Mission Complete

"Where are you looking this time?"

The calm voice rang out once more, followed immediately by a flash of cold light. The Blood Ninja felt his hair stand on end; he flipped his left hand to draw a kunai, parrying the strike just in time.

He swept a glance toward the spot where Shin had been standing a moment ago. At this instant, there was indeed no one there.

With a single stroke, Shin's figure reappeared in that exact same position, without any warning, as if he had suddenly manifested from space itself.

"What kind of ninjutsu is this?" Cold sweat dripped from the tip of the Blood Ninja's nose. He couldn't track the opponent's movements at all, nor did he know how the man suddenly appeared by his side. How could such a technique exist in this world? It defied all logic.

Shin ignored him, waving the Heaven Cloud Sword in his hand and muttering, "It's really not as handy as a kunai. Besides, if that slash just now had been Madara, he would have been dead or at least half-crippled, not just lightly wounded like this."

Shin tested the feel of the sword a few more times and chuckled, "But it doesn't matter. I'll just treat him as a practice dummy to sharpen my taijutsu."

With a thought, he vanished in an instant. When he reappeared, he was already in front of the Blood Ninja, his Heaven Cloud Sword gleaming with cold light as he slashed down again.

The Blood Ninja reacted with extreme speed. Having witnessed this bizarre attack twice already, he still couldn't grasp the pattern of the opponent's sudden appearances, but he remained on high alert, defending with all his might.

The more critical the situation, the more one needs to stay calm. He suddenly thrust his right-hand kunai out to parry the sword, while his left-hand kunai stabbed directly at the opponent's eyes.

He missed!

The Blood Ninja's eyes narrowed. The opponent, who had been right in front of him, had vanished again in that eerie, warningless manner. Less than a breath later, the man reappeared, his long sword slashing straight for his throat.

His heart leaped into his throat again. He threw his body back, narrowly dodging the blow, and without even looking, he thrust his kunai toward the opponent based on pure instinct.

But... he still didn't hit!

Before he could even regain his footing, the opponent attacked again with the sword. The slashes were continuous and incredibly bizarre, leaving him no opening to counterattack.

The Blood Ninja gritted his teeth, forced to rely on instinct to defend. At this moment, any talk of ninjutsu or taijutsu had become a joke. There was no time to weave hand seals for ninjutsu, and as for taijutsu, it was useless when he couldn't even touch the hem of the opponent's clothes.

The sword light grew faster with every strike. The Blood Ninja felt that the opponent's initial clumsiness with the long sword was fading, replaced by increasing fluidity; every strike was at least thirty percent stronger than the last.

From a distance, it looked like a flash of light circling him, striking incessantly. One couldn't even see the figures, only the Blood Ninja waving his two kunai, locked in a desperate struggle.

In reality, the Blood Ninja was being forced into a purely defensive state. He had no idea how many times he had been cut, and blood was continuously spilling from his wounds.

"No, this can't go on!"

The Blood Ninja screamed internally. He felt incredibly stifled. He had realized long ago that this kid's taijutsu was nowhere near his own level, but that sudden-appearance ninjutsu was too bizarre to counter. If they were to have a normal taijutsu duel, he was confident he could take the boy down within ten minutes.

However, those were just fantasies. He had just blocked a strike from the left when another came from the right. Before the right-side attack landed, a cold glint appeared from above. It felt as if he were being besieged by countless enemies from all directions. His hands were a blur of motion, yet it was still useless.

After another long, narrow wound was carved into his shoulder, he let out a roar, "Blood Secret Technique: Blood Barrier!"

This was one of the few secret techniques he knew that didn't require hand seals, but the cost was high: it required a massive amount of blood.

His wounds erupted, spraying blood into the air. The mist instantly coalesced into a curtain of blood that enveloped him like a protective shield.

With the barrier in place, the Blood Ninja was finally able to catch his breath. He never imagined that one day he would be pushed to such a state by a Special Jonin.

He shook his dizzy head, a symptom of excessive blood loss.

"The Blood Barrier has a limited duration. I must find a countermeasure during this time. It's impossible for a technique that appears anywhere without reason to exist; otherwise, he would be invincible. There must be something I've missed. Calm down, I must stay calm."

The Blood Ninja carefully recalled every moment of the fight, letting no detail slip. At the same time, he scanned his own body. There had to be a detail he had overlooked; such an illogical technique simply couldn't exist!

Suddenly, he noticed a strange red glint reflecting off his right arm.

"What is this? A chakra thread?"

Shocked, he looked closely and saw a kunai wrapped in circles of chakra thread attached to his right arm. It had only caught his eye because the blood had stained the threads red.

At that moment, a flash of realization struck him: he remembered the kunai he had dodged at the very beginning of the fight.

"The opponent's attacks were so intense that he didn't give me a chance to breathe. How could such an obvious mistake happen to me!"

He yanked hard, snapping the chakra thread and pulling the kunai free. It was slightly longer than a standard ninja kunai, clearly custom-made, and covered in complex markings he couldn't decipher.

"So that's it!" The Blood Ninja squeezed, and with a pop, he crushed the kunai in his hand.

In the distance, Shin chuckled, stepping on the kunai he had placed at the start. "Finally figured it out? You're not entirely stupid."

His Sharingan spun gently as his hands wove seals in an instant. The moment the Blood Barrier faded, he spat out a dragon of fire: "Fire Style: Fire Dragon Flame Bullet!"

Seeing the opponent start using ninjutsu, the Blood Ninja became even more certain of his theory. He crossed his hands and wove his own seals: "Blood Secret Technique: Blood Light Wave!"

A massive mass of blood-red energy transformed into a wave and surged forward. With a thunderous boom, it collided with the fire dragon. The violent shockwave of chakra swept outward, shattering the buildings on both sides of the street like dry twigs. The townspeople who had back exits had already fled, and those who didn't had escaped through side windows, so there wasn't much collateral damage this time.

Just as the explosions subsided, six kunai glinted with cold light as they flew toward him.

"Where is he?" The Blood Ninja scanned the area frantically, trying to pinpoint where Shin would appear.

Suddenly, a flash of cold light appeared, and Shin's figure materialized before him, his long sword thrusting toward his heart.

The Blood Ninja barely managed to dodge the fatal blow, but the sword pierced his shoulder. He grinned, "Got you!" His own kunai instantly plunged into Shin's heart. He let out a long sigh of relief; this plan was the only possible path to victory he had carefully calculated. Only when he was being attacked would he have a chance to kill the opponent. This time, it seemed luck was on his side.

But before he could fully relax, the Shin in front of him suddenly turned into a puff of white smoke and dissipated, while a kunai pierced through his back and out his chest.

"How... was that a Clone Technique? But how can a clone act independently and show expressions like the real person?" The Blood Ninja tried to turn his head, but he couldn't; his consciousness was fading.

"This move is called the Spiral Flash Super Round Dance Howl Type Three. Well, I'm just messing with you; it's actually just a simple Shadow Clone combined with the Flying Thunder God." Shin pulled his hand back, telling a cold joke only he could understand.

"Ding! Killed a Jonin of the Kigen Clan. Reward: 5000 points!"