"No! Absolutely not, you can't be serious, we're on a mission right now!" Mana objected out loud. She got Hachi's idea almost instantly, after all, it wouldn't have been that tough. A caravan with no visible guards, pretty far away from any active Konohagakure guard patrols, a mercenary band already mobilized and prepared for battle. It all could've only meant one thing. "You are not robbing that caravan, we have an assignment!" the magician repeated as if that was the most important thing that bothered her.
Obviously, Mana was much more worried about the innocent lives that could've been lost. The caravan driver, maybe whoever was protecting the goods inside as well. Mana trained for over a year, she trained with one purpose in mind – to prevent innocent people from dying, whether she's there to do it or not. Now that she was right up close to the lives threatened there was not even a single moment of hesitation, she'll pick a fight if she had to but those people will reach their destination.
"Chill out, kid, I know what I'm fucking doing. There are no guards in this caravan and even if there were, we'll overwhelm and crush them quickly. We're risking nothing." Hachi pressed his temple with a finger and his radar eye started running down numbers.
This was bad, the mercenaries were ready to plunder this caravan right in the middle of a mission. Mana looked and Kiyomi and finally realized why the blonde had that particular dislike for mercenaries. The magician didn't rule out all mercenaries as being total dickbags, still, those guys definitely were if they were willing to just throw their entire mission away.
"Odd, there seems to be no one inside that caravan or I just can't see any heat signatures..." Hachi mumbled placing his cannon arm forward, was he going to blast his cannon at that caravan? Why would he be so reckless and risk destroying it? The mercenaries all took their bows and arrows off their shoulders and quivers and prepared for an ambush. This was a stupendously bad idea, it was an even worse idea to pick fights with those guys. Mana and Kiyomi were underhanded already, they needed the mercenaries, not to mention that a fight like this would draw out resources, tire them out, injure them or even kill them. To fight them now would've been to jeopardize the whole mission!
Hachi's cannon fired off a small concentrated beam hitting the horse, the heated beam went right through the animal's flesh as if it was a heated knife going through butter. The animal fell right under the other horse's feet tripping him as well, the entire caravan stopped and the driver fell over and off his seat bumping his head. It was then that the arrows appeared. Mana and Kiyomi moved at the same time.
The two dashed to the driver, making their hand seals while moving forward, they made it right before the arrows started landing forward, each mercenary shot out at least ten arrows, it was safe to say that some amount of chakra must've been used. It probably was a similar technique to the "Multi-Shuriken Jutsu" which Shimo used once during Team Oak's first training session with Tanshu-sensei. The arrows multiplied while in the air.
"Wind Style: Friendly Gust!" Mana shouted out, a powerful burst of wind chakra shot out from her thrust palms deflecting most arrows heading for the driver. It was clear that the target of the mercenaries wasn't the driver himself, it was the caravan, they were trying to draw out any people hidden inside, set off any protective seals, and scope the material it was made from. Still, some arrows went off their path and would've hit the poor driver who already had his head split open from bumping it to the ground. Mana looked back, Kiyomi moved the guard away and told him to run. For once the magician was glad to have a partner who cared about the lives of the innocents as much as she did.
A loud clang drew the girl's attention, the arrows meant for the caravan just bounced off their target. Mana slowly advanced to the large box that was on the carriage and poked it, it was solid steel. The kind of steel they'd make shields and high-quality blades from. Something here was really fishy.
Why would someone make a steel container, such high-quality steel nonetheless, such a container would be more expensive than most things that could've possibly been inside it. Hachi moved out from the cover of the forest with all of his men. Mana checked her pockets and sleeves, she still had some cards that she picked up after using them all out during the brief fight with Hisako. This mission was cursed or something, at every twist and turn something went wrong...
"Now why would you girls have done that? As I told you, we had it perfectly under control, we'll just snag this container now and then we can go on our merry way and help you with that mission!" Hachi laughed out, his eyebrows and mimic suggested that he was annoyed and alarmed by Mana's and Kiyomi's actions against his ambush, however.
"You..." Mana was about to start swearing in a manner similar to Hisako when Kiyomi shut her mouth by covering it. The Yamanaka decided to try and salvage the mission, they desperately needed the help from those mercenaries even if it meant having to bend over from time to time.
"Look, something doesn't make sense here, Hachi, this caravan has no guards, it carries some weird solid high-quality steel container that probably not even our greatest Fire Release users could melt, you drop everything you've had up until the point you saw it, jeopardize our deal and the mission to plunder it clean... What's in that container, Hachi?" Kiyomi asked the key question. Mana looked back at the container, it did really feel strange that Hachi was willing to go back on the deal they made, while he was a mercenary the deal did provide him with lots of pleasure, or at least he dreamt of pleasure while he was knocked out by Hisako's poison, right?
Hachi cocked his cannon arm, Mana looked at a blue liquid running up and down it and it seemed odd to her how the amount seemed lower than it was before. Could it have been that this cannon used that strange, glowing, blue liquid? Didn't Hachi claim that "Julie" ran on chakra bursts? Unless... Unless he couldn't manipulate chakra and had to provide it with ammunition of some sort of chakra cells. That meant that running him dry on ammunition meant that he couldn't fire that cannon, it also meant that the cannon had a very volatile weak spot.
"Now that's none of your fucking..." Hachi opened his mouth to talk, Mana was already up in the air, aiming her kick at his neck. This wasn't a concentrated and full-powered kick, she purposefully made it slow and wanted for it to be blocked, it was just a distraction, she just wanted to get close.
The girl's kick actually was blocked by Hachi's hand, he tried to wrap it around the girl's foot and slam her but Mana's lack of force behind the kick let her kick-off of his hand and leap back – now his cannon was an open target! The girl tossed several cards at the cannon with all the force she could come up with without it hurting her aim. The cards bounced off of the steel cannon. The giant mercenary leader grunted out and ordered his subordinates to kill the girls.
"I really liked the deal we made, too bad that this caravan is thousand times more worthy loot. Guess I need to make sure Hisako-chan doesn't reach Konoha either, otherwise, they'll think it's a bit suspicious, I mean little girls die out here all the time but why would their teammate return with a bunch of mercs, right?" Hachi pressed against his temple when a large device popped out from around his ear and covered it. It must've been a very strange communication device.
"The manner in which those cards bounced off... That caravan is made from the same kind of steel, it's probably carrying more of Kumogakure high-tech weapons to Konoha. That's how Hachi got the hands on all of his tech..." Kiyomi sent a message on the link. Mana tried to intercept Hachi delivering the message but the lowlife mercenaries got in her way, they tried to rush her down swinging spears and swords at her, at that moment they were far too close to fire arrows at the girls. Mana was so reckless that one spear actually scrapped her in the shoulder, almost lodging in.
"Don't rush so recklessly, Hisako is a tough bitch, she can handle herself..." Kiyomi warned Mana mentally kicking at a mercenary and breaking their spear. The other one behind the girl tried to stab her with a dagger which Mana blocked using her leg to wrap around the man's arm. With a strong pressing twist of her leg, she broke the man's arm. The mercenary fell down on the dirt screaming like a madman. Kiyomi then started pummeling her own mercenary with a combination of blows, too fast for the man to keep track of, too strong for him to stay standing after the Yamanaka was done.
"Help us fight, Hachi!" the mercenary yelled out in fear as two of his friends rushed off to fight the girls as well.
"Are you fucking crazy? If I start firing my cannon and throwing my fists around I'll destroy everything around this place, you guys will get crushed just a bad as those little brats. Plus, it'd attract attention. Just shut up, get brave, and kill those two before I grind you in the dirt!" Hachi replied angrily.
Mana threw a mad combination of kicks, too fast and unpredictable for the shield-wielding mercenary to block consistently. His wooden shield crumbled and he started skipping blows. The man swiped his dagger that he held behind the shield, cutting the magician onto the lower part of her leg. Mana grunted in pain and flipped backward kicking the man in the chin and knocking him out. With her leg injured she botched the landing and fell pretty much almost on her face. Kiyomi crushed her mercenary with a powerful punch and rushed to the magician's aid.
Hachi sighed and looked at the last mercenary, "Go, survey how the situation with Hisako-chan is, make sure she's dead and that no one finds her body. I'll take care of these two". Mana had never seen a happier man than the mercenary who ran off, glad that he won't have to fight these two ninja.
Mana examined the two cuts that she picked up, the shoulder wound looked a bit nasty but if it hit an artery she'd have already been dead, she just wasn't fast enough to turn for her dodge and the blade still got her. The leg injury was a little bit less serious but it impacted the speed of both her kicks and her running.
Kiyomi looked at Mana, her concerned voice reached the magician's mind. "Are you gonna be OK? I can take this fight if you need some time to patch those up..." Kiyomi was a really caring, kind, and noble girl, the last thing Mana could've done for her was to make her fight this thief alone. A man who built his power on stealing Kumogakure's tech meant for Konoha and killing innocent people, a man who lied to everyone that he's an investor when in fact he was pulling side jobs behind his previous leader's back... It'd be a crime not to deck this guy in the face at least once.
"I'll be fine, just give me a couple of seconds, stall him, make him shoot that cannon, the big one," Mana asked to which Kiyomi looked really confused. "Just trust me..." the magician added to make her teammate feel a bit braver about herself. Kiyomi charged forward while Mana examined her wound, still keeping the eyes on Hachi. The man laughed out and pointed his cannon at Mana.
"A diversion? Don't take me for a fool! Obviously, I'll pick off the weak first!" Hachi yelled, Mana weaved a hand seal and leaped to the side just in time before the cannon fired. Her "Mystical Wings Jutsu" propelled her and pushed her to the side enough to avoid the cannon's blast, it wasn't the all-destroying blast, but instead the weaker beam version. Kiyomi started pummeling Hachi's hip area, the tallest she could reach before she had to give up on strength in her punches. The punches of the Yamanaka linked together perfectly, she threw entire combinations but it didn't look like any of the punches did any damage.
Kiyomi slid back waving her arms from pain, "It's like this guy built himself from the same steel..." she let Mana know.
"He probably has several prosthetics or something in that fashion, be careful, we don't want to bust our knuckles against this guy, we still have a mission to do later on!" Mana warned as she painfully grunted, trying to pick herself off the ground. The burst of wind combined with the small explosion of Hachi's cannon sent her through several bushes and she hit a couple of trees, she was lucky not to have broken or dislocated anything. They were taking way too much damage, there was no way after this that they could have still carried on with their mission...
"Ha! You just postponed your death, fuck her up "Julie"!" Hachi yelled pointing the cannon at Mana, the magician heard Kiyomi's warning shouts in her head but her mind was too buzzy and mumbled up to make it clear. She could hear the sounds of the cannon charging up, it must've been the big blast, the magician relaxed and spread her hands, smiling. An awesome, deafening explosion broke all the trees around the area tossing them around.
The explosion, however, was not from the cannon disintegrating Mana's tired body, it was from the cannon misfiring and blowing up in Hachi's face. By overextending Hachi ruined his favorite weapon, had he just fired the small beam blast at Mana he'd have killed her, he had to go big and so he triggered that explosive card Mana tossed at him earlier.
"I thought those cards bounced back!" Kiyomi asked Mana mentally. "One of them was not steel-tipped, just ordinary paper, easier to make it get stuck in smaller areas like between the chakra cell and the cannon compartment that holds them..." she replied. Even Mana's thoughts sounded tired and pain-ridden.
"Are you OK?" Kiyomi asked. Once again her voice was so worried and concerned, it was like she was genuinely worried and cared about Mana. That was not the kind of relationship that most ninja shared. It wasn't even Mana that triggered this reaction, Kiyomi was the one who bonded with whatever team she was given, that must've been why she was hit so hard when her old team walked their separate ways.
"Yeah just... Glad to be alive..." Mana stood up, she looked at her wounds, they looked manageable but she'll need to seriously take a look at them soon.
"You little bitches, look at what you did to "Julie"!" Hachi's enraged roar echoed through the area of the forest that the girls were in. Mana's eyes shot wide open in surprise and so did those of Kiyomi, the girls observed completely taken over by fear and disbelief as Hachi's figure appeared from the smoke. Some parts of his flesh were torn off, he really did have some steel prosthetics on him, the man shrugged off the whole damage from his cannon blowing up in his face and peeling off of his hand. He now had just a torn up stump but he didn't react to the inhuman pain he must've been in...
The mercenary leader started slowly walking towards the caravan, still clutching the shards of "Julie" in his working arm. Kiyomi tried to charge at Hachi, she kicked him in the weak areas of the leg, targeted all the joints trying to trip him over, hit him in the neck but to no avail, she was backhanded off of him like she was just a pest. Hachi shouted out loud in rage, he shoved the shard of his cannon into the caravan, then putting his working prosthetic arm into it and peeling the caravan open. He took out some sort of knuckle-like gloves. When applied to his wrecked hand the glove drilled into his bone with a small drill and after just a brief second, just like that, Hachi had a new hand, twice larger than those he would've normally had.
"Shit..." Kiyomi slapped her own face with her palm. "I think I know where this tech is coming from, it's from Kumogakure."
"I think that much was already made abundantly clear..." Mana replied on the mental link.
"Yeah but... I know why it's here. It's because Hanasaku-sensei stroke a deal with the Raikage and the other countries, that's why we have no one in Kirigakure. Because all the other countries are paying us with technology not to have someone there. Sensei traded political power for scientific and technological advancement..." Kiyomi explained, Hachi was quite busy testing out his new gigantic fist prosthetic.
"Yeah, too bad this scumbag takes all the cargo, Fifth must have still not noticed we're not getting our share..." Mana replied.
"That's just like sensei, she'd really be too dumb to notice..." Kiyomi rubbed her eyes in frustration when Hachi finally remembered that the two were there. A thundering clang emanated from his point of location when Hachi cracked his metallic knuckles. At that point in time, he was far too close to Kiyomi for comfort.
Mana stood up and felt her foot, she could just about move it around. Moving it did cause her some pain but by that time the magician had gotten used to some degree of pain. She remembered when she overexerted herself daily and every movement caused pain, this was a joke compared to her training.
Mana leaped up and weaved a couple of handseals, shooting off another gust off of her feet using her "Mystical Wings Jutsu", shooting her off forward at great speed. Using the technique as a super fast and incredibly powerful dash wouldn't have cut it, the magician invented that technique as a child as a pathway to mastering flight, complete and total levitation, similarly to how Iwagakure ninja could fly by reducing their own weight to almost nothing. Obviously, Mana's skill with ninjutsu and inventing new techniques still wasn't great enough but this was still something.
Mana's kick clashed with Hachi's, whatever the mercenary leader had in his legs wasn't that steel alloy prosthetic, it had to be something unnatural to withstand Mana's kick but it must've been something else, clashing with that steel alloy would've busted Mana's leg up. Even now, the magician felt incredible shock passing through her body, she had to slightly augment her endurance to withstand that shock and keep her leg bone from being ground into dust. Mana flinched and fell, grabbing her leg and clutching it in pain, Hachi seemed completely devoid of any pain. He raised his oversized fist to crush Mana where she was.
Just before he could do that Kiyomi's fists sent the man stumbling forward forcing Mana to roll sideways. The Yamanaka was pummeling the man's back again and again and while it did no damage it successfully pushed him stumbling forward. Before Hachi could have turned back and backhand slapped Kiyomi as he did before, the girl finished her combination with a stab with an explosive kunai, after a leap backward the girl detonated is as well. Kiyomi obviously pulled no punches, if she had the chance to kill Hachi, she would've!
Mana was of an entirely different mindset, she wanted to stop this man, she wanted to take little to no damage while doing it but she also wanted to somehow not kill him. She was childish and naïve but that was just how Mana was. She wanted everything and strived for it, she may have torn her muscles and overstretched her childish shoulders trying to support all that responsibility but that never scared her away from at the very least trying. Kiyomi leaped forward, kicking Hachi's back right into the cloud of smoke that picked up. Her kick hit right into Hachi's cheek and sent him down for the first time that day.
"Stop holding back, Mana, we can't allow ourselves to take too much damage against him, you've already taken far too much. We're killing him, now!" Kiyomi declared.
Despite her inner conviction that she was absolutely not going to kill Hachi, despite everything he had already done and what he'd do in the future. Mana accompanied Kiyomi on her attack on the giant. The cut on her leg started to feel better and better, while it still burned with each sudden step, at least it was somewhat tolerable. Ninja were trained to retain as much battlefield functionality when injured in battle. With a swift and decisive step, both Kiyomi and Mana lunged themselves at Hachi avoiding his strike. Both girls were tossed up into the air from Hachi's ground pound, a powerful shockwave ruptured the ground and caused fissures to open up.
The elevation allowed Mana's combination of kicks to connect right to Hachi's face. She didn't care nor did she check just how much damage she was dealing, all that mattered was to keep kicking, to not stop for a moment because stopping meant that the man could've gotten his hands onto her and that would've meant it was all over. Just slightly below Mana heard Kiyomi grunting, the young woman was shouting as she was expelling all of her rage and energy into a fierce onslaught of blows directed at Hachi's gut.
The colossal man was completely overwhelmed and yet he didn't rush to fall, he just grunted in pain continuously and stumbled back, occasionally trying to toss a half-baked response which forced Mana and Kiyomi to change places, the magician descended and started kicking at the man's groin and gut, Kiyomi used her kunai to climb onto the man's face and started pounding it.
It would've been much easier if the girls didn't have to use tremendous amounts of chakra to keep their own bones from shattering from having to punch what felt like a brick wall. Augmentation came very hardly for Mana, she wasn't used to it and only used it several times before and only in the matters of life and death. While this most definitely was a matter of life or death as if the man caught her he'd have pulled her limbs off one by one without any effort, Mana still was getting more and more tired the more she struggled to keep the combo of kicks going.
Kiyomi screamed, Mana stopped punching and saw Hachi catching her by her hair and holding the Yamanaka up in the air. Using her "Mystical Wings Jutsu" Mana dashed up but Hachi's head was thrown right at her. Mana covered her own face to block the man's headbutt, it still felt like a truck. Mana tightened her back and augmented her endurance, she knew what'd happen next, Hachi threw a lackluster kick to get the magician away from him while he finished Kiyomi off. Mana screamed out in pain as the kick broke through her augmentation. The girl writhed on the ground clutching her back, she had no time to cry like a little kid, her friend was about to get hurt very badly!
Hachi used his free hand to punch Kiyomi straight into her face, Mana saw her friend's hands weigh down, whether she accepted her fate or just passed out from the pain was yet to be found out. The magician saw drips of blood coming out from her friend, angry and desperate Mana weaved a couple of hand seals and leaped up, Hachi looked at the magician angrily ready to kick her again but then he froze. The man collapsed onto the ground, waving his arms and legs wildly, desperately grasping the air for an ounce of breath while Mana caught her friend and moved her away.
"Polymorphy Jutsu!" Mana whispered to herself as she placed Kiyomi on the ground, her friend's forehead had a nasty bruise and an open wound, probably from that steel knuckle hitting her in the face. Her nose also looked broken as blood was wildly bursting from it. Finally the blonde got back to her senses. Hachi finally recovered from the illusion of thinking he was turned into an octopus, he leaped at the girls intending to crush them but Mana once again made some hand seals and placed her hands forward, lightning ran down her entire body passing through her arms and then a wild barrage of small balls of lightning started bombarding the man's body, forcing him to take steps backward, stumble away from Mana's jutsu.
"Lightning Style: Lightning Spark Barrage!" Mana yelled out, she was getting tired and worn out by all that chakra wasting, it'd have been much better if she didn't have to use chakra to survive every blow this man threw her way...
Finally, Kiyomi had recovered as well, the blonde leaped right into the fray, Mana just barely managed to stop her jutsu as Kiyomi jumped with a combination of kicks aimed right at the overwhelmed colossal man, with his defenses broken with Mana's unexpected lightning style jutsu, Kiyomi's kicks definitely hit home and took Hachi down. Kiyomi tossed a bunch of explosive tags up into the air and weaved some hand seals of her own.
"Earth Style: Traveling Rock Pillar!" she yelled as a great formation of rock shot out and went on aiming towards Hachi almost like an oversized fin of a shark, gathering all of Kiyomi's explosive tags in the process. The blonde finally set off the tags blowing the rock formation up right when it was up in Hachi's face. Whatever technological replacements for his bones and limbs Hachi applied to his body really made him a juggernaut on the battlefield. Even this combination that'd have without a doubt killed anyone without a significant skill in chakra augmentation or agility to dodge it only bent and mangled his body a bit, torn some more flesh off of him exposing more prosthetics and various devices inside of him.
Hachi quickly recovered and dove out from the smoke, he still had debris like small pieces of rock and dirt deeply etched into both his fleshy bits and his prosthetics. Hachi's sensor eye was completely blown up and shards of glass had dug deep into his eye socket shooting blood out of it. The giant man twisted around his own axis throwing a powerful kick towards Kiyomi, the poor girl couldn't have possibly avoided a kick with a leg so large and covering so much space. She just lifted her hands up for a block but it didn't work that well as her body was tossed back like a ragdoll. Kiyomi screamed out in pain, a barrage of crunching sounds emanated through her body as she slammed into a tree further behind.
Mana tried to step in to protect her friend since Hachi advanced for a finishing blow, the girl jumped into the giant's path, angry Hachi tossed a punch at her. Mana leaned backward avoiding his hook just barely but then she felt something grab her by the collar of her blazer. Hachi pulled her in closer and dug his oversized fist right into her gut. Mana's eyes whited out. She didn't even feel anything, her mind went completely numb with just loud squeaking noise audible in the white void she's been transported into. The girl could hear something in the distance, something reminding of Kiyomi's voice... Then the pain returned. Mana lifted her head off the ground, her long hair felt sticky, she probably had a bleeding wound on top of her head. She felt nauseous.
"Mana, MOOOVE!" Kiyomi yelled out but the magician had no strength left, Hachi picked her up by her leg and swung her around. If he smacked her down like that she'd die, it was the equivalent of hitting the ground falling down from space, Mana could hear complicated machinery working in Hachi's shoulder joints.
"Die!" Hachi screamed out with his cybernetic voice a loud poof and a slamming sound killed all the other noises. A deafening silence ruled supreme, Kiyomi covered her mouth, tears started running down her eyes. Hachi looked around trying to peek into the cloud of dust and dirt that he raised from slamming the girl into the ground. Only a stain of blood bleeding into the fissures and various crevices of the ground was visible. Hachi pulled his arm out of the cloud and stumbled back. He looked at the joint and saw a card stuck in there, his joint started shooting off sparks.
"That bitch... Did some damage to the joint before she died... No matter, I can finish you off without the use of the big fist..." Hachi quietly remarked. Kiyomi couldn't stop crying and slamming the ground. She was afraid to look at the magician's mangled body. Not that she'd be able to see much, the poor girl made quite a crater from being crushed and ground with dirt, it would've taken a jounin to amplify their defenses hard enough to withstand such a blow.
"She was so young and kind... You bastard!" Kiyomi yelled out.
Hachi shrugged, "What can I say, most mercs love their money, I say, money's good, power's better. Technology is the future, who cares if you guys can manipulate that ninja magic shit, I can use that same cultivated energy for the same purposes. Also, I can replace my squishy parts with others, time of ninja is ending, ironically enough by the hands of ninja themselves inventing weapons that'll replace them." The giant laughed out maniacally.
The giant pulled his damaged arm hard, the cybernetic prosthetic snapped off and fell onto the ground, black oily goo shot out from Hachi's arm socket, the giant advanced to the large caravan container and removed a new arm, putting it into place.
"Not as good as the old one, but it'll have to do... Shit, I hate using puppet parts for my prosthetics, they're all snappy and really stiff. Oh well. That bitch... Ruining a good arm like that... Good riddance." Hachi mumbled to himself.
"You dirtbag, I'll kill you!" Kiyomi yelled out through tears and frustration, pounding the ground until her knuckles started bleeding. The blonde didn't take the loss of a team well, she'd never had a teammate die on her watch before. Seeing Mana's body smash into the dirt and dig up a giant crater raising dust and dirt into the air so dense and thick that it still didn't settle down...
Kiyomi was pissed. She'd avenge her friend even if it meant having to die herself!
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