The blood shadow screamed through the air, aimed straight at Chen Yu's throat.
He could even feel the edge of the blood scythe itself. The cold sharpness of it made the hair on the back of his neck stand on end, utterly beyond his control.
"Die!"
Hidan's violet-crimson pupils were consumed by madness. At this distance, no one in the entire shinobi world—save for the King—could possibly dodge this. Not even someone who had mastered time-based ninjutsu.
Even Kakuzu, watching from the side, couldn't help but let the tension bleed out of him. He almost felt foolish for having taken this stranger so seriously just moments ago.
He had thought this was some terrifying powerhouse. An enemy worth respecting. As it turned out, the man was just a fool.
From here on, even if this fellow somehow survived Hidan's strike without dying, he would certainly be wounded. And once he was wounded, there was only one road left for him.
And yet—what happened next made both Hidan and Kakuzu's expressions shift violently.
Chen Yu stood perfectly still. Facing Hidan's attack, not a single muscle in his face moved. His body didn't budge an inch. He simply watched, with calm detachment, as the blood scythe came down upon his neck.
"Clink."
A sound rang out—like metal striking metal. It wasn't loud, but it reverberated through Hidan's and Kakuzu's minds like a bolt of lightning.
How was this possible?
How could a human body be this hard?
No—that wasn't right.
Kakuzu stared, eyes locked on the point where the scythe met Chen Yu's neck. There, a layer of black substance covered the skin—a substance that looked like steel itself.
What was that?
"A pitiful amount of power."
Chen Yu registered the sensation of Armed Haki against his neck and spoke with a tinge of disappointment.
"This doesn't even measure up to a swordsman's slash. Kage-level shouldn't be limited to this degree."
"Oh—I forgot."
"Setting aside your bizarre methods, your actual strength isn't much stronger than an ordinary jonin."
"After all, your greatest talent is still taking punishment."
It wasn't surprising that Hidan couldn't break through, though. Chen Yu's Armed Haki had been developed to an extraordinarily deep stage. To pierce his defenses, one would need to be at least Admiral or Four Emperors caliber.
The stronger he grew, the fewer opponents remained. The battles capable of stirring any real excitement in him could now only be found in memory.
The most vivid battle from his time in the One Piece World was his brutal clash with Kaido—one of the Four Emperors.
It had been a war between monsters. Both sides had pushed their bodies and Haki to the absolute limit. At the time, Chen Yu had already consumed the Dark-Dark Fruit, the Quake-Quake Fruit, and the Rumble-Rumble Fruit, and had developed all three to a considerable degree.
But Kaido's mastery of the Azure Dragon Fruit ran deeper than Chen Yu's command of any single Devil Fruit he possessed.
In terms of raw attack power, he had surpassed Kaido. But in regeneration and sheer physical toughness, he truly could not match him.
That battle had dragged on for an extraordinarily long time. In the later stages, Chen Yu had even been driven back and overpowered by Kaido—but in the end, he had still won.
He killed Kaido and plundered the power of the Azure Dragon Fruit.
From that point forward, his body grew ever mightier, and he became a being without a single flaw.
Though there were certainly individuals within the Navy who surpassed Kaido in strength, by that point Chen Yu had already overtaken them all. It was precisely because of that—the sheer pressure of the fight, the closeness of the contest—that Kaido left a far deeper impression on him than any other opponent.
With his current physique, bolstered by Armed Haki, even if he simply stood still and let Hidan strike at him all day, the man would never break through his defenses.
Compared to other Kage-level fighters, the only things that truly set Hidan apart were his eerily bizarre methods and his undying body. Had he not been so recklessly impulsive—had he been even a little more cautious—there would be precious few in the current shinobi world he couldn't kill.
At the very least, the Kage-level fighters of the five great ninja villages, if they had no prior knowledge of his abilities, would pose no meaningful threat to him.
Chen Yu's memory of the Naruto World wasn't all that detailed after so many years in the One Piece World. But Hidan's curse—he remembered that clearly enough. All it required was using the blood scythe to obtain the target's blood, and the curse could be activated.
If there were no time constraint, he could exploit this against his enemies with ease. Simply obtain their blood, leave immediately, and then wait for the right moment to carry out the curse at his leisure. The target's death wouldn't even be traced back to him—let alone lead anyone to guess his ability.
Even with a time constraint, there was no need to perform the curse in the target's presence. Doing so would be tantamount to handing them the answer on a silver platter.
Chen Yu shook his head. The Evil God's Curse was admittedly interesting in its own right—but it offered him nothing of practical use.
Hidan stared at Chen Yu, utterly unscathed, then looked down at his own scythe. A dumbfounded expression spread across his face.
What was going on?
His strike—the one he had been absolutely certain would land—couldn't even break through the man's defenses?
This was a joke, right?
Could a human body really be this hard?
Still, one failed strike was not about to shake him. He pulled back swiftly to Kakuzu's side and muttered under his breath:
"What the hell is this guy's deal? Did you see anything?"
"No."
Kakuzu's voice was cold, and the wariness in his chest had been ratcheted to its absolute limit.
"What I can confirm is that he used some kind of secret technique we don't understand—one that can form an extremely powerful protective layer on the surface of the skin. But just now, I didn't sense a single fluctuation of chakra."
"This technique is deeply strange. It may very well not be ninjutsu at all. Be careful."
Hidan's expression shifted at that. If it wasn't ninjutsu, that meant it had nothing to do with chakra—which in turn meant it could be used without limit. If that was the case, it was far too effective a counter to his own abilities.
His power, formidable as it was, still depended on using his scythe to draw the target's blood. If the enemy's defenses were this impenetrable, that became a far less friendly situation for him.
"Besides that—do you have any other tricks up your sleeve?"
Chen Yu folded his hands behind his back, watching Kakuzu and Hidan with an unhurried gaze.
He had only just arrived in the Naruto World. Though the plot still lingered in the back of his mind, anime and reality were two very different things. He wanted to see for himself—the ninjutsu, the taijutsu, and the genjutsu of this world.
Especially the genjutsu.
For a long time, people had speculated on whether the Naruto World's genjutsu could have any effect on individuals from the One Piece World. Whether Observation Haki and Conqueror's Haki—both intimately tied to spiritual power—could resist the encroachment of genjutsu.
He naturally believed that genjutsu would prove ineffective against those with powerful spiritual fortitude. Particularly those whose Observation Haki and Conqueror's Haki had been honed to exceptional levels.
But belief without experimentation was merely speculation. Speculation carried no weight.
Kakuzu and Hidan, after all, were both Kage-level powerhouses—and strong ones at that, even among their peers. The former possessed five hearts and could switch between them at will. The latter wielded an undying body and methods that bordered on the supernatural. Their combination would give Chen Yu a far clearer picture of the shinobi world's highest tier of combat power.
But at this moment, both Kakuzu and Hidan were simply watching him with wary eyes. Neither had any intention of moving—not out of a desire to strike back, but out of pure, calculated caution. Chen Yu took this in, and spoke with a note of mild disappointment:
"Very well."
"I had intended to let you live a little longer. But since you have no interest in making your move—you might as well die."
"BOOM—"
(End of Chapter)