Naruto: The Blind Swordsman

Chapter 83: A Swordsman’s Anguish, Struggle and Demise

chapter 83: a swordsman’s anguish, struggle and demise

_________ pov narration _________

kushimaru panted as he looked around him warily.

his body was filled with small cuts, his arms had suffered the most, and the hand he was using to manipulate his wire had most of its fingers almost cut off from the strain he put them under.

all of the trees around him had been cleared, to the point where kushimaru was finally able to get a breather and restrategize his approach to his opponent...

or, it was more accurate to say 'opponents'.

the little girl seemed to have been the one to set up the traps, she was also constantly throwing projectile weapons towards him, but he was able to reflect those almost reflexively regardless of his injuries.

it was child's play for someone like kushimaru, no matter how well-aimed they were.

but the bigger threat to his life was the one-legged masked assassin...

the young man proved to be the bane of kushimaru's very existence, his speed was overwhelming enough, to the point where kushimaru could barely even react to it.

he was sure that the assassin he was fighting could easily make a very frightful reputation for himself if he decided to participate in the third shinobi war.

he hopped around everywhere, gaining momentum as he seemed to step on the air itself, gaining more and more speed and attacking kushimaru with both extreme strength and speed.

his attacks consisted of either slashes with a tanto, or axe kicks that kushimaru could barely even avoid. the axe kicks were the most dangerous, as the jonin was quite sure he'd be taken out of the fight if he was actually hit by one.

every time kushimaru tried to attack the one-legged assassin, he seemed to be able to move and avoid it. it didn't matter if he was in the middle of an attack, just landed on the ground, or still in mid-air.

his movement technique was just that absurd...

kushimaru was still able to block most of his attacks, relying on his superior instincts and experience.

tatsukio, the one-legged assassin, still managed to land a few hits on kushimaru, but the elite jonin always made sure to protect his vitals.

but even with his vitals protected, he was still slowly losing too much blood.

it was already becoming an issue, and the assassins that were attacking him weren't relenting at all.

he may have gotten rid of most of the wire traps around him, but he was still far from breaking through the blockade that was around him.

for now, the most he actually managed to do was build some sort of perimeter around him using his own wire. his nuibari also managed to stab one of the assassins that were coming after him.

he had managed to injure him, but it was both not in a vital spot, and a rather bad trade, as kushimaru was slashed three times in the back because of it.

it was an encirclement that he simply wasn't able to break out of on his own. his style of fighting was not as bombastic as that of jimpachi.

even so, he was able to hold his ground and even gained some downtime which allowed him to think of a way out...

"you're no fun mister~! always so cautious, so boring! i bet you've never had a girlfriend!" the little girl's voice always mocked him, but he ignored it.

he realised that she was just trying to psyche him out. he was far too experienced to fall for such tricks though...l--b1n.

"it would be so nice of you to shut up from time to time..." kushimaru still ended up responding to her, not provoked by her words, just wishing for some silence from her grating voice.

someone so innocent sounding and deceitfully sadistic was always grating to the ears to listen to, at least for kushimaru.

he preferred it when sadists didn't hide their intentions behind an innocent-sounding voice.

there was also a rather clear pattern... every time she spoke out to him, she would throw some projectile towards him...

with a sigh, he tilted his head to the side, dodging a rather large windmill shuriken, which didn't even graze his shoulder, passing by only one millimetre away from it.

"heheh~ you're sooo... slow!"

the second that last word came out of the girl's mouth, kushimaru's eyes widened as he heard a puff of smoke from behind him.

his gaze immediately darted towards the shuriken he had just dodged, only to see another masked assassin, stabbing a blade towards his chest.

just as the jonin was about to dodge...

"earth release: antlion technique!"

the very ground underneath his feet caved in, sucking his legs in. it was as if a hole had opened up underneath him, and the ground around him was being pulled in from all sides.

but he was already far too weak to speak up, mere moments away from his final rest. kushimari knew that the next moment he closed his eyes would be his last.

'i hope the red dot's vengeance ends here... may the mist be spared from his wrath...'

those were kushimaru's last thoughts as he left the world.

ken stood over him still, listening as the mist swordsman's heart stopped beating.

he stayed like that for a moment, seemingly trying to search for something... before he sighed and turned his head towards the children that had taken him down with their collective effort.

"... good job children..."

the masked assassins seemed to take great pride in hearing ken's praise, all of them seemed to tremble slightly, before managing to suppress their excitement.

"teacher! were you here the entire time?!" yue walked up to him in a casual manner, skipping towards him with a wide smile spreading underneath her mask.

tatsukio just crossed his arms and leaned on a fallen tree trunk nearby. he did also enjoy ken's praise, but he was already accustomed to it, so he could hide his excitement when getting it.

"i was here for a while... but i was watching over all of you the entire time..." ken tilted his head as he 'looked' at yue, who seemed to be pouting underneath her mask.

although he couldn't 'see' it, he could still tell from her mannerisms, as he had gotten to know her very well already.

"what? you didn't trust us to take care of him? c'mon, master~" yue seemed to be quite offended at the notion, but the other assassins nearby didn't dare to.

they all took it as a compliment.

'a proper father will always be concerned for his children's well-being.'

if it wasn't already apparent by the extensive training they all had to do before even thinking about going into the field. the well-being of the children was at the forefront of the dark brotherhood's concerns.

"you are all still essentially in your internship periods... i let you deal with him since i knew you would be able to do so in theory... you did exceed all of my expectations as well, which is a pleasant surprise."

ken took another appreciative 'look' over his students as he spoke out.

yue seemed to still be offended at the insinuation that ken didn't trust them enough, but she ended up letting it go.

she could easily understand where ken was coming from. the man they were facing was stronger than anything they had faced in the past. they also struggled against him quite a bit.

to the point where the initial traps were broken down before they managed to take him down and they had to improvise.

it was still essentially a flawless success, but one of their own did still get injured a bit.

"now then... you all should go rest... nr. 15 can go to the second blade and get healed up properly... he'll come to you as soon as you leave the barrier." all of the children noticed and became blurs as they ran away on ken's orders.

yue and tatsukio were the only ones to linger for a few more seconds.

the little girl-turned-assassin looked towards her teacher with a bit of concern.

"sir ken... you always taught us that being emotional while killing others was a big mistake... please do try to live up to your teachings..."

that was all she said before she turned around and left. tatsukio didn't say anything in particular. he merely gave ken an understanding look before turning around.

as a war orphan, he understood the desire for revenge... so he was in no place to judge his beloved teacher and... father.

even if yue and tatsukio wanted to stick around, they didn't want to interfere with whatever other plans ken had with the mist swordsmen.

ken didn't react much to yue's words. he merely sighed and grabbed kushimaru's blade, placed it in a scroll that he took out from his wrist, and walked off.

he turned into a blur after a while, headed elsewhere.

'... let's see how jimpachi is faring in his 'explosive trial'...'

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hope you enjoyed today's government-sanctioned torture session!

btw, i had a lot of fun writing about the punishments the 7 swordsmen got, they get pretty sadistic, just so you know.

dunno what that says about me, but it was fun :)

if u want to support me look up veganmaster on patre_on, you'd also get 12 chapters in advance (or 6/3 depending on tier)