Chapter 45: Revenge
Whoosh! Whoosh!
Gōenji casually drove a kunai into the trunk of a tree.
An explosive tag was attached to it.
"Come on, Mist Village."
As he moved, he continuously laid down traps.
This was one of the areas where shinobi excelled most: preparing traps and ambushes.
Yet there was no trace of relaxation in Gōenji's eyes.
They were filled with anger.
His sharp mind had already told him that Ryūma and Zē were likely in grave danger.
The enemy had sent four jōnin, and every one of them was a troublesome opponent. With his current strength, if he had to face more than two jōnin simultaneously, he might very well die.
"There aren't any allies nearby capable of suppressing these four, and there isn't a large force here either. I'm afraid the only way to find someone capable of coordinating an attack and eliminating them is to reach the main force or headquarters."
Gōenji felt miserable.
His companions might die today, just like that.
But he understood his own limitations.
With his current strength, he simply wasn't a match for so many elite jōnin.
If he faced one of them alone, he was confident he could kill them.
But against more than two, he had almost no chance.
At present, the only realistic way to defeat these four Kirigakure shinobi was to surround them with a large force or coordinate an assault with numerous jōnin.
But where had these people come from?
They had never appeared in the original story.
There hadn't even been the slightest hint of their existence.
Then again, perhaps this was only natural.
A massive hidden village with ten or twenty thousand shinobi would be strange if it didn't produce a handful of exceptional elites.
The people who appeared in the original story were simply the most famous and outstanding members of that elite class.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Explosive tags detonated behind Gōenji.
A snow-white figure danced across the ice, rapidly gliding forward.
That Body Flicker Technique is incredibly fast.
Fortunately, I'm the one pursuing him. If someone else had been sent after him, he might have escaped already.
Shirō Fubuki smiled as he watched the fleeing Gōenji.
Kirigakure had investigated Uchiha Gōenji beforehand.
They knew he was an extremely well-rounded shinobi.
His greatest strengths were his Fire Release and Body Flicker Technique.
As for Fubuki himself, he had once belonged to Kirigakure's hunter-nin corps, whose primary duty was pursuing and eliminating missing-nin.
His mastery of the Body Flicker Technique was therefore exceptional as well.
That was one of the reasons the village had sent him on this mission.
Boom!
Another explosion rang out.
A massive tree crashed down directly in Fubuki's path.
He smiled faintly, leaped high into the air, and elegantly cleared the fallen tree.
A path of ice appeared beneath his feet.
He continued his pursuit.
"But I can't let you escape so easily."
Fubuki looked at the distance between them.
He knew that relying solely on the Body Flicker Technique would make it difficult to catch Gōenji. At best, he could barely keep up.
That was unfavorable for their plan.
Furthermore, Fubuki himself wasn't confident that he could defeat Gōenji.
Gōenji had already dispelled the Shadow Clone that had previously fought Munashi Jinpachi and had returned to his peak condition.
Fubuki needed to hold him back until his companions arrived.
He had absolute confidence in the strength of his teammates.
He rapidly formed hand seals.
"Ice Release: Legend of the Hungry Wolf!"
Awoooo!
Gōenji continued forward, but when he heard the commotion behind him, he glanced back.
"Damn it."
A gigantic snow wolf was rising into the sky behind him.
Its body was enormous, comparable to the enlarged form produced by the Akimichi clan's Expansion Jutsu.
Its paws crushed the forest beneath it as it advanced.
Snow surged toward Gōenji like an avalanche.
Fubuki rode across the ice like a skier, rapidly closing the distance.
He used this much chakra just to catch up with me.
He's really determined to kill me.
Doesn't he care whether he dies here?
Gōenji was increasingly irritated as his opponent drew closer.
His Sharingan had already revealed that Fubuki's chakra reserves were nearly exhausted.
Yet his technique was still extraordinarily powerful.
More importantly, it had actually managed to keep up with Gōenji's Body Flicker Technique.
And Gōenji's Body Flicker was no joke.
At his current level, his speed was not inferior even to Shunshin Shisui's.
Among shinobi, his movement speed was already among the very best.
"Snake. Ram. Monkey. Boar. Horse. Tiger. Tiger..."
"Fire Release: Great Fire Annihilation—Modified!"
Gōenji abruptly turned around.
Relying on muscle memory, his body moved before his thoughts could catch up. He leaped backward onto a tree branch while enormous amounts of chakra accumulated in his throat.
This time, he was going to use a massive amount of chakra and push his chakra-lever principle to its limit.
"If I survive this, I'll definitely do everything I can to become stronger."
Gōenji had always worked desperately to improve his strength.
He simply hadn't expected to encounter a situation this dangerous.
He still wasn't strong enough.
If he possessed the strength of Hashirama Senju, dealing with a situation like this would be effortless.
Boom!
Great Fire Annihilation erupted.
Blazing flames scorched the heavens.
This was what Gōenji looked like when he unleashed Fire Release with everything he had.
The entire forest seemed to be caught between ice and fire.
The range of the collision was enormous.
Snow and flames intertwined violently.
Several kilometers away, flocks of birds scattered in panic, their cries filling the air as they flew in every direction.
Birds caught within the flames were instantly scorched black and reduced to ash.
The shockwaves generated by the collision scattered the ashes into the wind.
Animals that couldn't escape were burned into charred corpses.
Those farther away were badly scorched, crying out in pain.
Others were buried beneath the rapidly spreading ice and snow.
...
"What is that?"
Several kilometers from the battlefield, Uchiha Shisui stood atop a tree branch and stared toward the distant clash of ice and fire.
His Sharingan appeared, the tomoe spinning as his vision rapidly magnified.
"That's Gōenji-nii... and that's Kirigakure's Ice Release."
Kirigakure's Ice Release was too famous to mistake.
Shisui immediately realized what was happening.
Kirigakure had finally made a serious move against them.
They had targeted him several times before, but either he had killed them or successfully evaded them.
This time, however, they seemed to have brought out a much more formidable force against Gōenji-nii.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
After confirming the situation, Shisui didn't hesitate for even a moment.
He immediately rushed toward the battlefield.
...
Whoosh! Whoosh!
"What happened?"
Nara Akira led his squad behind Shisui.
They had also heard the commotion and could see the distant clash.
"Captain, that's Gōenji. He's fighting an enemy who possesses Kirigakure's Ice Release kekkei genkai."
A sensory-type shinobi behind him activated his technique and quickly reported.
"That's not all. There are two more terrifying enemies approaching from about three kilometers away. They appear to be the enemy's companions."
He paused.
"Shisui has already caught up."
Nara Akira's expression changed.
"Quickly. Keep up. Don't let the enemy succeed."
"Yes!"
Whoosh! Whoosh!
...
Rustle...
What is that?
Kaguya Sei leaned against a concealed section of mountainside.
His eyelids were heavy, and his body was too exhausted to move.
Then he noticed something crawling across the ground.
Hmph. Damn insects. Taking advantage of me while I'm helpless... Wait...
He was about to curse them when he suddenly realized something was wrong.
Why are there so many insects here?
Whoosh! Whoosh!
The instant the thought crossed his mind, the insects on the ground suddenly leaped into the air like bullets.
They burrowed directly into his flesh.
"Damn it... That Aburame brat!"
Kaguya Sei no longer even had the strength to absorb life force and convert it into chakra.
He had already exhausted his life force during the previous battle.
Now, he could only helplessly watch as the insects invaded his body.