Chapter 5

Ashidon locked his hands in a hand sign, he focused all his power on channeling the souls throughout his body. His goal was to saturate his body with the power of the souls to push his body to further heights. Doing so will allow him access to more abilities that are locked away. Thus, he focused on his task blocking out all distractions, trusting his group and crows to buy him the necessary time. That and his two black ghosts standing at the ready beside him.

As Ashidon was preoccupied, his group prepared themselves for a fight. They had no idea that Ashidon had gifted each of them with a guardian crow. The enemy stone nin finally had enough and attacked. They charged at the group with murderous intent.

As they clashed the stone nin attempted to overwhelm them with sheer numbers. Kunai met kunai and the sound of steel filled the forest. The group fought with everything they could but there were just too many.

Sumari, the other sensor nin was being pressed by three stone nin. She was a sensor, so her combat abilities were not the best. With each passing second, she was pushed back until she finally made a mistake. A kunai was heading towards her throat by a stone nin.

The stone nin smiled cruelly in anticipation of his kill. Sumari could only watch in resignation as the kunai neared. But just before the kunai connected with tender flesh, it suddenly stopped.

"What the," the stone nin began, shock written all over his face. The other two stone nin also looked on in confusion. In the next instant his throat was torn open, blood spraying Sumari's face as she stared wide eyed.

Nakko, another member of Ashidon's group, fought to his rear. He deflected kunai thrown at him while sending a few back. His eyes were constantly on the move. He moved with lethal precision, but the enemy were too numerous. While he was distracted, a spike of stone shot from the ground, aiming to impale him.

He froze, unable to react in time. Just before the spike could reach him, it was shattered by an unseen force. Not wasting an opportunity, he threw a kunai with a paper bomb at one of his adversaries, killing the unsuspecting stone nin.

Scenes like this were happening all around Ashidon. Each of his Allie's were being pressed hard. Yet every time there was an opening for the enemy to end their life, his unseen crows would intervene. They had one job, to keep them alive for as long as possible. The crows fought defensively, never moving forward, never pressing the advantage. They only defended their charge.

This however didn't mean that attacks didn't get through. Ashidon's allies suffered wounds, but thanks to the aid of the crows, none were fatal. And while they were being pushed to their limits, Ashidon's allies never wavered. For they knew that they were being protected by Ashidon's power.

All but one, Kyusai was in a sorry state. He, unlike the others, did not form a perimeter around Ashidon. This caused him to be separated from the others. He was the weak link and the enemy nin fell on him with fury.

He used every skill he had to fight back. On many occasions he used a quick substitution jutsu to get out of a near fatal blow. But the longer the fight went on, the further away he got from the group.

The others could not spare a second to even glance in his direction as every movement was focused on survival. Kyusai cursed as a rock made contact with his shoulder, dislocating it rendering it useless.

That small pause, that was his final mistake as he was impaled by a rock spear. Not giving him the chance to make any other moves, and wanting to ensure he was dead, his body was pelted with stones leaving his body a bloody pulp.

Ashidon, at this moment felt a click in his mind. He had finally unlocked a new ability. With a cruel smile, he opened his eyes and spoke. "Void Smoke!"

From his body, a thick smoke so dark that it seemed to suck in the light came forth. The smoke shot forward with such speed akin to a bomb exploding. The stone nin caught sight of the rapidly approaching smoke but could not react in time. The smoke enveloped both ally and enemy, and once it made contact, all fighting came to a halt.

In the black smoke, everyone was experiencing the same thing. They had completely lost their sense of sight, touch, taste, hearing and smell. They could not move, the only thing that they knew was darkness, the void.

'Looks like it worked, though I'll need more control to not affect allies. I should take out the enemy nin so I can free the others of the effects.' Ashidon thought before ordering his crows to kill the remaining stone nin.

The crows fell upon the stone nin with such zeal, that Ashidon wondered if they enjoyed it. It would not be a surprise to him since he knew of their nature. The ghosts, anything made of his IBM, had the ability to develop limited forms of intelligence.

Once the deed was done and all the stone nin laid sprawled out in gory death, Ashidon raised his hand and absorbed their souls into himself. Having absorbed the souls, he dispelled the crows and the smoke. As the smoke retreated, slithering back into his body, his allies gasped and fell to the floor clutching their chest.

Each of them was soaked in sweat but shook violently as if they had been walking through a blizzard in summer clothes. Ashidon felt bad about their current state but having never used the ability before he had no control over who was affected by it.

He walked over to Sumari and placed a hand on her shoulder, she screamed and leapt away from him. This caused the others to look over and they seemed to only just now take note of their surroundings.

"I'm sorry, Sumari senpai. It was my first time using that ability and I couldn't control who would be affected by it. It was the only way to save all of you." Ashidon spoke softly before bowing slightly towards her.

Sumari took a moment to calm her breathing before she managed a smile so weak a gentle summer breeze would shatter it. "I, I understand. Don't mind me, I was just surprised to- to feel again."

"I completely understand, and again I am sorry. Why don't we all take a moment to collect ourselves." Ashidon said to the remaining group.

As the others sat back, Ashidon eyed the corpse of Kyusai. 'If only you weren't such an asshole, I could have saved you.'