But she wasn't looking at Yuki Seisui at all.
Her gaze was fixed on the two figures hanging from the bamboo poles.
They were her son and her daughter-in-law.
Pakura, standing beside her, let out a quiet sigh. "My condolences."
She said nothing more. Any other words would have been meaningless—perhaps even making Chiyo's pain worse.
Chiyo stared fixedly at the corpses of her son and daughter-in-law. A thin line of tears slid down from the corner of her eyes.
But she quickly wiped them away.
"Damn those Leaf ninjas!"
With an enraged roar, Chiyo formed seals at lightning speed. In an instant, the Ten Puppets of Chikamatsu appeared before her.
Yuki Seisui's face was completely concealed beneath the golden chakra cloak, and he hadn't used any other Mangekyo abilities. Naturally, Chiyo didn't recognize him.
Amid the Sand Ninja defenses, Yuki Seisui rampaged freely. His hands never stopped moving—each sweeping strike sent over a dozen Sand Ninjas flying.
"Oh?" Seeing the Ten Puppets of Chikamatsu, Yuki Seisui broke into a smile and planted the two bamboo poles into the ground.
"Chiyo has finally arrived, huh?"
"Then let me show you the power of a god!"
Yuki Seisui didn't use ninjutsu. Relying solely on his golden chakra cloak, he charged straight toward the Ten Puppets of Chikamatsu
The surrounding Sand Ninjas were instantly overjoyed.
Daring to contest taijutsu with Elder Chiyo's Ten Puppets? This guy was courting death!
"So many Leaf geniuses…" Chiyo's eyes were bloodshot as she stared at the unfamiliar powerhouse. "One Yuki Seisui just fell, and now another appears!"
As for whether this man belonged to Konoha—she didn't need to think about it.
Her son and daughter-in-law had led a raid on Konoha, and now their bodies were in this man's hands. With the Sand and Konoha already at war, no one else would dare—or even be able—to attack the Sunagakure.
Eliminate all impossibilities, and the answer was obvious.
"You will never leave this place alive!" Chiyo snarled, teeth clenched.
Seeing this, Pakura shouted loudly, "Everyone, fall back!"
As soon as she spoke, three blazing fireballs emerged around her, revolving continuously as she charged toward Yuki Seisui.
Her Scorch Release wasn't suited for crowded battlefields.
Or more precisely—it wasn't suited for places with allies nearby.
Her Scorch Release could evaporate moisture from the human body, turning victims into dried corpses.
Once touched, death was inevitable.
That was why she ordered the Sand Ninjas to retreat.
"Excellent!" Yuki Seisui naturally noticed Pakura's movement and laughed loudly. "There truly are heroes everywhere in this world!"
"But even if you surround me, it will all be in vain!"
As he ran, Yuki Seisui clapped his hands together. A long blade engraved with dragon patterns appeared in his grip.
The instant Pakura saw that blade, her expression changed drastically.
She recognized it.
During Konoha's chunin Exams, this blade had left a deep impression on her.
Along with it—those two strangely shaped kunai wielded by that yellow, hedgehog-haired man.
All of them were powerful ninja tools capable of launching chakra slashes.
If she remembered correctly, this blade belonged to that person—
Pakura slowly spat out four words.
"Yu. Ki. Sei. Sui."
Yuki Seisui drew the blade and cleaved a puppet in two with a single strike before turning his gaze toward Pakura.
"Oh?"
"You actually recognize me."
"Even if you turned to ashes, I'd recognize you!" Pakura gritted her teeth.
"Not necessarily," Yuki Seisui chuckled, casually dodging a puppet's attack. "Let me guess."
"You didn't recognize me at first."
"But the moment I started using the blade, something changed."
"You recognized my sword, didn't you?"
"What a vengeful little Kazekage," Yuki Seisui pouted, wearing an infuriatingly smug expression.
"A Kazekage this petty… how terrifying~"
"I'm so scared~ Surely Kazekage-sama wouldn't want to kill me, right~?"
"Die!"
"Scorch Release: Super Steam Kill!" Pakura roared as the scorching fireballs around her traced bizarre arcs through the air, shooting toward Yuki Seisui.
Listening to their exchange, the hatred in Chiyo's eyes deepened even further.
"So it really is that innately evil Leaf brat!"
"This old woman will personally exterminate you!"
"I'm so scared~" Hearing Pakura and Chiyo's words, Yuki Seisui feigned fear, though his movements never slowed.
Out of the ten Chikamatsu Puppets, three had already been destroyed by him.
Pakura's Scorch Release fireballs closed in. Watching their strange trajectories, Yuki Seisui originally planned to dodge—but quickly realized that no matter where he moved, they would still hit him.
So he simply didn't dodge.
Just as Yuki Seisui prepared to take Pakura's Scorch Release head-on, he sensed someone attempting to remove the corpses from the bamboo poles.
His figure vanished instantly.
In the next moment, he appeared behind the Sand Ninja reaching for the bodies.
"Taking something without permission is theft—and I really hate thieves."
Hearing the voice behind him, the Sand Ninja froze and turned back in terror.
The moment he did, he met a pair of blood-red eyes.
In the next instant, his head separated from his body.
"Anyone who approaches this area—dies." Yuki Seisui casually drew a circle on the ground, enclosing the bamboo poles within it.
While he spoke, Pakura's fireballs and Chiyo's puppets struck simultaneously.
Seeing this, Yuki Seisui smiled faintly and raised his blade.
With a single slash, a massive chakra blade erupted from the sword—interwoven with five colors: green, white, blue, red, and black.
The colors had no fixed positions, constantly flowing across the blade's edge.
The black among them was the color of Yuki Seisui's Susanoo.
That single slash severed the chakra threads of two Chikamatsu Puppets.
One of them failed to evade in time and was cleaved cleanly in half.
Meanwhile, Pakura's Scorch Release struck Yuki Seisui directly. The flames instantly transformed into agile fire serpents, wrapping around his body as if trying to burrow inside.
Seeing this, both Pakura and Chiyo ignored the damage to the puppets and broke into delighted smiles.
"Hit by Scorch Release—this Konoha brat is dead for sure!"
But in the next moment, Yuki Seisui casually brushed the flames off his body, as though shooing away mosquitoes.
"You two seem to be celebrating a little too early."
"Trying to kill me with mere Scorch Release?"
"Hahahahaha!"
Yuki Seisui laughed wildly—then abruptly stopped. With an expression of utter disdain, he leaned forward and stared at Pakura's face, which was filled with disbelief.
"How could a firefly dare contend with the brilliance of the full moon?!"
Elsewhere, watching the Sand Ninjas rushing toward her, Uchiha Haru tilted her head slightly.
"Do they think I'm easy to bully?"
Jiraiya, hiding not far behind her, silently thought, Well… isn't that exactly what they think?
One was a monster who charged straight into the Sand Ninja ranks and casually sent crowds flying.
The other looked harmless—young, a girl, and a Leaf ninja.
Which one was the soft target was obvious.
The first wave of Sand Ninjas didn't attack immediately. Instead, they surrounded Uchiha Haru.
The ones who rushed over first were mostly the cautious, fear-of-death types.
They weren't sure whether Uchiha Haru was another monster like that golden-glowing aberration.
So they waited.
They stalled—waiting for someone else to make the first move, or for the girl herself to act.
No one wanted to be the first to die.
Facing the Sand Ninjas who merely surrounded her, Uchiha Haru's expression didn't change at all.
Under their watchful eyes, she rapidly formed hand seals.
A fan appeared in her hand.
The Sand Ninjas looked at each other, and finally someone burst out laughing.
"She summoned a fan?!"
"A little brat is still a little brat—Konoha is truly useless!"
"They actually sent a kid like this onto the battlefield!"
"Yeah! Go home and drink some milk!"
"Hahahahaha!"
Their jeers made Uchiha Haru's expression grow colder.
At that moment, she recalled something Yuki Seisui once said during a solo battle in the dueling arena.
She suddenly felt that it fit perfectly here.
Slowly, she spoke:
"I bloom within slaughter, like a flower at dawn."
"Great Fanned Fire"
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Completed version available on Patreon P@treon(.)com/Veltoria