Escape

Riyue, appearing in mid-air, utilized the momentum of his Body Flicker Technique to force his body into a violent spin. Simultaneously, chakra surged backward from the acupoints on one side of his body while erupting forward from the other. The recoil from this chakra release propelled him, causing his rotation speed to accelerate sharply!

During this, Riyue's hands were far from idle; they struck out like lightning, targeting the death points of the three men!

"Renzhong! Yamen! Fengchi! Renying! Danzhong! Jiuwei! Juque! Shenque! Qihai! Guanyuan! Zhongji! Qugu! Yingchuang! Ruzhong! Rugen! Qimen! Zhangmen! Shangqu! Jianjing! Taiyuan! Zusanli! Sanyinjiao! Yongquan! Feishu! Jueyin! Xinshu! Shenshu! Mingmen! Zhishi! Qihaishu! Weilü! Baihui! Shenting! Taiyang! Ermen! Jingming!"

Riyue's high-speed rotation formed a pale blue sphere of chakra in the air, dragging the surrounding atmosphere into swirling currents. The edges of the sphere were blurred by the countless afterimages of his fingers and form—a visual persistence phenomenon caused by the sheer speed of his strikes.

Riyue's fingers rained down like a torrential storm. Within a single second, he struck thirty-six times, each blow landing precisely on the death points of the three Hidden Sand ninja who had been caught off guard.

Immediately after, Riyue abruptly withdrew his hands, spun another 720 degrees in the air, and landed on the ground. He pivoted on his left foot, drawing a semicircle with his right to steady his stance.

The three Hidden Sand ninja plummeted from the sky, crashing onto the ground with such force that blood sprayed from their seven orifices. They were dead beyond any doubt.

The remaining ten Hidden Sand ninja had just deflected the barrage of shuriken Riyue had unleashed. Looking at the six- or seven-year-old boy before them who had instantly slaughtered three of their comrades, and fearing the presence of further ambushes, they dared not act rashly.

"Riyue!" Mizuki looked at the young boy standing before her, her heart a mix of surprise and worry. She was shocked that Riyue had suddenly appeared to take out three enemies in the nick of time, happy that he had come to save her, but worried because it seemed he was the only reinforcement—he was no match for the remaining enemies.

"Don't be afraid, Mizuki-jie. I will protect you! Reinforcements will be here soon!" Riyue said with a relaxed expression, though his heart was heavy. He had no idea when the reinforcements sent by Tsunade would arrive; it would take at least another ten minutes!

When Riyue had arrived, he saw that Mizuki was the only one left from Konoha and was severely wounded, while thirteen Hidden Sand ninja remained, including three jonin. Seeing them about to capture Mizuki, Riyue decided to catch them off guard.

He had used his Stealth Technique to approach slowly, then used two Shadow Clones alongside himself to throw thirty-six shuriken, pinning down the ten remaining enemies and briefly restricting the movement of the three jonin. Riyue seized the chance to kill three in mid-air; no one could have expected him to be able to release chakra from his entire body and unleash such a technique while airborne.

However, Riyue had only succeeded because of the element of surprise. Now that he was exposed, killing another enemy in front of three Hidden Sand jonin would be incredibly difficult. Furthermore, with Mizuki already injured, even escaping was a question.

"A strong Hyuga brat, aren't you! Surround them." The Hidden Sand jonin were indeed startled, but they quickly calmed down. There were still ten of them; no matter how strong this kid was, he couldn't be stronger than ten people. The Hidden Sand ninja moved immediately, attempting to flank Riyue and Mizuki.

"It won't be that easy to surround me! Die!" Riyue had been gathering chakra in his palms for some time. He pressed his palms together, parallel to each other, and thrust them forward toward the leading jonin. The chakra between his palms erupted instantly!

"Eight Trigrams Consecutive Vacuum Palm: Merge!"

The two powerful shockwaves fused into a single, larger blast, its range several times greater than before. The shockwave carved a massive, cylindrical trajectory through the air, composed of overlapping ripples and countless chaotic, thread-like air currents. A massive amount of chakra, mixed with air, slammed into the unfortunate enemy ahead!

"That move is dangerous! Dodge!" the jonin screamed, and the Hidden Sand group scattered.

But the chunin Riyue had targeted, who was charging at the front, was not so lucky. The massive shockwave surged toward him from over ten meters away at high speed. He had no time to prepare, nor did he know the technique had such range and power. He was struck instantly and vanished from his spot!

"BOOM! Rumble..." The shockwave forced the ninja backward with overwhelming momentum, slamming him into a tree ten meters away. "CRACK!" The tree was snapped in half, but the momentum didn't stop. "CRACK! CRACK! SNAP!" He smashed through three more trees before finally slamming into the towering rock cliff behind them.

"BANG!" The cliff was blasted into a massive crater, its surface cracking and collapsing. The shockwave dispersed in a spherical blast, the force of which could be felt from dozens of meters away as debris flew in every direction. The unfortunate ninja was embedded deep within the crater, his body no longer recognizable.

Riyue didn't fare much better; the recoil of the shockwave pushed him back several meters. He panted heavily, his arms numb. That single strike had consumed nearly a third of his chakra and placed a significant burden on his body.

The Eight Trigrams Consecutive Vacuum Palm was based on the Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm, using both palms simultaneously. If the palms were fired one after the other, it was a standard Consecutive Vacuum Palm; if fired in two different directions, it was the Eight Trigrams Consecutive Vacuum Palm: Split; and merging the two palms into one was similar to the combination technique used by Hinata and Neji—the Eight Trigrams Vacuum Wall Palm—which Riyue called Eight Trigrams Consecutive Vacuum Palm: Merge.

Merging the two palms significantly increased both the range and power of the shockwave. The only difference between the Vacuum Wall Palm and the Consecutive Vacuum Palm was that the former was a joint technique, while the latter was performed by Riyue alone using both hands.

The Hidden Sand group was stunned by Riyue's move. A chunin had been instantly killed by a wide-range, high-speed attack—even more terrifying than Riyue taking out three chunin in one breath. No one knew if Riyue could use that move again. The three Hidden Sand jonin were also frozen; neither of them believed they could have dodged that attack with any certainty.

Riyue had achieved his goal: he had bought some time. Surely the Konoha reinforcements would see such a massive disturbance in the forest.

"Mizuki-jie, can you still run?" Riyue took the opportunity to whisper to Mizuki behind him.

"Riyue, I can't gather my chakra; I can't run. You should escape on your own..." Mizuki shook her head, speaking without fear.

"What are you saying? I'm going to take you with me!" Riyue rejected her firmly, his tone brooking no argument.

"Then, let's begin!" Riyue pulled out several smoke bombs and slammed them onto the ground, releasing a thick cloud of black smoke. As the smoke dispersed, a dozen shuriken flew out, attacking the Hidden Sand group.

"Damn it, they're trying to escape!" The Hidden Sand jonin led the others in deflecting the shuriken and immediately charged forward.

The Hidden Sand ninja fell right into Riyue's trap. Immediately after, several kunai attached to smoke bombs flew out of the haze. The massive amount of smoke generated by the explosion engulfed everyone charging toward them. The smoke bombs were filled with a mixture of mustard and chili powder; the Hidden Sand ninja coughed uncontrollably in the haze, not daring to act rashly.

Taking advantage of the moment, a dark shadow dashed out of the thick smoke and sprinted toward the direction where there were no enemies!

After a dozen seconds, the smoke gradually cleared, but there was no one left in the clearing.

"Chase them! Don't let them get away!" the Hidden Sand jonin shouted in frustration, and the group hurriedly followed the tracks.

Riyue carried Mizuki on his back, leaping through the forest. "Damn it! It looks like they're catching up," Riyue said, deactivating his Byakugan.

He waited until the enemies hadn't spotted them yet, then darted into a dense thicket and set Mizuki down. "Mizuki-jie, stay here. I'll draw them away!" With that, Riyue dashed out, continuing to run forward while intentionally leaving behind traces.

"There! Chase!" The Hidden Sand ninja quickly discovered the tracks Riyue had left and immediately gave chase.

Riyue fled through the forest, the Hidden Sand ninja gradually closing the distance.

"Whoosh! Whoosh!" Two kunai shot toward Riyue's back. Riyue opened the ninja tool pouch on his leg, hooked his finger into the ring on a kunai, and drew it.

"Clang! Clang!" He spun in mid-air, deflecting the kunai, and locked his eyes on the closest Hidden Sand chunin. This chunin had been too eager in his pursuit, putting over ten meters of distance between himself and the others.

"Brat, you can't run!" the Hidden Sand ninja laughed.

However, he didn't expect Riyue to offer a faint smile as well.

"Now... since the distance has been opened, it's my turn to counterattack!"