Faced with Konan's trembling gaze, Shiba Seika didn't rush to provoke her by taking drastic action. Instead, he steadily reinforced the image he'd built.
He silently mouthed, "Don't do anything rash, big sister Konan. Stay calm. I'm here."
Winning Konan over wouldn't happen overnight, so he was patient. For now, he'd quietly build up her goodwill toward him.
Besides, the situation was still far from safe. Provoking Konan recklessly now would only put him in danger.
There was still a whole team of Iwagakure Ninja below.
These weren't the "Iwagakure spies" he'd made up earlier to pin the blame on. They were genuine shinobi from one of the great ninja villages!
Sometimes, the good things just didn't happen, while the bad things always did.
Just as Shiba Seika was thinking about the threat from Iwagakure, the squad leader below suddenly looked up.
"Who's there?! Who's on the roof?!"
As the squad leader shouted, another, older ninja quickly formed Hand Seals.
"Earth Release: Rock Pillar Gun!"
A stone spear shot toward the ceiling without the slightest hesitation!
Shiba Seika and Konan were forced to drop down, revealing themselves inside the warehouse.
But in the next instant, white paper filled the air, and Konan immediately launched her counterattack.
"Dance of the Shikigami!"
Her body came apart, fluttering like a butterfly as she transformed into dancing Paper Butterflies. They gathered again in midair, forming several paper spears that shot toward the Iwagakure squad leader!
Ando, the stockpiling merchant who'd been acting so cocky just moments ago, was so frightened that he dropped his pipe.
"What?! How could there be people here?! Protect me! Hurry and protect me!! Kill them all!"
The other Iwagakure Ninja in the warehouse sprang into action at his words.
Having just landed, Shiba Seika felt even more grateful that he hadn't rushed to use Talk Style to shake Konan's resolve.
Instead, thanks to his subtle influence over the past few days, Konan had instinctively sent some of her Paper Butterflies to protect him as soon as she attacked.
Konan might not even have realized it herself, but Shiba Seika's importance in her heart had been steadily growing. He'd become one of the organization's most important people, second only to Yahiko and Nagato.
And Shiba Seika wasn't about to waste that favor. Hidden among the Paper Butterflies, he immediately made full use of the advantage they gave him and flung out a large handful of his specially prepared paper Shuriken.
With Paper Butterflies fluttering all around them, and their squad leader just driven back by the mysterious blue-haired girl's paper spears, the remaining Iwagakure Ninja fell into a mental trap. They instinctively assumed that Shiba Seika's paper Shuriken were something similar.
They hurriedly dodged, not daring to block them head-on.
One Iwagakure Ninja even shouted a warning to his teammates.
"He can use Paper Ninjutsu too! Watch out!"
Little did they know, the Shuriken Shiba Seika had thrown were nothing but ordinary paper.
After using the handful of wastepaper to easily break through the enemy's encirclement, Shiba Seika picked a direction and lunged at one of them!
The man was probably a Genin. A flicker of panic crossed his eyes as Shiba Seika charged. Instead of advancing, he retreated, quickly forming Hand Seals.
There was no desire to attack in his eyes, so the Hand Seals probably weren't for an offensive ninjutsu. His gaze kept drifting toward the space behind him, but there was clearly nothing there.
Putting those clues together, Shiba Seika immediately reached a conclusion—
His opponent was planning to use the Substitution Technique!
So he casually tossed a Shuriken, making a perfunctory attack.
Once he saw that the man was still forming Hand Seals, he immediately skidded to a stop, drew his sword, changed direction, and charged toward the space behind him!
"Thud!"
The Shuriken struck its target, but after a puff of smoke, the enemy vanished, leaving only a wooden post in his place.
Everything had gone exactly as Shiba Seika expected!
The post, with the Shuriken stuck in it, hit the ground and bounced twice, making two crisp thumps.
But as the sound rang out, Shiba Seika had already changed direction and reached the enemy, who'd just finished reappearing!
"Wha—?!"
The man had barely managed the first syllable of his startled, incredulous question when Shiba Seika ended his life with a single slash!
The older ninja, who'd used Rock Pillar Gun to pierce the ceiling, was horrified.
"Damn it! He's at least a Chunin! Don't face him alone!!"
He hurriedly stopped the two remaining young Genin from acting separately and signaled them to regroup. Meanwhile, he quickly crouched down and began forming Hand Seals.
This time, he didn't call out the name of his technique, but that didn't stop Shiba Seika from quickly anticipating it and responding.
He leaped into the air, continuing to fling out handfuls of paper Shuriken.
Iwagakure's ninjutsu was usually based on Earth Release, and the opponent had crouched before using his technique. Getting off the ground first was always the right move.
Once again, the two Iwagakure Genin were forced back by the paper Shuriken made from wastepaper, while Shiba Seika used the opportunity to jump onto a storage cabinet.
"Earth Release: Double Suicide Decapitation Technique!"
The older ninja's technique finally activated, but Shiba Seika was already far beyond his reach.
The technique was supposed to burst out of the ground and drag an enemy underground, but the older Iwagakure Ninja had used it only to move, quickly reaching the spot where Shiba Seika had been standing.
It accomplished nothing else.
By now, the older ninja was on high alert.
Why could the other guy always see through our ninjutsu ahead of time? First Yuta's Substitution Technique, then my Double Suicide Decapitation Technique. Could he... have some kind of special eye technique?
Just as he was lost in speculation and on guard, one of the young Genin suddenly spotted the flaw.
"Damn it! This is just ordinary paper! He's bluffing us!!"
After using his "Paper Style" twice in a row, Shiba Seika had finally been found out.
Convinced he'd seen through the enemy's trick, the Genin grew overconfident. Ignoring the older ninja's warning, he leaped onto the storage cabinet and charged at Shiba Seika with a Kunai in hand!
Shiba Seika threw another paper Kunai!
"Pathetic trick!"
The young Genin didn't dodge or flinch. His eyes were filled with resolve.
But Shiba Seika could no longer hold back his laughter.
"Boom!!"
A violent explosion rang out in the next instant!
The older Iwagakure Ninja stared in horror!
Another comrade had lost his life!
It was an Exploding Tag!
Shiba Seika had hidden an Exploding Tag inside the paper Kunai.
Earlier, when he'd asked big sister Konan for advice on throwing paper Shuriken, he'd learned the trick of hiding Exploding Tags inside paper weapons.
As long as he drew lines and symbols resembling those on an Exploding Tag on every piece of paper, then bundled them together and concealed the burning fuse, it was difficult to tell them apart at a glance.
Especially since the first two batches of paper Shuriken Shiba Seika had thrown contained nothing at all, making the enemy even less wary.
Naturally, the enemy gave this underhanded trick a "glowing review."
"You despicable Rain Ninja!"
But Shiba Seika couldn't care less about such a weak accusation.
Underhanded? Despicable? As long as it won, what did it matter? He preferred to call it efficient!
After swiftly eliminating two Genin, the last Iwagakure Genin had temporarily lost the will to fight and retreated far away, beside the merchant Ando.
He looked like he was protecting his employer, but in truth, he was just avoiding the fight.
So Shiba Seika turned his attention to the older Iwagakure Ninja, who'd used Earth Release twice.
This guy was probably a Chunin, right?
He could use this chance to test his current strength.
Before you continue