Hyūga Yū extracted Benimaru's pair of red eyes, removing them as if he were excising a diseased part of the body.
Next,
He bit his thumb, pulled a scroll from the third scroll pouch on the side of his leg, and summoned a glass vessel that was still emitting cold air and sloshing with saline solution.
He tossed the pair of red eyes into the glass jar, sealed it, and handed it to Aburame Ryōma.
"Without a medical-nin like me nearby to control it, his Red Eyes allow him to destroy them and commit suicide at any moment. So, if you want to obtain the Red Eyes and the intelligence within his brain, this is the only way to handle it."
"I only have saline on hand. These eyes can be preserved in saline at -9°C for about four hours."
"You'd better find paraformaldehyde to fix them as soon as possible."
"Besides the Konoha Hospital, Orochimaru should have some at his place, too."
Then,
Hyūga Yū didn't forget to add,
"Consider this an exchange. I want some aid in return."
Aburame Ryōma remained silent.
This clearly involved an area outside his knowledge, but he understood two points: he needed to find a laboratory Orochimaru built nearby with Root's funding within four hours, and Hyūga Yū wanted to trade this act for some assistance.
"What do you want?"
Hyūga Yū said frankly, "Do you have anything that can help me recover chakra quickly?"
The corner of Aburame Ryōma's eye twitched slightly.
Something to recover chakra quickly?
"You want a Tailed Beast?"
Hyūga Yū scratched the back of his head with his bloody hand. "No, not that exaggerated. Like the Akimichi clan's Three Colored Pills?"
Aburame Ryōma: "No."
Hyūga Yū: "..."
"However, I have this." Aburame Ryōma let out a heavy breath and, somewhat reluctantly, fished a kikaichū the size of a green frog out of his sleeve.
"Eat it."
Now it was Hyūga Yū's turn for his eye to twitch. He could vaguely guess what this thing was, but since he shouldn't have a channel to access such intelligence, he could only feign ignorance and ask:
"What is this?"
Aburame Ryōma adjusted his sunglasses. "Kidaichū (Giant Parasitic Insect)."
"It can encroach upon an enemy's body and devour their chakra, breaking through the host's flesh in a short period of time."
"This thing can replenish chakra?"
Hyūga Yū actually knew of this technique, but he was quite surprised that using it in reverse could have such an effect.
"On the way here, I fed it the chakra of a Mist Chūnin. You eat it, and under my command, it will continuously regurgitate chakra for you."
"But, you must take note,"
"When the chakra within its body is exhausted, the command I placed inside the chakra will vanish. It will turn to devour your flesh and blood to convert into chakra, growing and reproducing continuously."
"Until—"
"It bursts through your body, crawling out from every part of you."
Imagining that scene, Hyūga Yū's face couldn't help but turn slightly pale. Still, he took a deep breath, accepted the pitch-black Kidaichū, swallowed his saliva, gritted his teeth, opened his mouth, and swallowed it whole.
Seeing this, the gaze behind Aburame Ryōma's sunglasses couldn't help but soften, as if he were looking at a kindred spirit.
However, his face remained completely indifferent as he said faintly:
"You still have a chance to back out."
"Thanks, but no need."
Hyūga Yū shook his head at him, picked up the giant bow he had thrown on the ground, and without looking back, leaped onto the treetops, rushing quickly toward the east side of the encirclement.
Behind him,
Black shadows quickly leaped out from around Aburame Ryōma.
Among them, Terai, wearing a bird-faced mask, stepped forward. At Aburame Ryōma's signal, he knocked out the wailing, eyeless Benimaru and tucked him under his arm.
Aburame Ryōma lifted the glass jar containing the two bright red eyeballs and gave it a shake. The curved glass reflected his face, cold as iron, distorting it into a subtle smile.
To the side, the Root ninja Terai suddenly asked:
"Ryōma-sama, I have to admit, what this Hyūga brat did was perfect beyond our imagination."
"However, aren't you... being a bit too harsh on him?"
Aburame Ryōma turned his head, a strange glint flashing across his sunglasses.
He didn't say a word, but silently thought in his heart:
The ninja who can leave their names in the darkness of the ninja world are, without exception, more cunning, more ruthless, more indifferent, and more insidious than all other ninja!
But beyond that,
To constantly move forward on this dark path filled with countless monsters and demons, to reach the end and sit upon the uncrowned throne named 'The Darkness of Shinobi'—
One must do what others cannot!
Aburame Ryōma looked at the resolute back of Hyūga Yū as he departed, narrowing his eyes slightly, as if expecting something.
The game of ghost-catching-man continued.
Currently, the known intelligence was—
As the highly anticipated [Person], Hyūga Genkō, under a decision that was very rational but not very ninja-like, had missed the final opportunity to flee the encirclement.
Surrounding him were two Jōnin from the Hyūga Branch House, two teammates from Hyūga Tetsu's ninja squad, and Hyūga Natsu.
Hyūga Yū remembered that Hyūga Tetsu's teammates were a member of the Aburame clan... uh, what's-his-name, and Inuzuka Tsume of the Inuzuka clan.
Inuzuka Tsume was the future mother of Inuzuka Kiba and Inuzuka Hana. Unless something unexpected happened, she should have abandoned Hyūga Genkō and successfully fled with her dog.
The strongest guardian Jōnin in this team, Hyūga Eiki, was dead. The other leading Jōnin of Hyūga Tetsu's squad, Hyūga Hiroya, was also likely doomed.
Faced with such a situation, Hyūga Yū could no longer count on these "pig teammates," who had been led astray by Hyūga Genkō, to be of any use.
So,
He could only rely on himself.
First, Hyūga Yū needed to determine the Main House's current location—
According to the intelligence transmitted back by Hyūga Eiki's Shadow Clone before his death,
The Main House was approximately 12 kilometers to the east of Hyūga Tetsu's location.
Furthermore, before he died, Hyūga Eiki had encountered an attack from the wielder of the [Shibuki] (Blastsword) of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist, Munashi Jinpachi.
Judging by his surprised reaction before death, this was a premeditated ambush.
What is a ninja's first reaction when encountering a sneak attack?
Conceal oneself, investigate intelligence, make quick decisions, and counterattack or retreat.
In this situation, the squad would perform a tiered advance—concentrating residual forces to open a corner of the encirclement, allowing important figures or ninja holding vital intelligence to leave first.
But judging by Hyūga Genkō's decision-making, Hyūga Yū could no longer treat him as a ninja.
This was a smart man, but obviously, he was not a qualified ninja.
So what would he do?
Very simple,
Run back.
From Hyūga Genkō's perspective, the Mist's encirclement was neither "trumpet-shaped" nor "elliptical," but a blockade line right in front of him. He didn't know that as they kept moving forward, the "trumpet-shaped" encirclement behind them was rapidly shrinking into an ellipse.
Especially after the death of Hyūga Eiki, the guardian Jōnin who had accompanied him for many years,
He would react from the perspective of a panicked 'politician' running for his life: he needed people to protect him, and he had to flee back to Konoha.
His choice would be to find the rear guard, which had not yet encountered an ambush and possessed the strength of a Jōnin.
Meanwhile, Hyūga Tetsu's middle squadron, whose elite forces had already been transferred away, would be viewed by him as discarded pawns and bait.
So, only one question remained.
Would Hyūga Genkō run to the left or to the right?
At this moment,
Hyūga Yū suddenly thought of someone.
Hyūga Natsu.
He recalled the afternoon before they went to Hyūga Takahiro's mansion, when Hyūga Natsu had asked him:
"Ne, ne, Lion-kun, if we hold hands, do you prefer holding the left hand or the right hand?"
Hyūga Yū: "Left hand."
"Why?"
Hyūga Yū answered with matter-of-fact male chauvinism: "Because if we are walking side by side and get smashed by a train engine, the one who gets hit first is definitely the one standing on the left using their right hand to hold the left hand."
"Eh? You're saying weird things again... But, if that's the case, then when we hold hands and walk outside in the future, I want to stand on the left."
"Why?"
"Because... hee hee, I won't tell you."
————
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