Counterattack and Annihilation

The second volley of shuriken was already upon him.

The twelve shuriken split apart in midair, each one dividing into two smaller blades that blanketed every space Takuma could dodge into.

Takuma didn't dodge. He stamped his right foot against the ground and surged forward instead of retreating, charging straight into the shuriken.

Three shuriken lodged in his left shoulder, two sliced open his right side, and one grazed his cheek, leaving a bloody streak. His Healing Factor had already kicked in, and the muscle fibers at the edges of the wounds contracted at a visible speed, stopping the bleeding.

The shuriken ninja clearly hadn't expected anyone to charge through the pain. He froze for an instant. Takuma's kunai left his hand, aimed straight at the man's face. The shuriken ninja tilted his head to dodge, but Takuma's right knee slammed into his stomach. The man grunted and doubled over. Takuma brought his elbow down on the back of his head, and as his body went limp, Takuma seized him by the hair with his left hand and drew a kunai across his throat with his right. Quick and clean.

The Scarred Man's smile froze.

He'd thought the kid's plan was to stall until reinforcements arrived. He hadn't expected him to have no intention of waiting for them. The smoke column from the explosion had already shot into the sky. If nothing went wrong, Konoha's patrol wouldn't reach this cliffside area for at least fifteen minutes. A lot of people could die in fifteen minutes.

"Don't let him get close," the Scarred Man ordered coldly.

The Bandaged Short Man formed hand seals. Earth Style: Earth Flow Wall rose from the riverbed, blocking Takuma's path. Another earthen wall rose, then another. Three Earth Flow Walls in a row completely sealed off Takuma's route forward. The Bandaged Short Man then switched hand seals. Earth Style: Earth Split Palm—the ground beneath Takuma began to crack and collapse, with rocks and soil sliding into the fissures.

Takuma leaped backward a split second before the ground under him gave way. The Bandaged Short Man's Earth Release techniques, which controlled the battlefield, were a real problem. He had to take him out first. But the Scarred Man made that difficult. He always kept within five paces of the Bandaged Short Man.

The Scarred Man was at least a Chunin. Takuma didn't have good odds in a one-on-one fight, and facing both of them was practically suicide. But he had no choice now.

The Bandaged Short Man launched another Earth Release technique: Earth Style: Earth Rising Spear. Several sharp stone pillars suddenly thrust up from the rocks on the riverbed. Takuma dodged sideways. A pillar grazed his back, tearing open his jacket and scraping away a layer of skin. His Healing Factor rapidly repaired the damage, but it couldn't take away the pain. He gritted his teeth and reached for the ground.

He channeled chakra into the riverbed, spreading it beneath the layer of rocks.

It was a basic Earth Release technique from the Senju Clan that his father had taught him—Chakra Penetration. It wasn't a direct attack. Instead, chakra was used to sense the underground structure and find weak spots to exploit. Beneath the dry riverbed's layer of rocks lay soft sand, and farther down was solid bedrock. Takuma's chakra found a natural cavity at the boundary between the sand and the bedrock.

The Bandaged Short Man was preparing to form hand seals and launch another attack when the ground beneath him suddenly gave way. The rocks covering the riverbed collapsed, and he sank down. Though he reacted quickly enough to flip out of the hole, his hand seals were interrupted, and his composure vanished.

"That kid's destabilizing the ground beneath us!"

The Scarred Man didn't wait any longer. The sound of his sword leaving its scabbard was like a streak of silver slicing through the air as he slashed at Takuma's neck.

Takuma didn't have time to turn around. He judged the sword's position by the sound of the wind and threw himself forward. The blade skimmed his scalp. As strands of hair drifted down, the Scarred Man twisted his wrist, turning the downward slash into an upward cut. Takuma blocked with his kunai. Sparks from the clashing metal scattered across his face, and the force sent him flying backward,

Before he could recover, the Scarred Man's sword was already thrusting toward him.

Takuma tilted his head. The sword swept past, missing his ear by barely an inch. The Scarred Man followed through by driving his knee into Takuma's stomach. Takuma grunted as the taste of blood flooded his mouth. As the second knee came in, he took the blow and grabbed the Scarred Man's collar with both hands, then smashed his forehead into the man's nose.

The Scarred Man staggered back half a step. His nose wasn't broken, but the pain made him squint involuntarily. Takuma seized the opening and thrust his kunai toward the man's armpit—the blind spot hardest to protect with any swordsmanship stance.

The Scarred Man abandoned his defense, clamping his left hand around Takuma's wrist while sweeping his sword sideways with his right. At the same time, the Bandaged Short Man's Earth Rising Spear attacked from the flank, three stone pillars blocking Takuma's escape. The two worked together seamlessly.

With his right hand pinned, Takuma pulled out three Explosive Tags with his left and threw them at the Bandaged Short Man's feet. The Bandaged Short Man retreated quickly, raising an Earth Flow Wall from the ground to shield himself. But the tags exploded on the rocky ground between him and the wall. The shock wave shattered the surrounding rock, and the underground cavity Takuma had already weakened with Chakra Penetration collapsed completely.

The ground beneath the Bandaged Short Man caved in all at once. The instant he lost his balance, Takuma's right arm surged with strength. The Senju Bloodline's innate physical power, combined with the rapid muscle repair provided by his Healing Factor, let him break free. He used the momentum to leap into the air, planted a foot on a stone pillar, vaulted over the Scarred Man, and plunged toward the Bandaged Short Man in the collapsed pit.

The Bandaged Short Man had only just climbed halfway out of the pit when his vision went dark. Takuma's knee crashed into his chest, and Takuma drove a kunai into him.

The Scarred Man didn't even look at his comrade's corpse. He raised his sword high, channeling chakra into the blade until it began to glow a ghostly blue. He took a step and swung down. A Vacuum Blade shot from the sword, curving toward Takuma.

Takuma charged forward instead of retreating, lowering himself until he was almost brushing the ground. The Vacuum Blade swept past half a meter above his head, cutting down a row of bushes behind him. He'd already rushed inside the Scarred Man's sword range.

Water Release: Wild Water Wave.

He poured all his chakra into it. A high-pressure stream of water blasted from his palm and struck the Scarred Man in the chest, sending him flying into a boulder at the edge of the riverbed.

The sword flew from his hand, spun twice in the air, and stuck in a pile of rocks five meters away.

The Scarred Man struggled to get up, but the pain in his chest made him cough up a mouthful of blood. The impact of the Wild Water Wave had injured his internal organs through his skin. He reached for the kunai in his ninja pouch, but as soon as his fingers touched its handle, Takuma was already in front of him.

Takuma stamped on the hand reaching for the pouch, pinned the man's chest with his knee, and stabbed a kunai through his left shoulder.

Takuma's voice was hoarse. Sweat and blood dripped from his chin. "Who sent you? Why were you scouting Konoha's barrier?"

The Scarred Man looked at him. The corner of his mouth twitched, as if he were smiling—or mocking him. Then he spoke, his voice broken and wet with blood.

"You're... the one from the experiment..."

He didn't finish. His eyes glazed over, and his breathing stopped. He died without warning.

Takuma immediately checked the Scarred Man's neck and found a tiny pinprick beneath the hairline. The surrounding skin had already turned grayish black. Some kind of poison had been lying dormant in his body, set to trigger under specific conditions. Takuma turned over the Scarred Man's body and checked the shuriken ninja's corpse. He found the same pinprick on his neck. That meant all three men had been marked for death before the battle even began. Win or lose, they could never be allowed to leak information.

They weren't wandering ninja, rogue ninja, or even ordinary mercenaries. Their professional military reconnaissance skills, standardized tactical coordination, and the kill switch implanted in their bodies... An organization was behind them, and its need for secrecy was extreme.

Takuma found a communications scroll covered in coded characters in the Scarred Man's ninja pouch.

The map was on the Scarred Man too. Takuma unfolded the rough map. It marked not three locations around Konoha's outskirts, but seven. Each was circled in red, with numbers and abbreviated symbols beside it. Three were marked "confirmed," and four were marked "unconfirmed." The cliffside area was the third of the confirmed locations.

Someone was systematically and deliberately mapping out Konoha's defenses. And judging by what the Scarred Man had said before he died, he seemed to have mistaken Takuma for an experimental subject.

Did that experiment have something to do with him? Or with the Senju Bloodline?