Chapter 21

Shinku released the stunned and confused young woman from his grasp and approached Yukihara, as she gave a small, relieved smile.

Oboro had already released his last breath, a mix of anger and fear imprinted on his cold face. Blood dripped from his orphises and the deformed hole in his stomach.

"I'll take that now."

Reaching past Yukihara, Shinku ripped his blade out from Oboro's abdomen and wiped the blood off.

"Huh. Oh, Shin..."

Finally noticing Shinku, Yukihara stared past his figure at her daughter's tattered clothes and trembling hands.

"Mom..."

"Yukie! Oh, thank Kami, you are safe! Momma's sorry for g

etting you dragged into these matters." Yukihara rushed over and embraced Yukie, who she hadn't seen in a week. Her worries finally disappeared, seeing Yukie safe and sound.

Shinku didn't care to stay and watch as he Shunshined to the entrance of their castle, taking a seat on one of the many rocks as he stared off into the distance.

Even with how far the castle was from the Village, Shinku could still vaguely sense the chakra signatures of both Gin and Ye Xiao searching Yukigakure for himself.

"I apologize about the wait, but here is the reward you requested."

After some time, Yukihara exited the castle and approached Shinku, handing him a blue rimmed scroll.

Taking it, Shinku nodded and sealed the scroll into the storage seal on his wrist.

"Then, as of now, my contract with you is done." Shinku didn't care about the course of the mission changing because Oboro was captured. As long as he received what he had wanted in the first place, he was content.

'Should I grab those two before heading out?'

"Wait."

Shinku gave a small glance back at the figure of Yukihara after she called out to him.

"If you ever need the Daimyo's or our families service, please do not hesitate to ask. The life of my daughter is worth more than several more of those scrolls."

Shinku turned away and walked off as the prestigious wife of a Daimyo humbly bowed her head to him, as far as she knew, a man of no origin, with no backing outside of Sora

"We'll see."

Sneaking back into Yukigakure, under the guise of an old man once again. Shinku quickly located the two familiar chakra signatures of Gin and Ye, quickly leaving the village.

Moving from the land of frost to the land of waterfalls for Shinku's next contract.

Target: Takigakure Jonin, Techi

Contractor: ???

Possible Jinchuriki. As the current village chiefs son, Techi has many Jonin around him, making assassination impossible.

Dead or alive

Rating: A

Simple. There are no time constraints and no restrictions on how to handle the target, so Shinku planned to end this contract as swiftly as he could.

. . .

. .

.

"Shame. He wasn't a Jinchuriki." Shinku sighed as he kicked the dead Techi off the massive tree he had just finished his task on, uncaring if anyone found his body.

'Cold'

"Jinchuriki aren't candy's you can just pick up off the ground, you know. And it's best if we don't face one just yet. Even the first Hokage struggled."

Shinku shrugged at Gin's words and leaped off, already heading to his next contract.

"Hashirama Senju... The man was considered a god, but in the end, he still died. I don't know how well I match up against him, but I don't think I would lose."

One after another, Shinku assassinated many figures that held political power in the northern parts of the Shinobi nations. Even on smaller, isolated islands.

Three weeks. In onky three weeks, Shinku had murdered 19 high profile targets and was in the process of returning to Yugakure with Gin and Ye.

As usual, Gin and Shinku would exchange small bits of information about themselves, and at the same time, Gin would often help Ye Xiao to keep up with them.

"This way."

Suddenly shifting directions away from Yugakure, Shinku had sensed a handful of Shinobi heading thir way, and one in particular caught Shinku's eye with the monstrous chakra they held.

At Shinku's command, the two followed up and kept close to one another as they scouted their surroundings.

"I don't sense anything..."

"Just wait."

...

"Take cover."

Not waiting for either to ofnthe two to obey his orders, Shinku leaped down from the tree branches, clasping both his hands together.

"Lariat!"

The moment his feet touched the ground, a figure covered in Raiton chakra exploded out from beyond the trees and charged at him.

'Doton: Mud wall!'

Slamming both hands into the soil, several thick walls of mud erupted out, blocking the man's path.

Unsheathing his Katana, Shinku leaped back, evading several Kunai and Shuriken that were soon lodged into the ground where he once stood.

Rumble...

The mud walls Shinku erected crumbled under the brute strength of the large, muscular, dark skinned man with a Kumo headband.

"Get him!"

At his words, several figures arrived, with Katana's of their own and charged at Shinku, ready to kill at the man's orders.

"Kumo-nin..."

Shinku parried their blades with his own as they came at him one after another. Each one received a slash across their chests.

"This is a warning. Leave now, or I'll have to get serious."

Shinku said as he kicked the last Kumo swords man toward the burly man. While his attention seemed poised on them, he couldn't help but feel a slight sense of concern from the powerful chakra hiding behind them.

"Leave? You don't seem to understand the gravity of the situation, boy." The burly man spoke as he covered himself with a chakra cloak. His muscles visibly bulged. Charging at Shinku, his speed was incomparable to before.

"Lariat!"

The man appeared in front of Shinku in a flash, catching him in his right arm around the neck and slamming him through dozens of thick trees.

"I'll admit you're fast... But I can do that too..."

Shinku smirked as a small line of blood dripped from his lip. For the first time since he woke up, he was made to bleed.

A thick, liquid aura, red in color, erupted from Shinku as he pried himself out of a tree. Sparks of blue and black electricity sparked around him. The earth cracked beneath his feet.

The burly man frowned at the display of power and gave a glance to the Shinobi waiting in the back.

"A mere copy."

At his words, his own chakra erupted, and his blond hair began to stand.

Picking up his Katana, Shinku sheethed it and stripped his Sora cloak off, and sealed it along with his vest and shirt, revealing his own muscular and tatted body.

"Then come, and I'll show you if it's just a mere imitation."

"Tch."

The Kumo nin began surrounding the two men in a circle as their leader soon charged at Shinku.

Side stepping an incoming fist to his face, Shinku thusted out with an upper cut to the man's left ribs. Thunder boomed, and Shinku frowned at the knee, blocking his fist.

"Like I said, a mere copy."

The man smirked, stopping Shinku's fist with his knee.

"But now, you're right here..." Shinku slammed his head into the man's jaw, staggering him. A left hook to the side launched him off his feet.

"Gah!"

"Railage/A-sama!"

The Kumo nin shouted but couldn't move to help as an inky black substance flowed out from their Katana's that pierced the ground in a circle.

"A seal..."

"Hyah!"

A once again rushed at Shinku and forced his attention away from his men.

"My only question is, why in the world are Kumo-nin coming after me? We are still in the land of frost. They're not under Kumo's control." Shinku and A clashed fists one after another. Shinku constantly forced A back, time, and time again.

"What does it matter when you are dead?" A spat a clump of blood and stood up once again.

"Is that so..."

Shinku sighed and disappeared.

During the fight, Shinku had more than enough opportunities to place a seal on the burly man.

Appearing instantly behind the man, Shinku grasped the man by the neck and pressed a kunai against the side of it.

"The fastest man alive, Raikage, A. I've heard a lot about you."

"Have you? If you did, you would have known not to get so close." A said as he stabbed around himself with his hand.

His speed never changed, but Shinku's instincts screamed to step back. The Kunai in his hand was shattered before the man even touched it, and the blade of chakra was drawing closer to Shinku's throat.

Swoosh...

Shinku teleported in front of A, with a crazed smile and a crack on his mask. While hidden, both his eyes began shifting colors.

"You may have dodged death. But I won't miss it again." A said as he retracted one finger from both hands.

"Die!"

A charged at Shinku once again, only this time Shinku was forced to guard against the hell stab of the third Raikage.

"Dubble Lariat!"

Shinku frowned as A charged at him once again, only this time, another figure charged at him from behind at an equal speed to A.

'Shinku...'

For a moment, Shinku locked eyes with Gin before focusing back on the battle.

'Fūton: Violent Whirlwind!'

With a deep inhale, Shinku waited till just before the two reached him and, in an instant, released a powerful stream of wind from his mouth at the ground beneath them.

A thick cloud of dirt and rubble erupted, and Shinku glared down at the two figures whose strength blew the rubble away.

"Monsters indeed. If I wasnfaster than you both, I would have been dead." Shinku chuckled while unsheathing his Katana. His gaze locked on the new figure that looked like a bloody beast with four tails and a large animal skull on his left arm.

'Bijuu.'

"Give it up, hunter, you already lost."

A shouted and appeared beside shinku, stabbing down at the back of his neck.

"Lost? I'm only now getting started."

Shinku shifted his gaze to A and grabbed him by the wrist, uncaring of the scars that formed. A thrusted down with his other hand, which was caught before reaching Shinku's face.

"No. You lost."

At his words, Shinku's mask cracked in half and fell, revealing half of his face.

As their eyes met, A couldn't believe what he was seeing, and immediately he fell from the tree they were on.

The beast looking man was creeping around for a chance to attack Shinku when A suddenly fell motionless. Seeing this, he rushed over and caught his partner before he reached the ground.

Shinku appeared in front of the multiple Kumo Jonin. Three Tomoes formed in his eyes, his sclera turned black, and his pupils turned white.

With just a passing glance, all the Jonin were placed under a Genjutsu and forced to live through their most traumatic experience over and over and over again.

Steam began to emit from Shinku's body, and the black chain tattoos glowed a dark red.

"What the hell are you?" The beast looking man asked as he held A in his arms.

"Me? Heh, I'm the boogeyman." Shinku teleported beside A and kneed the man in his side, forcing him to drop A. His voice overlapped with two other similar but drastically different voices.

"Now, die." Shinku moved to stomp and crushed A's head but was stopped by a ball of Chakra that crashed into him, launching him back several meters.

Shinku dusted himself and glared at the five tails protruding from the man and the sixth that was in the process of forming.

"I see. You weren't giving it your all." Shinku readied his Katana with a chakra coating around it. His eyes trained on The bijuu.

Woosh...

Woosh...

Together, the two charged at one another. Shinku's Katana was blocked by the tails at their first collision.

Step back. Horizontal slash to the head.

Blacked by another tail and countered with a slaw slash across the chest.

Allowing the slash, Shinku stabbed his blade into the hand that just slashed him.

"Gyah!"

Weave left, right, duck.

Shinku evaded three consecutive slashes before stabbing his blade into the Jinchuriki's right eye. Leaving his blade there, Shinku grabbed a hold of the exo-skeleton head and began tearing it away.

"Hyahk! Gyuak!"

Before Shinku could rip it off, seven tails wrapped around his figure. They all had started forming tissue and flesh, making it harder to break out as he was thrown into the air, above the trees.

"Tch."

Shinku clicked his tongue since he was separated from Gin, but she should have retreated a safe distance when things were getting this bad.

And by this bad...

The Jinchuriki he was fighting a moment ago released a roar, and eight octopus tentacles erupted into the air, followed by a large bull looking head and torso.

The eight tails had fully awakened, taking his colleagues in hand to protect them.

"So what if you're bigger, you just became easier to deal with." Shinku chuckled as he began his descent.

"Ragh!"

The Hachibi roared as it swung his tails around, causing destruction to the surrounding forest.

"..."

"He's lost it. Whatever little intellectual he had was used to save the Kumo nin, now he's just a rampaging beast."

Shinku muttered, seeing the indiscriminate thrashing.

With a quick scan of his surroundings, Shinku noticed Gin and Ye Xiao rushing away from the massive beast.

"Heh. At least she knows when it's just absolutely foolish to continue following after me."

Shinku soon landed on too of a tree far enough to avoid the Hachibi's tails.

Reaching for his Katana, Shinku stopped when he couldn't feel the hilt.

'Shinku evaded three consecutive slashes before stabbing his blade into the Jinchuriki's right eye. Leaving his blade there, Shinku grabbed a hold of the exo-skeleton head and began tearing it away.'

"That's right..." Shinku's gaze drifted to the Hachibi's eye that was still bleeding with his Katana embedded into it. But what caught his eye intrigued him. The Katana was coated in a dark black aura that only continued to grow stronger.

"Whatever it is, I'll need it if I'm going to kill this damn thing."

Shinku leaped out and rushed up the Hachibi. Each step up its body was filled with enough strength to level a forest.

Finally reaching the Hachibi's eye level, Shinku gripped the hilt of his blade and struggled to pull it out.

"Gryahh!"

"Shinku..."

A woman's voice whispered into Shinku's ear as he pulled on his Katana before everything around him went black.

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Chapter End