Chapter 47

Chapter 47

Utakata's red eyes met Yagura's red eyes as they stared at each other. They said nothing as they circled each other. The room they were in was too small for their fight, and even though Utakata felt bad that he would have to destroy the room and probably the house. He knew that Harusame would have forgiven him.

Maybe seeing his hesitation, Yagura moved first. His hook-like weapon sprung for Utakata's head. Utakata tilted his head and dodged the stab. But Yagura wasn't done; he pulled the weapon back, wanting to stab the hook into Utakata's back. If Utakata didn't know better he might have fallen for that, but he was no fool, so by bending forward, he evaded the hook.

But in return, he was met with Yagura's foot in his face. Utakata managed to cross his arms and block the kick. He negated most damage even though he was sent flying through the wall of the room. There was no time to think, as Yagura was already upon him, trying to stab his hook into his chest. Utakata barely had time to roll to his feet and dodge the attack.

Yagura was relentless, not even letting Utakata breathe. Yagura's hook-like weapon was hard to deal with, too. Utakata couldn't let the hook pass him, as when Yagura pulled back, he could stab him in the back. But Utakata couldn't continue to back down from the weapon too far, as the house was restricting his movements.

Utakata expected Yagura would have a harder time wielding his weapon in close quarters, but it seems he underestimated Yagura's strength. The Fourth Mizukage easily tore down the walls that hindered him; it didn't even slow him down. And since Yagura's form was smaller, he had an easier time moving and dodging Utakata's strings.

As his strings cut through the walls like they were made of paper and reached Yagura, he unnaturally twisted his body and dodged them once again. This time, though, Utakata found himself against the wall of the corridor they were in. Yagura launched himself at Utakata, stabbing his weapon. It went through Utakata and the wall behind him.

Or at least that is what seemed to have happened to Yagura. Utakata and the wall soon disappeared, revealing it was nothing but an illusion made of mist. Before Yagura could pull his weapon back, Utakata caught the hook and pulled Yagura to himself. Taking a note from Tsunade, Utakata punched Yagura's face with all his strength, sending Yagura flying from one end of the corridor to the other.

"Water release: Water dragon."

"Water release: Bubble barrier."

As Utakata heard the roaring of the unleashed water, Utakata blew a bubble that enclosed him and protected him from the water as the water dragon slammed at him. Not wanting Yagura to go for another jutsu, Utakata summoned a water prison to entrap him, but it was already too late. As Yagura was trapped in the water prison, Utakata was stabbed by multiple water spears.

His bubble couldn't protect him from piercing attacks. It burst the moment the water spears touched it, and Utakata trapped Yagura. Anyone else would have lost concentration and let Yagura go, but Utakata didn't. He held him even as he was bleeding out. The wounds weren't life-threatening and would heal on their own; the pain wasn't difficult to ignore either.

"Do you even realize that you are under genjutsu?" Utakata asked as he slowly walked to Yagura, making sure he touched the water that led to Yagura's entrapment. "Or do you not care anymore? You are creating the world you wanted anyway, so why would it matter that someone else is using you, right?"

"You know nothing of what you are speaking of," Yagura replied coldly and Utakata couldn't tell if it was him or the one in control that was talking.

"Then tell me," Utakata pleaded, as he truly wanted to know what was happening inside Yagura's head.

The answer that awaited Utakata was a red chakra tail that freed Yagura from the water prison and slammed Utakata to the wall. Utakata was getting tired of going through the walls, and he fell to the ground. Maybe Yagura could tell that, so he decided to bring his foot at Utakata's chest breaking through the floor and sending Utakata to the first floor of the house.

Utakata rolled off the way as Yagura tried to fall on him. The house shook as Yagura landed on the floor with two red tails protruding from behind him. A red chakra cloak was covering him, too. Unlike Utakata's cloak, which would be smooth and shiny, Yagura's was rough and looked more like a shell that protected his body.

Now that Yagura was protecting in his shell, Utakata wasn't afraid of killing him with his attacks anymore. Pulling his hands back, the strings Utakata left behind as he rolled away rose and captured Yagura. But Utakata had underestimated Yagura's chakra cloak. Utakata couldn't break through it, and his strings started to snap as he put more pressure on them.

Not able to hold on to the strings any longer without them snapping, Utakata backed away. Yagura quickly rushed at Utakata, ramming his body, trying to crush Utakata, but it didn't work. Utakata used his chakra to stick to the floor and tank the attack. Coating his chakra into his hands, he started beating Yagura, who was left with no choice but to defend himself.

Utakata's punch fell like a hammer on Yagura's hard shell, but it didn't do much damage, no matter how many times he hit Yagura. The floor cracked, and the walls of the house shook from the impact of his punches, but Yagura took them without backing down. Utakata had no choice but to once again back away, as his knuckles started bleeding as he used too much force.

"Is that all?" Yagura asked. "You returned showing only this much? Did you really think you were my match?"

"It is not what I think or believe," Utakata replied. "It's what I must do. Even if it is the last thing I do, I will beat you down and stop your tyrannical rule. I will destroy the Bloody Mist."

"All you will do is die," Yagura said as he swung his tails.

Utakata jumped over one tail and blocked the second one that hit him while he was in the air. Another wall broke as he crashed through it. The house was loudly creaking now. But Yagura wasn't going to stop so quickly. Not letting Utakata even take a breath, Yagura jumped him, his body ramming at Utakata.

The heavy and sturdy shell of Yagura's chakra cloak broke a few of Utakata's ribs. As he spat the blood rising through his throat, Utakata could tell that his wounds weren't healing as fast as he hoped they would. And seeing that Yagura was about to slam at him once again, Utakata had to make a decision. He couldn't take another such a hit, as he wouldn't be able to handle the damage.

"Come, this isn't the end," Yagura said as Utakata cleaned his mouth from the blood he spat out. "Why aren't you using the tailed beast chakra? Where is your sword? Were you really so confident in your abilities to kill me without using them? If you are, then you are nothing but a fool."

"Enough talking," Utakata replied as he extended his hand and let the strings fall from his rings. "Let's dance."

Using mist blades ninjutsu, Utakata coated his strings in the thin mist that turned them even sharper. To strengthen them, he even pushed a little of his tailed beast chakra into them. Yagura was right. He couldn't hold back if he had any chance of defeating him. As Utakata took his stance, Yagura responded by rushing at him. As one of his tails swept by the floor, Utakata jumped over it. But as the second tail was coming for him, Utakata unleashed his strings.

The strings cut Yagura's chakra tail into ribbons. Seeing that, Yagura quickly tried to get back, but it was already too late. Still in the air, Utakata swung his hands, and the strings ran through the walls, floor, and ceiling, leaving Yagura with no way to evade them. All Yagura could do was put his arms in a defensive position and receive the onslaught of strings cutting through his chakra cloak and skin.

As blood spilled from Yagura's arms, Utakata intensified his hand movements, making the strings move even faster, to the point where they couldn't be seen with the naked eye. But, his attack broke the stability of the house first before it cut through Yagura's defense. With a loud creak, the walls started to collapse, bringing down the ceiling on top of Utakata and Yagura.

…

Oh, it felt good. The people who looked down on her. Those who waited for her to die, weak and defenseless from her illness, were now running for their lives. Ringo cut through them, and she made it as painful as she could. She was sure they had a taste of her lightning before they died. Their horrified and painful expression only gave relief to her.

They were weak, pathetically so. And yet they were so brave to insult her, to call her a traitor, to say that she should have died with the rest of the Seven Swordsmen. Well, she proved them right; she was a traitor now. She still couldn't believe she just followed Utakata's words so easily. But she knew why she did it.

Utakata was the only one who was truly concerned for her. Even her master didn't care much about her, and she looked up to him as her father figure. To him, she was only a replacement for Kiba blades, and she could tell that he hated her because of that, just like she hated that arrogant brat, Mangetsu Hozuki.

On that thought, an explosion rang through the village as she was blown away. She quickly did some backflips in the air to stop herself and landed on her feet. The brat stood so proud of himself, with the sword made of explosive tags. Oh, she hated him. Just because he was from a strong clan and was the most talented in his generation, he was always looking down on everyone, and then she was forced to teach him her techniques.

How else could she feel? Ringo was done being used; she would show this village that she was strong, and it was their fault for thinking they could chew her and then spit her out. Crossing her blades, lightning ran through them. There were too many small fries around, so she stabbed the swords to the ground and let the lightning travel through the blood that she already had spilled.

Dozens of shinobi around her let out painful cries as they were fried up from the inside. She didn't care if among them were some of her new comrades. It was their fault for not being able to evade the attack. Ringo let out a feral laugh as she smelled the cooked meat falling to the ground. And just as she was about to kill that annoying brat, the house she should have been defending collapsed with a loud crash.

"Dammit," She was worried about Utakata and wanted to run to him but had to stop herself forcefully.

A cloud of dust and debris rose from the destroyed house. She couldn't see anything that happened inside it. Ringo believed that Utakata was strong, and that is why she respected him, but was he as strong as Yagura? She never could imagine herself winning against Yagura, and that was one of the reasons why she never considered betraying the village, even when they treated her like she was trash.

"Too bad," The arrogant brat said as he also looked at the cloud of dust. "I wanted to test him myself. I would like to shower in his blood. How dare he even think of challenging Yagura? The fool should just keep hiding like the coward he was."

"What do you know?" Ringo now had another reason why she hated that brat. "You are nothing but a toy to Yagura. It was Utakata he always wanted, but he settled for you as his replacement. And that is what you will always be, Mangetsu, a replacement."

"Just die, bitch," Mangetsu didn't like her words and rushed at her.

Even if she could feel herself getting weaker and her heart was beating abnormally fast from exertion, she was still one of the Seven Swordsmen. She had countless battles and had trained to surpass Utakata for years. How could someone like Mangetsu even hope to catch her speed? All the brat could do was hopelessly swing his weapon, creating explosions and hoping that one of them would catch her.

"I will die," Ringo said as she jumped over Mangetsu. "But not by the hands of someone like you."

Ringo kicked Mangetsu's wrist, lifting his arm and his weapon in the air before going for the kill by stabbing her blades into his chest. It wasn't that easy, of course. Mangetsu was still a talented shinobi who had been trained by the best. He moved like water out of the way of her blades and dropped his weapon. Ringo had no choice but to jump back as his weapon landed on the ground and exploded.

Damn her illness. A year ago, she would been fast enough to cut him into pieces before she even needed to think of retreating. But now, her heart was beating so forcefully that she felt pain in her chest and couldn't concentrate. She needed to calm down, but it wasn't in her nature to do so. So, she needed to kill him quickly and be done with it.

"Ringo-senpai," Kimimaro landed next to her and blocked the axe coming for her. "I will handle him. You can rest easy."

Oh, Ringo hated this. Being protected by someone. She couldn't believe she had lost her sense of her environment. Even though she was confident she would have been able to dodge Mangetsu's attack, she might not have been able to do it without sustaining an injury. How she wished she could just not feel that pain in her chest. She could fight to her heart's content without worrying that her heart might jump out of her chest as it was beating relentlessly.

"I thought the Kaguya clan was dead," Mangetsu said as he tried to push his axe, another weapon he was in possession of, through Kimimaro's bones that blocked the attack. "Well, I guess I will finish what you weaklings couldn't do."

Ringo was ready to cut that arrogant brat's arm off as he brought down the hammer on his axe. But she didn't have a chance to do so as the dust cloud behind them exploded, and the shockwave knocked them all back. Ringo quickly rolled on her feet and looked at two beasts made of red chakra clashing. Three thick and flat tails were blocking six that were trying to pierce through.