Chapter 8: A Lesson in the Wild
"Well then, come on..." Uchiha Naoki grinned, a sharp, challenging light in his eyes. "Let me see if you have what it takes to claim my life!"
As the words left his mouth, his eyes swirled into a deep crimson, two tomoe spinning ominously in each pupil. The auras of the two men before him were solidly at the Jonin level; carelessness was not an option.
"Fire Release—" he began, his hands moving to form a seal.
But before he could complete it, the green-haired man vanished in a crackle of lightning, reappearing directly in front of him in an instant. A volley of poisoned senbon shot from the man's sleeve, the attack seamless and blindingly fast.
"So fast!" Naoki thought, a thread of genuine admiration cutting through his focus. "They're elites who have survived the harshness of the ninja world. I truly can't underestimate them."
He backpedaled swiftly, his own kunai flashing to deflect the senbon. But then he saw the green-haired man's lips curl into a triumphant smile.
"Hey, die!"
The one-eyed man's voice growled from directly behind Naoki. He had perfectly cut off Naoki's escape route. His hands finished a sequence of seals and he slammed his palms forward. "Wind Release: Wind Cutter!"
Several sharp, nearly invisible blades of compressed air shot toward Naoki's back. There was no space, no time to dodge.
Swish! Thud!
The wind blades struck true, tearing through his cloak and into the flesh beneath.
"Is this… the end?" a hidden onlooker whispered, disbelief in his voice.
"Impossible. Is this really the level of an S-Rank rogue ninja?" another muttered, frowning at Naoki's seemingly grievously wounded form. None of them dared intervene; the one-eyed man and the green-haired man were the most notorious bounty hunters in the area, known for their brutality and efficiency. Crossing them was a death sentence.
Even the one-eyed man himself frowned, taking a cautious step back. Their combination attack was lethal, enough to wound or even kill a standard Jonin. But an S-Rank rogue ninja from Konoha? It couldn't possibly be this simple to finish one off.
"Confident to the end… No wonder you dared to chase me so directly. You really are something else."
The voice came from Uchiha Naoki, whose torn body should have been collapsing. Instead, his skin flushed an angry, deep red. The wounds didn't bleed; instead, they glowed with an intense, inner heat. Hot, gurgling magma dripped from the gashes, and the torn flesh knitted itself back together seamlessly before their eyes.
"?!!"
A collective gasp of shock rippled through the clearing, both from the visible attackers and the hidden watchers.
"His body turned into lava?! What kind of ability is that?"
"Lava Release? No… that's impossible! Lava Release doesn't do that!"
The green-haired man's face paled, his expression shifting from triumph to extreme wariness. "So, this is how a kid like you became an S-Rank rogue?" he muttered, the lightning around his body crackling and intensifying until he was sheathed in a brilliant, chaotic aura.
"Together, now!" he barked at the one-eyed man.
He transformed into a bolt of lightning once more, appearing before Naoki. "Lightning Fist!" he roared, swinging a fist wreathed in rolling, destructive thunder, a force capable of shattering solid steel.
Naoki was forced to leap backward, but the one-eyed man was already there, precisely where he would land, having perfectly cut off his retreat. The long sword in the one-eyed man's hand hummed with sharp, wind-nature chakra, the air itself seeming to part before its edge. The pressure from the blade made Naoki's skin prickle.
"It seems Uchiha Naoki is still going to lose," the hidden onlookers thought, seeing the pincer attack. Even if he managed to parry the sword, the green-haired man's thunderous follow-up would be unavoidable, giving him no room to breathe or activate his strange ability.
And that's exactly how it seemed to unfold. Naoki twisted his body, his own kunai barely deflecting the one-eyed man's lethal thrust. But the move left him off-balance, with no time to recover before the green-haired man closed in from behind.
Yet, before the green-haired man could strike, Uchiha Naoki's entire body erupted in flames. Gushing lava sprayed out in a wide, defensive arc, forcing the green-haired man to abort his attack and retreat hastily.
Hiss!!
The green-haired man's pupils contracted violently as he scrambled back, his mind reeling. "How is this possible?! He saw through my movement?!" This tactic had even wounded the "Copy Ninja" Hatake Kakashi, a Sharingan user with three tomoe! How could this boy with only two tomoe possess such terrifying insight?
"You… still have the mind to be distracted right now?"
While he was stunned, Uchiha Naoki's cold voice cut through the air. "Hound Dog, Chase the Red Lotus!"
His arm, now completely molten, suddenly elongated and morphed into the shape of a snarling dog's head. It shot through the intervening space in the blink of an eye, its maw opening wide before the green-haired man.
"How… so fast?!" The green-haired man's hair stood on end. The scorching heat distorted his vision, and there was no time to dodge.
"Damn it, don't look down on me!" He roared, and a dazzling shell of lightning erupted from his body. "The 'Lightning Armor' I learned from the Cloud Ninjas is no weak defense!"
BOOM!
Lava collided with lightning in a spectacular explosion of elemental fury.
But the result was brutally one-sided.
Before any of the hidden watchers could even process the clash, the scene was clear. The green-haired man, encased in his crackling armor, had been completely overwhelmed by the wave of magma. A single, agonized wail was cut short as the lava dissipated, leaving behind nothing but a scorched, broken corpse on the blackened earth.
Hiss!!!
The entire exchange had happened in a flash. The result was utterly appalling.
"No way… His defense could withstand a direct hit from a Jonin! How could he be killed so easily?!"
"And his speed… Uchiha Naoki predicted his every move perfectly. How terrifying is his insight?!"
The hidden observers felt a cold chill run down their spines. Several, sensing the dire turn of events, immediately melted back into the forest, abandoning any thought of the bounty. Staying any longer was an invitation to die.
"Now it's your turn!"
Uchiha Naoki didn't pause for a second. He turned his ferocious gaze upon the one-eyed man, who was still frozen in shock at his partner's instantaneous death.
"Great Eruption!"
It was like a miniature sun had descended. The terrifying magma coalesced into a colossal fist and swept toward the one-eyed man with overwhelming force.
Whoosh!
Terror finally overriding his shock, the one-eyed man didn't dare to block it. He threw himself backward in a desperate retreat.
But as he moved, he saw the corner of Uchiha Naoki's mouth twitch upward. A bad feeling clenched in his gut.
RUMBLE!
The ground where he was about to land trembled and then split open, a geyser of crimson lava erupting violently from the fissure.
"Not good!" There was no way to dodge mid-air!
"Substitution Jutsu!"
Under the imminent threat of death, his reflexes surpassed their limits. In the nick of time, he replaced himself with a nearby log, narrowly avoiding the fiery geyser.
Poof! He reappeared a short distance away, his single eye wide with disbelief and panic.
Because waiting for him, already in motion, was Uchiha Naoki. In his vision, a scorching, magma-covered arm rapidly filled his sight, ruthlessly piercing through his chest before he could even take a breath.
Guh…!
He stared at Uchiha Naoki, his eye bulging with sheer unwillingness. "Why…" he gurgled, blood filling his mouth, "…can you predict… my… actions…?"
It was the question on every surviving watcher's mind. Naoki had locked onto the one-eyed man's substitution landing point with unerring accuracy, as if the man had thrown himself directly onto his waiting fist. Just as he had predicted the green-haired man's movements earlier, interrupting his offense with ease.
It was like he knew exactly what they were going to do next.
Since when did a two-tomoe Sharingan possess such a god-like ability?