Mana sighed observing the path that supposedly lead to the pyramid. The patches and temporary medical aids she applied on herself held and allowed her to at the very least postpone dealing with the wounds sustained in that last squabble. Truth be told it was less a squabble than a torture session… Once she reached that pyramid and found the Box she had the option of regaining her strength, to once again be able to dream of changing the world.
Then again, was she confident enough in her full strength? Could she really be arrogant enough to believe that with her full strength and chakra control regained she’d be able to change anything? The much more surefire solution was to ask for the Box to solve the problem at hand: to move the pirates far away or to transport Mana and her team back home. It’d be a huge waste of time to just ask for the Box to return everyone home after the journey they went through to find it. Still, if it saved her friends it’d be worth it a thousand times over.
These final stretches of the jungle were tough. It couldn’t have been more than a couple of kilometers away and yet Mana’s troubled by her wounds pace slowed the rush to a turtle’s pace. So many thick trees and bushes she had to walk around, so many rivers and suspicious looking lakes she decided to move around. Mana would be lucky to not get lost by the time she arrived… Then again the pyramid was so large that moving towards the island’s depths would’ve automatically lead to it. The history buff within Mana wanted to see the pyramid from within, to explore it in depth and see the architecture and the brickwork. She may not have had time for that.
If only she could’ve scaled those trees and all those complicated entangled networks of branches and vines up in the upper layers of the jungle leading up to the ceiling of sharp and thick branches and endless clouds of leaves stuck together in a clamp. She’d reduce the travelling time to nothing. If only she was as fast as other ninja and wouldn’t have torn up her chakra network again by using the physical chakra she’d make this dash in seconds…
*****
Finally the clash between Hachiro and Read began. Both warriors lunged at each other ready to cut the other down. Bonny’s frail legs and arms twitched creepily as they turned to the other side by the joint ready to assist her sister’s defense. The two moved so incredibly fast, by the time the sand particles rose up from the air gusts blowing off each of the combatants the two had already concluded their mad dash towards this clash.
Neither of the two desired this battle, Hachiro fought because he needed for Mana to stay alive if the madman was to be kept on his leash of sanity, what little of it that he had. Up to now the mysterious figure was working behind the scenes, some kidnappings, some mysterious assassinations and thefts of scrolls from the countries he’s been in. The only thing was clear, the only name the man mentioned to whomever he spoke to was that of Nakotsumi Mana of Konohagakure. Clearly this girl was important to that man somehow and Hachiro had to place his precious life on the line to keep the girl alive. Otherwise his escape to Archipelago would mean nothing…
Read on the other hand felt betrayed. She most definitely intended to strengthen l’Ollonais’ military power with those Audra shards. There were few pirates that couldn’t imbue their blades and kunai dispensers with chakra. However the ships could’ve used chakra armaments, made invincible to anything but the most concentrated chakra attacks. The cannonballs of Green’s ships could’ve been made of the Audra alloy by melting those shards and making them penetrate any pathetic attempts to shield other ships. These shards meant her Lord’s superiority in the oceans and she felt betrayed by these brats for them not following up to the end of their bargain. True, they were ninja after all, slimy assassins good for only their missions and silent murder. Still, even pirates didn’t stink this foul.
The feelings of each swordsman translated into their movements. Hachiro aimed for no openings, he moved graciously and his Sharingan was pushed to the overtime keeping up with all four blades of Read and Bonny combined coming at him. By abandoning any false hopes of ever tagging the woman and realizing just how densely and masterfully her blades were imbued with chakra allowed Hachiro to stop relying on blocking and instead move aside and redirect the woman’s blocks where he couldn’t avoid them. Each one was flashing almost instantaneously all over the place leaving small patches of blood and deep craters in the sand from the shockwaves of their deflected strikes. Once in a while a bunch of trees finally caught up to the reality of being cut down moments ago and fell down rumbling in the distance.
Read’s movements were fueled by her rage, by her sour taste of betrayal and deceit. Not only did these brats play her and her Pirate Lord for fools but they also dared to beat them back and strike down most of the woman’s crew. The magician brat was right back then “ if the two groups would’ve clashed back in the port town they’d have won, however they’d have won just having a bare minimum of able handed men. Certainly not enough to sail the seas. That was one disadvantage of Read compared to the children “ she needed men, a significant majority of them and she couldn’t have afforded to lose any of them and yet… Here it was. She let them play her, let the rage blind her so much that she let her men fall for her, abandon her in the moment of need. The worst part was it was her fault as a captain, she got played into letting her men fight these kids…
Hachiro’s body blurred after it was cut in two, it was just a mere afterimage left by the man’s swift movements where the man himself had leaped away. Rustling cloth sounds reached Read’s ears too late, it was like the man’s movements happened faster than the sound betrayed them happening. The Uchiha swept at the pirate captain’s legs sending her down on the ground. Bonny screamed in rage since she had to relocate her arms back into the joints to defend Read from the back again which apparently needed a moment. The captain got sent tumbling down, Hachiro’s arm slammed into the sand flipping his whole body to the side while his kick crushed into Read’s chest and slammed her to the ground with his sideways kick.
Bonny’s arms finally spent the moment they needed to relocate and tried swiping her sabers sideways at the Uchiha rogue but the swords only cut through a large stone which Hachiro used as substitution for his Substitution Jutsu. He had planned it all ahead, his Sharingan observed the movements of the little sister, those barely intelligent and more instinct based swordplay equivalent of unintelligible rambling and he created this short term plan of attack in a middle of a clash. That was the scary potential of the Uchiha clan, once widely regarded as the ninja elite but recently spoiled by their own strength. Rotten in the sauce of arrogance they laid in.
Hachiro spared no luxury of standing around, just as the unfortunate stone he used as replacement was cut in two cleanly he used the chance for a follow up attack. Bonny shook uncomfortably on Read’s back, she readied her swords but the silly sister felt confused that her opponent would attack her head on “ after all Bonny and Read demonstrated superiority in combining their minds and attacks into one symphony of bladework. Why would an inferior swordsman attack a superior one so blatantly?
In the middle of the rush Hachiro’s speed slowed down to about the degree intelligible to a human eye and his hand weaved a handseal.
“Body Flicker Jutsu!” he chanted dashing past Bonny and instead kicking at Read. The pirate captain shouted out in pain as her body lifted off the ground from the force of the kick. Hachiro wanted to continue his onslaught but he noticed that his kick was blocked by the blunt sides of the swords crossed together to stop his leg. While Bonny’s arms were still centered on Read’s back the Uchiha gave a couple of deceptive and lightning fast taps with his blade looking to poke something fleshy and soft but his efforts were in vain “ Read protected against them despite her offense concentrated style.
“I see… So that’s why you’re such a scaredy-cat?” Read grinned wiping her flaring red hair out of the way of her eyesight with a cocky grin.
Hachiro felt his muscles twitch in painful pinches “ his Body Flicker technique never came very cheaply and it was best used for out of combat scenarios such as travelling, where one had plenty of time to rest up afterwards. Using it in a middle of a battle was possible but it needed some cooldown time and it also strained one’s body, using it in rapid succession was even a greater strain. Maybe if the Uchiha trained more since his prime he’d have been able to sustain a swordsmanship style focused on Body Flicker, the way things were now jutsu like that were better left for the younger and better trained folks.
“Being worried about your life isn’t something new, it’s quite commendable really…” Hachiro flapped his mouth back in return, trying to catch some breath and some time before he can fight at his full after using that jutsu that Read was so generously giving him.
“Not like you… Not avoiding eating or drinking if it comes from someone else, not distrusting your own crew, not covering your own door with furniture while you’re on the ship. By the way those doors opened to the outside…” Read continued to mock Hachiro’s paranoid lifestyle.
“Well… You’d still need to push that cupboard away and step over the armchair even if you do pull the door open. Of course doing it myself when I had to take a leak was bothersome…” the man scratched his head before returning to a fighting stance.
“Those red eyes… You’re an Uchiha. I’ve met some of your kind, killed some of the brash youngsters of your clan myself. Most of them are amazingly talented and that’s their undoing. They get cocky, they begin believing like the whole world is just a play in which they’re the main characters and like they have no limits. I know why you’re so paranoid over “shit-goblins” and all that bullshit. It’s to keep your own ego down. You constantly rate everything around you as a threat to your life so that you arrogance never does you in like it does most Uchiha. I’m right, am I not?” Read confidently laughed out before pushing her rampant ginger hair back over Bonny’s face. Angrily beating around like an enraged forest spirit the young and frail sister kicked and beat around until she pushed the hair of her sister’s off of her own face.
“Frankly, lady, I think you’re crazy for underestimating shit-goblins…” Hachiro grinned before launching another attack. Read’s blades pushed Hachiro’s sword out of the way. The Uchiha prepared to deal with the two blades of the younger sister before realizing that Bonny held no swords. His knees and feet trying to kick at Bonny’s wrists only hit empty air. Read’s upfront stamping kick to Hachiro’s chest sent the man tumbling backwards and sliding over the rocky and root filled jungle floor.
Suddenly Bonny’s arms cocked backwards with that heart stopping cracking noise holding two kunai dispensers that opened a barrage of fire. Hachiro’s blade spun around as the man thought he could easily deflect anything that these lazy tools tossed at him. A single bump that emanated through his wrist probably cracking it in the process sent the sword swinging back through the forest and into the jungle grounds.
“Chakra infused?” Hachiro wondered as a couple of kunai pierced his chest and sent him down onto the jungle floor. Trying to keep up his momentum and not to get caught up in the whole barrage of blade fire the Uchiha continued to move doing his best not to have his mind be absorbed by the burning pain in his chest and shoulders where a handful of kunai blades were lodged in deep.
Bonny giggled out loud, the younger sister appeared to not speak but emit grunting sounds and creepy laughter. She couldn’t have had mental problems, she clearly thought on her own and abused the weaponry arsenal that Read had on her freely. The only ways to telepathically share thoughts were to be a Jinchuuriki and share thoughts with the Tailed Beast or to be of Yamanaka clan and possess the clan’s hidden techniques. Read clearly was neither of those things. She also didn’t relay any message for Bonny to switch up her style, the Sharingan would’ve picked it up… Bonny was thinking and acting by herself, quite intelligently one might have added. She noticed patterns and signature moves in Hachiro’s style and went around it by switching up her own style and timing. These were moves of a very skilled and intelligent warrior.
Hachiro coughed out some blood and examined the blades stuck in his chest for a moment without removing them. The way they were stuck they let out a small handful of blood once in a while but if removed they could’ve really let the red juice loose. Hachiro needed some time and he would have had none if he let himself bleed out like that. These kunai blades launched off of the dispenser were also imbued with chakra separately, actively by Bonny or Read. That was why the Audra blade was launched out of his hands and why his chakra augmentations got completely torn up like cooking paper.
Read and Bonny lunged forward, Bonny unleashing a barrage of hellfire from her dispensers and Read desperately tried to lop Hachiro’s head off with her wide swings and overwhelming offense. Hachiro’s hands slammed together as he felt his very finite chakra resources dipping as another water clone rose from a small jungle river nearby rushing to his air. The clone got riddled with kunai blades but it had greater endurance than a simple shadow clone, it was once Read completely shredded it to pieces with her blurry blades slashing the poor thing into a liquid fillet that the water clone met its end but by that point Hachiro had retreated into the depths of the forest and drawn the blade out from where it was stuck in, ready to continue fighting back.
Hachiro took his blade and leaped up into the upper layers of the jungle. Running along the trees as he sheathed his blade and removed a kunai from his pouch, one of his hands ran by a combination of hand seals.
“Fire Style: Rooster Flare” he chanted out breathing out a small tongue of flames that enveloped the steel of the kunai leaving the handle untouched. The Uchiha pulled out his other kunai stuck in his body and pressed his body against the tree feeling blood squirting out from the wound and running down his body and down onto the tree he was on. The man pressed the heated blade against his injuries creating a molten chunk of flesh, similar to a pinkish colored molten cheese in consistency, that completely sealed the wound but would leave a pretty nasty scar that would’ve needed a high level medical ninja to remove.
A feeling of weightlessness caught Hachiro unprepared as he felt the tree beginning to tumble down “ Read must’ve found the tree he was on by seeing the blood running down it. It was fortunate that the Uchiha did not count on the tree for anything else but providing a temporary sanctuary for him to seal his own wounds on. Hachiro’s hands went through another collection of hand seals in mid-fall.
A strong sensation of burning pain interrupted his string of hand seals as the rogue felt a piercing pain in his shoulder “ almost like hot glass driven under his flesh. Bonny’s firing skills must’ve finally got to him… While Hachiro’s fading consciousness looked to his side in mid-fall the man noticed that Bonny and Read switched weapons. Probably for the best having Bonny’s crazy overgrown long hair in mind…
Hachiro slammed into the ground hard. The man felt his hair beneath his body get sticky from the pool of blood behind his shoulder wound. This kunai was so precisely and masterfully imbued with chakra that it went right through his body without getting stuck. The man picked himself up and began crawling a bit further away, he needed time, a bit more time so that he could gather his thoughts and make a plan for properly fighting this woman back. She was making him have his hands full…
Hachiro’s eyes began to fade and his head started to feel dizzy. The man tore off a large chunk of his attire and hastily tied his wound up. Read opened fire upon the surrounding area trying to pin the Uchiha down or hit him with a lucky stray shot. The rogue knew it’d end up similarly like this but he rolled around causing some ruckus in the bushes just to cause a struggle. Hachiro felt like he could still fight, he had to still fight. He had to give this woman more of a fight. After all, he was fighting for his dream. He was fighting for his chance to live freely in the Archipelago without having to look behind his shoulder and dreading to see that man stalking him. In a way he was fighting for the fate of the entire world, that man was mad enough, a little more of a push past this point would’ve sent him way past the edge and then it’d be a pretty sour party for everyone…
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