Ambush (Xingmu Jingtang Ten-Thousand Reward Bonus Chapter)

In his mental space, The Book of Medivh seemed to be in an unusual state.

Undulating arcane radiance flowed across its cover, a state Satoru had never seen before.

Satoru immediately surveyed his surroundings. As a powerful magical artifact, every unusual state of The Book of Medivh had a reason behind it!

"Arcane Intellect!"

"Magic Suppression!"

After quietly applying two buffs to himself, Satoru felt his thoughts become clearer. He had to be on guard against such a strange situation:

"Flame Shield!"

There was no reaction whatsoever.

The street remained bustling with people, and no one seemed to notice anything unusual about Satoru.

If the two buff spells had been silent and invisible, then the fact that three such conspicuous fireballs had begun orbiting Satoru without drawing the attention of those around him...

"There really is a problem!"

Satoru snorted. This was Konoha—someone actually dared scheme against him, a child, in broad daylight?!

Was there no justice left? No law?!

"Who's there?! Come out!"

Faint arcane radiance gathered in his hand. After summoning a Mage Eye to observe the battlefield, Satoru silently began preparing his Deformation Technique—

In practical magic use, there were no annoying prompts like "You have no target," "You cannot cast this spell yet," "You cannot do this yet," or "This spell is not ready"...

Though sometimes, things like "Too far away" or "Insufficient mana" did appear... as subconscious mental projections.

Thus, with the powerful arcane assistance of The Book of Medivh, Satoru could condense a spell in his hand beforehand and release it instantly when needed.

"Hehehe... what an interesting little brat..."

A somewhat hoarse voice rang out from the void, yet Satoru's Mage Eye was unable to lock onto its source!

"An even more interesting technique..."

The voice sounded again. The scenery around him twisted and shifted, and Satoru's pupils contracted—

"This is... outside the village already?!"

What appeared before Satoru was the riverbank where they usually practiced taijutsu!

"Damn it! Not only was the environment disguised, even my senses were interfered with?!"

"So that's why The Book of Medivh was acting strangely... I actually failed to notice sooner!"

Satoru gritted his teeth. The enemy had clearly cast Genjutsu on him—probably more than one. Under these circumstances, Satoru was not naive enough to think the other party merely wanted to play a prank on him!

"Demonic Illusion: False Place Technique, a Genjutsu that makes the target mistake one location for another, making you believe the road out of the village is the road home."

That voice actually dispelled the Genjutsu on its own and even explained the technique's name and effect to Satoru:

"Along with a tiny trick to disrupt the five senses... but I truly didn't expect a little brat who isn't even a ninja to notice something was wrong..."

The hoarse voice chuckled softly, seemingly in praise, but Satoru did not feel honored in the slightest.

"Using such methods against a student who isn't even a ninja—Sir, you really must have too much time on your hands!"

"Are you too afraid to show yourself?!"

"Hmm... trying to provoke me? What excellent composure..."

The hoarse voice seemed somewhat surprised. This time, its praise was much more obvious:

"An ordinary child would probably be crying in terror by now. You truly are an interesting little brat."

"Who the hell is this guy, and what does he want..."

As Satoru silently used the Mage Eye to search for the other party's whereabouts, he dispersed the Deformation Technique prepared in his hand—

The Deformation Technique only worked on targets roughly equal to his own strength. Judging by the Genjutsu the other party had cast, he was at least at the chunin level, not someone Satoru could contend with yet.

Therefore, what he needed to do now was escape.

First, he had to determine the enemy's location. As for Genjutsu, Satoru was not too worried—

Now that he was mentally prepared, he only needed to observe the state of The Book of Medivh to tell whether he had fallen under Genjutsu again.

With that thought, Satoru began chanting. Several hand signs flashed before him, and blazing flames ignited in his hand—

"Area-of-Effect Shockwave!"

BOOM—

A ring of scorching fire erupted outward from Satoru, expanding explosively at high speed!

This Shockwave had been deliberately adjusted by Satoru to cover an extremely wide area, though its power was correspondingly weak.

But that was enough. Satoru's purpose was to use a large-scale AOE attack to locate the enemy!

"Found you!"

A faint sense of repulsion came through. The Impact Wave's knockback effect had not taken effect on the target, but that was enough for Satoru to use Mage Eye to pinpoint the enemy's exact location.

"Nine o'clock, a little over ten meters away... That was close!"

A red flash flared around Satoru's body as Scorching Swiftness activated, and he dashed rapidly in the opposite direction—three o'clock.

At nine o'clock was the patch of grass where Might Duy had appeared earlier. Clearly, the enemy had used it for camouflage as well. At three o'clock, meanwhile, was the river Satoru had jumped into when he first tested Scorching Swiftness...

"A river again..."

Trailing a streak of fire, Satoru rushed toward the water. Jumping into the river was a good way to evade the enemy.

"Not a bad reaction. The idea behind this Body Flicker Technique is exceptionally good too!"

The owner of the hoarse voice appeared. What made Satoru's pupils constrict was that the first word had come from far away, yet by the final word, the man was already in front of him!

"Bang!"

A foot suddenly kicked toward him, and Satoru's Flame Shield shattered with a snap, scattering into drifting sparks!

"An excellent defensive ninjutsu!"

The voice seemed unable to stop sighing in admiration. Then...

"Poof!"

"Hm? A Clone Technique? It has substance? A Shadow Clone? How is that possible?!"

The owner of the hoarse voice was completely concealed beneath a cloak and hood, but his leisurely tone finally turned astonished:

"No, this isn't a Shadow Clone... But it is another special kind of Clone Technique. Interesting... How old is he?"

Having swiftly locked onto Satoru's real body, which was already nearing the water's surface, the cloaked man vanished from midair.

"Whoosh!"

"Body Immobilization Technique!"

The hooded man appeared before Satoru, and Satoru abruptly realized that he could no longer move!

"Is this a Body Immobilization Technique at the level of a chunin?!"

Satoru's entire body was rigid. His expression darkened as he watched the hooded man approach with a light chuckle.

"Caught you... How embarrassing. I actually had to spend this much effort..."

The cloaked man suddenly stopped, because he saw Satoru curl his lips into a smile before vanishing from the spot in an instant!

"What?!"

This time, the cloaked man was utterly shocked.

"Flying Thunder God?!"

"No! That's not it..."

The instant he noticed Satoru had appeared not far behind him, the cloaked man suppressed his shock, turned around, and began forming hand seals.

"Damn it! Blink can't be used consecutively..."

Satoru had not even managed to take two steps before the cloaked man finished his technique.

"Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!"

A massive gale blasted toward him, sending Satoru's small body flying into the air!

"Hehe... Surrender, and I'll let you down... Hm??!"

The cloaked man stared blankly as Satoru, blown away by the gale, "flew" along an utterly impossible trajectory, lightly drifting onto a nearby cliff before disappearing...

"Slow Fall... Hehe!"

Satoru floated down onto the cliff where he had first met Nawaki. With Blink combined with Scorching Swiftness, he vanished in an instant.

Well... I didn't see the reward for a helmsman yesterday... I never expected someone to give such a huge reward when the story had fewer than fifty thousand words. (_)

Thank you to the first helmsman, Xingmu Jingtang, for the support. I'll add an extra chapter. The trial recommendation starts tomorrow—so nervous~

If... and I'm only saying if, shamelessly, another big shot gives a reward, I'll keep track of it and add chapters when this goes premium~

For now, I'll stay steady and wait for recommendations~