"Oh? Not bad at all. To think you could actually match Lord Hidan in raw strength."
Hidan looked at Kirito with open surprise. "Hey, brat. Tell me your name."
Failing to overpower Kirito physically clearly caught him off guard. Although Hidan didn't pride himself on brute strength, anyone chosen by Akatsuki was, without exception, a genuine Kage-level powerhouse. Even among Kage-class shinobi, his overall attributes were never lacking.
There were plenty of people in the shinobi world stronger than him, but a kid who looked no older than fourteen or fifteen?
That was a first.
Kirito gave him a flat look.
"That question is stupid. Let me ask you instead, why are you two here, lying in wait at this spot? Who exactly is your target?"
"Huh?" Hidan blinked. "I ask your name and you start spouting nonsense, "
Then it clicked.
He whipped his head toward Kakuzu and shouted,
"Hyūga Kirito?! Hey, Kakuzu! This brat, is he the target we're looking for?!"
Kakuzu narrowed his eyes and examined Kirito carefully before nodding slightly.
"Black hair, black eyes. The appearance matches the intel. And Hidan, during a fight, don't ever take your eyes off your opponent."
"Tch~ you're way too cautious, Kakuzu." Hidan waved it off lazily.
"A kid like this, so what if he's got a bit of strength? You think Lord Hidan can't deal with some punk?"
In his eyes, Kirito was still just a kid. Surprising strength aside, Hidan simply didn't believe he could lose to someone this young.
Click.
But when Hidan turned back,
Kirito was already holding a silver metallic grip in his left hand, calmly aiming it straight at Hidan's head.
"Heh? What's this thing?"
BANG!
A deafening explosion rang out.
Blood sprayed violently from Hidan's forehead as his body was struck by an invisible, overwhelming force, sent flying backward like he'd been hit by a battering ram.
"Hm?!"
Kakuzu's eyes narrowed sharply. "That was-?!"
Without stop, Kirito shifted the still-smoking barrel and aimed at Kakuzu.
BANG!
Kakuzu's pupils contracted. A stabbing sense of danger made his scalp go numb. Decades of combat-honed instinct kicked in instantly as he raised his arm to block.
SPLASH!
Blood burst forth.
"…!"
Kakuzu slowly lowered his arm. The hand he had used to block was mangled, flesh torn open and soaked in blood. In his palm lay a thumb-sized metal slug, radiating intense heat.
"A terrifying concealed weapon," Kakuzu said calmly, eyes fixed on the unfamiliar silver device in Kirito's hand.
"So this sharp projectile is fired from that mechanism?"
Before the thought could finish-
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Three shots rang out in rapid succession.
This time, fully prepared, Kakuzu reacted with astonishing speed, raising his arms to intercept all three bullets.
His gaze dropped to the deeply embedded slugs in his hardened arm, and he couldn't help but wonder.
"Both speed and power are top-tier. If I hadn't prepared in advance, this arm of mine would've been crippled."
Kirito frowned slightly.
Kakuzu truly lived up to his reputation, old, crafty, and absurdly cautious. The moment Kirito dropped Hidan with a surprise shot, Kakuzu had already gone on full alert.
The first bullet worked only because of surprise. By the second volley, Kakuzu had already activated Earth Release: Hardening, massively boosting his defenses.
So this is the battle awareness of a Kage-level shinobi…
If sneak attacks no longer worked, frontal gunfire wouldn't be very effective either.
Five bullets had already been spent, the shot that floored Hidan, the ambush on Kakuzu, and the three-shot burst. The Desert Eagle's magazine held seven rounds.
Two bullets left.
In a fight against one Kage-level enemy, reloading would already be unrealistic. Against two?
Impossible.
In this world, Kirito classified firearms as assassination weapons. Without the right timing, they simply couldn't deliver decisive results. And unlike shuriken, guns couldn't be used freely as probing or suppressive tools, the ammunition was too limited.
As Kirito analyzed the situation, Kakuzu was doing the same.
Watching Kirito holster the Desert Eagle, Kakuzu thought calmly:
As expected. A weapon with that level of lethality can't be used endlessly. It has limitations, though I don't yet know what they are. My hardening technique can negate most of its damage, but the projectile speed is terrifying. I must always leave room to activate my defenses…
Kakuzu's gaze shifted to Hidan, who lay sprawled in a pool of blood.
"Hidan. Get up. Stop playing dead."
"Aiyo~ you really trust me, don't you, my dear partner Kakuzu."
Hidan stood up jokingly, one hand pressed against his bleeding forehead. His face, smeared with blood, looked grotesque and feral.
When he removed his hand, it became clear,
A thumb-wide strip of scalp, hair and all, had been neatly shaved off from his forehead, leaving a bald groove that split his hairstyle cleanly down the middle. The result was oddly comical.
"…."
But Kirito had no mood for jokes.
Facing two Kage-level enemies, he couldn't afford even the slightest carelessness.
Originally, that bullet was meant to enter through Hidan's glabella and exit the back of his skull. The massive kinetic energy released as the round passed through the brain should have caused the head to burst apart like a smashed watermelon.
Even for someone with Hidan's so-called "immortality," that would have meant instant incapacitation.
Yet at the critical moment, Hidan had tilted his head just enough. The bullet pierced the forehead, tore through the scalp, and exited from the crown.
I underestimated him…
Killing a Kage-level opponent in a single strike was never going to be that easy.
Now fully enraged, Hidan's eyes burned with vicious malice as he released his killing intent without restraint.
Grinning savagely, he said,
"A brat this annoying… I think it's time you learned what real despair and terror feel like."
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200 P.S = 1 Extra Chapters