"I will definitely prove myself."
"I, Hiruko, will not be worse than Sannin, I am the best."
The branches in the forest whizzed past my ears, causing my cheeks to hurt.
Hiruko gritted his teeth and ran as hard as he could. His legs were already a little weak, but he did not dare to stop.
The footsteps of the group of people behind him were getting closer and closer.
In the forest outside Konoha, he ran from small to large.
When I was young, I, Jiraiya, Orochimaru, and the others caught bugs here, dug out bird's nests, and competed with each other to see who could reach the bottom of the largest oak tree first.
He was the fastest runner at that time and was always the first to arrive.
But now he can't run.
It's not because the road is difficult to walk, it's because I have injuries on my body.
Just now, when we passed through the village's outer defense line, we were discovered by the alert ninjas.
He rushed out with all his strength, but was still stabbed twice.
One knife was on the back and the other on the left shoulder. The blood soaked through the clothes and stuck to the body stickyly. Every step he took, the wounds were pulled and painful.
But it hurts more to stop.
If you stop you will die.
Hiruko keep running.
He thought about how he got to this point.
Chimera Technique. He hid this technique for three years.
For three years, he worked on tasks during the day and stayed up late at night to research, spending all his time in it.
No one knows what he is doing, no one cares what he is doing.
The three people in the same period, Jiraiya, Orochimaru, and Tsunade, were called Sannin, and their fame spread throughout Shinobi World. And what about him?
He was still the ordinary jounin, taking on ordinary tasks and receiving ordinary rewards.
He was unwilling to do so.
Why? Why can they do it but he can't? Why can that guy from Jiraiya who is just doing nothing all day long be valued by Third?
Orochimaru How can that gloomy guy learn so many forbidden arts? Tsunade That...
Forget it, Tsunade has the blood of the Senju Clan, he can't compare.
But he can create it himself.
Chimera Technique, Kekkei Genkai that allows the user to fuse with other creatures.
If he could complete this technique, if he could fuse a few Kekkei Genkai, he would no longer have to live in the shadow of those three people.
He will become a new legend, a stronger existence than Sannin.
But now, everything is gone.
I don't know who leaked the news. Last night, people from Anbu suddenly broke into his laboratory.
He rushed out with all his strength and only had time to take away some of the most critical scrolls.
The rest - those notes written after spending countless nights, those unfinished experimental records, were all destroyed by myself.
Hiruko looked back.
The pursuers were still there. Two jounin and a dozen Chunin. He knew the leading jounin, he was from Anbu, his name was Morino or something like that. He had a knife in his hand and ran faster than anyone else.
They won't let him go. He knows too many secrets of the village.
"Hiruko!" came a shout from behind.
"Stop! Third said that as long as you go back, you can be given a lighter sentence!"
Liar ghost.
He has seen too many people who were given "lighter sentences". They were imprisoned in the Anbu dungeon, interrogated for three days and three nights, and then they took out everything they knew, and finally disappeared quietly.
Konoha has never been kind to rebels.
Hiruko gritted his teeth and continued running.
The trees in front of him are getting denser and denser, and the sunlight shines through the branches and leaves, casting mottled shadows on the ground. He is familiar with this forest and can walk with his eyes closed.
If I could run to that river, if I could swim across it, I might be able to get rid of them.
His left leg suddenly went weak.
It's not that he was injured, it was that he was tired. Too tired. From last night to now, he had been running all night and all morning without getting a drop of water or a grain of rice. His body had reached its limit.
At this moment, the pursuers behind him closed the distance.
"He can't survive! Surround him!"
Hiruko gritted his teeth, took out three Shuriken from his arms, and threw them back without looking back.
He heard the sound of metal colliding behind him, and someone shouted "be careful", but no one stopped.
Can't run away.
He knew he couldn't run away.
Hiruko suddenly stopped and turned around.
The pursuers also stopped. A dozen people spread out and surrounded him in a semicircle.
Two jonin stood in front, holding Kunai in their hands, staring at him.
"Hiruko," said the Morino jounin, "Don't run away. You can't run away."
Hiruko gasped and looked at them.
He remembered when he played here with Jiraiya and the others many years ago.
They were still children at that time and didn't know anything.
He also laughed at that time.
What happened next?
Later, those three people became Sannin, and he became "that one".
If the mission report says "Hiruko Jounin", others will only ask "Who is Hiruko".
Standing with those three people, others will only look at them and not him.
He was unwilling to do so.
"I'm Hiruko," he said, his voice hoarse like his own, "I can't be worse than Sannin."
Morino jounin frowned. "What did you say?"
"I said--"
Hiruko suddenly moved.
He rushed towards the Chunin on the left, which was the weakest point in the encirclement. Shuriken threw it out, forcing the man to retreat, and then punched the opponent's front door.
The man dodged, but what Hiruko wanted was not to hit, but to break out of the encirclement.
"Stop him!"
Another jounin rushed over from the side and slashed with his sword. Hiruko ducked sideways, but the blade still cut his arm. Blood spattered out and sprinkled on the grass.
He ignored the pain and continued to rush forward.
"Fire Release·Great Fireball Technique!"
Hand Seals's voice came from behind. Hiruko wanted to hide, but his body no longer obeyed. The fireball hit his back and knocked him to the ground.
His clothes were burnt, and the wound on his back was ignited by the fire. He almost screamed in pain.
He was lying on the ground and couldn't get up.
Someone came over, kicked him and turned him over.
Morino The Jonin looked at him condescendingly. "I told you that you couldn't run away."
Hiruko was lying on the ground, looking at the sky. The sun hurt his eyes. He blinked and suddenly smiled.
"I'm not dead yet," he said.
Morino jounin was stunned for a moment.
Hiruko suddenly raised his hand, and at some point there was a Senbon in his hand. Senbon pierced Morino's calf, and the man screamed and knelt down on one knee.
Hiruko took advantage of this opportunity to stand up and run forward again.
"Chase!" someone shouted.
Hiruko ran deep into the woods. The wound was bleeding, and every step he took felt like someone was cutting out his flesh with a knife.
But he couldn't stop. If he stopped, he would really die.
He wants to prove himself.
He hasn't succeeded yet.
As I ran, a river appeared in front of me. The water in the river was very fast, and it flowed gurglingly.
Hiruko jumped in without even thinking about it. The cold river water flooded over his head, and his wounds were soaked in water, which made him almost faint from the pain.