"Hah hah hah hah!"
The man was still laughing at the top of his lungs as the dust slowly began to settle. While he scanned the surroundings, clearly searching for a corpse, he heard something whistle past his ear and then nothing.
By reflex, he brought his hand to the spot that had been hit, only to discover that a piece of his ear was missing. The warm liquid didn't hesitate to start flowing.
"Fuck!" he cursed instantly, spinning around to see his previously severed arm still gripping its sword embedded a little farther away in the doorframe. If his head had been just a little more to the left, that really would have been the end of him. Killed by his own limb these days, loyalty was really hard to come by.
"Son of a bitch…" Takeshi swore, brushing himself off and wiping away some dust. "…I'd completely forgotten about those things."
His time in prison, fucking Mei every which way, had made him forget for a moment that he was in the Naruto universe. If he hadn't remembered at the last second that the piece of paper attached to the back of the kunai could be a sealing tag, he would have been turned into minced meat.
How did that dog dare pull such a dirty trick on me… The more he thought about it, the harder it was to contain his anger. Originally, he had planned to toy with him, extract some useful information, then kill him… but now the only thing he wanted was to slaughter that dog in the most horrible way possible.
On his side, the man seemed to realize that Takeshi wasn't dead he had failed miserably. Fate was playing a cruel joke on him; the smug smile he'd worn vanished instantly when he saw a silhouette emerge from the cloud of dust.
"Why won't you just fucking die already…?" he cursed, his face sagging.
"I'll throw that question right back at you," Takeshi replied, lunging toward him, katana raised and aimed at his head.
[Suiton: Water Bullets]
Five water bullets formed rapidly, shooting toward Takeshi at high speed. He stopped dead in his tracks. With a slanted swing, he blocked two of them, then bent down to let the others pass.
But his enemy wasn't finished yet. Seeing that he was doomed anyway, he chose to fight with everything he had left.
[Suiton: Water Dragon]
Takeshi didn't even have time to straighten up before a gigantic water dragon rushed toward him at full speed.
"Fuck," he growled. He didn't have enough time to dodge.
[Yoton: Molten Rock]
The temperature suddenly spiked.
Boom
With a deafening crash, molten rocks slammed head-on into the dragon, releasing a thick, scalding steam. Takeshi had to retreat quickly, taking cover a little farther away.
"One more second and I'd have been cooked…" he muttered, wiping his forehead. But the very next second, he plunged back into the steam, closing the distance with his enemy.
After his previous attack, the man looked pale and out of breath. After all, the water dragon must have consumed a huge amount of chakra and he hadn't been in top shape to begin with.
He didn't even have time to catch his breath before he saw the tip of Takeshi's blade emerge from the steam and sink into his left thigh.
"Shit…" he groaned, pain shooting through him. Instinctively, with his only remaining hand, he grabbed the blade and pulled it out while quickly backing away.
"You should've just calmly answered my questions, asshole," Takeshi said as he bent down to pick up his weapon. "Look where that got you…"
"…Answer, my ass…" the man said between labored breaths. He had reached his limit. "…I'd rather die…"
Gripping his kunai tightly, his gaze was filled with determination to finish what he had started.
Takeshi simply looked at him, his face serious.
"First question…" he growled, taking a step forward. "Who are you?"
The next instant, he vanished from his spot, reappearing right in front of the man's stunned eyes as he swallowed hard.
"So he wasn't going all out…" he muttered, raising his kunai to block the attack.
The metallic clash rang out, sparks flying as the man was pushed back three steps, his hand trembling faintly.
"Second question," Takeshi continued, his face impassive. "Why did you attack this village?"
Struggling to catch his breath, the man blinked only to realize that Takeshi had vanished once again.
"Damn it… my side…" he groaned as Takeshi reappeared beside him yet again. This time, he wasn't fast enough. The edge of the blade left an ugly diagonal gash on his right flank, blood pouring out.
"Third question…" Takeshi said coldly. "Who is your leader?"
The man didn't even have time to recover from his wound. His body screamed in pain; he was bleeding everywhere, and the stump of his arm started bleeding again from the sudden movements. What god had he offended to run into a madman like this? If he'd known, he would've just kept his mouth shut and slipped away quietly when he first saw him… but it was far too late now.
"Alright… I I'll talk!" he shouted, squeezing his eyes shut.
A few seconds passed still nothing. No new pain. For a brief moment, he thought he was dead, but the throbbing agony quickly proved otherwise. So he decided to open his eyes, and what he saw made him gulp.
The blade had stopped precisely next to his carotid artery. If he hadn't opened his mouth, he would've been decapitated on the spot. Takeshi, meanwhile, remained with his arm extended, clearly waiting for him to speak.
Without hesitation, the man began talking.
"I I'm just a simple third-rank soldier, so I I've never seen the leader… there are only rumors saying he's powerful, and that there isn't just one leader…"
"Not just one…" Takeshi paused, lowering his weapon and thinking. What kind of bullshit was this now? What sort of organization was this? Just thinking about it gave him a headache. As if having six other reincarnates to kill wasn't enough he really didn't want to add more to the list. But… what if this was the work of one or more of those bastards?
"Who are you?" Takeshi finally asked, looking at the man kneeling before him.
"We are the Seventh Bastion of the rebels… led by the Seventh Wave. We attacked this city because we learned that the Mizukage was here…" he replied, tightening the bandage around his stump.
"Seventh Bastion, led by the Seventh Wave… what the hell is this mess? Since when did this universe become such a chaotic disaster…" Takeshi muttered. The more he heard, the more he wanted to get the hell out of here. As he was thinking, the man continued sharing what little he knew.
"As I said, the rebels seem to be led by seven leaders, known as the Seven Waves… each controls a different territory and they all aim to overthrow the current government… I don't know our leader… I'm too low in the hierarchy…"
Fuck… I'm not getting mixed up in this mess. I really wanted to stay and keep fucking Mei to improve my mastery of Yoton, but it's really not worth getting dragged into a political war… While the man kept talking, Takeshi had already made his decision: leave the Land of Water as soon as possible. Konoha couldn't be worse than this hell.
He was really starting to understand why this place was called the Bloody Mist. They're all insane… damn it.
"…That's all I know…" the man finally said.
"…Okay, I'm out of here," Takeshi replied casually.
The man's face lit up, seeing that this hell was finally over.
[Yoton: Lava Bullets]
Three molten bullets pierced the man's skull as he was about to stand up. His expression froze as he collapsed heavily onto his back. That bastard… he thought as his consciousness faded, leaving his lifeless body lying in a pool of blood.