The Iwa jonin broke into a cold sweat the moment he heard that voice behind him.
He wasn't some arrogant fool, the kind who mistook this for a bluff to challenge his authority.
As a battle-hardened Iwagakure jonin, his instincts were razor-sharp. Though his sensory ninjutsu hadn't detected any presence, the goosebumps erupting on his skin told him that a terrifying demon now stood directly behind him.
But when? How?
How could someone silently get behind him—right in front of his team—without anyone noticing?
His mind was full of unanswered questions, but now wasn't the time to ask.
Without hesitation, he drew a kunai and stabbed backward. But before he could even swing his weapon, he felt a cold sting in his chest.
His strength started draining away rapidly.
Looking down, he saw the gleaming edge of a blade protruding from his torso.
Gritting his teeth, he used the his last remaining strength to try and drive his kunai into his attacker—if he was going to die, he'd at least drag his enemy down with him.
But it was pointless.
Before his kunai could land, Hoshiyomi Gekkō twisted his blade, shredding the jonin's heart.
Hearing the rush of wind behind him, Hoshiyomi didn't even bother to look back. With a casual flick of his Mikazuki Munechika, he tossed the Iwa jonin's corpse over his shoulder.
In the stunned eyes of his own transport team, Hoshiyomi used the falling corpse as a shield, blocking several shuriken and a Fire Style jutsu in one fluid motion.
At the same time, he had already silently retreated several meters away from the Iwa ninjas.
With a flick of his sword, Hoshiyomi sent out a bluish-green arc of sword energy, slicing through the rain-soaked air toward an Iwa shinobi.
His movement was effortless, like an artist lazily adding a brushstroke to a canvas.
But the result was pure crimson.
The Iwa ninja locked eyes with the sword energy, completely frozen—not because he didn't want to dodge, but because he simply couldn't.
It was too fast.
He had no time to weave hand seals or counter it.
All he could do was futilely raise his kunai in defense, only to watch it be effortlessly cleaved in two, along with his own body, as blood splattered across the forest.
After launching the sword energy, Hoshiyomi disappeared again.
With the combined effect of Transparent Escape Technique and Instant Step, even afterimages were hard to spot. The Iwa ninjas saw only a vague, ghostly blur.
In the space of a single breath, Hoshiyomi appeared behind another Iwa shinobi.
At some point, a short wakizashi had appeared in his hand.
With an almost casual gesture, he drew it across the man's throat.
The unfortunate Iwa chunin didn't even realize what had happened. He just felt his strength flood out of him like a retreating tide. Panicking, he clutched at his throat, trying desperately to stop the fountain of blood.
But the only sound that came from his mouth was a hoarse, meaningless gasp.
Hoshiyomi was like a phantom haunting the forest.
Every breath brought him behind another enemy shinobi, claiming their life with the simplest of motions.
Those he killed didn't even understand how they were being hunted.
There were no hand seals.
No obvious chakra fluctuations.
Just a step forward—
A silent strike—
And another life was taken.
One step, one breath.
One slash, one death.
The Konoha transport team could only stare in shock.
They knew Hoshiyomi was powerful, but this… this was on another level.
Even focusing all their attention, they still couldn't follow his movements.
Only Uchiha Hokushin, with his fully activated Three-Tomoe Sharingan, could barely track Hoshiyomi's actions.
But even then, Hokushin understood all too well:
If he were the target of this attack, he'd be dead ten times over.
With speed like this, even the Sharingan was little more than a fancy ornament.
Being able to see the strike and being able to dodge it were two very different things.
To the Konoha shinobi, Hoshiyomi was like a dancer beneath the moonlight.
His movements were elegant, almost artistic—yet every step brought death.
To the Iwa shinobi, he was a Shura—a demon from hell—emerging from the abyss, strong enough to make them despair.
Within just a few breaths, they'd already lost five or six of their comrades.
Panic set in.
One of the surviving Iwa chunin, on the brink of collapse, screamed hysterically:
"What the hell is this? Is it some kind of genjutsu?!
Release! Everyone, release it, now!"
His face was covered in snot and tears as he tried to break free from what he thought was an illusion.
But he couldn't.
A blade pierced his chest in the next instant, and only then did he realize—
This was no genjutsu.
The remaining five Iwa jonin still kept some composure.
They shouted to their teammates, trying to restore order:
"Don't panic! The more you panic, the faster you'll die!
He's just circling us with short-range assassinations.
If we stand back-to-back, he can't touch us!"
Their words snapped the panicking Iwa ninjas back to their senses.
They scrambled to huddle together, back-to-back, forming a defensive circle.
Those who reacted too slowly… had already become Hoshiyomi's next victims.
"Form seals together! Use a wide-range jutsu! Kill him!"
One Iwa jonin shouted, and the others responded instantly.
"Earth Release: Earth Flow Spears!" ×5
Earth Release: Earth Flow Spear Formation!"
Five jonin combined their chakra, unleashing the large-scale Earth Flow Spear Formation!
The ground trembled violently.
Countless sharp earthen spears shot up from beneath, interlocking like a deadly forest of spikes.
The ground within a hundred-meter radius was transformed into a field of towering spears—each over a meter tall.
With five jonin channeling the technique, the power of this combined jutsu was already comparable to an S-rank forbidden technique.
Looking across the battlefield, it resembled the Dance of the Seedling Fern, the infamous kekkei genkai technique of the Kaguya Clan.
The faces of the Konoha transport team changed drastically.
This kind of large-scale, high-density attack… even if you're fast, how can you escape?
Could Hoshiyomi-sama really survive inside a forest of earth spears like that?
"Seishō!" Hokushin called urgently.
"Can you see where Hoshiyomi is?"
"I'm looking!" Hyūga Seishō's Byakugan eyes were wide open, scanning frantically through the forest of earthen spears.
But no matter how hard he looked, he couldn't find a trace of Hoshiyomi.
Not even a corpse.
Even if he got skewered, there should at least be a body, right?
Could it be…?
At that moment, Lobo's lazy voice rang out:
"Stop looking. He's over here."
The transport team snapped their heads around—and finally noticed:
At some point, Hoshiyomi had already returned to Lobo's side, casually reclining against the large ninja beast's back.
He flashed them a relaxed, stylish smile, as if the battle had been nothing more than a pleasant stroll.