"You've stopped running?"
Kuwan sneered as he saw Shikamaru come to a halt. The distance between them had already closed to the effective range of kunai and shuriken. If Shikamaru still dared to show him his back now and attempt to run, it would be suicide.
Kuwan slowed his advance, landing lightly on a nearby tree branch with the help of a chakra-enhanced leap. He stuck to the bark with precision and paused, scrutinizing Shikamaru's poised stance from a distance—while keeping alert to the surroundings.
Kiba and the others had ample time to set up a concealed ambush. And even for a jōnin of the Hidden Sound, finding skilled genin in hiding was no easy task—especially if they made no effort to reveal themselves. Kuwan couldn't be sure whether a trap had been laid, but instinct and years of combat experience kept him cautious.
"Get out of here, Karin," Shikamaru muttered without turning, sensing her getting up behind him.
Karin, still catching her breath after being saved moments earlier, pushed her red-framed glasses up her nose and looked at his back. The way the sunlight filtered through the trees and cast a subtle glow around his figure gave him a commanding presence.
He really does feel like a captain…
For a brief moment, Karin saw the image of her own squad leader—now most likely dead. She hesitated, overcome by the memory—until Shikamaru's low but firm voice snapped her back to reality. She turned and began to move, retreating as ordered.
"That girl's trying to run."
Kuwan's eyes locked onto Karin. She was his target—her sensory abilities could lead them straight to Sasuke Uchiha. If she escaped, he'd lose his best chance at securing favor with Orochimaru.
With a sudden burst of chakra, Kuwan launched himself from the branch. His foot shattered bark beneath him as he kicked off, surging toward Shikamaru like a cannonball. As he closed in, he reached into his tool pouch and pulled out a kunai, holding it in a reversed grip.
Shikamaru's eyes narrowed as he followed Kuwan's movements. He caught the flash of metal—no surprise. He began silently calculating the distance between them, waiting for the precise moment to act.
SWISH!
The kunai glinted in Kuwan's hand as the two closed in.
But just as they were about to collide—Shikamaru's previously tense expression melted away into a subtle, sarcastic smirk. His stance shifted. Muscles that had been held tight relaxed in an instant.
He jumped—backward, not forward.
"Human Boulder!"
A thunderous roar erupted from above.
The wind howled. And like a meteor plummeting from the sky, a massive, rotating sphere hurtled downward—Choji's signature technique.
Choji and Shikamaru had trained and fought together for years. Their coordination was second to none among Leaf genin, honed further through countless missions.
Kuwan only had time to glance up, and what he saw made his pupils contract in alarm.
If he got hit by that, even as a jōnin, he wouldn't walk away unscathed.
SWOOSH!
The sheer force behind the incoming Human Boulder froze the air around it. Kuwan gritted his teeth and twisted his body sharply, his legs skidding as he forced himself to halt mid-charge. With a powerful leap backward, he managed to narrowly escape the crushing attack.
"Fang Over Fang!"
Just as Kuwan touched down midair, still recovering from the dodge, Kiba struck.
Together with Akamaru—already transformed using Beast Human Clone—the two launched from the trees. Twisting like a pair of high-speed drills, they closed in on Kuwan from both sides.
"You were all hiding here, huh?"
Kuwan smirked, showing no fear even as danger surrounded him.
He dropped his kunai and pulled a chain weapon from his hip pouch. A small steel ball attached to one end glinted in the sun. Though compact, once swung with momentum, it could deliver lethal impact.
Kuwan grabbed a short section of the chain and twirled it. With a flick, he let it fly—the steel ball shot outward and coiled around the branch of a nearby tree.
In one swift movement, Kuwan yanked hard on the chain, pulling himself sideways midair. The motion altered his trajectory just enough to dodge Kiba and Akamaru's dual assault, allowing him to land safely on the branch.
"Damn it!" Kiba snarled, realizing they'd missed.
He and Akamaru clapped paws and redirected their momentum, once again spinning midair. They aimed to strike again before Kuwan could recover his footing.
"Not good," Shikamaru thought grimly. From his position, he saw Kiba about to launch another direct attack.
While Kiba had raw strength, he wasn't strong enough to handle a jōnin alone. Their advantage lay in surprise, not drawn-out combat. Now that Kuwan had regained his footing, Kiba was walking into danger.
BOOM!
At that moment, Choji's Human Boulder finally smashed into the ground.
The impact tore a massive crater into the forest floor, sending soil and grass flying in all directions like an explosion had gone off. The shockwave rattled nearby trees.
Choji's massive form bounced once and then slammed into a tree, snapping it in half before rolling to a stop.
His rotund form now sprawled across the broken trunk—exactly the one Shikamaru had previously instructed him to knock down.
Embedded in the tree's splintered bark was a single, black kunai.
Its blade shimmered faintly in the dappled sunlight—marking the tree as a trigger in the next phase of their plan.
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