No one ever wondered, nor would they need to, about what would happen to a house of cards if an oversized boulder fell on it. However a small inn right in the middle of the small pit stop town called Tanzaku town collapsed in a manner not much different from the way in which a house of cards would rumble. A young man with normally quite slick and spiked behind him hair, now in a state of recently awoken fury and a massive case of bed hair could only blink witnessing the fall of the inn.
“Your welcome!” Shimo’s annoyed voice from down below yelled at the young man before the medical ninja noticed that a large twister of cold air slowly brought him down from the spot where the massive force shockwave tossed him aside. After Kouta finally landed firmly on his two feet he stroke his messy hair angrily.
“I didn’t really thank you, not because I’m not grateful I just… Have no idea what’s going on!” the boy shouted, his hearing must’ve been impaired since small torrents of blood were coming out from his ears.
“No idea either, I woke up from this weird bad feeling and then… A massive boom tossed me out the window, had I been the intended target of that… I don’t even know, it hit like a small meteor… I’d have been a wet stain, I think Meiko’s gut took the punch though…” Shimo grunted out looking at the pile of wood, after just a single impact the whole wooden structure crumbled leaving just the first floor barely supporting the whole frame.
Kouta sniffled, “I’m not sure people thank other people for sending a blizzard their way, medical ninja can’t cure common cold, you know” he complained as a joke.
Shimo didn’t reply, he knew it was meant as something to lighten up the mood, after all their whole home was busted up, all of their stuff and their money was in there and it was hard to tell just how much could’ve been salvaged from there. The jutsu he used to prevent Kouta’s injury or death was a technique used to shock and slow an opponent down by overwhelming their bodies with cold air, if all that the medical ninja would get from it was a common cold, he’d have gone off as quite lucky.
“Where’s Mana-chan and Meiko?” Kouta asked rubbing his red nose and wiping some more of his snot off
A deafening thud followed by a crashing boom which contained the sounds of solid steel being torn to shreds and wood being pressed so hard that it got peeled to small sawdust from the pressure alerted the two shinobi to a most recent sound coming from the side of the barely standing structure. A hulking monstrosity wearing what appeared like a torn up business suit and a fancy hat with a red ribbon and an eagle feather included in the whole set bashed another person through the wall carrying them with their unstoppable charge.
A barrage of loud thuds made Kouta scratch his ear “ it was Meiko who was caught by the hulking brute’s charge and the freak was charging at such a considerable speed that the blacksmith girl couldn’t leap off of the oversized elbow. What she could do was exactly what she was doing “ pound the shit out of the oversized man’s little brain with her enhanced with chakra blows. Meiko’s chakra control was shabby so she put all of her possible chakra into each hit without worrying about the consequences that have so efficiently broken Mana’s life.
It looked like the brute cared very little of Meiko’s blows which was awesome all by itself, judging by the sounds which the blacksmith’s blows made she could’ve busted large boulders with them yet it barely even fazed her opponent. The mobster leaped high up into the air, repositioning his arm to grab Meiko by the piece of her armor and trying to spin her around by spinning his arm, without a doubt intending to slam her with an added momentum of this spinning move. The mobster’s target was another inn just couple of blocks nearby.
Meiko’s quick reaction flicked a small belt that instantly slipped out and helped the girl get out of one shoulder pad which the monster was holding her by. The girl made a couple of seals in mid-air and placed her palm at her shin.
“C-Rank Seal: Release!” she yelled out as blue flames fired off from her boots propelling her downwards at the ground as her opponent disappeared in its awesome leap. Meiko adjusted her position using her flames as air pillows by quickly activating them to stop her propulsion and adjusting her descent. She activated it one last time right before landing on the ground making a large, almost blinding cloud of dust.
“Hmmm, that bonehead, he must’ve leaped to the other side of the town… I wonder if he’s smart enough to remember to come back here…” a voice which the girl had not heard before reached her ears making the curious kunoichi check its owner. It was yet another overdressing gentleman with brown shades, an even more expensive looking suit and a really nice cane which had lightning bolts drawn on it.
“Wow! Those lightning motifs, they’re an added extra layer, the whole thing is aluminum and those look like titanium! It’s not just paint right!?” the blacksmith shrieked like a schoolgirl seeing ice-cream for lunch on the table after coming back from school.
“How is that the only thing on your mind right now, young lady?” the gentleman smiled swinging his cane around before tossing it aside and cracking his knuckles. An earth shattering sound alerted Meiko of another combatant joining her in this alleyway she landed in. Two more powerhouses burst through the buildings tearing them down with just a light push. The redhead pouted, this may have been a battle she shouldn’t really put much hopes in.
“Red-haired armored girl, I assume you’re the one who gambled our associate out of his underwear, correct?” the good looking non-beefed mobster asked tipping his shades so that his brown eyes could see the girl better.
“Oh, so you’re his friends? Sorry, I don’t feel like gambling right now, if you want we could have an eat-off, if you want that underwear back that is… Oh wait… No, I tossed it away… Sorry…” Meiko scratched the back of her head making a really sad face, only now an idea came to her mind that the poor guy may have been quite inconvenienced by having no underwear, he could’ve frozen his peepee off this time of year!
“Well then, I sure am glad you acknowledged it and confessed, it’d have been awkward if we toppled several buildings chasing the wrong girl…” the mobster sighed flicking his fingers as if alerting his muscle-headed friends to attack. That command was just what the two were waiting for as they leaned forward and charged at Meiko, the girl made a handseal and placed her palm onto her right arm.
“Storage Seal: Release” she uttered and after a loud poof and a cover of a cloud of smoke a buckler shield materialized around the spot where she placed her palm on, the blacksmith’s right hand grabbed hold of it, it was just in time as the non-roided out mafioso pulled out a strange tube-like device and flicked a switch on it firing a barrage of kunai at Meiko. The girl’s buckler collected all of them, she rolled to the side to avoid the first punch of the brute, then leaped to the side firing off more jets of blue flames to move sideways and stick to the wall quicker.
“Art of Wall Climbing!” Meiko uttered as her feet stuck to the wall maintaining her stuck onto it like the wall was just another surface she could effortlessly walk on. The girl stumbled a couple of times running up the wall, her chakra control was really lacking and she had trouble maintaining even this simplest of Academy techniques.
After reaching the corner of the building Meiko flipped back, making a handseal and then flung her buckler at the direction of the shorter and weaker looking mobster since she felt like the brutes could withstand such a defect blow effortlessly. The buckler was tossed with great force and speed, the gentleman mobster tried his best to dodge it however it still hit his large kunai shooting weapon disarming the assailant of it.
“Storage Seal: Release!” Meiko yelled out unsealing a large claymore from her left arm and cleaving it right at one of the brutes allowing gravity and her chakra augmented strength to enhance the hit, it’d have been enough to cleave through a building sized animal in two without much resistance.
The brutes didn’t appear like the kind to dodge, force emanated through Meiko’s arms as it was like the sword hit pure titanium. The enhanced mobster merely tried to block the blow with his arm but the claymore busted in pieces from the impact.
“No goddamn way!” the girl yelled out in a combination of awe at her opponent’s abilities and how cool it must’ve looked. Her arms were completely disabled though and the previous couple of blows she took from those things exhausted her chakra supply, she was just reaching her vital limit which she couldn’t cross and her arms were completely disabled, Meiko also felt surging pain in her palms “ her hands must’ve been broken, or at least some bones in there.
The mobster lifted his arms up to smash Meiko to the ground, the girl saw the leftover crater from the last guy’s blow, she saw those guys tear through buildings with their mere hands as if they were made of paper and feathers. Meiko decided to wait until the last moment to move to the side but she saw the other brute walking up from behind the first one “ she didn’t know for how long she could’ve avoided those blows, several attacks, maybe more. They looked pretty pissed at her for some reason.
“Wait… Don’t tell me we already had an eat-off and you lost, you’re being sore losers, you know that?” Meiko grinned as the brute’s arms moved down to crush and grind her bones.
A powerful beam of blue light followed by deafening howls of wind followed. The brute standing right in front of Meiko froze solid. With a surprised expression Meiko looked to the side and saw Kouta and Shimo charging in. The Yuki swordsman made several handseals.
“Water Style: Water Asssault!” he yelled out spitting from his mouth a small stream of water right onto the ground filling the large hole that the brute’s fist previously left. Shimo made at least twelve more handseals with speed of weaving them that would’ve looked completely invisible to a normal human.
“Hijutsu: Crystal Ice Mirrors!” Shimo grunted out as the water inside the crater leaped up and formed thirty or so plates around the battlefield closing everyone inside in a formation of large ice mirrors, with a slightly audible bling sound Shimo’s reflection appeared in all of them. What followed was a deafening blur of invisible movements. Meiko couldn’t see anything that transpired as Shimo moved in a speed invisible not only to a normal human but most ninja too!
A crumbling sound gave several clues as to what may have transpired, a large chunk of the frozen brute fell down before the whole statue of ice collapsed in pieces. Kouta moved Meiko out of the way and placed his hands above hers, a strong green glow quickly patched her hands up “ the boy was becoming faster and more skilled with his healing every time.
“Well then… He took out one, haven’t seen that before, will have to go to the mines and make some more, what a bother. Kill them too!” the only talking mobster waved his arms indifferently moving in to pick up his weapon before Shimo’s afterimage appeared in front of him and then disappeared, as did his weapon. It was like the swordsman was everywhere within this field which the crystal mirrors surrounded.
“Shimo, don’t overdo it, you’ve already killed one of those guys like that! Let me take care of him! Just watch my back” Kouta yelled out charging at the remaining brute as his fist enlightened with the chakra glow, medical ninja had the ability to focus their chakra in their strikes much more carefully and with more finesse and control as compared to the usual chakra augmentation, they could’ve enhanced their strength without any fear of the repercussions which someone who augmented their abilities normally would’ve had to think about.
With an awesomely winded up and clearly telegraphed punch Kouta’s fist dug into the brute’s face, the oversized mobster didn’t even try to lean out of the way, he just took it and the force from the impact emanated throughout breaking every window and even every ice mirror of Shimo’s tossing the swordsman back from the sheer force of the blow.
“You idiot! What the hell are you doing!?” the swordsman yelled out annoyed by how unskilled they were at working together. That was commonly the problem with spontaneously formed squads.
Kouta’s eyes looked back at his friend, his face twisted in an apologetic smile, “Sorry, sorry, I didn’t think he’d take this blow head-on…” only after apologizing did Kouta’s brain realize that the brute was just standing right in front of him unfazed by the blow. The medical ninja stepped back rubbing his aching arm which would’ve blown up from the force of his punch had he not took great precautions with augmenting the endurance of the arm as well as his strength.
The brute raised his hand and winded it up to throw a punch at the medic. Normally medical ninja were taught quite extensively of the useful art of evasion so the boy leaped up into the air and onto the brute’s shoulder, using his shoulder to kick off of and jump into the air. The boy then placed his arms forward and growled, with a loud cracking sound, reminding most of the sound bones make when they shatter, two pipe-like protrusions of hardened skin formed around the boy’s arms “ a testament of his Juugo heritage.
“Chakra Pistol!” he yelled out firing a fireball of blue chakra formed from small blueish marbles of chakra that floated out from those protrusions and molded into a singular larger projectile. The concentrated ball of chakra exploded with far more power than any number of ninja tags could’ve, the explosion tossed the medical ninja back making him fall on his butt and almost breaking his elbows and tailbone from the impact but it gave him distance at least.
The sight of the brute however surprised the ninja greatly. He was twitching and had a large bruise on his chest, it was like the flesh his chest was peeled off with a knife. Kouta just couldn’t understand why would such a weak technique have inflicted so much damage, it wasn’t even his damaging attack, it was done purely to propel him further away after an unsuccessful attack and yet…
“What’s wrong, why aren’t you moving?” Shimo growled angrily at Kouta, evidently still quite pissed for how the boy ruined his technique.
“It’s… So strange…” Kouta mumbled under his own nose.
“What do you mean?! That was awesome!” Meiko yelled out shrieking and cheering like someone who attends the firework festival for the first time.
“It was a distraction, I’ve no idea why it did so much damage, the destructive power of my punch was at least eight times stronger than what this technique could do even head-on! It usually just burns people and slightly injures them, the reaction this guy has to it is… Just like a normal person with no enhancements would have but he took that blow as if his whole body was hardened with chakra!” Kouta explained standing up slowly.
As the team stared at the injured brute confused and still trying to figure out just what must’ve happened, the brute clenched its arms by his side and roared into the air, his shout let out powerful shockwaves that broke windows far from the alleyway it came from. The picking up winds from the shout tore laundry off the ropes and tossed it all over the place making it fall and stick onto any surfaces it fell on, several shirts and kimonos even got torn to pieces just from the force of it.
“Oh well, now you pissed it off. I’ve never seen it pissed off but it might just wreck this whole town, I’ve seen these guys lift small buildings above their heads just for the fun of it even when they’re on their joyful drooling mood” the gentleman mobster cracked a grin, clearly excited to see the potential of his bodyguards.
“DESTROY EVERYTH…” the brute yelled out as his muscles tensed so hard that they tore his suit and shirt to shreds. His mantra of destruction was however cut quite short by another brute falling down from above right on top of him. The weight of these brutes must’ve been impressive because it was enough to knock the large raging mobster down and even leave a small crater matching that in size of the one left by one of the punching the ground.
The trio looked up seeing Mana jumping from one balcony to another, grabbing the one she landed to by the ledge and then kicking off to another and then back, in just a couple of vaults the girl landed on the ground and dusted her aching hands. Some of the wounds she acquired from moving down from the rooftop were quite painful and were bleeding relentlessly, such minor injuries could’ve been avoided if she still possessed the ability to run down walls like a ninja…
“Holy shit, Mana!” Meiko kept screaming in joy, despite the efforts of these gangsters being solely devoted to crushing her this night proved to be an endless ride of joy and hype for the blacksmith.
The brutes started to pick themselves up from the ground, they stood up and stared at each other for a while before roaring and throwing a punch at each other’s face. An overwhelming gust of pure force sent everyone who wasn’t a roided out brute clutching for something to remain standing as the two heavyweights hit the dirt having knocked each other out.
“Well, it looks like that training in redirection I did wasn’t in vain… Good thing I went down to ask the owner for a glass of water when I did though, I’d have probably been killed in that initial impact” Mana smiled dusting off the pants of her pajamas.
“Did you just take out two of those things without your chakra control?” Kouta’s mouth open pointing his finger at Mana and then at the scene of the two unconscious brutes.
The girl’s face blushed as she stroke her bed hair madly, “Well, the stronger the force, the more effective the redirection…” she couldn’t handle compliments that well but the three just kept staring at her completely refusing to believe what just happened.
“Well then… I woke you guys up, you beat up my guys… I’d say we’re even, you see…” the gentleman turned around and started playfully dashing to the opposite direction. Shimo stood right in front of him before he could make it to the first corner kneeing the man into the stomach.
“You owe us, we’re leaving in the morning so we have no time to mess around with you, pay up and we’ll be on our way first thing in the morning. I believe your problem is with Meiko since the first hit was thrown right at her from above, we’re leaving tomorrow so we actually will be even. Your boss won’t even blow your head off for this failure if you lie…” Shimo’s husky and annoyed voice weaseled out a deal for the mobster. The gentleman’s arm reached into his pocket but Shimo’s arm reached it first, moving at blurring speeds.
The swordsman removed several large blocks of bills and tossed them at Meiko. The blacksmith struggled to keep them in her arms, letting them playfully slip around and tossing them like a hot potato before managing to finally catch them at which point she sighed and placed them into her ninja pouch, the blacksmith picked up her shield and placed it by her right hand.
“Storage Seal: Seal!” she yelled out as a bright light shot out from a hieroglyph that appeared on the girl’s armor piece and absorbed the shield within. Despite her jarring holes with ninjutsu and genjutsu techniques Meiko appeared to know how to perform sealing techniques at the very least.
“Ummm… I’m not travelling in my pajamas, we should drop by another inn and hit the clothes shop in the morning, then maybe the weapons shop and then we head to Land of Rivers” Mana scratched her head trying to make some sense of this mess and put their plan back together.
“Actually… Could you maybe… Not go to Land of Rivers?” the slimy mobster who was still on the ground after getting his jacket pocket emptied weaseled out.
“Why? What’s in the Land of Rivers? We are heading to the Wind Country and Land of Rivers is the only way there, it literally is the only passage on land and there’s no reason for us to sail around…” Kouta complained.
“Well, Boss’ Gold Mine is in the Land of Rivers, now that you offed so many of our muscle we’ll need to restock so our syndicate’s elite will leave to recruit some more brutes, they are umm… Trained… In the mines. If I am to lie that the armored girl is dead… It’d be better if we weren’t on the same place at the same town, just in case…” the mobster explained waving his arms as he spoke, he appeared to gesture a lot and his face was one of those overly detailing and emphasizing the emotion that its owner wanted to portray.
“Then our destination is clear “ we’ll destroy those mines and head to Wind Country for the Box. I mean we’re going to Land of Rivers anyways… We can’t allow these gangsters experiment on more people and then use those poor things to bully innocent people” Mana nodded crossing her arms on her chest.
“The client has spoken!” Meiko declared lifting her fist up to the sky as the four grouped up and headed towards another inn to finish their night in before the Tanzaku shops opened up.
“That complicates things…” the mobster grunted getting off of his knees and fixing his tie before placing his hat back on after picking it off the ground where it must’ve fallen at some point of the battle. “The Boss would like to hear about this “Box” though…” he spoke to himself as the four ninja had long since left the alleyway.
He had no choice, the Boss wouldn’t have accepted failure and if those Konoha ninja were ready to cross the Wind Country’s border for it this box must’ve been worth Boss’ attention and his mercy towards the failure of his subordinate…
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