Wandering Heathens

Battle Begins

Shinjo and Ryuu stared at each other as smoke, flames, dust and ashes blew across the expanse that separated them.

"Do you remember the rules?" Shinjo asked, flexing his wrists and arms, preparing for the battle ahead. "The only rule is that only one of us can survive" Ryuu replied, cracking his fingers to limber them up. "Correct" Shinjo remarked and before Ryuu could even react, he had sprinted across their no man's land and swung his sword in a cutting arc.

Ryuu leaped our of the sword's way and threw paper bomb wrapped senbons at Shinjo. They landed around his feet and Ryuu set them off. Once the smoke cleared, Shinjo stepped out with his Kinjutsu cloak activated, unscathed and unharmed.

"ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?!" Ryuu yelled as he threw every single senbon, kunai and weapon he possessed, yelling and screaming obscenities. Shinjo merely stood there as the weapons bounced off him harmlessly. "Are you done?" He asked his opponent. Sighing heavily and brushing his hair off his face with his hand, Ryuu nodded. "No more tantrums?" Shinjo teased; "No, I'm good" Ryuu confirmed.

Wordlessly, Shinjo charged again and Ryuu readied himself for the attack. Just as Shinjo was about to deliver a blow, he activated his Sharingan and flickered into oblivion. "The fuck?" Ryuu said, looking around him confused. Flickering back into their dimension, Shinjo pointed his sword straight down and and landed on the ground, his sword plunging through Ryuu's right shoulder and out through his ribs.

He knelt down onto one knee, coughing up blood and pressing a hand to his wound. His lung was still working, miraculously, but it was a struggle to draw a breath. "You and your damn Sharingan! That's cheating you know!"

"Then I suppose I'm cheating. Either way, I'm going to kill you" Shinjo said menacingly. "Yeah, yeah, I'm gonna die, I know" Ryuu brushed his threat off and stood to his feet. He activated his kinjutsu cloak and wove hand signs: "Ryōshi Art: Burning Dragons!"

Five long sinewy fire dragons burst from the ground and snarled as they went for Shinjo. He slashed and hacked and managed to make two disappear but the other three wrapped themselves around him. They squeezed and the heat from their skin burned through Shinjo's kinjutsu cloak, scalding his skin. He screamed and struggled to break free. "Just a little more" Ryuu begged, trying to gather as much Sage chakra as he could.

With a roar, Shinjo cut his way out of the dragons who screeched and howled as they disappeared in flashes of flames. Shinjo stood with his cloak smoking and burned skin showing through his robe. He gripped his sword and mutter an invocation and the sword vibrates slightly in his hand.

Opening his eyes to reveal golden crosses, Ryuu tried to connect with the Beasts but they were silent, slumbering like embryos in the Statue. "Fuck" he muttered and changed his Sage Art from Beast mode to Fire mode. "Ryōshi Art-"

Before he could finish preparing his jutsu, Shinjo had thrown his sword at him, forcing Ryuu to lean back so far that his hair brushed the ground. Shinjo flicked above him, catching his blade and throwing it like a spear at his opponent. The sword pierced his kinjutsu cloak and went into his thigh. Ryuu screamed in pain, his hands clutching the hilt and trying to pull it out.

"How did you bypass-" "Madara." "Oh" Ryuu nodded in understanding, "she would know the weaknesses." Shinjo pulled his sword from Ryuu's thigh and walked slowly around the wounded man. "Are you done? Do you want me to send you to the Afterlife?" He asked, a small iota of concern entering his voice. Ryuu smiled, blood dripping down his mouth, and looked at Shinjo.

"OBITA! NOW!" He called and Obita appeared, releasing weapons from her Kamui. "Fucking pest!" Shinjo yelled as he blocked her weapons, Ryuu grabbing a tantō from the collection Obita was throwing at Shinjo. He stepped into her Kamui and disappeared.

He reappeared at Shinjo's back and stabbed the short blade into his muscles, cutting the needed muscles for him to use his sword. Shinjo switched to his right hand and slightly clumsily hacked at his enemy. Ryuu grunted and groaned with each new wound but he wasn't done. He pulled out his final senbons and plunged them into Shinjo's other shoulder and he couldn't move his arms.

Standing back and gasping and coughing up blood from his exertions, Ryuu looked over his work. "Give it up," he wheezed, "you're paralyzed and I know your Taijutsu isn't the best. Surrender. Please." "NEVER! I will kill you if it's the last thing I do!" Shinjo roared. Ryuu shook his head sadly, "keep this up and you're gonna lose it all: Kakuza, Hida, their respect... Madara is dead. Just...stop."

Shinjo hung his head and quietly admitted his defeat. He asked Ryuu for one last embrace before he was sent to the Afterlife. Ryuu, reminded of their boyhood and other such fond memories, approached him and embraced him. "Urk!" As he was closing the distance between them, Shinjo had raised his blade and ran it through his former friend. "I'm not to be trusted, remember?" He said as he watched Ryuu's bright green eyes begin to dim.

Kakuza could no longer stand by and watch. Shinjo was out of control, overly sadistic and lost to his hatred. She needed to bring him back.

She, with Hida following as back up, approached Shinjo and slapped him across the face. Hida took advantage of his temporary shock to remove Ryuu from the blade and place him a safe distance away. "What the fuck was that for woman?!" Shinjo snarled at her. She looked at him with a mixture of love and disgust on her face. Taking the risk of possibly being wounded like Ryuu was, she grabbed him by his robes and slammed her lips on his, forcing his mouth open and sliding her tongue into his mouth. She pressed close to him and whispered how much she loved him and reminded him of their future together.

His Sharingan slowly disappeared and his eyes returned to their soft brown. He looked at Kakuza who was stroking his cheek. "Are you back with me now?" She asked and he nodded, dazed. The sound of bitter crying was heard and he looked around to see Obita weeping over Ryuu's body. "No...no no no no NO!" He yelled as he ran towards his former friend, falling to his knees and taking the lifeless body into his arms. "Wake up! I'm so sorry! For it all!" He wept. "WAKE UP!"