'Let's see if the other two chase. My "old friend" Dodai and Unruly Ay, son of the Third Raikage himself.'
'Taking the latter out will put an even bigger target on my back, not to mention derail the plot completely." Shiki evaluated.
"Too bad for him that I can't be bothered to give a crap about either of those things." The boy thought out loud.
Soon, he arrived at Mei's location, the shadow clone he sent with her had long dispelled itself to return him its chakra, signaling Mei that he had ambushed the Kumo squad so she would be ready for what would likely follow.
"Shiki! How did it go?" The bespectacled girl inquired.
"Got the two weakest ones,collected their corpses too so it's highly unlikely they won't choose to come for us." The boy replied.
"Nicely done. What are we dealing with besides the rubber wielding jonin?" The Uchiha asked.
"The son of the Third Raikage, his fighting style should be similar to Zee which we faced but with a lower output owing to his younger age, he's still a jonin level threat however." Shiki explained.
"Should we divide and conquer or go for a two vs two?" Mei continued to ask.
"Two vs Two. I'll handle the frontline, I need to focus on Ay, the Raikage's kid, since he is a bit too fast so your job is to check Dodai so he can't attack me from the side for free, we'll focus the traps on him and go for the kill while trying to capture Ay alive afterwards." The boy planned.
His teammate nodded in understanding.
"Inori sensei should be coming with your shadow clone by now right?" She inquired.
"Probably. We'll retreat in the direction of the city to meet up with sensei if things go south with the ambush." Shiki replied.
He then stilled for a moment.
"They're coming. Get ready." The boy spoke and a tense silence settled in as the pair took up positions in preparation for the coming battle.
*
"Get ready Ay. They're waiting for us and have traps at the ready for sure. Ryumon Shiki is sure to possess significant fuinjutsu resources given by Uzumaki Mito and is likely skilled in the art as well, at least somewhat, so the traps will be more dangerous than the standard." Dodai warned.
"Understood. I'll engage him, keeping that brat busy with my speed so sensei can take out his companion then we'll take him down together. The charge will begin after sensei's first attack." Ay repeated the battle plan, showing he had interiorized it.
"That's right." The Kumo Elite Jonin nodded and readied his jutsu.
'Fire Release: Flaming Hail'
Countless arrows of fire formed in the sky above Dodai and fell upon the rocky area like burning rain.
Although the jutsu was underpowered, it covered an extremely wide area and would set fire to ground where it struck, creating stage hazards.
It was to flush out the Konoha pair from their hiding spots.
In part, it was successful.
'Water Release: Hail'
Having trained her Water Release to a much more respectable level since her last encounter with Kumo, Mei responded with the water equivalent of Dodai's Jutsu.
Normally, the technique would create countless large orbs of water that would rain down on the targets over a large area but the Uchiha just kept them suspended mid air to block the flame arrows.
Water and fire clashed in a flashy display of ninjutsu, creating a massive amount of steam mist above the battlefield.
The bespectacled girl's mastery over Water Release was inferior to Dodai's mastery of Fire Release but the elemental advantage somewhat closed the gap.
Her position however, was revealed.
But before the Kumo pair could take advantage.
'Water Release: Hiding in Mist'
Using the steam generated by the earlier clash to his advantage, Shiki deployed his jutsu much faster than usual, blanketing the area with chakra dense mist and with his potent, midnight blue void chakra, it could even interfere with regular sensory jutsu . . . Such as Dodai's.
Mei took up the high ground while hiding in the mist, the three tomoe of her sharingan converging in the center of her eye before blooming into a four petaled back flower pattern.
She had no intention of using her chakra guzzling magekyo jutsu but the enhanced perception enabled her to nearly ignore the mist.
Shiki hid his presence and prepared the first wave of attacks.
'Assault Storage: Shadow Hand'
Countless chakra enhanced shuriken whirled through the air in a deadly storm of steel.
The boy's improvement in chakra rotation allowed the shuriken to not only spin much faster with far greater slicing power but also making their trajectories much easier to control.
In an instant, Shiki expertly controlled the thrown weapons to surround both Kumo shinobi.
Needless to say, the whirling storm of death did not go by unnoticed and defensive measures followed.
Ay's Lightning Chakra Mode flared with increased power, deflecting the oncoming shuriken with ease, once again reminding Shiki how bothersome wielders of that jutsu were.
"Paltry tricks!" He shouted in provocation.
The Third Raikage could even use it to tank a S rank jutsu like the Wind Release: Rasenshuriken which had the elemental advantage.
'Damn cheat technique.' The boy thought but his movements were not delayed.
Making a two fingered gun gesture at the confident Ay . . .
'Rasendan'
A compressed rasengan bullet was launched at high speed at the Kumo teenager and while its power was nowhere near a Rasenshuriken, Ay's lightning cloak was nowhere near his father's either.
On contact with the lightning defense, the Rasendan bored through it with its spiral motion.
Ay's bravado gave way to panic as he furiously channeled his chakra into the Lightning Cloak for defense.
After a brief pushing contest, it seemed he was about to successfully guard against Shiki's jutsu when the highly compressed rasendan burst, forcefully ripping apart the lightning defence and sending Ay flying.
'Went through but most of the impact was dissipated.' The white haired boy evaluated.
As expected, Ay flipped mid air, righting his posture as blood seeped through his clenched teeth.
Gritting through the ache from the shock to his internal organs, the Kumo teenager re-activated his Lightning Chakra Mode and went on the offensive.
*
On the other side, things were going swimmingly for Mei who was having an unexpectedly easy time pinning down Dodai and preventing him from going to help Ay.
The reason was twofold.
For one, Dodai was gunning for her and thus made no attempt to rush towards the other battle and second, the perception disadvantage was severely limiting his options.
On her end, Mei originally intended to not let the Kumo pair split the battlefield into two one vs ones as per the plan she agreed upon with Shiki but with things going so well, she decided not to follow the script.
Such adaptability was a very important asset on the battlefield.
When surrounded by Shiki's initial enhanced shuriken barrage, Dodai immediately covered himself with his Lava Release: Rubber Ball Jutsu, an incredibly effective defence.
But Rubber Jutsu had a weakness.
Rubber could melt with extreme heat . . . And Dodai was currently facing an Uchiha.
'Fire Release: Dragon Fire Jet'
Mei's original variation of the standard Dragon Fire, developed with Shiki's suggestion to further focus the power of the Dragon Fire Jutsu into a thin line of compressed flame.
Focused white hot fire instantly burned a small hole through Dodai's rubber ball and nearly ended the unprepared Kumo shinobi.
Alas, even with the mist interfering with his sensory abilities, a large flare of fire chakra, a weakness he was aware of, allowed Dodai to barely dodge in time.
Shifting her position after each attack to prevent her opponent from grasping her location, Mei continued to harass him from medium range with efficient, well aimed fire jutsu, dragging out the battle without burning through too much chakra.
With Dodai temporarily pinned, Shiki had free reign to handle Ay . . .
+++++
Hey, Author here!
To promote the novel I will be releasing BONUS CHAPTERS on SUNDAYS based on the previous week's power stone count.
100 Power Stones = 1 Bonus Chapter
500 Power Stones = 2 Bonus Chapters
1000 Power Stones = 3 Bonus Chapters
Every earned BONUS CHAPTER on Webnovel will also be posted on Scribble.
Just a reminder that you can read up to a FULL MONTH ahead of this site on pa-treon.
I'm trying to become a full time Author now and I'm not going to be starting any new novels just so I can make sure this one is properly completed.
Find those sweet advanced chapters on pa-treon.com/lusoba without the -