Naruto: Cultivating to Immortality

Chapter 34 Battle with Jonin

Hyuga Kanan slammed his back against the boulder and fell to the ground. A burning pain shot through his abdomen, and his body churned violently. Unable to hold back any longer, he coughed up a mouthful of blood.

Hinata Kanan slowly stood up from the ground, but blood was still dripping from the corner of his mouth, and he looked somewhat disheveled.

After finishing his attack, Takao Iwashino grinned wickedly, withdrew his fist, and looked at Hyuga Kanan:

"Hyuga brat, I held back a bit of my strength in that attack! It should only have rendered you unable to fight. I don't want the Hyuga Byakugan of Iwagakure to die here! Just come with me quietly without resisting."

Hyuga Kanan simply pursed his lips, wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, and without replying, assumed an attack stance, ready to continue his assault. Fortunately, Hyuga Kanan's physique was far superior to that of a typical ninja; caught off guard by the attack, an ordinary ninja would likely be unable to stand by now.

"Hmm? You damned brat, it seems I'll have to break your legs to make you behave. Let me show you the magnanimity of a Rock Ninja!"

Although he had just been hit by the tall Iwa ninja, Hyuga Kanan was momentarily distracted. It was the first time he had ever seen someone directly withstand his Eight Trigrams Palm - a finishing blow without getting injured, so he was simply surprised and lost focus.

I won't make that mistake again this time. Besides, I already achieved my goal by using the Hyuga clan to keep him occupied and prevent him from thinking about retreating immediately. Now, all I need to do is keep moving around and entangled with him, just to buy him time.

Hyuga Kanan wasn't going to mince words and completely ignored him. He'd blocked the previous Bagua Palm's deadly attack; this time, he'd try the complete Bagua Palm - Sixty-Four Palms and see how it worked.

Takao Iwagakure was also losing patience. They were still within Konoha's siege range and needed to retreat quickly; he couldn't afford to waste any more time here. But a lone Hyuga clansman was too tempting, so he decided to quickly injure Hyuga Kanan before retreating.

Earth Release: Fist of Rock Technique!

Chakra gathered in his hand, and his arm was immediately covered with a layer of dust, quickly condensing into a huge stone fist. His figure moved forward quickly, and the fist slammed towards Hyuga Kanan's body.

Hyuga Kanan saw the incredibly swift Iwa ninja attacking him and, without thinking, used the Body Flicker Technique to dodge. The previous attack had already injured him, and he couldn't afford to take another punch now. His fist slammed straight into the boulder behind him, and the resulting explosion kicked up a lot of dust, obscuring what was happening.

As the smoke and dust slowly dissipated, looking at the rubble scattered across the ground from the shattered boulder, Hyuga Kanan's heart sank. He absolutely couldn't afford to take such a hit, or he would be severely injured as well.

"Heh! Hinata brat, you're really good at dodging. I won't let you keep dodging like a monkey forever. This time, you'll have nowhere to hide!"

Earth Release: Rock Pillar Spear!

The violent earth-style chakra surged and churned, and as the tall Iwa ninja completed his hand seals and slammed his fist into the ground, the ground began to tremble rapidly.

This rapid undulation of the ground formed spikes, which, despite being just rock spikes, emitted a metallic luster and continued to spread, directly covering Hyuga Kanan's area.

"Come on, you brat from the Hyuga clan, let's see where you can hide this time! I'm going to use a wide-range ninjutsu this time, let's see where you can hide now!"

The tall, burly rock-dwelling man laughed wildly, his palm still pressed against the ground. Spikes kept emerging from the area where Hyuga Kanan was, surrounding the space where Hyuga Kanan could dodge.

It has to be said that the Earth Release ninjutsu of the tall Iwa ninja is practically a nightmare for speed ninjas.

The speed was impossible to avoid, and the Body Flicker Technique didn't cover a wide enough distance to escape the area. Their agile footwork was completely neutralized.

Faced with such a wide-ranging ninjutsu attack, the only options were to counter with ninjutsu or to use defensive ninjutsu to withstand it. Hyuga Kanan had no choice but to adopt the signature move of the Hyuga clan, the Gentle Fist.

This type of ninja is the kind that Hyuga Kanan least wants to encounter right now. They are powerful in both taijutsu and ninjutsu, making them a perfect combination of offense and defense.

Unlike other ninjas, the tall Iwa ninja can use Earth Release: Entanglement to cover his body at any time, greatly enhancing both his attack and defense.

This defensive capability is precisely what Hyuga Kanan cannot break through with a single blow, leaving him only able to passively take hits and rely on agile movement to dodge attacks.

Now it's this kind of wide-range attack ninjutsu, with extremely strong range and speed, sealing off Hyuga Kanan's movement space, leaving him no choice but to withstand it. It's because Hyuga Kanan can't use ninjutsu to counterattack.

"Bagua Palm - Reversal of Heaven!"

Hyuga Kanan's body began to spin rapidly, and a blue light shield appeared around him.

Countless earth spikes relentlessly rammed into the blue light shield, creating a deafening roar. The surrounding earth spikes, constantly breaking apart, shattered into flying fragments. The shield froze for a moment, and the earth spikes still failed to break through Hyuga Kanan's Heavenly Return.

The ninjutsu ended quickly. Even a veteran Jonin like Takada Iwagakure couldn't afford to exhaust the chakra required for such a large-scale ninjutsu. Seeing that the ninjutsu hadn't broken through the brat's defensive ninjutsu, he felt somewhat helpless.

"What a troublesome brat! I underestimated you! But let's see how much chakra you have left to maintain your Body Flicker Technique, then I'll definitely give you a good punch."

Takao Iwashino stretched his neck and stared at Hyuga Kanan, laughing in a hoarse and sickly voice.

"Soon, I will break your limbs and let you experience the pain of dismemberment!"

He kept rambling on and on, clearly trying to put psychological pressure on Hyuga Kanan.

Hinata Kanan was also slightly out of breath. These words had no effect on him at all. He wasn't really a child of ten years old. His mental age was older than the person opposite him. This kind of low-level psychological warfare was just a joke.

But he had really expended a lot of his internal energy to unleash the Heavenly Reversal Defense; this kind of ninjutsu with its continuous and wide-ranging attacks was truly his nemesis. However, he needed to find a way to damage his opponent and prevent the tall Iwa ninja from attacking so recklessly, as constantly dodging was also consuming a lot of energy and stamina.

Otherwise, this delay won't last long at all! No! We must find a way to break through this defensive "turtle shell"!

While constantly dodging, Hyuga Kanan carefully observed the tall Iwa ninja. Only then did he notice that when the tall Iwa ninja used defensive ninjutsu, his speed would decrease significantly, and when attacking, his chakra would gather in his arms, reducing the defensive chakra. This meant that his defensive power would decrease when attacking.

This is an opportunity, but also a very dangerous one. After all, you have to strike the opponent the instant you dodge their attack, and if you're not careful and can't dodge in time, the heavy blow is no joke.

Dodging a left jab from the Iwa ninja, Hyuga Kanan kicked off his opponent's right arm, quickly retreating while drawing five shurikens and throwing them at his opponent.

Upon seeing Hyuga Kana's shuriken, Takao Iwagakure didn't stop and continued charging towards Hyuga Kana, even showing an excited expression on his face.

"Clang clang..." The shuriken flew quickly to the Iwa ninja's body. The moment the shuriken made contact with the gray-black defensive ninjutsu, it was bounced off by the hard, steel-like skin without leaving a trace.

This was one of the strategies Hyuga Kanan had come up with: to constantly use small tricks to attack the opponent. As long as the opponent had to defend, their speed would decrease, making it easier for him to dodge and thus buy more time.

When the tall Iwa ninja appeared in front of Hyuga Kanan again, Hyuga Kanan was already prepared. This little trick gave Hyuga Kanan ample time to react.

He used the same trick again, dodging the attack and then launching another shuriken and kunai attack, along with a few explosive tags.

Having withstood the bombardment of shuriken, kunai, and explosive tags, the tall Iwa ninja, who had been defended against once again, finally stopped in his tracks, staring fiercely at Hyuga Kanan with a deep look of disappointment.

It seems we won't be able to catch this brat from the Hyuga clan this time!

Too much time has already been wasted; we can't keep dragging this out. We need to retreat!

He turned around, no longer intending to get entangled with this Hinata brat; he needed to leave this place quickly.

What is certain now is that his ninjutsu has been seen through by that brat, and his defensive speed will inevitably decrease, making it impossible for him to attack.

Actually, if they didn't have to retreat immediately, the tall Iwa ninja could still catch Hyuga Kanan by wearing him down. If they spent a little more time using area-of-effect ninjutsu to make him expend a lot of chakra for defense, they could wear him down to death.

Unfortunately, we're currently at the Konoha camp, so there's no time to slowly wear down the opponent. It's a pity I'm not good at speed-type ninjutsu, otherwise I could have caught them off guard.

They could only wait until a large-scale battle later. The thought that he, a senior Jonin of Iwagakure, couldn't even quickly defeat a Genin brat and was being held up made him furious.

Although there is still some time to spare, Konoha's reinforcements should be arriving soon. If we are surrounded and annihilated then, the intelligence we have worked so hard to obtain will be unable to be transmitted back.

Alright, let's retreat for now!

"Kid, you're lucky this time. Keep your life safe. I won't let you off so easily next time."

After saying that, they prepared to leave.

Hyuga Kanan hesitated when he saw the Iwa ninja preparing to retreat. He was clearly no match for them, and it would be difficult to stop them; one wrong move and he could be seriously injured.

At this time, Hyuga Kanan was not in a good situation either. When he was attacked for the first time, he was slightly injured. In order to defend against the opponent's ninjutsu attacks, he also consumed a lot of his internal energy by constantly dodging.

Moreover, facing the intense and oppressive attacks of the tall Iwa ninja, the mental exertion was also great, and the constant high-intensity concentration left the mind exhausted.