Jinchuuriki Hunt V

'Great! Son didn't tell him anything and his attitude is quite shitty. This is not gonna go well . . . For him that is, if I do end up having to resort to force.' Shiki thought to himself before speaking.

Shiki calmly explained the details of the situation and what he was proposing and patiently waited for Roshi's reply . . . But it didn't come.

The jinchuuriki of Iwa just stoically stared at Shiki without saying a word.

'Great, not a word and rude staring.' Shiki thought but said nothing.

'I hope this Roshi fellow realizes that the plan will go forward whether he approves or not. Him accepting my offer merely guarantees his position after I implement said plan and the benefits that come with it.' He pondered.

'It is a rather generous offer since I have more than enough power to just knock him out a kidnap him. I was quite happy with my soft hearted decision in seeking cooperation due to my sympathy for the jinchuuriki but if this idiot doesn't take the easy way out . . .'

'I'll have to "encourage" him out . . . The hard way.' Shiki finished his thoughts and just decided to wait for Roshi's response.

The jinchuuriki was being quite disrespectful but Shiki elected to tolerate this until a response came and only act depending on said response.

"I'm afraid I'll have to refuse." Roshi finally spoke.

*sigh*

Shiki sighed and with some genjutsu, established contact with Son Goku, the Four Tails.

"How about you?" Shiki asked.

Son looked up from his position where he was chained and asked.

"How many of my brothers and sisters took this deal of yours?"

"Shukaku took it but chose to leave his jinchuuriki, Matabi, Isobu, Kokuo and Chomei have all accepted and chose to join up along with their respective jinchuurikis."

"I have yet to speak to Saiken and I'm not planning on speaking to Gyuki and Kurama since their not in any real danger for the time being." Shiki explained his progress so far.

"I see . . . If I choose to accept, what will happen?" Son asked.

"I'll knock out Roshi, replace you with the Image I spoke to him about and you join up with my organization as a core member. There will be rules but it is far more freedom than you have ever been given by a human and Shuukaku seemed to be fine with it." Shiki shrugged.

"You have convinced me Reaper. I shall take your offer." Son declared.

'Wow! He was much more amiable than I thought!' Shiki thought to himself.

In truth, the fact that most of the other tailed beast have taken hiki's deal helped a lot, the generally respectful way Shiki addressed the tailed beasts with was also very much appreciated by them, especially Son who very much liked such decorum.

Finally, Shiki's preference for using the individual names of each tailed beast rather than their numbers and his willingness to interact with them as individuals greatly helped push Son into the right direction.

Despite his stubbornness, he cared about all of his brothers and sisters a lot and valued their opinions greatly so Shiki had made a genius move by leaving Son for later, thus lending a lot more weight to his words.

"Do you still need something?" Roshi questioned seeing that Shiki had not moved after hearing his answer.

"Wow! After staring me down for shit knows how long, you're questioning me for standing here for a minute or two?" Shiki gave him a funny look.

"I was making my offer to Son and since he is far smarter and more reasonable than you, he took it." Shiki informed.

"In other words, I'll have to take you out right now." He grinned behind his mask.

'Been a while since I had a good fight. Let's see if this idiot can give me one and let me test out some of my new moves.' Shiki thought.

Roshi was actually quite skilled as a jinchuuriki and, even though he could not do a full transformation like Yugito for example, he could competently use the normal cloak and the version 2 state as well, along with Son's signature Lava Style Jutsu.

Hearing Shiki's words, Roshi dashed backwards with the Body Flicker Jutsu, fully redying himself for the coming battle.

Shiki on the other hand, stood lax. Taking almost every battle so far mildly seriously, had resulted in nothing but quick crushing victories so for the first time, he was planning on dragging out the battle and have so fun with Roshi.

He activated a barrier large enough not to restrict Roshi's actions, tough enough that nobody would be able to breach it and intricate enough that no one would notice their battle from a distance.

Roshi activated his Lava Style: Chakra Mode, becoming a lava man and emitting intense heat that would enhance his attack and discourage opponents from performing physical attacks on him.

"Lava Style: Scorching Rocks Jutsu!" Roshi shouted, unleashing a barrage of molten rocks with incredible heat and force.

'Let's test out these eyes.' Shiki thought with malicious glee.

'Gakido'

Holding his hand out, Shiki absorbed the incoming jutsu with ease, getting some chakra and remaining unscathed.

"Those eyes . . .' Roshi seemed to recognize the Rinnegan.

Seeing his jutsu being so easily absorbed, Roshi elected for close combat instead and dashed in Shiki's direction with his Lava Style: Chakra Mode on full blast.

"Lava Style: Scorching Armoured Fist!" He shouted as his lava covered fist barreled towards Shiki.

"Shinra Tensei." Shiki calmly said.

It looked as if Roshi had crashed full speed into an invisible wall as his whole body creaked before the jinchuriki was blasted away, mowing down trees with his body and digging a trench in the ground until he stopped with significant injuries.

"I've no choice!" Roshi said, more to himself than Shiki as he activated his Tailed Beast Cloak: Version 2.

Roshi's injuries were gone and he was more powerful than ever as he charged towards Shiki who intensified his already permanently active Perfect Sage State.

Striking at Shiki with his lava enhanced claws, Roshi froze in shock when Shiki blocked the strike with one arm, a strange looking metal armor protecting it from damage.

The mechanical armor of Shurado.

Next up, tow other metal arms sprouted from his shoulders and promptly morphed into chakra cannons that opened fire on Roshi.

With the enhanced speed of his Version 2 state, the jinchuuriki frantically dodged around, successfully avoiding the chakra blast but Shiki was far from done.

Two more arms appeared on Shiki for a total of six and these opened up to reveal multiple guided missiles, ready to fire. And fire them, Shiki did.

This time, Roshi could not dodge and was caught in the blast radius which forcefully stopped him in his tracks and knocked him down.

Taking this opportunity, Shiki fired two chakra beams, piercing through the tailed beast cloak and heavily injuring his opponent.

The chakra cloak was starting to be insufficient to sustain Roshi as his heavy injuries were not recovering fast enough to prevent him from passing out as his sight turned blurry. Knowing it was all or nothing, the Iwa jinchuuriki prepared himself for a final attack.

The ground around him started to melt as rock turned to slag and trees were incinerated by the heat. Lava began pooling at the jinchuuriki's position and enveloping him in a thick globe of molten material.

'Let's see what he's got!' Shiki though as the burning hot air battered his body in waves.

Roshi jumped into the air and, using the blazing hot air for propulsion, came crashing down towards Shiki's position at blinding speed.

'Clearly this is a move with a large area of effect and he is probably expecting me to dodge his charge and get caught in the aftermath but . . . Did he get hit too hard in the head?' Shiki mocked in his mind.

The moment Roshi reached Shiki, he just heard.

"Shinra Tensei."

He was not blasted away like before though, only stopped in his tracks as the lava failed to get through the barrier like repulsive force.

'Gakido'

With Roshi pressing against the barrier with all of his might, thinking that Shiki wanted him to push him away but couldn't, he fell prey into Shiki's trap.

The overflowing lave was absorbed and Roshi's body cooled down as even his Chakra Mode was forcefully deactivated by the drain. The Version 2 Tailed Beast Cloak was next and without it, the jinchuuriki finally succumbed to his injuries and fell unconscious.

"And that's that!" Shiki said to himself in a good mood.

He stabilized Roshi so that he would not die, undid the barrier that was isolating the battle they had just fought and finally teleported back to the Desert Fortress with the unconscious jinchuuriki.

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