To catch a spider: Part 2

[Zao]

The mountainous terrain was harsh indeed, something that the priest looking figure with his longer white hair pulled back behind him hadn't traversed in quite sometime, though he had climbed harsher places in the past this was still a rather problematic place. Steep terrain mixed with icy weather was enough to cause many to turn back and return to the low lands with better weather and scenery. But the Bannin had come here for man than just the view as he was in search of a particular person, a former Suna-nin in fact, that needed to answer for the crimes that he had openly committed against Suna and its allies before and during the great war that changed the landscape and country lines of the continent. Bundled up in extra layers to include a hooded fleece and scarf that covered all but his brilliant blue eyes the middle aged man walked forward one step at a time across the winding mountain trail as he finally crested the ridgeline of the mountain he pathway he'd been walking on with a handful of traders who were bringing their own wares and goods to sell and trade here in Earth country.

He had linked up with them nearly a week ago in the lowlands, under the guise of a traveling priest/monk of the Sun God out to spread the holy word of the Light. Though they didn't have much use for a monk like person, they still had enough respect for the religious type to allow him to tag along...of course with a certain amount of a fee helping to make their minds up didn't hurt matters. Back in the present time the gentle flurry was already coating the ground white as small wispy trails of smoke could finally been seen over the evergreen trees that dotted the mountain forest. Oh how nice it would be to reach their third destination on the trader's route and manage to warm up for the first time in two days. Who knew that one could miss the harsh heat of the desert? Thoughts of his hot homeland often passed through the Bannin's mind as he walk along side one of the horse drawn wagons with his arms folded over one another and hands tucked into the liner of the jacket he wore currently.

'This will be the fourth outpost village...' Even with the patience of a saint, even the white haired man couldn't help but grown a bit impatient to find clues that could lead him to the target he was seeking, plus this cold weather was truly getting to him as he felt cold down to the very body. Shivering slightly the caravan entered the two as a couple low level shinobi conducted a security check before allowing them and the cargo into the outpost town. As the trader's took care of the carts and animals Zao wandered off down the street as a handful of people were out moving to and from as smoke swirled up from numerous chimneys. He stopped as something felt off, but as his bright blue eyes swept from right to left and he even turned in placed to check his surroundings he found nothing out of the ordinary. Was something wrong? Or was the cold messing with him? Exhaling a breath of cold air. Spotting an inn he crossed the snow covered stone street and entered through the arch like door closing it behind him. But what he hadn't see was a pair of lifeless grey eyes peering at him from the other end of the street from a second story window. These eyes belonged to a grey haired child dressed in ragged looking clothing, but he didn't shiver or even seem to notice the frigid winter air.

A scarf was pulled up around the boys face as he turned and left the window and disappeared from sight. Meanwhile, Zao was busy paying for a room and setting down at the small sitting area next to a decent sized fireplace and mantle area that was decorated with different picture of people he didn't know. He felt himself almost growing comfortable as he continued to almost hug himself as the warmth of the flickering flames spread across his body and slowly drying the dampness of his exterior coat that he had not yet removed. His thoughts were drifting and his eyes closed for just a moment and when he reopened them he glanced to the side at what had been an empty chair only a couple meters away from him, but now set a ragged looking child with dull grey eyes and light grey hair simply staring at the fire place. It was a bit of a shock as he hadn't noticed or even felt the boy's presence near him and it could him to immediately set up straight in the chair as his entire head followed his eyes to take in the child's appearance. To his own senses, except for sight obviously, it was as though the figure wasn't there. There was no sound of breathing, he didn't sense any chakra coming from the boy's body, their was even more strangely no unique smell that a human normally had and the boy smelt just like their surroundings.

To a puppeteer like Zao, he understood only one that at the moment, this could not be a real person or even a real body. It was more like a container or vessel. 'Is it?' He hadn't spoke yet, still in the mist of analyzing the boy and trying to wrap his thoughts around who he thought this must be sitting only feet from him. When he had been told by Roshi that the missing-nin was more like a ghost than a person, he had brushed it off as the ravings of a foolish man but seeing this right here right now he fully understood just how dangerous this man was who hid in the body of a child. "You should be hear, Spirit Saint..." The voice that came from the boy of the boy was not that of a child, but of a young man but it lacked any sort of distinction or feeling, it was empty and detached as though it almost wasn't human. "Since you didn't stab me in the back yet, I suppose you have something to tell me?" The bannin was much more frank that he ever was in the past and just got straight to the point as the boy had given up his element of surprise by revealing himself when he could have easily just attacked the weary traveler and potential inflicted a lethal wound in the process.

"You are a man that I grew up respecting and one of the few people who inspired me to push to become a puppeteer, who knew it would lead to this." It was like there was almost a hint of emotion that flickered in the empty and the boy shook his head from side to side and gave a half smile as all the actions and articulations of the puppet boy were perfect and one couldn't tell the difference from a real body or the puppet from. It could be said to be a true work of art for sure. "But my information network already informed me that you were looking for me weeks ago. My information isn't well known and I'm sure it wasn't cheap." A light chuckle drifted through the air as the boy sank back into the soft chair, appearing rather at ease despite the man from whom he sat across from at the moment. "Because of my younger self, I'm giving one chance to leave and not come looking for me again. I'm sure you tracking about the last three who came hunting me." Indeed, Zao was informed by the council member who tasked him with this mission of the previous failures...three strong jounin all dead with their body parts sold on the black market.

"Then I take it that you won't come back to the village with me, my young friend?" Though he knew the response already, his heart made him ask the foolish question as he couldn't help but sigh aloud after speaking the words. "There is nothing left for me there, their hypocrisy is almost laughable. One day I will bring it to their knees..." Anger flashed in the boy's word as he grasped hold of the arms of the chair, the fingers of each puppet arm clenching tightly as the hard wooden arms were crushed as though it was paper Mache. 'What a scary kid...' It seemed that the only emotions the detached man could express was the anger that burned in his core for the village that imprisoned him for simply wanting to become a better weapon for it, to become more perfect...how could any village denounce someone who wanted to devote themselves to the cause of the village...only to be treated as some traitor or criminal. Zao couldn't even refute his words as that was exactly what had happened, even if the village had come quite a ways it still was to conservative for even himself at times and he felt for the child. "I suppose we have nothing else to talk about Hyoryu-kun." Both of the men stood up from their chairs, each of them simply examining the other for a moment as the tension between them rose. "Indeed, Zao-sama."

But before anything else could happen the traveling merchants entered the room calling out to the 'traveling merchant' that had been with them for about two weeks, asking him to come have some tea with them. "Let us finish our conversation later my young friend." Then he turned as the young child gave a half wave and walked towards the door. "Yes, we shall." Strangely the missing-nin's voice had reverted back to that of a child's voice making Zao turn and glance at the shinobi's back briefly as the rough looking child left the room. Just before he left the door the boy turned his head towards the group, a half smile on his face as though saying the next time they meet it would be much more fun. Though Zao had prepared himself to a fight, there was now part of him that felt as though the boy...or the young man had every right to be angry for how he was treated. He tried not to let his feelings mix with the mission at hand because it was told fold for him. It was something hat had to be done as it was more than just his own self that would benefit from completing this assignment...he wanted to take the strength the missing-nin had in the form of puppets and other weapons for himself. He needed every thing he could get his hands on if he was going to travel to 'that' realm again to retrieve something very precious.

The tension disappeared with the young boy now gone and Zao enjoyed the evening with his friends that he'd been traveling with for a stint of time now, soon the hours disappeared and night fell on the small outpost. Outside the air grew colder than the day but the clouds had given way so that the brilliant starscape of the northern part of the continent. Zao closed the outside door that lead from the inn onto the streets as he stepped outside for some fresh air after being stuck with those drunks for the past couple hours. He couldn't help but lift his bright glowing blue eyes up to the sky to take in the stars as he was reminded of his own personal realm and the different stars that you couldn't see anywhere on earth. There was a faint crunch of snow a few feet behind him, causing the man to twirl around in a one eight as the left arm of the man drew and slashed with the ninjatō weapon of his to what looked like just air. His full force, reinforced by the mechanisms of the arm increasing its strength above even his own personal level as the blade smashed into something metallic. To all his other senses nothing had been there as he had his sensory and enhanced smell active at this point attempting to see if his stalker was still around, but both those had failed to sense or smell Hyo coming. If not for the fresh snow making it difficult to sneak up on him then Zao would have most likely not have noticed the attack until it had already stabbed him in the back.

His eyes adjusted quickly on the starlit street as all that could be seen was a pair of serrated, curved bladed locked against his single blade as he felt himself being pushed back as he wasn't as strong as the force behind the two blades. The impact caused for the camouflage technique used by the missing-nin to be disturbed as Ryu was revealed, the small child barely four feet tall appeared to be almost easily forcing the Bannin back as his feet started to slide backwards in the snow forcing him to disengage and leap backwards creating a short gap of around five meters between them. "You live up to your reputation, old Demon..."
Zao scowled being called a 'demon', it was a dark part of him that he truly wished he could just bury away completely but he knew that was never possible and that some would continue to blame him for the crimes of that demon during and before the war. "Let's end this quickly..." A scroll had already appeared in the right hand of the man as it unrolled to reveal the seal for 'Juuki'. Through the use of chakra kai a large cloud of chakra smoke accompanied the release of the the large eight armed demon puppet that pulled out eight Odachi style weapons from its chest seal.

The boy leaped back with perfect agility, even in the slippery snow as he made had seals before his tiny body was concealed behind his own cloud of chakra smoke that accompanied the summoning of Puppet Body MK-2: Infernal Titan, a massive demonic puppet body that was in the image of one of the great demons who fought against the Sun God. Zao had read and studied many legends and was familiar with the story as he found himself taking a half step back as the five meter puppet towered over him and his three meter demon puppet. It had more an extra pair of arms and dangerous looking bladed tail, but the same amount of weapons. Even the Bannin wanted to admire the craftsmanship before him but shook the thought as Hyo pushed forward instantly and he moved his right hand and fingers in response as blue chakra threads came to life that were connected to his puppet. A powerful shockwave echoed out shattering glass in the nearby buildings and blowing snow off the cobblestone roadway within the town and off the roofs of those nearby buildings.

The eight powerful blades of the smaller puppet under Zao's control and those wielded by Ryu's puppet body smashed into one another at a speed that couldn't be tracked by the normal eye, the clash lasted a handful of seconds before both puppets moved back, small nicks covered the length of their blades from the powerful exchanging of sword strikes, but over all it seemed to be close to a draw. 'He's better than I anticipated...' Zao thought to himself as he exhaled a cold breath of air, this was a beast of a puppet body and their initial clash showed him that if he continued to attack head on that it would quickly overwhelm him after Ryu finished feeling out the strengths of his puppet body. He needed time to think but his opponent's puppet body with its multiple faces only smiled with devious smiles and attacked again as the ten swords smashed against the defensive Zao's puppet's swords before the long tail snaked its way around smashing into one of the shoulder joints, a weak spot with less protection that the torso of the puppet and its body. The precise and powerful attack shattered the shoulder as the arm flew off along with the blade smashing into a small storefront off to the right side. It was truly the accuracy of a trained assassin, weakening a foe before preparing to deliver the fatal blow.

It was as expected from the older Shinobi, though he was praised for his puppet abilities it was truly not his specialty and when faced against a true puppet master who had the same level of skill he was one step behind as the single lost arm was enough to truly put Zao on the defensive. It wasn't long before a second arm then a third was lost due to the skill of Hyoryu and this hulk of a puppet body that he was fighting against. But he wasn't quite ready to be pushed out so easily as the large center head of his own demon formed puppet dropped open revealing a projectile launcher that blasted forth towards two series of ten senbon each, flying at unbelievable speed and strength as the other man reacted in almost milliseconds as the bladed tail flashed up in front of him to block the first series that shattered the tail breaking off half the length of the deadly attachment. This opened the rest of the puppet's upper torso to take the second barrage of senbon that impacted the chest plate of the puppet allowing a few to pierce straight into the puppet body's inside compartment. Zao was surprised that it was able to withstand so much damage from the senbon designed to have increased piercing power, though he knew the likely hood of actually hitting the small core of the missing-nin concealed inside the massive torso was highly unlikely but before he could continue on the counterattack he had started the two unarmed limbs of Ryu's puppet body grabbed hold of Juuki.

This was bad! Unable to free his own puppet he could only watch as the ten blades smashed against the defending puppets and soon it was broken into a number of pieces as the Bannin leaped back forming a short series of hand seals, before lifting his hand to the sky. In midair above the two shinobi intertwined in combat a massive cloud of chakra smoke filled the sky and from within the cloud three giant fists with skin as dark as night rained down from above smashing the large puppet body into the snow and rock covered roadway like it was a small bug beneath the fist of the gigantic demon elephant, King. One of the massive human like hands wrapped itself around the broken puppet from and picked it up like a child might pick up a small doll before squeezing it until the metallic frame fell apart revealing inside the mangled mess a small childlike figure. But before anything else could occur the image of the small boy poofed away into a part of Zao's own broken puppet body as the shinobi had utilized the basic replacement technique and about twenty meters away on the lip of a snow-covered roof top stood a black framed puppet body with glowing red eyes and a hood up over its head. This was the MK-1: Reaper puppet body that had truly carved the young man's name into the Bingo book.

'So, he is finally ready to be serious.' Zao exhaled a cold breath as he placed his hands together in what could have been confused with someone praying as the giant demon elephant unsheathed a trio of sabers before slashing down in a trip attack from high to low towards the sleek black puppet body of the missing nin. From the perception of the rogue shinobi the blades seemed to almost be in slow motion as he dodged between the first two and from behind him a long-corded tail expanded out and lashed out smashing into the third blade as it was sent off course smashing into one of the stone buildings. The building was easily smashed into two halves as rocks and glass were sent in each direction from the blade's impact. 'Hana, help King out.' As Zao was concentrating his chakra the plant spirit companion of his poked her head reluctantly out into the frigid temperature observing the battlefield as King and Hyo exchanged blows, despite the size difference it seemed that by some means that strength of the puppet body user was equal to the muscular frame of the demon spirit. Her tiny leave covered hands formed hand seals before she seemed to inhale a deep breath exhaling a large wave of sand that responded to her tiny hand and arm movements as it surged towards the dark metal puppet body.

Hyoryu formed a single hand seal as he fired a series of three kunai towards the advancing sand wave as the three kunai burst into three swarms of kunai covering several meters as the metal and sand clashed leaving the wave stalled as some of the kunai actually managed to still carry enough force to blast clean through the sand forcing Zao to dodge with the desert flower spirit in tow as they increased the gap between themselves and the other two combatants. Hyo's black cloak fluttered revealing one of three arms on the right side as a burst of tiny needle like senbon was blasted from the launcher the arm carried that pierced into the left knee of King before the puppet user dodged once again as a pair of sabers smashed apart the snow covered, frozen street. Though the actual wound caused by the senbon wasn't major it's precise location and number was enough to cause the large spirit who towered over the small town around him to flinch in pain as stiffness filled the limb.

A moments weakness, it was all that an experienced killer like Hyoryu needed as he leaped upward in a flash and seemed to appear nearly twenty meters in the air at about chest height to the massive summon, swinging what appeared to be just a simple sword with a wooden hilt and slightly curved blade. But as the sword was swung it broke apart into what could only be described like a swarm of tiny metal pieces that assaulted the crimson armor that King wore without remorse and with the man's full force that rivaled even the spirit's absolute strength. The metal swarm tore through the armor easily as the blow dug deeply into the thick hide of the beast literally knocking the demon off its feet as it crashed almost helplessly into a series of smaller buildings as it fell backwards. But before the missing-nin could continue along his assault as he landed on the ground, he looked up to find one of the shields the spirit had been reaching for on his back was still floating in midair. Suspended by a handful of almost invisible blue threads of chakra that lead back to their owner nearly a hundred meters away, but it wasn't the shield that was so scary but the fuuin seal that glinted slightly in the moonlight that caused Hyo to widen his artificial red eyes.

'Kai...' An immense explosion erupted from the shield briefly illuminating the dark of night as the explosive fuuin went off decimating an area of nearly one hundred meters in diameter and creating a nearly forty- or fifty-meter-deep crater in its wake. Dust and debris were thrown about as surrounding buildings not in the direct path of the explosion had their walls crack and windows burst inwards, some even collapsed just from the shockwave that spread out blasting the snow and dirt high into the air before it began to silently rain back down across this southern portion of the small mountain village. Zao found himself floating on a platform of sand created by the Desert Flower Spirit as the slowly hovered closer and closer to the smoking, massive whole that he had created without regard for anyone that could be caught in the explosion's wrath. That Bannin was different from before the war, the once pure man now constantly bordered on the edge of grey with the potential to slip into the darkness momentarily, the dark chakra of the Hegemon had affected a portion of his soul that he was unsure if he could ever fix. But after all he was doing this not for himself but in order to retrieve something very special to himself...his missing son.

The smoke and dust were beginning to clear as he commanded for Hana to take them lower into the dark abyss as the man's bright blue eyes adjusted to the lack of light, pieces of glass and stone lay scattered about around the upper edges as Zao was able to peer into the depths seeing what looked like pieces of a puppet marred by the explosion's fiery force. Yet, something wasn't right? The pieces weren't the black sleek exterior of the missing-nin's puppet but instead were almost a dark grey or silver in color?! From a pile of rocks, a multitude of slender cables shot upwards with blinding speed ambushing the man on top of the sand cloud as they rapidly wove around attempting to ensnare Zao and his spirit companion. The only action that he could take was to push off from the sand platform, using it as a type of shield between himself and the sudden attack as his hands came together allowing him to focus chakra on his body that took on the shape of large angelic looking wings on his back to help him gain altitude to widen the gap between himself and Hyoryu. But it wasn't quick enough as the powerful tendrils of metal burst through barely missing his feet while one managed to wrap around his left arm.

In a moment of quick thinking the man sent a pulse of chakra through his body to his left shoulder, activating the release mechanism for the artificial puppet arm as it disconnected just before he could be pulled down into the other cables being controlled from the dark puppet body of Hyo, allowing for him to barely escape what could only be described as a certain and painful death at the hands of the assassin. Zao's large angel wings flapped as he rapidly gained altitude and created a gap between the two of them while Ryo tossed aside the artificial arm as what appeared to be a smile formed on his lips. "So, Suna is as hypocritical as ever, hah!" The deep voice echoed out of the crater as tiny flakes of snow began to fall from the sky above the town turned battlefield. Suna was completely against any sort of body modification such as Hyo had done when he had been seeking to make himself into what the shinobi at the time had considered to be the perfect weapon. Even being imprisoned for going against the village's laws about it but here and now a Suna bannin had done the same with no repercussions?

It sent a wave of anger throughout the hollow shell of Hyoryu's puppet body as he crouched down and used his strength to leap from the bottom of the crater like a black streak of light as he appeared high over the battlefield with the eyes of the dark framed puppet putting off a pale red light giving the puppet an almost demonic appearance as he surveyed nearly three hundred and sixty degrees around him. But what the cyber punk looking individual saw caused for the demon-like eyes to narrow slightly as a massive creature standing about twenty meters tall cloaked in a golden cloak that appeared to be wrapped in fuuin but still worn and damaged at the same time, upon the burnt looking dark skin of the creature was a thick metallic mask that stretched up almost like a crown onto the spirit's head. This was Tako, at least his spirit form as Zao had pulled him from the human body that he had been inhabiting while working under the orders of the Demon King, letting that tortured body finally rest in death.

From the left shoulder of the creature a large mass grew and shot forwards, the devouring tentacle, it appeared to be a raw mass of purple flesh as it rushed towards the airborne puppet. But what was a true surprise as Ryo prepared to deal with this fleshy appendage was the face that a giant tooth filled mouth suddenly opened up attempting to completely devour the two-meter-tall puppet frame forcing the missing-nin to defend with each of the upper two arms. Both arms reached outwards grabbing hold of either side of the monstrous mouth as the spirit drove the devouring limb down into the side of a shattered building causing a small explosion of stone, dust, and snow to be thrown into the air. Inside the building in the fog of battle, the biting mouth and opposing force of Hyoryu own strength were at a draw as the other arms lifted and the quad barrel senbon launcher and fired directly into the mouth of the demon flesh. The storm of kunai tore through the mass and forced Tako to retreat as the demon like puppet walked slowly out of the hold in the building with the barrels of each weapon launcher just now coming to a rotating stop.

'I have to get close to end this, he has too much strength and fire power to fight toe-to-toe, even with my powerful companions running offense for me.' Throughout the battle he had been able to closely observe the puppet body user and even when using powerful attacks and a mix of his most powerful spirit companions, he was at best able to come to a draw. But now he knew what he needed to do as he mentally ordered Tako to use his Demon Tentacles and Grabber Tentacles at the same time as two masses of long fleshy tendrils were sprouted from the body of the large creature, one set from each leg and a set from the right arm totaling around twenty in total shot forward with great speed and crushing strength. They were met with a hail of metal as Ryu used utilized a combination of his high firing rate and combining that with his projectile multiplication ninjutsu. Creating quite a barrage of kunai that shredded through the mass of fleshy tentacles that lashed out at the missing-nin, before the ex-Suna shinobi appeared above the head of the spirit after leaping into the air swung down the legendary sword as it split apart into a swarm of tiny pieces that smashed down the creature that attempted to block with a large fleshy, clawed hand that it manifested from its back to cover its face.

The force destroyed the fleshy hand and knocked Tako flying backwards into a few small buildings that crumbled under his weight before he lay upon his back struggling to get back up as he had been poisoned by two separate poisons that coated the weapons of Hyo and his puppet body. A moment after he landed the head twisted to the left as a kunai grazed off the side of the puppet bodies face, controlled by a thin thread as Zao appeared directly in front of the missing-nin using a tightening space ability, his hand that was covered with five glowing seals reached out to touch the chest of the puppet body but from the left and right legs two compartments opened and hundreds of senbon were launched at once completely piercing through the body of the white haired bannin as he was launched backwards from the force. 'As expected...' The dying Zao smiled in that moment as time suddenly stopped and reset itself to twenty seconds before that point as he had used his Replay technique to recycle time backwards to just as Hyo was attacking Tako. It had been a pre-emptive thing for him to prepare the spacetime technique because fighting a puppet user was difficult with the amount and types of hidden weapons that could be concealed inside a puppet.

With time reset everything played out the exact same manner with Tako being overpowered and the kunai glancing off the left cheek of Hyo's puppet body's head and then Zao appeared directly in front of the puppet against but this time just as the assassin released the point-blank surprise technique a kunai was gripped in the right hand of the white-haired man this time around. This particular kunai was the copy of the original kunai that had just bounced off the cheek of the other shinobi's puppet body and within a breaths time Zao disappeared once again reappearing half a step behind Hyo as the hand performed a palm strike like attack onto the bare back of the dark metal puppet body's torso. Though Zao didn't escape completely as the spear like tail penetrated the lower abdomen of Zao as the two men stood almost without moving as the light snow fell upon their trembling bodies. The first to fall was Zao as the long spear tipped tail pulled free and dark red blood began to spill out onto the virgin snow before one could see a fuuin seal that had formed on the back of Hyo as the puppet body locked up and fell over with a hard thud.

Zao had managed to strike the back of the puppet applying the five elements sealing technique onto Hyo and his puppet body, which effectively prevented the man from circulating or using his chakra temporarily, with no chakra circulating through the puppet from its was turned into a paperweight as it crashed into the ground across from the bannin. With his single hand the Suna shinobi covered the wound that was about two inches across before his hand began to glow and through the ability of Spacetime to erase time, he completely erased the wound caused by Hyoryu's tail spear as a healing fuuin on the man's chest was activated helping him to physically recover as he stood up. The righthand flicked out to the side as a single chakra thread came to life and extended towards the edge of the large crater nearby formed from the absurdly large fuuin explosion earlier as it came into contact with the missing left arm of the Spirit Saint. Retracting the length of the chakra thread the left arm returned to him and with a soft click it was reattached to the shoulder joint as he moved the shoulder and arm around ensuring it still functioned properly as he took a few steps forward.

"I'm sorry my young friend, by this is the end for you. Please rest now." Both of the man's hands came together as though praying for the killer at his feet as the seal had wrapped itself around the body of the puppet frame as the left hand of Zao's reached inside the husk of the puppet and grasped hold of the last remaining life essence of Hyo, his core. Then closing his eyes, hesitating slightly for a moment the strengthened artificial hand of the left arm squeezed down with its full force putting a tremendous amount of pressure on the core's structure as fine cracks started to form, soon the small cracks moved to large cracks as blood began to drip from them. Finally, the rest of the core gave way with its last bit of resistance to the pending end of Ryu now as the core was crushed under the strength of the puppet hand covering it in the last remaining bits of crimson life essence that now dripped down through the gaps in the fingers onto the now contaminated snow at Zao's feet. His blue eyes trembled watching the remnants slide from his hand onto the ground as the first unrolled letting the pieces fall to the damaged ground below sounding like small pieces of metal clinging as they bounced across the ground now. "I didn't want it to come to this, but your strength will now become mine and will help me accomplish my own goals, Hyōryū-kun."

Zao had truly wanted to convince the young man to return to the village, such a powerful shinobi was hard to find after the war and he could have made a tremendous asset, plus killing another Suna shinobi was already hard for the Saint. He could only shake his head as his eyes closed for a moment and the faint sounds of people emerging from their homes and other places where they had been hiding from the short battle between Zao and the assassin. Not wishing to feel the judging eyes of those Rock country citizens he reached out with both hands as chakra threads moved about collecting the various pieces of the puppet bodies that lay scattered about to include both Hyōryū's and his own. Almost simultaneously the two injured spirits poofed away back to their master's personal realm where they were anchored. Followed shortly after by Zao himself with all the puppet body parts and what remained of Hyōryū's life core...leaving the outpost in shambles from their fight for the Iwa nin stationed there to help deal with.

Ripples from this would almost certainly reach the ears of the Hidden Stone village but the Spirit Saint was far outside their sphere of influence as a portal opened up within his personal realm as the man stepped through onto soft grassland of a small floating island with a single bamboo house placed upon it. Zao now needed to prepare because he planned to once more venture into a terrible place, there was something very special that he needed to recover from the same realm that he feared to even speak its name aloud. 'The Demon Realm...I am coming my son...'