Moroi got shot by snakes. Yes, he knew how strange that sounded, and no, it wasn’t a jutsu. At least not one that he had heard of. This guy with an overly elongated chin had just ejected a high-speed spinning snake from his arm, which, of course, had turned into a snake as well that could shoot identical, albeit much smaller snakes. What the hell was wrong with this guy?

Oh, right... chimeras.

He could only watch as several bullets penetrated his chest. He had almost no chakra left, and the enemy was still eager to beat his ass, judging by that expression of his. This was going to be a pain.

Moroi extended the tentacles from his arms and positioned them around his chest, morphing them into a modified shield with spikes. If he had any hope of winning in this state, he had to get up close and personal. He was about to rush in and attack when he noticed something blur among the trees, and then shot towards the man.

Kakuzu appeared behind the snake user and swiftly delivered a chop on his neck. The man froze, and Kakuzu caught an unconscious body from falling over and retched it into his right shoulder. His left side had already been occupied by the woman. Only one person left but catching him would be tought after so much time had passed.

“No trace of the remaining one?” Kakuzu asked.

“No, he got away.” Moroi responded, relieved that he could take a break from fighting. “I was lucky to even catch up to this one. The guy has a hell of a chakra pool, he didn’t even seem to be exhausted. I’ll try to track down the last one. He wouldn’t have time to release his traces.”

“I should have assigned some of the spirits to you. It was my mistake.” Kakuzu said. “I’ll go forward, take it slow.”

Before Kakuzu took a step forwards however, a ‘puff’ sound came from both of his shoulders and smoke rose from the spot where the captured enemy should have been.  But they were nowhere to be seen. They had vanished without a trace.

“Damn, they aren’t playing around.” Moroi muttered. “They must have a lot of chakra to burn. Those guys aren’t human.”

“Reverse-summoning.” Kakuzu said. “I guess trying to interrogate them was impossible. We have to go in blind.”

“Whoever they must be under must be one crazy bastard.” Moroi said. “I better move out before they manage to relocate.”

“No, there is no need for that.” Kakuzu stopped him. “I put a marking seal on her earlier. Let them think we lost them.”

Moroi’s eyes widened in realization as a wicked smile etched into his mouth. Finally, he was getting a break from this boredom. “That means we can launch a surprise attack, won't we? We should get every advantage we have before moving in.”

“That’s correct. We will be mounting and assault as soon as we confrim their location.” Kakuzu nodded. “So, there is a small change in our plans. Go take a break today, I’ll need you to scout out the area around their base later. I’ll contact you by then.”

Moroi nodded and departed from the area while Kakuzu turned around and looked at the battle site. He probably should spend some time covering that up.

---

A samurai walked through the forest. He carried a common-ranked katana holstered to his waist. Although nothing fancy, it would do its job.

It was his third time visiting the place and hunting down the beasts. So, he was finally starting to get used to it. But his experience was still lacking, and it sure as hell wouldn’t come from nowhere.

He tightened his grip on the sword and forced his anxiety to calm down and continued to advance.

The forest was located near the desolate village that he had been staying in for a while now. Lately, the village has had some problems. There had been few casualties among the villagers. And the cause stemmed from this area. Around a month ago, a sighting of beasts was detected close to the village. It first began with a livestock or two vanishing from time to time. But it didn’t take long after that for people to begin disappearing as well. A concern had arisen among the villagers, but leaving the village was not an option for poor people. The only thing they could do was to send a person to get help while they tried to act more carefully.

After noticing the situation, Zori couldn’t simply leave them behind. Granted, his motives weren't as selfless as naïve folk thought. For others, the attacks from the forest were nothing but a misfortune. But for him, it was an opportunity to hone his skill and strengthen himself.

As if on cue, a rustle was heard through the bushes. Zori tensed, maintaining a firm grip on the handle. He focused on the bush and prepared to draw the blade at a moment notice. Maybe it was just a rabbit, and he would be left standing embarrassed for his stiff expression. As if. Suddenly, something jumped out of the greenery, shooting straight towards him.

Zori took a quick glance at the attacker. It was a black creature, but Zori only needed a glance at its sharp fangs to know that animal had no friendly intention.

Zori drew the blade and swiftly stepped sideways a moment later as the wolf kept flying forward. A red line of blood appeared across its head, and it crashed into the ground lifelessly.

Zori drew the blade back into its scabbard, but he had no plans to relax. He kept his senses sharp, and soon enough, another wolf jumped out from the trees. However, it was simply the beginning of an attack from the hungry pack. The wolves were upon him one after another and before he managed to kill the second one, he was encircled by thirteen frenzied wolves.

It seemed that the beast population had risen quite a bit. There were rumors of attacks happening in the nearby villages as well. So far, he hadn't met a beast strong enough to truly challenge him. Physically, that is. Killing was not something an ordinary human often did, and even if he received memories of another, the life of the said ninja was so pathetic that they barely had an effect on him. Which he should probably be glad about. He wasn’t really fun of messing with the mind thing. What even was this, the matrix?

It took time before he could even kill an animal without batting an eye. Still, it didn’t mean he had the level of control over his body that he wanted to achieve. Being flexible and perceptive was important. And if he didn't want to die a dog's death, he had to take an initiative and gaze into its eyes first. That brought him here, surrounded by the hungry wolves who would give anything just to rip him apart.

While the wovles were clearly weaker than him, they made it up with the numbers. If he wasn’t careful, one or two desperate attacks would be more than enough to wound him. The wolves were clearly not ordinary after all. They were stronger, faster and had better senses than their earthly counterparts.

On the other hand, there was no comparison between him and an average human at this point. He could probably clear the Olympic records back home without much trouble. But in this supernatural world, he was at the bottom of the barrel. Maybe hard work could salvage the situation? Tough luck, but the answer was negative. The utter lack of talent of this body was more than enough to make him despair. It was unfortunate, but orthodox ways were not something he could use to increase his actual strength to the point that it would make much of a difference. Well, he was fortunate that he didn’t have to worry about that.

He moved through the pack of wolves carefully, drawing out all the experience this pathetic thug had amassed throughout his lifetime. HIs movements turned into a dance of death for poor animals, and they began to fall one after another. A sharp pain towards his leg made his movement falter. One of the wolves, that appeared to be more agile than the rest of them, managed to slip past his perception. But fortunately, there were only three wolves left standing, and Zori sighed in relief that he didn’t need to worry about dozens of relentless maws coming at him at once to seize the opportunity.

The two wolves lunged at him while the remaining one was still stubbornly gnawing at his ankle and refusing to let go. He was forced to focus on the other two as they were already in midair, leaving him no time to get rid of the one holding him in place.

Zori showed his leg deeper into the wolf’s mouth and ignored the pain as he sidestepped to dodge the frenzied wolves. One wolf fell down without standing up and Zori pointed the bloodied blade towards the one beneath him. The wolf didn’t even notice as the blade went clean through its head and instantly killed it. The last one followed its brethren moments later and Zori could finally manage to take a break. Something that he absolutely needed considering that he planned to traverse deeper into the beast infested territory this time.

Before he did that though, there was something he had to check.

“Status.”

After a simple mental command, a window appeared in his view.

[You have killed a Dire wolf(F-)]

[you have obtained a point]

[You have killed a Dire wolf(F)]

[you have obtained 2 points]

[You have killed a Dire wolf(F-)]

[you have obtained a point]

...