The Third vs. White Fang

The Third decided to ignore White Fang's remark.

He looked toward the Anbu. "Shishō, your squad will come with me. The rest of you will help Danzo surround him. Since Sakumo has betrayed the village, we must stop him here today."

With that, the Third charged at White Fang first.

Of the Anbu present, only the three elite jonin in Shishō's squad could help. Sending anyone else would only get them killed.

The other Anbu leaped onto the surrounding buildings.

Only the three members of Shishō's squad remained where they were.

Seeing the Third attack while Shishō stayed put, the Anbu ninja in the dog mask asked, "Captain, aren't we going in?"

At the same time, he prayed inwardly:

Please don't go in.

At worst, we can shoulder the consequences together afterward.

If we stay out, we'll only be held accountable. If we go in, we'll not only be ungrateful bastards, we'll lose our lives.

Captain, think carefully about which is worse!

At those words, Shishō's handsome face twisted with indecision beneath his mask. Only when the clang of the Third's Adamantine Staff striking White Fang's blade reached him did he make up his mind.

"Let's go. We'll support the Third from the sidelines. We can't join the fight head-on, so just put pressure on Senior White Fang... on White Fang from the perimeter."

All right!

That works too. We won't have to face White Fang directly.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

With three rushing sounds, they reached the edge of the battlefield.

At that moment, White Fang and the Third were locked in a taijutsu battle.

The Third blocked a slash from White Fang. Taking advantage of the opening, he looked at White Fang, who now wore a rogue ninja's forehead protector, and said, "Sakumo, must you bring the village to this?"

White Fang sneered. "What do I care whether the village lives or dies?"

The Third's Talk no Jutsu failed, but he was not discouraged.

When blade and staff clashed again, he said, "I admit this was my fault, but the villagers had nothing to do with it. I will give you an explanation afterward."

This time, his answer was a vicious slash.

Clang...

The Third blocked it, but the blow sent him flying backward.

He only stopped after crashing through three houses.

White Fang watched the dust, where the Third remained out of sight. He had gained the upper hand, yet his expression was grave.

His strength lay in swordsmanship. Even calling him the greatest swordsman in the shinobi world would not have been an exaggeration.

The Third, however, excelled in ninjutsu, despite his powerful taijutsu. Like his father, he had mastered nature transformations for all five chakra attributes. That was what made him dangerous.

A moment later, the Third's voice came from within the dust.

"Where leaves dance, the flames burn without end."

"Sakumo, if this is how it must be, don't blame me. After killing you, I will resign to take responsibility, and I will give your Hatake Clan an explanation."

With that-

"Earth Release: Earth Flow River!"

The sound of hand seals rang out. The rooftop beneath White Fang suddenly became a swamp, sweeping him away into the distance.

This ninjutsu did no damage-or rather, it did no damage to White Fang-but he could not escape immediately.

Then-

"Earth Release: Tile Shuriken!"

The Third infused the tiles on a distant rooftop with chakra, sending them hurtling toward him like shuriken.

White Fang's feet were trapped, but his sword arm was not.

He intercepted the tiles and escaped the swamp just as he finished.

But the Third's next wave of attacks had already arrived.

"Fire Style: Great Fireball Technique!"

"Fire Style: Great Fire Dragon Technique!"

"Fire Style: Great Flame Technique!"

The Third spat out three ninjutsu in rapid succession.

First came the Great Fireball. Chakra erupted from his mouth as a massive fireball, cutting off every route White Fang could take.

White Fang knew its power. If it touched him, the resulting explosion would injure him even with his physical toughness.

He evaded the Great Fireball, while the Great Fire Dragon appeared without attacking, instead circling above the Third's head.

Before the Great Fireball had fully dissipated, however, the Third's Great Flame Technique arrived.

Watching the enormous wall of fire sweep toward him, White Fang infused his ninja blade with chakra while dodging the Great Fireball. Then, rather than retreat, he shot straight toward the wall of flames.

There were still no flashy effects. A white gleam flashed through the flames, and the Sarutobi Clan's secret ninjutsu, the Great Flame Technique, was cleaved apart.

The Third's four ninjutsu had failed to injure White Fang, but he did not relax.

Those four techniques were powerful enough that even an ordinary elite jonin might fall to their combined assault, but he knew this could not be the full extent of the Third's strength.

Looking at the Third, who still had not emerged from the dust, White Fang said gravely, "Did you use three fire techniques together to conserve chakra?"

"Fire Style: Fire Dragon Bullet Technique!"

His answer was the fourth fire technique the Third had spent so long preparing.

Sensing the scorching heat within the flames, White Fang began dodging rapidly. Even before they reached him, he could already feel his skin burning.

Nearby, the Third continued forming hand seals, though his expression had also grown grave.

All those attacks had failed to inflict even the slightest injury on his opponent.

"Sakumo, the probing is over. Now let me see just how powerful Konoha's White Fang really is."

As he spoke, the Third completed his final seal and shouted, "Fire Style: Fire Dragon Flame Bullet!"

In an instant, three enormous fire dragons appeared out of thin air in front of White Fang and to his left and right, then flew toward him.

The three dragons attacked with the flames that formed their bodies, but...

The fire dragons were enormous and imposing, yet White Fang merely closed his eyes. When he opened them again, three arcs of sword qi crackling with lightning cleaved apart the massive dragons he could not evade.

White Fang himself shot toward the Third like a streak of lightning.

"Earth Release: Earth Flow Wall Technique!"

The Third's technique did not rise from the ground. Instead, he spat it from his mouth, and it stood between them.

Clearly, he had been preparing another technique. Only when he saw White Fang charging in had he been forced to convert the chakra gathered inside him into earth.

The slash White Fang had intended for the Third struck the Earth Flow Wall blocking his path.

He knew the Third was preparing some kind of ninjutsu and wanted to interrupt him, but he was too late.

As he cleaved through the earth technique, the Third finished his hand seals.

"Earth Release: Earth Dragon Bullet Technique!"

"Water Style: Water Dragon Bullet Technique!"

"Lightning Release: Lightning Dragon Bullet Technique!"

"Wind Release: Wind Dragon Whirlwind..."

Together with the fire dragon above his head-

Ninjutsu of all five attributes swirled around the Third, yet strangely, none attacked.

Until-

"Compound Ninjutsu: Earth Dragon Flame Flow!"

"Compound Ninjutsu: Lightning Water Dragon Bullet!"

In an instant-

The Earth Dragon Bullet merged with the fire dragon. The earthen dragon's head turned fiery red, and it spat lava-like fireballs from its mouth.

The other dragon did the same, the water dragon beginning to spit attacks charged with lightning.

As their jaws opened and closed, both dragons unleashed a barrage of attacks.

At the same time, two of the Third's shadow clones appeared in the distance.

Like the original, they rapidly formed hand seals.

All three shouted in unison, "Sealing Jutsu: Three-Way Seal!"