"I'm not fighting you anymore."
Araki said something that caught Sora Hyuga completely off guard, then abruptly picked up speed and raced toward the other side of the forest.
The direction Araki was charging in now was not toward his home. Judging by his course, he was heading more toward Konoha's eastern border.
It happened so suddenly that Sora Hyuga failed to react for a moment.
"Don't run!"
Sora Hyuga's expression changed, and he immediately gave chase without hesitation. He was still a child. A moment ago, he had been thinking about how to take his anger out on Araki, only for Araki to run off in the blink of an eye. It was almost no different from their simulated match in class, and he simply couldn't take it.
There was no way Sora Hyuga would let Araki go like this. Even though he noticed that Araki bounded through the trees like a monkey, surpassing him in both speed and agility, he still felt he could catch him.
After pursuing him for some distance, Sora Hyuga noticed that Araki was nowhere near as fast as before.
It was obvious!
Araki was tired!
It looked like he had merely been forcing himself to keep going!
Perhaps running this far had already exhausted him!
He simply had no strength left to fight!
Sora Hyuga instantly assessed Araki's condition, making him even more determined to pursue him. He told himself that once he caught Araki, he would definitely teach him a harsh lesson and vent the anger bottled up in his chest.
But...
After Sora Hyuga chased him for some distance...
He noticed something strange.
Whenever he was about to catch Araki, Araki seemed to find strength from somewhere and quickly widened the gap.
But whenever he began to feel he couldn't catch up and considered giving up, Araki seemed to lose all his strength, almost coming to a standstill, giving him renewed motivation to chase him.
Just like that...
Without realizing it, Sora Hyuga had chased him a very long way.
Even he had no idea how long he had been running or where he had ended up. He merely gasped for breath, his stamina bar already empty.
"Huff... huff... huff..."
Sora Hyuga stopped on the ground, no longer continuing along the branches. He felt as though his lungs were about to burst. Especially after he stopped, intense exhaustion kept washing over him.
"I'm... I'm done chasing..."
Sora Hyuga had never imagined that brat Araki could run so fast. He braced his hands on his knees and panted, beads of sweat rolling down his forehead and constantly falling to the ground.
He was no longer thinking about teaching Araki a lesson.
Even if he caught Araki, he wouldn't have the strength to hit him. This back-and-forth chase had completely drained his stamina.
"Huh?"
Sora Hyuga had been so absorbed in chasing Araki that he hadn't paid attention to his surroundings. Only now, after stopping, did he suddenly notice something wrong.
The scenery around him had completely changed.
At some point, the forest shrouded in night had filled with thick mist.
The mist drifted among the trees, blocking all sight of his surroundings and even obscuring the bright moonlight. Everything seemed filled with an eerie atmosphere.
Araki's figure, which had been nearby, was gone too.
For a moment.
Sora Hyuga felt as though he were in a terrifying, fog-shrouded place.
"Araki!"
"Araki, where are you?"
"What the hell is this place?"
"Come out, now!"
"Don't leave me here alone!"
"If you don't come out, I'll tell everyone all about you when I get back!"
"You've definitely been secretly training at night!"
Summoning the last of his strength, Sora Hyuga shouted into the mist-shrouded forest. His tone was heavily threatening, and he raised his voice to cover the fear inside him.
He had never been to a creepy place like this.
He didn't even know where in Konoha there could be so much thick mist.
Though he was threatening Araki aloud, he was actually terrified.
"In that case..."
Suddenly, Araki's voice rang out. It was low and subdued, seemingly devoid of even the slightest emotion.
It wasn't loud, but it reached Sora Hyuga's ears clearly.
It was as though he were speaking right beside Sora Hyuga's ear.
In an instant.
Sora Hyuga whipped his head around.
He found himself looking straight at Araki's face.
"Then don't go back!"
Araki's icy voice abruptly rang out. He suddenly reached out and seized Sora Hyuga in a death grip. The tremendous force of his fingers immediately turned Sora Hyuga's neck purple, making it difficult to breathe. His cheeks flushed red, and deep confusion and fear showed in his pale eyes.
Chapter 22: Destroying the body and erasing the evidence
At that moment.
Sora Hyuga found it incredibly difficult to breathe.
Combined with his exhaustion.
His mind went blank.
Not only could he not understand what had happened, but his entire being was already enveloped in the aura of death.
"Spare... spare me..."
Sora Hyuga squeezed a hoarse voice out of his throat. He felt as though his throat were about to be crushed. Intense fear and the desire to survive forced him to back down at this moment and beg for mercy.
"I already spared you when you followed me into the forest!"
Araki's icy voice abruptly rang out, reaching Sora Hyuga's ears clearly, without any of the difficulty expressing himself that he had displayed before.
"I spared you again when I questioned you!"
"Now you're asking me to spare you again!"
"I'm not in the mercy business!"
As he spoke, Araki abruptly tightened his grip around Sora Hyuga's throat. The steadily increasing force intensified Sora Hyuga's suffocation, his entire face swelling red like a ripe persimmon.
"You... you... you... wh... why..."
Sora Hyuga's breaths grew shorter and shorter, leaving him completely suffocated. Yet he still used the last of his strength, wanting to ask for the answer to his question. By the end, however, he could no longer speak.
"Why can I kill you?"
An icy smile suddenly curved Araki's lips. Staring at Sora Hyuga's flushed face, he slowly said, "You thought I was your prey, but I'm the hunter. A true hunter often appears in the guise of prey."
Crack!
After finishing those final words, Araki unleashed the strength in his hand, producing the sound of bones shattering.
At the very same moment, Sora Hyuga's eyes widened, his pale eyes bulging fiercely. They no longer held their former vitality, and his body stopped struggling and went limp.
With that.
Sora Hyuga no longer showed any signs of life.
A young life ended just like that.
"I've already kept such a low profile. Why did you have to provoke me?"
Araki stared at Sora Hyuga and shook his head helplessly. He had kept a low profile solely so he could train his chakra in peace. It wasn't that he was particularly cowardly; he was merely hiding himself strategically and developing quietly.
"You're just someone from the Hyuga Branch Family, yet you're still so arrogant. At your age, you haven't even awakened your Byakugan, and you can't even see through the Hidden Mist Technique, yet you really think you're something!"
Araki casually tossed Sora Hyuga's body onto the ground. His expression did not change at all, and he showed not the slightest panic over having killed someone.
Death was an exceedingly common occurrence in the ninja world.
People died in every village every day.
If Araki had transmigrated into a peaceful era, perhaps there would have been people specifically assigned to investigate someone's death.
But in the ninja world, no special investigation would be opened for something like this.
Of course.
That didn't mean he could let his guard down.
Araki crouched and looked at Sora Hyuga's corpse. This classmate of his was young, but he was still a member of the Hyuga Clan, so handling him required caution.
He first took out Sora Hyuga's ninja tool pouch and examined its contents. Aside from some kunai, there was also a small amount of money.
These were all spoils now.
Araki put everything inside into his own ninja tool pouch.
Then.
Araki took out a kunai and stabbed it toward Sora Hyuga's eyes.
Squelch! Squelch!
As two piercing sounds rang out, the two white eyes instantly turned red, stained a vivid color by his own blood.
Araki took out two explosive tags as well. These things were expensive to make, and he only had three in total, kept entirely as a contingency. Now he was using them.
"I still wasn't prepared enough..."