Chapter 94: New Techniques, Overwhelming Dominance
Night. Thunderstorm weather.
Rumbling thunder and pouring rain drowned out running footsteps and shouts.
Lightning tore through the darkness in fleeting moments, transforming night into day.
By that illumination, three green-vested Konoha ninja could be seen sprinting through a particular area.
Their expressions showed pure terror and urgency, as though pursued by beasts. They wished they had extra legs to push their already-maxed speed even faster, to reach safety.
Whether combat forces or support forces, every ninja squad required four members acting together.
If members died, the village assigned replacements.
If only one person remained, they'd be reassigned to other incomplete squads or temporarily transferred to support forces.
Barring special circumstances, four members were mandatory before executing missions. This was standard across all ninja villages.
Only three Konoha ninja were fleeing, meaning their squad had already lost one member.
Boom!
Lightning transformed night into day again. Deafening thunder echoed.
When the thunder faded, two Konoha ninja showed even greater terror.
Yes, two.
Another had fallen behind.
Rewinding to when lightning split the darkness.
Schlick!
Thunder and the sound of weapons piercing flesh rang out simultaneously.
The rear Konoha ninja covering his comrades had just glimpsed the daylit world when a blade covered in flowing water entered his vision. Then his neck and heart flared with pain.
Next second, his head separated from his body. His vision spun several times before darkness consumed everything.
Before and behind him stood Rain ninja wearing poison-resistant masks.
One Rain ninja held a blade, his other hand maintaining a seal formation.
A genjutsu seal.
After instantly killing another Konoha ninja, both Rain ninja transformed into water and vanished, continuing pursuit of the remaining two.
The entire process from kill to disappearance took under three seconds, ending just as thunder faded.
When the second Konoha ninja realized his comrade had fallen behind, he'd already covered significant distance.
Even sensory techniques couldn't capture his comrade's chakra.
He instantly understood his comrade had been assassinated.
More despairing, his sensory techniques couldn't detect enemy chakra at all.
Nevertheless, as a qualified ninja, he chose to slow down, using himself as bait to buy time for his comrade.
Prepared to die, this Konoha ninja calmed instead.
Maintaining hand seals for sensory techniques but finding no enemy position, something occurred to him. Keeping his seals unchanged, his internal chakra flow suddenly became chaotic.
His expression changed. He rapidly drew a kunai from his tool pouch, hurling it toward eleven o'clock.
Just then, lightning split the sky, illuminating a Rain ninja standing less than three meters away.
The kunai pierced the figure, but produced no sound of penetration. The body transformed into water.
Water Clone!
The Konoha ninja's vigilance was strong. Seeing the figure, he leaped immediately.
But next second, his neck tingled.
Multiple water senbon concealed by the rain curtain struck the airborne Konoha ninja with precision.
Then a palm gently tapped his heavy vest's back.
Boom!
Explosion tags and thunder crashed simultaneously.
Before flames engulfed him, the Konoha ninja saw three figures continuing toward his comrade.
As consciousness grew heavy and vision blurred, he vaguely saw another figure wielding a blade harvest his head.
"Damn it!"
The lead Konoha ninja quickly noticed his comrades' disappearance.
He knew both had been killed.
When their hiding spot was discovered and the first comrade assassinated, he'd anticipated this outcome.
He desperately wanted to stay and fight alongside his comrades to the death.
But reason and ninja discipline told him he couldn't.
On enemy home ground, three versus four meant possibly not even trading one kill.
This weather and environment made even trading injuries for kills impossible.
Even facing systematic elimination, fleeing remained necessary.
With luck, survivors might escape.
Even if none survived, delaying mattered. Leading enemies toward allied territory might bring timely reinforcement and miracles, or at least squad-for-squad exchanges.
Like the Konoha ninja who'd condemned Sakumo Hatake for saving him instead of prioritizing the mission, these inheritors of the Will of Fire didn't fear death. They feared meaningless death!
But the Konoha ninja never imagined the assassination speed would be this fast.
The support signal had barely been sent when both comrades were consecutively killed. These opponents clearly weren't ordinary assassination squads.
Another lightning bolt split the darkness. The Konoha ninja halted, despair filling his eyes.
Four Rain ninja had somehow surrounded him in a square formation.
With only one target remaining, the Rain assassination squad clearly intended to abandon further stealth, wanting this enemy nation ninja to die in the most painful and despairing manner.
The Konoha ninja didn't beg for mercy.
Realizing escape was impossible, determination replaced the despair in his eyes.
He reached toward his tool pouch, ready to draw weapons for counterattack or form seals at any moment.
Under darkness and thunder, nobody moved, seemingly awaiting the right moment.
Perhaps influenced by the atmosphere, within ten seconds another massive lightning strike tore through darkness.
Three Rain ninja prepared devastating finishing techniques.
Just then, the Rain ninja maintaining genjutsu seals suddenly shouted: "Retreat now!"
After speaking, he vanished via Body Flicker without hesitation.
Just like how this Konoha squad had fled unhesitatingly after one comrade's assassination.
This Rain ninja's reaction was merely more extreme.
This violent response made the other three Rain ninja instinctively halt their attacks.
Bzzt bzzt bzzt...
The sound of converging electrical current approached from distance.
Though feeling distant one second, it seemed nearby the next.
Following the sound's direction, the three Rain ninja's pupils contracted before they simultaneously vanished.
The Konoha ninja prepared for death suddenly showed intense joy, relief flooding through him.
In the brief daylit world, a figure wreathed in black electrical current appeared, flickering several times like teleportation from the horizon's edge to right before him.
The electrical convergence sound didn't emanate from the figure's body.
Rather, his right palm gripped a mass of black-white lightning. High-frequency current convergence produced piercing sounds like a thousand birds chirping.
"Yoru-sama..."
The Konoha ninja had barely called that figure's name when he vanished from view.
Then the ninja abandoned fleeing, turning to follow Yoru.
Performing sensory techniques, he'd just detected Yoru's chakra when it instantly vanished, already beyond his sensing range.
So he used full-speed Body Flicker toward the chakra's last position.
Approaching that location, the Konoha ninja saw a corpse bisected on the path. Not his comrade, but a Rain ninja's body.
The victim's expression showed monster-encountering terror, eyes retaining trace confusion, seemingly not understanding how he died.
Performing sensory techniques again, the Konoha ninja still couldn't sense Yoru's chakra. Looking at the smooth, straight cut surface, he sighed: "Over a month apart, Yoru-sama's Body Flicker grew even faster. Black Lightning's destructive power also strengthened."
Switching perspective to the other three Rain ninja.
Turning night to day and viewing from above would reveal a race between vastly mismatched vehicles.
Like a Ferrari letting three old jalopies scatter and flee, giving them hundreds or thousands of meters head start before catching each and smashing them into fragments.
Unlike the Konoha squad fleeing together, the four Rain ninja scattered individually. Each fended for themselves.
They knew the village had no reinforcements coming. No time for reinforcements.
All they could do was preserve their lives, hoping that monster targeted someone else.
For this, they used everything. Water Body Flicker and Water Concealment techniques. Even Water Clone and Shadow Clone techniques, scattering with their real bodies.
But after running only short distances, they heard a thousand birds chirping.
Before reacting, severe pain struck their bodies.
A black-white lightning spear moving faster than their neural reactions instantly pierced through them.
Even those timely using Water Substitution and Water Body Flicker to escape found distant water flows bisected horizontally by incoming lightning spears before reforming.
It seemed less like a lightning spear, more like Storm Release lasers.
Its power exceeded Storm Release lasers by unknowable magnitudes.
Just lightly passing through, vested and armored bodies tore like paper.
The final Rain ninja died most miserably, most shockingly.
The black-white laser shot diagonally, piercing the ninja's body before continuing into the ground.
Then the laser moved upward, cutting the ninja's upper body in half.
The ground where the laser entered also split in two.
The smooth, straight cut surface, if not for lightning traces, would suggest not physical or energy attack, but some rule-based cutting and erasure.
In under two minutes, the scattered, full-speed fleeing Rain assassination squad was completely caught and killed by Yoru.
Throughout the process, Yoru used no jutsu, merely gripping a mass of nature-transformed lightning before using shape transformation to convert it into spear-like lasers, freely controlling their movement.
However, this level of nature and shape transformation already constituted a technique. Moreover, an A-rank Lightning Release jutsu with training difficulty: Chidori Sharp Spear.
To outsiders, this was Black Lightning secret technique shape transformation.
In final battle Kakashi Hatake's eyes, this was Space-Time power-wrapped "Kamui: Lightning Cutter" and "Kamui: Chidori Sharp Spear."
But for Yoru, it should be called Space-Time Release: Chidori and Space-Time Release: Chidori Sharp Spear.
Over a month had passed since the second evolution ended.
Yoru had returned to the battlefield half a month ago, demonstrating terrifying strength. Whether day or night, Rain ninja fled at his reputation.
His fame again spread across the four-nation battlefield.
Because Yoru had grown stronger.
Already recorded in every nation's Bingo Book with titles "Black Flash" and "Shinobi World's First Divine Speed," Yoru's Body Flicker speed was acknowledged as among the absolute fastest in the shinobi world.
Those comparable to him numbered only a handful.
Using Flying Thunder God Technique, Yoru matched Tobirama Senju as the shinobi world's fastest ninja.
His already-famous phantom-silent steps plus chakra concealment plus Earth Body Flicker plus Lightning cellular stimulation earned recognition as second only to Hanzo of the Salamander for assassination, even surpassing Sakumo Hatake.
After all, White Fang of Konoha hadn't achieved injuring the salamander.
This Body Flicker speed had reached the shinobi world's recognized limits.
Yet unexpectedly, after over two weeks' absence, Yoru's return seemed like complete rebirth.
Not only had his speed increased, his chakra had transformed from special jonin standard to genuine all-around jonin level, dropping countless jaws.
Most absurd was his Lightning Release mastery.
During absence, Yoru seemed to have devoted himself to Lightning Release training.
Previously using Lightning cellular stimulation, Yoru's body only showed scattered electrical arcs.
After returning, his entire body could release current, not only enhancing Body Flicker speed but possessing offensive and defensive forms, highly similar to Kumogakure's Lightning Release Chakra Mode - fusion results of nature and shape transformation.
Additionally, he'd developed close-range and mid-long-range Black Lightning secret techniques: Chidori and Chidori Sharp Spear.
Yoru's "Black Lightning" secret technique was now confirmed.
Unlike Third Raikage's developed diffusion-type black lightning that inflicted extreme pain and paralysis when struck, Yoru's Black Lightning property was destruction.
Moreover, his Black Lightning could fuse with ordinary Lightning Release, granting normal lightning penetration and cutting power rivaling the Sword of the Thunder God.
Heavy armor proved fragile as paper before his lightning.
The returned Yoru rarely used Flying Thunder God or assassination methods.
He almost exclusively fought with Body Flicker and Lightning Release.
Then certain strong individuals discovered Yoru's weakest aspect - sensory abilities - had also greatly strengthened.
With similarly enhanced neural reaction speed and shinobi world-dominating Body Flicker speed assisting, Yoru seemed to have become a sensory ninja, always detecting and dodging attacks and jutsu about to strike him.
No longer like before, requiring Flying Thunder God to evade.
The current filling his entire body, surging internally to stimulate cells and enhance speed while wreathing him externally for offense and defense, rendered even genjutsu users who previously countered Yoru completely helpless.
Ninja individually targeted by him, whether chunin or jonin, if their neural reaction speed couldn't match, would freeze like wooden dummies for Yoru's easy slaughter.
Previously Yoru could achieve this level, but not this easily or sustainably.
This return, Yoru demonstrated overwhelming dominance.
Jonin had only two major classifications: special jonin and all-around jonin. No elite jonin advancement rank existed.
So-called elite jonin was merely an alternative term for ace combatants.
Ace combatants referred to the strongest subset among jonin.
Their strength was monstrous, easily defeating and killing multiple same-rank jonin, even threatening or killing the Five Kage.
Completed S-rank mission quantities similarly crushed same-rank jonin. They possessed exclusive titles known throughout the shinobi world.
The Five Kage were ace combatants holding Kage titles.
When Kage died, another ace combatant took their position. While Kage lived, ace combatants were their sharpest blades. During Five Kage Summits, ace combatants served as personal bodyguards.
Ace combatants were top members of ninja village leadership circles.
Danzo Shimura, the Legendary Sannin, Sakumo Hatake, Dan Kato, major clan heads - all such existences.
And now, Yoru had become such an existence.
Next morning.
Amegakure, tower building.
"Hanzo-sama, last night's assassination operations confirmed thirteen enemy kills. However, we lost six assassins, including one complete squad wipe."
Sagawa knelt on one knee, reporting: "Before operations, I issued orders to immediately abort and retreat upon encountering danger or sensing powerful chakra fluctuations. Yet we still lost an entire squad. Only extremely fast Body Flicker masters could leave an assassination squad with no escape during nighttime thunderstorms. I suspect Konoha's Black Flash."
"Every single night now has casualties? What did that brat experience to achieve such massive improvements in such brief time?" Hanzo of the Salamander murmured, then asked: "How long can our current supplies last?"
"Over two more months." Sagawa's expression showed difficulty. "However, at this consumption rate, village production capacity can't match consumption speed. Even without accidents, support forces can only resupply twice monthly."
"Continuing this way, we can only hold until next year at most."
Hearing this, Hanzo's gaze rarely showed trace confusion.
He looked at Sagawa below, unable to help asking: "Sagawa, you... was I wrong?"
"Hanzo-sama made no mistakes. We're all willing to die for you." Sagawa answered with resolute gaze.
"Is that so..."
Watching loyal Sagawa, Hanzo of the Salamander showed a slight smile, then waved his hand: "You may go."
"Yes."
After Sagawa departed, Hanzo finally revealed vulnerable aspects, murmuring with vacant eyes: "Can't even last two years. Is this the gap between small and great nations? Can small nations truly never break their fate?"
"What shinobi world pinnacle? What Demigod of the Shinobi World? I... am merely a joke."
This moment, Hanzo of the Salamander's spirit hit rock bottom.
Once spirited ambition to lead Amegakure through personal might, breaking great nation oppression of small nations and changing shinobi world dynamics, was crushed by harsh reality.
The Demigod of the Shinobi World ultimately wasn't the God of Shinobi. He couldn't achieve what First Hokage did - pacifying chaotic times.
Individual strength proved useless. Konoha merely fighting wars of attrition and delays on one front rendered him helpless, able only to consume stockpiled resources until self-destruction.
Even if he ultimately defeated this front, remaining supplies and forces couldn't sustain Land of Fire invasion.
If not for his salamander capable of mutual destruction with the entire shinobi world, Wind Country and Earth Country might already be kicking him while down.
Though results hadn't emerged, Hanzo of the Salamander knew he and the Land of Rain had already lost.
Seeing no hope of victory, Hanzo already contemplated withdrawal.
Yes, withdrawal - not surrender.
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