Swift Release

Ebisu immediately jumped back when he came to his senses.

A figure appeared: a gaunt, middle-aged man. He was incredibly thin, but what had that speed just now been?

Of all the enemies Ye Yuexin had encountered, this gaunt man was the fastest.

Even he, whose footwork was nearly perfected, had almost failed to react.

To the gaunt man, Ye Yuexin and the others seemed like fish on a chopping block, ready for him to carve up at will.

So he didn't rush. Instead, he glared at Ye Yuexin through gritted teeth.

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

The gaunt man was Taiyuan Zeng. By a stroke of luck, he had obtained the training method of the Swift Release bloodline clan.

He was a fairly well-known figure throughout Iwagakure.

But after offending the higher-ups, he had been sent to guard the border.

The squad leader whom Ye Yuexin had killed had only recently arrived at this outpost.

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

Taiyuan Zeng had been stationed at the border for quite some time, and he had already been tempted. Still, he had held back and maintained a show of reserve.

He had planned to come over this time for one last negotiation, to see what they could offer him.

But he had never expected things to turn out like this.

It was safe to say that now he had no chance of returning to the village.

And the Tumu Clan would undoubtedly come after him.

The Tumu Clan was a powerful family in Iwagakure, after all.

Now they had sent the clan leader's youngest son to recruit him, only for the boy to end up dead.

And he had died at an outpost within the defensive zone of Taiyuan Zeng's main base.

No matter how he explained it, there was no way he could escape responsibility.

So now he didn't even know how to describe what he was feeling.

He had even begun to consider defecting from Iwagakure.

Ever since he had obtained the Swift Release training method, his strength had soared almost overnight.

For a time, the number of assassination missions he took on in Iwagakure had surpassed the number completed by the Anbu assassination squads.

He had achieved it all with his lightning-fast speed.

Like anyone else, he had let his immense increase in strength and the praise he received go to his head.

Then, after growing arrogant, he made a careless mistake during an S-rank mission. The mission failed, and his squad was lost.

Only he had managed to escape, thanks to Swift Release.

One of the squad members had been the grandson of an elder.

So, after the investigation into the mission was completed, he ended up offending the boy's grandfather, an Iwagakure elder. The boy had died an agonizing death during the mission.

After that, Taiyuan Zeng was ostracized. Because he possessed Swift Release, though,

the higher-ups hadn't punished him too harshly. But they had still assigned him to the border defenses.

Because his inflated sense of his own strength had made him resent the decision, he had always been deeply dissatisfied with it.

But it was the village's decision, and he had no choice but to accept the border assignment.

Another reason was that he felt the village wouldn't simply give up on him.

He was confident in his own abilities, after all.

And sure enough, it hadn't been long before one of the village's clans came to recruit him.

A good life was just around the corner.

But now Ye Yuexin and the other two had ruined everything.

Even if the village could tolerate him, he would probably spend the rest of his life guarding the border.

That was why the idea of defecting had suddenly occurred to him.

He felt that with his current strength, he could live well wherever he went.

There was no need to spend his whole life guarding this desolate border like he was now.

But it seemed too late for all that.

His only thought now was to deal with Ye Yuexin and the others—and torture them to death.

What kind of grudge was this? They had ruined his future. There could be no greater hatred.

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

At the sight of the man before him, Ye Yuexin's expression turned grave.

After all, speed-based ninja were different from those who specialized in ninjutsu or genjutsu. Speed-based ninja were the most dangerous.

As the old saying went, speed was the ultimate weapon.

Just look at Minato Namikaze. Hadn't he dominated the Shinobi World with his incredible speed?

This time, even the slightest slip-up could cost them their lives.

Might Guy had also recovered by now. He got to his feet, a trace of blood at the corner of his mouth, and glared coldly at Taiyuan Zeng.

Ye Yuexin slowly stood as well and removed his Forehead Protector.

He wrapped it around his injured left arm, which was still bleeding, never once taking his eyes off Taiyuan Zeng.

After all, this was the most dangerous situation Ye Yuexin had faced since becoming a ninja.

He said to the two of them, "Ebisu, support me while Guy and I take the lead. We could really die this time, so be careful."

Ye Yuexin had nothing to say to Taiyuan Zeng. He knew there was no point in talking.

He might as well fight with everything he had. If there was only one chance in ten of surviving, he would fight to make that one chance count.

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

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

As chakra flowed into it, the entire blade began to glow green, as if wind were coursing over its surface.

It wasn't as loud or bright as the Lightning Release Chakra Blade from the original story.

Its strengths were stealth and sharpness.

Wind Release excelled at cutting, so a Wind Style Blade was bound to be sharper than a Lightning Release Chakra Blade.

Seeing the three of them ready for battle, Taiyuan Zeng laughed wildly.

"Ahahahaha! That's more like it. The harder you resist, the more excited I get! Hahaha!"

"Struggle! Despair! Just wait while I break your bones, one by one!"

The moment he finished speaking, he vanished.

"Watch out!" Under Flying Dagger Mode, Ye Yuexin's perception was incredibly acute.

In an instant, he realized that Taiyuan Zeng had appeared at his left side and was about to attack. He was unbelievably fast.

Ye Yuexin shifted his footwork, and a gust of wind surged around him.

He twisted at incredible speed, barely managing to meet Taiyuan Zeng's attack.

But just as Ye Yuexin was about to block, Flying Dagger Mode detected Taiyuan Zeng using Body Flicker again and appearing behind him.

Taiyuan Zeng swung his right leg fiercely toward Ye Yuexin's head.

Ye Yuexin didn't move. It was already too late.

Footwork required room to maneuver, and Ye Yuexin had just shifted his center of gravity.

Against Taiyuan Zeng's speed and the distance between them, there was no way to dodge.

Although Ye Yuexin's body didn't move, his left hand began forming Hand Seals. Fingers could move faster than the body.

Especially when all it took was two seals to use the Substitution Technique.

Ye Yuexin completed the Substitution Technique first. Before Taiyuan Zeng's foot could reach his head,

the Ye Yuexin under attack had already turned into a wooden post.

He had deliberately turned into a post first because he had seen Guy coming toward him.

The Substitution Technique produced a small cloud of smoke when the user turned into a log.

This was the moment they had been waiting for: teamwork and coordination.

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

The post flew far away in Taiyuan Zeng's direction.

But Taiyuan Zeng was nowhere to be seen.