25 Chapter 25

My clones and I rushed Ao with the sharp blades of our wooden katanas, aiming to take off his head. I had no intention of letting this man live simply because of 'what could be.' No, he was dying here, that was a cold fact.

As skilled as he was he couldn't dodge all of the attacks, settling for using water jutsu to shield and counter attack. His attacks were less than deadly and lacking good aim, constantly attacking him was the right call. For all Ao's experience, he simply couldn't land any lasting damage.

"Snarky little brat!" He roared, sending me another water bullet. This one was actually aimed at me, so I slid to my knee, dodging the attack, something one of my clones just weren't fast enough to do. "Found you!" He reached into his pocket, downing some pills and quickly weaved through hand seals again and another massive torrent of water came out of his mouth, slamming against the ground and quickly filling the forest with water.

I clicked my teeth and jumped up to a tree. My proficiency in water jutsu was great, but for him to amass such a large amount of water in such a short time, I could only assume he was my superior in the element, if only barely. Sure the forest wasn't that large and the water was only around five feet, but it didn't take away from how impressive it was. As expected it did a massive number on his reserves, even with the pills shown by how he dropped down to a knee, taking heavy breaths.

Of course such a thing would tire him out, but attacking him close isn't a good idea anymore. I don't need him risking the rest of his chakra and summoning a water dragon or some shit like that.

Something like that could actually kill me.

I gave a tired sigh. Fighting with one's life on the line was an exhilarating experience as much as it was tiring. Constantly having your mind processing new information all while moving, attacking, blocking, weaving hand signs. It was just a lot and that's what had me bummed out.

I mentally checked on the amount of chakra my clones had amassed and gave Ao a half smile. It was enough.

"Perhaps if you took my offer, things could have ended differently, but worry not, with your death, the world will be one step closer to peace."

"Cocky brat." He snarled, low enough that I barely heard him. He weaved through hand seals again and a massive water dragon spouted from the water beneath him, it gave a loud, gurgly roar before it blasted off towards me.

—

Kakashi (A few minutes earlier)

He could hear Lei's fight going down. No, that wasn't really what gave him pause. It's that he could feel it.

The massive amounts of water chakra that Kakashi knew wasn't Lei's signature had consumed the forest floor, even reaching as far as his fight with Zabuza before stopping.

Home court advantage was huge, but he hadn't expected some shinobi working for a few businessmen to have such massive reserves. It took at least high jonin level chakra reserves to even produce such a massive amount of water. While not on the level of Lord Second who could produce much more than this amount of water and manipulate it as he pleased with just a twitch of his finger, it was still incredibly impressive.

As the Man who copied over 1000 jutsu stared at his opponent who was struggling to stand, he considered running over to Lei to help. Lei was strong, but a high jonin might be a little too much for him.

"...Haha, why the long face, Kakashi. That brat dying Ao should have been expected, even if that blue haired cuck fuck annoys me, I'll admit he's no slouch." Zabuza tiredly rose to his feet. The amount of cuts littered around his body told tales of his life expectancy.

Even if he somehow managed to win here, the cuts on his body, more specifically his femoral artery leaking blood at alarming rates, it was all a clear sign he was going to pass out and die within minutes.

"You'd be surprised, Zabuza." Kakashi looked at his opponent with a new softness. He didn't care for Zabuza, but he respected his battle prowess. The fact that he was a dead man walking aiding cushioning his words as he continued. "That boy holds more potential than either you or I. It's only a matter of time before men like us are left in the dust."

Zabuza quietly eyed Kakashi, not speaking for several moments as he looked down at his leaking leg. "Then his death will be all the more disheartening. Our mission will be completed." The dying man pointed his blade at Kakashi, a demonic smile marred his lips. "Let's die together, Kakashi."

The Konoha jonin let out an exasperated sigh. Another one bites the dust. The Rebels of Kiri were people he respected, fighting for the sake of returning peace to their village, but this mission they took was the peak of hypocrisy. The selfish intent to create peace initiating a depression in another land. It was honestly saddening, a horrible cycle of blood and death.

Lightning formed in his hand, sparkling and crackling with enough noise that he wouldn't be surprised if the people in the town could hear it.

He was tired, overly so, but he had a job to do. It was time to end this.

"COME AT ME, KAKASHI HATAKE, DIE WITH ME!" Zabuza rushed forward as well as he could with his partially disabled leg. Kakashi followed moments later, dashing forwards with his arm reared back.

*CRASH*

The entire forest shook with violence. The branch they had been standing on vibrating in the process and sending them flying off at the abruptness of it all. Kakashi managed to catch himself, infusing chakra into his feet to latch onto the tree. Zabuza on the other hand fell several meters to the ground in a loud thud.

"GRAAAAHHHH!"

Kakashi looked over to the origin of the noise and paled for a moment. Such a thing…it was HUGE.

—

Naruko (A few minutes earlier)

The moment Satsuki passed out Naruko had picked her up and given her to Tazuna. She had to fight, to keep them safe, and Tazuna swore to protect her with his life. It was endearing and incredibly ironic.

Was 'ironic' the word? No, that doesn't matter!

Lei's clones had dwindled to five, but the jonin man had taken more than a few hits. Wood spikes sticking out of his body like a porcupine. She had to respect the man, he was still fighting almost as if he was in perfect health, but she prayed the man would just drop and stay down.

The masked woman was working with the man and it had been the reason Lei's clones were halved. She needed to protect Lei, but everytime she made clones, the woman would send ice spikes to cut them which would dispel them. Her clones weren't even half as durable as Lei's. Something she hated, he was cheating after all!

How come he has such a cool clan ability!? Even Satsuki was gonna get her sharingan soon! She had nothing, how unfair!

"I'm surprised you're still standing, bud." One of Lei's clones taunted. She easily identified it as the notorious Clone #2 who always had something to say.

"The Rebels would have been snuffed out if we were so easily felled." He spat through gritted teeth. At least it sounded like it. The man's mask was broken around his left eye but it still covered the rest of his face.

"Before we end this, I'm curious, why did you take a mission knowing Konoha would be sending shinobi to protect Tazuna." Clone #2 questioned, rubbing his chin.

"I don't have to answer you, bastard!" He spat again, making the clone seal and formed two water clones of his own.

"You're right. You aren't required to answer me. It doesn't matter anyways, all of you are just obstacles in the way of peace."

*CRASH*

A deafening noise sounded from deeper in the forest, Naruko's eyes widened when the earth shook, sending her and all the shinobi involuntarily airbound a couple feet before landing. Her, the Kiri shinobi, and Lei's clones landing on their feet, while Tazuna who was carrying Satsuki landed on his ass.

"...W-What was that?" The Kiri girl spoke for the first time.

The Kiri man's lone eye watched the forest the noise came from, wideneding considerably as he saw something.

"GRAAAAHHHH!"

Her eyes turned to the origin of the noise, reinforcing he blue orbs with chakra so that she could see further into the distance. Her eyes widening in fear.

WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT!?

—

Lei

As the water dragon came to me I had my clones send me the nature chakra they had gathered. Immediately I felt chakra overflow in my body. I stared down at my left arm that had begun to lose feeling, turns out it had turned to wood. I couldn't hold this amount of nature energy in my body, at least not without a complete sage mode, but the pseudo sage mode I devised would be able to maintain it as long as I expelled some.

I started weaving through hand seals, this was going to be the largest jutsu I'd ever casted, and I didn't have much experience with it beyond knowing the hand seals and that I'd be able to control it.

Ox - Horse - Boar - Snake

Slamming my hand on the branch of the tree, a mass of wood started forming beneath me. The head of something looking distinctly human took shape for me to jump onto. The rest of the body formed from the tree and then the legs. A massive wooden dragon wrapping around its neck. The water dragon slammed into its torso, damaging it before I healed it nigh instantaneously.

All the while Ao looked up in unmasked fear.

My construct had fully formed, falling to the ground in a massive CRASH!

The Earth beneath its feet, completely destroyed, leaving a fairly large crater in the ground.

The construct looked down at Ao, towering over him and let out a booming roar.

"GRAAAAHHHH!"

Ao's body had frozen, shaking in fear.

'Wood Release: Wood Golem Jutsu.'

It was by no means the towering beast that Hashirama mounted to face Madara and Kurama, in fact I'd estimate that it was just a bit larger than the true wood golem's head.

It stood at around 30 or so meters, more than I expected to be able to manage. I had nearly exhausted all of the nature energy my clones had sent me, but the clones were still in their original spot gathering more nature energy for me.

This fight was gonna end NOW.

Ao knew he couldn't win and I wasn't even surprised when he took off in the other direction.

"There will be no escape for you." My words were lost to the crashing footsteps of the massive avatar.

The golem went from a leisure walk to a full sprint, covering incredible distance and destroying any trees in it's way like a bowling ball knocking away pins.

In a matter of moments it was upon Ao's retreating form, the Kiri jonin launched a water bullet at the construct, doing a small bit of damage to its face but with my constant flow of nature energy, I easily replenished the damage and continued on. He managed to dodge most of the golems attempts at grabbing him, launching counterattacks as he ran to no avail. Nothing but my death would slow down this natural disaster.

Eventually he ran out of luck as the golem's hand wrapped around his body and applied enough pressure to hold him tight. Preventing his escape.

I looked down at him, pausing for a moment as he stared back at me in fear. That was all he needed to launch another water bullet at me.

'Wood Release: Wood Shield.'

A shield formed on top of the golem's head, blocking the water bullet. I cast away the shield letting it fall back to the Earth and eyed Ao with renewed intensity. I wasn't a good guy, I was a shinobi. I wasn't gonna give some monologue or some speech about how I wish things could be different. He had attempted to kill my loved ones.

The hand squeezed shut, I heard his bones pop, his body erupting in blood as it went limp. I stared at his body for several moments, not even sure what I was thinking. I felt empty, not because I killed him, but because I knew this was the first of many to my chosen path. I didn't remove my eyes from his broken and bloody body, engraving the sight into my memory forever.

I stayed like that for several minutes before I finally pulled out a scroll on my back. Jumping off the wood golem's head, I landed on its arm and walked the length toward its hand. A close up showed me just how gory Ao's death had been. His body was utterly broken, his torso and down had been turned to solid mush of bones, flesh, and organs. I resisted the urge to throw up at the smell and the lifeless look in his eye.

I sealed his body into the scroll, not wanting to look any more. It was already burned into my mind and would be haunting me for years to come. I prayed that eventually I wouldn't have these reactions.

A mental alert from my clones who had gone to help Naruko and Satsuki told me that they could use my help over there, so I mentally ordered the golem to continue on its path.

To achieve peace, wars would need to be fought, people would need to die, so that the next generation can thrive. So that my family, my children, and my loved ones can thrive.