Counterattack

Under the Space's strict lockdown, they had exploited loopholes in its rules and paid a tremendous price to send mission information into the real world. They had also leveraged their team's broad reach to arrange numerous supporting pawns.

After paying in blood and tears to map out the route and method, they were finally about to reap the fruits of victory, recoup all their losses, and establish a stable means of obtaining the 'First Bloodline Limit.'

And then, everything suddenly overturned!

The shock nearly drove Xiong Tao and Li Kai mad.

"Move fast! Even if it costs your lives, kill the target! I'll go slaughter that brat!"

Li Kai was an elite tempered by the battlefield. Even if he was merely a genin, he was far beyond what newcomers to the Reincarnation Space could compare to.

He swiftly assessed the situation before him.

The arrow had already been loosed. There was no turning back now. All they could do was complete the mission before the reinforcements arrived!

He decisively abandoned the tempting idea of directly attacking the target.

That block just now had made him realize that this newcomer had hidden himself remarkably well. Other than Li Kai himself, no one present was a match for him.

Given the opponent's reaction speed and choices, if Li Kai forcibly attacked the target, he would inevitably be intercepted again, wasting time.

In that case, he might as well decisively kill this nuisance first!

A mere newcomer—before someone like him, who had endured the trials of life and death, one serious strike was all it would take.

"Brat, go repent for your greed in hell!"

With one hand reaching behind his back, a Short Blade appeared in Li Kai's hand as if by magic. Kunai were excellent for sneak attacks, but to crush an insect like this head-on, the sharp blade in his hand was far more effective!

Whether the other party coveted the Byakugan or had some other motive no longer mattered. Death was his only outcome!

"Die!"

The explosive Chakra technique in his feet was a skill honed through countless battles, not something Xu Yue could catch up to after such a short period of training.

In a flash, Li Kai arrived directly before him.

When Li Kai's main target had been Hyuga Shota, Xu Yue had still had a chance to respond with a sneak attack. But in this direct confrontation, he had no way to resist.

With a single thrust, the blade pierced straight through Xu Yue's chest and abdomen.

A rusty scent of blood surged up Xu Yue's throat.

Yet Xu Yue, blood spilling from his mouth and nose and the taste of blood filling his mouth, wore a sickly smile that made one's scalp tingle.

As a chief surgeon, avoiding blood vessels and vital organs to minimize the damage from an operation was instinctive!

Your speed was indeed fast. I couldn't dodge it. But with these eyes, making minor adjustments was more than enough!

The bone-deep pain of being pierced through instead gave Xu Yue a sensation he had never experienced before—a feeling of truly finding himself, of truly being alive in this world.

How wonderful. This was life. This was what living truly meant.

That sickly smile, paired with Xu Yue's already handsome features, gave off an indescribably sinister charm.

He looked completely broken.

After Li Kai's strike landed, he saw that sickly smile that chilled him to the bone, along with those scarlet eyes where a Magatama had appeared at some point.

The instant a sense of foreboding arose in his heart, before he could twist the blade to widen the wound, the Kunai through his heart robbed him of all strength.

His shattered heart and rapidly fading strength made it impossible for him to grip the hilt any longer. Though his final twitch caused more blood to spill from Xu Yue, that was the end of it.

With intense unwillingness in his eyes, he fell backward.

Why had it turned out like this?!

He was clearly stronger. The other side clearly had no way to withstand him. So why had the result been this?

He was unwilling...

Taking the risk of being completely impaled, Xu Yue had traded life for life and forcefully killed a genuine genin despite being weaker. That mad act, along with the sinister smile on his face, was enough to make everyone's hearts tremble.

Having completed that critical kill, Xu Yue did not even pull out the Short Blade piercing his chest and abdomen before anyone else could react. He forcibly formed hand seals and pressed a hand over the wound.

The low-level Medical Ninjutsu he had learned while assisting with Orochimaru's experiments—Hemostasis Jutsu and Healing Jutsu—worked in tandem. Together with the Short Blade lodged in place, they temporarily stabilized the injury and prevented it from worsening.

The recovery and vitality of his Beginner Sage Body were fully displayed.

After merely pausing long enough to stop the massive bleeding, he ignored the possibility of the wound bursting open again and charged at another stunned newcomer.

"You're courting death!"

If Xu Yue had still been in peak condition, carrying the terrifying aura of someone who had killed a genin, this man with Glasses would have been wary.

But the Short Blade still embedded in Xu Yue's chest and the blood covering his body seemed to be silently mocking him.

"Don't compare me to those useless pieces of trash!"

With a fierce offensive, the man with Glasses drove straight toward the Short Blade in Xu Yue's chest.

He knew Xu Yue had once defeated five people alone, but if Xu Yue thought he was the same as those lazy pieces of trash, he was being far too naive!

Xu Yue also seemed not to have anticipated such a sharp counterattack. Midway through, he switched from attacking to defending, as though he feared that striking the Short Blade again would tear open his wound. He fought cautiously, as if his hands and feet were bound and he could not unleash his full strength.

The gap between the two had not been large to begin with. Once Xu Yue retreated and lost the initiative, he was battered into a miserable state by a string of attacks.

Fists, kicks, knees, and elbows flowed in seamless succession, utterly incomparable to the five useless men from before.

Xu Yue was forced to turn sharply and redirect the force.

"Hmph, hea—"

Seeing that Xu Yue's center of gravity had become unstable and that he needed to use his rotation to shed force and readjust himself, the man with Glasses pressed his advantage, intending to end it with one blow.

But as he seized the chance to close in, he failed to notice the chillingly sick expression on Xu Yue's face, hidden in the blind spot of his vision after Xu Yue turned.

Just as he prepared to press his advantage, a burning pain erupted in his chest, making sweetness rise in his throat.

The taste of blood flooded his mouth, and the burning sensation turned into a tearing agony.

He stared in disbelief at the savage gash across his chest, desperately trying to cover the Blood Water spraying from it. Both hands turned red, then his entire body and clothing, but he could not stop the loss of blood—or the loss of life.

In the instant he turned, Xu Yue had forcibly pushed the Short Blade impaling him in a few more inches, launching an utterly unforeseen fatal attack from the opening in his back.

In the shortest possible time, despite his severe injuries, he had eliminated another main combatant!

Everyone who noticed what had happened, including Hyuga Shota with his Byakugan activated, felt their hearts turn cold.

None of them had expected such a ruthless, devious attack. His ruthlessness toward himself exceeded even their imagination.

Without question, the strongest, Li Kai, was dead. Another main attacker had been removed, and Xiong Tao had also been injured by Hyuga Shota. The mission and plan that had seemed within reach could no longer be completed.

Even if Xu Yue did not make another move, even if no reinforcements arrived, Hyuga Shota alone was no longer someone the remaining people could handle.

"Go!"

With reluctance and grief written across his face, Xiong Tao could only glare at Xu Yue with bitter hatred, as though he wanted to carve Xu Yue into his memory. The next moment, he prepared to leave the Space.

However, the Shuriken Xu Yue flung out like scattered flowers, precisely locked on with the Sharingan, shattered their hope of retreat.

Their sheer number left them lacking force, so they were easily blocked or dodged.

But they perfectly bridged the gaps in Hyuga Shota's attacks, keeping them continuously in combat and completely preventing them from selecting the option to leave.

"Are you trying to kill us all?!"

Their failed escape filled the already badly wounded Xiong Tao with grief and fury.

"Huh? You make it sound like you would have spared me if I'd refused you in the first place."

Xu Yue's voice still carried that scalp-tingling, sickly strangeness, but his hands never paused or hesitated. The blood spilling from his mouth and the wound in his chest seemed not to belong to him at all, yet he could still smile.

Compared to his usual sunny, warm smile, however, it now filled others with a chill and terror that reached their souls. The contrast was indescribably eerie.

It was also utterly unlike the arrogance and conceit he had displayed before, as if they belonged to two different personalities.

Only now did Xiong Tao realize that Xu Yue had been pretending all along, pretending to be the easiest sort of person to control!

Whether it was the sunny warmth from their first meeting, the arrogant defiance from their later encounter, or the sickly demeanor he showed now, Xiong Tao could not make sense of what Xu Yue's true nature was.

He had thought Xu Yue had torn off his humble disguise during their earlier meeting and revealed his true self, but that clearly had not been the case!

This was a monster hidden within the fog, one whose true face could never be seen!

But realizing this now was far too late. Several black figures, moving faster than the naked eye could follow, appeared directly at the scene.

Including Xu Yue, everyone except Hyuga Shota found a sharp Kunai pressed to their throats.

Before anyone could clearly see those black figures, they had already arrived at everyone's sides.

They wore identical masks and identical Anbu uniforms.

Like multiples.

They were Shadow Clones of an Anbu!

Attacking the Hyuga Clan's main family and attempting to seize Konoha's Bloodline Limit—either charge alone was far beyond what they could bear!

"He's our companion too! He was part of the plan from the start! He just got scared and changed his mind at the last minute!"

At the final moment, Xiong Tao understood that the situation was hopeless, but he refused to let Xu Yue get away clean. He screamed madly, trying to drag Xu Yue down with him.

No matter what choice Xu Yue had made in the end, no matter what efforts he had made, there was no denying that he had stood with them at the beginning. He was merely an orphan with a 'clean identity.'

In an incident this serious, no one would stand up for him. A ninja village was not a charity. Operating on the principle of killing by mistake rather than letting anyone go, they would certainly not let him off lightly!

For a moment, Xiong Tao's eyes were filled with madness.

The surviving Reincarnator newcomers, now completely restrained and unable even to die if they wished, began shouting curses as well.

"Traitor!"

"That's right! Do you think changing sides at the last second can wash away your crimes?"

"Idiot! Even if we die, don't think you'll get off easy."

"Don't forget, we entered the village together!"

"You'll never be able to sever your connection to us!"

"..."

The extreme emotions that had arisen during battle rapidly cooled. The eerie, sinister smile vanished entirely from Xu Yue's face, and as he gradually recovered, he pulled the Short Blade from his chest with a numb expression.

With the strength of his Sage Body and the support of Healing Jutsu, Xu Yue's severe injuries were rapidly recovering and no longer worsening.

Listening to their curses, he showed little expression.

He was more focused on reflecting upon the shift in his emotions during the battle. So this desire had been hidden deep within him. Was it the product of long-term self-restraint while living in a daze, or the result of witnessing life and death so often as a Doctor? He had no idea.

Still, the feeling of truly being alive—of acting on his own will, his instincts, and his desires, of being calm amid that fervor—was not bad.

Well, it hurt a little...

As he pressed a hand to his wound to heal himself, Xu Yue glanced at those people trying desperately to drag him down. With his heart restored to calm, he put on the mask he was accustomed to wearing once more.

If not for the relationship they described, if he had entered the village with them and could not stay uninvolved, he truly might not have been willing to take such a risk merely for the Friendship of the Hyuga Clan, for a future extra who had never appeared.

But unfortunately for them, he had connections in Konoha. At least in this era, he did...

"I... I'm Orochimaru-sensei's disciple. You can verify it, sirs. It was precisely because these people entered the village with me that I did not suspect their motives at first. In the end, I tried my best to make up for it."

Xu Yue looked utterly miserable as he spoke 'with difficulty,' wearing a bitter expression. Blood still seeped from his wound and the corner of his mouth, making him look as though air leaked from him.

It made people worry that a few more words would make him drop dead on the spot.

His words surprised the Anbu who had arrived and the Hyuga Clan guard. Meanwhile, terror and horror flashed through the eyes of the Reincarnator newcomers who had already been completely subdued.

This guy was actually connected to that 'ultimate boss'? How was that possible?!

Support the barbecue festival~ The contract was signed too sloppily, so it needs to be mailed again.