Kisara POV

The other suits had their guns trailed at him, and while I would want to have the fire support while fighting this man there's always the risk of friendly fire. "Protect the VIP and leave this guy to me." I said in voice loud and clear enough everyone would listen.

They did the smart thin and all clustered around the car of my client, not really risking him coming out of the car even for a single instant. Though even if they were willing to go with the tires busted the blockade had huge concrete slabs on the road preventing us to get through, and the road itself was on a bridge so we couldn't really go around the road.

Coming back to my more immediate concern, the man in front of me was tall but lean, though his muscles were visible behind his form fitting leather clothes. He was wearing all black without any skin visible other than his neck and head, and I couldn't dismiss the possibility for him to be wearing some kind of armor under all that leather, perhaps a chain shirt to protect against stabbing and cutting? He had two piercings on his eyes in the shape of crosses and he wasn't carrying any visible weapons.

No scratch that, his hands had black steel plates to enhance the damage and the same was for his feet and knees, with steel plated boots and knee guards.

"My name is Samael Rodrigo", he said with a small bow, "may I have the name of the one I'm about to kill?"

His eyes had a clear maniac glint to it while sporting what could be simply called a 'shit eating grin', his longer hair made into a high ponytail and his face sporting no marks, showing clearly foreign features.

"You can call me Neko, shinobi of genin rank", I fully introduced myself mostly to stall for time and try to observe him a bit more while trying to come up with a plan. As far as I'm aware he's faster than a normal civilian by a wide margin, but I'm not sure if it is experience, raw speed or me still being out of it that allowed him to defend against my attacks earlier. Either option is a bad one in this situation.

"Oh ho, a ninja eh? Though that's clearly evident by your clothing", he said with a leer, "say, how about we kill everyone here and get a few drinks? My threat."

I narrowed my eyes at him, which he caught on even from this distance and overall darkness of the place. Somehow his grin widened even more. "No? Well, can't fault a man for trying."

He set himself into a stance, meaning violence would soon follow and I reinforced my body with chakra as much as I could. The tricky part was to do so without wasting chakra and in the correct way otherwise it would be completely ineffectual. I had focused my training in chakra reinforcement instead of splitting my attention with Ninjutsu and Genjutsu like Tobio did, and while I could do both to acceptable degree for my skill level according to Tobio I was more of a Taijutsu specialist of the pair against the generalist approach my partner had.

It will be put to test if my decision would pay off in the end.

"Heh, hope you can be a better match than the previous chick I had to deal with. Now", he said at least settling himself in a fighting stance. "Let's Dance!"

Just as he finished saying that I dashed towards him, pumping as much chakra as I could on my legs before flipping in the air and doing an axe kick on his head. He took a step back to dodge, my feet planting violently in the ground and cracking the pavement with a small crater.

"Hoh, looks like you have a bit of bite on you", he said as he dodged another attack of mine, this one getting much closer to his face while I twist and turn my body to attack his own body. At the last instant he blocks the attack, once more retreating a couple of paces from me. "Of course, so do I!"

I had recomposed myself when he came to me with a comparable speed, perhaps even faster than me. His punch soared through the side of my head as I dodged by a hair breath and he sent another and another and another attack I barely dodged. I had lost the initiative and I was ready to counter him when suddenly I felt something in my mid section, making me lose all the air in lungs. "GAAAHHH... HAH!"

"You need to be careful honey", he said with that flirty tone of voice of his, "there's more to combat than punching you know?"

I quickly recomposed myself, already having experience in that due to the intense spars I had with Tobio, but I never felt an attack so strong before. Still, I managed to counter him while he was talking with a chakra enhanced fist. The same principle as when you fail the Chakra Climbing Exercise when putting too much chakra on your feet, making the bark under to break, and if done while punching or kicking it would improve the damage of the attack. The principle of high level taijutsu combat.

I also managed to hit him on the face, whipping that damn smirk off his face, but sadly I didn't dealt nearly as much damage as I could due to my lackluster attack. Still I knew he felt the attack meaning this wasn't a hopeless situation.

Just a very difficult one.

He massaged his jaw for an instant as he took some more distance and I used the opportunity to catch my breath. "You have a mean left, you know that? But then, if you didn't this wouldn't be nearly as fun."

Combat resumed with me charging at him, once more sending him a flurry of punches and kicks, slowly getting used to his rhythm in order to land more than one or two occasional blows. He didn't take my attacks quietly though, and gave back as much as I did, but we were in a sort of stalemate for a couple of minutes when I finally realized something.

I was getting tired faster than he. In fact, he didn't seen to be tired at all. Still I keep fighting as much as I could, after all training with Tobio gave me a lot of stamina and a rather large chakra reserve if you consider that until I was eight I had no chakra at all and had to build my reserves late in life. That didn't change the fact that I couldn't keep doing this forever, I had to think of something to break this stalemate before he killed me.

*BANG*

We turned to the suit who shoot at us, missing both of us entirely. "Guess we need to deal with some pests first."

In an instant he disappeared from my sight and was in front of the offending suit, tripping him into the ground before being ready to crush the suit's head beneath his foot. With a quick application of chakra I performed a shunshin, a jutsu with both inside and outside combat applications that I still don't have mastery over it, but it was enough to save the life of that suit by countering the grinning asshole with a kick to the back of his head, sending him tumbling a couple of meters away.

Deppresingly it was also my best attack on him so far. It was sad reality that I had to resort to a sucker punch to... hit... him.

Stupid, stupid, stupid!

You're a NINJA! Of course sucker punching him is alright! What have I been thinking? This isn't a spar, this is a life or death battle against a superior opponent! If I lose I will DIE, and Tobio isn't here to save my ass!

I knew why my mind had went away from the realities of battle: I was still reeling from the shock of killing my opponents earlier. Well, if i wanted to survive long enough to regret my actions I had do my all.

With that in mind I went through everything I had in order to win this fight. Immediately I discarded my knives since he would probably dodge them all, and I didn't had enough of them for more than a single bout of distraction. I had a smoke bomb but at this time it won't help nearly as much since he's too fast for me to regroup somewhere and I still had to protect the client. Then it clicked, and I remembered that Tobio had finally cracked how to make higher grade explosive tags, with enough power to blast down a three trunk into pieces. I can work with that.

I took advantage of my opponent taking his sweet time rising up to set up my next attack carefully. "Heh, that was a good one, but enough with playing. I have a job to do after a-"

I interrupted him once I was ready, and with another shunshin I reappeared right in front of him. His widened eyes was the only indication that I had caught him by surprise and I sent a kick towards him in a way I knew he would dodge backwards just like he did time and time again, but this time I followed by one of my knifes with the explosive tag attached into it. He only had an instant to see the burning piece of paper on the knife before it automatically exploded near him.

He used all his speed to escape from the blast, but even then he had been singed from the impact. I had also predicted the direction which he would escape and followed him with another shunshin, and as I grabbed on his leg to deliver a powerful kick at his jaw I saw him backflip as if nothing had happened.

"Tsk, using explosives now? Where are your honor as a martial artist?" Even as he said that you doubt he believed in the nonsense he was spewing.

With my tanto in hand I looked at him deep in the eye, and for a moment I understood the appeal in using genjutsu, before I brought my hands into a familiar handseal. "Katsu!"

The explosive tag I had placed on the grinning fucker blew up, and I heard a pained yell from him just as he was blew away from the blast, his leg looping off from his body, and yet he was still conscious, a testament to the toughness of the people native to my world and whatever the hell they do to match chakra users. With another shunshin I charged directly to where he had rolled back, and with a single chakra enhanced trust I put my tanto through his chest, breaking his sternum and piercing his heart. He seemed to be surprised for a moment before I took off the blade and once more with a chakra enhanced slash I looped off his head, killing him once and for all.

The lifeless body fell on the ground, and I took a deep breath before falling on my knees, tired from the fight and the expenditure of chakra I had.

I need to train more to avoid getting so tired next time. But I won. I survived and the client is still alive, and from the looks of it the suits don't want to suddenly betray me.

All in all it was a success, regardless of the circumstances of what happened today. Now I only have to deal with the clean up, get my money and limp back home.