The Blade That Backfires

Beneath Konoha, Root base.

Seven ninja stood neatly before Danzō.

Two squads.

Two jonin captains, five elite members.

Everyone wore masks, with no markings that could prove their identities.

Danzō handed a stack of intelligence to the jonin at the front.

"Target: Uchiha Lieyang."

"Bring back his corpse and his eyes."

"Yes."

All seven answered in unison.

No one asked why.

Root ninja did not need reasons. They only needed to carry out orders.

After leaving the base, the two squads entered a sealed room and began reviewing the target's intelligence.

"Uchiha Lieyang, special jonin, Three-Tomoe Sharingan."

"Fire- and Wind-nature chakra."

"Skilled in Fire Style, genjutsu, ninja tool throwing, and the Shadow Clone Technique."

"According to mission records, his greatest accomplishment was killing two chunin alone."

One member flipped further through the file.

"Taijutsu evaluation: average."

The jonin captain asked, "Confirmed?"

"Confirmed. The target's promotion mainly relied on Fire Style, genjutsu, and the Sharingan. Over the past three years of missions, he rarely engaged enemies in prolonged taijutsu battles."

Another person analyzed calmly.

"The Uchiha relies on his eyes. Obscure his vision at close range, suppress him with ninja tools and ninjutsu from afar, and do not make eye contact with him."

"Break genjutsu in pairs."

"Shadow Clones must be identified as a priority."

The jonin captain spread out a map of the Land of Fire.

"After leaving the mission area, the target did not pass through any border checkpoints."

"The Hokage has authorized us to access records from towns along the route. Based on inn registrations and eyewitness intelligence, he may still be in this area."

His finger landed in the center of the map.

"Using this point as the center, divide the search into east, west, south, and north sectors."

"First Squad will search the east and north."

"Second Squad will search the west and south."

"Once the target is found, no one is to engage alone."

One member asked, "What if we do not have time to regroup?"

"The main attacker will hold the target down while the others seal off his retreat."

The jonin captain looked at everyone.

"The target is only a special jonin, but he possesses the Three-Tomoe Sharingan. Do not be careless in a direct battle."

"Use Earth Style to restrict his movements from underground, use ninja tools to seal off his room to evade, then have those skilled in close combat finish him."

"Remember, do not give him the chance to use Fire Style or genjutsu."

"Understood."

That night, the two Root squads left Konoha.

The following day, in the mountain forests of the Land of Fire.

Lie Yang walked alone through the woods, his eyes covered with a strip of cotton cloth.

He was not moving quickly.

Yet he never stepped on a single dead branch.

A low-hanging branch blocked the path ahead, but he tilted his head aside beforehand to avoid it. A pit hidden beneath fallen leaves lay on the ground to his right, and his steps naturally veered away, as though he could see every obstacle.

Suddenly, Lie Yang stopped.

The wind was still blowing.

There were no footsteps in the forest, nor were there any unusual chakra fluctuations.

But the sensation of being watched had already appeared.

Two people to the southeast.

One to the west.

There was another presence underground, rapidly approaching. Lie Yang did not remove the cloth over his eyes. He merely stepped forward.

The ground suddenly split open.

A hand reached out from the earth, its five fingers viciously clamping down on his ankle.

"Earth Style: Headhunter Jutsu!"

The moment the hand caught its target, the Root ninja using the technique immediately exerted force downward.

The next instant, the Lie Yang he had pulled underground exploded.

Bang!

White smoke swallowed the ground.

"Shadow Clone!"

The Root ninja underground quickly withdrew his hand.

But it was already too late.

Another hand emerged from even deeper below and seized his wrist.

Lie Yang's Shadow Clone burst from the ground and yanked him out from underground with a backhanded pull.

The Root ninja reacted with astonishing speed. The instant his body left the ground, he drove his knee into the Shadow Clone's chest.

Bang!

The Shadow Clone dispersed on its own.

Having lost his support, the Root ninja fell to the ground, twisted into a half-kneeling position, and immediately retreated.

The captain hidden in the shadows narrowed his eyes.

The target had detected the underground ambush in advance.

And somehow, he had hidden a Shadow Clone underground long ago.

"The intelligence was wrong."

A Root member lowered his voice.

"His sensory abilities are powerful."

The captain did not respond. He raised a hand and changed his signal.

The plan continued.

Since the close-range ambush had failed, they would use ninja tools to seal him in.

The Root ninja hidden all around struck at once.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Hundreds of kunai shot out from behind trees, bushes, and rocks.

Above, below, left, right—every direction was covered.

The flight angle of every kunai had been calculated.

Some went straight for vital points, some sealed off escape routes, while others collided with one another midair and changed course, striking from Lie Yang's blind spots.

The dense whistling of slicing air merged into one continuous roar.

Lie Yang remained where he was.

The cloth covered his eyes, and he did not even have a weapon in hand.

The Root captain watched his every movement.

"His Sharingan isn't active."

"He hasn't detected all the attacks."

Another member gripped his kunai tightly, ready to deliver the final blow at any moment.

"At this density, even with the Sharingan activated, he can't dodge them."

"Watch for Shadow Clones."

"The real body is in the center."

Hundreds of kunai drew closer and closer.

Ten meters.

Five meters.

Three meters.

The Root captain had already begun judging which direction Lie Yang would use to force his way out.

The front and both sides were completely sealed.

His only chance was upward.

But the moment Lie Yang jumped, the members lying in wait among the treetops would attack immediately.

This encirclement only truly began the moment the Inner Decapitation Technique failed.

Just as the first wave of kunai was about to strike Lie Yang, the ground before him suddenly exploded.

Bang!

Another Shadow Clone leaped out from underground.

The Root captain's expression shifted slightly.

"No, he hid another clone underground!"

The Shadow Clone gripped several kunai in each hand and violently flung its arms outward.

More than a dozen kunai flew head-on into the dense barrage.

The difference in numbers was too great.

One Root member said coldly, "Useless."

A dozen against hundreds.

Even if every one of them knocked away an attack, it would not change the outcome.

But the instant the kunai left its hands, the Shadow Clone formed seals.

"Ninja Art: Shuriken Shadow Clone Technique!"

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

White smoke erupted repeatedly in midair.

More than a dozen kunai instantly split apart, their numbers multiplying wildly.

Dozens.

Over a hundred.

Hundreds!

A dense mass of kunai filled the sky before Lie Yang.

Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!

The two swarms of black blades collided with a thunderous crash.

Sparks burst forth like a torrential downpour.

Every one of the hundreds of kunai fired by Root—whether launched in a direct assault or redirected through collisions—was intercepted with precision.

Every impact was perfectly timed.

Some kunai were knocked away outright, some had their trajectories changed, while others broke free of their original paths after successive collisions.

The Root captain's pupils contracted sharply.

"Impossible!"

The member beside him abruptly looked up.

He had assumed the target would at most save his own life. He had never imagined that the man could use the same kind of ninja tools to crush their blockade head-on.

That was an attack launched simultaneously by two elite squads!

Every angle had been calculated, every trajectory coordinated with the others.

Lie Yang was even blindfolded!

The Root ninja responsible for the underground ambush had only just found his footing when he saw the kunai in the air completely overwhelm their side's assault.

His breath caught.

"Captain, those kunai aren't falling!"

The Root captain noticed it too.

After knocking away every attack, the hundreds of kunai created by the Shadow Clone had not dispersed.

Their trajectories had shifted amid the continuous collisions.

The blades turned.

Cold glints intertwined.

Hundreds of kunai reversed their deadly edge and shot toward the Root ninja hiding in the shadows in a fierce counterattack!