ดาวน์โหลดแอป
6.02% Reborn in the Mist / Chapter 10: En Garde

บท 10: En Garde

Fuguki leered down at me across the dinner table, his small eyes, the six green stripes along his face and shark-like teeth contrasted so much with his tied up orange hair that made him look like a really ugly schoolgirl.

The thinly veiled killing intent radiating off him did lessen the effect a bit but not by much, not since Nana Megumi pulled us both by our cheeks to take a seat at her table. It makes sense if it's just me— I pass off as a child anyway— but him too? Far too hilarious to let him intimidate me.

In a way it did humanize Fuguki to me a bit more. All this time I've only seen him as a filler character that I wouldn't mind murdering if it got my butt in the Mizukage's office. But watching Nana Megumi insist he's been working and training far too seriously and to eat reminded me that in this timeline, Fuguki is only in his mid-twenties.

Despite being quite young he survived the receiving end of Might Duy's [Eighth Gate of Death] and managed to rescue both Juzo and Raiga, not to mention retrieving the other legendary swords— a thing I'm very grateful for.

He played a major role in the war for Kirigakure and even now seeks to better it in his own skewed reality, all in service of the village. Recalling how he ended up dead, I figure he's Kirigakure's Danzo, a shady figure pulling strings for the benefit of the village no matter how anyone else perceives him to be pure evil.

He isn't though, he's just an ugly school girl. I tell myself as Rina guides servants to plate the tables and fill them with assorted sea foods. They placed a hot pot of vegetables, tofu, squid and some clams tied up in noodles. Cluttered another side of the table with mouth-watering grilled fish and cod as well as a platter of sushi.

The dishes kept coming but I lost track once mine arrived. A servant bowed her head deep as she does, hiding the knowing smirk on her lips as I uncover the only dish they've known me to appreciate. Seafood Donburi.

It might be an exaggeration to call it Seafood Donburi but what else would you call a bowl of rice littered with shrimp and marinated in a glazed sauce? Yagura and I had very conflicting tastes, having grown up here he'd love just about every fishy meal Rina's placed here but coming from a meat loving culture myself, I can't help but protest my limited meal choices.

As such, noodles, rice, shrimp and the occasional squid have been a consistent part of my meals.

Rina took her seat at Nana Megumi's right hand, her mother sat at her left and Fuguki beside her. Of everyone assigned to the protection mission only Owl mask was absent from the table— ANBU don't stop working till the end. Nana Megumi had a pleasant smile once Rina got seated, clasping her granddaughters hand and whispering a small thanks. Since that message was delivered Rina's mother didn't look the same, in fact, she looked almost dead herself.

Listless eyes, cracked lips, a stench that followed and a general lack of enthusiasm for anything, not even the child growing within her. It was troubling to watch her slip further into such a state but as much as I sympathized there was nothing I could do for her. It made Yagura feel weak.

He knew these people and had feelings and opinions attached to each of them before I came along and slapped 'background character' status on their heads. Though as time passed I began to feel and think about them beyond my schemes as well.

Nana Megumi went to grasp her daughter-in-law's hand but was quickly repulsed. Rina's mother was of the Funato clan and didn't share many features with her child. Her lack of hair colour beyond black was one indicator another was the hot and very hot relationship she seemed to have with Nana Megumi.

"Ahem, tomorrow is a big day for Kiri." Nana Megumi says as everyone settles. She turns her gaze to Fuguki and I, "Both of you are brilliant shinobi and have served loyally for years, thank you. No matter the outcome of tomorrow's duel know that you are precious."

Fuguki managed a normal looking smile at this and bows his head, "It has been an honour to serve, it will be a greater honour to serve as Mizukage." He glances at me from the corner of his eye, barely holding back a glare.

Ignoring it I smiled although more reservedly as I spoke, "Thank you, Megumi-dono, but I believe it's a sad day for Kiri to lose even one shinobi, not to mention one as skilled and renown as Fuguki."

A rumble of a growl erupts from him at my words, "You believe yourself victorious already, how foolish."

"No, I believe it will be foolish for either of us to die." I said firmly meeting his sharp glare, "If I become Mizukage tomorrow I will need strong shinobi most of all and it would pain me greatly to have callously killed one. Would you not feel the same?"

Fuguki hesitated to answer for a moment and Nana Megumi cut in, "It is my son's will that the match be to the final end. That was his will."

His will is flawed. But alas, I bite my tongue and didn't say what I felt would be truly necessary for the bloodlusted clan head to hear; her son was under immense genjutsu and half of the things he initiated was batshit crazy.

"I only mean to—"

Megumi narrowed her eyes at me and I wisely kept shut. She tried to resurrect her fallen smile as she glanced at her silent and exhausted granddaughter who had begun taking up her mother's duties and cleared her throat again, "Enough of that, let us eat and be full for the future the Yondaime Mizukage will bring."

Fuguki and I shared a look and I felt myself lose more of my will to kill the S-rank, high value, swordsman of the mist.

Maybe if I win decisively no one will da-

My thoughts are cut off by a sudden explosion outside, the tremors rattle food off the table before anyone has a chance to get a good bite and Rina's mother screeches in abject terror.

"No! No! Not my baby! Leave me!" She continued screaming even as Nana Megumi and Rina fall to her aid.

Fuguki and I are immediately up on our feet, without thinking I order him as I summon my Bo-staff in a poof of smoke, "Stay with them and I'll have a look."

"No, you stay back and protect them I wil-!"

"There's no time for this!" I shut him down entirely as my eyes close before declaring, "There are three groups closing in on our position, I think we might both need to go out."

How do I even know that? How can I see through the mist? I left my ponderings on Yagura's insane capabilities that keep appearing on instinct for later as Owl masks materializes in a cloud of mist.

"What's going on?" Fuguki barked out the moment she appeared fully.

"It's being handled." She says stoically though I note the quiet dripping of blood from her shoulder.

"Is it? There are three groups of two coming our way right now." I rebut, keying into Yagura's strange mistborn senses. "Okay…three are being engaged by your units now."

Her gaze falls on me and she snorts through a pained grunt as she raises her fingers to form hand signs, "Sensor-nin, good then. Yagura come with me, Fuguki, protect them."

A flash of disgust spreads over Fuguki's face at the assignment, he glances back and Rina and her mentally broken mother howling for her unborn child to be safe. His jaw locks but he gives Owl mask and I curt nods, "Do well."

Owl mask completes her jutsu and chakra surges out throughout the room, a frosty hue and temperature takes every corner at her final sign, "There, you'll have some help…if you need."

No more words are shared as Owl mask and I dash out the house and onto the rooftops, ready to greet our visitors. Meanwhile I couldn't believe the gall of our attackers.

It's the last day before I become Mizukage, why couldn't they just fucking wait?


next chapter

บท 11: Killer Instinct

Yagura was a beast.

I twirled around the pathetic attack, the bone user's arm overextends as I slip into his guard and deliver an uplifting uppercut to his stomach and then strike him down with my Bo-staff. The sound of bone crunching against my staff and the sight of blood spill as he coughs from crushed ribs fills me with unimagined glee.

A flurry of bone parts threatens to pierce me from the right but a glass pane of ice rises up to shield me. I glance behind me where Owl mask fends off a man with protruding bones and hiss as he nearly has her pinned down with his extended rib cage boxing her in.

Without thinking about it my fingers flip through hand-signs and chakra answers my will, "Water Release: Water Bullet!"

Pursing my lips, a high pressured wave of water emits out at our opponents, cutting through the ground as I struggle to control the pressure for a second before I set it right upon my target.

His disfigured body of bone suffers a direct impact but to my annoyance my pressured stream doesn't cut him in half, more bone seems to construct underneath his skin, hardening him against my attack. I fuel my jutsu with more chakra, intent on seeing the man's blood soak. His protruding bone ribcage snaps off, pieces flying off randomly as they lose against the pressure of my jutsu.

Tossed through the Hozuki clan grounds like a ragdoll the man struggles to get on his feet again in the time my jutsu elapses. A large part of me wanted nothing but to chase after him and ensure he bleeds for attacking us but I have other concerns, namely myself and allies.

Around me is a mess of water and bone. Rina's house was cut in half despite our best efforts, a mountain of bone shattered through the right half with the left half only protected by Fuguki's jutsu. Where there would be an opening to invade the home through windows and breaches, there's a large collection of orange hair and ice instead.

I ran over to Owl mask and crouched beside her as she groaned. Of all of us she expended the most chakra and ironically had the least. Without her jutsu though, I doubt we could have protected the Third's family as well as we have.

"Lay down." I ordered, forcing her shoulders back on the bloodstained waters around us.

"Kill him." She gritted out.

The man in question doesn't look like he's capable of causing any more trouble than he has, though he has caused trouble. Eyes narrowed at him as he pulls onto his feet, I flip through familiar hand-signs and the water around me surges at him.

He screams and bursts with chakra but unlike the frightening creature of bone anatomy he transformed into, he only manages two bone swords. But it doesn't matter. The water splashes into his face unheeded, drowning him with force as my will forms a [Water Prison] to trap and control him.

I'd used this jutsu earlier in the fight as well but to greater efficiency. The first [Water Prison] was a small ball no larger than a football and coloured dark crimson. With the pressure within the [Water Prison] I can crush whoever is trapped inside until all that's left of them is the size of a football.

Yagura is a beast.

I snatched some supplies from Owl masks pouch and quickly got to staunching her many lacerations and stab wounds. I hadn't come out unscathed either. My left arm is almost split in two from the litany of bone spears and other projectiles, not to mention I've been stabbed twice when the enemy got passed my ranged attacks.

Still, Yagura managed to prove superior against them even at close combat quarters. The insane amount of bloodlust that surged in me with each close encounter fuelled a passion for battle I never realized Yagura had.

I split some of Owl masks bandages around my stomach, thanks to Isobu's chakra the injury on my left arm is already sewing up itself.

I've been underestimating myself, or rather Yagura. When I sensed the enemy through the mist and leaped out onto the now partially destroyed rooftops to face them, I was crossing my fingers in the hope that I didn't die. I didn't think I had a chance against actual enemy combatants until I faced them.

And it was glorious. The striking pain of being sliced and stabbed, the pressure of keeping distance and preventing the porcupine-like enemy from getting the advantage, the magnitude of their jutsu to destroy half of an Ice Warded home even with Fuguki inside.

The thrill had me licking my lips, excited to cut down more. All this time I've judged Fuguki, the clans and even the Sandaime in silence, thinking them all as bloodlusted beasts and I a paragon of fairness but here I am, my heart racing for more blood to spill.

Yagura is a beast. You'd have to be to be so strong in a place like this. Having had a taste of my very first kills I find little remorse in my heart for my actions; the line between Yagura and I continues to blur.

"Kill them." Owl mask groans, slapping my hand away as she pulls herself up. Even with her mask on I could feel a heated glare fix on the last man I've kept as prisoner.

I shook my head and ordered the [Water Prison] closer to me, "No, we need one alive at least." I said, studying the partially drowning man.

[Water Prison] is a very versatile jutsu, with it I can ensure he drowns or that he doesn't, I can knock him out or crush him to the size of a football, but most importantly I can keep him exactly like this for as long as my chakra will allow.

Floating inside the ball of water is a man of the Kaguya clan. If their Bone manipulating techniques weren't obvious enough the zigzag pattern splitting their hair and the red dots on their head gave them away.

"Why?" Owl mask gritted, terribly low on chakra judging by her heavy gasps.

"Exactly that," I tell her, "The Kaguya clan attack so blatantly, not even bothering to hide their faces. We must know why."

Owl mask lifts her mask and chewed on a pill, "We already know why. To kill Sandaime-sama's family, to finish off his lineage!"

Whatever she took seemed to increase her chakra and she stood stronger for it, strong enough to be bothersome. "You think they killed Sandaime-sama too?" I scoffed and sat down with my legs crossed, "No, they're insufficient for such. Recall Ao, we should interrogate this one with him present."

"You have no power ordering me around." She hissed through the pain of her wounds, stepping closer to me and the [Water Prison] her chakra summoning a frosty kunai from the water all over.

"No, and you can certainly do as you please right now without breaking any rules. But if I become Mizukage…I won't forget this."

That halts her in place and I feel her intense glare sublime into something of fear and a tad bit of respect as she allows her ice kunai to collapse back to water, "Very well then, I'll recall Ao."

I gave a grateful nod and looked around the mess we've made of the compound and sighed. Suddenly three ANBU fell from the rooftops to Owl mask, all crouching in subservience.

"Sir!"

"Report." She groaned out.

"Sir! Funato, Yuki, Hoshigaki and Karatachi clan compounds have suffered similar attacks."

"What?" I nearly exclaimed. It's one thing for the Hozuki to be attacked but all five clans set upon by the Kaguya? "What of my uncle? Where is he?"

The ANBU spared me a look before glancing back at Owl mask who nodded. "Aoto-dono is safe. He and other Karatachi members fended off the attack with ease…but there have been casualties amongst all clans save for the Hozuki."

"How did this happen? How did they even get past our security? This…this is too suspicious."

Owl mask nods along with my deductions and turned her gaze to the Kaguya I have imprisoned, "I agree. It's too coordinated for a clan of their kind, they don't seem to know anything else apart from combat." She ordered her operatives, "Send message to Ao, he shouldn't be far off the path towards Konoha now. We need him here."

"Sir!"

With that one ANBU disappears in a cloud of mist. Owl mask turned to the others and started giving out organizational orders but all my focus was entirely on my grinning prisoner.


Load failed, please RETRY

สถานะพลังงานรายสัปดาห์

ป้ายปลดล็อกตอน

สารบัญ

ตัวเลือกแสดง

พื้นหลัง

แบบอักษร

ขนาด

ความคิดเห็นต่อตอน

เขียนรีวิว สถานะการอ่าน: C10
ไม่สามารถโพสต์ได้ กรุณาลองใหม่อีกครั้ง
  • คุณภาพงานเขียน
  • ความเสถียรของการอัปเดต
  • การดำเนินเรื่อง
  • กาสร้างตัวละคร
  • พื้นหลังโลก

คะแนนรวม 0.0

รีวิวโพสต์สําเร็จ! อ่านรีวิวเพิ่มเติม
โหวตด้วย Power Stone
Rank 200+ การจัดอันดับพลัง
Stone 45 หินพลัง
รายงานเนื้อหาที่ไม่เหมาะสม
เคล็ดลับข้อผิดพลาด

รายงานการล่วงละเมิด

ความคิดเห็นย่อหน้า

เข้า สู่ ระบบ

tip ความคิดเห็นย่อย

คุณลักษณะความคิดเห็นย่อหน้าอยู่ในขณะนี้บนเว็บ! เลื่อนเมาส์ไปที่ย่อหน้าใดก็ได้แล้วคลิกไอคอนเพื่อเพิ่มความคิดเห็นของคุณ

นอกจากนี้คุณสามารถปิด / เปิดได้ตลอดเวลาในการตั้งค่า

เข้าใจแล้ว