Itachi Uchiha and the others planned to move close to the Kumogakure genin, positioning themselves as targets. But when Toroi launched his ninja weapons, they would use the Cloud ninja as human shields.
Seeing them deliberately move toward his subordinates, Toroi roughly guessed their intentions.
A sneer appeared on his face.
Genin from this village were especially skilled in taijutsu; there was no way they'd be easily approached.
Hiroki Hyuga silently grabbed a large handful of senbon from his ninja tool pouch.
[Byakugan!]
At the moment his Byakugan activated, bulging veins appeared on his face, clearly exposing his true identity.
Shshsh...
Several senbon pierced into the vital points of the three genin. All three figures stiffened simultaneously.
The square-shaped shuriken grew larger and closer in their vision.
Direct line of sight.
Hiroki Hyuga and the other two stood directly in their line of impact.
Pfft! Pfft!
All the shuriken flying toward Hiroki Hyuga and his companions stabbed into the flesh of the three Kumogakure genin.
Blood splattered everywhere.
They fell straight down, bodies impaled with various magnetized ninja weapons manipulated by Toroi.
Large and small square shuriken, regular shuriken, standard kunai—all kinds.
Though not yet dead, they now clung desperately to life.
"Is it over?" Hana Inuzuka exhaled in relief when she saw the flying weapons had seemingly stopped moving about.
"Over?!" Toroi's cold voice echoed.
As soon as he finished speaking, it seemed as if an invisible hand pulled out the weapons embedded in the fallen Kumogakure genin.
The three Kumogakure genin who hadn't died initially now completely perished.
Whirrrrr...
These weapons kept spinning on the ground before rising into the air again, diving straight toward Hiroki Hyuga and his companions like predatory birds.
At this point, they either needed absolute defense to block or overwhelming strength to smash these weapons into dust.
Hiroki Hyuga glanced toward where Toroi stood.
He had his arms crossed, watching with amusement.
"I forgot I never mastered the Empty Palm technique. If I had, I could've just taken him out directly—no need for all this mess."
Sighing inwardly, he then seriously instructed Hana Inuzuka and Itachi Uchiha beside him: "Stand behind me."
Both Uchiha and Inuzuka hesitated slightly but obeyed his words.
Hiroki extended one palm forward, another backward.
Thick chakra, so concentrated it appeared almost visible, surged from his body as he began rotating.
A pale blue hemispherical chakra dome formed around him, shielding all three within.
An imperfect Heavenly Spin.
By the Hyuga clan's standards, a perfected Heavenly Spin involved channeling large amounts of Gentle Fist chakra evenly through every chakra point in the body. This allowed for perfect balance.
What Hiroki used now merely mobilized chakra from several key points, decreasing chakra consumption—but also weakening defensive power.
It was something he'd been thinking about ever since he started training in the Heavenly Spin.
Hiroki wondered if the Heavenly Spin could be seen as a larger version of the Rasengan.
Both were rotating, stable chakra spheres—one spun in the palm of the hand, while the other rotated on the outside of the body.
He felt there were quite a few similarities.
Rotation.
All the incoming ninja tools struck Hiroki Hyuga's Heavenly Spin and were reflected back.
By controlling the direction of rotation, the returned weapons flew straight toward Toroi's forehead.
Toroi smiled faintly and raised his hand.
"Increase the magnetic intensity further."
The airborne tools paused momentarily, changed direction, and resumed flying toward Hiroki and his companions.
"Troublesome!" Hiroki had no choice but to maintain the Heavenly Spin continuously.
While advancing forward, he also gathered all the incoming weapons into its spinning vortex.
Thanks to this, Itachi Uchiha and Hana Inuzuka could briefly leave the protective area.
"Gray Trio!" Hana shouted loudly.
The Gray Trio perked up their bodies and charged toward her again.
"Genjutsu: Unknown Fire."
At the same time as activating his twin-tomoe Sharingan, Itachi also formed hand seals for Fire Release.
[Fire Release: Phoenix Sage Fire Technique.]
The scene appeared unchanged, yet flames engulfed Toroi's body as though he were trapped in an invisible inferno. A wave of searing pain swept through him, causing his movements to become sluggish, almost rigid.
Breaking free from the illusion, Toroi regained consciousness, only to find himself already surrounded by real flames.
Could it be—the previous fire wasn't an illusion?
Just as he was distracted, a fierce five-meter-tall two-headed wolf charged violently at him.
Its claws extended and gleamed with deadly intent as they sliced toward his neck.
Tear…
Three deep gashes tore open across his neck.
Blood immediately spurted out.
Seeing the enemy fall, Hiroki, Itachi, and Hana all let out a collective breath of relief.
With the jutsu caster dead, the magnetism on those weapons rapidly weakened until they fell lifelessly to the ground.
Toroi was a Jonin. If they brought back his corpse, their team might obtain valuable intelligence about Kumogakure.
However, after discussion, the three decided to destroy the corpses of all four Kumo ninja.
Enemy reinforcements could arrive at any moment, and leaving behind bodies might attract sensor ninja who could trace their trail.
Itachi once again took charge of burning the bodies to ash.
Meanwhile, Hana soothed her ninja beast while applying some basic medical ninjutsu to the group.
Hiroki approached the severely wounded Kakei Higashi.
Though unconscious, the man still breathed and lived.
Hiroki performed some basic bandaging and stopped the bleeding.
"I can only stabilize him like this for now. If I use Medical Ninjutsu to treat him, it will consume a huge amount of chakra."
"If we encounter enemies again, I won't be able to fight."
"We'll have to wait until our teacher arrives before treating him properly."
As a veterinarian with some knowledge of medical techniques, Hana understood and agreed. Itachi didn't object either.
They placed the unconscious Kakei inside a shallow pit and covered it lightly with dry grass to conceal him.
While resting and regrouping, the trio continued to wait patiently.
Waiting for the signal to re-enter Frost ninja village, they kept waiting and waiting for a long time, but no signal ever came out.
In contrast, Hana Inuzuka occasionally reported that injured Frost ninja had escaped.
The three of them had no choice but to act together, hunting down those Frost ninja who wanted to flee. Fortunately, their opponents were all wounded, with barely one-tenth of their original combat strength, so none of them got injured.
Like this, they killed another six ninja. Even Itachi Uchiha couldn't help but sigh silently.
Could it be… that they've been forgotten?
Looking at the increasingly dark sky, Itachi, who rarely spoke, said, "Maybe we should—"
Before he could finish, Hana Inuzuka interrupted him excitedly, "They're coming out."
Upon hearing this, they all looked toward the entrance of Frost ninja village.
Hidekazu Ueno walked at the very front, while behind him, some ninja supported their wounded companions, and others carried lifeless corpses.
According to Hiroki Hyuga's observation, three were seriously injured, and one was dead.
"Did anyone escape?"
"Yes, we've handled them."
"Handled? You mean you killed them all?"
"That's right."
"Were there any survivors at all?"
"Nope."
Hearing Hana Inuzuka proudly say this, Hidekazu Ueno remained silent.
Oh great, you really showed 'em.
Most of the Frost ninja who managed to escape were actually allowed to get away on purpose.
With everyone dead, who's left to spread the word that Kumo slaughtered Frost Village to frame Konoha?
Hiroki Hyuga and the others didn't think there was anything wrong.
Wasn't it you who told us to take out some small fries? Those escaping ninja were nobodies anyway, right?
After thinking for a moment, Hidekazu casually tossed his Kumogakure Forehead Protector in one direction.
Forget it. Let those Frost ninja who made it back figure out the "truth" for themselves.
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