"Not that easy if you want my life."
Raizen's eyes flicked over the ninjas hemming him in. Calmly, he plunged his hands into the ninja bag at his side, pulling out handfuls of Flying Thunder God Kunai and tossing them casually around.
The surrounding Hyuga watched warily. At first, they expected a direct attack, but Raizen wasn't striking. He just scattered his weapons like a careless gambler dropping chips on a table. Confusion flickered across their faces.
"Relax. I'm not here to make enemies," Raizen said, spreading his hands. "See? I'm just… sharing."
But behind that carefree gesture, his mind raced. Every kunai he tossed was a potential trap, each Flying Thunder God mark a strategic foothold. Chaos was his playground.
"Don't want to resist?" Ueshi Dezheng's eyes gleamed coldly. He sneered at Raizen and barked a command.
"Stop wasting time! Kill him!"
Instantly, the five Chūnin surrounding Raizen surged in five separate directions, kunai at the ready, intent on closing in. Each blade gleamed, aimed with lethal precision.
"Not yet…" Raizen muttered, low and sharp. He watched them, watched the Kunai, calculating the perfect moment.
One Chūnin lunged past a Flying Thunder God Kunai. Raizen's body blurred, vanishing in an instant.
"Huh?!" The Chūnin froze. And in that brief heartbeat of confusion, Raizen reappeared behind him, chakra condensed into a spinning ball in his palm.
"Rasengan!"
The blue sphere pressed into the Chūnin's back. Boom! The body flew across the field, convulsing as life left it almost immediately.
"Hateful!" Ueshi Dezheng roared, drawing his blade with a screeching edge, surging toward Raizen with lethal intent.
In this era, ninjutsu wasn't a dazzling spectacle—it was a tool, a supplement to peak physical skill. Warring States shinobi were masters of body and blade, and Ueshi Dezheng was no exception.
His sword shot forward like lightning, aimed directly at Raizen's throat.
"Fast speed!" Raizen hissed, activating a Flying Thunder God mark. He vanished just as the blade struck, leaving nothing but air in its wake.
"It… again?!" Ueshi Dezheng's eyes widened as Raizen reappeared elsewhere, impossible to pin down. The two elite Hyuga Jōnin—one unseen until now—stepped forward, silent and lethal, eyes glinting with predatory focus.
Pressure crashed down on Raizen like a tidal wave. Even with Flying Thunder God, the combined instincts and reflexes of these two Jōnin made every move a high-stakes gamble. Each teleport brought him closer to them, only to be met with instant counters.
Whoosh! Ueshi Tokusaka's long sword sliced through the air again. The accompanying Hyuga ninja paused mid-attack.
Raizen's grin was invisible under his mask of concentration. He pushed Flying Thunder God to the limit, scattering afterimages everywhere—not clones, not illusions, but traces left in the blink of teleportation.
"What… a strange jutsu…" one of the elite Jōnin muttered, eyes scanning.
One Raizen, two Raizen, three… ten, fifty. The entire battlefield seemed alive with him, each mark a phantom of movement. The Hyuga powerhouses froze, astonished, trying to process a reality where Raizen was literally everywhere at once.
And in that chaos, Raizen thrived.
...
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