A Yuki-Onna in Distress (2)

10 advanced chapters on my Patreon: Fiction Haven

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Swish! Swish! Swish!

Dotō was truly cold-blooded. He didn't care about the lives of his subordinates as long as he could take the enemies down. The blimp did tone the attack down, but blood was spilled regardless. Kakashi and I eventually got to the perfect spot to launch into the blimp. However, Dotō came down along with his three strongest lackeys.

One of them was a slender bastard with an eternal mocking grin. The other male was a stupid-looking fat guy who might pass as a retarded person. The last of the members was a pink-haired girl with a naughty smirk on her face. I would love to ruin her face, but I got to go.

"I am leaving everything to you!"

I jumped into my clone's intertwined hands, allowing him to propel me into the sky. He then used Fūton: Daitoppa to launch me higher. As I latched onto the ladder, I created two shadow clones who immediately threw Fūma Shūriken at Dotō and his lackeys, thwarting their attacks and scattering them.

I quickly climbed up the ladder and got into the blimp. As soon as I set foot on the blimp, I immediately had a spear swished past me. I dismantled the idiotic owner of the spear and then slit his throat in a swing. The other people in the blimp rushed at me, prompting me to create shadow clones. I told them to go for the weapons while I faced the annoying bugs.

My perception became sharper as my brain processed things faster. I could see them moving slowly. Slithering into the crowd, I let my tantō dance on their bodies. Blood splattered and body parts fell to the ground as I passed the enemies. A big guy managed to block my tantō, stopping me in my assault.

"You will die here!"

He swung his broad sword, producing ice blades at the same time. I wisely retreated, throwing a kunai with an explosion tag. As the kunai was right beside his head, he immediately realized that he had fucked up. The poor bloke got his head blown to smithereens. With him dead, only three people remained in the blimp. They posed no threat, so I busied myself with planting explosion tags on the aircraft.

When I was down, I headed to the exit door. One of the three useless blokes decided to block my path, pointing a trembling katana at me.

"S- Stop!"

"You won't stop me."

I rushed at him at pushed him out of the blimp with me. He screamed in anguish, but that was music to my ears. I flared my Chakra and activated the explosion tags I had planted in the blimp. A few seconds later, the blimp exploded. I was sent faster to the ground thanks to the explosion. To soften my landing, I used Fūton: Daitoppa.

Crunch!

The snow crumpled under my feet. I immediately straightened myself and went to look for Kakashi. Much to my disappointment, I found him bloody and battered a few meters away. That tardy scarecrow needed a hard ass-whooping for his rusty skills.

"Oy, Kakashi! How did you lose against these losers?" I shouted.

The guy could only smile weakly. I could see his Sharingan spinning. A frustrated sigh escaped me. He had managed to kill the arrogant lackey, severely injure the fat one, and deal significant damage to Dotō; but he would be useless until the next day because of Chakra exhaustion. It wasn't a bad outcome, but not a good one either.

With Shunshin I appeared on his side. Dotō turned to me with a scowl but immediately smiled. I was glad he underestimated me. His next expression would be horror as I stepped on his neck. I was about to move when I noticed three Chakra signatures closing in. My heart sank to the bottom of my stomach.

"Don't move if you don't want them to die."

I quirked my lips in distaste when the pink-haired lackey appeared beside Dotō carrying an unconscious Sakura and a defeated Koyuki on her shoulders. A few seconds later, another person stood behind us.

"Sorry," the person said softly in shame. "She managed to stun me."

"I expected more from you, Sasuke," I remarked, mildly annoyed.

Kakashi covered his Sharingan and Sasuke was too distraught to notice it. His loss was understandable. Even in the movie, he barely could defeat the lackey with Naruto's help and he had already learned Chidori at that point. I shouldn't scold him, but I couldn't help. I hated those who couldn't do their tasks properly.

"Well, whatever." I waved my hand dismissively before blasting my killing intent at Dotō and his remaining lackeys. "You better leave before we change our minds. Ninjas can be petty enough to kill their friends and clients just to kill their enemies."

Dotō's face paled as his lackeys took a step back in horror. Blasting your killing intent at your enemy was simply bursting your Chakra with the desire to kill. I had expected them to merely shrug my killing intent off, so the result was quite surprising. It just fortified my assessment that I was a shit judge at killing intent.

"I will return your friend when everything is over," Dotō muttered before leaving with his lackeys.

I sheathed my tantō and ran my hand through my hair. Thankfully, it was not tainted by blood. My arms and sandals were the only ones stained by blood. I turned my head to the side and found Kakashi wobbling. I caught him before he fell to the ground.

"That killing intent also made me shit my pants. I wonder where you got that from," he remarked weakly.

"Relax. The hospitals would be full of civilians if I am what you are afraid I am." Turning to Sasuke, I said, "Help me carry him, Sasuke."

"Hn," he grunted.

"Don't get gloomy. I know you failed horribly, but that doesn't mean the next time would be the same. We'll get our useless teacher treated and plan our next course of action after that."

"I understand."

Things might not go my way, but at least, Sasuke was obedient.

…

[Kazahana Koyuki's POV]

"It's fake!"

Bam!

I looked up from the floor to the face of my uncle. He was gripping the jail bars while glaring daggers at me. It had barely been half an hour since we got to his castle, yet his triumphant smirk was already wiped off his face. My necklace, the key to the treasure that my father had hidden, turned out to be a fake.

"Where did you put the real one!?" he snarled.

"I don't know," I replied coldly. "I didn't even know what that necklace was for."

"Those Ninjas… it must be those Ninjas!" He retreated and paced around the room. "I am going to kill them. Konoha be damned."

With an annoyed expression, Dotō summoned his servant. He told the servant to bring the "device" and the servant returned with a collar leash-like device. He walked into the cell and knelt beside the unconscious Sakura. As he put the collar around her neck, I pulled out my concealed dagger and drove it toward him.

Crack!

"Agh!"

He struck me across the face, sending me to the ground.

"Don't test my patience. I need you to be alive until the end of negotiations with those Konoha Shinobi."

"You are going to trade me with a necklace?" I asked venomously as he stood up.

"No. I would kill you once I got the key."

Clank!

The sound of the cell door being slammed woke Sakura. It was quite amusing since she didn't even budge when Dotō put the collar on her.

"Ugh… where am I?"

She sat up and looked around. Blinking a couple of times, a look of horror flashed across her face. She quickly regained her composure, however, showing me that she was a Ninja and not just a kid. Still, given how easily Dotō's pink-haired goon had knocked her out, we wouldn't be able to do anything.

"This device is preventing me from using my Chakra," Sakura said. "We can't do anything but wait."

"Would you have been able to do something if you had your access to Chakra?" I asked curiously, but it sounded like I was mocking her.

"Well, I couldn't do much, but I should be able to protect you if someone was trying to mess with you." She surprisingly took it well. "Regardless, I will do my best to protect you until Sensei, Naruto, and Sasuke-kun come."

"You are confident in their ability."

"Of course! All of them are strong."

I allowed a small smile to graze my face as I looked at Sakura's proud smile. "Then, tell me a little bit about your teammates."

I was only curious about Naruto, but I couldn't let myself be found out. She would look at me suspiciously if I only asked her about Naruto.

"Well, obviously, Sasuke-kun is the coolest. He also used to be the strongest, but Naruto has always bested him in spars lately."

"Why do you think Sasuke is the coolest?"

"I mean, he is so calm, quiet, and mysterious. He is capable too, so don't you think he is cool?"

"Isn't Naruto also calm, quiet, mysterious, and capable?" I asked in confusion.

"Eh, he is not mysterious," she denied.

"What do you know about him, then?"

"Quite a lot. He used to be loud, brash, stupid and generally sucked at everything. And then, one day, he just…" she trailed off, slowly losing her smirk. "Now that I think about it, he does seem mysterious. Huh. I guess he is cool too. But Sasuke-kun is cooler!"

Even if she was a Ninja, she was still a child. I wondered what Naruto had to endure to lose his childish side.

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Honorary Mention:

Faisal Salih

Florin Durbaca

Friday

Jamaul Pryor

Luck George