That was the sound of an Explosive Tag igniting. Two tags, carefully hidden among the branches, had just burned to their limit.
Boom! Boom!! Two consecutive explosions rocked the forest, flames and smoke billowing outward instantly.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Several kunai, each tied with Explosive Tags, shot toward the remaining Root operatives.
"You dare—!" The leading Root jonin's face twisted in fury.
He hadn't expected the other side to strike first. After all, they bore the name of the ANBU, the Hokage's direct subordinates. To attack them was no different from declaring oneself a traitor to the village.
Even the proud Uchiha never dared to raise a hand against Root; it was no wonder this jonin was so stunned.
Boom! Boom! The power of Explosive Tags was on par with high-level Fire Style techniques—unquestionably deadly. Their only downside was the price.
Even a Root operative had to back off for the moment, unable to face such concentrated firepower head-on.
"Summoning Jutsu!" A sound of smoke and chakra erupted from within the flames.
"Be on guard! A Summoning Beast!" The Root leader barked the warning to his men.
That crow familiar wasn't weak, true—but this was a fight between ninja. As long as it couldn't unleash "Sunset," it was no real threat.
Yet when the flames and smoke finally cleared… There was no sign of Taiyi rising into the air.
"Aaah!" A sudden scream tore through the trees.
It came from one of the Root agents circling around to flank Shien.
"What did you do!?" The Root jonin whipped out a kunai and used the Body Flicker Technique, lunging toward Shien perched atop a tree branch.
Shien spread his hands, a mocking smile tugging at his lips. "Who knows?"
Even facing a jonin closing in fast, he wasn't the least bit worried anymore. Before, a jonin was an untouchable "boss." Now, after growing stronger—he was the boss.
A Root jonin? So what? Beat him.
Fwoosh! Fierce flames burst from Shien's gauntlets, wrapping his body like a veil of fire.
Blazing Mantle! It was a new technique he'd been developing— using the Fist of Blazing Fire to directly convert chakra into controllable flames, skipping the hand seals entirely.
Thank goodness for that weapon. The Fist of Blazing Fire truly was made for him—its uses were limitless.
Once in Blazing Mantle Mode, even against a jonin he could hold his own for a while with the Golden Crow Fluid Art.
"Fire Mist Technique!" Shien instinctively tossed lime powder into the air.
But Root had plenty of intel on him. The leader already knew about that trick—he flipped backward, neatly dodging the powder, and in midair flicked several kunai toward Shien.
While Shien evaded the kunai, the jonin landed lightly on a tree trunk ten meters away and finished weaving his seals.
"Wind Release: Vacuum Bullet!" His cheeks puffed up, then spat out several pale blue orbs of compressed air.
A B-rank Wind Release—one of Danzo's favorites. Once hit, a body would be riddled like a sieve.
Shien wasn't as brainless as that "Second Pillar"; instead of tanking the hits, he leapt aside deftly. Though his speed couldn't quite match the Vacuum Bullets, by keeping his eyes on the man's head movements, he could predict their trajectory well enough to dodge.
After surviving countless brushes with death—and training alongside Namikaze Minato, the fastest man in the ninja world—his combat instincts were razor-sharp.
One-on-one, though… He might not win.
Root specialized not in battle, but in killing. They were murder machines— and that reputation wasn't for show.
From the start of the fight, Shien had already noticed several different poisons in play. Luckily, he'd recently studied under Tsunade and developed his own antidotes—otherwise, he'd have been long poisoned.
Shu-shu! Vacuum Bullets chased after his leaping silhouette, punching clean holes through tree trunks thick enough for several men to encircle.
Forget flesh and blood— even steel would've been shredded by that power.
By all rights, Shien shouldn't have been able to keep dodging forever. But his Blazing Mantle had another use.
Fwoosh! Flames burst from his palms, boosting his movement speed in a sudden flare— he not only dodged the incoming Vacuum Bullets but zipped like lightning to the enemy's flank.
Golden Crow Fluid Art: Solitary Butcher! Spinning midair, his right leg came crashing down with tremendous force.
Bang! The Root jonin was slammed straight into the ground.
Shien had discovered countless applications for the Blazing Mantle, but its ability to enhance mobility was by far the most terrifying.
And it worked. The jonin had been completely caught off guard.
"Uchiha Shien! Do you intend to betray the village!?" The Root jonin hauled himself out of the crater, shouting in outrage.
Ninja were built like "mini-supermen"— with chakra reinforcement, their endurance bordered on absurd. Unless it was a piercing strike, blunt-force attacks rarely killed outright.
Shien looked down at him from above, standing on a high branch, voice sharp and cutting: "Oh? Then you ambushing a Konoha chunin without the Hokage's orders— that's not treason?"
Psychological warfare—an integral part of any shinobi battle. When you couldn't win by force, you turned to words.
The Root jonin hesitated for just a fraction of a second. He hadn't expected Shien to know that much.
But in that instant— a kunai came flying straight at him.
Whizz! He narrowly dodged, and the kunai embedded itself in the ground at his feet.
Sizzle— A burning sound followed. At the kunai's tail—an Explosive Tag ignited.
Boom!! The explosion swallowed him whole.
Cough, cough— A battered figure appeared atop a tree dozens of meters away. His mask was cracked, his uniform torn in several places. He'd escaped the blast—but barely.
Only one thought ran through his mind: Damn, this guy's loaded!
Kunai, Explosive Tags—none of that came cheap. Especially these Uchiha-made tags: normally several tens of thousands of ryō apiece, and the high-grade kind could fetch over a hundred thousand on the black market.
Yet this brat had thrown them around like pocket change— no wonder Root had been caught flat-footed.
He didn't even have time to catch his breath before a voice thundered from above.
"Fire Fist!"
A crimson figure, cloaked in a fiery veil like a god descending, dove from the sky— a storm of flames gathered at his right fist.
Bang! The flaming punch obliterated the tree trunk, fire roaring outward in all directions.
Spectacular to behold— but ineffective.
Ninja never lacked powerful techniques. What they lacked were techniques that could hit.
If that Fire Fist had landed, even a Kage-level ninja might not have survived. But no matter how mighty the technique, it was worthless if it never hit its mark.
"Wind Release: Gale—"
The Root jonin, leaping away, formed hand seals midair, preparing to counterattack. But before he could finish—his body froze.
Standing on the blazing remains of a tree, firelight flickering across his form, Shien looked down at him with a mocking smirk.
A trap.
That Fire Fist had been nothing but a feint— the real killing move was waiting elsewhere.
And now, the Root jonin had fallen right into it.
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