Contract Seal

Hyuuga Nen was running. Through the vision of his Byakugan, he saw Kakashi's squad less than ten kilometers away, led by eight ninja hounds.

Those must be Kakashi's summons. If I want to shake their pursuit, I need to take care of those summons first. Hyuuga Nen thought to himself as he looked at the situation behind him.

Hyuuga Nen then cast his gaze toward the sky, where several crows were also following his flight.

Not just dogs, but crows as well. Whose summons are these? And they are outside my attack range; unless I can take out their master, there is nothing I can do about these birds.

This is a huge problem. At this thought, Hyuuga Nen's expression darkened, and he let out a complaint.

Hyuuga Nen then raised his hands in front of him to examine them closely; the meridians in his hands were injured from an excessive burst of chakra.

Feeling the stinging, burning pain radiating from the meridians in his hands, Hyuuga Nen furrowed his brows tightly. "I need to find a place to treat this now."

Over the next while, Hyuuga Nen tried several methods, but none of them managed to shake off Kakashi and his team, though the distance between them did not close any further either.

Why aren't they closing in? Hyuuga Nen felt a bit puzzled.

Hyuuga Nen was currently injured, and his chakra levels were much lower than usual; he did not doubt that Kakashi and his team were capable of catching up to him.

Seeing Kakashi and his team spread out from behind him, pursuing in an arc, Hyuuga Nen began to think.

They are driving me toward the Land of Fire. Could they be waiting for reinforcements? At this thought, Hyuuga Nen felt a surge of tension.

Taking a deep breath, Hyuuga Nen forced himself to calm down and consider his countermeasures.

Right, their pursuit isn't very aggressive at the moment; this might be an opportunity for me. I need to shake them off first and find a place to treat my injuries.

Just then, Hyuuga Nen spotted a medium-sized forest ahead. "I'll carry out my plan right there," he muttered to himself.

Reaching the back of a large tree in the forest, Hyuuga Nen used the trunk as cover and, enduring the pain in his meridians, quickly formed hand seals.

Three Shadow Clones appeared beside him. Hyuuga Nen attached over half of his Explosive Tags to these clones and had them carve Sealing Formulas onto each other's bodies.

Within a few minutes, Hyuuga Nen had finished his preparations, and his main body immediately used Earth Style to submerge underground.

On the other side, Kakashi and his team saw Hyuuga Nen enter the forest.

"Quick, pick up the pace!" Kakashi commanded upon seeing this, immediately sprinting toward the forest at full speed.

Upon entering the forest, the three of them saw three Hyuuga Nens emerging from behind a large tree.

"Captain, these three must be Shadow Clones. His main body has likely escaped underground using Earth Style, and the chakra flow in these clones is a bit off," Itachi warned.

"I see. You two be careful as well." Kakashi had already activated his Sharingan; through it, he indeed noticed the irregularities in the chakra flow of the enemies before him.

"I'll handle the enemies; you two continue the pursuit," Kakashi added.

"Don't even think about it!" one of Hyuuga Nen's clones shouted, charging toward the three of them simultaneously.

As they rushed toward Kakashi and his team, the three clones kept shouting at the top of their lungs:

"Explode!"

"Explode!"

"Explode!"

Hearing the shouting, the three of them grew vigilant, their movements momentarily faltering.

Seeing that they had stopped, the clones also halted, standing directly in their path and staring them down intently.

"Damn it, they're intentionally stalling for time!" one of the Anbu members said angrily, realizing they had been played.

"Don't get close to them; use long-range attacks to finish them," Kakashi shouted to his teammates.

Hearing Kakashi's order, Itachi and the other Anbu member immediately unleashed long-range ninjutsu, hoping to eliminate the enemies from a distance.

Watching the clones dodge several attacks, one of the Anbu members looked grim. "They're too fast, it's hard to hit them with ninjutsu, and their Byakugan allows them to detect our attacks in advance."

Seeing this, Kakashi also found the situation tricky. Having a Byakugan user as an enemy is truly a headache, he thought to himself.

At this moment, the youth named Itachi pulled several kunai and shuriken from his pouch and threw them rapidly at the clones.

He launched several shuriken in quick succession; they flew at varying speeds, and through their collisions, their flight angles became erratic and dazzling to the eye.

"This is Uchiha Shurikenjutsu. Are you from the Uchiha Clan?"

One of the clones asked while dodging, "However, under my Byakugan, your shurikenjutsu is useless."

Itachi didn't speak; instead, he pulled hard on his hands. Following his movement, the shuriken and kunai that had been scattering in the air shot toward the same direction—it turned out they were all attached to nearly invisible wires.

Hyuuga Nen simply performed a backflip and crouched down, evading the wire attack.

"This trick of yours might have worked in the dark," Hyuuga Nen said coldly.

Itachi suppressed his surprise and was about to employ other tactics when he noticed the clones charging toward him and Kakashi simultaneously.

Watching the clones rush toward him, Itachi did not feel nervous; the three tomoe in his eyes began to spin.

"Genjutsu: Sharingan!"

Itachi merely glanced at the clones, and their eyes turned vacant, leaving them frozen in place.

However, two of the clones had already reached the trio, and their bodies began to swell.

"BOOM! BOOM!"

A blinding light and a deafening roar erupted in the forest. Faced with the violent explosion, the three of them were forced to scramble for cover.

Just as he breathed a sigh of relief after dodging the attack, Itachi realized that at some point, the immobilized clone had broken free from his Genjutsu. Taking advantage of the opening, it appeared instantly before him and slapped its hand directly onto his arm.

"Contract Seal, seal!"

Hyuuga Nen's clone looked at the young man before him with a smile, and then its body began to emit a faint glow, swelling up violently.

"Boom!"

The explosion occurred once more, but at the very last moment, Itachi managed to evade the attack and leaped onto another tree.

He raised his arm and stared at the seal, feeling deeply astonished. How did he break my Genjutsu? And when he struck me, my Crow Clone Technique should have activated instantly; he shouldn't have had the opportunity to leave a seal on me.

Looking at the traces left by the explosion, Itachi realized that at the final moment, his Crow Clone Technique had failed. If he hadn't reacted quickly and used the Body Flicker Technique in time, he might have lost his life here today.

Just then, Kakashi and the others arrived. "Itachi, are you alright? You don't look so good."

"My Summoning Technique has been dispelled. Captain Kakashi, do you have a way to resolve this?" At the same time, Itachi reported to Kakashi that his Genjutsu and Crow Clone Technique had been compromised.

After listening to Itachi's report, Kakashi shook his head. "I can undo this Contract Seal, but I cannot do it in a short amount of time. As for the other situations you mentioned, I have no idea why they occurred."

"Let's continue the pursuit. With Pakkun here, we can still catch up to him." After saying this, Kakashi resumed tracking Hyuuga Nen.

On the other side, having received the information from his Shadow Clone, Hyuuga Nen felt the corners of his mouth curl into a smile. He emerged from the ground and looked up at the sky, noticing that the crows had already vanished.

Hyuuga Nen's plan had been aimed at the person casting the crow summoning jutsu from the very beginning, though he hadn't known who was casting the ninjutsu at first.

After clashing with Kakashi and his team, Hyuuga Nen discovered that one of the members was from the Uchiha Clan and had two tear troughs on his face. He immediately recognized the man's true identity as Itachi Uchiha, and realized the crows were summoned by him.

Itachi Uchiha is actually in Kakashi's squad; I have no memory of this!

Raising his guard, Hyuuga Nen confirmed a direction and began to run at full speed.