Escape

"Damn you!" a Mist ninja cursed. Damn it all, he had never seen such a shameless ninja. The brat would turn around and weave hand seals as if he were about to unleash a massive ultimate technique, but in the end? Nothing.

These Mist ninja felt as though their intelligence had been insulted. Filled with mounting rage, they pursued Li Yi, determined to hack the boy into a thousand pieces.

Just then, Li Yi turned around again, walking backward while weaving hand seals. The Mist ninja's breath hitched, and they immediately shifted into defensive stances. They might not have heard the story of the boy who cried wolf, but they knew that caution on the battlefield was never a mistake.

Regrettably, Li Yi simply kept running without so much as passing gas.

"Damn it! When we catch that brat, I'm going to skin him alive!" a Mist ninja roared. This kid was pushing his luck too far.

Whenever the Mist ninja drew near, Li Yi would turn and pose as if to release a Fire Style jutsu, leaving them feeling stifled. As Jonin, they refused to be governed by anger; on the battlefield, one only had one life, so caution—extreme caution—was the rule. Because of this, no matter how many times Li Yi pulled this stunt, they would slow their pace, even if it meant letting him gain some distance.

Of course, they wouldn't waste chakra by releasing their own jutsus prematurely, either.

Li Yi knew it would be difficult to keep tricking them with this tactic, but it was fine this way. Mutual wariness made things much easier for him.

Seeing the Mist ninja closing in again, Li Yi turned as usual and rapidly wove hand seals. The Mist ninja slowed down once more, but this time, Li Yi spat out a sea of flames that rolled toward the five-man squad.

"Fire Style: Great Fire Annihilation!"

This was the most powerful Fire Style jutsu Li Yi currently knew. A massive wall of fire engulfed the five-man squad, blocking the line of sight between them. Once the jutsu was cast, Li Yi immediately wove hand seals to perform the Shadow Clone Technique and began to flee.

This single Fire Style technique had consumed more than half of his chakra; if it failed to hinder the enemy, he would be in grave danger.

Fortunately, with the boost from the Mera Mera no Mi, Li Yi's fire was incredibly potent. At such close range, the five Mist ninja clearly had no time to mount a proper defense and were forced to endure the flames while desperately casting Water Style. Even so, the lead Mist ninja was severely burned.

"Captain, should we keep chasing?" one asked, hoisting the injured ninja onto his back.

The captain looked in the direction Li Yi had fled, noting the use of the Shadow Clone Technique again, and shook his head. Better to let it go. Their current condition was poor, and forcing a pursuit would likely end in disaster. Besides, the Konoha brat was as cunning as a ghost; it would be a tragedy if they were counter-killed instead.

Once Li Yi realized no one was following him, he let out a long sigh of relief. He had finally shaken off his pursuers, though he had no idea how his teacher was faring.

He couldn't worry about that now. Taking a Military Ration Pill, Li Yi crawled into a hollow tree to begin his recovery.

In truth, this battle had made Li Yi realize many of his shortcomings, primarily the lack of a move capable of killing in a single strike. The Rasengan could do it, but he had to get close to his target. Perhaps he could kill one with it, but the others would then be able to close in on him, posing a massive risk of death.

To put it bluntly, his strength was still too pathetic.

He lacked sufficient chakra and any form of area-of-effect attack, making him vulnerable when outnumbered. However, these were not problems he could solve in the short term.

All he could do now was work toward the liberation of Ryujin Jakka. From what he had discovered so far, liberating the blade would likely require killing many people. But that brought him back to the problem: killing many people required great strength, and without that, everything else was moot.

If he wanted to increase his strength, he had to fully develop the Mera Mera no Mi. Once he could achieve full elementalization, he would have made a substantial breakthrough.

That way, he wouldn't have to fear close-quarters combat.

Of course, he also needed to grasp chakra nature transformation as soon as possible. Fire nature transformation was essentially about high-temperature burning and increasing the power of the flames. With the power of the Mera Mera no Mi, he could manage that to some extent, but if he combined his mastery of nature transformation with the fruit's abilities, would it evolve into something even more formidable?

Li Yi carefully recalled the power of the Fire Style jutsus he had cast recently while incorporating the fruit's abilities, internalizing that sensation so he could replicate it every time he released his chakra.

This was why combat was the fastest path for a ninja to improve.

While Li Yi was deep in thought inside the tree hollow, two ninja appeared outside. They exchanged a glance, and one pulled a kunai from his pouch and threw it into the hollow, an Explosive Tag dangling from the end.

Hearing the sound of air being pierced, Li Yi bolted out of the hollow instantly. Seeing the incoming kunai, his eyes narrowed, and he rolled to the side. At that moment, the other ninja had already woven hand seals and slammed his hands onto the ground, causing a spike of earth to erupt from the soil and shoot straight toward Li Yi's chest.

"Rasengan!" A blue sphere of light ignited in Li Yi's hand, and he slammed it into the earth spike, shattering it completely.

Looking at the two ninja, Li Yi frowned. They were from Iwagakure. It seemed things were becoming increasingly chaotic if even Iwagakure ninja were out here.

Since these two had attacked him, there was nothing left to say.

Li Yi brandished Ryujin Jakka and performed the Konoha Style: Willow!

The sudden illusion caused the Iwagakure ninja's eyes to widen as he scrambled to dispel it, but Li Yi had already surged forward. Leaping high, he brought his blade down, instantly decapitating the ninja.

He was only a Chunin, after all; killing him hadn't been much of a struggle.

It was his true body, too, as Li Yi saw Ryujin Jakka absorb a wisp of the man's soul.

The other Iwagakure ninja reacted and tried to leap away, but Li Yi locked eyes with him and cast the Shackles of the Heart Technique.

The ninja faltered for a split second, and Li Yi was already upon him, driving his blade through the man's heart without the slightest intention of interrogating him for information.

As another wisp of soul energy was absorbed by Ryujin Jakka, Li Yi quickly departed the scene.

A short while later, three ninja arrived. The leader looked at the two corpses, frowned, and finding no useful intelligence, could only collect the bodies.

After leaping through the trees to put distance between himself and the site, Li Yi checked his bearings and headed toward the border of the Land of Rain. He had to rendezvous with his teacher; after all, Uchiha Kagami had said that if they were separated, they should wait at the border between the Land of Rain and the Land of Fire.