Fight and Death
En Shiroda appeared in a Shunshin before Shinichi, and in a flash of metal his head was severed, splashing red hot blood on my face. Before he could take care of Sashida and me, his son screamed in rage and sadness and appeared himself, ready to die.
I just had the time to quickly pull Sashida out of it before I fell into shock. How could a friend I had made some days before, die like an ant, so quickly wihtout an ounce of resistance ? I was dumbfounded. I knew that the fight before me wasn't only my fault. No, it couldn't be. It had to have festered for a long time before my appearence and my words sparked the flame of the metaphorical candle. As I slowly processed the death of Shinichi, Sashida was sobbing on my shoulder, trying to bury her head on my chest. Probably in order to prevent as much noise from escaping our surroundings.
En Oyashiro threw punch after punch after kicks and swipes of his kunai. He was barraging his father as the mens arround him prepared their jutsus. En Shiroda, meanwhile, wasn't sitting idly. He spawned some bunshin in the corwd of clan members before they dispersed and started attacking them. Seeing some of the clones getting burst into smoke by some of the justus thrown at them, I was pretty sure he was using Kage Bunshin to fight his clan members. These clones started using Kenjustu, slowly cutting their numbers down.
Simultaneously, Oyashiro and Shiroda had too started to exchange kenjutsu strikes. Cuts could be seen on either of their bodies. Oyashiro swiped right before aiming for the head. Shiroda ducked and threw some dirt in the air, impairing the vision of his son. As he tried to takes advantage of the opportunity, Shiroda lunged towards Oyashiro before halting and throwing himelf back as his son used some kind of blood justsu to make the blood around him speed towards his father. Drop of blood started to cristalize and stretch as they turned into pin needles of blood.
I saw the clones of Shiroda slowly disapear in burst of smokes as the clan members still remaining succeeded in overwhelming them. Sashida and me started to retreat from the fight going further inside the small village. I could see some villager and ninja going in the opposite direction, trying to help their clan members. It seemed everyone was tired of Shiroda and wanted to escape this tyrant's hold of the clan, he had. As we moved past them I saw the biggest hut of the village and proceeded to hide in it. Sashida was still crying but had fallen unconscious frop the stress on the way.
I looked at her and couldn't help but feel guilt and sadness that such a young child would see so much death. She probably wouldn't be the same ever again, and it was partially my fault. the guilt and shame gnawed at my heart.
The sounds of the battle was slowly growing louder and louder. Either they were coming closer to the center of the village or they were using more powerfull jutsus. I needed to know. I created a Kage Bunshin and send it in my stead, so it would look at the battle ahead.
Anyway, after this, if I was still alive, I would need to start reflecting on how I could improve. I had made so much stupid mistakes I was truly ashamed of myself.
Unexpectedly, I received a burst of memories from my dispelled clones. The battle was progressing in a worse direction I had thought. Dozens of clan members were dead and other were too injured to continue fighting, they would soon all die from blood loss or fatal injuries. The remaining clan members didn't amount to more than ten. And Oyashiro was starting to falter.
As I finished processing the information I realised that they were coming this way. I picked up Sashida and exited the hut in a shunshin. Looking around, I saw the destruction inflicted to these lands. The earth was uplifted and thrown around. Blood flowed freely around and mixed with the river which had been completely deviated from the non-stop use from the differing clan members. Huts were completely destroyed and limbs were scattered everywhere. I could see heads, hands and legs littering around, testament of the brutality of the battle. As soon as I fled out of the Main Hut, Sashida in my arms, it was destroyed by a fireball justu from Shiroda.
He had lost a lot of blood and was straining his body from the look of it. Small injuries and cuts were impairing his movements. Another fireball was thrown towards a different hut this time, way too out of the way to mean anything in the fight. As I tried to think of why Shiroda would do such a thing, Oyashiro screamed and rushed towards it.
"NOOOOOO? Please, live, please live, please live !" Like a chant he started rambling as he just up and fled the fight altogether, running towards the hut. In a second there was just the remaining members of the clan who were all obviously too weak to match Shiroda. He cut one in two halves as another received a horse-kick for trying to sneack attack from behind him. I could see his chest cave in and blood erupt from his mouth. Another rushed forwards only to take a fireball to the face and scream in agony. The remaining five didn't take a long time for Shiroda to kill. As he puffed and heaved on the battlefield I was suddenly reminded that he would try to kill me and Sashida if I didn't do anything.
Shit I had taken it as entertainment instead of the fight to the death it really was. I hid myself and prepared. I knew that the moment he thought he won would be my best chance to defeat him, if Oyashiro didn't kill him for me. So I waited, and fortunately I didn't have to wait long. Soon a Balefull cry was heard from the hut out of the way. The one Oyashiro had rushed to after the fireball had envelopped it. A red Oyashiro exited the hut with a small burnt corpse fixed in a screaming position. And I couldn't help but cringe at the sadness coursing through my veins as I understood that the child had been burnt to a crisp. Red and with veins starting to appear from his body I could see the blood and the Iron-filled water of the river lifting around, surrounding Shiroda.
"HOW COULD YOU !! You shall DIIIIIEEE !!!" He screamed a last time as all the liquid rushed to Shiroda and envelopped him in a bubble of mixed blood and water. The liquid slowly entered his orifice before it exited with in tow, his organs. As Shiroda was taken by surprise, he couldn't offer any resitance before he was envelopped by the liquid. Then as he started trashing in the water and blood, his organ were preleved, and he lost all his strenght as his body was starting to be destroyed from inside out. As the organs were removed, the eyes, hands, tongue, nose and ears were cut by the liquid and ejected from the bubble. Then the liquid rushed into his body from his orifices and pulsed three times . After the pulses the body exploded in a shower of blood, flesh and gore. Oyashiro fell down.
"Katsu..." Looking towards the sky, Oyashiro released his last words, probably the name of the small child, as he expired from the last justu he preformed. The veins were still prominent on his body and blood trickled down his orifice as well. I reminded me of some kind of variant of the 8 Gates of Might Guy.
Looking around I only saw death and destruction. How terrrible, How sad, How utterly useless. I fell hollow and tired all of a sudden, but I needed to go, I needed to move. Who knows who would come to see the aftermaths or what forces would try to take advantage of their death.
Now that the battle was finished I released three Kage Bunshin and directed them. I wanted one of them to start creating a graveyard. Another went around collecting the bodies and I would look through the rubbles to see if there was anything of import I could salvage. As it stood the Chinoike clan was completly destroyed. They had lost all members and even En Oyashiro who would later survive the demise of his clan, died today. With the help of a clone, I found some leather books full of recipe, small trinkets, bottles of sake and lots of junks that survived the battle. In the remaining huts I found one or two books full of Chakra theories. It was a welcome addition to my growing library.
Soon my clones finished their tasks and came to help me scavenge any valuables. We went inside the ruins of the main hut after extinguishing the fire still burning around and looked around. We found a small trap on the ground and lifted it, revealing a cache with three books inside.
(Ketsuryugan and It's secret), (Blood and it's use) and (Madness of the eye). Truly interesting names.
I looked around a last time and after seeing nothing of much value I left.
I sat there and looked at the corpses. I pondered for some times and decided to take their eyes. While I didn't want to experiment and start becoming the second coming of Orochimaru, I knew that if I found a way to use blood jutsu and the ketsuryugan, I could implant them in the Uzumaki survivors and make our clan even stronger. I refused to let my clan die out as the Chinoike did. I didn't want us to let ourselfs die a slow death unknown to anybody. And I wanted revenge for what Kumo, Kiri and Iwa did to Uzu. I would make sure to be the best damned Uzukage the world had ever had the displeasure of knowing and I would make ourself not great again but greater than ever.
After reaffirming my beliefs and my resolve I stepped forward and brough out a kunai.