Grind is My Ninja Way

With this thought, Seimei gathered a large amount of Wind Release Chakra, infusing it into his long katana while also enveloping his entire body.

Immediately, a faint green light appeared.

In an instant, Seimei performed the 'Instantaneous Sword Technique'.

That's right, it was the 'Instantaneous Sword Technique'!

Previously, after he developed the 'Instantaneous Sword Technique', he hadn't used it many times before his short sword was destroyed, making it impossible to perform.

Now, finally having a good weapon, he naturally wouldn't abandon its use.

So, he saw his body suddenly turn into an afterimage, appearing in front of the nearest Water Release mask monster that was about to launch a sneak attack on him.

Whoosh~

A flash of sword light.

Seimei's long katana slashed directly at the mask part of the monster.

This was its vital point. As long as he could destroy it, he could kill it, causing Kakuzu to lose one of his lives.

Unfortunately, things didn't go as planned!

At this critical moment, the black tentacles that made up the monster's body suddenly reached out, intertwining with each other, forming a wall of flesh, blocking his katana.

Shing~

A clear sense of obstruction came.

Seimei felt as if his katana had struck rubber, unable to exert any force.

And at this moment, a "crackle" sound came, and the Lightning Release mask monster flew to his side, spitting a lightning bolt at him.

Seimei reacted quickly and created distance before the lightning reached him.

Not only that, but he also took the opportunity to complete the hand seals and performed the ninjutsu - Wind Release: Wind Blade!

Whoosh~

A transparent wind blade flew out rapidly, aiming directly at the Lightning Release mask monster.

However, just like before, with a nimble maneuver, it dodged the attack.

Kakuzu in the distance was also merciless. He changed his hand seals and immediately controlled another mask monster to perform the ninjutsu - Fire Release: Searing Migraine!

A small fireball was spat out by this mask monster, and the moment it landed, it transformed into a raging flame, rapidly spreading in all directions.

Its power, compared to the previous one, was simply incomparable!

Seimei hurriedly retreated until he was far away, then formed hand seals and performed the ninjutsu - Water Release: Water Wall.

Suddenly, a water wall appeared, blocking the subsequent rolling heat waves and some residual flames.

He had to admit that without using the Mangekyo Sharingan, it wasn't easy for him to defeat these four monsters alone.

After all, in his normal state, apart from Water, Fire, and Wind Release ninjutsu, his most potent means were swordsmanship and genjutsu.

Among them, swordsmanship was fine against ordinary ninjas, who were all fragile with high attack but low defense. As long as he hit them, he could basically cause damage.

But these monsters were different. Their weak point was only the mask on their head. Even if other parts were cut, it wouldn't cause much harm.

In this situation, they only needed to defend one point, and if necessary, they could also use their tentacles to block, just like the Water Release mask monster.

This rendered his swordsmanship largely useless.

As for genjutsu...

These monsters were all controlled by Kakuzu and had no brains, so how could genjutsu affect them?

Regarding ninjutsu...

Not to mention that he didn't know many ninjutsu, and there were only a few that could be useful now. Just the elemental matchups alone could halve the power of his ninjutsu.

Combining these three points, it was clear that in his normal state, he was almost completely countered by the opponent, unless he could directly attack Kakuzu's main body.

Otherwise, he could only slowly wear down the opponent and look for openings.

But judging by Kakuzu's actions, he wasn't giving him any chance to get close at all.

During the battle just now, he had tried to approach the opponent, but he was blocked by the four mask monsters controlled by Kakuzu.

Moreover, even if he got close to the opponent, how to injure him was also a problem.

His main body's heart attribute was Earth, and he could instantly cast the ninjutsu 'Earth Release: Earth Spear'. Ordinary physical attacks were basically ineffective.

Only Lightning Release ninjutsu could pose a significant threat to him.

But he didn't know any Lightning Release ninjutsu at all!

In this way, he could only resort to other means.

But with the opponent's reaction speed, it was estimated that there was a fifty percent chance he could dodge.

After all, the current Kakuzu wasn't the same Kakuzu that Naruto and the others faced later. After guessing that Seimei knew his information, he had been avoiding direct confrontation with him.

With such a cautious attitude, saying a fifty percent chance was even underestimating him.

Seimei now somewhat regretted revealing that he knew too much about the opponent at the beginning of the battle.

Otherwise, the current situation might be a bit better.

Ultimately, he was still influenced by his memories from his past life, thinking that Kakuzu's strength was just so-so.

But after actually fighting him, he realized that the opponent's strength was far from what was shown in his memories.

In fact, if he thought about it carefully, even the opponent's performance when fighting Naruto and the others couldn't be considered weak among Kage-level powerhouses.

Even though he was ambushed by Kakashi at the beginning, losing the Water Release mask, and then tricked by Nara Shikamaru, using Hidan to destroy his main body's Earth Release heart, losing the advantage of elemental complementarity...

But in the end, it was also because of carelessness that Naruto seized the opportunity and ended the battle with a 'Wind Release: Rasenshuriken'.

Otherwise, it was really hard to say who would have won or lost.

And now, Seimei was facing Kakuzu in his prime and on high alert.

The difficulty of this could be imagined.

It could be said that without activating the Mangekyo Sharingan, he alone was basically no match for the opponent.

But to activate the Mangekyo Sharingan, Seimei still had some concerns, namely whether he could kill the opponent in one go.

If he couldn't kill him and let him escape, it would be a big problem.

As a ninja who had lived from the Warring States Period to the present, he definitely knew some secrets about the Sharingan.

He might have even seen the Mangekyo Sharingan.

In this way, rashly using the Mangekyo Sharingan might be recognized by the opponent.

At that time, if the opponent escaped, his relevant information would definitely be leaked, which was something he absolutely didn't want to see.

Just as Seimei was hesitating, Kakuzu had already controlled the four mask monsters to chase after him, using various ninjutsu in turn to keep the pressure on him.

Seimei shook his head, temporarily putting aside all distracting thoughts, and started to focus on dealing with the attacks of these mask monsters.

At the same time, he tried to rush towards Kakuzu, imitating Naruto, and perform the 'Wind Release: Rasenshuriken' to achieve a one-hit kill.

Kakuzu was said to have five lives, but if he was truly hit by the 'Wind Release: Rasenshuriken', even replacing his heart wouldn't be of any use.

This was because the Chakra needles condensed by the 'Wind Release: Rasenshuriken' would destroy his body at the cellular level.

At that time, even if he was still alive, he wouldn't be able to mobilize Chakra, and naturally, Seimei could do whatever he wanted with him.

Coincidentally, after this period of practice, his 'Wind Release: Rasenshuriken' had already advanced from lv1 (100/200) to lv3 (174/1000)!

With this level of proficiency, it was already usable.

(End of Chapter)