Competition

"Ah, I understand."

After saying this, Shiro put the Kizuna aside, clasped his hands together, and his hands shimmered with light.

Then, he spread his arms wide!

"Continuous Trace Projection!"

Instantly, more than a dozen Explosive Tag arrows appeared in the sky above Shiro! With a thought from Shiro, they shot forward and stuck into the ground.

Shiro doesn't Projection his Noble Phantasm because he can't Projection that many at the moment. After all, although the Chakra consumption is about the same, Projection Noble Phantasm also requires bearing a certain amount of mental pressure.

Shiro's mental state is still a bit off, but the arrows are different. Shiro himself has basically used them before, so there's no pressure on him.

"Tch, I thought they were so good, but they couldn't even hit the target."

At that moment, Shiro heard the raucous laughter coming from the direction of Kirigakure. Shiro didn't say anything, but simply faced them, and then...

"Smack!"

A crisp snap of the fingers!

Instantly, to the astonishment of the Kirigakure Ninja, the arrows blasted the surrounding puppets into pieces with a deafening boom!

"Idiot! Don't you even know what kind of arrow that is!" Rasa glanced at Kirigakure, his previously high opinion of them due to their powerful combat strength immediately plummeted.

However, he valued Shiro even more now; with that terrifying sniping ability, Rasa had never seen the other miss.

Furthermore, if Rasa remembered correctly, he recalled that Shiro was also a very skilled swordsman...

The same scene unfolded in various villages, where everyone was gathering intelligence, including Shiro and his group. However, Shiro's operation was more covert and thorough; he had already Projection everything onto the map...

They now know each of their Ninjutsu by heart, like raisins...

Taichi and Minamoto no Raiko took the opportunity to rush back along the road that Shiro had driven out, and soon the other two also returned one after another.

Of course, this doesn't mean there will be no one left on the battlefield. During their recovery period, it will be Shiro's turn to take the field.

"Peng."

After taking out his homemade Kanshou and Bakuya swords from his wrist guard, Shiro twirled them in his hand.

"Enhancement, begin."

"Taichi, wanna have a contest? Let's see who solves more."

"Sizzle."

"Alright." Blue lightning also crackled around Taichi's body.

The two then rushed out almost simultaneously.

"Ping ping ping!"

Almost simultaneously, a collision sound rang out, and in an instant, the puppet was cut into 6 pieces!

Taichi shattered his opponent in an instant!

The two were so fast that in Mizuki's eyes, they were practically just two flashes of light! As the two blue lights moved around, the puppets were reduced to fragments!

"Wow, that's amazing..." Minamoto no Raiko murmured, watching the constantly flashing light between the two.

"Ha, of course. They underwent very rigorous training. Don't be discouraged. If you work hard, you can reach that level too," Nakamura chuckled, offering words of comfort.

"Captain Nakamura is right. Take this time to rest and reflect on your shortcomings. You'll be going up later."

"Yes, Mr. Heiichi."

"This guy's speed and strength have improved a lot again, but we can't let you steal the limelight all by yourself." Although Rasa was shocked by Shiro's rapid progress.

But after glancing at the shocked samurai beside him, he decided not to watch the show any longer. With a thought, streams of Gold Dust surged from the ground and flew towards the battlefield.

Rasa didn't use any Ninjutsu; he simply had the ribbons of Gold Dust wrap around the puppets, and then they were shredded.

From wrapping to chopping, the whole process takes less than a second!

The power of Magnet Release is terrifying!

On the other side, Kitsuchi also saw their performance, but he just smiled bitterly and didn't join in. After all, there was a big age gap, and he was the team leader this time.

He was just a little envious. Other villages were full of talented people, but they were the only ones who were truly outstanding. Thinking of this, Kitsuchi sighed and turned around to continue instructing the few people who had just stepped down to rest.

Immediately following, like a chain reaction, the other villages also fought with all their might, none of them wanting to fall behind.

Unfortunately, apart from Cloud Village, which could barely keep up with Konoha and Sunagakure, the other two villages were left far behind.

Of course, this doesn't mean they lack strength; it's just that their Ninjutsu isn't suited for this kind of battle. Only the Cloud Village's ninjutsu can compare to Shiro and his group.

However, although they also had ninjas who practiced Lightning Release Nintaijutsu, Taichi Sharingan, he couldn't control the speed at all. He just recklessly charged forward without any strategy, resulting in extremely low efficiency.

Because of the opponent's rapid regeneration, none of them chose to use Ninjutsu that involved large-scale attacks and was not worth the effort. Instead, they slowly wore them down, simply keeping them occupied.

A short while later, Nakamura brought news that Mizuki and the others had recovered, so Taichi and Shiro rushed back and handed the battlefield over to them.

"Alright, switched to... Sharingan!? How could this be?" Upon returning, Shiro saw Mizuki's Sharingan, but... "Captain, wasn't she the one you were protecting? How could she have awakened the Sharingan?"

"Hmm? What's the connection?" Nakamura asked curiously.

Shiro was taken aback, then realized that many people didn't know the conditions for Sharingan, and quickly said, "No, it's nothing."

Given Shiro's consistently nonsensical ideas, Nakamura didn't think much of it and instead said to Mizuki, "Oh, right, I forgot to tell you, Taichi has also awakened the Sharingan. You can ask him for some advice."

Nakamura overlooked it, but Taichi did. He knew very well what Shiro was wondering about, but out of trust for his teammates and for the sake of his family's secrets, Taichi didn't ask now.

Instead, he glanced at Shiro, preparing to return to the village to ask again. He didn't remember telling him about the conditions for Sharingan. After that, he turned to Mizuki.

"Shut up your Sharingan. You've only just awakened it and aren't used to it yet. It's dangerous on the battlefield. I'll explain it to you in detail tonight."

"Understood, Taichi- nii." After saying that, Mizuki closed her eyes and turned off her Sharingan.

"Alright, go ahead and relax. We're here, you'll be fine. Think things through and try to avoid making mistakes."

"Yes!" x3

Then, the three of them dashed off like arrows, with Nakamura and the others close behind.

"Speaking of which, Shikaki, you really have a leisurely life," Shiro said to Shikaki as he nocked his bow.

"There's nothing I can do, I really can't handle this kind of thing, this is my limit," Shikaki said, pointing to the dozen or so puppets he had immobilized.

"Ha, that's true."

Because Shikaki was incompatible with these puppets, he had kept these dozen or so puppets in place since the start of the war—well, they had been chopped up.

They've been bound here by Shikaki without any ability to resist from the very beginning, and this hasn't taken much to Shikaki's liking, so it's continued until now...