Ronin's shadow clone was extremely fast, but the flying ants clearly had terrifying dynamic vision as well.
Their diving figures carried obvious prediction in their movements, and their aura had completely locked onto the shadow clone.
But at the instant both sides were about to collide, the shadow clone's speed suddenly surged. He narrowly avoided the ant's pounce by the thinnest margin.
The vicious ant plunged headfirst into the ground.
But Ronin's shadow clone had no chance to catch his breath, because even more ants were already diving down at him from the sky.
The Sharingan's powerful dynamic vision, paired with its extreme insight, made the shadow clone wrapped in lightning move like a butterfly weaving through flowers, darting at high speed through the giant ants' attacks.
There was almost an elegant feeling to it, like passing through a field of flowers without a single petal touching him.
But when the ants in the air realized they couldn't intercept the shadow clone at all, they stopped diving. Instead, they hovered in the sky and suddenly spat transparent liquid toward the path ahead of Ronin.
The liquid landed on the ground with a sizzling sound, releasing white smoke.
The shadow clone abruptly stopped, formed hand seals, and looked up at the sky.
In the next second, a massive amount of chakra poured from his mouth and instantly transformed into a giant dragon head that charged straight toward the flying ants.
Fire Release: Great Dragon Fire Technique.
Scorching heat descended on the flying ants as the dragon head surged forward.
The flying ants that were too slow to dodge were instantly swallowed by flames. Even those that managed to evade were quickly set ablaze.
The liquid they had spat out was completely swallowed by the dragon head while still in midair.
White smoke spilled from the dragon's mouth, and the flying ants higher up, which hadn't been directly caught in the Great Dragon Fire Technique, began to rot rapidly inside the white smoke.
So the venom burned by the high temperature hadn't lost its effect. Instead, it had turned into smoke and risen into the air, damaging the swarm of flying ants.
The shadow clone's forward step suddenly halted. His hand seal changed, and he spat out a massive torrent of water.
At the same time, as the water surged forward, his entire body was wrapped in a shark-shaped current.
The shark leapt and plunged into the flood, carrying him rapidly through the area shrouded in heat and poisonous smoke.
Water Release: Great Waterfall Technique, and Water Release: Water Shark Bullet.
One created a waterway for movement, while the other allowed him to travel through that waterway under protection.
The only issue was that using ninjutsu in rapid succession consumed a lot of chakra.
But Ronin was no longer what he had once been. His aura reserves were enormous, and the chakra he could convert from them was naturally immense as well.
Even after using multiple jutsu in a row, his shadow clone showed no signs of dispersing. Instead, riding the Water Shark Bullet, he quickly broke through the ants' blockade.
And after passing through that blockade, the scene before the shadow clone changed.
It was no longer the unchanging forest scenery.
Instead, before him was the entrance to a cave that extended underground.
Outside the cave stood a steep mountain wall, riddled with pitch-black openings.
From many of those dark holes, huge ant heads were sticking out.
In contrast, there wasn't a single ant on the path leading to the cave entrance.
But the moment the shadow clone leapt out of the Water Shark Bullet and approached the cave entrance, he felt his scalp go numb.
It was Nen.
A cold, evil, murderous aura spread out from beneath the cave at that instant and enveloped him.
The shadow clone felt as if he had been targeted by a venomous snake.
And in the next second, the ground suddenly split apart. A thick tail shot out and wrapped directly around the shadow clone's body.
The shadow clone had been keeping En active the entire time, yet even then, he hadn't sensed how that tail had suddenly appeared from beneath the ground.
But in the very next second, the shadow clone abruptly collapsed into water and slipped out of the tail's grasp.
Although En hadn't detected the opponent, the Sharingan had seen through the attack the instant it broke through the ground.
So before the tail actually caught him, the shadow clone had already completed his hand seals and used the Water Clone Technique.
While the water clone blocked the tail's attack, his real body appeared in midair and activated a second ninjutsu.
Earth Release: Weighted Rock Technique.
In an instant, large amounts of earth rapidly formed over the tail.
But before the shadow clone could continue his attack, a second tail burst out from underground and stabbed toward his falling body.
The shadow clone's hand seal changed, and the Weighted Rock Technique turned into the Light-Weight Rock Technique.
His falling body suddenly stopped in midair, and the thick, smooth, snake-like tail almost brushed past him.
With a boom, the earth covering the first tail shattered apart.
The second tail, having missed the shadow clone, had lashed into the first tail instead.
At the same time, a third tail shot out from underground.
The shadow clone's eyes sharpened, and his body dispersed into countless crows in midair.
But in that same instant, a massive snake head burst out from the cave and bit down on the spot where the shadow clone had scattered into crows.
Having bitten nothing, confusion appeared in the giant snake's cold vertical pupils. It turned its head, its lantern-like eyes scanning the surroundings over and over.
It seemed to be trying to find Ronin.
But by then, Ronin had already landed on the ground behind it.
The instant the giant snake emerged from the cave, their eyes had met.
And in that brief moment of eye contact, the Sharingan's genjutsu had already activated.
The giant snake still hadn't realized that what it was seeing was exactly what the shadow clone wanted it to see.
The shadow clone ignored the snake, which had been temporarily delayed by the illusion. He knew the genjutsu wouldn't hold it for long, and the chakra inside his shadow clone was already nearing its limit.
He had to enter the cave and confirm the situation as quickly as possible.
"Stop there."
A cold voice suddenly came from the side.
The shadow clone's raised foot froze the instant that voice sounded. When he turned to look, he saw an ant two sizes larger than a human standing above him, looking down at him from a higher position.
"This is not a place you should come."
The giant ant did not open its mouth, yet its voice appeared directly in the shadow clone's mind.
The shadow clone's pupils shrank slightly.
Was this the Ant King?
Or the Queen?
His gaze swept over the ant's abdomen. There was a bulge there, as if something was being nurtured inside it.
But what surprised the shadow clone even more was that he couldn't see any Ten on the ant at all. Its life energy simply radiated outward naturally, just like an ordinary person's.
"Are you not afraid I'll kill you?" the shadow clone asked tentatively.
At the same time, his En extended as far as possible into the depths of the cave.
The giant ant shook its head.
"You cannot kill me. Try it, if you don't believe me."