Capítulo 25: Chapter 24
Chapter 24
The assassins that Kaen believed pretended to be the farmers were long gone. The little traces they might have left were gone. It was near impossible to track them. At least it would be if he didn't have sharingan. With the knowledge that they might be assassins, Kaen concluded that their target might be Daimyo or one of the Land of the Fire leaders.
The capital was far for ordinary people but only a three days run for a shinobi. But a shinobi from a foreign land would be discovered if they moved through the usual routes. They have to be moving while hiding themselves. To do that, they will move through the forest that few visit.
There weren't that many forests that were not yet cultivated. Making such a deduction, Kaen started running to one of the paths the assassins could have taken. But he wasn't in a hurry. The Daimyo had twelve skilled shinobi that guarded him, so it would be near impossible for them to attack him in the capital. It had to be an ambush.
Kaen summoned Kuro to deliver his findings to the Third Hokage while he moved to the capital. The assassins were patient. The only reason they moved away from the farm was probably that they were suspected. That was why Daimyo was concerned with the village and its farmers.
…
It took a week for Kaen to get confirmation from Daimyo that he suspected the village to be overrun by foreign shinobi forces, but he didn't know their goal. During that time, Kaen managed to find some traces of the group. They moved through the forests and hills that few traveled through.
Kaen found their new hideout near the capital. He made a shadow clone to inform the Daimyo about it. Kaen knew that the twelve guardians were strong but far from the level they were before their infighting. Losing Daimyo would mean war. It didn't matter who sent the assassins. The political party would have no choice but to blame someone, even without evidence, which would bring the lands to war.
Kaen trusted his abilities to defeat the assassins, but before moving in on their hideout, he made traps around it so that nobody could escape. The hideout was inside a cave under a small hill. Kaen didn't know how many of them or how strong they were. So, he moved in at night, infiltrating the hideout.
Only four were awake when Kaen entered their hideout. With a glance, he counted eleven assassins in total. He was used to hiding himself while moving. Even a sensor would have a problem sensing him. The first thing he did was quickly kill the seven who were sleeping. Kaen moved from one to another, stabbing their hearts with poisoned kunai.
He ensured nobody would notice him, but he was still prepared for an all-out fight. In the end, it seemed that the assassins were only good at infiltrating and hiding, as before they even noticed him, he had already killed five of them. Only when he moved to the sixth one did a man with a sword sense him.
A sword flew toward Kaen, so he had no choice but to move and dodge the attack. Doing so exposed his position and woke the two men left sleeping. Now Kaen faced six assassins. Without delay, he prepared. Even if they were not strong, assassins were known for their precision in taking out their targets. These guys seemed to be trained just for such a reason.
"Tao, the rest are already dead," One of the assassins looked at a guy who threw his sword at Kaen.
"Be prepared. That bastard is very skilled and dangerous."
The first thing Kaen did was block the entrance. He didn't want to let anyone escape. Unsealing his chains, Kaen blocked kunai and shuriken thrown at him. To not allow his opponents to gain an advantage, Kaen used Fireball jutsu to put the whole cave into a fire and then covered his mouth and nose. The cave quickly was filled with smoke.
Using his sharingan, Kaen quickly found his targets. His chains flew and wrapped around two throats before strangling them. Then he pulled the two bodies to himself and used them to block the sword and kunai flying toward him. Placing explosive tags on the bodies, Kaen threw them to the rest of the group and jumped out of the cave. Doing one hand sign, the explosive tags exploded, destroying the hideout.
Kaen waited outside for signs of life. And just as he thought he got everyone, the man with the sword burst out of the cave and faced Kaen. From the eyes roaming around the area, Kaen knew that the man didn't want to fight and was prepared to flee. There was no anger in his eyes nor hatred, only fear.
The man moved, making a great leap trying to bypass Kaen, only for him to be caught in Kaen's chains. Not even being able to do anything, the man was brought under Kaen's feet before a seal was put on him. A light disappeared from the man's eyes as he fell into a deep sleep. Seeing that his job was done, Kaen was about to leave when he felt eyes everywhere around him.
Kaen found seven shinobi surrounding him. Observing the enemies with his sharingan, Kaen knew that everyone was skilled. They had him completely surrounded, even though each had unique abilities and techniques. Kaen predicted they worked well together. They weren't part of the assassin's group. Kaen believed they were ROOT.
The first one attacked him without waiting for Kaen to make a move. Kaen threw the assassin he captured away to safety before blocking a punch. Just for this one attack, Kaen knew that his first foe was an expert in taijutsu. Launching a series of swift and decisive punches and kicks, Kaen was pushed back. He knew that soon, the others would join the attacker, so Kaen had to kill him fast.
His sharingan predicted the movements of his foe. Kaen caught his opponent's arm before swiftly breaking it. Before anyone could react, Kaen used a kunai to cut the neck of his first enemy. The dead body didn't even fall to the ground before the rest joined the attack. Kaen's movement was restricted, as behind him was the ruined cave. So, he had no choice but to block the attacks.
A massive scythe aimed to cut Kaen's head, but he managed to block it with his chains, but a wind gust shot out from the scythe and cut Kaen's arms. Before Kaen could make hand seals to create a jutsu, a flood of water was rammed at him, slamming him to the ground. Finding himself overpowered, Kaen activated all the seals he placed in the area.
A massive explosion covered the whole area before dozens of fire snakes emerged, grabbing Kaen's opponents that tried to dodge the blast. Using the opportunity, Kaen used Flame Whirpool jutsu to engulf the man with a scythe, burning him to cinders. Then spinning his chains, Kaen created fire disks that cut down two shinobis restrained by fire snakes in half.
The last three didn't give up and used earth jutsu to trap him. Kaen created a fire cyclone to break through it and slammed his two chains at the fifth enemy. The attack made a small crater with a broken body inside it. The last two used wind and fire jutsu to engulf Kaen, so Kaen used his fire jutsu to counter it.
As Kaen was pushed back in strength and was thinking of unsealing the seals on his body, suddenly, with a gust of wind, the two enemy shinobi fell to the ground, headless. Looking at four new shinobi before his eyes, Kaen was nervous as he ran on low chakra. Seeing Kaen's sharingan looking at them, the four showed their waistcloth marked with kanji, meaning fire.
"We are from the Twelve guardians." One of the men said. "Kaen Uchiha, I presume?"
"That correct," Kaen replied, catching his breath.
"Where they the last of them?" Another asked while pointing at the two headless bodies.
"Yes, there are some in the cave behind me. I didn't have a chance to see if all of them were dead," Kaen informed them. "One is alive. I will take him back to the village to be interrogated."
"Asking for you to hand him over would be too much, I presume?"
"No offense, but the village is more capable of getting the information from their captives than Daimyo men are," Kaen said.
"Well, you did the most work, so it would make us the bad guys if we pressured you anymore. The Daimyo will get all the information he spills, I presume?"
"That's not for me to decide," Kaen replied.
After reporting what he did to the four guardians, Kaen left with his captive. He had to lie and say that the ROOT members were part of the group. It wouldn't be good if shinobi from the village were suspected of working with assassins that aimed for Daimyo's head. And it may fool Danzo into believing that Kaen didn't know who the shinobi were.
…
Even if Danzo tried to hide it, Kaen could see how annoyed he was. Danzo was with the Third Hokage when Kaen made his report. He could see Danzo's lips twitch when he told them how the last two enemy shinobi almost killed him. He made it so that without the members of the Twelve guardians, he wouldn't have made it out alive.
It was all to encourage Danzo to try again. The ROOT had many members, but even then, genuinely skilled ones, like the seven that tried to kill Kaen, were rare. Losing the seven of them was quite a hit for Danzo's power. Another two groups like that, and Danzo will be in big trouble.
"Thank you for your work, Kaen-kun," The Third Hokage said. "Go and rest for now. You will be informed when a new mission is ready for you to take."
With the reward collected, Kaen left for home. His injuries were almost healed, so he decided to rest for tonight, and tomorrow, he decided to review his battle. There were mistakes he made that he shouldn't make again. Kaen wanted to learn more about his enemies as well. With his sharingan, he remembers every movement the ROOT members made.
When he returned to the Uchiha clan compound, he found Sasuke training his taijutsu. Sasuke had already learned the advanced stage of Uchiha taijutsu, and there were less than two years till his graduation. By that time, he might master it. Kaen observed Sasuke without a sound until he finished his katas.
"Kaen," After taking a breather, he noticed Kaen observing him.
"Let's go to eat," Kaen said nothing about his training but only messed up Sasuke's hair. "But first, take a shower. You smell."
While Sasuke went to wash, Kaen took Ash, who was lying on a chair. The furball was still too heavy to be healthy. Well, the cat looked better than last time, and now that he is home more often, Kaen could take care of the grey furball. Sasuke was done, just as Kaen was done putting his stuff away. Then both of them went to have dinner, and Kaen gave some dango for Sasuke.
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