Consecutive Kills

"Above us—Lightning Release: Lightning Strike!"

Crack! A dazzling bolt of lightning struck at the figure in the air.

"No, underground—Earth Release: Earth-Cutting Wave!"

Boom! The ground immediately surged like rippling water, and the Earth Release ninja vanished in an instant.

Bang! Bang!

"Watch out, they're Shadow Clones! Damn it, when did he..." The bandaged wandering ninja roared, his bloodshot eyes wide.

Before he could finish, Neji's true body dropped from the treetop like a ghost, his right palm wreathed in Wandering Dragon energy shooting for the man's crown.

Yet the Earth Release ninja suddenly burst from the ground, his stone fist smashing toward Neji's back. "I've been waiting for you!"

The swordsman spun and slashed out a curved blade light, its flashing edge aimed straight for Neji's neck.

Bang!

Amid the soft crack of a replacement log shattering, a figure suddenly lunged at the swordsman.

Just as the bandaged man turned to assist, chakra threads drilling up from underground suddenly wrapped around his ankle—within the remnants of the clone he had just cut apart lay the hidden Gentle Fist force Neji had planted beforehand.

"Wandering Dragon: Mountain Breaker!"

The true killing blow erupted from the bandaged man's shadow. The dragon-shaped energy condensed in Neji's palm shattered his chest guard. The instant the man's chest caved in, the phantom dragon burst through his body, carrying flesh and blood as it smashed through three tree trunks.

Electricity crackled across the scorched trunks like an unfinished mournful cry.

"Inoue? Bastard! He's dead—we're retreating!"

Wave-like chakra began spreading beneath the Earth Release ninja's feet.

Hearing that, the swordsman's heart tightened. Then a vicious look crossed his face. Already leaping through the air, he drew his body into a massive bow. The next moment, the tachi raised above his head came slashing down, its crescent light tearing toward Neji with a piercing whistle.

Smack!

Neji caught the blade between both palms. The energy between his hands spun rapidly, grinding away the force of the descending slash.

Amid the shriek of metal, Gentle Fist chakra surged backward along the blade, jolting the swordsman until blood burst from the web between his thumb and forefinger.

"What?" The swordsman, who had intended to use the recoil from Neji's block to escape, froze in disbelief. He never could have imagined anyone would catch a blade with bare hands.

"Eight Trigrams Palm: Chaotic Stars!"

Neji spun like a top, and thirty-six chakra needles bursting from his fingertips pierced the swordsman's vital acupoints. His sword-wielding right arm went numb instantly, and the nodachi clanged to the ground.

Taking the opportunity, the Earth Release ninja slipped underground. The ground within a ten-meter radius suddenly turned into fine sand.

"Earth Release: Quicksand Technique!"

The earth beneath Neji's feet softened and collapsed. The more he struggled, the faster he sank. The swordsman drew his wakizashi with a vicious grin. "Konoha's Byakugan, rot in the mud for all I—"

A dragon's roar suddenly rang out.

Neji abruptly stopped struggling and slammed both palms onto the muddy surface. "Wandering Dragon: Sea-Covering!"

Violent chakra exploded outward in a ring, blasting the mud skyward into a towering wave.

The instant the curtain of mud obscured the swordsman's vision, Neji stepped onto the shooting rubble and leaped from the trap, flinging three shuriken wrapped in Explosive Tags through the air.

Amid the blazing explosions, five rocky ridges suddenly rose from the ground.

Controlling the technique, the Earth Release ninja summoned a gigantic granite hand from beneath the earth. Every finger was carved with sealing runes. "Earth Release: Rock Demon's Grip!"

"Too slow."

The veins around Neji's Byakugan bulged. As he flipped aside from the closing stone palm, both hands precisely struck into the cracks in the rock. "Mountain-Crushing Strike: Three-Tiered Waves!"

A mountain-collapse-like tremor spread through the earth. The Earth Release ninja hiding underground suffered the backlash of his own technique. Neji grabbed the stone arm and leaped from the pit, pouring Wandering Dragon energy into the earth veins through the cracks. "Get out here!"

The ground churned like boiling water, and the Earth Release ninja was blasted to the surface, coughing blood foam. Just as he tried to form a hand seal, the edge of Neji's palm was already pressed against his Adam's apple. "Mountain-Crushing Strike."

The crisp crack of shattering vertebrae startled the night crows into flight. The Rock Demon's Grip collapsed with a crash, and a rain of stones struck the ground beside the swordsman's feet.

"Hahaha, never thought I'd fall to a kid. Brat, you forced me to do this..."

The swordsman spat out a mouthful of bloody foam in a hoarse voice, tearing open his bloodstained shirt to reveal strange black curse marks on his back. "You forced me to use a forbidden technique... I'll pull out your bones one by one, chop them up, and feed them to dogs~"

The curse markings crawled over his entire body like living snakes, and his speed suddenly tripled. The wakizashi became a silver storm. Wherever its blade light passed, trees thick enough for two people to wrap their arms around were sliced in half like tofu. Neji darted and twisted through the web of blades, but seven bloody cuts still appeared across his white clothes.

"Dragon Battles in the Wilds!"

A skyful of palm shadows instantly blocked the silver storm, the dark golden energy in Neji's palms firmly holding back the razor-sharp blade.

The next second, the two exchanged blows at blinding speed. As they twisted and crossed, the collisions between palm strikes and the wakizashi rang like clashing steel, while fierce killing intent flashed beneath the dazzling gold and silver light.

"Eight Trigrams Domain—open!"

A blue-green array blossomed beneath his feet, and every trajectory of the swordsman's killing attacks became perfectly clear beneath Neji's Byakugan. Neji suddenly stopped dodging and allowed the wakizashi to stab into his left shoulder, while his right hand clamped down on the other man's wrist. "Got you."

Gentle Fist chakra surged backward through the man's meridians toward his heart. The swordsman was horrified to discover that every meridian in his right arm had been sealed shut. Neji's bloodied left hand formed a sword finger, and the Eight Trigrams One Hundred Twenty-Eight Palms descended like a rainstorm:

"Two palms!"

"Four palms!"

"Eight palms!"

When the final palm landed on the Tanzhong acupoint, a falling blood-red cherry blossom happened to stop between them. Reflected in the swordsman's widened pupils was Neji's icy face. "Rotation."

A chakra hurricane wrapped in cherry blossoms soared into the sky. When the storm dispersed, the swordsman fell like a rag doll, wisps of blue smoke rising from the acupoints across his body.

"Whew... These ninjas who live by the blade really are hard to kill!"

Neji looked at the three corpses sprawled across the ground. Under his Byakugan, he could clearly see that all life had left their bodies.

Neji felt no disgust toward this struggle between life and death. Instead, he faintly felt exhilarated.

"So this is a ninja's fate."

Neji grinned silently.

After simply stopping the bleeding with Mystical Palm Technique, the circulation of his Inner Qi left his wounds in no serious condition. Neji tore off his ruined clothes, took out a spare coat from his storage space and changed into it, then wrapped the three corpses in his old clothes, lifted them up, and headed back toward the Bounty Exchange.

The buzzing noise stopped abruptly the moment Neji appeared at the Bounty Exchange, as if someone had grabbed a flock of ducks by the throat.

"See how much these three are worth."

Neji spoke to the person behind the counter.

"Please wait a moment, sir!"

The man's smile was somewhat forced as he took the bodies and laid them beneath the counter. After carefully identifying them, he said, "So they're rogue ninjas from Yugakure. They happen to be on the list. The total is three hundred thousand ryo. Would you like cash, or would you prefer to deposit it with us? You can withdraw it at any Bounty Exchange in the Ninja World!"

"Cash."

"Certainly, sir!"

As he spoke, the man formed a hand seal with one hand. Chakra surged, and a box appeared on the counter. He opened it, counted the money, removed several bills, then handed the rest to Neji along with the box.

"Please keep it safe, sir!"

"Mm."

Neji nodded, picked up the box, and walked out.

The setting sun was like rust. Cherry petals drifting through the sky were shredded by the wind into crimson fragments, and faint cries echoed from the forest like the unwilling sobs of the dead.

He adjusted his collar and set off along the road he had taken before.