Withering

After understanding everything, the injured Konoha ninja quickly adjusted his mindset. While maintaining a cautious guard, he taunted shamelessly, "You truly are a heartless captain! Using your subordinate's life as bait to get a chance to kill me alone!"

"Are you that confident you can finish me off before that brat dies? Or perhaps, you never cared at all..."

Before he could finish speaking, another kunai suddenly lunged from the side. With quick reflexes, he blocked this sneak attack.

Kamiya Ki's attempt once again failed.

"Are you enraged?"

The injured man laughed unrestrainedly and added, "You never cared about his life or death, did you?"

Despite the grating laughter, Kamiya Ki, hidden in the mist, still didn't reply. He remained fully focused, searching for the next opportunity to strike.

The current situation was clear: whether it was him or the other Konoha ninja rushing towards Qi Shuang, whoever could eliminate their opponent first would be able to turn back and save their comrade.

They were racing against each other's killing speed!

On the other side, enduring the assault of ice needles, that Konoha ninja had already reached the caster.

Looking at the terrified child before him, he raised his short sword with a mocking expression and said, "Brat, your jutsu's lethality is far too weak! Otherwise, there's no way I could have gotten this close to you!"

"And another thing, didn't your teacher tell you that using ninjutsu indiscriminately in this dense fog would reveal your position!"

Before his words fell, he swiftly slashed down with his sword.

The blade passed unobstructed over the opponent's head, cleanly bisecting him.

"Huh?"

Seeing this, he froze in surprise.

He never remembered possessing such immense strength that he could split a person in half with an ordinary ninja sword.

Immediately after, to his astonishment, the two halves of the body instantly dissolved into two streams of clear water, which then flowed back up along his blade.

"Water Clone?"

He exclaimed, finally understanding what had just happened.

"Do you think that as a ninja of Kirigakure, I wouldn't know that using ninjutsu in this dense fog would reveal my whereabouts?"

Just then, a childish, mocking voice echoed from above. He felt something falling from the sky.

Simultaneously, the two streams of clear water flowing up his blade erupted with a surge of chakra.

"Ice Release: Ice Binding Technique!"

Sensing a chilling coldness emanating from his sword, he looked down. The two streams had solidified into two icy ropes. One end was submerged in the water, its termination unseen, while the other was coiling up his blade towards his arm.

Clearly, the opponent was using the residual water from the Water Clone to execute a secondary technique.

In an instant, the frost ropes bound both of his hands that were gripping the sword.

As if sensing an imminent crisis of defeat, he struggled with all his might and shouted, "What a joke! How could I possibly lose to you, a mere brat!"

Immediately, one of the seemingly unbreakable frost ropes snapped under his struggle, freeing one of his arms.

At that very moment, the object falling from the dense fog above revealed its form.

It was a person, a child.

It was obvious that the opponent had seized the moment he was bound by the ice ropes, using the fog as cover to launch a surprise attack from the sky.

Unfortunately, despite the meticulous plan, the attacker had overestimated the strength of their jutsu.

Those two ice ropes were nowhere near enough to completely restrain him!

"Brat, you've underestimated me, and overestimated yourself!"

Without time to draw his kunai, he clenched his freed left hand into a fist and punched upwards at the child descending with a kunai.

"Haha... haha... Hahaha..."

"Brat, your arms are too short! Haha!"

Below, the Konoha ninja burst into laughter. His fist connected with its target before the kunai could.

Because the child's arms were shorter, his own fist struck first.

Before he could rejoice for long, the figure on his fist suddenly shattered with a splash, dissolving into a pool of water that doused his face, extinguishing his joy completely.

"Another Water Clone?" His smile froze on his face.

Not only that, but he also noticed something peculiar: the kunai the child had been holding hadn't dissolved into water along with the clone. It remained intact, emitting a dangerous aura.

As the kunai descended before him, he finally saw clearly that an Explosive Tag was wrapped around its handle.

He wanted to escape, but his other hand was still bound by the ice rope, and he had no idea where its other end was tied, making escape impossible.

And the explosive kunai was already upon him; even if he could break free, it would be too late.

BOOM!

The Explosive Tag detonated!

A crimson fireball appeared before his eyes, a deafening roar filled his ears, and a massive shockwave slammed into him.

The ice ropes on his hands were instantly shattered, unable to hold his body. He was flung away by the explosive force.

Just then, a small, thin figure burst from the water, rushing towards his flying body.

Immediately after, he suddenly felt a chill on his back, a cold aura filling his chest, completely masking the burning sensation from the explosion.

Someone, at this critical moment, was pressing against him from behind!

And using his body as cover, they hid behind him, avoiding the direct impact of the explosion.

However, the explosion's impact could not be underestimated. The two of them couldn't stand their ground and were directly pushed away by the shockwave.

The explosion's aftermath quickly subsided, and the turbulent mist returned to its calm state. It had not been dispersed by the impact of the explosive tags.

"Mist Technique" once again proved its formidable power in practice.

This was not a mist that could be easily dispersed!

"Cough, cough, cough!"

A pained cough echoed.

In the thick fog, two figures, one large and one small, stood on the water's surface.

The larger one was a ninja from Konoha; the smaller one was Qi Shuang.

Qi Shuang held a kunai in both hands, pressing it firmly against the Konoha ninja's back. More than half of the handle had already sunk in.

Scarlet blood flowed along the kunai, staining the other's clothes and his arms red.

After a brief silence, the Konoha ninja weakly asked, "You knew from the start that the second clone couldn't take me down?"

Qi Shuang coldly replied, "I never underestimated you, nor did I overestimate myself!"

"Therefore, I never expected that Ice Release jutsu to completely trap you! Nor did I expect the second clone to successfully ambush and kill you!"

"All of that was to make that explosive tag exert its maximum effect, serving as the final setup for this last strike of mine!"

With that, he expressionlessly released his hands and flicked to the side. The Konoha ninja immediately slumped, collapsing onto the water's surface.

Bright red blood flowed into the river, blooming into a large red flower in the water. The person was like the pistil of that flower, blooming even within the thick fog.

Unfortunately, it was about to wither.