Poison Needles

As the opponent lunged again, Qi Shuang's steps remained steady as it retreated, silently beginning to count in its mind.

"One."

The Inuzuka Clan ninja's claws grazed past, leaving several more bloody gashes on its other arm.

"Two."

The ninja quickly turned and lunged again, but its speed was a beat slower than before.

It narrowly dodged another attack.

"Three."

The Inuzuka Clan ninja pressed forward again, but it was puzzled. Why wasn't the brat panicking and fleeing this time? Instead, it was calmly waiting on the river's surface for its attack.

Then, filled with confusion, it lunged again.

Unfortunately, this time, it was still in vain, and the opponent easily dodged it.

"Why did your speed suddenly get so much faster?" After its third attack missed, it stopped its futile assault and asked the Mist Ninja brat in surprise.

Its speed already surpassed the opponent's, and when combined with the "Four Legs Technique" that temporarily enhanced its physical abilities, it should have been able to kill this Genin brat in one blow.

But the result was the exact opposite.

If the opponent was just lucky and managed to dodge its first attack, fine. But the second and third dodges couldn't be attributed to luck.

It clearly felt that the opponent was becoming more and more at ease with each dodge, as if its speed had increased by a large margin out of nowhere.

Even the illegitimate child of the goddess of fortune wouldn't have such a sudden change, right?

Just then, it felt a sharp pain in its chest, and then it let out a "wah" sound, spitting out a large mouthful of blood.

It felt as if its body was a deflated ball, its strength like escaping gas, slowly dissipating. It was even difficult to maintain its stance.

With a "gudong" sound, its knees buckled, and it immediately knelt on the river's surface.

At the same time, a mocking voice echoed.

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

"You... you..."

The Inuzuka Clan ninja pointed at the approaching young boy, about to say something, when it suddenly coughed up another mouthful of blood, its arm hanging down helplessly.

It was as if that mouthful of blood had drained all its strength, making it unable to even lift its arm.

"You... you... what... what did you do to me..." With blood on its lips, it asked the Mist Ninja brat in terror.

Qi Shuang quickly moved in front of it and then fiercely kicked it away, laughing heartily, "Didn't your teacher ever 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 had happened to its body.

It had been poisoned!

No wonder its speed had suddenly dropped and it was inexplicably spitting blood.

BOOM!

It crashed into the water surface unprepared, the impact of the water rebounding sending jolts of pain through its internal organs.

Normally, even if it stood still and let such a brat kick it, it wouldn't be affected.

But now, inexplicably poisoned and weakened, its physical condition was far from its usual state.

This attack from the opponent was like the last straw that broke the camel's back. No matter how it struggled, it couldn't stand up again.

It could only try its best to control its Chakra to attach to its body, preventing itself from sinking and drowning.

It knew it was going to die.

But before death, it still had one question that needed answering, which was why it had managed to hold on until now.

"You... you... how... how did you... poison me..." Lying on its back on the river's surface, it stared intently at the approaching Mist Ninja child and asked intermittently.

Generally, there were two main ways for ninjas to administer poison.

One was through food or air, attacking the opponent's mouth and nose to deliver the poison into their body. The second was by coating Ninja Tools with poison, attacking the opponent's wounds to inject the toxin into the enemy's body.

It could basically rule out the first method, as it hadn't eaten anything from the opponent, nor had it seen the opponent sprinkle Poison Powder into the air.

As for the second method, it could also be grudgingly ruled out, because besides being injured by the Explosive Tag earlier, it hadn't been wounded by the brat's Ninja Tools.

It had never heard of an Explosive Tag carrying poison.

The high temperature generated at the moment of explosion was enough to vaporize and burn away any Poison Powder or liquid.

Therefore, even though it racked its brain, it couldn't figure out how it had been poisoned.

Qi Shuang slowly walked up to it, gently pulled out an Ice Needle still stuck in its body, and dangled it before its eyes, saying meaningfully, "I used these Ice Needles to poison you!"

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

"Impossible?"

Before the ninja could finish speaking, Qi Shuang interrupted it, gave it a mocking glance, and said playfully, "Can't Ice Needles carry poison?"

"No... no... impossible!" the ninja from the Inuzuka Clan widened his eyes, squeezing the words out from his throat.

Aside from specialized poison techniques, he had never heard of any other ninjutsu that also possessed poisonous properties.

Qi Shuang shook its head, sneering, "Just because you don't understand doesn't mean it's impossible!"

It had known from the start that its ice needles lacked lethality due to insufficient hardness, and it only had enough chakra left to perform ninjutsu once.

To finish off the opponent with a single ninjutsu, it had to incorporate other methods.

Therefore, while evading the opponent's attacks underwater, it conceived the idea of using poison.

So, after surfacing, it immediately took a packet of poison powder from itself, dissolved it in a mass of water, and then, using Ice Release, solidified it into several poisoned ice needles.

As for the remaining ice needles, they were merely a distraction.

The goal was to reinforce the opponent's impression that its ice needles were not very lethal, luring them into a direct assault. Then, it would seize the opportunity to shoot the poisoned ice needles at them, ensuring their accuracy.

Unfortunately, the opponent was too cautious and did not launch a direct assault at first.

This forced it to resort to provocation.

Furthermore, the opponent's "Fang" was too powerful, rendering its ice needles useless.

Only when it seized the opening at the moment the opponent's jutsu ended did the poisoned ice needles finally hit their mark.

This laid the foundation for its victory.

Originally, if the opponent hadn't been so impatient, and had pulled out the ice needles before attacking again, there might have been a chance to turn the tables.

But rage had made it lose its rational judgment. It hadn't paid any attention to those ice needles at all and had immediately used a technique to enhance its physical speed and strength, launching a furious assault. This further caused the ice needles to melt within its body, accelerating the spread of the poison, which led to poisoning and a state of weakness.