On the opposite side of the building, Arthur was hovering above the structure in his smoke form.
Approximately twenty workers and a staggering fifty armed men were patrolling the premises. Hardly any of them had chakra levels that could be considered real threats.
More importantly, he had located the captives.
The father was restrained and appeared to have sustained bruises, while the daughter remained untouched in a separate cell.
Meanwhile, Jada and William were hiding exactly where Arthur had expected.
Upon descending, he slipped through the vents and maneuvered silently toward the security room.
The facility's inner workings were mediocre at best for a loan shark operation. Likely due to the lack of money they were illicitly gathering.
Seeing no guards stationed outside the control room, Arthur slipped inside. In front of him sat a pair of guards lazily watching the bank of monitors.
Bang-bang.
Both were put to sleep with a simple knockout. He then deactivated their security feeds.
'Time for their alarm…'
By the time anyone knew it, a loud sound permeated through the building as every room flashed white and red.
Men who were either playing cards or taking a nap stopped what they were doing, and got up to race to the main lobby.
There was no need for Arthur to leave thanks to his Crimson Gaze. Staying out in the open, however, wasn't the smartest thing to do.
✟
In the main lobby, chaos erupted as the building's dwellers scrambled about.
"What's going on?!" someone shouted.
"The heck are you guards doing?!"
"We didn't do anything!"
The boss of the operation, a burly man with a silver tooth and an oblivious expression, stepped forward, equally aghast.
"What're ya idiots naggin' on about?" he barked. "Get back to ye'r posts!"
The alarms then stopped. It was in that confusion that Jada and William made themselves known.
"We're here to put a stop to this!" Jada declared with fierce conviction.
The room momentarily fell silent as the men turned to assess the newcomers.
The boss's brows furrowed in disdain.
"Kids?" He glanced around at his men, who were clearly unimpressed. "No, just some rats."
"We're not rats!" cried William.
"Just why're you guys hurting innocent families anyway?" Jada pressed.
The boss smirked. "How do ya think the world works, lil' girl? People sign the contract, and I abide by it." He then turned away with a dismissive hand. "Get these rats outta my sight." The moment someone took a step, a kunai lodged itself through the concrete. "Huh…?"
All heads turned to where it came from.
"That's…" someone stammered. "That's Hoshikaze!"
'Oh…' Arthur thought, casually perched on a support beam. 'So they've heard of me?'
"There's no way that's him!" another muttered in panic.
Arthur then announced to their boss, "You truly don't know a thing about business." The comment earned him an angry look. "Why don't you just give up and disband your work?"
"Or else what?" the man quavered.
"You really want to find out…?"
"If you're really that same Hoshikaze I heard about, you must be here for my hostages." Arthur remained quiet at the man's incoming threat. "Didn't figure ya to be a good guy. Hurt me or any of my men, and I'll end their lives."
"You mean them?" Arthur said, pointing toward an opposite entrance.
Gasps filled the room as everyone turned to see the daughter and father standing together, free from their prison!
"While you were busy gathering here," he announced, "I figured I'd take a look around."
The man's face flushed with anger.
When confusion quickly gave way to rage, he declared, "It's only three of them! Attack!"
"Three against fifty?" William began. "That's hardly what I—" The rust of wind from Arthur jumping down interrupted his voice. "Hey! I was gonna to say—"
"Come on, Will!" Jada said, sprinting forward.
"Oh, fine!" Then he formed a hand sign. "Multi-shadow clone jutsu!"
Arthur flowed like water through the crowd as he ducked under a sword strike before countering with a palm thrust that sent his attacker sprawling backward toward other men.
William couldn't help but be impressed, having remembered the sting of defeat when even ten of his authentic clones couldn't take Arthur down.
What hope did fifty regular men have?
As they tried to surround him, Arthur utilized a mix of martial arts and finesse, combining swift punches and roundhouse kicks to incapacitate the men around him.
Bang-bang-bang!
"Have a taste of this!" the Williams shouted as they threw a barrage of shuriken.
Sheng-sheng-sheng!
One clone backflipped to dodge an incoming sword, only for another to send a spinning kick into the stomach of the next attacker who had charged forward.
By the time men thought they had cornered one William, three more came to thwart their numbers.
"This guy's a walking cheat code!" the men cried.
Meanwhile, Jada dodged a wild swing with a spin from a bigger man. Then she seized the man's arm, turned around, and threw him over her shoulder, right into another group.
'She's gotten a little stronger since last time,' Arthur analyzed after dodging a slow sword strike.
"What're ya bozos doin'?" the boss shouted in frustration. "Can't ya idiots do anythin' right?!"
As the fight intensified, Jada quickly dispatched five armed men with swift blows and water-based ninjutsu attacks. When she was able, she then quickly moved to protect the father and daughter.
"Stay behind me!" she urged the rescued pair.
They listened without question.
On the other side, Arthur hopped onto the shoulders of one man, then bounced off before landing perfectly behind another.
Bang!
A brutal kick sent that unsuspecting man sprawling forward into William's raised knee. When he saw three more men hurling in his direction, all of his clones jumped and kicked them down to the ground.
"Dude," he said to Arthur, "that was a sick tag-team combo!"
Arthur ignored the comment by spinning back into the mix to perform a rapid three-hit combo—a punch to the gut, a knee to the chin, and finishing with a sweeping leg kick.
The dozen or so men nearest him quickly learned that the name 'Hoshikaze' was truly to be feared.
Just when it seemed as if they were gaining the upper hand, one of the few shinobi in their midst slammed his palm against the ground: "Earth style: rock barrage!" A flurry of sharp rocks erupted toward Arthur like a hail of missiles.
"I got it!" a clone said, forming a hand sign. But before he knew it, Arthur lunged in the rocks' trajectory and began smacking them all away. "Come on! That was my time to shine!"
A single punch later, and the shinobi was taken down.
"Can you believe these guys?" William chuckled, defeating the last of the men. "This was just too easy."
Perhaps to the untrained eye, things definitely looked easy. To Jada, however, who was watching the entire thing with her Sharingan, she knew that it was thanks to Arthur's tactics that made the fight run so smooth.
For instance, that was the first time William had fought alongside Arthur. Yet the two moved so well in sync—with Arthur, making it seem as if he had been practicing together with William for years.