Wanted (8)

Wooden constructs. Empty street. The sun was setting, and the sky was filled with twilight. And here I stood, yet again, needing to fight for the sake of my survival once again.

"How long has it been since we've met someone worthwhile?" Koji remarked as he spun the sickles in his hands.

From the back, Tai began the series of hand seals, which I presumed to be another Wind Release technique.

I bit my lips and tightened my grip on Ryuma. Taking in a deep breath, I tensed my body up, getting ready for the battle. Removing all the negative thoughts, I raised Ryuma up with my right hand as Koji was seen dashing at me rapidly.

'If food can be poisoned, so is the weapon.' Placing my caution on the approaching sickle blades, I began to form a series of hand seals with my left hand alone.

CLANG!

Swinging Ryuma quickly with my right hand, I met the blade with Koji's sickle. Then, pushing the sickle sideway, I made Koji's other sickle collide with his own.

"Wind Release," Just then, Tai sent his palm forth at me, "Gale Palm!"

'Fire Release,' Thankfully, my technique was ready at the same time. It was the relatively simple technique that I managed to understand and copy from various enemies that I've fought through,

'Phoenix Sage Fire technique!'

From my mouth, one moderately-sized fireball was spat out, which then split into various small-sized bits of fire that collided with the wind.

Whoosh!

While I struggled to maintain my focus, the collision between the fire and wind resulted in a huge intensification of fire, which then exploded into bright sparkles. Some landed on the nearby constructs and began to burn them away, while the others landed on the ground and died down.

'Huu...' Taking in a deep breath to hold my mind together, I turned and swung Ryuma horizontally, blocking the sickles from Koji, who was sneaking from the back.

CLANG CLANG!

I found myself frowning. Upon the clash, there came a sudden ringing noise in my head, along with the cold sensation that gradually appeared around me—I felt as if my sensation was becoming dull, even after accounting for my heavy fatigue.

CLANG!

Then, the drowsiness that I shook off of me, suddenly returned. It felt as if the adrenaline in my body faded away; my vision became blurry, and I felt as if standing on the edge of a cliff, ready to fall at any time.

CLANG!

As my breath quickened, I ducked downward while raising Ryuma up to block kunai from Tai, who has closed his distance since who-knows-when.

My eye immediately grazed all around the surrounding, while using Ryuma to push myself off of the ground to dodge Koji's sickle.

'Ram.'

One-eyed, with blurry vision. Quickened breath. Overwhelming drowsiness. Lack of sensation around me, and weakened reflex.

'Boar.'

I knew I had to end this fast.

'Ox, dog, snake,'

Tai, who stood right below me, gripped his kunai with his right hand as his left hand formed a half-ram seal. Just then, the potent burst of sharp wind appeared from the kunai as an extension, resembling that of a sword.

And simultaneously, I found a shadow covering me from above. It was Koji, with his two sickles ready to attack again.

'Body Replacement technique!'

Puff!

Just by the nick of time, I managed to replace myself with the tree bark, which was then severed by the sharp wind and cracked by the potent sickle stabs.

Then, to my surprise, Tai threw his wind-imbued kunai at me, which traveled at a rapid speed. I, with dulled sense, managed to dodge at the last moment by throwing my body rightward.

SWOOSH!

The wind-imbued kunai managed to pierce through half of the tree bark, showing just how lethal the attack was.

And here, as I saw Koji launching himself at me once more, I found myself questioning my drowsy mind,

'I was... fine at the beginning of this battle. Though I was tired, I was fine. What's—'

CLANG!

'—the cause?'

Gritting my teeth and generating the utmost strength that my current state was capable of, Ryuma burst into the potent fire. Propelling myself to two enemies who stood next to one another, I brashly swung, unable to understand the sudden failure of my body.

'Ryujin—'

However, before the blade could reach them, the flame died down. An anti-climactic end it was, with the fire dying down, and me falling to the ground with my balance having been lost.

Thud.

My slowed mind finally realized,

'...Poison. Since when?'

"Huff... huff..." My own breath was the only thing I could hear. The outside was filled with nothing but the piercing pitch of a noise.

Poison. It can't be from the ramen. Now of all times? It's probably the toxin that takes an immediate effect, which means that I had to be poisoned just before the fight began.

Although I didn't want to think of such a possibility, there was only one answer to this phenomenon.

'Prior to generating ash clone, after the generation of the smokescreen, I was pulling Rika backward, and she placed her hand on my arm.'

And I didn't feel anything back then... or was the cause due to my fatigue and hunger, coupled with my subconscious trust in Rika, along with my focus being on the battle?

My body, no longer responding to me, was flipped so that I was now facing up. The dog mask was removed, then the skin-mask as well. Koji and Tai seemed to be saying something, holding a rectangular-shaped patch above my face, but I couldn't hear.

At this point, I knew.

The reason why I was keep being found out, even after taking all the measures possible. I assumed that it was simply due to many ronins being clustered around this area during then, but now, I knew.

Bounty hunters are frightening indeed. Living under death threats for days non-stop, was enough to drive me here. Traveling alone, too was a naive decision in the end... no, giving trust to a foreigner, simply because she is weak, was the cause of the current circumstance.

Jiraiya, you weren't wrong. Look what I've gotten myself into, shivering from the fear of death... and nothing else mattered.

'...Peace.' In the end, what exactly is peace? Is it that I am too selfish?

At the doorstep of death, I found myself questioning my own ideal—mostly out of sarcasm, 'Is it truly the peace that I want?'

Peace was the goal that I seeked for. It has begun with the virtuous shinobi, who saved me—or was that planned as well, to drive me to become who I am now?

My mind was in a chaotic mess, uncaring of what is now going around me. Drowned in exhaustion, I shut off all senses from the outside, and continued thinking,

'No.'

Family murdered. Stranded on the battlefield. Seeking companions, and striving to become strong to protect myself. I, from the very beginning, was a selfish individual.

The reason why I believed that it is necessary to kill Hanzo in the first place... deep down in my heart, I knew that such a decision was born out of my hatred for him. If he was my grandfather, why didn't he save my parents?

Peace is beautiful, but I never really cared. From the start, every one of my actions was based on my happiness.

And so, did I attain happiness? I thought to myself,

'F*** no.'

Therefore, I can't die yet. I don't want to die. Roaming alone, and getting myself killed out of the stupid act of virtue... I don't want to become like that 'shinobi-san' who saved me.

'So what if I am engulfed by the hatred?'

Hatred isn't a bad thing, I thought. In the first place, what is morality? Good and bad—what's the basis, and how were they decided? Akatsuki—dawn. Red cloud. All those amazing phenomena... in the end, they hold no particular meaning. They are nothing but the mesmerizing views that serve to bring me the joy of gazing—that's all that they were. Peace, dawn, end of the rain,

'How cringe,' I found myself laughing inwardly, 'It took me this much to realize.'

Now I've decided, that all those nonsense needs to disappear. Screw kindness. World peace, goodness, blah blah, whatever. Killing myself for ideal—worthless; without life, there is no ideal. I will act for my happiness alone.

'And that's the nature of this world. War will never end, and that's the end of the story. Who cares.'

Although unable to feel the sensation of my body, I reached deep into what my chakra flew, and,

boom.

'I am not done yet, you fuc****s.'

I've come back to life.

__________

"Transdermal patch applied by none other than our civilian actress, Rika." Koji said to Akashi, who was sprawled on the ground with a hollow eye, with nothing but mockery, "You were incredible though, fending off all those hunters by yourself. If not for our thorough plan over the span of a month, it may have been us who lost."

"K-kill him already!" Rika, who was in between the two of them, said in fright with her finger pointed at Akashi, "What if he wakes up?!"

"You know he won't." Tai said calmly, "It's your poison that we are talking about here. Are you doubting your own ability?"

Rika looked down nervously, "N-no, that's not what I meant."

"Besides," Tai sighed, "That Kakuzu is a careful man. If we were not to bring this man alive and kill in front of him, who knows what he will do, saying some bulls***s like how we are lying, and that these swords are the real ones, et cetera—"

He stopped his words. His eyes shifted to the right, where Akashi was seen to be lying still. Although Koji, who was playing around with Ryuma in his hands, didn't manage to see, he surely did.

"...Did he just move?"

"What? How? The drug is a pretty strong sedative, mixed with neurotoxin, isn't it?" Koji laughed it off, "No way he—"

BOOM!!

All of a sudden, Akashi's body burst out the chakra of incredible ferocity all around. The purple-coloured gas was then expelled from his body, and,

Boom.

Taking a step on the ground and forming a crack, Akashi stood back up in silence. His messy brown hair was wildly flying, and the veins on his body popped up, generating a frightening look.

Koji, Tai, and Rika fell in shock.

"What the f***?!" Koji cursed as he raised Ryuma up, knowing that now wasn't the time to play around. Tai too flipped his kunai back out, while telling Rika to back off.

"...Ha," Akashi, who gazed at his front emotionlessly, then broke into a chuckle, "Pff... hahahahaha!!!"

Then, he said coldly,

"It really was you, Rika."

The battle has taken a sudden turn, and this time around, it was the enemies who were feeling dread.