"This… is this your Kekkei Genkai?"
The cigarette stick nearly slipped from the Third Hokage's lips. Watching Hidan stab himself through the chest yet continue standing, alive and cursing about the pain, was enough to shake even Sarutobi Hiruzen's calm.
The ability was undeniably twisted but was it useful? His brows furrowed. If this boy were ever captured on the battlefield, wouldn't he just become someone else's lab rat?
He exhaled slowly, shaking his head. "Even so… with only this ability, I cannot allow you into the Anbu. It's far too dangerous."
"Hey! Who said it was just this?!" Hidan gritted his teeth, yanking the black spear from his chest.
A gush of scarlet blood followed, dripping freely down his torso. Hiruzen's face twitched as he watched the boy grin through the wound.
"Your Kekkei Genkai has… more than one facet?" the Hokage asked, his curiosity piqued despite himself.
Some bloodline powers carried strange evolutions, the Sharingan, for instance, branching into the Mangekyō.
Could this boy's ability hide something equally rare?
"Yes. But…" Hidan hesitated, deliberately letting his voice trail off.
"If you have something to say, then speak." Hiruzen's voice hardened, though not unkindly.
"With Tsunade's trust behind you, I'll give you that same trust."
Hidan smirked. "Well, my strongest attack is a curse. It needs the enemy's blood as a medium. Once I have it, any injury I inflict upon myself… they'll suffer the same."
Hiruzen froze. His pipe nearly fell from his fingers. "What? A technique like that exists?" His eyes narrowed sharply. "Are you sure you're not lying to me, boy?"
It was a natural reaction. In the wide shinobi world, even with all the bloodlines and forbidden jutsu Hiruzen had seen, this was unheard of.
No such power existed...not in his knowledge, not even in the forbidden scrolls.
Hidan only chuckled at the doubt. "Knew you'd make that face, old man."
"It's not that I doubt you without cause," Hiruzen muttered. "But you are… peculiar. Immortality alone already places you on par with the First Hokage's wood release in terms of survival."
"And now you claim this 'curse'? Even for the Professor of Ninjutsu… I've never encountered anything like it."
The boy's grin widened. "Then let me prove it. Old man, what's your relationship with Danzō?"
"…Very bad," Hiruzen admitted after a pause, his voice low. His disapproval of Danzō's growing ruthlessness was no secret anymore.
If not for the burden of the Hokage's chair, perhaps Danzō would have long since tried to usurp him openly.
"That makes it easy then."
Hidan stooped, retrieving his Bloody March Scythe from where it had fallen earlier. Spinning it once, he rested it on his shoulder and grinned at the Hokage.
"During that fight at the gate, I traded injuries with one of Danzō's lackeys—Fū, from the Yamanaka clan. I already have his blood.
With my curse, I can take him out. That weakens Danzō and might even stir trouble between him and the Yamanaka. Who knows? He might even be blamed for the man's death."
He laughed grimly. "And the beauty of it? No one will ever see the wound. Fū will just drop dead.
"And when it comes to people dying mysteriously under Danzō's command… well, that happens all the time, doesn't it?"
Hidan's ability in the anime was insanely overpowered. That's exactly why Kishimoto had to "nerf" him by making Hidan dumb, cocky, and obsessed with rituals instead of being tactical.
His curse technique works even across distance.
As long as Hidan has your blood, he can drink it, step into his ritual circle, and whatever he does to himself will happen to you.
So even if you run far away, once the ritual starts, you're already dead.
Sarutobi's eyes narrowed. He didn't like hearing such cold pragmatism from a child but his mind was already turning.
Danzō has gone too far. If his arrogance can be checked even slightly, maybe it's worth it…
At last, the Hokage gave a small nod. "…Do it."
Hidan's grin widened. "Don't mind if I do."
He drove the scythe into his leg without hesitation. Blood spilled, running down to the dirt.
With his foot, he smeared the crimson liquid into a circle, carefully sketching the triangular mark within.
The cursed sigil flared to life.
Black lines snaked up his skin, twisting over his limbs, painting his flesh in the grotesque pattern of his faith. A suffocating aura filled the clearing, heavy with malice and the stench of death.
Hiruzen's eyes widened slightly despite himself. He could feel the power in it, something primal and alien, beyond anything his decades of shinobi knowledge had prepared him for.
Then Hidan laughed. A deep, manic laugh that clawed at the air. "Hahaha… Danzō. Consider this my little gift to you."
He raised the black spear, then plunged it straight through his chest once more. His heart shuddered, his body jolting, blood erupting...
--
And somewhere far below Konoha, in the hidden chambers of Root, Yamanaka Fū suddenly clutched at his chest.
At the Root base, Torune Aburame was reporting details of their earlier fight. Fū stood nearby, recounting his failure with the Mind Body Switch technique.
"…Just when I was about to seize him, I felt it," Fū muttered, his face uneasy.
"This heavy sense of danger… the same as when I nearly died on a mission ambush. It was as if—"
He broke off, his eyes bulging.
"Fū?" Torune stepped forward, alarmed.
The Yamanaka gasped, clutched his chest and collapsed with a thud that echoed across the chamber.
"Fū!"
Torune dropped to his knees, hands shaking as he reached for his comrade.
But no matter how he checked, there was no pulse, no breath. His friend of many years had fallen silent, just like that.
Danzō's single visible eye widened. For a heartbeat, even he was rattled. Then his mind snapped back into motion.
"Check his body! Look for toxins!"
"Yes, Danzo-sama."
Torune extended his hand, releasing a stream of nano-insects into Fū's corpse. The parasites swarmed, probing every cell of the lifeless body.
A long moment passed. Finally, Torune looked up, face twisted with grief and confusion. "Lord Danzō… he wasn't poisoned."
"Damn it!" Danzō slammed his cane against the ground, fury etched into every line of his face.
If Fū had been poisoned, the matter would have been simple. Root could control the story.
But this? An elite of the Yamanaka clan dead without cause, under his very nose? They would demand answers.
He couldn't forge evidence. To inject poison after the fact would betray his remaining operatives' trust. And if the truth was exposed...that he had killed his own subordinate, it would ruin him.
His gaze darkened. "Mobilize all Root operatives. I want every lead checked. Especially that silver-haired brat. He is not what he seems."
Torune bowed low, though his hands trembled. "…Yes."
As the orders spread, Danzō stood in the shadows of his lair, seething. Someone had dared to frame him, dared to strike at his authority.
His eye narrowed dangerously. "…It's time to speak with Orochimaru."
His figure melted into the darkness, leaving behind only the silent corpse of Fū.
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