Seeing the way his sister and Hanabi were looking at him—as if they wanted to carve him up into pieces—Ryūshin shuddered for no apparent reason. Sensing that things were going south, he wisely chose not to dwell on the topic and instead deftly changed the subject:
"By the way, Hanabi, who exactly was that guy just now? Why would he attack you here?"
The move worked immediately. Rinne, the airheaded one, was instantly distracted by the corpse on the ground. As for Hanabi, after kissing Ryūshin, it was as if she had suddenly awakened a woman's unique high emotional intelligence.
Knowing this wasn't the time to push things too far, she obediently went along with the topic change and, together with Rinne, looked toward the Human Path of Pain lying on the ground:
"Actually, I don't know who he was either. At first, I was trying to find the one who summoned those beasts that were rampaging around. But while searching with my Byakugan, I suddenly discovered this person.
"I originally planned to follow him for a while and then gather people to deal with him, but I didn't expect him to be so strong—he noticed me almost immediately…"
As Ryūshin listened to Hanabi describe her encounter with the Human Path, he frowned slightly. From the sound of it, this guy really was highly suspicious.
With that thought, Ryūshin immediately crouched down to inspect the Human Path's corpse. The deeper he examined it, the more shocked he became.
This thing wasn't a human in the true sense at all—it was a corpse that had been dead for a long time!
Ryūshin had already felt something was off earlier. He had severed both of the opponent's hands and slit his throat, yet there hadn't been the kind of heavy bleeding a normal person should have had—only a small amount of blood.
At the time, because he was focused on saving Hanabi, Ryūshin hadn't paid much attention. Thinking back on it now made his scalp tingle.
What was more, this guy's eyes were exactly the same as those of the summoned beasts. That alone was enough to confirm that he was definitely connected to them.
A self-moving corpse connected to the summoned beasts—everything about this reeked of something deeply unnatural.
At that moment, Steel Garuru, who hadn't spoken until now, provided another crucial piece of information:
"This guy isn't the one who summoned those beasts, but he's definitely closely connected to the caster. They share the same scent—and that scent comes from those black rods!"
Hearing this, Ryūshin became even more certain of his theory. He suddenly turned to Hanabi and said:
"Hanabi, use your Byakugan and check—do those black rods in his body still have chakra fluctuations?"
Hanabi activated her Byakugan and immediately let out a surprised sound:
"They really do! He's clearly dead, but those black rods are still emitting chakra."
Ryūshin broke into a smile at that. Using his ninja blade, he casually dug out one of the black rods and held it up as he said to Hanabi and Rinne:
"I know how to find that guy now. Come with me."
With that, Ryūshin motioned for the two of them to climb onto Garuru's back. Once all three were seated securely, Ryūshin spoke to Garuru:
"Garuru, take us to the Uzumaki clan's team."
Garuru nodded and immediately set off at a rapid pace toward the Uzumaki team.
"Sister Karin!"
Over there, Karin was searching together with her clansmen for the enemy who had summoned the beasts to attack Konoha. Suddenly, she heard someone calling her name. Turning her head, she saw Ryūshin and the others riding Garuru as they rushed toward her.
Ryūshin raised the black rod in his hand and called out to Karin:
"Sister Karin, hurry and use your Mind's Eye of the Kagura to sense any chakra with the same signature as this one. Remember to exclude the summoned beasts. If you can do that, we'll be able to find the bastard who summoned them!"
Hearing this, Karin instinctively took the black rod. The moment it touched her hand, her entire body shuddered—she realized that there was an eerie chakra inside the rod that was interfering with her own chakra.
The interference was so strong that it even made her feel nauseous. However, this only strengthened her belief that Ryūshin was telling the truth. She glanced at Ryūshin, thinking that if she helped him this time, he might put in a good word for her in front of Bai later.
The moment she thought of that, the nausea from earlier seemed to vanish completely. Gritting her teeth, she endured the discomfort and fully activated her Mind's Eye of the Kagura. Sure enough, after excluding the summoned beasts, she sensed three distinct chakra signatures:
"Found them. There are three chakra signatures—one in the direction you came from, and two that are quite close to us."
The three exchanged glances and immediately had Garuru use his Transformation Technique to grow larger. They then pulled Karin along and rushed toward the location of the two nearby chakra signatures.
After weaving through several paths, the four of them arrived at Konoha's Sealing Team headquarters. Karin tossed the black rod aside and said in a low voice:
"They're right here."
Ryūshin nodded lightly. Activating his Transparent Release, he climbed up the wall. After seeing what was inside, he quickly flipped back down and whispered to Rinne:
"There's more than just the two of them inside—there's also the corpse of the one we killed earlier.
"That corpse is lying on a summoning array belonging to the guy with the ponytail. Looks like the ponytailed one is the one who summoned the beasts.
"There's also a strange-looking thing standing next to them. It's wrapping its tongue around the corpse and stuffing it into its mouth. I don't know exactly what it's doing, but it definitely can't be anything good.
"Right now, the three of them are standing very close together. This is our chance. Rinne, do you remember the ninjutsu Dad taught us?"
Rinne nodded nervously. Seeing this, Ryūshin smiled: "Then we'll use that one!"
As he spoke, Ryūshin swiftly sheathed his blade. Though it looked like he was simply returning the sword to its scabbard, Hanabi's Byakugan could clearly see violent Fire Release chakra being continuously compressed inside the sheath.
At the same time, Rinne rapidly formed hand seals. With her outstanding ninjutsu talent, a technique that normally required dozens of seals was reduced to just eight or nine.
The siblings exchanged a glance and shouted in unison:
"Ninja Art: Flame Blade Storm!"
As the words left her mouth, Rinne took a deep breath and blasted it toward the wall in front of her. A massive tornado instantly formed, surging forward at terrifying speed.
At the same moment, Ryūshin drew his blade. The Fire Release energy that had been suppressed within the scabbard erupted all at once. The explosive power was so immense that even the scabbard at his waist shattered apart.
With an upward slash from Ryūshin, a flaming sword energy tore through the air and precisely plunged into the tornado created by Rinne.
The flaming sword energy did not extinguish under the violent winds—on the contrary, the overwhelming fire energy ignited the tornado itself.
Under the stunned gazes of Karin and Hanabi, the tornado—now over ten meters tall—evolved into a devouring inferno: a raging fxirestorm.
Watching the terrifying might of the colossal firestorm, Hanabi and Karin exchanged glances and silently swallowed.
Without a doubt, the destructive power of this combined technique was worthy of an S-rank classification.
...
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