Chapter 28: Chapter 28: Stalking Shadow and Meeting Assault

_________ POV Narration_________

Ken blended into the shadows, his black cloak covering his body, his white mask being the only thing that was standing out.

But he was smart enough to keep away from anyone capable of spotting him, he crept into the shadows, flying past their village's small walls with a single leap.

'Since they've not intercepted me yet, I can safely assume they have no way of tracking me if I didn't trigger the alarm.'

With that, Ken became a lot more confident, knowing that he otherwise could hardly be noticed by Sensor types.

He glided through the night, dashing from wall to wall and getting closer and closer to the largest building in the village. The Kage Building.

Before heading there, however, Ken scouted out the village a bit more, looking for other areas of interest and checking if anything valuable was there.

Funds were always an issue, so 'finding' money was not a bad thing.

Ken managed to successfully 'borrow' some money, jewellery and scrolls from the clans in the village. It was surprisingly a lot more than he had managed to gather through his bounty hunting over the past few months.

'Damn... Making enemies out of a hidden village isn't nice, but they sure have money to spare...'

The security was surprisingly lax, at least for someone like Ken. But it seemed that wasn't the case for the entire village.

More specifically, all of the Shinobi seemed to be guarding the Kage Building, where Ken assumed a meeting with all of the important people in the village was taking place.

The closer he got to the Kage Building, the tighter the security was around him, and the more questions appeared in his head.

'How the hell did Akira even get close to that building?'

It was obvious at that point, that Akira was likely just allowed to stroll in there.

Even Ken was having issues sneaking around all of that security, Akira shouldn't even have been able to get close to the village without getting spotted.

Now, the majority of patrolling Shinobi were merely Genin and Chunin, but that didn't mean they didn't have eyes.

The Kage Building had no blind spots from what Ken could feel. It somewhat made sense for a hidden village to be that well-guarded, but that didn't mean Ken had to like it.

'I can't just sneak in there by the looks of it... Too many eyes on all entrances, even windows on the higher stories. It's impossible to not get spotted if I do try something.

A meeting is certainly going on in there from what I can sense... Wait... Isn't that the leader of the team sent after me and Akira?'

Ken could sense his signature, Saburo's signature to be more exact. And Ken remembered quite clearly that there were just a few chunks of flesh left of him...

'If it was a clone, then there shouldn't have been anything left of it... It's pretty weird, a lot of people feel like him nearby... I should probably 'look' into this.'

Ken then decided to look for some type of disguise to get inside quietly. He could always just attack it, but that was likely going to affect quite a few of the civilians inside the village.

'If I can get in there, I'll just force the entire fight to happen inside... I doubt they'll be willing to destroy that building anyway, so it should be fine.'

Ken went around a few buildings for the following minutes, keeping an ear on the pulse of the situation, keeping track of the people around him and trying to decide who would be the best disguise.

In the end, he managed to spot a masked figure, wearing a cloak similar to his own, probably of the same colour as Shinobi didn't like standing out.

The blind swordsman immediately assumed that the man was an Anbu. It wasn't exactly a difficult conclusion to come to.

It seemed that he was the most obvious choice at the end of the day. Ken only needed to transform himself slightly to match the other person's hair.

There was one issue though...

'What colour is his hair colour I wonder...'

It wasn't like the wind beating in his ears was going to whisper the colours of things around him. He also couldn't just summon a turtle to help as it was bound to give away his position.

'Alas, it doesn't have to be the perfect disguise. I just need to get in unbothered, I must only fool a few people, not the entire village.'

Ken stalked that masked man a bit, it seemed that he was also heading for the building that housed the Grass Council.

He was able to successfully predict the Anbu's trajectory and rushed into an alley in front of him.

The Anbu jumped from building to building without noticing anything awry, he had no clue that he was being tracked.

And when he jumped over a certain alleyway, he felt something grab his leg, stopping him instantly.

He looked down at his foot, only to notice a clawed hand covered in dark scales clutching his leg tightly. He was about to scream, but a tail immediately clutched his neck tightly and dragged him down.

Ken dropped into the alleyway, his tail crushing the Anbu's neck as he landed. The blind swordsman wasted no time in taking off his mask and coat, putting them in the seal on his wrist,

He then took the dead Anbu's mask and coat, putting them on quickly. He judged the other man's haircut for a moment and used the transformation Jutsu to minimally alter the size of his hair.

He didn't bother altering the colour as there was no point in trying to guess it.

They were also of similar size, so Ken didn't need to bother with altering his height or build in any way. It was a lot better like that, the less a transformation changed the harder it was to spot at the end of the day.

Ken then contemplated what to do with the body, before sighing and taking out a scroll from the seal on his wrist.

'I can't leave this here... It's one good way of raising the alarm and allowing things to go to shit.'

Thankfully it didn't take long to put the body in the scroll and store the scroll back into his wrist.

Ken then continued the Anbu's journey, not bothering to hide his presence as much and allowing quite a bit of chakra to be felt from him.

He tried his best to match the other man's Chakra levels, which was a bit above most Chunin by the feel of it, but not quite close to being a Jonin.

The blind swordsman continued on the Anbu's path, he could tell that he was spotted by quite a few people, but it seemed that his disguise had done its job.

Ken managed to enter the building without anyone stopping him, which was a great success in his mind.

"Wait a moment!" Ken froze in place, a few steps from the doorway when he heard a voice call out to him.

"Raindeer, are you already reporting? How was your patrol?" Another Anbu stood there, looking at him through his mask.

Ken pondered on how to answer for a few seconds. He didn't know what voice he could use, and he didn't know if Raindeer was even his codename.

'Is he testing me?... If that's the case, then I should prepare to kill him quickly.'

Ken waited for a few seconds, pondering whether or not to try and keep up his disguise using a rough voice. That was when the Anbu in front of him made a small mistake, showing a slight tint of hostility.

Ken immediately picked up on that and noticed that the man was on high alert. 'Shit... My cover's been blown already.'

Immediately he stepped toward the Anbu, who only got to take a step back as Ken's hand was covered in scales and impaled his chest.

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The blind swordsman had aimed for the heart, alas, thanks to his alert state of mind, the Shinobi was able to slightly shift his body and avoid getting his heart gouged out.

Ken then turned around, claws still digging into the man's lung, and kicked the Anbu's face with unrelenting force, his body bent at an odd angle as he did so.

The Anbu's mask seemed to crack, as he vanished in a puff of smoke, Ken felt him fleeing, swapping places with a log, as Ken's clawed hand embedded itself into the log as well.

The substitution was far from successful though, as the Anbu had still been severely injured. Ken then proceeded to throw the log outside using all of the speed he could muster, causing it to fly like a bullet right into a few shinobi right before it exploded.

'Explosive tags at the ready... He was preparing to attack me, good thing I acted first.'

Ken then proceeded to return his body to normal, allowing his chakra to recover as he started rushing towards the meeting room.

He ran through the hallways, a few Anbu tried stopping him, this time Ken took out a katana to deal with them, cutting through their limbs before they even got to finish performing any Jutsu.

They were left with missing limbs on the ground, as Ken didn't even stop to finish them off properly.

Ken immediately hid his presence and threw off his Anbu mask, he could feel all of the Shinobi in the village mobilizing, but he knew that they hadn't spotted him.

He had the time to put his own mask back on and change back into his usual cloak.

The people in the conference room were already aware of what was happening outside, it seemed that the commotion had already alerted them of an intruder.

All of the people inside, bar the elders that represented the villagers, were already up from their seats, with their hand signs finished, prepared to unleash a flurry of Jutsu at the door.

Ken could feel that some of the people inside were above most Jonin in strength, they were likely the heads of the few clans that resided in the Grass Village.

The Blind Swordsman wasn't at all discouraged by the surplus of people inside, but he wasn't about to just walk in front of their Jutsus.

There were also plenty of other people inside, Anbu hiding in the room and protecting the elders.

Coming through the door was not a good move in that situation, so Ken instead went to an adjacent room, that shared a wall with the meeting room, and took out his blade.

He grasped his large blade with both of his hands, swinging it and severing the wall in front of him. A flying slash extended and killed most of the people near that wall, the others in the room seemed to have the time to duck, but Ken's surprise attack did manage to kill 3 elders.

Through the dust of the destroyed wall, everyone in the room caught a glimpse of Ken's mask, making their spines shudder.

A famed bounty hunter coming after their heads... It was a bit absurd for him to attack an entire village alone, but seeing as 3 elders were already dead...

Sufficient to say, Ken certainly had the skill to kill them, even in that situation.

Saburo was just as shocked to see the Red Dot. But he wasn't afraid, all of his clones were nearby after all...

'Now!' The Strawman gave a command instantly, and Anbu dropped from the ceiling, all unleashing a flurry of flame and water towards Ken.

The remaining elders also did the same with only one of them doing something other than a fireball, wind bullet or water wave.

"Grass Style: Grasping Rose Bush!" The elder tapped the floor with his hand, a loud thud resounding throughout the large room as Ken felt the floor underneath him creak.

The Blind Swordsman moved instantly, dodging a few Jutsu as he did, and tried to rush towards some of the other elders in the room, only for a few tendrils to rise from the floor in front of him and stop him in his tracks.

Ken was about to cut through the rose thorns in front of him, but then his legs were also rooted in place, as the bush rose from the ground and entangled his feet.

Spiked tendrils rose from the ground and dug into Ken's legs, forcing him in place as he turned to the attacks coming his way, preparing to at least block the Jutsus coming his way.

'Grass Style?... I guess the founding clan of this village has that Kekkei Genkai... What an annoying bunch.'

Ken spun his blade in front of him at great speeds, creating a whirlwind in front of him as he did his best to cancel out the attacks coming his way.

It seemed to work, for the most part, the majority of flames that came in contact with the spinning blade seemed to get dispersed, the blind swordsman could however feel his arms getting more and more burnt as more fire came his way.

Each wind bullet slowed him down slightly, and each water jet seemed to force him back a bit, as the thorns in his legs still ripped at his flesh.

But Ken was able to hold on perfectly, the pain was nothing to him, and the injuries were still negligible.

Eventually, two large dragons came his way, one made out of fire, and another made out of earth. Ken's blade wasn't able to turn and cut them in time, so the Blind Swordsman was hit head-on.

The Blind Swordsman dug his feet into the ground and prepared to block the Earth Dragon with his blade, keeping it in front of him and bracing for impact.

The Earth Dragon immediately crashed into him, causing him to skid backwards a few meters before coming to a stop. It managed to rip the thorns that had been keeping him in place and injured his legs even more.

The fire dragon came in right after, Ken turned and managed to only get halfway through a swing as the dragon came in.

The Blind swordsman only got to shift his body to the side slightly, only losing his arm to the gigantic fire dragon.

Ken wasn't at all panicked though, as he allowed his legs to heal already, and the thorns that had been stuck in him fell to the ground.

It was impossible to tell if Ken's legs were healed because of the sheer amount of blood pooling at his feet.

The Blind Swordsman also cut off the burnt-off parts of his now charcoal arm that still remained on his body, in order to properly heal it later.

'To be expected of a hidden village, huh? Decisive enough to destroy their own buildings to kill me.'

"Interesting. I didn't think you would have the guts to come to us directly. You were already injured enough." Saburo walked forward, and the Anbu around him followed in an almost mechanical manner.

"You're the interesting one here. Say, have I killed you before?" Ken asked as he stood straight without even a hint of fear.

The Anbu caption found the Red Dot's endurance to be quite impressive, even shocking. But the result of the fight was still clear in his eyes.

"You did kill one of my clones... They are a bit special, as I'm sure you've realised... Not that any of this matters to you, you're still going to die here." Saburo shrugged a bit as he signalled to the 'Anbu' behind him.

"It feels quite weird... Are all of these Anbu also your clones?" Ken really struggled to understand the Jutsu that Saburo was using for a moment, but he was still sharp enough to notice that.

The Anbu all seemed to have different chakra reserves, it was rather odd. Ken felt as if he was sensing different versions of the same person, instead of clones.

"You sure are chatty for a corpse." Saburo then raised his hand, and the clones behind him all prepared one last Jutsu, to finish off the elusive Red Dot.

"I guess I wanted to test the waters a bit, my bad for underestimating you all..." Ken's body then slowly shifted underneath his cloak, his muscles expanded as his body once again filled with scales.

Saburo's eyes widened in horror as he watched Ken's previously missing hand reappear, veins bludging on his muscles as the arm just reappeared into existence.

"I hope you have a few aces hidden up your sleeve, otherwise you are all going to die here." Ken grasped his blade in one hand, wielding it effortlessly as his other hand grew a sharp set of claws.

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Hope you liked the chapter! Happy new year also! Was kinda sick for a few days after the last upload, and only managed to start writing again recently. 

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