Several months had passed since Shinra's transmigration, and until now he had never faced shinobi from one of the Five Great Nations head-on.
Because of this, he had always lacked a true benchmark of his strength.
Yes, he had already earned respect within the Akatsuki, but everyone knew that shinobi from minor countries were not the same as those trained in the Five Great Villages.
If one wanted to measure real value, the scale was set by the Five Great Shinobi Countries.
So, for this battle, Shinra braced himself and put on his most serious demeanor yet.
What he didn't know, however, was that the man standing across from him wasn't just a Chūnin. He was, in fact, a Special Jōnin of Iwagakure.
The next moment, Shinra hurled his straight sword into the air, and his hands blurred into seals.
"Lightning Release: Lightning Attraction!"
It was a basic C-rank ninjutsu he'd picked up through exchanges in the Akatsuki. On its own, nothing special. But for Shinra's combat style it was perfect.
A sharp crack split the air as a bolt of lightning surged down, striking the blade midair.
The sword's hilt was already wrapped with insulating cloth, prepared in advance.
Seizing the blade as it fell, Shinra gripped it tight in his right hand. Electricity crackled and roared across its edge, turning it into a weapon of living thunder. With a burst of speed, he charged straight for the Iwagakure veteran.
The older shinobi's eyes widened.
The jutsu itself was familiar enough but normally, Lightning Attraction was just a short-ranged bolt, not a weapon enchantment.
Yet this boy had somehow turned it into a thunder sword.
This brat… there's something strange about him.
He had already suspected earlier that Shinra might possess some secret dōjutsu. Seeing this only deepened that suspicion.
But the truth was simpler. Shinra had no bloodline, no kekkei genkai, no hidden eye technique. He was just a boy racking his brain to survive.
The Special Jōnin narrowly evaded the first strike, but Shinra's footwork was sharp. Once inside his guard, the blade flashed in a relentless flurry, arcs of lightning trailing every slash.
The veteran was forced to block with his kunai.
The instant steel met steel, his entire arm convulsed with numbness, a searing sting shooting up his nerves.
The Lightning Release woven into Shinra's blade punished every clash, wearing him down with each exchange.
Cursing under his breath, the Iwa shinobi flung the kunai away and leapt back in desperation. Shinra's upward slash cut just shy of gutting him where he stood.
But the retreat bought him space. And with that space, his hands blurred through more seals.
"Earth Release: Earth Rising Spears!"
The ground split beneath Shinra's feet. Dozens of stone lances erupted upward all at once far more than the earlier Earth Pillar Spear, jagged points racing to skewer him.
And the man wasn't done. Landing in a crouch, he slammed both palms into the ground, pushing another wave of chakra deep into the soil.
"Earth Release: Fissure Earth Turning Palm!"
The earth convulsed violently. Cracks split across the warehouse floor as if the ground itself were writhing in agony.
Storage cabinets toppled in a chain reaction. Dust and smoke exploded into the air, filling the warehouse with choking haze.
Along the wall, wide fissures tore the structure apart, spreading outward with a sickening groan.
Ando, the cowardly merchant, shrieked like a trapped animal, his voice sharp and panicked, flailing in terror like a groundhog flushed from its burrow.
"Ahhhh!!"
Beside Ando, the last Iwagakure Genin cheered, clutching his kunai like a badge of courage.
"It worked! We got rid of that filthy Rain shinobi!"
The older Special Jōnin stood nearby, chest heaving after his chain of techniques. For the first time in the fight, his lips curled into a thin smile. Relief flickered across his face, the same smug relief mirrored in his surviving subordinate.
There, in the shattered floor at the center of the warehouse, the body of their enemy hung impaled across the jagged stone spears, still clutching a sword laced with fading arcs of lightning.
Hmph. In the end, he was only a minor country shinobi.
But the thought had barely formed when the body puffed into smoke with a sharp bang.
A Shadow Clone.
The Special Jōnin's face twisted in shock just as the lightning sword clattered uselessly to the ground. He realized too late that the enchanted weapon had been handed to the clone specifically to mislead him.
Before he could recover, one of the collapsed storage cabinets behind him burst apart. Shinra erupted from the debris in a storm of dust, lunging straight at him.
The Iwa shinobi's heart lurched.
His chakra reserves were already running dangerously low. Since the first Earth Release: Rock Pillar Spear, he had unleashed four high-level jutsu in quick succession. His chakra was nearly drained comparable to an early Kakashi after overextending.
As a Special Jōnin, he had already given it everything he had.
Now, faced with Shinra's relentless charge, he hurled a kunai in desperation and forced his hands into seals.
But this time, Shinra didn't leap skyward to avoid another trap.
He had seen it the man's heavy breathing, the sluggishness in his movements. His brain quickly pieced it together: his enemy had no chakra left to trade blows in close combat.
Which meant one thing. He would not risk a head-on clash.
Instead, Shinra flung a few shuriken casually, his body veering sharply toward the angle of the man's shifting gaze.
The shuriken sank into the enemy's body. Or rather, into the wooden stake that replaced it with a puff of smoke.
Body Replacement Jutsu. Just as expected.
But Shinra had already prepared. Twisting mid-motion, his hands flashed through seals.
"Lightning Release: Swift Lightning Cutter!"
Crackling arcs of electricity raced down his arm, cloaking his forearm and palm in blinding blue light. With a sharp thrust reminiscent of Kakashi's tragic strike through Rin he drove his hand clean through the Iwa Special Jōnin's chest.
The man's eyes bulged, his breath caught in a wet gasp.
From the sidelines, the last Genin froze where he stood, mouth agape, kunai trembling in his grip, unable to comprehend the reversal that had unfolded in an instant.
The Special Jōnin, bleeding out, stared at Shinra with what little strength remained. His lips quivered, forcing out a broken whisper.
"Why… can you always see through our jutsu? Do you… have a dōjutsu? Are you… already… a Jōnin? At such a young…"
Shinra wrenched his arm free, blood hissing off the lightning still crackling across his palm. He looked down at the dying man, voice cool and sharp as steel.
"I don't have a dōjutsu. I just have a brain."
Who said only eye techniques could see through an enemy's moves?
A mind was more than enough.
The question was did they even use theirs?
The Iwagakure Special Jōnin seemed to catch the sting of sarcasm in Shinra's words. His eyes bulged, his pupils quivering as if ready to burst.
But no further words came. His breath ceased, and his body slumped lifeless.
With the most troublesome foe dealt with, Shinra moved on without hesitation. The last Genin fell within moments, cut down before his terror even allowed him to run.
That left only Ando, the greedy merchant.
The man had already lost control of his body, his fine clothes soaked in filth. Trembling on the ground, he babbled, desperation spilling from his mouth.
"Don't kill me! Don't kill me! Didn't your Akatsuki Organization say you wanted mutual understanding? I understand now! I understand you all very well! So you can't kill me!"
Shinra only sneered at his words, the corners of his mouth curling with mockery. He offered no answer, no mercy only silence as he turned his gaze toward the window.
From there he caught sight of Konan, still engaged high in the air. The blue-haired girl had taken the Iwa squad leader outside earlier, using her paper wings to keep him occupied above the trees.
The clash had grown fierce, their attacks lighting up the sky.
On the ground, however, the sounds of battle had drawn the rogue Rain-nin who had been patrolling the forest perimeter. They rushed toward the warehouse, weapons drawn.
Ando, seeing the reinforcements, felt his heart steady just a little.
But in the next breath, Shinra stepped outside. And in the few seconds that followed, every single rogue shinobi dropped to the ground, lifeless.
Ando's false relief shattered. He screamed again, high-pitched and shrill like a cornered animal.
"Ahhh! Why? Why would you kill them?! They're all Rain shinobi! They're locals our people! Didn't your Akatsuki Organization always say the Land of Rain must understand each other? They weren't Iwa! They weren't!!"
The only answer he received was the sharp crack of Shinra's hand across his face. A merciless slap that silenced him instantly.
In the sky above, Konan's paper wings beat furiously as she traded blows with her opponent, but her ears had caught every word.
Her heart wavered.
The ideals Yahiko spoke of, the teachings Jiraiya had entrusted to them, the dream of mutual understanding why… why had everything twisted into this?