Chapter 99: A Warning.
"What are you and what have you done?" A bold voice sounded through the grey fog as a tan-skinned man spoke boldly while looking at the man on the throne who was looking at them all with clear disinterest in his posture.
"A?" A short stout man asked with confusion as he looked at the tall burly man whose facial features remained hidden because of a misty mirage.
"Shorty?" Tsunade mumbled but her voice was heard loud and clear, causing the man who it was directed towards to turn around instantly and look at her.
".....you! I don't know who you are yet! But I'll make sure you find you and beat the sh- *Crack* MY BACK!!!"
"Hmpf. What are you all doing? Can't you be serious? We've been dragged here. Disregarding our strengths. What do you want to do? Threaten all the Great Shinobi nations at once?" Rasa shouted before looking at the man on the throne with his hands outstretched.
A golden spear formed at the tip of his fingers before it was held taut in its position as the man spoke again.
"Who're you? What have you done? How have you brought us here? And what is your purpose?"
The man sitting on the throne didn't even flinch when the sharp end of the spear was pointed right at him.
But after a few seconds, he finally stood up and slowly walked towards the red-haired man.
While everyone stood on guard against the masked man dressed in colourful clothes, Tachibana himself was thinking other things like-
'Can I steal this gold?'
'I mean…if he was so nice to bring it here then I should be able to keep it right?'
'Like, he's threatened me…so he should pay the price of offending me…'
Tachibana came to a stop in front of the spear and with his expression and gaze masked by the grey fog observed it with his spirit vision for a while.
'Tsk.'
'It's just an astral projection of the gold dust that he had on him before he arrived here.'
'I can't do anything with it.'
"Useless." Tachibana finally mumbled out loud causing his voice to rumble all across the Grey Fog with all the people that had been summoned into it to tighten their muscles.
"Haha~! Kid! He called you useless." Onoki spoke humorously while forcing his hands into a small box, causing a small white beam of light to form inside it.
Tachibana looked at it and thought for a few seconds.
'Will I get disintegrated if I get hit by that thing?'
'How are they even using chakra in this place?'
[ The host must realise that as long as they had chakra in their bodies when they were pulled into the Sefirah Castle, their chakra will come along with them since it is made from their spiritual energy. ]
'I see…'
The white beam in Onoki's hands pulsated ominously as he spoke with a sharp glint in his tone.
"Who are you? Why have you brought us here? How have you brought us here?"
Tachibana looked at the short man for a few seconds before shaking his head.
"Useless."
'I'm pretty sure the grey fog can obliterate him a billion times before he even releases that disintegrating ray…'
'Even if he does use it faster than I can use the fog I still have other ways to escape it…'
With that said Tachibana quietly turned around, walked back to his seat and sat down just as lifelessly as he was sitting there before.
His words had brought great annoyance to all the five people that had been summoned as they had never been so blatantly dismissed before.
The short man was about to shout or curse out loud but Tsunade beat him to the punch.
"The hell do you mean useless-useless? Tell us why you've brought us here, or don't expect to go back alive!"
All the five people's bodies hardened as they put on a tough front as if agreeing with Tsunade's statement.
Tachibana's attention finally shifted towards Tsunade. He then looked at everyone else before speaking calmly.
"I brought you here…"
With Tachibana speaking, everyone paid attention. Rasa dropped his spear a little, while Onoki lowered his particle beam.
"I brought you here to warn you."
Tachibana said nothing after that and caused a small silence to occur before the short man re-aimed his beam at Tachibana.
"Enough of playing around. I've been good till now. But if you can't listen to-"
*RUMBLEEEEEEEEEE*
The entire grey fog trembled, as a mass of it formed above the short man's head.
It felt like the entire dark grey sky had cracked and was about to fall on the small man.
Everyone became a little fearful at the display but before anything could happen the tan-skinned man vanished from his place before appearing behind Tachibana at light speed.
His hand flicked towards Tachibana's neck and within a moment, before anyone else even realised what was happening, Tachibana's head was separate-
A was about to rejoice in killing the person before him but before he could do anything, a shiver ran down his spine.
The body that had just been beheaded suddenly turned into a poor copy made out of paper, before Tachibana reappeared behind A.
Tachibana had used his skill, paper substitution, a skill which allowed him to shift any damage on his to his paper substitutes.
Tachibana was holding a simple playing card on the man's neck, and its sharp edge had already caused a thin cut to appear on his neck.
"Rude." Tachibana whispered and simply sliced the card halfway through the man's shoulder and left it in there to burn with a simple flick of his spirituality.
A retreated immediately, holding his arm and looking at Tachibana warily as he quickly did his best to pull out the burning paper card in his shoulder.
"Trying to escape? After you tried to kill me?" Tachibana said sarcastically. "And where do you want to go? Home?"
A's expression morphed into a frown but Tachibana was still impressed that the man stood still while holding in the pain from his body being burnt.
"*sigh* Like I said. I brought you in here to warn you." Tachibana explained again and sat down in his chair.
"Warn us against what?" Terumi asked while looking at Tachibana seriously.
'Finally~! Someone is asking the right question…'
"Against going to war." Tachibana's words caused all the Kage to frown as A and Onoki simultaneously spoke up.
"You can't tell me how to run my country! Kumogakure/Iwagakure will never bow to you!"
Tachibana looked at the two and shook his head again.
"I don't care what you think. If you go to war, I'll make sure you won't be around for what's to come. And then you'll have to face the coming troubles alone, while the rest of the shinobi nations feast on your bones to grow stronger."
Tachibana's words caused the Kage to fall into confusion but before they could ask another question or even clarify what he was talking about, Tachibana flicked his hand and disconnected them from the Sefirah Castle, sending them back to where ever he'd summoned their astral bodies from.