Chapter 3: The Killing Continues
Hiss—!
After their brief exchange, Gōenji felt his battered body beginning to give out.
Pain from his torn muscles and chafing wounds seemed to reach all the way to his bones. He had already endured more than enough. If he continued to stand around and let the enemy dictate the pace, he would eventually be killed.
He had to strike first.
This hurts like hell.
Clang!
Gōenji's Sharingan spun.
"Genjutsu: Hell Viewing Technique!"
The Cloud shinobi had been prepared the moment he saw the Sharingan, but Gōenji still managed to catch him off guard.
The world before the Kumogakure chūnin suddenly changed.
His enemy disappeared.
In his place stood a monstrous creature.
An enormous, earth-shaking, eight-tailed beast towered before him.
The Cloud shinobi's expression changed instantly.
"Shit!"
He was a battle-hardened chūnin. The moment he saw the Eight-Tails, his instincts screamed that something was wrong.
Genjutsu!
He immediately disrupted his chakra flow, breaking the genjutsu before forcibly releasing his chakra to dispel the illusion.
The illusion shattered.
But Gōenji wasn't going to give him the opportunity to recover.
Pfft!
A short blade pierced straight through the man's chest.
His heart was destroyed.
The instant the Cloud shinobi broke free of the genjutsu, Gōenji was already standing before him, his expression cold.
Blood poured from the man's mouth.
He stared at Gōenji in disbelief before his body finally collapsed heavily onto the ground.
His eyes remained wide open.
Gōenji stared at the corpse for a moment before grimacing.
"Goddamn it... that hurts."
His entire body was screaming at him.
Didn't people say transmigrators weren't supposed to feel pain?
Why am I the only one suffering like this?
He couldn't endure another prolonged battle.
That was why he had chosen to end the fight as quickly as possible.
Using the techniques he had learned at the Ninja Academy, Gōenji concealed his presence before performing the Transformation Technique.
Poof!
His appearance changed into that of the Cloud shinobi he had just killed.
It was risky.
A disguised Konoha shinobi could easily be mistaken for an enemy by his own comrades.
But Gōenji had already considered that possibility.
The enemy had dared to invade Konoha's territory.
That meant they believed they had the advantage.
In that situation, he couldn't afford to worry about the possibility of friendly fire.
If he dragged this out any longer, he might not survive at all.
And the Transformation Technique really was an incredibly useful ninjutsu.
With nothing more than a simple transformation, Gōenji could approach the Cloud shinobi without attracting attention.
No one questioned him.
Or, more accurately, no one had the spare attention to do so.
Everyone was fighting.
Even the most vigilant shinobi could only keep track of so much at once. On a battlefield this chaotic, there simply wasn't enough time to carefully determine whether every approaching soldier was an enemy, ally, or infiltrator.
That was exactly what Gōenji needed.
Elsewhere, Uchiha Tekka was in a desperate battle.
His Three-Tomoe Sharingan tracked three Cloud chūnin simultaneously.
Clang! Clang!
Three opponents surrounded him, coordinating their attacks with frightening precision.
Tekka barely managed to block one attack before another came from his blind spot.
One of the Cloud shinobi focused on taijutsu.
Another constantly interfered with him using ninjutsu while providing defensive support.
The third waited for an opening to drive his blade into Tekka's body.
Their coordination was subtle.
But it was extremely effective.
Before long, Tekka was forced into a desperate situation.
He gritted his teeth as he stared at the three enemies surrounding him.
He was an Uchiha.
How could he possibly lose to these shinobi?
The thought alone was humiliating.
"Hmph."
One of the Cloud shinobi smiled confidently.
"Your chakra is almost exhausted, isn't it? To last this long, you really are an Uchiha."
His eyes lingered greedily on Tekka's Sharingan.
"Those eyes really are something."
If he could bring back a pair of Sharingan, it would be a tremendous achievement for Kumogakure.
That village had always coveted the bloodline limits of other nations.
If they could steal a powerful bloodline and bring it back to the village, they would do so without hesitation.
Tekka's expression darkened.
He had already pushed himself to his limit.
His chakra was almost completely depleted.
Then—
Gōenji, still disguised as a Cloud shinobi, suddenly approached the group.
"Sir, do you need help?"
The Cloud captain's face immediately darkened.
"What are you blind?"
He glared at the newcomer.
"The three of us are about to kill him. Are you trying to steal our kill?"
The other two Cloud shinobi fell silent.
The captain was clearly furious.
What family does this idiot belong to?
Doesn't he understand the situation?
I'll report this to the Raikage when we return.
Tekka watched the exchange in silence.
For the first time, despair gripped him.
He had never imagined that he would die here.
On this battlefield.
Before he could achieve anything.
"You bastards..."
Tekka slowly gathered the last remnants of his chakra.
"If you think you've pushed me into a corner..."
His eyes hardened.
"...then you're wrong."
He was going to fight until the very end.
The dark-skinned shinobi scratched his head.
Then he gave a faint smile.
"Actually, Captain, there's something I wanted to tell you."
The Cloud captain frowned.
These people really were strange.
They weren't all that different from the Uchiha.
If anything, they seemed even more hot-tempered.
"Stop wasting time," the captain snapped. "Finish off the Konoha shinobi. We were given orders to kill them."
The dark-skinned man nodded.
"Yeah."
Then his smile widened.
"But I couldn't wait any longer."
Pfft!
A blade suddenly plunged into the Cloud captain's chest.
The weapon pierced straight through his heart.
His expression froze.
He looked down at the blade, then slowly raised his head.
"You..."
Before he could finish speaking, his body went limp.
The captain collapsed.
"What the hell are you doing?!"
"Careful! He's a Konoha shinobi using the Transformation Technique!"
"KILL HIM!"
The two remaining Cloud shinobi reacted almost instantly.
They were chūnin who had survived the battlefield.
Their combat experience was considerable.
The moment their captain was killed, they understood what had happened.
They had allowed an enemy to approach them under the cover of a transformation.
Their momentary carelessness had cost their leader his life.
One of the shorter Cloud shinobi immediately formed hand seals.
"Lightning Release: Earth Flash!"
Crackle!
Lightning surged across the ground, racing toward Gōenji.
The other shinobi was already drawing his sword.
"You bastard!"
"Go to hell!"
Their captain had been killed right before their eyes.
Their anger exploded.
At the same time, Tekka saw the opportunity.
His hands began forming another series of seals.
He wasn't about to waste it.
"Fire Release: Phoenix Sage Flower Jutsu!"
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Several flames burst from his mouth and shot toward the Cloud shinobi.
The flames forced the taller man to defend himself instead of pursuing Gōenji.
Gōenji immediately used the opening to leap into the trees.
He landed lightly on a branch.
Crackle!
The Lightning Release attack passed beneath him.
Gōenji looked down at the shorter Cloud shinobi.
His eyes narrowed.
Having teammates really does make things easier.
He didn't bother with another complicated technique.
Several shuriken appeared between his fingers.
Then he threw them.
This was one of the Uchiha clan's signature techniques.
"Shurikenjutsu: Manipulated Shuriken Technique!"
Clang! Clang!
The shuriken flew toward the Cloud shinobi.
The man tried to dodge.
Then—
Clang!
The shuriken collided with one another in midair.
Their trajectories suddenly changed.
The Cloud shinobi's expression shifted.
"Damn it!"
He immediately changed tactics.
Instead of dodging, he drew his sword and began deflecting the incoming weapons.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Several shuriken were knocked away.
Others struck the ground.
A few buried themselves in the tree behind him.
The Cloud shinobi lowered his blade.
He gave a cold snort, but his eyes had become much more serious.
That shuriken control...
It's definitely an Uchiha technique.
His gaze shifted toward Gōenji.
He had already recognized those eyes.
Then he looked toward his remaining companion.
The other Cloud shinobi was still being held back by Tekka.
The battlefield had suddenly become a one-on-one fight.
Gōenji smiled faintly.
"What's wrong?"
He reached down and caught several thin steel wires between his fingers.
"You look like you've had enough."
The Cloud shinobi's expression tightened.
Gōenji pulled both hands apart.
The wires stretched taut.
His eyes sharpened.
"Why don't you just die?"
His fingers moved.
The steel wires connected to the scattered shuriken throughout the battlefield.
Then Gōenji pulled.
Whoosh!
The wires snapped into position.
"Shurikenjutsu..."
His Sharingan tracked every strand.
"...Manipulated Shuriken: Windmill!"
The scattered shuriken suddenly moved.
The Cloud shinobi's expression changed.
He realized too late that the battle had never been about the shuriken themselves.
The weapons were only anchors.
The true trap was the network of wires Gōenji had already placed around him.
The steel strands tightened from every direction.
And Gōenji's eyes gleamed.
He had already decided how the battle would end.