Assassination

Chiba Shun's heart sank to the bottom!

The only thing he excelled at was swordsmanship. Against ninjutsu-type ninja, it was not that he had an advantage, but that he could adopt fighting methods that played to his strengths and avoided his weaknesses, at least buying time.

But now, his opponent was also skilled with a blade, and was clearly far stronger than him.

Today, he was probably doomed.

These chaotic thoughts flashed through his mind in an instant as Chiba Shun swung his blade to meet the attack.

The moment they clashed, Chiba Shun knew he was truly in danger. His opponent's swordsmanship was exceptionally fierce, and his blade was better than Chiba Shun's as well. After only a few exchanges, he had been completely forced onto the defensive.

With this man's swordsmanship, he should qualify as a Special Jonin!

If Chiba Shun's third and fourth blades had not appeared one after another and startled his opponent, and if that opponent had not seemed unwilling to get hurt, Chiba Shun would probably already have been a corpse.

Meanwhile, the ninjutsu user had not been idle either. He formed hand seals and launched several Earth Spears directly at Chiba Shun.

Chiba Shun was shocked. He did not care about his own companion?

Or was he simply confident in his own strength?

Whatever the reason, Chiba Shun knew he was finished.

There was no way he could deal with a swordsmanship expert stronger than himself while dodging those Earth Spears!

Just then, a barrage of kunai and shuriken flew in from the side toward the swordsmanship expert.

Chiba Shun had no spare attention to notice it.

He only knew that the pressure on him suddenly lessened. For some reason, the man before him let him go and swiftly retreated.

With a wet slash, an Earth Spear grazed Chiba Shun's left hand, tearing away a chunk of flesh and making him stumble, nearly losing his footing.

If the swordsmanship expert had stepped in to finish him with another slash then, Chiba Shun would have died without question.

More accurately, if the swordsmanship expert had not retreated earlier, Chiba Shun would already be dead.

At that moment, the swordsmanship expert's expression was extremely ugly. Although he had dodged the attack just now, he had not seen who had attacked him.

Only now did he realize that he had been played.

The ones attacking him were actually just a bunch of little brats!

More importantly, what exactly had they thrown at him?

Toy kunai? Toy shuriken?

How could those things possibly hurt him?

The troublemakers were children who had entered the Ninja Academy several years ago, all of them children Chiba Shun had previously taught how to climb walls.

When they heard the commotion today, they had all curiously come out to investigate.

A group of children who did not know their own limits only knew that their teacher was being bullied. Without caring about the gap between the two sides, they directly threw kunai and shuriken at the enemy.

They were simply too weak. Just now, someone's kunai had even been thrown at Chiba Shun!

Seeing those little brats preparing to throw more kunai, the swordsmanship Special Jonin's face darkened. He actually threw a kunai with an Explosive Tag attached toward the crowd.

He did not dare ignore them because he could not afford to be injured.

He still needed to remain undercover in Kumogakure. Once injured, he would most likely be exposed.

Boom!

An explosion rang out, followed by miserable cries.

No one knew what the children's casualties were like.

But Chiba Shun had no time to care about that. He gripped his longsword in his uninjured hand and watched the two enemies warily.

Just as Chiba Shun thought the two would resume their attack, the ninjutsu user said, "Withdraw now!"

If they did not leave now, they might not be able to get away.

It had not been easy for Root to place an intelligence ninja directly among Kumogakure's ranks. They could not discard him so easily.

The commotion from the Explosive Tag was far too great. Who knew how many people were rushing here now?

After saying that, he immediately formed hand seals, preparing to use another ninjutsu.

However, upon hearing this, the swordsmanship ninja did not leave immediately. He was still unwilling to give up and intended to charge one more time.

Yet before he reached Chiba Shun, he stopped.

Those were...

Snake, Ram, Monkey, Boar, Horse, Tiger?

That was right, the Great Fireball Technique!

He was a Konoha intelligence ninja. How could he not recognize the ninjutsu that nearly every member of the Uchiha Clan knew?

Chiba Shun knew the Great Fireball Technique? And how was his hand seal speed so fast?

He had completed six seals in less than a second?

Six, perhaps even seven seals per second? Unheard of!

And Chiba Shun was proficient in Fire Release as well? The intelligence reports had not mentioned that.

He hurriedly dodged to the side.

But in the next moment, he realized he had been tricked.

He was not merely a swordsmanship ninja; he was also skilled at sensing.

Yet he had not sensed any fire-nature aura from Chiba Shun.

Clearly, Chiba Shun had been bluffing him!

No wonder his hand seals had been so fast!

But it was already too late to realize that now.

Chiba Shun took the opportunity to widen the distance between them.

And after only just opening some distance, Chiba Shun began forming hand seals again.

This time, the swordsmanship ninja first identified the seals and confirmed that Chiba Shun was genuinely forming them.

Earth-Style Wall? The swordsmanship ninja recognized it.

Earth-Style Wall was a very common ninjutsu. He had seen it many times, so it was only natural that he recognized it.

His hand seal speed was decent. It should have reached 3.5 seals per second.

But he needed nine seals just to use an Earth-Style Wall. What trash!

After half a year of effort, Chiba Shun had only raised his hand seal speed to 3.5 seals per second, while reducing the number of seals for Earth-Style Wall to nine.

But in this swordsmanship ninja's eyes, it was somewhat laughable.

After all, in Konoha, a ninjutsu like Earth-Style Wall was far too common. Any random Chunin could use it with only six or seven seals.

The swordsmanship ninja did not hesitate any longer and decided to launch one final charge.

At the same time, he had already guessed the tactic Chiba Shun was about to use.

Before he could reach Chiba Shun, a curved Earth-Style Wall rose from the ground, blocking his and his companion's line of sight.

It also successfully blocked one of his companion's Earth Dragon Spear techniques.

Although the Earth-Style Wall was smashed open with a large gap, he still did not see Chiba Shun in the opening.

After a breath, a figure darted out from behind the Earth-Style Wall and fled swiftly to the side.

The swordsmanship ninja sneered inwardly. You think such a trick can fool me?

He merely threw two kunai at Chiba Shun, while he himself vaulted over the Earth-Style Wall!

A clone wants to distract me? Dream on!

Huh?

The attack he had expected did not come. There was no one behind the Earth-Style Wall.

Underground?

Just then, his companion's urgent voice rang out. "That was the real body! He ran! Withdraw now!"

The swordsmanship ninja froze for a moment. He had been tricked again, and by such a simple little trick?!

But it was already too late to say anything!

Knowing he had lost his final chance, the swordsmanship ninja gritted his teeth. No longer daring to hesitate, he leaped several times and left the Ninja Academy.

The ninjutsu user only cast a distraction-like technique before preparing to flee as well.

It sounded like a long time had passed, but both sides had only used a few ninjutsu. Not much time had actually gone by.

Chiba Shun looked in the direction the swordsmanship ninja had left with lingering fear, then immediately chased after the ninjutsu user.

This man was somewhat plump and did not look like a ninja at all.

Clearly, he was an intelligence ninja disguised as a civilian.

If he could not catch the mole, catching an intelligence ninja would do!

Chiba Shun did not attack. He merely followed the man from afar.

He did not need to make a move. Someone else naturally would!

Sure enough, after another dozen or so breaths, a streak of lightning suddenly appeared beside the man and sent him flying.

Chiba Shun was startled, then respectfully said, "Lord Raikage!"

That was right. The first person to arrive as reinforcements was actually the Third Raikage himself!

The Third Raikage was incomparably furious.

Today, he had been gathering the village's Jonin for a meeting, and Aoki Yuyi had been called away by him.

Yet the Ninja Academy had been attacked!

He was not stupid. Clearly, there was an intelligence ninja inside Kumogakure!

And the other party was a mid-level or high-level figure capable of learning the movements of certain Jonin!

He glanced at the intelligence ninja, who was dead beyond all doubt, and asked Chiba Shun, "What happened?"

Chiba Shun said, "They did not charge directly into the Ninja Academy or carry out a massacre. They came specifically to assassinate me."

"There were three of them in total. Aside from this man, I killed one, and his body is still at the Ninja Academy."

"The last one escaped. He was far stronger than me. If the children of the Ninja Academy had not risked their lives to support me, I would already be dead."

After a pause, he added, "Also, that man's skin was dark, and he was skilled in the village's swordsmanship. He should be a registered ninja!"

"I judged him to be a Special Jonin who specializes in swordsmanship."

The Third Raikage narrowed his eyes. A Special Jonin?

He must have hidden his strength. If he truly were a registered Special Jonin, he should have been in the meeting with them today.

After a moment of silence, the Third Raikage said, "I understand. Were they injured?"

Chiba Shun shook his head regretfully.

At that moment, figures began arriving one after another from the distance.

Several people headed directly for the Ninja Academy.

The Third Raikage said to one of them, "Ask every taijutsu ninja in the village where they were just now!"

The man was stunned for a moment before realizing what that meant. His expression also turned grim as he replied, "Yes."

After saying that, he glanced at Chiba Shun and quickly went to investigate.

For Chiba Shun, tonight was destined to be sleepless.

He and Aoki Yuyi returned to the Ninja Academy.

After arranging for the injured, he began addressing everyone.

"The future of the village, you have seen it, haven't you? This is Konoha!"

"We clearly did nothing, yet they still refuse to let us go!"

"Today, twelve heroes gave their lives for the village!"

"Another seven have been seriously injured!"

"All of this is because of Konoha's ambitions!"

"They thought this could frighten us and make us give up resisting!"

"But they were wrong. The Shinobi Village has no cowards!"

"Even Ninja Academy students dared to attack a Jonin!"

"From all of you, I saw the Will of Lightning being passed on!"