Flying Swallow Blades Slice Through Metal Wood Grain

"How long had you been listening?"

Chiba looked up at the roof ridge. Deep-bronze vines had already crawled up the wall and reached the eaves.

Asuma jumped down from the roof, his shoes kicking up only a little dust as he landed. Half a cigarette still hung from his mouth.

"Since the part about who was paying the repair costs."

"You didn't hear what came before that?"

"Even if I did, I'll pretend I didn't. Saves everyone trouble."

No response came from the western cave. Bai Ye had already closed the wooden isolation layer, leaving only a narrow crack through which he could see the courtyard.

Asuma swept his gaze over the cash box on the ground.

"More than seven million. You earned that from catching Iron Claw?"

"Yeah."

"Give me some."

"Why?"

"I'll be taking hits from your wood in the future."

"The Hokage pays you."

"That salary only buys cigarettes."

Chiba had the vine roots close the cash box.

"Are we fighting or not?"

Asuma removed the cigarette butt and pressed it into the nearby mud pit.

"I heard you can smash through a mountain wall with one punch. Let me see it."

"With full strength?"

"If you want to replace your teacher on the first day, go ahead and try."

Deep-bronze vines spread along Chiba's arm. Their internal frameworks tightened one section after another, but the purple poison markings did not light up.

Asuma pulled two short blades from his ninja pouch, one in each hand.

"You can use poison too."

"If it touches you, you'll be down for half a day."

"Then don't let it touch me."

"What if you die?"

"The old man will deduct funeral expenses from your bounty."

The first Metal Wood vine swept horizontally across the ground. Asuma did not jump, merely taking half a step toward the direction the vine had grown from.

His short blade touched the bark and slid into the gap between two wood grains.

The deep-bronze vine split apart, and one of the inner framework supports was severed as well.

Chiba shifted his footing. A second vine rose behind Asuma, its tip splitting into three strands that reached for his neck and both legs.

"It grows too straight."

Asuma turned his shoulder, his right-hand blade cutting across the vine's branching point.

All three Metal Wood strands lost support at once. They continued growing after hitting the ground, but they could no longer catch his steps.

"Again."

"You're cutting along the wood grain."

"You noticed too slowly."

Chiba spread roots across half the courtyard. More than ten deep-bronze vines burst from different positions, their bone frameworks bracing every bend as tightly as possible.

Asuma gripped both blades in reverse.

Pale-blue Wind Release chakra extended along the edges. The blades, originally only palm-length, gained another half foot of sharpness.

"Flying Swallow."

The first slash skimmed past the vine knot on the left. Instead of striking the framework head-on, the blade severed the small wooden tubes responsible for pulling it in that direction.

The second slash followed, falling toward the roots on the right. A narrow slit appeared on the surface of the Metal Wood, yet the entire vine toppled outward.

Chiba twisted the final three vines together into a giant arm.

"Metal Wood Release: Great Tree Fist."

The deep-bronze wooden fist pushed across the courtyard, sweeping broken stakes from its path with its knuckles. There was nowhere left for Asuma to retreat behind him.

"Strong enough."

Asuma did not meet the fist head-on.

His feet moved along the outer side of the fist. His left blade severed the wooden conduit at the wrist, while his right blade wedged between two framework supports.

The massive fist continued forward, but its trajectory shifted by half a foot.

Asuma stepped onto the back of the Metal Wood hand and used the momentum to vault over the fist. His knee was already driving toward Chiba's chest.

The Bone Vine protective layer had only just closed when a blade hilt slammed into his shoulder hollow.

Chiba's right arm lost its leverage, while Asuma's left blade stopped at his neck. Its Wind Release edge sliced off a small section of his collar.

"Finished."

"Not yet."

The roots beneath them flipped upward. Asuma sheathed his blades and retreated. The moment his soles left the ground, soft vines hidden in the soil wrapped toward his ankles.

A short blade dipped down.

The vines snapped apart.

Asuma landed three steps away and casually lit another cigarette.

"Now it's finished."

"Seventeen breaths."

"You were counting?"

"Next time, fifteen."

"All young people say that after losing."

Chiba withdrew the Metal Wood scattered around the courtyard. None of the breaks showed signs of being smashed through head-on. Every cut had landed at a wood-grain branch or a framework joint.

"You saw the growth paths in advance."

"Before the wood grows, your shoulders move first. Your chakra also gathers in the corresponding meridians."

"Iron Claw couldn't see that."

"That's why he got buried."

Asuma crouched, picking up a severed vine. His thumb traced the deep-bronze grain to the break.

"The metal hardness is good. The framework can take a beating too, and poison makes wounds even more troublesome. But when you stack three things together, you also create more seams."

"How do I improve it?"

"Learn to hide first."

"Hide the wood grain?"

"Hide your intent."

Asuma tossed the broken vine back onto the ground.

"Every time you attack, you think about the result first—where to bind them, what angle to exert force from, where the next vine should connect. Your calculations aren't wrong, but your opponent can follow the result backward."

"Fight again."

"You just got back. Your ribs are still injured."

"They're not broken."

"I know. If they were, you couldn't have raised the Great Tree Fist just now."

Chiba raised his left arm, and Metal Wood began growing from his palm instead.

"This time, I won't use my right hand."

Asuma clenched the cigarette between his teeth as his twin blades spun another half turn.

"Fine. But let's be clear—if you break the wall, you pay."

"The Hokage will pay."

"Then let's tear down another wall."

The second round began without a root network.

Chiba grew only four short vines, keeping them within two zhang. The wooden conduits no longer all pointed toward Asuma.

The first swept at his waist, but the second stopped halfway and used its metallic hardness to block the wind blade.

Asuma flicked his wrist, sliding the blade from the outer side of the vine toward its roots.

Chiba severed the connection in advance.

The uncontrolled Metal Wood fell, landing exactly where Asuma's right foot was about to touch down.

"That move works."

"What else is missing?"

"Touch me first, then ask."

The third vine drilled out along the ground, growing toward the courtyard wall. Only after passing Asuma's side did it bend back inward.

The short blades did not fall immediately.

Chiba seized that opening. The fourth Bone Vine curled around behind Asuma, poison markings lighting up at its tip.

A wind blade passed beneath his arm.

Asuma did not turn around. His right-hand blade severed the vine knot behind him, while his left foot stepped on the Metal Wood on the ground. Using it for leverage, he pressed close to Chiba.

The blade hilt pinned against Chiba's chest.

Chiba drove his knee toward Asuma's abdomen. Asuma twisted aside at the waist, braced Chiba's thigh with his shoulder, and sent him into the nearby mud pit with a backhanded throw.

"Twenty-three breaths."

Chiba braced himself on the edge of the pit and did not rise at once.

"Longer than last time."

"Because you started thinking about how to hide, so your attacks slowed down."

"The direction was right."

"Right. Even getting beaten up looked better than before."

A soft sound came from the western cave. Bai Ye's cartilage had touched the wooden isolation layer.

Asuma tilted his face in that direction.

"What are you keeping in the cave?"

"A rat that can repair roofs."

"That didn't sound like a rat."

"Still fighting?"

Asuma looked toward the cave for a moment, but ultimately did not go over. He only used a short blade to lift the severed vine from the ground.

"That's enough for today. This afternoon, take all these vines apart and find every place I cut."

"How many places?"

"Twenty-seven."

"You only made twenty-one cuts."

"Six of them grew wrong on their own."

Chiba climbed out of the mud pit, grass roots clinging to his clothes. A little blood seeped from the old wound on his chest again.

"Tomorrow, we continue."

"Tomorrow, you learn close combat. If your wood gets sealed, you should at least know how to use your fists."

"You won't use Wind Release?"

"Let's see whether you can force me to."

Asuma put away his short blades. When he reached the courtyard gate, he tossed back a roll of bandages.

"Wrap your ribs properly. Don't let Iruka see it, or he'll make me write a report first."

"He makes you write reports too?"

"If you beat up students at the Ninja Academy, everyone has to write one."

After the courtyard gate closed, Bai Ye emerged from the cave with a soft bone spike in his hand, one that had bypassed the root network.

"He noticed me."

"He didn't confirm it."

"Should we kill him?"

"You can't beat him."

"You didn't beat him either."

Chiba picked up the piece of Metal Wood that Flying Swallow had sliced apart. At the break, the wood grain perfectly aligned with the framework seam.

"So we keep training."

The World Tree panel unfolded in his vision. Between the Metal Wood branch and Framework Reinforcement, a new glowing node had appeared.

[Metal Wood structural weakness detected. Composite evolution path generation has begun.]