Keisuke's Death

With his Sharingan activated, Uchiha Keisuke was a matchless force in taijutsu against these common rogue ninjas.

He parried a ninja's katana strike with his kunai, using the momentum to deflect the blade aside.

Another ninja, poised to attack, saw his weapon collide with the deflected blade; the jarring recoil forced the first ninja to wince and drop his sword.

Keisuke seized the falling katana, spun sharply, and slashed the first two rogue ninjas to the ground, along with three others who had attempted a sneak attack from behind.

Wielding the katana, he became an unstoppable force, cutting left and right through the crowd.

Two Senju ninjas, who had been suppressing Wuming alongside Senju Arashi, charged in from the side. Their offensive was clearly superior to that of the surrounding rogues, but Keisuke remained unruffled.

He first threw his katana to block one man's advance, then kicked out at the other Senju ninja.

The targeted ninja crossed his arms to defend against the kick, but Keisuke used the recoil to leap into the air.

Mid-air, Keisuke performed a rapid sequence of hand seals: "Fire Style: Phoenix Sage Fire Technique!"

Dozens of fireballs erupted from his mouth, guided with lethal precision by his Sharingan into the crowd, triggering a chorus of incessant screams.

Simultaneously, before landing, Keisuke pulled out a handful of smoke bombs and smashed them against the ground, shrouding the entire battlefield in thick fog.

Unable to distinguish friend from foe, everyone was forced to remain on high alert within their immediate vicinity.

Only Keisuke, with his Sharingan, remained unaffected. Under the cover of the smoke, he reaped lives at will; a sense of terror spread through the crowd, and in an instant, the tide of battle was turned by Keisuke alone.

Firelight and thick smoke intertwined across the battlefield, while the sounds of screaming and tearing flesh rose and fell, creating a chilling, Shura-like hellscape.

Several Senju ninjas surrounding Shiri grew visibly agitated as the crowd fell into chaos. After exchanging glances, they sought to finish Shiri off quickly to reinforce the others, accelerating their efforts to tighten the encirclement.

Observing from the shadows, Shiri sensed their desperation and fired several shuriken at the closing Senju ninjas.

At the same time, she activated her Sharingan, instantly capturing the positions of all the Senju ninjas in her field of vision and casting a genjutsu upon them.

To an outsider, Shiri had merely thrown a dozen shuriken, but to the Senju ninjas, a rain of shuriken roared toward them from every direction, making it impossible to distinguish the real from the illusory.

Unfortunately, the Senju ninjas were still at a distance, giving them enough time to react and dive behind thick trees for cover.

Yet, hidden behind the trees, they failed to notice that Shiri's pupils had turned crimson. Her Three Tomoe Sharingan swiveled, quickly pinpointing their locations.

"Sharingan Windmill Triple Blade!"

The Sharingan genjutsu had been a mere feint, forcing the Senju ninjas into a blind spot; this current move was the true killing blow.

Shiri flicked her fingers, and the thin wires attached to the shuriken instantly altered the flight path of several projectiles.

Five Senju ninjas were ensnared by the wires and bound tightly to the trees, unable to break free.

Shiri then clamped the remaining wires between her teeth and performed the Snake-Dragon-Hare-Tiger hand seals with blinding speed: "Fire Style: Dragon Fire Technique!"

A surging torrent of flame roared along the wires toward the Senju ninjas, who waited in despair for the searing heat to descend.

At the critical moment, a shout echoed from afar: "Water Style: Great Waterfall Technique!"

Ever since Shiri had released her shuriken, Senju Arashi in the distance had sensed something was wrong.

The Uchiha clan were experts at manipulating ninja tools with their Sharingan; there was no way they would waste chakra simply throwing a large number of shuriken in a forest full of cover.

Thus, she temporarily abandoned her pursuit of Wuming and completed the hand seals for the Great Waterfall Technique before the Dragon Fire Technique could even be cast.

A massive, towering wave collided with the five surging fire dragons, instantly generating a vast cloud of steam.

Although the fire dragons were ultimately extinguished by the deluge, a massive volume of scalding water splashed directly onto the five Senju ninjas.

The impact of the water combined with the high-temperature burns caused the Senju ninjas to let out a single, agonizing "Aaaaaah!" before being swept away by the torrent, temporarily losing their ability to fight.

Qiancao, born in an era of peace, felt his eyes shimmer, his Sharingan flickering in and out of existence.

His ears were filled with the screams of the dying, his eyes saw severed limbs flying through the smoke, and his nose was assaulted by the scent of dust, charred wood, and even a faint, sickening aroma of cooked meat.

Qiancao struggled not to think about the source of that smell, using all his strength to dodge the ninjutsu unleashed by Senju Arashi, occasionally using a Fireball Technique to swat away incoming shuriken.

In the emergency, unable to draw from a distant mountain spring, Senju Arashi felt slightly strained after casting a large-scale Water Style technique from thin air, leaving her unable to suppress Wuming at close range for the moment.

The battle-hardened Wuming did not miss this opportunity. While Senju Arashi caught her breath, Wuming completed her hand seals:

"Fire Style: Great Dragon Fire Technique!"

A dragon-shaped flame erupted from Wuming's mouth, lunging straight at the panting Senju Arashi.

Senju Arashi dared not take it head-on and could only leap to the side to avoid the flames.

Although Wuming's attack missed its target, the flustered Senju Arashi could no longer lock onto Wuming's position.

The dragon-shaped flame spiraled through the forest, igniting numerous trees, and the resulting thick smoke became Wuming's best cover.

Under the cover of the smoke, Wuming ran to Shiri's side and said, "Let's go." She then gripped Qiancao's hand.

The warmth from Wuming's hand helped Qiancao steady himself, easing the nausea caused by the sight of so many corpses.

"We leave first," Shiri said calmly. "Uchiha Keisuke exposed his position on purpose just now. His motives are unclear, and there is little point in continuing the mission. We should retreat first and reassess."

But before Shiri and Wuming could move, Keisuke used the Body Flicker Technique to appear before them. "Why not kill those Senju ninjas before leaving?"

The Keisuke before them trembled slightly from exhaustion. He was drenched in blood, his body covered in wounds left by the enemy; he was clearly severely injured.

Wuming and Shiri, having relied on ninjutsu to decide the outcome, were relatively unscathed. In terms of raw combat power, Keisuke was currently at a disadvantage.

Still, Shiri dared not lower her guard. "The mission is a failure, and Hayasaka Sae has disappeared. We should return to the clan as soon as possible to report the intelligence and deliberate further."

Keisuke grinned, baring his teeth. "This is the daughter of the Senju clan head! Such a precious bargaining chip, such a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity—I have no intention of letting it go!"

Coupled with his blood-streaked face, this declaration truly fit the persona of a battle-crazed maniac that Keisuke usually projected.

Shiri wanted nothing to do with him; she shot a glance at Wuming and prepared to retreat, but to her surprise, Keisuke snatched up a katana he had looted from somewhere and, screaming "Ahhhhh!", charged straight at Senju Arashi.

"Go, quickly!" Shiri cried out in alarm. That brat Keisuke was intentionally exposing their position again, and she could only hope he would be able to hold Senju Arashi off for a little while longer.

Who would have thought that just as the three of them had run ten meters away, Keisuke had already collided with Senju Arashi.

Facing the Uchiha Keisuke who had killed so many people right before her eyes, Senju Arashi showed no mercy. Fueled by rage, she gathered chakra into her fist and delivered a blow that caved in half of Keisuke's skull!

With the Uchiha before her clearly beyond saving, Senju Arashi kicked his corpse aside and lunged toward the retreating backs of Shiri and Wuming!