Chapter 143   - Ch143. Practical Training 1

Ringo stood in between a small man in green spandex with thick eyebrows and Konoha headband who was on his ass and the group of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist.

"Well, well, I heard the Mizukage sent his seven best to cause some mayhem in the Land of Fire but to think you would be bullying..." Ringo glanced at Duy and shuddered, "whatever that green creep is."

"Ameyuri," Raiga Kurosuki sneered. "Shouldn't you be hiding in some hole? Going rogue... bringing such a shame to the title of Kiba Wielder. I will enjoy making a funeral for you." He said, reminding others who was the woman in front of them. Funnily enough, half of them were new wielders. Capable but nothing like the ones in Mei's generation.

"Sparkling Shitstain, you can't even handle your own little sword. Making this into a pissing contest? Seriously? Acting cool doesn't suit you." Ringo rolled her eyes, ignoring his enraged spluttering, and drew the chakra blades she received from Rei years ago, attracting the attention of the swordsmen. They naturally knew a quality blade when they saw one. Ringo decided to indulge them. "These two have no names. Rei told me it is the swordsman who should be known, not the swords. While I might not wholly agree, I can see his reasoning. You all are nothing. You have no reputation by yourselves. You are known for the reputation of the weapons you wield. The reputation that was given to them by the feats of their past wielders." She slowly trailed her gaze on each of the seven in front of her, "But... you are not them."

As someone who grew up on stories about the 'heroics' of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist, Ringo was really disappointed by the current generation. They might not be weak and each of them is at the very least experienced A-rank ninja but...

The war was very costly for Kirigakure. Especially the failed attack on the Land of Fire. Not to mention the viciousness of A after his fiancee died.

Kirigakure ninjas were forced to invade the Land of Lightning because of the decision of the Council but A was putting his everything to slaughter as many of them as humanly possible. Considering his Lightning Armor, he was doing pretty well for himself.

Haruto Kurainare, the previous holder of Samehada from Ringo's generation, died in the Land of Lightning. His squad was intercepted during one of their missions by Kiri hunting squad led by A himself. The man knew he could not win against A and his hunting squads. Even if he disregarded the blatant disadvantage of being outnumbered one to five, his squad members were not trained ANBU like the Kiri ninjas.

Haruto also knew he could not run either since A was much faster than him. So, Haruto chose the logical option. He gave Samehada to his squad and told them to run while he, holding an ordinary katana, stood his ground against A and all his hunting squads. The man actually managed to hold them all long enough for the Kiri ninjas to run away with Samehada. Without his sacrifice, Kiri would have lost one of its seven blades that day.

'Compared to that...' Ringo wryly looked at Fuguki Suikazan, the newest wielder of Samehada.

She could see the man was compatible with the sword. If he were not, Samehada would not choose him. But compatibility only meant he had high enough chakra reserves and his chakra was tasty enough for Samehada. Without the sword, the guy was a bit lacking, to be honest. Ringo knew of him, and even now she asked Konan for intel about the wielders of the seven swords. Frankly, Fuguki depended too much on Samehada's abilities in her opinion which made her respect for the guy drop.

Samehada was overpowered. Even a total beginner genin-level swordsman could defeat a chunin-level opponent with the sword by just waving it recklessly. Hence, Ringo didn't feel the need to respect Fuguki himself, rather than the blade he was wielding.

Her eyes trailed towards the wielder of Kubikiribocho Juzo Biwa, and she smiled. The man was a total asshole but Ringo couldn't say he was not skilled.

'Mari, your successor just might live up to your expectations.' Ringo mentally noted with a small amount of relief.

The previous owner of the Kubikiribocho, Mari, was the only other woman in the group in Ringo's generation. She was vicious and fought for every single bit of infamy. In the third war, she, despite being only an A-rank ninja, killed at least one Konoha S-rank ninja, Uchiha no less, and twelve A-rank ones. Not to mention over fifty B-rank victims of her Silent Killing. Out of all of the members of the seven, it was Mari who dealt the biggest damage to the enemy forces. The woman was one hell of a battlefield assassin.

Honestly, Ringo would even go as far as saying the woman created the Silent Killing method. Sure, the previous owners did use Kirigakure no Jutsu in tandem with the sword but it was Mari who improved it to such a degree that it actually became an art of killing.

'Mari always said that there is just something magical about assassinating people with a big-ass cleaver.' Ringo inwardly chuckled, full of mirth.

Unfortunately, Mari died in the failed attempt to invade the Land of Fire.

Kubikiribocho was one of the 'unimpressive' swords. Its ability was not overpowered. Drinking blood to repair itself? Bah...

But that only meant the wielders of the blade had to be that much better skill-wise. 'And hungry for fame.' Ringo grinned at the obvious desire to prove himself in Juzo's eyes.

Kubikiribocho was weak compared to the abilities of other swords. Hence, its wielders always aimed to make it more and more known. Make it taste more and more blood. With Juzo... Ringo was satisfied.

'Yup, that guy is so not getting killed today.'

Then her gaze fell onto the last member of the current generation of the seven who was worth her attention. To her eternal irritation, it was the wielder of Kiba blades, Raiga Kurosuki, or as she dubbed him, the Shitstain.

'How I would love to kill him...' Ringo seethed, 'But Rei wants him to live.'

It took quite a bit of persuasion for Rei to make Ringo promise him she would not kill Raiga. After all, Rei was not omnipresent, much less omnipotent. If the guy survived, there was a chance he would end up meeting the kid with strange dojutsu again and Rei was mildly interested in the kid. As for Raiga? Rei didn't care about the guy! He was only a convenient tool to find the crippled kid with dojutsu, whatever he was called.

'Well, the surroundings are slippery and my hand could always slip and cripple the bastard.' Ringo offhandedly hummed.

The last four... Jinin Akebino, the wielder of Kabutowari, Jinpachi Munashi, the wielder of Shibuki, Kushimaru Kuriarare, the wielder of Nuibari, and Arata Haruna, the wielder of Hiramekarei.

Now these four, Ringo was killing for sure. They were all from her own generation, therefore dangerous and highly experienced in using their respective blades.

"Oh yes... I will enjoy testing my new Jutsu on you." Ringo whispered to herself as she looked at the four of them with a battle-hungry look while raising her right arm and blade towards the sky. At that moment, all four of them had similar thoughts.

'Damn, did we have to encounter this kind of crazy!?'

The cloudy heavens rained lightning.