A strange new life
9.8

I told the team all the information I could: the town, the enemies, the genjutsu, the disturbed graves.

“How are we going to deal with the genjutsu shinobi?” Tenten asked when it became clear the team wanted to investigate.

That was a problem I didn’t have an answer to. 

“Kai release didn’t work when my clone tried.”

Ino looked at me, confused. “But aren’t you..?” She didn’t finish the question.

The chakra absorption also didn’t work, but I wasn’t going to tell them about that. I shrugged. There wasn’t much I could say without spilling secrets I didn’t want to. 

“They’re not using chakra, I’m not even sure if it was a genjutsu in the first place.”

I took out the big scroll strapped to my back. I placed it on the ground, unfurled it partway, and slapped my palm against the seal. Out popped explosives. I distributed some around.

The only way I knew how to was to hit first and hard: always kill the mage first. “We hit her hard and fast.”

After our first training session, I insisted — much to everyone’s dismay — that we start training with explosives too. I might have used that excuse one too many times to throw explosives around, too. It wasn’t easy to convince them, and I had to make concessions. No targeting them directly with explosives, copious amounts of cupcakes, private fuinjutsu lessons. But oh well, it was a small price to pay to spread the explosion love, and have private ‘training’ sessions with Best Girl Ino!

Ino took a handful of the kunais, placed them on her belt pouch, strapped a few to her thighs. For Tenten, I had prepared a scroll with some sealed weapons. One that she could use in her budding weapon hurricane style.

Karin, despite everything, wasn’t a good fighter. To her, I gave a few kunais with barrier seals she could deploy to bail us out if needed.

Once everyone was ready, I held my hand and pushed my chakra. Three wooden kunais appeared in my hand, already inscribed. My chakra reserves tanked, but that was fine. I had explosions to cover me if I needed to.

“Yell if you need help,” I said, placing the kunai in their hands.

“What is this?” Tenten asked, looking at the wooden weapon.

“Insurance,” I said, not really in the mood to explain. It wasn’t the best policy to keep Tenten in the dark about the jutsu, but people reacted strangely when I told them about it. “Don’t lose the kunai.”

Tenten asked, instead. “What’s the plan?”

“We hit the woman in the armor fast and hard. Take her out of the battle before she can put us in a genjutsu, then we disable the others.”

I got nods.

“Once we’ve done that, we can get information from them: where are the town’s people, what are they looking for, what their plans are.” I scanned the faces looking at me. This moment felt important, or maybe I wanted to make a cool speech.

“Ino, Tenten, you two stay together. Don’t take risks.” I turned to Karin. “Karin, you’re with me.”

We moved soon after that. Our pace was fast, but not rushed. With Karin on our side, learning where the enemy was wasn’t difficult. I still didn’t know how the woman had found my clone, but that was something we could deal with.

Karin and I climbed the walls, sneaked inside the partially destroyed town and toward its center, where the enemy was. Tenten and Ino moved around, ready to intercept in case any reinforcements arrived or the woman tried to flee or to provide distraction.

The plan was, in the end, straightforward.

I took position, still hidden from view, and waited.

A few minutes later, I heard the explosion. From where we were, I cast my chakra senses about, waiting for the woman’s reaction. It was almost like I thought it would be. The woman ran out of the house, barking orders to the big armored thugs. About half of the armored guys left, I was guessing, to investigate the explosion.

I waited until they moved out of range before taking action.

With one last look at Karin, I flickered up to the roof of a house nearby.

The Enemy woman was wearing metal armor, but her head was still unprotected. And even so, there was a reason why most shinobi didn’t wear metal armor. They were bulky and heavy, and even a well-prepared genin was strong enough to dent metal.

I disabled all my seals and pumped my body full of chakra. Before anyone could react, I flickered behind the woman and punched.

My fist hit her head, and something gave in. The momentum threw the woman away and into the wall. Blood splashed from where her head hit. The shape of her head looked wrong. The woman didn’t move.

Shit, I didn’t want to kill her. I thought she’d be stronger.

Then the armored thugs were on me, swinging the spiked maces. They were lumbering brutes, fast for their size. I dodged and weaved. Got peppered by shrapnel when one of the attacks hit the ground by my side.

Big and strong. Do not get hit.

In the distance, I heard more sounds of fighting, then explosions. Karin didn’t join the fight.

I punted one of the big thugs away, the kick strong enough to dent the metal. Another, I kicked his head so hard that the helmet dented and distorted. They fell, and for a moment, I thought the battle was over, then the thugs got up again, like nothing had happened.

Throughout it all, they made no grunts, growls, or cries. Creepy as hell.

As the battle progressed, I had to hit them harder and harder. But no matter what I did, they didn’t stay down. I kept an eye on things near my beacons, ready to intervene if needed. I wasn’t proud of the spy function the beacons had, but it helped in this situation.

Tenten and Ino were also having problems on the other side of town. They were agile, well-trained, more than a match for the armored thugs, but no matter what they did, the enemies wouldn’t stay down. Our MO for this mission was to disable and capture. I failed horribly when I one-shot the woman, but the more the battle lasted, the more I thought escalation would be needed.

That, or we would have to be the ones to retreat.

Still, I had options. I grabbed a set of kunai from my pouch, dodged another swing, and threw them in a perimeter around the enemies. They didn’t even seem to realize I was setting a trap. Both rushed me, and when they were inside the perimeter, I flickered out and activated the weight seal trap. I had cranked the weight for this one.

The effect was immediate. Both fell, unable to move. I couldn’t keep the effect for long, unless I wanted them dead.

But we could decide that later, now I had to—

The world blurred, the sky turned dark, the colors inverted, and that same annoying voice growled in the darkness.

“What the hell, didn’t we kill you early?”

The woman was still alive. Crud!