*BANG!*
Bullets kept piercing their way in Grit's direction.
The shooter was nowhere to be found no matter how quickly Grit acted.
The bullets started to take their toll.
"Wahahahaha! Your tenacity is impressive, but no one can stay standing after taking a shot to the heart." Wang Puk's voice got the more arrogant by the bullet.
Grit was growing tired of this game of cat and mouse.
It felt like Grit was fighting no one; a ghost; a careless whisper.
Besides initially spotting Wang Puk, the ninja sniper had since been elusive.
"Tch. You're pretty confident, aren't you?" Grit announced.
"Why shouldn't I be? My weapon can kill from a distance and at a quicker speed. Yours is but a hunk of metal."
The sniper ninja's logic made Grit chuckle, "Heh, you're forgetting something pal."
"Oh?"
"What if you run out of bullets?"
After saying this, Grit ran from his cover in a monstrous sprint towards where he estimated Wang Puk's voice was coming from.
He was right. On top of a two-story building was Wang Puk.
Grit closed the distance.
*BANG!* *BANG!* *BANG!*
"!"
Grit managed to block one shot.
Yet sadly, Wang Puk had also managed to shoot both of Grit's ankles.
"UGH!."
Grit was crawling in the street.
"Wahahaha! I tried to tell you."
Grit ignored him and crawled into an alleyway for cover.
"Huff…Huff…"
With all his might Grit stood himself up, using the Demon Slayer for balance and leaning against the alley wall.
"Think I'll run out of bullets?"
Grit ignored the taunts of Wang Puk.
Body bloodied from the bullet holes, his ankles shot, nothing but adrenaline keeping him going.
He laid his head back against the wall, closing his eyes and thinking of Francesca.
"Sigh…" Grit let out a big exhale,
"Why did I have to go west?"
*DING!*
A metallic sound rang out in the east end of Namigakure.
It was the result of Jinzo's skull being cracked against the blunt metallic force of Tonka's mace.
Each crack would send Jinzo flying. Each time, Jinzo would stand up.
It's not like Tonka, the big fat ninja that he is, was too much for Jinzo to handle.
The problem was that Jinzo was getting ganked by what felt like hundreds of ninjas.
One by one Jinzo sliced those ninja down.
But always, from Jinzo's blindside, Tonka would clobber Jinzo with his mace.
It had been a battle of time. How quickly Tonka would run out of allies vs the number of cheap shots that Jinzo's body could take.
Jinzo had whittled down the ninja henchmen to just a handful.
["CRIMSON KOMBUCHA!"]
"NSBJSFH!" five Anaki ninjas drop dead with sliced torsos.
But then-
*DING!*
Right on cue, Tonka cheap shots his fearsome mace into Jinzo's skull once again.
Or did he?
Jinzo keeps his balance and skids along the ground.
When the dust clears it reveals Jinzo in a blocking stance with his sword.
The vibration of blocking Tonka's blow shook his hands. His consciousness faded in and out.
This was no time to be caught in a daze-
*DING!*
Jinzo had managed to at least attempt to get a guard up, but it was pointless.
A dynamite swing with the full strength of Tonka the fat ninja had shattered Jinzo's left arm.
However, Jinzo remained standing.
Maybe he should have just laid down…
*DING!*
A deadly swing of Tonka's mace cracked Jinzo's skull with a sickening sound.
Jinzo could not even react.
Jinzo crashed into a tree and busted through it.
Amongst the grass and broken bits of tree, Jinzo was on his back looking up at the sky.
It felt like every bone in his body had been broken.
"Just another weakling!" Tonka shouted from the training field.
Jinzo did not hear Tonka. Not many of Jinzo's senses appeared to be functioning properly.
Jinzo assessed the damage to his body as he looked up at the stars.
"Come on out here and die with honor!" Tonka demanded, "Or else I'm coming over there myself!"
"… Did you say honor?," Jinzo uttered through the pain.
But after a few seconds of processing Tonka's words, the mind of Jinzo wandered into thoughts of giving up.
'Maybe I should just give up? I did my best. No one will blame me. But then-…'
Jinzo thought of opening his tea shop and he suddenly did not want to die.
Not that any of this helped his current predicament of imminent execution.
With a pained and raspy voice, he talked to himself,
"Why did I have to go east?"
*SWOOSH!*
"BLEUH!"
Meanwhile, Swiss was getting cut up by Gai Nazler's expert swordsmanship.
Nothing Swiss did was working.
And yet, the cuts that Gai Naxler was inflicting weren't deep by any standards.
Despite this, they dealt immense damage.
Swiss could not wrap his head around it.
'How does it hurt so much if these wounds are just paper cuts on steroids?'
The question was too enticing for Swiss to not ask.
"Oi! Bastard! What gives? It feels like you are carving my body to pieces, but all I see tiny cuts."
Gai Naxler brought his blade up to his eyes and the moonlight reflected off it,
"This is my [Waltz in the Mist]; death by a thousand cuts. I like to torture my opponents, each cut delivers excruciating internal damage. You will not die until I inflict the 1000th cut, no matter how much pain and suffering you go through."
"… bruh. That's so morbid. Also, what if you only land 999 hits? Do I not die?"
"…"
There was an awkward silence. It reminded Swiss of how people in your dreams would stare at you funny If you called them out for being a character in a dream.
Gai Naxler finally broke nothingness.
"That… That question is irrelevant because the situation never occurs."
Swiss scoffed, "I bet you have some kink with your wife, 'here comes the orgasm by 1000 pumps, honey!' Trololol."
Gai Naxler's cheeks went red, "Not true!"
"Another thing. If this is death by a thousand cuts, why did you say the name of your attack earlier if you aren't saying it now?"
"You expect me to say it 1000 times? Once at the start and once at the end is plenty. Enough talk!"
*SWOOSH!*
Quick as the wind, Gai Naxler speed blitzed Swiss and cut him many times in quick succession.
Until now, Swiss had only been cut once at a time.
The many slices on his body inflicting internal damage hit Swiss with so much pain he almost passed out.
He dropped to his knees, "Huff…huff…"
Looking up at Gai Naxler, he then asked.
"How many cuts has it been?" his words had a begging tone to them.
A nasty smile from the swordsman of the fog sent fear in the heart of Swiss.
Gai Naxler then opened his mouth.
"990."
Musashi Raito ninja dashed like a mad man through Namigakure. It was the kind of effort that was required when they tried to storm Area 51.
He scowed the rooftops desperately searching for the Third Yokage.
Each second that passed when he couldn't find him added more and more anxiety to the head of Musashi Raito.
At this moment he was finding it hard to be the cool and calm genius of the waves.
"Damn it! Where is he?"
Finally, he came to the clearing in front of the Yokage mansion.
"Lord Third?"
The shock of the scene before him made Musashi Raito's voice quiver.
There, in that clearing, stood Crixci.
Holding the limp lifeless body of the Third Yokage by the neck.