The Grass Ninja's moves reminded Ye Wuyue of a true man in a green jumpsuit. Their techniques were almost identical, except that the Jonin's version lacked the words "Konoha."
Faced with the whip kick, Ye Wuyue neither dodged nor evaded. He turned and answered with a whip kick of his own. Their lower legs collided, and Ye Wuyue came off worse, getting kicked away.
He really was strong. He deserved the title of Jonin!
Instead of being discouraged by the kick, Ye Wuyue grew excited. He had always been a rather battle-hungry person. Because Uchiha Setsuna had tried to assassinate him, he had chosen to lie low in the Konoha Ninja Academy for six years. He had been suffocating from holding himself back all this time.
He had originally thought this mission would be nothing but a one-sided slaughter, but he had not expected this extra surprise. His desire to fight had now been completely roused. He had barely used his Zanpakuto during the battle, specifically so he could enjoy himself a little longer.
"Hado #63: Thunder Roar Cannon!"
Ye Wuyue rose to his feet and looked at the Jonin before him. He aimed his right hand at the Grass Ninja bound to the wall beside him. After the thunderous blast, only he and the Jonin remained on the field.
"You must have used a forbidden technique, right?" Ye Wuyue asked the Jonin. The bulging veins on the man's neck made it easy to guess.
"What the hell does it have to do with you?" The Jonin did not answer Ye Wuyue's question. He simply leaped up and kicked at him.
Ye Wuyue turned aside and dodged. The dynamic vision granted by his Sharingan improved his reaction speed.
"Then I have to kill you before your forbidden technique wears off." Ye Wuyue spoke. He did not want to wait until the Jonin's forbidden technique ended and the man lay helpless on the ground before killing him. That would be far too boring.
"Hmph! What a big mouth!" The Jonin snorted and threw a punch at Ye Wuyue at incredible speed.
Ye Wuyue raised his arm to block and was knocked several meters back. The Jonin chased after him and kicked at him again.
"Bakudo #8: Repulse!"
Ye Wuyue blocked the Jonin's kick with the back of his hand. Repulse, which had previously been able to send the two Grass Ninjas flying, now barely managed to stop the man's attack.
Seeing this, the Jonin threw another punch. Ye Wuyue was knocked back several more meters.
After forcing Ye Wuyue back, the Jonin remained where he was and panted heavily for a while. The side effects of the forbidden technique were probably about to set in.
"Use your strongest attack. Otherwise, you won't have the chance," Ye Wuyue reminded him.
A "well" character appeared on the Jonin's forehead when he heard Ye Wuyue's words. Clearly, he was extremely annoyed, but he still did as instructed.
The Jonin removed the Kusagakure Headband from his forehead and tossed it aside.
"To be honest, I'm jealous of you ninjas who can live under the sun. You don't have to carry out those filthy deeds. At least on the surface, everything you do is righteous, truly for the sake of the village. Meanwhile, we have to carry out missions that even we despise.
"Most people don't even realize how filthy the things they do are. That's even more pathetic."
The Jonin complained about something, while Ye Wuyue listened quietly without interrupting him.
The Jonin looked at Ye Wuyue. "You brat, your talent is incredible. You're one of the very best geniuses in Konoha. If..."
He seemed about to say something, but then appeared to remember something and stopped in a daze.
"Forget it. I've said too much. Brat, this is the final strike. Either I die, or we both die. Take this!"
After the Jonin finished speaking, thin arcs of electricity suddenly surged across his body. His hair stood on end under the force of the lightning, while the earth beneath his feet began to crack.
This technique... It looked a lot like Kumogakure's Lightning Release Chakra Mode.
Ye Wuyue had been pondering the man's words, but the transformation drew his attention. The Jonin's current appearance truly resembled Kumogakure's Raikage using Lightning Release Chakra Mode, though the lightning around his body was far weaker than the Raikage's.
"Lightning Body Technique: Thunderous Strike!"
Fast! Blindingly fast! He was even considerably faster than Ye Wuyue's Shunpo. Ye Wuyue only saw a blur before the Jonin appeared in front of him. Even his Sharingan could barely follow the man's trajectory.
The Jonin raised his fist. It was merely an ordinary straight punch, but pale-blue arcs of electricity flashed around its tip.
"Bakudo #39: Circular Shield! Bakudo #73: Tōzanshō!"
The protective shield of Circular Shield shattered after holding out for only about half a second. The Jonin's fist struck the inverted-triangular blue defensive formation behind it. When the two collided, they produced a grating screech that made one's teeth ache.
In the end... the Jonin still failed to break through the defensive barrier. He remained frozen in that position, then fell silent.
Crack!
The blue inverted-triangular defensive formation finally shattered, revealing the Jonin to Ye Wuyue.
His eyes had already gone dim. The pale-blue electricity faded away, and white smoke rose from his body, making him look as though he had been roasted.
Could he only hurt himself because he had failed to master it? Looking at the Jonin's condition, Ye Wuyue roughly understood the cause of his death. He also understood why the man had said earlier, "Either I die, or we both die."
That attack must have used lightning to stimulate his cells, allowing him to break through his physical limits and increase his speed and destructive power. However, because the Jonin had not yet mastered it completely, the amount of Lightning Release Chakra used to stimulate his cells had been unsuitable. While stimulating his own cells, it had also destroyed them.
"Hado #54: Haien."
A disc-shaped flame shot from Ye Wuyue's hand and landed on the Jonin's corpse. Moments later, it burned the body to ashes.
Ye Wuyue respected the bloodlust the Jonin had displayed at the end, but he felt no pressure at all about killing him.
The two of them had been enemies from the start. It was a relationship where one of them had to die, and they had been the ones to provoke him first.
Ye Wuyue lowered his head and thought for a while, mulling over the Jonin's final words. They clearly did not sound like something an ordinary Grass Ninja would say.
He seemed more like... a member of Root.
However, they did not seem to have been brainwashed. They had their own thoughts and opinions. Ye Wuyue still did not dare draw a conclusion about their identities.
"Whew... This mission wasn't bad." Ye Wuyue slowly walked out of the hall, and the crow circling above him landed on his shoulder.
Once he reached the outside of the hall, Ye Wuyue drew his Zanpakuto.
"All things under heaven, return to ashes. Flowing Blade, Like Fire!"
After several attacks burned the entire hall to the ground, Ye Wuyue finally headed down the mountain. Corpses piled together for too long could easily cause an epidemic.
At the foot of the mountain, Itachi watched the entire battle through the summoned crow. Several times, he had wanted to go over and help, but Ye Wuyue's strength dispelled his concerns.
His little brother had grown up...
Itachi sighed.
Beside him, Sai had several more wounds on his body and was already unconscious.
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