How does a young, weak, and stray lion hunt?
On the vast savannah, a physically frail lioness who has lost her pride and never been taught to hunt by her mother would be nothing more than a tasty meal for a pack of hyenas.
But the legendary male lion, Ngalalalek, did things differently.
He joined a new pride. When a large number of adult lions confronted the lonely cub with bared fangs and sharp claws, he adopted an extremely humble posture. By feigning submission and appearing pitiful, he gained the pride's sympathy in exchange for a chance at survival. He watched silently from the sidelines while the pride hunted, burying his head in study. Whenever it was time to eat, he was driven away, scurrying to a corner to swallow whatever scraps of meat he could scavenge in solitude.
In that loneliness, he gave his all to learn, grow, and become strong.
This state continued until Ngalalalek was four years old, at which point he began to display a hunting style that defied his age—lonely, brave, cunning, and fierce!
He began to kill elephants much stronger than himself single-handedly; he toyed with and slaughtered formidable rhinos like they were mice. His menu grew increasingly diverse: elephants, rhinos, hippos, giraffes, and adult buffalo. When it came to hunting adult buffalo alone, he had as many as ten different methods!
Breaking their legs, snapping their spines, clamping his jaws over their muzzles to suffocate them, sliding under their bellies from the side, or chasing them from behind to dig his claws into... certain vulnerable areas.
But regardless of the method, the core was always the way he approached his prey—quietly, silently, with a stride that pronounced a death sentence before the prey even noticed his presence.
Hyūga Yu calmly observed the scene in the forest ahead.
About 1 kilometer directly in front of him was a three-man squad of Kirigakure shinobi. Having received a signal, they were steadily closing in on the location where the Konoha forces were being intercepted. The three figures ran through the forest with their hands behind their backs, expertly maneuvering around massive trees.
Further ahead, about 3 kilometers away, three Mist shinobi and the red-eyed youth separated from Ao's squad were engaged in a fierce battle with Hyūga Eiki's Shadow Clone. No, it wasn't exactly a "fierce battle"—it was more like a pack of hyenas surrounding a blind lion, wearing down its stamina wave after wave, seeking the chance to deliver a fatal blow.
Behind them stood the somewhat helpless Hyūga Tetsu and another agitated Konoha Chūnin. Given the sudden turn of events, the Chūnin looked as though he was on the verge of losing his mind. He shouted a few words to Hyūga Tetsu, gripped his kunai, steeled his heart, and plunged headlong into the battlefield.
Perhaps he didn't realize that Hyūga Eiki was only a Shadow Clone, but he likely understood that if Eiki died, he wouldn't survive either, so he took the risk to provide backup.
Unfortunately, this was a battle of shinobi.
Intervening in a fight where one is clearly at a disadvantage and lacks the means to counter the enemy's ninjutsu superiority—especially without sufficient intelligence—results in one outcome.
Before the rational Hyūga Tetsu could stop him, the Chūnin rushed into the thick mist. Then, roughly ten seconds later, all sound from him ceased entirely.
Hyūga Yu closed his eyes. The bulging veins around his sockets gradually receded.
He began to move.
Like a great bird spreading its wings, he leapt from the canopy to the branches ahead. The moment his toes touched a trunk, he twisted at a bizarre angle. Before the branch could even sag under his weight and momentum, he had already finished using it as a springboard, leaping forward again.
With only the faintest of sounds, Hyūga Yu moved rapidly, using the trees as a high-speed path.
Using chakra to push off tree trunks for mobility was a specialty of Konoha shinobi. The Mist squad ahead of him clearly hadn't received similar training; they were more adept at Water Surface Walking, gliding over lakes and seas. This resulted in Hyūga Yu closing the gap at more than twice their speed.
800 meters... 600 meters... 400 meters...
When the distance between the two parties was less than two hundred meters, Hyūga Yu suddenly halted his pace on a thick branch. His fingers, already notched on the bowstring, pulled back.
Simultaneously, threads of sharp chakra surged rapidly from the meridians in his hands, coating the arrow.
Mastering Wind Style: Vacuum Blade meant mastering the technique of infusing wind-natured chakra into ninja tools. If one applied the Vacuum Blade technique to an arrow, the ninjutsu would reduce wind resistance while increasing the projectile's speed, range, penetration, and sharpness. It became a different mid-range ninjutsu:
"Wind Style: Vacuum Arrow!"
The Mist squad ahead finally sensed something was wrong. The purple-haired squad leader abruptly signaled for his teammates to stop.
"Wait! I think I heard something!"
The brown-haired Mist shinobi beside him looked around in confusion, hearing nothing. "What kind of sound?"
"The sound of tree trunks being stepped on."
The brown-haired shinobi blinked. "Captain, are you sure? It's probably just the wind."
In the next heartbeat—
BOOM!
Directly behind the Mist squad, the wind suddenly surged violently, trailing a spiral-shaped wake!
An arrow over a meter long, trailing a yellow flame of friction, crossed the 200-meter distance in an instant. It pierced straight through the back of the purple-haired leader's head!
Beside him, the brown-haired shinobi's pupils shrank in shock. Before he could even react, two seconds later—
BOOM!
The same explosive roar of wind erupted!
The head of his other teammate, who was equally stunned, shattered like a watermelon.
The teammate collapsed instantly.
"So fast!"
The brown-haired shinobi snapped out of it. He had no time to grieve; his entire body went into high alert. He spun around, hands forming the signs for the Body Flicker Technique, his eyes fixed on the silent forest behind him. He was ready to flicker away at any moment.
However, the more he watched, the more his skin crawled.
Inexplicably, he felt as though someone was standing right behind him, staring at the back of his head with a cold, emotionless gaze—looking at him as if he were a "tin can," wondering what shape his brain would be once it was opened.
His heart trembling, the brown-haired shinobi whipped his head around.
And then, he saw it—
A sword slashing toward him, meeting his turning motion!
It was an invisible blade, composed entirely of pale yellow, dense wind blades.
In his desperation, the Mist shinobi instinctively gripped the hilt of the sword at his waist and drew it to parry!
The blades met!
Shring!
There was no metallic clang of steel on steel. Instead, there was the smooth, sliding sound of a hot knife cutting through iron.
The high-quality steel blade, forged with precision, was sliced through like butter before the wind blade—which was composed of countless tiny, sharp, friction-heated blades screaming in silent unison.
The sword was severed in two.
In the reflection of the shattered, flying blade, the brown-haired shinobi finally saw the eyes of his attacker.
They were a pair of pure white eyes, so calm they were terrifying.
The shinobi's eyes widened. Clutching his throat—which had also been sliced in two—he wheezed out the final question of his life:
"Who... who are you!?"
Hyūga Yu replied without hesitation:
"Asuma Sarutobi."
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