Chapter 97
Four hours later, Kenshin and his sons were 150 kilometres from the outpost, approaching the mountains marked on the map. As soon as they reached the foot of the huge mountain, Kenshin began activating the detection formation every five minutes, allowing them to catch the silhouette of any creature larger than a rat.
Fifteen minutes later, Kenshin once again stopped to activate the formation and suddenly flinched.
"Three hundred metres at eleven o'clock, two big wolves!" - He declared, and the sons instantly dispersed, perimeter to perimeter.
When the target was fifty metres away, Kenshin climbed up a tree and lurked. Everyone else headed towards the two wolves, hoping to catch them off guard. Unfortunately, the wild beasts were very sensitive, and when they were twenty metres away, the two wolves sniffing the tree flinched and jumped away before they could dodge the flying kunai.
Suddenly, a large ball of fire flew into the very spot where one of the wolves had landed and enveloped the whimpering animal. The second wolf tried to run away, but was stopped by Ichiro's kunai, which pierced through the animal's body.
- Hmm, that was easier than I thought. - Ichiro muttered, and plucked both fangs from one of the wolves. The fangs were huge, and incredibly strong, giving no doubt to any appraiser who exactly they belonged to.
- Don't get cocky. If there had been ten of them, we wouldn't have got off so lightly. - Kenshin said as he walked over.
- I know, but it's nice to feel stronger than anyone else. - Ichiro replied with a smile.
*****
In a few hours, Kenshin's group had killed five more wolves, fulfilling the plan. All of them were unharmed, thanks to the defence formation, but the Fourth, who had been gawking at the wolf's leg, was unharmed.
Kenshin was about to turn back, but there was a loud howl, and they all rushed for the last trophy of the day. As soon as they were in the dense forest belt, eight shurikens flew towards them, two for each of them.
Kenshin instantly activated x150 focus, and began to ponder the situation. He planned to take the shurikens on the formation, noting that their speed was no faster than any of the older younim throwing shurikens. From one tiny detail, he determined that the enemies were Chunin at best.
As soon as Ichiro saw the sudden attack, he instantly focused on defending his father. The shurikens meant for Kenshin suddenly disappeared, and appeared off to the side, stabbing into the nearby trees. Ichiro had no trouble fending off the shurikens that were flying at him, and rushed in to attack.
The third had no trouble fending off both shuriken, and jumped to the side, breaking the distance so that they couldn't be covered by one powerful technique. The fourth, in turn, was unable to fend off both shuriken, and one of them hit an invisible barrier.
By the time the surprise attack was repelled, Kenshin had already figured out the attackers, and formed a cursory plan to counter them. There were five attackers in total, which worried Kenshin a bit, for someone needed to take on two of them. Luckily for him, Ichiro, Third and Fourth had already engaged their opponents in close combat, and each had intuitively chosen an equal opponent after seeing their speed of movement.
Ichiro took on the two fastest, and the enemies had nothing against it, seeing a strong opponent. Kenshin was five meters away at this point, and he had spotted the weakest, seemingly average Genin, but decided to engage in dialogue.
- Who are you?! Why did you attack us?! - Kenshin asked two questions before the battle got too heated.
- A dead man doesn't need to know that! - One of Ichiro's opponents declared, and lunged. His partner, taking advantage of the momentary hiccup, tried to attack the nearby Third, but his kunai struck an invisible barrier, and the attacker suddenly shuddered and grunted as the shuriken stabbed into his back.
Ichiro was furious, and he wasn't going to stand by and watch while his little brother tried to kill him, so he used all his available "power over space" and threw a shuriken that disappeared and instantly reappeared ten metres away, just under his opponent's ribs.
This was the trigger for the battle to begin. The enemy shinobi commander tried to kill Ichiro with a single blow, but he failed. Ichiro easily dodged the attack, and made a counter lunge.
The wounded shinobi returned to his commander to help him destroy the most dangerous fighter he could think of. He was angry, and wanted to tear Ichiro into a thousand pieces, but he couldn't move so masterfully because of his injury, and was almost a burden to his commander.
No one else had any desire to make a surprise attack on an "alien" opponent, so in the ensuing battle, everyone moved twenty metres to the side. It was an unspoken rule of the shinobi world, and everyone tried to follow it. In the chaos of battle, anything could happen, and the entire group of allied and enemy shinobi could die from a single explosive seal or technique.
Kenshin, under his accelerated perception, was only trying to find the enemies weaknesses, and give his sons information. However, the "weakest" shinobi who had targeted Kenshin was not going to stand still, and attacked him with a kick to the head.
Kenshin blocked the blow without much difficulty, and threw his opponent to the ground, wanting to break his chest with a leg kick. The enemy shinobi had no problem blocking the blow, and rolled over to his feet. Kenshin's forearms were burning unbearably, but he was determined to fight.
At that very moment, everyone instinctively turned towards the fighting elites and stared at the unbelievable scene. The enemy shinobi commander's partner stood motionless, blood gushing from the stump of his neck. A split second later, there was a deafening, loud thud. His head fell to the ground, hitting the rock, and then his knees buckled and he fell. Ichiro's red eyes glistened in the light of the evening sun.
The enemy shinobi were shocked, and after another ten seconds of fighting, Fourth pierced his enemy's heart by stabbing a kunai into it. The commander of the enemy shinobi struggled to fend off Ichiro's attacks, and was still alive only because he was a Peak Chunin.
The third had roughly equal strength with the enemy, and in keeping with his father's instructions, he was stalling and not taking any risks. Kenshin had a little more trouble, but he was more than confident in his abilities. The energy of the suit and his personal skills were enough to withstand two such enemies for about fifteen minutes, let alone one.
By this point, Ichiro had inflicted several wounds on the enemy commander, and it was clear to everyone how this fight would end.
- W-wait! Let's talk about this! - The commander shouted, realising the true state of affairs better than anyone else.
"Don't listen to him. Kill!" - Mentally ordered Kenshin, deciding that the time for negotiation had passed.