"Water Style: Water Bullet!"
A compressed bullet of water shot from his mouth, but the remaining to attackers reacted quickly, leaping aside. The water bullet splashed against a tree and exploded with a muffled bang.
Tsk. Kuroichi clicked his tongue in frustration.
The man in front, the earth style user and leader of the now two remaining ninja stepped forward. His chakra felt deeper and denser than Kuroichi's own and the other man's chakra. The leader's killing intent was palpable, but what struck Kuroichi the most was the way the man moved, sharp, grounded and confident.
That man was a seasoned killer.
"You made a mistake, brat," the leader said. "You could've done your best to run away, but now you've done it and killed one of mine."
Kuroichi held the heavy blade in his hands, adjusting his stance. "Then stop talking and let's finish this already. Who are you anyway?"
The man ignored the question. "You'll pay. One way or another, this, I swear."
In a blur they shot forward and clashed. The sound of steel banging against one another rang through the clearing and Kuroichi did his best to keep up. Every swing felt like dragging a stone through water. In his hands the sword was nodachi sized, it was unwieldy. Too slow and too heavy for his small body to keep up with his enemy.
Behind the leader, the third man provided support, flickering hand seals and hurling kunai. Kuroichi deflected what he could, but his body was tiring and he got hit multiple times. His clothes were torn, sweat glistened on his skin as scratches littered his torso and legs, blood flowing down various parts of his body.
'This isn't sustainable, I can't keep fighting like this,' Kuroichi thought as he faked a high slash, which the leader easily read, and as the man surged forward, Kuroichi dropped low and drove his foot into the enemies knee with a solid thud.
The leader stumbled, snarling in pain. Kuroichi took the chance to leap back a step, gasping for air as he awkwardly shifted the sword with his hands.
His hands, free to form seals, did so quickly as he focused.
"Genjutsu: Yin Balance Jutsu!"
The leader's stance faltered even more. His center of gravity warped subtly and his legs suddenly became unsure.
Kuroichi immediately flickered toward him, reaching out, as dark chakra manifested in his hands.
Chakra surged through Kuroichi's arm as his palm connected with the man's skin. The response was immediate, raw chakra flowing through his own chakra system. The man's chakra was denser and more refined than his own, but his dark release drank greedily, disrupting the leaders chakra flow.
The man's eyes widened in shock.
"What…?!"
However, the window was short lived, as the other shinobi charged, kunai raised. Kuroichi cursed under his breath. 'Can't finish this one.. not fast enough.'
He pulled out a kunai of his own and aimed it at the leaders throat, hoping to at least cripple him somehow. The blade pierced flesh, but not his neck and it stopped before it even met bone, jerking off target.
A metallic clang rang out. The other ninja had thrown a kunai, just in time to knock Kuroichi's aside.
"Tch-!"
A volley of steel followed. Kuroichi barely registered the blur of incoming projectiles before he hastily used the replacement jutsu and vanished as a piece of wood was shredded apart in his stead and turned into smoke.
He reappeared behind cover, panting, hands already weaving signs. In the puff of smoke he left behind, two water clones formed an silently split away.
Kuroichi switched places with one, crouching low in a shadowed hollow as the first clone charged forward.
"Water Style: Water Bullet!"
The clone blasted a water bullet that forced the leader to use his own earth wall jutsu, then it closed the distance with fast and aggressive strides. He switched to taijutsu and attacked with the practiced ease of his Yami Kagerō style.
He was sharp and relentless, his fighting style mimicking the dark nature of his chakra. Every motion of his was like a predatory strike, banking on whittling down his prey's energy by any means necessary.
The clone moved like a real body, fainting, dodging and reacting to sudden attacks. It was distraction made flesh coupled with the dark release.
The leader, visibly agitated, snarled. "Even better! A brat with a kekkei genkai, Chikao, only kill this miserable whelp if there's no other choice. As compensation for all the damages, he'll be our exclusive breeding pig for whichever shinobi village offers the most!"
"Hehehehe, alright Captain, no worries. As long as I get to take out my.. you know out on him before he grows up and is used by others'?
"Whatever, I don't care. Help me deal with him first!" The leader said as he focused back on Kuroichi. "The brat thinks using his kekkei genkai will win him this fight? Never! I won't allow it!!"
The man lashed out violently, earth chakra channeling through his palm and into the ground.
"Earth Style: Bottomless Swamp!"
Mud rippled around them, as suddenly the terrain gave away, sucking the clone downward.
"Earth Style: Pit of the Depths!" he shouted, as he activated a second follow up jutsu.
A crude pit formed within the mud, a makeshift well swallowing everything inside. The first clone sank rapidly, but the second one had already moved into position, high above in the branches.
It flickered down in a blur, silent and deadly, just as the first clone burst into water. The second clone landed, kunai flashing as it's edge tore through ribs and the shinobi fell with a scream.
"AHHH!!"
Instinctively clutching his side, blood started pouring freely.
Kuroichi, hidden nearby, held his breath. 'Two down, one dead, the other pretty much out of the fight.'
However, the fight was far from over. The leaders face twisted into something barely resembling human, just contorted cold rage. It wasn't tactical anymore, it was really personal this time. After performing a sequence of seals, he slammed both of his hands into the ground.
"Earth Style: Tomb of the Vile!!"
The terrain exploded into jagged stone, a deep crater forming at his feet. Stone pillars shot out from below, boxing off escape routes and crashing into trees. In the chaos, the second water clone took a hit, and turned into a splash of water.
"Coward!!" the leader bellowed out into the destruction. "Come out! You think I don't see what you are??"
Sharp rocks began launching from the stone walls, aiming at where the real Kuroichi had last been. Weak points, knees, ribs, neck. But all passed through his body, as it was just another normal clone illusion he had created before switching locations.
The real Kuroichi, crouched down behind another tree was torn. 'I can still try to run again.. but if I get tracked this time as well…' the thought twisted in his stomach. 'I don't know how to erase my own tracks, he'd definitely find me. And with even less chakra, I'll be vulnerable. No… -
I have to end this somehow!'
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Want to read ahead?
Advanced chapters on pa*treon/WavyWriter