Chapter 73: Lightning Over Earth
"He's finally here!"
Sarutobi Tenchu entered the two-kilometer range of Li Yao's chakra perception, and the clone instantly sensed him, letting out a sigh of relief.
If Konoha's pursuit team had taken any longer, this shadow clone would've dispersed from exhaustion.
Even though a shadow clone appears indistinguishable from a real person—warm skin, a beating heart, and actual breath—it all consumes chakra.
Every second a clone exists is a continuous drain.
Most people couldn't maintain a clone for 20 hours like Li Yao.
Of course, outliers like Naruto don't count.
Li Yao's secret to maintaining the clone so long lay entirely in his absolute control over chakra, reducing its consumption to the bare minimum.
But even then, 20 hours was nearing the limit.
If the Konoha team didn't show up soon, the clone would disperse within the hour.
"Hmm… It's them."
As Sarutobi Tenchu came within a kilometer, Li Yao's clone opened his eyes. He'd clearly sensed that it was the same team who had defeated his previous clone.
"So Konoha really can't spare many ninja to hunt me…"
"That confirms it—the Second Great Ninja War is ongoing."
"And since Danzo hasn't checked in for almost two years, that means the war's likely been going on for at least one."
Li Yao knew now: he had made the right decision. All that was left was to probe and uncover all the abilities of this team.
He looked toward the rapidly approaching Tenchu and smiled.
Behind him, four black chakra chains formed.
Then he rushed forward.
"So fast!"
Using the chains like a spider's legs to propel himself, Li Yao moved like a bolt of black lightning. Tenchu was slightly surprised—but only slightly.
He could handle this speed.
"Wind Style: Bakuum Bullet!"
At twenty meters, Tenchu struck first. He formed three hand seals in a flash, his chest swelling like a drum before exhaling three tightly compressed orbs of wind chakra.
Whoosh!
The Bakuum orbs whistled through the air, tearing the atmosphere as they barreled toward Li Yao.
Li Yao responded instantly: three black iron chains shot forward to meet the wind bullets head-on.
He'd been prepared. His reaction speed and control were enough to intercept the attack.
Boom boom boom!
The Bakuum bullets slammed into the chains. The blast knocked the chains back, but their durability absorbed the hit.
Three massive explosions bloomed mid-air, stirring up dust that blocked vision on both sides.
In the cover of that dust—
Whoosh whoosh whoosh...!
Ayase's ink birds dived in from above, aiming for a surprise strike.
But Li Yao's chakra perception left nowhere to hide.
Crackle crackle...
White lightning danced across three rebounding chains and a fourth from behind.
Whoosh whoosh whoosh...!
With a thought, Li Yao swung the electrified chains, tearing through the ink birds and splattering them into black puddles.
"As I thought…"
Seeing that the ink no longer stuck to his chains once they were charged with lightning, Li Yao smirked.
Bang!
With a twist, he whipped one chain behind him—intercepting a sudden knife strike.
"So heavy!"
Tenchu had used the ink attack as a distraction to close in from behind. But the counterstrike left his right hand numb with the sheer force of impact.
This wasn't the reaction speed of a typical clone. Wait—no.
Last time, Li Yao had been airborne. Even if he'd reacted, he couldn't have dodged mid-flight.
Now grounded, he revealed reflexes on par with elite jōnin.
Crash!
Li Yao tried to follow up, but Tenchu used the momentum of the chain's blow to retreat, opening distance.
"He really knows my abilities."
Li Yao narrowed his eyes as Tenchu backed off quickly, not giving him a second chance to grab or seal him with the chains.
This would make it difficult to probe the rest of the squad's strength without revealing more of his own.
While Li Yao found Tenchu's caution annoying, Tenchu was also impressed by Li Yao's battle intuition.
Seeing the black puddles of dispersed ink and the lightning-coated chains, he realized something:
Li Yao had figured out Ayase's Super Beast Imitating Drawing weakness after just a few seconds of battle.
Fire hadn't worked—it made the ink stronger.
That ruled out Wind Release (since fire beats wind) and Lightning Release (which was too volatile for such a stable medium).
Meaning only Water and Earth chakra could be used to create the ink technique.
Water seemed logical—thus Li Yao initially tried fire to evaporate it.
But Ayase had actually used Earth chakra, tricking anyone into believing it was Water-based.
Li Yao, misled at first, quickly adapted—switching to Lightning Release to counter Earth.
And it worked. The ink lost its stickiness.
"Where is she?"
Li Yao looked around, frowning.
He'd neutralized the ink attack, but his goal had been to analyze the ink user's chakra type.
Now only Tenchu was in range—where had the woman gone?
"Could it be...?"
His expression changed.
He suddenly realized—if his enemies had longer-range perception than he did, they could strike from beyond his sensing range.
Whoosh whoosh whoosh...!
Just as he thought that, another wave of ink birds entered his chakra perception zone.
Simultaneously, Tenchu unleashed another barrage of Bakuum bullets.
The husband-wife team had decided not to close in.
They would use ranged attacks to exhaust Li Yao's chakra and determine whether this version of him was a shadow clone.
After a minute of sustained pressure, the clone's chakra ran dry and it dissipated into a puff of smoke.
"So it really was a shadow clone."
Tenchu approached the spot where it vanished, frowning.
He was unsettled.
A shadow clone that had lasted more than twenty hours—fine.
But to still have enough chakra to fight at full strength for a full minute?
According to their intel, Li Yao had used a technique akin to the Eight Gates in his battle with Lady Mito, destroying all his chakra pathways.
Even if he survived, his chakra reserves were supposed to be severely limited.
So how could his clone have this much power?
Tenchu had no answers.
But his wariness of Li Yao grew stronger than ever.
(END CHAPTER)
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