Nindō 0123: Carpet Search (2/5)

Amidst the trees in the forest, Hanabi was looking at a man who was more like a puppet than a man. The only thing that gave him away was that his face was human; the rest of his body was made of metallic parts and intricate machinery. With her Byakugan, she could see that the man had very little chakra to work with and was powered by a battery in the place of his heart, reinforced by multiple layers of metal.

"This is going to be troublesome …" The Hyūga heiress spoke as she took up a battle stance. "Who are you?"

"Hyūga, Hanabi." A rough voice came from the man's mouth, sounding emotionless and a little robotic. "Die!"

The puppet man disappeared from his spot, camouflaging himself within the trees. Hanabi quickly focused on using her Byakugan to locate the man as veins appeared around her eyes, giving her a menacing look.

A moment later, her eyes widened, and a thin needle whizzed past her face as she barely shifted her head in time.

"He knows about the Byakugan's blind spot … I can't locate him either. I can't sense that faint chakra from him anymore." She focused on the connection she had with Ino. "Miss Ino … I might need that support you were talking about getting us if we encounter one of these Outers."

Another needle shot past Hanabi as she barely dodged it by relying on her instincts honed from battle.

"Konohamaru will be at your location in five minutes. Hold on until then."

'Five minutes, huh? Fine. I can do five minutes.'

Another needle shot at Hanabi, this time grazing her cheek as she was a moment late in her reaction.

"Hmm …" Hanabi continued looking around, thinking of a counter as another needle shot at her.

'There it is!' She felt a very suppressed flare of chakra at the moment the needle was shot at her. Quickly dodging it, she turned in the direction that the needle was shot from, showing a contemplative expression.

'Come on, try again … I'll get you this time.' She held her right hand's index and middle fingers together, compressing her chakra at its tip with a level of precision that was only achievable because she had the Byakugan. She made sure that her chakra didn't leak and possibly alert her assailant if they had some kind of sensing capabilities.

When the next needle was shot, Hanabi was already looking for the flare of chakra, which allowed her to react much quicker. The moment she sensed it, she faced the direction of the flare and pointed her fingers at it, releasing her technique.

"Fūton: Wind Needle." She mumbled under her breath and shot a compressed needle of air that was reinforced with her chakra to intercept the needle. Her attack tore through the needle and went past it, piercing through the air as it traced a perfect path to the assailant's arm. She had analyzed the needles shot by the Outer and had put in the perfect amount of chakra necessary to pierce through the needle.

'Thank you, brother-in-law. Father would never teach me any nature release because of his strict Gentle Fist-only ideology.'

Thanking Naruto in her head, Hanabi jumped in the direction of the puppet man. He was holding his malfunctioning arm after Hanabi's attack wreaked havoc on its mechanical arm. He barely blocked her attack with his only working arm and was thrown back, breaking through a tree as it slammed into the next.

"You seem to have been made as a Hyūga counter," Hanabi said. "Are the others also dealing with this? An opponent that counters their abilities …"

"Die!" The man shouted and shot a huge fireball at her from his other, undamaged arm. It tore through the trees and approached Hanabi, leaving embers in its wake.

Hanabi scoffed. "Revolving Heaven." Her entire body started glowing with her blue chakra that was released from all of her tenketsu. It expanded outward before she started spinning while staying rooted to her spot. A blue dome of blue chakra surrounded Hanabi at the center, providing her with an absolute defense against the massive fireball that burned through the trees and reached her. The heat couldn't affect her against the perfect chakra membrane, and the fireball was quickly extinguished as the chakra holding the jutsu was repelled and broken down.

"I don't condone deforestation, dude," Hanabi said with a frown. "Look at all the damage you did." She conveniently didn't mention the four-foot-deep crater around her that was created because of her technique. She was standing on a small platform, which was the only surviving part of the ground around her.

"Revolving Heaven …" The puppet man spoke something other than exclaiming about wanting to kill Hanabi.

"Are you surprised? My talent is only a little bit worse than that of my cousin Neji," she said, looking proud. "If I couldn't master this technique after so long, then my reputation would have been tarnished. Don't tell me you don't have a counter for this; that would be embarrassing as a Hyūga counter, don't you think?"

Hanabi shot forward before even completely finishing her taunt, wanting to close the distance so that she could use Gentle Fist to its full potential.

The Outer seemed prepared for her move and jumped backward, shooting another fireball from his arm at her to keep her away. He was capitalizing on the limitation of Gentle Fist and its inability to deal long-range damage to keep attacking Hanabi from a distance and keep her busy.

"This is going to hurt." Hanabi didn't want to give up her possible advantage and shot forward with even greater speed as she released a burst of her chakra from her tenketsu, gaining a sheen of blue that quickly grew opaque. It seemed as if a blue blur passed through the massive fireball and dispelled it before striking the puppet man, throwing him back and making him collide with a tree.

"Ahh, I hate this move …" Hanabi's fair face was marked with soot as parts of her kimono caught fire, forcing her to put it out by patting her clothes. "I still can't get the absolute defense working without rotating."

"Miss Ino, how long until my backup arrives? This guy's durability is immense. I can't beat him quickly."

"Konohamaru was intercepted as well, Hanabi. As was everybody else. It doesn't help that seven of ours turned on us as well."

"Seven?! What the fuck?"

"To be fair, it's only two who turned traitor; the other five are being controlled. The traitors are Shinmaru Hoshigaki and Renshiro Uzuka. My point is that it won't be easy for you to get support quickly."

"Still … occupying more than seventeen experienced jōnin? How big is this organization? Aren't they supposed to be a reclused group like the Akatsuki?"

"It is what it is, girl. Now, don't get distracted in talking to me."

"Nah, it's fine. I'm dealing with him. The guy I'm fighting has a skillset that is tailored to counter the Hyūga. Are the others the same?"

"Somewhat. A lot of our unique powers and moves are being countered by the Outers. It seems that they had inside information and were long prepared for such a conflict."

"Fine. I'll try to get rid of this guy quickly by myself …"

Hanabi concentrated a large amount of her chakra in her fists and bumped them together before punching the air in front of her. A shockwave was released from her expulsion of chakra that tore through the surroundings and destroyed the massive fireball that was thrown by the puppet man.

"Can you stop with the fireballs? Don't you have any new tricks, Mr. One Trick Pony? Well, two tricks. You also had needles. I guess it isn't as easy to create those tools and give them the ability to cast multiple jutsu. How's your absorption game? Can you do that? It's a pretty standard Scientific Ninja Tool trick, right?"

As Hanabi spoke those words, her fists glowed blue as her chakra turned corporeal and formed two large lion heads in front of her fists.

"Try this on for size," she shot forward and punched in the puppet man's direction before he could release another fireball. She was still a ways off, but the chakra on her fists extended like a whip and struck the man despite her being a good couple of feet away from him. "It's called the Twin Lion Fist. Onee-chan has an upgraded version with purple chakra, but that requires some special chakra or something."

"Can you shut up?" The puppet man sounded frustrated.

"Why? Do you think I'm boring?" Hanabi smiled, closing the distance once again as the puppet man jumped back. "You know, having a high durability really limits you in terms of attack power. You make a very nice assassin and tank, but that's all. You can't damage me sufficiently without a sneak attack, and you can't get into close quarters with me because I'll decimate you. Sad, don't you think?"

"Die, Hyūga!" Hanabi was finally getting to the man, and she could tell.

"Why? Do you have something against the Hyūga? Is that why you joined that organization? Because you want to destroy the Hyūga clan? Too bad." She punched him again, connecting the extended chakra with his abdomen as he jumped back again. "You know, I wish I had that special chakra that Onee-chan got access to. I saw her use the upgraded technique when dealing with Toneri. It was amazing. She even got to try a joint jutsu with Brother-in-law, where they merged their chakra and beat that villain up. He was so amazing when he saved both of us … do you want to know a secret?"

"Why don't you just die!" The man snapped as his feet expanded and gave him greater footing before he jumped and shot toward Hanabi.

"Aww, so soon?" Hanabi smiled. "Just when I was about to tell you about how I started crushing on my brother-in-law after that. He's the Hokage, you know? So dreamy~"

The man closing the distance to attack Hanabi was the worst decision that he could've made. Her Twin Lion Fists were still active, and she parried his punch with her own, directly crushing his arm in the process. Her next strike targeted the puppet's hip; the extended range and power of the technique allowed Hanabi to target the joint that held his leg to his torso. He immediately jumped back as realization dawned on him about his error, but it was already too late. Without a leg, his mobility was practically non-existent. Hanabi immediately caught up to him and destroyed his other leg joint in the same manner.

"Miss Ino, do you need me to subdue him or kill him directly?"

"No need to hold back. These guys don't have any valuable intel that we don't already have. Sasuke already interrogated one of the new assailants with genjutsu, and they know nothing beyond the mission target."

"Cool."

Hanabi's next attack directly crushed the puppet-man's head.

"The moral of the story is, 'Don't get into a fistfight with a Hyūga unless you have a powerful enough counter.'" She laughed. "Didn't even bother to talk for a bit. Now you ended up as a nameless grunt with some kind of grudge against my clan. Pity." She walked while mumbling to herself.

"Miss Ino, mind leading me to the spot where Konohamaru found that big box? I will focus on tracking the vessel. You don't need to redirect any more resources to the search. Have the others provide support to the weaker jōnin."

"All right. Keep going west, and you will find a large black box that looks like a stone coffin."

***

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