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In a tight spot, the crazy one wins.
Facing four Sand Jonin charging head-on, Taiichi didn't flinch. He wrapped his short sword in bright golden flames and thrust straight at the lead Jonin without any flashy moves.
Sand Jonin sneered at the simple thrust. What, trying to trade blows? Not backing down, he used his longer blade's reach and thrust right back.
"Whoever dodges is a bitch, kid!" he barked, eyes burning with fanaticism.
15 feet.
12 feet.
9 feet.
6 feet.
Fanaticism in his eyes faded into pure confusion.
3 feet.
His long blade punched straight through Leaf ninja's chest without resistance. But there was no joy in his eyes. At point-blank range, Leaf ninja's short sword followed right behind, burying itself into his heart.
They blew past each other. Sand Jonin stumbled two steps forward, legs giving out, and collapsed in a heap. Even as he died, he couldn't figure it out. How could a Leaf ninja trade blows like that? Did he really not care about dying?
As for Taiichi, the moment enemy's blade left his body, flames surged around the gaping wound. Flesh and tissue instantly knit back together. Aside from shredded clothes, you couldn't even tell he'd been hit.
This was real-world application of his Fire Body technique. It wasn't just for survival. Used right, baiting and flat-out murdering a Jonin was a cakewalk.
One Jonin slaughtered in a single exchange. The sight severely rattled remaining Sand ninjas. Another Jonin who saw the whole thing immediately shouted a warning.
"Watch out! Physical attacks don't work on his body! Don't trade blows with him!"
Other Sand ninjas cursed internally. Immune to physical attacks? How the hell do you fight that?
Taiichi didn't care what they thought. Riding momentum, he swept his blade wide, trapping two more Jonin in his kill zone. Fighting two-on-one, he barely broke a sweat.
Over on the other side, Yohei flared his three-tomoe Sharingan, locking onto another Jonin.
Spooked by Taiichi's brutal opening kill, this Jonin fought completely handicapped. Facing three-tomoe Sharingan, he couldn't unleash true combat power. Yohei quickly pinned him down and took upper hand.
It created a hilarious scene on the battlefield: outnumbered squad was brutally pressing larger force.
Trailing Sand Chunin rapidly shifted tactics. Two pushed forward, aiming to stall Leaf's Chunin. The other two split up, flanking Taiichi and Yohei's fights. They rapidly wove hand signs, ready to lay down ninjutsu support for their Jonin.
On Yohei's end, flanking Chunin threw him off balance for a second. But since he was already dominating his fight, he quickly stabilized footing.
He constantly shifted attack rhythm and positioning, faking like he was going to rip Chunin apart first. It kept Sand ninjas on edge. They backed off, terrified one wrong move would cost them another man.
Over with Saori and Kazema, Saori wasn't scared of two Chunin at all. From a distance, she hurled relentless barrage of lightning orbs. She didn't care about accuracy. It was purely about saturation bombing.
Lightning slammed into dirt, exploding into massive electrical net. Two charging Chunin dove straight into hazard zone. One had decent reflexes and flickered out immediately.
Other guy wasn't so lucky. Electricity locked up his muscles. He froze in place, completely paralyzed.
Kazema's Wind Style tore in right on cue. Moving targets were tough, but stationary target was target practice. Dense volley of wind blades swept through. Paralyzed Chunin screamed as wind shredded him to the bone. Dead on his feet.
Saori immediately dropped her ninjutsu, drew a kunai, and charged remaining Chunin without a hint of fear.
Saori Furukawa wasn't some helpless support ninja. In squad spars, she traded blows with Yohei. Plus, in close quarters, she was notoriously psycho.
Sure enough, charging Chunin immediately regretted his life choices. He thought he was rushing a squishy caster. He didn't expect her to fight like a rabid dog. Does she not care about getting cut?
In a brutal ten-strike exchange, they carved seven or eight bloody gashes into each other.
Sand Chunin was utterly rattled by Saori's savagery. Seeing Kazema weaving signs for backup, cold sweat drenched his back. Oh shit. I'm dead.
Back with Taiichi, he juggled two Jonin while keeping tactical eye on whole battlefield. Seeing squad dominating across the board, he let out a mental breath.
Flanking Sand Chunin was finally in position. Seeing Taiichi locked down by two Jonin, he flared chakra and rapidly formed seals. Based on his dead-serious expression, it was gonna be a heavy-hitter jutsu.
But he misunderstood situation entirely. Jonin weren't locking Taiichi down. Taiichi was trapping them.
So, watching Chunin arrogantly weave signs out in the open, Taiichi just sneered.
"Matai, watch out—!" one Jonin screamed, taking painful slash just to get warning out.
Too late. Taiichi blasted both Jonin back with a single heavy swing, then flickered directly next to Chunin. Before guy's confused eyes could register movement, Taiichi's short sword punched straight through his chest.
Yanking bloody blade free, Taiichi spun around. He leveled dripping steel at two Jonin, eyes dripping with pure, mocking contempt.
Two Jonin knew fight was a lost cause. One glance at other skirmishes confirmed entire squad was getting butchered. They locked eyes. Message was clear.
"Fall back!" they roared, tossing out final warning. Two Jonin bolted in completely opposite directions.
Taiichi blinked. Damn. That was ruthless.
Shrugging it off, he popped Shadow Clone to guard rear. Main body immediately exploded after closest fleeing Jonin. Other guy would just have to live for now.
Shadow Clone didn't stand around. It immediately dove into Yohei's fight.
Sand ninjas on that side heard retreat order, but Yohei was riding them too hard. Neither could find opening to break contact.
Slight delay was fatal. Taiichi's clone crashed the party. Without a word, he engaged flanking Chunin.
Short sword blurred into flurry of heavy slashes, completely overwhelming the guy. Meanwhile, his free left hand blurred through one-handed seal. Cluster of Phoenix Flower fireballs materialized around Taiichi, launching point-blank right at Chunin's face.
Chunin had never seen anything like it. Pinned down by lethal kenjutsu, he had zero time to react to shotgun blast of fire. Fireballs hit dead center. Entire upper body ignited in golden flames. He didn't even scream before being reduced to charred husk.
Chunin handled. Taiichi didn't miss a beat. Pivoted and pincered remaining Jonin with Yohei.
Jonin was barely surviving Yohei's assault with Chunin's help. Seeing backup roasted and Taiichi closing in, his nerve broke entirely.
Before Taiichi even reached him, Yohei's three-tomoe Sharingan caught flinch. Brutal, seamless combo tore Jonin apart.
At exact same time, Saori and Kazema finished butchering final Chunin.
Squad regrouped. Pure, adrenaline-fueled excitement painted all their faces. Eight Sand ninjas. Four of them elite Jonin. Walked away with zero casualties and only let two targets slip. Massive, crushing victory.
Not to mention, eight-man hit squad with that firepower was definitely premium Sand unit. Probably only one operating in this sector. Wiping them off map practically secured entire supply line.
"Alright. Strip bodies and police battlefield. Soon as main body gets back, we zero out," Taiichi's clone ordered.
"Sir!" they replied, voices tight with hype.
Miles away, Taiichi's main body locked onto desperately fleeing Sand Jonin. Normally, if Jonin fully commits to running, even another Jonin has a hell of a time catching them.
Taiichi's current Agility stat was only 23—still short of standard 25 for Jonin. Relying purely on raw sprinting speed, he watched gap widen.
But Taiichi never fought Jonin relying purely on raw stats. When hardware fails, software compensates. Custom Monstrous Strength Body Flicker was engineered exactly for this chase.
Chakra flooded his legs. With Chakra Control maxed out, frequency and distance of explosive leaps spiked exponentially.
Every single Flicker turned him into absolute blur, launching forty feet forward in an instant. Chained together flawlessly, he tore through forest like a phantom.
Wind screamed in his ears. Canopy rushed past in green smear. Raw adrenaline of speed was addictive as lethal firefight.
Taiichi dialed focus to maximum, flaring sensory chakra to act as radar. Base Agility couldn't keep up with velocity, meaning kinetic vision was lagging. Had to rely on high Spirit stat to navigate blur.
Speeding Sand Jonin quickly noticed something horribly wrong. Glancing back, he saw unforgettable nightmare of a kid rapidly closing gap at impossible speed. Panic slowly melted into cold, hard despair.
How—how the hell is he that fast?! You can't chain Body Flickers like that!
Screaming internally, Sand Jonin threw self-preservation out the window. Burned potential, risking severe muscle tearing to chain own Body Flickers.
High-speed pursuit dragged on. Finally, just as Taiichi burned past fifty-percent mark on chakra reserves, Sand Jonin's footing slipped. Tumbled violently out of canopy and crashed into dirt.
Heh. Solid stamina. Took that long chaining Flickers to tear muscles. Definitely Jonin material.
Taiichi thought, though hands didn't stop. Wove seals. Fire Style: Phoenix Flower Jutsu. Volleys of fireballs erupted from mouth like automatic shotgun, raining down relentlessly on grounded Sand ninja.
Jonin knew he was cornered. Sheer terror of imminent death snapped mind into overdrive. Legs shredded, so he didn't even try to stand. Violently rolled onto back, facing Taiichi, and frantically slapped hands together. Wind Style: Great Sickle Weasel.
Countless wind blades merged into devastating tornado, ripping toward Taiichi with absolute destructive force. Still not enough. Jonin burned every last drop of chakra into wind nature transformation, dumping entire life force into attack.
Watching desperate suicide play from a distance, Taiichi scoffed. Trying to go out in a blaze of glory now? Too little, too late. If trying hard at the end actually mattered, what the hell have I been grinding for?
Taiichi shifted hand seal. Phoenix Flowers seamlessly morphed into Fire Dragon Flame Bullet. Dumping chakra into it, standard orange fire flared into blinding, torrential golden dragon that slammed straight into violent wind storm.
Wind blades shredded monstrous flames, scattering fire everywhere. But golden dragon didn't give a shit. Stubbornly chewed forward, incinerating everything in path. Before dragon physically hit him, ambient heat alone caused Sand Jonin to spontaneously combust.
One final, agonized scream. Violent wind died instantly. Fire dragon washed over Sand ninja, leaving nothing but charred, smoking stain on ground.
Taiichi strolled out of inferno. Scorching flames licked against body, doing zero damage.
Kicked through ashes, realizing there wasn't a single piece of the guy left to salvage. Taiichi scratched head, annoyed.
Fire Style kicks ass, but destruction is way too thorough. Vaporizes everything. I don't even have a head to claim bounty.
Taiichi grumbled about lost paycheck, completely unfazed by horrific, helpless death he just inflicted.
Took an hour for Taiichi to sync back up with squad. Dropping news he'd successfully hunted fleeing Jonin, team hyped up, high-fiving over kill.
But realizing he'd incinerated all evidence, mood briefly tanked. Yohei couldn't resist a jab.
"Captain, do us a favor next time. Leave final hit to me. We could practically double operational budget if you stopped turning bounties to ash."
March, Year 46.
Spring settled in heavy. Forest was crawling with life and noise.
Team Taiichi had been running this black ops deployment for nearly a solid month.
Intercepted thirteen separate hostile waves. First week was meat grinder, but after that, contact dropped to a skirmish every day or two. Never ran into another heavy-hitting, four-Jonin kill squad again.
Half the time, Taiichi didn't even need to draw his sword. Squad was perfectly capable of butchering foreign stragglers crossing their path. Exactly the kind of brutal live-fire training Kazema needed.
Month of relentless killing—especially operation slaughtering three Sand Jonin—earned Team Taiichi serious reputation in this sector.
Whether Sand command or Leaf patrols, everyone knew there was young, lethal hit squad prowling border. Bunch of kids acting as unstoppable force of nature.
"Man, when are we gonna get our own badass squad nickname?"
Sheltering against rocky slope from wind, Yohei stared into space, caught up in hype of rising fame.
"Honestly? I don't want a nickname."
Taiichi leaned against boulder, casually running oil rag over short sword.
Team looked at him, totally confused.
"Listen up," Taiichi said, locking eyes with three teammates. "Second a ninja gets famous, target gets painted on their back. Every intelligence division on continent starts tearing your profile apart. They study your jutsu, track attack patterns, and hunt for fatal flaws."
"Think about it. You drop into a fight against a guy you know absolutely nothing about, but he knows exactly how you tick. That is a terrifying way to die."
Yohei and others actually shivered. Weren't rookies. Knew intel dictated combat. Weak ninjas slaughtered strong ninjas all the time in this world, strictly because they had better data.
Seeing reality check land hard on all three, Taiichi smirked.
"I'm only saying this to remind you to lock in and keep grinding. War is only gonna get uglier from here. I really don't feel like visiting any of you at the memorial stone."