Naruto: Fooling the Ninja World, I'm Hailed as a Savior

Pitter-patter… pitter-patter…

The cold, late-autumn rain enveloped the entire forest. Dark green canopies layered into a dome, and mist drifted between the branches, creating a gloomy and oppressive natural atmosphere.

Several dark figures flickered among the tree trunks and branches in the forest. Rainwater streamed down the folds of their dark raincoats, forming winding streaks on the waterproof fabric.

Hyuga Kawa, also clad in a black raincoat, was in the middle of the formation. From the corner of his eye, he subtly observed the few individuals accompanying the escort team.

Out of a group of fifteen, twelve were Anbu ninjas, forming three squads of four Anbu each.

This already showed a high degree of seriousness; otherwise, the Anbu, as the Third Hokage's personal guard, wouldn't easily be deployed for missions. As for the remaining three, besides Hyuga Kawa, who was half a protected object, there were two Konoha jōnin: one from the Akimichi clan and one from the Aburame clan.

The others wore various masks, exuding a stern and murderous aura. One could say this escort team possessed formidable combat power and would face almost no security issues.

However…

"Danger may not necessarily come from outside."

Hyuga Kawa's gaze swept over the Aburame clan jōnin, keenly sensing the familiar coldness emanating from him. A Root ninja. Danzō Shimura indeed hadn't given up. But that was fine; their objectives aligned.

"Stop."

Hyuga Kawa spoke abruptly, causing everyone to instinctively halt and look towards him.

"Two o'clock direction, one kilometer out, thirteen ninjas gathered. Their chakra signatures are chaotic; they should be rogue ninjas." Hyuga Kawa spoke while taking off his goggles to wipe them, revealing the whitened skin beneath his eyelids from the moisture.

"Let's take a detour," the Akimichi jōnin's voice was distorted by the rain.

Rogue ninjas, as the name suggests, are mostly unaligned ninjas who wander from place to place, not belonging to any ninja village. They roam between countries, secretly learning various ninjutsu, often only gaining superficial knowledge or mimicking the form without the essence, thus most of them are weak.

Of course, it was highly possible that a dozen rogue ninjas gathering together had been subjugated by a missing-nin from another village.

Their mission was simply to escort; the sooner the body reached the Hidden Cloud Village, the better. It was not advisable to stir up trouble along the way.

"How far is it to the Land of Hot Water?"

The Aburame clan jōnin, Aburame Ryoma, suddenly asked.

Hyuga Kawa glanced at the map and replied, "About 150 kilometers left." The Land of Fire and the Land of Lightning were not directly adjacent; there were two small countries, the Land of Hot Water and the Land of the Moon, separating them. Their destination for this journey was within the Land of Hot Water.

At a ninja's regular speed, without using the Body Flicker Technique, it would take three days and three nights to reach the Hidden Sand Village from Konoha. Reaching the Land of Hot Water from Konoha was a bit shorter, but still required a day and a night.

"Doto-senpai," Aburame Ryoma turned to the Akimichi jōnin and suggested, "The destination is still far. How about we take a break here? Anyway, with the Byakugan in the team, there's no need to worry about accidents."

"..."

Akimichi Doto's eyes were squeezed into narrow slits by his chubby cheeks. He slightly tilted his head to glance at Hyuga Kawa behind him, secretly affirming the boy's performance throughout the journey.

He was a veteran jōnin who had participated in the Third Great Ninja War, even belonging to the squad led by the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze.

He had initially thought the Third Hokage placing this boy in the team would be a burden, but unexpectedly, the boy was fully capable of keeping up with them, and thanks to the Byakugan, they hadn't encountered any trouble so far.

This level of perception, this level of stamina, and the composure he displayed…

"So, the rumors really aren't to be trusted," Akimichi Doto thought to himself. He didn't reject Aburame Ryoma's suggestion and said, "Then let's take a break here."

With that, he looked at the eight Anbu ninjas from Squad Four and Squad Five. The few ninjas nodded knowingly and body-flickered away.

Since they decided to take a temporary break here, they might as well clear out the rogue ninjas. After all, they were within the Land of Fire, and rogue ninjas were mostly parasites.

The remaining few found places to rest, only the rustling of their dark raincoats sounding like a flock of soaked owls preening their feathers. Akimichi Doto summoned a hawk, handed it a written scroll, and sent it back to the Third Hokage. They had to maintain communication with the village; once contact was lost, the village would immediately send people to check on the situation.

Hyuga Kawa also found a spot to sit down. Since someone else had taken over, he deactivated his Byakugan to recover chakra. However, as he took out his water bottle and tilted his head to drink, his eyes subtly shifted.

A bug flew into his sleeve. The bug was small and ordinary. Any other person, even Akimichi Doto, wouldn't have noticed anything. But Hyuga Kawa's sensory abilities didn't rely solely on the Byakugan.

"Aburame clan's Destruction Bug, huh?"

Hyuga Kawa calmly put down his water bottle, seemingly unaware of the bug's abnormality.

Destruction Bugs were scout-type insects used for gathering information, not as dangerous as Parasitic Destruction Bugs or Nano-Poison Bugs. However, they would still affect his upcoming actions.

Just as he was thinking about how to deal with the bug, his eyes suddenly twitched, and he looked down at the ground.

"Watch out below…"

Hyuga Kawa spoke without hesitation to warn them, but before he could finish, the muddy ground beneath his feet suddenly split open.

Earth Release: Headhunter Jutsu.

Bang!

Two hands suddenly shot out from the ground without warning, holding kunai aimed at Hyuga Kawa's ankles.

Their intention was to disable him, to disable the "eyes" of this small squad. Not just beneath Hyuga Kawa's feet, but also beneath Akimichi Doto and Aburame Ryoma's feet, hands emerged as well.

But the former merely made a hand seal, lifted his muscular feet, lowered his head slightly, and stomped down with full force. The latter was enveloped by bugs.

Crunch! Splatter!

A reddish-white mixture of blood and rainwater stained the ground. Swarms of tiny bugs poured underground, making a chilling gnawing sound. Both instantly dealt with their respective enemies and instinctively turned to look in Hyuga Kawa's direction.

They saw Hyuga Kawa, after evading the attack, grasp the two hands emerging from the ground and forcefully pull the figure from beneath the earth.

A single palm strike created a massive transparent hole in the opponent's abdomen, and blood mixed with organ fragments gushed out uncontrollably.

"They are rogue ninjas from the Hidden Stone Village," Hyuga Kawa said, glancing at the corpse's forehead protector. "It seems the group ahead discovered us…" As he spoke, he looked up at Akimichi Doto and the others, but was met with several surprised gazes.

It was no wonder Akimichi Doto and the others looked at him this way; such a brutal killing method didn't quite fit their stereotypical impression of the Hyuga clan.

These rogue ninjas were, at most, chūnin level. Hyuga Kawa being able to kill them wasn't too surprising.

But, where in the Hyuga clan would you find someone who would smash an enemy's stomach with one palm? Were his methods not a little too cruel and brutal?

Meanwhile, Aburame Ryoma's brow slightly furrowed. He felt his Destruction Bug die, and instinctively looked towards Hyuga Kawa's sleeve, but only saw a blurry, bloody smear with frothy blood.

He assumed it was simply crushed by Hyuga Kawa by accident earlier, and so he quietly released a few more Destruction Bugs.

But now, no matter how many he released, it was useless.

Hyuga Kawa's true body had already donned his shadow robe and quietly departed. The Kawa remaining here, still smiling, was merely a shadow clone. He had to go ahead and set the stage.

For his "puppets."

In the dense shadows of the trees, Hyuga Kawa, clad in his shadow robe, almost became a black silhouette. As he moved stealthily, he silently chanted in his mind, "Manifestation – Otsutsuki Ruins…"

This time, the object of his deception was no longer just one person, or a few people. It was everyone in the ninja world, including the Hidden Cloud Village and Konoha.

Hyuga Kawa was about to tell a monumental lie.