Storm Style 1

All the Second Hokage had died. Only he, Shamon, was still alive. What did that mean? It meant he had the favor of fortune.

So the Second Kazekage, Shamon, had made thorough preparations for war, and the morale of the Hidden Sand Village's ninja had reached unprecedented heights.

As more and more ninja gathered along the border, Mitokado Homura, who was defending it, grew solemn. He also called Koharu over and said, "It looks like the Hidden Sand Village is getting restless too. There are more and more of their ninja along the Land of Rivers border. We'll have to inform Hiruzen."

Utatane Koharu glanced into the distance and nodded. She formed Hand Seals, and soon summoned a small animal. After she gave it the intelligence, it vanished from before her.

At Utatane Koharu's house in Konoha, the small animal appeared out of thin air. Holding the scroll, it bounced off toward the Third Hokage's office building.

After Sarutobi Hiruzen read the report, his expression turned grave. He hadn't expected the Hidden Sand Village to really join the war. If they entered the conflict, Konoha would be fighting on two fronts, and the situation would certainly become dire.

With no other choice, Sarutobi Hiruzen continued mobilizing the ninja from the various clans, sending them to the border. The Senju Clan was especially eager. Though the First Hokage and Second Hokage had both encouraged the Senju to become ordinary civilians, one branch of the Senju family had maintained its traditions. Now that the war was heating up, ninja from that branch were appearing along the Land of Rivers border.

Of course, none of this had anything to do with Li Yi for now. He was still active in the Land of Hot Water.

Quite a few Kumogakure squads had fallen victim to Li Yi.

This gave Li Yi a lot more confidence. So not everyone was Yotsuki Hayate. If every Kumogakure Jonin who showed up out of nowhere was that strong, wouldn't Kumogakure have conquered the Shinobi World by now?

Because of Li Yi's assassinations, Kumogakure's patrol squads had started traveling in groups of three. There were three Jonin among them, along with several Chunin and Genin.

Even so, Li Yi didn't take the three Jonin seriously.

At that moment, Li Yi had his eye on three squads. The Jonin in those squads were chatting casually. Clearly, they thought that as long as they were together, nothing could go wrong unless they ran into a Konoha Jonin squad.

"Recently, quite a few of our Kumogakure ninja have been ambushed. We don't even know how many enemies we're up against. They've got some nerve. If I run into them, I'll wipe them out!" said a dark-skinned man wearing sunglasses.

"Haha, Kujo, if you were on the job, there'd be no problem!" one of the Jonin beside him flattered him.

"Exactly. I feel a lot safer working with your squad, Kujo!" another Jonin chimed in. It was clear just how formidable the man named Kujo was.

"Hahaha!" Kujokawa laughed twice. Clearly, he thought so too.

As a Kekkei Genkai user, Kujokawa had every right to be confident. His strength ranked among the best in all of Kumogakure.

"Blaze Release: Great Flame Dragon Technique!" Just then, a gigantic black-and-red flaming dragon head came swooping down from the sky. Its mouth gaped wide as it lunged at the three men.

"Water Release: Water Wall Technique!" The three Jonin lived up to their rank. One of them quickly formed Hand Seals and spewed a torrent of water from his mouth, creating a wall to block the dragon head.

The other two Jonin had no doubts about their comrade's skill. Instead of dodging, they quickly formed Hand Seals. One of them shouted, "Lightning Release: Lightning Flash!"

A web of lightning immediately appeared around his body, forming a defense. The technique looked a bit like the Lightning Style Armor.

The other one, Kujokawa, called out, "Storm Style: Thunder Cloud Inner Wave!"

In an instant, a vast bank of dense, black storm clouds appeared overhead. Arcs of crackling electricity danced across Kujokawa's body.

But the Great Flame Dragon Technique passed straight through the Jonin's Water Release technique with ease. Its enormous jaws snapped shut, swallowing all three Jonin.

The first to scream was the Jonin who had used Water Release. He couldn't understand it. His Water Release wasn't some Genin-level technique; it had incorporated Chakra Nature Transformation. Ordinary Fire Style techniques shouldn't have been able to pass through it. Even if one did, its power should have been greatly reduced.

Yet this technique hadn't weakened in the slightest. It had swallowed all three of them in one bite.

The other two fared a little better. They had activated their defenses, while he had activated nothing and was soon burned black by the dark red flames.

The other two were in bad shape as well, but luckily they'd been quick enough to activate their defenses on instinct. They fought their way out of the dragon's mouth. Much of their bodies was scorched black, but at least they made it out. Their teammate was out of luck. He hadn't even had time to react before the technique killed him.

Li Yi didn't pay any attention to the Jonin. Instead, he appeared beside the squads they had brought with them.

"Konoha Style: Willow!" Li Yi's scarlet Sharingan spun as he cast a genjutsu and launched into the Konoha Style sword technique. The Chunin and Genin had never faced anything like this. Under the influence of Li Yi's Sharingan genjutsu, they couldn't even move.

With a single move, Li Yi took out three Chunin and two Genin.

Just as Li Yi was about to keep cutting them down, a beam of light shot straight toward him.

Li Yi recognized it as Storm Style, a technique with a homing function. He didn't bother dodging. Flames burst over his body as he activated Elementalization Mode.

The beam pierced through Li Yi's chest. He frowned. It had taken away a great deal of his fire element, greatly slowing his body's recovery and increasing his chakra consumption.

Li Yi immediately realized that this Storm Style technique countered him to some extent.

Thinking about how Storm Style worked, he understood. Storm Style was formed by combining lightning and water chakra. When the Storm Style attack struck him just now, it had extinguished a great deal of his fire element. That was why his chakra consumption had increased and his recovery had slowed.

Against ordinary techniques, Li Yi didn't care. Water Release was the only real hassle. Now he'd have to watch out for Storm Style too.

"What?" Kujokawa cried out in shock. His Storm Style technique had clearly hit his opponent, so why was he completely unharmed?

"Lightning Release: Lightning Dragon!" The other Jonin had apparently finished preparing his technique too. A long dragon formed from lightning roared as it charged at Li Yi.

The Three Tomoe in Li Yi's eyes spun wildly. Just as the Lightning Dragon was about to reach him, he darted to the side. The roaring dragon slammed into the spot behind him, where several terrified Kumogakure Genin were standing.

"No!" the Jonin cried out. He couldn't believe Li Yi had dodged his technique like that—and had even calculated the position in advance.