c 27: Strong Kill
"You're all dead. You just don't know it yet."
"Give it a minute. I'll have you begging before I slowly cut you apart."
"Hey, that girl over there looks like easy prey. Save her for later."
The rogues sneered, their tone dripping with contempt. They clearly didn't see Chiba and the other four as any real threat just Konoha children playing shinobi.
Watching the rogues laugh without urgency, Chiba didn't waste another second. With a sharp swish, he surged forward, opening the battle.
Seeing Chiba take action, the rest Kakashi, Mina, Kuruma, and Neri moved in sync, launching into the fray from different angles. Each of them activated their respective techniques, determined to go all out. Anything less would mean death.
Chiba led the charge. His chakra ignited, flames licking his body like a living aura. Heat rippled around him as his bloodline limit activated.
"Katon: Enshōjin!"
(Fire Style: Flame Formation!)
Chiba swung his right arm forward. Flames burst forth, forming a towering wall of fire between himself and the charging rogues.
The sudden heat wave sent several attackers stumbling backward, shielding their faces and freezing up in fear.
But Chiba didn't flinch. He moved straight through the flames he had created, unscathed. His speed didn't drop for a second. He burst through to the other side and appeared directly in front of one rogue—his shuriken already drawn and aimed.
In one fluid motion, Chiba twisted his hips and sliced clean through the man's neck. The rogue's eyes went wide, but he never even had time to scream before blood fanned out into the air.
As the corpse slumped, Chiba vanished with a burst of speed Shunshin no Jutsu (Body Flicker Technique). He reappeared behind another rogue and drove his kunai into the man's chest directly through the heart.
Puff!
The blade sunk deep. Blood sprayed, and the second enemy dropped like a puppet with its strings cut.
In mere seconds, Chiba had killed two. His strikes were fast, clean, and deliberate not wild, but clinical. This wasn't the flailing of a child. This was the precision of someone who had seen true battle.
No hesitation. No mercy.
Without pause, Chiba spun again. His right hand whipped a kunai at the third rogue, striking directly between the eyebrows. The rogue fell back with a grunt, eyes already glazing over.
Three gone before the others even processed what had happened.
A rogue standing nearby watched his comrades collapse, frozen with wide eyes. "What the hell? He's just a kid!"
"He's not normal how is he that strong?" another whispered in disbelief.
"Forget it! We outnumber him just kill him already!" barked a senior rogue. His voice was angry, but his fear bled through.
Five rogues broke away from the others, weapons raised. They fanned out, surrounding Chiba on all sides in a textbook encirclement. Their aim was clear overwhelm him before he could act again.
Chiba saw it coming. No fear. No backing down. He charged directly at the two approaching head-on, eyes filled with cold fire.
"Katon: Ryūka no Jutsu!"
(Fire Style: Dragon Fire Technique!)
He released two narrow streams of flame from his hands, each shaped like a spear. They tore through the air toward the incoming rogues.
Wham! Wham!
The fire lances hit their targets with pinpoint precision. The rogues were lifted off their feet and hurled back, bodies smoking. They didn't get up.
The remaining three, seeing their opening, struck at once—one from above with a sword, one sweeping from below, and one coming head-on.
There was almost no room to evade. For most, it would have been a death trap.
But Chiba? He stepped straight into it.
"Katon: Enbu no Hi!"
(Fire Style: Dance of the Blazing Ember!)
With a low spin, Chiba unleashed a swirling column of flame from the ground, whipping it upward in a spiral motion. The fire roared into the sky, consuming everything in its path.
BOOM!
The three rogues were caught mid-attack, engulfed in flames. Their screams lasted less than a second as they were blasted back. The force of the fire stripped bark from the nearby trees.
In less than a minute, the enemies near Chiba had all been neutralized. Five of them dead. Three too wounded to stand.
Uchiha Mina, meanwhile, was locked in a struggle against four attackers. Her Sharingan was activated, dodging and countering, but her stamina was fading. If this kept up, she'd be overwhelmed.
Chiba moved to help, but just as he shifted, a shadow darted from the trees.
Ting! Ting! Ting!
Three shuriken shot toward him, spinning with expert precision.
Without even blinking, Chiba countered—launching a burst of flame that burned the projectiles mid-air.
From the forest edge stepped a man who didn't match the rest. He wore ragged clothing like the rogues, but his movement was different—controlled, deadly. A vertical scar slashed across his forehead, and his eyes had a focused intensity that rogue thugs lacked.
Chiba narrowed his eyes. "You're not a rogue. You're a shinobi."
This man wasn't just a straggler. He was trained. Probably a shinobi from a rival village—sent to destabilize the Fire Country's borders, using rogue gangs as cover.
Chiba's gaze sharpened.
"This one's not a souvenir," he muttered. "He's the real threat."
--