Pursuers in the Rainy Night

Somewhere in a forest on 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 five minutes. Just five minutes, definitely not too long!

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

He did not know how much time had passed. Perhaps it had only been an instant.

The night sky, which had still been fairly clear, had somehow gathered thick, leaden clouds that blotted out the last faint glimmer of stars and moonlight. The wind gradually picked up.

One drop, then two... more and more, falling ever more densely. At first, it was a fine drizzle that silently seeped into the forest. Before long, it became a steady patter, raindrops striking the broad leaves with a dense rustling sound.

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

Before him lay a hazy curtain of rain and the tangled shadows of tree roots. His mind was briefly dazed and confused. "This is..." Then the stabbing pain in his shoulder and the wet, cold, sticky feel of his clothes hit him. Transmigration, battlefield, escape, rendezvous, bandaging... every scene came flooding back, along with those damned "five minutes"!

He instinctively tried to move his stiff neck, but suddenly froze.

Something was wrong!

It was too quiet!

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

"Are there enemies?!" The thought rose in his mind and instantly jolted him fully awake, wiping away every trace of sleepiness.

What should he do? Blindly running away would be a dead end! Information! Right, he needed information!

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

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

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

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

His vision stretched to its limit, piercing through the rain as his gaze swept rapidly in every direction.

One hundred meters, three hundred meters, five hundred meters... The muddy little river they had passed during the daytime escape, now swelling beneath the 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 insight beyond all common sense left him shocked by the miraculous power of the Byakugan.

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

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

The enemy seemed to notice his chakra fluctuations at that moment. Their speed abruptly increased, their formation tightened, and they charged straight at him!

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

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

Glancing 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 gone, my stamina is failing, and I have no hope in a direct fight. 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 thick tree, putting on an exhausted pose as though he needed to lean against it for support. At the same time, with an extremely concealed movement of his right hand, he carefully tied his last real Explosive Tag to the end of a Kunai's handle, secured it with a strip of torn bandage, and hid it in his sleeve. He gripped two ordinary Kunai in his hands.

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

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

The Kunai traced a weak, limp arc and even flew crookedly. It could not possibly hit them and did not pose the slightest threat.

Hearing him, the two Rain ninja instinctively flinched and reflexively assumed evasive or defensive stances, their movements visibly stalling.

Yet the expected explosion never came. The Kunai lodged crookedly in the mud diagonally ahead of them, completely motionless.

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

"You scared the hell out of me!"

"As expected, he's 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 quickened their pursuit, believing the Hyuga brat before them was already fish on the chopping block.

Tianyi seemed enraged by their ridicule, or perhaps truly out of tricks, and once again struggled to run forward a few steps.

Leaning against another tree, he turned back. His right hand seemed to reach into his ninja pouch again, and he threw another Kunai, his voice filled with despair. "Die! Explosive Tag, explode!"

Another feeble throw, another missed target, and once again... no 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 flying Kunai, their faces full of impatience.

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

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

During that chase, Tianyi barely managed to widen the distance slightly before rounding a dense patch of bushes.

He pressed his back against an especially thick tree and coughed violently. He quickly formed hand seals, using up what little chakra he had left. "Clone Technique!" A clone that looked weak beyond measure appeared beside him.

Almost the instant the clone appeared, the bushes shook, and the two Rain ninja burst out one after the other. At a glance, they spotted Tianyi leaning against the tree, barely clinging to life.

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

At that moment, the weak clone threw another Kunai at the charging pair and let out a feeble shout. "Ex... Explosive Tag... explode!"

This again?!

The two Rain ninja did not even look at the absurdly weak flight path of the Kunai. Without slowing down, they charged 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 to the ground behind them...

BOOM!!!

A deafening explosion erupted without warning!

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

"What?!" The two Rain ninja were terrified out of their wits. They had never imagined the third one would actually be real!

Though they were not at the center of the explosion, they had been completely unprepared. Their backs and legs were immediately slashed open, and intense pain struck them. They staggered, their blood and energy churning as they suffered severe concussion injuries.

"Damn it! He still had a real Explosive Tag!" They were shocked and furious, but more than anything, enraged at having been tricked.

Yet behind them, amid the thunderous blast and smoke, they failed to immediately notice that the ordinary Kunai they had ignored, stuck in the mud diagonally before them, twitched slightly and instantly dispelled its Transformation Technique, turning into Hinata Tianyi!

"No, he's gone!!!" Seeing the clone ahead 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 their blind spot behind them, Hinata Tianyi, having dispelled his transformation, threw the final Explosive Tag Kunai into the space between them!

BOOOOM—!!!

"No—!!!"

Their screams were swallowed by the explosion.

As the smoke cleared, the area was a complete wreck. One Rain ninja's upper body had been blasted into a mangled mass of flesh, his skull shattered.

The other Rain ninja lay in a pool of blood. His right arm and leg had been blown into bloody ruin, held together by only a little skin and flesh. His chest heaved violently, blood spilling from his mouth and nose. He was gravely wounded, making ragged, wheezing breaths as his eyes filled with utter agony and disbelief while he stared at Hinata Tianyi in the distance.

Tianyi staggered, catching himself against a nearby tree trunk before he collapsed.

His face was as pale as paper. The brief escape and use of ninjutsu had completely drained his already limited chakra. The wound on his left shoulder had split open, blood staining a large patch of his bandages and collar.

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

Looking at the scene before him—the shattered limbs and pieces of flesh scattered through the mud that did not belong to him; blood clinging to charred leaves; the Rain ninja with the blown-apart head, empty above the neck, leaving only jagged bone fragments and an indistinct mess—

I killed someone!!!

This was not a game screen, not movie effects. These were real deaths and dying, caused by a plan he had devised and explosions he had set off with his own hands.

His stomach suddenly cramped violently, sour liquid mixed with extreme terror and instinctive disgust rushing up his throat.

"Ugh—!!!"

He clutched the rough bark and retched 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 heavy scent of blood in the air, further assaulting his nerves and making him vomit again.

Only when his stomach was completely empty, after he had even thrown up bitter bile, did the burning pain in his throat and nasal cavity force him to his knees, his entire body trembling helplessly.

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

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

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

He could not leave a survivor! A memory from Hinata Tianyi's life in this ninja world surfaced. Whether to prevent information from leaking or... to ensure his own absolute safety.

"Ghh..." The Rain ninja's throat continued making bubbling sounds, as though he wanted to say something.

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

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

Recovering a little strength, he pulled a Kunai from his ninja pouch.

He walked over and stopped several steps from the dying Rain ninja. Looking into the man's venomous eyes, he flicked his wrist.

"Pfft."

The Kunai plunged precisely into his throat, completely ending those faint, agonized breaths.

The Rain ninja's body twitched one last time, then went completely still.