“One minute... no time to waste...”
Link paid no mind to whatever the scarred ninja might have been thinking. From the brief csh earlier, it was clear that this oppo wasn’t even worthy of a name—a mere small fry. If not for the o summon a suitable stand to swiftly eliminate all enemies and possibly assist in Nara Ensui’s level of bat, he wouldn’t have bothered with the effort.
Without the Stand, Link could have handled him easily.
With that thought, he sprioward the melee, where Iris and Ami were engaged in close bat. Notig his approach, the two immediately retreated without hesitation.
Both of them had withe terror of Link’s teiques in a. They didn’t want to risk being killed actally by their own teammate.
"Whoosh!"
Seeing Link walking seemingly unguarded toward them, the Amegakure shinobis had ation. They rushed in to kill him.
In an instant, the hallway was filled with Amegakure shinobi within Link’s five-meter range.
"Ssh!"
Sharp metal objects erupted from their bodies like blooming flowers, killing them instantly.
They were all just small fry, after all.
Link didn’t bother sparing a g the corpses littering the hallway. Instead, he turo his two panting teammates.
Iris and Ami had grown signifitly. At only eleven years old, they could now hold off nearly ten Amegakure shinobi together. Though victory was beyond their grasp, they had mao stall long enough, a feat far beyond the standard fenin.
The three exged no words. With just a ghey simultaneously broke into a nearby room and leaped out the window.
door, the hotel housing the Sunagakure shinobi and Land of Wind merts was shrouded in smoke, clearly utack as well.
On a distant street er, Nara Ensui was locked in bat with a middle-aged man wearing an Amegakure forehead protector. Several of the voy’s samurai were struggling to fend off two Amegakure shinobi, while the Land of Fire mert cowered behind a cart, trembling violently.
[Hanzo of the Samander? Or Akatsuki operatives? What are they thinking, ung such a btant assassination?]
Link’s mind raced with questions as he focused his chakra and sprioward the battlefield. Spotting an injured ally samurai, he unceremoniously kicked the man out of harm’s way.
There was no time for delicacy. Using his newly acquired Stand for wide-area iron manipution was the simplest and most effit method. plex or precise operations would only waste energy.
"Ssh!"
The two Amegakure ninjas met the same fate as their rades, killed by the chaotic eruption of metal from within their bodies.
The Stand’s power was terrifying for its first-strike lethality. Without prior intel, oppos had little ce of surviving the initial attabsp;
"Crash!"
The Sunagakure’s hotel erupted in a violent gale, its upper floors disiing in an instant.
Link g the destru but didn’t pause, rushing toward the Jōnin-level battle.
The middle-aged Amegakure shinobi, seeing the three Konoha shinobi emerge and two of his rades fall to bizarre deaths, immediately decided to retreat.
"Whoosh!"
Nara Ensui seized the opportunity, using his Shadow Sewing Teique to disrupt the enemy’s escape route. Then, f seals, his shadow exteo capture the target.
[Shadow Imitation Teique.]
The teique’s strength y in its ability to forcibly trol an oppo with suffit chakra. However, it also restraihe user, making it a teamwork-depe skill. Earlier, with too many enemies, Ensui had been uo fully capitalize on it. Now, with allies nearby, he could go all out.
As Link drew closer, the middle-aged shinobi, trapped by the Shadow Imitation Teique, began frantically eling chakra to break free. The shadow on the ground trembled violently.
Sweat dripped down Nara Ensui’s face. Both he and the enemy had been battling intensely, expending signifit amounts of chakra. The Shadow Imitation Teique owerful but energy-intensive, especially against an oppo actively resisting.
Fortunately, her side had excessive reserves remaining.
Suddenly, the Amegakure shinobi’s expression turned desperate as bck markings spread rapidly across his ned body. His depleted stamina and chakra surged back to life, allowing him to break free of the shadow’s grip. He turo flee.
[That’s…?!]
The sight sent a jolt through Link’s mind, his emotions ing as if struck by lightning.
"Whoosh!"
Another Shadow Sewing Teique briefly blocked the shinobi’s path, but he had already entered Link’s teer range.
The iron in his blood was forcibly extracted, causing him to stagger mid-sprint. Even so, the curse marks spreading across his skin allowed him to push through the extreme oxygen deprivation. He luoward Link, i on killing him before esg.
"Ssh!"
Long needles pierced through his flesh and skin, freezing him in pbsp;
Yet even now, he refused to die. His muscles pushed back against the needles, bending and breaking them. He began to move again, albeit slowly.
"Whoosh!"
Nara Ensui e with one final Shadow Sewing Teique, severing the shinobi’s head.
"Thud."
The head hit the ground with a series of dull thumps, rolling a few times before ing to a stop.
Link colpsed to one knee, gasping for air, his trembling harieving a soldier pill to pop into his mouth.
Using the Stand’s ability had drained him. Forcibly extrag iron from a Jōnin-level oppo’s body to form a on had been a massive strain.
The Amegakure shinobi’s enhanced physique and chakra interference had severely hampered the Stand’s operations. The curse mark’s sudden power boost only pouhe difficulty.
In short, his stamina had beeed to less than five pert. Only years orous training had kept him from passing out on the spot.
"Thud." Thud."
Iris and Ami nded oher side of him, abandoning the mert to guard their leader.
Nara Ensui, breathing heavily, swallowed his own soldier pill. firming that the Land of Fire mert was alive and the mission still intact, he looked at his three subordinates with relief.
As shinobi, they were tools, meant to sacrifice for the mission. But as a Konoha ninja and their mentor, he couldn’t help but feel heartened by the bond and camaraderie between them.
He gripped his kunai and turo face the approag figure—
The Sunagakure kunoichi, holding her signature iron fan.
Bleam
