The Unkillable Spider Sea

"Everyone be careful—that's Fūma Masaki!"

Someone shouted from a distance, the intent being to reveal the man's true identity.

Clearly, this was a renowned powerhouse, and even Sosuke had heard his name before.

"Worth at least two thousand points." The Youth's eyes gradually brightened.

Gripping the Short Sword tightly, Sosuke assumed a stance, his Sharingan locked onto the man across from him.

His eagerness to engage was unmistakably clear.

"Interesting." Fūma Masaki smirked. He hadn't expected some brat to dare provoke him.

The Uchiha really were all a bunch of lunatics.

Unstrapping the massive shuriken from his back, the man held it in his hands as a weapon. With each step forward, the terrifying aura rippling from him grew sharper.

The most direct sensation was like a high-powered fan blasting straight at him; maintaining his stance alone already showed remarkable fortitude.

The few clansmen nearby looked tense, their hands gripping their blades trembling slightly. Seeing this, Sosuke took a deep breath, and the Cursed Seal behind his neck spread across his body once more.

Silently stepping forward, he used his small frame to block the enemy's wave-like, terrifying aura entirely.

"You go support the other clansmen. Leave him to me." Sosuke spoke in a low voice, his tone brooking no argument.

It wasn't that he wanted to hog the glory; in truth, he wished someone would step up and share the burden.

Unfortunately, the two beside him were useless—staying here would only get in the way.

"A wise judgment." Fūma Masaki offered a compliment, though the expression on his face looked more like mockery.

To this, Sosuke showed no concern whatsoever. He wasn't in the habit of wasting words on a dead man.

Chidori surged into the Short Sword, purple flames swirling around him. At this moment, Sosuke appeared eerily sinister.

"What the hell is this brat?!" Fūma Masaki's brow twitched, his demeanor no longer as relaxed and carefree as before.

He realized he might have underestimated his opponent.

Clang!

Raising the oversized shuriken on instinct, the next second, the Short Sword crackling with electricity was already upon him.

Though the attack was blocked, the current clinging to it traveled through the metal.

Fūma Masaki's expression darkened as a pale blue torrent suddenly erupted from his palm.

Water Shuriken!

Wrapped in the stream, the shuriken, originally half a meter long, instantly transformed into a massive weapon over two meters in diameter.

Unable to withstand the force, Sosuke moved to retreat, but in the blink of an eye, the enemy's Water Shuriken was already upon him.

The Short Sword shattered without a doubt, and his body was cleanly severed in two by the cutting current.

Fortunately, that was just a Shadow Clone.

The Youth always remembered one principle: against an enemy with unknown abilities, using Shadow Clones to probe was the best approach.

Otherwise, even if his real body had been there, he couldn't have resisted that giant Water Shuriken.

Watching the shuriken return to the enemy's control, Sosuke formed hand seals, and with a poof, split into four Shadow Clones.

The enemy could only handle one direction at a time, leaving the other clones to close in and attack.

The man, unfamiliar with the technique, chose to hurl the shuriken at the first Shadow Clone he encountered.

By the time the clone vanished into white smoke, Fūma Masaki belatedly realized the brat had used a special kind of clone.

With his eyesight, he couldn't even tell which one was the real body.

The cost of misjudgment was two wounds bursting open on the man's body, the intense electric shock making his breathing ragged.

"Damn it." Forcing back the surrounding enemies, Fūma Masaki's face darkened. He hadn't expected to nearly lose to a brat.

Wiping a hand over the wound on his abdomen, he then formed hand seals and slammed his palm heavily on the ground.

Ninjutsu: Summoning Technique!

When the smoke cleared, a White Giant Spider appeared beneath the man's feet.

Looking at the wary Youth, Fūma Masaki's face no longer held its earlier composure; he just wanted to finish this nuisance quickly.

"To push me this far, brat, you should be proud."

With that, the White Giant Spider opened its grotesque mouth, spewing out white webs in all directions.

Soon, the area became a sea of webs; one misstep could mean falling into a trap and becoming the spider's meal.

Sensing the danger, Sosuke took a step back, his hands swiftly crossing to form seals.

Fire Style: Phoenix Sage Fire Technique!

Blazing flames erupted, countless fireballs scattering like heavenly blossoms to different spots. His intent was simple—to use fire to ignite all the surrounding webs.

"Too naive." The man showed no concern. If simple fire could clear them, the giant spider wouldn't be his trump card.

As it turned out, the fire did have some effect. Under the Sharingan's gaze, he could clearly see a few webs beginning to melt slightly.

But with Sosuke's current level of Fire Release, he was far from being able to burn them all to cinders.

"Out of tricks, are you?" Fūma Masaki slowly formed hand seals, and the White Giant Spider beneath him began to tremble violently.

After all this back and forth, it was time to put an end to this battle.

"Secret Technique: Spider Nest Bloom!"

As the giant spider lifted its abdomen, countless tiny white spiders swarmed outward.

Each one trailed a silk thread from its rear, and they crisscrossed together, quickly weaving an impenetrable white web.

One of Sosuke's Shadow Clones tried to charge out, but its arm got caught in the webbing. Before it could break free, the flood of spiders engulfed it entirely.

Another Shadow Clone was cleverer, successfully activating Chidori Stream to counter the enemy.

The wildly crackling Chidori instantly obliterated a hundred or so of the onrushing spiders, but as the jutsu faded, even more spiders swarmed in and claimed its life in moments.

It was clear that Chidori Stream couldn't hold back the man's spider tide.

Staring at the writhing white horror around him, Sosuke's mood remained remarkably calm.

He even had the presence of mind to think that if he possessed Amaterasu, these spiders probably wouldn't even be enough to fill his teeth.

"No choice." Meeting the man's sneering face head-on, the Black Markings on Sosuke's body began to writhe again.

Though the strain on his body was high, it was still better than being devoured alive by a swarm of spiders.

"Sosuke!"

In the distance, his clansmen roared his name, but they too couldn't break through the net the man had cast.

"Hahaha, don't worry, you're next." Fūma Masaki was arrogantly insufferable.

Under his excited gaze, the Youth's figure was finally swallowed by the sea of spiders.