Hyuga Akira hid in the shadows of the rafters, watching the battle below.
Not everyone had powerful sensory abilities. At the very least, neither of the two Chunin fighting below did. They continued their fierce battle, completely unaware of his presence.
"Water Release: Water Shuriken Technique."
After exchanging several blows with his opponent, Kusen pulled back and rapidly formed hand seals. Several shuriken materialized out of thin air and flew toward the enemy with tremendous force.
His opponent was a Chunin wearing a bamboo hat and bandages over his face. The water shuriken pierced his body, but only water flowed from his wounds. Finally, with a bang, he turned into a puddle.
Hyuga Akira saw exactly what had happened. During the moment they separated, the opponent had already finished the seals for a Water Clone, using the clone to block Kusen's view while circling around to the other side.
Using the darkness inside the house for cover, he had already circled behind Kusen, his hands still rapidly forming seals.
"Water Release: Poison Mist Technique!" He bit through a pill in his mouth. Chakra rapidly turned into mist inside his mouth, mixing with the crushed pill before spraying toward Kusen as a thick purple fog.
Sensing something wrong behind him, Kusen turned with his kunai, but he never expected a cloud of purple mist to greet him.
The poison mist engulfed his entire body. It did not linger long and soon dispersed, leaving Kusen kneeling on one knee.
The enemy Chunin drew his sword and advanced, clashing against Kusen's kunai.
Clang!
But Kusen was already poisoned, and he had expended considerable stamina earlier. He immediately fell on the defensive.
In Hyuga Akira's eyes, however, Kusen was not falling on the defensive. He was about to die.
The poison his opponent used was not particularly potent, but continuing to fight fiercely after being poisoned would only make it spread rapidly throughout his body. Once it reached his heart, he would be beyond saving.
Kusen understood this too. Gritting his teeth, he rapidly formed hand seals.
Bang!
White smoke flashed, and his opponent's sword struck a block of wood.
Kusen turned and ran, no longer intending to continue fighting. For the sake of his life, he chose to flee, but the enemy Shinobi clearly had no intention of letting him go so easily and swiftly gave chase.
"He acts like an expert in front of me every day, but he doesn't look all that impressive."
Hyuga Akira curled his lip. Now it was his turn to act.
After careful calculations, he now had a combination that could instantly kill a Chunin.
First, he took out an explosive tag, used chakra to set it to explode in three seconds, and placed it on a rafter.
Then he threw a shuriken straight at the Chunin who was about to give chase.
3
Hearing something cutting through the air, the Chunin quickly turned and knocked the incoming shuriken away with his sword.
The instant the shuriken was knocked away, Hyuga Akira used the Substitution Technique to switch places with it, appearing diagonally above the Chunin.
The Chunin's eyes widened. He had not understood how his opponent had gotten there. It looked as though he had switched places with the shuriken.
What kind of ninjutsu was this?
2
It did not matter if he had never seen it before. He was going to die anyway, so whether he had seen it no longer mattered.
Hyuga Akira wore his signature smile, the corners of his mouth rising to reveal white teeth. His opponent was within range of his skill, [Cheap Shot].
He unleashed [Cheap Shot], and an illusory club appeared behind the Chunin, striking him hard on the head.
[Cheap Shot] dealt no damage, but its effect was obvious: the Water Body Flicker Technique the Chunin had prepared instantly failed.
He had originally prepared it to guard against a counterattack from Kusen midway through the chase. It had only been a precaution, but now it was completely useless.
The next instant, Hyuga Akira used the Substitution Technique again, switching places with the explosive tag.
1
One second gave the Chunin a clear view of the explosive tag swelling as it was about to explode.
He pushed off the ground to leap backward, but it was clearly too late.
0
Boom!
The explosion blasted the Chunin away.
Only then did Hyuga Akira flip down from the rafters. He saw the Chunin lying outside the house, the front of his body charred black by the explosion.
Yet he had not died immediately.
The great philanthropist Hyuga Akira could not bear to see someone in such agony, so he sent several shuriken enhanced with [Kumate] straight into the man's head.
The Chunin's head burst like a watermelon.
[Experience: 1234] also flashed before Hyuga Akira's eyes.
"Even his experience was a respectable number."
Hyuga Akira walked forward and picked up the item dropped by the Chunin's corpse.
[Skill: Nen Stitching (Cannot use)]
"Machi of the Phantom Troupe's ability. This really suits a medical ninja, and it's a fairly versatile ability too."
However, Hyuga Akira did not currently meet the requirements to learn this skill.
"I'll keep it for now. It might be useful later." Hyuga Akira put the skill into his inventory and glanced at the fallen Chunin. Nothing else had dropped besides this one skill.
Hyuga Akira shook his head and turned to walk out. He saw that Kusen, who had been fleeing, had stopped, perhaps realizing from the explosion that the situation had changed.
Seeing Hyuga Akira emerge, Kusen let out a huge sigh of relief and hurriedly dug a detoxification pill out of his ninja tool pouch and swallowed it.
The poison spreading across his face receded at a rate visible to the naked eye.
Sure enough, it was nothing special as poisons went.
Had it been poison used by Chiyo or Hanzo, Kusen would already have been buried by now.
Speaking of Chiyo, she should still have been fairly young at this point. He wondered whether Chiyo in a swimsuit would be worth looking at.
Hyuga Akira hastily shook his head, driving the thought out of his mind. The image of an elderly Chiyo wearing a swimsuit had forced its way into his head so abruptly that he could not keep thinking about it.
He looked at Kusen, already holding a shuriken in his hand, and began considering whether to kill him right here.
After all, that was over a thousand experience points.
Kusen was also watching him warily now. Under normal circumstances, he would not have thought much of Muyu, who stood before him, but after taking the detoxification pill, he was in no condition to fight. Fighting could easily render the pill ineffective.
He did not want to die of poison because of a Genin.
The atmosphere between them grew tense, an odd awareness spreading through both their minds.
Especially when he saw the shuriken in Hyuga Akira's hand, Kusen's face went pale.
This bastard really was thinking about killing me!!
Finally, Hyuga Akira sighed helplessly and said with a face full of regret, "Lord Kusen, are you all right?"
As he spoke, he put away the shuriken. Killing Kusen now would make his undercover work difficult.
At the very least, he had to wait until he could contact Hanzo.
Although he did not know why Hyuga Akira had suddenly put away the shuriken, Kusen breathed a sigh of relief.
"What was that explosion just now? Where's Shuaiyu?"
"Shuaiyu? You mean the Shinobi who attacked you just now?" Hyuga Akira said with an amused expression. "When I saw that he actually dared to attack you, I was so outraged that I blew him up."
Bullshit!
Kusen roared inwardly. This bastard had definitely wanted to kill the man of his own accord.
But the real question was how he had managed to kill a Chunin.
Chapter 44: Time to level up
The sound of that explosion made him think of an explosive tag.
But the real question was where Muyu had gotten an explosive tag. Even he only had a few.
While fighting Shuaiyu earlier, he had heard several explosions.
Could this brat have a lot of explosive tags on him?
Where on earth did he get them?
Although Kusen had many questions, he understood that this was not the time to interrogate him. The crucial point was that this fellow really was thinking about killing him.
If his questions really did uncover something and the other party simply silenced him, he would have nowhere to plead his case.
Hyuga Akira stepped forward and looked down at Kusen. "Lord Kusen, can you walk on your own now?"
If he could not move on his own and needed to be carried, it would be better to simply kill him.
That attitude hardly looks like you want to help me, Kusen silently grumbled.
It felt as though he might kill him at any moment.
"Yes!!" Kusen said through gritted teeth, shakily getting to his feet. Just as Hyuga Akira did not want to help him, he did not want the other party getting too close right now.
Although he had not sensed any killing intent at all so far, the other party's actions already revealed a faint murderous intent.
To conceal his killing intent so well, this fellow was practically a born Shinobi after losing his memory... perhaps.
Then he suddenly recalled how the other party had openly jumped down to kill people earlier.
Perhaps it was not quite so certain.
"You walk in front," Kusen ordered Hyuga Akira.
Although the poison prevented him from engaging in strenuous activity, moving around a little would have no effect.
Kusen did not feel comfortable letting Senyu out of his sight now, afraid that he might throw a few shuriken at him.
He was absolutely capable of doing that.
Hyuga Akira walked ahead of Kusen without a care. Since he had already decided not to act, he naturally had no intention of changing his mind.
"Where's Kojima Kōji?" Kusen asked from behind Hyuga Akira.
"The mission's already complete. He's by the back door. Would you like to check, Lord Kusen?" Hyuga Akira turned his head slightly to look at Kusen as he spoke.
Kusen nodded. "Go around back. I'll confirm it, and we'll leave through the back door."
Confirming Kojima Kōji's death was only proper. They also needed to leave this place. After that, it would come down to how he covered it up.
The man's death could not be pinned on Amegakure.
Judging by how bloodthirsty Hyuga Akira was, he had probably already killed everyone inside.
A crunch sounded as a wooden branch was stepped on and broken. Kusen suddenly turned toward a corner, where a figure lay sprawled on the ground, as though they had tripped over something while running.
"You didn't kill them all!!?" Even Kusen's voice changed.
Hyuga Akira looked at him speechlessly. "I told you, I have no interest in ordinary people."
Ordinary people with no ability to fight back did not count as monsters. He had no habit of killing NPCs when playing games.
Why go to all that trouble for just a few experience points?
"Besides, they might not have gotten a clear look at who did it."
It had been pitch-black anyway, and these people had been focused only on escaping. How would they have had time to see who was attacking?
"Let's go," Hyuga Akira said, heading straight for the back door without bothering with Kusen.
Kusen gritted his teeth hard.
This fellow was absolutely unqualified to be a Shinobi. What Shinobi would make such a massive oversight? Now, with no ability to fight, he could not silence the witnesses and could only follow Hyuga Akira out.
After confirming the target's death, the two returned to the High Tower overlooking the city.
Kusen hurried back to his room. If he stayed with Hyuga Akira, he would either be infuriated to death or killed by him.
Once Kusen had returned to his room.
Hyuga Akira also went straight back to his own room.
Before you continue