A flurry of damage notifications and an explosion fill my vision a moment before the crazy ass suicide bomber clone's memories slam into my head. Both are more than enough to send me reeling and my ears ringing as I try not to get knocked off my feet, planting my sword into the ground to keep myself upright.
Rapidly counting the damage notifications... piles up to more or less two thousand damage. That didn't sound right... and those were definitely not sixty damage notifications. Did he manage to avoid the brunt of the explosion? Did he get thrown back, but still... no, he couldn't have survived that.
As my vision clears, the good thing is that if my ears are ringing, his must be blown out. The bad thing is that the smell of burning flesh fills my nose, and the fucker is still somehow standing, arms crossed and glaring at me. "You think you can take me down with that kind of shit?" He laughs, a sound that sends a shiver down my spine despite the fire in my eyes. "I've fought in war, kid. I've seen shit that would make your little head pop like a zit."
Looking around at the ground, I find the culprit. Most of the tags are little more than colorful paper shreds on the ground, rather than having detonated as I'd hoped. I didn't see him do anything to them before the explosion, so... ah. I guess that being chakra infused paper, rather than proper explosives, they must've been shredded by the explosion themselves instead of setting off a chain reaction.
...shit. That made things more complicated. I'd sheared off a little over half his health, but I wanted to avoid a fight altogether if possible. Now, if I can't finish this before Yugao arrives, I'll look like an idiot for risking such a flashy move and not even taking the guy out. I need to end this, and fast.
Issue is, the Kamikaze clone used all of her chakra for the tags, leaving me with very little. No Great Fireball, no Great Breakthrough... shit, not even Wind Bullets, actually. I slowly begin walking around him, eight kunai pulled out of my inventory and looped around my fingers. I may not be an Uchiha, but I lived with them long enough. "Cannon fodder has its place on any battlefield, I guess," I reply. "Had fun digging trenches? Or was it fetching water?"
Hiroshi's eyes narrow, and he takes a step forward, his massive bulk moving with surprising grace. "You think you can talk smack to me?" He says, his voice a low growl. "I've killed better than you before you were even born."
"Better at what, dying? Because right now, you're just proving to be better at being a coward," I say, mentally reviewing my options as I send a salvo of kunai at his chest. He squares his stance, rapidly pulling out two kunai of his own, dodging half of them and batting three to the side.
-39HP!
The remaining one manages to sink into his left thigh, and he rips it out of his flesh, stepping forward. He seemed a little surprised when it hit him, even for a probing attack that I didn't make ricochet off some crazy angle. A gap in his vision, maybe? He can't have come out of the explosion without at least some temporary loss of vision. I watch another 20HP trickle out due to blood loss, and... yeah, I'm not plinking him to death.
"Cute trick. I'll be sure to send your academy teacher your head as a trophy," Hiroshi sneers. "How many of those do you have left?"
A little under two hundred now, but I don't tell him that. "My teacher? Is he your boyfriend? Or did that one die when you ran away from the Kyubi?" I taunt, watching his reaction closely. He snarls, and I don't think I hit home, but close enough that he charges at me.
New skill obtained due to external actions!
Taunting, Lv.1
The art of goading an opponent into making a mistake at a crucial moment, such as targetign the wrong individual or forgetting important details.
Close enough that the game saw fit to award me a new skill, certainly. Being level 1, however, I doubt it did actually make him sloppy. More like it just made him angrier. I hurry backwards, flipping through handsigns before drawing my katana again. "Hiden: Blade Projection!" I call out, and the blade lengthens impossibly to cut across his chest. He crosses his arms, grunting as the sword sinks in (-68HP!) before retreating. I can't afford to keep such a lengthening out for long, but it's a good way to keep him wary.
"Tricks and toys," Hiroshi snarls, swiping at the air where the blade had been. "But you're the one who's going to die here, boy."
That's another 140HP chipped down. Only 1659 to go... haha, I'm screwed. As he finally gets in range of me, I instinctively switch to the Light style, feeling the strength drain out of my muscles. I can actually feel the air currents and shockwaves of his kunai cutting through the air trying to get me, and it's all I can do to not let him do that. Granted, through various enhancements, I'm peaking at about six times his DEX, which makes it hard for him to hit me... but if I were to slow down to the point where I could actually damage him, that'd already be reducing me to only four times, plus needing to counterattack.
He's not that unskilled, and I have one hp. If he lands a hit, it's lights out for yours truly. I need to keep moving, keep his attention. "Maybe," I say, my movements becoming a blur of speed as I dance around him. "Or maybe my jonin sensei's waiting in the wings, ready to carve you up the moment I get bored of you."
Your skill level has increased!
Deception, Lv.35
-Your ability to lie to others while still looking convincing, even when under scrutiny.
His eyes flickered to the side for a split second, and that's all I need to start. One thing that Fuuinjutsu Master allowed me to do was feel much more confident about tattooing my own seals on myself. That meant I could reduce my weight, and if I could reduce my weight... that brought a world of leeway I could use make use of with the Kawarimi, such as, say, a small piece of debris behind him?
-140HP!
I shave another chunk of HP, briefly switching to Heavy style before leaping back into light, letting the shockwave of his backswing carry me into the air. I take everything back I said a little while ago, moonjumping is cool as shit. "But for now, let's just say I'm keeping you company until she shows up," I chuckle, dropping down as he tries to throw kunai at me, letting gravity reaffirm its hold on my body.
The moment my feet touch the ground, I'm back to full speed, dashing away to make distance. I am a wasp, stinging and retreating, trying to wear him down without getting hit. Death by a thousand cuts and all that.
This time, he's not dumb enough to not give chase. Worse, he starts flipping through hand signs for a very familiar jutsu... and I curse because how does a MOTHERFUCKING ex-chuunin know Great Breakthrough?
I reverse course and charge at him before he can complete the jutsu, but the bastard's fast. I leap over him, and he grins and spits out the jutsu, cheeks puffing up like a hamster before galeforce winds rip upwards, catching me in mid-air and sending me hurtling upwards. The world spins, and I'm thankful only for the fact that this is one of the few jutsu that does not make the wind into a blade.
The force is still enough to propel me hundreds of meters into the air, his figure below me rapidly growing smaller. I groan and right myself as his jutsu finally fades out. "That's cheating," I murmur to myself. "I'm a clone with one hit point, he can't just do massive AoEs like that..."
Now playing: Ducktales - The Moon Theme
I- wha- seriously, [Game]? The fucking meme song is playing right now? Groaning over the nostalgic 8-bit notes, I scan the treeline, keeping an eye on the fucker. Where... there. Looking up at me with what I presume to be shock or awe is the original Tomo perched high on one of the trees and I grin, snapping a soldier salute.
A moment later, the game informs me that a note has been added to my inventory, and I pull it out. It simply reads "wtf", and I roll my eyes. Flipping the note over, I pull out a quill and simply write "Backup required, same guy" before tossing it back into my inventory, from which it vanishes a moment later. The bob of green hair with Tomo's name tag vanishes into the trees a moment later, and I increase my gravity a little more, letting myself sink back down towards the earth.
With a grimace, I pull out two kunai as I see that Hiroshi has been busy. Not seeing me splatter, he's now set up a field of caltrops and ninja wire in my landing zone, and is twirling a kunai around his finger as he sees me descend, waiting for me to get into range. "You think you can escape?" He calls out.
"I'm gonna give it my best shot!" I holler cheekily, pulling out the 200kg book from my inventory, using it as a platform to springboard off of, hurtling towards Hiroshi. It's not the most ideal platform, but I needed a double jump, and the man is surprised enough that I get to stab him head on with my katana in the chest.
Critical hit! -240HP!
That's... less... ah, fuck, didn't drop Light Style. With a grimace, I springboard off of him, failing to wrench my blade out because I'm too busy not dying. The impact of my landing is less than ideal, but I managed to avoid the caltrops, at least. "You're pretty good," he says, panting a little. "But you're gonna have to get better than that."
Yeah, 1260 better than that, to be precise, I grimace as my fingers itch for my sword. But no dice, the blade's stuck in him, and if I try to get it back, I'll just eat his counter. He wrenches the blade out hard, and the sword vanishes, the cloned weapon not enjoying the abuse it suffered.
I grimace as he starts tossing kunai at me, slowly and steadily advancing. I can't dodge as effectively in this field, and the wire... well, that's just annoying. I can't even get close without risking a trip. But then again, why should I dodge when I can redirect?
Fishing a pair of kunai out to match his own, I leap over one of them before throwing both. While he similarly dodges the straight throw, my second kunai bounces off of his with [Ricochet], nailing him in the hand as he fails to catch it.
-54HP!
He curses, aborting one of two more kunai he was throwing and blindly tossing the other. I drop low to the ground as I throw eight shuriken, causing them to arc around him and making him grin. "You're just gonna throw out all your weapons with aim that bad?" He says, and I narrow my eyes.
"I trained with the Uchiha, shitstain." I say, raising my fingers with the threads of ninja wire looped around them. "I don't miss." with that, I wrench the wire, causing the shuriken to loop around him and wrap the wire around him, the eight projectiles digging into him.
-30HP! -12HP! -14HP! -21HP! -32HP! Critical hit! -142HP! -18HP!
Your skill level has increased!
Shurikenjutsu Training, Lv. 38
-Your mastery of the Shuriken, Kunai and Senbon weapons, a staple of any self-respecting ninja.
Your skill level has increased!
Ricochet (active), Lv.17
The ability to ricochet a projectile off of walls, objects, people, and even other projectiles mid-flight in order to create unexpected trajectories.
He screams in particular as one of the shuriken dig into his jugular. I release the wire, letting the tangle snap to him- I've no illusions about holding him down with that.
"You... you..." he groans, flexing his muscles. A moment later all the ninja wire snaps even as his HP trickle down, and I lean to the side to avoid the snapback wire. "YOU!" he screams, raising an arm.
A moment later, I'm hit with a terrifying presence. I don't really understand why, as we're the same person, but unlike us clones, when Tomo fights, they get... scary. "Hiden." Tomo says quietly, and a moment later Hiroshi gasps as something is plunged into his back.
Critical hit! -174HP!
"Blade Lotus." A moment later, tiny, glassy and jagged blade projections come out of his chest, their usual kaleidoscope color coated in Hiroshi's blood.
Critical hit! -175HP! Critical hit! -150HP! Critical hit! -137HP! Critical hit! -131HP! Critical hit! -128HP! Critical hit! -126HP!
A happy jingle tells me that we've levelled up... twice, actually. It's cold comfort as I stare a bit disturbed at the dead Hiroshi. Or, well, dying, but as Tomo drops him, he's well past 0HP. "Thanks," I murmur, and she nods, stepping out of the tree shadows, her eyes flickering to the tags scattered on the ground. "Well... Blade Lotus was a success, I suppose?"
"Not really," they murmur back. "It works for us because of Crit Striker, but he was unarmored and beaten down. Nearly all of the damage comes from Crit Striker, actually, otherwise it's not much different from just hitting him twice without spending that much chakra." Tomo sighs. "Kamikaze clone was also kind of a failure, if more effective."
The smell of burnt flesh and blood is thick in the air, the camp now a battleground with no signs of the previous banter and tension. The hostages are still in the cages, likely terrified by the explosion and the ensuing fight.
"We're improving though. Or well, you are, because I'm probably gonna cease to exist in an hour or so, but you get the point," I joke, trying to lighten the mood. "Thirty skill points aren't awful. And we won against both opponents more numerous and a ninja stronger than us."
Tomo looks around at the carnage, and I know they're not happy, but after a moment they nod. "Let's go see those hostages. I could do with a reminder that we're doing the right thing."
And, well, Tomo's the boss, so we go do that.
Humming to myself to try and distract from the ease with which I'd pulled this off, I approached the bars of the cell. Ease for a given value of the term, but... well, I didn't need to engage the bandits, my clones had pulled that off- one of them hitless, and the second one getting the most out of their death.
Long from the usual, ethereal beauty, the woman had matted hair, sallow cheeks, and generally seemed to not have been treated the best during her stay at Hotel Kidnapping. Most importantly, emblazoned on her forehead was the kill-switch the Hyuga clan was famed for.
Hyuga Minami, Branch Clan Member, Lv.8
Perhaps most importantly, this woman was a civilian. Even with a missing-nin, a Hyuga shinobi probably wouldn't have been caught by bandits.
"That was a very artistic way of killing someone, chibi." The woman mutters by way of greeting. "I would not call it more beautiful than the Gentle Fist, but I must admit that I never considered how pretty glass-shaped chakra is when it shatters right before fading."
Target - Hyuga. "...I'm afraid I'm not quite blessed with sight such as your own, but you can tell me about it as we return to Konoha. Can you stand?"
"I'm afraid they did not see fit to maintain my legs functional after my last escape attempt." She spoke in a quiet tone, and I winced.
There was a quiet sort of dignity in her posture, even as she lie on her side with broken legs, in a cage. And... she was pregnant, I realized with muted horror, something I had not noticed until now with the lack of light.
This... was not on our mission. Heck, either Yugao neglected to tell me, or she wasn't even supposed to be here. Yugao just told me to observe and if I found an opening, that I could take it.
"I'm going to run a diagnostic on you, alright?" I say, more informative of my intentions than asking for permission.
She simply glances at the bars between me and her, and I huff. I can feel my muscles flex and ache as DEX turns to STR thanks to my weights, chakra circulates through my muscles to yet still enhance them, and the Fuma Style turns more of my DEX into STR.
My effective STR should be somewhere in the 180s or so, even if I can barely move like this. More than enough to just... snap the bars clean off of the cage. Made for a strength-oriented chuunin, these bars were not. I'm not one, but I can definitely emulate the results.
It's scary just how superhuman I am getting.
It's scary that it's not enough.
I glance to the side where my clone is doing the same for the cage where the child- a boy, maybe seven years old, and the man are being kept. Leaving him to handle it, I turn back to the Hyuga, and letting my strength enhancements fade, I approach the flabbergasted woman, slowly flipping through hand signs for a diagnostic jutsu and immediately wanted to puke.
There was incapacitating someone, and there was pulverizing the bones of their legs to the point that short of Tsunade operating on them, she'd never walk again.
More than that... various signs of beatings, both recent and old, and what I can only describe as speartip-shaped internal scars where there ought to be none, if the way her skin was unmarred in those places was anything to go by.
"...'Gentle' fist, my ass." I murmur to myself with a grimace. The woman's face is carefully blank as I say that, and no reply is offered. With a grimace, I set about figuring out how best to carry her, but everything I could think of compromised either speed or health- and she needed medical attention better than what I could offer now.
After a moment, I bit my cheek. There was one way, but it would be painful, if not damaging, and... mildly permanent. After I voiced my concerns as much, she raised an eyebrow.
"And what would this method entail, that such consequences are the best option we have?" This woman must have an insane Pain Resistance, to speak normally through everything. Upon hearing my explaination, I received a stare I was profoundly familiar with- that of someone who wanted to call me an idiot.
After a moment, in a lower voice, she murmured. "If that is what best you can do for me and my child, do it, little one. It would not be the first time I've had something like this done to me." She took a deep breath. "I would prefer it, however, if you took your true form. Watching one of the women who kidnapped me perform such an invasive jutsu would be... unpleasant."
With a nod, I swapped back to my original form. "You're even tinier than the glimpse I'd gotten made me believe..." Minami breathed.
I whistled, and the clone poked his head next to me as I frowned, drawing the tools I would need for this. Those legs... they would just get in the way, unfortunately. Luckily, I didn't really need to explain what I was doing to someone who shared my identical thought process.
Unfortunately, all of my clones were certifiably insane.
The clone snickered, waiting for me to pass physical copies of the same tools. "What the fuck are you laughing about?" I growl.
"Well." The clone shrugged. "It is funny."
"It's not!" I resisted the urge to slap the other Tomo. "This is a life-changing surgery. Be serious."
The clone stared at me, unrepentantly.
"...fine. I suppose it is a little funny."
I love the part where Tomo said "I am the Gamer" and Gamered all over the place
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