He had no intention of explaining, either. What did their thoughts have to do with him?
The four figures vanished from where they stood.
Xi'an hid in the forest with his squad.
They had received intelligence that this was one of Konoha's supply routes, and the convoy had already set out.
Their mission was to stop the enemy from transporting supplies and establishing defenses on the Land of Rain front.
He raised a hand and adjusted the Cloud ninja forehead protector on his forehead, feeling somewhat unused to it.
They waited patiently there for a long time.
Just as the four hid among the trees, a figure suddenly dropped from above, heading straight for him.
"Heaven-Piercing Kick!!"
Chapter 25: The Ambush Began
Tsunade raised her leg high and leaped down from above, bringing her leg down toward Xi'an.
Xi'an spotted Tsunade immediately, too, reacting in time to leap toward a branch behind him.
When her strike failed, Tsunade promptly reined in her strength, tapped her foot against a tree, and continued charging at Xi'an.
Her swinging fist whipped up whooshing gusts.
Although Xi'an reacted just as he landed on the tree, it was already too late to dodge. He could only cross his arms in front of himself to block.
Boom!!
Xi'an flew backward, crashing through one tree after another. Tsunade did not stop and continued pursuing him.
The battle erupted in an instant.
By the time the other ninja reacted, Tsunade and Xi'an had both disappeared from sight.
Hyuga Hiashi and Hizashi Hyuga, who had crept in from the left, also attacked immediately.
"Eight Trigrams Empty Wall Palm!"
It was a taijutsu attack in which two people who knew the Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm activated their Byakugan, then each simultaneously released a vacuum shock wave from one hand to attack their opponent.
It was also an upgraded version of the Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm, one of the Hyuga Clan's techniques for engaging enemies at range.
Boom!!
The vacuum shock wave exploded right in the middle of the four ninja, forcing all four to scatter to avoid the attack.
Hyuga Hiashi and Hizashi Hyuga charged straight at the two chunin.
The remaining two genin landed on the ground and quickly gathered together, intending to help their teammates.
But just as they started to move-
Whoosh! Whoosh!
Several shuriken flew in from a distance and embedded themselves at their feet, temporarily halting them.
Hyuga Akira hung upside down from a branch, the corners of his mouth almost curling up to his eyes.
"I'm your opponent."
He crossed his hands, a shuriken held between each of his fingers.
"Time to pull the mobs."
"Shuriken heavy firepower mode!!"
Chakra gathered over his hands, seemingly forming a pair of bear paws.
Kumate.
Fire!
Shuriken shot from Hyuga Akira's hands one after another, both his hands blurring into afterimages.
The two genin's expressions changed, and they quickly split up to dodge in opposite directions. The whooshing never stopped. The shuriken moved faster than anything they had known, accompanied by heavy sounds.
They turned to glance back and were instantly scared out of their wits.
A shuriken struck a tree trunk and blasted the entire trunk apart with a boom!
Those things were shuriken!!?
Whose shuriken were that powerful!!?
If one hit a person, wouldn't it punch a hole right through them? The two moved even more desperately.
The trees behind them exploded with an unbroken series of booms, like the footsteps of death following close behind.
As they fled for their lives, they did not even have time to use ninjutsu.
"You can't escape." Hyuga Akira sneered. His hands kept throwing shuriken as he flitted swiftly through the forest like a ghost.
One genin stopped behind a tree, hoping to catch his breath for a moment.
But to the Byakugan, he was already completely exposed.
An opening!
Hyuga Akira's right hand suddenly stopped throwing and swiftly formed hand seals.
The hand seals for Fire Release: Unknowing Fire were simple to begin with, so forming them one-handed was not especially difficult for him. It was just a little slower than forming seals normally, mainly because guiding chakra with one-handed seals was more difficult.
"Fire Release: Unknowing Fire!"
"Kumate!"
Stacking the two ninjutsu, he threw a shuriken with all the strength in his left hand. Halfway through its flight, the shuriken turned into a palm-sized fireball and slammed into the trunk.
Boom!
It instantly pierced through the trunk, along with the genin behind it who had been about to catch his breath.
[Experience: 456]
Hyuga Akira did not pause, leaping straight toward a branch behind him. He had no time to collect the drops now; there was still another genin to deal with.
The other genin had not stopped at all and had already put some distance between them.
But he had also underestimated Hyuga Akira's speed. The movement speed boost from the Bandit Greaves turned Hyuga Akira into a dark blur as he swiftly pursued the fleeing genin.
Soon, his Byakugan locked onto the other man's figure, and the shuriken in his hands began firing again.
Moreover, the other man was now directly ahead of Hyuga Akira, rather than dodging left and right as before.
Enhanced by Unknowing Fire and Kumate, the shuriken turned into fireballs that pierced through the trees and the fleeing genin's body alike, riddling him with holes like a sieve.
The holes in his body were just a little large.
[Experience: 543]
Hyuga Akira quickly approached, collected the items dropped by the genin, then turned and ran back to the first genin's corpse, picking up the drops and putting them into his backpack.
Only then did he head toward one of the chunin.
In the woods.
Hizashi Hyuga's body slammed into a tree, snapping the entire tree in half.
"Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!" The chunin swiftly formed hand seals and spat a fierce gale from his mouth, sending it sweeping toward Hizashi Hyuga.
Having just landed on the ground, Hizashi Hyuga gritted his teeth and immediately used Rotation.
The blue hemispherical sphere of light blocked the fierce gale.
At that moment, the chunin charged forward with a sword in hand.
Hizashi Hyuga took a breath. He could not maintain his Rotation for long yet. Watching the chunin charging at him, he gritted his teeth and rushed forward.
Although he could not win, his task was to keep the enemy occupied.
Just as the two were about to clash, shuriken carrying tremendous force suddenly flew toward them.
The chunin's expression changed. Suspended in midair, he had no time to dodge. He twisted at the waist, turned in midair, and kicked Hizashi Hyuga, using the recoil to fly backward and only then avoiding the shuriken.
Hyuga Akira darted forward with a bronze blade in hand. His chakra was running a little low, and he could not keep using heavy firepower mode.
"Gentle Fist: Yin-Yang Eccentric Blade!"
He did not know any swordsmanship, so he could only use Gentle Fist moves to swing his blade at the chunin.
Gentle Fist was a fist-fighting style to begin with, and performing it with a blade felt awkward.
Not only did he feel awkward, but his opponent did, too. The chunin met him with a kunai in hand, blocked two strikes, then kicked Hyuga Akira in the abdomen, sending him flying.
"What was that?" The chunin frowned, pushed off a branch, and charged toward Hyuga Akira as he fell toward the ground. Once he drew close, he was about to take Hyuga Akira's life with his kunai.
In midair, Hyuga Akira grinned, and his figure abruptly vanished.
Substitution Technique.
The chunin's pupils contracted. An explosive tag had actually appeared before him, and his kunai had stabbed right into it.
Boom!!
The explosive tag detonated instantly, engulfing the chunin. He had underestimated his opponent far too much and fallen straight into the trap.
After all, who could have imagined that a genin who could not even handle a blade properly could pull off such a godlike Substitution Technique on him?
Hyuga Akira appeared in the distance and let out a soft breath. Fortunately, he had stuck the explosive tag to a tree before charging in earlier. Seeing no experience notification before his eyes, he knew the enemy was not dead yet.
He jumped down from the tree, about to head over and finish him off.
But when he saw Hizashi Hyuga charge ahead first with a kunai in hand, his eyes widened in fury as he roared, "Touch him and I'll kill you!!"
He hurled several shuriken at Hizashi Hyuga first.
Chapter 26: Hyuga Akira Was the Source of Danger
That chunin had only a breath left in him, with extensive burns across his body. Just a light blow would take his life.
Hizashi Hyuga wanted to finish the enemy off, but whooshing sounds cut through the air beside his ears as Hyuga Akira's shuriken reached him first.
The shuriken were also enhanced with Kumate's power, coming fast and hard.
By the time Hizashi Hyuga noticed, it was already too late to dodge. He stared wide-eyed at the furious Hyuga Akira.
Seriously, what grudge did he have against me?
He was trying to kill me!
"Rotation!!"
A blue hemisphere swiftly formed. The shuriken struck it and were sent flying by Rotation.
Hyuga Akira ran over at that moment, raised the blade in his hand, and brought it down on the chunin who still had a breath left.
Once the chunin's head rolled twice across the ground and stopped, something flashed before his eyes.
[Experience: 1451]
He tossed the items dropped by the chunin into his equipment inventory.
"What the hell are you trying to do!?" Hizashi Hyuga demanded furiously.
He had attacked him out of nowhere.
Hyuga Akira gave Hizashi Hyuga a sidelong look. "Steal my mobs and I'll kill you."
There had clearly been only one last hit left, yet Hizashi Hyuga had actually dared to intervene. Did he really think he was blind?
What mobs?
Hyuga Akira did not understand what "mobs" meant, but he understood that Hyuga Akira had attacked him just over the last hit on this chunin.
Before you continue