Chương 166: Omae wa mou shindeiru

A/N: If you can explain exactly what happened in this chapter and how it all played out then share your theory in the comments section. I'll give you a shout-out in the next chapter for your awesome insight. Shisui flickered in front of the cart as if he had spawned into existence. Noa stared, unable to keep up with the speed being displayed. The Suna jonin stood across the pass, eyes fixed on Shisui's legs and hands, deliberately avoiding his gaze.

Shisui tilted his head a fraction toward the cart and whispered, "Noa, protect the cart at any cost. It is your only mission. Keep that barrier on no matter what it costs." Noa frowned. The cart held no real passengers, only shadow clones with almost no chakra transformed into the guests. Then it clicked. He is trying to keep the jonin from escaping. But why whisper? Noa did not know that if Shisui spoke at full voice the enemy might sense something off.

The words were so soft that only the wind user caught them, the air itself carrying the sound with a faint, almost unnoticeable weight of something else, masked by the jonin's own chakra as it carried the whisper back to him. The jonin inhaled deeply, his chest expanding with an unnatural capacity for air. His hands moved through a short string of seals, and he exhaled with explosive force.

"Wind Release: Vacuum Great Breakthrough" A deafening howl ripped across the road as a massive torrent of wind burst from his mouth. The gale surged outward in a wide arc, dense enough to whip stones and dust into the air and send them forward like shrapnel. It was a wide-range tactic meant to catch Shisui even if he flickered and to force him to defend with the cart at his back. Shisui stood firm, Mangekyo spinning as he drew in a long breath. His hands blurred through a rapid sequence of seals.

"Fire Release: Great Fire Annihilation" A tidal wave of flame roared from his mouth and swept outward in a broad fan, flooding the ridge with blinding orange light. The heat warped the air and scorched the rock beneath his feet. When the wall of compressed wind hurtled toward him, the sea of fire met it head-on. The impact detonated in a thunderous roar, wind and flame grinding against each other in a furious contest. The gale fed the blaze, and the blaze swelled and twisted into a raging inferno.

Shisui wondered if the jonin had learned nothing, yet the thought cut short as another wind technique tore through the fire.

"Wind Release: Vacuum Severance Gale" Multiple crescent blades of compressed air scythed through the inferno and screamed toward him. Shisui, still committed to the fire release, could not shift to a new jutsu in time, forcing him to flicker into the air at the last instant. A vacuum bullet shot up the instant he appeared, as if the jonin had been waiting for him to show in that precise spot. Shisui caught it on a kunai and tilted the point to redirect the shot skyward, but the metal splintered under the force.

He reached for another blade as the wave of crescents hammered the stone beneath him. The shock stole a fraction of his balance, and a second vacuum bullet streaked cleanly through the space between his brows. Shisui's eyes went vacant. The jonin allowed himself a thin smile.

"And they said he was one of the strongest Sharingan users ever." The words were barely out before the body in the air burst apart in a puff of smoke and vanished. His gut tightened. A shadow clone. Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. He listened. The wind brought him what others would miss, the faint whisper of a step in his blind spot. He spun, slicing in a short arc, and intercepted the incoming slash at the last instant. Fear prickled across his skin.

If he had not been a wind user, he would never have felt the approach or heard the shift in air. For a moment they were even, blades pressed and feet grinding for leverage. Shisui let his kunai dip a hair and drew the jonin's sword down with it. The polished steel flashed, and in that fleeting instant the jonin's eyes caught Shisui's reflection on the blade, the Mangekyo blooming red. A chill shot through him and he snapped back on a gust of wind, instantly creating space.

He agitated the air around his body, the wind drinking chakra by the handful. Shisui stood still for a single breath, then began to weave hand seals in a slow, deliberate rhythm. The jonin felt Shisui's chakra surge and fixed on those moving hands, waiting for a technique to take shape. Nothing came. The seals ended, yet the field stayed eerily quiet, and the silence made his skin crawl. He stretched his senses again, probing for any forming jutsu.

Aside from the kid by the cart and that stubborn barrier, there was nothing he could detect. He refused to waste more time. He exhaled sharply and shaped chakra into the air.

"Wind Release: Vacuum Scythe" With a sweeping motion, a pale crescent of spinning wind tore forward, screaming as it went. Stone split wherever it passed and dust rose in jagged lines as if carved by a giant blade. Shisui nearly got caught by its speed and flickered aside at the last instant. To his surprise, the jonin burst after him, driving wind to his feet and firing jutsu as he moved, almost matching Shisui's pace, burning through chakra at an alarming rate to end the fight now.

The moment Shisui came out of a flicker, another vacuum scythe roared toward him. He flickered again, the crescent pulverizing the space he had occupied a heartbeat earlier. They crossed the battlefield too fast to track, the ground behind them tearing into scars that looked like the aftermath of a great shinobi war. Shisui flickered once more and met a sudden wind wall that thickened the air and stalled him for a breath. Focused on the relentless pressure, he missed the subtle shift that set the trap.

A scythe of wind missed his head by a hair as he dropped under it and drove forward, squeezing every ounce of chakra into his legs to close the distance in a streak. A burst of kunai snapped toward the jonin to break his rhythm, but the blades halted midair and blasted back with a vacuum scythe riding their wake. Shisui exhaled a large fireball in a hurry, bleeding speed from the returning steel and the slicing gust just enough to buy a thin scrap of time. He flickered to the side and pressed in again.

Worry flickered in the jonin's eyes as Shisui closed, followed by a colder smile. Vacuum bullets formed from the air around him and fired at nearly point-blank range. Shisui tilted his head at the last instant and slashed forward, the jonin meeting him blade to blade. Another wind slash formed overhead and dropped straight down. Shisui tried to evade, but the speed and closeness bit into his cheek and opened a deep, ugly line. He grunted, rolled his shoulder with the momentum, and cut for the jonin's arm.

A bullet ripped from his blind side and punched through his leg.

"I knew you would try to come close. That was your downfall," the jonin barked, swinging down. Shisui caught the strike on a kunai and twisted at the last moment to avoid another bullet clawing for his other leg. He pressed forward, determined to get inside the guard. The jonin let it seem as though he wanted to keep him pinned at mid-range, but in truth he had prepared for close quarters, ready with the tools to meet Shisui the moment he closed in.

The jonin poured a tremendous amount of chakra into the already tainted wind, making it tear through the air itself. Shallow cuts bloomed across Shisui's arms, chest, and legs as if the wind had turned to a thousand invisible blades. His eyes widened at the sudden sting, and that brief shock cost him. A vacuum scythe surged to life at point-blank range and carved cleanly through his neck. Blood spiraled into the air, carried on the gust, scattering like crimson petals caught in a fleeting breeze.

For a heartbeat it seemed as though time had stilled, the spray hanging weightless and glinting in the light, before it drifted away and his eyes dimmed. The jonin dropped to one knee, chest heaving. He had not run dry, but he had burned too much too fast. That was the price of killing a legend. A grin spread over his face.

"I killed Shisui of the Flicker. My name will be known across the shinobi world. I will be a legend of Suna." WAKE UP TO REALITY