As Asa flared his chakra, an oppressive tension filled the hall. The guards subconsciously reached for their weapons, their faces taut with nervousness.
They were acutely aware that the few shinobi capable of stopping Asa, who had recently attained S-rank status, were not present. Even if they were to be summoned, with the time they could arrive, Asa could have destroyed the capital city ten times over with his power.
But Asa wasn't flaring his chakra because he had grown tired of Usui's snide remarks. Such an action would only worsen his already precarious situation.
Instead, Asa had sensed something strange whenever he focused on Usui who had been annoying him with his remarks. While he did have some bias against the noble, he needed to check something. In front of the eyes of everyone present, Asa seemed to teleport as he flickered and appeared in front of the seated Usui.
'What is this?' Asa thought as he appeared in front of Usui and placed his arm on the noble's shoulder. Without hesitating, Asa immediately inserted some of his chakra into the noble.
'Is he trying to kill Lord Usui?' Takaki, the chief guard of the Daimyo, thought as he and his team reacted quickly, flickering to Asa. But the moment they arrived, Asa pulled away his arm from Usui.
"Don't worry. He was under a genjutsu and I disrupted his chakra breaking it. This means that the killers might still be in the city. Lord Daimyo, I suggest we lock down the capital city as I handle this," Asa said before he disappeared leaving everyone in the hall confused.
Everything had happened in a matter of seconds, and only the guards who were shinobi could react quickly. It was only after Asa left that all the officials, Daimyo included, realized what had just happened.
"Genjutsu? Ws that why Lord Usui was opposing all of Asa's suggestions?" someone remarked causing a new round of murmurs to spread in the room as the officials began discussing what had happened.
"Yes, Lord Asa is a powerful shinobi! It would be crazy trying to provoke him even if it was the Daimyoo!" Another added. The murmurs continued and gradually increased until a shout was heard.
"You heard him! Lock down the city!" the Daimyo screamed at his guards. They had kept the matter of the nobles dying under wraps until they could find a solution to the situation, but now that Asa had confirmed that the killers might be present, they had to be more proactive with the whole situation.
While the officials and the Daimyo were still processing what had just happened, Asa flickered to the entrance of the city. He thought,
'I am sure I sensed that chakra before. The one that cast that genjutsu on Usui. I can't remember from whom I sensed it, but I remember sensing it when I arrived in the capital city. It is clear that they are targetting me.'
Asa was proud of his sensory abilities since he was one of the top sensors in Iwa without any kekkei genkai helping him in that regard. Asa enveloped the whole city with his chakra field as he tried to trace the suspicious chakra he had sensed from Usui.
"There it is," he muttered as soon as he narrowed down on it. It was dull but he still managed to find it. Asa then flickered to the market.
Renjiro and Yano, who were in the market playing their roles as merchants, were immediately alarmed when they felt someone covering the city with Their chakra field.
'What is this? It seems familiar. Are our covers blown?' Renjiro thought as he spared a glance to Yano who had the same confused look on his face.
A few seconds later, Asa appeared in front of Renjiro.
'Wasn't this the man that I was staring at me when I arrived here?' Asa thought.
Recognizing the man in front and his colleague, Asa first scanned them with his chakra field and once he ascertained that they were his targets, he immediately acted.
Asa kicked the ground and used the Earth Pillar Jutsu causing two earth pillars to emerge beneath Yano and Renjiro's feet, launching them into the air.
Before they could even get a chance to get their bearings, Asa jumped into the air and successively launched two continuous kicks at both of their launched figures.
"Boom!"
The force Asa used was so strong that Renjiro heard his bones crack. Since the market was just beside the city's entrance and city walls, Yano and Renjiro were literally kicked out of the capital city and crashed into the surrounding hills.
"Why? We are just merchants..." Renjiro, still in his persona, tried to plead as he got up, but Asa wasn't going to hear any of that.
Asa shouted, "A normal merchant would have already died from that. How many of you are there? You have spoiled a lot of my plans and need to pay for it!"
Yano and Renjiro did not break character and continued pleading, which only angered Asa further. He made a hand sign.
"There's no need pretending, I can already see through your disguises!"
The ground split open as lava emerged from it. Asa shouted, "Lava Release: Lava Snake Bullet!"
'Is that Lava Release?' Renjiro thought as he tried to dodge the powerful snake heading towards him, while Yano thought, 'An S-rank shinobi, this is dangerous.' Yano quickly retrieved one of the kunai Minato had handed to them and threw it a couple of meters behind him.
As the kunai sailed through the air, Asa's lava snakes hissed and snapped at Renjiro and Yano. The heat was intense, the ground bubbling and cracking under the pressure of the molten rock.
Renjiro barely dodged the first attack, the heat singeing his clothes and hair. Yano, using his agility, managed to evade the serpentine streams of lava, but he knew they couldn't keep this up for long.
The jutsu Asa had used formed two giant powerful Snake locking in on the target. His having the Lava Release was one of the reasons why he won against the four tails Jinchuriki as they both used the same Kekkei Genkai.
His Kekkei Genkai was also one of the reasons why Asa was conceited and wanted to become the next Tsuchikage. The Lava Release, an already established Kekkei Genkai, was just a step in Asa's ladder of power as he unlocked it when he was learning Dust Release.
Unlike his Father, the Second Tsuchikage Mū, who had Earth and Wind as his main Chakra affinities, Asa only had Lightning as his chakra affinity which he inherited from his mother.
This was the reason why it was harder for him to master Dust release since his chakra affinity was not among the chakra natures required to form the Kekkei Tōta. Fortunately for him, he was lucky and he awakened a Kekkei Genkai while studying the Kekkei Tōta.
This just showed how much of a problem Asa would be when he mastered Dust Release as well as Lava Release. He would be one, if not the strongest, shinobi alive.
"We need to get out of here!" Yano shouted to Renjiro, who nodded in agreement. The kunai Yano had thrown was their only hope. Asa's relentless attacks were leaving them no room to counterattack or even defend properly.
"Why are you doing this?" Asa demanded, his voice booming over the chaos. "Why impersonate Iwa shinobi and disrupt everything?"
Even while dodging and trying their best to counter, Yano and Renjiro did not resort to any jutsu for other chakra natures apart from Wind. While they did not know how Asa figured them out, they had to fully commit to the mission.
Asa's eyes narrowed. "Very well. If you won't talk, then I'll make you."
He raised his hands, and more lava surged from the ground, forming into larger, more menacing shapes. Just as he was about to unleash another wave of destruction, the kunai Yano had thrown earlier shimmered and sparked. In a flash, Minato appeared beside it, his presence immediately shifting the dynamics of the battlefield.
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