Early Fern Dance

"Hey, little bitch, don't run."

A brazen voice came from behind Pakura, but she had no mind to pay it any attention.

That should be far enough. This place will do. She silently estimated the distance she had lured Kaguya Daiki away from the battlefield.

Pakura spun around in an instant, hovering in midair as chakra surged rapidly through her body and her hands flashed through seals.

"Scorch Release: Scorch Dragon Technique."

Scorching heat poured from Pakura's mouth, warping and boiling the air. In an instant, the trees of the dense forest began to wither and curl.

A dragon-shaped mass of blazing energy crashed toward Kaguya Daiki, who was rapidly closing in on Pakura, carrying terrifying heat and impact force.

Kaguya Daiki was too close to dodge, but as an Elite Jonin of the Kaguya Clan, his body reacted instinctively. He thrust both arms forward in a cross to block the attack while unconsciously activating his Kekkei Genkai, the Shikotsumyaku.

"Bone Shield."

Layer after layer of white bone instantly grew from Kaguya Daiki's body, all extending before his arms.

Bone spurs twisted together like white giant pythons, forming a thick Bone Shield that drove itself into the earth in an attempt to better withstand the incoming ninjutsu.

Boom!

Boom!

Several thunderous blasts rang out, and the massive energy impact forced Kaguya Daiki back again and again, plowing two deep trenches through the ground.

He felt the intense heat radiating from his arms, the pain racing to his brain at the very limit of neural transmission speed and instantly consuming every thought, as if it were telling his brain exactly how horrifying the pain in his arms was.

Yet Kaguya Daiki, whose mind was consumed by pain, did not retreat in the slightest. Instead, it made him even crazier.

The battle lust brought on by the Shikotsumyaku sent adrenaline surging through his body, fighting against the pain flooding into his brain.

"Haha! That's it! Put some more force into it, little bitch!" His wild, arrogant voice came from the thick White Smoke stirred up by the Scorch Dragon Technique.

Pakura's face darkened. She was astonished that Kaguya Daiki had forcibly withstood her ninjutsu, and she was deeply wary of his strength.

"As expected of the Kaguya Clan."

"Scorch Release: Great Fireball Annihilation."

Pakura could not see through the smoke-shrouded area. That was precisely why she used Great Fireball Annihilation, unleashing high-intensity firepower coverage.

One red fireball after another trailed long tails of flame as they howled toward Kaguya Daiki's position.

Explosions rang out one after another.

The high-temperature Air Currents produced by the exploding fireballs rapidly evaporated the surrounding moisture and quickly scattered the nearby smoke and dust.

"Where is he?"

She stared at the enormous trench, nearly twenty meters long, left behind by the Scorch Dragon Technique, then at the roughly one-meter craters created by the repeated bombardment of Great Fireball Annihilation. Yet aside from some shattered white bones, there was no sign of Kaguya Daiki.

Her eyes narrowed as she slowly surveyed her surroundings, spreading her senses to their fullest and remaining alert for Kaguya Daiki's attack at any moment.

Suddenly, the instincts honed through years of life-and-death battles made Pakura instinctively draw the Shuriken at her waist to block an attack from her side.

Clang!

Though it was bone striking metal, it rang out like metal colliding with metal.

Pakura was a female ninja. In terms of strength, how could she compare with an Elite Jonin of the Kaguya Clan, who specialized in close combat?

Thus, a simple sneak attack sent her flying from the sheer force behind it.

Seeing that his attack had worked, Kaguya Daiki revealed a ferocious smile tinged with madness.

"Bone Spear."

A bone spike gleaming with cold light instantly grew from Kaguya Daiki's palm. Moving faster than the air, it sliced through the air with a piercing shriek and struck Pakura in midair.

The tremendous force tore Pakura's body in half at the waist.

Kaguya Daiki was laughing madly, welcoming yet another victory, when he suddenly realized something.

"Where's the blood?"

"Damn it, it's a trap."

Kaguya Daiki wanted to leave the spot and withdraw from the scene first, but he was already too late.

"Scorch Release: Scorch Dragon Technique."

The dragon-shaped mass of blazing energy charged at Kaguya Daiki once more with terrifying heat and impact force.

This time, however, it came from behind him.

Feeling the searing heat at his back, Kaguya Daiki knew it was already too late to either dodge or defend.

He knew full well that if this attack hit him, the outcome was obvious.

Kaguya Daiki seemed to go all out as he shouted, "Early Fern Dance!"

Rumble, rumble, rumble...

As the earth trembled, Kaguya Daiki unleashed the Shikotsumyaku's strongest secret technique without holding anything back. In an instant, thick Bone Spears erupted from the ground one after another!

At the same time, a Bone Spear pierced directly through Kaguya Daiki's body, then enveloped him within it.

The instant his body merged into the Bone Spear, Kaguya Daiki immediately activated the Shikotsumyaku's power and shifted his position within it.

Rumble, rumble, rumble...

The Scorch Dragon Technique continuously shattered the Bone Spears before Pakura, melting them with its searing heat. No—within mere seconds, the Bone Spears growing from the ground kept becoming larger and thicker.

They had already formed a forest of bone, and its range was still spreading.

"This is bad."

The bone forest spread incredibly quickly. Watching it continue to expand, Pakura was greatly alarmed.

She immediately leaped backward.

But the bone forest spread too fast. The moment she had jumped into the air, sharp Bone Spears gleaming with cold light had already sprouted from the solid ground beneath her feet.

The tips of the Bone Spears pointed toward the sky. If Pakura fell like this, she would likely be impaled straight through.

She would die on the spot.

Just as Pakura was horrified and at a complete loss against Early Fern Dance, the Shikotsumyaku's strongest secret technique—

"Magnet Release: Sand Cushion."

In an instant, a cloud of golden sand appeared beneath Pakura's feet, firmly lifting her into the sky and away from the still-expanding bone forest.

"Whew, that was close."

Pakura wiped the cold sweat from her forehead. At that moment, she had truly sensed the breath of death. Thankfully, Rasa had helped her; otherwise, she would have died here today.

"Rasa, I, Pakura, owe you my life." Pakura in the sky immediately thanked Rasa without hesitation.

Rasa merely nodded from afar without saying anything, his expression grave as he looked over the bone forest covering the ground.

Kaguya Daiki, whose head emerged from within the bone forest, saw Pakura flying in the air and, in particular, heard the name she had shouted.

"Rasa? Magnet Release Rasa?"

His eyes narrowed. The intense battle and massive expenditure had gradually caused the battle instincts in his body to recede, and the madness in his eyes slowly faded as reason regained the upper hand.

"Looks like I need to withdraw. Pakura alone is manageable, but if Rasa is added to the mix..."

With reason once again in control, Kaguya Daiki clearly understood his own strength and made the wise choice.

"Retreat."

Without further hesitation, his body sank back into the bone forest. Using the bone forest created by Early Fern Dance, he quickly moved through it.

He followed the original route back and found Ran Shotaro, who was still slaughtering enemies.

"Ran Shotaro, retreat. Sunagakure has reinforcements." Without even caring about the ninjas from his own village, he sped away into the distance alone.

Ran Shotaro, who was in the middle of cutting a Sunagakure ninja in half, could not help but freeze upon hearing Kaguya Daiki's words.

"Since when did he become rational again?"

Watching Kaguya Daiki disappear into the distance, Ran Shotaro no longer cared who the reinforcements Kaguya Daiki mentioned were or how many there were. He began retreating as well.

"Even that Kaguya Clan lunatic is running. How could a normal person like me hesitate?"

Then, like Kaguya Daiki, he retreated at high speed. However, before leaving, Ran Shotaro still called out to the ninjas from his village.

"Everyone, retreat!"

In an instant, the Kirigakure ninjas on the battlefield lost all desire to continue fighting and vanished from where they stood.

Watching the Kirigakure ninjas disappear one after another and withdraw from the battlefield, the Sunagakure ninjas standing in place all heaved a sigh of relief.

No one suggested pursuing the Kirigakure ninjas, because if not for their sudden retreat, every one of them would have been killed by the Kirigakure ninjas in mere moments.