Chapter 51: Battle, Instant Defeat of the Root Squad
"Attack!"
Although shocked by the chakra cloak on Li Yao and the power it represented, the Root trio did not lose their composure.
At that moment, the battle instincts of a ninja were displayed to the fullest.
The moment Li Yao stepped out of the laboratory door, the Root ninja hidden in the left corridor immediately formed hand seals to perform a jutsu.
"Shadow Imitation Technique!"
This man turned out to be a member of the Nara clan from the Ino-Shika-Cho trio, Nara Egawa, codename "Black Shadow" in the Root division. He specialized in the clan's secret shadow techniques.
Three shadows shot from under his feet, racing along the left and right walls and the floor toward Li Yao's own shadow, cast by the corridor lights. There was no room to dodge.
The speed was so great that even the prepared Li Yao failed to evade and was instantly restrained.
This clearly showed that while Li Yao had developed a sealing technique as powerful and versatile as the Black Iron Chains, his personal combat experience was still lacking.
He couldn't effectively make use of his own power.
Still, Li Yao remained calm.
Swoosh!
At the same moment the Nara ninja moved—
From the right corridor, the invisible squad leader also revealed himself and used Body Flicker Technique to appear quickly at Li Yao's side.
Li Yao, now immobilized by the Shadow Imitation Technique, was completely still. The two attackers were coordinated, trusting each other with precise timing.
The squad leader raised his hand and aimed a sealing jutsu at Li Yao's head, intending to seal him completely.
As a test subject from Lab Zero, capturing him alive was the top priority.
But by now, Li Yao had already reacted.
If he hadn't, that would've been a disgrace to his abnormal chakra sensing ability.
Just as the squad leader's hand was about to touch Li Yao's head, with a "got him" thought flashing in his mind—
Clang!
Suddenly, from the side of Li Yao's head, a black iron chain shot out, phasing from solid to intangible as it pierced the squad leader's palm and entered his body.
The instant it touched the squad leader's chakra network and dantian, it sealed all of his chakra.
Without chakra, he couldn't perform any ninjutsu or even taijutsu.
Even if his physical strength far surpassed an ordinary person's, he couldn't resist being bound by Li Yao's chains.
Li Yao's Black Iron Chain spread like a vine. Seven thinner chains sprouted and coiled tightly around the squad leader's arms and body.
"Damn it!"
On the other side, the Nara ninja instantly realized something was wrong when the chain pierced his captain—his Shadow Imitation Technique had failed to stop the enemy from using jutsu.
Without hesitation, he changed his hand seals, intending to transform his shadow into the Shadow Neck Binding Technique and crush the chain.
But it was too late.
Just as he formed the seals, a Black Iron Chain had already emerged from the ground beneath him.
Clang clang clang!
Three chains shot up—one pierced Nara Egawa's body, instantly sealing his chakra, while the other two wrapped around him like a tightly bound package.
"How... damn it!"
Bound in an instant, Nara Egawa's face first showed disbelief, then regret.
He had assumed that the ground in Root's base was protected by sealing formulas. Without knowing the seals' codes, it should have been impossible to use earth-based jutsu like Earth Release: Headhunter.
But he had seen Li Yao exit the sealed lab door without breaking the seal.
At that moment, he should have realized that the seals on the floor wouldn't stop this test subject's techniques either.
But the battle had been too quick.
From the moment Li Yao appeared to the moment they were subdued, less than a second had passed.
In that short time, their instincts dictated all their actions.
First they attacked, then tried to react with counter-jutsu.
And when Li Yao first appeared, all their attention had been focused on his fearsome chakra cloak.
They had no time to analyze how he passed through the sealed lab door.
And so, Nara Egawa had no defense against Li Yao's underground chain strike and was swiftly defeated.
With his chakra sealed, Nara Egawa lost control of his technique, and the Shadow Imitation dispersed.
Li Yao regained full movement.
"Damn it—Jimin!"
At that moment, the squad leader, who had just watched Li Yao's chain erupt from the ground and bind "Black Shadow" (Nara Egawa), turned pale. He had been counting on their third member, Jimin, who was hidden underground.
Sure enough, the next moment—
Boom!
"Hmm?"
In front of the lab doors, Li Yao suddenly exploded into a puff of white smoke.
The Root squad leader and Nara Egawa were stunned.
Boom!
Then, the lab doors were blown open, revealing a large hole.
Through the dust, Li Yao—dressed in his Black Iron Chain cloak—stepped out over broken stone.
Boom...!
Behind him, a chain yanked up a masked Root ninja from the floor like pulling out a carrot.
It was Jimin, the one their captain had hoped would turn the tide. A ninja skilled in Earth Release and stealth.
"So that's it..."
The squad leader and Nara Egawa looked on bitterly.
Now they understood: they had been fighting a shadow clone all along.
They hadn't even managed to defeat a clone—and were subdued almost instantly.
Three coordinated Root jonin, brought down by one test subject's clone.
The Root trio felt humiliated.
In contrast, Li Yao felt refreshed.
Once he realized the lab door, walls, and floor were reinforced with seals, he knew he might have triggered an alarm the moment he exited the pod.
And when he removed the seal that Danzo placed near his heart, that likely alerted Danzo too.
Anticipating ambushes, he used a clone technique developed by his previous self, Kimura Yao's father, to create a clone and have it exit the lab.
Meanwhile, he stayed inside, protected from detection by the sealing barriers.
The Root squad couldn't sense his presence and assumed the clone was real.
Even if they suspected otherwise, it was useless.
After all, the Shadow Clone Technique could even fool Sage-level opponents.
His clone even possessed his unique chakra sensory and transformation ability.
The moment the clone stepped out, it connected with the ground and instantly analyzed and copied all the chakra attributes and transformations within the surrounding seals.
Thus, the corridor seals couldn't stop his chains.
And Jimin, hidden underground, couldn't escape Li Yao's chakra sensing either.
The moment he struck the other two, he also bound Jimin with a chain and sealed his chakra.
"Heh heh."
Li Yao walked into the middle of the corridor, manipulating the chains to drag the three Root ninjas before him.
In an instant, three elite jonin had fallen to his hand.
This not only showed the power of his chains—but also proved something else.
In ninja battles, intelligence was everything.
These three lost simply because they didn't know what Li Yao could do.
Had they known about the chains' sealing power and their seamless usage without hand seals, Nara Egawa wouldn't have used Shadow Imitation. He would've gone for Shadow Neck Binding to cripple the enemy immediately.
That would've destroyed the clone.
Then the fight might have—
Li Yao shook his head. No point dwelling on "what if."
Reality had no "if."
Defeat was defeat.
Refocusing, Li Yao looked at the three floating in front of him.
"Where's the exit?" he asked.
"Give it up, you can't escape," the squad leader replied. "This is Konoha. I've already informed the Hokage. No matter what, you won't—"
Pop pop pop!
In an instant, the squad leader and his two teammates burst like water balloons, blood and flesh splattering across the corridor and onto Li Yao.
Li Yao didn't care to listen to his nonsense—he simply crushed them with the chains.
"Phew... such a familiar scent!"
Li Yao sighed.
"Sandaime... and your wife and son... I wonder if your blood smells as sweet."
"No rush. No rush."
Suddenly, Li Yao stifled his mad expression and returned to a calm smile, suppressing his longing for the Third Hokage.
First, he had to get out.
Glancing down the corridor, he extended his chakra sense—but frowned.
The entire base seemed to be under layers of perception-blocking barriers. His chakra sensing couldn't go far.
There were no other ninja nearby.
He couldn't gauge the base's size, let alone locate the exit.
In that case… Li Yao looked up.
At the very least, above his head—there must be sky!
With a thought, four black iron chains behind him shot upward.
...
"What the hell did Danzo leave in that lab?"
On the way to the Root base, the Third Hokage asked the Root agent codenamed "Wind Hawk" who had reported in.
The Third knew Danzo. If he left something in the lab that warranted notifying him personally, it was no small matter.
"Sorry, Lord Hokage, we don't know either," Wind Hawk replied. Only Danzo knew what was inside Lab Zero.
But Danzo had instructed that if anything went wrong in Lab Zero, they were to seek the Hokage's help immediately to ensure whatever was inside didn't escape.
So when the lab malfunctioned, the squad leader had immediately sent him to notify the Hokage.
"Don't tell me... it's that person!"
When Wind Hawk gave no useful information, a certain child's image suddenly came to the Third's mind.
"Danzo, you'd better not have ignored my warnings, or I'll make you pay."
If the test subject was indeed Li Yao, things could get ugly.
He had never underestimated Li Yao.
A man who could endure such torment for half a year without revealing a flaw—if he escaped, it meant he was ready.
Yet the Third knew nothing about him.
Other than his immunity to genjutsu and a modified spirit technique, he didn't know what Li Yao was capable of.
But he was certain—if that man was still alive, he was now extremely dangerous.
"Let's hope it's not him..."
Even as he told himself that, the feeling of unease in the Third Hokage's heart grew stronger the closer they got to the base.
Boom!
Suddenly, when they were still 500 meters from the entrance, four towering black chakra chains erupted from the earth behind the Root base.
"Hmm... is that Adamantine Sealing Chains?"
The Third Hokage froze in place, his face then filled with horror.
Though these chains were black, not gold like the ones he remembered, as a master of sealing jutsu himself, he could clearly sense the same sealing chakra signature.
Only the Uzumaki clan—masters of sealing arts—could keep chakra constantly flowing in the form of sealing chains.
"Danzo, how dare you?"
"Lady Mito is still alive!"
His pupils dilated, and he trembled in fear and rage.
His old, smoke-darkened face turned red as blood.
The Uzumaki clan had been wiped out only a few years ago.
Konoha had been working to gather the surviving Uzumaki.
Yet not a single survivor could be found.
And now it seemed Danzo had hidden at least one in his lab.
What would Lady Mito think?
People might even assume he had approved such treatment of the Uzumaki.
He could be blamed for the destruction of the Land of Whirlpools and the Uzumaki clan.
If Lady Mito went mad with grief, who could stop her?
Did Danzo not understand how dangerous this was?
Clearly, the Third mistook Li Yao's chains for Uzumaki Adamantine Sealing Chains and thus assumed Li Yao was an Uzumaki.
Which led him to spiral into dangerous speculation.
"Damn you, Danzo. This must never reach Lady Mito... hmm!"
Just as the Third resolved to handle the escaped test subject swiftly—
The four chains above the base twisted like arms, gripping the hole's edge as if pulling something up.
Whoosh!
No—actually pulling something up.
Out from the hole emerged a man.
Dressed in black, he floated in midair—facing the Third's group exactly 400 meters away.
"Sandaime."
"Li Yao."
The two locked eyes.
Then, without hesitation, Li Yao turned and launched two chains to latch onto distant points, flinging himself away.
He had no interest in confronting the man he once longed to fight.
The Third Hokage reacted quickly. In a heartbeat, after a moment of shock, he bit his thumb, clapped his hands in midair—
A black summoning array appeared.
Poof!
A muscular old monkey emerged—it was Enma, the Third Hokage's summon.
"Who is it this time, Hiruzen?" Enma asked seriously, not yet looking at the airborne Li Yao.
But knowing the Third's strength, he knew the enemy had to be formidable.
(END CHAPTER)
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