'So there's gods... Gods spread their powers through things such as the two fingers and such?' Sasuke thought, drawing a diagram in his head as he thought about the information he knows of the Lands Between. 'Tarnished, which I am, come to the Lands Between to get the Elden Ring and become some sort of king to the land? Like become Hokage?'
The team had long set off on their journey with Tazuna. Naruto, being himself, had started making a fuss from the very beginning, but Sasuke had already zoned everything out as he delved deep into his thoughts.
'But the strength of Tarnished doesn't come into account to becoming the Elden lord since it's all governed by fate? Or Grace I guess..' As Sasuke tried piecing it together, he lowered his head and scratched his head in pure frustration. 'Is the owner of Stormveil Castle the current Elden Lord?'
As he was thinking of the different things, he spots two puddles in front of them. Frowning, he looked up into the sky. "Did it rain..?" He muttered silently, not seeing Kakashi glance at him in surprise.
He summoned his sheathed Uchigatana to his hip and unsheathed it.
*Shiiing...*
The sound attracts the attention of those around him. Confused, Naruto spoke up. "The hell are you doing idiot?!" He asked, pointing at him. "You wanna fight or something?!"
By now, the whole group had stopped in their track and looked at the two of them.
Ignoring Naruto, Sasuke pushed him aside and walked towards the puddles, his posture seemed carefree as he spoke. "Nothing stupid... I just want to clean my blade." As he spoke, he lifted his katana with one hand and pointed to the dirt on it's blade.
"It's gonna start rusting if I don't." As he finished talking, he shot a look at Kakashi, who shook his head slightly, confirming the boy's suspicion.
Done explaining, he crouched down in front of one of the puddles and raised his katana into the air.
Kakashi simply watched on, seeming relaxed, but in reality, his muscles tightened, ready to jump in at any time.
"Let me clean you quickly..." Sasuke muttered, still looking relaxed before his expression turned serious and he stabbed his sword into the puddle, but instead of water splashing, which everyone present expected, blood had come out.
"What?!" Naruto's loud voice comes from behind Sasuke, but he pays it no mind and jumps back as the two puddles turned into two burly cloaked and masked men. "Ahhhh!" The man on the left screamed in pain, clutching his right arm...
Sasuke glanced at the man's feet and saw the man's arm laying on the ground, completely severed from his body.
"You bitch!" The man spat, his breath labored and his eyes bloodshot. The man next to him aimed the gauntlet on his right hand towards Sasuke.
"Pay for hurting us, brat!" He spoke before a bladed chain shot out of it.
With narrowed eyes, Sasuke raised his katana and deflected the chain before weaving through his iconic hand seals. Jumping up for a better angle, he spits out a large fireball.
The two men vanished from their positions and appeared closer to Sasuke.
'They're fast.' Sasuke thought and lowered his center of gravity. 'But I can still see them.' He turned to his left as one of the men vanished and blocked the one armed man's kunai as he had stabbed towards Sasuke.
Jumping back, the man chuckled. "You're good for a child." His deep voice came from his mask. "But you know what?"
Sasuke turned away from the man and looked at the other one, who by now had his gauntlet pointed at Sasuke again. Flicking a kunai at the one armed man to his right, he dashed towards the man up front, his katana raised in defense.
*Whoooo!*
The bladed chain shot out of the gauntlet and wrapped around Sasuke's blade, but he didn't stress as he stored the katana into his inventory, causing the chain to hang in the air before he wrapped the chain around his arm, ignoring the cutting pain and he placed his left foot further back than his right.
"Hng!" Sasuke let out, gripping the chain as he suddenly pulled it towards him, staggering the man in front. Throwing the chain to the floor, he stabs a kunai through one of the wholes, sticking it to the floor as he ran towards the man, his katana once more in his hands.
The man glanced up. "Fucking bastard." The man sneered, ready to pull his chain back, knowing a simple kunai couldn't hold it back. "Hmph!" He pulled his right hand back but...
Sasuke glanced back and saw Naruto pulling the chain behind him, holding it in place.
"You think I'd just stand there and be a spectator?! Hell no!" Naruto yelled out, his eyes closed as his muscles strained.
Chuckling, Sasuke turned back to the man in front and sliced towards the man's neck.
"No! Please!" Those were the man's last words before the katana cut the man's neck, slicing into the flesh halfway through before getting stuck.
---
Naruto struggled to pull the chain, reaching the limit of his muscles using their full power. Opening his eyes, he wanted to yell at Sasuke to hurry it up, but his words got stuck in his throat as he saw Sasuke's blade get stuck in the man's throat.
'He...' Naruto stared, wide eyed. 'Killed him...' He thought, but didn't have much time to mull it over as he heard footsteps coming from his left. Turning to it, he wanted to speak up, having thought it'd be Kakashi, but his sights got covered by a fist for a split second before he felt his whole body falling backwards.
"Ugh!" Naruto grunted, his eyes shut close as pain shot through his nose. "Fucking..." He forced his eyes open to look at who hit him, but saw nothing through the tears.
"Naruto!"
He hears Sakura's voice to his right and grits his teeth, forcing himself up to his feet while he wiped the tears formed in his eyes. "You bastard!" He points at the one armed man who hit him. "You really woke me up though!" As he spoke, his two hands formed a cross-like seal. "I have no time to worry about killing right now, or I'd be the one to die! Kage Bunshin no jutsu!" He yells out and tens of clones pop into existence behind him.
"Get him!" He commanded his clones as they all rushed forward and jumped on top of him, fists flying. "Fight back!" "C'mon man! Hit me!" "Why're you on the floor?!" The voices of his clones come from the fight periodically... And they all seemed pissed off.
Watching this scene, the originally tense Kakashi, loosened his muscles and stared at the two Genin from his team beat up the Chunin.
Sasuke had already joined in, kicking the man on the floor when an opening showed itself.
'Although he has one arm, he still has the strength of a Chunin...' Kakashi thought before snapping out of it and vanishing from his position.
"Alright guys! Enough." He spoke up, appearing next to the beat down and pulling the two Genin away while the clones popped into plumes of smoke. "We need him for information..." He muttered, looking at the one armed man's swollen face.
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