On the training ground behind the camp, Taiichi sat deep in meditation. For a brief moment, the sunlight hitting his face shimmered with strange, multicolored hues.
The phenomenon lasted only a few breaths before he opened his eyes.
Shock. Awe. And a trace of frustration.
All of it flashed across his face.
Just now, the breakthrough in his meditation skill had let him directly perceive natural energy. Even though it had only lasted an instant, he had caught a glimpse of something vast and completely different from chakra.
Natural energy felt immense and boundless, like the impartial will of the world itself. Chakra, by comparison, always carried a personal signature. One was cold and impersonal. The other was unmistakably human.
Unfortunately, the glimpse had been too short. He hadn't been able to grasp anything deeper.
He glanced at his panel.
As expected, no new skill had formed.
If simply observing something was enough to create a skill, there wouldn't be anything left in the world he couldn't do.
Still, Taiichi wasn't discouraged. There had been a first time. There would be a second. If leveling up his meditation had let him sense natural energy even once, then consistent training would eventually make the feeling permanent.
When that happened, Sage Mode wouldn't be far behind.
He stood up and stretched. His body gave a series of satisfying cracks. Whether it was from the increase in spiritual power or from touching natural energy, his mind felt unusually sharp and alive.
He raised his right hand. A ball of fire formed in his palm. As he poured chakra into it, the flames instantly turned bright gold and showed signs of shifting toward pure white.
Just as he thought. With his spirit more active, even his ninjutsu had grown noticeably stronger. The temperature bottleneck that had been holding back his Fire Release for so long had loosened considerably. Today was full of pleasant surprises.
He was about to move on to kenjutsu practice when a distant sound made him pause.
He turned toward the source. Through the trees, a golden-haired figure with a generous figure stepped out of the forest.
As she got closer, her voice carried over, half surprised and half impressed.
"Your perception's gotten better. You noticed me from that far away."
"Just a small breakthrough," Taiichi said modestly. He spun his short blade once and sheathed it behind his back. "Sensei, did something happen?"
Tsunade's steps faltered for a second. She had only made an offhand comment, but it turned out he really had improved again. At this rate, how were the rest of them supposed to keep up?
She shook her head and got to the point.
"The first village has been wiped out."
Her tone was calm, but the fury underneath it was obvious.
Ninja killing civilians was already unacceptable. These were Fire Country civilians — people Leaf was supposed to protect.
Taiichi's easy expression vanished.
"So they finally did it," he said quietly. "Mist crossed that line."
Tsunade nodded, eyes cold.
"I want you to find them. All of them. And leave their bodies in the Land of Fire as a warning."
Taiichi didn't hesitate.
"Understood. I'll leave right away."
Tsunade tossed him a mission scroll and turned to head back toward camp.
"Make it clean," she said over her shoulder.
Taiichi caught the scroll and opened it. It contained a brief summary of the incident and the location of the destroyed village.
He checked the map. It was quite a distance. Without wasting any more time, he launched himself into the air on golden chakra wings, wind chakra wrapping around him as he shot forward.
An hour later, a thin column of black smoke rose on the horizon. That had to be the village.
Taiichi increased his speed. Less than a minute later he was hovering above it.
He descended slowly, using wind to cushion his landing. A Leaf reconnaissance team was already on site — and he recognized them immediately.
"Hizashi. Guy. Didn't expect to run into you here."
He walked over and casually slung an arm around Guy's shoulders.
"Guy, you guys got assigned to work with Hizashi?"
Guy flashed his signature blinding grin.
"Yeah! After last time we realized we were too weak without a proper leader, so the camp had us tag along with Hizashi-senpai for now."
They talked for a bit. Taiichi hadn't seen much of Guy's team lately because he was constantly out on missions. Now that he had a moment, he offered to spar with them when they had free time.
Ebisu and Genma both nodded enthusiastically. Getting personal pointers from Taiichi was a rare opportunity.
Hizashi eventually cut in.
"Enough catching up. We have work to do."
His tone was serious. Taiichi immediately sobered up and looked around at the ruined village. Anger stirred in his chest.
"What did you find?"
"Follow me."
Hizashi led him to the central square.
Dozens of bodies were laid out in neat rows. Old people. Children. Women. Young men. Some had been killed cleanly. Others had clearly been tortured before they died.
"One hundred and fifty-eight villagers," Hizashi reported calmly. "No survivors. All of them are here."
As a veteran jonin, he had seen massacres before. This one just happened to be inside the Land of Fire.
The younger members of the team were clearly struggling with it. Guy especially looked furious.
"Taiichi, you have to catch these Mist bastards!"
Taiichi nodded silently and turned back to Hizashi.
"Any leads on the attackers?"
"Two squads. One of them has a skilled swordsman. Another specializes in Wind Release. They headed toward the ruins of the Land of Whirlpools. The attack happened around three hours ago."
Taiichi frowned. "They slipped through the patrols by taking a detour."
He looked toward the direction Hizashi had indicated.
"I'm going after them now. Handle the cleanup here."
Hizashi hesitated. "Do you want us to come with you? The Byakugan would help with tracking."
Taiichi shook his head.
"If they went straight, they're probably already near the border. I can move faster alone."
Without waiting for further discussion, he spread his wings and shot into the sky.
He flew low and fast, chakra sensing and Spirit Vision both active as he scanned the ground for any trace of the enemy.
He didn't believe they would be stupid enough to run in a perfectly straight line the whole way.
Sure enough, within a minute he found signs of the group splitting up. He dropped a Flying Thunder God kunai and followed one trail. When it went cold, he teleported back and checked the other.
After five such checks, his sensing finally picked up two Mist jonin moving quickly near the border of the Land of Fire.
"Finally caught up."
From three kilometers away, Taiichi threw three marked kunai ahead of the fleeing jonin while forming hand seals mid-flight.
The moment he passed overhead, he activated the technique.
Lightning Release: Falling Thunder.
Clear skies suddenly split open. Dozens of lightning bolts crashed down with terrifying precision, slamming into the Mist shinobi below.
Only the two jonin reacted in time and dodged. The other six were turned into charred corpses in an instant.
The marked kunai missed their targets, but that was only a minor inconvenience.
The two surviving Mist jonin stood back-to-back, faces pale with shock. They hadn't even seen their attacker. Six of their comrades had just died to lightning from out of nowhere.
Taiichi appeared on the ground a short distance away.
The moment they recognized him, both jonin turned and fled in opposite directions without a single word.
Taiichi clicked his tongue.
"Running in different directions? Cute."
He created a shadow clone and sent it after one while he chased the other himself.
The jonin he was pursuing didn't even look back. He was burning through chakra with desperate Body Flicker after Body Flicker. Taiichi's reputation in the Hidden Mist was that bad.
But no matter how fast he ran, the presence behind him kept getting closer.
The jonin's mind raced. Keep running and maybe survive? Or turn and die fighting?
When he heard Taiichi right behind him, he made his choice.
He suddenly stopped and spun around, blade flashing as he tried to meet Taiichi head-on in a final, desperate clash.
He never got the chance.
A short blade punched straight through his ribs from the side.
He looked down in confusion, blood bubbling at his lips.
"How… you were still—"
"Idiot. You were under genjutsu the whole time."
Taiichi twisted the blade and cut him cleanly in half.
"Slaughtering civilians… this is the kind of death you deserve."
He left the body where it fell as a message.
On the other side, his shadow clone had already caught up to the Wind Release specialist.
The Mist jonin spun around and unleashed a wide-area wind technique.
Wind Release: Thousand Faces of Wind.
Hundreds of wind blades filled the air.
The shadow clone didn't even flinch. It formed three quick seals.
Wind Release: Great Vacuum Sphere.
A massive, dense sphere of compressed wind tore forward, shredding the incoming blades and carving a deep trench through the ground as it barreled straight toward the jonin.
The Mist jonin's eyes widened in horror.
The last thing he saw was the enormous wind sphere swallowing everything in front of him.