Chapter 11

After my conversation with Kaori ended, he left for his cell, although not before telling me in not-very-sweet words not to think about losing because he would kill me...

What a sweet little girl...

When he finally left, I began my accelerated healing experimentation, which had left me quite surprised.

From what I had seen so far, my healing was good enough to close wounds made with kunais, and counteract the negative effects of using soldier pills. The latter I had checked since I had spent the whole night testing the limits of my healing while using the pills to recover energy.

Another thing I discovered was that, even if my body healed incredibly fast, the pain did not disappear, in fact, it increased depending on how big the wound to be healed was, since the pain of the wound was added to the pain of feeling how my cells were forced to regenerate in an absurdly fast way. I deduced that the medical ninjutsu must have some anesthetic effect so that the injured person would not feel the pain, but it seems that Orochimaru had forgotten to add that part to the mixture of poisons that he injected me.

That was something I had found myself doubting during my experimentation process. I was almost certain that what that bastard had done to me went far beyond simply injecting me with snake venom, I was sure he had done something else to me while I was passed out, but it made me sick to my stomach just thinking about it, so I just ignored the idea.

- Brat, you're next, get ready.

Soka's loud voice snapped me out of my thoughts and brought me back to reality.

I was sitting behind the huge doors leading to the arena where I would fight the current number 6, who, if the information Haku and Suigetsu provided me earlier isn't wrong, is a crystal release user, a rather annoying kekkei genkai if my memories of the anime didn't fail me.

I could see the huge doors open and quickly got to my feet.

- I guess it's time - I muttered.

Whenever I was about to enter the arena I could feel a knot slowly forming in my stomach, after all, you can never be sure if the one who will come out alive will be you.

I walked towards the center of the arena and was greeted by the always energetic screams of the audience. No matter how many times I went out to fight, no matter how many times I heard the screams of the spectators, I could never get used to the fact that these people celebrate children/teenagers fighting to the death for their sadistic satisfaction.

I stood in the center of the fighting arena and waited for my opponent to enter. I didn't have to wait too long, as a few minutes later, a tall teenage girl with long purple hair tied in a braid that fell down her back, and equally purple eyes entered the arena. She wore the same outfit as all the other fighters except for Suigetsu and Haku, but there was something about her that made her stand out from the rest, and that was the sheath for a sword at her waist.

She's taller than me, has the crystal release kekkei genkai and uses a sword... sounds like I'm completely screwed.

Once number 6 was a few feet in front of me, the announcer's voice was heard throughout the place.

- LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! THIS WILL BE THE BOUT THAT WILL DECIDE WHICH OF THESE FIGHTERS WILL ADVANCE TO THE SEMIFINALS OF THE TOURNAMENT FOR FOURTH PLACE! ARE YOU ALL READY?!

The shouts of approval from the spectators were not long in coming.

- ALL RIGHT! LET THE FIGHT BETWEEN HIDEKI AND KAEDE BEGIN!

Before I could think of doing anything, I was greeted by a powerful knee to the stomach that made me lean forward, then I received another knee, but this time to the jaw and finally a punch in the face.

I was sent flying to the side because of that last blow.

Before falling to the ground, I flipped in the air and landed on my feet, this time staring at my opponent, trying not to miss any move or possible attack on his part.

Hugh, what the hell was that? I didn't even see her move.

As I looked at my opponent, I noticed that she was completely still, she looked like a statue, I could barely see the movement of her body as she breathed, it was completely bizarre, she even had an absolutely blank expression that didn't let any of her emotions show.

She doesn't seem like the type of person I can or want to piss off, so I'll have to come up with some other plan to win this... okay, think, so far you know she's fast and hits incredibly hard. She hasn't used her kekkei genkai yet and neither has her sword, which means she doesn't think she's a threat. Maybe I can use that to my advantage.

I pulled my seal trench knives out of my hand seal and moved into the taijutsu stance I had been perfecting since I arrived here. I would wait for Kaede to make the next move since, if I tried to attack her head on, she would most likely use her superior speed to hit me once again.

We stared at each other for a few seconds. Neither of us tried to do anything to attack the other. I was about to say something, until I saw her move her hand to the sword at her waist. I tensed up waiting for her to lunge to slash me with her weapon, but I got a big surprise when I saw it. It was simply the handle of a sword.

What the hell?

My surprise increased as I watched a pink colored crystal begin to form in his hand and extend to the handle of the sword and begin to cover it, then continue to extend until it formed a blade attached to the crystal covered mage. By the time the crystal stopped extending, the lone handle my opponent held in his right hand had turned into a beautiful pink sword.

I could no longer appreciate the beauty of the sword, for in the blink of an eye the teenager was in front of me bringing her weapon down in a diagonal slash.

I quickly brought my hands up and parried the crystal sword with my knives. I had to channel chakra into my arms because the force behind that cut was much greater than I thought.

I'm not surprised that it was a tough match for Kaori when she fought this broad. She seems to have monstrous strength and if the way she created her sword is anything to go by, then she knows how to use her bloodline well too.

I could see her knee rising to strike me and doubted I could stop her, so I did the wise thing and performed a shunshin to get away from her.

He knew that practicing all those nights to be able to use shunshin without hand signals would be rewarded in some way in the future.

Once I was at a safe distance, I took out some shurikens and threw them at him, then I made a hand signal and channeled chakra into my mouth to use; Water Element: Shot, to throw some water spheres to serve as a distraction along with the shuriken. Imagine my surprise when my opponent raised a glass wall in front of him without using any hand seal. The wall stopped all my attacks as if they were nothing. Then, from that same wall several crystal senbon needles were formed which flew at high speed in my direction.

I had to use another shunshin to move from my place and not get pincushioned, but when I reappeared I was almost impaled by a crystal spear that came out of the ground. Fortunately I was fast enough to roll to the side, otherwise I would have a hole in the middle of my chest right now.

I didn't have enough time to enjoy the fact that I wasn't impaled, as more spears started coming out of the ground and I had to move quickly to avoid dying.

Damn it, she won't let me do anything. I must find a way to beat her fast or this fight will end my life.

I pulled out a kunai and threw it in the direction of my opponent who was holding his left hand on the ground. Obviously my weapon was deflected by Kaede's sword, but I was close enough to do what I wanted. I quickly made a kawarimi with the kunai to stand next to my opponent and then two hand signals and said: Water Element: Water Bullet Jutsu.

I launched a stream of water towards my opponent who had to jump out of his place to avoid being caught by my attack. Once my opponent was in the air, I made another hand signal and threw several spheres of water that hit her body and sent her flying away from me.

- Please let that have been enough - I murmured.

Kaede had fallen backwards to the ground, but there was something strange about her, although I couldn't tell exactly what it was. When she finally stood up I could see what it was that seemed strange. Her body was covered by an armor made of crystal.

- Oh come on, you can create a crystal sword, you can raise crystal walls without using hand signals, you can throw crystal senbons from those walls, you can also make crystal spears come out of the ground and now cover your body with crystal armor! Anything else?! Don't you want to create a crystal dragon too?!

My complaints seemed to amuse the girl, as I could see the hints of a smile forming on her face, though they disappeared as quickly as they appeared.

- I think it's a good idea.

Well, you can talk.

The teenager's voice was soft and sweet, so soft that it sounded like a whisper and so sweet that it didn't match her serious appearance.

Wait...

At that moment the words the girl had said made sense in my brain.

Oh, damn it!

I watched in horror as my opponent went through 3 hand signals and muttered the name of his technique.

- Crystal Liberation: Great Crystal Dragon.

After that a huge dragon made entirely of crystal formed around it. Its glowing jade-colored eyes looked at me as if it knew I was its next prey. Before I could think of anything, it launched itself with great speed in my direction.

Damn me and my stupid big mouth!

I channeled chakra into my feet and ran away from the huge monster made of crystal. Unfortunately for me, it seemed that Kaede could control the dragon's movements as it kept following me.

Wait... the dragon follows me because she can see me, so if she couldn't, the dragon couldn't reach me... damn, I'm a genius!

I paused for a moment and went through the necessary hand signals, ending with the tiger signal and muttered my technique: Darkness Bearer Jutsu.

For a few seconds Kaede stood still. She did not move a single muscle. I then took this as a sign that my technique had worked and ran in her direction looking to hit her hard with my trench knives.

Once I was far enough away, I threw my fist at the teenager's face. It hit just as I expected, but something wasn't right.

I stared at the girl's face and could see with absolute horror as her face slowly turned pink and after a few seconds crumbled into glass.

A clone!

Before I could do anything, I felt my feet being held up. As I looked down I realized they were encased in glass.

- Well, this was quite disappointing, I don't understand how you beat number 8 if you can't even tell the difference between a clone and the original.

I heard Kaede's voice coming from behind me and froze.

I tried to channel chakra to my feet to get them out, but it was impossible. The crystal that held them was incredibly resistant and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get them out of their place.

- Now, die.

By the time I looked back it was too late, the huge crystal dragon that had been chasing me earlier was just inches away from impacting my back.

This is going to hurt...

I could feel the huge monster slam into my back and send me into one of the walls of the arena. I was unaware of the pain in my body until my face hit one of the walls surrounding the arena. After a few seconds of being embedded in the wall, I fell to the ground on my back, which caused my pain to increase by several levels. I could feel how several of my bones were broken, my entire torso was burning, just continuing to breathe was incredible suffering. It vaguely reminded me of the moment when Orochimaru injected the snake venom into my body, but that had been much worse.

The pain in my body was enough to make me wonder if dying was so bad, after all, I had already done it once and to be honest, it was the most peaceful and tranquil moment of my entire existence.

I couldn't help but cough, which made my whole body ache even more, and a small trail of blood showed at one corner of my mouth.

I could feel my bones starting to knit back together and it wasn't a pretty feeling. It felt like my bones were being welded together with a red hot iron bar.

* Meanwhile in the courtyard

Kaori had always tried to keep her emotions under control, as she knew what could happen if that was not the case and did not want the incident in her home village to be repeated once again, but as she watched her only friend get smashed against a wall by a huge dragon made of glass and then fall back to the ground coughing blood, she lost it.

It took the combined efforts of Haku, Suigetsu and 2 of Oyashiro's bodyguards to stop the girl from bringing the entire coliseum crashing down, crushing them in the process.

Now Kaori found herself crying in the arms of a stunned Haku for what had just happened, which was understandable, after all, you don't see every day how a 9 year old girl kills 11 guards, seriously injure about 20 relatively experienced fighters, and completely destroy a room covered with chakra-absorbing seals in less than 5 minutes.

Suigetsu had been saved from not being impaled by a spear thanks to his kekkei genkai that allowed him to turn into water and Haku thanks to his ice mirrors, but they had still been damaged by the earth spears that constantly came from Kaori's surroundings.

- Hey, Haku.

Suigetsu's voice snapped Haku out of his daze and he looked at him.

- What is happening?

- Do you think the child has...?

- I don't know," he sighed, "It's likely, but I can't be sure.

One of the few things that had been saved from Kaori's destruction was the huge screen where the fights were shown and on it you could clearly see the body of a pale boy lying on the ground while blood was coming out of his mouth.

- It's a pity... I was beginning to like him - Suigetsu muttered.

- I'm the same way...

The teenager's words were interrupted by a burning in the palm of his hand that made him open his eyes.

- Haku, is everything all right?

- It's time..." muttered Haku in response.

- Time? Time for what?

- The plan.

- Plan?

- Yes, Zabuza-sama's. It is in progress.

- Are you serious?

The surprise was evident on Suigetsu's face.

- Yes, now go get your things and gather the rest. We're out of here.

- And what will you do with her? - Suigetsu asked, pointing to the girl in Haku's arms.

- We will need your help to get out of this place, so you are coming with us.

- It's okay.

*With Hideki

I know I'm being healed, but... must it really be so fucking painful! Damn it, I'd rather be beaten again by that glass monster!

When the pain subsided a bit I figured my bones were recovered, or at least enough to not be in danger of one of my ribs puncturing my lung, so I decided to get up.

- Argh!

I let out a grunt of effort as I stood up on my feet.

The surprised look on my opponent's face when he saw me standing up was satisfying enough to compensate for the fact that I was feeling my bones melting.

- How are you alive...? My crystal dragon impacted your body full force.

The confusion was evident in the teenager's tone and it made me laugh a little.

- Let's just say I'm not easy to kill - I replied.

Kaede frowned at my answer.

- Then you'll wish you had died when that dragon hit you.

- Relax, I'm already doing it - I murmured.

I had to channel chakra into my arms and raise them quickly to block a slash from above by the teenager's sword.

The impact made every bone in my body ache even more and I was about to drop my arms, but I channeled even more chakra and stood my ground. Unfortunately, I was not fast enough to stop the punch to my face, followed by a knee to my abdomen. I leaned forward due to the force behind

the last punch and before I knew it, Kaede's sword was already coming down to cut my head off, I had to make a quick decision and decided that I would rather lose an arm than my head, so I moved to the side, letting the sword go through my left arm instead of my head.

- AHHH!

I couldn't help but let out a cry of pain as I felt the sword cut from my shoulder to my elbow.

I quickly gathered chakra in my right fist and threw a punch at my opponent. To my misfortune, Kaede formed her crystal armor again, but this time it was only in her hand, a hand with which she parried my blow.

I watched in amazement as the crystal protecting #6's hand extended to my fist and completely covered it with crystal. Before my opponent could attack me again, I performed a shunshin and moved away from her.

Damn it, now not only do I have to worry about my bones that keep hurting like they're being melted, but I also have to worry about not bleeding to death and trying to get my fist out of this thing!

I took a deep breath for a few seconds and tried to think my situation through clearly.

Okay, surely the cut will heal quickly, but how do I get my fist out of this crystal? If I remember correctly, Guren's crystal was incredibly tough, so much so that it was able to withstand constant attacks from Naruto's rasengans.

I had to stop my chain of thought to dodge a spear that seemed to form from the glass covering my hand.

- What the hell?

The spear began to branch out quickly and before I knew it I was completely surrounded by thorn-like things holding my body prisoner.

- It seems that you can no longer escape.

I heard Kaede's voice coming from behind me and I froze. I could feel the thorns slowly digging

into my whole body.

- Any last words before you die?

- Can you give me a few seconds to think about them?

- No.

- Yeah... I figured.

- If you have nothing to say then move on....

- Wait! I want to say something!

My sudden shout made him stop to listen to me.

- Speech.

- Genjutsu is beautiful, don't you think? - I said, as I faded into nothingness.

- Huh?!

The teenager dropped her jutsu due to astonishment, making the thorns disappear and looking around. Before she could realize what I did, I reappeared where she was and delivered a powerful blow with my crystal-covered hand. The blow was so hard that the material around my fist began to crack. I didn't want to give Kaede time to counterattack, so I did a shunshin and gave her another blow with my crystal covered hand. I did this about 3 more times until the crystal finally shattered and I was finally able to perform the hand signals that I hoped would give me the victory. Still, before I did that, I pulled out one of the soldier pills I had gotten along with the former number 8's stuff and popped it in my mouth. I could feel the chakra in my body replenish along with my energy. After that, I went through two hand signals and channeled half of all my chakra into my mouth.

I hope this works...

- Water Style: Shooting.

I launched a huge sphere of water from my mouth in the direction of my misfortune I didn't count on having enough time to form a crystal dragon, which undid my attack without much effort and then proceeded to chase me all over the arena.

- Oh come on! Not again!

I looked back to see if the dragon was still behind me, but to my surprise, it had disappeared. When I looked forward again I was greeted by a powerful kick in the middle of my face that sent me flying several meters backward landing on my back.

- Hugh... that hurt... - I muttered.

- I don't know what the hell it was you did just now, but don't think that because you managed to hit me a few times you can beat me.

- Oh, it was simple enough - I shrugged - I just had to...

- ...

- ...

- You just had to...?

- You didn't seriously think I would rebel against you like I did, did you? Because let me tell you, I'm not such an idiot as to do that.

In truth what I had done was completely simple, I just made my opponent confused by my words and used the false environment genjutsu to make myself momentarily invisible. Kaede was so confused by what I said and my sudden disappearance that she didn't realize that I had placed a genjutsu on myself and was still trapped in her crystal.

All right, I think it's time.

I channeled chakra throughout my body. This caused my opponent to tense up in anticipation of an attack, but what I didn't expect was for him to release a huge burst of chakra, followed by a murmur of; let go.

After saying that word, my whole body was illuminated by the gravity seals that Akio had put on me when I was training my body to have a replacement for Tsunade's chakra strikes. After a few seconds, the seals stopped lighting up and went back to camouflaging with my skin.

The moment the seals stopped glowing I could feel how a great weight disappeared from my body, I felt incredibly light, it was something completely amazing. I did some tests throwing kicks and punches in the air to check how much my speed had changed and I had to admit that the results were amazing. Not having deactivated the seals for so long made my speed and possibly my strength increase by a huge level.

Once I finished admiring my new abilities I turned to look at my opponent. He was standing a few meters away from me, and he was looking at me as if he was waiting for something.

- What's going on? - I asked.

- What did you do, was it some kind of technique to increase your physical capabilities?

- Oh, not at all, quite the contrary. I just took the extra weight off my body.

- Extra heavy...

Before he could speak any further, I had already run in his direction and delivered a powerful punch to his jaw with my newly freed hand. I used the momentum from my punch and spun in place to kick him in his ribs. The kick was charged with chakra, which sent my opponent flying away from me.

Wow, that was totally cool... for a moment I could feel Rock Lee....

I felt so light, so strong, so amazing. For a moment I thought this strength would be enough to defeat Kakuzu, until I remembered that Aoki could move at least 10 times faster than me and hit another 10 times harder, and still lost to Kakuzu.

- Wh... what the hell was that?

I listened to the faint words of my opponent who was struggling to get up after two blows.

- Heh, that's what you deserve for having a damn crystal dragon run me over and smash me

against a wall - I said, with obvious arrogance in my voice.

The anger in my opponent's eyes was visible even from my position.

It had been a long time since something made me feel uncomfortable. I wasn't uncomfortable when Kakuzu released his killer instinct when he brought me here, I wasn't uncomfortable in the countless fights I had since I came to this place, but the rage and hatred in my opponent's eyes managed to make every hair on my body tense up.

- Scum... - Kaede's voice had become a whisper - You think you're better than me...? - a pink aura began to surround her - You think because you were able to hit me a few times you're better than me? - crystals began to form around her - I'm going to kill you.

Numerous crystal spears suddenly formed all over the arena. I did not have time to react and was cut in several places on my body. Luckily, none of the wounds were serious, so I could move to dodge the spears that were obviously going for my heart.

Even with my newfound speed, I had difficulty dodging the endless crystals rising from the ground. It was as if spears were being created wherever I stepped.

- Die!

The sudden shout brought me out of my thoughts and as I looked ahead I caught the sight of Kaede with her sword held high, ready to cut me down.

Before the sword could touch my skin I did a shunshin and stepped behind my opponent. My sudden disappearance threw the teenager off balance and made her fall forward. I took advantage of Kaede's moment of weakness and gave her another kick in the ribs, sending her flying to the side and through several panes of glass. I couldn't stay still for long as the spears wouldn't stop and I had to move again to avoid being impaled.

Okey Hideki, think, what's a shonen protagonist supposed to do at this point, pull a completely unbalanced ability out of his pocket? Hmm... sounds good, but I don't have anything like that at the moment, get a power up? I think releasing seals would count as power up, so that wouldn't work either, asking a completely broken, white-haired, magic-eyed partner for help? Hum... unless Suigetsu gets a Sharingan or a rinnegan at this very moment, that won't work either...

I felt a small twinge in my left arm and when I looked at it I realized that the wound in it had already

closed completely.

Great, I can use my arm again.

- Crystal Liberation: Twin Dragons

Wait, what do you mean, twin dragons?!

As I looked in the direction of where my opponent had fallen, I could see two huge dragons form from the shards of glass on the ground and begin to chase me.

I've had enough of those damn things!

I quickly did a shunshin before getting caught between the two crystal beasts and ran in the direction of my opponent while dodging spear after spear. Once I was at her side, I channeled chakra into my knives and launched a slash at the teenage girl's face. Or so it would have been, had I not realized I didn't have my knives with me when my fists were already practically in Kaede's face.

Damn, I must have dropped them at some point, and with so many crystals in the sand, I won't be able to find them before this girl kills me.

The teenager received a powerful double punch to the face but did not move an inch from her spot.

- Eh?

Before I could do anything I saw my opponent's face turn a pale pink and then collapse into shards of glass.

- Dies...

I heard a sudden whisper in my ear and then felt something prickly touch my back.

For a moment I thought time had stopped. Everything was moving in slow motion and I couldn't hear anything apart from the distinct sound of meat being cut.

I felt something go up my throat and flood my mouth with a strange iron taste. I knew what it was, but I couldn't understand why there was blood in my mouth.

As I looked down I realized the reason. The tip of a huge pink sword covered in blood was sticking out of my stomach. I stared at it in bewilderment for a few moments, or at least until I felt it slide out of my body.

My legs were beginning to weaken and I felt something impact my back, causing me to fall face first to the ground. When I hit the hard sand floor I fully realized what had happened. I had been stabbed.

- What happened? Where did all that arrogance go?

I knew my opponent was talking to me, but it sounded distant as if someone was trying to whisper something to me from meters away.

Before I could do or say anything, I felt something dig into my legs. I tried to let out a scream, but the blood in my mouth was choking me and I couldn't spit it out because my head was being pressed against the ground. I felt the same stabbing sensation in my hands, in my arms, then in my shoulders, and finally in my feet.

Heh... it seems that this time my end has come... I think I'm getting tired of always being on the verge of death...

I felt my body being lifted by something, but I couldn't care less as I was completely focused on the various things stabbing my limbs.

- Hey, don't die yet.

Kaede punched me in the face, which made me turn my head and drop all the blood that had been pooling in my mouth.

The moment I was with my head down was enough to see that what was lifting me up was a kind of cross made of crystal and what was nailed to my limbs were crystal spears.

- Are you going to beg me to forgive you for stabbing me and then crucifying me?

I mustered what little strength I had left to give a bloody smile to the teenage girl who looked at me with disgust.

- Even on the verge of death you are arrogant - he growled.

- It's not like you're going to let me live to be arrogant another day, so why not do it now?

- You're right, I'm not going to let you live. I just wanted you to see the face of your killer.

- Quite a beautiful killer if you ask me.

I could see him frown and slowly raise his sword.

- I won't say it was an honor to fight with you, but it was entertaining. Farewell.

- I'll wait for you in hell, Kaede.

I watched helplessly as my opponent's weapon slowly approached my body.

I guess this is it...

I felt something sharp touch my chest and begin to dig in.

*BOOOOOOOOOOOM*

A loud explosion made the girl stop in her attempt to assassinate me to see how one of the walls near the stands of the coliseum was destroyed and several shinobi were rushing in. Behind them, a huge, tall, dark-skinned man with long blond hair combed back was shouting orders in a loud voice.

- What on earth? - I heard her mutter.

I opened my eyes to see several shinobi incapacitating the spectators and leading them outside.

I could feel the glass digging into my limbs begin to crack and when I looked at my opponent to see what was wrong, I realized he was gone.

After a few seconds, the cross-shaped glass structure where I was nailed to had completely collapsed, causing me to fall freely to the ground. The wounds on my body were numerous and deep, I was doubting that my accelerated healing could save me this time, so I simply decided to stay there and wait for my inevitable end, either from the wounds or from the incoming shinobi.

I guess at times like this I can only laugh... heh... I hope Kaori doesn't get mad at me for breaking our promise to travel the world, but it's not like I can do anything about it...

I felt so tired... I wanted to sleep, but I knew that if I closed my eyes I would die and I honestly didn't want to die, at least not until I cut Kakuzu's head off for putting me in this situation.

Okay... I guess I could sleep for a few minutes until my wounds heal...

I finally closed my eyes and let myself fall into unconsciousness. The last thing I could hear was someone screaming my name as I felt like I was slowly sinking into something. I didn't think much of it and let my body rest.