"Boom-"
Another deafening crash rang out amid the rising splinters of shattered wood.
Yanbai's gaze hardened. Without a word, he grabbed Tobirama Senju and immediately used the Body Flicker Technique to sprint away.
From the area filled with wood chips and dust.
A dazzling streak of light shot toward them.
"Rumble-"
The dust mixed with the air and was ignited by Fire Release Ninjutsu, triggering a violent explosion.
The severed limbs of Yuzhi's guards, who had failed to escape in time, flew through the air alongside rotten wood and chunks of shattered earth.
Yanbai moved swiftly, but Tobirama Senju had not reacted in time. He barely escaped the explosion, only for stones and splinters hurled by the shock wave to slice his face.
The wounds were shallow, but blood poured from them.
Yanbai merely glanced over, only to discover that Tobirama Senju's face now bore the red marks he had sported in his original fate.
So the red marks on the Second Hokage's face weren't painted on?
Unfortunately, Yanbai was in no mood to dwell on something so trivial. Still holding Tobirama Senju's hand, he immediately cast the Restoration Technique.
Their eldest brother, Hashirama Senju, and their employer were cut off ahead of them by the fallen giant tree.
The enemy had come prepared. They were surely already pursuing Hashirama Senju on the other side.
Yanbai had to get there as quickly as possible. Even if Yuzhi had to die, it could not happen in front of the enemy.
Rocky mountains rose on both sides. Getting past that giant tree would take considerable time.
Suddenly, Yanbai sensed something wrong and dragged Tobirama Senju away from where they stood once more.
Yanbai kept his grip on Tobirama Senju the entire time, refusing to let him leave his side.
Heaven and earth roared. The ground tilted violently, undulating like a dancer's flowing sleeves.
A brilliant light appeared from some unknown source, hurtling like a meteor toward Yanbai and Tobirama Senju.
Yanbai raised a hand in front of him.
"Wood Release: Guanyin Chaotic Shadows!"
This was a Wood Release move Yanbai had adapted from the Eighty Gods Vacuum Attack. A wooden statue of the thousand-armed Guanyin, as tall as an adult, suddenly appeared before him.
A long blade struck the Guanyin statue in an instant, its edge embedding itself in the wood.
Someone had slashed at Yanbai and Tobirama Senju with lightning speed. The sword strike was astonishingly fast and powerful.
The ambush had failed, but the strike's momentum remained. The long blade sank deep into the statue, nearly severing its head.
Fresh wood immediately grew from the gash, wrapping tightly around the blade. The sword was now lodged in the Guanyin statue's neck, locked firmly in place.
The wielder had never encountered anything like this before and looked utterly bewildered.
In the span of an instant, the thousand-armed Guanyin statue swung its wooden arms at the swordsman.
The man let out an "Huh?" and leaped backward, narrowly avoiding the fist that suddenly swung at him. It was purely an instinctive move to escape.
Just then, several adult men wearing the Uchiha Clan's traditional battle attire arrived in a flash.
The assassin moved like a shadow, joining the newly arrived Uchiha.
The wind stirred in a fleeting, almost intoxicated shimmer, brushing past Yanbai's retreating back.
Yanbai had no intention of fighting them. He had already dragged Tobirama Senju far away.
The Uchiha activated their Sharingan. The red-eyed bunch stared fixedly at Yanbai and Tobirama Senju's retreating figures and began whispering among themselves.
"That's the child from the portrait..."
"You're seeing things. Were there two people in the portrait?"
"The person in the portrait is the child the Clan Leader's been searching for..."
"That's someone from the Senju Clan..."
The Uchiha who had come to assassinate them stated the facts without expression.
"Whoever she is, she's a Senju. Kill her-"
At those words, every Uchiha's expression hardened. Their bearing changed as they attacked in the direction Yanbai had fled, their movements swift and vicious.
However...
Yanbai pulled Tobirama Senju along ahead of them, fleeing in a bizarre zigzagging pattern.
A pack of red-eyed Uchiha chased behind them.
The Uchiha at the front wore a serious expression, his outstretched hand nearly catching the child ahead. Since they were merely catching children, they had not wasted chakra on Ninjutsu at the outset.
Suddenly...
"Bang-"
"Bang-"
"Bang-"
Strange sounds came from the ground, followed immediately by...
"Aaaaaah-!" Several screams rang out from among the Uchiha.
Just as the Uchiha at the very front was about to catch the hem of the child's clothing.
A sapling suddenly shot up from the ground below with lightning speed.
As though their movements had been predicted, the saplings grew directly beneath their crotches, forcefully launching them into the air.
It looked as though they had run onto the trees themselves.
In truth, Yanbai had predicted the route of their pursuit.
He blindly cast the simplest Wood Release along that route, making the resulting trees grow hard into their balls.
The Uchiha running at the front were spectacularly unlucky. It was like being kicked viciously in the crotch-one strike, two bursts.
The sight was practically a group of robed Uchiha suddenly changing poses mid-run, rising like cranes above a flock of chickens.
In an instant, the screams behind them tore through the air and pierced the clouds.
Even Tobirama Senju, who was being dragged along by Yanbai, could not help closing his eyes in pain.
Those ball-busting screams behind him were so infectious that Tobirama Senju felt their pain himself. Even his running stride grew considerably tighter.
Tobirama Senju did not dare speak. They were fleeing for their lives, and he had no savior complex.
Earlier, while they were walking, Yanbai and Tobirama Senju had discussed this.
If they encountered the Uchiha Clan, they would flee immediately and never confront them head-on;
They could cripple them, but never kill them;
Yanbai's reasoning was that the two clans would reconcile sooner or later. They should avoid deaths wherever possible.
At the time, Tobirama Senju had thought that everyone said, "If you meet an Uchiha one-on-one, flee." He had assumed Yanbai was simply a coward who insisted on finding a high-minded excuse to run away.
But now...
Fuck!
Honestly, Tobirama Senju felt that having your balls shattered would inspire a far more irreconcilable grudge than a swift death!
Hopefully, this ball-shattering grudge would only turn these Uchiha into haters rather than turn them evil. After all, the Uchiha Clan was a distinguished ninja clan with a sense of decorum.
As they ran ahead, the sound of snapping vegetation followed them wherever they went.
Tobirama Senju remembered that Yanbai had made all his brothers wear the shoes he had crafted. Unlike ninja sandals, these were ornate shoes with upturned toes, their tips made of metal.
Worn normally, they looked luxurious and elegant.
But now that they were fleeing, Tobirama Senju realized just how fucking lethal these shoes were. If you used them to kick someone in the crotch, they would not just crush things-they could stab right in...
He was finding every possible way to make the enemy lose both their balls and their dignity.
The Uchiha pursuing them from behind escaped injury thanks to the warning provided by those ahead, but their pace slowed considerably, too. They were terrified that a tree might suddenly sprout beneath their crotches.
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