''Shit, there's one alive'' He yelled, already readying the hand signs for his technique.
The boys felt different, more sure of himself, more in control.
The boy's newfound instincts exploded as he twisted his right shoulder out from the weight of a nearby burned corpse and cut his blade upward in a desperate arc. It was a last resort attack, fueled by pure emotions rather than skill, nevertheless the blade drew blood as it cut across Hayato's left thigh
The blood flew through the air and landed in an abstract artistic method.
''Aaaghhh!!! God damm it, get him'' Hatato couldn't help but scream.
''On it'' replied Aya.
He crossed the distance between the two in a single swift step whilst his blade drew two arcs, clearly trying to bisect both the upper and lower part of the boys body.
The boy threw himself to the side just enough to avoid the first arc of the blade, but the second managed to cut a line across his ribs. Blood splattered across the damp earth as the boy screamed in pain.
Not just out of pain but to force his body to move, he kicked off a scorched log of flesh as he hurled himself out of the file.
Now with his body free, he set his feet against the ground with his blade dragging right behind him.
''The bastard still has some fight in him!!'' Hayato growled at the boy as he limped whilst weaving his signs.
''Doesn't matter, we'll just cut him down like the rest''
With his feet planted on the fround, the boy fully felt his new state. His view of the world changed, the two foes opposite him seemed...lesser.
Before, if he were to face an enemy shinobi he would cower but now? Not now, in fact he felt a hint of excitement and a hint of familiarity with the once foreign blade in his hand.
The blade felt smooth as if made to fit into his palms.
Everything felt natural.
What the boy failed to even notice was his stance changing. His upper body leaned forward, his legs felt loose and ready to explode as if a gazelle were to sprint, his left hand swayed to the side in a relaxed manner and his right hand?
His right hand held patiently onto the blade in his palms, his wrist supple ready to change direction and his upper shoulders ready to move and guard with the flat edge of his blade.
This was the stance of a shinobi inclined towards kenjutsu. Towards swordsmanship.
A natural gift.
Seeing this, Aya Tenjou felt threatened. As a kenjutsu specialist himself, he knew what it meant to take on swordsmanship. In his view, the boy across him was a gifted child, a gifted child whose life he definitely had to take.
The stance in front of him was something he has been trying to achieve a majority of his life as a shinobi, and has so far he has failed to do so. Seeing a younger shinobi like the boy in front of him perform such an achievement, angered him beyond measure.
Aya moved in, trying to close the distance between his foe.
The boys ears quickly caught the shift in Aya's feet, the faint scrape of sandals on the mud giving away his intentions.
Aya closed in and drew an anger driven arc with his blade yet again, this time the boy pivoted himself by lowering his upper body, narrowly dodging Aya's blade.
With a flick of his wrist and shoulders engaging, the boy in return sweeped his blade upwards in a graceful arc parrying with a scream of metal against metal. The clash rattled his bones, but for a reason unknown to him the pain made his mind awaken even further.
Aya counter attacked again and again in a continuous spree of sharpness.
And each time, the boy parried every attack with sparks of metal flying all around,.
At this point, Aya was running out of stamina, right now he was struggling on his last legs.
The boy on the other hand, was only getting started. As opposed to his weak stamina from the past, his current heart was full of agitation, pumping blood throughout his entire being.
''What the hell is wrong with you? Struggling with a pipsqueak like him?'' Hayato shouted from the sidelines, his bleeding leg prevented him from actively joining.
''Shut the hell up!! You're not the one fighting him, focus on finishing your technique'' Aya replied.
Jutsu or techniques of any kind usually took a decent amount of hand signs to go through before being ready to be unleashed.
''Understood, but at this point you should release the flare'' Hayato replied, whilst still focusing on his hand signs.
Taking his advice seriously, Aya took out a rigid ineflexible stick from his pouch at his side using his spare hand whilst still paying attention on the armed 'child' in front of him.
He bit off the top of the stick similar to a cork of a bottle and then pointed the tip right into the sky. Shortly after, a bright crimson red streak signal shot across the sky.
'Dammit, he's signalling for reinforcements to come' The boy saw this and a hint of panic sprouted in him. He was sure that he could handle the two in front of him, but what about two more? Five? A whole camp of hundreds? Not happening, atleast not yet...
Throughout the whole fight with the foe in front of him, he hasn't said a word as his training was still clear in his mind and body. One of the first rules, was do not engage in conversation with the enemy. Focus on dispatching the foe or an easy way of escape if necessary. Only issue was that there was none.
All his exits were blocked either by the two foes in front of him or the piles of burning corpses in multiples around him.
He steeled his thoughts and body, and this time he went on the offensive himself.
The tide shifted and he didn't hesitate, with a sharp breath his body blurred with his blade at his side. His opponent barely had any time to react before metal clashed with metal, and a bright ring rang out like a gong through the raindrops in the air.
'What the hell does the hidden leaf feed their kids?'
Aya struggled to defend himself as he only barely managed to parry the child's blade.
And before long, he was being pushed back by entire steps one by one.
The boys feet shifted and his body sprang forward in a straight line, heading directly towards Aya.
Leaning into his blindspot from the left, the boy drew an arc from the lower left side to the upper right side across the torse of the shinobi in front of him.
'He's fast'
It was too late, the blade swung and drew a line across Aya's upper body.
With a painful hiss, Aya's body fell. It was also this point the boy's luck fell short.
''Tri-Seal Ignition'' With a loud shout, Hayato completed his hands signs.
A high end B ranked technique of an explosive nature, more than enough to decimate a small camp.
A volley of three tags shout and sank into the earth around the young child, once sank multiple ink made lines started interlocking together resulting in the formation of a tight diagram trapping the boy inside.
One.
Two.
BOOM!!!
A massive enclosed explosion was released, a cloud of volatile fire and smoke trapped the boy in a dark sphere of earth and rain.
''Fuck!!!! Couldn't you wait for me to keep my distance?'' Aya shouted from a nearby cloud of dust.
At the last second, Aya somehow pulled through the bloody line across his torso and managed to avoid the deadly range of the explosion. The damm idiot Hayato forgot about his own comrade, the mere fact such dangerous techniques are passed to such fools makes the entire Hidden Cloud a fatal enemy.
''The fuck are you complaining about?!! I JUST SAVED YOUR LIFE!!'
''Your the one who couldn't get rid of a single kid''
''Shut the fuck up, dont make me tell me truth to your wife!!!''
''The fuck do you mean?!! What truth? How about you mind your god damm business?''
''Stop with the bullshit!! You know damm well what i mean, you think I didn't see the bunch of whores you bought with your last paycheck? Let me tell you, the whole camp saw your demented ass!!''
''AND? YOU THINK I GIVE A SHIT?!! MATTER OF FACT, let me tell you, you know when you thought your wife was cheating on you? Guess what? You were right, it was me and her!!
''THE FUCK DID YOU JUST SAY?!! I KNEW IT, I KNEW IT, I KNEW IT!!''
''Fucking deal with it then, not my fault you married a whore who only wants real men!!''
''I'LL MURDER YOU, YOU SICK FUCK''
And so the two fought in the mud, two grown sick men fought in the mud like children.
Knocking their teeth out, breaking their knuckles against their own bones, and spitting out blood and screams of saliva.
Just for a moment, everything calmed down.
In the disappointing measures of the world, everything sank in.
The chaos of lands, the deaths of innocent bystanders in the war and the murder of children against children as organised by the elders of society seemed...somehow not as bad.
It was all so disappointing in its truth, to the point one could only accept it.
The rain seemed denser, the smoke of the burning piles seemed darker and the earth itself seemed void of colour.
And yet, in this dark veil, one person held defiant.
This was the deciding moment in the life of Aki Hisakata.
This was the true exact moment during which the entire course of his life changed.
Here, trapped in the south west region of the Haran Bay, surrounded by burning piles of corpses in the damp mud of the soil and the heavy cascading rain from the heavens, alongside these two retards and precisely 2.4 miles from the nearest Hidden Cloud enemy camp.
''Enough''
A distorted voice rang out in the crisp air.
''I've had enough of you''
A distorted voice born of the deepest chords of the throat.
Looking over, the two men still rolling around akin to sickening pigs in the mud, were interrupted in their childish acts.
The smoke finally cleared, and the dirt settled.
There, the boy, blade still in hand, grasping at straws.
On one knee, with blood layered, ash stained, flesh charred and clothes partly gone on one knee. His entire body supported by the handle of his sword, with the edge stuck in the ground. Large sizes of his flesh were burned off, torn and gone.
Lord knows how he survived the explosion, coincidence, luck or pure will. This type of technique was used to break open barriers and fortresses during combat operations, it wasn't exactly made to be directed at a person.
This spoke of two volumes, first, Hayato is a complete demented fuck, second...Well...Hayato is a demented fuck.
When the explosion happened, Aki could only think of one thing. 'Not again' 'Not again' 'Not again'
Again he was pushed aside. Again he was forced into submission, and again he put up a weak front.
He was caught off guard and hit by a fatal attack in one fell swoop.
'Damm it all to hell, what's even is the point'
'If I'm gonna die today, I'm atleast taking these two fools with me'
And so, the defiance in him burned bright.
He tried to stand up, but his body screamed in protest, his left arm laid limp, his right arm missing flesh, his left shoulder dislocated and three of his ribs cracked. With his lungs burning with every breath, as if the gentle air was too harsh for his lungs. Not to mention both his legs seemed to suffer the brunt of the explosion.
Pain seized every single part of his body. Yet, to him the pain seemed so refreshing, mind refreshing. The pain meant he was still alive and the flame within his core still lit.
''Aaghghhhhhhhghhhhh!!'' His scream rang out throughout the plains.
The scream startled the two shinobi into stupor, it was an animalistic scream. A primal one.
But he still managed to get his feet.
''AHHAHAHAHAHA!! The fuck do they feed those kids in the hidden leaf?!!'' Hayato commented.
''Who knows, but either way the kids gonna die today, you've noticed have you not?!!''
Reinforcements came.
This was the moment, the moment which Aki Hisakata changed forever.
The moment which every ounce of weakness was truly shed from his coil.