The spinning water blades slammed straight into the rock wall that had erupted from the ground.
Water and earth collided with a deafening crash, blasting a thick cloud of dust and spray into the night.
Two figures burst out of the mist—the last two Root operatives.
Shikage was about to jump in when he noticed No.1 had already been taken out.
He glanced up at Nara Suzaku perched on a branch. The man was staring straight at him, fingers still weaving seals nonstop.
Clearly gearing up for round two on Shikage personally.
The situation was crystal clear now.
No more holding back.
Shikage gave the order without hesitation.
"No.2. Kill him."
At the same time he revived No.1 and told it to support No.2—full coordination, one-hundred-percent lethal on Suzaku.
Stored shadow soldiers could be revived infinitely as long as the lord had enough MP.
The only one suffering was Shikage himself.
That last Mangekyō Kotoamatsukami had sucked his MP bar almost dry.
After reviving No.1 he could barely stand straight, let alone use chakra for jutsu.
Looking at the pitiful amount of G left, his heart bled—but he still went all-in on small blue bottles.
—Tonight none of these bastards are walking away.
On the other side, Nara Suzaku was about to cast his Shadow Sewing Technique to strangle Shikage when the exact same interruption hit him again.
His seals weren't even finished.
He turned toward the attacker and the moment he saw those blood-red eyes, his pupils shrank to pinpricks.
"Sharingan?!"
"You're Uchiha?!"
Before he could finish being shocked, something even more impossible happened.
The thing he had just killed—the inhuman shadow—was now standing right beside the "Uchiha."
No.1 might not have been strong, but with Shadow Body it had still lasted ten exchanges against Suzaku.
Add in an Uchiha who radiated real danger, and the fight suddenly felt a lot less comfortable.
Too many unknowns piling up. A bad feeling crawled up Suzaku's spine.
But he was already in the middle of the storm. No escaping now.
All he could do was go all-out—kill these two, then kill Shikage.
Nice plan.
Reality slapped him hard across the face.
Forget killing both—the "Uchiha" alone was already more than he could handle.
Just the insane body-flicker technique left him almost no time to form seals. He could only dodge and run, barely staying alive.
And there was still that other shadow thing constantly lurking in the dark, making everything ten times worse.
Once he confirmed the two soldiers had Suzaku fully suppressed, Shikage pulled his attention away and refocused on the two Root members still tearing each other apart.
He slammed down another blue bottle to top off his MP, then strode over to the fresh corpses.
Three quick Shadow Extractions later, both dead Root operatives rose as his new shadow soldiers.
No time to check their stats in the middle of a fight. He gave the order immediately.
He stared at the special jōnin who was currently beating the "traitor" bloody and spoke coldly.
"Surround him."
The two newborn soldiers flashed into the fray.
Three "Root mid-chūnin" piling on at once—even a special jōnin started to look flustered.
The moment he finally knocked the two shadows back, a water whip cracked through the air right behind him.
The "traitor" crouched on a branch, chakra surging through both hands.
"Water Release: Water Flow Whip!"
The whip tore through the air like iron cable, cracking with explosive force.
Sensing he couldn't dodge completely, the special jōnin slammed both palms to the ground.
"Earth Release: Great Mud River!"
The solid ground instantly turned into rolling waves of mud.
He managed to shift out of the whip's path, but the unstable footing cost him his balance.
Now!
Shikage, who had been waiting for exactly this opening, narrowed his eyes and charged.
The special jōnin tried to leap away from the swampy ground.
Before he could move, the two shadow soldiers were on him again.
"Get off!"
The annoyance of these sticky pests finally pushed him over the edge. He started forming seals to blast them away.
But his fingers wouldn't obey—curling and twisting on their own.
He whipped his head around.
Shikage was already right behind him.
The kid had charged straight in with zero caution, zero defense.
The special jōnin was about to mock the brat for being too young and stupid when he realized something was horribly wrong with his own body.
Only then did he understand—this "wrongness" was exactly how Shikage had killed the other mid-chūnin earlier.
Every time he tried to form seals, his fingers bent out of shape.
Every time he tried to block, his muscles locked up.
The closer he got to Shikage in melee, the more frequent and perfectly timed these glitches became.
Almost every single "wrongness" hit at the exact worst moment.
Since the fight with Shikage started, he hadn't managed to complete a single jutsu.
The effect was so crippling he couldn't even use one-tenth of his real strength.
Fighting Shikage felt far more terrifying and disgusting than fighting the shadow soldiers.
The pressure the kid put on him was so overwhelming that the special jōnin never even noticed the black shadow hand that had silently crawled up the back of his neck.
Only when breathing suddenly became impossible did he realize he was already caught in a technique.
The crushing suffocation made his whole body go limp. He collapsed to the ground.
Lying there, the Root special jōnin looked up at the moonlight-covered teenager.
Shadow covered him.
Shadow was ending his life.
"You… when did you…"
"Dead men don't ask questions."
Shikage cut him off casually and once again interrupted the desperate seal attempt.
A crisp crack echoed.
The special jōnin went still forever.
Shikage looked down and spoke softly.
"Rise."
The shadow writhed and twisted. A pitch-black, purple-veined soldier crawled out of the corpse and knelt beside the other two, all three bowing respectfully to their lord.
Shikage glanced sideways at the Root mid-chūnin whose cognition was just about to return.
He raised a hand and gave a light wave.
The three shadow soldiers flashed over and brutally ended the "traitor's" life.
"Rise."
Same process.
Another shadow soldier was born.
Shikage swept his gaze across his new forces, downed several more blue bottles, and turned toward the direction Nara Suzaku had fled.
"Time to end this fight."