His body rapidly recovered to its original state, and the chakra within him instantly returned to full.
Just before the adhesive clay fell from the sky, Hyuga Arin's figure vanished in an instant, leaving behind only a kunai that was swallowed by the clay.
Seeing Hyuga Arin disappear, the Iwagakure jōnin showed no sign of panic. They immediately locked onto his position.
The remaining four no longer attempted close combat.
Although they had no idea how he had recovered so completely, there was no time left for careful thought.
They quickly analyzed the situation. Hyuga Arin possessed a close-range, mutual-destruction fighting style, which completely eliminated any thought of engaging him up close. Instead, they began relying on ninjutsu.
All four rapidly formed hand seals from a distance—more accurately, they had started sealing the moment Hyuga Arin vanished.
"Earth Release: Antlion Hell!"
The ground beneath Hyuga Arin suddenly softened and began to rotate.
"Earth Release: Earth–Stone Flow!"
One Iwa ninja slammed his fist into the ground. The earth shattered into fine sand, surging toward Hyuga Arin like a tidal wave.
Mixed within it were all the kunai Hyuga Arin had thrown.
"So they've figured out the Substitution Technique?"
The method behind his substitutions had already been exposed. The key point was the kunai.
This wasn't hard to see through. As long as someone fought Hyuga Arin for a while, they'd notice—every time he vanished, a kunai appeared in his place. They weren't blind.
Now Hyuga Arin was caught in a dilemma. If he didn't use the Substitution Technique, he would be swallowed by the rotating soft earth. But if he did use it, he would have to face the countless waves of fine sand.
Hyuga Arin took a deep breath. On his back, beneath his clothes, a spider emblem slowly surfaced, displaying the number 11.
The Phantom Troupe's curse.
His figure vanished from where he stood, but instead of retreating, he charged straight into the surging sand. The moment he appeared within it, he raised his fist high into the air.
Behind him, the faint silhouette of Uvogin emerged.
The Phantom Troupe—Uvogin's skill.
Super Destructive Punch!!
"BOOM!!!"
The terrifying force of the punch forcibly halted the endless waves of sand, carving out a hollow in what was like a raging sea.
He tossed a kunai upward.
"Bear Palm."
With a fierce slap of his hand, he struck the kunai. It vanished instantly.
At the same time, Hyuga Arin used the Substitution Technique to swap places with it. In that brief instant, the kunai had already passed beyond the Iwa ninja's encirclement, and the substitution allowed him to escape their formation entirely.
Within the sea of sand, only a single kunai was left behind, swallowed whole.
"Goodbye!"
Hyuga Arin turned back and waved cheerfully at the four of them.
Waving goodbye while taking out two Iwagakure jōnin—if the fight continued, he would eventually fall into a disadvantage.
If they refused to get close, and he didn't use his mutual-destruction tactics, he really had no good way to deal with them.
At long range, he couldn't possibly out-trade four opponents alone.
His awakened skill wasn't suitable for dealing with them either—it could even put him in greater danger.
Naturally, retreat was the best option.
The four Iwa ninja tried to pursue him. After sacrificing so much, how could they just let Hyuga Arin escape so easily?
But they had overlooked the Konoha ninja in the trenches.
"Fang Over Fang!!"
Two rapidly spinning mini-tornadoes charged toward two of the Iwa ninja. They blocked with kunai, knocking the twin drills aside, and immediately retreated.
"At a time like this, you're not getting away."
A figure with a tied-up ponytail appeared on a tree not far away. Below, the shadow beneath the tree rapidly expanded, attacking all four of them at once.
Countless insects had already surrounded the area, completely cutting off their escape routes.
"The mission has failed." The four of them darkened in expression.
They hadn't expected the target to be such a difficult opponent. Not only had they lost two of their own, but they had also delayed long enough for Konoha's reinforcements to arrive.
Hyuga Arin landed on a tree branch, two kunai appearing in his hands.
"Now our roles have switched." He grinned broadly.
…
[Experience +18,797]
[Experience +16,871]
[Experience +19,783]
[Experience +17,847]
Looking at the experience notifications before him, Hyuga Arin's smile never faded.
Facing Konoha's encirclement, these Iwagakure ninja stood no chance.
To support this side, a full eight Konoha jōnin had come from the trenches. While the Iwa forces were desperately pressing the front lines, these eight had forced their way through with great difficulty.
When the eight attacked the remaining four Iwa ninja, Hyuga Arin relied on his extremely fast kunai strikes to take their lives at their weakest moments.
"This method doesn't count as battle merit," a member of the Nara clan couldn't help but advise him.
"Merit or not doesn't matter." Hyuga Arin didn't care in the slightest.
Because he wouldn't get any merit anyway—it would all be attributed to the Hyuga clan.
No—
He was Root now.
Later, he'd ask Crow how Root calculated merit. As an organization that wore the same pants as ANBU, Root should at least have plenty of ninjutsu rewards.
Just thinking about it made him angry.
Sooner or later, he'd wipe out the Hyuga main family.
Hyuga Arin clenched his teeth.
Seeing how completely indifferent Hyuga Arin was, the Nara clan member said nothing more and ran back toward the trenches.
The fighting up front was still intense.
"Hey… can someone help me fix this?" Hyuga Arin looked at the shattered watchtower. Everyone else had already rushed back into the front-line battle.
Iwagakure's assault was simply too fierce. They had only taken a moment to come help Hyuga Arin—there was no time to repair a watchtower for him.
Helpless, Hyuga Arin looked at the ruins before him and stepped forward to pick up the dropped items.
[Skill: Dragon Roar of Fire]
[Skill: Dragon Wing Strike]
[Skill: Requip Magic]
[Skill: Devour Flames]
[Equipment: Fairy Tail Guild Mark — Increases magic damage by 100]
[Equipment: Phantom Lord Battle Armor — Increases defense by 500]
[Equipment: Dragon Armor — Increases defense by 1000, increases dragon-attribute damage]
[Equipment: Ten Wizard Saints Emblem — Increases magic capacity by 500]
[Equipment: Aquarius's Key]
"Not bad." Hyuga Arin nodded.
He removed his Nen Armor and equipped the Dragon Armor instead. He also put on the Fairy Tail Guild Mark and the Ten Wizard Saints Emblem.
As for skills, he kept the two Dragon Slayer magic skills. Once he gathered ten skills, they could be fused into a single Dragon Slayer Magic—and even in the late game, Dragon Slayer Magic was still extremely powerful.
What he hadn't expected was to get Devour Flames.
This skill could swallow most flames, absorb their fiery properties, and restore the user's injuries and energy.
It was practically a god-tier skill for a mage.
Considering these drops came from jōnin, this was only natural.
He directly learned Devour Flames.
[Devour Flames (Lv.1) — EXP (0/100) — Traits (None)]
The remaining Requip Magic, Phantom Lord Battle Armor, Aquarius's Key, and Nen Armor were all thrown into the furnace for dismantling.
From the three items, he obtained 3,145 essence points.
"As expected—good items give more when dismantled."
[Name: Hyuga Arin]
[Class: Hunter]
[Sub-class: Doctor]
[Level: Lv.38 (0/29,500)]
[Chakra / Nen: 6,610 / 5,110 + 1,000 + 500 + 500]
[Essence: 4,108]
[Experience Pool: 116,747]
"Today's mission—complete!!"
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