"Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm!" Facing the giant shuriken that sliced through the air with a sharp whistle, Hyuga Kumo poured the chakra from his body into his arm. He flexed his fingers and thrust his palm forward, the wind pressure plastering his sleeve to his arm and highlighting the taut lines of his muscles.
The compressed blast of air instantly shot toward the shuriken like an invisible vacuum shell, the sonic boom and rush of wind pressure ringing in everyone's ears.
Bang! The massive, powerful shuriken carried immense force. Hyuga Kumo was uncontrollably driven back several steps, the ground beneath his feet shattering into a spiderweb of cracks, but he had managed to withstand the blow.
"The Eight Gates: The Second Gate—the Gate of Rest?"
Keenly noticing the veins bulging on Hyuga Kumo's body, Aburame Ryoma instantly identified the technique he was using.
This kid, a member of the Hyuga clan, actually went and learned the Eight Gates, and he's even opened the second gate? No wonder he could block one of Toroi's attacks, but it's not enough. That's Toroi, the Magnet Release user.
Those shuriken were specially made; their weight alone was terrifying. They could only be controlled through Magnet Release.
"Cough, cough." Aburame Ryoma swallowed a pill and shouted a warning, "Don't let his shuriken touch your body!"
The other Root shinobi also moved to attack, but Toroi wouldn't give them a chance to form hand seals. Against the force of two giant shuriken, the Root members struggled to defend themselves with only their swords.
And before Hyuga Kumo, the giant shuriken that had been stopped began to spin again, whipping up a wind that shrieked like a meat grinder as it tore toward him like the fangs of a wild beast.
Voom! Voom!
Veins bulged around Hyuga Kumo's eyes as he activated his Byakugan without hesitation.
Within the space of a single breath, in the periphery of everyone's vision...
Hyuga Kumo's figure seemed to blur into an afterimage, and as he dodged, the explosive sounds of shuriken clashing with his Vacuum Palms echoed one after another.
Toroi watched Hyuga Kumo from a distance, his hands forming seals to continuously manipulate the shuriken. His eyes flickered as he noticed the pair of white eyes.
"Kid, are you from the Main House or the Branch House?" he asked suddenly.
His level of skill didn't seem like that of the Main House, yet he could use Revolving Heaven, a secret technique only they possessed.
But Hyuga Kumo didn't answer him, seemingly lacking the energy to do so.
Pfft!
Suddenly, a splash of blood shot out, splattering onto the ground.
Hyuga Kumo's movements came to an abrupt halt. A cut had split open at the corner of his eye.
Blood slowly trickled down his cheek, gathering at his jaw before dripping, warm and wet, onto his feet.
Seeing this, Aburame Ryoma's expression darkened. He knew the kid couldn't hold out much longer.
According to intel, once Toroi's shuriken made contact, the Magnet Release chakra adhering to them would magnetize the target's body, marking them. After that, any attack imbued with magnetic force would become impossible to evade.
Aburame Ryoma was well aware of Toroi's strength. As a wielder of a kekkei genkai, Toroi was an extremely difficult opponent, even among jōnin.
"If my organs weren't so badly damaged, I might have a chance to coordinate a sneak attack with the others, but now..." Aburame Ryoma gritted his teeth.
His strength didn't lie in direct combat, but in infiltration and assassination.
Bang! Using the force of the giant shuriken, Hyuga Kumo threw himself backward, creating distance and landing beside Aburame Ryoma. His voice was hoarse and urgent. "Senior Ryoma, ten o'clock direction, three kilometers out! Dozens of shinobi are heading this way!"
The ten o'clock direction... that's not our Konoha shinobi. It's most likely the Cloud ninja stationed at the border of the Land of Hot Water! "Wait," Aburame Ryoma suddenly realized, blurting out, "Three kilometers? You can see a three-kilometer radius?"
Once a Hyuga clan member activated their Byakugan, they could see everything within a one-kilometer radius, but the absolute limit was almost never more than two kilometers.
If they focused on a single direction, that limit might be extended several times over.
But it was clear this kid, Hyuga Kumo, wasn't just looking in one direction; he had to be taking in the entire scene within a three-kilometer radius to have spotted them.
That was terrifying.
"Senior! This isn't the time to talk about that!" Hyuga Kumo said anxiously. "Whatever the deal is with those paper bombs, get Senior Todo out of here! If we don't leave now, it'll be too late!"
Aburame Ryoma, his internal injuries still fresh, nearly coughed up another mouthful of blood.
The paper bombs have nothing to do with me! Why does everyone think I planted them! Lord Danzo did order that I could make a move, but I haven't even had the chance to act yet! "Hmph! Not talking?"
Faced with Hyuga Kumo's silence, Toroi snorted with hatred. "Then I'll just cut off your limbs and ask you then!"
With that, he took out a scroll, flicked it open, and two more giant shuriken appeared.
"Magnet Release: Twin Hor..."
"In your dreams!"
Just as Toroi was about to throw the two shuriken, a voice filled with raw fury reached his ears.
Akimichi Todo, who had been unconscious, had been roused by the protection and medical treatment of the Anbu. Seeing Hyuga Kumo standing guard in front of him, he didn't hesitate to shove a green pill and a yellow pill into his mouth.
They were the Akimichi clan's secret medicines: the "Green Spinach Pill," which could instantly boost a person's physical potential by 30% and increase their strength by more than three times their normal limit, and the "Yellow Curry Pill" to replenish vitality and blood.
The price was the pain and weakness that would follow once the effects wore off.
But for now, it was enough.
"Multi-Size Technique: Super Palm Thrust!"
BOOM!!
A gigantic hand descended from the sky, smashing down toward Toroi.
The ground erupted with a tremendous roar, collapsing as if the earth itself were breaking apart. The entire area was shattered by an unimaginably terrifying force, and several corpses were pulverized into dust and gore, ground into the soil. "Troublesome bastard."
Toroi reappeared further away, his expression grim. He had been forced to sever his connection to the shuriken and could only recall them.
"Senior Todo!" Hyuga Kumo looked up at Akimichi Todo, a timely look of joy appearing on his face. "You..."
"Kumo, listen to me."
Before he could finish, Akimichi Todo cut him off, his voice grave. "This incident was most likely Iwagakure's doing. You and the others must return to Konoha immediately and report everything to the Third Hokage!"
"Iwagakure?" Before Hyuga Kumo could speak, Aburame Ryoma's pupils shrank. "How could it be Iwagakure?"
Akimichi Todo shot him a cold glance, thinking, And you're telling me your Root has nothing to do with this?
"Do you remember that group of Iwa rogue ninja we encountered on the road?" Akimichi Todo explained. "It's highly likely the scroll containing Hiashi's body was switched at that time."
"What?" Hyuga Kumo froze, his already pale face turning even whiter as if in realization. "So, it was my..."
"This isn't your fault," Akimichi Todo said, looking at him with a complicated expression.
He had seen it all: the way Hyuga Kumo had selflessly protected him just now, and the skill and talent he had displayed.
When he first realized the paper bombs were inside the coffin, his first reaction was naturally to suspect Hyuga Kumo, who had been carrying the scroll.
But he quickly realized that paper bombs were a crucial strategic resource, not something one could buy simply with money.
And for such a large quantity, even if Hyuga Kumo had the money, which was doubtful, there was no way he could have purchased them.
The Anbu would have been on him the instant he tried, interrogating him about why he needed so many paper bombs.
Therefore, Hyuga Kumo couldn't have been the one to plant them. The only other possibility was that the scroll had been swapped. The boy was just too inexperienced.
Such a promising young shinobi with excellent character absolutely could not be allowed to die here today.
"Go, now," Akimichi Todo said gravely.
"No, we can't! If we leave, Senior, you'll be..."
Before Hyuga Kumo could say more, the sharp sound of something cutting through the air reached them.
"None of you are escaping today!"
"Go!"
As several giant shuriken flew toward them again, Akimichi Todo let out a low roar and slammed his chakra-infused palm forward.
BOOM!!
The ground beneath them trembled violently once more, and everyone could feel the muffled, thunderous sound.
But this time, unlike before, it didn't gradually die down.
It was as if Akimichi Todo's palm strike had broken something; the tremors beneath their feet grew stronger and stronger.
VMMMM!
"What's happening?" Everyone's expression changed slightly.
And in the next moment, the earth-shattering tremors gave way to a world-shaking roar.
BOOM! The ground beneath their feet suddenly bulged upward, and a terrifying fissure, a hundred meters in diameter, appeared.
It was as if an unseen monster were writhing beneath the earth, desperate to break free from its cage. They could feel its immense power even through the ground.
Heavy objects around them were thrown into the air, floating as if weightless.
BOOM! CRACK!! After the ground bulged into a giant arc, a deafening explosion once again echoed through the heavens and the earth.
In that instant, everyone felt a sense of weightlessness, as if they too had been thrown into the air.
No, they hadn't been lifted up.
The ground beneath their feet had fallen away.
"Back!"
Toroi and the Konoha shinobi alike, upon seeing this, simultaneously ceased their movements and flickered away.
RUMBLE!!
They could only watch as a pitch-black fissure tore open beneath the inn. The ground shattered into massive chunks of rock and collapsed, swallowed by the expanding, gaping hole.
The solid earth, which should have been firm, seemed as fragile and soft as dough being crushed between fingers.
A moment later, when the tremors finally ceased, the rising dust and smoke began to dissipate.
What appeared before them was a chasm like an abyss, a black hole so deep it seemed bottomless.
"What... is this?"
Everyone stared at the abyss with shock and uncertainty, feeling as though a profound darkness was swirling within it.