Engagement

Yi Zhongwu saw that the brat ahead not only wasn't fleeing, but actually dared to charge at him. Furious, he laughed instead.

"Brat, I'm going to eat you alive."

He gripped a kunai tightly in both hands. The killing intent around him was nearly tangible as he charged furiously at Hyuga Seisen.

The two were like mortal enemies heading into a final showdown, advancing toward each other with killing intent.

However.

Halfway there, Hyuga Seisen suddenly stopped. His body slid strangely backward and to the side, slipping behind a thick tree trunk.

The next moment!

Yi Zhongwu felt something wrap around his body.

A crisp sound of steel wire snapping rang out beside his ear.

Then, like falling dominoes, more steel wires snapped one after another.

His pupils contracted as he realized something was wrong.

Right after that, from the corner of his eye, he saw seven or eight explosive tags on the surrounding tree trunks erupt with blinding light at once!

Terror seized him. Almost instantly, he formed hand seals and activated the Body Flicker Technique.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Deafening explosions rang out in succession!

Flames and shockwaves instantly swallowed the area where he stood, scattering smoke and dust everywhere.

A battered figure barely staggered out of the smoke and dust. It was Yi Zhongwu!

Although he had reacted quickly, the explosions had been packed too densely together, and he was still hit!

His right shoulder and entire arm were gone, the severed stump blackened and mangled as blood gushed from it like a spring!

The agonizing pain nearly made him faint, and his entire face turned paper-white.

He could only futilely clutch the wound with his left hand, gasping harshly as beads of sweat the size of beans rolled down his forehead.

"That vicious brat."

He cursed through gritted teeth, his bloodshot eyes fixed on the smoke ahead without daring to relax in the slightest.

That elusive light arrow had left far too great a psychological shadow on him!

Sure enough!

A blue-white arrow of light shot out from the smoke, aimed at his vital point.

"Bastard..."

Yi Zhongwu was shocked and enraged. Leaping through the air, he had nowhere to dodge and could only desperately swing the kunai in his left hand to block!

With a sharp clang, the light arrow was knocked aside and struck a tree, spraying splinters.

He was still wondering why the force behind the arrow was far weaker than he had expected.

The next instant.

A faster, fiercer arrow of light took advantage of the stiffness in his body after the block.

It shot into his abdomen from an extremely tricky angle.

Yi Zhongwu was struck as if by a heavy blow, the tremendous impact smashing him from the air viciously into the ground!

"Waaah!"

He spat out a mouthful of blood mixed with fragments of internal organs.

The moment he hit the ground, before he could catch his breath.

Several shuriken were already flying straight at him.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Relying solely on instincts honed through years of fighting, he narrowly knocked every shuriken away with his kunai.

And the instant after he completed the blocking motion.

A figure appeared behind him in a flash like a ghost!

Such a fast Body Flicker!

Yi Zhongwu was horrified!

These relentless attacks! And that Body Flicker Technique!

Was he really just an Academy student who hadn't even become a genin yet?

Alarmed, he forcibly twisted his body around.

He struggled to raise the kunai in his left hand to block!

Sparks flew!

He barely blocked the fatal strike aimed at his throat.

The next instant, he felt a tremendous force slam into his abdomen.

The wound that was already a bloody mess became even worse after Hyuga Seisen kicked it.

"Ah!" Yi Zhongwu staggered back several steps, dropping to one knee from the pain.

Before Yi Zhongwu could recover, Hyuga Seisen was already in front of him again.

Gripping his kunai, he stabbed viciously at Yi Zhongwu, who was kneeling on the ground.

The pain on Yi Zhongwu's face instantly turned to terror, and he hurriedly raised his kunai to parry.

Unexpectedly, Hyuga Seisen twisted his wrist again, slipping around the kunai Yi Zhongwu had raised to block and thrusting straight for his throat.

This is bad!

Yi Zhongwu inwardly cried out.

But his move had already run its course. It was too late.

Instinctively, he tried to use his right hand to stop Hyuga Seisen's kunai.

But all that answered him was an empty shoulder.

Squelch!

The dull sound of a sharp blade piercing flesh rang out.

Hyuga Seisen showed no mercy as he drove the kunai into his opponent's body.

Blood splattered!

Yi Zhongwu threw back his head, using his only remaining left hand to clutch the kunai lodged in his throat.

His eyes were wide open. His mouth made hissing sounds, but he could not say a word.

His body involuntarily stiffened, then collapsed limply to the ground.

Hyuga Seisen also slumped weakly to the ground.

His former body's foundation was still too weak, and he was only around ten years old.

Against a ninja in his prime like this, his strength and stamina simply could not keep up.

Fortunately, Sacred Arrow had bled his opponent first. Otherwise, this would have been truly difficult.

After the brief numbness of adrenaline faded, intense pain surged through him.

Only then did he realize that the wounds Keiko had bandaged for him had all split open under such intense combat.

Enduring the pain, he used pressure-point strikes to seal the blood vessels around the wounds.

"Ghh!"

His vision went black. Waves of excruciating pain, like being cut by knives, nearly made him pass out.

He panted rapidly and continuously, his entire body drenched in sweat.

It took a full quarter of an hour before he recovered.

Clutching his wounds with a deeply furrowed brow, he endured the pain as he got up and stripped the valuable items from Yi Zhongwu, tying them onto himself.

Then he hurried in the direction of Konoha Village.

After an unknown amount of time.

Konoha Village at the foot of the mountain finally appeared in Hyuga Seisen's blurred vision.

From the moment he was injured until now, he had basically made it this far on sheer willpower.

"No wonder a ninja team's survival rate and combat strength rise so dramatically after it gains a medical ninja."

Ninjas were high-attack, low-defense creatures. Aside from freaks with cheats, once the rest of them were severely injured, they basically lost their combat ability.

It was fine if you ran into a teammate like White Fang, but if you ran into Mizuki, you would be sent off directly.

If he knew some medical ninjutsu, even the simplest Healing Technique, he would have been bouncing around by now.

When he had the chance, he definitely needed to learn some medical ninjutsu for self-defense.

He mechanically staggered down one hill, then painfully climbed another.

This was already the fourth hill he had climbed.

Those two bastards, Hashirama and Madara, couldn't even go fight outside the country.

Because of them, there were so many valleys north of the village. Every time he returned from this direction, it nearly exhausted him to death...

Lost in random thoughts, he staggered toward the village gate.

Konoha Village's gate.

Kamizuki Izumo and Hagane Kotetsu were still only Academy students, so Konoha's gate guardians were naturally someone else at this time.

Yuhi Shinku and Umino Ikkaku were on duty today.

The two were startled when they saw Hyuga Seisen covered in blood.

They hurriedly got up and supported him.

Yuhi Shinku turned to Umino Ikkaku and spoke rapidly. "Ikkaku, keep watch. I'll take him to the hospital."

With that, he grabbed Hyuga Seisen and vanished in a Body Flicker.