"You didn't think I'd be dismissed that easily, did you? You really don't take me seriously at all."
Looking at the young man emerging from the darkness, his face filled with shame and faint dejection, the figure's mouth twitched slightly. His already sour expression seemed to turn even sourer.
"Why are you here?"
Seeing the twitch at the figure's mouth and that impossibly sour face—one that looked to Chiba like naked mockery—Chiba's own mouth twitched. Still, he did not flare up. He merely suppressed his anger as best he could and spoke.
Why is this bastard still here?
Does he have some unfulfilled wish? Is that why he's been lingering here?
Though his words were restrained, Chiba could not help being less than polite inwardly. Though he did not show it, he was quite shocked at that moment. He had not expected this guy to still be here, lingering in this waiting area on the road to the Pure Land, as if he still had some powerful wish left unfulfilled.
And that wish was powerful enough to keep him from passing on to the Pure Land.
"Then why are you here? Looking like a beaten dog, no less. I really do enjoy seeing you like this, but I wanted to see it after I defeated you—not under circumstances like these."
At Chiba's words, the figure's mouth twitched again. The face Chiba had thought could not possibly look any sourer seemed to sour even further, and his tone now carried open dissatisfaction and contempt.
"You!"
Faced with those words from this bastard—someone Chiba had always disliked far more than he liked—even though Chiba had been restraining himself and had regained his composure, despite still feeling some despair and disappointment over the failure of the Reincarnation Justu, he flew into a rage.