Chapter 25 - You Lose.

Scouring the cafe, I spotted two people, one priest and another a warrior talking to each other while sitting across from each other around a table.

I was looking for them so that we could form a party to challenge the slightly Hard missions.

The two people I had chosen were carefully picked because I'd seen them party up with several teams and complete a lot of different Normal missions before. I felt that they'd be inclined to try out a slightly hard mission if Seora was also a part of it.

"Excuse me, hello.", I said as I walked closer to them.

The two turned towards me. While the girl was chewing gum the boy was already scanning me from head to toe, trying to figure out why I was disturbing them.

"What happened?" The girl asked but before I could respond she spoke up, "If it's something to do with forming a party, you should know we'll take half the earnings. And if I have to perform a sacrificial ritual to heal you then you'll be paying for the materials out of your own pocket."

I nodded and was about to speak but the boy interrupted me this time.

"And if you want me to tank instead of damage I will charge you another ten per cent of the cut."

I nodded again as I spoke, "I understand, but please hear me out."

They nodded simultaneously and I spoke calmly.

"I want to invite you to participate in one of the Slightly Hard missions."

They both opened their mouths almost immediately to reject but I gave them an irresistible offer.

"I'm a magician while the Bloody Blade Maiden is also a part of my party. We will only take on the easiest missions in the slightly hard difficult range and we only want to do a few runs, about five for now."

The girl and the guy narrowed their eyes as they looked at me before they looked at each other and shook their heads.

"Sorry…as appealing as your offer is, we don't want to take on any slightly hard missions. Especially when we've never worked with you and your part before."

Not wanting to give up just yet I asked calmly, "How about we go through trial runs of a few Normal missions of your choosing? Then we can decide if we mesh well together?"

They looked at each other once again and after a few mental debates turned back to look at me and nodded.

"That would be alright. But since we've already committed to a few other parties tomorrow, we'll only be free from the day after."

I nodded, "That will not be a problem, worry not. By the way, sorry for the late introduction but my name's Wick, John Wick." I introduced extending my hand.

"Cool name…" the boy said as he shook my hand and then introduced himself, "My name's Hyun Sangmin and I'm sure you know but I'm a warrior."

"And mine's Shin Sang-Ah, I'm a priest as you can see." the girl said shaking my hand.

I nodded and after talking with them for a bit, I headed to inform Yun Seora about the team I had secured for us.

'Although they agreed to a team raid the day after tomorrow, for me it'll be after another two weeks since I'm sure I'll be gone to the Naruto world tonight…'

Collapsing into the bed, I woke up by Shizune's side while she was looking at me curiously.

"How did your wounds heal so soon Wick-san?"

I flexed my arms and made up a random excuse, "My body's just like that sometimes. I move around and my body heals automatically."

"What?" Shizune looked at me with even more confusion and then tried poking the areas that were bruised just a few 'moments' ago and seeing how I really wasn't reacting to it due to pain she frowned but let it go for now.

"Up for a spar again? Shizune-san?" I asked with a smile.

Shizune looked at me and smiled, "Ready to get beat up again?"

"Haha~ We'll see who'll beat whom!"

Shizune and I got into our stances once again and before she could say ready, I dashed in her direction.

My chakra control had improved severalfold because of how often I had to continuously spam the [Magic Bullet] and [Magic Dome] spells as Seora and I fought on our missions, so my body flicker jutsu had improved.

With my innate ability activated, I rushed towards Shizune while performing the hand seals to activate the minor healing jutsu.

Even though I was blazingly fast, Shizune didn't have trouble keeping up with me.

My first punch she dodged, not wanting to get hit by my blood-blocking punch, but instead of stepping back or even regaining her footing, Shizune's body bent over flexibly as her left leg shot at my temple.

I barely dodged backwards but didn't take into account the dust on Shizune's sandals flying into my eyes.

But keeping my eyes open as Shizune had taught me, I resisted the urge to close them and smacked Shizune's ankle with my hands. But instead of simply blocking her blood flow this time, I also combined it with chakra control to keep her leg stuck to my hand.

Shizune tried to pull her leg out of my hand and when she failed, she kicked off the ground with her right leg and wrapped them around my neck in order to choke me.

Knowing I wouldn't be able to escape if that happened I jumped back after pushing Shizune away so she would have to stabilize herself from falling on her butt and quickly wiped my eyes, getting the dust out of them.

Shizune made sure to not give me any time to rest however as she rushed at me.

But in an attempt to buy time, I formed the three hand signs for the clone jutsu and shuffled with them by using the body flicker jutsu.

With four of me present, Shizune stopped her reckless charge as she pulled out four senbon and tossed them at me at high speed.

Knowing that I would get caught if any of the senbons pierced my clones I ducked low and started running towards her with all my clones.

Shizune launched several more senbon, but knowing a little bit of knife combat that I learned from Seora I analyzed her wrist movements and quickly figured out where she was going to throw her senbon next and dodged them as well.

Reaching Shizune it was my turn to toss sand into her eyes but the very act of picking up sand from the ground gave my location to her, so she simply closed her eyes and turned her entire focus on the me that wasn't a clone.

'Does she think she can get me with her eyes closed!?'

'Hmph. How arrogant! I'm not so predictable.'

I started with a low punch to Shizune's stomach. Shizune blocked the punch but I quickly extracted my hand before she could grab it and use it to throw me over her shoulder.

Next, I performed a sweeping leg kick to destabilize her footing and just as expected she jumped over it.

This time, however, I didn't simply attack her using my limbs.

I used the body flicker jutsu to move even closer to her and before she could react, I grabbed her by her waist and bent my back in an arch to perform a german suplex.

'I win!!'

"You lose.", Shizune said calmly while placing a senbon on my neck as I heard her voice right in my ears.

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A/N: Alright, it's final now. MC's name's John Wick.