The Mantis Stalks the Cicada

Ten minutes earlier, on the clearing where Mizuki and the others had been ambushed, the Hidden Sand ninjas had already chased the "Riyue" carrying "Mizuki" far away. Just then, Riyue emerged stealthily from the bushes with Mizuki on his back.

"[Stealth Technique] really is useful. Mizuki, let's hurry. My two Shadow Clones don't have much chakra, so they can only hold them off for a little while," Riyue said.

"Mm." Mizuki nodded.

As it turned out, the dark figures who had burst out of the smoke from the very beginning were Riyue's two Shadow Clones, which he had left nearby to help him throw all thirty-six Shuriken.

The Shadow Clone with less chakra had transformed into Mizuki, while the other had carried "her" away, successfully luring the Hidden Sand ninjas off.

The reason Riyue hadn't used any wide-area techniques during the counterattack was that his Shadow Clones didn't have much chakra. They could only use Gentle Fist techniques such as [Five-Finger Heart-Piercing Break], [Soul Vibration], and [Five Elements Disintegration].

"Let's go!" Riyue ran toward Konoha with Mizuki on his back, hoping to meet up with reinforcements from Konoha as soon as possible.

After Riyue and the others had left, a figure leaped into the clearing where they had just been.

"Heh heh! I knew you'd use this trick. Those Hidden Sand ninjas are useless! Too bad you're carrying dead weight this time. You definitely won't get away, Hyuga Nichigetsu!" Hyuga U said with a cold sneer as he followed them.

Riyue ran through the forest at full speed with Mizuki on his back. He finally understood what it felt like for Naruto to carry Princess Koyuki while sprinting. She was just... so heavy!

"Mizuki... you should go on a diet!" Riyue said. Mizuki glanced at his back, then turned her face away without a word. She clearly wasn't pleased.

A woman's weight really was a taboo subject. Luckily, Riyue had trained his chakra control by climbing mountains with weights; otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to carry her. Even so, he was sweating profusely, and moving much slower than usual.

"Riyue, can you keep going?" Mizuki asked worriedly.

"I'm fine, Mizuki!" Riyue wiped the sweat from his forehead and kept running.

A few minutes later, Riyue froze. The two Shadow Clones he had sent to draw away the Hidden Sand enemies had disappeared, and their battle memories flooded into him.

"They've already been taken out? Too bad the Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm didn't finish off that Hidden Sand jonin. There are still four Hidden Sand ninjas left, so it looks like we're not out of danger yet. Keep moving!" Riyue quickly assessed the situation and continued running.

Suddenly, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh! More than ten Shuriken came flying at them from behind!

Riyue reacted quickly and forcibly used the Body Flicker Technique. Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh... The Shuriken grazed his clothes as they flew past. After barely dodging the attack, Riyue set Mizuki down beneath a tree and stared intently in the direction the enemy had attacked from.

"Who's there?!" Riyue demanded.

"Tsk, tsk. Hyuga Nichigetsu, you're going to die here today." Hyuga U slowly emerged from behind a tree.

Riyue frowned, thinking, This is bad. Is he from the Hyuga Main Family? I'm carrying an injured Mizuki, and I have only a quarter of my chakra left. This jonin will be hard to deal with.

"Riyue, go on without me! Don't worry about me!" Mizuki shouted to him, but Riyue didn't budge.

"Hmph! So this was all a plot by the Main Family elders. What a clever scheme! They lured Mizuki out, then attacked and gravely injured her. After that, they leaked information to draw the Hidden Sand ninjas into chasing us. The whole point was to make me come rescue Mizuki and have the Hidden Sand kill me. What a perfect case of killing with a borrowed knife! Too bad the Hidden Sand ninjas failed, so now you, the Main Family's lapdog, have stepped in yourself!" Riyue said calmly.

"Clever kid! You guessed right, and there's no need to stall for time. This was indeed the Main Family elders' idea. Blame your father for offending the wrong people!" Hyuga U shrugged indifferently and activated his Byakugan, preparing to attack.

"Hmph! You've hurt someone you shouldn't have, too! You'll pay for hurting Mizuki!!" Riyue activated his Byakugan in an instant, his eyes blazing with undisguised murderous intent. (BGM: Battle God, Yasuharu Takanashi)

This man had hurt Mizuki. Riyue would never let him get away with it! Riyue might not know what other jonin were capable of, but he knew the Hyuga Clan's jonin all too well. He wasn't completely without a chance!

Riyue moved. He had already gathered a large amount of chakra in his palm.

[Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm]!

Riyue struck at Hyuga U from a distance. Rings of chaotic air rippled before his palm as a shock wave mixed with turbulent currents blasted toward Hyuga U.

[Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm]! Hyuga U sneered and struck with his own palm. Two long, cylindrical shock waves of turbulent air collided.

Boom! The shock waves exploded, and a ring of air pressure spread outward as gale-force winds whipped around them. Most of the force still bore down on Riyue, who hurriedly raised both arms in front of himself and staggered backward.

My Vacuum Palm is still a little weaker than a jonin's.

Riyue reacted quickly and struck out with his other hand.

[Eight Trigrams Consecutive Vacuum Palm]!

The second shock wave shot straight toward Hyuga U. He hurriedly dodged, narrowly avoiding it. Bang! The Vacuum Palm smashed a crater into the boulder behind him.

I've got very little chakra left. I need to find a chance to finish him in one move! Riyue thought quickly as he charged forward. He had to press the attack and keep Hyuga U occupied, so he wouldn't have a chance to attack Mizuki.

Hyuga U met his charge. Riyue struck first, aiming a palm at Hyuga U's chest. Hyuga U dodged sideways and retaliated with a finger thrust toward the side of Riyue's neck.

Riyue's Byakugan had already seen through Hyuga U's movements. He tilted his head to evade the attack, then immediately struck back with a finger aimed beneath his ribs.

Smack! Hyuga U knocked his hand aside with a palm. At the same time, Riyue knocked Hyuga U's attack away with his own palm.

The two quickly closed in and exchanged nearly twenty blows. Thanks to the Byakugan's powerful ability to see through the movements of his opponent's muscles, Riyue didn't lose much ground.

"Not bad, kid!" Riyue's Gentle Fist surprised Hyuga U. Even though he was slower and weaker, he still hadn't fallen behind.

"But you're out of chances!" Hyuga U suddenly forced Riyue back with a palm, then immediately charged toward Mizuki beneath the tree.

No! How despicable! Riyue was startled and hurriedly rushed to stop Hyuga U. But Hyuga U abruptly turned around and struck at him with a palm.

"Ha ha! Die!" Hyuga U laughed. Riyue couldn't dodge in time, and Hyuga U's full-force palm struck him in the chest.

The moment his palm touched Riyue's chest, Riyue's body leaned diagonally backward with the impact. He bent his waist as far as he could, stretched both arms forward, and pulled his chest back. At the same time, he released soft chakra from the tenketsu in his chest to protect it.

The violent chakra surging from Hyuga U's palm was caught by Riyue's soft chakra and dispersed in every direction. Riyue's series of backward movements also absorbed the force of the blow, and his improved flak jacket helped disperse most of its power in an instant.

"What's going on?!" Hyuga U felt as if he had struck a wad of cotton. He hadn't felt the solid impact of a hit at all, and the chakra released from his palm seemed not to have entered Riyue's chest or struck his internal organs.

Riyue's body kept leaning backward, then continued to bend as if he were a spring buckling under an external force. The force behind Hyuga Hiroshi's palm was completely spent; it couldn't hurt Riyue any further. Then Hyuga U's hand was actually stuck to the "soft and yielding" chakra Riyue had released!

Riyue stared fixedly at Hyuga U in front of him, then suddenly widened his eyes.

[Taiji Gentle Fist: Counter-Attack]!

Riyue's bent body suddenly snapped forward. He thrust his chest out with all his strength, simultaneously pushing Hyuga U's arm with both hands as the chakra from the tenketsu in his chest erupted!

"Huh?" Powerful force traveled through Hyuga U's palm into his body. He felt as though someone had slammed into him. His body jerked, and he stumbled backward, his arm numb from the impact of the chakra.

When he couldn't dodge in time, Riyue had deliberately let Hyuga U hit him in the chest. Caught off guard, Riyue had used this technique to overcome hardness with softness and turn his opponent's force against him.

When he was struck, Riyue first used his soft chakra to disperse and absorb the force of the attack. Then his body rebounded like a spring, returning some of the force it had absorbed, along with his own strength, back to his opponent.

Hyuga U had never seen such a strange technique. Riyue's unexpected move had caught him completely off guard, leaving him utterly astonished.

"Now! [Gentle Fist Art: Thirty-Six Death Point Strike]!"

Riyue raised his left hand, forming a sword-finger, and flashed in front of Hyuga U.

"Danzhong!" He thrust his left index finger toward the Danzhong Point at the center of Hyuga U's chest. As expected of a jonin, Hyuga U reacted quickly despite his injuries. He retreated and raised his palm to the right, trying to push Riyue's sword-finger aside.

Seeing this, Riyue instantly changed his move and aimed a finger at the Taiyuan Point on Hyuga U's palm. Hyuga U tried to turn his palm and dodge, but Riyue changed moves too quickly. He was a beat too slow.

"Taiyuan!"

A hit! Hyuga U immediately felt his chakra flow become sluggish and his nerves slow to respond.

"Shenque!" Having landed one hit, Riyue struck even faster, aiming at the Shenque Point below Hyuga U's navel.

Hyuga U immediately retreated at high speed, but Riyue followed even faster!

He slid into an arc, then ghosted around behind Hyuga U and thrust a finger toward the Mingmen Point on his back.

"Mingmen!"

A hit! Hyuga U's body shuddered, and he lost control of it.

Riyue's attacks were effortless and unpredictable. Hyuga U couldn't guess which point Riyue would target next!

Riyue showed no mercy. He slid into a low sweep, then pushed off the ground with both hands and leaped up, turning to face Hyuga U. He struck with both hands, taking the chance to hit the Ermen Point and Guanyuan Point.

"Ermen!" "Guanyuan!"

A hit! A hit! Hyuga U's ears rang, his head spun, and his abdomen was wracked with pain. After that blow, he could no longer fight back!

Hyuga U had been in the upper hand, but after Riyue unleashed his ultimate counterattack, he lost in an instant.

To an outside observer, it had happened in the blink of an eye. Riyue's hands had flashed so quickly they blurred as he struck four more times. Riyue continued his furious assault, countless afterimages appearing around Hyuga U's body. Hyuga U was as good as dead!

Just then, a sudden, sharp pain stabbed through Riyue's forehead, and the green mark beneath his Forehead Protector suddenly lit up. Without any warning, someone had secretly activated his Caged Bird Seal!

"Ah!" It felt as if his brain had been sliced open. The sudden, excruciating pain forced Riyue to stop his technique. He clutched his forehead and collapsed onto the ground.

Hyuga U had narrowly escaped death. He lay on the ground, blood constantly spilling from the corner of his mouth, unable to move. He felt as if he had just walked back from the gates of hell.

"Hyuga U, you're so weak. And you're supposed to be a jonin! You can't even handle a piece of trash!!" Someone strolled out from behind a tree, casually taunting him as he came. He held his sword-finger in front of his chest and looked smugly at Riyue, who lay motionless on the ground.

Riyue stared fixedly at the newcomer, his eyes burning with boundless fury!