Despite his opponent‘s greatly boosted confidence it didn’t look like Kusagoro feared the ingestion of two pills at once coming from his opponent. It may have been due to complete madness coming out from the Jugo’s transformation being completely unable to process what had just happened and correctly predict the boost in combat efficiency that the pills may have granted or it could’ve just been great trust in his own strength being able to overcome anything in Francho’s arsenal.
Kusagoro’s body blinked, the lines of the entire morphed body of the Jugo became blurry and hard to discern as the man charged right at his opponent. Francho placed a quick block, whatever those pills did, they at the very least completely overcame the negative effects of the previously used Curry Pill that previously had completely broken Francho’s body.
The Jugo’s raging uppercut broke through the Pirate Lord’s block tossing the Pirate Lord high up into the air from the immense force even if the main source of attack’s strength was blocked. Jets of chakra flame erupted from transformed feet of the shinobi launching him right after his opponent. Francho recovered from the initial shock and force of the impact and extended his hands aside disappearing from Kusagoro’s strike completely.
Kouta’s father stopped and began floating in mid-air, furiously looking around as his bloodshot and thirsty for carnage eyes wandered trying to find his opponent. Shimo and Kouta opened their jaws up wide from disbelief. They couldn’t discern the exact events transpiring in front of them and could only tell what was going once the fighting halted momentarily, Mana on the other hand couldn’t even tell those brief microsecond breaks that the two combatants took to regain their strength and throw a line or two at each other “ the whole fight was like a flash to her that only made sense once the two seriously backed away from one another. She could only tell what was going on from what she was being told.
“How could Red be possibly faster than father? He never hit me as a speedster type, just what kind of pills were those?” Kouta grunted out quickly telling Mana what happened, she could now perfectly see Kusagoro floating in the sky but not the Pirate Lord who seemingly disappeared in thin air.
Suddenly loud thunderous shocks began emanating from all over Kusagoro’s body. Initially the four young ones thought it must’ve been the raging thunderstorm but then they noticed that the lightning flashes weren’t consistent, it was like gattling gun fire of explosives blowing up all over Kusagoro’s body: his face, chest and abdomen, even around his joints and the four could both feel and see the immense shockwaves emanating from those areas almost like the veteran was being pummelled.
“Enough!” Kusagoro yelled propelling small sparks of chakra from each of his body pores creating a small blueish forcefield around him that extended supposedly blowing any close range attacker away. “Don’t think you’re hurting me with those lame attacks of yours…” he taunted the invisible Pirate Lord. It wasn’t just empty taunts though, the shinobi was standing and taking all of the punishment nonchalantly shrugging it all off and ignoring the strikes as if they weren’t even happening. That was why the four young ones found this peculiar assault so confusing.
Up from a barely intelligible point of air Akimichi Francho materialized, no… He expanded from it almost like he didn’t disappear before but instead minimized and now returned to normal size. The Pirate Lord just laughed in Kusagoro’s face.
“Well then… Perhaps I should try hitting you even harder, huh? I’m just playing around with these new techniques of mine, you’ll have to forgive me…” Francho spoke up before laughing out loud again. For a man who just hit millions of free strikes in mere microseconds without inflicting any damage on his opponent the Pirate Lord was immensely confident and joyful.
Kouta began describing what was happening to Mana and suddenly the magician began piecing this peculiar manner of attack together. It wasn’t that tough to do, Kouta told her of the visual aspects of this odd invisibility aspect and knowing Akimichi clan hidden techniques, as someone who hailed from Konoha, a place where Akimichi were dime and dozen, and being someone who read about the subject before, Mana could easily put two on top of two.
“He’s not fast… He’s not teleporting or anything, this isn’t Body Flicker. It’s size and mass manipulation of an uncanny degree” Mana concluded.
“Makes sense…” Shimo nodded, “Akimichi techniques do have a lot in common with size expansion and mass gain. They are in fact a chubby lot. That being said, if these pills unlock such incredible ways to manipulate one’s size and mass it could be trouble…”
“That’s not even the problem” Kouta interrupted, “Father is too reckless and bloodthirsty in his current form to think this through, he won’t understand how to fight this enemy” he worried.
“Is there even a way to fight someone manipulating their size and mass in an instant at will?” Meiko wondered, she looked the most lax and carefree out of the four and looked at the fight like a spectacle of fireworks more than a fight that determined her fate and mission completion.
“She’s right…” Mana agreed, “If Francho can freely manipulate his size and mass at will he can just increase his mass to a number as large as the human mind can muster increasing his hitting strength, he can also reduce his size to the size of an atom and be virtually invincible while hitting strong enough to shake the very fabric of reality”
“That’s only if Red has no limiters to these abilities, all Kouta’s father has to do now is stall until the negative effects kick in and the pirate is done for, there’s hope yet…” Shimo continued to stare at the two combatants who didn’t attack, just continued to float in the air as Francho must’ve reduced his mass to the extent where he could’ve freely floated in the stormy ocean winds, manipulating it just enough so that he didn’t get swept away by them like an autumnal leaf.
Without saying a single thing or seemingly thinking his plan through Kusagoro charged onwards. Francho once again reduced his size to a totally invisible amount while he appeared right behind his opponent expanding the size of his hands at least several dozen times. The Pirate Lord clutched his hands together crashing his enlarged hands downwards at Kusagoro but the veteran simply lifted his own arm up and stopped the immense crash. The shockwave that was emitted from this smashing attack was immense, Mana saw the oceans split open and rage even more than they did before, the bottom ground beneath the waters split open revealing large gazers of magma as everything besides the Box got carried aside. Only because the four were on top of the Box did they avoid having their flesh peeled off their bones from just the pressure of the air alone.
“Wow, not even five nonillion kilos can budge you, huh?” Francho laughed out but Kusagoro pushed the pirate’s hand back before they returned to normal size and Kusagoro prepared for a counter-attack having just provided himself with an opening.
“Chakra Shotgun!” he yelled out slamming cannon arm against Francho’s face and firing off a blast of chakra of amazing concentration and force, focusing its entire might right into being transmitted through Francho’s body and not a single flare got lose, as if it did it’d have decimated the entire system.
Kusagoro’s body blurred and moved behind where he had perceived the Pirate Lord to be, roaring out with great fury behind his powerful voice the bloodthirsty shinobi slammed his other arm and repeated his attack blasting at the back of the Pirate Lord’s head.
“It doesn’t seem that such a simple technique can break through the mass of fifty nonillion kilos of handsome pirate goodness” Francho’s laughter thundered again as the pirate’s size decreased again disappearing in thin air. Kusagoro’s body began moving rapidly, his movements were so incredibly fast that the shinobi managed to avoid all of the strikes delivered by an opponent as small as an atom whizzing all around him transformed into a human boulder and desperately trying to decimate Kusagoro’s defences. After having seen this manner of attack once, the Jugo could now see and attempt to defend against his miniscule opponent’s attacks.
The Jugo dashed backwards and descended back at the settling down oceans below, avoiding strikes delivered on such a miniscule scale greatly wore him out, he couldn’t even comprehend how his opponent was freely reducing his size and mass at will and buzzing around like an atom sized bee trying to sting him with a punch delivered by a man weighing as much as a large black hole. He had to calm down the transformation to some degree, calm himself down a little…
The glyphs all over Kusagoro’s white skin began to fade as the blackened skin marks started retreating leaving more and more exposed skin. The shinobi’s black eyes began clearing up and his iris became more like his usual self, being of the combined color of the golden iris he had when transformed and his normal green color.
“What’s the matter, running out of juice already?” Francho laughed out frantically clutching at his fat belly as he almost shook in triumphant childish glee.
“Just worried about you, if those retarded puny pills before almost got you killed, I’m worried these definitely will” Kusagoro replied with enough confidence and snark behind his voice to fuel the illusion of being in control.
“Father! Watch out, he can manipulate his mass and size freely!” Kouta shouted out from the top of the Box having found a moment when his father’s mind somewhat cleared from the sadistic and murderous urges of his transformation where he was literally unable to think clearly.
“I see…” Kusagoro uttered to himself.
Francho laughed out again before smacking himself in the face, “Oh well, it seems I’ve been found out… That is true, taking the pills beyond the third cures the negative effects of the first or the second pill. In addition the Aleppo pill removes the natural limiters of the size manipulation of the Akimichi clan techniques while the Cayenne pill does the same for mass manipulation. They also automatically unlock said techniques and use it for the user being only tied to the user’s chakra pool”
“I have to say, for a lowly pirate who is barely an acquaintance of the complicated ninja arts and chakra control your mastery over these techniques, even with those pills, is impressive” Kusagoro noted.
“Well… I couldn’t really learn all those hidden techniques by myself, but if those dumb monks have a pill for that and I could bypass that weakness by just training my overall chakra pool what does it matter? Isn’t ninja a person who bypasses their limitations, someone who goes underneath the underneath? In that sense I’m more of a ninja than all of you!” Red proudly declared pointing at himself with his thumb while cockily smiling.
This time it was Kusagoro’s laughter that killed the eerie silence.
“You cocky little shit, you think you’ve studied for what, a day, a week, a year or two and that makes you a ninja? Even those brats down there studied until they were barely old enough to speak properly and express their wish of becoming ninja. You’ve just adopted the ninja arts, you’ve no idea about the responsibility wielding such power carries. Because you, a lowly pirate, dare make such stupid claims while popping pills all the way to power, I will kick your ass!” Kusagoro yelled out angrily as chakra began pouring from his powers, all the evil thoughts he had, all of the malevolent impulses of the Curse Mode and all the primal chakra flowing through his network was focused as Kusagoro resumed his mindless destructive transformation.
“Dad! You’re risking crossing to the second stage!” Kouta shouted out visibly having lost all sense of composure and completely in fear.
“What happens in the second stage?” Mana asked.
“A total loss of control, the first stage is all about negotiating with one’s primal side awakened by natural chakra. In the second stage it takes over completely” the boy exclaimed in fear. “All this power father is fighting with, it only doesn’t destroy the planet, the system, the galaxy or even several because father skillfully controls and guides his output. If he loses control… There’ll be none of that”
Mana’s eyes widened in fear realizing what it could’ve meant. Now all the fear and hunting of the Jugo clan made so much sense. All the fear and hatred and prosecution of this violent clan of warriors by Iwagakure, all the senseless murder began approaching the realm of lazy justification of genocide. Naturally Mana would’ve never understood what could’ve lead a village to the bloody edge which Iwagakure crossed with the Jugo clan but she was beginning to see where their lazy justifications could’ve hailed from.
“Barrage Piston Fist!” Kusagoro yelled out as his body simply flashed right up to Francho in a literal instant, or at least the difference between it being an instant and any inconsequential part of time having passed was so miniscule it barely mattered. Francho even with all of his acquired might. Kusagoro’s fists disappeared deep inside the cannon-like structures which looked more like floating battleships than arms. However instead of cannons the Jugo’s own fists were fired from inside at incomprehensible speeds creating a barrage of punching madness.
Francho simply stood still as the punches blasted his chubby body and bounced off of him. Initially the hulking Pirate Lord was peeing his pants seeing the intensity and might of his opponent’s punching power and the speed at which each successive punch was thrown but then Red realized that with a high enough mass increase he could simply absorb all of the force behind this barrage of fists sent at him. Even as Kusagoro’s world shattering blows entered the count of sextillions Francho’s body continued to stand like a tower taking machine gun fire of pebbles.
“Father is stronger and faster than Francho but… That stupid ability of his…” Kouta cursed seeing the powerful shockwaves coming out from the barrage of blows blast against the Box’s forcefield and get deflected by it. Soon the skies above the four young ninja was no longer dark, illuminated by the purple thunderbolts but dyed bright blue by the color of Box’s forcefield protecting them from Kusagoro’s power.
“Now, how about my turn!” Francho laughed out leaning forward and throwing a quick barrage of blows “ the pirate minimized the mass of his arms to miniscule amounts so that they flew through the air without resistance, fast as greased lightning and then maximized their mass to the weights approaching the weight of a small star right before the moment of impact maximizing both speed and power of these blows. Kusagoro’s body blurred and disappeared from this barrage of blows. The veteran reappeared right above Francho driving his elbow right into the top of the Pirate Lord’s head sending the man into the chaotic ooze of magma, sunken islands and rocky bottom minerals and boiling water below.
For a brief moment Kusagoro observed just how his opponent would react to this attack but then he witnessed Francho jumping out of the watery and magma grave covered with molten rock and minerals only to wipe them off and prepare for an attack.
“Is that the best you got?” Francho taunted his opponent but there was no laughter or mocking behind the pirate’s voice. He was speaking offensively but his voice and tone was anything but, full of fear and strange respect for his opponent.
“No. This is…” Kusagoro spoke closing his eyes. “I’ll show you the amount of power a true ninja can wield, what he is responsible for. Did you know that the residual energy from the explosion that jumpstarted our very universe is still present all around us? The Jugo can tap into that power as it is the most primal and natural chakra available…” the shinobi explained as his transformation ended.
Kusagoro cancelled his Curse Mode because he needed maximum restraint, total control and mastery over his actions because he was about to wield impossibly ancient chakra that was present ever since the beginning of the universe itself. He’d reach all the way to the ends of his comprehension of space and time and borrow as much of it as he could. If that did not decimate his opponent, and probably much more than that… It was tough to imagine what could have.
Kusagoro continued to fly up and up until he bypassed the dark clouds and continued to fly upwards through the crimson red sky above observing the sunlight far away in the horizon. Then the sky darkened and darkened but not because the Sun disappeared behind the horizon “ it became larger and more prominent as Kouta’s father travelled to the most upper layers of Earth’s atmosphere where everything around him was smothered by darkness and the only light came out of the Moon’s reflection of the solar light as well as the faraway stars and the Sun itself.
“All of it… Take in all of it I can reach…” Kusagoro thought to himself closing his eyes and letting his entire skin open its pores and absorb the bright as atomic sized stars balls of primordial chakra, the very first particles of energy, the very first object in the world containing chakra. The Jugo’s hands changed into the shape of cannons as he pointed them right at the area he rose from below. His eyes still tracked of the Pirate Lord who didn’t bother to run or hide. That fool must still have believed in his pride as a Pirate Lord and ability to survive this. Long pipe-like structures extended off of Kusagoro’s morphed up back through which he still channeled the primordial residual chakra that was leftover from the Big Bang aimed right at his prideful and incredibly stupid opponent.
“Chakra Omnipulsar!” Kusagoro uttered to himself as there was no one as high up as he was to hear it. After a moment of silence a blindingly bright flash of light fired off from both of his extended cannon arms and the two beams rotated around one another only to collide together into a singular blast of immense size.
The beam went on and one reaching the Earth’s surface in mere seconds before a pulsing shockwave, still visible in its almighty destructive bright glory extended in a circular expanding motion throughout most of the ocean raising crashing waves and outright decimating most islands in the Tako’s Reach. A flashing and pulsing inferno of light was left within the reaches of that sphere and yet Kusagoro felt confident enough that the kids survived the destructive aftermath of the attack. Kusagoro’s hand changed back into their original shape and the jets on his feet began slowly run out of chakra flares to keep him in the air.
The tubes on his back through which he absorbed and channeled excessive amounts of primal chakra also faded and got absorbed into his body before becoming skin and flesh. Kusagoro’s arms began feeling heavy and the ninja began slowly descending back into the world, large portion of which he shook with his attack even if he perfectly concentrated the flow of the beam.
“Shit… I did it perfectly but I get the feeling I won’t hear the end of it from the Boss Lady…” he complained to himself as Kusagoro slowly descended back to where the skies were crimson red and disappeared into an open continent spanning hole in the dark skies. Even his chakra resources were beginning to run thin, and here the Jugo veteran thought that he could fight forever… Then again, he never had to tap into the residual chakra from the Big Bang itself to win a fight.
Now only to see the results of his last resort…
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