'How long can I hold on?'
Toda wondered as the enemy jounin he was fighting, who his allies referred to as Hotaru, landed another blow at him. With how fast he was, Toda didn't have any other option but to cross his hands in an attempt to block the block.
'I can't keep up with him as much as I did before.'
Toda found himself hard-pressed to defend against the barrage. With each blow, he fought desperately to evade their strikes, his movements growing increasingly sluggish as exhaustion threatened to overwhelm him.
Just when it seemed that Toda would be overwhelmed by the onslaught, Toda made a move. He threw a Kunai that had a string at the end. He followed by throwing another Kunai that hit the first kunai.
"Clang!"
As the second Kunai hit the first, it caused the first to change its trajectory and together with the string at its end, it was able to bind Hotaru.
While it happened in a matter of seconds, Hotaru was able to see through the move. However, he did not want to expend any effort trying to dodge such an attack because he could easily escape by breaking the bindings, which was a big mistake on his part.
Toda focused his chakra and a breath later, he released a large amount of electric current.
"Rensa Rai!" Toda said.
As he finished his statement, the lightning that he had released quickly travelled through the string heading towards Hotaru who was bound in place.
Seeing the incoming attack, Hotaru's eyes widened as he contracted his muscles, trying to free himself. Unfortunately for him, he could free himself in time as Tobe, or his clone since Hotaru was not sure, also released a jutsu.
Tobe had appeared above Toda and charged his chakra before using the Wind cutter jutsu. By exhaling, Tobe released a cluster of wind blades that hit Hotaru at the same time and spot where Toda's previous jutsu, Chain Lightning, hit him.
"Crackle!"
"Whoshe!"
As the two jutsus met their target, Tobe's wind blades only amplified the residual lightning around Toda's jutsu, multiplying its effect. Despite Hotaru having tougher skin in his transformation form, it did not do much to nullify or even lessen the damage he did.
"Aaarghhh!!!"
He screamed in pain, briefly closing his eyes that were different in his new form. Accompanying the hard protrusions all over his body, his eyes had golden irises and dark grey, almost black, sclera completing the menacing look their transformation afforded the Kurogane clan.
But Tobe and Toda were no longer focusing on him as Hotaru's remaining ally hadn't just stood as they attacked him.
Takeda released a few projectiles from the protrusion on his forearms and aimed them at the two brothers.
'These projectiles are Dangerous!' Toda said as he narrowingly dodged the projectiles heading his way, a majority of them were heading his way as Takeda closed the distance between him and Tobe.
He had been struck by those projectiles a while ago, so he was aware of the threat those mundane looking projectiles posed.
A majority of the chakra that Hotaru and Takeda got when they transformed went to further improve their bodies as well as develop an innate chakra toxin that they could release in the form of projectiles.
The toxin was able to break down the chakra of the target preventing them access to that chakra. While the toxin wasn't fast acting, continuous accumulation of such a toxin in someone's chakra network would have irreparable damage.
This was also part of the reason that Toda was not in his best physical condition. With the fatigues setting in, the chakra loss he experienced due to being struck by those toxic projectiles made him slower than normal as he couldn't use his chakra to improve his physical capabilities.
"Why are you even attacking us?" Takeda angrily asked Tobe as threw a jab at him.
He wasn't aware why they were being attacked so suddenly. He was only woken up to the cries of his relatives who were being mercilessly murdered.
"Your clan attacked Ishigakure killing civilians and you want to play victim?" Tobe retorted as he caught Takeda's punch.
"And how does that affect the Uchiha clan?" Takeda asked as he threw another punch with his other arm.
Tobe did not bother answering as he similarly caught the incoming punch much to Takeda's frustration.
'I can't hold him in place for long.' Tobe thought.
Before Takeda could initiate a headbutt at Tobe, another Tobe appeared from behind him together with Toda and leapt into the air.
'Good thing I don't have to do this for long. I just need to match his strength for a little while.' Tobe's clone who was still struggling to hold Takeda in place thought.
Up in the air, both Tobe and Toda were making hand signs. Tobe, who was the first to complete his set of hand signs, summoned numerous large shurikens which he charged up with lightning. Once Toda finished his hand signs, he also charged the lightning shurikens with his fire.
"Crackle!" The lightning-blazing cackled as they fell on Takeda and Tobe's clone.
The combination jutsu that Tobe and Toda used was an advanced form of the jutsu Pheonix sage flower nail crimson that Renjiro had just learnt before the final phase of his chunin exams.
The only difference was that the brother had managed to add two chakra natures to the shurikens instead of the normal one which was already strong.
'That's probably the last jutsu I will perform before I gain more chakra.' Toda thought.
When Tobe's clone was destroyed by the rain of shurikens, Takeda was finally free but the barrage of burning and cackling projectiles was too much for him to escape. At the end of it all, they riddled his body with wounds making Takeda look like a pincushion.
'The shurikens really managed to pierce his tough skin, I guess it was a good idea to add lightning chakra nature to the shurikens.' Tobe noted as the brothers finally landed on the ground.
The moment their feet touched the ground, Tobe's senses throbbed at him, informing him that something was wrong.
'Huh? What's wrong?'
They were two surrounded by ten more people, all in similar forms like Hotaru, Takeda and the two other shinobi that they had managed to kill earlier.
'We need to move!'
Before the thought was fully processed in Tobe's head, the Kurogane shinobi who were encircling them had already launched their attack, not giving the brothers a moment to breathe.
Since Tobe was the first to realize that they were surrounded, he reacted quickly and flickered a couple of meters away. However, his brother Toda who was already getting slow, didn't manage to get away.
Toda who was too weak to flicker away as he was low on chakra, tried to dodge the jutsus that were heading towards him. Fortunately, he did so without incurring any new injuries.
However, the Kurogane shinobi had already expected this and were midway in executing their next move. Four transformed shinobi appeared near Toda and using the protrusions on their forearms, they all stabbed him giving the same pincushion fate that Takeda had experienced a few minutes earlier.
"Toda!!! No!!!" Tobe yelled at the top of his voice almost rupturing his vocal cords.
"You asked Takeda why we were playing victims, right? Now let's play!"
The shinobi Eguchi, the one who was watching the whole fight between the brothers and Takeda and Hotaru play out remarked. He was the one who managed to assemble more shinobi to come and support their comrades Hotaru and Takeda.
'It is impossible! Yes, this might be a genjutsu!'
Tobe tried to console himself. He had not even heard Eguchi's remarks as he was still processing what happened to his brother.
Then suddenly his being seemed to change as he just stared at his brother's body which was already riddled with stabs. Tobe's mind blanked out as more chakra involuntary rushed to his eyes. After a few moments, Tobe began crying, only what was coming out of his eyes was not normal tears but blood!
"Is he crying?" Someone asked.
"No fool! His eyes are bleeding, can't you see?" Another Kurogane clan responded.
A spike in the mood around them followed them with gave Eguchi an ominous feeling.
'What is this?' Eguchi asked himself, not able to even explain what he was feeling. All he knew was that he did not want to feel this again.
Suddenly, Tobe raised his head to face the Kurogane shinobi who moments ago had surrounded them. This time something was different with his eyes.
Other than the fact that his eyes were bleeding, they seemed to have a glow in them that wasn't there before. Then three tomoes present in his eyes began spinning rapidly.
''Was his eyes always like that?'' Eguchi couldn't help but ask.
However, none of his allies were in a state to answer him as they were all weirdly mesmerized by those same eyes. After what felt like an eternity, the three spinning tomoes finally settled down forming a new pattern in Tobe's eyes!
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