This B-rank mission was quite unique.
It required the team to hunt down a rogue ninja who had fled after committing a crime.
The request was issued by the Yun Mu clan, a small family scattered outside the major hidden villages.
Though called a ninja clan, their total members numbered only a few dozen.
Less than half of the family members were even capable of molding chakra.
For many years, they had relied on trade to establish themselves in the cutthroat shinobi world.
As for why they came to Konoha to hire professionals to pursue their target, it all traced back to their heritage.
Hundreds of years ago, during the Warring States Period, the Yun Mu clan produced a formidable ancestor.
This ancestor's mastery of ninjutsu was profound, and he created several powerful secret techniques.
According to clan records, he even used these techniques to defeat many renowned shinobi of his generation.
Unfortunately, the clan had never again produced a ninja with talent comparable to his.
Subsequent generations were largely mediocre, unable to learn the ancestor's secret techniques.
They could only learn common ninjutsu for combat.
Originally, there was nothing unusual about this, as the world was full of small clans declining due to uninspired descendants.
But a variable appeared more than twenty years ago.
Back then, Yunmu Yin, the current patriarch, was still a young man.
He found a dying infant by the roadside and brought him home.
He meticulously cared for the child and named him Yun Muyan.
After the boy grew up, it was discovered that he had the talent to become a shinobi.
Yunmu Yin imparted various ninjutsu to him without discrimination, hoping he could become a protector for the clan.
It was this very action that sowed the seeds of today's trouble.
Yun Muyan was extremely talented; no matter what ninjutsu he was taught, he mastered it quickly.
By the time he was thirteen, even the adult ninja in the clan couldn't defeat him.
Feeling that there was nothing more to learn from the clan's basic teachings, he sought to practice the ancestor's secret techniques.
Those techniques had never been successfully mastered by anyone since the founder.
Yunmu Yin was worried the boy would waste his youth on them, so he told him to wait a few more years.
A frustrated Yun Muyan inadvertently overheard a conversation and realized he was not of the Yun Mu bloodline at all.
His radical personality immediately led him to believe that Yunmu Yin had always treated him as an outsider.
He became convinced that was why the patriarch was unwilling to teach him the secret techniques.
So he began to look for opportunities, training desperately in secret to get his hands on the scrolls.
Several more years passed until, one day, he incapacitated most of the clan members.
He broke into the secret chamber and swept away all the scrolls recording the secret techniques and clan inheritances.
After that, he disappeared without a trace.
Recently, the Yun Mu clan spent a great deal of resources and finally received word of Yun Muyan's location.
Thus, this mission came to be.
But was this really the truth?
Was Yunmu Yin truly considering Yun Muyan's growth when he forbade him from learning the techniques?
And did the "traitor" Yun Muyan commit an irreversible wrong just because of his temperament?
Everything was merely the patriarch's one-sided story.
However, the truth of the matter had never been important to shinobi who work for pay.
The group arrived near the small town mentioned in the intelligence.
Holding the tracking tool provided by the Yun Mu clan, they dispersed to search for Yun Muyan's whereabouts.
Everyone had already disguised themselves.
Even the usually unconventional Might Duy put on ordinary clothes to avoid exposing his identity.
Naraku arrived at his assigned area and quietly activated his perception ninjutsu.
The area was a mixed bag; there were about ten chakra signatures within his sensing range.
There were slight differences in strength, but none reached the Jonin level.
He continued to search until the edge of his sensory net touched a peculiar chakra signature.
The energy was strange and eerie, feeling like burning blood.
Even without meeting the target, Naraku felt a faint, metallic scent of iron.
The target was sitting in a small tavern near the center of another street, likely having a meal.
Naraku did not activate his Sharingan yet.
To avoid revealing the flaw of his excessively large sensing range, he continued walking in his original direction.
After reaching a considerable distance, he looped back along the street where the tavern was located.
This time, as he passed the entrance, the tracking tool he carried reacted.
He found a hidden corner to perform a Shadow Clone.
He sent the clone to contact his teammates while his main body entered the tavern.
He pretended to be a hungry traveler, found a table, and ordered food.
His teammates' chakra signatures entered his sensing range one after another, approaching the tavern.
Just as they reached the street, the special chakra to Naraku's left-rear suddenly flared up.
He turned to look immediately.
Amidst the clatter of falling dishes, a young man in gray clothes rushed toward the entrance.
Naraku used the Body Flicker Technique to pursue him, leaping onto a rooftop.
He flashed across the tiles several times, managing to block the target just before he left the street.
Blades clashed with kunai, sparks flying between the two combatants.
According to the intelligence, Yun Muyan possessed strength close to that of a Konoha Jonin.
Being young and strong, he would not be easy to deal with.
"I can't let him escape."
In a flash, Naraku exchanged more than a dozen blows with Yun Muyan.
He firmly suppressed the man's attempts to flee.
"Tch, a troublesome brat!"
Yun Muyan cursed under his breath, decisively abandoning the taijutsu duel.
He retreated two steps, raised his kunai, and sliced his own palm.
Dark red blood gushed from the wound but magically floated in the air.
It quickly dispersed into countless tiny, dense red dots.
The moment he waved his hand, they shot out like a storm.
"Is this the Yun Mu secret technique?"
Naraku's intuition told him that these hair-thin blood needles must not be touched.
But if he used a Substitution Jutsu to dodge, the target would likely slip away.
His dark eyes were instantly dyed crimson.
The world seemed to slow into frames.
Before the Three-Tomoe Sharingan, the speed of the blood needles was no longer impressive.
Naraku deftly drew a full circle in front of him with his blade.
The flat of the sword perfectly blocked every attack.
However, the metal was corroded beyond recognition, its surface covered in tiny charred pits.
The blade would likely break with another strike.
He decisively discarded the ruined weapon.
He threw out more than ten shuriken to completely blockade the target's path.
Yun Muyan could only stop and change direction to avoid the projectiles.
Unexpectedly, those spinning shuriken collided with each other in mid-air.
A considerable portion adjusted their trajectory and continued to spin toward him.
Caught off guard, his steps faltered.
"Hah!"
Might Duy, having activated the Eight Gates, arrived first.
He leaped vigorously from the ground in a handstand.
He kicked Yun Muyan solidly from below, sending him flying off the rooftop.
Might Duy landed on the roof, pushed off again, and appeared behind the falling man.
He secured Yun Muyan's body with both arms.
The two plummeted toward the ground with immense force.
"Front Lotus!"
Boom—
Yun Muyan slammed headfirst into the earth.
With a loud "thump" amidst a cloud of smoke, he turned into a log.
Naraku, relying on his dynamic vision, caught sight of a figure jumping away not far away.
"Over there!"