__________ POV Narration__________
The 7 Swordsmen of the Mist managed to collect the bounty successfully, but not one of them had forgotten the strange child that had attacked them.
Especially not the two that had almost died to him.
Fuguki walked forward in a robotic manner, trying to play out a scenario in his mind, where he would've survived that encounter.
But had it not been for his good luck, as well as having Samehada, he would have died there, instantly.
He, a Jenin, and a powerful member of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist, would've died to a child had his luck been any worse.
'Why was he able to hide his presence so perfectly?! It was as if he was blended with his surroundings, I couldn't even feel him when he was in front of me...'
Fuguki's back was filled with sweat as he remembered the cold feeling he got when that sword came for his head. No sound was made, and no killing intent was leaked for even a second.
Those were not the movements of a child. Those were the movements of a highly trained assassin. Not a single academy child would be able to come close to that kind of skill.
While Fuguki was thinking about stealth skills and assassination techniques, Jūzō Biwa was thinking about something else entirely.
Jūzō was a person known for his brutality. He had played with his opponents mercilessly before, he took the slightest bit of pleasure in seeing his opponents squirm.
He simply couldn't understand it...
How could a child be even more brutal than him?
Usually, he was playful with his victims, his brutality only extending as far as his actions did, as he preferred to mock his victims.
He wasn't against biting an opponent's neck in order to win, but the way it was done this time was simply... Creepy?
He could tell that the child was far from disgusted when biting into his flesh.
Rather, the opposite, he still remembered the corners of the child's lips pointing upwards. The muffled giggle as he crunched down tighter on Jūzō's neck.
Jūzō could only rub his bandaged neck as he remembered that moment with cold sweat on his spine.
It was as if he had been attacked by a rabid animal. He hadn't even heard a grunt of pain or a shout of any sort, even when almost ripping off the child's jaw.
He refused to believe that a child of all things would be so... Feral? So he no longer thought of the child as a human being.
'Good thing it's dead now...'
None of the Swordsmen felt the need to look further into the matter, only sending in the heads and receiving the reward for the bandits.
They also told the Daimyo the location of the paths that the bandits were taking.
Someone had to clean up the mountains after all...
And a squad was sent eventually, a few days later a squad of 10 samurai was sent to clean up the mountain of traps and corpses.
As they knew that the Jonin certainly didn't bother to clean up after themselves.
The squad was also led by a high-ranking samurai... A Hatamoto, a banner carrier or a guardian of the banner, direct guards of the Daimyo and considered vassals that owned mansions of their own.
Technically, each Hatamoto was just as powerful as a Jonin, but they were not experienced in any form of assassination personally.
Some could recognize them and protect themselves from them, but none could perform them, as they were considered cowardly tricks.
This Hatamoto in particular was told to go there personally in order to scout out the situation and find the original hideout of the Bandits.
The other men with him were nothing more than gate guards, only there to handle the cleanup as a Hatamoto was not to get his hands dirty cleaning up coprses.
The Hatamoto eventually managed to find a thin trail of blood... He followed the trail in one direction, and managed to find a pool of blood in a clearing with cut and exploded trees.
'A fight definitely happened here. But this was not in the report those Jonin provided. Just goes to show that you can never trust Shinobi...' The Hatamoto looked at the pool of dried blood on the ground with a sceptical gaze.
'No one would survive losing that much blood... Someone else might've dragged the body away.' He quickly came to that conclusion and decided to trace the blood in the other direction.
He told the gate guards in his squad to keep cleaning up the scene before following him.
He was confident in dealing with one bandit. And if there were more he could always simply escape and inform his lord.
Thankfully, the trail of blood had also not been covered up by snow, as there hadn't been any storms on that mountain recently.
He followed the trail of blood all the way to the site of what appeared to be a patched-up abandoned temple.
'This must've been the actual main base of the Mountain Hyenas...' He drew his blade silently as he walked into the compound slowly.
He could see the patched-up walls, the building was maintained... But the fire in the yard seemed to have gone out.
'It's possible that they have moved out... But I need to be cautious.'
The Hatamoto grasped his blade with a serious gaze as he looked at the main building of the temple.
He also noticed what seemed to be a small shrine near it. He was able to notice that it hadn't been built all that long ago, and some of the items on there were bloody.
'This is certainly recent... 10 memorial items, 10 missing deserters... It's been 8 years, but I guess Daisuke didn't make it in the end...'
The Hatamoto remembered Daisuke and his squad, he had been the one to give them the initial order that caused them to become deserters.
Their orders had been rather simple, Daisuke himself was a Gokenin at some point, two ranks below a Hatamoto, but still a vassal with his own land. So he was the squad leader.
They were tasked to send a message to the five Kage of each Shinobi village, to force them to end the war.
It was basically a suicide mission. They likely wouldn't even make it past the first Kage before being killed...
That was why Daisuke decided to save the lives of his squad and become nomads.
The Hatamoto looked at the small shrine with a scowl. ' I still remember getting scolded by our lord for his betrayal...'
He would've slashed the shrine in half from hatred, but dishonouring the dead was in poor taste, so he simply moved on.
The Hatamoto couldn't sense anyone inside the building, but he knew that there was a possibility for the one that had built the small shrine to still be inside.
So, instead of entering the temple he simply imbued his katana with his chakra, making it glow in a deep blue light.
It was a legendary blade gifted to him by his lord for his extensive service.
It was made out of chakra conductive metals and sharper than any regular blade said to even be on par with the with legendary blades such as the 'Sword of Totsuka'.
It was officially called 'The Severing Sword'.
With an upward motion, he sent a flying slash towards the temple, splitting it in half rather easily.
He then swiped his sword a few more times, cutting the temple more and more until it collapsed completely.
He then sheathed his blade and looked at the rubble with expectation in his gaze. Preparing for a quick-draw technique as soon as any assailant showed himself.
He stood in that position for a few minutes, then he noticed that there was simply no movement in the temple ruins. He narrowed his eyes as he proceeded to turn around.
The Hatamoto walked a few steps, before drawing his blade and slashing behind him at speeds that could barely be followed with the naked eye.
Quite a bit of sweat was present on his brow as he looked around, a foreboding feeling simply made him shiver.
'Something isn't right...'
He felt as if he was intruding into a lion's den.
As if a predator had its gaze locked on him... He was being hunted.
That was pure instinct that he had forged through countless battles, in comparison, the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist were still beginners to him, who had been a Hatamoto for a few decades.
His instincts were more honed, even if he was weaker in strength...
"S-Show yourself!" The fact that his voice trembled a bit only made things worse, and he knew that. Showing your fear to a predator was a sure way to die.
Unfortunately for him, he was not a sensory type. Even if he was, the odds of him sensing Ken were extremely low, unless he was on the level of an actual Kage.
From behind him, he could suddenly hear movement. He turned around quickly, only to see dozens of Senbo and Shuriken coming his way.
His mind panicked slightly, as his fear materialized, but his body moved as if on instinct, his blade swiped at impressive speeds, protecting his body perfectly from the projectiles in front of him.
As he was blocking the projectiles thoguh... He felt something strange as if something cold had slipped into him.
Looking down, he could see two blades sticking out of his body, one from his stomach and one from his chest.
He had already bled quite a lot, so he didn't even know when it had happened exactly...
"W-what...?" He looked forward, where the projectiles had been coming from, only to see a poorly set-up spring trap at the entry of the temple.
"N-no..." He tried to turn around, to slash his blade behind him, but by now his body had already lost a lot of blood.
His slower than usual slash was dogged perfectly as the blades seemed to slip out of him without any issue.
In front of him was a short masked figure. Nothing more than a child wearing ill-fitting red armour and tattered black rags around his shoulders.
A white mask with a large red dot in the centre, with no visible eye holes.
That figure seemed to be staring into his soul. The Hatamoto immediately collapsed to the ground, as he felt the strength leave his body by the second.
His blade was also dropped at that point.
Ken simply picked it up, looking at it with interest. Flowing his chakra through it while completely ignoring the dying man at his feet.
"A great blade... I'll be taking this." The Hatamoto felt more and more horror when hearing the nonchalant and young voice that escaped that mask.
"I don't appreciate you destroying my house... But I guess it's no longer home when I am alone." He said as he walked over to the Hatamoto, who was currently trying to crawl away.
'I must warn the others... They need to flee and inform the lord...' The man was concentrated on his duty, he felt it was odd that he unintentionally rolled around on the ground...
At least that was what he thought had happened up until he saw his body, a few meters away... Only his head had rolled off.
He could see in his last moments, Ken scavenging the scabbard from his corpse.
Ken then looked at the path that led down the mountain, as he knew there must've been more people there.
'I feel the need to blow off some steam now... These are the same people that forced us into the mountains in the first place anyway.' Ken then looked at the corpse of the man he had just killed.
His opponent had been strong, even able to cut down the large temple with ease.
Still, in Ken's eyes, he seemed weaker than the swordsmen that had almost killed him, at least he had less awareness when it came to assassination techniques.
Maybe he was a great fighter... But Ken wasn't out to fight him, he simply wanted to kill him. And that was much easier.
After all, he was an assassin by profession. Even if he was dressed as a samurai.
'They must be here to clean up after the Swordsmen from earlier...'
He then continued down the mountain, to clean up the rodents that had infested his former home...
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Hope you liked the chapter!
Still on vacation, just managed to write another chapter for this one today :))
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Ken walked down the mountain as he ran his hand on his newly acquired blade...
It was an extremely sharp sword, Ken touched the razor edge carefully, his senses heightened to an extreme.
The katana didn't seem to have a cross guard, so the Sword handle connected seamlessly with the sheath.
It was a simple blade, not ornate, for it was an object of murder, not a centrepiece over a fireplace. But more importantly... It was a much better blade than what he had previously.
'With this... I can at least compete with those swordsmen in one department...' He still remembered the way his blade had snapped in that fight. The way he was betrayed by his weapon.
His body would've kept going, even with broken arms, but the blade falling apart had put him at a huge disadvantage and it led to him receiving a slash across the chest.
Even now, Ken could feel the marks of his healed wounds on his body. It seemed that the energy in his body merely enhanced his body's natural regeneration, not magically healed him.
The scars would remain, and Ken didn't mind that, he'd keep them as reminders.
The blade itself was long, longer than Ken was currently in fact. But it was also surprisingly light.
Ken knew that the length could be problematic, as it was a bit awkward to take it out of its sheath in case of an emergency, but he'd get used to it eventually.
The fact that the blade was light might have also had to do with the fact that Ken was physically stronger than most adults... Well, the majority of adults and certainly all adults from Earth.
The examples Ken had been running into lately had made him rather discouraged.
If he had tried to fight that Hatamoto face to face he would've surely died, and that wasn't exactly acceptable.
Ken had planned to question him, to find out more about the people that had almost killed him, but seeing him cut down the temple with a few sword swipes made him realize that killing him was the safer option.
After all, it was highly unlikely that they had only sent one person for the mission when it likely included the cleanup of all of the traps they had laid out in the mountain range.
The chances of these people being stronger than the man he had just killed were also relatively low, so Ken wasn't exactly worried.
Although he was still vigilant, refusing to be as reckless as he had been with attacking the seven swordsmen.
After all, if he had stalked them for a while and hadn't just rushed in, he would've managed to kill a few of them at least.
It was a shame, but at least he was alive now, and he had plenty of time to try again...
With a sigh, Ken strapped the large sword to his back, not having any better way of transportation yet.
He kept the two smaller katanas that his family had been using at his waist as he also took some supplies like food and water from the collapsed temple.
He also filled his backpack and pockets with as many Senbos and Shuriken as he could.
They didn't have all that many to begin with, so he ended up collecting the ones he had used for the improvised spring trap that he had used to assassinate the Hatamoto.
And so, with large strides, Ken started dashing down the mountain range, knowing where he'd be able to find more people, the clearing that still held the corpses of his family.
By the time Ken got there, the soldiers had already lit up a fire underneath the mound of headless dead bodies, after all criminals deserved no burial to them.
Ken didn't react much to that either, instead, he quietly waltzed around the clearing from tree branch to tree branch, each step he took masked by the wind as he studied the situation.
9 men, all of them wearing light armour and thick fur coats, their attire was a lot less formal than the man he had killed. Ken judged that they weren't all that strong rather quickly.
Not one of them seemed to have anything special about them, the amount of chakra they had even paled in comparison to his, let alone the Jonin-level fighters he had been facing recently.
Ken knew a bit about Shinobi rankings, Daisuke had made sure to educate him on plenty of things related to the world.
At least he now had some assurance that he wasn't all that weak, and had just been competing with tough opponents up to that point.
Without feeling the need to extend the situation and wait for assassination opportunities, Ken simply stood up straight on top of the tree he was on.
None of the samurai had noticed him yet, Ken felt his weapons for a bit, wondering what he should use in the fight for a few seconds before deciding to use his newest blade.
Now, taking it out of the sheath was currently physically impossible for him due to the length of the blade.
So Ken simply took it off his back and unsheathed the sword slightly, after which he simply pointed it to the ground, letting the sheath slide off and land on the ground with a small thud.
This had finally alarmed the 9 warriors below, as they all looked at the source of the sounds and drew their blades.
"W-Who's there?!" One of them asked as he kept a perfect stance despite his panicking mind.
Eventually, one of the men looked up, his eyes widening as he saw the blood-smeared figure of small stature.
A blood red samurai armour and a tattered cloak stained with blood all over, in his hands was a long blade, held in an odd stance as it was pointed at the ground slightly to the side.
The strangest part of that costume however had to be the mask, all white with a blood-red sphere in the centre...
"UP THERE!" The warrior that had spotted him instantly shouted out, as all of them got into a formation, preparing for an enemy ambush.
Ken then jumped down, his armour and blades clattering a bit, sounding a lot like a windchime more than anything.
"S-state your business!" One of the samurai said, hoping that they wouldn't have to face the person in front of him.
"... Can you please die silently?" Ken asked as he tilted his head slightly. His young voice startled many of the soldiers, his mannerisms could've even been called cute had the situation been different.
As soon as he said that, some of the men reeled back, showing a slight gap in the formation.
That was the exact second Ken dashed forward, the wind rolling around him as he brought his long blade around and slashed at the men mercilessly.
The blade flared with blue light as electricity seemed to sparkle around it.
The first swipe mowed through three people and three blades before it was stopped by the fourth.
The three were all split in the middle section, their torsos flying upwards as their swords snapped and fell to the ground.
The soldiers instantly panicked when seeing 3 of their own fall so quickly, but they still had training, all of the remaining members still rushed Ken while the one blocking his strike tried to keep his attention.
Ken didn't show any reaction to this, as it was the obvious move to make. The remaining 6 warriors seemed to circle around him perfectly in the second that Ken had given them as breathing room.
'I need to give them some leeway... Otherwise, I wouldn't be able to test this blade for long.'
Still, Ken quickly split the fourth sword apart, shocking the samurai that had been holding it as Ken slightly pulled his blade backwards as it passed through the man's torso.
Instead of being cut in half, the man was simply gutted alive, Ken instantly twirled around raising the hilt of the sword to block a sword slash and twisting his body around its blade to block another.
His leg raised up and kicked the hand of another warrior, breaking his fingers and making him drop his sword.
Ken then kicked the sword while it was still falling, shooting it a bit upwards, and then kicked it again right into the stunned man's throat.
More blades were rushing in as Ken decided that blocking all of them was becoming annoying.
Instead of bothering to block them, he raised himself on the hilt of his blade, standing on one arm as the thursts that had been directed towards him all passed by the blade.
Ken then twirled around the sword, using it as a pole and kicking two of the men backwards.
Then, with one hand grabbing the hilt of the sword, he kicked it with his leg, causing it to shoot upwards and throw some dust into the samurai that had been behind him.
As the blade was going up, Ken put his other hand on it as well, bringing it down onto the warrior in front of him.
The man only had the time to bring up his sword in order to try and block it, but he truly had no chance.
This time, Ken didn't even bother with Chakra, as his blade simply cut through the Katana almost instantly, splitting the man in two with a downward slash.
"A-a monster..." The two warriors that Ken had kicked away had already got up, both of them seemed to have the same idea as they turned around and started running.
Ken simply picked up the two sides of the blade he had just broken and threw them at their back, hitting them perfectly feeling them hit the ground with a small thud.
At that point, the man he had blinded had also managed to rub the dust and snow out of his eyes, only to see that he was the last man alive.
"W-wait! Please don't kill me!" The man instantly got on his knees, knowing that he truly had no chance of fighting whatever the thing in front of him was.
"Don't worry... I won't kill you..." 'Yet...' Ken said with child-like joy in his voice as he once again tilted his head a bit and brought his sword behind him, stabbing it on the ground and leaning on the dull part while crossing his arms a bit.
"T-thank you! Thank you!" The warrior instantly banged his head on the ground a few times. All honour was forgotten in the face of death it seemed.
"You're welcome! By the way... Can you tell me more about your mission?" Ken asked as he continued to sense the man's heartbeat quicken with that question.
"Don't worry... I don't want anything with you or your lord... Can you tell me a bit more about the men that killed the mountain bandits here?"
Ken decided to rephrase his question, and he could feel the man calm down quite a lot after he had done so.
"O-of course!" The man instantly started giving Ken more information regarding the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist.
Ken simply smiled under his mask as he heard more of that information.
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Hope you liked the chapter!
Vacation got me wanting to write this more :)) Doubt anyone's mad about it tho
If u want to support me look up VeganMaster on Patre_on, you'd also get 4 chapters in advance (or 2 depending on tier)