Chương 504: CH_13.23 (504)

As the fights around the battlefield were just heating up, the earliest exchange was barrelling towards its climax. Two enemy jōnin had already exchanged over a hundred moves in the village ROOT had been using as its cover. Uchiha Sayuri's sword was smouldering with veins of fire glowing across the blade's surface. ROOT jōnin Rinji's rigid staff was actively emitting wisps of smoke across its length.

Despite the length of their exchange, the destructive intensity was curiously restricted to the village square itself, which was set aflame, its stone foundation cracked under the intense heat. The ancient tree whose shade used to be the children's classroom and a gathering place for the community when the day turned cooler was first charcoal and then ash in the wind. The hand pump to draw water had been cut, dented, and all but completely melted, with its water hissing into steam.

But not one house or building neighbouring the village square was damaged beyond some soot. Not one person other than them was injured or dead. Both jōnin had exclusively used bukijutsu. The reason for that restriction was that they were surrounded by ROOT agents holding the village hostage.

"You're tamer than your reputation," Rinji smirked behind his mask, but he was frowning internally. It was that very reputation that had kept them limited to bukijutsu, which didn't have a wide destructive footprint. He knew that the moment an arbitrary number of hostages died, she would use that as an excuse to escalate the fight to her fullest capabilities.

She would claim that he had no intention of letting the hostages leave alive, forcing her to make a strategic decision to eliminate him at the cost of the hostages as a matter of national security. The village's old women and children—their deaths were acceptable if it meant a ROOT jōnin died. She was that ruthless and had the capability to see it through.

He could even see the narrative that the villagers were knowingly complicit with ROOT in their illegal activities to calm the Fire Daimyo and his was the worst-case scenario for Rinji. His men were on a suicide mission. They knew that unless he managed to defeat the enemy, they weren't getting out alive. However, fighting wasn't on Rinji's mind because an extended fight against an Uchiha was contrary to his goal, which was to be in good enough physical condition to escape.

His job was to delay her and the establishment of the Leaf's backline support base. As long as the healers and the supply line were obstructed, the rest of the Leaf troops would be less aggressive in their approach, allowing Lord Danzo a better chance of escape. When his job was done, he was going to escape, leaving his subordinates holding the hostages behind. Sayuri would have to stay behind, giving him enough time to get an irrecoverable head start.

In truth, he wanted to occupy two jōnin, but he couldn't blame the Leaf for trusting Uchiha Sayuri to handle him alone. Rinji raised his staff in defence as Sayuri vanished from her spot, only to reappear before him. He pushed chakra out through his staff to drive away the fires exploding out of the sword on impact. She tried to kick his knee in, but he shifted his long staff to stop her leg and stepped back. She closed in, leaving only enough space for her sword, which moved faster than any other kenjutsu user.

That wasn't true. She was fast, but it was her fluid chaining of movements that made it seem like she was moving so fast that it felt harder to counter her. It was her eyes. Rinji didn't dare look at the Sharingan. He knew that she was reading him with red eyes. They had fought a lot in the time they had started their exchange because she had actively pushed, and even though they had restricted themselves to bukijutsu, for someone like him, whose combat style was built around his staff, it gave too much away.

Being completely honest, he was in trouble. Kinoto would have mocked him, then lectured him on either not fighting at all or finishing the fight as quickly as possible. However, he wanted to have some fun. He had always wanted a one-on-one fight with an Uchiha, and the time they attacked Uchiha Shisui didn't scratch that itch. Not to mention, the man managed to escape. And since the plan was to escape without a serious fight, it didn't matter if she read him. Of course, he understood the risks if things went wrong.

Seeing that she was trying to eliminate his weapon, he decided to do the same and stepped in to eliminate space for her sword, only for her to spin around and slam her foot into his chest, sending him flying a few metres. Sayuri immediately sheathed her sword at her side before drawing it again, leaving a wall of fire in its wake as it tried to burn through him.

Rinji stepped aside only for her to release another cut from her sheath, creating another wall; the two walls crossed at one point behind him, thus trapping him on three sides.

"That's not going to be enough," he muttered as he swung his staff to create an opening in the wall, but the moment he stepped through, another vertical slash swung close by, creating a third wall and forming a Z-shape. If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. He immediately realised he couldn't see her. His body tensed as he focused his senses, and a second later, a sword pierced through the fire.

Rinji thrusted his staff forward with explosive force and parried the strike, the collision of fire-natured chakra creating a concussive crack that shattered the already broken cobblestone. The firewall also pushed away from the shockwave, reintroducing both jōnin once more. Rinji didn't overextend; he spun the metal staff behind his back, using the momentum to swing a horizontal arc aimed at Sayuri's ribs. She dropped flat, the sheet of flame passing inches above her head, and surged forward with a low thrust.

Rinji slammed the butt of the staff into the ground. A wall of fire erupted between them, acting as a momentary shield while the tip of the sword struck the staff—a testament to the ROOT jōnin's skill with bojutsu. Sayuri sliced through the curtain of heat, her blade's wind-like fire cutting a vacuum through the flames, and met him in the centre of the square. The exchange was a blur of high-velocity geometry.

The staff offered Rinji superior reach and leverage; he used it to keep Sayuri at a distance, raining down heavy overhead strikes that forced her to stay on the move. Sayuri used her superior speed to stick to the staff, sliding her blade along the metal to close the gap. Each time their weapons met, the temperature in the square climbed. They were both breathing in short, shallow gasps, filtering the oxygen-starved air. Rinji attempted to end the stalemate.

He spun the staff in a vertical wheel, building centrifugal force until the weapon appeared as a solid disc of fire. He stepped into a massive, downward smash. The ground beneath Sayuri's feet liquefied into a glowing slurry of slag as the strike descended. She didn't retreat under pressure. As the staff came down, she angled her sword at a steep, forty-five-degree angle. Instead of meeting his blow head-on, she allowed the staff to skid along the flat of her blade.

The friction sent a spray of sparks into the air, but the force of the strike was diverted into the ground. The tomoe in her eyes was spinning rapidly as she pinned Rinji's weapon into the ground using its own momentum. She rotated her body, her sword trailing her like a lace of crimson light, the blade aimed for his throat. Rinji didn't have a choice; he let go of his staff and leapt back with all of his might, causing an explosion beneath his feet and sending slag toward her.

As he retreated, five chakra threads shot out from his fingertips towards his staff, intending to pull it out of the ground. An orange flash zoomed through the air, cutting the strings the moment they latched onto the ground. Rinji immediately flowed into a set of hand seals. If he couldn't get his weapon, then he was going to make one. Chakra flowed from his hand and formed an identical rigid staff, only this one was composed of solid fire and glowed like pure plasma.

It couldn't replace his staff, but it would have to do. Rinji was about to charge forth, unwilling to give his enemy the momentum, when he felt the temperature shift.

"Huh?" Fire Release: Great Dragon Fire Jutsu The fires parted, and a dragon-head-shaped fireball, as tall as a building, roared and thrashed towards him, carving up the ground. His eyes widened from the utter surprise of seeing the jutsu. That wasn't a jutsu that could be contained. Even if he could protect himself, that wouldn't stop the jutsu from wreaking havoc on the surroundings. The safe hostages were the only reason they had maintained a status quo.

Had she decided to just go ahead and kill the hostages by herself and blame it on him?

"You mad woman!" he yelled, and he thrust the flame staff forward. He swung the staff, and it clashed against the dragon's head. The ground beneath his feet shattered as he stopped the ninjutsu with his physical strength, but it didn't work; the staff couldn't hold its form and exploded into fire, leaving the head to ram into him like a bull. The dragon head, along with Rinji, rammed into several village buildings before exploding in a wave of fire that spread destruction into an even larger area.

If there was anyone there, they were dead. Rinji exploded out from the rubble, his body badly burned. His nerves were screaming in pain, but he couldn't give them attention because his opponent had decided to escalate to madness. His eyes frantically looked around for Sayuri, only for him to catch a figure through the fire and smoke. It was one of his subordinates. He was standing safely just at the edge of the area of fiery destruction.

Rinji narrowed his eyes, wondering why he was just standing there with no signs of panic or alertness until he saw that the man's body was limp, his head fully tilted back on his neck, staring blankly into the sky. Then a second subordinate entered his line of sight. She, too, stood there like the other one, as though completely detached from reality.

"… Genjutsu," he uttered in realisation—and a strong one at that. That could be the only explanation. As Rinji caught his bearings, he heard something he hadn't registered while he was in the thrill of battle. He looked far off in the distance, on the other side of the village, to see the villagers being escorted by Leaf shinobi away from the village. He could hear children crying and people shouting, pushing each other to be as far from the danger as possible.

Similar sounds were coming from behind him as people escaped. Then the woman walked through the sea of flames, the tip of her sword scraping against the ground, turning the dirt into a molten flow.

"If you want to blame someone, blame Yuhi Kurenai," Sayuri said as her chakra actively interfered with the surrounding fires, extinguishing some and fueling others. Yuhi Kurenai, the Leaf's Genjutsu Mistress. Suddenly, the genjutsu made sense. But if they had another jōnin in the vicinity, why hadn't she cast her illusions on him to give the Uchiha a chance to kill him? Why target his subordinates? Was it because of the hostages? Or were his subordinates, spread around the village, easier to ensnare than him?

"Without her, I would've been forced to let you leave alive. Now I get to kill you." Rinji swallowed as he stared at the deadly glow of her Sharingan.

"Tell me, were you there with Shisui? Your answer will decide how much pain you feel." Or was it because this madwoman wanted revenge and didn't want anyone to hinder or interfere with it?