"Splurt—"
The muffled sound of a sharp blade brutally tearing through cloth and flesh suddenly erupted in the howling gale high in the air.
The ghostly green tip of the Kunai plunged unobstructed beneath Baishi's left collarbone. The instant the Poison Blade entered his flesh, an overwhelmingly fierce heat surged backward through his blood vessels, and the muscles in half his shoulder spasmed violently beyond his control.
Unrestrained delight instantly surged across the rugged face of the Iwagakure Jonin. With the support of Earth Release Technique, this strike had enough penetrating force to skewer a Wild Boar clean through. He was already prepared to enjoy the sight of this Konoha rat wailing in pain as he plummeted helplessly to his death.
However, the next second, the delight on the Jonin's face completely froze.
There was no scream. No retreat.
At the point where their gazes met, there was not the slightest trace of fear of death in Baishi's icy eyes. Instead, they held a madness and extreme rationality that made the skin crawl.
"You..." The Jonin's pupils suddenly contracted, and his heart began pounding uncontrollably.
To his horror, he discovered that Baishi had not only failed to dodge—he had instead taken an extremely vicious step forward into the Poison Kunai that had pierced his body!
"Crack!"
The horrifying sound of the blade forcibly scraping against the collarbone rang out. Baishi deliberately trapped the Kunai's edge firmly with his bones and the surrounding contracting muscles. The entire Kunai, all the way to its guard, sank into Baishi's flesh.
This was Baishi's calculation!
With nowhere to draw leverage from in midair and his speed and strength comprehensively suppressed, he directly turned his own body into the perfect bait and lock. Using the "tunnel effect" created by his pierced collarbone and spasming muscles, he forcefully welded the Jonin's left arm to his own body!
"Madman! Get off me!"
The experienced Iwagakure Jonin instantly sensed the deadly danger. He roared and tried to pull back his left hand.
Too late.
Baishi's left hand was like an iron clamp, locking tightly around the wrist of the hand gripping the Kunai. His fingernails dug deep into the gaps in the Jonin's skin, which was enveloped in Hardening Technique, and blood seeped through his fingers.
"Got you."
Baishi's expression was blank, and his voice had turned extremely hoarse from the pain.
His right hand, which had just released Max-Level Lightning Release and whose meridians were still aching faintly, suddenly came together into a blade hand.
He mercilessly squeezed every last bit of Chakra remaining in his body, even forcibly drawing out the energy sustaining the repair of his Incomplete Uzumaki Constitution. Blinding blue Lightning exploded from his fingertips once more. The high-frequency vibrating Lightning-natured Chakra sliced through the air with a sizzling hiss, forming a tangible Lightning Blade half a meter long.
"No! Wait—" The Jonin's eyes nearly split open, his burly body struggling desperately in midair.
But the distance between them was far too close—so close that he had no room even to form hand seals and use Substitution Technique.
Killing intent surged in Baishi's eyes. Without any flashy movements, the Lightning Blade in his right hand dragged a dazzling blue afterimage as it stabbed viciously upward into the Jonin's undefended left chest.
"Shhk—boom!"
The Lightning Release Chakra sliced effortlessly through the Jonin's bulletproof vest, pierced his ribs, and struck his violently beating heart with pinpoint accuracy.
The berserk high-voltage current exploded inside his chest.
The Jonin's body suddenly bent taut like a bow curving backward. His eyes bulged out, and the bloodshot eyeballs nearly popped from their sockets. The stench of scorched meat mixed with the heavy smell of blood and exploded into the space between them.
That powerful heart was instantly electrocuted into a lump of charcoal by the point-blank eruption of Max-Level Lightning Release.
His life force was completely extinguished.
"Bang!"
The two tightly entangled bodies crashed heavily into the half-dried Underworld Swamp at the bottom of the Canyon like two massive meteorites.
Muddy water mixed with shattered stones and splashed several meters into the air.
All around them, only the occasional rumble of rubble rolling down the collapsed cliff walls remained, along with the faint crackling of residual Lightning Release charges in the air.
In the mire, Baishi abruptly shoved away the massive corpse pressing down on him.
"Cough... cough, cough!"
He knelt on one knee in the mud, coughing violently. The blood he coughed up was mixed with a shocking dark purple.
The poison had taken effect.
His vision began to double, and the entire left half of his body, from his collarbone to his fingertips, had completely lost sensation. The burning pain of the venom corroding his nerves was ten times more intense than the pain of Lightning Release Chakra tearing through his cells.
Baishi clenched his teeth and gripped the Kunai guard protruding from outside his collarbone tightly with his right hand.
"Chakra remaining... seven percent."
Cold data continuously reminded him of his current state of extremity. He could not pull it out. The moment he removed the Kunai, the compressed artery would spray blood instantly, and the poison would rush into his heart within ten seconds as his accelerated circulation carried it through his body.
Being ruthless to himself was his only bargaining chip for survival.
A vicious glint flashed through Baishi's eyes. He pressed his right palm against the area around the wound and precisely mobilized the last bit of Lightning Release Chakra.
"Bzzzt—"
Faint blue arcs of electricity danced across his fingertips and stabbed directly into the muscle tissue around the wound.
He was actually using the heat produced by Lightning Release Chakra to forcibly sear a large area of the blood vessels and flesh around the wound!
The stench of charred meat rose again. The muscles on Baishi's face spasmed violently from the extreme pain, but he stubbornly did not even let out a muffled groan.
The charred flesh temporarily blocked the spread of the poison, while the Incomplete Uzumaki Constitution's tenacious vitality slowly began repairing his damaged internal organs.
Baishi gasped heavily as cold sweat mixed with mud and dripped from his chin.
All eight Iwagakure elites were dead.
In this battle of vastly unequal strength, he had completed an impossible counterkill through the eruption of Max-Level Lightning Release, an extreme battle of information, and his merciless brutality toward himself.
But he relaxed not at all. His icy eyes remained fixed on the smoke-shrouded cliff above the Canyon.
He knew very well that a true hunter would never reveal himself while his prey still had the strength to struggle.
"Clatter."
A piece of rubble rolled from the edge of the cliff and fell into the mire.
Immediately afterward, extremely soft footsteps, yet ones carrying an absolute sense of control, slowly emerged from deep within the smoke.
The newcomer wore Konoha ANBU's standard cloak and a pure white Mask without any markings. Stepping across the ruins of the collapsed cliff, he looked down from above at the horrific scene below, which resembled a battlefield from hell at the bottom of the Canyon.
The ANBU captain, code-named "Venom Fang."
Venom Fang's gaze swept across the surroundings. The severed limbs blown apart by Explosive Tags, the corpses burned by Lightning Release, and the Iwagakure Jonin whose death had been particularly gruesome caused a trace of undisguisable shock to flash deep in his eyes.
His original plan had been to use Baishi, the sacrificial pawn, to stall the Iwagakure squad for a few minutes. After the Iwagakure killed him, he would come out to clean up the scene and conveniently disguise Baishi's death as a defection or death after being overwhelmed in battle.
But he had never imagined that this bottom-level ANBU, who was utterly mediocre in his records and had even been frightened into trembling, would actually drag an entire squad of Iwagakure elites into mutual destruction!
"What a surprise, Owl."
Venom Fang stepped onto a protruding rock, his voice filled with undisguised mockery and coldness.
"I originally thought you could barely survive the first round of Earth Release at most. I never expected you to force that infamous Iwagakure Mad Dog into such a state."
Baishi knelt halfway in the mire, the Poison Kunai embedded in his left shoulder and his right hand hanging limply at his side. His chest heaved violently. He looked coldly at Venom Fang without speaking, like a dying beast that had exhausted every last bit of its vitality.
"But this is good, too."
Venom Fang slowly drew the Ninja Blade from his back. The blade shimmered with a chilling gleam in the Canyon's faint light.
"You exceeded your duties as bait. As your captain, I'll have your name carved in the most remote corner of the Memorial Stone. Of course, that's assuming... you die at the hands of Iwagakure."
Venom Fang walked toward the mire step by step, no longer concealing his killing intent in the slightest.
"If you want someone to blame, blame yourself for offending someone you shouldn't have. Danzo's orders, along with Namikaze Minato's tacit approval... A nobody like you, a pawn with no backing, doesn't even qualify to become a chess piece."
Ten meters.
Baishi lowered his head, his disheveled black hair covering his eyes.
"Is that so..."
A hoarse voice squeezed from Baishi's throat, carrying a trace of barely perceptible mockery.
Venom Fang let out a cold laugh and gripped the Ninja Blade with both hands. Chakra instantly flooded into the blade. "Rest easy on your way!"
Just as Venom Fang leaped high into the air and his Ninja Blade was about to descend and sever Baishi's head—
Baishi suddenly raised his head. Where was the slightest trace of despair or the dejection of a dying man in those eyes that should have been filled with hopelessness? They held only the cold killing trap of someone who had seen through everything!
His right hand, which appeared to be hanging feebly beneath the mud, suddenly jerked hard.
"Clink—"
An extremely fine steel wire that had been buried deep in the mire instantly pulled taut.
Venom Fang's pupils contracted sharply, and his gaze followed the direction of the wire.
Beneath the mire where he was about to land, three Miniature Explosive Tags, long since soaked through by the muddy water yet wrapped in a paper-thin layer of Lightning Release Chakra, were flashing with deadly red light!