Naruto: Akatsuki

Three blades met with a clang as Akashi struck twin Kiba blades against an enemy's sword.

The lightning, travelling from Kiba unto enemy's sword, proceeded to electrocute the enemy. Shocked and burned to crisp, enemy's grip over the sword loosened as he fell with a thud.

A seconds after, said Kiba blades were slicing through the torso of another enemy. The electricity from Kiba generated a scorching noises, one that not only sounded terrifying but induced a horrified scream of its victim.

Lightning flashed as Akashi swung blades at a blinding pace. Whoever stood in front of him were sliced into corpse. As he did so, his vision was filled with red everywhere, but his lone eye beyond the mask, dull and lifeless, seemed to reflect his steeled mind.

"There is just..."

Zabuza, already falling behind due to his wounded state and exhaustion, gritted his teeth as he found himself falling behind. The rate at which he swung his broadsword visibly slowed down, and his rate of breathing quicker and heavier than before.

How much time has passed? For how long have they been fighting?

It was a sheer bloodshed as the group managed to drill their way out of the inn onto the Yukigakure within the blizzard. Civilians locked their doors out of hopes that they will endure the storm, but here the ninjas were, outside, trying to deal with the foreigners.

"What is happening?!"

Watching as his ninjas were getting killed and were unable to subdue the group of four ninjas and one child, the leader from the back enraged.

Said leader was dressed in a unique, blue-coloured armour. Furthermore, judging by the burly feature of his physique, he wasn't someone to fret with from a first glance.

"It's just four!! Three since one is protecting that kid!! What are you doing?! In our home ground nonetheless?!"

By his side, a taller man, also wearing the same armour, narrowed his eyes. Calmly, he stated,

"...It seems that it's only one person. Though the rest seem to be taking a part as well, that man wearing a mask of Kiri's hunter nin... his swordsmanship is absurd."

"Then just who is that man?!"

"His features are well hidden, it is hard to make an astute judgment regarding his identity based on what we can currently see. However, I do recognize those blades... they are the Lightning Blades Kiba, one of the seven mystical swords of Kiri."

"So he is one of the Seven Swordsmen?!"

"Yes, I'd assume so."

The blizzard continued to rage. The ninjas' visions were obscured as the swirl of snow suddenly expanded, momentarily pausing the battle.

"Fire Release,"

Taking this moment as a chance, Mei quickly formed a series of hand seal. Her cheeks bellowed before she once again spat out numerous balls of fire,

"Pheonix Sage Fire!"

The balls of fire melted snow all around and generated vapours, ones that mixed into the ongoing blizzard and further obscured vision.

Eventually, it settled into a form of a mist and spread out wide, which was exactly what Mei intended.

"Hiding In Mist Technique."

The imbuing of the chakra unto mist effectively thickened the mist.

"This is...!"

The leader of Yukigakure's ninjas widened his eyes. However, he then snorted in a mockery,

"Mist? When the storm is raging all over? Idiotic!"

Just as he mentioned, the thick mist only lasted a couple of seconds before it was picked up by the wind yet again.

And a couple of seconds—though it would've been more than enough for Akashi to escape by himself, it was a different story when there were three injured ones plus a child to look after.

However, those couple of seconds were enough to launch a surprise attack.

"Tck—!"

Raising his arms, the leader of Yuki ninjas barely managed to block the strikes of Kiba blades. The electricity flashed and he found his feet skidding back to resist the force of Akashi's strikes.

Akashi didn't run. Instead, he dove into the middle of the Yuki ninjas, fearlessly.

"Ha... hahaha!!!"

Lowering his arms, the leader laughed as he glared at Akashi.

"Foolish!! You are going against the entire nation!! You should've ran when you had the chance!!"

Silently, Akashi looked around. Within a second, he was surrounded by numerous ninjas. Some seemed afraid of his feats, while some grinned, thinking that they had him cornered.

His lone eye beyond the mask then shifted, observing the armour that the leader and another ninja next to him were wearing.

'The lightning was deflected. The armour is unlike any other that I've seen before.'

Judging by how only the two of them were wearing, the development of this unique armour seemed to require a huge investment. Nonetheless, Akashi deduced that if this armour is able to be mass produced, Yukigakure may have a competency to partake the Third Shinobi World War.

"We harbour no ill intention."

Akashi spoke, without an emotion.

"If things are to end here and you let us go, Kiri will consider this as a debt to Yuki and will promise to compensate appropriately."

The leader raised an eyebrow. He raised his hand, stopping the Yuki ninjas from jumping on Akashi and others at the back. It wasn't that he was convinced by Akashi's words, but rather, amused.

And of course, Akashi too was aware. A deep infiltration into Yukigakure meant that they may have stolen the confidential information of Yuki, that there may be a spy in the village. Yukigakure, no matter what, had to capture them and interrogate them to ensure that there was no leakage of information—apart from the potential advantage that they can gain from having Terumi Mei as a captive.

"What if we don't?"

The leader snorted as he asked.

"Then..."

Akashi lazily declared,

"Yukigakure will lose its priced soldiers today."

"Ha...! What confidence!"

The leader, out of genuine curiosity, asked another,

"Who are you then, to think that you are able to take out all of us?"

"A shinobi of Kiri. What else?"

Akashi replied,

"Isn't it for a fact that ninjas of Kiri far surpass the worthless ones such as you?"

"...Hm."

The leader frowned, obviously angered by Akashi's mockery. Raising his hand, he clenched it into a fist, signalling everyone to attack Akashi.

'Hah,'

And Akashi couldn't help but snort at that. A little taunt was enough... for ninjas to focus on Akashi than the more vulnerable four at the back.

This told him that compared to their gears and well-thought out formations, their combat experience was low. He supposed that it was to be expected, since no other nation was interested in lands of Yuki, and thus, they rarely had chance to fight.

"""Ice Release: Ice Wall!"""

'Ice? Bloodline limit... no. They are simply utilizing the already existing ice. By essence, it works the same way as the Water Release.'

The ninjas from three sides slammed their hands on the snowy ground. The walls of ice rose around Akashi, leaving only one opening. From the open end, the ninjas spat out ice,

"""Ice Release: ice Bullet!"""

"No!"

Seeing that Akashi was completely surrounded, Mei's hands went through hand seals, only for her to sway while coughing blood—signalling how low her chakra reserve was.

"Mei!"

"Mei-sama!"

Gai and Ao shouted out of worry. Zabuza, seeing that Akashi was in a trouble, lifted the broadsword that he previously stabbed on the ground to support his weight, intending to help Akashi.

However, Zabuza froze as he saw what happened next.

The blades, imbued in lightning—they were slicing through the ice bullets that travelled at a rapid speed. Moving at a blinding speed, Akashi flicked Kiba blades as if their weights were as light as a feather.

The ice shards splattered all around as ice bullets were sliced and parried. The ice walls began to crumble as ice shards struck them. The ice particles rose akin to a dust and caused Yuki ninjas to shield their faces.

'W-What is that speed?!'

Zabuza was well aware that Akashi's chakra nature was fire. If there was one thing that 'Red Blade' was well known for, it was his ability to imbue his sword with fire; informants said that his fire ninjutsu was what made him belong to a level of S-ranked criminal.

Currently, he was wearing the facade of 'Taka', an individual whose specialty didn't lie in ninjutsu, one whose nature wasn't fire. Akashi, without his greatest strength, only had his blades and basic ninjutsus that he knew to rely on.

And these were enough to deal with numerous ninjas—all by himself. Zabuza found a chill creeping down his spine as he wondered just what Akashi went through to attain the strength of this feat.

The twin blades danced. Lightning flickered here and there as Akashi moved within the crowd of Yuki ninjas, breaking their formations and disrupting order.

Initially, sharp weapons flew in the air, broken and unusable, as they clashed against Akashi's Kiba blades. It was strange, considering how in comparison to those weapons, Akashi's Kibas remained fine and intact, totally undamaged.

Zabuza saw that it was thanks to Akashi covering those blades with his chakra. His eyes eventually widened as he saw that said chakra has underwent the nature transformation into wind.

Wind, while protecting blades and increasing their sharpness, directly interrupted lightning. By doing this, The lightning generated by Kiba blades were technically minimal—or not.

'How is that possible?'

The lightning, concentrated in a form of high-voltage electricity within the blade, wasn't dispersed. the wind, forming a sharp layer atop, didn't interrupt lightning—the two different elements somehow co-existed, and Zabuza couldn't fathom how much concentration and expertise on the chakra control this feat required.

The wind severed ice. Lightning, generating heat, melted it. The combination of these two effectively nullified the ice release of enemies and cut through the matter like a butter.

In a couple of minutes, roughly twenty percent of Yuki ninjas were on the snowy ground, rolling lifelessly. Seeing this, the others slowly lost their confidence and eventually, began to back away.

Even if they were the trained ninjas, they were humans as well in the end. Akashi in front of them was something akin to a monster, unbeatable.

Waking up from the trance, Zabuza shook his head. Turning around, he quickly signalled others,

'We have to get out of here while they have attention focused elsewhere!'

Mei and Ao nodded in agreement, getting out of daze. Quickly, they ran away with their chakra-imbued feet not leaving a footprint behind.

"What are you doing?!!"

And meanwhile, the leader shrieked at his ninjas.

"Get him!!"

Yet, no one moved, overtaken by Akashi's presence.

Standing atop the reddened snow, Akashi gazed at Kibas for a moment.

Hiding the exhaustion that started to build up in him within the mask, Akashi acted as if he was unfazed.

'I can't last forever. There's limit to how much I can do without revealing all my cards. Revealing all my cards means that I have to reveal my identity as well.'

Thankfully, others retreated. Now, Akashi had to think of an effective way to stall their attention on him before losing the chase.

"Damn it... you useless pieces of shit...!!!"

And seeing how the atmosphere was in Akashi's favour and no one was listening to his order, the leader finally began to move, marching forward at Akashi with rage in him.

The leader raised his huge fists, also covered by the glove sections of armour.

Atop of them, the snow below floated up and gathered into a thick ice, covering his fists in a form of ice gauntlet.

"Ice Release: Ice Gauntlet!"

Funnily enough, the ninjas by the sides were watching without interruption, filled with fear.

Finding this situation amusing and feeling as if he was in some form of arena, Akashi prepared as the leader moved his huge body, beginning to dash at Akashi with a thick killing intent.

Raising Kiba, the blade met gauntlet with a thunderous noise.