The fat man slammed hard into the wall. Hyuga Akira had no intention of letting him off. He stamped down and charged at the man again, raising his blade high to bring it down.
Bang!
Hyuga Akira flew backward, struck the wall, and slowly slid down.
Murakami Hana stood in front of the fat man and said with a smile, "If you kill him, I'll have a hard time explaining it."
Hyuga Akira clutched his chest, staring at Murakami Hana with a burning gaze.
The gap in their strength was simply too great. The enemy boss was too high-level for him to farm right now.
Once he grew strong enough, though, he could farm this miniboss.
Watching Hyuga Akira's slightly feverish expression, Murakami Hana's smile stiffened.
Something was wrong with this guy.
Very wrong.
"Ahem." Murakami Hana cleared his throat twice. "He's here to replace you. Afterward, you'll leave with me to meet Lord Hanzo."
Hyuga Akira looked regretfully at the fat man as he stood up. The man hadn't completely lost his ability to fight, so he couldn't gain any experience.
I wonder if I can find a chance to beat him up before I leave.
Still, hearing those words, he knew his gamble had paid off. Hanzo had extended an olive branch to him after all.
And these two definitely hadn't arrived today. They must have been here for some time.
Hyuga Akira didn't ask about that. He simply looked at the man and asked, "When do we leave?"
The foxlike smile slowly faded from the man's face. After some thought, he said, "The day after tomorrow. You'll have two days to hand over your duties."
They indeed hadn't arrived today. They had arrived two days ago and spent that time gathering information on Muyu.
After all, he was going to meet Hanzo. They couldn't let him go with any doubts hanging over him. Who knew whether he belonged to Shōzō?
Shōzō, Amegakure's current leader, had been looking for an opportunity to kill Hanzo all along.
Only with Hanzo dead would he truly be the leader in both name and fact. As long as Hanzo lived, he not only posed a threat to him but also left Amegakure showing faint signs of division.
He had been looking for an opportunity to find Hanzo's hiding place.
There wasn't much suspicious about Muyu, but he wasn't a native of Amegakure. He came from elsewhere within the Land of Rain and had been recruited into Amegakure because he possessed some talent as a Shinobi.
After receiving several years of training in Amegakure, he had been assigned to serve under Kusen for several years.
Everyone in his social circle had died. Beyond a civilian named Nagato who was close to him, there was no further information.
What ninjutsu he knew and exactly how strong he was in battle remained completely unknown.
Still, his history showed no contact with Shōzō's people, so he wasn't considered too dangerous. Murakami Hana had originally wanted to observe him for a while longer.
He hadn't expected several Genin here to launch an attack outright.
Attacking a superior was absolutely taboo, even if Muyu only held the position temporarily.
Only then had the two of them intervened, killing the two who had run away.
Murakami Hana was very curious about just how Muyu had driven his subordinates to choose to assassinate him.
Once this incident came to light, those Genin could only become rogue ninja, or they would die at Amegakure's hands.
Hyuga Akira completely ignored Murakami Hana's curiosity, simply giving the fat Shinobi behind him a provocative look.
Chapter 59: The Talented Muyu (Hyuga Akira)
Handing over duties had nothing to do with Hyuga Akira.
Did he have any work? Unfortunately, no. Even if he did, it had nothing to do with him. He would slack off whenever he could and absolutely refused to become a workhorse.
He left just one instruction.
"All the intelligence documents are on the desk. Find whatever you want to read yourselves. I don't know anything else."
Hyuga Akira spread his hands and went straight back to sleep.
This annoyed the fat Shinobi somewhat. The workload for an entire city surely amounted to more than this.
Although they hadn't occupied the city, there was definitely plenty of intelligence to gather.
"He definitely hasn't been gathering intelligence properly!" the fat Shinobi said furiously.
Murakami Hana sat in a chair, casually leafing through the intelligence documents in his hands. Without looking up, he said, "Kusen did die too suddenly, after all. He wanted to take over this city, only to lose his own life."
The fat Shinobi's eyes shifted as something occurred to him. "I suspect that brat killed Kusen. He's strong enough."
At least in their Taijutsu exchange, he had suffered a complete defeat.
With those skills, the brat wouldn't be weak even among Chunin. He didn't know how strong Kusen had been, but if that brat had wanted to kill Kusen, it clearly wouldn't have been difficult.
Whoosh! Something suddenly cut through the air. A Kunai swept past the fat Shinobi's ear, leaving a bloody cut on it.
Murakami Hana looked at the fat Shinobi with a faint, ambiguous smile. "Don't try to use me. What do you think you are?"
The fat Shinobi's expression soured, but he still forced out a smile.
Amegakure didn't have many Jonin, but every one of them acted without restraint. He didn't dare provoke Murakami Hana.
This man really could slaughter him.
"Besides, you have no evidence." A foxlike smile appeared on Murakami Hana's face.
He had visited the site of Kusen's battle himself. Although there were signs of some alterations, they weren't extensive.
Those traces of battle couldn't reveal who had done it.
"What a lawless little fellow." Murakami Hana was very interested in this Muyu.
Attacking a superior was a grave crime.
But that was when there was evidence. They could kill someone without evidence too, of course, but someone who had caught Hanzo's attention couldn't be killed so easily.
"He has courage. No, arrogance would be more accurate." Murakami Hana recalled the fervor in Hyuga Akira's eyes when he looked at him. Ordinary people didn't look like that when faced with a powerful enemy they couldn't oppose.
He was just like a tiger cub looking at prey. He couldn't hunt it now, but once he grew up, it would make a fine meal.
Murakami Hana couldn't help laughing at his own thought.
Whether he could even become a Jonin in Amegakure remained uncertain. Wanting to become a tiger that hunted him was rather delusional.
The fat Shinobi trembled beside him. These Jonin from Amegakure were all somewhat mentally unstable, and he was now a little afraid Murakami Hana would have an episode.
Murakami Hana ignored him completely.
"He has brains too. With this strength at his age, and a little luck thrown in, he could become a Jonin."
What was the greatest shortcoming of small ninja villages? Their inability to train Jonin.
Amegakure could train Chunin, but its training for Jonin was incomplete. Everyone who became a Jonin relied on talent, fortuitous encounters, or something similar.
Hanzo, for instance, possessed strength far beyond a Jonin's entirely because he had been implanted with organs from Ibuse. Under the tutelage of Amegakure's leader, Shōzō, he had gained strength that surpassed Jonin in every respect.
By the standards of the major ninja villages, Hanzo was currently Amegakure's elite Jonin-and its only elite Jonin.
That was a Shinobi qualified to compete for the title of Kage even in a major ninja village.
Amegakure had never produced an elite Jonin, so naturally, no one currently knew that Hanzo was exceptionally powerful even among elite Jonin.
The other small ninja villages only chose to flee when facing Hanzo, and no one had truly witnessed his strength.
But in the eyes of Amegakure's Jonin like Murakami Hana, Hanzo was invincible. Were he not constrained by the moral high ground and the bonds of master and disciple, he would never have needed to go into hiding.
Murakami Hana glanced at the fat Shinobi, who had buried himself in work.
"Trash." He delivered his cold assessment outright, completely unconcerned about what the man thought.
Looking at the fat Shinobi before him, he thought even more highly of this Muyu. Every new Jonin strengthened Amegakure.
Still, becoming a Jonin would be no easy task for him.
The fat Shinobi didn't dare argue. He merely lowered his head in silence. Only once Murakami Hana left would this place truly become his territory.
His people were already hiding within the city.
As for taking revenge on Murakami Hana, he didn't dare entertain the idea at all.
If he attacked Murakami Hana, that would be an attack on a superior, and even Amegakure wouldn't spare him. If Murakami Hana killed him, that would be called disposing of trash. At most, he would receive a verbal reprimand.
Besides, he couldn't beat a Jonin anyway.
He couldn't take revenge on Murakami Hana, but he could take revenge on that Muyu.
At that thought, his mung-bean-sized eyes filled with venom, but he kept his head firmly lowered, not daring to let Murakami Hana see.
Hyuga Akira had no idea he was regarded so highly.
He slept in his room until dawn, then decided to visit Nagato.
Now he didn't even need to go to the High Tower. It no longer had much to do with him.
Inside the slightly renovated cave.
The Shuriken in Nagato's hands flew toward the distant straw dummy. Although they all hit it, the force behind them was pitiful, and quite a few fell to the ground.
Seeing Hyuga Akira enter, Nagato stopped and called respectfully, "Teacher."
Hyuga Akira glanced at the Shuriken on the straw dummy. With so little force behind them, even a gust of wind could blow them off.
"Not bad."
He looked at Nagato and nodded.
Nagato had only received a few days of Shinobi training. It was already good that he was showing some semblance of skill.
"I'm leaving." Hyuga Akira stated his purpose outright.
"Huh?" Nagato looked at Hyuga Akira, utterly bewildered. He had only been teaching him for a few days.
He still hadn't learned the Three Body Technique. His Taijutsu amounted to flailing his fists, and Shuriken were merely decorations in his hands, without any power at all.
Hyuga Akira rubbed his chin and asked Nagato, "Nagato, do you want to come with me? Otherwise, you'll have to practice by yourself from now on."
Nagato thought for a moment, then shook his head. "Sorry, Teacher. I don't want to leave my family."
He was learning these abilities to protect his family in the first place.
Hyuga Akira nodded. He had anticipated Nagato's choice.
"If you need ninjutsu in the future, you'll have to find it yourself. Most of those Wandering Ninja aren't very strong. You can seize their ninjutsu. Rely on that power inside you and carefully judge their strength. If you can't beat them head-on, use traps. If traps don't work, capture their family."
"Wait, Teacher," Nagato couldn't help interrupting. "Teacher, isn't that kind of behavior a little wrong?"
What kind of teacher taught things like this?!
Chapter 60: Final Lessons for Nagato
"What's wrong with it?"
Hyuga Akira had his own views on such matters.
"Don't treat those Shinobi as people. They all have innocent blood on their hands, to one degree or another. You only need to treat them as prey."
"Assassination, poison, threats-as long as it helps you grow stronger, use every means at your disposal."
Hyuga Akira was giving a thorough lesson on his views.
After listening, Nagato asked cautiously, "Teacher, aren't you a little too prejudiced against them?"
"Am I?" Hyuga Akira rubbed his chin. "I'm a Shinobi myself. How could I have such a strong prejudice against Shinobi?"
As a Shinobi of Konoha, he entertained the idea of killing every Shinobi and was also prepared to be killed himself, to see whether the resurrection system had any flaws.
Although that thought did exist in his head, he actually valued his own life a great deal.
Unless he had absolutely no other choice, he wouldn't test the resurrection mechanism.
Listening to Hyuga Akira, Nagato found himself unable to argue for a moment.
Hyuga Akira gripped Nagato's shoulders with both hands and said with a deeply serious expression, "Nagato, you need to understand. The moment you become a Chakra User, you must be prepared to kill and be killed. If you aren't prepared for that, keep your power hidden forever."
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