Pure Physical Burst

The next moment, confusion flickered in his eyes.

Thump!

His heart gave a heavy beat.

The first stage of the Gene Lock opened!

The world instantly slowed down.

The direction in which the wind bent the weeds.

The angle at which Kakashi held his kunai.

The state of Might Guy's left leg as it exerted force.

The speed at which the Mangekyō Sharingan spun in Shisui's eyes.

Kurenai Yuhi's unfinished hand seals.

All that information flooded into his consciousness at once.

Lie Yang vanished.

It was not the Body Flicker Technique.

Nor was there any flash of lightning.

Relying purely on physical explosiveness, his speed had completely surpassed the visual limit of ordinary ninja!

Kurenai Yuhi only saw the figure ahead blur.

A cold blade tip was already pressed against her throat.

There was no killing intent.

No warning.

From the moment Lie Yang drew his sword to when its edge neared her throat, her nerves had not even had time to send an evasive command to her body!

Clang!

A kunai came in from the side and barely blocked the ninja sword.

Kakashi stood before Kurenai Yuhi, the Mangekyō Sharingan in his left eye spinning frantically.

Yet there was not the slightest trace of relief on his face.

Even before Lie Yang had drawn his sword, Kakashi had been fixed on his right arm.

The Mangekyō Sharingan had seen the movement.

His nerves had reacted in advance as well.

Even so, he had only barely managed to block it!

"Red, get back!"

Kakashi barked, forcefully pushing his kunai outward.

But Lie Yang had made a minute adjustment to his wrist before the weapons collided.

The blade shifted downward by less than half an inch.

The kunai skimmed past the sword blade.

It had not blocked it!

Kakashi's pupils contracted sharply.

Lie Yang had already spun with the motion.

The blade that had originally been aimed at Kurenai Yuhi's throat changed direction with his rotation, turning into an azure arc that shot straight toward Shisui's chest!

Shisui had been prepared.

The ninja sword in his hand was coated in fire-nature chakra.

A crimson blade of flame met it head-on.

Clang!

Red and blue sword lights collided violently.

A piercing shockwave swept across the plain.

Cracks appeared in both ninja swords at once.

The earth beneath Shisui's feet exploded, and his legs slid back half a step.

He drove his Mangekyō Sharingan with all his strength.

Blood rapidly filled the whites of his eyes.

Its ocular power drew every movement Lie Yang made into his vision.

But seeing clearly did not mean he could block it.

Lie Yang merely turned his wrist at a tiny angle, and the force on his blade changed from frontal suppression into lateral pull.

Shisui's flaming blade was dragged to the left.

The opening in front of his chest was exposed in an instant.

Lie Yang's sword hilt was already smashing toward him.

Shisui hastily raised his elbow.

Bang!

His wrist collided with the sword hilt.

A searing pain exploded from deep within his bones.

Before Shisui could steady himself, Lie Yang's second strike was already cutting toward his shoulder and neck.

Too fast!

He could only raise his sword horizontally to block again.

Clang!

Fresh cracks spread across the blade.

Shisui's arms shook violently. The wound in the web between his thumb and forefinger tore open again, blood steadily dripping down the hilt.

The third strike followed immediately.

An upward slash.

The sounds of weapons colliding suddenly became one continuous line.

Clang clang clang clang clang!

Kurenai Yuhi stood dozens of meters away, her hands still held in a seal, while her mind had only just barely managed to process what she had seen.

No.

She had not truly seen anything at all.

All she could see were lingering streaks of crimson and azure light crossing through the air.

Lie Yang and Shisui had long since vanished from sight. Only great showers of sparks exploded from nowhere, layer after layer filling the sky. With every clash of metal, the place where the two had been a moment earlier was ripped apart by fierce winds, while long, narrow sword marks continuously appeared across the ground.

Too fast!

Kurenai Yuhi could not even tell which afterimage belonged to Shisui and which streak of lightning came from Lie Yang.

"Kakashi!"

Suppressing the turmoil in her heart, she shouted, "Can you see them clearly?"

Kakashi did not answer.

The Mangekyō Sharingan in his left eye had fully activated, blood filling its whites as his gaze locked onto the two figures constantly flickering at the center of the battlefield.

He could see them.

But only barely.

Shisui's Body Flicker Technique had become too fast for ordinary jonin to follow. Every time his feet touched down, wind-nature chakra erupted from beneath his soles, propelling his body to even greater speed.

Yet even so, he was still being driven back!

Clang!

The two ninja swords collided again.

Crimson flames were forcibly ripped apart by azure lightning.

Borrowing the force, Shisui spun. Several afterimages lunged at Lie Yang from different directions. Every afterimage held a ninja sword, and every blade burned with blazing flames.

"Uchiha Style: Sword Leaping Flame!"

More than ten streaks of sword light fell at once!

Lie Yang did not search for the real body.

His ninja sword traced a simple arc before him.

The first afterimage was cut apart.

The second attacked from the side. Before its ninja sword could fully descend, Lie Yang's hilt had already struck its wrist.

A horizontal slash.

A straight thrust.

None of his strikes carried complicated variations, yet every one landed where Shisui found it hardest to exert force.

The moment he tried to counterattack, Lie Yang's blade sealed off his wrist in advance.

When he tried to retreat, Lie Yang's footsteps had already blocked his path.

When he tried to use the Body Flicker Technique to widen the distance, sword light struck precisely at the moment his chakra was about to erupt, forcibly interrupting his exertion.

Shisui's Mangekyō Sharingan spun faster and faster.

His eyes were bloodshot.

The movements within his vision became clearer and clearer.

Yet that clarity only brought a deeper sense of powerlessness.

Lie Yang had no fixed swordsmanship.

One strike used the force-generating method of Konoha Style, while the next incorporated the variations of Uchiha Style swordsmanship.

The simplicity of Hatake Swordsmanship.

The ruthlessness of the Root Assassination Technique.

The lightning-fast attacks of battlefield styles that abandoned defense.

All kinds of sword techniques were casually broken apart, then recombined according to the situation at hand.

There were no set moves.

Nor were there any fixed habits that could be judged in advance.

After blocking seven strikes in succession, Shisui's right arm had already begun to go numb.

At the eighth collision, a tearing pain shot through his wrist.

His ninja sword nearly flew from his grasp!

Kakashi cut in from the side.

His kunai stabbed straight at Lie Yang's ribs.

Lie Yang did not turn his head, but his right foot stepped half a pace forward in advance.

The kunai grazed past his lower back and missed.

Using the momentum of that step, he turned and swept his ninja sword backward.

Kakashi immediately pulled in his abdomen.

The blade tip skimmed past his ninja vest, slicing a neat gash through it.

Shisui took the chance to use the Body Flicker Technique.

Several afterimages scattered at once.

But Lie Yang did not pursue the afterimages at all.

His blade stabbed directly into empty space to the right.

The next instant, Shisui appeared there.

As if he had thrown himself onto the blade!

Shisui forcibly twisted his body.

The blade grazed his chest, cutting through his ninja vest.

The instant blood welled from the wound, the high heat of Lightning Release cauterized it.

"How is this possible..."

Shisui retreated repeatedly.

"He predicted where I would appear?"

Kakashi saw it more clearly than he did.

It was not a prediction.

When Lie Yang had thrust his sword, Shisui had not yet completed his Body Flicker Technique.

But his control over distance, center of gravity, chakra eruptions, and the way the human body generated force had reached a terrifying level of precision.

Shisui appeared to have many possible landing points.

But there was only one position truly suitable for a counterattack.

Lie Yang had merely placed his sword there in advance.

Might Guy shattered the ground beneath one foot as he forcibly charged into the battlefield.

Kurenai Yuhi had completed her hand seals as well.

But Lie Yang's rhythm was not affected in the slightest.

He turned calmly at extreme speed, his shoulders, elbows, waist, and legs always remaining in the state best suited for exerting force.

The inertia brought by his speed did not hinder his movements. Instead, it all became power for his next strike.

Even as Shisui drove his Mangekyō Sharingan with all his strength, he could only barely keep up.

His strength was suppressed.

His techniques were dismantled.

His stamina was draining rapidly amid the repeated clashes.

Lie Yang, on the other hand, breathed steadily, and not once did his steps falter.

Shattering Shisui's conviction first, then leaving him hope, had never been merely about guiding a genius trapped between Konoha and the Uchiha.

What Lie Yang wanted was anger, unwillingness, and every bit of Mangekyō Sharingan potential Shisui could unleash after being forced into desperation.

Only an enemy like that could bring enough intense stimulation to his mind and help him break through the second-stage Gene Lock that was so close at hand.