"Kid, your Body Flicker is fast—faster than mine even with Lightning Release chakra stimulating my cells. How did you do it?" the Mist ANBU ninja asked with interest.
Uchiha Yuan didn't respond. He was thinking about how to deal with the enemy in front of him.
This was the first time Yuan had directly encountered a Jōnin on the battlefield.
At present, Yuan could easily one-shot a Chūnin using the speed of his teleportation, but against a Jōnin, he had to give it his all.
Because Jōnin were fundamentally different from Chūnin. If Chūnin made up the bulk of a shinobi village's fighting force, Jōnin were its backbone. Every Jōnin was not to be underestimated.
To be honest, based on Yuan's own estimation of his abilities, he was still not at a level where he could defeat a Jōnin.
So his best strategy now was to stall the Jōnin until Shibi Aburame could finish on his end.
Seeing that Yuan didn't reply, the Mist ANBU didn't bother asking again. He clearly didn't want to waste time—his teammate was already about to be taken down by Shibi. He had to finish Yuan quickly and go assist.
The Mist ANBU quickly formed hand seals, gathering lightning into a Lightning Clone.
A Lightning Clone, infused with Lightning-nature chakra, would explode into lightning upon destruction, capable of paralyzing enemies.
Then he created a Water Clone as well.
The two clones and the real body rushed toward Yuan simultaneously.
Yuan wasn't sure what the enemy was planning, so he hesitated and chose to avoid direct conflict. He used teleportation to gain distance, then formed seals: "Fire Release: Phoenix Sage Fire Technique!"
A few small fireballs flew toward the Mist ninja's Water and Lightning clones.
The Mist ANBU used his real body to intercept the fireballs, while the two clones kept charging at Yuan.
Yuan formed more hand seals. This time it was a combo: Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique + Wind Release: Great Breakthrough.
Wind fanned the flames, and with Yuan pouring in massive chakra, a huge fireball roared forward.
The Lightning Clone barely dodged using Body Flicker, but the Water Clone wasn't so lucky—it was engulfed by the Great Fireball.
Seizing the opportunity, Yuan teleported to where the Lightning Clone had landed and threw a kunai with an explosive tag.
The moment the tag exploded, Yuan used Body Flicker to escape again.
The Mist ninja's Lightning Clone was also destroyed.
Seeing both his clones gone, the ANBU ninja reviewed Yuan's movements and asked seriously, "Kid, are you using space-time ninjutsu?"
Yuan still didn't speak. The earlier attacks had already cost him quite a bit of chakra.
He glanced at the Mist ninja, then at the trees in the forest, deciding he'd try one last assault. If that failed, he'd focus on dodging and stalling for time until Shibi finished his own battle.
Yuan closed and reopened his eyes—activating Perception Reveal.
Multiple weak points on the ANBU's body lit up in his vision. He also spotted vulnerabilities in the nearby trees.
Without further delay, Yuan took out a few shuriken and threw them at the Mist ANBU from special angles.
The Mist ANBU, being a Jōnin, dodged or deflected all of them with ease.
What he didn't notice was that those deflected shuriken embedded themselves into the trunks of nearby trees—right on their weak points.
"You don't think you can beat me with just shuriken, do you?" the Mist ANBU asked mockingly.
"Who says shuriken can't work? You're underestimating them," Yuan replied.
As soon as he finished speaking, the Mist ANBU heard an odd sound behind him.
He turned to look—and saw that a tree trunk had snapped. The massive tree was falling toward him.
He frowned and quickly dodged out of the way.
Before he could regain balance, another barrage of shuriken came flying at him.
He quickly blocked them with a kunai.
Then something even stranger happened—trees began toppling one after another. To avoid being crushed, the ANBU had no choice but to keep dodging while Yuan relentlessly threw more shuriken.
Finally, one shuriken hit the ANBU in the shoulder.
He felt a jolt—his arm went numb. The point where he was struck had an old injury from the past year. The shuriken hit precisely at the vulnerable spot, rendering his arm useless.
"Damn it! That little brat's too lucky!" the ANBU cursed mentally.
Having lost an arm, the Mist ANBU didn't want to continue this fight. He glanced back—his teammate was completely engulfed by Shibi's kikaichū, and the sensor-nin on the other side was still tangled up by the other two kids.
He made a quick decision—retreat. He had to relay the news that Konoha shinobi had arrived in this area.
But Yuan wasn't about to let go of this hard-earned advantage.
He immediately used teleportation to close the distance and threw more shuriken.
The ANBU dodged again with Body Flicker and began moving alongside the tree trunks, using them as cover against further shuriken attacks.
The Mist ANBU was also waiting—for Yuan to run out of patience and rush him.
He was confident that even with only one arm, he was still stronger than Yuan in close combat.
(To Be Continued...)