The expected collision never happened, and Kenshin's face lit up with a satisfied smile. The stones flying at tremendous speed suddenly vanished, stopping just a few meters from Kenshin's body.
Yoshio and Daisuke instantly went on alert, belatedly noticing the approach of two people. They immediately interrupted their joint technique and separated, so as not to be caught by a single powerful technique.
They barely had time to react to the stones that appeared out of nowhere, hurtling toward their heads. Yoshio surrounded himself with a water barrier and easily weathered the collision. Daisuke, in turn, deflected the attack without much trouble, instantly neutralizing all the chakra in the boulder.
However, Ichiro and Fifteenth, who had rushed to their father's aid and were mad with rage, had no intention of standing on ceremony with the enemies and decided to use the strongest joint attack in their arsenal.
"Fire Release: Great Fire Destruction!"
"Water Release: Water Trumpet Technique!"
The extremely complex fusion of Fire Release and Water Release in precisely measured proportions, chakra amounts, and tempo brought into the world a steam element considered impossible without Kekkei Genkai.
The resulting steam jet had the incredible heat of Fire Release and the immense speed of Water Release, so it reached the stunned Yoshio in an instant. He barely managed to leap aside and shield himself with a water barrier, sparing no chakra.
His defense was shattered in an instant, and all the evaporated water only amplified the technique of the two brothers. One powerful jet of incredibly dense steam, at Fifteenth's command, suddenly split into several smaller, more flexible streams, like elegant shadow threads spreading in different directions and encircling the enemy. But there was one huge difference between them—the steam threads emitted insane heat, and even at a meter away, they made the toughest skin of a strong Jonin burst.
"Aaaaaah!" Yoshio screamed, driven mad by the unbearable pain. The incredible agony didn't break him but forced him to act on pure instinct.
"Water Release: Flooding Wave!" he roared, instantly forming an unbelievable amount of water with a minimal number of hand seals.
Almost all his remaining chakra was spent on this incredible technique, and the resulting gigantic volume of water immediately suppressed the joint technique of Ichiro and Fifteenth.
Finding himself under a mass of completely opaque water, Yoshio attempted to escape. He was insanely afraid for his life and didn't want to clash with these dangerous and reckless people anymore.
While Ichiro and Fifteenth attacked Yoshio, Kenshin focused on his partner. Daisuke wasn't a fool and immediately tried to flee, but Kenshin wouldn't let him. When it became clear escape was impossible, he bared his teeth in fury, materialized the strongest stone sword, and engaged Kenshin in combat.
The other sons had been ordered not to approach and to eliminate all survivors on the base, except for any women and children encountered. Kenshin could clearly see through the formations that no living children or women remained inside, but he didn't want to take even greater sin on his soul if anyone had miraculously slipped past his perception.
Seeing the massive water mass rapidly receding, Ichiro and Fifteenth hesitated about pursuit, wanting to help their father with the other enemy, but Kenshin ordered them to destroy the main enemy of the entire Nakayama Family.
Yoshio created a huge amount of snow to hinder detection, but it was useless. Twenty Second, positioned a few hundred meters away, not only blew away all the snow with Wind Release but also relayed the enemy's position to his brothers.
When the two brothers finally caught up to the fleeing enemy, Yoshio suddenly turned around and made his first attempt at negotiation.
"S-stop! Let's talk this over!" he shouted, which only enraged Ichiro and Fifteenth further.
Ichiro's first sword strike hit its mark. Yoshio planned to dodge the attack and counter, but the blade that whistled past suddenly left a massive gash across his chest, slicing through all the muscles down to the bone.
His counterattack with the "Water Fang" technique was neutralized by Fifteenth in an instant. After exchanging a few more blows with Ichiro, Yoshio suddenly froze. A thin shadow stretched straight along the ground toward him from Fifteenth.
"STOP! I WANT TO JOIN YOUR ORGANIZATION!" Yoshio screamed with a mad look in his eyes, knowing few would refuse a strong Jonin recruit.
But Ichiro didn't even twitch an eyebrow, coldly severing the enemy's head just as Fifteenth dispelled the technique.
Yoshio's head hit the stones with a dull thud, and his eyes blinked several times in disbelief. Even facing death, he couldn't fathom that the enemies would be so merciless.
In an instant, the two brothers chopped his body into ten pieces and rushed to aid their father, fearing for his safety.
Meanwhile, Kenshin was maximally focused on his first life-or-death battle with a Jonin. Daisuke was slightly weaker than his senior comrade but still vastly superior to Kenshin in many parameters, except perception speed.
Kenshin masterfully dodged all the Earth Release techniques and repeatedly shattered the enemy's stone sword, waiting for the moment to deliver the decisive blow. In ten seconds of combat, they inflicted several wounds on each other. While the colliding stones left only life-threatening bruises on Kenshin's body, the missed sword thrusts left several serious gashes on Daisuke's chest and only arm.
Yoshio's death deeply shocked Daisuke, and from the depths of his soul rose the strongest sense of fear. He was insanely terrified of impending death and, losing his composure, hurried to deal with Kenshin to escape the two brothers racing to their father's aid.
In one instant, his chakra surged wildly, and his heart pounded at its limits. All his muscles swelled and filled with power, and his eyes turned completely red. Kenshin immediately tried to retreat, but Daisuke was too fast and delivered a plain punch to the face, aiming to crush his skull.
Survival instinct helped Kenshin do what he'd never fully achieved before—fully saturate his own body with psionics to the limit. His eyes suddenly flared, and his speed nearly doubled.
"Wh-what?!" Daisuke thought in shock upon seeing Kenshin's incredible speed. He barely had time to think of aborting the strike when his second arm met the sharpest blade at full speed.
He didn't even have time to scream before Kenshin's sword plunged into his throat and severed his head with a light motion.
Ichiro and Fifteenth, arriving seconds later, stared in shock at their father, who had single-handedly killed a very strong Jonin, and couldn't utter a word. Suddenly, Kenshin shuddered and collapsed completely limp to the ground.
"Father!" both sons exclaimed and rushed to him lightning-fast. Ichiro didn't understand what had happened and, for good measure, chopped Daisuke's body into several dozen pieces.
"I-I'm fine..." Kenshin rasped, then coughed hard.
"Get over here now!" Ichiro mentally snarled at Twenty Second, who was already sprinting to help anyway.
As soon as he reached Kenshin, the latter came to and tried to rise.
"Don't move!" he commanded his father, forcefully pinning him to the ground. Kenshin wasn't in a position to argue, barely clinging to consciousness.
"He's had a stroke!" Twenty Second exclaimed in shock and instantly began healing micro-traumas in the brain vessels, discovering several more thrombi ready to burst any second.
"Fif...teenth... H-help... Brothers..." Kenshin said with a slurring tongue, still thinking of his weaker sons needing aid.
"Watch Father!" he told Ichiro, got a nod, and hurried toward the raging battles.
Kenshin could no longer withstand the extreme fatigue and lost consciousness. Twenty Second acted with utmost professionalism. Carefully eliminating all stroke aftereffects, he proceeded to examine the other organs and was horrified.
"What?" Ichiro mentally asked, closely monitoring the healing process.
"H-hemorrhages throughout the body!" Twenty Second exclaimed in shock and hurriedly dealt with the vast number of thrombi and their rupture consequences.