"Works for me and you did promise me a snack." Clementine replied her pink eyes twinkling maliciously as she and Naruto disappeared from their branch in blurs of motion, heading in the direction of Raiga.
All that was left of their presence was the rotted corpse of Pon, who even now slowly broke apart crumbling to pieces as it fell off the tree branch and land on the ground with a wet thump.
....
( A few minutes later )
...
"Okay, so here is the plan, I go kill Raiga whilst you kill the others." Naruto said as he crouched alongside Clementine, both of them looking down at Raiga Kurosaki as he wept at a freshly turned grave, a number of his followers standing around him wearing funeral clothing.
"They should be quite easy for you to finish off, once you have done that come and help me. I doubt I will need it but it may make the job easier if we work together."
"Sounds good." Clementine replied with a nod as he reached behind her back before withdrawing two long, needle sharp stiletto blades. Twirling them around in her hands, she looked down on her future victims with a cat like grin.
"Try not to mess him up to much though, we will need his head intact if we are to get his bounty money."
"Just make sure to finish them quickly. I want this job over quickly." Naruto replied as he glared down at mock funeral.
"Why do you want to get back to your precious Mei?" Clementine mocked.
"You know you almost sound jealous." Naruto replied back not taking his eyes away from his target, Raiga.
"You wish." Clementine replied before she leapt from her position, her body blurring as soon as her feet touched the ground. Her blades held in her hands as she charged the group.
Moving himself Naruto followed Clementine's charge. As he did so he took note of the fact that Raiga turned to face them. Something that should have been impossible considering their skill at stealth, in comparison to Raiga's recorded level as a Swordsman of a Mist.
He elite level skill with his blades and his lightning jutsu, but in terms of his other Shinobi skills he was barely Jonin level. But even so he somehow noticed their approach.
Speeding up his charge Naruto charged straight for him, the seal tattooed on his right wrist glowing faintly, before in a small cloud of smoke his weapon appeared.
It was a long shafted war axe, made entirely out of chakra metal, something that allowed him to safely channel his chakra through it without corroding damaging the weapon. Darting forward Naruto sidestepped as soon as he got within reach of Raiga.
The man having drawn his own blades, the finely crafted twin blades sparking with lightning as he lunged at Naruto, straight away going for a decapitation.
Crouching down low Naruto dodged under Raiga's swing, turning his body as he did so before he used the momentum to increase the strength of his own strike. The axe blade going straight at Raiga's left arm, the metal now glowing a faint bluish grey colour as Naruto channeled his chakra through it.
It was not to be however as Raiga jumped backwards, avoiding Naruto's surprise counterattack with startling ease.
Undeterred Naruto took another step forward, taking a strong base as he parried away Raiga's Kiba blades; his own deadly chakra dispersing Raiga's lightning as his chakra slowly began to devour Raiga's.
Twisting his wrist Naruto did not allow Raiga a single moment as he slammed his axe down on the man, forcing him to bring his blades up in a cross guard to block him. Another twist of his wrist had the two blades caught in the inner curve of his axe. Drawing on his chakra and then channeling it into his muscles Naruto wrenched his axe away, pulling both the blades form Raiga's grip before he raised his foot and delivered a chakra enhanced kick straight to his gut.
Tumbling back a few steps Raiga gave Naruto a filthy look as he saw his precious blades lying in the mud a few metres away from the still waiting Naruto.
His glare however soon faltered as he felt a burning pain from his stomach. Looking down Raiga could see Naruto's sandal print on his stomach. His chakra enhanced kick having rotted through his shirt and killed a patch of skin on his stomach, leaving it shriveled and gray.
"What the fuck…" Raiga muttered as he felt the burning pain in his gut, before he looked up at the masked man in front of him.
...
( With Clementine )
...
Letting out a laugh Clementine continued her charge, ignoring Raiga as she trusted Pain implicitly, knowing that he had never failed her before.
Instead she focused on the surprised looking bandits in front of her. All of whom turned in shock as she appeared in their midst. The first two unable to react as she drove the stiletto blade in her right hand through the first bandits eye socket, killing him instantly. Her left blade slipped in between the second bandits second and third rib, giving him a crippling wound that would lead to him having a long drawn out death.
Or at least it would have had she not also used her right leg to shatter his knees before she crushed his head with a single stamp of her foot.
Not stopping in her movements for a moment she swung around her now blood soaked blades still in hand as she easily dodged under a wild sword swing from one of the thugs before she slashed her blades out again. Slitting another bandit's throat with on blade and gutting his comrade.
Leaping back from the point of her first impact a savage grin on her face she paused a second to admire her work. Ten seconds after her first contact with the enemy and four were already dead, the other six all struggling to draw weapons or looking around in shock, trying to figure out what just happened.
Crouching down so she was lower to the floor, Clementine once again charged in covering metres in mere moments as she once again engaged her enemy. Her twin blades flashing as she hamstrung one bandit, disemboweled another, and punctured the heart of third bandit.
Twisting around she fund both of her knives, the long blades finding their home in the throats of two other bandits.
Standing up straight Clementine turned around again, that maniacal grin never leaving her face as she saw that only one bandit still stood. Eight of the other thugs lying dead on the ground and a ninth screaming as he curled up in a ball on the ground.
Prowling forward like a predatory beast circling its prey. Clementine approached the two living men. Her pink eyes gleaming through the eye slits in her mask.
"W-what the fuck are you!?" The still standing man gasped out as he backed away from the scantily masked woman in horror.
"I'm… complicated." Clementine replied emphasizing the last word as she brought her heel down on the screaming man on the floor, shattering his spine and ending his cries of agony.
"Y-you're a monster!" The man cried out as he stumbled away from her in terror.
"Oh you don't know the half of it." Clementine replied before she shot forward in a blur, knocking the man's sword from his trembling hands as she sank her teeth into his neck.
Letting out a moan of delight she preceded to rip the man's throat out leaving him drowning in his own blood as she began to hungrily gorge herself on his flesh.
Not a minute had passed since she first engaged them in combat, but in that minute all ten men had been killed and Clementine had managed to get the snack she had been craving.
...
( With Victor )
...
Looking around him with bland interest the grey haired man grinned slightly to himself as he saw the dead bodies lying around him. It hadn't been much of a fight, these men were untrained and most of them hadn't even known they were dead until they were.
It did somewhat take the fun out of the fight, then again the men were thugs and bullies, so Victor did not really care what whether they lived or died.
Hearing a slight creak behind him, Victor leaned back as he looked to see where the disturbance came from. As he did this he could see a number of scruffy looking civilians looking out at him from their hiding places.
Of these one of the braver ones decided to speak up.
"A-are you going to kill us?" A young looking man asked nervously as he acted as spokesmen for his fellow villagers.
"I wasn't planning on it… but I can do if you want me to?" Victor replied in amusement, chuckling to himself as he saw the man's face go very pale at his words.
"N-no sir we are fine thank you…" The man replied as he hastily back away, his fellow villagers also fleeing, probably trying to leave quickly in fear of Victor maybe changing his mind about killing them.
"Ah civilians, such cowards." Victor muttered to himself before he looked down at the scattered bodies around him, already pulling a storage scroll out from behind his back. "Best get too collecting some useful body parts."
He'd already been given a practical shopping list by the other members of his Clan in Kiri. The demanding lot tended to give him these lists when he was going out on his hunts, so they could maintain a healthy supply of well preserved organs and body parts in their compound.
...
( With Raiga )
...
Staggering backward from the black masked assassin who had just attacked him, Raiga clasped his left hand to his gut, channeling his chakra into that spot to soothe the pain from his semi-decay flesh.
Looking warily at the man in front of him, keeping his eyes on the deadly looking axe he had in his hand, the blade of which was now enshrouded in grey chakra. "What do you see, Ranmaru?" Raiga muttered as he took a step back, his eyes flickering to his Kiba blades that lay in the mud behind his assailant.
A soft voice replied back, the voice coming from the large backpack he had on his back, "It hurts… it hurts to look at him. He's not human; it is like he is a thousand people in one body…."
"What?" Raiga muttered in shock, having never heard Ranmaru sound so confused or scared.
Ranmaru shook his head from where he was nestled safely within Raiga's backpack, before he answered his red doujutsu filled with fear as he looked in Naruto's direction.
"R-Raiga, he is to powerful for you to fight. His chakra it's not just his, it is like he is drawing it from hundreds of different people, all of them trapped inside him… he's a monster Raiga. W-We need to run now or he will kill us… we need to flee!"
Raiga was about to say something in response, but before he could, he heard Ranmaru shouting a warning to him, "Raiga he's coming get down!"
Raiga through instinct did what Ranmaru said, lunging into a low crouch. Just in time to as he saw two chain that looked like they were made out of the same bluish grey chakra his attacker used, piercing the air where he had been standing just moments ago. Rolling to the side he once again dodged as both of them chains jabbed downwards into the ground.
The grass going brown and dying upon contact with the chakra, he as the earth began to crumble.
Rolling to his feet Raiga looked up in shock, only for his eyes to widen as he saw how the misty grey chains were coming from his masked attackers back. "What the hell are you?!" Raiga shouted as he pulled to kunai out of a pouch on his leg, holding them both at the ready.
The only answer he received was the masked man's form blurring as he charged him. His axe swinging at Raiga even as the man's chakra chains ripped themselves from the earth and shot towards his undefended back.
...
If you're too impatient to wait for updates, the story's already at chapter 96 on P atreon.
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