Canon Fodder

CHAPTER 241 HELMET

“This place is huge,” Hinata whispered as we started to jog down the hall. 

“Impossibly so,” I admitted as we moved. I didn’t understand how these supervillains had such resources, but that wasn’t important for now. I scanned everywhere that I could. Kicking in doors we found more than a few failed experiments rotting away in rooms. 

“What happened to you?” Hinata whispered as we kicked in another door. 

“Hmm?” 

“You’re so much…stronger now,” she admitted. I turned to see that the veins around her eyes were bulging. She was using her Byakugan on me. Able to see chakra she most likely could tell that I had more. Much more than the last time she saw me when I fought Pain. My chakra had almost doubled after my quest for fighting Pain, and it had been over 2 years since I had been there last. 

“I…am,” I said. I felt a pulse of chakra off behind me. I turned and ran toward it to see a robed figure run past. Speeding up Hinata followed as I let my anger start up again. Strength moving into my limbs I was ready to kill this guy to help relieve some of my rage. That was when my quest finished and a new one began. 

I stopped in my tracks. “A Challenger Slot?” I mumbled. That was rare. Courtney had mentioned that rewards got better the further we went. I wondered if defeating Kabuto was that hard of a task that they deemed it worthy of a slot. 

“What?” Hinata whispered. 

“Nothing,” I said, putting the thought away. I used my items quickly. 

I mentally jumped between Body Impurities and Energy Transference Weakness. I wanted both so bad, but I wasn’t sure which would help me more. Unfortunately I was about to go into a fight. After the Quirk Forge had beaten me up I didn’t trust that it wouldn’t do the same to my body if I expelled impurities. Then again, Energy Transference Weakness was related to my quirk. It would probably hurt anyway. 

“Hinata, what’s more important, your body or chakra?” I asked quickly. 

“What-” 

“Just answer,” I said. 

“Your body. Otherwise you can’t use chakra,” she answered. 

I nodded, my dream of firing lasers pushed back a little further as I clicked Bodily Impurities. At first nothing happened, then pain hit me. Little needles poking my skin black water began to be sweated out of every pour. I had read enough cultivation dramas to know what was happening. Removing my clothes I ignored the pain as the black water became thicker. 

Used to pain I pushed through until I was covered from head to toe in sludge. Hinata started freaking out but I ignored her. As the pain stopped I made chakra-water and doused myself. Scrubbing my body up in an instant the black gunk was washed away with a lot of effort. When it was done I put my clothes back on. 

“What the fuck!” Hinata yelled. 

I couldn’t help but laugh. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard you curse.” 

“Shut the hell up! What just happened to you?” She asked.

“I’ll…I don’t want to lie to you Hinata. I won’t explain later. Things are happening. You wanted to come. I need you to just follow along and not ask questions for now,” I said. Moving down the hall I headed off to where I had felt the chakra. Hinata hesitated but followed. 

“I want answers,” she whispered. I ignored her. Moving quickly, my body felt lighter as I started running. I still stank from whatever had left my body but I also felt more confident. My mind clearer I was starting to get pumped up. Ready to try out whatever new strength I had. 

I kicked in a door to find another hallway. We ran down further but I stopped as a much larger door came into view. It was special. Almost ornate in it’s design. I wasn’t sure what was behind it, but it looked like the kind of door a final boss would hide behind. I ran at it, kicking it in as I moved inside. 

What met me was an empty room. At the opposite side was a man in a black robe. I was a little disappointed. As a successor to Orochimaru I had expected an army of monsters to meet us. Instead it was the man himself. 

“Kabuto I assume,” I said. My voice echoing in the large room as I began to walk toward him. I couldn’t feel any chakra traps or hidden beings around us, but I was ready if they did appear. 

“Weston Watanabe,” the voice said as he turned around. I stopped in my tracks. He was much creepier looking than the last time I saw him. Kabuto had been a simple man with glasses and gray hair. In his 20s he had been an expert spy. Not imposing, not special, not a threat. In front of me stood the opposite. His skin was now that of white snake scales. His hair was still white, but he no longer wore glasses. His cheeks hollow they met at a point where his mouth was. Giving him the squeezed together look of a snake’s face. 

“This is the first time we are meeting, but I know so much about you,” the man hissed. “Orochimaru was rather upset that someone knew about his attack on the village. After some investigation it turns out that an unassuming child stepped in. You.” 

I nodded, not seeing a point in denying it. 

“Orochimaru was unfortunately indisposed the last few years. He had planned to figure out your secrets after taking Sasuke’s body over, but I’m sure you heard that didn’t go well,” Kabuto said with a wide smile. His mouth was unnaturally wide, the smile almost went from ear to ear. 

“Yeah, so why the hell are you bothering me now?” I asked. “Still Orochimaru’s lackey?” 

“I was,” Kabuto admitted. “I had almost succumbed to him taking over this body. It turns out, Orochimaru had many countermeasures set up in case he died. Truly a man beyond his time…” Kabuto let out a sigh. “But I found the strength to push through. I was able to keep my mind while gaining, this body…” He looked at his hand that was now covered in white scales as well. 

“Then why the fuck did you take my maids?!” I roared. “What the fuck was the point? That game with seeing me in 3 days?! What was all this?” 

“Your jutsu,” Kabuto admitted. “Orochimaru had looked into the Watanabe family. We thought maybe you had divined your knowledge about the attack. Orochimaru was obsessed with all jutsus. Knowing the future sounded appealing to him. Turns out your family did have a secret jutsu, but not one we expected.” 

I eyed Hinata behind me. Turns out no matter how much I hated the talking before fights, I was stuck in my own. I decided to let the chips fall where they may. I hadn’t had the heart to tell Hinata the truth. This would save me the hassle. 

“Lust Element,” Kabuto hissed. “I had never heard of such a thing. Whether she wanted to be or not, Tayuya was someone I had kept an eye on. She led me right to you.” I internally cursed. I knew it. The timing was too good to not have been her. At least it sounded like she didn’t do it on purpose. “Quite the interesting skill. That maid of yours, she was a treasure trove of information.” 

“Did you do anything damaging to her?” I asked. 

“Damaging? No, nothing permanent. I had planned to, but you got here much more quickly than I imagined. You wouldn’t happen to want to tell me how you did, would you?” He asked. I shook my head. “Too bad. No, I simply awoke her, what did they call it…Chikyugi?”

“You awoke it in her?” I asked, I hadn’t noticed. 

“Oh yes, quite simple to do,” he said. “A little chakra there, some stimulant here. I had to test on someone. Too bad it is useless for me.”

“Orochimaru make you dickless?” I asked. 

Kabuto laughed. “No, but I have no interest in such things.” His snake eyes focused on me. Turns out I was going to have to fight a Voldemort whether I picked Harry Potter or not. “But you do interest me.” His arms extended revealing snake heads for hands as they extended out. “I still need to know how you knew of the attack on Konoha. Then I can move on to the next phase of my plan.”

I nodded. Letting my anger boil up to the service I reminded myself to limit the chakra I used. “Stay back, Hinata,” I ordered as I walked forward. Kabuto crouched as I moved closer, his snake arms extending out 10 feet I began to speed up. When I was within striking distance the snake head attacked. Whipping forward impossibly fast I punched it with a Nen powered hit. The face caved in as I did the same to the other head. 

Kabuto hardly reacted as the snake bodies turned black. Dropping away his real hands appeared forming seals as poison gas filled the area. I held my breath and pushed through. Feeling the tremors coming I powered up my punch with all I had. Where Kabuto had been I sent forth a huge quake. The ground broke away and the man screamed inside the purple cloud. 

I pushed through, finding him coughing up blood from the blow. Kicking him in the side he was thrown hard into the wall. The concrete dipped in, forming a crater where I hit him into the wall. I sent another Tremor at him. Yelling out as I punched with all I had I hit him right in the gut. 

Blood coughed out of him as the quake hit him directly. I felt bones bend under the hit, then break. He hissed out and snakes poured out of him like intestines. I jumped back, catching sight of his real body near the clone he had just left in his wake. 

Sending out a pulse of Conqueror’s Haki the shadow chakra faltered around him. I sent another quake his way, causing him to stumble as I formed ice bullets. I threw my arm back and as I punched it forward all 12 bullets hit in his general direction. 4 met their target, piercing through his body then into the concrete past him. He cried out.

“How are you doing this? I’ve never seen-” He tried to say. I wasn’t listening. The talking part was over. I hit him in the back with all I had. Nen, Chakra, and my devil fruit meeting in one strong blow as his body was crushed under the weight of it. He yelled out as his side exploded from him. 

“You fucking took my girls!” I roared as the anger strengthened me. I threw another hit, this one at his shoulder. His arm was blown off with the force of it and he cried out again. “You-don’t-touch-anyone-anymore!” I roared between each hit. My rage only built as each blow started to make the area around us vibrate. I hit him again and again. Limbs were blown off, and his body became a pulp of a bloody mess. 

I breathed in and out heavily as I stood over him. “You spent your life as a lackey. Now you’ll die having changed nothing,” I said to the breathing corpse below me. I began to power up another hit. The air around me vibrated as Nen, Chakra, and Haki covered my hand. Skin turning black, I was giving it my all. My ultimate punch ever closer as I mentally juggled the powers. 

I roared again, ready to end him when the black goop shot out from the wall and latched onto the body. I acted on instinct, jumping back as the Venom-like foe attached to Kabuto’s body.

Unsure what was happening I watched, struggling to hold the power in my fist. The black goop writhed around Kabuto, then it began to stand. I could only see darkness as I stared at it. Arms appearing it sat up and turned to me in a crouch. 

Half of Kabuto’s face looked back at me. His eye shut, he was knocked out. The other half of his face and the rest of his body was pitch black. A yellow circular eye stared back at me. With sharp teeth baring themselves at me I recognized it as one half of the yin yang Akatsuki member, Zetsu. 

“You have interfered in plans I have set in motion,” the voice said from Kabuto’s throat. 

“It’s you! You work for the Rabbit goddess,” I yelled as I jumped forward. My punch went for him but the body moved unnaturally fast. Backing away to the corner of the room it hissed further. 

“I have no time to deal with you,” it said, then was absorbed into the wall. The chakra disappearing I let out a long sigh. I had forgotten the Black Zetsu was the real bad guy. Manipulating Madara, Obito, even Kabuto, for one final goal to bring the Rabbit goddess back.

“Fuck!” I yelled out. My voice echoing in the large room, I grew upset. I hadn’t killed him like I wanted, and now Akatsuki had access to lots of dead bodies. Things were going to get annoying again.