Perhaps the sudden arrival of the animals had left the Sand ninja at a loss, or perhaps their "crazy" behavior had driven him out of his mind. Either way, as fellow genin, trying to fight a Hyuga Clan ninja with taijutsu in a cramped, dark space was simply asking for trouble!
"Eight Trigrams Gentle Fist!"
"Eight Trigrams Two Palms, Four Palms, Eight Palms, Sixteen Palms!"
The sudden darkness didn't send Hyuga Hyakusho into a panic. The Byakugan allowed him to pinpoint his enemy's location, no matter how dark the space became. Close-quarters combat was his specialty, and the brutal beatings he'd given Nawaki over the past few days had brought his confidence to its peak. In short, the enemy genin had played right into Hyakusho's strengths!
With a high-pitched battle cry, the Sand ninja had barely assumed a fighting stance before Hyuga Hyakusho landed every one of his attacks without missing a beat!
As he finished his final strike, the earthen structure crumbled without any more Chakra to sustain it. Hyuga Hyakusho stood there, breathing slightly hard, while the enemy Sand ninja lay lifeless.
"Wind Release—Lightness Technique!"
"Wind Release—Razor Blade!"
Unlike Hyuga Hyakusho, who'd been forced into battle, Namikaze Minato had cast two ninjutsu on himself as soon as he encountered the Sand ninja. Combining them with his nimble movements and the animals constantly harrying his opponent, Minato darted in and out at high speed. His attacks came in a straight line: Kunai in hand, he'd slash once and retreat, giving his opponent no chance to counterattack!
Minato's relentless attacks had covered the Sand ninja's body in countless wounds in an instant. As he lost blood rapidly, the Sand ninja inevitably felt a moment of dizziness—and Minato seized that moment with perfect precision!
"Konoha Sword Technique—Five Directions Kill!"
With a low shout, Namikaze Minato darted around the Sand ninja, changing direction five times. Each time, he delivered a brutal slash: the left arm, the right leg, the chest, the lower back—and his final strike swept deep across the Sand ninja's throat!
The Sand ninja's corpse fell from the tree to the ground. Namikaze Minato took a few short breaths. The battle had seemed complicated, but in truth, it hadn't lasted long. Once he'd steadied his breathing, he exchanged a glance with Hyuga Hyakusho, who had just finished fighting nearby. They nodded to each other.
Compared to their own relatively easy fight, Zhou Duan was keeping the enemy's strongest chunin occupied. In this world, the gap between a chunin and a genin was almost a chasm. Even if a chunin couldn't defeat a genin in a single blow, it wouldn't be far off!
Even with the animals causing a chaotic distraction, one careless mistake could leave Zhou Duan in a deadly situation. They had to hurry over and help!
The chunin was far too strong. Standing still and trading blows with him would be suicide, so even Zhou Duan, whom the team considered their strongest fighter, had been forced to adopt a hit-and-run strategy. Fortunately, the animals on the Sand ninja chasing Zhou Duan were making such a racket that anyone who wasn't blind could easily follow the trail they'd left behind!
Namikaze Minato and Hyuga Hyakusho hurried after their target. But when they reached the destination, they were met with a sight that left them speechless!
"Tsk, tsk. You're human, yet you've enticed animals into doing something so beastly. You're a disgrace to humanity!"
"Hmph! Sand ninja, if you'd just found a female and done something so filthy, that would be one thing. But you lured a whole pack of male animals! Don't you have any pride as a man?"
"Goodness, I never expected a chunin sent to hunt us down to be like this. You're even a person of some standing, yet you're taking out your lust on animals? How much must human women dislike you?"
"Sand ninja from the Land of Wind, don't listen to them. At least I admire your courage! A love that crosses genders—and spans every species in Konoha's territory! You'll go down in the history books of the ninja world!"
In the middle of the dense forest, a once-open patch of grass was now occupied by a horde of animals. The middle-ranking Sand ninja from the Land of Wind stood in the center, miserably defending himself against the "enthusiastic" welcome from all sides. From time to time, he unleashed a large-scale ninjutsu to buy himself room to breathe. Five Ninja Turtles, each five or six meters across with tall, domed shells, had him tightly surrounded. The crude insults that pushed the chunin to the brink of a breakdown came from these five Ninja Turtles, all of whom had leering expressions and vulgar faces!
"I think I'm looking at a fake chunin!"
Standing on a tree branch, Hyakusho stared blankly at the chunin roaring furiously below, then turned to Water Gate, who looked just as stunned.
"Water Gate, are chunin really this pathetic these days? He's a chunin, for goodness' sake. There must be dozens of ways to escape this situation!"
"Escape? How? Didn't you notice?"
His nerves were a little steadier than Hyakusho's. After studying the scene carefully, Namikaze Minato finally spotted the problem. He pointed at the middle-ranking Sand ninja fighting below.
"That guy has a huge wound on his right foot, and his right leg is practically unusable. Judging by the fact that the blood coming from the wound is greenish rather than red, he's been poisoned—and the poison is potent. He's doing well just to stay on his feet, let alone move. But what I can't figure out is how Zhou Duan managed to wound a chunin this badly. Even if he was fighting off a pack of animals, he shouldn't have fallen for a trap so easily, should he?"
"No, this guy fell for it really easily!"
Zhou Duan, who'd been watching and harassing the enemy from the sidelines, came over and took out a Ninja Turtle with a mouth full of sharp teeth.
"I was the one running away. Summoning a dozen Ninja Turtles along the route while I ran was ridiculously easy!
With so many animals surrounding him, he'd have counterattacked instantly if I'd attacked him myself. But when he ran into Ninja Turtles, which are animals too... he fell for it without any trouble!"
Hyakusho and Water Gate nodded, accepting an explanation that sounded absurd at first but made sense on closer thought. Then Hyuga Hyakusho asked the question that had been bothering him for a long time.
"Zhou Duan, what kind of potion did you use? I've never heard of it. Why are the animals chasing these Sand ninja like they're on a massive drug high? And why were the three teams of Sand ninja who withdrew—and us—unaffected?"
"Of course you've never heard of it!"
Zhou Duan smiled with satisfaction.
"You see, I developed this potion myself. It may only be the result of a failed experiment, and it may have some serious limitations, but there's no denying how powerful it is. I've even worked out a detailed list of its effects, and I call it..."
As Zhou Duan watched the scene caused by his potion, a deranged grin spread across his face like that of a mad scientist.
"The Hormone Potion Golden Three Laws!"
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