As the ninjas stood about discussing how easily the hunters were subdued, their slumbering captive sat up within his cage. He folded his legs beneath himself and looked at them all. The time for facades was over. He flexed his arms and waves of chakra surged outward from him. The air pressure around him built and with a magnificent, thunderous clap, the cage exploded outward. He stood within the wreckage as the dust settled. His rags were gone, he was bare chested, clothed only in a pair of loose fitting pants and combat boots. His chest was adorned by hundreds of intricate tattoos of various shapes, sizes, and meanings. His face was no longer hidden beneath wraps of cloth. He stood, confident and strong, old scars and blistered skin puckering out around the metal mask that was melded to his face. Two tattoos along his collar bone lit up, and the man was suddenly holding a hammer and sickle. Even as the dust was still fluttering in the air, he burst forward. He brought the hammer down, smashing its head to the earth and sending a shockwave rippling across its surface.

"Oh good it is him." Tsu said in a bland voice, trying her very hardest to not sound scared or surprised before throwing the last of her kunai in his direction. She doubted it would do anything really. "Everyone get back!" she yelled out as she prepared for the fight.

Akane jumped a bit when the cage exploded. Seeing debris fly outward, she turned her body and used her arm, leg and shoulder to protect El from anything that may come their way. So much for remaining undisturbed... All in all he probably only got a half hour of sleep tops.

Hinji was not surprised to discover that it was who he had been telling them it was. He was, however, bothered at how easily his trap was defeated. He had hoped it would have ripped the man apart should he try to escape. He was knocked to the ground, rather undignified, as the burst hit him. He rebounded quickly and readied himself for another attack.

Oita grimaced at the explosion, diving away from the explosion and scrabbling across the floor with a low grunt. He let out a low curse and twitched, trying to drag his way towards his items. He needed his puppets for this fight he could tell.

El jerked awake beneath Akane's protective arms and was pretty sure he'd inadvertently headbutted Akane's breasts. Not that it mattered in their current situation. He knew something had happened, but what he couldn't tell. He held Akane's upper arm as bits of Hinji's trap clattered around them.

The force of the blast knocked Kami who was not at all expecting it, directly into Kano. Master Risu thankfully had time to grab her hair to keep from being flung off her shoulder.

"You okay?" Akane asked, looking at El. Not seeing any immediate injuries, she stated, "Looks like that old man was our guy after all." She grabbed his hat and guitar and handed them over.

"Ooof!" Kano grunted as Kami was flung into him. He closed his arms around her and held his ground against the blast. He was starting to hate being right...

Ishiaki shielded his face as the blast settled. His sword flashed and it appeared before him defensively. "No one bought your act, Tetsu."

"Like it really matters." He replied, his voice a gravely mess. He stood up straight, his height making him tower over them all. He smirked and tilted his head to the side a little. "The poison rice ball was a nice touch."

"How'd you fight the sleeping medicine?" Tsu called out, wondering what the best thing to do would be. They needed people to be safe after all... and this guy needed to leave.

"There isn't a poison or toxin that stays in my system for very long. I must say though, the nap was actually rather pleasant." Tetsu answered with a lopsided grin. She'd led him right into the same problem that most egomaniacal villains had, monologuing. "So you've killed all my underlings? A shame, that, some of them were rather good. I suppose...I shall have to return the favor." His eyes darted about the younger ninjas in the vicinity. The eldest one, Ishiaki, was clearly the leader, so the question was, which of these seven children should die first?

Hinji met Tetsu's gaze as it swept across the young ninjas. He knew of this man's power, but he did not fear him and he wanted this man to know that.

"He used chakra to burn off the drug." Kami told Kano, trying to get up without harming him. "Here." She opened her pack, feeling. She remembered where she'd felt Oita's fingers put the bottle and handed it to Kano. "Is it green?" She asked. "If it's the green one smash it into his face or eyes. either this much will kill him, or knock him out for a week."

"Fine..." El groaned, trying to help Akane to her feet. Half an hour was certainly not enough sleep.

"Slight problem with smashing in his face..." Kano mumbled as he took the vial. It was the green one, luckily. "He's 'The Iron-Faced' remember? If you could see, you'd see how he got the name..."

Oita was scrabbling along, grunting and grabbing at his pack. He was digging through it, eyes flicking between Tetsu and his pack. At least he was taking his time around it.

Tsu grit her teeth, then grinned. He seemed to like to talk. "Before you try to kill us all, don't suppose you'd be so nice as to tell us WHAT you're actually looking for? No one would tell us."

"Put it on a kunai." Master Risu told Kano from his position in Kami's hair. "Several and let me dip mine. Kami dear, I'm afraid I cannot act as your eyes once the fighting starts." He preformed a jutsu and Tsuri one of his Jonin appeared on the ground before them.
"Master-" Tsuri took in the situation quickly and pulled a sword as long as a chopstick. Which was quite long for a squirrel.
"Guard Kaminari and keep her safe." Master Risu said as he jumped from Kami's shoulder to Kano's. "She's been blinded."
"I can still be useful." Kami argued.
"You have been." Master Risu said. "Your boy and I will take your drug to the enemy and see to it that he is tainted with it."

"Akane..." El said, trying to lean on the wagon and not her. "Would you be a dear and hand me my guitar?"

"Are you sure you are up for this? Maybe you should hang back." Akane said, giving him his things. "I can stay with you and we can be back up."

Kano glanced at the squirrel when he switched to his shoulder. "Got some sort of plan on getting close enough, Master Risu? I don't think he's going to just let us up close to get him." He took a kunai from his pouch and applied the green fluid to the blade.

Tetsu tilted his head to the side and smiled slyly. The metal of his face left only his mouth unhidden, and the smile granted quite an odd appearance upon his facade. "You mean to tell me that the high and mighty Head Merchant didn't tell you what he's caring in that carriage of his?" He laughed and shook his head. He held his hands out to his sides and the weapons vanished, the tattoos upon his collar bone glowing once more. "Far be it from me to disclose something like that. You should really ask him. I offered him a far better deal than the one he had with the Kugutsuo, but he refused my payment." He laughed again, shaking his head. "Can you believe that? The greedy little snake actually refused more money!"

"At the moment, to utilize my size." Master Risu told Kano. "Being small I am less likely to be noticed. You..." He smirked as he eyed Kano. "Are a rather flashy distraction."

"You may be right." El said. "Just for now. It looks as if Kami has the same idea. Should we pull back to her position and let the others take the fight to him?"

"Sounds good." Akane agreed and began running in that direction with El, keeping a distance from the main fight and the villain in question.

"You know what? When you die, I don't think I'll ask." Tsu said flatly, staring at the man and frowning, hands on her hips now, barely in a fighting position at all "I won't care anymore. You'll be dead, for some reason that no one knows about, and no one cares about, because you're a greedy idiot."

"Thanks for noticing." Kano told the squirrel with a wide smile. He rolled his shoulders and popped his neck. They would probably only get the one chance at this. "You ready, old timer?"

"Oh yes... I'm the greedy one, when I offered to part ways with more money that the Kugutsuo." Tetsu answered, shaking his head. He shrugged and a different set of tattoos light up on the man's shoulders. "You talk to much, twerp. I think I'll kill you first." The tattoos exploded in twin Poofs of smoke. When they cleared, from the man's shoulders appeared two massive multi-barreled, spinning guns, with great lengthy chains of ammunition. The barrels hummed softly as they began to spin, warming up to begin firing.

"Ha, like you could hit me!" Tsu yelled out to Tetsu, hoping the others were taking this opportunity to do something while she taunted him. She bent double for half a second, then was off, darting along, moving to draw the fire away from the others. She needed to move fast enough that she was difficult to aim at, but not so fast that Tetsu lost sight of her.

"As ready as I'll ever be." Master Risu told Kano and jumped into the canopy above to get into position. He was quick and small and in the trees he knew how to use them to his benefit. Not even Kami, who knew what to look for, could probably track his movement. He circled around behind Tetsu and prepared to deliver Kami's toxin directly to the source, only this time, between he and Kano, a much more concentrated dose.

Hinji knew that those things would most likely tear through anything he brought out, the best thing he could do was make hitting his target more difficult. Maybe he could damage the tattoos and render them useless? While he pondered this, he flicked a card onto the field that popped up many bird sized creatures. These creatures were intended to block incoming kunai or the occasional arrow, he hoped they would do the same with bullets as they picked their persons to protect.

Ishiaki brought his sword up before him defensively. He'd seen weapons like that before. It wouldn't really matter if Tetsu could see them or not. The man would likely just fire at random and tear apart anything in the way.

Kano gripped the poisoned kunai tightly and charged towards the man. The shoulder weapons were impressive, but he'd never seen their like before. He had a job to do, and wasn't about to sit about pondering how to get it done. "Tetsu! You're going down!" He bravely, or probably more likely, foolishly, shouted as he leaped forward to attack.

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