52 3.14

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It took me two minutes to fully drain the shinobi's lifeforce, turning him into a dry husk. Actually, I almost lost myself in it, until I heard two beeps from my watch.

Looking around the battlefield, two of the newbies had died. Charles the Electrician, and Bob Fisher. Damn it.

The sensation of draining the lifeforce out of the shinobi and absorbing it had been so intense I had stopped paying attention to the outside world.

Throwing the husk down, I launched myself towards Chris, arriving just in time as one of Hanzo's men had arrived right behind him.

Driving my through through his unsuspecting back, I stopped him in place, before grabbing his face with my free hand.

Activating my Force ability to its maximum for a few seconds, I felt his lifeforce being rapidly drained by the cut in his body. The rapidly leaving lifeforce was much easier to absorb than when they weren't injured, so I twisted my blade, rupturing his heart as I felt something similar to an explosion of lifeforce.

Absorbing as much as I could, I felt a sensation of fullness for a brief moment, before a trace of hunger once again appeared in my heart.

I ignored it, however, the dangers of the technique still very clear in my mind. My body was currently full of energy, my injuries all healed and my tiredness pushed back.

It wasn't a Senzu Bean, but my body had absorbed as much energy as it could for now. That didn't mean I was fully healed, but simply that I had healed as much as I could.

That was, thankfully, pretty close, and would allow me to fight the final battle at peak performance, something I believed I was going to need.

It didn't take long for the battle to end, as Hanzo's men quickly retreated upon noticing I was fine. Yahiko, Nagato and Konan were strong enough on their own, each capable of taking a dozen of them, and adding me, made their chances of winning pretty low.

As Hanzo's men ran away, the Ame Orphans approached me, looking more curious than anything. Nagato, in particular, looked at my eyes for a while, before asking, "Are you sure you don't have anything related to the Rinnegan? These are special abilities you have."

I shook my head, replying, "I am sure it has nothing to do with the Rinnegan. It is a special power from my homeland."

Yahiko cut in, "So, you're fine?"

I nodded, turning to him, "Fine enough to battle Hanzo."

Yahiko remained silent for a moment, assessing my condition, before turning to Konan. She closed her eyes for a moment, before informing us, "Our troops will be here in under an hour."

Nagato sighed, "So it is time…"

"Time it is. Not everyone is ready for the battle, however." The three nodded at my words, and looked at both of our teams. Most of them were normal people anyway, so they wouldn't be of much use to the fight. Besides, some weren't in any condition to fight.

While the Ame Orphans went to speak to the Akatsuki, I moved to my team, who were gathered around the two dead, Charles and Bob.

Of the initial 14, 7 had survived, although Claire was quite far away, so only six of them were before me.

Honestly, I found it to be quite the achievement, since they all were pretty much regular humans. Having saved 7 of them from Hanzo's men was noteworthy on its own.

But it wasn't enough. If it was already critically dangerous before, with the two new deaths I had officially stepped in death's territory.

With each death costing me 2000, the 7 deaths equaled a total of 14000 Points. Even with my initial 5300, the 2000 I got from the side mission and the 3000 I would get if all three Ame Orphans lived, I was still short of nearly 4000.

The only way for me to survive this mission was to finish another side mission, preferably a high ranked one, and right now, that had to be killing Hanzo.

It wouldn't be easy, as the man was several leagues above anyone I had faced so far, but my resistance to his poison should make things a little easier.

Honestly, I was a little worried about the Ame Orphans, as a single one dying could be devastating, but I wouldn't be able to kill Hanzo without them.

Not that I would be able to stop them, even if I wanted to. It had been hard enough already to have them stay back for the past week.

As for my team…

"You guys should hide until the end of the mission. You shouldn't get attacked by anyone, since we will be directing an attack on Hanzo's mansion."

They all looked at me with various expressions. Before any of them could say anything, I nudged my head towards Asher, who was frowning in her sleep, and said, "She still isn't well, she is going to need people to watch over her. Besides, the guy I am about to face is in a whole other league."

They looked at each other, and Chris proclaimed firmly, "I alone will come with you. As strong as he is, all I need is one shot to kill Hanzo. And even if I don't kill him, injuring him will be good enough."

This idiot. Doesn't he understand this is the last thing I want, for someone else to kill Hanzo? Besides, until now, he had always been putting in minimal effort.

Why was he risking his life when I needed him to stay behind?

People can be annoying.

I narrowed my eyes at him, and commented, "I've been working hard on saving as many of you, because of the nature of the reward. We've lost enough people already. Moreover, you are already enhanced, you could become really useful if you just hide and get these Points."

I hadn't told them about my Team Leader mission, and I didn't intend on doing so. After all, I had disposed of Hunter thanks to a negative Points issue, and I didn't want them to do the same to me.

Maybe they wouldn't do anything, maybe they would even try to help me, but I didn't see any reason to take that risk, so it was much better to hide behind the image I had shown until now.

Unfortunately, it also made it harder to argue.

Chris leaned his shotgun against his shoulder, and replied, "You've been protecting us since the beginning of this mission, allow me to help back. Besides, if I get more Points, I will be of even greater help!"

On the other hand, he could indeed be of some use. We wouldn't just be facing Hanzo alone, but his entire army. We would have number ourselves, with the entire Akatsuki backing us, and possibly the advantage Claire was sent to fetch, but I could actually use Chris' help.

After all, while ninjas were excellent at stealth and dodging attacks, most of this would be negated by the very nature of the fight, and Chris would also be in his element.

And we will certainly need all the help we can get…

Eventually, I relented, "Fine, but only you."

I stared at the others, and said, "Only reason he is allowed to come is because of experience in battlefields and the fact that he fights from a distance. The rest of you would be sending yourselves to death. And I'm not taking no for an answer."

As I said that, Sarah got to her feet, and approached me. She shocked me as she grabbed me by the chin, and looked deep into my eyes as she muttered, "Be careful, okay? Your eyes are turning yellow. Don't get killed because you got arrogant, alright?"

I felt a surge of anger at the words, but I banished it as soon as it appeared as I nodded. There was still a big part of me that recoiled at the very idea of my emotions being a weakness, but I wasn't bound by the Dark Side.

I grabbed her hand, patting it as I looked at the others and finished, "You guys be careful too, alright?"

Maybe they were growing on me.