_________ POV Narration _________

The 'Summoning Jutsu'.

An extremely versatile and powerful technique that could help one summon a contracted beast to help them on the battlefield.

The contracted beasts existed in many forms, intelligent beings of many races that lived on sacred grounds of their own, unreachable to the secular world.

The means to contact them were also mostly unknown to anyone besides those that were lucky enough to stumble upon them.

No one wanted to give up such vital information after all, and doing so would even lead to them losing their contract with said species.

But what exactly counted as a contracted beast?

Was it only mammals? Not really, insects, amphibians, birds, just about every living being could become a contracted beast...

And humans were not exempt from that rule.

So, to answer the question of what counted as a contracted beast...

'Any living being with Chakra that has a contract seal on it...'

That was simple really...

So then, what was the Reverse Summoning Technique exactly?

Well, it was merely a way for someone to teleport a contracted beast to a location that was marked beforehand.

How exactly did this work against the Swordsmen of the Mist, who were elite Jonin?

The Contract Seal in itself was easy to break for someone at that level...

But it still took a few seconds in order to do so. Seconds that, to someone like Ken, were more than enough to send them away.

But... It was certainly costly to do it, especially against unwilling/resisting targets. It required an absurd amount of chakra.

So much chakra in fact, that Ken would've likely turned into a statue had he done it using his own reserves...

But that was where the 'Chakra Draining Seal' came into play...

All of the members of the Dark Brotherhood were marked as 'donors' while Ken and a few others were marked as 'Receivers'.

The Chakra Draining Seal was placed on the abdominal region, and all Ken had to do was activate it, and Chakra would be Drained from the donors and received by him.

He only took chakra from the ones that had stayed behind in the compound, as well as a few of Saburo's clones.

This would become the Dark Brotherhood's 'Shared Chakra Technique'.

Normally, such a technique would require physical touch... But as long as the donor and receivers were connected in some way, touch wasn't needed...

And every member of the Dark Brotherhood was connected to the Leader... All of them were his 'Contracted Beasts'.

The technique was just one of many that Ken had thought up for the brotherhood, they were implemented with Saburo's help and heavily relied on Kazue's Fuinjutsu teachigns, obviously.

The 7 Swordsmen were also not transported far away...

The 'Seven Hells Formation' was set up around the village, so the Swordsmen were all still within the gigantic 'Four Red Yang Formation' held up by the Uzumaki.

The Four Red Yang was massive, it was after all, large enough to cover an entire hidden village.

It was also strong enough to trap a Tailed Beast effortlessly. The second the barrier was erected, the Swordsmen had no way out anymore.

But they didn't know that yet...

Kushimaru reacted to his change in scenery almost immediately. The tall masked swordsman was in a large forest, the trees around him cast shadows everywhere, to the point where the Jonin could barely even see anything in front of him.

'Shit, we're separated!'

Kushimaru quickly erased the contract seal on his back, where Ken had pushed him earlier, and started observing his surroundings with caution.

'Where-'

The swordsman's thoughts were interrupted by a whistling sound. He immediately ducked, avoiding a few kunai that stuck to the tree in front of him.

"Damn! Was hoping that would work..."

Kushimaru raised an eyebrow as the voice of a young girl echoed through the woods around him.

"What's this, a joke?" The Mist Swordsman felt genuinely insulted.

Was he really regarded as so weak? Did the Red Dot really send a little girl after him?

"Joke? I didn't say anything funny yet mister! Why don't you try to move a bit...?"

Immediately after the little girl said that Kushimaru moved his hand, swinging his blade at a tree nearby.

The sowing needle wasn't sharp, it was mostly for stabbing, however, Kushimaru's chakra still allowed it to cleave through a tree like it was nothing.

"There, I move-"

Kushimaru responded in an annoyed tone as the large tree started falling in front of him.

In that instant, all hell broke loose.

The Mist Swordsman could feel dozens of steel threads tightening on his body, his eyes widened as he immediately shifted his body and slipped in between the threads.

He used his Nuibari to entangle his own wire with the threads, stopping them from cutting further into his body as they also stopped moving the second that the tree in front of him hit the ground.

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"Wow! You're really violent mister~!" The little girl seemed to taunt him.

Kushimaru grunted as he stayed still, trying to better evaluate the situation.

'I can't tell where her voice is coming from... I also can't feel her presence, at least I don't think so... There are some Assassins around me, but they haven't acted yet...

There were clearly some traps around me, good thing I reacted quickly...'

"Maybe your eyes have adjusted to the darkness now... How about you take a better look around?" The little girl's voice broke him out of his musings for a second, and the Mist Jonin took another look around him...

Then he noticed...

Every tree, every leaf, every branch... They all had wires coiled around them.

Everywhere he looked, there were wires, if he moved even a muscle, he would get tangled up.

'Shit...'

"Welcome to the String Hell! Specially made for you with teacher's instructions!" The little girl's voice sounded out in excitement as dread started to set into Kushimaru's mind.

"We are going to have SOO much fun~!" The little girl's voice sounded disturbing, especially to the trapped Jonin.

While that was happening, a few kilometres away, Jūzō was also going through a trial of his own...

His Decapitation Carving Knife swung around madly in the clearing that he was summoned to.

His opponent? It was none other than the Third Blade... The weird part?

The third blade was not even bothering to block his attacks in any way... With each attack that Jūzō landed, Akira took the opportunity to cut his skin.

Only a minute had passed since he was transported to that clearing, but Jūzō's body was already filled with shallow cuts... And his opponent?

"C'mon, man! I'm not having enough fun here!~" The madman wasn't even scratched...

Every time Jūzō's blade cut through him, the man healed right back, almost instantaneously.

The only evidence the swordsman had that he had ever attacked him was the chips on his large blade when they came into contact with his abnormally tough bones, and the fact that the Third Blade's clothing was not regenerating...

Jūzō panted as he held onto the Decapitation Carving Knife while looking around frantically.

His usual fighting style relied on brutality and swordsmanship, causing as much pain as possible with every swing in hopes of outright killing the opponent or causing enough pain to make killing them easier...

But that was seemingly impossible with the opponent in front of him.

"Try harder!"

Jūzō's blade halved the madman, cutting him in two from his torso, only for him to get kicked heavily by his disembodied legs as the madman just reconnected himself almost instantly.

Even using the 'Hidden in the Mist Technique' and 'Silent Killing' was useless... Each time Jūzō struck, Akira struck back... There was no point in the Silent Killing techniques when the target couldn't even be killed...

'How the hell am I supposed to fight this thing!?'

He wasn't the only one that had his fighting style denied, however...

On the other side of the barrier, Jimpachi was also in a stalemate.

His back was filled with sweat as his one eye scanned the empty field around him.

'I'm basically standing in a field of explosive tags and bombs...'

One small explosion from his blast scroll, and he was sure that the entire field, as well the area 1 kilometre around him, would be scorched in a fiery explosion...

"Quite the masterpiece, isn't it?" A man wearing an empty white mask spoke out. His voice sounded dignified, and somewhat familiar to Jimpachi, though the couldn't quite put his finger on it.

"Are you insane?! What the hell kinda plan is this?! You just going to kill yourself to take me out?!?" Jimpachi was mad.

His explosive scroll 'blade' was essentially rendered useless in that field. To put more salt on the wound, the man in front of him seemed to be a regular Jonin judging by Chakra reserves.

'Just a regular assassin!? Not even a Blade... Well, this is more of a suicide mission for them, so it's understandable.'

The one-eyed swordsman was panicking heavily, trying to think his way out of the situation, somehow...

He did think about running away... But not only was he still within the Barrier, he was also standing in the middle of a minefield.

One wrong step and he'd be dead regardless of whether or not he used his weapon.

"You seem a bit anxious... But thank you for worrying about me, although you should worry about yourself more...~"

The Strawman's clone laughed a bit at the Swordman's panicked expression.

'Our Leader sure has a fun imagination... To think I'd get to witness such a fun scene...'

In all honesty, Kushimaru, Jūzō and Jimpachi had it easy... Especially when compared to Fuguki...

The second the man was transported, he immediately received a palm strike to the chest, which sent him flying into a large rock.

That was the nice part though... As his opponent, the First Blade hadn't just given him a friendly pat on the chest...

Fuguki growled as he erased the contract seal, only to feel a strange aura covering his body...

Looking down at his torso, he could see glowing red writings spreading all across his chest from a fiery palm print left behind where he had been hit.

"Shi-" Fuguki immediately swiped the Samehada towards his opponent, who had been slowly approaching him.

In that instant, the Crimson Seal was completed, and a burning pain seeped into Fuguki's bones...

"AAGHR!" The man screamed in pain as he clutched at his chest, the seal burned into his flesh constantly, and his eyes watered.

The pain of burning alive was unbearable, Tosho just looked down at him as he clutched at his chest and rolled on the ground.

The Samehada still tried to bite at the First Blade, so the man kept his distance.

"The more you hold onto that thing, the more pain you'll feel... The seal reacts to the use of chakra..."

Tosho's voice was calm and collected, uncaring for the man's pain.

Fuguki seemed to have heard him, so he let go of his blade, which wriggled in confusion for a second.

'Now what?!' Was the only thing he could think of the second that his blade hit the ground...

At that moment, the First Blade had already thrown a few shuriken his way.

The gigantic man instinctively tried to dodge them by enhancing his body with chakra, only for a burning pain to stop him in his tracks.

Thankfully, the Samehada quickly got in the way, acting as a shield to its wielder as it released an 'intimidating' screech.

"What a strange weapon..." Tosho spoke out in a bored tone as Fuguki struggled to regain his composure.

'Let's see how long it'll last... Unable to suck out the chakra from anything around it.'

"Hmph..." Tosho laughed and jumped away, disappearing into the trees around them.

The Samehada wriggled in anger, seemingly asking its owner to take it up and go after their enemy, but Fuguki knew he couldn't...

'The Samehada has a constant drain on Chakra... If I wield it this stupid seal will burn me alive...'

"Scared and defenceless... Fitting." The voice of the First Blade was all that Fuguki could hear as he clenched his fists.

"You..." The tall swordsman growled in a low tone as his blade wriggled around him.

As the swordsmen were going through excruciating hardship, Ken was merely sitting down in one of the houses and observing them.

He could feel most things happening within the barrier, and he was relatively pleased with the way things were proceeding.

He had studied the fighting styles and blades of the Swordsmen, he had prepared something akin to a personal hell for all of them.

Raiga was already countered by the fact that he couldn't use his swords at full power, but now he was also pitted against around a dozen of Saburo's clones.

All expendable and skilled... He was being slowly hunted down through the forest, while Saburo was playing around with him.

Jinin was a bit more special, he didn't have any obvious weakness that could be exploited due to his blade. But his fighting style was extremely straightforward... A bit too straightforward...

And that ended up being his downfall... Close quarters combat? Who was ever going to engage him in that?

Instead, he got assaulted with jutsu and projectiles while he ran around like a rat, trying to dodge as many as he could and screaming in pain whenever he got hit.

And finally, Aramo... The wielder of the Hiramekarei. His 'trial' was very similar to Fuguki's.

He heavily relied on transferring chakra to his blade and changing its shape... So one of Saburo's clones just placed the Crimson Seal on his back and was just watching him struggle and suffer.

Ken was humming as he observed their struggles. His plan was working much better than he expected.

He felt thankful at that moment. Both to the Dark Brotherhood that was doing his bidding, and to the Uzumaki Clan that was aiding him as well.

Even so, his plan had required quite a bit of time to pull off, and it also required a lot of manpower to set up all those traps.

But at that moment, it felt worth it... To feel their anguish and panic, to sense their helplessness.

Eventually, the Leader of the Dark Brotherhood slowly got up. He needed to be the one to finish off at least a few of them after all...

'Let's see... Kushimaru's trial is the one I am most concerned with... I don't think Yue and the other children are prepared to face someone like him...'