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Act 1, Chapter 7, The Last Stand

Unfortunately for Hakai’s technique had no effect because, with the help of the Jagan, Zato created a version of the Phantom Garden which even Hakai can’t dispel, using Genin level techniques.

However the downside to doing this, is that Zato has to maintain his Jagan in order to maintain this version of his technique, as he is dependent by the bonuses to his spiritual energy control in order to prevent Hakai from destroying his illusions again with Genin level techniques.

Hakai begins to become frustrated over the fact that he couldn’t break Zato’s technique and to add insult to injury, Zato was increasing the number of dopplegangers to annoy Hakai further with a frustrating army of illusions holding various alarm clocks, chanting how Hakai is very good at finding hiding places for alarm clocks and asking how he reached the necessary conclusion to determine the best hiding spot for the alarm clock.

Alisa looks confused, at the display of illusory prowess, while Dargon tries to keep a collected look on his face, unsure of what to do next.

‘Damn Zato, you have a hero’s timing. I wasn’t sure I could have saved Alisa from this bastard by myself, as we’re both virtually powerless against this bastard. Ranged combat is meaningless since he has insane reflexes and skills. Melee combat is a death sentence as his speed and reflexes allow him to overpower us like toddlers. God forbid we get hit by this guy at full force’ thought Dargon to himself as he tried to figure out what the next course of action should be.

‘Damn bastard! I should have gone after Zato first. Now I am in this position where I can’t tell if my techniques are failing because of an illusion or because I am running out of spiritual power.

It doesn’t look like I have a choice, I can’t resolve this exam without fighting seriously - it’s time I play my last card’ thought Hakai to himself as he decided to summon one of his familiars.

Hakai decides to use the summoning technique in plain view of the Genins, knowing that they won’t charge him recklessly as they are worried about being countered by the enhanced reflexes provided by the Enhanced Agility technique. Hakai also assumed that they won’t retaliate with other techniques thinking it might be a feint, designed to force them to use a technique, which Hakai could potentially interrupt, thanks to his insane agility.

The familiar Hakai chose to summon was, Jerry a ferret with an affinity for Lighting style jutsus and a supporting arsenal comprised of illusory techniques, as well as a love for banter and making jokes – which right now, works in Hakai’s favor, as it allows him to rest some more, unless he starts making fun of him, due to the mess he is now in, thanks to his hubris.

The ferret, once summoned, instantly cover his ears, annoyed by the army of Zato dopplegangers who are chanting on and on about the damned alarm clock.

“Yo, evil boss, what’s with the creepy kid quire ?” asked Jerry confused as he was looking at the many copies of Zato chanting eerily while holding several different types of alarm clock. This in turn prompts Hakai to quickly use the Yang Style - Dispel jutsu, before answering Jerry.

The que from Jerry was important to Hakai, as it showed he wasn’t victim to a single target illusory technique. As he revels in the silence, he begins to answer Jerry, while hiding his annoyance over the fact that he had to cancel his Enhanced Agility technique to be able to use the Dispel technique.

“I got demoted to Genin supervisor and I had to use a lot of illusory techniques to test their capabilities...I didn’t want to bother you with weaklings, but I overexerted my reserves and am struggling in defeating them while causing as little damage as possible” explained Hakai, visibly annoyed at the fact he needed to call for help on dealing with children.

As predicted, Jerry begins to laugh at Hakai’s situation, while lamenting the fact that Saiga’s economic situation is so bad that they chose the least empathetic and harshest killer alive, in Saiga, to teach kids how to do his job.

“Seriously dude, the best part about your story, you actually tried to be gentle, by relying on illusory techniques and still failed to put them in a place where you can get rid of them” said Jerry as Hakai and the Genin were giving the ferret dirty looks.

Hakai in the end, breaks the silence by asking “Dumbass, I had no choice in the matter, can you imagine the state of these brats if I took them seriously?”

At this point Jerry stops laughing and is filled with a sense of guilt about making fun of this situation, as he realizes that outside of staples and collaboration techniques, Hakai has a limited arsenal of illusory techniques designed to cause emotional distress – techniques Hakai had to learn despite his aversion for illusory techniques, for the purpose of countering them with less effort.

As a young Genin, Hakai was prone to outbursts of aggression, which, when amplified by illusory techniques targeting one’s emotional state, were effective at sending young Hakai into a rampage, due to the fact that he felt he never belonged – on either his home village in the island of Edomura or in Saiga village itself, as a ninja.

Jerry truly feels sorry for these kids, because all of Hakai’s techniques are about making enemies regret the day they were born, while inflicting as much pain as possible – physical and emotional.

After feeling that he stalled for enough time, Hakai tells Jerry, with an arrogant tone that: “I need you to provide mid to long range support, while I send these children to sleep - it’s way past their bed time.

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This was said by Hakai as a means to upset the Genin and have them resume the battle, while reducing the odds of them running away. As Hakai would put it ‘kids are too easy to manipulate due to their huge egos and strong feelings of resentment towards being disrespected.’

Alisa, due to being low on shuriken, drew two kunai and decided to engage Hakai in melee, thinking he can no longer use body enhancements, while having to protect both himself and his ferret from Zato’s illusory techniques. Dargon follows suit with just one kunai, leaving an arm free for either grappling techniques or jutsu usage.

Hakai takes the lead by throwing down some smoke bombs while Jerry uses the Yang Style - Concealment Jutsu - which allows both him and Hakai to hide in plain sight from the 3 Genin. Hakai was becoming noticeably tired, but he wanted to prove a point – that he can’t be beaten, despite his mistake of using too many illusory techniques.

Dargon and Alisa assume a defensive position, guarding each other’s backs, while Zato restores the Phantom Garden, to create mirror images of Dargon and Alisa to reinforce their formation, while also hiding mirror images of himself in the area, hoping they will help confuse Hakai and his familiar.

While hidden, Hakai uses the Territory Creation jutsu in conjunction with his familiar to allow both of them to use advanced versions of their techniques.

Afterwards, Jerry went on to prepare the Yin Style - Leaden Dreams Jutsu – a technique which, when used in conjunction with a territory, forces all enemies into a deep sleep, for less spiritual energy then one would have to expend, if he were to target each opponent individually. Also, due to the fact that, this is a Yin technique, it requires a build up time to activate properly after all preparations are finished.

Afterwards, Jerry does the exact thing as Zato, by creating multiple Mirror Images of themselves via their shared territory, to help Hakai rest and regain some more power. During this, Zato blanks out as he has no idea what to do next.

The lack of experience, finally took it’s toll on Zato, who should have been reinforcing his territory with a technique which prevents enemies from deploying their own territories. Dargon and Alisa were no better, as the subtleties of techniques which can be used to alter the parameters of existing techniques were unappreciated by their lack of understanding of finer nuance of ninjutsu.

After having finished his short rest, Hakai, while still concealed by the ferret’s illusory technique, decide to sneak towards the center of Alisa’s and Dargon’s formation. Zato gasps as he sees his illusions once again destroyed by Hakai’s Dispel technique. Jerry moved to hide in a nearby tree, where he can have a clear view of the battlefield.

“You guys, are really ill prepared, you know that right.” said Hakai to Alisa and Dargon as he was able to sneak within 5 feet of them, before Jerry removed the benefits of his concealment technique from Hakai.

Dargon, turns quickly to his left, trying to land a right cross over Hakai’s face, while Alisa turns to her right, as she disengages in order to create some distance between herself and Hakai. At this point, she barely has any spiritual power left and is wary of fighting Hakai in a straight up melee.

‘The foolish truly, have no sense of fear’ thought Hakai to himself as he blocks Dargon’s cross and retaliates with a swift jab to the chin. Dargon loses balance and falls, while Hakai tries to kick his face.

Alisa however charges back, armed with 2 kunai, trying to provide melee support for Dargon, despite, being unable to use most of her techniques due to the amount of spiritual energy she lost earlier.

“Zato, what the hell? We dying here and they are yet to get serious” shouted Dargon in frustration, as he and Alisa struggle with fighting Hakai, who, at this point can’t use anymore body enhancement techniques as he has to maintain his counter illusion techniques and the summoning technique which allows Jerry to exist in this reality.

Dargon’s shouting prompts Hakai to say that “Why waste time on a coward who hides behind illusions despite the awesome Taijutsu he’s been hiding from everyone.”

Alisa and Dargon look shocked at Hakai’s declaration as they try to figure out how to defeat Hakai, but Zato, decides to come out of hiding, shouting really loud in order to get his colleague to get out of the way and begins to expel huge flames towards Hakai.

‘What the fuck ! He’s been hiding Fire Style ?!?! But his file said, he never studied elemental jutsu’ thought Hakai to himself as he tried to run away from the flames, until he realizes, the flames may not be real and turns around, betting everything on the fact that those flames are harmless illusions, which can be dispelled.

‘Damn Zato, why was he hiding the fact that he is strong?’ thought Dargon to himself as he looked at Zato creating flames bigger than Hakai’s, while Alisa, begins to relax, in thinking that Zato might actually be able to defeat Hakai. Their hopes turned to dust as Hakai’s Lesser Dispel jutsu destroyed Zato’s flames in the blink of an eye.

“Damn Zato, you almost fooled me, but I am disappointed you aren’t showing us how you beat two 3 year students as a first year student with Taijutsu alone” said Hakai as he laughed hysterically due to the fact that Zato was able to scare him.

Alisa burst out in anger, after hearing that Zato is supposedly good at hand to hand combat “What the fuck dude? We are getting beaten senseless here and you are hiding behind illusions? Be a fucking man and take some damned initiative for once” while Dargon is looking in disbelief, thinking it’s impossible that Zato might be better at Taijutsu than him, despite his demeanour as a wimp and the fact that he went down first when Hakai first attacked.

Zato’s Jagan once again activate as a defence mechanism against feeling both stressed and embarrassed. “It wasn’t like that ! I’m not good in those sort of situations” shouted Zato in frustration, as he struggles to deactivate the Jagan.

As he watches this display of weakness, Hakai thinks to himself “I understand now, he is emotionally weak, but someone in Saiga thinks he has the potential to be stronger, after seeing him beat up those students. I’m starting to think the idiot who worked on Zato’s file has no idea how to fight, as there is no way someone this weak can put up a decent fight.”

Hakai then charges at Zato, trying to land a jumping kick to his face, hoping to knock him out quickly, but Zato instinctively dodges by lowering his body. This in turn causes Hakai to clumsily jump over Zato and make Jerry laugh at him.

Dargon randomly blasts bushes with electrified water techniques, in search of Jerry, while Alisa goes to grab some of the shuriken that are littered on the ground, in preparation for Hakai’s next assault, but Jerry’s Leaden Dreams jutsu is making her feel drowsy and is barely able to stand on her own feet anymore.

Hakai turns around and faces Zato who is panicking over the Jagan not deactivating. He moves in carefully and launches a 5 jabs. Surprisingly, 2 don’t connect as Zato dodged them abruptly.

As he continues to attack Zato, Hakai thinks to himself ‘This kid....I think he can sense how I move, without seeing me, but it doesn’t seem he is aware of this fact....I kind of getting it now....he unknowingly developed a power which allows him to bypass the fact that Jagan blinds him. If he were to master his emotions and mix taijutsu and illusory techniques, he could actually become formidable.’

Hakai’s theory however, has very few supporting evidence as more and more of his attacks connect and Zato begins to go down, unable to either defend himself or attack Hakai. Yet, before the final blow can be dealt, Dargon is able to stop Hakai by blasting him with a strong torrent of regular water.