True title: Each One's Counterattack (Part 3)

  In the alleyway.

  "Tsk, where did that damn orange-haired brat run off to?" The thug, who had just been hit in the kidney by Yahiko, looked around, unable to spot his target.

  "Did he actually escape? He's quick, I'll give him that." The thug quickened his pace, heading toward the alley's exit.

  As he reached the mouth of the alley, a rustling sound came from a tree nearby.

  "Huh?" The thug looked up.

  "Take this!"

  Out of nowhere, Yahiko dropped down from the tree, a burp sack in hand. He swiftly covered the thug's head with it and, in one fluid motion, jabbed his elbow into the thug’s side.

  The familiar kidney strike.

  "Ugh!" The thug yelped in pain and ripped the sack off his head, throwing it to the ground in frustration.

  "Dammit, hitting the same spot again and again... You little bastard." The thug, his movements unsteady, limped toward Yahiko, resembling a repeat of their earlier encounter.

  "Try this!" The thug twisted his body and lunged, throwing a punch at Yahiko.

  Yahiko ducked, narrowly dodging the punch, but the thug followed up with a swift kick, nding a blow to Yahiko’s chest.

  "Ugh!" Yahiko grunted in pain, but used the momentum to roll away and quickly dashed back into the alley.

  The thug chased after him and, upon turning a corner, saw a rge, transparent pstic bag lying on the ground, clearly containing the stolen meat.

  "Tch, in the panic, you didn't even bother to secure your loot?" The thug sneered, but his expression soon shifted to one of suspicion. "Wait... something’s off. That orange-haired kid doesn’t seem like the type to make such rookie mistakes. This is a trap!"

  He quickly turned around, only to find Yahiko emerging from the shadows, charging toward him with a punch aimed at his left kidney.

  The thug caught Yahiko’s arm, sneering. "You really think I’ll fall for the same trick three times?"

  "This isn’t the same trick, idiot." Yahiko smirked, releasing a handful of sand from his clenched left hand, throwing it into the thug’s eyes.

  With the thug temporarily blinded, Yahiko's fist nded squarely on his left kidney once more.

  The thug dropped to his knees, clutching his side, unable to rise.

  This is the way of the dirty kidney striker.

  "I—I'm Daishan! You’d better remember that! One day, I’ll pin you down and crush you!" The thug seethed, then passed out.

  "Ha? This is too embarrassing. You're an adult, and yet you make it sound like it's so hard to beat a kid," Yahiko said, shrugging indifferently as he casually picked up the pstic bag full of meat and strolled off.

  He thought to himself, hoping the others managed to escape (and counterattack) as well.

  "Which way? No, it should be this way." Lin Quannai was lost. He had intended to loop back to the alley entrance, but being somewhat directionally challenged, he found himself growing more and more disoriented.

  Just then, footsteps approached from the side, followed by a low, cold voice. "What a coincidence, don’t you think?"

  Lin Quannai had run into the thug leader.

  "..."

  Lin Quannai didn’t respond. Instead, he began scanning the area, considering his escape options.

  "Where are your men? You didn’t kill them all, did you?" The thug leader, with steel-like hair and a knife scar on his forehead, noticed Lin Quannai’s silence and his voice grew colder.

  "They’re probably still alive. I shook them off," Lin Quannai replied calmly, his expression unchanged.

  "I see. Even if they were useless, I didn’t think a little brat could kill them all." The thug leader smirked, almost as if amused.

  "Shall we begin, then?" His voice dropped, resembling a lion’s growl before a hunt.

  But Lin Quannai merely frowned, shaking his head, and pointed behind the thug leader.

  "It looks like you’re being followed. Once you deal with that, we can start."

  "Hm?" The thug leader raised an eyebrow, turning slightly to gnce behind him, but his peripheral vision remained fixed on Lin Quannai, who, in the moment the thug leader turned his head, darted into the shadows without hesitation. The thug leader chuckled softly to himself. "A three-year-old's trick."

  In the blink of an eye, his eyes gleamed with cold light. His lips parted to reveal sharp, gleaming teeth, and his right foot slid backward on the ground, preparing for a sprint. His left leg bent slightly as he dropped into a crouch, both hands bracing for the charge.

  The sky overhead was overcast, and a distant rumble of thunder could be heard. Suddenly, a brilliant fsh of lightning illuminated the sky.

  As the light faded, the thug leader’s figure vanished, and the thunder cracked loudly.

  In the midst of the thunder, Lin Quannai gnced back over his shoulder, his pupils constricting.

  The thug leader’s arms swung with terrifying speed. Every time his arm lifted, Lin Quannai could vaguely see the muscles bulging beneath the thug leader’s skin. With each powerful stride, the thug leader closed the gap with an arming speed that far exceeded Lin Quannai's own.

  At this rate, in just five seconds—no, his arm was already close enough to reach Lin Quannai's shoulder!

  Crash!

  Heavy rain began to pour.

  Lin Quannai suddenly lowered his body, dramatically reducing his speed to dodge the thug leader’s hand, which swiped just above him. The thug leader’s fingers passed through Lin Quannai’s dark hair before he could fall fully to the ground.

  With a quick pivot, Lin Quannai surged forward, heading straight for a wooden wall with a dog-sized hole at the bottom.

  The adrenaline-fueled sensation from his previous battle with the bck-haired dog surged back, sending waves of numbness down the back of his neck.

  The thug leader’s cwing swipe missed again as Lin Quannai dove into the dog hole, unhesitatingly speeding up once more.

  With a loud crash, the wooden boards splintered.

  Lin Quannai’s expression faltered in disbelief as he turned around to look.

  The wooden wall splintered apart as the thug leader, his body hunched forward, broke through with an unrelenting force. The fragile wood crumbled like paper, offering no resistance against the thug leader's onsught.

  In an instant, the thug leader was within five meters of Lin Quannai. His legs slightly bent, his abdominal muscles contracted, and his arms spread wide like a bear’s. With a ferocious leap, he pounced toward Lin Quannai, his wild eyes gleaming with unrestrained hunger.

  Born from the chaos of war, he was already a “beast.”

  Tsk, originally, I had pnned to follow the path of the original story, spending difficult but somewhat heartwarming months with Yahiko, Nagato, and Konan. I’d join Jiraiya’s tutege, and life would have been smooth sailing. At the very least, I would try my best to save them from their fated paths.

  But now, Lin Quannai gnced forward. "Hah, so this is a dead end."

  Ahead, a stone wall blocked his path—impossible to break, impossible to cross.

  Lin Quannai twisted his body, using his right leg as a pivot to spin out of the thug leader's vicious charge.

  "This is the end." The thug leader loomed over Lin Quannai.

  Raindrops dripped from their hair as the two locked eyes—his golden-yellow, animalistic eyes staring into Lin Quannai’s calm gray ones. The huge, beast-like man, and the small, fragile, seemingly powerless “girl,” frozen in time as lightning fshed overhead.

  "No, this is just the beginning," Lin Quannai said, his pale lips curling into a rare, cute smile, revealing a hint of tiger teeth.

  His eyes began to redden, a feral, vicious gleam creeping into his gaze. The battle with the bck-haired beast resurfaced in his mind.

  The battle between the street urchin and the thug leader had reached its bloody conclusion, but the true fight between two “war-born” beasts had only just begun.