At the edge of a relatively secluded forest clearing outside Konoha.
Otsutsuki Urashiki sat cross-legged on the ground. He reached into the fishing basket behind him and pulled out a mass of Chakra.
He held the Chakra mass above his palm. Moments later, the unstable energy condensed into a blue sphere the size of a longan, like a solid pill.
Urashiki picked it up and swallowed it without hesitation.
"Gulp."
As the pill entered his stomach, the bruises from fist marks still lingering on his face faded and vanished at an astonishing speed. The small wounds exposed by the tears in his clothes also healed rapidly, and his aura visibly steadied and recovered considerably.
However, he did not lower his guard. His blue Rinnegan remained activated the entire time.
"Troublesome pests... you finally came."
He suddenly muttered to himself, a knowing smile curling at the corner of his mouth.
Before his words had even faded, his cross-legged figure abruptly slid several meters to the left without warning!
At the exact instant his body moved aside—
"Boom!!!"
A humming Rasengan smashed precisely into the spot where he had been sitting! The ground exploded into a deep crater several meters wide, dirt and broken stones mixed with Chakra shockwaves blasting outward in every direction!
Urashiki had long since used the Rinnegan's ability to evade this ambush from concealment! He appeared to be healing, but he had actually kept his blue Rinnegan active all along in preparation for this anticipated sneak attack.
"Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh—!!"
Before the dust from the Rasengan's explosion could settle, the air was filled with a barrage of shrill whistles! Countless shuriken and kunai came raining in from every direction at tricky angles!
Yet amid the shower of cold flashes, Urashiki's figure seemed to become an insubstantial phantom.