10: Jonin’s test

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~One year later~

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Deep inside a forest, a bunch of Kumogakure's shinobi could be seen camping, circling a campfire that lit the otherwise dark forest.

"Those tree huggers won't even know what hit them, khekhekhe!" One of the Shinobi jeered, eliciting laughter from all other Shinobis.

"But Captain, isn't it dangerous to camp and even light fire so close to the Konoha's territory? Not to mention this is their supply route, there should be few Konoha shinobi patrolling the surrounding area." One of younger younger-looking shinobi questioned nervously.

"Don't worry-don't worry newbie, we're still quite far from Konoha's supply route, and this is our last stop before we lay the ambush, and god knows how long we'll have to maintain stealth since we don't know their exact timing, so ya better eat and rest well." The same jeering shinobi answered instead of the Captain who was silently sitting beside the campfire.

"He's right."

"Yea yea, the big oaf ain't wrong."

"Don't be nervous, newbie!."

Some shinobis laughed while others teased, and some encouraged the young shinobi, but all still agreed with the jeering shinobi.

The young shinobi seeing all his seniors agreeing with the jeering shinobi didn't question more.

"See, I'm right, now come with me."

"Where?"

"I need to piss."

"Why do you need me there."

"To give me company."

"Ewww! No, I'm fine."

"…khekhe why are reacting like a kunoichi-Gasp! Don't tell you were one all along!"

"Don't speak bullshit please."

"Khekhe fine-fine." The jeering shinobi laughed and walked some distance from the camping area.

'Hmm, now that I think where those patrolling dumbasses, I didn't see any ma way here?' The moment jeering shinobi thought when something caught his eyes… dead bodies. The dead bodies of those patrolling shinobis.

The shinobi stiffened for a moment before opening his mouth to shout, but suddenly he did a backflip…?

The shinobi thought confusedly, then his eyes landed on his headless body and the small Anbu standing behind it. A small light of understanding flashed in his eyes before the eternal chillness of death devoured that light alongside him.

The small Anbu with a plane mask that only had slitted eye holes stood there for a few second before wiping the blood from his katana and disappearing.

Back at the camp, the Kumogakure's shinobis continued their talking and eating, they didn't have any alcohol as that was not allowed during the mission, but they still enjoyed the night knowing how tedious and dangerous their mission was going to be.

"Hey isn't that Oalf taking too long, don't tell me he's taking a dump hahaha." One of the shinobi commented making other laughs.

Just as they were going to continue making fun of the jeering shinobi, the campfire suddenly got snuffed off out of nowhere. Making the moonless forest completely dark.

"Enemies!!!" The captain shouted while jumping from his position.

The Shinobis immediately responded and formed a battle circle.

"Kenji lit the campfire." The captain ordered, but he got no reply. Turning his head back, he saw Kenji's headless body lying coldly.

His frantic eyes turned towards other's positions only to find their headless body as well.

The captain felt a chill down his spine, he had met with countless assassins and shinobis that had flawless stealth, but this was something else, killing multiple shinobis so close to him, not to mention this quickly and without making him notice a single damn thing.

He shuddered thinking what kind of damage such an assassin could do in this war.

Just the thought flashed in the captain's head, he felt his hair stand as his death silently crept behind him.

*Clang* the sound of blades colliding reverberated across the dark eerie night.

The captain scanned the small Anbu who jumped back after failing to kill him. The most shocking thing he found was that even though he can see him with his own eyes, he can't sense him. It's as if the Anbu doesn't exist.

The captain tried to speak, but the Anbu suddenly accelerated, he quickly parried the Anbu's sword. And even when the Anbu was attacking his presence was completely concealed.

They both exchanged more blows as captain's unease continued to rise.

*Gulp* The captain gulped, he noticed Anbu's sword disappearing when his eyes didn't focus on it, but when he did the rest of Anbu's body became hard to track.

The Captain jumped back, and while in mid-air he quickly weaved a few hand signs. The Anbu saw that and he also started weaving a different set of hand signs.

-FIRE STYLE…

-WATER STYLE…

-FIRE DRAGON BLAST!!!

-WATER CANNON!!!

*PSSSHHSH* their attack collided, the hot fire tried to evaporate the raging water, while the raging water tried to snuff the hot fire out. In the end they both succeeded in their task.

The captain cursed himself when he saw the water evaporating and further blinding him.

"Shit!"

His frantic eyes scanned the surroundings, hoping to find the Anbu, but unfortunately, he couldn't.

And as the nerve-wracking minutes passed, the captain started to become nervous. His constant focus and his instinct that kept screaming danger started affecting his mind. And then he made one of the deadliest mistakes a higher rank shinobi can make during battle.

Blink. He blinked!

The moment the captain's eyes opened back the Anbu's sword was at his throat, he hurriedly tried to dodge the Chakra-infused sword.

"Aghhh" The captain screamed when the sword cleaved off his left arm, he instinctively jumped back, but that made him lose the Anbu again.

"Fu*k" The captain cursed again amidst his painful screams, he immediately used Chakra to stop the bleeding and numb the pain before desperately starting to look for the Anbu again. The moment he did, he saw the Anbu's short sword flying towards his neck from left. He quickly rotated his body and deflected the sword.

Then suddenly a hand came into his view, he tilted his head downward and saw the crouched Anbu standing up. He tried to avoid his hand but was too slow because the Anbu caught his face, and the moment Anbu did, the dragon tattoo on Anbu's left arm came to life and started entering his body, he immediately tried to stab the Anbu with his kunai, but notice some godly force restricting his movements, barely moving his eyes down, he saw his body completely covered in inkish black tattoos that looked like seals.

The Captain tried to speak, but even that was not possible.

'Fu*k Konoha made another monster.' The captain cursed inwardly seeing Anbu's small stature.

Just as the captain was accepting his death he heard the little monster mumble something.

"Hmm the SEAL MATRIX works fine, but I have to replace Chakra with Nature energy if I want it to work against those Chakra-leaching parasites. But I can barely purify enough natural energy for body refinement, Hmm… I need to make a device that can purify Nature energy for me so that I only have to infuse my will into it, yes that should be doable."

"Aghh" the sudden groan from the captain broke the Anbu's reverie.

"It seems like the "MATRIX" is running out of Chakra, not bad… not bad at all, it lasted almost a minute." The Anbu praised while nonchalantly cutting the captain's head off.

The anbu then brought out a small piece of paper and wrote something on it before summoning a bird and tying the paper to the bird.

"You know what to do."

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-Oni' P.O.V-

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That idiotic brat, his mission was to survey the surroundings and report how many enemies were waiting for the ambush.

We already knew Kumogakure dispatched Shinobi to intercept our supplies through our spies, but didn't know who and how many they send.

Ryoichi's mission was just to find that.

That was already an A-rank mission, but the brat has once again gone and done it. I just hope nothing happened to him.

Removing useless thoughts, I increased my speed making the whole surrounding become blurry, my speed became so fast that the tree didn't even shake when I landed and launched for another. Even then it took another 10 minutes to reach the location where he reported the Kumogakre's shinobi were camping.

I can already smell the thick smell of the blood that permeated the area.

As I advanced more I saw many headless bodies, thankfully none of them belonged to Ryoichi.

And when I finally reached the camping sight, I saw dozens of bodies pilled together. My eyes fell on a body that I immediately recognised.

"Kumogakure's Explosive fire."

He was a famous Jonin that took many lives from Konoha. He was someone who made me fight seriously, not that I ever fight without being serious.

Still putting all this behind my head, I further scanned the area and saw that all the bodies were cleanly beheaded without any resistance except for Explosive fire who definitely had a frontal clash with Ryoichi.

"Captain, you didn't need to come here I have already sent a letter indicating I took care of the ambusher." I heard Ryoichi's voice who was sitting on a tree branch without any blood on him.

'Since when was he sitting there.'

"From the beginning"

'How did he know what I was thinking?'

"Because what else could have made your cold eyes widen other than not noticing my presence," Ryoichi answered again what I was thinking.

"And how did you do that, I know that the stealth Jutsu you learned is one of the best stealth techniques, but It has a major flaw that It couldn't be used while moving." I couldn't hide my curiosity even though I know It's quite rude to ask a shinobi about their technique, not to mention how embarrassing it is to ask someone who could have been my son's age if I had one that is…

"It's quite simple actually, all you have to do is split your consciousness in two and let one maintain the Justu while using the other one to control your body." Came his emotionless reply.

'Easy my ass…' For a minute I who is an Anbu captain lost control over my emotions and wanted to beat that brat.

"Yeah-yeah, quite easy, anyway with this quest you'll become the youngest Jonin in Konoha's history."

The A-rank scouting mission given to him was the Jonin test, and I was supposed to evaluate him, but how can I do that when even I'm not sure if I can take down Explosive Fire's whole team alone?

"Hmm," Ryoichi nodded without a hint of emotion like always and started walking away.

'Does he plan to leave the cleaning to me?'

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[AN: If you want to read more go to my Patr*on/41_Claws. There are 10+ advance unedited chapters on it…]

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