Chapitre 158: CH_5.15 (158)
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———
.
Takuma retreated towards to where he had left No#1 but found the man to be missing. This was a great problem with fighting multiple opponents; help was readily available—something he had recently taken advantage of against a difficult chunin.
He turned back to the second man and recognized him as No#3.
"I must confess, I don't believe I am someone important enough to warrant an assassination," said Takuma. "So, before I die, tell me who ordered this hit."
"You don't need to know," No#3 rushed him.
Takuma crossed his arm to block a punch that Takuma weaved back, making it miss by the width of a finger. Takuma tried to pull away, but No#3 stuck close, targeting Takuma's top to bottom, landing precise strikes in places that hit. Takuma didn't fall short and managed to disarm the sword on top of getting a couple of soft augmented hits in that did more overall damage.
"Come on, can't you give a dead man his last wish?" asked Takuma as he swung the sword at its owner. He then immediately turned and used the sword to block a sword strike from No#2. "It's not that I'm asking too much, and this won't jeopardize your mission… or is it that you are afraid that I'll kill you and live to tell the tale."
No#2 immediately became more aggressive. Takuma smiled internally and let the man think he had control of the momentum as No#3 joined the fight. A 2v1 was just the way Takuma liked it. He observed the two.
He hadn't noticed it before, but both No#3 and No#2 had shockingly similar fighting styles; the same went for No#1. They had their quirks and adjustments unique to them, but they followed the same combat style—one Takuma hadn't faced yet—which told him that they were trained at the same source, but more importantly, they were trained at the source.
No#2 quite easily disarmed Takuma off the sword he had stolen from No#3, who tried to reach for it, but Takuma kicked the sword away. No#2 used the opportunity to smash his knee into Takuma's face, disorienting him for a moment, which gave No#3 the opening to lay down a lethal combo of a punch to the liver, a palm strike to the chest, which sent Takuma's injury flare up worse than a wildfire, and he finished with a lacerating kunai strike to Takuma's shoulder right shoulder.
Takuma barely raised his arm to block No#2's downward strike. The sword clanged against his metal arm bracer; he didn't cut, but the power behind his strike sent a shock up Takuma's arm; he could already feel the bruise forming.
Takuma swept No#2's feet, but he jumped at the last second, and while in mid-air, No#2 threw his word to No#3 as Takuma watched the blade fly over him and landed in No#3's grip, who swung it down without missing a beat. Takuma moved but got a deep gash on his face.
Takuma's first instinct was to open his eyes wide to check if his eyes were cut, but he could still see normally. The pain, however, ended Takuma's information collection process. He wanted to study their moves and observe their teamwork strategies more, but it was clear that he no longer had the luxury.
He grunted and jumped No#2, who didn't have a sword and took him to the ground. No#2 kneed him in the crouch. Takuma grunted in agony but snarled as he went for a kunai in the stomach that was deflected and ended up in a gash to the side.
His instincts screamed, and Takuma grabbed No#2 and pulled him atop, leading No#3 to slash his teammate. No#3 managed to pull back his swing at the last moment, but not before it had drawn some blood. Takuma yelled as he threw No#2 into the presumably startled No#3 before scampering off into the mist.
Takuma coughed and felt the taste of iron grow heavy. His face burned from the cut; the only silver lining was that the cut was below his eyes, which meant blood wouldn't drip onto his eyes, hindering his vision.
Bearing through the pain, Takuma weaved hand seals and slipped underground like fish in water using the Hiding in the Rock Jutsu. He emerged in a different position inside the mist and closed his eyes to concentrate on the sounds.
The sound of dull metal rang in his year. No#2 or No#3 had retrieved the discarded sword. He focused harder and heard the faint sounds of boots against the hard ground. The assassins were clearly trained to walk quietly, and they were clearly trying to cover their tracks more now that they had no idea where Takuma was, but as Takuma had said, he was better than them at stealth.
He stood up straight, resisting the pain to his shoulder and sides, and slowly weaved hand seals as he walked towards the sounds. He eventually came to a stop at a distance he thought would alert the two men and stood in silence.
With each passing second, holding the chakra building up in his body from the hand seals made it difficult, but he persisted. It was extremely difficult and straining to hold chakra created actively for a jutsu—but he needed them in the proper position. The more he concentrated, the more Takuma heard his own heartbeat pumping faster due to the adrenaline, exertion, and blood loss. Holding chakra made his injured chest hurt, as though the chakra was threatening to tear his flesh and bones apart to jump out.
The two sounds slowly moved closer— closer to him and each other— until they were inside Takuma's strike zone.
Water Release: Wild Water Wave
Takuma sucked in deep as the chakra bubbled with vigor inside his body before unleashing a large torrid water wave that hit the two at full force from a shockingly low distance only achievable by the fog from the Hidden Mist Jutsu that kept Takuma's position hidden.
The sound of water splashing and hitting drowned out all the others, making Takuma lose No#2 and No#3, but he didn't stop and began weaving more hand seals. Before Takuma could complete the hand seals, a voice hit his ear— it came from the opposite direction. Takuma abandoned the hand seals, letting the chakra go to waste.
He skidded his boots against the ground, making ample sound, and then took a high leap into the air. There was no danger of getting sniped in the air because of the fog. Takuma weaved a new set of hand seals, and arcs of lightning buzzed around his arm, culminating in front of his palm. The lightning from Lightning Release: Shock made a crackling noise, echoing loudly in the silent surroundings.
The ugly grin on Takuma's pulled on his wound, flaring up the pain, as he dropped down from the sky and shoved the mass of lightning at point-blank range in No#1's back. It was Takuma's weakest jutsu, but it stung like hell when shoved directly into the body.
No#1 screamed bloody, and Takuma pulled out a kunai to finish the deal when he felt someone sneak behind him. He pushed No#1 and whipped back to block a dagger. The figure was once again dressed in exactly the same attire, but the clothes weren't damaged in any way.
'Number Four,' Takuma almost blurted out, but he kept it quiet in case the assassins realized he was cataloging them by their clothes.
He got no response. No#4 swung his dagger in an aggressive dance with speed and a deadly technique. Takuma found his hand manipulated; every one of No#4's strikes was deliberately placed in attempts to pull Takuma's hand to a position that would make a defense against the next strike difficult. It was a masterful display of precision and understanding of the human body and knife work to be able to pull it off.
He had never faced such an opponent, someone with such high skill. Takuma fared well at the start, but eventually, No#4 got in a strike on Takuma's lower arm, which opened up a suite of opportunities that were immediately cashed in. Within the next couple of seconds, No#4 moved quicker than ever and left multiple minor but painful cuts across his body.
As Takuma hobbled, a light green glow appeared around No#4's left hand. A feeling of fear bubbled up inside Takuma. For the first moment, he didn't realize what the glow was, but the moment No#4 stepped towards him, the recognition alarmed in his mind.
It looked like an iryo-nin's healing jutsu.
No#4 was an iryo-nin. The assassination team had an iryo-nin. The danger assessment inside Takuma's head went up two levels. A team with an iryo-nin was a threat, and this one seemed to be proficient in combat as well.
There was no way No#4 would heal him, which only meant that No#4 was trying to do the opposite. Takuma recalled a conversation with Uchiha Kano about how, with some adjustments, an iryo-nin could turn one of their healing jutsu into something that could sever muscles and fry the nerves.
Takuma couldn't afford that.
But as he shifted his foot, a jolt of pain from his leg almost destroyed his balance. Takuma was sure it was No#4's skillful knife work mixed with his knowledge of human anatomy.
He went for the emergency measure.
Takuma threw the kunai in his hand at No#4, buying him a second, which he used to take out his lowest-grade explosive tag, which he triggered instantly before throwing it in between them. The tag wasn't anchored to a kunai, so it fluttered in the air with the edges burning.
It was a gambit he had used before, but this time, the stakes were higher as he had triggered the tag. He couldn't afford No#4 missing the tag because of the fog.
No#4 froze up and leaped back as the tag exploded, while Takuma could only contract into a tight fetal position, covering his head and ears as the explosive force slammed against him. Takuma was thrown away and rag-dolled against the ground several times.
Pain.
That was all Takuma could feel.
How long had it been since he had felt this amount of pain? Even the chunin from the Police Force raid hadn't pushed him this far. It was in his early days of Ring when he had felt so much pain—when he was forced to armor-less, and his defense wasn't as good as it was today, which made deep stabs and gashes common after match.
He had not missed the feeling at all—but he couldn't deny that it brought a sense of strange calm.
In the face of real danger, his mind was clear. Perhaps, the existential dread he had carried with him in his first and even some part of the second year of his life in this world had tempered his mental resiliency—the possibility of imminent death didn't seem as terrifying as he thought.
Takuma weaved hand seals, and he felt a connection established to puddles or water around him. The liquid rose and flowed behind with a fervor, forming a large blob. He flexed his back muscles with his much pain, and eight glorious water tentacles shot out of the blob.
Takuma took out two more of Sango's painkiller sachets and poured the awfully bitter powder into his mouth. One of the tentacles rose and dropped a mouthful of dirty water into Takuma's mouth to help him down the medicine. He skipped double-dosing to directly triple-dosing himself. Takuma wished he had a soldier pill, but this was his only option.
.
———
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The link is in the synopsis!
Chapitre 159: CH_5.16 (159)
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The link is also in the synopsis
———
.
Six while moving; seven while stationary.
That was Takuma's limit with Eight Tentacles Jutsu. But today, that wasn't something that would work today. He was injured, and the four assassins had an iryo-nin among them, which meant they had slightly less to worry about injuries— but even that small concession turned into a huge advantage when there was only one opponent to fight against.
First order of business, take out No#4; once the iryo-nin was out, the other three would become more cautious, which Takuma would exploit aggressively.
The tentacles rose as Takuma knelt down and placed his palms on the ground after weaving hand seals for Earth Tremor Sense Jutsu. A ripple went through the ground, which returned with tactile information for Takuma to interpret. When Takuma had first trained the jutsu, he could only see the presence of people in a one-kilometer area—he couldn't tell their direction or their exact distance from him. The jutsu returned too much data, and Takuma only knew how to interpret some of it.
Now though, after more than a year of gradually training the jutsu, he had learned to identify the direction the target was in. He still couldn't tell their exact distance from him, but that would come with more training.
Takuma tuned out everything past the cross-section they were fighting in, and as he expected, there were only four people in his immediate surroundings. Two of them were alone and moving slowly around in the fog, while the other two were huddled together. Takuma was sure one of them was the iryo-nin. It was a stupid move to not move up into one of the buildings and do treatment on higher ground—but a mistake he was thankful for.
Disregarding chakra consumption, Takuma weaved another set of hand seals and performed another ninjutsu. He sunk into the ground as Hiding in the Rock Jutsu became the mode of traversal for him.
———
.
No#4 had his glowing hand placed on his chest, healing the gruesome burn injury that had scorched his skin and bruised his ribs underneath. His mask had a crack on it from the explosive tag. If he had not jumped before the tag had exploded, he would be in a much worse condition.
They had the wrong intel. The target was a maniac. Who used an explosive tag at such close range? He knew of the explosive tag scare tactic due to its effectiveness, but it didn't involve actually triggering the tag. The moment he had seen the burning tag, every instinct, and logical mental process had made him jump away—which was the correct decision.
"The target will be heavily injured," he whispered.
"Understood," No#3 replied.
"Can you proceed without healing?" asked No#4. No#3 had taken ninjutsu into the back, which required treatment, but with the target injured, they could finish the mission now and handle the injuries later.
"Affirmative," said No#3.
No#4 judged that his injuries were not stabilized, and he could proceed for now. His skin still hurt, and his ribs were still painful, but it wasn't the pain amount he couldn't shrug off. As he stood up, a drop of water hit his bare chest, making him alert, only to realize that it was rain.
"Rain," he whispered.
They were having a difficult time with the Hidden Mist Jutsu. They didn't have any Wind Release users; they couldn't blow it away; neither did they have Water Release users to override the mist. But if it rained, the mist would naturally weigh down, eliminating visibility-reducing fog. No#4 almost immediately trashed the plan as he couldn't predict the intensity of rain, and depending on uncontrollable natural phenomena wasn't wise. They had to find the target and eliminate him.
"Done," said No#4.
But as they were about to move out, they heard something. No#4 looked down just in time to see a figure phase out of the ground. It was the target. He ejected from the ground with eight water tentacles floating behind, each holding two kunai. The next instant, all sixteen kunai were thrown towards him from a dangerous short range.
No#3 immediately jumped in between the kunai and No#4. It was normal for the team to protect the iryo-nin, and No#4 weaved hand seals despite seeing the kunai dug into No#3 despite the latter's best effect to deflect them. No#4 knew it would take more than some kunai to take No#3 down, and continued to weave hand seals for Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu.
But then the tentacles slithered like snakes and moved around No#3 to grab No#4, who felt the wet liquid water held together and partially solidified using chakra wrap around his body and more importantly his hands. Before he could complete the last two hand seals, his hands were harshly pulled apart.
Baam!
No#4 felt a strong gust of wind and force flutter his cloak and clothes. He stared in shock as No#3 in front of him slid down to the ground, leaving nothing between him and the target.
The target was a mess. There was an ugly cut on the right side of his face; the left side was burned. His clothes were torn and burned with plenty of unsightly cuts and bruises that he and his team had inflicted. He could tell the target's condition was one push away from serious. Most would fall apart in the target's condition—he now understood why the master instructor had assembled a four people team for a single genin.
The tentacles spasmed and tightened around No#4's arms, legs, and torso. He tried to resist and overpower the tentacles, but the tentacles were iron chains refusing to budge.
"I'll keep one alive, but that's not you," the target whispered as he thrust a kunai towards him.
No#4 closed his eyes, accepting his end. He was aware of the danger of the mission and knew that he could die on any mission. But he was honored to die on duty while protecting the foundation, and repay the life and purpose the Lord Commander had given to him.
Nothing happened in the next moment.
Clang! Clang!
"Ugh!"
No#4 opened his eyes to see two metal chains bound around the target's arms, who struggled against the chains. Their eyes met, and the target immediately chucked his kunai up, which was caught by an empty tentacle that struck out towards him, but before the kunai could reap his throat, the chains pulled, and the target was harshly pulled back—and No#4, bound by the tentacles, went along with him.
The sudden pull disrupted the tentacle holding the kunai, lodging deep into No#4's upper abdomen. He spurted blood out of his mouth.
One of the chains rattled around the target's arm, and in a bright flash, a surge of lightning shot up the chain and electrocuted the target. The next moment, two arms clutched No#4's arm and pulled him away from the tentacles.
"Are you alright, brother?" asked No#1.
"Y-Yeah," replied No#4. "Leave me and focus on the target."
No#1 and No#2 put No#4 down at a distance and disappeared into the fog.
No#4 felt wetness on his face, and a chill shot up through his spine, but then he looked up to see the fog clearing up as rain began to fall in earnest.
He wanted to heal himself, but instead of doing that, he turned back and hobbled toward No#3.
They needed to finish this now.
———
.
Takuma got rid of the chains around him as his body spasmed from the Lightning Release jutsu. The pain in his chest was at an all-time worse as his heart burned with every beat. He was already tired from the Ring fight, and now felt he could collapse at any time.
He looked up as rain fell on the ground, erasing his Hidden Mist Jutsu. His biggest advantage was no more.
Takuma undid his Eight Tentacles Jutsu and let the water fall away. He weaved hand seals for Eight Tentacles Jutsu again, and this time, the water behind his back was double the previous time. The tentacles that formed from the water blob were thicker and longer than before.
He looked ahead, and as the fog dissipated, he could see two figures, but that was only momentarily as two huge fireballs bellowed toward him. Takuma calmly weaved hand seals, sucked in a deep breath, and then spat out a massive water wave towards the two C-rank fire jutsu.
Water Release: Wild Water Wave
The water met the fire, and the flames were extinguished before they could even reach halfway. The collision released a huge amount of water vapor.
Takuma didn't move and observed. His gut told him something was coming, and it turned out right as thick earth spikes flew across the air—it was an Earth Release jutsu— but it wasn't just that. Bright and hot flames surrounded the earth spikes.
It was a combination ninjutsu.
The concept was simple: use two ninjutsu in harmony to become more powerful than a simple sum of the original. Not all justu could be used together in a combination, and the two components needed to be compatible. For example, a Fire Release jutsu could be boosted by a Wind Release jutsu— or a Lightning Release jutsu could cause more damage when conducted through a Water Release jutsu. Incompatible jutsu like Fire Release with Water Release wouldn't work.
Takuma knelt down and quickly formed hand seals before pushing his palms against the ground.
Earth Release: Earthen Dome
Takuma felt the force of the combination jutsu against his shield. He knew it wouldn't last long. Earthen Dome was a derivative of a B-rank jutsu, and unlike the parent jutsu, it lacked the repair ability. Earthen Dome couldn't be repaired and strengthened by actively providing chakra after the initial expenditure.
Takuma weaved hand seals for Hiding in the Rock jutsu to slip into the ground. As the jutsu triggered, Takuma felt a pit in the bottom of his stomach. He was familiar with the feeling—just not during battle.
Perhaps for the first time in a battle, Takuma was concerned about his chakra usage. He hadn't run out, not at all, but this was the first time he had used so much in a fight—and not a single of his enemies were dead.
But with the Hidden Mist Jutsu gone, he could unleash his other specialty.
———
.
No#1 and No#2 stared at the aftermath of their combination jutsu. The jutsu was strong enough to tear through any C-rank jutsu—and in this situation, it had also illuminated the surroundings in the form of fires and embers.
"Can you see the target?" asked No#1.
"Negative," No#2 replied.
They looked at each other and slowly moved closer to the burn site.
"It's okay, I'm right here."
The two assassins whipped around to spot the target standing before them with his hands together, forming a hand seal.
They moved to strike the target down when the situation suddenly changed. Dozens of clones stepped out of the shadows, phasing out of the grounds, jumping down from the buildings. In a couple of moments, the entire road was filled with clones of the target, and they were completely surrounded.
The two straightaway put their swords away and began forming hand seals.
———
.
Takuma walked towards No#4 as No#1 and No#2 dealt with Genjutsu: Mist Servant Jutsu. He had gotten really good at his first genjutsu—he could now create an illusion of multiple dozens of clones appearing simultaneously.
Takuma felt explosions go behind him. He turned to see small football-sized fireballs fly around. The explosions were followed by earth spears; Takuma had to dodge one of them. It didn't matter how many jutsu they used; they wouldn't be able to get rid of the "clones."
'Use more chakra, exhaust yourself,' Takuma thought as he walked away from the two trapped assassins.
He eventually reached his destination, where No#4 was slumped against the ground, healing himself.
They looked at each other, and No#4 opened his mouth to yell, but two kunai thrown from the tentacles dug directly into his throat, instantly killing No#4.
The iryo-nin was down.
Shatter!
Takuma turned back towards No#1 and No#2. They broke through the genjutsu, and they did it fast. From their reaction to directly going for ninjutsu showed that they were deep in the thrall of the genjutsu—aggressiveness was an indicator they completely believed the genjutsu—which made the quick escape abnormal.
'Unless someone else broke them out…'
Takuma turned to No#4 and a tight smile appeared on his face.
"You didn't heal yourself, did you," he whispered.
An iryo-nin's role was to heal his teammates. No#4 had done just that—he had healed No#3, who had then broken No#1 and No#2 out of the genjutsu. It was an excellent decision that snowballed into more good for the team.
"Good man…"
Takuma turned to walk away when his left leg gave away. It was so sudden that the tentacles had to prop himself to stop him from falling on pure instinct.
He stared at his leg in horror, and it was shaking, but no matter how much Takuma tried, he couldn't move it at all.
.
———
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The link is in the synopsis!
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
200+ Classement
Power Stone 
109 Power
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