A light drizzle began to fall from the clear sky.
Starting from an area half a meter square, it quickly expanded to cover nearly a hundred meters.
Unremarkable raindrops fell in a mottled pattern.
The fire ignited by the explosive tag array in the nameless forest was extinguished at a visibly rapid pace, disappearing without a trace.
Water Release: Cutting Rain.
This was a Water Release secret technique used by the Hidden Mist ANBU, capable of weakening all ninjutsu and chakra except Water Release techniques.
Ao's plan was meticulously crafted. He deliberately exposed an opening to Hyuga Yu, thereby seizing the opportunity to land his Water Prison Technique. During this time, Ao needed to maintain the Water Prison with one hand while his jōnin colleague simultaneously deployed the Water Release: Cutting Rain technique.
While continuously draining the enemy's chakra through the secret technique, they were also constantly establishing terrain advantageous to Water Release users.
Ultimately, placing themselves in an invincible position.
However, the Eight Gates technique that Hyuga Yu was now employing was completely outside the scope of the Hidden Mist's intelligence, making him once again unpredictable and uncontrollable—
An intelligence black hole!
At this moment,
Under the horrified gazes of Ao and Kensuke, Hyuga Yu burst through the water sphere and leaped high into the air!
Before Ao could deploy his next Water Release technique,
"Thud!"
Like an elephant's foot striking the ground!
Hyuga Yu executed a 720-degree spinning flip in midair, landing heavily in a half-kneel behind Ao!
Ao immediately twisted around, swinging his reverse-gripped kunai toward Hyuga Yu behind him!
But,
What awaited him was a size 42 boot delivering a high-torque roundhouse kick!
"Shadow of the Dancing Leaf!"
This was the opening move for the Front Lotus and Reverse Lotus—moving at speeds invisible to the naked eye to appear before the opponent, kicking the enemy into the air to link into other taijutsu techniques.
What Hyuga Yu was using now was a "waiting by the tree stump" version. Without dynamic visual acuity or specialized taijutsu training, he couldn't precisely control his body's explosive speed at this moment, and naturally couldn't use this move to directly hit a jōnin-level opponent skilled in taijutsu.
Fortunately, Hyuga Yu had the Byakugan!
By observing the direction Ao's eyeballs turned, he predicted in advance which way his opponent would twist his body and head, then used Shadow of the Dancing Leaf to kick preemptively toward where his chin would be.
"Bang!"
Ao felt his jaw crack with a crisp sound. The kick that had been waiting specifically for him sent him flying straight upward over five meters.
His heart sank—this was bad!
Immediately after,
"Whoosh!"
Hyuga Yu planted one hand on the ground and leaped up, eyes blazing. In midair, he swung his palm, and the green chakra surging throughout his body began frantically converging from every tenketsu into his palm!
Stepping on air, taking strides, each step striking Ao's body with a palm!
"Gentle Fist: Eight Trigrams Two Palms!"
"Four Palms!"
"Eight Palms!"
Three steps completed!
"And then—"
Hyuga Yu's pupils suddenly contracted. Inside his body, his Byakugan chakra drove the Life Gate chakra to form a peculiar pattern in front of his palm—eight wildly spinning green trigram symbols.
He brought his hands together, clasping them into a fist, piercing through the eight trigram symbols, swinging his arms down like a heavy hammer toward Ao's face below!
"Eight Trigrams Life Gate Explosion!"
"Bang!"
"Pft! Gah!" The fist struck Ao's face, the impact caving in his skin as he spat fresh blood.
Ao felt the three streams of chakra that Hyuga Yu had previously struck into his body begin rampaging wildly in response to this final blow, destroying his internal chakra pathways while making his chakra circulation feel like trudging through mud.
"Thud!"
At this moment,
Both of them nearly landed simultaneously.
The difference was that Ao, the jōnin highly valued by the Hidden Mist elders, now knelt on one knee on the ground, trembling all over, finding even the act of lifting a finger incredibly difficult.
Meanwhile, Hyuga Yu landed smoothly without even catching his breath.
Ao stared at Hyuga Yu with a deathly pale face, forcibly extracting a strand of chakra from his extremely chaotic internal state, attempting to move his body and immediately create distance from Hyuga Yu.
However,
The moment he tried to move, he discovered that his legs felt as if they had been filled with lead, weighing a thousand pounds. Moreover, inside his body, a strand of green chakra was mixed in with his own chakra.
Eight Trigrams Life Gate Explosion—
This was the Eight Trigrams Thirty-Two Palms executed by fusing Byakugan chakra with Life Gate chakra. Unlike the regular Eight Trigrams Thirty-Two Palms, the principle of this technique that Hyuga Yu had devised was to forcibly use Byakugan chakra to drive the uncooperative Life Gate chakra, striking it into the enemy's body. While damaging portions of their chakra pathways, it also caused the enemy's body weight to suddenly increase, making movement difficult.
At this moment, when Ao tried to move with his lead-filled legs, he immediately exposed a flaw where his actions couldn't keep up with his intentions.
A cold light flashed in Hyuga Yu's eyes. His toes ground against the earth, and his entire body pounced like a hunting lion.
One Shadow of the Dancing Leaf combined with Leaf Great Whirlwind kicked Ao to the ground, unable to rise again!
Thus, in this series of offensive and defensive exchanges, the time hadn't even exceeded one minute!
Hidden Mist's Ao was declared defeated.
Witnessing this scene,
Nearby, the Hidden Mist jōnin Kensuke, who was performing Water Release: Cutting Rain, couldn't help but stare with shocked, widened eyes.
At the same time, Hyuga Natsu, who was checking on Hyuga Genko's condition, sensed something and raised her head. After seeing this scene, she turned her gaze toward Hyuga Yu standing tall in the field, a glimmer of admiration flashing through her blinking eyes.
"Cough, cough... Damn it..."
"What kind of technique is this!?"
Ao lay on the ground coughing up two mouthfuls of blood, struggling to lift his head to look at the impassive Hyuga Yu.
A trace of fear flashed through his eyes as he struggled to get up, but no matter what, he couldn't manage it.
Watching Ao struggle like this, Hyuga Yu slowly drew a kunai from his waist pouch, spinning it into a reverse grip. He was about to stab it into the throat of this future advisor to the Fifth Mizukage, completely ending his life.
However,
Just at this moment—
"Brat, you don't actually think you've won, do you?"
Ao completely abandoned his struggle, collapsing in defeat on the ground. Yet the face he lifted bore a mocking, fierce grin as he spoke word by word:
"Now,"
"Your real opponent has arrived!"
Hearing this, Hyuga Yu furrowed his brow slightly, then raised his head slightly. His Byakugan's field of vision rapidly changed, stretching vertically as he scanned a full circle.
The next instant,
Hyuga Yu's expression changed slightly. His toes touched the ground as he leaped backward!
Where he had just been standing, several threads suddenly pulled up from beneath the ground—tightening, constricting, slicing!
The layers of earth were cut like tofu blocks.
A needle-like shinobi blade silently descended from high above, gripped by a bizarre figure standing 2.2 meters tall yet with limbs and torso as thin as matchsticks, stabbing downward!
If Hyuga Yu had hesitated even slightly, at this moment, this blade would have pierced straight through from the crown of his head down to his rectum!
However,
This wasn't over yet—
"Brat, where are you looking!?"
From the northern side of the forest, a strange shout suddenly rang out.
"Bingo~! Direct hit!"
From another direction, a shinobi blade resembling a door panel embedded with a large scroll came spinning through the air!
As the blade rotated, countless explosive tags spilled from its surface and in the next moment, ignited simultaneously!
Suspended in midair, facing this flying blade, Hyuga Yu immediately threw his kunai and stepped on the air to flip backward once more!
"Clang!"
"—BOOM!!!"
A roar erupted, and the shockwave swept horizontally!
Amid the violent explosion,
Two figures—one tall, one short—emanating dense killing intent and terrifying chakra fluctuations made their dramatic entrance!
————
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