//------------------------------// // Chapter 5:Forbidden Kinjutsu and Immortal Blood // Story: The 5th Great Ninja/Pony War // by Akasuna no Sasori //------------------------------// Chapter 5:Forbidden Kinjutsu and Immortal Blood As we moved through the town, I noticed doors were opening behind us. I looked behind me to see them open for a just a second, before they closed again. The ponies really did want us to leave. “Hey Kakuzu,” I said, “I think the ponies really want us to leave. So can we just go, quietly and quickly, since we aren’t going to get any good information here?” Kakuzu stopped and stood motionless. “Rokuro, I have no intention of leaving these ponies alive after how they’ve treated us. I myself don’t care too much about manners, but there is a point where it becomes unreasonable.” “So then why are we leaving the houses behind us and their residents unharmed?” Kakuzu laughed. “You’ll see.” I gulped. This didn’t sound good. We continued up the street some more until we reached the end of the town entirely and were just barely outside of it. Kakuzu turned to face us and the town. “Now, young Rokuro, you will see why I left the town the way I did at first.” I panicked, I didn’t know what Kakuzu was going to do, but I could only assume he was going to wipe out the whole town. I tried to stall for time, even though I didn’t know what I was stalling for, exactly. “Hold on, Kakuzu. Shouldn’t you let Hidan get some kills? After all, you did say you wouldn’t get involved in the first fight....” Kakuzu thought for a moment. “You’re right, I did say that. Fair enough. Hidan, kill as many as you please.” Hidan’s eyes lit up. “Sure thing! Hehehe, these ponies will know true fear!” With that, he cut his foot and spread the blood in the shape of an upside down triangle, then drew a perfect circle around it, with all 3 points of the triangle touching the circle. This was Jashin’s Mark. At the same time, his skin changed to a dark black with white lines throughout representing bones. “Kakuzu and uh....other guy...yeah. Lure some of these wretches out here so I can complete the ritual.” Kakuzu and I looked at each other and nodded. I pretended to get run towards a house across the street, but I didn't actually go inside. Kakuzu rushed into the first building he saw and began yelling at the ponies to vacate immediately. Soon afterwards, two ponies rushed from the building, frightened. Hidan immediately threw his scythe towards them, cutting them both. “Now, let’s experience true pain together!” He shouted. At that moment, he licked the scythe, ingesting the blood from the ponies on it. He then pulled out a rod from his sleeve. The rod extended to the length of a small sword. He laughed maniacally then stabbed himself in the heart. However, he didn't die; but the two ponies did. “No need to have slow fun with them, there’s plenty more fish in the sea to do that with!” At that moment, three armored pegasii flew down and struck Hidan. He toppled to the ground with the pegasi still upon him. “Who are you? What are you doing here? Why are those two on the ground?” The pegasi screamed at him, while at the same time beating him. Kakuzu, a man of his word, did not intervene; neither did I. “Get the fuck off of me! I’ll kill all of you, too!” Hidan kicked all of the pegasus ponies off of him and stood up. He was still in his circle, which means the ritual could take place again if he cut any of them. “Hidan,” said Kakuzu, “look at the armor, these are military. Be cautious; you don’t know what they’re capable of.” Hidan looked back towards Kakuzu, annoyed. “Yeah, yeah same old shit. I don’t care Kakuzu, I can take ‘em!” The three pegasi stared at this strange pony wielding a large, red scythe. “What is it that thing? I’ve seen magically conjured weapons, but nothing like that, before.” Said one of them. “Yeah,” said another, “and why does his skin look like that? It’s like a skeleton!” “I don’t know,” said the third, “but we have to take him down. Those two ponies aren’t getting up. It’s a safe bet he’s either hurt them pretty bad, or killed them.” Hidan laughed. “Well, if you think you can take me, come at me then!” The three pegasus flew into the air and drew swords from the sheaths at their side. The center one nodded to the other two, and they flew off together towards Hidan’s flank. Hidan saw what was coming. “You can’t trick me! I have eyes in the back of my...head!” At that moment he hit both incoming pegasi with the broad side of his scythe, sending them both flying into a nearby building. Hidan turned to deal with the third pegasi when he saw he was only inches away from him. “Your eyes must not be that good! Otherwise I wouldn’t have managed this!” The pegasi stabbed Hidan in the chest; a fatal blow. But this pegasi didn’t know Hidan’s immortality. Which explained why he was shocked Hidan didn’t fall over dead right on the spot. “Ow, that really hurts you know.” Said Hidan, sarcastically. “Bu-but how? How can somepony survive that? I pierced your heart with that blow!” Hidan rolled his eyes. “Well duh, I’m immortal you dumbass!” The pegasus’ eyes grew huge. “What? Only alicorns are immortal! You are just an earth pony!” Hidan looked confused for a moment. “What the hell’s an alicorn? Ah, it doesn’t matter since you’re going to die anyway.” Hidan raised his scythe, then brought it down on the pegasus. His blood ran from the wound into a small puddle under him, and he was coughing up blood droplets. Within seconds, he was dead. Hidan drew the scythe from his victim. “Eh, not exactly a good kill, but Jashin should be pleased all the same.” “NOOOOOO! Roaring Thunder! Air Cutter! Supersonic!” We all turned to see a white unicorn with blue hair, and blue hooves running towards us; and he wasn’t alone. He had a group of five other ponies with him; two had horns like me. “Who are you supposed to be, exactly?” Inquired Kakuzu. “I am Shining Armor, captain of the Royal Guard. What is the meaning of this? Why are these pegasus all dead? You three must’ve kill them! I bet you killed everyone at Appleoosa, too! I cringed at the mention of the town I helped destroy, and Shining Armor noticed. He looked straight at me, his eyes ablaze with mirth and rage. “You! You know something about it, don’t you? We’ll question you, first then! You are all under arrest by the order of Princess Celestia!” Kakuzu laughed. “Under what charges, Captain? Do you have proof we killed anyone else other than these deadbeats?” This only angered Shining Armor even more. “They aren’t deadbeats! They’re members of the Royal Guard, too! Which means you will rot in the dungeon for the rest of your life for taking theirs!” Kakuzu stepped in front of Hidan and me. “This won’t end without bloodshed, so I will fight them. You two back me up and support me as I need it.” Hidan was angry. “No Kakuzu! You said the first fight we got into I would get to kill everyone!” Kakuzu nodded towards the two dead ponies and the three pegasi. “The TWO battles were yours. So this one is mine.” Hidan started to say something, but grumbled that Kakuzu was a big jerk. Shining Armor spoke again. “Will you come peacefully? Or...” at that moment he created a sword using magic from his horn, “will we have to use violence to bring you in, alive or dead?” “I prefer a good fight, actually.” Kakuzu removed his robe and let it fall to the ground, revealing his disfigured body. He had stitches all over his body, giving him the appearance of a ragdoll, or a toy that had been broken and sewn back together multiple times. Shining Armor and his men gasped at what they saw before them. Was this pony for real? How could he be alive? “Let’s get to it, then” Kakuzu separated his stitched hand from his arm and shot it towards the ponies. The hand was trailed back to his arm by black tentacles. “Look out, men! This pony is no average earthy pony!” The ponies jumped out of the way, but Kakuzu shot his other hand straight into the ground. The confused guardsmen suddenly realized what he did when his fist came shooting out of the ground and hit one of the earth ponies, hard. He went flying towards a building and struck it hard. Shining Armor looked just in time to watch his soldier close his eyes forever. “NO! This can’t be happening!” Screamed Shining Armor. Kakuzu was taunting the ponies. “You do realize, don’t you? Your life ends here, as I will soak this ground red with your blood.” Shining Armor was riled up again. “How can you do this to your fellow ponies? Why do you kill?” Kakuzu laughed. “I kill because I need to defend myself, as does everybody. Or the individual I’m killing is worth a lot of money to me dead.” Hidan glared at Kakuzu. “Hey! What did I tell you about that? Killing for money will give you a one-way ticket straight to perdition!” “I don’t care what you think, Hidan. Now stay out of this.” Shining Armor saw a chance to use the two’s relationship against each other. “Seems like your friend doesn’t agree with your reasons for killing. Doesn’t that make you angry?” “Stop stalling, you pathetic worm! Enough talk, now die!” Kakuzu pulled both of his hands back to his body, then wrapped them together and shot them off in a spiraling motion. Shining Armor dodged the initial would-be strike, but the attack kept coming, following him everywhere he went. ‘This isn’t good, my men and I can’t keep dodging,’ Shining Armor thought to himself, ‘Besides, if this earth pony can do this, I wonder what else he can do. It’s possible he has deadlier tricks up his sleeve, so it would be wise to finish him off quickly; I just don’t see how we can manage that.’ “That’s enough of this!” Said one of Shining Armor’s men. The remaining soldiers rushed forward and severed the black tentacles keeping Kakuzu’s hands attached to his arms. The ponies were at first relieved, but suddenly the tentacles came to life and grabbed all four of Shining Armor’s men at once. “Gah! Let go of me!” One of them shouted. Kakuzu laughed again. “I’ve had about enough of you interfereing. My fight is with your leader, but since you seem so intent on dying, I’ll grant your wish. It was time to step it up a notch anyway.” Kakuzu strained his muscles and one of the four white masks on his back popped out. It had red markings on it. “Let’s end your lives in as spectacular way. This jutsu should do nicely.” The mask came out with some of the black tentacles attached, but it used them to form a body with it’s mask as a face. “Time for your men to die!” Shouted Kakuzu. “Fire Style: Intelligent Hard Work!” The mask produced a sea of flames that covered the entire area, burning the houses and the four guardsmen. Shining Armor jumped away just in time to avoid the blaze. When the fire settled, two houses were burned to the ground, and not even skeletons remained of Shining Armor’s men. “You- You monster!” Screamed Shining Armor. “I’ll kill you myself! Even if it means my death!” Shining Armor began charging a blue ball of energy in his horn. Kakuzu noticed what the unicorn was doing. “Whatever it is, it won’t work. If I can kill four of your men with one of my weaker jutsus, how much do you think it will take to send you to the underworld, as well?” ‘He could be right, this is more energy than I’ve ever used in one shot before; it’s risky, but I need to end this quickly.’ He finished charging the energy in his horn. It had grown in size tremendously. “Now, this attack is for me, my fallen comrades, and all the other ponies you may have killed had I not used it now. Die!” The mass of energy shot from Shining Armor’s horn and sped towards Kakuzu. “Ha! So predictable.” Kakuzu built up a mass of tentacles in front of him just as the energy struck. There was a large flash, and I was blinded for a few moments. When the flash was gone, a large hole was blown into Kakuzu and he was on the ground, Shining Armor stood, breathing heavily, victorious. “There, tha- that’ll teach yo- you to nev- never mess with the Ro- Royal Guard again!” But suddenly, Kakuzu’s tentacles began moving again, and started connecting inside his body! The hole was repairing itself! Before long the hole was gone and Kakuzu stood up, seemingly unscathed. “While I must admit,” he said, “that attack did have some kick, more than I expected, it still wasn’t enough, just like I expected.” Shining Armor was shocked. “How? Are you immortal, too?” “Something like that. I have five hearts in my body. Which means, you must destroy every single one to kill me. You only got one, which means I’m still alive, and it looks like you’ve reached your limit with that last attack.” Kakuzu began walking slowly towards Shining Armor. The Guard Captain fell on his hind legs and tried to crawl away, but Kakuzu caught up to him. “By the way,” said Kakuzu, “do you have any family?” Shining Armor was angered again. “Why do you want to know? Do you intend on killing them, too?” Kakuzu stared at Shining Armor intently. “No, I just want to make sure they give you a decent burial. Seeing as I won’t.” With that, Kakuzu charged his hoof with chakra till it was growing a bright blue, then rammed it into Shining Armor’s chest. “Wha- What are you doing?” Shining Armor choked out. “I’m stealing your heart to replace the one you destroyed.” As he said this, Shining Armor’s heart was pulled from out of him, leaving a bright, red hole that spewed blood in all directions. Kakuzu reopened the hole in his back where the red mask usually was and placed the heart inside, then he removed the mask from the creature and replaced it, sealing the hole. Hidan and I were speechless. I had heard of Kakuzu stealing hearts to prolong his own life, but I thought it was just to scare new recruits of the Akatsuki! Kakuzu put his robe back on and began walking out of the town. “Come on you, two,” he said, “it’s time to leave this pitiful town. We aren’t going to get any useful information here.” Hidan and I began walking after Kakuzu, past the slowly dying Guard Captain. As I walked past I heard him sputter something. I looked down at him, and took pity on him. I leaned in closer to hear what he was saying. “Ta- Take thi- this mes- mess-age to m-y sis- sister. She’s a prin-” As he tried to say his last word, a large glob of blood escaped through his throat and covered his face. The Guard Captain was dead. I shook my head and wondered what his message was. It must’ve been important for him to ask me, one of his assailants, to deliver it for him. I caught up to Hidan and Kakuzu, and while we walked away from the gruesome scene I thought about it some more, but eventually gave up. Evening was approaching, and I was quite tired. “Kakuzu,” I said, “it’s getting late, we should find shelter and rest for the night.” Kakuzu nodded, and we walked away from town quite a ways. Hidan discovered a small alcove under a large boulder, so we all laid down under it. It was funny, trying to sleep with four legs. It felt strange, but I soon felt the heavy weight of sleep fall on me, and I passed out in minutes.