"Let's go!"

The shortest bodyguard of the five initiated his move by dashing into the Teen Ninjas while circulating a manriki chain in his left hand, holding his ninjatō in his other hand. Foreseeing the tripping blow of the short bodyguard, Hinako executed a boomerang throw with the utilisation of one fan. The short bodyguard released the manriki chain out of his rough hands to trip Hinako and it nearly entangled Hinako's legs, until Kyuzo enrolled in force stopping the chain with his kusarigama.

Kyuzo's move didn't help Hinako much as she hopped over the bodyguard while trying to reclaim her dodged fan. Her impulses could feel the launch of another counter-attack, but she wasn't powerful enough to correctly predict the next trick.

The bodyguard swung his arm while targeting Hinako who was still in mid-air.

"Take this, Hinako," he said.

Immediately after his mouth closed, a few projectiles were fired from the bodyguard's arm. Hinako's instantaneous observation properly identified the darts as bo-shurikens, which were a type of ranged weapon that consisted of a single sharp edge but could sometimes be double-pointed. Their penetration power was considered far superior compared to kunai.

"Here goes!"

As a method of barricading herself from the incoming spikes, Hinako rapidly unfolded her tessens to form an iron shield to deflect the rods off her. It was a clean block.

With two of his moves ineffective on Hinako, the Kōga ninja switched to his primary weapon to charge in and deal serious damage to Hinako after she had stepped back on the floor. He pushed into her to try to overwhelm her by the time he had initiated his sword strike.

Hinako tried to turn around to execute her moves but was horrified after realising the distance that the short ninja had gained in the past seconds.

The Ninja screamed out, in a vengeful tone.

"Now die!"

"Oh no, you.”

Kyuzo reached for the ninja's legs with the other end of his kusarigama and fastened it around his ankle to trip him onto the floor. He fell on the floor unarmed, giving Hinako an excellent opportunity to counter-attack.

Hinako wrinkled her fans, immediately landed on the fallen Kōga ninja, and jabbed both in his stomach. She eventually pulled them out, leaving the body behind, without a soul.

“Okay…one down.”

Hinako retreated while Kyuzo recovered his weapon before trying to face the other three.

Kanamori ended his spectating status and finally made his call on his remaining bodyguards to stampede towards the Teen Ninjas to take them down one by one, angered by the death of another bodyguard.

Kento dashed with his katana. But after comprehending that his ammo count had dropped to zero, he shouted out to stop Yamazaki from using up his remaining ninja tools, asking him to save them to use when absolutely necessary. But Kento didn't have any options other than assaulting as the other four Kōga shinobi were accelerating towards him, fuelled by their anger for their comrade.

"Yamazaki, I need help!"

"Roger!"

The only kunoichi of the four bodyguards attempted to land a Kesagiri cut on Kento with her dual Wakizahi. Yamazaki leapt to smack her legs with the wooden end of his naginata, while Hinako and Kyuzo engaged to hold on to the two ninjas armed with a naginata and a yari. While Yamazaki switched his places to deal with the kunoichi, Kento charged to strike the claw-wielding ninja head-on but was blocked with ease. He proceeded with another katana slash at a horizontal angle to divert and counter-attack the claw whack.

"Ah!"

When Kento heard his brother screaming, his attention was quickly distracted to rescue his brother from getting attacked from behind while trying to defend Hinako from the naginata wielder. To buy some time, Kento back-kicked the claw shinobi and slid past Yamazaki to reach for the naginata ninja.

"Stay out of it, Kento!"

He yelled out soon after seeing the abrupt arrival of Kento. Kento was ravaged from the inside after noticing the cut that had appeared on Kyuzo's left leg, just below the knee. Kento was furious after comprehending that the ninja had given a serious punishment to one of the vital spots in the leg, which had resulted in temporary immobilisation of his left leg.

"Oh no! I won't let you touch my brother anymore!"

Kento lacerated the flesh that covered the naginata ninja's lower rib cage, forcing him to quickly withdraw from the battle.

Kento yelled out his brother's name, as it was the only way of checking Kyuzo's condition in this tough situation. But Kyuzo made no answer as he was lying motionless on the ground while breathing hard.

"No!"

After being mentally shifted from the downing of Kyuzo, Kento's body received a sudden huge buff enabling him to rush and save Hinako who was about to get blown by the yari bodyguard when trying to drive her tessens through the claw ninja.

Sloosh!

Kento's blade was coated in warm blood after it swept through the yari ninja's chest. Pulling his sword back out, Kento pushed him on the wooden planks of the ferry pier. The claw ninja bodyguard's attention was heavily influenced by the death scene of the Yari bodyguard, allowing Hinako to land a quick slash on one of his hands. A considerably deep scratch formed on his knuckles, creating enough hate to make him proceed with an effective counter-assault.

Hinako tried to retreat to work out her next move but due to the fatigue from the previous battle, she couldn't use her maximum capacity to fight against these enemies.

A sudden yell from Yamazaki caused Hinako to quickly react to an incoming danger.

"Hinako, above you!"

The reaction was instantaneous. Hinako backflipped to dodge the impaling blow of the Kōga kunoichi. It was kind of surprising to know that the Kōga kunoichi had tried to copy the same killing blow that Hinako used against the short one. Unfortunately, she was careless enough to let her guard down, as the kunoichi used her super-speed to sneak behind Hinako to land a sword strike. She couldn't sense her presence until she got close enough. As a quick decision, Hinako ducked. Her move let the two swords rip through the air above her.

The Kunoichi began to admire her, but Hinako didn't see through her plan, thus allowing the Kōga Kunoichi to make Hinako the victim of her next move. The claw-wielding ninja dashed to land a kick on Hinako and due to the immense propulsion that he had attained, it was almost impossible to dodge it unless she had noticed it beforehand. But because of her misfortune, her brother and his friend didn't get a single second to warn her about the incoming attack primarily because of the pressure that they had to sustain from the naginata wielding Kōga Ninja.

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The kick landed on her stomach, causing her to get knocked onto the ground. Before Hinako could get back on her feet, the Kunoichi executed her next move.

She rushed towards Hinako while yelling out,

"Now take this, Hinako!"

Slash.

“AAAAA!!!”

A bitter scream thundered around Ōtsu town. Her scream was so loud that when Kento and Yamazaki heard it, they froze as their eyes caught the picture of the torture that she had to face.

Hinako's left arm was impaled by one of the wakizashis. The Kōga kunoichi had stuck her sword into the wooden floor with Hinako's arm in it. She had no means of escape as the sword had been embedded deep into the floor. Hinako painfully tried to remove the sword to free herself. But a powerful hit from the wooden pole of the naginata holding Koga ninja left her unconscious and motionless on the floor, sending Kento into a drastic situation.

Kento's eyes leaked out a few tears, and he backed up to Yamazaki.

"Kento, now what are we gonna do?"

"Kyuzo and Hinako, they are in danger!"

"Hinako wouldn’t have had a chance to face such torment! She must have been quite vulnerable and hurt after she fought with Futaru. Kyuzo must have had the same effect."

Kento began repenting.

"Why did I allow them to join this battle in the first place? I should have sent them back with Nakamura and Isoko. Now three of my teammates are down. It's just me and you."

"Kento, HEY! Mate, don't blame yourself. You did what you had to do. And besides, I am still here with you, bro. Together, we both can take these nutcrackers down."

Kento recovered to his original perception after realising the facts referred to by his friend. He then instructed his companion before striving to take on the other ninjas.

"Yamazaki, these guys are quite brutal and quite fierce. So we should synergize our moves often if we really want to beat these guys."

Yamazaki conceded before he passed a few more kunai knives to Kento as he was out of ammunition after the harsh fights he went through, especially with Nakabara. Yamazaki too prepared a few darts he had obtained from the samurai team to operate against the standing Kōga watchdogs.

Kento slowly tried to analyse the shortcomings of each Kōga shinobi so that both he and Yamazaki could come up with an excellent strategy to win against Kanamori's assistants but couldn't continue to fully compromise the enemy team as the Kōgas manifested in pushing from three directions to put pressure on Kento and Yamazaki.

"Yamazaki, scatter!"

Right after Kento shouted out to warn his comrade, both of them slid through the small gaps just in time to evade the multi-weapon assault initiated by the Kōga bodyguards.

The battle was getting more and more intense. With three of the members already downed, Kento and Yamazaki were struggling to survive the brutality of those Kōga ninjas one way or another. After bypassing the killer blow of multiple weapons, both of the remaining Teen Ninjas were separated. Although Kento clearly didn't expect this outcome, it was the only remaining choice for them to survive.

After sliding away, Kento unloaded one kunai from his pocket and quickly shot it to tear through the Naginata ninja, who attempted to rush into Kento right after missing his combined masterpiece. The blade drifted in another direction when it made contact with the naginata blade. Seeing his small attack fail, he chose to rush into his opponent with his steel katana in his hand.

"Oh? Trying to rush me when you realise that I have the advantage over you?"

The naginata ninja showcased a leg-tripping move with his weapon, but Kento leapt over him and struck from behind, even though the ninja was rapid enough to turn back to nullify the blow.

Kento then performed a lower slash, which the naginata ninja immediately reacted to counter. But when he was almost about to execute his move, Kento had already made the calculations to perform something his opponent didn’t expect. Timing rightly, Kento diverted the horizontal katana slash’s course into the naginata ninja's arms, resulting in an amputation of his left hand, and a deep cut on his right arm. The naginata ninja was sent into a realm of pure anguish as the amputation produced a whole fountain of blood that was essenced by bitterness and agony. The victim directly lost control of his weapon and desperately endeavoured to halt the bleeding. He wailed and moaned and roared with the torment distorting his battle senses.

His eyes shut after a few seconds, when Kento implemented a shocking thud into his stomach with his katana casing. Kento jabbed the katana through the fallen victim, as an act of mercy for someone suffering such great pain.

Immediately after bringing down the naginata shinobi, Kento volunteered to back up and help Yamazaki fend off the remaining shinobi. He first tossed two more kunai at the individual targets, ultimately influencing them to stop attacking Yamazaki and flee from the bullets. Taking advantage of the little time he had gained, Yamazaki unleashed the power of his naginata with a triple combo attack that drove the friction from the kunoichi's legs. However, the claw ninja jumped right into their fight as a counter-measure for Yamazaki's attacks. Kento entered at the right time to force him away from his colleague. Immediately after entering, the claw ninja launched a stab into Kento's gut. However, it ended up being worthless as Yamazaki's precise kick into the claws' locking mechanisms detached them, which was then followed up with another jumping kick from Kento that blew the weapon right through the air and into the deep waters of Lake Biwa.

The claw ninja was in a state of mind that made him believe that it was all over for him. But even though he was disarmed, his remaining teammate lunged right in front of him to protect him from any kind of attack.

The kunoichi tried calling out his name...but she was frightened just after a few seconds, all because of the abrupt spawning of Yamazaki from behind her buddy. Her pulsing eyes were directed right at the needle that was sticking out of the claw ninja's neck. Her eyes popped out. She then yelled out in desperation as the now-unarmed ninja deteriorated into the ground with inflated pupils.

Dragging the iron dart out of the dead ninja's neck as he collapsed, Yamazaki shouted.

"Like the taste of that? Enjoy tasting our poison for what you all did to my comrade!”

Yamazaki loosened his grip to release the dart from his hands and land it on the discoloured wooden floor. He then edged his naginata upon the Kōga Kunoichi who was still grieving from the loss of her into her veins, which forced her legs to rush in and attack Yamazaki without clearly knowing the possible outcome.

"How dare you! Take thi.."

Her sword-lifting procedure was seized instantaneously as Kento scrambled to protect his comrade from any harm. Kento's immediate horizontal katana gash lacerated through her skin and deep into her flesh, putting a threatening stop to her existence. Her heart couldn't continue to keep on beating due to the unstoppable traumas in her body, and she embraced the ground while giving out her life essence into the dark, stained, corroded wooden base.

Kento turned his sword while confiding to the defeated bodyguards, especially to the dead kunoichi who impaled her sword through Hinako's arm and stuck it in an irremovable manner.

"Dare touch my teammates, you bloodthirsty morons. I will never allow myself to walk over my friends' dead bodies."

Kento felt a tiny sense of relief. But it only lasted a fraction of a second before he turned to Yamazaki to rapidly scan Yamazaki for any injuries. Turns out, there were a few more scratches on his face and left arm, while there were only two cuts on his left and right arms which did seem to not have penetrated the inner flesh. Gripping his fingers into his shinobi robe, Kento pulled out a strip of cloth to offer Yamazaki as a temporary first aid for his wounds. Accepting his offer with a wink, Yamazaki wrapped the two cuts in a blink and got hold of his naginata.

Knowing that he and his team had taken down all the bodyguards of Kanamori, Kento realised that what he and his buddy faced was just a taste of what was coming soon. He turned over to Michinobu Kanamori, who had been watching over the battle with eagerness and enthusiasm. His tall and well-built figure only made Kento’s sense of urgency and uncertainty ever so slightly heightened. But, he knew the severity of the current situation. It was just the final step after long exhausting and challenging hurdles that put all of his team’s lives at stake. The final opponent to face before finally reuniting with his parents once more. Kento recollected these facts once more. His self-confidence then grew stronger, which allowed him to feel as energetic as he was before facing Kanamori’s bodyguards.

With the newly gained energy and confidence, Kento stabbed their weapons on the floor while looking into Kanamori’s eyes, followed by Yamazaki who replied in an energetic tone.

"Kanamori, I have done it. Here, your bodyguards are down."