Chapter 62: The Ambushed Shadow Clone
As for the shadow clone Hyuga Ritsu had split off at Mount Kinko, it was currently sprinting wildly along Route Seven toward the forward camp. He hadn't activated his Byakugan while traveling because maintaining the Byakugan's active state required continuously consuming chakra.
And he was a shadow clone, unable to generate new chakra. Chakra would only gradually be exhausted, and when it ran out, this shadow clone would disappear.
Therefore, he only activated his Byakugan to observe the situation every five kilometers or so of forward progress, then closed it to continue traveling.
In the blink of an eye, he'd traveled another five kilometers.
"About time."
The shadow clone stopped, standing on a tree branch. He activated his Byakugan to scan all movements within a twelve-kilometer radius, then... four kilometers away, southeast direction, six figures moving at extreme speed entered his field of vision.
"Suikazan Fuguki, Biwa Juzo, Ao, Hoshigaki Kisame, Ringo Ameyuri, and a Kaguya clan jonin."
The shadow clone identified the six people's identities. He recognized the first four. Though he didn't recognize the last one, that ancient hairstyle from the early Warring States period and the two red dots between the eyebrows—this unique appearance nowadays belonged only to the Kaguya clan.
He rolled his eyes.
Immediately, he fled toward the northwest direction.
As a shadow clone, he understood his duty tonight was to attract enemy attention on the surface, buying as much time as possible for the true body acting covertly.
Setting aside that as a shadow clone he fundamentally couldn't match these six Mist expert fighters, even if he could fight, it was best to avoid battle. Combat would severely consume chakra, drastically shortening his existence time.
So the best way to delay was to run.
With this escape, he naturally couldn't hide from Suikazan Fuguki and the others.
"Hyuga Ritsu discovered us and is fleeing northwest." The speaker was a Mist shinobi with long gray-blue hair, a gray-black left eye pupil, but a pure white, flawless right eye, with two spell charms hanging from both ears.
His name was "Ao," one of the outstanding jonin of the Hidden Mist Village, the "Byakugan Killer" who'd stolen a Byakugan from the Hyuga Main Family. At this moment, he'd activated the Byakugan transplanted into his right eye. Veins bulged around his eye socket as he watched Ritsu's every move.
"Want to escape? You can't escape!"
A cruel smile appeared on Suikazan Fuguki's face.
He turned to look at the team's only female member and instructed, "Ameyuri, chase him down and entangle him!"
"Okay!"
The girl agreed. In the next instant, lightning wreathed her entire body. Her speed instantly increased by more than thirty percent, immediately surpassing Suikazan Fuguki and the others.
At the same time, the shadow clone also saw this change and sighed inwardly. It seemed relying on fleeing to delay time wouldn't work, but he didn't stop. Even delaying one more minute would be good.
Until clear electrical chirping sounds came from behind.
Only then did the shadow clone stop on this gentle slope, looking down condescendingly at that figure wreathed in lightning. He wasn't flustered. Timing it precisely, he unhesitatingly raised his hand and fired an Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm.
Bang!
The lightning-wreathed figure flew backward.
However, the shadow clone could see clearly with his Byakugan that this strike had caused almost zero lethal effect. The girl held two long blades shaped like ceremonial seven-branched swords, crossing them together in time. Blinding lightning was released, forcibly negating ninety percent of his Vacuum Palm's lethality. The remaining ten percent only made the girl tumble down the slope.
The girl's name was Ringo Ameyuri, the Hidden Mist Village's famous "Genius Lightning Style Ninja."
And the twin blades in her hands were also quite famous—one of the Seven Ninja Swords, the Lightning Blades Kiba. Originally, Kiba's wielder had been Kurosuki Raiga, who along with Suikazan Fuguki and Biwa Juzo were survivors who'd returned from the mission to attack Konoha.
Unfortunately, Kurosuki Raiga's luck was truly bad. He'd avoided that Konoha shinobi wearing green spandex, but then ran into Shisui of the Body Flicker on the front lines, losing his life as a result.
Fortunately, the Lightning Blades Kiba had been promptly summoned back by the prodigy Hozuki Mangetsu.
After that, Kiba had fallen without incident into the hands of this famous "Genius Lightning Style Ninja" girl, Ringo Ameyuri.
"So impressive!"
Standing firm at the bottom of the slope, Ringo Ameyuri excitedly stared at the shadow clone on the slope. Her reddish-brown long hair was styled in vertical braids. When she grinned, she revealed fangs that seemed like a Mist shinobi trademark.
In the next second, Ringo Ameyuri swung her twin blades. Over a dozen blue-white lightning spheres about the size of human heads were released from Kiba, shooting toward the shadow clone under her control.
"Lightning Blade Technique: Lightning Spheres!"
This was a probe.
Though she appeared to have an impulsive, battle-loving personality and indeed was both eager for battle and skilled at it, this didn't mean she was a single-minded person who only charged forward mindlessly.
She wouldn't underestimate this "White Yaksha" of Konoha at all.
After all, if he could make that old bastard Suikazan Fuguki rally so many of them for joint action, White Yaksha definitely had some real skills.
However, the shadow clone's countermeasure was somewhat beyond her expectations. The shadow clone pulled out kunai with explosive tags attached and threw six in a brief instant. The flames and shockwaves from mid-air explosions dissipated the dozen or so lightning spheres.
And in the next instant, she saw the shadow clone form hand seals extremely familiar to her.
"Hidden Mist Jutsu!"
Gray-white dense fog rapidly expanded outward with the shadow clone at its center. Ringo Ameyuri withdrew without any hesitation, always maintaining distance from the expanding fog, not letting herself be caught in the mist.
Not until she'd retreated over a hundred meters did the fog finally stop expanding.
At this time, Suikazan Fuguki and the others had also caught up.
"Hidden Mist Jutsu!"
Suikazan Fuguki stopped, frowning at the dense fog before him. White Yaksha had actually learned their Mist shinobi's Hidden Mist Jutsu and was now using it against them.
Yet standing before this fog, they really didn't dare advance.
The Byakugan could penetrate mist. Among them, aside from Ao who had one Byakugan, the others weren't even sensory ninja. If they rushed into the fog, wouldn't they be waiting to be slaughtered like livestock by White Yaksha?
"Leave it to me!"
Suikazan Fuguki actively stepped forward, his hands rapidly forming seals. His hand speed was so fast it created a series of afterimages. After completing the final seal, he lowered his head, opened his mouth wide, and spewed forth vast, surging waves of water.
"Water Style: Exploding Water Colliding Wave!"
The jutsu Mist experts used to create advantageous terrain in waterless lands. At this moment, these vast, surging waves charged recklessly into that vast white fog.
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