Asayu once heard an elite Jonin from his village say that if a blade is fast enough, the sound of blood spraying from the wound is like the whistling of the wind—a beautiful sound.
Since becoming a shinobi, Asayu had killed or witnessed the deaths of hundreds, if not thousands, of people. He had never actually heard it. He'd eventually dismissed the claim as nothing more than the poetic ramblings of a swordsman.
But today, he finally heard it. That melodic, wind-like whistle.
It truly was a beautiful sound.
It was just a shame that the first time he heard it, the blood was his own.
Thud.
With a fountain of red erupting from his throat, Asayu collapsed, his strength deserting him for the final time.
Huff... huff... huff...
Three meters away, Hatani leaned forward, gasping for air. His head throbbed with a sharp, pulsing pain.
Three meters.
That was the absolute limit of his current ability to manifest a Wind Blade sharp enough to slice through a human windpipe.
According to his plan, he should have waited until he was at least half a meter closer before striking. Unfortunately, Asayu's seal-weaving speed was faster than he had anticipated, and vaulting over Nawaki's water pillar had cost him precious seconds.
When he saw the Chunin on the verge of completing the Earth Style jutsu, Hatani had been forced to push his mental focus to the breaking point. He had gambled everything on the wind.
His brain was screaming from the sudden spike in mental exertion, but it had worked. He was faster. The wind was faster. He had slit Asayu's throat just heartbeats before the Earth Spikes could turn him into a pin-cushion, causing the jutsu to die in its caster's hands.
"Asayu? Lord Asayu? He's... he's dead?"
Though the only Chunin of the group was gone, their troubles were far from over. In fact, a much larger crisis was just beginning.
Without Asayu to suppress them, the three Ame Genin—witnesses to their leader's sudden execution—no longer had any intention of capturing the Leaf ninja. They were terrified. If even one of them escaped to report their location, Hatani and Nawaki would face a village-wide manhunt.
"Nawaki! Don't let a single one get away!"
Seeing the three Genin turn tail and sprint into the darkness, Hatani ignored his exhaustion. He lunged forward like an arrow, chasing the nearest target.
The Rain ninja had been thoroughly broken by Asayu's death. They didn't even think of counter-attacking; they simply ran for their lives.
Hatani, his head swimming with nausea and pain, managed to catch and kill his target, but that was the end of his strength. He slumped against the trunk of an Umbrella Tree, closing his eyes to recover his shattered mental focus. He prayed his brain hadn't suffered permanent damage from the overexertion.
Tormented by the migraine, he didn't notice that Akiren—who had hidden at the start of the fight—hadn't fled.
Instead, the boy was slowly creeping toward the back of the tree Hatani leaned against, his knuckles white as he gripped a scavenged shuriken.
Fury, self-reproach, and bitter regret.
Beneath the canopy of another Umbrella Tree miles away, Tsunade's heart was a boiling cauldron of emotion as she treated Dan Kato's wounds.
Beside her, Dan Kato's face was a perfect match for his hair—pale, ghostly, and drained of all color. His flak jacket was a ruin of black-and-red gore. Wounds littered his chest, back, and shoulders, but the most horrific injury was his right arm; the limb was gone entirely from the elbow down.
Tsunade looked just as battered. Her golden hair was a tangled mess, singed by fire in several places. Her flak jacket was shredded and stained with the blood of her comrades.
But at least they were alive.
Gekko Kyofu had sacrificed himself to take down a puppet master during the breakout. Kurama Sei, the Genjutsu master, had been overwhelmed by five puppet masters and thirteen puppets. He had been dismembered in the mud.
Tsunade and Dan had only escaped because Tsunade used Katsuyu's division ability to hide them among her clones, scattering in different directions to confuse their pursuers.
After a night of frantic fleeing, Tsunade had finally paused to stabilize Dan.
"Tsunade... stop," Dan Kato whispered as he regained consciousness. His first instinct was to push her away. "Leave me. Go... before Suna finds us."
Having loved Tsunade for so long, he was more than willing to trade his life for hers. In his eyes, a shinobi who had lost his sword arm was a liability. If Suna caught up, he would only slow her down. It was better for her to conserve her chakra and escape while she still could. A Sannin of her caliber stood a much better chance of reaching the camp alone.
"No. I am a medical ninja. I will not abandon a teammate," Tsunade said, her voice hard with resolve.
"Besides... we were ambushed because of me. If I hadn't been so stubborn, so desperate to find Nawaki, I wouldn't have walked into Parashia's trap. I wouldn't have dragged you all into this."
She was far too brilliant not to have realized the truth by now. The "leak" from the Suna camp was a lure, and she had swallowed the hook whole. The weight of that realization crushed her.
"Sei is dead. Kyofu is... we don't even know. I will not lose my last remaining companion."
Tsunade looked at Dan, her expression brooking no further argument.
"Fine," Dan whispered, yielding for now. But deep in his heart, he had already made a choice.
"Why did you hesitate?"
At the base of the Umbrella Tree, Hatani opened his eyes. He looked up at Akiren, who stood over him with a raised shuriken, his hand trembling as he failed to strike.
Hatani's emotions were a tangled mess. One part of him almost wished the boy had struck; then, Hatani could have killed him without a second thought. But another part of him was relieved.
Deep down, he didn't want to kill this boy—an innocent victim caught in the cogs of a war he never asked for. Akiren was a child who hadn't yet been fully warped by the era, still possessing a flicker of purity. To kill him felt like a betrayal of Hatani's own soul, even if the boy had just betrayed them.
"I... I..."
Meeting Hatani's gaze, Akiren seemed to lose all the strength in his legs. He collapsed to his knees, covering his eyes as he began to sob.
"I'm useless, aren't I?"
"I watched my parents get murdered by ninja wearing those leaf-patterned headbands... but I was too scared to do anything. I was so afraid of making a sound that I bit my own hand until it bled..."
"When I realized you were the same as the people who killed them, I didn't think of revenge. I just thought... don't make them mad. Follow them. Stay alive..."
"But when you threw me away again, I felt it for the first time. The rage. The hate. I hated you! If you were just going to leave me, why did you save me in the first place?!"
"But I hate myself more," Akiren wailed, his voice breaking. "Because when you killed that Rain ninja... deep down, I felt relieved. I was happy."
Akiren curled into a ball in the mud, weeping his heart out. Listening to him, Hatani felt a profound sense of melancholy.
He looked up at the weeping sky and cursed under his breath once more.
"This damn world!"
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