Rainy Night Pursuers

Somewhere in a forest at the border of the Land of Rain

Tianyi carefully folded up the map and tucked it close to his body. I'll set off after resting for another five minutes. Just five minutes, definitely not too long!

After slowly closing his eyes, he gradually drifted off with his breathing...

Who knew how long had passed? Perhaps only a brief instant.

The previously clear night sky had somehow gathered heavy leaden clouds, blotting out the last faint glimmer of stars and moonlight as the wind gradually picked up.

One drop, two drops... More and more, denser and denser. It began as a fine drizzle that silently soaked the forest, but soon turned into a steady patter, raindrops striking broad leaves with a dense rustling sound.

A cold drop of rain landed right on Tianyi's brow. His eyelids trembled a few times before slowly opening.

Before him lay a gray curtain of rain and tangled tree shadows. His mind was briefly dazed and confused. "This is..." Then the stabbing pain in his shoulder and the wet, cold, clammy feeling of his clothes brought everything flooding back—transmigration, battlefield, escape, contact, bandaging... and those damned "five minutes"!

He instinctively tried to move his stiff neck, only to abruptly freeze.

Something was wrong!

It was too quiet!

Then, an inexplicable chill shot up his spine. He raised his right arm and saw dense goosebumps spreading across it, every hair standing on end.

"Are there enemies?!" The thought rose in his mind, instantly waking him completely and banishing all drowsiness.

What should he do? Running blindly would lead only to death! Intelligence! Right, he needed intelligence!

Relying on the memories left behind by this body, he somewhat awkwardly brought his hands together before his chest and began forming hand seals.

Horse—Tiger—Boar—Rabbit—Rat—Dog—Tiger!

"Byakugan—" he shouted inwardly, wildly channeling the chakra within his body into the meridians around his eyes.

The veins around his eyes bulged, and the world became a black-and-white outline of transparent lines.

His range of vision stretched to its limit, piercing through the rain as his gaze rapidly swept the surroundings.

One hundred meters, three hundred meters, five hundred meters... The muddy little river they had passed during the daytime escape, now swollen by rain, appeared at the edge of his vision nearly a kilometer away! He could even "see" the outlines of stones on the riverbed and several small fish scrambling to hide.

That perception beyond all common sense left him awestruck by the wonders of the Byakugan.

However, roughly seventy meters to his front left, two clusters of chakra distinctly different from the natural surroundings were steadily advancing toward the general area where he was hiding in a search formation!

"Have they found me?! How is that possible!" Tianyi's pupils contracted violently beneath the Byakugan. Had the wind just spread the scent of his blood farther? Or did they have a sensory-type ninja?

The other side seemed to have detected his chakra fluctuations. Their speed suddenly increased, their formation tightening as they charged straight at him!

Enduring the agonizing pain in his left shoulder, Hyuga Tianyi immediately staggered out from behind the tree where he had been hiding and fled eastward, toward the general direction of Leaf Village, without looking back.

He took a deep breath of air mixed with the stench of rain and blood, forcing himself to calm down. Fighting head-on meant death. He had to use his brain! He fled while thinking at top speed.

Looking back, he saw the two Rain ninja drawing closer and closer. He could even hear them splashing through puddles and pushing aside branches and leaves.

"My chakra is nearly depleted, my stamina's running out, and fighting them is hopeless. I only have a few Kunai... and two Explosive Tags!" Tianyi frowned deeply as he searched for a way out.

Suddenly, an image flashed through his mind—Naruto, Sasuke, Zabuza!

A bold plan instantly took shape in his mind.

He abruptly stopped beside a thicker tree, posing as though he were exhaustedly using it for support. At the same time, with an extremely concealed movement of his right hand, he carefully wrapped his last genuine Explosive Tag around the end of a Kunai handle, secured it with a strip of torn bandage, hid it in his sleeve, and gripped two ordinary Kunai in his hands.

He panted heavily and glanced back—the two Rain ninja had already burst from the bushes, less than thirty meters away! Their faces wore the savage grins of hunters who had spotted wounded prey.

"Don't come any closer!" Terror appeared on Tianyi's face as he hurled a Kunai at them with all his strength and screamed hoarsely, "Explosive Tag, explode!"

The Kunai traced a weak, limp arc, even veering somewhat off course. Let alone hitting them, it posed no threat whatsoever.

Startled by his words, the two Rain ninja instinctively adopted evasive or defensive stances, their movements visibly stalling.

Yet the expected explosion never came. The Kunai landed at an angle in the muddy ground ahead and to the side of them, completely still.

The two froze, exchanged a glance, and then revealed mocking expressions.

"You scared me!"

"So he really is at the end of his rope. He can't even throw a Kunai straight, yet he wants to scare us with a fake Explosive Tag?"

"Get him! He can't run anymore!"

Their vigilance clearly dropped, and they pursued him even faster, convinced that the Hyuga brat before them was already fish on the chopping block.

Tianyi seemed angered by their mockery, or perhaps he was truly out of options. He struggled to run forward several more steps.

Leaning against another tree, he turned back. His right hand appeared to reach into his ninja tool pouch again before he threw another Kunai, his voice somewhat desperate. "Die! Explosive Tag, explode!"

The same powerless throw, the same missed target, the same... complete lack of explosion.

This time, the two Rain ninja did not even bother stopping to defend themselves. They merely tilted their heads slightly to avoid the limp trajectory, their faces filled with impatience.

"You think you can use the same trick twice?"

Fury rose in both their hearts. They felt this guy was treating them like idiots, and their pursuit quickened further. They wanted nothing more than to chop this irritating prey to pieces immediately.

During that chase, Tianyi barely managed to widen the distance a little before turning past a dense patch of bushes.

He pressed his back against an especially sturdy tree and coughed violently. Quickly forming hand seals, he used what little chakra he had left. "Clone Technique!" A clone that looked weak and exhausted appeared beside him.

Almost at the exact moment the clone appeared, the bushes shook as the two Rain ninja burst out one after the other. At a glance, they saw Tianyi leaning against the tree, seemingly on his last breath.

"It's over!" The leading Rain ninja lunged forward with a savage grin.

Just then, the weak clone threw another Kunai at the charging pair and let out a faint cry, "Ex... Explosive Tag... explode!"

This move again?!

The two Rain ninja did not even spare a glance for the absurdly flying Kunai. Without slowing down, they lunged straight at Tianyi! Even if it was a real Explosive Tag, it could not kill them from this distance!

However—

Just as the Kunai flew past them and was about to fall onto the ground behind them...

Boom!!!

A deafening explosion suddenly erupted!

A fireball and shockwave exploded not far from the two men! Countless rocks and wood splinters shot toward them like buckshot!

"What?!" The two Rain ninja were scared out of their wits. They had never expected the third one to be real!

Though they were not at the center of the explosion, they had been completely unprepared. Their backs and legs were instantly slashed open, agony flaring through them as they staggered and their blood churned from the heavy blast injuries.

"Damn it! He still had a real Explosive Tag!" They were shocked and enraged, but above all, furious at having been played.

Yet, behind them, under the cover of the explosion's thunderous roar and smoke, they failed to immediately notice that the ordinary Kunai they had ignored, stuck in the mud ahead and to the side, twitched slightly before instantly releasing the Transformation Technique and becoming Hyuga Tianyi!

"No, he's gone!!!" Seeing the clone ahead of them disappear, one of the Rain ninja became alert.

"Hm?" The Rain ninja who turned his head seemed to catch sight of something from the corner of his eye, but it was already too late!

From the blind spot behind them, Hyuga Tianyi, having released his transformation, threw his final Explosive Tag Kunai toward the space between the two men!

Boom—!!!

"No—!!!"

Their screams were swallowed by the explosion.

When the smoke cleared, the area was a complete mess. One Rain ninja's upper body was a mangled mass of flesh and blood, his head shattered.

The other Rain ninja lay in a pool of blood. His right arm and right leg had been blasted into a bloody mess, held together by only a little skin and flesh. His chest heaved violently, blood spilling from his nose and mouth. He was grievously wounded, making ragged gasping sounds as his eyes, filled with extreme pain and disbelief, looked toward Hyuga Tianyi in the distance.

Tianyi staggered, only managing to stay upright by grabbing the nearby tree trunk.

His face was as pale as paper. The brief escape and use of ninja techniques had completely exhausted his already limited chakra. The wound on his left shoulder had reopened, blood staining a large section of his bandages and collar red.

The veins around his Byakugan temples slowly faded, and his vision repeatedly darkened.

Looking at the scene before him—the scattered, broken limbs in the mud that did not belong to him; blood sticking to scorched leaves; the Rain ninja with his head blown apart, everything above his neck gone, leaving only jagged bone fragments and an indistinct bloody mass—

I killed someone!!!

This was not a game screen. It was not movie special effects. This was real—death and near-death that he had personally planned and personally caused with his own explosion.

His stomach suddenly convulsed violently, acidic fluid mixed with extreme terror and instinctive disgust rushing up his throat.

"Bleurgh—!!!"

Clutching the rough tree bark, he began dry-heaving violently.

The little bit of chocolate paste he had forced down earlier to maintain his body temperature and strength mixed with stomach acid and spilled uncontrollably beside the tree roots.

The sickly sweet smell of vomit mingled with the thick scent of blood in the air, stimulating his nerves even more and making him vomit again.

Only when his stomach was completely empty, when even bitter bile had come up, did his throat and nasal cavity burn with pain. He fell to his knees, trembling all over from exhaustion.

After a moment, he panted and fiercely wiped the filth from the corner of his mouth with his sleeve.

His gaze involuntarily turned again toward the severely wounded Rain ninja, who was still twitching faintly in the pool of blood.

The other man's breathing was weak, but a trace of life remained. This Rain ninja... could not be allowed to live!

No survivors! Memories belonging to Hyuga Tianyi of this ninja world surfaced. Whether to prevent information from leaking, or to... ensure his own absolute safety.

"Ghk..." The Rain ninja continued making bubbling sounds in his throat, as though he wanted to say something.

The confusion and discomfort in Tianyi's eyes gradually faded. A chill unfamiliar even to himself slowly seeped from the depths of his gaze.

This world was forcing him, and it was a choice he had to make. The vomiting was Fang Tianyi's reaction, but what came next was what Hyuga Tianyi—and the part of him that wanted to live—had to do.

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath of the damp air thick with blood. When he opened them again, only coldness remained.

Regaining a little strength, he took a Kunai from his ninja tool pouch.

He walked forward and stopped several steps away from the dying Rain ninja. Looking into the hatred-filled eyes of his opponent, he flicked his wrist.

"Pfft."

The Kunai sank precisely into the man's throat, completely ending those faint, agonized gasps.

The Rain ninja's body twitched one last time before falling completely still.