On the outskirts of Leaf Village, deep within the Forest of Death.
The branches and leaves of towering ancient trees sliced the moonlight into shattered flecks of silver, scattering them across the ground carpeted with fallen leaves. The air was thick with the damp chill of earth and rotting wood, and the occasional cry of a night owl pierced the silence with particular harshness.
Hyuga Xiao stopped.
Kurenai Yuhi followed closely behind, her hands already forming the opening seal for a genjutsu. Her crimson eyes warily swept the surroundings. Her breathing was so light it seemed nonexistent, but Xiao could hear her racing heartbeat—not fear, but the instinctive response of a hunter entering her element.
"Twelve," Xiao said quietly.
His voice was terrifyingly calm. The pupils that had just awakened as a Tenseigan Prototype glimmered with a faint blue light in the darkness. Within his vision, twelve clusters of chakra lurked like venomous snakes in the shadows, spread across a fan-shaped area with a fifty-meter radius. Their spacing was precise, sealing off every route of escape.
"The barrier has already been set," Xiao added. "It's an interference type designed specifically for the Byakugan. My field of vision has been compressed to thirty meters."
Hong pressed her lips together. "Can you tell whose people they are?"
"Their chakra is cold, they're well-trained, and their coordination is seamless." Xiao paused. "Root."
The moment his words fell, twelve figures leaped from the shadows at once.
There were no battle cries, no warnings. Even the sound of cutting through the air had been deliberately suppressed to the bare minimum. The twelve animal-masked ninja moved in unison like puppets on strings, their kunai tracing icy arcs beneath the moonlight as they aimed for Xiao and Hong's vital points.
Xiao moved.
Rather than retreating, he stepped