"Stay calm, everyone! Follow behind me! The number of enemies invading the village is limited. Keep your heads straight, stay steady!" an Amegakure ninja shouted urgently in the street.
Explosions and chaos from the ongoing battle shook the village, sending civilians—just woken from sleep—spilling into the streets. This ninja was trying to calm the frightened villagers.
The invasion and assault by Konoha shinobi had completely plunged this village into chaos.
And just as the Amegakure ninja tried to organize the evacuation of civilians, a figure shimmering faintly with lightning chakra moved like a ghost between Amegakure's towering buildings at tremendous speed. In an instant, that Rain ninja felt something flash before his eyes, and then he realized he could no longer make a sound.
With difficulty, he turned his neck slightly and saw the ninja who had appeared on one side of the street.
The enemy stood with one foot tilted against the wall, one arm hooked around a horizontal drainage pipe, securing himself midair using a three-point stance. Wearing a white mask and displaying no clear identifying features, this ninja's identity seemed momentarily unrecognizable—but his free hand held a short sword, dripping blood steadily from its sharp edge onto the ground.
A fellow villager? No—the Rain ninja quickly realized what had happened. Just now, the other ninja had passed directly in front of him at a speed undetectable to ordinary shinobi, gently slicing across his throat with that short sword.
So... this was an enemy indeed. He'd cut so cleanly there wasn't even time for pain.
A dark red line appeared along the Rain ninja's throat, followed by droplets of blood slowly oozing outward, and then suddenly gushing forth—as if his body intended to empty all its blood in an instant.
Grabbing at his throat as he struggled, he left a trail of blood splattering across the ground, unable to scream despite obvious agony. Finally, wearing an expression grotesquely twisted in horror, he collapsed lifelessly onto the earth.
This sudden transformation stunned the nearby civilians for a moment, until they screamed in terror and scattered frantically.
Painted with a single eye upon its pale surface, the pale Anbu mask combined with his merciless killing made Haseo seem terrifying enough to ordinary people.
Although most ninja wouldn't deliberately slaughter civilians—not necessarily out of morality, but simply due to indifference—it was enough misfortune for these ordinary people to be caught up in conflicts among shinobi, costing them their lives.
Haseo raised his head, waved the hand holding his blade slightly, signaling Jiraiya and his two companions above to continue following from altitude, maintaining position to provide support, but not descending lower and risking entanglement in close combat.
At this moment, his silhouette made one thing clear… Leave this to me. It's safer for all of you.
As ninja themselves, the Amegakure shinobi weren't fools either. This was their territory after all. As soon as Haseo made his move, naturally several ninja squads rushed toward him.
Keep moving — now!
Faced with this encirclement, Haseo obviously wouldn't stay still. His figure continued weaving through the completely unfamiliar narrow alleys.
"Captain, above!"
Haseo deliberately kept his speed in sync with the squad's pace, so more than ten Amegakure ninja had been trailing behind him. The enemy quickly spotted Jiraiya and the other two who had been following from a higher position.
"They're staying beyond our attack range… Focus on eliminating the enemies ahead first."
Haseo was being too conspicuous, and with the chakra strength he displayed, it was natural for the enemy to identify him as their top priority target.
Seemed like the right call—just the wrong one.
The alley made a sudden right turn, and in that blink of an eye, Haseo vanished from the enemy's view. However, just as they were preparing to accelerate around the corner, a torrential water wall surged toward them.
Like a lake perched high above, its dam blasted open—ready to unleash chaos.
[Water Release: Exploding Water Colliding Wave!]
The enemy ninja leading the charge barely had any time to react before being swept into the rushing current.
"Go upward!"
Those behind reacted immediately, climbing rapidly along the walls lined with drainage pipes. However, before they could climb much higher, a wave of crimson flames descended from above.
[Fire Release: Garuda!]
This kind of double pincer movement was effortlessly executed by Haseo alone.
Burning bodies tumbled from the sky, their piercing screams echoing through the alley as they crashed into the water wall.
Forced downward by the pressure, some Amegakure ninja attempted to use Earth Release techniques to resist the flood but were instantly dragged into the water by hands suddenly emerging from the depths—the water clones Haseo had left behind, like water spirits refusing to release their prey until dragging each foe to the bottom of the pool.
"Smoke screen!"
Haseo's calm voice rang out. Immediately afterwards, several smoke bombs dropped down from above at the perfect timing, releasing thick and suffocating purple smoke that rapidly spread through the alley.
Inside the smoke, invisible to anyone, Haseo faced off against numerous enemies.
Screams of pain, groans of agony, roars of rage — followed by the clang of steel and flashes of blue lightning dancing through the smoke. But within moments, everything quieted again.
When the smoke cleared, only Haseo and one enemy remained… if one ignored the corpse impaled against the wall by multiple kunai, already dead.
All remaining enemies had sunk beneath the water.
Drip, drip—drops of blood dripped constantly from Haseo onto the water surface. He raised the short sword in his hand, noticing that its edge had become jagged from repeated strikes and parries.
Slowly, he sheathed the blade at his waist and stood quietly.
The residual scent of smoke bombs did nothing to cover the thick metallic odor of blood in the air. Blood spewing from enemy bodies floating on the Water Release terrain created speckled patterns, first forming light red patches then getting washed away by the currents.
Haseo stood atop this water surface facing the last remaining enemy.
Just like how Haseo had been at the start of his journey, this Amegakure ninja was merely a child. His kunai wavered in the air toward Haseo, shaking with fear—terror was all the young ninja could feel now.
"The ninja named Tanuki… Do you know where he is?
Oh… You don't know."
Haseo's voice carried absolutely no emotional fluctuation. He'd meant to get some intel from the enemy, yet answered his own question before finishing the sentence.
As for the location of Amegakure's leader, not a trace of concern crossed his mind.
Step by step, Haseo approached the young enemy. Petrified by his icy aura, the boy couldn't even bring himself to turn around and run away.
Haseo extended one hand toward him. Along the way, it paused ever so slightly, yet ultimately reached for the opponent.
A ninja walks ten paces in silence, leaving no footprints for a thousand miles behind.
A ninja carves flesh thin, cooks it well done—feasts like marshland pythons devouring prey.
The enemy with a snapped neck slowly sank to the bottom of the water. Only after the ripples vanished did Haseo finally draw back his outstretched hand, held motionless in the air.
What difference was there between killing such a ninja and killing himself?
Haseo believed the only distinction between him and his just-deceased opponent amounted to two mere fates—one being fortune, the other misfortune.
Morning sunlight sliced diagonally into the narrow alley. Half his figure bathed in illumination while the other half hid in shadows—the bright side as pale as transparency itself, the dark side like thick, unbreakable oil.
Despite creating this carnage, Haseo's presence felt ethereal, almost vanishing entirely. No one could grasp hold of him now—he moved like a Shinigami wandering between light and darkness.
Amegakure ninjas bravely pursued intruders, then… wiped out in an instant.
Watching the battle unfold from above, Jiraiya and Tsunade were forced to admit Orochimaru's foresight… Indeed, they shouldn't have approached Haseo now because the chilling atmosphere radiating from him made their bones shiver.
"Just consider this captain-level business alone—I hope Amegakure won't escalate this beyond individual accountability."
Only Orochimaru could still say something like that right now.
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