Chapter 99: Fierce Battle with Elite Chunin
Masato VS Mieko & Hodaka—
While Kaito was engaging the enemy genin, Hodaka and Mieko were fighting Mano Masato.
Masato easily parried Mieko and Hodaka's initial attacks, even inflicting a minor injury on Hodaka.
Mieko noticed the wound on his chest and, without taking her eyes off Masato, asked, "Can you still fight?"
Hodaka replied, "Of course. Let's attack together!"
However, before they could coordinate their attack, Masato advanced with extreme speed and swung his sword again.
Mieko stepped forward and blocked his sword with a kunai. She kept her gaze on his eyes, but Masato always avoided eye contact with her.
Seeing Mieko block his sword, Hodaka attacked Masato again with Gentle Fist.
Seeing Hodaka's attack coming, Masato simply jumped backward, retreating.
This time, Hodaka did not continue his pursuit but stood alongside Mieko.
Masato looked at the two of them cautiously and sighed internally.
"It's a pity there's too much debris in these ruins. I can't use Earth Release techniques at all!"
Hodaka also couldn't use Earth Release effectively here, but he didn't mind, as he preferred taijutsu over ninjutsu anyway.
Masato was about to launch another attack when he noticed Kaito easily defeating his genin subordinates.
"Tsk. I should go help them."
Mieko and Hodaka noticed his momentary distraction and attacked him again. Mieko once more used Fire Release: Flame Finger.
Masato quickly dodged but was once again pressured by Hodaka.
Learning from his two previous failures, Hodaka switched to attacking with kunai this time.
Masato blocked, but Hodaka continued his assault with his other hand, attempting to seal his chakra points.
Masato used the force from Hodaka's kunai strike to jump backward.
Before Mieko and Hodaka could continue their attack, he ran toward Kaito's position. But he was quickly intercepted by two Wind Release: Wind Blast techniques from the Wind Clone left to monitor him.
The Wind Blast spheres were not actually aimed directly at Masato. Instead, the Wind Clone launched the techniques in a way that cut off his path.
The wind spheres exploded before reaching him, threatening him with the generated wind pressure. He had to retreat to avoid the blast, which resulted in him falling back in front of Mieko and Hodaka.
They quickly launched an attack on him, and Masato once again went on the defensive.
Only this time it was more difficult. Mieko finally found an opening and kicked him in the stomach, sending him flying backward.
As he was kicked away, Masato thought, "These kids are strong! Even if I fight one at a time, it's hard to defeat them without Earth Release techniques!"
Hodaka was about to attack again when he saw Mieko forming several hand seals.
He quickly cleared the way. Masato also noticed the hand seals.
Mieko completed the seals for Fire Release: Fireball Jutsu.
A huge fireball flew rapidly toward Masato. Hodaka followed the fireball from the left side.
"If he dodges this way, I can catch him."
Masato noticed Hodaka's positioning and dodged to the other side. The fireball reached his original position and exploded.
Since the debris below was mainly wood, it ignited another fire. The explosion also sent a large amount of burning wood flying in all directions.
Even though Masato dodged, he had to use his sword to block several incoming burning pieces of wood. The smoke and dust from the explosion and fire engulfed him.
Mieko spotted this opportunity and threw several shuriken at Masato.
Hodaka, on the other hand, returned to Mieko's position because the fire blocked his direct path to Masato.
Masato heard the sound of shuriken cutting through the air. He quickly jumped to the left, frowning.
"I need to get out of this smoke screen. Both of them have dojutsu. I'll be at a severe disadvantage here."
However, just as he was about to move, three shuriken flew toward him.
He blocked one with his sword and barely dodged the other two.
One shuriken left a wound on his right cheek, and the other grazed his left side.
After dodging them, he breathed a sigh of relief, but suddenly a sense of crisis arose!
He felt two thin wire strings, one just touching the wound on his face, and the other near his left side.
"Oh no! The shuriken have wire strings attached."
Masato quickly formed hand seals.
Seeing Masato fall for the trick and get entangled by the wire strings, Mieko smiled triumphantly.
She pulled the wires, allowing them to wrap around him, and the shuriken flew back to strike him in the back.
Hodaka also observed with his Byakugan. He saw Masato trapped by the wires and the shuriken hitting him in the back. But the next moment he transformed into a log!
Hodaka and Mieko sensed his chakra reappearing outside the smoke screen.
He had a wound on his right cheek and a very serious expression. He said, "You brats are quite formidable."
As he spoke, he analyzed, "Fighting them here is very difficult. I need to move to open ground. However, if I move, all those genin will die."
As he thought, he turned his head to look at his genin subordinates. When his gaze met Kaito's, he was shocked.
"All dead? That fast? Damn it!"
Realizing that Kaito would also attack him now, he decided to move to an open area.
"The only concern now is whether they'll attack Tomio and the other chunin instead of following me. But if they do, I can ambush them."
After reaching his decision, he quickly tried to leave the ruins and enter the open ground.
Mieko and Hodaka noticed this and thought, "Oh no! He might want to attack the merchants."
Mieko quickly formed several hand seals and used another technique—Fire Release: Phoenix Sage Fire Technique.
Small fireballs shot toward Masato's path, preventing him from escaping. Hodaka used the fireballs as a distraction to close the distance and attack Masato again.
This time, Masato fiercely counterattacked, forcing Hodaka to retreat step by step.
However, the next moment, he felt a gust of wind behind him. He quickly turned around and blocked the incoming sword with his own.
Kaito had noticed Masato trying to escape and used Mieko and Hodaka's attacks as a distraction to launch a sneak attack.
After blocking the sword, Masato looked around and became increasingly worried.
Kaito's Wind Clone was moving toward him. However, before he could come up with a countermeasure, something else terrified him.
Kaito cut his sword in two with one strike! He quickly released his broken sword and retreated, shouting internally, "What the hell is that sword?"
As he retreated, he saw Hodaka moving rapidly toward him. Hodaka smirked, "It's time to end this."
He took his stance, preparing to use Eight Trigrams Palms Revolving Heaven.
Masato noticed Hodaka's stance from the corner of his eye. He quickly formed hand seals.
All three genin noticed these were the seals for Substitution Jutsu. Hodaka continued his attack, while Kaito and Mieko gathered chakra at their feet, preparing themselves.
Just as Hodaka and Masato were about to make contact, Masato substituted himself with another log.
As soon as he substituted, Mieko threw a volley of shuriken, preventing him from retreating any further, while Kaito sent a wind slash at him.
Masato was wary and took a step back.
Unfortunately, his only way out was toward Hodaka. He had a bitter expression on his face.
"These damn brats are truly merciless! Not a single opening!"
Masato was about to prepare to face Hodaka when Hodaka charged forward.
But before he could engage Hodaka, two shuriken pierced his back! Hodaka chuckled, "Wind Release: Projectile Control Technique is really useful."
While Masato's attention was focused on Hodaka, Hodaka had used his technique on the shuriken thrown by Mieko and redirected several of them to attack him from behind.
Although these attacks were not fatal, they caused Masato immense pain. This ultimately provided the opening Hodaka needed.
He immediately performed Eight Trigrams: Sixteen Palms on him, sealing many of his chakra points.
After completing the technique, he retreated.
Mieko and Kaito both intervened, stepping forward simultaneously to deliver the fatal blow.
Both of them used Body Flicker at the same time. Mieko used Fire Release: Flame Finger aimed at his chest where his heart was located, and Kaito slashed at his neck with his sword.
In his final struggle, he wanted to step to the left, hoping to avoid Kaito's sword and ensure Mieko's technique wouldn't hit his vital points, but many of his chakra points were sealed, and he didn't have time to dodge properly.
Mieko's technique struck him in the center of his chest, piercing through the elite chunin's body.
Kaito's sword was only a few centimeters from Masato's neck. But the next moment, due to the extended range of the Wind Release chakra flow, his head still separated from his body.
Kaito, Hodaka, and Mieko finally breathed a sigh of relief and felt satisfaction at being able to defeat such a powerful shinobi without their sensei's direct help.
However, Masato died in great agony! He never had the chance to use his best techniques!
Renjiro's Shadow Clone had witnessed the entire battle.
"Very good. Although they made some mistakes, overall their performance was excellent. But they were also lucky. That man's chakra nature was likely Earth Release, but due to the terrain covered in wooden debris, he couldn't use Earth Release techniques effectively."
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