Was there something wrong with this guy?
What difference did it make who killed the enemy? Kills didn't count as merit.
Hyuga Akira had no time to bother with him. He turned and rushed toward another battlefield.
There were still a Chunin and a Jonin left. He wondered whether he would get a chance to finish them off.
But when he reached the other Chunin's battlefield, Hyuga Hiashi was lying on the ground, with Tsunade beside him treating him with the Mystical Palm Technique.
Looking at the Chunin who had already stopped breathing, Hyuga Akira sighed regretfully.
He hadn't killed him, so forget item drops-he didn't even get any experience.
He had still been a step too late. He hadn't expected Tsunade to finish her opponent so quickly.
All he could say was that she lived up to her status as one of the future Sannin. Even against a fellow Jonin, she could finish the fight this quickly.
"Did you finish them off?" Tsunade turned and asked Hyuga Akira.
"All of them." Hyuga Akira nodded, looking at Hyuga Hiashi lying unconscious on the ground. His white clothes were already stained red. This guy was in pretty bad shape.
Hizashi Hyuga walked over with an unpleasant expression. He glanced at Hyuga Akira, then at Tsunade, but ultimately said nothing about what had just happened.
Even if he had, Hyuga Akira wouldn't have cared. He even wanted Hyuga Hiashi to realize that sometimes, he was the source of danger.
Although Hyuga Akira hadn't said it aloud, Hizashi Hyuga had already vaguely understood it at that moment.
He was even considering that if Hyuga Hiashi wanted to bring Hyuga Akira under his control, it would depend entirely on how hard he was to kill. Otherwise, he might die at Hyuga Akira's hands before succeeding.
"He's out of danger now." Tsunade stopped treating Hyuga Hiashi and told Hyuga Akira, "You take over his treatment."
Up to this point, Hyuga Akira had never actually treated anyone.
Hizashi Hyuga's expression changed drastically. "Jonin Tsunade, please let me entrust my brother's injuries to you."
Tsunade waved her hand and said, "Don't worry. Hyuga Akira's medical skills are quite good. He can treat Hyuga Hiashi."
Hizashi Hyuga was somewhat exasperated.
Was that what he was worried about?
He was worried that this bastard Hyuga Akira would do something underhanded. Now he understood exactly what kind of person Hyuga Akira was.
This guy was a complete lunatic.
Originally, he had wanted to help Hyuga Hiashi bring him under his control and turn him into a completely loyal death warrior.
Now he had completely abandoned that idea.
This guy deserved a taste of the Caged Bird Seal's power.
"All right, I'll give it a try," Hyuga Akira said casually, though a thought suddenly surfaced in his mind.
Could I accidentally kill Hyuga Hiashi? That way, he could even drop a Byakugan.
The Main Family's Byakugan was very useful. It could directly raise his Byakugan by one level.
As it turned out, Hizashi Hyuga's worries were entirely justified.
Just as Hyuga Akira was about to step forward, Hizashi Hyuga blocked him and hurriedly told Tsunade, "Jonin Tsunade, my brother doesn't need Hyuga Akira to treat him."
Tsunade frowned, also sensing that something was wrong. Hizashi Hyuga hadn't been this wary of Hyuga Akira at first.
She looked at Hyuga Akira suspiciously. What had this brat done now?
Hyuga Akira merely looked up at the sky, appearing indifferent. He had figured it out: killing Hyuga Hiashi in front of Tsunade was practically impossible.
He didn't care whether he treated him or not.
"Hyuga Akira, go get our things," Tsunade ordered.
"Yes," Hyuga Akira answered, leaping onto a branch and disappearing after a few bounds.
Before taking action, they had left their backpacks elsewhere so they wouldn't interfere with the fighting.
Once Hyuga Akira had disappeared, Tsunade asked gravely, "What did Hyuga Akira do just now?"
Hizashi Hyuga's attitude had changed so quickly that she couldn't help suspecting something had happened.
Hizashi Hyuga opened his mouth, wanting to tell her what Hyuga Akira had done. But remembering that this was entirely an internal matter of the Hyuga Clan, he finally said gloomily, "Nothing happened."
Tsunade gave Hizashi Hyuga a long look. Seeing that he didn't want to talk, she didn't ask any further.
When Hyuga Akira returned alone with four backpacks, Tsunade was still treating Hyuga Hiashi.
Carrying the backpacks was a little difficult for Hyuga Akira. He wore one in front and one on his back, while carrying the other two in his hands.
Without the Byakugan, he wouldn't even have been able to see the way.
Under Tsunade's treatment, Hyuga Hiashi had already regained consciousness, though his face was somewhat pale.
Compared with his younger brother Hizashi Hyuga, his performance had been rather unsatisfactory. If Tsunade hadn't returned in time, he might even have died at that Chunin's hands.
"We'll rest here for now," Tsunade decided as she stood up after finishing Hyuga Hiashi's treatment.
They had just been through a battle, and everyone's stamina and chakra were considerably depleted. Encountering another battle would be even more dangerous.
"All right." Hyuga Akira had no objections. He jumped straight onto a branch and lay down on it.
Hizashi Hyuga walked over to Hyuga Hiashi and whispered something in his ear.
Neither Tsunade nor Hyuga Akira tried to listen in. They only saw Hyuga Hiashi's expression grow increasingly unpleasant.
Tsunade examined the bodies. Although one wore a Cloud Ninja forehead protector on his head, she found an Iwa Ninja forehead protector in his Ninja Tool Pouch.
"They were from Iwagakure."
She frowned.
During missions, the various villages often did things like concealing their forehead protectors.
Hyuga Akira glanced at his inventory with an odd expression.
Judging by the things in his inventory, he could confirm that they were neither Cloud Ninja nor Iwa Ninja.
He knew what those two major Ninja Villages dropped, and it definitely wasn't what he had received.
The two ninja had dropped three pieces of equipment: two from the Genin and one from the Chunin.
Among the guides he remembered, only one Ninja Village had such a high equipment drop rate.
The poorest Ninja Village in the setting, and the richest Ninja Village in the players' eyes.
Sunagakure.
Chapter 27: Equipment and skills
[Genin Kunai: increases attack by 20-25] [Recovery Ring: increases health regeneration by 1 point per second] [Chakra Ring: increases chakra by 50]
These three pieces of equipment were all weapons obtained by killing the Genin and Chunin. Fortunately, the Kunai could serve as an off-hand weapon, or he would have had to unequip his sword.
He could only equip one main-hand weapon and one off-hand weapon.
The ring and Chakra Ring were accessories. As long as they fit on his fingers, there weren't many restrictions on accessory equipment.
The recovery effect healed bodily injuries. After putting it on, he could already feel the pain in his stomach easing, though it wasn't particularly fast.
The Chakra Ring increased his maximum chakra.
[Chakra: 80/130+50]
His maximum had directly increased to 180. He had only had 30 chakra left after the fight, and this had restored 50 at once.
Now he could participate in another battle.
Finally, there were the experience points.
[Experience pool: 4365]
He now had enough to level up once, but he only increased his leveling experience to 2499, leaving 1991 experience points in the experience pool.
This was to prepare for the next battle. Leveling up once didn't improve him that much, probably only increasing his strength by a tenth, so its actual effect on combat wasn't particularly significant.
By contrast, fully restoring his injuries and chakra after leveling up had an enormous effect on combat.
He planned to wait until a crucial moment to level up.
With 1991 experience points remaining, he didn't intend to save all of them.
He looked at Kumate.
[Kumate (lv1) Experience (100/0) Trait (none)]
He began putting experience into Kumate.
[Kumate (lv2) Experience (0/200) Trait (none)] [Kumate (lv3) Experience (0/400) Trait (none)] [Kumate (lv4) Experience (0/800) Trait (none)]
Hyuga Akira silently used Kumate. This time, its chakra consumption had increased considerably.
I can't use it for too long in battle.
Otherwise, using Kumate could easily exhaust his chakra.
Even when upgrading skills, he needed to consider his own chakra. Otherwise, a powerful skill might pack enough force, but if it left him with no chakra after using it, he wouldn't be able to keep fighting.
He also upgraded Medical Ninjutsu once.
[Medical Ninjutsu (lv2) Experience (0/1000) Trait (none)]
Medical Ninjutsu could save his life at a critical moment.
With seven hundred experience points remaining, there weren't many skills he could upgrade, though he didn't use those skills very often anyway.
The most useful was Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm, but Empty Palm wasn't as useful as his Shuriken.
In the end, he decided against it. Experience points were limited; he couldn't spend them carelessly.
[Name: I'm Xiao Ming] [Class: none] [Level: lv13 (2499/2500)] [Chakra: 180/130+50] [Skills: Gentle Fist (lv5), Clone Technique (lv2), Substitution Technique (lv10), Transformation Technique (lv2), Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm (lv3), Byakugan (lv3), Fire Release: Unknowing Fire (lv4), Medical Ninjutsu (lv2), Kumate (lv4)] [Experience pool: 791] [Equipment slots: (Bandit's Left Greave) (Bandit's Right Greave) (Bandit's Right Gauntlet) (Bandit's Sword) (Bandit's Armor) (Recovery Ring) (Chakra Ring) (Genin Kunai)] [Inventory: Kunai (10), Explosive Tag (9), Shuriken (99), Wire (10)...]
After looking at the changes on the panel, he closed his eyes and began resting.
Quite a few enemies might appear along the remaining stretch of the journey. He needed to recover his chakra as quickly as possible.
The night passed without incident.
The next day, they continued on their way.
They moved swiftly through the woods, still using their normal traveling formation.
But every time Hyuga Hiashi's gaze swept over Hyuga Akira, it was different from before, carrying a hint of coldness.
Hyuga Akira understood. Hyuga Hiashi had completely given up on bringing him under his control.
He unconsciously touched the forehead protector on his forehead.
Hyuga Hiashi giving up on bringing him under his control was both good news and bad news for him.
In other words, the Hyuga Clan would completely drop the pretense, and his punishment would become more severe after they returned.
It might even reach the point of using the Caged Bird Seal.
Before you continue