Chronicles of the Leaf

"A True Shinobi" -Osami IV

"A True Shinobi will even disobey the Hokage's orders in order to protect the people of the village. They will even sacrifice their lives for it." That was Isamu Sensei's first lesson. It would also be the one that killed him.

I barged into the hospital room and looked around frantically at the scared nurses. As soon as I caught my breath, I asked with pellucid concern, "Where's Isamu?"

"By the window. His condition is stable. He just needs to rest."

I had heard my sensei had collapsed in the middle of the street and so I rushed over to the Leaf village's hospital as soon as I could. I didn't bother to change out of my Anbu uniform or rest for even a second. But now I was here. My footsteps began moving slowly and shakily. Although I had run all the way here, I had become too scared to face him. Eventually I would make it to the other end of the room and turned to see Isamu's vulnerable and weak body resting under the hospital duvet. He was sleeping as the nurse said, so I cautiously stepped closer, the details of his old face becoming more clear. Isamu was 32 years old, but due to a 'chakra parasite' his body had been drained of all of this chakra and therefore Isamu had suffered from illness and a weak, damaged body. His condition had gotten 10x worse since I first saw him only several months ago. Not a single person in the village knew how to solve it. I sometimes wondered, especially now, whether it would be best to put him out of his misery, with his consent obviously.

I placed my hands on my forehead, feeling a sudden heat. Then...

"ELECTRIC SWITCH!" I felt someone else's hand slap across my face, launching my body into the wall. My head crashed against the hard surface. The lingering pain sent my mind into a daze whilst my knees plummeted to the ground. Looking up, I saw Atlas. The Kurayami member who destroyed my squad two years ago and almost killed me and that girl. My heart sank. I had absolutely no idea how he had appeared here but I knew what the consequences were. Isamu was going to die.

Atlas chuckled deeply whilst walking around the other side of Isamu's bed. He looked at me with a monstrous smile that only evinced mountains of malice. From his pouch, I saw his hand take out multiple food pills, a type of ninja tool. However knowing the Kurayami, I knew there was more to it. He opened Isamu's mouth and put the pills down his throat before saying, "I wonder what's going to happen next."

When my vision started becoming a little more clear and the pain had faded, I stood up furiously. "What did you do?!"

The old shinobi let out a laugh of pure evil before explaining, "I gave the parasite inside him a little boost of some tailed beast chakra. Who knows what that'll entail?"

I could feel my face scrunch up and heat up with rage. My arms raised themselves up and began blasting star bullets at the filth in front of me. He was able dodge them with ease so I pounced off the wall, flying over Isamu's bed to tackle Atlas to the ground. Instead, he grabbed my arms and tossed me across the room. I rolled before quickly getting up. As my head looked up, I immediately saw Atlas' foot, which kicked my face and sent my flying out the doorway. My back crashed against the wall.

In a matter of seconds, Atlas had already broken my body till I felt an gnawing at every nerve in my body. I stepped forward; Pieces of the wall crumbling away as I did. Then I faced my palms towards the colossal beast. Atlas smiled, "I'm not gonna hold back this time." 

Pushing through an almost unbearable pain, I dug my fingers into my palm. I had trained two whole years to fight opponents as strong as Atlas in order to protect the Hidden Leaf Village. I knew I had gotten stronger. With clenched fists, I darted towards the rogue ninja and saw his fist coming towards me. Quickly inventing a counter-attack, I slid beneath his arm and kicked the back of his knee. By combining my chakra and my Star Release ninjutsu, I cloaked my fist with yellow, sparkling light and charged it into his back. I felt wind brush against my shoulders upon impact then heard a CRACK! Suddenly the ground collapsed and the two of us fell into the room below. I quickly got off the ground as did Atlas, however with his mighty strength he was much quicker. He had moved back to push some distance between us. I watched nervously for what he was going to do next, but at least he was away from Isamu.

Atlas had already formed a hand seal which he put to his lips before opening them. He began releasing bolts of lightning from his mouth that were spiralling towards me, but I had gotten faster. I ducked under the first one and pushed my feet off the ground, cracking the floorboards. Then I jumped over the next and spun to dodge the third. Once I had reached Atlas, I blocked a punch with my arm and proceeded to use both of my feet to kick him back. When my feet touched the ground, I pointed my palms towards him and unleashed an endless horde of star bullets.  His body was pummelled by an infinite amount of stars, scorching his chest and his arms as he tried to block them. Suddenly I saw a blue mist surrounding Atlas; It wasn't unlike the mist I saw Bomei manipulate two years ago. The only difference was that sparks of lightning were coming from it. Atlas was now seemingly taking the star bullets without any harm. I stopped my attack and saw that he was using a special jutsu known only by ninja of the Hidden Cloud Village. It was the Lightning Release Chakra Mode: A thick armour of lightning that cloaked his body. 

But I had to wipe that smug grin off his face. I formed a hand seal with one hand and summoned two clones of myself. The three of us used our Earth Release to create swords made of stone and charged forwards. Then Atlas disappeared. Just when I thought I had finally caught up to him, he had another trick up his sleeve. His speed was just incomprehensible. He appeared behind us and destroyed my two clones with ease. I quickly turned to catch his giant fist and pushed him back only a few inches, before retreating backwards. I threw my stone sword towards his armour and watched it crumble apart. The distance I had made would become fruitless as Atlas appeared right in front of me within a matter of seconds. I began charging up the Star Release inside of me whilst he pummelled me with attacks that I could only block. Our movements were too quick for my brain to comprehend. I didn't have a clue to where my arms were and how they were blocking him but somehow they were. 

That fact was enough to make me believe that I had a chance. Once my Star Release had charged up, I released it from my body, which caused a burst of light that filled the room and crushed the ground beneath us. As Atlas was falling, I concentrated the rest of my star release chakra in my legs and smashed his chest beneath my feet before kicking him into the ground. His impact would shake the entire building and break a hole in the reception's floor.  My exhausted body would land in the reception where many nurses and doctors were watching with abundant concern. I fell down and sat against the counter, trying to rest and take a breath as my enemy seemed out of commission. 

"You've gotten stronger." Atlas said. My eyes widened and looked towards the hole in the ground that Atlas began to emerge from. He chuckled deviously before cracking his neck and glaring at me. "But I can't waste any more time." 

I was too stunned to speak. All of the strength I've gathered over the past two years still couldn't defeat him. In fact, I couldn't see a single drop of blood leaving his body. Then black marks began to take over his skin and... nothing. Everything went white then it went black.