Naruto: Tales of Ashihara
Prologue – Arc 1: The Soul Robber
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Chapter 3: Team 7 reunites again
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In the forest near Ryuka, the five beasts of Katashiki (4, 5, 6, 7 and 9-tailed) are all back on their feet, standing against Sasuke, Sakura, Tsubai and HImari. The nine-tailed phoenix is still missing the wing that the Uchiha sliced off. Using his Rinnegan, Sasuke can now see dark red chakra leaking from the bird's injury. It becomes visible to everyone else's eyes as it shapes into a replacement wing. Sasuke stays behind Sakura for a moment, observing the monsters and thinking of how they could take them down without wasting too much energy.
"Sakura, Tsubai, these beasts have the abilities of the Rinnegan." he gives a quick explanation. "They can absorb your chakra and jutsu, and maybe also control gravity and take your souls. So getting close for too long would be extremely dangerous for you. They each seem to have unique abilities as well, which are yet to be discovered, and they can flee at any moment with Space-time Ninjutsu. I know the same jutsu and can prevent its use. Just keep them away from the village. I'll make sure they don't escape"
"You say this as if it was damn easy…" says Tsubai. "Himari, go to the hostel now! I'll stay here to help Sasuke and his girl to hold them back."
"Ok, good luck!" answers Himari who runs to the village immediately. However, none of the beasts seems to react to her move, not considering her a target, nor a threat.
"The fox and the bird can absorb fire without the help of the Rinnegan, …" says Sasuke who guesses so from the looks of these creatures. "… So Tsubai, go against the bear, lion or rat. Sakura, you should take one of the fire-immuned."
"Don't worry, I'll go against both." confidently answers Sakura.
"Don't overestimate yourself. I'll take care of the rest of them,.. and of this one." Sasuke says as he sees the shadow woman stand up in the distance.
"I'll go first then!" says Sakura who jumps toward the giant bird flying above them.
The seven-tailed lion also leaps from the ground to get in Sakura's way and attempts to strike her with its tails. Sasuke hurries to rescue his teammate.
Ameno Tejikara
The lion is suddenly teleported in front of Sasuke's Susanoo who pierces it with its sword and throws it in the distance. Sakura arrives in front of the phoenix's beak, but instead of directly attacking, she lands on it and jumps a second time toward the sky, above the bird. There, she prepares a jutsu.
Suiton – Mizurappa (Water style – Water trumpet)
She throws a large water wave on the phoenix's back to turn off the flames covering its body, and then lets herself fall to violently punch the monster into the ground. As it crashes down again, Sasuke uses Amaterasu to keep the fire on its back to emerge again. Fainted and burning in lethal flames, the phoenix has been incapacitated for now. All the other beasts go around Sasuke, ignoring him to reach for Tsubai.
Sasuke simply lets them go a bit before throwing Susanoo arrows in his back to nail their limbs to the ground. He leaves only the bear to go after its target. Doing so could force Tsubai to show his real abilities. After all, his life isn't at risk since Katashiki needs him alive to take his soul. Still, if he's proven wrong, Sasuke stays ready to intervene.
All three beasts pierced by the arrows, the lion, the rat and the fire fox, simply absorb them and turn around to face Sasuke who raises his Susanoo's bow and prepares a new attack. Before he has to defend himself, the three beasts are abruptly crushed into the ground by giant yellow chakra arms. It is Naruto, using his Biju's power to strike all of them at once.
"It's been a while, Sasuke!" says the jinchuriki as he lands next to the Susanoo.
"You're finally there. What took you so long?" asks Sasuke, hiding the excitement of meeting his best friend again. "You were faster 2 years ago when we had this fight."
"Stop kidding, I had to save this village from a giant squid with a Rinnegan."
"IT WAS AN OCTOPUS!" shouts Sakura who lands on a tree nearby.
"An octopus? So you already took care of one of these things…" thinks Sasuke aloud. "Well, there's a lot to know about them. I'll explain once we're done."
"No need! I think I already know enough." answers Naruto. "I even know where the summoner is."
"You do?"
"Boys, I need help here I think." interrupts Sakura as the two-tailed shadow comes toward her.
The shadow beast lands on a tree branch near Sakura and extends its body. It also lengthens its hair to make it reach down the tree's root. As soon as it touches the soil, its shadow rapidly spreads on the area to paralyze all three members of Team 7 with Kagemane. Sasuke's Susanoo and Sakura both have been caught in the hindrance, but Naruto managed to react fast enough and leap away before being immobilized.
"Is that Shikamaru's jutsu?" he yells.
"Tsk… Yeah, but stronger. So much stronger that this bitch won't even let me absorb it completely." says Sasuke as the monster keeps extending its shadow to sustain the jutsu and prevent him from absorbing the whole of it.
"Bitch? Is this a woman?" asks Naruto again. "Why does she have tails? I thought they were fake Biju."
"Shut up, I said I'll explain later!" yells the Uchiha.
"Look out!" shouts Naruto.
Still holding the paralysis jutsu, the beast looks at Sakura who's suddenly being pulled toward the monster's head. Bansho Tenin. This is the jutsu it's using to create an attractive force. It is bringing Sakura toward its sharp horn, ready to impale her with it. Seeing this, Naruto hurries to get in the way between his friend and the horn, and also gets pulled by the force. Close to Sakura, he tries to catch her to throw her out of range.
Ameno Tejikara
Right before he succeeds, Sasuke takes the place of Naruto and grabs Sakura by the waist, while being forced toward the monster's blade-like horn. "I get it, it's your girl…" says Naruto quietly, having taken Sasuke's place in the Kagemane's effect. To get out of this situation, Sasuke summons Susanoo's rib-cage and arm to grasp on the horn before he and Sakura get hurt. He then lets his girlfriend go down to the monster's face. Gathering her chakra in her fist, she hits the shadow right in the face as violently as she can.
Okasho (Cherry Blossom Impact), Shinra Tensei (Almighty Push)
At the exact moment when her punch lands, Sasuke generates a repulsive force pressing the monster against the ground from above. Completely crushed by these two simultaneous blows, the monster gets knocked out for a brief moment and the Kage Shibari's effect wears off, freeing Naruto.
"Damn, That was cool!" thinks the Uzumaki aloud as he recovers his ability to move.
However, this glory moment doesn't last long as the shadow quickly crawls out from the creator it's buried in. The 3 other monsters wake as well and stand up. As soon as they're all up, black portals open behind each of them, in an attempt of Katashiki to make them retreat. Sasuke immediately synchronizes his eye with this jutsu to force the rifts to close, keeping the beasts from fleeing as he said he would do. However, this costs him a lot of chakra, and causes his left eye to bleed.
"Sasuke!" exclaims Sakura. "Are you okay?"
"I'm not letting you go anywhere!" provocatively says the Uchiha to the beasts, addressing their master.
Tired, he falls to his knees. They need to get done with this fight before those things attempt to flee again. Sakura gets behind Sasuke and starts transferring her chakra to him, to help him recover. All four of the monsters, stopped in their escape, prepare to attack again, all lifting their tails in the air. Naruto stands between them and his teammates and activates his Biju Mode to summon the Kyubi's avatar.
"Focus on recovering, …" says Kurama, "… we'll have the fun meanwhile."
"Sorry…" says Sakura to Sasuke. "I didn't realize these enemies were dangerous enough to threaten you."
"They really aren't." he answers. "The only one that's a problem among them is this two-tailed shadow. The only reason I'm giving so much to end them is because of their master. He's the real threat. All these animals, I think even your friends from Konoha and Tsubai should be able to fight one of them at least."
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Meanwhile, a bit further in the forest but still near the village, Tsubai is running away from the bear monster that Sasuke left after him. To slow it down, he throws weapons and Katonjutsu at it to make it slower.
"Damn Sasuke, you could have totally handled them all!" he complains. "Why didn't you stop this one!"
In his run, he climbs up a tree, leaps off to get the high ground on the beast and performs the same hand signs as earlier.
Katon – Kaen Senpu
He makes a fire spiral that hits the bear's back and burns it up. It seems to work at first, until the monster uses its Dojutsu to absorb the flames with ease.
"Oh crap!" complains Tsubai again. "Whoever came up with those absorbing powers was really not fair play at all."
The bear turns around and rapidly comes closer to Tsubai who falls toward it uncontrollably. Getting in range, the monster raises its arms to catch him but is stopped by a kunoichi coming to the rescue.
Shugohakke Rokujuyon Sho (Protective 8 Tigrams 64 Palms)
Hinata Hyuga leapt into action between the bear and Tsubai. With this jutsu, she blocks the monster before landing on the ground with the Minamoto. "She's hot" thinks Tsubai when he first sees her. She then activates her Byakugan to analyze her opponent's body. "Ew, no she's not" he thinks now, unsettled by the thick veins around her eyes. She strikes again to get the monster out of range.
Hakke Kusho(8 Tigrams Vacuum Palm)
With a powerful palm hit, she hits the beast right in the torst and sends it flying in and through the trees. Getting at ease, she turns around to greet the stranger she saved.
"Are you okay?" Hinata asks Tsubai.
"Me? Yeah I guess, And you?" he answers, confused. "I mean who are you?"
"I saw them over there, Naruto and Sasuke…" she says while watching where Kurama is stomping three smaller beasts and containing the shadow woman on his own. "I didn't want to interrupt. I'd only get in their way… But I ran into a girl who told me her friend was in trouble. So I went looking for you."
"A girl? Has to be Himari." loudly thinks Tsubai. "Thank both of you, but we're not done yet."
The bear gets back on his legs and lets a powerful growl out. It starts growing bigger as it walks out of the fallen trees, and gets on all four. Using the Byakugan, Hinata can see that even though the monster got bigger, its body didn't. Unlike Choji's jutsu, which expends the user's actual body, it seems like only something inside grew. The skin of the bear seems all stretched up and ready to snap. It must be the chakra inside that spreaded.
Along with this, she notices something else: This monster has no chakra pathways. It just looks like a big chakra form hidden in a body. Seeing the monster rapidly come toward her, she confronts it and engages in a Taijutsu combat. She lands hits all around its body using Juken, but none of them seem to have an effect. Did this creature's skin become more durable by stretching?
Confused by the enemy's new form, she doesn't notice the bear looking down to her and charging a Chakra beam from its mouth to shoot her. Before she's struck by it, she's pulled back and out of range by her shadow. Shikamaru, who arrived just in time, stands on a nearby branch. For some reason, he is now wearing glasses.
As soon as there, he makes his shadow spread through the ground to extend his Kagemane and catch the bear in its effect. As he makes it mirror his own movements through shadow manipulation, he pushes the middle fingers of both his hands into his eyes. The glasses he wears prevent anything from happening to him, but the bear, forced to do the same, stabs its own eyes with its claws and destroys them.
"I couldn't think of any good strategy to use against those eyes, so just getting rid of them must be the simplest way I could come up with."
As he just said, the beast now lost its pair of Rinnegan along with all its abilities, so it can't absorb chakra and harvest souls anymore. "Your turn now, while I still hold it!" Shikamaru shouts to Hinata and the other guy he doesn't know.
"Damn, this guy has some big brain energy." says Tsubai with a smile. "Got it!"
He stands up behind Hinata and does the same Katon hand signs as always to perform the same jutsu at the same time as Hinata uses her twin lion fists.
Juho Soshiken (Gentle Step Twin Lion Fists) / Katon – Kaen Senpu
The vacuum blows combine with the fire spiral and reinforce it just like Futon would. The combined jutsu hits the target, pushes it far away in the forest and incinerates its whole body. Shikamaru jumps down from his branch and joins Hinata and Tsubai to check on them. Tsubai stares at him and finally figures out who he is.
"Ah, I know who you are." he says. "You're the Nara clan's head, Nara Shikamaru. What are you doing here?"
"You're seriously asking why I am here and not why the Hyuga clan's princess and Naruto Uzumaki are too?" says Shikamaru in a sarcastic tone. "Anyway, it's all for the same reason, vacation originally. What a drag... The small mission before the break really had to turn into a serious matter. And it's probably related to Naruto again."
"Actually it's related to me." answers Tsubai. "You just really chose the wrong damn village."
"… What a drag …" sighs the Nara leader.
"Is anything not a damn drag for you?" asks the Minamoto.
"I think not. Is anything not damned for you?"
"… Damn not."
"Where is Choji, is he safe?" asks Hinata, concerned, to focus on serious matters.
"I brought him back to the hostel." answers Shikamaru. "And I also borrowed these glasses from the hostel's receptionist, Miss Yokawa. Since I had this thing in mind to beat the Rinnegan, I needed them. But we shouldn't lose our focus. This monster is probably still here."
Right as he says this, the ground under their feet starts to shake and shatter, causing them to fall and almost be swallowed by the cracks. The bear comes back to them, jiggling in a weird manner. Its burning fur and skin tear and fall apart as its chakra keeps growing inside, until two red thick chakra horns emerge from its forehead. The trio gets back up and stands before their opponent's new form.
Shikamaru notices the ground turning to mud at this thing's feet. This liquefaction spreads around and abruptly reaches them. With no time to react, they are slowly sinking into the growing mud swamp. They all bounce to the surrounding trees to avoid the liquid soil, but the trees are now being swallowed as well.
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In the distance Sasuke sees the giant horned bear that grew taller than the forest, and tries to figure out new things about these beasts. He also sees the surrounding trees sinking down. "It's a good time to finally show what's so special about you, Tsubai" he thinks. In front of him, Kurama and Naruto got rid of all three of the smaller beasts and are now facing the last remaining enemy, the shadow monster. They are going hand to hand with it, and accidentally stomp on the blue six-tailed firefox in the action.
"This one looks a lot like if you and Matatabi had a child." jokes Naruto to Kurama in his inner-world, about the one they just stepped on.
"Stop messing around." seriously answers Kurama. "We Biju can't possibly have children. Each of us is the only specimen of its own species."
"Really? That's pretty sad."
"No it's not. Why would I even want a kid? You're annoying enough, I don't need another brat around me. And it makes us have something in common."
"A thing in common? But I can have children,… I think."
"Yes you can, but who would ever want to have children with your dumb face?"
"Eh? Calm down will you?" yells Naruto, annoyed. "No need to be this savage. And I let you know that I have a girlfriend and you don't. You're just jealous I get to have a cute and nice girl with me and you'll stay alone forever."
"Don't kid with me. If you didn't finally confess to her on your own, I would have taken your body to do it myself. Everybody in Konoha knew that Hinata loved you since you were kids. Even Sasuke, who never even spoke a single word to her, probably guessed it. You're the only idiot who needed so long. You know what? You better not have any children. Hinata will already be way too busy having to take care of your sorry face."
"Hey, cut it out already! I didn't ask for all these comments."
"I know, that's the point." says Kurama, still messing with his host. "But you're right. I hope you didn't forget you're still in a fight."
Of course he didn't, and he is maintaining the upper hand in this fight, Realizing its opponent's superiority, the shadow woman jumps away and flies up in the air. Kurama stares at the colossal shadow floating in the sky above them with a bored face. "So it flies… ".
"What is he waiting for?" asks Sasuke, spectating while Sakura heals him. "He can do this too. Why isn't he going up there?"
"He can't fly." answers Sakura. "At least he can't anymore."
"What?" yells Sasuke.
"If you're referring to his new sage mode from the war, he lost its special abilities." she adds.
"Really?" asks Sasuke, unsettled. "Now that you say it, it's true that his chakra cloak and Sennin Mode don't look like they should. They're back to their state from when we defeated Tobi. Did he really get this much weaker?"
"He ain't got weaker. He still easily won against Toneri Otsutsuki 2 weeks ago. He improved in every way since the war. It's just that there's a few things he can't do anymore, like flying."
"I don't care how fast or strong he is, a lack of abilities is crucial!" yells Sasuke, before calming down and standing up. "Sigh… Looks like I have to handle this myself."
He jumps up in the sky toward the flying shadow and makes the perfect form of Susanoo progressively appear around him. Flying above the forest, the winged guardian is completely dwarfing its opponent and even the Kurama avatar that watches from the ground. The shadow thing floats still, staring at the Susanoo in front of it. A voice suddenly emanates from it and addresses Sasuke.
"I see… You couldn't use it before because of the danger it represents for the nearby village. Interesting."
"That voice? Katashiki." says Sasuke in a hateful tone.
All of a sudden, three black spiral rifts appear behind the knocked out beasts at Kurama's feet again.
"Ugh, You bastard!" yells Sasuke, immediately doing what needs to be done to close the portals again, still not recovered from the first time he did.
He successfully closes the rifts but falls to his knees with his eye strongly bleeding again. The exhaustion causes the Susanoo to slowly fade away already.
"As expected. Your left eye…" now says Katashiki. "You must be the only being currently alive in the universe with a 6 tomoe Rinnegan. What a waste! Such a powerful eye for such a weakling… I'll definitely make better use of it than you. Same goes for this man's abilities." he adds as the shadow's head turns toward Tsubai's location.
At the other side of the forest, Tsubai, Hinata and Shikamaru are being totally overpowered by the bear's new form, and have no other option than running away. While going after Tsubai, the monster suddenly stops and heads towards the nearby buildings instead. "Don't tell me…" says Shikamaru who turns around to follow the beast. Hinata and Tsubai go with him and notice the swamp expanding as the ground turns to mud and gets closer to Ryuka.
"It's targeting the village!" screams Shikamaru, unsettled by the cleverness and mischief of the monster, unaware that it is simply controlled by its master's will.
He and Hinata both get in front of the monster to interfere, but are struck by mud arms emerging from the swamp. Shikamaru gets caught and forced down into the soil. Hinata manages to dodge and destroy the arm with her twin lion fists. After landing on a falling tree, she leaps forward to Shikamaru and frees him from the swamp's hold.
Still in a rush, she then goes to strike the bear as strongly as she can to push it away. But the blind monster dodges, as if it could still see. Dark red chakra hands emerge from its paws grab Hinata's arms to crush them between its fingers. Hinata screams in pain as her bones shatter under the pressure of the celestial beast's strength.
"Hinata!" yells Naruto when he hears her voice in despair through the forest.
He turns around and goes to help her. But to keep his attention, the beaten monsters at his feet (the bird, the lion, the rat and the firefox) start to inflate and glow in red. "Shit! Again, but the four of them now!" says Kurama who assumes they are going to explode like the octopus. To contain the imminent blast, he does the same as earlier and covers the four beasts with his 9 tails.
"I've underestimated you two, Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke." says Katashiki through the shadow beast that shrinks back to its original size. "You're definitely as interesting as the yamabushi. I'll collect your souls along with his."
Hearing a blasting sound, Sasuke looks down at Naruto and sees his Biju Mode inflate from the explosion of the 4 beasts' bodies. The yellow chakra form looks like it's about to tear up from the inside.
"He's not gonna make it!" he exclaims.
Despite the blood stream that is already hiding his sight, he uses his left eye to teleport and combines his Susanoo with Naruto's avatar to strengthen its armor. The explosion is far more violent than the octopus'. The four monsters' bodies are completely disintegrated and the combined blasts inflate the Majestic Attire so much it partially shatters the Susanoo's armor and nearly breaks the whole Biju Mode.
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Deeper in the forest, closer to the village, the red glowing bear is suddenly punched away from Hinata by Sakura who hurried to the place when she heard her friend scream. The pink haired kunoichi then gets her friends and heads to the nearest roof. From there, she looks for Tsubai, and finds him jumping across trees to get closer to them. "I just gotta stop it from reaching the village." she thinks as the beast gets back up. The house she's on abruptly starts to collapse. The swamp's expansion already reached the village and started to engulf the first buildings.
Ready to take action, Sakura is distracted by dozens of chakra rods flying toward her friends and her. The two tailed shadow, free from any fight, shoots those projectiles to stop her from interrupting the bear. Naruto and Sasuke are busy containing the explosion that seems never ending. As she can't do anything but dodge the rods while holding Shikamaru and Hinata, the first buildings are completely engulfed.
"STOP IT!" yells Tsubai, setting foot on the muddy ground behind the monster.
A deep black visible chakra starts emanating from Tsubai's body. This dark energy spreads in the swamp until it completely turns black. It stops the mud from spreading and absorbing anything by making it completely still. The red bear turns around to face Tsubai, but starts being sucked down in the same darkness that consumes its swamp. As it is letting itself be devoured, Katashiki's voice speaks out of it.
"Haha! Yes, that's it! That's what I wanted to see! Minamoto Tsubai, I had forgotten my name, because you stole it from my memory when we encountered each other. I found it again, but you did take a piece of my memories. This darkness release, this memory absorption, there's even more to your Tengu's power. And it'll all be mine… When we meet again…"
The bear has been completely absorbed by the darkness. Tsubai just stays looking at where it stood with a frightened face. He himself doesn't understand what just happened. What is the tengu that Katashiki just referred to? The darkness surrounding them slowly fades away after having sucked all the chakra out of the ground to make it change back to dirt instead of mud. Tsubai is troubled, but what mainly matters to him is that the monster is gone. He's glad this fight is over, and will worry about what he just did later.
Naruto and Sasuke who are completely done containing the explosion raise their heads toward the last remaining enemy. The shadow woman stops throwing rods at Sakura, done with keeping her busy and looks down at the power duo. Katashiki is surprised that they both survived and withstood the shock. "At least this was very informative" he says. A single portal opens behind the shadow woman. Sasuke makes a pissed off face as he sees the little effort it takes for this man to use this jutsu. He tries to close this one too but simply fails and faints to the ground, out of resources. Naruto catches Sasuke before he hits the ground.
"The Uchiha's out, but even if I stay, the fox is still enough to beat Setsura…" says Katashiki to himself. "… I've already lost 6 tsukumogami today. I better leave." he adds before making the shadow form go through the portal and closing it himself.
Looking at Tsubai, Sakura thinks "What did Sasuke get himself into?". They succeeded in beating every enemy except the strongest one who was forced to retreat, but Hinata got severely injured and Shikamaru, Choji and even Sasuke lost consciousness. She can barely believe it. She witnessed Naruto overpower a man that could single handedly end the world just 2 weeks ago. And now, out of nowhere, another threat appears and is smart and strong enough to handle both of her teammates at once.
"What are you thinking?" asks Tsubai, who stands next to her. "Let me guess, you're looking at your boyfriend and the world saving dude thinking maybe they won't be able to do it this time, is it?"
"Mh, yes, Kinda…" slowly answers Sakura, unsure.
"Well maybe the fact that you know them too damn well affects your judgment," he explains. "Personally, I've only known Sasuke since yesterday and don't know the noodle guy at all, but from my perspective, they used 5 of these monsters as punching bags while me, the big brain guy and the Hyuga hottie were struggling against only one of them. And just now, the big damn bad guy who could kill me with only his breath ran away. This noodle guy is definitely not done, and Sasuke allowed himself to use so much chakra only because his friend was there. We won. That's it for now. We won't meet the 6 things we've beaten again. And I'm sure this fight was very informative for Sasuke."
"… You're really good at that. I mean, brighten up the mood." answers Sakura, cheered up.
"Oh, I just said what Himari would have said." answers Tsubai. "It's my friend you met earlier."
"I see. She must be a good friend." comments Sakura. "Well, now it's my turn to get in action. Shikamaru and Choji will be okay, they were just knocked out. Sasuke will need a lot of chakra to recover but first, Hinata came here to take a break with Naruto. I won't let broken bones ruin her first romantic trip with her boyfriend."
"Boyfriend?" asks Tsubai. "This hottie is the noodle guy's girlfriend? Damn what a lucky boy."
"Why? You're jealous?" says Naruto who lands next to them, carrying Sasuke on his shoulders.
"Oh not really." he answers. "I'm just saying she's sweet and good-looking. But she's not my type. I'm more into tall black-haired girls…"
"Tall black-haired…" Naruto slowly repeats while looking at the tall black-haired man in front of him suspiciously, before focusing on his girlfriend's injury. "Hinata? What happened to her?"
"Her arms are broken." explains Sakura. "But I'll do everything I can to fix it right now."
"Yeah don't worry, noodle warrior. Oh and I didn't even introduce myself. My name's Minamoto Tsubai,… And you two must be… Narutomaki, and Uchiha Sakura I guess."
"Uchiha!" exclaims Sakura. "No i'm Sakura Haruno. I'm not called Uchiha."
"Not yet!" says Naruto, before rapidly changing the topic. "And I'm not called Narutomaki. It's just Naruto."
"And so you're a Minamoto, like the village's leader." says Sakura.
"Exactly, that's me!" answers Tsubai. "Well, no it's not me, but almost. Is the damn leader in the village currently?"
"I didn't find him." she answers "And I spent the whole day going around the village."
"That's damn good. Then let's just say, as long as he's not there, I'm the leader."
After that, they all go back to the village's hostel and do their best to fix the consequences of this fight. But just as Tsubai said, even though some of them had their hardest fight in a long time, the outcome of today's encounter was a way bigger problem for the enemy. He lost 6 of his pawns.
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Alone in his hideout, in the complete dark, the enemy is putting together all the information he got from this fight. The Uchiha has the strongest one-eyed Rinnegan he's ever seen. Out of the five living Rinnegan users he knows of, this human is one of the 3 people having a single eye. The difference between the Uchiha and the two others is that he can still awaken a second one. A single 6 tomoe Rinnegan is already as powerful as a pair like his, so he has to kill him before he ever gets to awaken his other eye, even though he doubts his body will ever allow him to do so.
About the Fox, he's among the living beings who are the closest to a Juubi's power. If he ever recovers the abilities of Rikudo Senjutsu, he could surpass its limits and become strong enough to face anyone. The pink-haired girl is also quite impressive. Katashiki didn't expect a simple human to be so interesting. In addition to that, there's the fact that the seal on her forehead reminds him of one of the most feared people in the universe. Taking her soul as a servant as well can only be a good choice.
And finally, Minamoto Tsubai, the yamabushi. His abilities are only a small part of something bigger. The tengu that he's awakening already seems stronger than all his previous generations. Getting this one is a step forward to finding their creator. Anyway, Katashiki knows exactly what he has to do now.
"Taking these three's powers will make me far stronger than I already am. The power of only the yamabushi would be enough, but now that I know the fox and the Rinnegan user are in my range, I don't have any other choice than making them mine. The hardest task will still be to find and take the Minamoto clan's Daitengu… With all these in my possession, I'll have Earth's most valuable powers without the need of the Shinju. When I'm done, I won't need to hide in the dark anymore. I won't need to hide from THEIR eyes."
Silently, in the dark, he prepares to attack the village of Ryuka again, with a new monster that they won't be able to take down as easily.
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End of Chapter 3 – Next Chapter: Vacation