7 Satoru's Rage.

Kazuma's face turned pale, and he opened his mouth in shock.

"Satoru!"

He jumped back immediately, putting a good distance between him and Satoru.

"How did you find this place?" Kazuma asked warily, not taking his eyes of him.

Satoru observed Shiro, who was writhing in pain on the ground, his expression twisted in a frown. With a swift, decisive motion, he struck the back of Shiro's neck, rendering him unconscious. Picking him up,he walked towards a corner and placed him down gently, then turned back to Kazuma.

"The nerve you have, Kazuma! What have you done my son!!" Satoru's face was dangerous.

Kazuma smiled, "Who knows .. Perhaps if you tell me how you found this cave, I might consider telling you what I've done to him."

"I placed a shadow imprint on all my children. So long they are within the lands of Ninshu, I'll find them."

"Oh? That's interesting. Creepy also..."

Satoru twirled his ninjato in his hand. "You're not escaping this time, Kazuma. I'll have you pay the price of messing with my family."

Kazuma drew out a katana from his waist and took a stance. "I'm scared already, Satoru. But I would love to see how much stronger you've become. You..."

Kazuma didn't finish his words when Satoru disappeared from his spot.

He reflexively raised his katana, its blade flashing as it intercepted Satoru's overhead blow with a resounding clash.

"Hmmph!" Kazuma snorted and threw out a kick.

Satoru responded with a kick of his own, and their legs clashed, creating a little shockwave. They jumped back in unison, putting some distance between them.

Satoru retrieved two shurikens from his pouch and flunged them at Kazuma. Kazuma stretched his hand forward and caught them. Enveloping his hand in purple flame, he flunged them back to Satoru, with even greater speed.

Satoru enveloped his ninjato with dark energy, and slashed at the shurikens, sending them flying away.

However, Kazuma was already upon him with a flying kick.

Satoru raised his left hand and blocked the attack. The force of the kick pushed him back a bit, but very quickly, he pushed back and held onto Kazuma's leg, flinging him away. Kazuma twisted several times in the air, and landed skillfully on the ground.

"Not bad, Satoru. It would seem you have long be training for our rematch." Kazuma said.

"Shut up and die," Satoru said and moved swiftly towards him.

"Heh!" Kazuma rushed at Satoru too,and the loud, piecing sound of their blades clashing echoed in the cave. Satoru was very fast with his attack, each strike evily targeting Kazuma's vital points. But Kazuma was like a slippery eel, skillfully parrying all the blows, and trying to insert his own attacks, which were also blocked.

They clashed blades for almost a minute, with neither men gaining the upper hand.

"What say you, Satroru! What don't we take this fight up a notch?" Kazuma said suddenly.

"If you wish to die faster be my guest." Satoru said.

Kazuma jumped backwards to have a little space, then he slashed at his own hand with his sword, allowing the blood to fall to the ground.

Immediately, purple flame erupted from his body and enveloped him, including his blade.

"Bring it on, Satoru! I can't hold this form for too long, but I can kill you before I reach my limit." Kazuma laughed maniacally.

Satoru lowered his ninjato and closed his eyes. Dark energy erupted from his body, and soon, he had turned to a shadow figure. Four shadow men erupted from the ground and stood behind him. They all had the same body structure with him, and held their black ninjatos firmly in their hands.

"Go." Satoru said, pointing his blade at Kazuma.

The shadow men shot forward at Kazuma, their blades pointing towards his heart.

Kazuma roared and slashed out, sending a huge arc of purple flame towards the shadow men. The shadow men flew high into the air, then dived down at Kazuma.

Kazuma swiped at a shadow man, sending him flying away. He caught another by the arm and spun him around, tossing him towards the cave wall. Jumping back, he avoiding a lethal attack from the third shadow man, then delivered a huge kick to his head, sending it flying away. The last shadow man hacked down at him, and Kazuma blocked the attack, but the force made him fall to the ground on one knee.

"Ehh..."

The shadow man spun around landed a kick on Kazuma's chest, sending him flying. Kazuma gritted his teeth and tried to break his fall, when he felt another shadow man wrap his hand around him midair.

"Shit!"

The shadow man raised Kazuma high in the air, and slammed him in a devastating suplex.

"Gaah!!" Kazuma coughed blood in pain, his vision getting blurry.

Four shadow men sprang at him with their ninjatos raised high, seeking to end him.

"Tsk! You underestimate me, Satoru!!!"

Kazuma yelled, and a huge burst of purple energy exploded from him, sending all the Shadow men, including the one who held him in a pin, flying away.

Jumping to his feet, he stabbed his sword into the ground.

"Good work, Satoru. You entered a shadow form so you could confuse me with your shadow men. Not bad, but in the face of absolute strength,its all pointless!"

Purple flames erupted from the ground immediately. Satoru jumped high into the air avoiding it, but his shadow men were not so lucky, and they burst into nothingness as the flame pierced through them.

Landing safely on the ground, Satoru summoned his Shadow men again, and attacked Kazuma with it.

"I said it's all pointless!!!"

Before they could get close to Kazuma, flames erupted from the ground, turning them to nothingness once more.

Satoru ran in circles speedily, avoid the purple flames, and trying to get close to Kazuma.

"What's the matter, Satoru? Can't get close to me can you?!"

"Dream on." Satoru snorted.

He paused suddenly and sank into the ground, appearing moments later in the air behind Kazuma.

Kazuma swung his sword backwards, intercepting Satoru's blade.

"Tricks like this won't work on me, Satoru."

Kazuma swung his sword again and knocked Satoru's sword away from his hand. He turned his sword and landed the back on Satoru's jaw, raising him high into the air. Jumping into the air too, he spun around, delivery a fatal kick to Satoru's face.

Satoru flew back several meters, and crashed heavily to the ground.

"Heh! Is that all you have? How disappointing."

Satoru struggled to his feet, wiping blood from his mouth.

"That's right, it'll be a shame if you go down so easily."

Satoru ignored him and summoned his four shadow men, again. He was still in shadow form, and was speedily loosing energy. He estimated that he had at least a minute left to maintain the shadow form. He had to end the battle before then, else if he ran out of energy, he'll lose the battle, and probably his life. He knew Kazuma had little time also, but he didn't know how little. He wasn't willing to stall for time and gamble dangerously.

Normal Kage ninjas could enter shadow form for only a few seconds, and it was mostly for sneak attacks. But for the elite Kage ninjas, they could go three minutes!

That was already legendary feat, as shadow form sucked energy like a child greedily sucking a lollipop.

"This again? You don't learn, do you?" Kazuma smirked. "Techniques and numbers are useless in the face of absolute power."

"Is that so?" Satoru waved his ninjato, and his shadow men began walking towards themselves, and merging into one."

Shadow merging!

Another high level skill in shadow Gi.

Although it looked as it it was just the same as summoning only one shadow man with fifty percent strength, it was actually summoning four shadow men, and compressing the power of four shadow men into one!

Instead of a single shadow man with fifty percent strength and agility, this merged shadow man, would have twice the strength and agility.

That was taking the strength and agility to a hundred percent! It was an insane skill that defied so many laws. But of course, with insane strength, came a serious backlash. It had a serious con to it. Shadow merging took the user's energy three times faster, so Satoru had less than twenty seconds left. Also, all his strength and agility would be gone for six hours after the skill was stopped. He would be very vulnerable for six hours. It wasn't a skill to be used carelessly.

"I see... If quantity doesn't work, increase the quality. Interesting, but like I said, it's all..."

Kazuma hadn't finished speaking when the merged shadow man disappeared from sight, appearing half a second later with his foot pressed against Kazuma's belly.

Kazuma coughed out blood, and was sent flying and crashing towards the ground.

The shadow man appeared above Kazuma with an axe kick, but Kazuma rolled away, letting the kick leave a huge crater on the ground.

He jumped to his feet, barely blocking a heavy kick aimed at his head. He heard a crack sound, and knew it was the bones in his hand succumbing under pressure.

The merged shadow man attacked viciously with punches and kicks, and all Kazuma could do was to defend against them, with no chance of initiating his own attack.

He knew he was in trouble if this continued, but he also felt Satoru couldn't keep this up for too long. He was right.

The shadow man stopped attacking, and began circling him speedily. Satoru joined in afterwards, and Kazuma stood agitatedly anticipating their attacks.

Suddenly, one of the shadow men sank into the ground, while the other shot straight at him. Kazuma couldn't tell the difference between Satoru and the merged shadow man anymore, it was almost like they had become one.

He swung backwards again with full force, stopping the attack from the first shadow man and blasting him away, then prepared to intercept the second one coming straight at him.

"Still the same no matter how much you style it!!!" He roared.

"Hmmph!" Satoru snorted.

When the second shadow man was still few meters away from Kazuma, a third shadow man appeared from the ground and wrapped his arms around him.

"Ehh? When did you..." Kazuma was horrified.

He could only shift his body as the blade drove into his stomach, missing his vital points by inches. The third shadow man burst into nothingness as the blade stabbed through him .

Kazuma coughed out a huge amount of blood, but the shadow man wasn't finished with him. He retrieved the sword from his belly and landed a swift back kick on. Kazuma's face, sending him crashing to the ground.

The dark energy from the shadow man disappeared immediately, revealing a Panting Satoru.

"Satoru you slick bastard!" Kazuma cursed, as he pressed his hand to his belly, trying to apply pressure and stop the bleeding. "How could you summon a third shadow man?!"

The purple energy had faded from his body.

"Techniques are useless in the face of absolute power. That might be true, but you do not have absolute power, Kazuma." Satoru said.

Kazuma stared at him for a while and nodded his head in understanding. "I see... Turns out, you didn't merge all the shadow men."

"That's right." Satoru nodded. "I unsummoned one before they could all merge together."

"Then you timed your attack perfectly, and you summoned him back to hold me down and prevent me from blocking your attack. Should have known something was off. The merged shadow man was indeed powerful, but there was still something lacking. Like how the kick earlier could have crushed my hand." Kazuma laughed. " They say you should fear two kinds of men. A strong man, and an intelligent man. Satoru, you're strong and intelligent, I definitely fear you."

Satoru walked towards him. "It's over for you, Kazuma."

Kazuma sneered, "Over you say? You may have won today, but we shall have this battle another day. At that time, I'll claim victory and repay the wound you have given me. Until we meet again, brother in-law."

"Wait..." Satoru tried to grab him, but Kazuma had disappeared in purple flames.

"Tsk!" Satoru clicked his tongue in frustration. Swinging his ninjato to remove Kazuma's blood, he placed it carefully to a leader sheath strapped to his back.

Then he turned and walked towards the unconscious Shiro. " Sorry son, I'm here now, you'll be fine."