CH_3.34 (093)

CH_3.34 (093)

A heartbeat's worth of time was all it took for everything to unravel.

It was so quick that Takuma could barely spot the kunai before it stabbed Raiden. But the lightning streak that shot from the trees was enough to send all of his alarms blaring.

"Ambush!"

Takuma's kunai were ready in his hands before the warning shout left Iruka's mouth. He felt his muscles taut, nerves flare, and his heart pounded in his chest as his eyes darted around the clearing and the forest to catch four more lightning streaks zap out of the shadows, one of them flying toward Dai.

Takuma felt jarred as though he was a machine infected with rust while he stepped forward in the path and parried the lightning-coated kunai headed towards his teammate.

Clang!

"Gah," Takuma grunted as the parry felt closer to deflecting a heavier sword blade. Whatever jutsu, it packed a rocket punch behind the light kunai.

Takuma couldn't take a moment's rest as shadows moved in the forest and—

*Thud*

*Thud*

It was just on the edge of his peripheral vision, faint enough that he didn't register the image, but the sound made him look.... Takuma turned to see that while he had obstructed the kunai coming for Dai— it was only one of four.

Two others had found their mark.

Yumiko and Aya were no longer standing.

Blood sputtered out of Yumiko's mouth as she reached for the kunai sticking out of her throat. The girl trembled like a newborn thing. Their eyes met, and Takuma came face-to-face with despair, disbelief, pain, and a deep begging for help in her eyes... before all the turmoil of emotion vanished and the gaze turned dull along with Yumiko's efforts. Her hand fell to the side as her body went limp.

Yumiko was no more...

All thought left Takuma's mind; his eyes couldn't leave Yumiko's body despite the sight in front of him being the most gruesome he had seen in both his lives.

A sense of panic grabbed Takuma's heart as he gripped the kunai about to fall from his hands, and looked around wildly just in time to see four figures jump out from the trees. They wore Hidden Frost shinobi gear with half-masks obstructing the bottom half of their faces.

"Frost has betrayed us!" Raiden yelled, and despite having a kunai sticking out from his abdomen, he charged at the Hidden Frost leading man in front of him, and within a snap, Raiden and the man were engaged in combat with sparks from blades flying into the air.

Before Takuma could get a hold of himself, he was already in a nightmare of metal and blood. Weapons flashed in and out of Takuma's sight; he fought wildly, he didn't remember yelling, but his throat was hoarse. It was a shallow but biting cut to the leg and a pull by Iruka that snapped him out of the rampant confusion.

Takuma tried to thank him, but the chunin had moved on, his kunai swinging at the Hidden Frost shinobi that had emerged from the forest. Both of them seemed to be an equal match, just like Raiden and the Hidden Frost shinobi he was fighting.

'I'm going to die here,' he thought.

Takuma pivoted to the side on instinct to dodge a sword strike from a Hidden Frost kunoichi, and on further instinct, he stabbed and swung at her limbs and face. He saw an opening in her stance and jammed a foot into her knee, forcing her to kneel, and thrusted a kunai down for her shoulder, only for her to receive it into her arm with a scream.

Takuma emerged from within the clones made from Genjutsu: Mist Servant Jutsu with a kunai held in both hands that he sheathed into the man's body before throwing it into the woman's clavicle; he avoided the heart but made sure she stayed down.

They were done, Takuma judged his two enemies. But then—

'This isn't in the Ring,' said the same cold voice. 'The fight isn't over when the opponent no longer wants to fight. It's over when they're dead...'

Takuma shook his head. These shinobi should be kept alive for interrogation so that they can find out the reason for the betrayal. They were in a foreign land, and the Hidden Frost shinobi could provide all sorts of information they could use to safely return home.

Yes, keeping them alive would do more good—

The Hidden Frost man suddenly thrust a gleaming kunai for Takuma, who saw it coming and firmly grasped the offending arm before snapping the wrist and confiscating the kunai. Takuma raised the same kunai and aimed it for the man's shoulder...

'This isn't the Ring...'

In the last second, he redirected the kunai, and instead of stabbing the shoulder, he struck a little to the right... for the neck. The spluttered blood out of the mouth, the blood soaked Takuma's hand through the wound, and slowly, the light left the man's eye.

Takuma stood up, still holding the man's kunai, and walked to the woman, who was trying to reach for the man with a trembling hand, weakly calling for the man. He kicked her shoulder to make her face upward, stepped on her wrist that held the sword before squatting down... and stabbed her in the heart...

He watched life leave her eyes with a myriad of emotions flashing in her eyes that remained affixed on her dead companion.

Takuma stood up and felt his feet lose strength, making him stagger before catching himself. He stared at the two enemies— two people— that he had just killed. There they laid, murdered on the field by him. They were trying to kill him but got killed instead. At that moment, only three things existed in the world— Takuma himself and those dead bodies that just a few moments ago were breathing, living individuals. He looked at his hands dripping in blood— it wasn't a new sight, he had blood on his hands at least once a week... but today, blood on his hands had a different meaning.

He felt...

"Takuma!" came Iruka's yell.

Takuma snapped out of the vacuum he had secluded himself in, and before he could look, he felt a heat on his cheek. He finally turned to see a giant fireball heading for him. His eyes widened as he immediately jumped out of the way, but not in time to completely avoid the raging fire.

"Fuck!" Takuma patted the clothes, skin, and hair that had caught fire. Flames that used chakra as fuel were hotter and stuck to things they wanted to burn, like a lite version of napalm. He knew that and so tried his darndest to get rid of the flames that could seriously burn him. He stumbled on something that tripped him to the ground. Takuma immediately rolled on the wet ground and finally snuffed the flames.

He scrambled to his feet and glanced down at what had made him fall.

It was Dai, his head crushed.

Takuma's stomach lurched, and he stumbled away from the body, bumping into Susumu, who sliced him across the arm with an errant swing. The cut was not a bad one, but Takuma's arm lit up in a line of pain. He hissed at the sting, and when he glared at Susumu, the Aburame had left his side and was fighting his Hidden Frost opponent.

Takuma swallowed the anger, knowing it was an instinctual attack— an accident. He felt tired and so much more, but still equipped another kunai...

The fight wasn't over.

​

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