Ugh…
As soon as the group steps onto the fourth floor, a foul stench of blood, feces, rotten flesh, and bones hits the group.
"What's with this rotten stench?" Yuri almost pukes from the foul stench.
There is no light on the fourth floor, and the entire floor is covered in darkness. The anbu members take out a few glow sticks to light their surroundings.
Hmm…
Itachi and Sasuke swiftly take out their kunais and throw them toward the roof.
Bzzt… Crackle…
Lightning flicker across the kunais as they pin down a soccer-sized spider on the roof.
Blue blood falls from the ceiling. The sizzling sound echoes in the area. The corrosive blue blood destroys the floor.
Suddenly, several green eyes glow in the dark.
"Damn it, there are a hundred of them." The anbu quickly grabs their weapon in fright.
"Use lightning jutsu on them. It's their weakness." Itachi swiftly instructs them.
He makes a series of hand signs.
"Lighting Release: Lightning Senbon,"
Itachi fires multiple lightning needles toward the rapidly approaching spiders.
"Lightning Release: Chain lightning,"
"Lightning Release: Thunderbolt strike,"
"Lightning Release: Lightning Quake Flash,"
One after another, the anbus launches several lightning techniques toward the group of spiders.
"Chidori: Crescent Moon Strike,"
Sasuke also throws a crescent lightning blade to finish off the spiders.
"It's coming!"
Suddenly, Yuri's expression turns grim.
"A powerful chakra signature is rapidly approaching us."
Rumble… Rumble…
As soon as she speaks, the ground and the ceiling tremble. Within a few seconds, a giant spider with an upper human torso dashes toward them with its eight legs.
"This… this is…"
"What's this?"
The anbu members gasp in surprise.
The giant spider head opens its mouth and fires a spiderweb at them.
"Dodge it!"
The anbu quickly dodges the spider web.
Pew… Pew… Pew…
The spider continuously fires one spider web after another at the shinobis. A few anbu members are pinned to the wall after the rapid barrage of spider webs. They attempt to cut the webs with their kunais, but it's futile. Itachi also throws a few kunais toward the spider's body, but its hard carapace deflects them.
Itachi and Sasuke run around the spider and target its legs with their lightning jutsus. The eight eyes of the spider trace their movements and fire several hardened organic fluid arrows toward them.
"Chidori: Lightning cutter,"
Sasuke thrust his finger towards the approaching arrows and shatters them.
"Avoid these arrows at all costs!" He notices the power and hardness of the arrows and warns others.
The human body on top of the spider also makes a series of hand signs and opens its mouth.
It spews out blue color flames toward the group.
"Water Release: Water jet,"
The anbu members use water-release jutsu to extinguish the flames.
"These flames are toxic and highly corrosive. Avoid them at all costs!" The vice-captain notices the effect of flames on the walls of the area.
Swoosh…
Suddenly, Sasuke accelerates his speed and disappears from the spider's vision.
"Chidori: Lightning Sword Strike,"
Bzzt… crackle… Slash…
Sasuke flashes past the spider's top and slashes the human torso with his lightning blade.
Swish… swish… swish…
Itachi also makes a series of hand signs.
"Lightning Release: Thunderbolt formation,"
Lightning flickers across the kunais around the lower spider body. A bolt of lightning rises from them and strikes down the revealed flesh of the spider at the human torso.
SCREEE…
The spider releases a painful scream as lightning chars its entire body. It slowly turns into ashes and its human half falls among the ashes.
The human half slowly opens its mouth to whisper something before closing its eyes.
Sasuke clenches his fists as he understands the 'Thank You' words, the dead person whispered.
"Sigh… another unfortunate victim of Orochimaru's experiment." Itachi sighs and closes the eyes of the dead with his hands.
"Let's move forward!" He turns towards his teammates and nods. A few fire users burn the spider-web around their teammates with fire breath.
The group continues to move through the fourth floor. Along the way, the group encounters several more chimera lifeforms and human-beast fusions ranging from gigantic gorilla with tiger's claws and lion's legs to a human-snake hybrid with an upper human body and a lower snake tail.
They also encounter several chimeras of sea creatures and even some avian chimera creatures along the way.
"I have seen such chimeras before." Sasuke opens his mouth.
"Where?" Itachi turns to Sasuke in surprise.
"These chimeras are similar to chimeras created by the rogue shinobi Hiroku. A year ago, he attacked Sunagakure and kidnapped a few elders from Sunagakure to wage war on the five nations. Sunagakure asked for assistance from Konoha since Hiruko was a former missing-nin of Konoha. In the end, our team 7 ended up helping the Sunagakure.
It was during that battle that we encountered several chimeras of Hiruko. However, Hiruko's chimeras were much stronger than these chimeras." Sasuke shakes his head.
The strength of these chimeras isn't half bad. These chimeras are strong enough to go toe-to-toe with Kage-level shinobis in raw power. However, their lack of intelligence and control makes them a lesser threat. Hiruko's chimera was not only stronger but also well-controlled.
"Hmm… this solidifies our earlier speculation of Orochimaru's involvement with Hiruko." Itachi glances at the corpses of the chimeras.
Soon, they blast a hole through the entrance to the fifth floor and continue to move downward.
"We are getting closer to our target!" The vice-captain grits his teeth as he stares at the remaining teammates.
The battle on the previous floor wasn't without a cost. Though they avoided any casualty, a few shinobis were still grievously hurt when facing the strange attacks of chimeras. Especially, a centipede-like creature that dealt the most damage to the group.
Again, the group leaves behind the hurt individuals after treating their wounds with a few of their comrades. The initial size of the group has decreased by seventy-five percent.
Bang…
The barrier shatters, and the group marches through a giant hall on the fifth floor. They continue to walk through the dark corridor and finally notice some light at the exit of the corridor.
Fwoosh… Fwoosh… Fwoosh…
A bright light flashes on the face of the group as several light bulbs light up one after another. The anbu members block the blinding light with their hands and glance at their surroundings.
"Is this some kind of arena?" They look around in surprise.
Swoosh… swoosh… swoosh…
Suddenly, several figures leap into the area and confront the group.
Hmm…
Sasuke's and Itachi's eyes narrow as they glance at the shinobis in front of them. Most of these shinobis are human and only a handful of them have some imperfect body modification of them.
"Who are you?"
Itachi walks forward and questions the shinobis in front of them.
"Ah… we… we are the unlucky fellows who survived the cruel experiments of that snake bastard."
A lean-built young man of average height, with straight white hair with a light-blue tint to them, walks forward. He has almond-shaped purple eyes and jagged teeth with extra-large canines that stick out of his mouth even when closed.
"I am Suigetsu… Suigetsu Hozuki." The young man introduces himself.
"That bastard Orochimaru captured me and that double-eye freak Kabuto experimented on me." Suigetsu has a careless expression on his face as he shakes his head.
"You people seem to be shinobis from Konoha. What are you guys doing here?" Suigetsu asks them.
"Orochimaru is dead and now we are here to capture Kabuto," Sasuke speaks to him. There is no point in hiding their objective since the earlier commotion they created must have already warned everyone here.
"Hmm… you people are quite strong to be able to make it up to here. But your journey ends here."
Suigetsu wields a giant butcher blade from his back and points it toward Sasuke.
The rest of the shinobis also turn hostile toward them.
"We don't want to hurt you. So, it will be better if you surrender." The vice-captain remarks.
"Woah… woah… hold it there! What makes you think you can win against us?" Suigetsu raises his arm and points toward them.
"Also, it's not that we don't want to fight you; but we have no choice but to fight you." Suigetsu points towards a curse mark on his neck.
"Do you see this mark here? It controls our body and if we resist it, then boom…" Suigetsu makes an explosion gesture.
"Our bodies will explode and we will die. So, you see, I don't want to die yet since I have a mission to become the head of the Seven Ninja Swordsman. So, I will apologize in advance for severing your head."
Swoosh…
Suigetsu stomps his foot on the ground. The floor beneath his foot cracks and he disappears.
"You emo-looking kid, you will be the first person I will slice in half."
Shoom…
Suddenly, Suigetsu appears behind Sasuke with his blade and inch away from Sasuke's neck.
"DIEEE for my freedom!"