Chapitre 201: CH_6.30 (201)

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———

Takuma weaved hand seals for Water-Style: Eight Tentacles and water from the wet mud and dirty puddles formed from the monsoon season showers rose and collected behind his back. With a flex of his shoulder blades, eight tentacles burst out. He equipped a kunai in one hand as he skipped forward toward the enemy in disarray.

As Takuma dashed ahead before realizing that he had reacted without taking his teammates into account, he glanced back and was surprised to see Kameko and Rikku following him closely. He looked ahead and picked up the pace.

Normally, the obvious choice was to stick with teammates in a chaotic situation. However, teamwork wasn't Team-9's strong point. Perhaps it was due to Anko's hands-off style of leadership, they didn't work together as a team often. She would hold infrequent team exercises; they weren't enough to foster functional teamwork.

Takuma locked onto the nearest enemy affected by the explosive tag.

But before Takuma could reach his target, a shinobi from the back of the enemy group took to the air with a tall leap. The man had a handful of senbon between his fingers that sparked with lightning currents which he flung towards Takuma's group. The lightning jumped between the senbon as though they were resonating, charging the current on each individual needle.

Takuma dug his feet into the wet mud to stop and merge the tentacles into a shield in front of him—but just a moment before Kameko shot past him, her feet skidded on the ground and she released a burst of wind from her sword in a swing that blew away the senbon and neutralized the lightning chakra in the needles. The next moment, Rikku sent mud flying everywhere as she shot into the sky towards the enemy.

Seeing they were handling it, Takuma returned to his original target. The delay had given the target time to recover; the man raised his guard as he saw Takuma sprinting towards him. However, before the last second before their clash, the target side skipped, and a kunai shot forth from behind him. There was another man behind the target. It was dark, but Takuma caught the glimmer of the burning explosive tag fluttering past behind the kunai.

Takuma jumped high as the tag exploded as it passed below him. He braced for the shockwave that did its best to disrupt his balance, albeit unsuccessful.

The two enemy shinobi worked together and positioned them around his land location.

The wind fluttered in his ears as Takuma landed on the ground. All eight of his tentacles slammed on the ground, dragging themselves in the mud to fling it towards the two enemies. They raised their hands to prevent the mud shower from getting into their eyes.

Chakra flowed through Takuma's dominant arm as he propelled the kunai toward one of the enemies by using his brand of chakra augmentation. Despite him blocking it, he froze, the power behind the kunai evidently startling the man. That bought Takuma another moment; he darted towards the other man and socked him with an augmented punch. He tried to dodge, but the tentacles shot forth like snakes, holding him in place as Takuma moved the man's organs with his fist.

The tentacles slithered around the man's body, restraining him from moving. Takuma pulled the man in front of him as a shield as he turned towards the first man, who was weaving hand seals. But seeing his comrade being used as a meat shield, his hands stilled The reaction turned into a stunned astonishment when Takuma started running towards him.

The enemy took a solid stance with a kunai each in both hands.

While Takuma closed in, the man restrained in his tentacles began to struggle. Takuma didn't mind the struggle as the moment he was close enough to the other man, Takuma threw his captive into his comrade—but not before stabbing him in the back with his kunai.

The tentacles threw the captured enemy with force, not giving his comrade any time to dodge.

The two men crashed into the mucky ground.

The man pushed his comrade off of him and shot to his feet, and at that moment, he heard his comrade's cries and pained moans from his comrade and stared at the kunai sticking out of his back.

He didn't see Takuma's flying knee until it smashed into his chin, shaking the brain in his skull. He stomped the man's chest with an augmented kick before crouching. Takuma grabbed the man's hand when he fumbled for his weapons pouch and gave the man a pretty red necklace, granting him eternal peace..

He croaked as lifeblood sputtered out of his mouth and met the trails oozing through the gash along his neck. Takuma left the spasming man behind and walked to the wailing man with the kunai on his back.

He was crawling away in hopes of escape and each time he dragged himself on the wet ground, he let out an involuntary moan. Takuma grabbed him by his mud-caked hair and yanked his head up. Two quick stabs with his kunai into the throat and the man was put out of his misery. Takuma freed the kunai from the man's back, wiped the blood on the dead man's clothes, and slippedd it into his weapon's pouch.

He looked around for Kameko and Rikku and found them fighting against three people. He immediately headed in their direction.

But then he noticed the strange movements of the enemy.

———

Rikku rolled to the side to evade a cluster of senbon charged with lightning chakra. She dug her foot into the ground and shot forward. The loose mud made for a lousy foothold, not allowing her sufficient leverage to push against.

The annoying enemy immediately jumped back to make some distance but then took a sharp turn to the side when Kameko charged him with her sword. It looked like she missed until an oozing gash appeared on his outer thigh.

The man stumbled as he screamed in agony. He drew more senbon in his hands, aiming for Kameko butRikku shouldered him into the ground so hard that loose, wet mud enveloped half of his body.

The man slipped as he tried to get up and Kameko moved in for a kill. She positioned her sword, ready to deliver the killing blow but at the last moment, two frothing blasts of water targeted her and Rikku. They jumped away from the fallen man and saw two more shinobi in Hidden Frost colors arriving to help their fallen comrade.

"Go in," Kameko said.

Rikku nodded, and the two teammates immediately jumped toward the three enemies.

Rikku weaved hand seals in the air, and as she came down to the ground near the enemy trio, she slammed her fists into the ground. Chakra seeped into the ground, and it started to shift and revolve, turning into a quagmire with Rikku as the epicenter

One of the three jumped at the last moment, but the other two sank into the quicksand-like ninjutsu.

Earth Style: Quagmire Jutsu

Kameko dropped into the quagmire, but she didn't get trapped. She channeled to the soles of her feet, running on it as if it was a wall or surface of water—it was a weakness of the jutsu—it was easy to avoid if you saw it coming. Kameko simply used it for the team's advantage. She released a wind cutter so strong that the blade almost vibrated to its breaking point.

However, she wasn't the only one to take advantage. The one who avoided Rikku's sinkhole put himself between Kameko's wind cutter and his comrades and weaved hand seals for a lightning jutsu. It dulled the wind cutter, but it wasn't able to stop it—however, it was enough that the trapped pair could defend against the cutter.

As the man dulled Kameko's wind cutter, Rikku came behind him and smashed a kick into the side of his head. Rikku didn't relent and struck the fallen man's nape, cracking his backbone and spine, instantly paralyzing him. Rikku finished the job by driving a kunai through his back, piercing through his heart.

Kameko moved to her next move without wasting a second and went for the next kill.

One of the trapped enemies weaved hand seals, and arcs of lightning zapped into the quagmire.

"Give me cover," the man said to his comrade.

They were already waist-deep in the mud and still sinking, but the moment the lightning touched the mud, it solidified and turned cakey. They pushed their hands against the semi-solid surface and pushed themselves out.

Kameko raised her sword emitting a shrill shriek.

"H-Hey, what—wait! YOU—!"

The shinobi that was evidently supposed to stall until his comrades freed themselves leapt away the moment he got the chance, leaving the other one alone and unprepared in the face of Kameko's attack. He screamed, going from weaving hand seals to hastily switching to wielding a kunai while trying to get out of the neutralized quagmire—all while staring in horror at the comrade who betrayed him.

"Silence," said Kameko as her sword cleanly beheaded the shinobi. The head rolled with the horror still etched on the man's face, eyes glassy.

Rikku and Kameko surrounded the last remaining enemy. Kameko raised her sword and slowly pulled the blade against her sleeve to clean the blood off. The man flinched in nervousness before jumping in fright when he heard Rikku move in his peripheral vision. He jumped back away from Rikku, and Kameko took the chance to close in.

The two Hidden Leaf shinobi closed in at the lone enemy, but before they could move in for the kill, a large bolt of lightning hit Rikku square in the chest, blowing her into the air.

Kameko's instincts moved faster than her eyes, and without looking, she raised her sword in front just in the knick of time for another thick lightning bolt to crash into the sword. Kameko didn't move and threw the sword down, and the lightning-charged blade dug into the mud, essentially grounding it.

Kameko screamed with her mouth jammed shut as a sliver of lightning jolted up the arm that held the sword. She shook it while jumping away as another enemy shinobi appeared beside the man they were about to kill. The latest arrival was older; the man's mere presence exuded experience and danger.

"Naughty, naughty intruders," he chuckled as he looked at Kameko gleefully. "Naughty girls like you must be punished, no?~"

Fear and disgust painted Kameko's face as her eyes drifted to her sword. It was out of reach, and the blade was still sparking. Whatever jutsu the man had used, was powerful. Her eyes then glanced towards Rikku. The girl was glaring at the older shinobi, but her entire body was shuddering and shaking and she pressed a hand to her chest.

She was the one who took that jutsu head on and while she had gotten up, she didn't look well.

"Do you know how it feels to have a flood of current course through the nervous system? It's one of my favorites to see—the expressions people make are just delightful," said the perverse man. "I shall honor you with the privilege—"

Kameko froze in momentary dread when a shadow appeared behind the man. It took her only a split second to identify—and when she did, it brought out a primeval fear from within her.

It hissed.

The smile fell from the man's face. He turned his neck and caught a glimpse of a forked tongue before he saw its face. The human species had extremely high pattern recognition skills. And through the ages of evolution, they had learned to quickly recognize a certain species that put extremely high predatory pressure on them.

The red and yellow snake, as thick as a telephone pole, slithered behind the man. The serpent's movements were slow, deliberate, stealthy, with a dangerous elegance—the movements of a prime predator. The golden-slitted eyes shone in the dark as the snake's head rose above the man, who was unaware of its presence until the snake emitted a deep and rich hiss.

The prey and the predator were still until they weren't. The man tried to run, but the moment his feet ever so slightly moved, the mud betrayed him, squelching. The snake opened its maw, revealing a set of fangs on the top and a row of sharp teeth below.

Before the man could even move, it struck down, chomping his head off in one vicious bite. The snake raised its head, and the protrusion in the snake's long form due to the man's head sunk steadily into its stomach.

The last remaining enemy screamed in dreadful horror at the sight and presence of the snake so close to him—but the wails were silenced by Anko, who drove a short sword through the man's heart.

The red snake slithered to Anko, coiling around her feet, and resting its bloody face on her shoulder.

"Don't worry, she's not going to bite," Anko said to Kameko with a smile as she lovingly patted the large snake that hissed as though pleased.

Anko looked at Rikku. "Do you need medical assistance, Rikku?"

Rikku took several deep breaths. She was trembling pretty badly, but then she yelled loudly as she flexed every muscle in her body, and suddenly, the shaking subsided like it was never there.

"I'm good now," Rikku patted her chest with her fist.

'Unbelievable,' Kameko thought. Rikku's freakish durability continued to surprise her.

Kameko walked to her sword to pull it out, and Takuma suddenly landed between them and yelled in haste,

"Everyone, to me! Attack incoming! Quickly!"

She was confused for a moment before she felt the quick and abrupt rise in temperature. She looked down and suddenly saw the ground bathe in a yellowish light, and turned her head to the sky to see big balls of fire descending towards them.

———

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Chapitre 202: CH_6.31 (202)

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———

A strange permeating silence covered the pit; even with an ongoing invasion from one side and a defensive effort from the other, the silence hung over Gojiro Gold Mines. However, that strange silence made the sounds of steel clashing steel, explosions, words and shouts, footsteps in the mud, and everything else more audible.

As Takuma ran towards Kameko and Rikku to assist them, he took in the greater landscape to ensure he was aware of the battlefield. Only a few moments ago, the enemy forces were rushing towards them to kill—but now, as he watched the movements of his allies and the Hidden Cloud and Hidden Frost shinobi, both dressed in the latter's colors, it was clear they were moving away.

He wondered why.

The sound of his heart in his ears was distracting. He stopped in his tracks, which only worsened it, but he observed with renewed focus. The enemy's second wave of the enemy, which was larger than the last and was due on their heads and most likely would have posed a real, life-threatening pressure on them, was backing away.

Why?

He looked around for clues, but the sun was still not high enough to peer through the abyss that was the sunken pit. But then it hit in an instant. The enemy wasn't running away, they were making space—clearing away—and his mind just barely arrived at the reason why he thought they were doing it. There was only one reason why a force would suddenly move away when they were on the cusp of putting on real pressure.

They didn't want their people to get caught in something.

"A fucking AOE attack," Takuma muttered.

The enemy was going to bomb them—which was when he saw the flickering light of a fire in the distance.

Takuma stopped caring what it was and sprinted as hard as he could towards his team while flying through hand seals.

"Everyone, to me! Attack incoming! Quickly!"

By the time he reached them, there was a rain of fire descending on them from the sky.

Kameko, Rikku, and Anko all moved, but they did it after spending a moment staring at the blinding rain. That wasn't quick enough, so Takuma followed his instincts. The eight tentacles combined into three, and the thicker appendages shot toward his teammates and leader. They wrapped around the three and forcibly pulled them towards him.

"What the fuck?" Anko yelled at Takuma—but she released the Summoning Jutsu at the same time, showing that she understood the situation.

Her snake disappeared into a puff of smoke.

Takuma slammed his palms onto the ground, pouring excessive amounts of chakra into the jutsu and letting the chakra seep deep below them. The muddy soil made for poor structural material, so he put in more chakra. He wanted to make it stronger so he poured in more.

The situation brought up a past fright which only made him pour in even more chakra.

The last time he had been in a similar situation was also against the Hidden Frost mission, and an enemy chunin had released a Lightning Release jutsu that covered an entire area. That single jutsu had ripped away his defensive jutsu, and he barely came out of the attack, avoiding getting hit. And he could instinctually feel that the Fire Release jutsu was much more dangerous than what he had faced all those years ago.

Earth-Style: Earthen Dome Jutsu

The mud rose around Takuma and the other three, quickly forming a dome around them. It solidified, hardening into a solid structure with chakra coursing through the soil to increase its defensive power.

The moment the dome formed, Takuma felt something slam into it. A cloud of fire made direct contact with the dome and then it exploded.

"Brace yourself in case it tears through," Takuma said through gritted teeth.

Outside the dome, he heard the fire hit a large area in front of the dormitory where the majority of the Evacuation Unit was standing. The clouds of fire exploded when they met the ground, creating a sea of flames.

Almost immediately, the intense fire burned through the dome. Intense heat burst into the already smoldering crevice they had packed themselves into, causing everyone to gasp. Takuma huffed as he shoved the tentacle mass against the gap. The water began turning into steam, creating a hissing noise, but was enough to close the gap.

"It won't hold," Takuma warned.

Before the dome crumbled, he retracted the tentacles that burst so everyone was doused in water.

"Jump!" Rikku yelled.

When the dome crumbled, everyone jumped high up in the air before the fire could stick to them. While in the air, Takuma weaved hand seals as quickly as he could, almost making the wrong seal while doing so.

Water Release: Wild Water Wave

He aimed below and moved his neck to spread the water around, which extinguished enough area for the team to land safely.

"Good work," Anko patted him on the shoulder.

The danger wasn't over yet. While the Hidden Leaf struggled from the large-scale jutsu, the enemy's forces that had backed away to escape its range began charging towards them with an even larger number than before.

Just as the situation seemed bleak, a chain of nearly a dozen explosions went off on the opposite end of the pit. They were big enough to send a brief and faint tremor through the ground. Everyone stopped for a moment and turned to look at the explosions.

"That's… Stage-2," said Kameko.

Chunin Hideki and his two genin, who had broken off the Evacuation Team to forcefully complete Stage-2—which was to plant explosions around the pit—had finally come into play. If that was all, it wouldn't have been a big change on the battlefield; however, Stage-2 was simply the opening play for the real deal.

Sharp horns pierced through the air as the remainder of the Camp Banana forces split into two and appeared on the two sides of the pit before jumping down, raiding the pit with full force. Battle cries filled the pit as shinobi ran down the slopes with their weapons drawn.

Both sides of the conflict now had their complete forces in play.

———

As the Camp Banana forces came down the sides, Anko turned to Kameko. "Go find Iori and Daiki. Bring them to the front."

Kameko nodded and sprinted toward the dormitory, making her way around the large fire puddles.

"Both of you follow me," Anko said to Rikku and Takuma. "Pick your fights sensibly, remember to protect each other's backs… and our troops pose just as much danger to you as the enemy, so don't overlook them."

Takuma and Rikku nodded, and they dashed forward towards the enemy. As planned, the Camp Banana forces pressed the enemy from three directions. As the Evacuation Unit was the weakest side, the enemy moved in their direction to cover more space.

As he ran, Takuma weaved hand seals for Water Style: Eight Tentacles, and the water from the environment and surroundings gathered behind his back.

Takuma called out to Rikku and pointed ahead.

"The group right there," he yelled as more explosions from ninjutsu recked the field, "I'm going to disrupt them; you start picking off those who stumble."

"Understood," Rikku nodded.

Takuma pushed the chakra into his legs and feet and launched himself into the sky. He traveled long, skipped the frontlines, and landed right in the middle of the enemy forces. Immediately, there were eyes on him, and he was surrounded by more hostiles than he had ever faced. Several of them stopped and surrounded Takuma.

'They're killers, not trained assassins,' he thought. The thought made him chuckle, but it was true—shinobi could be killers, but not all were trained to be in the art of killing. Even Takuma wasn't trained to kill—he simply had capable tools of killing.

However, he had practical experience.

He ran towards the nearest enemy, a brawny woman. She had a polearm that she immediately stabbed toward him with a battle cry. Takuma side-stepped and a tentacle shot forward, wrapping itself around her polearm. The tentacle pulled on the polearm, but the woman was more than powerful enough to resist its pull.

Takuma threw an augmented kunai and she gasped and ducked her shoulder at the last moment, but it still left a gash, spurting blood. Takuma rushed in at that moment. The tentacle around the polearm slipped off and latched onto the woman's leg and pulled.

She wobbled and Takuma kicked her unstable leg and destroyed her balance. The tentacles grabbed her arms for partial restraint, and then he grabbed her open torso and tossed her into the nearby swarm. Some rushed to dodge her, others stepped in to catch her in haste.

As they did, Takuma chucked a burning explosive tag towards them. They couldn't use explosive tags because of their allies, but Takuma had no such problem. The tag exploded in the brawny girl's lap while the others scrambled away with the explosion at their backs.

He weaved the hand seals for Water Release: Wild Water Wave and assaulted another line of enemies with a strong water blast that hit like a shipment of bricks and forcefully drowned them under a wall of water.

His senses sizzled. From the corner of his eyes, he saw crackles of lightning. Takuma immediately shed the water tentacles off his back and leaped to the side. Water conducted lightning and he would be fucked if even the weakest lightning jutsu hit him while he had water tentacles around him.

Nenro had done that once and his nerves burned for half a day. He didn't want a repeat of it.

Rikku burst into the circle like a wild bull with her arms swinging at anything that moved. She hit a stout man with heavy armor in the chest. It looked like he wasn't used to wearing heavy armor and tripped on his feet. Rikku caved in the man's throat with a punch as he fell, finishing him instantly.

She then jumped onto a man like a beast. Someone pulled her off, with another one moving in to stab her. Rikku kicked him once, and it sent the man flying through the field before smashing the back of her head into the nose of the man holding her. The hold loosened, and she reversed the situation and pummeled him into the ground, blood splattering from his dented skull.

The people who were moving toward her stopped in the face of her overwhelming strength and turned cautious.

Takuma, while weaving hand seals, landed on the ground with his back to Rikku.

Genjutsu: Mist Servant Jutsu

He didn't have the preparation time to spread the genjutsu to everyone in his vicinity, but it was enough that it latched onto enough people.

The targeted folk started seeing multiple Takumas writhing out of the ground like a zombie horde. With only a few trapped, it would not be long before the unaffected ones broke the genjutsu on their comrades—but it was enough time to do damage

Takuma weaved hand seals and dipped into the ground using Earth Style: Hiding In the Rock Jutsu

One of the enemies released a jolt of lightning towards a group of genjutsu apparitions of Takuma but hit her own allies instead. The jolt jumped twice and crawled over their downed bodies tohit three people who weren't expecting their own ally to turn on them.

It was as Anko had said—the people on the same side were just as dangerous as the enemy.

Takuma emerged just a little while away from his circle of genjutsu and immediately headed back inside to take advantage of the chaos. He immediately stopped and jumped back. All of his senses barked like a guard dog seeing a trespasser. A short blade made of pure lightning impaled the patch of ground he would've landed on if he hadn't stopped. It crackled and burnt the earth, turning it black with embers.

His eyes darted around to find the source, but it was difficult to find the attacker in the chaos of the battlefield. He pulled up his guard and switched to defense—someone had very deliberately targeted him.

"I'm right here if you're looking for me."

The voice whispered from behind him. It was so close that Takuma could all but feel the breath on his ear.

Takuma turned back and swung with an augmented fist without looking. A man with a fake, thin-lipped smile that didn't reach his eyes caught Takuma's augmented punch like it was nothing. Takuma pulled his arm back and launched another augmented punch from his free arm. Before it could make contact, the world slammed to a sudden, jarring stop. He felt the taste of iron in his mouth, and pain shorted the thoughts out of his mind.

The enemy had hit him before his punch could reach.

He couldn't even react when a second attack—a palm strike—hit him flush in his chest. He felt his ribcage bend as though his bones were elastic—a fracture or two were the least of his problems.

This wasn't someone he was supposed to fight.

This wasn't someone he could fight.

Takuma fell to the ground and coughed out blood-stained vomit. He couldn't breathe and for a horror-filled moment his lungs refused to expand. With the sharp pain, and lack of air, he felt like a fish dying out of water.

The dark-skinned, light-haired enemy, wearing just a tank top, yanked Takuma to his feet by the hair.

"You must be one of those geniuses," said the man in a plastic-sounding merry tone. "So young and so deadly—caught my attention right away. How about you play with the grown-ups?"

"…L-Let me g-go," Takuma said.

"Pardon me, I didn't catch that."

The man pulled Takuma closer and turned his ear towards Takuma's face. It was a mistake as Takuma immediately bit it as hard as he could. Surprised, he punched Takuma in the chest once again. He choked up more blood and bile as the man let Takuma go in surprise before kicking him away furiously.

"You fucker," he cursed, the fake voice vanishing for a moment before it returned. "No worries about the ear. I'll get it checked out once this is done and capital punishment will teach you not to do that again."

The man stepped forward. A low crinkle led his gaze down at his abdomen—four explosive tags lined his tank top and cargo pants.

"Fuck—"

BOOM!

———

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