“What an incredibly fast Body Flicker Technique…
Urgh!” Kidomaru’s body went limp and collapsed to the ground.
He was unwilling to accept it!
He still had the much more powerful Second State of the Curse Mark that he hadn’t activated, along with plenty of other abilities he hadn’t even used.
But now, he didn’t have the chance anymore.
Even a lion must use its full strength when fighting a rabbit.
Kidomaru regretted it deeply.
He regretted underestimating his enemy.
Even if that enemy was merely a Genin, he shouldn’t have looked down on him.
But it was too late.
Far too late!
He could only die with resentment and regret in his heart.
Seeing Kidomaru die, Aoba still wasn’t completely at ease.
As a shinobi, one had to remain vigilant at all times.
No enemy could ever be underestimated.
After carefully checking Kidomaru over and confirming that he was truly, absolutely dead, Aoba finally breathed a sigh of relief.
After retrieving the three specially made kunai, he walked over to Hinata.
After going through a battle and sustaining an injury, Hinata was extremely weak at this point.
Her body was so feeble that she was about to collapse.
Aoba hurriedly rushed forward and supported the girl’s shoulders.
He reached into his ninja tool pouch, pretending to retrieve something, while quietly taking a medical kit out of the system.
Using the bandages and medicine inside, he gave Hinata a simple dressing.
“I’m not a Medical-nin.
Once we’re back in the village, I’ll take you to Konoha Hospital.” Hinata’s face turned bashful.
“I-I’m fine.
It’s not that serious.” Although the slight injury hurt quite a bit, being personally bandaged by Aoba while he showed such thoughtful concern made her absolutely overjoyed.
She had the strange feeling that even getting injured had somehow been a huge gain.
“You should still get checked out at the hospital.
You were hurt because you were protecting me.” Aoba’s expression was sincere.
“Thank you, Hinata!” At such a critical moment just now, the girl had put herself in danger without hesitation and stepped forward to protect him.
He had felt that sincerity.
It would remain etched in his heart forever, something he would never forget.
“Y-You’re welcome.” Hinata’s little face instantly flushed bright red.
Thinking about what had just happened, she felt that she had been completely useless.
Even without me, with Aoba-niisan’s strength, he could have easily defeated the enemy.
Only now did she realize that the boy she had been watching and admiring since childhood was actually this powerful.
He had instantly killed an enemy with the strength of a Special Jonin!
Hinata was familiar with the ordinary Genin Aoba.
Now that she had seen Aoba as the Yellow Flash, she was even more pleasantly surprised.
In the depths of her heart, a little Hinata was practically sparkling, with stars shining in her eyes.
What she didn’t know was that Aoba had nearly screwed everything up earlier.
Without Hinata’s help, he would have had no choice but to force himself to perform nine single draws.
No one knew whether he would have managed to draw the Flying Thunder God Technique.
But the odds were that he wouldn’t have.
With a little worse luck, he might not even have gotten a guaranteed B-rank ninjutsu.
Then he really would have had to die there with regret.
“Whoa!
Big bro is so cool!” “Aoba-niisan, if you’re this strong, why are you a Genin?” “Could Big bro actually be a hidden master of the shinobi world?” The three children had already recovered from their earlier fear.
They all looked toward Aoba with eyes filled with admiration.
Shota seemed to think of something.
“Aoba-niisan fought that big bad guy, and he was as fast as a flash!
It’s just like the Fourth Hokage, the Yellow Flash of the Leaf!” Hearing that, Aoba felt rather helpless.
He had only used the Flying Thunder God Technique once, yet a little brat had already recognized it.
Well, it wasn’t a big problem.
He already had a way to make children keep their mouths shut.
Now was definitely not a good time to expose the Flying Thunder God Technique.
He had already planned things out in his mind.
He intended to use this ninjutsu to pull off something big.
At that moment, he happened to meet Hinata’s gaze.
The girl’s clear eyes carried a hint of pitiful vulnerability after being injured.
It was enough to unconsciously stir a person’s protective instincts.
As if they had agreed beforehand, the two spoke at the exact same time.
“Your ninjutsu just now?” “How did you come here?” Hinata was far too shy, and her face reddened even further.
She awkwardly explained, “It was just a coincidence.” The girl really couldn’t lie.
Her expression had already exposed the truth.
Aoba understood without needing to say anything and began answering her question.
“The ninjutsu I used just now was actually—” “Don’t tell me!
I suddenly don’t want to know anymore!” Hinata immediately interrupted him.
She had already seen it.
Why did she need to demand an explanation?
Aoba-niisan usually kept a low profile, so he must have had a special reason.
Asking too many questions would only make things troublesome.
“Fine.
Then let’s just treat it as a little secret between the two of us.” Aoba didn’t continue explaining.
He actually felt relieved that Hinata wasn’t asking.
“Okay!
I’ll keep it a secret!” Hinata solemnly promised.
Her heart felt sweet.
She and Aoba now had a little secret that only the two of them knew.
That kind of unspoken understanding felt wonderful~ “I believe you!” Aoba smiled.
Learning the Flying Thunder God Technique wasn’t actually some unmentionable secret.
It was simply that he was too weak right now, making the source of the technique difficult to explain.
The existence of the system absolutely couldn’t be revealed to anyone.
It wasn’t as though he could claim that he had secretly read one of Konoha’s advanced ninjutsu scrolls, right?
A place where confidential scrolls were stored wasn’t somewhere a mere Genin like him could enter.
There was another reason, too.
He wanted to use the Flying Thunder God Technique to make money.
Orochimaru’s attack on the village was a crisis for Konoha, but it was also an opportunity for him.
If everything went successfully, earning a million ryo in one go wouldn’t be a problem.
Once he had more and more money, the ninjutsu he could obtain through the gacha would naturally keep coming.
By then, his strength would have grown tremendously.
Even if other people learned that he could use the Flying Thunder God Technique, they would only respect and fear him.
They wouldn’t dare question him.
Ultimately, he was still too weak right now.
Even though he had learned the Flying Thunder God Technique, his overall physical abilities were still inferior to those of a Jonin.
If he wanted to win, he still had to rely on the element of surprise provided by space-time ninjutsu.
This was where intelligence became extremely important in the shinobi world.
No one knew that he could use the Flying Thunder God Technique, so there was a high probability that he could successfully launch a surprise attack against a Jonin.
But once that information leaked, his advantage would be greatly reduced.
If he encountered an elite Chunin who knew him inside and out, he might have to put in considerable effort just to defeat them, and there would even be a risk of things going wrong.
What Aoba needed right now was to keep a low profile.
He had only acted just now because he had been forced into it.
If he could run, he absolutely wouldn’t step forward and draw attention to himself.
Fortunately, his relationship with Hinata was extremely close.
There was trust between the two of them, enough that they could confidently entrust their backs to each other.
“What about those children…?” Hinata suddenly remembered that they still had an audience.
The boy named Shota had actually heard about Konoha’s Yellow Flash before.
“It’s fine.
I have my own clever solution!” Aoba casually waved his hand.
Then, he had Shota and the others look into his eyes.
He activated a Genjutsu!
It was only an extremely low-level Genjutsu.
It couldn’t hypnotize shinobi, but it was highly effective against children with weak wills.
Within the Genjutsu, Aoba repeated the entire battle against Kidomaru countless times.
In the three children’s illusions, he displayed overwhelming power, unleashing one powerful ninjutsu after another.
Susanoo, Dust Release: Detachment of the Primitive World Technique, Almighty Push…
He showed them all!
Kidomaru was brutally crushed in every imaginable way.
And just like that, everything was taken care of.
Aoba no longer needed to worry about the children leaking the information.
If other people heard Shota and the other children talking about it, they would only assume that the kids had been fooled.
They might even criticize Aoba for using Genjutsu on children and call it unethical.
They would absolutely never imagine that the boy really knew the Flying Thunder God Technique.
After dealing with Kidomaru’s corpse, the group returned to Konoha.
Aoba first took Hinata to Konoha Hospital.
After repeatedly reminding the girl to get plenty of rest over the next couple of days, he finally left.
Then, he safely returned Shota and the others to Takeda-san.
When Takeda-san heard that they had been attacked in the forest, she insisted on stuffing 5,000 ryo into Aoba’s hands as their mission payment.
After completing the mission, Aoba returned to his residence.
Next, he began preparing for the Chunin Exams.
This year’s Chunin Exams were anything but ordinary.
Powerful figures such as Orochimaru and Kabuto would appear, and they would eventually launch the Konoha Crush.
Thinking about Kidomaru’s death made Aoba even more desperate to increase his strength.
It was better to prepare for the worst.
There was a very real possibility that Orochimaru would discover what he had done.
He had to become stronger before he could face the crises that awaited him.