Surawu leaped forward winding up with her staff for a hit. Howoku swiped both of his hands to the side forming a rod out of Starlight chakra that blocked the blow. The slam of her staff only seemed to be the distraction for her main attack as the Jinchuuriki of the Four-Tails backflipped and drove her fingers together into a clone technique seal.
"Shadow Clone Jutsu!" she said as a loud poof with a cloud of smoke that silenced any words she may have said afterward. Five clones of the woman leaped out of the smoke cloud, Howoku stepped to the side to avoid the blow aimed by one of them and thrust his knee into her stomach making the clone poof away.
The second clone's staff drove into Howoku's back but it didn't hurt like the real thing, the Hokage soon recovered from the shock and the pain and thrust his right leg back into the clone's chest dispelling it as well. Noticing the black staff of the third clone Howoku rolled forward stopping his body with his arm and pushing it off the ground while thrusting both of his feet at the clone kicking her in the chin and sending her into the air where it dispelled as well.
With a powerful swing of his elbow, Howoku dispatched of the other clone and then leaped into the air and dispelled the last one with his kick. All of this seemed weird, Shadow Clone technique was an incredibly costly technique, a young genin in Tanshu's team was mentioned to have used the technique and passed out, this woman split her chakra into five parts essentially. Only then did the Fourth notice Surawu rapidly spinning her staff around her head and standing further away.
"Sorry, Fourth, this is my special technique and it needs time to charge up, I had to throw those weaklings at you..." the woman giggled with a weird smile reminding that of a playful monkey.
The staff started glowing with a reddish glow before red lightning started bursting out of it covering the entire staff in a cloak of red chakra that shot off violent lightning-like bursts. Surawu then placed the staff in front of her holding it on one end while she pointed the other end at Howoku as if she was wielding a katana. The chakra around the staff intensified and the strain on the woman's body was evident as she started shouting out of pain and exhaustion,
"Monkey Destruction Cannon Jutsu!" she yelled out as the violent burst of chakra separated into a wide and swift beam of destructive chakra attack. Just barely did Howoku manage to leap to the side and avoid the beam, Surawu tried to hit him with it again by adjusting her staff and turning herself with the beam around but Howoku managed to vault over the beam every time. It was unfortunate that this frantic dodging tired him out too much to exploit the moment of weakness after the woman's technique ended.
"Wow... You're pretty good, from the rumors people say that physical stuff comes hard for you but you matched me hand to hand and managed to dodge my beam as well as keep up with my clones, even if they were severely weaker versions of me... I'm really impressed." Surawu showed Howoku her tongue and laughed out like a monkey again, it seemed like the beast that she carried within somewhat affected her personality and mannerisms.
Howoku wanted to adjust his glasses that he still believed to be there but then his fingers only touched thin air and his own nose, his vision blurred again for a moment as he remembered losing them.
"Truth be told, Surawu-san, it is my weakest side by far. That is simply the real difference between us, the wedge between a Jounin and a Hokage that separates us. I felt like I really connected with you, now I cannot kill you even if I wanted to. That being said I have responsibilities and I can entertain you and Son Goku no longer. I shall end it all with this final attack. When you train and grow stronger and when your connection with Son Goku grows to be even more powerful I'd gladly fight you again..."
Surawu furiously shook her head. "What are you talking about!? Do you mean you've been holding back this whole time!? Well... That makes me really pissed, you know! Stop playing around and show me this "wedge" of which you speak of!" the woman shouted out and leaped forward with a strike of her staff that burst with the reddish lightning chakra.
It appeared that Son Goku was lending the woman chakra which she used to enhance her strength and endurance by injecting it forcefully into her chakra flow and accelerating it. While Howoku understood the basic concept because of his vast experience on the battlefield he could not understand why would the woman have chosen to do so - it basically had the same effects as the casual textbook chakra flow manipulation to achieve chakra augmentation.
The staff, bursting with crackling red lightning chakra, flew through the air cutting through it but then it stopped after hitting something really hard and strong. Surawu's head peeked to the side and then her mouth shot open in surprise as well as her eyes that widened to an almost comedic extent. Howoku had raised his hand into the air and held it as if he had a sword in his hand and then a burst of Starlight Release formed a blade in his hands that was several times larger than her staff.
"Starlight Release: Pleiades!" he mumbled under his own nose as he pushed her staff back effortlessly by swinging his Starlight blade of chakra. Two wide slashes that formed an X shape covered Surawu's body before her gentle and swift feet even touched the ground making the woman lose her balance and stagger back, wild bursts of burning-like reaction to the chakra cut was glowing out of her wounds. On one hand, it cauterized all of her burns but it also incinerated the areas around the cuts as well as deeper inside her body, Surawu coughed up blood but then regained her balance, her wild monkey-like eyes returned and dyed red, they were now enraged to the point where she now reminded more of a monkey than a human.
The Jinchuuriki's fist tightened as she cocked it back preparing a powerful punch, a cloak of red chakra covered her entire body with three tails growing out of her bottom shaped out of chakra. She was letting Son Goku give her more and more chakra to the point where his chakra dwarfed that of her own, it was starting to take her over.
Suddenly, the woman's fist shot out that very same crimson lightning that her staff was emanating before, just incalculably more dense and concentrated and supersized, her fist reminded more of a large ball similar to those that children played on the streets. Howoku's hand changed from a clenched hand that held his Starlight Blade to an open palm as the Starlight Chakra got reabsorbed into his body - while the man could not refund his own chakra that he had spent on his Starlight techniques he could change one to another quickly if he needed to.
The concept was similar to reaching for water from a pond - one reached down and took some water in their hands and then raised it intending to wash their face. In the middle of that action, they may have realized they were pretty thirsty so they completed the action by drinking the water instead of washing their face, that being said the amount of water in the pond was still reduced.
As Surawu prepared to charge at Howoku the gigantic ball of chakra around her arm that was an even more intense shade of crimson red that the cloak of chakra around her shaped into a gigantic fist. The Jinchuuriki roared wildly, reminding more of a roar of a wild ape than a roar of a furious woman which was troubling to hear. A powerful light emanated from Howoku's chest as he leaped forward to meet the woman's attack. Surawu roared again after thrusting her wild construct of crimson lightning chakra forward.
"Monkey Fist Jutsu!" she shouted out in a voice that barely reminded that of her own, all of a sudden before the fist construct collided with his body Howoku's lips moved just barely - "Starlight Nova!" he uttered as the small ball of Starlight glow in his chest expanded into a gigantic all covering sphere that disintegrated the entire half of the room that those two were, deepening the crater that his previous outburst of power had made. Now the wing of the temple that the Hokage's group was in was no longer even connected to the main building.
Howoku looked into the sky only to see wild raindrops falling onto his face, the man observed the dark clouds in the sky before his eyes briefly slipped onto burnt up and the unconscious young woman beside him. The Fourth took a couple of deep breaths before falling to his knees and having to stop for a moment. This was getting out of control, he was tired and wanted to stop all this fighting.
"Just one more fight... One more fight to end them all." Howoku whispered to himself as he decided to get out of the crater where the water was filling up moving his beaten opponent out of the crater as well.
Meanwhile, slightly further down the room in the part that was yet undestroyed by Howoku's Starlight techniques, Tanshu continuously tried to break through the barriers of the Barrier Buster of the Kirigakure Barrier Corps. Breaking a barrier was simple, the Sannin could bust a barrier with a single punch but his opponent kept crafting more and more endlessly, with each swipe of his arm while his other arm held the hand seal another barrier rose up.
"Your punches are weaker, you're getting slower, finally your own stupidity is catching up to you! Your chakra is slowly fading away, soon you won't even be able to punch through a single barrier!" the Barrier Buster laughed out as he started to believe in his hopes of victory. However, no matter how the man tried to taunt the Konohagakure Sannin it invited no reaction. The man just leaped backward and then lunged forward, his intense chakra started building up - something big was coming and it didn't take a sensor to feel it. The Barrier Buster thrust both of his hands forward forming as powerful of a barrier as he could but Tanshu's kick just kicked him up into the air as no barrier formed.
"Grgh... Impossible..." the Barrier Buster grunted in pain as Tanshu confidently wiped his nose with a flick and jumped up.
"Leaf Whirlwind!" the Sannin yelled out as his continuous kicks bombarded the man's chest sending him crashing to the ground. It was not a powerful technique but when performed by a powerful ninja the power of the taijutsu technique mattered little, only the strength and speed of the user.
The Barrier Buster tried to form more barriers around him madly inside the cloud of dust that his body formed when it slammed into the ground but unsuccessfully - Tanshu's knee collided with the man's belly making him throw up blood. With a calm dash backward Tanshu built up some space between the two and gave the opponent some time to recover.
"I can negate any ninjutsu or genjutsu technique you can throw at me, it's a combination of a sealing technique and genjutsu that enters your body like an illusion but then instead of putting you in a genjutsu places a seal that stops your technique by messing up your chakra flow. Stop even bothering with your stupid barriers..." Tanshu replied as he breathed out.
He had to admit - the man was right, his strange strategy of wasting chakra really was getting the better of him at the moment but he was preparing his body for something special. To use THAT he needed to get rid of as much of his own chakra as he could because he hasn't mastered that technique that well. Normally it was a combination of chakra collected by one's summoned animals and one's own but Tanshu just couldn't do it. He had to get rid of as much of his chakra as possible without passing out so that the process came easier...
The man jumped up on his feet and thrust his arm forward shooting off a wild and weak barrier that pushed Tanshu away slightly, the man then started thrusting his arms forward wildly reminding, ironically enough, of a sumo wrestler.
"Barrier Style: Thousand Barrier Barrage!" he shouted as his barriers started flying at Tanshu at great speed intending to crash into him and possibly leave some broken bones. The Sannin flashed through his handseals after biting his thumb and slammed his palm to the ground, a powerful explosion sent multiple mad clouds of smoke all around and then the barriers crashed into his location.
After the technique ended and the Barrier Buster lowered his fatigued hands he could only curse - a giant, three-headed dog stood where Tanshu once was with the Sannin standing on the nose of the central head. Seeing how Howoku had blown the roof off before this at least fifty feet tall dog could fit easily inside the building seeing as the hall was quite wide but only a couple of floors tall. Tanshu looked at the dog's eyes as the central head nodded letting the Sannin slip off of its nose.
"You know what to do!" Tanshu ordered as the giant Cerberus lit up with a crimson glow of chakra just like the little pooch did before. Tanshu, however, had other plans. He charged right at his opponent attacking the man with a quick and powerful punch to the face, as the Barrier Buster tried to counterattack with his own glowing with chakra fist the Tanshu only dissolved into harmless red flames. The man then grunted in pain as the real Tanshu appeared behind him and drove his elbow right into the Barrier Buster's spine.
The Kirigakure Jounin thrust his elbow hitting Tanshu right in the face but the Sannin recovered quickly and started punching madly with incredible speed. The Barrier Buster did his best to block as many blows as he could but he only blocked some of them - Tanshu's offensive was ruthless and brutal and would soon tear him down if this went on like that. Another "Leaf Whirlwind" sent the Kirigakure Jounin down only for him to barely pick himself up again.
The man then turned at the dog who despite his threatening size only stood there gathering some strange sort of chakra. The Barrier Buster thrust his arms forward attempting to form barriers around the dog and blow him away. "I don't know what your game is but I'm not letting it happen!" the man mumbled out through blood and slobber that was running down his mouth and nose as the battle had taken an incredible toll on him and his wearing down was quite visible.
"Lightning Style: Restriction Beam Jutsu!" he shouted out but neither his barriers nor his beam shot out. The Cerberus thrust his giant claws at the man who just barely managed to leap aside and avoid being cut to shreds, the left head then leaned forward to get a good bite out of the man but he managed to leap aside and avoid that as well.
"You bloody fool, Tanshu-san just explained it all to you! Your stupid tricks won't work, if you want me gone you'll have to do it with your own two hands!" the dog growled angrily as the three heads spoke at the same time with its incredibly loud voice reaching even the farthest corners of the temple.
Tanshu's body dove down from above with an elbow strike that connected right with the Barrier Buster's head, a mad flurry of punches sent the man down. Tanshu glared at the Red Cerberus angrily with a squint, "Is it done yet!? This one's just about reached his limit..." the man asked his summon angrily. The Red Cerberus visibly got scared of his master's fury and started explaining itself in a hilarious fashion where each head started telling a different excuse, making none of them intelligible in the end.
"Whatever, hurry up, I'm just about done with this weakling," Tanshu replied angrily. He leaped back onto the head of the dog and pointed in the direction of the Barrier Buster who was writhing on the ground. It was then that a powerful explosion shook the ground directing the Cerberus' attention and canceling its charge up of chakra.
The Red Dog glared angrily at his partner again to which the giant dog only barked an apology. "It appears that Howoku's already done with his fight, let's wrap this up too." The Sannin encouraged his dog again and all the three heads spat out a mad jet of flames that united in a colossal fireball in the center of where they crossed right on top of the Barrier Buster ninja. The wild firestorm raged for a moment before Tanshu threw an explosive kunai at the explosion to reignite it and make the total explosion destroy the second half of the hall they were in.
"Are the two of ye crazy!?" Haoru's mad voice shouted through the blazing inferno as the man's mad and muscular body broke through the raging flames as if they were nothing. "This is a protected cultural treasure, some idiots worshipped their deadbeat gods here!" the elder samurai shouted out. The head of the sumo ninja he was facing off against dug deep into Haoru's side sending him crashing into a wall to the side.
"Focus your attention on our fight, damn it!" the sumo ninja shouted out. The attention of the Sannin and the Cerberus turned at the smoldering cloak that once belonged to the Barrier Buster. Before the two of them could breathe easier a powerful impact sent the Red Cerberus to the ground, Tanshu had to leap off of the dog because of how violently the dog's body was shaken and crushed to the ground. Burnt up and injured Barrier Buster was still alive, he must've avoided the firestorm because no one could've survived something like that.
"You thought that was it? Mizukage Shirona entrusted to us the glorious mission, this majestic purpose of..." a powerful and loud splat echoed through the hall as the Cerberus' paw crushed the little yelling man to the floor. Tanshu angrily stared at his partner. The arm of the Jounin just twitched from under the furry paw that slammed him to the ground.
"I was hoping to finish charging it up before the next fight, you know... Whatever, give me however much you've got." The man grunted out angrily making his summon look at him with the sorry eyes that only a canine was able to make. The dog Cerberus barked angrily and disappeared into a loud poof of smoke making the blood-red chakra that it had gathered cover Tanshu's body and be absorbed by the man. Tanshu stretched out a bit and smiled. "Heh, almost done charging... Not bad."
Haoru rolled out of the hole in the wall that he had left as the entire construction went down. His sides were actually starting to ache, it was entirely possible that even his monstrous body was reaching its limits. Then again, he was fooling around far too much, it was just about time he showed these two twerps why he was such a legend. Haoru's body leaned back and his muscles tensed up to the point where his blood vessels shot out madly, small pebbles and slightly larger rubble around the man started moving around frantically and shaking as the immense gusts of wind gathered around his body blowing even large chunks of debris away. Haoru expelled a powerful kiai shout as mad projectiles of wind shot out cutting up the rubble around him, even the largest stones fell to pieces like falling leaves.
"Godly Sword: Susanoo!" he chanted out leaping forward in a flash appearing right beside the incredibly obese sumo ninja.
For a moment the Onimoui ninja wondered what sort of technique this famous "Godly Sword" was - Haoru's sword was not sheathed but close to the sheath so it wasn't a sword drawing technique. With a swift and blurry motion, Haoru's arm sheathed his blade, as the blade entered the sheathe inhumanly fast it generated powerful gusts of wind that blew from behind the sumo ninja drawing him in at Haoru, the elder samurai shot his foot forward and turned his entire body around a full circle while drawing his sword. The gusts of wind blowing at the samurai made it impossible to dodge the drawing slash, the sword of the famous "God Sword" Haoru passed even through the immensely hard Onimoui skin and flesh like butter. The poor chubby met the ground in two pieces.
The Yuki woman stood there speechless for a moment before trying to utter a statement of the fact that her comrade was dead. Haoru leaped around and stretched his tired muscles out, using the Godly Sword technique tired his muscles out a lot.
"Y-You... K-Killed him... W-With one cut..." the woman still couldn't believe it, she raised her hands and placed them on her chest as if they could've shielded her from the wrath of the rampaging war hero samurai. The woman fell to the ground hopelessly, it was very clear - that exact moment when all hope left her and she accepted her own death. Instead of a sword severing her lowered head, however, a mad laugh met her still stunned and unbelieving ears.
"I dunno, I can still hear his heart pounding, those Onimoui sure are lively... A medical ninja could still put him together." he laughed out looking at the unconscious chubby. Hearing the man's words the Yuki woman's eyes quickly lifted up and met the top piece of her comrade, madly she crawled up to her friend and went through a series of handseals placing her arms in front. "Ice Style: Jack Frost Jutsu!" she uttered as a stream of ice shot out from her hands covering the wound of the chubby and closing it from bleeding. The woman was shaking with rage.
"Y-You bastard! Toying around with us like this... Unforgivable!" she yelled out forming some more handseals and pointing her hands at the samurai. A mad barrage of icicles shot out all of which bounced off of the samurai's body as they were deflected by his sword that moved faster than the eye could see.
"Didn't your mommy tell you a lousy ninja can never face a samurai in an open battle? Honestly, what sort of outcome did you expect?" Haoru shrugged, the Yuki woman grabbed her partner and started running to the stone door through which the Mizukage left. Haoru's blurry sword swung a circle in the air that made a tunnel of howling winds.
"Wind Cutter Style: Vacuum Prison" he chanted as a bubble of air formed around the woman and her unconscious chubby friend. The samurai's blade lit up with blinding white chakra and he made a handseal slashing with the other hand madly. "Wind Cutter Style: Wind Blade Barrage!" he shouted out as each slash fired off a projectile of wind chakra that cut the woman and her friend down bursting the bubble of air they were encased in and making them fall lifelessly onto the ground.
"Weren't you too cruel, Haoru-san? The woman was running, she was no longer fighting." He asked. Haoru just laughed and sheathed his sword.
"Actually I feel sort of soft right now, had I let her escape her mistress would've killed her without a doubt for abandoning her post. I on the other hand just injured her severely, it is more than likely that someone will tend to her wounds, also even if Mizukage wins she has no reason to punish any of those two - they fought till the end for all she knows." Haoru sat on the floor and covered his face. Tanshu and Howoku started walking forward to the stone door, with a single kick the Red Dog sent the stone door crumbling down.
"It'd be better if you stayed here, samurai." Tanshu said with a rude tone, "The fatso and the woman were right - your own body doesn't know how severely it's wounded, you've been fighting whole day today, even fought the Mizukage herself and on top of that you just used a God Sword technique, if you just died on the battlefield you'd get in our way."
Haoru laughed out madly and sat on the wall in a meditating position. "You ungrateful little runt! Do you think I don't know my own limits? Mizukage-ninja's technique hit me pretty hard, plus my body ain't what it was in the war. Even in this state, I could sever her head with a single swipe... I'll just choose not to cause she is a problem for you ninja, if you guys win she'll get hers, if you guys die to her she'll kill more ninja than I could've ever hoped to so, in the end, I'll win either way. Her puny men bore me anyway. Just make sure someone tells me when either she or you guys are dead, I'd hate to sit here forever." the elder samurai grunted and crossed his bulky arms on his buff chest relaxing and closing his eyes.
As Howoku and Tanshu made their way through the corridor rushing for whichever room Shirona ended up in the Sannin looked at his partner, "You think Haoru's full of shit or is he actually that weird?"
Howoku laughed, "Honestly, both are quite likely, I've never met a man who hates ninja quite like he does but he has taken a lot of damage. He may be too worn out to move but it's equally as likely that he actually intended to let us kill each other in the end like he said he did..."
Howoku saw the blonde hair of the Mizukage flow far away in the distance and her black dress. The two men burst into a square room with a platform facing upward. Where observers would have stood and watched whatever insane ancient rituals transpired below. Behind Shirona stood a bare-chested statue of a bearded old man with a staff that had several oak leaves on it from the side. The great divinity crafted out of bronze stood there with a bolt of lightning in one hand aiming to smite those that stood below it - this place was likely a sacrificial altar.
"I've been waiting for you two, it's sad that Haoru couldn't join us, I would've loved to kill all three of you off, I'm a busy woman after all, about to get much busier. I'll have little time to chase timed samurai around." Shirona smiled welcoming the two who have come to their final goal. This was the end of both of their paths - Tanshu and Howoku wanted to apprehend or kill Shirona, Shirona wanted them dead so this was their final trial. No more lapdogs, no more traps or games, just ninja doing what ninja were always meant to do. Ambition for endless war clashing with the ambition of endless world peace.
============================
If you want to support me and also access 30 advance chapters, join my patreon with the link patreon.com/EddyHazArd
Or just search "EddyHazArd" in the patreon searcher.