The explosion erupted violently, completely engulfing the genin who had been bound by the trap.
The youth who had desperately rushed forward to save his companion was blown backward. Akishima burst out from the trees at once, leaping toward the boy mid-air to catch him.
At that very moment, Kusamori also sprang from concealment, his hands flying through seals.
"Water Release: Water Shuriken Technique!"
Several heavy water-forged shuriken condensed out of thin air and shot straight toward Akishima.
Akishima reacted instantly. He pulled the rain umbrella from his back and snapped it open, spinning his body in midair. At the same time, he lashed out with a kick, sending the boy flying toward a safer spot. The umbrella intercepted the incoming water shuriken.
Clang! Clang!
Kusamori followed up immediately, his kunai slashing across the umbrella's surface and carving a gash into it. Using the momentum, Akishima spun away and forced Kusamori back.
The two separated, returning to opposite positions in the forest.
Akishima stared coldly at the Rain Village forehead protector on Kusamori's brow.
"We're both Rain shinobi," he demanded. "Why are you attacking us?"
A frigid smile crept across Kusamori's face. He tapped his forehead protector with a finger.
"You're in the way."
Akishima let out a helpless sigh.
"So it really is factional conflict again…"
Because of these internal struggles, the Rain Village was already showing signs of tearing itself apart. Now shinobi were openly ambushing and killing each other.
Originally, under Shōzō's judgment, this small city shouldn't have been dangerous at all. Reality, however, proved him wrong.
Or perhaps it wasn't that Shōzō was wrong—if this were the past, Kusamori truly wouldn't have dared to do something like this. He would have completed the handover properly and left.
But then Hyūga Ming appeared.
Egged on by that lunatic, Kusamori had chosen to walk this path straight to the end.
(Hyūga Ming: Don't drag me into this.)
"I respect Lord Hanzo as well," Akishima said, forcing his anger down, "but tearing the village apart like this will only turn him into a sinner too."
He didn't want to fight this meaningless battle, even though they had already lost one man.
"Lord Hanzo can never be wrong!" Kusamori snapped, cutting him off as his hands formed seals.
Dragon – Ox – Rabbit.
"Water Release: Violent Water Wave!"
A torrent of water blasted from Kusamori's mouth, surging straight toward Akishima.
Akishima was struck head-on—and instantly turned into a chunk of wood.
A substitution.
Kusamori's eyes snapped upward.
Fragments of the shattered umbrella were still drifting in the air.
At some point, Akishima had already slipped behind him onto a tree. His hands were forming the Rooster seal.
That jutsu—
"Ninja Art: Rain of a Thousand Needles!"
From the umbrella above, countless senbon needles rained down.
Kusamori could only dodge frantically. The needles seemed guided, relentlessly tracking him as he rolled and sprinted across the ground, barely managing to escape after opening a long distance.
This time, Akishima showed no intention of holding back. He lunged straight toward Kusamori.
Elsewhere
The Rain Village youth slammed into the ground. As he struggled to get up, a cold, sharp kunai was silently placed against his throat.
"I suggest you don't make any movements that could be… misunderstood," Hyūga Ming said softly from behind him, kunai in hand.
His tone was deliberately calm, almost gentle—he didn't want the boy to panic.
The youth swallowed hard. He hadn't even seen how the man had appeared behind him.
The biting cold of the blade against his neck raised goosebumps all over his skin. He didn't dare move, but he still forced out a question.
"We're all from the Rain Village. Why attack us? Have you betrayed the village?"
Hyūga Ming glanced toward the distant battle. He wasn't in a hurry to take this boy's life yet, so he answered patiently.
"We haven't betrayed anything. This is factional conflict. You know about it—the Rain Shadow versus Lord Hanzo."
The boy stared in disbelief.
"Just for that… you're killing people?"
"Of course," Ming replied evenly, never looking away. "A village can't have two leaders. When two appear, one must disappear. Otherwise, the Rain Village will only keep tearing itself apart."
Whether the Rain Village survived or not meant nothing to him—but the longer it held on during the coming war, the longer the war would last.
And that suited him just fine.
The boy clenched his teeth. "You won't succeed."
Ming finally looked at him, surprised.
"And where does that confidence come from?"
"From him?" Ming gestured casually to the side.
There, another Rain genin lay tangled in steel wire, a shuriken lodged in his neck. He was already dead.
That was the boy's last remaining teammate.
One had been blown apart by the explosion.
One had died in the trap.
Now only Akishima and himself remained—and Akishima was locked in combat, while he was being held hostage.
It was a complete defeat.
The boy's face twisted with frustration.
"Then what are you waiting for? Why not just kill me? Are you planning to use me to threaten Chūnin Akishima? That won't work!"
As he spoke, he suddenly leaned forward, throwing himself onto the blade.
Ming reacted instantly, slashing the kunai across his throat.
"…What a hassle," Ming sighed.
He hadn't spared the boy to use him as leverage—he'd simply been using him as an excuse not to help Kusamori.
But since the kid was determined to die, Ming wasn't about to stop him.
Still, it was fortunate Kusamori was too busy to notice. Ming quickly dragged the body aside and hid it.
He glanced at the floating notifications.
[Experience +356]
[Experience +345]
[Experience +654]
That last one had decent strength—too bad he never got the chance to show it before dying.
Ming melted back into the shadows, continuing to observe the battle.
Kusamori's kunai sliced through Akishima's body—yet it passed through as if cutting empty air.
At the same time, a solid punch smashed into Kusamori's face, sending him flying.
He adjusted his posture midair and landed steadily on a tree branch.
Then, all around him—on trees, on the ground, on rocks—Akishima's figures appeared one after another.
"Waterfall Clone Technique."
Kusamori's expression turned grim as he stared at the countless Akishimas.
This was one of the Rain Village's classic techniques.
The real body hid underground, while clone phantoms confused the enemy. When not attacking, the user stayed hidden. When striking, the real body surfaced in perfect sync with the clones, making it seem as though every clone could attack physically.
A jutsu designed purely to mislead.
There were only two ways to break it.
The easiest was Earth Release—which Kusamori didn't have.
The other was to catch the real body at the exact moment it emerged.
But how could he predict when that would be—especially against a chūnin using the technique?
Kusamori had been pushed into a truly dangerous situation.
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