Tanshu and the monk huffed heavily, both men had their upper bodies dragged to the ground but only through sheer willpower did they resist the temptation to fall down and pass out. Tanshu's face was red in multiple spots, beaten and bruised and the monk's body was covered with burns and black marks. The Red Dog took a brief moment to look down the stairs to multiple floors below witnessing Howoku and Haoru standing around and treating each other's injuries. His comrades were safe, they'll get to return to their katei, Tanshu will defend his own, baby gloves could've been taken off, there were no more concerns in Tanshu's mind. The monk leaped forward, he smelled blood and knew that there was a chance that he'd be the one to outlast his opponent. A direct blow right to the monk's face sending him crashing into the staircase and making bricks and stone fly out of the construction convinced him otherwise.
"Your speed picked up…" the monk huffed out spitting several teeth out and wiping blood from his broken face, after getting pounded again and again this man's balanced flow of chakra was interrupted. His mastery over chakra control to enhance his physical abilities now mattered less than it did ever before as it now didn't feel like Tanshu was punching a steel barrier covering a stone wall – it felt like a mace hammering away at soft flesh and bone. "Hokage finished his fight, I've no more concerns over anyone else, nothing on my mind to keep me away from this battle." "You mean you didn't mean this whole fight?! You were somewhere else in your mind the entire time?" the monk shouted out in frustration, Tanshu's arm disappeared in his messy brown hair as he scratched the back of his head. "Kind of… That's why I didn't use my sword, if I swung it when I don't look at what I'm doing I can cut my own limb off by accident, I'm really clumsy when I'm thinking about something else entirely…" the Sannin laughed out admitting to his opponent that he never had any hopes of winning to begin with.
"So you're a swordsman then?" the monk asked, Tanshu took a taijutsu stance and shook his head. "My sensei taught me how to use a sword in my childhood but… I wouldn't say that I am." Tanshu replied. The monk charged forward, with near perfect precision the Sannin leaned out of every blow, effortlessly pushed away every kick, ducked and leaped over every attack before moving away untouched. The monk fell on his knees. He had trouble breathing, it was more than likely that broken ribs added to the shortage of air by making inhalation painful. "I'd give you five minutes to recover normally but… We sort of are in a rush, if you'd feel better I can think about something else again so we can fight as somewhat equals again. Make your last fight an honorable and good one. No one will notice my own wandering thoughts anyways…" Tanshu spoke, he really wanted to be done with this and go after the Mizukage but this man was a strong and disciplined one, he deserved an honorable warrior's death in combat, not to get completely trashed around by an opponent who wouldn't even break a sweat against him.
"I cannot ask you that. You have your goals, I have mine. Asking for you to hold back would be selfish." the monk sighed and stood back on his feet. Tanshu smiled for a second, he couldn't actually satisfy his opponent's desire. When he remembered the story of his own swordsmanship memories flooded back by themselves and the Red Dog found his own mind wandering again. "I'm sorry, monk, I won't be fighting you at full strength for just a little while longer." He thought to himself as the two clashed again. His opponent must've felt this, Tanshu's strength reducing, his speed dropping, the man's breathing becoming irregular and amateurish at best. It couldn't be helped, a man with such painful and long history of countless battles like Tanshu had many memories that flooded back once in a while…
Little Tanshu approached Oni Mask, he was hesitant to ask his sensei about something, usually the boy had no fear to ask anything but… This topic was different, it concerned feelings and communication - social skills. Something that sensei told him was irrelevant for a ninja and even more so for a demon. After all – a demon is what Oni Mask trained Tanshu to become. Had little Tanshu been a bad student perhaps Oni Mask wouldn't have tried so hard but Tanshu was a talented and incredibly powerful student, the best one that the old wolf could've wanted. The old man had said many times that he'd train legions of demons and yet both he and Tanshu knew that none would surpass his original student.
"Speak up, boy. If you won't it'll keep you back in training and this day will be wasted, even more, I may end up killing you and wasting my precious little demon. I wouldn't want that…" Oni Mask grunted out angrily after noticing the boy's distress. At that point he must've already analyzed the boy's feelings: Tanshu had no reservations about anything, he shared everything with his sensei and so it had to have been something that Oni Mask had forbidden him to talk about. The boy wanted to talk about "family" of "feelings" of some sort and while Oni Mask hated those things – if he didn't help boy out he would not be the best little demon he could be that day and the training would have been useless. If you're not risking your own body and life when training then may as well not train at all…
"Well…" young Tanshu stuttered, "My katei is my best motivator, when I fight to protect it I am at my strongest. You once said that if you faced someone in this room of darkness you'd be able to kill anyone, when I fight to protect my katei I feel the same way and… I know that you told me to abandon those feelings but… That would mean spitting at what makes me the strongest." The shining Oni Mask twisted around ninety degrees, after several creepy moments it returned back to its original state. "No… That is good. If you just did what I told you you'd never surpass me, you'd just be a slightly inferior version of me. That's no good at all. To ever surpass the devil a demon needs his own source of power, he needs to fly with his own set of wings and not use those given to him by his overlord." Sensei's voice sounded strangely dull and uninterested, usually he kicked Tanshu's butt whenever the boy brought family and friends up. "Go on…" he added.
"Well, I spoke with Hanasaku and Vashia… I thought that maybe we could be comrades, maybe we could develop some sort of stronger bonds with each other so that my feelings for my katei are stronger and I can fight to protect it even harder but…" Tanshu's head sunk down, his tone of voice shifted to incredibly sad. "Bubblegum-head keeps cursing me and punching and kicking me when I try to talk to her, Vashia won't even talk to me at all. Why is that? Why am I the one no one talks to? Why am I the untouchable one!?" Tanshu yelled the last sentences out in pure rage. Oni Mask moved up, the lights coming off of the mask's eyes just made a path of light rays where the little points went as the mask flipped over and went up to the ceiling. Suddenly the mask appeared right in front of Tanshu's face and the boy felt sharp pain in his gut – it felt almost like sensei's leg dug deep enough to bypass his innards and reach the boy's spine. The boy fell down on the floor and writhed around for a while. Sensei spoke up again.
"Forget talking to Hanasaku. She is a hopeless person who has nothing for her in this world – she is an arrogant person, the worst kind in fact. Under normal circumstances she always deems herself correct and the strongest, most beautiful and most talented out of all the people in the room. I'm sure that deep in her heart she even thinks herself superior to God-Eyes…" sensei's attacks kept coming but Tanshu leapt back up, following the sound of his rustling fabric he avoided his sensei's lethal blows while still getting hit a couple of times – in that room such injuries were unavoidable. "The only way to get to her is to beat her – prove that she is not better than you but… If you did that the little brat would kill herself – it is imperative for her to be the best in this world, else why bother breathing? That is why she is the absolute worst person with no hope to improve – she never assumes "what if I'm wrong", she'd rather die than be wrong and that's why she'll never grow. She'll always remain the "bubblegum girl"… Give up on her."
Tanshu and Oni Mask exchanged blows again. The boy landed several blows on his sensei by imagining his sensei's body based on the picture provided by his other senses – his hearing, his smell and touch, by seeing his sensei's mask and its position he could better draw an outline of where his sensei was and what the position of his body was. "As far as Vashia goes… Well… She's different. She grew up in a family of samurai, the only speech she understands is that of swordsmanship, you cannot bond with her with your tongue, you need to clash swords with her in order to reach out to her." Tanshu leaped backwards and wiped blood off of his lips. That night he thought a lot about what his sensei had told him, it wasn't common that sensei even spoke to him about such things so every word he was told was precious. Next morning Tanshu showed a sword to Oni Mask sensei, not the one he used to have but another one he claimed from God-Eyes' bandit he had beaten down earlier that day. "Teach me swordsmanship, Demon-sensei, so that I could reach out to Vashia and understand her heart, so that I would think of her as my friend and think more of my katei… So that I would fight more ruthlessly to defend it and become a true demon!" he grunted out. A sound of sword being drawn from the sheath lit up the total darkness. "Defend yourself" was all that Tanshu heard before getting cut. It did not matter – he was learning swordsmanship, one day he would become better than Vashia and clash with her to understand her heart. After that day maybe he'll have family again, maybe his katei will grow, as will his strength!
Tanshu's mind returned back to his body, right on time to deliver a powerful kick to the monk's chest and end their overdrawn clash of fists and kicks. Tanshu's thoughts were now crystal clear and even if he was still waiting for the day when he'd clash with Vashia, now was not the time to think about that day. Remembering that he still had that on the schedule helped him clear his thoughts though, a flurry of punches and kicks sent the monk down again only for him to crawl a bit higher up and stand back up after taking a brief moment to recover. Tanshu bit his finger and slammed his hand to the staircase "Summoning Jutsu: Fighting Dog Pack!" he chanted as three average sized dogs appeared in a cloud of smoke. Tanshu never wasted chakra on summoning dogs unless he planned using THAT later on that day so his companions knew perfectly what to do. Tanshu slammed his hands together as if he was praying, the dogs leaned forward shouted out in unison – "Fire Style: Dog Pack Bark!" letting out three conjoined heat waves at the monk.
Monk slammed his fist to the floor. His body lit up with blue light emanating from behind him "Ninja Monk Style: Ishirrinbu Defense!" powerful tentacle shaped constructs of chakra surrounded the monk in a cocoon like construction as the triple Fire Style hit him blowing the part of staircase up. After a moment the monk's body flew out of the smoke cloud heading head first to the ground floor – his impressive ninja monk technique blocked most of the damage but he still took some as his body was now burned up even more and the force that destroyed the staircase beneath his feet sent him crashing down. The dogs leaped after the monk, the unconscious monk got back into consciousness at the last moment. "Ninja Monk Style: Ishirrinbu Offense!" he chanted as his body lit up again and the same gigantic tentacle constructs pushed his body upward from the ground he would've snapped his neck crashing into. "Water Temple Taijutsu Combo: Rising Tide!" the monk shouted out as his fists dug into the bodies of the dogs and sent the canines flying up in the air where the monk's onslaught of punching the ninja animals continued. After the monk's beatdown reached its highest point the monk his elbows into two of the dogs sending them crashing down instead. The two dogs that slammed into the ground disappeared in a poof of smoke leaving only one dog that landed to Tanshu's side. The man stopped standing in his peculiar stance, his partner turned back and barked out "Already finished?" Tanshu shook his head "No problem, I will need it later on anyways, I wouldn't use that on someone like this monk." Red Dog replied.
The dog barked out and disappeared in a poof of smoke and Tanshu's body lit up in a brief flash of red light. The monk landed on the continuation of the staircase that was not broken, "What did that dog give to you?" he asked before charging forward. "That does not concern you…" Tanshu replied casually and leaped up to clash his own elbow with that of the oversized monk's. The two exchanged some blows before both of them landed on their respective platforms of the staircase that were still hanging and not blown down. The monk slapped his arms together "Ninja Monk Style: Ishirrinbu Onslaught!" he shouted out as his body bulked up, his blood vessels shot out and some must've ruptured – this technique strained his body immensely and Tanshu decided not to risk getting hit by it. An endless swarm of tentacle constructs of chakra rushed at where Tanshu was slamming into the staircase blowing it down, the monk did not end his rampage as more and more tentacles shot out from behind him and blew more and more platforms of the staircase until none of it was intact, only the couple more platforms that lead to the top floor with no way to get to them from below. And yet… Tanshu's body was nowhere to be seen.
"Fire Style: Two Headed Dog Red Bark!" Tanshu chanted shooting off double version of his Red Dog Bark jutsu of Fire Release towards his monk opponent. The ninja monk leaped up dodging it by moving in between the two masses of fire and then sticking to the wall using his ninjutsu and chakra control. Tanshu did the same. The monk roared out and lunged forward slamming his arms together "Ninja Monk Style: Ishirrinbu Drill!" he shouted out thrusting his head together as a shape of a gigantic squid construct formed around him. Tanshu leaped forward to meet the force of his opponent – this fight had gone for long enough and the Red Dog wanted to end it. A silent sound of steel rubbing against Tanshu's sheathe reached the monk's ears and as crimson red flashed in the monk's eyes he knew it was all over! Tanshu's sword re-entered the sheath as the Sannin finished his technique. "Red Dog Twin Slash!" he whispered to himself as an "X" shaped gash opened on the monk's chest and his lifeless body fell to the ground. Tanshu leaped off the wall and landed on what little remained of the staircase sliding down the stone remains and then the wall down to the ground floor.
Howoku had already finished with his wounds, Haoru looked like had done it long ago. The Fourth pouted a little, "You took extra time and you're almost without a scratch, if you had no trouble why did you take so long?" he complained after Tanshu stretched out. "I remembered something I still have to do…" the Sannin replied. Haoru and Howoku stood up from the stone floor and the three picked up their pace heading towards the next hallway. It was entirely possible that this was not the last obstacle that the Mizukage had in their way. They were lucky to avoid significant injuries even if Howoku didn't look like he escaped the battle unscathed, his breathing was more intense. Tanshu considered stopping for some more rest he remembered that he had already given him enough time by taking extra time to dispose of that monk.
Many kilometers away from the temple an intense battle was taking place. One similar to two more battles further to the south. A white haired woman was dashing around the battlefield and cutting cloaked men down, ninja with black shirts and white vests, wearing Kumogakure headbands were accompanying her by facing off against the cloaked men. Many of the ordinary ninja fell, even if the Kirigakure demons were completely out of their comfort zone in an open battlefield they still managed to draw blood from both the Raikage and her most trusted ninja. The woman's body was riddled with small scratches and cuts but it was to be expected when fighting an army of elite assassins. It appeared like the battle was just about reaching its peak though.
To the south a giant set of armor similar to that worn by samurai generals was swinging his gigantic blade around swatting endless hordes of cloaked assassins like insects. It would've been unknown to any ordinary passer by just who this colossal figure of cold steel was and where exactly the Kazekage was hidden seeing how his own men were fighting alongside this giant walking set of armor. The desert warriors of Sunagakure were not entirely in their native field as they were fighting in a rocky wasteland but these assassins they were fighting against weren't even native to any battlefield. Their hands were swift to cut, precise to aim for the vital blood vessels but still they lacked sheer force and battlefield experience. Also the Sunagakure legion had that giant set of armor laying rampage across the unarmored forces of the Kirigakure demons. In addition it had to be noted that Sunagakure forces were excited – they wanted to prove to both Kirigakure and other "Great" ninja villages that the Sand was now back and recovered after the extensive damage done to it after the Second War. Sunagakure wanted to yell out their claim to be declared the next "Great Ninja Village" and no army of cloaked Kirigakure elites was going to stop them!
Further to the south giant earthquakes flipped the tables of the battlefield, the Kirigakure demons were all running for their lives as loud cracks and rumbles intimidated even the most devoted to their cause. Giant boulders were flying around, some white flashes of light lit up and in its wake followed destruction. It was like a God of War had entered the Iwagakure's ranks and assisted the Tsuchikage as that battlefield was an absolute curbstomp. Not even a single scratch was placed on Tsuchikage's bare chest, his white hair flowed like those of a silver haired banshee devouring its victims as none squad of assassins he had set his eyes on survived even a single moment of his rampage. At some point his entire army just stood back as none in their ranks could even properly support such an invulnerable powerhouse monster that was Kaguya Yaban.
The other Kage were just about to begin their final marathon towards the Kage Summit!
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