Swift Release

Ebisu reacted instantly, retreating backward.

A figure materialized—a gaunt, middle-aged man. He looked incredibly frail, yet his speed just moments ago had been inexplicable.

Among all the enemies Ye Yuexin had encountered, this gaunt man was by far the fastest.

Even with his own footwork nearing perfection, Ye Yuexin had barely managed to react in time.

To the gaunt man, it seemed as though Ye Yuexin and his companions were nothing more than fish on a chopping block, ready to be slaughtered at his leisure.

He felt no need to rush. Instead, he glared at Ye Yuexin, gnashing his teeth.

"You actually killed the young master of the Tumu Clan. Do you have any idea what the consequences will be? You damned brat!"

The gaunt man was Taiyuan Zeng, who had stumbled upon the training methods of a clan possessing the Swift Release bloodline by sheer coincidence.

He was a figure of some renown throughout the Rock Village.

However, because he had offended the higher-ups, he had been relegated to guarding the border.

The squad leader whom Ye Yuexin had killed had only recently arrived at this sub-base.

He was the young master of the Tumu Clan, and his purpose in coming was to recruit Taiyuan Zeng.

Having spent a considerable amount of time at the border, Taiyuan Zeng had actually been tempted, though he had maintained a facade of reserve.

This visit was intended to be the final negotiation regarding the terms of his recruitment.

Yet, he never could have imagined that things would turn out this way.

It was no exaggeration to say that he had now lost any chance of ever returning to the village.

Furthermore, he would undoubtedly be targeted by the Tumu Clan.

One had to understand that the Tumu Clan was no small entity within the Rock Village.

They had sent the clan head's youngest son to recruit him, only for the boy to end up dead.

And it had happened within a sub-base located in the defensive sector of his own main base.

No matter how he tried to explain it, there was no escaping this reality.

He was at a loss for how to describe his current state of mind.

He had even begun to contemplate defecting from the Rock Village.

Ever since he had acquired the training methods for Swift Release, his strength had skyrocketed overnight.

During that period, the number of assassination missions he had completed in the Rock Village had surpassed those of the Anbu assassination squads.

He had relied entirely on his lightning-fast speed.

Like any ordinary person, the massive surge in power and the praise of others had caused his ego to inflate.

Following that inflation, a lapse in judgment during an S-rank mission—born of his own arrogance—had led to the failure of the mission and the loss of his entire squad.

He was the only one who had escaped, thanks to his Swift Release.

One of the members of that squad had been the descendant of an elder.

Once the investigation into the mission concluded, he had offended the grandfather of the boy who had died so miserably—a Rock Village elder.

He was subsequently ostracized, though because he possessed Swift Release, the higher-ups had not punished him too severely. Instead, they had assigned him to border defense.

Because he was so inflated by his own sense of strength, he had been deeply dissatisfied with this decision.

But since it was a decree from the village, he had been forced to agree to the assignment.

There was another reason, too: he felt that the village would not simply abandon him.

He was confident that his strength alone was enough.

And sure enough, it hadn't been long before a clan from the village had come to recruit him.

A bright future was within his grasp once more.

But now, everything had been ruined by Ye Yuexin and his two companions.

Even if the village were to tolerate him, he would likely be stuck guarding the border for the rest of his life.

That was why the thought of defection had suddenly taken root.

He felt that with his current strength, he could live a life of luxury anywhere he went.

There was no need to spend his entire life guarding this desolate, uninhabited border.

However, it seemed too late to talk about that now.

Taiyuan Zeng's current priority was to deal with Ye Yuexin and the others—and he intended to do so with brutal cruelty.

What kind of hatred was this? This was the deep-seated enmity of someone who had destroyed his future.

Afterward, Taiyuan Zeng even planned to take his revenge on Konoha.

Seeing the man before him, Ye Yuexin's expression turned grave.

After all, speed-type ninjas were different from those who relied on ninjutsu or genjutsu. Speed-type ninjas were the most dangerous of all.

Just as the old saying goes, all martial arts under heaven are invincible if they are fast enough.

Think of Minato Namikaze; didn't he dominate the ninja world with his extreme speed?

This time, the slightest negligence would truly cost them their lives.

Might Guy had also reacted by now. He stood up from the ground, though a trace of blood hung from the corner of his mouth. He stared coldly at Taiyuan Zeng.

Ye Yuexin also slowly stood up and took the forehead protector off his head.

He wrapped it around his injured, bleeding left arm, his gaze never leaving Taiyuan Zeng throughout the process.

After all, the current situation could be called the most dangerous moment since Ye Yuexin became a ninja.

He said to the two, "Ebisu, provide support. Might Guy and I will take the lead. We could really die this time, so be extremely careful."

Ye Yuexin said nothing to Taiyuan Zeng, knowing that words would be useless.

It was better to fight for their lives; since it was a situation of nine deaths and one life, he would fight to seize that one chance of survival.

Even if he didn't believe in himself, he had to believe in the strength of the future Might Guy from his childhood. He just didn't know if Might Guy had learned the Eight Inner Gates yet.

Ye Yuexin slowly drew his short blade and activated Flying Dagger Mode.

After the chakra was channeled, the entire surface of the blade began to glow with a cyan hue, as if wind were flowing over it.

Unlike the Lightning Style chakra blades from the original work, it didn't produce such loud noise or bright light.

Its characteristics were concealment and sharpness.

The specialty of Wind Style was cutting, so the Wind Style Blade was definitely sharper than a Lightning Style chakra blade.

Seeing that the three of them were prepared for battle, Taiyuan Zeng laughed wildly.

"Ahahahaha, that's it. The more you resist, the more interested I become. Hahaha!"

"Struggle, despair. Wait for me to dismantle your bones one by one."

As soon as his voice fell, he vanished instantly.

Bad, danger! His perception in Flying Dagger Mode was incredibly detailed.

Ye Yuexin instantly discovered that Taiyuan Zeng had already arrived at his left flank and was preparing to attack. He was simply too fast.

Shifting his footwork, the sound of wind roared around Ye Yuexin.

With an extreme twist, he barely managed to intercept Taiyuan Zeng's attack.

However, just as Ye Yuexin was about to block, under the sensing of his Flying Dagger Mode, Taiyuan Zeng used another Body Flicker technique, flashing behind him.

His right leg kicked violently toward Ye Yuexin's head.

Ye Yuexin did not move his body because it was already too late.

Footwork movement required space, and Ye Yuexin's center of gravity had just shifted.

Facing such speed and distance from Taiyuan Zeng, he could not dodge.

Although Ye Yuexin's body didn't move, his left hand began to form hand seals; the speed of moving fingers was certainly faster than the speed of the body.

Especially for the Substitution Jutsu, which only required two seals.

Ye Yuexin's Substitution Jutsu was completed first, just before Taiyuan Zeng's foot could strike his head.

The Ye Yuexin who was being attacked had already turned into a wooden log.

He chose to turn into a log proactively because he saw Might Guy had also arrived in front of him.

Because the Substitution Jutsu created a small area of smoke when turning into wood.

Coordinating with each other, team combat—this was the moment they were waiting for.

Under the cover of the smoke, a Konoha Hurricane instantly swept into the wooden log.

The log flew rapidly toward the distance in the direction of Taiyuan Zeng.

But Taiyuan Zeng's figure did not appear.