Speed Kill

Ding—

A crisp ring of metal clashing sounded.

In the end, Qian had not trained the Body Flicker Technique enough. At lv2, it still could not let him achieve the effect of "teleporting" in front of a genin.

Because of that, before Qian could strike, that Rock Hidden Genin had already reacted, raising his Kunai and blocking Shiroishi's charge.

However, because his arm had been injured earlier, he did not have much strength, and Qian suppressed him with ease.

Looking at the other man's blood-soaked arm, Qian's eyes flickered slightly. The Kunai in his hand cut and stabbed, launching over a dozen attacks in the blink of an eye.

Even though the Rock Hidden Genin exhausted all his Mental Strength trying to block, he still could not quite keep up with Qian's rhythm.

Finally, after swinging his Kunai again, Qian found an opening. He drove power through his waist and abdomen, and his right foot lashed out.

Thud—

A dull impact rang out.

The Rock Hidden Genin only felt his left arm go numb, and his whole body flew backward at an angle.

Qian gave him no respite. Before his right foot had even pulled back, he swiftly threw three Shuriken. Empowered by his lv3 Ninja Tool Throwing, they shot straight toward three of the man's vital points.

Sensing the danger, the Rock Hidden Genin hurriedly dodged.

Unfortunately, he was in midair with nowhere to borrow force from. Even after straining to twist his body, he only managed to avoid two of them.

In the end, one Shuriken still struck his thigh.

Blood gushed out in spurts. The Shuriken Qian had thrown had happened to lodge in the artery in his leg.

When his body hit the ground, the Rock Hidden Genin could not stand steadily. His body staggered, and a suppressed grunt came from his mouth.

And right at that moment, Qian used the Body Flicker Technique, appearing silently behind him.

A chill crept from his back into his heart. Beads of sweat slid down the Rock Hidden Genin's forehead, and an intense sense of despair radiated from him.

"Don't."

A voice that was almost pleading entered Qian's ears.

But he remained unmoved.

Pfft—

The sound of a sharp blade entering flesh rang out.

The Rock Hidden Genin's pupils abruptly widened, and drops of blood seeped from the corners of his mouth.

"Kh... kh... kh..."

A sound as if his windpipe had been blocked came from his mouth. Expressionless, Qian pulled the Kunai out from the back of his heart.

Pff—

A mouthful of blood sprayed from the Rock Hidden Genin's mouth.

Immediately after, he toppled headfirst to the ground, losing all signs of life.

After killing him, Qian swept his gaze around, then rushed toward Mizutani Shizuko without stopping.

Her taijutsu had been on the weaker side to begin with, and now she was being besieged by two Rock Hidden Genin. The situation was already far from optimistic, so Qian had to rescue her as quickly as possible.

Without any surprises, after he took over as the main attacker, in less than three short minutes, those two Rock Hidden Genin had fallen to the ground.

After that, Qian did not rest. Once again, he locked his target onto the two Rock Hidden Genin currently fighting Ryosuke.

Just like before, after he and Mizutani Shizuko joined in, those two Rock Hidden Genin had hardly any room to resist and were killed in just a few minutes.

Qian and the other two were the only three genin on Konoha's side, so the people Rock Hidden had assigned to deal with them were all genin as well.

This should have been the most normal arrangement possible. Two against one, both sides genin—at least in theory, the Rock Ninja could not lose.

However, they had not expected a variable like Qian to appear among them. He was called a genin, but his actual combat power far surpassed that level.

In the end, a single miscalculation led to the deaths of six Rock Hidden Genin.

However, that was as far as it went.

After he killed six Rock Hidden Genin in succession, he finally drew the attention of the other Rock Ninja. Immediately, three Rock Hidden Chunin abandoned their opponents and charged straight toward him.

Seeing this, Qian did not look back as he said to Ryosuke and Mizutani Shizuko behind him, "Help me hold off the one on the left."

"Okay." ×2

After fighting together for so long, Ryosuke and Mizutani Shizuko trusted Qian quite a bit.

Therefore, after he spoke, they agreed almost without any hesitation.

After receiving their affirmative reply, Qian wasted no more time. He pushed off the ground with both feet and charged toward the two Rock Hidden Chunin on the right.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—

Several Shuriken flew straight at him.

Qian's figure swayed slightly, like a butterfly weaving through flowers, and he easily dodged the attack.

At the sight, the already stern faces of the two Rock Hidden Chunin turned even darker.

They were not surprised that Qian had been able to dodge that wave of attacks. After all, someone who could kill six of their Genin in such a short time had to have some ability.

But what they had not expected was that Qian would dodge so easily, with several Shuriken practically grazing past his body.

It looked simple, but in truth, it was extremely dangerous.

Not only did it require a ninja to be bold yet meticulous, able to remain calm before an attack arrived, it also required a clear judgment of the opponent's attack.

Otherwise, instead of saving any strength, he might end up splattering himself with blood.

So, generally speaking, unless they were absolutely confident, ninja would leave themselves a margin for error.

But clearly, Qian had not.

This made the two Rock Hidden Chunin treat him with even greater caution.

All of this took a long time to describe, but in reality, it happened in an instant.

After dodging the two men's Shuriken attacks, Qian did not slow down. In the blink of an eye, he arrived in front of them, and immediately after came the ringing clash of Kunai.

Thanks to the tempering he had undergone over the past month, his real combat experience had increased greatly.

Now, facing the joint attack of two Iwagakure Chunin again, he was no longer as passive as he had been during the ambush on the way here.

However, his goal was not merely to hold them back.

Qian swept his peripheral vision across the battlefield.

On the Jonin side, although Konoha was at a disadvantage, neither side had suffered any deaths or injuries yet.

On the Low and Mid-Ranked Ninja side, aside from the six Rock Hidden Genin he had killed, one Rock Hidden Chunin and two Rock Hidden Genin had also died at the hands of his other teammates.

However, in the end, they were fighting outnumbered. To kill those three enemies, Konoha had also paid the price of two Chunin.

In other words, the Rock Ninja side still had six Jonin, eight Chunin, and one Genin.

And their side?

Aside from two Jonin and two Special Jonin, there were only four Chunin left, along with the three Genin of their Class 17.

Four plus three against eight plus one. He had to kill at least another two or three Rock Hidden Chunin to maintain a certain balance on the Low and Mid-Ranked Ninja battlefield.

As for the Jonin battlefield...

That was not something he could participate in or influence.

What Qian could do was make sure this battlefield did not collapse as much as possible.

Anything more than that, forgive him, but it was beyond his ability.

Unless...

He was willing to expose his Sharingan!

But unless there was absolutely no other choice, Qian would not do that.

The Sharingan was his trump card, and the reason a trump card was called a trump card was because it could settle things in one decisive strike.

Don't be fooled by the fact that his Sharingan was only Single Tomoe. Paired with the Demonic Illusion: Shackling Stakes Technique, which he had already reached the entry level in, even a Jonin would be affected to some degree if caught by a sudden attack.

And ninja were all fragile. As long as he could seize that opportunity, even if he could not kill the enemy on the spot, seriously injuring them would not be a problem.

That way, he would have a chance to run.

Therefore, unless he was forced into a corner, he would not use the Sharingan.