Blind Blade

Hundreds of kunai reversed course and flew back.

The air-piercing whistles were dense enough to grate on the ears.

The Root ninja hidden behind treetops, rocks, and bushes could no longer remain concealed.

"Scatter!"

The Root captain bellowed.

Four figures leaped out at once.

One member rapidly formed hand seals, his chest suddenly swelling.

"Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!"

A fierce gale erupted.

Dead leaves, gravel, and broken branches were swept up from the ground and hurled head-on at the overwhelming barrage of kunai.

The foremost dozens of kunai immediately lost their aim, colliding with one another as they flew off to either side. The kunai behind them did not stop, however, still piercing through the wind and blanketing the four men's hiding places.

"Earth Style: Earth-Style Wall!"

A heavy earthen wall rose from the ground.

The clattering impacts instantly blended into one continuous din.

Hundreds of kunai embedded themselves in the wall as chunks of rock constantly crumbled away. Some flew around the wall from both sides, whistling past and leaving dense holes in the tree trunks and ground.

The Root ninja scattered to evade.

When the member responsible for Wind Style landed, a crack had appeared along the edge of his mask.

A kunai had grazed his cheek, cutting through flesh as blood dripped down his chin.

He did not reach up to wipe it away, only stared fixedly at the Shadow Clone in front of Lie Yang.

"Shuriken Shadow Clone Technique."

"There's no mistake."

The Root captain's voice was much deeper than before.

As Konoha ninja, there was no way they could fail to recognize this technique.

An A-rank ninjutsu: the Shuriken Shadow Clone Technique.

It used a physical shuriken to create vast numbers of clones with real offensive power. The greater the number, the higher the demand on chakra control.

This was no ordinary Clone Technique.

Every replicated ninja tool had to possess the same trajectory, speed, and lethality. Creating hundreds of kunai in an instant, then making them execute such complex collisions and changes in direction, was astonishingly difficult.

In all of Konoha, only one person was truly famous for this technique.

The Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi!

One Root member said quietly, "The intelligence made no mention of this ninjutsu."

"Nor did it say he could pinpoint everyone's location while blindfolded."

Another man tightened his grip on his kunai.

"An ordinary Three-Tomoe Sharingan couldn't possibly copy a ninjutsu of this level."

The Root captain did not refute him.

The Sharingan could indeed copy ninjutsu.

But copying did not mean mastering it.

Seeing the hand seals clearly was only the first step. Chakra nature, control precision, casting experience—lacking any one of them could cause a ninjutsu to fail.

The Shuriken Shadow Clone Technique was an especially difficult ninjutsu developed by Hiruzen Sarutobi through his own experience.

A special jōnin whose intelligence profile said he only excelled at Fire Style, genjutsu, and ninja tool throwing had suddenly displayed such mastery of an A-rank ninjutsu.

This no longer merely meant the intelligence had omissions.

Uchiha Lieyang had been hiding his strength all along!

The Root captain stared at the figure with cloth over his eyes, who had not moved a single step from beginning to end. For the first time, a powerful warning rose in his heart.

"Abandon the original tactics."

"Reassess the target's strength."

"Don't engage at close range. Test the limits of his perception first."

As the order fell, Lie Yang had already brought his hands together.

Tiger.

Snake.

The two hand seals flashed by.

"Water Style: Hidden Mist Technique!"

Thick white mist rapidly rose through the forest.

In only a few breaths, the mist completely engulfed several hundred meters of the surrounding area.

The trees vanished.

The rocks vanished.

Even companions only a few meters apart were reduced to blurry outlines.

The four Root members immediately tightened their formation, each facing a different direction with their backs toward one another.

"He has Water-nature chakra too?"

"The intelligence recorded Fire and Wind as his two natures."

"It was wrong again."

The Root captain raised a hand, silencing them.

"He's taking away our sight."

The Three-Tomoe Sharingan was already adept at tracking movement.

Now Lie Yang had created thick fog that appeared to block his own vision as well, but the reality was entirely different.

They had just witnessed it firsthand.

Even blindfolded, Lie Yang could detect an underground ambush in advance and precisely judge the trajectories of hundreds of kunai.

The mist did not affect him at all.

Only Root was affected!

"Blow it away."

The Wind Style specialist formed hand seals again.

"Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!"

A fierce gale rose from the ground.

The white mist around them was forcibly torn apart, and one great tree after another reappeared. The group had only just made out the scene more than ten meters away when thicker fog surged back in from farther out, following the wind.

Within two breaths, their vision was sealed off again.

The member's expression darkened.

"The mist covers too wide an area. Great Breakthrough can only clear part of it temporarily."

"Keep going."

A second gale erupted.

The white mist rolled outward, then swiftly closed in again.

This time, the Root captain finally saw Lie Yang's position clearly.

Two figures stood not far away.

One Lie Yang stood where he was, his eyes covered with cloth and his expression calm.

The other was not blindfolded. He held a short blade, and his Three-Tomoe Sharingan glowed a piercing crimson.

Neither of them had retreated.

They had not even used the cover of the thick fog to change positions.

The Root captain's heart abruptly sank.

Something was wrong!

They were not surrounding and killing an ordinary enemy. They were pursuing a rogue ninja.

Lie Yang should have been doing everything possible to break free of the encirclement and leave the Land of Fire as quickly as possible.

Yet from the beginning of the fight until now, not only had the other side not fled, he had first broken their ninja tool blockade, then proactively released thick mist, turning the entire area into a battlefield suited to himself.

It felt as though the prey had never intended to flee from the start.

Instead, it was waiting for them to step in on their own!

"Careful!"

The Root captain suddenly roared.

The three-tomoe Lie Yang in the mist vanished.

There was no chakra eruption.

No sound left behind by the Body Flicker Technique.

One moment, he had been standing quietly beside the original body.

The next, an oppressive force surged straight at the Root captain from the front!

Too fast!

The Root captain only had time to raise his kunai.

The short blade crashed down.

Clang!

Metal struck metal.

A notch instantly shattered open on the surface of the kunai.

A tremendous force far beyond his expectations surged through his arm and into his body. The Root captain's fingers went numb, and a distinct crack sounded from his wrist.

The ground beneath his feet exploded at the same time.

His whole body flew backward uncontrollably, his back snapping two branches in succession before he slammed heavily into a tree trunk.

Bang!

The trunk shuddered.

A shower of leaves fell from overhead.

"Captain!"

The two Root ninja at his sides rushed toward the sound at once.

But the instant they entered the thick fog, the Root captain harshly stopped them.

"Don't come over!"

Enduring the agony in his wrist, he flipped over and landed on the ground.

The three-tomoe Lie Yang did not pursue. He merely stood several meters away, short blade in hand.

The Root captain's breathing had already become ragged.

That strike had contained no complex technique and no ninjutsu enhancement.

It was pure strength.

Yet that single strike had nearly shattered his wrist!

The intelligence report's evaluation of Uchiha Lieyang's taijutsu contained only two words.

Average.

This was average?

Had he not taken that strike himself, he would never have believed that an Uchiha skilled in Fire Style and genjutsu could possess such close-combat strength.

"The taijutsu intelligence was false too."

The Root captain's voice tightened.

"You've been hiding your strength all along."

Lie Yang did not deny it.

He moved his feet and closed in again.

The short blade swept horizontally.

The Root captain leaned back to evade, the blade grazing past his mask. Before he could regain his footing, Lie Yang had already changed his grip, driving the hilt heavily toward his chest.

He raised his arm to block.