It was on.
Shinka's kikaichu quietly spread out, slowly, in low quantities at a time so the buzzing wouldn't tip off the enemy that something was wrong.
Mei moulded her chakra, building up as much as she could get away with without her control and precision falling.
The seconds went by as the pressure mounted.
In the middle of giving his orders, the leader of the ambushers suddenly paused and looked around.
He turned to warn his subordinates that something was wrong, his battlefield instinct warning him about something.
But he was too little too late.
'Fire Release: Great Flame Flower'
Huge fireballs suddenly rained down from above, striking the field and exploding to incinerate most of the unwitting ambushers.
Great Flame Flower was a signature jutsu of the Uchiha, taking their Great Fireball and then combining it with the Phoenix Flower to produce the equivalent of several simultaneous uses of the former jutsu.
The effectiveness in large scale battles was undeniable.
All the leader of the ambushers could do was to pull the subordinate closest to him as he jumped out of the way.
Dragged by his collar, this chunin level combatant could only sweat as he looked at the sea of fire below.
"Thank you captain." He declared.
But just as the leader was about to admonish him for the poor showing, his eyes narrowed into pinpricks.
The captain instantly drew his sword at god-like speed, a clang of clashing steel being the only indication that something had struck.
But while the leader was saved by his sharp instinct again and again, his subordinate was not so lucky.
As he landed, the captain looked at the cooling body of his previously thankful subordinate, a large gash on his throat, leaking large amounts of blood.
Clearly, when he had blocked the attack meant for him, he missed one simultaneously launched at his subordinate.
Dust filled the air from the explosions, blocking his sight.
"Hah!"
With a spirited shout, a blast of chakra was emitted from the captain's entire body, clearing the dust as revealing to him the grim reality.
A dozen of his weaker subordinates, reduced to charred corpses from the initial attack, the rest being devoured alive by huge masses of insects.
The promising newbie he had brought with him on the mission died, literally in his hands while a few meters away, the captain could see the boy of his former right hand man, dead in much the same way, a single precise slash to the throat.
He lifted his katana, short, though still longer than a wakizashi or a kodachi and matte black without a tsuba or handguard.
A manslayer's blade, made for a style of swordsmanship focused on speed, power and overwhelming the opponent without consideration for defending.
The captain closed his eyes with intense focus, fully surrendering himself to his killer instinct.
Hidden from sight within the tree's, Inori took advantage of the man's inaction to ready her jutsu for the purpose of incapacitating him.
Shinka's insects efficiency finished off the few remaining enemies that were no longer in any position to resist while Mei and Shiki watched the captain like hawks, ready to intervene if he tried running.
But the man's next action was beyond their expectations.
With a sudden turn, he brought down his sword in a mighty blow.
'Shura Style: Flash'
A solid, violent but controlled blade of chakra was unleashed precisely towards Inori's hiding spot.
Just as suddenly as the slash however, Shiki appeared in its path, drawing his chakra shortsword and enhancing it with Chakra Cutter before blocking the captain's attack.
The moment he made contact, the force of the blow violently pushed him and though the boy ultimately dispersed the flying slash, he was still sent tumbling through the air.
Under the captain's steely gaze, Shiki acrobatically righted himself mid-air and landed perfectly on his feet, his expression serious.
'Samurai techniques . . . But not regular ones.' He thought.
He had seen samurai in action before in another mission but, while the man's technique was extremely similar, there was something more deadly, more violent about it.
Even then, the added violence did nothing to detract from its controlled and precise nature. In fact, it felt even more precise than the samurai swordmaster he had seen fight previously.
'Looks like the "criminals" Tomoe-san was referring to were not exactly the regular kind . . .' Shiki thought to himself.
The captain's eyes held a barely noticeable red hue that seemed to symbolize a supernatural sort of bloodlust.
Streams of flowing chakra akin to ribbons flowed from his katana, coiling around the captain's body.
"Hah!" With a shout of exertion, the ground cracked as the man stepped down hard, launching himself at Shiki.
The boy's response was swift and efficient.
'Assault Storage: Shadow Hand'
A storm of countless shuriken created by the Shuriken Shadow Clone jutsu, all enhanced with Shiki's original Hidden Hand Jutsu release without warning, just a light swing of his arm.
'Shura Style: Storm'
The captain stomped hard, killing his momentum before unleashing a powerful wide swing at blinding speed, the chakra ribbons surrounding him giving rise to a tornado of slashes that not only deflected the shuriken but outright destroyed them.
'Outright destroying enhanced shuriken that would blow past the defensive ninjutsu of most shinobi . . . This guy must be close to Elite Jonin if not already there . . .' Shiki thought.
In the series, the Land of Iron was pretty underrepresented with only Mifune being considered a truly powerful figure but a country rich in chakra metal deposits managing to completely avoid shinobi influence had to mean something in a real world.
'But samurai, regardless of fighting prowess, lack the versatility of shinobi so of course I'll be taking advantage.' The boy planned.
'Let's see how good those instincts really are. Water Release: Hiding in Mist.'
Shiki blew large quantities of chakra infused mist, rapidly filling the battlefield, normally, this would hamper every combatant other than those with specialized training but the entirety of Team 6 had ways around that.
Shinka's insects were outright unaffected while Inori and Shiki were powerful sensors.
If enough chakra was put into the mist by a skilled user, forget sensors, even dojutsu users might be in trouble but the boy was not yet at that level, nor did he wish to hamper his comrades.
As for Mei . . .
Ominous red eyes with three spinning tomoe each gleamed, hidden in the mist as the Uchiha silently moved in for the kill.
However, just like before, the moment Mei's kunai was about to hit, the captain instantaneously reacted with a burst of strength, unleashing a slash the girl had no way of blocking or dodging.
But the sharingan were the eyes of hax.
An instant of eye contact and the attack veered of course and just like that, Mei retreated in the mist, completely unscathed.
'For my Sharingan: Genjutsu to be shaken off so easily . . . This is Kiai.' The bespectacled girl realized.
A technique jealousy guarded by major samurai clans as one of the great equalizers between them and shinobi.
Somehow, it allowed them to produce an extremely short lived but powerful and instantaneous surge of power they could then use in various ways.
Only those samurai clans knew its secrets though.
'Shame those secrets can't be kept from me.' Shiki deviously thought.
He had a shadow clone surveying the entire battle with Enlightened Mind's Eye, all the details of the technique's usage would be made clear soon enough.
'Just to be safe, I better force him to use it a couple more times to figure out more applications if nothing else.' The boy planned.
With Shinka guarding the perimeter, Shiki and Mei only had to keep the man busy until Inori could blow past his defences and do her thing.
How they kept him busy however, was entirely up to them.
+++++
Hey, Author here!
To promote the novel I will be releasing BONUS CHAPTERS on SUNDAYS based on the previous week's power stone count.
100 Power Stones = 1 Bonus Chapter
500 Power Stones = 2 Bonus Chapters
1000 Power Stones = 3 Bonus Chapters
Every earned BONUS CHAPTER on Webnovel will also be posted on Scribble.
Just a reminder that you can read up to a FULL MONTH ahead of this site on pa-treon.
I'm trying to become a full time Author now and I'm not going to be starting any new novels just so I can make sure this one is properly completed.
Find those sweet advanced chapters on pa-treon.com/lusoba without the -