Chapter 15 — I Don't Know Fire Release!
Boom!
The boulder slammed into the ground, and a massive surge of black hair erupted once again.
Hidan, having lost the initiative, could only scramble to defend himself, barely managing to parry.
If he hadn't acted decisively and—without hesitation—slashed at the hair around his ankles, ignoring the risk of injuring himself, he probably would have already been swallowed by that thing.
Even so, being so close to the well, he was in serious danger.
And his most powerful jutsu, Death's Blood Reliance, had no effect on this bizarre creature whatsoever.
This left Hidan extremely frustrated.
Noticing from the corner of his eye that Shinji had already taken care of the villagers, Hidan couldn't help but shout, "How the hell are we supposed to deal with this thing?! It never ends!"
Shinji, however, didn't rush to help. He calmly observed and recalled the events.
"From opening the treasure chest to being suddenly attacked, then escaping the dried-up well… black hair… the strange aroma that the creature uses to make life forms unable to resist… feeding…"
"There's no such thing as something unsolvable. I must have missed something… what exactly is it…"
"Hey! What the hell are you daydreaming about? Come help already! I can't hold it off!" Hidan's urgent voice rang out.
Within moments, he was down to just one kunai, the other having been knocked away somewhere unknown.
If that thing hadn't seemed to be acting purely on instinct, with a rigid attack pattern, Hidan would likely have been overwhelmed by the dense black hair by now.
Despite his desperate efforts, defeat seemed inevitable.
Hidan could not inflict any meaningful damage to the creature's core; cutting the attacking black hair was completely useless.
Shinji ignored Hidan's cries and instead shouted, "Hold on a little longer! I'm observing this thing's weakness!"
"Shinji Akagi! You bastard! I'll remember this!" Hidan cursed, seeing that his companion had no intention of helping. He gritted his teeth and swung his kunai wildly.
Shinji, meanwhile, was reorganizing his thoughts after being interrupted.
"Based on my observations, this strange thing doesn't seem to possess true intelligence. It's acting purely on instinct…"
"And there's one important detail: when it attacks, we don't smell any of that strange aroma. It only emits the enticing scent after retreating back into the well."
"If it could use the aroma at any time, that wouldn't make sense. If it had released it at the start, we might have fallen for it immediately."
"So, logically, this creature has two behavioral modes: one is the lure mode, releasing aroma to attract prey into its hunting area; the other is predation mode, using black hair to capture prey. From what we can see, the two modes can't happen simultaneously."
"But… that's not enough! Just knowing this won't completely solve the problem. What exactly is its weakness?"
Shinji took several deep breaths to calm himself, refusing to worry about other things. Even if Hidan failed and was caught, he wouldn't die immediately, giving Shinji more time to observe.
He abandoned the dead-end deduction and decided to start over.
"Go down… open the chest… get attacked…"
"Wait!"
"Why was I attacked?"
Recalling the moment he was attacked after opening the chest, Shinji realized he had overlooked a critical detail: the black hair hadn't initially targeted him—it had gone for… the torch in his hand!
Exactly!
Startled at the time, Shinji had only focused on escaping the well, ignoring this fact. If the first attack had been aimed at him, he would have been completely caught off guard, and escaping wouldn't have been so easy.
Looking back, the creature only turned to chase him after destroying the torch, which explained why he had managed to get out relatively unscathed.
Eliminating the ridiculous notion that the creature had some personal vendetta against the torch, the most likely conclusion was…
"Shinji, you bastard! If you don't come—"
"Fire!"
"Huh? What?"
"This thing's weakness is most likely fire!"
"You're sure?"
"Trust me! Use Fire Release to burn it!"
"All right! I'll burn… I'll burn your entire family! I—damn it—I don't even know how to use Fire Release!!!"
Hidan's furious roar left Shinji momentarily embarrassed.
Damn it, I got too excited and completely forgot.
Not only did they not know Fire Release—they were basically useless at every ninja technique!
Realizing this, Shinji spun around and bolted.
"You bastard! You're running off already? You… take me with you! Dammit!"
Hidan froze, disbelief on his face, then erupted into curses.
Although normally fearless, he suddenly felt abandoned and wanted out. He no longer cared to fight; he just tried to escape the creature's reach.
But escaping was easier said than done.
The black hair, still hungry, wasn't about to let its only target get away.
Hidan… panicked.
He realized he was trapped. Previously, he could escape because he and Shinji worked together and were farther away. But now, alone, he had foolishly run straight to the creature's lair. How was he supposed to get out?
With his mind in chaos, his actions became sloppy.
Hidan, who had been barely holding his own, suddenly made a critical mistake. By the time he recovered, his legs were already ensnared by the black hair.
When he tried to cut it away, the surrounding hair allowed no openings, surging over him instantly.
No matter how frantically he swung his kunai, its range was too limited. The black hair finally wrapped him into a cocoon.
He could feel it—those things attempting to enter his mouth, nose, and ears.
Suddenly, he understood why the unlucky animals had met such grotesque ends.
At this moment, even Hidan doubted whether his immortality could hold up.
"All because of that bastard Shinji! He ran off at the crucial moment! If I survive this, I'll kill him!"
As Hidan closed his eyes, cursing Shinji endlessly in his mind, he suddenly felt a searing heat, as if his skin were about to ignite.
Shinji had returned with two wooden buckets, pouring the collected liquid over the black hair, then took a fire stick from his waist and tossed it in.
Boom!
Flames shot up into the sky!
Shinji hadn't really abandoned Hidan. Realizing neither of them could use Fire Release, he had gone into the village to gather flammable liquids.
Finding it had slowed him down, but fortunately, he returned just in time with everything he could collect.
"Damn it, let's see if you still survive now!"
Watching the black hair writhe and twist in the blazing fire, Shinji decisively poured the remaining fuel into the dried-up well and threw in the last fire stick.
Amid the towering flames, he could almost hear the creature's wail—a strangely satisfying sound.
Wait, does that thing even have a mouth?