COLD MURA.

CHAPTER EIGHTY: COLD MURA🥶

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Venerable readers, this is a good read.

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"Haha. Nice move but I left an exploding tag on the kid as well," the mercenary shinobi said weakly as the clone beside him quickly crossed his palms over the other.

"FLASH FREEZE!" the clone said as it directed its jutsu to the boy, who saw a light from his backside, signalling the live explosion tag.

Mura quickly sped forward while sliding on ice to the boy while his clone dealt with the explosion tags on the mercenary shinobi.

"It's too late! Even if you can freeze it, it will still explode," the mercenary shinobi said as its exploding tags froze into little spiky balls.

Mura looked back at the ninja with anger in his cold eyes and went back to the frozen boy.

Mura closed his eyes and opened them as he focused.

'I shouldn't be angry. I thought I wouldn't face any challenge in this mission but here is one right before me. This has to be handled with surgical precision!' Mura thought as he made his right hand into the lightning hand sign and began to carve out the little explosion that had already started.

His breath got colder and his body turned pale as he had to use a demanding jutsu twice! Once with his clone that had already split his chakra in half and using FLASH FREEZE required a decent amount of chakra.

"Almost there," Mura said as his clone watched his back in case the mercenary was going to try anything even though the mercenary was already dying slowly from the cold. Although Mura's Ice wall was made on the body of the mercenary, it was non-lethal at the moment and meant to restrict the opponent this time, not slice through as his attack was made to.

"There!" Mura said as his hand passed through the ice-like liquid and pulled out a round ball that expanded ever so slowly.

With an exhale from Mura, the boy defrosted and turned to Mura while shaking.

Gilgamesh appeared at that sight and clapped slowly while hovering above ground.

Gilgamesh dove below and warmed the boy a little with his flames and took him back to the base.

Soon enough Mura arrived with a shivering shinobi who wore an ice necklace with spiky ice balls that expanded slowly; one wouldn't even notice.

"What you see on his necklace are frozen explosion tags that will explode soon enough once the temperature of the ice increases," Mura said, addressing the leader of the mercenaries who stayed back at the base while securing the mercenary at a reasonable distance from the base.

The leader gulped hard at that sentence.

"So why not kill him now? Why allow him to live in fear and despair for his life while being cold?" The leader begged for fairness in his comrade's treatment as Kakashi woke up, hearing all that had been said.

"That's cold, Mura," Kakashi said and closed his eyes again.

"It's not. They were given a chance and… you're sleeping, aren't you," Mura sighed and perched on a nearby tree.

Morning came and a loud explosion was heard.

Throughout the night, faint cries and pleas for help could be heard, but all that ended with the explosion in the morning.

'Just who are these people? That's it, I am not taking missions related to the Leaf again. In fact, I am leaving this life behind if I make it back,' the shinobi thought to himself as he woke up to the explosion.

He was instructed to clean up the mess and return to the base, which he did without trying anything that might arouse suspicion. The thought of escaping wasn't even on his mind as he had seen firsthand what it meant to annoy someone like Mura, one wouldn't be granted a quick death as that was mercy but rather time spent in despair till death was something that he wanted to avoid by all means.

And even if he somehow escaped Mura, how would he escape Gilgamesh. Just like Mura, he was sure the golden haired kid wasn't even trying earlier, maybe the rumours about him confronting Ōnoki were real and maybe understated since he was sure Gilgamesh already looked like a capable shinobi.

A messenger hawk soon arrived at the base and Gilgamesh read the message out loud for all to hear.

"The chief of the head guard has promised the safety of the boy in question, Akari Amai, as long as he is delivered safely to the village and, of course, free protection during the inauguration ceremony. His uncle has been investigated and found guilty with evidence of hiring assassins and mercenaries to kill the last heir of the Amai family. There will be no need for you to interfere this time, Gilgamesh. Thank you. From the head guard of the Hidden Grass Village."

"Ho? So you already know the head guard of the village?" Kakashi said, stretching his body out. He had slept through the morning explosion till noon, and his body felt as good as new.

"That makes things easier, let's go!" Kakashi said.

"Kakashi-sensei, you would agree that Team Zero had already successfully done a good job in providing necessary backup, right?" Gilgamesh asked, moving closer to Kakashi.

"Yes. You and Mura did well, even though it was a bit messy," Kakashi said.

"Good. You there. Can this messenger hawk fly to Konoha?" Gilgamesh asked the mercenary captain.

"Why yes, of course. We have received miss… calls for help from certain people in Konoha," the mercenary shinobi said, correcting himself mid-sentence.

"Good, now write," Gilgamesh instructed as the mercenary captain got a brush and ink.

"Shikaku-san, Team Zero successfully aided Kakashi in his mission and is about to escort him to the Hidden Grass Village as I write to you. All was well until Shinobi from Iwagakure attacked me without cause again. This will be the last time I show Ohnoki mercy; the next will be his death," Gilgamesh said, and everyone gasped, including the one writing Gilgamesh's letter.

Kakashi wondered if he was still dreaming since he had slept for a long time. Mura was beyond himself as he was amazed at the standards his master kept pushing on himself. The writer thought he didn't hear him properly and attributed it to the fear of almost dying to Gilgamesh's attack previously.

But Gilgamesh prompted the writer to write, and he continued, "As of now, I will be warning him not to try it again by visiting him today to talk things out. If the fence-sitter pulls that stunt of disrespecting me with ants that can barely defend themselves, I might become an international criminal by ending that old crone's life."

Somewhere in Iwagakure, in an office, a small old man sneezed.

"Gramps, what happened? Here's a hanky. You should retire already, Gramps, your body is even telling you," a girl with short black hair said, handing the old man a white hanky.

"No, it's not that. Someone might be mentioning my name."

"If that is so, shouldn't you be sneezing all the time by the people who admire you in the village? Stop giving excuses for your old age and retire already!"

Back at the base,

"Therefore, Mura will escort Kakashi and I will talk things out with Ohnoki. Now send it," Gilgamesh said with a mischievous smile.

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