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Third-Person POV

Hotaru followed after Utakata as they sauntered through a prairie. Before them stood a large piece of rock and further off was a huge monument made entirely from stone.

"This is it, master," said Hotaru, "this is the place where I first met you."

The Six-Tails jinchuriki stopped by the solitary chunk of rock and turned to face her. "Hotaru, will you wait here for me for a little while?"

Hotaru raised her eyebrows. "Why, is there a problem?"

"I'm meeting the Anbu Black Ops; I'm tired of all this running," he replied, then smiled. "I want to get permission to travel and train you."

The Princess smiled back. "Great!" Except it wasn't.

And so, while Utakata was gone, Hotaru frolicked around in the prairie and played and laughed and sang.

I was so filled with happiness and joy that...

Twirling around the grass, she fell onto the grass and gazed up at the sky, thinking of only one man.

I didn't even realize that you were in pain, suffering...

And, like a godsend, an array of bubbles came pouring down from the sky. The young girl innocently cupped one in her hand and gazed at it fondly.

That you were never coming back.

Why?

Why couldn't I have done something to help you?

Why couldn't I ... have been there for you?

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Hotaru struggled to her feet and gazed with formidable intent at the villainous Ryuun.

But now I absolutely have to be there for them!!

Iroko POV

I gasped in horror at Ryuun's new weapon. "What the hell just happened to his blade?!"

Although, I had to admit, if I wasn't so confused and on edge I would think that was ultimate.

"Iroko," Asami bit her lip, "I think this guy is related to the Seven Ninja Swordsman of the Mist."

Once again, Ryuun grinned and made a Heh laugh, flashing his razor-sharp teeth.

"I'm right, aren't I?" Asami asked. "You're related to the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist?"

"You could say that," he chuckled maniacally, waving the sword from here to there.

"Although, I don't think I recognize your sword amongst the seven," she continued.

"You've heard of the tale of how they were created, yeah?" Ryuun asked.

We nodded.

"According to history there have only been seven, well, that's not true. There were actually nine in the beginning. At the time of the First Great Ninja War, the Mist was under attack from a rebel village north of it. The First Mizukage had sent the Nine Ninja Swordsmen to show them the might of the Mist along with a ninja army of ten-thousand. Wanna guess what happened? That's right, they were utterly squashed. The rebel village had retaliated with such brutal force that the Mist found themselves asking for reinforcements from the Land of Whirlpools but it still wasn't enough. The might of this village was unparalleled.

"By the end of the Ninja War, the Village Hidden in Whirling Tides was almost completely crippled (partially owing to its eventual destruction), and the Mist had suffered numerous casualties, financially throwing it back by a huge margin. That was when they had realized in the midst of their recovery that two of the Swordsmen, who were, in fact, the most powerful, along with their swords, had gone missing. The Mizukage couldn't tolerate such a shame, and so he had the records changed and rebranded the group as the Seven Ninja Swordsmen in order to preserve what was left of the reputation of the village. Fyi, the village that had attacked them had disappeared after the War, to which the people of the Mist called it the Village Hidden in Myth."

I readied myself to attack. "So, I guess that's one of the swords that went missing, huh? Does that make you its rightful owner?"

"It sure does," he tossed the sword into the air, caught it and turned the tip of its blade to us. "My name is Ryuun Kitto, the true descendant to the first wielder of this sword. And the sword's name is Zanko. My mission: to flip this ninja world on its head over!!"

I froze. "Wait, what?"

And that was the moment he chose to strike.

He lunged the sword straight at my face, forcing me to dart to the side but even at that he immediately swung his blade downward toward me. I let my legs give way so I could drop to the ground, dodging it, then rolled away as he delivered the third attack, driving his sword into the ground.

Why do I get the feeling I can't let that sword touch me? I thought, feeling put off by the eery glow it gave.

Pulling several shurikens out of my pouch, I filled them with chakra and threw them at him, hoping he would use his sword to slash at them. But, to my surprise, he effortlessly dodged them.

What the hell? How did he dodge those? They were filled with chakra! Did he get faster?!

He was about to leap forward when Asami had unexpectedly jumped in front of me and performed Wood Release hand seals.

"Wood Style: Jagged Wave!"

She sent the tidal wave of wooden blades straight at Ryuun with bursting speed.

"Alright, not bad!!" he commented, "but..."

He sword started glowing again, and with a great swing, the Jagged Wave Jutsu was obliterated in an instant, followed by a huge gust of wind.

The next thing we heard was the sound of something sharp piercing through bone and flesh. My eyes widened in panic when it was revealed that Ryuun had also thrown the sword right through an unsuspecting Hotaru.

"HOTARUUU!!!!"

Ryuun smirked. "And mission complete -- wait.."

Suddenly her whole body exploded in smoke and what was left was the sword through a log of wood.

"A Substitution Jutsu!" Asami said in shock.

"Then where's..." I looked up above me. Asami and Ryuun followed my gaze.

What we saw was Hotaru holding up above her a massive disc of water, directly above Ryuun. Realizing what was about to happen, he spun back to his sword and cried out: "Zanko return!!!"

The sword returned only just as the water disc made an impact with his head. In the passing split second, the water disc was thus destroyed with a great upward slice. However, due to the disc still delivering a blow to his head, Ryuun became dazed and unbalanced.

Asami and I didn't waste a second. While I leapt into the air to catch Hotaru, she performed a Fire Ball Jutsu and blew it towards Ryuun. The Ninja Swordsman was too weak to react in time and so suffered a painful and burning recoil.

I managed to land safely whilst carrying Hotaru, bridal style. For a twenty-two-year-old woman she was a lot lighter than I thought.

'Thank you, Iroko," she said.

"No prob, besides that Jutsu of yours was ultimate, Hotaru!" I commented, letting her down. "But, uh, how'd you get into the air?"

"Oh, I simply just propelled myself using a fierce current of water chakra."

"So cool! You even know the substitution Jutsu too!!"

Hotaru rubbed the back of her head sheepishly. "Please, there's no need for you praise me so much! We did what we had to take him down."

As for Asami, she summoned a Wood Style: Coccoon to encase Ryuun's sword and completely wrap him up, saving only his head.

"Now that we've won this fight, I have two questions for you," she said to Ryuun. He made no gesture or sound whatsoever so she continued anyway. "First, you said the sword and its wielder were lost after the First Great Ninja War, so how then did you find the sword after all this time?"

Ryuun made no reply.

"Second, you also said that there were two swords and its owners missing. If you were able to find this one does that mean you also know where the second one is?"

He still said nor did anything.

"Third," I pitched in, "you also said something about 'flipping this ninja world on its head over'. What do you mean by that? Tell us, who do you work for?"

Asami deadpanned. "That's two questions."

"SHUT UP!!" I retorted.

But then Ryuun started to make weird grunting sounds like he was choking and laughing at the same time. This went on for two more minutes until it ended with that Heh sound he always made.

"I come from a shitty family. Every day was hell with them. My days usually began with me waking up and wondering what stunt they were gonna pull on me next and I'd dread getting out of bed because I knew I'd come back to it beat up and crying. I couldn't fathom why they hated me so much, but I theorized that it had something to do with me as a person. These teeth of mine, the crazed look I had in my eyes. It wasn't normal for them. Made me begin to question if I was really part of their family.

Why is he monologuing? I thought. I looked at Asami, and after seeing somewhat of a sympathetic look in her face, it made me wonder if we weren't so different after all.

"One day, in a forest, they told me we were all gonna play a game of ninja tag and I was it. So I ran away, heavily intent on not coming back, but, not so much to my surprise, when they said I was it. They meant I was it to hunt down and kill. They ruthlessly chased after me and flung all sorts of weapons my way. I figured I was gonna die when, fortunately enough, I fell through a hole. I stayed there for hours but no one came, and it became clear to me that I had been abandoned. Why? Why? Why? I thought, wasting away. Why did it go this way? Then I heard the sword call out to me.

Because you're a demon, it said, And in this ninja world, for a demon, it's kill or be killed.

Then I grasped the blade and it all became clear.

We didn't even realize it when his sword had erupted from Asami's cocoon, completely vaporizing it.

"Damn! Everyone get back!!" Asami called.

We leapt back in time as the sword came sweeping by on its own and released Ryuun.

That sword must have some sort of Jutsu-nullifying effect!! I realized.

"Long story short," Ryuun concluded, grabbing his sword again. "I went back there, killed them all, joined a secret organization, blah, blah, blah, and here we are!"

He flashed his teeth again. "I tried to go easy on you brats, but you're too much of a pain for me! So I'll just kill all of you unconditionally in the MOST PAINFUL WAY POSSIBLE! TRANSFORM ZANKO: YUMEKUI!!!"

His sword was now fully enveloped in the purple light and in the blade, something terrifying could be seen. Ryuun was now looking more like a devil than anything.

Dammit! I cried. What's it gonna take to put you down for good?!

"No, I don't care what you say," came Hotaru's voice. "Even if you were treated badly in the past, that's no excuse for killing people!! You could've been different; you could've chosen to not be the demon they saw in you!! I ... I was also mistreated in the past by something I couldn't control, and I was also given the opportunity to destroy them all, but I chose to help them instead! What you're doing is only going to spread more and more hatred! So why not just stop while you're ahead? Why not help fix this world?"

Ryuun glared at her. "You can't fix what's already broken."

Hotaru gasped then sighed in defeat.

"It's no use, Hotaru," I said. "Guys like him won't listen to words. Sometimes you just gotta beat the information into them instead."

I stepped upfront and positioned my hands to perform the Shadow Clone Jutsu. Asami came beside me.

"If we're to win," she said, "it'll have to be a knockout, and make sure you do everything in your power to avoid the blade. Got it?"

I nodded. "Let's snag ourselves that victory!!"

But little did I know, that in the next few minutes it would all go to crap...