Chapter 223: Killed Her... 's Clone
"Not bad taijutsu..." Uran said coldly. "But it's just 'not bad'!"
Seeing the girl finish off that group of rabble in a few moves, he admitted that he had misjudged her strength. But so what?
It was just a matter of raising her evaluation from the Genin level to the Chunin level. She was barely even a Tokujō...
This young ninja's movements were refined and simple, her fists and feet clean and neat, her strikes also nimble and brisk. She really wasn't as unskilled in taijutsu as her appearance suggested. But her weakness was also obvious: her strength was too little!
She can't even kill an ordinary person with one punch. How could she possibly break through my defense? Before his defection, Uran was a Jonin-level ninja!
"For an ordinary underground bounty station, your level of strength is already enough to handle them," Uran licked his lips and revealed a cruel smile. "It's a pity that you met me here! Don't worry, I won't kill you. You should thank me for my mercy, hmph, hmph, hmph...!"
Faced with his mockery and the disgusting smile on his face, the Konoha ninja's expression did not move. Her pair of indifferent and expressionless eyes looked at the enemy coldly.
"So much nonsense..." she said, throwing down her conical hat and drawing the dual blades tied at her waist. "...really."
The butterfly short swords' edges rose up, provocatively pointing at Uran.
The expression on the rogue-nin's face instantly turned gloomy, so much so that it looked as if water could drip from it.
"Hmph, you're courting death!" he said, gritting his teeth and staring at the girl sinisterly.
He drew his sword and charged.
And then he discovered that he had once again made a misjudgment...
That girl's strength was not bad either, completely at the Chunin level.
She had been holding back just now. Uran immediately realized this, but that wasn't the thing that gave him the biggest headache.
He hadn't felt it when he was watching from the side, but after facing her directly, Uran discovered that her taijutsu skills and combat experience were also at the Jonin level. Her movements were simple and brisk, without a trace of sloppiness. Discovering that her own strength was not enough to face him head-on, she immediately switched to an evasive, circling fighting style.
With her faster strikes and more agile movements, the opponent weaved and turned, her figure nimble, as light as a swallow. But he himself was clumsy and struggling. He hadn't held a sword in a long time, and the joints of his wrist were as rusty and difficult to turn as if they had rusted.
Uran discovered that he, who had been away from the battlefield for so long, was completely helpless against her!
And that still wasn't his biggest headache.
SWISH—!
The sword's body tore through the air, emitting a sharp whistle. The brave and fierce blow only cut through the girl's afterimage, hitting nothing.
His slash having missed, Uran hurriedly twisted his somewhat stiff body, forcefully pulled back his arm, and blocked the girl's circling attack from his side.
The vibration from the sword's body made his heart pound. The opponent's ice blades were far sharper and harder than the inferior standard-issue weapon in his hand. After just a few clashes, several nicks had already appeared on his sword.
Uran's brow furrowed tightly. The opponent's weapon was too sharp. This was what gave him the biggest headache!
His weapon was just an ordinary standard-issue longsword. This kind of weapon, which had been readily available in the village, had actually become a priceless treasure on the black market after his defection! To have it chipped after just a few slashes from the opponent, besides the heartache, Uran was also terrified: in terms of taijutsu, he and his opponent were about evenly matched. But once his weapon was destroyed, he would have to face his opponent with his bare hands, and he didn't have that skill!
CLANG—!
The longsword in Uran's hand lasted for a much shorter time than he had imagined. After the two had exchanged a few more moves, the ice blade and the longsword broke on impact!
The girl flew up with a kick, a hidden leg that sent him flying several meters away. Then she walked over gracefully, raised her butterfly dual swords, and was about to finish him off.
"What are you standing there for!" Uran retreated in a panic, kicking his legs, and shouted, "Hurry up and save me!"
The remaining few people who had been watching the two fight fiercely from the side were his trusted subordinates. Usually, when they saw their boss make a move, there was no enemy he couldn't take down. This was the first time they had seen an enemy that Uran couldn't handle himself. On the contrary, it was Uran who had been knocked to the ground. They were all stunned.
After being shouted at by Uran, they finally woke up as if from a dream, grabbed their weapons, and rushed up.
Faced with the siege of multiple people, the girl was not flustered. She just sneered.
The few people who had surrounded her had no tacit understanding of cooperation. When they swung their swords, they still had to be mindful of their comrades by their side. Their movements were constrained, and they couldn't even use one-tenth of their strength. Their slashes and stabs were weak and powerless, simply ridiculous.
There were even three or two who had clearly seen the gap in their strengths with the girl. They had braced themselves and charged forward, but it was just for show. They casually waved the weapons in their hands, the tips of their swords far from the enemy, not even able to reach the corner of the girl's clothes.
A group of mixed-quality people rushed up in a chaotic mess. On the contrary, they hindered and blocked each other. Their respective moves were blocked by their own people several times, becoming a classic example of 1+1 being less than 1.
The pink-haired girl sneered as she watched them rush up recklessly. The butterfly dual swords in her hands flew up and down, dancing. Her figure was like a roaming dragon playing with a phoenix. She moved through the crowd, and with a few slashes, taking advantage of the flaws in their cooperation, she knocked down this disorganized swarm of bees and ants one by one.
She still had the spare energy to only use the back and flat of her blade to cut people—Yūichi had said not to make the scene too ugly, so she tried her best to only injure and not kill. To do this against a group of cannon fodder was actually not difficult.
When she cut down the last person, an accident happened: that person had actually taken the initiative to rush onto the edge of her blade.
In the instant the girl was stunned, the blade had already pierced through his body, the blade exiting from his back.
"Boss, you go!" that person shouted. "I've got her!"
"..." The girl looked down at the youth. He didn't look very old, yet he was so loyal. It was a bit of a pity for such a person to die just like that. She opened her mouth and reminded him faintly, "Don't move. I didn't hit any important organs or blood vessels. You can still live."
The young man seemed to not have heard her. On the contrary, he forcefully pushed himself forward a step, letting the sword pierce even deeper. His blood-stained hands firmly gripped her hands. "Boss, go, I've got her!"
Before his death, the strength that erupted from his hands was no less than that of a genin!
The butterfly sword had completely pierced the youth's chest, but the other party seemed to not feel any pain at all.
"What a pity..." the Konoha ninja said softly. She had avoided his vital points just now, so even if he was stabbed so deeply, this boy could still be saved—if he was willing to let go.
While she was hesitating for a second or two whether to save him, Uran, who had been lying on the ground all this time, had quietly picked up a long sword from the ground.
"Go to hell!"
In his urgency, the speed of a Jonin suddenly erupted. The long sword pierced through the boy's heart and stabbed into the girl's chest.
The sharp blade pierced through her chest. An unexpected blow had killed the girl on the spot.
Crack, crack.
The girl's body faintly became transparent.
"I killed a Konoha ninja. I have to get out of the Land of Fire quickly!" Uran said to himself, a little nervous. He knew that the "trading company" or the "underground bounty station" could not protect him. He picked up the butterfly sword that the girl had dropped, and without looking back, he rushed out.
He had completely failed to notice that behind him, the enemy he had killed had turned into a pile of broken ice.
The rogue-nin ran wildly, thinking about his escape route.
The road was silent, with only the faint sound of screams or fighting coming from other places, which soon disappeared. Uran guessed that these were the girl's comrades. He quickened his pace, hoping that he could quietly slip out through the only exit.
And then he arrived at the main gate.
His rushing steps, the moment he saw the scene at the gate, came to a halt.
The ground was filled with members of the bounty station, either unconscious or lying on the ground groaning, filling the entire courtyard in front of the gate.
Dozens of girls, all holding a conical hat, some standing, some sitting, some leaning against the wall, or holding an unconscious bounty station member... their postures were all different, but their figures and appearances were exactly the same. They all turned their heads in unison and looked at Uran.
The same icy temperament, the same sharp chakra signature.
Under the gaze of dozens of pairs of emotionless, indifferent eyes, Uran couldn't help but take a step back.
"This is..." the rogue-nin muttered in disbelief, "...clones...?"
Yes, this was... Haruno Sakura's ice clone.
Uran's voice trembled, and he suddenly felt weak all over.
He finally realized that he had just been fighting with a clone for a long time.
"Not bad taijutsu."
One of the girls closest to him, sitting quietly on the side, gave him a faint look.
"To think you actually managed to kill one of us."
Haruno Sakura's clone said.
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