Chapter 8: Showdown

Sora, who took the appearance of the man he just killed, casually walked into the warehouse. He found it mostly empty asides from the boxes and containers littered everywhere.

Aside from that, there was a single chair in the middle of the warehouse. On that chair, sat a buff man of exactly 6 feet in height. His shirt stretched with every small movement of his body, threatening to rip if any exaggerated movements were made.

He had blond hair and his grey eyes stared straight at Sora as he spoke.

"You were supposed to be here at least two hours ago. What do you have to say about that?" He asked in a deep voice.

"Sorry about that boss. There were a few complications." The disguised Sora said, sounding apologetic and sincere.

The man stayed silent and his eyes narrowed.

"So where are the kids?" He asked, getting straight to the point.

"They're in the van. The boys are taking care of them." Sora replied confidently.

'I don't recognize him from anywhere.' Sora he thought while trying to uncover the man's identity.

"Is that so?" The man asked rhetorically as he got up. He walked slowly to Sora who stood still, not daring to make any move that would expose him.

"You know next time you want to infiltrate a place, get your facts right." He said as he aimed a downward punch at Sora who jumped away, causing him to hit the steel pillar Sora stood by.

Unlike what he expected, the pillar of steel was dented and the man retrieved his hand, seemingly feeling no pain.

'What the hell? I can only imagine what would happen if I didn't dodge.' Sora thought as he looked at the man who dusted his fist with his other palm.

"I don't know how you managed to look like him but there's one thing you didn't know about Max. It's that he can't even look me in the eye." The man said as he jumped at Sora at inhuman speeds.

Before he was within range of him, Sora was already leaping away to dodge but it was all for naught as the man was in front of him faster than he could react. A powerful punch slammed into Sora's stomach, painfully digging into it.

Sora let out a yelp of pain as a small amount of spit flew escaped his mouth as he was smashed into the stack of boxes behind him, shattering them all.

"And now you're going to die because you just couldn't mind your business." He said as he stalked towards Sora's fallen form. He looked down at the man laying on the floor in front of him, surrounded by broken pieces of wood and frowned.

The reason for his frown being the puff of smoke that enveloped the man. When the smoke dissipated, all that was left was a shattered log of wood in its place.

Sora, in his true appearance was seated on the balance beam above the man. He breathed heavily as he clutched his stomach.

'I barely managed to escape.' Despite using the replacement jutsu, he couldn't fully escape the heavy blow. As a result, he was still affected by the initial force.

'I don't think I can beat him. He hasn't seen what I look like so I can at least retreat for now.' He thought, already thinking of a plan.

"Don't think you can hide from me!" The man called out from below, bringing out a remote from his pocket and pressing it's only button. Immediately the doors and windows to the warehouse were closed by a metal door that slid out.

'Shit! The only way to get through that would be to blow it up with the fireball jutsu but with his speed he'll catch me before I can get anywhere. Escape is out of the option. I have to end this here!' He thought as he started weaving hand signs.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The blond boss below stalked around the warehouse, taking his time to leave no stone unturned in looking for him.

"This place is on lockdown. There's no where to run. It's only a matter of time before I find you. Save me the trouble of finding you and I'll save you the pain of a slow death." He said self righteously as he smashed the closest crate near him, revealing nothing behind it.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a young boy dash and hide behind a stack of crates a few meters beside him.

"So you finally reveal your true form. I'll admit, I didn't expect you to be a kid but that doesn't change anything." He said as he dashed towards the crates and smashed through it only to find nothing there.

"Hmm?" He hummed in confusion. To his right, he saw the boy duck behind another set of crates.

This time, taking a different approach, he grabbed one of the crates that was partially still intact and sent it flying and crashing into it.

Once again there was nothing there. Noticing the pattern going on he called out.

"Your little tricks aren't going to work. You're only delaying the inevitable." He said as he stood his ground not making anymore movements.

'I'll let him exhaust himself running around. The entire place is locked so he has no way out but to come and get the remote from me. I don't need to do anything, he'll come to me.' The man thought as he let out a smug smile.

All of a sudden, he felt that something was very wrong. His vision grew blurry and everything was spinning. Alongside that, he lost his sense of balance as he struggled to stand upright, stumbling every few seconds.

"What's going on? Did he drug me? But when?" He tried to recall getting injured but came up with nothing. The only close contact they had, ended up with his slamming his fist into the boy's stomach.

While trying to regain his balance, he felt something liquid pouring over him in huge amounts. The felt the liquid pour into his eyes causing him to scream in pain at the harmful and unknown feeling.

He managed to open his eyes for a second to catch sight of the boy in front of him making strange hand movements.

"You…!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sora weaved hand signs as he watched the man in front of him screaming in pain. Knowing he couldn't win in a straight up fight, he put him in a genjutsu while he set up.

The combined use of genjutsu and the clone jutsu at properly time intervals took a lot of mental energy but it was worth it in the end.

The warehouse they were in belongs to a chemical manufacturing company. The barrels that littered the place were filled with acetone, which Sora recognized from his little knowledge in science.

He first poured the liquid on the floor, making sure to spread it around. After that, he grabbed one of the smaller barrels and chucked its content at the man, effectively dousing him in it before leaping away. A bit of it got on him but that was fine.

Just as he expected, the pain from having acetone in his eyes broke him out of the genjutsu but it was too late. By the time he heard the man exclaim in shock, he had completed the set of hand seals he was making.

'Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu!'

Sora exhaled a massive fireball which sped towards the man whose eyes widened in shock and fear.

The acetone on the floor caught fire and spread around the moment the ball of heat came close to it, effectively trapping him.

*Boom!*

"AAAAHHHHHH!" The man screamed as the giant ball of fire exploded on impact. Hearing the man's screams, he was a bit satisfied. He patted down the part of his shirt that caught fire.

His body fell to the ground like a stringless puppet. He took in deep breaths as he let out a sigh of relief. He knew he only won this fight due to luck and his opponent not knowing his abilities.

Just because he had the memories and abilities didn't mean he had experience using them. He had used quite a bit of chakra in the sequence of events that had occurred. He had less than half of his reserves left.

At this point, he was waiting for the flames to die down a bit to get the remote but it looked like he'd have to force his way out before it spread too much.

He got up and walked towards the barred entrance and took a deep breath, ready to unleash his final fireball before he was completely exhausted.

Before he could begin, he felt a hand grab his neck.

'Impossible!' He thought as he traced the hand to see something mind blowing. The man who he thought was burned to death, stood before him, gripping his neck with his burnt hand.

His entire body was burned and black, his skin peeled and bleeding in every way. He was like a demon straight from hell. He looked livid as he glared into him.

"Where do you think you're going!?" He roared angrily, his voice sounding distorted and rough.