Chapter 29: Chapter 29: Collapse, Formation and Capitulation

_________ POV Narration _________

'... How can someone heal so quickly!?' Saburo and the elders that had witnessed that scene were all flabbergasted.

But they weren't scared, at least not yet. All of the Shinobi in the village were already gathering towards the Kage building, so it didn't matter how fast Ken could heal, he'd still die at the end of the day.

'But those scales are unnerving... Something tells me that I should at least flee with my main body...' Saburo's instincts were a bit better though, he could feel his spine shudder at the sight of Ken's transformation.

He could also feel the aura in the room had become a lot more suffocating, that type of pressure would definitely make it harder for less experienced shinobi to concentrate.

He could feel everything that his Straw Clones were feeling, so he felt Ken's aura a lot better than most would.

He could also see Ken from every angle essentially, but that didn't make him any more ready for what was to come.

The Red Dot started moving at speeds that simply couldn't be tracked by any regular Shinobi.

The Strawman could only sweat as he watched 4 of his Straw Clones lose their heads instantly.

Ken stopped and touched one of the heads of the dead clones, his claws dug a bit into it and he shook it after noticing something strange.

A layer of straw seemed to fall apart and revealed the head of a completely different man. Possibly a former shinobi.

'Interesting... Some sort of possession and transformation technique... I can safely assume that not one of the 'people' in front of me is the real one, as they all feel the same...'

"Your technique... Seems a bit sadistic." The Blind Swordsman said, slowly turning his head towards the Strawman's clones.

"It is a cutthroat world. No one has any right to judge me... You especially..." One of Saburo's clones said as it looked at Ken's scaled body with visible fear.

"Oh, I wasn't judging you..." Ken stepped on the floor heavily, fracturing it and causing a lot of it to fly from the sheer force of his step.

The Blind Swordsman appeared in front of that clone, his clawed hand digging through its head with ease.

"It was just an observation. I would also call it quite impressive..." Ken said as he looked at one of Saburo's clones that was trying to stab him with a tanto.

The blade snapped completely when coming in contact with the blind swordsman's back. Saburo's eyes widened, and he gulped a bit as he responded. "That is high praise coming from somebody like you..."

'Fuck sake... The only one I know of that may be able to fight this monster is the Raikage, maybe some of the other 5 Kages of the large villages could, but this small village is doomed.'

Saburo had already completely given up on the Grass Village. The other elders were still willing to fight though.

"Grass Style: Overgrown Weeds!"

The floor underneath Ken seemed to shift and grass started growing out of it uncontrollably, the Blind Swordsman jumped and grabbed onto the ceiling, digging his tail into it to avoid the attack that tried to grab and entangle his entire body.

The grass seemed to keep growing, expanding toward him regardless of his elevation, so Ken was forced to his tail to push himself into a different part of the meeting room.

He spun in the air, and a few of Saburo's clones managed to get out of the way, allowing Ken's tail to cleave through one of the elders, the other one substituting with a wooden log in time.

There were now only three elders left, Saburo's clones were still numerous, but Ken wasn't exactly afraid of them.

Yuu, the strongest and most influential elder was still willing to fight with his life on the line. Despite the clear difference in skill.

"He won't be able to keep up that form for long! Widdle him down, keep him here until the others arrive!" The Elder shouted with authority in his voice, waking up the others around him and rallying them again.

Yuu then tried to perform another Grass Style Jutsu, hoping to at least distract the monstrous bounty hunter that was bent on slaughtering them all.

'Shit... I need to escape by myself at the very least... As long as I live our village does as well!'

The Influential Elder looked around as he watched Ken cut through Saburo's clones with ease, dried-up body parts flying throughout the room as the carnage continued.

'We can't fight him in an enclosed space...'

The other two elders looked at each other, quickly performing a few hand signs and finishing their Jutsu and tapping on the ground.

"Doton: Rikujou Shougekiha no jutsu! (Earth Release: Ground Shockwave Technique)"

Their combination made it feel as if an earthquake was breaking through the entire building.

The floor made out of wood and dirt was deformed and everyone was forced to jump from one piece of rubble to another as the building fell apart right underneath them.

Anyone that had been on the lower levels was doomed to be crushed by the debris, but the elders didn't seem to particularly care.

All of the Shinobi of their village were already gathered around the collapsed Kage Building, and the elders were the first ones to jump out of the rubble and stand amongst them.

"Good! Let's show this bounty hunter why you must never mess with a hidden village!" Yuu was a bit mad that the other elders had acted without consulting him and destroyed the building, but he was glad to be amongst the other Shinobi of their village.

The Strawman also jumped out of the collapsed building in time, along with a few clones.

He stared at the collapsed building with a scowl on his face. Well, on most of his faces.

'As if that's going to injure him... I already tried stabbing him with every weapon in this stupid village, my clones weren't even able to put a scratch on his scales...'

As Saburo had expected, the next person to come out of the rubble was Ken. All of the Shinobi presents shuddered when they saw the rubble being blown apart in all directions.

Ken walked out of it uninjured and uncaring, his masked face was simply facing everyone without even flinching.

He let his long sword sink into the ground, tilting his head slightly as he seemingly glared at all of the shinobi through his mask.

Not that Ken could glare at anyone per se, but they didn't have any way of knowing that, now did they?

All of the Shinobi presents were looking at him with sneers and cursing at him loudly. Asking how he had dared to attack a village by himself.

The three elders still alive also helped rile everyone on, as they added to the fire by promising great rewards for the one to bring down the Red Dot.

Saburo scowled when seeing that. He was the only one smart enough to know that there was really no winning in that situation.

'Even if we manage to beat him, many people are bound to die here today... The standing of this hidden village will fall exponentially, and it will likely just be swallowed by another one...'

The Strawman ultimately couldn't care less about the village itself, but he would be forced to look for a new hideout.

'And right when my supply of clones is going down the shitter...' Saburo couldn't help but curse under his breath.

"All of you are noisy... Would you mind shutting up a bit?" The Blind Monster tilted his head as he spoke, the same baleful aura from earlier spread throughout the battlefield, unnerving all of the people present.

It didn't get a large reaction out of trained shinobi, but it was at least enough to make them quiet.

"You were the ones that decided to make an enemy out of me in the first place. You can only blame yourselves for all that will happen today." Ken's voice reverberated throughout the clearing created by the collapsed Kage Building.

"Big words for someone that's surrounded. Do you think you have what it takes to escape from here?" Elder Yuu said with a cocky smile on his face, his eyes narrowing at Ken's appearance.

'He is a lot stronger than the reports say. No one said anything about scales either... It's good that every one got here quickly, or I might've gotten killed earlier.'

Although cocky on the outside, he was quite worried inwardly. Their lack of understanding when it came to the Red Dot's abilities was the main cause of that worry.

It couldn't be helped, after all, they had just watched Ken kill quite a few of Saburo's clones with ease, and most of the clan leaders in the village were also dead.

"Escaping isn't a problem. I'll leave when I feel I've done enough to send a message..." Ken's tail swayed a bit, the spiked end trailing on the ground a bit and cutting through it with ease.

Some of the Shinobi presents couldn't help but flinch, but they were all prepared for a fight, and they decided to rush in at the same time.

Ken also took off, the debris underneath him breaking instantly as Ken dashed in between the shinobi.

Saburo sweated a bit when he saw that.

'Leaving his blade behind, he's not even using Kenjutsu. This means he's not even taking this seriously. This village is well and truly doomed.'

Saburo sneakily sent some of his stronger clones away.

'No use losing more of my strength on this village. I'll just pretend to help them a bit then flee...'

Then, Saburo and the weaker clones that remained all dashed in as well, preparing for a harsh battle.

'Might as well say goodbye to the rest of my clones... I want to at least try and damage him slightly, repay this stupid village a bit for all of the test subjects they provided.'

Unfortunately, the taijutsu bout didn't go exactly as the Grass Shinobi had planned, as Ken's tail and claws cleaved through their weapons with ease.

Ken swung his claws at a Shinobi cleaving him in two while three blades broke on his back, cutting into his cloak and shredding it further.

The Shinobi were simply flabbergasted, looking at their broken weapons with scared eyes, only for two of them to be decapitated by a tail swipe.

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The third one managed to crouch in time and avoid losing his head, but Ken's leg whipped out and kicked him square in the chest.

The Shinobi immediately felt his ribs shattering into fragments and shooting into his lungs, he was sent flying into the crowd, half dead.

As that was happening, more and more people gathered around Ken, stabbing at him with spears and all types of weaponry, trying to score in more and more hits and widdle him down, as instructed by the elders.

Ken turned and grabbed two of the spears, using his superior strength he yanked them out of the hands of their wielders.

He then grabbed both of them with one hand, slightly crushing the wooden parts of both as he started swinging them around madly, cutting into the shinobi with extended reach.

Many fell to his swings, while their weapons, barely left a scratch on him.

One lucky Shinobi managed to attack him with a weapon covered in lightning chakra, it left a red line across the Red Dot's back.

The Shinobi wasn't lucky enough to escape though, his head was pierced through by Ken's tail at blinding speeds.

And the wound he had created was nothing more than a scratch that healed up in seconds.

At that point, many realized that getting close to Ken wasn't optimal, so they started bombarding him with kunai, shuriken and senbo.

They didn't seem to be that effective on the Blind Monster's scales, harmlessly bouncing off as more and more weapons pooled at his feet.

Some tried to aim for his eyes, but Ken made sure to shield his mask, so in the end, they weren't able to do much.

Ken smiled a bit as he felt the weapons pool at his feet, he immediately blasted his tail into the ground, causing hundreds of Kunai and Shuriken to slingshot back at the shinobi.

More started falling, being pierced by weapons as fear spread throughout the battlefield.

Some tried spitting fire at Ken, but the fire seemed to be ineffective, wind bullets also didn't even seem to make him flinch.

'Useless fools! They're just like a bunch of cattle waiting to be slaughtered, can't adapt to their opponent at all! All of them would've been more useful as clones...'

Elder Yuu scowled when he saw the way things were moving. He immediately started commanding everyone in a more direct manner, taking control of the situation and spouting orders loudly.

He tried grasping Ken in grass, but the blind monster was able to just rip them out of the ground with ease and continue throwing back Kunai and Shuriken with his tail.

Saburo also scorned them loudly, as he instructed all of his remaining clones to scatter and encircle Ken, he immediately started setting up paper bombs and throwing them towards Ken.

Ken felt them coming, and immediately swung his tail and spun around in a circular motion, bouncing dozens of explosive Kunai back towards the crowd just as they started glowing.

Explosions rang all around Ken, and he scowled a bit at the way they overloaded his senses.

The charred smell of burnt-up bodies and the ringing of the explosions managed to 'blind' his senses momentarily.

But he didn't panic at all, he could still easily feel the way that people moved around him, the way their Aura's manifested.

From the way they were revolving, it seemed that they had created a larger clearing around him, clearly preparing for a large-scale combination jutsu of sorts.

'They're probably taking the opportunity of me being a bit stunted to prepare something big...

I don't really have chakra to perform any Jutsu to defend myself in this form, so I guess I'll just have to tank it.'

Ken then slapped his tail on the ground, creating a shockwave large enough that all of the smoke around him was blown away, revealing all of the blown-up body parts and burnt corpses that littered the scorched ground surrounding him.

'I can't go and heal from large wounds constantly, regrowing my arm was enough to tire me out.

I'm still far from being able to recover from such wounds at no cost... It might be time to flee from this place soon...'

Alas, the damage was already done, in that short bout, the village had lost at least a hundred able-bodied shinobi of different ranks.

Meanwhile, Ken was just tired. He had his scales to thank for that, as he would've been dead had he tried to take on that many people in his base form.

He was only able to ignore hits and fight recklessly because he knew that he was durable. If he needed to dodge around constantly, then the damage he could've dealt would've been far less.

The Shinobi around him seemed to have already prepared something nice for him. And Ken turned and smiled a bit under his cracked mask.

"Fire Release Cooperation Technique: Garuda!"

Dozens of shinobi finished their seals and started spitting out gouts of fire. The breaths of many combined into only a few gigantic flame dragons.

Ken felt that he was surrounded on all sides, but he didn't panic. Instead, he punched at the ground with all of his force, causing the earth around him to crack and raise up, creating a makeshift shield around him just as the dragons were about to reach him.

The combination Jutsu blasted apart earth around Ken, but it wasn't like he was forced to take the hit.

The Blind Swordsman used the few seconds that the earth shield had bought him to jump over the fire dragons, avoiding the raging explosions with ease.

One of the dragons followed him in the air, but Ken managed to cut it apart with a swing of his tail, using the momentum of his jump and spinning around fast enough to cut through anything that came close to him.

He could feel more of his cloak burn up, and some small bits of his mask falling apart as it broke further.

It was only around his mouth though, and Ken wasn't worried much about it, as he could still fix it.

Still, the high temperatures did boil the blood in his veins and heat up his organs, making him use more and more energy to heal up.

He was constantly absorbing Nature's Energy, but that didn't mean he wasn't going to run out eventually.

His consumption at that point was far greater than his absorption, so he had to be careful.

But he was still relatively safe, he then landed on the ground with a loud thud, slapping it with his tail a few times and blasting away the fire that was around him.

"Ninja Art: Four Flames Formation!" Just as Ken landed, the Shinobi acted once more.

Four Anbu tapped their hands on the ground simultaneously, and a violet slightly transparent barrier spread out all around them entrapping Ken in a large formation.

"Oh? A prison of sorts... How thoughtful, giving me time to rest." Ken laughed a bit at their struggle.

He was already planning on fleeing, as he felt he had already done more than enough damage, and he didn't feel like he could keep up much longer.

The Shinobi didn't seem to be in any mood to joke around anymore. Any mocking laughter or gaze was completely gone, they were all desperate, tired and scared from what Ken could feel.

So his attack had already met its intended purpose. Most of the fight was kept in the clearing of the collapsed Kage building, so no civilians were affected at the very least.

"Kehehehe... More like giving us some time to rest!" One other person was there in the formation with him.

One of Saburo's clones, the one that acted as an Anbu Captain.

"Heh... I guess you're still in the mood for jokes since you're not in any danger." Ken smiled widely under his cracked mask, somewhat amused at the little care Saburo was showing for the village he technically represented.

"Indeed... This village is spent, you've already killed around half of our forces in a few minutes. We obviously give up at this point, I'm not even sure this formation can hold you here honestly..."

Saburo raised his hands with a wry smile as he spoke about the hidden village essentially surrendering to a bounty hunter.

The Strawman really couldn't care less, at the very least he didn't lose that many of his clones. The only troubling part was they would likely have to find a new hideout.

None of the 5 hidden villages was likely to accept him either, so things were bound to get a bit more difficult for him.

"So you guys want me to leave, huh?" Ken tilted his head as he spoke, smiling a bit under his mask.

"Essentially, yes. The elders have reached the conclusion that they can't go on any longer... You've won is what we're saying. The village surrenders." Saburo waved his hand around a bit as he explained a few things to Ken.

Yuu on the side looked at Ken with absolute hate. He wanted to keep going, but since Ken was not showing any signs of slowing down or being tired, and there was no injury on him, continuing to fight simply felt irresponsible to him.

'We've already lost too much today... We need to get back on our feet, recuperate our strength, and get much stronger than before if we want to even approach this monster again. We'll have to survive against the other hidden villages first...'

"Heh... Alright then, if you want me to leave you'll have to give me a few things." Ken immediately started negotiating, realizing that the village was basically begging him to leave them alone.

'Might as well take them for all they've got, right?'

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