Flickering Fire (Part 1)

The head that rolled to the ground wore an expression of pain tinged with a hint of bewilderment—everything that had just happened carried an unspeakable mockery...

For the enemy, this had to count as a capsized boat in a ditch. A ninja with absolute confidence in his own strength would always face this kind of extreme reversal sooner or later; his death was merely one of the inevitable costs to pay.

First shock, then fury—more shuriken came hurtling toward Hagane Zhen.

He had anticipated such an attack, so upon landing, he wasted no time. Chakra erupted beneath his feet, and like a gale, he dashed behind a large tree, concealing his body.

Thud, thud, thud—the rain of shuriken pierced the ground, tracing his movement path before finally embedding themselves all over the tree's outer surface.

One enemy ninja didn't join the shuriken assault. He observed Hagane Zhen's movements and position, his hands swiftly forming seals. Then, with just a sidestep of two or three paces, he exposed the dodging Hagane Zhen once more within his firing line:

Water Style: Water Bullet Technique!

In the next instant, a massive water bullet hurtled toward Hagane Zhen.

Faced with such a wide-range ninjutsu, Hagane Zhen remained calm. He had been in the ninja world for a year now—not exactly battle-hardened, but at least possessing the basic qualities of a ninja.

His hands naturally came together, fingers flowing smoothly as he formed seals to counter:

Fire Style: Great Fireball!

A fiery orange orb over two meters in diameter shot straight toward the water sphere that had already closed half the distance.

For fire-using ninja clans, almost every clan had such basic techniques with similar hand seals, similar chakra flow, similar effects, and even similar names... just variations like Great Fireball, Big Fireball, Explosive Fireball, Flame Bullet, Great Flame Bullet, and so on.

Fire met water—the flames extinguished while the water boiled. With a continuous hissing sound, the two techniques canceled each other out in scale and power. The intense heat churned out thick white steam, which surged and spread rapidly through the dense forest, heavily obscuring the ninjas' vision.

The enemy's sensory-type ninja wasn't here, so the environment became even more favorable for Hagane Zhen—the blocked view nullified the enemy's numerical advantage, and Hagane Zhen excelled at backstabbing.

He pressed his side against a tree trunk behind him and activated the Mayfly Technique again. Like a skilled swimmer sinking into water, his body gradually merged into the wood.

Relying on his recent memory, Hagane Zhen moved swiftly through the trees and earth, quickly locating the ninja who had countered him with Water Style.

Silently, he arrived behind this enemy. As luck would have it, the enemy was slowly backing up, his back pressing directly against a large tree. It was the right call—with vision severely obstructed, having one's back against cover effectively prevented sneak attacks from behind.

But this time, it backfired.

Hagane Zhen's upper body emerged from the tree trunk above. Like a ghost, he extended his arms—his right arm locked tight around the enemy's neck, while his left arm whipped around to the front, pounding the man's chest cavity two or three dozen times in rapid, violent succession, like mashing mochi.

The mechanical repetition of the motion, the crisp sound of flesh being struck—both spoke of cold, stark killing intent.

In the blink of an eye, forget about whether this man could live—his internal organs were so pulverized they could go straight into a hotpot.

Hagane Zhen's form vanished once more.

The more he fought, the more he felt the changes in his body. Before, when he used ninjutsu, the release of chakra always came with a severe sense of detachment, as if a part of his spirit and vitality had been stripped away.

After using ninjutsu, he would feel hollow and weakened.

But this time was different. During the fight, he felt a fullness of power—every cell grew more active and vibrant as the battle progressed. If before he was just flat, now he could at least feel a 36D.

Hagane Zhen suddenly understood: perhaps ordinary people were simply not suited to be ninjas. Chakra would severely drain a person's life force.

"Who's under attack? Report your status and position!" an enemy shouted loudly.

Making noise voluntarily in the thick steam was hardly the right choice. Hagane Zhen was looking for his next target, so he headed straight for the source of the voice.

"Three left," he counted silently in his mind.

But as he infiltrated near that enemy and was about to carry out another assassination, a faint hissing sound caught his attention.

"Not good, it's a trap!"

Somewhere Hagane Zhen couldn't see, the ninja's face twisted into a cruel smile. He formed the final seal with both hands.

Hagane Zhen was already fleeing at top speed using the Mayfly Technique, because he had guessed what kind of attack the enemy was about to launch.

That enemy had used himself as bait, deliberately luring Hagane Zhen in. On his body, a stack of Explosive Tags had already been pre-ignited. Then, seven or eight sheets piled together began to release their energy.

A blazing white light flared up. Under the immense radial shockwave, the ninja's body, falling leaves, and surrounding soil all disintegrated at once!

Several large trees were snapped in half at the trunk. Amid the creaking and crashing of falling timber, Hagane Zhen's body was forced out of a section of tree trunk.

He wasn't yet skilled with this technique. Though he had moved away from the blast point as fast as possible and avoided the main damage, the explosion's shockwave still revealed his position.

The intense blast even dispersed the surrounding steam, restoring transparency to the battlefield.

This kind of "relaxed attitude" that completely disregarded one's own life was truly unimaginable.

That enemy had no idea how Hagane Zhen had carried out his assassinations. He had only sensed the second comrade's death and, by comparing Hagane Zhen's previous positions with his comrades', roughly estimated his movement speed. Then, based on this flimsy intel, he simply went ahead and self-destructed.

No, not relaxed—it was actually numbness. With such a severe lack of information, directly betting his life—how was that any different from suicide? His explosion might well have hit nothing but air.

Of course, Hagane Zhen did give the guy some credit. Due to his inexperience, his movements were very linear, and his trajectory nearly matched the enemy's guess. Fortunately, he had stayed alert and suffered no real damage.

In other words, the enemy's death was utterly meaningless.

Life seemed like something worthless, and death more like a release.

During the new book period, two chapters per day, updates scheduled around 5–6 PM.