Tanaka Nobuyuki never thought that one day, the dog he had raised would actually bite back at its master.
His hands instinctively gripped the knife handle tighter. Blood kept flowing from his wound, seeping outward along the blade.
Feeling the stabbing pain coming from his stomach, he was still in disbelief.
"Gan, how dare you? Just a lowly commoner, and you dare offend your superior!"
Yet Gan suddenly entered an unusually calm state. He knew one stab wouldn't kill this man, so his other hand also pressed down on the knife handle, both hands exerting force together.
Long held in high position, his body hollowed out by money and women, how could Tanaka Nobuyuki compare in strength to a lowly commoner like Gan, who had no choice but to endure the wind and rain year after year?
He felt a surge of strength pressing against him, and his hands involuntarily loosened. The knife was forcefully pulled out from his belly.
Gan didn't waste a single word, he thrust the knife back in.
"NO!"
Tanaka Nobuyuki's eyes shifted instantly from disbelief to fear.
If the first stab had left him too dazed to react, then with this one, he truly felt the threat of death.
His whole body trembled uncontrollably, and he shouted with all his might, his voice hoarse and ragged.
"HELP!"
In the silent night, that cry spread far and wide, startling quite a few patrolling samurai within the inner circle of the daimyo's residence.
The samurai, upon hearing it, rushed quickly toward the source.
Tanaka Nobuyuki, face twisted in ferocity, glared at Gan and roared, "You brat, you dare ambush me? You're dead for sure!"
Gan, however, expressionless, said, "I know I'm dead for sure. But before I die, the one who dies first will be you."
Saying that, Gan once again pulled the knife out.
And stabbed it back in.
Tanaka Nobuyuki spat a mouthful of blood. This time, the blade had already pierced his internal organs.
"No, no, please, I beg you, spare me!"
No matter how thick the fat around the belly, how could a man withstand such stabbing?
He began to plead desperately.
But Gan turned a deaf ear. He pulled the knife out again.
And stabbed again.
Pull out. Stab again.
Pull out. Stab once more.
Stab! Stab! Stab!
Gan's eyes turned blood-red, like a beast about to devour a man, endlessly repeating the same motion.
After who knows how many stabs, Tanaka Nobuyuki's whimpering grew weaker and weaker, his pupils beginning to scatter…
At this moment, Gan finally spoke.
"You and I are both demons, so… come down to hell with me!"
And with another stab, he drove the blade in deep.
That was the last stab.
Because with that thrust done, and the knife withdrawn again, Tanaka Nobuyuki's fat body had already toppled backward.
Thud!
A muffled thud. Tanaka Nobuyuki collapsed in his own blood, eyes wide open, dead without peace.
Gan panted heavily, the act just now had drained much of his strength.
Though his strength was indeed greater than Tanaka Nobuyuki's, in truth, his body had also long been worn out to the extreme by years of labor and alcohol.
The reason he won was simply because he was more ruthless than Tanaka Nobuyuki.
At that moment, the samurai who had rushed over had already arrived.
They happened to witness the final scene, and could not help but grow furious.
A commoner actually killed someone from the daimyo's household. Even if the dead was only an outer steward, it was still a humiliation to the daimyo's face.
That alone was enough to convict them of negligence in their watch.
Thinking of this, one of the samurai had already drawn his sword and was striding toward Gan. He had to cut down this commoner and cleanse his sins.
Yet at this time, Gan revealed a strange smile.
He looked at the approaching samurai and said, "Don't you want to know what really happened?"
That samurai involuntarily paused and replied, "We've already sent someone to the Hidden Mist Village. Soon, ninjas will come. Ninjas can investigate through every trace, uncovering the truth. We don't need a mere commoner like you to say anything."
Gan replied, "So ninjas are really that powerful, huh?"
"But have you ever thought about one thing? If ninjas are so powerful, why does the daimyo still use you samurai?"
That samurai's face turned cold, "What do you mean by that?"
Gan once again raised the kitchen knife, "Because ninjas are like this knife. Too sharp, able to stab a man to death at any time."
"The daimyo… is afraid of being stabbed to death himself, isn't he?"
The samurai could no longer hold back, "Silence!"
As he spoke, his sword slashed toward Gan.
But Gan was faster. Before the samurai could strike, he turned the kitchen knife on himself.
The blade plunged deep into his abdomen, and with a fierce tug to the side, he slashed it open.
The samurai froze.
This was seppuku. The death most full of samurai spirit.
He instinctively stopped, straightening his posture.
The other samurai also, like him, grew a few shades more solemn.
Gan let out a muffled grunt, his features contorted in agony from the pain.
Yet, in the end, he endured it. He said not a word, silent like a stone.
His body stood under the night sky like a statue, until after an unknown span of time, he slowly collapsed.
The surrounding samurai snapped out of their daze. This scene had struck them with such force that the impact lingered on, refusing to fade.
Swish! Swish! Swish!
At that moment, three whistling sounds cut through the air, and a Hidden Mist squad appeared at the samurai's side.
They saw the two fallen corpses. One of them couldn't help but speak, "Here… what exactly happened?"
The samurai captain only managed to calm himself down before reporting the situation.
Not far away, the Akatsuki members stood together, watching everything unfold.
Neither the samurai nor the Mist ninjas seemed to notice their existence.
This was Tobi, using the power of Kamui, combined with his Mangekyo Sharingan illusion, creating a kind of group invisibility effect.
This invisibility was not about physical disappearance.
Rather, it implanted a signal in everyone's minds, that they had never existed here in the first place.
Thus, even if someone's eyes saw them, their consciousness would deceive itself.
For the Akatsuki, long accustomed to death, this scene of vendetta and slaughter was nothing. They were merely spectators, eating melons, their expressions calm.
But Hanami was already shattered.
From the earlier exchange between Gan and Tanaka Nobuyuki, she had already learned part of the truth.
So it turned out, her mother had been given by her foster father to a beast for play. She herself was the accidental child born of that beast and her mother.
Her mother wasn't beaten to death by her foster father, she was played to death by that beast.
And that beast not only toyed her mother to death, he even wanted to toy with her.
She couldn't understand, how could such a demon exist in this world?
No wonder her foster father beat her so cruelly. All because in her body flowed the blood of that demon.
Her body swayed unsteadily, tears streaming unconsciously down her face. If not for Makoto quickly stepping up to hold her, she might already have collapsed to the ground.
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