Staredown

As the stalemate was established, Haku had arrived at the capital of the country and was searching for the Daimyo and his top officials.

Unfortunately, they were wise in the sense that they hid, fearing they would be targets by powerful shinobi hired by their rivals in response to their own hiring of the Akatsuki.

This delayed Haku quite a bit. After all, not everyone had an utterly broken sensory ability like Shiki had but she had to make do.

After "asking" around "nicely" Haku picked up on some clues. It seemed that an underground tunnel system had been built under the palace, both as a secret way to move around and as a hiding place.

Even then, the safehouse within the tunnels was hidden and inaccessible from most tunnels. The Daimyo and his family was most certainly there but Haku didn't believe he would let the other officials into his own secret clan hideout so she had to look for them too.

Although this further delayed her, the officials ended up being much easier to find with their own hiding places not being nearly as well hidden, protected or safeguarded as the Daimyo's, which was to be expected.

After finally ascertaining the locations of all her targets, Haku got to work. She decided to just kill the officials and leave their families alone since there was no need to kill them too.

As for the Daimyo's family, to fully destroy the chain of command and prevent a quick transference of official power through inheritance, all of them had to die.

She didn't enjoy such missions but knew the this country would greatly benefit from her actions. By killing these few people, Haku felt she was bringing happiness and salvation to countless others.

When Mugetsu takes over, things like famine and poverty would be a thing of the past after all, so long as each citizen was willing to put in the effort.

Regardless, despite her distaste for killing Haku was really good at it. Having been training by one the most notorious assassins from Kiri, a hidden village already know for its peerless assassination skills and specialists, she certainly knew what she was doing.

'Ideally, I need to silence all targets before the news get out . . .' Haku considered as she made her preparations.

'Shiki-san's temporary barrier tags should help a great deal with this.' She fondly thought to herself.

These tags, like the name implied, could create a temporary barrier over a location. The barrier was powerful and hard to get rid of but had a significant time restraint, with the better ones only lasting a couple of minutes.

Haku was going to use a sealing barrier that prevented any sound or physical being and objects from leaving. It would also create a false image of the place within the barrier and hide any changes like traces of battle.

With her skills, these few minutes were all Haku needed to complete her assassination of all targets in the capital city.

"Time to move out." He said to herself, her mind chilled to the core in order for her to perform her deadly task with utmost precision and efficiency.

House by house, Haku collected lifes like the grim reaper itself, decapitating each official with a blade of clear ice, making for a clean and bloodless cut due to the freezing effect. She took each of their heads for proof and then moved on.

By the time people were alarmed, Haku had already disposed of all officials and was now standing at the hidden entrance of the Daimyo's safehouse in the tunnels beneath his palace.

To her, this was the hardest part of the mission. Not due to the superior samurai guards or hidden location but because she now had to kill the Daimyo's innocent family.

'This is the way it must be done. Shiki-san has done so much for me, I can't let him down, let myself down for disappointing him . . . And, in the end, their lives will paint a brighter future for their country.' Renewing her resolve, Haku burst into the safehouse.

In a few seconds, everyone inside, guards, servants, the Daimyo and his family, all of them had gotten a mercifully painless death, taking the Daimyo's head and it alone, Haku could now return to Guren.

Fortunately, this would be much easier. Guren carried a small version of one of Haku's ice mirrors so Haku could just use her Spacetime Ice Mirror Jutsu to instantly teleport to her position.

Back in the battlefield, the staredown between Guren and Kakuzu continued with Hidan continuously destroying the automatons surrounding him, all the while cussing out Guren, Kakuzu and anything or anyone he could think of.

In the fierce battle, he had received significant injuries that would have long killed even a powerful shinobi. Multiple deep lacerations with a great deal more shallow ones, burns from the chakra cannons and a bunch of contusions.

Despite this, neither did Hidan's battle strength weaken, nor did his stamina showed any signs of decreasing and he seemed to get more and more powerful as the rage and bloodthirst that accumulated with each injury seemed to empower him.

Kakuzu on the other hand, was doubting the situation more and more.

'That woman should have already figured out that waiting would only make her situation worse. She can't be holding on to the illusion that those puppets pose any sort of threat to Hidan so she should be showing signs of restlessness.' He thought.

'There must be something I'm missing if that's the case . . .' The gears in Kakuzu's head continued to turn.

He was a very experienced shinobi, perhaps the most out of everyone in the Akatsuki considering his age. As such, the benefit of time allowed him to correct his previous assessment of the situation.

'She could just be wary of me, a natural response but that doesn't seem to be the case. If so, there is only one other option. Like me, she is stalling.' Kakuzu concluded.

'By making it seem as if I benefited from a stalemate, that woman bought herself a great deal of time . . . But for what?'

Kakuzu did not really want to make a move without figuring out the situation. Although he liked money, he valued his life even more and preferred losing opportunities to profit rather than risking losing his life, an attitude further enabled by his naturally cautious nature.

'Is she waiting for reinforcements?' He considered.

'No . . . Since the start, this woman has been sticking to a plan and considering Mugetsu's notorious mobility within their own territory, reinforcements should have arrived much quicker . . . What is she waiting for!?' The question frustrated Kakuzu.

'Wait!' He suddenly realized.

'There is a way for Mugetsu to win this with minimal effort.' Kakuzu thought.

'She is not waiting for reinforcements to come, she is waiting for her companion to eliminate our employers!' He finally reached the truth.

Alas, it was too late. Receiving a message from Haku, Guren smirked behind her mask and took out a small ice mirror. Kakuzu's eyes narrowed as Haku appeared from within.

"You took out the Daimyo!" Kakuzu said to the newly arrived Haku.

"The Daimyo, his immediate family and all of the country's top officials." Haku replied.

Kakuzu just growled in response.

Guren just made a hand seal and all of the automatons surrounding Hidan disappeared, they were no longer needed.

Even if the immortal duo did not leave, with Haku here, it made no sense wasting more puppets even if they were cheap and easy to produce, for Mugetsu that is anyways.

"Ha! Now you'll pay infidels!" Hidan shouted with rage, finally free from the automatons.

"Calm yourself Hidan!" Kakuzu admonished.

"Clam yourself my ass! These two bitches are going down!" Hidan continued to shout.

"There's no point, our employers are dead, there's no profit in going down this road." Kakuzu explained with irritation at being hoodwinked by the pair of kunoichi.

"Like I give a shit!" Hidan insisted.

"If I don't kill these two, I'll never be able to face Jashin-sama again!" He said.

"Suit yourself Hidan. But don't expect me to help you." Kakuzu chortled.

'This way, I'll be able to evaluate the prowess of these two without any personal risk.' Kakuzu considered.

'Sometimes, Hidan's unreasonable bloodlust does have its uses.' He thought to himself.

"Hmph! It ain't like I asked for it anyway!" Hidan fired back.

"I'm more that enough to deal with these to little sluts." He ominously declared with his pitiful bloodied appearance, which certainly did not help make his words convincing.

*sigh* Haku sighed.

"Looks like battle can't be avoided." She quietly said.

"Just leave it to me, you keep an eye on the other one. Just in case he changes his mind." Guren said to her companion.

The she turned to Hidan.

"Let's go immortal fool! I want to see how much punishment you can take!" Guren said with anticipation.

She was determined to have some actual "fun" in this mission, the bloodthirsty kind.

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P.a.t.r.e.o.n is officially up!

The link is: https://www.p.a.t.r.e.o.n.com/lusoba without the extra dots of course.

You'll get to read up to FOUR week ahead, a full month, but I'll still post here.

There's also my other novel Archon of DanMachi, do check it out!

I would greatly appreciate any support since this is going to be my breadwinner.