Naruto: The Sage Body of Konoha

A night of torrential rain had just passed.

At first light, Heiyan and his two companions left the town and continued their journey.

Their goal was to reach the seaside port town at the border of the Land of Fire within two days, then take a boat to Uzu Country.

However, as Heiyan predicted, once their movements were exposed, they immediately found themselves pursued by all sorts of dangerous characters...

Within the dense forests of the Land of Fire.

A team of bounty hunters had been lying in wait for several hours, patiently waiting for their prey to approach.

These people were all ninja from Kiri who frequently operated around the Golden Exchange in the Land of Water. Tempted by the extravagant bounty of one hundred million ryo, they formed a squad and rushed toward Konoha at full speed to hunt down Heiyan.

They had already been near the town where Heiyan's group stayed last night, so they picked up their trail almost immediately.

What a coincidence.

When the members of the squad learned the news, they rejoiced internally, surprised that Heiyan would actually come straight to them, feeling as if fortune had just fallen right into their laps.

Thus, after careful planning, they set up an ambush here, intending to capture the three all at once.

The leader of this bounty hunter team was a ninja named Sawemon.

He had long hair and sharp eyes like a hawk, but what stood out most was the large, iron-black bow strapped to his back—tall enough for a grown man. Among a group of ninja accustomed to throwing kunai and shuriken, he looked particularly unique.

Yet no one dared question his strength.

Sawemon used to be a warrior from the Land of Iron. When he realized that the way of the warrior was declining, he went to Kiri to become a ninja. Later, when he found that being a ninja also lacked prospects, he left the village and became a bounty hunter.

His specialty lay in combining the archery techniques of warriors with the ninjutsu of ninja—by attaching wind attribute chakra, poison, or explosive tags onto his arrows, he made his shots faster, more accurate, and far more powerful.

In the past few years, using just this great bow on his back, Sawemon had sniped numerous famous experts, earning nearly one hundred million gold pieces in bounties. In the underworld of the Golden Exchange, he carved out an impressive reputation.

One of the top bounty hunters there.

Therefore, under his leadership, everyone felt confident about the upcoming operation.

"They're here!"

Suddenly, Sawemon narrowed his eyes and whispered sharply.

Hearing this, the others quickly raised their binoculars and indeed spotted Heiyan's group walking along a forest path hundreds of meters away.

At this moment, each person stared greedily at the "prey" about to fall into their trap.

As for Heiyan himself, with a bounty of one hundred million ryo—

the other two—Fugaku Uchiha and Hiashi Hyuga—were both bloodline prodigies from Konoha. Their heads alone commanded top bounties at the Golden Exchange.

Looks like today will be a big haul.

"Go!"

Sawemon commanded coldly.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

As soon as the words fell, several figures eagerly rushed forward and sprang into action.

However—

no one noticed that Sawemon, remaining behind at the original position, had a flicker in his eyes, as if deep in thought.

...

Inside the woods, Heiyan and his two companions advanced steadily at a moderate pace.

Fugaku led at the front, responsible for handling ambushes and defending against attacks. Hiashi stayed in the middle, responsible for reconnaissance and relaying information. Heiyan remained at the rear for rearguard duties and overall defense.

"Is the fog getting worse?"

Suddenly, Fugaku frowned and glanced around cautiously.

No one noticed exactly when thick mist began gathering from all directions. It kept rolling in until even the ground beneath their feet vanished from sight. Beyond a few meters, nothing could be seen.

A heavy silence fell over them, thick with tension.

"Be careful—it's the Hiding in Mist Technique."

Fugaku immediately became alert, instantly entering a battle stance as he silently activated his Sharingan, preparing for possible attacks coming from any direction.

The Hiding in Mist Technique was a common Ninjutsu used by Mist ninja. By exhaling thick fog, they blurred the battlefield, obscuring opponents' vision so they could launch surprise attacks.

Just as expected—

Shhh! Shhh! Shhh!

Several sharp whistling sounds cut through the air as more than ten shuriken flew from various difficult angles, attacking Fugaku at the mist's center.

"Child's play."

Fugaku's movements were nimble and agile. In the blink of an eye, he swung his blazing war fan, intercepting all the incoming shuriken. Among them were even several explosive tags mixed in, which he also deflected one by one before they exploded at a distance.

None of them managed to harm him at all.

Thanks to his triple-tomoe Sharingan's enhanced reflexes, Fugaku was more than capable of handling an attack like this.

As for Hiashi Hyuga, further explanation was unnecessary.

Byakugan—Release!

Blue veins bulged on both sides of Hiashi's eyes. Instantly, he saw through the white mist. He immediately reported enemy positions and numbers.

"Ten o'clock direction, fifty meters away, two enemies."

"Three o'clock direction, eighty meters away, three enemies."

"Twelve o'clock direction, two hundred meters distant, one enemy. This individual has a stronger chakra signature—likely the opposing leader."

As soon as he finished speaking, he charged ahead fearlessly into the thick fog, leaving Fugaku with one sentence:

"I'll handle the enemy leader. The rest of these scum are yours."

"Hmph."

Fugaku let out a cold snort but held his tongue, despite his irritation. He had to admit that in such blinding fog conditions, the Byakugan truly had an advantage over the Sharingan.

Thus, he followed closely behind Hiashi and rushed into the mist, launching a counterattack against the enemies.

Now only Heiyan remained alone within the woods.

Just then, Heiyan sensed an extremely subtle fluctuation in chakra.

Swoosh!

Without hesitation, he activated Chidori Shunshin and leaped upward.

In the next second, multiple sharp stone spears erupted from beneath the ground where Heiyan had been standing moments ago.

[Earth Release: Earth Spear Rise!]

Damn it! That little punk actually dodged it!

An Earth Release ninja muttered angrily as he climbed out from deep beneath the earth. Without looking back, he fled into the thick fog.

He hadn't expected that his carefully hidden chakra presence, which had successfully evaded detection by the Byakugan of the Hyuga clan, still failed to deceive Heiyan.

Truly worthy of being hailed as Konoha's Greatest Prodigy—he was no mere name without merit.

Zzzt! Zzzt! Zzzt!

Suddenly, ear-piercing thunderous noises rang out behind him, drawing closer and closer.

Uh-oh!

The Earth Release ninja was shocked and quickly turned around, forming hand seals to raise an Earth Flow Wall in a desperate attempt to resist.

However, against Heiyan's Lightning Release [Chidori], the Earth Flow Wall was naturally overpowered. Without surprise, it was pierced as easily as paper.

Plop!

The Earth Release ninja's chest was pierced by lightning. His eyes lost focus and he fell down with regret.

After finishing off this sneaky opponent, Heiyan turned around and headed toward the battlefield ahead.

Boom!

From the woods forward, a fireball ten meters in diameter exploded violently, setting trees ablaze and scattering the mist.

"Ahh!"

A scream rang out from within the thick fog. A Mist ninja had half his body burned beyond recognition before collapsing.

[Hiding in Mist Technique] was dispelled.

Fugaku worked efficiently. When Heiyan arrived, most of the enemies had already been dealt with.

However, after the two finished clearing up together, they realized Hiashi had already disappeared.

"This reckless idiot actually split off from the team just to chase the enemy leader,"

Fugaku grumbled in disapproval but wasn't really worried about Hiashi. After all, he understood the latter's strength well enough that there shouldn't be serious problems.

Yet when Heiyan heard this, he frowned. Something was off.

"Hiashi might be in danger."

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