Kuromori was getting beaten down.
He kicked one of the Akishimas, but his foot passed straight through the body. At the same time, a clone beside him smashed a punch into his lower back, sending him flying.
He rolled across the ground, barely regaining his footing, only for even more Akishimas to rush in and continue their assault.
He could only barely fend them off. He had no way of telling which attacks were real, so he chose the dumbest possible method—
Block everything.
Punches and kicks rained down like a storm.
"Damn it… how am I supposed to fight this?" Kuromori could only retreat again and again.
The Waterfall Clone Technique wasn't especially powerful, but he had no effective way to counter it.
"Mu Yu."
He had no choice but to pin his hopes on his subordinate. The last enemy had died after being poisoned—by Mu Yu.
But—
Where the hell was Mu Yu?!
After scanning the surroundings, he didn't see Mu Yu anywhere. Not even the sounds of fighting could be heard.
Don't tell me this bastard ran off?!
Several Akishima clones surged forward again, continuing to gang up on Kuromori, forcing him to retreat further and further.
In the end, he leaped up into a tree, looking down at the mass of Akishima clones below.
The Waterfall Clone Technique was essentially an Earth Release technique… so it shouldn't have much of a way to deal with trees—
Or so he thought.
The clones immediately turned and began attacking the tree itself.
Boom! Boom!
The massive tree shook violently. In no time, the thick trunk was severed at the waist, forcing Kuromori to move again.
"Hey, that's crossing a line!!"
Kuromori jumped to another tree—but every time he did, the Akishimas smashed that tree as well.
They weren't slower than him at all.
This forced him to keep relocating, gradually dragging the battlefield back toward the original area.
"Don't think you're getting away!"
A swarm of Akishimas chased relentlessly, sticking close behind him.
Kuromori glanced back. A black mass of figures filled his vision. He didn't dare stop for even a moment and sprinted straight toward the area where they had originally been hiding.
Reaching that spot, he finally felt a bit of relief.
Why had he dragged the battlefield away earlier in the first place?
This time, instead of retreating, he charged forward.
He leapt down from the tree, rushing straight toward Akishima.
His body slipped through several Akishima clones. One clone leapt high into the air, kunai in hand, stabbing straight toward Kuromori's back.
"It's over!"
Kuromori's stamina and chakra were already heavily depleted.
And with the clones' chakra signatures all tangled together, he had no way to distinguish the real body.
That gave Akishima the perfect opening. He was already behind Kuromori—the kunai only needed to pierce his back to end his life.
At that moment—
The Akishima in midair suddenly came to a dead stop.
His pupils shrank violently.
Kuromori turned around, a cold smile on his face.
He jumped up and delivered a flying kick, sending Akishima crashing away.
The flying Akishima traveled a short distance before abruptly stopping, then dropped straight to the ground.
At some point, a loop of steel wire had wrapped around his ankle—and attached to it was an activating—
"Explosive tag!!"
BOOM!!
Kuromori jumped back a step as the Akishima clone rapidly dissipated. He dropped to one knee, slowly exhaling a breath of foul air.
This area was filled with traps designed by Hyuga Arin.
Without these traps, there was no way he could've turned the tables.
As the dust from the explosion gradually settled, Akishima—also kneeling in the distance—frowned as he looked at Kuromori.
The explosive tag had gone off some distance away. It had injured him, but not severely.
It had also blown apart the steel wire around his ankle.
Now, he didn't dare move recklessly.
Shifting his focus away from Kuromori, he finally noticed the steel wires scattered all around.
If he hadn't been completely focused on Kuromori earlier, he should've noticed this long ago.
But—
"Why didn't you use this earlier?" Akishima asked Kuromori.
Kuromori awkwardly looked away.
The traps weren't his work. Out of misplaced confidence—and a trace of inferiority—he hadn't wanted to rely on traps designed by Mu Yu.
And later…
He'd simply forgotten.
The fight had been too intense. It hadn't even crossed his mind. If he hadn't been pushed to the brink, he truly wouldn't have remembered at all.
"You made me overlook this… what a clever strategy," Akishima growled through clenched teeth.
Earlier, one of his subordinates had already fallen into a trap. He'd thought that was the only one.
He hadn't expected there to be so many.
Because the two of them had fought for so long without triggering any traps, he'd completely let his guard down.
What are you even saying?!
Listen to yourself!!
If Kuromori had that kind of brain, would he still be stuck as a chūnin here?
But then again—
In terms of results, it had dealt a massive blow to the enemy.
So why couldn't it count as his strategy?
Kuromori copied Hyuga Arin's trademark grin. Somehow, that smile felt perfect for the moment.
He stood up and charged straight at Akishima.
This time, he was going to kill him.
As for the traps scattered all around—he'd personally watched Mu Yu set them up. He knew exactly where they were, both the obvious ones and the hidden ones.
Akishima hurriedly raised his kunai to block.
The two blades collided rapidly, sparks flying everywhere.
The tide had turned.
Now it was Kuromori who held the upper hand.
Akishima had to watch out for both the traps and Kuromori's attacks. For a time, he was forced steadily backward.
But retreating wasn't easy either.
There were traps behind him as well—he had to stay constantly alert.
This wouldn't do.
If he didn't move the battlefield, he'd either die at Kuromori's hands or get killed by the traps.
His gaze shifted toward the trees.
Because of the light rain, distinguishing the hidden steel wires was extremely difficult.
Still, after careful observation, he found a few relatively clear paths.
If he could break through from those points, he could quickly relocate the fight.
Akishima leapt from the ground, jumping toward a distant tree.
Kuromori immediately saw through his intention and jumped up to intercept.
"Don't even think about leaving!"
If the battlefield changed, the situation would no longer be favorable. Akishima was clearly much stronger than him.
Kuromori's kunai slashed across Akishima's body—
But it felt like cutting through air.
"Damn it."
A clone.
Akishima's real body had already leapt out of the trap zone and was bounding toward a tree.
Just as he was about to land on a branch—
A figure appeared there first.
Hyuga Arin stood on the branch, grinning at him.
"Surprised? Didn't see that coming, did you?"
Akishima narrowed his eyes.
Just a genin.
Although this didn't match his expectations, he was still confident in his taiTechnique.
A mere genin.
Gentle Fist · Mountain-Shattering Strike!
Hyuga Arin's palm slammed heavily into Akishima's abdomen.
Akishima's eyes went wide.
The force transmitted through that palm far exceeded what a genin should possess—it was power that even most chūnin didn't have.
BOOM!
Akishima's body was blasted downward, crashing toward the ground.
As he fell, countless steel wires snapped tight around him, rapidly binding his body—along with explosive tags tied to the wires.
BOOM!!
Firelight illuminated the surroundings.
[Experience: 1869]
From above, Hyuga Arin looked down at Kuromori.
Kuromori had just landed on the ground, staring at him with a completely blank expression.
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