Battle Jugo

The chunin stared at Lin Chongshu, his whole body trembling. "Please..."

[Detected that the chunin has developed intense negative emotions toward the host: extreme fear, despair, regret. Reward extraction complete. Obtained: Chakra +1.]

[Detected that Jugo has developed intense negative emotions toward the host: hatred, fury. Reward extraction complete. Obtained: Natural Energy Sage Body +1.]

Sensing Jugo's hostility, the Gold Dust peeled away from Lin Chongshu's wrist and stretched through the air into a golden blade.

The chunin's head flew into the air while his body remained crushed within the sand.

"I was originally going to torture you properly, but now I can only feed you to the demons first."

The remaining genin were scared out of their minds, and the system chimed several times in succession.

[Detected that the target has developed intense negative emotions toward the host: extreme fear, breakdown. Reward extraction complete.]

[Obtained: Chakra +1.]

[Obtained: Chakra +1.]

[Obtained: Speed +1.]

[Obtained: Speed +1.]

[Obtained: Agility +1.]

Yet they could only lie limp on the ground, without even the strength to run.

Lin Chongshu clenched one hand, and the gravel on the ground surged up like ocean waves, sweeping toward Jugo's head and body at once.

"Sage Art: Sand Binding Coffin!"

The sand crawled up Jugo's legs like living creatures, wrapping tighter around them layer by layer.

Jugo glanced down and raised his foot to crush it, but the sand was finer and denser than before. It felt soft beneath his foot, and the moment he pulled free, more sand wound around him.

The ground beneath his feet also began to feel wrong.

The sand was not merely piling up on the surface—it was rapidly hollowing out the ground beneath him. The entire patch of earth collapsed downward as if its foundation had been excavated.

Jugo's legs were already submerged below the knees in the sandpit, and he continued sinking as Gold Dust poured into the pit from every direction.

The more he struggled, the faster the sand poured in. It quickly buried him up to the waist.

"Sage Art: Magnet Release: Gold Dust Burial!"

Lin Chongshu stood opposite him, having already returned to human form.

His grayish-brown skin had completely faded back to normal, and his half-human, half-demon face had returned to that of a delicate-looking youth. Only his beast-like amber pupils remained, along with several strands of white hair at his forehead.

He looked down at Jugo in the sandpit, maintaining the hand sign controlling the sand.

Jugo let out a low growl and stopped paying attention to the sand around his feet.

He flung both arms behind him, and the flesh below his elbows began to warp, forming two massive thrusters.

White blasts of air erupted from the rear of the thrusters. With a thunderous boom, he blasted apart the sandpit, broke free of the Gold Dust's restraints like a cannonball, and slammed toward Lin Chongshu.

Lin Chongshu did not dodge.

The instant the thrusters roared, the markings around his eyes lengthened, his pupils contracted, and Natural Energy pushed his senses to their limit.

Jugo swung his fist. Lin Chongshu twisted aside, and the force of the punch grazed past his ear.

He drove an elbow into the inside of Jugo's forearm, spun with the momentum, and pivoted around to Jugo's side.

In Sage Mode, his reactions were at least three times faster than usual. Jugo had barely turned his head when Lin Chongshu ducked inside his guard and struck his palm against Jugo's ribs.

"Sage Art: Chakra Blade!"

Green light burst from his fingertips. The Chakra Blade cut into flesh, carving a bloody wound along Jugo's ribs.

Jugo grimaced in pain and swung a backhanded punch. Lin Chongshu leaned back, the fist brushing past the tip of his nose, then planted one hand on the ground, flipped backward, and landed steadily several steps away.

Jugo looked down at the wound on his side, licked the corner of his mouth, and grinned wider.

His legs began to deform again. Below the knees, they swelled and fused with his calves into two thick springing limbs. Blasts of air erupted from beneath his feet, and he launched forward at more than twice his previous speed.

Lin Chongshu had barely steadied himself when Jugo appeared before him, clasping both fists together and smashing them down.

He had no time to dodge. Crossing his arms, he took the blow head-on. His feet skidded backward over a dozen steps, and only the mound of sand piled behind him managed to stop him.

Jugo gave him no chance to catch his breath.

His springing limbs blasted out air again, and he lunged along the trail Lin Chongshu had carved across the ground.

Lin Chongshu swept out his right hand. Gold Dust and gravel rose from both sides of the ground, forming a golden wall of sand before him.

Jugo smashed a fist into the sand wall. His thrusters roared, shattering the wall and sending Gold Dust flying everywhere.

Using the brief buffer, Lin Chongshu pulled back another two body lengths, but Jugo's second punch crashed down right after.

Lin Chongshu had no time to evade and could only take it head-on.

Both hands shot out, gripping the fist that was larger than his head.

The impact forced his arms to bend backward, and a dull crack of strain came from his shoulders and wrists.

In a contest of pure strength, he had no advantage.

Jugo grinned. The hands restrained by Lin Chongshu began to deform, the flesh above his wrists peeling apart to reveal light cannons gathering energy within.

Lin Chongshu released his right hand, and the green glow of the Chakra Blade precisely slashed toward the nerves and blood vessels inside Jugo's wrist.

The green light flashed past. The glow of the hand cannon instantly died, and the entire arm went limp.

Lin Chongshu pressed forward, twisting Jugo's ruined arm behind his back. He drove his knee into Jugo's waist and used his body weight to pin him to the ground.

Karin's mother clenched the coarse fabric of her sleeve, her eyes following Lin Chongshu's figure without pause. You have to survive...

She had already begun to believe that Lin Chongshu could lead her out of this predicament.

The genin also kept their heads raised, watching the battle before them in stunned amazement. This is way too strong. He's stronger than an ordinary chunin!

They could now see that these two definitely were not allies. They just could not understand why Lin Chongshu had deliberately said those frightening things earlier. What was he after?

Jugo's face was pressed against the gravel, and a muffled, strange laugh escaped his mouth.

He grabbed Lin Chongshu's ankle with one hand. His back began to writhe, and more than a dozen bulges rose along both shoulder blades. Each one split open, revealing cannon barrels gathering light.

More than a dozen cannon barrels grew from his back, aimed at Lin Chongshu straddling him like a hedgehog's spines.

Lin Chongshu turned his head. The sand beside his foot automatically gathered into a sand hand, which pulled a sealing scroll from his ninja tool pouch and flung it onto the ground.

The scroll unfurled, and the ink-black sealing character for "water" flashed once.

He stepped on it, and a massive torrent of water burst from the scroll, instantly flooding the surrounding ground.

The cannon barrels on Jugo's back had already brightened to their most blinding level. There was no time to form a complete set of hand seals.

He formed only one seal, forcing the rest through with Sage Chakra.

A thick column of water exploded from the surface, twisting through the air and forming a coiling water dragon.

"Sage Art: Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet Technique!"

The water dragon dove from the sky, opened its enormous jaws, and swallowed all of the cannon barrels on Jugo's back at once.

The beams exploded inside the water dragon's belly, sending water spraying in every direction.

Even as the water dragon swallowed him, Jugo struggled, releasing a string of muffled roars as bubbles poured from the corners of his mouth.

Then a great deal of water flooded into his nose and mouth. He gurgled a few times before quickly losing consciousness.