Un... unbelievable...
His eyes widened bit by bit as he looked downward. The horror and despair on the Iwa ninja's face slowly stiffened, slowly froze.
In his lowered gaze, the churning white mist that had erupted ahead and to both sides was reflected in the corners of his eyes. The image of the white mist rolling directly before him had yet to fade from his mind.
So... so the original and the Shadow Clone Jutsu... weren't... weren't on the same level...
Yet during this process, a bitter thought flashed through his heart.
He actually hadn't even lasted... a single instant...
Now, he couldn't even detonate the Exploding Tag...
His downward gaze paused slightly, and the Iwa ninja's face became completely rigid. In his eyes, the final thing reflected was the two Shuriken buried deeply in his heart, as well as the two bleeding cuts across the wrists of his hand forming seals and his other hand clutching the collar of the Hyuga Main Family heiress, holding her in front of him as a shield.
"Rustle..."
Amid the flutter of clothing, his hand, its tendons already severed, went limp. The Hyuga Main Family heiress in his grasp dropped downward, while the Exploding Tag slowly lighting up on his chest gradually dimmed. Finally, carried by the faint airflow created by her fall, it drifted slowly away.
In an instant, just one instant, the Shuriken had arrived at the same time he created his Shadow Clone Jutsu. They were even faster than the white mist from the clone's explosion. There was no time to react. I only realized after the two Shuriken had already struck me! Terrifying...
Too terrifying...
Taki Chiba... was this Taki Chiba?
He hadn't given me even the slightest... slightest chance...
He used the bandages over that Konoha young ninja's