Suspicious Traces

Spitting out a mouthful of fresh blood, the man grabbed Zabuza's blade with one hand and said in disbelief, "How is this possible? How could I possibly die at the hands of you three brats!"

Thwack!

Another muffled sound.

He felt a sharp pain in his waist as another young boy, while the man's attention was focused on the blade in his chest, stabbed a kunai into his left side.

"Anything is possible on this battlefield!" Seven Frost said coldly, pushing the kunai further in.

"No... I'm not reconciled!"

Blood spilled from the man's mouth as he glared fiercely at the three, as if he wanted to devour them alive, and shouted, "I'll take you all down with me!"

Seven Frost immediately noticed that the man's other hand held a stack of burning explosive tags.

"Watch out, Zabuza, retreat quickly!"

He exclaimed, releasing the kunai in his hand and pulling the boy beside him to retreat.

Before he could finish speaking, another childish female voice sounded in his ear.

"You go to hell alone!"

Immediately after, Seven Frost saw Mei Terumi kick the Konoha ninja in the chest mid-air. Zabuza's blade slid out of the man's chest, and the man flew out like an arrow loosed from a bow.

Boom!

Flames erupted into the sky, followed closely by smoke and the shockwave of the explosion.

Although Mei Terumi's kick had sent the man flying, the three were still more than three meters away from the center of the explosion and were immediately blown into the nearby ruins by the scorching blast wave.

"No--"

On the other side, seeing his last comrade engulfed in flames, the ninja from the Hyuga Clan's eyes immediately turned red.

But no matter how heartbroken his cries were, time could not be reversed.

The dead could never come back to life.

What he could do now was to take advantage of the moment the three brats were blown away to escape quickly.

If he was any later, he might not even be able to leave!

The war would not stop because of the deaths of a few of them.

He still had to use his remaining strength to make one last contribution to Konoha, to the Hyuga Clan, instead of dying here in vain.

With this thought, he suppressed the grief in his heart and, without fear of exposing his weakness, assumed a starting stance at an extremely close distance to Ao.

"You want to use a special move against me at such close range? You're just asking for death!" Seeing the opponent's opening, Ao, holding a kunai, immediately lunged for his throat.

"Gentle Fist Style: Eight Trigrams Palms Rotation!"

Just as Ao's kunai was about to pierce the Konoha ninja's throat, he felt his vision blur, and a pale blue light filled his sight. Then, a strong gust of wind hit him, and a powerful force sent him flying.

In an instant, he felt a sharp pain in his back.

He knew he had landed.

Only then did he see clearly that the object that had sent him flying was a pale blue rotating sphere about two meters in diameter.

"Ptooey!"

He quickly got up, spat out the dust he had inhaled upon landing, and said dejectedly, "Not this move again!"

He had seen it used once before, and even the close-range explosion of the explosive tags couldn't shake it in the slightest. Its formidable defensive power was unlike anything he had ever seen.

Facing this move, he was completely helpless.

"Huh?"

Just as Ao was preparing for the opponent's next attack, he saw that after repelling him, the man quickly interrupted the jutsu and fled the scene without looking back.

In a few blinks of an eye, he disappeared among the ruins.

"This..." Ao was stunned.

He had thought the man, like the one who had just self-destructed in an attempt to take them all down with him, was a man of iron will. He never expected this outcome.

However, upon further reflection, he felt relieved.

Their four-man squad had lost three members, while his side was completely unharmed.

With him holding the front line and the three little ones assisting, their chances of winning were as high as ninety percent.

There was no point in the Hyuga ninja staying to fight to the bitter end; it would only be a meaningless sacrifice.

Therefore, the man's escape was not so difficult to understand.

Just then, a rustling sound came from the ruins nearby.

Immediately, he saw three familiar small figures dart out from the ruins.

"Are you three alright?" he asked with concern.

"Cough, cough, cough!"

Mei Terumi patted the dust off her clothes, coughed a few times, and said with displeasure, "How could we be alright?"

"Look at my clothes, they're all dirty! This is the last clean set I have!"

Hearing this, Qi Shuang and the other two couldn't help but twitch their lips.

It turned out that, compared to their own health, this person cared more about the cleanliness of their clothes.

However, Mei Terumi's indifferent attitude also proved that she was completely fine.

Otherwise, she wouldn't have had the energy to worry about her clothes.

Afterward, Ao looked at his two other subordinates and said seriously, "What about you two?"

"We're fine!"

Zabuza shook his head, slowly wiping his short sword.

The bloodstains on it had not completely dried yet.

"I'm also not seriously injured, just a dull ache all over. I should be fine in a little while!" Qi Shuang rubbed his shoulder and replied with a grimace.

"Alright, since everyone is fine, we'll continue moving forward!" Ao said slowly, glancing in the direction where the explosions and shouts were most concentrated.

Then, he managed to find a small path through the ruins and immediately plunged into it with his three subordinates.

After all, the further they went, the more intense the fighting became.

If they directly leaped over the ruins, they might easily be ambushed by enemies below.

For safety's sake, he chose to run through the ground.

After a few steps, another ninja squad emerged from around the corner, startling them quite a bit.

Upon closer inspection, they realized they were their own people from Kirigakure.

"Hey, you guys over there!"

Ao waved to his companions on the opposite side and asked loudly, "Have you found any trace of that person?"

That person, of course, referred to the current head of the Hyuga Clan.

Seeing his greeting, the opposing squad slowly approached. The leader of that squad said helplessly, "Not yet!"

"We've already searched the entire Hyuga compound, and we haven't even seen a shadow of him!"

Seeing that the three opposite them were all covered in wounds, clearly having been through many battles, Qi Shuang couldn't help but feel fortunate for themselves.

They had arrived a little later, having just missed the most intense wave of Konoha's counterattack at the beginning.

Therefore, they hadn't encountered any fierce battles along the way. The only encounter that could be considered truly thrilling was with that Konoha squad just now.

"That's truly a shame!" Ao sighed.

Just then, a large red smoke signal rose from the southwest.

Qi Shuang immediately recognized it as a signal flare from their Kirigakure village.

Clearly, someone had discovered something over there.

"Judging by the location of that signal flare, it's outside the main camp of Konoha, isn't it? Why would someone be sending a signal over there?" The leader of the opposing squad muttered to himself, stroking his chin.

"Could it be... someone found that guy's tracks?" Qi Shuang interjected casually.