Slaughter!

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"Aah! My eyes! I can't see!" Kurenai panicked the moment she lost her sight, stumbling in circles where she stood, unable even to keep her footing.

"Kurenai! Don't panic, I... I have medicine to wash it out..." Shizune appeared calm, but her trembling hands betrayed her. She fumbled with the pack on her back and took out a box of some kind of ointment, and then-

Smack! Pain shot through Shizune's wrist.

A bandit had knocked the ointment to the ground.

"Ah! My medicine!"

"Hahahaha!" The bandit leader couldn't help clutching his belly with laughter. "Ninjas are so impressive, huh?" he sneered. "In the end, you're just two greenhorn girls who've never seen the world!"

Holding iron chains and shackles in both hands, the bandit leader walked toward Kurenai, who was groping blindly, with that sort of expression all men understood on his face. "I'm taking these two back with me today... Huh?"

Clatter!

The iron chain in his hand fell to the ground.

No, it was the hand holding the chain that had fallen to the ground!!

"Boss..." The others stared at him, their faces filled with horror.

"What is this... Aaaah!" The bandit leader froze, feeling that something was strange about the emptiness where his right hand should have been. When he turned to look, his eyes bulged, and a tremendous pain immediately seared through his nerves!

"Ah! My arm!" The bandit leader finally realized what had happened and wailed, clutching his empty right shoulder. Before his feet, he saw a bloodstained sword embedded in the ground, a strangely shaped black-and-white sword. Its white blade was like snow, gleaming with a chilling light. That sword, thrown from who knew where, had sliced his arm clean off!

Not far away, a boy who looked no older than ten was walking slowly toward them, carrying an identically shaped sword in his right hand.

There was neither sorrow nor joy on his young face. It was nothing like the expression a child should have worn.

He walked toward them one step at a time. The onlookers didn't know whether it was because they were too tense, but the eerie boy seemed to be walking rather slowly.

But in the next second, they suddenly noticed that the figure walking a little too slowly had turned indistinct, before finally vanishing.

Puchi!

The bandit leader's eyes widened as he stared in disbelief at the sword before him, which had pierced his chest without his knowing when! Unlike Kanshou, the white-bladed sword that had cut off his arm, this was the black-bladed Bakuya.

Shunren appeared where Kanshou stood, bent down and picked it up.

"Aaaah!" The bandit leader's eyes nearly split open. As if he already knew he was beyond saving, he forced himself to hold his breath, scooped up a handful of powder and flung it at Shunren.

"He's been hit by my blinding powder! Cut him down! Cut..." The bandit leader's roar ended there.

Shunren, enveloped in the cloud of powder, turned indistinct and vanished again.

Shunren appeared like a ghost before his opponent and swept his sword across the latter's throat, while pulling the black sword Bakuya from his body.

Both swords in Shunren's hands were stained with blood, and the bandit leader lay at his feet.

Everyone turned pale with horror. Unlike Kurenai and Shizune, who had held back at every turn, Shunren had shown them absolute power and his determination to slaughter them to the last from the very start.

He had also killed their leader at the outset with the force of a thunderbolt. The remaining bandits were scared out of their wits, with no thought of fighting back.

"Run... Run!"

Puchi, puchi, puchi, puchi! Sword shadows danced, and four bandits fell with their throats cut. Shunren appeared where the bandits were retreating.

Shunren leaped, and another bandit's head soared into the air.

As if recognizing Shunren's ruthlessness, the bandits were driven to leap over the wall like cornered dogs. "Damn it! Let's fight him to the death!" they snarled.

Driven to the end of the road, the bandits were united as one. Some carried broadswords and spears, some carried bows and arrows, and others had powder that blinded people, a vicious trick like the one used earlier.

"Hyaaah!" Six bandits armed with broadswords and spears charged wildly at him.

Hack! Shunren swung the sword in his right hand, chopping through their weapons.

Puchi! At the same time, he swept his left hand sideways, opening a huge gash in the bellies of the six men before him!

Arrows, hidden weapons and the like came at him in a sneak attack.

The Shunren they struck turned indistinct and vanished.

Genjutsu: Mirage Technique!

The bandits simply couldn't tell where Shunren's real body was.

"Aah..."

Puchi!

Amid scream after scream, two more bandits were cut down by Shunren. Even more despairing was that after cutting them down, Shunren's figure eerily vanished without a trace again!

As time passed, the bandits fell one by one into pools of blood, until only one remained: a young bandit boy of just twelve or thirteen.

Terrified beyond measure, his face drained of color, the young bandit collapsed to the ground, a foul stench coming from his crotch.

Drip! Both swords were drenched in blood as Shunren slowly approached the last remaining young bandit.

"Don't... Don't kill me! Please don't kill me. I'm a child, that's right! I'm just a child. The bandits kidnapped me. I don't know anything." The young bandit kowtowed frantically to Shunren. No one noticed the deepest malice hidden in his downcast eyes.

"You can't kill me, because I've never done anything bad or killed anyone!" the young bandit shouted hysterically.

"Really? I believe you." Shunren stopped, then threw down the swords in his hands and reached out to the kneeling boy. "Get up, unfortunate child. Heaven will forgive you."

The young bandit's cheek twitched when he heard that. Looking at the sharp swords thrown to the ground, a vicious gleam flashed in his eyes.

His face twisted into a sinister expression. He quickly snatched up a sword from the ground and, with the speed of lightning, chopped off Shunren's outstretched hand at the wrist! "That's right, I'm a child," he sneered. "No matter what crimes I commit, heaven will forgive me!"

"Is that so?" Shunren's expression didn't change despite having his hand chopped off. The severed hand that had fallen to the ground eerily returned to his wrist, and then Shunren formed hand seals.

"Y-you... Are you a ghost?!" The boy was clearly terrified by the eerie sight before him.

"Genjutsu: Hell Viewing Technique."

Shunren stood before him, bathed in holy light, then gradually faded before the young bandit's eyes until he vanished.

The young bandit instinctively reached out to grab him. For some reason, he suddenly had the impression that losing this holy light might be bad.

Blackness. The earth turned into black mud, and the young bandit sank deep into it, howling in despair!