Getting an Audience with Shibuki

Inside Takigakure, Shibuki, the village leader, was walking up and down in his office agitatedly. Although he allowed Fuu to participate in the chunin exams, he regretted that decision every day.

'Damnit, I shouldn't have allowed her to go. What if something happened to her? Or maybe even more dangerous, what if she does something stupid? Our village is already significantly weaker than the five great villages; if we were to lose Fuu on top of that, Taki might cease existing. Although I felt some pity for Fuu, I should have just swallowed the bad feeling it gave me and forbid Fuu from leaving the village.'

While he was contemplating his decision, an incredibly potent wave of chakra washed over the village, waking up Shibuki from his thoughts as his face paled.

'What incredibly powerful chakra. What in the world is going on?'

Shibuki was just about to leave his office to check out the situation when one of his jonin burst into the room with a pale face.

"S-Shibuki-sama, this is bad. We are under attack."

Considering how intense the chakra pressure was, Shibuki already expected that to be the case, but previously there was still some hope in him that, that was not the case. Now, that hope got crushed.

"Damnit, tell me what is going on. Considering how strong the enemy's chakra feels, it must be quite the army."

The jonin in front of Shibuki paled even further when he heard the comment about the big army. If it were a big army, he wouldn't have been that shocked by the sudden attack. The problem was...

"S-Shibuki-sama, it's not an army. It's a single person."

Shibuki's eyes bulged when he heard that.

"Are you joking? This is the chakra of a single person? Are you certain?"

"Yes, Shibuki-sama. There is no doubt about it."

"DAMNIT!"

Without waiting any longer, he left his office to see the situation for himself. If the enemy truly was just a single person, it was the worst-case scenario for Taki.

The village's trump card, the Hero Water, could increase the chakra of a single person by tenfold for a limited amount of time. If it was against an army, one could drink it and rampage through the troops as they desire, but if it was used against an individual, the enemy could just retreat until the effect wore off, making it pretty much useless.

Moments later, Shibuki reached the walls of Takigakure and looked at the invader. The person wore a black cloak with red clouds on it and a straw hat on their head. Although the straw hat hid away the invader's face, her silhouette was undoubtedly female. Just looking at the invader caused Shibuki's breath to hasten.

'What a presence. Is that really a human being?'

When Shibuki reached the wall, the invader started moving towards the walls of Takigakure with calm, measured steps.

Every step she took seemed to crush the defenders' confidence a little further, and Shibuki noticed that more and more of his shinobi were subconsciously backing away from the attacker.

He had the same desire, but moments later, he gritted his teeth and raised his voice.

"PEOPLE OF TAKIGAKURE, DO NOT FALTER!!! IT'S JUST ONE ENEMY!!! NO MATTER HOW POWERFUL, WE CAN EASILY OVERWHELM HER WITH NUMBERS!!!"

This short speech managed to raise the morale to some degree at least, and moments later, the defenders made their first move. Those with affinities for wind and fire combined their jutsus to form a massive torrent of fire, while those of different affinities threw their kunai and shuriken to enhance the attack even further.

The attack shot into the invader, resulting in a massive explosion and dumbfounding the Taki shinobi. They expected the other person to dodge or shoot a jutsu of their own, but the person took the attack head-on.

Although most people were confused, some thought that the fight was already over and couldn't help but yell in excitement. That excitement died down relatively fast, however. A Few seconds later, their enemy walked out of the dust cloud without a single scratch on her body.

Shibuki gritted his teeth even harder when he saw that, but despite that, he couldn't allow the morale of his people to fall again, so he had to come up with and explanations for the current situation.

"She probably has some kind of technique that can absorb ninjutsu; switch to taijutsu!"

""""""YES!!!"""""

Without questioning his words, the shinobi around him pulled out their preferred weapon and charged at the enemy in front of them, while Shibuki prepared himself to drink Hero Water.

'Even if that person could absorb ninjutsu, there were plenty of weapons mixed in the attack as well, so the truth is undoubtedly something else. I'm pretty sure that most of my people must have noticed that as well but chose to ignore it.'

A few seconds later, the charging Taki shinobi reached the mysterious invader resulting in a scene similar to a wave crashing against a mountain.

The invader continued walking towards Takigakure with steady steps, but now, her hands were constantly moving at a speed that Shibuki could barely see. Every little hand movement resulted in one of his shinobi being flung away and knocked out.

'Seems like that insane amount of chakra isn't the only dangerous thing about her, huh? What incredible close-combat prowess.'

Shibuki was just about to drink the Hero Water when he noticed something baffling.

'She hasn't killed a single person so far? What is going on?'

While Shibuki was contemplating on whether he should drink the water or not, he met the eyes of the attacker, and the moment he saw her piercing purple eyes, his whole body froze in place. Although he was confident that he was somehow trapped in a genjutsu, he couldn't move no matter what he did.

Despite being incapable of moving his body, he still could see the whole battlefield in front of him, allowing him to witness the outcome of the battle.

Five minutes. That was all it took for the invader to defeat every single one of Taki's jonin and chunin without killing a single one of them, while the genin weren't here in the first place. Against an opponent this powerful, they couldn't even be considered cannon fodder since they would faint from the pressure alone.

A moment later, the invading woman landed in front of Shibuki and removed her straw hat, revealing long red hair with blue strands, a beautiful face, and an amused smirk.

"Yo, you must be Shibuki, right?"

Since he could neither move nor talk, Shibuki couldn't answer that question, but the person in front of him didn't seem to care either way.

"The silent type, huh? Oh well, it's not like I don't know who you are already. Anyway, my name is Yuna, and I wanted to talk to you about something, so I decided to visit you."

Although Shibuki still couldn't move, his whole face started twitching in irritation when he realized that his shinobi were wiped out simply because the person in front of him wanted to chat.

"Hahaha, no need to be shy. I know that I'm a great beauty, but there is no need to get so flustered that you are incapable of speaking because of that. Oh, well, let's change locations for now."

While the twitching of Shibuki's face became even more potent, Yuna grabbed his shoulder and teleported away.