The Brawl That Binds Us [T] [with Rasu]

[Kariya]

Walking out from the Tsuchikage's office, Izou had nothing on his mind but to get to the hospital to take a look at his wounds. Due to his high tolerance for pain, he didn't really felt the pain, but his body wasn't agreeing. The burn wounds looked bad.

As he walked through the streets full of people, the Iwa-nin was careful not to touch his arms to anything that might bring about another pang of pain. Keeping his arms tight to his body and making effort to get out of the way of anything that was coming in his direction, Izou had managed to avoid any trouble.

Until trouble found him. Even when he had made extra sure to put a large distance between himself and the people walking around the streets, there was always those who would purposefully bump shoulders with others in their search for a fight. Knowing well that it had been on purpose, Izou barely gave the man who had knocked him a glance and continued walking on.

A stone hit him in the back of the head and the Genin quickly turned around. The one who had bumped into him earlier stood in the exact spot the "accident" had occured, and he was juggling a stone in his hand as his fingers repeatedly tossed the stone lightly up into the air whenever it dropped back down.

"Aren't you going to say sorry for knocking into me? I could have broken my arm," the man said with a smug grin on his face, and then faked a pained expression as he acted as though his arm was really broken. "You are gonna have to compensate me for this injury."

"Lowlife. Get out of my sight," Izou snapped, turning around as soon as he finished his remark. He had just taken a second step when another stone was tossed at him, hitting him on his left shoulder this time. Once more the Genin turned around to face the man. "Try doing that again."

And the man did. This time, Izou caught the stone before it hit him with his right hand, catching it squarely in his palm. This man had challenged him first, the Genin reasoned as he took aim and threw the stone back at the man, hitting him in the chest. He had even made sure to use chakra when he threw to add more power.

Stumbling backwards, the man's face changed from a mocking expression to that of anger. And as expected, cowards always have a posse. The man shouted for his friends and moments later, three more men had walked out from the alley to stand beside their friend. The other villagers on the street, alert of the commotion, chose to stay out of their way and out of the street.

[Yasou]

FIGHTER IN DENIAL

Rasu was surveying the Ninjutsu scrolls at the open-market. They were messily stacked in wooden boxes, rows upon rows of them. The scrolls were handmedowns and throwaway, like most items in the open-market. Most of Iwa was comprised of the poor and this market showed it. However, the script on some scrolls remained legible so Rasu took his time. It was all he could afford under his low-rank ninja salary.

"W-We're closed now boy." His gaze was interrupted when the seller began closing the boxes. "Come back tomorrow." The seller said, not even paying attention to Shinobi's irked expression. He seemed far more concerned with getting the more valuable scrolls in a separate box to take with him.

"What? Closed...but it's-" Rasu hesitated once he noticed that all the stores around were closing. He found the answer to why when he saw four guys surrounding one individual. "Oh I see...Yeah...you'd better get home where it's safer." He teased and almost kicked at the air behind the scroll-keeper as he ran with a box in his right arm. For a moment, Rasu wondered if the scrolls the man had left were free-game. The thought had left his mind as quickly as it had entered. Rasu may have been rebellious at heart, but he did have a sense of honor; he was not about to steal scrolls from an old man that could barely sell them to make ends meat.

Instead, Rasu leaned back against the wooden stand casually. He was no coward and wanted to see how this escapade would played out. Perhaps he himself would have a part to play. The Shinobi certainly hoped so as fighting was one of his favorite things to do in life. He would not mind helping the one in the center if the odds would allow it as he was clearly in denial thinking he could take on four guys at once.

Whoever the man in the center was, he had spirit. Certainly.

[Kariya]

There was no way to get out of this fight now, and Izou could only curse his bad luck. He was in no shape to duke it out with one thug, let alone four. However, the Iwa-nin refused to plead for mercy and spread his hands wide open. He had always favored the open-palm fighting style of the Hyuuga clan, using the heel of their palm to strike rather than a balled up fist.

As the thugs smirked, feeling confident in their numbers, Izou quickly grabbed the element of surprise. The Genin sprung forward, sending his palm straight into the one who had thrown the stone, aiming for his lower jaw. Izou felt his palm hit flesh and almost immediately used his left leg to catch him in the stomach and used him as a springboard to kick off him and went back to his original spot.

The man fell to the ground, caught unaware by Izou. Unfortunately, despite putting all his strength behind the blow, it still wasn't enough to knock the man out. It only made him angrier. And more violent. Out of nowhere, all of them drew out a knives from their backpockets.

"Shit," was all the silver-haired Genin could say as his right hand dropped to the hilt of his combat knife and he pulled it out.

[Yasou]

PRESS ON FIGHTER

The fight had already been uneven, but when the leading enemy fell to the ground; Rasu could see that the center defender had fresh burn-wounds all across his body. Rasu cocked his head to the side, wondering what this individual's back story was. From the looks of it, he had been burnt either the night before or that morning. Despite his disposition, however, the fighter managed to throw out an open-hand thrust to the leader's jaw and perform devastating kick kick into his stomach. Rasu's eyes grew wide; the blows had not rendered the first enemy's defeat, but it had clearly done some damage. It was at this moment that Rasu developed a great respect for the man whose odds were against him. He decided to help him.

As Rasu approached, his Kekkei Genkai allowed the Shinobi to bring his body temperature greatly above average; to the point scolding hot. He walked casually behind the leader and watched as the man brought his arm up to strike the burnt fellow. The other fighters signaled at Rasu's approach, but the leader of the gang was too distracted in his own anger. Rasu grabbed the enemy's lifted arm and the leader jumped, wrenching his arm away that had suddenly felt sizzling sensation.

"Hey there." Rasu smiled, asking "What kind of people fight the handicap?" He presented exhibit a-the burnt guy. "I mean can't you see he's clearly got leprosy!?" The Shinobi was tense; this was an act to help calm his nerves...He didn't want to seem nervous, but realistically, the odds were against both of them now.

"Oh a funny guy, huh!?" The leader remained overconfident, but seemed intimidated by what Rasu had done and provided him with a chance to leave. "Learn to mind your own business and keep you mouth shut! Or you'll look worse than this asshole!" He bellowed.

"He looks pretty bad..." Rasu placed a hand against his chin in playful contemplation. "Yeah. I just don't see that happening." He shrugged. Clearly Rasu was not about step down. He had enter the situation and had no intention of leaving.

Everyone remained silent and then an explosion erupted across the scene.

The leader was, of course, the first to strike. The two blows he had received from before had still left him winded and Rasu took full advantage of this fact. The leader sent a hesitant fist when towards the Shinobi's face and Rasu motioned to his left before it could . The leader stumbled over his own feet and Rasu caught him by placing his right hand on the enemy's stomach, triggering his wrist-blade.

Blood trickled onto Rasu's arm as the leader curled in agony on the the ground.

[Kariya]

"Leprosy?" Izou whispered to himself when the newcomer had walked up to the gang leader. He didn't even know if he should be angry or to be laughing. But one thing was clear, he had an ally in this fight now. And he was obviously a shinobi. There was no mistaking the clicking sound produced from a retractable wristblade as the blade shot out.

There was probably no way the leader could still stand up with the wound in his stomach, and with the commotion caused by the newly arrived shinobi, Izou once more leapt into action. He held his combat knife in a reverse way, with the blade protruding from the bottom of his fist.

With nimble footwork, the boy swiftly got around of the thugs and caught him by the lower jaw from the back. Izou continued pulling backwards, exposing the thug's neck as his body bent backwards from the pressure the Genin was exerting on it. The only attack now that made sense would be slice the throat and both Izou and the thug knew it.

Immediately the man started whimpering and pleading for him to stop, begging Izou not to draw a crimson line across his neck. He was even offering to give his sister to Izou as a wife. The silver-haired youth's face instantly went blank at hearing that. Extending his arm high into the air, Izou let his hand drop down freely. But it wasn't aimed at the throat. At the last minute, with great dexterity, he switched the position of the blade so that he held it with a normal grip and slammed the end of the knife's hilt into the thug's neck.

"Scum," Izou said as he dropped the man, who rolled on the ground as he grabbed his throat with both hands, unable to even utter a single word in pain.

[Yasou]

KEEP YOUR CHIN UP

Adrenaline seemed to have kicked in for Rasu's current ally. It was clear that this man was a great fighter, even in his weakened condition. Rasu, on the other hand, was just trying to keep up. There were now three enemies still intact; this was the maximum number of enemies he had face at once previously and only seconds there had been two more. All the while his mind was racing; why were these people ganging up on this guys? How did he get all those burns?

His thoughts were brought to a halt when Rasu heard what one of the enemies saying. Apparently, under pressure, the man was willing to trade his sister's as a wife for his own life. Both Shinobi were completely disgusted and the ally quickly put him out of his misery for it.

"Lower than scum." Rasu said when-

It happened so quickly...Rasu winced in pain and it was only by looking down that his brain caught up with the feeling. The guy on the left and pulled out a small, but lethal enough dagger and Rasu had been stabbed in the ribcage before he even had the chance to react. He was pushed back a second later.

Rasu staggered, but had to stay on his feet...and not throw up.

[Kariya]

Izou watched in shock as his partner was stabbed in the ribcage by one of the remaining guys. Apparently, the shock of their leader being jammed with a wristblade into his stomach had worn off and the rest of his men weren't planning to go down without a fight. In that moment of shock, when he let all of his guard down, the last thug attacked Izou from the back.

A hot sensation burned through his back as Izou lurched forward. Turning around to face his attacker, the Genin was horrified to see that the knife held in the man's hand was bloodied. And then he looked down on the ground to see a small trail of blood spanning the few steps he had taken.

He didn't know how wide the wound was, but he was absolutely sure of one thing. If he didn't finsh this now, Izou and his unnamed ally would be found dead in some back alley by some meddlesome person a few days later.

Channeling chakra across his entire body, and gathered lightning over his entire body. Before he used the jutsu, Izou turned in his ally's direction and said, "Close your eyes!" before allowing the lightning to erupt in a small but blinding explosion. Equivalent to using a light bomb, those who had had their eyes open during the explosion would see nothing but white for a few seconds.

Izou quickly dropped into a crouch, and sent his right leg outwards in a sweeping kick. His feet plowed through both ankles of the thug and knocked him off his feet on to the ground. With the man now lying on his back, Izou quickly pounched forward and sat on him, his right arm raised high above his head. A lightning ball was hovering mere milimetres above his palm and without hesitation, Izou slammed it into his opponent's chest.

The man twitched as the small amount of electricity ran through his body, causing him to pass out rather than die as Izou would have wanted. Rolling of the fainted man, Izou felt himself weakening and gingerly put his left hand to his back. It was wet, and it wasn't a surprise to find his entire palm dyed red.

[Yasou]

WHEN ALL ELSE FAILS...BLUFF

The duo had had a good start, but Rasu being stabbed caused an undetermined turn of the tides. It was great that the Shinobis' had manage to take down most of the enemies, but one enemy still remained and he only had a slight pain in his throat. He used the hand that had been clasping his throat to reach for a dagger and pointed it towards Rasu and his ally.

"We just took out all of your friends..." Rasu was trying so hard to stay upright and remain strong; he could tell the enemy was shaken a bit and it was all he could do to hopefully intimidate the guy enough to get out of this situation alive. "You want to keep going?" Rasu could tell he was getting to the man and pressured him even more by sparing a little extra chakra to perform Megumi.

With his left hand, Rasu clutched his ribs and with he right he subtly issued the hand seals that would make chakra-induced lava poor out of his hand. He let the arm dangle as the floor melted underneath. Rasu would have smiled if he weren't in a life or death situation; he could see the fear and bewilderment in their enemy's eyes as he dropped his knife. If the enemy had second-thoughts before-there was no way he would be attacking now.

"No...I'm sorry...Forget it!" The last-standing enemy made a run for it.

Rasu remained on his toes until the man was out of sight.

"Shit! I can't believe that worked." Rasu smiled at the one he had helped, but then winced in pain. "We need to get to the hospital...the both of us." The Shinobi moved towards his new-found and brought the man's arm around his shoulder. They supported each other and moved towards the direction of the hospital; two of them were losing blood fast and they needed to move quickly if either of them would have any chance of surviving. On top of that, Rasu was not intent on finding out how long these thugs were planning on staying asleep.

Rasu would feel a lot better in a hospital wing.

"Man, now I can't tell who's in worse shape." Rasu said, attempting to lighten the mood as they kept each other up. "My name's Rasu. What happened to you anyway?" He asked, every word made needle-like pressure push into his ribs. The Shinobi may have even broken something against the knife's edge...he wasn't sure.

SPOILER: Click to show

- Performed Megumi

[Kariya]

"I'm Izou, I was on my way to the hospital originally, but got into that fight," Izou replied as the two of them hobbled to the hospital, each supporting the other's weight. "Thanks, by the way. But leprosy?" Kayori remarked, as he gestured at the burns marks on his arm.

As the two of them approached the hospital's double doors, Izou began to felt the weight of Rasu getting heavier and heavier. His legs were slowly failing to support him. Eyes wide open, Izou tried as hard as he could to bring them through the hospital doors with as much as haste as possible.

As soon as they entered the hospital, Izou's arms gave way and Rasu's full weight brought the tanned shinobi down on the ground, on his knees. Weakened by the blood loss, the silver-haired genin dropped to the ground as well. He was horrified when Rasu began to vomit a black viscous liquid, so much that he was stunned. Before he could even utter a word, Izou was pulled away from his newly-made friend and set on a stretcher.

He could only look as Rasu was put on a similar stretcher in front of him. The last glimpse he had of the tanned shinobi was his pained look, beads of cold sweat framing his grimacing expression before the two of them were brought into different rooms.

[Yasou]

OUR ACTIONS DEFINE US

Rasu knew he was losing a lot of blood, but there was something more to his deep wound. All at once he began to sweat profusely while shaking. His eyelids, as well as other nerves in the body began to twitch uncontrollably. Some just was not right at the time. The scars across his body indicated that Rasu had been inflicted with cuts much in the same manner so he knew what a stab was supposed to feel like…and this wasn’t it.

For now, the Shinobi focused on getting through the double doors with his comrade.

“We need hel-” His stomach lurched in pain and Rasu was brought to his knees. With such a feeling, he expected to throw-up a pool of blood. However, this was not a normal situation; he did throw up, but what came out of his body horrified him. It was a thick, black residue that the Shinobi could not believe had come out of him. Rasu’s eyes widened. He would have been hysterical if he was not sp fatigued.

A collection of nurses huddled around the two. Rasu was pulled up and limp as a dead fish. He and Izou were placed on stretchers and brought in a line through a hallway. Rasu remained in front as his condition appeared more severe. The Shinobi did not know what was wrong with him, but he only hoped the doctors would get to Izou as soon as possible. Rasu had less time to think of such things now and quivered as the stretcher slammed through a second set of double-doors. It was stopped in front of a doctor who placed his hand on the guard-rail of the stretcher.

The doctor knew with one look what was wrong with Rasu.

“He’s been poisoned…Bring him to intensive care before it’s too late.” The doctor’s words left the young man speechless. Poisoned? They moved quickly, making a right turn towards the hazardous emergency while Izou was sent to the urgent care wing. They were separated…Rasu would have said more if he knew it was the last time he would see the man.

Rasu was placed on a bed in the center of a room where Medical-Nin cleaned him up and changed his clothes. When the sanitation process was completed, the doctors began working on Rasu's condition. The lead physician of the facility would later have the displeasure of writing a letter to Rasu's parents which told them that he was poisoned by aliquid-blend from an assuming plant...and died.

[Kariya]

According to the doctor, the wound on Izou's back had been 15 centimetres long, but it would gradually heal and might even not leave a scar. His burns were slightly worse. Due to the long period of time between the burns and the time it got treatment as well as abrasive injuries, it will take a longer time to heal. The only consolation he had was that both injuries would do nothing to hamper his fighting abilities whatsoever.

Izou sat upright on his bed, and was about to ask the nurse a question, who was cleaning up the cotton wads and other medical equipment, when a doctor threw apart the curtains that had kept Izou's bed isolated and walked up to the Genin.

"Just in time, doctor. How's my friend?" Izou asked with concern, and somewhere in his mind, the word 'friend' was having trouble familiarizing itself into the genin's vocabulary. The doctor looked at Izou with an apologetic look on his face, and kept quiet for a few seconds before finally speaking up. "I'm sorry, kid. Your friend was poisoned and we had tried our best."

Putting his hand on Izou's should and squeezing it gently, the doctor opened his mouth but nothing came out, and decided it was better off for Izou to absorb it at his own pace. The nurse quickly followed behind the doctor and pulled the curtains shut, as Izou dropped back onto the bed.

They hadn't even known each other for more than half a day, and yet the fight had made a bond between them. A bond where one would sacrifice his life for the other without as much as a single word. Izou could only stare up at the ceiling blankly as he whispered, "Rasu..."

[Messatsu!]

Izou - +43 Exp

Rasu - +44 Exp