The Heart of the Strong

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Impaled on the iron spear, Iwamata coughed blood and spoke weakly. "My... my instinct was right. You really are a threat."

Naoki pressed one hand over the wound on his right thigh and braced the other against the ground, staring fixedly at Iwamata.

Judging from the chakra reaction inside Iwamata's body, he still had strong vitality. The weakness he was showing might very well be an act.

Naoki would not underestimate any elite jonin who had survived war, so he did not act rashly.

Iwamata continued weakly, "Heh. What a cautious one. You are not going to come over and finish me off?"

Doubt rose in Naoki's mind. 'He wants to lure me closer?'

Before Naoki could think more deeply, Iwamata suddenly broke free of the iron spear. As if he had never been wounded, he turned sharply and fled deeper into the forest with surprising agility.

'He is trying to run?' Naoki froze for an instant, then thought, 'I cannot let him escape!'

The secret of the Third Kazekage human puppet could not be allowed to spread. Almost subconsciously, Naoki thrust both arms toward Iwamata and activated Revolving Will at full strength.

Under the immense pull, Iwamata was dragged toward Naoki with almost no resistance.

Ignoring his own injuries, Naoki struck with a full set of Eight Trigrams Palms. Every blow drove straight for a vital point, carrying his resolve to finish this powerful enemy completely.

The muffled sound of palms striking flesh echoed through the forest.

From the feel of the blows, Naoki judged that Iwamata had not had time to use Earth Release hardening this time. Even if that set of Eight Trigrams Palms had not damaged the chakra pathways around his heart, it had definitely damaged his organs.

Just as Naoki expected, after being struck, Iwamata's body went limp like mud and slowly collapsed at Naoki's feet.

Just as Naoki let out a breath, Iwamata suddenly sprang up from the ground, grabbed him, and said in a hoarse voice, "Konoha's young genius, come with me to hell."

Hiss, hiss.

Only when the ignition hiss began did Naoki realize Iwamata had modified his own body. Special explosive tags had been implanted beneath his skin, their chakra signatures hidden within the flow of his own chakra to avoid Naoki's detection.

Looking at Iwamata's calm face at the brink of death, Naoki suddenly understood.

From beginning to end, Iwamata had never intended to escape. The reason he pretended to flee was precisely to make Naoki pull him closer and complete this final strike.

The explosions that followed swept across a large section of forest. The surrounding area was flattened, smoke and dust filled the air, and the ground trembled.

Far away, after using genjutsu to deal with the last enemy, Shisui stepped forward and added a blade strike, ending the target's life.

Around him lay nine corpses.

Among them, only one belonged to the Hidden Stone beheading unit. The other eight were dressed as wandering shinobi, seemingly part of the Land of Bears' wandering shinobi secretly supported by the Hidden Stone.

Just as Shisui sheathed his short blade and prepared to search for the other members of Team Eleven, a violent explosion shook the distance so hard that he stumbled.

"What happened?"

Startled, he immediately rushed toward the direction of the blast.

Elsewhere, Kakashi pulled his right hand from an enemy's heart, then casually flicked the sticky blood from his fingers onto the ground.

Panting heavily, he looked toward the direction of the explosion.

With his experience, he could naturally judge that an explosion of such scale could not have been caused by ordinary ninjutsu or standard explosive tags. His face darkened at once.

The fierce battle just now had drained his chakra. Although he had killed all nine enemies, he had almost lost his own combat power as well. Even so, without hesitation, he limped toward the explosion.

On the final battlefield, Guy clutched his injured left arm, his expression grave.

Surrounded by enemies, he was worried about both the fight before him and the other members of Team Eleven. In his view, if the enemy had sent nine shinobi to surround him, then even more might have been sent after his companions.

Suddenly, the violent explosion drew the attention of everyone on both sides.

Guy's heart sank, and a bad feeling rose inside him.

The Hidden Stone beheading unit member leading the enemy side had his expression change drastically. He abandoned the injured Guy and led eight wandering shinobi in a desperate rush toward the explosion.

Guy froze for a moment, then followed as well.

At the center of the blast, after the dust settled, Naoki's figure slowly appeared.

His face calm, he swept his gaze over the surroundings and sighed softly.

At the final instant, Naoki had decisively used Revolving Will to push Iwamata away. But Iwamata's self-destruction had been too violent. Revolving Will could not repel every shock wave and flame in time, so Naoki had still been seriously injured by the blast, with several fractures and burns across his body. He looked thoroughly battered.

Iwamata had left no corpse behind. Only a broken Hidden Stone forehead protector lay alone on the ground.

Dragging his injured leg, Naoki stumbled over, picked up Iwamata's forehead protector, and placed it in the ninja-tool pouch at his waist.

In this battle of life and death, he had won.

One year earlier, before Iwamata, he had been a nobody the man could kill casually. Iwamata had not even been willing to waste extra chakra using ninjutsu on him.

One year later, Iwamata was dead, killed by that same nobody.

For a moment, Naoki felt dazed, his heart filled with emotion.

This was also the first time he had directly faced an elite jonin. Although he had still relied on a surprise attack with Revolving Will to break the situation, his performance throughout the battle was still worth acknowledging.

Except, of course, for the fact that Iwamata had fooled him at the end.

After putting away the Third Kazekage human puppet, Naoki sat cross-legged on the ground and began bandaging his wounds. His expression was so calm that he looked as if he were tying his shoes.

At that moment, nine shinobi hurriedly appeared before him.

The leader was a member of the Hidden Stone beheading unit. The other eight were all dressed as wandering shinobi.

The Hidden Stone member swept his gaze across the battlefield, then shouted at Naoki with forced courage, "Damn it! Where is our captain?"

After finishing the bandage, Naoki slowly stood and said evenly, "You have already seen the result. Why act so surprised?"

"This... this is impossible. How could our captain lose?"

"He lost because he met me. That is all."

With that, Naoki charged toward them without hesitation.

From his battle with Iwamata, Naoki had gained many things. But his greatest gain was a fearless heart that belonged to the strong.

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