A Major Ruckus

In her previous life, Hyuga Ao's high school homeroom teacher had said something she found very reasonable.

"Every problem is a problem of attitude."

Having changed her attitude, Hyuga Ao temporarily put aside her other thoughts and focused on the task at hand.

After waiting for some time, someone finally began cooking in the Officer's Kitchen.

Hyuga Ao controlled her Byakugan, looking only at the person's hands and the pot in front of him.

The chef before her was making porridge.

Unlike ordinary people, who simply added the ingredients and left the porridge alone, this chef kept stirring the pot with one hand while slowly adding other ingredients with the other, constantly fine-tuning the heat.

Hyuga Ao's spirits lifted.

This was the most refined and time-consuming way to make porridge.

The heat and timing had to be controlled manually to ensure that every ingredient was thoroughly cooked.

This porridge was definitely being prepared for someone important.

Sure enough, after the chef had cooked for an hour and a half, the others began arriving at the kitchen one after another. They prepared a much more ordinary breakfast.

At seven or eight o'clock, the chef's porridge was finally ready.

Hyuga Ao silently calculated the time. What kind of person would choose to drink nourishing porridge in the morning?

Hyuga Ao's gaze followed the chef's hands as they moved. She had to be extremely careful. All her vision was focused on his hands, avoiding a direct look at his face and mainly observing his clothes.

That reduced the risk of being discovered.

Hyuga Ao watched as the porridge was carried into a house.

When the porridge was placed on the table, Hyuga Ao noticed that the person who was about to drink it seemed very short. Comparing the length of his feet with the other person's, she realized that he was a dwarf.

Someone with a noble status, a dwarf, and living inside the Iwa Camp—the answer was obvious.

With Ōnoki here, the Four-Tails Jinchuriki Roshi had to be here as well.

Because the two of them were on bad terms, Ōnoki would never feel at ease leaving Roshi alone in Iwagakure.

At this point, Hyuga Ao's mission had been completed perfectly.

Next, she only needed to find a way to leave.

"Transformation Jutsu."

Hyuga Ao transformed into a laborer who was about to fetch water from the river.

A stream ran through the Iwa Camp and served as their daily water source.

To prevent poisoning and infiltration, the Iwagakure shinobi guarded both entrances to the stream.

But that did not matter. Hyuga Ao only needed to follow the stream to the edge of the camp, then run. The Iwagakure shinobi could not catch her.

Taking advantage of the lack of people nearby, Hyuga Ao plunged beneath the water. Holding her breath, she waited for the stream to carry her to the edge of the camp.

Four-Tails Roshi was loosening up beside the stream, venting the frustration in his heart.

He was having a hard time because he disagreed with Ōnoki, but he endured it for the sake of Iwagakure.

At times like this, he liked to find a river and quietly watch the water flow.

He let the slowly moving water carry away the irritation in his heart.

"Roshi, there's someone underwater," the Four-Tails said.

"Hm?" Roshi froze for a moment, then a savage smile spread across his lips.

"What little thief is this, trying to pass right under my nose?"

Roshi formed hand seals.

"Scorch Release: Scorching River Rock Technique!"

Several magma-flowing rock spheres blanketed the entire stretch of river ahead without distinction.

Hyuga Ao's eyes snapped open underwater as a sudden sense of danger washed over her.

Hyuga Ao flipped over and exploded out of the water, landing on the bank.

The rock spheres fell into the water with a sizzling sound.

Hyuga Ao looked at Four-Tails Roshi before her, her mouth bitter.

She had never imagined that she would only want to rest in the water for a while before beginning her escape.

After relaxing for just a moment, she had been blasted out by Four-Tails Roshi.

Roshi was just about to say something.

But Hyuga Ao did not hesitate for even an instant. She turned and ran.

Who had time to trade words here?

Before Roshi could say anything, the words were forced back down his throat. His face darkened, and he roared as he began chasing Hyuga Ao.

After chasing her for a few steps, however, Roshi realized something was wrong. Hyuga Ao flashed several times and quickly opened up a distance.

"Bastard!" Roshi raged. He had thought she was only a petty thief, someone he could use to vent his frustration. He had never expected her to escape so far because of a moment's carelessness.

"Son Goku," Roshi called to the Four-Tails.

The Four-Tails' chakra spread from his abdomen throughout his body. Magma enveloped Roshi, and a monkey's tail swayed behind him.

After entering Tailed Beast Chakra Mode, Roshi's speed surged beneath the Four-Tails' chakra cloak.

As he pursued her, he summoned magma spheres to interfere with Hyuga Ao.

The Iwa Camp was awakened by the explosions. Sensing the Four-Tails Chakra, the Iwagakure shinobi knew that Roshi was fighting an unknown enemy.

"Damn, damn, damn, damn!" Hyuga Ao cursed as she dodged the magma spheres flying from behind.

Through her Byakugan, she saw dense streams of chakra rushing toward her, as if she had kicked a hornet's nest.

"Think. Think." Hyuga Ao took a deep breath and forced herself to remain calm.

Because Roshi was interfering from behind, Hyuga Ao could not reach her top speed. The Iwa Camp was so large that people had surely already taken positions ahead of her and were waiting.

"It looks like I can only charge straight through." Hyuga Ao smiled bitterly.

She closed her eyes, focused her mind, and opened them again.

Beneath her mask, a wild smile curled across her lips. "In that case, Iwagakure, you are about to learn exactly what kind of person you kept here!"

Hyuga Ao pressed her palms together, awakening the long-silent Shikotsumyaku. The blood in her body began to boil.

"So that's how it is. Kaguya's battle blood has been starving for far too long? Good! Today, I'll let you drink your fill of fresh blood!"

Hyuga Ao made up her mind. Beneath her black clothes, a layer of bone armor extended outward and wrapped around her.

A magma sphere slammed into Hyuga Ao's back from behind. Her clothes exploded, revealing a layer of bone armor.

The surface of the armor was slightly blackened, but Hyuga Ao ignored it and continued running.

The impact of the magma sphere even made her a little faster.

"Shikotsumyaku?" Roshi asked suspiciously. "Does Kirigakure want to get involved too?"

Roshi quickly calmed himself. After realizing that this person might be from Kirigakure, he decided to capture her quickly.

Regardless of who this person was, he had to capture her first. Only then would he know the truth.

"We can't drag this out any longer." Roshi realized this.

Four-Tails Chakra surged through Roshi's body, coating him in a thick layer of molten armor. He lost his human form, dropped onto all fours, and used the boost from his partial Tailed Beast Transformation to accelerate from behind and slam into Hyuga Ao.

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Hyuga Ao had now used her Shikotsumyaku to create heavy armor that enclosed her entire body.

Roshi crashed into her from behind. Two humanoid beasts in heavy armor collided and rolled more than ten meters.

"Clang! Clang! Clang!"

The Iwa Camp was now a complete mess.

Scattered magma lay on one side, while broken bone spikes lay on the other.

Hyuga Ao wore a fully enclosed suit of heavy Shikotsumyaku armor, while Roshi was covered in searing magma.

Although Hyuga Ao had been overpowering Roshi the entire time, she truly could not hurt him.

The Tailed Beast chakra cloak rendered her Gentle Fist nearly useless. Even in close combat, she could not injure Roshi while he was covered in magma.

Roshi could not do anything to Hyuga Ao either, but all he needed to do was stall her.

Hyuga Ao was extremely troubled. At first, she had planned to force her way out with the Shikotsumyaku. She had never expected Roshi to use partial Tailed Beast Transformation to tie her down. Now the Iwagakure shinobi were surrounding her, and the situation was rapidly worsening.

"In that case, don't blame me, Roshi." A ruthless glint flashed through Hyuga Ao's eyes. She grabbed Roshi, swiftly dispersed his force, then exerted herself and hurled him into the air ahead of her.

Hyuga Ao's bone armor shuddered. Two sinister bone wings extended from her back, while four enormous pipes resembling airplane engine nozzles emerged behind the armor.

Hyuga Ao raised her right arm horizontally. A massive lance formed above it, its shaft covered in spiral patterns that spun continuously under her control.

Hyuga Ao leveled the lance at Roshi.

Her bone wings swept once. With the Wind Cloak accelerating her, they created a hurricane behind her that propelled her into a charging attack.

"Not good!" Ōnoki, who had been watching from the side, paled. He had only wanted to watch Roshi suffer, not see him actually die.

But it was already too late.

Hyuga Ao's bone wings beat behind her as the Wind Cloak assisted her. Vast streams of air blasted from the nozzles, driving her forward at tremendous speed.

The lance spun, wrapped in spiral air currents formed from multiple kinds of force.

"Shine forth, Spear of the End! Holy Spear: Gungnir!"

Driven by the three cores of Embryonic Breathing, chakra, and Shikotsumyaku, the lance reached Roshi's chest in an instant.

But Roshi was a veteran Jinchuriki. With the Four-Tails' help, four tails extended through the air and blocked his front, while a thick Molten Release granite shield appeared before him.

But that was all his efforts could accomplish.

At such speed, nothing could withstand Hyuga Ao's penetration.

The spiral air currents on the Holy Spear arrived first, knocking aside the defensive tails and tearing through Roshi's granite shield. The spinning spearhead followed close behind, completely breaking through layer after layer of Roshi's defenses.

In the Iwa Camp, beneath the eyes of countless people, before the Third Tsuchikage—

Iwagakure's Jinchuriki was pinned firmly to the ground by Hyuga Ao.

The Iwagakure shinobi stared at the scene as if their throats had been seized. None of them had expected their own Jinchuriki—the proud Roshi—to be pinned to the ground like this.

Hyuga Ao was somewhat exhausted. When she moved her right hand, she found that she could not pull out the lance. She simply abandoned it. The bone armor on her right arm shattered, revealing a slender arm.

The Iwagakure shinobi came to their senses and stared at the exposed arm in shock.

Because Hyuga Ao had the Byakugan and could not afford to reveal her identity in the Iwa Camp, her Shikotsumyaku armor had been fully enclosed. Not even her eyes had been exposed. Moreover, the armor's thick, sinister bone spikes gave it an evil and brutal appearance. After seeing her savagely fight a Tailed Beast-transformed Jinchuriki, the Iwagakure shinobi had always assumed that the person inside was an eight-foot-tall man.

But the arm before them was slender, fair, and delicate, with graceful contours and long fingers as fine as scallion roots. It was unmistakably a woman's hand. From that hand alone, they could tell that the person before them was not very old.

"You—you actually!" Ōnoki's little mustache trembled with rage. Iwagakure's Jinchuriki had been gravely wounded in the Iwa Camp by a woman, and his life or death was unknown.

"You're courting death! Dust Release: World Boundary Stripping Technique!"

White light shot from Ōnoki's hands and swept toward Hyuga Ao. She was a little too slow to dodge, and one layer of her bone armor was shaved away and reduced to dust.

"I can't take that head-on!" Looking at the state of her armor, Hyuga Ao knew she could not continue fighting.

She turned and retreated.

But Ōnoki's Dust Release had stirred the Iwagakure shinobi into action. Their brief hesitation was quickly overcome, and they began surrounding Hyuga Ao again.

"Damn it!" Looking at the Iwagakure shinobi closing in, Hyuga Ao could not help wondering whether she would be able to escape today.

She steadied herself. Looking at the ninjutsu descending from all directions, Hyuga Ao knew that forcing her way through was no longer possible.

Hyuga Ao dodged the various ninjutsu while accumulating chakra. She had not used too much chakra today, but she had no idea what would happen next.

Mud flew everywhere. Once Ōnoki also began releasing ninjutsu alongside the Iwagakure shinobi, the difficulty increased sharply. Various Earth Release techniques interrupted Hyuga Ao at exactly the right moments, and the slightest carelessness would leave her restrained.

Fortunately, Hyuga Ao had finished accumulating chakra.

With a Ration Pill clenched between her teeth, Hyuga Ao found a deep pit formed by Earth Core and jumped inside.

Ōnoki's face lit up. "Ha! You're courting death!"

He immediately ordered the Iwagakure shinobi to bury Hyuga Ao completely beneath the earth.

But as they began pouring chakra into the ground, they sensed something taking root beneath it and spreading toward the surface.

"Not good!" Ōnoki split open the earth beneath his feet with one palm and used Ultra-Light-Weight Rock Technique to make it float. Then he shouted himself hoarse, "Watch out underground! Dodge!"

The Iwagakure shinobi with profound Earth Release mastery also paled. They sensed the thing beneath the soil, predicted where it would emerge, and dodged.

The other Iwagakure shinobi were not so lucky.

Bone spikes grew from the ground one after another, attacking everyone above without distinction. The lower- and mid-ranking Iwagakure shinobi were harvested in batches.

Only a few Jonin managed to survive within this terrifying Bone Forest, relying on sturdy defenses and sharp judgment.

The dust settled.

Ōnoki floated in the air, still shaken.

"Waaaah!" Looking at the scene before him, Ōnoki felt as if this hundred-meter-wide Bone Forest had slapped him—and Iwagakure—in the face.

Furious, Ōnoki searched for Hyuga Ao. He flew through the Bone Forest, turning over the remains and occasionally breaking a bone spike. When the spike fell, it stirred up clouds of dust.

But the Bone Forest, filled only with the groans of the Iwagakure shinobi, seemed to tell him that its master had already left.

Only Ōnoki remained behind, raging helplessly.

Hyuga Ao was currently a thousand meters in the air.

Within the Bone Forest stood an extremely slender bone pole. It had grown together with the forest while Hyuga Ao fled in all directions through the Iwagakure forces.

The bone pole reached a thousand meters into the sky.

Using it, Hyuga Ao ascended into the sky and shaped a Winged Suit from her Shikotsumyaku, struggling to drift toward Konoha.

After Hyuga Ao rose into the air, the bone pole collapsed on its own. It had existed for only an instant.

Hyuga Ao had also wanted to use the Bone Forest like Kimimaro and emerge behind Ōnoki to strike him, but she could not. She truly had no chakra left.

Not even a drop!

Hyuga Ao was in very poor condition.

In truth, the expenditure of Early Wisteria Dance had exceeded her expectations.

To conceal her final means of escape, Hyuga Ao had extended the Bone Forest a hundred meters, mainly to force Ōnoki away and block his line of sight.

By the latter half of Early Wisteria Dance, Hyuga Ao had already been squeezing her body dry. If her physical foundation had not been so strong, she truly could not have produced that much chakra.

Hyuga Ao's body and mind were both utterly drained. At the same time, a strange force in her right arm continued eroding her body. It was the Four-Tails' chakra from earlier.

When she had pierced Roshi through at the end, her arm had inevitably been contaminated. She had suppressed it with chakra before, but now it had all erupted.

Hyuga Ao drifted through the air, her head groggy. But she still had one last trace of consciousness, and the large number of Ration Pills she had swallowed earlier was still barely taking effect.

Hyuga Ao used her last remaining chakra to maintain the Wind Cloak. Under some instinctive control, she also made several subtle changes to her Shikotsumyaku Winged Suit.

In a daze, she only felt a gust of wind blow from behind her.

"The wind has come. Where will it carry me?"

At that point, her eyelids closed, and Hyuga Ao completely lost consciousness.

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