Seimei and Sorata stared at Masaru for a few more seconds. Just when they were itching to take action, they saw Masaru bring out the familiar metallic giant folding fan from his storage seal space.
Then, without wasting any more time, Masaru unfolded the fan and channeled a large amount of wind chakra through it.
He formed a hand seal and waved the giant fan with all his might.
Wind Release: Sickle Weasel Technique
Soon, intense air currents were released from the giant fan, which formed a powerful tornado with countless wind blades of various sizes.
The tornado of sharp blades tore through the earth as it charged at Seimei and Sorata at an astonishing speed.
If they got caught in it, the tornado would sweep them off the ground and turn them into mincemeat if they couldn't reinforce their bodies with chakra in time.
But Seimei wasn't about to let that happen.
He quickly formed two one-handed hand seals and began using water chakra to condense the nearby water vapor into countless water droplets.
Water Release: Furious Roaring Tornado
In the blink of an eye, the water droplets began to spin around Seimei in a circular motion and created a roaring waterspout around him.
Seimei immediately moved forward with the powerful waterspout circling him and crashed directly into the tornado of countless wind blades created by the Sickle Weasel Technique.
The moment the B-rank waterspout touched the tornado created by the amplified C-rank Jutsu, the Wind Release Ninjutsu was completely obliterated.
But the waterspout's momentum didn't stop as it rushed toward Masaru, ready to crush him under the pressure of the twisting water current.
And Masaru, a seasoned Elite Jonin, knew better than to stay where he was standing. He immediately activated the Wind Body Flicker Jutsu to distance himself from the waterspout and began to weave hand seals as fast as possible.
At that very instant, Uchiha Sorata appeared beside him with his short sword drawn and slashed his blade diagonally toward Masaru's neck.
Sensing the incoming edge of the sharp blade, Masaru felt an inexplicable chill down his spine. He abandoned weaving hand seals, turned around, and blocked Sorata's blade with his metallic giant fan.
Cling~
Orange sparks flew into the air with a loud sound of metal hitting metal as the sharp edge of the sword and the cold, folded metal fan met each other.
The heaviness of the metal folded fan and the speed at which Masaru moved the fan to block the sword made Sorata's sword-wielding arm fling away for a moment.
Seeing the gap in the enemy's defense, Masaru narrowed his eyes and brought down the heavy metallic fan toward Sorata's collarbone and right shoulder with all the power he could muster.
If the strike connected, Sorata would break a few bones at the very least, causing his combat power to drop significantly.
Unfortunately, Sorata's pair of three-tomoe Sharingan wasn't there just for show.
The pitch-black tomoe within Uchiha Sorata's Sharingan rotated slowly. With Sharingan's powerful insight and predictive abilities, he had already confirmed the trajectory of Masaru's attack.
Sorata quickly shifted his body toward his right and deflected the heavy, metallic folded fan with a kunai in his left hand.
Clang!
Because of the folded fan's diagonal trajectory and the kunai's meticulous deflection angle, the folded fan slid past the kunai. It hit the ground to Sorata's left with a thunderous boom, leaving behind quite a few cracks on the surface of the earth.
Boooooom!!
"What the fuck?"
Masaru blurted out a curse in bewilderment as he couldn't understand how the situation shifted so suddenly. He was sure he could hit the damn Uchiha right on his shoulder.
But before his plan could come into fruition, Sorata moved like a ghost.
Sorata watched the shocked Masaru with a mocking expression and said, "In front of my eyes, all your schemes and tactics are meaningless."
"I can see your thoughts. I can read your movements. I can predict your actions."
"In front of my Sharingan, you have no secrets."
"You can only curse your own pitiful destiny for not having Sharingan."
As Uchiha Sorata said these lines, his short blade was already descending to cut Masaru down.
And Masaru, a seasoned veteran, quickly snapped out of his shocked state before moving his metallic folded fan again to block the blow.
Clang! Clang!
Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!
Clang! Clang!
The blade and the fan met again and again as both ninjas launched a flurry of chakra empowered attacks.
No one was ready to back down.
Sorata was slashing his blade continuously, looking for an opportunity to plunge it into Masaru's flesh. At the same time, Masaru was also trying to leverage the heaviness of his folded fan to crush Sorata's bones.
At that moment, Masaru's danger instincts flared up. Numerous imaginary alarm bells rang inside his mind as his focus suddenly shifted toward the ground.
There, he saw a pair of fair hands coming out of the ground and trying to hold onto his legs. If these hands successfully captured his legs mid-battle, the outcome wouldn't be pretty at all.
His head would truly fry off his body one way or the other.
Left with no other choice, Masaru hurriedly disengaged and retreated backwards to avoid the hands.
However, Masaru's hasty retreat gave Sorata a much-needed opening. He stepped forward, slashed his sword blade, and managed to leave a deep gash from the upper side of the right chest to the lower side of the left chest.
Blood gushed out like a fountain from the deep gash, soaking the ground and causing a slightly sweet, metallic scent to waft through the air.
Masaru gritted his teeth in pain as he reinforced the muscles around the wound and made them contract to stop the bleeding. But the process hurt like hell.
If he could get a few seconds of breathing time, he could pull out the healing and blood rejuvenation potions to fix these wounds.
But luck or time wasn't on his side.
He soon heard the sound of someone rushing toward him at a breakneck speed and turned around.
"Give me a break for fuck's sake," Masaru cursed out loud as he saw Seimei charging at him like a bullet with his right hand clenched into a fist covered in a large amount of chakra.
(Seimei: Sure, bro. Just die, and your soul will enjoy eternal peace and rest in the Pure Land.)
Masaru immediately half-unfolded the fan, channeled Earth Release chakra through it to make it as sturdy as possible, and moved it to block the incoming punch.
Seeing this, Seimei grinned as he threw a right punch with all his might.
Senju Secret Taijutsu Technique: Chakra Enhanced Strength
As soon as the fist connected with the half-folded fan, Seimei immediately detonated all the chakra gathered in his hand at the point of contact, generating tremendous force with a loud, almost visible shockwave.
BOOOOOOM!!!
The impact rattled Masaru's bones and internal organs, even though he pushed the chakra reinforcement to the limit to withstand the shockwave.
Blood leaked out from the corner of his mouth as his figure flew backwards.
Still, he managed to twist his body masterfully and landed on the ground on his feet.
But his nightmare was not over yet.
As soon as he landed on the ground, another Seimei suddenly appeared beside him with a basketball-sized Rasengan in his right hand and pushed the rotating orb of disaster toward his chest.
Seeing this, Masaru felt as if his heart had almost stopped.
However, he quickly brought the half-folded fan toward his chest to block the Rasengan.
Boooooooom!!!!
The Rasengan collided with the metallic fan, which immediately shattered into pieces upon impact with a loud boom.
This little delay gave Masaru enough time to activate the Wind Body Flicker Jutsu and retreat.
But to his dismay, he found that his path to retreat had already been blocked by Uchiha Sorata, who once again slashed his short sword at him.
Masaru, who was suffering from blood loss and exhaustion at this stage, pulled out his own sword to block Sorata's blade.
Clang!
Sparks flew into the air as the two blades met each other.
However, this time, Masaru accidentally saw the reflection of Sorata's pair of three-tomoe Sharingan through the shiny surface of his blade.
"Damn it," cursed Masaru as he quickly tried to avert his attention to avoid eye contact.
Unfortunately for him, the eye contact had already been made, and Sorata had already activated one of the Uchiha clan's signature Genjutsu.
Demonic Illusion: Shackling Stakes Technique
Soon, Masaru's vision turned dark.
When he came to his senses, he found himself in a bloody world with a crimson sky. His body was hung on an iron pillar. Sharp, heavy, and rusty metal spikes were driven through his body, causing him to feel gut-wrenching pain.
He couldn't move his body. He couldn't dispel the Genjutsu. All he could feel was the endless torment and pain that seemed to reach his very soul.
In the real world, Masaru's eyes glazed over, and his body was shaking as he stood in one place like an idiot.
At the next moment, Seimei arrived behind Masaru and drove his right palm, which was covered in a dense amount of sharp and destructive Lightning Release chakra, right through Masaru's heart, destroying it for once and for all.
The thick bolts of lightning then continued to obliterate his internal organs, nerves, and circulatory systems, leaving him no chance to survive.
Soon, the pain of his heart being pierced and being electrocuted caused him to break out of the Genjutsu.
He felt the life force of his body fading away at an alarming rate. He could no longer feel his body. He knew he only had a few more seconds to live.
However, at the end of his life, he strangely didn't feel any resentment toward his killers.
At this moment, his mind was incredibly clear.
He quietly reminisced about his life with a slight smile before closing his eyes forever.
Seeing this, Seimei and Sorata stayed silent for a while.
"Farewell," murmured Seimei as he looked at the corpse of the man he had just killed.
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