Kapitel 33: Secret Base (2)
The enemy ninja didn't know what to think about the current situation.
A young girl had popped up from a scroll, most likely the work of a fuinjutsu. She didn't look like a shinobi, even leaning a bit on the weak side. Her first impression surely didn't help to put her as a threat. The ninja simply wrote her off as another pebble to clear on their way.
While the two kids were bickering with each other, the ninja prepared their kunai, desiring to make a quick work out of them so that they could help their allies on the other side of the wall.
When that girl had stood up, however, their hands began to tremble uncontrollably.
Bluish glow enveloped her body, giving off an eerie atmosphere. Even though her face was hidden behind that stupid-looking mask, they could somehow tell that the gaze looming over them was the gaze of a predator.
"So? What's the situation? Are those guys enemies?" Hikari glanced at Kiba.
The boy shuddered. The sudden pressure emanating from her had snapped him out of his earlier stupor.
"Ah... yeah, they are."
He didn't dare to reply more than necessary, since she was sounding really, really grumpy at the moment...
Hikari was cursing her vixen acquaintance in her mind over and over again for trapping her inside that scroll. Her mood was already at rock bottom. Thankfully, there were some poor idiots standing over there to serve as targets for her venting.
How convenient~
The edge of her lips tugged upward, forming an evil smile.
The ninja's hands trembled even harder. They had this sudden premonition that if they didn't do anything, their could just say bye bye to the living world.
"D-d-damnit! Attack! Attack!"
One person formed the hand seals for Wind Release, while the other two did an identical seals for Fire Release. The resulting flame was boosted by the gust, turning it into a scorching blanket that spread over the two kids in an instant.
"That's the combination jutsu from before!" Kiba exclaimed.
"Parlor trick."
Instead of retreating, the girl jumped straight toward the flame, twisting her body as she drawn her sword in blinding speed.
<<Emei Sect Hard-Sword Style: Butterfly Wing Clip>>
Her blade, infused with chakra, cut the air so fast it almost break the sound barrier.
The incoming flame was horizontally split in two, turning them into nothing more than a warm breeze. They flickered for a little while before fading away.
Kiba's jaw was hung down so wide it almost touched the ground. When she saw how shocked he was, she clicked her tongue.
"What? Why are you so afraid of a little flame? They can't cut you, they can't stab you, what's there to fear?"
Little. Flame.
The ninja felt like she was mocking their entire career for some reason...
Ignoring their stupefied expressions, she looked back to the boy sprawled on the ground behind her.
"Kiba."
"H-huh?"
"What are you waiting for? Go."
He didn't know why, but he got a feeling that if he didn't fight, she'd be the one to beat him up instead.
"Aaah! I don't care anymore! Let's do this, Akamaru!"
Awoooo!
With a cloud of smoke, the puppy transformed into an exact clone of Kiba. Dashing on all-four, the two blurs leaped into the air, spinning ferociously.
<Beast Human Taijutsu Secret Art: Fang Passing Fang>
Twin drills gouged through the air, aiming at the ninja in the middle.
"Blast it! Don't look down on us!"
<Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall>
Three layers of earthen walls rose in an instant, stopping Kiba and Akamaru's path as they crashed onto the impenetrable surface. They only managed to make a crack on the first wall, which was quickly repairing itself as the ninja frantically poured even more chakra regardless of the efficiency.
"Tch- they're really intent on turtling there... ugh?!"
Kiba had a goosebumps as he suddenly felt a terrifying aura coming from behind. When he glanced back, he saw the girl getting even more irritated, the blade on her hand slowly drawn forward.
He gulped.
'If I can't break through this, I'll be one getting broken instead!'
"Akamaru! Let's use 'that'! We have to succeed no matter what!"
Woof!
Akamaru reverted to his real form, and then jumped onto Kiba's head as the boy formed a Tiger hand seal.
<Inuzuka-Style: Human Beast Combination Transformation: Double-Headed Wolf>
A huge cloud of smoke covered their spot. By the time that the smoke had dissipated, a gigantic two-headed, white-furred dog heavily resembling Akamaru stood in their place.
"Wow!"
Hikari's eyes widened up with amazement. She had expected that Kiba would use his signature techniques again, so this one had managed to surprise her.
The two-headed dog let out a deafening roar, shaking the entire forest.
"Eat this!"
<Beast Human Taijutsu Secret Art: Fang Wolf Fang>
The monstrous canine leaped forward and spun their body violently with speed surpassing all the techniques that Kiba had showed so far. They crashed into the stone walls, producing cracks at the moment of impact. The walls immediately crumbled into pieces as they torn through like hot knife slicing through butter.
"Damnit-!"
Since the deadly spin traversed in a straight path, the ninja hiding behind the walls managed to avoid a direct hit at the last moment. However, they didn't expect the resulting shockwave from the spin to still hit them, sending them flying and leaving deep gashes on their bodies.
Kiba undid the transformation in a poof of smoke as the last wall turned into a pile of rubble.
"Ugh... you bastard...!"
The first ninja to recover quickly formed hand signs, intending to retaliate with a jutsu of his own. However, his hands stopped moving when he noticed a suffocating killing intent appearing right behind him.
The ninjato on Hikari's hand was swung upward, cutting through the man's neck with such ease that she had decapitated him in one strike before he could even utter a single word.
His quick death frightened the other two ninja so much that they were frozen on their spot for a brief moment. Taking advantage of that chance, Kiba and Akamaru tackled each of them to the ground.
Transforming into a clone of Kiba, Akamaru pulled a Kunai from the ninja's pouch, and then stabbed it right through the ninja's neck, killing him in one blow.
"A-Akamaru?!"
Kiba was dumbfounded. He had merely knocked the ninja down with a smack to the head, thinking that the others would had done the same. To his horror, the girl, and even his partner, had killed their respective targets just like that.
As if they were cattle.
"What are you waiting for? Kill him," Hikari remarked.
"W-what? No! We can't kill him without a direct order!"
"Why not?"
"Because... we can get information from him! It's better to take him back alive!"
Hikari frowned. She readied her blade as she walked toward the boy.
"Move. I'll do it."
"...But-!"
"Haah!"
A low grunt suddenly came from below. The ninja that Kiba thought was knocked unconscious was somehow still awake, and he had finished his hand sign. With a poof, he had disappeared, leaving only a thin log behind.
"..."
The girl lifted up her mask as she narrowed her eyes at Kiba.
"...W-what?!"
"You're lucky that he'd decided to escape instead of fighting to the end."
At that moment, he was caught off-guard. If that ninja had attacked him...
"..."
The boy covered his mouth, trying to hold the bile rising up his throat. The fear of death finally descended after the adrenaline from the fight had faded away.
Sighing, Hikari patted his shoulder in an attempt to console him.
"You'll get used to it."
Asking him to kill someone might be a bit too cruel. He was barely thirteen, after all...
Leaving him to recuperate under a tree, she turned her attention toward the small creature that was tip-toeing away in the distance. In one swift motion, she caught him right on the nape of his neck and lifted him up.
"Where are you going, Daji~?"
Her whisper sounded saccharine at first glance, but careful observant would notice the underlying coldness hidden within.
"H-Huang'er..."
The puppy made a goofy smile, trying his best to act cute.
"I was just messing around with you... there's a good reason for this..."
"Hmmhmm~ I'm listening. Keep talking~"
Liar! She was clearly not listening, ah! She was dead set on punishing him, ah!
She drew him closer to her face until the tip of their nose touched each other.
"Wait until we're back at the Inuzuka residence~ I'll take a reaaaally good care of you~"
"Venerable Yao! Have mercy! It was a momentary lapse in judgement! Please forgive this humble one!"
While they were having a fun, happy bonding moment, the earthen wall separating them from the other side of the battle started to crack up. It broke down soon after. When the dust finally settled, a lone figure in grey outfit and bear-faced mask stood among a pile of butchered corpses.
Seeing the scene akin to a landscape from hell, Kiba couldn't hold it any longer and puked his lunch back out.
"So you've managed to survive, little boy. Well done," The figure called out to Kiba. However, they tensed up upon noticing Hikari's presence.
The girl had also let go of Akamaru, opting to reach for her blade instead.
"Oi, don't fight him!" Kiba called out. "He's an Anbu from our village! He's an ally!"
"Really?" Hikari relaxed her stance upon hearing that. "Well, then-"
Before she could finish her sentence, the bear-masked figure had sprung up to her, blade glistening under the moonlight. Without any chance to avoid the attack, she was forced to block it with the back of her ninjato.
"You... dolphin-mask!"
"W-what? Do we know each other?"
Hikari was dumbfounded. She had been followed around by these Anbu people for quite a while now. There hadn't been any problem so far, and she didn't remember ever starting one either. Why did this guy suddenly attacked her?
"...Apologies..."
The two broke off contact, creating some distance from each other.
"...There's something that I want to make sure."
The bear-masked figure pushed his feet apart, his stance lowered down as he readied his sword.
"You...!"
Hikari copied his movement, resulting in the exact same form.
For a moment, the two combatants stood still, as if time itself had stopped.
And then,
They lunged forward.
<<Emei Sect Soft-Sword Style: Fleeting Fragrance>>
<<Emei Sect Soft-Sword Style: Dance Over the Moon>>
The lights reflecting from their blades flashed and swerved in a hypnotizing way as their bodies flickered like shadows, their feet enacting dances upon dances of deception. Circling, side-stepping, inching just enough to lure their opponents to strike yet not enough for their blade to come into contact.
At one point, a clanking noise reverberated in the air as their blades finally struck at each other.
""...!""
Stomping their feet on the ground, they forcefully pulled their sword to prepare for their next strike.
<<Emei Sect Hard-Sword Style: Butterfly Wing Clip>>
<<Emei Sect Hard-Sword Style: Descending Phoenix>>
Blades infused with chakra shot out faster than human eyes could see, one slash cutting horizontally why the other fell down from the sky like lightning.
Upon contact, the blades let out a sickening crunch before they were broken in two, the tips darting off uncontrollably before stabbing into the ground far from their owners.
"..."
Ah, that was the ninjato that Tsume had let her borrow...
Wait, no, more importantly,
""Who taught you those moves?""
They asked at the same time, prompting both of them to raise their eyebrow.
Coughing, Hikari decided to reply first.
"Nobody taught me. I learned them myself from a mental copy of the manuals."
The bear-masked figure flinched for a moment. But then, he responded in return.
"I was taught directly by my master, Venerable Zhou."
The voice coming out of the mask began to drip with obvious mockery.
"To be able to imprint our closely-guarded secret manuals into your memory, who else could it be except for that one sneaky thief who dared to infiltrate our mountain in the middle of the day?"
He pulled down his mask, revealing a handsome young man's face. With flushed, jade-like skin and beautiful phoenix eyes, he was the kind of man who could stole a beauty's heart with but a single glance.
His lips parted, allowing for his deep, alluring voice to come out without being obscured by the mask.
The last sentence was spoken in a language that was all-too familiar for Hikari.
The language of her homeland.
"Venerable Yao, is it?"
Those lush lips slowly formed a faint smile.
AUTORENGEDANKEN 
RanixAurus
RanixAurus And that increase the number of reincarnators to... three?
Author isn't stopping just yet! Just you wait! >:3
Also it's an ikemen this time kekekek...
(Meanwhile, the title still isn't relevant to the plot)
-Reincarnating Author
Wöchentlicher Energiestatus
-- Power-
Rangliste 
-- Power-
Stein