Chapter 14

[AN: Sorry I'm late guys, life has really been lifing. Enjoy the chapter.]

The sun had barely risen over the horizon when Garp and his three grandchildren stood at the gates of Konoha, ready to depart. Tsunade was there to see them off, a mix of emotions playing across her face.

"Are you sure you can't stay a bit longer?" Tsunade asked, a hint of disappointment in her voice.

Garp grinned, adjusting the large pack on his shoulder. "Ah, you know how it is, Tsunade-chan. Places to go, people to see! Can't keep Hanzo waiting too long, you know."

Yahiko bounced on his heels, excitement radiating from him. "Yeah, and Gramps promised we'd start some more serious training once we got back!"

Konan and Nagato nodded in agreement, their eyes shining with anticipation.

Tsunade couldn't help but smile at their enthusiasm. "Well, I suppose I can't argue with that. You three have certainly grown stronger during your stay here."

Garp's grin widened. "That they have! These little rascals are going to change the world someday, mark my words."

As they prepared to leave, Garp suddenly snapped his fingers, as if remembering something. "Oh, Tsunade-chan! Don't forget to come visit us once you're pregnant. I want to meet the little tyke!"

Tsunade's face turned a deep shade of red, her foot stomping the ground in embarrassment. The earth trembled and shattered under the sheer force. "G-Garp! What are you talking about?!"

Garp laughed heartily. "Bwahahahahahaha! Come now, I may be old, but I'm not blind. I see the way you and that Dan fellow look at each other. It's only a matter of time!"

Still chuckling at Tsunade's flustered expression, Garp turned to his grandchildren. "Alright, you little rascals, time to hit the road!"

As Yahiko, Konan, and Nagato said their farewells to the few friends they had made during their stay, Garp's keen eyes scanned the crowd. He could sense the hidden presence of several ANBU, no doubt keeping watch on their departure. But beyond that, he could feel another group of individuals that seemed to display little to no emotion at all.

'So, Danzo,' Garp thought to himself, his internal voice grim despite his outward cheer, 'You're making your move already, eh?'

With a final wave to the assembled villagers, Garp and his grandchildren set off down the road leading away from Konoha. As they walked, Garp's senses remained on high alert, tracking the movements of their unseen observers.

They had been traveling for several hours, the borders of the Land of Fire drawing near, when Garp felt a shift in the air. The hidden presences that had been following them were converging, their killing intent no longer concealed.

"Kids." Garp said quietly, his jovial demeanor replaced by serious focus, "Get ready. We're about to have company."

The children nodded, their playful attitudes replaced by focused determination. They had sensed the change in their grandfather's demeanor and knew something was about to happen.

Just as they were about to cross into a large clearing, Garp suddenly stopped. A slight smirk played on his lips as he called out, "Alright, you can come out now. I know you're there."

For a moment, nothing happened. Then, as if materializing from the very shadows of the forest, figures began to appear. Shinobi in blank masks and dark clothing surrounded them, their numbers seeming to grow by the second.

Finally, a figure stepped forward from the mass of shinobi. Danzo Shimura, his face set in a grim expression, stood before Garp.

"Monkey D. Garp." Danzo's voice carried across the clearing, "I'm afraid that your journey will sadly end here."

Garp's expression remained neutral, but his eyes hardened. "Oh? And why might that be, Danzo-san?"

Danzo's eye narrowed, both at the fact Garp knew his identity and his uncaring demeanor. "You possess power and knowledge that could threaten the stability of the entire Shinobi World. We cannot allow you to leave with such potential weapons."

His gaze shifted to the three children huddled behind Garp. "Especially not with those children and their... unique abilities."

Garp's stance shifted subtly, placing himself more firmly between Danzo and his grandchildren. "And what exactly do you propose, Danzo-san?"

"It's simple." Danzo replied, his tone matter-of-fact. "Pledge your loyalty to Konoha. Serve us, and we will allow you to live. Resist, and... well, I'm sure you can imagine the consequences."

For a moment, silence reigned in the clearing. Then, to the surprise of the assembled ROOT forces, Garp began to laugh. It started as a low chuckle and built into a full-bellied roar that echoed through the trees.

"Bwahahahahahahahaha! Oh, Danzo." Garp wiped a tear of mirth from his eye, as he looked at Danzo as if he had just said the funniest joke in the world.

"You really don't know who you're dealing with, do you?"

His laughter subsided, replaced by a grin that held no humor – only the promise of impending violence, with him throwing his usual jacket into the air, letting it wave in the wind as it headed towards the ground. "Kids, stand back. It's time I showed these fellows why they call me the 'Hero of the Marines'. And pay close attention, since I expect you all to learn everything I show you today and one day exceed it."

Before Danzo could respond, Garp vanished from sight. In the next instant, he reappeared in the midst of the ROOT forces, his fist connecting with the first shinobi's solar plexus. The unfortunate ninja flew backward, crashing through several trees before coming to a stop, dead before he could even realize it.

And with that, the massacre had begun.

The ROOT forces, to their credit, reacted quickly. A group of ten Jonin level Shinobi immediately encircled Garp, their hands flashing through seals.

"Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu! (Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu)" they cried in unison, each expelling a massive fireball toward Garp.

Garp didn't even flinch. As the fireballs converged on him, he simply raised his arms, coating them in a sliver of Armament Haki. With lightning-fast movements, he swatted the fireballs away as if they were mere annoyances, sending them crashing into the surrounding forest.

Before the jonin could recover from their shock, Garp was among them. His movements were a blur, each strike precise and devastatingly powerful. One jonin took a chop to the spine and crumpled instantly. Another received an open-palm strike to the chest that sent him flying into three of his comrades, taking all four out of the fight.

The remaining five attempted to engage Garp in close combat, their tantō flashing in the sunlight. But Garp's Observation Haki allowed him to predict their movements with extreme ease. He weaved between their strikes, his own attacks finding their marks with an absolute accuracy.

A kick to the knee shattered one jonin's leg. An elbow to the face broke another's skull and took him out. The third found himself on the receiving end of a headbutt that left him seeing stars before darkness claimed him.

The last two, realizing the futility of close combat, leaped back to attempt a ranged battle. But Garp was on them before their hands could form the first seal. A swift chop to the back of the neck silenced one, while the other received a punch to the gut that left him gasping for air on the ground as his internal organs seemed to rupture.

Twenty more ROOT shinobi rushed in to fill the gap left by their fallen comrades. This group was a mix of jonin and special jonin, their attacks more coordinated and varied after seeing Garp's fighting style and attempting to adjust.

"Doton: Doryūheki!" several cried out, raising massive earthen walls to trap Garp.

Simultaneously, others launched a barrage of wind and lightning techniques, aiming to overwhelm Garp with sheer destructive power.

Garp's response was to showcase another of his Rokushiki techniques. "Geppō!" he called out (Purely for amusement), launching himself into the air with a kick so powerful it shattered the ground beneath him.

From his elevated position, Garp rained down a series of punches, each strike utilizing an advanced property of Emission so that each of them were struck. The earthen walls crumbled under his assault, and those ROOT members unlucky enough to be in the way found themselves buried under the debris.

Landing amidst the chaos, Garp immediately had to deal with a group of special jonin who had managed to flank him. Their tantō, imbued with chakra, slashed at him from all angles.

But Garp's mastery of Observation Haki allowed him to dodge each strike with minimal movement, his body twisting and turning in ways that seemed to defy physics. As he evaded, he counterattacked, each movement flowing seamlessly into devastating strikes that eliminated them as if he were a machine.

One special jonin found his wrist caught in Garp's iron grip. Before he could react, Garp had disarmed him and used the tantō to parry attacks from two other assailants. In the same fluid motion, Garp's foot lashed out, catching another ROOT member in the chin with a kick that sent him spiraling into the air.

The remaining special jonin, realizing the danger of close combat, attempted to retreat and regroup. But Garp wasn't about to let them. With a burst of speed that left afterimages, he closed the distance.

"Shigan!" Garp called out, his fingers striking with the force of bullets. Each hit found a pressure point or vital area, dropping the special jonin where they stood.

The next wave of attackers barely had time to register his disappearance before Garp reappeared in their midst. His fist, coated in the jet-black sheen of advanced Armament Haki, slammed into the chest of a Jonin. The impact was catastrophic - the shinobi's flak jacket shattered, ribs splintered, and internal organs ruptured. The unfortunate ninja was seemingly destroyed just from the attack as he became a 'splat' on the ground.

Another group attempted to box him in, their hands flashing through seals for a coordinated jutsu. Garp's eyes flashed, Future Sight showing him their intentions. In a display of raw speed, he used Soru to close the distance instantly, as if he were teleporting. His fingers, hardened with Haki, pierced through their throats with surgical precision. The jutsu died with them, uncast.

Special Jonin launched a barrage of elemental attacks - fireballs, lightning bolts, and earth spikes hurtled towards Garp from all directions. With a casual ease that belied the danger, Garp used Kami-e, his body seeming to flutter like paper, effortlessly evading every attack.

As the jutsu collided behind him, creating a massive explosion, Garp was already on the move. He appeared before a group of stunned Jonin, his leg sweeping out in a wide arc. "Rankyaku." he muttered, and a blade of compressed air sliced through the shinobi, cutting them in half at the waist.

The ROOT forces, despite their training and numbers, found themselves completely outmatched. Garp was not just powerful - he was experienced, efficient, and utterly merciless. Every movement was purposeful, every strike lethal.

A particularly brave (or foolish) Jonin managed to get close, a kunai aimed at Garp's throat. Without even looking, Garp caught the ninja's wrist. There was a sickening crunch as he crushed the bones to powder. Before the Jonin could scream, Garp's other hand clamped around his head. With a sharp twist, the ninja's neck snapped, his lifeless body dropping to the ground.

Danzo watched in growing horror as his elite forces were decimated. This was no battle - it was a slaughter. Garp moved through the ROOT shinobi like a force of nature, unstoppable and implacable.

Another platoon of ROOT Shinobi attempted to trap Garp in a high-level genjutsu. For a moment, it seemed to work, as Garp stood still, his eyes unfocused. Then he blinked, a pulse of Haki disrupting the illusion. "Nice try." he growled, before using Geppo to launch himself into the air. He came down like a meteor, his Haki-infused fist crashing into the ground. The earth shattered, sending shinobi flying and crushing those closest to the impact.

As the battle raged on, the forest clearing became a graveyard. Bodies littered the ground, many broken beyond recognition. The surviving ROOT members began to falter, their resolve crumbling in the face of Garp's overwhelming power. 

Garp gave those who had lost sight of their emotion remember the primal emotion embedded into every Human:

Fear.

Garp stood in the center of the carnage, barely breathing hard. His clothes were spattered with blood, none of it his own. His eyes, usually twinkling with mirth, now burned with a cold fury that sent shivers down the spines of those still standing.

"Is this all you've got?" Garp's voice boomed across the battlefield. "Is this the best that Konoha's darkness can muster?"

Danzo, his face a mask of rage and disbelief, raised his hand. "Continue with the attack!! Bring him down at any cost!"

The remaining shinobi of the prior group, driven by fear and desperation, charged at Garp from all sides. But the old warrior was far from finished.

Garp's body tensed, then seemed to blur. "Rokugan: Emission." he intoned, and an invisible shockwave of force exploded outward. The advancing shinobi were caught in the blast, their bodies pulverized by the sheer power of the technique. Those not killed instantly were left broken and dying on the blood-soaked ground.

By now, the remaining ROOT forces were beginning to realize the true extent of the monster they faced. But retreat was not an option – they only knew of success. If they failed, they would be disposed of. So stuck between a rock and a hard place, they could only choose to meet their end in battle.

So they proceeded. And they failed.

In the span of mere seconds, over a dozen more bodies lay strewn across the battlefield, groaning in pain or blissfully unmoving.

The remaining ROOT forces, now a mere fraction of their original number, began to adopt more desperate tactics. A group of Jonin, their hands flashing through complex seal sequences, summoned a veritable menagerie of ninken, birds, and other combat animals.

As the summoned beasts charged towards Garp, he merely grinned. "Rankyaku!" he shouted, his leg moving so fast it created a blade of compressed air.

The air blade tore through the ranks of summoned animals, dispelling them in puffs of smoke. It continued on, carving a deep furrow in the earth and forcing the summoners to dive for cover, those that weren't eliminated by what could viewed as a slash by a Great Swordsman.

Taking advantage of the momentary distraction, another group of ROOT members launched a coordinated assault. Earth techniques sought to trap Garp's feet, while wind techniques buffeted him from all sides. Lightning jutsu arced towards him, threatening to paralyze his nervous system.

But Garp was far from helpless. With a shout of "Tekkai!" his body hardened, becoming as impenetrable as steel. The lightning jutsu sparked harmlessly off his skin, while the wind techniques failed to so much as ruffle his clothes.

As for the earth techniques attempting to trap him, Garp simply flexed his legs, shattering the hardened soil with raw strength.

Before the ROOT members could process their failure, Garp was among them once more. His fists, now shimmering with another advanced application of Armament Haki, with each strike destroying the Shinobi from the inside out.

Each hit was carefully measured – enough to eliminate them as efficiently as possible. A jonin who attempted to block found his arm broken in three places. Another, thinking he had found an opening, received a palm strike to the chest that sent him crashing through several trees.

A particularly skilled kunoichi 'almost' managed to land a glancing blow with a poisoned kunai, only to stare in disbelief as the poison hissed and evaporated against Garp's Haki-infused skin.

Garp's counterattack was swift and decisive. A series of rapid-fire Shigan strikes hit pressure points along her arms and legs, leaving her missing limb and helpless on the ground.

By now, the clearing had been transformed into a warzone. Deceased, unconscious or groaning ROOT members lay scattered in every direction. Trees had been uprooted, the ground was scarred with deep furrows, and small fires smoldered here and there from misdirected jutsu.

And still, Garp fought on, his movements as fresh and powerful as when the battle began. The remaining ROOT forces, now numbering less than twenty, gathered for a final, desperate assault.

They came at Garp from all angles, their attacks coordinated with the precision born of years of training together. Ninjutsu, genjutsu, and taijutsu were woven together in a tapestry of destruction aimed at a single target.

But Garp, with his Observation Haki, saw through their every move. He danced between jutsu, shattered genjutsu with pulses of Haki, and met every physical attack with one of his own.

A jonin who attempted to ensnare Garp in a shadow binding technique found his jutsu broken by a stomp that shattered the very earth, disrupting the shadow's path. The backlash left the jonin stunned and vulnerable to a chop that seemed to sever his spine.

Two special jonin, working in tandem, tried to briefly restrain Garp with a combination of earth and water techniques, encasing him in rapidly hardening mud. For a moment, it seemed they had succeeded where all others had failed.

But then the mud prison began to crack. With a roar of effort, Garp burst free, the resulting shockwave sending his would-be captors flying. They landed hard, the impact driving the air from their lungs and leaving them incapacitated.

The last of the ROOT forces, now numbering barely half a dozen, fell back to regroup around Danzo. Their breathing was ragged, their chakra reserves depleted, and fear shone clearly in their eyes despite their blank masks.

Garp stood alone in the center of the clearing, surrounded by the fallen forms of over a hundred elite shinobi. His clothing was slightly disheveled, and a thin sheen of sweat covered his brow, but otherwise, he appeared no worse for wear.

"Well, Danzo." Garp called out, his voice carrying easily across the battlefield, "Is that all? Or do you have any more 'convincing' to do?"

Danzo's visible eye narrowed, a mixture of fury and grudging respect in his gaze. He had not expected this level of resistance – or this level of power.

"You are indeed formidable, Garp." Danzo admitted, his voice cold. "But this battle is far from over."

With that, Danzo himself stepped forward, his face determined to bring down the Monster before him.

Read Chapter Ahead at P@treon.com/KillerDJ2023