Bob let out a sigh as he exited the tunnel.

Somehow, they made it.

The war was still brewing, but he had avoided an open battle. For now.

The team leaders came up to him. Chris stepped forward for the group.

“What now, boss?”

Bob rubbed his chin and nodded.

“...Midnight’s been compromised. I doubt we’ll be able to salvage it. If you still want in, head over to the North Dakota facility. You’ll be working for me directly in that case.”

Chris just shrugged.

“So nothing changes? We’ll be there, Boss.”

George, Minh, Tina, and Sergei all nodded in turn. Bob nodded at each of them and they set off. Bob took out his phone as he in turn started walking towards the planned regroup location.

“Markus.”

“Hey Bob! What’s going on?”

“Make it rain.”

“Wait, seriously?! For real?! I can just start approving them however I want?!”

“You always could if you paid attention to the reports. Midnight’s down though, so focus on the ones that didn’t request staffing.”

“Hehehe….Muahahahahaha! This is going to be great!”

Bob just let out a sigh.

That should keep the ILS busy for a bit.

Now he just had to figure out what to do about the immortal demigod and her evil sect.

On the island of Shikoku, there is a small inn. It stands at the border of a forest, a lake, and a mountain, naught but dirt trails passing it by.

Within this inn, a middle aged man in a black hakama knelt at a low table, sipping a cup of tea. His hood was down, revealing his face.

Suddenly two more individuals appeared in the room, both wearing hakamas of their own. One, a man with gray hair, the other, a seemingly young woman.

“What gives, old man? Ready to finally surrender after centuries of losing?”

“This had better be good. It’s almost harvesting season.”

The man took a sip of his tea, and then put down his cup.

“I’ve come to propose a temporary truce.”

The young woman raised her eyebrows.

“Really? You?”

The gray-haired man scratched his beard.

“This is unexpected. Why, there hasn’t been a truce since my grandfather’s grandfather.”

The man nodded.

“Desperate times call for desperate measures.”

He took a deep breath.

“The Scroll of Demonic Binding has been located.”

The other two’s eyes widened, then narrowed. The young woman begin to grin…

“And then was taken by the Eternal Night Sect.”

The room froze.

The older man let out a sigh.

“Then it’s gone.”

The young woman narrowed her eyes.

“What, going senile old man?”

“Foolish child, has your village abandoned all its history? Did you think your village rose to power on its own merits? The only reason you aren’t a farmer working for us is the battle we fought with Eternal Night long, long ago. We still haven’t recovered from those casualties.”

“That’s just because you’re weak.”

“Want to find out?”

The man raised his hand.

“I have a better idea for a test of strength. A joint mission with the three of us, the strongest shinobi alive.”

“Besides that girl that ran away from you.”

The man cleared his throat and continued.

“We get in, grab the scroll, and get out.”

The older man shook his head.

“Sounds like a suicide mission to me.”

“Maybe, but we’re much more skilled in infiltration and mobility than those barbarians. We can’t win the straight up fight but we don’t need to.”

The older man hummed. The man narrowed his eyes.

“And…do you believe we can leave that scroll in their hands?”

The older man gulped.

“No…we cannot.”

The young woman shrugged.

“That’s all well and good but you haven’t mentioned the most important part.”

She made eye contact with the two men.

“Who gets the scroll in the end?”

The man shrugged.

“That’s easy.”

“Oh?”

“Whoever makes it back alive.”

Xiong Huang sat in the cultivation room, eyes closed.

How annoying.

A core disciple, defeated by some runes and idiots in capes. She wasted a Thousand Star Ice Heart on that fool. And then he had the gall to retreat empty-handed?

Wu was certainly trying his best to boost her cultivation.

Sure, she knew Bob would intervene but…

A twang of pain stabbed through her heart.

Xiong Huang gasped as she was thrown out of her cultivation. She clutched at her chest and gasped for breath.

No, he deserved this.

What fool trusted an evil cultivator? Thought they could deal and trade with one like any old person?

It was his fault for not expecting this outcome.

Who dared to mock she who defied the heavens?

With his help.

Xiong Huang grit her teeth and shook her head to clear the insidious whispers.

But her heart continued to beat, and that annoying twang of pain remained, a constant irritation, a thorn in her side, blocking her cultivation.

She clenched her teeth and let out a yell. She slammed her fist on the ground, sending a pulse of her qi through the compound.

And paused.

There was something there that should not be there, heading towards the vault.

The edge of Xiong Huang’s mouth curled up.

Just what she needed.

Xiong Huang crouched down, and then leapt straight through the roof of the cultivation room. She flipped in the air and then shot from the sky, descending foot first. She smashed through the sect’s roof, landing right in front of the vault entrance, smashing the entire hallway.

Three shadows leapt away from the destruction, landing in the courtyard. Xiong Huang grinned as she stepped out. There were two men and a woman standing before her, black hakamas hiding all but their eyes.

“Wow, I didn’t think you idiots had the guts. Should’ve stayed hiding in your little villages.”

One of them narrowed his eyes.

“Hmph, the Murderous Bloody Fist? We’re in luck, it seems the Ten Slaughters isn’t here.”

Xiong Huang frowned, a vein bulging on her forehead. She reached into her robes and pulled out her brass knuckles.

“Your information is way out of date, boy. The Ten Slaughters is dead. I am the master of the Eternal Night Sect now.”

She slammed her fists together, gale-force wind blowing through the courtyard.

“And I’m stronger than he ever was.”

Xiong Huang vanished, reappearing before the ninja who spoke, her fist pulled back.

“And since you insulted me, you die first!”

She smashed her fist into his face…

And he broke apart into a pile of rocks.

Rocks which formed into a snake and curled around her. Meanwhile the kunoichi pulled out a tanto, swinging for Xiong Huang’s neck.

Xiong Huang sighed, casually lifting her arm.

Straight through the rocks.

And then caught the blade with her hand.

“What?!”

The kunoichi gasped as Xiong Huang snapped the blade in half and swung a fist at her face.

A hand reached up, grabbing the kunoichi’s ankle and pulling her underground, just out of the way of Xiong Huang’s fist.

Meanwhile a dozen kunai flew at her. Xiong Huang sighed and her arm flickered, knocking the knives off course. She caught the last one between her fingers, eyebrow raised at the paper tag tied to it.

An explosion obscured her face. The other two shinobi emerged from the ground, taking up positions by the one who threw the kunai.

The smoke cleared revealing an untouched Xiong Huang, yawning and waving the smoke away.

“Is that all you got?”

The older shinobi’s hands flashed, ending in a hand sign.

The ground shook and broke apart. A six-headed serpentine dragon made of stone emerged and let out a roar. The heads twisted and twirled as they rushed towards Xiong Huang, jaws wide open. She swung her fists and smashed the dragons’ heads one by one.

The dragon’s necks each split in half and two new dragon heads grew from each neck.

Xiong Huang raised an eyebrow.

“Oh, some kind of hydra technique? Break one and two more grow?”

The old shinobi smirked at her.

“That’s correct. The Stone Hydra Jutsu draws from the power of the earth itself! It never stops until the target is destroyed.”

“Well that would be a problem…”

The twelve dragon heads twisted forwards Xiong Huang. She stepped towards the lead one, raising her arm.

With a single finger held back.

Xiong Huang yawned again as she flicked the dragon on the nose. Cracks spread over the dragon, spreading from the base back up the other heads, and then the whole construct blasted apart.

“...if I didn’t have the power to destroy the whole thing at once.”

The old shinobi stared, eyes wide and quivering.

“Impossible…with one finger?!”

Xiong Huang’s hand flashed, pebbles held between her fingers, and then she swung her arms.

The old shinobi cried out as the pebbles slammed into him, sending him flying into the wall of the courtyard.

Xiong Huang leaned to the side as the kunoichi appeared before her, bringing her foot down in an axe kick. The ground cratered under her foot as it landed. She pivoted on the foot, swinging her other leg around in a roundhouse kick, which passed through Xiong Huang.

Xiong Huang tapped her shoulder.

“You’ve been chasing my afterimage. Is that how it goes?”

The kunoichi jumped forward and spun around. She held out her palm and a ball of flame formed within it, a twisting inferno to rip and burn all at once. She let out a yell as she swung it towards Xiong Huang’s face.

Xiong Huang grinned at her and held up a hand.

She caught the ball with her bare palm. The kunoichi’s eyes widened.

Xiong Huang pushed her hand forward, fire swirling between them as the ball popped, and gripped the kunoichi’s hand. The kunoichi cried out in pain as Xiong Huang squeezed lightly. Xiong Huang swung her hand and the kunoichi vanished, slamming into the courtyard wall.

She turned to the final shinobi and grinned at him, slamming her fist into her palm.

“One more to go.”

Xiong Huang appeared before the shinobi, fist pulled back. The shinobi had his eyes closed, his hands in a sign.

He opened his eyes, revealing polyhedrons as clear as glass.

The air shimmered in front of Xiong Huang, something like panels of glass twirling in the air. Her hand distorted to the side, reflecting on the panes.

And she saw her own fist approach her face.

Xiong Huang flew back, bouncing along the ground. She let out a groan as she rose to her feet, reaching up to touch her cheek. There was a bruise on it.

“That actually hurt! So this is that whole mirror eye technique Daddy used to rant about?”

The shinobi vanished as his image distorted across the panes. The panes grew, extending around Xiong Huang until everywhere she looked, twirling glass distorted her view.

“It’s over now. You are caught in my clan’s Mirror Prison Jutsu. Any attack you make will be returned to you with interest. The technique is difficult, the stronger its target, the longer it takes to activate. But once the target is trapped, there is no escape. You made a mistake, leaving me for last. That is the problem with you cultivators, you never look past the surface, always confident in your power. We shinobi look underneath what’s underneath.”

Xiong Huang heaved a sigh and looked down at the ground.

Centuries ago, the Ten Slaughters battled the Hidden Villages. He tore them to shreds, leaving them a shell of their former selves.

Yet they survived to this day.

How was it that the Ten Slaughters failed to destroy them utterly? Was it mercy? Was it respect for a worthy opponent? Or were they too weak for him to bother finishing the job?

No.

It was because he was stopped.

By a technique he couldn’t break out of, that trapped him until the survivors were long gone. One that he remained wary of to his dying day.

The technique she now found herself trapped in.

This might be…a little annoying.