After being unconscious for some time, Kosuke gradually manages to open his eyes and with a slightly muffled and distorted sound, Kosuke hears. 

"You have nothing to do with this boy Inara, why are you protecting him so much?" The mysterious Ninja 1 asks. 

"You're part of all that shit I heard about, aren't you?" Inara asks. 

"Shit you heard about? What are you talking about?" says mysterious ninja 2. 

Kosuke regains consciousness and sees Inara in front of him, protecting him from the two mercenaries. 

"Inara!" Kosuke says. 

"Kosuke!" Inara exclaims. 

"Now is not the time to sleep, get up and protect yourself!" says Inara. 

Kosuke shakes his head to regain his adrenaline and gets into fighting position. 

"Sensei, I didn't get to ask you this, but how do I use my Suzaku's prosthesis?" Kosuke asks. Kosuke asks. 

"To activate it, you need to use your chakra flow in your prosthesis," Inara says. 

Suddenly, Mercenary 2 lunges at Inara with a violent blow that cuts him in half. 

The mercenary's scythe had been imbued with chakra, increasing its cutting power. 

Inara was cut in half, Kosuke went into shock, his eyes popping out and his body paralyzed. 

Seconds after the cut, Inara's body turned into water. 

"Huh?" Mercenary 2 says. 

Inara appears behind the mercenary with one of his ice axes. 

*Tchlak 

Inara hits the mercenary in the back. 

"Ahhh," Mercenary 2 exclaims in pain, falling to the ground with a cut on his back. 

"Was that a clone?" Mercenary 2 thinks. 

"SENSEI BEHIND!" Kosuke shouts. 

"Urrrrgh!" Mercenary 1 shouts, hitting Inara in the back with his sledgehammer. 

*Pow 

Inara dodges the blow by jumping diagonally as the ground is destroyed by Mercenary 1's overwhelming blow. 

"Suiton - Mizuame Nabara," Inara says. 

Inara spits out a liquid from his mouth that pins Mercenary 1's hammer to the ground, buying him time to land safely. 

Kosuke began to focus his chakra on his prosthesis. Mercenary 1 tried to remove his hammer from the ground with countless efforts, but the more he moved, the more the hammer seemed to stick to the ground. 

"Kosuke, concentrate!" Inara said seriously. 

Listening to his sensei's advice, Kosuke took a deep breath, let it out slowly, closed his eyes and concentrated. 

"Tsk, do you think this is a joke, kid?" Mercenary 2 says. 

"Chakura Tō: Maichimonji," says Mercenary 2, his scythe gaining a dense blade of chakra and heading towards Kosuke. 

*Tclak Tclak Tclak Tclak Tclak Tclak Tclak Tclak 

*TCHIM 

Suzaku arms himself in front of Kosuke and parries Mercenary 2's attack. 

"Huh?" Mercenary 2 mumbles. 

*Tchlak 

Suzaku's lotus opens just enough for Kosuke's eyes to see Mercenary 2's face. 

"Joke's over..." Kosuke says seriously. 

Kosuke spins his Suzaku and throws away Mercenary 2's scythe, then kicks Mercenary 2 in the face. 

"Ah!" shouts the mercenary.

 The mercenary is thrown away and hits the wall of the alley. Kosuke quickly approaches Mercenary 2.

 The first mercenary, seeing his partner's plight, began to despair, but when he turned his eyes to his hammer, his hand froze as well.

 Inara, noticing the distraction of Mercenary 2, uses a Kage Bushin No Jutsu to defeat the trapped Mercenary.

 With 2 more clones and ice hammers, Inara manages to knock out Mercenary 2.

 Meanwhile, Kosuke is caught off guard as he approaches Mercenary 1. The mercenary takes a military chakra pill, giving him a lot of dexterity and power in ninjutsu.

 Kosuke and the mercenary fight hard, with Kosuke using his suzaku masterfully, but Kosuke takes a full blow.

 *Pow

 Kosuke is thrown away.

 "Damn, he's gotten a lot faster because of that damn pill," Kosuke thinks.

 "Tsk," Kosuke mutters.

 Kosuke watches the mercenary with suspicious movements.

 The mercenary makes a kage bushin no jutsu hand signal, but after the smoke of the kage bushin disappears, a fumma shuriken appears in the mercenary's hand.

 Kosuke watches the mercenary and notices a suspicious amount of chakra in the fumma shuriken. Kosuke squints his eyes and wonders what his strategy is.

 The mercenary throws the Fumma Shuriken at Kosuke.

 Kosuke jumps over the trajectory of the shuriken and grabs the Fumma Shuriken for himself.

 "Do you really think I'm going to fall for that cheap trick?" Kosuke says.

 The mercenary rolls his eyes in surprise.

 Kosuke throws the Fumma Shuriken against the wall and uses the momentum from the activation of his Suzaku to smash the Fumma Shuriken against the wall.

 *Pow!

 Kosuke damages the wall.

 *Puff!

 The Fumma Shuriken reveals that the mercenary has been transformed into the shape of the Shuriken.

 "Ah crap," Kosuke says.

 Kosuke realizes that his suzaku is stuck in the mercenary's face, killing him instantly.

 Kosuke stops his suzaku and looks worriedly at Inara.

 "Sensei, I... I didn't mean to..." Kosuke exclaimed worriedly.

 "It's okay, you were defending yourself, I can explain it to Hanzõ or even the ninja police," Inara says.

 Kosuke is relieved and turns his eyes to the body of the mercenary, even though he was an enemy, Kosuke feels guilty and shocked that such a frightening scene was caused by him.

 "I know he was an enemy, but..." Kosuke thinks in confusion.

 The mercenary ninja's face was completely disfigured and Kosuke felt his eyes twitch from the shock of the violence.

 Inara placed his hand on Kosuke's shoulder.

 "Uh?" Kosuke murmured and looked at his sensei.

"You were just defending yourself and did very well in battle, that's one of the sad realities of war, we never have a real winner when two people fight each other, but sometimes... it's necessary," Inara says, noticing Kosuke's shock. 

"Hm," Kosuke mutters and looks back to the body. 

Inara looks at Kosuke and thinks. 

"Poor boy, the way the political tension is going, he'll probably see a lot worse... but until then, I'll make sure he's prepared..." Inara thought. 

Kosuke and Inara walked back to Kosuke's house when Inara said in front of the door. 

"Go and rest, you did very well in your training and showed exceptional chakra control, I'm proud of you," Inara said trying to improve Kosuke's mood. 

"Thank you Sensei..." Kosuke says with a shy, reluctant smile. 

"Tomorrow I'll give you more information about our training, I saw that you make good use of your prosthetic weapon, soon we'll train that too, I'll go now because I have to dispose of this body by sending it to the autopsy with the prisoner, I have to accompany the police because this guy is no ordinary mercenary," Inara says. 

Inara still wanted to question the mercenary prisoner about Kosuke's attempted kidnapping, but in order to avoid further tension for Kosuke, Inara refrained from giving him any details for the moment. 

"Take this," Inara throws a Suzu bell to Kosuke. 

Kosuke takes the bell and asks. 

"Uhh, what is this for, Sensei?" 

"When you sense danger, swing this bell with a light concentration of chakra, only use it in emergencies or danger, I'll come to your location as soon as I get the signal," Inara says. 

"Got it, thanks Sensei," Kosuke says. 

Kosuke enters the house and Inara goes to accompany the shinobi police.

//

Author note 

10 chapters ahead at patreon.com/persima