Hearing Hyuga Yu spout nonsense with a blank expression, the brown-haired Kirigakure ninja's eyes flew wide as he glared at him. His lips moved as if he had a thousand vile curses he wanted to hurl at him,
but in the end, he couldn't get a word out. With a look of resentment, he toppled backward in front of Hyuga Yu.
Hyuga Yu fell silent, reflecting on the experience. Next time, I should bring a mask or sunglasses. These eyes are still too conspicuous...
Soon, he put the matter out of his mind.
This squad of Kirigakure reinforcements wasn't strong. Judging by their clothes, it consisted of one Chunin and two Genin—the makeup of most squads during wartime.
Even so, intercepting and killing them had cost Hyuga Yu more than half his chakra.
With his current chakra reserves, he could use the B-rank Wind Release: Vacuum Blade about five and a half times.
The battle had also tested the technique's effectiveness. Within a range of two hundred meters, arrows accelerated by Wind Release: Vacuum Blade were difficult for most Genin—and even some Chunin who weren't skilled in Taijutsu—to react to.
With draw weight, draw length, bow efficiency, and arrow weight all kept the same, this specially made Japanese bow fired arrows at around 150 meters per second under normal conditions. An ordinary ninja could react to that, but after Wind Release: Vacuum Blade was applied, the speed nearly tripled, leaping to 450 meters per second.
That was faster than sound, on par with a handgun bullet.
Its effect was similar to a watered-down version of the Hozuki Clan's Water Release: Water Gun.
This was mostly due to the bow's inferior materials and low energy-conversion efficiency. Still, it was the most powerful, hardest-hitting bow Hyuga Yu could find in Konoha, and the one most likely to be effective in a ninja battle.
In a ninja world where bows and arrows had been phased out, this type of bow had once been used by the Fire Temple for rituals.
Other types, such as compound bows or Kidomaru's spider bow, were rarely made in this era.
If he wanted to improve the technique further, he would need to reinforce the bow itself.
Hyuga Yu calculated how much chakra he had left.
He could still fire two Wind Release: Vacuum Arrows, then fight with Taijutsu for a few minutes.
And the enemies still waiting ahead were three Chunin skilled in fighting in the mist and proficient in Taijutsu, along with a Kirigakure ninja who possessed the Red Eye kekkei genkai.
Judging by the numbers alone, Hyuga Yu would have little chance of killing all four with two arrows.
But a ninja battle wasn't simply a contest of jutsu strength. The factor that could turn the tide more than anything else was information.
With that thought, Hyuga Yu raised his great bow again, lifted his head, and gazed toward the battlefield two kilometers away.
"Byakugan, activate!"
Elsewhere,
In the dense fog blanketing the forest, the occasional clash of kunai rang out!
Hyuga Hideki drove back a Kirigakure ninja with an Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm.
The longer he fought, the heavier his heart grew.
With the Byakugan activated, the Red Eye's influence packed his field of vision with countless figures. There were too many targets; he had no idea which one to strike.
But when he deactivated the Byakugan, the thick fog was so dense he couldn't see his own hand in front of him, and he couldn't find the enemy.
Hyuga Hideki's original plan had been to use a Shadow Clone to intercept Ao and another Jonin pursuing Hyuga Genko. But the plan had failed.
Worse, he'd learned that even stronger Kirigakure forces might be lying in wait ahead of the Main House young master.
His second plan was to quickly withdraw from the battlefield, abandon Hyuga Tetsu, and rush to the front line. There, he would pass half of his Shadow Clone's chakra and the information he'd gathered back to his original body.
The Shadow Clone Technique allowed chakra to be transferred. If a clone was deliberately dispelled, most of its chakra flowed back to the original body. The effect depended on distance.
For example, Naruto's clones couldn't transfer chakra back to him from Mount Myoboku. But after Sage Fukasaku reverse-summoned Naruto back to Konoha, Naruto could dispel his Shadow Clone and recover the senjutsu chakra it had gathered, seamlessly entering Sage Mode.
Hyuga Hideki knew full well that his original body would face a far more dangerous situation than the one the clone was in now, and would need that half of the chakra even more.
But...
The Red Eye's effects were too troublesome. For the moment, he couldn't break away.
At that moment,
a little sweat trickled down Hyuga Hideki's forehead. He gritted his teeth. "Damn it... Do I have to dispel the Shadow Clone now and get the information to Young Master Genko first?"
In the thick fog not far away,
Kurenai, the Red Eye's wielder, fixed the Jonin with a playful look. A glint of excitement shone in his eyes.
"So this is a ninja of the Hyuga Clan..."
"He's only a Shadow Clone, but he doesn't seem like much. Even if the original body were here, I bet the outcome would be the same."
"Heh."
He couldn't help but sneer, his laugh full of scorn.
However,
right then,
Kurenai's heart suddenly lurched. For no apparent reason, he felt as if something incredibly dangerous had locked onto him!
Ignoring all dignity, he instinctively grabbed his head and rolled to the side.
Less than half a second after he rolled,
"Whoosh!"
An ear-piercing sound rang out!
Then,
an arrow wrapped in a violent spiral of wind blades arced down from the sky!
"BOOM!!!"
The spiraling arrow struck the ground, and the wind blades coiled around it instantly expanded and burst outward, carving eight crisscrossing, twisted fissures into the earth, each over four meters wide and a meter deep!
Kurenai climbed to his feet and swallowed hard, then stared around in alarm.
"Was that... an arrow? Who fired it?"
But within his detection range, a radius of half a kilometer, he couldn't sense a trace of the attacker.
A chill shot from the soles of Kurenai's feet to the top of his head.
"What's going on?!"
Elsewhere,
atop a tree one kilometer away,
Hyuga Yu narrowed his Byakugan and shook his head in disappointment.
"So the Red Eye gives him a danger-sensing ability... A Vacuum Arrow alone can't take him out."
Hyuga Yu wasn't discouraged. He raised his bow again and stared expressionlessly at the three targets hidden in the thick fog.
Then,
he braced the bow with one foot, pulled the string back with both hands, and bent the great Japanese bow into a full moon. The bow creaked harshly under the strain.
"Thrum!"
The next instant,
the arrow shot into the sky, tracing a sharp, swift arc!
"Whoosh!"
The arrow plunged down from above, diving into the thick fog toward a Kirigakure ninja's position.
This wasn't a Wind Release: Vacuum Arrow.
He had merely used chakra to execute an exaggerated movement, then lightly coated the arrow with chakra using the technique of infusing ninja tools with chakra to extend its range. Finally, he fired it in an arc.
In the fog,
the Kirigakure Chunin targeted by the arrow heard it and looked up, spotting it at once. He instinctively tried to dodge.
But,
the next instant, he ran straight into a broad, solid figure.
Hyuga Hideki looked in surprise at the Kirigakure Chunin who had blundered into his arms and blinked his Byakugan.
Kirigakure Chunin: "?"
Hyuga Hideki: "!"
At such close range, with such a perfect opening,
he couldn't hold back. He slammed a mighty Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm straight into the other man's forehead!
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