"Hashiro... you go first. If it's just you alone, there's still a chance you can escape. I'll stay behind and buy you a little time." Chichio and Yatsumi inhaled deeply before speaking.
Surrounded by this massive trap, she had long accepted that escape was impossible—and had already steeled herself for death. And if her sacrifice could buy Hashiro even a bit more time, then her life would carry that much more meaning.
"Chichio, don't overthink it. Leave it to me to handle. We're now inside the enemy's barrier, and unlike our previous encounter in the Land of Rain, the barrier constructed by Kumo definitely won't be easy enough for us to find any weaknesses." Hashiro replied. He found Chichio's resolve touching, but completely meaningless.
Chichio gritted her teeth—Hashiro's words made sense. But under these circumstances, the only path left to her, if she didn't want to become a burden during the upcoming fight, was—self-sacrifice.
Yet as soon as she pulled out a kunai and pressed it against her neck, Hashiro's hand landed on her wrist... Without even turning his head, he had already guessed what Chichio intended to do.
"I told you not to overthink things. This battle ahead is actually a test deliberately arranged for me. And if you die within my trial, your death will become her sin. I don't want something like that happening... Trust me, I will win.
A single legendary victory that echoes across the world—doesn't that sound amazing?"
Hashiro calling Kumo's trap a test arranged by Sansho was clearly a stretch, yet after hearing Hashiro speak this way, Chichio hesitated and finally lowered the kunai in her hand.
"Katsuyu."
"Yes, Lord Hashiro."
The slug atop Hashiro's shoulder jumped onto Chichio's body.
"You don't need to think about fighting anymore or support me either. Just run, evade, and survive. Just hold your breath, and you'll live."
Chichio nodded, memorizing Hashiro's instructions, then said, "I'll keep my teeth clenched tight."
Hashiro glanced at her and said, "Just don't say those two lines back-to-back like that—it creeps me out."
Chichio didn't quite get what Hashiro meant, but carrying Katsuyu, she followed his instructions and began moving toward the edge of the barrier.
To the enemy, this was a futile effort; there was absolutely no way she could break through the barrier. Her escape attempt now amounted to nothing more than dying one minute earlier or slightly later. So the Kumo shinobi simply ignored her actions.
Renjiro seemed like he wanted to say something, but eventually only opened and closed his mouth without uttering a word.
Then, Hashiro leapt down from the tree trunk. Staring directly at the Kumo ninja before him, he said,
"If this is really a final exam, then anything less than a perfect score just doesn't sit right. However, considering how many of you there are, one point per person... my score probably barely reaches eighty points.
That's a little disappointing.
But regardless, all of you will end up dead here."
The Kumo shinobi exchanged glances in disbelief. One man taking on an elite squad of Kumo ninja and actually thinking he could counterattack and kill them all?
"Haseo, what's your plan?"
Only Renjiro still managed to ask Haseo this question so seriously.
"Spiritually speaking, we march out ready to die, not to retreat in shame. Strategically? We break their forces, shatter their techniques, and strike fear into their hearts... To put it plainly: A man's word is his bond. I said I'd kill your whole family, so I will."
As he spoke, Haseo began forming hand seals.
[Ninjutsu: Summoning Jutsu!]
One after another, small-sized slugs appeared beside Haseo, but they were immediately unsummoned and returned to Shikkotsu Forest. Finally, only Katsuyu remained on Haseo's body.
Initially, the enemies didn't understand what Haseo was doing. But by the time they realized, it was already too late—he had completed his battle preparations.
"His chakra... it has suddenly increased about twenty times compared to just now," one Kumo shinobi remarked.
Haseo reclaimed his chakra from Katsuyu, and this sudden surge immediately put his body into extremely poor condition.
He rolled up his sleeve, and as expected, the black marks appeared again on the spots where he had been struck by the Sage of the Six Paths' ninja tools. The dark traces reappeared and rapidly spread throughout his body.
This indicated that his body was being corroded by its own chakra, though something seemed slightly strange... Normally if someone had excessive power stuffed inside them, they should have great difficulty controlling that power.
But with Haseo, it was somewhat the opposite—currently possessing an unprecedentedly vast amount of chakra, despite having been forcibly filled to the brim, his control over this chakra hadn't decreased at all; quite the contrary, it had reached an unprecedented level of precision. He couldn't help but admit—it actually felt exquisite.
"Lord Haseo, are you going to use...those jutsu?" asked Katsuyu, the last slug left on his body.
"Yes. We've already reached a desperate situation, leaving me no choice. Although I currently have abundant chakra, it's nothing compared to a Tailed Beast. So in the battle ahead, every drop counts."
Meanwhile, after fleeing far enough away, Chichio finally had time to look back toward where Haseo stood.
"What is Haseo trying to do?"
She murmured softly to herself, surprised when receiving a response from the slug.
"Outstanding ninja often pursue powerful Ninjutsu, yet ultimately top-tier ninjas always return to studying the essence of chakra itself. Lord Haseo is exactly such a ninja... Indeed, he's a remarkably talented ninja." said the slug.
Whether or not there was flattery intended within the slug's words remained unknown, but Haseo himself admitted it wasn't quite that exaggerated. Facing powerful enemies with superior numbers, he had no choice but to abandon his speed advantages and composite jutsu, resorting directly to forbidden techniques.
The so-called forbidden techniques always have their reasons for being called "forbidden."
Haseo formed a series of hand seals, and then intense chakra began to surge from his body, similar to the chakra cloak of Nine-Tails.
"Generally speaking, my naming logic for Ninjutsu is: the longer the name, the greater its power..."
However, at this point, one Kumo shinobi had clearly grown tired of Haseo's nostalgic rambling, cryptic behavior, and showboating. Wasn't there just a single enemy here? Why not just kill him already? He didn't understand why the village had prepared such an enormous operation.
Therefore, he charged straight toward the enemy.
No one stopped this ninja. Although Renjiro had stressed that Haseo was a powerful opponent, everyone now felt they needed to test his strength firsthand.
But this rash attacker had misunderstood an important truth—many believed only arrogant ninjas could become the greatest, but in reality, it was quite the opposite: only the strongest had the right to be arrogant.
So the question arises: was this ninja brave enough to charge headfirst into battle against an unknown enemy considered an excellent ninja? Did he deserve arrogance?
Faced with the charging enemy, Haseo acted without hesitation. He spun around and swept out a single leg—not particularly fast, not especially forceful—but striking the attacker squarely in the abdomen.
Then, as though struck by a 460mm cannon shell, the enemy flew backward at hundreds of times the speed he'd charged in—along the exact same path.
Now, he finally understood why Kumo had launched such a massive operation—for just a single ninja.
He slammed into and crushed two or three teammates on his way back, then flew across a long distance in an instant and crashed directly into the outermost barrier. Then, with a dull *plop*, his entire body exploded into a mist of blood.
"Don't rush so much. Listen to me finish what I'm saying. My naming rule is this: the longer the technique's name, the greater its power. For example, the jutsu I'm currently using is called...
[Control Chakra Mode: Earth Release · Heaven's Perilous Rush · Sundering Phantom Moon]."
Since this was an "exam," Haseo wanted to clearly let his opponent know what his response was.
"The hymn of mankind is a hymn of courage—but clearly not your kind. You... seem rather tone-deaf. The sound of your explosion wasn't very pleasant."
As Haseo spoke, the group of Kumo shinobi slowly turned their heads toward the barrier. There, aside from an evenly dispersed, beautiful crimson mist, nothing else remained.
If one didn't already know, no one would believe that mere seconds ago that mist had been a top-tier ninja.
But then again... would someone who sang beautifully also explode beautifully?
Who knows? But the answer to the previous question had already become clear: Was the first ninja to charge at Haseo an elite? Did he have the right to be arrogant?
The answer? A resounding no.
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