The Battle Ends

Oura felt that he had been having a streak of bad luck lately.

Ninja is a profession that places great emphasis on background; the prestigious clans naturally occupy the highest positions, followed by those from ordinary ninja families—households where both parents were ninjas—and finally, those like him, who come from common families.

This is actually easy to understand: the prestigious clans have the deepest foundations and vast resources, so their younger generation is born with better educational conditions and a wealth of ninjutsu to study.

Ordinary ninja families, while unable to compare to such great clans, are at least ninjas themselves and have some tricks up their sleeves, which they naturally pass on to their children.

As for someone like him, aside from learning a few things at the village's Ninja Academy, he could only rely on his own exploration.

Fortunately, he was quite determined. Although he was the only ninja in his family, he operated on the principle of quality over quantity and practiced the Iwagakure basic Hardening Technique to perfection. At the very least, among his peers, he was considered a skilled hand.

He had managed to survive the Ninja World War until now and even earned the qualification to be promoted to an elite chunin, all thanks to this Hardening Technique.

But this time was different. The village received intelligence that Konoha, in order to boost morale, had decided to send jonin into the fray for this engagement. And not just any jonin, but one of the three legendary Sannin known throughout the ninja world: Orochimaru!

When encountering such a ruthless character, even the jonin of his own village would have to swallow hard. In the ninja world, there was no one who didn't know the Sannin; even that "Yellow Flash" who was currently in the limelight was a student of one of them.

The Sannin were Konoha's most famous jonin trio. Although only one had come this time, that Orochimaru was said to be the most formidable of the three, as well as extremely cold-blooded. Anyone who fell into his hands would meet a miserable end.

From the moment he received this news, Oura began to lose his nerve... Damn it, he planned to avoid these monsters as much as possible.

When gods fight, mortals suffer; it was better for him to stay far away.

But fate is often blind; the things you don't want to encounter are exactly what you end up bumping into, and that was the case for Oura.

He couldn't understand it. He had specifically gone out of his way to charge toward areas with more genin, so how could he have run into Orochimaru?

Oura didn't know Orochimaru personally, but the moment he saw that person, he knew it was him!

Look at that style, then look at those orange-yellow, terrifying snake eyes—it was exactly as the rumors described! There wasn't a hint of exaggeration!

Unfortunately, the people around him seemed to be blind. Seeing Orochimaru wearing a kimono, they actually thought he was just an ordinary ninja and, overjoyed, charged straight at him.

Where are your eyes!? Can't you see that man is Orochimaru!?

Stunned, Oura saw Orochimaru's gaze drift toward them, and without a second thought, he turned and ran!

His choice was correct, because he hadn't even run three steps before he heard a series of screams behind him.

No need to think about it; those idiots were definitely done for... Daring to provoke such a monster, they deserved to die!

Oura didn't know how long he had been running. He only felt that a pair of extremely sinister eyes had been staring at him from behind, and every time he wanted to stop, this feeling became even more intense.

Therefore, he didn't dare to stop at all; he didn't even have the presence of mind to judge where he was running.

It wasn't until he could no longer feel the pressure of that gaze that he finally stopped. At this point, he realized he had strayed too far from his original position and was in the very center of the battlefield. Looking around, there were no other Iwagakure ninjas in sight.

But even though the sensation had vanished, he remained terrified. After all, the person was Orochimaru.

He no longer had the mental energy to wonder how he, a mere chunin, had run into Orochimaru, who should have been fighting his village's jonin. He just wanted to survive.

Utilizing the Earth Hiding Technique, he submerged himself into the soil and began to move slowly and cautiously through the ground.

After an unknown amount of time, he discovered someone.

It was a fairly young Konoha ninja, wearing the vest that only chunin could wear, currently engaged in battle with three Iwagakure genin. He was strong; the three Iwagakure ninjas' basic Hardening Technique was easily broken by him in the blink of an eye.

But he was only one person, after all, and the three Iwagakure ninjas successfully left wounds on his body.

Not long after, he encountered another wave, and then everything proceeded as before: fighting, killing, leaving. The wounds on his body grew more numerous.

This made Oura, who had been following him, feel conflicted. Before, he couldn't see a single Iwagakure ninja, but this guy seemed to be related to his own side's ninjas; he couldn't go a few minutes without running into a few.

However, he didn't forget to carefully observe this Konoha ninja's fighting style. The opponent didn't seem to use ninja tools; he had never seen him use anything other than a kunai, and even then, he used the kunai like a short blade.

As for ninjutsu, he didn't use much, only employing Water Release to harass the Iwagakure ninjas he faced. Every time he killed, he still relied on close-quarters combat with the kunai.

"So he's a Special Chunin..."

After observing for a full half-hour, Oura finally reached this conclusion about the Konoha ninja.

A Special Chunin, in terms of rank, still technically belongs to the genin class, just as a Special Jonin cannot truly be considered a jonin.

Such people are often rated above their level due to some special secret technique or method. This Konoha ninja's secret technique was likely his ability to easily break through the Hardening Technique; other than that, Oura saw nothing else remarkable.

But whether it's a Special Chunin or a Special Jonin, they cannot defeat true chunin or jonin. After all, if they had that kind of capability, they wouldn't be labeled with the word "Special."

This made Oura feel excited, because such enemies are generally the best targets for stealing ninjutsu, and he was a genuine, full-fledged chunin!

But he still didn't strike; he had to wait, wait until the opponent's energy was truly exhausted.

This wait lasted another half-hour, and the Konoha ninja, just as he had hoped, had become a bloody mess under wave after wave of Iwagakure ninja attacks.

Oura's patience had naturally run out, and he finally made his move, but the result was that he suffered an even greater tragedy!

"Damn it..."

Having just released his Hardening Technique, Oura felt intense pain throughout his body. Those impossible-to-guard ice crystals were simply too terrifying! If it had lasted any longer, he really wouldn't have been able to hold on!

He now understood that the opponent hadn't run out of energy at all; this guy had discovered him long ago and was just waiting for him to take the bait.

Thinking of this, he felt a sense of dread. This person was only in his teens, right? How could he have such patience? To lure him in and kill him in one blow, he was willing to suffer a body full of wounds!? Was this guy a lunatic!? Wasn't he afraid of bleeding to death first!?

"Ice Release? So this is your secret technique... a kekkei genkai!?"

Oura was not an ignorant man. When he heard the opponent announce such a name, he knew the other party possessed a bloodline limit, and he had witnessed the power of this kekkei genkai.

A range of a full hundred meters... even an average chunin couldn't possibly achieve that, could they?

"You finally understand. The blood I shed for an hour wasn't in vain."

Through the mist composed of ice crystal particles, Qi looked at the Rock Ninja before him and smiled.

In truth, the opponent had actually been intimidated by him. Large-scale ice creation over a hundred-meter radius was indeed quite bluffing, though it was also quite shallow—after all, it was merely creating ice.

One had to know that the Yuki clan's Ice Sealing technique recorded in the secret scrolls was not such a simple thing. Sealing ten meters was ten times harder than creating a hundred meters of ice, and it required reaching the "crystallization" level; otherwise, one wouldn't even possess the ability to attempt it.

"You Rock Ninja always like to hide underground to launch sneak attacks, so I prepared blood bags on my body to deceive people in advance. It really came in handy... Of course, the blood bags were only part of it; I still bled myself."

Qi shook his body, and a "pitter-patter" sound immediately rang out as over a dozen blood bags fell to the ground. Each one was torn beyond repair, and the blood inside hadn't even finished draining.

"You..."

Oura looked as if he were about to die of rage. What kind of person was this? He had never seen such a shameless fellow!

"If you hadn't been coveting my secret technique and had gone for the kill from the start, I might have really been finished by you. What a pity..."

Whether it was Oura's imagination or not, he suddenly felt that the eyes of the person in front of him looked very much like those of Orochimaru. Although the intensity was far inferior, they were just as venomous!

The fear previously stirred up by Orochimaru began to overflow from his mind again, though he didn't know when it had started...

Damn it! Why am I feeling fear toward a brat like this? I am a future elite Chunin!

Oura's eyes turned red. A sense of shame welled up within him, and he glared viciously at Qi. With that, his courage seemed to return quite a bit.

"Even so, you still can't break my Hardening Technique. Brat, you're the one who's going to die!"

"Things can only be known after they are done. What use is there in shouting?"

I don't know when it started, but the mist around Qi had completely vanished. He walked toward Oura step by step.

"To thank you, I'll let you have one move. You come and punch me, but only once."

This sentence, instead, made Oura calm down.

"Brat, you are truly arrogant. But since that's the case, I won't be polite."

Oura had seen many enemies who, upon having their bloodline limit suddenly level up, became too excited and ended up being killed by others. In his view, Qi was just that kind of trash.

Arrogant enemies were always manageable; he firmly believed this.

"Don't be polite at all. Hurry up and do it so I can finish the job."

Qi walked forward a few more steps with a half-smile. However, just as he took his final step, Oura suddenly exerted force and charged right in front of him.

"Go to hell!"

At the critical moment, Oura's Hardening Technique actually reached a new height. The color on his two hands was no longer a simple pitch-black, but had begun to shimmer with a metallic luster!

Amidst a sharp whistling sound, these two fists, which could rival metal weapons, smashed directly toward Qi's chest...

"Puchi!"

The fists, flickering with metallic brilliance, penetrated the flesh without any suspense, exiting from the other side and bringing out a large spray of blood and shredded meat...

But...

"How... is this... possible..."

Every time Oura spoke, he would spit out a mouthful of blood mixed with bits of flesh. His eyes were filled with complete incomprehension and terror. He stared fixedly at his own hands; from the wrists down, right in front of Qi's chest, they had completely disappeared!

And in his own chest, a pair of fists flickering with metallic luster had struck in from his back, passed through his chest, and emerged out the front... These were his own hands!

"You really did hit me..."

Qi looked as if he were observing a rare animal, sighing endlessly.

"You're a bit too obedient. I told you to hit me and you really did?"

"This is... a mirror?"

Oura finally saw clearly. Where was Qi in front of him? It was clearly a thin mirror with extremely high transparency!

And the parts of his hands from the wrists down hadn't disappeared; they had entered entirely into this thin mirror!

Thinking of this, he turned his head with great difficulty. Sure enough, there was an identical thin mirror behind him, and the fists that had disappeared into the front mirror were the very ones extending out from this one!

He had been beaten through his own chest by his own fists!?

"To be killed by your own hand, you must be very unwilling, right?"

Qi clicked his tongue a few times.

"Your Hardening Technique is truly impressive. This hardness is comparable to ninja tools, isn't it?"

"You..."

Oura could feel his body becoming heavier and heavier. By comparison, the intense pain in his chest didn't count for much anymore.

In the end, I still died here... What a remarkable enemy, completely different from myself. He will probably be a Jonin in the future...

Oura suddenly felt a deep sense of envy, followed by a wave of despondency...

Ordinary people like him were, in the end, nothing more than stepping stones for these powerhouses...

"Can you... really... not tell me... your name..."

Mustering his last bit of strength, he asked this question in a fragmented voice.

"My name is Qi, Kagetsu Qi. My technique is the Ice Release of the Yuki Clan. You do not die in vain; sooner or later, I will make everyone know this name."

Qi saw every shift in Oura's eyes. Even through just a gaze, he could understand the mood of this Iwagakure ninja. If he hadn't been lucky, perhaps this would have been his own future as well.

"Thank you..."

A look of gratitude appeared on Oura's face, and then, his head slumped, and he breathed his last.

"He's dead, then..."

Seeing that Oura was truly dead, Qi shook his head and beckoned with his hand.

The two ice mirrors that had been floating in front of and behind Oura vanished instantly. Furthermore, Oura's hands did not return to their original state just because the ice mirrors had disappeared.

They remained as they were before, with the lower halves of his hands completely embedded in his chest, except that the four severed surfaces were now covered in a layer of ice crystals, preventing blood from spraying out.

In a way, Qi had left him with a complete corpse...

"Clap, clap..."

Suddenly, the sound of applause drifted over, accompanied by a soft, hoarse voice...

"Your performance was truly spectacular; it has made me look at you in a new light."

Qi turned back to look and saw that Orochimaru was already standing not far behind him, a smile that could only be described as eerie still plastered on his face.

When it came to the level of Earth Release stealth, the gap between Orochimaru and Oura was likely more than a hundredfold. It was no surprise that Qi, with his current level of skill, could sense Oura—after all, he was a sensory-type ninja—but trying to detect Orochimaru was a pipe dream.

Therefore, he was not at all surprised, and he had no intention of wasting the emotion of surprise on Orochimaru.

"Master, why are you here?"

Although he addressed him as Master, Qi did not harbor the same feelings for him as he did for Ogata. The relationship between him and Orochimaru was purely that of a teacher and student, whereas Ogata was almost like a father to him...

"Because the battle is over. Iwagakure does not seem to intend to fight Konoha to the death in this engagement; they have already retreated. We have won this battle."

Orochimaru narrowed his eyes.

"Ice Release... it is truly astonishing that you possess such an ability. I am looking forward to your growth more and more."

Having said that, he turned and walked in another direction.

"It seems it was the right choice to have a Chunin fight you; battling Genin no longer serves any purpose for you. Very well, let's return to the camp first. The path you have yet to walk is still very long."