Deep inside the gate!

[Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu]

Kakashi expelled from his mouth a huge flaming orb of fire at an extreme speed.

*Swish*

It sped through the air scorching the ground on its way rapidly until it hit the orc that had its legs held by two giant arms whose bases stuck to the ground.

Seconds before the flaming ball impacted the orc, the hands dissipated into pink petals.

*Grauhhh*

*Bam* *Bam*

The orc cried painfully and wailed while thrashing around with its huge club on the ground, feeling an excruciating amount of pain course through its body.

But Ren came running toward it, and then when he was close by he jumped until he was the same height as its head, and thrusted his spear at its brain, killing it off instantly.

*Thud*

Its huge body listlessly fell to the ground slumped over as it finally lost any power left in its body.

The fire consumed its body and charred it completely black, as it continued to burn strongly.

*Fuah*

Kakashi exhaled, and still held on to his sword in a combat-ready stance.

Yamato looked at Ren for confirmation and seeing him nod her way, she gave Kakashi a nod of her own.

She had used her observation and didn't pick any presence nearby, and by the look of it, Ren was the same.

But Ren did have a certain thought internally.

'Is she still following after me?' He looked at the sky, but couldn't detect or see anyone.

When Kakashi saw Yamato nod at him, he finally relaxed a bit. As did the rest of them.

Still, no hero would ever relax completely inside of a gate.

This was their second group of orcs they had fought for now, and it had way more A ranks than before. Reaching a total of thirteen.

After a few minutes, the group finally rested enough, and they looked at Ren waiting for his go sign.

"That way, 7 A ranks, rapidly running toward the exit," The method they were using still had some defects.

While Ren's range of search was massively big, it still couldn't cover the whole of the gate, so the more ahead they dived in, there was that chance that some can pass through them.

That would mean there could be some orcs who can reach the exit.

But… the way the irregular gates reacted when heroes first enter it, is to dissolve the overflow of monsters. At that time, it sends them randomly through the gates, but the stronger the monsters were, the far back it sends them.

As such, no stronger monster than A rank should reach outside for now. As long as they continued with their pace as it was.

At Ren's words, everyone started running in the direction he pointed to.

**********

She ran on the ground at a very fast speed and jumped.

Her Kanabo was covered in black lighting as she swung it.

[Raimei Hakke]

Yamato yelled as she blasted the head of a huge armored orc that was in front of her.

*Grahhh*

Her strike was accompanied by a stream of black lightning that fried the body of the orc as it coursed through it and left it in pain.

*Thud*

Then it fell on its back, its head a mess of blood and gore.

Yamato landed on the ground, raising a cloud of dust.

She then looked at her surroundings and saw that the group was fighting well.

Robin was assisting them by making the orcs stuck in place even if for a few seconds, and Kakashi and Ren would use that chance to quickly dispose of them.

'That's good'

Yamato kicked the ground and moved to the next target.

**********

*Thud*

"*Fuah* that's the last of them," Kakashi breathed and said.

His right hand was covered in blue lightning as the sound of the lightning crackled.

"Where to, Ren?" Yamato propped her Kanabo on her shoulder as she asked Ren.

She was breathing a bit roughly, but nothing too serious as she could still fight for a lot longer.

Ren closed his eyes and scanned the area more thoroughly.

"Three km from there, four A ranks, and two… S ranks!" Ren had a glint in his eyes as he told them.

Their expressions hardened at that. Everyone turning more serious than before.

The tough part was about to start.

"S ranks, it seems we are finally reaching the dangerous parts," Robin remarked.

Yamato and Kakashi nodded.

So far, their journey was relatively smooth as they fought against A ranks only. And the only thing they had on them was just their vast numbers.

Thus, it led to them wasting a bit of time on them.

But S ranks would mean even she would have to pay attention to her safety.

If the number of S ranks was huge, her group couldn't pay attention to her much and she would be in danger.

'Still, that was something I knew before I entered…'

Robin thought to herself.

She knew before entering that it would be dangerous as the lowest starting rank of the gate was the same as her. That meant that at the very least this gate was going to be S rank. And that was dangerous for her or another A rank.

Still, she didn't want to stay put as Ren fought inside with Yamato and Kakashi.

'Part of it is due to Ren…' She knew that. But another part of her, and the bigger one, was that she didn't want another similar event from her past to repeat. And that would even if she died trying to stop it. No matter even if the gate became SS rank.

"For the best method to deal with them, I think we should work together to take them down, instead of fighting individually," She then told the group.

One would have to hold one S rank, while the other two quickly gang up on the remaining one.

She felt this was the best situation so far.

"The A ranks can be left to me," She added with a confident smile.

Kakashi also agreed.

"I think that's the best way to go forward," He said as he took another kunai from his leg pouch, the previous one thrown aside as it was broken.

As for Robin, he had seen her abilities so far, and he now knew that she had ranked up from how she was the previous times they joined with their teams on gates.

As for dealing with a group of A ranks she was…

'More than capable!'

Ren smiled and patted her back.

"A ranks are nothing to you, as for S ranks leave them to me, I mean us," He assured her. He slipped since what he meant to say was to leave her back to him as he wouldn't let them come near her.

He would get injured before she would. That was his conviction.

His girls were the reason he was trying to get stronger.

On the side, Yamato hit the ground with the end of her Kanabo, and then immediately after started to transform into her hybrid wolf form.

It was a beautiful sight as her body grew fur to cover it and her height increased.

She opened her eyes as she looked in the direction Ren had pointed to before and had her Kanabo on her shoulder.

"I'll see if anyone can come near her with me around" Cold breath spread from her mouth as she gave a bloodthirsty smile filled with very sharp teeth. Her eyes became thin slits.

Robin smiled warmly at the two of them.

"Now, now, let's not forget what we're here for" Kakashi then reminded them. Although he also would help as much as possible prioritizing her over himself, as that's what heroes do.

Everyone nodded before all of them moved to the next group they'll be fighting.

**********

Unsurprisingly with three S ranks in the group, things went smoothly.

Robin focused on her parts and immediately targeted the A ranks upon laying sight on them.

There were four of them, so for monsters as strong as her their numbers were big, and their strengths varied.

But her created limbs were also big in numbers.

She created thousands of hands that merged and became 16 giant hands.

Each four going to restrain one orc monster.

And while it was true that the monsters wouldn't be kept held for long, she would take that time to attack them.

Using her six marine skills that she mastered so far coupled with her haki and giant limbs strength.

Her main goal, however, wasn't to kill them. As they were as strong as her, and killing them would prove a bit harder and needed some time.

Which they didn't have.

What she was doing was to stop them from interfering with her teammates fight against the S rank monster orcs.

Meanwhile, for Ren and co…

Ren was chosen to keep one of the S rank orcs occupied.

It was fairly easier since while this orc was as strong as Ren, it wasn't as fast.

He kept harassing it by running around it, and when it got frustrated and wanted to move past him, he would deal a strong attack using his sword which will injure it a bit, and regain its attention.

While at the same time Yamato and Kakashi teamed up to destroy the other one.

Yamato immediately jumped at the monster orc that was holding… a hammer.

This was surprising since the others were either holding an ax or sword, even a club/mace.

Still, she didn't care and clashed with its hammer head-on with her haki-clad Kanabo.

As expected of the Oni princess, she didn't lose in strength against even an orc.

She clashed evenly against it, and from her hands, her ice energy spread forth and was slowly starting to freeze the hands of the orc.

Kakashi observed that with his eyebrows raised.

Kakashi had taken things seriously, and apart from using every trump card he had, he brought forth his stronger techniques to quickly dispose of the orc.

He first made two copies of his. And then each one started weaving hand seals

The first one ended up creating a dragon made of water that shot at the orc. It swished through the air, rapidly approaching the target.

[Suiton: Suiryūdan no Jutsu] (Water release: Water-Dragon)

The second clone did seals similarly but created a huge earthen dragon head that similarly shot at the orc with an impressive speed.

[Doton: Dosekiryū] (Earth release: Earth-Dragon)

The original also finished a handful of seals, and then purple lightning surrounded his hand before he swung it forward and released a huge lighting hound at the orc.

[Raiton: Raijū Tsuiga] (Lightning release: Lightning Hound)

It was a triple attack from an S-ranked masterful ninja.

Yamato who was in the way still fighting in close range, immediately dodged.

And Kakashi knew she could do so that was why he liked working with her and her agency.

Their speed of attack and coordination was amazing.

As things continued on this way, very soon things were settled on their part.

When two S ranks did their best, it was to be expected.

The first S rank was swiftly disposed of, and they all ganged up on the third one before killing the A ranks.

Just like that, they were done, and after resting for a few minutes, Ren pointed them in the next direction.

The group then moved forward.

**********

Meanwhile, deep inside of the gate.

*Roar*

A group of people were tightly holding on to a few chains made from a special metal.

These chains extended long and restrained a monster of some sort and didn't let it escape.

*Gruahh*

The monster was floating above a huge device that was shaped like a square and appeared to be some sort of high-technology device that was containing some sort of malicious energy.

It painfully wailed as a mass of dark red energy swirled around its forms like a vortex and drilled through every cell of its body. This red energy originates from an opening above the square device.

As the monster was undergoing changes in the sky above the device, the chains held on to it tightly to not let it escape.

Each couple of chains holding on to a limb and stopping its trashing.

*Hah* *Pant*

"Is it not over yet?!!" One of them yelled in frustration. His hands were veiny and red from holding onto the thick chain and he was sweating buckets from the effort.

The group of people were tightly holding on to these chains with their all.

And even though there were close to 100 of them there, they still ended up skidding on the ground due to the pull of the chained monster. They were barely keeping it at bay.

"It's working… it really is working!" Another one was excited, as it appeared the monster contrary to its painful yells, wasn't getting weaker… but rather stronger.

It seemed trouble was brewing deep inside of the gate. And Ren's group was unaware.

*******************

-Please vote. The voting can help the fanfic grow up and reach more audiences.

-Special thanks to *"Arun"* ; *"Carl Steelhammer"* ; *"ShadowFangus"* ; *"Coby"* ; *"HaiiroOokami"* ; *"John Dunkley"* and *"Ahmed"*

-Read advanced chapters ahead of the public release:

https://www.p.atreon.com/ThighsSeeker