Uchiha orphan, so what if I'm ruthless?

At this moment, Uchiha Taiga smiled softly, his posture relaxed, as if the deaths of those three men had absolutely nothing to do with him.

He simply stood there without a single drop of blood on his clothes, his expression even carrying a hint of laziness.

This attitude truly terrified everyone present. Three elite Special Jonin had died silently, and no one had even seen how it happened.

Yugito Nii's pupils shrank slightly.

Even she had not clearly seen how Uchiha Taiga pulled it off.

Those three men had charged forward, thrown their punches, and then their bodies had frozen. She had no idea what happened in between. Her eyes had caught Taiga's movement, but it was far too fast—so fast that her dynamic vision couldn't keep up.

Especially after hearing Taiga's words, her heart inexplicably sank.

But she quickly suppressed that unease.

"Are all Konoha ninjas this arrogant?"

Yugito sneered, her voice dripping with undisguised mockery.

As soon as the words left her mouth, she vanished from her spot.

Her foot dug a small crater into the ground, kicking up gravel and dust. Her body shot toward Uchiha Taiga like an arrow released from a bowstring.

She reached out with her right hand, her five fingers spread wide.

Mid-flight, her nails rapidly grew longer, sharper, and harder, transforming from ordinary fingernails into five razor-sharp claws.

The air tore beneath her claws with a piercing whistle.

Uchiha Taiga was currently dodging the attacks of the other Kumogakure ninjas. These shinobi did not retreat after the deaths of their three comrades; instead, they launched their assaults with even greater frenzy.

Some threw kunai from the flanks, some unleashed Lightning Style jutsu from above, and others charged head-on to pin him down with taijutsu.

His body weaved through the barrage of attacks as if he were flickering in and out of existence. But the moment he sidestepped a kunai, Yugito's claws arrived.

Her speed abruptly surged mid-strike, doubling her initial velocity.

The acceleration came without warning. There was no visible wind-up, yet her speed simply spiked.

Uchiha Taiga's pupils contracted slightly, and he tilted his head to the left.

*Slash!*

A chill swept across his right cheek.

The two brushed past each other.

Uchiha Taiga landed several meters away, while Yugito touched down a short distance behind him. The two stood back-to-back.

Taiga raised a hand and touched his right cheek.

His fingertips brushed against a shallow cut. A bead of blood seeped from the wound and trickled down his face.

The cut wasn't deep; it had merely broken the skin.

He wiped his finger across the cut, smearing away the drop of blood.

The moment his finger passed over it, the shallow wound healed almost instantly, leaving not even a scar behind.

The incredible regenerative power granted by his Sage Body was on full display.

Uchiha Taiga smiled. It was a pure smile, filled with genuine delight.

"Impressive."

He turned around and looked at Yugito Nii.

"This is the first time I've been injured in my entire life. You really are quite good."

This was a genuine compliment, as he was speaking the absolute truth.

Taiga's gaze lingered on her for a moment, sweeping her up and down.

"You've piqued my interest."

As soon as he spoke, lightning flickered across his body.

Truthfully, Uchiha Taiga loved using Lightning Style because of its sheer practicality.

Among the Kumogakure ninjas present, there were also quite a few skilled Lightning Style users.

But Uchiha Taiga's Lightning Style was terrifying.

*Shing!*

A crisp ring echoed through the air—the sound of a blade leaving its sheath.

No one saw how he drew his sword. The ninjato gifted to him by Uchiha Fugaku had appeared in his hand at some unknown moment.

The blade gleamed with a cold white light under the sun. There was no blood on the edge, yet in the direction the tip pointed, the head of a Kumogakure Jonin was already flying into the sky.

Blood erupted from the severed neck, forming a dark red fountain in the sunlight.

The headless corpse still maintained its hand-sign posture, fingers locked in the final seal, as it slowly collapsed.

Uchiha Taiga's figure had already vanished from that spot.

He transformed into a streak of lightning, darting rapidly across the battlefield. He left behind a trail of afterimages, and before they could even fade, his true body was already appearing in another location.

Every time he appeared, a flash of the blade followed, and with every flash, a Kumogakure ninja fell.

Some tried to intercept him with ninjutsu, launching attacks from all directions, but Taiga's speed was so great that their strikes couldn't even catch up to him.

Others attempted to block him in close-quarters taijutsu, but Taiga's sword was too fast. Before they could even track the blade's trajectory, their throats were slit.

Some tried to lock down his movements with kunai and shuriken, but his body weaved through the hidden weapons as if guided by an invisible thread. Every single kunai grazed past him; not a single one found its mark.

Three Jonin lunged at him simultaneously from three different directions. All three were cloaked in Lightning Style chakra, pushing their speed and power to the absolute limit.

Their coordination was flawless. The three attacks arrived at almost the exact same moment, sealing off every possible avenue of escape.

For a split second, Uchiha Taiga's figure paused.

And then he vanished again.

No one saw when he moved. No one saw when he drew his blade. No one even saw when his sword swung down.

The bodies of the three Jonin froze simultaneously.

A thin red line appeared across each of their necks at the exact same time. The lines rapidly expanded, and blood gushed from the cuts.

The three fell in unison, their corpses hitting the ground with heavy thuds.

Out of the six Jonin, three were already dead!

The remaining Special Jonin and Jonin suffered even heavier casualties.

Out of twenty-five people, more than half had fallen in the span of a few short breaths.

Blood stained the cobblestone streets red. Corpses lay haphazardly in pools of blood; some were still twitching, while others had gone completely still.

Someone cried out in shock.

"Lightning Style Chakra Mode?!"

The Kumogakure Jonin's eyes were wide as saucers, his face filled with disbelief.

Yugito Nii was also watching the streak of lightning. Her insight was far superior to that of the Jonin, and she spotted the difference at a glance.

"It's not the Lightning Style Chakra Mode..."

Her voice was soft, but it carried an uncontrollable shock.

"It's the Lightning Style Body Flicker Technique!"

She had seen many ninjas who used Lightning Style, including those who combined it with the Body Flicker Technique. Yet, even among the very best, no one could achieve this level of mastery.

This speed had surpassed the limits of the human body, even exceeding the limits of a standard Lightning Style Chakra Mode.

This boy had pushed his speed to the absolute extreme. He had abandoned defense and abandoned offense, pouring everything entirely into speed.

No, he hadn't abandoned offense.

Yugito suddenly realized.

His blade was his attack, and his speed was his blade. When speed reached a certain threshold, the physical sword itself no longer mattered, because the speed itself became the sharpest edge.

A chill ran through Yugito's heart.

Of the twenty-five elites she had brought, fewer than ten were still standing.

Three of the six Jonin were dead, and the remaining three were injured.

The Special Jonin had suffered even more disastrous casualties. Some had their throats slit, some had their hearts pierced, and others had their arms severed before being finished off with a final strike.

The street was covered in blood and littered with corpses. The screams and groans of the survivors echoed everywhere.

But her gaze did not waver.

She gritted her teeth fiercely.

A unique chakra surged from her body—scorching, violent, and carrying a primal wildness.

That chakra wasn't her own; it belonged to another entity... the Two-Tails Matatabi.

Orange-red chakra surfaced on her skin, dancing around her like flames.

Her eyes shifted into slitted pupils, reflecting Uchiha Taiga's figure within them.

Her nails grew even longer and sharper, her canines elongated into fangs, and a tail formed purely of chakra swayed behind her.

Partial Tailed Beast Transformation.

Yugito Nii hesitated no longer. She vanished from her spot and lunged at Uchiha Taiga.

This time, her speed was pushed to the absolute limit—faster and far more ferocious than before.

The tail behind her whipped through the air with sharp cracks. Wherever it swept across the ground, cobblestones shattered and dust billowed into the air.

Her right hand formed a claw, the five sharp talons coated in Tailed Beast chakra as she swiped at Uchiha Taiga's chest.

If this strike landed solid, it would be enough to tear a person's chest wide open.