Mangekyō Ability, Aragami!

The border region between the Land of Earth and the Land of Lightning transitions from desolate rocky mountains to rugged hills.

Jingxin and his three companions traveled through the hilly terrain.

They were on a B-rank mission: according to intelligence, several missing-nin that the Anbu had been tracking had appeared in the vicinity.

This was originally Anbu work, but Jingxin had requested to take it on himself.

At midday, the four of them rested in a concealed rock cave.

Deidara stood guard outside, while Jingxin, Kurotsuchi, and Karin analyzed a map inside.

"Based on the current situation, the missing-nin's activity is concentrated in the area twenty kilometers north of the border," Kurotsuchi said, pointing to several marked spots on the map.

Karin suddenly opened her eyes. "There are three chakra fluctuations. Judging by the volume, they are Chunin."

"They're coming from the northeast, heading right toward us!"

Jingxin brought Karin and Kurotsuchi to join Deidara at the cave entrance and gave the order: "Prepare for combat, Plan Number Two."

The four of them quickly left the cave and took up formation in the clearing outside.

Less than a minute later, three figures burst out from behind the hills to the northeast, moving with extreme speed like three yellowish streaks of light.

They were Iwagakure missing-nin, all male, wearing forehead protectors with the Iwagakure symbol slashed through.

The opponents did not attack immediately; it seemed they intended to trade barbs first.

"This isn't the Anbu, either." The leader locked his gaze onto Kurotsuchi and Deidara. "Oh? It's you two? You've already graduated... how time flies."

"Ōnoki actually felt safe letting you two carry out this kind of mission? Does he look down on us that much?"

His focus clearly wasn't on the children, as he scanned the surroundings with caution. "Then let me guess, who is your supervising Jonin?"

Kurotsuchi narrowed her eyes and whispered to Jingxin, "These three defected five years ago. They are all Chunin who supposedly stole advanced ninjutsu from the village. Their current strength is unknown."

Jingxin asked, "Only three?"

"There are seven missing-nin who haven't been killed yet," Kurotsuchi analyzed. "The other four haven't been tracked within the Land of Earth, so it should just be these three, but we can't rule out the possibility of them colluding with others."

Jingxin's eyes shifted into the scarlet three-tomoe Sharingan. He said to Kurotsuchi and Deidara, "Begin."

The two immediately dashed to the left and right, clearly intending to cut off the missing-nin's retreat.

At this moment, the missing-nin noticed Jingxin was the one giving orders and instinctively looked toward him.

One of the missing-nin suddenly stiffened.

There was no sound, no light; only an invisible surge of mental energy flooded into the short-haired missing-nin's brain like a tidal wave.

He felt as if his body had been pinned in mid-air by invisible nails; his limbs were paralyzed, and even breathing became difficult.

The scene before him began to warp; the rock walls turned into a cage, the sky became an iron curtain, and the entire world seemed to be crushing him.

He opened his mouth to scream, but no sound emerged.

Genjutsu: Demonic Illusion - Shackling Stakes Technique.

Jingxin raised his hand and threw a kunai with an explosive tag attached to the tail.

Of the missing-nin's two companions, one was in the middle of dispelling the genjutsu for his comrade, while the other stood in front of Jingxin, performed hand seals, and slammed his hands onto the ground.

An Earth Style: Earth Wall rose up, blocking the kunai's path.

BOOM!

The explosive tag left the Earth Wall teetering on the verge of collapse.

During this interval, Jingxin did not remain idle.

He cast the Light-Weight Rock Technique on himself, rising into the air to occupy the high ground, gaining a clear field of vision with the aid of his Sharingan.

Jingxin then performed a series of hand seals.

Rat - Boar - Snake.

As the seals finished, Jingxin pushed his palms outward.

A white, cubic, translucent barrier appeared and was slammed down by Jingxin toward the three missing-nin.

The missing-nin who had used the Earth Wall had been keeping his eyes on Jingxin and immediately recognized the signature ninjutsu of Iwagakure.

His eyes instantly filled with bloodshot terror. He instinctively retreated to the side while screaming, "Dodge! Dodge!"

The other missing-nin had just finished dispelling the genjutsu for his companion; he turned back to see a Dust Release descending upon him.

His heart nearly stopped from the shock. His scalp went numb as he exerted every ounce of strength to scramble away.

But the missing-nin who had just awakened from the genjutsu was not so lucky; he was completely enveloped by the Dust Release barrier.

The power of the Dust Release began to take effect.

All resistance became meaningless.

Sssss—

A cloud of white mist slowly rose into the air.

The rogue ninja caught in the Dust Release was decomposed into an atomic state, leaving a bizarre, cubic void where everything around him had once been.

"Aaaah!"

The rogue ninja who had been dispelling the genjutsu for his comrade never expected the range of the Dust Release to be so vast; his entire arm had vanished, the edges of the wound neat and smooth.

Excruciating pain surged through his nervous system, frantically stimulating his brain.

"How is this possible?!"

The only rogue ninja left unscathed was paralyzed with fear; he even began to wonder if Jingxin was actually Ōnoki using a Transformation Technique.

Because he was far too young.

Any Iwa-nin knew the sheer difficulty of mastering Dust Release.

His first instinct was to flee.

But then he remembered Kurotsuchi and Deidara, who had moved to the flanks at the start of the battle.

They were already surrounded.

Furthermore, the enemy held the aerial advantage; there was simply nowhere to run.

He had no choice but to fight!

Gritting his teeth, the rogue ninja formed hand seals: "Earth Style: Rock Spear!"

The ground beneath his feet cracked open, and several chunks of earth flew up, compressing into sharp stone spears that hurtled toward Jingxin.

Jingxin did not dodge or evade, but the three-tomoe Sharingan in his eye sockets had already shifted into the Mangekyō.

As the stone spears drew near, visible chakra manifested out of thin air around Jingxin, rapidly condensing into a white skeletal frame that encased him.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Several stone spears slammed into the Susanoo, failing to shake it in the slightest.

Yet, from below, the screams of an Iwa-nin rang out.

"Aaaah!!!"

The one-armed rogue ninja looked toward the distance in a panic.

He saw his accomplice, who had launched the attack on Jingxin...

There were bizarre wounds appearing on his body.

Despite not being struck by anything, several piercing, bloody holes had inexplicably appeared in his torso.

This rogue ninja had extensive combat experience, and he could tell.

His comrade had been hit squarely by the "Rock Spear," as there were several clearly visible, spear-tip-shaped holes in the ground behind him.

But the eerie part was that he couldn't see the Rock Spears; was it an invisible ninjutsu?

Had that black-haired brat improved the Rock Spear to make it invisible to the naked eye?

No!

That wasn't it.

The one-armed rogue ninja immediately dismissed the notion, as he hadn't seen Jingxin perform a single hand seal.

High in the sky, the white skeletal frame of chakra surrounding Jingxin slowly faded away.

The bizarre attack suffered by that rogue ninja came from one of the abilities of his Mangekyō Sharingan.

Left eye: Aragami.

Its ability was to reflect any technique suffered by the user back onto the attacker, exactly as it was, ignoring distance, obstacles, and possessing no so-called "cooldown time."

The drawback was that if the enemy did not launch an attack at Jingxin, the ability was completely useless.

But in the midst of battle, this move was truly insidious.

If the enemy refuses to attack me because of Aragami.

Then I shall simply have to attack the enemy instead~