It seemed like everything was under control. One Shadow Clone was chasing the targets up the cliff, and his main body lay in ambush below.
But could enemies capable of infiltrating the Land of Fire to sabotage the Leaf and hunt its ninja for bounties really be this easy to deal with?
Byakuya held his breath, hidden deep within the foliage of a large tree, suppressing his urge to kill.
Wait. Just wait a little longer...
He watched the two figures from the shadows. Comparing them to the memories returned by his first clone, they were definitely the two who had been in the basement.
They were rapidly approaching the tree where Byakuya was hiding. They were about to pass his optimal ambush point. He finally made his move.
He formed the seal.
"Storm Style: Torrential Lightning."
He opened his mouth and unleashed a torrent of blazing blue-white lightning, like a sweeping laser beam, enveloping both men instantly.
The light was blinding—far more powerful than the version his clone had used in the basement.
Storm Style was simply too fast.
Before they could react, their bodies were riddled with holes, turned into sieves by the lightning.
Byakuya had revealed his position.
But in the next instant...
The bodies of the two men suddenly vanished.
Shadow Clones.
"Fish on the hook! Just as reckless as I thought. No combat experience. From your build, you're just a brat sticking to the rigid crap they teach at the Academy. Go to hell!"
The ground on either side of Byakuya cracked open. They had used Earth Style to hide underground, using their clones as bait to lure the mantis—Byakuya—out of hiding while they played the oriole.
This was the danger of lacking combat experience.
His initial assumption had been wrong. From start to finish, he had been the passive one.
Just because his first clone saw two people in the basement, did that mean there were only two enemies? The clone hadn't searched the entire basement. If more were hiding inside, wouldn't rushing in be suicide?
In a life-or-death fight, even a Jonin could get killed if they were careless. The ninja world was full of such examples.
"Die, Leaf brat! Let's see what kind of face is hiding under that Shuten-doji mask!"
The two men leaped out of the ground, one in front and one behind, simultaneously thrusting kunai into Byakuya's body.
"Destroying a Leaf facility and killing a Leaf ninja... double the bounty! This trip wasn't a waste."
"Let's go! Splitting up was the right call. We need mobility to avoid getting wiped out by the damn Leaf reinforcements."
"Huh? Substitution?!"
"He's behind you! Move!"
The kunai were embedded in a log.
Byakuya appeared behind the man on the left, gripping his ninja sword tightly and slashing at his neck.
The man's partner swung his kunai desperately, blocking the blade with mere inches to spare.
"Damn brat... he's strong!"
Byakuya pressed the hidden trigger on the hilt of his sword. Two thin needles shot out from the pommel, trailing explosive tags that instantly embedded themselves into the left chest of one of the men.
"This is... an explosive tag? Where did—"
They looked up to see the Shuten-doji mask already retreating, putting distance between them while flinging several shuriken.
BOOM!!
The explosive tag detonated.
When the smoke cleared, two bodies lay on the ground, motionless.
Byakuya still didn't dare to be careless. He threw his last two kunai into their vital spots.
Right in the heart.
Still worried they might be clones, he waited a while longer. Only when he was absolutely certain these were real bodies did he approach.
The fatal damage wasn't just from the explosion; shuriken shrapnel had severed their arteries, causing massive blood loss.
He searched the bodies. One ninjutsu scroll, two mission scrolls, a map covering the Hidden Leaf Village area, two iron tags engraved with "Anteater Bounty Group," and over three thousand ryo in cash.
The map clearly marked the Ninja Tool Research Substation, a Soldier Pill Research Base, a Combat Uniform Factory...
A large "X" was drawn over the tool substation, and an arrow pointed to the soldier pill base thirty miles southeast.
He opened the mission scrolls.
Destroy a Hidden Leaf rear facility in the Land of Fire. Bounty: 500,000 ryo. No limit.
Bring back the corpse of a Leaf Ninja. Genin: 5,000 ryo. Chunin: 10,000 ryo. No limit.
Both scrolls were stamped with the chakra seal of the Bounty Station.
"I'm only worth five thousand ryo?"
The ninjutsu scroll contained the Summoning Jutsu.
It was a space-time ninjutsu that allowed the user to form a contract with an animal and summon it via hand seals.
Aside from these items, there was nothing else.
Byakuya collected his shuriken and kunai, then walked into a dense thicket of trees, checking repeatedly to ensure no other enemies were around.
"You are way too cautious."
The Byakuya who walked out of the clearing approached the real Byakuya, who was hiding behind a tree, gasping for air. The clone complained, "With your current strength, killing two of them isn't hard. Why drain almost all your chakra to make me do it?"
"Are they dead?"
"Yeah. Lured the main bodies out with Torrential Lightning, used Substitution to dodge, finished them with the explosive tag sword. That sword is a nasty piece of work; I don't know why it was just sitting in a school warehouse."
"Only two of them?"
"Only two."
"Good work."
The clone shook its head. "We are one and the same. No need for formalities."
The real Byakuya lifted his hands with difficulty and formed the seal. "Release!"
The Shadow Clone vanished instantly. At the same time, the other clone chasing the targets up the cliff also dispelled, transmitting its memories back.
Just as he suspected, the ones running up the cliff were the enemy's clones. They had dispelled themselves after running a certain distance.
He was exhausted to the point of collapse, but it wasn't time to rest yet.
He picked up the Shuten-doji mask, ninja tools, scrolls, and money.
He popped a soldier pill—which still couldn't restore chakra—into his mouth and stumbled away from the scene.
He had learned a valuable lesson about ninja combat today.
When power levels are equal, the one who lays lower wins.
In reality, after completing several Hard Work Pays Off missions, Byakuya's stats were actually higher than those two bounty hunters.
But he had burned some chakra in the basement skirmish. Then he had sent a clone to chase their decoys while sending another clone to engage them, mistakenly thinking the enemy was low on chakra.
The bounty hunters had assumed this "Leaf brat" was running on fumes. So they set a trap: lure him out with clones, ambush him from underground, and kill him in one hit.
The result? Byakuya killed them. And he did it using a clone, while his real body stayed hidden in the trees the entire time.
"The mission isn't over. I have to go to the Soldier Pill Research Base. But first, I need to recover my stamina and chakra."
---
He walked for half a day until he reached a stream. He drank his fill like an ox, then flipped over and lay on the grass, staring up at the blue sky.
The sound of rushing water filled his ears. Birds sang in the distance. The wind was gentle, neither fast nor slow. The clouds in the sky curled and uncurled lazily.
The tension and anxiety that had gripped him finally let go. He relaxed completely.
Closing his eyes...
Byakuya felt as if he had become a gust of wind, pushing the clouds, shaking the branches, patting the birds on the head, rippling the clear water.
Or perhaps he was the cloud, the branch, the water soaking the banks.
So this is natural energy.
> [System: Hard Work Pays Off]
> Limited Time Mission (4 Days): Sense Natural Energy (Complete)
> Reward: Minor increase in Senjutsu Talent.
---
By the time the stars jumped onto the night canvas, Byakuya had recovered a small portion of his stamina.
He put the grinning Shuten-doji mask back on his face and organized his kunai, shuriken, sword, scrolls, and money.
He touched the long, grinning mouth of the mask.
Good thing this mask has a mouth slit, he thought. Otherwise, I wouldn't have known how to cast Torrential Lightning.
Unlike the clone that scouted the basement, the clone that killed the bounty hunters wore the mask to make the deception perfect.
"Four greedy bounty hunters. Two down, two to go."