Yunchuan, This Isn't Your Fault

"Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm!"

Facing the massive shuriken that tore through the air with a piercing shriek, Hyuga Yunchuan channeled the Chakra within his body into his arm. He curled his fingers and thrust his palm forward. The wind pressure pressed his clothes tightly against his arm, outlining the taut muscles beneath.

The compressed wind pressure instantly surged toward the shuriken like an invisible vacuum shell. Sonic booms and explosive bursts of air pressure rang in everyone's ears.

Bang!

The massive shuriken carried tremendous force, forcing Hyuga Yunchuan several steps back. The ground beneath his feet shattered into spiderweb cracks, but he still managed to forcibly withstand the enormous shuriken.

"Eight Gates Released Formation, the second gate—the Gate of Healing?"

Noticing the veins bulging across Hyuga Yunchuan's body, Aburame immediately recognized the technique he had used.

This kid was a member of the Hyuga Clan, yet he had gone and learned the Eight Gates Released Formation—and had even opened the second gate?

No wonder he could block Toroi's attack. But that still wasn't enough. His opponent was Toroi, a Magnet Release ninja.

Those shuriken were specially made. Their weight alone was terrifying, and only Magnet Release could control them.

"Cough, cough." Aburame swallowed a pill and shouted a warning, "Don't touch his shuriken with your body!"

The other Root ninjas also made their moves, but Toroi gave them no chance to form hand seals. Against the force of two massive shuriken, it was far too difficult for the Root ninjas to defend with swords alone.

Before Hyuga Yunchuan, the massive shuriken he had previously stopped began spinning again, stirring up a howl of wind like a meat grinder. Like the fangs of a beast, it tore toward him once more.

Buzz! Buzz buzz!

Veins rose around Hyuga Yunchuan's eyes as he activated his Byakugan without hesitation.

Within a single breath, in the corners of everyone's vision—

Hyuga Yunchuan's figure seemed to become an afterimage. As he dodged, explosive clashes between the shuriken and Vacuum Palm strikes rang out one after another.

Toroi stared at Hyuga Yunchuan in the distance, raising his hands to form seals as he continuously controlled the shuriken. His gaze flickered when he noticed those Byakugan.

"Kid, are you from the Main Branch or the Branch Family?" he suddenly asked.

That level of strength didn't seem like the Main Branch's, yet he could use Rotation, a secret technique possessed only by the Main Branch.

But Hyuga Yunchuan did not respond. He seemed to have no spare strength to respond.

Splat!

Suddenly, a spray of blood shot onto the ground.

Hyuga Yunchuan's body abruptly halted. A wound had split open at the corner of his eye.

Blood slowly flowed down his cheek, gathered at his chin, then dripped onto the top of his foot, warm and wet.

Aburame's expression darkened at the sight. He knew the kid could no longer hold on.

According to the intelligence, once one touched Toroi's shuriken, the Magnet Release Chakra attached to it would magnetize and mark their body. After that, attacks containing magnetic force would become impossible to evade.

Aburame knew Toroi's strength well. With his Kekkei Genkai, Toroi was an exceptionally troublesome opponent even among Jonin.

If my internal organs hadn't been badly injured, perhaps I could still coordinate with the others for a sneak attack. But now... Aburame gritted his teeth.

His frontal combat strength was not particularly great. What he excelled at was infiltration and assassination.

Bang!

Using the force of the massive shuriken, Hyuga Yunchuan pulled back and arrived beside Aburame. His voice was hoarse, his tone urgent. "Senior Aburame, at ten o'clock, three kilometers away, dozens of ninjas are rushing toward us!"

At ten o'clock, they weren't Konoha's people. They were most likely Kumogakure ninjas stationed at the Land of Hot Water's border!

"Wait." Aburame suddenly realized something and blurted out, "Three kilometers? You can see everything within a three-kilometer radius?"

Once the Hyuga Clan activated their Byakugan, they could see everything within a radius of one kilometer, but they almost never exceeded the two-kilometer limit.

If they focused on viewing a single direction in the distance, that limit could perhaps increase severalfold.

But Hyuga Yunchuan clearly wasn't merely seeing in one direction. He had to be taking in everything within a three-kilometer radius to have noticed them.

That was rather terrifying.

"Senior! This isn't the time to discuss that!" Hyuga Yunchuan said anxiously. "No matter what happened with the Exploding Tags, hurry and take Senior Chodo away! If we don't leave now, it'll really be too late!"

Already suffering from unhealed internal injuries, Aburame nearly spat out a mouthful of blood upon hearing that.

The Exploding Tags have nothing to do with me!

Why does everyone think I arranged them?!

Although Lord Danzo had instructed me that I could act, I haven't even had the chance to do anything yet!

"Hmph! Won't talk?"

Faced with Hyuga Yunchuan's disregard, Toroi snorted coldly. "Then I'll cut off your limbs and ask again!"

With that, he took out a Scroll and gave it a hard flick. Two more gigantic shuriken appeared.

"Magnet Release: Twin Hornet—"

"Don't even think about it!"

Just as Toroi was about to hurl the two shuriken, a voice brimming with violent fury suddenly rang out.

Akimichi Chodo, who had been unconscious, awakened under the protection and treatment of the Anbu ninjas. Seeing Hyuga Yunchuan standing before him, he did not hesitate to stuff a green pill and a yellow pill into his mouth.

The Akimichi Clan's secret medicines: the Green Spinach Pill, which could instantly unleash 30 percent of a person's physical potential and increase their strength to more than three times their limit, and the Yellow Curry Pill, which replenished blood and vitality.

The price was pain and weakness once the effects wore off.

But for now, it was enough.

"Multi-Size Technique: Super Push!"

Boom!!

A gigantic palm descended from the sky and smashed down toward Toroi.

The ground cracked with a tremendous roar and caved in as though mountains were collapsing. The entire earth was shattered by an unimaginable, horrifying force. Several corpses were crushed into pulp, their blood and bones ground into the soil.

"Troublesome fellow."

Toroi appeared farther away, his expression dark. He had been forced to sever his connection with the shuriken and could only summon them back.

"Senior Chodo!" Hyuga Yunchuan looked up at Akimichi Chodo, joy appearing on his face at just the right moment. "You—"

"Yunchuan, listen to me."

Before he could finish, Akimichi Chodo interrupted him. "This was most likely Iwagakure's doing. You and the others must immediately return to Konoha and tell the Third Hokage everything that happened!"

"Iwagakure?" Before Hyuga Yunchuan could speak, Aburame's pupils contracted. "How could it be Iwagakure?"

Akimichi Chodo shot him a cold glance. As if your Root has nothing to do with it?

"Do you remember the group of Iwagakure Missing-nin we encountered on the road?" Akimichi Chodo explained. "The Scroll containing Hiashi's corpse was most likely switched back then."

"What?" Hyuga Yunchuan froze, as if realizing something. His already pale face turned even whiter. "So, it was my—"

"This isn't your fault." Akimichi Chodo looked at him with a complicated expression.

He had seen everything: how Hyuga Yunchuan had risked his life to protect him just now, as well as the strength and talent he had displayed.

When he realized that the Exploding Tags had been placed inside the coffin, his first instinct had naturally been to suspect Hyuga Yunchuan, who held the Scroll.

But he quickly realized that Exploding Tags were extremely important strategic supplies, not something one could buy merely by having money.

And with such a massive quantity of Exploding Tags, even if Hyuga Yunchuan somehow had the money, there was no way he could have bought them.

The Anbu would have arrived the instant he tried, interrogating him about why he intended to purchase so many Exploding Tags.

Therefore, Hyuga Yunchuan could not have been the one who placed the Exploding Tags. The only possibility was that the Scroll had been switched. This child was simply too inexperienced.

Such a promising young talent of such fine character absolutely could not die in a place like this today.

"Go," Akimichi Chodo said gravely.

"No, I can't. If we leave, then Senior, you—"

Hyuga Yunchuan was about to say more when a sharp whistle of something tearing through the air reached them.

"None of you are escaping today!"

"Go!"

Several massive shuriken flew toward them again. Akimichi Chodo let out a roar and struck out with a Chakra-wreathed palm.

Boom!!

A distinct tremor once again came from the earth beneath their feet. Everyone could feel the muffled, thunderous rumbling.

But this time, it did not gradually subside as before.

It was as though Akimichi Chodo's palm strike had shattered something. The trembling beneath their feet grew stronger and stronger.

Buzz buzz!

"What's happening?" Everyone's expressions changed slightly.

Then, after the earth began to shake and the mountains to tremble, came a deafening roar.

Boom!

The ground beneath them suddenly bulged upward, splitting open with horrifying cracks that stretched a hundred meters across.

It was as though an invisible monster were twisting its body underground, impatient to break free from the cage binding it. Even through the ground, they could feel that immense power.

The heavy objects around them were blasted into the air as if they had lost all weight.

Boom! Crack!!

After the ground arched into a massive curve, another earth-shaking explosion resounded through heaven and earth.

In that instant, everyone felt weightless, as though their bodies had been thrown upward.

No, it wasn't that they had been launched into the air.

The ground beneath their feet had collapsed.

"Fall back!"

Whether it was Toroi or Konoha's group, they all stopped moving and used Shunshin to retreat at the same time.

Rumble rumble rumble!!

They watched helplessly as a pitch-black fissure tore open beneath the inn. The ground split into massive chunks of stone and collapsed, swallowed by the widening hole.

The incomparably solid earth looked like dough crushed apart between fingers, appearing so fragile and soft.

After a while, once the tremors finally ceased and the rising dust gradually dispersed—

What appeared before them was a bottomless black hole, like an Abyss.

"What... is this?"

Everyone stared at the Abyss with uncertain expressions, feeling as though profound darkness churned within it.