"Together!"
Kushimaru Kuriarare barked, and he and Jinpachi Munashi attacked Yuu from the left and right.
The two had been partners for many years. Ever since their genin days, they had frequently carried out missions together and knew each other's fighting styles inside and out. A single glance was enough to understand what the other intended.
Now that they were fighting side by side, their combined pressure was astonishing—far beyond something as simple as one plus one equaling two.
The surrounding Kiri ninja instinctively backed away, clearing an open space of more than a hundred square meters for their battle.
Facing the pincer attack of two members of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen,
Yuu exhaled and met them with pure swordsmanship.
At that moment, the White Fang short blade in his hand seemed to come alive, transforming into a dense curtain of blazing white light through which not even water could pass.
Slashing, chopping, thrusting, sweeping, parrying, blocking…
Even the simplest movements, when performed by Yuu, carried a faint sense of having returned to the essence of swordsmanship.
Whether in speed or power, every strike was astonishing, firmly suppressing Kushimaru and Jinpachi.
Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang—!!!
The collision of metal was as dense as torrential rain hammering against a tin roof.
From the perspective of the spectators, they could only see three figures intertwining and colliding at speeds difficult for the naked eye to follow.
Sparks and fragments of chakra continuously burst outward, accompanied by one explosion after another.
The longer Kushimaru fought, the more alarmed he became.
His Longsword: Nuibari specialized in piercing and control. Combined with the steel wire attached to the end of the blade, he could often lay traps without the opponent noticing and kill them in a single strike.
Even elite jōnin specializing in Earth Release would struggle against the wire's terrifying cutting power.
But the white-haired boy before him seemed to possess an innate sensitivity.
He could predict Kushimaru's blade trajectories and the landing points of the steel wire in advance.
Furthermore, the white-hot flames coating the short blade were terrifyingly hot. Heat traveled back along the steel wire, making Kushimaru's palms burn.
Jinpachi was having an even worse time.
He knew his swordsmanship wasn't among the best of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen, but he was certainly no mediocre fighter.
Yet against this boy, he felt completely constrained, unable to exert his strength properly.
At one point, he was reduced to using the thick body of the Explosive Blade as a shield just to withstand Yuu's continuous slashes.
As for the sword's explosive abilities…
he could barely use them at all.
With his level of strength, merely defending against Yuu's attacks was already taking everything he had.
Even when he occasionally found an opening to trigger an explosion, Yuu either calmly avoided it or blocked it with the Water Formation Wall or a Great Fire Wall.
The resulting blast waves instead interfered with Kushimaru beside him.
"Damn it… What a slippery little brat!"
Jinpachi roared.
"Do you dare fight us head-on?!"
"Heh."
A soft laugh sounded.
Then Yuu spoke, calmly offering his assessment.
"Longsword: Nuibari… not bad."
"?"
"Explosive Blade: Shibuki…"
Yuu paused.
"Complete garbage."
"?!"
Jinpachi instantly saw red.
What did he mean, Shibuki is complete garbage?!
How many years had this brat even practiced swordsmanship?!
A wet-behind-the-ears kid who had only enjoyed a little success, yet he dared speak so arrogantly before the Seven Ninja Swordsmen, whose skills had been tested by time?!
If only—
If only he could actually beat him, Jinpachi would have cut him down right then and there!
Jinpachi had always ranked relatively low among the Seven Ninja Swordsmen and was somewhat weaker than Kushimaru.
Now, enraged and impatient, his swordsmanship immediately became disorganized, and the pressure on him sharply increased.
At precisely that moment,
two soft pops sounded nearby.
Bang! Bang!
Two of Yuu's shadow clones had been destroyed under the combined assault of more than a dozen Kiri ninja.
That was perfectly normal.
Yuu had already sent a shadow clone carrying fifty percent of his chakra to the Land of Iron.
That left only half his total reserves in the original body.
Then, when he activated the Instant Prison Shadow Killing Formation, he created more than ten additional clones at once.
Each clone therefore held only around five percent of his chakra.
Clones at that level could only explode with power briefly.
They simply didn't have enough chakra to maintain prolonged combat.
Being dispersed by several times their number of Kiri ninja was completely reasonable.
Seeing this, the group of Kiri ninja breathed sighs of relief.
"What the hell? Turns out we're actually pretty strong!"
"Yeah! I thought this guy was supposed to be some monster, but a few of us killed him that quickly…"
"Sure, it was only a shadow clone, but it looks like this 'White Reaper' isn't nearly as mythical as the rumors say!"
"Hmph! Let's take this opportunity to wipe out all his clones at once and reduce the pressure on Lord Kushimaru and Lord Jinpachi!"
"…"
The Kiri ninja immediately put their words into action.
They launched fierce attacks against the remaining shadow clones, while Rin, Uchiha Inabi, and the others were temporarily pushed lower on their priority list.
On this side,
the corner of Yuu's mouth curved upward.
The instant those two shadow clones were destroyed, two consecutive notifications for the Certain Victory of the Desperate buff appeared in his vision.
And judging from the situation, it wouldn't be long before several more stacks were added.
Those Kiri ninja shouting about helping Kushimaru and Jinpachi were unknowingly helping Yuu instead.
At this moment,
after their previous exchange, Yuu had already gained a rough understanding of the level of the two Ninja Swordsmen.
His earlier comments had not been random.
They had come directly from Hatake Swordsmanship—
[Hatake Swordsmanship: Tch. This is supposed to be swordsmanship? He merely sticks explosive tags onto a blade and attacks people with explosions! Such crude methods are an insult to the very concept of "swordsmanship"! Complete garbage!]
[Hatake Swordsmanship: The guy beside him is slightly better, but still far too flashy. Seriously, is their understanding of swordsmanship really this shallow? They only know how to rely on special weapons while ignoring the essence of swordsmanship itself. They've completely abandoned the fundamentals for trivial gimmicks!]
Alright.
Yuu had to admit that Jinpachi's swordsmanship really was lacking.
Once his explosive methods became ineffective, Yuu suppressed him almost the entire time.
If Kushimaru hadn't been helping him and this had been a one-on-one fight, Jinpachi would probably already be dead.
Fortunately, Kushimaru was at least decent.
Although he also relied somewhat on the peculiar properties of Nuibari, both his strength and technique were respectable.
He should be capable of increasing the progress of The World's Greatest Swordsmanship.
"…About time."
Yuu inhaled softly.
At that moment, Kushimaru was the first to sense something wrong.
Yuu's blade seemed to become faster and heavier in an instant.
The afterimages created as the white short blade tore through the air were becoming difficult even for Kushimaru to follow.
And…
it seemed to be getting faster still!
"Careful!"
Kushimaru suddenly shouted, attempting to warn his companion.
But—
"Too late!"
Yuu shouted.
His short blade shifted.
The edge slipped through an opening in Jinpachi's swing at an almost impossible angle, cutting straight through his center line before suddenly pressing forward!
"?!"
Jinpachi's eyelid twitched.
Before he could react, the short blade flashed three times before his eyes—
three slashes in a single instant!
The first strike knocked aside the returning spine of the Explosive Blade.
Sparks erupted in a shower, and Jinpachi nearly lost his grip on the weapon.
The second slash skimmed across his ribs, sending a line of blood droplets into the air.
The armor covering Jinpachi's body was cut apart like thin paper, providing absolutely no protection.
And the third slash…
was like a streak of blazing lightning.
It aimed directly at Jinpachi's completely exposed abdomen, its momentum reaching its absolute peak!
One slash—
swift as flowing light!
The blade plunged into Jinpachi's body!
"Puh—!"
Jinpachi spat out a mouthful of blood.
His huge body was blasted backward by the violent force of the strike.
He smashed through a tree trunk as thick as a bowl before crashing to the ground.
The Explosive Blade: Shibuki flew from his hand and landed nearby.
He struggled twice but failed to rise.
At this point, he was clearly breathing out far more than he was breathing in.
"Jinpachi!"
Kushimaru was both shocked and furious.
Nuibari shot toward Yuu's back as he tried to avenge his partner.
In his desperate state, Kushimaru's swordsmanship really had become much sharper than before.
But Yuu seemed to have eyes in the back of his head.
Without even turning around, he reversed his grip and struck the side of Nuibari's tip with perfect precision, knocking it away.
Then he used the force to spin.
The White Fang short blade drew a vicious semicircle through the air.
Its blazing white flames stretched into a magnificent arc of light—
and slashed toward Kushimaru's neck!
Fast!
Faster than any previous strike!
Kushimaru didn't dare block it head-on.
He used everything he had to barely parry the attack, then activated a Water Body Flicker Technique at the final instant.
His body transformed into a pool of water and slid backward.
He reappeared more than ten meters away.
Crack—
A crisp sound rang out.
The mask covering Kushimaru's face split cleanly into two pieces and slid away.
Beneath it was a pale, sinister face filled with horror.
Pfft.
A thin line of blood appeared directly in the center of his forehead.
It traveled straight downward—
across the bridge of his nose,
his lips,
his chin,
and all the way beneath the collar at his clavicle.
It looked as though his entire body had nearly been split down the middle.
Bright-red blood slowly seeped from the wound.
"You…"
Kushimaru tried to touch his forehead.
But his movement stopped halfway.
A cluster of scorching flames suddenly erupted from the bloodline, accompanied by tadpole-like sealing symbols.
In the blink of an eye, the flames engulfed his entire body, transforming him into a burning human torch.
Only at this moment did Kushimaru finally understand, in the most direct way possible, just how terrifying the White Reaper truly was.
Swordsmanship.
Body Flicker.
Fire Release.
Water Release…
He had almost no weaknesses.
Even more suffocating was his complete control over the rhythm of battle.
From the moment the fight began, their defeat and deaths had merely been a matter of time.
The flames surged violently and swallowed Kushimaru's body.
Gradually, all sound ceased.
Across from him,
Yuu twirled his blade once and stood calmly with the sword in hand.
His gaze shifted toward empty space before him, where the galgame system displayed several notifications.
[Hatake Swordsmanship affection +2. Current affection: 99/100.]
[Special Event — "The World's Greatest Swordsmanship" Progress: 7/8.]
[Defeated: Konoha-Style Kenjutsu, Gekkō Clan Secret Swordsmanship… Kirigakure Style: Longsword Art.]
As expected, Jinpachi's swordsmanship had been outright expelled from the registry of swordsmanship and didn't count toward the event progress.
Only Kushimaru had received recognition and been added to the defeat list for The World's Greatest Swordsmanship.
Seeing the event stuck on the final sword style, leaving him just one affection point short of the maximum, Yuu felt somewhat helpless.
But all he could do was sigh and continue searching for another qualified sword style to feed Hatake Swordsmanship.
At this moment,
the sounds of fighting around them had unknowingly begun to die down.
After witnessing both members of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen fall,
the psychological defenses of the remaining Kiri ninja suffered a devastating blow.
The slight morale boost they had gained from "defeating" Yuu's shadow clones vanished instantly.
Their morale plummeted from its peak straight to the bottom.
Uchiha Inabi and the others seized the opportunity to unleash various ninjutsu and killed several distracted Kiri ninja.
"This can't be possible! Lord Kushimaru and Lord Jinpachi were so strong, and yet…"
"Run!"
"We've lost! We've lost!"
The familiar scene appeared once again.
The Kiri ninja looked at one another, then began shouting in panic.
Once a few of them fled first, the rest followed, rushing toward the nearest forest.
In their minds, no matter how powerful Yuu was, surely he couldn't chase down dozens of them and capture everyone, right?
Even if it were dozens of pigs running in different directions, it would still take time to catch them all.
As long as they ran faster than the person beside them, that was enough.
And in reality…
Yuu had no intention of chasing them.
He merely released a casual Great Dragon Fire Technique, blasting several Kiri ninja who had clustered together into the nearby forest.
Watching flames rise violently in that direction, he then called back Inabi and the others, who were preparing to pursue.
"Come back, Inabi, Tekka, and Rin.
"Do not pursue a desperate enemy.
"These people are merely defeated remnants. There's no need to bother with them."
"'Do not pursue a desperate enemy'…"
Inabi's eyes lit up.
"That's right! As expected of Captain Yuu! I need to write that one down!"
Without even bothering to treat his injuries first, Uchiha Inabi immediately pulled out his little notebook and began recording it.
"…"
Yuu was genuinely speechless.
Seriously?
Was the Uchiha clan collectively illiterate?
Had they never learned idioms?
Did something like that really need to be written down?
Oh…
Thinking about it carefully, maybe they actually hadn't.
Even among children graduating from the Ninja Academy every year, plenty were practically illiterate beyond being able to read and write basic words.
Ordinary Uchiha who had never attended the Academy and instead studied at home were probably even worse.
They might not even know what the phrase a disorderly mob meant.
If the average education level in the ninja world had been just a little higher, they probably wouldn't have ended up with jokes like—
"thinking like a Hokage at seven years old,"
only to eventually wipe out their entire clan themselves…
"Everyone worked hard in that battle."
Yuu took out a pouch of military ration pills.
He swallowed two himself, then tossed the remaining half of the pouch toward Inabi and the others.
"Rest here for ten minutes.
"After that, bring the bodies of those two with us and head to the next battlefield.
"Tonight's fighting has only just begun."
He lifted his chin toward the corpses of Kushimaru Kuriarare and Jinpachi Munashi.
Thinking about it,
Yuu had nearly farmed his way through the entire Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist.
Only the wielders of the Blunt Sword: Kabutowari and the Twin Swords: Hiramekarei had yet to cross his path.
Hopefully,
those two would bring him a pleasant surprise…
~~~
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