"Whew... I finally caught up."
Having used Wind Style to accelerate the entire way, Hyuga Shinichi was somewhat exhausted. He dropped to one knee, gripping the sword hilt in reverse with his right hand and driving the blade into the ground to support himself.
The veins around his eyes, which had bulged out, gradually returned to normal as his Byakugan involuntarily shut down.
Hyuga Shinichi carefully sensed the abnormal condition within his body caused by nearly unleashing Byakugan: Pressure at full force just now.
It did not take long for him to discover that his Byakugan could no longer be activated, as if it had entered a cooldown period.
No, more precisely, his current physical condition could not support the use of these high-purity Byakugan abilities.
His body had then entered something akin to a self-protection mechanism.
Hmm, I need to remember that.
He could not use Byakugan: Pressure at full strength like he had just now, lest he suddenly find himself unable to use the Byakugan in the middle of a battlefield. That would be troublesome.
His current fighting style relied heavily on the Byakugan. Without it, his combat strength would drop considerably.
It seemed the plan he had laid out should also begin.
Having thought it all through, Hyuga Shinichi slowly rose to his feet and wiped the rainwater from his face with his left hand.
Without looking at the decapitated Sunagakure ninja, he walked straight to Dan Katō's body. After confirming that nothing was wrong, he looked in the direction he had come from.
"Gai and Tomohiro probably won't be able to catch up with me so quickly. The reinforcements led by Orochimaru-san couldn't have set out faster than I did either, so they'll likely need some more time to arrive."
Hyuga Shinichi turned to look behind