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The originally dim warehouse suddenly blazed with light, every corner now sharp and clear.
But the scene that met Taiichi and Yohei's eyes nearly drove them insane.
Saori stood right in front of Taiichi, shielding him. Kazema's kunai was buried deep in her right chest. From the angle, that blade had clearly been aimed at Taiichi's heart.
When Kazema saw them looking, the timid mask he'd worn for months vanished. His face twisted into pure contempt and mockery as he stared right back.
"You're dead!" Taiichi's eyes turned bloodshot. Teeth grinding, he lunged straight at Kazema.
But Kazema had clearly planned for this. He shoved the limp Saori toward Taiichi and instantly retreated, covering the distance to the doorway in just a few steps—straight into the waiting Cloud ninjas.
Taiichi didn't have time to worry about anything else. He caught Saori and checked her wound—her right lung was punctured. She needed treatment immediately.
"You idiot! That kind of attack couldn't even scratch me! Why the hell did you jump in front?!" Taiichi kept cursing under his breath, but his hands were already glowing with thick green healing chakra as he pressed them over her injury.
"My body… just… moved on its own…" Saori's face was twisted in pain. She coughed up blood between every word. "Sorry…"
"Stop talking! Just stop!" Taiichi clamped a hand over her mouth. "Don't worry—I've got you. You're going to be fine!"
Beside them, Yohei's eyes were wide with fury. His three-tomoe Sharingan spun so fast the tomoe nearly merged into one ring. He glared at the approaching Cloud ninjas but didn't move recklessly, staying planted in front of Taiichi like a wall.
"You're a spy too!" Taiichi forced the words through clenched teeth, each syllable dripping with venom.
"Haha! Captain Taiichi, no need to get so worked up. We're all just doing our jobs for our villages!" Kazema's voice was completely different now—arrogant, smug, the voice of a man who'd been waiting for this moment.
"How do you like the trap? We put in a lot of effort just for you three!"
"You really think a few of you can stop us?" Taiichi didn't even bother hiding his disdain. Two Jonin? They actually believed that was enough to pin him down?
"We know exactly what you can do, Matsushita Taiichi!" One of the Cloud Jonin finally spoke. "You killed Senior Zi Yina. Just us? Maybe not enough. But—"
A massive wave of chakra erupted from every direction. Taiichi's senses picked it up instantly—a gigantic barrier had sealed the entire island. Three more Jonin and eight Chunin stepped into the warehouse.
"Well? Matsushita Taiichi, with your sensory ability you should already feel it. The whole island is locked down. You're finished."
"A barrier… So that's how you hid from my sensing." Taiichi's lips curled in contempt. "Cowards who only know how to hide and scheme. You don't even have the guts to fight me face-to-face!"
His words were vicious. Several Cloud ninjas looked ready to explode, but their leader held them back. He glanced at the wound on Saori's chest—the puncture had stopped bleeding heavily, but it was still bad. At least it would keep draining Taiichi's chakra for a while longer.
"Keep running your mouth while you still can. We'll show you what we can do soon enough."
Taiichi could see exactly what they were waiting for. Since they weren't attacking, he focused entirely on healing Saori.
The warehouse fell into an eerie, tense silence.
Five minutes later, Taiichi felt Saori's condition stabilize. Without hesitation, he formed a seal. Two Shadow Clones appeared, each carrying nearly all of his remaining chakra. They took Saori and immediately retreated toward the back of the warehouse.
At the same time, Taiichi dumped one attribute point straight into Constitution. His chakra and stamina instantly refilled.
He didn't bother pretending with hand seals anymore. A Fire Dragon Flame Bullet roared out, cutting off the Cloud ninjas' path forward.
"Yohei, stick with my clones and get Saori to the edge of the barrier!"
With that order, Taiichi gripped his short sword and stepped forward.
"Taiichi!" Yohei called out from behind, voice tight with worry. "Be careful!"
He fell in beside the clones, covering Saori as they blasted a hole through the warehouse wall with a Great Fireball and raced toward the island's shore.
The Cloud side realized the danger the moment the Shadow Clones appeared. They never expected Leaf ninjas to counterattack so aggressively.
Before they could pursue, Taiichi's Fire Dragon Flame Bullet slammed down, splitting the battlefield in half.
"Take out Matsushita Taiichi first! Then we'll hunt the others!" the Cloud leader ordered.
But before anyone could answer, a figure walked straight out of the flames.
Golden fire licked along the edge of his short sword. One casual downward slash cut a Chunin—and the weapon he tried to block with—clean in two.
"Idiots! Didn't I warn you to coat your weapons in chakra?! Are your brains just for decoration?!" the Cloud leader roared in fury, charging Taiichi first.
Taiichi had zero interest in trading blows. Phoenix Flower fireballs formed around him instantly and rained down on the incoming Jonin like machine-gun fire.
Meanwhile, he used his insane Body Flicker speed to close in on any isolated Chunin.
Slash. Slash.
Any Chunin he reached died in two moves—sword work to pin them, then Phoenix Flower straight to the face.
"Damn it! All Chunin, group up on the Jonin! Long-range support only!" the Cloud leader barked.
The moment their formation changed, Taiichi's pressure eased. Facing attacks from every direction, he stopped pushing for close kills and switched to hit-and-run tactics, flinging golden flames everywhere until the entire warehouse was a sea of fire.
"Pull back! We can't stay in here!"
But Taiichi wasn't about to let them escape so easily. He flickered after the slowest group and unleashed a horizontal flame slash.
"Running? Did you ask me first?"
The two Jonin and one Chunin reacted differently—one leaped high, one dropped low. The last Chunin, too slow to think, tried to block the slash head-on.
Clang!
He actually stopped the blade wave… but the golden flames riding it splashed across his body like liquid.
That fire could melt steel in an instant.
"AAAAAHHH!"
The Chunin's scream was cut short as half his body ignited. He rolled on the ground in agony, but the sea of flames surged over him. The warehouse collapsed right after, burying everything inside.
The surviving Cloud ninjas regrouped outside, faces grim. In just a few minutes they had lost four more Chunin. Humiliating.
"Head for the shore! Cloud Water, Cloud Mist—use your Water Style to suppress his Fire Style! The rest of you Chunin provide support. Jonin, stay on him in close combat!"
Boom.
The warehouse completely collapsed behind them. Taiichi stepped out of the rubble, walking straight toward the Cloud ninjas. He looked at them with open scorn, short sword pointed forward.
"Worthless trash. Got the guts to come at me or not?"
"Matsushita Taiichi, you're strong, I'll give you that. But how much chakra can you possibly have left after all those big jutsu?" the Cloud leader shot back, deliberately pointing out the flaw in Taiichi's fighting style to rattle him and remind his own men.
"Too much talking. If you won't come to me, I'll come to you!" Taiichi slammed his foot down and shot forward like an arrow. Another attribute point went into Constitution. Chakra and stamina topped off instantly.
"Go!" The Cloud leader sprinted toward the sea, flinging explosive-tagged kunai behind him to slow Taiichi down.
The island was tiny. In just a few breaths they reached the shoreline.
Three Jonin immediately moved to intercept Taiichi.
The Chunin spread out, preparing long-range support.
The last two Jonin stood on the water's surface and began forming seals.
Taiichi saw the setup and knew this fight was about to get ugly. But he wasn't afraid. A battle of attrition? He had never been scared of those.
He formed two Shadow Clones and sent them left and right to hunt the Chunin.
But the Cloud Jonin were being extra cautious now. Two of them immediately peeled off to engage the clones.
Close combat erupted. Taiichi went straight for the kill, refusing to defend. The Jonin, knowing Taiichi's style from Kazema's intel, refused to trade blows and focused purely on stalling.
At that exact moment, the two Jonin on the water finished their jutsu.
Water Style: Waterfall Rushing Wave ×2
The sea surged around them. In the blink of an eye the water level rose more than thirty feet, forming two massive walls that crashed toward Taiichi.
"Matsushita Taiichi! You're so proud of your Fire Style? Let's see how you like it underwater!" They poured even more chakra into the technique, clearly willing to die if it meant dragging him under.
Taiichi wasn't about to play nice. Every slash was lethal. Even though the Jonin was dodging with everything he had, Taiichi still managed to sever one of his arms before the waves arrived.
The one-armed Jonin kept grinning through the pain, stalling until the very last second—right up to the moment Taiichi was swallowed by the crashing water.
The Cloud ninjas finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Underwater, Taiichi's lips curled into a cold smile. Without hesitation, he dumped one skill point into Water Nature Transformation.
Instantly, a flood of water-style insights and techniques poured into his mind. Water Nature Transformation instantly hit Lv11.
Hands flew through seals.
Water Style: Great Water Prison Technique.
The water around him suddenly calmed. Two liquid arms shot forward, catching the one-armed Jonin in the blink of an eye. The water closed around him, forming a massive sphere.
Taiichi willed it upward. The enormous water prison rose to the surface, carrying both him and the trapped Jonin.
The entire island was now flooded. Cloud ninjas stood scattered across the water, staring in stunned silence at the giant prison.
"Damn it! What kind of intel was that?! You didn't even know he could use Water Style?!" the Cloud leader roared at Kazema.
Kazema looked helpless. He had been with the squad for months and had never once seen Taiichi use any powerful Water Style.
Taiichi stared coldly at the arguing Cloud ninjas. He thrust his right hand forward and clenched his fist.
The gesture was so menacing the Cloud ninjas reacted instantly—some launching jutsu, others charging in close. But Taiichi was faster. He flickered around the sphere, dodging while maintaining control.
The once-still water prison suddenly began spinning and compressing. Inside, countless water blades and violent currents tore at the trapped Jonin.
The one-armed man was tossed around like a rag doll. The blades sliced deeper and deeper. Finally, with a sickening crunch, his chest caved in. He was dead.
By now the five-meter-wide sphere had been crushed down to barely three meters—and it was still shrinking.
The Cloud leader, the most experienced of them all, realized the danger first. "Fall back! Fall back! That sphere is about to explode!"
He was right. The moment the Cloud ninjas started retreating, Taiichi knew he couldn't wait any longer. He changed his seals. The Great Water Prison Technique transformed into Wild Water Wave.
For one brief second everything froze.
Then thousands of water arrows exploded outward from the sphere, blanketing a twenty-meter radius in an instant.
The closest target—Taiichi himself—was instantly pierced by at least ten arrows. But with his chakra reserves still full, he activated Fire Body and burned through the damage at the cost of massive chakra.
Another attribute point spent, and Taiichi finally looked at the battlefield.
Four more Chunin corpses floated in the distance. The Cloud leader's left leg had been skewered. Further out, a collapsing wall of water revealed three unharmed Jonin and two Chunin.
Taiichi let out a small sigh. One attribute point for four Chunin. Not the best trade.
The Cloud side was starting to panic. They had already lost one Jonin and eight Chunin, yet Taiichi still looked fresh—no sign of chakra exhaustion at all.
When Taiichi took one step forward, every Cloud ninja instinctively took one step back. Their morale plummeted.
The Cloud leader was trapped between a rock and a hard place. He could only grit his teeth and shout, "Today it's either him or us! Don't forget—the barrier has us all trapped here. The fight doesn't end until one side is dead!"
The words worked like a shot of adrenaline. Morale surged. The leader quickly assigned roles: he and the other Jonin would engage Taiichi up close, while the Chunin provided support.
On the other side of the island, Taiichi's Shadow Clone had just finished healing Saori.
One clone had already dispelled from chakra exhaustion, but the treatment had worked. Saori's chest wound was now just a scar. The life-threatening injury was gone.
Yohei paced anxiously, glancing between Saori and the distant battlefield.
"Taiichi, how much longer? I don't know how long he can hold out over there!"
"Almost… almost there! Just a little more!" The clone kept working, knowing the real Taiichi had trump cards, but still wanting to free Yohei to help as soon as possible.
Ten minutes later, the last trace of Saori's wound vanished. The clone lowered his hands. Aside from being a little pale, Saori looked completely normal.
Seeing the treatment complete, Yohei crouched down. "Saori… how do you feel?"
"Fine!" Saori used the clone's arm to stand. "Feels like I just died once."
"Then—let's go help Taiichi right now. He's facing a lot of enemies." Yohei was already itching to move.
"Go ahead. But be careful—the fighting over there is intense." The clone nodded, then—poof—dispelled as its chakra ran out.
With permission granted, the fire in Yohei's eyes roared back to life. His three tomoe spun faster.
Beside him, Saori popped one of Taiichi's special soldier pills into her mouth.
The two of them finished preparing and sprinted toward the battlefield.
Back on the other side of the island, the memories from the dispelled clone flooded Taiichi's mind. Saori was safe. Yohei and Saori were on their way. The stalemate was finally about to break.
Up until now the Cloud ninjas had been caught off guard by Taiichi's ever-changing tactics and had lost so many people.
But once they switched to a slow, grinding war of attrition, they actually managed to stall him. Their only goal was to drain his chakra.
They refused to believe Matsushita Taiichi's reserves could rival a Tailed Beast.
They were right—Taiichi's chakra was running low again. He had been using jutsu at a much higher frequency than they were.
But they forgot one thing: Taiichi could cheat.
Just moments ago he had spent two more attribute points.
Now it wasn't a question of whether Taiichi had enough chakra. The Cloud side was the one running dry. Even the two Jonin on the water—Cloud Water and Cloud Mist—had drawn their kunai and joined the close-quarters fight.
Taiichi glanced at the exhausted Cloud ninjas, then took one deliberate step forward.
The entire group instinctively took one step back. Their morale crumbled even further.
The Cloud leader was out of options. He could only grit his teeth and roar, "Today it's either him or us! Don't forget—the barrier has us all trapped here. The fight doesn't end until one side is dead!"
The words worked like a shot of adrenaline. Morale surged. The leader quickly assigned roles: he and the other Jonin would engage Taiichi up close, while the Chunin provided support.
On the other side of the island, Taiichi's Shadow Clone had just finished healing Saori.
One clone had already dispelled from chakra exhaustion, but the treatment had worked. Saori's chest wound was now just a scar. The life-threatening injury was gone.
Yohei paced anxiously, glancing between Saori and the distant battlefield.
"Taiichi, how much longer? I don't know how long he can hold out over there!"
"Almost… almost there! Just a little more!" The clone kept working, knowing the real Taiichi had trump cards, but still wanting to free Yohei to help as soon as possible.
Ten minutes later, the last trace of Saori's wound vanished. The clone lowered his hands. Aside from being a little pale, Saori looked completely normal.
Seeing the treatment complete, Yohei crouched down. "Saori… how do you feel?"
"Fine!" Saori used the clone's arm to stand. "Feels like I just died once."
"Then—let's go help Taiichi right now. He's facing a lot of enemies." Yohei was already itching to move.
"Go ahead. But be careful—the fighting over there is intense." The clone nodded, then—poof—dispelled as its chakra ran out.
With permission granted, the fire in Yohei's eyes roared back to life. His three tomoe spun faster.
Beside him, Saori popped one of Taiichi's special soldier pills into her mouth.
The two of them finished preparing and sprinted toward the battlefield.
Back on the other side of the island, the memories from the dispelled clone flooded Taiichi's mind. Saori was safe. Yohei and Saori were on their way. The stalemate was finally about to break.
Up until now the Cloud ninjas had been caught off guard by Taiichi's ever-changing tactics and had lost so many people.
But once they switched to a slow, grinding war of attrition, they actually managed to stall him. Their only goal was to drain his chakra.
They refused to believe Matsushita Taiichi's reserves could rival a Tailed Beast.
They were right—Taiichi's chakra was running low again. He had been using jutsu at a much higher frequency than they were.
But they forgot one thing: Taiichi could cheat.
Just moments ago he had spent two more attribute points.
Now it wasn't a question of whether Taiichi had enough chakra. The Cloud side was the one running dry. Even the two Jonin on the water—Cloud Water and Cloud Mist—had drawn their kunai and joined the close-quarters fight.
Taiichi glanced at the exhausted Cloud ninjas, then took one deliberate step forward.
The entire group instinctively took one step back. Their morale crumbled even further.