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, 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, the man froze, the power behind the kunai evidently startling him. 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 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 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.
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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 but Rikku 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 turning 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.