The Pinnacle of Tug-of-War: Shuriken Probes and Intelligence Games

Boom--!

The violent flames weren't aimed at the enemy at all, but exploded fiercely between Bai Shi's palms and the mud swamp beneath his feet.

The scorching heatwave, mixed with the pungent smell of gunpowder, surged into the sky. The high temperature generated by the explosion instantly evaporated the viscous and cold water of the "Underworld Swamp," and the hard earth clods were shattered by the shockwave.

"Retreat--!"

The roar of the Iwagakure Jonin echoed through the canyon. The eight Iwagakure elites possessed extremely high combat awareness. The moment the flames appeared, their formation scattered backward like mercury pouring onto the ground, creating a safe defensive distance.

"Is this kid crazy? Trying to commit suicide!" An Iwagakure Chunin, who had retreated to the edge of the rock wall, wiped the dust from his face and glared at the center of the explosion, which was still shrouded in thick smoke.

There was no answer.

The cold wind at the bottom of the canyon, carrying the hazy miasma, tore a gap in the thick smoke.

Rustle.

It was an extremely faint sound of leather boots stepping on charred gravel.

Bai Shi was not dead, nor had he escaped.

He was like a lone wolf that had been lurking in the darkness and finally revealed its fangs. Using the cover of the explosion's shockwave, the Lightning Release chakra in the meridians of his legs erupted without reservation. His muscles bulged slightly from extreme blood flow, and he transformed into a blurry black shadow, charging towards the encirclement of the eight elites, advancing instead of retreating!

"Seeking death!" A trace of ferocity flashed across the Iwagakure Jonin's rugged face. He firmly planted his thick legs into a horse stance, brought his hands together in front of his chest, and prepared to unleash a large-scale Earth Release jutsu to crush this suicidal Konoha ANBU.

But Bai Shi didn't give him a chance to lock onto his presence.

Midway through his high-speed sprint, Bai Shi's body twisted unnaturally in mid-air, defying all laws of physics. His hands darted through the ninja pouch at his waist like butterflies dancing through flowers, his fingers flicking rapidly.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Sixteen kunai, carrying extremely sharp whistling sounds, descended like a black rainstorm, forming a fan shape that enveloped the faces of the eight Iwagakure ninjas.

"Too naive! You think these basic ninja tools can hurt us?"

The Iwagakure ninjas sneered. In their eyes, such a chaotic and aimless throw was merely the death throes of prey.

However, beneath his mask, Bai Shi's cold eyes widened, his pupils devoid of any emotion, only a calculation running wildly like a precision instrument.

This was not an attempt to kill the enemy, but a core intelligence probe in a ninja battle!

In a ninja battle, whoever exposed their trump card first moved one step closer to death. Bai Shi intended to use these sixteen kunai to force out the combat habits and chakra natures of these eight individuals!

His gaze swept across the entire battlefield at extreme speed.

The three Iwagakure Chunin on the left, facing the kunai, instinctively lowered their center of gravity and drew their short swords to block them physically. Sparks flew as their blades collided; their steps were heavy, and their stance was extremely stable—Taijutsu type, threat level: low.

The two elites in front had their hands rapidly forming seals: "Snake-Boar-Dog." Two stone walls, half a meter high, rose from the ground, deflecting all the kunai. Their seal speed was about three per second, and their chakra fluctuations were stable—standard Earth Release type, threat level: medium.

The Iwagakure Jonin was the most overconfident. He neither dodged nor blocked. The skin on his neck instantly turned a dull gray-black. The kunai struck it, were repelled without leaving even a white mark—Earth Release: Hardening Technique, extremely high defense, but mobility must be compromised, threat level: high.

Bai Shi's brain worked like a supercomputer, categorizing this information in milliseconds and constructing a three-dimensional battlefield model.

Just then, his gaze suddenly locked onto a figure in the back right.

It was a tall, thin man wearing a black mask. Facing the two incoming kunai, he neither chose to resist nor used Earth Release. He slid backward with extreme lightness, forming a single hand seal in front of his chest.

"Rat-Dog-Monkey."

Bai Shi silently read out the opponent's hand seals in his mind.

Immediately after, a strand of extremely sharp, gentle breeze wrapped around the thin man's fingertips. With a casual wave of his hand, two semi-transparent wind blades whistled out, precisely slicing the mid-air kunai into two halves with a cut as smooth as a mirror.

Wind Release!

Bai Shi's eyes beneath his mask instantly turned extremely sharp.

Wind counters Lightning!

In the absolute counter-chain of the five basic chakra natures, the cutting power of Wind Release could easily tear apart the cell-activating defense of Lightning Release. In this Iwagakure squad, where Earth Release was prevalent, there was actually an extremely rare Wind Release ninja!

If Bai Shi had rashly used his full-power Lightning Release to kill the Iwagakure Jonin just now, this thin man would have cut his throat from the shadows with Wind Release.

This was the only variable on the entire battlefield that could pose a fatal threat to him.

"I must kill you first."

The moment the killing intent formed in his heart, Bai Shi's tactical plan completely changed.

"Scatter! Don't be fooled by this kid's illusion, form a formation and kill him!" The Iwagakure Jonin roared, waving away the dust in front of him, his massive body charging towards Bai Shi like a war chariot.

"Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!"

The thin man in the distance reacted extremely quickly, forming hand seals again. A gale mixed with sharp wind blades swept towards Bai Shi along the ground, sealing off all his escape routes.

A heavy tank in front, a wind blade massacre from behind.

In this desperate situation, a mocking cold smile appeared on Bai Shi's lips.

He stomped his feet into a puddle of mud and water, advancing instead of retreating, charging straight towards the whistling wind blades. Just as the wind blades were about to shred his body, Bai Shi pulled his hands backward forcefully.

Zing--!

A crisp sound of a taut string suddenly echoed in the air.

The tails of the sixteen kunai that had been repelled and scattered on the ground were all connected to extremely thin, specially made steel wires that were almost invisible in the miasma!

As Bai Shi pulled, the sixteen steel wires instantly tightened, weaving into an extremely sharp net of death in mid-air.

"What?!" The Iwagakure jonin in the lead was caught off guard, his massive frame slamming directly into the wire mesh. Although his Hardening Technique protected him from being sliced to pieces, the immense resistance forced his charge to a dead stop.

But the more lethal calculation lay in the rear!

Guided by the wires, the kunai forcibly altered their trajectory in mid-air. Borrowing the suction force of the Wind Release, they flew back at double their previous speed, viciously targeting the lanky man's blind spot!

"Damn it!" The lanky man's expression shifted violently. He never expected the opponent's kunai probe to hide such a chain of traps.

Forced to interrupt his follow-up Wind Release jutsu, he drew the ninja blade from his waist and twisted his body in a desperate, ungainly motion, batting away the returning kunai one by one.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Sparks flew in every direction.

Just as the lanky man's vision was drawn to the kunai, in that split-second interval where his old momentum had faded and his new strength had yet to arise—

Szzzt!

A piercing sound of electrical current tore through the gale.

Baishi's true form had already pushed through the residual wind pressure, moving like a bolt of azure lightning to close the distance instantly. Max-level Lightning Release chakra was compressed frantically into his right arm, and he held a cold, glinting kunai in his palm, thrusting it straight at the man's heart.

Too fast!

The lanky man's pupils contracted sharply, but he was, after all, a battle-hardened elite. At the threshold of life and death, a flicker of ruthlessness flashed in his eyes. Instead of dodging, he grabbed Baishi's thrusting wrist with his left hand, while his right hand drove his ninja blade—laden with sharp Wind Release chakra—deep into Baishi's abdomen!

Puchi!

The sound of the blade entering flesh was crystal clear.

"Caught you! Konoha rat!" The lanky man sneered, his Wind Release chakra erupting from the blade in an attempt to shred Baishi's internal organs completely.

In the distance, the Iwagakure jonin saw this scene and finally let his taut nerves relax: "It's over."

However, the sneer on the lanky man's face lasted only half a second before it froze solid.

No warm blood sprayed out.

No pained scream followed.

He felt as though he hadn't stabbed into a living body at all, but rather into a piece of incredibly hard, inanimate matter!

The "Baishi" before him, whose abdomen had been pierced, curled his lips beneath his mask into an eerie arc. The next moment, the body exploded into a cloud of white smoke!

Bang!

As the smoke cleared, what remained in the lanky man's hand was not some Konoha ANBU.

It was a section of a wooden log, covered in cracks.

On the surface of the log, three Explosive Tags were neatly affixed. The cinnabar patterns were glowing to their limit, and the faint light of the burning fuses magnified infinitely within the lanky man's terrified pupils.

"Substitution Jutsu?! When did..."

The lanky man's voice cracked from extreme terror. He tried desperately to throw the log away, but it was already too late.

An icy chill suddenly rose from behind him.

Baishi's voice, devoid of emotion like a reaper's, whispered softly right against his ear.

"Your habit of weaving hand signs is far too redundant."