Smashing the Flying Swallow Knuckle Blades

Thirty seconds after Asuma was hung from the tree trunk, he finally gave up on trying to break free by brute force.

He had already poured Wind Release chakra into them three times. The blades of the Flying Swallow Knuckle Blades had left seven or eight scratches on the vines, each one filled in by fresh woody fibers within two seconds.

The more he cut, the thicker they grew. The more he struggled, the tighter they constricted.

His chakra was being siphoned away by the vines at a visible rate. A fine layer of sap seeped from the vines wrapped around his arms. Where they touched his skin, it felt as if dozens of leeches had latched onto him at once, numbness and weakness spreading from his limbs toward his heart.

"Let me go!"

There was already a hint of panic in Asuma's voice. It was not the unwillingness to accept defeat, but the instinctive alarm of realizing the situation was far more serious than he had imagined.

These vines were eating his chakra.

Chiba pulled his right hand from his pocket and slowly walked over through the gaps between the roots of the illusionary forest on the arena floor.

With every step he took, the roots beneath his feet automatically parted to make way for him, then closed again behind him. It was as if this forest belonged to him by nature, as if he were its master and every tree and vine obeyed his will.

He stopped two steps away from Asuma.

Asuma hung in midair, their gazes level. One struggled while suspended, the other stood firmly on the ground. The contrast in posture filled the scene with a suffocating pressure.

Chiba raised his right hand toward the Flying Swallow Knuckle Blades still humming on Asuma's right hand.

"You really like these knuckle blades, don't you? Standard jonin equipment. Wind Release-conducting alloy supplied exclusively to the Sarutobi clan. They probably cost three months of your mission allowance."

Asuma's pupils contracted, and his fingers instinctively tightened around the grip.

Chiba's fingers touched the blade of the Flying Swallow Knuckle Blades.

His fingertip pressed against the airflow blade formed by Wind Release chakra. The instant it touched Chiba's skin, the airflow blade dispersed, like a gust of wind hitting a wall it could not even bend around.

His fingers closed around the middle of the blade.

Then he squeezed.

The sound of metal warping rang through the entire Konoha Combat Arena, so clear it made people's teeth ache.

The Wind Release-conducting alloy blade bent into a V shape in Chiba's palm. Two joints of the knuckle-blade hinge snapped, and fragments slipped through his fingers, clattering onto the roots covering the arena floor.

Chiba opened his hand, and the remains of the Flying Swallow Knuckle Blades slid from his palm. The warped metal pieces bounced twice on the ground before falling completely silent after one final crisp clang.

No one in the arena made a sound.

Asuma stared at the pile of scrap metal on the ground. All color drained from his face in a single second. His lips trembled twice, but not a word came out.

Those were his Flying Swallow Knuckle Blades, weapons that had accompanied him on hundreds of missions. They had been crushed by one hand.

Chiba glanced at the knuckle blade on Asuma's left hand. Asuma instinctively tried to shrink back, but the vines had bound him tightly, leaving him no room to evade.

Chiba did not touch the one on his left hand. He merely glanced at it before looking away.

"Jonin Sarutobi, you've been pursuing Yuhi Kurenai for two years. What was your approach? Publicly declaring that she was under your protection, arranging her mission teams so you could manufacture chance encounters on the road, telling everyone that the whole of Konoha knew about your feelings, Asuma Sarutobi."

Chiba's voice was not loud, but the echoes in the Konoha Combat Arena carried every word into the ears of everyone present.

"Did you ever ask whether she wanted your protection? Did you ever consider what she needed? Did you spend even one minute learning where her genjutsu bottleneck lay?"

Asuma opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but Chiba did not give him the chance.

"The Third Hokage's son, a member of the Twelve Guardian Ninja, a direct-line jonin of the Sarutobi clan. You carry so many titles, yet after chasing a woman for two years, the only thing you know how to do is shout about it everywhere."

Chiba raised a hand and waved his index finger in front of Asuma.

"The Third's son. Other than smoking and digging around like a dog to mark your territory, what else can you do?"

Someone in the stands let out a laugh they could not hold back. It was quickly suppressed, but more shoulders began to shake.

Genma Shiranui had buried his entire face in his hands, his ears bright red.

Hayate Gekko had pulled his scarf up over the bridge of his nose, leaving only his eyes visible, but those eyes were brimming with tears from holding back laughter.

Asuma's face went from white to livid. His lips quivered, his chest rose and fell violently, and his fingers clenched the intact Flying Swallow Knuckle Blades on his left hand so hard that his knuckles distorted.

"You... you little chunin brat who hasn't even grown all your hair yet, what right do you have to lecture me?!"

Chiba took a step back and casually waved his right hand through the air.

The vines wrapped around Asuma loosened at the same time. They did not slowly release him; they snapped apart directly, the force precisely controlled to make an adult man lose his balance without injuring him.

Asuma fell from midair, his back slamming into the wooden edge of the arena. He bounced once, then tumbled off the platform, the back of his head striking the edge of the first row of steps.

A dull thud.

Asuma lay on the ground between the steps and the arena. His vision went black, and his consciousness blurred for two seconds. He tasted rust in his mouth, while the dull pain from the back of his head made his limbs twitch uncontrollably.

The illusionary forest on the arena began to vanish after Chiba withdrew his chakra. The outlines of the giant trees turned transparent, and the branches and leaves of their canopies became emerald motes drifting through the air. Within three seconds, the arena had returned to normal, save for several deep cracks in the floor where roots had pushed through and a pile of metal fragments from the Flying Swallow Knuckle Blades.

Chiba stood in the middle of the arena and looked down at Asuma lying below. The curve of his lips was slight, but thoroughly punchable.

"Jonin Sarutobi, our spar is over. Thank you for letting me win."

Asuma struggled on the edge of consciousness for several seconds. The last thing he saw was Chiba's backlit silhouette standing on the arena, and the direction of a pair of red eyes in the front rows of the stands.

Before he could make out Yuhi Kurenai's expression, he lost consciousness completely.

In the shadows at the highest point of the stands, Hiruzen Sarutobi tucked his pipe into his sleeve and rose to his feet. The ANBU guards beside him stood as well.

The old man's expression was difficult to make out, concealed entirely by the shadows. But when he left, his footsteps were far heavier than when he had arrived, and the wooden stands creaked under his feet.

The two ANBU followed behind him, silently leaving the Konoha Combat Arena through the rear entrance.

No one noticed the Third Hokage's departure, because everyone's attention remained fixed on the Senju boy standing on the arena with both hands in his pockets.