The shadows

ch27

They all heard the sound of an explosion coming from the second floor. The girls screamed in panic. Some of them rushed to the door, but it was locked. "Let us out of here. You can't keep us here." One girl screamed.

They were banging on the door, trying to get out. "Let me try," Naruto said as he picked up the metal poker from near the fireplace. He started hitting the lock, trying to break it. After a few tries to make it convincing, he broke the lock.

By now, they could all smell the smoke, and there were sounds of the guards shouting and running around coming from below. "Run for the exit. If there is a fire, we don't have time to pick anything up." Naruto shouted as he moved aside to let the girls through.

He quickly made a clone after the last girl's exit to follow and help them out. Instead, he promptly headed for the basement. From his earlier observation, there were spare keys in the guards' room, and he needed to get there to free the prisoners.

He knew the distraction wouldn't last long, so he had to be fast. He could still sense a few guards in the basement and couldn't knock them out without ruining his plan. So he quickly made another clone to get the keys and hid in the weapons room for his clone.

This was when he heard the second explosion. This one was from outside the manor, and Naruto knew it was the signal to indicate Machi was on the way to the mansion. Machi always took his best bodyguards with him, so he needed to get back to defend the manor if there was an attack like this one.

The clone that was transformed into a cat came back with the keys. Naruto took the keys along with a few weapons and ran to the prisoner's cell. "Please, help us. Get us out of here." A woman cried.

"Please be quiet. I'm here to help you, but the guards will notice if you make too much noise." Naruto said in a whisper as he opened the cell and went in to unlock the shackles keeping the women from escaping.

He freed a few women and gave them keys to free the others. "I have to help the other cells help each other out. I stole some weapons to help you get out. Try not to get separated. The exit is on the left and up the stairs." Naruto said as he went to the other cells.

His clone was transformed into another girl and brought more weapons to the woman helping them along. Naruto went to the prisoner cells and did the same. Once he finished the last cell, he heard another explosion from the outside. Right outside.

Naruto was short on time, so he ran upstairs to Machi's study. He was quickly going through documents planting evidence, and getting rid of unwanted information. He already knew where everything was; he just had to be quick.

The mansion was burning, and the smoke was already reaching the room. Suddenly with a huge burst, the doors slammed open. There was a moment of shock. "You fucking bitch. KILL HER" Machi yelled.

Hitoshi and Kou rushed at her with swords. Naruto jumped back. He didn't have any easy-access weapons on him. If he used a kunai or a katana, it would get noticed. He had a blunt sword he grabbed from the guards' room, but if he used too much skill in his hits, they would be recognized as a work of a professional.

He had to be careful with the scars and hits on his opponents, so he went on the defensive. It wasn't hard to keep his opponents back with his level of skills, but it was hard to mess up his hits to look like a beginner.

He kept dodging the attacks blocking his opponent's sword. It was clear that they were trying to get on his front and back so it would be harder for him to block, but Naruto kept turning with them, keeping them on his front.

He didn't have much time, so he used a quick Shunshin to get behind Kou, piercing him through the lung. It was a messy cut, but that was what he was going for. He let go of the sword and backflipped to get out of the way of Hitoshi coming for his head.