Seeing that their attack was successful, one of the attackers sneered, “Brother, this guy is worth 25 million. Ryo wasn’t much after all; we took him down in one go!”
Just as he finished speaking, the Hyuga Kyo they had pierced through the sides with their blades turned into a puff of smoke.
Both attackers were stunned, “A Shadow Clone?!”
At that moment, a figure suddenly descended from above, stepping on their heads and slamming them into the ground.
This figure was Hyuga Kyo. He said helplessly, squatting down on their heads, “Hey, didn’t the bounty notice mention my name? You two just squatted in the bushes like that. Aren’t you underestimating me a bit too much?”
“Damn it!”
“How could it be a Shadow Clone?!”
The two bounty hunters, pinned down and unable to move, still couldn’t believe it.
Hyuga Kyo’s face turned cold as he thought, “Has the Hyuga clan’s deterrence in the ninja world weakened to this extent?”
In his view, since the bounty notice listed his name, the bounty hunters should know that he was a member of the Hyuga clan with the Byakugan.
But these two bounty hunters seemed to have yet to learn of the Byakugan.
Yet their skills weren’t weak; judging from their ambush, both were at least Chunin level.
This left Hyuga Kyo wondering if these two were ignorant or if the Hyuga clan had lost much of its deterrence.
After tying up the two bounty hunters, Hyuga Kyo returned to the village.
At the village’s mission center, Hyuga Kyo learned that these two were rogue ninjas from the Hidden Mist Village. After defecting, they committed numerous crimes, earning themselves bounties totaling nearly 3 million Ryo.
Additionally, Hyuga Kyo discovered that the Hidden Mist Village was currently in civil war.
It was said that several of the Hidden Mist’s bloodline families had participated in the rebellion, causing chaos throughout the village. As a result, many Hidden Mist ninjas had defected, with some becoming wandering ninjas and others turning into bounty hunters.
Having dealt with the bounty hunters, Hyuga Kyo didn’t delay and left the village again.
Walking along the road, having just gained a windfall, he didn’t seem particularly happy. On the contrary, his expression grew increasingly stern.
During the ambush, concerned about potential follow-up attacks, Hyuga Kyo’s real body had stayed hidden, carefully observing his surroundings.
Because of this, he noticed that the Root ninja tasked with monitoring him made no move to assist during the attack.
No matter what, they were all ninjas from the same village.
Ignoring an attack on a comrade indicated that the Root ninja wasn’t just monitoring Hyuga Kyo but treating him as an enemy.
Realizing this, Hyuga Kyo’s killing intent surged.
Initially, he thought the Root ninja followed orders and could be shaken off without bloodshed. But now, his perspective had changed.
That evening, Hyuga Kyo found a flat spot in the forest to set up camp. He lit a campfire and rested while eating roasted rabbit.
Not far away, the Root ninja assigned to monitor Hyuga Kyo sat on a tree branch, leaning against the trunk and staring at the campfire.
“Hmph, lighting a campfire, his vigilance is too poor. How can someone like him be in the ANBU?” The Root ninja, Tori, chewed on his rations, grumbling internally.
Tori was well-versed in surveillance tasks, having performed only two types of missions: surveillance and assassination. These two tasks often merged, as every target he surveilled eventually became an assassination target.
Suddenly, Tori sensed killing intent. Relying on his experience, he quickly realized something was targeting him.
“Ninja Art: Super Beast Imitating Drawing!”
He instinctively leaped into the air, drawing a large ink bird as he flipped off the tree.
But before he could land on the ink bird, two iron spears pierced through it, shattering it into a splash of ink.
Landing clumsily, Tori saw a mysterious ninja wrapped in bandages, obscuring any identifiable features.
Then he noticed the iron sand floating around the mysterious ninja, and his heart sank.
“Magnet Release?!”
As a member of the Root, Tori had heard of various rare bloodlines and secret techniques in the ninja world. He recognized the Magnet Release, a bloodline limit unique to the Hidden Sand Village.
Tori asked nervously, “Who are you?”
Even in the Sand Village, ninjas with the Magnet Release were rare. The only well-known ones were the missing Third Kazekage and the current Fourth Kazekage.
Tori doubted the Third or Fourth Kazekage would randomly attack him in the wilderness, so he assumed the mysterious ninja was likely a rogue from the Sand Village.
He assumed that only a huge bounty would entice such a rogue ninja.
“Their target must be Hyuga Kyo!”
Considering Hyuga Kyo’s enormous bounty, Tori speculated that the rogue ninja intended to eliminate him before going after Hyuga Kyo.
With this in mind, Tori devised a plan.
He believed that if the target were Hyuga Kyo, leading the rogue ninja to him would shift the focus away from himself, allowing him to escape.
After all, his Special Jonin-level skills were no match for a powerful ninja with Magnet Release.
“Ninja Art: Super Beast Imitating Drawing!”
Drawing two ink lions to stall the enemy, Tori immediately used the Body Flicker Technique to flee towards the campfire.
As he ran, he noticed that Hyuga Kyo was still sitting by the campfire, leisurely munching on a rabbit leg, and thought disdainfully, “What a fool, not even noticing a fight so close by…”
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