Naruto: The Blind Swordsman

Chapter 183: Training Partner, Sparring and Tool

__________ POV Narration __________

Ken scratched his chin for a moment, pondering on the best course of action.

He could just kill the cretin and his followers. Send their heads neatly packaged to their Kage leader through some of the Anbu outside...

But that was a bit wasteful, now wasn't it?

'I can at least use this situation to help Hiroshi and learn a bit more about this Bloodline limit...'

So, while smiling, Ken came to a conclusion.

"Hiroshi, it seems you were a bit afraid of this worm. So let's do it this way... The two of you will fight again." The Blind Monster's wild nature flared out a bit, his words and demeanor startling the people in the room once more.

Ken then bent down, grabbed the wannabe Jonin by the back of the neck, and picked him up like one would a stray cat. He then started walking outside leisurely.

The two other shinobi followed suit, not daring to even look the other residents of the house in the eye.

Hiroshi could only blink a few times, before looking at his father.

Toyama looked just as confused, but he nodded regardless. Ryoko, who had been in the kitchen and listening in, also looked concerned, but she followed them outside regardless.

Ken dropped the paralyzed-in-fear Iruma in the dusty dirt outside, he then reached into his coat and took out his blade.

He slowly drew a large circle around Iruma and urged Hiroshi to enter it as well.

"K-ken... But Hiroshi doesn't have much formal training..." Ryoko ran up to Ken, her concern visible in her features.

She liked seeing Iruma suffer it seemed, but was vehemently against Hiroshi fighting him. Well, her refusal did come off a lot meeker in front of Ken.

The mother of the house could not quite bring herself to speak out too loudly in front of Ken, shame and anguish still filled her mind every time she glanced at him.

"It will be fine. Hiroshi is going to get formal training now." Ken then pointed at Iruma. "He is that training."

Iruma, who was still prostrating on the ground, immediately nodded about a dozen times in quick succession.

"It is my honor to help in the training of your brother Lord Ken!"

Like all people who clung to the little power they had and abused it, Iruma was quick to agree to anything Ken proposed if it meant extending his life for even another minute.

After all, he was not stupid enough to think that Ken would let him live so easily. So he did his best to be as useful as possible to the Blind Monster.

"Speak only when spoken to." Ken turned his head towards Iruma briefly, as he spoke, before turning back to his brother and urging him to enter the circle.

Hiroshi nodded, stretching his shoulder as he looked around the arena/circle.

The two Genin were standing on the side, kneeling as they waited for orders that were never going to come.

And Iruma was pretty much contemplating whether or not to try and fight back against Hiroshi at all.

"Hiroshi, use your bloodline limit from the start, don't hold anything back."

The young man nodded, his eyes becoming a bit resolute as his muscles seemed to shift.

His skin seemed to become grey in most areas, and his hands immediately became bigger, with strange bones jutting out of them.

Ken could not feel the difference in color of course, but he could feel the difference in aura.

'So this is it, huh? I guess it is somewhat similar to my imperfect sage mode, or scaled sage mode...'

Ken was constantly in Sage Mode at the end of the day, his transformation only happened when he allowed the Nature Energy within his body to outweigh the Chakra, essentially destabilizing his perfect sage mode manually.

Of course, Hiroshi's transformation was fundamentally different from Ken's. He didn't seem to take the features of a beast but rather shift into something rather difficult to describe...

Iruma's eyes narrowed as he looked at Hiroshi. Despite his submissiveness, he was still a decently powerful shinobi. Hiroshi's inexperience was something that he had taken advantage of in the past.

"Start the battle!" Ken waved his hand, and both combatants rushed forward.

It seemed that Iruma was a bit faster than Hiroshi, as he was able to circle around to the young man's side and throw a well-aimed kunai towards his abdomen.

Hiroshi seemed to panic, he immediately moved his hand to block it, the kunai embedding itself very slightly into his palm.

The young Shura Clan member groaned slightly before swinging his arm in a wide motion, forcing Iruma to jump backwards as a cloud of dust was raised.

'Hmm... So he is physically strong at least...' Ken nodded as he felt that.

Hiroshi immediately dived into the smoke, relying on his enhanced senses much like another transforming monster nearby.

His fist clenched into a punch, and more protrusions came out of his shoulder and upper arm as he did so.

In an instant, a burst of natural energy mixed with chakra jutted out of those protrusions.

Hiroshi was immediately propelled forward towards Iruma, through the smoke, his punch aiming to smash the Special Jonin to bits.

But Iruma wasn't exactly going to fall for such a straightforward attack.

Hiroshi may have had decent senses, but he had no way of hiding his presence within the smoke like Ken did.

"Wind Release: Gale Palm!"

Iruma even met the punch head-on with a Jutus he had prepared beforehand.

Hiroshi's eyes widened, startled slightly as he felt the resistance of the wind bursting from Iruma's palm.

That slight panic caused the energy propelling him forward to stop for a second, which led to him being sent flying backwards, tumbling across the training ground.

Iruma didn't follow up with another attack though, he merely looked at Ken for a few seconds.

He had essentially won the spar intentionally in a non-lethal way. The very last thing he wanted to do was to seriously injure the brother of the infamous Red Dot right in front of him.

Hiroshi got up, growling slightly and feeling a bit embarrassed. He was about to try and attack again, but he didn't even get the chance to raise his fist.

"Ok, enough for now." Ken's voice sounded out, and with a clap of his hand, all of the dust in the small arena was immediately blown away, and both fighters were forced to take a knee not to be blown away as well.

Iruma's expression returned to that terrified look as he witnessed the Blind Assassin's monstrous strength.

The parents and genin around were also quite scared, but they were thankfully behind Ken, so they all got away with just shielding their eyes from the dust.

"Hiroshi, your way of fighting is too straight-forward... But I guess changing that instantly would be hard." Ken scratched his chin, finally getting a good grasp on his brother's strength.

He was essentially better than Iruma in all physical aspects, aside from agility. But when using the propulsion of those engine-like protrusions he was also faster than Iruma.

But not overwhelmingly faster...

The difference in experience was something that couldn't be overcome easily.

"Hiroshi, in your next match, try to use that propulsion of yours from your back more, it should give you a better boost in speed.

Also, you need to lose that panic of yours. Wannabe Jonin, just keep doing what you've been doing."

The fighters both nodded and they soon resumed the fight, much to the displeasure of Ken's parents.

But there was really nothing they could do. They couldn't really stand up to Ken, and Hiroshi himself seemed to want to fight.

The next bout went about the same.

Hiroshi did manage to get the upper hand for a second or two, by boosting forwards from his back and only one protrusion form his elbow.

While it was enough to break through the earth wall that Iruma had raised, it wasn't enough to keep going after that, and Iruma was able to push him back again with yet another burst of wind.

Before the next fight could even start, a masked figure finally walked into the village.

Ken turned his head towards him, which made the others around them notice him as well.

He was none other than the Anbu Captain of the squad currently watching over the village.

"Lord Ken..." He immediately took to one knee, doing his best to bow his head down as much as he could.

"Please forgive us for this transgression! No squad was to be sent to the village today!"

Ken hummed, tilting his head slightly.

"I had felt you lot running around the village walls in desperation for a while now... I guess you've finally built up the courage to face me, huh?" Ken's tone was even, not mocking in any way, despite his harsh words.

It was natural for the Anbu Captian to need courage to face someone like Ken. The fact that he had stepped forward and did so was impressive in the first place.

"Y-yes sir... But an apology is in order, as the shinobi of our village have misbehaved in front of you! Our Hidden Village will do anything to appease you!"

Iruma paled a bit when hearing that, he recognized the man's voice. He realized that he was likely going to get demoted to a genin or academy instructor after the stunt he pulled.

Hell, he would be lucky to escape with his life. If Ken didn't kill him, then the village could decide to do it to appear the Red Dot...

He was still clinging to hope though. He hoped that clinging to Ken would help him survive the disaster he had brought upon himself.

Unfortunately for him, Ken only saw him as a tool... And tools were always to be disposed of when they lost their usefulness.

Ken nodded at the Anbu Captain, before snapping his fingers.

No one could react to it, the Anbu member could barely even follow Ken's movements.

But the Blind Monster had essentially almost unscrewed Iruma's head off, from the mark on Iruma's pulverized cheek, it was likely done by a single slap.

"Gaah!" Two pained voices sounded from the other side as well, the two genin that had followed Iruma were on the ground, their legs shattered, their hands twisted unnaturally.

Ryoko and Toyama looked at the scene with startled gazes. They knew the rumours, they knew everything... But seeing such brutality with their own two eyes was something else.

Ryoko couldn't even stop herself from vomiting.

Despite all the bad that those men had done to them, they were still human lives...

Hiroshi himself vomited as well, tears welling up in his eyes at the brutal scene.

'Hmm... I guess we are quite different after all.' Ken whistled a bit, before turning his head back towards the Anbu Captain, who was completely unfazed.

Ken's strength shocked him, but it was to be expected. He was someone considered closest to the God of Shinobi... Quite likely the strongest person in their generation.

As for the death of Iruma and the crippling of his followers?

'Good riddance...'

The fools had caused enough trouble to the Land of Keys already.

"You'll do anything right?" Ken's tone seemed almost diabolical in the eyes of everyone present. But the Anbu Captain nodded resolutely regardless.

The fact that he was alive was a good sign at the very least.

"From now on, you will send an Anbu member of at least the Special Jonin level to spar with Hiroshi over here, he is my biological twin, you see?"

Ken's smile sent shivers down the Anbu's spine, as he finally realized what compelled the infamous Red Dot to visit their Land of Keys.

"Also, send a message to your Kage... I shall be meeting him soon to discuss some arrangements." Ken then waved his hand, dismissing the Anbu.

"Your wish is my command, Lord!" The Anbu quickly saluted Ken, bowing once more before vanishing.

Ken then turned to his terrified family and gave them a friendly smile.

"Well then... I guess you three need a bit of time to recover from that.

I will go and continue making dinner, your appetite is bound to return after emptying your stomachs like that."

Ken passed by Ryoko and Hiroshi, patting both of them on the shoulder. The two flinched when he did so, their fear truly was palpable.

The only one who recovered for now was Toyama, who just nodded to Ken and went to comfort his wife and son.

Ken could still smell the fear radiating off of him, but there was also some glee there.

Seeing Iruma's mutilated body seemed to bring him some modicum of pleasure.

Ken's smile vanished as he entered the house, he leisurely walked to the kitchen before picking up a knife and dicing some chicken breast.

"Hmm... I guess I'll make some crispy chicken salad."

_____________________________

Hope you liked today's chapter!

Yea, Hiroshi may be similar to Ken in some ways, but he is not the same as Ken in every way.

It's one thing to hear about something you find fascinating/interesting, but seeing the bloodshed in person is a different thing altogether.

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