Not long after Hyuga Daiki left the original camp with Uzumaki Kushina and her younger brother, Uzumaki Kuming, the sound of a thunderous explosion came from behind them.
Though Hyuga Daiki had the Byakugan and had already seen what was happening back there, he said nothing as he led the Uzumaki siblings through the dense forests of the Land of Fire.
Even while carrying the two siblings, Hyuga Daiki moved at tremendous speed. Chakra coated his feet, and as he leaped from one branch to another, he did his best not to leave footprints.
Uzumaki Kuming kept his eyes closed, but the explosions ringing in his ears made his heart leap into his throat. Unless they worked in certain special professions, who among those born in peacetime had ever experienced an explosion? Of course, an ordinary person's first reaction to a sudden blast would be fear.
Though he couldn't open his eyes to see what was happening, he had heard Hyuga Daiki talking with his teammates. It seemed that the team heading to Konoha had come under attack.
After all, this was the early era of the Naruto world, when war was practically a fact of life. An attack on the team transporting a future Jinchuriki was nothing more than a minor bump in the road~
"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!"
The sound of kunai cutting through the air was crystal clear to Uzumaki Kuming. Then came the clang of weapons being deflected.
At that moment, images of the surrounding area and the people in it suddenly appeared in Uzumaki Kuming's mind.
"What is this?"
The scenery within a five-meter radius appeared in Uzumaki Kuming's mind. He could even see Hyuga Daiki's alert posture as he carried Uzumaki Kushina, though both figures were only vague outlines, their faces indistinct. Unlike his own body, he couldn't see their chakra pathways.
While Uzumaki Kuming marveled at the images appearing in his mind, Hyuga Daiki had already put Uzumaki Kushina down and engaged the attackers. To protect the siblings, he made sure not to stray more than three meters from them.
"Who are you people?"
After striking one enemy back with a palm, Hyuga Daiki positioned himself in front of the siblings and warily watched the four masked enemies before him.
Their brief exchange of blows hadn't given him any way to identify which hidden village they came from. He had also confirmed with his Byakugan that none of them carried any identifying marks.
It was possible their identifying marks were coded, and he simply hadn't noticed them.
One of the four enemies seemed about to speak, but the leader cut him off with a wave of his hand. They were carrying out a secret mission, and any action that might reveal their identities was forbidden.
"Kushina, take your brother and run. I've checked—there are no enemies within two thousand meters except the three in front of us."
"I'll hold them off. Run, and remember: don't head toward Konoha."
As he spoke, Hyuga Daiki handed a kunai to Uzumaki Kushina. The enemies did nothing during this exchange. In their eyes, once they took care of the last defender, catching a little girl who wasn't even a ninja would be child's play.
"This kunai..."
Strange chakra flowed over the kunai Hyuga Daiki had handed to Uzumaki Kushina. The character "爆," traced out by the chakra, appeared crystal clear in Uzumaki Kuming's mind.
"Waaah!"
Uzumaki Kuming was shocked. He knew this kunai definitely wasn't meant to help Uzumaki Kushina defend herself. The character "爆" on it could only mean Hyuga Daiki had tampered with it somehow. And since Daiki hadn't explained how Kushina should use it, the kunai was probably meant to keep her from falling into enemy hands if he died.
"Go!"
Neither Hyuga Daiki nor Uzumaki Kushina had any time to pay attention to the crying baby. Hyuga Daiki gave Kushina a gentle push, and she immediately hurried away with Kuming in her arms. As the siblings fled, one of the four enemies broke off to pursue them.
"Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm!"
A powerful burst of force stopped the enemy who had tried to leave. Hyuga Daiki then charged the other three. A fierce battle erupted in the area, and explosions rang out without pause, but Uzumaki Kushina was already leaving it far behind.
"Don't cry, don't cry. If you keep crying, we'll both die!"
Fleeing in a panic, Uzumaki Kushina tried desperately to soothe the child in her arms, tightening her hold on him.
The attack had changed Uzumaki Kushina's state of mind as she ran. She was only seven or eight years old, carrying a newborn baby through a dense forest while constantly watching out for enemies who might appear at any moment.
The pressure was too much for her to bear, and the immense physical exertion had left her utterly exhausted. Now her little brother's cries were grating on her ears. Not caring whether Uzumaki Kuming could understand her, she pleaded through tears.
Uzumaki Kuming heard Uzumaki Kushina's plea and suddenly realized that, in his current state, nothing he did would help.
His cries stopped at once, bringing a little comfort to Kushina in her desperate situation. At least, at least her little brother was listening. With Uzumaki Kuming cooperating, their chances of survival would be much higher.
"When did that happen?"
Back where the siblings had parted from Hyuga Daiki, three enemies had stabbed him through from three different directions with their kunai. At some point, the four-person team had become a team of three.
"Forget it. This is all I can do!"
Hyuga Daiki struggled to open his eyes. A kunai slipped from his body, with an Explosive Tag that had already burned halfway hanging from its end.
"Boom!!!"
The tremendous roar was on an entirely different level from the explosions during the earlier battle. This blast was even more violent than the others, and its sound carried much farther.
"Quick! Jiraiya, they've already engaged over there!"
In the forest more than ten miles from the blast site, three figures raced through the trees.
"I know, stop rushing me!"
The white-haired figure behind them complained, but his pace quickened. He immediately passed the blonde girl in second place and ran alongside a cool-faced young man.
Uzumaki Kushina didn't know how long she had been running. She only knew that when they had set out for Konoha that morning, the sky had still been gray, with a few stars twinkling in one half of it. But now the sky she glimpsed through the bushes was bright. It must have been daylight for some time.
"I can't run anymore. We should've lost them by now, right?"
Uzumaki Kushina stopped in a patch of bushes and squeezed inside. The dense brush could easily hide two children, but she didn't know that ninjas didn't rely on their eyes alone to find people.
Kushina finally had a chance to catch her breath. Ever since parting from Hyuga Daiki, she had run straight toward Konoha.
Although Hyuga Daiki had told her not to head toward Konoha, she had thought it over and decided to run in a straight line. First, it was the shortest route. Second, the enemies had heard Daiki's warning too, so she figured they would search in other directions and overlook this route.
Though she was young, Uzumaki Kushina was very clever.
"We should be safe now, right?"
Uzumaki Kuming was also observing the surrounding area. He didn't know why, but whenever he closed his eyes, he could clearly picture everything around him in his mind. And whereas he hadn't been able to see Kushina's face clearly before, now it was perfectly clear—clearer than if he were looking with his eyes.
The bushes surrounded the Uzumaki siblings, and the hollow space inside seemed like a natural shelter. After running for so long, Kushina's eyelids had grown heavy, and sleep was coming over her.
Children didn't have much stamina to begin with. Kushina had been running since before dawn, and her strength had been gone for a long time. Her drowsiness now was simply her body's protective response.
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