Inside a lush forest of the Land of Fire, three distinct figures darted forward.
One figure had brown hair and eyes, which looked rather plain, but his body emitted an unimaginable amount of power. His eyes were squinted as he was running. It was as if he were in deep thought.
Behind him were two figures. One had dark hair and crimson eyes with three rotating pitch-black tomoe. His expression was hardened through countless life-and-death struggles.
The other figure resembled a simple boy, with snow-white hair and ocean-blue eyes. He might appear to be a harmless little boy. But he was also a killer whose hands were stained with the blood of several chakra beasts and humans.
Right now, his only concern was either capturing or killing the brown-haired figure, who was retreating at full speed.
Of course, they were none other than Masaru, Uchiha Sorata, and Seimei.
The chase had already been going on for a few hours now.
"He can run. But it looks like he isn't planning to escape. He isn't even using the Earth movement Jutsu he used last time to flee," said Seimei as he continued chasing Masaru.
Sorata nodded, "Stay alert. This guy is obviously planning to set us up. There is no way this slippery guy is that slow."
Seimei responded, "Still, this game of tag can't go on forever. Let's attack him and give him the shock of his life as soon as we get the chance."
With that, Seimei and Sorata sped up.
And within less than two minutes, the distance between Masaru and the Seimei-Sorata duo shrank to just over a hundred meters.
One more minute later, the distance between them shrank to less than fifty meters.
At that moment, Masaru, who was fleeing like his life depended on it, suddenly formed a few hand seals, turned around, and slammed his palm on the ground.
Earth Release: Antlion Technique
A large amount of Earth Release chakra flowed out of his palm before merging into the ground. The potent Earth Release chakra traveled through the surface before converging less than ten meters away from Seimei and Sorata's locations.
Crack!!
The ground split open, creating a large pit around the Earth Release chakra's convergence point.
Soon, the converged chakra created a powerful suction force centering around the pit and sucked everything on the ground within a thirty-meter radius like a spiraling vortex of flowing earth.
Seimei and Sorata felt as if the very ground under their feet was moving, sucking them toward the central pit, ready to trap and crush them into the underground abyss.
However, Seimei, who figured out the principle behind this seemingly simple yet terrifying Jutsu, had already taken action to save himself and Sorata from this predicament.
After forming a single one-handed seal, Seimei crouched and pressed his right hand on the ground that was still trying to suck them toward the center of the pit, which was less than ten meters away.
Lightning Release: Chidori Stream
Crackle!
Chriiieeeeeeeeee!!!
Dozens of tiny sparks of purple lightning appeared around Seimei's hand briefly. At the next moment, a large number of thick bolts of lightning spread all around Seimei.
However, under Seimei's control, these bolts of snake-like writhing lightning didn't touch Seimei or Sorata at all.
Instead, with the sound of a thousand chirping birds, most lightning spread all around the ground. And in the blink of an eye, they reached the convergence point of Masaru's Earth Release chakra and completely obliterated it, effectively cancelling the Antlion Technique.
Crack! Crack! Booooom!!!
The lightning bolts continued to assault the ground. Several charred fissures and cracks appeared on the ground. In a few places, the ground literally exploded, making bolts of lightning, fragments of rock, and dirt fly into the air.
When the dust settled, Seimei could see Masaru staring at them with his arms crossed in front of his chest.
Masaru's eyes scanned the surrounding devastation and clicked his tongue.
He knew he couldn't possibly kill or injure them with a simple B-rank Antlion Technique. To achieve that, he would need to be around a sandy area.
As long as you could catch your opponent off guard, this Jutsu was practically a killer technique, almost reaching the power level of some of the high-tier A-rank Ninjutsu.
But he expected his Jutsu to at least keep them occupied for a while, so he could prepare and launch a more powerful Jutsu.
This way, he could have trapped them further, injured them, and with some luck, he could have even killed them. A perfectly fine standard Shinobi tactic.
Unfortunately, a child who wasn't even in his teens countered his prized Ninjutsu perfectly, ruining his plans.
He really began to hate the ninjas specializing in Lightning Release now.
Next time, I will kill some Kumo ninjas to vent my frustration. Masaru pondered as he kept his eyes on Seimei and Sorata.
If Seimei knew that Masaru was already fantasizing about killing Kumo ninjas, he would first give him a thumbs up and then mock him.
Seimei: Brother. You should worry about getting out of here.
As Masaru kept his eyes on them, Seimei and Sorata also kept their eyes on him.
They eyed each other silently for so long that even Seimei, a genuinely shameless person, got embarrassed.
Damn it. I still haven't experienced the sweetness of love and a girl's delicate touch. I still haven't experienced the delicate eye-to-eye silent conversation with a beautiful girl.
And yet I'm being forced to stare at a smelly man right now.
My Tenseigan almost got polluted.
Seimei's lips twitched slightly as these thoughts crossed his mind.
Sensing the stalemate, Seimei finally said, "Not running anymore?"
Masaru let out a dry chuckle, shook his head, and replied, "What's the point?"
"If I want to run right now, would you truly let me go?"
"Besides, we are quite far away from your reinforcement squad now."
"I don't need to run anymore."
"You two have caused me a lot of trouble back in that town."
"It's about time I settle the score."
"I will just kill you, bury your corpse, and get out of here."
"Fast. Efficient. No hassles at all."
Of course, if the Konoha reinforcement catches up, I will still bolt out regardless.
Revenge? Settling scores? Heh!
Staying alive comes first.
I don't have a death wish!
Masaru thought inwardly as he radiated the suffocating killing intent of a veteran, battle-hardened Shinobi.
Seimei said in a low voice, "Finally going all out, huh?"
Only a fool will believe in this guy's words.
If we can't kill or cripple him within five or six minutes, he will shed all meaningless dignity and escape just like the last time.
After all, we still have the reinforcement.
He, however, doesn't.
So, if we drag this out, he will turn around and bolt out.
Unfortunately, we don't have any way to restrict him if a ninja of his power and caliber wants to run away.
So, in the next five minutes or so, we need to go all out to kill him.
As Seimei thought this, he gave Uchiha Sorata a sidelong glance and signaled him to go all out with him.
After everything this Suna bastard had done, there was no way Seimei or any ninja who loved Konoha would let him go.
He wanted to escape?
Not a chance.
His soul can escape to the Pure Land, but his body must stay here.
Seimei and Uchiha Sorata began to circulate chakra within their bodies, ready to unleash fatal attacks at a moment's notice.
Masaru was an Elite Jonin-level ninja who was on the verge of stepping into the ranks of S-class Shinobi.
But he wasn't there yet.
His chakra level was there.
But his mindset, reflexes, and ease of movement weren't.
His spirituality and confidence level weren't there yet.
This lack of mental strength and confidence level affected chakra flow and the burst power of a Shinobi.
After all, chakra was the result of a combination of physical and spiritual energy.
So, as long as a ninja felt mentally shackled, they couldn't truly achieve the S-rank.
This birthed confusion and hesitation.
And a single hesitation from Masaru's side was enough for Seimei to land a killing blow on him.
Masaru was just another absurdly powerful foe. He wasn't unkillable.
And for Seimei, that was enough.
Today, he would slay this bastard.
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