The instant he landed, Furukawa Kazekaze felt a powerful chakra lock firmly onto him.
Looking closely, he saw the white-clad youth who had burst through the snow glaring furiously, veins bulging at the corners of his eyes as he assumed the opening stance of a taijutsu technique.
"You are..."
Furukawa Kazekaze's heart clenched. He seemed to have heard of a clan like this before, one with eye traits similar to Yizhe's. Just as he was about to say something, a fierce gust of fist wind mixed with snow blasted into his mouth, choking off his voice.
In that instant, he felt as though countless beasts were trampling over him, as Yizhe subjected him to a merciless barrage of strikes. Pain swept through his entire body until he lost all sensation.
Heaven and earth fell silent, leaving only that cold counting voice at his ear.
"One palm, two palms, three palms... sixty-four palms!"
Only when that cold voice reached sixty-four palms did he feel the assault stop, but he no longer had the strength to fight.
Watching Furukawa Kazekaze collapse onto the snow like a rag after taking a full set of Sixty-Four Palms, Yizhe was filled with emotion.
The ninja world was this cruel. A single moment of carelessness could mean the difference between life and death.
If the one who had used the gale to vault over the earthen wall for a sneak attack had not been Yizhe's Shadow Clone, but his real body, then perhaps he would have been the one lying in the snow.
Furukawa Kazekaze had already performed remarkably. At least in Yizhe's eyes, his combat ability far surpassed those classmates Yizhe had known at the academy.
Compared to them, he was like a hungry wolf among sheep. If Yizhe used that gale-covered ambush against academy students, nine out of ten would probably fall for it.
Counterattacking would be out of the question.
"You... you are... from Konoha's Hyuga... Hyuga Clan..." Furukawa Kazekaze lay in the snow, taking more breaths out than in.
The vital acupoints and chakra pathways throughout his body had been violently struck by Yizhe. Even his internal organs had suffered severe damage.
He recognized the Hyuga Clan's Gentle Fist.
"Yes. My name is Hyuga Yizhe." The white-clad youth shook the snow from his body and answered coldly.
"No wonder... no wonder you were unwilling... to reveal your surname from the beginning..." Furukawa Kazekaze said with a bitter smile.
"Then... why are your... your eyes..." He continued asking, forcing himself to hold on breath by breath.
"You want to ask why my eyes look no different from ordinary people's when my Byakugan isn't activated, unlike the usual white-eyed Hyuga Clan members, right?" Yizhe easily understood what he wanted to ask.
"Don't you know there's something in this world called glasses?"
As he spoke, Yizhe gently removed the lens from his right eye, revealing the distinctive white iris of a Hyuga Clan member.
It was a contact lens Yizhe had custom-made at an eyewear shop before leaving Konoha. He had added a few things to it, making it similar to the cosmetic contact lenses people often used for decoration in his previous life.
He knew full well that his eyes could easily expose his identity. To conceal his information and catch enemies off guard in battle,
Yizhe used cosmetic lenses to disguise his eyes. Even while traveling, when he activated his Byakugan to scout the road ahead, he deliberately avoided everyone's sight.
Thus, no one knew that Yizhe was a member of the Hyuga Clan.
"Cough... cough... cough!" Upon seeing Yizhe reveal those white irises, Furukawa Kazekaze felt a wave of discomfort and coughed up several mouthfuls of blood.
"So... that's how it is... I... did not lose... unfairly..."
The youth lying in the snow smiled bitterly again and again. Misjudging his enemy and greedily rushing in for merit had been the root of his defeat.
"My apologies. Please be on your way." Yizhe put the lens back in and was about to strike.
Bang—
A crashing sound came from the snow piled within the gorge.
Hearing it, Yizhe turned around and saw two sturdy figures burst through the snow layer and rush toward him.
"Show mercy!"
The newcomers shouted loudly from afar.
"They came at just the right time," Yizhe cursed inwardly.
He had only just exhausted considerable effort to take down Furukawa Kazekaze, and now two more had arrived.
Facing two enemies alone was not a wise move.
Moreover, Yizhe was not yet prepared to confront the two Red Ant leaders head-on.
Therefore, a temporary retreat was the best choice.
However, he did not want to let Furukawa Kazekaze, who lay in the snow, go so easily.
He did not know whether the two Red Ant leaders had a way to quickly heal Furukawa Kazekaze's injuries. To prevent himself from later facing the siege of three ninja,
he had to completely extinguish Furukawa Kazekaze's last trace of life.
Yet he could not kill Furukawa Kazekaze on the spot.
From Furukawa Kazekaze's earlier introduction, he was the leader's son. If the Red Ant leader witnessed his son's death, he would likely fight Yizhe desperately regardless of the consequences.
Therefore, while severing Furukawa Kazekaze's last hope of survival, he still had to leave him a final breath and could not let him die immediately.
After swiftly weighing the situation before him, Yizhe raised his hand and drove a palm viciously into Furukawa Kazekaze's chest, directly damaging several of his heart's chakra pathways.
"You..." Furukawa Kazekaze was horrified.
He had thought that after his father and uncle broke free from the snow, Yizhe would retreat in the face of difficulty and spare his life.
Under normal circumstances, damage to several heart chakra pathways would cause serious internal injuries but would not be fatal. But Furukawa Kazekaze was already gravely wounded, and after Yizhe injured his heart pathways, his injuries only worsened.
The flame of his life was like a guttering candle in the wind, liable to go out at any moment!
"Boy! You..." one of the newcomers shouted.
From far away, both men had seen Yizhe strike down mercilessly with that palm.
"No need for the two leaders to see me off. Please return," Yizhe said with a smile as he turned toward them.
Even from such a distance, he could feel their blazing gazes, as if they wanted to devour him alive.
"Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!"
A gale burst from Yizhe's mouth, whipping up snow that filled the sky and blowing the two Red Ant leaders backward.
Then he pushed off the ground, borrowing the wind's momentum to flee far from the scene with several uses of the Body Flicker Technique.
Only after the gale subsided did the two Red Ant leaders reach Furukawa Kazekaze's side.
"Big Brother, I'll go after that brat!" Seeing the youth lying motionlessly in the snow, the slightly shorter middle-aged man flew into a rage.
"No, don't go! He Feng still has a breath!" After checking the youth's breathing, the taller middle-aged man said in delight.
"Really?" The shorter man was doubtful.
"He Feng is injured this badly. We need to find a doctor for him immediately! And the brothers beneath the snow—we must save as many as we can! If we delay, I'm afraid they'll all die in there!" The taller man gritted his teeth, dismissing the other man's urge to pursue Yizhe as he swiftly gave his orders.
From the looks of it, the calmer, taller man called Big Brother was likely the Red Ant leader, while the other was the deputy leader.
"Big Brother, are we just letting this go?" The deputy leader was deeply unwilling.
"How could we? Blood debts must be repaid with blood! This matter requires careful planning!" The leader suppressed the fury in his heart and growled in a low voice.
He was the leader of an organization and had to take responsibility for it. He could not act solely on personal preference; one careless move might bring utter destruction upon them.
But even now, he still could not understand it. That young ninja had not made so much as a probing move before attacking directly, as though he had been certain they were inside all along!
How could he possibly know?
Before you continue