Chapter 39

"Three genin, a clone, and two jonin?" chuckled the first one briefly, drawing his katana. "Hardly! Ogi and Tsushima, handle the kids; Tashi and I will take care of the jonin and ANBU with the clone."

Without wasting time, he dashed towards my direction. Ha, mistaking me for a jonin, and our sensei for a genin? Bwahaha! This will be fun to tease about!

With a smooth motion, I drew my katana, took a few steps forward, and parried the angled strike of the massive sword of the missing-nin who aimed to cleave me in half. From his counterstrike, my opponent easily evaded and even attempted to graze me with the tip of his sword, albeit unsuccessfully.

"Hmm, you handle your blade well, and strength too," smirked Scarface mockingly, stepping back a couple of paces and keeping a firm grip on his surroundings.

It's quite strange that he's engaging in close combat—doesn't he know that only Aburame wear this kind of attire, who are best kept at a distance?

"And you're not bad either, especially with that Suiton technique," I replied, signaling to the clone behind me to keep track of the others.

"So, your fiery hands, huh?" asked the nuke-nin.

"Almost, but it was I who blew away the mist, so you can thank me for a free steam bath," I grinned in response, shifting slightly to the right and gripping my katana with both hands.

Clearly, he didn't enjoy the sensation as the man roared and with unexpected grace, leaped forward, delivering a strike from the side and minimizing my chance to evade. Chuckling, I crouched, turned my katana upside down to catch his blade from below, allowing it to slide across the edge to the hilt, tossing him four meters back.

Opportunity! Lunging forward, I slashed horizontally, aiming to capitalize on the situation. However, he managed to block the attack aimed at his neck, even before fully recovering from the previous blow. That's what experience does!

"Ha, seems like you won't be taken so easily," the nuke-nin jumped back a bit, removing his right hand from the hilt to start forming hand seals. Though it was a one-handed technique, I recognized it, so almost mirroring his actions, I thrust my katana into the ground and began forming hand seals too. We finished almost simultaneously.

"Ninpo: Kirigakure no Jutsu!"

"Futon: Tepodama!"

A strong gust of wind blew away the spreading mist.

"Not going down so easily! Cat got your sword skills?" I taunted the opponent, gripping my katana and deflecting a thrust towards my abdomen. "Seems like rumors about your swordsmen are as inflated as the strength of your shinobi."

"Right now, you'll find out," grinned the man, quickly glancing behind me.

However, I didn't need to look there to assess the situation, feeling the chakra-infused mist spreading in all directions. It was rolling in from behind. Leaping to the side and backward, I tried again to use Futon, but the nuke-nin clearly anticipated that and didn't give me a moment's respite with constant lunges, resulting in a few deep scratches on my shoulders. The mist reached us, and in that moment, the snake disappeared from view.

"Now, shall we play by my rules?" echoed the disembodied voice across the area. "Where should I plant my sword? There are a few places on a person where a strike would be fatal..."

Ignoring the idiot who froze just twenty paces from me, I quickly formed hand seals with my right hand and brought it to my mouth. The only jutsu I managed to adapt into a one-handed version.

"Ninpo: Dokugiri!"

The billowing cloud of deadly poison spat from my mouth almost imperceptibly dissolved into the mist, and I held my breath (even though the poison was harmless to me due to my immunity, a second of weakness could cost a lot) and parried the overhead strike that came crashing down on me. A good kick dispersed the water clone, and the original received a deep wound on its leg from the kunai released from my palm as it tried to approach me from behind.

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