His body rapidly recovered to its original condition, and his chakra instantly refilled.
Just before the falling clay struck, Hyuga Akira vanished, leaving only a kunai behind to be swallowed by the mud.
Seeing Akira disappear, the Iwa jonin showed no panic. They immediately locked onto his position.
The remaining four abandoned any attempt at close combat.
They didn't know how he had recovered so quickly, but there was no time to think about it.
They quickly analyzed the situation: Akira possessed a suicidal close-range fighting method. That alone made them give up melee entirely and switch to ninjutsu.
All four began forming hand seals at a distance—more accurately, they had started the instant Akira disappeared.
"Earth Release: Antlion Trap!"
The ground beneath Akira suddenly softened and began to swirl.
"Earth Release: Earth Flow!"
One Iwa ninja slammed a fist into the ground. The earth shattered into fine sand, surging toward Akira like a tidal wave.
Mixed within it were all the kunai he had thrown earlier.
"So they've figured out my Substitution Technique?"
They had discovered the key—kunai.
It wasn't hard to figure out. Anyone who fought Akira for a while would notice that every time he vanished, a kunai appeared in his place.
Now Akira was caught in a dilemma.
If he didn't use Substitution, he would be swallowed by the spinning mud.
If he did use it, he would emerge straight into the crushing tide of sand.
Akira took a deep breath. Beneath his clothing, a spider tattoo slowly appeared on his back, marked with the number 11.
Phantom Troupe's Curse.
He vanished again, this time charging straight into the sea of sand.
The moment he appeared within it, he raised his fist high.
Behind him, the faint silhouette of Uvogin appeared.
Phantom Troupe skill—
Big Bang Impact!!
"BOOM!!!"
The overwhelming shockwave halted the surging sand, blasting a hollow space in the tidal mass.
Akira tossed a kunai upward.
"Bear Paw Strike."
He slammed his palm against the kunai, and it shot forward instantly.
At the same time, Akira used Substitution, switching places with the kunai. In that brief instant, the kunai had already passed beyond the Iwa encirclement, and the technique carried him safely out of their trap.
Only a single kunai remained, swallowed by the sand.
"See you."
Akira turned back and waved at the four jonin.
With a casual farewell, he left behind the bodies of two fallen Iwa jonin. Continuing the fight would only have put him at a disadvantage.
If they refused to close in, and he didn't resort to suicidal tactics, he had no effective way to deal with them. At long range, one man simply couldn't outgun four.
His awakened ability wasn't suitable here either—it might even put him in greater danger.
Retreat was the best choice.
The four Iwa jonin moved to pursue. After sacrificing so much, how could they let him escape so easily?
But they had overlooked the Konoha shinobi in the trenches.
"Fang Over Fang!!"
Two spinning cyclones shot toward them. The Iwa ninja blocked with kunai and leapt back immediately.
"You're not leaving now."
A figure with a ponytail appeared in a tree nearby. Shadows stretched rapidly across the ground, lunging toward all four at once.
Countless insects had already surrounded the area, sealing off every route of escape.
"The mission… has failed," the four muttered grimly.
They hadn't expected their target to be so troublesome—not only costing them two men, but also stalling long enough for Konoha reinforcements to arrive.
Akira landed in a tree, two kunai appearing in his hands.
"Now our roles are reversed," he said with a grin.
…
[EXP 18797]
[EXP 16871]
[EXP 19783]
[EXP 17847]
Akira's smile never faded as he watched the experience notifications appear.
Surrounded by Konoha shinobi, the remaining Iwa ninja stood no chance.
To support this side, a full eight jonin had been dispatched from the trenches. With the main battlefield still raging, it hadn't been easy for them to break away.
When those eight attacked the four surviving Iwa jonin, Akira used his lightning-fast kunai to finish them off at their weakest moment.
"This kind of kill doesn't count as military merit," a member of the Nara clan couldn't help reminding him.
"Merit doesn't matter," Akira replied indifferently.
After all, he would never receive any merit anyway—it would all be credited to the Hyuga clan.
No… he was in Root now.
Maybe he should ask Crow later how Root calculated merit. Since Root and ANBU were practically two sides of the same coin, there should at least be some good jutsu as rewards.
The thought made him grind his teeth.
One day, he would wipe out the Hyuga main family.
Seeing that Akira truly didn't care, the Nara ninja said nothing more and ran back toward the trenches, where the fighting was still fierce.
"Hey, isn't anyone going to fix this for me?" Akira looked at the shattered watchtower.
Everyone had already rushed back into battle. The Iwa assault was too intense—they had only managed to spare a moment to help him. No one had time to rebuild his tower.
Akira sighed and began collecting the dropped items first.
[Skill: Fire Dragon's Roar]
[Skill: Fire Dragon's Wing Attack]
[Skill: Requip Magic]
[Skill: Flame Devour]
[Equipment: Fairy Tail Mark – increases magic damage by 100]
[Equipment: Phantom Lord Armor – increases defense by 500]
[Equipment: Dragon Armor – increases defense by 1000 and boosts dragon-attribute damage]
[Equipment: Saint Ten Wizard Emblem – increases mana limit by 500]
[Equipment: Aquarius Key]
"Not bad."
Akira removed his Nen armor and equipped the Dragon Armor, along with the Fairy Tail Mark and the Saint Ten Wizard Emblem.
He kept the two Dragon Slayer Magic skills in reserve. Once he gathered ten such skills, they could be fused into a true Dragon Slayer Magic—still extremely powerful even in the late game.
What surprised him most was Flame Devour. This skill allowed him to consume most flames, absorb their properties, and restore his own injuries and energy.
A true mage's divine technique.
Then again, these were drops from jonin—getting something this good wasn't unusual.
He learned Flame Devour immediately.
[Flame Devour (Lv1) EXP (0/100) Traits: None]
The remaining items—Requip Magic, Phantom Lord Armor, the Aquarius Key, and his old Nen armor—were all thrown into the furnace and dismantled.
From the three items, he obtained 3145 Essence.
"As expected, better gear gives more essence when dismantled."
[Name: I Am Xiao Ming]
[Class: Hunter]
[Sub-class: Doctor]
[Level: Lv38 (0/29500)]
[Chakra/Nen: 6610 / 5110 +1000 +500 +500]
[Essence: 4108]
[EXP Pool: 116747]
"Today's objective complete!!"
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