34 Conclusion, who will be the last man standing?
"Good job kid, I-" Hayate starts before a cough interrupts him. When he finishes he starts up like he never stopped talking. "I've watched you climb the hill up to this point and your skills aren't bad." Hayate compliments Sasuke's abilities. "I hope to see you grow and lead the next generation, so be careful and keep working hard."
"THANKS! I will!" The boy beams ecstatic at the praise, so much so he forgot he was mad at Hayate for stealing his kill. Watching here, no one would guess he only took up the sword a few short days ago.
Noticing the commotion, the remaining hollows set their sights on the three of them. "Don't get too comfortable though, we have company. Let's deal with them and keep moving." Hayate says bringing Sasuke back to Earth.
"Right!" The two of them stand side by side, ready to face the incoming monsters when something entirely unexpected happens.
A great dragon rushes up the hillside at a speed Sasuke could barely keep up with. It snakes around tearing the hollows to pieces with swift ferocious bites. In an instant it was already heading to the summit, leaving no hollow in its path alive. Sasuke and Hayate were left looking at a clear path to the summit.
"What was that?" Hayate asks unsure if he actually just saw that. It all happened so fast.
"The dragon, it has to be!" Sasuke says with an excited smile as he starts to move onwards. Even though he lost all his training dummies, he just gained something much more valuable.
Moments ago, at the base of the hill the dragon zodiac Kenshin watches sparks fly as the others fight. "It seems Mr. Sengoku is having a fun time up there. I almost feel bad coming to interrupt, but I have a feeling he's getting ready to do something-" before he finished speaking a girl came flying down the hillside and smashed into a boulder. "Excessive…" Iori's attack had began already, there wasn't much time left.
Where she lay unconscious Sasuke fended off a gillian, narrowly avoiding certain death. Even when the hollow became enraged and started firing cero indiscriminately the boy maintained his composure, all the way up until Hayate came to finish it. "Young Sasuke has some serious potential, to think he's already so deadly. I doubt I could hold my own against a gillian by myself at five years old. Hmm?" Eventually he takes notice to the others closing in on he and Hayate. "That may actually be too many for them, I guess I should pick up my pace."
Kenshin widened his stance and crouched down, resting his hand on his katana. After a brief moment chakra began to bubble up around his feet until he moved to take his first step and he vanished. The only reason the untrained eye could follow his path is because of the dragon formed from the excess chakra that appeared around him. "Flashing dragon step." Kenshin ascended the hill with blinding speed, the rising pressure of gravity did little to slow him down. Several swift slashes dispatched the remaining hollows on the battlefield as he went along his path. All anyone could see was the dragon take decisive bites out of the creatures.
On the peak Iori fights one versus four as the group of challengers attack with reckless abandon, doing their best to leave no openings for him. It takes everything they have and then some to keep him from scoring a decisive hit. It was like divine intervention was keeping them in the fight. On the other hand, no one could score a clean hit on Iori either. How long would it be until someone missed a step?
'Is pestering him really the best we can do?" Kakashi thinks as he darts out of range of a slash. He doesn't seem to be struggling, just taking his time waiting for a chance to strike. Calmly, patiently, like a predator waiting for the sure kill. Though the tiger was content to wait, the same couldn't be said of others. Fatigue, anxiety, doubt… on his side they were plagued by the pressure that came with fighting the 'final boss.'
Gai rushes to meet Iori swinging his nunchaku to deflect a slash aimed at Kakashi. While Gai attacks at full force while Iori seems completely relaxed bringing down his blade with a gentle breath. Switching the positioning of his hands mid-swing his sword changes it's trajectory like a coursing river, avoiding the oncoming attack and landing a critical slash. Iori calmly steps forward as a large torrent of water comes down on the falling ninja. "Form of the water dragon: Imperial wrath"
"Water too? Don't the Shinsengumi swordsmen only use one element a piece?" Naruto asks Benimaru. "He used a lightning technique earlier!?"
"No. Most swordsmen usually commit to one that fits their style the most, but it isn't an absolute among them…you remember Yoriichi's earlier display?"
"Yeah but doesn't Yo have like all the breathing styles in his breathing?" Naruto answers the question with a question.
"True, but Iori hasn't actually used any breathing techniques yet, this swordsmanship is something different… more like a balancing of postures and ninshu." Benimaru wasn't fully sure about the specifics of his style, but whatever it was boasted similar levels of versatility as well as power to sun breathing.
"You've intruded upon this stage long enough" Iori says to the only non-swordsman among them, while locking on to his next target. Seeing Gai defeated made the other three more cautious, they lost some heavy firepower. "Next is…" Iori stops for a moment. "You're joining in too? Now it's a party!" Iori's calm demeanor quickly became much more excited as he sends a flying slash to sever the edge of the cliff as the three Shinsengumi trainees finally manages reach the summit.
"He's attacking us already?!"
"We just got here!"
"This is too much!"
Barely able to react due to the pressure of being at the summit, the three of them fall with the chunk of earth that was cut away. As they drop they see a giant dragon of chakra rise up from behind them and land on the summit. Realizing Iori attacked the dragon instead of them, they fell knowing they were non-factor…humbling to say the least.
Where the dragon disperses, Kenshin stands there locking eyes with Iori. "Hello Mr. Sengoku." The bloodlust on the summit climbed to a whole new level when the two faced off.
"Heh, if I knew you were coming I wouldn't have taken my time cleaning up." Iori smirks.
"Don't worry about that, they won't be a problem." The dragon responds dismissively drawing his sword. "You aren't worn out from training with them are you?"
"Worn out from playing around with them? Don't make me laugh," Iori responds. "You should save that concern for yourself."
"Good, I won't have to hold back." He flips the sword in hand.
"His sword…something's wrong with it…isn't it backwards?" Hiruzen notes looking at Kenshin's sword.
"Being somewhat of a pacifist, Kenshin has a sword modified for fighting with the flat of his blade. That way he can fight other people without as many lethal blows." Kojiro explains to the old timers.
"But is this the fight for such reservations?" Danzo questions farther.
"Don't worry, he knows what he has to do." Kojiro says confidently.
"He isn't trying to be arrogant, and that pisses me off even more than Iori actively looking down on us!" Rana says about to pop a blood vessel.
"Easy girl, now is not the time to lose focus…" Souma says only half paying attention to her. The arena was silent as all eyes watch the tiger and dragon advance towards each other slowly but surely. The tension between those two was almost tangible. An opening had to appear if they were patient.
'Well it has been a while since I've seen them fight,' Yo sighs with a little annoyance for some reason.
'I have to get closer, I don't know when I'll get to see another clash of this level again." Sasuke rushes onward as fast as his little legs will go.
When there were only a few meters left in between them, both Iori and Kenshin speed up dashing to the side without any signal or warning. Most can't even see their swords in motion, but sparks fly like fireworks when their blades meet. Neither combatant gives any ground but attacks more fiercely as a response. Again and again, they clash creating a melody of metal. Crossing blades they push against each other, when Kenshin falls back with a retreating slash.
Iori parries the flying cut sent at him, carelessly redirecting it towards the others who scramble to dodge. He follows Kenshin and slashes at him but the dragon dips under his blade countering with a low slash. Planting his sword in the ground at the last second Iori blocks Kenshin and then flicks dirt at his eyes pulling the sword from the ground. A retreating Kenshin shields his face with his sleeve, at the same time sending a blind thrust forward. The advancing tiger turns to avoid a sword through his face, and crosses his arms overhead from the sideways stance.
"Form of the blazing flame: Pillar of fire" Iori releases a downwards swing, propelled faster by the free arm pushing on the sword arm for extra momentum. Flames cackle around his sword as it falls, and even though it didn't touch the ground the flames explode off rising into a column of fire. "Tch missed… he's quick." Iori says locating Kenshin in time to see him a short distance away.
Striking the ground with his sword Kenshin sends a wave of rock shards flying at Iori, "Land dragon flash!"
"Hmph, petty aren't we?" Iori muses to himself deflecting the oncoming shrapnel. He sends a few back at Kenshin which, if only barely, slowed his advance enough to let Iori react. Relaxed and waiting just before Kenshin's slash Iori uses all of his body's momentum for a last minute dodge to pivot. As if he faded into the shadows, Iori vanishes, reappearing in Kenshin's blind spot. "Form of empty space: Shadow stitch," he advances with all of his momentum carried in the next slash.
Kenshin noticed what he was up to pivoting in a similar fashion he uses his own excessive momentum to turn into a spinning slash to counter. "Dragon coil flash!" His spinning motion was followed by a dragon formed of chakra wrapping around him to block with it's body. The following impact knocked them both off balance as they flew backwards.
Seizing the lapses in both of their combat, the Rana and Kakashi attack with full powered slashes.
"Rabbit breathing esoteric art: moonlight step!" Taking a deep a breath as possible, and perfect posture for a maximum speed takeoff. While midair she falls towards Kenshin with continually increasing speed using her perfect step again and again for a light speed slash.
"Lightning blade: Untamed thunder!" Attacking Iori with an attempt at parting the heavens, Kakashi pours as much chakra as he can into the sword, which shows as lightning raging fiercely across the blade which had all of his remaining explosive tags wrapped around it.
'I can't blame them for trying…' Benimaru an opportunist himself thinks. 'but…'
'To rush an apex predator while they are frenzied is certain death!' Yo thinks watching Kenshin and Iori's reaction. It happened so fast that they were among the small few who did see their next moves.
"Don't interfere!" Both of them take deep breaths, and correct their footing while sliding back. From perfect stances they counter.
Crouching low Kenshin leaps to meet Rana with a rising slash, pushing the back of his blade forward with his free hand. "Dragon soaring flash!" For all Rana knew she had simply flown into the jaws of a dragon, then it went black.
Iori crosses his arms, this time in front of him. Starting from the inner elbow Iori pushes his sword arm into a wide ranging horizontal slash so forceful it creates erupts into flames. "Crimson lotus swipe!" Blazing petals flow through the inferno that envelops Kakashi.
When the dust settles people begin to notice that the attackers had been sent flying into the barrier, knocked out and their swords destroyed. When did it happen? Iori is already straightening his stance and Kenshin seems to have just landed… AND WHAT KIND OF ATTACKS DID THEY USE? The two seemed to be barely holding on for dear life after impacts that felt like an earthquake. All kinds of chatter fills the arena as people react from astonishment to mortification. The tiger and dragon were unstoppable monsters! Monsters even among monsters!
"Wha..wha…" Danzo is speechless still trying to react to what he saw or didn't see.
'Such speed…and both of them still serve under these boys?' This confirms it, the zodiac could most definitely slay a kage level ninja…and it depending on who, it could be fairly easy for them. Horror set in on the third hokage as he realized Yoriichi and Kojiro are likely more terrible than these two. He isn't the only one who realizes this either. At that moment if Iori seemed like a giant before, those two were larger than life before everyone.
"AWESOME!!!!!!" Little Sasuke who was still climbing made sure not to miss a single movement, this was like a feast for him…minus the increasing strain of the gravity seals.
'He saw what happened?' Hayate notes with surprise as he and Sasuke climb. The sharingan is scary…
At the summit Iori and Kenshin face off against each once more, when out of nowhere Iori sends a powerful flying slash at Souma. Not only was he caught of guard, but the monstrous force sent him flying off of the summit. "No more distractions." Iori says with a wild grin. "Shall we continue?"
"Come," Kenshin lunges forward with an ice cold glare as their swords meet again, this time they clash with no reservation. The impact rocks the arena as they attack more furiously than before, sending flying slashes every which way with their exchange. It was like a storm of blades as they fight. Iori pushes Kenshin back, and in response the dragon takes to the air reappearing above Iori with an overhead slash "Dragon hammer flash!" The earsplitting roar of a fearsome dragon sounds out as he swings down.
Iori braces himself and blocks the attack, though the sheer impact causes the ground to crumble under his feet. Pushing upwards he sends the dragon higher into the air before taking off after him. The clanging of their swords sound off like thunder as the spectators see shockwaves and sparks appearing in the sky.
"This is crazy I can barely tell whats happening!" Naruto is annoyed again. 'Those dang Uchiha have it easy with the sharingan' he thinks seeing a red eyed Benimaru locked in at the edge of his seat.
Benimaru watches quietly with all his focus. These were the gate keepers to the summit, Benimaru has to devour them as well. Yoriichi did well to build a wall between them…
"Incredible!" Toneri is also awe stricken. If Yoriichi had a hand in making people this strong, how would his own training end up? "Surely we'll be that strong one day."
"We have a lot of training ahead of us…" Kimimaro says already aware of how much work it will take to reach that level.
Fighting in the air now, Kenshin fights freely using spiritual energy as footholds to strike from all angles. "Heh, a rabbit thought she was better in the air than a dragon…or a tiger for that matter…" Yo chuckles to himself watching the fight. Darting around at high speeds his strikes make use of the extra momentum to knock Iori back.
As Kenshin rushes in for his fastest attack yet Iori raises his sword overhead horizontally "Form of the earth lord: wild god!" As soon as Kenshin is in range he brings it straight down with a twist to kill Kenshin's momentum and send him dropping downwards. Quickly regaining his composure Kenshin has to jump back immediately to avoid Iori's slash before attacking again. After a brief exchange the two separate and breathe in deep as chakra wells up in their blades. It's obvious their next attacks will be huge.
"WE HAVE A WINNER!!!!!!!" Yoriichi declares stopping everyone in their tracks.
"Wha-"
"Who could've-"
Kenshin, Iori and all others look at the wrecked summit to see Sasuke standing there staring straight up. He had risen to the top of the summit alone and claimed it with no more effort than the climb since no one was there. Hayate gives himself a coughing fit as he didn't realize Sasuke had left him. At some point he himself stopped moving between the fear and awe of those two swordsmen with otherworldly skill.
"Huh why'd they stop fighting?" Sasuke had gotten so caught up in getting a better view, he didn't realize he won the challenge. "Why's everyone looking at me?"
"Congrats Sasuke! You won! I honestly didn't expect this to turn into DBZ but you took advantage of that and pulled a victory! Good shit! You may just be a fledgling planet drifting into orbit."
"Huh, what?" Ignoring all of Yo's extra lingo Sasuke zeroed in on the important part. "You said I won?"
"Yup."
"YES! I WON! Hahahahaha!"
"Tell you what, since someone who doesn't work for me won what do you want?" Yo asks him.
"A zanpakuto!" Sasuke asks with no hesitation. He needed one of those fantastical swords more than anything.
"Bet, it'll be done. Lets hear it for SASUKE UCHIHAAA!!!!" Yo holds up his cousins hand in triumph. The crowds roar cheer for the boy, but some are jealous they didn't send their kid or they could have went themselves. Someone would have had a zanpakuto if they simply kept climbing. Some reasoned Yoriichi set this up for Sasuke to win in front of everyone. Nepotism plain and simple.
Danzo was among the people thinking this way, "did you set all this up just to give Sasuke a sword publicly? Or did you have those swordsmen cheat and ascend for him to win on that technicality?!" The old man had no problem voicing it and he got some murmurs of support from the crowd.
"If I did, so what? First, The swords are all mine to give away. Second, your ninja were all defeated soundly before those idiots got carried away and started flying around. And most importantly Sasuke is the only one in the stands who moved when the summit called. So again, what does it matter?" Yoriichi responds resisting the urge to cut him down. "Do you have cool prizes for the people?"
The arena fell silent waiting on the esteemed advisor's answer but he had none. He could only grunt and sit back down with shame. His fellow council members all look embarrassed for him, looking elsewhere silently.
"That just irritated me…but that fight got me excited… Ooh idea! Ok change of plans! Everyone who wants to participate, fight me! Whoever can wound me will also get a zanpakuto and-"
"NO! You can't just change the event on your whims, again!" Kojiro cuts in.
"Why can't I? They want swords and I wanna fight…win-win" Yo asks genuinely confused…it's not like he'd let anyone touch him.
"That's besides the point! It's unprofessional and rude to everyone involved again to just make them not to go along with whatever you want. Not to mention your ideas are always excessive!" Kojiro yells back.
Yo gets irritated Kojiro is trying to reign him in again. "Excessive! You hypocrite! Sending Kenshin was excessive, one of them was enough of a spectacle, why does everyone need to know we had two monsters on that level! Shit you could've saved him for the next event! We know those geezers can't handle the hollow we had captured for the finals, they were just about to shit themselves! You dumbass! Stupid dumbass…"
While Kojiro had logical rebuttals Yo had a way with words that always got under his skin. "Watch your choice of words Yo. Don't talk to me like I'm someone beneath you…" Kojiro says gritting his teeth.
"What was that? D-U-M-B A-S-S." Yo almost sings with a petty grin on his face.
"Yoriichi Uchiha I am warning you!" Kojiro is fuming.
"Oh you used my whole name, you must be MAD mad! Wanna go?" Yo says reaching for his sword.
"If you grab that sword-"
"I know exactly what it means," Yo finishes Kojiro's warning with no sign of backing down. "We can put on a real show if you want!" Yo draws his sword.
"If that's what you want, so be it! It seems that coma made your manners worse, I hope the same can't be said of your swordsmanship." Kojiro gets up and draws his sword too, already ascending into the sky.
"Hey wait! Wait! You guys aren't really about to fight here are you?" The first person to break free from the stupor brought on by their random stupidity was Shisui who appeared in between them to break it up. "Hey guys, it won't look good if the Shinsengumi's leaders just break down and fight here in front of everyone…"
Yoriichi looks at everyone all around him, the villagers, his subordinates, his friends, family and those old pests plotting on his downfall were all watching to see what he'd do. His every action carried weight to them all, now more than ever. His expression softened a little as he rested his sword on his shoulder looking across at his sworn brother. Then suddenly his frown comes back. "Fuck all that!" He swings at Kojiro and they start fighting more ferociously than the last two.
"At least not in the village guys!" Shisui calls out realizing this is probably the most he can do with them at this point. Yo and Kojiro actually do stop and consider destroying the village, if not for the barrier by Yo's design there would already be some damage.
"Let's move this outside of the village. There's no backing out of this one Yoriichi?" Kojiro says leaving the stadium.
"Me? Back out? You must have a screw loose!" Yoriichi turns to follow after. "THAT'S IT, PACK IT UP, THERE'S NO FINAL ROUND. THE SHINSENGUMI RULE!" He yells suddenly ending the entire event, they've had enough of a show. "SHINSENGUMI BACK TO BASE!"
Everyone stood there still looking stupid, because what just happened?!?! "Did he stutter?! Shinsengumi back to base now! You all better beat me back or there will be hell to pay!" Kojiro growls in agreement with Yo's announcement before leaving. In the next instant everyone who wore that black uniform was gone, the barrier team, the injured, every trace of them.
"Well ummm…there you have it the spectacular shinsengumi!" An embarrassed Shisui says to the entire leaf village who had for the hundreth time today been stunned to silence. To make matters worse, Yo and Kojiro resuming their fight created tremors they could feel in the arena. "Of course they couldn't get very far… Have a good evening everyone." Shisui bows not knowing what to do now.
"And where do you think you're going?" Danzo stops him wanting answers.
"To go and deal with those two sir. If you could provide aid, it would be infinitely better than fending off both an enraged Yoriichi and Kojiro alone." Shisui calmly asks of everyone the impossible, to which no one was going to do. '…Like I thought' He vanishes with a stale face after a round of silence.
The third had almost checked out. He couldn't hear Danzo cursing in 'I'm glad one of those monsters actually cares about the village. They've already surpassed the kage.' A tearful Hiruzen thinks what a score Shisui is to have in service, the other two are a lost cause...
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