Hearing the sound of something sharp cutting through the wind, Akiyama Hisui was startled and instinctively turned his head toward the source of the sound.
And when he did, his blood suddenly ran cold.
A couple of blades of wind tore through the air and reached the messenger hawk, which was about to cross the canopy and fly higher into the sky.
Whoosh~
And before Hisui or the bird could even react, the sharp wind blades slammed onto the bird's body and legs.
The first wind blade cut the special ninja band that connected the small metal container holding the scroll before slicing the leg off.
Meanwhile, the other wind blade sliced through its wings, feathers, skin, muscles, and bones like a hot knife through the blocks of butter, bisecting the bird in two.
The residual sharp wind surrounding the wind blade penetrated the entire body of the bird, including its brain, wreaking havoc in its internal organs.
Blood bloomed into the sky like a grim flower, both beautiful and terrifying.
The death came so fast that the bird couldn't even feel the slightest pain.
Everything happened in a flash.
Even Akiyama Hisui could only watch everything happen helplessly.
Soon, the bird's bisected body fell on the ground, painting the ground around it red with whatever blood the bird still had inside its body.
And along with the bird's body, the metal container sealing the scroll inside also fell on the ground.
Thud!! Thud!! Clang!
The sound of the bird's ruined body and the metal container hitting the ground finally snapped Akiyama Hisui out of his dazed state.
"Who's there? Come out, now!" shouted Hisui.
Uncertain about his enemy's location, he began to look around him, trying to find the exact location of the hidden individual.
Those wind blades just now were fast, sharp, and deadly.
The moment he discovered them, it was already too late.
He was sure that if those wind blades targeted him, he would have lost at least a limb or suffered from even more grievous lacerating wounds, even if he managed to react and dodge them.
It seemed he had let his guard down.
Although he was now alert and wouldn't fall for an ambush, he still needed to find his enemy's location.
But how?
He tried to sense the chakra around him just now, but he couldn't find a single trace of a living human being.
No chakra signature, nothing at all.
Precisely because of that, the situation was even more absurd.
His passive sensing range was almost 80 meters, and his active sensing range was a little over 900 meters.
He hadn't sensed the other party activating his Ninjutsu. It meant the other party was at least 80 meters away from him before initiating the attack.
And it had only been a little over 4.5 seconds since the wind blades hit the bird.
Technically, it should have been impossible for the ninja, who attacked the bird, to have gotten out of his maximum sensing range.
And his enemy couldn't be an S-rank or Kage-level ninja. Otherwise, he would already be dead or captured by now.
A full-fledged Jonin then? Possible. But if that was the case, why hadn't the enemy shown up yet?
Was the enemy ninja that cautious?
On second thought, why was he imagining the worst-case scenario? A Jonin-level ninja would barely have enough free time to loiter around leisurely at the back of the Hokage Rock during these pressing times.
After all, Konoha was already short on manpower, even with its nearly two hundred thousand ninjas.
Even with such a population of ninjas, how many could actually be a full-fledged Jonin?
From 7,000 to 8,000 at most. Yeah, that's right. Only about 4% of the total Konoha ninjas actually achieved the full-fledged Jonin rank.
As for the claim that a total of 8%-9% of the entire ninja population were Jonin?
Please. That was the biggest joke he had ever heard.
The number was this only because they had also added Special Jonin to the statistics of Jonin.
A full-fledged Jonin and a Tokubetsu or Special Jonin were two completely different concepts.
If he, Akiyama Hisui, were to go all out and play his cards right, he could also take down a Special Jonin.
Thinking of this, Akiyama Hisui slowly calmed down.
Since his opponent was only a Chunin or Special Jonin, he just had to eliminate the guy or die trying.
After all, his luck wouldn't be rotten enough to encounter a ninja with Elite Jonin or higher level strength in the dead of the almost ghostly, abandoned forest, right?
He just had to prevent his enemy from running away and calling reinforcements.
Fortunately, he could still feel someone's gaze on him. It meant that his enemy hadn't left.
Was he or she trying to set up a trap or launch another surprise attack?
Thinking of this, Hisui raised his voice once again, "Why don't you just come out and have a nice little chat? You aren't afraid to face me, are you? What a coward!"
Hisui continued to speak for several seconds, even hurling derogatory insults to agitate his enemy and force them into a confrontation.
But all his efforts were wasted.
The hidden enemy made no move at all.
The enemy was still gazing at him from somewhere while lurking in the dark.
How absurd.
Hisui's eyes suddenly drifted toward the metal container that contained the sealed intel scroll inside it, which was lying just a few feet away from the messenger hawk's corpse.
Then, the gears in his mind suddenly started spinning.
Ah! If the ninja isn't attacking me, does that mean his/her goal is the metal container where I sealed the intel scroll?
Does the enemy want to secure it first?
Possible. Very possible.
Although Konoha has those mind-reading freaks from the Yamanaka clan, if my brain is damaged during the confrontation or if I destroy my brain before my death, the scroll is the only way to get what I have been up to lately.
Is the enemy afraid that I will destroy the scroll first before ending my life if things go south?
Hehehe…
It seems I still have some leverage.
If my line of thought is right, then the ninja shouldn't be stronger than a Chunin. At most, a weak Tokubetsu or Special Jonin.
In this case, the advantage is mine!
If I collect the scroll first, won't the ninja be forced to show up anyway?
The more Akiyama Hisui thought, the more excited he became.
He was about to make the move to grab the sealed metal container when he suddenly heard a crackling sound of lightning and saw a flash of purple lightning from the corner of his left eye.
"Huh?"
Hisui instantly raised his alertness to the maximum.
Was the enemy planning to attack again using a long-distance Lightning Release Jutsu now?
He turned toward the source of the sound and the lightning, only to see a blurry figure dash from there so fast that it felt like a bolt of thunder was coming toward him instead of a person.
He instantly tensed up, reinforced his body with chakra, and drew a kunai from his clothes.
No time to form hand seals. The opponent was too fast.
All he could do was cover the kunai with Earth Release chakra and prepare for a head-on confrontation.
However, at the next moment, the figure suddenly sped up, changed direction, and passed by the corpse of the hawk, leaving behind nothing but a trail of lightning, and directly ran in the opposite direction.
This sudden change instantly left Hisui dumbfounded.
What the heck just happened?
Then he looked at the hawk's corpse carefully.
The corpse seemed to be intact. Nothing really changed here…
"Wait a moment!"
"Where is the sealed metal container?"
It couldn't be helped.
That guy was so fast after speeding up that Hisui could only see a trail of lightning, not even his complete figure.
Hisui suddenly felt a chill run down his spine.
"Hissss!"
He suddenly took a deep breath.
Judging by his enemy's speed, all his speculations were nothing but his wishful thinking.
If the enemy had wanted, Hisui would have died a thousand times by now without even knowing why.
But if that was the case, why the heck did the enemy only steal the intel and run away?
Akiyama Hisui suddenly had an urge to bash his head on a stone.
He couldn't understand.
He couldn't understand what the heck was going on at all.
What was his enemy thinking?
"That's not how the script is supposed to work!"
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