"Ayame Doll… In a distant village, there was a little girl named Ayame. Because she met a very bad child, she was saved in the end, and became a hero. Ayame… Ayame…"
This was obviously directed at Shigeo.
The "bad child"? Redemption? From them? How laughable!
The only reason Shigeo hadn't acted yet was because he wasn't certain if Ayame was truly in their hands.
Although this dock had been sealed off, passenger ships would still occasionally stop here.
At that moment, a ship pulled into the port. A group of people disembarked, two children tugging at their parents' sleeves and rushing to the old woman.
"Mom, toys! I want this doll…"
The old woman frowned at the sight, then glanced in Shigeo's direction.
He had vanished.
Angrily, she stood up and looked around, but there was no trace of Shigeo. She grabbed the machete at her side. Passengers, startled by the sight, screamed and scattered in all directions.
"Where is he?" the old woman shouted. They had been ordered to guard this place for three months, waiting for Shigeo to appear so they could capture him and bring him to Orochimaru. Yet, the moment he showed himself, he disappeared!
"Here!"
Suddenly, a black rift opened in the air, and Mokuton (Wood Release) surged forth, piercing through the old woman's chest. The other two rushed forward, but in the next instant, Shigeo unleashed Senpū Ran Jin (Thousand Wind Blades), sending countless blades whirling in every direction.
The two men were horrified.
Didn't Orochimaru-sama say he only knew genjutsu and no ninjutsu?
He left Konoha just three months ago—how could he have grown this strong already? Could Orochimaru-sama have been wrong?!
But it was too late. As they tried to dodge, the storm of blades tore into their bodies. Their eyes went dull, blood spraying as their lives ended instantly.
And just like that, both Shigeo and the old woman were gone from the scene.
Earlier, the three had tried to guard against Shigeo's genjutsu by constantly disturbing their own chakra flow, hoping to land a decisive strike. They never expected to be struck down so decisively instead.
Inside a different space, the old woman was still clutching her machete, skewered upon Mokuton, blood gushing out.
"Ayame doll?" Shigeo closed his eyes as he walked across the pristine white space, staring at the old man before him. "Was it Danzō or Orochimaru?"
"You don't need to know…"
"Is that so?" Shigeo raised his hand, fingers brushing the man's body. "Shōton – Shinkei Danshoku Shōka (Crystal Release – Neural Disruption Crystallization)."
Over the past three months, he hadn't learned new jutsu, but he had refined the ones he already knew, developing numerous variations. Shōton – Jintai Shōka (Crystal Release – Human Body Crystallization) was one of them.
By controlling chakra, he could induce partial crystallization inside a target's body—heart, brain, muscles, blood, or nerves.
In his experiments on small animals, crystallizing the nerves was the most painful. Few could endure it.
"I'll talk! I'll talk! It was Orochimaru! Kill me if you want!" the old man, a shinobi from Otogakure, pleaded desperately. "We never captured Ayame, we couldn't even enter Konoha. Believe me! Please, don't kill me… My granddaughter is still in Orochimaru's hands. If I don't bring you back alive, he'll kill her. I had no choice!"
The man then spilled everything about Orochimaru's schemes.
After being forced out of Konoha, Orochimaru's hatred for Shigeo only deepened. Over the past three months, he had continuously sent subordinates to gather information. He learned that Tsunade had taken Shigeo away from Konoha and pursued them, but eventually lost their trail near Qitian Port.
Later, Tsunade and Shizune reappeared in Konoha, which confirmed his suspicion—they would regroup here at Qitian. Thus, Orochimaru's men waited in ambush for months.
The Ayame trick was Orochimaru's idea. He said if a child reacted strangely to the name, that would reveal Shigeo.
Indeed, their target had appeared—but they failed.
"I beg you, spare me!" the old man pleaded.
"Pfft…" The Shōton crystallization ended, but Mokuton surged forward again, and blood poured from his mouth and nose.
"You just said you couldn't enter Konoha. That proves you intended to target Ayame. And people who don't even spare an ordinary child—why should I spare you?" Shigeo said coldly.
"Please… save my granddaughter. Otogakure is innocent too…"
The man's body went pale, life slipping away.
"In this world, who is innocent?" Shigeo scoffed, casting the corpse into the sea through dimensional transfer.
He wandered far from home, hunted by adults while still a child. To survive, he had to grow stronger and stronger. Even bijū, he had to clone and rear. Orochimaru had already tried to kill him three times. Who would he hold accountable? Who would save him—who would save this world?
This was a cursed world. If you could not become strong, you had to endure unbearable pain.
Not just small villages like Otogakure or Amegakure— even great ones like Konoha, Kumogakure, and Iwagakure still sent their children to the battlefield.
And what about those children kidnapped by Orochimaru for experiments? Many were Shigeo's age, some even younger. Who ever spoke for them? Even after Orochimaru defected and the experiments ended, people only cursed him for his cruelty. And yet?
Those who died could never return. Worse, when Orochimaru earned merit in the Fourth Shinobi War, the Five Great Villages forgave his past sins. How disgusting.
Who cried out for those children? Who sought justice for them? If Shigeo had been killed, his eyes stolen and his body discarded in the wilderness, Konoha might never have even noticed his disappearance.
Only Ayame, Yugao, and a few friends in the village who disapproved of him would have remembered his absence.
Thinking of this, Shigeo clenched his fists in rage. If he could endure until the Fourth War, if he could stand atop the shinobi world, then Orochimaru would never escape justice. Even if he lived, Shigeo would never let him be hailed as a hero.
Once more, Shigeo opened his system interface. Because there had been no mirrors to copy for three months, his system hadn't upgraded in all that time. He had to act.
(End of Chapter)
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