MWM Chapter 144

To be honest, Leo thought Jirobo wasn’t very bright. He was holding the legendary Kusanagi Sword. If he hadn’t just decided not to kill Jirobo, the latter’s reckless charge would have ended with him being sliced in half by a single strike.

Facing a weapon barehanded, even if their strengths are comparable, is always a disadvantage—especially when the weapon in question is the incredibly sharp Kusanagi Sword.

Even a Kage-level ninja like Orochimaru, who primarily relies on ninjutsu, brought out the Kusanagi Sword in his fight against the Third Hokage. This shows how significant the Kusanagi Sword’s enhancement is, even for someone of Kage level.

As Leo landed, Kabuto, Kimimaro, and Sakon/Ukon surrounded him in a triangular formation.

However, all three now wore serious expressions on their faces.

The series of attacks just now seemed to take a long time, but in reality, it was less than a minute. In that short time, half of their team was already down, and the powerful summoned creatures had all disappeared due to their masters being knocked unconscious.

This Prince of the Land of Fire not only had the strength of an elite taijutsu ninja but was also proficient in both Water and Lightning Release ninjutsu, and possessed other strange, never-before-seen techniques.

And he hadn’t even used the ninjutsu from the Fire Temple as their intelligence had indicated.

“Boom!”

A bolt of lightning streaked across the sky as the three charged at Leo amidst the storm.

“Shikotsumyaku: Dance of the Clematis, Flower!”

Kimimaro pulled his own spine from his back, transforming it into a long bone whip that he swung toward Leo, while his left hand rapidly generated a sharp bone drill.

As long as the bone whip entangled the opponent, his ultimate spear could end the battle in one strike.

“Do you also want to dance?”

Seeing the bone whip coming at him, Leo instantly swung his Kusanagi Sword, cutting the whip into several pieces with a few swift flashes.

Then, with his left hand holding the Elder Wand, he cast a dancing spell at the charging Kimimaro:

“Tarantallegra!”

Due to Jirobo’s earlier example, Kimimaro was obviously wary of the magical beams Leo shot out. He quickly generated a bone shield with his left hand to block the magical beam.

However, in the next second, his body suddenly stopped moving, and his feet began to uncontrollably dance.

If Kimimaro had dodged the magical beam, nothing would have happened. Given his speed, dodging wouldn’t have been difficult, or using any random object as a shield would have worked just fine.

But he had used a bone shield created from his own bone growth to block Leo’s magic.

It wasn’t entirely his fault; under normal circumstances, using a bone shield to block any ninjutsu—whether it be Wind, Fire, Lightning, Earth, or Water Release—wouldn’t pose any problems.

Based on this world’s ninja combat style, his thinking was correct.

But unfortunately, Leo was using magic, not ninjutsu. Since the bone shield was something grown from Kimimaro’s body, the attack hitting the shield was naturally interpreted by the magic as hitting Kimimaro’s body.

And since it hit Kimimaro’s body, the spell’s effect naturally took hold.

“Sakon/Ukon!”

At this moment, Kabuto also rushed behind Leo. Seeing Leo’s Kusanagi Sword cut through Kimimaro’s bone whip and use some unknown technique to control Kimimaro, he hurriedly shouted to Sakon and Ukon.

Sakon/Ukon immediately rushed in front of Leo, impaling themselves on the Kusanagi Sword and grabbing hold of Leo’s arm that wielded the sword.

The Kusanagi Sword was too sharp, and in the hands of a taijutsu master like Leo, getting close enough to subdue him was nearly impossible. So the first step was to neutralize the Kusanagi Sword.

Sakon/Ukon could do this perfectly because they were modified twin brothers with a special Kekkei Genkai. Even if sliced in half by a sword, their bodies would only separate, not die.

Moreover, no matter how severe the injuries, the two brothers could heal by merging back together.

“You think I don’t know your abilities?”

Seeing Sakon/Ukon using their bodies to block his Kusanagi Sword, Leo smiled and switched the Elder Wand to his other hand.

The biggest drawback of using spells against ninjas is the hit rate. With a ninja’s physical agility, spells are hard to land, just like back when Leo was in the wizarding world; wizards had difficulty hitting him with their spells.

But now that Sakon/Ukon was so close, and fixed onto his sword, they were practically a sitting duck.

“Stupefy!”

For taijutsu-type ninjas, much like dealing with the enhanced Colonel Blonsky earlier, binding spells don’t work well because they can easily break free, and transfiguration spells have only a short effect.

The most suitable spells are those targeting the mind, like the Stunning Spell.

Conversely, for illusion-type ninjas, binding spells are more effective.

Of course, the best would be black magic spells that directly harm the soul and body, but he wasn’t planning to kill them now.

The spell hit Sakon/Ukon directly, knocking them unconscious.

However, Kabuto had taken advantage of the time Sakon/Ukon bought to get close to Leo. His hands glowed green as he quickly struck several spots on Leo’s waist, arms, and legs.

Then he deftly dodged a whip kick from Leo and jumped out of his attack range.

“You have no chance of winning now, Your Highness!”

The strikes Kabuto had just delivered seemed harmless, but in reality, he had used advanced medical ninjutsu to secretly sever the muscles and tendons in Leo’s arms, waist, and legs.

So, for Leo to still be standing was already quite impressive; trying to swing his sword and counterattack with taijutsu would be very difficult now.

Moreover, Kimimaro had already regained control and was once again raising his strongest bone drill to attack Leo.

“This kind of attack that bypasses defenses and directly damages internal organs is quite interesting.”

Leo felt the severed muscles and tendons in his body and let out a rare sigh of admiration.

If not for his body’s current extraordinary resilience, he’d likely be unable to stand from what Kabuto had done.

“Kannonbiraki: Thousand-Armed Murder!”

Planting the Kusanagi Sword in the ground and tossing the Elder Wand into his inventory, Leo assumed a stance to perform the Fire Temple’s secret ninjutsu.

Immediately, a golden statue of a thousand-armed Kannon enveloped him, blocking Kimimaro’s so-called ultimate bone drill attack, and sent a golden palm strike flying toward him.

“Boom!”

Kimimaro’s body sprouted numerous bones forming an armor to block the Kannon’s palm strike, but he was still sent flying, landing beside Kabuto.

“A Fire Temple ninjutsu. But according to intelligence, this technique can’t move during use and consumes a lot of chakra. Your Highness, how much longer can you hold out?”

Kabuto was unsurprised by Leo’s use of the Fire Temple ninjutsu, having already gathered relevant intelligence and aware of the technique’s weaknesses.

All they needed to do was stall until Leo’s chakra ran out, and their victory would be assured.

……

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