If this group of samurai were facing an ordinary jōnin, they probably would have already taken his head by now.
Sensing that several shinobi behind him were about to step in to help, Takeshi repeated his old trick.
At the very moment the opponent's blade came down, he used the Flying Thunder God Technique to appear beside Kamizuki Izumo, who was bleeding heavily and close to death, then conjured an ice spike and drove it brutally into one samurai's left eye.
That samurai was truly a tough one. Even with the other end of the ice spike protruding from the back of his skull, he didn't let out a single cry, just collapsed silently into eternal sleep.
But such a bloody sight did nothing to intimidate the samurai surrounding the two of them. Without sparing their fallen comrade a glance, they continued to swing their blades relentlessly.
Takeshi could only fling kunai wildly without proper aim, tossing them while dodging attacks slashing in from all sorts of tricky angles.
Almost there.
Seeing that enough kunai had landed in suitable spots to release ninjutsu, Takeshi suddenly unleashed his strength, showing incredible flexibility as he punched one enemy in the face while, at the same time, his right foot struck another squarely in the groin.
"Urgh..."
Finally, when his groin was smashed, the samurai's face changed expression.
Taking advantage of the moment, Takeshi grabbed both of them and activated the Flying Thunder God Technique.
"Wind Style: Vacuum Great Sphere!"
The instant he landed, Takeshi wasted no time and unleashed the jutsu.
"Earth Style: Earth Flow Wall!"
Byoki once again used Earth Flow Wall to block the wind technique, just as he had done the last two times—but this time, he had underestimated the destructive force of the Vacuum Great Sphere.
Even Danzō in his old age could conjure a Vacuum Great Sphere comparable in size to Sasuke's Susanoo shield. Now, with Takeshi in his prime unleashing it, the destructive power was unimaginable.
The earth wall was pulverized into dust, and Byoki, who had performed the jutsu, was shredded along with it by the violent winds.
In an instant, the samurai who had once held the upper hand were gone, leaving only the strongest one who had been attacking Takeshi. The rest were swept away without a trace by the storm.
This was why shinobi had displaced samurai from their position of dominance.
As long as a shinobi was given the chance to cast ninjutsu, unless a samurai had trained their body to the absolute peak, there was no surviving such overwhelming attacks.
"Die!"
The samurai attacking Takeshi cared nothing for the deaths of his comrades. Having evaded the Vacuum Great Sphere with his swift Step Technique, he regained his sight and immediately charged again with his blade raised high.
"Wind Style: Vacuum Bullets."
From Takeshi's mouth burst a torrent of dense, bullet-like wind projectiles. Even with the Step Technique, it was impossible to escape from such a concentrated barrage.
His shoulder and arm were grazed repeatedly by the wind bullets. Though he hadn't managed to close the distance, trying to advance further would only result in him being torn to shreds. Left with no choice, the samurai leapt high into the air.
"Water Style: Water Severing Wave!"
Takeshi had kept his eyes fixed on him the entire time. The moment the samurai jumped, he completed his hand seals.
The samurai was cleaved in half by the torrent of water, blood and entrails scattering across the sky.
"Now's my chance! Earth Style: Rock-Snatching Rod!"
From the shadows, Kazuma finally made his move.
When his comrades were dying, he hadn't acted. When the samurai fell one by one, he still hadn't acted. But knowing that as a Kage-level shinobi Takeshi would surely have hidden trump cards, he bided his time, waiting for what he thought was the perfect moment.
And that moment came when Takeshi's attention seemed wholly occupied with the samurai and his allies.
The Rock-Snatching Rod pierced easily into Takeshi's body, sliding straight through without resistance.
But before Kazuma could smile in triumph at his cunning, Takeshi's body suddenly blazed with blinding white light.
"Boom!"
The next instant, Takeshi exploded right in front of Kazuma.
Beside him, Kamizuki Izumo and Hagane Kotetsu vanished into smoke before being caught in the blast.
Exploding Shadow Clones.
And mixed in were traces of Ice Style, turning the fragments into deadly shrapnel.
"Kazuma-sama!"
It all happened too fast—from the samurai's death to Kazuma's strike, everything had occurred almost simultaneously.
By the time they realized what had happened, Kazuma was writhing on the ground, clutching half his face, screaming in agony.
The three survivors rushed forward to help him up. When shards of ice pierced their palms, they discovered in horror that half of Kazuma's body was riddled with countless icy splinters.
"Too cruel..."
Even Mibu, who thought he had seen everything, couldn't help covering his mouth at the sight.
"Cruel? This is daily life for shinobi fighting on the front lines. You, who only guard the daimyō, are nothing more than pampered hounds."
Takeshi's voice whispered into their ears, followed by a rain of sharp senbon.
Caught completely off guard, Mibu was struck dead on the spot. Mutō and Kengo barely escaped by abandoning Kazuma without hesitation.
Before they could even breathe, Kamizuki Izumo and Hagane Kotetsu charged out, skewering Mutō from both sides.
Terrified, Kengo scrambled away desperately, all semblance of dignity gone.
"So... from the moment he unleashed Frozen Cloud, it was a shadow clone?"
As he fled, he pieced it together.
From the instant that jutsu was cast, all the opponents before them had been shadow clones.
"Correct. No reward."
Appearing like a phantom at Kengo's side, Takeshi gave him no chance to fight back, driving a poisoned senbon into his flank before withdrawing.
The senbon was coated in poison. A single hit was certain death.
Moments later, dizziness overtook Kengo, and he collapsed onto the grass.
So much for assassination—this was the level it amounted to.
Looking over the corpses strewn about and at Kazuma, still barely clinging to life, Takeshi shook his head, ready to end him.
He thought it was over. But the next moment, a familiar voice rang in his ear.
"Duck your head!"
It was Uchiha Hikari's voice.
Trusting her without hesitation, Takeshi ducked his head—just as something sharp sliced past his scalp, even shearing off a few strands of hair.
When he lifted his head again, he saw that the great tree behind him had been cleaved cleanly in two, the cut as smooth as glass.
"So it wasn't just one group after all. Looks like plenty of people really do hate me."
Watching the waves of assassination attempts come one after another, Takeshi gave a bitter laugh.
"Good you realize it. If I hadn't sensed the surge of ocular power, you'd already be dead."
Uchiha Hikari leapt from the shadows, placing herself protectively in front of Takeshi.
"Those eyes... I see. So you're a traitor of the Uchiha clan. I never expected a wielder of the Mangekyō Sharingan to stand guard over the Hokage."
A hoarse voice spoke as a masked figure—Setsuna—emerged from the darkness, several differently sized figures following close behind.
"So it's you... the one who killed Akira and Ikku."
At the sight of that familiar mask, Takeshi clenched his jaw instinctively.
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Pls Drop some Power Stones
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