Chapter 22 : Effective bodyguards

"Ojo-sama, the girl is sleeping and we're halfway to our destination. Everything is ready…" One of the guards came to tell Ojo in his cabin.

 "Where's the Jonin kid ?" Ojo asked as he took a sip of tea and was told that Obito was keeping watch outside Mayuri's cabin for his bodyguard so he sent them to neutralize him. He asked them not to kill him because they were going to extract information about Konoha from him later and sell it to the highest bidders in the other major villages.

 Obito stood in front of Mayuri's door with his arms crossed as the girl rested inside, He was thinking about how to improve some techniques he knew when he smelled a faint scent in the air, it was 'a hallucinogenic and soporific gas used by Ojo's men.

The effect was quite fast as Obito started to lose his balance as his vision twisted he tried to struggle but the leader of the guards appeared behind him and punched him knocking him out.

 "Jonin ? What a joke ! In the end, he's just a kid like the others." The guard who knocked him out said condescendingly as he tied him up.

 "Wasn't that a little too easy ? If his hokage sent him on such an important mission it is because he is capable enough." Another said and the first guard looked at Obito carefully before examining him, he opened Obito's eyelids and their reaction before confirming that he was truly unconscious.

Ojo stepped forward as his men stood aside and looked at Obito on the ground mockingly before kicking him in the head in contempt.

 Inside the room, Mayuri was awakened by the noises outside and Ojo entered the room with three of his accomplices, surprising her with a sick smile on his lips.

Mayuri asked him what was going on and why he was there so he told her everything nonchalantly, he wasn't loyal to the Daimyo and he was the leader of a bandit group in secret.

 Now they were going to take Mayuri hostage and demand a lot of money from the Daimyo as ransom for her release.

Mayuri looked for Obito and knowing this, Ojo mocked her and told her that her beloved bodyguard was already in their hands and that he was also going to use him for other benefits.

It was with moist eyes that the girl began to threaten them while Ojo and the others made fun of her, the money they were going to ask from the Daimyô will be enough to allow them to live without worries for the rest of their lives.

 Outside the others were waiting for Ojo to return, Obito who was being taken away by one of the bandits on his shoulder suddenly opened his eyes while the ropes that tied him were suddenly cut and the bandit having noticed this reacted much too late because Obito immediately broke his neck by violently turning his head 360°.

Without even wasting a second and with a smile, he pulled out a simple kunai and teleported to appear behind the back of one of the men outside the room to fatally strike him in the back of the neck with his kunai.

 The others noticed this but long before they got agitated, it was already over. Obito had placed wards on each of them for a while without their knowledge and had hit them all almost instantly by teleportation, it was fast and horribly scary because his appearance each time only lasted a fraction of a second to strike and in just two seconds, he had killed the nine accomplices.

 Ojo was in turn threatening Mayuri by asking her to be cooperative or they'll really hurt her when Obito calmly entered the room. Ojo thought it was another of his men about to get angry at his interruption but as he and the other three turned around, two extremely fast senbons launched by Obito landed in his eyes.

 "GYAAAAH ! MY EYES...MY EYES" Ojo cried as one of the men sensing the danger in Obito started to compose mudras but he was at his first hand seal when Obito appeared in front of him with his kunai imbued with wind chakra and with a lightning strike he cut off his hands.

(slowed time)

The bandit, without understanding what had just happened, saw his two hands floating at his eye level but with a second quick strike, Obito decapitated him. Both hands and his head were slowly falling back to the ground when Obito teleported to kill the other two as well at an excruciating speed.

 The speed of execution was such that these bandits did not even realize that they were dying or that they had been attacked one by one because even for Mayuri, terrified by the scene, they had been attacked almost at the same time.

 "Sorry for letting them in, I suspected the real intentions of your chaperone and if I had neutralized them without proof, it would've been bad for the mission on my part, so I let them reveal themselves to kill them with you as a witness . When the Daimyo your father calls me to account, you'll be my witness." Obito said calmly as he began to tie Ojo up as Mayuri looked on in shock.

 "What if…what if they had killed you instead of knocking you out ? What if they were stronger than you ?" She asked as the next second she screamed in fright when another Obito came out of her shadow as if emerging from water.

 "If my clone died then I would have acted myself to protect you..." The one who had just appeared said and it shocked Mayuri, the real Obito was hidden in his shadow to protect her closely and since all along.

It was his shadow clone who wiped out these bandits at this speed, it was too much for the girl who fainted.

Obito brought a member of the ship's crew to check and clean up, Mayuri herself later explained to them what had happened and they offered to turn back but blushing after looking at Obito, she said that they continued their journey.

 The boats were approaching the land of snow when they saw a very beautiful and large glacier on which the director had the idea of ​​shooting a few scenes to take advantage of the magnificent scenery offered by the environment.

Because of the cold, they had all dressed accordingly. The film crew arrived with Karin and Yamato dressed warmly, Obito also arrived with Mayuri and a few members of the crew, Mayuri was very excited and happy to attend the filming so Obito watched her get closer to the production team and Karin came to join him for a chat.

 The relationship between Obito and her was quite strange, they were in love with each other but if Karin let her feelings show more, it wasn't the case for Obito .

They gave each other updates on their progress in training and were about to get a little more comfortable in the discussion when a loud explosion was heard, putting everyone on alert.

 "Everyone take shelter in the boats, this explosion wasn't normal." Yamato alerted the others who began to stir and move around, all except the star actress who seemed paralyzed with fear.

Obito carried Mayuri and brought her back to the ship, his mission was to protect her, the rest was for Yamato and Karin to protect Yukie.

 "Welcome to the Land of Snow…" A male voice was heard and they looked near the explosion point where a man dressed in white armor appeared.

It was Nadare Rouga, the leader of the ninjas serving the tyrant of the land of snow.

 "Princess Koyuki, welcome home. We hope you brought the six-faced crystal." A woman appeared and it was Fubuki, one of Nadare's two lieutenants and a strong man came out of the ice, it was Mizore the second lieutenant. They all wore the same armor and with them were a few dozen ninjas from the land of snow.

 "Who are you and what do you want?" Yamato asked and Nadare immediately looked at him with amusement.

 "Look at this, two ninjas from Konoha ! The flower of the land of faire. This doesn't concern you, the one we care about is Princess Koyuki so go back where you came from…"

 "Princess Koyuki ?! " Everyone wondered in amazement looking at Yukie as Nadare ordered his men to go get her.

Their men immediately charged the film crew and Yamato looked at Karin before asking her to take Yukie to safety and Karin carried out the order without question and forcibly took the fear-paralyzed Yukie away but a wall of ice stood in their way.

 "Kid, give me the princess or die..." Fubuki said smiling at Karin after jumping onto her ice wall as enemy ninjas came up behind her. Meanwhile, Yamato faced Nadare and his right-hand man Mizore at the same time.

 "Your friends are in a tough situation, shouldn't you go help them?" Mayuri asked Obito who was next to her with his arms crossed and he calmly replied that Karin and Yamato were strong and that wasn't his mission so he would only intervene if Mayuri herself is in danger or if Karin's life is in danger.

Mayuri looked at him strangely but a few moments later, she understood why Obito looked so confident.

Karin had easily knocked out several enemy ninjas while avoiding Fubuki's Hyôton (ice release ) attacks and at one point, she stopped to perform some mudras.

 "Ninpo: Wind of discord." Karin performed a genjutsu which caused the enemy ninjas to fight among themselves and some even attacked Fubuki completely surprised and luckily for her, her armor had a chakra shield which repelled the projectiles.

Karin took the opportunity to take Yukie away. This genjutsu was a pale copy of his teammate Yakumo's genjutsu.

This only had effect for several minutes and could work on Chunins at the limit where Yakumo's Genjutsu could even affect some Jonin level ninjas and last as long as she wanted.

 Mayuri saw the enemies fighting among themselves and Obito told her that it was Karin's work, the girl was impressed and excited by the fights between shinobis.

Yamato was in a particularly delicate situation because the environment didn't allow him to use mokuton as usual unlike Nadare who was in an ideal environment for Ice Jutsu.

 "These armors...they aint normal." Yamato commented after noticing that several of his projectiles were being repelled by an invisible shield and arrogantly, Nadare told him about their chakra armors.

He told him how they multiplied the power of their techniques while releasing an inverted chakra field to repel ninjutsu and even genjutsu.

 Fubuki also laughingly gave the same explanations to Karin who was avoiding her ice spikes and prisons while carrying Yukie. Listening to this, Karin seriously wondered if Fubuki was seriously stupid to give out this kind of information.

If an inverted chakra field could repel chakra attacks from simple structures then it had to be attacked with a powerful, chaotic chakra Jutsu and the only element capable of doing that was raiton.

 While dodging at full speed, Karin quickly closed her eyes to observe Fubuki and saw the chakra structure on his armor thanks to her Kagura mental eye, she saw the conversion point located on the yin-yang symbol of the armor and knew where to strike.

Quickly, she summoned a shadow clone who left with Yukie and the real Karin took out a kunai before performing some mudras to cover the kunai with raiton chakra.

Obito had long ago shown her the basics of transforming into the lightning element, so even if she didn't have the level of Obito or Hiruzen, she was doing quite well.

 With her electric kunai, Karin disappeared from her location flashing by Shunshin from one place to another as Fubuki attacked her with Ice Jutsu and even she was bothered by Karin's dexterity.

 "This kid is able to use Shunshin in the middle of a fight? I don't know anyone who knows how to do this ! " Fubuki thought in frustration but was forced out of her thoughts as Karin appeared 30cm ahead and it was too late for Fubuki to react as Karin attacked the conversion point of her armor with the kunai equipped with a huge electrical charge.

The chakra shield stopped the kunai but it only lasted a few seconds before the conversion point on Fubuki's upper chest exploded violently but it didn't stop there as the electric kunai continued his path to pierce her under Fubuki's screams of excruciating pain.

 Karin's technique was even more devastating than a chidori as she poured the same amount of chakra into it that Sasuke would have spent into a chidori.

The difference in power simply came from the constitution of these techniques. The chidori was an already very effective piercing technique but Karin instead of using her hand had used a kunai, a piercing weapon that was already effective and superior to a simple hand. In addition, the metal of this weapon made it possible to concentrate more electricity in a single point, further increasing the damage.

 Rouga and Mizore listened to Fubuki's scream and looked in her direction to see a vision of horror.

The entire upper left part of Fubuki's chest as well as his shoulders were destroyed and all that remained was burnt flesh and the rest of Fubuki's left lung which was visible.

 "Rouga...Boss I...I-(interrupted)" Fubuki tried to speak but Karin jumped to deliver a powerful kick to his head with enough force to send Fubuki's head flying away from his body and kill her immediately.

This was Karin's Taijutsu technique, a perfect distribution and manipulation of chakra in the body to strengthen muscles and increase speed and strength to a phenomenal level.

 Gai had taught her this principle, he used it to compress the air thanks to his speed and his raw strength reinforced by chakra. This same principle was used to perform Shunshin except that the Uzumaki trio have continued to train in the manipulation of their colossal chakra for years every day at the slightest opportunity to master this type of process.

Tsunade also used this principle in her normal state to have the monstrous physical strength for which she was famous and like Karin Uzumaki, Tsunade as a Senju had a colossal chakra reserve.

 "Let's fall back, they are much stronger than we imagined and together we risk dying here." Rouga said to Mizore while watching Fubuki's death and the two walked away from Yamato.

 "Ninjas of Konoha, next time we meet, you'll be facing opponents of a whole new level. (to Karin) The girl you killed was an old friend of mine, I'll avenge her myself..." He said before disappearing with Mizore into a small blizzard.