Chapter 42

Just like that the feared warrior Phobos was put to his knees and filled with injuries that bled golden blood.

"Rest son, you have done enough. Let me handle this situation." Before Phobos could put up the final struggle, someone interfered. It was Ares, the Immortal of War and the father of the two warriors. He was the one that had sent them to humiliate the human fighters, as he didn't acknowledge Naruto. Ares wasn't even part of the council, so his pride was hurt seeing a human on that seat.

In the start of the fight all was going according to his expectations, but soon everything fell apart and he could only watch things get worse while his rage continued to rise.

Looking at his expression, Phobos retreated without a word as he knew his father wouldn't forgive any insolence.

Ares didn't look at the team as his eyes were glued to Naruto, "It seems your entourage isn't so bad, you got some good taste. So, let me give them a real fight before we can have a fight of equals."

Turning to the team, Ares smiled, "Don't worry; I will go easy on you. Just survive for some time to warm me up for the real spar, okay."

Ares cracked his knuckles and stretched his body while looking completely relaxed, but his presence was felt by the team.

Naruto could see the obvious difference in power between father and sons; as Ares was a really big threat. The team winning was unknown before the match, and it only happened so clearly because of Hinata's type advantage.

However, now they didn't have the advantage and Ares was stronger than the brothers.

Looking at Hinata, Naruto saw her shake her head.

'We might lose, but this loss will benefit us. Please don't intervene Naruto, and let us face death in this controlled environment.'

Hinata knew what he was feeling, but this was needed. Hinata loved everyone just like Naruto; however she was willing to hurt others if it was for their benefit. She had just watched the immortals fight to the death, and it had clicked inside her mind. The shinobi could also replicate this training and achieve greater results by not holding back against each other, and seeing the true results of their skills.

Fighting Naruto with full power didn't help other ninja much because of the massive gap, so they could barely see any change. And seeing them abuse their regen powers, Hinata realized that they had been holding onto their human nature too closely while harming their skill set.

Thousands of words were conveyed by their eyes meeting and Naruto grasped her intentions through the connection. He understood the benefit of such a thing, but it felt like they were walking on the path of no return and losing grip of normalcy.

Did they want to live in a world where people didn't care about their bodies and destroyed each other's body during a friendly spar?

Naruto felt it was too extreme.

'We will have to make tough decisions if we want succeed. And, this will be limited to the few of us. We are all ready to sacrifice our lives already, so this won't change anything except enhance our chances to survive.'

Hinata clarified her position as even she would never push everyone into such a life. The image made her sick enough to almost vomit.

'We will discuss this issue later. Focus on the fight for now.' Naruto thought that sounded better but he didn't make a decision on the go as it involved many people.

Hinata nodded and looked towards Ares, whose presence was growing stronger each second. Without waiting for him to attack them, Hinata decided to charge her strongest attack.

Orochi took notice and used the Light of Nothingness while Ino used telekinesis to pull apart the foe's atomic structure along with an attack on his mind.

"You know love is a powerful force and I appreciate it greatly. My wife is the master of that concept, so I am used to it. It is a shame, but you are the weaker side this time. I represent war and battles, and everyone here cares more about battles than love….And, everything that can be used for war can be used by me." Ares muttered casually while blocking the attacks with TSB barrier before shooting Ino and Orochi with a bronze bow.

The arrows made from extreme heat hit the targets before they could even react and exploded with a shining glory causing the targets to scream in agony as their flesh was burnt off.

Orochi survived by teleporting away from the area before his body was turned to nothing while Ino shed off her body and took flight as a pure psychic energy form.

Regardless, it was a futile struggle as Ino had lost majority of her power by shedding her body and Orochi only managed to heal himself with extreme difficulty because of the war aura negating his abilities.

Hinata unleashed heat beams from all directions at Ares before unleashing six arrows at Ares through portals, causing them to come at him from all sides.

Ares started jogging towards Hinata while a sword appeared in his hand and he easily deflected the arrows before catching them with his energy hands, and shooting them back.

One of the arrows tore through Ino and caused her to vanish from the battle while two erased Orochi. Three of the arrows were returned to Hinata and she forced to react by blocking them with a TSB shield as they flew everywhere she went.

Before she could counterattack, her foe had arrived and broke through the shield with his sword. Ares didn't impale her, just kicked her in the chest and breaking her bones. Hinata was blasted away with a foot print on her body that healed slowly. His aura had cancelled her flame body or the foot would have just passes through harmlessly.

Running alongside her flying body, Ares started a combo and used her as a punching bag for a second in which he destroyed her body.

Hinata was unable to react to his hits and her powers were suppressed by his aura. Falling down to the ground, she was barely conscious as Ares held her up by the hair.

"Spicy, just like I prefer. Why don't you leave the weak boy and come live with me?" Ares chuckled as Hinata took the chance and tapped his heart.

Bypassing his defence, she caused his heart to explode and flames to spread inside his body. It wasn't good enough as he could easily heal from it and he was used to worse.

"Not interested!" Hinata replied with a huff as she continued her struggle and kicked with her foot covered by the TSB shaped into sharp blade.

Ares broke it apart with his hand and smashed his head into Hinata's face before piercing her body with his hand.

He could have ended it very easily but Ares respected her guts and wished to help in his own way. However, Hinata was unable to continue anymore after the beating and simply lost consciousness.

"Well, I expected a bit too much it seems."