"Pull?" The jutsu wielder says but it comes out more as a question than an answer. He can't fathom why I asked that specific question.
"Correct!" I lift up my left arm and point it at the four shinobi. "The answer is pull!"
...
I yank my arm away from them and three shinobi fall slack as their heads drop dully to the ground. Brilliant rivulets of crimson blood splatter out of each severed neck, forever staining the once pristine hallway.
"So." I turn my full attention to the one remaining shinobi, it's the jutsu wielder. "This is the part where you run away and get reinforcements. Pissing yourself is optional but highly encouraged."
The shinobi doesn't do that, instead his arms fall slack - his jutsu long forgotten - and he drops to his knees. His eyes go super wide as he stares uncomprehendingly at the corpses of his fellow Snow shinobi. He slowly reaches out his right arm to the nearest corpse which still has copious amounts of blood pouring out of the neck.
"Uh… buddy? You alright there?" I awkwardly ask him. "There's supposed to be running away going on right now but you're not. Go on! Shoo!"
"You… you killed them." He softly says as his eyes start to water. "You killed them all."
"Dude." I bluntly say. "You're acting like you've never seen a comrade die before."
"I haven't." He softly admits as the expanding pool of blood on the ground reaches his knees, tinting his white clothes red. He doesn't seem to care though. "How… how do I... "
"Hey. Buddy." I walk over to him and place a reassuring hand on his shoulder. "Look I'm not going to sugar coat this, shit like this happens all the time. It's fucked up and horrible. Today you got lucky, I could have easily picked someone else to live. But you did live, learn from this. Learn that there's always someone stronger than you out there, even if he's a kid like me. Hell there are loads of people way stronger than I am, I know that. Never under any circumstance underestimate an opponent. Sure I could have been bluffing but I was too relaxed about it. Too confident of the outcome and didn't try to get away. You've gotta learn how to accurately read these kinds of things. So get up, go find your other shinobi and try and stop me. Never quit moving forward no matter how impossible it seems."
"But how DIE YOU FOOL!" The shinobi roars as he drives a kunai deep into the underpart of my chin, spearing through my mouth and my tongue and into my cranium. "HAHA! Did you really think that I was that pathetic? If they couldn't stand up to you then they have no right to live! You did me a favor by removing the weak! And now you're dead! You let your guard down!"
"Blurgheuryzidsgf." I attempt to speak as the hand I have on his shoulder clamps down hard. I give him a sagely nod and with my other arm I lightly pat him on the back. "Blurreoiwuyrugn."
"How're you alive?! Release me! Let me go!" The shinobi flails around in my inescapable grip in a vain attempt to free himself.
"Blurguiyibnsuf." I nod sagely once more. Then with my free arm, the one that just patted his back, I pull out the kunai preventing me from talking and drive it deep into his shoulder. He screams in pain, the loud wails echo down the long hallway no doubt drawing even more attention to me. "Sorry about that, I had something in my mouth. It's gone now. In order I said 'good, I thought you were a sniveling baby.' Next I said 'this is a new one for me, congratulations.' Lastly I said 'I will let you go but you need your kunai back. Can't have a shinobi without his kunai, that's just bad form.' Just incase you were wondering."
"Are - are you immortal? Can you not die?" He asks me as I shove him away.
"Now isn't that a good question." I sneer at the once proud shinobi who has been reduced to the weakling before me. "How about we find out together? Go fetch your friends. I'll be around here somewhere exploring the blimp to my heart's content."
"Y-yeah." The shinobi shakily stands up. "I'll just be going now."
"Oh and don't forget I let you leave!" I call after his retreating form.
~I thought you weren't going to do stuff like this?~
"Hey I was drastically nicer. I gave them all a chance to give me what I want, hell I gave them two chances! I also didn't prolong their suffering, the three died so quickly they didn't feel what happened. As for the final one, if he didn't stab my mouth shut then I wouldn't have stabbed him in return. I could have tortured them until they told me what I wanted to know."
~Huh. I'm strangely okay with this. You were still very violent.~
"Not when you compare me to what I've recently done." I shrug. "Plus what I'm about to do next is very fucked up but I need results and I need them quickly."
~What are you going to do?~
"Take a trophy."
...
With the Shinobi that Fled
"Doto-sama!" The shinobi bursts into the control room for the blimp. "We've got a problem! A really big problem!"
"You useless fool!" Doto rounds on the wounded shinobi with rage in his eyes. "You dare to interrupt me as I am talking with my family!"
Sure enough Koyuki is standing next to Doto and she looks visibly cowed. She carries an air of defeat around her, one of resigned acceptance. She's given in to what she thinks is fate.
"I am so close to achieving my decade long goal and you interrupt me!" Doto's loud booming voice causes the shinobi to flinch back in fear. "You better have a stellar reason to do something so brash!"
"We've got a major problem! Someone made it aboard the warship and is looking for Koyuki! He's already killed three of us!" The shinobi rushes to get those sentences out as he kneels before his leader. "I would have died to him too but he let me live. He held my life in his hands and told me to go get more shinobi to stop him. I think he's crazy. I stabbed him in the head with a kunai and he tried to hold a casual conversation with me while the kunai prevented him from speaking correctly!"
"Hello!" I say to everyone in the bridge of the blimp as if I'm warmly greeting longtime friends. I've tailed the shinobi in hopes that he'd bring me straight to Doto and by extension Koyuki. It worked perfectly. "You doing okay there Koyuki?"
"I - but how - in the air - I don't - huh?" She can't form a coherent sentence. Poor thing, she's had a very rough couple days.
"I'll get you in a moment, don't worry. Just stay right there and I'll handle everything." I calmly reassure her. It didn't calm her down at all, if anything she looks even more confused. Oh well, it happens. After dealing with the Princess I turn to the threats in the room, Doto and the shinobi I spared. "So just a couple of things I think need to be clarified, this isn't a warship it's a fucking blimp. This doesn't deserve to be called a warship at best it's an over glorified balloon. Also it is very likely that I am crazy, I mean I did throw myself up here. Willingly might I add, it was my own damn idea and I did that without a landing strategy. Lastly, you dropped this."
I lightly toss a severed head that I brought with me. It hollowly bounces twice on the floor, leaving wet red blotches where it touched. It slows to a roll and rests at Doto's feet.
"I recognize you." Doto eyes me up and down quickly while ignoring the severed head at his feet. Koyuki on the other hand can't tear her eyes away from the head, she's staring at it with a mortified expression. "You're the one that saved the rebel faction from my train. That was very impressive."
"Glad you like my work, I aim to please." I theatrically bow to him. Cuz why the fuck not? I might as well have a little fun as I figure out how I'm going to get Koyuki away from him. "Just wait until I destroy your blimp, it's going to be fabulous! Say is it hydrogen or helium? Please say hydrogen!"
"Helium." Doto humors me with a smirk on his face, I think he's enjoying my antics. That's new, usually I'm insulted or called insane at this point. Usually both at the same time. "I am not that unintelligent. You yourself seem very smart, I could use shinobi like you. What's your price?"
"EEK!" I cover myself up and leap a half step away from Doto. "PERVERT I AM NOT FOR SALE! AND I'M THIRTEEN YOU PEDOPHILE!"
"Amusing." Doto smiles at me. Okay this is pissing me off. He's supposed to be freaking out or confused or at least reacting! It's not fun if no one reacts! "I had no idea Konoha could produce such unique shinobi."
He insulted me. He put extra emphasis on unique. That dick straight up insulted me.
"Alright fuck this." I drop my act. I let a fair amount of killing intent manifest around me and boldly stare Doto straight into his eyes. "You're not reacting how I expected so I'll take a different route. Give me Koyuki and drop us off or die. Your choice. You have ten seconds."
"I'll return your ultimatum with one of my own." Doto isn't phased at all by my sudden switch from lunatic to predator. If anything he's happier that he's seeing this side of me. "Surrender to me or I kill Koyuki."
Doto swiftly holds a kunai to his niece's throat. She finally peels her eyes off of the head to stare at her uncle in fear, she truly believes he will follow through with the threat.
...
A/N:
If we hit 500 Power Stones by the end of this week, I'll drop an extra chapter as a thank-you!
Thanks for the support! ;)
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