"Multiple Shadow Clone Jutsu!"
Kairen evenly split all his chakra. With a series of "bang, bang" sounds echoing around, fifteen shadow clones instantly surrounded him.
"Clones? No! These are physicalized shadow clones! How could a genin possibly master such a jutsu?" Tanigawa finally grew serious.
If he had known that Kairen was using the forbidden jutsu, the Multiple Shadow Clone, his reaction would have been far more than just "serious."
Exhaustion weighed down on Kairen's entire body, but he forced himself to muster enough strength to command his shadow clones.
"…Brothers, charge! Cut… cut him down!"
"Uraaa——!"
The shadow clones swarmed forward. Some threw stones, some flung mud, some picked up kunai from the ground and hurled them, while others cursed his entire family…
Tanigawa sneered. "So what if you use a jutsu like this? Your fundamentals are too weak!"
As Uchiha Itachi once said, the power of ninjutsu depends not on its difficulty, but on the user's own ability and qualities.
Kairen lay weakly on the ground, eyes wide open as he watched his clones get dispatched one by one with a single kick each from Tanigawa. He crushed them effortlessly.
The experiences of the clones before their deaths flooded into Kairen's brain, compounded by the agony of chakra depletion. His eyes slowly shut.
"Ding!"
"Due to complete chakra exhaustion, you have died. EXP +30!"
Tanigawa looked at Kairen, whose chest no longer rose and fell, his eyes closed. "Dead from chakra exhaustion? This time there shouldn't be any more strange tricks, right?"
But just as he finished speaking, white smoke burst out from Kairen's body. Revived once more, Kairen quickly pulled up the system's exchange interface.
He had 141 EXP points. He didn't know what he could redeem to deal with Tanigawa.
The system's reminder rang out: "Use EXP to enhance the Ninja Eight Attributes, improving your physical qualities."
Kairen swiftly switched to his genin template.
［Nin-Tai-Gen-Int-Str-Spd-Sta-Seal］ — as a ninja's eight foundations, each one was crucial.
The system reminded: "20 EXP points increase one genin attribute by 1."
Kairen quickly allocated points to ［Strength］ and ［Speed］. What he needed most right now was power and speed.
The system's voice echoed: "Strength +3, Speed +3!"
Three points went into strength, three into speed. Immediately, Kairen felt a surge of power welling up within his body.
At the same time, his steps grew light, almost as if he could dance.
Both his strength and speed reached level 4, already mid-tier among genin, comparable to some young genin elites.
Through the smoke, Kairen grabbed a ninja blade and lunged at Tanigawa.
Tanigawa finally realized Kairen's strangeness.
"This guy… he can't die?! What kind of bloodline is this?!"
Kairen slashed at him with the blade. Tanigawa dodged easily, but Kairen's speed had jumped again, the blade nearly cleaving into his back.
"How is his speed faster than before?"
Tanigawa was surprised, but with chūnin-level qualities, he quickly reacted.
Blocking the strike with his kunai, his arm shot out like a venomous snake, twisting Kairen's neck in an instant.
"Ding!"
"You were killed by Chūnin Tanigawa twisting your neck. EXP +30!"
Another puff of white smoke erupted. Kairen leapt out of it, blade in hand.
"Wind Style: Wind Cutter Jutsu!"
Sharp wind blades slashed across Kairen, slicing his body into several pieces.
"Ding!"
"You were killed by Chūnin Tanigawa using Wind Style. EXP +45!"
"Hahaha… I am the undying shinobi. Compared to me, Kairen, the rubble of Sunagakure isn't even worth half a piece!"
"Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!"
"Ding!"
"You were killed by Chūnin Tanigawa using Wind Style. EXP +40!"
"Ding!"
"You were killed by Chūnin Tanigawa with a kunai. EXP +30!"
"Strength +1, Speed +1."
"Ding!"
"You were killed by Chūnin Tanigawa slitting your throat. EXP +30!"
"Ding!"
"You were killed by Chūnin Tanigawa decapitating you. EXP +30!"
"Strength +2, Speed +2."
...
No one knew how much time had passed. Tanigawa braced himself against a tree trunk, face pale, his eyes weakly staring at the white smoke ahead.
"Hahaha… Sunagakure's lackey, are you too exhausted to keep dancing? Then let me, Kairen, send you off the stage!"
Kairen clasped his hands in a seal and, in a sudden Body Flicker, rushed at Tanigawa, gripping a half-broken ninja blade.
"Damn it!" Tanigawa growled darkly. He had killed the opponent at least ten times, yet every time that strange white smoke revived him.
Each time, the opponent grew stronger, faster. His qualities now stood at mid-tier genin.
Seeing the figure rushing closer, Tanigawa stopped hesitating. Gritting his teeth, he raised a kunai already stained with his own blood.
Blade clashed against kunai, sparking faintly.
Bending low, Tanigawa swung the kunai up, severing the tendons of Kairen's left hand.
At last, he realized—killing him wouldn't work. He had to disable him.
"Hahahaha…"
A crazed, frenzied expression twisted across Kairen's face. Numbed by the constant pain, his nerves had gone wild. He completely abandoned defense, raising his right hand to slash upward.
Tanigawa twisted aside, swinging his ninja blade diagonally, chopping off one of Kairen's legs.
Bloodshot eyes glaring, Kairen collapsed onto the ground, staring at Tanigawa slowly approaching.
"Heh… let's see how arrogant you are now."
Hardening his resolve, Kairen suddenly raised the blade and slashed his own throat.
"Ding!"
"You used your own blade to slit your throat. Suicide. EXP +5!"
Such a low evaluation for suicide… looks like he couldn't abuse this bug again. That was Kairen's last thought as he died.
"Damn it, this guy's that ruthless?" Tanigawa frowned as white smoke once again surged up, a bad premonition forming in his chest.
His stamina was gone. He could no longer refine chakra. If this kept up, he'd be worn down to death.
"Hahaha… as long as I feel like it, it's enough to take the life of a desert crawler like you!"
As the smoke cleared, Kairen stood bare-chested, wearing only ninja shorts. His body was completely unscathed, his bright eyes brimming with madness and killing intent.
Being killed again and again by Tanigawa, the excruciating pain was carved deep into Kairen's mind.
Now, what he wanted most was to chop off Tanigawa's head and kick it like a ball!
Tanigawa's heart sank. "Escape!"
Without a moment's hesitation, he turned and leapt across the tree branches, fleeing.
"Think you can run?"
Kairen chased after him with his blade, pulling up the system interface.
After so many repeated deaths, he had accumulated a great deal of EXP. Some had been spent to boost strength and speed—both now at level 8, advanced genin—but he still had 300 points left.
Kairen opened the ninjutsu exchange menu.
［Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu］ — conveniently priced at 300 points.
"Exchange!"
"Ding!"
"Host successfully redeemed Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu."
A surge of information rushed into his brain—the hand seals, casting method, fire nature chakra transformation techniques, and diagrams of chakra flow through the meridian system…
Hands flashing through seals, Kairen used a Body Flicker to close the gap with Tanigawa.
At the speed of one seal per second, he burned through six full seconds.
［Boar–Dog–Bird–Monkey–Ram——］
Stopping on the final Tiger seal, sparks flickered in his eyes. Fire chakra rapidly gathered in his throat.
Kairen puffed his cheeks.
"Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu!"
He spat out a stream of flame, small at first. But as more chakra poured out, the fireball grew larger and larger.
Finally, it swelled into the size of a massive gate, roaring straight toward Tanigawa.
The scorching heat made Tanigawa glance back, disbelief in his eyes as the massive fireball engulfed him.
"Fire Style ninjutsu… impossible?!"
The fireball smashed into him. The searing flames roasted his skin, ripping a scream of agony from his throat.
"AAAAHHHHHH!"
When the flames subsided, Tanigawa fell from the tree trunk, his body charred black, his face unrecognizable.
Kairen approached, seeing the faint rise and fall of his chest.
One swift stroke—Tanigawa's head rolled, eyes wide open, unwilling even in death.
Exhaling in relief, Kairen's voice carried a hint of Sasuke's second-brother tone. "The moment you set your eyes on the fledgling in its nest, you already sealed your fate—slain beneath the gaze of the hawk soaring through the sky."
"Swish, swish, swish——"
Several figures in light brown flashed by, forehead protectors shaped like hourglasses.
Cold eyes locked on Kairen, circling him like a pack of wolves.
Kairen swallowed, his voice mechanical. "…I take back what I just said!"
Seeing one Sunagakure shinobi about to move, Kairen hurriedly clasped his hands to form seals, preparing to unleash the Great Fireball Jutsu.
But his one-seal-per-second pace made the cold-eyed shinobi almost want to laugh.
One of them stepped forward, striking Kairen's neck with a sharp hand chop, knocking him unconscious.
As darkness claimed him, Kairen regretted, I shouldn't have tried to talk like Sasuke.
The Sunagakure ninja said coldly,
"I just saw his battle with Tanigawa. Strange indeed. He released white smoke after being killed, then revived again."
The leader was shocked.
"Reviving after smoke dispersal? Could be a mutated bloodline. Let's bring him back to camp, deliver him to Shabei."
"A shame about Tanigawa, killed by a genin!"
"No shame in that. If we can harness his undying bloodline, the village's strength will skyrocket—maybe even win this war."
"True enough!"
One shinobi hefted Kairen over his shoulder. Together, they flitted through the forest, their figures slowly vanishing at the edge of the treeline.
...
Drop some Powerstones