Swamp Massacre Technique!

"Who's there?!"

Kaguya Wuzhan sensed something amiss and abruptly turned his head.

A little boy with a full head of red hair stood more than ten meters away. He cast Kaguya Wuzhan a disdainful glance, then turned and ran.

"Ashina!"

Kaguya Wuzhan was astonished. He had only ever seen Ashina's portrait, but he had long since memorized his features. He recognized at a glance that the little boy was Ashina, the one he had been longing for.

"Stop!"

Kaguya Wuzhan snapped out of it and took off after him.

He was no fool. He knew Ashina's sudden appearance had to be suspicious, and he could not even be certain whether the boy was really Ashina. But he could not afford to care about that now. He would catch up first and ask questions later.

Nor was he afraid of walking into an ambush. He was alone, after all. If he truly wanted to flee in danger, even Ryū would have a hard time keeping him.

All his confidence came from his faith in his own strength.

"Idiot. Took the bait that easily."

Shusen sneered inwardly and gradually picked up his pace, always maintaining a distance from Kaguya Wuzhan that was neither too close nor too far.

It was not arrogance. He had created the Five-Elements Cowardly Escape himself, and Kaguya Wuzhan was nowhere near his match in speed.

Even throughout the entire Fire Country, it would be difficult to find anyone faster than him.

Speed aside, Shusen still took Kaguya Wuzhan's strength very seriously and did not dare underestimate him in the slightest.

After all, he was one of the Seven Heroes of the Warring States Era, a man as famous as Hashirama, Madara, Mito, and the others. If Shusen had not fused the Demon Eye, he might not have dared fight him to the death.

Even with the Demon Eye fused, victory was not absolutely guaranteed. The safest course would have been to wait until the Rinnegan and Tenseigan were fused before dealing with him. But Shusen could not wait that long. Kaguya Wuzhan had touched his bottom line.

If Kaguya Wuzhan had merely held a grudge against him, even sending assassins after him, Shusen would not have bothered to settle the score. But he should never, ever have set his sights on Ashina.

"Stop right there!"

The longer Kaguya Wuzhan chased, the more furious he became. Ten finger bones shot forth, but Shusen evaded every one of them before continuing to lead him along as though walking a dog.

By now, Kaguya Wuzhan had determined that the other party was not Ashina, but someone impersonating him with the Transformation Technique. The real Ashina could not possibly be this fast. He was only thirteen, and there was no way Kaguya Wuzhan's speed should have failed to catch him.

At the same time, he could tell that the impostor was deliberately luring him somewhere. It might be an ambush site, or it might be somewhere else entirely.

If Kaguya Wuzhan had initially pursued him out of hatred, that hatred had now entirely turned into curiosity. He wanted to know just who this person was and what he wanted by approaching him in such a manner.

In the blink of an eye, Shusen had walked the dog for a full hour. The two ran more than a hundred li, one ahead and one behind.

Kaguya Wuzhan had expended quite a bit of stamina, and the prolonged pursuit was beginning to irritate him. Being led around by the nose felt awful. He could not keep this up forever!

With that thought, he began to think of retreating. His steps halted, and he simply stopped chasing.

Sensing it, Shusen stopped as well. He turned around and looked at him with a faintly mocking smile. "Giving up already? You're not much, are you?"

Kaguya Wuzhan released his chakra to sense the surroundings. Finding no trace of an ambush, he secretly breathed a sigh of relief before asking coldly, "Who exactly are you?"

"Someone you would never expect."

Shusen deliberately played up the mystery, making himself seem more enigmatic.

Kaguya Wuzhan fell for it, his brows knitting tightly as he rapidly sifted through possibilities in his mind, unable to think of anyone he would never expect.

He first ruled out the older generation of experts. They would not do something as disgraceful as impersonating another person, and they certainly would not speak in such a flippant manner.

Since it was not someone from the older generation, it could only be a peer. There were only a few geniuses in the Fire Country as famous as himself: Sarutobi Sasuke, Hyuga Tenjin, Kurama Yaichi...

While Kaguya Wuzhan was thinking, Shusen slowly walked toward him, maintaining that inscrutable smile.

"Stop thinking. You could rack your brain and still never figure it out."

"I brought you here to finish you off. No one will ever know. You'll die without a trace..."

As he spoke, he entered within ten meters of Kaguya Wuzhan.

Kaguya Wuzhan's expression suddenly turned murderous. He immediately used the Body Flicker Technique, concentrating a massive amount of chakra in the soles of his feet. In a short burst, he flashed behind Shusen and brought a hand chop down viciously across his neck.

Forget a neck—even steel would be cut in two with one strike, Kaguya Wuzhan was certain of it!

Yet the result was beyond his expectations.

"Caw, caw, caw."

Shusen's body suddenly scattered, turning into eight crows that flapped about with noisy caws.

Soon, the eight crows flew onto a nearby branch, merged together, and reassembled into Shusen.

"That little trick isn't enough to kill me."

Shusen spoke leisurely, looking down at him from above.

Kaguya Wuzhan's expression finally grew grave as he stared straight at him. "Is your true identity really so shameful that it cannot be shown?!"

"It's not shameful. It's just that it'll scare the hell out of you." Shusen suddenly shook his head. "Forget it. You're a dead man anyway. I'll do a good deed and satisfy your curiosity."

As he spoke, Shusen formed the hand seals to release the Transformation Technique.

"Poof."

Ashina vanished, and a young man emerged from the white smoke.

"Uchiha Madara!"

Kaguya Wuzhan's eyes widened as he stared in disbelief at Shusen, who had shed his transformed appearance.

"You guessed right. Too bad there's no prize." Shusen imitated Madara's usual manner and let out a cold, sinister chuckle.

Kaguya Wuzhan's heart churned violently. He could not believe that this person was actually Madara! But the seals he had just formed had clearly been those for releasing the Transformation Technique. Kaguya Wuzhan had seen them perfectly; there was no mistaking them.

"You tampered with those hand seals. This is still the Transformation Technique! You can't be Madara!"

After regaining his senses, Kaguya Wuzhan firmly denied it, though deep down, he had already begun to waver.

"What if it's this... would you still not believe me?"

Shusen closed his eyes, then opened them again. A pair of Three-Tomoe Sharingan appeared in his eye sockets, scarlet and bewitching.

Kaguya Wuzhan fell silent, recalling how Uchiha Madara had rejected his request for aid in the tent earlier.

Shusen felt that he believed at least thirty percent of it. At the very least, his state of mind had been disturbed, and that was enough.

The less judgment a person trapped in a genjutsu possessed, the better.

"Whether you believe it is not important. I only want you to die with fewer regrets." Shusen said indifferently, "Now, you can die."

As his words fell, he rapidly formed a sequence of hand seals Kaguya Wuzhan had never seen before.

"Swamp Massacre Technique!"

A vast stretch of ground instantly transformed into a swamp, bubbling with a gurgle as though it had been brought to a boil.

Kaguya Wuzhan abruptly looked down and found both feet deeply sunk in the swamp. Dozens of muddy tentacles crawled up his calves, wrapping around him tightly.