The key was this: Pakura was still a traditional ninja!
And traditional ninjas had to make Hand Seals!
Though power levels had spiraled terrifyingly out of control by the later years of the Hokage era, with those monsters clapping their hands and summoning whatever they wanted, at least at this point in time, just as the Third Great Ninja War had broken out, things hadn't gone that far off the rails.
Pakura's Scorch Release was a Kekkei Genkai, but she still needed to make Hand Seals to summon those special floating fireballs.
After that, she could control them and seek out targets with her mind. That was why she could wield a Kunai in each hand during battle.
But now, in her fury, Pakura hadn't held back her Scorch Release. She had just used up all the fireballs she'd summoned earlier.
Shiba Seika's repeated retreats had inevitably made her underestimate him, and, in her anger and eagerness to kill the enemy before her, she had boldly chosen not to retreat even during this crucial gap in her Scorch Release!
She merely hid her Kunai for a moment by placing her hands behind her back, thinking that would fool the little Rain ninja in front of her.
Little did she know that Shiba Seika had been keeping one hundred and twenty percent of his attention fixed on her the entire time!
With such absolute focus and close observation, how could Shiba Seika possibly miss such a crucial opening?
She was still standing her ground during a gap in her techniques?
Shiba Seika pushed off the ground, instantly turning his retreat into a charge. In an instant, his entire bearing changed completely!
Like a blade drawn from its sheath, his fangs bared!
Pakura had only just begun making the first Hand Seal behind her back when Shiba Seika's blade cut through the air and slashed toward her face!
Time seemed to slow. Pakura's eyes widened in shock!
She hurriedly abandoned her Hand Seals, hooked the Kunai back up with her fingers, gripped it, raised it, and blocked the short blade hurtling toward her like lightning!
She thought she'd defused the danger, but Shiba Seika twisted his wrist, angling the blade against her Kunai and sliding it toward her neck!
Pakura hastily brought up her other hand as well, only just managing to knock Shiba Seika's blade aside at the last possible moment.
But it wasn't over!
The blade cut through the air, pulling back a little before swiftly slashing in again. One strike after another, it clashed against Pakura's Kunai, sending sparks flying.
The terrifying pressure left Pakura no opportunity to make Hand Seals. She could only struggle to block with her Kunai as she retreated step by step.
Six or seven strikes passed in the blink of an eye, and the murderous fury had vanished from Pakura's face.
Her anger quickly cooled, giving way to shock, then to an indescribable mix of astonishment and dread!
Because this unrelenting, suffocating swordsmanship had awakened the most terrible nightmare buried in her memories—and in the memories of the entire young generation of Sunagakure!
How is this possible? Pakura thought in utter disbelief. How could anyone replicate that man's swordsmanship?!
The swordsmanship of the man known as the White Fang!
She didn't want to remember it, and she didn't want to admit it, but that sharp, fang-like pressure was so familiar that she couldn't mistake it!
The former Konoha White Fang, Hatake Sakumo, had made his name and struck fear throughout the Shinobi World in battles against Sunagakure!
With one man and one blade, he had cut down Chiyo, the Jonin commanding Sunagakure's forces on the battlefield at the time, becoming an everlasting source of pain for Sunagakure's younger generation.
The White Fang's swordsmanship had one defining trait: suffocating pressure!
The White Fang excelled at Kenjutsu—and almost only Kenjutsu. He knew some ninjutsu, but his skill at it was nowhere near the level of his swordsmanship.
The White Fang knew that if he got drawn into a ninjutsu contest with an opponent, he would lose his advantage entirely.
So with every strike, he made certain his opponent had no chance to use ninjutsu!
Unrelenting pressure, waves of attacks, a suffocating rhythm!
Put politely, one might praise this swordsmanship as precise as interlocking gears.
Put it the way Sunagakure did, and one might condemn it as ferocious as a rabid dog.
In any case, during the Second Shinobi World War, Sunagakure had tried every conceivable countermeasure before finally reaching a conclusion: if you encountered the White Fang, use ninjutsu as soon as possible!
Either stop him from getting close, or stop him from drawing his blade. Otherwise, you wouldn't get the chance to make even a single Hand Seal!
How could Pakura possibly forget a lesson so profound that it could have been written into the Ninja School textbooks for Sunagakure shinobi?
But she couldn't understand. Wasn't that man already dead? Her village's spies had spent months repeatedly verifying the news!
Besides, this was the Land of Rain, not the Land of Fire!
Pakura couldn't make sense of it!
But fear and dread had already taken hold of her, leaving her with no confidence that she could incinerate the enemy before her.
Shiba Seika noticed it at once!
He cautiously pressed her with a few more quick strikes. Only when he was certain Pakura had completely lost the will to counterattack did he throw a paper Kunai and swiftly pull away, using the Body Flicker Technique to retreat in an instant!
He was nearly at his limit.
He wasn't the Konoha White Fang, after all. He'd only been practicing the Kenjutsu granted by the system for a few days.
He'd had no trouble killing that low-grade Jonin from Kusagakure, but he still wasn't capable of killing an elite from a great ninja village like Pakura.
Fortunately, he'd kept his cool. He maintained a high level of pressure until his strength gave out, and for those first few seconds, he'd managed to bring out at least seventy percent of the White Fang's old style.
He'd thoroughly bluffed Pakura!
By the time he'd used up his three opening moves and was nearly out of options, Pakura had already been scared out of her fighting spirit by the shadow in her memories.
That had been a successful performance from Shiba Seika!
But the others clearly didn't know any of that.
When they'd just seen Shiba Seika forcing Pakura back again and again, the Sunagakure squad captain had nearly been scared witless!
Now, seeing the two of them separate, with Pakura making no move to pursue him, he was furious.
"Pakura, what are you doing?!"
During the battle, the Sunagakure captain couldn't keep an eye on Pakura the whole time. Konan's Paper Butterflies, paper spears, and Exploding Tags had put him under considerable pressure, so naturally he hadn't noticed anything strange about Shiba Seika's swordsmanship.
Seeing how things had turned out, he naturally assumed that Pakura had been slacking off if she couldn't deal with one measly little Rain ninja!
He didn't give a moment's thought to how he himself had been pinned down by a measly little Rain kunoichi.
Shiba Seika seized the opportunity and decisively gestured to his teammates again—
Konan, take Ajisai. We're leaving!
They'd already taken out a Puppet Master from Sunagakure. There was no need to keep fighting here just to settle the score.
He was a cautious schemer who only wanted to bury his opponents using the most reliable methods. He had no interest in the heat of battle or some fated showdown.
When it was time to retreat, they'd retreat, call for reinforcements, and come back to deal with this lot another time!
But just before he left, Pakura asked him, her face pale, "Why can you use that man's swordsmanship?!"
Shiba Seika only smiled slightly. Even as he left, he didn't forget to plant one last poisoned seed.
"Want to know? When you're alone, find a chance to open the Paper Shuriken I just tossed you. The answer you're looking for is inside.
"And don't let your teammates find out. Otherwise, you might truly have no way out, tragic heroine."
If that seed took root, Shiba Seika might not even need to call for reinforcements before he could bury this squad of Sunagakure shinobi!
Before you continue