Chapter 71: …Unaware of the Oriole Behind
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[Sukaina's POV]

Crushing Juzo Biwa's heart, I let him fall forward, my gaze lingering on the red clouds of his robe. I did not expect the Mistress to manage to bring a member of the Akatsuki into this mess, and even less I would kill him.

I kept a part of my attention on Kisame, but seeing he wasn't attacking and only showed confusion, I turned my attention to the other one who was looking at me, Roka.

The fool who fell in love with me. He was only a fail-safe. If Kisame somehow either died or joined the Mistress, then I would have Roka take his place, but in the end, he wasn't needed.

And unfortunately for him, there could only be one survivor other than me, and it wasn't him.

But as I was about to activate the Body Flicker, I felt the world slow down as my mind entered a rare state of focus. I was in the zone.

Applying chakra to my palm, I used the Shunshin Slash, a technique I had been trying to create for a while now, and had only used once before. Well, twice, if you include Juzo.

And surprisingly, I managed to use it today as I attacked so fast even Kisame didn't follow me. While moving faster than sound, my hand severed Roka's neck, killing him on the spot.

My eyes turned to the other survivors, the few who had survived the battle and were still standing, and once again managed to use the Shunshin Slash several times in a row as I killed them all with a single strike.

"What have you done? Who are you?"

My body pretty much covered in the blood of my victims, I looked at the only other survivor, Kisame. With an expressionless face, I said, "It's over, Kisame. I win."

Kisame frowned and tried to raise his sword, but found himself unable to raise his arms. He looked at his body in shock, before murmuring, "So I wasn't feeling tired."

I shook my head as I approached him, one step at a time, "No. Since the start of the fight, I have been releasing a paralysing and sleep inducing poison in the room. You all were so busy fighting one another that you didn't find it."

Kisame fell to his knees, unable stand his own weight anymore. Barely hanging, Kisame asked, "You've won… So could you at least tell me who you are, before you kill me?"

I reached Kisame, and lightly took his chin into my hand, like I've been doing for the past week, and said with a natural smile, "But I'm not killing you, Kisame. I'm freeing you."

Kisame coughed and snarled, "Don't tell me I got defeated by a fucking cultist."

I laughed at that, and replied, "No, I'm not freeing you from your physical form, if that's what you are asking. I am freeing you from the burdens set onto you by others and yourself. But we will have time to speak when you wake up. For now, sleep."

I used one of my low tier Genjutsu to empower my voice, giving it a slight hypnosis effect. Because of the state he was already in, Kisame could do nothing but fall asleep as he fell face forward.

I didn't let him face plant into the ground though and grabbed him, throwing him over my shoulders. I tried to grab Samehada, but felt several spikes emerge, cutting my hand.

Pulling my hand away, I calmly reasoned, "I'm not stealing you from your beloved master. Don't be so feisty."

The sword growled in a strangely similar way a cat would, but as I tried to grab it again, it didn't attack, and let me place it on Kisame's back.

Getting up, I had no problem carrying Kisame, he was a full grown man but I had grown stronger than most Chunins physically, so he practically didn't weigh anything.

Looking around at the carnage I had brought, I felt the emotions Kisame had brought me vanish as I returned to the cold killing machine. I have a mission, and I'm almost done.

Taking out a sealing scroll, I sealed Juzo's body in it, as well as all the other ninjas from Kiri, and the Executioner's Blade. I'm not sure I'll be taking it back to Konoha, because that could become a problem, but I guess I'll have to see.

That was a problem, because right now, Konoha doesn't seem to have a hand in any of the things that happened. I wasn't sparing Kisame because he was a friend, I was sparing him because I wanted him to take the blame for everything that happened.

All the men whom I had interacted with were killed today in the palace, so no one would be left to suspect the sweet Princess Takayama had caused this massacre.

The only accountable ones after today would be the only survivor, Kisame. After years of suffering, he finally went through a mental breakdown and killed the Daimyo and his family, before deserting the village. Traces of the Mistress' rebellion would possibly be found, but in the grand scheme of things, it didn't matter, because in the eyes of the people, the fault would lay with Kiri.

As for Kisame returning to Kirigakure and telling what really happened, I didn't have to worry about this. Not only had I been testing his limits for a full week to make sure he was ready to become a missing-nin, even if I was wrong and he returned to make a report, it didn't matter.

By the time Kisame gets back, news of Kiri failing to protect the Daimyo would spread throughout the whole Land of Forests, and possibly that they were the ones responsible for the death of the Great Leader, and more importantly, of the promising Princess Takayama.

So even if he returned, there was nothing Kiri could say that would redeem the situation in the Land of Forests. And although him returning would anger Kiri, it wouldn't spark into a war because the Land of Forests wasn't theirs anymore, and they knew they didn't stand a chance of taking over the coast if we defended it, which we did.

We never had big conflicts with Kiri like we did with the other nations because the only viable ways for them to attack us are the Land of Forests and the Land of Lightning, and considering Kiri and Kumo couldn't be called chummy, them knowing we were behind this didn't matter.

But I don't think I have to worry about this either. Yagura, the Mizukage, is a child who got in power only because of his personal strength, and he has nothing of a good leader, seeing how he turned the strong Kirigakure into the Bloody Mist.

Of course, they were scary, but they were actually weaker than before. Point is, Yagura is going to be mad at Kisame's failure, and if he comes back, he is dead for sure, so I doubt Kisame is going to come back to the village.

But whatever happen, Konoha is the winner. If Kisame comes back to Kiri, then I can take the Executioner's Blade back to Kiri without any worry, since they won't be launching a war anyway. And if he doesn't come back, I'll just give him the blade and let him whatever he wants with it, since officially he was the one who stole it.

But in any case, before worrying about any of this, I have to make sure I erase every trace of what happened, I wouldn't want people to know what really happened.

Stomping hard against the ground, Kisame and I got down to the floor below, him secured on my shoulder.

Looking around, I saw the thugs I had been converting in the past week. Unfortunately for them, they had all been killed by Juzo, and by the looks of things, he didn't hold back on them.

But it doesn't matter, they had to die anyway, and it was probably better for them to die in the enemy's hands than mine, would have been crueller to crush their hopes. Poor Roka will probably be unable to move on from limbo because of me.

I started searching the bags of the dead thugs, and I took out the explosive tags from them. I had been preparing this for a week, and since I didn't want to leave out any trace, then the easiest solution was to destroy any evidence with a large explosion. Deidara would definitely fall in love with me.

Quickly setting all the explosive tags, I set them on as I broke through one of the walls, reaching outside. I summoned one of my owls, Elder Nishio, who was large enough to carry both me and Kisame.

Not letting the Elder say anything, I explained, "You need to protect him from an explosion, and fly off in the smoke."

Elder Nishio nodded without a word.

A couple of seconds later, an even greater explosion than the one that destroyed the guards' barracks took place, completely obliterating the royal palace, and everyone left in it.

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