"Whoosh!"
There was no needless talk, no declaration before battle.
Three gray-brown figures swooped silently from the shadows atop the stalagmites like three weightless ghosts.
Their movements were uncannily synchronized. Both hands gripped short blades that reflected no light, their angles precisely calculated to account for air resistance and the shortest path into muscle.
The Anbu candidate team had officially begun hunting Konoha's elite heirs.
"Come on, then! Rotation!"
Hyuga Setsuna did not hesitate.
The instant his opponents entered his attack range, chakra erupted from every chakra point in his body.
He spun like a top, blue chakra forming a hemispherical barrier of absolute defense around him.
Clang, clang, clang, clang!
The three gray-clad boys' short blades struck the barrier of Rotation almost simultaneously, producing a rapid series of metallic clashes.
The enormous recoil sent all three flying.
"Is that all? Your ambush is a joke before the Hyuga Clan's absolute defense!" Setsuna stopped spinning, panting heavily, but his expression grew even more arrogant.
Yet the three gray-clad boys twisted their bodies at uncanny angles in midair and landed securely atop three separate stalagmites.
They did not look at Setsuna.
The boy on the far left inspected the notch chipped into his short blade.
"The target's instantaneous chakra output exceeds the Genin threshold.
Physical cutting is ineffective," he reported in a mechanical voice.
"Change tactics.
Initiate poison-gas interference.
Switch targets to the individual with highly developed olfactory nerves," the boy in the middle ordered.
Before he finished speaking, the boy on the right flicked his wrist and hurled three round black pills at Inuzuka Rina and Akamaru's feet.
Bang!
There was no explosion. Instead, three clouds of intensely concentrated yellow smoke burst outward.
"Cough, cough! What is that smell? It burns!" Rina inhaled only a little, but tears and mucus