Konoha: Offer your heart to the Hokage!

Before acquiring the Earth Grudge Fear, Shinji was first a Jonin with "special" taijutsu skills, which qualified him to be called the strongest Takigakure ninja alongside Kakuzu.

A typical Special Jonin is one who has a significant deficiency in one of the following areas: genjutsu, ninjutsu, or taijutsu. However, it could be said that someone is completely incapable of genjutsu and has no talent in ninjutsu either.

The "special" in his title refers to his exceptional strength.

Even without the Earth Grudge Fear, in a one-on-one situation, it's not something an injured Jonin could easily pull off.

Casualties among Jonin have begun to appear.

"The first one..."

She then looked at another Cloud Village Jonin.

"Kill him! Kill him now!"

Witnessing her companion fall, Chloe was enraged and shouted at Shennong.

At the same time, his hands rapidly formed hand seals, his hair stood on end, fine electric light flowed across his body, cell activity was greatly enhanced, and his bodily functions were pushed to their peak. At the cost of sacrificing his life force, he forcibly entered the Lightning Release Chakra Mode, which he had not yet fully mastered.

Shennong was also aware that if things continued this way, he might end up facing the Zen temple alone, which would put him under a lot of pressure.

He immediately stopped slacking off and began to participate seriously in the battle.

Shen Er was once again caught in a three-man attack.

Shennong was able to break through the defense of his Earth Grudge Kagune, indicating that his strength had reached the quasi-Kage level; the other's life force was rapidly depleted, and his hair turned white at a visible speed, clearly at the cost of his life, breaking through the limits of an elite Jonin...

If this were the main characters, they would probably be left with half their lives.

Seeing this, Shen Er dared not hold back any longer.

The moment the three drew near, he clasped his hands together: "Wood Release: Hellfire!"

Shen Er had been restraining his use of Wood Release. He was worried that the investigation would uncover traces of Wood Release, and he was also worried that if he revealed his trump card too early, the Cloud Ninja would be on guard and wouldn't approach him again.

The timing is perfect.

Rumble!

A violent tremor came from underground, and thick vines burst forth from the ground around Shen'er, forming a three-dimensional barrier. One of the Jonin was unable to dodge in time and was instantly strangled by the vines, his body torn to pieces.

Shennong's limbs were entangled by vines, hindering his movement.

With her Lightning Release Chakra Mode activated, Chloe reacted swiftly, dodging the vines' strangulation. Paying only for her skin being scratched by splinters, she rushed to Jin's side, her ninja sword, imbued with lightning chakra, thrusting straight at Jin's left chest.

This attack was so fast that even Shen Er couldn't dodge it.

But Shen'er wasn't really panicked.

His Raikage Body's inherent physical toughness allows him to withstand a lot of damage. As soon as Chloe's movements become slow, it's his moment to counterattack!

Trading injury for injury, you're never at a disadvantage.

But unsurprisingly, something unexpected is about to happen...

Just then, Shen Er keenly sensed that the Thunder Shadow Body, which served as the last barrier to his heart, was inexplicably showing unusual activity, as if it were caught in a special destiny.

Just like those main characters whose bodies are devoured and taken over by the villains early on, when the protagonist is locked in a desperate battle with the villains and in dire straits, their consciousness, which should have died long ago, suddenly awakens and takes control of the villain's body, providing the protagonist with a fatal opening.

It's incredibly gloomy.

He even calls this a bond exclusive to the main characters.

Almost all the villainous bosses who stand against the protagonist suffer this kind of "bond kill." For example, Shun from Saint Seiya, Tamayo from Demon Slayer, Megumi Fushiguro from Cursed Odyssey, and Gai Tsutsugami from The Crown all forged such bonds...

Is it my turn?

The moment he noticed the unusual movement, Shen Er realized the problem.

The Raikage's heart seemed to suddenly come alive.

as predicted.

The instant the lightning bolts on Chloe's ninja sword touched his body, the Raikage Body dissipated. Without this barrier, the ninja sword pierced right through Shen's flesh and blood, and the enormous impact pinned Shen to the wood vines he had just sprouted.

The blade penetrates deep into the wood.

At the same time, the Earth Grudge clone that was still releasing Wind Release nearby suddenly twitched a few times and then collapsed to the ground, and the originally taut Earth Grudge black lines also uncontrollably collapsed.

call……

A cold wind blew by, and the canyon fell silent.

Chloe, covered in blood and panting heavily, asked, "Did we finally kill him?"

After a fierce battle, his all-out attack finally pierced Zenin Shinji's heart. Chloe released her grip on the sword with a sigh of relief, deactivated her Lightning Release chakra mode, and only then realized her hand was trembling uncontrollably.

Exhausted, he could barely hold the knife.

He staggered back a few steps, looking around in a daze. His two Jonin companions lay dead, each more gruesome than the last. The mixed troops in the distance were also littered with corpses.

He never expected the casualties in this battle to be so devastating.

'Wouldn't it have been better if we hadn't even considered confronting Zenji here in the first place? At least our companions wouldn't have died.'

Chloe was confused.

At this moment, the aftereffects of the Wood Release cuts and the Power Explosion began to appear. His chakra was overdrawn, making him unsteady on his feet. In a daze, Chloe glimpsed that two of the three clones that Shen had released earlier were still standing there.

and many more!

If the original body is dead, any clone technique should be dispelled, unless... the original body is not dead!

Chloe was absolutely certain that the sensation she felt from the tip of the knife meant she had indeed pierced Zenji's heart.

How could he not be dead?! How could he not be dead?!

An invisible, immense fear and a sense of absurdity instantly swept over his heart.

Chloe turned around instinctively. Just then, a hand gently pressed down on the dreadlocks on the top of his head.

"Wood Release: Transformation!"

A sigh-like sound rang in my ears.

puff

With his chakra depleted, Chloe's hands fell limply, his eyes vacant, unable to offer any resistance. His eyes, his ears... wooden spikes first pierced through his seven orifices, then spread throughout his entire body, penetrating him from the inside out.

Everything happened too suddenly.

The entire process took less than a second.

Only the heart was preserved and was not destroyed by Wood Release.

She slowly released her grip.

Chloe, who was already dead, did not fall, because even her legs were pierced by Wood Release. At this moment, Wood Release acted as a stable support for her corpse.

The left fist deals high physical damage, while the right fist deals high magical damage.

This is no joke.

A ninja with ample chakra might be able to mitigate the damage from his sapling technique with a chakra cloak, much like when facing Amaterasu. But for someone like Chloe, whose chakra is depleted, this is an irresistible death sentence.

"The third one."

Shen Er raised his hand, and the Earthly Grudge in his palm pierced Chloe's left chest, grabbing his heart, which was still flowing with hot blood and carrying the so-called "bonds," and instantly refining it.

"What a touching bond. In that case, stay in my body and continue to shine."

Shen Er took a deep breath and muttered to himself.

The destruction of a heart is not simply the loss of a life. The ensuing pain, loss of vitality, and massive depletion of chakra all take their toll on him.

Fortunately, his condition was restored after refining Chloe's heart.

In fact, the moment she realized something was wrong with the Raikage's heart, she had already switched its location. She replaced the Raikage's heart, which had triggered the bond and was trying to commit suicide, with a Wind Release heart of a lower rank.

When someone dies, everything you do is heartbreaking.

They can't even beg for death.

Just then...

She is still recovering.

boom!

A sonic boom-like sound came from my ears.

Shennong broke free of the entangled vines and charged towards Shen'er, throwing a punch with astonishing force.

However, his speed wasn't particularly fast, even slower than Chloe's Lightning Release Chakra Mode. Prepared, Shen immediately activated his Wood Release Technique, imbuing his palm with Wood Release chakra to receive the punch.

Fists and palms collided, a pure clash of force, and the crisp sound of bones bearing the pressure rang out.

He even staggered back several steps, realizing that his wrist bone had suffered a slight fracture.

As a fellow taijutsu ninja, Shen Er clearly understood that taijutsu is the purest form of numerical values, using numerical values ​​to break down the mechanisms of various ninjutsu and genjutsu. His strength was not weak, but it was still no match for Shennong who had opened the Eight Gates.

However, in this round of competition, Shen'er actually had the upper hand and took the initiative into his own hands.

His wrist fracture can be healed quickly with the help of the No-Seal Healing technique, but the chakra that Shennong lost to Wood Release taijutsu cannot be replenished.

Once the Wood Release chakra attached to the palm touches the opponent's body, it can absorb the opponent's chakra while causing damage.

It comes with a built-in anti-armor effect and gets stronger the longer it's fought.

Simple Wood Release ninjutsu might not be able to hit Shennong, but taijutsu could.

Relying on a fake Eight Gates Formation, Shennong's full-force attack could neither inflict irreparable damage on Shen'er nor break through Shen'er's self-healing threshold, and he would ultimately be worn down to death.

Now, Shen has both the stats of taijutsu and the mechanics of ninjutsu; he has everything he needs.

Shennong's face was gloomy.

With the enhancement of his physical secret techniques, he also possesses extremely strong self-healing abilities. However, at the cost of this, all recovery consumes chakra. Although his modified body can temporarily withstand the backlash from the Gate of Death, it cannot provide an unlimited supply of chakra.

Once chakra is depleted, physical techniques and self-healing abilities will become ineffective, which was why he was defeated by the Raikage in the past.

Are we going to repeat the same defeat?

During the pauses in his thoughts, he exchanged punches several more times.

Shennong watched as he bent Zen Monk Shen'er's wrist to a 90-degree angle, only to see Shen'er snap his wrist back and continue throwing punches as if nothing had happened...

He also has self-healing abilities?!