Damp and silent raindrops just barely ticked as they were falling and being absorbed by a raggedy cloth hood covering the shoulders of a large man who was wandering the rocky streets of the port town during a downpour. For a second the man’s large cape topped off with a face covering shady hood split by his body after the cape was blown back by a strong gust of ocean winds, the gusts brought with them a sour smell of salt and blood. For a brief moment that the man’s muscular arms were revealed a white tie with messy red dried out blood stains could’ve been seen tied around one of them.
The man walked alone, he had a company of a dead young woman before yet he submitted the cadaver to his home village instead of giving it to the bounty hunters that paid much better. The Hokage was quite thankful for the contribution and apparently the dead body he carried on his shoulders at that moment was immensely valuable. The DNA of that woman must’ve had some really weird strains or something, she was a freak of her clan and the dead bodies of those mutated freaks were always priceless. The man’s muddy reputation was almost redeemed and with his request he was reinstated to his previously held yet suspended rank and given another mission “ to retrieve his son and bring him back to the village.
Apparently after a long while the village was becoming a little curious as to what happened to the team sent after the Box of Ultimate Bliss. The last report that reached the village expressed interest in seeing an artist in Otogakure in order to decipher some strange clues the team had picked up. That could’ve been several weeks ago and to a ninja moving at a careful but elevated pace it would’ve taken much less to travel a quarter of the world. The Administration suspected that the team may have continued their mission as mentioned in the report after the clues have been deciphered. There were some that feared the young teens going rogue on the village… The hooded man accepted this low ranking mission but not because he did low ranking jobs like that, not even because the mission target was his son. It was because he had another hidden agenda.
The hooded man walked up to a merchant selling fish by a lowly inn. He moved his hood up a little so that his mouth and some of his face could be seen if the man preferred lip reading to auditory speech recognition.
“Have you seen an Uchiha, preferably with the Mangekyou set of eyes. Last time I saw him he had just one working eye” the man asked but the old man just scratched his head.
The words “Mangekyou Sharingan” would’ve said nothing to a lowly fish merchant, they may have sounded funny, as if some myth or a legend to others. To those that knew what it was it may have invited excitement or a sip of respectable fear. It was a set of eyes unseen for quite some time, someone using those demonic abilities from those accursed eyes would’ve stood out like a sore thumb.
“Mange-what now?” the old man giggled, “I just sell some fish, want some trout maybe? Don’t tell me, you look like a salmon kinda guy to me” the man chuckled again. His manner of speech and gesticulation suggested low intellectual capacity.
The hooded man’s arm shot like a viper through the air, moving almost instantly. Fractions of a moment itself, if given a set of eyes and a soul wouldn’t have been able to track the man’s movements. After gripping firmly at the man’s collar the hooded man picked the small elder up and pulled him up closer, to an eye-to-eye level but the murky skies and dark rain clouds helped the mystery man’s hood form a shadow around his eyes.
“Think hard, old man, did you see a man with red demonic eyes teleporting around. He may have had just one eye, maybe carrying his dead sister around… Think hard and answer truthfully” the mystery man grunted out angrily, he almost roared the words out right into the petrified elder’s face.
A collection of loud thuds and whizzing blades interrupted the conversation, or rather interrogation, as a barrage of small knives bounced right off the mystery man’s back and head as if the man’s skin was made of impenetrable armor alloy. Truthfully he was merely immensely tough, but a man of flesh and bone like any other.
“Fuck off, pirate scum!” some drunkard yelled out pointing a defective kunai dispenser at the towering mystery man who slowly let the old man go, letting him fall down onto the damp and muddy ground, shaking in fear.
“Even if I was a pirate, you’d not scare me with an unimbued metal trash like this” the hooded man’s lower face showed teeth “ he was grinning sadistically, slowly walking towards the drunk fool who took him for a pirate and opened fire. Likely a weapon snagged from a lowly pirate anyways. Anyone with a sense of irony would’ve found a pirate hating town fighting pirates off with snagged from pirates weaponry a tad bit hypocritical.
“What? Get away!” the drunk shook in his boots letting the defective weapon drop from his hands only for the hooded man to pick it up and crush it into pieces in his single hand.
“Let me teach you a thing or two about weapons, idiot, if you want to hurt someone with a stupid blade firing machine like this, you need to make sure the blades are artificially coated with chakra by a blacksmith or do it yourself. Otherwise it’s only good for scaring children” the man winded up his fist for a finishing blow that’d without a doubt have blown off the drunkard’s head off.
“Wait! Wait! Mr. Hood!” the fishmonger screamed out in panic. “I remember now! There was this red-eyed man, he fought a bunch of kids from Konoha looking for a ship that’d take them to the Tako’s Reach. They took off in a large ship heading towards the center of Tako’s Reach! He had two eyes though, I’m not sure if it’s the same man you are looking for” the old man shouted out, after being told everything he wanted to know the hooded man’s grip loosened letting the drunkard slip from his grasp and fall onto his butt. After being saved from a most gruesome end the fool only crawled away to fall asleep in an alley somewhere.
“I see… Well then…” the hooded man appeared to grow on sight, then his feet emerged from under his coat deformed and almost wooden in texture appearing like some sort of jet boots. Lightly and gracefully the man took off with a backflip off the platform under which was only the shallow sea and the jet cannons on the man’s feet fired weak beams of chakra that propelled him like an ocean piercing arrow, booming so loudly and flying off into the horizon so fast that every house rich enough to have windows had them broken. Just like every pint, glass and bottle of beer in the entire port town exploded from the booming sound pressure of the hooded man.
*****
Hachiro angrily squinted at the pirates that for a moment stopped beating down on the young teens. The Uchiha’s goal was to save the medical ninja first before he got beaten to death. It certainly looked like the young teens were already halfway done in. Shimo looked almost lifeless in his accumulating pool of blood, stabbed by two slightly curved swords because he was so reckless. So defiant and not like his sensei at all. There was a reason why Hachiro feared everything unless completely cornered… It was so that mistakes like those of that defiant little brat weren’t made.
The Uchiha’s body blurred as he rushed onward at the five still standing pirates beating down on the medical boy. As expected his wide lightning fast swings were blocked. The cowardly swordsman was seeing the cracks on the shitty pirate sword he snagged already with his naked eye. A thrust from an ignorant but having more power than he knew what to do with pirate tried to pierce his flaring red eyes. Hachiro’s figure disappeared leaving not a single dust to be felt from his previous existence, instead appearing right behind the aggressive pirate and slamming his blade into the back of the pirate’s head with the blunt back of it. The impact was so shockingly loud and powerful that the sword outright exploded into shatters. Shoddy steel indeed…
The pirate who was slammed by this overwhelming force only stumbled forward, his eyes were completely whited out but these men could’ve been hit by the Moon falling on their heads and they’d still have stood their ground. Hachiro weaved a hand seal and his own baby appeared in his arms.
“Partial Substitution Technique” he uttered replacing the shattered blade handle in his hands with the Audra blade that Shimo wielded before he was cut down, hopefully not lethally. The Yuki had no use for it at the moment anyways. Just like the Substitution Jutsu replaced a ninja with an object instantly, the Partial Substitution Jutsu replaced any object of theirs with that of another.
Drawing the sword in an instant in a wide reaching motion Hachiro attempted to cut down as many as he could, his movements fast enough to confuse and disorient even these speedsters capable of outracing greased lightning bolts. All of the pirates lifted off the ground leaping into the air. The crew flew up so high that it would’ve been difficult to see them from the ground floor. The ears of the cowardly swordsman picked up a ceaseless tirade of booming sounds “ the sounds of kunai dispensers firing off fist sized capsules filled with makibishi spikes that exploded upon impact.
Hachiro’s Sharingan could’ve screamed in excitement of being able to show off his handiwork, calculating the exact trajectory of each capsule, letting him see each and every one of them flying down at him at about 500 m/s. It only brought a smile at the cowardly man’s face as his sword was resheathed lightning fast and a barrage of kunai followed the capsules detonating them early and making the spikes rain and scatter harmlessly in the water and the sands being washed away and into the depths of the ocean. Now the Uchiha wished to do something about the descending pirates.
After a chain of hand seals Hachiro lifted his arms up to his mouth and breathed out hard through a gap between his fingers that made the final hand seal.
“Fire Style: Rising Dragon Flame!” he shouted out as his lungs blew out hot chakra infused air which ignited and shaped into a spiraling roaring dragon swallowing the pirates and letting their smoky and singed up yet only unconscious bodies slam into the ground like ragdolls dropped from the heavens. Hachiro held back the intensity of his flames. He had no need or wish to kill these men, there was a very specific reason for that “ the girl he did this all for, the young magician girl.
The pirates beating down on Meiko kicked the girl’s bloody and bruised but still conscious and still fighting back body aside and began shouting at Hachiro but jumping around like barking dogs, hesitant to move onwards and attack him.
“Heal yourself, heal the Mana, heal the blacksmith, heal my stupid student” Hachiro ordered Kouta in a voice without tremble or hesitation, this wasn’t the voice that the Uchiha wore usually. It was a voice of a man who controlled the situation, a man who chose to involve himself to save the crew he cared about.
Kouta and Hachiro lunged forward at the same time. As Hachiro’s sword once again left his sheathe the medical ninja darted off aside and gracefully flipped around his pirate opponents only to pick up Meiko and move her aside. The medical ninja then began looking for an opportunity to pick up Shimo who was laying unconscious and slowly bleeding out right in front of the pirate captain who just observed the situation “ she didn’t look like she’d let the Yuki be moved however…
Hachiro fought off all the knife and scimitar wielding pirates at once. He was like a raging lion of battle. His blocks and dodges came through moderate effort and it was not an easy clash for him but he persevered! The Uchiha kicked one of his pirate opponents in the groin after blocking all of the initial attacks and rolled over his shoulder driving the back of his sword into the unfortunate fellow’s back. The other pirates attempted a counter attack to stop Hachiro’s further rampage but they all were treated to a slam from the side of his Audra blade that knocked most of their teeth out “ a blindingly fast wide arcing swing.
Now that the other pirates were dazed and stumbling about Hachiro closed his eyes to concentrate for a moment “ after his eyes opened his Sharingan issued a warning as the time dilated around him. The warning almost burnt his nerve endings in pain “ the medic was rushing at captain Read trying to move Shimo’s bleeding and unconscious body out of her reach and into where he could be healed. Hachiro leaped at the woman to give her something to work with, his sword clashed with the two of hers but then her blades blurred “ the four sabers dancing in symphony, dropping wild swings and X shaped slashes, attacking high and low at the same time. Hachiro felt a warm splash of his own blood cover his face.
“Why don’t you put them under a genjutsu!?” Kouta shouted out before a kick from Read sent him tumbling back, at least the attack gave Hachiro some time to dash back and examine his own wound.
“My eyes are not Mangekyou Sharingan, I’ve placed just about the limit of people I can place into an illusion, if I placed any more the ones I’ve placed in it before would be released. In addition Read’s mind has a sense of duality to it. She and her sister share aspects of their bodies so one could issue her chakra to the other breaking the sister out of it” Hachiro grunted seeing the pirates slowly recovering. Read and the pirates all lunged at him at the same time. There could’ve been no helping it!
“Body Flicker Jutsu!” Hachiro roared out through pain as his body became energized by an overflow of chakra sending him to Shimo, grabbing him and then back to his initial place before grabbing Kouta and moving him to Mana in just about exactly an instant. Body Flicker was an instantaneous movement technique, it consumed a great deal of chakra and Hachiro may have mastered its intricacies but not the control of its chakra demands. Still, in that situation it was needed.
“Coward! Come on and face us!” Captain Read shouted out swinging her blades about just as Bonny did the same. That troublesome sister of Read’s was so immensely flexible, capable of dislocating her joints and snapping her arms backwards to defend Read’s front or defend the pirate captain from the back in her normal state.
“I intend to…” Hachiro took a small moment to regain his breath after the taxing use of Body Flicker. He felt completely drained and he must’ve admitted that he’d need the brats’ help if he was to survive this encounter as was his full intention. Hachiro’s body flashed in a black and brown blur dashing straight at the still standing pirates but careful enough not to get within Read’s reach. He was still faster than the woman even if he was two limbs short from being able to sustain a swordfight with her. The smart thing to do would’ve been to pick off the small fries first.
Kouta’s hands touched Mana’s shoulder and tried to gently force her to lie down. Mana shook her head and pointed at Shimo who was bleeding profusely.
“Please…” she begged her friend to prioritize the more severe and much more useful to the team’s strength comrade.
“No way! I’m gonna be your boyfriend, remember? Plus cow… I mean Hachiro was incredibly precise about me treating you first” Kouta began to argue.
“I’m just gonna lay down here and bleed while you argue… No pressure…” Meiko butt into the conversation, she was right “ arguing only postponed Kouta’s stressful duty to see to it that everyone makes it.
“I’m weak… I can’t help you beat anyone now that I’ve nearly broken my chakra network again, Shimo can. Come on!” Mana begged Kouta who just closed his eyes and sighed placing his hands onto Shimo’s chest.
“And here I thought you two were at each other’s throats…” he sarcastically added.
Further away Hachiro shouted out in pain as the two pirates rammed his ribs with a powerful coordinated shoulder tackle sending him flying through a bunch of trees opening up an entrance to the jungle leading to the pyramid containing the illustrious Box of Ultimate Bliss. The man grunted in pain and spat out some blood from his mouth.
“Trees can leave splinters in my skin, those can get infectious and then I’m looking at gangrene or even death! You bastards! I’ll kill you!” he shouted in his familiar cowardly and paranoid manner. The pirates began the assault together with their captain teaming up on Hachiro just like any smart team would’ve. The Uchiha’s eyes worked overtime, fists and blades were everywhere moving at flashy speeds, the man bent his body in ways that it wasn’t supposed to bend, swung his sword around doing his best to block as many attacks as he could.
Pain, sparks of pain followed by warm splashes of blood running down the hit spots. A strong combination of kicks and strikes from a pair of lowlife pirates sent him through another bunch of trees backwards. Read leaped in kicking him through yet another tree and slashing wildly at Hachiro’s body, the dazed Uchiha could barely lift his sword up in time, his body was taxed by the Body Flicker and his head was all stingy from being punched and kicked so many times and bashed through ancient tougher than rock trees.
Luckily enough with a sly slide Hachiro managed to dodge the final decapitating scissor swipe and knock Read on her voluptuous bottom. With a quick dash through the confused pirates, fighting off the pain and the screaming head Hachiro pushed his leg onwards to repurpose his force and backflip with a slash at the closest pirate to him. The man screamed like a pig as the Audra steel left a gashing mark on his face, chest and belly. The Uchiha did his best to follow up his attacks but they were then all blocked. Luckily enough a small tunnel of downed trees let him avoid getting surrounded and made fighting his way back to the beach a little easier.
The clangs from all the blades and thuds from their knees and kicks clashing became bothersome and taxing for the cowardly swordsman’s ears. He felt the soft beach sand beneath his feet again, taking no luxury to check on Kouta’s healing process. It was highly unlikely he’d get any help from the kids for a while the way it was going.
Hachiro’s hands went through hand seals slamming his hands together he breathed in deep and spat out a large collection of water just at the same time as he flung a flock of shuriken at the pirates. His body was screaming and he was pushing himself like never before for this magician girl but he had no choice. She couldn’t die, if she was to die THAT man would be severely infuriated and then there’d be no place on Earth or the Moon that’d hide Hachiro from him after the madman found out that Hachiro was there and didn’t stop it. Mana assumed that the Uchiha was a selfless brave hero… Truth be told the red-eyed rogue was just looking out for the world and more importantly “ himself. As long as the two were travelling together the young lady had to be peachy and happy, that was in madman’s best interests and that meant in Hachiro’s interests as well.
“Water Style: Avalon’s Kiss!” the man shouted out as the chakra infused water from his lungs and mouth expanded absorbing the humidity from the air and surrounded the shuriken with mass of watery liquid. The pirates covered up themselves to defend against the upcoming barrage and got their bodies and faces full of shuriken covered with water that blunted but strengthened the hits walloping at their stamina and endurance augmentations. Most of them tried to block using their blades which shattered them instantly due to the fact that simple shoddy swords weren’t meant to compare themselves to ninjutsu. Disarming those men was his intention. Read herself stayed behind her puppets and avoided any damage, pity.
Hachiro cursed, these lowlife pirates were tough, even after all the punishment they were put through “ the fight that the blacksmith girl had in her, the multiple attacks from Hachiro himself and now this… They still stood on their feet ready to come at him. They were fazed, injured and staggering, on their last feet but still willing to go. What trouble fearing for his own life got him into this time!?
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