Chapter 38.
Seeing his initial attack fail, the masked man quickly unsheathed his katana and shortened the distance between them, slashing at Tatsuya's chest.
Tatsuya took a step back, narrowly dodging the first slash. 'He's fast!' he observed.
But just as Tatsuya was about to counterattack, the masked man twisted his wrist, changing the direction of his katana strike. Reacting quickly, Tatsuya ducked down, barely avoiding the attack by a hair's breadth.
Using his low position, Tatsuya punched upwards, aiming for the man's groin. But the masked assassin sensed the attack, and quickly blocked it with a knee strike.
Crack~
A small crunch sounded as their limbs collided, both combatants wincing from the impact. They quickly backed away from each other.
Tatsuya could feel a sharp pain in his hand, he was sure a few of his bones were broken.
'He's very skilled,' Tatsuya thought, his eyes narrowing as he studied the masked man. 'And has experience fighting dirty.'
'Gentle Fist won't do for this type of guy. I need to be more aggressive.' Tatsuya decided to switch tactics.
Tatsuya shifted his stance, adopting a different fighting style – one he had been specially gifted by the system. This was the {Art of Violence}, a combat art that was the polar opposite of the Gentle Fist.
Where the Gentle Fist focused on precise, controlled strikes to cause internal damage while preserving one's own stamina, the Art of Violence emphasized raw, unbridled power. At the same time, a thin film of chakra coated Tatsuya's hands and forearms and it had a reddish tint, emanating an almost berserker-like aura.
The masked man felt apprehensive as he saw the ominous glow of Tatsuya's chakra. 'What is he….?'
Settling into his new stance, Tatsuya's eyes gleamed. In a sudden burst of speed, he vanished from his position, moving even faster than a standard Body Flicker technique by emanating a sharp burst of chakra from the soles of his feet. Tatsuya reappeared directly above the masked man, cocking his fist back for a devastating strike.
The masked man felt a shiver of dread run down his spine as he sensed the violent chakra bearing down on him. Quickly, he brought his katana up to defend himself.
But it was not enough. Tatsuya's punch made contact with the blade, the sheer force of the impact causing the masked man's grip to loosen.
Boom!!
The devastating strike launched the masked man directly outside of the house, crashing through the walls.
While Tatsuya didn't give his opponent a chance to recover, quickly following behind him and increasing his speed even further by bursting chakra out of his back.
As Tatsuya closed in on the airborne assassin, he slammed both of his fists forward. But suddenly, the masked man's body was substituted with a log in a puff of smoke.
"Damn…Four o'clock!" Tatsuya immediately sensed the real body , using his Byakugan to detect the enemy's position. He quickly changed the direction of his punch, seeing the assassin slashing at him with his katana.
Both were in mid-motion in the air, and the one who landed the first strike would gain the decisive advantage. Tatsuya saw the katana closing in on his heart and immediately realized that he was slightly slower in this and the sword would pierce him before his fist could make contact.
The masked assassin half-expected the boy to attempt dodging, or try to back away in fear at the face of death. But he was surprised to see the calm, expression on Tatsuya's face.
Just as the blade seemed poised to cut through Tatsuya's heart, he suddenly felt a premonition.
BAM!!!
The masked man felt the same devastating force he had experienced moments earlier, but this time it was even more intense, his entire body shuddering violently as he was sent hurtling away once more.
Tatsuya breathed heavily, trying to calm his racing pulse as he landed on the ground. "Damn, that was close. I almost died," he muttered. Originally, his punch had been slightly slower than the man's sword.
But at the last possible second, He had made a sharp burst of chakra release from his elbow, nearly doubling the speed of his punch and allowing it to connect first, saving him from a potentially fatal injury.
Tatsuya then turned his gaze towards the direction the masked man had been thrown. The man had been launched hundreds of metres away, leaving a trail of destruction as he crashed through dozens of houses.
'The Anbu should already be alerted by all this ruckus and commotion. They'll be coming to our location soon,' Tatsuya thought.
He then studied the figure lying amidst the rubble in the distance. The man's mask had been broken by the force of his blow, revealing a young man with a very average face behind it.
'He can't be more than 19 years old, and he already possesses jonin-level strength and skill,' Tatsuya thought, feeling a little impressed 'Danzo sure knows how to cultivate pawns.'
For his part, the now unmasked man felt a rare stir of emotion wash over him as he realized the implication of his face being exposed. He unconsciously bit his lip, understanding that having his identity revealed sealed his fate.
But that flicker of emotion quickly turned to rage directed towards the boy infront of him. The assassin's hands then rapidly formed a sequence of hand seals before slamming his palms into the ground.
"Earth Release: Rock Vortex!" he called out in his mind, attempting to summon a swirling vortex of sharp rocks to envelop Tatsuya.
However, rather than the desired jutsu manifesting, the assassin suddenly tasted iron in his mouth as he violently vomited blood.
'What? Why?' he asked himself in confusion, staring at the viscous crimson liquid pooling before him.
"Those two punches were not just normal punches," Tatsuya's voice rang out, causing the assassin's head to snap up. "You should have been a little more careful."
It was then that the pieces fell into place for the young Root operative. 'That red tint to his chakra...it's actively sowing chaos and disrupting my chakra circulation from the inside out, completely messing up my control rather than just blocking my tenketsu points like the Gentle Fist!'
'Dammit,' he thought, trying to suppress the havoc raging through his disrupted chakra network, but finding it increasingly difficult to do so.
'I can't use any high-level jutsu until I regain control over my chakra flow. I have to rely on taijutsu and kenjutsu,' he thought as he stood up. His body was wracked with pain from enduring two heavy blows, his left eye also swollen black.
Tatsuya also settled into a ready stance, analyzing his opponent. 'From the looks of the jutsu he was trying, and the disruption to his chakra circulation, it must have been a high-level earth-style technique. That would also explain his impressive durability, withstanding two of my enhanced strikes and still standing.'
Not wasting any time, the assassin summoned two shadow clones that immediately launched a barrage of shuriken and paper bombs towards Tatsuya in tandem with the original.
Tatsuya's Byakugan rapidly analyzed the incoming projectiles. '13 shuriken from 8 o'clock, 8 kunai from the front aimed at vital areas like my heart, neck, liver, lungs, elbow joint and groin. Three paper bombs from 2 o'clock and two more cutting off potential escape routes,' he calculated with startling speed.
'The two clones are at 9 o'clock and 3 o'clock, performing hand seals, it's likely Mud Bullet' Tatsuya observed. 'I see, he's using the clones to bypass the disruption to his tenketsu network since the shadow clone technique only requires minimal hand seals and chakra control. Quite clever of him.'
As the 13 shuriken from his 8 o'clock position closed in, Tatsuya twisted his body with expert precision. Six of the shuriken whistled past him, burying themselves in the ground behind him. For the remaining seven, he deftly caught them between his fingertips, the chakra coating protecting his fingers and hands.
Not wasting a moment, Tatsuya flung the captured shuriken towards the two paper bombs at his 2 o'clock position with pinpoint accuracy. The shuriken detonated the explosives prematurely, the blast kicking up a cloud of smoke and debris.
Through the dissipating dust, the 8 kunai from the front aimed at his vitals hurtled towards him. Using the Gentle Fist footwork he was easily able to weave between the deadly knives, his body contorting and shifting with each minuscule adjust to avoid the strikes.
As the last kunai whizzed past his face, nicking a few strands of hair, Tatsuya's hands blurred through a new set of seals.
[Hyūga Style: Gale Fist!]
He unleashed a concentrated burst of wind-natured chakra, the powerful gust slamming into the two remaining paper bombs, sending them arcing back towards the assassin's clones.
The clones tried to quickly complete the jutsu, but the wind-propelled explosives detonated right before it could complete with overwhelming force, dispelling both of them in twin bursts of smoke.
With the distractions eliminated, Tatsuya focused his attention on the original, only for the man to suddenly vanish from sight.
'Hmm?...No, he won't run away!' Tatsuya thought, his instincts immediately on high alert. True to his suspicion, his Byakugan detected movement below, and he leapt away just as the assassin burst from the ground beneath him, katana thrusting upwards.
Reacting, Tatsuya grabbed the blade barehanded, his chakra coating protecting his grip. With a powerful kick, he launched the assassin back, putting distance between them.
But the man did not relent, moving with blurring speed to unleash a flurry of precise katana slashes and thrusts. Each strike was fueled using his full strength.
Yet, to the assassin's rising dread, none of his attacks were connecting. Tatsuya's hands moved with almost supernatural precision, deflecting and shattering each slash and thrust through sheer brute force, all while raining down a retaliatory barrage of increasingly ferocious strikes.
'What kind of taijutsu is this?' the assassin thought, feeling the first tinges of fear grip him as Tatsuya's assault grew more overwhelming by the second.
Seizing on that moment of trepidation, Tatsuya spotted a flaw in his opponent's defenses. With blinding speed, his hand lashed out in a clawing motion.
{Art of Violence: Heart Destruction!}
Tatsuya's chakra-coated fingers slammed into the assassin's chest, burying themselves deep. With a vicious twist, he obliterated the man's heart in a nauseating burst of blood and viscera.
The assassin's eyes went wide with shock, a gurgling rasp escaping his lips as he crumpled lifelessly to the ground.
Tatsuya stood over the fallen man, chest heaving as he tried to catch his breath after the intense fight. His hand was drenched in crimson, but he paid it no mind.
Suddenly, the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end as his instincts warned as he felt coming towards him. Reacting on pure reflex, he clamped both hands around the blade of a sword thrust aimed at his heart.
But as soon as his hands made contact with the weapon, a surge of high-voltage electricity coursed through him.
'Shit, that was a trap!' Tatsuya realized through the searing pain, tasting the acrid scent of his own burning flesh.
Gritting his teeth, he quickly released his grip on the electrified katana, but not before viciously kicking the twitching, burnt corpse of the assassin.
"Cough! Cough. Fuck you, Danzo," Tatsuya cursed, piecing together what had happened. "Installing a suicide attack mechanism on a dead body."
The bastard of a Hokage-wannabe had even installed a last-ditch defensive trap on his man in case they were defeated. He should have guessed it, knowing Danzo's pettiness.
His whole body felt like it was burning from the inside out after that electrical jolt. As he tried to recover his bearings, Tatsuya sensed multiple presences appearing around him.
Turning towards the Central figure, a man in the iconic robes and hat, Tatsuya immediately understood who had arrived. He bowed his head slightly, giving a nod.
"Greetings...cough!...Hokage-sama," He said.
- x - X - x -
Link: patreon.com/Nexusprimodius
For advance chapters