An Unexpected Delight!

Whoosh!

A vortex appeared in the forest, and Riu landed on the ground. After scanning the area with his Sharingan, he picked up a branch.

"There are trampled marks ahead, but the rear was cut off with a blade. It was a false trail deliberately made to mislead pursuers. So the real escape route is this way..." Riu looked toward the four o'clock direction.

Tobi sighed inwardly. Yu's intelligence analysis skills were gradually becoming more refined. Even without the Sharingan and Hashirama Clone, he would probably have become an outstanding ninja...

Riu pursued Hokai in the direction he had fled.

Along the way, he spotted nearly imperceptible threads stretched between tree trunks and rocks, connected to Explosive Tag traps.

"Traps? Fine. I'll use them against you..." Riu casually threw a kunai, severing the threads.

Boom! Boom! Boom! A chain of explosions thundered through the woods.

Hokai, fleeing toward the forest exit, stopped atop a tree trunk upon hearing the explosions behind him.

He wore a Konoha forehead protector with a horizontal slash carved through its center by a kunai—the standard mark of a rogue ninja.

"Did my traps work..." Hokai exhaled in relief and took out a Soldier Pill, swallowing it.

Whoosh! A dark figure raced toward him from the edge of his vision.

Whoosh! Hokai hurled a kunai at the shadow!

Watching the incoming kunai, Riu thought, An opponent at this level doesn't warrant using Kamui to evade. This is a good chance to hone my basic combat skills!

Clang!

Riu knocked the kunai aside with a backhanded strike and landed on a tree trunk.

"Are you with Root, or ANBU?" Hokai asked warily.

"Neither. I'm here for the sixteen-million-ryō bounty on your head," Riu said calmly.

Hearing that, Hokai visibly relaxed. He formed hand seals, the corner of his mouth curling upward. "Then you're truly unlucky. I've already killed several people like you along the way..."

Whoosh! The seals were completed, and his figure blurred before disappearing.

"Oh? The Camouflage Concealment Technique. An advanced ninjutsu that changes the user's body to colors resembling the surrounding environment, achieving invisibility. As expected of a Jōnin, but..."

This kind of trick was completely meaningless before the Sharingan.

Whoosh! Riu leaned backward as a blade sliced past above him, cutting down several leaves...

"A sensory ninja?!" Hokai's attack had missed. He released the Camouflage Concealment Technique to avoid wasting Chakra, then flashed behind Riu.

"Dancing Leaf Shadow... It seems you specialize in swordsmanship," Riu murmured.

Hokai swung his ninja blade and unleashed Konoha-Style Swordsmanship: Crescent Moon Dance!

Swish, swish, swish! Amid flickering flashes of light, Riu was cut into several pieces. Yet with a puff, his body turned into chunks of wood that fell to the ground.

It was merely an ordinary Substitution Technique, but what shocked Hokai was this: "His Substitution Technique activated faster than my swordsmanship?!"

"You did assassinate a daimyo, after all. Though you failed, surely this isn't all you can do..." Riu appeared on a tree behind him.

"Bastard!" The words seemed to strike a sore spot. Hokai roared and scattered countless shuriken around him, pinning them into the trees. Every shuriken was tied to steel wire. His hands moved rapidly, and the crisscrossing wires sealed off all directions. As Hokai pulled backward, the wires coiled around Riu as well...

"This is Manipulated Windmill Triple-Blade. During the Chunin Ninja Exams in the Forest of Death, the young Sasuke Uchiha had barely managed to use it against Orochimaru with the aid of the Sharingan. It seems the difficulty isn't much for a Jōnin..." Riu murmured, as though he had forgotten that he was the one being bound.

"It's over!" Hokai clenched the other end of the wire between his teeth and formed hand seals.

Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!!

Roar!!

Flames raced along the steel wires toward Riu.

"So this is all sixteen million gets you..." Riu muttered.

Crack! Crack! His arms snapped the steel wires apart. He raised one hand and formed the Horse seal as Chakra gathered in his throat.

Fire Release: Majestic Destroyer Flame!

Boom, boom, boom!!

What burst forth was an immense sea of raging flames. In an instant, it melted the steel wires, swallowed the Great Fireball, and swept through a vast stretch of forest...

During the Fourth Shinobi World War, Uchiha Madara had used this very Fire Release to suppress the Water Wall jointly unleashed by twenty Water Release ninja of the Shinobi Alliance. Riu's Majestic Destroyer Flame was not as powerful as Madara's, but it already possessed a third of Madara's overwhelming might!

Heat waves rolled outward. Staring at the roaring sea of flames rushing toward him, Hokai cried out in despair, "You... what exactly are you?! Aah!!!"

Boom!! The blazing flames exploded, shooting firelight into the sky, visible even from far away.

In the distance, three Konoha ANBU ninja pursuing Hokai stopped. Shielding their faces from the heat, they stared toward the firelight...

"What level of Fire Release was that?!"

"Could Root have gotten there first?!"

The two male ANBU ninja were horrified.

"Let's go take a look!" The female ANBU ninja in front took the lead.

When they reached the scene, what they saw was something they would never forget for the rest of their lives...

That Fire Release had forcibly burned out a clearing in the forest. In the center of the scorched ground, a masked youth in a black robe held up a charred corpse whose face was no longer recognizable. He muttered in distress, "This is troublesome. Now I can't even identify his face. The sixteen million ryō won't just go down the drain, will it?"

"If it's only the face, I can restore it with my ability..." Another voice came from the youth's body, entirely different in tone—somewhat frivolous, somewhat cocky.

"Damn it, it's Hokai! Root still got here first!" One of the male ANBU ninja clenched his fists unwillingly.

Hokai had originally been a member of Konoha ANBU, assigned to protect the daimyo of the Land of Fire. Yet without warning, he had attacked the daimyo.

The ANBU investigation afterward discovered that Hokai had been in contact with Root before fleeing. Thus, they suspected Root had tampered with Hokai in an attempt to frame the Fourth Hokage, commander of the ANBU.

Given Root's methods, they would surely silence him at the first opportunity. The mission of these three ANBU ninja was to bring Hokai back before Root could get to him.

"No, he isn't with Root. His attire is different, and he clearly mentioned sixteen million ryō..." After noticing the inconsistency, the female ninja leading them stepped forward and shouted at Riu's back, "Who goes there?! We are Konoha ANBU. This is territory under Konoha's jurisdiction. State your identity!"

"Hm?" Hearing her, Riu slowly turned his face. The Sharingan beneath his mask gleamed brightly.

"The Sharingan! Close your eyes, don't make eye contact with him!!" The female ninja's pupils shrank sharply as she immediately shut her eyes.

Thud! Thud! But it was too late. The two male ANBU ninja behind her had already been caught and collapsed.

"That hair color, that voice... Could it be..."

Riu murmured as he dragged Hokai's corpse toward the female ninja.

The female ninja retreated at high speed, only for her back to strike a large tree.

Riu was already standing before her.

"Damn it!!" The female ninja drew her blade and slashed forward.

Whoosh!!

But the blade passed through Riu's body without the sensation of a successful strike...

"What?! What is this..." As the female ninja recoiled in shock, she discovered that she had already fallen into the Anvil Genjutsu. She could not move. Fear swept through her body, making her shoulders tremble faintly.

Riu reached out and removed the animal mask from the female ninja's face, revealing a breathtaking yet youthful visage. Riu's eyes lit up.

"Yugao Uzuki... So it really is you..."