"You're really pretty miserable, huh."
A gloating voice rang out. Starlight shimmered, illuminating the treetops—and the figure standing among the branches.
Hyuga Arin stood on a tree limb, looking down at the three below.
Nawaki and Kushina were both in tattered clothes, hanging upside down from the tree, their situation beyond miserable. Even Minato Namikaze, who was trying to untie them, wasn't much better off—his clothes were far from intact.
The three of them looked just like beggars.
Hyuga Arin flicked his wrist and tossed out two shuriken. They struck with precision, cutting the ropes tied around their ankles.
Thump, thump.
The two hit the ground.
Kushina's face was blazing with anger. "Just how many traps did you set up here?!"
She had completely lost her composure. Leaping up from the ground, she charged straight at Hyuga Arin, ready to fight him to the death.
But she barely reached the height of the branch before Hyuga Arin reacted in time—
Flick.
A sharp finger flick landed squarely on Kushina's forehead, sending her straight back down toward the ground.
"Honestly, not that many," Hyuga Arin said calmly. "Just about fifty thousand ryō."
He had spent every last bit of Nawaki's money to build all the traps here.
Nawaki nearly fainted on the spot. That was his entire allowance.
Minato jumped up and scooped Kushina into a princess carry.
"Ah! Let go of me!" Kushina's face flushed bright red as she struggled, wriggling out of Minato's arms and landing back on her feet.
Minato rubbed his nose awkwardly. "Sorry."
"Who asked you to meddle?!" Kushina snapped at him. The darkness of the night hid the redness on her face.
"You sissy."
Nawaki stepped forward and chopped her lightly on the forehead with a hand. "Mind your manners, Kushina."
Kushina covered her forehead, let out a tsundere "Hmph," and turned her head away, refusing to look at Minato.
Minato scratched his cheek in embarrassment. He hadn't expected her reaction to be this intense.
Hyuga Arin sat down directly on the tree branch, his legs dangling as he swung them back and forth. He held a bun in his hand, eating with obvious enjoyment.
The aroma drifted over, and all three of their stomachs growled at the same time.
"There are still two days left," Hyuga Arin said leisurely while eating. "If you don't catch me by then, you'll be starving for three days."
"Ahhh!! Charge!!" Kushina shouted as she tried to jump up the tree again.
As a lower-year student, she still hadn't mastered tree climbing—and had completely forgotten the pain from the forehead flick earlier.
Hyuga Arin raised one hand, about to flick her down again just like before.
But Minato and Nawaki hadn't forgotten what happened last time. The two of them jumped at the same time, reaching out from both sides to grab Hyuga Arin.
This time, Hyuga Arin didn't counter. Instead, he leapt upward, springing to an even higher point in the tree.
"Don't run!!" Kushina finally managed to get up into the tree, her red hair flying wildly as if it had a life of its own.
The three hurriedly chased after Hyuga Arin.
Nawaki was the fastest. With a single leap, he was about to grab Hyuga Arin—
But Hyuga Arin jumped backward instead, dropping down toward a lower branch.
Just as Nawaki was about to react, his eyes caught sight of an explosive tag stuck to the branch below.
"Again?!"
BOOM!
A violent explosion rang out, and Nawaki was blasted off the branch.
Minato and Kushina jumped down from above, steel wires pulled taut in their hands as they charged straight at Hyuga Arin.
The darkness concealed the wires' presence.
But even without activating the Byakugan, Hyuga Arin's eyesight was excellent. With a flick of his hand, a bronze saber appeared. He slashed toward the wires—the blade ignited with flames, instantly severing them.
Kushina and Minato landed and charged again.
Nawaki, not to be outdone, rushed in as well.
The three formed an encirclement, cutting off Hyuga Arin's retreat.
The corner of Hyuga Arin's mouth curled upward.
…
[Experience +1][Experience +45][Experience +66]
Hyuga Arin withdrew his blade and looked at the three figures lying on the ground, groaning in pain.
"So-so," he said lightly. His gaze lingered on Minato. He hadn't expected this kid to be so close to becoming a ninja already.
A genin provided over a hundred experience points.
Sixty-six points meant Minato wasn't far from genin level at all.
Hyuga Arin checked his experience pool.
[Experience Pool: 1370]
The bulk of it had come from the brown bear. The remaining wild beasts gave at most twenty points, most of them under ten.
Even in the Forest of Death, ninja beasts were hard to come by.
If he wanted to keep farming beasts, he'd have to go deeper into the forest.
Both Kushina and Minato were giving him experience for the first time. Still, since they hadn't reached ninja level yet, it was barely worth mentioning.
"But still…" Hyuga Arin lifted his foot.
At some point, steel wire had already wrapped around his ankle, trailing all the way back to Minato's hand.
Hyuga Arin looked at Minato. "You're pretty impressive."
The wire had been wrapped during the earlier group assault. In truth, it couldn't really restrain him—it wasn't even tight. Hyuga Arin shook his foot once and slipped free.
Since it posed no threat, he hadn't noticed it at first.
Minato, his face swollen and bruised, rubbed his nose. Touching a wound, he sucked in a sharp breath.
"I'll count that as your success."
"Yes!!" Kushina cheered.
"Minato, you really are worthy of being the man who inherits my will," Nawaki said, throwing an arm around him. His little brother was undeniably outstanding.
Once he graduated, he'd be the pinnacle of the ninja academy—future Third Hokage, Namikaze Minato.
"So," Hyuga Arin asked, looking at the three, "what do you want?"
"Food," Minato answered without hesitation.
Hyuga Arin didn't go back on his word. He directly took out a warm bag of buns and tossed it to them. "These are yours."
After throwing them over, he leapt back up into the trees and vanished after a few bounds.
Nawaki and Kushina completely abandoned all decorum, stuffing buns into their mouths.
They hadn't eaten a thing all day. Originally, the three of them had planned to go hunting, but with traps everywhere, even moving around had been difficult.
"Strange," Minato said after taking a bite. "These buns feel like they were just made."
Thinking of the bloodstains on Hyuga Arin's body, it didn't look like he'd gone off to make buns at all.
Nawaki leaned in and whispered mysteriously, "My big brother has a magical bag of holding. He can pull out anything. Forget meat buns—he could even pull out a living person."
"Wow, that's amazing!" Minato's eyes lit up.
"How is that even possible?!" Kushina said, clearly unconvinced.
"Believe it or not," Nawaki rolled his eyes. He'd seen his brother pull out all kinds of things before. That palm-sized ninja pouch of his could produce something as big as a wolf-tooth club.
Pulling out a person? Not impossible.
He admitted he was exaggerating a little.
But he firmly believed this—
Big Brother Hyuga Arin could absolutely pull a person out of his pocket.
…
Elsewhere, Hyuga Arin—currently searching for wild beasts to farm experience—suddenly sneezed.
"Who's talking about me?"
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