How many more can you fire?

A cigarette butt was no big deal.

Zou Hyuga convinced himself of that, disposed of the cigarette butt, and continued following Asuma.

But after only a few steps, he slowly came to a halt. His Byakugan had already told him everything.

"Oto, get ready to fight... enemies are approaching from behind."

His Byakugan had detected signs of the enemy. At his warning, Zou Hyuga and Oto Uchiha readied themselves for battle.

"Shouldn't we call Asuma Sarutobi over too?"

Oto Uchiha hesitated slightly as she spoke. They weren't close to Asuma. Once the fighting started, they could leave him to cover their retreat if necessary.

"No!" Zou Hyuga shook his head, his chest rising and falling. "Just the two of us."

It wasn't that he didn't want cannon fodder, but Asuma Sarutobi was practically a walking disaster. If he stirred up any more trouble, Zou feared for his life.

Besides, there weren't that many enemies, only ten or twenty ninja.

He and Oto were both Konoha genin with bloodline abilities, bearing that honorable title. Ordinary standards didn't apply to them. Surely they wouldn't come to grief over something so minor.

At that thought, Zou Hyuga decided it still wasn't safe enough. He rolled up his sleeve and looked at the black stripes on his arm. Perhaps tattoos would be a more fitting description.

They were the result of his attempt to break the Caged Bird Seal when he was nine.

He had failed to break the Caged Bird Seal, but several tattoos that wouldn't wash off had appeared on his body afterward.

Their appearance had also put his plan to train his Byakugan at the bathhouse and observe chakra flow on hold.

He didn't want outsiders learning his body's secrets. Acting strangely in Konoha was never a good idea. It could draw unwanted attention.

Whenever he thought of the scar-faced Danzo and Orochihime back in the village, cold sweat broke out down his back.

"You've made up your mind to use that?" Oto Uchiha asked, looking at the tattoos.

"That's right. It's time to use this."

Meeting Oto Uchiha's serious gaze, Zou Hyuga nodded solemnly.

Oto Uchiha was the only person who knew the secret of his tattoos, as well as his only follower and squadmate.

As for how she had learned his secret, Zou Hyuga preferred not to dwell on it.

It had been a night of thunder and lightning. The rain had poured down, enemy ninja had been everywhere, and he had been wounded.

Setting his poisoned kunai aside, Zou Hyuga bit his finger and smeared blood over the tattoos. They began to glow, but his opaque clothing concealed the light.

Long ago, he had discovered that the tattoos allowed him to enter a remarkable state.

Although it lasted only ten minutes, his physical capabilities increased dramatically, and his chakra became virtually inexhaustible, greatly improving his combat strength and chances of survival.

Only with that state had he been able to defeat enemy jonin or Oto Uchiha despite being a genin.

It wasn't until he later witnessed Jiraiya using Sage Mode, and saw a kunai turn to stone after being infused with energy, that he realized the tattoos on his body might be a form of Sage Mode.

Being able to use Sage Mode hadn't made Zou Hyuga particularly happy.

Until he freed himself from the Caged Bird Seal, revealing Sage Mode would only turn him into a research subject for the village, invite unnecessary trouble, and restrict his personal freedom.

After a full half minute of preparation, Zou Hyuga entered Sage Mode.

Beside him, Oto Uchiha took out her goggles, three tomoe appearing in her eyes.

Three tomoe were highly unusual for a fourteen-year-old Uchiha girl. Zou Hyuga had told her that, so she obediently put on her goggles.

In Sage Mode, Zou Hyuga radiated a sacred aura, like a god walking among mortals.

But he knew his own limitations. He didn't think Sage Mode could improve his combat strength all that much.

First, his talent for ninjutsu could only be described as terrible. He couldn't learn any technique above C-rank, and even with senjutsu enhancing them, his techniques wouldn't be especially powerful.

Worse still, the only chakra nature he could use was wind, and he couldn't use the Rasengan.

His sole advantage was the physical enhancement provided by Sage Mode, which allowed him to use his family's Gentle Fist more effectively.

He had once entertained hopes of obtaining the Tenseigan on the moon, but wishful thinking was just that.

Clearing the stray thoughts from his mind, Zou Hyuga looked ahead.

Through his Byakugan, he saw that the enemy ninja force had entered a two-hundred-meter radius. They were close enough to ambush now.

He exchanged a glance with Oto Uchiha. She formed hand seals and called out in a low voice, "Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!"

In an instant, an enormous fireball rose into the air, radiating astonishing heat.

Zou Hyuga immediately formed his own hand seals and called out, "Wind Release: Great Spread!"

The moment he spoke, a surge of wind swept up from the ground. The fireball, previously two meters across, instantly expanded to ten meters, staining half the sky red.

Then, propelled by Zou Hyuga, the fireball flew toward the Cloud Ninja force racing through the forest.

With a ten-meter fireball suddenly appearing, the Cloud Ninja couldn't possibly ignore it. They scattered in every direction to evade it.

Boom...

On contact with the ground, the fireball exploded. Fire engulfed an area dozens of meters across, leaving the ground covered in still-burning embers.

"Looks like I missed..." Zou Hyuga muttered as he observed the distant scene with his Byakugan.

"With something like that, does it really matter if you miss?" Oto Uchiha asked, tilting her head.

"Good point..." Zou Hyuga nodded slightly, then looked at Oto Uchiha. "So, how many more can you fire?"

"How many? Same as before. Five at most."

After a pause, Oto Uchiha, her face concealed, said, "We still need to conserve our strength in case something unexpected happens."

"I didn't think that through."

Looking back at where the fireball had struck, Zou Hyuga frowned. The Great Fireball Technique enhanced with senjutsu had decent power, but its accuracy left much to be desired.

For a Konoha scout with the Byakugan, that kind of long-range shot clearly wasn't good enough.

As for why a C-rank Fire Release technique was more powerful than ordinary Fire Release, that was naturally thanks to senjutsu. Although he could only use Wind Release techniques below B-rank, his senjutsu chakra could enhance other people's ninjutsu.

That was why Oto Uchiha, who knew many ninjutsu techniques but lacked power, had become his partner.

As someone with the Byakugan bloodline ability, he preferred using explosive tags and bombarding the area with ninjutsu when carrying out solo missions, unless he needed to conceal his identity.

After all, he had suggested to his clan long ago that the Byakugan could see through objects a kilometer away.

Wasn't using it to support the close-range Gentle Fist a terrible waste?

Elsewhere, the Cloud Ninja leader, left reeling by the ninjutsu attack, wore a livid expression.

After tending to his wounds, he glanced back at his subordinates, who had been injured by the intense heat, and the surrounding woods flickering with embers.

He was almost certain that the force that had dealt the killing blow to the earlier squad was a Konoha jonin team, possibly even including elite jonin.

Anyone in Konoha capable of Fire Release on that scale was certainly no ordinary ninja.

Still, a Fire Release attack like that had to be a large-scale cooperative technique. They probably couldn't use it a second time.

Once the battle moved into close quarters, the Cloud Ninja would be in their element.

Just as the Cloud Ninja leader was thinking this, the next wave of ninjutsu appeared before his eyes.