Hyuga Arin hid within the shadows of the roof beams, watching the battle below.
Not everyone possessed powerful sensory abilities—at the very least, the two chūnin fighting beneath him didn't. They continued their fierce exchange, completely unaware of his presence.
"Water Release: Water Shuriken Technique."
After trading several blows, Kuromori pulled back, rapidly forming hand seals. Several shuriken condensed out of thin air, flying toward the enemy with tremendous force.
Opposite him stood a chūnin wearing a conical hat, his face wrapped in bandages. The water shuriken pierced straight through his body, yet only streams of water flowed out of the wounds. With a bang, he turned into a puddle of water.
Hyuga Arin saw it clearly. During the moment they separated, the opponent had already finished forming the seals for a Water Clone, using it to block Kuromori's vision while he circled around to the other side.
Using the darkness inside the building as cover, he had already slipped behind Kuromori, his hands still rapidly forming seals.
"Water Release: Poison Mist Technique!"
He bit down on a pill, shattering it. Chakra transformed rapidly inside his mouth, mixing with the crushed medicine and spraying out as a thick purple mist toward Kuromori.
Sensing danger behind him, Kuromori turned and slashed with his kunai—only to be met head-on by a cloud of purple fog.
His entire body was swallowed by the poison mist.
The mist didn't last long and soon dispersed, but Kuromori was left half-kneeling on the ground.
The enemy chūnin drew his blade and advanced, clashing directly with Kuromori's kunai.
Clang!
But Kuromori was already poisoned and had expended a great deal of stamina earlier. He immediately fell into a disadvantage.
In Hyuga Arin's eyes, though, this wasn't merely losing ground—
Kuromori was about to die.
The poison itself wasn't especially potent, but continuing to fight violently after being poisoned would only cause it to spread faster throughout the body. Once it reached the heart, there would be no saving him.
Kuromori knew this too. Gritting his teeth, he quickly formed seals.
Bang!
White smoke burst forth. The enemy's blade chopped down—only to strike a piece of wood.
Kuromori turned and fled without hesitation. He had no intention of continuing the fight; valuing his life, he chose to retreat.
But the enemy ninja clearly had no intention of letting him go, and immediately gave chase.
"Always acting like some top-tier expert in front of me—turns out you're not all that."
Hyuga Arin curled his lips. Now it was his turn to act.
After careful calculation, he had already prepared a complete method for instantly killing a chūnin.
First, he took out an explosive tag and fixed it onto the roof beam, using chakra to set it to detonate in three seconds.
Then he hurled a shuriken straight at the chūnin who was in pursuit.
3
Hearing the sound of tearing air, the chūnin quickly turned around and knocked the incoming shuriken away with his blade.
At the instant the shuriken was deflected, Hyuga Arin used Substitution Technique, swapping places with it and appearing diagonally above the chūnin.
The chūnin's eyes widened. He couldn't comprehend how the other had arrived there—as if he had switched positions with the shuriken.
What kind of Technique was that?
2
It didn't matter if he'd seen it before or not.
He was going to die anyway.
Hyuga Arin wore his signature grin, lips curling back to reveal white teeth. The chūnin was now within the range of his skill [Sap].
With one [Sap], a phantom club materialized behind the chūnin and smashed heavily into the back of his head.
[Sap] dealt no damage, but its effect was immediate—instantly interrupting the Water Body Flicker Technique the chūnin had prepared.
This had originally been set up to guard against Kuromori suddenly counterattacking midway. It was meant as insurance.
Now, it was perfectly spent.
In the next instant, Hyuga Arin used Substitution Technique again, swapping positions with the explosive tag.
1
In that single second, the chūnin clearly saw the explosive tag swelling as it prepared to detonate.
He pushed off the ground, trying to leap backward—
But it was already too late.
0
BOOM!
The violent explosion blasted the chūnin away.
Only then did Hyuga Arin flip down from the roof beam. Outside the building lay the chūnin's body, his front completely charred black by the blast.
Yet he hadn't died instantly.
Out of sheer kindness, Hyuga Arin couldn't bear to see someone suffer like that. He casually threw several shuriken empowered by [Bear Bo Hands], all striking the chūnin's head.
The chūnin's head exploded like a watermelon.
A notification flashed before Hyuga Arin's eyes:
[Experience +1234]
"Even the experience is respectable."
Hyuga Arin stepped forward and picked up the dropped item from the chūnin's corpse.
[Skill: Nen Stitching (Unusable)]
"Phantom Troupe Machi's ability. This one's actually well-suited for a medical ninja—and it's fairly comprehensive too."
Unfortunately, he didn't meet the requirements to learn it yet.
"I'll keep it for now. Might be useful later."
He placed the skill into his backpack, glanced at the fallen chūnin, and found that nothing else had dropped.
Shaking his head, Hyuga Arin walked out.
The fleeing Kuromori had already stopped, likely having realized from the explosion that the situation had turned around.
When he saw Hyuga Arin emerge, Kuromori let out a long breath of relief and hurriedly rummaged through his ninja pouch, pulling out an antidote pill and swallowing it.
The dark poison spreading across his face visibly receded at a rapid pace.
As expected—it wasn't a particularly strong poison.
If it had been poison from Chiyo or Hanzo, Kuromori would already be buried by now.
Speaking of Chiyo… she should still be fairly young at this point, right?
Would swimsuit Chiyo be worth looking at?
Hyuga Arin hurriedly shook his head, forcibly banishing the thought. The image of elderly Chiyo in a swimsuit had barged into his mind far too vividly—he absolutely could not keep thinking about it.
He looked at Kuromori, shuriken already pinched between his fingers, and began to consider whether he should just kill Kuromori right here.
After all, that was over a thousand experience points.
Kuromori also became alert at that moment. Under normal circumstances, he wouldn't have taken Mu Yu seriously—but having just taken an antidote, it wasn't wise to fight. If combat broke out, the antidote could lose its effect.
He didn't want to die of poison just because of a genin.
The atmosphere between the two grew heavy, an unusual tension spreading through their thoughts.
Especially when he saw the shuriken in Hyuga Arin's hand, Kuromori's face went pale.
This guy really is thinking about killing me!!
In the end, Hyuga Arin let out a helpless sigh, his face full of regret.
"Kuromori-sama, are you feeling alright now?"
As he spoke, he put the shuriken away. Killing Kuromori now would make his undercover work too troublesome.
At the very least, he had to wait until he could make contact with Hanzo.
Though he didn't know why Hyuga Arin suddenly stowed his weapon, Kuromori finally relaxed.
"What was that explosion just now? Where's Suiyu?"
"Suiyu?" Hyuga Arin said with a playful expression. "You mean the ninja who attacked you earlier?"
"I saw him actually dare to lay a hand on you, sir. I got so angry that I blew him up on the spot."
Bullshit!
Kuromori roared inwardly. This guy had clearly wanted to kill someone from the start.
But the real question was—
How exactly had he killed a chūnin?
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