Chương 22: Blood Curse: Return to Cinder and Bone

Chakra Armament: Shield Expansion! Before the fire kicked up by the explosion had fully cleared, Shingo had already darted to Nawaki's side. A transparent chakra shield instantly expanded from the outer side of his arm guards, intercepting the blast and the flying debris entirely. Nawaki collapsed onto the ground, cold sweat pouring down his forehead. This was his closest brush with death yet.

Yet Nawaki was not the type to freeze up in paralyzed terror; the moment the blast subsided, he gritted his teeth, braced himself against the ground, and rolled backward.

"Look out." Shingo barely had time to issue a warning before spinning back around. Having sustained injuries, Gray Fiend was visibly sluggish compared to his previous speed. It was precisely because of this that he had failed to intercept Shingo, allowing Shingo to rescue Nawaki in the nick of time. Gray Fiend's tactical choice was utterly vicious. Instead of dragging his injured body after Shingo, he lunged toward Shikaku alongside White Tanuki, who had just drawn a fresh kunai from his hip pouch.

No sooner had Shingo saved Nawaki than he was forced to wheel back around. The moment he moved, Red Falcon hurled three kunai, aiming to halt Shingo's advance. However, Shingo completely ignored Red Falcon's attack, his speed escalating instead of dropping. Plating bloomed simultaneously across his left shoulder, right knee, and abdomen, the kunai clanging harmlessly against the chakra armor with a series of sharp impacts. In the blink of an eye, Shingo closed in from the side.

"Leaf Thunder Strike!" His fist drove straight for Gray Fiend's head accompanied by a dull, tearing gale. Gray Fiend halted his slash toward Shikaku, bringing his longsword horizontally to parry the punch while simultaneously launching a direct kick toward Shingo's abdomen. Shingo caught the kick with his raised knee, the recoil forcing the two apart briefly. With Shingo lurking menacingly in close quarters, Gray Fiend dared not pursue the retreating Shikaku, forced to redirect his full attention back to Shingo.

Shingo stomped hard into the earth, launching his entire body airborne.

"Dynamic Entry!" Seeing Shingo disregard the incoming kunai and shuriken from behind once more as he delivered a flying kick straight at him. Gray Fiend retreated while rapidly forming hand seals.

"Binding Jutsu!" A chilling chakra wave rippled outward from Gray Fiend like invisible thread, attempting to lock down Shingo's consciousness. Yet the binding sensation had barely touched Shingo before it was violently shattered. Having lived two lifetimes, Shingo's spiritual attributes far exceeded those of an ordinary person. Moreover, Gray Fiend was not a specialized illusionist like Kurenai. The genjutsu he used were meant solely to disrupt opponents during close-quarters combat and carve out openings.

When the illusion failed to take hold, Gray Fiend's chakra suffered a brief stutter, sending a sharp stab of pain through his brain. Immediately afterward, Shingo's flying kick landed. Bang! Gray Fiend was kicked backward, his spine slamming violently into a distant tree trunk. A heavy pressure gripped Gray Fiend's chest as several ribs snapped instantly, a trace of blood leaking from the corner of his mouth. Seeing Shingo land without pause and immediately prep for another pursuit, Red Falcon panicked.

His hands flew through a flurry of motions, tossing virtually every tool remaining on his person all at once. Worse still, Red Falcon's fingers twitched, pulling tight on the steel wires woven between them. The kunai and shuriken scattered across the training ground jerked upward once more under the tension of the wires. Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! The ninja tools rained against the plating. Though they failed to pierce Shingo's defense, the successive impacts successfully slowed his momentum.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. As a denser wave of projectiles assaulted him from all directions, Shingo dropped back to the earth, entirely shrouded in plating to block them. Within moments, the chakra armor coating his body grew dim under the continuous assault, and fine cracks began to spiderweb across the spots struck repeatedly by the tools. Red Falcon's breathing hitched. An opening!

Aside from the final kunai at his waist, he was down to a few senbon. Once Shingo weathered this barrage of ninja tools, he would completely lose the ability to pin Shingo down. Furthermore, cracks had surfaced on the brat's chakra armor; if he didn't press the advantage right now to expand the victory, the mission was guaranteed to fail once the boy recovered his breath, and their lives would undoubtedly be forfeit.

Driven by that thought, Red Falcon drew his waist kunai, trailing right behind the flying tools and using them as cover to close in unseen. The armor grew increasingly dim under the impacts, its cracks spreading wider. Right there! Red Falcon raised his kunai, aiming directly for the deepest fissure and driving it fiercely toward Shingo's back.

"Red Falcon!" Gray Fiend's expression twisted drastically as he barked a warning. Yet Red Falcon had eyes only for Shingo at that moment. Clang! The kunai struck home. Yet the tactile feedback was entirely different from what Red Falcon had imagined. There was neither the sudden giving way of flesh nor the heavy, dragging resistance of hacking through iron plate. Instead, an unexpected rebound force traveled up the kunai, numbing the web of his hand. Heh.

Watching him launch three successive assaults that cornered Inoichi, Ami, and Nawaki, he had half-expected a tactical ninja cut from Shikaku's cloth. To think he'd be so easily duped. Shingo had simply improvised, diminishing the brightness of his chakra armor and intentionally manifesting cracks where the impact count was highest. He had figured that Gray Fiend's judgment might be compromised by his injuries, and wanted to test if he could bait him.

He never imagined that Red Falcon would be the first to take the bait. Chakra Armament: Blade! Chakra surged from Shingo's left arm, condensing into a razor-sharp blade. He pivoted, swinging his arm. Red Falcon's head, still bearing an expression of utter bewilderment, sailed into the air, tumbling to the earth under Gray Fiend's horrified gaze. The headless corpse wobbled before pitching forward onto the ground. It's over! Gray Fiend's heart plummeted.

He was severely wounded, and White Tanuki was practically half-crippled. Now that Red Falcon, their expert in projectile restriction, was dead, they had zero chances left! Gray Fiend instinctively looked toward Cinder Bone, wanting to signal a retreat. Before the words could escape his lips, Shingo was already upon him. One punch. Gray Fiend's longsword was blasted clean out of his grip. Another punch. The razor-sharp chakra spike pierced straight through his heart.

Gray Fiend's body stiffened, the light in his eyes fading into nothingness. Hearing Gray Fiend cry out to Red Falcon, White Tanuki instinctively glanced back. What greeted his eyes next was Red Falcon's headless corpse and Gray Fiend, his heart punctured by Shingo's single fist. The ferocity on White Tanuki's face vanished instantly. Terror flooded his limbs like freezing water. Run! I have to run! Yet that kid is so fast, and I'm injured, how could I possibly outrun him?

Amidst his panic, White Tanuki's gaze landed on Uchiha Ami, collapsed not far away. Ami had just awakened her Sharingan, pushing both her body and mind to the absolute limit of temporary awakening. Right! That brat valued his comrades so much; if he just took a hostage, he could definitely escape! Panicking internally, White Tanuki threw caution to the wind regarding Shikaku and the others' attacks, letting their kunai carve fresh wounds into his flesh as he abruptly turned and lunged toward Ami.

What he failed to notice, however, was a razor-thin steel wire stretched low across the grass ahead. Ever since Ami collapsed and failed to rise for a prolonged period, Shikaku had used the kunai discarded by Red Falcon and the severed wires to set up this trap in White Tanuki's blind spot. His contingency was meant specifically for an enemy targeting a defenseless Ami. To think it would pay off right now. White Tanuki's toe brushed the wire, and two kunai snapped out instantly.

Under White Tanuki's despairing gaze, one pierced his lower abdomen while the other drove deep into his right shoulder. No, stop! Just a little closer, just a little closer and I can grab her, I can survive! A fierce will to live overpowered the pain. A low growl ripped from White Tanuki's throat as he dragged his mangled body forward, lunging onward. Close, closer! He could already see the paleness on Ami's face, the terror in her eyes. A twisted smile broke across White Tanuki's features. I'm going to make it.

As long as I grab her, I'm going to survive! Right then, however, Shingo, having pursued him from behind, stomped his left foot into the earth, twisted his waist and hips, and unleashed a horizontal sweep with his right leg, generating force like an iron whip cracking down.

"Leaf Great Whirlwind!" Crack! The sharp snap of shattering bone rang out clearly. White Tanuki's body was hurled away like a broken ragdoll, slamming heavily into a nearby boulder and leaving a spiderweb of cracks across its surface. By the time White Tanuki slid down from the rock and hit the dirt, he was entirely lifeless. Only one left. Cinder Bone showed no shock, no fear, and made no move to flee.

He merely stood in place, a bizarre smile still lingering on his pale face, and drove his short blade straight into his own chest. The blade sank to the hilt as blood gushed forth. Cinder Bone wove hand seals with both hands, and strange black patterns slithered across his entire body.

"Blood Curse: Return to Cinder and Bone." As the words fell… The dark gray ring emblem on Cinder Bone's neck flared brilliantly. Concurrently, the matching ring emblems on the corpses of Gray Fiend and White Tanuki lit up in tandem. Even on Red Falcon's severed head lying to the side, the half-intact ring emblem flickered with the exact same dark red glow. Immediately afterward, all four bodies liquefied into pools of blood simultaneously.

Drawn by an unseen force, the blood surged upward, rapidly converging in midair. A crimson radiance suddenly burst forth, momentarily drowning out the sunlight overhead. Midair, a blood-red arrow took form. The tip of the arrow pointed directly at Nawaki. Shingo shifted laterally, placing himself directly in the path of the blood arrow. Chakra Armament: Plating! Chakra Armament: Shield Expansion! The next instant, a blinding crimson beam pierced right across the training ground.

The barrier failed to hold for even half a second, and the chakra armor was shattered in the blink of an eye. Punching straight through the defenses, the blood arrow carried a scorching heat as it slammed viciously into Shingo's chest. The clothing over Shingo's chest incinerated away, scorching vast patches of skin to a charred black.

The next moment, the blood arrow burrowed into Shingo's body as if possessed of a will of its own, transforming into a bizarre, violent energy attempting to burn his flesh and blood to ash from the inside out. Yet, the moment this volatile power entered a body already modified by the Energy Crucible, it fell silent without a single ripple of resistance. In fact, Shingo had a distinct sensation. If he so desired, he could control this external power just as easily as he controlled his own chakra.