Chapter 75: Masato Vs Genins
Masato Vs Mieko & Hoka -
While Fujin had engaged the enemy genins, Hoka and Mieko were fighting against Masato.
Masato had dealt with the initial attacks from Mieko and Hoka with extreme ease and even injured Hoka slightly.
Mieko noticed the cut on his chest and asked Hoka without taking her eye off Masato, "Can you still fight?"
Hoka replied, "Of course. Let's attack!"
However, before they could attack, Masato moved forward at a fast speed and swung his sword again.
Mieko took a step ahead and blocked his sword with her kunai. She kept trying to look into his eyes, but he always avoided eye contact with her.
Seeing that Mieko had blocked his sword, Hoka attacked him with Gentle fist once again.
Seeing Hoka attack again, Masato just jumped back and retreated. This time, Hoka didn't chase and stood with Mieko.
Masato observed the two being careful and sighed, 'It's unfortunate that there is so much debris here. I can't use Earth jutsus at all!'
Hoka too couldn't use Earth Release jutsus, but he didn't mind it as he preferred Taijutsu over Ninjutsu.
Masato was about to attack again when he noticed that Fujin was cutting down his genins with ease, 'Tsk. I should help them.'
Mieko and Hoka noticed him getting distracted and attacked him once again. Mieko once again used 'Fire Release : Four jutsu'
Masato quickly dodged but was once again flanked by Hoka. Learning from the past two failed attempts, this time Hoka attacks with a kunai. Masato blocks but Hoka continues his attack with his other hand, trying to seal his chakra points.
Masato uses the force Hoka is putting in his kunai attack to jump back. Before Mieko and Hoka could press on their attack, he ran towards Fujin. But he was quickly attacked by 2 Wind Explosion jutsu by the Wind clone Fujin left to keep an eye on him.
The Wind Explosion wasn't actually targeted at Masato. Instead, the clone launched them in such a way that they would cut off his path. They exploded even before reaching them and threatening him with the winds generated. He had to move back to avoid the winds, leading him back to Mieko and Hoka.
They quickly attacked him, but Masato defended himself again. Only, it was more difficult this time. Mieko finally found an opening, and kicked his stomach, sending him flying behind.
While he was sent flying, Masato thought, 'These kids are strong! Even if I fought only one at a time, I'll have a hard time defeating them without Earth Release!'
Hoka was about to attack again when he noticed Mieko making a few hand signs. He quickly moved out of the way. Masato too noticed the hand signs.
Mieko finished making her hand signs, 'Fireball jutsu'
A huge Fireball moved toward Masato rapidly. Hoka followed the Fireball from the left, 'If he dodges here, I'll get him.'
Masato, noticing Hoka, dodged to the other side. The fireball reached his original location and exploded. Since the debris underneath was mainly wood, it set off another fire. The explosion also sent a lot of burning wood flying in every direction.
Masato, even after dodging, had to use his sword to block a couple of burning logs flying toward him. The smoke and dust created by the explosion and fire engulfed him.
Noticing the opportunity, Mieko threw a few shurikens at Masato. Hoka got back to Mieko's position, as fire blocked his straight route to Masato.
Masato heard the sound of shurikens flying. He quickly jumped to his left, while frowning, 'I need to get out of this smokescreen. Both of them have doujutsu. I'll be severely disadvantaged here.'
However, even after moving, 3 shurikens came at him. He blocked one with his sword, and barely dodged the other 2. One of the shurikens left a cut on his right cheek. While the other shuriken missed his abdomen from the left by a few inches.
He sighed in relief after dodging them when he suddenly felt a sense of crisis! He felt 2 strings, 1 touching right where the cut was left, while another on the left side of his abdomen, 'Fuck! The shurikens had strings attached.'
Masato quickly made a hand sign.
Mieko smirked on seeing that Masato fell for the strings. She pulled them so that they trap him and the shurikens return to hit him in the back.
Hoka too observed with his Byakugan. He saw that Masato got trapped by the strings and the shurikens hitting his back. However, he changed into a log the next moment!
Hoka and Mieko noticed his chakra reappearing outside the smokescreen. He had a cut on his right cheek and his expression was very grim. He said, "You brats are very good."
As he said it, he was analyzing, 'It's very difficult to fight them here. I need to move to the ground. However, if I move, those genins will be all dead.'
While thinking, he turned his head to look at his genin underlings. He was shocked as his eyes met Fujin's eyes, 'All dead? So quickly? Fuck it!'
Having realized that Fujin would attack him too, he decided to move to the normal ground, 'The only worry now is if they attack Tomio and other chunins instead of following me. But if they do that, I can sneak attack them.'
On concluding his thoughts, he quickly tried moving out of the debris area and into the open field.
Mieko and Hoka noticed it and thought, 'Not good! He is trying to attack the merchants.'
Mieko quickly made a few hand signs and launched another jutsu, 'Phoenix Sage Fire jutsu.'
Small balls of Fire were fired on Masato's path, preventing him from getting away. Hoka used the distraction created by the fireballs to close the distance and attack Masato again.
This time, Masato counterattacked fiercely, making Hoka retreat. However, at the next moment, he felt the wind on his back. He quickly turned around and used his sword to block the incoming sword.
Fujin, noticing Masato's attempt to run away used Mieko's and Hoka's attacks as a distraction to attack.
After blocking the slash, Masato looked around and became worried. Fujin's clones were moving toward him. However, even before he could wonder what to do about them, another incident horrified him.
Fujin's sword cut his own Sword into two! He quickly released his sword and moved backward screaming his mind, 'WHAT THE FUCK?'
As he moved backward, he noticed Hoka moving rapidly toward him. Hoka smirked, 'Time to finish this.' He got into stance to perform Eight Trigrams.
Masato noticed Hoka's stance from the corner of his eyes. He quickly made a hand sign. All the 3 Genins noticed that it was the hand sign for Substitution jutsu. Hoka pressed on with his attack, while Fujin and Mieko prepared themselves by gathering chakra at their feet.
Hoka and Masato finally were about to make contact, when Masato substituted with another log of wood. As soon as he substituted, Mieko threw a bunch of shurikens so that he couldn't retreat anymore, while Fujin sent a flying slash at him.
Masato was on guard and moved out of the way. Unfortunately, the only way available for him was towards Hoka. He had a bitter expression on his face, 'These brats are relentless! I have no openings at all!'
Masato prepared to take Hoka head-on as Hoka rushed towards him. However, before he could engage Hoka, 2 shurikens stabbed him in his back! Fujin smirked, 'Projectile Control jutsu is really handy.'
When Masato's attention was occupied on Hoka, Fujin used Projectile Control jutsu on the shurikens Mieko had thrown and changed the direction of a couple of shurikens to hit him.
While the hits weren't lethal, they caused Masato great agony. And it finally provided Hoka with an opening. He immediately used 'Eight Trigrams : Sixteen palms' on him, closing a lot of his chakra points.
As soon as he was done, he moved behind. Mieko and Fujin both stepped in for the kill. They both flickered in. Mieko used 'Fire Release : Four jutsu' on his chest, right where his heart should be. While Fujin slashed his sword towards his neck.
In his final struggle, he tried stepping towards his left, so that he'll move away from Fujin's sword, and Mieko's jutsu wouldn't hit his vitals.
Mieko's jutsu hit the center of his chest, piercing through the Elite chunin's body. Fujin's sword missed Masato's neck by a few centimeters. But at the next moment, his head still flew off in the air due to the increased range from Wind Chakra flow.
Fujin, Hoka, and Mieko finally sighed in relief and were excited about managing to kill someone this strong without any aid from their sensei.
Masato, however, died in grief! He never got to use the jutsus he was most proficient in!
Renjiro's clone had observed the whole fight, 'Good. Though they made a few mistakes, overall their performance was very good. They were also very lucky though. That guy's nature affinity was probably Earth, and he couldn't use it due to the terrain.'
[A/N : Probably the last battle where Fujin and others fight under the supervision and complete protection of Renjiro. Need to stop babying them, lol]