One of the attackers smiled greedily, upon seeing that the attack succeeded, "Heh… such a pathetic brat, twenty-five million Ryo bounty and such weak strength."

Bang… ​​

However, before the two could celebrate, Kuroto's body exploded into a cloud of smoke upon being pierced through by the sword.

Both the attackers were taken aback by this and shouted in surprise, "What, a Shadow Clone!?"

At this time, Kuroto's figure jumped down from a tree, and directly stepped on the heads of the two, burying both of them to the ground.

Squatting down, using the heads of the two bounty hunters as a foothold, questioned the two, "Hey, did you two come here for the bounty on my head? But seeing your pathetic state and useless attempt, it feels like you are looking down on me, is that the case?"

"You bastard!"

"How could it have been a Shadow Clone?"

The two bounty ninjas obviously couldn't move because of being trapped.

Seeing the two struggles, Kuroto thought to himself, 'Does the name of Hyuga Clan already has no deterrent power that the likes of no-name bounty hunters are coming after me? That too without any background check?"

In Kuroto's opinion, the bounty ninjas that will be coming after him should at least know of the Byakugan that he has, simply based on his portrait and name.

But it didn't seem that these two attackers took any countermeasures against his Byakugan.

In terms of skill and strength, they are obviously not weak, both of them seem to have the strength of a high -class Chunin, and even then, they didn't take countermeasures for the Byakugan?

Now Kuroto is a little uncertain, he isn't sure whether these two bounty hunters were just too ignorant for their own good or that the Hyuga name has already faded to such an extent.

Tying up the two bounty ninjas, Kuroto returned to the village.

Kuroto has already confirmed that these two bounty ninjas have defected from the Mist Village. According to the general trend, if a shinobi defects from his village then a bounty is placed on his/her head, and based on their crimes this bounty keeps increasing. Therefore, these two bounty hunters also carried bounties on their heads.

When Kuroto delivered the two, at the mission center of the village, he received 3 million Ryo for the combined bounty.

Kuroto also learned that the Mist Village is in a state of civil strife.

One of the major shinobi Clan in the Country of Water, Kaguya Clan directly initiated a rebellion, the situation of the Mist Village has become a mess, as a result, a large number of ninjas on the mist side have defected recently, some became wandering ninjas while the other chooses to become bounty hunters.

Shaking his head at the disparity of the Mist Village again left the Village without any delay.

Jumping from tree to tree, Kuroto didn't seem too happy at the recent profit he just received, on the contrary, he had a murderous expression on his face.

During the attack that he encountered not long ago, Kuroto hid himself a little because he was worried about the follow-up attacks from the two bounty hunters and observe his surroundings carefully, although those two bounty ninjas disappointed him, he was able to notice that the Root ninja hiding in in the shadows didn't even move an inch to help him.

Even if the other party is responsible for monitoring him, but in the face of a life and death situation, shouldn't the other party come forward at least help him out?

After all, both are the shinobi of the same village!

But the other party didn't seem to care.

This obviously means that the other party not only doesn't care about him but has already regarded Kuroto as an enemy.

Since the other party thinks in this manner then how could Kuroto tolerate this?

Initially, Kuroto decided to ignore him, as he considered that the ninja was only doing his job and nothing more, so Kuroto only thought to escape his chase, but now that's no longer the case

If the other party has such thinking, then he can only die!

…

At night Kuroto chose a flat terrain to set up a campsite, after lighting up the bonfire, he sat on a broken tree bark while the rabbit meat he caught was being roasted by the fire.

Not far away from Kuroto, the Root ninja responsible for monitoring him sat on a tree branch observing Kuroto closely.

"Huh… lighting a bonfire? The vigilance is too pathetic! How did someone like him even get into Anbu Black Ops?" slandered the Root ninja while chewing the dry food he carried along.

The code name of this Root ninja is 'Kuroshimasu' and he is very apt in these sorts of tasks.

Surveillance and Assassination are his specialties.

According to 'Kuroshimasu,' surveillance and assassination are two steps of the same task because the target he generally monitors end up becoming a target of an assassination by the orders of Danzo-Sama!

Therefore, 'Kuroshimasu' never considers his targets as anything but an enemy, even if they are from the same village!

Suddenly, 'Kuroshimasu' felt strong killing intent directed towards him, with his years of experience, 'Kuroshimasu' clearly felt that someone was watching him and definitely not with good intentions!

"Ninpou: Super Beast Imitating Drawing!"

Almost subconsciously, Kuroshimasu soared into the air and drew an ink bird on the paper.

Swish…

Unfortunately, before he could even land on the ink bird, two iron spears pierced through the ink bird, splashing it all over the air.

Falling on the ground, Kuroshimasu discovered that the attacker is some unknown ninja covered from head to toe in bandages.

But what shocked him more was the iron sand floating around the mysterious ninja.

At a glance, Kuroshimasu realized that means.

"Magnet Release!?"

As a member of Root, Kuroshimasu has an understanding of some of the weirdest and most known Kekkei Genkai, therefore he instantly realized the unique Kekkei Genkai of the Kazekage Clan, exclusive to the Sand Village.

And if the identity of the enemy to be able to master Magnet Release can't be ordinary, as a result, Kuroshimasu was a little tense, and asked nervously, "Who are you!?"

Even in the sand village, there are very few ninjas to have mastered Magnet Release, currently, there are only Yondaime Kazekage and the missing Sandaime Kazekage, whose alive or dead status is unknown.

Kuroshimasu doesn't believe either of those two monsters would sneak into the Land of Fire specially to attack him. Sand Village will also not send ninja to assassinate him because of their alliance.

So, in his opinion, this mysterious ninja has to be some missing-nin.

But this still confused him, as to why would he be attacked, the reason for believing this is because Kuroshimasu is quite sure that neither does he have the intelligence nor some important items that would prompt the other party to attack him.

So, unless the other party has specific hatred towards him, there is no reason for the missing-nin to assassinate him.

Therefore, it could only mean one thing, 'He target isn't me but Hyuga Kuroto!'

Considering the huge bounty on Hyuga Kuroto's head, this was the most logical explanation Kuroshimasu could reach.

'He must be thinking that I am getting in his way, so he wants to get rid of me first, and then go after Hyuga Kuroto!' thinking this, Kuroshimasu suddenly had an idea.

If Hyuga Kuroto is the target, then as long as he leads the enemy ninja towards Hyuga Kuroto, the opponent will naturally ignore him and attack the target instead.

Once this thought appeared, Kuroshimasu was a little relaxed.

After all, Kuroshimasu knows that he isn't capable of defeating the other party, as long as he survives, it would be fine, as for the Hyuga Kuroto?

'He can die for all I care.'

"Ninpou: Super Beast Imitating Drawing!"

Quickly drawing two ink lions to act as small divergence, Kuroshimasu immediately fled towards the campfire using the Body Flicker Jutsu

While traveling at high speed, he noticed that Hyuga Kuroto was still sitting by the bonfire, and leisurely chomping down the rabbit meat, and said with disdain, "What a fool, didn't even notice a fight at such a close distance even though he is a Hyuga…"

................................................................................................

Read up to Chapter - 189 on P.a.t.r.e.o.n. : p-atreon.com/Milta_translations