"Come with us and you'll find out." The thick-lipped Anbu sounded somewhat impatient. As he spoke, he waved his hand, presumably signaling Xing Ran to follow him immediately.
"Do you have the relevant authorization documents?" Xing Ran felt guilty, so he remained highly wary of these Anbu. When Anbu took someone away, they were supposed to have documents issued by the Hokage Building. Otherwise, their authority would be far too great, making it easy for unhealthy practices to take root.
However, Anbu generally never abused their authority. Their missions were extremely demanding, and no one had the leisure to wander the streets abusing their power. Thus, ninjas from the village usually obeyed obediently after receiving an Anbu summons.
Xing Ran's request to inspect the documents made Thick Lips feel that he was stalling and refusing to cooperate. Considering that this guy was the sole survivor of a recently annihilated group, unusual behavior was understandable. But even if he could understand the reasoning behind it, that did not mean he could accept Xing Ran's delay.
The hand he had just waved turned into a downward motion. Then Xing Ran heard the wind whistle behind him.
Xing Ran had been speaking with Thick Lips. Since two ninjas had boxed him in from the front and rear, there was naturally another Anbu ninja behind him.
The sound of the wind had come from that Anbu ninja. Clearly, the two of them had grown impatient. If he would not come with them willingly, then he would come with them unwillingly.
Xing Ran found it strange. Not because the Anbu had attacked him from behind, but because he could grasp this attack with extraordinary clarity. It was the feeling that he could see straight through the other party's movements. Though he did not have eyes in the back of his head, he simply knew.
He tilted his head slightly, dodging the hand chop aimed at the back of his skull. The Anbu behind him wore a Dog mask. The sudden miss distorted his movement slightly, and his forearm had already passed over Xing Ran's shoulder. Then, without thinking at all, Xing Ran's body moved on its own. One hand seized the Dog-mask Anbu's forearm and yanked it forward. The instant the man lost his balance, Xing Ran rammed his back into his chest. At the same time, his other hand grabbed the Anbu's shoulder and flung him with force. A clean shoulder throw was completed in an instant.
The moment the Anbu hit the ground, Xing Ran pinned him with a knee lock, cutting off any possible follow-up movement and pressing him firmly to the ground, unable to exert any strength.
"Stop! What are you doing?" Xing Ran's series of actions sounded lengthy when described, but they had occurred in an instant. The thick-lipped Anbu in the Cat mask had never expected Xing Ran to fight back. In the blink of an eye, his companion had been subdued by this guy, whose files indicated he possessed only Genin-level strength. He hurriedly shouted and drew a kunai. Survivors of an annihilated unit could easily develop war trauma. Could this guy be suffering from it too?
"You came to take me away. You should have brought the authorization documents, right? Once I see them, I'll obediently come with you." Xing Ran half-knelt atop the Dog-mask Anbu, his knee pressing down so hard that the man could barely breathe. It was a rather inhumane, even brutal, method of subduing an enemy. Yet when Xing Ran looked at the Cat-mask Anbu, both his tone and expression remained gentle and friendly, sending a chill down the Cat-mask Anbu's back.
"The documents are... on me. Let me go first... I'll show them to you." The Dog-mask Anbu beneath Xing Ran could no longer endure it. The suffocating sensation from oxygen deprivation was becoming increasingly severe. Besides, the man's request was reasonable. Showing him the documents did not count as cowardice... right?
The moment the Dog-mask Anbu finished speaking, Xing Ran released him. He secretly caught his breath while feeling deeply frustrated. He was an Anbu at the Chunin level. How had he been so careless today that a Genin who had only completed C- and D-rank missions had subdued him? Had the imminent end of the Third Shinobi World War made him let his guard down?
Of course, Xing Ran had no idea that the Dog-mask Anbu, having been instantly defeated by a lower-ranked ninja, had begun questioning his life.
After accepting the document requesting his assistance with the investigation, Xing Ran used the excuse of reading it to take a deep breath in his heart. His body had moved on its own just now. That was far beyond what he had been capable of in the past. And that sense of control in that instant had not come solely from the Yamanaka Clan's sensory talent. There was something else involved.
Moreover, in the instant he had thrown the man, he had effortlessly found the trajectory of his opponent's fall. Before the shoulder throw was completed, he had altered his movement and restrained the opponent first. That was not something his former self could have done either. This tested more than combat experience. Without powerful perception, it was impossible to do so so cleanly and decisively.
The heightened perception was easy enough to explain. X-ray vision was originally one manifestation of Super vision. Because he had never been able to effectively control his X-ray Vision, it made sense that he had overlooked the strengthening of his perception.
Did stronger sensory ability mean that the Super Brainpower he had been neglecting had awakened as well?
In DC comics, Superman could master a foreign language after only a few seconds of conversation. He had learned every known language on Earth and possessed knowledge of twenty-eight known galaxies. There was even a storyline where Superman read every published medical book in five minutes, mastering knowledge that would take an ordinary person ten years to learn.
What could not be avoided here was the brain's computational power, along with the control it brought?
Forcing the connection was a little unreliable. He would know after finding time to memorize a few books.
After reaching that conclusion, the shock of his body suddenly moving on its own gradually subsided. Xing Ran began rapidly reading the document in his hands.
He finally understood why these Anbu had come for him. They needed him to help reconstruct what had happened at the time. That was only natural. A large number of hostile ninjas had been encountered within the village's territory, so it was hardly strange that the Intelligence System needed to piece together the beginning and end of the incident.
After returning the document to the Dog-mask Anbu, Xing Ran and the others quickly arrived at the Hokage Building.
The Hokage Building was not merely where the Hokage worked. Konoha's advisory council and various functional departments also had offices there. The main structure was enormous.
Standing before the Hokage Building, Xing Ran looked up. Following the hawks crying sharply in the sky, he looked toward the rear. Behind the Hokage Building stood the Hokage Rock, renowned throughout the entire ninja world. If not for the war, there would have been no shortage of tourists coming here just to sightsee.
The Hokage Building looked like a giant head wearing a Hokage hat, exactly as it had in the original story. Aside from the buildings above ground, the underground structure was said to be enormous as well. No one knew exactly how vast the underground section was. It was filled with sensory barriers. Naruto's easy infiltration in the anime had purely been because the Hokage deliberately let him through.
Xing Ran's destination this time was the underground structure. Reality was not a manga. The Hokage was not someone one could meet easily, nor would he always handle such trivial matters.
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