Half a minute earlier, inside the house with a human-sized hole in the wall.
The two who had stayed for less than five minutes stood and stepped outside after barely staying five minutes inside.
"Hanhan, I'm going to help Nayou. You can follow along by yourself!"
Nawaki stared blankly at the figure vanishing into the night, quickly growing irritated. "That guy really is unbearable!"
He hadn't gone far when he saw a corpse lying in a pool of blood.
"Has he already become this strong? Judging from the wound, it looks like this person killed himself—could it be that..."
With a complicated expression, Nawaki gave one last deep look at the severely mutilated body before lifting his foot and walking away.
The gruesome sight finally made him understand what his older sister had said: "Against an Uchiha, you might already be caught in their Genjutsu before you even realize it!"
"Your teammate's probably already been split in half by now!"
Before Shen reached where Nayou was, an arrogant voice cut through the air.
He instantly released the Chakra he'd just regained and vanished from sight—reappearing directly in front of the speaker.
After flashing Nayou a big grin over his shoulder, he pulled out a scroll while looking at the Takigakure Captain who had just spoken so arrogantly: "Sorry to disappoint you, though that big guy really could take a beating."
Who's trying to impress whom in front of a seasoned actor? He declared he would even use the little Chakra he had just recovered to show this guy what real [Acting No Jutsu] looked like.
"You actually killed him!" The Takigakure Captain's face darkened immediately.
After opening the scroll with his uninjured hand, Shen glared contemptuously at the opponent: "Guess how many times you can withstand it?"
"Puff"
As the white smoke dispersed, he was holding a small black crossbow.
This was something he had crafted at noon while shopping around, using leftover materials based on the principle of Sleeve Dart but scaled up.
"What kind of thing is this? How come I can sense an enormous amount of Chakra inside?" The Takigakure Captain was unusually cautious about the miniature crossbow.
As for this, Shen offered no further explanation.
He casually raised his hand without even aiming and fired off the crossbow at random.
"Shua"
Once the pitch-black arrow left the crossbow, it shot forward with relentless speed. With Wind nature's lightness and Lightning nature's piercing capability, it pierced through the house beside the enemy.
"What? It hasn't even stopped yet!"
The Takigakure Captain turned his head toward the nearby house and saw that the arrow continued flying straight ahead.
Wherever it passed, no obstacle could successfully block it.
Seeing this, Shen's tone carried slight mockery: "Didn't your Takigakure once send a Ninja to assassinate the First Hokage years ago? That ninja hurled a Shuriken from over eight hundred *li* — nearly 250 miles — and fled right after!"
Upon hearing these words, the Takigakure Captain narrowed his eyes instantly: "Uchiha brat! What exactly are you implying?"
"Hahahaha… You think you can dodge this like the First Hokage did?" Shen replied cheerfully under the dangerous gaze of his opponent.
In terms of pure acting ability, he really was top-tier.
However, the Takigakure Captain clearly wasn't some naive fool: "If you want to fight, then fight. Why waste so many words? You're not waiting for reinforcements, are you?"
Shen glanced back at Nayou, who gave him a nod, before revealing his hand in the next moment: "Yeah, you really are quite clever!"
"Brat, die!"
"You're going down, old man!"
Just as the Takigakure Captain charged forward but hadn't even launched an attack, he was sent flying backward by a tiny pair of feet mid-air.
Rolling uncontrollably along the ground, he probably never expected that despite this idiot's sluggishness, raw superhuman strength alone could send him flying.
Nawaki immediately lifted his little chin proudly, that smug expression making a certain 'acting genius' want to kick him senseless.
However, before Team One's three members could get their act together, a furious shout rang out from a distance: "Fine, fine! None of you three—Nawaki, Shen, and Nayou—will survive today!"
"Pfft, what's the big deal!" Nawaki shot back defiantly without hesitation.
"…"
Shen and Nayou exchanged speechless glances. According to their original plan, they should have pretended to be weak at this moment to make the enemy hesitate, fearing potential collateral damage.
Nawaki's loudmouth comment had completely thrown their entire strategy into disarray.
"Nawaki, go draw his fire. Nayou will provide backup support. As for me, I'll sneak up and hit him with a surprise strike!" Shen lifted his crossbow, quickly forming a new plan.
"Why do I always have to take the hits?" Immediately frowning, Nawaki turned his face away, clearly very dissatisfied with the new arrangement.
Shen flew into a rage, grabbing Nawaki by the collar and shouting: "You want Nayou, a girl, to go instead? Or perhaps me, an injured comrade?"
Looking down at the arm gripping his collar—blood still seeping through the bandages—Nawaki immediately turned his face aside without making eye contact: "Fine, just make sure you aim properly."
"Don't worry. My vision has recovered just a bit." Shen let go of the other's collar, tossed out those words, and immediately shifted into alert mode.
Nawaki didn't say anything else, but while adjusting his shirt collar, he reached a familiar internal conclusion again: "This guy… still as annoying as ever."
"Here we go!"
With her Byakugan, Nayou could see the enemy already within fifty meters range, which gave an idea how powerful this idiot's kicks truly could send someone flying.
"None of you three brats will survive!"
The furious battle between Orochimaru and the Iwagakure Captain paused momentarily as both heard the extremely enraged declaration.
"My students will end yours. I have full faith in them."
Orochimaru swung his Extendable Kusanagi Blade downward at the ground beneath him.
The Iwagakure Captain's sneaky attack was instantly neutralized.
[Earth Release: Subterranean Voyage!]
After forming the hand seals, the Iwagakure Captain dove underground swiftly, seemingly quite confident. Normally, hiding underground would definitely panic most ordinary ninja.
But his opponent was Orochimaru—an eccentric scientific genius who possessed unique insights into Elemental Chakra Mode.
"Compared to Terumi's Earth Release technique that can instantly fill in missing earth, this is nowhere near as effective."
Orochimaru casually placed his hand on the ground and immediately detected his opponent's exact location.
He plunged the Extendable Kusanagi Blade into the ground, using some kid's genius trick of channeling chakra into it.
"Swoosh!"
Underground, the Iwagakure Captain stared in horror as a razor-sharp blade zipped past his shoulder.
Facing another slash heading his way, he chose to solidify the surrounding soil for defense.
Unfortunately, his efforts proved completely ineffective.
The Extendable Kusanagi Blade, one of the sacred Swords of Kusanagi, was exceptionally sharp—Enma himself, who held the title of indestructible, dared not take many hits from it.
Combined with the blade's special extendable property, the Iwagakure Captain had already lost the moment he went underground.
This idea came from someone who, in his past life, had read the three major long-running manga series. He was particularly fond of the character with narrow eyes who wielded a fast-attacking, transformable weapon.
So, naturally, this theoretical application ended up in Orochimaru's hands.
"Looks like you're packing chakra into the blade's molecular structure to stretch it out? Clever enough, but every time it shrinks back down, all that chakra just vanishes. Definitely worth another look."
Riddled with wounds underground, the Iwagakure Captain wouldn't even realize in death that he'd just been a guinea pig all along.
After more than half an hour, this so-called 'benefactor' of scientific progress closed his eyes, filled with rage and regret.
(Orochimaru: Ever wanted to try mad science? Comes with a free funeral!)
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