3.6

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[Alexander's POV]

I used to think Ninjas in Naruto were cool.

Fuck them.

I ran through the forest, but they were massively faster than me. And they just so happened to be a bitch to deal with using unlocked mode.

One moment, there was basically no danger, and in the next, a life-threatening danger appeared to my side. Punching the incoming sword with my left hand, I slashed at my opponent with my other hand.

My sword clashed against the shoulder of the Root operative, and cleaved quite deep in. Moreover, the lightning damage helped paralyze them for a moment, which I used to headbutt them in the nose.

I followed with a strong kick, shattering their left knee and dislodging my sword out of their shoulder.

I wasn't sure whether they were dead or not, but I did not waste time to finish them off as I continued running. If they earned me Points, I would make the additional effort, but since they didn't, neutralizing them was good enough.

Shunshin, or the Body Flicker, was a piece of shit to deal with. It allowed them to suddenly sharply increase their speed, and they got so fast I couldn't even follow them with my 410 Reaction Speed. Moreover, as Shinobis, they were very good at masking their killing intent, so my sharpened instincts in unlocked mode only allowed me to sense the danger at the last possible moment.

Had I not trained my unlocked mode to be able to use it for longer, they would have probably killed me already.

I also got to understand why the Guide said this mission was carefully selected. I was currently facing Konoha's Root and Hanzo's men.

Of the two, Hanzo's men would be the most bothersome to a normal player, because of their poison techniques. However, I had 400 Immunization, and a piece of armor that was enchanted to resist poison.

That's why I was able to pretty much shrug off their poison. Well, in reality I wasn't really shrugging it off, it made me feel like my lungs were burning, but it merely inflicted pain, and not that much damage.

Right shoulder. Big impact.

My instincts warning me, I glanced to the side, and saw nothing. But trusting my instincts, I ducked, slashing upwards with my sword. And despite there seemingly being nothing, I felt my sword clash against something.

A wind blade, I realized, as a large trench was cut open on my left. Damn, that better not be Danzo. He surely isn't the only one in Konoha with good Wind Release, but that surely was his specialty before his creepy Sharingan business.

For now, I did have somewhat of an advantage over them. I've been running for around a minute now, and they have been mainly using Jutsus, which worked well with me.

As external attacks, Jutsus were large sources of danger, which I could feel ahead of time and thus easily dodge. Sure, they were more destructive, but if they couldn't hit me, they couldn't harm me.

On the other hand, if they attacked me with a Shunshin, it was harder to block. But they didn't know that.

Underground, two meters ahead.

Jumping over the hands that suddenly burst out of the ground, I noticed a large cloud of poison in front of me. They wanted to cut off my path. But that worked just fine with me, as I jumped right through it.

Holding my breath and closing my eyes, the poison still pricked my skin, but I was fast enough to get out of it fast enough, reaching the other side of the cloud.

However, I was greeted with two Shinobis, who appeared right as I left the poison cloud. Moreover, as I was heading in their direction, I had even less time to react.

But since I was in the unlocked mode, I did not have to waste any time on thinking how to react, and simply followed my instincts.

Using Force Push with my left hand, I pushed both of their swords back. However, I was surprised to see them perform a maneuver I was familiar with, as they used the energy of the Force Push to rotate.

Instead of both swords coming for my chest, all my Force Push had done was change their trajectory, as the swords now went for both of my sides, and came even faster.

I hurriedly smashed both of my arms to the sides, parrying the swords, but also losing balance as I rolled on the ground. That made me unable to dodge the next attack, as the mud around me suddenly rose, forming a coffin around me, which was quickly getting filled with more mud.

If I didn't do anything, I would get buried alive.

Crossing my arms, I closed my eyes, and left the unlocked mode as I channeled my negative emotions. Meanwhile, the mud continued rising, and very soon, I was completely covered, and I felt it start to harden.

But as it started becoming as hard as rocks, I followed every insight I had gained into the meaning behind the word 'Push', and activated a new version of Force Push.

Instead of going for a target I pointed at, the Force was released through every pores of my body, with an intensity I had never experienced.

The coffin around me, which was now as hard as stone, suddenly exploded into bits, shards of rocks sent flying all around me.

My body now free, and my vision no longer blocked, I realized several Shinobis from Konoha's Anbu had surrounded me, probably intending on finishing me off.

This, however, worked against them as they were suddenly faced with the shrapnel created from my attack. Some that were further away managed to dodge in time with the Body Flicker, but five of them failed to do so, and their bodies were turned into sieves.

Grabbing my sword, which I had been forced to let go of with the fall and the coffin, I did not immediately start running, and instead raised my weapon, looking around vigilantly.

Although I couldn't see them clearly, I could now feel faint killing intents. Moreover, even though I had left the unlocked mode, thanks to my training my instincts were still quite sharp under normal conditions, and right now, they were telling me that I was breathing poison.

I couldn't see it, nor could I feel my body get hurt, but I knew I was breathing poison. Paralyzing poison, maybe?

Whatever it was, it told me that I was surely no longer facing Danzo's men, but Hanzo's instead.

And if I trusted my instincts, there were more than a dozen of his men around me. I… am not sure I can take them by myself.

I was very resistant to their poison, but I'm not immune. If I breathe it for too long, or they manage to slip enough poison into my blood, I will fall. And even ignoring their poison, they were strong, and presumably knew how to work with one another.

Left.

My instincts were a little duller in my normal form, so I only got the general area of the attack, but it was enough for me to parry the incoming kunai with my sword. I always parried, instead of blocking, for a reason.

The Fists of Randagulf boosted not only my Stats, but also my attack. And I had discovered in my training with Thomas that it was much better to smash the incoming attacks than passively block them.

However, as my sword hit the kunai, it suddenly burst into a cloud of white smoke, transforming into a fireball.

*Boooom*

Next thing I knew both my insides and my outsides were on fire. I felt excruciating pain as I crouched into a fetus position, to shield as much of my body as possible, but I felt the fire was inside me as well.

I had already returned into the unlocked mode the moment I was covered in fire, and following my instincts, I contracted all the muscles in my body, forcing all gases out of my body through either orifices.

I didn't realize why I would do this, until a moment later.

What I had been breathing wasn't poison, it was inflammable gas. That's why I had been feeling flames even inside my body.

My insides were relatively fine, because the gas inside my body had already been somewhat filtered by my immune system, and I had quickly released whatever was left. The outside of my body, on the other end, was completely charred.

Was I going to die?

But as the thought came to me, I felt something slam into me. How had it not triggered my instincts?

However, as I felt myself be covered in water, I realized support had arrived.