Just below me was the very beast I was hoping for: a jade snake. The creature had brilliantly blended in with the green surroundings as it hung from a tree.
What gave it away in the end was the shimmer of the sun reflecting off its scales.
Now came the hard part. I had to somehow sneak up on the creature and kill it. Looking at the snake, then back at my kunai, I couldn't help but sigh in frustration.
"This is practically impossible!"
The creature's reflexes were just too formidable. I had just graduated from the academy today. There was no way I had the skills to sneak up on such a creature undetected, and even if I did, my rusty kunai wouldn't be able to puncture its skin.
Unless I could strike at its underbelly, then there was no way to win. Plus the jade snake had a powerful venon that is able to paralyze its preys.
"Ugh!"
Ruffling my hair, I took deep breaths to regain my composure.
"So what if it's faster and has hard scales? I'm smarter…"
"I think."
Plus, shinobi rarely fight straightforward anyway. If I couldn't outsmart a jade snake, then I would be dead before long anyway. I had food rations to last me for a week, so if it came down to it, I could wait until the snake revealed its weakness or set a trap for it.
GRROAH!
Just as those thoughts crossed my mind, a grotesque dying roar of a creature echoed through the forest, sending the distant birds flying and the jade snake into hiding but before it could a large tree fell on top of the beast, killing it instantly.
I immediately lowered my body and hid behind the leaves of the tree before peeking through the gaps in the direction of the sound.
"Is that a toad?"
Standing in the middle of the forest, covered in blood, was a giant toad. The creature was being flanked by 2 shinobi dressed in black. One of them seemed old, and he carried a sword which he used to cut through the creature's back, while freezing wound at the same time.
With movements that I couldn't even follow, he cut through the toad's stomach, freezing the wound as his sharp blade penetrated the beast's flesh. The giant toad roared in pain and tried to retaliate against the shinobi, but the ninja was gone in a fraction of a second.
Watching these events unfold, a chill ran down my back.
That ninjutsu… It was a sword art!
That meant only one thing…
What are shinobi from another kingdom doing here?!
That old man, he must've been a jonin. While the younger shinobi looked as if he must've been a genin. Still, with just one look, I could tell he was leagues above me in strength.
The genin was waiting behind the giant toad for his moment to strike. The toad seemed oblivious to his presence and instead had its eyes on the jonin, who took a sword stance to face the beast.
But suddenly, the toad's body began oozing frost, and soon the beast stood upright as a sword carved from ice manifested in its hand.
For a moment, I was speechless, but my shock was even greater when the toad then took the same stance as the jonin before and performed the same jutsu as the jonin. The toad moved so fast that its movements were a complete blur to me.
One moment, it took a sword stance; the next, the creature was in front of the jonin, swinging its makeshift sword down with pinpoint accuracy. The jonin reacted instantly and sidestepped the attack, which left a huge crater in the ground before the crater completely froze over.
Still, the jonin couldn't escape as the toad attacked relentlessly, driven by fury. Its next attack bit deep into the jonin's shoulder, rendering his right side completely useless.
The toad didn't relent and continued to swing its sword toward the old man who was evading every attack by the skin of his teeth.
Still from the way the toad moved, I could tell that its injuries were taking a toll on him. Its body was covered in large gashes, and there was even a sizable hole in its stomach.
Plus, half of its body was freezing over from the inside due to the jonin's previous attacks. From the way it looked, it seemed as if an army of shinobi had tried to take down this beast, and these two were the only ones left.
An army of shinobi trying to take down a single beast while even entering another kingdom's territory, where they could risk another war.
To go through so much effort… This beast had to be powerful.
At that moment, it was as if something had clicked. I knew myself well enough to know that there was only one thing that could overcome my logic and fear.
And that thing is greed.
The genin was circling the beast as the old man drew its attention. He must've been the one who would deliver the killing blow.
Landing on the branch below me, I then propelled myself forward onto the branch of the tree adjacent to me as I head towards the jade snake which was now dead. My movements were quick and deliberate, making sure to stay in the blind spot of the jonin and the genin.
Though they were deep in battle, I couldn't dare underestimate them.
Hiding behind the shadows of the trees, I then slid into position. I watched as the genin positioned himself behind the toad, ready to deliver the final blow, but at that moment, I threw my kunai forward with pinpoint accuracy.
The kunai followed a curved trajectory and severed the genin's Achilles tendon just as he as about to deliver the killing blow. The genin cried in pain, which caught the raging toad's attention. Having his tendons severed, the genin couldn't react in time to the toad's attacks and was cut in half with a single swing of the ice sword.
But at that moment, the toad made one crucial mistake of turning its back to the jonin. The jonin reacted instantly and used his last remaining strength to throw his sword forward, perfectly aimed at the toad's heart while its back was turned.
At that moment, I acted instantly. Due to the jonin's injury, he couldn't throw the sword forward at full strength, allowing me to arrive in the path of the blade just in time. I executed a perfectly placed scissor kick, which propelled the blade faster like a bullet train while twisting my body midair to throw my last remaining kunai at the jonin.
Still, it didn't matter how injured he was, a jonin was still a jonin. The old man tilted his head, resulting in the blade only scratching his cheek. But it didn't matter. There was a single rule while killing a beast.
Whoever delivers the killing blow receives the rewards.
The blade had struck to strike perfectly into the toad's heart.