Ignoring the comically exaggerated speeds shown in the manga,
an ordinary ninja using tree-walking mobility—constantly jumping with chakra—could move at around 20 meters per second in regular combat, or 72 kilometers per hour.
With chakra enhancement, that speed could become even faster. Techniques like the Body Flicker Technique could exceed the speed of sound in an instant, but once that speed was reached, an ordinary ninja's eyesight could no longer keep up.
Without dynamic vision, or specialized training in how to fight and control one's body at such extreme speeds, a ninja who rashly exceeded the speed they could control would only expose an opening and get stabbed to death by a single kunai.
Even so,
this was still a movement speed far beyond the sprinting champions of Hyuga Yu's previous world.
At this moment,
the surging wind rushed past both sides of his face, while the hair before his forehead and behind his ears streamed and danced backward along its path.
In only about an hour, Hyuga Yu had crossed nearly a hundred kilometers, passed through Konoha's training grounds and the Forest of Death, and arrived at a Nameless Forest east of Konoha.
If he continued at full speed for another four hours, he would reach the Grass Wave Coast,
but now, Hyuga Yu stopped in a clearing within the forest.
"Huff... huff..."
He panted twice, adjusting his breathing as he took a Military Rations Pill from the ninja pouch at his lower back and tossed it into his mouth.
Though his chakra was scarce, roughly only at the level of two points in Essence—half the level of young Hinata—it was still enough to support Hyuga Yu running at full speed for over three hours.
The reason he had stopped was not because he lacked chakra,
but because
he felt as though he was being watched!
Sensory ninjas could sense one another. For example, during Sasuke's attack on the Five Kage Summit, the Kumogakure ninja C and Karin sensed each other's existence. Karin, however, directly grasped C's location through Mind's Eye of the Kagura, while C needed time to carefully sense her before confirming her position.
(PS: This excluded non-chakra-based sensing. For example, when a Byakugan user and an ordinary sensory ninja sensed one another, the Byakugan user could see the other party and sense their chakra-based perception of him. However, an ordinary sensory ninja could not detect the gaze of a Byakugan user from over a kilometer away. The same applied to the Inuzuka Clan's dog-nose sensing.)
And for Hyuga Yu, who was even more sensitive than ordinary sensory ninjas and could even feel something as intangible as a "gaze," the feeling of being watched was no less startling than someone suddenly pulling down his pants and tossing a crocodile inside.
Hyuga Yu immediately raised his head slightly, veins bulging around his eyes.
"Byakugan, activate!"
His instantly expanding godlike field of vision covered a radius of one kilometer. At a forest fork roughly a kilometer away,
just as expected, Hyuga Yu saw a team of Kirigakure ninjas.
This Kirigakure team consisted of a Jonin proficient in sensory ninjutsu, a "strange" Chunin, and a Genin who made him feel slightly "uncomfortable."
As for how Hyuga Yu distinguished their identities?
It was not difficult.
You could tell Chunin from Genin by whether they wore the Chunin flak jacket issued by their village. Kirigakure's version was a somewhat more fashionable gray, lace-up plate vest than Konoha's.
And to distinguish a Chunin wearing a vest from a Jonin, one looked at their shoes...
Though Hyuga Yu had no idea why the Naruto world had such a bizarre custom, normally, the ninja boots worn by Chunin and Genin covered their heels, while Jonin shoes exposed them.
Besides,
a ninja who could sense him from beyond the sensing range of a Hyuga Clan ninja like Hyuga Yu had already pushed sensory ninjutsu to the limits of ordinary ninja. At the very least, he was a powerhouse at the level of a Special Jonin.
And now,
at the wrong time and in the wrong place, the two sides who had sensed each other reacted entirely differently.
Hyuga Yu immediately put on an "astonished and horrified" expression. His body trembled slightly, and his feet even "involuntarily" took two steps back, as though he wanted to flee at once.
On the other side,
the Kirigakure Jonin who sensed Hyuga Yu also looked stunned.
"Wait, where did this brat come from?"
Beside him, the "strange" Chunin immediately asked in a low voice,
"Kensuke, what's going on?"
"Lord Ao, I found a Hyuga Clan ninja. His chakra fluctuations are very weak. He looks like a student who just graduated from the ninja academy."
Ao immediately frowned. "A Hyuga Clan ninja?"
The Kirigakure Jonin Kensuke promptly reported, "Yes. He discovered us through the Byakugan as well. It looks like he wants to run?"
Ao could not help but consider it.
For the hunt targeting the Hyuga Main Family, he had arranged an encirclement shaped like a funnel.
However, their team was not the vanguard meant to confuse the enemy. It consisted of three exceptional sensory ninjas and was the core team responsible for locating the Hyuga Main Family and carrying out the capture.
At this moment,
a Hyuga Genin who happened to pass through this area had run into them.
Deliberately pursuing him would delay the plan, but if they let him run back toward Konoha, he would inevitably encounter the Hyuga Main Family's group, causing a flaw in the intelligence behind the capture plan.
Then the first "bait" team to appear before the Hyuga Main Family's group would likely lose its purpose—
once the Hyuga Main Family knew that more than one Kirigakure team was stationed along the route, they would certainly become wary. Upon seeing the bait team positioned at the "tail of the funnel," they might expose the entire plan, immediately abandon their mission, and return to Konoha.
Thinking of this, Ao felt a slight headache coming on. He immediately tilted his head and looked at the Genin beside him, who stood only as high as his waist.
"Kurenai, can you deal with this brat?"
The Genin being addressed was a purple-haired boy of around twelve or thirteen, with a strip of black cloth covering his eyes. After hearing Ao's question, he fell silent for a moment before answering,
"I can."
"But the Hyuga Main Family is about to arrive."
Ao immediately gave the order. "Then use your Red Eye to create a chakra image within the Byakugan's field of vision. Make him see that we have already 'moved away.'"
"Let this Hyuga brat keep moving forward."
"Once you get close, confirm his identity. Make sure this truly was only an accident!"
"Understood." The boy with the black cloth over his eyes nodded, slowly raising his hands and untying the cloth from behind his head,
revealing a pair of amber-colored pupils.
In the next instant,
those eyes were dyed blood-red, turning a blazing crimson!
The boy raised his head slightly and looked in Hyuga Yu's direction. Invisible ocular power spread, expanded, and fabricated itself along the shared field of perception between them,
then
manipulated the contents of the visual field belonging to the Byakugan bloodline limit.
On the other side,
when Hyuga Yu saw the composition of this Kirigakure team, his heart jolted.
Aside from the Jonin who could sense him in reverse through the Byakugan,
the more he looked at that "strange" Chunin, the more familiar he seemed. After thinking for a while, Hyuga Yu suddenly realized—
wasn't this the ninja from Kirigakure's operation to hunt the Main House, seize the Byakugan, and ultimately transplant it into himself?
Ao!
Damn it, a dignified Jonin was actually disguising himself as a Chunin. Did he have no shame at all?
But in the very next moment,
Hyuga Yu suppressed his surprise at running into the enemy boss head-on,
because he saw something that made him even more horrified—
after the Genin standing beside Ao removed the black cloth over his eyes,
he revealed a pair of eyes called the Red Eye!
No,
Hyuga Yu subconsciously swallowed. Now he was genuinely starting to panic.
Damn it, getting thrown into the boss room early was one thing, but why did this boss have a weapon specifically designed to counter him?
Before you continue