Naruto: The Scientific Ninja

Puff, puff, puff…

The penetrating power of the Rain of a Thousand Needles was truly astounding. It easily passed through the small tornado without any obstruction and then covered the high-speed rotating water prison. As expected of the absolute defense ninjutsu that Sasuke had developed by simulating the Hyūga's secret Kaiten technique, its defense was formidable. Under the effect of the advanced shape transformation of the water attribute, it already possessed some of the power of the Water Formation Wall and was able to easily withstand the attack.

The rain of needles came quickly and went even faster. In the span of a single breath, it was all over. Sasuke immediately withdrew his Spinning Water Prison. The defense had been extremely strong, but the chakra consumption was also enormous. In just those few breaths, most of the chakra in his body had vanished.

As the prison dissipated, the small tornado also collapsed. A large number of leaves fell from the surrounding trees, flying across the battlefield and dispelling much of the killing intent in the air.

"We survived?!" Ryo exclaimed, utterly surprised. He quickly checked his hands and feet, confirming that he wasn't living in a dream and hadn't been stabbed into a pincushion.

"Awesome!" Tekudō and Chōmi were also wide-eyed, the shock giving way to an even deeper admiration for their captain.

"Don't get distracted. Retreat quickly," Sasuke ordered them, shielding the three while remaining vigilant for the next attack.

"What a Konoha jōnin! You've got a lot of tricks!" the puppeteer sneered. "I thought you didn't know ninjutsu. It turns out you've been tactically deceiving me from the very beginning."

He believed he had figured out Sasuke's strength, but now his entire analysis was collapsing. If the speed of five seals per second and the high level of water manipulation weren't enough to make him doubt his own conclusions, nothing would be. If it weren't for the fact that this man's chakra was obviously limited, his mastery of Water Style alone was that of a solid jōnin.

'I must be especially careful of this person's low and mid-level Water Style. Fortunately, I now control the Black Ant puppet; otherwise, I am definitely not his opponent. I have to force close-quarters combat and not give him a chance to form seals. His physical skills are only at an ordinary chūnin's level—that's his weakness.'

"Die!" the special jōnin thought, and he controlled the puppet to launch a series of critical close-range strikes at Sasuke.

Under the combined assault, Sasuke began to fall into a disadvantage. The rhythm of the battlefield started to gradually tilt toward the puppeteer, and the perceptual advantage of Sasuke's radar was finally nullified. He could perceive the tactics, but his body couldn't react in time.

Now that his enemy was controlling a puppet again, his combat power had returned to the special jōnin level. To prevent Sasuke from using another imaginary water jutsu, he was tangling with him in close combat, blocking his escape to the river.

At that moment, Sasuke's mind raced, and he seized a fleeting opportunity. He ordered the water bat hidden in his vest to attack the special jōnin's face. Although the bat's strength was mediocre, the sudden harassment was enough to expose a flaw in the enemy's defense.

"Oh no!" the jōnin's face showed a slightly exaggerated panic.

"Time to gut the fish!" Sasuke thought, and lunged in for a killing blow.

"Captain, be careful, it's a puppet clone!" Ryo warned from the other side of the river, having sensed something strange with his keen nose.

"Dammit!" Ye, with his great intuition, also discovered the dangerous situation.

"You dare to be distracted now, you're courting death!" the spiky-haired jōnin roared, taking advantage of Ye's opening to land a fatal blow: "Swift Wind Cut!"

Ye barely dodged, but the wind blade still opened a deep gash on his right arm. Blood instantly stained his sleeves red, and with a clatter, his sword fell to the ground.

Meanwhile, Sasuke seemed to realize the trap. His eyes filled with panic, and he tried to immediately pull back the kunai in his hand to defend himself.

"Too late!" the special jōnin smirked, savoring his success.

Clang!

Sasuke's kunai hit the "jōnin's" neck, but there was only a metallic sound. The body fell apart, revealing it to be the Black Ant puppet. Not far away, the puppet reverted to its human form—the real special jōnin—and lunged at the seemingly defenseless Sasuke.

"Go to hell!" he whispered, his eyes filled with killing intent, as if he could already see the beautiful scene of his kunai piercing Sasuke's heart. 'If you love tactical deception so much, you'll die by it. It's fate.'

"Heh!" Just then, Sasuke, who had anticipated this sneak attack with his radar, smiled. His panic had been an act.

"Leaf Substitution Jutsu!"

At the last instant, he executed the technique. His body dissolved, not into a puff of smoke, but into a swirling vortex of green leaves. The enemy's kunai pierced a wooden log, and the sharp explosion of Wind chakra split it in half.

"What? He actually dodged it! How is that possible?" the special jōnin was stunned. How could anyone react that fast? 'Could he be an elite jōnin? Another tactical deception? Is his true identity that of an elite jōnin pretending to be a mechanical jōnin with no physical skills, and he's been toying with me this whole time?'