"Do not kill her. Do not kill that girl."
In the past ten-plus years, Tsunade had fought many powerful ninja, including top masters like Chiyo of the Sand and Hanzo the Demi-God.
Yet the pretty girl in front of her was the most difficult.
She was not strong. In fact, she was shockingly weak. Her blade swings had no form at all. Frail and sickly, with almost no strength, she was simply slashing at Tsunade by instinct.
An instinct more intense than blood, pure hatred.
She really was from the Land of Rain.
Tsunade fumbled to block and dodge while carefully protecting the girl from her own knife and from exploding tags and ninjutsu thrown by the attackers.
Ren gathered chakra and inner power into his hand. With a casual sweep, he hurled a blast that raised a hard wind. It was not a special technique, just raw power.
Incoming tags and assorted ninjutsu were swept backward by the gale. The two ninja leading the charge were slapped out of the air.
Shinku and Asuma and Kurenai moved just as fast, genjutsu here, taijutsu there. In an instant, every assassin in the ambush was subdued.
Their strength was not high. By the Leaf's standards, most would not even count as genin.
Against a squad led by Shinku and Ren, they were put down in minutes.
As the assassins were taken, Tsunade finally subdued the girl. She knocked the knife from her hand and pinned her wrists.
Even so, the girl refused to give up. She thrashed, trying to bite Tsunade. The face that had been fresh and pretty twisted into something terrifying.
"Who are you? Why try to assassinate Lady Tsunade?"
Shinku released one attacker's bindings and began the standard interrogation. If someone tries to kill you, you need to know why.
"You Leaf butchers, you dogs, may you die wretched. You destroyed our families. I will curse you from hell…"
Hatred filled the attacker's deep-set eyes as he spat his curses.
Asuma and Kurenai were at a loss. Why did they hate the Leaf so much? In their mouths, the noble Leaf was a nest of villains.
Tsunade and Shinku were silent. The truth was obvious. These assassins were all people of the Land of Rain.
The Leaf has done few wrongs as a collective. The Second Great Ninja War is one of them.
You could write a thousand arguments to prove the Leaf did not intend to invade small neighbors. It is still a fact that the big villages made the Land of Rain the main battlefield and smashed another country's home.
Ren stayed blank-faced. You are cursing the Leaf that fought in the Second War. What does that have to do with me?
I did not fight in the Second War.
The assassin finished cursing. A small slack in the genjutsu bindings, and he flipped a kunai from his sleeve, eyes full of hate.
"Protect Lady Tsunade!"
By instinct, Shinku moved in front of her.
Squelch.
The kunai did not stab Tsunade. It punched through the assassin's own throat. His hollow eyes still glared at Tsunade and the rest. He had killed himself.
His suicide spread like fire. The surviving assassins did the same, one after another, cutting their throats or biting their tongues. Blood sprayed. Their hollow, hateful stares seemed to bore through Tsunade and everyone there.
Ren did not stop them. Shinku did not stop them.
From a stance point of view, they were enemies of the Leaf. Sparing them would only burden the Leaf. Crippling then releasing them would be fake mercy. Killing them was a line they could not cross.
Letting them kill themselves was probably the best outcome.
Squelch.
Another blade punched flesh, behind Shinku.
He spun and froze, eyes wide. The invincible Sannin Tsunade was suddenly shaking, all combat strength gone.
A mere ordinary girl had slipped Tsunade's grasp, reversed her blade, and stabbed into her lower abdomen.
Squelch.
Grinding her teeth, the girl yanked the knife free and stabbed Tsunade's belly again. Her hatred was stronger and more stubborn than the assassins who had killed themselves.
Do not kill her.
Do not kill her.
Do not kill her.
Scarlet flowers bloomed before her eyes. The rich stench of blood flooded Tsunade's senses. Her heart kicked. Her body trembled. She tried to scream the words, but with all her strength, only her thin lips quivered.
Thud.
Shinku's palm struck the girl's back by reflex.
The knife hand fell limp. The girl crumpled into Tsunade's arms. The palm had crushed her organs. Shinku is a Leaf jonin. Of course he knows taijutsu.
She died.
She did not die with her eyes closed.
My Dao heart.
Tsunade, already a walking corpse, shattered inside. With severe hemophobia, her head spun, her body trembled, retching without end, nearly fainting. Yet she forced herself through the instinctive horror and hugged the girl's body tight with all her strength.
The sudden chaos ended just as suddenly.
Shinku and the two young ones stood there, at a loss, looking at the fallen Tsunade. It felt like they had done nothing wrong, and also like everything they did was wrong.
Ren took out a storage scroll and sealed away the bodies one by one. Finally he knelt by Tsunade, gently prying her pale arms apart, and sealed the girl's body too.
"Lend me some money…" Tsunade knelt in the blood, hollow and lost.
Ren handed her a stack of bills.
It was not enough to keep her at a high-limit table for half an hour. At a no-limit table, it might not last a minute. But it was enough to buy ten fine coffins and arrange a dignified funeral.
"Thank you." Tsunade's lips worked, rasping with all her strength.
"I am sorry, truly sorry. I did not know she was a killer…"
The chef, who had returned to the kitchen to cook before the attack, finally came out after the dust settled, apologizing as he walked.
Ren pointed a finger at the chef. Twenty-Four Seasons Godshock Point, Awakening of Insects.
Spring thunder rumbled, stirring hibernation. A razor bolt of lightning, forged from Lightning chakra and inner power, shot straight at the chef.
In that martial trilogy, this was Sorrowblade's most-used form and one of the strongest and fastest among the twenty-four. It could chain with Spring Equinox and Grain Rain to form a relentless offensive.
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