Ryohei, Masui, Katsui, several other Chunin and Jonin, including the five full-fledged Jonin-level ninjas who had encircled Seimei—all were watching Seimei warily.
The moment Seimei even moved a single finger, the five Jonin would jump on him.
If five found it difficult, even Ryohei and the other two leaders were ready to attack Seimei.
As for the shadow clones of Seimei that had been reaping the lives of bandits and troubling the Genin and Chunin-level ninjas…
They would naturally disappear once they dealt with the real Seimei. In their eyes, the Jonin Seimei killed in close-quarter combat died so quickly because of the element of surprise.
Seimei couldn't possibly replicate it when five Jonin were surrounding him. Forget Seimei, a teenage boy. Even seasoned Jonin and Elite Jonin would be troubled by it.
Not to mention, they had already labeled Seimei as a Ninjutsu Specialist.
If, by any chance, Seimei's shadow clones caused too much trouble before they failed to eliminate Seimei quickly, they could always divert a portion of their Jonin-level manpower to them.
For now, taking the real Seimei down was their priority.
And that was exactly what they did.
Sling! Sling! Swish! Slick! Sling!
Not even a second had passed since the five Jonin encircled him and received Ryohei's command when they all smoothly unsheathed their ninja swords.
Crackle! Crackle! Crackle! Crackle! Whoosh!
Blue lightning crackled on four blades as four Jonin channeled lightning-natured chakra through their ninja swords, increasing their cutting power, lethality, and paralytic effect.
The last Jonin channeled fire-natured chakra through his ninja sword, turning the blade red-hot. A few tongues of flame occasionally manifested at the edges, distorting the air around it.
Then, without any further ado, they all attacked Seimei at the same time, just from different directions.
One sword targeted his neck, and two others attacked his legs and stomach. Another one, coming from Seimei's right, slashed at his liver area.
And the last one, the ninja with the red-hot sword imbued with fire-natured chakra, stabbed Seimei in the back from a tricky angle. The target of his burning-hot sword tip was undoubtedly Seimei's heart.
Their swords moved like blurry phantoms, eager to reap Seimei's life.
They gave Seimei no room to dodge. Even if he managed to dodge or deflect the swords of two or three Jonins with sheer skill and inhumane reflexes, the other two blades would still injure him severely, even if they couldn't take his life at once.
Their attack execution and speed were also lightning-fast, giving Seimei no chance to perform hand seals.
From Ryohei and his subordinates' perspectives, no hand seals meant no ninjutsu release. After all, not everyone was Hashirama, launching ninjutsu left and right with zero hand seals.
Seimei was just a teenage boy.
He couldn't possibly mobilize chakra and cast ninjutsu with no hand seals, right?
As for the ninjutsu he cast before…they believed that Seimei must have performed hand seals or one-handed hand seals secretly. A lot of ninjas tried the trick of hiding their hand seals, so that wasn't surprising.
If the boy were more experienced, he would have launched an attack in one direction immediately to break out of encirclement or weaken the formation to gain better counterattacking opportunities.
But Seimei did no such thing.
What did it mean?
It meant Seimei wasn't good at close combat.
It meant Seimei was toast.
It meant the victory over this ninjutsu prodigy was in their bags.
At least, that was what they thought…
Unfortunately for them, their sweet, beautiful dream was bound to stay a dream.
Just as they saw they were about to succeed and the edges of their blades were about to cut into the detestable white-haired boy's flesh, something beyond their expectations happened, almost making their eyes pop out of their sockets.
Countless tiny water droplets appeared out of thin air around Seimei.
Water Release: Water Formation Wall
In the blink of an eye, the water droplets quickly converged, creating a ten-meter-high protective vortex that swirled around Seimei. This was Tobirama's modified Water Formation Wall that Seimei had long mastered.
And with his current chakra control, reserves, and LV7 water affinity, he could quickly and efficiently transform his chakra into a massive amount of water and control it to protect him from attacks coming from every direction.
With this Jutsu alone, even if someone threw several A-rank single-target Ninjutsu or an S-rank AoE jutsu, Seimei could easily tank them.
Splash! Splash! Crackle! Splash! Sizzle!
The five Jonin tried to breach the water vortex's defenses with their sharp, elemental chakra-imbued sword attacks. However, the vortex's high-speed spinning water defense quickly nullified the force behind their strikes.
In fact, they barely managed to keep their weapons from being absorbed and taken away by the vortex.
Splashing a bit of water and sizzling a few liters of it were all they managed.
The sudden appearance of the defensive water ninjutsu and its power shocked both the attacking Jonins, Ryohei, and every other Jonin who were paying attention to Seimei.
One of the attacking Jonin muttered in disbelief.
"How could he construct such ninjutsu without hand seals? He definitely didn't perform any hand seals. How is this possible?"
It was true that many Elite Chunin and Jonin could perform D-rank or lower ninjutsu without hand seals, such as the common Body Flicker Technique and Substitution Technique, after extensive practice and mastery.
However, from C-rank onward, even Elite Jonin and S-rank ninjas had to use hand seals before casting ninjutsu.
Granted, they often reduced the number of hand seals required to unleash ninjutsu.
Some even released C-rank and B-rank ninjutsu using one or two hand seals after thoroughly mastering the technique. Talented ninjas could perform single-handed hand seals, drastically improving their combat strength and efficiency.
If they were very familiar with C-rank ninjutsu, S-rank ninjas could cast it without hand seals after spending extra chakra.
But the problem was…
The ninjutsu, Water Formation Wall, was a Jonin-level, B-rank technique.
And a teenage boy was casting it without hand seals.
It was naturally shocking.
Just as the five Jonin were retreating and trying to find a method to breach Seimei's defense, an almost amused, lazy question came from the center of the vortex.
"How can I cast ninjutsu without hand seals? Of course, because I don't need to."
As soon as Seimei said those words, he immediately controlled the chakra within the protective water vortex.
He was going to use the water from the Water Formation Wall to power another ninjutsu.
Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet Jutsu
Roar!
The vortex of water churned, transforming into a 12-meter-long serpentine water dragon construct in a fifth of a second before rushing toward the nearest enemy Jonin with the momentum of a bullet train.
The attack came so fast that the Jonin didn't even have the chance to dodge.
The water dragon came crashing down on him. The sheer force behind the direct impact of tons of water shattered his bones, crushed his internal organs, and slammed his body on the ground, turning him into nothing but a mangled mess of flesh and bones.
Crash! Boooom!
The ground trembled, forming a large, ten-foot-wide crater surrounded by countless spider-web-like cracks as the remaining force of the water dragon construct touched the earth.
Seeing their teammate's miserable death, the other four didn't hesitate at all and coordinated with each other to attack Seimei.
Two wielded their ninja swords to attack Seimei from his front and right side.
The other two distanced themselves to perform hand seals in rapid succession.
Seimei registered it all without even turning his head, thanks to his incredible sensory talent and Tenseigan.
He remained unfazed and calmly watched the two Jonin approaching with their swords.
The moment they got close to him, Seimei acted.
Earth Release: Earth-style Wall
Suddenly, a five-meter-high and six-meter-wide earthen wall erupted from the ground, blocking the sword-wielding ninja approaching from the right.
Earth Release: Earth-flow Spears
The ground before Seimei trembled. Then, multiple sharp spear-like spiky protrusions erupted from the earth, targeting the Jonin approaching from the front.
If the Jonin still dared to approach Seimei, the earth spears would also dare to pierce his body and turn him into a sieve.
"What the hell?!"
Seeing the earth spears suddenly emerge, the Jonin involuntarily cursed and stopped in his tracks.
He did a smooth backflip and avoided the sharp, pointed tips of the earth spears.
But the assault of earth spears didn't end there.
They kept emerging from the ground and tried to pierce the Jonin's body, forcing the Jonin to keep backflipping and jumping backward.
After retreating for nearly eight meters, no new earth spears emerged, allowing him the much-needed room to breathe.
However, just as his feet touched the ground, a whistling sound of something sharp cutting through the wind reached his ears.
Whoosh!
And the source of the sound was a fast-approaching, three-meter-wide wind blade that Seimei had just launched using the Wind Release: Wind Cutter Technique.
The Jonin's pupils constricted in alarm as he hastily used the Body Flicker Technique to disappear from the spot.
When he reappeared at a distance, the left side of the torso had a large gash, just below his ribs. The ninja gritted his teeth, clutched his side tightly, and cauterized his wound with lightning chakra to prevent further bleeding.
He saved his life, but now he was wounded, which would definitely affect his combat power.
However, before he could sigh in relief, a figure who looked just like Seimei emerged from the ground and quickly drove a kunai through his heart.
A large amount of blood leaked from his mouth before he could even figure out what happened. But the sharp pain coming from his chest and heart made it clear that he had been stabbed in the back and his death was now imminent.
At the very next moment, he felt strength leaving his body. He dropped to the ground with a thud and felt his life slipping away.
Meanwhile, the sword-wielding Jonin, whom Seimei blocked with an earthen wall, went around the blockage only to see his comrade dying in the pool of his own blood.
Seimei's figure, which was obviously a shadow clone, waved at him before being dispelled on its own, leaving the sword-wielding ninja shocked and enraged.
Seimei made this shadow clone with a very small amount of chakra when he was surrounded by the water vortex a few moments ago, allowing it to slip into the ground and stay hidden without anyone noticing.
The real Seimei was about to move to the other sword-wielding ninja when a water whip charged with lightning lashed at him from behind his back.
Seimei simply sighed and disappeared from the spot, leaving behind a few arcs of purple lightning, causing the water whip to miss its target and hit empty ground.
Crack! Crackle!
As the ninja whose water whip missed Seimei frantically looked around for his target, Seimei suddenly appeared behind him with a trail of purple lightning.
The moment Seimei appeared, the hairs at the back of the Jonin's neck stood up in fright.
The Jonin immediately ended his ninjutsu, grabbed his ninja sword with his right hand, and swung it horizontally in a circle at Seimei, all in less than a third of a second.
Unfortunately for him, Seimei was faster.
Seimei grabbed the ninja's sword-wielding wrist to halt his action and released potent lightning-natured chakra to paralyze his body.
Next, Seimei placed his index finger on the left side of the ninja's chest and said with a smile, "Goodbye!"
Wind Release: Pinpoint Shockwave
BOOM!
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