"Bounty? What Bounty?" Seimei asked the leader of the group of unidentified ninjas, who could very well be bounty hunters eyeing Seimei and his friends with malicious gazes.
The leader froze for a moment before looking at Seimei with a smirk. "Hehe…no one told you about your bounty, huh?"
"That's full 25 million Ryo."
"Now, how about coming with us quietly? If you don't resist, we won't have to kill you. Although you will be sold to the one who posted this bounty, you will at least get to live."
"After all, he asked me to deliver you alive if possible."
Hearing this, Seimei narrowed his eyes and asked, "And who might that be? The one who posted the bounty?"
The other Jonin-level ninja interjected, "You will naturally know if you follow us."
"Don't even think about resisting. It's futile. You may have Chunin-level strength, but that's useless against us. You and your little buddies are destined to lose."
Seimei, still calm and composed, nodded. "I see. I think the interclass competition three years ago scared some enemies. So, they now want to deal with me, my friends, and anyone who showed potential to surpass the Elite-Jonin level."
He continued, "I should have checked the Bingo book. But it doesn't matter. I will check once I get back."
Another Chunin-level ninja scoffed at Seimei. "You think you can leave, boy? You are coming with us, alive or dead."
This time, even Seimei couldn't help but show a hint of disdain toward the ninja who just threatened him.
Seimei's Tenseigan glowed with a faint ocean-blue light as he asked in an amused voice, "Oh? Do you think you eight are enough to deal with us?"
"Interesting!"
"Let me give a fair deal."
"Surrender. And come with us to Konoha. Spill everything you know, including the reason for lurking around here at this time. You will be detained. But at least, you will live."
Seimei's lips curled up in a smirk as he continued, "As a prisoner, that is."
The leader chuckled coldly. "Really now? Okay, enough talk."
Then, the leader turned his head toward his seven subordinates and commanded, "Get them."
Hearing the command, the seven unidentified ninjas, including the Jonin-level vice-captain, leaped into action.
Tsk~
And here I thought I could probably make them talk a bit more. If I could have made him talk about his origin, it would have been perfect.
Never mind. Once we capture them and have Touma use Sharingan Genjutsu on them, they will talk like parrots.
Playing mind games clearly isn't my forte, anyway?
I may have silvery hair, not a silver tongue.
Well, I am an Otsutsuki, not a Grindelwald. So, it makes sense.
Seimei thought inwardly as he quickly said, "Kill the Chunin and cripple the Jonin. At the very least, keep that fish-faced Jonin leader of theirs alive."
Hearing this, Touma grinned. His murderous intent flared as he watched the seven unidentified ninjas charging at them. "I was waiting for you to say that."
Touma unsheathed his short sword and channeled fire chakra through it, making the blade turn red, which caused the air around the blade to distort in intense heat.
Then, with the blade that could cut through bones like butter, Touma dashed forward to intercept the incoming ninjas.
Seimei sighed, unsheathed his own ninjato, and said, "There he goes again, always charging forward. Disrupt them, Haneda."
"Gotcha," Haneda said as he quickly formed hand seals and slammed his palm into the ground.
Earth Release: Reverse Antlion Technique
The earth under the feet of the incoming unidentified ninjas moved as if it had come alive. The earth tried to grab onto their feet and halt their momentum.
"Don't put your feet on the ground in front of you. Step aside," The Jonin-level vice captain shouted as he moved sideways to dodge the Ninjutsu that tried to encase his feet and trap him.
The other six ninjas also tried to react swiftly.
Four of the six Chunin dodged, but the remaining two were still too late to react.
The earth beneath their feet quickly rose and enclosed them from their legs, torso, and hands, all the way up to their necks. They felt a crushing pressure all over their enclosed bodies, making it almost impossible for them to move their bodies.
The two trapped Chunin-level ninjas tried to reinforce their bodies with chakra and wanted to ask their companions to free them.
However, before they could even utter a single word, two gleaming blades, one scorching red and the other vibrating with purple lightning, flashed before their eyes.
And before they could even process what was going on, their heads separated from their bodies and flew into the air.
They didn't even realize how they died.
Blood gushed from the necks of the two dead ninjas trapped within the enclosed earth. Behind them, Seimei and Touma appeared, holding their crackling ninjato covered in dense lightning chakra and scorching hot short sword with tongues of flames licking the blade, respectively.
It was as clear as a blue, cloudless sky who was responsible for the swift deaths of the trapped ninjas.
But they didn't dwell on it. Before the heads of the dead ninjas could even hit the ground, Seimei and Touma used the Body Flicker Technique to vanish from their spots again.
The other five ninjas who were retreating sideways, including the Jonin-level vice-captain, had witnessed all this. Their pupils contracted with terror, and they felt an inexplicable chill running down their spines.
Never had they thought that the kids they were planning to capture would kill two of their own in under a second with such ruthless efficiency.
Clearly, these kids weren't normal.
But it was too late to regret now.
Seimei and Touma were already on their way to deal with the other five ninjas, who had retreated sideways to avoid being entangled in Ishimori Haneda's sudden Reverse Antlion Technique.
Touma went after two Chunin-level ninjas retreating to the left, while Seimei had gone after the two Chunin and one Jonin retreating toward the right side.
They wanted to retreat again.
However, before they could react, multiple thick, tall walls made of hardened earth erupted from the ground, swiftly cutting off their retreat routes.
These walls even had sharp spikes protruding from them, making them incredibly deadly as they would impale any unfortunate ninja who crashed onto the walls.
They would turn into literal human pincushions stuck to the walls, painting the walls in vibrant red colors. Of course, the paints are the very blood of the souls unfortunate enough to be impaled.
As a result, the unidentified ninjas could only halt their retreat.
Seeing their retreat paths cut off, the unidentified ninjas could only curse Seimei and his friends in their minds.
Meanwhile, Seimei gave Haneda a mental thumbs up. Nice job, Haneda.
With his Tenseigan's 360-degree vision and perception, he had clearly witnessed Haneda channeling his chakra to the ground and casting the modified Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall Jutsu.
And Seimei wasn't one to miss the chance to take his enemies out swiftly.
He reinforced his entire body with even more chakra and used the Thunder Body Flicker Technique to instantly appear in front of the Jonin-level vice-captain with a flash of purple lightning arcs.
Then, he attacked the Jonin-level vice-captain with an upward slash with a diagonal trajectory, tracing from the left side to the right as his ninjato moved upwards.
Seimei's blade was charged with dense lightning chakra, causing the blade to vibrate with a high frequency.
If this attack hit a human body, even if ninjas strengthened themselves with chakra or Earth Release Ninjutsu, they would still face a miserable fate.
And the Jonin-level captain knew that well.
So, with a kunai in his left hand, he tried to block Seimei's lightning-charged ninjato. He wanted to use the rebound force generated by the collision of the blade and the kunai to retreat safely.
Unfortunately, fate had other plans for him.
The moment Seimei's blade and the kunai met, the kunai exploded into countless pieces, which shot toward the unidentified Jonin-level ninja like bullets.
The broken fragments of kunai pierced through the ninja's flesh. Fortunately, the ninja had reinforced his body with chakra, causing him to suffer only surface-level flesh wounds.
Otherwise, the kunai fragments would have pierced through his internal organs, sending the ninja's soul to meet his maker right then and there.
The ninja wanted to scream in pain, but his misery didn't end there.
Seimei's lightning-infused blade kept moving forward and separated the left hand of the ninja from his shoulder as smoothly as a hot knife running through a block of butter.
And to make things even worse and painful, the lightning chakra in Seimei's blade rampaged on the ninja's fresh wound on his left shoulder.
Lightning chakra literally cauterized his wound and paralyzed him.
He really wanted to scream and cry, but he couldn't even muster enough strength to do that. He was completely paralyzed by lightning, after all.
Seeing this, Seimei grinned and slammed his left hand on the ninja's shoulder.
Sealing Arts: Chakra-Suppressing Seal
Sealing Arts: Self-Cursing Seal
Seimei cast two sealing techniques to lock away his chakra and restrict his physical movements, completely sealing his fate for good.
At that moment, a Chunin-level ninja suddenly appeared beside him and thrust a kunai at Seimei's neck.
Unfortunately for him, Seimei could see every single one of his movements even without turning his head, thanks to the Tenseigan.
Seimei smirked as he swayed his body toward his right, causing the kunai thrust to pass through his left, hitting nothing but empty air.
The Chunin's eyes widened in shock. But before he could retract his arm, Seimei turned around. A glowing, blue orb of rotating chakra suddenly formed on his left hand.
Rasengan
Seimei smashed his left hand, which contained a deadly Rasengan, on the Chunin-level ninja's chest.
"Ahhhhhh"
The ninja screamed as the Rasengan tore through his clothes, skin, muscles, bones, and internal organs, completely obliterating his body with devastating spinning chakra.
Whoosh
The sheer force of Rasengan caused the ninja to fly backwards like a rocket.
Thud!!
And when his body hit the ground, he was already dead.
Seeing Seimei busy with the Chunin, the last Chunin-level ninja quickly formed hand seals and unleashed a deadly Ninjutsu toward Seimei.
Water Release: Rising Water Slicer
A linear wave of water, as high as four meters, rose from the ground and traveled toward Seimei at high speed. The vertical water wave had enough cutting power to slice through stones like a knife passing through soft tofu.
But before the water wave could reach Seimei, he disappeared from the spot with a flash of thunder.
He reappeared behind the ninja who had just cast the Ninjutsu and complimented, "That Ninjutsu just now was nice!"
The ninja tried to turn his head around. However, before he could do that, the blade of Seimei's ninjato passed through his neck, decapitating him in an instant.
Thud!! Thud!!
As the ninja's decapitated head and the headless body fell to the ground, Seimei turned his head around in Touma's direction. There, Seimei saw Touma beheading the last Chunin and turning his head back toward him.
From the vacant eyes of Touma's dead enemies, it was clear that Touma trapped them in a Genjutsu before finishing them off.
The battle to deal with the seven ninjas might have seemed long, but in reality, the entire battle, from start to finish, ended in five seconds.
Because of that, Seimei couldn't help but comment, "Tsk! These guys couldn't even resist properly."
Meanwhile, the leader of these unidentified ninjas looked at the scene with both shock and horror.
The entire battle ended in a flash. He couldn't even get the chance to react or act.
His mind was swirling with a few existential questions.
Who am I? Where am I? What the fuck is going on here?
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