Nuke Sword Immortal

Nakamura and Shimizu naturally noticed the commotion on Shiro's side as well, but neither paid it much attention. They merely glanced over before ignoring it. After all, there was a Jonin on the other side.

"Even though it's meaningless now, I still want to ask, Shimizu, why?"

"If you know it's meaningless, then why ask?" As he spoke, he threw a shuriken, officially kicking off their battle.

Nakamura shifted aside, dodging the shuriken before immediately rushing forward with a kunai in hand. "In that case, I'll capture you first and ask later."

"If you can do it, then try!"

With that, Shimizu charged forward without fear, likewise choosing to clash in taijutsu!

It was not that they did not want to use ninjutsu. Rather, this was a weakness shared by most civilian ninja: they did not have much Chakra, and even after reaching Jonin, they did not know many ninjutsu.

Unlike the secret technique clans and Kekkei Genkai clans, who not only possessed unique secret techniques and bloodlines but also had vast reserves of ninjutsu. Even if one could not learn the clan's secret techniques or awaken their Kekkei Genkai, there would still be plenty of ninjutsu to study. The most obvious example was the Uchiha clan.

Of course, secret technique clans rarely had this problem. Their inheritances had lasted long enough that they possessed highly refined systems for training secret techniques. At most, there would be differences in learning speed.

Back to the point, that was why Nakamura and Shimizu had chosen to fight with taijutsu. Of course, once one became a Jonin, there would definitely be opportunities to learn advanced ninjutsu, such as those in Sealing Scrolls. If forbidden techniques were out of reach, could they not learn A-rank or S-rank techniques?

But would you really use your ultimate move before the other side had even shown their hand? You would have to be out of your mind.

Besides, neither of them had much Chakra.

However, as fellow Jonin, it was clearly unrealistic to settle the battle through taijutsu alone. Thus, Shimizu seized an opportunity to put some distance between himself and Nakamura, forming hand seals at the same time!

"Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!"

"Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!"

Nakamura's reaction was not slow either. He used Great Breakthrough to block Shimizu's fireball, then immediately used the Body Flicker Technique to close in on Shimizu again.

Nakamura knew very well that it would be difficult to defeat Shimizu on his own. At the same time, he knew exactly where his advantage lay!

As long as Shiro's group took care of Shimizu's subordinates, victory would be assured. Nakamura had great faith in Shikaki! Of course, Shiro's confident expression also gave Nakamura plenty of confidence!

After all, as a Jonin, he could clearly distinguish confidence from arrogance.

Therefore, Nakamura firmly tied Shimizu down. As long as he held steady and followed Shikaki's plan, victory would come!

In a sense, the Nara clan was not a Kekkei Genkai clan, yet it was better than one! More importantly, its inheritance was even more stable than a Kekkei Genkai. Wasn't that infuriating?

Of course, no matter how infuriating it was, Nakamura still had to follow Shikaki's plan. Meanwhile, in order to conserve Chakra for supporting Nakamura later, Shikaki and Taichi were merely keeping their opponents occupied as they waited for Shiro's assistance!

After Shikaki was freed up, Taichi even deactivated his Sharingan to reduce the drain.

Meanwhile, although Shiro, who remained on the hillside, had only recovered half his Chakra, it was already enough to handle this battle!

"Reinforcement, begin!"

"Projection, begin!"

He first used Reinforcement Magecraft to enhance his vision and physical strength, ensuring that he would not make any mistakes!

However, this time Projection Magecraft was not used to project a Noble Phantasm. Instead, he projected an arrow made of paper. That was right—the paper was made of Explosive Tags!

Unfortunately, projected Explosive Tags could not last long. Otherwise, Shiro would have become rich.

But they were more than enough to serve as arrows!

The corners of Shiro's lips curled up slightly as he said softly, "Feel the terror brought by the Nuke Sword Immortal!"

Shiro drew his bow and fired at Shikaki's opponent. The reason he helped Shikaki again was not because Taichi's earlier attitude had been poor, but because Shikaki was the only one who had put some distance between himself and his opponent, preventing friendly fire.

However, the enemy was no pushover either. He shifted aside and dodged the arrow, opening his mouth to sneer, "Damn—"

With a boom, he was blown to death before he could finish speaking.

His reaction had been good, but unfortunately, it was an exploding arrow!

At the same time, the other enemy was clearly frightened. During the battle, he kept glancing at Shiro, wary of being ambushed.

However, he had already been weaker than Taichi to begin with. Now that he was distractedly guarding against Shiro during battle, he was immediately placed at an even greater disadvantage.

"Shadow Possession Jutsu!"

Shikaki, who had freed up a hand, was not idle either. After Shiro took down another Chunin, Shikaki immediately used Shadow Possession Jutsu to assist Taichi against his opponent.

However, the enemy truly deserved to be called a ninja bold enough to defect from the village. His reaction was swift, and he flashed away from Shikaki's shadow. Unfortunately, Shikaki was not fighting alone. Taichi seized the opportunity and instantly dealt with him!

It had to be said that those who dared to defect from the village really had some skill. If it had been Shiro in that situation, he definitely would not have reacted in time and could only have relied on Reinforcement Magecraft or a Noble Phantasm to withstand it head-on.

After Shikaki and Taichi defeated their opponents, they immediately rushed over to support Nakamura. Shiro, meanwhile, projected another Explosive Tag arrow but did not fire it.

That was because Shiro did not have much Chakra left. After projecting that arrow, his remaining Chakra was only enough to maintain Reinforcement Magecraft.

Thus, Shiro did not fire it. Instead, he maintained the posture of drawing his bow, posing a certain threat to the enemy! After all, a gun needed bullets to be properly intimidating!

An empty gun could only be used by Yan Shuangying to look cool.

The same was true for Shiro's bow and arrows.

Furthermore, perhaps because Sealing Jutsu held a high level of authority in this world, the Explosive Tag arrow formed with Sealing Jutsu as its link had already attained the rank of an E-rank Noble Phantasm!

Of course, in terms of power, it was still far inferior to a released Noble Phantasm, but that did not reduce Shiro's Chakra consumption.

It was not that Shiro did not want to project arrows made purely of Explosive Tags. It was because without Sealing Jutsu serving as a link, they could not display their proper power. Otherwise, the Mutually Multiplying Explosive Tags invented by the Second Hokage, Tobirama Senju, would not have been classified as a forbidden technique.

Simply piling up numbers would not achieve much, of course, except for Konan's six hundred billion. That was something only rich people like the Fourth Kazekage, with his money-based powers, or Konan, who controlled a massive organization, could afford to play with.

Thus, Shiro silently kept his bow drawn at him. Though they were far apart and Shimizu could not see what kind of arrow Shiro held, Shiro dared to guarantee that Shimizu would not risk it!

At this distance, forget Shimizu—even Yan Shuangying would not dare to gamble!

And Shiro was not entirely out of stock. He still had the sample Kushina had made for him to analyze. However, there was only one of those, and it had been expensive to make. Unless absolutely necessary, Shiro would not use it.

Meanwhile, Shikaki and Taichi also arrived at Nakamura's battlefield.

When Nakamura and Shimizu saw the two of them arrive, they both flashed away and kept their distance.

"Shimizu, give up. You have no chance of winning anymore. Come back with me. If you sincerely admit your mistakes, Lord Hokage will forgive you."

"Heh, do you believe that?"

"...I believe in Lord Hokage!"

"Yeah, just like you, Nakamura, I also believe in Lord Hokage. But is that useful? Even if we go back, the best outcome would be getting assigned there!"

"Rather than that, I'd rather take a chance here. Even if you kill me, it would still be better than going there!"

"Shimizu, come back with us. We'll help you, as long as you sincerely admit your mistakes."

"Don't be naïve, Nakamura. You don't even believe that yourself, do you?" Shimizu interrupted Nakamura with a mocking laugh.

"..."

Indeed, Nakamura did not believe it himself. It was merely a way to comfort himself. After all, like Nakamura, Shimizu was a civilian ninja with little say in the village.

There'll be another chapter later. Sorry, I got so absorbed in writing that I forgot...