Wanted (4)

BOOM! Upon me jumping up from one particular tree branch that I momentarily stood on top of, the man hacked his greatsword downward and destroyed it in a single go.

As an owl hooted below the bright moon, I finally turned around with the girl still behind me, and met the man's greatsword with Ryuma head-on—in the dark forest away from the town.

CLANG!

"Ho... you are quite formidable, aren't you?" The man laughed crazily, "How long has it been since I've met someone who can withstand my strength?"

With narrowed eye, I pushed the man's greatsword to my right and caused it to crash onto the ground. Jumping to my left and placing my left foot on one tree bark, I leaped upward and grabbed onto the tree branch above to dodge the man's greatsword that came in from the side, before placing my feet on the branch and pushing myself, along with the girl, downward.

BOOM!

The man recklessly hacked the tree bark once again, causing the tree to fall down to the ground. And while the dust arose, I placed my hand on the side of the fallen tree, and burned it down with a skillful burst of fire, generating a notable amount of smoke in an instant.

"What is happening all of a sudden?" The girl, who surprisingly attained some degree of calmness in this frightening moment, muttered to herself as she kept her hold on me tight.

"...You seem to be familiar with this situation." I said as I kept my eye locked on the grinning madman through the gap between smokes.

"Not exactly this kind of situation, but," The girl whispered, "I've faced that kind of crazy expression many times."

Half-tiger seal with my left hand, followed by a sound of a poof.

"I see."

And now, if the man is as thoughtless as my impression of him tells me…

"Aren't you too relaxed?"

'There.'

The madman's voice was suddenly heard from our back. Having expected this, I turned my head impassively.

Just then, to the man's shock, the pair of hands shot out from the ground and pulled down the man's leg, into the hole. The man, caught unexpected, now had his body embedded in the ground, with only his head and right arm, still holding onto the greatsword, popped out.

He has fallen for my trap, given how reckless he was.

My few months weren't without any improvement. Hand seals—I've learned the basic mechanism from Gin, and trained vigorously to perform them fluently in any situation.

The point of the hand seal, essentially, is to determine its property for the use of various techniques. Its shape, size, amount, concentration, etc. The more the number of hand seals, the more fine the technique… in usual cases.

Without the so-called Sharingans that I've only heard by rumours, I am unable to copy enemy's ninjutsu techniques in a single go. I needed to understand how it worked first.

This time, I decided to focus on the most frequent techniques that I've come across: clone techniques.

Basic clone. Water clone. Earth clone. Shadow clone. At this point, it was pretty much obvious of how important clone technique is in a battle.

The hand sign for basic clone went: Ram -> Snake -> Tiger.

The hand sign for water and earth clone were Tiger only.

The hand sign for shadow clone was unique, not belonging to any of the basic 12 hand seals. Instead, it was cross-shaped.

And I expanded my thought on this knowledge.

One, water and earth clone are simple, because you are merely gathering the already-existing elements around you.

Two, basic clone undergoes the process of molding chakra, spreading it out in an according shape, and visualizing it in the eyes of the others.

Three, shadow clone involves the one-step mechanism of determining a shape, and filling the entire thing with chakra to the brim.

Four, basic, water, and earth clones all require the use of tiger seal. Shadow clone uses the unique hand seal on the other hand, however, there exists some similarity between tiger seal and the cross-shaped seal, that the index and middle fingers of both hands are extended out.

Therefore, I tried myself. Holding the index and middle fingers out and clamping two hands together, I molded chakra from the inside of me and analyzed its characteristics—in order to develop a proper clone technique that I may be able to use, instead of the basic clone technique with obvious limitations. I eventually came to conclude that tiger seal was enough just like water and earth clones.

And now, here was the result. Thanks to the 'ash' clone that I formed underneath me—in which ash was formed from the burned tree—I now had the enemy stuck in the ground, vulnerable to my next attack.

"Heh, this is,"

Without any waste of time, I immediately swung Ryuma at the man's exposed neck.

CLANG!

"A piece of fishcake."

The man blocked my strike with his greatsword, while pulling himself back out from the ground with a single hand. Both of his hands were occupied, and this was more than enough for me.

"Ryujin Jakka."

To the man and the girl's shock, the extremely vigorous fire burst out of Ryuma's blade, and directly cut through the man's greatsword.

With the vibrant red enlightening the dark forest, Ryuma cut through the man's neck before he could react.

Thud.

Tapping on the girl's hands around my neck, I signaled the girl to get off me.

While letting her take a breath, I walked up to the head that was rolling on the bush by the hair. From below its neck, the blood was continuously dripping out, but I, having already been used to this sight, impassively stared at the shocked eyes of the head.

"How ironic. You came here to seize my bounty, but it will be the other way around."

Missing ninja from Kiri. Without a doubt, this man too had a bounty on his head. I had no problem in using an enemy's head for my gain—it wasn't like this man was innocent anyway.

Taking out two small-sized sealing scrolls from my pouch and unscrolling them in the air, I sealed Ryuma and the head, and placed the scrolls back in the pouch.

Swoosh!

Then, upon hearing the sound of whoosh, I clicked my tongue as I shifted my gaze to the left, where the dark forest continued.

'There were two bounty hunters from the start.'

Yes, I was aware of this fact from the very start. Unlike this reckless one, the other one hid himself and awaited for the right moment to strike the both of us. The purpose of having the girl step out of my back was to make it seem as if I've let my guard down.

However, upon sighting me defeating this shinobi with ease, he chose to retreat.

'And the problem is,'

The girl behind me. With there being a witness now, the bounty hunters may now recognize this girl as my companion.

Even if I were to separate, there lied a bleak future for her. This happened because of her kind action to me.

So I turned and held my hand out to the girl, who was now resting while sitting down on the ground.

"My name is Akashi. What's yours?"

The girl looked at my hand for a brief moment, before grabbing it. Standing back up with my help, she replied with a thankful smile, "Rika."

She sighed in relief, "That was wild, I thought I was a goner. Thank you for the help."

I chuckled while shaking my head, "No need. You simply got yourself involved in my matter. If anything, I am the one who should apologize."

"Oh, okay."

Then, she gulped with her eyes cast down, with her face paled up all of a sudden. She too seemed to have realized what situation she got herself into.

"Uh, by the way..." She asked nervously, "Am I f***** now?"

So I answered,

"Not yet."

While wiggling my eyebrow knowingly, with my hips rocking back and forth.

"Uh," She simply turned around with an embarassment, unable to handle my joke, "Ehehe..."

For some reason, I found myself being immature in front of this girl, even though we were literally standing right in front of the headless corpse.

Rika, with her head still facing away from me, asked, "How old are you?"

"Twelve."

"W-what?" She turned to me with widened eyes, "I thought you were fifteen at the very least."

"How old are you then?"

She smiled, "Fifteen. Hehe, call me big sister now, will you?"

I lowered my gaze and said with a feigned stoic expression, "BIG nee-san~!"

"H-hey, where are you looking at…"

Perhaps I was yearning for a company this whole time around. At this moment, I felt like a human being, and the lingering dread within me has faded away.