Shirinai: Enter Gluttony; Kia Takamaru!

We trudged through the thick, musty, muddy swamp. The loud buzzing of bugs surrounded us from every direction. Darki and Ryu followed close behind, sloshing through the mud. Kia rode on Ryu back silently. She was tired, not used to walking around so much. The swamp was unsettling, but gave a somewhat secure feeling at the same time, when we find what we were looking for; the swamp would never be the same.

I was walking in the Western Valleys when I came across a 5 year old girl, wondering alone. I seen her and immediately ran to assist her. "Hey, um are okay? Where are your parents?" I asked. She looked at me with despair, tears streaming down her eyes. It took me to get over the awkwardness of being in the middle of nowhere with a young child but it was more than clear that something was wrong. I knelt down to her and looked into her green eyes. She flinched then looked back into my eyes. "Are you okay?" I asked again. Her eyes began pouring then she wrapped her arms around my neck and began sobbing. I waited awhile for her to finish crying then stood up. "Where are your parents?" I repeated a previous question. She looked as if she was going to answer but suddenly took a tight grip on my pants and screamed. "What," I asked shocked "What is it?" She squeezed tighter and screamed "Monster!" and pointed behind us. I turned around to see nothing but Ryu standing behind us. I turned to back around to see she had pulled out a kunai "KILL IT!" She screamed in terror. "Aww, it’s okay, that's just Ryu," I said as I tried to pry the kunai from her tiny hands, "Ryu lay down" I said. "I will this time but remember I'm not a dog, Gary." Ryu thought to me, then laid down on his side. "See," I said "He's nice. He's not a monster, he's a dragon. He's my best friend." I managed to pull the kunai out of her hand. She looked up at me and then began slowly walking towards Ryu. She stopped and looked back at me and I smiled. She then ran and rubbed Ryu's belly. "He's pretty!" She said loudly, and then began rubbing his spikes. Happy with the results of her encounter, I smiled. "Thanks for the compliment" Ryu said. "You're welcome" she replied. We froze in shock, "You understood him!? What's your name?" I asked with surprise. "Kia. Yes, he has a nice voice" she laughed. I was stuck, she wasn't of my bloodline to be able to understand him, but I dint challenge it either. "So why are you alone? Where are your parents?" I asked. She stopped for a moment, began to cry and hugged Ryu. "They were eaten." She cried. Again we were stunned by the little girl, "Eaten? Are you sure? How?" Ryu asked her. She then weaved a traumatizing story of how her parents were eaten alive by an overweight ninja in all black in their home, and her escape. "I’ll find the ninja and get revenge for your parents, until then, you stay with us." And with that we were lead here to the swamp. Darki, of Team Kage, was in pursuit of the ninja as well when he decided to team up. "Gary, do you think people have died in this swamp?" Darki asked. I looked around and answered quietly, "Yes." I looked back to see Kia passed out on Ryu's back. "Why are you pursuing the ninja?" I asked Darki. "He ate my weapons and money." He replied with disgust. "He's name is Gluttony, he was with a ninja Avatar by the name of Asaso, but I have no clue what tailed beast he was." The name Asaso seemed familiar to me but I couldn't remember. Darki ran in front of me, a chain was hanging from his hand. He is about 5' 6", dress in dark purple, and long sleeve vest on his left arm, chained shorts, and a spike banned right arm without saying anything I stopped and watched him. He swung the chain around then tossed it into the air. It hit a tree and separated into twelve pieces then landed into Darki's hand. "There are twelve souls here" Darki said. "How do you know? Your chain?" I asked. He nodded in response. I knew little of how Darki's powers as the 2 Tails Avatar worked, so working with Darki would help. Even though our Teams rival each other, Darki and I had never had problems with each other, allowing us to work together freely without conflict, although his powers disturbed me.

As we continued through the swamp, the vegetation became thicker and the sky grew darker. "What makes him so sure Gluttony is in here?" Ryu asked, I relayed the question to Darki. "When Gluttony consumes people he has to hide because his true form will be unleashed. He will consume every around him for the next 15 minutes, until he can return to his face form." We soaked this in for a moment then I asked "How do you know all this?" Darki chuckled "I shook down his right hand man, then ate his soul." Ryu let out a suppressed noise then I relayed the question again. "But still what makes you sure he's here?" I asked. Darki scratched his head "When in his true form he came here to eat all this trees without getting noticed." This raised additional questions but I decided not to ask, it was getting dark and Kia need to be sheltered from the cold night. "Darki let’s stop here. It’s getting late and we should set up camp." I said. "Make camp where? This is all mud and dirty water!" He said waving his arms around. "7 Tailed Avatar, remember?" I reminded him. I touched the ground "Earth Swallow, Rock Style!" The ground began to rumble then giant rocks rose from the ground and began to surround us. The ground began to push the trees from around us and rise under us. Soon enough we were in a large, round, rock cave. Darki lit a sparkler and created a fire in the center of the cave. "’Ill keep watch for the first half of tonight" Darki volunteered. I nodded and watched him walk outside to sit guard on top of the cave. I turned to see Ryu next to the fire with Kia sprawled out across his back. I walked to them and took off my shirt and laid it on the ground next to Ryu, then laid Kia on it. "We should get rest Gary." Ryu thought. I nodded and laid next to Kia and dozed off.

"Gary!" I heard Darki yell, "Get out here!" I looked around to see Ryu alert and standing over Kia. "Get out there Gary!" He thought. Without hesitation I jumped over the fire and ran outside the cave. 30 feet in front of me, Darki's chains were hanging to the floor. He was panting heavily and in front of him were two figures. The one on the left was wearing purple plated, lightwood, clothing with cloth over it, and his left hand seemed to be mechanical, and he had spiky orange hair and dull Grey eyes. The one the right was a large figure dressed in black, his eyes glowed red and he reeked of the stench of blood and rotten food. I ran to Darki's side without taking my eyes off our enemies. "I smell the little girl." The ninja in black half laughed half growled. This struck me with anger. "Gary, that's Gluttony, if you haven't figured out by now." As he talked, I saw blood drip from his mouth through the corner of his mouth. "You're hurt?" I asked Darki, but before he could answer, the orange haired ninja cut in. "Gary Takamaru!" I glared at him and awaited his next words. "Your death is my rebirth!" He screamed in a horridly distorted "I am Asaso Garr!" I couldn't understand what was going on. "I don't know you." I said He screamed and mechanical hand morphed into an axe. Me and Darki braced ourselves, he lifted his chain and I drew a kunai. Asaso charged, swinging his axe around violently. As he swung I noticed the blade was oozing a purple fluid. "Darki, tie down his axe arm thing!" Darki swung his chain and caught the axe, then tugged him forward violently. He came surging forward; I took my chance and launched myself into the air. "Megaton Smash!" I slammed both feet on Asaso, but he melted into mud. "A clone!" Darki released his chain and we turned around to see Gluttony running to the cave. With a burst of speed like never before, I dashed passed Darki to reach Gluttony. Out there corner of my eye, I caught a glimpse of Asaso emerging from a tree at me. Darki intercepted him before he could reach me. "Soul Breacher!" Darki's hands glowed as he punched Asaso. I continue my pursuit to Gluttony. He ran into the cave before me, but stopped. I readied my kunai to strike when Ryu erupted from the ground and hit Gluttony with his Dragon Blades attack. Gluttony went flying through the roof of the spherical cave. "Ryu," I looked down into the hole where he emerged from, Kia looked up at me with tears in her eyes "Get Kia out of here as fast as you can, take her back to the mountains." Ryu looked at me "Okay." He jumped back into the hole and burrowed deeper down. I touched the ground "Earth Crunch!" Teeth like spikes emerged from all sides of the cave walls and began enclosing. When I felt the wall were close enough together I jumped out of the hole in the roof. I ran down the giant mound to see three of Darki's clones had a hold of Gluttony, but it wasn't long before he broke loose and ate them. I launched myself off the mound and front of Gluttony, "Why did you eat that girl's parents?" I demanded. He laughed and licked his lips "I ate her parents, I'm going to eat you, I'll eat your friend, I’ll eat that damned lizard that hit me, then for dessert I’ll devour the little girl." He chuckled. "You're a moron." I sneered back. I took flight and began my flurry of kicks. Round house, spinning back, reverse kick, side kick rising dragon, side sweep, before I could perform an axe kick I noticed his mouth was open with sharp teeth ready to take a chunk out of my foot. I swung backwards and back flipped ten feet from him "Sick bastard!" I yelled, and then pulled my mask over my mouth and nose. He disgusted me. I took a moment to analyze the situation. Gluttony would clearly eat me, so I had to avoid his mouth at all cost. That ruled out most taijutsu. There was also the little fact that he couldn't be killed, and he hadn't released his true form. I pulled out some shuriken and began throwing them, which he dodged with ease, but he was slow. "Where's Darki? Did he kill your friend and leave already?" I taunted. Gluttony licked his lips for the thousandth time "Asaso is probably killing Darki with his Toxin Blaze Jutsu." This meant Asaso was the 4 Tailed Avatar. "I am Gary Takamaru, and I'm going to kill you for eating Kia's parents."

Gluttony made a loud noise and began shooting Air bullets at me. I took off into nearby trees, and back into the swamp. It was clear he was following me when a branch I landed on broke; he was still shooting Air Bullets. I turn around and faced Gluttony who was growing in size. "Earth Blast!" I shot balls of rock from my mouth at Gluttony. They connected, but it didn't faze him. "You are the 7 Tailed Badger's Avatar, I expected more of a fight from you" He said with a grin. Every time he opened his mouth it disgusted me. "Fine," I said "I'll show you the power of Earth!" I jumped off the tree into the muddy swamp. "Earth Style, Earth Dragon Bomb!" The mud in front morphed into a dragon head and shot balls of mud at Gluttony. I watched him jump from tree to tree, narrowly dodging each blow. He dodged the last bomb then shot back with an Air Bullet. "Earth Dragon Jutsu!" the mud dragon head hardened to stone and pulled out of the ground a full stone dragon. It spiraled around the air bullet and diminished it, then headed for Gluttony. Before it could ram into Gluttony he opened his mouth to eat it, "Yeah right!" I made the dragon circle around and bind him. "Caught you," I said "Dragon Blade!" The Earth Chakra swirled densely in my hand, I ran up tree, ready to thrust the ball into his heart. "I'll eat you!" he yelled then his muscles grew 3 times his size from before, snapping the rock dragon to pieces. I jumped to avoid the falling rocks and landed in front of him, his body began to transform. He was now muscular, but his body was all black. Nothing showed except his sharp, white, teeth. "Dammit," I thought "I didn't know he would transform so soon." The pressure was on, now I had 10 minutes of hell to deal with this monster. He smiled a wide devilish grin and started chomping up and down. "Stop!" I yelled I ran at him without thinking. He rushed forward and punched me, smashing me backwards into the tree. Before I realize what happened he grabbed me by my legs and blasted me into muddy water. "Damn his speed is incredible" I thought. He began eating the tree he was standing on, when suddenly his mouth absorbed it. This shocked me, but I wasn't stuck. I stood up out of the sticky mud, and glared at Gluttony "You're still sick." He faced me and charged. He raised a furry of attempts to bite and grab me. Each chomp, each grab, I dodged, without fail. I couldn't keep this up for 10 minutes, not like this, each time he attacked, he got closer, and I was getting slowly closer to more trees. Finally I decided to strike back with and upper cut, that snapped his head toward the sky. I took my chance and burrowed underground and came out 15 feet behind him. "What the hell?" I looked at my arm. Blood ran down my hand to my elbow then dripped off, I had grazed his teeth. He turned around and looked at me then licked the blood off his teeth. He grew some more and lifted his hands to show his hands had teeth on them. "I didn't want to do this," I said slowly, "But I have to, if I'm going to get revenge for you eating Kia's parents." I sat on the ground. "You wanted to see the true power of the 7 Tailed Beast, I will show you." I laughed, then added "Sick bastard." This was a suicide attempt, if I release the Beast Chakra, without Ryu to suppress it, I would turn to stone. I closed my eyes and tapped into my core. Normally the Beast's Chakra would be released through anger, but survival would trigger it as well. I need to survive this fight to get revenge for Kia. I could feel the Beast chakra oozing out. Rock began swirling around me, and an Earth Chakra aura surrounded me and took the shape of the 7 tailed Badger. "This is the true power of the 7 tailed Avatar!" I swished the 7 tails of Earth chakra. Gluttony seemed to freeze in my presence. He turned and sucked in four trees, and grew to 13 feet tall. I roared, and then ran and I shot thousands of pebbles at him. He slammed his hand down, but I dodged. I burrowed underground then erupted and wrapped a tail around his arm and pulled him into the ground. "Earth Terror!" this was my only Genjutsu. I had based it when the 7 Tailed Badger came to me in my dream. Surround Gluttony from every angle, I was 4 times his size. All he could see was darkness and me. With one tail, I grabbed him and with another I began stabbing him. He screamed and squirmed free and began running. I summoned rock hundreds of rock hands that went after him, grabbing and clawing. He continued to run in fear when I noticed my right hand was becoming heavy "I'm using up too much energy, its speeding up the Stone Curse" I thought "How much longer do I have to keep this up?" I sent more dragons flying at Gluttony. They caught and held onto him. Slowly he began break free and devour the rocks. "Nin-Gen!" I had to damage him hard with Ninjutsu while he was still under my Genjutsu. "Earth Dragon!" I summon 20 Stone Dragons that all flew out and attacked him, each hitting from every direction possible. I tightened their swirling around him and sped them up. I could hear him screaming for it to stop when I notice the amount of chakra it took to control the dragons was lessening. "You're eating them you Fat Ass!" I thought. "Earth Razor Storm!" The dragons broke up and a giant whirlwind of rocks began cutting and swirling around Gluttony. I could feel him resisting. "Die!" I yelled then stabbed all of my 7 tails in and out of the cyclone, stabbing Gluttony each time. "DIE!" I stabbed faster and harder. I hadn't realized it but my whole right side was stone. I went to crouch but couldn't I stabbed harder, I could feel the blood oozing out of him. I tightened the cyclone even more and stabbed more violently than before. “GARY-“ I heard a voice. I ignored it, I wasn't going to stop up I gutted Gluttony. Using my tails, I began slicing and hacking. “GARY-“ The voice called again, "It's just the Stone Curse." I thought. The stone covered my whole body and was heading up for my neck. Suddenly, I could feel a strain on my chakra; I couldn't keep my eyes open I closed my eyes. When I opened them back up, I was back in the swamp and my brother Leo was holding me "Gary! Are you okay?" I looked at him "Leo, how did you get here?" I asked, barely able to speak, fighting to stay awake. "Ryu came and got me, he was with a young girl and sent me in here to get you." Leo said sternly. Leo had saved me from the Stone Curse plenty of times before. "Kia…What about Gluttony?" I asked frantically I looked just over my head to see Darki glowing purple black, with 4 spirits surrounding him. He was fighting Gluttony. One of the spirits flew over to us and moaned "Get Gary out of here, Leo." It was a soul of one of the people that had died in the swamp. "Darki doesn't need our help?" I asked faintly. Darki looked over and shouted "Get Gary out of here!" Leo laughed and slung me over his shoulder. "C'mon lil bro'." As Leo carried me off I looked up to see Asaso sneaking up behind Gluttony, then I blacked out.

I awoke in my bed in my childhood home, with Ryu curled around me and Kia on top of him. I rubbed Ryu's shinny emerald spikes. "I hope Darki is okay," I was no longer stone, Leo cured me. I wanted to help but I still couldn't move. I looked over at Kia who was passed out, and grabbed her tiny hand, "You can stay with us Kia" then I went back to sleep.