"Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm!"
Facing the giant shuriken screaming through the air, Hyūga Kumokawa poured chakra into his arm. His fingers curled as he thrust his palm forward. The wind pressure flattened his sleeve against his skin, outlining every tensed muscle.
A compressed blast of air erupted like an invisible cannon shell, slamming into the shuriken. The sonic boom and shockwave hit everyone's ears at once.
Bang!
The massive shuriken carried overwhelming force. Hyūga Kumokawa skidded back several steps, the ground beneath his feet fracturing into a spiderweb of cracks, but he held his ground and stopped it cold.
"Eight Inner Gates — Second Gate: Gate of Healing?"
Aburame Ryūma spotted the bulging veins on Kumokawa's body and instantly recognized the technique.
This kid was from the Hyūga clan, yet he had learned the Eight Inner Gates and even opened the second gate?
No wonder he could block one of Toroi's strikes. But it still wasn't enough. This was Toroi—a Magnet Release user.
Those shuriken were specially made, insanely heavy, and could only be controlled through Magnet Release.
"Cough, cough." Aburame Ryūma swallowed a pill and shouted a warning. "Don't touch his shuriken with your body!"
The other Root ninjas moved to attack, but Toroi refused to give them time to form hand seals. Blocking those giant shuriken with blades was already pushing their limits.
Meanwhile, the shuriken Kumokawa had stopped suddenly spun back to life. It howled like a meat grinder as it tore toward him again.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
Veins spread around Hyūga Kumokawa's eyes. He activated his Byakugan without hesitation.
In the space of a single breath, from the corner of everyone's vision, his figure blurred into afterimages. While dodging, he met the shuriken with Vacuum Palm again and again, each collision exploding like thunder.
Toroi watched Kumokawa from a distance, guiding the shuriken with hand seals. His eyes narrowed the moment he saw the white eyes.
"Kid, are you main house or branch family?" he asked suddenly.
The strength didn't fit the main house, yet the boy could use Rotation—a secret technique only the main house possessed.
Hyūga Kumokawa didn't answer. He didn't seem to have any strength to spare.
Splat!
A spurt of blood suddenly sprayed across the ground.
Kumokawa's movements jerked to a halt. A gash had split open at the corner of his eye.
Blood trickled down his cheek to his jaw, then dripped warmly onto the top of his foot.
Aburame Ryūma's face darkened. He knew the boy had reached his limit.
According to the intel, the moment you touched Toroi's shuriken, the Magnet Release chakra clinging to it would magnetize your body and mark you. Any follow-up attack laced with magnetic force would become impossible to dodge.
Aburame Ryūma knew Toroi's abilities well. A kekkei genkai user like him was a nightmare even among jōnin.
"If my internal injuries weren't so bad, I might be able to coordinate a surprise attack with the others," Aburame Ryūma thought, gritting his teeth. "But right now…"
His true strength was infiltration and assassination, not head-on fighting.
Bang!
Using the giant shuriken's own momentum, Hyūga Kumokawa retreated to Aburame Ryūma's side. His voice came out hoarse and urgent. "Ryūma-senpai! Ten o'clock direction, three kilometers out—dozens of shinobi are closing in!"
Ten o'clock meant they weren't Konoha reinforcements. They were almost certainly Kumogakure forces stationed near the border of the Land of Hot Springs.
"Wait," Aburame Ryūma realized with a start. "Three kilometers? You can see a full three-kilometer radius?"
Ordinary Hyūga clan members could see everything within one kilometer after activating their Byakugan, rarely pushing beyond two kilometers.
If they focused in a single direction, the range might stretch several times farther.
But Kumokawa clearly wasn't looking in just one direction—he had taken in the entire three-kilometer radius at once.
That was terrifying.
"Senpai! There's no time for this!" Hyūga Kumokawa said urgently. "I don't know how the explosive tags ended up there, but hurry—take Dōtō-senpai and get out of here! We're running out of time!"
Aburame Ryūma, already suffering heavy internal injuries, nearly coughed up another mouthful of blood.
It wasn't me who planted those tags!
Why does everyone assume I did it?!
Danzō-sama had given permission to act, but I hadn't even made my move yet!
"Hmph! Silent, are we?"
Toroi snorted coldly, hatred burning in his voice. "Then I'll cut off your limbs and ask again afterward!"
He yanked out a scroll, unfurled it with a sharp snap, and summoned two more giant shuriken.
"Magnet Release: Black Iron Dou—"
"You won't get the chance!"
A voice thick with fury suddenly cut him off.
Akimichi Dōtō, who had been unconscious, stirred under the protection and medical aid of the ANBU. The moment he saw Hyūga Kumokawa standing guard in front of him, he popped a green pill and a yellow pill into his mouth without hesitation.
These were the Akimichi clan's secret medicines: the green Spinach Pill that instantly unleashed thirty percent more of a person's physical potential and tripled their strength beyond normal limits, and the yellow Curry Pill that replenished blood and energy.
The cost would be crushing pain and exhaustion once the effects faded.
But right now, it was more than enough.
"Multi-Size Technique: Super Push!"
Boom!!
A colossal palm crashed down from above, slamming toward Toroi.
The ground shattered beneath the impact like a collapsing mountain. The entire area trembled under unimaginable force, crushing several corpses—blood, bones, and all—deep into the earth.
"Troublesome bastard."
Toroi reappeared farther away, his expression grim. He had been forced to cut the connection to his shuriken and could only pull them back.
"Dōtō-senpai!" Hyūga Kumokawa looked up, real relief flashing across his face. "You're—"
"Listen to me, Kumokawa."
Akimichi Dōtō cut him off, his voice heavy. "This was most likely Iwagakure's doing. Take the others and return to Konoha immediately. Report everything to the Third Hokage!"
"Iwagakure?" Aburame Ryūma's pupils shrank. "Why would it be Iwagakure?"
Akimichi Dōtō shot him a cold glance. As if Root had nothing to do with it?
"Remember those Iwagakure missing-nin we ran into on the road?" Akimichi Dōtō explained. "The scroll holding Hiashi's body was probably switched during that encounter."
"What?" Hyūga Kumokawa froze, realization hitting him. His already pale face turned deathly white. "So it was because of me…"
"This isn't your fault," Akimichi Dōtō said, his eyes filled with complicated emotion as he looked at the boy.
He had seen it all—how Kumokawa had thrown himself in front of him without hesitation, along with the strength and talent the young man had displayed.
When he first realized the explosive tags were inside the coffin, his immediate suspicion had fallen on Kumokawa, the one carrying the scroll.
But he quickly understood that explosive tags were vital strategic assets, not something money alone could buy in those quantities.
Even if Kumokawa had somehow found the funds, ANBU would have descended on him the moment he tried to purchase them and demanded answers.
So the tags couldn't have been placed by him. The scroll must have been swapped. The boy had simply been too inexperienced.
A promising young talent like this, with such upright character, could not be allowed to die here today.
"Go," Akimichi Dōtō said firmly.
"No, we can't leave you behind, senpai…"
Kumokawa tried to protest, but a sharp whistle sliced through the air.
"None of you are getting away today!"
"Go!"
More giant shuriken streaked toward them. Akimichi Dōtō roared and swung a chakra-wrapped palm.
Boom!!
The ground shook violently again. Everyone felt the deep, thunder-like rumble.
But this time the tremor didn't fade. It grew stronger and stronger.
Buzz!
"What's happening?" Faces paled all around.
The next instant, after the violent quake, an earth-shattering roar erupted.
Bang!
Right beneath their feet, the ground bulged upward before splitting open with terrifying cracks that stretched a hundred meters wide.
It felt like an invisible monster was writhing underground, desperate to break free from its prison. Even through the earth, they could sense its immense power.
Heavy objects nearby floated into the air as if weightless.
Boom! Crack!!
After the ground rose into a massive arc, a deafening explosion shook the heavens once more.
Everyone felt a sudden weightlessness, as if they themselves were being lifted.
No—they weren't flying.
The ground beneath them was collapsing.
"Retreat!"
Toroi and the Konoha shinobi stopped fighting at the same instant and flickered backward.
Rumble!!
They watched helplessly as a pitch-black fissure tore open beneath the inn. The earth split into enormous slabs and sank into the widening abyss, swallowed whole.
The once-solid ground now seemed as fragile and soft as flatbread crushed between fingers.
Moments later, when the tremors finally died down and the rising dust began to settle…
A bottomless black pit lay before them, an abyss that swallowed all light.
"What… is this?"
Everyone stared into the chasm with wary, uncertain eyes. A profound darkness seemed to swirl in its depths.
***
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