"Kill him," the fat ninja said coldly.
The two ninja beside him, already prepared, formed seals at lightning speed.
"Water Release: Wild Water Wave!"
They spewed torrents of water simultaneously, the surging flood slamming toward Hyūga Akira and cutting off his forward momentum.
Akira kicked off the ground, borrowing the force to leap backward. He flipped in midair and landed against the stone wall, narrowly avoiding the rushing water.
By then, the fat ninja had finished forming his seals.
"Water Release: Purple Rain Technique!"
Purple raindrops fell from the sky, mixing into the water the other two had released. Violet spread rapidly through the torrent, staining it completely.
The Wild Water Wave ended, but the purple water didn't vanish. It pooled on the ground, forming a shallow pond that continued to deepen as the purple rain fell, turning the entire puddle a toxic violet.
Akira clung sideways to the stone wall, his Byakugan focused on the chakra gathering within the water. He could see chakra rising continuously from the pond, spreading upward with the mist.
"A combined technique?" Akira gauged the distance between himself and the three enemies.
The purple pond lay directly between them.
Farther away, Murakami Hana's chakra was closing in fast.
"I can't drag this out."
Akira raised his hand and flung several shuriken at the trio.
They didn't dodge.
The shuriken passed straight through their bodies.
"Genjutsu?" Akira reacted instantly, his hands already forming seals.
"Genjutsu: Release!"
He disrupted his chakra flow, trying to break free.
"Useless," the fat ninja sneered as he and the other two leapt onto the surface of the pond and sprinted toward Akira.
His genjutsu wasn't cast through conventional chakra manipulation—it was poison-based.
The Purple Rain Technique mixed pre-prepared toxins with chakra, blending them into the water released by Wild Water Wave. As the poisoned water evaporated, the vapor spread everywhere.
Once the body absorbed that moisture, the genjutsu took hold.
Genjutsu: Waterfall of Delusion.
As long as the mist remained, the illusion would keep activating nonstop. It was a low-level genjutsu that only distorted perception—but when it triggered continuously, escaping became nearly impossible.
Genjutsu: Release could dispel the illusion once.
The next moment, it would activate again.
There was no need to explain that to his enemy.
Running up from the pond onto the stone wall, the three charged straight at Akira.
Akira swung his bronze blade, flames roaring along its edge, slashing through their bodies—
—and cutting nothing but air.
That was when he realized it clearly.
If he didn't deal with this genjutsu, he couldn't even tell where his enemies really were.
An unseen kunai grazed his shoulder, slicing open flesh. If Akira hadn't moved at the last instant, it would have pierced his heart.
"You'll die here," the fat ninja's distorted voice echoed as he attacked again.
"Maybe," Akira grinned. "But I only need to know that you're here."
At this point, even the Byakugan had lost its reliability.
It could see chakra flow—but poison-induced genjutsu distorted perception itself.
What he saw might not be real.
Relying purely on instinct, Akira shifted left. His face was cut open, blood spilling, and a violent impact slammed into his abdomen, doubling him over as something struck him hard.
He reached out instinctively—
—and grasped nothing.
"Messing with the five senses, huh?" Akira smiled faintly.
Then his figure vanished.
A moment later, a paper bomb drifted down where he had stood, already glowing.
"Bad—!" The fat ninja's pupils shrank.
BOOOOM!
A violent explosion tore outward.
Akira reappeared on the far side of the pond. He couldn't tell whether the three had been caught in the blast—but no experience notifications appeared.
None of them were dead.
He immediately swallowed an antidote pill.
At that moment, everything clicked.
The source of the genjutsu was the pond itself.
His distorted senses snapped back into place.
This illusion relied on persistence, but its weakness was obvious—once the victim identified the mechanism, a single antidote could neutralize it.
And for a short time afterward, the poison wouldn't affect him again.
Now Akira clearly saw the three figures sprawled on the ground. The paper bomb he'd used meant Substitution wasn't an option anymore.
He sprinted straight across the pond.
Before closing the distance, Akira hurled three shuriken.
Enhanced by Bear Strength, they screamed through the air like thunderbolts, lethal enough to tear straight through flesh.
A figure suddenly flashed in front of the fat ninja.
Clang!
Murakami Hana appeared out of nowhere, intercepting the attack. His kunai met the spinning shuriken head-on.
His brow furrowed instantly—the force behind them was terrifying. The shuriken didn't get knocked aside immediately; instead, they ground violently against his kunai, sparks flying.
Only after he twisted his wrist and snapped upward did he finally deflect them.
He blocked the shuriken aimed at the fat ninja.
The other two weren't so lucky.
Both were pierced cleanly and died on the spot.
In the distance, experience notifications flashed before Akira's eyes.
[Experience +356]
[Experience +364]
The fat ninja still lived.
Akira clicked his tongue in frustration, eyes fixed on the badly injured, screaming man. He didn't stop moving, stepping onto the water and approaching Murakami Hana.
"Two kills enough to vent your anger?" Murakami Hana asked flatly, all trace of a smile gone.
He hadn't expected that idiot to actually try killing Mu Yu. If replacing personnel weren't such a hassle, he'd have executed the fat ninja himself already.
Akira stopped in front of the fat ninja, looking down at him coldly.
The explosion had forced him to retreat in time. His injuries looked horrific, but the strength in his screams told the truth—he wasn't critically wounded.
Akira glanced at Murakami Hana, who was staring at him just as intently.
He knew it.
Killing this guy under Hana's nose wasn't happening.
So Akira raised his foot—
—and kicked him square in the face.
Bam!
[Experience +1245]
"That should be enough," Akira said bluntly, looking straight at Murakami Hana.
Hana's expression darkened, but he nodded. As long as the idiot wasn't dead, it was acceptable.
"If there's a next time," Hana said coldly, glaring at the fat ninja, "you can kill him."
Meaning: not this time.
Akira sighed regretfully, then bent down to retrieve two cards dropped by the dead genin.
[Consumable: Replay G-380]
[Consumable: Dark Curtain F-100]
He glanced at them—and his eyes lit up.
One was a god-tier card: it allowed instant travel to a previously visited location. Incredibly useful.
The other was trash—protection against theft or surveillance abilities, but only against player skills.
With only one player in the world, it was completely worthless.
◇ I'll be dropping one bonus chapters for every 10 reviews. comment
◇ One bonus chapter will be released for every 100 Power Stones.
◇ You can read the ahead chapter on P@treon if you're interested:
http://patreon.com/KuroTL