Now Hyuga Arin finally understood why Hanzo had only kept him as a "consultant" and never allowed him to directly participate in the Rain Hidden Village's civil war.
Clearly, all the strategies had come from him, yet every action had been carried out personally by Hanzo.
Back then, Hanzo had already begun to doubt him—already grown wary.
It was just that Hyuga Arin hadn't noticed it at the time.
Ironically, his ideas really had helped Hanzo. That was why Hanzo hadn't exposed his disguise earlier and had continued listening to his advice.
In the end, though, he'd still been used one last time.
Shozo's death gave Hanzo a perfect justification to join the coming war.
"I just hope Teacher Hiruko can hold on," Hyuga Arin muttered. "Don't defect too early."
As long as Hiruko was still around, the impact on him wouldn't be too great.
But if Hiruko defected early, then things would become very troublesome.
Behind him, Tella was still in relentless pursuit.
Hyuga Arin rapidly formed the Ram hand seal.
"Shadow Clone Technique!"
In an instant, Hyuga Arin split into five figures, each sprinting off in a different direction.
Tella immediately noticed the five Hyuga Arins and quickly formed seals of his own.
"Water Clone Technique!"
Water surged and split into five clones, each one locking onto a Hyuga Arin and continuing the chase.
"This guy—if you've got the guts, go after Hanzo! Why are you chasing me?!" Hyuga Arin cursed inwardly.
The real culprit behind everything was Hanzo!
At their current speed, getting caught was only a matter of time.
So—faster.
Hyuga Arin raised his hand, a shuriken appearing in his grip. With Bear Grapple enhancement, it turned into a black streak and shot forward, vanishing in the blink of an eye.
"Substitution Technique!"
His body instantly swapped places with the shuriken, exposing the position of his true body.
All four of Tella's clones vanished at once, leaving only the original as he continued to pursue Hyuga Arin.
Hyuga Arin repeated the process—throwing shuriken, using Substitution, leaping again and again.
Eventually, Tella disappeared from the range of his Byakugan.
Only then did Hyuga Arin stop, his chakra nearly drained dry.
He pulled out a Greater Mana Potion and drank it. Chakra surged back into his body.
"That should do it… He can't catch up now, right?" Hyuga Arin finally breathed a sigh of relief.
He changed direction and continued forward at high speed.
Activating In, he concealed his chakra signature, changed direction five or six more times, and only after confirming that Tella truly wasn't following did he finally relax.
He was just about to find a place to rest.
Even though his chakra had recovered, his physical stamina was heavily depleted—and the intense chase had strained his nerves to the limit.
But before he could sit down—
"Water Release: Rain Piercing Technique!"
The falling rain suddenly stopped.
Then it reversed direction.
The rainwater surged toward him.
Hyuga Arin's expression changed drastically. He watched as trees were instantly pierced through—rain that should have had no power now struck like countless senbon.
No time to think.
He sprang up at once.
"Rotation!"
Blue chakra erupted outward, forming a hemispherical barrier around his body. The rain needles struck the Rotation and were dispersed by the spinning chakra.
His Rotation level wasn't high and couldn't last long—but it was enough.
The senbon-like rain finally stopped.
Hyuga Arin looked up toward the branches above.
Tella stood there, looking down at him from above. The blood that had once covered his face had already been washed away by the rain.
"You're not an Uchiha," Tella said, unable to stop himself from laughing. "You're a Hyuga."
"Even Hanzo got fooled."
"And you're from the main branch."
…Alright, another misunderstanding.
But it didn't really matter.
Since he was completely exposed now, Hyuga Arin stopped maintaining the Transformation Technique and returned to his original appearance.
"How did you find me?" Hyuga Arin demanded in a low voice.
He was certain he'd shaken Tella off.
Substitution-based spatial movement shouldn't leave any trail behind.
Even if the shuriken remained, he'd hidden his chakra with In and changed direction multiple times—there should've been no way to track him.
"You guess," Tella said with a faint curl of his lips, clearly not intending to answer.
He formed a hand seal.
"Water Release: Condensed Water Technique!"
The falling rain gathered in his hand, condensing into a long blade of water.
He swung it through the air.
A crescent-shaped water blade shot toward Hyuga Arin.
Hyuga Arin dove hard to the right, even rolling on the ground to barely avoid the attack.
At the same time, Tella leapt down from the tree, closing in fast.
"I've killed jōnin before!" Hyuga Arin gritted his teeth.
A Nen blade formed in his right hand, while his left held a ninja sword.
Dual-wielding Hyuga Arin—entering the fray!
The mountain bandit set was already outdated; he'd even replaced his clothes with the Nen Armor.
Both blades swung toward Tella.
"No form. No strength," Tella said coldly.
His water blade passed straight through the Nen blade and slashed toward Hyuga Arin's chest.
Hyuga Arin might not know swordsmanship—
But he knew one thing very well.
Brute force breaks everything.
"Bear Grapple! Shadow Clone—activate!"
There was no time to form seals, so he couldn't use Unquenchable Flame. And in heavy rain, that technique wouldn't be very effective anyway.
Hyuga Arin's blade suddenly accelerated, moving faster than Tella's.
A pure, reckless exchange of lives.
Tella's expression changed. His blade shifted sharply as he spun his body, delivering a fierce kick straight into Hyuga Arin's left waist.
"Bang!"
Hyuga Arin was sent flying to the right.
"This was my escape route, idiot!!" Hyuga Arin shouted.
He dismissed both blades, adjusted his trajectory using the impact, landed on a tree branch, and instantly fled deeper into the forest.
He hadn't taken any real damage—the kick couldn't break through his defense.
Tella's expression darkened as he immediately gave chase.
While fleeing, Hyuga Arin observed Tella with his Byakugan.
"How the hell is he tracking me?" Hyuga Arin couldn't figure it out at all.
No tool, no ninTechnique—nothing matched Tella's method of pursuit.
"I can't keep playing tag with him."
Hyuga Arin pulled out a card from his inventory.
Did he really think he couldn't escape?
[Consumable: Come Again G-380]
This item allowed him to teleport to a place he had previously been to—the range calculated from the moment he'd obtained the card.
The farthest possible location—
Was the city where Nagato lived.
"Use!"
A wave of white energy wrapped around Hyuga Arin's body and lifted him high into the air.
Tella, who was still chasing, froze in shock.
He hadn't expected Hyuga Arin to be able to fly.
Hyuga Arin gritted his teeth and glared at Tella, mouthing silently:
"Just you wait."
In the next instant—
He shot off toward the distance.
Near the city close to Konoha, inside the cave where Hyuga Arin had once trained Nagato—
A wave of white energy descended.
Hyuga Arin dropped to the ground.
"Good thing I copied one," he muttered, collapsing onto the floor.
In addition to Come Again G-380, he still had a Copy C-40, which he'd long since used to duplicate the card.
"This isn't over," Hyuga Arin said through clenched teeth.
"Not by a long shot."
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