Naruto: The Outsider's Resolve: CH_413: Ratel vs Bandits: "Quiet"

Ever since Takuma had learned the Shadow Clone Jutsu, his life had been significantly influenced by the jutsu. He had shifted most of his training to his clones while he handled work. Most of his training time was devoted solely to physical strength and conditioning, as clones were unable to build muscle.

The weighted gear gifted by Might Gai had been a game-changer. He had gotten abnormally strong in a short period of time. It had inadvertently solved a problem he didn't know he had. His normal strikes didn't pack much of a punch; he had to rely on his chakra augmentation to do substantial damage—it wouldn't have been a problem if he were a ranged fighter, but for his combat style, his melee options needed to be ultimate weapons. By pouring regular time each morning into physical strength and conditioning, he had managed to make himself more lethal in close-range combat.

He no longer needed his chakra augmentation to pack a punch.

'That's one of them done—or not,' Takuma thought as he moved to finish the staggering agent. He caught something in his peripheral vision and immediately jumped back before another agent could slice his head off his neck.

He wasn't given time to have a pause and jumped while manoeuvring his body parallel to the ground as a fire spear zipped by under him. He felt heat from the flames. By the time he planted his feet, an agent was a step away from him. Their eyes met as the agent in a low crouch swung his sword in a wide arc. Takuma moved a step back faster than the agent could swing his sword. It wasn't just strength; he had also become faster.

His eyes bounced from the agent, his sword, and the two teammates. He breathed out as his mind churned to analyse the next move. Where will the next sword strike come from?

"Huh?"

The agent suddenly let go of the sword at the end of its trajectory and whipped out a speedy punch from his other hand. Takuma, half a second late, hastily raised his block—but instead of striking him, the agent grabbed his arm and used the momentum to toss him away.

It took him a mere couple of seconds to stabilise himself, but another agent was already behind, ready to attack. He barely managed to block another sword strike, but the kunai was knocked out of his hand. He tilted his way out of the way of a sword stab. He felt the elastic keeping the mask in place tug as the sword grazed it, leaving a mark on the hard surface.

Something had changed, he thought as he moved away out of the sword's range.

One of the agents raised his hand—a signal. The formation shifted, two agents remained close to him while another took distance. They were turning serious.

He was kicked in the abdomen. It didn't hurt that much, but he was once again in motion against his will. At least, he was heading to a spot away from the agents. It would give him a moment to prepare his next move.

An orb of fire exploded at his feet the moment he landed.

Of course, it wasn't going to be that easy. Takuma crashed through cargo boxes filled with miscellaneous goods and smashed into a tree behind him. Ignoring the pain, he immediately jumped away a few moments before another fire orb crashed into the tree before exploding. The tree broke while its fallen remains burned from the intense heat and flames.

Fire Release: Fox Fire.

It was a jutsu he had faced when he fought Bishop. It allowed the user to control several fire orbs that could set things on fire upon contact, and each orb could be exploded at will. It was a nasty piece of ninjutsu that he would've liked to learn if he were any good at Fire Release.

Takuma weaved hand seals to create a melon-sized water sphere that spawned into existence.

Water Release: Spirit Water Wave

The agent controlling the fire orbs was the same one who had tried to nail him with the fire spear twice. The seven fire orbs were revolving around him like satellites, two of which zoomed towards him

He raised his hand in a gun gesture and shot twice in quick succession. The tiny water bullets struck the fire orbs, and they exploded mid-trajectory. Because they were explosive in nature, the chakra inside the orbs was always excited. A strong enough external force could destabilise the excited chakra if it managed to penetrate inside. Of course, the jutsu was created with that weakness in mind, so the outer flame shell was strong enough to absorb the beating.

However, water trumped fire—especially when water nature chakra was packed into a small water bullet built for penetration.

'You have bad aim, that's why you stay put,' he thought and shot three more rounds without stopping.

The agent quickly moved two of his orbs out of the way, but moving multiple objects simultaneously was difficult; Takuma knew it best because he had trained tirelessly to move his tentacles seamlessly. The third bullet hit the orb, causing it to explode. The agent moved quickly and jumped away, but was still hit by the explosion. To his credit, he managed to keep all the other orbs intact.

"Not for long," Takuma muttered as he trained his gun for another shot.

Before he could shoot, another agent appeared before him in a flash. He shifted his aim slightly and let out two shots at the agent, who cut the bullets with his sword.

'Impressive,' Takuma thought as he side-stepped the sword thrumming with kenjutsu. 'You favour your left leg.'

The moment the agent stepped out with his left leg, Takuma slammed his foot on the agent's left foot while smashing an augmented punch to the knee and felt the bone forcibly shift under his knuckles. It would make moving just a bit difficult, enough for him to aim at his head and shoot him dead. He primed his gun hand at the agent, but the moment he shot, the agent slapped his hand away, causing the water bullet to completely miss its mark.

The agent grunted as he pushed through the pain in his shoulder and smashed his fist into the side of Takuma's face. The masked man absorbed most of the blow, but he was partially hit on the ear, which dazed him for a moment and caused him to lose control of the jutsu.

But he was used to it after getting his head kicked in more times than he could count.

'They're coming.'

A group of ROOT agents wouldn't miss an opportunity like this. He stayed still until the very last moment to stabilise his internal balance.

And then it began.

Takuma moved as fast as he possibly could, as the remaining fox fire orbs chased after him like homing missiles. He moved in a blur, covering as much as the width of the road in one step, but the orbs kept on his tail without faltering.

He stopped for a moment, and the orbs sped into his position. He put chakra into his legs and rocketed into the sky, clearing the height of the surrounding forest's canopy. Three orbs exploded, cratering the road.

He took out tagged kunai and threw them at the agent controlling the orbs.

The moment he landed, he had side-stepped a thrumming sword and managed to avoid it by only taking a skin-deep gash on his arm that burned. He jumped as the same agent tried to sweep his feet and leapt back to make some distance, only to have a second agent grab him from behind. He slammed his head back into the agent's face—it didn't loosen the agent's grip one bit, but it did allow Takuma to spin around as a fox fire orb tried to hit him; instead, it hit the agent's back, burning him in the process. It instantly backed away.

Takuma dug his hand down with all the force he could muster and managed to pull out three kunai. The agent immediately let go of him and jumped away so as not to get stabbed.

He put chakra behind them. One of them went towards the orb that had tried to burn him and caused it to explode near the agent who had grabbed him, who jumped away with excellent self-preservation instincts. The second targeted the fox fire user, specifically at one of the remaining orbs, to keep him occupied for a moment. The other one, he threw it at the agent who had been consistently using kenjutsu from the start. The agent blocked it with his sword, which cut the kunai in half—but the chakra which propelled the kunai kept the two pieces in momentum. One of them sliced him above the eye. Blood began spilling, dripping down into his eyes, partially blinding him. The man tried to rub his eye, but it didn't help as more blood flowed into the eye.

Takuma instantly began weaving hand seals. He finished at the same time as the agent who had grabbed him earlier.

Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu.

Water Release: Wild Water Wave.

The opposing elements clashed against each other. The wave snuffed out the giant fireball and poured pressurised boiling water over the agent, who screamed in agony as he was scalded.

Takuma felt he was at a turning point as he sprinted into the vapour mist created by the ninjutsu impact. Two of the agents were in situations that he could capitalise on. And once he got rid of the two, the remaining one would be easy to deal with.

"Hmm?"

He heard a whistle and looked up to see a downpour of thin fire arrows rain down on him. He immediately changed his course and leapt and rolled to the side before getting on his feet and charging forward as more arrows dropped on him. They melted the earth and left harsh scorch marks.

Just when he thought that he had successfully evaded fire arrows, the mist split, and the kenjutsu agent emerged with a glowing sword. Takuma's eyes widened when he saw the wound on the agent's brow that was to leak blood into the eye had been cauterised to seal it shut.

That sword was dangerous. He needed to avoid it at all costs—

The agent swung his sword even though he wasn't in range. A glimmering cutter sliced through the air at him.

Takuma acted on instinct and punched out a second form augmentation. The two forces collided and ate away at each other, but the kenjutsu ultimately won, as remnants of it left numerous cuts on the body. Another cutter and a second form augmentation collided, and he was cut several times again.

The agent didn't release a third cutter. Instead, his sword began to glow brighter.

Without hesitation, Takuma weaved hand seals and slammed his hand into the ground.

Earth Release: Earthen Dome

The jutsu had a function that allowed the user to pour in chakra, thereby strengthening it to withstand more. And Takuma had all the chakra one could ask for, so he poured freely like a waterfall into the dome walls.

The agent's sword shone blindingly and trembled in his grip as more chakra was poured into it.

The charged cutter made zero sound until it crashed into the dome.

Takuma felt a jolt as violent vibrations penetrated the dome, coursing through his body, particularly in his arms. He grinned with stubbornness. The dome was going to hold, he told himself. Earthen Dome wasn't a particularly strong defensive jutsu, and yet he was particularly attached to it. He wasn't someone who used defensive ninjutsu often—in fact, he knew a limited amount of it. But the rare times he used it, Earthen Dome had always protected him.

The cutter continuously drove into the dome walls until it and the wall both exploded.

Takuma was thrown back with his hand roaring in pain—but he was protected as the dome took most of the abuse.

Takuma endured the pain and tried to get up when the brown ceiling of the dome burst open as a huge flaming fist punched through it and struck Takuma while filling the dome with flames. The agent poured a copious amount of chakra into the jutsu to ensure the job was done.

And just when he thought he sensed no movement, a fist emerged from the flames and struck him.

———
.

The agent blinked, and suddenly, he wasn't looking at the fiery, flaming chaos inside the dome jutsu, but at the blue, cloudy sky. Pain suddenly struck him, and he opened his mouth to let out a groan, only to find that he couldn't move his jaw—it had been completely shattered. He could feel several loose teeth with his tongue and a heavy taste of blood.

The pain was agonising, but he had been trained to endure much more, so he stood up and was taken aback when he suddenly saw the shattered cargo boxes; they weren't supposed to be anywhere near him. He looked ahead to see his teammates far in the distance. He didn't remember moving such a huge distance.

He looked down at his arms; they were trembling, and so were his legs.

The realisation struck him.

He had blacked out.

———
.

Takuma, with burnt clothes and singed skin, climbed out of the earthen dome. He shook the embers off his arms and clothes as he looked at the agents, who were all cautious as they moved in formation.

As he was now, he was confident he could kill them. That was never a doubt. From the moment he exchanged the first blows, he knew they were tough, but not something he couldn't deal with.

But could he defeat them without killing them? Because that was ultimately the goal. Three more dead ROOT agents would be good on his record, but Amami could extract information if they were alive. He had to take them alive. Death wasn't an option.

For better or for worse, he wasn't really geared towards taking his opponent alive. From the day he became a Ring fighter, his combat style's "theme" was more or less. He was a hammer. Even his genjutsu, which he had attempted to mould into a finer option, had somehow bloomed into a blunt weapon.

Overwhelming strength.

If he couldn't capture them alive through tactics and strategies, then he just needed brute force. Make them so helpless that they had no choice but to let him decide if they exited this fight dead or alive.

Easier said than done. He wasn't a jōnin, and they all seemed hyper-competent chūnin-level combatants like him. However, chūnin was said to be the widest rank. The lowest-rated chūnin and those highest-rated were worlds apart.

All he needed to do was crush them.

Earth Release: Earth Spear.