💎 WEEKLY POWER GOALS 💎🔥 30→2ch | 60→5ch | 100→8ch | 200→15ch | 400→25ch⏰ Resets Monday!
The severed head that rolled across the ground bore an expression of agony mingled with bewilderment. Everything that had just transpired carried an ineffable sense of mockery...
For the enemy, this certainly qualified as capsizing in calm waters. Shinobi with absolute confidence in their abilities inevitably face such extreme reversals—his death was merely one of the inevitable costs to be paid.
First shock, then rage. More shuriken streaked toward Shin Hagūgen.
Shin Hagūgen had anticipated such attacks. The moment he landed, he hesitated not at all—chakra exploded from his feet as he swept behind a massive tree like a gale, concealing his body.
Thud, thud, thud—the arrow-rain of shuriken pierced the ground, following Shin Hagūgen's movement trajectory before finally embedding in the tree's outer surface.
One enemy shinobi refrained from the shuriken assault. Observing Shin Hagūgen's movements and position, he rapidly formed hand seals, then merely shifted two or three body-lengths sideways, bringing the evading Shin Hagūgen back into his firing line:
Water Release: Water Bullet Technique!
Immediately, a massive water projectile crashed toward Shin Hagūgen.
Facing such area-effect ninjutsu, Shin Hagūgen remained composed. Having spent a year in the Shinobi World—if not battle-hardened, at least possessing basic shinobi qualifications.
His hands naturally converged, fingers flowing smoothly through seals as he counterattacked:
Fire Release: Great Flame Bullet!
An orange-red fireball exceeding two meters in diameter shot directly toward the water sphere that had closed half the distance.
Among Fire Release-specializing clans, virtually every family possessed such fundamental ninjutsu with similar seals, comparable chakra flow patterns, and equivalent effects. Even the names barely differed... merely variations like Grand Fireball, Great Fireball, Explosive Fireball, Flame Bullet, Great Flame Bullet, and such.
Fire struck water—flames extinguished while water boiled. With dense hissing sounds, the two techniques' scale and power mutually canceled. High-temperature turbulence generated thick white vapor that rapidly surged and spread through the forest, severely obscuring the shinobi's vision.
The enemy's sensory ninja wasn't present here, making the environment increasingly favorable to Shin Hagūgen—visual obstruction eliminated the enemy's numerical advantage, while Shin Hagūgen excelled at backstabbing.
He pressed sideways against the rear tree trunk. The Mayfly Technique activated once more—like a skilled swimmer submerging beneath the surface, his body gradually merged into the trunk.
Relying on recent memory, Shin Hagūgen swiftly moved through trees and earth, quickly locating the ninja who had opposed him with Water Release.
Soundlessly, he appeared behind this enemy. By coincidence, the enemy was slowly retreating, his back directly against a large tree. This was the correct choice—in severely compromised visibility, positioning one's back against cover effectively prevented rear attacks.
But this time, cleverness backfired.
Shin Hagūgen's upper body emerged from the overhead trunk. Ghostlike, he extended both arms—his right arm locked deadly around the enemy's neck while his left arm swiftly circled to the opponent's front. Like pounding rice cakes, he delivered twenty to thirty consecutive, rapid, and violent strikes to the man's chest cavity.
Mechanical repetitive motions and clean flesh-penetrating sounds both represented cold indifference and chilling killing intent.
In an instant, forget survival—this person's internal organs were so thoroughly pulverized they could be thrown directly into a hot pot.
Shin Hagūgen's form vanished again.
The more he fought, the more he sensed changes occurring in his body. Previously, when using ninjutsu, accompanying chakra release, he always experienced severe depletion—as though portions of his essence were directly stripped away.
After employing ninjutsu, he would feel withered and weakened.
But this time was different. During combat, he experienced a sense of power abundance—every cell grew increasingly active and vital as battle progressed... If previously he had been flat, now he could at least sense 36D.
Shin Hagūgen instantly understood: perhaps ordinary people simply weren't suited to become shinobi—chakra severely overdrew one's life force.
"Who's under attack? Explain the situation and report your position!" an enemy shouted loudly.
Actively making noise in dense vapor was absolutely not the correct choice. Shin Hagūgen was searching for his next target, so he directly headed toward the voice's source.
"Three remaining," he silently counted.
But when he infiltrated near that enemy, preparing to execute another assassination, certain faint hissing sounds suddenly triggered his alertness.
"Not good—it's a trap!"
Where Shin Hagūgen couldn't see, this ninja's face revealed a cruel smile before his hands completed the final seal.
Shin Hagūgen immediately used the Mayfly Technique to rapidly escape, having guessed what kind of attack the opponent would unleash.
That enemy used himself as bait, deliberately luring Shin Hagūgen over. On his body, a stack of explosive tags had completed pre-ignition. Next, seven or eight overlapping paper sheets began releasing their energy.
Blazing white light suddenly flared. Under massive radial impact force, the ninja's body, falling branches and leaves, and surrounding soil all disintegrated together!
Several large trees were severed at mid-trunk. Amid creaking collapse sounds, Shin Hagūgen's body was squeezed out from a tree section.
His mastery of this ninjutsu wasn't particularly skilled. Although he had distanced himself from the explosion point at maximum speed and avoided primary damage, the blast's shockwave still forced him to manifest.
The intense shockwave even dispersed surrounding vapor, restoring battlefield transparency.
Such complete disregard for one's own life was truly unimaginable.
This enemy had no understanding of how Shin Hagūgen executed assassinations. He had merely detected his second comrade's death, roughly estimated Shin Hagūgen's movement speed by comparing previous positional information, then based on this unreliable intelligence, directly commenced self-destruction.
No, not recklessness—actually numbness. Under severely insufficient intelligence, directly wagering his life—what difference was this from suicide? His self-destruction might well have only blasted air.
Of course, Shin Hagūgen still gave his opponent face. Due to insufficient experience, his actions were extremely linear—his movement trajectory nearly fell into the opponent's blind guess. Fortunately, he maintained constant vigilance and sustained no substantial harm.
In other words, the enemy's death was meaningless.
Life seemed worthless, while death appeared more like liberation.