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.
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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.