Mission: Clicky

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”Seriously.. the Umikage really made short work of this place.”

A cloaked individual loomed over the huge, hot caverns from the roof of a tall apartment building. His cloak was red and black, black being the cloak itself and red being a pattern of clouds decorating its surface. A big patch of back that extended to both sides of the torso had this color scheme trade places. It was a cloak of which the mere sight could send certain individuals fleeing. Those that didn't were either ignorant of the Ouraboras's reputation or very skilled, very hardened shinobi.

This particular individual was looking for something among these ruins. Well, not exactly looking as he already knew where he was heading. Tazuma Higuchi had hidden his warehouse and base of operations deep underground within these ruins. The entrance was in the basement of the old Atsusakage office. The building he was now facing. He had made sure to remain unseen on his way here, sneaking through the shadows and disabling several guards. Low level rogues or, in some cases, not even shinobi at all. Just ordinary street folk who figured they could just pick up a sword and make an easy buck.

Leaping from the roof of the apartment right into a hole in the Kage building's roof, the Ouraboras member landed on the dusty carpet with a dull thud. He was a red haired individual in his mid twenties, with blue eyes. The colar of his Ouraboras cloak was left unbuttoned, causing the upper parts of his bare torso to be visible, along with a Kusamuragakure headband with a strike through it hanging from his neck. A small, black tattoo of a scorpion was partially visible.

Wiping some dust off of his cloak, the man named Hideaki Denrei made his way to the bottom levels of the building. Security was less tight than he had expected. As a matter of fact, he did not come across any guards at all. His gut instinct warned him that his visit here might not have gone unnoticed..

Yet the nukenin made his way downstairs nonetheless. Halfway down the stairs hidden beneath the Kage's desk, he used a Henge to morph himself into one of the guardsmen he had killed earlier. After taking a few stairs down, Denrei opened a door and found himself in a large, dark room. He could tell it was large and empty because his footsteps caused loud echo's.

”What is it?”, a voice asked from the darkness.

”I've.. come to report..”, Denrei began.

”Did you now?” The voice of Higuchi interrupted him. ”Only I've ordered all my guards not to come down here no matter what. You've fallen for my trap.. Ouraboras!”

A mixture of the incoming breeze, the extremely swift pattering of running feet and raw gut instinct caused Denrei to put up his guard. From the darkness, two fists boasting long, knuckle claws came right for his face. The former Jounin's hands shot up in a blur to catch the wrists connected to the hands, stopping the claws inches from his face.

Only then did the light flash on, revealing an enormous, dull-grey, empty, square room easily forty square meters. On the far side of it and close to the roof was an observation window. Through it, Denrei could see the obese old Tazuma Higuchi sit on a couch. This man was a big underworld figure, a massive supplier in shinobi weapons to illegal groups. He had been the Ouraboros's main supplier until he decided to instead sell to an ambitious young group of nukenin. No doubt they had paid Higuchi ALOT of money for him to risk the Ouraboras's wrath, and Denrei was here to show him just how stupid it had been to take that risk.

But first he had to deal with the man who attacked him. A dark-skinned man with piercing black eyes, grey, curly hair and large sideburns. He was about the same height as Denrei, and it had been his clawed hands that had almost killed the nukenin. The Hideaki manage to push his claws back to a more comfortable distance, about halfway in between their faces, before he began to talk.

”Kanzaki Atamou, the Claw of the North.”, Denrei said as his hands gripped his opponents wrists tightly, preventing his knuckle claws from reaching his flesh. ”You've got quite the reputation. A fighter like you could be put to much better use than protecting this old fart!” His blue eyes peered into Atamou's brown ones, looking for a hint of emotion. Denrei was sure the Claw would have figured where the subject was heading, but he couldn't read his opinion from his expression.

”This is a one time offer from my master. How would you like to join the Ouraboras?”

Higuchi, in the background, seemed to get visibly nervous at the prospect of his bodyguard suddenly turning against him. He knew the Ouraboras's reputation very well. Membership into the organization was something many nukenin coveted. But not this one.

”I refuse.”, he spoke bluntly.

This surprised both men in the room. Higuchi was visibly relieved whereas Denrei was somewhat amused at the prospect of somebody turning down such an opportunity. ”Really? How come?” He was genuinely interested enough to postpone the violence for now.

”When I fled Hyougagakure no Sato, I had nothing. This man gave me food, money and a home. I will not betray him.”

”Heh..” Denrei let out a suppressed chuckle as his grin drew wider. ”Despite the shit life has put you through, you stick to your code of honor. Admirable..” He suddenly began pulling both of Atamou's arms to the right, away from his face. Atamou was quite the Taijutsu expert himself, and was visibly shocked to see someone in possession of equal raw strength. When his arms had sufficiently been moved, Denrei pulled them towards him again. "..but stupid!" Only this time they went past his face about ten centimeters, and Atamou received a painful knee to the stomach.

Letting out a painful groan, Atamou resisted the urge to flinch knowing it could very well seal his fate. Instead, he quickly wrestled his arms away from Denrei's grasp and delivered a blurry quick, horizontal slash. Denrei quickly backed away to avoid it, but Atamou was quick to close in again and unleash a barrage of lightning-speed jabs and thrusts.

To Higuchi, Atamou's arms had become as good as invisible due to the speed of their movements. To Denrei, they were missiles of doom. He tried backing away from the Claw, making his body as thin as possible so he could successfully move his torso out of the way of each strike by a hair's margin, but the former Hyouga-nin matched every step Denrei took with another step forward. The Ouraboras member could feel blood running down his cheeks as Atamou's hits became more and more accurate.

”I can't defeat him like this. I need to get him to back off enough for me to perform hand seals and activate the Godai Myou.”

Suddenly, Denrei stopped stepping back and stood his ground. Atamou hadn't expected this, and the small step he took forward anticipating what should have been Denrei retreating once again caused him to run straight into Denrei's punch. Another hit to the stomach. This time, the blow was powerful enough to send Higuchi's bodyguard flying backwards several meters. He landed on two feet, but immediately gasped for air and recoiled from the painful blow.

This was what Denrei had been waiting for.

”Semei no Kasei! Sasori no Keiro”

The black tattoo on Denrei's chest began expanding onto his left arm, covering it in black crust with a steel-like density. His other hand pulled back his left sleeve, making room for the large pincer that emerge from his lower arm and grew over his hand. A long, black, segmented tail emerged from the back of his cloak, growing from his tail bone, right above his bottom. These two new weapons were superior to Atamou's claws, and Atamou himself also realized this. Instead of closing in on Denrei again, he instead performed a string of hand seals of his own.

”Suiton: Kirigakure no Jutsu!”

A thick fog filled the entire roam, blocking out the echo's and the sound of Higuchi complaining that he couldn't see what was happening anymore. The old man was nervous, Denrei could tell. Kanzaki Atamou was strong, but he feared the possibility of the Hideaki being stronger.

The mist made it difficult for Denrei to see. Stepping forward several meters, he focused on his ears to hear the Claw approach....

WOOSH

The Ouraboras member was only away from being gutted. Putting up his claw as a shield, the formidable impact of the human projectile that Atamou pushed him to the side, but fortunately failed to lay a scratch on the claw. And just like that, Atamou had vanished once again. Denrei knew this technique. He had seen it before. The Funsha Misairu no Jutsu (Jet Missile Technique) was a Suiton move that used a powerful jet of water to blast from the user's feet, causing them to rocket forward at the speed of an incoming missile. And he was now using it to harass Denrei. Soon a second impact came, and then a third. And a fourth. Atamou kept using the technique to move in range of Denrei to administer a single, powerful strike, and move out again before the Ouraboras member could muster a counterattack. He was trying to wear the nukenin down.

But not for long..

Denrei waited for the next strike. And as it barely passed him by, he immediately began forming hand seals before Atamou could mount another charge. He placed his hand on the ground before him causing several large chunks of manufactured stone to come loose from the floor and launch themselves in the direction Atamou had vanished towards. Denrei knew this technique would not kill him, but it would force him on the defensive. The Ouraboras member immediately made his way over there himself, Atamou's presence confirmed by the distinct sound of one of his claws, powered by Chakra Flow, cutting through one of the stones. He stopped using Chakra Flow directly after the rock split in two only to reveal Denrei was right behind it. This was a mistake on Atamou's part.

A powerful swipe from Denrei's claw was met by Atamou's smaller, steel claw. When they collided, a loud clang was heard as bits of Atamou's now shattered claw spread throughout the area. The nukenin had managed to avoid certain death by parrying, but he got the message. Dodging a second incoming strike from Denrei's claw, he dodged to the left only to find out it put him right in the path of his scorpion-like tail. This one did not possess the raw impact power of the claw, and Atamou deflected it with a parry from his remaining knuckle claw. He then vanished back into the mist.

Angrily, Denrei spat on the ground. He had hoped he could have finished this troublesome opponent off with this attack, but he had slipped away once again. Just as the Ouraboras member considered using a sensory technique, a sound alerted him of incoming danger. Severe incoming danger. From above to be precise. Atamou had started using Suiton Ninjutsu utilizing water from the mist, proven by the mist getting slightly thinner and thinner each time one of those massive water drills coming down on the Ouraboras member. Only by running forward at maximum speed could he stay ahead of the drills coming down one by one, drilling craters ten meters wide into the ground where they impacted.

But the attacks had a downside. The mist was getting thinner and thinner, making it easier for Denrei to see what the attack was building up to. Atamou was using the drills to herd the Ouraboras member right into a powerful, horizontal slash of Fuuton which could have easily decapitated him had he not chosen to slide underneath it just in time. Behind him, the slash met one of the drills that hadn't stopped drilling and fallen into its crater like a miniature lake yet and cut it clean in half, causing water to rain down on the surrounding area.

”Kehehehe... Not bad. Tell me, Atamou, how come a loyal fuck like you turned out to be a nukenin? Village stab ya in the back? Or did you leave it yourself?”

Denrei could see Atamou's silhouette in the distance. He was hesitating, but then he made the biggest mistake he had made in this fight yet. He answered. ”I had a daughter. She was killed by an enemy raid. When I wanted to avenge her, the village wouldn't let me. Bad for politics. So I took justice into my own hands. I left Hyougagakure, snuck into the enemy village, killed as many shinobi as I could and fled. Then Higuchi-sama found me. The rest you know for yourself.”

”Keh!”, Denrei answered. He could see from the silhouettes' body language alone that this greatly agitated him. ”So you thought your daughter was anything special, huh? Please. Your a shinobi right? A trained killer. All those people you've killed for your village were sons and daughters too, right? So what made yours so special?” While the purpose of telling this was obviously to agitate Atamou into rash actions, part of what Denrei said and what he was about to say was true. It was how he truly felt about the situation, and to a greater extend the world. It was the philosophy of a madman, but one needed to be a madman to survive in the shinobi world.

”People are just maggots waiting to be crushed, and your daughter was one of them. Don't turn such a simple fact into some sob story, ya pussy!”

For a moment, the silhouette had fallen silent. Just when Denrei thought he wouldn't say anything, a hissing sound that made the Black Mantis smile sounded through the room. The hiss grew louder, into a grow. And then, into a shout of pure, parental rage. Rage over something that was in any possible way irrelevant and insignificant.

”YOU SON OF A BITCH! WHAT DO YOU KNOW! I'LL KILL YOU! I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU! SUITON: KIRIGAKURE NO JUTSU!”

With a smile, Denrei aggressively performed hand seals just as the mist became thicker once again. This time, he would take the offensive. He hadn't given Atamou time to leave his location as four Denrei's closed in on him from four direction, surrounding him. It was obvious to the bodyguard, at that moment at least, that all but one of them was a clone. And the sound of incoming footsteps to his right showed just which one. The others made no sounds as, technically, no physical material touched the ground. They were ordinary academy bunshins. Atamou scowled.

”As if a kiddy trick like that'll get to me!”

With his remaining claw, Atamou slashed at what he assumed to be the real Denrei just as all four clones came into reach, only for him to realize what Denrei had done. There were four clones. Four fake, harmless clones. The real Denrei was indeed to his right, directly behind the clone, mimicking its exact movement so Atamou wouldn't distinguish him. And now that his clawed arm was still recovering from the strike, his defenses were right open. He could impossibly block the incoming slash from his tail. A sickening, squishing sound filled the room as a fountain of blood emerged from in between Atamou's shoulders. His body slumped to the ground. Seconds later, his head landed several meters away from him with a dull thud.

Kanzaki Atamou was dead.

All that remained was Higuchi.

The old man had his face against the glass, trying to see through the thick mist. Trying to distinguish who had won. A mistake, for when the dark silhouette appeared right in front of the window he had no time to back away. In one movement Denrei's scorpion-like claw smashed through the glass and grabbed the old man by the throat. His neck held tightly in between the pincers, he was lifted off the ground as Denrei stepped into the small room.

”This'll be over quickly...”, the Ouraboras member said as he began grinning from face to face. He focused strength into his pincers...

SQUISH

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Words Required: 2500
Word Count: 2795

Should a staffer look over this?
In that case, bump

Bounty given, member of Ouraboros.