The moment Amamiya Raizen vanished and reappeared mid-air, hurling his Flying Thunder God kunai again, the Ueshi shinobi scattered instantly—jumping away from the landing points in pure panic.
Good. They'd learned to fear it.
But fear alone never saved anyone.
Raizen pulled out another handful of marked kunai from his pouch and flung them in a wide arc.
The Ueshi ninja, expecting another teleport ambush, leapt aside once more—right into each other's blind spots.
That's when Raizen struck.
By the time they realized he hadn't teleported at all, two of their comrades had already collapsed—throats sliced clean by invisible hands.
"Two down," Raizen murmured. "Try harder, please."
"Damn it! Stop running and attack!"
Ueshi Tokusaka's roar shook the valley. The ground beneath his feet cracked as his chakra surged, and he slammed both palms down.
The kunai embedded in the soil trembled—then sank deep underground, swallowed by moving earth.
"Smart move," one of his men shouted. "Everyone, use Earth Release: Ground Fury! If we bury those kunai, he can't teleport anymore! He can't have endless tags!"
"Do it!" Tokusaka barked.
One after another, sixteen Ueshi shinobi clapped their hands together, channeling Earth Release chakra into the terrain. The earth heaved like a breathing beast, swallowing every Flying Thunder God marker within ten meters.
When the tremors faded, Raizen's teleport points were gone—buried deep beneath the soil.
Raizen landed on a broken scaffold and sighed. "...Well, that's inconvenient."
The first stage of Flying Thunder God relied entirely on his kunai markers.
If the coordinates were lost or obstructed, the jutsu's range collapsed completely.
In other words—his teleportation was now half-dead.
"Not bad for a bunch of dirtbenders," he muttered. "Guess it's time to take this vertical."
Raizen formed a one-handed seal, and chakra flared from his body in a wave of humidity.
Thick mist began pouring across the Tiannan Mine—rolling, cold, suffocating.
"Hidden Mist Jutsu."
The fog spread fast, devouring firelight, swallowing shadows.
Within moments, the Ueshi camp was blind.
"Everyone, regroup! Don't scatter!" Tokusaka's voice echoed through the haze.
The enemy commander's expression hardened. Raizen's unpredictability was driving him mad.
Teleportation, explosive clay, now mist—each jutsu was simple on its own, but together?
A tactical nightmare.
"Eyes up! He's using the mist as cover!" Tokusaka shouted.
But by then, the fog had become so dense that even their torches vanished behind the veil.
Night turned to pitch black.
Up in the mist, Raizen crouched atop his clay owl, watching the chaos below.
"No Byakugan down there," he muttered, grinning. "Good. That means this trick actually works."
He reached into his pouch and pulled out a handful of clay, pressing it into the open mouths on his palms.
"Eat up."
The clay bubbled and spat out tiny clay grasshoppers, each one twitching with chakra before hopping off his arm and disappearing into the mist.
"Let's see how you handle bugs in the dark."
Down below, Ueshi Tokusaka felt a strange chill crawl up his spine.
Something was wrong.
"Defensive formation! Everyone, use Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall! Surround our perimeter, now!"
"Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall!"
The ground rumbled as thick earthen barricades rose, enclosing the Ueshi formation in a fortress of dirt and stone.
"Good. That buys us a few seconds." Tokusaka's voice was steady again.
"But he's using explosive clay—an Earth-type construct. We'll counter it with Lightning Release."
"Lightning users, step forward!"
Six shinobi moved up without hesitation. Tokusaka gestured sharply. "Climb the walls! Channel your chakra outward. I want the air itself electrified!"
They obeyed instantly.
Within moments, blue lightning danced across the surface of the earthen barricades, spreading into the mist like veins of light.
The next second—
Pop! Pop! Pop!
Each clay grasshopper detonated prematurely, turned into harmless bursts of smoke and static before they could reach their targets.
The sky crackled with lightning, and Raizen grimaced as his sensory link to the clay units was abruptly severed.
"Tch… they shorted out the signal."
His jaw tightened. "Alright then. Plan C."
The owl's wings beat harder as he rose higher through the clouds. The mist below flickered faintly with lightning—like the earth itself was trying to bite back.
"This is getting fun," Raizen muttered. His grin was sharp and tired at once. "But fine—let's see whose chakra runs out first."
...
Read up to 100 chapters ahead and access exclusive novels by joining my Patreon!
patreon.com/Zyxxar