Just as Tōka and the taijutsu jonin fell into a standoff, a white figure flashed over and landed beside Tōka.
"White Fang? Why are you..." Here?!
Before the taijutsu jonin could finish speaking, a terrifying thought suddenly welled up in his heart.
Could it be...
He turned around in shock and saw figures sprawled in every direction a hundred meters away...
Six people!!
Two elite squads, two jonin, and six chunin!
In the span of a single minute, he was the only one left!
"Gulp..." The taijutsu jonin swallowed hard, staring fearfully at the silver-haired figure.
Sakumo Hatake did not even spare the man a glance. He looked Tōka over and smiled. "Fox, there are only two minutes left!~"
Tōka's mouth twitched. He had just used those words to needle the taijutsu jonin, yet Sakumo Hatake had turned around and teased him with them so quickly.
Take down his opponent in two minutes? Tōka was not all that confident.
Wouldn't it be better to let the killing god handle it? The battle would be over in minutes.
But when Tōka turned to look, he saw Sakumo Hatake fold his arms and retreat to the side, wearing an expression that clearly said he absolutely would not intervene.
He knew it. Sakumo Hatake really would not step in.
Unless he died, or was about to die.
"If you win, I'll let you leave," Sakumo Hatake suddenly said, clearly addressing the Sunagakure Shinobi.
"Really?" The taijutsu jonin's heart, which had only just settled down, was lifted again by Sakumo Hatake's words.
"As long as you win..." Sakumo Hatake nodded firmly.
The taijutsu jonin's will to survive was instantly ignited. He had originally resolved to die, intending to drag this brat down with him before his death.
At that moment, the taijutsu jonin changed his mind.
Who would choose death if they could live?
"Brat, for the sake of letting me live..." The taijutsu jonin focused all his attention on Tōka, his gaze icy as he spoke.
"Please die!"
Boom!! A terrifying surge of chakra erupted.
As the captain of the squad sent to search for Konoha's White Fang, the taijutsu jonin naturally had some real skill.
That violent chakra alone was beyond anything Tōka could compare with.
"I wonder how many more surprises you can give me." Sakumo Hatake grinned from a hundred paces away.
A hundred paces was merely an instant to someone as strong as Sakumo Hatake.
Feeling the taijutsu jonin's aura soar, Tōka cursed under his breath. His eyes beneath the fox mask turned solemn.
The will to survive could draw out a person's potential without limit.
That guy did that on purpose, didn't he? Tōka grumbled inwardly, but battle was unavoidable.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
The taijutsu jonin drove chakra through his body, stimulating its vitality as he burst forth at full speed and streaked across the desert.
He drifted about like a ghostly shadow. He looked slow, but was actually fast to the extreme!
"He's too fast. My eyes can't keep up at all!" Tōka's face darkened as he frantically circulated chakra.
Since he could not track him, he would defend with everything he had!
Crack, crack, crack!!
Bones grew wildly, as if they had no regard for his life.
Pfft, pfft, pfft!!
In an instant, gray bones burst through the surface of Tōka's body one after another.
He resembled a humanoid hedgehog. Other than his head, every part of him was covered in gray bone spikes.
Screech!!
The charging taijutsu jonin braked sharply with both hands and feet. He had personally witnessed the power of those bones.
He absolutely could not be injured by them. Not even a scraped patch of skin!
The taijutsu jonin frowned and leaped backward several times in succession, opening the distance.
"Brat, are you only capable of hiding in your shell like a turtle?" he asked darkly, trying to provoke him.
Weren't children all the same? They could not stand hearing others speak badly of them.
However, Tōka did not fall for it at all.
A turtle? So what if he was a turtle?
Besides, at most he counted as a hedgehog!
"Since you're not attacking, then it's my turn!" Tōka raised an arm and extended a finger.
"All-Killing Ash Bones: Bone Bullet Barrage!"
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!!
Tōka's finger was like a Gatling gun, his finger bones serving as bullets as they shot out in a straight line.
Relying on his immense speed, the taijutsu jonin dodged them with several rapid flashes.
"An attack this slow thinks it can hit me?" The taijutsu jonin could not help sneering as he evaded.
"Heh, let's see how many minutes your chakra-boosted speed can last!" Tōka remained unmoved and instead grinned.
The taijutsu jonin's speed was no weaker than Gai's with the Fifth Gate open. Such a powerful secret technique had already exceeded the body's limits.
Its burden had to be immense. Tōka did not believe the man could maintain it for long.
Otherwise, wouldn't using this technique to flee be better?
Sure enough!
As Tōka's words fell, the taijutsu jonin's expression changed again and again.
"You actually saw through it!"
"Any secret technique that exceeds one's limits comes with considerable side effects."
"You really don't seem like a six- or seven-year-old brat."
"Hehe, I'll take that as a compliment."
The two were not merely exchanging blows with their bodies; their verbal battle was equally fierce.
The taijutsu jonin did not dare approach Tōka, while Tōka could not keep up with the other man's speed at all.
Both were gathering chakra within their bodies, searching for an opportunity to kill with a single strike.
Though the battle appeared evenly matched, with Tōka even at a disadvantage, the reality was the opposite.
Tōka did not need to expend massive amounts of chakra to activate his body. Speed comparable to the Fifth Gate of the Eight Inner Gates had to consume an astonishing amount.
Even a jonin who specialized in taijutsu could not sustain it for long.
Suddenly!
Feeling his body nearing its limit, the taijutsu jonin stomped the ground, sending sheets of yellow sand rolling and spraying in all directions.
His body came to a stop, and Tōka gave him no opportunity, immediately firing ten bone bullets in succession.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!!
The taijutsu jonin turned a deaf ear to the sharp whistles slicing through the air, as though he had heard nothing. A thin azure aura emerged around his body.
He was crazily gathering chakra, drawing out every last bit within his body.
Tide-like chakra surged through the pathways of his body before finally converging at a single point.
"Wind Style: Raging Fire Air Blade!"
The taijutsu jonin formed one hand into a palm. Above it, the nature transformation of Wind Release hummed.
He used his hand as the blade and his body as the sword.
Bang!
He shattered the sand beneath his foot and shot forward like a cannonball, his body transformed into a wind blade.
He moved so fast that the naked eye could not follow.
Friction between the taijutsu jonin's body and the air produced scarlet flames.
"No wonder. Wind Style: Raging Fire Air Blade?"
His speed was so great that the violent friction against the atmosphere had caused his temperature to rise sharply, igniting his skin.
A technique that harmed its user nearly as much as its enemy!
Tōka's voice seemed both far and near, as if it filled the entire space, yet also as if it did not exist at all.
Pfft!!
The hand blade pierced through flesh, and blood ran down the scarlet arm.
The taijutsu jonin paid no heed to the burns on his skin. Delight flooded his eyes, and he even showed the joy of having survived a disaster.
He believed that someone as strong as Konoha's White Fang would certainly keep his word.
"I did it!" The taijutsu jonin released his technique, and waves of dizziness swept over him.
With a thud, his legs gave out and he dropped to his knees.
Before he could celebrate, a familiar sensation suddenly came from behind him.
The aura of death. A chilling aura.
The aura that only appeared whenever that brat used his secret technique!
The taijutsu jonin turned around in horror, only to see Tōka pointing a finger at his eyeball. Beneath the fox mask, those black eyes were deep and captivating.
"All-Killing Ash Bones: Bone Bullet!"
Pfft!
The breath of life decayed alongside the bone. Until his death, the taijutsu jonin could not understand why he had been the one to lose...
Tōka wearily released the bone-spike state covering his body and muttered softly, "He was only a jonin, yet he nearly exhausted me to death!"
With a whoosh, Sakumo Hatake appeared beside Tōka in a flash.
He reached out and patted Tōka's shoulder, saying half-jokingly, "If you say that, shouldn't everyone else just go kill themselves?"
A seven-year-old brat had defeated a jonin in a one-on-one fight!
No one would believe such a feat if they heard it.
Although the main reasons were Tōka's ability, its fatal-on-contact nature, and its restraining effect against taijutsu ninja.
There was no doubt that Tōka was a genius.
Sakumo Hatake shook his head. When he had been seven, he had probably still been working hard at sword practice.
Tōka rolled his eyes, pursed his lips, and said nothing.
Sakumo Hatake spoke again, generously offering praise. "Your genjutsu was used well."
That was right. The moment Tōka first attacked with the bone bullets was when his genjutsu had activated.
He knew that when he could not keep up with the taijutsu jonin's speed at all, there were only two ways to win.
Either defend and wait until the taijutsu jonin ran out of chakra and slowed down.
But Tōka was not someone who liked passively taking hits.
That left only one choice: genjutsu!
The taijutsu ninja's final move, the only high-damage ninjutsu he knew, had never struck Tōka.
Tōka being hit, bleeding, and dying had all been an illusion witnessed by the taijutsu jonin.
After the battle ended, Sakumo Hatake personally taught Tōka how to clean up a battlefield.
More accurately, how to dispose of corpses and gather useful intelligence and combat supplies.
Normally, ninja set touch-triggered traps in places where they stored items, such as their ninja tool pouches and pockets.
These were traps set to prevent enemies from stealing important things.
"Genin generally don't set traps because there's nothing important in their ninja tool pouches." Sakumo Hatake led Tōka to another battlefield.
Six bodies lay sprawled in every direction, each killed with a single slash!
There were not even many signs of battle on the battlefield, enough to show just how terrifying Sakumo Hatake was.
Tōka felt a chill run down his spine. If Sakumo Hatake had launched a sneak attack against him, he would have been killed instantly.
Because Tōka would have had no chance to react.
At that moment, Sakumo Hatake's voice sounded beside his ear, shutting down Tōka's wildly running imagination.
"As for traps set by chunin, most are Explosive Tags and poison."
As Sakumo Hatake finished speaking, he flicked his White Fang tanto and removed a ninja tool pouch from a chunin's corpse.
Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle...
A pungent smell of scorching immediately wafted out.
"It's an Explosive Tag!" Tōka's expression changed as he prepared to dodge away.
But Sakumo Hatake moved even faster. With a turn of his hand, he removed the activated Explosive Tag, wrapped it around a Kunai, and threw it away.
Bang!
A humming explosion rang out from a nearby sand dune.
Yellow sand fell like rain, pattering down all around them.
Tōka took a deep breath in lingering fear. Not being killed by an enemy but dying because a teammate set off a trap would be the most frustrating thing imaginable.
"See that? What just happened was a negative example!" Sakumo Hatake said without blushing or skipping a beat, showing no guilt whatsoever over his own recklessness.
Tōka, "..."
"If your hands are fast enough, you can throw it out like I just did." Sakumo Hatake looked down at the fox mask, a hint of pride in his voice.
Tōka's mouth twitched. Why did that sound so strange?
After taking out and storing the useful items from the ninja tool pouch, Sakumo Hatake led Tōka to the side of the ninjutsu jonin.
"Jonin set far more types of traps. Unless necessary, do not casually touch a jonin's ninja tool pouch." Sakumo Hatake's voice was unusually serious.
Even he would not casually tamper with a jonin's ninja tool pouch. Who knew whether the other man had set up some terrifying Sealing Technique.
However, today was Tōka's first lesson.
Sakumo Hatake could not tarnish his own reputation either, so he flipped his hand and took out a Kunai.
With a whoosh, the kunai tore through the air.
It shot the ninja tool pouch at the ninjutsu jōnin's waist ten paces away onto the sand.
There was no smell of burning, nor was there any sizzling sound.
Seeing this, Sakumo Hatake threw another shuriken, knocking open the ninja tool pouch.
There was still no reaction...
"Wait a minute and see." Sakumo Hatake erred on the side of caution, and Tōka silently nodded.
The two stared wide-eyed at the opened ninja tool pouch in the distance.
A minute later...
Sakumo Hatake held the ninja tool pouch in one hand, occasionally pulling something out with the other.
He did not forget to solemnly tell Tōka, "See? Sometimes even a jōnin's ninja tool pouch won't have traps set in it."
Tōka, "..."
The two quickly cleaned up the battlefield. Tōka's spiritual power was extremely strong; even from a dead person's brain, he could steal intelligence.
After learning that eight elite shinobi were still hunting their group, the two immediately headed deeper into the Land of Wind.
Because when those two squads discovered them, they had already sent out the intelligence.
At most, they would encounter a Sunagakure Shinobi squad within ten minutes.
The battle had taken nearly four minutes, though it had exceeded the three minutes Konoha's White Fang had set for Tōka.
Still, it had been quite good.
Before long, several black shadows rushed over from the west.
The leader was none other than Sunagakure's highly respected elder, a Kage-level master—the puppet master Chiyo.
Her younger brother, Ebizo, followed behind her.
Both held real power in Sunagakure and possessed immense prestige. Not only would successive Kazekage show them some respect, even the daimyo of the Land of Wind would give them some face.
"Looks like this is the place." Ebizo came to the side of a Sunagakure Shinobi and examined the wound.
He then nodded to Chiyo. It had indeed been caused by White Fang's short blade.
And it had been a one-hit kill!
"Were you too late? Damn Konoha's White Fang!" Chiyo gritted her teeth, her eyes completely consumed by rage.
"No, why are there only six corpses here?" Ebizo suddenly asked.
"Two elite squads—shouldn't there be eight people?" Chiyo came back to her senses and said in surprise.
"Search the surrounding area and see if you can find any traces." Ebizo said grimly.
"Yes!"
The Sunagakure Shinobi quickly scattered... (To be continued)
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