"Kakashi-sama, I'll help you!"
Kiyota Shin finally caught up, shouting as he ran.
He swung his blade down toward Yuichi, who was still clashing fiercely with Kakashi. The two of them kept trading blows—sword against sword, sparks flying.
Hearing Shin's voice behind him, Kakashi's attacks suddenly grew even faster, as if he fully trusted his "ally" to strike Yuichi from behind.
But in the very next instant—
Kiyota Shin's blade turned sideways in a flash and hacked toward Kakashi instead.
His sword bit into Kakashi's shoulder—
with a splash.
Water burst apart.
He froze.
A Water Clone?
Impossible.
How could a mere Water Clone match Yuichi blow-for-blow for this long?
Did Kakashi manage to complete a clone mid-fight in that split-second?
He didn't believe it.
Even knowing Kakashi's reputation, he refused to believe someone could weave seals that fast.
Which left only one possibility—
His scalp prickled.
He bolted, instincts screaming at him to flee.
But—
Clang!
"Kiyota Shin!" Yuichi roared. "You traitors—I'll drag your crimes before Lord Mifune himself!"
His blade flashed like lightning.
A diagonal cut tore from Shin's forehead, all the way down through his chest and abdomen.
Blood sprayed outward in a violent arc.
Tenten and Hazuki froze.
"W–What… just happened?"
"Kakashi went to back up your other teammate," Yuichi said, sheathing his sword as he dropped to the ground, completely spent.
Days of pursuit and skirmishing, followed by that staged duel with Kakashi…
He was running on fumes.
"Lord Ishi, that brat—"
"Chase him!" Kiyota Ishi snapped. "He must've overheard us. Leave no witnesses."
His speed suddenly spiked.
Souma felt it immediately through his sensory field.
As expected.
The "slow pace" before had only been bait to lure him deeper.
This old bastard was definitely jōnin-class.
Souma maintained roughly seventy percent of his Overlimit state, layering it with Body Flicker as he bolted in a seemingly panicked line of retreat.
At the same time, four other chakra signatures crept into his sensory range, circling forward.
They did not attack.
They simply advanced partway, then lay in ambush again, continuing to watch.
Just as he predicted.
Souma quietly exhaled.
He'd guessed right.
They didn't see him as the main threat.
In their eyes, they were the real "oriole," and he was just another insect that got too close.
Their desire to keep observing and swoop in at the last second had only deepened.
Souma angled his escape route toward the spot where he'd prepared the Binding Array, then gradually let his speed slip.
"As expected… Someone like you can't possibly maintain that speed for long," Kiyota Ishi sneered behind him. "You must've used some secret technique."
"No secret art is permanent. Boy—tell me how it works, and I might let you live."
His words were honeyed; his eyes, vicious and greedy. Chakra was already surging in his body, gathering for the kill.
Souma didn't even bother answering.
He just let out a cold chuckle and kept "running."
The old man clearly never intended to spare him. Everything he'd said was just bait to make Souma drop his guard.
But—
He wasn't the only hunter in this forest.
Souma wanted his head just as badly.
Kiyota Ishi's blade whistled out in a brutal slash.
He was fast.
His strikes had real weight behind them. Even with Overlimit and his sword raised to block, Souma couldn't fully catch the blow—
The force ripped the weapon clean from his hands.
The sword went spinning away.
Kiyota Ishi didn't pause for even a heartbeat.
The moment his first strike finished, his body twisted; his blade carved a circular arc, whipping back around toward Souma's exposed body.
Fast. Ridiculously fast.
Souma's eyes lit up despite the danger.
That motion—
It was like a hybrid between iaido and a continuous-flow style.
Simple, unspectacular, but brutally efficient. Raw power married perfectly to clean steel.
You didn't see swordplay like this outside the Land of Iron.
It's a pity…
He's a jōnin, and this is probably the only time I'll get to watch him.
Kiyota Ishi's killing sword contained not a single wasted movement.
It was designed purely to murder.
Crude. Direct.
That was Souma's impression.
And precisely because of that, it was the kind of swordsmanship that was hardest to deal with head-on.
Fortunately—
Yagyu Souma was no mere samurai.
Binding Array—activate.
"Damn brat!"
Kiyota Ishi snarled as an invisible force locked his body in place—but he quickly calmed.
He'd seen enough to understand.
"A Binding Array… so that's it."
The sealing formulae had been hidden in the terrain earlier; Souma had just triggered them at the perfect moment.
Binding Arrays were a standard mid-level sealing technique, widely used by chūnin.
Which meant—
"Don't get cocky, boy," Kiyota Ishi said coldly. "Those under my command are only a few steps behind you. You can't move either, as long as you maintain the seal. All you've bought yourself is a slower death."
Without continuous chakra input, a Binding Array should've weakened and broken under his struggles.
Souma's hands moved.
He smiled.
And then—
He stopped forming hand seals.
Kiyota Ishi's lips curled into a triumphant grin.
Which very quickly shattered.
He couldn't move.
Even without the boy reinforcing it, the Binding Array held him tightly in place.
He tried to brute-force it with chakra, smashing his energy against the seal—
The seal only grew tighter.
His mind went blank with shock.
How—!?
His thoughts didn't last long.
A kunai sliced cleanly across his throat.
A top-tier samurai, with strength on par with a standard jōnin—
Died to a genin.
Kakashi, who had been ready to spring from underground, halted his attack mid-motion.
This brat had really done it.
Yes, he'd had prep time. Yes, it was a battle of information and favorable terrain. Yes, it relied on the upgraded Binding Array.
But the fact remained:
Yagyu Souma had just soloed someone at jōnin-level.
"Not over yet. There are still three left… Truly something, this kid," Kakashi thought, equal parts impressed and exasperated.
He didn't believe these samurai could genuinely threaten him—
but Souma risking his neck to stall them still stirred something in his chest.
This kid is going places.
He was debating whether to finally reveal himself when—
"Kakashi-sensei, are you there?" Souma's low voice drifted from the shadows. "There are four still hiding. They're moving in now."
Kakashi narrowed his eyes.
Then he erupted out of the ground beneath a landing samurai and yanked him into the earth.
One clean stroke.
Earth Release: Headhunter Jutsu.
The full version, not the restrained stunt he showed his students.
Then the killing began.
Kakashi with a sword in hand—
was like White Fang reborn.
His steel flashed like fangs in the gloom, ripping through throats and tendons.
Each strike was decisive, merciless, efficient.
In barely ten seconds, it was over.
Kakashi slid his blade back into its sheath, chest heaving.
He trudged toward Souma and flipped his forehead protector down over his Sharingan once more.
"I'm taking a break," he muttered, slumping against a tree.
Souma's disguise had already faded; Hazuki's Transformation Jutsu had long since worn off. He looked just as exhausted, sweat-soaked and pale.
Footsteps echoed through the trees.
Clap. Clap. Clap.
Three distinct claps rang out from a nearby treetop.
"As expected of Hatake Kakashi," a voice drawled. "Even with your chakra nearly exhausted, your taijutsu and kenjutsu alone are terrifying. If you were at full strength, we might not dare approach you at all."
Four figures stepped out of concealment.
Kakashi squinted, forcing himself upright.
"You're the Four Celestial Symbols of the Craftsmen Ninja Village, aren't you?"
"Don't give him time to recover," one of them snapped. "And watch out for that strange Binding Array."
"Then we'll just blow everything to pieces."
No more wasted words.
The lone woman among them stepped forward, twin swords whirling in her hands.
The wind screamed.
A hurricane-like torrent tore across the battlefield, uprooting trees, shredding undergrowth, stripping the ground bare.
Stone, soil, the remnants of seals and talismans—
All erased in an instant.
"Go!"
Advance Chapters available on Patreon
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