Hyperdimension Neptunia

Third Sister; Darkness

Chapter 10

Village hidden in Snow.

We've taken our time to rest and prepare for a trip. Unlike last time, we have a clear goal in mind and more than enough time. We are not chasing a single individual after all. The head of the Ninja Village wouldn't roam far from the village itself, so our time is practically infinite. Regardless, I don't feel like wasting more time being a target for ninjas, the sooner we deal with him, the better.

Konoyuki was our next destination. The area surrounding it is no less cold than our previous adventure, so we prepared extra layers of clothing. Though, it isn't just for the cold. We brought as much food and healing items as our budget allowed us. And in-between, we fought some more monsters. With the defeat of the Samurai, We have gone out and obtained Rank A in the guild.

I don't suspect us reaching the level to accomplish an S-rank up quest, yet, however. Those monsters are difficult for even four goddesses to fight. All of us should be level 99 for that feat.
Speaking off. Our levels right now are
Bios: 83
Silicon Knight: 56
Acclaim 62
Theresa: 47

"Bios~! Are you sure we are going the right way~?!", a nagging voice of Sili-san bothers me.
"We have been moving in a very round-about manner, I have been wondering if there has been any meaning?", Acclaim asks.
Theresa seems just fine walking along, she doesn't appear to mind walking wherever we go.
I look back at them and say, "I told you, I know the method of reaching their village. You guys only THINK we haven't moved straight forward."

They both looked at me like I am spouting insanity.
"What?", a quick response from Sili-san.
"We have been walking in random directions to walk straight forward.", I talk to them vaguely because I think their reactions would be funny.
"WHAT THE FU- I mean…What does that even mean?!", Sili-san is about to blow a fuse.
"You guys should know, plenty of ninjas are masters of illusions. They have many traps placed to create an illusion. You'll end up thinking you've walked straight forward, but you will end up away from the village. It is both for protections against potential enemies, and to make sure someone doesn't end up there accidentally.", I explain to then.

I can't blame them for getting snappish at me, I have been leading them in random directions for about three hours now.
"Listen, us walking around only feels random because of the illusions, but physically we have been moving forward.", I tell them.
"How does that work, if I may ask.", Acclaim asks me.
"Yeah, that all sounds like nonsense to me.", Sili-san speaks at me rudely.
Theresa is peeking from behind them, watching me curiously.

"Well, like I said. Their method is to get people to walk away through illusion. My understanding of it is somewhat limited. But I have read the assignment papers for whenever a visit is going to be made by the Goddesses of Lowee. The only way to enter the village on ground is through illusions meant to do the opposite. It is very tricky, because of course, they don't want you to walk into an illusion trap and have you walk towards them." I explain to them.

"Wait, so they have illusions placed to guide you there? Isn't that counter-productive? It makes no sense to me?", Sili-san asks.
"There are like, multiple layers to these tricks. Basically, they want to make sure you only enter knowing this method. You can't just stumble upon the correct illusions, you have to walk in the exact directions necessary to reach every correct illusion, otherwise you will just pass through them without being affected. No, I don't know how that works, I have no knowledge on illusion techniques. So don't ask.", I tell them.

"But by taking this route, they are more likely to think we are allies?", Acclaim asks.
"Well, they will not attack us at first sight. Remember, they are beyond careful. You almost call them obsessed with secrecy. But it is true only allies and natives take this route. Other Ninja have to take a different route. Going over the sky is not going to help, they have an illusion placed to seem invisible, or so I have heard. A goddess might calculate where they are and enter anyway, but it is agreed upon that Goddesses take this path to ensure no one tracks them through the sky.", I tell them.

"Have you ever been there, Bi- I mean, leader?", Theresa asks me.
"Never. Visits are super rare anyway.", I respond.
"But you do have extensive knowledge.", Acclaim replies, as if placing me under scrutiny.
"I have gotten a book out of LAN-Castle about Lowee's whole truthful history. It seems to be magical, even our actions and events surrounding us are being written in it as we speak.", I tell them.

"Wow, that sounds crazy! And it tells you the road to the Ninja Village?!", Sili-san asks me, amazed.
Well, my knowledge mostly comes from what Big sis told me and reading up some papers. The book does talk about the Ninja Village but there isn't that much information on them.
"That's correct.", I say that, convincing Theresa and Sili-san, but Acclaim looks at me with arms crossed and squints his eyes.

Heavy wind has been obstructing our vision for the past 25 minutes. But now it wades. We look in the distance, and see the image of a castle. That was only the tallest building, it towers over the walls surrounding the village. There seem to be houses attached to these walls, for we can see other rooftops sticking out. A lot of them looked like traditional old houses of wood with red roofs.

"Fuwaaaa…", Theresa made a noise in astonishment.
Sili-san whistles and acclaim points out the obvious, "So that is the Ninja Village."
I nod before saying, "Right. The village hidden in the snow, Konoyuki."
The three prepared to walk forward, but I stop them by sticking my arm out, I say, "Stop."
They looked at me confused.

"Is there something the matter?", Sili-san asks.
"We can't enter from here.", I tell them.
"Huh? But I don't see anyone?", Sili-san says, commenting on the big open snow-plain.
"We are in a NINJA village.", I reply with a dry tone.
"They must be hiding themselves. We may seem too suspicious.", Acclaim says.
"It's even worse than that. We are still being illusioned.", I state.

"Wait, so what we're seeing isn't real?", Sili-san says with unfolded arms, sounding oafish.
"Look.", I say that before jumping up, I land to my right, far above the three.
The look at me, Sili-san and Theresa are doubting their eyes, whilst Acclaim is clearly close to figuring it out.
"Leader, you're standing on nothing?!", Sili-san shouts.
"The moment you jump up this cliff, the illusion is broken. There are no more after this one", I elaborate.

They decided rather quickly to jump my way. It is revealed to us that we were walking in a rift between a hill that leads to a clearing. Up ahead is the same village, but we now see trees, their leaves coloring the surroundings in red and yellow. A fusion of autumn and winter stands before us.
"It looks beautiful.", Theresa comments.
Even I am entranced by the sight of flying colorful leaves dancing with snow.
I didn't even hear Acclaim call me the last few times.
"Leader?!"

I turn around to Acclaim.
"I assume if we walked out of the cliffside exit the normal way, we would be spotted?", Acclaim asks.
I nod to him. I put on my serious face again and start talking, "Basically, further from that passage are two Ninja guards, and in front of the gates are two more guards. All to make sure there are no intruders hiding among the common folk or the ninjas themselves. But the guards in front of the gates are far more lax, they originally were only positioned to inspect smuggling of weapons or stopping immediate threats. It is the guards at the end of the passage that check for identity"

"So, if we sneak past them, we can get in?", Sili-san asks.
"Not quite.", I reply to him before getting in front of the group, demanding their attention.
"Listen up guys. Our mission is to infiltrate and get information first. Defeating the Ninja leader is second to our ultimate goal of getting info on the companies. If we can find where he contacts them, we can find the contacts in hope of getting info on the whereabouts of the headquarters of these organizations.", I tell them.

I hear no disagreement, thus I continue, "In order to do that, we need to get in like we belong there. This is not going to be over in one day, we will stay in this village for at least a few days. We cannot hide in our usual mask disguises. We also can not pretend to be ninjas. However, since ninjas are people too, they have families and need homes themselves, and thus, you have this village. This means a lot of people living there are civilians. We must infiltrate as common citizens in order to not stand out."

"Okay, so basically. We must enter as if we are normal people?", Sili-san says.
"Yes, that means also wearing the clothes of normal people. It may be cold at first, but we must get used to the lighter Yukata clothing the villagers wear inside. We must enter like we have always lived in this village. We can't use the masks on our faces, for the ninjas know that it would be us vigilantes. We must put them to our sides, the magical masks will have us appear as the most generic versions of ourselves. Unrecognizable faces, but our other physical appearances are mostly shown.", I explain to them.

The only problem is getting in without seeming suspicious. I was thinking of using my sword to create a fake snow-storm, but they have some kind of ward against blizzards, so one appearing will seem suspicious anyway. The guards in the rift's exit determine whether or not on you are suspicious. I could create a cover of snow that doesn't enter their wards' range, that won't seem as suspicious, but I would somehow have to make it stay snowy for at least an hour so they won't correlate it with our arrival.

"Leader? You have just gotten silent? Hello? Somebody home?", Sili-san is trying to get my attention.
"Leader, we really need your instructions, if you have any.", Acclaim adds onto that.
"I've been thinking of ways to sneak in…Hey, Lion(Theresa), do you have any way to make snow last for an hour?", I look around as I speak. Everyone is very focused.
Theresa tilts her head, "Why would you want that?", she asks.

"Basically, my plan is to make a cover with snow. The guards at the entrance won't be as hard to convince to let us through, because they assume we got past the more strict guards at the rift's exit. They have wards against blizzards, but I should still be able to create a fake blizzard nearby the rift for cover without suspicion.", I try to explain my plan, and then I get interrupted.
"So, basically, we're knocking out the guards without them seeing it, and you want to make sure they don't realize until much later.", Sili-san says.

"Well, kind of. More so, they must not find a correlation with our arrival. Also, I have been thinking about that, too, but them finding knocked out guards or them waking up after getting hit roughly would alarm the village. If only we could put them to sleep instead…". I think out loud.
"Perhaps we can drug them?", Acclaim suggests.
"I don't like the sound of that. Sounds wrong. We don't want to bring harm upon them.", I tell him feeling somewhat dismayed.

"Ah, my apologies, I was unaware of your lack of medical knowledge. You see, I am trained to make medicine in the wild for my own survival. When I say drug, I mean reverse engineer a healing item that would normally wake one up. It will have no side effects, only put them to sleep. I do warn, I may have to occupy a bit of our time.", Acclaim elaborates.
Okay, that sounds more acceptable. I suppose.

Theresa bashfully walks near to me, fidgeting with her fingers as she interrupts us with, "Um. Leader…So. I can make it snow. But to make it snow without us being nearby for an hour, requires something a bit more complex."
"But it is possible?", I ask her.
She nods her head and says, "Yes."
"Okay. So here is the deal. While Theresa and I discuss the spell needed to make this work, I will create a faux blizzard already so they get used to it being here and don't suspect anything. In the meantime, Acclaim will create his sleep item.", I give them my orders.

We work together. With Yukishihai, I manipulate the snow around us and make it swirl around the area to create a fake blizzard. There is a hole for us in between the snowstorm, but no one can see it, so it's fine. Sili-san is watching the guards near the rift in case they get angsty.
Together with Thresa, we made a spell that uses ice and wind magic to make the fake blizzard automatous, and it uses Light magic to create the illusion of the storm still going on. It is very complicated and difficult, but we figured it out.

After about fifteen minutes passed, Sili-san And Acclaim use string to restrain the Ninja, their teeth are even wrapped up so they can pull their mouths open. Unable to turn even their heads, they can't see us. From the air, I snipe the medicine into their mouths using Reflection, at Light speed it goes through their throats. They seemed to suffocate at first, but they are warriors, they manage to swallow it…Even if that probably wasn't what they wanted. In no time, they fell asleep.

We gather near the two guards.
"So, We didn't knock them out. But they can still report getting tangled up, can't they?", Sili-san asks me.
"They can, but with how strict Ninjas tend to be, they may just get written off as slackers making excuses…We can hope at least.", I tell them.
"This plan isn't as airtight as we'd like it to be. I suppose it was almost impossible to begin with.", Acclaim says.
"I'm only worried about identity. They may still ask for identification, which we can only steal from Ninja.", I reply looking at the dozed off guards with my arms crossed.

"Ugh. Needing to appear as normal people is super hard. None of us have been normal people for the most part anyway.", Sili-san brings up a pretty good point. He strolls around in frustration.
In the meantime, I get the idea to check the Guards for their possessions.
"Put on your gloves to avoid finger-prints. We should see if they have anything on hand we can use.", I tell them.
Sili-san looks at me confused, Theresa looks uninterested, waiting for us to get moving.

Acclaim understands what I'm trying to find, so the two of us search their clothes.
We both pick out the same item of interest.
"This is…", Acclaim exclaims whilst I say what it is out loud, "A pass."
"Why would they have anonymous passes into the village?", Acclaim asks.
"Simple, really. Some people enter for protection or for secretive business. They need to only be known by their client or leader.", I tell him.

"I see. So we make can pretend to be someone else, perhaps even forge a whole fake story as to our reason for entering.", Acclaim says.
"Aren't we supposed to be NORMAL civilians, though?", Sili-san asks sounding irked. Honestly, I think he is anxious with the idea of pretending to be normal considering he doesn't know what that would mean.
"Don't worry. This is still the ninja village. Normal villagers are more likely than not part of a family of Ninjas and workers. We just have to come up with a fitting role for each of us.", I tell them.

We change our clothes, which was pretty awkward considering the snow and cold we had to do it in. With Theresa warming us up with magic, it was doable. Now wearing a yukata under a mantle and our masks put on the sides of our heads, we are able to appear as common folk. Well, Acclaim looks like a building with feet, but we're just giving him the role of body guard or something like that.
The two guards are put into a standing position using string, they will be suspended like that for a whole, the string used for them is degradable.

We move over to the main entrance. After we show our passports, we are easily let in after explaining we are the family of whoever the eldest was that was part of Socia Entertainment's list, this makes it seem like we are the family of a criminal and therefore put under threat despite being innocent ourselves. The story is basically that Sili-san is pretending to be our dad, and his dad was guilty. Acclaim is our bodyguard. And Theresa and me are Sili-san's daughters.

We are here to be put under protection, highly confidential. We state our roles to anyone asking as we walk the streets. Inside is actually very pleasant. I am almost lost in the scenery of a bright autumn city with only a few patches of snow here and there. You would almost think this place is a normal city. It may be called a village, but inside here, everything appears huge.

There were many smaller homes, but there were also these huge wooden mansions, and they were so numerous. I checked the price on one of them and it isn't that much more expensive than a normal home in Lowee. There were many different wooden buildings, but all of them were made with Lowee's old traditional architecture. Way before Big Sis' time.

There were big buildings that took up space on the ground level, but there're also a lot of buildings that were about twenty stories tall, normally they would be shrines or castles, but instead they are their version of apartments apparently. Some houses are hanging off the walls, we assume those are for the ninjas that live in this village. The streets are bustling and everyone seems in a jolly mood.

I only see smiles as people are buying and selling things from the many stands or just playing random games. A lot of kids are just playing around loudly with no one bothered by them. People here are overly friendly and talkative. This is the opposite of what we were expecting. So much we almost let our guard down.

"Wow…This place is amazing!", Theresa saying that prompted some people to chat with her.
Saying things like, "First time her young girl" or something like, "Yeah, our village is the best", that kind of vibe. People are super quick to react here as well.
"Fascinating, I would've never thought a place like this existed.", Acclaim couldn't help but comment.
"I almost wish I could live here.", Sili-san saying this had gotten the attention of others, and now he is stuck in conversation as well.

I close my eyes.
This place does indeed feel wonderful. But I think we are forgetting something…Yes.
Once we got a bit further from many people, I got the three of them to lend their ears.
I quietly speak, "Don't let your guard down. When I say this. Don't react, don't even look. We are being watched." Of course, no one could help but not be tense.
"We haven't been figured out yet, everyone here is being watched.", I clarify.

Focusing as hard on Wind Sense as possible, I was able to feel the presence of men standing on buildings, clearly ninjas watching the streets.
"They are stationed on top of buildings.", I tell them.
"Wait…Could the people perhaps be pretending to be nice to make newcomers leak information?", Acclaim brings up a good point.
"What? No way…Please, let them just be nice folks. I am so tired of tricks.". Sili-san exhaled.
"Silicon-san, act natural, remember.", Theresa says to Sili-san, who was moping.
He goes back to acting like he is having a good time whilst I say, "I was thinking that, but I don't sense anyone fidgeting over being watched, and I doubt they are unaware. I think their acts are genuine."

"Most likely, the ninja here are for extra security. Perhaps no crime ever takes place here, or it is prevented the moment it happens. Either way, this may be the safest place for normal people.", I tell them what I think, still as quiet as possible.
Theresa and Sili-san sigh in relief.
"That does explain why the civilians are carefree. And we must assume the ninja society is not oppressive towards these civilians?", Acclaim asks.

"Probably, the workers are taught to have a great work ethic, other than that, people can do as they please. Ideally, there are no enemies here. And if there are, you would never know.". I say.
"You make it sound kind of ominous.", Sili-san rubs his arms as he responds.
"Because it is. If these ninjas see you as a threat, they will find out, and you will be eliminated unbeknownst to anyone. That is exactly why I'm telling you not to let your guard down. We must play our roles as civilians perfectly and obtain a residence.

"I'm sorry.", Sili-san's whispers have lowered even more in volume as he asks, "But couldn't we just storm through their HQ now? We are already inside?"
"We don't even know where their leader is. The moment we make a scene, he will be gone and have their strongest goons send to us. Remember, we first need information about the other organizations, and I prefer to have little casualties, for most ninjas aren't our true enemies.", I answer.
Sili-san tilts his head with his arms crossed for he is in thought. He opens his eyes to see the biggest building in town, then he looks at Theresa and asks her, "Hey, Theresa, could you assist me?"

After whispering in her ear, she nods, agreeing with whatever Sili-san had put her up to. She walks up to some man and pulls on his clothes cutely saying, "Mister…Mister…", getting his attention.
I can immediately tell from his face that his heart is already taken by her cuteness.
"What's wrong little lady? You need help?", he asks.
"What is that big building for?", Theresa asks, acting like she knows nothing.

"Oh. I suppose the Akifuyu castle will definitely impress anyone walking in, no less a child. You see, little lady, it is the home of the one who manages this town. Not only that, it houses many important people that all put in the most work for this lovely place. Although, as time goes on, it gets emptier and is more so there as a symbol of status. The building is as beautiful as the hearts of the people in this town you see. Yes, beautiful, but also hiding many secrets. We are the family of Ninja after all.", after the man gives this whole infodump, he laughs at his own jokes.

"Excuse my daughter, we have recently decided to go out amidst needing protection, so everything is new and exciting for her.", Sili-san comes in smoothly striking social activity with the man.
"No no, I don't mind at all. Kids ought to be excited about new stuff.", the man replied still wearing a bright smile on his face.
"But you have to excuse me though, clearly she has gotten it from me. I mean. Whoever lives in that building, right? I assume that must be the most badass ninja in town, please tell me so!", Sili-san acts a bit excited, the man first seeming a bit taken back at first, be he looks at the building with pleased eyes.

"Hm, understandable to want to know about a ninja's strength. In general we like talking about the strongest. Of course, it is said the leader of Ninja lives in the castle, and it is said he is the strongest Ninja that ever lived. But we wouldn't know, no one has ever even seen him before.", After explaining all of that with a doubtful voice, he turns to Sili-san and says, "But I suppose the ninja leader should be the least known, am I right?! HAHAHA, of course no one has seen the best ninja, right?", Sili-san laughs along with the man who keeps talking with pride.

"Nice to have spoken with you, my friend.", Sili-san says.
"Hey, it's my pleasure. I always love to see families show interest in my favorite place on Gamindustri.", the old man says before looking ahead to where he is walking, "Oh no! I left my wife waiting! We have a stand together! Well then, I hope you enjoy your stay! Farewell!", he shouts before running.

Sili-san turns to me, looking at me like I'm dumb.
He points to the castle and says, "Well, what now. Leader found?"
I cross my arms and look at the castle. With Acclaim coming near me.
"What are your thoughts, leader? Do you think that man is telling the truth?", Acclaim asks me.
I observe the castle at the end of town. Unfortunately, there is little info to gain. But there are many open windows. If I get close enough, I may sense somethings with Wind Sense.

"Don't get ahead of yourselves…That man said the leader was never seen, so no real confirmation. Besides, I doubt the leader would stay inside the biggest building. It is too predictable.", I reply whilst still thinking. I hear some questions, but am too deep in thought to hear them.
Something is telling me the leader isn't even close by. We have little information. The only things we know about the leader is what the other ninjas have told us, they didn't even know his real name. Only his basic abilities and weapon of choice. That, and his status as a holder of one of the four flames. He goes by the alias of Tenchu.

"Either way. It is best our cover isn't blown. Once we get residence, we can switch up masks and do actual investigation. Even if we get spotted, once we are safe, we can switch masks again and they won't realize it was us.", I tell them.
"I understand. Sorry, I should've known better then to want a rush job.", Sili-san apologizes.
"It is good to construct a concrete plan putting all options on the table. You were just to suggest what you were thinking, in return, we have a better understanding of our future actions.", Acclaim says.

"So. We may rest until evening? Since we don't want to stick out, it is better to appear relaxed as we visit the many places in this town.", Theresa gives in her input.
"I'm not sure if Bios would agree…", Sili-san says sounding a bit bummed out, but I tell them, "I don't think that is a bad idea at all. We can't do much else, it is much better to spend time in this town as guests rather than people on a mission.", I tell them.

"All right. We may also get more info on where we can rest…Perhaps there is an INN?", Acclaim says.
"Hm…We did come in pretending to be in protection. I'm not sure we can say we need an INN, people expect us to have a place reserved for us.", I say to them.
"Let's get an INN that is maybe a bit further away from town where none will notice.", Sili-san suggests.
"We can try that.", I tell him.

As such, we moved around town acting no different than tourists would. It should be a relaxing time…But acting like Sili-san's daughter is exhausting, I am actually very impressed with Theresa's acting talent. I was almost convinced she actually was his daughter, but I know better. Going over the many food stands, listening in on the conversations people are happily having, seeing some ninjas sometimes move through town either on business or to show off to children. I see some young teens with an adult Ninja, probably receiving lessons.

As the sky has turned the same color as the leaves on the surrounding trees, we have found an INN. It may look shady on the outside, but staff inside our pretty friendly, if not very lax. This INN got a bad reputation, but I think it more so has to do with them not sharing the same work ethic as others in this town, for they are not a busy INN being in a pretty remote part of town. Their security measures are also lower, so we won't be getting checked anytime soon.

We are inside a pretty quant room. This INN is pretty cheap, so it isn't exactly luxury, but it is clean and well furnished. It is a very Japanese style room, however. No chairs, there is a Kotatsu we can sit under. I can see Sili-san and Theresa melting away in happiness and even I almost got put to sleep. Luckily, Acclaim is too serious to relax.
"So, leader. What do we do now?", he asks me.

I rise up and shake my head to get out of this relaxation daze.
"Well, first and foremost. Whatever action we do to seem suspicious, we must turn our mask back on our face, they must not connect our two hidden identities. With that said. There is something I must test.", I tell them.
First they look interested, but the moment I stood up, they stared at me questioningly.
"Oi, what are you doing?", Sili-san asks.

"The nice thing about this INN is that the windows are basically slide doors.", I say as I open one of them.
"Eh? What are you planning?", Sili-san asks me another question.
Hm…Definitely, the Ninja are still watching. I don't know how much they can see from here, or how good their vision is during night time.
"I think we may be able to confirm whether or not the leader is inside the big castle.", I tell them.
"Oh? You found a method?", Acclaim asks.
"As expected of Leader, amazing!", Theresa says impressed.

"Hm… First, we should turn off the lights… Acclaim, pretend to grab me away from the window and push the window until it is only ajar."
Whilst Sili-san and Theresa stare at me confused, Acclaim takes no time and just grabs me like I am an unhinged child. He then quickly slides the Window until it is only open by a few centi-meters.
Sili-san switches off the light.
"All right…", I say as I put the mask on my face.

"What are you doing?", Sili-san asks.
"You three, stand closer to our front door, make sure whoever comes in doesn't see me, just in case.", I warn them.
They all gave their responses of agreement.
I materialize a bow and arrow.
I close my eyes. I've already made the calculations. This will be my most difficult shot.

When we got close to the big castle, I could feel so many openings for air to get inside. It seems they have many open holes and windows into the castle. An arrow can easily fly inside and hit whoever is inside the top of the building.
I imbue my arrow with dark magic. It takes a bit of time, I am trying to use a level 4 enchantment, I have only really succeeded doing so with Light.
Now, I need to feel the blowing of the wind…I have to become one with it…My arrow becomes a leaf blade guided by gusts…

All into the air-current that leads to the shadows, where my victory shall shine…
I must feel what my arrow feels…In this void…All bereft of light shall become my vision…
"Shadow Arrow.", I say as I shoot an arrow through the window. It being dark element, it is incredibly difficult for even these ninjas to spot it. It goes undetected as it squirms over the air and towards the window of the big building. The leader of Ninja who lives inside must be able to parry it…

…
…

It hits the wall…
Has he at least noticed it?
I left a trail of darkness behind that lets me feel whoever is nearby. This takes such high concentration, using Wind Sense, I am not keen to this feeling…But I can tell, there is a bit of panic inside the room.
"The leader is not present.", I say. The magic is gone as I immediately lost focus within that one second.

The three all go, "Huh?!"
"What do you mean he is not present?!", Sili-san shouts.
"You mean the leader is gone for now…?", Theresa asks.
"May I ask how you can be so certain?", Acclaim walks over to me as he speaks his doubts.
"The only info we got of the leader, is that he is the only Ninja known to use Anton. He is a master of dark Ninjitsu and is said to feel things coming from the shadows. In other words, if I have Wind Sense, he has Shadow Sense.", I tell them.

"I see, you used darkness magic for that reason.", Acclaim says.
"Darkness magic is hard for me. Very impressive of Leader… But… A Ninja using it is kind of more amazing…Sorry.", Theresa states an honest opinion, but looks remorseful.
"So, what? You wanted him to come over here?", Sili-san asks.
"No. If he were present, he would sense the arrow coming and parry it, or he would at least react to it calmly for he can sense what it is. But, look, lights are turning on. Whoever is inside didn't see it coming and people who only see the arrow are going to look for the shooter."

"Wait! isn't that bad? Aren't they going to up security?!", Sili-san asks, slamming his hands on the table.
Theresa puts her finger on her lips and goes "Shhh" Sili-san sits down, quietly. Then he stands back up again, probably remembering he has to cover me.
"Well. That is a risk I was willing to take. We'll just have to spent a little bit of time doing normal things tomorrow…But just to make sure they don't suspect us, I am going to scare them a little.", I say.

Naturally, they all looked at me with concern.
"I will fire a few arrows through the street and use wind magic to make them curve, all for the ninjas to think the shooter is out on the streets away from this Inn.". I say.
"I am impressed by your variety of skill, on the other hand, whatever you say sounds even incomprehensible to me. How would you even accomplish this?", Acclaim asks.
To be honest, even I am worried I can't pull it off. I need to max out concentration with Wind Sense and also perfectly aim the arrows. Oh well. Let's see how far I go. I stretch my arms forward with the bow.

I place an Arrow and close my eyes. I let the winds tell me where is what. Luckily, the cold wind blowing over town makes things easier to identify. I shoot one arrow and have it curve around. The town is designed with circular streets, there is one circle road alongside the walls. Once near the entrance of the village, do I snap my fingers to make it curve around and use the wind's blast to shoot it at the castle. The ninjas are hauling their ways to the direction the arrow came from. I shoot half a dozen over the same direction before they could arrive to make it seem like they are being targeted.
I sigh deeply. Taking a breather, I open my eyes and say, "Close the window."
Without argument, Acclaim closed the window fully for me. Everyone still looks at me like I have gone mad.

"Well, they will think there is an assassin somewhere outside. We should go to sleep right now. They certainly won't suspect us.", I say as I put the mask to my side.
"If you say so.", Sili-san says.
"What did you do exactly? How can you see all of that?", Theresa asks.
"At the very least, the ninjas jumping over rooftops is easy to sense with Wind Sense. Anything else is difficult enough to put strain on my muscles.", I tell them.
"Muscles? Even though you didn't exercise them?". Acclaim questioned me, looking genuinely baffled.

"Well, whatever you call it. Doing it so much does ache my muscles. Tomorrow I will probably feel it a bit.", I tell him.
He leans against the wall, appearing in thought. Then he mumbles, "I wish I could copy that Wind Sense thing…I am so engrossed with it…What is possible with that skill, how does it work?"
"I don't really know. I've learned it by instinct. I don't have a methodology for it. I simply tried to learn magic, and I did that by trying to feel every element, Wind and Light just happen to be the ones I have most talent for.", I explain.

Theresa looks doubtful at me now, "Huh? But your wind magic is weak?", she says so brazenly.
I suppose a professional magician is very serious about the topic of magic
"I haven't trained much with it for attacking purposes like Light magic, I suppose.", I say that with little confidence. All of my magical knowledge is based off of a book containing spells and how to use them. But there is more to magic than that. There are also more forms, like the Ninjutsu used.

"Sensing things through elements is a rare skill. Wind and Earth may be the easiest form of them because you are always connected to those elements. I myself have a preference for fire magic, but I don't think I can learn Flame Sense, as you would call it. I haven't read or heard of anyone with that skill. Mostly Ninja learn Earth Sense, and I have only heard of one example. Shadow and Light Sense I have heard rumors of. Wind Sense exists and is often mistaken as a sixth sense, so must don't develop it further. Either way, to go so far as to sense things within an element is more than being compatible with them. To develop them to the fullest extend you need strong mental and sense of awareness…I think", Theresa rants like we've never seen before, only to lose confidence near the end.

"You think?", Acclaim asks.
"A fully developed sense skill is super rare. I believe it when she says she can't teach it to any of us. No in depth information on these skills exist. Some mistake them for a sixth sense that has nothing to do with magic, maybe because they have the awareness and mental, but lack the magical talent or knowledge. We don't even know if you need talent with a specific element magically speaking to gain such a skill, only that it makes it easier.", Theresa answers.
"We can discuss this later, we need to go to sleep.", I tell them. really, I prefer it when information is clear and concise, this conversation is tiring.
"Sili-san is very diligent, isn't he. He already is in a slumber.", Acclaim comments.
"He just couldn't care less and went to bed. Now go to sleep.", I say as I passed by.

I think we all had a pretty good rest. The next day we did as last time. Walking around, seeing the sights like tourists. Only this time, a bunch of ninjas run around and jump all over town. What happened yesterday was no small incident, it is the talk of the streets. Plenty of people have warned us about some assassin lurking about, telling us to be careful. I can tell by their faces their worry is genuine.

Some ninjas did stop us to ask some questions. I suppose they did keep track of the people coming in.
"Sir, these four have apparently come here to seek refuge from the turmoil of the Socia-Entertainments event.", the Genin(Low rank ninja) told his leader, who appears to be a Chunin(Middle-rank ninja)
"And where exactly were you four staying at? I apologize if this comes over as if we're suspicious of you, but we need more information.", the chunin says, he sounds overall more polite despite his gruff appearance. The Genin on the other hand looks like some scrawny weirdo.

Sili-san having the role of dad has to answer, "Ah, we like to stay unnoticed for the most part. So we are at the Kuraigetsu INN.", Sili-san says.
The Genin looks at him and suddenly has an energized facial expression as he says, "Sir! That is that backwater INN barely anyone stays at! Not only have they arrived yesterday, these people are supposed to be here in secret, meaning they should have some kind of hidden place to stay under the watch of a ninja instead!", he then points at us and shouts, "That's SUS!"
That's what now?

"I assure you…Extra protection isn't needed with me around.", Acclaim pulls up, deepening his voice and making himself appear bigger, his attempt at intimidation is perfect along with his role as bodyguard due to the sheer size of his body. The Genin retracts his arm slowly as he begins to sweat a little.
"We preferred staying in a lesser known place where no one will bother us…", Acclaim says.
The Chunin is definitely putting pieces together, whereas the Genin looks at him frustrated, "Come on, they are hella out of line, they must be guilty!"

After the Chunin rubbed his chin enough, he says, "Why, staying at an INN despite coming through as undercover guests under protection is unorthodox, it is a different matter. That INN is way out of range of where the shooter's arrows came from. Besides, we already went to every INN for information, and all signs lead to them having stayed inside the entire time. They are unlikely to be our suspect. As such, even if we may have to interview them regarding their potential misconduct, our time and resources are better spent catching the assassin."

The Genin complained at him about us being too odd to ignore, but the Chunin simply apologizes, "You'll have to excuse us. Do as you please for now, stay at the INN even. But do know, we may have to discuss this with others and you may find yourself having to leave or face a minor penalty. I sincerely hope we can get to a mutual understanding in future events."
The Chunin turned around saying, "Sayonara", with the Genin looking at us sneeringly before both jump onto a building and away.

Someone walked over to us, she has her hands hidden between her sleeves, calmly saying, "Do not mind the ninja here. An assassin appearing is always top priority for them, they are a little on edge."
While the others converse with her, I look at the ninjas hopping from roof to roof. Plenty of them actually are wearing a smile.
"They seem more happy than anything, though…", I blurted out.
I look at the woman, who giggles a bit in reaction to my comment. She then answers, "Well, most Ninja within this village are guards that don't get out much. They must've been bored by the peace here."

"So this is more of a fun sport for them?", Sili-san asks.
"You could say that. There have been assassins and criminals before. But the regular criminal is usually taken care of within seconds, and the last assassin appeared years ago. And with most assassins, they are pretty quickly caught too, but they usually get to use their actual combat training. My husband constantly talks about how he trained so much only to stand still for twelve hours…", she tells us.

"What exactly did the bad man do, lady?", Theresa asks.
"Oh, well dear. You don't have to worry, for the targets are those inside the castle, which is very secure right now. I doubt the assassin has you in mind.", the woman says bending over to Theresa's level.
She straightens her back as she listens to Sili-san, "So, it is the castle that is the target?"
"Oh, you aren't aware of the whole story? Apparently, an arrow was shot through the slide window. It is quite a commotion. A lot of people are off to the castle to see if there is anything interesting happening.", she answers.

"Wouldn't the ninjas be against a bunch of people near the crime scene?", Sili-san asks.
"That might make sense to an outsider. But here, the ninja prefer us nearby the crime scene, because they find it easier to tell if you had something to do with is.", she explains.
I suppose the watchful eye of ninjas can make out from people's faces or behavior if they may be guilty. But they can't really recognize our faces. Lest we even bring up the fact that they only see Theresa and me as children.

"Well, that does sound interesting. Is it okay for us to take a look, mister bodyguard?", Sili-san says, turning to Acclaim and looking at him smugly.
"As you command, my lord. You shall be safe regardless of location with me around.", Acclaim's dry acting only works because it makes him sound more bodyguard-like.
After saying goodbye to the woman, we went close to the castle to look. Indeed, there is a crowd. And it doesn't need to be said that there are a bunch of Ninjas standing not only on top of its roof, but they are even standing on its walls.

"Bios…", Sili-san whispers, "Do you think you can get any information from here?"
"With Wind Sense, I can sense all the open windows. Perhaps I could enter at the speed of light. They wouldn't be able to notice me get inside from outside…However…", As I say that, my mind began to raise.
They must have some protection inside the building. It wouldn't do me good to be spotted upon entering. I don't even know if there is a point with the leader most likely not being around…Hm…What did they say again about this castle…

There is a rumor of its vacancy.
"Theresa…Can you do me a favor? Used that child-like innocent act to ask if the castle is really empty.", I ask her.
She looks surprised at me for a second, then she nods and does her job with a poker-face.
Her poker face turns into the eyes of innocence as she pulls on a woman's clothes and says, "Lady…Lady?",

She easily got her attention, at some point she asks, "Is it true that the castle is mostly empty?"
"Oh…You must be curious. Well, we can't say for sure if it is empty or not. It does house many important ninja, so I think we may only think it is empty sometimes. The middle floors are probably the ones least being used, I don't recall seeing anyone through those windows unlike the upper floors. And the lower floors sometimes accepts visitors who can meet the residents living on those higher floors. But who knows, ninja are sneaky…And that makes them cool, don't you think.", she explains.
"Yeah, very cool. I love them.", Theresa says with a warm smile.

Listening to that, I look around the windows.
So, I may be able to enter without being seen. From the middle floors, I can sneak around.
"Bodyguard-san.", my words catches Acclaim's attention.
I meet his glimpse and whisper, "Tonight, us two are going outside. Mentally prepare yourself."
"Roger that, young lady.", Acclaim replies with a smile.
The night shall come soon, and we must take advantage of their alerted state.

When the moon was reaching its peak, the four of us discuss the plan. Well, Theresa was comfortable sitting in the sidelines.
"What do you mean, us two must stay here? Why does Acclaim get to have the fun?", Sili-san says, trying to lower his voice by putting his hands over his mouth.

"It's better to have someone present here to make sure we won't have anyone suspecting us. If you two are caught alone, you should say I ran away and you sent your bodyguard for me.

"Let me be honest, Sili-san, if the mission was just to sneak around, you would be a better fit.", Acclaim says.
Sili-san leans backwards and says, "So…Wait…You're not going to sneak in together?"
"I already discussed it with Acclaim. But basically, he will be a distraction. He will pretend to be the assassin. In the meantime, I will sneak into the castle. We should never move all at once to begin with, I sincerely think it is better if we get caught as little as possible. I must absolutely not get caught, they should only think one assassin is here. Once Acclaim has done his job, he should disappear, so that if I get caught, they will think the assassin simply moved around.", I explain.

"Well…I understand then…But that is kind of dull. Guess me and Theresa will just have to play card games before going to sleep.", Sili-san saying that prompts the snacking Theresa to look at him like, "Oh, nice."
"Either way. We're off.", I say as I put the mask on my face. Acclaim follows suit. He opens the window, I immediately jump onto the streets using Light Step. He quickly hops over the buildings, already catching the ninjas' attention.

I am already imagining, him just standing there, menacingly, as many ninja squads arrive. They think they have him, but he moves at super-sonic speeds using Light Step, shooting arrows at them. There can be no greater misdirection. As for me, I have to carefully walk around the streets with no one seeing me. I can sense any nearby late night strollers with Wind Sense. After a while, I take position and cast Reflection on my feet. With careful strength input, I zip through an opening and get inside.

It is indeed empty in here. The rooms are decorated, but it is too dark to see exactly what they look like. Every room is separated by sliding doors, although these are thicker than normal. This area clearly doesn't get a lot of people living in it.
Using Wind Sense to carefully feel out anyone nearby to hide whenever needed, I move forward.
The Staircases are usually at the sides of these buildings, right? I suppose they would be in the middle of the building rather than the left or right wing.

I slide a door open to a hallway. I can sense one ninja guarding the staircase. The door is actually open and light is coming from that room. It would seem the people inside the room are the ones that were awakened by the sound of my arrow penetrating the wall…Sorry.
I can hear them speaking, they sound rather anxious.
"Still no word from the patrol? I thought they found the assassin?", I can hear from some young girl.
"Mommy, are we really safe?", probably her sister is asking that.

"Why, I have all faith that the ninjas will easily take care of him. So you should really go to sleep, have no worries.", I hear a woman talking, she doesn't sound particularly old, not that I could tell.
"Besides, we have Enma of the gentle blade with us. She'll keep us safe.", the mother tells them.
"Why, I thank you for your trust in me.", the woman speaking right now sounds kind, but her voice gives the impression of high authority as she continues talking, "But I must warn you, my skills have dulled in the coming years. Not to alarm you. I do have my most trusted bodyguard and his students after all."

"Huh? But I only see an old mouse…", the youngest sounding child said.
"Well, they are engaging with the assassin after all.", the boss woman says.
"So, we are not as safe as we think?", the mother asked.
"I do believe you have no need to fear for your lives, but I recommend caution. At any point, you may flee into the basement.", the boss woman responds. Something seems fishy.

The ninja guarding the staircase has been moving his neck ever so slightly, listening in on the conversation. Now that the lights have gone out, he turns around and sneaks into the room.
It can't possibly be an actual assassin, can it?
The moment I asked that question to myself, my mind was set. Usually when I think an incident happens, it happens. So…Let's jump in.
I use a weaker version of Light step to quickly hop onto a wall. I dig my fingers through the wood, this would normally give me splinters, and it still does, but I don't feel the pain…Let's not bring up how annoying it will be to get them out however.

By digging my fingers through wood, I can jump on the ceiling and crawl from there. I find the Ninja attempting to assassinate the people inside… I can sense the children scared hiding under their blankets, and their mother petrified, but one woman wearing large garbs and golden pins in her hair, she just sits calmly in seiza position, not even bothered as the ninja misses his projectiles. The ninja gets close, his attack gets blocked by a man in armor, is he supposed to be a mouse? I can't tell with that helmet on.

Either way, that ninja let himself get blocked, I can see he strapped a bomb on his left arm, he will use it to blast his knife wielding hand into the throat of that boss lady. I cast air blast on his arm to nudge it away. As he is missing his chance to kill that lady, I jump over them whilst sticking five arrows with sleep darts into his back.
Wow, Acclaim, thank you for that medicine. It will be very useful for these missions.

They can deal with that guy, I can sense wind passing through a scroll in the back of the room. A hidden hallway. The scroll is paper-thin, enough for wind to pass through. I will make my landing through it and head upstairs before anyone can find me.
"My, that is surprising. A second assassin? Or a third? Multiple parties of assassins? There are many questions.", I hear boss lady, almost sounding excited.
Either way, I am running up the stairs. They must not see me as a cloudy figure yet, they will know it will be the leader of the Phantom Crusaders.

It is fortunate how dark it is inside this building, they may not even recognize me. They may just see a shadow.
I enter a big cellar-like room. I am sure there are two more like these. It looks pretty hollow inside, but I do see many boxes with scrolls in them. Perhaps some prohibited information. I shuffle through them quickly. Some are about forbidden techniques, others about history. It's actually quite messy, so it is hard to pin-point something. But then I stumble upon a box that is locked.

I can easily break it open, so it matters little. Before I can read anything, I can sense someone coming from behind me with a spear. I do a 180 turn with a side-step around the spear-thrust, I hold onto the spear and am planning to blast him with Explosion magic. To my surprise, the spear retracts, forcibly shaking off my grip, this allows the armored warrior to spin-kick me. I block it with my arm, but am still send against a wall. I am able to get onto the wall with two feet and one hand, making my landing somewhat comfortable.

It would do well not to make too much of a commotion. Some ninjas outside might not appreciate me destroying this building after all.
The guy I am fighting appears rather old and fragile if it weren't for the armor. his spear is actually a shabby cane right now. Maybe it is a hidden weapon. I shoot arrows at him, but he uses the same ninja technique of appearing faster than he is, and he dodges them rather gracefully.

I put my hand on the wall and use reflection to shoot myself up against him at light speed, my headbutt should be enough to put him out of commission, but no, unexpectedly, he gets up after slamming against the ground. I can see a big bruise on his forehead, but otherwise, he shrugs it off.
I leap straight towards him as fast as I can without magic. He didn't even have to move, he just stands there and extends his arm wielding his cane as a hidden mechanic pops off and extends a spear out of it, he wants me to run into it.

I cast Air-blast from my hand to ever so slightly tilt myself to the right, alongside a rotation I go past the spearhead in sacrifice of my momentum. Upon reaching a 360, I have my bow pulled out and I will shoot him with an arrow, however, he uses the stealth speed technique to move to my side, eluding my arrow.
The moment he reached my right, he swings his spear at me. I hop to my left, out of its reach. I turn to him as I land, next, I shall jump straight towards him.

He does a spin to slash my in the same direction with his spear, but I block him with my sword, which I have been covering this entire time. I doubt he saw it coming, for he wouldn't let his spear get repelled so easily, I'd imagine. After the quick tap I gave his spear, I attempt an overhead swing, but he switches his position around, elegantly he lets his spear guide his body to my right, as he is turning, his spearhead is closing in on my right, it almost feels like his staff curved to wrap me into his spear. I cast explosion from my feet to quickly move upwards.

As the old man completed his maneuver, he held his spear in both arms and tries to stab me in mid-air. I cast air-blast from my hand above me to barely dodge his thrust, he quickly turns his spear to the right to do a quick swipe from my left, but I flatten my body to move out of the spear's way, I can see the spear head go over my face. I do a back roll to get to the ground on all fours. I jump back to avoid getting plunged into the floor.

I have to be swift, his thrusts are accelerating in speed. This guy is experienced and quite tough. After being on the evasive, I deflect one thrust and I jump in with my own thrust, but he once again dances around me to get his spear to entangle me. This time, I see it coming and I let him hit me while I guard with my sword to get shoved away from him.

Whatever his fighting style is, I can tell he prefers counter attacks before taking control of the momentum. I will make him try to parry me and hit him with a spell.
I move in to a vertical attack, but surprising me, he widens his hold over the spear and slams the middle into my sword. I did feel it coming with Wind Sense, but I don't understand how this will help him. He is quite strong, pushing me back. I only see him turning his spear around my sword to reach my neck with the spearhead, if I didn't move his spear to push him away, he might've hit me.

Well, he won't see this one coming.
I squat and let my blade under his spear. He thought to take advantage and push me down, but I cast reflection on my sword to shoot my sword at light speed, taking his spear with him. I punch him in the gut, which seems to shock him as much as my counter, before he gets the chance to do anything back, I jump-uppercut him in his jaw. With the spin I did in my uppercut, I use the momentum to kick him away near the staircase, although I noticed him blocking my foot with his arm. He really is an expert if he can react under such heavy blows.

Good guard aside, he still got floored and seems down…On the other hand, I can see him getting back up quickly. Before he can do anything else, I speed over to the locked box and grab a few scrolls out of it. When I turn around, suddenly I am outnumbered by some strange looking freaks.
"Splitter, are you allright?!", one of them asked the old man who was standing up.
"Boys, I was hoping you'd be here sooner.", the old man replied as he stands back up.

He takes his helmet off, I can see his head covered in sweat. But that is not the important thing to point out. His head was that of a mouse. Even more bizarre, I can tell the other four aren't human either.
One of them brings the spear of the mouse-man to him whilst another argues, "Come on master Splitter, you told us about the plan to thwart the assassin, and then suddenly this happens. We were unprepared."

"Fool. Did I not tell you to expect the unexpected?", The old mouse man scolds him.
"Dudes, we have to be quiet. Remember? We are not supposed to want any ninja from outside entering.", the most responsible sounding one says so.
"Right. But I do think we should introduce ourselves.", a gruff sounding one said.
They now all have their eyes on me. They spread out a little.

"We are…The Juvenile Mutant Ninja Tortoises!", They say whilst doing poses.
… What kind of cheap Luawei knock off is this?
They all jump high up in an attempt to dogpile me, I place four arrows on my bow and hold it up horizontally, having each arrow get up in their faces before exploding. It isn't going to do any damage, the smoke is just a cover for me to get past them.

This is a tight knit group with respect for their master. Therein lies there weakness.
I run over to the old mouse-man, making a dramatic dash for a threat. However, I quickly jump to the wall from my left, I see one of the tortoises, wearing a red mask over his mouth jumping to where I was last at wielding two sai. He looks confused as he doesn't see me attacking his master. Just as I planned. I jump off the wall and hit his face with a drop kick, slamming him against the wall.

From the smoke came one wearing a purple mask over his mouth using a Bõ staff. I dodge it with a backstep, but I can see the staff bending, allowing the ninja tortoise to drop on me with his feet. Of course, I am too agile to get hit by his kick as well. He uses his staff's tension force to swing it at me with much oomph behind it, I duck under it at an angle, then I move away to avoid another swing. He extends the staff a little through his grip, I decide to catch it with one hand.

It seems that this is part of his tactic, now he places both hands on the opposite end of his staff and pulls me over his shoulder, now he can throw me against the ground. Except, his friend wearing a blue mask over his mouth will catch me with his two katana. This is fine by me, I wasn't really trying to escape this throw, I wanted to see what his plan was. My curiosity is satisfied, so I place my feet on his bow and jump off before his friend's katana could pierce me.

Appearing behind the Katana user mattered little, for his agility and overall skill seems to be the best of the four, he quickly moved around my sword stroke and appeared to my right. I parry his blades a few times whilst the staff user uses his stealth speed skill to get behind me. They definitely knew how to use their weapons well, I am just too nimble and tiny to be easily hit. Even their combined efforts won't stop me from jumping through gaps in their attacks.

I sense movement through the lingering smoke cloud. The last Tortoise decided to come in to attack me, I avoided a nun-chuck by ducking under it, then I jump away from the two tortoises, their attacks weren't as in sync as before, I suppose the nun-chuck user didn't have his team mates in mind when he attacked. The two looked over to his direction with a, "Not again…", look.

After taking my distance from the purple and blue masked tortoises, the Nun-chuck user wearing an orange mouth mask tried to his me spinning his nun-chucks around. It is quite odd, I don't fight users of these weapons often, but he seems to make more of a show out of it? Like he just spins them around a lot but doesn't actually use regular moves. Either way, I evade his attacks for a few seconds, waiting for an opening.

The moment I see his attacks won't reach me in time, I try to strike him, but he entangles my blade with the chains of one nun-chuck instead. Thinking he has me, I tries to swing the other nun-chuck in my face, so I let go of my sword and jump back, which he didn't see coming I guess because he was so flabbergasted he ends up getting his by his own nun-chuck instead. I don't think it hurt him much, though.
I shoot a bunch of arrows at him, which he easily deflects with his nun-chucks, spinning them around with glee. But those arrows are explosive and when enough are nearby him, they will slightly damage him and envelop him in smoke.

I cast explosion on my sword lying nearby to send it flying over to me and catch it. I immediately move it behind my back to protect myself from a cross-slash from the katana wielder,
I got the staff user running towards me, I avoid a thrust, and jump back past him. From the air, I pretend to slam him with my left arm, but as he guards himself, I grab the middle of his staff, embedding It with an explosion spell. He shoves me over the air and gives chase right after. However, as he gets close, I snap my fingers, letting the staff explode as he tries to come close to me.

I suppose the staff is made of great wood, for the explosion didn't destroy it. But that is irrelevant, the explosion catches him off guard and lets me knock him near a wall with my sword. The Katana user doesn't stand by this, he was already running my way, and he immediately came to try and strike me with both swords. I turn around to block them. Now I see he is trying to push his swords over mine to reach my neck with his tips.

I duck under, this could give him an advantage, but I let go of my sword with one hand and cast, "Explosion!", even with my low Intelligence stat, their levels may not be so high. Because I did enough damage to make him flinch. I cast explosion from my sword as I extend my legs, pushing his swords away, then I cast explosion from my left leg to get next to him, I knock him away after casting explosion with my right leg to do a spin kick against his face. His friend with the red mask already had gotten up. He curved past his friend to dash at me.

I see the fire in his eyes, he will defeat me no matter what, is the feeling I get from him. He uses sai, despite them seeming not like a weapon at all, he thrusts them at me with such impressive strength, I instinctively got into the defensive as I step back and stop him from stabbing me multiple times. If the blue one is the most skilled fighter, this guy is the strongest physically speaking.

Calming down, I knock both of his arms away in quick succession, Then I tried to stab him, but he moves his arms fast enough to get my sword stuck between his sai. He scoffs at me.
We set a few stops to the left as we struggle for control, he says, "Don't think I'd let you go."
Indeed, he is determined to get me locked.
I got what I came for, I guess…The only thing I need to see is the basement. It may be risky, but prolonging a fight inside here may lead to even more undesirable conclusions…let's take a risk.

I duck under our weapons and place my hand under his guy. Before he gets the chance to react, I shoot him through the wall opposite of the stair-case. A hole blown to the outside world sends a cold snowy wind inside the building, the three tortoises look stunned at me. I can't say to not worry about their friend, I did make sure he would land safely after all, but I have to be quick before more ninjas join the fray.

I jump outside of the hole, and it comes as no surprise they would chase after me. Not the mouse, for some reason. As I fall down, I shoot a huge barrage of arrows above to slow them down. Once I am at the floor above the ground floor, I shoot myself through the window, casting explosion with one hand and both feet, then I slice the door just enough to slam my body through it. The tortoises were right on my tail, for that matter, the purple one actually got ahead of the other two and actually landed a drop kick on me.

I did guard myself, but I am impressed either way, I calculated them being later. He must've figured it was a distraction and used some technique to get through them quickly. Actually, I see he let himself get hit by some. It doesn't matter, the moment he thrust his staff forward, I use the bow in my left hand to get the tip of his staff to pull its string, I do that as I jump past him, pulling my bow over his head. I let go of my bow, it slams into his neck, which is only the most minor pain, but not when it just blows up.

Him being in a daze, I throw dozens and dozens of punches with fists infused with light, beating him up without giving him the chance to move. With one finisher to the face, I blast him through a few walls. I cannot sense him getting back up, but there wasn't a second to spare for a check, because the Katana wielder now busts through the wall for an attack.

He makes me block his left blade, which he swung at me with as much strength as possible, only for his right blade to be aimed for my neck, seeing it coming, I duck underneath it, but this lets him ley down both arm to push me closer to the floor with no way for me to escape. To seal the deal, I can sense his kick coming. I have to counter it with my own kick, and after I do that, I can try jumping to my left. Alas, it does not go as planned, it seems he wanted to throw me left after his kick anyway, for his friends jumps inside the building right after, about to hit me with his nun-chucks.

I cast explosion from my legs to do a back flip over him, but he turns around and quickly locks my sword between one of his nun-chucks. I'd think of letting go, but instead of attacking me with the other set of nun-chucks, he ties my wrists to my sword. With me unable to escape easily, he makes me dodge a kick, before taking me for a spin, slamming me into a wall after a one-eighty.
It is fortunate that these walls aren't very thick. Either way, he pulls me back in the direction of the katana user. Then, he uses his body weight to get my back onto the floor with him getting on top of me, the tip of my sword being the only thing between me and him.

I struggle, but am able to slowly aim my sword to just next to an artery of his neck to perhaps knock him out…I sure hope he is a little bit human on the inside, because I am not so sure about this plan…
I cast reflection on my sword and it goes through him. With him losing all strength, I am able to kick him through multiple floors above me. I can sense him falling unconscious on the ground.
"MICHEAL!", I guess was his name, for the katana user shouts loudly as he charges at me.

I thought he may be mad, but he is still in perfect control of his skill, perhaps with maybe more motivation.
Either way, I dodge his low cross swing by getting up with a kick. I do a jump-flip as I materialize a knife from my inventory with the sole purpose of blocking one of his blade whilst the other misses. I repeatedly hop back to gain distance. I grab multiple knives out of my inventory and shoot them at him at light speed. I don't know what kind of training he underwent, but he somehow manages to knock them away. The air around him is quite hot, this must be super hard for him.

He can't move forward as long as I am throwing knives at light speed. But I can't do what I am planning to do that way. I must make him think I'm trying to fetch my sword.
"Weapon Create. Arashin!", I shout the name of my bow as I remake it. I fire more arrows at him, he easily runs through them using his swords. I jump high in the air whilst continuing my assault of arrows. He jumps at me at a straight line, holding one of his swords in front of him like a shield, a goes through my arrows as if they were just wind.

Good. I shoot a few more knives at him at light speed, he was quick to change his position to block them, but I have explosion cast on them. I cast explosion from my feet at they blew up so I can get behind and below him.
"Shadow Weapon Create…", I chant, getting his attention once more.
This version of Weapon Create takes a bit longer…I just need a little more.
He dives down on my as a flaming shadow in my hands is forming a sword.
Yukishihai!", I shout just as he strikes me with his sword.

My blade was only in time to avoid a critical hit, in this moment, I only get hit by a weak attack before being knocked over the ground. I get back up to parry more of his slashes. He is absolutely well trained, being able to keep up with me…Well, it would be a different story if I used Light Step. However, this isn't even the floor I want to be on. I can't let this drag out. To his surprise, I break the floor below us open with an axe-kick and go through the hole I made.

This makes the floor unstable and lets me cast explosion to make him fall as well. Despite all his skill, I suppose he isn't quite experienced yet, for he falls on his shell. I run through the halls with him chasing me, looking for this basement. For a tortoise he is as fast as any ninja, but it's not actually enough to catch up to me. I sense wind through a gap under the floor, it must be a secret entrance.
One second, I stood still, and it is enough for him to close in on me.

His Two-sword-style is no joke, he knows exactly how to use them effectively. I don't really sense any murderous intend in his attacks, however. They maybe ninjas, but I think now that not all ninjas are assassins… Some of them are overly friendly instead.
That aside, even when he rapidly swings his sword around, emulating an amateur, I don't see a clear opening. There is only one way to make one. I need to bait him into hitting my sword with only one of his.

I knock his left arm back with a kick whilst stopping his right arm-wielding sword. He puts more force into his right hand to push mine away whilst attempting to stab me with his left hand, but I materialize one more knife out of my inventory to stop it. With much strength, I push my right hand, which is wielding the knife in reverse grip, above my head. When the point of my knife is aimed at his right foot, I cast reflection to damage his foot.

There is no blood, because I didn't intend a lethal attack, but it hurts his foot enough to make it barely usable. With him groaning and backpaddling in pain, I do a jump-turn to the secret basement opening and use "Explosion Edge!", to blow the thing open. I roughly land on a set of stairs. I cannot even see the end below me, but I have no other way but to go down this narrow tunnel. I've already jumped a few steps down, but the tortoise is quick to close in on me. He just jumped straight down the flight of stairs, risking his own life.

It is a pretty successful move, I can block it, but it forces me to fall. However, with both of us having great dexterity, we are able fling ourselves onto walls and jump from there. Even though his foot is in pain, he is able to do well placed jumps with his other foot. This place actually allows him to move freely, using gravity to his advantage. As we go down, we jump on and off the wall, clashing blades between each jump.

With his low Mental stat, I can actually do pretty good damage using Flame Edge, Thunder Edge, Wind Edge, Ice Edge, Flash Drive and Dusk File. Elemental slashes using the intelligence stat. The residue of these attacks are enough to wear him down slowly. He must have so much discipline to bear these attacks and keep going. But everyone gets fatigued.

I jump down further and I grab my bow and arrow. I shoot up a storm of arrows at him. He can stop them, but with every stopped arrow, I intentionally shoot a few arrows past him. He may think I missed…However…
He jumps towards me, leaving his back unprotected. I snap my fingers and the arrows curve around, hitting the back of his arms and legs. He stops to turn around and look.

In the next moment, he drops. They were sleeping arrows. Although, he actually isn't down yet. He does get up, sluggishly. Despite that, I don't see him as a threat. With one step forward, he is on his knee. He tries to move to me, but doesn't have the strength to get far. I admire his will. Also, I have to ask Acclaim about the effectiveness of these on mutants. But, I guess it is fine now. I run down the stairs as fast as I can.

Finally, I can get past a door. It wasn't locked, so I got inside real easily. What I see is astounding. A giant cave. It is not describable how large it is. It can-not be a natural cave. Then I look above and I do see long pointy structures hanging off the ceiling. They are very thick. So it must not be a hazard. This may be a natural cave that has been trimmed. I look below me and see a way that goes further down.

To make sure no one sees me. I cast Reflection on my feet to send myself flying to one of the structures hanging off the ceiling. I slam my fist into it to create a small hole I can hang off of. Now I look below me.
Could this be? The true ninja village? I think that because I see only ninja below me. In fact, they were numbering in the tens of thousands. But they are super relaxed. Chatting, resting, buying stuff.

Looking closely, this may not be the real ninja village either. I don't see any homes or INNs, mostly shops and recreational areas. This might be a gathering spot for ninjas off duty. There are many weapon shops and dojos. I barely see any Jonin, only ones training young ninjas and Genin.
…That is?! I open my eyes widely, for I spot someone I know very well.
Dragonnette?! An old friend of mine, I fought her at the tournament. I see her together with her sister, Maone. However…Something feels off. She doesn't smile at all. In fact, her eyes look hollow.

It makes sense for her to be here, I guess. They are the daughters of the Ninja master…But. Dragonette hated being a ninja. Now that makes less sense.
I see many more ninjas sticking out. There actually are a lot that are arming themselves. Are they preparing for something big?

Regardless of that, all these ninja need a place to stay. Suffice to say, something isn't connecting with the ninja village we know. I look around to see if there are any other ways out of here. I'd prefer not going back the way I came. I do spot an open area near my altitude. There is also an exit on the ground floor, but that is too crowded. I just have to wait to use Reflection Step to get to the exit on my level.

All right. No one is nearby. I now have the chance to get out of here. I beam myself over to the exit. Inside leads to a spiral staircase. I take my time to focus on Wind Sense, but I don't sense anyone. I keep my eyes closed to sense for anyone. It seems I'm fine. I shoot myself up and break my momentum when I reach the ceiling. From there, I feel out the exit. I still have my eyes closed, but I sense wind going all over the place, this is like a maze. There is still no one here. Easily, I find the exit and move out.

The moment I opened my eyes, I don't even see the place I walked out off. All I see as an empty snowfield. Looking back, I see some kind of blizzard. Perhaps a similar technique used by the crystals to hide itself. I am pretty sure once past that blizzard, I can see the big town. Outside here, I don't sense any snowfall at all. But I can see a few buildings sporadically spread around.
Is this…The real hidden village?

To Be Continued…