Long May he Reign

First mistakes are inevitable. The possibility of death causes you to misstep or do something like break your own barrier with a clone of yourself, the lucky ones survive and move on, calculating their next movements very carefully. But some people are just hopeless, making one mistake after another.
 
The bijuu kept his senses sharp as he sensed Valen being pulled into the swamp. That death would’ve been too simple. You couldn’t get to kage by being that unaware of your surroundings, well maybe in this day and age it was possible. Two possibilities would follow, the first being that the boy king was tricking him, the second being that the rest of the village was about to attack due to the death of their leader. Either way, he knew this battle wasn’t over.
 
The Yonbi intensified his focus on the area around him for a split second, he couldn’t see anything else due to the dust cloud but that didn’t inhibit his sensory abilities. At the same time he would sense another chakra signature and hear the slightest movement in the wind under him, his eyes shot below just as the boy appeared under him and started to move his sword. The next few movements would happen in a matter of seconds, the instant the sword started to move the giant gorilla would activate his booster, increasing his speed and strength to 200. His right foot would move back across the ground about four meters, during this time his foot would never leave the ground as he was just working to move out of the way of the blast, at the same time his hands came together in a clap, activating Lava release armor at a power of 225 and a speed of 200. The four tails body would have moved out of the way just before he would've taken the full impact of the damage, some of his body would still be hit ( a small piece of his stomach, two inches of fur to be exact), but the lava release armor would form over his body just in time to tank the damage. Throughout this whole debacle the dust cloud would remain as strong as ever, never getting any thinner as the movement of the bijuu as the sword slash would only kick up more dust.  
 
At this point the bijuu would’ve been ready to strike, his hands now a meter away from each other at his waist level, but there was no need. The boy king had miscalculated his actions for a final time. He had been caught inside the swamp of the underworld technique, as it was previously stated to end just before the feet of Son Goku, the space valen currently occupied. Not having enough strength to break free, Valen would begin to sink into the pit of despair, all while the feeling himself being buried at a power of 112 due to the heat that the lava release armor gave off. It was a shame that no one could see this great spectacle as the dust cloud blocked all vision in the whole area.  This time the bijuu might finally be free. But you could never be too hopeful, the Yonbi would await what would happen next.  
 
[Actions at max speed and power and all that fun stuff
-20 upkeep for SOTU
-50 for Berserk
-100 for Lava Release Armor
1570
 
The sword slash wouldn’t be silent, as you aren’t throwing the weapon. ]

Well this is interesting, the moment Valen began to move to draw his blade the giant gorilla somehow managed to know what was going on and began to dodge. Valen could clearly hear the beasts foot begin to move back as he began to draw the sword from its home at his waist. He could hear the beasts foot sliding back with outside leaving the ground to allow it to dodge the blow that would fell the great beast. So Valen did the only thing a reasonably sane fighter would do, change the target. Since the blade that he could fire from the edge of the Sword of Slashing did not need to be fired at any particular point in the slash, he would launch it toward the beasts knee. Specifically, the one on the leg it wasn’t move back. Since the beasts body was 10 meters above him, that would put the knee at exactly 5 meters above him, plus a meter forward of course. The slash would fire out at the exact same speed and sharpness as specified last post. Hurtling horizontally toward the dead center of the beasts leg as it traveled to potentially cut clean through the two meter thick  appendage (doing the best I can with these sizes, 50 meter tall gorilla’s are hard), crippling it utterly in the process. The slash would easily reach its mark before the beast could activate his armor. As the speed of the swing itself wouldn’t change either.

Immediately after swinging his blade and firing off the slash Valen would of course notice that he himself was sinking. Of course it was not at a fast enough speed to warrant any change in the distance of his slash nor would it change its course for the beasts knee. However it would be a problem if he didn’t get out of it quickly. Therefore the deputy kage would activate his teleportation technique. Displacing him 20 meters backwards into the air. Of course the teenager would utilize his wings to fly, keeping himself above the swamp down below. This would put himself at exactly 21 meters away from the beast in the air at about the level of the beasts hands (If they’ve been kept near his stomach as he stated in his second or so post) as he awaited the beasts next move, ready to react to anything. At this point the dust cloud would dissipate, showing the fight to all watching once more. Valen himself would be making sure to keep himself level in the air with his four wings. His face mask would still proudly be worn on his head, protecting him from any threat necessary. 

AP and Shit:

One, two, three strikes and you’re out of the old ball game. Well this wasn’t a ball game but the same logic applies.

It would seem that the beast senses were slightly off as the blade started face towards the opposite foot he was expecting. His right foot would’ve only moved centimeters as the blast started to come off the edge of the blade. If the boy could change his target, the beast could change his movement. At this point Valen teleported, before the bijuu started to move due to Valens speed advantage, so his actions would be locked in. It was now his left leg that started to move back as his hands still moved to clap together. The bijuu managed to move its foot back just in time to miss the full impact of the blast, however this did not mean that the bijuu would make it out unscathed, a two foot long gash would open as the blade passed through, thankfully missing any arteries as it was just a flesh wound. Before too much blood could come out, the wound would be sutured shut due to the lava release armor forming over the gorilla’s body.
 
 Enraged the bijuu let out a thunderous roar as his hands slammed into the now hardened ground (swamp jutsu releases as soon as Valen teleports) landing about 15 meters in front of him (due to the bijuu’s large size.) As soon as his fist made contact with the ground, a volcano would start to form directly in front of his hands at a power of 225 and a speed of 200, reaching 20m high and 15m in diameter.
 
As soon as Valen teleported he would probably realize that he was falling to his demise as his wings would have no way to break through his armor, trapping them shut inside it. Yonbi didn’t understand why the boy would teleport into the air with no escape plan, but that didn’t really matter now as the kage would fall directly into the middle of the volcano, his body plunging into the lava that rose at the speed of the creation of the volcano. The first thing that would happen inside the pit is that the boy’s armor would be completely burned to a crisp, no longer providing him any protection, followed by the rest of his body.
 
During this time the roar would come to an end and Son Goku would keep his right arm on the ground to support his weight, while his left arm would rise, ready for any threat that would come forth. People never believe in volcanoes until the lava actually overtakes them.
 
[Actions at Max Speed and Power
-20 upkeep for SOTU (releases after valen teleports)
-25 upkeep for berserk
-100 for LRA activation
-100 for Flower Fruit Mountain
1425]

Gambles were made, sadly, those usually do not pay off when it comes to situations like this. The Deputy Kage had been banking on the idea that his demonic wings would be able to puncture through his armor should he have need of them. It was only when he appeared in the air that he realized that this was not the case. He had never had a reason to actually utilize his wings before. He did not realize they wouldn’t be powerful enough to rip out of his armor from the inside, where theoretically, it might have an easier time of doing so. The moment the realization dawned on him his eyes would widen in shock as he realized he’d be falling within seconds. This moment of realization turned to pure terror as the great beast let out a massive roar in anger at being wounded even a bit by the deputy kage, the wound on it’s leg coming just short of bone. It would make running difficult, more importantly, it would leave a trail to follow. Allowing them to try to recapture the beast if possible. After all he doubted the great beast knew first aid. In return for his wound the powerful being would be giving far more than it got. For it would smash the ground under Valen, it’s roar still radiating outward as it did, and a volcano of all things would spawn with it. The great geyser of molten rock would explode out of the earth, spewing lava with a speed of 200 and a power of 225 as it did. The initial blast of the lava would slam into the Deputy Kage, sending him flying. Away from the lip of the volcano though. For the meter wide glob of lava would have begun it’s redirection into the air for it to become a rain of death when it struck him. 

Shoving him toward the far edge of it’s radius, the opposite end from the bijuu, the lava would smash into his leg, melting through his armor immediately and causing his leg to melt away as well. A great cry would escape from Valen’s lips as he flew through the air, balls of lava descending around him as he was violently flung away from the volcano. A scream of anguish, one never heard by the denizens of the village. Because it was one Valen didn’t realize he had the capability to release himself. The pain of feeling an entire limb melt away into nothing due to the influence of magma was unimaginable. As he careened through the air, his body turning end over end due to the loss of a good bit of weight on his right side, a second ball of lava would smash into his right arm, his non dominant one. This would cause the scream of pain to renew again, seemingly getting louder somehow as the loss of another limb was apparent. His armor was useless to this attack. Another orb of liquid fire and earth would sear through the air where his sword was. Immediately melting it to slag for the most part. It would need to be reforged if he survived. He would not lose a momentum of his master of he could help it. More importantly, the orb that slammed into his arm pushed his body further away, allowing him to clear the edge of the volcano’s influence. His shoulders would land one meter off the edge of the lava influence, his leg smashing into the ground soon after. 

This would be met with another scream from the deputy kage, he had long since lost control of his chakra, his helm having come off just before he landed, long blonde hair, now singed and frayed spilling out around him as it slowly receded into it’s short, ashen haired appearance. The cause of the scream? His leg landing in the lava, for his shoulders landing a meter off the lava would cause the leg to land into it at the knee. Melting his bones, blood, and sinew into slag as his screams pierced the world around. The dust would have long since cleared, so the view of what had happened would be apparent for all around to see. Instinctively, he’d roll himself over, wanting to try to crawl away to escape from the fiery mass. To put as much distance from it as he possibly could. His master’s old sword clutched defiantly in his hands as he tried to pull his body further from the lava. A dark voice would resonate within his head, his lock on the Gobi’s voice from invading his mind gone with his lapse of his chakra. “No, I was so close! Goku! Come kill him! Please?! Free me!” He would hear the beast yell, it’s voice, seemingly louder, as if it could  directly communicate with the Yonbi. He would feel the internal struggle as the beast tried to slam against the cage within his mind, his hopes of freedom seemingly circling the drain. 

The Deputy would manage to crawl a few feet from the edge of the lava, cries of anguish escaping from his dried, scratchy throat. His gray eyes blurry from the ash, smog and tears, but otherwise fine. At this point he would lose the strength to crawl any further, but a burning desire inside would keep him conscious enough for the first person to arrive. A blurry form appearing near him as he looked up. He had seen the hospital file of Satoru Nara, he knew Kenshin could regenerate lost limbs. One thing however he would keep as a reminder always. Whoever the person standing near him was, they would have to give the Ragdoll of Hoshigakure the message. Consciousness was slipping as the words escaped his lips. “Heal everything you can but the cauterization scars and my arm.” He would say, the final words escaping from his lips as he finally dropped into unconscious, in what could only be considered a critical state. 

WC: 1002
TWC: 3503

Total Stats loss from CM = 22, 11 return 

Take this as my exit post so long as no one needs me. 

Claiming: 3503 towards Bladestorm

Despite the speed at which the scar faced teen was moving it seemed to be taking an eternity to actually reach Valen. The almost inhuman screams of pain echoing throughout the training grounds as he crossed the admittedly large distance only made it seem to take longer. The silver haired youth just couldn’t believe that the future Hogokage had screwed up so badly. He had honestly believed that Valen was smarter than that, but apparently he had been wrong about that. He simply couldn’t fathom why Valen had chosen to teleport into the air without a way of either flying or moving. Could he have panicked when what Kenshin assumed to be his finishing blow had failed to defeat the beast? He supposed that such a reaction would make sense… but until he actually questioned Valen it was simply a theory. But even if that was the case Kenshin found that the respect he had once held for Valen had diminished greatly… if this was any indication it seemed that he had been giving the young man far too much credit.

In Kenshin’s mind the ashen haired man was still the best choice for Hogokage now that Kyousuke was dead… although after that display of stupidity he only felt that way due to who the other potential candidates were. One of said candidates was none other than Hikari Namikaze, and while The Fuinjutsu Mistress may possess a great deal of strength he knew that she would never be a good Kage. She was simply too naive and kind-hearted, and he knew that when push came to shove she would never be able to make the hard decisions that all Kage had to make. The only other person in the village with both the levels of power and respect needed to hold the title of Kage was Kenshin himself.Not only did the Uzumaki half-blood not want to become Hogokage; he actually suspected that out of the three of them he was the worst possible selection… as unlike the other two candidates, he held absolutely no loyalty to Hoshigakure as a whole.

Now, one may believe that the position of Kage was perfect for one who was only loyal to themselves… well, they would be both correct and incorrect. Yes, it would be quite amazing in the short term, as that person could essentially use the entire village as a shield and the shinobi that inhabited it as their blades. But it would only end up failing in the long term, because eventually the inhabitants of the village would grow tired of living under such a rule. And as stated earlier, Kenshin wanted absolutely nothing to do with the position of Hogokage… he was more than happy to allow Valen to be cursed by that gilded cage. Nothing good ever came to those who completely devoted their lives to a Shinobi Village in the way that the Kages were supposed to… not in this cursed world.

Any and all addition thoughts were cut off when Kenshin finally came to a stop… right in time to see Valen’s limp body slam into the ground only a few meters in front of him. And to make matters worse his only remaining legs had landed directly in a rather large pool of lava left behind from the Bijuu’s volcano, earning yet another soul piercing scream from Valen. If Kenshin were not so numb to the suffering of others he would probably be panicking in an attempt to help his ‘friend’... but he was, so he simply extended the index and middle fingers of each hand, pressed the two fingers together, and formed a cross shaped seal. A small puff of pure white smoke would appear in front of the Uzumaki as a Shadow Clone came into existence between Valen and himself. He didn’t need to say as word as the clone moved to drag Valen from the pool of lava, assisting him as he attempted to drag himself away with his only remaining arm with what appeared to be a half-melted sword in hand.

Once the shade had dragged the broken from of Valen from the lava he would begin to speak, his voice as weak and raspy as one would expect from one in his position.

“Heal everything… but… scars and… arm” the man would say to the shade, his eyes rolling into the back of his head once the final word left his mouth. He could understand why the man didn’t want to have the scars healed, as they worked as excellent reminders of ones failures… but the not healing the arm… that would weaken him quite a bit. But in the end it was Valen’s request, and he supposed that he could place a little trust in his ‘friend’... after-all, he could always just heal it later if the need arose.

The shade would waste no time in activating its Mystical Palm Aura, and while the technique may be much weaker than the originals due to the fact that it wasn’t using its Holy Seal, both it and the creator knew that such a thing didn’t really matter. Unlike combat based techniques power didn’t really matter when it came to supplementary techniques like this one. Sure, the more power one put in the faster it would actually heal someone, but it didn’t heal them any better than it would if one were to put the bare minimum amount of power in. Healing Valeen faster would be preferable… but Kenshin refused to use more chakra than he had to with the Bijuu so close. He found it quite unlikely that the beast would simply try to leave peacefully after what Valen did to it, and what it did to he in return.

As the Aura began to expand outwards from the clone Kenshin would begin to walk forth, stepping around any and all pools of lava in front of him and coming to a halt around five meters in front of both Valen and his clone. The deep brown skin on Kenshin’s back would begin to writhe and thrash around as the threads within his body seemingly fought to escape. This was concentrated most heavily around two of the five masks sewn into the skin of his back, and with but a small grunt of discomfort said masks would be ripped from his back, and attached to said masks were two extremely large, and extremely deformed looking creatures. These ‘creatures’ were formed entirely from the pitch black threads that called his body home, and inside the masks that the creatures were attached to was one of the many hearts that he had assimilated.

Not once since his arrival had his Sharingan enhanced glare left the Bijuu that stood so close, nor would the Bijuu have had time to make its escape just yet due to how quickly he had actually arrived. But, at the same time, Kenshin had made no moves that could be considered a threat towards the towering ape, nor had his Masked Beasts made any moves since he had brought them forth, and the clone was too busy healing Valen to do anything else. He had also taken note of Kyousuke’s corpse sitting only meters away from the Yonbi, lying on the ground near what had once been a tree. Miraculously the corpse had avoided being incinerated by the Yonbi’s lava, but it was definitely not in the best of conditions due to the fight that had taken place so close to it.

“...I really shouldn’t let you escape. Not if you had been sealed inside of Kyousuke, and especially not after what Valen went through in an effort to recapture you. But, at this point, I have very little choice... a battle between you and I would more than likely result in Valen’s death, and without him the village would fall into chaos. So in the end... I really don't have much of a choice. I will escort you out of the gates... unless of coruse, you do not wish to leave peacefully” Kenshin would say, his voice more than loud enough to ensure that the Yonbi could hear him, but still quiet enough that none of the people watching could hear what was being said.

Personally Kenshin hated the idea of letting the beast go free, as it was an almost unlimited source of power and chakra that could be utilised… but he knew that he had little choice. The amount of destruction caused by the Bijuu making a mad dash for freedom would be astronomical, and that was the last thing the village needed right now. He may not be truly loyal to the place, but for now it was his home… and for now it was better for him to play the part of the loyal shinobi.

As the true Kenshin spoke with the collosal creature his shade would pick up the broken form of Hoshi's new leader and make its way out of the training grounds and into the village. Its Mystical Palm Aura still working on healing the formerly pale young man... but there were a lot of injuries to heal.

WC: 1527

[Exit Clone + Valen]

Yay, it’s over.

Approved.

One would think that the Kage of the village would be able to defend it, or at least not pick fights he couldn’t win. The previous king of the village attempted to save it’s people by offering the beast safe passage, had he been uninterrupted Valen wouldn’t have taken a swim in the lava. The dust was fully settled by this point and everyone could see the pitiful attempt of the kage trying to save himself as his limbs rapidly turned to ash. What should’ve been the triumphant victory of the boy becoming king instead showed how worthless he was at defending it. This boy wasn’t fit to be king, it would be a stretch to even call him a knight.
 
There was no need for a rapid escape now, he had already won. Son Goku watched while another ninja rushed towards the dying man, attempting to heal him. Yonbi’s face let out a slight hint of surprise as the healer addressed him, having the audacity to say he shouldn’t let the victor have his freedom. He even went as far as to suggest that he would escort him out, as if he needed that. His voice would boom, it was the first time anyone here would have heard it. “I am insulted that you think you have any power over my actions. I won the match, you should feel graced that I’ve still decided to leave without collecting my spoils. Goodbye Hoshigakure, may we never cross paths again.” 

The bijuu started to turn and walk towards the gate, right before he reached it he (presuming he isn’t interrupted) his head moved to the right as his gaze caught the lifeless body under the tree, just barely having missed the lava. Had things gone down differently the gorilla might’ve fulfilled his promise to Kyousuke and relayed his final message, but what was supposed to be a peaceful departure turned into a battle due to the ignorance of a kid. Still out of respect for his former friend he decided to leave part of the message, “He wanted you all to know he did it out of love.” The four tails didn’t explain any further, leaving each of the villagers on their own to mull over what those words meant.
 
The sun shined hot on his molten fur, as Son Goku took his first steps, in so long, as a free man. His journey to the land of volcanoes began.
 
TWC: 3167
 
EXIT

Claims:

Approveth