Ashina's Eight Gates

Chapter 3: Ashina's Eight Gates

Iwao Hagoromo clenched his fists as he slammed the table.

"HOW CAN THIS BE!? WHAT ARE THE UCHIHA DOING?"

The man behind him gulped as he bowed and said in a very respectful tone.

"I'm really sorry sir! We don't know what's going on inside the Uchiha village, our messengers have yet to return, and the Uzumaki appeared on all fronts! Their patriarch is helping alone the Akimichi while the others are gathered with the Nara and Yamanaka."

"DAMN IT!" Iwao bit his lips so hard that blood started to run down his mouth.

"I don't care anymore! If those bastards will betray us then we don't have to stay here anymore!"

"B-but sir! Patriarch Isamu gave the order to attack them! If we retreat we will affect the situation on the other battlefields-" Before he could continue his words a hand pierced his chest and forcefully plucked his heart, making him pale as he looked at the eyes of Iwao. "Y-you..."

"Humph, don't worry, I'll make good use of your chakra natures."

The man barely had time to react before Iwao's heavy hands held his head. In an instant, strings of chakra connected to his head, and a few seconds later, they went back inside his body.

As if related to his actions, the moment he crushes the man's heart, red chakra lines suddenly jumped out of the heart and started to seep into his body. As if that wasn't enough of a surprise, he suddenly smiled and pointed his hand in a seemingly random direction.

"Since you guys wanted so much to die, I might as well use our clan's, Kekkei Mora!"

Grunts of surprise came from the tree but it was too late already. Before Michi and Shou could react, a ball suddenly appeared in front of Iwao's hand, its surface seemed to be moving and it shined with a well-known shade of purple and blue.

"This..." Shou opened his eyes wide.

"Be careful!" Michi reacted first and jumped towards Shou as his hands started to rapidly form handseals.

"Die!" At that moment, the ball suddenly increased in size and shot towards them.

***

Kichiro finished his hand seals and threw a bunch of Kunai, while still in the air, they suddenly multiplied and hit the area surrounding many members of the Hagoromo clan.

Noticing something fishy one of them was about to shout but before he could do so, seals attached to them suddenly activated and summoned paper bombs.

"Be care-" Before he could finish a burst of flames surrounded the area followed by an explosion.

Boom!

Nao was also doing well on the battlefield, being one of the most talented graduates, his arsenal of jutsu was a tad higher than that of his brother.

"Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!" Just as he spelled those words, a powerful gust of winds was shot from his mouth and blocked a barrage of shuriken that targeted him and his brother.

"Thanks, Nao!"

"You're welc- be careful!" Nao suddenly shouted making Kichiro turn to see, a set of shurikens were quickly approaching as they maneuvered through the air, a pair of sharp eyes would have been able to see strings attached to them but Kichiro and Nao were still beginners.

He managed to dodge the first wave but wasn't expecting then to turn back towards him.

"BROTHER!" Nao started to cry as he forced his legs to get towards him.

When the shurikens were just a few centimeters away from his vital spots, Tsuna appeared in flash, his sword drawing arcs in the air as he skilfully hit the holes of the shuriken using his blade in a small spin before throwing the sword on the ground to prevent the one behind this technique to retrieve them.

"Brother Tsuna!" Kichiro called out in surprise.

Tsuna however had a frown on his head as he shouted for the twins. "Don't get distracted, the enemy must be near!"

Hearing this they both held the kunai so hard in their hands that their nails hurt the skin of their hands.

"Tsk, why are those brats so troublesome!" Hearing this voice coming out of nowhere, they gasped as six men identical to each other jumped out from the ground with swords in their hands.

"Die you damn brats!"

Seeing what was about to happen Tsuna made use of his superior reaction and reflex to take six kunais from the small bag tied to his belt and threw each one of them precisely towards each clone's head.

Having not expected such a quick and precise reaction, the man had no choice but to stop his attack and deflect the kunai threw at him.

The other clones however had no substance and exploded in puffs of smoke, turns out he was targeting Kichiro from the very beginning!

"Fuck, this isn't over Uzumaki brats! Earth Release: Subterranean Voyage!"

Unfortunately, Tsuna wasn't fast enough to stop him and could only watch as he fled underground.

"Tsk, let's get away from this spot before he decides to come back."

"Yes." The twins answered without hesitating.

From afar, Tsuna who had just helped the twins felt his back becoming cold as the hair on his body stood up, quickly turning towards the direction of the Hagoromo clan's camp, he and the other shinobi all gasped as they saw a giant explosion that swept the forest followed by a shock wave that pushed them away.

"This... Tailed Beast Bomb!" Hitoshi who had just killed four Hagoromo clan shinobi in sequence suddenly stopped as he turned to look at the explosion. "Fuck! Everyone, retreat! A tailed beast appeared, don't fight!"

"What's going on?" Saki who was next to Tsuna asked as his body shook with fear.

"I don't know, but that power is too much for someone at our level to deal with, we must retreat with the others..." Tsuna frowned as he spoke those words, the timing of the appearance of this explosion and the fight was simply too coincidental, there was something wrong in all of this but he couldn't understand.

Kichiro and Nao at the side couldn't help but hold hands seeing what had just happened.

"Let's go!"

As Tsuna's voice rang in their ears they nodded and left with him, all the members of the Uzumaki retreated together with those from the Yamanaka clan.

***

Michi and Shou suddenly appeared above a seal that was previously printed on the ground. Shaking they fell on the ground completely drenched in sweat.

"That bastard! What kind of technique was that!? How can he create Tailed Beasts Bombs!?" Shou still couldn't understand the scenes he had seen, they seemed to replay in his mind whenever he closed his eyes.

"I didn't believe the intel the patriarch gave me... but I have no choice now... sigh." Michi stood up with difficulty, his legs shaking.

"What do you mean?"

"The thing we saw is the special ability of Hagoromo's clan, Nature and Soul consumption, the ability to steal a member of their clan's years of experience as well as their chakra natures..."

"But that bomb..."

"The man he killed was known as Zero Tails Takeshi... it was said that he could do this kind of things, which was why there was a high reward in his head at the black market."

"So he did steal that ability..." Shou gulped as he thought of the meanings of such a powerful bloodline limit.

"What now?"

"What do you think? The strain of this ability is too much for someone like him, we can still kill him, let's go, it shouldn't take long before the side effects appear."

Shou nodded and followed Michi through the tree branches.

***

Not too far from the two members of the Uzumaki clan, Iwao desperately fled, he could tell that his surprise attack failed, so he had to escape as soon as possible.

"Fuck this shit!" Blood fell from his lips as winced in pain. "To think that the backlash is this severe... Fortunately, I only used one technique, I need to find somewhere secluded to properly absorb Takeshi's chakra natures."

However, just as he jumped above a small river, an old man suddenly appeared before him and kicked him with so much strength that he ended up hitting the ground like a meteor.

Seeing the dust cloud lifted by the impact, the old man grunted as he punched forward and the cloud was pushed away just by the winds created by his punch.

Iwao who received that heavy punch spat some blood as his face became pale and he tried to turn away and look at the face of the one who did that.

"Y-you! It can't be..." Iwao staggered as he spoke. Suddenly his eyes lowered as he focused on the old man's waist, there, a familiar head was tied to his belt by a knot made using the head's hair. "F-father!?"

"Humph! You bastards dared to cause so many problems over the years, instead of waiting for something like this, I should have gathered my clan's strength and went towards you bastards from the very beginning! If I, Ashina Uzumaki don't kill you all today, I will take your clan's surname!"

Hearing his words, despair filled Iwao as he stood up. "Damn you Ashina! I'll kill you!"

The moment he spoke those words, a coat of lightning covered his body and he dashed forward so quickly that Ashina almost failed to react.

"Lightning Release: Lariat!" Iwao's arm was so fast that he seemed to have created a sharp gust of wind that was heading towards Ashina.

But the old man didn't seem to worry, with a calm face he bent his back with dexterity before spinning behind Iwao, his shout quickly reaching Iwao's ears.

"The third gate, Gate of Life, Kai! Reverse Lotus!"

Just as Iwao turned his head to see, he was greeted by the sight of a man with a green aura all over his body, hair swaying so much that seemed like he was in the eye of a tempest, with his skin almost becoming red due to how much stress there was on his body.

"WHAT? HOW COULD IT BE EVEN STRONGER THAN MY LIGHTNING RELEASE: CHAKRA MODE!?"

Before he could do anything, Ashin struck his legs making him lose his footing, while still in the air, he was struck from below which made him fly towards the sky, following that, Ashin appeared at his right and struck him once more sending him flying forward.

"Humph! You think that because you stole Yin and Yang's release from your clan members you'll be as strong as them? If it was Takeshi or your father I might have had some problems, but your body can barely handle the strain of using this bloodline limit and those two powerful chakra natures!"

This continued for some time as Iwao was stuck in the air, getting pummelled left and right without any possibility of resistance.

When Michi and Shou finally arrived they were barely in time to witness their patriarch's famous finishing move!

"Leaf Strong Whirlwind!"

Getting stuck on his guts by that powerful spinning kick that concentrated all of Ashin's strength in his legs, Iwao spat a load of blood as he sped towards the ground, the impact from the collision was such that Michi and Shou had to coat their feet with chakra to keep themselves from flying away.

Once the dust cloud settled they couldn't help but gasp at the abyss created by their Patriarch last hit! It was so wide and deep that it almost looked like a tailed beast had punched the ground there!

"Shou, Michi, good work, if he hadn't used the Tailed Beast Bomb, I wouldn't have found him so easily."

"Ah! Patriarch, are you alright!?" The two quickly bowed and rushed to his side.

The green aura suddenly disappeared and Ashina almost fell on the ground, but thankfully Michi and Shou had appeared and prevented him from falling.

"I'm okay, this body of mine might be old but I still have many tricks up my sleeve."

"But patriarch... that technique you used..."

"I know, but don't worry, really... I only opened the first three gates."

Hearing his words they couldn't help but sigh.

"Let's go to the Yamanaka, I already dealt with the ones facing the Yakimichi, we will gather our swords and march to the Nara clan's village, they are surrounded by members of the Hagoromo clan."

"Yes!"