CH_10.7 (373)

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Each passing second increased the possibility of something going wrong and lowered their chances of getting out safely. He glanced at one of his insects flying ahead of him and followed it until he reached a room with its door wide open and sounds coming from inside.

He cautiously looked inside to see a white-coat scientist in his fifties messily gathering documents and sealing them into storage scrolls. There was no one else in the office, making it perfect for him to go in and capture the scientist— but he thought about it for a moment and instead stayed put.

If they were to escape the bunker, it was better to leave with as much information as possible. He hid his presence and allowed the greying scientist to collect more documents.

Krait heard another loud boom. It was farther than the last time. The commotion was good because it meant Ratel was still alive. He heard a decent amount about the young rookie from Caracara and Campbell. Despite ANBU's minimum age floor, they never recruited close to it, so it surprised him when he discovered Ratel's age. He didn't think ANBU made a smart choice recruiting him.

In his opinion, if they were interested, they should've reached out in some way and indirectly nurtured and allowed him to gain more experience until he was a bit older. However, Krait knew that wasn't how ANBU recruitment worked—their policy was to hire shinobi 90% of the way there who could quickly adapt to cover the remaining requirements without the need for hand-holding.

Though he didn't consider Ratel's recruitment a smart choice, it seemed to be the right choice. The young operative had already shown what he could do during the Maizuru debacle. However, Krait still found it difficult to trust him and had to fight the urge to help him when he heard the combat noise.

Instead, he stayed put to complete his objective and hoped Ratel would survive until then.

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Takuma's position in the bunker had changed. Before, he was sneaking around like a rat, avoiding confrontation to minimize combat. Now, he wanted to capture the bunker, and for that, he had to dismantle the guard.

It didn't take long for them to find him.

At an intersection, Takuma looked at the trio in front of him and the duo to his right. His sharpened hearing picked up a single set of footsteps heading his way. He was about to get trapped from all three sides and probably had to keep one side free to avoid getting boxed in.

He was already warmed up from the previous confrontation, so it didn't take long for his brain to come up with a viable action plan. He dipped into his pocket for smoke bombs to throw at the trio. To their credit, all three of them threw kunai and shuriken the moment he reached for his pouch, forcing him to throw the smoke bomb while leaping to the side, but not before one of the thrown weapons grazed the side of his lower leg.

As the bombs exploded into smoke, he threw himself in the duo's direction and pulled out his sword to deflect three shuriken. He dodged the first two easily and, as one final one came at him with no space to dodge, the tentacles behind his back twitched into action and swallowed the kunai.

The smoke bomb was meant to delay the trio for a second because they would have to be cautious of him readying ninjutsu from beyond the smoke. Thus he gained a few seconds to deal with the duo. The reason he didn't use an explosive tag was because of the commotion it would cause; the fight would attract attention regardless, but it would be slower and less urgent compared to the urgent rush on his position due to a bomb.

And with his new objective of taking on everyone in the bunker, Takuma needed every second he could get.

As he charged at them, the duo did the smart thing of getting into a formation where one retreated to prepare ninjutsu and the others stayed in front to buy time.

Takuma instantly leapt to the ceiling and ran along its surface. On the floor, the path was obstructed by a guard in the front, but on the ceiling, he had a clear view of the guard in the back, so he let a volley of shuriken fly. The second guard wasn't expecting and stopped weaving hand seals to retreat, which was what Takuma hoping for—y.

The moment the shuriken left his hands, he charged his arm with chakra and shot a second-form augmentation at the guard in the front, who stumbled back from the impact. Takuma halted the adhesion holding him to the ceiling and dropped with a sword in hand. He twisted in the air to gain momentum and then swung with enough force to behead the guard before his feet touched the floor. The water tentacle dipped into his pouch and retrieved a kunai as he charged at the second guard, who readied a short sword but was overwhelmed as four tentacle-bearing kunai came down on him.

The guard tried to leap away to get some space, but his back hit the wall, trapping him for a moment before he could move laterally—and that was enough for Takuma to bury his sword into his heart, followed by the kunai attacking the vitals to finish the job.

Takuma didn't have a second of rest. He took cover behind a wall, and weaved hand seals for Water Release: Spirit Water Wave but he had to save chakra, so he sourced the water from the tentacles instead of creating it himself.

The moment the water orb containing six bullets stabilised, he stepped into the corridor, aimed at the guard trio from the other side, and shot at them. The first two bullets hit a guard in the chest, dropping him instantly; the third bullet missed, but the fourth hit another guard in the leg. Takuma stopped shooting in the face of a volley of shuriken and focused on the tentacles to accurately intercept the small, fast-flying projectiles because his hands were tied up with his current ninjutsu.

As he shot a fifth bullet that hit the uninjured guard in the shoulder, the guard with the bleeding leg completed his hand seals and poured out a sweeping jet of fire.

Takuma blindly shot the last bullet and commanded his tentacles to cover the front of his body right as his vision flashed orange. He began to weave hand seals while he felt the heat transfer to him through the water, which started to climb towards the boiling point.

Water Release: Wild Water Wave

A larger, stronger wave of water slammed against the jet of fire and drowned out everything in the corridor with greater momentum. The two guards were blasted back without a hint of resistance.

A layer of hot water slid off Takuma's body and splashed down on the ground as he sprinted forward to finish the guards. Only, when he glanced behind him, another guard appeared—the one whose footsteps he had heard before—and spat out a strong pulse of condensed wind at him. He tried to dodge it by leaping up to the ceiling, but the jutsu caught him halfway and sent him hurtling down the corridor.

The newcomer didn't skip a beat in weaving hand seals and released three waves of converging wind cutters. Takuma couldn't use Earth Release: Earthen Dome indoors with thick concrete separating him from the earth, and thus had no way to protect himself. He chose the best next option and punched out with second-form augmentation.

He had been training chakra control in the form of "containment" to boost the power of his augmentations by focusing the chakra output over a smaller area to do more damage. But as the Wind Release ninjutsu flew towards him, he did the opposite and spread the chakra output over a larger area.

The two forces hit each other and the wind won, but at the cost of losing some of its force before it reached Takuma, who suddenly spurted blood from all over his body as the wind cutters left a dozen small but not insignificant cuts all over his body.

'This guy's different class of guard,' Takuma thought as he held back a hiss of pain from getting up.

The new guard looked to be around thirty. His skin was tanned and slightly leathery from exposure to the sun, which meant he regularly went outside, and Takuma's intuition told him that it was for training. He had noticed that a lot of shinobi were afraid of using ninjutsu one after another in fear of exhausting chakra, but the guard had used two ninjutsu without hesitation, which was an indicator of experience.

Even now, the guard was rushing towards him to target the moment of vulnerability brought about by his ninjutsu. Takuma ditched his sword and went hand-to-hand with the guard in the narrow corridor. The guard threw him into the wall and tried to stab him with a kunai, but Takuma kicked him back to the opposite wall and went in for a punch to the throat, but the guard rolled to the side.

An idea struck him, he didn't pull back his punch and instead augmented it. The fist hit the wall, which shook as cracks appeared all over the surface, stretching to the floor and ceiling.

The guard stepped in and sliced with his kunai, and Takuma barely defended a biting kick to the side that again thrust him into the wall. He pushed off the wall to dodge another kunai strike and retaliated with an uppercut—but he telegraphed the move and made it seem like he was putting a lot of power behind it; he even twisted his face to emphasise effort even though his mask covered it.

The guard didn't bother guarding the punch and instantly jumped away, which was expected as he had seen him batter a wall with a single strike.

Takuma had the time to put more chakra behind his fist this time, and he launched the strongest second-form augmentation up to the ceiling, raining down dust and small debris onto the corridor.

The guard's eyes were cautiously glued to the cracks in the ceiling as he leapt away.

'Good, notice it, remember it,' he thought as he skipped a few steps ahead to keep the guard in range while weaving hand seals before uncharacteristically roaring to once again emphasise effort as he pushed his palms against the floor.

Earth Release: Rock Pillar Spears

It was one of the jutsu he had learned as part of his experiment to increase efficiency in gaining proficiency in multiple ninjutsu by choosing those with similar attributes. The jutsu allowed him to create protruding hard rock spears on any surface.

Rock spikes shot up from the floor below the guard, who instantly jumped up to avoid them but couldn't avoid getting his feet from getting hit.

Takuma weaved a quick set of seals for a genjutsu. His opponent was stronger than the group he had trapped before, thus requiring more time to prepare and prime the genjutsu, but he was only a single person while they were a group, which balanced the scales. He guessed he needed at most a dozen seconds to create a strong enough influence.

However, he couldn't use any ninjutsu during that time as he didn't have the skill to use ninjutsu and genjutsu simultaneously.

Takuma breathed out as he focused on his body, which felt light after removing the weighted gear. Even the injuries didn't seem to be enough to slow him. And while he was at a disadvantage for the next quarter of a minute, he would make up for it with speed.

With a kunai in one hand, Takuma ran and jumped over the spikes and brought back the ferocity he had learned in Ring.

He wasn't fighting to buy time until the genjutsu was ready.

'Fuck that,' Takuma told himself.

He was fighting to kill his enemy before the genjutsu was ready.

He aggressively attacked, moving around in the limited space, and ed with the kunai to put the guard on the defensive. The unprecedented ferocity offered Takuma the chance to lash out against his knee; the guard's leg buckled and he leaned to the side, off-balance. Takuma swung down his kunai for the neck, but the guard shoved the arm aside and slugged him in the face.

The guard pulled Takuma down before he could recover from the punch. They tumbled to the ground. Takuma got on top and tried to mount him but got kicked away in no time. The guard didn't try to get up; instead, he weaved hand seals. Takuma threw his kunai at the fallen man, who spat out a ball of wind that deflected the kunai and got up.

He whipped a kick at the guard's face, but the moment his foot left the ground, the guard spat another ball of wind at the pivot foot. It was weak and did no damage, but it was just strong enough to sweep his leg and make him fall awkwardly to his knees.

Takuma tried to pull his hands up but couldn't in time to block the kick to the face..

His heart lurched when he saw the guard pour a nebulous gale from his mouth that sunk and coiled around both of his arms. There was a look in the guard's eyes that Takuma didn't like, so he immediately leapt around the corner of the intersection as the guard swung his arm down.

True to his gut instinct, a large gash exploded into the floor where he had been a moment ago. Takuma managed to get to his feet just as the guard rounded the corner and swung his other wind-laden arm, releasing high-pressure winds that carved out walls on both sides of the corridor.

While he had to take to the ground to avoid being beheaded, there was one piece of good news…

'Done...'

The genjutsu was ready to go.

Across the brief entanglement, Takuma realised that he and the guard were opposites.

Where he liked to create kill opportunities with ninjutsu and finish the job with taijutsu, the guard relied on taijutsu until he had the opportunity to kill using ninjutsu. Given how liberally he used ninjutsu, it was clear that he had a preference—and with preferences came habits.

As the guard weaved hand seals, Takuma got up to his feet and simply shot a second-form augmentation. The guard expected it and easily avoided it while continuing to weave hand seals.

The moment the second-form augmentation hit the wall behind the guard, the entire bunker shook as though struck by an earthquake—or that's what the guard felt as he paused his hand seals and gazed up at the wall, no doubt to see dust falling.

As the shaking stopped, the guard looked at him. Takuma stared into the man's eyes as he stomped on the ground and created a crater, which brought out another earthquake

"You—!" the guard gasped.

Takuma charged him, and as his fist met the guard's arm, he saw fear in the man. The fear that the walls would collapse. If they continued to throw out ninjutsu, they could cause a cave-in that might bury them alive.

'You can't use ninjutsu in that situation, can you?' Takuma thought to himself as though the guard could hear him. 'And you're fighting a madman who seemingly doesn't care.'

The guard dodged another strike, and Takuma actually put in force this time, leaving a hole in the wall that caused another tremor to terrify the guard even further.

Takuma saw the opportunity brought about by his genjutsu-induced fear, grabbed the guard by his shoulders, and headbutted him in the face, breaking his nose. The guard tried to move back, so Takuma buried his heel in the man's abdomen. He hurled a kunai into the guard's leg as he fell, finally making him kneel.

The guard tried to weave hand seals, but Takuma was faster and struck his face with a fully-charged augmentation that shattered the man's jaw. He hit him again and killed the man. However, Takuma decided to cave in his chest with a stomp for good measure.

His entire body rose and fell with his breathing as he stood over the corpse of a difficult enemy.

However, just when he thought the fight was over, he heard the faint sound of metal flying through the air. He couldn't react quickly and ended up with three kunai in his back. They didn't hurt thanks to the adrenaline coursing through his veins and turned to see another trio standing on the other end of the corridor.

Takuma glanced down at the spikes he had created and instantly weaved hand seals.

Earth Release: Flying Thrown Spikes

The spikes on the floor rose, reformed, and shot towards the new group of guards. All of them moved back and tried to run around the corner, but only two succeeded. The last guard was hit between the shoulder blades by the first spike, the second hit him in the neck, and the last two slammed right into his head.

He was dead as he hit the ground, splattering the floor and walls with his red insides.

Takuma picked up his sword from the ground and stared at the corner where the other two had run around, "Come and meet your death with some honour."

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