Origin

"Bastard, let go of me!" Uchiha Tai grew increasingly frantic when he sensed something strange about the Explosive Tags.

Unfortunately, no matter how desperately he struggled, the dying Mist Chunin seemed welded to him. He simply couldn't shake him off or break free.

Boom!

The several Explosive Tags stuck to Kamiya Ki's back exploded completely.

A small red sun swallowed both their figures. The massive shock wave followed close behind, carrying a murky yellow wave of heat that sent Qi Shuang flying several meters away.

Only after the blast subsided did he use a nearby tree trunk to slowly pull himself up.

Although he hadn't been directly hit by the explosion, he was already utterly exhausted from his successive battles. After being thrown like that, he was so tired that even moving a finger felt like too much effort.

"Ptui!"

After spitting out the scraps of leaves and dirt in his mouth, he began searching for the two men.

Where Kamiya Ki and the other man had struggled earlier, there was now a shallow pit nearly two meters across. Scattered around it were scraps of clothing, while a charred figure lay at the bottom.

There was no doubt that it was Kamiya Ki.

Kamiya Ki had already been seriously wounded. After being hit by the Explosive Tags, there was no way he could have survived.

Moreover, the Explosive Tags had been stuck to his back. Judging by the direction of the force, his remains could only have been pressed into the ground by the blast. They couldn't have been sent flying.

Therefore, that corpse could only be Kamiya Ki's.

However, that wasn't what concerned Qi Shuang at the moment.

He was looking for Uchiha Tai.

Uchiha Tai's current condition concerned whether he lived or died.

"How can he not be here?" Qi Shuang looked in the direction where the man had been standing, but couldn't see any corpse nearby.

Under normal circumstances, no one could withstand the explosion of five or six Explosive Tags at such close range without a special defensive technique.

If Uchiha Tai had survived the blast, albeit seriously injured, Qi Shuang could have barely accepted that. But now, there was neither a corpse nor even a trace of him. It was simply inconceivable.

"Could it be that he didn't die at all? Maybe he wasn't even seriously injured, but hid himself, waiting to attack me?" Based on the situation before him, Qi Shuang arrived at an astonishing conclusion.

"Go to hell, brat!"

At the same time, a sinister voice came from above his head.

He looked up and saw Uchiha Tai standing on a branch in tattered clothes. Something hung from his leg; on closer inspection, it appeared to be a severed arm. He held his left hand loosely before his mouth, puffed out his cheeks, and suddenly blew.

"Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!"

A tiny flame spewed from Uchiha Tai's mouth. Passing through the palm of his loosely clenched left hand, it abruptly transformed into a huge fireball over two meters in diameter and bore down on the detestable brat below.

He wouldn't make the same mistake again!

It was precisely because of his carelessness and contempt earlier that he had tried to finish his opponent with a short blade, only to fall into the pair's trap and nearly be killed by that Mist Chunin's suicidal attack.

To prevent any further accidents, he decided to use a technique and kill his opponent in one blow.

"Damn it!"

Qi Shuang's heart lurched when he saw this.

His perception and agility had fallen drastically because of his exhaustion and depleted chakra.

He had noticed far too late. In his current condition, he had no time to dodge.

Or rather, if a Jonin deliberately ambushed a Genin, then even in perfect condition, the Genin would have no chance to evade.

Even so, he desperately fled to the side, trying to escape the enormous fireball descending from above and fight for that slim chance of survival.

But as the wave of heat behind him drew closer, his heart gradually sank to the bottom.

Am I really going to die here?

"I'm not willing to accept this!"

Just as he was plunged into despair, a slightly childish shout came from the dense forest opposite him.

"Get down!"

That voice sounded like heavenly music to Qi Shuang.

At this location, the sudden appearance of that voice undoubtedly meant that Mist reinforcements had arrived.

If they had been Konoha reinforcements, there would have been no need to shout a warning. They would have simply attacked and caught him between two fronts.

Without the slightest hesitation, he threw himself down and sprawled flat on the ground.

Immediately afterward, he saw three people charge out of the forest opposite him. One was large and two were small, and all wore forehead protectors bearing Four Ripple Markings. This confirmed his guess: they were three Mist ninja.

"Water Release: Water Pillar!"

"Water Release: Water Pillar!"

The two children, a boy and a girl around ten years old, immediately puffed out their cheeks and spat out two Water Pillars. They shot straight toward the unstoppable red fireball behind him.

The farther the Water Pillars advanced, the larger they became. By the time they passed over Qi Shuang's head, each was more than a meter in diameter.

Hiss—

The moment the two Water Pillars collided with the fireball, Qi Shuang, lying prone on the ground, heard the sound of cold water boiling and evaporating from the intense heat.

Although he was still more than two meters away from the fireball, he could feel the heat contained in the steam. It scalded his skin painfully.

"Tsk! Reinforcements?" On the other side, Uchiha Tai frowned when he saw his Fire Release blocked.

This place was far too close to the Mist's forward camp. Although this wave of reinforcements consisted of only three people, he wasn't stupid enough to believe they represented the camp's entire force.

Clearly, they were an advance scouting team sent to investigate the situation.

Now that they had discovered the fighting, the subsequent reinforcements would arrive soon.

Moreover, although he had escaped death just now, he hadn't emerged unscathed.

The explosion at such close range had injured him badly. Half of his combat strength had been lost, and dealing with this newly arrived Mist Chunin and two Genin would already be difficult.

He had to retreat!

With that thought, he canceled the technique without hesitation, abandoning his plan to clash with the two Mist Genin. He swiftly turned around and retraced his path.

Sensing that their opponent had canceled his technique, the two Mist Genin also stopped releasing theirs, avoiding a needless waste of chakra.

"How are you?" The little girl among them struggled to help Qi Shuang up and asked worriedly.

"I'm fine!" Qi Shuang shook his head and gave her a forced smile.

Compared with the three members of his team who had died, he had suffered only minor injuries. That was already incredible luck, so naturally, he was fine.

"What attacked you? And whose remains are those over there?" The leading Mist Chunin walked up to Qi Shuang and pointed at the charred remains in the shallow pit.

Qi Shuang glanced at the remains and slowly said, "He was our captain, Chunin Kamiya Ki!"

Just then, he suddenly noticed that Kamiya Ki's right arm was visibly much shorter.

It was obvious that part of it was missing.