From Danmachi to God of Ninja

Chapter 77: Chapter 77

After eating, the group set off again.

Considering the stamina of the three kids, and also to guard against any accidents that might happen along the way, Kiriya did not push their travel speed to the limit.

Instead, he slowed down slightly for Ebisu, Guy, and Genma’s sake.

And just as they expected, they ran into several groups along the way.

Some were trying to fish in troubled waters, while others wanted to take advantage of the chaos and claim Kiriya’s head.

Unfortunately for them, compared with Kakuzu, these people were far too weak.

Kiriya barely had to put in any effort before taking care of them.

Sometimes, he even left a few opponents alive for the three kids to practice on, sharpening their combat skills and enemy awareness.

The three of them benefited quite a bit from it.

However, because of those bounty hunters, their travel speed was slowed even further.

And so, with repeated stops along the way, it took them roughly ten days to travel from the border between the Land of Water and the Land of Fire to the edge of the battlefield between the Land of Fire and the Land of Wind.

Once they noticed the battle scars scattered along the road, along with the occasional corpses from both sides, the group’s expressions grew more serious.

Their vigilance instantly rose to the highest level as they watched for ambushes or sudden encounters.

Boom, boom, boom!

Just then, a series of explosions sounded faintly in the distance, mixed now and then with angry shouts and screams from shinobi.

Everyone’s spirits immediately sharpened.

Kiriya gave a hand signal, and the group slipped forward silently in battle formation.

To be safe, Kiriya directly summoned several shadow clones and had them circle around from other directions.

After this period of working together and training, the three kids had become more and more like proper shinobi.

Their stealth skills had improved rapidly, and throughout the entire approach, they did not alert either side of the ongoing battle.

Once they got closer, Kiriya realized that Konoha and Sunagakure were fighting.

In terms of numbers, Konoha actually held the advantage.

They had roughly seventy to eighty people, while Sunagakure had only forty to fifty.

Yet the battlefield was completely one-sided.

Sunagakure was pressing Konoha down and beating them hard.

’That shouldn’t be right. Are Konoha’s shinobi really this weak now?’

A trace of doubt flashed through Kiriya’s mind. After observing Konoha’s side carefully, he finally found the problem.

The faces of those shinobi looked like someone had opened a dye shop on them.

Red, green, white, black, purple...

The colors were disturbingly rich.

Clearly, they had been poisoned. Their condition had dropped badly, which was why they were being crushed by a Sunagakure force far smaller than their own.

"Heh. Is this all the elite shinobi of mighty Konohagakure can do? How disappointing."

On Sunagakure’s side, the leading shinobi looked at the Konoha forces struggling to defend while suffering heavy casualties and burst into laughter, his words full of mockery and ridicule.

"Bastard! If you cowards hadn’t used poison, we would’ve beaten you like dogs already! How do you still have the face to stand there acting proud?"

One of the Konoha shinobi endured the intense pain tearing through his body and cursed back at them.

"Hah? Since when did Konoha become this naive?"

The Sunagakure leader laughed even louder, growing more arrogant.

"This is war! War means using every method available to destroy the enemy and preserve yourself. You’re supposed to be shinobi, yet you don’t even understand something that simple?"

"Exactly! Konoha really gets worse with every generation."

"What’s next? Are you going to cry? Sorry, but your mothers aren’t here to feed you milk."

The Sunagakure shinobi continued using puppets and kunai to maintain long-range pressure on Konoha while throwing out insult after insult.

Yet not a single one of them rushed in for close combat.

The situation was already obvious.

Konoha’s side had been poisoned badly and did not have long left.

Sunagakure only needed to keep suppressing them, making sure they had nowhere to run and no time to detoxify themselves.

Once enough time passed, the enemy would simply die on their own.

Easy kills.

Why bother rushing in for melee combat?

What if someone on the enemy side still had a hidden trump card and suddenly exploded with desperate strength? The poisoned Konoha shinobi would still be dead, sure, but whoever charged in might get dragged down with them.

That would be a terrible trade.

"Damn it..."

Nearby, Guy, Genma, and Ebisu clenched their fists.

Their faces were filled with anger.

They could not tolerate hearing their comrades and their village insulted like this.

But they were no longer fresh rookies who had only just stepped onto the battlefield. They could now control their presence much better, and they did not expose themselves.

The three looked toward Kiriya, waiting for their captain’s orders.

’I’ll draw the enemy’s attention. You three go save the people.’

Kiriya did not speak.

He only made several hand signs.

Once he saw that the three kids understood, he leapt out from the treetop.

"Who’s there?"

A Sunagakure puppeteer noticed the movement and shouted.

He and his companions immediately launched attacks toward Kiriya’s position.

In an instant, shuriken, poison needles, and more shuriken rained down as if they cost nothing, directly turning Kiriya into a pincushion.

"This guy... came here to be funny?"

That straightforward death-seeking behavior made many Sunagakure shinobi freeze for a moment.

Mainly because they had never seen anyone so eager to deliver himself to death.

Bang!

A cloud of white smoke rose, and Kiriya’s body turned into a broken log that dropped to the ground.

"Substitution Jutsu? Not good!"

Several jōnin immediately realized something was wrong and instinctively turned to look behind them.

There, another Kiriya had already leapt high into the air.

He held a giant Fūma shuriken in his hand and threw it hard toward the Sunagakure force.

"Only one shuriken?"

The Sunagakure shinobi were confused again.

There were dozens of them here.

Was this guy really here to throw his life away?

Under the mocking gazes of dozens of Sunagakure shinobi, Kiriya smiled coldly and rapidly formed hand seals.

"Shuriken Shadow Clone Jutsu."

This was one of the Sandaime Hokage’s proud creations.

Jiraiya knew it too, though he rarely used it. When he saw that Kiriya was interested in it before, he had taught him the technique.

Now, it finally came in handy.

The Fūma shuriken flying through the air split into two, then four, then eight...

In the blink of an eye, it had multiplied into nearly a hundred shuriken, crashing down toward the Sunagakure shinobi like a storm.

"Wind Release: Net—"

Several jōnin reacted quickly.

Their hands blurred through seals, and chakra gathered in their mouths, ready to blow into the sky.

With the powerful defensive force of Net, it would be enough to deflect the momentum of those shuriken.

At least, that was the ideal version.

Reality was much harsher.

Because Kiriya had no intention of giving them the chance to complete their ninjutsu.

"Fire Release: Big Flame Bullet."

A massive fireball tore in from the side with frightening speed, heading straight for those jōnin.

"What?"

The jōnin were shocked. How could they still focus on using Wind Release to defend the sky?

"Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall."

In their haste, they could only use Earth Release to protect themselves and a limited number of nearby comrades.

As for everyone else...

They could only pray for themselves.

"Uwaaaaaah!"

The Fire Release came in violently, catching the Sunagakure shinobi completely off guard.

Seven of them were instantly burned to ash, and their formation was scattered completely.

But more importantly, they had missed the best timing to either dodge or defend against the shuriken falling from above.

"Scatter!"

The Sunagakure leader shouted at the top of his lungs, ordering everyone to spread out.

But Kiriya’s arm strength was terrifying, and the shuriken he had thrown were moving so fast they nearly left afterimages.

The Sunagakure shinobi had only managed to jump a few meters away before the shuriken were already in front of them.

These Sunagakure shinobi did live up to their name as elites. Knowing that the shuriken carried too much force to block directly, they twisted their bodies into all kinds of unbelievable movements to avoid the deadly blades.

However...

Kiriya’s methods did not end there.

His black pupils had already turned red, and the two tomoe in his eyes spun rapidly, capturing the movements of the Sunagakure shinobi across the battlefield.

At the same time, his hands pulled out several thin steel wires, altering the flight paths of the shuriken.

The Sunagakure shinobi clearly had not expected Kiriya to have another trick prepared.

Caught completely off guard, many were struck directly by the shuriken.

In an instant, stomachs were torn open, limbs flew through the air, and the battlefield became a bloody hell of scattered flesh.

In a single exchange, nearly half of the forty-odd Sunagakure force had been wiped out.

The survivors were mostly those who had reacted quickly and protected themselves with Earth Release, allowing them to escape the fate of being torn apart.

"Ugh—!"

The Konoha shinobi nearby were already weak from poison.

After being hit by such a bloody scene, and then by a wind filled with the stench of burned flesh, those with weaker stomachs immediately started vomiting, leaving their bodies even more exhausted.

"Bastard!"

The remaining Sunagakure shinobi were furious, their eyes almost splitting with rage.

Blood rushed to their heads, and they no longer cared about anything except killing this executioner.

"Kill him! Avenge our comrades!"

At the leader’s command, the surviving Sunagakure shinobi launched a fierce wave of attacks toward Kiriya’s position.

"Wind Release: Pressure Damage."

"Wind Release: Sickle Weasel Technique."

Kiriya, who had just landed, seemed completely unable to react.

He did not even have time to form hand seals before the incoming Wind Release sliced him into several pieces.

The other Kiriya, the one who had used Fire Release, was also struck directly by Pressure Damage.

Seeing this, the Sunagakure shinobi all revealed bloodthirsty, satisfied smiles.

"Hahahaha!"

"Cough, cough..."

The moment the Konoha shinobi realized Sunagakure’s attack intent, they tried to stand and support Kiriya.

Unfortunately, the poison had already soaked deep into their bodies. Even moving made them weak all over, let alone joining the fight.

"Damn it! An ally finally came to reinforce us, and all we can do is watch..."

Bang!

Just then, both of Kiriya’s corpses vanished into white smoke.

The Sunagakure shinobi’s laughter immediately got stuck in their throats.

Their eyes bulged as if some invisible hand had grabbed them by the neck.

"You coward! Stop hiding and come out if you’ve got the guts!"

The humiliation of being toyed with surged through the Sunagakure leader’s heart.

Right now, he was like a volcano on the verge of eruption, filled with nothing but rage and killing intent.

The Konoha side was instantly speechless when they heard him.

Who was the one who had just said that war meant using every method available to destroy the enemy?

It had barely been any time at all, and now he was taking it back?

That slap to the face sure came fast.

Seeing the Sunagakure leader lose his temper so badly, the Konoha shinobi felt unbelievably refreshed.

Even while poisoned, they felt as if they had just drunk ice-cold cola in the middle of the hottest summer day.

Slash!

Kiriya suddenly appeared in front of the enemy.

The sword in his hand traced a mysterious path through the air, and in the blink of an eye, it cut across the throats of several Sunagakure shinobi.

That included the Sunagakure leader.

"Water Breathing: Flowing Dance."

The Sunagakure shinobi never imagined that Kiriya would suddenly appear in the middle of their formation.

Caught completely unprepared, they had no time to react before Kiriya smoothly harvested their heads.

The surrounding Sunagakure shinobi turned pale with shock and hurriedly threw kunai and shuriken in retaliation.

Some even ignored their nearby comrades and unleashed powerful Wind Release ninjutsu.

Unfortunately, they could not touch Kiriya at all.

He flickered across the battlefield like a ghost.

Each time he appeared, several lives disappeared with him.

Extreme speed, combined with incredibly fast swordsmanship, turned Kiriya into the deadliest assassin on the battlefield.

In only a few breaths, barely any Sunagakure shinobi remained.

"This... this movement technique..."

The last jōnin suffered a massive shock.

His gaze sharpened like never before, and he immediately noticed the strange markings engraved on a Fūma shuriken not far away.

"It’s almost like... the Yellow Flash!"

"He can use the Yellow Flash’s movement technique too?"

Ever since the Third Shinobi World War began, Minato Namikaze had used the Flying Thunder God Technique to build a tremendous reputation across the shinobi world.

Wherever the Yellow Flash appeared, the enemy scattered in terror.

That was not exaggeration..... It was reality.

Against such a troublesome enemy, the major villages naturally studied Minato Namikaze’s intelligence from every possible angle.

Although they did not understand the exact principle behind his incredible speed, some features could still be clearly analyzed.

Weapons marked with special formulas.

Ghost-like appearances and disappearances.

Movement trails that could not be observed at all.

To prevent unnecessary sacrifices among their forces, the major villages had explained the traits of Minato’s movement technique to their subordinates in detail.

As a jōnin, this man naturally knew those traits too, so he recognized them very quickly.

An unprecedented fear surged into his heart.

’We can’t win! There’s no way we can win! How are we supposed to defeat the Yellow Flash?’

The jōnin pushed the strength in his legs to the limit. Even if his leg muscles tore and his ligaments strained, he had to escape.

’Another Yellow Flash has appeared on Konoha’s side. I have to bring this information back.’

He was fleeing with that sense of mission.

Unfortunately, even the shinobi world had to obey some basic rules.

Since he was not the protagonist, he could not suddenly break through his limits on the spot. Before long, Kiriya flashed in front of him and cut him down.

Genma, Guy, and Ebisu’s mission was to rescue the wounded on Konoha’s side, but Kiriya’s killing speed was simply too fast.

By the time the three rushed over to the Konoha shinobi, Kiriya had already ended the battle.

"So... what was the point of us rushing over?" Ebisu complained.

"Looks like our only value really is being guides," Genma said self-deprecatingly.

"I have to keep training. I need to become useful as soon as possible. Ohhh, my blood is burning! This is youth!"

Guy’s fighting spirit ignited all over again.

"Who exactly is he...?"

The leader of the Konoha group was a shinobi from the Hyūga clan.

He had just opened his mouth to ask about Kiriya’s identity when a violent cough overtook him, and mouthfuls of black blood spilled from his lips.

"Damn it, hurry and get the antidote!"

Genma quickly searched through his pouch for antidotes, but he had no confidence that they would work against this poison.

"You should speak less for now."

A gentle voice sounded beside the Hyūga shinobi’s ear.

He raised his head and saw Kiriya placing a hand on his shoulder.

A soft green glow spread from Kiriya’s palm.

"Yang Power: Everflowing Vitality."

---------

Read 30 Chapters ahead and support me on patreon.

patreon (.)com/Newbietranslator