From Danmachi to God of Ninja

Chapter 75: Chapter 75

Kiriya drew in a deep breath, gathered chakra in his mouth, and exhaled a wall of water three to four meters high and over ten meters long.

Sssssss!

Water and fire collided, instantly filling the area with scalding steam.

Guy, Genma, and Ebisu found it difficult even to breathe.

They stared at the sky, now glowing red from the heat, and their hearts shook with fear.

The Fire Release they usually saw was no more than a large fireball. When had they ever seen a technique that looked like an entire sea of flames?

Worse, the fire was violently destructive.

Wherever it passed, trees and forest were reduced to ash in an instant.

The three kids were terrified that the next wave would sweep over them and leave nothing behind.

"So... this is the strength of someone who fought the First Hokage?" Genma murmured, his voice trembling.

"He really is strong."

The moment he finished speaking, he broke into a violent, lung-tearing cough.

Guy and Ebisu were no better.

’Damn it, the hot steam burned our lungs.’

The three of them dropped to their knees, feeling searing pain from their noses down their throats and into their lungs.

If they stayed here any longer, the steam alone might kill them.

Kiriya had no choice.

With a thought, several wooden vines extended from his body, wrapped around the three kids, and tossed them far away so they would stop getting in the way of his fight.

"Not a bad Water Release," Kakuzu said, offering a rare bit of praise before his voice turned cold again.

"Unfortunately, it’s still not enough."

This brat still had the attention to worry about others while fighting him?

Was he being looked down on?

Kakuzu increased his chakra output.

Boom!

Wind fed the flames, and flames strengthened the wind.

The violent firestorm immediately pushed Kiriya’s Water Formation Wall back, inch by inch. It looked like his Water Release would soon be overwhelmed completely.

"Water counters fire, yes," Kakuzu said, the corner of his mouth lifting. "But unfortunately for you, you’re facing me."

Whoosh!

Several kunai suddenly shot in from the side.

"Hmph. Childish tricks."

Kakuzu did not even look at them. He merely swung the threads extending from his arm and knocked the kunai away.

Of course, because he moved while defending, some of them simply missed altogether and stabbed into the ground near his feet.

"Because you rely too much on taijutsu and swordsmanship, your kunai technique is this poor?"

Kakuzu commented from above with an air of superiority.

"Foolish! As a shinobi, you are this bad at one of the most basic fundamentals?"

He did not miss any chance to trash talk his opponent.

Talking trash during a fight was practically a standard part of shinobi combat.

If he could make Kiriya angry and reckless, all the better.

This time, however, Kiriya’s answer was much simpler and much more direct.

"Water Release: Great Exploding Water Colliding Wave."

A torrent far larger than before appeared out of nowhere, rushing forward like a surging river. In the blink of an eye, it crushed Kakuzu’s combined fire and wind technique.

Even a seasoned monster like Kakuzu froze for a moment at the sight of that enormous wall of water, which looked almost like a tsunami.

’This brat has that much chakra?’

Kakuzu immediately increased his chakra output again.

Psssssssh!

The flames were extinguished, and the huge volume of water cooled the scalding steam until the temperature returned to something survivable.

"Whew."

Kiriya wiped imaginary sweat from his forehead.

"This old man’s ninjutsu really is nasty. Especially that Wind Release, the power is ridiculous! As expected of a monster who’s lived over a hundred years. Still... I’m not bad either. Heh."

Just as Kiriya was quietly feeling pleased with himself, one of the Earth Grudge Fear masks suddenly burst out from the thick white mist behind him.

Its mouth opened, and a spear of lightning shot toward his abdomen.

"What—?"

Kiriya’s face changed.

He wanted to dodge, but it was already too late. All he could do was watch as the flash of lightning pierced straight through his body.

Pchh!

Kiriya’s body was run through, and he collapsed weakly.

Fear and disbelief still lingered in his eyes.

"Hmph, you’re still far too young."

Kakuzu sneered.

A bunch of little flowers raised in a greenhouse thought they could fight an old monster who had survived countless life-and-death battles?

Without true battlefield tempering, their intentions were far too easy to read.

And then—

With a puff, Kiriya’s body vanished in a cloud of white smoke!

Kakuzu’s pupils shrank.

"Shadow clone? When?"

’Bad. It’s a trap!’

Almost at the exact moment the shadow clone disappeared, the sound of something tearing through the air came from behind him.

The timing was perfect.

Slash!

A fierce sense of danger rushed through Kakuzu’s whole body.

Without thinking, he gathered the black threads all over his body behind him, forming a thick shield.

"Hinokami Kagura: Sunflower Thrust."

Kiriya’s full-power thrust, carrying scorching sword energy, landed on the shield of black threads.

The blade cut through them like a hot knife through butter, severing a huge number in an instant.

In the blink of an eye, Kiriya’s sword was already closing in on Kakuzu’s heart.

Pchh!

The blade pierced through Kakuzu’s chest.

His body went rigid, and the writhing threads all over him suddenly froze.

"How... How is your sword this sharp...?"

Kakuzu could hardly believe it.

It was not as if he had never encountered swordsmen before.

But most of them merely had flexible and varied techniques.

Their upper limit in attack power was still there, and none of them could break through the defensive threads of his Earth Grudge Fear.

Kiriya’s swordsmanship was completely different from those so-called sword experts.

A single strike from him could cut metal and split stone.

Kakuzu’s hastily formed defense had not been enough at all.

"Damn those bastards! They hid such important information from me, I won’t let them off."

Kakuzu gnashed his teeth, wishing he could tear the intelligence broker apart and swallow him whole.

It was because that bastard had concealed such crucial information that Kakuzu had suffered this humiliating failure.

Of course, if the intelligence broker could hear Kakuzu’s thoughts, he would probably scream about being wronged.

Kirigakure had only passed along vague information like "skilled in taijutsu and swordsmanship."

As for exactly how skilled, they were just as clueless.

So really, this was all Kirigakure’s fault.

Pchh!

Kiriya did not bother talking.

He twisted the sword hilt, driving the blade through Kakuzu’s chest and thoroughly shredding the heart inside.

This time, Kakuzu’s body stopped moving completely.

Kiriya grabbed Kakuzu’s body with one hand and pulled out a sealing scroll with the other, preparing to seal the whole body away.

He knew this guy had an undead-like body.

A shattered heart was only one life lost to him. As long as one of the Earth Grudge Fear masks returned to the main body, Kakuzu would be up and moving again.

Kiriya did not want to waste time grinding away each of Kakuzu’s lives one by one.

He wanted to test whether sealing the main body would cause the Earth Grudge Fear masks to shut down directly.

"Is... is it over?"

The three kids watched from a distance and could not help letting out a breath.

That freak’s ninjutsu had been terrifying, and his whole appearance was so bizarre that it placed enormous pressure on them.

Now that he seemed to have been defeated, their hearts finally lightened, and their admiration for Kiriya rose even higher.

"As expected of Kiriya-sama," Guy said, clenching his fists in admiration. "He’s unbelievably strong! It hasn’t even been that long, and he already beat that stitched-up monster."

"Exactly, exactly. Kiriya-sama is invincible," Ebisu said, shamelessly flattering him.

Genma immediately followed up.

"A stitched-up freak like that is nothing but a clown. Kiriya-sama can crush him with one hand."

Kiriya’s mouth twitched when he heard that.

Kakuzu was not even dead yet!

Sure enough, in the next moment, one of the Earth Grudge Fear masks appeared in front of the three kids.

The mouth of the mask opened toward them, and terrifying Wind Release chakra gathered rapidly inside.

’We’re done for!’

That was the truest thought in the three kids’ hearts.

Just as despair rose inside them, a figure suddenly appeared in front of them, sword flashing in countless arcs.

Slash, slash, slash!

The Earth Grudge Fear mask’s body was easily cut apart by the sharp blade, but in the next instant, it had already healed itself.

It looked completely intact, as if nothing had happened at all.

Still, the ninjutsu had been interrupted, so Kiriya had achieved his goal.

He cast Yang Power: Everflowing Vitality on the three kids, helping them recover enough to move again.

And it was precisely during the moment Kiriya saved them that the two Earth Grudge Fear masks created by Kakuzu surged back into Kakuzu’s body.

After a violent tremor, Kakuzu regained the ability to move.

"He... came back to life?"

Genma’s eyes widened.

His worldview had just taken a hard hit.

People could revive after dying?

Was this still ninjutsu as he understood it?

"M-Monster..."

Cold sweat covered Ebisu’s forehead, and his throat went dry.

An immortal body.

How were they supposed to defeat an enemy like that?

Could Kiriya hold on?

"Kiriya-sama, we..."

Guy opened his mouth, wanting to help, but Kiriya cut him off halfway.

"Run farther away. Don’t let those monsters catch you."

"But..."

Guy clenched his fists, unwilling to accept it.

He did not want to be a burden. He wanted to join the fight too.

"This battlefield is still too much for you."

Kiriya looked at the three kids, who were barely ten years old on average.

"Go. That’s an order."

"..."

The three gritted their teeth, but they did not argue. Together, they ran farther into the distance.

With that burden gone, Kiriya finally turned back toward Kakuzu and smiled.

"All right, then. Time for round two to—huh?"

The space in front of him was empty.

Aside from two Earth Grudge Fear masks, Kakuzu himself was nowhere to be seen.

"He... ran?"

Kiriya’s mouth fell open, and for a moment, his whole mood collapsed.

You were a senior of the shinobi world, an old monster who had lived for nearly a hundred years, a so-called legend who had once traded blows with the First Hokage.

How could you run?

Where was your dignity?

Where was your pride as a shinobi?

...

Kakuzu, currently sprinting away at full speed, could not have cared less.

’Dignity? Pride? How stupid! In the shinobi world, staying alive is what matters.’

That brief exchange had already made the gap between them clear.

He was not Kiriya’s match.

Not because of anything else, but because of Kiriya’s strange speed.

That movement was not the Body Flicker Technique.

It had completely exceeded the limits of what Kakuzu’s eyes could follow, yet it carried none of the turbulence, shockwaves, or traces that should have come with high-speed movement.

Once those possibilities were ruled out, only one answer remained.

’The brat was using space-time ninjutsu.’

Then Kakuzu thought of the kunai that had been deliberately thrown off target earlier.

Add in Kiriya’s identity as a genius from Konoha, and the true nature of that space-time ninjutsu became obvious.

The Flying Thunder God Technique.

Only an idiot would keep fighting a Flying Thunder God user head-on.

He could not hit him, he could not keep up with him.

If this dragged on, Kakuzu’s only future was becoming a sandbag that stood there and took a beating.

As one of the few true veterans still active in the shinobi world, Kakuzu had his pride.

But as a bounty hunter who had spent most of his life walking the line between life and death, Kakuzu was also terrifyingly rational.

When something could not be done, he would retreat for the moment, preserve himself, and wait for a better chance.

’As long as I’m alive, there’s still a chance to complete the mission.’

’As long as I’m alive, there will always be more money to make.’

Kakuzu kept reassuring himself.

Losing to a user of the Flying Thunder God Technique was not shameful.

Hadn’t even powerful villages full of strong ninja, like Iwagakure and Kumogakure, issued orders saying their shinobi could abandon a mission without punishment if they encountered the Yellow Flash?

He was only a lone bounty hunter.

A temporary strategic retreat was completely reasonable. No one had any right to criticize him for it!

Boom, boom, boom!

Behind him, a chain of explosions thundered through the forest.

Great flames shot into the sky, and even from so far away, Kakuzu could still feel the violent tremors and the ridiculous heat rolling across the air.

There was no doubt that the two Earth Grudge Fear masks he had left behind were attacking with everything they had, all for the sake of buying him more time.

Even half a minute would be enough.

As long as he escaped the range of the Flying Thunder God formula, he would be safe.

As for what happened to those Earth Grudge Fear masks, Kakuzu was not worried in the slightest.

Those things were almost immune to physical attacks and ninjutsu. Under normal circumstances, they were practically indestructible.

And even if Kiriya truly had some way to destroy those two masks...

Then so be it.

Losing the masks was still better than losing his main body.

Through the perspective of the Earth Grudge Fear masks, Kakuzu had seen it clearly just now.

Kiriya had intended to seal away his corpse.

If his main body was killed and sealed, the connection between the main body and the Earth Grudge Fear masks would be completely severed.

Without the main body’s consciousness to command them, the masks would eventually collapse.

And without the masks’ hearts returning to replenish him, the main body would truly die.

In short, having the main body escape was the best possible choice.

’’As long as the mountain remains, there will always be firewood to burn. I refuse to believe you have no weakness! Don’t underestimate a man just because he’s down on his luck, brat.’’

Kakuzu cursed bitterly in his heart.

"Oh? I don’t believe that."

A cool voice suddenly rang out.

Kakuzu’s body jolted mid-sprint.

He looked up and saw Kiriya standing right in front of him, that hateful face calm and composed, his sword gleaming with cold light as a chilling murderous aura burst outward.

"Die!"

At that moment, Kakuzu’s battle instincts, tempered through countless life-and-death struggles, took over.

Dozens of black threads shot from his arm like bullets, tearing toward Kiriya at the highest speed Kakuzu had ever produced.

Unfortunately, no matter how fast he was, he was still slower than the sword in Kiriya’s hand.

"Blade—Storm!"

With that sharp shout, Kakuzu was swallowed by an endless storm of sword light.