Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Hidden Villages ❯ Oh Day of Terror ( Chapter 9 )

“Pain is an unavoidable part of life, it can cripple anyone if they let it but anyone can overcome even the most extreme forms of physical pain through pure force of will. However mental pain is much more difficult to overcome, most can’t get over their mental scars. However the greatest pain is that of being alone, no one can defeat the crushing sorrow of loneliness by themselves.” –Momoko Kentoko, Paradiseo Genin


Kuroudo stopped twenty feet from the Akatsuki, the rain made it look like he was crying, maybe he was. The force of his chakra was still instilling fear and even Juubei could feel his hand quaking.

“He’s quite powerful…” Juubei said to himself absently as he studied Kuroudo. He could see what the others could not; thousands of souls swirling around Kuroudo screaming, Juubei knew those screams, the death cries. For the souls of his victims too remain around him for so long he must be quite a powerful midian, perhaps even more powerful then myself. He truly is a nexus between the worlds of life and death, to make me tremble so… His chakra is forceful and powerful, no doubt, however… Juubei let a chuckle escape from his lips; he’s nowhere near my level. He’s maybe at thirty percent of my power, he’d be a fun plaything but that’d be it. It his current level he couldn’t even fend off Kenji. “You guys can take him, I feel like seeing just how good the Akatsuki really is before I cement any permanent partnership. And all he’d be to me as he is now is an interesting toy, nothing more.”

Hidan leapt at Kuroudo, oblivious to the danger he faced. Hidan swung his scythe at Kuroudo; Sasori sent his poisoned tail at the boy. The two attacks struck at the same time; however Kuroudo had stopped them both. He held Hidan’s scythe in his right hand and had Sasori’s tail pinned to the ground using several bayonets. Kuroudo calmly and almost casually pulled Hidan in and punched him in the face with his left hand.

“Double layered dragon fist!” Kuroudo howled out as he put more force into the punch and a massive shockwave accompanied Hidan as he was sent flying pass Pein and towards the mountains at a frightening speed. Kuroudo looked at the Akatsuki members with a hateful look on his face as he cruelly spoke to them, “You underestimate me, and this is nowhere near my best. You’ll need to do better or I might get bored of playing with such useless worms.”

“YOU INSOLENT PUP!” Kakuzu tensed as he howled at the young ninja in front of him, “How dare you mock us! You should know when you’ve met your match!”

“You have five hearts, four of which are on your back; you yourself specialize in Earth based jutsu.” Kuroudo’s face cracked a little more as he spoke in a low tone and pointed to Kakuzu with his left index finger.

“WHAT!?” Kakuzu howled, he was absolutely stunned by what Kuroudo was saying to him.

“The one who I just sent for a ride used a ritual jutsu to kill his foes, he was also nearly immortal. The mask guy is a puppet inside a puppet, uses humans to make those puppets and strives towards immortality. The piercing freak back there is the strongest of all of you, and I’m going to guess a master of summoning techniques, as well as having the eye of six paths but he’s doing pretty good at keeping me guessing, I honestly have no idea what his deal is.” Kuroudo’s chakra increased again as he continued his lecture; “I’m close aren’t I? You can’t hide from me; I’ve fought so many under such varying conditions guessing an enemy’s skills are a matter of life and death to me. And you fools do nothing to conceal yourselves from my eyes, determining what your techniques are; it is mere child’s play to me.”

“Impressive, but I don’t see how that helps you in beating us.” Kakuzu cracked his knuckles.

“You moron, he isn’t like anyone you’ve ever faced from the mainland! He’s a monster; to him we’re mere rags.” Koga said as he stepped forward, “I just want to get my pounding out of the way, I’ve seen him at full power before and I don’t want to ever again.”

“Pein, your men seem so easily disheartened, is this really all there is to the feared ‘Akatsuki’ I heard such good things about?” Juubei said with a sigh as he closed his eye, “Kenji, you’d might as well come out this is just your thing.”

Kuroudo, as if on cue calmly threw a kunai knife towards a building to Juubei’s left, and from the building a dark figure leapt out into the street. This man stood in the street, on his back was a coffin, he wore a rice picker’s hat with cloth strips on the brim to obscure his face, and he wore a black Akatsuki robe and long black pants. Kuroudo couldn’t see his face just a blackness with two glowing orbs, his face wasn’t necessary for identification; the coffin gave him away, it was Kenji Akabane the Corpse Bird (k/f note: in Paradiseo ravens are called ‘corpse birds’ because of the long history of conflicts they are most often found on battlefields eating the dead, hence why they are called corpse birds). Kuroudo frowned, two of our sennins at once. I can’t handle that, I don’t even think Juubei is within my league, Momoko’s gonna be too busy with Pein or whatever the hell the piercing freak’s name is to deal with Kenji as well, shit. Looks like I’ll just have to pull overtime.

“He looks a little pissed off, he’s very good!” Kenji said with a joyous laugh as he leapt at Kuroudo who tensed to defend, “He knows he can’t take us both!”

“LEAF HURRICANE!” Lee yelled as he kicked Kenji in his gut, sending him towards a wall, Lee landed taking his standard stance with Kuroudo smiling behind him, “I am Rock Lee.”

“Thanks, I couldn’t take Kenji as well as all my other opponents right now.” Kuroudo said with a slight chuckle as he calmly walked pass Lee, “Just watch out, Kenji’s powerful. More powerful than anyone or anything you’ve ever faced, he’s a Sennin of Paradiseo; the best of the best.”

“I will win.” Lee said with a smile as he gave the thumbs up to Kuroudo, and heard Kenji laughing. The hat was still on, but he took the coffin off and let it hit the ground, still giggling. Lee looked toward him in disgust and barked out, “What’s so funny?”

“You against me; a one-on-one fight!?” Kenji said as he laughed and cracked his knuckles, “Now boy that is funny! Without any back up, no matter how good your taijutsu is, you can’t beat me with only your measly taijutsu. If it was possible for a punk like you to kill me I wouldn’t be standing here right now, now would I?”

Then a bayonet flew through the strips, covered in blood. Behind Kenji Kazuko rose bleeding and on uncertain legs, she grinned as she pulled the two remaining bayonets from her shoulder. Lee looked at what, on a normal day he’d call a psychopath; but today she’s my only hope for backup. But that is one fucked up facial expression she’s got there.

“But Kenji, he isn’t your only opponent! You also got to face me down, and I know your paper jutsu doesn’t work in the rain. The field is to our advantage!” Kazuko yelled as she launched herself forward and sliced Kenji’s shoulder open, she landed next to Lee with blood spewing from her wounds. The bullet had hit low of her right lung, so it was bleeding but wasn’t immediately threatening. She grabbed out a small bottle of sake and drank a sip; then she shoved it into Lee’s pack, “Hold onto that for me. Okay, Lee this guy is an excellent taijutsu user, and no I don’t know what his face looks like. But if we work together we can beat him, okay.”

“Are you sure you can still fight?” Lee said as he got into his fighting stance, a Sennin! The time has come to prove my ninja way!

“I’m a Paradiseo ninja we fight,” Kazuko said as she tensed herself into a fighting stance holding the bayonets. Her face was one of a fierce warrior as she proudly declared her resolve, “until our bodies will carry us no further, then our spirit haunts our killer in our death. To us it is victory or the end of our existence, there is no middle ground.”

“Juubei,” Kenji said as he continued to crack his knuckles, “stop playing around and stop this rain so I can have fun too!”

“Such spirit!” Juubei howled out in glee as he jumped toward Kuroudo and merely glanced at his companion to issue a warning, “Beware Corpse Bird, my cards* showed you had a bleak future.”

“You should know that I above all wish to greet Baron Samedi*.” Kenji said with equal glee as he turned to Kazuko and Lee; the two glowing orbs were all they could see in the darkness beneath his hat, “Not that these two look like they could give me a bleak future!”

“We shall see, won’t we?” Lee said as he prepared himself to face down a legendary warrior from a war torn land.

“They’re all in such a rush, Kakuzu you can stand back I’ll take him.” Juubei said with a certain eerie drawl to his voice, almost as if he was disappointed in everyone’s lack of foreplay as he looked at Kuroudo, “Shall we begin?”

“This the day of terror,” Kuroudo said as he looked into Juubei’s eye with a look of insane glee on his cracking face, “shall begin, as we monsters battle each other to death.”

“Are you gonna stand there all day or do you want me to move first?” Momoko said in an annoyed tone as she stood in front of Pein, neither of them moving. “Because you know I’ve already set my pieces down on the board, and am waiting for you.”

“Fine then little girl, we’ll play.” Pein said as he rushed towards Momoko.

Too be continued
*Juubei is a fortune teller, he uses tarot cards.
Baron Samedi is the voodoo god of the dead. Kenji is a follower of said religion.

Written by Kazuki Ferret while could have been doing something else.