Chapter 1-26

I felt my clone extension dispel and could finally gaze at my handiwork. The shocked silence in the clearing gave me the perfect opportunity to take it all in and the results were… less spectacular, than I had hoped for in a childish sort of way just a few moments ago.

From my position, with a clear line of sight, I took note of the damage, and after the initial disappointment blew away a rather inappropriate sense of satisfaction took over as I saw a light shine through a perfectly circular hole, maybe three-finger-wide, in my fleshy target.

"Ra…" A pitiful broken sob punctured the silence in the clearing, while, for whatever reason, no one dared to make a move…except for me.

'Hiding with Camouflage Technique'

"Ran…Ranmaru?!" I ignored the gasp, filled with shock, pain, and rising panic.

Gliding silently over the forest floor I settled in a new position just in case.

Cool professionalism settled over me as an idea began to form, which was only solidified when I didn't sense another soul for miles.

This…was an opportunity.

'Come on.' I silently begged from the sidelines.

I pursed my lips in annoyance however when I saw the Raiga fellow take a wheezing stumbling step forward, which, apparently, coupled with his murderous gaze and the firm grip he still had on his swords was enough to make my remaining 'teammates' hesitate.

'Boys, this is getting embarrassing.'

I couldn't help but shake my head in mock disappointment.

'Sensei, this one is for you.' I thought with a fond smile threatening to grace my lips.

'Demonic Illusion: False Surroundings Technique'

I felt my chakra settle into their brains and watched them tense.

The 'mist' descended from the trees, like a cloud over mountaintops, and engulfed all of them in just a handful of moments.

I honestly had to stop myself from laughing out loud, because the second I saw their reaction to getting trapped in the mist plus the situation itself suddenly had me feeling like an all-powerful puppeteer.

The three little pigs huddled together, wary, but not terrified. It wasn't Raiga that had started the technique, after all, they still had a teammate out there and if you couldn't handle a bit of mist, you weren't a real Kiri shinobi, to begin with.

Raiga, one of the seven swordsmen of the Hidden Mist, I could see it in his stance and the way his chakra roared to live, despite the pain and injury practically radiated vicious confidence. Someone thought they could beat him at his game, he was going to show them, he was going to make them pay.

We were in the Land of Water, we were all shinobi of the Hidden Mist, obviously, this couldn't be anything else but the Hiding in Mist Technique.

Raising my hand into a one-handed ram-seal to help myself concentrate I delicately took control of my chakra in Raiga and 'the mist' slowly, as if pushed away by the slightest breath of air, revealed my teammates.

And he pounced on them like a wild animal.

Glad that their deaths were going to be suitably authentic I prepared myself to deal with the big bad wolf.

Shifting my hand ever so slightly from the ram seal to the tiger seal I spit out a glob of water, that formed midflight into a clone right in front of me.

I ignored the maniacal laughter coming from the missing-nin as he hacked the rebels to bits and generously distributed half a dozen exploding tags on the clone's torso, confident, that the guy a couple of feet was only seeing and hearing what I allowed him to.

Satisfied and eager to bring the curtain down on the sorry sight, I gave my watery opposite an invisible push towards the fading man that stumbled around the clearing on the hunt for prey that he had no hope of catching.

It was a cruel game, but I couldn't bring myself to care.

In a matter of seconds, my clone robotically walked the few steps to stand in front of the exhausted man, who had no idea death was looking him straight in the eyes.

No point in delaying it any further I send the chakra signal to the tags, heard the telltale sizzling, and calmly stepped behind a tree for cover.

The earthshattering boom followed by the sound of wet chunks splattering around was… duly noted.

Stepping around the tree I couldn't help but whistle in satisfaction.

'That definitely covered the signs of my advanced shenanigans.' I thought pleased with myself.

Upon seeing the destruction around me a stray thought suddenly began to worm its way into my satisfaction. The sight of the mangled corpse of one of my former teammates, that had been tossed close to my position by the force of the explosion and the inevitable gaze down at my own pristine appearance painted a rather stark discrepancy in this whole picture.

Closing my eyes, I extended my senses as far as I could and when I was certain I was alone I took a leaf out of Torune's book and began to prepare the scene for Ao's arrival.

…he was struggling and when," I winced in real pain as I gingerly leaned forward from the tree, I was resting under, to wrap bandages around my bleeding torso. "when I managed to kill his ward or student he really lost the plot."

Panting, I let my shirt cover my torso again and carefully pulled my pants down, intend to stitch up and bandage a deep cut on my thigh. I was glad that the self-inflicted wounds made for a decent distraction because it made ignoring the way Ao's gaze swept over the carnage and finally came to rest on my trophies next to me relatively easy.

"It was…," I paused for a second as I pushed the needle into my flesh. "crazy, eight fucking people and that monster still butchered us." I shook my head, eyes on my current task.

"I was nothing more than an annoyance, quick and silent, taking potshots from the sidelines." Ao kept silent and thankfully let me ramble on because I honestly felt like I was doing an Oscar-worthy performance right here.

"And here I am, last man standing, after killing Raiga fucking Kurosuki with a water clone and a bunch of tags." I finished with a disbelieving chuckle.

"It's certainly a loss," Ao began suddenly with a sympathetic tone, his gaze swept over my team including the blackened husk, that was once Kuzuro, for a last time before he finally crouched in front of me and met my gaze. "but you did a great service to our course and the entire country." He finished in a truly warm manner.

Momentarily 'lost for words' I only managed a simple "Thank you."

A heavy but surprisingly comfortable silence settled over us as I finished my stitches and began to apply my bandages over the wound while congratulating myself for this truly mesmerizing act.

Ao probably mourned the loss of his comrades, the state of the country yadda yadda yadda.

Don't know, don't care.

Satisfied with more than just my self-treatment I let out a sigh.

"What about…,"I let the sentence hang until I had Ao's full attention and settled my gaze rather tellingly on the two swords next to me. "and what about me?"