While Li Xing was having a blast, Kakashi's Sharingan suddenly changed the shape of his pupils, and he stared intently at Li Xing's body.
"Kamui!"
At that instant, Li Xing felt his body twist, but he had no intention of dodging. This was the perfect opportunity to slack off.
In a flash, Kakashi intensified his use of Kamui, almost instantly twisting Li Xing's arm off.
"Did the target go wrong? I'm not entirely familiar with this jutsu the first time I'm using it. Next time, I'll definitely twist your head off."
Seeing that the space-time ninjutsu could harm Li Xing, Kakashi was about to use Kamui again when Naruto stopped him.
"Teacher Kakashi, don't kill Li Xing. He's Granny Tsunade's favorite disciple."
Seeing Naruto's persistence, Kakashi abandoned the idea of twisting Li Xing's head off with Kamui. However, in reality, his chakra was completely depleted, making it impossible to use Kamui a second time.
Li Xing slowly picked up his severed arm. "Naruto, since you've pleaded on my behalf, this lesson will be free. In battle, you must never lose your composure. That's all I can teach you."
"Kakashi, your Sharingan is indeed very effective, but you've overlooked your own talent. Your chakra reserves are too low, resulting in the small scale of the ninjutsu you unleash."
"As for Haruno Sakura, you've already had one lesson with me, haven't you? You've already repaired the meridians of that puppet master from the Hidden Sand Village, right? Your medical ninjutsu is indeed acceptable."
"Alright, this lesson ends here. I look forward to our next encounter."
With that said, Li Xing, holding his severed arm, soared into the sky, heading in the direction where Karin was. Just moments ago, Karin had cried out for help to Li Xing because Might Guy was too powerful.
Even though she had been constantly dodging Might Guy's attacks by phasing out, she couldn't maintain phasing indefinitely. Might Guy's attacks were sequential, one punch followed by another, then a kick, an elbow strike, and so on. This barrage of taijutsu attacks left Karin no time to pause her phasing for even a second.
In the sky, Li Xing saw Might Guy emanating blue steam. With the Seven Gate's opened, Karin's eyes couldn't keep up with Might Guy's speed. She could only passively dodge and defend, unable to even use her Bloodline Limit.
"So that's how it is. Karin's Mangekyo Sharingan can't keep up with Might Guy's speed either. With this strength and speed, if she's not careful, Karin will be heavily injured. Although she has the regenerative abilities of Roshana, she heeded my words to take care of herself and didn't choose to directly tank Might Guy's attacks."
Li Xing didn't want to waste any more time. With his remaining hand, he gripped the air, and a Nichirin Blade materialized in his hand. He gently swung it downwards.
"Rakusa!"
Karin only saw a flash of white light before her eyes. The attacking Might Guy suddenly fainted, and the blue steam emanating from him vanished without a trace.
"Xing-kun? Is that you?"
Li Xing descended directly from the sky, landing gently in front of Karin. "Are you alright? I'm sorry. I underestimated the strength of the Leaf ninja and put you in danger. Next time you encounter a situation like this, don't mind what I said. Just kill the enemy. I'll cover for you. As long as you're safe, that's all that matters."
Karin nodded with tears in her eyes. "Xing-kun, I'm sorry, I've disappointed you again. But what happened to your hand? Can't it regenerate instantly?"
"There's no need to apologize; it's my fault. This severed arm is just an excuse for me to slack off later. Otherwise, I'd definitely be assigned to another mission." Li Xing embraced Karin with one arm, pressing his face against her forehead, feeling guilty towards her.
"What about these Leaf ninjas then?" Karin pointed at the four people and one dog lying on the ground. Three people and one dog were trapped in a genjutsu, while Might Guy had been knocked unconscious by Li Xing.
"Break their genjutsu and let them guard their teacher. I've only temporarily severed Might Guy's chakra and his Eight Gates by that single strike. That strike can sever concepts, so breaking his Eight Gates was easy."
Afterward, Karin performed a hand seal, and Neji and the others woke up. Upon seeing Might Guy lying unconscious on the ground, Rock Lee immediately wailed, "Teacher Kai!"
Neji activated his Byakugan again, but he didn't look at Karin's eyes, to avoid falling into genjutsu again.
"Eight Trigrams Empty Palm!"
Neji pushed his palm forward, sending a wave of wind pressure similar to what Li Xing had unleashed earlier towards the two of them. Simultaneously, Tenten summoned a giant sea urchin ball, on which several explosive tags were attached.
Li Xing stomped his foot on the ground. All the attacks were repelled by the powerful shockwave from his stomp. Then, holding Karin with one arm, he flew into the sky and made a潇洒departure.
"Take good care of your teacher! You can't defeat me!" Li Xing's arrogant words echoed from the sky.
Thus, the two squads sent to retrieve Gaara were successfully intercepted by Li Xing and Karin. Although they were all unharmed, they had to rest for a day before they could continue their journey. In this way, the mission assigned by Pain of the Six Paths to Li Xing was considered complete.
...
After a day of rest and another day of travel, Team Kakashi and Team Guy finally arrived at the location of Deidara and Sasori.
The Akatsuki had already completed the sealing of the Tailed Beast an hour earlier. Sasori and Deidara were currently sitting on the ground, resting.
"Honestly, I told you to stall for time, and you actually just stalled. You didn't even give us a moment to catch our breath, and you lost an arm. You're as foolish as Deidara," Sasori grumbled about Li Xing and Karin. Losing an arm just for stalling for a moment was too disgraceful.
Li Xing chuckled and instantly demonstrated the scene of his severed arm regenerating in front of Deidara and Sasori.
Deidara was immediately excited. "Li Xing, how did you do that? That guy Hidan doesn't have this ability."
"This is my physique; you can't do it. However, I can help you recover your arm. My medical ninjutsu is also very powerful!"
Sasori was also very surprised by Li Xing's ability. It seemed that everyone who could join the Akatsuki was no ordinary person.
Upon hearing that his arm could be restored, Deidara immediately asked Li Xing to treat him, saving him the trouble of finding Kakuzu to sew it back on later. That guy was too greedy for money and might try to extort him.
Then, Li Xing immediately began to heal Deidara's arm. In reality, it was through the power of the Heavenly Dao to transform some demonic energy into chakra to repair Deidara's body. The medical ninjutsu was just a pretense. How could there be such powerful medical ninjutsu? Li Xing no longer needed to self-harm and bleed to save people; he could easily restore a person's body using energy bodies.
However, the arm Li Xing restored for Deidara did not have the mouth on the palm. To continue as before, Deidara would have to modify it himself, or Sasori could help with the modification.
"It's fine, it's fine. This is good enough. After listening to your suggestion that day, I came up with a brand new art form that is completely immune to lightning ninjutsu. I can try it out now."
Saying that, Deidara started playing with clay, simply shaping a small spider and then throwing it at the wall. With a loud explosion, a hole was blown open in the ceiling of the cave.
"Deidara, do you want to die? Don't play with your mud in such a confined space!" Sasori yelled at Deidara, who had almost been hit by falling debris.
"Sorry, sorry, Brother Sasori. I got a little too excited."
Li Xing watched from the side and understood. It was simply that Deidara had mixed some wind chakra into the clay bomb, making it resistant to lightning ninjutsu, and at the same time, the explosion had wind-natured properties. (The original work did not mention whether Deidara had wind chakra; I added it myself.)