A Formidable Opponent

"Exactly. Konoha's outpost is still dozens of li from here. Even if they send someone to meet them, they would never send them this far. At most, they'd only come a dozen li or so from the outpost!"

The last Rain Chunin, a tall and powerfully built man, could not help agreeing with the middle-aged Chunin.

"Besides, those ninjas from great nations have no idea what the smaller countries suffer through! Those three brats must be Konoha's new generation of genius ninjas. If we can eliminate them, we'll at least get a little payback for what those Konoha ninjas have done in the Land of Rain!"

The tall Rain Ninja recalled Meikyō's dazzling shuriken techniques during their earlier battle, along with his endless ninjutsu and formidable swordsmanship. Jealousy filled his heart.

Why did ninjas from great nations all have stable environments in which to grow, along with so many powerful ninjutsu to learn, while he had struggled to survive in the chaotic Land of Rain since childhood, piecing together whatever ninjutsu he could find to study? Yet even at his age, he had only barely become a Chunin.

Why hadn't he been born in a great nation and become one of their ninjas?

With his abilities, he had already come this far in the Land of Rain. If he had been in one of those great nations, would he have become even stronger, perhaps even a Jonin?

"Everyone! Come take a look!"

Not far away, a Genin pointed at a bloodstain on a fallen leaf, already washed pale by the rain.

The middle-aged Rain Ninja walked over, dipped a finger into it, and lightly tasted it with the tip of his tongue.

"It's still fresh. They're nearby! Pick up the pace and keep pursuing them!"

A few minutes later.

Still somewhere in the dense forest.

Veins bulged around Hyuga Tetsu's Byakugan as he observed everything happening around them from within the grass.

"They're here!"

Hyuga Tetsu warned them cautiously.

Before long, the figures of the Amegakure group flickered into view near the forest.

In another patch of grass nearby, Uchiha Meikyō watched the scene with his Sharingan open.

Several neat rows of shuriken lay before him atop a piece of cloth torn from someone's clothing.

These were most of the shuriken carried by the six members of the team, entrusted to him to open the battle.

As soon as the enemies entered his attack range, Uchiha Meikyō seized a corner of the cloth and flung it upward, sending the shuriken soaring into the air with it.

Through the Sharingan's powerful dynamic vision, the trajectories of those shuriken were incomparably clear in Meikyō's eyes.

"Uchiha Style: Controlled Shuriken!"

In an instant, Meikyō's hands danced through the air like butterflies among flowers, hurling the shuriken out at tremendous speed.

With his exquisite control over the force behind them, even though they were launched at slightly different times, he could create differences in their flight speeds and make them strike the enemy simultaneously.

To the Rain Ninjas, it was as though a long dragon made of shuriken had suddenly appeared before them, only to turn into a vast shower of raindrop-like blades plunging down upon them.

"Water Style: Water Wall!" ×2

The tall Rain Ninja and the injured one immediately joined forces, using Water Style to block the shuriken. As for the middle-aged Rain Ninja, he protected his three students while remaining alert for an enemy attack exploiting the opening.

The three Genin were the weakest link in their team, so they had to avoid being ambushed at the very start of the battle.

However, those three Genin were not Meikyō's group's planned first targets.

"Fang Dance!"

"Gentle Fist Art: Eight Trigrams Thirty-Two Palms!"

Inuzuka Ryo and Hyuga Tetsu lunged out at once, charging toward the two Amegakure Chunin who had just used ninjutsu.

Given their formidable close-combat abilities, it was hard to say whether they could defeat those two Chunin, but they could certainly hold them back for quite a while.

As for Uchiha Meikyō, he drew his blade against the middle-aged Amegakure Chunin who wielded an umbrella as a weapon.

"We should help too!"

Seeing this, the three Genin wanted to rush forward and join the fight. Yet in the next moment, countless dense black flying insects obscured their vision.

"It's fine! That female ninja who uses bugs isn't good at taijutsu, and she's injured too. As long as we can get close to her, we still have a chance!"

One of the Genin shouted to his companions and charged toward Aburame Nami.

"Hey! Don't underestimate the great Kibata!"

Kazemaki Kibata and Inuzuka Tsume sprang out from the forests on either side, joining Aburame Nami in a three-pronged pincer attack.

"Damn it! Weren't there only three of them? Didn't they say Konoha wouldn't send anyone this far out to meet them?!"

The three Genin were terrified out of their wits, yet they had no choice but to grit their teeth and fight.

"Damn it, why is this Byakugan brat's taijutsu so troublesome?!"

The tall, burly Rain Ninja rubbed the spot on his shoulder where Hyuga Tetsu had just struck him, then spat on the ground and cursed.

Hyuga Tetsu held his left hand behind his back and extended his right hand flat before him, assuming the stance of the Gentle Fist as he coldly stared at the Rain Ninja before him.

As for the Rain Ninja whom Meikyō had cut earlier, he was now on full defense under Inuzuka Ryo's assault.

He was already injured, so he decided to play it safe for now. Once the middle-aged Rain Ninja dealt with that Uchiha brat, everything would turn around.

Yet the middle-aged Rain Ninja with the umbrella, upon whom the other Amegakure ninjas had pinned their hopes, was extremely strong.

He was stronger than any Chunin-level opponent Meikyō had faced before.

It could be said that since Meikyō had begun his career, aside from facing the Jonin Dan Katō during the bell-grabbing exercise, this middle-aged Rain Ninja was the strongest opponent he had ever encountered.

"Uchiha Style: Lightning Cloud Cutter!"

"Uchiha Style: Instant Fire Blade!"

"Uchiha Style: Swift Wind Blade!"

Uchiha Meikyō's relentless attacks were all neutralized one by one by the middle-aged Rain Ninja before him.

What was surprising was that this middle-aged Rain Ninja was also an expert swordsman. His Umbrella Sword was used with uncanny skill, carrying the flavor of an exotic weapon. For a time, he battered Meikyō into a miserable state. If not for the Sharingan's formidable perception, which allowed him to detect the blades along the umbrella's edge and the senbon fired after it opened, he would probably already have been lying on the ground.

But the middle-aged Rain Ninja seized the opportunity to counterattack, forcing Uchiha Meikyō onto the defensive.

Meikyō turned and tilted his head to evade several incoming senbon, then raised his blade to block the middle-aged Rain Ninja's fierce assault. Just as he was about to counterattack, the umbrella suddenly opened again, and curved blades sprang from its edges, slicing toward him.