"What insane speed…! Careful! He's coming!"
Cold sweat trickled down the forehead of the four-man squad's leader. Panic flashed across his eyes.
He was only a special jōnin, and the three subordinates behind him were just standard Chunin. In Sunagakure, that already counted as a fairly elite unit.
But the enemy bearing down on them—
In the instant he appeared within sight, he left nothing but an electric streak on the leader's retinas… and then he was already right in front of them.
Just from speed alone, this was definitely no ordinary jōnin.
"Shit, he's already here! Prepare to defend!"
The Sand ninja at the front flashed through hand seals, then roared:
"Wind Style: Wind Cutter Jutsu!"
Invisible, razor-sharp blades of wind roared out in a storm, shredding the ground and foliage in front of him into confetti.
However—
For all its formless speed, the storm of wind blades still couldn't catch up to Feiyu's sheer acceleration. The lightning arc weaving across the battlefield drew a zig-zagging Z-shaped trajectory, slipping through the killing zone.
A pale white blade flashed down toward the Sand special jōnin's skull.
Crack!
The body split in half—only to burst into a splintered log.
Up in the tree canopy, the special jōnin's real body reappeared. Blood trickled down his forehead where the blade had grazed him. His hands trembled uncontrollably.
Another 0.01 seconds slower and my head would've been opened like a melon…
A chorus of screams snapped him out of his daze.
He turned his head stiffly—just in time to see two of his Chunin already lying dead on the forest floor. The last one, a puppeteer, had survived only because he'd kept his distance… but the main puppet in front of him was already chopped into several useless chunks.
"Th–That sword technique… Hatake White Fang?!"
Like an old nightmare dragged out of the depths of his memory, terror flooded the special jōnin's eyes. His whole body shivered.
Only when he got a clear look at the enemy standing under the tree did he force himself to calm down a little.
It was a boy. Fourteen, fifteen at most.
The Sand ninja's breathing slowly steadied. He tugged the corner of his mouth in a stiff parody of a smile, trying to talk himself down.
It's fine… it's just a kid… just a boy. Even if his talent is crazy, there's no way his combat experience matches mine…
In the middle of his mental pep talk, he suddenly saw the boy's eyes change.
Those dark pupils spun into a pair of blood-red eyes—two tomoe whirling slowly in each.
The world spun.
Damn… he's an Uchiha…
That was the last coherent thought that crossed his mind.
Darkness swallowed him whole.
When he came back to himself, there was only a spreading chill in his chest. Numbness raced down his limbs. His body went limp, and he toppled off the branch.
The short blade slid free from his heart as he fell. Blood sprayed from the gaping wound. His body was already going cold.
The poor special jōnin never even managed to shout his name. He just died—quietly, pointlessly.
"This guy really spaced out on the battlefield? I thought Sand was supposed to be all about 'elite doctrine' or whatever…"
Down below, Feiyu flicked his blade, wiping the blood clean on the corpse's clothes. He couldn't help frowning slightly at the man's performance.
He actually hadn't been sure what rank that Sand ninja was. But spacing out mid-fight like that? On a real battlefield? That was way too sloppy.
"Mm… I feel like I've seen him before," White Fang's soul murmured beside him, thoughtful. "Probably ran into me once on the front lines or on a mission."
"Most likely, seeing your blade work just now triggered the memory. He saw you in that moment instead of you."
Whether that guess was right or not was easy enough to verify—for Feiyu, anyway.
He didn't need to ask the Sand ninja.
He just had to ask his soul.
Feiyu made a casual grabbing motion.
The Spirit-Binding Technique pulsed to life. The souls of the three dead Sand ninja were yanked out of the air and pulled firmly into Feiyu's grasp.
Under the control of Spirit-Binding, he'd have all the time in the world later to sift through their experience and techniques at his leisure.
Even if these souls couldn't compare to Hatake Sakumo's, and even though Feiyu refused to "consume" the souls of fellow humans, every ninja had some area of expertise. There was always something worth learning.
At the very least, in the last few months, with Sakumo's help and that chakra-armadillo's earth-walking talent, Feiyu had already mastered Wind and Earth chakra nature transformations. At this point, he only lacked Water to complete the full five-element set.
If he'd had to do those nature trainings alone, it would've taken him three to five years at minimum.
That was the power of "learning by possession."
"Feiyu, you okay? Wait… all these Sand ninja are yours?!"
Asuma and Kurenai came rushing onto the scene, tense and excited—only to freeze when they saw the ground.
Three corpses. A shattered puppet. The fight was clearly long over.
Hizashi arrived slightly behind them, white eyes narrowing as he scanned the area. The shock in his gaze hadn't faded yet.
Just moments ago, he'd watched Feiyu from afar—watched him slice through the Sand squad like he was harvesting weeds.
Remembering Feiyu's movements now, a bitter realization crept in.
Even if he were the one facing Feiyu head-on, the odds were heavily stacked against him. The only reason he'd have any chance at all was because his Byakugan could counter high-speed close combat to some extent.
If not for that, he'd probably get taken apart in a few swings too.
And just a few short months ago, he could still comfortably beat this boy down.
The speed of Feiyu's growth was… monstrous.
Hiashi didn't know about Sakumo's soul, so he ended up overestimating Feiyu somewhat. But even without Sakumo actively taking over, Feiyu's base power was already on par with Hiashi's.
And the Spirit-Binding Technique was, at the end of the day, Feiyu's own ability. Drawing on Sakumo's strength through it was still part of Feiyu's personal power.
"Yeah, they're all mine. Oh—one puppet master managed to run for it."
"Don't worry. He won't get far. I'll go pick him up."
Hiashi's tone was calm. against a Byakugan user, a lone mid-level puppeteer with his tools already destroyed had nowhere to hide.
He glanced back at Feiyu.
"This time, let Asuma and Kurenai handle it. You sit this one out."
Traditional Sand-style puppeteers were a true elite branch. While they often struggled at the very top tier—few of them reached shadow-level—the ones who did make it to Chunin were almost always elite Chunin.
If Asuma and Kurenai had to fight a fully equipped, full-strength puppeteer, their odds would be poor.
But a tired, injured puppeteer with no functional puppet left?
That was the perfect training dummy for them.
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