In an instant—
white-hot flames poured down like a waterfall!
The scar-faced ninja didn't even have time to scream before he was completely swallowed by the terrifying fireball, hot enough to melt metal and iron alike.
BOOM—!!!
A deafening explosion erupted, followed by a violent shockwave blasting outward in every direction. The searing air made Rin and the others in the distance nearly unable to open their eyes, and their skin stung from the heat. The rolling hot wind carried ashes from grass and trees everywhere, along with the sickening smell of scorched flesh!
It took more than ten seconds for the flames to finally die down.
In their place was a pitch-black crater over ten meters wide and two to three meters deep. The soil around the edge had been burned into a glass-like molten layer, and wisps of smoke curled upward. At the center of the crater, there was the faint outline of a blackened, curled-up thing that barely looked human anymore.
The Phantom Stage vanished.
All the clones dissolved like bubbles.
The white-haired boy flipped down from midair and landed at the edge of the scorched crater, breathing lightly.
At this moment,
Minato had already finished off his opponent and woken Rin. He had still been observing Mikami Yuu's situation and considering whether to step in and help—only to witness this unbelievable scene, like heavenly fire descending from above. His eyes widened in shock.
A Fire Release of that level was already beyond what an ordinary genin—or even most chūnin—could achieve.
But immediately afterward, Minato sensed something and frowned slightly.
"Yuu, watch out! There's another one below—"
BOOM!!
The ground beneath Mikami Yuu suddenly exploded!
A pale hand burst out of the earth behind him, grabbed his ankle tightly, and yanked him downward with all its strength!
"Earth Style: Headhunter Jutsu!"
The soil surged upward like a living thing, burying half of Mikami Yuu's body in an instant!
"Yuu-kun!"
Rin cried out in alarm.
Minato, however, did not intervene. A strange light flashed through his blue eyes, and without making it obvious, he shifted his gaze toward a spot behind a tree trunk not far away, waiting to see what would happen next.
"Haha!"
Along with a rasping laugh like a broken bellows, a ninja with a horrific scar across his face appeared at the edge of the crater, right where Mikami Yuu had been standing moments ago. He held a kunai to Mikami Yuu's throat, while glancing sideways toward Minato.
Although he had only just appeared, there were fresh burn marks visible on his body, as if he had been hiding underground the entire time waiting for a chance to strike, only to get caught in the edge of the Great Fireball blast by accident. Luckily for him, the earth above had blocked most of it, so he hadn't died on the spot like the tall skinny ninja.
"You're still too green, brat… This mission may already be a failure, but dragging one of Konoha's little geniuses down with us makes it worth it."
As he spoke, the scar-faced ninja cleanly sliced open Mikami Yuu's throat with the kunai.
And then—
"…Heh."
A soft laugh sounded.
A calm boy's voice, almost like a sigh, drifted through the silent night, making everyone present—especially the scar-faced ninja—shudder.
"Since when did you start assuming I wasn't using a clone?"
"!!"
The scar-faced ninja's vicious grin froze on his face as the "Mikami Yuu" beside him instantly turned into a puddle of water and seeped into the blackened dirt.
Then—
Sensing something, he turned his head sharply.
A white blur came slicing out from the shadow beside the crater at breathtaking speed! The short blade in its hand was raised sideways, drawing a brutal, decisive arc of light beneath the moon.
Slash!
A streak of afterimage flashed past!
The last thing reflected in the scar-faced ninja's vision was the boy's eyes—bright beyond belief in the darkness—and the cone-shaped burst of white air driven aside by the sheer speed of his movement.
"So fast…"
One slash.
Two pieces.
In the instant the cold light flashed, the scar-faced ninja's head was sent flying high into the air, his expression still frozen in horror. It spun several times before dropping with a thud into the scorched, smoking crater.
The headless corpse remained standing stiffly at the edge of the crater for a few seconds before collapsing in after it, kicking up a spray of ash.
And with that, everything was over.
Mikami Yuu came to a stop more than ten meters from the crater, his back to the enemy. With a clean, stylish flourish, he spun the short blade once and slowly slid it back into its sheath, then let out a long breath.
In that battle, he had not only tested the Shadow Prison Phantom Kill Formation and a full-power Great Fireball, but also tested a version of the "A Cornered Army Must Win" buff boosted with 60% of his chakra.
That's right.
Mikami Yuu had already confirmed through testing that the strength of the "A Cornered Army Must Win" buff depended on how much chakra the defeated clone had contained. Ordinary illusion clones gave only a very small boost. Water clones gave a bit more—especially water clones that had been given more chakra to begin with.
So—
after casting Great Fireball: Burn to Ash, Mikami Yuu poured nearly 30% of his remaining total chakra into the final water clone, while his real body used Transformation Technique to hide off to the side.
When that water clone was finally destroyed—combined with the earlier clones the tall skinny ninja had already broken—Mikami Yuu's A Cornered Army Must Win buff reached an unprecedented level, which was what produced that breathtaking slash. The scar-faced ninja, despite being a chūnin, couldn't even react before he was instantly killed.
"So it looks like opening by sacrificing clones to stack buffs, then using A Cornered Army Must Win to amplify Hatake Swordsmanship and combining it with Substitution for a high-speed assault, really is a viable style…"
It was just pretty risky.
After all, the more "blood" you sold, the more buff stacks you got—but at the same time, your main body's defense and staying power dropped. If he ever ran into a real monster and still couldn't finish them off even with the buffs, his situation would become extremely dangerous.
This time, it was only because Minato was here that Mikami Yuu dared to test it like this. Even if it all went wrong, he wouldn't actually die.
Later on, he'd still need to do more testing and figure out a safe upper limit.
"Haa…"
Mikami Yuu let out another long breath. His body felt drained and weak, while sweat mixed with ash and blood ran down his face, quickly soaking his clothes.
At that moment, Healing Technique stepped in again:
[Healing Technique: This child… the second I take my eyes off you for a little while, you go and get yourself covered in wounds all over again. Come here, come to Mom, and let Mom take good care of you.]
A pale green glow rose from within Mikami Yuu's body, healing his overdrawn condition.
"Yuu-kun! Are you alright?"
Rin rushed over, both hands glowing with soft green medical chakra as she pressed them against Mikami Yuu's chest.
Minato also arrived in front of him with a Body Flicker, concern written on his face.
"You okay, Yuu? You look like you've burned through a lot… Rin, I remember Tsunade-sama invented a kind of pill for emergency chakra replenishment—less side effects than soldier pills. Do you have any on you?"
~~~
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