Instant Clone

Bang!

Kagami, who had been pierced through the chest, turned into a cloud of white smoke and vanished.

"Shadow Clone?"

"Damn it, that kid got away!"

The Anbu ninja was no weakling. Most of them were selected from among the Jonin, so in many cases, the Anbu consisted of people even stronger than Jonin. The same was more or less true of the Root. The moment Kagami saw that the people preparing to attack him were from the Root or Anbu, he immediately ran.

His current strength was insufficient to contend with a Root member—of course, that assumed the Root member facing him was relatively strong.

Although the Root and Anbu selected people from among the Jonin, they did not recruit exclusively from that rank. Some had possibly been trained from childhood, while others had been accepted as exceptions.

Thus, the members of the Root and Anbu varied greatly. The strong ones could rival or even surpass elite Jonin, while the weak ones might possess only Chunin-level strength.

If they were merely Chunin-level, Kagami could fight them. But if they had Jonin-level strength, there was no way he could win. Kagami had no intention of gambling that they were among the weaker members.

"Root? Anbu? It should be Root."

As he fled, Kagami continued pondering whether the people who had attacked him belonged to the Root or the Anbu. Both organizations operated while wearing masks, and in many cases, it was impossible to tell them apart at a glance.

But after thinking it over carefully, Kagami realized that the Third Hokage was not the sort of person who would resort to killing at the slightest disagreement. Besides, he had no grudge against the Third Hokage. Danzo, on the other hand, acted according to his own judgment and needed no reason to make a move. On top of that, Kagami had rejected the Root's invitation earlier.

Therefore, Kagami was certain that these people had been sent by Danzo.

"Hey, kid, stop!"

A short blade slashed toward Kagami, forcing him to stop and dodge.

Standing in front of Kagami was the Root member who had gone to scout ahead.

"Tsk. No wonder you were trained by Body Flicker Shisui. You're really fast. Luckily, there are two of us. Otherwise, you would've gotten away."

Kagami was extremely fast. If the Root member in front of him had not blocked his path just now, he would have escaped for sure. Once Kagami returned to the Uchiha clan compound, these two Root members would never dare attack him.

Kagami looked at the Root member before him and sensed the other one still chasing him from behind. With two Root members present, Kagami immediately understood that Danzo intended to kill him in secret. Otherwise, there would have been no need to send two people.

Now that he had been stopped, Kagami could not be bothered to waste words. Several Kunai instantly appeared in his hand, and he threw them at the Root ninja before him.

The Root ninja in front of Kagami wore a fox-faced mask, while the one still chasing him from behind wore a dog-faced mask.

The Root member in the fox mask used his short blade to knock away all of Kagami's Kunai.

Snake–Goat–Monkey–Pig–Horse–Tiger.

"Fire Style: Great Fireball Technique!"

But following closely behind the Kunai was a fireball more than a meter in diameter.

Snake–Pig–Dog.

"Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall!"

The Root ninja in the fox mask quickly formed Hand Seals and released an Earth-Style Wall, blocking Kagami's Fire Style. He then shouted toward Kagami's rear.

"Get over here quickly! Stop him from releasing ninjutsu. The commotion is getting too loud."

The Root member in the dog mask also arrived. After hearing the fox mask, he immediately charged toward Kagami.

Tiger–Dog–Rat.

This was the first time Kagami had used his Body Flicker Technique in actual combat!

Buzz!

The Root ninja charging toward Kagami suddenly discovered that the Kagami before him had become two people, rushing toward him from the left and right.

"Two people? Is it a Shadow Clone?"

The person in the fox mask shook his head.

"No. It feels different. It isn't a Shadow Clone. Could it be merely an afterimage?"

Kagami charged toward the dog mask and chuckled.

"Why not try and find out?"

"Hmph!"

The Root member in the dog mask snorted coldly and swung his short blade at the Kagami on the left.

Kagami avoided the slash from the dog mask ninja while simultaneously pinning down the arm that had wielded the blade.

At the same time, the Kagami on the right also charged over. The Root member in the dog mask raised a hand to block, only to be met by a heavy impact.

"They both have physical bodies. Could they really be Shadow Clones?"

Feeling the strength coming from both sides, the Root member in the dog mask reached that conclusion.

At that moment, the Kagami on the left and right each restrained one of the dog mask's arms. Then both freed one hand, reached toward each other, and began forming Hand Seals!

Kagami could not form Hand Seals with one hand, but he could use one of his hands together with one of his clone's hands.

Snake–Goat–Monkey–Pig–Horse–Tiger.

"Damn it!"

The Root member in the dog mask sensed that something was wrong. He tried to stop them, but one person had pinned down each of his arms, leaving him unable to do anything.

"Fire Style: Great Fireball Technique!"

At nearly point-blank range, the Root member in the dog mask could neither form Hand Seals to block the Great Fireball nor dodge it. The result was only one thing—defeat!

The flames exploded, and Kagami and his clone hurriedly retreated.

But the Root member in the fox mask had not merely stood by and watched. He had already charged behind Kagami and slammed a fist toward him!

If that punch landed, Kagami would either die or be crippled.

However, after throwing the punch, the fox mask stared blankly at the Kagami before him.

"No weight?"

His fist had just passed through without hitting anything. Yet visually, he had clearly struck Kagami.

"Could it really be an afterimage?"

Subconsciously, the fox mask lowered his guard against the Kagami before him. After all, an afterimage could not hurt anyone. That was common sense.

But a Kunai pierced through the fox mask's neck.

"This isn't an afterimage."

Kagami maintained the posture of having just thrown the Kunai and spoke coldly.

The fox mask's fist could only attack one of the two Kagamis, so it could not truly hit Kagami's real body. Kagami was different. He could become intangible at any time, or solid at any time. When he was attacked, he was intangible; when he was ready to attack, he became solid!

Shisui's Body Flicker Technique could be said to be another version of Kamui. It was similar to Obito's ability, with each having its own advantages and disadvantages.

The weakness of Shisui's Body Flicker Technique was that the main body always remained on the battlefield. Against an attack covering a huge area, he could not use this technique to evade it. For example, if the Nine-Tails threw a Tailed Beast Bomb here, Kagami could not dodge it with the Body Flicker Technique, while Obito could evade it with Kamui.

Its advantage, however, was that Shisui's Body Flicker Technique could create many clones. Each clone was equivalent to having Kamui of its own—intangible when attacked and solid when attacking. That was something Obito could not accomplish.

Kagami looked at the corpses of the two men and let out a breath of relief. He had not held back. What sort of people were the Root? They had come to attack him, so would they possibly leave him alive? Impossible. From the moment the Root ninjas attacked Kagami, it had been destined that one side would die. If Kagami had held back, he would have been the one to die.

Kagami could only kill them. Fortunately, the ones who had come seemed to be just above Chunin level. Relying on the Body Flicker Technique as his trump card, Kagami had completed a counterattack. If the Anbu had sent an expert of the elite Jonin level, Kagami would have died no matter what.

It seemed that Danzo's assessment of his strength still placed him at the Genin level. After all, it was already impressive for a seven-year-old child to reach Genin strength.

But Danzo had still underestimated Kagami. The one-tomoe Sharingan allowed Kagami to see clearly while moving at high speed, while the Body Flicker Technique let him launch unexpected killing blows.

Looking at his clone, Kagami smiled faintly.

"From now on, I'll call you Instant Clone."

The clone created by Kagami's Body Flicker Technique was not a clone in the ordinary sense, so it was better to give it a name of its own.