Chương 21: Soul to the Ashes

Gray Fiend tapped the tips of his toes against the ground, using the recoil from the collision of blade and fist to leap backward. A gap of several paces finally opened up between the two combatants. At the same time, three more figures emerged from the depths of the forest one after another, coming to a halt behind Gray Fiend. Like Gray Fiend, all three wore dark gray short cloaks, marked on the side of their necks with a dark gray circular insignia.

Red Falcon held several shuriken between his fingers, his sinister gaze darting back and forth among the group in the training ground like a venomous snake flicking its tongue. White Tanuki was half-crouched, gripping a kunai with a reverse-hand grip. His entire body was taut like a fully drawn bowstring, as though he might spring forward at any moment to tear into his prey. Cinder Bone, however, was the strangest of the four. He was short in stature, with pale skin and lips tinged with a sickly shade of purple.

In his hand, he held a grayish-white short blade roughly thirty centimeters in length. The curved blade was engraved with the exact same markings found on the sides of their necks, and a white bone pendant dangled from the pommel. Gray Fiend's gaze swept over the Chakra Armament on Shingo's fists and returned to Shingo's face, his voice dropping low.

"This is a bit tricky." Without making another rash charge, he issued a cold command:"Tactics C." The moment the order left his lips, Red Falcon made the first move. Several shuriken flew from between his fingers, hurtling toward Nawaki, Shikaku, Inoichi, Chōza, Ruri, and Ami respectively. The trajectory of every single shuriken was utterly devious; some aimed straight for the face, while others targeted the heart. Clang! Clang! Clang!

A succession of metallic impacts rang out as Nawaki and the others were forced to halt their positions and parry. At that exact moment, White Tanuki slipped forward toward Nawaki without a sound. With not a single wasted motion and his body pressed extremely low, his kunai hidden in the shadow of his sleeve, he charged straight for Nawaki's flank. Shingo moved to intercept, but Gray Fiend closed the distance once more.

A longsword slashed horizontally from the side, leaving Shingo with no choice but to turn and defend. Seeing Shingo pinned down by Gray Fiend, Shikaku immediately called out:"Inoichi, to the left! Chōza, stop him!" Before his voice even faded, he flicked a kunai backhanded, forcing White Tanuki's steps to veer slightly. Inoichi seized the opening, raising his kunai to cut off White Tanuki's path toward Nawaki. Chōza stepped forward directly, blocking White Tanuki's advance with his burly frame.

The moment White Tanuki was intercepted, Cinder Bone made his move as well, assaulting Nawaki. Unlike White Tanuki's fluid speed, Cinder Bone's movements were stiff, and he muttered incantations under his breath, though the words were too low to decipher. The rhythm of his footwork also differed from ordinary people, carrying an eerie quality. Ruri and Ami immediately stepped up, joining Nawaki to deal with Cinder Bone. Shingo's Mind's Eye enveloped the entire battlefield.

He knew Nawaki and the others wouldn't hold out for long; he had to finish off Gray Fiend quickly. Realizing just how dangerous Shingo was, Gray Fiend had completely altered his combat style. He no longer sought to deal lethal blows, instead choosing to circle around Shingo. He intended to stake everything on dragging Shingo down, buying enough time for his teammates to eliminate the brats first. Operating at full power, Shingo pressed the offensive with even greater ferocity than before.

Stamping hard against the ground, he closed the distance to Gray Fiend in an instant. The chakra spike slipped past the blade Gray Fiend held horizontally before him, aiming straight for his right hand. Gray Fiend's eyes narrowed; he pulled his wrist back and pressed the hilt downward, attempting to deflect Shingo's fist with his handguard.

Shifting his technique mid-stride, Shingo extended his plating down his arm, swinging his entire limb like an iron hammer against the side of Gray Fiend's blade and knocking the longsword wildly askew. This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Gray Fiend tried to retreat, only to find Shingo's footwork faster than his own. Before his longsword could recover, Shingo's right fist drove toward his chest.

With no time to parry, Gray Fiend could only twist his torso, relying on the momentum of the deflected blade to evade. The chakra spike grazed the front of his chest, sparking a searing wave of pain. Before he could regain his footing, Shingo's left leg swept horizontally across.

"Leaf Whirlwind!" Gray Fiend barely managed to steady his waist-sheath with his left hand, taking the brunt of the kick directly. The massive impact sent him skidding backward across the ground, hammering home a stark realization: this brat was entirely too vicious. If this keeps up, I won't last. Retreating further, Gray Fiend thrust his left hand into his ninja pouch, pulled out a smoke pellet, and slammed it onto the ground. Tucking his blade under his armpit, he formed hand seals at blinding speed.

"Haze Clone Technique." Amidst the billowing smoke, three identical figures burst forth. The three Gray Fiends brandished longswords, assaulting Shingo from three separate angles. The left aimed for his heart, the right slashed at his arm, and the center thrust straight for his throat. Gray Fiend had expected Shingo to exercise caution and dodge this sudden ambush. Instead, Shingo completely ignored the two phantoms.

His thick plating protected his right arm, absorbing the slash of the longsword without flinching, while his left fist wound up and drove forward with accumulated power. Clang! The longsword struck the plating and failed to advance another inch, while the chakra spike at his knuckles drove straight toward Gray Fiend's chest. He wasn't fooled?! That momentary split-second of astonishment caused Gray Fiend's reaction to lag behind by half a beat.

Drawing upon instincts honed through years of assassination missions, he forcibly wrenched his body around. Twisting his waist and abdomen, pulling his shoulders back, and digging his toes deeply into the earth, he managed to inch his body out of the path of Shingo's fist by a hair's breadth. It was a margin of millimeters. The spike tore through the fabric at his waist, missing his flesh by a whisker. Phew~ I dodged it— Squeelch! W-What?

The spike on Shingo's knuckles suddenly extended, piercing straight through Gray Fiend's left flank. No way… this thing can extend too?! Agony instantly shattered his train of thought. He didn't even have time to ponder how Shingo had distinguished the clones from the real body. Pressing his left hand desperately against his wound, he swung his right blade in a frantic arc to force Shingo back before rocketing backward. A prime opening! Shingo moved to press the advantage and finish Gray Fiend in one fell swoop.

Yet at that very moment, his Mind's Eye captured a subtle disturbance. Red Falcon's finger twitched slightly. A kunai that had previously scattered onto the grass was yanked taut by an ultra-thin steel wire, springing silently upward from behind Inoichi. At that moment, Inoichi was busy suppressing White Tanuki alongside Shikaku and Chōza, his attention entirely locked ahead. He remained completely oblivious to the threat behind him.

Without a moment of hesitation, Shingo abandoned his pursuit of Gray Fiend, pivoting sharply to dash behind Inoichi and intercept the kunai with his own body. Taking advantage of this brief window, Gray Fiend retreated swiftly to the base of a tree. Pulling out a small pouch of medicinal powder, he bit it open and sprinkled the contents directly onto his wound. The intense pain caused veins to bulge along his temples.

The powder wouldn't heal the injury, but it would staunch the bleeding in a short time while numbing a portion of the agony. Gray Fiend tore off his hood, wrapped it tightly around his waist, and cinched it down with force. The wound continued to seep blood, but at a much slower rate than before. Having deflected the kunai, Shingo found himself positioned very close to White Tanuki. He stepped in close, pressing down with his spike. White Tanuki raised his kunai to parry. Clang! White Tanuki's wrist went numb.

Before he could retreat, Shingo's second fist came down hard. White Tanuki could only use his left hand to steady his right wrist, meeting the force with his kunai. The tremendous impact bent his entire left arm at an unnatural angle; his right-hand kunai was knocked flying from his grip, and the blow sent him stumbling backward. Seeing this, Gray Fiend cast aside any thought of catching his breath, dragging his bleeding body forward to lunge once more.

Just as Inoichi's danger was averted, Nawaki's side plunged into crisis. Uchiha Ami noticed that under the combined assault of three people, Cinder Bone's movements had finally shown a momentary stutter, slowing down by half a beat. An opening! Without a second thought, Ami accelerated abruptly, driving her kunai straight toward Cinder Bone's waist. What she failed to see was another steel wire tightening between Red Falcon's fingers.

Another shuriken bounced up from the blades of grass, tracing a bizarre arc through the air as it homed in on Ami's back. Ruri saw it. Her pupils constricted sharply, and though she tried to issue a warning, it was already too late.

"Ami!" Nawaki lunged forward fiercely, slamming his shoulder into Ami to knock her out of the way. The shuriken was deflected off-course by a hastily swung kunai, whistling past his back. Yet because of that very movement, Nawaki's center of gravity was thrown completely off balance. Cinder Bone raised his head, a dark, gloomy smile breaking across his pale face. Stepping forward, he brought his grayish-white short blade down in a vertical slash. Nawaki could only scramble to raise his kunai in desperate defense.

Clang! A crisp clash rang out. Far from pressing the attack after a single strike, Cinder Bone immediately withdrew. The smile on that corpse-like face, lifeless since the moment he appeared, deepened further.

"Soul to the ashes." What is he smiling about? A knot tightened in Nawaki's chest. The next instant, a faint rustling sound reached his ears from behind. Hiss, hiss, hiss... What is that sound? Ami lay collapsed on the ground, positioned such that she could catch a glimpse of what lay behind Nawaki from the side. A sheet of explosive tags had been pinned to the earth beneath Nawaki's feet by a kunai, its fuse already burning down to its very last fragment.

A tidal wave of terror washed over Ami, draining the color entirely from her face.

"Na—" She tried to scream, but her throat felt as though it had been sealed shut. No, no, don't die! It's all my fault, my rashness is what killed Nawaki! A surge of intense remorse and terror crashed into Ami's mind at that exact moment. A sharp, stinging sensation flared behind her eyes. A single tomoe materialized within her gaze, spinning rapidly as her latent ocular power awakened. Everything around her seemed to slow down to a crawl.

She could clearly see the burning paper tag behind Nawaki, and she could see the look of panic etched across Nawaki's face. Yet it was all too late; there was nothing she could do. The next moment… BOOM! A violent explosion ripped through the heart of the training ground.