CHAPTER 2: Jikūgan
[WARNING: IF YOU'RE FAMILIAR WITH THE FIRST TWO CHAPTERS ALREADY, JUST JUMP TO THE THIRD, OTHERWISE, WELCOME AND HAVE A NICE READING!]
"Okabe, I hope you paid attention to what I taught you because if we want to get out alive, we will have to do some real hard work," said Osaki. His grip on the hilt of his katana becoming tighter by the second.
Such words were the ones Okabe feared the most, as a complete newbie, he had no real experience in fights outside of the practice he did with his grandpa with wooden swords, but this was the real thing, a single mistake could result at the end of his life.
And thus was the destiny of the Jinshiro, for their power had always been a threat to those in power, the 'Batto Ryu' was just another branch of kenjutsu, it had nothing really special about it, so why was it so dangerous to the point of making loads of people wish their death?
As he thought of such things and finished putting on his mask and hood, Osaki suddenly pushed Okabe away when a flash of light cut through the tree.
It was a single moment, and while he was still in the air, a powerful gush of wind completely destroyed the few trees where Okabe previously was.
"What...!?" It was all he had time to say when the top of all the trees was lifted upwards and he saw the enemy, it was a group of three men wearing crimson plate armor all around their bodies, each one of them had spiked black hair that went down their waist, but the masks they wore all had familiar patterns he had seen before, Monkey, Lince, and Lion.
As he fell on the ground, rolling over the dirt he heard Osaki's voice, and what he said made all the hair on his body stand on end.
"Hoo... Shinigami... to think that your group was finally employed to hunt me down, what an honor, or should I say... what a disgrace?" Osaki's body was somehow floating above the trees that were cut, underneath his feet, it seemed like space itself was distorted to the point he could step on it.
"Tsk... This technique... there's no way this is simply something trained... the rumors about the 'Batto Ryu' were truly a lie then... you are indeed a cursed clan, the ghost of the Uchiha will be pleased by this discovery!" The one in the middle spoke. Lion held his black katana with both hands with the end pointing downwards while the hilt was lifted upwards.
"Hehehe! Don't worry, old man Osaki, that man will make sure that your body is put to good use, such powerful Kekkei Genkai might even become a powerful tool of war in the future! Huhuhu I'm so excited!" The crooked voice of Monkey lingered in the air almost like the sounds of a clarinet. Even without seeing his face, one could easily picture how this insane man looked like.
Lince however, who had the most beautiful and lustrous hair, remained quiet, his slim hand loosely holding the Katana out of the scabbard, but there was something about this person that made Osaki quite uneasy, it was like there was a shadow behind him, and inside this shadow, something seemed to be looking at him.
He looked towards Okabe and frowned, he wouldn't be able to fight freely with him here, those enemies... they were at the level of Mifune-san if not higher, and the shinigami were a famous group in all of the outer circle, there's even rumor that they alone destroyed an entire country, killing every single one of its inhabitants in the process, this clearly showed they were somehow capable of tracking people even under the most unusual of the circumstances.
Okabe was trembling, even if he was strong enough to cut through trees, he would have to do it by using every single drop of chakra he had and this would always result in him becoming tired and weak for hours due to the strain, but those guys... [Gulp] They were powerful, way too powerful!
At that moment, Lion stepped forward, the ground beneath his feet exploded and he became blurry as he sped forward, but contrary to Osaki's expectations, he went towards Okabe.
"Hi!?"
It was fast! He couldn't even see the blade but it already felt like something was cutting through his neck, but in a blink of an eye, he suddenly reappeared in his grandpa's arm.
"Hm!?" Lion turned to look at Osaki, it wasn't just him, everyone was surprised by this situation.
"Hehehe, it seems age has been catching up to me, back in my glory days you wouldn't even have the chance to touch a single strand of my grandson's hair, but now, you managed to leave a mark on his neck, I must admit, you're probably the second-fastest man I have faced my life, but you're still miles away from reaching Konoha's Yellow Flash level." Osaki smiled and turned to look at Okabe.
"G-grandpa, how did you..."
Before he could finish though, Osaki sighed and started crying. "I'm sorry Okabe, I wasn't a grandfather good enough for you. But I want you to have our family legacy."
As he said those words, Osaki touched Okabe's forehead, at that moment, the eyes of both Okabe and Osaki started shining with orange light and their pupils suddenly changed patterns, they became smaller and were surrounded by rings as well as an 'X' on the middle with a lighter orange color. Unlike Okabe's though, Osaki's eyes had three rings and instead of an 'X' it was an 'I'.
In the spam of millisecond, countless pieces of information were poured onto Okabe's head, they were the true legacy of the Jinshiro clan, as well as the complete version of 'Batto Ryu', Osaki was sure that he wouldn't live another day, not against enemies of that caliber at least, so he had to make sure that everything he knew was passed over to his grandson.
"I'm sorry for taking your childhood away from you, Okabe, I hope you can get a better life once this is over." With those last words, veins popped up around his eyes, and Okabe suddenly disappeared in a ball of light.
"WHAT!?" Monkey suddenly gasped as he saw that.
"What is it?"
Hearing Lion's question, he shook his head and panted as he said. "The kid... he... he was teleported at least a few cities away from here! Just what the hell is this Kekkei Genkai!"
"It's called Jikūgan, the power to bend space-time. But don't worry, what you should fear is what it can do when used together with 'Batto Ryu'!
"Humph, so what? Don't think you can defeat us, you're just an old man with a foot on the grave, once we recover your body, it'll be that kid's turn if he's unlucky and the ghost decides that he would be a useful asset."
"Only over my dead body!" With a shout, Osaki instantly appeared behind Lion and his hand was already pulling the sword from its scabbard.
"Naive! You think you can kill me with this slow sword, Mifune has a much better drawing technique!" Lion was about to parry his strike when he suddenly noticed that there was something weird about his blade.
"Behold! The power of the Jinshiro clan's real 'Batto Ryu'! Jikūkan: Battojutsu form 3!"
"What!?" Lion couldn't comprehend, just as his sword touched Osaki's, the force coming from the blade was suddenly doubled, then it was further multiplied dozen times, and it was all within milliseconds of each other.
When he noticed it was already too late, the stacked power of the blade created a powerful cutting shockwave that cut through him, launching him away while creating a giant cleavage on the ground which was about 30 meters long and an unknown number of meters deep.
"Humph! Battojutsu form 3 is a technique that allows me to stack an infinite amount of attacks into a single one by using my Jikūgan! No one can defend against this blade!"
"Shut up, you speak too much! Ice Release: Earthen Consecutive Chains of Ice!" From Monkey's hand, countless small spikes of ice surged towards Osaki.
Despite the absurd amount and how fast they came, for him, it was like watching a movie in slow-motion, so when he saw the number was too much for him to handle alone, he smiled and waved the sword. "Jikūkan: Battojutsu form 4!"
At that moment Monkey watched startled as Osaki's figure seemed to multiply in four as he cut through every single projectile he had thrown at him, however, he still smiled seeing that situation. So just as he finished, he jumped backward and dashed towards Osaki.
"Humph, do you want to die just like your friend? So be it then!" Osaki's voice resounded on the battlefield, however, things were about to get complicated.
"Hahaha! You fool! Do you think I didn't notice you never used the Chakra Blade Technique? I wanna see how you fight without a sword! Your inability to keep up two such extraneous techniques will be your downfall, old man!"
And just as he finished his words, Osaki's katana exploded in small dots of ice. Seeing his lifelong partner disappearing like that, he was shocked to the point of freezing in place, so he could only watch as Monkey hit him with his chakra infused katana, cutting him from left to right on the chest while throwing him away at extreme speed, the power of this attack was such that he only stopped after breaking through four trees!
This time, however, they weren't playing anymore, just as he landed, Lince appeared above him, the sword on his slim white hand changed to the shape of a claw as lightning bolts came out of it. "Lightning Kenjutsu Release: Thunder Claw!"
Out of desperation, Okabe thrust his hands forward as he channeled chakra through them, tears of blood streamed down his face as he shouted. "Jikūkan Release: Void Crescent Shield!"
But at this point it wasn't enough, his chakra was already chaotic and the amount he had to spend was barely enough to keep up the Jikūgan, but if it was only that, it might have been okay, but he never expected that this guy in front of him was so powerful.
When the Thunder Claw hit the shield, the shockwave spread in all directions, lifting trees from the ground, and launching Monkey and what remained of Lion's body away, the power of this strike was such that a heavy dust cloud was launched upwards, it was so dense and big that even from Sanro it was visible, especially so considering the tremor that the people on the city felt.
There, Mifune who was on his break, resting after a day of hard work, looked through the window of his Mansion and frowned seeing the situation unfolding so close to the Capital of the Land Of Iron.
As he stood UP and quickly put on his armor he made a single gesture and three samurai appeared out of nowhere.
"Call the fifth squad, we will investigate the matter to the north!"
"Yes sir!"