Counter-Kill

Riyue's footwork shifted abruptly as he suddenly spun around, leaping toward the Hidden Sand chunin who was charging at the front of the pack. The chunin froze for a split second before bracing for combat.

As long as I pin that brat down, he's a dead man!

Riyue flicked his wrist, launching six shuriken at the Hidden Sand chunin. The chunin stepped onto a tree branch and vaulted into the air to evade them. The shuriken flew beneath him, only to suddenly arc back around, targeting his exposed back.

"Damn it!" The chunin dove rapidly, the shuriken whistling past his hair. By the time he landed, Riyue had already used the Body Flicker Technique to appear directly before him.

"Oh no!" The Hidden Sand ninja found it impossible to adjust his posture in mid-air.

"Watch out!" His comrades in the rear shouted as they surged forward, but ten meters of sprinting was more than enough time for Riyue to act.

"[Gentle Fist Art: Five Elements Disintegration Palm]!" With chakra surging through his palms, Riyue struck with lightning speed, landing a solid blow squarely on the man's chest and abdomen.

"Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, Earth! Shatter!" Within a single second, Riyue used the Gentle Fist to strike the man's lungs, liver, kidneys, heart, and spleen five times each. The chunin vomited a spray of blood as his internal organs ruptured and his blood vessels disintegrated.

Riyue didn't stop there; he lifted his feet and kicked the chunin's stomach, launching him into the path of the incoming enemies. Using the man's body as a stepping stone, Riyue spun and leaped forward, continuing his escape.

The two Hidden Sand chunin who arrived moments later scrambled to catch their comrade, but the man's organs were already shattered, and he was nothing more than a corpse. The fifth Hidden Sand ninja was down.

"Kill that brat!" The remaining Hidden Sand ninjas were consumed by rage, pursuing him with desperate intensity.

Riyue was still just a child; while his body was agile, his reach was limited. After leaping another hundred meters through the trees, the enemies behind him had closed the distance, splitting up to flank him.

Heh, let the game of hide-and-seek begin! [Body Flicker Technique]! Riyue suddenly changed direction, flashing into the dense thicket on his right.

"He's over there!" Several Hidden Sand ninjas immediately charged into the thicket in pursuit. However, Riyue had already burst out from the side and flashed into another patch of forest on the left.

"Damn it! After him!" The Hidden Sand chunin turned to give chase again. But just as they changed course, Riyue flashed past the flank of their pursuit path once more. The ninjas attempting to flank him no longer had any idea which direction he was actually fleeing.

"There! There! That brat is darting around like a monkey!" The Hidden Sand jonin couldn't help but roar.

Before the words had even left his mouth, "Whoosh!" Riyue circled behind them and flashed away, diving into yet another patch of woods.

"Over there! Quick, chase him!" The Hidden Sand group turned back to pursue, but Riyue moved through the deep forest like a phantom, constantly changing directions and leading his enemies by the nose.

After circling a few times, the Hidden Sand group lost their orientation. Unable to track Riyue's movements, they lost him entirely. Once he had shaken off his pursuers, Riyue immediately used his Stealth Technique to hide. The forest, having lost all trace of him, fell into an instant, eerie silence.

"Playing hide-and-seek with me in a dense forest? I'll be the death of you all!" Riyue gave a wicked smile.

He had the Byakugan's exceptional insight to thank for this. The terrain within a one-kilometer radius—where to walk, where to hide, which terrain to exploit, and the exact position of every enemy—was all crystal clear in his eyes.

"The brat's trail vanished here!" A chunin found a trace of Riyue and reported to the jonin.

"He can't have gone far! He must be hiding! He's nearby! Search carefully! That goes for the woman too! But don't spread out too far!" the Hidden Sand jonin barked, furious. To think so many of them were being run in circles by a mere child!

"Yes!" The group spread out slightly, scouring the dense forest for Riyue. Meanwhile, Riyue hid in the shadows, using his Byakugan to monitor the Hidden Sand's movements while quietly repositioning himself. He silently hunted for the stragglers among the Hidden Sand ninjas; the hunter had instantly become the prey.

The hunt began.

A Hidden Sand chunin held a kunai, walking cautiously through the woods. He scanned his surroundings incessantly, not even sparing the low-lying bushes. Riyue flashed past ten meters behind him and dove into another thicket. The chunin seemed to sense a disturbance and turned his head, but he missed Riyue by a hair's breadth.

That brat seemed to be right behind me just now! As the chunin was distracted by the thought, he stepped onto a patch of leaf-covered ground, only to find nothing beneath his foot. A hole, just large enough for a child, had been concealed under the leaves.

"Crap, is it a trap?" The ninja tumbled sideways, quickly bracing himself with one hand to maintain balance while raising his kunai with the other to scan the area... There was no movement.

"Just a small hole?" He let out a breath, but then, struck by a sudden thought, he jerked his head upward. His pupils contracted sharply. "No—"

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

"[Gentle Fist Art: Soul Vibration]!"

Before the Hidden Sand ninja could react, Riyue tapped his palm lightly against the man's crown. The strike seemed gentle, but the chakra in his palm had already pulsed into the man's brain ten times in a single instant. The Hidden Sand ninja's eyes went vacant, blood leaked from his seven orifices, and his body went limp, collapsing to the ground without a sound.

The sixth Hidden Sand ninja was down.

[Soul Vibration] used chakra to strike the enemy's brain, cerebellum, and brainstem ten times per second. Since the human brain's natural vibration frequency is 10 Hz, this technique utilized resonance to drastically amplify the damage of the Gentle Fist, shattering the brain tissue directly. At best, the victim would become a vegetable or suffer full-body paralysis; at worst, they would suffer brain death, with their heart and breathing stopping instantly.

Because the brain was also known as the "Brain Mansion," the ancients believed it to be the seat of the soul and the repository of one's spiritual essence. Since Riyue used chakra to strike the brain—the source of mental energy—he named the technique [Soul Vibration].

"Someone will be here in a minute." Riyue withdrew his hand, quickly covering the enemy's corpse with branches and leaves before climbing back up the wire.

The other Hidden Sand ninjas had no idea that yet another comrade had been taken out by Riyue without a sound.

Based on my remaining chakra, I should be able to take out a few more. Damn, it's frustrating not being able to use my ultimate techniques! Riyue pondered, immediately slipping back into the forest to activate his Byakugan and search for his next target.

The hunt continued.

Half a minute later, another Hidden Sand chunin appeared nearby. He didn't find his comrade's corpse and continued searching for Riyue's trail from a different direction.

Suddenly, he spotted a kunai embedded in the roots of a towering tree several dozen meters ahead.

He approached cautiously, scanning the area to ensure there was nowhere for a person to hide. He reached out to touch the kunai, then immediately pulled back. There were no traps on the weapon, so he breathed a sigh of relief, pulled it out, and lowered his head to inspect it.

A finger suddenly burst through the tree bark. "Snap!" It emerged from the trunk and struck him precisely on a pressure point!

"This..." The Hidden Sand chunin couldn't react in time; his body went numb, and he collapsed to the ground. Riyue tore away a large piece of bark and stepped out.

"Heh! Didn't expect me to be hiding inside the trunk, did you? My Byakugan spotted that this tree was hollow a long time ago." Riyue looked down at the immobilized enemy, gave a cold smile, and struck several lethal pressure points. He dragged the chunin into the tree hollow, covered the opening with the bark, and left. Half a minute later, the chunin inside had no heartbeat.

The seventh Hidden Sand ninja was down.

In the forest, Riyue used his Byakugan to spot two enemies nearby, covering each other.

These two chunin are quite cautious, staying so close together! But, if they're together, I'll just take them both out at once! No sooner said than done, Riyue suddenly charged out.

The two saw Riyue emerge from the woods, but they didn't panic, attacking from the front and back.

Just as he was about to reach them, Riyue suddenly leaped high, vaulting over the lead enemy and landing directly in front of the one in the rear. The enemy behind clearly hadn't expected Riyue to target him, and he failed to react to the boy's sudden descent.

Riyue seized the opportunity to hook his legs around the enemy's shoulders, using his core strength to snap his body upright.

"Smack!" Riyue slammed both palms against the sides of the man's head in a double-ear strike!

Although the Hidden Sand ninja had managed to muster some chakra for defense, his head still rang with a deafening hum. Tinnitus set in immediately, his eyes bloodshot, and his vision blurred as the entire world began to spin.

This was because Riyue had damaged the vestibular nerves within the enemy's ears, causing a total loss of equilibrium. While the enemy had barely defended against the strikes to his eyes and vagus nerve, the impact was still severe enough to temporarily incapacitate him.

Riyue flipped and landed, but he did not follow up, as another enemy behind him had already turned and lunged, a kunai aimed straight for his back!

As Riyue turned, he pressed his hand against the arm holding the kunai, releasing chakra from the acupoints in his own arm to lightly adhere to the attacker's limb.

"[Taiji Gentle Fist: Push Along the Current]!"

Riyue flicked his wrist, causing the enemy's thrust to veer slightly off course. Simultaneously, Riyue pivoted his body, nimbly dodging the kunai aimed at his chest. He immediately followed through with a push from both arms, sending the kunai—now beyond the attacker's control—straight toward the incapacitated Hidden Sand ninja behind him!

This flick, pivot, and push were executed in one fluid motion!

"How is this possible?!" The Hidden Sand chunin felt his arm being forcefully guided; the kunai slipped from his control, shot forward, and plunged into the chest of his fallen comrade!

The eighth one!

The Gentle Fist technique Riyue used borrowed the Taiji principle of redirecting force, taking the power of the enemy's attack and pushing it onto another foe nearby, then following the momentum to ensure the attacker could not stop his strike from hitting his own ally.

Taijiquan is easy to learn but difficult to master; Riyue had not yet reached the legendary realm of effortless, flowing, and perfect control. However, he could compensate for his lack of technique by utilizing his Byakugan's superior insight and the ability to release chakra from every acupoint on his body.

He had just used the chakra adhesion to amplify the force of that flick, and with the Byakugan's precise prediction, he was able to redirect the enemy's strike onto his companion.

His hand had landed exactly on the pressure point one-third of the way up the opponent's arm—the optimal spot to deflect an attack. A fraction of a second later, and he would have been stabbed; a fraction earlier, and the opponent would have had time to react. The force required was equally precise.

To put it bluntly, without the Byakugan, Riyue could not have pulled this off. His execution was rough and far from refined; he relied on the advantage of the Byakugan and the element of surprise to win.

"No!!" The Hidden Sand ninja, having accidentally killed his comrade, let out a cry and froze in shock.

Riyue would not miss this chance. He curled his fingers and slammed his palm into the man's chest: "[Gentle Fist Art: Five-Finger Heart-Piercing Break]!" The force of his fingers, combined with chakra needles, completely destroyed the nerves around the man's heart. The ninja clutched his chest and collapsed in agony, his heart stopping instantly.

The ninth one!

"Heh, took out two at once!" With that, Riyue had eliminated nine Hidden Sand chunin. Before he could even celebrate, a Hidden Sand jonin flashed into existence behind him!

"Die, brat! [Wind Style: Vacuum Bullets]!" The Hidden Sand jonin spat out several small wind pellets. The projectiles sliced through the air, leaving thin, straight trails as they shot toward Riyue at high speed.

"Ah! So fast!" Riyue leaped to dodge, shielding his head with his hands, but one of the vacuum bullets pierced his chest, sending him flying!

At the same time, another Hidden Sand jonin found Mizuki hiding in the bushes.

"Heh heh! You can't escape!" The jonin reached out to grab her.

Mizuki smiled instead, striking out with a palm toward the jonin. The chakra she had been accumulating for a long time erupted, sending a shockwave directly at the jonin at point-blank range.

"[Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm]!"

"What!" The jonin, caught by the point-blank attack, was sent flying. "Boom!" He slammed into a tree, embedding himself into the trunk.

The Hidden Sand jonin then dissolved into a puddle of black mud, and the real jonin appeared behind Mizuki, a gleaming kunai pressed against her neck.

"An [Earth Substitution], but my chakra is exhausted anyway," Mizuki remarked, unconcerned.

"Poof!" "Poof!" Both Riyue, who had been pierced by the vacuum bullet, and Mizuki, who had been held captive by the jonin, vanished in a puff of white smoke.

"What?! These were Shadow Clones! I've been tricked!!" "Damn it, I fell for it! They were Shadow Clones!"

The two Hidden Sand jonin roared almost simultaneously, their voices echoing across the forest.