In the mountain forest.
More than twenty Ninjas cautiously advanced in alternating patterns.
Inada Takuma turned to look at a delicate-looking woman beside him: "Haruna, how far is the opponent?"
"Eight hundred meters!" Mikami Haruna responded immediately, her brow furrowing slightly.
"Eight hundred meters? We've been chasing for so long, and there's still eight hundred meters of distance." Inada Takuma's mouth hung open in disbelief.
"It has already shortened by four hundred meters; at the beginning, he was a full twelve hundred meters away from us."
"Twelve hundred meters?" He suddenly turned to Mizutani Yūya, his eyes filled with incredulity: "You let someone take out five of my men from twelve hundred meters away, and one of them was a Jonin?"
"How the hell did you lead the team?"
"I, I..." Mizutani Yūya stammered for a long time without being able to get a single word out.
He wanted to say he wasn't the one leading the team, but after Hino Kousuke died, he was indeed the one leading the squad.
Therefore, he could only keep his head down and remain silent.
Looking at his pathetic state, Inada Takuma spat in frustration: "Learn well; even a dog could lead better than you!"
Just as he finished speaking.
A scream suddenly rang out from the crowd ahead, and a figure flew backward, rolling to a stop in front of them.
His hands were clutching the blue-white Light Arrow embedded in his chest, his face twisted in extreme agony.
"Aosuke!"
"Aosuke!"
Several men nearby looked on with eyes nearly splitting, letting out heart-wrenching roars.
The others around them were too shocked to make a sound.
Haruna clearly said that guy was still eight hundred meters away!
At eight hundred meters, one couldn't even see a person.
But this guy actually managed to hit accurately with a Chakra Arrow from over 800 meters away.
How was this possible?
Inada Takuma and Mizutani Yūya looked at each other; the former's face was ashen, and he was about to lose his temper.
Suddenly, another flash of blue light appeared deep within the jungle ahead.
"Get out of the way!"
Inada Takuma's heart tightened, and he let out a loud shout.
But it was too late.
Another figure ahead was struck by an arrow and flew back to land before him, eyes wide like copper bells, dying with grievances.
"F*ck!" Inada Takuma cursed, suppressing his anger as he quickly made arrangements.
"Takuhito, Tsuyoshi, Shinichi, the three of you who know the Hardening Technique, go to the front row and keep it active at all times."
"But Captain," one of the three objected, "if we keep it active the whole time, we won't have much Chakra left by the time we catch up."
"You won't be needed for the fight then," Inada Takuma interrupted sharply, then drew his Ninja Blade and swung it forward. "Everyone else, follow behind these three. We must capture that kid!"
"Roar!" The crowd shouted in unison, and morale seemed to recover slightly.
Inada Takuma stared deep into the jungle ahead, his eyes fierce.
So what if he's a sharpshooter!
You think you can take out all thirty of us by yourself?
It won't be that easy.
Having such a big appetite, aren't you afraid of breaking your teeth?
"Kill!"
"Avenge our brothers!"
"Charge!"
Everyone performed their duties, and their advancing speed suddenly increased. The battle cries echoed through the mountain forest for a long time... At the foot of the mountain.
The location where Hino Kousuke died.
Countless leaves danced in the air, gradually gathering into a man with grey-blue hair tied back, a scar at the corner of his mouth, and a resolute appearance.
He looked around, his gaze falling on a familiar corpse, and stepped forward quickly.
"Hino Kousuke?" Shirakumo Hayama frowned and crouched down to examine the injuries on the corpse at his feet.
He had fought this old fellow during the Second Ninja World War.
His strength wasn't much, but he was clever.
He didn't expect him to be killed in a single strike.
Judging by the size of the wound, it should have been caused by a spear.
"Strange, I haven't heard of anyone in the Village using a spear."
He looked up toward the depths of the mountain forest, smelling the scent of blood gradually drifting down with the wind.
His eyes sharpened, and he leaped toward the mountain, racing upward.
Along the way, he occasionally saw enemies killed by a single spear strike.
The more he saw, the more alarmed he became.
He didn't expect so many Rogue Ninjas to have infiltrated the territory.
Even more unexpected was that these outlaws, who had lived on the edge for years, were all killed with a single spear strike, without exception.
"With this kind of strength, it doesn't look like reinforcements are needed..."
Shirakumo Hayama muttered to himself and sprinted up the mountain at an even faster speed... Deep in the dense forest.
"The ninth one."
Aokawa's expression was indifferent as his cold gaze fixed on the distant enemies.
Twenty-one left.
The distance between the two sides was closing, now down to five hundred meters.
This was the result of Aokawa's deliberate control; if he wanted to string them along, he had to give them a bit of hope.
He gradually pulled back the visual range of his Byakugan, increasing the detail within his field of vision.
If his clarity when looking at things several kilometers away was only 720P...
...then now, after reducing the visual distance to a few hundred meters, the clarity had reached 2K.
Buzz!
The bowstring vibrated, and another Chakra Arrow pierced through the air.
The three people rushing at the front, using the Hardening Technique, saw a flash of blue light in the distance.
They hurriedly roared and moved together to intercept it.
But unfortunately, they were not the targets of this arrow from the start.
"Whiz!"
The blue-white Chakra Arrow bypassed the three men in front with an extremely subtle curve.
"Ah!"
With a shrill scream, another person lay on the ground, dying with grievances.
"You beast!"
Seeing this, the people around gritted their teeth in hatred.
"This guy's attack angles are strange and varied. This time we finally guessed the angle, but the arrow turned on its own."
"Bastard! Once we reach him, we must chop off that kid's hands and feet."
"That would be too easy on him. As long as we don't kill him, I'm going to pull out his tendons and bones bit by bit."
The twenty or so people cursed one after another.
In their view, such a sharpshooter could only fight so many people if the distance was maintained.
Once they closed the distance, his death would be entirely up to them.
"His speed has increased!" Mikami Haruna's voice suddenly rang out.
She frowned and said, "After the distance closed by four hundred meters, his speed began to increase. We are chasing at full speed, but the distance has only closed by fifty meters."
She instinctively felt something was wrong and gathered Chakra to sense carefully.
A moment later, her voice rang out again: "This guy is actually planning to lead us in circles."
In an instant!
Everyone thought this man was crazy.
Was he starting to panic because closing the distance was inevitable?
If they were running in a straight line, the distances traveled by both sides would be nearly the same.
But once they started moving in circles, the person on the outside would inevitably have to cover much more distance than those at the center.
And this also meant the opponent had to move at high speed to maintain the distance between them.
Inada Takuma stared ahead with a murderous glint in his eyes.
The opponent had already started making mistakes, so he just needed to ensure he didn't make any himself.
He narrowed his eyes and licked his lips: "Since he's looking for death, he can't blame us."
"Haruna! No matter what tricks he plays, stay glued to him!"
"Yes!"
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