Torrential Rain

The moment he unleashed the divine technique for interrupting an enemy combo, Yamada Soji smiled as if he had seen it coming.

He gathered chakra in the soles of his feet, steadying himself on a thick branch. At the same time, he formed the "Ram" hand seal again and reached both hands toward the smoke that had yet to clear.

"Got you~"

His teasing voice rang out, and the Accio spell took effect.

The secret technique had been all but incapable of directly affecting an enemy due to the spell's limited strength and the neutralizing effect of energy. But now, Head-Wrapped Man's traditional two-step combo of Substitution followed by Transformation had given it a chance to shine.

—By casting "Accio Head-Wrapped Man" and "Accio Akimichi Todo" together, Soji forcibly melded the spinning Meat Tank with an inconspicuous dead branch!

And by exploiting this loophole, he had achieved an incredible combination of Shadow Possession Jutsu and Multi-Size Jutsu!

Head-Wrapped Man had hoped to use Substitution and Transformation to turn the tables, but his cleverness had backfired. He took the full force of the Akimichi secret technique.

"How is that possible?!"

"AAAAAAAH!!!!"

The enormous spiked ball of flesh ruthlessly battered him, leaving mottled streaks of blood and horrific wounds.

Only after Todo's technique reached its time limit and his plump body bounced backward did Head-Wrapped Man, who had been rammed into a hollow in the tree roots, finally get a chance to see daylight again...

Compared with his fully armored appearance from before, the Sand Ninja's clothes on the front of his body had been reduced to little more than rags, and his bronze skin was now completely covered in bright red.

His left arm had taken the brunt of the attack and was twisted out of shape. At a glance, it had suffered at least four open fractures!

Yet whether it was his instinctive will to survive or the fact that he was a defensive ninja skilled in Earth Release, Head-Wrapped Man's ability to take a beating far surpassed what anyone could imagine...

Despite suffering such severe injuries, the man still managed to struggle up from the tree hollow, stubbornly showing the two Konoha rookies his single-handed hand-seal technique!

With what he knew, Soji couldn't imagine what kind of ninjutsu Head-Wrapped Man could use in this state to turn the tables.

Fortunately, thanks to the preparations he had made before the fight began, the boy didn't have to worry about that...

—As Head-Wrapped Man formed his hand seals, countless Glass Fibers, too fine for the naked eye to distinguish, began to quiver faintly where he had come into contact with Todo.

Unlike the "Sudden Rain" technique, which had previously killed without a trace and wiped out an entire Waterfall Ninja squad in one go,

this time, a far greater number of Glass Fibers clung to the target's body. Several distinct silvery-white streaks were already visible!

The countless slender needles no longer slipped stealthily into their target like stowaways. Instead, they stuck straight into the man's exposed skin and wounds, looking from a distance like a pool of silver liquid rippling in the wind.

Of course...

The whole process sounded complicated, but from the moment the Glass Fibers began to gather to the moment Soji was ready, it took no more than half a second.

The whole process was much faster than the "Sudden Rain" technique's infiltration of the body and destruction of the organs!

Certain that his opponent was using a variant of Magnet Release, Head-Wrapped Man hadn't taken any precautions against it.

By the time he sensed something was wrong and tried to counter it, Yamada-kun had already completed the entire process of converting chakra outside his body. With even greater force than when he had controlled the Shuriken, he concentrated the "needles" on several vital points and pierced straight through his target...

—Ninjutsu: Rain Woman's Heart: Torrential Rain

One of the two improved techniques he had successfully mastered with the help of the Superman Drug, "Sudden Rain" primarily used a new method of chakra conversion to expand the technique's range, allowing Soji to precisely manipulate the associated ninja tools from a greater distance. The contrasting "Torrential Rain" technique, on the other hand, focused more on explosive power!

The shift in emphasis had reshaped the form of Rain Woman's Heart. By using tremendous impact to force a large number of Glass Fibers into the target's body all at once, it skipped the repeated passes needed to damage internal structures, inflicted harm in a more direct way, and completely changed the technique's original, slow-build fighting style!

In Soji's opinion, both of these modified techniques still had flaws and were typical products of a transitional period.

Then again, there was no such thing as a perfect ninjutsu in the ninja world.

Even the ultimate weapons of the caliber of Susanoo and Senjutsu had their own limitations. As an ordinary ninja whose talent was in short supply, Soji had never been the type to rely on one trick for everything.

That was why he had long been prepared to keep up with the times and upgrade his arsenal whenever necessary. For the moment, he wasn't obsessing over perfection.

A gentleman's nature wasn't different from other people's; he was simply good at making use of what was available.

As long as it helped him defeat his enemies, he didn't mind adapting on the fly, and he was more than happy to rely on his teammates...

"How did it go? Did the plan work out all right?"

With the dust settled, the chubby boy leaped over to Soji. Brushing the dust from his clothes, he asked the boy about the result, his voice nervous but tinged with excitement. "After taking two heavy hits, he definitely can't get back up, right?"

"As long as he was still human, he was probably dead."

Soji replied with a perfectly straight face. He didn't tease Todo, who was so excited he could barely keep his expression under control.

Considering how Soji himself had felt the first time he joined a battle, when he'd gone to support Teacher Motochika, it was no small feat for the little guy to perform this well in his second fight.

"Phew... So we won?" Todo took a deep breath, his voice climbing two more notes than before. "For real? We just won?"

"'Just'?"

Soji patted the chubby boy on the shoulder.

"Strictly speaking, this operation began taking shape half a month ago, when the Hokage issued the order. Excluding the doctors at Konoha Hospital, a conservative estimate puts the number of active-duty ninja involved at more than fifty...

"So from any angle, I don't think you can sum up today's victory with the word 'just.'"

"All right... You're always right."

The satisfaction of winning a small-scale battle far surpassed the feeling of hiding among the main force and serving as a tool for throwing Shuriken.

Especially for someone like Akimichi Todo, a second-generation ninja from a prestigious clan. At that moment, he couldn't help imagining himself as the hero in the stories he'd heard since childhood!

Fortunately, Soji had promptly doused him with a bucket of cold water. The chubby boy came back to his senses and tucked away the tail he'd just started to raise.

He scratched his cheek sheepishly, returning to his usual self. "What now? Should we regroup with the others?"

Soji shook his head. "First, take the identifying marks from the enemy, then mark the location of the body so the Interrogation Department can retrieve it.

"We're still fighting within our own borders, after all. The teams surrounding the area should already be closing in. Rather than wander around blindly and get in our teammates' way, we should focus on cleaning up the battlefield."

"Uh... So we're just supposed to stand here and wait?"

That wouldn't be so bad, actually.

Soji pressed his lips together, ultimately keeping his desire to slack off to himself.

He mulled over his words, then settled on a more tactful way to put it.

"We're both Genin, and our chakra reserves are quite limited. Unless we receive an emergency distress signal, we should focus on doing our part—"

"Whoosh... Bang!"

Before Soji could finish his prepared excuse, a bright firework exploded not far to the southwest of the two little ones!

Its dazzling red glow pierced the night and fell on them, illuminating Yamada-kun's deadpan.jpg expression...