The wolf and the boy kept staring at each other, before the beast could no longer hold on and started charging a basketball-sized Wind Orb.
The Dire Wolf quickly released the orb of wind at Touma, who immediately activated the Body Flicker Technique to retreat towards his right.
There was no other way.
The Dire Wolf could detonate these Wind Orbs mid-air, causing violent explosions that contained razor-sharp, tiny wind blades.
If he had just dodged normally, the resulting shockwave and the tiny wind blades from the explosion would have left him battered and bleeding.
And sure enough. The moment the Wind Orb reached his previous location, it detonated.
Boom~
The resulting shockwave caused clouds of dust and wooden splinters to fly in the air.
"Fortunately, I flickered 40 meters away from that location."
Uchiha Touma sighed in relief before throwing two more kunai covered in explosive tags toward the Dire Wolf, the moment he reappeared 40 meters away.
The beast also wasted no time. Howling loudly, it threw another Wind Orb at the incoming kunai.
It was already aware of the danger of these kunai laced with red-bordered, slightly yellow papers (Explosive tags). It would not let them come near it anymore.
Booom~ Boom~ Boom~
The Wind Orb and the two kunai met mid-air and detonated simultaneously.
The explosive tags released scorching crimson flames that were fueled by the wind from the Wind Orb and burned with even more intensity.
The consecutive shockwaves and the air pressure generated by the detonation made the flames and their heat spread all around the blast zone.
The ground was scorched, the nearby trees were on fire, and the ground near the blast zone was riddled with several spider-web-like cracks.
Touma, who had already retreated 30 more meters away from his original location after throwing the kunai with explosive tags, still felt a slight burning sensation on his skin because of the heat radiated by the aftereffects of the explosion.
However, before he could relax, he heard the sound of something sharp cutting through the air.
His instincts instantly rang bells in his mind, and he swiftly flickered away from his position without any hesitation.
The moment he disappeared, the Dire Wolf appeared in his previous location and slammed the ground with slightly glowing claws.
Boom! Crack!!
It was the Dire Wolf's Chakra Claw Slash that left a deep claw mark on the ground, and the ground surrounding the claw mark cracked open from sheer force of the hit.
Seeing this, Uchiha Touma's back was instantly drenched with cold sweat.
"Damn!"
"It doesn't even give me a moment to relax."
"You're already a powerful Chakra Beast of C+ danger rating. Do you really have to sneak attack a 9-year-old child like me?"
"If it could understand me, I would have already thrown a thousand curses at it."
While Uchiha Touma cursed, he instantly unsheathed the ninja short sword on his back.
Of course, he wouldn't be crossing blades with the beast's claw foolishly.
He wasn't a Senju, but a Uchiha.
He didn't have the monstrous innate physical strength of a Senju, but he had the rhythm and precision of a Uchiha.
Brute forcing through everything wasn't how Uchiha fought.
That was a Senju thing.
Uchiha ninjas, on the other hand, made their enemies dance to their rhythm, attack them from the most unpredictable angles, exploit their weaknesses, and play them to their deaths.
Before the eyes of a Uchiha, every weakness, every opening would be laid bare.
Nothing could escape their Sharingan.
And that was exactly how Uchiha Touma planned to fight this Dire Wolf.
Now that this Dire Wolf was trying to attack him with brute force at a close distance, it would be difficult to get away from it and prepare hand seals.
The beast wouldn't give him the opportunity.
If he dared to perform hand seals in such close proximity, the Dire Wolf also dared to separate a limb or two from his body.
So, he would dodge and deflect the close-range attacks of this Dire Wolf and wait for the right moment to deliver fatal blows.
With the assistance of his Sharingan's insight ability and the Uchiha-style Kenjutsu, this plan was entirely feasible.
"Rooooaaaaaar!"
Seeing its prey escape, the Dire Wolf roared and lunged forward toward Uchiha Touma with even more ferocity.
It didn't even take the beast two seconds to cover nearly 40 meters and appear right in front of him.
However, Uchiha Touma was prepared.
He reinforced his body and arms by circulating chakra through the relevant chakra pathways and imbued his short sword with potent Fire Release chakra, making it hotter, sharper, and deadlier.
Searing hot flames began to flicker and coil around his ninja short sword every now and then, causing the air around the sharp blade to distort.
His Sharingan glowed with an even redder hue, and the single, pitch-black tomoe in his crimson iris rotated even faster, observing and calculating every movement of the Dire Wolf.
The beast opened its mouth and drove it downwards, ready to chomp his head off.
At that moment, took a step back with his left foot and pivoted on his right foot to rotate his body toward his right, causing the beast to bite nothing but empty air.
"An opening!"
Touma's eyes shone eerily as he slashed the short sword, cloaked in Fire Release chakra, downwards towards the beast's neck.
However, the beast was fast.
The Dire Wolf pressed its right front leg to the ground and jumped sideways, trying to avoid the incoming, searing hot sword slash.
Slice~ Splatter~
"Roooaaaaar!!!!"
Although the beast saved its neck, Touma was still able to slash its left shoulder.
The Dire Wolf's blood flew into the air before the wound was quickly burned by the Fire Release chakra of Touma's short sword.
The pain from the wound and the afterburn effects of the Fire Release chakra caused the beast to howl in pain and anger.
Not wanting to give the beast a chance to recover, Touma immediately rushed forward with his red, hot blade and engaged in a fierce melee with the Dire Wolf.
Time passed by, and soon 5 minutes passed.
Touma was engaged in a melee with the beast for 5 whole minutes.
He dodged the beast's bites, redirected countless claw attacks, and struck with full force whenever he got an opportunity.
In the end, his entire body was covered in many lacerations. Blood was slowly trickling down from the more severe wounds, especially from the one on his right shoulder.
The beast wasn't unharmed either. In fact, it had even more slashing and burning wounds.
However, the Dire Wolf's stamina and endurance were far superior to a human's.
Although the Dire Wolf had many wounds, its combat capability didn't suffer too much.
On the other hand, Uchiha Touma, who had suffered from multiple lacerations, blood loss, and stamina drain, was struggling to keep up with the beast.
If only he could get a breather, he could have taken a minor healing potion and a blood regeneration pill.
The minor healing potion would have stopped the bleeding and formed scabs to cover the wounds within minutes.
It was far inferior to getting treatment from medical Ninjutsu, but it was better than nothing.
And the blood regeneration pill could have sped up new blood formation, making up for the blood he had lost during the battle.
But he just couldn't get the chance.
As he thought this, the Dire Wolf suddenly swept its right claw horizontally at him.
Normally, Touma would have ducked or stepped back to dodge it. But he was utterly exhausted.
As a result, he couldn't react in time and could only block the incoming claw with his sword, causing him to fly backwards from the sheer strength behind that attack.
As he was flying backward in the air, he sheathed his sword, made a few quick hand seals, and gathered a lot of Fire Release chakra in his throat.
Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique
He landed on a stem of a thick tree, stuck to it horizontally by channeling chakra to his feet, and then exhaled a large amount of flames, which quickly turned into a huge 3-meter-wide fireball before rushing toward the Chakra Beast on the ground.
On the other hand, the beast had already formed a powerful Wind Blade in front of it and launched it toward Touma.
The blade of wind met the fireball mid-flight and sliced it in half before moving forward toward Touma.
Seeing the incoming Wind Blade, Uchiha Touma wasted no time and immediately jumped down from the tree.
However, before he could even land on the ground, he saw another Wind Blade coming toward him.
"Oh Shit!"
Touma cursed out loud before quickly forming a hand seal to create a shadow clone.
The shadow clone grabbed the real Touma and flung him toward the ground at a safe distance just in time before it got hit by the blade of wind and dissipated with a puff of smoke.
From cursing to creating a shadow clone to the clone getting hit by the wind blade, all of this happened in the span of a little more than half a second.
However, Touma, who had just landed on the ground, didn't have time to rejoice.
The Dire Wolf was already sprinting toward him.
Touma once again unsheathed his sword, ready to take the beast on, even though he was utterly exhausted.
Cling~ Clatter~
Smack~
However, before the Dire Wolf could reach him, a strange clattering sound of metal could be heard.
And before he could process what was going on, he saw a pair of golden chains smacking the beast away with tremendous force.
The beast had no time to react and flew away to Touma's right side after being hit by the golden chains.
Still in shock, he looked to his left and finally found the owner of these chains.
He saw a familiar little girl with vibrant red hair staring at him with a teasing expression.
"Hey, Touma! Need some help?"
Uchiha Touma sighed as his nerves finally got a little time to relax.
He would no longer have to face this terrifying beast alone.
Uzumaki Keiko had come to his rescue!
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