The ninja froze for a moment, his expression suddenly turning grim. With a flick of his hand, he sent three shuriken hurtling toward Shin. Clearly, he had been waiting for this opportunity.
The shuriken pierced Shin without resistance, and his body burst into a puff of smoke.
It was a Clone Technique!
The ninja's heart lurched. With no time left to keep up the act, he shouted, "Byakugan!" The veins around his eyes bulged as his irises turned completely white. It was the Byakugan, one of the three great dojutsu of the Ninja World.
"Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu."
The instant he activated his Byakugan, a massive fireball came hurtling toward his back. With no time to react in any other way, he channeled chakra into his palms and began spinning.
"Rotation!"
The all-around, gapless defense knocked the enormous fireball aside. Shin appeared on a tree trunk not far away and thought, That defense is no joke! Sharingan, activate!
In an instant, his eyes turned crimson, and the eerie Three Tomoe slowly revolved in his pupils as he kept his gaze fixed on the Rotation below. A kunai was clenched in each hand.
This was nothing like a spar within the clan, where he could afford to hide his strength. This was a fight to the death; a moment's distraction could mean the difference between life and death. How could he keep holding back? Besides, the ninja below was no weakling. Judging by Shin's estimate, he was near the top of the Chunin ranks.
"One... two... three..."
Shin quietly counted. The instant he reached three, the Rotation stopped, and he shot downward like a sword.
Somehow, the two kunai in his hands had become six. He flicked his arm and sent them flying. Chakra Threads trailed from the end of each kunai, with Explosive Tags attached to the threads.
"Boom!"
The instant the kunai landed at the ninja's feet, Shin detonated them. A series of explosions erupted, deafeningly loud.
A figure leaped from the center of the blasts. Shin sneered as he finished forming his Hand Seals. "I've been waiting for you. Fire Style: Fire Dragon Flame Bullet!"
A massive blaze surged up, splitting into three directions like three fire dragons as it bore down on the ninja.
"B-rank ninjutsu? How can this kid..." The ninja clenched his teeth and unleashed chakra through all the tenketsu in his body. He charged straight through the flames toward Uchiha Shin below.
"Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm!"
He concentrated a powerful burst of chakra in his palm, having decided to end the fight quickly. The kid's composure and the power of his ninjutsu were frightening. The longer this dragged on, the greater the danger he would be in.
As he closed in on Shin, he clearly saw the crimson in Shin's eyes and the Three Tomoe revolving within them. His heart skipped a beat, and his resolve to kill Shin only hardened. To possess the Three-Tomoe Sharingan at such a young age was terrifying. He absolutely couldn't let Shin grow any stronger.
His powerful palm slammed into Shin's body, but it didn't feel as if he had hit anything solid. The strike hit the ground instead, and the force of the impact split the earth.
"How... How did I miss? Body Flicker Technique? Substitution Technique? When did he form the Hand Seals?" Countless possibilities flashed through the ninja's mind in an instant.
Just then, strands of silvery Chakra Threads appeared around him and suddenly tightened, binding him firmly.
Shin appeared behind him, holding the threads. "I just learned this move from Madara. Fire Style: Fire Dragon Jutsu."
A torrent of flames poured from his mouth, following the Chakra Threads and engulfing the ninja completely.
A series of screams rang out. The ninja had already passed out from the pain, and his breathing grew weaker by the second.
Shin kept track of the time and withdrew the flames. After all, he still had plenty to ask him; he couldn't kill him yet.
A large amount of water splashed over the ninja's head, and he slowly came to. He was tied tightly to a tree with Chakra Threads and could barely move.
When Shin saw that he was awake, he asked directly, "Tell me everything. You should know there's no point in hiding anything from the Sharingan."
The ninja accepted his fate and sighed. "I never thought that after all my years fighting across the Warring States Period, I'd end up losing to a kid. I'll answer you, but I have one question. How did you dodge my Vacuum Palm at the end? I saw clearly with my Byakugan that you didn't form any Hand Seals."
Shin chuckled. "So that's what you're wondering about. It's simple. I didn't form any Hand Seals. You just missed."
The ninja grew agitated. "Impossible! I have the Byakugan. How could I miss? Wait... It was a genjutsu! That has to be it. But when did I fall under it?"
The ninja furrowed his brow, thinking hard. Then he remembered charging at Shin and clearly seeing the Three Tomoe in his eyes.
"Was that when it happened? I didn't notice a thing!"
Seeing the ninja's dejected expression, Shin curled his lip, kicked him in the leg, and snapped, "I don't have time to waste with you. Tell me what you're after. Why did you trick the guards into leaving the compound?" He had wanted to kick him in the stomach, but his body was so short that he could only reach the ninja's leg.
"I'm a spy from the Hyuga Clan. After we broke through the Uchiha's defenses, we planned to join the battle and surround the Uchiha together with the Senju. But considering the Uchiha Clan's strength on the front lines, our clan head worried we'd suffer too many casualties and kept hesitating. The Hyuga Clan is a great clan, but we're still weaker than the Senju and the Uchiha. If we lost too many people in a head-on battle, it wouldn't benefit us much."
The ninja knew about the hypnotic effect of the Sharingan, so he began explaining. Rather than be hypnotized and end up revealing everything about his ancestors, he figured he might as well confess on his own.
Shin frowned slightly. "Get to the point."
"Fine. To put it simply, my clan didn't want to get involved in the fighting on the front lines, so we came up with a plan. I disguised myself as a member of the Uchiha Clan and came to the Uchiha Clan Compound to ask for help, luring away its Guardian Ninja. Then my clan would quietly send in a squad of elite warriors under cover of night to infiltrate the compound and annihilate the next generation of your Uchiha Clan."
"What?" Shin was no longer calm. He sucked in a sharp breath. The Hyuga Clan was ruthless. This was a plan to wipe them out completely! If they succeeded, the entire Uchiha Clan would go mad.
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