Poisoned Needles

Seeing his opponent pounce again, Qi Shuang's footsteps remained steady. He hurriedly retreated while silently counting in his mind.

"One."

The Inuzuka Clan ninja's claws grazed past him, leaving several more bloody scratches on his other arm.

"Two."

The man swiftly turned and pounced again, but his speed was a beat slower than before.

He narrowly dodged another attack.

"Three."

The Inuzuka Clan ninja closed in again, but he was puzzled. Why had that kid not fled in panic this time, instead quietly staying on the surface of the river and "waiting" for his attack?

Then, carrying all those doubts, he thrust out another claw.

Unfortunately, it was still futile this time. His attack was once again dodged with ease.

"Why has your speed suddenly become so fast?" After his third attack missed, he stopped his pointless assault and asked the Mist ninja brat in astonishment.

His speed had already been a notch above his opponent's. Combined with the Four Legs Technique, which temporarily strengthened his physical abilities, he should have been able to kill a Genin brat like this in one blow.

But the result was precisely the opposite.

If his opponent had merely been lucky enough to evade his first attack, that would have been understandable. But the second and third attacks could no longer be explained by luck.

He could clearly feel that when his opponent dodged his second and third attacks, he became increasingly relaxed, as if his speed had inexplicably increased by a great deal.

Even the bastard son of the Goddess of Luck could not change so suddenly, could he?

Just then, he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his chest. Then, with a retch, he spat out a large mouthful of blood.

He felt as though his body were a deflating ball, all his strength slowly dissipating like escaping air. Even maintaining a standing position had become extremely difficult.

With a thud, his knee buckled, and he immediately knelt on the surface of the river.

At the same time, a mocking voice rang out.

"It's not that my speed got faster. It's that your speed got slower!"

"You... you..."

The Inuzuka Clan man pointed at the approaching little boy. Just as he was about to say something, he suddenly vomited another mouthful of blood, and his arm dropped limply.

It was as if that mouthful of blood had drained all his strength, leaving him unable even to raise his arm.

"You... you... what... exactly... did you do to me..." With blood hanging from the corner of his mouth, he asked the Mist ninja brat in terror.

Qi Shuang quickly stepped in front of him, then ferociously kicked him away and laughed. "What, didn't your teacher teach you when you were in school that ninjas can also poison people to death?"

"Poison?"

Hearing this, the Inuzuka Clan member who had been kicked away finally understood what was wrong with his body.

He had been poisoned!

No wonder his speed had suddenly dropped and he had inexplicably vomited blood.

Boom!

He crashed into the water without the slightest preparation. The impact rebounding from the surface shook his internal organs with excruciating pain.

Under normal circumstances, even if he had stood still and let a brat like this kick him, it would not have harmed him in the slightest.

But now, the inexplicable poison had weakened his entire body, leaving his physique far inferior to before.

This attack was like the final straw that broke the camel's back. No matter how he struggled, he could no longer stand.

He could only struggle to control his chakra, keeping it attached beneath his body so that he would not sink into the water and drown.

He knew that he was going to die.

But before dying, he still had one question that needed answering. That was why he had forced himself to hold on until now.

"You... you exactly... how... did you... poison me..." Lying on his back on the surface of the river, he stared fixedly at the approaching Mist ninja child and asked in broken phrases.

Generally speaking, there were two main ways for a ninja to poison someone.

The first was through food or air, delivering the poison into the opponent's body through their mouth or nose. The second was by coating a ninja tool with poison and injecting the toxin into the enemy through a wound.

He could basically rule out the first method, because he had never eaten anything from his opponent, nor had he seen his opponent scatter Poison Powder into the air.

As for the second method, he could barely rule that out as well. Apart from being injured by the Explosive Tag just now, he had not been wounded by that brat's ninja tools at all.

As for the Explosive Tag carrying poison, he had never heard of such a thing.

The extreme heat produced at the instant of an explosion would be enough to evaporate and burn away any Poison Powder or liquid poison.

Thus, even after racking his brains, he could not figure out how he had been poisoned.

Qi Shuang slowly walked up to him, gently pulled out one of the ice needles still lodged in his body, and waved it before his eyes. He said meaningfully, "I poisoned you with these ice needles!"

"This... no... no..."

"Impossible?"

Before the man could finish, Qi Shuang interrupted him. He gave him another mocking look and said playfully, "Why can't an ice needle carry poison?"

"No... no... possible!" The Inuzuka Clan ninja widened his eyes and practically squeezed the words out of his throat.

Aside from specialized poison techniques, he had never heard of any other ninjutsu possessing the ability to carry poison.

Qi Shuang shook his head and sneered. "Just because you don't understand it doesn't mean it's impossible!"

He had known from the beginning that his ice needles' hardness was insufficient, making their lethality very limited. He also had only enough chakra left to perform one more ninjutsu.

If he wanted to finish off his opponent with a single ninjutsu, he had to employ additional means.

Thus, while avoiding his opponent's attacks beneath the water, he had come up with the idea of using poison.

After surfacing, he immediately took a packet of Poison Powder from his body, dissolved it in a mass of water, and then used Ice Release to solidify it into several poisoned ice needles.

As for the remaining ice needles, he had used them to mislead his opponent.

His aim was to reinforce the impression that his ice needles were not very lethal, luring his opponent into launching a powerful attack so that he could seize the opportunity to shoot the several poisoned ice needles into his body and ensure they hit.

Unfortunately, his opponent had been overly cautious and had not launched a direct assault at the beginning.

That had forced him to use provocation.

On top of that, his opponent's Fang Over Fang had been too powerful, leaving his ice needles with no opportunity to be used.

Only after he caught the opening in the instant his opponent's technique ended did those poisoned ice needles finally strike him completely.

That had laid the foundation for his victory.

Originally, if his opponent had not been so hasty and had pulled out the ice needles before attacking, he might still have had a chance to turn the tables.

But his rage had robbed him of sound judgment. He had completely failed to notice those ice needles, then immediately used another technique to increase his body's speed and strength, launching a frenzied assault. This further caused the ice needles to melt inside his body and accelerated the spread of the poison, ultimately causing it to take effect and leaving him weakened.