Chapter 39: Discovering the Rock Ninja

If it were a few months ago, upon sensing these unfamiliar auras, Uchiha Feiyu would likely have already retreated; however, he could now be called bold due to his high skill, and after a moment of hesitation, he rushed toward the location where he sensed the strange souls gathering.

"Uh... what is going on? Is this an invisibility technique?"

When Uchiha Feiyu arrived at the location where he sensed the anomaly, he discovered that no figures could be seen there, yet his Soul Perception was able to detect that four unfamiliar souls were hiding in a thicket.

When Uchiha Feiyu focused his gaze there, he vaguely felt that something was wrong; the Double Tomoe in his Sharingan spun continuously, and he finally discovered that the outlines there seemed a bit strange.

"This is—Camouflage Concealment Technique!?"

In the Ninja Academy, some simple concealment methods that do not involve chakra are also taught, among which is the method of using camouflage cloth to hide one's figure, but this type of concealment can only handle observation from dozens or hundreds of meters away; at close range, flaws are immediately spotted.

However, in the Ninja World, there is a Wind Release ninjutsu called the Camouflage Concealment Technique, which is a semi-invisibility ninjutsu developed based on this principle.

By using Wind-attribute chakra to precisely control the water molecules that permeate the air and are invisible to the naked eye, wrapping them around the body, one can achieve an effect nearly identical to optical invisibility; although it belongs to Wind Release, it is a ninjutsu unique to Iwagakure.

If Uchiha Feiyu did not possess the ability of Soul Perception, even if he had activated his Sharingan, he would likely have overlooked these few ninja.

"This is only two or three kilometers away from the Konoha camp; the appearance of Iwagakure ninja here—it seems they are preparing to launch a surprise attack?"

With his mind made up, the sound of wind and thunder already rang out from Uchiha Feiyu's body, and with a 'whoosh', he charged directly toward the invisible Rock Ninja!

Hearing the sound of wind and thunder coming from behind, these invisible Rock Ninja reacted immediately and scattered, and the Camouflage Concealment Technique under high-speed movement shattered instantly, revealing the figures of the four Rock Ninja.

Facing Uchiha Feiyu at the very front was an extremely tall Rock Ninja; after a roar of anger, his entire body turned a pitch-black color, and at the same time, Uchiha Feiyu had already slashed down with his blade.

"This guy has good reflexes... to actually be able to react to my attack, he is at least at the level of a Special Jonin!"

With a flash of the blade, Uchiha Feiyu immediately felt a resistance on the short blade in his hand; if the White Fang Sword Technique cutting through an ordinary person's body was like cutting tofu, then Uchiha Feiyu now felt as if he had cut into a piece of rotten wood.

What this tall Rock Ninja used was the Hardening Technique, which is the easiest to learn but hardest to master among Earth Release; an ordinary Hardening Technique is roughly equivalent to a layer of iron armor, and the stronger the strength, the higher the effect of the Hardening Technique.

For example, the Earth Spear developed by the immortal ninja Kakuzu in the manga is also a type of Earth Release Hardening Technique, which can completely withstand ordinary A-Rank Ninjutsu, and only faces broken defense when confronted with A-Rank Lightning Release and S-rank ninjutsu.

Of course, Kakuzu is a proper Shadow-level Ninja, while the one Uchiha Feiyu faced was only an ordinary Rock Ninja Jonin, so his slash only made the blade edge feel a bit obstructed, and there was no situation where he failed to break the defense.

The tall Rock Ninja opposite him let out a muffled groan; relying on the Earth Release Hardening Technique to block the blade edge, this Rock Ninja pulled back quickly and ultimately was not cut directly in half, leaving only a wound on his chest deep enough to see bone.

Just as this tall Rock Ninja retreated, the other Rock Ninja also rushed over without a word; the fastest to arrive were two ninja who looked similar, each drawing a long sword with one hand, left and right, and slashing down instantly.

The white light on the short blade in Uchiha Feiyu's hand surged, easily blocking the opponent's Sword Technique, and he even counterattacked to force the two back, but he was secretly shocked in his heart.

"To be able to trade blows with Hatake Sakumo, these guys... are all experts at the Jonin level!"

However, thinking about it carefully, it is normal; these are ninja preparing to raid the Konoha camp, and Iwagakure would inevitably send the elite of the elite; if they weren't at the Jonin level, they would just be dead weight.

While thinking this, Uchiha Feiyu raised his hand and threw a signal flare; following the explosion of the signal flare in the sky, the entire Konoha camp suddenly seemed like a giant beast waking up.

"Not good!! The plan has failed, prepare to retreat!"

The Rock Ninja standing at the back, who had not fought with Uchiha Feiyu, had his expression change drastically; at the same time, Uchiha Feiyu's eyes also locked onto him completely.

The Camouflage Concealment Technique from just now should have been used by this Rock Ninja; looking at the positioning of the few, this guy should be the captain of this group of Rock Ninja.

An ordinary Camouflage Concealment Technique can only cover one's own figure, but when this ninja performed the ninjutsu just now, he directly included the surrounding area of several meters into the camouflage, forcibly developing a single-person invisibility technique into a group invisibility technique; based on this skill alone, this guy is likely no simple character among Jonin.

"Want to run, can you run?"

A cold sneer appeared on Feiyu's face; at this moment, the two Rock Ninja who were likely brothers rushed up again, brandishing the long swords in their hands, trying their best to entangle Feiyu.

The Rock Ninja who was nearly disemboweled reached out with a faint green glow, starting to heal himself. And the last Rock Ninja squad leader very simply performed the Seal with his hands:

"Earth Release—Light-Weight Rock Technique!"

"Earth Release—Earth-Splitting Palm!"

The earth cracked open rapidly, and a huge chasm appeared, blocking the path between Uchiha Feiyu and those few Rock Ninja; the pair of Rock Ninja brothers who had just entangled Uchiha Feiyu also retreated at the last moment, though they each already had a wound deep enough to see bone on their bodies.

The Earth-Splitting Palm was originally a ninjutsu that used this kind of ground cracking for offense, but this Rock Ninja was clearly using it as a ninjutsu for retreat; the squad leader spoke:

"Konoha is truly worthy of being a cradle for geniuses! To have this kind of strength at such a young age, you are almost at the Shadow-level... young man, can you tell me your name?"

Uchiha Feiyu sneered; this guy was merely looking at the chasm in the ground, feeling that he was safe, and therefore wanted to fish for information.

If it were a month or two earlier, Uchiha Feiyu, as a close-combat unit, would indeed have had no way to deal with them, but now...

Slowly raising his head, in Uchiha Feiyu's pair of Sharingan, two Tomoe spun continuously, immediately causing the Rock Ninja squad leader's expression to change:

"Sharingan! Not good!"

Unfortunately, by the time he reacted, his whole person had already fallen into Genjutsu, and just at this moment, the short blade in Uchiha Feiyu's hand swept out horizontally, and a blade aura condensed from Wind Release instantly swept out like a huge half-moon!

(End of chapter)