Eye Gouging

The kunai only deflected Exploding Blade Shibuki by the slightest angle.

Hyuga Yu shot out of the cloud of smoke from the explosion, his heels carving a trail across the ground for over ten meters before he finally stopped.

His left shoulder was already a mangled mess of flesh and blood, and even his left hand had lost all feeling.

Yet Hyuga Yu's expression remained calm, his gaze so cold it had nearly lost all trace of humanity.

He looked up and saw—

Two figures leaping out along the route Ao had taken when he ambushed Hyuga Natsu.

One was tall and lanky, dressed in a black top and gray shinobi boots. He wore a Kirigakure Anbu mask and held a needle-like ninja blade.

He was the wielder of Nuibari, one of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist.

Kushimaru Kuriarare!

The other sauntered out of the forest at an unhurried pace. He walked over to the Exploding Blade Shibuki he had thrown aside, pulled up the door-sized sword, and rested it on his shoulder.

He had an extraordinarily long donkey-like face, thick lips, sharp teeth, and long black hair, along with a vertical braid and a long beard. His head and neck were wrapped layer upon layer in bandages.

He was the wielder of Exploding Blade Shibuki, one of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist.

Munashi Jinpachi!

Kushimaru Kuriarare turned around and coldly glanced at Ao on the ground through his mask, his voice sharp with frost.

"Ao, you talk too much."

Ao coughed up a mouthful of blood. His lips curled into a grin, but he did not argue.

In truth, the reason Hyuga Yu, who had kept his Byakugan active the entire time, had failed to notice Kushimaru Kuriarare was because Ao had deliberately lured him into that position and kept him facing himself, depriving him of the one-degree blind spot behind his head.

At the same time, while taking the long way around to ambush the Hyuga Main Family, Ao had left marks behind for the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist. (PS: This was Ao's habit. He had done the same thing when tracking Danzo during the Five Kage Summit.)

If Hyuga Yu had not been about to kill him, Ao would not have exposed the two of them so early.

Ninja were fast, and with less than two kilometers between the two battlefields, Kushimaru Kuriarare and Munashi Jinpachi could cross the distance in a dozen seconds by using the Body Flicker Technique without regard for chakra consumption. Once they saw Ao's marks, they immediately understood his plan.

Unlike Kushimaru Kuriarare, Munashi Jinpachi did not mind using shinobi tactics for an ambush, but compared to that, he preferred a grander spectacle. He gave a snort of laughter and comforted the two of them.

"Doesn't this make things more interesting?"

"It's been a long time since I've seen such an interesting brat. That green chakra... tsk tsk, it's completely different from the other Hyuga Clan members."

Munashi Jinpachi suddenly swung his blade, its edge covered in Explosive Tags as it pointed directly at Hyuga Yu's face. He exposed a mouthful of sharp teeth and sneered.

"You'd better give me an even bigger surprise, brat!"

Facing the two Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist who treated the battlefield like a playground,

Hyuga Yu narrowed his eyes slightly. On the surface, he stared at his enemies as though facing a great threat.

But in truth, he was looking in another direction.

Not long ago, Hyuga Genko had been blown away by the trap Hyuga Natsu had set. Hyuga Natsu immediately went over to check his condition.

Clearly, even a Main House member like Hyuga Genko, who had little actual ninja experience, would not be killed so easily by Explosive Tags—at the moment of the explosion, he had instinctively released chakra from all the acupoints across his body, mitigating some of the damage.

However, Hyuga Genko's condition was far from good.

His entire body was covered in burns, both his legs had been blown off, and his lips trembled open and shut for a long while before he finally opened his eyes in a daze.

Fortunately, his Byakugan was still intact.

Hyuga Genko breathed weakly and looked around in a daze. When he saw Hyuga Natsu's slightly dark expression, his gaze became somewhat evasive.

As Hyuga Natsu looked at the still-living Hyuga Genko, her expression darkened. Her eyes remained fixed on his hands as she guarded against him forming seals to activate the Caged Bird while reaching toward the ninja tool pouch at her lower back.

A smile like the ones she had worn in the past soon appeared on her face.

"Young Master Genko, are you all right?"

"I... I..." Hyuga Genko instinctively wanted to say that he was fine, but after seeing his own condition, the words would not come out.

He swallowed. When his evasive gaze swept over Hyuga Natsu's movements, he seemed to realize something, and his face twisted slightly.

He struggled to shift himself backward, as though instinctively wanting to get farther away from Hyuga Natsu.

"I think I vaguely heard... the Main House's real guards have arrived... Who, who are they?"

"Can't you see for yourself?"

Hyuga Natsu smiled and shifted her shoulder, blocking Hyuga Yu's figure not far behind her.

"Gather chakra in your eyes and activate your Byakugan. Then you'll be able to see."

When Hyuga Yu had worked part-time at Konoha Hospital to learn medical techniques, Hyuga Natsu had assisted him as a nurse.

Even at Konoha Hospital, removing an eyeball was an extremely difficult operation, one that required the higher-ups of the Medical Team to perform personally.

Especially if the eye had to remain completely intact and usable in the future.

Of course, there was no such ideal environment in the wilderness.

Hyuga Natsu had once asked Hyuga Yu about this.

This was how he answered.

"It's difficult to meet sterile requirements in the wild, but there's a remedy—chakra."

"Gathering chakra around the eye can form a sterile layer that lasts only briefly. Once that is done, make a circular incision in the conjunctiva along the corneal limbus, separate the conjunctiva and subconjunctival tissue downward, then sever the rectus muscles and optic nerve connected to the eyeball. That will allow the eyeball to be removed cleanly."

Hyuga Natsu smiled as she watched Hyuga Genko.

Hyuga Genko swallowed hard, feeling increasingly uneasy.

He could not understand why someone who had been betrayed could still look at him with such a sweet smile.

Why was she not angry?

Even if she slapped him now and cursed, "I must have been blind to agree to marry an animal like you," it would have made more sense.

But Hyuga Natsu did nothing. She only smiled and softly said,

"Young Master Genko, what are you afraid of?"

"The Main House's guards have already arrived. You're safe now. You can activate your Byakugan and take a good look."

Hyuga Genko's hand rubbed against the ground, clawing at it and grabbing a handful of dirt as he asked with evasive eyes,

"Hehe... haha, Natsu, just tell me directly. That person is—"

However,

At that moment, a footstep that seemed capable of splitting the earth apart suddenly rang out nearby.

Immediately after,

"—BOOM!!!"

With a thunderous roar, a terrifying fiery gale rose behind Hyuga Natsu!

One green and two black figures tangled together.

Blade light, firelight, and a silver gleam brilliant to the extreme intertwined and flashed in that instant!

When Hyuga Genko saw that tall figure wrapped in green chakra,

A flash of terror and understanding passed through his eyes.

The next instant,

Countless complicated emotions became a determination to destroy everything.

Hyuga Genko's expression turned savage!

He suddenly flung the dirt in his hand at Hyuga Natsu's face, then viciously raised his only movable hands and formed the Ram seal!

Two cold gleams shot from Hyuga Genko's eyes. The skin on his face twisted grotesquely as he snarled with a mocking grin,

"You two bastards, servants, lowborn trash!"

"You want my eyes too? Then all of you can go die!!!"

However,

In the span of a single blink,

A tall, calm, expressionless figure appeared before Hyuga Genko. One of his eyes could not open, blood streaming steadily down his face.

"You were too slow, Natsu."

Hyuga Genko's eyes widened, filled with disbelief. He looked at the expressionless Hyuga Yu before him, then lowered his head to look at the unmistakably completed Caged Bird hand seal in his own hands.

He opened his mouth, his throat dry and hoarse.

The next instant,

A large hand reached out and completely stole all of Hyuga Genko's light!

"Curse Removal Technique!"