Chapter 148
2-in-1-chapter
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Darui fixed his gaze on Hyūga Hiashi, standing on the ground ahead, observing him for about five seconds before springing forward with a great leap. He raised his blade high, arcs of lightning visibly flashing around his legs. The Lightning Release body activation technique was not something every shinobi of Kumogakure could master, even though Lightning Release specialists were most numerous there. But for those who could wield it, without exception, they were all top-class fighters.
There was no doubt about it. At this moment, as Darui charged with astonishing speed, he stood among the very best in the village.
Hyūga Hiashi knew this well.
Of all the Kumogakure shinobi he had encountered, only the Fourth Raikage surpassed Darui in speed. In the span of a single breath, the blade wrapped in dark lightning was upon him. Hiashi could not meet it head-on, nor did he have the option to. The Hyūga clan did not train with weapons, and bare palms could not block the edge of a sword.
His response, however, was simple. Guided by the Byakugan, he followed the flow of Darui's chakra and predicted his attack path in advance. With a single step to the left, he slipped past the falling blade and the lightning that shrouded it, avoiding the strike by the narrowest of margins.
It was undeniably a gamble. Even the smallest miscalculation could have forced him to pay dearly.
But Hiashi's Byakugan insight was exceptional, and years of training in Gentle Fist had given him precise mastery over his own body. He evaded Darui's direct assault and, in the same motion, thrust forward with Gentle Fist: Eight Trigrams Palm, striking heavily at Darui's right flank.
Yet there was no sensation of striking flesh. With a sharp puff Darui's form dispersed into smoke—an afterimage of a Shadow Clone. Hiashi showed no disappointment.
Turning swiftly, he launched Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm toward the trees above and behind him.
The devastating blow nearly obliterated the treetop.
Moments before the tree crown was shattered, Darui sprang from cover, narrowly evading the attack. Still, the gust of wind carried broken branches across his face, leaving a shallow cut. A line of blood ran down his cheek, and the stinging pain was a constant reminder that in this first exchange, he had fallen behind.
"So it really is useless to try and sneak past the Byakugan."
Darui steadied himself on a new perch, touching the cut on his face. Looking at the smear of red on his fingers, he let out a troubled sigh.
So this was the clan head of the Hyūga. Entirely unlike the other Hyūga shinobi he had faced in the past. Not only could Hiashi see through his tricks, but he could also react quickly enough to counter them. Others from the clan had been able to perceive his feints, but their bodies had been too slow to respond.
Thus, even knowing Hiashi was the clan head, Darui had attempted his usual tactics. Yet Hiashi had proven that the Hyūga's Byakugan remained formidable, and the hope of a swift victory had already been broken.
"Then I have no choice but to press harder."
The look of frustration vanished from Darui's face, replaced by sharp seriousness.
Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm.
The shockwave ripped through the air, shattering the great tree beneath Darui's feet. Hiashi had struck first. Gentle Fist required no hand seals, and his speed was such that not even Darui could surpass it. Forced to abandon his own jutsu, Darui had to evade instead.
And then—
Hiashi unleashed another Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm without hesitation, pouring his chakra into each strike to interrupt Darui's momentum at every turn, forcing him to remain on the defensive, unable to find an opening.
"Trying to stall for time? But how long can your chakra really hold out?"
Darui watched as Hiashi quickly swallowed a soldier pill. He did not rush into a reckless assault. If Hiashi insisted on wasting chakra, then Darui had patience enough to draw the fight out. After all, if he could capture or kill Hyūga Hiashi, then the matter of the Kusatsu Mountains would be insignificant in comparison.
..........
....
.
On another battlefield,
"So Darui has been tied up by Hyūga Hiashi?"
"His luck is holding, then."
The Second-Tailed jinchūriki, Yugito Nii, cloaked in the crimson shroud of a tailed beast and unrecognizable in her transformed state, spoke calmly to the Kumogakure shinobi beside her. She was entirely unaffected by the beast's chakra, her mind sharp and focused in a way that defied belief.
Watching her through the eyes of his insects, Aburame Shibi felt a heavy weight settle over him.
Such a jinchūriki, he had seen before.
The previous Nine-Tail's jinchūriki had been able to do the same thing, and precisely because he had witnessed it, he knew how terrifying a power like this was. Trying to hold back such a monster was, without a doubt, a difficult and headache-inducing task.
"Still, my luck is not too bad."
As she spoke, Nii Yugito turned her head toward the trees ahead on the left. Aburame Shibi, concealed within them, felt his heart suddenly pound—had he been discovered? As the thought crossed his mind, a faint tremor ran through the ground beneath him. His expression shifted at once, and he leapt up, trying to change positions.
The next moment, a crimson claw burst from the earth and pierced straight through his abdomen.
"A clone?"
Nii Yugito muttered in irritation.
She was crouched on the ground, her right hand buried deep in the earth. Unseen, it had extended underground over a great distance, striking with a chakra arm. But the strange sensation that met her fingers told her she had hit only a substitute.
In the forest, the Aburame Shibi who had been pierced dissolved into a mass of black insects. It was an insect clone, a unique technique of the Aburame clan. When destroyed, the insects that formed the clone would immediately swarm the attacker in retaliation. The clone itself was a trap.
But today's opponent was a jinchūriki.
Tailed Beast chakra was not something that could be absorbed so easily. The insects that tried to consume it were poisoned instead, falling dead to the ground in heaps, leaving the real Shibi hidden in the shadows feeling helpless. Tailed Beasts simply defied reason. The Aburame's insects could devour chakra, enough to make most shinobi wary of them, yet even the most resilient of the destruction bugs struggled to digest Tailed Beast chakra.
By rights, he should have chosen to go after Darui instead of provoking the jinchūriki directly.
But he had no choice.
The Hyūga clan's Gentle Fist was fine against human opponents, but when it came to something like a Tailed Beast, a massive creature with no human form, their blows were little more than scratches. In this case, his insects and the Aburame secret arts to disrupt and restrain were the only practical option.
The instant Shibi's focus slipped, Nii Yugito attacked again.
Fireball!
This was not Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu. Strictly speaking, it was not a ninjutsu at all, but the power of the Two-Tails itself. As the flaming demon cat, it could unleash searing fire without a single hand seal. The colossal sphere of flame it breathed out swept across the forest like a bulldozer, flattening everything in its path.
The Aburame were a clan that raised insects within their bodies. Their chakra and that of the insects were nearly indistinguishable, so even with the aid of the Two-Tails, Yugito could not pinpoint Shibi's exact position in the forest. Yet she did not need to. With the Two-Tails sensory ability, she could at least fix the general area.
So she unleashed the massive fireball, burning through half a Jōnin's worth of chakra in one attack. Such a brute-force tactic was possible only for a jinchūriki, or for shinobi of Senju or Uzumaki lineage with the vitality of human-shaped Tailed Beasts. No ordinary shinobi could afford to expend chakra on such a scale.
The designated section of the forest was leveled, and the flames did not stop there—they continued to roar and spread.
"Is he dead?"
Yugito withdrew her right hand from the ground, stood up, and peered across the smoldering ruins.
"Not yet. Watch above."
A voice deep within her stirred her into motion, and she glanced skyward. Through the thick smoke, she saw what was falling toward her: countless swarms of black insects diving from above, their descent hidden by the haze.
Secret Technique: Insect Cloud.
The insects gathered densely into a single dark mass, lifting Aburame Shibi into the air and carrying him beyond the range of that devastating fireball. Their strength was limited—they could not maintain such a cloud indefinitely, nor could they grant him agile flight—but it was enough.
It had saved him from a nearly certain death. To call that useless would be far too harsh.
Standing atop the insect cloud, Shibi located Yugito and attacked without hesitation. There could be no giving her another chance to unleash the power of the Two-Tails. The destructive strength of jinchūriki was simply too overwhelming. If he stayed on the defensive, he would not last long.
The best choice now was to attack.
Secret Technique: Spindle Jutsu.
The insects descended, not in a disorganized swarm, but in a tight, controlled spiral, whirling like a drill. They struck at the target as a spinning mass of destruction bugs. This opponent would not be so easy to consume, but Shibi launched the attack without hesitation. As long as his chakra remained, new insects could always be bred to replace the fallen.
"Annoying insects."
Yugito opened her mouth again, spewing out another massive fireball. The blaze engulfed the insects, burning them to ash with ease. Even though the destruction bugs had been cultivated to endure heat and flame, they could not withstand such overwhelming fire.
"As expected of a jinchūriki."
Shibi's face tightened.
So many insects had been annihilated in a single strike. The sheer destructive force of a foe like this was enough to stir helplessness in anyone's heart. How could such an enemy be fought?
And yet, however difficult it might be, he had to endure. Every second he held out gave more time for their forces to retreat. No matter how impossible the odds, surrender was not an option.
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