Seven days later.
In the dense forest, Aokawa Hyuga pasted an explosive tag onto a large tree and immediately retreated.
The next moment! A violent burst of flame erupted from the great tree.
Boom!
The explosion rang out.
Aokawa Hyuga waved away the dust before his eyes, saw the tree had been blown to a pitiful state, and grinned.
Success!
This was the explosive tag he had made in recent days using special paper, following the explosive Seal given by Orochimaru.
It was not easy to step into an unfamiliar field in just seven days and put it into application.
Fortunately, he was a person of two lifetimes, his spiritual energy was inherently strong, and with the Quincy enhancement, he managed to digest all this knowledge.
The explosion of the explosive tag was a successful first step, meaning he had basically mastered the explosive Seal.
Then the next part was simple: just keep practicing to increase the speed of inscribing the explosive Seal.
Once he could inscribe the Seal onto a Chakra Arrow the moment it condensed, that would count as completing the second step.
He took out a stack of special paper, swallowed a few ration pills, sat down on the spot, and began inscribing. He might as well just stay here for the next couple of days.
Two days later.
Almost all the special paper Aokawa Hyuga had brought had turned into Explosive Tags. He silently collected them.
His gaze fell on the burnt paper ash on the ground, a thoughtful expression appearing on his pale face.
These failed ashes weren't from the beginning; instead, they were from failures that occurred when he was inscribing at the end.
Inscribing the explosive Seal onto paper was a very delicate task.
At first, when he was practicing, focusing intently on the inscription naturally posed no problem. But as his inscribing speed became faster and faster, the precision naturally... became faster too.
Finally, when he instantly inscribed the explosive Seal onto the paper, the stability of the Fire Release Chakra would be much worse. The paper couldn't easily withstand the violent fluctuations of the Fire Release Chakra and would burn up on the spot.
He let out a long sigh: "Instant inscription causes the Chakra stability to deteriorate..."
At this moment, his mind was constantly searching for a solution: "The Chakra stability can't be solved..."
"If the paper's tolerance could be a bit stronger..."
Aokawa Hyuga suddenly sat up straight.
Wait!
If the paper can't withstand it, that doesn't mean the arrow can't.
I'm not trying to become an explosive tag manufacturer.
He sprang to his feet, raised his hand, and summoned his Spirit Bow.
Pulling the bowstring, he instantly condensed a red Chakra Arrow, its surface inscribed with circles of white explosive Seal patterns.
He released the bowstring.
Whoosh!
The arrow flew from the bow. The moment it touched the large tree ahead...
A violent burst of light flared.
Boom!
The violent explosion blasted a large hole in the tree trunk. The entire tree twisted and helplessly fell.
"Second step, done!" A smile appeared on Aokawa Hyuga's face.
Next was the third step.
The moment the scatter was released, simultaneously condensing multiple explosive Seals on multiple arrows.
He rested briefly, raised his Spirit Bow, and began practicing... Three days later.
In the dense forest, Aokawa Hyuga stood on the crown of a large tree, holding a fiery red Spirit Bow, the bowstring drawn fully, his gaze fixed into the distance.
"Fire Release: Hundred Consecutive Explosive Flame Arrows!"
The Spirit Bow emitted a dazzling red light. Countless red Chakra Arrows, crawling with explosive Seal patterns, swarmed out like locusts, speeding towards the forest ahead.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The area covered by all the arrows erupted in dense, overlapping explosions.
For a moment, dazzling bursts of fire bloomed one after another across the entire area, violent explosions thundering nonstop.
When Aokawa Hyuga finally stopped, the scene before him left him dumbstruck.
Even though he had deliberately held back, limiting the coverage area, it still resulted in all the trees within a radius of over twenty meters turning to powder, the ground covered in densely packed large craters.
Seeing the firelight around the area growing increasingly intense, already beginning to spread outward.
"Oh no, this is a disaster!" Aokawa Hyuga's heart jolted, and he hurriedly Body Flickered over.
Fiercely refining a mouthful of Chakra, he clapped his hands together.
"Water Release: Exploding Water Shockwave!"
A powerful Water Release surged forth like a tidal wave, submerging the area. The forest fire sizzled and smoked under the deluge.
For a moment, steam rose everywhere in the forest.
Swish! Swish! Swish!
Before he could catch his breath, the sound of Ninjas Body Flickering came one after another from the surrounding mist.
Immediately after, a serious, wary voice reached Aokawa Hyuga's ears.
"Ninja in the forest, please raise your hands above your head, cease all Chakra condensation, and await our identity verification."
"Inabi! It's me, Aokawa!" Seeing Uchiha Inabi and the other two on the treetop looking as if facing a great enemy, Aokawa Hyuga smiled slightly and shouted loudly.
After speaking, before Uchiha Inabi could reply, he released a Wind Release jutsu to disperse the surrounding steam.
As the mist cleared, Uchiha Inabi saw Aokawa Hyuga below with his hands raised high and a smile on his face, and immediately felt a surge of anger.
He Body Flickered to his side and slapped down his raised hands: "Enough! You just finished using Wind Release, and now you're still holding your hands up high. Who are you trying to mock!"
"I'm just cooperating enthusiastically," Aokawa Hyuga laughed.
Kurenai Yuhi and Uchiha Tetsubi soon arrived before them.
"Aokawa!" Kurenai Yuhi called out affectionately.
Aokawa Hyuga looked at her flushed cheeks and reached out to ruffle her smooth hair.
"What were you doing here? With all that fire and explosions?" Uchiha Inabi asked.
"Experimenting with a jutsu!"
"Experimenting with a jutsu?" Uchiha Inabi widened his eyes, pointing at the wreckage spanning over twenty meters in radius, exclaiming, "You call *that* experimenting with a jutsu?"
"If you hadn't said so, I would have thought it was some unregulated explosive tag workshop secretly making tags here that had an accident and exploded."
Such incidents were commonplace in the Ninja World. There were always small workshops that had accidents and explosions due to incomplete explosive Seal formulas they obtained or poor management.
"You have quite the imagination!" Aokawa Hyuga laughed it off.
The three chatted for a while. Uchiha Inabi and the others continued their patrol, while Aokawa Hyuga returned to the camp... Aokawa Hyuga waited a full three more days, finally waiting for the time of Orochimaru's frontal assault.
The three of them were already fully prepared. Without a moment's delay, they left the Yunagi Pass.
The ground beneath their feet had been ravaged repeatedly by war, the air mixed with the smell of gunpowder and the earthy scent of soil.
They skirted the frontline combat zone and, relying on the terrain knowledge accumulated from a month of patrolling, moved swiftly through dense forests and hills.
Following the small path Uchiha Hachidai had mentioned earlier, the three of them reached the "Abandoned Mine" marked in the intelligence before nightfall.
The mine entrance was pitch black, surrounded by scattered Abandoned Mine carts and tools. A few guards stood scattered outside.
The veins at the corners of Aokawa Hyuga's eyes bulged as he activated his Byakugan.
His vision penetrated the rock and the barrier, the internal structure of the mine clearly presenting itself in his mind.
The mine shaft was damp, covered in moss. Some of the already somewhat rotten supports couldn't quite hold up the earth and stones of the ceiling, and small pebbles fell from time to time.
Just as he was about to continue exploring further inside, a barrier jutsu unique to the Hidden Cloud Village blocked his vision.
His Reishi Network sensed only a few faint traces of Chakra within the barrier.
"Something's wrong..."