Faster Than Body Flicker Shisui

Long Ye kicked off the current, flashing swiftly from branch to branch. Suddenly, Uchiha Shisui's dissatisfied voice came from behind him:

"Are you running for your life? Why are you going so fast? I had to give it everything just to barely keep up with you."

Seeing how fast Long Ye was moving, Shisui had initially assumed this boring fellow was competing with him in foot speed, so he had sped up as well.

But after secretly competing for an hour, he suddenly began to run out of stamina, and his speed slowed considerably.

Long Ye's speed, however, had not slowed in the slightest throughout the entire journey. This left Shisui feeling somewhat frustrated. After all, Long Ye had already suffered a certain degree of external injury from killing that Iwagakure shinobi who possessed Explosion Release.

Long Ye suddenly froze when he heard this.

From beginning to end, he had been traveling at his ordinary speed. In fact, even his current speed felt to him like only twenty or thirty percent of his full strength.

After a moment of surprise, he immediately understood.

The Flowing Lightning ability he possessed now was worlds apart from before. As a result, even the most basic use of infusing Flowing Lightning into the soles of his feet for travel had brought about a tremendous increase in speed.

Yet Long Ye, as the one who possessed this power, had no particularly clear perception of it.

He had no intention of stopping. Turning his head with a smile, he said, "Shisui, I've heard that your Body Flicker Technique is incredibly fast. I wonder if you can keep up with me."

The implied provocation only made Shisui laugh.

"Looks like you insist on finding out who's better. What courage. You dare to compete with me in speed, and you aren't afraid of losing face? Why would I refuse?"

After laughing, Shisui vanished from the spot with a whoosh.

In the next blink, he appeared dozens of meters ahead of Long Ye.

"You can take your time getting here! By the time I return, take a bath, and eat, you should have arrived too. Then we can report to the Hokage together."

Shisui left with the Body Flicker Technique.

Long Ye smiled faintly. "I'll let you see what kind of speed Flowing Lightning can reach when pushed to its limits and infused into my feet..."

He released the electricity with all his strength. The current rapidly spread from the soles of his feet up into both legs, and in the end, his entire body was shrouded in blue lightning.

He seemed to transform into lightning itself, tearing through the void...

"This Long Ye only killed an Iwagakure shinobi, yet he thinks he's better than me in everything. He's actually overestimating himself enough to compete with me in speed. In Konoha—or even the entire Shinobi World—apart from Minato Namikaze, there isn't anyone I take seriously when it comes to the speed of my Body Flicker Technique."

Uchiha Shisui traveled with a confident smile.

In an instant, he seemed to sense something and instinctively turned his head.

The sight nearly made him lose all color in his face.

Behind him, Long Ye had transformed into a streak of Lightning Flash and appeared a hundred paces behind him in the blink of an eye.

"Impossible! What kind of speed is this?!"

Shisui was horrified. He frantically used the Body Flicker Technique, pushing his speed to the limit...

About half an hour after the two passed through this area,

the four pursuers finally arrived.

"We've been chasing them for half an hour and still haven't seen any sign of Minato Namikaze. That person must be using the Flying Thunder God Technique to travel. If we keep pursuing, we'll enter the core defense line of the Land of Fire. Once we're discovered, we'll be subjected to a frenzied encirclement."

One of them glanced at the blond man whose face was full of unwillingness and spoke in a consoling tone.

"The war has only just begun. Minato Namikaze, we'll definitely meet again. Let's go..."

The blond man made a prompt decision and turned to leave with the others.

Long Ye naturally had no idea that a group of people had been following them the entire time.

But because he had suddenly taken an interest in competing with Shisui in speed, he had inadvertently avoided a direct clash with them.

By then, the two had finally returned to Konoha.

In the end, Shisui had won the speed competition.

But only Shisui himself knew that he had won by roughly ten paces—and those ten paces had been gained by starting a hundred paces ahead.

Long Ye was not at all frustrated by his "defeat." Instead, he looked extremely excited.

"After the Fruit ability was pushed to its limit, all its attributes truly underwent a breakthrough-level improvement. But this increase is somewhat terrifying. In terms of speed alone, it can already rival Shisui's Body Flicker Technique."

Long Ye felt fortunate about his choice to spend the Demon Points he had previously obtained on the Op-Op Fruit ability known as Heart Shock, giving himself even greater capital for survival.

The Op-Op Fruit ability he possessed now had already surpassed the limits of his understanding of the fruit ability possessed by Trafalgar Law in the Pirate World.

Because as things stood, the power he possessed had practically already surpassed Trafalgar Law's.

In other words, when different people obtained and developed Devil Fruits, the abilities they developed would not necessarily be the same.

Konohagakure.

Hokage Office.

"What?! Shū, the wielder of the Explosion Release Kekkei Genkai from Iwagakure, was eliminated by the two of you?"

The Hokage had initially assumed that since the two had returned so quickly, they had failed to find their target and the mission had ended in failure. He had never expected to hear a report from them that the mission was complete.

"You two didn't identify the wrong person, did you? Are you certain he was the person in the intelligence report?"

The Hokage still found it somewhat unreal.

For one thing, the two had completed the mission far too quickly.

Based on his original expectations, even if they ultimately succeeded, it should have taken at least three to five days. Yet in the end, they had used only half a day.

The second reason was naturally the condition of the two.

Uchiha Shisui had left and returned without a single mark on his body. He certainly did not look like someone who had fought for his life.

Long Ye, on the other hand, looked somewhat disheveled, as though he had fought someone.

Long Ye answered first. "The main reason we succeeded this time was that our opponent underestimated us. Once Shisui's Sharingan and genjutsu were deployed, there was nowhere for our opponent to hide. The result was unexpected, but it was also within reason."

Upon hearing this, Uchiha Shisui turned to look at him, a trace of surprise flashing deep in his eyes.

What he could not understand was that the Iwagakure shinobi had clearly been killed by Long Ye alone. Why insist on saying that the two of them had killed him together? Moreover, in both his words and his tone, Long Ye had glossed over his own contribution entirely.

Withholding or falsifying intelligence was a great taboo among shinobi. But considering that the mission had been completed and only the details of the process had been falsified, Shisui did not expose him.

Long Ye had done this merely to conceal his true ability appropriately and delay people's discovery that he possessed Explosion Release for as long as possible.

Of course, he also knew that it was only a matter of time before this ability of his was discovered.

But the later it was discovered, the more advantageous it would be for him. Once he possessed enough strength to contend with the "Kage," it would no longer matter who found out.

The Hokage asked no further questions, and his expression was filled with satisfaction.

"Excellent. Konoha now has two more rising stars."

"This mission was originally a test for the two of you. Since you completed it successfully, it proves that you're already capable of undertaking more arduous missions. From today onward, you will participate fully in the war between Konoha and Iwagakure..."