The fight between Keisuke and the team-two continues as Keisuke was unleashing an unrelentless barrage of punches with his stone-covered fists, moving at extreme speed.

Itachi and Hikari were able to block some of it and dodge the others and hit Keisuke in return a few times, but it only makes some scratches on his dark and hardened skin that is under the effect of some sort of an earth release defensive jutsu.

Yuta was staying behind under the effect of the invisibility seal, waiting for the opening while one of Yuta’s shadow clones was visible and trying to cast a genjutsu on Keisuke again and again, slightly distracting him.

After a few minutes of this fight, it becomes clear that Itachi and Hikari will run out of chakra much quicker than Keisuke, but they almost dragged Keisuke to the chakra suppression seal trap not far away.

Being frustrated that her blows didn’t make much damage, Hikari said annoyed, “I didn’t want to use this, but you are leaving me no choice, you old fart!”

As she said that, her sword that was slightly glowing all this time with a light blue color, the glow suddenly intensified and became darker, with electricity sparks all over it.

The next instant Hikari landed a hit on Keisuke’s arm with her sword, and it made a deep cut on it, drawing some blood, finally making some real damage to Keisuke for the first time during the fight.

‘Lightning release chakra flow? But why didn’t she use it earlier if she had such a good technique all this time?’ Yuta thought while looking at Hikari’s lightning-covered sword with interest.

Keisuke, being injured, finally started to take this fight seriously and became more cautious, he moved back a little and performed a few hand seals and slammed his hands into the ground.

Yuta sensed a huge amount of chakra spiking in Keisuke’s body and being poured into the ground, and the next moment hundreds of earth spikes shot from the ground around Keisuke towards the team.

‘That guy is finally going serious and spending a lot of chakra…’ Yuta thought while retreating, using his invisibility and the fact that he isn’t targeted by this attack to run to the safety.

Itachi and Hikari also retreat, Itachi is using his sharingan to maneuver among the spikes being unharmed by them, while Hikari slashing the spikes with her lightning-covered sword and moving backwards. Both are able to withstand the barrage of earth spikes, while Yuta’s shadow clone was unable to and being hit and dispelled.

Keisuke, seeing that Yuta was just the shadow clone all along, became even more cautious to his surroundings, looking for any minor signs to find the real Yuta.

As the barrage of earth spikes ended, Itachi shot a large fireball at Keisuke to keep him occupied, while the team retreated further away, luring him in.

As the fire subsided, Keisuke jumped out of the ground and continued to pursuit the team.

‘Damned, what a freaking tank, is he still considered a shinobi at this point? All my tricks are meaningless in front of this amount of raw power and defense…’ Yuta thought while taking a position beside the chakra suppression seal trap to be ready to activate it and reinforce it with his chakra, his last hidden shadow clone doing the same on the other side of the trap.

Itachi and Hikari retreated and stood behind the trap, ready to defend themselves once again, but Keisuke while pursuing them finally stepped into the trap.

Yuta and his shadow clone, who stands on the opposite sides of the trap, instantly activated it.

The place where Keisuke stands instantly glowed in a blue color and everyone saw the mess of lines and unrecognizable symbols glowing on the ground all around Keisuke, while Keisuke halted his movement, feeling a restriction on his chakra being placed and he started to exert his full strength to break it, feeling as if a bunch of strings that entangled him started to rip apart.

While Keisuke was restricted, breaking out of the fuinjutsu restriction only needs a split second for Keisuke to get free, but it was a split second too late for him anyway, as in the same exact moment, both Itachi and Hikari made their move. They both jumped to Keisuke at a high speed the moment the seals were starting to activate, and the moment that Keisuke was almost done breaking out of the restrictions, Itachi and Hikari landed a decisive hit.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Itachi stabbed Keisuke in the heart with his kunai with all the strength he has left, and while Keisuke’s chakra was restricted, his defensive jutsu was weakened enough to Itachi to successfully pierce Keisuke’s heart.

But all of that was unnecessary, as Hikari sliced her lightning-covered sword through Keisuke’s neck, cutting his head clean off.

‘Phew, looks like the tricks and decisive killing blows while the enemy is distracted or weakened are still ruling over this shinobi world after all…’ Yuta thought cheerfully while looking at the bloody scene of headless Keisuke with a kunai deep in his heart, dropped on the ground dead.

“We did it.” Itachi stated in a tired voice.

“Yea, serves you right you old shit!” Hikari exclaimed happily and kicked Keisuke’s dead body. As the lightning on Hikari’s sword subsided, Yuta saw that the sword was now covered in cracks.

‘So that is why she didn’t want to use the lightning chakra flow.’ Yuta thought while relaxed a little, but as he did, he felt that something is not letting him to fully relax, ‘Hm, such a strange feeling, wait a minute, the uneasiness that I felt before that is likely a feeling of danger, it’s not decreased even one bit when we kill the Iwa Jonin! Something is wrong here!’

Yuta thought that the Iwa Jonin might faking his death or something like that, but as he extended his sensory technique, he didn’t feel anything unusual, and the body of the Jonin is real and he is definitely dead.

‘What is it then? Where is the danger?’

Yuta starts to look around worriedly. Itachi seeing that, asked, “What’s wrong?”

“I don’t know yet, but this is definitely not the end of our troubles here…” Yuta said worriedly looking around. Yuta was visible right now, but his last shadow clone wasn’t, so just to be safe, Yuta switched places with his shadow clone using Kawarimi jutsu and going invisible.

‘Damned, Hikari and Itachi were tired, and Hikari’s sword is almost broken, we don’t’ have much fuinjutsu defenses here left and they aren’t that effective against Jonins either… Where is the danger I’m sensing?!’

Hearing that Itachi become serious and ordered, “Formation four!”

Itachi, Hikari, and Yuta’s shadow clone immediately take a defensive stance in a circle, facing the outside of the circle, trying to detect any upcoming enemy from all directions.

Koichi, who was observing the whole fight, being ready to interfere at any moment to protect his students, saw how they dealt with the Jonin by themselves, and seeing that made Koichi proud of them. He was already relaxed and now observing them with pride in his eyes, not paying much attention to their surroundings anymore.

But then he saw that his students had taken a defensive stance, and he became confused as he didn’t see any reason for them to do that.

Itachi activated his sharingan once again and he was the first one to spot the incoming intruders this time, as Yuta was unable to sense their chakra signature, which was hidden with some jutsu.

“From the West!” Itachi exclaimed going forth to intercept the incoming enemies.

The team turned and faced the incoming three shinobi in black clothes and white masks, without any signs of belonging to any shinobi village whatsoever.

“Shit! My sword won’t last another fight!” Hikari said annoyedly, while didn’t show any fear or being worried.

“Who are you? Identify yourselves!” Itachi yelled at the incoming shinobi, but they didn’t stop or say anything, their killing intent can be felt by everyone present.

‘Damned, they are fast, and my sense of danger intensifies, are they even bigger threat than the previous Iwa Jonin? If so, then how do we even deal with that, and I even can’t sense their chakra at all…’ Yuta thought worriedly while staying hidden, waiting for the good opportunity to sneak attack, while his shadow clone played a decoy.

The three new enemies changed their formation, with two of them running towards Itachi and Hikari and the third one was lagging behind. Itachi and Hikari clashed with the new enemies and quickly found out that they are strong, as strong themselves, but the new enemies are fresh and full of chakra while Itachi and Hikari are running on fumes after all the fights.

Yuta’s shadow clone that stayed behind trying to cast a genjutsu again, and once again was countered by constant chakra disruption of the masked enemies, just like that Iwa Jonin did.

After a few clashes with them, Itachi and Hikari were slightly injured and jumped back, taking a defensive stance once more, Itachi was desperately trying to come up with something to deal with the situation, but so far, his best viable option was to order the scatter and retreat, while praying that at least someone will get away.

But as Itachi was about to order the retreat, he felt that his body was paralyzed, the same as Hikari’s, Yuta’s shadow clone and even a real Yuta was paralyzed as well, with his invisibility seal deactivated.

Everyone glanced at the ground and found out a thin dark shadow stretch and connected with their shadows, and the shadow of the enemy that stayed behind.

‘What the… The Nara clan shadow jutsu?’ Yuta thought in shock, as the two remaining enemies jumped at Itachi and Hikari with kunais, ready to pierce their hearts.

‘Damned! There is nothing I can do here! The only thing I can do is to time-travel back and prevent us going on this cursed mission! But Itachi’s sharingan’s awakening, it’s a rare opportunity for him to activate it, will he be able to activate it later? Damned!’ Yuta thought with his mind and emotions being in disarray as he watched how the two masked shinobi that are definitely from the Root, going closer and closer to the Itachi and Hikari, and about to pierce their hearts.

‘Damned! I don’t want to watch it, better get going! To the past I go…’