Suppression

"Too fast!"

Qi Shuang instinctively leaned backward as his heart tightened, barely avoiding the other's claw, but a searing pain still spread across his chest.

He knew the other's fingernails had grazed him.

His claw had failed to land solidly, but the Inuzuka Clan ninja did not lose heart. Instead, he followed through by planting both hands on the river's surface and kicking toward him in midair.

A grab and a kick—two consecutive strikes flowed together seamlessly, leaving his opponent no time to react.

Qi Shuang felt a sharp pain in his lower abdomen, and his entire body was sent flying.

He tumbled across the river several times before finally catching his breath. Using both his hands and feet, he managed to halt his retreat.

"Rrgh—"

Drawing in a cold breath and forcing down the pain in his lower abdomen, he slowly stood up. He gazed toward the other side of the dense fog, his face grave.

His opponent was an adult. His speed and strength already surpassed Qi Shuang's by a wide margin, and with their overall difference in strength, Qi Shuang had almost no power to fight back head-on.

If he did not come up with a countermeasure soon, he might really die here today.

Just then, another oppressive presence came from within the dense fog opposite him.

"Brat, you should stop resisting. Let me give you a quick death!"

"Fang Over Fang"

Immediately afterward, following a series of sharp whooshes, Qi Shuang saw a small gray-white whirlwind scatter the surrounding fog. Like a cone, it shot straight toward him.

"Don't take it head-on!"

The instant he saw the ninjutsu his opponent was using, he made his judgment.

He could not block it.

He immediately dispelled the chakra attached to the soles of his feet. At the moment the wind cone reached him, he sank into the river with barely enough time to spare, once again avoiding the fatal blow.

The wind cone stabbed into the spot where Qi Shuang had stood moments earlier. After the enormous waves it had raised fell back down, the Inuzuka Clan ninja slowly emerged.

"Hmph! All you do is play little tricks!" he snorted.

His supposedly foolproof attack had just missed, so his mood was naturally terrible.

What was more, his opponent was only a brat at the level of a Genin.

He had originally thought that dealing with a brat like this would be effortless, but he had never expected the opponent to evade two of his fatal attacks in succession.

That made him feel rather embarrassed.

He then carefully sniffed the air around him again, preparing to search for his opponent's trail.

However, he found that the other seemed to have vanished into thin air. He could no longer find him.

Could that brat still be hiding in the water? he guessed inwardly.

At present, the only way for his opponent to make himself impossible to detect was to hide underwater.

"I don't believe you won't come out!" he said through gritted teeth, steeling himself.

As long as he caught the opponent while he was surfacing to breathe, he could kill him with a single blow.

He then pulled a torn piece of clothing from his pocket and sniffed it carefully again.

It was a scrap of clothing left behind by that Mist ninja brat when he had previously set up the explosive trap.

After the opponent's body had been washed by the river, his scent had definitely weakened considerably. To distinguish that faint scent, he had to deepen the impression of it in his mind.

His efforts paid off. Before long, he caught the Mist ninja brat's scent on the river's surface again.

Although the scent was extremely faint, it still could not escape his nose.

"Beast Mimicry Technique: Four Legs Jutsu"

He lowered his body again, assuming the posture of a beast about to pounce on its prey.

This was the Inuzuka Clan's secret technique. By using this technique, he could transform his body into a beast-like form and gain the speed and strength of a wild animal.

"Brat, I've caught your scent! You're dead!"

With a wild, arrogant laugh, he moved all four limbs and charged toward the source of the scent.

The distance between them rapidly closed.

Because the dense fog separated them, he could only smell the scent and could not determine whether the opponent had set another trap. He did not rashly launch a direct attack.

Instead, he moved as close as possible, hoping to bring the opponent within his limited field of vision and ensure a one-hit kill.

He no longer wanted to drag this out.

If this continued, he would inevitably have to endure more sarcastic remarks from Uchiha Tai later.

He was a Chunin, yet he had to expend so much effort just to deal with a Genin brat. If word got out, he would become a laughingstock in Konoha.

As the distance between them shortened, he finally confirmed that the source of the scent was not a trap, but the opponent himself.

Moreover, that brat was preparing to form hand seals and use a technique.

At the same time, the instant the Inuzuka Clan man brought Qi Shuang's figure into view, Qi Shuang also completed his technique.

He decisively unleashed the technique he had prepared.

"Ice Release: Needle Rain Technique"

Using Ice Release chakra as a guide, he rapidly condensed the misty moisture in the air into ice, then shaped it into three-inch-long needles. He aimed them at the enemy who had charged into his field of vision and unleashed a covering barrage.

"That technique again?" The Inuzuka Clan ninja raised an eyebrow.

Because the attack had come too suddenly, and the ice needles were tiny and difficult to detect in the dense fog, he was struck by several of them immediately.

It was only when needle pricks and icy chill spread across his body that he realized he had been hit.

He instantly darted to the side, urgently avoiding the large swarm of ice needles behind him. At the same time, he kept the Mist ninja brat locked within his field of vision while moving at high speed to evade the continuous barrage of ice needles.

The moment this torrential rain of ice needles stopped, he would launch a fatal attack.

Although the ice needles did not deal much actual damage, he was not a masochist. He had already been pierced by them once, and he never wanted to experience that feeling again.

Besides, against a Genin-level brat, did he really need to use a strategy of trading injuries for his opponent's life? The Inuzuka Clan could not afford to lose face like that.

"That cautious?"

Seeing his opponent desperately evading the needle rain while Qi Shuang controlled the countless ice needles in the air, he secretly frowned.

He had originally thought that after enduring the needle rain once, the opponent would choose to withstand this low-damage technique and launch a fierce attack against him.

He had not expected the opponent to be so cautious, far beyond what he had anticipated.

"If you're this rational and cautious, you're going to give me a real headache!" He pursed his lips, his mood souring, but he still did not cancel the Ice Needle Jutsu.

He merely reduced the number of ice needles falling, hoping to extend the technique's duration.

After all, once he finished releasing this technique, he would have almost no chakra left. He had to kill his opponent before the technique finished completely!

As for how to kill his opponent with his remaining chakra, he had already devised a plan while hiding underwater earlier.

It was a plan designed around the insufficient lethality of Ice Release.

But this plan had a prerequisite: the opponent had to fearlessly withstand his ice needle attacks and launch a fierce assault!

Yet at present, the opponent's cautious attitude left him like a mouse trying to drag a turtle from its shell—there was simply nowhere to bite.