Clang!
Swoosh!
In the corridor, too small to even move properly, the war for the leadership of the village had begun. Putting aside the "super" ninjas, the rest of the ninjas had already clashed on the other side. But the battle between Kiyoshi, Tengen, and Takami was far fiercer.
The swords clashed again and again, so hard that sparks burst out each time, briefly illuminating the corridor with every impact.
Tengen, with his dual wielding, excelled at combos. His rapid chain of strikes continuously pressured Takami. In such a narrow space, Takami couldn't dodge properly, and Kiyoshi was attacking from the other side, not leaving him even a moment to breathe.
And every time Takami tried to shift his attention toward Kiyoshi, no matter how hard he tried, he simply couldn't land a hit!
No matter how fast he was, Kiyoshi always seemed to predict his attacks just before they landed.
His strikes missed—
—and Tengen immediately followed with another assault!
Though trained to be emotionless, Takami felt something close to anger as he found himself pushed into such a defensive position. How had he never noticed his brothers being this strong?!
Kiyoshi looked at Takami, who now resembled a trapped fish. Not completely caught yet, but not far from it either.
Still, he had to admit something.
Those skills...
'It's good that I teamed up with Tengen.'
Kiyoshi knew himself very well. Being a modern person had its merits, but it also had some disadvantages. His mindset, or in simpler terms, his morals and ethics, had already formed long ago.
Because of that, he couldn't be brainwashed like his brothers.
But it also meant he couldn't change as easily as they could.
Of course, his body was that of a ninja. And his cheat ability - "adaptation", had helped him survive the brutal training. But his mindset was different from the people of this era. And because of that, his growth had taken a different path.
His first goal in this world had always been simple.
Survive.
And so all his training to date had focused on survival.
Was Kiyoshi better at attacking than Tengen or Takami?
No.
He couldn't perform combos like Tengen, nor was his combat sense as sharp as Takami's.
But could he outlast them in a fight?
Yes.
The training was done at night, so his eyes adapted. His physical limits were constantly pushed beyond endurance, so his body adapted. Poison was fed to him repeatedly, so he became resistant. And in countless fights, his brain learned to adapt as well.
'Left.'
The movement of Takami's arm, the twist of his waist, the angle of his leg—it was as if he could glimpse the future of where the attack would go.
Trusting his instincts, Kiyoshi suddenly dropped into a squat.
Takami's slash from the left cut through empty air.
'Now!'
Kiyoshi spun his sword and sprang upward, smashing the hilt directly under Takami's chin!
"Argh!"
If it had happened earlier, Takami might have endured it easily. But after the relentless pressure from both sides, exhaustion had begun to catch up to him.
The sudden strike disrupted his balance for a moment.
And that was all they needed.
"Tengen, now!"
"Alright!"
Tengen instantly moved into Takami's blind spot and grabbed him from behind. The specially prepared chloroform handkerchief was pressed tightly over Takami's mouth.
"Grmrm! Gmmm!"
Takami struggled, but his movements quickly weakened.
His eyes slowly closed.
His body went limp.
Tengen caught him before he collapsed and gently placed him on the ground.
"One down."
"Yes. Let's deal with the rest."
With the most troublesome opponent taken care of, the remaining ninjas were quickly subdued. Some were knocked unconscious with chloroform, while others suffered minor wounds during the fight.
In less than a minute, everything was over.
Super ninjas were simply too super for normal ones.
"Kiyoshi, all of them are down."
"Good."
Kiyoshi looked toward the inner part of the mansion.
"Now… let's visit our dear father."
...
"Hmm? He isn't here? Did he run away?"
Kiyoshi looked around the room after opening the sliding door. The figure he wanted to find wasn't there. The women—mothers of his various brothers, even his own—were present, but the futon of the main person was empty.
"Mothers, can you tell me where father is?"
Though said with a smile and a kind voice, it only made the "mothers" in the room tremble. How could someone ask something so calmly after doing all this?
And Kiyoshi himself had forgotten that a stain of blood was still on his cheek, making his smile look anything but kind. The members in the room felt that even the emotionless face of their husband was less terrifying than this!
"Huh? Why are they nervous? Did I scare—!"
Just as he took a step into the room, a sudden flash appeared before his eyes.
It was a sword!
A sword reflecting the light from the lamp!
'Shit! I will die!'
Goosebumps rose all over his body. The sudden attack had completely caught him by surprise. This was exactly where Kiyoshi's skills fell short!
But before the sword could reach his neck, a hand intercepted it.
"Tengen!"
Tengen seemed to have anticipated it and blocked the strike. He quickly grabbed the attacker's wrist and twisted it, forcing the sword to fall to the ground before subduing the hidden ninja.
And who could it be?
"Father?!"
Damn! Here he thought that his old father had run away, but he was hiding here for a sneak attack?! And it had almost succeeded too?!
Though subdued and pushed onto the floor by Tengen with his arms twisted behind his back, his father looked at Kiyoshi with maddening anger on his face. The usually emotionless face now showed raw emotion, and honestly, it looked terrifying.
"Do you know what you are doing?! You are destroying this ninja village! I am saving the village!"
He wasn't angry about the coup itself, but about the village being destroyed. Or was it simply another way of asserting his authority?
Kiyoshi didn't want to think about why his father was angry. Because he was angry too.
You tried to kill me and now want to lecture me?!
Having just escaped death, Kiyoshi was filled with rage. If Tengen had been a second late, it would have been his head on the floor instead of this man's.
"You? Saving the village? Leader, I didn't know you could crack such a good joke."
"You... I will kill you! I will kill you!"
Those words only made his father even more furious, to the point that it seemed his eyes might pop out from anger.
"Tengen, silence him."
"A-Alright."
Though a bit hesitant, Tengen followed Kiyoshi's order.
Now that the room had fallen silent, Kiyoshi's anger slowly cooled. He looked again at his father, now unconscious on the floor.
"Can't even save a son and wants to save the village? Such wishful thinking. Isn't it, Tengen?"
Tengen listened to his words, and his somewhat hardened face formed a faint smile. His brother really did have a knack for words. Now, not that he disagreed with it.
"Yes. It's wishful thinking."
But now Tengen knew that while his father's wishful thinking had failed, his own wish—the one about changing the village—was about to come true.
The coup was successful. And the village is about to change.