Chương 24: Interlude 8

Tea Capital Oda Naginata She was hot. The grass she was laying upon was nice and soft, and the smoke that covered her like a blanket was warm. Distantly, she knew she should be getting up now, but she was entirely too comfortable to move. She just wanted to keep sleeping.

"Fire Release! Fire Dragon!" Steel crashed into steel. Fires roared to life and died shortly after. Sandals shifting to tear up grass and earth. Amused laughter carrying through the air.

"Fire Eater Seal!" Tiredly, her eyes cracked open, head laying on her hands and smoke rolling over her dress. She was sleeping in her dress? That was no good, she had saved up for almost a whole year to buy this dress. If it got ruined, that would be a waste.

"Haha- HAHAHAH!" She was laying in a garden- a garden that was on fire. There were a number of cobbled paths leading through fine flower patches and set near little ponds. The surroundings were the trees of Tea country, burning as merry torches in the night. Figures blurred through the air, dark outlines framed by brightly burning foliage around them.

In brief flashes, she could see a man with burning moth wings clash against another- three men with strawhats all wielding straight swords layered in vibrant green light. A red-burning katana moving in vision-blurring arcs to turn aside any of the three green-shrouded blades and occasionally hails of sharp metal that came from random angles in the distance.

"All of that and a swordsman too?! When will your depths end- Ryoma?!"

"I dabble." The blades sizzled as they crashed- the red-shrouded katana moving three times as fast just to maintain pace against the array of enemies around it.

"And using wind against my fire? Where did you come from, to have such magnificent power? Surely not just Suna? Why have I never heard of you before?!"

"We ninja are a secretive bunch, you understand?"

"Haha-HAHAH! Fire Release! Indiscriminate Arson!" A sphere of fire bloomed to life and immediately started to expand- one of the strawhatted men grabbing another by the collar and tossing them away. The other simply leaping away fast enough to avoid the rapidly expanding wall of fire. The ground was torn up and turned to glass where the fire passed, and the man that remained disappeared in the hot white light.

A wooden giant burst from the earth, onimask grimacing in terrific fashions as it emerged in a burst of sand. It was taller than any man, with segmented joints and a heavy shoulders. Tornados of green light emerged from its eyes, which swallowed the fire like spicy sashimi. For a half-moment the garden was dark again, revealing the burning-winged man and a pillar of glass, before the onimask leaned forwards.

"Release!" A voice called out. The fire exploded outwards again- the burning-winged man jumping forwards through the expanding fire. The roar of flame and light covered his movements for a moment- then a ringing of steel crashing into steel as his white-hot blade was sent aside by the parry of a green-wreathed sword. A hot line carved itself into the earth, to the side of the wooden giant as another green-wreathed blade carved through the air and cut into his side.

A backhand sent one of the straw-hatted men flying back to smash into a garden statue, their form obscured in a puff of smoke before revealing mesh and burned skin. A woman slumped under a cratered statue, hand clutching a baton of sorts. White and green blades burred into a violent hurricane of clashes, broken by the moth-wing man leaping up and twisting into a swing- another hot line of white fire split the garden and a distant tree, which promptly exploded.

The moth-winged man grunted as yet another straw-hatted man hit him with a barrage of long needles, fingers raised and strings of light tugging them through the air. He was halfway buried in the sand, pulling himself up from the earth. She woozily pushed herself up from the earth, the theater was playing. If she had spent the money to hire a production like this, she needed to fully enjoy it. Anything less would be a waste. Even as her limbs tugged her back to sleep, her eyes widened and shook off slumber.

She needed… she needed to be awake. The blades howled into another long series of clashes, now only two green-wreathed blades against a single white hot edge, the immense oni-masked giant disappearing into the earth again.

"The other ninja under transformations… I suppose this one must be the ninja from Kiri then!" A puff of smoke. A snarling growl. One strawhat was replaced with a long red braid clutching a deep blue blade.

"This trick was stupid from the beginning." His blade was thinner now, barely more than flashes of blue light that clashed against the white katana, three or more head-to-head blows every passing second.

"It let me hit him with my senbon." The remaining strawhat defended, blades blurring and fingers twitching as he took potshots at the burning moth.

"And he's not fucking slowing down- is he!?"

"The poison is specifically resistant to denaturation-" A laugh and a blur that carried the three men from one side of the garden to the other- leaping over a ravine in the center and turning a pond into steam in the process.

"Which means?!" The red-haired man snarled.

"-Which means his blood is hot enough to boil sake, people are normally dead at that temperature!"

"Fire Release: Tongues of Fire!" The moth-man roared, interrupting whatever the red-haired man was about to say next. The wings on his back twisted into sharpened blades, which caught the strawhat's green blade. The white sword flashed, clashing again with the blue-wreathed blade. Leaving a single hand free for the burning man to punch the red-hair man in the center of the chest, making him double over before flying back with a gong-like boom, eventually smashing into a distant tree.

The trunk screamed as it shattered then collapsed. Hands clasped together a moment after.

"Fire Art: Smokeshield!" The smoke gathered more and more by the moment, drowning out vision as the burning moth disappeared in a swirling egg of hot ash, sword spinning through the air. Needles bounced off the swirling smoke, scattering about as a hand reached back for the white-hot blade- The blade leapt from his hand, soaring through the air and stabbing into a distant tree trunk.

A string of gleaming light retracted from it, pulling back towards the strawhat as he leapt away and landed at the lip of the crevasse. The burning moth landed on the smoke-covered ground again, swordless and lashes of fire slowly unfurling on his back.

"And now you're all alone again, Ryo-ma. Your position is turning to ashes. How much do I have to beat you for you to run?" The wooden giant rose out of the earth, like a demon crawling out of the underworld, limbs rotating and claws shifting as it took its place behind the strawhat.

"You haven't noticed it yet, have you?" Strawhat asked calmly, reaching up to point at his enemy."

"Hm?" The burning moth replied, tilting his head. Long locks of white hair ended in cinders and licks of flame, shifting as he moved.

"You're swaying, and it's not my poison that's doing that. My paralytic would make you freeze up." Strawhat hefted a hand and clenched a fist.

"All my punches to the head, the blades stuck in your flesh, you're not just walking them off." The burning moth raised a hand, looking at his fist for some sort of sign before giving a little huffing laugh. Slowly he started to remove the long needles from his flesh.

"So it seems, but blows like that aren't going to defeat me. Every passing moment I digest more of the Fire Lotus, and my chakra grows. I'll burn you alive long before you finish me off with those."

"You're right. Those soft taps mean nothing." Strawhat agreed easily, cracking his neck and raising his fists. The wooden giant mimicked his stance, raising its clawed hands in fists and spreading its stance wide.

"It's gonna take a real badass Ryoma-style punch to take you down."

"Heheh… So you've taken my blade, and you think that gives you an advantage…" The burning moth began ruefully, before slowly spreading his arms wide.

"Tell me, when did you start thinking of my hands as less dangerous than my sword?" Smoke gathered, densifying enough to choke the air. Laughter in the air and fire all around.

"Dance of the White Camellia." Her eyes widened as the last dregs of sleep slipped from her mind. Laughing Smoke threw himself forwards in time with Ryoma and the wooden giant, and fists began to blur. The smoke continued its attempts to collect- each time scattered by the force of the arms swinging through the air and fists crashing into each other with metallic and wooden booms.

"Burn!" Laughing Smoke roared as fire engulfed him.

"Seal!" Ryoma called back, the eyes of the wooden giant releasing a green maelstrom that devoured the fire again.

"Ahaha- Again!" Laughing Smoke declared, body immediately bursting alight again as their fists continued to clash. One immense wooden arm shattered, scattering charred splinters as the clash of fists continued. A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

"Seal!" Ryoma repeated, voice strained and tense. Another spiraling vortex devoured the flame around them, once more snuffing out the fire. The second eye of the wooden giant slammed closed just as its other immense arm shattered.

"And the thir- grk!" A silver needle punched through Laughing Smoke's torso, racing onwards and punching into another garden statue. A silver thread caught light between the needle and through his torso. A twang of an arrow being fired from a bowstring finally caught up to her ears.

"Y-you! A double-transformation?!" Laughing Smoke cried out, reaching for his chest and tugging on the wire running through it. His hands bled as he gripped the wire- too sharp to grasp carelessly. Her eyes shot over, the collapsed statue that the woman had crashed into- the woman was gone, the red-haired man in her place with a bow in his hands and a wire wrapped around one of his arms.

"Lightning Release: Silver Eel." The red-haired man snarled, as lightning raced down his arm and through the string. Laughing Smoke screamed as he was engulfed in crackling lightning.

"Y-you!" Laughing Smoke snarled, raising a burning hand to swing down- A fist coated in swirling green light punched through his chest, emerging through his back with a spray of gore. Laughing Smoke stopped, hands dropping to the arm through his torso and coughing. He raised his hands weakly, bracing himself on Ryoma's shoulders. In the distance, the woman wearing a mask and mesh pulled herself up, body covered in a viscous layer of toxic looking mucus.

"... He charged my body with lightning natured chakra, which your wind natured chakra flow was strengthened by." Laughing Smoke muttered, breathing slowly as his blood fell in steaming drops.

"... The ninja from Rivers- you told her my temperature so she could modulate her toxin accordingly… and when I punched her away, you bluffed that it was actually your attacks making me sway."

"That's about right." Ryoma responded with a calm nod.

"You missed a few things- but it was all improvised anyways."

"H-heh. I thought for sure that you were a clone- a normal clone wouldn't have the strength to punch through me like this… You were braver than I was anticipating…"

"You would've killed me if I was alone."

"I would have, wouldn't I?" Laughing Smoke let out another handful of chuckles, before pulling back and standing up straight.

"This burning heart of mine- I'll entrust it to you. Put it to good use, Ryo-ma."

"... Alright." There was silence for a few moments, before Ryoma pulled his fist back with a sick squelch. Laughing Smoke stumbled back, the needle-sword pulled back along the wire and sending him spinning once before he fell over. The steel-bracer on his arm unlatched itself, falling down and sizzling as it reached the earth. The clearing was quiet for a few moments, before a tiny utterance came from what should've been a dead man.

The seal on his stomach began to burn brightly, and the stalk of some immense planted ivy in the center of the courtyard writhed.

"... Summoning Technique…" The voice that emerged from his lips was not the same as before. The ninja immediately moved into action, leaping over to various woozy nobles and hefting them over shoulder and under arm. Oda had not the energy to resist as she was tossed up into Ryoma's arms and shaken about as they moved through the air. From this position, she could feel how unsteady his arms were, shaking with exhaustion. His entire body was full of tiny, uncontrolled twitches and spasms.

Distantly, she realized that she was being carried by a strange man.

"... Great Beast Hanabi…" An earth shaking scream filled the night, as a tower of smoke rose to life and rapidly dissipated. The scream was somewhere between natural and utterly unnatural, filled with the crackling of fire and the groaning of old wood. Immense legs like redwood trunks stepped forwards, trailing cinders as the immense creature emerged from the smoke. A demon, large enough to eclipse a fortress at minimum. Some immense insect made of bound wood and with a carapace of bark.

It wasn't quite a spider, ant, wasp, or mantis, but something in between, and in place of a rear end it bore an immense burning bloom of a golden-red flower.

"How the fuck are we going to deal with that?!" The woman wearing mesh called out, leaping through foliage with a boy in her arms and a girl wearily hanging from her back.

"We aren't- fuck that." The red-haired man, carrying a boy and two girls in his broad arms, immediately countered.

"I'm already low on chakra and Suna is running on fumes-" The immense wooden insect took a step forwards, mouth opening to spray a line of liquid fire up and out, covering an entire forest in burning white slime. A scream that might have been pleased came from its scuttling head.

"We're leaving." Ryoma decided, another immense leap bringing them closer and closer to the fortress.

"Focus on saving people now, it's all we can-""Summoning Technique!" The voice of the Daimyo roared out, voice booming over the distance from the walls of the fortress. One hand held up his three-pointed hat and the other was flat in the air before him. The ninja leapt to the side and forwards, clambering up the walls as the summoning ritual was completed.

"Great Boar Hoki!" Another immense column of smoke engulfed the world- completely covering both the fortress and the surrounding lands. The earth shook and the air rumbled as something emerged into the world before the fortress. An immense voice rumbled out like stone grinding over stone as the smoke started to dissipate.

"Hrm. Little Shimaka. Pirates again, or something worthy?" Slowly the form of an immense black boar, large enough to make the mountain look like a hill, emerged from the smoke. There was not a section on its massive body that was not scarred in some manner, and four immense, wicked-sharp tusks shook the air with its idle shakes and snorts.

"A demon of some kind, Great Hoki!" The voice of the Daimyo called out from the walls of the fortress.

"Please- take it far from here!"

"Hrm… Ho?! A demon! Hur-hurm-hur-hurm…" The massive boar responded, already trotting forwards and sniffing the air before it.

"Ahahah! Worthy indeed! I'll mount it on my spears!" A tiny step of the boar's hooves shook the ground once more, before exploding into an immense and fearless charge forwards. One of the towers of the fortress, already damaged by some manner of fighting, collapsed from the quaking earth. A moment later a massive boom rang out, as bone tusks crashed into blazing wooden carapace.

The immense insect-demon made a squeal-hiss-buzz as it was lifted from the earth and plowed straight forwards, over the mountain and beyond the horizon. A massive trench was carved in the earth, creating a visible groove in the side of the mountain just under the barely-visible Buddhist shrine at the peak.

"To the sea with us both, insect! I fancy a bath after I gore you!" Even at such a distance, the booming rumbles of the great boar's boasting could be hear as easily as a man speaking from mere feet away.

"Shinobi!" The Daimyo called out, looking distinctly ruffled by the events of the day but gaze hard.

"Does Laughing Smoke still breathe?!"

"No, lord Daimyo!" Ryoma attempted to bow, before just collapsing outright, sending them both to the ground. He pushed himself up on shaking arms, letting her gain a magnificent view of his collar and neck.

"His body lies in the garden- he summoned that beast as he died!" The Daimyo looked over towards him before nodding and turning.

"Asahi- send a squad of men up to retrieve the bodies." A man wearing a lieutenant's garb performed a quick bow, stained in gore.

"At once, Lord Daimyo!"

"Ninja, take the survivors to my healers, if you can stand." The Daimyo ordered again, the two other ninja immediately making their own tired leaps away. Her limbs didn't have any strength in them- she couldn't do anything but lay across the stone. How shameful of her. She had come here to make a good impression, hadn't she? She needed funding for her ambitions. Another pair of ninja leapt forwards, making a greeting bow towards the daimyo before hefting both of them to their feet.

A woman missing an arm and a man with red marks on his cheeks.

"Still alive there, Ryoma?" The woman asked with a tired huff.

"Let's get you somewhere to sleep."

"Let's get you to the medics, huh?" The man chuckled, limbs twitching.

"Can't sleep, I took a chakra pill before the fight." Ryoma muttered, fingers twitching to make the armless wooden giant stumble after them.

"Well then let's find you somewhere to be twitchy and crash at, how about that?" The woman shook her head ruefully. The courtyard was painted red? What a lovely color.