The Konoha and Sunagakure ninjas were staring at each other with weapons in their hands and hands ready to form seals within a moment's notice.
If either side made even the slightest movement, the battle would erupt immediately.
Their nerves were taut, their bodies tense, and intense chakra signatures emanated from their very beings.
But no stalemate on the battlefield ever lasted long. Clashes are bound to happen.
And the same thing happened here.
As soon as a dried leaf flew in between them, both sides made moves.
Seimei and the Konoha ninjas quickly moved their hands to their ninja pouches, took out several shurikens, kunai, and senbon, and threw them at the Suna ninjas with all their might.
The Suna ninjas were no slouches either. They nearly mirrored the Konoha ninjas' moves and threw a rain of shurikens, kunai, and senbons, too.
Clink! Clink! Clink! Clink! Clink!
The sound of metal hitting metal could be heard as the majority of the projectiles collided in mid-air with a loud clanking sound and were forced to halt.
That was natural. After all, there was no way for the throwing ninja tools like shuriken and kunai to deliver lethal blows to the ninjas who had already reached the level of a Chunin.
Unfortunately for the Suna ninjas, Seimei and Uchiha Sorata, who had been practicing the Uchiha-style Shurikenjutsu, begged to differ.
Sorata with his Sharingan and Seimei with his Tenseigan carefully observed the trajectory of the incoming projectiles, trying to find the best way to redirect the hostile projectiles with minimal effort.
At the next moment, they sprang into action.
Both of them held ten shurikens each and threw them at peculiar, unpredictable angles. These shurikens looked like they would hit each other instead of intercepting the enemy projectiles.
And that was exactly what happened.
The shurikens Seimei and Sorata threw hit each other, causing them to deviate from their previous trajectories.
Seeing this, the Suna ninjas couldn't help but laugh mockingly.
One of them even taunted, "Heh! You can even throw shurikens properly. Who even let you become a ninja? Waste!"
But his laughter didn't last long. Because the shurikens of Seimei and Sorata, which deviated from their original path, hit the incoming projectiles of the Sunagakure ninjas.
This caused multiple projectiles to change their trajectory mid-air and hit the nearby throwing ninja tools, forcing them to deviate from their original paths as well.
Clank! Clank! Clank! Clank! Clank!
Then, within the blink of an eye, a good portion of Konoha and Suna ninjas' projectiles bounced off each other and headed toward the Suna ninjas.
Seeing their shurikens, kunai, and senbon coming their way even faster, most of the Suna ninjas were shocked. They couldn't understand what was going on.
However, the veteran Suna ninjas like Masaru knew exactly what was going on.
Masaru shouted, "Uchiha-style Shurikenjutsu? Damn it! Dodge them and then follow plan B."
Poof~ Poof~ Poof~ Poof~ Poof~
The Suna ninjas reacted almost immediately. All of them dispersed in different directions while dodging the incoming projectiles. They even detonated several smoke bombs to obscure their retreat, allowing them to hide within the branches and stems of the forest trees.
But two Suna Chunin were still hit by the shurikens redirected by Seimei and Sorata.
One of them had their throat slashed and voice box broken, dying almost instantly on the spot. And the other one was forced to take a couple of shurikens on the right side of his shoulder.
"Ahhhhh"
"Gah"
Luckily, the injured Suna ninja still found an opportunity to retreat.
With that, in the blink of an eye, the probing clash between Konoha and Sunagakure ninjas ended, which forced the Suna ninjas to disperse and hide themselves.
Whistle!!
Soon, a strange whistling sound rang.
At the next moment, thousands of sharp needles and senbon, laced with purple-black poison on their tips, appeared all around the Konoha ninjas, trying to turn them into human pincushions.
The poison in them looked deadly as well. They probably wouldn't be able to detoxify them with standard detoxification pills in their pouch. One graze might make them lose their combat ability or kill them.
"Traps set by puppeteers, huh?"
Seimei mused as he quickly formed a single one-handed seal.
Water Release: Water Formation Wall
A large number of water droplets began to condense around the Konoha ninjas, which began to move around them in a circular motion.
Before long, a transparent, protective vortex of water formed around the Konoha ninjas, blocking thousands of incoming poisoned needles and senbon.
Splash! Splash!
The vortex of water stood strong as it absorbed all the incoming poison needles and senbon, making them spin within the vortex of water harmlessly.
Suddenly, Seimei formed another hand seal.
Water Release: Torrent Bullet
The protective vortex of water suddenly began to change and gathered around Seimei as a large mass of water.
And within less than a fifth of a second, the mass of water, containing countless poisoned needles, turned into a five-meter-wide, violent, horizontal vortex of water before rushing toward the left of Seimei.
Crash! Bang! Bang! Bang! Crash!
The horizontal water vortex smashed into one thick tree after another, obliterated them all, and rocketed toward a specific location.
"Shit, how did he find me again?"
Masaru cursed as he saw the roaring water vortex coming toward the tree where he was hiding. If not for Seimei's blue eyes, he would have suspected this Senju to possess Byakugan. But that was impossible.
He didn't believe that of all the Suna ninjas, Seimei just happened to accidentally target him with his Ninjutsu.
However, Masaru didn't dwindle. He immediately activated the Body Flicker Technique and escaped just a few milliseconds before the water vortex tore through his hiding location.
If he hadn't moved away just now, he would have turned into mincemeat by now. He did not doubt it.
"Tsk~"
"Slippery bastard. He escaped again."
Seimei clicked his tongue and muttered under his breath.
While Seimei dispersed his Water Release Ninjutsu, the captain of the reinforcement team turned to Hyuga Ginjo and asked, "Locations?"
Hyuga Ginjo nodded and pointed toward the locations of every Suna ninja lurking in the dark.
"Two Chunin in the two o'clock direction, one puppeteer with Jonin-level chakra in the eight o'clock direction…"
As Hyuga Ginjo kept pointing toward the enemy hiding spots, the captain of the reinforcement team began to assign ninjas to chase them down.
When it came to Seimei's assigned target, he and Sorata were assigned to chase a fleeing Elite Jonin-level ninja who had already traversed more than 700 meters. A few more hundred meters, and he would escape the detection range of the Byakugan.
"Leave that guy to us," Seimei and Sorata responded before using the Body Flicker Technique to chase down and kill (or capture) the fleeing Suna Shinobi.
And while doing so, Seimei couldn't help but let out a chuckle, causing Uchiha Sorata to raise an eyebrow in his direction.
Seimei noticed this and said, "Don't look at me like that. Our enemy is that cunning bastard, Masaru."
"It seems he was destined to be hunted down by us."
Uchiha Sorata was stunned for a moment before his lips also curled into a smile.
That poor Masaru had no idea that his old friends…cough…enemies from Kitakari town were after him. But he could feel two individuals with powerful chakra signatures were after him.
His gaze turned sharp. If he couldn't escape them, he would kill them. He was a ninja on the verge of hitting the S-rank. Did they think they were still in the town filled with hundreds of Konoha ninjas?
Here, in the wild, he could unleash all his power without worrying about attracting too much attention and being surrounded by hundreds of enemy ninjas.
He was not someone to be trifled with.
With that, he began to devise plans to deal with his pursuers.
Meanwhile, Seimei and Sorata, who were fully aware of Masaru's power, stayed alert as the distance between them and their prey drew closer.
The hunt was about to begin.
The question was: who would become the hunter, and who would be the prey?
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