Trap, and Another Trap! Minato Squad Arrives!

This faint yellow, radiating neural network, like a membrane peeled from pork fat, crawled across the Rock Ninja's back like the root hairs of grass and trees.

The wound on the Rock Ninja's back stopped bleeding and began to scab over. Uchiha Kin withdrew his hand.

"What are you doing?" Uzumaki Mikayo asked.

"Heh... keeping him from dying so easily, of course." Uchiha Kin spoke as lightly as if this Rock Ninja hadn't been blown up by his own trap. "I told you, if you agree to be my vessel, I'll let him live."

He looked up and smiled at Uzumaki Mikayo. That smile carried an indescribable warmth, making her heart skip a beat.

Uchiha Kin said, "Of course, just let him live. I won't give him any extra treatment. I think you understand what I mean." He stood up, leaped, and landed on a high tree branch. "I'm leaving. Keep struggling to live, vessel..."

"You absolutely cannot die before me. Otherwise, all my effort will have been wasted." With that, Uchiha Kin flickered and vanished.

The forest was like a vast hunting ground. A group of Rock Ninja, believing themselves the hunters, searched but could find no trace of Uchiha Kin.

Night had fallen. A buzzing sound approached. Uchiha Kin reached out and caught a bee.

"Idiot, at this hour, bees should be back in their hives sleeping. Who goes out collecting nectar at night?" A thin strand of nerve burrowed into the bee's body, constructing a more complex system outside its simple nervous system.

Then he released the bee. At night, "shadows" could also be used with ease.

The bee, trailing a thin thread of shadow, merged with the darkness and flew back to the Kamizuru Bug User's hand.

"Target found. Let's move!"

The group moved through the forest. The bee led them to a tree and suddenly stopped. The Rock Ninja quickly cast their jutsu, raising rock walls from the ground to encircle the tree. Without even looking, they threw in Explosive Tags.

Boom. Boom. The explosions rang out, but Uchiha Kin was nowhere to be seen.

Suddenly, ten kunai locked onto one man, attacking the Rock Ninja from behind from different angles, along different trajectories, at different speeds, working in concert.

Someone reacted, shouting "Watch out!" Kunai slashed down, severing a cluster of nerves. Another instantly threw shuriken, colliding with the kunai and deflecting their paths slightly.

But only slightly. The nerves twitched, pulled, and the kunai looped in a full circle, stabbing back in.

Kunai were already much heavier than shuriken. With that spin, the stabbing force was even greater. One pierced through the target's back, through muscle, into a lung. The nerves yanked, staggering the man.

Thud—a kunai pierced a kidney. Thud—a kunai stabbed a heart. Thud—a kunai drove through a skull.

The remaining kunai were intercepted, but it was too late.

As the saying goes, "two fists can't beat four hands." When Uchiha Kin used kunai in such an unreasonable way, they had no good way to deal with it—especially with an Uchiha ambushing from the shadows, giving them no time to prepare jutsu.

Kunai, shuriken, ninja swords, senbon—the attack power of these tools had an upper limit... Unfortunately, these Rock Ninja couldn't surpass that limit.

A sharp chirp chirp suddenly cut through the silent night. The Rock Ninja's expressions changed drastically. "Not good," they thought.

But they couldn't even cry out. A dazzling, azure-blue lightning bolt pierced the forest's darkness. The Kamizuru Bug User, first in line, had his chest brutally pierced by a hand, leaving a hole the size of a soccer ball.

His chest was suddenly hollow. The capital he had once prided himself on was now gone, smoke and ashes. Where the lightning had grazed, the flesh was charred black.

The burnt smell of roasted meat spread.

Suddenly, a ball of flame swelled, filling their vision, driving back the darkness. A massive fireball rolled toward the Rock Ninja.

Uchiha Kin's figure, hidden in the darkness, was illuminated by the firelight. His hands extended nerves, thick as cables, splitting into ten strands, looking grotesque and ferocious. The firelight fell on his profile, revealing a face of utter seriousness.

"You useless bastard who can't even open his eyes, I'm here to save you!" From where the fireball originated, Obito stood there, panting twice, adjusting his goggles, trying to strike a cool pose.

Uchiha Kin thought, Finally here? Right. This scene was exactly what he had deliberately created.

If he didn't return for a long time, the camp would send someone to search. The explosions he had deliberately set off here would inevitably draw attention. With "witnesses" to his actions, many things could be explained.

The mass of nerves flowed back into Uchiha Kin's body. The kunai were re-sheathed into his tool pouch.

Nohara Rin hurried over and asked, "Kin-senpai, are you okay?"

"I'm fine... Even though I'm a Medical Ninja, they underestimated me too much." Uchiha Kin said. Nohara Rin saw his wound and moved to treat him, but Uchiha Kin didn't want to waste his cells' potential. "Just bandage it. Don't bother with anything else."

The treatment method of Medical Ninjutsu, the Mystical Palm Technique, works by increasing the rate of cell metabolism, thus accelerating wound healing.

A person's cells have a limited number of times they can metabolize. You could say, each use is one less.

On the other side, the lightning turned, drawing straight lines across the night sky, gradually connecting into three sharp angles. This meant three more had died at Kakashi's hands. Uchiha Kin didn't hold back his praise: "Kakashi's jutsu is truly impressive."

Chidori, Kakashi's original Lightning Release jutsu, had many flaws—for example, its attack was a straight line, and the brilliant light exposed the user.

But its advantages were just as obvious—especially in this kind of night. The sudden burst of lightning was enough to blind the enemy. That moment of blindness was enough for him to charge in a straight line and finish the kill.

You could say it was the ultimate in violent aesthetics!

Once he obtained the Sharingan...

This violent aesthetic would eventually be perfected by him... The flaw of being easily dodged would be almost completely compensated for by the eye.

Nohara Rin said, "Kakashi is really amazing." A look of shared pride and admiration appeared on her face.

Minato Namikaze appeared abruptly. Though it wasn't the first time Uchiha Kin had seen the Flying Thunder God, he was still amazed.

This jutsu was far too bizarre!