Asuma clutched his injured right arm, his eyes fixed on Yakushi Kabuto.
The dark clouds hung lower and lower, and large raindrops splattered on the eaves of the houses lining the street, making a crackling sound.
"Yakushi Kabuto, have you betrayed the village?"
Asuma tried to reach into his Ninja Tool Pouch, but before he could act, two shuriken flew over and interrupted his movement.
With Chakra protection, a Ninja's body, while not as hard as rock, was certainly stronger than an ordinary person's.
However,
When Yakushi Kabuto threw the kunai, he added Throwing Enhancement and Poisoning skills.
This caused the iron weapon, often used as a probing stone with weak killing power, to become the fangs of a highly venomous snake.
Asuma could feel his right arm gradually becoming numb, but he dared not make any rash moves.
There was an antidote in his Ninja Tool Pouch.
But his intuition told him that if he showed even the slightest flaw, Yakushi Kabuto would continue his attack.
"Betrayal?"
Yakushi Kabuto looked at Asuma, his teammate who had fought alongside him in the Reincarnation Game, and with a smile in his eyes, he said, "You could say that. After all, the word 'betrayal' isn't that hard for me to accept."
Ninjas,
Regardless of their strength, all had a stronger or weaker sense of belonging to their Ninja Village.
Even Wandering Ninjas, who had been on the run for years, would not react as indifferently as Yakushi Kabuto when hearing words like "betraying the village."
Pfft.
While he was speaking, Asuma tried to find a flaw and quickly pulled out the antidote from his Ninja Tool Pouch, injecting it into his right arm.
Just then,
Yakushi Kabuto, who had been standing still, suddenly vanished, and when he reappeared, he had already leaped behind Asuma.
Shadow Strike.
A sharp short dagger pierced his lower abdomen.
Asuma endured the pain, and scorching red mist emanated from his shoulder as he swung his fist backward.
Blazing Heavy Punch.
The tip of his fist swept past Yakushi Kabuto's chest, which he narrowly dodged.
But the scorching flames enveloping his fist instantly burned through his clothing, and even the flesh underneath turned charred black like charcoal.
If it had been a full strike, it would probably have directly shattered Yakushi Kabuto's internal organs.
The distance widened.
Stalkers focused on sneak attacks and assassinations, striking once and then retreating. Naturally, they wouldn't engage in close combat with a pugilist.
Cold sweat beaded on Yakushi Kabuto's forehead. He glanced at the charred mark on his chest and said with a smile, "That was close. This is a skill Captain Asuma awakened, and its power is truly terrifying."
First, he used a poisoned kunai to ambush, then, taking advantage of the opponent's moment of detoxification, he inflicted a fatal injury.
The goal was achieved.
Asuma's combat power was severely weakened.
He ignored the flowing blood, staring intently at Yakushi Kabuto, and asked, "Can you tell me the reason for your betrayal?"
"Because, Captain, the ghost flag in your hand is a treasure that Lord Sasori values highly!"
Yakushi Kabuto smiled unhurriedly and said, "I know you're stalling for time, but unfortunately, the time I specifically chose, this street is very secluded, and I've also cast a wide-area genjutsu, isolating everyone who might interfere with us. No one will discover that Captain Asuma has been attacked."
"Sasori?"
Asuma recalled that he seemed to have heard this title before: a Wandering Ninja with bloody and vicious methods, who had once attacked several small countries.
It was indeed for the [ghost flag], this purple-quality equipment.
At the same time, he also felt somewhat fortunate.
Although this equipment was valuable, being able to draw out a lurking traitor was also a good thing. Although the cost was great, letting the other party continue to lurk would only cause greater losses to the village.
Asuma said coldly, "I will not go easy on traitors!"
He did not say anything to make Yakushi Kabuto surrender. The other party was prepared, and clearly would not be moved by a few words from him.
Yakushi Kabuto's smile remained unchanged. After taking off his glasses, he carefully placed them in his Ninja Tool Pouch and said, "Captain, don't underestimate my strength, or you'll suffer a great loss."
"Is that so?"
Asuma was noncommittal, gripping two Chakra Blade Knuckles in his hands.
The nature transformation of Wind-style Chakra caused the knuckles to be covered with a layer of Chakra wind blades.
Blazing Aura.
A powerful, burning flame ignited, attaching itself to his fists, and under the influence of the Chakra wind blades, it trailed long, narrow fiery tails.
It looked as if he was holding a pair of rolling fiery twin blades.
"Blazing Aura, which can imbue fists with fire power, is a passive ability of a Fire Pugilist."
Yakushi Kabuto calmly analyzed, "To achieve this effect, has Captain's passive skill leveled up to five?"
Skills in the Reincarnation Game were very powerful.
After becoming a Professional, one could awaken a professional skill every 5 levels. To master other skills, one needed to learn skill scrolls.
But for now, unless a relatively excellent skill was dropped, everyone's focus was still on professional skills.
There was no other reason.
It was purely because of the Reincarnation Game's characteristic: it was a money pit.
After awakening the initial skill, one still needed to continuously upgrade it to unleash its full power.
Each time a skill's level was raised, it not only required continuous skill usage to increase proficiency but also demanded reward points.
Skills also had qualities. The higher the skill quality, the more reward points it cost to upgrade.
For example, Asuma's passive skill [Blazing Aura] was lucky enough to awaken as blue quality. Its initial upgrade alone cost a hefty 100 reward points, and subsequent upgrades required 300, then 500 reward points.
Yakushi Kabuto himself had two professional skills, one white and one green.
Therefore, he couldn't defeat Asuma in a direct fight, which is why he chose to use a sneak attack, first getting Asuma to low health before engaging in combat.
"If your Poisoning skill could reach level five, I might not be able to stand up anymore."
Asuma felt extremely fortunate internally.
The skills in the Reincarnation Game were too powerful. A level 1 white skill was already comparable to the power of a C-rank Ninja Art.
What was even more terrifying was that the power would continuously increase through skill upgrades.
If Yakushi Kabuto had raised his Poisoning skill to level 5, it would come with a passive status called Fatal Toxin. Just that single kunai from the recent sneak attack would have rendered him immobile.
"Stalker, truly a despicable and astonishing profession."
Asuma took a deep breath, stomped his front foot on the ground, and charged out like an arrow released from a bowstring.
A quick battle.
They were all members of the Konoha Squad, and they both knew each other's strengths and weaknesses very well.
As long as he could close the distance, the close-combat pugilist could even kill Yakushi Kabuto with one blow.
Blazing Chain Punch.
Countless scorching red fists materialized in front of Asuma, moving with him at high speed, pouncing towards Yakushi Kabuto.
Shadow Step.
Yakushi Kabuto did not dodge. He precisely controlled the moment just before the fiery fists struck, activating his skill.
His entire body seemed to be enveloped in shadow, and he actually passed directly through the flames, appearing behind Asuma.
"Lord Sasori is determined to get the ghost flag. For this, he didn't hesitate to discard two high-quality puppets and give me the research funds to purchase skill scrolls."
Yakushi Kabuto swung his short dagger, its surface coated with purplish-black poison, and stabbed towards Asuma's back heart.
At the same time, he kept hinting, pushing the mastermind behind this operation onto the Wandering Ninja, Sasori of the Red Sand.
After all, the Konoha Crush Plan was about to begin, and as an excellent subordinate, he couldn't cause trouble for Lord Orochimaru.
According to the original plan,
He needed to remain undercover until the Konoha Crush Plan began, then betray Konoha.
But the ghost flag's allure was too great for Lord Orochimaru, so much so that he was willing to activate this deeply hidden chess piece early to obtain it.
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