Chương 100: Chapter 98 - Life for a Life (End of Volume 2)

I liked angry Ashina, but clearly, Hanzo didn't share my appreciation. Too bad for you, bastard! His whole body was twisting around as he tried to rip free of the chains while another glowing one shot up from below. The sickle in his hand flew out when it happened, deflecting it just enough for the chain's tip to tear through his sleeve instead of his torso. Using all his strength, he then managed to turn his trapped leg and uproot a slab of earth the chain was coming out of, but that meant nothing.

The ripped-out chunk of earth was nearly the size of a room, yet no matter how much he pulled and struggled, there was no chance to damage or break the adamantine chains. Not even Kurama managed to do that, so you won't either, buddy. Still, he wouldn't go down easy. I saw him wrench on his chained weapon, pulling it back, forcing me to yell without thinking.

"Behind you!" I didn't need to do anything in the end, because Ashina didn't even turn, just formed a sign with his hands, one that I was unfamiliar with, and a sealing formula flashed across his bare back, blocking the weapon altogether with a transparent barrier.

"Little children's tricks." He said, smiling, looking at Hanzo without blinking. Roaring into his respirator, he pulled again while the chain wrapped around his wrist tightened. That monster had incredible strength in that thin body of his, so much so that Ashina's feet slid a little as Hanzo pulled on the chains, but... that was it. Shaking his head, Ashina sighed and casually straightened his arm, pulling back, yanking the chains, and throwing Hanzo away like a ragdoll. BOOM!

By the time I turned towards where he was thrown, his body had crossed the distance to the opposite end and smashed into the quarry's wall, exploding stone and rubble everywhere.

"... What?" Someone whispered, and it was exactly what I was thinking.

"Honestly..." Ashina shrugged, shaking his head while he rolled one shoulder.

"Children these days... Unbelievable." Although the chains looked lax now, they weren't gone, still attached to him when Hanzo burst out of the rubble, poison spreading all around him.

"Back!" Yahiko yelled, and he didn't need to say it twice as everyone hurriedly backed off, except Ashina, as the nasty purple cloud washed over him.

"Ashina-sama!" Minato shouted, but then a bright flash made us cover our eyes as something cut the poison in half. Staring through it with my Sharingan, I watched dozens of chakra chains gather around Ashina, cutting Hanzo's smoke apart before spreading again like the legs of some monstrous spider, and beginning to rotate so fast they created a vortex that tore the poison apart from within.

"I lived through enough wars, boy." He began speaking, staring at Hanzo, whose eyes were now twitching.

"I've fought clans that make your poison taste like cheap alcohol. I have seen the strongest this world can offer, and you ain't it." Oh... Damn. Grandpa... I love you! Ahahaha! I couldn't really hold back my laughter, so I let it out, which made Yahiko glance at me with an unsure expression.

"Is he always like this?"

"I don't know." I giggled.

"But I think this is how Uzumakis are. They just get reserved when they get older, but his switch has been flipped now." While I was speaking, Ashina moved, and I nearly missed it. CRACK! His body struck Hanzo across the ribs with a shoulder check, and the impact sent him flying again back into the quarry wall and punching a Hanzo-shaped hole into it. By the time he reappeared, he was pierced by more chains, but weirdly enough, he wasn't bleeding, as those weren't really... They were corporeal.

I saw the famous 'Salamander' try to use a jutsu, but the moment he focused his chakra and got ready to release it, the new chains lit up, and his gathered chakra vanished.

"Do you know why my people are feared?" Ashina asked, still smiling at him, while I sensed the old man siphoning the bastard's chakra. THUD! Before Hanzo could answer, Ashina appeared before him and kneed right into his stomach, while blood sprayed from beneath the respirator on his face. Hanzo's body folded up again, but this time he wasn't sent flying as more strikes came. No matter the angle or where they landed, they all hit him.

A punch, a kick, sometimes both; the chains kept Hanzo in place, while Ashina battered him like he was training on a dummy. Probably in desperation, Hanzo released a blackish poison directly from his mask. Still, Ashina slapped a seal onto his respirator, dispersing it and forcing the black cloud back, turning the man's skin a shade of grey as the blackness spread through his veins... Ugh! HISS! That was when, in a panic, the bastard ripped the mask from his face before he could inhale more of...

whatever that thing was, and it was the first time I saw his face properly. It was old, scarred, and, with how Ashina was handling him, totally battered.

"Let's get to finishing this," Ashina muttered, shaking his head as he finished a set of seals with his fingers.

"Uzumaki Sealing Art: Heavenly Binding Domain." The entire quarry lit up the next moment, and even we felt heavy, and my knees actually buckled, throwing me to the ground. Yet we weren't even in its main zone! Next, hundreds of chains erupted from everywhere, stabbing and latching onto Hanzo's body, skewering him, turning him into a pincushion.

"You think killing me... changes anything?!" Hanzo asked, his voice cracked and damaged, as the chains hoisted him into the air and held him up like an offering. A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

"I don't fucking care," Ashina answered, shaking his head.

"Are you stupid? I told you what I'm going to do. I'm just doing that, and I don't care about the rest. Now... Let's see..."

"Wait—!" Ashina clenched his fist, no longer listening. SQUELCH! I watched as Hanzo's right arm came off first, and Blood sprayed across the quarry, making everyone just watch in shocked horror while the frightening 'Salamander' who could stand up to the three Sannins was now being dismembered like a weird toy.

"Oh? It was the arm, huh?" Ashina hummed, chuckling, while more chains appeared, grabbing onto the severed arm, shredding it like some kind of industrial machine, turning it into meatpaste.

"I said I would divide you. Let's continue, hm? The next part should go out for the Raikage... I guess." SQUELCH! Another loud noise of breaking bones, followed by the tearing of flesh as the left arm came off... then, the left leg... right leg...

"Huh." Ashina said, tilting his head, watching the barely conscious man, "So your head is the last, huh? You shouldn't have been this stubborn, but it was your choice to experience it like this." CRACK! Before Hanzo could think about anything else, his head was ripped off his neck, and then shredded just the same, followed by his torso turning into a gory mist. And just like that... Hanzo of the Salamander was dead. Holy shit... Even I felt sick for a moment!

When Ashina turned away from the corpse, or more like the meat patty that was left behind, and recalled all the chains, stepping forward and appearing before us, even I flinched while the others backed off in fear.

"That was something else," I said, breaking the silence and gulping down whatever was about to come up my throat, and retching uncontrollably.

"I am a vengeful person." He smiled, but then turned serious at once, glancing at Minato.

"How far is your furthest mark?"

"Um..." He stuttered for once in his life, blinking, shaking his head to clear his vision.

"It's too far. We can't even sense it."

"I know." Ashina raised a hand, interrupting him.

"I'm asking: where did you set the furthest mark from here?"

"Back near the border. I also have a few around the village itself, but those are even farther. Impossible for me to sense or jump to any of those!"

"Try to sense the one nearest to Konoha," Ashina said as a chain stabbed through his chest and my entire body froze.

"MINATO!" I yelled, but then another hit me.

"FUCK!" I gulped, looking down as it punched directly through my heart, but... Wait... Where is the pain? Blood? Or wounds? There was none.

"Oh..." I realized, looking at Minato too, as we were now connected, and I could sense an immense amount of chakra outside my body, one that I had complete access to.

"Prepare yourselves," Ashina said, without explaining more, "Work together and concentrate on the same mark. You know the jutsu; make sure we get there while I provide the chakra for it."

"Someone's coming!" Yahiko, still watching and too afraid of Ashina to interrupt, finally spoke up. I sensed it too, through the old man, but it also felt familiar; in a white flash, Sakumo appeared, landing beside us, gasping for air. His armor was torn to shreds, while his hand holding his blade was slightly trembling and bloody up to his elbows.

"The others are coming, too." He said slowly, regulating his breathing, then turned and scanned the others.

"Sensei!" I cried out as another flash appeared, and Jiraiya hit the ground hard enough to skid, throwing earth everywhere. His white hair was singed in multiple spots, and one side of his face was bloody, his usual clothes missing, leaving him half naked from the waist up. Worse, his torso and arms had nasty burn marks, but he didn't seem to register them yet, standing strong and tall.

"Renji! Minato!" He exhaled and immediately examined us, making me grin.

"We're fine!" We nodded back, then I nodded towards Yahiko, and when Jiraiya saw him... and the others... he stiffened at once.

"Jiraiya-sensei..." Yahiko muttered, and I could swear he was on the verge of tears.

"Yahiko." He answered and smiled, nodding at him, before turning to the others who quickly greeted him the same, making Sakumo raise a brow, but he asked nothing.

"We have to go," Yahiko said suddenly, knowing they couldn't stay and catch up with their old master. The others straightened up too, realizing it was indeed time to scatter.

"We'll meet again." He added as Jiraiya started to speak, but then the Akatsuki members scattered in every possible direction, fleeing. There was another flash just then, and two ANBU appeared, carrying a third who was unconscious, maybe even dead.

"How many?" Ashina asked, looking at them.

"Three more were following us... But we got separated." Of those three... two were also ANBU members, and the other was one of the Uzumakis... which meant we lost some people... I guess it was inevitable.

"Where's Hiruzen-sama?" Sakumo asked, but nobody answered. I was unsure how long we should wait, but after a few minutes, we sensed a signature closing in on us, and Hiruzen appeared. But... oh man. He wasn't looking good. Although he landed on his feet, his armor was in tatters, and blood was flowing everywhere it shouldn't, especially from the stump where his left hand had been. Yeah... That was missing from right above the elbow.

His face was also badly deformed, with his right eye plucked out, with his jaw loosely hanging, like something that was barely holding onto his skin... Oh shit...

"Sensei!" Jiraiya moved forward at once before he could collapse, but there was no answer, because I don't think he could speak right now.

"We leave!" Ashina said, as more chains shot out of his body, connecting everyone into one entity. Just then, I caught two enormous-feeling signatures speeding toward us... Wait... just two? Not too much of a surprise, a moment later Ōnoki appeared above the far left first, looking just as bad as everyone else, his big nose missing because it had been completely ripped off. Heh... get rekt, shorty!

The second aura appeared a moment later, belonging to the Third Kazekage, who landed on a metal platform, gasping for air and looking like a burn victim, Freddy Krueger-style.

"There!" Ōnoki yelled, and I could hear the sheer desperation in his voice as both of them attacked, clearly not wanting to let Hiruzen go. The way they looked, the utter, unabashed fear and distress in their voice and the fact that the Mizukage and the Raikage were nowhere to be seen... I was crossing my fingers and guessing that they died. That was fucking unexpected if that was the case!

"Now, boys!" Ashina yelled, snapping us back to reality, while Minato grabbed my wrist as we both focused on the same mark, pulling all the chakra we needed directly from Ashina. FLASH! Before I could think, my legs hit grass, then I tumbled and headbutted a tree as I slumped down onto the ground.

"Hokage-sama?!" I looked up somewhat, hearing the cry coming from one of the ANBU members, and squinting against the sunlight. When I finally refocused my eyes, I watched as Hiruzen lay on his back, going as still as a corpse.

"Sensei?!" Jiraiya grabbed him too, while Sakumo supported the panting Ashina, who looked so tired I was afraid he'd collapse too. Yet when I looked at him, he just smiled, shook his head, and gave me a thumbs up to reassure me.

"Is he..." Minato asked, getting back up, while Ashina took a deep breath but remained leaning on Sakumo.

"If he doesn't get medical attention soon, he will die." The old Uzumaki nodded, and I was about to cry out for help, but it was not needed. A rush of wind swept through us all, and a moment later, dozens of shinobi appeared around us. I almost panicked and yelled curses, but then I noticed Fugaku amongst them, which told me we were indeed back near the village. Oh... I just turned while sitting on the ground and realized we were right beside the main gate. Duh... we were indeed back. Phew... good, good!

Then I can rest. So I just let my exhaustion win and fell back on the grass, staring at the blue sky. I don't know what will happen next... but damn... the Naruto canon is officially fucked, by yours truly. And you know what? I think I can be proud of that.