Counterattack

Under the space's tight lockdown, they had exploited loopholes in the rules and paid a steep price to transmit mission information to the World of the Living. At the same time, using their team's broad reach, they had arranged numerous pawns to provide support.

They had paid in blood and tears to figure out the route and method. Just when they were finally about to reap the fruits of victory, make up for all their losses, and establish a stable path to obtaining the 'First Bloodline Limit'...

Everything suddenly looked like it was about to fall apart!

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 only a Genin, he was far beyond any newcomer from Reincarnation Space.

He swiftly assessed the situation before him.

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

He decisively gave up the tempting idea of directly attacking the target.

That earlier block had made him realize just how deeply this newcomer had hidden his strength. Other than himself, no one present was a match for him.

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

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

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

"Brat, go repent for your greed in Infernal Realm!"

Reaching behind his back with one hand, Li Kai produced a Short Blade as if by magic. A Kunai had a huge advantage in sneak attacks, but when crushing an ant like this head-on, a sharp blade was what could best show its power!

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

"Die!"

The explosive Chakra technique in his feet was a skill hammered out over countless battles, something Xu Yue could not hope to match after such a short period of training.

In a flash, Li Kai arrived directly before him.

At first, Li Kai's main target had been Hyuga Shota, giving Xu Yue a chance to respond to a sneak attack. But in a frontal confrontation now, he had no way to resist at all.

With one thrust, the blade pierced through Xu Yue's chest and abdomen, clean through his body.

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

Yet Xu Yue, blood spilling from his mouth and nose and filling his mouth with its metallic stench, wore a sickening smile that made people's scalps tingle.

As a chief surgeon, knowing how to avoid blood vessels and vital organs to minimize surgical damage was practically instinct!

Your speed was fast enough that I couldn't dodge it, but with these eyes, making slight adjustments was more than enough!

The piercing, bone-deep pain instead gave Xu Yue a sensation he had never experienced before—a feeling of truly finding himself, of truly existing 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 eerie charm.

He looked completely broken.

After Li Kai's strike landed, he saw that sickening smile that chilled him to the core, as well as those scarlet eyes, which at some point had gained a single Magatama.

The instant a sense of danger rose 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 weakening body left him unable to grip the hilt any longer. Though his final twitch made even more blood spill from Xu Yue, that was all.

With deep unwillingness in his eyes, he fell backward.

Why had it turned out like this?!

He was clearly stronger. The other party 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 his life for Li Kai's and forcibly defeated the strong while weak, killing a true Genin. That madness, combined with the eerie smile on his face, was enough to make everyone tremble.

After completing that crucial kill, Xu Yue did not even pull out the Short Blade embedded through his chest and abdomen. Before anyone else could react, he forcibly formed hand seals and pressed them against the wound.

The low-level Medical Ninjutsu he had learned while assisting with Orochimaru's experiments—Hemostasis Jutsu and Healing Jutsu—worked together with the blade plugging the wound, temporarily stabilizing his injury and preventing 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 risk of reopening his wound and charged once more at a stunned newcomer.

"You're courting death!"

If Xu Yue had still been at full strength, then with the terrifying presence of someone who had just killed a Genin, this bespectacled man would have been somewhat wary.

But the Short Blade still stuck in Xu Yue's chest and the blood covering his body seemed to mock him soundlessly.

"Don't lump me in with those pieces of trash!"

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

He knew Xu Yue had once fought one against five, but if Xu Yue thought he was the same as those lazy pieces of trash, then he was being far too naive!

Xu Yue also seemed not to have expected such a fierce counterattack. Midway through, he changed from attacking to blocking, apparently afraid that an attack on the Short Blade would tear open his wound again. He held back, as if his hands and feet were bound and he could not fight at full strength.

The two sides had not been far apart in strength to begin with, but once Xu Yue retreated and lost the initiative, he was beaten into a miserable state by a barrage of attacks.

Fists, kicks, knees, and elbows flowed together in one seamless sequence. He was worlds apart from those five pieces of trash earlier.

Xu Yue was forced to turn and deflect the force.

"Hmph, you..."

Seeing that his opponent's center of gravity was unstable and that Xu Yue needed to spin to shed the force and regain his balance, Glasses pressed his advantage, preparing to end the fight with one strike.

But as he seized the opportunity to close in, he failed to notice the sickeningly twisted expression hidden in Xu Yue's blind spot after he turned.

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

The stench of blood flooded his mouth, and then the burning pain became a tearing agony.

He stared in disbelief at the savage gash in his chest. He desperately covered the Blood Water gushing out, but both hands were stained red, his clothes were stained red, and still he could not stop the loss of blood—or the loss of life.

In the instant he turned, Xu Yue had forcibly pressed the impaling Short Blade in several inches deeper, launching an utterly unexpected fatal attack through the opening in his back.

In the shortest time possible, with his heavily injured body, he had taken down another core opponent!

Everyone who noticed what had happened, including Hyuga Shota with his Byakugan activated, felt a chill in their hearts.

They had never imagined such a ruthless and tricky attack. His ruthlessness toward himself exceeded even their expectations.

There was no doubt about it. The strongest, Li Kai, was dead. Another key member of their encirclement had been eliminated, and Xiong Tao had been injured by Hyuga Shota. The mission and plan that had seemed within reach now had no chance of succeeding.

Even if Xu Yue stopped fighting, even if reinforcements never arrived, Hyuga Shota alone was no longer someone the remaining people could handle.

"Go!"

His face filled with unwillingness and grief, Xiong Tao could only glare at Xu Yue with hatred, as though he wanted to burn him into his memory. The next moment, he prepared to leave the space.

However, shuriken scattered from Xu Yue's hand like a celestial maiden scattering flowers. Under the Sharingan's precise lock-on, they shattered the group's hope of retreat.

Because there were so many of them, they lacked force and were easily blocked or dodged.

But they perfectly filled the gaps in their battle with Hyuga Shota, keeping them in combat at all times and making it impossible to select the option to leave.

"Are you trying to wipe us all out?!"

His attempt to leave had failed, and the already badly injured Xiong Tao was overcome with grief and rage.

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

Xu Yue's voice still carried that scalp-crawling, eerie sickness, but his hands did not pause or hesitate in the slightest. Blood spilled from his mouth, and the wound in his chest might as well not have belonged to him; he could still smile.

But compared to his usual sunny, warm smile, this expression filled people with coldness and fear that seemed to come from their souls. The stark contrast was indescribably strange.

It was also completely different from the arrogance and defiance he had displayed before, as if he were an entirely different person.

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

Whether it was the sunny warmth when they first met, the arrogant defiance during their later meeting, or the sickly behavior he displayed now, none of it revealed what his true nature actually was.

Xiong Tao had thought Xu Yue had torn away his humble disguise during their previous meeting and revealed his true self, but it turned out that was not the case at all!

He was a Monster hidden in the fog, one whose true face could never be seen!

But realizing it now was already too late. Several black shadows, moving faster than the naked eye could follow, appeared directly at the scene.

Everyone except Hyuga Shota, including Xu Yue, suddenly had a sharp Kunai held to their necks.

Before anyone could even see the black figures clearly, they had already arrived at everyone's side.

They wore identical masks and identical Anbu uniforms.

Like multiples born from the same womb.

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 beginning! He was just cowardly and changed his mind at the last minute!"

At the final moment, Xiong Tao knew the situation was hopeless, but he was unwilling to let Xu Yue get off easy. He screamed madly, trying to drag Xu Yue down with him.

No matter what choice Xu Yue made in the end or what he had done to make up for it, there was no denying that he had stood with them at the start. He was merely an orphan with a 'clean identity.'

In an incident this serious, absolutely no one would stand up for him. Ninja villages were not charities. With the mindset of killing rather than letting anyone slip through, he definitely would not get away unscathed!

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

The surviving newcomer reincarnators, who had been completely restrained and could not even die if they wanted to, also began shouting curses.

"Traitor!"

"That's right! Do you think you can wash away your crimes just by switching sides at the last minute?"

"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 of self-awareness from battle rapidly cooled, and the eerie smile on Xu Yue's face faded completely into calm as he gradually recovered.

Numbly pulling the Short Blade from his chest, Xu Yue relied on the strength of his Sage Body and the assistance of Healing Jutsu. His previously grave injury was rapidly recovering and no longer worsening.

Listening to their curses, he showed little expression.

More than anything, he was reflecting on the changes in his emotions during the battle. So this kind of desire had been hidden deep within him? Was it born from years of muddling through life under the pressure of self-restraint, or because he had seen too much life and death as a Doctor? He had no way of knowing.

But that feeling of truly being alive—acting by his own will, his own instincts, his own desires—of fervor mixed with calm, was not bad at all.

Well, it hurt a little...

As Xu Yue pressed one hand over his wound to heal himself, he glanced at those people desperately trying to drag him down. With his heart restored to calm, his usual mask returned to his face.

If he had not been tied to them as they claimed, if entering the village with them had not made it impossible for him to remain uninvolved, then he might not have been willing to take the risk solely for the Friendship of the Hyuga Clan, for some insignificant figure who had never appeared in the future.

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

"I... I am Orochimaru-sensei's disciple. You can verify it, sirs. It was precisely because these people entered the village with me that I never suspected their motives. In the end, I tried my best to make up for it."

Xu Yue looked utterly miserable as he spoke 'with difficulty' in a bitter tone. Blood still leaked from his wound and the corner of his mouth as he spoke, as if the slightest bit more talking might make him drop dead on the spot.

His words surprised the Anbu members who had arrived, as well as the Hyuga Clan guard. The newcomer reincarnators, who had been fully restrained and found even death difficult to attain, were filled with terror and fear.

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

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