"Fire Style: Fire Dragon Flame Bullet!"
Shin had only just re-formed his body, yet he had already finished the Hand Seals. A gigantic fire dragon roared as it charged toward Hyuga Kokuten.
"A B-rank jutsu! This kid..."
Hyuga Kokuten dodged in a panic, cold sweat running down his forehead. The power of a B-rank jutsu could threaten an ordinary Jonin, let alone him, a Special Jonin. If it hit him, he'd probably be burned to a crisp on the spot.
"Sharingan, activate!"
Once a fight started, Shin's belief was that he should give it his all from the beginning. Concealing your strength only worked when the gap between both sides was large enough; otherwise, you were just asking to die.
"Three Tomoe? Impossible...?!"
Hyuga Kokuten immediately saw the three Magatama in Shin's eyes, and his mind reeled. How was this possible? The child before him was five at most, yet he had already awakened the Three-Tomoe Sharingan. What kind of monster was he?
"Instead of wasting time being surprised, you should worry about yourself," Shin said coolly. Before Hyuga Kokuten could figure out what was happening, a wave of scorching heat rushed up behind him.
How could he make the fire dragon turn around? The thought flashed through Hyuga Kokuten's mind. A seasoned battlefield ninja, he reacted swiftly, activating his Byakugan. In an instant, he could see in every direction. The Fire Dragon Flame Bullet he had just dodged had turned around and was rushing back at him.
"Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm Lion Roar Fist!" Hyuga Kokuten hurriedly gathered chakra in his hand and threw a punch. A roaring lion's head formed from chakra surged toward the fire dragon, and the two collided with a tremendous boom.
"Fire Style: Phoenix Sage Fire Technique!" The shuriken spun, instantly wreathed in chakra flames, and attacked Hyuga Kokuten from several directions.
That wasn't all. Shin kept forming Hand Seals, releasing three more Fire Style jutsu in quick succession. "Fire Style: Fire Dragon Jutsu!" "Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!" "Fire Style: Flower Claw Fire Technique!"
The powerful flames came without pause, and huge explosions rang out one after another. Hyuga Kokuten's figure was no longer visible within them.
A ninja's job was to use their strengths to attack their opponent's weaknesses. Those who knowingly charged headlong into an enemy's area of strength usually died on their very first mission.
Shin knew exactly where the Hyuga Clan's strengths lay. Their Byakugan gave them all-around vision and let them see the flow of their opponents' chakra. Their Gentle Fist and Eight Trigrams Palm were also taijutsu-focused techniques. Shin couldn't think of any reason to fight a Hyuga at close range other than having rocks for brains.
"Right, except for that Uchiha Madara guy!" Glancing into the distance at Madara, who was happily trading blows with a Hyuga Jonin using a long sword, Shin silently added that to himself.
The Uchiha Clan's Fire Style was famous throughout the Warring States Period for its immense power. Even C-rank jutsu could threaten a Jonin, so Hyuga Kokuten kept dodging. He hadn't felt this cornered in a long time, and the fact that his opponent was a five-year-old made his anger burn even hotter.
Shin retreated while continuously releasing Fire Style jutsu, keeping more than fifty meters between himself and his opponent. Even when Hyuga Kokuten occasionally counterattacked with a long-range Gentle Fist technique, Shin dodged it with ease.
Before I crossed over, I was a frost mage in WoW. Kiting is ridiculously easy.
His Sharingan tracked his opponent's every move as he unleashed a relentless barrage of powerful Fire Style jutsu. The Uchiha Clan was just as famous for its enormous chakra reserves as it was for its Fire Style. Apart from the Senju, no clan in the Ninja World could consistently outmatch the Uchiha in chakra.
"Damn it!"
After dodging another blast of fire, Hyuga Kokuten couldn't help swearing. This underhanded fighting style was driving him mad. Gritting his teeth, he decided he'd kill the damn kid even if it meant getting hurt.
"Body Flicker Technique!"
Hyuga Kokuten vanished in an instant, then reappeared twenty meters closer. He vanished again, this time reappearing less than ten meters from Shin. After disappearing once more, he appeared right in front of him.
The Body Flicker Technique was a general term for high-speed movement jutsu. It wasn't difficult to learn, and most major clans had scrolls for it. But it put an enormous strain on the body. Unless a Jonin specialized in taijutsu, they would struggle to endure the injuries caused by moving at such speed. As a result, most ninjas rarely used it.
The fact that Hyuga Kokuten had resorted to the Body Flicker Technique showed that Shin had backed him into a corner. He was willing to get hurt if it meant forcing Shin into close combat.
"Eight Trigrams Vacuum Mountain-Breaking Slash!" The moment he appeared, Hyuga Kokuten unleashed his strongest attack, one of the three A-rank jutsu he had mastered.
He poured all his chakra into the blade and brought it down in an instant. Hyuga Kokuten had complete confidence in this strike. Even if his opponent had been a Jonin, he could have cut him in half with one blow.
Shin's expression turned grave. He couldn't dodge this strike, but he had no intention of trying. The three Magatama in his eyes spun wildly. He met his opponent's gaze, and his body suddenly changed.
Caw, caw, caw...
Hyuga Kokuten had put everything into that attack, yet all he managed to cut down were a few crow feathers. The sensation of putting everything into a strike only to hit cotton nearly made him spit blood.
The flock of crows gathered again, forming Shin's likeness. "Madara said he could hold them off for only ten minutes. Seven have already passed. If I don't finish you soon, I'll probably end up collecting his corpse. So, as much as I hate to lose such a good target, I'll have to take you out now."
Shin's fighting style had thoroughly disgusted Hyuga Kokuten. His face twisted involuntarily into a grimace as he sneered, "Are you saying you could kill me whenever you wanted?"
Shin shook his head. The man had probably been traumatized by now. Then again, if their positions were reversed, Shin would likely feel the same way. He knew from experience how miserable it was to be kited.
"Have you noticed how quiet it is here? We're right in the middle of a battle, yet there's no other sound!"
Only after Shin pointed it out did Hyuga Kokuten notice the eerie silence around them. He glanced around and was shocked. The Uchiha Clan's hall was nowhere to be seen. They were clearly on a mountain of blades, countless sword tips stretching all the way to his feet. He didn't dare move an inch.
"An illusion? When?" Hyuga Kokuten immediately understood what had happened. As he asked, he secretly gathered chakra and made it surge wildly through his body, hoping to disrupt its flow and break free of the illusion.
"Don't bother," Shin said. "You've probably figured it out yourself. The moment you used the Body Flicker Technique to reach me and met my eyes, you were already caught in the illusion. I created it by combining the C-rank Demonic Illusion: This Place Is Not This Place Technique and Demonic Illusion: Fox Mind Technique. It should count as a B-rank illusion, I suppose. This is my first time using it, so how about Fox Decapitation Technique? What do you think?"
Before you continue