Turning the Tables

Riyue's footsteps suddenly changed. He abruptly turned and leaped toward the Hidden Sand Chunin who was charging at the front of the pursuit. The Chunin froze for a moment, then prepared to fight.

As long as I can keep that brat occupied, he's done for!

Riyue flung six shuriken at the Hidden Sand Chunin. The Chunin stepped on a branch and jumped to dodge. The shuriken flew beneath him, then suddenly looped around and attacked his back.

Damn it! The Chunin dropped rapidly through the air. The shuriken skimmed past his hair. By then, Riyue had already appeared right in front of him with the Body Flicker Technique.

This is bad! The Hidden Sand ninja could barely adjust his posture in midair.

"Watch out!" His companions charged forward, shouting, but the time it took to sprint ten meters was more than enough for Riyue to do plenty.

"Gentle Fist Art: Five Elements Disintegration Palm!" Chakra coursed through Riyue's palm as he struck with blinding speed, landing squarely between his opponent's chest and abdomen.

"Metal, wood, water, fire, earth! Break!" In a single second, Riyue struck each of his opponent's five organs—the lungs, liver, kidneys, heart, and spleen—five times with Gentle Fist. The Chunin spat out a mouthful of blood. His organs ruptured, and his blood vessels burst!

Riyue didn't stop there. He raised both feet and planted them in the Chunin's stomach, kicking him toward the enemies rushing up behind. Using the man as a foothold, Riyue spun, leaped away, and continued fleeing.

The two Hidden Sand Chunin who arrived next hurriedly caught their companion. His organs had been shattered; he was already a corpse. The fifth Hidden Sand ninja was down!

"Kill that brat!" The remaining Hidden Sand ninja were furious and chased after him with all their might.

Riyue was still a child, after all. Though nimble, he had short arms and legs. After leaping another hundred meters through the trees, the enemies behind him quickly caught up and split apart, trying to surround him!

"Heh. Let the game of cat and mouse begin! Body Flicker Technique!" Riyue suddenly changed direction and flashed into the thick bushes to his right.

"He's over there!" Several Hidden Sand ninja immediately charged toward the spot where Riyue had entered the bushes. But Riyue burst out from the other side and flashed into another patch of trees on the left.

"Damn it! After him!" The Hidden Sand Chunin turned and raced after him. But they had only just changed direction when Riyue flashed past from the side of their pursuit. The ninja trying to surround him had no idea which way he was fleeing.

"There! Over there! That brat's hopping around like a monkey!" the Hidden Sand Jonin roared.

Before his words had even faded, whoosh! Riyue circled around behind them, flashed past, and darted into another patch of woods.

"There! Quick, after him!" The Hidden Sand ninja turned and gave chase again. Riyue moved swiftly through the woods, his figure like a phantom as he kept changing direction and leading the enemy by the nose.

After circling around several times, the Hidden Sand ninja lost their bearings and could no longer track Riyue. Once he had shaken them off, Riyue immediately hid using the Stealth Technique. His trail vanished from the woods, and silence fell.

"Playing cat and mouse with me in the forest? I'll play you to death!" Riyue grinned mischievously.

He had the Byakugan's keen perception to thank for that. Within a one-kilometer radius, every detail was clear to Riyue: where to go, where to hide, which terrain he could use, and where the enemies were.

"That brat's trail ends here!" A Chunin found Riyue's tracks and reported to the Jonin.

"He couldn't have gone far! He must be hiding! He's somewhere nearby! Search carefully! And look for that woman too! But don't spread out too much!" the Hidden Sand Jonin said in exasperation. So many of them had been led in circles by a child!

"Yes!" The group spread out through the woods, keeping some distance between them as they searched carefully for Riyue. Hidden in the shadows, Riyue used the Byakugan to watch the Hidden Sand ninja and quietly changed his position. He searched for any stragglers among them. In an instant, the hunter had become the prey.

The hunt began!

A Hidden Sand Chunin walked cautiously through the woods with a kunai in hand, constantly scanning his surroundings. He didn't even overlook the low bushes. Riyue flashed past a dozen meters behind him and dashed into another thicket. The Chunin seemed to hear something and looked back, but just missed him.

That brat seemed to be right behind me just now! The Hidden Sand Chunin was distracted by the thought as he stepped onto the leaf-covered ground—and his foot suddenly sank into empty space. Beneath the leaves was a hole large enough for a child.

Oh no, a trap? The ninja pitched sideways. He quickly braced himself with one hand to keep his balance while raising his kunai with the other and looking around. ...Nothing stirred.

"Just a little hole?" He let out a breath of relief, then suddenly realized something and jerked his head upward. His pupils contracted. "No..."

Riyue was hanging upside down from a thin steel wire, silently suspended right above his head!

"Gentle Fist Art: Soul Vibration!"

The Hidden Sand ninja had no time to react. Riyue had already gently tapped the crown of his head with one palm. The blow seemed soft, but the chakra in Riyue's palm struck his brain ten times in an instant. The Hidden Sand ninja's gaze went vacant. Blood seeped from his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth, and his body went limp as he collapsed silently onto the ground.

The sixth Hidden Sand ninja was down!

[Soul Vibration] used chakra to strike an enemy's brain, cerebellum, and brainstem ten times per second. The natural vibration frequency of the human brain was 10 hertz. By exploiting resonance, the technique greatly amplified the damage caused by Gentle Fist, shaking the brain tissue apart. At best, the victim would become an imbecile and be paralyzed from head to toe; at worst, brain death would stop their breathing and heartbeat.

The brain was also known as the "brain palace." Ancient people believed it was the dwelling of the spirit and the place where the human soul was stored. Since Riyue used chakra to strike the brain, where the body's mental energy was produced, he had named the technique [Soul Vibration].

"Someone will be here in a minute." Riyue withdrew his hand, quickly covered the enemy's corpse with branches and leaves, then climbed slowly up the wire.

The other Hidden Sand ninja still had no idea another one of their companions had been killed by Riyue without a sound...

"With the chakra I have left, I should still be able to take down a few more. Damn it, it's so frustrating not being able to use my ultimate move!" Riyue thought. He immediately slipped back into the woods and activated the Byakugan to search for his next target.

The hunt continued!

Half a minute later, another Hidden Sand Chunin appeared not far away. He didn't notice his companion's corpse and continued searching for Riyue from another direction.

Suddenly, he spotted a kunai stuck in the base of a towering tree dozens of meters ahead.

He cautiously approached, looking all around to make sure there was nowhere nearby for someone to hide. He reached out and touched the kunai, then immediately moved away. When nothing happened, he breathed a sigh of relief, pulled it out, and lowered his head to examine it.

A finger suddenly pierced through the tree's bark. Smack! It burst out of the trunk and jabbed him squarely in the body!

"What..." The Hidden Sand Chunin had no time to react. His body went numb, and he collapsed. Riyue pulled away an entire sheet of bark and stepped out.

"Heh! Bet you never imagined I was hiding inside the tree trunk, did you? My Byakugan had already spotted that it was hollow." Riyue looked coldly at the enemy lying helpless on the ground and viciously jabbed several of his vital points. Then he dragged the Chunin into the hollow trunk, covered the opening with bark, and left. Half a minute later, the Chunin's heart had stopped.

The seventh Hidden Sand ninja was down!

In the woods, Riyue used the Byakugan to spot two enemies not far ahead, covering each other.

"These two Chunin are pretty cautious, staying so close together! But if they're together, I can take them both out at once!" As soon as he finished speaking, Riyue suddenly charged out.

The two saw Riyue burst from the woods but didn't panic. They attacked from the front and rear.

Just before reaching them, Riyue suddenly leaped high, sailed over the enemy in front, and landed before the one behind him. The rear enemy clearly hadn't expected Riyue to attack him, and was caught off guard when Riyue suddenly dropped down in front of him.

Riyue seized the chance to hook both legs over the man's shoulders and suddenly straightened his body with a thrust of his abdomen.

Smack! Riyue slammed both palms hard against the man's ears, striking him from both sides!

The Hidden Sand ninja managed to form a chakra defense, but his head still rang with a buzz. His ears began ringing, his eyes grew bloodshot, and his vision warped. The whole world spun around him.

Riyue had damaged the enemy's vestibular nerve, throwing off his sense of balance. The enemy had barely managed to defend against the attacks on his eyes and vagus nerve, but the impact had still been severe enough to temporarily rob him of his ability to fight.

Riyue flipped down to the ground and didn't attack again, because the other enemy had already turned and charged from behind, driving a kunai toward Riyue's back!

As Riyue turned, he raised his hand and pressed it against the arm holding the kunai. Chakra flowed from the tenketsu in his arm, lightly adhering to the enemy's striking hand.

"Taijiquan Gentle Fist: Push Along the Current!"

Riyue flicked his hand in the opposite direction, slightly deflecting his enemy's thrust. At the same time, he lightly turned aside, nimbly dodging the kunai aimed at his chest. Then he pushed forward with both arms, redirecting the kunai toward the incapacitated Hidden Sand ninja behind him. The attacker couldn't stop!

The flick, turn, and push flowed together in one seamless movement!

"How could this happen?!" The Hidden Sand Chunin felt his arm being forcefully guided. His kunai moved out of control, veering away from Riyue and shooting forward, plunging into the chest of his incapacitated companion!

The eighth!

This Gentle Fist move Riyue had used borrowed the Taijiquan principle of redirecting force. He redirected the force of his enemy's attack toward the other enemy beside him, then pushed along the direction of the attack, making the attacker strike his own companion with too much momentum to stop.

Taijiquan was easy to learn but difficult to master. Riyue hadn't yet reached the fabled level of effortless control, flowing motion, and perfect redirection. But he could make up for his lack of skill by using the chakra that flowed from every tenketsu in his body and the Byakugan's incredible perception.

Just now, he had used chakra adhesion to strengthen the force of his flick. With the Byakugan's precise prediction, he had been able to redirect his enemy's thrust toward his companion.

His hand had landed right on the point one-third of the way along the enemy's arm where the force was applied. Applying force at that position made it easiest to deflect the attack. A fraction of a moment later and the kunai would have struck him; a fraction earlier and his opponent would have had time to react. The force needed also varied.

Simply put, without the Byakugan, Riyue couldn't have pulled off the move. His execution was still crude, and he was nowhere near mastering it. He relied on the Byakugan's advantage and the element of surprise.

"No!" The Hidden Sand ninja cried out in shock after accidentally killing his companion, then froze in place.

Riyue wouldn't let this opportunity slip by. He spread his five fingers and swiftly struck the man in the chest. "Gentle Fist Art: Five-Finger Heart-Piercing Break!" Chakra needles carried by the force of his fingertips destroyed the nerves in the man's heart. Clutching his chest, the ninja crumpled to the ground in agony. His heart stopped, and he died.

The ninth!

"Heh heh, I took out two at once!" Riyue had now killed nine Hidden Sand Chunin. Before he could even celebrate, a Hidden Sand Jonin flashed into view behind him!

"Die, brat! Wind Style: Vacuum Bullets!" The Hidden Sand Jonin rapidly spat out several small gusts of wind. They cut through the air, leaving thin, straight trails as they shot toward Riyue at incredible speed.

"Ah! They're so fast!" Riyue hurriedly leaped to dodge and shielded his head with his hands, but one Vacuum Sphere still punched through his chest. Riyue was sent flying!

At the same time, another Hidden Sand Jonin found Mizuki hiding in the grass.

"Heh heh! You can't run away now!" The Jonin reached for Mizuki.

Instead, Mizuki smiled and struck toward the Jonin with a palm, unleashing the chakra she had gathered for a long time. A wave of chakra shot toward the Jonin from point-blank range.

"Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm!"

"What?!" The Jonin was nearly struck at point-blank range by Mizuki's Vacuum Palm and was sent flying. Boom! He crashed into a tree and became embedded in the trunk.

Then the Hidden Sand Jonin turned into a pool of black mud. His real body had already appeared behind Mizuki, holding a gleaming kunai against her neck.

"So it was an Earth Substitution. But I'm out of chakra too." Mizuki didn't seem to care.

Bang! Bang! Riyue, whose chest had been pierced by the Vacuum Sphere, and Mizuki, who had been restrained by the Hidden Sand Jonin, both disappeared in an instant, replaced by clouds of white smoke.

"What?! That brat's Shadow Clone! We've been tricked!!" "Damn it, I fell for it! It was a Shadow Clone!"...

The two Hidden Sand Jonin roared almost simultaneously, their shouts echoing over the forest.