The border region between the Land of Earth and the Land of Lightning gradually shifted from barren rocky mountains into rugged hills.
Kyoshin's group of four moved through the hilly terrain.
Their current mission was B-rank: according to intelligence reports, several missing-nin that the Anbu had been tracking had appeared nearby.
This had originally been Anbu work, but Kyoshin had taken the assignnt for himself.
At noon, the four rested inside a concealed rock cave.
Deidara stood guard outside while Kyoshin, Kurotsuchi, and Karin analyzed a map inside the cave.
"Based on the current situation, traces of the missing-nin's activity are concentrated twenty kiloters north of the border." Kurotsuchi pointed at several marked locations on the map.
Karin suddenly opened her eyes. "Three chakra signatures. Judging from the chakra levels, they're chunin."
"Northeast direction. They're coming toward us!"
Kyoshin imdiately regrouped with Deidara at the cave entrance alongside Karin and Kurotsuchi. "Prepare for combat. Formation Plan Two."
The four quickly left the cave and spread into formation in the open area outside.
Less than a minute later, three figures burst out from behind the northeastern hills at high speed, like three streaks of yellow-brown shadows.
Iwagakure missing-nin. All three were n, each wearing an Iwagakure forehead protector slashed across the center.
The other side did not attack imdiately. Clearly, it was a case of "eting fellow villagers brings tears to the eyes," and they intended to exchange so words first.
"So it's not the Anbu." The leader locked his gaze onto Kurotsuchi and Deidara. "Oh~ it's you two? You've already graduated... ti really flies."
"Onoki actually trusted the two of you with a mission like this. Is he looking down on us?"
It was obvious their attention wasn't focused on the children themselves. Instead, they were cautiously scanning the surroundings.
"So let guess," the leader continued. "Who's your instructor jonin?"
Kurotsuchi narrowed her eyes and quietly explained to Kyoshin, "Three guys who defected five years ago. All chunin."
"Rumor says they stole advanced ninjutsu from the village. Their current strength is unknown."
Kyoshin asked, "Only three?"
"At present, there are seven missing-nin from the village who haven't been killed yet." Kurotsuchi analyzed calmly.
"The other four haven't shown any traces within the Land of Earth. It should just be these three, but we can't rule out the possibility that they've tead up with others."
Kyoshin's eyes turned into scarlet three-tomoe Sharingan as he said to Kurotsuchi and Deidara, "Begin."
The two imdiately dashed toward opposite sides, clearly intending to cut off the missing-nin's escape routes.
At that mont, the missing-nin also noticed that Kyoshin was the one giving orders, and instinctively looked toward him.
One of them suddenly froze.
There was no sound, no flash of light. Only an invisible ntal force pouring into the short-haired missing-nin's brain like a tidal wave.
He felt as though invisible nails had pinned his body in place midair. His limbs refused to move, and even breathing beca difficult.
The scenery before his eyes began to distort. The rock walls beca a prison cage, the sky transford into an iron curtain, and the entire world seed to compress inward around him.
He opened his mouth, trying to scream, but no sound ca out.
Genjutsu: Demonic Illusion, Shackling Stakes Technique.
Kyoshin raised his hand and threw out a kunai with an explosive tag attached to its end.
Of the two missing-nin beside the trapped man, one was busy dispelling the genjutsu from his companion, while the other stepped in front of Kyoshin, ford hand seals, and slamd a palm against the ground.
A wall of earth rose directly into the kunai's path.
BOOM!
The explosive tag blasted the Earth Flow Wall until it trembled violently.
During that ti, Kyoshin had not remained idle.
He cast the Light-Weight Rock Technique on himself and floated into the air, taking the high ground. Combined with the Sharingan, it granted him an exceptionally clear field of vision.
Then Kyoshin ford hand seals.
The mont the seals completed, Kyoshin pushed both palms outward.
A semi-transparent white cubic barrier appeared and ca crashing down toward the three missing-nin.
The missing-nin who had used Earth Flow Wall had been watching Kyoshin the entire ti and recognized Iwagakure's signature ninjutsu instantly.
His eyes filled with bloodshot terror as he instinctively retreated to the side while screaming, "Move! Move!"
The other missing-nin had only just dispelled the genjutsu from his companion when he turned around and saw a Dust Release descending straight toward him.
His heart nearly stopped from fright. His scalp tingled as he desperately threw himself aside with everything he had.
As for the missing-nin who had just recovered from the illusion, he wasn't so lucky.
His entire body was swallowed by the Dust Release barrier.
The terrifying power of Dust Release activated.
Resistance beca aningless.
Bzzzt~
A cloud of white mist slowly rose into the air.
The missing-nin inside the Dust Release was disintegrated down to the atomic level, leaving behind an eerie cubic void in everything surrounding him.
"AAAAAHHH!"
The missing-nin who had dispelled the genjutsu never expected Dust Release's range to be so large. His entire arm vanished cleanly, the wound smooth and unnaturally precise.
The agonizing pain sent frantic signals surging through his nervous system into his brain.
"How is this possible?!"
The only completely unhard missing-nin had gone pale with shock. He even started wondering whether Kyoshin was actually Onoki disguised with a Transformation Technique.
Because he was simply too young.
Any Iwagakure ninja understood how difficult Dust Release was.
His first instinct was to flee.
But then he rembered Kurotsuchi and Deidara, who had moved to the flanks at the very start of the battle.
They were already surrounded.
And with the enemy controlling the skies, escape was impossible.
They could only fight.
Grinding his teeth, the missing-nin ford hand seals.
"Earth Style: Rock Spear!"
The ground beneath him split apart. Several chunks of earth flew upward around him, compressing into sharp earthen spears before shooting toward Kyoshin.
Kyoshin neither dodged nor evaded, but the three-tomoe Sharingan in his eyes had already transford into Mangekyo.
The mont the rock spears closed in, visible chakra suddenly erupted around Kyoshin's body. The chakra rapidly condensed into a white skeletal fra that enveloped him completely.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Several rock spears slamd into the Susanoo, failing to shake it in the slightest.
But below, a scream suddenly rang out from the Iwagakure missing-nin.
"AAAAHHH!!!"
The one-ard missing-nin looked over in panic.
The companion who had attacked Kyoshin...
His body was now covered in bizarre wounds.
Despite never being struck by anything, several bloody holes had mysteriously pierced straight through his torso.
This missing-nin had extensive combat experience. He could tell what had happened.
The man had clearly been struck solidly by Rock Spear, because behind him, several distinct spear-shaped holes were visible in the ground.
But the strange part was that he couldn't see the Rock Spears themselves. It was as though they were invisible ninjutsu.
Had that black-haired brat modified Rock Spear so it couldn't be seen with the naked eye?
'No!'
'No, this isn't right.'
The one-ard missing-nin imdiately rejected that conclusion, because he hadn't seen Kyoshin perform any hand seals at all.
High in the air, the white skeletal chakra surrounding Kyoshin slowly faded away.
The bizarre attack suffered by that missing-nin ca from one of Kyoshin's Mangekyo Sharingan abilities.
Left eye: Aragami.
Its ability was to return any technique inflicted upon Kyoshin directly back onto the attacker, exactly as received, regardless of distance or obstacles, and without any so-called "cooldown."
The drawback was obvious: if the enemy didn't attack Kyoshin, then the ability was completely useless.
But in actual combat, this technique was unbelievably nasty.
If the enemy avoided attacking him because of Aragami...
Then Kyoshin would simply attack the enemy himself~
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