Kyo vs Death (p/solo)

It came to his mind that he knew little of his friends as he walked into the forest once more to train in peace and tranquility. From the outside, Hart had seemed to just be a kid learning the ropes slower than he had liked to admit and just wanted some help from someone a bit more experienced. Closer to the core, however, he was much more troubled. Already he had tried to defect and even went as far as to kiss him. His younger friend was obviously lost inside. It was obvious when he saw Hart explode on him about his disease and his place as a ninja. The boy brought a great sense of grief to Kyo. The potential Hart had was immense, but all the kid seemed to see was the disease limiting him from power. It was quite a problem for him to grow into his pain this way, kyo thought to himself as various animals watched from afar.

Through this boy filled with jagged edges and entrapped in his mental, barbed wire coffin, Kyo saw a world of unknown. Part of him felt the same as Hart. In fact, more of him than he liked to admit was like Hart on the inside. He dreamt too big to keep up with anymore and came out to this forest to try to just inch along towards what he wanted. Instead of a disease telling him he wasn't ever going to be strong enough, it was the look of killer in his uncle killer's eyes that told him that. That chuunin's face haunted him often and caused him to feel uneasy at the thought. He wanted to help others shine to be brighter than him, like Hart had to him, and wanted more than ever to just be recognized for the progress he had made thus far. Sure he wasn't going around kissing friends and trying to defect, but Hart's heart spun the same tale his always had sung.

The lost boy drifted through his thoughts as Kyo's katana shook in its sheathe with every step he took. His white t-shirt advertising a hot spring in Konohagakure alongside a pair of red shorts crept across his body in wrinkles through the forest as he traveled through his mind. There was no peace within him as the relaxing sounds of nature blasted louder and louder around him. The forest grew colder and more mysterious every time he traveled through it and echoed memories best left at home. His heart sunk low, but still continued to cling on to him to ever so slowly pull him down as he finished the last couple of meters to the clearing. Not a sound came out of him for he had nothing even close to a sentence to say to himself.


The clearing within the forest was a new place to him. Ever single bit of it was different from his training attempts. Rocks were broken, trees were cut in half or charred, and rocks remaining from his lava techniques remained in the form of scattered pebbles. He drew his katana that was nearly as long as he was tall without much thought to the trashed clearing.

Like a machine without an off switch, Kyo swung his sword to the ground and then back to point at the sky to get warmed up. It felt as weightless as a swinging a paper weight to him. Every slash he made at full speed traveled at a speed of 100 and he began to feel it wasn't possible to move even slightly faster without the use of chakra. All his training to his speed and reaction time plateaued without room to grow anymore. Trying to move any quicker seemed hopeless. Hell, to him, trying to use this katana effectively felt hopeless anymore. His swings slowed down as dark clouds crept deeper and closer to his mind. Already he had killed two people, he thought, as his sword came weakly down at a speed of 50 towards the ground. To kill even if when his hands were tied to made him feel no better than the chuunin that killed Reo. With this thought, he stopped and grew a grave frown. He tilted his heads to the clouds before speaking to himself.
"Reo, have I made you proud yet? ....Even after all these years, I still feel an emptiness where you once were. There is a great pit inside of me that just doesn't heal like it should. All that's left is a scar that just keeps reopening without hope to heal, Reo. I know you taught me many lessons, but none of them could possibly teach me how to handle the final one..."
Kyo took a pause and felt it in that moment. He had the feeling that he wasn't okay anymore. Had the feeling of dread that just doesn't get to end for his daily life. It felt as though maybe today just wasn't his day for training as he pushed his hands into his training bag only to pull up Reo's journal half accidentally.

There was a pause... before he opened it.


The page he turned to was the page noting the day Reo showed him great fire annihilation and about the very nature of fire itself. It was this page that gave him the push he needed to learn fire and once again it pushed him. He read over the jutsu with an empty look over his face before closing the book and just looking at the messy clearing. Kyo stopped for a second to feel his melancholy harden into rage within him before he weaved the tiger hand seal before Reo's lesson echoed within his memories.


"What I am about to show you may very well be the most destructive ninja technique I have learned. It's called Great Fire Annihilation, a technique capable of destroying forests as if they didn't exist. Kyo, I wouldn't let yourself be fearful of me or the destruction this could possibly cause. Today, I want you to learn about fire for the day you learn it and grow to use it."
The young Kyo looked up to Reo with a smile and eyes that looked past his father's towards a starry future.
"Daddy, will fire bring me great power?"
His foster father looked down at him and couldn't help but to smile as the young Kyo's smile grew too contagious. Reo, whom was also Kyo's uncle, ruffled his hands through Kyo's blonde strands of hair while tilting his head to look down upon the boy. With an unexpectedly solemn tone, he taught Kyo.
"Yes son. It's the heart of the terumi clan and what breathes life to boil and lava, but you shouldn't look at it for just power alone. I want you to learn water as your first element, because I fear fire will teach you jutsu are merely just for power and destruction. Someday, you may see jutsu this way, but I want you to remember that jutsu are just tools humans shouldn't have. For instance, this kunai I have can be used to cut an ally free from rope or can be used to slice a killer's neck. Like jutsu, looking at this kunai for just killing and injuring is seeing half the story. Never crave such power Kyo, because... "


"... that desire would destroy you."
Kyo said to himself with eyes watering. Had he learned nothing from Reo's teachings? Had he forgotten the purpose of anything he practically killed himself for? He wanted so badly just to hold back the tears in his eyes so he could try to find truth within the technique, but, the second he held back, he was already starting to sob.

Kyo wanted to hear his foster father tell him where to go next, but only had his memories and his broken mind to tell him the next step. Broken ideas flooded into his mind. Ideas that he had grown to be the person Reo warned him of. A person that only saw himself and the power he could find around him. He had grown into a monster in his eyes. Kyo had pushed his body farther and farther until he found the limitations it brought. He put down his tiger hand seal and just wept loudly. His body thudded to the ground and he just lost sight of where his goals were anymore. Simply, he had wanted to become a great ninja, but saw only power as his path towards it. The more powerful the ninja was, the better they would be able to take down enemies, but he was done taking down enemies, but he was done looking towards power for just taking down enemies. There appeared to be no solution for him as his tears fed the grass below him. A ninja needed to search for power. It was a duty he had to keep to himself. From his perspective, a ninja just had to be a power hungry killer and being anything else wasn't a ninja at all.

Kyo laid on the floor without many tears left to cry. A blank, soulless expression laid upon his face as his katana laid beside him.
"Had Reo been power hungry too? Is that what this all boils down to? Having the biggest sword and best jutsu? Is being a ninja just a trap that lures you into it with the power you can possess without much more offered? I signed up for this life thinking I knew what it meant to be a ninja, but now I just have too many questions without answers. Reo... did I fail you?"
He looked up to the sky fueled with melancholy. At the current state, his life had all led to nothing and the road ahead showed that very same nothing he feared. Great sadness fell over him in waves, crushing his motivations and dreams into dying lights off into the distance. Clouds of darkness entrapped his mind and he had little to fight them. A good reason was long gone. He could say it was all to protect others, but, lately, he had done little to help others. As he was drifted away into mental catastrophe, a false light came towards him in the form of a person walking straight at him. Kyo took a second, wondering if he should get up, before he turned his head back and looked to see the wind blowing around the flaps of a floral print button up.
"Awwww, did my little friend get a boo boo? Come on kid, you can tell me who shit in your cereal."
The voice and the floral print were immensely familiar, but Kyo couldn't believe the man was still alive. He grabbed his katana and got to his feet. Looking at Shi, he saw the rogue ninja apply more of the distasteful hair gel into his hair and Kyo held out the pointed the end of katana toward's Shi's neck.
"Now is a really shitty time, Shi. I don't know how you are alive, but one more step forwards and that problem will be solved. Get the fuck out of here."
Shi smiled at him with muscles expanded out across in every direction on his body. He was ripped, dangerous, and also a complete douche bag. The rogue ninja took another step forwards to spite Kyo before stopping to stand with the point of the katana pointed right at him with a cheesy grin on his face.
"Not much of a talker, but you still stand still as if you are paralyzed it seems. Anyway, you put quite the number on me a few days ago slim jim. If I hadn't been able to heal this luscious body, you would be dead where you stood brat. Now, drop the shit, cry some more, and move out my way before I rip you to pieces like your shit village."
As the man who called himself "death" spoke, Kyo couldn't help but to find reason within him. All this training and all this suffering was so douche bags like this wouldn't go on a massacre of innocent people. Being a ninja wasn't just about the journey to more power, but, instead, what you could do with that very power. Kyo placed his sheathe onto a belt on his left and kept the handle gripped. He scowled violently towards Shi. Emotionally, he was a mess and not a single bit of him even wanted to hesitate within the moment.
"I don't care what you call yourself. You could be my death..."
Shi smirked and cut off Kyo.
"I am everyone's."
Kyo continued acting as if Shi never spoke.
"...no. You may be able to kill me, but if you think I will let you lay one of those greasy sausages you call fingers on an innocent..."
He grabbed the neck of his sword and jumped a bit forwards while unsheathing it at a speed of 120. Kyo then proceeded to slash Shi's chest with extreme hatred at a speed of 120 and with a sharpness of 91. As he drew back his sword and rushed blood from Shi's deep chest wound, he screamed.
"...you're dead wrong bitch."
The wound went into Shi's chest around two inches deep with the wound being severe. The missing ninja's chest turned into a waterfall of blood that stemmed from a diagonal cut around a foot long. Shi appeared shocked to Kyo as the ninja looked down at his chest to see the wound. Kyo held his sword dripping blood as Shi completely stopped bleeding all together and glared right at him.
"You're pretty quick kid. I hardly saw it coming, but it will take at least a thousand more of those slashes to kill me. I know this may be a big word for such a little student, but have you heard of immortality? You can't have death die, because who would be there to take people to the afterlife?"
Kyo frowned a little and choose not to believe in such a thing. He swung once more at a speed of 100 and a sharpness of 81 to sever the right arm of his enemy. His sword swung down with passion as Shi just stood there taking it. Kyo didn't dare to stop and cut the arm right at the shoulder and took the blade straight through with little resistance. Blood splattered onto him as the man let out a slight groan of agony.
"Nobody is immortal," Kyo said with a hint of sadness in his voice.
Shi's arm flew to the ground as blood spewed onto the grass below. Kyo's enemy bent over to pick up his arm and proceeded to reattach it with relative ease before speaking.
"Is it easy being small minded? Also, just so you know, that is the last free hit I will give you kiddo. You have gotten me too pissed with that butter knife to give a shit about playing anymore."
Kyo clenched his sword tightly and didn't bother speaking. He swiped straight for the neck and flew his sword forwards with all the force he could muster. Shi quickly manipulated his blood from the ground and on his body to form a hardened, floating barrier between the blade and his neck that caused Kyo's katana to recoil off. Kyo wasn't about to give his enemy a second to attack. He felt his veins firing up as he weaved a half boar and half tiger hand seal while Shi's vision was impaired from the blood barrier. A swamp appeared under Shi spanning 5 meters in diameter as Kyo jumped away and looked at Shi with a death stare. Shi's feet were ripped and pulled at by the swamp below and quickly drew him down into the earth.

Kyo landed onto his feet with a death stare on his face. He could feel Shi in the swamp, struggling without much hope as he reached the bottom of it. The swamp suffocated him and caused his body to strain all over. It felt reliving to Kyo as it held him down onto the swamp's floor 2 meters below the surface, but he still held up his sword in attack position in case Shi returned to the surface.

After a second, the swamp erupted with a large stream of blood rushing towards the sky. At the top of the pillar of blood, Shi stood 15 meters above the ground and glared at Kyo. There was a single second the two looked at each other before the blood pillar hardened then exploded outwards into sharp shards in all directions. Kyo immediately began to panic before channeling chakra into his soul and expanding it outwards in a red cloak. He was burning through chakra too fast to keep the fight going, so he decided to pop a training pill into his mouth a military rations pill his mom gave him for his training. The pill was bitter as he dried swallowing it all while trying to react to and dodge and the many sharp shards coming his way. He took a glance over only to find Shi was ripping the blood out of nearby animals and into a floating orb in his hands. At the current rate, the size of the blood ball could very well exceed 5 meters in diameter, but, more importantly, it appeared some of the blood flowing rapidly into the ball came from Shi himself.

Kyo was done waiting. He felt his chakra roar standing currently at 120 chakra and it heated up his body as it flowed rapidly. With the amount he had in him and the control he had over it as it moved, he looked over at Shi with sword pointed and weaved the half tiger hand seal. The burning chakra balled up into his chest as Shi's ball expanded farther and farther. Originally, he had wanted to preform fire style: fire stream, but now Kyo was looking farther. In such a serious fight, he wanted to attempt Great Fire Annihilation. He controlled every morsel of chakra he kneaded in his stomach. It felt hot a lava as it turned to harsh flames and he looked at Shi remembering who this was for. This was the real reason for being a ninja. It wasn't just to kill and get power, but it was to protect and serve your village to the bitter end. Reo had taught him just about everything he knew up to this point and, as he thought he could probably die in the next attack, he felt now was the time to start teaching himself how to live and make Reo proud of him.

As Shi's ball turned into a gigantic, 15 meters in diameter, mass of blood from many, now lifeless animals, Kyo was clenching his lips shut and noticing just how pale Shi's skin had turned. The blood loss of losing an arm, getting cut in the chest fatally, and helping with that blood ball should have driven the ninja to a point that hugged unconsciousness. When Kyo felt nothing more could be created within him, he prepared more chakra inside of him to flow towards the end of the great firey attack. Not a single bit of him feared the sea of flamed within his body. The only thing Kyo cared about was burning Shi to mere ash. As Shi readied the blood ball, Kyo took this as a window and began to part his lips open.

With a great, vengeful roar, Kyo spit out a sea of flames from his mouth at a speed of 75 and a power of 75. The cone came outwards massively before him. It was larger than he could have ever dreamed and expanded upwards meters 50 meters tall and outwards 50 meters wide. It came all the way outwards around 70 meters away Kyo when it made it to the max distance the flames could travel. Though it took a good amount of chakra to preform, Kyo hardly could care as the result was monumental. Shi showed no signs of being alive any longer as the flames consumed all. At the end, it would be obvious that the forest behind Shi would likely be decimated to ashes. Likely a forest fire would occur, but Kyo would take of that when it came.

Kyo took a few more minutes to properly burn down all in front of him before stopping the jutsu to see nothing but black where a forest once was. Miraculously, a forest fire hadn't occurred as he pulled the sword he had moved out of the way back in front of him. He was ready for Shi to come out, but hardly expected anything of that nature. If Shi was immortal as he said, he would live forever in scattered ashes in agony before consumed and becoming apart of nature itself.

Much to dismay, before him, he saw Shi off in the distance covered in ashes. The rogue ninja just looked at him before shedding the skin of charred blood onto the ground below and all Kyo could see was a mummy below it. Shi was paper white and skinny all over. It was horrific to see how much blood he had used to defend against the flames and how much blood he was lacking, but Kyo looked at his enemy not ready to let him go. After his two attempts to try to attack the village on his watch, he was done giving chances. At some point, this monster would attack the village and everyone he loved. Kyo wasn't going to be fooled twice.

He ran forwards with sword drawn and looked at Shi with a death stare at a speed of 130. The distance between them was closed in seconds as he slashed his sword into the heart of Shi without remorse. His eyes cloaked in red from Shi's blood and from his chakra enhanced soul watched as the tip of the sword cut through the body of Shi. As what was left of the man looked at him, not even reacting to the sword that pierced his heart, Kyo spoke to the monster and left his katana hilted against Death's chest.
"I'm assuming you call yourself immortal because you can repair your body with blood. It must take everything you have right now just to stay alive and with my katana stuck in you, you must be unable to even think of anything besides keeping alive."
He withdrew his katana, dripping blood from Shi's still beating heart as Shi looked at him like a skinny, marble statue of what he once was. There wasn't the slightest bit of life left within Shi's eyes or body. It appeared as though he had killed him, but he wasn't satisfied with how Shi could quite possibly be immortal. If he left the rogue ninja in this state, he was sure it would just end up with him encountering this foe once more. Quite possibly, the rogue ninja was already healing himself back to good health once more, but not a movement came from Shi.

Kyo wasn't going to let the body remain even in pieces. He clutched the handle of his katana and swung it towards Shi's neck with aggression. It appeared as though Shi had tried to move backwards ever so slightly to dodge, but just didn't have the strength to dodge as Kyo's blade decapitated him. This seemed almost like overkill to do, but Kyo's greatest fears were confirmed when he saw the severed head on the ground jutting out veins of blood towards Shi's, still standing, body. Kyo weaved the dog, boar, tiger, ox, rat, and bird hand seals while calmly walking away with his sword dripping a blood trail. Looking back over at Shi, he spit out a great mass of lava that plummeted downwards on the body without even showing signs of resistance. All Kyo could smell was burning flesh as the pool of lava laid onto the ground and began to release a smoke.
"So long death," Kyo said to himself as he sheathed his sword walking away.

He looked without a single sign of an expression on his face at the smoke traveling upwards as the lava began to slowly cool. There wasn't a single sign Shi survived. With a heart wound, no head, and a major lack of blood remaining, it appeared as though Kyo lived to see another day. He would report this man to authorities once more, except this time it was for the real death of Shi. This was his first real fight and he was sure that, if his enemy had gotten to use that ball of blood, he would be dead right now. His soul collapsed back into his body as the swamp was long gone already. All his jutsu ended and with all of his possessions, he stood there just staring at the smoke rising from the lava with the horrid smell of burned flesh still in the air. There would be no body to show or even much to say there was a body there in the first place and Kyo would be sure to replant every tree destroyed today. With just one more second of looking at the lava cooling, he turned around and headed back.

[4,234]
[Training Complete!]
21 Stat Points Gained!
Finished learning Great Fire Annihilation (197 + 3,803 = 4,000/4,000)
431 words towards Hiding Like A Mole Technique
[Exit]

Approved