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An'un Town—a remote, dilapidated settlement nestled in the northwestern reaches of the Land of Fire.
The town was remarkably small, devoid of any towering structures, and ringed entirely by a crude wooden palisade. The barrier served a single, desperate purpose: fending off the wild beasts that prowled the surrounding wilderness. In such an isolated region, wild animal attacks were frequent; a single moment of carelessness could easily turn an ordinary civilian into prey.
On a dirt road a short distance from the town gates, a young boy walked at a steady, unhurried pace.
According to the mission brief, he was spotted in this sector three days ago, he thought. An'un Town is the only human settlement within a hundred-mile radius capable of providing food and water. Even a Jōnin needs to eat. If he intends to flee into the Land of Earth, he has to stock up on supplies here first.
The boy was, of course, Uchiha Xuan. Two days had passed since he accepted the Black-Rank bounty. After traveling day and night without pause, he had finally arrived at his destination.
Whatever. I'll head inside first and figure it out, Xuan decided, stepping forward.
He passed through the gates and scanned his surroundings. The town's interior was just as miserable as its exterior. The streets were paved with uneven, pothole-ridden stone slabs, and the storefronts lining the road were rotting and decrepit, clearly neglected for years. Pedestrians were sparse. Then again, this was the Warring States Era. With the continent engulfed in constant bloodshed, simply keeping a border town functioning was a miracle in itself.
Naturally, Xuan didn't care about the town's dreary atmosphere. He was only here to butcher the Blood Ninja. Once the deed was done, he would leave immediately.
In the center of the town stood a two-story tavern. Judging by the raucous noise spilling from its open doors, it was likely the liveliest spot in the entire settlement.
On the second floor of the tavern, a heavily muscled man sat at a table by the window.
Dressed in nondescript grey robes, his wild, unkempt hair fell past his shoulders. The hand gripping his sake cup was thick-knuckled and covered in dark, hardened calluses—the unmistakable hands of a killer. His facial features were ordinary, neither handsome nor ugly, but a vicious scar carved from the corner of his eye down to his jawline gave him a ferocious, terrifying aura. His sharp eyes darted around the room, radiating a hyper-vigilant paranoia.
After tearing into a chunk of roasted boar and downing another bowl of sake, the burly man slowly turned his head. His cold gaze locked onto a teenage boy in green robes sitting at an adjacent table.
"Who are you?" the man growled. "You've been staring at me for a while now."
The green-robed youth calmly set down his chopsticks. He looked the man up and down, a haughty, arrogant smirk playing on his lips. "Are you the Blood Ninja?"
"I am," the burly man replied, licking his lips like a predator eyeing its next meal.
"Looks like my luck is good today," the youth scoffed. "Will you slit your own throat, or do I have to kill you myself? Choose."
Hearing this, the Blood Ninja threw his head back and erupted into cruel, mocking laughter. "You arrogant little brat! What clan do you belong to? From your chakra, I can tell you've only just scraped your way into the Jōnin ranks. Not bad for your age... but since you're so eager to throw your life away, I'll gladly grant your wish!"
As a former Jōnin of the Hatamoto clan, the Blood Ninja was a seasoned veteran of the battlefield. He had crossed blades with shinobi from every major clan in the Warring States. Since the Hatamoto had placed a bounty on his head, he had been hunted relentlessly during his escape. Several bounty-hunting Jōnin had managed to corner him over the past month. He had slaughtered every single one.
His only stroke of terrible luck had occurred a few days prior, when he had crossed paths with a young Jōnin from the Senju clan. The Senju prodigy had completely overwhelmed him in both Taijutsu and Ninjutsu, nearly killing him on the spot.
Fortunately, his decades of brutal, life-or-death combat experience had saved him. In the most critical moment, the Blood Ninja had abandoned all defense, launching a suicidal, frenzied counterattack. The Senju Jōnin, lacking the grit of a true veteran, had panicked. Fearing a mutually assured death, the Senju had tried to pull back and finish the fight from a distance with Ninjutsu. That split-second retreat was all the Blood Ninja needed to step in and decapitate him with a single sword strike.
But the victory had come at a heavy cost. The Blood Ninja had sustained severe injuries, and the gruesome scar currently decorating his face was a parting gift from that very Senju.
The green-robed youth stood up, resting a hand on his weapon. "I've eaten my fill and drunk my wine. Since you're choosing to be stubborn, don't blame me for being ruthless. I forgot to introduce myself. I am Chiba Tsubasa of the Chiba clan, and I am the man who is going to kill you."
"Heh." The Blood Ninja stood up as well. Instead of replying, he widened his eyes and stared intently at the space directly behind Tsubasa, acting as if someone incredibly dangerous had just walked into the room.
Tsubasa frowned in confusion and instinctively turned his head to look.
"I absolutely love you self-important major clan ninja. You're just too easy to fool! Hahaha!" the Blood Ninja roared with smug laughter.
In the blink of an eye, his hands blurred through a sequence of seals. His thick-knuckled right hand suddenly ignited with a sickening, blood-red chakra. Without a second of hesitation, he viciously chopped his hand toward the back of the distracted teenager's head.
Realizing he'd been tricked, Tsubasa's face twisted in fury. "Coward!"
It was too late to weave signs for a Ninjutsu. Desperately channeling his chakra, Tsubasa spun around and thrust his palm out to meet the attack using his clan's Taijutsu.
BOOM!
A ferocious shockwave of chakra exploded outward, instantly vaporizing the tables and chairs on the second floor. The few unfortunate civilian patrons who hadn't managed to flee were caught in the blast; the sheer pressure ruptured their eardrums and crushed their internal organs, killing them instantly. Fortunately, the tavern had been mostly empty, keeping the collateral damage relatively low.
When the dust settled, Tsubasa was violently blasted out of the second-story window. He plummeted onto the potholed street below, his green robes shredded to ribbons and his face ghastly pale.
A split second later, the Blood Ninja vaulted out the window in hot pursuit, his hand raised for another lethal strike.
"Taijutsu: Crimson Slaughter Palm!" he roared.
A massive, oppressive handprint forged entirely from blood-red chakra descended toward Tsubasa. The sheer density of the attack bore down on him, disrupting his chakra network and causing his muscles to seize in sudden paralysis.
In that critical moment, Tsubasa violently bit the tip of his tongue. The sharp pain shattered his paralysis. Forcing every last drop of his chakra into his hands, he stepped into the attack, once again denied the time to cast a proper Ninjutsu.
"Taijutsu: Scorching Sun Strike!"
Tsubasa pushed his chakra to its absolute limit, generating an intense, searing heat from his palms. The air around his hands warped and boiled like water in a kettle as he thrust forward to meet the descending blow.
The moment the blood-red palm collided with his scorching hands, the air violently distorted. A blinding flash of chakra erupted as Tsubasa tried to incinerate the enemy's attack. However, the Blood Ninja's technique was incredibly dense and possessed a parasitic, chakra-erasing property.
The moment Tsubasa's chakra made contact, it melted away like spring snow under a blazing sun. Within a blink, thirty percent of his power was completely neutralized. The remaining seventy percent shattered on impact, crumbling into useless sparks of energy.
A violent cough tore from Tsubasa's throat, spraying a mist of crimson into the air as the crushing force sent him flying backward in absolute disbelief.
The Blood Ninja wasn't about to let up. The moment his boots hit the dirt, he sprinted after the boy, laughing arrogantly. "My Crimson Slaughter Palm is an A-rank Taijutsu specifically designed to shatter an opponent's chakra flow! Furthermore, you didn't even have time to gather your strength! Even if your technique is also A-rank, how much power could you possibly muster in a panic? Die!"
"Blood Ninja... do you really think I'm just a helpless target for you to butcher?!" Tsubasa snarled, his face twisting into a mask of pure ferocity.
While still tumbling backward through the air, he forcibly slapped his hands together into a complex seal. Rings of dense, volatile chakra instantly flared to life around his body.
"S-Rank Forbidden Jutsu: Soul Sacrifice!"
"This is the Chiba clan's ultimate kinjutsu!" Tsubasa screamed, his eyes bloodshot and bordering on madness. "By violently detonating all my remaining chakra, it suppresses any and all injuries for exactly one hour, forcing my body back to its absolute peak condition! The price is total bodily paralysis once the hour is up... but right now, I am going to tear you limb from limb!"
At that exact moment, a short distance down the ruined street, a young boy casually strolled into view.
Taking in the chaotic scene of the raging Chiba teenager and the scarred mercenary, Xuan stopped in his tracks and furrowed his brows slightly.
Did someone seriously beat me to my bounty? he thought in annoyance.