7. Ambush

After three hours of sprinting at my top speed, and using projection whenever possible, I was reaching the border between the Land of Rain and the Land of Grass. I overestimated my own speed. I won't make it in time. The moon was already near its peak, its shining form providing me with much needed light. My throat was dry, my feet burned, my muscles were ripping themselves apart.

As I continued running, stuck in between my own thoughts and the pain I was feeling from my whole body, I heard something cut through the air to my left. I wouldn't be able to dodge, due to my delayed reaction. By pure instinct, my left arm shot up, putting what I was holding between me and the projectile. The scroll stopped a kunai from hitting the side of my head, getting destroyed in the process.

I stopped dead in my tracks. An unprecedented feeling of rage welled up inside me, a feeling so much stronger than anything I have felt since coming to this world, even with the slow mending of my two egos. I had spent three hours straight running, exhausted from sparring, on an empty stomach. Now some random schmuck destroyed not only my hard work, but also took my influence in the village down by a lot, if I couldn't find at least who disrupted this mission, I would be in a very bad position.

With that being said, I shot off towards the direction of the kunai. A mixture of rage and pride making my body move with a speed I would normally be unable to reach. I quickly caught up to a shinobi. Without delay, I projected on his back, and hit him with an axe kick to the back of the head. To my annoyance, his head didn't get crushed as I hoped, but his neck did crack with a sickening crunch, as his head entered his torso.

He promptly fell on his face. I turned the corpse around, only to be met with an Iwa forehead protector. This wasn't exactly good, to say the least. Especially since he might have teammates around. Well... Its not my problem. I killed the guy who fucked over my mission, all is well that ends well. I am gonna take this guy to the village and use him as an excuse as for why I failed.

As I was thinking this, two more projectiles shot at me through the forest. I dashed towards the source of the sound, while masking myself in a Transformation jutsu. Its purpose to mask my identity. For the same reason, I restrained myself from using Projection. I blitzed towards my first opponent, ignoring his guard, and using my Reinforcement, I hit him. His hands collapsed in, giving way to his torso, where my hand stopped, after breaking his sternum. He flew through the forest, impacting a tree, which promptly collapsed with him.

I smiled, before setting off towards the last one in the team. It was a girl. She tried to cast some jutsu, but I delayed her by throwing a kunai I found on one of her teammates towards her. I reached her, only to be met with a water bullet to the face. It took me off my feet, and gave the girl time to put more distance between the two of us. These must be either a minor village trying to impersonate Iwa genin, or part of the fodder army a.k.a. the genin corps of Iwa. Keeping the minor villages separated made sense in a strategic sense, although I do not really get why they sent such disappointments for this.

They did succeed in their mission... Tsk. I focused back on the girl, only to realise she had fled instead of engaging me once more. Now I was lost. Should I look after her? Or should I return to the village?

I was taken out of my thoughts by a loud noise.

Had she had gone to her teammate to save him? It seemed to be so. She would have done better to just run away, instead of taking the chance to help her teammate. I took off towards them, only to feel my legs give up halfway through. My adrenaline was running out, and after being under so much pressure for almost a day, made my limbs feel much heavier.

Since I was starting to run out of gas, I decided to forsake my initial decision of keeping a disguise on, and projected near them. The guy whose arms I broke rushed towards me, throwing a kick to my side, while the girl prepared another ninjutsu. I raised my arms to block, only to be met with another water bullet to the face. After which, a foot met my face. I ignored it, and jumped at the girl taking a swipe at her face.

Once again, I was met with a kick to the face, only this time, it was the girl's. This was starting to get annoying, my exhausted body couldn't react fast enough to their strikes. I projected behind the wench and hit her in the back of the head, only to kiss her teammates foot once more.

I got up again, and Projected once more. This time, above the last remaining Iwa genin, and hit him with an axe hit to the head. His neck makes a nice noise, before his body falls lifelessly to the ground. I go over to the bitch, and after checking if she is alive, I tie her up, before setting up camp.

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After an uneventful night of sleep, I set off towards Kusagakure, with an unwilling partner strapped to my back. Unfortunately for me, I had no more rope to tie up her mouth, and I wasn't going to ruin my robes for it. She kept droning on about how I should let her free and shit, as if! After a few hours of me ignoring her, she seemed to calm down. Until she started to cry. Then wail.

"SHUT THE FUCK UP YOU WOMAN!" I said calmly, as I threw her onto the ground as hard as I could "YOU ARE NOTHING BUT A GLORIFIED HUMAN DISHWASHER!"

Her body bounced off the ground a few times, before it stopped. It seemed to calm her down, though now she was shivering as I picked her up, while she silently cried.

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As we reached the village gates she started shouting, yelling for help, but I just knocked her out, before taking her to my house. At the entrance, waiting for me, was Hōtai. I threw him the girl. She hit him and took him down.

I watched as he struggled underneath the knocked out girl. How did this guy get through a war, after watching him for a minute or two, I took the girl off of him. Hōtai continued to lay on the ground, before motioning me to tell him what happened.

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