Clash

"Hey! Lord Yizhe, why are you in such a hurry?" Furukawa Kazekaze dodged one of Yizhe's attacks while continuing to needle him.

His goal was simple: as long as he kept Yizhe occupied and prevented him from leaving the battlefield, the two Red Ant leaders trapped beneath the snow would be able to break free and easily resolve the situation.

Yizhe was anxious. Time was passing second by second. With every second that passed, the two Red Ant leaders drew closer to escaping, and his danger increased.

The problem was not that he could not defeat the boy named Furukawa Kazekaze. On the contrary, Yizhe was confident that if he caught the boy, he could kill him in a single blow. But right now, his opponent had no intention of fighting him head-on, retreating the instant they made contact.

He was not giving him even the slightest opportunity!

Yizhe halted his assault and stopped pursuing him. He did not want to waste any more energy on a fruitless chase.

Even if he got lucky and caught an opening caused by his opponent's exhaustion, he himself would likely be too drained by then to deal with what came next.

Therefore, he had to think of a way to deal with this enemy in the shortest time possible and with the least expenditure.

"What? You're not chasing anymore?" Furukawa Kazekaze probed.

Yizhe rapidly formed a set of hand seals, his cheeks swelling hugely.

Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!

A fierce gale erupted once more, sweeping up snow that filled the sky. Carrying countless ice crystals, it howled toward Furukawa Kazekaze.

"Not good!" Furukawa Kazekaze cried out.

Although this ninjutsu was not particularly destructive, its strength lay in disrupting the enemy. If this gale scattered his footing into disarray, Yizhe might seize the opportunity and take him down in one stroke.

With that thought, he retreated again and again while his hands continued to form seals at high speed.

Earth Style: Earth Flow Wall!

A wall of earth mixed with snowflakes, roughly three meters wide, rose from the ground before Furukawa Kazekaze and blocked the howling gale.

Kazekaze's strength was limited, so the earthen wall he summoned could not compare to the one Yizhe had seen Jiraiya summon at the bathhouse.

But it was more than enough to block Yizhe's gale.

The gale struck the earthen wall, only kicking up a little dirt without moving it in the slightest!

"Lord Yizhe, that alone isn't enough!" Kazekaze mocked from behind the wall.

The moment his words fell, a white figure appeared above the earthen wall and rapidly descended.

"I knew you'd try a sneak attack!" Furukawa Kazekaze sneered.

It was as though he had long anticipated that Yizhe would use the wind and snow to obscure his vision before launching a surprise attack. He immediately hurled the shuriken he had prepared at the figure overhead.

Pfft—

All three shuriken struck their target, but the white figure turned into a wisp of smoke.

Not only that, another white figure stood behind the dispersed Shadow Clone, and this second white figure held a pale blue sphere of light in his hand.

"Hiding behind a Shadow Clone? A double attack?" Furukawa Kazekaze was greatly shocked, but it was already too late for him to dodge.

Yizhe pressed the pale blue sphere in one hand against Furukawa Kazekaze's head!

The sphere's powerful twisting force directly distorted Furukawa Kazekaze's skull. This was the hand-signless ninjutsu Yizhe had learned from Jiraiya—the Rasengan.

Pfft—

Furukawa Kazekaze's body turned into a wisp of white smoke!

"A Shadow Clone too?" Yizhe was startled.

"Then where is his real body?"

As Furukawa Kazekaze's Shadow Clone vanished, the earthen wall that had stood there collapsed as well. The gale had already stopped, and everything around him was visible at a glance.

Yet Furukawa Kazekaze was still nowhere to be seen!

Where was he hiding? Yizhe's heart filled with doubt.

Earth Style: Rock Pillar Prison!

"Not good!" Yizhe sensed fluctuations of chakra around him.

Unfortunately, it was already too late!

Several stone pillars as thick as thighs rose from the snow beneath Yizhe's feet, trapping him firmly inside. He could barely move his limbs.

Earth Style: Rock Pillar Spear!

Immediately afterward, Yizhe felt another surge of chakra beneath his feet.

A grayish-brown stone pillar with a pointed tip rose directly beneath Yizhe. Unable to evade, he was skewered from bottom to top by the Rock Pillar Spear like a piece of meat on a skewer.

Pfft—

Yizhe, impaled upon the stone spear, turned into a wisp of smoke. That had been a Shadow Clone too!

"What?!" A cry of shock came from underground.

Furukawa Kazekaze's figure slowly emerged from the ground. He had thought his sure-kill strike would land, yet it had actually missed!

He had long guessed that Yizhe would use a Shadow Clone as a feint, which was why he had left one Shadow Clone in place to lure the enemy. He himself had burrowed underground, waiting for his chance.

He had simply never expected that Yizhe's attack after the Shadow Clone's feint would still be another Shadow Clone!

Then where was Yizhe? Where had his real body gone?

This time, it was Furukawa Kazekaze's turn to search for Yizhe.

Yet no matter how he looked around, he could not find any trace of Yizhe.

Suddenly, he spotted a string of faint footprints at the spot where Yizhe had released the gale. They led away from the caravan.

Following them with his eyes, Furukawa Kazekaze finally noticed a figure moving rapidly across the snow some distance away.

Fortunately, he had lived on the snowfields year-round, and his eyesight was sharper than most. Otherwise, he would have been unable to distinguish Yizhe's white figure from the snow.

"Trying to run? Did he think the commission was too difficult to complete, and fear our retaliation, so he fled for his life?"

"That must be it! He couldn't take me down quickly, and Father and Uncle are about to break free. He must know he can't withstand the three of us attacking together!"

"So if he wants to live, he has to run!" The more Furukawa Kazekaze analyzed it, the more certain he became of his guess.

"No, I can't let you get away like this! You buried so many of our brothers! I'll make sure you die!" Furukawa Kazekaze roared at Yizhe's retreating figure.

Watching that figure gradually grow more distant, Furukawa Kazekaze lost his reason in fury. Without hesitation, he followed after it and gave chase!

"You won't get away!" Kazekaze roared as he ran.

Suddenly, an arm burst out of the snow and grabbed his foot.

"Who said I was running?" A cold voice sent a chill straight through Furukawa Kazekaze.

Only then did he finally understand that it had all been Yizhe's plan to lure him in.

From the very beginning, Furukawa Kazekaze had only defended and never attacked. After Yizhe failed to break through for so long, he began plotting.

He knew that even with the gale's cover, it would be difficult to take Furukawa Kazekaze down, so he set up this scheme within a scheme.

First, under the cover of the gale, he created three Shadow Clones. Two pretended to launch a feint attack, while the other pretended to flee the battlefield. His real body hid underground.

He had expected that the two Shadow Clones would not succeed in their sneak attack. Once Kazekaze realized the sneak attack was fake and the escape was real, he would surely pursue him relentlessly.

Once Furukawa Kazekaze hurried after him, he would inevitably let down his guard. Yizhe only needed to lie in wait along the path Kazekaze had to take and seize the opportunity to take him down in one stroke.

Sure enough, he had finally waited for the moment that would decide the battle!

Yizhe gripped Furukawa Kazekaze's foot tightly and sent a burst of Gentle Fist force through it, disrupting his chakra flow and making Kazekaze's movements falter. Then he yanked hard, dragging the stunned Kazekaze down into the snow with him.

Gentle Fist: Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms!

A field of Eight Trigrams immediately spread outward with Furukawa Kazekaze at its center, firmly locking onto his presence.