Scheming (Revised)

After a clash of ninja tools, the air once again fell into an eerie silence.

Apart from the roaring river, Qi Shuang could barely hear anything.

Looks like Teacher Ki failed to land a hit! he thought to himself.

Just then, a chakra presence suddenly appeared behind him.

"That was fast!"

His heart jolted. Without hesitation, he thrust a Kunai backward toward the figure behind him.

The newcomer hurriedly blocked his counterattack, then used the roar of the river to conceal his voice as he called out in a low voice, "Don't be nervous. It's me!"

Hearing that, Qi Shuang stopped struggling and glanced sideways. The person behind him looked somewhat familiar.

Despite the dense fog, the two were less than a meter apart, so he could barely make out the newcomer's appearance.

It was Kamiya Ki.

He immediately withdrew the Kunai he had extended and asked in a low voice, "Teacher, how did the fight go?"

At that moment, they were standing on the surface of the river. With the sound of the rushing water masking them, the two on the opposite side could not possibly pinpoint their location as long as they kept their voices down.

"Things aren't looking good!"

Kamiya Ki shook his head and sighed. "If there had only been one of them, I might have had a chance of defeating him by launching one ambush after another!"

"But there are two of them now. They cover each other in offense and defense, so they easily neutralize my attacks. If I'm even slightly careless, they might seize the opportunity to take me down!"

"If only we could separate them..."

"Separate them?"

Qi Shuang frowned and thought for a moment before replying solemnly, "Perhaps I can try!"

Just then, the shouts of two Konoha ninja came from the other side of the fog.

"Aren't you Mist ninja supposed to be good at assassination techniques? How come you've already lost your nerve after only a couple of attacks?"

"Could it be that you haven't mastered your assassination techniques yet? Are you planning to cry all the way home and ask your teacher to put you through remedial training?"

Immediately afterward, the two men's shrill, arrogant laughter pierced through the barrier of dense fog.

Kamiya Ki's brows knitted tightly, and his mood grew turbulent.

As a veteran of the battlefield, he naturally could not be baited by such a simple provocation. Still, hearing them mock him left him feeling thoroughly uncomfortable.

He turned back and asked his subordinate in a low voice, "What do you plan to do?"

Qi Shuang smiled faintly, then leaned close to Kamiya Ki's ear and whispered for a while.

After listening, Kamiya Ki frowned. "I don't have a problem with it, but it'll be dangerous for you, kid!"

Qi Shuang glanced toward the spot where the two Konoha ninja had just spoken, then said, "Fortune comes from danger. If we can take out both of them, we'll definitely be commended when we return. Besides..."

His tone shifted, and his face grew solemn. "Besides, there should originally have been four of them, but there are only two here!"

"Although we don't know what the other two are doing, if we can't deal with these two before they arrive, then you should understand the consequences!"

Hearing that, Kamiya Ki's heart jolted. No wonder he had felt that something was wrong from the beginning.

Now that Qi Shuang had pointed it out, he finally realized that the Konoha side was missing two people.

"I was blinded by a single leaf!" he said with a bitter smile, shaking his head.

He had been focused entirely on defeating his opponents and had overlooked such obvious intelligence.

"All right! We'll do as you say!" He immediately nodded and agreed to Qi Shuang's plan.

Because of the presence of the other two, he had to fight a quick battle. If the four of them reunited, the two of them would have little chance of surviving.

"Be careful. Don't go and get yourself killed before I can come back to support you!"

With that, Kamiya Ki once again vanished into the dense fog.

"Don't worry. They're only barely at Chunin level. In a one-on-one fight, killing me won't be so easy. If they underestimate me too much..." Gazing in the direction where his young teacher had disappeared, Qi Shuang had not even finished speaking before a confident smile appeared on his face.

"Ice Release: Needle Rain Technique!"

After rapidly forming hand seals, he used the dense fog Kamiya Ki had condensed in the air to cast an Ice Release technique once again.

Then he controlled the ice needles formed from the moisture in the air, aiming at the approximate location of the two men and launching a sweeping attack.

On the other side, the ice needles struck again. The two Konoha ninja froze for a moment, then wildly swung their short blades, hoping to minimize their injuries as much as possible.

After all, the barrage of ice needles was simply too dense. There was no way they could block them all.

Hearing the sharp crackle of ice shattering against their short blades, the two exchanged a glance. Following the chakra fluctuations released by their opponent as he cast the technique, they slowly moved toward him and shouted mockingly, "You brat using Ice Release, your technique is far too weak! You can't even pierce my skin! Go home and drink your mother's milk!"

His companion immediately joined in with a shrill burst of mocking laughter.

As if unable to tolerate their taunts, the ice needles in the air suddenly increased in both speed and density.

Sensing the increasingly distinct chakra fluctuations, one of them signaled to his companion, who was close at hand. Then, shielding his head with one hand and gripping his blade with the other, he charged through the exploding ice needles and rushed out in an instant.

Just then, a pitch-black Kunai suddenly appeared beside him.

Kamiya Ki had seized the opportunity to attack the Konoha ninja who had suddenly moved.

Clang!

A crisp sound rang out as the man abruptly halted and twisted around to block the ambush.

"My target was never that brat. It was you! His target is that brat!"

A mocking voice reached his ears. Only then did Kamiya Ki realize that, while he had been held up, the other Konoha ninja was charging through the barrage of ice needles toward Qi Shuang on the surface of the river.

Kamiya Ki immediately abandoned his opponent and retreated into the dense fog once more.

Apparently thinking he was turning back to rescue his subordinate, the Konoha ninja laughed loudly. "Too late! He's just a brat, after all! With his strength, he can't possibly withstand this barrage!"

As he spoke, a pitch-black Kunai once again shot toward his back.

"Hm?"

Sensing danger, he instinctively dodged to the side and avoided a fatal blow, but a slash the length of a palm opened across his shoulder.

Blood poured out at once, staining half his sleeve red.

Immediately afterward, a mocking voice came from within the dense fog.

"Who told you I was going back to rescue him? Isn't this the perfect opportunity to kill you?"

"What?" The man was startled.

Then, after thinking it over, he immediately understood what had happened.

Earlier, the two of them had worked together, leaving their opponent no opening to attack.

Now, although the Ice Release brat had exposed his location by casting his technique, giving them an opportunity to strike, their separation had likewise given their opponent a chance to attack them individually.

At that moment, as long as he killed the brat with assassination techniques before the boy died, he could return to provide support and kill his other companion in a one-on-two fight.