Chapter 23: Yakushi Kabuto's Defection

Asuma clutched his injured right arm, his eyes fixed firmly on Yakushi Kabuto.

The dark clouds hung lower and lower, and bean-sized raindrops pelted the eaves on both sides of the street, making a pitter-patter sound.

"Yakushi Kabuto, have you betrayed the village?"

Asuma wanted to reach into his ninja tool pouch, but before he could act, two Shuriken flew over and interrupted his movement.

With the protection of chakra, although a ninja's body is not as hard as rock, it is certainly stronger than an ordinary person's.

However,

when Yakushi Kabuto threw the Kunai, he added the Poisoning and Reinforcement skills.

This caused the iron weapon, which was often treated as a path-finding stone and had weak lethality, to become the fangs of a venomous snake.

Asuma could feel his right arm gradually going numb, but he dared not act rashly.

There was an Antidote in his ninja tool pouch.

But his intuition told him that if he showed even the slightest opening, Yakushi Kabuto would continue his attack.

"Betrayal?"

Yakushi Kabuto looked at Asuma, this teammate who had fought side-by-side with him in the game, and with a smile at the corners of his eyes, said: "You could say that; after all, the word 'betrayal' is not exactly hard for me to accept."

Ninjas,

regardless of their strength, all have a sense of belonging to their Ninja Village, whether strong or weak.

Even a rogue ninja who has wandered for years would not react as indifferently as Yakushi Kabuto upon hearing words like betraying the village.

Pfft.

While he was speaking, Asuma tried to find an opening to quickly pull the Antidote from his ninja tool pouch and jab it into his right arm.

Just at this moment,

Yakushi Kabuto, who had been standing in place, suddenly vanished, and when he reappeared, he had already leaped behind Asuma.

Shadow Flash.

A Sharp short dagger pierced through his waist and abdomen.

Asuma endured the pain, searing red mist rising from his shoulders, and swung his fist toward his back.

Flame Heavy Fist.

The tip of his fist swept across Yakushi Kabuto's chest, but was dodged by a hair's breadth.

However, the scorching flames wrapping around his fist instantly burned through his clothes, and even the skin and flesh underneath turned charred black like coal.

If it had been a full-force strike, it likely would have shattered Yakushi Kabuto's internal organs directly.

Distance increased.

A lurker focuses on sneak attacks and assassinations, striking once and fleeing far away; naturally, it is impossible to stay glued to a boxer for melee combat.

Cold sweat seeped from Yakushi Kabuto's temples, and he glanced at the charred black on his chest, laughing: "That was close. This skill that Captain Asuma Awakened is truly terrifying in power."

First, he used a Poisoning Kunai to launch a sneak attack, then took advantage of the gap while the opponent was applying the antidote to inflict a fatal wound.

The goal was achieved.

Asuma's combat power was severely weakened.

He ignored the flowing blood, stared straight at Yakushi Kabuto, and said: "Can you tell me the reason for your betrayal?"

"Because, Captain, the Ghost Banner in your hands is a treasure valued by Lord Sasori!"

Yakushi Kabuto laughed unhurriedly: "I know you are stalling for time, but unfortunately, I specifically chose this time; this street is very remote, and I have also cast a large-scale Genjutsu to isolate everyone who might interfere with us. No one will discover that you, Captain Asuma, are being attacked."

"Sasori?"

Asuma recalled that he seemed to have heard this title before—a rogue ninja with bloody and vicious methods who had once attacked several small nations.

It was indeed for the 【Ghost Banner】, this piece of Purple Quality equipment.

At the same time, he felt a bit fortunate.

Although this piece of equipment was precious, it was a good thing to be able to lure out a lurking traitor; even though the cost was high, letting the other party continue to lurk would only cause greater losses to the village.

Asuma said in an icy tone: "I will not go soft on traitors!"

He did not say anything to make Yakushi Kabuto surrender; the other party had come prepared and clearly would not be swayed by a few words from him.

Yakushi Kabuto's smile remained unchanged; after taking off his glasses and carefully putting them into his ninja tool pouch, he said: "Captain, don't underestimate my strength, or you will suffer a great loss."

"Is that so?"

Asuma was noncommittal, holding two Chakra Ring Blades in his palms.

The nature transformation of wind-attribute chakra allowed the ring blades to be coated with a layer of chakra wind blades.

Flame Breath.

A massive, burning flame ignited, attaching to his fists; influenced by the chakra wind blades, it dragged out long, narrow flame tails.

It looked as if he were holding a pair of rolling flame blades.

"Flame Breath, which can attach Flame Power to the fists, is the passive ability of a Flame Boxer."

Yakushi Kabuto analyzed calmly, saying: "To achieve this effect, has the Captain's passive skill been upgraded to level five?"

The skills in the Samsara Game are very powerful.

After becoming a professional, one can Awaken a professional skill every 5 levels; to master other skills, one needs to learn from a Skill Scroll.

But so far, unless a relatively excellent skill is dropped, everyone's focus is still on professional skills.

There is no other reason.

It is purely because of the Samsara Game's characteristic: it is a bottomless pit for money.

After Awakening an Initial Skill, one must constantly upgrade it to unleash the full power of the skill.

Each time the skill level is increased, it not only requires constant use of the skill to improve proficiency but also requires spending Reward Points.

Skills also have quality; the higher the skill quality, the more Reward Points it costs to upgrade.

For example, Asuma's passive skill 【Flame Breath】 had the incredible luck to be Awakened at Blue Potential quality; the first upgrade alone costs a steep 100 Reward Points, and subsequent upgrades require 300 and 500 Reward Points respectively.

As for Yakushi Kabuto himself, his two class skills are White and Green quality, respectively.

That is why he cannot defeat Asuma in a direct confrontation, which is why he chose to use sneak attacks, weakening Asuma first before engaging in battle.

"If your Poisoning skill could reach level five, I might not be able to stand up anymore."

Asuma felt extremely fortunate inside.

The skills in the Samsara Game are too powerful; a level 1 White skill can already rival the might of a C-rank Ninjutsu.

What is even more terrifying is that their power continues to increase as the skills are upgraded.

If Yakushi Kabuto were allowed to raise his Poisoning skill to level 5, it would carry a passive status called Fatal Toxin, and that single Kunai from the sneak attack just now would have been enough to make him lose the ability to move.

"Stalker, what a truly despicable and astonishing class."

Asuma took a deep breath, slammed the balls of his feet into the ground, and shot forward like an arrow released from a bowstring.

A quick battle to settle things.

Everyone is a member of the Konoha Squad, and they are all very clear about each other's strengths and weaknesses.

As long as one can close the distance, a melee class like a Pugilist could even kill Yakushi Kabuto in a single blow.

Flame Chain Fist.

Countless scorching red fists condensed in front of Asuma, and together with him moving at high speed, they lunged fiercely toward Yakushi Kabuto.

Shadow Step.

Yakushi Kabuto did not dodge; he precisely controlled the timing to the second before the flaming fists crashed down and activated his skill.

His entire body seemed to be shrouded in shadows, and he actually passed straight through the flames, appearing behind Asuma.

"Lord Sasori is determined to obtain the Ghost Banner, and for this, he was willing to sacrifice two high-quality Puppets and give me his research funds to purchase Skill Scrolls."

Yakushi Kabuto swung a short dagger, its surface coated with purple-black Poison, and stabbed toward Asuma's back, aiming for his heart.

At the same time, he kept dropping hints, pushing the blame for the mastermind behind this operation onto the rogue ninja, Sasori of the Red Sand.

After all, the 【Konoha Collapse Plan】 is about to begin, and as an excellent subordinate, he cannot cause trouble for Lord Orochimaru.

According to the original plan,

he was supposed to remain undercover until after the Konoha Collapse Plan began before betraying Konoha.

But the temptation of the Ghost Banner for Lord Orochimaru was too great, to the point that he was willing to activate him, a deeply hidden chess piece, ahead of schedule just to obtain it.

(End of chapter)