A Chance Encounter with a Cloud Ninja

On the other side, Li Yu, wearing an Anbu mask and a black robe, traveled rapidly, closing in on Cloud Village.

When tired, he would stop in a cave, activate his left Mangekyo Sharingan, and after a distortion of space, enter a different dimension. It was fully stocked with daily necessities and had everything one could need; aside from being a bit empty, it had no drawbacks.

He removed his mask and robe, started a fire to cook a meal, and then leisurely cracked open a drink. Lying comfortably on the bed, he felt as though this mission was more like a vacation.

"Sigh, I've been out for so long. I still miss the bed at home—big, soft, and with a beauty by my side."

"I'm clearly passing through the region between the Land of Earth and the Land of Lightning, yet the road has been so peaceful. I haven't even seen a single corpse."

"Shouldn't the Land of Lightning be at war with the Land of Earth? Perhaps the battlefield isn't here."

"Forget it, no use worrying about tomorrow's problems."

An ordinary person would never imagine that Li Yu had turned his Kamui dimension into a living space. Inside, he didn't have to worry about sneak attacks or insects, and he had a comfortable bed—the only thing missing was someone to warm it.

The next day.

Beep, beep, beep, beep.

Woken by his alarm, Li Yu climbed out of bed, put on his boxers, tidied up, and ate breakfast.

He donned his mask and black robe, activated his Mangekyo Sharingan, and after a brief distortion, appeared back inside the cave.

"Who's there?"

Whoosh, whoosh.

Several shuriken shot toward Li Yu. Having just arrived, he was still bleary-eyed, but seeing the kunai flying at him, his body reacted on instinct, leaping to the side to dodge.

Once he left the cave and put some distance between them, Li Yu took a closer look.

"Damn, so many people. I'm surrounded."

Surrounded by a group of Cloud Ninja, Li Yu scanned his surroundings. A sea of black tents stretched out; he was right in the center, inexplicably caught in an encirclement.

"A Konoha Anbu ninja!"

"Notify the Third Raikage immediately! A Konoha Anbu has infiltrated!"

"It's just one guy. Take him alive!"

Hearing the Cloud Ninja, Li Yu didn't know if he was lucky or unlucky to have stumbled directly into a Cloud force preparing to raid the Land of Earth.

"Without any preparation or hesitation, I just appeared like this."

"Saves me the trouble of going to Cloud Village to stir up trouble. I'll just finish them here."

Seeing the Cloud Ninja slowly closing in and shrinking his perimeter as more gathered, Li Yu couldn't help but smirk. "That might work on others, but it's useless against me."

He pulled out a special kunai and tossed it into the sky.

The surrounding ninja, seeing him throw a kunai at the air for no reason, couldn't help but mock him.

"Is this Konoha ninja an idiot?"

"He pulled out a few kunai, I thought he was going to fight to the death, but he just threw one at the sky."

"Hahaha!"

Seeing the crowd was too dense for Flying Thunder God to be efficient for mass killing, Li Yu retorted, "Laugh as hard as you want now; you'll be crying in terror soon enough."

Swish. Li Yu vanished from his spot and reappeared in mid-air, his hands weaving seals rapidly.

"Wind Style: Vacuum Serial Waves!"

In the air, Li Yu took a deep breath, channeled a massive amount of chakra, and spat out compressed wind whips. As he whipped his head around, the wind acted like multiple sharp lashes, relentlessly whipping the dense crowd of Cloud Ninja on the ground.

"Ahhh!"

"How is this possible? Lightning Style can't defend against it!"

"Scatter!"

Li Yu's wind whips were as sharp as sword energy. While normal sword energy was straight, these wind whips were irregular, curved, and circular, making it impossible to dodge with standard taijutsu.

"In terms of elemental affinity, Wind Style suppresses Lightning Style. How many can withstand a Wind Style jutsu infused with this much chakra?"

This B-rank Wind Style jutsu instantly caught thirty or forty Cloud Ninja who couldn't dodge in time, or who tried to tank it with their Lightning Style-coated bodies. They were sliced into pieces, leaving the ground crisscrossed with winding, jagged gashes.

Blood poured from the corpses, flowing into the cracks in the ground like illegible, blood-red symbols. The scene was utterly gruesome.

When Li Yu was five meters from the ground, he caught his special kunai in mid-air and threw it again, embedding it into a large boulder. Swish. Li Yu landed steadily on the rock, looking down at the Cloud Ninja below.

This maneuver was a successful show-off in front of the Cloud Ninja—a smooth, fluid sequence. This spontaneous idea even allowed him to draw inferences, and Li Yu began thinking of even flashier ways to use his ninjutsu.

Nodding to himself, Li Yu thought that if he wanted to, he could throw several special kunai and unleash multiple large-scale jutsu from different directions, instantly drowning the enemy.

But just then, a fist the size of a sandbag, wrapped in a layer of purple light, struck toward his face. The sound hadn't even arrived, but the person had.

His entire face visibly deformed and twisted, his eyeballs nearly popping from their sockets. Just as his head was about to shatter under the impact—

Poof.

After a burst of white smoke, he turned into a log, sending wood chips spraying in one direction.

Boom!

It was only after the wood had been pulverized that the whistling wind trailing the purple figure and the sonic boom of his punch rang out in succession.

Having used the Body Replacement Technique to reappear at a distance, Li Yu's face beneath his mask was grave; this speed and power far exceeded the Sixth Gate of Might Dai's Eight Inner Gates. Perhaps it was because Might Dai's base attributes were not high enough, or perhaps the Sixth Gate simply wasn't enough.

This opponent's opening move was extraordinary; had he been struck by that long-charged heavy punch, he would have been in a world of hurt, potentially compromising the rest of the battle.

The Third Raikage A stood on a large rock with a flamboyant air, maintaining his punching posture—waist bent, knees flexed, right fist extended, and left fist coiled—a sight that made Li Yu want to find a camera and snap a picture.

Did you throw out your back, or what?

The Third Raikage A slowly straightened up and shouted to the Cloud Ninjas below:

"Fall back, all of you. I will deal with this Konoha ninja myself."

The Cloud Ninjas below immediately shook off the bloody, cruel atmosphere left by their comrade's gruesome death, their eyes filled with fervor and excitement as they shouted back:

"Yes, Lord Third Raikage!"

Based on Li Yu's observations, the Third Raikage A had clearly missed his sneak attack and had held that pose for over ten seconds to mask his embarrassment before finally standing up to rally his men.

The subordinates below looked like fanatical, overexcited fans of a pop idol.

So this is the Third Raikage? I heard he can suppress the rampaging Eight-Tails all by himself.

Seeing that the nearby Cloud Ninjas had mostly retreated, the Third Raikage A pointed at Li Yu, who was slowly walking forward in his black robe and Anbu mask.

"You are the Konoha Anbu ninja, Zi Yu, aren't you?"

"That is correct."

"To think you used the Body Replacement Technique from the Three Lives Technique to dodge my strike. You are the first person to ever evade my attack with such a jutsu."

Li Yu had been on guard ever since he heard the Cloud Ninjas mention the Third Raikage, his hand already forming seals, ready for the Third Raikage A to strike at any moment.

"You infiltrated this place all alone. Judging by your direction, were you planning to sneak into my Cloud Village to do something?"

"Nothing much. I just wanted to have a heart-to-heart with you and end this boring war as soon as possible."

"If you won't tell the truth, I'll just have to capture you and ask you slowly."