An increase of one thousand chakra—did it really change anything?
He'd still burn it all in one go and end up completely dry.
If he didn't have equipment support, the moment he activated his awakened skill, he'd immediately lose all combat capability.
Was this really a buff for him?
Or was it raising the difficulty on purpose?
Even the enemies would laugh when they saw it, alright?!
This damn system.
Hyuga Arin sighed helplessly and glanced around.
This wasn't the right moment to test his awakened ability. He'd wait until he found a suitable opportunity—and that opportunity probably wouldn't be far off.
After all, he'd be fighting here for a long time. Being exposed was only a matter of time.
Faced with his long-range strikes, the Iwa-nin would inevitably start targeting him.
When that happened, he'd give them a surprise.
Hopefully not the kind of "surprise" that blew up in his own face.
Hyuga Arin smacked his lips.
Charging in, burning all his chakra dry first, and then fighting—
the Iwa-nin would be grinning ear to ear.
What he didn't know was that he had already been exposed.
His Byakugan could see far, but his ears couldn't hear that far.
He had no idea the Iwa-nin had already taken notice of him.
Looking at his remaining experience—too little to do anything meaningful—he decided to level up Fire Release: Unknowing Fire by two levels.
[Fire Release: Unknowing Fire (Lv5) EXP (0/1600) Traits (None)]
[Fire Release: Unknowing Fire (Lv7) EXP (0/6400) Traits (None)]
[Experience Pool: 280]
Now he'd left himself with absolutely no buffer.
Tomorrow, he had to farm enough experience to level up again.
"The key problem now is figuring out how to kill jōnin."
A kunai appeared in Hyuga Arin's hand.
All the kunai that had been on the watchtower were now safely stored in his inventory.
As long as he used them properly, that was a huge amount of ryo.
How was that not basically getting paid directly?
After all, he had the God's Left Hand, Devil's Right Hand—he could manufacture kunai himself.
Keeping them served no purpose; selling them made much more sense.
Ahem.
Back to the point.
His current sniper mode worked like this:
Reinforce the kunai with Nen: ShuAdd fire properties with Unknowing FireApply a double boost with Clone TechniqueFinally launch it with Bear Palm
The result was a high-speed fireball.
This fireball was extremely effective against genin.
Against chūnin, the difficulty rose, but the kill chance was still high.
The real problem was jōnin.
Under normal circumstances, he simply couldn't kill them.
And his kunai only delivered a momentary burst of power—there wasn't enough sustained damage.
He needed to enhance the power of his sniping.
"Maybe… sacrificing speed in favor of raw power could work."
Hyuga Arin looked at Fire Release: Great Fire Dragon Technique.
This jutsu was already a mid-to-long-range attack, and—more importantly—it remained under his control.
Most ninjas lost fine control once they released a jutsu.
Hyuga Arin didn't.
Even after releasing it, he could still manipulate it freely.
However, with his current understanding of ninjutsu, it was difficult to integrate the Great Fire Dragon into his sniper mode.
But he had a god-tier skill.
"Brain Boost, activate!!!"
With his current chakra pool of over four thousand, he could still maintain Brain Boost for more than twenty seconds.
The world transformed before his eyes.
The fog inside his mind seemed to be swept away.
Everything became crystal clear.
Great Fire Dragon, Unknowing Fire, Bear Palm, Clone Technique,
and Nen Application: Hard—
Five abilities rapidly combined in his mind.
And among them, there was one absolutely critical ability.
Hyuga Arin's self-developed Nen technique:
Chakra Nature Manipulation.
This ability didn't appear on the status panel—it was simply his method of controlling chakra.
Yet it became the keystone that connected all the skills together.
First, use Hard to coat the kunai.
Because of Chakra Nature Manipulation, his Nen could be applied to external objects.
Then, pour all his chakra into the kunai.
Next, ignite it with Unknowing Fire.
Then use Bear Palm and Clone Technique to launch the kunai toward the target.
At that very moment, activate Great Fire Dragon Technique using the chakra condensed on the kunai.
Casting Great Fire Dragon at point-blank range.
Even gods wouldn't be able to block that.
Hyuga Arin named this move:
Long-Range Fire Dragon Strike.
Brain Boost deactivated.
He still had plenty of chakra left, but he took out a soldier pill and tossed it into his mouth.
No blue potions—this was the closest substitute.
He still had plenty of health potions, but those didn't restore chakra.
His eyes flickered with lingering emptiness.
He hadn't fully come back from the Brain Boost state yet.
That godlike clarity—it was far too easy to become addicted to.
He took a deep breath, then slowly exhaled.
He'd recovered.
After using it many times in the Hunter world, he'd built up a bit of resistance.
Looking toward the distant battlefield, illuminated by flickering flames, Hyuga Arin felt that if he charged into the Iwa-nin ranks now, he could wipe them out in one sweep.
One Long-Range Fire Dragon Strike, and he'd see if they could withstand it.
Hyuga Arin flipped back onto the watchtower and gazed into the distance.
On the battlefield far away, he could vaguely see many shimmering lights.
They were all loot drops.
But no one knew whether Iwa-nin were lying in ambush there.
If he went to collect them and a group of Iwa-nin suddenly appeared—
That would be fatal.
War wasn't a battle of a few individuals.
It was thousands—sometimes tens of thousands—of ninjas clashing.
In such a war, even a jōnin's strength was pitifully small.
Maybe elite jōnin could show off a bit,
but without teammates, they'd still die horribly.
Unless you were a Kage.
Only a Kage could truly dominate a battlefield.
Hyuga Arin leaned against the wall, hugged the Dark Battle Blade, and closed his eyes to rest.
Early the next morning.
"The Iwa-nin are attacking again!!"
A furious shout rang out.
Hyuga Arin opened his eyes and stood up, activating his Byakugan to look into the distance.
Countless Iwa-nin were charging toward the Konoha lines.
"What are they trying to do?"
A kunai condensed in his hand as he focused on the advancing forces.
There were far more attackers today than yesterday.
They knew about his ultra-long-range attacks—
and yet they still dared to do this?
He began throwing kunai.
"Heavy Firepower · Fireballs!!"
Kunai transformed into fireballs, slamming into the crowd.
His primary targets were chūnin, followed by genin.
As for jōnin—
those were pointless to aim at for now.
As for why he wasn't using Long-Range Fire Dragon Strike—
That thing consumed way too much chakra.
One use burned through over a thousand chakra just to complete the hand seals.
He needed to stockpile experience first, prepare for leveling up,
then unleash Long-Range Fire Dragon Strike.
[EXP +1859][EXP +1789][EXP +1478][EXP +869][EXP +789]…
Experience messages flooded his vision.
He focused entirely on suppressing the Iwa-nin.
Their assault was ferocious—so ferocious they no longer cared about casualties.
As Hyuga Arin watched his experience climb to the point where leveling up was possible, his Byakugan began locking onto jōnin.
He would fight to grow stronger in the middle of battle.
"Long-Range Fire Dragon Strike!!"
A far more scorching fireball was hurled forward.
And its target—
Was an Iwagakure jōnin.
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