"Are those bees? No, Captain—these bugs have chakra inside them. They're most likely the Aburame clan's parasitic insects!" said the sensory ninja.
"The Aburame clan? So that little Uchiha brat from earlier really was scouting?"
"Captain, what should we do?" one of the genin asked, watching the incoming swarm.
"Don't panic! The fact that they haven't launched a direct attack means they're not confident they can take us down." As he finished speaking, the captain formed hand seals.
"Water Style: Great Waterfall Technique!"
The middle-aged man who had been silent by the captain's side also formed hand seals.
"Lightning Style: Lightning Flash."
The combined Water and Lightning Style jutsu surged toward the insect swarm.
The bugs scattered immediately and ascended, evading the attack. Most managed to dodge, while a few were caught in the combined jutsu.
Aburame clan insects have some resistance to ninjutsu, but Water + Lightning Style is too much for them. Once they get wet, Lightning Style instantly paralyzes them—there's no chance to escape.
Fortunately, this attack didn't inflict heavy losses. The remaining insects split into four groups: one flew toward the Mist captain, one toward the sensory ninja, one toward the ninja who had just used Lightning Style, and the last hovered in place, guarding the insect king.
Aburame insects can devour chakra—something nearly everyone in the ninja world knows—so the Mist ninjas didn't dare let them get close.
The Mist captain quickly formed seals and exhaled a thick mist to obscure the enemy's vision.
Three hundred meters away, Hyuga Asana spoke to the group: "The Mist ninja have used the Hidden Mist Technique."
"Can you still pinpoint their location?" asked Aburame Shibi.
"Yes, my Byakugan can still see their chakra."
"When facing the Hidden Mist Technique, the Sharingan isn't very helpful. My bugs don't dare approach either. If we rely solely on Asana's Byakugan to target them, this'll be difficult," Aburame Shibi said.
Uchiha Yuan frowned. The Hidden Mist Technique really was a pain. He recalled it had two activation methods: one where mist is exhaled from the mouth to block vision, and another that uses hand seals to condense moisture in the air.
The released mist would blur the surroundings, allowing the user to hide within and ambush enemies. In this area, even the Sharingan's vision would become hazy.
Even worse, the mist's density changed depending on the amount of chakra used.
That made attacking quite difficult.
"Shibi-sensei, I can link the senses of the four of us. With Asana's Byakugan, what she sees—we'll see too," said Yamanaka Kagetsu.
"But the enemy also has a sensory ninja, with a broader detection range than yours. If we get too close, they'll detect us first. If I can't approach, I can only use my bugs for simple harassment, not the Aburame clan's secret techniques—unless…"
"Unless we take out the sensory ninja!" Uchiha Yuan cut in.
"Shibi-sensei, the one who used Lightning Style just now didn't seem too strong based on the scale of the jutsu—probably a chunin.
If we can kill the sensory ninja, we can fight head-on. Yuan and I won't lose if we team up," said Hyuga Asana.
"Then let's give it a try! We'll advance a bit. I'll use bugs to disrupt them. Once Asana pinpoints the sensory ninja's exact location, you launch a Body Flicker attack. If it doesn't work in one strike, retreat immediately."
"Got it!" Uchiha Yuan nodded.
Aburame Shibi then led the group forward, controlling the bugs remotely as they surged into the mist.
The insects relied mostly on smell to locate enemies. But in the mist, the insect king couldn't issue precise commands about who to attack, so the swarm rushed in en masse, harassing the Mist ninjas hiding inside.
When they had advanced to 150 meters, Yamanaka Kagetsu activated the Mind-Body Transmission Technique. Through shared senses, everyone saw what Hyuga Asana saw with her Byakugan.
At that moment, the Mist ninjas were huddled back-to-back, fending off the swarm together.
The sensory ninja wasn't being specially guarded. Clearly, the Mist ninjas believed that with the Hidden Mist Technique and a 100-meter sensory radius, there was no way anyone could sneak up on them.
But this time, they were wrong.
Uchiha Yuan activated his Sharingan, tightened his grip on his kunai, and used Body Flicker.
The first flicker brought him to just 50 meters from the Mist ninja formation.
He was now within the sensory ninja's range.
The sensory ninja tried to alert his comrades, but before he could speak, Uchiha Yuan's second flicker brought him right in front of him, and he instantly cast Naraka Sight Technique, rendering the target helpless.
He then raised his kunai and stabbed it into the sensory ninja's throat.
The two flickers took no more than two seconds. In that brief time, Uchiha Yuan had gone from 150 meters away to right in front of the enemy and killed him instantly. The speed stunned Hyuga Asana.
From her Byakugan's view, she only saw Uchiha Yuan's figure appear at one point, vanish, reappear elsewhere—then the enemy sensory ninja was dead.
After the kill, Uchiha Yuan immediately used a third Body Flicker to escape to safety.
But he had still underestimated the reaction speed of a jōnin.
The moment he reappeared, the Mist captain leapt behind him and threw a kunai aimed at his heart.
Uchiha Yuan had hoped to kill the sensory ninja and retreat immediately—but the captain's kunai was already on him.
He quickly twisted his body slightly to adjust his posture.
Rip~ The kunai tore through his clothes and stabbed into his shoulder.
The Mist captain tried to finish him off, but Uchiha Yuan's figure had already vanished.
"So fast!" the Mist captain muttered with a frown.
Just as he hesitated on whether to pursue, a teammate's scream rang out.
"Ah!"
He turned around and saw that the two genin had already been devoured by the swarm.
"This is bad! We need to retreat!" the Mist captain shouted to the Lightning user.
"You want to leave now? It's too late—Secret Technique: Insect Tornado!"
At Aburame Shibi's command, the surrounding bugs formed a whirlwind that trapped the Lightning ninja.
Naturally, the Lightning ninja didn't sit back and wait to die. He used all his strength to unleash several Lightning Style jutsu—but none of them could break through the insect swarm.
(To Be Continued...)