
"It's no use!" Tachi said, watching as his bone whip caught Kimimaro on the back, snapping with a nasty cracking sound across his back.
Kimimaro gave a scream of pain as he felt the bone whip tear the flesh from his back with only a single lash before he fell back down to the ground.
"I can't take many more of those hits..." Kimimaro said to himself, feeling how much damage it had done to his body, with the sensation of the pain burning throughout it.
Quickly Kimimaro tossed a barrage of bone bullets at Tachi, hoping they would give him enough time to try and make a break for it.
"It's no use, I can't win against him," Kimimaro said, knowing his only chance was to run away for now.
"Where do you think you are going!" Tachi yelled as he easily avoided the bone bullets, counter-attacking with his own.
Kimimaro was forced to jump back as he landed on the side of the wall, only just avoiding the bone bullets. However, Tachi had led him into his trap, attacking once again with his bone whip.
"Shit!" Kimimaro yelled, watching as the bone whip wrapped around his body, ensnaring him with its powerful grip.
"Its over kid!" Tachi yelled as he appeared above Kimimaro with a bone blade in his hand.
Kimimaro was trapped by his bone whip and no matter how hard he struggled he could not escape its grasp. With his arms and body bound, he was also unable to use ninjutsu or create hand signs, having only his body left to use as a weapon.
"No! Get away from me!" Kimimaro yelled, watching in terror as Tachi flew towards him with the bone blade, about to attack him going for the neck.
Kimimaro let his chakra roar to life and created as many bones around his body as he could in an effort to stop Tachi from getting close to him.
Tachi smiled as he ducked his head under one that threaten to skewer his eye, while planting his foot onto another and using it to jump backwards, flipping in the air before he got clear of Kimimaro's defence.
"Not bad kid. Now you are thinking like a Kaguya." Tachi said as he tossed his bone blade to the side.
"But it's not enough," Tachi said as he placed his hands together and concentrated his chakra.
Suddenly a layer of bone started to grow around Tachi like a set of armour, covering every inch of his body and encasing it completely.
"Kaguya style, exoskeleton jutsu!" Tachi said as the bone fully covered his body, including his head and face, leaving only a few small holes for his eyes and breathing.
"What the hell is that?" Kimimaro said in shock, again having never seen anything like it.
"This is the ultimate defensive jutsu of the Kaguya, nothing can break through our exoskeleton!" He yelled, suddenly charging toward Kimimaro at full throttle.
"Even if he is using his bones to try and protect himself, my bones are still just as strong and will skewer him." Kimimaro thought, watching as Tachi was about to charge head-on into his defence.
"ARGHHH!" Tachi roared, smashing into the large bone spikes that Kimimaro had created in order to defend himself.
However, instead of them stopping Tachi in his tracks, Tachis bone armour broke Kimimaro's bones with ease, either reflecting them or breaking them as he continued to charge towards Kimimaro, as if he were an unstoppable rhino.
Tachi broke through Kimimaro's defence with ease and soon reached him, grabbing him by the throat as he lifted him into the air.
"I told you, this is the ultimate Kaguya armour," Tachi said, looking at him through the small eye holes.
Kimimaro slammed a bone blade of his own into the back of Tachi's skull, hoping that his defences in that area would be weaker than the rest, however, his bone blade snapped on impact, once again proving that Tachi's defence was impenetrable.
"Foolish boy!" Tachi said as he suddenly tossed him through the air like a rag doll, causing Kimimaro to smash into one of the walls with serious force, knocking the wind out of him.
"Argh... Even with my reinforced bones, the force of that impact wasn't normal..." Kimimaro thought as he tried to pick himself up off of the ground, feeling that some of his ribs had been broken.
Tachi picked Kimimaro up again by the back of the hair, lifting him into the air with ease.
"This exoskeleton doesn't only make us impenetrable, but it also gives us a huge strength bonus, allowing us to lift things ten times heavier than before!" Tachi said as he smashed Kimimaro into the ground face first, breaking the concrete flooring as he dug the boy's face into the ground.
"You will never be a true Kaguya!" Tachi said, holding Kimimaro against the ground as he felt him try to struggle.
"Your lust for battle is weak... Your lust for blood isn't enough. You need to crave it! You must crave battle above all else, destroying any who stand in your way without feeling!" Tachi said as he lifted Kimimaro up again, looking at the expression on his face.
"Close your heart to all emotion except for hate. You must become a warrior above all else! The Kaguya know only war and killing, and only the strongest of us survive!" He roared, throwing Kimimaro across the room again, causing him to smash into the wall oncemore before he slowly slid down to the ground on his backside.
Kimimaro couldn't move anymore. His body was battered and broken, and his chakra was running low, making it harder to mend the broken bones that Tachi continued to break for fun.
"I need more power... I'm still not strong enough..." Kimimaro said to himself as he felt his eyes giving way to the weight of the darkness that surrounded him.
"If you need strength, you had only look within..." A voice said before Kimimaro felt a sudden burst of chakra.
Suddenly a red chakra started to leak out of the boy's body, surrounding him head to toe as the chakra formed three tails behind him, forcing his body back onto his feet before Kimimaro's head snapped forwards and his bones started to mend themselves.
"What is this?" Tachi said, watching from the other side of the hall, having already thought that the battle was over.
"ARGGGHHHHHHH!!!!" Kimimaro roared, letting out a monstrous cry before his red eyes fixed on Tachi.
"Show me... Show me all of your power!!!" Tachi yelled, becoming even more excited at the sight, suddenly charging towards him not wasting any time.
Kimimaro launched forwards into the air, appearing next to Tachi in an instant with his arm raised, smashing it into the side of Tachi's head and knocking him across the room like a ragdoll.
Kimimaro let out another roar as he dropped on all fours with bones starting to grow all around his body as the chakra around him became stronger.
Tachi stood back up seeming unharmed by the attack as he dusted himself off, watching what was happening.
"Not bad, but I can see that you are no way near your full power... Allow me to draw all of it out for you!"
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Alright that's the end of this chapter! Sorry to cut it short but I felt like this is where it needed to end.
As always thank you for your support of the story and I hope you are enjoying it.
Have a great day!