Swish~ swish~ swish~
Just as Ishi Ichiro avoided the Kunai attack, several Shuriken flew over, vaguely sealing off his escape routes.
With no choice, Ishi Ichiro had to swing the Kunai in his hand to block the incoming Shuriken.
Taking this opportunity, Seimei once again used the Body Flicker Jutsu, closing the distance to Ishi Ichiro at an extremely fast speed.
After that, the situation developed just like before— the two became entangled once again.
Ryosuke and Mizutani Shizuko, remembering Seimei's instructions, stayed close to him, coordinating to disrupt Ishi Ichiro's movements.
"Damn it!"
Watching Seimei's increasingly proficient fighting moves, Ishi Ichiro felt like he had become the enemy's sparring partner, his anger boiling over with no outlet.
At that moment, a Kunai came flying in from the side.
However, the target of the attack wasn't Ishi Ichiro, but Seimei, who was deeply immersed in battle.
"Watch out!" x 2
Two warning shouts came almost simultaneously.
Seimei felt a chill in his heart and quickly retreated backward.
Whoosh~
A Kunai sliced through the air, flying past him.
Out of the corner of his eye, Seimei glanced in the direction from which the Kunai had been thrown and saw a middle-aged Rock Ninja rushing toward him, with a Konoha Chunin pursuing behind.
The first person to shout the warning was indeed this Konoha Chunin, who had been organizing their defense not long ago.
He had been running around putting out fires and had now come to Seimei's aid.
However, Seimei's expression turned grim as he looked at the middle-aged Rock Ninja who had just attempted to ambush him.
If it weren't for the other party's interference, he would still be gaining combat experience from Ishi Ichiro!
"Ah, it would have been great to just go with the flow, but they're forcing me to take action."
That's right; Seimei had already made up his mind to strike.
It was clear that the other side had their sights set on him.
In this situation, if he continued to hold back, he would only end up being surrounded.
Since that was the case, he could only strike first.
As for exposing his strength,
well, let's reveal a bit!
With a thought, Seimei took out eight Shuriken and then threw them fiercely.
Three of them were aimed to block the opponent's escape route, three were aimed to predict their movements, and the remaining two targeted their vital areas in the chest and abdomen.
The middle-aged Rock Ninja seemed unprepared for such a decisive counterattack from Seimei, so his response was somewhat stiff.
This delay allowed the Konoha Chunin behind him to arrive, clashing noisily with the Rock Ninja.
However, every advantage comes with a disadvantage.
While Seimei had prevented the opponent from getting closer, he had also given Ishi Ichiro a chance to catch his breath.
Almost at the moment he threw the Shuriken, Ishi Ichiro simultaneously threw a Kunai at him.
Seimei had no time to block and could only dodge as best as he could.
This evasion gave Ishi Ichiro more than enough time.
He quickly distanced himself, completed the hand seals in the blink of an eye, then slammed his hand onto the ground, using the Ninjutsu—Earth Release: Rupturing Earth Palm.
In an instant, several wide cracks appeared, radiating outward in a fan shape from his palm, rapidly spreading toward Seimei's position.
During this time, Ryosuke and Mizutani Shizuko attempted to interfere, but due to their lack of combat experience, they missed their timing, and the Kunai and Shuriken they threw fell short.
Ultimately, this allowed Ishi Ichiro to successfully execute his Ninjutsu.
Feeling the ground shaking beneath him and seeing the cracks quickly spreading toward him, Seimei's expression grew serious.
He raised both hands and completed the hand seals at the fastest speed of his life, using the 'Body Flicker Jutsu.'
In the end, just before the cracks engulfed him, Seimei managed to escape the range of the Ninjutsu thanks to his speed advantage.
It must be said that this Ninjutsu, which could cause seismic effects, was very unfriendly to Ninjas who could not fly.
If Ishi Ichiro had more Chakra and had mastered this Ninjutsu, Seimei might have had trouble even standing, let alone running at high speed.
Fortunately, it was all over.
Seimei looked at the distant Ishi Ichiro, who wore a face of distress, and without any hesitation, charged forward.
Ahead of him were the three Kunai he had thrown.
Ishi Ichiro was sharp-eyed and spotted an explosive tag tied to one of the Kunai, so he immediately retreated.
Boom~
Flames burst forth as the explosive tag detonated.
A visible shockwave rapidly spread outward from the Kunai's center, creating such a disturbance that the surrounding battlefield fell silent.
However, Seimei did not pay any attention to this; once he decided to take action, he would not hesitate at all.
Taking advantage of the flames from the explosive tag, he closed the distance to Ishi Ichiro.
Then, just when Ishi Ichiro thought he was going to engage in close combat again, Seimei suddenly stopped, his hands flying as he formed the six seals: 'Rat-Tiger-Dog-Ox-Hare-Tiger.'
Taking a deep breath, he gathered Fire Release Chakra in his throat and then spat it out violently.
In the next moment, fireballs resembling seeds of the phoenix flower appeared in succession, swirling as they charged towards Ishi Ichiro.
Not to mention the effectiveness of this Ninjutsu, the visual display was absolutely stunning, perfectly matching the prestige of the Uchiha clan.
However, Ishi Ichiro had no time to appreciate this scene.
As soon as he saw Seimei forming the hand seals, he had an ominous premonition.
Now that premonition had come true, and all he could do was dodge.
With fireballs flying towards him one after another, Ishi Ichiro ducked and weaved, finally managing to avoid being completely engulfed by the flames.
However, injuries were unavoidable.
When the flames extinguished, Ishi Ichiro found that several parts of his clothing were charred, and there were also several blisters on his face.
This was because Seimei's Fire Release: Phoenix Sage Fire Jutsu was not at a high level, producing flames of average power, and without the assistance of Sharingan for precise targeting, he could only inflict minor injuries on his opponent.
Otherwise, with such a good opportunity, he could have either killed him directly or at least severely injured him.
Fortunately, he still had a backup plan.
Without waiting for his chakra to settle, Seimei began forming seals again.
Seeing this, Ishi Ichiro felt a rush of panic and was about to use Ninjutsu to escape.
But before he could make a move, a forceful mental energy surged into his mind, showing him the image of Seimei throwing Kunai.
Ishi Ichiro didn't have time to think and instinctively dodged to the side.
However, in the next moment, he felt a piercing pain in his chest and looked down to see a Kunai embedded in his heart.
In his final moments, Ishi Ichiro struggled to lift his head and look at Seimei. Seeing that his arm had not yet fallen, he murmured, "Genjutsu?"
Indeed, just moments ago, Seimei had cast a Genjutsu on him.
However, it was not the Demonic Illusion: Shackling Stakes Jutsu, but the largely ineffective Heart Reflection Jutsu.
The Demonic Illusion: Shackling Stakes Jutsu requires the Sharingan to work; although Seimei planned to reveal some of his abilities, that did not include the Sharingan.
Thus, he could only use the Heart Reflection Jutsu.
While this technique is mostly ineffective and mainly serves to assist in the evolution of the Sharingan, it does possess some Genjutsu effects.
It can disrupt the target's senses to a certain extent, thereby affecting their judgment.
Just now, he had made Ishi Ichiro see the illusion of him throwing a Kunai in advance. After Ishi Ichiro instinctively dodged, Seimei then chose to strike for real.
In the end, he successfully executed a must-kill strike.
The reason Ishi Ichiro fell without resistance was entirely due to Seimei's high mastery of this technique.
With a proficiency level nearing level 4, it was the highest among all his skills.
Although the effect of the technique didn't reach the level of an A-rank Genjutsu, it was still on par with a typical C-rank Genjutsu.
It was completely normal for Ishi Ichiro to be caught off guard.
After all, who would expect that a mere Genin could master so many skills?
***
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