"Kyuzo, can you keep on doing this?"

"Of course! Nakamura. Just leave this to me. I can do this."

Kyuzo’s desire to help out filled Nakamura's heart with satisfaction and trustworthiness as they were penetrating their way through the dense jungle located close to Kyoto. Nakamura tried his best to help him in clearing the way. But he wasn't so keen on using his heavy nodachi for this purpose. Instead, he used a Kunai synergized with the strength of his arms to slice through the thickly grown vegetation.

Kyuzo's concentration didn't remain long enough as he started sensing the presence of some intruder. Predicting the possible outcomes, Kyuzo alarmed Nakamura by using a hand sign.

Nakamura understood. But he wanted more details. So he gave rise to an almost discreet whisper into Kyuzo's ear.

"Kyuzo, I did hear something. Are you sure that this must be another enemy?"

"Might be. Remember. Stay alert."

Realising what Kyuzo just said, Nakamura slowly pulled out the last two shurikens from inside his shinobi pouch and slid them into a secret compartment in his shinobi gear. Following Nakamura, Kyuzo untangled his kusarigama or the chain sickle used by ninjas. He kept the sickle in his hand while wrapping the chain around his body in a pattern he had memorised.

"We should go. It’s just a bit further from here I suppose. If we don't hurry, we might get late."

"Yes. Let's go." Nakamura replied.

Surprisingly enough, unlike the journeys of the other ninjas, Kyuzo and Nakamura's journey didn't include any dirty surprises, though they weren't aware of the outcome. For Kyuzo, this occurrence perplexed him massively. Nakamura too had expected to encounter some opponents in his way, as a result of trying to draw parallels from his past experiences. But as he didn't, he started to sense weird things.

Kyuzo suddenly shouted, breaking his thought-process.

"Nakamura! There's a swarm of insects tailing behind us!"

When Nakamura turned back, the lines finally connected. He was startled after witnessing the huge swarm of mosquitoes. And yes, the reason behind their sudden appearance was one of the first questions that came into his head. But he didn't choose to raise the question. Instead, he jump started his movement as he immediately shouted,

"Kyuzo, Run!"

Both of them jump-started their legs to evade the swarm of mosquitoes, but they managed to catch up and keep up with them for quite some time. When things were about to go bad, Kyuzo threw a metsubishi bomb into the ground, while shouting,

"Nakamura, Close your eyes!"

The swarm of mosquitoes was instantly annihilated by the eye-blinding puff of smoke. Kyuzo and Nakamura evaded with their utmost powerful speed and finally managed to reach their destination.

The centre of the forest.

It was a considerably large plain, with a small body of water giving a bright scenic beauty to the environment where trees were hardly present. The grass was almost tall to the knee length, with plenty of other small plants with vibrant flowers accompanying the spiky tall grass. And the only trees in the perimeter were close to the edge of the plain.

But what astonished Kyuzo and Nakamura…

… were the two people who were relaxing on the highest branch of the tallest tree in the area. They were looking towards Nakamura and Kyuzo with keen eyes that weren’t intended to give away a friendly approach. But even more than that…

Their amulets…

…were sparkling in purple and light green. This sight triggered Kyuzo's senses in a flash.

Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

“Two birds…who would have thought…”

"Oh Akizuki, I think our little guests have finally managed to reach our little hiding spot."

The rough, manly voice of the amethyst carrier slowly reached the ground, while breaking the laws of physics. The other ninja, who was a kunoichi, tried to descend the tree with a high jump, but her gravitational pull was slowed down by the other ninja, allowing her to land on the grassy floor without any difficulties.

Kyuzo replied,

"So you both have the amethyst and the peridot. Give it back to who it belongs to."

Akizuki started.

"Now now...Hold on a second. You clearly don't have a right to speak about that. After all, you are a Hattori, aren't you Kyuzo?"

The other Ninja introduced himself before continuing Akizuki's speech.

"She is right. You have no right to boast about your clan's arrogant nature. And we Kogas are here to wipe you and the entire Iga Province out….eventually. And I, Takatomi would do whatever it takes to make that dream come true."

"How dare you?"

Kyuzo tried to rush and attack. But Nakamura stopped him.

"Nakamura, stop!"

"Kyuzo, hold it! You're just gonna get yourself killed."

"Now that's how it should be done. Nice work Nakamura." Takatomi joined the conversation abruptly.

"Well by the way…Akizuki, why did you get so late to come here?"

Akizuki’s tone rose and began to proudly present the details of the carnage she had committed.

"Oh, you idiot. I went to that small village near the temple of the golden pavilion to give some people the taste of the power of the peridot of summoning."

"You thought I didn’t know that? It was obvious! But what did you do?"

"Oh, nothing much. Just summoned three bears from the forest and commanded them to destroy the village. Around fifteen people died," She replied, with a grim chuckle.

Kyuzo was agitated after listening. When he couldn't withstand their talking, he chose to hurl a shuriken at Akizuki.

Clang.

The shuriken clashed with Akizuki's ninja claws and fell onto the ground. Takatomi gave a grim chuckle as well, before dragging out his studded chain.

Akizuki continued her speech but in a rough tone this time.

"Hold it right there Kyuzo and Nakamura. Are you even thinking of what you are about to face? We both hold the power of two parts of the Star of Izanagi. I can summon all the wild beasts in this landmass to support me. And this knucklehead right here can levitate himself and anything that he wants. Aren't you even feeling any kind of fear in trying to face us?"

Nakamura dragged his nodachi back. He held the weapon in hand and rapidly focused it towards Akizuki, before replying.

"Filthy Kogas! Why are you harming innocent people who have no business with you? You should have dealt with us Igas and the Hattori family, and not them. Akizuki, your pathetic arrogance has provoked a terrible mistake for those people and the Hattori clan. As a friend of the eldest son of Katsuro-sama, I will make sure that I will bring those two pieces of the Star of Izanagi back to them. And you both will go down!"

Takatomi enabled the amethyst, which started gleaming in a bright purple colour. He started to levitate into the air while responding to Nakamura.

"Oh yeah! Seems like we will be able to add two more Igas to our collection. And the most interesting part is that one of them is a Hattori! Oh my God! This is gonna get exciting!"

He started to twirl his weapon while levitating, Akizuki jumped in front of Takatomi and directed her claws towards Kyuzo. His eyes were triggered when he saw the peridot being illuminated, which was an indication that the peridot was currently being used.

From the other side of the forest, Kyuzo and Nakamura began hearing very loud outcries, and it was just a matter of time before they realised that they were actually the yells of bears.

Kyuzo immediately unloaded his kusarigama and readied the weapon in place. Akizuki sighed, and said,

"If you really and truly acknowledge the fact that you are so strong, then I, Rokume Akizuki, am kindly asking you to try and beat us. And if your lousy self succeeds in any way whatsoever, your prize will be these two pieces of the Star of Izanagi."

Kyuzo rotated the sickle of the kusarigama and gripped it tight with his fingers while responding with a battle stance that exhibited the energy and the stamina of the newly formed Teen Ninjas.

"Okay. Bring it on."