Kuriarare Raiga quickly caught the saline bottle.
"You're not selling the other eye? We brought enough silver for both," Ao asked while glancing at the Hyuga main branch ninja groaning on the ground.
"We're keeping the other eye as proof of loyalty."As he said this, the jonin gouged out the Hyuga's other eye and casually finished him off.
"You two could always join Kirigakure, you know," Ao said, visibly excited about the Byakugan in his hand.
"No thanks. You Mist guys have way too many rules. My brothers and I don't want to live like that."
"Then why betray Konoha?" Raiga asked, amused.
"It's because of that old fossil of a Third Hokage. Look at the other villages—their Kage are fighting on the front lines. Only he hides at the back and lets us do all the dying. A man like that doesn't deserve my loyalty.
Enough! The deal's done. Let's not hang around and risk being found."The jonin turned to leave.
"Heh, you really think we'd let you leave so easily after getting our hands on a Byakugan?" Raiga sneered.
"You're going to backstab us?"
"Bingo!"Raiga unsheathed his weapon—the Thunder Blades: Kiba.
As soon as the twin blades were drawn, arcs of lightning crackled around them.
The Thunder Blades: Kiba were twin swords that carried electrical currents, capable of both offense and defense, and could generate and attract lightning to amplify power.
Without hesitation, Raiga crossed the twin swords to charge them up, then spread them wide to unleash a wide-range lightning attack.
"Lightning Release: Fang of Lightning!"
The jonin was just about to weave hand seals when a figure appeared in front of him out of nowhere.
That figure performed hand seals at high speed and released Wind Release: Wind Blade.
A massive wind blade, several times larger than the standard, cut clean through the lightning and flew toward Raiga.
Raiga snorted and sliced the wind blade in half with his swords.
Seeing this, Hyuga Asana leapt down from another tree.
"You two are from Konoha?" Raiga asked.
Uchiha Yuan didn't answer—he simply assumed a combat stance.
"Lord Raiga, Lord Ao, those two are both likely jonin. We won't have the upper hand in a fight.
Plus, we're too close to Konoha's camp. If we cause too much noise, their patrols might show up. I suggest we retreat," the sensory-type Mist ninja whispered.
Raiga glanced at Ao.
Ao thought for a moment and said, "Looks like we're not getting the second Byakugan today. Let's pull back."
Raiga snorted and sheathed the Thunder Blades: Kiba, turning to leave.
Ao and the sensory ninja followed.
After confirming the Mist ninja had left, the jonin turned to Yuan and Asana and asked, "Are you Orochimaru's people?"
Asana nodded and took out a small white snake from her sleeve.
Seeing the snake, the jonin breathed a sigh of relief and tossed the saline bottle with the Byakugan to Asana.
Asana caught it and gestured to the Hyuga corpse. "What do we do with him?"
"Orochimaru instructed us to leave his body here for Konoha patrols to find."
Asana nodded, saying nothing more.
The three traitor ninja used Transformation Jutsu to disguise themselves as ordinary Bear Country civilians and fled quickly.
"What do we do next?" Yuan asked Asana.
Asana formed hand seals: "Summoning Jutsu!"
Poof! A puff of smoke cleared to reveal a green snake over a meter long.
Asana gave the Byakugan container to the snake and said,"Xiao Lü (Little Green), take this to Orochimaru-sensei."
The green snake nodded and disappeared.
"That's it?"
Asana nodded. "Yeah, that's it. Xiao Lü will deliver it. Let's head back."
"Wait!" Yuan pulled out a small vial and collected some blood from the Hyuga corpse.
Though he didn't know Medical Ninjutsu, he figured he might get a tool from the text-based game someday that could help decode the Caged Bird Seal. The Hyuga main family's blood might be useful—better to have it than not.
He stored the blood in his ring, and then he and Asana left the scene, rushing back to where they had parted ways with Kagetsu before nightfall.
Yuan removed the concealment tag, and they entered the cave.
Asana lay straight down on the floor, while Yuan took the antidote and waved it under Kagetsu's nose before lying down as well.
One minute later, Yamanaka Kagetsu opened his eyes. He rubbed his aching head, then suddenly remembered something and quickly looked over at Asana and Yuan.
Seeing them still lying on the ground, he rushed over.
"Yuan, Asana! Wake up!"
Under Kagetsu's calls, they both opened their eyes one after another.
"Thank goodness you're okay!"
Playing the part to the end, Yuan rubbed his forehead and said,"Looks like we were ambushed."
"Yeah! You guys should check yourselves. See if anything's missing—especially the mission scroll."
Yuan and Asana nodded and began checking their belongings.
"I haven't lost anything," Asana said.
"Same here. Kagetsu, you?" Yuan asked.
"Me? Nothing's missing either," Kagetsu replied.
"That's odd. Someone went through the trouble of knocking us out, and then didn't do anything?" Asana said, pretending to be confused.
"Yeah, it doesn't make sense. And I didn't detect anyone nearby either. We shouldn't have been caught off guard like this," Kagetsu added.
"Well, if we're all fine, let's not dwell on it. Still, we shouldn't linger here. Let's move out."
Kagetsu nodded. The three packed up and departed the cave that night.
After a full day and night of traveling, they left the Bear Country and entered the Land of Fire.
As soon as they entered, Asana suddenly said,"There's someone about a kilometer ahead."
After being knocked out once, Kagetsu had grown extra cautious. Hearing her words, he immediately dropped into a battle stance.
(To Be Continued...)