The paper spear slammed into the rock wall, leaving behind countless honeycomb-like craters. The battered wall trembled, on the verge of collapse, seemingly unable to withstand Konan's next assault. But just before her new wave of saturation bombing began, the Iwa-nin hiding behind the rock wall finally made their move.
"Water Release: Water Trumpet Technique!"
The caster was a jōnin born with dual affinities for water and earth. Standing atop the rock wall, he opened his mouth and spat out a cone-shaped blast of water at Konan, who was hovering in midair.
As expected—
Konan's body scattered into sheets of white paper, effortlessly evading an attack that had no chance of harming her.
But the next strike immediately followed.
"Earth Release: Rock Gun Technique!"
Another Iwa jōnin unleashed a technique frequently used by Kyoichi. This earth release jutsu was considered one of the most practical offensive earth techniques in Iwagakure: its single-target power was decent, the chakra cost minimal, and when executed in unison by multiple users, its might rivaled that of the high-level Earth Release: Earth Dragon Bullet.
However—
This was still nothing more than a straightforward physical attack, incapable of injuring Konan.
Using such a jutsu… the purpose was obvious: to restrain her, to draw her focus elsewhere.
"Cover fire?"
Konan muttered to herself, her wariness surging.
Though she had held the advantage so far, the truth was that she had yet to achieve any concrete results—not like Kyoichi, who had sacrificed all of his earth clones to annihilate the enemy's sensory ninja.
Konan, up to this point, had not so much as wounded a single Iwa shinobi.
Their caution lay in the nature of her Dance of the Shikigami, which rendered her immune to physical strikes. Unable to break through, they had settled for evasion and attrition.
But now—
The Iwa-nin had suddenly begun their counterattack.
Could it be… they had discovered a weakness in her Dance of the Shikigami?
The thought surfaced in Konan's mind against her will. Her sharp gaze swept the battlefield, but nothing seemed amiss—only the Iwa shinobi pouring chakra into wave after wave of relentless jutsu from atop the crumbling wall.
"Water Release: Water Trumpet Technique!"
"Earth Release: Rock Gun Technique!"
The same sequence, repeated without even a hint of change.
It might not hurt her, but it wasn't useless either. Such barrages hindered her movements; if her body was scattered into paper, she couldn't launch a counterattack until she reformed into human shape.
Just then—
Slate's figure suddenly emerged from the earth below.
"So, you're coming from underground after all?"
Konan, ever vigilant, wasn't surprised by his appearance. Earth-style subterranean movement was the Iwa shinobi's specialty. If no enemy had appeared on the surface, it could only mean they had tunneled beneath.
But even so—what difference did that make?
Konan, with her mastery of flight, had no fear of underground assaults. Far from waiting passively, she preferred to strike first. She had no habit of holding back for the sake of "experience"—after so many battles alongside Ame shinobi, the members of Akatsuki had naturally adopted Ame's ruthless fighting style.
"Dance of the Shikigami: Paper Chakram."
Konan raised her hand and pointed downward.
Sheets of paper whirled around her, forming into a massive circular saw that spun at high speed under her chakra's control. Cutting a graceful arc through the air, it slipped past the enemy's suppressive fire and came crashing down upon Itaichi.
The Iwa shinobi who surfaced paid no heed to her above, nor even to the descending paper chakram. Instead, his hands moved swiftly through a string of seals.
The next moment—
The chakram sliced him cleanly in half.
But no blood spilled. His body dissolved into mud and splattered across the ground.
It was only a mud clone.
And just before it was cleaved apart—
The jutsu succeeded.
"Earth Release: Moving Earth Core!"
As the clone collapsed into sludge, the ground below Konan rumbled. A massive, square pillar of stone suddenly burst upward, ramming toward her. Because she had just committed her chakra to the paper chakram, she failed to evade in time—her paper form was scattered apart.
When she reformed, the rock pillar had already reached her.
Then—
A shadow shot out from inside the rising stone column.
"Paper Shield!"
Konan raised her hand. From her sleeve poured a flood of white paper, layering instantly into a massive, sturdy barrier. Her eyes flashed cold and bright.
The same trick?
Don't think it will work twice.
Last time, that Iwa ANBU had caught her off guard. Had he known the details of her jutsu then, she might well have fallen into that crater. This situation looked different, but in essence it was the same tactic—coordinating to deliver one assassin into her guard for a killing blow.
This time, however, she was prepared. She didn't rely on the intangible nature of her paper form to gamble against an unknown attack. Instead, she raised her shield.
And in the next instant—
The spiky-haired youth burst from the stone, expression blank, and drove his fist into the paper barrier.
Explosion Release: Landmine Fist!
"BOOM!!"
A blinding flash of fire.
A thunderous blast split the skies, as if dozens of explosive tags had detonated at once.
Thick black smoke spread, clinging stubbornly to the rain.
Then—
A figure shot from the smoke like a cannonball, crashing into the muddy ground below.
"We got her!"
Slate's true body shouted, his excitement flaring—though not for long. In less than a heartbeat, he was sprinting toward the fallen "prize." Even if no one had ever survived the Landmine Fist, even a corpse was valuable.
That forbidden technique—the secret that turned a body into paper and made it immune to physical strikes—was priceless. If its secrets could be extracted from a corpse, the achievement would rival, perhaps even surpass, the eradication of the Koeda Clan traitors.
But—
When Slate reached the body lying in the mud, his eyes went wide in shock.
"Shen…?"
He muttered in disbelief.
For the one sprawled in the muck was not the blue-violet-haired woman—
It was Shen, the wielder of Explosion Release, an elite of Iwagakure's "Demolition Unit"… and Slate's own comrade.