Chapter 54: Escape from Konoha
"Water Style: Water Dragon Jutsu."
"Lightning Style: Lightning Movement Jutsu."
"Ninja Art: Thunder Water Dragon Bullet."
Within the span of a single second, the Third Hokage formed the seals for two different jutsu, instantly releasing a combined elemental technique—Thunder Water Dragon Bullet.
A massive water dragon, thick and long like a bullet train, crackling with lightning, formed above the Third's head and shot toward Li Yao.
Rumble!
The thunder dragon surged forward like a serpent at high speed, tearing up earth and trees in its path as though plowing a field.
Boom!
In the blink of an eye, the Thunder Water Dragon Bullet reached Li Yao.
Faced with this terrifying strike, Li Yao didn't dodge.
In fact, not dodging was the best strategy.
Given the Third's chakra control, if Li Yao tried to evade, the dragon would simply curve and strike him instantly.
"Sealing Jutsu: Black Iron Chain Rasengan."
Li Yao stretched his arms out to either side, and in an instant, countless hair-thin black iron chains spiraled and compressed around him, forming a black sphere like a Rasengan made entirely of rapidly spinning chain threads.
Bang!
Boom!
The Third's Thunder Water Dragon Bullet slammed into Li Yao's Black Iron Chain Rasengan, but the tremendous impact was deflected to both sides by the high-speed rotation of the chains.
In a flash, two deep trenches, four to five meters deep, were carved out behind Li Yao as the scattered thunder-infused water blasted backward, finally crashing into the walls of the Four Violet Flames Formation.
As the dust cleared—
A massive, rotating black chakra sphere remained. The sight left the Third slightly stunned; this high-speed chakra-based absolute defense was very reminiscent of the Hyuga clan's Gentle Fist technique—Rotation.
But upon sensing the essence of Li Yao's black chakra, the Third shook his head. This wasn't Rotation. It was just a similar jutsu.
Still, its defensive capability was undeniable.
"Very high ninjutsu resistance too..."
The Third narrowed his eyes. He had noticed this earlier when using Fire Style techniques—Li Yao's black Adamantine Sealing Chakra resisted jutsu surprisingly well, leaving him almost unscathed.
Even with his strongest combined ninjutsu, the Thunder Water Dragon Bullet, he still couldn't penetrate Li Yao's defenses.
It was now confirmed: ninjutsu wasn't effective against Li Yao.
In contrast, taijutsu had slightly more effect.
But even his earlier attack—a full-force blow using chakra-enhanced strength and Enma's indestructible staff—had only caused Li Yao to spit some blood and suffer minor injuries.
The Third's brow furrowed deeper.
He had to admit, Li Yao's Black Iron Chains were proving to be a serious headache.
Extremely high resistance to ninjutsu, powerful physical defense, virtually no weak points—it truly deserved to be called an "absolute defense."
But the Third Hokage was no amateur.
With his vast combat experience, he quickly thought of a strategy to counter Li Yao's turtle shell-like defense.
"Water Style: Water Shockwave!"
The Third formed hand seals again. This time, instead of expelling water from his mouth, water chakra swirled and condensed around his body before erupting into a massive tidal wave toward Li Yao.
Li Yao's Black Iron Chain Rasengan continued to deflect the oncoming water.
But this wasn't an open battlefield—it was a closed space within the Four Violet Flames Formation.
The giant waves quickly engulfed Li Yao and his spinning chain defense.
Inside the barrier, the water level rapidly rose twenty meters.
Underwater, Li Yao maintained his Rasengan of chains, fending off all encroaching currents.
The Third stood on the water's surface, watching the rotating black chakra sphere beneath, eyes narrowing slightly.
"Let's see how long you can last."
Without oxygen and constantly outputting chakra to keep the technique active, Li Yao's chakra expenditure must be enormous.
The Third was familiar with Kimura Yao's physical limitations.
No matter how great Li Yao's talent, he couldn't change the reality that Kimura Yao's body couldn't generate much chakra.
There was no need to attack. He simply had to wait for Li Yao to run out of chakra.
Inside the Rasengan, Li Yao shook his head at the situation—he really didn't have any better options.
In the end, his range of techniques was too limited.
He only had the Black Iron Chains and the Art of Darkness to rely on. Against the Third, who was experienced and skilled in taijutsu, neither had much effect.
Meanwhile, the Third could exploit his openings and land hits.
Using Wood Style chakra to release basic wood-based attacks wouldn't help either.
It would only expose more of his abilities, and to someone like the Third—who had witnessed Hashirama Senju's power—Li Yao's Wood Style was hardly impressive.
Ultimately, it came down to one thing: he didn't have enough chakra.
If he had chakra on the level of Hashirama Senju, he could unleash a web of Black Iron Chains over a kilometer radius like Tree World Descending, leaving the Third with nowhere to run.
But chakra volume was Li Yao's weakness.
That was why he had focused on developing the Black Iron Chains first, instead of Wood Style techniques.
The great advantage of the Black Iron Chains was that they could be retracted into his chakra acupoints.
Combined with his absolute chakra control, even chains exposed to the environment consumed almost no chakra—practically negligible.
As long as Li Yao had stamina and focus, he could keep using the Black Iron Chains indefinitely.
This greatly extended his ability to fight and offset his low chakra reserves.
So the Third's plan—to trap him underwater and force him to exhaust his chakra—was destined to fail.
Besides, Li Yao also needed time to stall the Third.
So he kept the Black Iron Chain Rasengan spinning at high speed to mislead the Third.
...
"Good."
"Time to move."
Inside the Root base, Li Yao flicked his hands, the black iron chains connected to his palms clanking as they flung off the blood.
To his right, the Root ninja Wind Hawk lay dead in a pool of blood, reduced to just a head—its eyes still glaring at Li Yao with rage.
"This is the importance of intel."
"The Third never expected him to know Shadow Clone Technique."
Li Yao chuckled softly. The thrill of overwhelming someone through information disparity filled him with satisfaction.
He had already paid the price once for being careless.
He wouldn't repeat that mistake.
He knew that once he escaped, the Third would lead an unknown number of ninjas to hunt him down. With his current strength, the chances of escaping were slim.
The best way was to divide the pursuers.
So after breaking out of the ground, it was his clone that exited first. His real body stayed hidden in a secret chamber, using its sealing formulas to block chakra sensing.
Thus, when the Third passed through the tunnel, he didn't sense Li Yao's presence.
Unaware that Li Yao could use clones, the Third naturally assumed the clone was his true self.
Li Yao had originally planned to lure the Third much farther away before moving out himself.
But he underestimated the Third's strength.
Or rather, he had misjudged the gap between them.
As a result, he hadn't led the Third far enough, and it wasn't safe to move yet—he might be detected.
But staying hidden forever wasn't an option either.
The longer he delayed, the more reinforcements would arrive. His chances of escaping would shrink.
Fortunately, luck was on Li Yao's side.
The perception-blocking ability of the Four Violet Flames Formation meant he didn't have to worry about the Third sensing him once he emerged.
As for the other ANBU… he'd deal with them when the time came.
This was already the best possible scenario.
"It's time to go."
Whoosh whoosh!
Two black iron chains shot out from his hands and latched onto either side of the tunnel. With a pull, Li Yao propelled himself out of the Root base and landed firmly on the ground.
He looked toward the purple barrier standing tall in the woods beside the Hokage Rock and smiled.
Then, he retracted his Black Iron Chain cloak into his chakra acupoints, leaving himself naked, suppressed his chakra signature, and ran toward the opposite side of the Hokage Rock.
With his absolute control over chakra—and knowledge gained from observing the ANBU who once guarded him—Li Yao knew exactly how they suppressed their chakra to hide their presence.
His control was far beyond theirs.
He could prevent any natural chakra leakage from his body and suppress fluctuations to the limit.
Unless it was someone like Minato Namikaze, with a special sensory ability, no ordinary ninja would detect him unless they were extremely close.
Moreover, the Root base was uninhabited.
It was nighttime. Even though the battle between the Third and his shadow clone had drawn attention, not enough time had passed for others to arrive.
And so, Li Yao silently passed through the forest, reached the edge of the chakra-sensing barrier surrounding all of Konoha—and still hadn't been discovered.
Once he crossed it, he would officially be out of the village.
As for whether he could ultimately escape the chase alive… that was a matter for later.
(END CHAPTER)
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