Chapter 26: Battle
Flames erupted beneath Gōenji's feet, and with a sharp whoosh, his entire body shot backward.
Before Konan and the others could react, he had already withdrawn several meters, breaking out of their encirclement.
At the same time, he spat out a barrage of small fireballs.
Bang! Bang!
The situation had suddenly reversed.
What had been four people surrounding Gōenji had become Gōenji trapping all four of them within a storm of flames.
His objective was simply to buy time, so there was no need for him to panic.
He had no intention of killing any of them.
Apart from the fact that he didn't want to, there was another, more practical reason.
It would be extremely difficult.
If he killed one of them, Nagato might summon the Gedo Statue. With his current strength, Gōenji had no confidence that he could withstand an attack from that monstrosity.
Even Hanzō didn't dare approach the Gedo Statue recklessly.
As for Gōenji, all he had done was learn a few new techniques and develop several Fire Release techniques. He simply wasn't capable of resisting that kind of attack yet.
Besides, all four of these people possessed strength approaching the jōnin level.
Who would actually win in a life-or-death battle was still uncertain.
And there was always the possibility that White Zetsu was secretly watching Nagato.
Countless fireballs rained down, forcing the four to dodge while simultaneously forming hand seals.
Whoosh!
The first counterattack came from Konan.
Paper shuriken shot through the air.
The sharp contrast between the explosions of the small fireballs striking trees and the ground and the paper shuriken slicing through the flames was striking.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The fireballs exploded against the ground, colliding with puddles of rainwater that had accumulated everywhere.
Hissssss!
Large clouds of steam immediately rose into the air.
"Stay here."
Nagato used the Body Flicker Technique to close the distance. His hands unleashed a fierce gust of wind.
Boom!
The powerful airflow accelerated Konan's paper shuriken.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
At the same time, countless rats emerged from every direction and rushed toward Gōenji.
"Four against one. What a pain."
Gōenji looked at the rats swarming toward him from all sides.
He hadn't expected the Akatsuki to possess such a disgusting summoning technique.
If only the Repulsion Flame Ring were already finished.
That technique would have been perfect for dealing with a situation like this.
Unfortunately, there were no ifs in battle.
He had to use a more troublesome method.
Rat. Horse. Tiger.
"Fire Release: Flame Tornado!"
Flames erupted from his right leg.
Just as the rats were about to pounce on him, Gōenji's Sharingan caught the perfect opening.
He twisted his waist.
His flaming leg swept around him as his body spun like a tornado.
The flames followed his movement, forming a blazing vortex.
The summoned rats were instantly engulfed.
Their bodies were burned to ash before they could even touch him.
"Fire Release: Fire Dragon Iron Fist!"
After dealing with the summons, Gōenji didn't hesitate.
His right fist ignited with explosive flames.
He punched directly toward the combined ninjutsu created by Konan and Nagato.
BOOM!
The moment his fist collided with the technique, explosive flames surged outward.
Although their technique combined multiple ninjutsu, the Wind Release component only strengthened Gōenji's flames.
This was the advantage of elemental interactions.
By borrowing the power of Wind Release, his flames became even more powerful.
Without his sharp mind, he probably wouldn't have thought of exploiting elemental interactions like this.
Even as a transmigrator, elemental advantages weren't something he could simply take for granted.
But Gōenji wanted to survive in the shinobi world.
That meant making use of every advantage available to him.
"Stay here today."
Clang!
Yahiko suddenly closed in, a kunai in his hand as he launched a direct attack.
Clang!
"Do you really think my taijutsu is that bad? You actually dared to come this close?"
Gōenji felt the remaining chakra within his body while his Sharingan tracked Yahiko's movements.
Close combat?
Was this his attempt to pin Gōenji down?
How naive.
His right hand instantly seized the hilt of his short sword.
Outer Spiral Draw Cut!
His wrist twisted violently.
A powerful rotational force traveled through the blade as he slashed directly at Yahiko's kunai.
CLANG!
This force...!
Yahiko's hand trembled.
A strange twisting force had transferred through his kunai and into his wrist.
He immediately realized that this was some kind of taijutsu technique.
He couldn't allow Gōenji to break through his defense.
Ignoring the pain in his wrist, Yahiko twisted his arm and desperately resisted the blade.
Gōenji smiled.
"Let me show you the strength of the Uchiha."
His Sharingan flashed.
Whoosh!
His wrist rotated again.
The rotational force suddenly erupted, breaking through Yahiko's resistance.
The blade immediately changed direction and launched a second attack from an unexpected angle.
Outer Spiral Draw Cut.
Gōenji had copied Ryūma's technique with his Sharingan.
It was an extremely practical swordsmanship technique for close-quarters combat.
By applying rotational force to the blade, the technique created a powerful twisting torque in the opponent's weapon. If the opponent lacked sufficient strength, their weapon would be knocked aside immediately.
If they managed to resist, the rotational force could instead be used to launch a faster second-stage attack from another direction.
A simple but highly practical sword technique.
Whoosh!
"Yahiko, watch out!"
ROAR!
A tremendous dragon's roar echoed through the rain.
A gigantic Water Dragon surged toward Gōenji, formed from the water surrounding them.
BOOM!
Gōenji had no choice.
He swung his blade, pouring his strength into the attack.
But fighting multiple opponents at once was simply difficult.
Especially when those opponents were all talented.
His short sword struck the Water Dragon's head.
Yet the enormous force behind the technique still sent Gōenji flying backward.
His blade merely splashed apart some of the water forming the dragon's head.
The Water Dragon's momentum continued pushing against him.
Single-Leg Staggering Step.
There wasn't enough time to form the seals for Rocket Propulsion.
Instead, Gōenji used the Staggering Step.
His muscles recoiled with explosive force, allowing him to launch himself sideways with a sudden burst of acceleration.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
After several twists and turns, the Water Dragon finally dispersed into the rain.
The entire exchange had happened in an instant.
This was another technique Gōenji had copied from Ryūma.
It relied on exceptional balance and reflexes to determine the direction of an incoming attack, then used the body's muscular recoil to dramatically increase acceleration from a stationary position.
Gōenji had secretly copied this technique as well.
It was especially useful when there wasn't enough time to use a Body Flicker Technique.
That was the power of the Sharingan.
If I can incorporate Fire Release into this kind of swordsmanship, it'll definitely be useful.
Even in the middle of an intense battle, Gōenji hadn't forgotten to think about his own development.
His eyes, however, never left the four opponents before him.
These four were genuinely strong.
No wonder they would eventually make the Akatsuki such a powerful organization.
And they were only teenagers.
Then there was Nagato.
His Water Release was remarkably refined.
Where the hell did he learn Water Dragon Bullet? That's a Kirigakure technique.
Gōenji felt helpless.
"You guys are strong. You're not even from Amegakure, are you? Why are you making things so difficult for me?"
He just wanted to finish his mission.
Why did they have to fight?
This wasn't safe for any of the five of them.
"Yahiko, the others are already outside our sensory range," Kyūsuke said. "We need to end this quickly."
"Yeah."
Yahiko nodded.
"Konan, Nagato, let's attack together. We'll use our strongest techniques."
Yahiko knew they had to finish the battle as quickly as possible.
Gōenji was simply too difficult to deal with.
The Sharingan gave him an enormous advantage.
Even with four people against one, they couldn't afford to underestimate him.
The four exchanged glances.
Two formed hand seals while the other two threw shuriken as a feint.
Gōenji watched them carefully, immediately analyzing their movements and hand seals.
As expected of geniuses. Their hand-seal speed is already much faster than an ordinary jōnin's.
At their age, that's impressive.
Yahiko and the others were already approaching jōnin-level combat ability.
But...
Still too slow.
Gōenji's hands blurred as he formed seals with one hand, leaving afterimages in their wake.
Before the others had even completed their seals, his technique was already finished.
Shinobi combat was a contest of speed.
By the time the shuriken reached him, Gōenji had already completed his jutsu.
"Fire Release: Rocket Propulsion."
Flames erupted beneath his feet.
His body shot forward.
"Fire Release: Phoenix Flower Jutsu!"