An Unexpected Person

"Rumble!" Qingyun unleashed the Great Flame Technique from his mouth. This time, its power to reduce everything to ashes was on full display.

Fire Release countered Wind Release. The summoning beast Baku swallowed the flames in an instant, then vanished with a bang.

"Teleportation?! Is that the Flying Thunder God Technique?!" Cat-Mask Anbu asked in disbelief. Qingyun hadn't used the Body Flicker Technique. That kind of teleportation was beyond what a D-rank ninjutsu like Body Flicker could achieve.

"If I'm not mistaken, you must have a close connection to Danzo, right?" Qingyun asked.

"Go ask the King of Hell! Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms!" Cat-Mask Anbu suddenly struck at Qingyun.

"Armament Haki Hardening!" Qingyun hadn't expected the other's speed to be so incredible. He was boosted by Wind Release and had pushed the Hyuga Clan's Sixty-Four Palms to its limits.

The technique was supposed to start slowly and then speed up, but in the hands of the cat-masked ninja, it was fast from the very beginning—and by the end, his hands were little more than blurs.

Qingyun was struck at countless chakra points. If not for Armament Haki Hardening and his damage-reducing clothes, he would have been knocked to the ground.

"Thump, thump!" Qingyun's heart pounded, and then he felt his eyes change.

His One-Tomoe Sharingan hadn't been able to follow the opponent's attacks, but now he could predict the direction they were coming from.

Qingyun's body dodged on its own. Despite the incredible speed of the later strikes, he managed to avoid every one.

"Rotation!" Seeing Qingyun dodge his Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms left Cat-Mask Anbu utterly shocked. He immediately used Rotation, its enormous spinning force flinging Qingyun away.

Qingyun landed on his feet, unharmed.

"You must have the Byakugan! But you're also from the Shimura Clan, right? Did Shimura Danzo experiment on you and transplant the Byakugan into you?"

Qingyun didn't know how Danzo had gotten hold of the Byakugan, but given that the schemer had also managed to take the Sharingan, it wasn't surprising.

As for how the Byakugan had fused so well with this man's body, Qingyun had no idea.

"Hahahaha!" Cat-Mask Anbu suddenly laughed, though there was a bitter edge to it.

"So what if you know? I have to fight you to the death today! Otherwise, I'm dead either way!" Cat-Mask Anbu charged at Qingyun.

But Qingyun thought this charge was his final gamble.

"Wood Release: Deep Forest Creation!" Yoshihime arrived just then and used Wood Release to bind Cat-Mask Anbu.

"Gentle Fist!" Cat-Mask Anbu tried to break the vines, but Yoshihime carried the bloodline of the Senju Clan. Her Wood Release was exceptionally pure, so he wouldn't break free so easily.

"Let's see who you really are beneath that mask!" Qingyun removed the cat mask from the Anbu's face.

Once it was off, Qingyun froze.

The person before him looked exactly like Danzo.

Qingyun finally understood.

"You—you were not only implanted with the Hyuga Clan's Byakugan, but you're also Danzo's clone?" Qingyun had pretty much figured it out.

"That's right." The Anbu nodded.

In the original story, Kakashi had Obito's left eye, but since he wasn't from the Uchiha Clan, he struggled to use it. The same was true of the Byakugan, so Qingyun guessed Danzo must have obtained cells from the Hyuga Clan.

"If Danzo had done this alone, he couldn't have completed it so easily. But with Orochimaru's help, it would be a different matter." Qingyun suspected Orochimaru had helped Danzo, though he had no idea what the two had traded.

"You're no match for me, kid. You may have the Shimura Clan's Wind Release and the Hyuga Clan's Byakugan, but at your current level, you have no chance of beating me." Qingyun wasn't afraid of the Anbu before him. He had surpassed the man's strength long ago.

"Your strength really is impressive. There's no point in continuing like this." The young Anbu put his mask back on.

"Goodbye. I hope I'll be stronger than you next time we meet. Minato Namikaze ran that way." After saying something cryptic, the boy vanished. Even the Wood Release couldn't hold him.

Qingyun looked at Yoshihime, and Yoshihime looked back at him.

"Can we trust what he said?" Yoshihime asked.

"Yeah. We don't have any other leads," Qingyun said. "Are you all right?"

"Don't underestimate the Senju Clan's constitution." Yoshihime nodded. Her injuries had almost completely healed already.

"Let's go. We still have to catch up to Minato and Kushina Uzumaki," Yoshihime said.

Qingyun and Yoshihime continued in the direction Cat-Mask Anbu had pointed.

They didn't know where they were, but they had definitely left Konoha.

When they emerged from the forest, they saw a figure standing on the open plain. Beside him were a man and a woman.

The man had golden hair and handsome features, though he looked rather battered.

The woman had fiery red hair and appeared to have passed out.

Qingyun and Yoshihime knew the man was probably waiting for them. The fact that he dared to reveal himself so openly spoke to his strength; if they tried to ambush him, they would meet a grisly end.

So Qingyun and Yoshihime stopped hiding and walked straight out.

"Ah, Konoha's two geniuses. I've been waiting for you for a long time." The speaker's voice was deep and somewhat sinister.

The moment Qingyun saw him, he understood.

"The Bounty Exchange kidnapping—"

"You're Kakuzu, right?" Qingyun asked bluntly.

The man's expression stiffened slightly. "I didn't expect even a Konoha brat to have heard of me. Shouldn't be possible, should it? Am I really that famous?"

The speaker was indeed Kakuzu. His eyes were a bluish green, and anyone he stared at would feel afraid.

Kakuzu was extremely powerful. He had even managed to escape from the God of Shinobi, the First, Hashirama, so he was clearly no ordinary opponent.

"Do you know this man, Qingyun?" Yoshihime asked, ready to fight at any moment.

"Yeah. His strength is at the Kage level. Even an elite Jonin might not be able to beat him."

"Kakuzu also has a secret technique that's almost like immortality. He should be from the same era as the First," Qingyun said.

"So he's an old man?" Yoshihime asked.

"Seriously, why are you focusing on such a weird thing?" Qingyun thought Yoshihime was a little oblivious. They were facing one of the immortal monsters of the Akatsuki, Kakuzu!