Deception
Just like the last enemy's moment of regret before death, the outcome of this battle had been predetermined the moment Yu Gong Yuanzhen successfully ambushed the enemy captain.
Everything that followed was nothing more than garbage time.
It wasn't that Yu Gong Yuanzhen was arrogant; he simply understood his own abilities.
By fully exploiting the White Zetsu's traits, he had a high chance of assassinating the enemy's strongest fighter before they noticed anything.
As long as he didn't act carelessly—and as long as the enemy did not understand the nature of the Mayfly ability—his ambush was nearly impossible to fail.
Don't be fooled by ninja who throw around flashy jutsu; at their core, shinobi rely on stealth and silent killing.
The Mayfly Technique is considered one of the ultimate forms of such tactics.
Judging from the results, Yu Gong Yuanzhen had achieved his objective, eliminating five enemies.
But the process had been far from elegant. He was forced into direct combat several times and even sustained injuries.
Ideally, he would have silently removed all five targets without being seen. Unfortunately, reality did not unfold that smoothly.
He wasn't sure whether it was his imagination, but based on his experiences since transmigrating, Yu Gongyuan felt that while battles in this Warring Clans era were certainly more brutal, the average skill level of shinobi was lower than in the later Hidden Village era, aside from a handful of geniuses.
Whether in team organization, combined-arms combat skills, or assassination efficiency, shinobi from this period lagged behind their successors.
But this made sense—everything evolves.
Yu Gongyuan believed in the saying "the future will surpass the present."
Systems, ninjutsu, education, and warfare all improve with time.
Realizing his thoughts had drifted too far, Yu Gongyuan refocused.
The execution wasn't perfect, but the end result was good enough.
After all, he had only recently become a White Zetsu and still didn't fully understand why his body had transformed. He had rushed into combat before mastering these new abilities, and considering that, he had performed admirably.
Finishing the battle, Yu Gongyuanzhen didn't bother cleaning the scene. He immediately headed toward the other battlefield.
His chakra reserves were still decent.
The previous fight had involved minimal ninjutsu exchanges, and he had enough left for another engagement.
To ensure the survival of the two clan members acting as bait, Yu Gongyuanzhen used Mayfly to close the distance quickly.
He already had a strategy in mind—continue using assassinations. Efficiency was everything.
During his brief contact with the enemy captain earlier, he had managed to steal a small sample of chakra.
Not enough for extended usage, but sufficient for the White Zetsu's Transformation Technique, allowing him to mimic the captain with near-perfect accuracy.
White Zetsu's imitation was a top-tier world-breaking ability—the most flawless disguise in the Naruto world.
As long as he had even a trace of the target's chakra and avoided behavioral slips, the transformation would be virtually undetectable.
Yu Gongyuan didn't need to infiltrate for days or handle complex social interactions—just a short battlefield impersonation.
So his chances of being exposed were extremely low.
On the other battlefield, Isaikawa, following Yu Gongyuan's orders, only fled and avoided fighting, successfully dragging out the clash.
When Yu Gongyuanzhen approached, he didn't rush in. He perched atop a large tree, observing the situation first.
Five enemy shinobi were surrounding Isaikawa, who was skillfully evading with constant movement and throwing out Fire Release techniques to obscure the field.
"So it's another cat-and-mouse chase," Yu Gongyuan muttered.
He transformed into the enemy captain and sank back into the ground using Mayfly, approaching the enemy ninja furthest from the formation.
When Isaikawa launched another large Fire Release and filled the battlefield with noise and smoke, Yu Gongyuan emerged silently behind the isolated target and slit his throat with a clean, decisive motion.
He lowered the body carefully onto the ground—still warm, but now truly lifeless.
Learning from earlier mistakes, Yu Gongyuan's movements were sharper and quieter.
This time, the enemies didn't even notice one of their comrades had disappeared.
Their attention was entirely on Isaikawa.
Luck was also on his side: their sensor-type ninja wasn't part of this group—he was with the third team.
The remaining four were standing too close to each other. After a moment of thought, Yu Gongyuan chose a safer tactic—continue the impersonation.
Approaching them, he intentionally made a bit of noise.
"It's the captain!"
"Captain, you're already done over there?"
Their initial vigilance vanished the moment they saw his familiar appearance.
Yu Gongyuan kept his face expressionless. A blank expression was safer than a wrong one.
"It's handled," he said calmly. "I came to support you immediately. Why are you progressing so slowly? What's the situation?"
"A small issue," one explained quickly. "This target keeps running and wasting chakra. He refuses to fight head-on, so surrounding him took longer than expected. But we'll have him cornered soon."
The "captain" frowned, visibly displeased.
"Forget surrounding him. Follow me."
He dashed toward Isaikawa, leaving the four no choice but to follow.
They closed in on the fleeing Yu Gongyuan—but just as they prepared to attack, the "captain" abruptly stopped.
He didn't have much time. If they noticed they were missing a man, the disguise would crumble.
Yu Gongyuan suddenly turned toward a random direction, eyes widening in shock.
"Clan leader?"
"Why are you here…?"
The four ninjas—completely fooled—instinctively turned toward the same direction.
At that moment, several cold flashes cut through the air.
Three throats were slit in an instant.
Only one ninja, lagging slightly behind the group, reacted late and avoided the fatal strike.
His small eyes shook violently in confusion.
Why did the captain attack his own squadmates?
Were they impostors? Was he the impostor?
"Two against one," Yu Gongyuan said calmly. "Now it's our turn to surround you."
Under the stunned gaze of the final survivor, Yu Gongyuan dropped the transformation and returned to his White Zetsu body, his chakra signature shifting accordingly.
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