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Just when Akio was halfway through forming his Rasengan, it suddenly fizzled out in his hand. At the same time, his two shadow clones—who'd just taken down a couple of genin—exploded with a bang.
"Damn it, I'm out of chakra," Akio cursed under his breath. Then he kicked the jonin who was already too beat up to fight back, sending the guy crashing to the ground. He slumped down on his butt right after.
He pulled out a kunai and hurled it straight into the jonin's head—half the blade buried in his skull. The guy's eyes went wide as he dropped lifelessly to the ground.
"Let's go! Frontline Power-Up!" Guy shouted as he kicked another enemy. With that, every enemy ninja except for Yamaha had been taken down. Seeing all their comrades defeated, both Yamaha and Yamashin stopped fighting too.
"I'm wiped out," Akio muttered as he collapsed onto the ground, gasping for air. Neji and Lee flopped down beside him.
"All those jutsu—did you come up with them yourself?" The Third Hokage had walked up behind Akio and asked.
"Huh?" Akio blinked, confused for a second. Then he realized the Third was talking about the Chidori-based moves—Chidori Stream and Chidori Spear. "Oh, yeah. I came up with them. I developed them as extensions of the Chidori that Kakashi-sensei taught me."
"Both of those are easily A-rank jutsu. Pretty powerful too," the Third said with a nod and a smile.
"When I've got enough chakra, I'll train with Kakashi-sensei and finally learn Raikiri. That's an S-rank jutsu—it's gotta be insane." Akio leaned back on his hands, looking up.
"You've already got way more chakra than most kids your age. You're easily at chunin level or higher," the Third added.
"I've been refining chakra ever since I can remember, so of course I've got a lot. Still not enough, though," Akio said, nodding.
"So, what are you two planning to do?" The Third turned to Yamashin and Yamaha, who were still standing there, not making any moves.
"Well…" Yamaha looked around at the fallen ninja from Kanzu no Kuni, totally at a loss for words. Who would've thought the Konoha team was this strong? They'd wiped out everyone.
Sigh. Yamaha finally let out a long breath. "I never really betrayed our country, Yamashin," he said. "Miyage isn't dead either."
"What? Big Brother's alive?" Hearing that, Miki ran out of the cave, eyes wide, and stared at Yamaha.
"Princess!" Yamaha's eyes widened when he saw her. "So you were with Yamashin all along!"
"What's going on back in the village?" Miki ignored everything else and rushed to question Yamaha.
"Alright, take this conversation inside. We'll clean things up out here," Akio said, glancing around at the mess of bodies. He motioned for them to head back into the cave.
Miki nodded and led the others inside. Meanwhile, Akio and his team started clearing up the battlefield, tossing all the bodies into the valley below. The pile of corpses—mostly from Kanzu no Kuni—was already forming a small mountain.
By the time they finished and returned, the folks in the cave had already wrapped up their talk.
Turns out the whole thing had been a trap set by Mitsu no Kuni. Miyage had faked his death and had already taken over Kanzu no Kuni's main base. The daimyo of Kanzu no Kuni was probably already dead. They were just waiting for someone like Yamashin to kill the fake Miyage back in Mitsuhana Village—once that happened, the war between the two nations would be over, and Mitsu no Kuni would come out on top.
Miki being hunted was just the first step in creating that illusion. The plan was nearly complete—until Miki turned around and came back with a whole crew of Konoha ninjas.
"So… did I just mess everything up?" Miki asked quietly, head down.
"Not really," Yamaha replied. "Those four chunin were legit traitors. You actually helped us deal with them. And now that we've wiped out so many of Kanzu no Kuni's ninjas, their forces are basically crippled."
"How many do they have left?" Akio asked, turning to Yamaha.
"One Kage-level ninja, two from the Anbu, two jonin, and a dozen or so genin. With your strength, you guys could storm in and take them out no problem," Yamaha answered. He didn't underestimate Akio at all—he'd seen everything the kid could do. Akio was strong.
"To settle this war between two nations... we're talking one Kage-level, four Anbu, five jonin, twelve chunin, and thirty-three genin. That's an A-rank mission just by the jonin alone. Factor in the four Anbu—this easily becomes S-rank. Throw in a Kage-level enemy and rescuing a nation… yeah, that's SS-rank material. I want three million ryo for this mission," Akio said, looking up at the ceiling of the cave.
"Three million?!" Yamaha's eyes nearly popped out of his head. That was no small amount of money.
"Deal!" Miki agreed immediately. No matter what, they owed this to the Konoha team—especially since she'd basically tricked them into coming in the first place. She had to take responsibility.
The Third Hokage, watching from the side, nodded in satisfaction. Akio really knew how to secure benefits for the Leaf Village. Just like that, he got them three million ryo. He wasn't just powerful—he had brains and political savvy too. The more the Third saw of him, the more he liked him.
"Alright then," Akio said with a grin. "Let's rest up for a couple days, then we'll go straight to Mitsuhana Village and finish this."
He leaned against the cave wall, but then suddenly sat up straight. He pulled a kunai from his pouch.
"Just remembered something." He infused the kunai with lightning chakra and threw it. It pierced straight through the skull of one of the captured chunin. Now, the only prisoner left was Biji—the traitor ninja.
"He's all yours to deal with," Akio said, dragging the dead chunin's body to the back of the cave. The body had been chewed up pretty bad—chunks of flesh were missing. It was a bloody mess. Akio gulped, trying not to gag, and tossed the new corpse on top of it before walking away.
"Biji, since you were all about betraying your country, it's not our place to punish you. I'll hand you over to Lord Miyage. He'll decide your fate," Yamaha said, staring coldly at Biji.
"I understand, Lord Yamaha," Biji said, lowering his head. He didn't dare meet Yamaha or Miki's eyes.
When Akio came back out, he saw Tenten sitting by the fire, wrapping a bandage around her hand.
"You're hurt?" he asked as he walked over.
"It's nothing—just a little scratch," she replied, still wrapping.
"Let me do it." Akio took the bandage from her. "You're not doing it right."
"....."