Chapter 30: Killing yet another..
"It's time to go join your brother in hell. But don't worry, the rest of the clan elders might follow you there soon enough..."
Sasuke's purplish black cursed energy bubbled and exploded forth, as his left hand formed the hand seal of confrontation and blitzed towards the opponent with immense speed and a small tanto in hand.
*BANG!*
A small explosion caused shockwaves to ripple into the surroundings, destroying everything in their path. A figure soared through the air and right as he was about to crash into the ground, multiple strings formed some sort of cushion for his body, on which he landed gracefully and looked on ahead with a grim expression.
The next moment, another figure corkscrewed in mid air and landed before him with a blade and a kunai in both hands..
Growling in annoyance, Haruto waved out his hands, hurling out multiple blades constructed from his strings, sending them piercing towards Sasuke's figure while he grabbed onto another blade, formed two long wings behind him and blitzed towards him.
As tendrils of cursed energy poured out into his blade, Sasuke wasted no time and shunshined towards the incoming projectiles, ripping through them with brute force and agility.
Without hesitation, he instantly brought his tanto before his chest, blocking a slash from Haruto's blade, which sent him skidding back a few meters, but wasted no time in recovering his bearing and blitzing towards Haruto for a brutal hand to hand combat.
Two blades clashed, their weilders displaying immense speed and skill, as they wasted no time going for each other's weak points. With his long sword, Haruto had more reach, slashing and cleaving towards Sasuke's neck and head, trying to take him out with each move.
However..
Sasuke was just too fast. His tanto was a blur, slashing faster than the naked eye could capture. In the early moments of the confrontation it looked like a stalemate, but after a moment, Haruto was clearly revealed to be inferior. With Sasuke increasing the speed of every slash of his blade, he slowly fell short and succumbed to an onslaught of a nearly infinite slashes of the short blade.
But...
Even on the losing foot, Haruto held his own against Sasuke. Being outclassed in every aspect, he decided on a different gameplan. Summoning a nearly infinite amount of sharp strings, he controlled each intelligently, like extensions of his own limbs, trying to overwhelm Sasuke with the multitude of slashes.
In the face of the incoming storm of strings, Sasuke's Sharingan instantly activated and he moved. Like a ghost, his body utilized unique movements that would cause even the most experienced Jujutsu expert to wonder in surprise. However, due to the sheer number of the strings, even the Sharingan couldn't completely protect him from getting slashed here and there.
Equipped with his tanto, he slashed through more incoming strings and dodged the ones he could, however realization soon dawned on him and it was then that he finally saw what the opponent was trying to do.
'He's not just trying to overwhelm me, he's setting traps..'
Sasuke thought as a wry smile crept up to his face. Unlike Isamu who easily succumbed to his attacks, Haruto was rather resourceful. Then again, he had the cursed technique to allow him such maneuverability.
Threadbane was Haruto's cursed technique that allowed him to utilize incredibly sharp and durable strings that could attack, defend or support. It was quite the impressive technique due to its all roundness, and the only reason Haruto himself was still semi first grade was due to his amateurish mastery of the ability.
With the Sharingan, the movements and patterns of the strings were all laid bare before his eyes.
While Haruto was trying to overwhelm and tire him out with the endless onslaught, the main purpose of the attack was to utilise the strings to capture him.
"Futon: Atsugai!!--- Wind Style: Pressure Damage!!"
Vaulting over multiple incoming slashes, Sasuke formed multiple hand seals puffed up his cheeks and unleashed a massive wind current, that encapsulated his body like a spiralling orb, pushing away all the strings that threatened to cut him down.
"Katon: Gokka Mekakkyu!! --- Fire Style: Majestic Destroyer Flames!!"
With another hand seal, he unleashed a majestic spray of flames in conjunction with the spiralling orb, that instantly eradicated all the strings around him.
"Impossible!"
Even Haruto was shocked at the sudden turn of events, not only because his attack had been thwarted so easily, but because the Sasuke he knew was born without a cursed technique and was ridiculed. How the hell did he now have a cursed technique and the shocking thing was, it was a dual elemental technique for that matter. A genius like that had never appeared in the Zen'in clan or the Jujutsu society for that matter, even since it's establishing.
"Impossible? Nothing is ."
"Chidori Nagashi!! ---- Chidori Stream!!"
Sasuke laughed, formed a hand seal, and in a second, multiple streams of lightning exploded from his palm, accompanied by the cacophonous bird chirping noises. Despite his shock, Haruto was rather quick to react. He maneuvered his strings into a large round ball that swallowed his figure to shield him from the incoming blast.
However...
*BANG!*
The bolts of lightning converged upon collision and blew a hole into Haruto's defense, punching a hole right in his side, as blood spurted all over, the force from the attack hurling him into the distance, as he skid and bounced across the rocky ground.
"Ughhh!"
Haruto coughed out blood and spasmed, but despite the immense pain, he supported himself to his knees. The nonchalance and ferocity on his face had been replaced by an emotion he was all too familiar with -- fear.
He was completely outclassed in every way, by the person he had hated the most in his younger years.
"If you're wondering why reinforcements still haven't arrived..
Haha..
That's because, I placed tendrils of my cursed energy about several meters from this place. And anyone who is unlucky to be dosed with my cursed energy would be inevitably be trapped in a genjutsu for five minutes.."
Sasuke spoke, as he walked down a fearful Haruto who now realized that the stage had already been set for his death. It had all been planned from the beginning. He was like a lamb that had been led to the slaughter.
"Don't panic yet. Here's the catch. Even if they manage to break through my Genjutsu, the five elemental seal around this place is nigh impenetrable. Meaning, until I will it, no one can enter or leave this place..."
Sasuke smiled. He wasn't really the talkative type, especially during a battle, but killing the ones responsible for the death of his previous self brought him a serene tranquility, peace and satisfaction in his soul that was impossible to ignore.
It was almost as if he was appeasing the Gods in his heart.
Without wasting no time, he quickly went in for the kill. Multiple stringed kunai ripped into Haruto's arms, causing the young man to cry out in pain. And with a tug on the strings, his body was pulled towards his adversary.
The last thing he saw was the sharp cold edge of Sasuke's tanto slashing towards his neck, and in the next moment, his vision went dark.
With a simple slash of the blade, Haruto's head went flying off his body, as blood spurted onto his face.
Sasuke gracefully landed on both feet and took in a deep breath, restraining the smile that threatened to form on his face. Revenge did feel good and all that, but ultimately, he didn't want to lose himself in the process to become a mindless killing monster.
With a wave of his hand, five seals flew into his hands, and the residual cursed energy in the surrounding dissipated. He reached out into his robe and threw out a piece of paper onto Haruto's cold corpse before he himself slowly began melding into the shadows.
But...
"It was an illusion all along!!"
An angry yet raspy voice resounded, and a figure blitzed towards the battle field at near sound shattering speed. His middle aged face was warped in anger, unlike the nonchalant expression he mostly carried.
Behind him, several figures slowly arrived all draped in traditional kimonos. As they glared towards the battle field, their hearts shattered, seeing the corpse of one of their own laying there unmoving, bathed in a pool of his own blood.
"Revenge?!!!"
Walking to his nephew's corpse, Naobito Zen'in picked up the piece of paper and read out it's one word content in a mad rage, as he, the elders and the bystanders glared murderously towards the figure in the shadows whose bright red devilish pupils seemed to smile wickedly towards them.
"Naobito!!. Seize him!!"
Unwilling to let the enemy go Scot free, the clan elder bellowed loudly, and the middle aged man in the lead quickly exploded forth with breakneck speed, however before he could even reach far, the body of the man in the shadows slowly began to morph into dozens of snakes that quickly disappeared into the distance...
A/N: Sorry for the late update guys. We're at 30 chapters already. Donations and reviews are really appreciated.