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The ninja froze for a split second before his expression instantly darkened. With a flick of his wrist, three shuriken shot toward Xuan—an ambush he had clearly been preparing.
The shuriken pierced through Xuan's body without any resistance, but with a poof, his figure dissolved into a cloud of white smoke.
A Clone Jutsu!
Startled, the ninja didn't have time to maintain his disguise anymore. "Byakugan!" he roared. Instantly, the veins around his temples bulged as his irises bleached into pure white. It was one of the three great Dōjutsu of the ninja world.
"Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!"
The exact moment his Byakugan activated, a massive fireball was already hurtling toward his back. With no time for anything else, he channeled Chakra into his palms and spun his body like a top.
"Rotation!"
The absolute, omnidirectional defense deflected the massive fireball. Xuan reappeared on a nearby tree branch, thinking to himself, His defense really is something else! Sharingan, open!
In a flash, his eyes bled into crimson. Within his pupils, the eerie, phantom-like Three-Tomoe Sharingan slowly rotated, locking onto the spinning dome of Chakra below. He gripped a kunai tightly in each hand.
This wasn't a friendly clan spar where he could afford to hold back. This was a life-and-death struggle. A single second of distraction was the difference between walking away and ending up in a body bag. There was no way he was going to hide his true strength now. Furthermore, the ninja below was no pushover; Xuan estimated him to be at the absolute peak of the Chūnin level.
"One... Two... Three..."
Xuan silently counted down. The exact second he hit "three," the Rotation stopped. Like a launched arrow, Xuan shot downward.
The two kunai in his hands had somehow multiplied into six. With a flick of his wrists, he hurled them all. At the end of each kunai trailed a thin Chakra wire, and attached to each wire was a Paper Bomb.
"Detonate!"
The instant the kunai landed at his opponent's feet, Xuan triggered the explosion. A deafening chain of blasts ripped through the air.
A figure leapt out from the center of the blast radius. Xuan let out a cold sneer, his hand signs already complete. "I was waiting for that! Fire Style: Dragon Flame Bomb!"
A massive inferno erupted, splitting into three distinct streams that roared toward the ninja like three fire dragons.
A B-Rank Jutsu?! How is that possible? This brat... The ninja gritted his teeth. He forcefully expelled Chakra from every Tenketsu in his body, using it as a makeshift shield to tank the flames as he charged straight at Uchiha Xuan.
"8 Trigrams Vacuum Palm!"
Intense Chakra gathered in his palm. He had already decided to end this quickly. The tactical intellect and Jutsu firepower this brat had displayed so far were genuinely terrifying. He knew that the longer this dragged out, the closer he would edge toward his own grave.
As he closed the distance, he finally got a clear look into Xuan's blood-red eyes. The three spinning tomoe within them were unmistakable. His heart dropped. This only solidified his absolute resolve to kill the boy. To possess a fully matured Three-Tomoe Sharingan at this age... such talent was monstrous. He absolutely could not let this child live to see adulthood.
The devastating palm thrust violently slammed into Xuan's chest—but there was no physical feedback! The strike passed right through and blasted into the ground, the sheer force shattering the earth beneath them.
How...? It missed? Body Flicker Jutsu? Substitution? When the hell did he weave the hand signs?! In a fraction of a second, countless thoughts raced through the ninja's mind.
Right at that moment, strands of silver-glowing Chakra wires materialized around him, snapping taut and binding him tightly in place.
From directly behind him, Xuan's figure materialized, gripping the ends of the Chakra wires. "I just learned this trick from Madara. Fire Style: Dragon Flame Jutsu."
A massive torrent of flames spewed from his mouth, racing down the conducting Chakra wires and completely engulfing the ninja in fire.
Agonized screams echoed through the forest before the ninja abruptly passed out from the excruciating pain, his life force rapidly fading.
Calculating the timing, Xuan severed the Jutsu. He still had plenty of questions to ask; he couldn't afford to let the guy die just yet.
A large glob of water splashed over the ninja's head. He groggily regained consciousness, only to find himself securely bound to a tree trunk by Chakra wires. He couldn't even twitch.
Seeing him wake up, Xuan cut right to the chase. "Spit it out. You should know better than anyone that lying in front of the Sharingan is completely pointless."
The spy resigned himself to his fate with a heavy sigh. "To think I've survived the Warring States era for so long, only to be bested by a brat. I'll talk. But I have one question. How exactly did you dodge my Vacuum Palm back there? I saw you clearly with my Byakugan; there's no way you had time to weave any signs."
Xuan let out a soft chuckle. "Oh, that? It's simple. I didn't weave any signs. You just missed."
The ninja instantly grew agitated. "Impossible! I have the Byakugan! How could I possibly miss?! Wait... A Genjutsu? Yes, it had to be a Genjutsu! But when the hell did you cast it?!"
He frowned, racking his brain, before suddenly remembering the moment he had charged at Xuan and locked eyes with those three spinning tomoe.
"Was it back then?! I didn't even notice!"
Seeing the utterly defeated look on the spy's face, Xuan rolled his eyes. He landed a swift kick on the man's shin. "I don't have all day to waste on you! Talk! What's your objective? Why did you lure the garrison ninjas away?" He had originally aimed for the stomach, but his current body was just too damn short; the shin was the best he could do.
"I'm a spy for the Hyuga clan. After breaking through your defensive line, our original plan was to join the main battlefield and encircle the Uchiha alongside the Senju. But after witnessing the Uchiha's sheer power on the frontlines, our Clan Head hesitated, fearing a war of attrition. After all, while the Hyuga is a major clan, our overall strength still falls short of the Senju and Uchiha. If we took too many casualties in a head-on clash, it wouldn't benefit us at all."
The spy was well aware of the Sharingan's hypnotic capabilities. Rather than being mind-controlled into spilling every secret down to his ancestors' graves, he figured it was better to just confess cleanly.
Xuan frowned slightly. "Get to the point."
"Alright. Simply put, our clan didn't want to wade into the bloodbath on the frontlines. So, they devised a different strategy. They had me disguise myself as an Uchiha to plead for reinforcements, drawing the garrison ninjas out of the compound. Then, under the cover of darkness, a squad of our elites will quietly infiltrate the compound and carry out a total massacre of the Uchiha's next generation."
"What?!" For the first time, Xuan lost his cool. He sucked in a sharp breath of cold air. The Hyuga clan was incredibly ruthless! This was a literal extermination plan. If they succeeded, the entire Uchiha clan would go completely insane.