69 Chapter 69

From behind the treeline near the cages, a powerful and ethereal force poured through the surroundings. Most of the civilians passed out on the spot. Even the Hidden Cloud shinobi struggled to remain conscious due to their injuries. Surprisingly, the only one who truly remained awake was the little Hyuga girl huddled in the corner. She struggled to breath in the stifling atmosphere, but the chakra latently running through her body gave her the strength to stay conscious. She only cried harder and hugged her knees more tightly, however.

At the same time, the seven guards whipped their heads around. Eerily emotionless sets of eyes glared at the forest. Four of them dashed towards the trees.

Within the woods, a solemn voice echoed outward, saying, "Teion."

Bursts of sound waves that did not register in anyone's ears hammered outward and slammed against the encroaching guards. Each of them attempted casting Jutsus or using Taijutsu to escape or retaliate. Unfortunately for them, the unhearable sound waves battered their flames and earth to smoke and dust. The ones who used taijutsu or threw kunai simply slumped into the mud. 

Behind them, the other three guards stood in a triangle and cast a combination Jutsu. Rather than dragons like Jin half-expected, though, only twirling beams of water, fire, and lighting shot toward him. The air warped around the combined elements, and steam burned off in its trail.

Continuing his onslaught against the first four guards with his Zanpakuto-wielding hand, Jin raised his other hand and cast several layers of freeform defensive barriers. The Jutsu stabbed through more than half of the barriers in a sizzling splendor like fireworks aimed at a cement wall, but eventually halted and spattered out.

"Kō-on," Jin chanted, waving his bladeless Zanpakuto toward the other three guards. Half of the strings floating above his shoulder vibrated in response. 

The next moment, the three guards fell to the ground with all of their limbs cut off. In that moment, Jin cast a barrier to block kunai laced in chakra thrown by the other four who obtained a moment of reprieve. With the three others temporarily out of commission, he resumed his attack on these four. 

"Teion."

Again, the soundless waves pummeled the bodies of the four enemies like massive invisible boulders. The ethereal pummeling crushed their bones and flesh until only black mucus and blood remained splattered in the dirt. He then walked over to the other three whose limbs just finished stitching back together and crushed them as well.

A minute later, Jin observed his gruesome handiwork and mumbled, "Shikai might be a bit too much of a power jump for opponents of this level."

To save some energy, he sealed his Shikai and sheathed his Zanpakuto. Finally, he glanced over at the cages. Two pupiless eyes fearfully stared at him, tears streaming from them like small rivers.

Grimacing, Jin sighed, scratched his head, and walked over to the cage. He easily unlatched the lock using a freeform barrier. The metal door creaked and squeaked with age when he pried it open.

In response to Jin's entry, the little girl pushed herself back into the corner furthest from Jin. She closed her eyes and shook her head. 

"Papa, please save me…" She whimpered.

Heart panging with guilt for enacting such gruesome violence in front of a child, Jin solemnly knelt in front of the girl and rested a hand on her head. The girl flinched and froze in response. 

"I'm sorry I scared you. You're going to be okay now."

The girl shook her head and shriveled up, obviously too scared to register his words. 

Jin breathed deeply in contemplation for a few moments. Then, he rubbed the girl's head a little before picking her up under her shoulders and carrying her outside. The girl squirmed briefly, but quickly stopped once hugged in his arms. She remained silent and unmoving while he carried her outside. 

Briefly, he glanced at the other cages. Most of the people there were adults, so he only unlocked the cages for them to escape after waking up. After that, Jin channeled a bit of energy into his legs and dashed deep into the woods. He then cast a barrier to keep the girl safe and placed her inside. He set some jerky and water on the ground next to her since that was all he had left to give.

Before leaving, he hesitantly asked, "Is your name Hinata, by any chance?"

All of a sudden, the little girl raised her head and looked at Jin for the first time since he picked her up. Even her tearstained eyes could not hide her surprise. 

"Seems you are, huh? Crazy. Anyway, stay here for now. I'll go get rid of the rest of the bad guys and then take you back home, okay?"

The girl didn't respond. She only stared at him with a mixture of terror and confusion. The moment he left, however, she raised her hand toward his disappearing frame. Tears poured out of her eyes again as she fearfully stammered, "W- wait. *sniff* *hic* Don't leave me. *hic* I'm scared."

Doing his best to ignore the pleas since he didn't want the girl to see more brutality, Jin dashed back into the village, quickly meeting up with Konan who was fending off more than a dozen enemies. Puddles of black mucus scattered about indicated a handful of fallen foes. Many of the foes attempted to cast combination Jutsus, including the brown-haired man who Jin immediately recognized. Konan immediately bombarded those enemies with paper bombs or Kagune-laced paper shurikens before they could finish the hand signs.

'Guess she learned from last time,' Jin thought. 

Not to be outdone, he channeled a good portion of his magic, clapped his hands together, and chanted, "Barrier Magic: Prism Blade Execution."

Just like when he first arrived in this world, a massive barrier blade several stories tall manifested above the largest cluster of enemies. Before they could react, it pierced the earth below and crushed them beneath its blade. Stone, dirt, and wood crunched and exploded under its weight. The ground trembled as though beset by a small earthquake. Just as quickly as it appeared, the massive blade dissipated, having used up the magic supplied to it.

'Flashy, but good enough for moments when I'm not in heated combat,' Jin noted upon seeing black splotches in the crevasse created by his magic.

Instantly, most of the remaining enemies glared at him with emotionless eyes. The brown-haired one, though, grimaced. His eye twitched uncontrollably upon seeing Jin.

"You again," The man commented in a deeply annoyed tone.

Jin simply raised a brow and unsheathed his Zanpakuto. Konan landed on the ground next to him and looked at him with a questioning gaze.

"My targets are eliminated," He said.

"I see."

Leaving the conversation at that, they resumed fighting the other enemies. Jutsus of every main element cascaded toward them alongside clones, kunai, and shuriken. These opponents seemed a little stronger than the guards Jin already defeated, but not by much. Then again, he figured his Shikai did not give the guards much leeway to show any skills earlier. 

Suddenly, Jin noticed something and offhandedly asked, "Where'd the brown hair go?"

"I don't know," Konan replied, completely ignoring a kunai flying through her arm that simply fluttered into several papers before reforming together again. She quickly retaliated with paper shuriken bombs, though, instantly evaporating a mud clone into ashes.

Darting amidst the mixture of enemies and enemy clones, Jin searched for the brown-haired man without success. It made him feel uneasy. With the limited leeway for thought that he had with Konan backing him up, Jin eventually thought of something. 

"The totem… Konan!"

"I heard," She replied with a subtle nod before flying over to his side. 

After that exchange of words, the remaining enemies frenzied. As though unshackled, dark tendrils exploded from their bodies and completely engulfed them. Only dark amorphous bipedal monsters remained. 

The two fended off the attackers' stabbing tendrils while making their way toward the totem. Eventually, they arrived, but the sight of what surrounded the totem chilled them to the bone. 

Piles of skeletons filled a moat dug around the totem in the shape of a star. The black torch flames burned in an eerily fixed and silent manner atop twisted eaves protruding from between the piles of bones. In the center of it all was the totem. Even more than anything else, the totem instilled a subconscious disturbance in the mind of any who looked at it. What it depicted could not even be discerned, as it was complete chaos. Whoever carved it either suffered insanity or was well on the road toward it.

The brown-haired man stood at the base of the several story tall totem with hands outstretched and yelled, "O', Lord Taahkaa! I beseech that you lend your servant aid against those who seek to hinder your will!"

Suddenly, the attacks against Jin and Konan halted. An eerie union of voices chanted, "Taahkaa's will shall be accomplished."

Each of the mens' bodies shattered into snake-like tendrils that slithered through the air and spiraled around the brown-haired man in an instant.

"What the hell?" Jin mumbled, feeling a chill down his spine. 

Unwilling to let this continue, he cast several barrier blades and shot them at the brown-haired man. Within the second it took for the blades to reach the man, the bones in the trenches dissolved into the dirt and formed a murky oil-like substance. Several dark tendrils sprouted from within and yanked the barrier blades from their flight path.

Along with the dissolving of the bones, the air temperature plummeted. Dark gasses erupted from soil in the clearing. In the center of it all, the brown-haired man spoke in a jovial tone.

"Yes! Let this failing body be your vessel, my lord." 

Both Jin and Konan fired more projectiles without success. So, Jin released his Shikai again, which garnered a curious glance from Konan, though she quickly refocused on the strange scene in front of her.

"Kō-on!' Jin chanted, swinging his blade. 

Reiryoku sliced through the gassy barrier swirling around the man. Each wave sliced through the man, yet he did not react at all even as black blood sprayed from his wounds.

Suddenly, the totem exploded at the seams like a tree under a lightning strike. A reality crack shattered the space where it once stood. Shock waves exploded outward, forcing Jin to cast a defensive barrier to block them. Trees around them splintered or outright crumbled. The noise made their ears ring. Countless tendrils then burst out from the reality crack and wrapped around the brown-haired man.

Both Jin and Konan looked down at their arms. Their arm hair stood straight as though pulled by static. 

"Is this all? What am I supposed to do with so few offerings?" 

Jin and Konan frowned at the deep crackling voice that grumbled from near the reality crack. The tendrils pulled back inside, leaving behind a figure far different from before. Twisted limbs that squirmed like living muscles formed the majority of a warped body. Dark hair that looked like damp seaweed fell to either side of a misshapen head. The head then turned toward Jin and Konan, revealing a singular red eye that filled its entirety. At least, it looked like an eye. It swirled in place like a gaseous orb, occasionally showing what looked like a pupil.

"...I hate being used like this, but I suppose it won't hurt to play with the new one for a bit," The creature spoke in its grating voice that sounded no better than rusted metal dragging against concrete.

~~~~~~~~~~

(A/N: I do speak Japanese on a conversational level, but I'm not a native speaker, so I may have mistranslated the titles of Jin's abilities. Kō-on is supposed to be 'high note' and Teion is supposed to be 'low note'. Had trouble figuring out the specific musical terms used in Japan, and my Japanese co-worker is almost as unfamiliar with it as I am, lol. Anyway, if you happen to know any correct terms I may have gotten wrong, I'd appreciate hearing it.)