Chương 501: CH_13.20 (501)

The midday sun was only growing harsher. The forest, which was usually a symphony of cicadas and rustling leaves, was choked with air smelling of scorched ozone, bitter tobacco, and the metallic tang of blood. Sarutobi Asuma stood in a small artificial clearing, his trench knives glowing with a sharpened edge of blue-white wind chakra. Across from him stood Shiso, his opponent; the ROOT agent wore the standard mask and held a chakra-conducting chain that hummed with a silverish-white lightning chakra.

Around them, the forest was in chaos. Some trees had been forcibly snapped and burned by the violent lightning chakra, while others were cut clean by the sharpness of the wind chakra. Their subordinates maintained their distance, remaining outside the zone of destruction. Both sides had suffered casualties despite trying to stay clear of the fallout. The larger Leaf force tried to surround the smaller ROOT group but had been unsuccessful due to the ROOT jōnin's constant interruptions.

They had been in a bitter clash until half a minute ago but now were looking to the sky through the opening in the canopy. A strong wind hit the area as an endless amount of vapour clouds swallowed a part of the forest in the distance. The jōnin knew that it could only be a clash of A-rank ninjutsu, and the chūnin and genin could guess that it was something far beyond their capabilities.

The casualties on both sides already had them on edge, and the thought of being caught in collateral damage that they had no chance of avoiding scared them. Some gripped spiritual charms while others recited prayers as they helplessly watched the steam eat more and more of the forest like a hungry beast.

Shiso took the opportunity to send the lightning-infused chain out like a thunderhead, shattering a nearby tree as if it were glass and then bouncing towards Asuma, who effortlessly parried it with the edge of his knife. The lightning tried to jump to his body, but the wind chakra rebuffed the charge. The attack jump-started the fight as the two jōnin went after each other faster than the rest of them could track, sending shockwaves as their chakra-conductive weapons clashed.

Even if they wanted to do something, arcs of lightning left in the air by the black chain and the leftover wind cutters were dangerous enough to kill several. Though the jōnin remained the centre of the battle, others weren't useless. Momoe stood atop a high branch to the east of where the jōnin were duking it out. Below her, two teams of genin—ten pale-faced shinobi of various ages—waited for her signal.

They glanced up at her, at the jōnin, and even at the steam cloud in the distance, but her eyes remained fixed on the jōnin. The movements that were too fast for others, she could see them. She could understand that she had no direct place in that battle, but there were other things she could do.

"Go!" she yelled. The genin below her couldn't engage. To move within ten feet of a jōnin of any calibre was to court death—death by decapitation in this case. Instead, they followed Momoe's orders and moved in a practised yet tense formation around the periphery of the clearing destroyed by the jōnin. They launched high-tensile wire, crisscrossing the trees in a frantic fashion. Shiso's eyes flickered behind his mask.

He saw the web they were weaving and shifted his weight to lunge at the nearest genin—a young boy stumbling with the spool—while throwing his chain at Asuma, who once again deflected it with ease, and at the same time, throwing one of his trench knives right at his face. The knife curved in the air, flying at its target from a blind spot. Shiso flicked his wrist, and the knife caught the chain.

His eyes widened as the lightning disappeared from a few links, and the trench knife cut a partial notch into a chain link—not enough to weaken it, but enough for him to reconsider Asuma's skill with wind nature transformation. The young genin's relief was only momentary because Shiso didn't change his course. A single kick from the jōnin would be enough to kill the kid. The genin's face went pale and sweaty; he dropped the spool and went down, his trembling legs giving up.

"No, save me!" Before Shiso could reach the weak point in the scheme, he looked up.

"Not so easily!" Momoe was midair with her sword drawn; a pulsating glow started from the base of the blade and condensed at the tip. It was a B-rank kenjutsu. His eyes shone in a semi-serious light when he felt chakra emanating from the blade. The girl was on the cusp of getting her foot in the door to understand chakra at a deeper level. The kenjutsu wasn't going to kill him, but he couldn't ignore it. He switched his target from the genin to her.

Regardless of how strong her ninjutsu could be, it wouldn't mean anything if she missed. He was going to dodge her thrust and then crush her throat. On the ground, Asuma weaved a short set of hand seals for a C-rank Wind Release ninjutsu. The jutsu was supposed to release wind twisters from the hand; instead, he restricted the chakra, causing a barrier of twisting winds to cover his arms.

Lightning Release was weak against Wind Release, so he boldly traversed through the web, grabbed Shiso's chain, and pulled on it with his entire body. The ROOT jōnin, about to reach Momoe, was yanked back towards the ground. Instead of releasing the chain, he turned his back to Momoe and grabbed the chain by both hands, pulling a section taut in front of him to prevent a trench knife covered in potent wind chakra from slashing his throat open.

Shiso gritted his teeth to endure the pain as the girl's kenjutsu pierced through his shoulder from behind. If that wasn't enough, he scanned his surroundings and saw that the entire area was now covered in a web of wire. Seeing their leader in a precarious situation, the twelve ROOT chūnin began to move. The wires created a web that restricted movement but also facilitated the conduction of chakra. They could guess it was being set up to benefit Sarutobi Asuma, putting Shiso at a disadvantage.

The two ways to get out of the disadvantage were to either dismantle the web or have Shiso escape it. This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version. The Hokage's son didn't seem to be keen about the latter, so their only option was to cut down the web. As they stepped forward, several fire bunnies burst out from the woods—leaping out from the canopy, hopping out from the trunk. An agent slashed the rabbit that jumped at him with his sword.

It exploded, pushing him back a step, however, he was entirely uninjured. Before he could reassume his stance and balance, a gloved hand emerged from the dimming fire and punched him in the throat. The agent pushed down the rising panic and swung his sword blindly in an attempt to keep his assailant at bay, but the figure stepped in close, effortlessly avoiding the sword. He saw a pair of three-tomoe Sharingan through the rapidly fading flames.

The Uchiha kunoichi raised a kunai that she immediately thrust towards his chest, and it would have pierced his heart if not for another agent deflecting it at the last moment.

"Enemy spotted!" the second agent yelled a moment before three flame rabbits slammed into his face, killing him instantly. The ROOT agents were quick to react and seamlessly restructured into trios and positioned themselves into a formation where each had their neighbouring trio's back just in time to face the horde of rabbits ready to immolate them.

Two of the agents managed to move in time to perform Water Release ninjutsu to douse a great majority of rabbits to avoid the second half of the flash that would have otherwise obstructed their vision.

"Status!" the third agent of the trio that had encountered the Uchiha kunoichi yelled to his teammates. He noticed that the first agent, the one who had avoided getting stabbed, had his right arm broken and twisted at a bizarre angle. However, before he could say anything, an agent from another trio raised his voice in alert.

"Enemy!" For a moment, most of them froze when they turned to follow the agent's voice and caught a teenage kunoichi standing right in the middle of their formation. She had slipped through in a moment of chaos when they all had their backs to the enemy. That short moment was enough as Izumi finished signing hand seals for the C-rank Fire Release ninjutsu, pushing double the amount of required chakra into it. The air between her and the agents blurred.

Heat swelled moments before a powerful dome-shaped wave exploded outward, pushing them all away. Despite the extra chakra, it wasn't enough to injure or knock out any of the agents—though they were all sent flying several metres. Her head was on a swivel, while her body was in constant motion, taking in everything around. She pushed against the ground and all but teleported to the nearest agent, who was greatly affected by her jutsu. Her hands blurred into hand seals.

The agent tried to retrieve his sword, but she kicked his hand in a way that forced his front to be exposed and threw a tagged kunai right into his chest. Simultaneously, the jutsu she had completed triggered, lighting her legs on fire. Before the tag could explode, she disappeared. The agent died while the tag pushed his trio-mates away with its explosion. Izumi appeared in front of another agent and kicked him in the chest.

He managed to block the blow, but the fire chakra in her leg blasted outwards, swallowing his body whole. Fire Release: Devil Legs. A C-rank ninjutsu and one of Izumi's staples. The jutsu augmented the destructive capacity of her kicks. It also remained active over an extended period of time until the allotted chakra ran out.

However, after becoming a chūnin, she had modified the jutsu so that she could use all the chakra sustaining it with a single kick, inflicting damage closer to B-rank than a single-use C-rank ninjutsu. The only requirement was to train her legs to be able to endure the stress the modification put on her body. She smashed her elbow around into an agent in the head when he tried to grab a hold over. Another agent stepped in from behind, pasting an explosive tag on her.

Izumi didn't see him or the tag, but she saw everyone else suddenly backing off. Her Sharingan scanned everything from their movements to body language to the tilt and angle of their heads, and that was enough for her to deduce that she had a paper tag on her back. She touched a random spot on her lower back, not bothering to find the tag, and sent a wave of fire chakra across her back, burning it into black ash.

She immediately swung for the agent closest to her, and as he leaned in to avoid her punch, brought up her knee. In that moment, the agent recalled the Sharingan he had seen. Despite knowing that the Sharingan couldn't see the future, he couldn't help but wonder. The knee broke his nose, cracked his skull and pushed the chakra right into the body. In an instant, the agent's head caught on fire, and he was immediately dead without a scream.

Izumi paid no attention to the dead man as she had three agents coming at her from all directions. Her Sharingan swiftly moved as she took in her assailants and paused for a split-second before moving as though there weren't several blades whistling towards her body. To the utter surprise of the three agents, all their attacks missed by a hair's breadth. They looked up at her and saw her looking down at them with her crimson eyes, with nary an expression on her face.

Izumi snapped her fingers, making the three agents feel steel chains constricting around them. Their bodies went stiff as they plummeted to the ground while they helplessly struggled against their bounds. It was only a couple of seconds before all three experienced agents realised they were under the influence of genjutsu and immediately disrupted and flushed out the foreign chakra. The strangulation of the chains disappeared, and yet they could faintly feel it on their skin.

With the genjutsu shattered, Izumi was free to initiate a ninjutsu. The agents knew that as well. They immediately stood up, and all three decided to attack her, but it didn't matter because Izumi was already finished weaving hand seals. She only had enough time to go through hand seals for a D-rank ninjutsu, which wouldn't be enough to push three chūnin agents, and that's what they figured as well, thus their decision to attack her instead of pulling away.

Unfortunately for them, every shinobi of the Uchiha clan was required to master a specific ninjutsu to be considered an adult. It was beaten into them; it was trained even if the shinobi didn't use it in combat. It was an Uchiha tradition. Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu. Izumi pumped twice the amount of necessary chakra into the jutsu. Usually, it would result in a lot of chakra waste for increased power. However, in this case, she could convert chakra into power with absurd efficiency.

A sphere of roaring, incandescent orange erupted from her lips, expanding until it scraped the ground. The three ROOT agents, caught in midair, had nowhere to go. The fireball consumed them, slamming into the broken trees with a concussive boom. It left behind three scorched, skeletal husks that crumbled into ash before they even touched the vitrified mud. Only the blackened, jagged ends of their blades remained, half-fused to the steaming ground.

Izumi looked up at the agents surrounding her and their hands blurring into hand seals. They were ready to drown her in ninjutsu that would, without a doubt, kill her. She looked relaxed because, despite her confidence in her skill, she wouldn't charge into a formation of ROOT agents alone. She was only the spearhead responsible for creating a dent in the armour of the enemy.

The trees and the undergrowth rustled violently as ten chūnin and thirty genin emerged from the places they were hiding and descended upon the ROOT agents' open backs.