Looking at the unmistakable Caged Bird Seal, Kenya grinned.
"It really is you, Hizashi Hyuga."
He slit open another sack. Inside was the corpse of a Hyuga clansman, clearly meant as a backup or a decoy.
Kenya shook his head and ignored the corpse.
He picked up the unconscious Hizashi Hyuga like a chick and vanished into the dense woods beside the deserted road with a few leaps.
Deep in the woods stood a dilapidated wooden cabin that a hunter had abandoned long ago.
Sunlight spilled through holes in the roof onto the dusty wooden floor.
"Cough, cough..."
Hizashi Hyuga slowly opened his eyes amid a fit of violent coughing.
The soreness at the back of his neck made him frown.
He remembered volunteering to die in his older brother Hiashi's place to protect the Main Family and the village.
He should already have been handed over to the Kumogakure delegation and secretly executed on the way to the Land of Lightning so they could take his Byakugan.
How had he woken up here?
Hizashi abruptly sat up, activating his Byakugan instantly.
He warily scanned his surroundings.
A rundown wooden cabin, the smell of decay-everything was unfamiliar.
Sitting on a battered wooden table across from him was a black-haired young man.
The young man sat with his legs crossed, munching contentedly on a rice cracker.
He wore ordinary clothes, and most importantly, he wore no ninja village's forehead protector.
"You're awake."
Kenya swallowed the rice cracker in his mouth and tipped his chin at Hizashi.
"The accommodations are pretty basic. You'll have to make do."
Hizashi did not lower his guard at the other man's easygoing manner.
He assumed the opening stance of Gentle Fist and asked gravely:
"Who are you? Where are the people from Kumogakure?"
"Why am I here?"
Kenya could not help laughing at how Hizashi looked ready to face a formidable enemy.
"Relax, head of the Branch Family."
"If I hadn't happened to snatch you from those charcoal-heads earlier, you'd probably have been skinned and had your eyes gouged out by now."
Hizashi's heart jolted at those words.
Only then did he notice several standard-issue Kumogakure flak jackets tossed carelessly at the young man's feet.
"You... you killed them?"
Hizashi took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing his shock.
The raiding squad Kumogakure had sent was unquestionably the elite of the elite. How could this young man, who seemed to give off no chakra fluctuations at all, have defeated them so easily?
And what exactly was his objective?
"I didn't kill them. Just bumped heads with them. They'll probably be dealing with concussions for a while."
Kenya waved dismissively.
He took another rice cracker from his pocket and was just about to bite into it.
His Observation Haki suddenly detected an extremely violent surge of lightning release chakra approaching the cabin at high speed.
"Tsk, those Kumogakure guys really are persistent. They even had someone trailing behind."
Kenya sighed and lowered the rice cracker, his enjoyment somewhat spoiled.
Before his words had faded.
Boom!
The cabin's already dilapidated door was blasted to pieces by a violent force of lightning.
Wood splinters flew everywhere amid flashes of lightning.
A Kumogakure Jonin, towering like an iron tower and wreathed in dazzling blue lightning, strode into the cabin.
He was an elite tracker from Kumogakure's Anbu.
His strength was several times greater than that of the man Kenya had knocked unconscious with a headbutt earlier.
His bell-sized eyes swept across the room.
When he saw the Kumogakure flak jackets on the floor and the unharmed Hizashi Hyuga, towering fury instantly blazed in his eyes.
"You're the bastard who dared steal our Kumogakure cargo?"
The elite tracker stared fixedly at Kenya, the lightning around his body giving off a piercing sound like a thousand birds chirping at once.
"You've destroyed the peace agreement between our two countries. You must die here today!"
"Turn to ashes, along with Hizashi Hyuga!"
Hizashi's expression changed drastically, and he immediately stepped in front of Kenya.
"Run! He's a Kumogakure Lightning Release elite! His Lightning Release Armor has incredible defensive power. Ordinary ninjutsu won't work!"
Hizashi shouted, preparing to hold the man off at the cost of his life.
Although he did not know this young man, the man had saved him, after all.
As a member of the Branch Family, dying to protect his comrades was also a fate he had long since accepted.
Yet a broad palm gently settled on his shoulder.
It pulled him behind its owner.
"All right, enough of the tragic drama."
Kenya picked his ear, looking somewhat exasperated.
"He's just some guy who plays with electricity. Is he really worth getting this worked up over?"
Hearing that, the elite tracker laughed in extreme anger.
"Arrogant little brat! I'll show you the true power of Kumogakure!"
He kicked hard against the ground, his entire body crossing several meters in an instant like a bolt of blue lightning.
"Lightning Oppression Horizontal Chop!"
This was one of Kumogakure's signature advanced taijutsu techniques.
It concentrated lightning release chakra in a knife-hand strike, combining it with the extreme speed granted by Lightning Release Armor.
It had enough power to sever steel in a single blow!
Blue lightning lit the dim cabin as brightly as day.
The elite tracker's knife-hand strike slashed straight toward Kenya's throat with a terrifying howl that tore through the air.
Hizashi's heart leaped into his throat.
Too fast!
With speed and destructive power like that, even with his Byakugan, he could barely make out the afterimage, much less dodge in time!
This young man without a forehead protector is dead for sure!
At that critical instant.
Kenya moved.
He neither dodged nor formed hand seals to defend himself.
He merely raised his right hand slowly and extended one index finger.
At that moment, Hizashi almost thought he was seeing an illusion.
He felt as though the young man's index finger was covered in a layer of profoundly deep black substance.
That blackness seemed capable of swallowing even the surrounding light.
The next second.
The blue, lightning-clad knife-hand slammed into that seemingly fragile index finger.
Clang-!
There was no spray of flesh and blood.
Nor was there a scream as lightning tore through a body.
There was only a sound ten times crisper than the clash of metal.
Hizashi's eyes widened in disbelief.
What was he seeing?
The Kumogakure elite's Lightning Oppression Horizontal Chop, powerful enough to sever steel, had actually been stopped effortlessly by the young man's single finger!
And that was not all.
Not even the slightest crack had appeared in the black substance covering the young man's index finger!
"H-how is this possible?!"
The elite tracker's eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets, his face filled with utter horror.
He felt as though what he had struck was not a human finger at all.
It was an indestructible black divine mountain!
Violent recoil traveled through his knife-hand, shaking his entire right arm numb.
"Not bad speed."
Looking at the Kumogakure elite mere inches away, Kenya curled his lips into a devilish smile.
"Too bad you're so fragile."
Before his words had faded.
Kenya drew that index finger back slightly, then thrust it sharply forward!
"Shigan!"
This was an ultimate thrust that fused the Six Powers with Armament Haki!
Squelch!
A dull, teeth-grating sound rang out.
Before Hizashi's horrified eyes.
That black index finger seemed to pierce a sheet of thin paper.
It effortlessly penetrated the elite tracker's prized Lightning Release Armor.
Then it sank into his chest without the slightest resistance!
"Urgh..."
The elite tracker's body abruptly stiffened.
He lowered his head and stared blankly at the bloody hole in his chest, which was pouring blood.
The lightning around his body instantly went out.
The life in his eyes rapidly faded.
Even as he died, he did not understand why his thoroughly tempered body had failed to stop a single finger.
Thud.
Kenya casually withdrew his finger.
The elite tracker's massive body crashed heavily onto the battered wooden floor, raising a cloud of dust.
Deathly silence fell over the cabin.
Hizashi stood rooted to the spot.
His Byakugan, usually so calm, were now trembling violently.
In that brief instant, he had experienced what a true dimensionality reduction strike was.
No hand seals, no burst of chakra.
Nothing but the purest, most extreme physical strength!
This was simply god-level taijutsu!
Kenya wiped the blood from his finger on the elite tracker's clothes.
Then he turned to look at the dumbstruck Hizashi Hyuga.
He rummaged in his pocket and took out the rice cracker he had not finished earlier.
Although the shock of the battle had crumbled it a little.
Kenya still smiled and held it out to Hizashi.