Four hours later Kenshin and his sons were 150 kilometers from the outpost and approaching the mountains marked on the map. As soon as they reached the foot of the huge mountain, Kenshin began activating the detection formation every five minutes, allowing to catch the silhouette of any creature larger than a rat.
Fifteen minutes later, Kenshin stopped again to activate the formation and suddenly flinched.
"Three hundred meters at eleven o'clock, two big wolves!" he declared, and the sons instantly spread out around the perimeter.
When fifty meters remained to the target, Kenshin climbed a tree and hid. Everyone else headed to the two wolves hoping to catch them by surprise. Unfortunately wild animals were very sensitive, and when twenty meters remained, both wolves sniffing a tree flinched and jumped in different directions, managing to dodge flying kunai.
Suddenly a large fireball flew to the place where one wolf landed and enveloped the animal that whined pitifully. The second wolf tried to escape but was stopped by Ichiro's accurately thrown kunai that pierced the beast's body.
"Hm, that was easier than I thought." Ichiro muttered and pulled out both fangs from one wolf. The fangs were huge and incredibly strong, leaving no doubt to any appraiser whose they were.
"Don't get cocky. If there were ten, we wouldn't get off so easy." Kenshin said as he approached.
"I know, but it's nice to feel stronger than at least someone." Ichiro answered with a smile.
*****
In a few hours Kenshin's group destroyed another five wolves, fully completing the plan. Everyone was safe and sound thanks to the protection formation—the wolf that decided to bite Fourth's leg left him unharmed.
Kenshin already wanted to turn back, but then a loud howl sounded, and everyone rushed after the last trophy for the day. As soon as they were in a dense forest belt, eight shuriken flew toward them—two at each.
Kenshin instantly activated x150 focus and began thinking over the situation. He planned to take the shuriken on the formation, noticing their speed didn't exceed that of shuriken thrown by any of his older sons. From one tiniest detail he determined the enemies were at best Chunin.
As soon as Ichiro saw the sudden attack, he instantly focused on protecting Father. The shuriken intended for Kenshin suddenly disappeared and appeared aside, embedding in nearby trees. Ichiro easily parried the shuriken flying at him and rushed into attack.
Third also easily parried both shuriken and jumped aside, increasing distance so they couldn't be covered by one powerful technique. Fourth in turn couldn't parry both shuriken, and one hit an invisible barrier.
By the time the sudden attack was repelled, Kenshin had already located the attackers and formed a quick counteraction plan. There were five attackers in total, which worried Kenshin a bit because someone would have to take two. To his luck, Ichiro, Third, and Fourth had already engaged the opponents in close combat, each intuitively choosing an equal opponent judging by movement speed.
Ichiro took on the two fastest, and the enemies had nothing against seeing a strong opponent. Kenshin at that moment was five meters away and chose the seemingly weakest—average Genin at first glance—but decided to enter dialogue.
"Who are you?! Why did you attack us?!" Kenshin asked two questions while the battle hadn't gone hot yet.
"A dead man doesn't need to know!" one of Ichiro's opponents declared and made a lunge. His partner, taking advantage of the general pause, tried to attack Third standing nearby, but his kunai hit an invisible barrier, and the attacker himself flinched and groaned bitterly from a shuriken embedded in his back.
Ichiro was furious and wasn't going to stand and watch someone try to kill his younger brother from behind, so he used all available "spatial authority" and threw a shuriken that disappeared and instantly appeared ten meters away, right under the enemy's ribs.
This became the trigger for the battle. The enemy shinobi commander tried to kill Ichiro with one blow but failed. Ichiro easily dodged the attack and made a counter lunge.
The wounded shinobi returned to the commander to help destroy the most dangerous fighter in his opinion. He was angry and wanted to tear Ichiro into a thousand pieces, but due to the wound couldn't move as virtuously and became almost a burden to his commander.
No one else wanted to make a sudden attack on a "foreign" opponent, so in the ensuing battle everyone shifted twenty meters aside. This was an unspoken rule of the entire shinobi world, and everyone tried to follow it. "Wall to wall" battles like ordinary people were, to put it mildly, not welcomed because in battle chaos anything could happen, and the entire group of allied and enemy shinobi could die from a single explosive tag or technique.
Kenshin under accelerated perception only tried to find enemies' weak points and give information to his sons. However the "weakest" shinobi who chose Kenshin as his target wasn't going to just stand and attacked his head with a kick.
Kenshin blocked this blow without much trouble and threw the opponent to the ground, wanting to break his chest with a kick. The enemy shinobi easily took this blow on block and, rolling over, sharply rose to his feet. From Kenshin's blow his forearms burned unbearably, but he was determined to fight.
At that very moment everyone intuitively turned toward the fighting elites and stared in shock at the incredible scene. The enemy commander's partner stood motionless, blood gushing from the stump of his neck. A fraction of a second later there was a dull loud thud. His head fell to the ground, hitting a stone, and then his knees buckled and he collapsed. Everyone clearly saw the red eyes of Ichiro gleaming in the evening sun.
The enemy shinobi were shocked, and ten seconds later Fourth pierced his opponent's heart, embedding a kunai. The enemy shinobi commander barely parried Ichiro's attacks and was still alive only because he was a peak Chunin.
Third had roughly equal strength with his enemy and, following Father's order, bided time and didn't risk. Kenshin had it a bit harder but was more than confident in his strength. The suit's energy and his personal skills were enough to withstand two such enemies for about fifteen minutes, let alone one.
By this point Ichiro had inflicted several wounds on the enemy commander, and it was clear to everyone how this fight would end.
"S-stop! Let's discuss everything!" the commander shouted, understanding the true situation better than others.
"Don't listen to him. Kill!" Kenshin mentally ordered, deciding the time for negotiations was over.