Chapter 17
Just as the Kumo leader ran smugly toward his escape route.
The "unconscious" Naruto's vacant eyes suddenly flashed with sharp light.
As a jinchūriki, if the tailed beast inside is willing to help, it can snap the host out of genjutsu.
Inside the illusion—where Naruto had been desperately searching for an exit—Xuanming's figure appeared before him.
Xuanming instructed: stay still when you wake up, pretend you're still dazed, then strike when the moment is right. He tapped Naruto's forehead with two fingers.
Later, once Xuanming confirmed the Kumo leader had dropped his guard—
"Move!" Xuanming's voice cut like ice.
Naruto's right hand—somehow already inside his pocket—pulled out a pitch-black kunai.
It was the same kunai the bully had used against Hinata three days ago—the one Xuanming had knocked out of his hand and pinned to the tree. No one had retrieved it.
During the day's village-wide scouting, Xuanming had specifically told Naruto to pick it up on the way.
Schlick!
A black glint flashed.
Under Xuanming's control, the razor-sharp kunai stabbed from an impossibly awkward angle—straight into the Kumo leader's other shoulder, sinking to the hilt!
"Guh!!"
The searing pain made the leader grunt. That arm instantly lost strength.
The real Hinata slipped from under his armpit and fell into the snow.
"What the hell?!"
The Kumo leader was shocked and furious. He tightened his grip on Naruto's arm and hurled the "other Hinata" away with brutal force.
Bang!
Naruto slammed hard into the nearby wall. Xuanming gave a gentle push from behind, absorbing most of the impact.
Poof!
White smoke burst as the Transformation Technique broke.
The blond boy with whisker marks and orange clothes reappeared, wincing in pain as he slid down the wall.
"It's you?!" The Kumo leader instantly recognized the kid he'd seen earlier in the day—the rumored decoy jinchūriki.
Hinata, jolted awake by the fall, opened her eyes groggily.
Under the moonlight, the first thing she saw was a girl who looked exactly like her being smashed against the wall—then transforming into Uzumaki Naruto.
"Run! Go back that way!"
Ignoring the pain in his back, Naruto shouted at Hinata on the ground.
"N-Naruto-kun…?"
Hinata's mind was still foggy, struggling to process the scene.
"Run! Through that side gate behind you! I'll hold him off!" Naruto roared again.
With a clear direction, Hinata instinctively scrambled up. Legs still shaky, she stumbled and staggered toward the side entrance in the wall.
"Damn brat!"
The Kumo leader exploded with rage. His flawless plan—ruined by a three-year-old?
"If you want to die, I'll grant your wish!"
He lost composure, reached for a row of shuriken, and flung them toward Naruto against the wall.
One more nuisance dealt with—then he could chase the real Byakugan girl!
Ding! Ding! Ding!
Just before the shuriken could turn Naruto into a pincushion, several blades flew from the darkness and intercepted every one mid-air with perfect precision.
"Who?!"
The Kumo leader whipped around.
On the left wall stood a masked Anbu in full gear.
On the right—a purple-haired female Anbu, short sword already drawn and aimed at him.
It was Yūgao Uzuki and the Anbu who had been monitoring Naruto earlier that day.
The two Anbu sealed off his escape route outward.
"No way… how did Anbu react so fast?"
The Kumo leader's heart sank to rock bottom.
His concealment technique would break if he used high-power ninjutsu.
At that point, even escaping Anbu pursuit would become far more difficult—let alone capturing the Byakugan.
Take the Byakugan now! Last chance!
He chose not to fight. Reinforcements could arrive any second.
Despite the pain in both shoulders, he rapidly formed hand seals.
Lightning Release: Thunder Light Pillar
Zzzzt—BOOM!
The street erupted as though a flashbang had detonated.
Blinding white light flooded half the road, turning midnight into noon for the Anbu's eyes.
But this wasn't ordinary brightness—it carried visual genjutsu!
The technique's brilliance lay in making victims believe it was mere visual disruption—while the hidden genjutsu took hold unnoticed.
"Ugh!"
Both Anbu were instantly caught—vision whited out, bodies frozen in place.
Naruto by the wall was also dazzled, covering his eyes and unable to look directly.
Only Hinata—running away with her back to the flash—remained unaffected, still thinking only of finding her father to save Naruto-kun.
"Chance!"
The Kumo leader, an elite jonin, was confident he could finish both Anbu in this moment—but it was pointless.
He was deep inside a major Konoha clan compound. The slightest delay would get him surrounded and beaten down.
Better to grab the real Hyūga girl and flee immediately.
Gritting his teeth against the shoulder wounds, he transformed into a streak of lightning—bypassing the Anbu and shooting straight toward the tiny figure ahead.
The blinding light quickly faded.
As for the genjutsu…
Pa!
Inside the illusion, Xuanming tapped Naruto's forehead again—snapping him free instantly.
"Naruto, wake up! He's getting away!"
"Fox Sage, I can't catch him!" Naruto shouted, eyes wide with panic.
"Don't panic."
Behind Xuanming, nine tails gently swayed. His projection gradually merged into Naruto's body.
A surge of red-gold chakra erupted from the seal.
This wasn't the original Nine-Tails chakra—full of hatred and violence—but three years of careful filtering and purification by Xuanming himself: "Xuanming-version" Nine-Tails chakra stored in the seal space.
Because of the Eight Trigrams Seal, Naruto's body automatically converted and drew chakra from the seal to suppress the "beast" inside—returning it as stamina and growth.
The same seal also slowly absorbed power from the "beast," converting it into Naruto's chakra—though the process was crude and wasteful. His young body could only handle a limited amount.
Xuanming's daily projection and Naruto's ninjutsu used only what the boy could safely accept.
Meanwhile, the purified reserve inside the seal continued to accumulate—three full years of clean backup energy.
Over time, the seal's strength would erode, gradually loosening—just as in the original story when 12-year-old Naruto's emotional swings caused leaks, allowing the original Nine-Tails to slowly influence him.
That was also why people said most of Naruto's chakra went to suppressing the Nine-Tails—making ninjutsu hard to learn.
Second-hand chakra was simply harder to control.
Now, a thin layer of pale red-gold chakra cloaked Naruto's body.
This power carried none of the corrosive malice—instead it felt… pure, natural, almost Dao-like.
"Wh-what is this?"
Naruto stared at his hands in shock. His body felt light and weightless. All pain vanished, replaced by boundless strength.
His mind didn't flood with rage like in the original story—instead it entered a strange state of "heart like still water."
That was the mental clarity and calm Xuanming's spirit energy infused into the chakra.
"Go."
Xuanming's voice echoed in his ear: "Right now, you can move like the wind."
BOOM!
Snow exploded beneath Naruto's feet in a massive crater.
No hand seals. No ninjutsu.
Purely from the terrifying physical boost of this chakra, his small body turned into a streak of crimson wind.
He surged forward—catching up to the Kumo leader from behind!
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