From Danmachi to God of Ninja

Chapter 68: Chapter 68

"Trying to act mysterious now? You think turning yourself green makes you tough?"

That was what Kusui was thinking in that moment, her mind filled with confidence and violence.

She attacked in a rage, moving so fast she broke the sound barrier.

Rings of white vapor burst around her body, and before Mei Terumi or Ao could even react, she had already appeared directly in front of Kiriya.

"Let me tear that body of yours apart."

Slash!

Her claws tore through the air with enough force to create wind blades, carving deep scars into the ground and shredding Kiriya’s figure to pieces.

"She missed?" Ao’s eyes widened.

"That’s... an afterimage?"

Mei was just as shaken.

A faint green blur flashed through her vision, and she shouted on instinct, "Careful!"

Unfortunately, sound could not travel anywhere near as fast as the two people fighting.

Before Kusui even heard Mei’s warning, Kiriya had already appeared behind her and slammed a heavy punch into her back.

Crack!

The force struck like a battering ram.

Kusui’s deep-red figure was blasted away, turning into a human cannonball that carved a long, brutal trench through the forest.

Trees toppled, rocks exploded.

The whole scene looked like the aftermath of a natural disaster.

"Bastard!"

Kusui roared, twisting her body and trying to regain her balance so she could charge back in and tear into Kiriya again.

But Kiriya had already beaten her to it.

He appeared behind her once more.

Bang!

The crimson figure became a shooting star all over again.

Then—

Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang!

Kusui’s body was knocked back and forth through the air, bouncing around like a tennis ball being struck at impossible speed.

The air itself seemed to have turned into a racket, slamming her from one direction to another without giving her any chance to stop.

"Aaaaaah!" Kusui roared in fury.

She desperately wanted to find that damn boy and rip him to pieces.

But forget keeping up with Kiriya’s movements—she could barely even catch sight of him.

All she could do was take the beating.

Dense, muffled impacts rang out one after another, coming so quickly they almost made it hard to breathe.

Ao and Mei Terumi stared with wide eyes, their pupils filled with shock and disbelief.

That was the powerful Six-Tails jinchūriki!

A jinchūriki who had pushed partial Tailed Beast Transformation to its limit, with strength so absurd it barely seemed human.

And yet she was being kicked around like a ball, completely unable to fight back!

"What... what kind of technique is that?" Mei murmured.

"It looks like he’s using some method to force his body’s functions past their normal limits, giving himself several times his usual strength and speed," Ao analyzed.

Mei suddenly thought of one possibility.

"Then he shouldn’t be able to keep it up for long, right?"

"...I don’t know."

Ao’s voice was dry.

He could not say for certain whether Kusui could survive this kind of violent assault.

If she could endure it, then everything would still be fine.

But if Kusui broke first, then the two of them would be in serious danger too.

"Mei, we should retreat," Ao warned.

"What? You want us to abandon her?" Mei turned back in shock. "She’s a jinchūriki. Do you think the village will just let us off?"

"Don’t be stupid," Ao said calmly. "A powerful jinchūriki and a hundred elite shinobi still couldn’t stop that boy. The two of us were badly injured the moment we fought him. Staying here won’t change anything. We’ll only be throwing our lives away. Bringing the intelligence back is the only way we can still help the village."

Mei opened her mouth, but no words came out.

He was too right for her to argue.

"Let’s go."

Ao left first.

"...Next time, I won’t allow myself to be this weak."

Mei took one long, deep look at the battlefield, as if trying to burn the scene into her mind forever. Only then did she turn and leave.

Kiriya did not notice the two of them escaping.

The situation did not allow him even a moment of distraction.

The wooden armor over his hands could not withstand the force of his own punches and had long since been shattered by the impact.

So he had been striking Kusui directly with his bare fists.

And he was paying for it.

The Tailed Beast chakra, thick with malice, kept eating into his flesh and will, only to be driven out and neutralized by the surging chakra inside him.

That endless back-and-forth, that repeated clash of corrosion and recovery, brought pain like ten million insects gnawing through his body.

"Aaaaaah!"

Kiriya roared, and his attacks became even more violent.

He wanted to pour every last bit of that pain into his fists and throw it all back at Kusui in one breath.

"Haaah!"

He appeared above Kusui’s flight path again, raising his right foot high like a battle axe before bringing it down with brutal force.

Kusui had no time to dodge.

She had to take the hit directly.

Boom!

Her back slammed into the ground, blasting open a wide crater. Cracks as thick as a thigh spread outward into the distance.

Crack, crack!

Kusui felt her organs take a massive impact, and she could not stop herself from coughing up blood.

The moment the blood left her mouth, it was evaporated by the blazing Tailed Beast chakra around her.

The Tailed Beast cloak covering her body also began making dense cracking sounds.

It was clearly reaching its limit.

For the first time, Kusui felt her confidence in that cloak waver.

’No. No way. This is absolute defense.’

Kiriya did not leave her anxious for long.

His next attack followed immediately.

"Ora, ora, ora, ora!"

His fists moved so fast they broke through their limits, rubbing against the air until layers of flame ignited around them.

With every high-speed straight punch, a powerful shockwave and scorching fire crashed down toward Kusui on the ground.

From a distance, the dazzling barrage looked like the sacred feathers of a legendary peacock.

Beautiful... and deadly.

"Morning Peacock!"

Boom, boom, boom, boom!

Every punch was delivered precisely onto Kusui’s body.

The violent force kept hammering into her Tailed Beast cloak, and the cracks across it grew wider and more obvious.

Then, under Kusui’s despairing gaze, the Tailed Beast cloak shattered completely.

’It’s over.’

At that moment, Kusui’s mind went blank.

Then she was swallowed by the brilliant storm of punches.

Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom!

Ao and Mei, who had been running at full speed, stopped and looked back.

They stared at the dust cloud rising into the sky in the distance and felt the intense tremors rolling through the ground beneath their feet.

Their throats went dry.

"Can I... really catch up to someone like that?"

For the first time, Mei doubted the meaning of her own title as a genius.

"Keep moving. We have to report this intelligence to Mizukage-sama," Ao reminded her.

"Yeah. I know."

Mei quickly pushed that feeling aside and regained the composure of a young genius.

"No matter what, I can’t let myself fall too far behind."

...

By the time Might Duy and the others arrived, the scene before them looked like the aftermath of a disaster.

A crater more than ten meters wide and around five meters deep had been blasted into the ground.

Heat still rolled from inside, making it look as though it had been carved out by a falling meteor.

Kiriya knelt on one knee at the edge of the crater, gasping heavily, his expression tight with pain.

"Kiriya-kun, are you all right?"

Might Duy and the Konoha shinobi rushed over, asking anxiously.

"I’m... fine..."

Kiriya forced himself to wave a hand. His voice sounded weak.

"I just pushed too hard. I’m a little tired."

"Thank goodness."

Everyone let out a breath of relief, then looked around.

"What about the jinchūriki who was fighting you?"

"Down there."

Kiriya casually pointed to the bottom of the crater.

Everyone followed his finger and looked, but they saw nothing.

"There’s nothing there," a plump shinobi muttered.

The others were just as confused.

Had Kiriya-sama hurt his head during the fight?

"Everywhere."

Kiriya moved his hand slightly and stated a fact that made everyone’s skin crawl.

"I punched her body apart."

"Holy shit... this kid."

Kiriya’s calm words left the surrounding shinobi staring at him like he had just stepped out of a legend.

A few of them quickly felt some regret.

A jinchūriki’s corpse should have contained valuable intelligence. Having it smashed into pieces was honestly a waste.

But that thought only stayed in their minds for a moment before being thrown away.

In a life-and-death fight, who had time to care about that?

Defeating the enemy came first.

Might Duy, however, felt the heat rising from the crater and seemed to realize something.

He looked at Kiriya and asked carefully, "Kiriya-kun, did you perhaps already..."

As he spoke, he raised his right hand and made a six with his fingers.

The others had never seen the Eight Gates before.

Duy’s vague words completely confused them. They could not understand when this straightforward man had learned to speak in riddles.

"Yeah."

Kiriya nodded.

He did not explain further. Instead, he closed his eyes and began regulating his condition.

The last three gates were different from before.

The burden they placed on the body was almost impossible to imagine.

When he had opened the Fifth Gate, Kiriya had only felt exhausted, but not to the point where he could not support himself.

The Sixth Gate was different.

During that fight, large patches of his muscles had torn apart, and his bones were filled with cracks, like porcelain on the verge of shattering.

Every punch had been a challenge against the limits of his own body.

If he did not have Yang Power: Everflowing Vitality, and if he had not awakened the Sage Body with its famous vitality, that one exchange might have been enough to end his game completely.

Even so, he felt as though all his stamina had been drained dry.

He would probably be unable to fight for at least a day.

Ever since awakening the Sage Body, Kiriya had not felt this weak in a long time.

Fortunately, the enemy had already been destroyed, so he did not need to worry too much about finding time to recover.

’Looks like I can’t use that move casually unless it’s a real life-or-death situation.’

Kiriya silently made up his mind.

’And I need to raise my physical stats as soon as possible, until I can open the Sixth Gate whenever I need to.’

Another thought followed.

’Maybe I should find time to go back and update my ability values.’

"Hiss..."

Might Duy was genuinely stunned.

How long had it been?

This boy had already opened the Sixth Gate!

From the Third Gate onward, every additional gate brought a huge leap in physical power. In exchange, the burden on the body also multiplied.

That pressure was total, affecting every muscle, bone, and even cell throughout the body.

Without systematic, brutally strict physical training, an ordinary person’s body would collapse just from opening those gates, leaving them crippled.

In worse cases, they would die on the spot.

And from the Fifth Gate to the Sixth, the training required was measured in years.

Duy himself had spent several years before completing that step.

But this boy...

He had needed less than half a month.

’That talent, that gift... This is youth!’

Tears streamed down Might Duy’s face.

’Is the true spring of taijutsu finally coming?’

"Duy’s at it again."

The others could not hear Might Duy’s thoughts, so they simply assumed he was having another one of his usual emotional episodes and ignored him.

A few people stayed behind to watch over Kiriya, while the others cleaned up the battlefield and checked whether anyone needed finishing off.

Before long, the work was done, and the group gathered to bring Kiriya back to camp.

But now they had a problem.

With Kiriya’s current condition, there was no way he could travel on his own.

Someone had to carry him.

Most of the shinobi had been running nonstop for days, barely getting any rest, and after the battle just now, they had used up a great deal of stamina too.

Carrying another person while moving quickly was simply not realistic for them.

So naturally, the responsibility fell to Might Duy.

As a taijutsu specialist, Duy’s stamina and endurance were the best among them, second only to Kiriya himself.

"No problem. Leave it to me."

Might Duy thumped his chest loudly, then raised his thumb and flashed that bright molar smile.

"After seeing your performance, I feel even more deeply that my own training is still insufficient. I’ll treat this as weighted training!"

Being trusted like this and treated as a goal to chase should have been a very pleasant thing.

But Kiriya could not quite feel happy right now.

Looking at Might Duy’s uniquely styled green bodysuit, exaggerated bowl cut, and thick eyebrows—especially the way he was now sticking out his rear while preparing to carry someone—Kiriya hesitated deeply.

"I feel like... if I let this guy carry me, I’m going to lose something important."

He muttered under his breath.

Then he smiled and said, "No need. A little injury like this is already healed. Don’t believe me? Watch—"

As he spoke, Kiriya tried to stand.

But a sudden wave of weakness hit him, and he dropped right back down to the ground.

"..."

The scene went silent.

Several shinobi quietly raised their heads and looked at the sky.

"The weather was lovely today."

"Mm. That little bird was pretty too. Look at those feathers, that beak... truly impressive."

Kiriya forced himself to stay calm and quietly added another cast of Yang Power: Everflowing Vitality on himself.

Unfortunately, the weakness still clung to him like a bad curse and refused to go away.

’Damn it. Sage Body, my ass. Could you at least try a little harder?’

Kiriya cursed inwardly.

Then his body suddenly felt light.

By the time he came back to his senses, he was already on Might Duy’s back.

"Hold on tight, Kiriya-kun. We’re heading out."

Without giving Kiriya any chance to refuse, Might Duy shot forward like a wild horse breaking free of its reins.

In the blink of an eye, he vanished from the other shinobi’s sight.

"Slow down, you bastard...!"

Kiriya’s panicked scolding drifted back through the air from far away, making the remaining shinobi burst into laughter.

’In the end, he’s still a kid.’

That was what they all thought.

The cool, untouchable image of the peerless young genius shattered instantly, and somehow, Kiriya felt much more approachable now.

"Let’s go."

One shinobi called out and left first.

The others nodded, then quickly followed.