Kugutsu no Shinigami

| 11 | Rise or Raze?

I and my puppets begin to slay, using a multitude of jutsu to the massacre. To slaughter. To kill before the invaders got a chance. 

"Kugutsu: Hydrogen Bomb!"
"Kugutsu: Last Moment Drowning!"
"Inton: Dark Void Technique!"

This was a repetitive process, with me, the Nidaime and Yondaime slinging jutsu everywhere and causing havoc in enemy ranks.

This occurred whilst the puppets wielded their scythes in harmony with ninjutsu. Due to the high probability of being killed, my allies had taken to staying away from me, valuing their lives over sacrifice.

Nobody was safe from my wrath.

I cut through an Otogakure jonin when I spot Shikamaru on the ground, barely conscious, whilst a battered up Temari lay opposite him, unconscious.

I stride up to the Nara, cutting down numerous Sunagakure shinobi as I do so. "What happened?" I ask, with the puppets covering me, as well as providing different angles of sight.

"Gaara... Ichibi jinchuuriki... Sasuke... That way..." He rasped frantically, pointing to the forest, where the dense foliage was dominant.

So, I think, piecing this together. Gaara is the jinchuuriki of the one-tail, and Sasuke is chasing after him.

I dash after them, sending dust clouds into the air from sheer speed alone, with the puppets close behind.

Along the way, I found Kankuro and Choji passed out, not unlike Shikamaru and Temari. I take a moment to spit on Kankuro. "You will never be a puppet master."

I continue onwards to find Sasuke dodging the sand attacks of a crazed Gaara, who had transformed into his full bijuu form. "Mother wants your blood!" he screeched. I could tell that Sasuke was tiring, and fast.

What to do? I ask myself. Do I become a missing-nin? Or do I remain in this cesspool? This pathetic society?

How will I avenge my family if I don't leave?

But I can't fight Orochimaru without Sasuke to lead me to him...

It's settled, then. I brand myself as a missing-nin... But first, I have to save my ticket to my family... and their tormentor.

I take out a scroll, with the kanji for dragon (龙) emblazoned in red ink. I unseal the contents of it, and after a cloud of red smoke, the fruit of my labour appears.

After years of work, the beasts that I had been working on were suspended in midair, with some falling to the ground. There were ten of them, each representing a different element.

The Phoenix of fire had a bright red plumage, and was aflame, a trail of fire always igniting the air behind it. Its wings were fiery but angelic, very elegant, and above all, dangerous.

The dragon of wind was barely visible, blending in with its element. Faintly, you could see the outline of it, and from a distance, the thing that you could notice was it's long claws and tail, razor-sharp and looked like it could cleave through a mountain, no problem.

The panther of the earth was ground-based, it scales metallic and super-heated to the point where it had taken on a red hue. This monster didn't have wings, compensating for that with its inhuman strength and speed across any land-based terrain.

The water snake was fluid, in the sense that it was completely made of poison. It was odd to command, but it was made possible by a seal on the only solid component that acted as the heart. It could disassemble itself into a moving puddle, taking the heart with it, and could reform itself for an ambush. It's skill lied in the use of flexibility and speed to attack, as well as adapting to any situation. It is a wild card.