[EXP +50,000]
Seeing the experience value, Hyuga Arin was certain—the man was truly dead.
But staring at that number, he froze.
"Why is it so high?" Hyuga Arin was completely baffled. The man's chakra level was clearly only at the jōnin tier.
This amount of experience far exceeded that. This was elite jōnin–level experience.
So the old bastard had actually been an elite jōnin all along—and this was the first time Hyuga Arin had ever seen a perfectly round experience value.
Still, elite jōnin didn't necessarily have more chakra than ordinary jōnin. It usually meant that some aspect of their abilities far surpassed the norm.
With strength like that, why didn't he fight Hanzo? Why did he choose to just wait for death?
Hyuga Arin couldn't understand it.
"Whoosh!"
A tearing sound split the air as Hanzo's sickle suddenly slashed toward Hyuga Arin.
Hyuga Arin vanished from where he stood, causing the sickle to cut through empty space. In the next instant, he reappeared behind Shozo's corpse.
He grabbed all five dropped items without even looking and shoved them straight into his inventory.
There was no time to check them now.
Turning back, Hyuga Arin stared at Hanzo warily.
"Hanzo-sama, attacking so suddenly like that really makes me nervous."
Hanzo tugged the chain, retracting his sickle, then looked straight at Hyuga Arin.
"You're a Konoha ninja, aren't you? From the Uchiha clan? Your Transformation Technique is quite good."
Hyuga Arin: "???"
How had he been exposed?
And why was he suddenly being labeled an Uchiha?
He scratched his head, feeling that the shuriken he'd thrown earlier—his substitution marker—was still intact. That eased him a little.
He asked curiously, "How did I give myself away?"
He had sensed danger earlier and thrown out a shuriken in advance, ready to use the Substitution Technique at any moment.
As far as disguise went, he felt he'd done nothing wrong. So how had he been exposed so thoroughly?
Hanzo didn't attack. Instead, he patiently explained.
"Because you're not respectful toward me. You never use honorifics when addressing me."
"…This…"
Hyuga Arin was speechless.
Was it really that simple? That ridiculous?
Rain Hidden ninjas always used honorifics when speaking to Hanzo, but Hyuga Arin had never formed that habit.
"So how do you know I'm from Konoha? I've killed Konoha ninjas."
Murakami Hana had taken him along to ambush Konoha shinobi before, and he'd shown absolutely no mercy.
Sure, that was because he sensed experience drops—but it still proved he wasn't exactly friendly with Konoha.
Hanzo continued, "At first, I didn't suspect you either. But your Great Fire Dragon Technique was quite telling."
That immediately reminded Hyuga Arin of the time he'd returned to the Rain Hidden Village with Hanzo, when he'd used Great Fire Dragon Technique to ambush a Rain ninja.
But what did that prove?
Hanzo explained further, "Great Fire Dragon Technique belongs to the Uchiha clan of Konoha. In the entire shinobi world, only the Uchiha use it."
"And only the Uchiha would dare show such ruthlessness toward the Sarutobi clan."
Hyuga Arin thought silently: The Hyuga can do that too—case in point, me.
Your intel is outdated. That technique has already been incorporated into Konoha's general ninTechnique library.
But… aside from the Uchiha, it really did seem like no one else used it.
Hanzo continued, "You prefer acting alone, show no mercy toward Rain ninjas, and deliberately avoid surveillance. If not for that powerful Transformation Technique of yours, this would've been a very poor infiltration job."
That technique really was troublesome—Hanzo had never noticed a single flaw. If Hyuga Arin hadn't used Great Fire Dragon Technique, Hanzo would never have doubted 'Mokuu.'
Once the first suspicion appeared, every subsequent action only reinforced it—especially to someone as cautious as Shozo.
Of course, there was another crucial reason as well.
Hanzo simply didn't say it.
"So you had me kill Shozo, shifting the hatred onto Konoha. Well played, Leader Hanzo of the Rain Hidden Village."
At that moment, Hyuga Arin finally understood the entire picture.
Now, he truly couldn't shoulder Shozo's death—but Konoha could.
Hanzo sheathed his sickle. "Your name. A Konoha ninja with this level of Transformation Technique is worth remembering."
Hyuga Arin said coldly, "Remember it well. My name is Uchiha Ming. The next time we meet, you'll die by my hand."
Hanzo shook his head. "You won't be leaving."
A black figure rushed in through the doorway.
Tella appeared, his face covered in blood.
"I'm waiting for others to come kill you. What are you waiting for, Uchiha Ming?"
Old bastard. I'll blow you up sooner or later.
Hyuga Arin swore silently. One day, he'd personally bring Hanzo to his end.
A hint of amusement appeared in Hanzo's eyes.
This 'Uchiha Ming' couldn't die too easily. Otherwise, the blame would be too easily traced back to him.
Uchiha Ming had to die carrying the crime of killing Shozo—at the hands of Shozo's remaining loyalists.
I'm waiting for my chakra to recover.
Hyuga Arin answered internally.
His body vanished in an instant.
"Konoha's Flying Thunder God?" Hanzo frowned slightly.
Now that he knew the man was from Konoha, the first thing that came to his mind was the legendary technique with which the Second Hokage once dominated the shinobi world.
Flying Thunder God Technique.
Hanzo turned to Tella.
"You know how Shozo died now, don't you?"
Tella looked deeply at Hanzo. "I'll kill him. I'll avenge Shozo-sama."
Even though Hanzo was the one truly behind everything, Tella understood the full story.
But at this point, the process no longer mattered.
Shozo had indeed died at the hands of a Konoha ninja.
That was enough.
Tella transformed into a black shadow and shot outward. He had a way to track his target.
After he left, Kuming finally entered from outside.
"Hanzo-sama… if that Konoha ninja spreads rumors—" Kuming said worriedly.
"That won't happen," Hanzo shook his head. "No one will believe him."
"Konoha is the enemy. And how much credibility do the enemy's words really have?"
"Besides, he won't survive against Tella."
Hyuga Arin sprinted straight into the forest.
With his Byakugan's three-hundred-sixty-degree vision, he could already see Tella chasing after him.
A lone Rain Hidden jōnin.
If we could just quietly—
He couldn't beat him.
Alright, never mind.
Hyuga Arin accelerated, even removing his mountain bandit greaves and swapping in his Nen boots to boost his speed.
What had been a slight disadvantage instantly became parity—
No, still a hair slower.
"This guy's sticking way too close," Hyuga Arin muttered.
He slapped an explosive tag onto a tree as he leapt past and kept running.
Through his Byakugan, he saw Tella move precisely as expected, jumping onto that same tree.
"BOOM!!"
The explosion rang out—
Yet Tella instantly used the Water Body Flicker Technique to evade and continued the pursuit.
A jōnin's reaction speed was simply too fast. Delayed explosive tags were practically useless.
Hyuga Arin gritted his teeth and kept running, his mind racing for a way to escape.
At this pace, getting caught was only a matter of time.
A head-on fight was impossible. Even if Tella were injured, it wouldn't change much.
"Hanzo—remember this!!" Hyuga Arin roared internally.
"I'll blow you up sooner or later!!"
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